SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/11/2022 10:03 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Power of Relationship”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
12:46-50
Message of the verses: “46 While He was
still speaking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers were standing
outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 And someone said to Him, "Behold,
Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to
You." 48 But He answered the one who was telling Him and said, "Who
is My mother and who are My brothers?" 49 And stretching out His hand
toward His disciples, He said, "Behold, My mother and My brothers! 50 “For
whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and
sister and mother.’”
I listened to John MacArthur’s sermon the other day
in preparation to looking at this section as he always has more information on
the sermons than in the commentary that he writes, and one of the things that
was kind of surprising to me was the title that he gave for this section in his
sermon which is the same title that he gives here in his commentary. Now that I have listened to it then I better
understand why he chose this title.
Going
back a bit to reformation we learned that it is not salvation, regeneration, or
redemption. The truth is that it may, in
fact, work toward the very opposite by entrenching a person in
self-satisfaction and blinding him to his need for God’s mercy, and the reason
is as we have already discussed is these people think they are all right, and
don’t need the mercy of God in order to have a relationship with Him. Now in order to have salvation there must be
a new and right relationship with God, which comes only as a sinner humbly
confesses and then turns from his sin and receives Jesus Christ as their Savior
and Lord.
John
MacArthur writes “The arrival of Jesus’ family gave Him the perfect opportunity
to give a graphic illustration of the need for personal relationship to
Him. While He was still speaking to the
multitudes in a house (see 13:1), His mother and brothers were standing
outside, seeking to speak to Him. When
Jesus was informed of this, He answered the one who was telling Him and said, ‘Who
is My mother and who are My brothers?’”
One
of the things that at least to me, as I study the gospels, is when it was that
Joseph, Mary’s husband, and father of her children other than Jesus died. I suppose as we look at this passage we can
assume that Joseph had been dead for some time now and so we only see the rest
of Jesus’ immediate family which consisted of His mother, Mary, His half
brothers (James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas), and His half sisters, who are not
named in Scripture (Matt. 12:55-56). “55
“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers,
James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 “And His sisters, are they not all
with us? Where then did this man get all these things?’”
We know that it was after the resurrection of Jesus
that His brothers eventually came to believe in Him, as His brother James
became the head of the Jerusalem church as seen in Acts 15:13-22, and James was
the author of the epistle that bears his name.
Jude, Jesus’ brother Judas also wrote an epistle found in Scripture. However during Jesus’ preaching and teaching
ministry, there is no clear evidence that any member of His family other than
His mother Mary fully understood who He really was or actually trusted in Him
as Savior. In John 7:5 we read “For not
even His brothers were believing in Him.” “It is possible that even His
mother—despite the revelations to her before and after Jesus’ birth and her
magnificent confession at that time (see Luke 1:26-2:38)—did not yet personally
trust in Jesus as her own Lord and Savior” writes John MacArthur.
Lord
willing we will continue this section in our next SD.
3/11/2022 10:24 AM
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