PT-2 "Intro to Matt. 13:1-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/16/2022 10:03 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: PT-2 “Intro to Matt. 13:1-17”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference: Matthew 13:1-17

 

            Message of the verses:  I mentioned in our last SD that I would not quote these verses from Matthew chapter 13:1-17, but you can look at them in yesterday’s SD.

 

            I have mentioned that chapter 13 is a dramatic change in the ministry of our Lord.  The people that Jesus was ministering to while on earth, that is the Jewish people have seen enough of our Lord’s miracles, along with His preaching to show them that He was their long awaited Messiah, but as mentioned once they attributed His miracles to Satan it was then time to change the way that He ministered and so that is why He began to speak in parables, only explain them to His disciples.

 

            Now because the Jews had rejected Him as their Messiah, their King, He would not establish the earthly kingdom.  The Jewish people had waited for centuries for their Messiah, and yet when He came they did not want Him to rule over them.  They were not looking for a Messiah who would pay for their sins, but one who would get them out of the bonds of the Roman Empire, something that He will do when He returns the second time. 

 

            John MacArthur writes:  “In his commentary on Matthew, Stanley Toussaint says, ‘Not seeing the Messiahship of Jesus in His words and works, they separated the fruit from the tree.’  None of the people denied Jesus’ miracles, and most of the recognized that He performed them by God power.  While acknowledging the divine source of Jesus’ miracles, they refused to recognize that He was Himself that divine Source.  The scribes and Pharisees who charged Jesus with casting out demons by Satan’s power (12:24) did not represent the majority of the common people.  But even those who admired Jesus and were awed by His power would not connect the evidence with what it clearly was—proof of His divinity and messiahship.”

 

            Now there were at that time what we could call thoughtful people who knew that He was the Messiah, and knew that by now that the nation of Israel had turned Him down would begin to wonder “If Jesus came to offer the kingdom to Israel and to establish and rule it as prophesied in Scripture, and it was rejected, was God’s plan totally frustrated?  Did His own predictions fail to come true? What, the, is to be the character of the present time?  What is to be the nature of the message and mission of the disciples and of all believers?  And throughout this time, what response is to be expected from people” (quoted from MacArthur’s commentary).  The questions that we just looked at are the questions that Jesus will address in chapter thirteen, and He will do it with a series of eight parables.  So what was going to happen to the promised kingdom at this time?  The answer is that it will be postponed until the time that Israel would believe in and receive he King.  When would that time come?  It is my belief that it will come during what we call “The Great Tribulation.”  The Tribulation period that is prophesized in different parts of the Word of God is a period of seven years.  The “Great Tribulation” is the last three and a half years which I believe begins when the coming Antichrist will commit what Daniel calls “the abomination of desolation” which Daniel speaks of.  This could be something like offering a pig on the Jewish altar like the forerunner of the Antichrist did when Israel was controlled by the Greeks.  At any rate it will be during the last half of the tribulation period that the Jewish will turn to and recognize their Messiah, Jesus Christ. 

 

            Shortly after they recognize their Messiah He will return to set up the 1000 year reign of the promised Kingdom of God as Jesus will rule from David’s throne in Jerusalem.  Zechariah talks about when Israel will recognize their Messiah.  We will look at several verses from Zechariah at this time.  “"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn (12:10).”  “8 And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter. 9  And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one (14:8-9).”

 

            Now as we look at these verses from Zechariah we find that he tells us nothing of what would happen between Israel’s piercing of the Messiah and her subsequent mourning over Him.  Zechariah does not even hint that such an intermediate period would even occur, even those this period has lasted for close to two thousand years.  This is all a mystery until our Lord reveals here and then more fully in the New Testament.

 

            Paul writes what will happen in the end in Romans 11:26-27 “and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.’ "THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.’”  The issue is that the day of that fulfilled kingdom had to be postponed, because when the King first “came to His own,…those who were His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

 

            What happened was that an internal kingdom was established, because “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).  MacArthur writes “Christ’s external, visible kingdom was postponed, but the internal, spiritual kingdom of His saints was established, and in their hearts the Lord reigns, and through their lives and testimony, He no expresses His will on earth.

            The period between Christ’s first and second comings has been called the parenthesis, the interim, the interregnum, and many other such terms.  It is a period that was not revealed in the Old Testament, a period to which Jesus refers as ‘the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven’ (13:11).  Those mysteries will be discussed below as that verse is expounded.  In the eight parables of chapter 13 and in His explanations of them, Jesus describes the interim period, the period that began with His rejection and crucifixion and that has continued until the present time.  An understanding of this period was essential for the disciples as they set out to evangelize.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord that things have been added to my understanding of this 13^th chapter of Matthew, as an understanding of these parables is essential to understanding the church age which is what I live in now.

My Steps of Faith For Today:  Trust the Lord that just as the church began it will soon come to an end when Christ will return at the rapture to take His bride home to heaven to be with Him forever.

 

3/16/2022 10:49 AM