SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/23/2021 9:23 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro
to Matt. 10:2a”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt. 10:2a
Message of the
verse: “Now
the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called
Peter,”
The following quotation is not
really new, as far as I am concerned, but I don’t think that I have ever
learned about in this way: “The New Testament
does not teach Christian leaders to follow the individual methods or styles of
the apostles. It does not explain their
methods or give details of their specific strategies for evangelism or other
ministry. The focus of apostolic power
in the New Testament is always on the Lord.
As with the lowliest believer, the apostles’ power and effectiveness
were exclusively the work of the Holy Spirit.”
In his commentary MacArthur tells
the story of an artist who had spent a lot of time painting “The Lord’s Supper”
and asked a friend what he thought about the painting. His friend said that he really liked the cups
that were in the painting. The artist
then painted over the cups because it was his desire to have the focus on Jesus
Christ and nothing else. “It is a
wonderful thing to be a vessel fit for the Master’s use, but the vessel is not
the source of spiritual power and should never be the focus of attention.”
This last statement goes along with
what the quotation of the first paragraph had to say as we cannot emphasize on
the methods and practices of famous and visibly successful Christian leaders,
as this will weaken the church, which is happening in our churches around the
globe today. I think that the access to
the internet and being able to see people like Moody, and Spuregon’s methods
can make us want to follow those and not follow the leading of the Holy
Spirit. MacArthur writes “When men are
elevated, Christ is lowered; and when men’s power and resources are relied on,
Christ’s work is weakened.”
Here are a few examples of what
Christ can do in a person’s life. Think about
a great writer who takes a cheap piece of paper and writes a wonderful poem, or
an artist taking a cheap piece of canvas and painting what would become a
famous painting, or a wealthy man who takes a piece of paper, signs his name to
a large amount of money, and then think about what Christ can do as He takes a
worthless corrupted, and repulsive life and then transforms it into a righteous
child of God and a useful worker for the kingdom of Christ. That kind of thing takes great power.
It was during WWII that a church in
Strasbourg, France was greatly damaged because of bombings. In the church was a beloved statue of Christ
that had survived, but when the beam from the ceiling came down both arms were
broken off. A man in the city offered to
replace the arms to the likeness of what they were, but the town’s people who
were members of the church turned his offer down because they thought that the
best thing that they could do was to be the arms and hands of Christ on earth,
something that the Bible certainly teaches.
MacArthur writes “Jesus Christ
chooses human hands—and minds and arms and feet—as the instruments of His
eternal work of redemption. Those who
are not offended by His demands for discipleship and who, like the apostles,
give their imperfect and flawed lives to Him as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1),
become His means for drawing all men to Himself.”
As we read through the gospels it is
evident that Jesus Christ did not intend to proclaim the kingdom alone. We have spent several months looking at all
of the things that Jesus did as He ministered in Galilee and not as we begin
chapter ten we find that He, for the first time send out His disciples to get a
taste of what they will be doing once He goes back to heaven, as this was a
part of their training that Jesus was preparing them for. Paul states this to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2 “The
things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust
these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” In 2nd Timothy and 2nd
Peter we see some things in them that seem to me to be a bit different, and I
believe that because these two letters are the last letters these men wrote
that became a part of the Bible that some of these things found in them have
more urgency in them, and this verse above seems to be one of them. Jesus had taught Paul many things soon after
he became a believer, things that no one else had learned and now Paul wants to
remind Timothy to pass things on to the next generation of believers so that
they in turn can pass them onto the next and so on.
Lord willing we will continue on our
quest to get through this introduction, which actually makes up the greater
amount of pages in this portion of MacArthur’s commentary on this first half of
the 2nd verse of the tenth chapter of Matthew.
7/23/2021 10:05
AM
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