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
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