SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/10/2022 8:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Two Parables About Influence”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
13:31-33
Message of the verses: “31 He presented
another parable to them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man
took and sowed in his field; 32 and this is smaller than all other
seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and
becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS
BRANCHES."
33 He
spoke another parable to them, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven,
which a woman took, and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.’”
It
is possible that the disciples of Jesus after hearing the first two parables,
the sower and then the wheat and the tares, may have wondered exactly how
Christ’s kingdom could survive is so many people rejected Him and were then
allowed to stay on earth with foul influence.
Exactly how could God’s people survive, much less how could they survive
in the midst of such unfavorable circumstances?
MacArthur adds “Would not the great power of Satan and his evil forces,
both demonic and human, utterly overwhelm and stifle the few (cf. 7:13-14) OF God’s
saints on earth?” “13 “Enter through the
narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to
destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small
and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
As
we have moved through the preceding chapters and verses in Matthew, especially
those in chapter 12 we get the idea that the Jewish nation would reject their
Messiah, that some of the people following would then turn on Him and desire
that He be crucified, that only a few would later on understand what the reason
was that He came to earth. As the book
of Acts opens we see only 120 people following Jesus as the rest of the people
who said they were followers of Him had since gone away, left with only those
120 people. It was now in response to
that unspoken concern, concern that we have just looked at, Jesus used these
two parables to emphasize that small things can have far-reaching effects.
John
MacArthur writes “Western music is commonly composed of only twelve notes—the seven
basic notes and their five sharps/flats.
Every symphony, hymn, love song, oratorio, and other pieces of music is
made up of various combinations and octaves of those same few notes. Similarly, every poem, essay, novel, letter,
and other pieces of English literature is composed of combinations of the same
twenty-six letters.
“Lord
Kelvin once suspended a large piece of metal from a cord in his
laboratory. He then proceeded to wad up
small pieces of paper into balls about the size of a pea and systematically
throw them at the metal weight. At first
the almost imperceptible impact of the paper hitting metal seemed to have no
effects. But eventually the steel weight
was swaying rhythmically back and forth due to the cumulative force patiently
applied against it.
“In
an immeasurably more dramatic and important way, God would demonstrate through
the church how a handful of believers, totally weak and inept in themselves
would in His power turn the world upside down.
The kingdom of heaven would grow and prosper in spite of Satan’s
opposition and would ultimately permeate and influence the whole world in Jesus’
name.”
As
I have listened to the sermons from John MacArthur on these parables, one
sermon for each of these two parables I can tell you that if you follow what
will be written about these two parables that you will be in for a wonderful
understanding of the church that perhaps you may not have thought about before.
4/10/2022 8:35 AM
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