SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/28/2022 9:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “To Reveal”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:16-17
Message of the verses: “16 “But blessed are your
eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 "For truly I
say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see,
and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
I like the way that verse 16 begins with the word “but”
which means a change of direction, something that in this case is the right
direction.
It
happens that when men choose to believe God’s Word, and then to trust in His grace,
that He gives them salvation and more and more truth by which to walk and to
worship as we see in verse 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears,
because they hear.” These are the words
that Jesus was speaking to His disciples.
I
want to look at 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 and then says something about these
verses: 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor
ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has
prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us
through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of
God.” These
verses are very important to believers to show us that we as believers can
understand even the deep things of God’s Word, because they have them written
in the New Testament, and they are illumined by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
As
we continue in the 13th chapter of Matthew we see that Jesus
explains to His disciples the meaning of the parables, and then He asked them
if they understood, to which they replied “Yes.” Now His disciples were not actually smarter
than the unbelieving Jews as the Scribes and Pharisees were highly educated and
had studied the Scriptures diligently since they were very young. However their eyes were blinded to the truth
of Jesus’ teaching, and the reason was because of their unbelief. Now on the other hand, with the exception of
Judas the eyes of the disciples were able to see and also their ears were able
to hear, and the reason was because they did believe.
Let
us look at Mark 4:34, a parallel verse to what we are looking at in Matthew
13. “and He did not speak to them
without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own
disciples.” This was a big part of our Lord’s ministry, especially
after the Jews had turned their backs on Jesus and wanted to kill Him, He would
spend much time in giving understanding to His disciples. MacArthur writes “During perhaps His last
appearance to the disciples after His resurrection, Jesus, ‘opened their minds
to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).
The psalmist knew he could not comprehend God’s Word in his own
intellect, and he prayed, ‘Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things
from Thy law’ (Ps. 119:18).”
Let
us look again at verse 17 “"For truly I say to
you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did
not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” Now as we look at this verse we can conclude
that not even the most faithful and enlightened saints of the Old Testament
were given insights, the privileges of having the understanding of every
believer. Peter also has something to
say about this “10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the
grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 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. 12 It was revealed
to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which
now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by
the Holy Spirit sent from heaven — things into which angels long to
look.”
MacArthur concludes this chapter in his commentary
and also this section by writing: “Even
for believers there must be divine illumination, and that is promised to every
Christian who searches God’s Word and relies on the Holy Spirit within him (see
1 Cor. 2:9-16; 1 John 2:20, 27). As
Christians, we not only have God’s completed revelation in Scripture but the
very author of that Scripture living within us—to explain, interpret, and apply
its truth.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for the reminder of what was at
the end of this SD that is to rely on the Author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit
who lives within me to teach me from His Word.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Holy Spirit to teach me the
things that He desires for me to know so that I can to the work that God has
called me to do from eternity past (Eph. 2:10).
3/28/2022 9:58 AM
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