SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/22/2021 10:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Matthew 9:33b-35
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:33b-35
Message of the verses: “and the crowds
were amazed, and were saying, "Nothing like this has ever been seen
in Israel." 34 But the Pharisees were saying, "He casts out the
demons by the ruler of the demons."
“35 Jesus was going through all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of
the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”
A
contemporary from Britain writer has this to say: “The problem with humanity is this: humanity stands at the crossroads, and all of
the signposts have fallen down.” I have
to agree that this is a problem, a great problem with humanity, but the answer
to this problem is certainly found in the Word of God as the signposts are all
in order waiting for people to read them.
MacArthur writes “For Matthew, however—as for every other writer,
preacher, and teacher of the New Testament and for every believer today—humanity’s
needed spiritual signposts are very much in place and are entirely
reliable. The problem with humanity is
not with the signposts but with those who ignore or reject the signposts God
has made abundantly evident.” “18 For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,19 because
that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident
to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though
they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became
futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing
to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures”
(Rom. 1:18-23).
We
have been looking as some of the signposts from our study in the gospel of
Matthew, and they composed of nine miracles that Jesus performed that were
found in chapters 8 and 9. The miracles
are a part of what Matthew is writing about to show his readers that Jesus
Christ is truly the promised Messiah that was written about in the Old
Testament. These miracles show us that
He has the power or save and His right to rule, but the problem is that, as
stated above, people don’t want to take the time to read these signposts. We have been seeing in these series of nine
miracles, three at a time, and then there is some commentary after each set of
three, and that is what we will be looking at as we go through the verses
quoted in the “focus” part of this SD.
MacArthur
writes “For some people, Jesus’ miracles were a sign of divine power and glory
that drew them nearer to Him; for some they were supernatural marvels by a good
man, but a man who had no claim on their lives; and for others they were an
affront to religious propriety that drove them even further from the Lord.” In our Sunday school class I have been
beginning to teach through the book of Hebrews, and as many know it is a very
difficult book to teach, and so I need the grace of God to do this, but in
verses 2b-3 we see seven Excellency’s of Jesus Christ and one of them has to do
with He being the “light.” Paul writes
that Satan is the one who blinds people from the Light of our Lord, and as we
look at this section from Matthew we can surely see that there were some who
were really blinded by the Light as we read "He casts out the demons by
the ruler of the demons." Yes these
Pharisees were truly blinded from the Light by Satan.
This
introduction to this section will take us a few days to get through, but Lord
willing we will get through it no matter how long it takes.
6/22/2021 10:32 AM`
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