SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2021 11:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Chosen
to be Prepared”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:1a
Message of the
verse: “Jesus
summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority”
I want to continue to quote some
more things from MacArthur’s commentary, but first I want to review some of the
things that we have been looking at. I
believe that there are five problems that the disciples had and we just began
the second one in our SD from yesterday.
I will list these five issues and perhaps as we look directly at the
names of them we will see that they may be problems that we also have in our
lives, therefore we may now have some resources in order to correct them. Issue number one is according to MacArthur
one of the most obvious shortcomings of the disciples was their lack of
spiritual understanding, something we have already looked at. Issue number two, the one we just got started
looking at yesterday is the disciples’ dullness was their lack of humility, and
I will repeat the beginning of this one in today’s SD. The third weakness that plagued the disciples
was lack of faith. Number four problem
with the disciples was lack of commitment, and number five was their lack of
power. This is a rather long section,
therefore we will not complete it today, but I do want to get through this
second issue that they have in our SD for today.
“Closely related to the
disciples’ spiritual dullness was their lack of humility. Often they failed to understand what Jesus
said simply because they assumed they already knew They were proud, jealous,
and envious men who were frequently more concerned about their own welfare and
prestige than about Jesus’ teaching or work or about His own human welfare or
divine glory.”
The
following is an example of their lack of humility which is seen in Mark 9:33-34
“33 They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to
question them, "What were you discussing on the way?" 34 But they
kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of
them was the greatest.” Now to put
this into perspective just before this happened Jesus was telling them about
what was going to happen to Him once He got to Jerusalem, how He was going to
be killed, buried, resurrected three days later. I think you get the point here.
Let
us look at another incident that is seen in Matthew 20:20-22 which happens
right before Jesus would be going to the cross:
“20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons,
bowing down and making a request of Him. 21 And He said to her, "What do
you wish?" She said to Him, "Command that in Your kingdom these two
sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left." 22 But Jesus
answered, "You do not
know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to
drink?" They said to Him, "We are able.’” Jesus goes on to say that they will drink the
cup that he will drink, but that will be a long way into the future before that
happens and by the time that does happen they surely will understand much more
than they do now. It is called “spiritual
growth.”
Now
after this incident with James and John the other disciples are having a lot of
problems with it so we will look at verses 23-28 “23 He said to them, "My
cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine
to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father." 24
And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the two brothers. 25 But
Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over
them. 26 “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great
among you shall be your servant, 27 and
whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’” Remember that verse 28 is the theme of the
book of Mark.
MacArthur
concludes this second short-coming: “Jesus
not only corrected the disciples’ wrong thinking and attitudes by teaching them
again the principles of His kingdom, but He gave them object lessons of those
principles. On one occasion He picked up
a little child and placed it before them as the model of true humility (Mark
9:36), and when He wanted them to comprehend what true servanthood is like, He
washed their feet Himself (John 13:5-15).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I suppose it is a little comforting to
realize that when I have issues with humility that I am in good company.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Paul said that his only glory was to glory in
the cross, for after all what do I have that is worthwhile than what happened
to Jesus on the cross, remembering that I am in Christ and God looks at me as
dying with Jesus on the cross.
7/17/2021 11:26 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment