SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/20/2021 2:30 PM
My Worship Time Focus: “The Impact”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
1:10b
Message of the
verse: “1 Jesus
summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to
heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.”
We begin with John MacArthur
explaining the word translated “authority.”
“Exousia (authority) is from a
verb that means ‘it is lawful,’ and it therefore refers to a right or power
that is legitimately delegated. Jesus
granted the twelve disciples God’s divine authority to do exactly what He Himself
had been doing (see 4:23; 9:35). To do
what He did would demonstrate they were sent by Him, just as what He did
demonstrated He was sent by the Father. Throughout
the book of Acts, we see the disciples doing the very things for which Jesus
here gives them authority.” I suppose
that we need to say that just because the things that the disciples did in the
book of Acts were what is called “sign gifts,” and that they are not around
anymore because the entire Bible has been written and so there is no need for
any of these sign gifts to be used anymore.
The point here is that Jesus’
disciples were learning from Jesus and as they watched Him heal and cast out
demons they would do the same on these mini missions trips and then once Jesus
had gone back to heaven they continued to do these very things. An example is found in Acts 3:2-8 where Peter
and John healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They got in trouble by doing it and Jesus
also got some trouble from the same people when He healed people too.
MacArthur writes “The apostles
manifested the kind of kingdom power that their Lord had manifested, and by
their faithful obedience they turned Jerusalem and then the world upside down
(cf. Acts 17:6). Jesus promised that
they would do ‘greater works’ (in extent, not power) and His words began to be
fulfilled.”
The following comes from MacArthur’s
commentary. It is a story that he was
given, but the author is unknown.
“One night in the East End of London a young doctor was turning out the
lights of a mission hall in which he was working. He found a ragged boy hiding in a dark
corner, where he begged to be allowed to sleep.
The doctor took the homeless boy to his own room, fed him and tried to
get his story. He learned that the boy
was living in a coal bin with a number of other boys. He persuaded the boy to show him where these
boys were. They went through narrow
alleys and finally came to a hole in the wall of a factory. ‘Look in there,’ he said. The doctor stuck a match and looked around,
crawling into the cellar. Finally he
found thirteen boys with only bits of old burlap to protect them from the cold. One lad was clasping to him a four-year-old
brother. All were sound asleep. The doctor caught a vision then and there of service
for his Lord. He cared for those boys
and started the Bernardo Homes for neglected children. At the time of the death of Dr. Bernardo, the
newspapers reported that he had taken, and surrounded with a Christian atmosphere,
more than 80,000 homeless boys and girls.
Hundreds of them became fine Christian citizens. O that we might have eyes to see the need
about us! Thousands will drift into a
Christless eternity because Christians do not take Christ to them.”
7/20/2021 2:57
PM
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