SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2021 8:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-8 “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, who is called
Peter,”
As we look at the twelve disciples
of Jesus we know that for the most part they were just ordinary men, none had a
lot of money with the exception of Matthew who got it from being a tax
collector for Rome. We know that none of
them were highly educated, but that after being with Jesus for three years
their spiritual education became great.
There are some of these disciples that there is not much written about
in the Scriptures or even in extra Biblical writings and so some of them as far
as what happened to them after the ascension of Jesus is still hidden to this
day.
With this said we know that there
has never been a task in the history of the world equal to that of those common
men whom the Lord Jesus chose to be His first agents of ministry in setting in
motion the advancement of the kingdom of God right here on planet earth,
something that surely was planned by God before the world was even created by
Him. MacArthur writes “They had the
monumental assignment of finishing the foundation work of the church that the
Lord Himself had begun. Luke mentions
this transition of responsibility in the introductory words of Acts: “The first account [i.e., the gospel of Luke]
I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the
day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the
apostles whom He had chosen. To these He
also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs,
appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things
concerning the kingdom of God” (1:1-3).
Let us take a look at some of the
things that we can learn from the spiritual listings of their names. The first thing is that in the four New
Testament lists of the apostles which are found in Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19;
Luke 6:14-16; and Acts 1:13 and we could also look at verse 26 too. As we look at these lists we find that Peter
was always named first. As we look at
the section in Matthew chapter ten we can conclude that the first does not
refer to the order of selection, because Jesus called Andrew, Peter’s brother,
before He called Peter as seen in John 1:40-42.
We can see from this context that the word first (protos) indicates foremost in rank.
The apostles were equal in their divine commission, authority, and
power; and we know that one day that they will sit on equal thrones as they
judge the twelve tribes of Israel as seen in Matthew 19:28. However in terms of function, we see Peter
was “the first” as he was the foremost member of the Twelve. Protos
is used with the same meaning in 1 Timothy 1:15, where Paul speaks of himself
as the ‘foremost of all’ sinners. I
guess that is not something that anyone wants to be foremost in, but the truth
is that we are all as bad off as we can be.
In Revelation 1:17, Christ speaks of Himself as ‘the first protos and the last.” No group can function properly without a leader,
and Peter was the leading member of the twelve from the very beginning.
Second we can see that in all four
of these groups that list the apostles they are divided into the same three subgroups. The first group includes Peter, Andrew, James,
and John; the second includes Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew; and the
third includes James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and
Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot is always
named last as he was the one who betrayed Jesus.
We will find that the names are in different order within the groups,
but they are all in the same group and Peter is always first and Judas is
always last. Another thing is that the
first name in all of the different groups is always the same and this suggests
that each group had its own identity and leader. The first group includes those Jesus called
but not in the individual order, the second includes those He called next, and
the third group those He called last.
We will continue in speaking of
these apostles in what will be our last SD in the introduction of Matthew 10:2a,
as Lord willing we will complete it tomorrow.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I
remember an incident in my life that happened close to fifty years ago that I
was listening to a local preacher preaching about how the Lord will bring
different sections of Scripture together to help you understand the Word of God
better. That surely is happening to me
this week as I am preparing my Sunday school lesson from Hebrews 1:4-14, and am
looking at older SD’s to place onto my second blog from Ephesians, and studying
the book of Matthew and while looking at these three books the book of
Colossians has also been mentioned and there are things in common in all of
these books that will help me in my Sunday school class this coming
Sunday. Yes God is truly good.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am
trusting the Lord to give me the right words to say this week in our Sunday
school class on Hebrews, that His name will be glorified.
7/28/2021 9:30
AM
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