SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/25/2021 9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5
“Intro to Matt. 10:2a”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
10:2a
Message of the
verse: “Now
the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon,”
As we look at the disciples, and the
word in the Greek is mathetes, which
has the root meaning of follower or learner, we find that that term does not
necessarily carry the idea of commitment, as it is made clear from several
gospel accounts. We have talked about
the feeding of the 5,000 many times in different Spiritual Diaries, and this is
a good example of what we are talking about of not having commitment as we can
see this in John chapter six in different verses from that chapter. “Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you
seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were
filled.” A short while later
Jesus said to this same group “"But I said to you that you have seen Me,
and yet do not believe” (v-36).
According to verse 60 there were among this crowd “many…of His disciples”
who were disturbed when they heard Jesus say, “He who eats My flesh and drinks
My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day”
(v.54). Then after Jesus further
explained what He meant, they were even more offended, and “as a result of this
many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore”
(v-66). We see that those disciples were
only observers and were hearers who had no desire to trust and follow the
Lord. Perhaps there are still many of
those kinds of people in our world today.
As I was listening to a sermon by MacArthur, not sure if it was on this
section or not, he told the story of a prostitute that came into his office and
told him that she was fed up with the life she was living. He shared the gospel message with her and she
agreed that she needed to trust Christ as her Savior. Afterwards he asked her if she had the book
that contained all the names of her “Johns” and she said that it was in her purse. He told her that it was time to
burn it up and offered to do so. She said
that that book was worth a lot of money and refused to burn the book up. He went on in this story to say that even
though the book was worth a lot of money what she would be getting by following
Christ was worth so very much more. She
walked out saying that she did not want to follow the Lord. He went on to conclude that story by saying
that he thought about her and prayed for her from time to time.
The following quotation speaks of
what we have looked at in the verses from John chapter six: “Those disciples accepted Jesus as a great
teacher and wonder worker, but only on the physical level. They were quite willing for Him to heal their
bodies and fill their stomachs, but they did not want Him to cleanse their
sins, re-create their hearts, and transform their lives. They gladly came to Him for the ‘food which
perishes,’ but they had no appitite for ‘the food which endures to eternal life’
(John 6:27).
“Jesus’ teaching was not ‘difficult’
(v. 60) because it was hard to understand but because it was hard to
accept. The people knew that Jesus was
not talking of eating and drinking His physical body and blood but of accepting
everything that He was, said, and did.
His statement was difficult for them to accept for the very reason that
they did understand it.”
7/25/2021 10:13
AM
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