SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/5/2021 11:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Christ’s
Divine Compassion”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
9:36b
Message of the
verse: “36
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them,”
I
promised to give some more examples of Christ’s divine compassion as we begin
this SD. We will first of all look at a
very familiar story from the gospel of John, and in the 11th chapter
we read of the story of Lazarus who was the brother of Mary and Martha. Lazarus died, but before he died his sisters
contacted Jesus hoping that He would come to heal him before he died, but Jesus
had bigger and better plans for Lazarus.
By the time Jesus got there Lazarus had been dead for four days and we
pick up the story in verses 33-35 “33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and
the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, 34
and said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come
and
see." 35
Jesus wept.” MacArthur writes “The
phrase ‘deeply moved in spirit’ carries the idea of physical as well as
emotional and spiritual anguish. Jesus
Himself was seized with grief as He saw His dear friends grieving; and He burst
into tears. He knew that Lazarus would
soon be alive again, and His grief was therefore not for the same reason as
theirs. But it was the same feeling as
theirs and even more intense. After some
of the people there wondered aloud why Jesus had not prevented Lazarus’s death,
He was again ‘deeply moved within’ (v-38), a phrase that carries the idea of
shuddering, of being physically racked with emotion.”
Now
we move to another section, again familiar as we look at when Jesus was
arrested in the garden. When this
happened His concern was not for Himself but for His disciples as He said to
the soldiers, “If therefore you seek Me, let these go their way” (John 18:8). Now as I think about this I believe that
there is perhaps one main reason that Jesus made sure that His disciples would
not be harmed along with Him, and that reason is that He had put three years of
His life into these men who would be the ones to change the world, (I know it
would be done by them through the power of the Holy Spirit). That was the plan that Jesus had and nothing
was going to stop that plan from happening.
Now as we are looking at His compassion this also has much to do with
this as He cared deeply for those men.
When He was dying on the cross, actually just about to die He had
compassion for His mother and made sure that John would care for her once He
had died, and after He would be resurrected.
We read in John 19:26-27 “26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the
disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman,
behold, your son!" 27 Then He said
to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour the disciple
took her into his own household.”
John MacArthur writes “As He
agonized over the rejection by His own people, He did not feel anger or
vengeance but the deepest possible remorse for them. In one of the most poignant statements ever
uttered, He lamented, ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and
stones those who are sent to her! How
often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling’ (Matt. 23:37). Luke reports that when Jesus approached
Jerusalem for the last time, ‘He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you
had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes’
(Luke 19:41-42). As Isaiah had
prophesied, Jesus was indeed ‘a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’
(Isa. 53:3).”
Now as we have been looking at nine
miracles that Matthew records in chapters 8-9, we have stated that these
miracles were done in order to show Jesus to be the Messiah, but there are more
reasons that He did these miracles and that was to show God’s infinite
love. Jesus demonstrated compassionate
power, a kind of power completely foreign to pagans and even to most Jews as
they had long ago lost sight of the loving-kindness of the God who had called,
guided, and also protected them as He blessed them as His chosen people. Now those people who had witnessed Jesus’
healing touch and also heard His healing words must surely have been as
astonished by His compassion as they were from the power He demonstrated.
Now in our next SD I will have a
couple of quotations from MacArthur’s commentary, one from Dr. Paul Brand who
was the man who spent much time with lepers while ministering in India, and
then another quotation from G. Campbell Morgan, and then a third one from Thomas
Watson who was the great Puritan writer.
Spiritual meaning for my life
today: After reading and studying this section and have heard the sermons
on it then I have come to the conclusion that in order for me to demonstrate
compassion similar to what our Lord had was that He has to do this through me
by the power of His Holy Spirit.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Pray that
the Holy Spirit of God will fill me with His compassion for those in my life
that are close to me.
7/5/2021
12:25 PM
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