John Overcame Weakness (Matt. 11:7-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2021 10:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  “John Overcame Weakness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:7-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 “But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces!”

 

            We begin to look at the first main section from MacArthur’s outline which is entitled “John’s Personal Character,” and what we are looking at today deals with how John overcame weakness.

 

            MacArthur writes “The first characteristic of John’s personal greatness demands reflection on two proceeding verses (2-3) that demonstrate his ability to recognize and overcome his weaknesses.”  I think that it is best that I quote these two verses:  “2  Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3  and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            The following statement is something that I believe is true and it has to do with overcoming weakness, the subject that we are looking at as we continue to look at the life of John the Baptist.  As we generally look at the lives of people, many of them cannot rise above their difficulties and their circumstances.  Now we now that because we are all sinners that we all have problems as it is overcoming them that separates great people from others.  The great people fight through refusing to give in to their ignorance, handicaps, laziness, indifference, or whatever other obstacles may be in their way.  Now as we continue to look at the life of John the Baptist we can say that he had that characteristic of greatness in full measure.

 

            We have learned from our brief study of John the Baptist that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb and had been set apart by God to announce the Messiah and to prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah.  He had seen the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus at His baptism and had heard God the Father declare Jesus is to be His beloved Son.  Now from many other sources which include some of his own disciples, he had heard of Jesus’ miraculous powers.  Now it was because of some very difficult circumstances, such as incomplete revelation, the influence of popular misconceptions, and unfulfilled expectations that John had misgivings about Jesus’ identity as the Messiah.  Consequently he would send two of his disciples to Jesus to question what had previously been unquestioned as we see in verses 2-3 and also can see it in Luke 7:19 “Summoning two of his disciples, John sent them to the Lord, saying, "Are You the Expected One, or do we look for someone else?’”

 

            I think that we will stop here and work on finishing this section in our next SD.  In that SD we will see a quotation from General Douglass MacArthur as he prayed for his son.  While listening to the sermon on this section a few days ago I heard John MacArthur say that Douglass MacArthur was a fifth cousin of his, and as we look at the quotation I think that we can conclude that Douglass MacArthur was a believer, and as I have looked at some things about General and then President Eisenhower I truly believe that he too was a believer and that makes two of the very famous Generals of WWII believers in Jesus Christ.  They too had great character.

 

11/30/2021 10:33 AM

 

  

Intro to Matt. 11:7-15

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/29/2021 10:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus:  Intro to Matt. 11:7-17

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 11:7-15

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 As these men were going away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 “But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ palaces! 9 “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet. 10 “This is the one about whom it is written, ‘BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY BEFORE YOU.’ 11 “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. 13 “For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 “And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come. 15 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

            We are going to look at a very short introduction to these verses and then we will begin to look more intently at them as we move through this section. 

 

            One of the things that we will be talking about from these verses is the greatness of John the Baptist. I think that we all know that the world has many standards by which it measures what greatness is.  Some of these things include intellectual achievement, political and military leadership, scientific and medical discoveries, wealth and power, and athletic, dramatic, literary, and also musical skill.

 

            What we will be looking at here is that Jesus in this section of verses about John the Baptist sets forth what God’s measure of greatness is.  First we will see the human, and then historical dimension as seen in the life and ministry of John the Baptist.  Then He will briefly contrast John’s greatness with the superior greatness of those kingdom citizens.

 

            MacArthur writes “From verses 7-`4 three marks of John’s greatness can be discerned:  his personal character, his privileged calling, and his powerful culmination.”  Now with that we come to an end of this introduction, and as I said it was short.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have listened to the sermon on these verses and was happy to see what God’s truth of greatness truly is and I look forward to going over this again.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:   I trust the Lord to give me the words that He wants me to teach in our next Sunday school lesson as I will be going over the one of the toughest passage in all of the Word of God, and I certainly need His wisdom as I work through this section of Hebrews 5:11-6:10.

 

11/29/2021 10:34 AM

PT-2 "Jesus Reassures John" (Matt. 11:4-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/28/2021 7:48 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Jesus Reassures John”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:4-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “4  Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5  the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. 6 “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.’”

 

            We know exactly what happened to John, which shows that his circumstances did not change, but I have to believe that in his heart he knew that he was really the forerunner of the Messiah, and that was a great and wonderful position to have.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Jesus’ closing beatitude was primarily for the sake of John:  And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.  It was a gentle warning, a tender rebuke.  ‘Don’t doubt,’ He said to John, ‘if you want to have the blessing of My joy and peace.’  The warning did not take away from Jesus’ esteem for John, as His testimony immediately afterward shows (vv. 7-11).

            “Stumbling is from skandalizo, which originally referred to the trapping of snaring of an animal.  It was used metaphorically to signify an entrapment or stumbling block and carried the derived meaning of causing offense.  Jesus’ divine messiahship and the gospel of deliverance from sin through faith in Him are great stumbling blocks to sinful, unbelieving man, and Jesus did not want John to be affected by the world’s skepticism and unbelief.”

 

            I guess that Matthew was in a way like Paul Harvey who was famous for saying, “and that’s the rest of the story,” as Matthew does not finish the story about John until chapter 14, which happens after John was beheaded by Herod.  After that his disciples went to Jesus because He was the most important person in John’s life and apparently had become the most important person in their lives as well.  We know that when John died that he did not have all his questions answered, and he must have still wondered when Jesus would establish His kingdom, when He would judge the wicked, and usher in the long-awaited kingdom of righteousness.  I suppose for that matter I am wondering when all of this will happen, but knowing that it will happen gives me encouragement to do the things that Jesus has planned for me to do.  I have to believe that John was content to leave in the Lord’s hands the many things he did not yet understand—and that is the secret of being “blessed” and of not “stumbling.”

 

            We read the following in 2Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” The truth is that even when we doubt Him, God is faithful to us, and that is very reassuring.  MacArthur adds “Doubt does not cause a believer to lose his relationship to the Lord, because God cannot deny His own promises to keep those whom He has saved.  And because of His faithfulness, we can go to Him even when we doubt Him.  In fact, only by going to Him as John did can our doubts be relieved.

            “John the Baptist would have loudly affirmed the apostle John’s declaration, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be.  We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure’ (1 John 3:2-3).”

 

11/28/2021 8:12 AM

 

           

 

 

PT-1 "Jesus Reassures John" (Matt. 11:4-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/27/2021 10:44 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “Jesus Reassures John”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:4-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “4 Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. 6 “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.’”

 

            Now as we look at the answer that Jesus gave to the disciples of John the Baptist it was not just a simple yes or no, and the reason was that He knew that that would not satisfy John.  So He told John’s disciples to present their teacher the evidence of what was being done “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” 

 

            We have mentioned earlier that many of John’s disciples had been with Jesus and have heard Him preach and teach and also seen Him perform miracles, many miracles, so part of this report to John would be a reminder of what these disciples had already seen Jesus do. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “John was a great man of God and beloved by Jesus.  As His faithful forerunner languished in prison facing imminent death, the Lord Jesus determined to give him more direct and personal report of evidence.  Luke tells us that when John’s disciples asked Jesus if He was ‘the Expected One,’ that ‘at that very time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He granted sight to many who were blind’ (7:20-21).  Right on the spot and before their eyes, Jesus put on a display of miracles expressly for the personal benefit of John’s disciples and even more for the benefit of John himself.  How it must have thrilled John’s heart not only to receive fresh confirming evidence of Jesus’ messiahship but to know that the Lord had performed that plethora of miracles specifically to reassure him in his time of loneliness and perplexity.”

 

            Jesus really did nothing to relieve John’s physical confinement and suffering, but He did send back to John special confirmation that He was indeed performing messianic works as we see in these verses.  Jesus was in effect saying “This, John, is but a preview, a taste, a small picture of the coming kingdom.  You can see by what I am doing now that I care, and that I heal, and that I have power over all things, and when the Kingdom comes there will be many more things like this done.

 

11/27/2021 11:12 AM 

Unfulfilled Expectations (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/26/2021 9:26 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                    Focus:  “Unfulfilled Expectations”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                            Reference:  Matthew 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            The following from Matthew 3:1-12 is what John the Baptist taught about what the Messiah would do:  “11 "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’”  Now as we look at these two verses we can understand a bit as to why John may have doubted because of his unfulfilled expectations as he had never seen any of this done by the Lord.  John knew that what he was preaching was true, and he knew that Jesus was the one about whom he preached, yet as stated he never saw Jesus do any of these things that the Holy Spirit had led him to preach about concerning the work of the Messiah.  John, like many others in this day and throughout the church have not seen what they expected out of the Messiah.  John was looking for judgment , judgment on the Romans who held Israel in their hands in a very ungodly way.  In our country today we have what some have described as the worst leader ever, and this man borders on being a commie, and many would like to see him taken out of office, but in my mind there are two reasons that he is there.  First our country, a country that has had great benefits because of our Christian background has turned our faces from the Lord.  Second, I have studied prophecy for many, many years and I have yet to see the United States of America in any prominent or for that matter any role in the end times.  I have said since I became a believer and studied prophecy that our country had to fall from a world power, and this man who is being led by people who want this to happen is doing a good job to remove our country from any power that we have experienced for a long time.  They are looking for a one-world government and that is what the Bible says will come, headed up by what the Bible calls the Antichrist.

 

            Now as John viewed what our Lord was doing it was not judgment, but the gathering together of twelve men who were nondescript followers and began teaching them in the same manner as many other rabbis had done for centuries before Him.  Although Jesus demonstrated great miracle works as far as judgment that never happened.  But wait, all the things that John wrote about will someday happen, and as far as judgment Jesus while on the cross judged sin by taking that sin upon Himself in order to pay for it so that all who call upon His name will have their sins paid for.  The Bible teaches that it seems like two different Messiah’s would be coming, and yet it really teaches One will come at two different time periods and the second coming of Messiah will be a time of great judgment as He comes at the end of the greatest war every fought, and when He returns judgment will be swift and sure.

 

            John MacArthur writes “It has always been hard for believers to understand why God allows so many of His children to suffer and allows so many wicked, ungodly people to prosper.  It was doubly hard for John the Baptist.  For one thing, he had a deep devotion to righteousness and was called by God to preach repentance and judgment.  More than that, he was called to proclaim the coming of “the Expected One” who would execute that judgment—which he thought would begin shortly, if not immediately after the Messiah appeared on the scene.

            “Christians today sometimes get excited about the Lord’s imminent return; but when many years pass and He does not come, their hope, along with their dedication, often fades.  They do not stop excepting Him to return some day, but they stop thinking about it and hoping for it as much as they once did.  Some scoffers will even say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’ (2 Pet. 3:4).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In making a habit of putting on the Spiritual armor and a part of this is “the helmet of the hope of salvation” and the hope is a noun and not a verb as I expect the Lord to return, and therefore want to live like He is returning today.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will return very soon to take His bride, the church, home to be with Him forever.

 

11/26/2021 10:05 AM

 

PT-2 "Worldly Influence" (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/25/2021 9:50 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Worldly Influence”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            We continue to look at doubt coming from worldly influence and want to begin by talking about how it was that many of the Jewish people missed the fact that Jesus was truly their Messiah.  We have mentioned that the Jewish people, including the disciples of Jesus had a different idea of what the Messiah should be doing when He came and Jesus did not fit into that mold.  I think the biggest problem was that they did not study their Bibles, for if they did they would have read passages like Isaiah 52-23, and also Psalm 22 to mention a couple that spoke about the suffering Servant, and Psalm 22 shows us more about crucifixion than any other passage in the Word of God. 

 

            MacArthur writes “People today, including some believes, are confused and perplexed about the plan of God for the same reason.  Their minds are so full of the ideas of people around them that they fail to understand God’s plan even when they read it in Scripture.  We continually hear people ask, ‘If Christ loves everybody so much, why do children die and people starve and get diseased and become disabled?  If God is a God of justice, why is there so much corruption and injustice in the world?  Why do so many good people have it so bad and so many bad people have it so good?  If God is so loving and merciful, why does He send people to Hell?  If God is so powerful and false religions are so evil, why doesn’t He just wipe out those false systems?’  Because the Lord does not fit their preconceived ideas of what He should be like, people are perplexed, often indignant, and sometimes even blasphemous.”

 

            Perhaps this verse will help answer the question as to why the world does not know God or understand His nature or even His plan.  “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Cor. 2:14).  Here is the definition of the Greek word that is translated “appraised” “anakrino 1) examine or judge

1a) to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinise, sift, question

1a1) specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation

1a2) to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses

1b) to judge of, estimate, determine (the excellence or defects of any person or thing

            MacArthur adds “The Jews who would not believe Jesus’ claim to messiahship even when He told them plainly of it did so because they did not belong to Him.  ‘You do not believe,’ Jesus said, ‘because you are not of My sheep’ (John 10:26).”

 

            We conclude by talking about the unbelieving Pharisees, the ones who asked Jesus about “when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst’” (Luke 17:20-21).  So we see that ignorance and unbelief always blind the eyes of men to the realities of the kingdom that are all around us.”

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all who read this!

 

11/25/2021 10:21 AM

 

           

PT-1 "Worldly Influence" (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2021 10:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “Worldly Influence”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            We are beginning to look at the third cause of doubt and that is worldly influence, and I believe that this will take two Spiritual Diaries to complete this subject.  After we finish this third for doubt there is only one more to look at, which is “Unfulfilled Expectations.”

 

            One may think that because of how John the Baptist lived that this may not be a problem for him, for after all John was completely insulated.  We see the term “Expected One” in verse three and that is a Messianic term for the coming Messiah.  Many during the time when Jesus was on earth were expecting a “Political Messiah,” one who would bring Israel out from under the strong arm of the Roman Empire, and I suppose that John may have been looking for one like this too.  The truth is that Jesus had done nothing to oppose Rome, either in words or actions.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The Jewish people also thought the Messiah would eliminate all suffering—all disease, affliction, hunger, and pain.  Yet Jesus’ miracles, marvelous and extensive as they were, had not fully banished those things from Israel, much less from all the world.  Many Jews also probably envisioned a type of welfare state, in which all their material needs would be provided for them.  They expected health, wealth, and instant happiness, and when Jesus fed the multitude on the far side of the Sea of Galilee, they were ready to immediately crown Him king (John 6:15, 26).”

 

            We can determine that John the Baptist knew that Jesus refused to be made king, and also that He had done nothing to change either the pagan and brutal  political and military systems of Rome or even the worldly and corrupt religious system of Israel, something John knew much about.  Sin was still very rampant, injustice was still the rule, political and religious corruption were the normal, and also the world was essentially the same as it had been for thousands of years—except for a few cleansed lives and healed bodies.  There was no visible kingdom in sight, and no radical changes could be seen.

 

            There was another common misconception about the Messiah and that was that His coming would be preceded by the coming a number of other men.  The first who was to arrive was Elijah, and then Jeremiah, and then a group of other prophets.  So when Jesus asked His disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’…they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist [who by that time had been killed]; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets’ (Matt. 16:13-14).  Now it is entirely possible that John the Baptist thought that perhaps Jesus was not the Messiah after all but only one of those forerunners, as he himself was.

 

            The truth is that Jesus’ own disciples had some of those misconceptions concerning the Messiah.  His disciples were continually fighting doubts about Jesus, and the reason was that He did not fit their preconceived ideas either.  This still was taking place even after the resurrection of Jesus as they ask Him in Acts 1:6 “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Now Jesus had told them repeatedly about the nature of His mission and plan, but the ideas they had formed from the world about them clouded and also distorted their understanding.  There was something that Jesus told Philip right before His crucifixion that surely applied to all the disciples when He told Philip “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me?” (John 14:9).  It was even after Peter confessed that Jesus was “the Christ the Son of the living God,” that he could not accept the truth that the Christ would have to die, even though he heard that truth from Jesus’ own lips (Matt. 16:16).  The disciples on the road to Emmaus were puzzled for the same reason as seen in Luke 24:19-24).  All of them had been victimized by what people around them thought the Messiah should be and what He should do.

 

11/24/2021 10:38 AM

           

Incomplete Revelation (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/23/2021 11:17 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  “Incomplete Revelation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John, while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            In our Spiritual Diary for today we want to look at a second cause of doubt and that is incomplete revelation.  As we look at this section that talks about John, we learn that John had “heard of the works of Christ,” as his information was secondhand and not complete.  The reason is because he had been in prison for a year; however even while he was preaching he had no direct contact with Jesus after he baptized Him.  Here is a thought; now if Jesus’ disciples failed to understand Him fully as we see the term “little faith” come from the lips of Jesus directed to them for three years then it is easy to understand why John had doubts.  John was not an eyewitness to the things that Jesus did like His disciples were, as he only heard about them.

 

            John MacArthur writes “John did not experience the full truth about the Messiah he was sent to proclaim.  He was in a position not unlike that of the Old Testament prophets.  ‘As to this salvation,’ Peter explains, ‘the prophet who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow’ (1 Peter 1:10-11).

 

            We have talked earlier that John’s disciples were following Jesus and then they would report back to John, but this was not firsthand.  They had seen many miracles that Jesus did and told John about them.

 

            Now here is the part that talks about believers today and again I quote MacArthur:  “Many believers today also doubt certain truths about God because of incomplete information, because they have inadequate knowledge or understanding of His Word.  The Christian who is immersed in Scripture has no reason to stumble.  When God is allowed to speak through His Word, doubt vanishes like mist in the sunlight.”  So we see here that a key in not having doubt is to study the Word of God, and allow the Holy Spirit of God to speak to us through His Word.

 

            One of my all time favorite passages in the Word of God comes from the 24^th chapter of Luke where Jesus speaks to two “disciples” while walking on the road to Emmaus.  These two men had great doubts as the Lord had just been crucified and all their hopes of Him being the Messiah brought great doubt to them.  Jesus speaks the Word of God to them to show them that the Messiah had to die.  He went through different passages from the OT to show them this truth.  They walked for seven miles and if they were walking, say three miles an hour then they heard a very long sermon from the Lord.  The point here is that the Word of God caused them not to doubt like they did before.

 

            MacArthur concludes:  “We all need the continual truth of His Word to protect us from doubt and to dispel doubt when it comes.  The Bereans were noble-minded and ‘received the word with great eagerness’ because they examined ‘the Scriptures daily, to see whether’ the things Paul preached were true (Acts 17:11).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I study the Bible each and every day and yet there are times when I have doubts about certain issues that I go through from time to time.  I pray that they will be conquered.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to get me through these issues that I have struggled with for many, many years.

 

11/23/2021 11:41 AM

           

PT-2 "Difficult Circumstances" (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/22/2021 10:31 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “Difficult Circumstances”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            We continue to look at the first reason as to why believers have doubts in our SD for today.

 

            Let us for a moment talk a little bit about the background of John the Baptist.  We certainly know that he was a true believer.  We also know that he was a prophet of God, holy, loyal, selfless, and unreserved in his service to the Lord.  John had done exactly what God had told him to do.  We also know that John was filled with the Holy Spirit from before he was born, that is in his mother’s womb.  John was a under a Nazirite vow, which is the highest vow of dedication a Jewish man could take.  Now as we look at John’s life we find that he could not help wondering if prison, shame, hunger, physical tournament, perplexity, and loneliness were his rewards for all that he has done for the Lord.

 

            John MacArthur writes “John knew the Old Testament well, and he could hardly have kept from wondering where the God of comfort (Ps. 119:50; Isa. 51:12) was now.  And if Jesus were truly the Messiah, why did He let His forerunner and servant suffer in prison?  Where was God’s love and compassion, not to mention His justice?  Where was God’s promise that the Messiah would ‘bind up the brokenhearted,…proclaim liberty to captives, and freedom to prisoners,…proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning’ (Isa. 61:1-3)?”

 

            Now as we think about faithful believers who have served the Lord all their lives and then have a series of very difficult circumstances come into their lives, things like losing a child, or perhaps a mate, or having great pain in illness, it is difficult not to wonder about God’s love and justice.  I remember when I was going to the first church that I went to after becoming a believer and there was a retired Pastor whose wife was in a coma for a very long time, and in our prayer meeting one evening he quoted from the book of Job something like even though God smote me I will still praise His name.  I have to say that I know that this man had served the Lord many years, and when this awful trouble came on him that he still trusted the Lord.  I was very impressed with this man’s faith in the Lord.

 

            John MacArthur writes of those who are going through difficult circumstances and are tempted to give up:  “Why don’t you help?’  But if we dwell on such thoughts, Satan magnifies them and tries to use them to undermine our trust and confidence in God.  Execpt for when we willingly continue in sin, we are never so vulnerable to doubting God’s goodness and truth and believing Satan’s lies as when we are suffering.”

            As we continue to talk about John’s circumstances we see that he knew where to find help, and answers to his questions about if Jesus was truly the Messiah, and so he sent his disciples to see Jesus for confirmation.  In his mind he had perhaps been crying, “Lord, why don’t You help me?”  now, through his disciples, he was pleading, “Lord please help me?”

 

            In our Lord’s great love and mercy, He was glad to respond, performing miracles especially for John’s sake and promising him spiritual blessing if he did not waver in trust even in the midst of perplexing circumstances.

 

            We know that when Paul first became a believer as seen in Acts chapter nine that the Lord told Ananias that Paul would have to suffer much for the sake of Christ.  So we find Paul in prison where he wrote letters to different churches which we find in the New Testament.  In Philippians we read “4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:4-7).  Paul then went on to say “11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me (11-13).  “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (v-19).

 

            MacArthur concludes “Negative circumstances are painful and trying, but our response should be the same as John’s –going to the Lord and asking Him to quell our doubts, snxieties, and fears (cf. James 1:2-12).” 

 

                2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6  But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. 9 But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; 10 and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. 12 Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him”

             

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I like very much verse 12 as my spiritual meaning for my life today.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Fight the good fight.    11/22/2021 11:26 AM

PT-1 "Difficult Circumstances" (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/21/2021 7:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-1 “Difficult Circumstances”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            In today’s SD we begin to look at the first reason for doubt to creep in to those who are believers which is difficult circumstances.  We begin by talking more about John the Baptist as humanly speaking the career of John ended in disaster as we referenced to in our last SD.  John would end up in prison because of doing the right thing, and eventually would lose his head because a jealous, spiteful woman could not stand that John was telling her husband the truth.  John was faithful to the end. 

 

            John MacArthur tells the story of Herod Antipas:  “On a trip to Rome, Herod Antipas, governor of Galilee, had taken a liking to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, and had seduced her.  After returning to Galilee, Herod divorced his own wife and married Herodias.  When John the Baptist heard of it, he publicly confronted Herod with his sin and was promptly thrown into prison.  Only Herod’s fear of the multitudes kept John from being killed immediately (Matt. 14:5).

            “John was imprisoned at an old fort at Machaerus, located in a hot and desolate region five miles east and fifteen miles south of the northern end of the Dead Sea.  He was placed in a dark, stifling dungeon that was little more than a pit.  After some eighteen months in the limelight, this free spirit of the wilderness was confined and isolated.  He had been in prison for perhaps a year when he sent the two disciples to Jesus.”

 

            We will end this short (Sunday) SD with a quotation from William Barclay who captures much of the significance of John’s situation:

 

            “He was a child of the desert; all his life he had lived in the wide open spaces, with the clean wind on his face and the spacious vault of the sky for his roof.  And now he was confined within the four narrow walls of an underground dungeon.  For a man like John, who had probably never lived in a house, this must have been an agony.  In Carlisle Castle there is a little cell.  Once long ago they had put a border chieftain in that cell and had left him for years. In that cell there is one window, which is placed too high for a man to look out of it when he is standing on the floor.  On the ledge of the window, in the stone, there are two depressions worn away. They are the marks of the hands of the border chieftain, the places where, day after day, he would lift himself up by placing his hands on the ledge that he might look out on the green dales across which he would never ride again.  John must have been like that; and there is nothing to wonder at, and still less to criticize, in the fact that questions began to form themselves in John’s mind.” (The Gospel of Matthew vol. 2 [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1958], p. 2).”

 

11/21/2021 8:11 AM

PT-2 "John Doubts" (Matt. 11:2-3)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2021 10:32 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  “John Doubts Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 11:2-3

 

            Message of the verses:  “2 Now when John in prison heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples, 3 and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’”

 

            As we look briefly at the life of John the Baptist in relationship with Jesus we find that at the time his disciples came to Jesus he was in prison because of accusing Herod of an adulterous marriage to his brother’s wife. John would eventually die over this as Herods wife would scheme to have him killed.  Now before that John had already announced Jesus’ coming as the Messiah, addressed Him as the Lamb of God, baptized Him in the Jordan River, and declared in humility that “He must increase and I must decrease” as seen in John 3:30.  He had already acknowledged Jesus as the Christ and trusted Him as His own Lord and Savior.  As we look at all of these wonderful things that John has done we still find that he is now perplexed and he sent word by his disciples, and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?”

 

            John MacArthur writes:  “The fact that John sent his disciples to Jesus is a strong testimony to his faith.  In his heart he believed that Jesus truly was the Messiah and trusted Him as his Lord; but the events or lack of them caused his mind or emotions to put a cloud of doubt over his assurance.  He was saying, in effect, ‘I have firmly believed You are the Messiah; but have I been wrong?’  He was not asking for information but for confirmation.  He believed, but his faith had become weakened.  John came to Jesus through his disciples, saying, like the father of the boy Jesus cleansed of and evil spirit, ‘I do believe; help my unbelief’ (Mark 9:24).”

 

            As we look through the Scriptures we can see that a number of John’s disciples had already been observing Jesus for some time, probably on John’s instructions, after all John had a lot at stake in the ministry of Jesus.  It was shortly after the banquet Matthew gave in honor of Jesus and to which he invited fellow “tax-collectors and sinners,” the “disciples of John came to Him saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’”  Another incident was after Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain that “the disciples of John reported to him about all these things” as seen in Luke 7:18.

 

            John’s disciples had access to Jesus even while John was in prison, and were probably reporting back to John.  Now we know that John was an outdoor man from what we read about him in Scripture, and now John was in a dungeon where no light could get to him and he had to be very distraught which may have caused him to send his disciples to Jesus asking about if He was really the Messiah.  John was not thinking right.  Living near Cleveland, Ohio 99% of my life, and knowing that this city receives the second least amount of Sunshine, only to Seattle causes me to become depressed, especially in the fall and winter where the sun does not shine due to cloud cover.  I realize that this is a very weak comparison to what John was going through, but it still causes me to not think as well as when the sun shines and so I can better understand what John was going through.

 

            Now I want to talk about the words “Are You the Expected One? As these words are Messianic, speaking only of the Messiah.  “ho erchomenos” was a common designation for the Messiah as MacArthur writes.  We see this title in Psalms 40:7 and 118:26 and is frequently used or alluded to by the gospel writers like Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:7; 11:9; Luke 3:16; 13:35; 19:38; and John 1:27.  MacArthur writes “Every Jew of Jesus’ day would have known that to ask if he were ‘the Expected One’ was to ask if He were the Messiah.”

 

            He continues “It should be reassuring to us that even a man of John’s spiritual stature and gifts was subject to doubt.  From the text and from John’s situation, at least four reasons for his doubt can be seen—reasons that also cause many Christians today to doubt.  Those reasons are difficult circumstances, worldly influence, incomplete revelation, and unfulfilled expectations.”  Lord willing we will begin to look at Difficult Circumstances in our next SD.

 

11/20/2021 11:03 AM