SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/25/2021 10:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 10:24-31”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
10:24-31
Message of the verses: “24 “A disciple is
not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. 25 “It is enough for the
disciple that he become as his teacher, and the slave as his master. If they
have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his
household! 26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that
will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 27 “What I tell you in
the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your
ear, proclaim upon the housetops. 28
"And do not fear those who kill the body, but are
unable to kill thesoul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul
and body in hell. 29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not
one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 “But the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 “Therefore do not fear; you are of more
value than many sparrows.”
As we look at these instructions that Jesus gave to
the twelve we find that they were the only ones present on this occasion, but
also because some of the instructions that He is giving them was only for
Israel as seen in verse six. The
apostles are the only ones who could do the
things that are described in this section of Matthew as this as we mentioned
is telescoped to future events and so there were certain sign gifts that the
apostles could do, things like healing people, raising the dead, and also
casting out demons, things that were theirs to do. MacArthur writes “In verse 24 Jesus begins
using the indefinite third person (‘a disciple,’ ‘a slave,’ ‘everyone,’ ‘whoever’)
in addition to the second person ‘you’—clearly indicating that He is speaking
about every believer, every true disciple.
Jesus here teaches with the widest possible perspective. ‘For every person who would be My disciple,’
He says, in effect, ‘here is what I ask.
For all who follow Me, this is the cost of discipleship.” So we can see that things have changed as we
get to verse 24.
Jesus
refused to disguise or to minimize the cost of discipleship, and so many of the
would be disciples left him as seen in John 6:53-66, which is the section about
drinking His blood—“many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with
Him anymore. We have already looked in
earlier SD’s about when a scribe came to Him, but in truth did not really want
to follow Him.
We
conclude this introduction with a rather long quote from John MacArthur’s
commentary on Matthew. “Jesus’ teaching
and the gospel writers’ presentation of it are always logical and clear. Only the person who doubts either the
intelligence or the integrity of Jesus and those writers can miss the purpose
and progression of His instruction when it is carefully studied. Jesus was not teaching only for scholars, and
the writers were not writing only for scholars.
They were teaching and writing for the common man, and their purpose was
not to obscure and complicate the message but to make it clear enough for the
simplest believers to grasp. Only the
blindness of willing unbelief can prevent a person’s understanding the way of
salvation and the path of obedience.
“In
the remainder of the chapter (10:24-42), Jesus identifies a comprehensive
definition of discipleship, in which He lists some six hallmarks. The true disciple of Jesus Christ emulates
his Master; he fears God rather than the world; he confesses the Lord; he forsakes
family; he follows his call; and he receives a reward.” Now if I am not mistaken these things will be
talked about as we look at the last two chapters of MacArthur’s commentary on
Matthew a chapter that we have been looking at for a very long time.
10/25/2021 10:56 AM
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