SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2021 10:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-9 “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,”
Yesterday while on a fairly long
walk I listened to two and a half sermons from John MacArthur from Matthew
10:2-4 as when he was preaching through Matthew he decided not to just read the
names of the twelve disciples, but to go into detail about each of them, and in
some cases they are only mentioned once in all of the Bible. After doing this I began to understand why
this introduction to Matthew 10:2a has been so long as we are being prepared
for learning about all twelve of the disciples.
I have to say that after the resurrection of our Lord that these
disciples, minus Judas, had some rewarding times and some very difficult times
as they were picked out by the Lord to begin the church. The interesting thing about these eleven men
is that they actually at the time of His selecting them had no qualifications
for the job, and for that matter we don’t have any qualifications for doing
what the Lord desires for us to do as we get our instructions from the Holy
Spirit of God as He uses His Word, the preaching of His Word, circumstances,
and fellowship with other believers to bring us along in doing what He wants us
to do for the cause of Christ. Knowing
this about these eleven men has to give all believers encouragement to know
that if the Lord used them with all of their “problems and issues” that He can
use us to if we make ourselves available.
We were talking about each of the
three groups of four making up the twelve disciples and we know less about the
last groups than those who are in the first group of four, with the exception
of knowing a lot about Judas. There is
not only a decreasing amount of information about the members of each group but
also a decreasing intimacy with Jesus.
When we look at the first four which constituted Jesus’ inner circle of
disciples and actually three of the first four as we know more about Peter,
James, and John, but not a lot about Andrew as not a lot is said about him, and
as mentioned little is said about the other groups, about Jesus’ direct
instruction or work with the second group, and even less about the third
group. MacArthur writes “He loved all
the apostles equally, empowered them equally, and promised them equal glory;
but because of the physical limitations common to all men, He was not able to
give them equal attention. It is
impossible for any leader to be equally close to everyone with whom he
works. By necessity he will spend more
time with and place more responsibility on certain people who are particularly
capable and trustworthy.
This first group included two sets
of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James and John, and all of these four men
were fishermen. We know that Matthew was
a tax collector, but after that we don’t know the occupations of the other
seven. We do know that the two sets of
brothers were acquainted even before Jesus called them, and the reason is that
they all fished near each other on the Sea of Galilee as seen in Matthew
4:18-21.
Earlier in this SD I mentioned that
the makeup or the temperaments of the apostles, the ones that we know a lot
about are very much different. We know,
for example that Peter was impulsive, that he was a natural leader, and that he
was a man of action. Peter was the one
to react to something that was said or done first. Sometimes he would put his foot in his mouth. John was more quiet and pensive under Christ’s
teaching or tutelage. As we go through
the first 12 chapters of Acts we see that Peter and John worked closely
together during those early days of the church.
I suppose that it must have been a helpful learning experience for both
of them with Peter anxious to charge ahead and then John wanting to think things
over at first. We know that Peter did
all the preaching as men of equal status and office and even of similar
giftedness may have different functions relative to the uniqueness of their
gifts.
MacArthur concludes this very long
introduction by writing “Thomas was clearly the most skeptical of the twelve
(John 20:25), and Simon the Zealots’ very name indicates he was a radical
Jewish revolutionary, dedicated to driving out the Roman oppressor. Before he met Christ he doubtlessly would
have willingly plunged a knife into the heart of Matthew a traitorous
collaborator with Rome.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today:
Understand that all of these men had different temperaments and were
still used by the Lord teaches me that the Lord can use even me as long as I am
available to Him to be used by Him. This
was a great truth that I have learned from this section.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord to use me in the ways that He planned to use me in eternity past as seen
in Ephesians 2:10, and to be available to do those things He planned for me to
do.
7/29/2021 10:47
AM
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