SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/6/2021 8:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Introduction to Matt. 2:10b
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
2:10b
Message of the
verse: “and Andrew his brother; and
James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother.”
I think that I may have mentioned that while listening to
the different sermons by John MacArthur on this section in the 10th
chapter of Matthew that he said that he had a choice as to whether to just read
over the names that Matthew included in this section of his gospel or to talk
about each one of the Twelve, which is what he chose to do as seen in our last
few SD’s on Simon Peter.
The name of this chapter in MacArthur’s commentary is “The
Master’s Men—Part 2: Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John.” So as you can see we will in today’s SD just
look at the very short introduction to this last half of verse 2 in chapter 10
of Matthew.
We have learned that even though Peter was not the first
disciple called of the twelve, he was the leading disciple, the foremost, or “first”
as seen in 10:2a. We mentioned that the
Greek word Protos was used to show that truth.
These three men listed in the last half of verse 10:2
were the ones who made up the inner circle of four. In a similar way that we saw Peter, these men
do not appear on the surface to be ideal candidates for becoming apostles and
the foundation of the church. As one
looks at the rest of the gospels along with other NT books they will learn that
God is able to use in His service any kind of person who submits to the
lordship of Jesus Christ.
MacArthur writes “The apostles, and especially these four
who are the best known of them, are often looked on as ‘stained glass saints,’
They have been frequently portrayed with halos above their heads and benign
expressions on their faces. Not only
children but cathedrals, chapels, cities, and towns are named after them. Their names are often preceded by Saint,
adding to the notion that they were on a completely different plane of
spiritual existence for the other human beings, including other Christians.
“But although they had an uncommon calling, the apostles
were common men, much like the rest of us.
They were saints only in the sense that every believer is a saint, made
holy unto God through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ and awaiting
the full perfection of sainthood in heaven (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; Phil.
3:12-14; Heb. 11:40; Jude 14). Until
then, they had to live with the weakness of their humanness.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Living with the
weakness of my humanness is something that I have to live with each and every
day, like all true believers, and some days the battle is hard.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Putting on the Spiritual Armor as Paul wrote
about in Ephesians chapter six is something that I need to do today and every
day.
8/6/2021 8:31 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment