SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/21/2021 8:33 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Response”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 10:23
Message of the verse: 23 "But
whenever they persecute you in this city, flee to the next; for truly I say to
you, you shall not finish going through the cities of Israel, until the
Son of Man comes.”
In
today’s SD we come to the end of the things we have been looking at from the 19th
chapter of John MacArthur’s commentary which he entitles “Sheep Among Wolves.” We began looking at these verses on the 5th
of this month, and we began looking at the 10th chapter of Matthew
on the 12th of July of this year and so I have to believe that by
the time we finish looking at this 10th chapter of Matthew that it
will be the longest time we ever spent looking at a chapter since I began doing
these Spiritual Diaries.
MacArthur
begins this section by writing “Persecution is never to be sought or endured
for its own sake; nor should we intentionally bring it on ourselves, supposedly
for Christ’s sake. We have no right to
provoke animosity or ridicule. And Christ here urges escaping persecution when
doing so is expedient and possible. We
are not obligated to stay in a place of opposition and danger until we are
killed, or even imprisoned. ‘Whenever
they persecute you in this city,’ Jesus says, ‘flee to the next.’” As I read over this section it made me think
of Paul’s teaching in Thessalonica, and then fleeing to Berea, but I suppose as
you look over his missionary journeys in the book of Acts that was a pretty
common theme. During that time when Paul
was on these Missionary trips as seen in the book of Acts we read of some of
the times when he was beaten, but also he writes about the beatings and other
things that happened to him in his letters, especially in his second letter to
the Corinthians. Paul suffered a lot for
the cause of Christ just as the Lord told Ananias “for I will show him how much
he must suffer for My name’s sake’ (Acts 9:16).”
Not
every believer will suffer like the way Paul suffered for the cause of Christ,
but if we live a life that is pleasing to the Lord it is a good probability
that some feathers will be ruffled by the world, and so as a believer the
pattern that Paul had gone through is one that we should be ready to go
through. I have mentioned that we have a
very small prayer group that prays for revival, and last night there were three
of us who meet after our prayer meeting to pray for revival. I remind the two other men that as we pray
for revival that perhaps persecution would be the way that God answers that prayer,
and that thought came from my study in this section of Matthew 10. Persecution has a way of causing people who
attend a church but are not believers to leave and then we are left with those
who are willing to do whatever it takes for the cause of Christ, and that makes
the church stronger.
An
example of those who will stand true to the Lord is seen in the 7th
chapter of the book of Revelation where we see John writing about the 144,000
Jewish evangelists who stand firm for the cause of Christ in what will be the
most difficult time for any believer to live as all will be wanted by the
government, the world, and the family.
The
disciples who were listening to Jesus in this section knew that He was the only
One who could care for them, and in this short term missions trip they would
get their first experience of ministering for the cause of Christ when He would
not physically be there with them.
MacArthur
concludes this section and this chapter by writing: “The Lord would indeed send the Twelve out
among wolves into dangers they could never have imaged while they were with
Him. But just as He promised to send
them out among wolves, He also promised to send His own Spirit to indwell,
empower, and encourage them. If the
world persecuted the Master, it would certainly persecute His servants (John
15:20), and a time would soon come when those who killed His followers would
actually think they were ‘offering service to God’ (16:12). It was therefore both advantageous and
necessary that Jesus go away, in order that the Holy Spirit, the divine Helper
and Comforter, could come to them (v. 7).
‘These things I have spoken to you,’ Jesus told them, ‘that in Me you
may have peace. In the world you have tribulation,
but take courage; I have overcome the world’ (v 33).”
10/21/2021 9:03 AM
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