SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2021 9:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Confrontation of the Men”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
9:27-32
Message of the verses: “27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him,
crying out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" 28 When He entered the house, the blind men came
up to Him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do
this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." 29 Then He touched
their eyes, saying, "It shall be done to you according to your
faith." 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them:
"See that no one knows about this!" 31 But they went out and
spread the news about Him throughout all that land. 32 As they were going out,
a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him.”
The
highlighted portion of this section is what we will be looking at this morning
as we continue this story about Jesus and the two blind men.
We
are at the part when Jesus has entered into the house and it is in the house
that the confrontation of these men take place.
How they got into the house we are not told, but my thoughts are that is
what the Lord wanted to happen. It took
persistence for these two blind men to get into the house, but all of the
miracles found in chapter nine also took persistence. We saw the man let down through the roof,
Jairus’ daughter being raised from the dead as Jairus persisted to find and
confront Jesus, and then on the way the persistence of the woman with the issue
of blood, and not the two blind men.
Jesus
asks the blind men “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” The question does seem a bit odd as these two
men have followed Jesus with great difficulty because of their blindness and
now they get into the house also with great difficulty. One thing that we have seen is that these men
recognized Jesus as the Messiah by calling Him Son of David. By the way this comes up in chapter 22 when
Jesus asked the Pharisees how David’s Son could be David’s Lord. Jesus was asking them about their faith, even
though He knew their faith was genuine, but perhaps His asking them about their
faith must therefore have been for the purpose of drawing out a more complete
public confession something seen in Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth
Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
shall be saved.”
In
doing this Jesus’s reason could have been so others in the house would be able
to hear their testimony, in other words be a witness to others of their faith
in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
MacArthur
writes “The men’s testimony also separated them from those who expected the
Messiah to be a merely human political and military deliverer who would throw
off the yoke of Rome and set u an earthly kingdom like that ruled by their
ancient King David. Their testimony also
affirmed the belief that Jesus was more than a highly competent and charismatic
human leader. More than that, their
testimony pointed to His being above all a spiritual leader, whose first
concern was delivering individuals from their bondage of sin. Though Jesus’ compassion for physical
suffering was great, His compassion for lost souls was immeasurably
greater. His healing of diseases was
first of all to demonstrate both the compassion and power of God for the
purpose of establishing His divine credentials as God’s promised Messiah—in order
that men might be convinced to trust in Him as their spiritual Savior. He healed bodies for the infinitely greater
purpose of saving souls.”
One
of the things that we looked earlier was the discussion of faith not being
necessary to be healed by Jesus, however in these last three cases faith was
present, and therefore we believe that the faith was saving faith seen in those
Jesus healed. Now when it came to Jairus’
daughter, of course she was dead and the faith was that of her father.
Faith may not have always been
involved in some of the healings of Jesus but faith is always involved in
salvation, and with that said I want to at this time talk more about faith as I
quote from one of MacArthur’s sermons on this subject as he quotes from a man
back in 1902. “Archbishop Trench in 1902
wrote this. I think it’s a marvelous thing. He was writing on this very same
account in Matthew, and he said this, “The faith which in itself is nothing is
yet the organ for receiving everything.” Now listen to this. “It is the conducting
link between man’s emptiness and God’s fullness, and herein lies all the value
faith has.” Now listen – “Faith is the bucket let down into the fountain of
God’s grace without which the man could never draw water of life from the wells
of salvation. For the wells are deep and of himself man has nothing to draw
with. Faith is the purse which cannot of itself make its owner rich, and yet
effectually enriches by the wealth which it contains.” That’s a great statement
about faith. Faith is the bucket that dips into the wells of salvation. Faith
is the purse which in itself is not the riches, but contains the riches. It is
that by which we receive what God graciously gives. And He says your purse is
big enough to receive all that I have to give. Your bucket is big enough to
gather the waters of the wells of salvation. “‘According to your faith, be it
unto you.’ And their eyes were opened.” What an incredible thing.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: Faith
must always have an object and the object of my faith is in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that
the Lord will provide some prayer warriors for our revival prayer meeting this
evening.
6/16/2021 10:06
AM
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