PT-2 "Herod's Reaction" (Matt. 14:1-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/31/2022 10:10 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-2 “Herod’s Reaction”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference: Matthew 14:1-2

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, 2 and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead; and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’”

 

            At the time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, Herod the Great hand long since been dead and this Herod had been ruling for 32 years according to what John MacArthur states in his commentary.  Herod kind of split up living in two different places, and the first was at his palace in Tiberias which was on the southwest shore of the Sea of Galilee.  The other place was at the massive fortress palace that his father had built at Machaerus, which was about seven miles east of the northern tip of the Dead Sea.

 

            We know that the majority of Jesus’ ministry was in Galilee, but there is no mention of Him going through or ministering at Tiberias.  Tiberias was in walking distance of Capernaum, Nazareth, Cana, and many other places that Jesus went, but there is no evidence of Him going to Tiberias.  MacArthur writes “The Lord may have avoided Tiberias in order not to prematurely arouse Herod’s attention.  And it may have been for that reason, along with the pagan king’s general disdain for the Jews and his preoccupation with luxurious living, that Herod seemed to be so long in hearing the news about Jesus.”

 

            We can get a look at the truth that Herod was frightened about things when we read about after he had heard about Jesus that it seems that the first thing that came into his frightened head was that this was John the Baptist raised from the dead in order to seek revenge.

 

            MacArthur writes “We learn from Luke that this notion did not originate with Herod but that he had ‘heard of all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others, that one of the prophets of old had risen again’ (Luke 9:7-8; cf. Matt. 16:14).  Herod confessed, ‘I myself had John beheaded’; and out of morbid curiosity ‘he kept trying to see Him’ (Luke 9:9).  In his guilt-ridden mind he had decided that this Jesus was none other than John the Baptist…risen from the dead.

            “The angel of the Lord told John’s father, Zacharias, that his son would ‘go as a forerunner before [Jesus] in the spirit and power of Elijah’ (Luke 1:17).  Elijah had been endowed with great miraculous powers, and it may be that John the Baptist performed miracles of which we are not told.  In any case, Herod obviously believed John had such gifts and was convinced that the miraculous powers that were at work in Jesus proved He was John returned from the dead.”

 

            I want to move on to a different subject for a moment and that is there is something that I have been following  called “Pray938 Give a month-Change the world.”  “A Matthew 938 prayer initiative is a thirdly days of prayer asking God to send gospel workers into His harvest.”  In order to get a copy of this thirty day prayer booklet one can go to BMM.org and you will be able to download this onto your phone or read it each day from that website.

 

            There is another thing that has to do with Matthew 9:38 and that is a podcast that just began sometime in April of this year.  You can go to where you get your podcasts and search for “TheSend938 Podcast.”  Stephen Anderson, the son of Dr. Gary Anderson who was the longest president of Baptist Mid Missions which is now 102 years old is the person talking to different people, including his father (once a month) on these podcasts.  I can assure you that these are worth listening to, as much is talked about the great history of BMM and then the theme of revival is also spoken of.

 

5/31/2022 10:51 AM

 

 

PT-1 "Herod's Reaction" (Matt. 14:1-2)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/30/2022 10:21 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  PT-1 “Herod’s Reaction”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 14:1-2

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, 2 and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead; and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him."

 

            I have talked about different words for time in other SD’s and so this won’t be knew to some of those who read these SD’s.  “Kairos (time) refers to a special season or period of time and in this context indicates the general season when Jesus was facing increasing hostility and rejection” writes John MacArthur.  Jesus had been ministering for perhaps around a year or so and had done many great and powerful miracles, along with teaching, preaching, along with doing many signs and wonders.  We cannot know the exact chronology but “that time” likely covered the year and a half to two years directly after the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. 

 

            Herod the tetrarch was certainly not a Jew and I don’t suppose that he had a lot of interest in the Jews or their religion, but he did eventually hear the news of Jesus Christ and what He had been doing in His ministry.  MacArthur writes “The term tetrarch technically referred to a ‘ruler of a fourth part,’ but it came to be used as a general title for any subordinate ruler of a Roman province or rejoin.  He was not a true king in the sense that his father, Herod the Great, was, but he coveted the title and was often called by it (cf. v. 9).  He would later ask the emperor Caligula to proclaim him king but was refused.  He was a relatively minor potentate in Palestine who had little power or influence outside his own jurisdiction.”

 

            In our last SD I mentioned how interesting that I found what John MacArthur had dug up on the history of the different Herod’s that are found in the Scriptures and the following paragraph gives us some of that information.

 

            “Herod the tetrarch was a son of Herod the Great by his fourth wife, Malthake, a Samaritan, and was a half brother of Herod Philip, the son of his father’s third wife.  Mariamne the Boethusian.  Herod the Great was an Idumean; and because he not only was a Gentile but was a descendant of Esau and had married a Samaritan, he had been especially despised by the Jews.  His cold-blooded atrocities—such as his having all the members of the Sanhedrin put to death for daring to challenge his authority, his having at least one of his wives and two of his sons executed, and his slaying all the male babies of Bethlehem in an unsuccessful attempt to try to destroy the Messiah—made him more hated still.

            In secular history Herod the tetrarch was known as Herod Antipas, and after the death of his father, Herod the Great, the Romans divided the kingdom (which comprised most of Palestine) among three of his many sons.  The two besides Antipas were his brother Archelaus (see Matt. 2:22) and his half brother Philip (see 14:3).  Archelaus was given the southern provinces of Judea and Samaria, Philip was given the northern province of Trachonitis and Iturea, and Herod Antipas was given the area in between, which included Galilee and Perea.

 

            I think that is enough history for one SD, and so we will continue to look at this history of the Herod’s in our next SD, as terrible as it was. 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord that there are many born-again believers in it and that the Lord has done a wonderful work in the lives of those in my family.  To God be the glory.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To trust the Lord to give me the desire to once again to begin to memorize verses from the Bible, beginning with the 6^th chapter of Romans, something that I am in great need of going over again.

 

Memory verse:  Romans 6:1-2 “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may continue? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin continue in it?

 

5/30/2022 11:08 AM

 

           

 

           

Intro to Matthew 14:1-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2022 8:10 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  Intro to Matthew 14:1-13

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference: Matthew 14:1-13

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, 2  and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead; and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him." 3 For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. 4 For John had been saying to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6 But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. 7 Thereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8  And having been prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist." 9 And although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests. 10 And he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl; and she brought it to her mother. 12 And his disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus.”

 

            John MacArthur entitles this 38^th chapter of his second commentary on the gospel of Matthew “Fear That Forfeits Christ,” and during my walk yesterday I listened to his sermon on this section and I have to say that the sermon that he preached for these verses had a great deal of information on what I will call the family of the Herods in it, and I can also say that not much in that family was good, in fact it was all pretty terrible.  I don’t know at this time how much of that information we will look at as we go through these first 13 verses of Matthew’s 14^th chapter, but I will at some time want to share it with all who read my Spiritual Diaries.

 

            I have not heard lately much about C. I. Scofield, but I use to have a Scofield Bible when I first became a believer as it was one of the early Bibles that had a great deal of notes in it.  Scofield referred to the events of Matthew 14-23as “The Ministry of the Rejected King,” he was talking about the ministry that Jesus had after He was rejected by the Jews in Matthew chapter twelve.  Jesus continued to preach the kingdom as seen in these chapters even though He was rejected by His people.  This reminds me of John 1:11 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”  “Now it was during the early part of this period, the disciples witnessed remarkable incidents that illustrated the four basic responses of the gospel portrayed in the parable of the sower” writes John MacArthur, as we have talked about this in earlier SD’s.

 

            MacArthur goes on “In this account of John the Baptist’s murder, we see the second of the eight incidents Matthew records.  The first portrayed Jesus’ rejection by the resentful people of His hometown of Nazareth, who were deeply offended that a man they had known as merely a carpenter’s son would presume to confront them and even to proclaim Himself the Messiah (Matt. 12:53-58).

            “The second incident, recorded in this text, links Herod the tetrarch’s rejection of Jesus with the execution of John the Baptist.  Like the first incident, this one illustrates the gospel’s falling on hard and stony soil that God’s saving truth cannot penetrate.  The first story deals with a town that rejected; this one deals with an earthly king who opposes the divine King.  The first deals with the treatment of the Messiah Himself; this on deals with the treatment of Messiah’s forerunner.  The first deals with rejection based on jealous resentment; this one deals with rejection based on fear.  Behind both rejections was the common selfish pride of the unbelieving human heart.”

 

            I mentioned earlier about the family of the Herod’s so to speak, and what that family was as we look at them and some of the things they did is more incredible than the most bizarre soap operas that have been seen on TV.  It is a story of infidelity, divorce, remarriage, incest, political intrigue, jealously, spite, revenge, lewdness, lust, coldheartedness, cruelty, brutality, violence, ungodly remorse, and godly mourning writes MacArthur.  Above all, it is the story of godless fear and power of such fear to confuse, deceive, corrupt, destroy, and damn.  “Nowhere in Scripture is the truth “The fear of man brings a snare” Proverbs 29:25 more vividly illustrated than here.  It is one of the most tragic yet triumphant texts in the Word of God.”

 

            “The focal point of this brief episode is Herod’s reaction to Jesus.  Then, in a flashback to previous events, the reason for Herod’s reaction is given and is followed by Jesus’ response to the atrocity behind that reason.”  Lord willing we will look at “Herod’s Reaction” in our next SD.

 

5/29/2022 8:41 AM

 

PT-2 "Unbelief Blocks the Supernatural" (Matt. 13:58)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2022 10:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                              Focus: PT-2 “Unbelief Blocks The Supernatural”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 13:58

 

            Message of the verse:  “58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”

 

            I mentioned we would discuss the man who was born blind from John chapter nine as we begin this SD.  What I want to focus in on is the disciple’s question “Rabbi, who sinned this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?’”  Jesus then answered “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in Him” (John. 9:23).  Jesus explained that the man was born blind so that his healing could glorify God.

 

            I think that this miracle of the healing of the blind man is familiar so I am only going to hit the high points.  First of all after he went and washed in the Pool of Siloam, which actually means sent, his friends did not realize that he was the former blind man and so he was sent to the Pharisees and was integrated by them.  His parents had to come in to verify that he was their son and he was born blind.  The Pharisees had a problem of Jesus working on the Sabbath and so they thought that He was a phony, not from God.  Others argued that a person who was not from God could never do such things.

 

            As you probably already know we are talking about how these people can see the supernatural right in front of them and chose not to believe that the miracle was done by their Messiah and not believe in Him.  Doing these miracles was something that was prophesied that the Messiah would do, but now we can see from this story that some of the leaders did not even believe the man had ever been blind when the evidence was right in front of them, but their hatred for Jesus was all they saw.  His parents stated that they knew this was their son and that he was born blind, but how he sees now we don’t know.  The Pharisees said “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner,” referring to Jesus.  MacArthur writes “The man responded that, although he could not be certain about Jesus’ sin, he was certain that it was Jesus who had healed him.  And he did not believe a sinful man could do such marvelous things as Jesus had undeniably done for Him.   ‘If this man were not from God,’ he insisted, ‘He could do nothing.’

            “But as the man’s testimony became more and more favorable to Jesus, the Pharisees’ unbelief only became more and more hardened.  They finally said to the man, ‘You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?’  And they put him out.’”  This means the put him out of the synagogue for good.

 

            Jesus found the man, knowing he had been thrown out of the synagogue and asked him “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  When he discovered that Jesus was Himself the Son of Man, the former blind man confessed, “Lord, I believe.’  After that He worshiped Him.  Jesus then said “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and that those who see may become blind.”  The Pharisees wanted to know if they too were blind and then Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains’ (John 9:6-41).

            “As those Pharisees perfectly illustrate, when unbelief investigates the supernatural work of God, it comes up empty.  It meets a dead end when it tries to probe divine things.  It cannot recognize the works of God because it will not recognize the truth of God” This is how MacArthur ends this section and how he ends his commentary on the 13^th chapter of Matthew. 

 

5/28/2022 10:49 AM

PT-1 "Unbelief Blocks the Supernatural" (Matt. 13:58)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/27/2022 9:31 AM

 

My Worship Time                                              Focus:  PT-1 “Unbelief Blocks the Supernatural”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 13:58

 

            Message of the verse:  “58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”

 

            We come today to the last verse in the 13^th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, something that we have been looking at since March 15^th of this year, yes it has taken us a long time, but I think that all of us who have read these Spiritual Diaries have a better understanding of these very important parables that Jesus spoke of in this chapter.  Chapter 12 is a great turning point in the gospel of Matthew because the Jews were attributing Jesus’ miracles to the power of Satan, when they were actually done through the power of the Holy Spirit which came upon Jesus after His baptism which we saw in the 4^th chapter of Matthew.  Psalm 40 speaks of Jesus coming to earth to do the will of the Father, and Jesus did the will of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit, and since the Jews attributed the miracles to the power of Satan, they were blaspheming the Holy Spirit which was the last straw for our Lord as He began at that time to teach in parables.  Parables open up truth to believers and hide truth from unbelievers, and in this case it was the Jews that the parables were hidden from.

 

            John MacArthur begins this section by writing “Some of Jesus’ miracles were done in direct response to personal faith, but many others, perhaps most of them, were done regardless of any specific expression of individual’s faith.  All of the miracles were done to strengthen the faith of those who believed in Him, but although God can perform miracles where there is no belief, He chose not to perform them where there was had and willful unbelief.  Unbelief, then, became a barrier to divine blessing, and because of the unbelief of the people of Nazareth Jesus did not do many miracles there.  Mark reports that ‘He could do no miracles there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them’ (Mark 6:5).  It was not that Jesus lacked supernatural power while He was in Nazareth but that He chose to operate only in response to faith, with the result that the people’s unbelief prevented Him from fully exercising that power.

            “Just as believing saves the soul and enables the power of God to work in its fullness, so unbelief blocked the release of His power and damned up the flood of His blessing.”

 

            I suppose that an obvious question that arises here is what does this have to do with individual believers and individual local churches, can this unbelief affect power given to them because of their unbelief.  I guess my short answer would be yes, I think it can.

 

            We want to now look at Matthew 7:6 “"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”  This is a warning from Jesus that was spoken of in the Sermon on the Mount.  It is the hardened unbeliever who despises the precious truths and blessings of God and will even use them against the Lord and His people if he can.  Jesus would always refuse to bend to the request of the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees who wanted for Him to do a sign, just for the sake of doing one as seen in Matthew 12:38-41 where we read “38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." 39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 40 for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 “The men of

Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.’”  The miracles of Jesus were of spiritual benefit only as they led to faith in Him or strengthened those who already believed.  For the ones who refused to believe, His miracles had no spiritual value at all, and He would not perform them in order to entertain or to satisfy ungodly curiosity.

 

            Lord willing we will talk about the man who was born blind from John chapter nine as we begin our next SD.

 

            5/27/2022 9:58 AM

Unbelief Binds to the Truth (Matt. 13:57)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/26/2022 9:59 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  “Unbelief Blinds to the Truth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 13:57

 

            Message of the verse:  “57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his home town, and in his own household.’”

 

            Let us begin as John MacArthur explains “Took offense is from skandalizo, which has the basic idea of causing to stumble or trip up and is the term from which our English scandalize is derived.  Jesus’ friends and former neighbors were offended by His claims.  They were offended by His ordinary background, by the commonness of His family, the limits of His formal training, His lack of official  religious status, and many other irrelevant or secondary issues.”  Perhaps the saying they could not see the forest by the trees goes along with this quotation and the way that Jesus’ friends were acting.

 

            Scripture does not give us the full account of what Jesus was teaching on either account when Jesus was in Nazareth.  We know that He offended the people by what He said as that has been made clear.  What Jesus did was He unmasked their hypocrisy by exposing their wicked desire to see Him perform miracles for miracles sake as seen in Luke 4:23.  “And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever you heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’"”  It is possible that He talked to them about their sinfulness and need to repent.  In any case, they became antagonistic and as we have seen they took offense at Him, and the reason was that their unbelief blinded them to the truth that He taught.  Here are a couple of verses that speak to this situation:  “13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand (Matt. 13:13).”  In 1 Corinthians 1:23 Paul declared to the Corinthian believers Christ is “to the Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness.”

 

            It is not until a person is willing to have the hard ground of his heart plowed up by God’s truth and then to confess and forsake his sin, that he will not be offended by the gospel, and until a person faces his sin in penitence, the truth of the gospel will be hidden from him, and the blessing of the gospel lost to him. 

 

            MacArthur concludes “Again (see Luke 4:24) Jesus reminded the people of Nazareth of the well known proverb that a prophet is not without honor except in his home town, and in his own household.  It is often difficult for those who have watched a child grow up as a neighborhood kid to later accept him as a community leader, government official, pastor, or such—to say nothing of accepting him as the divine Son of God!  Even when the man is personally liked, it is not easy for him to gain the respect that an outsider of the same capabilities would enjoy.  Jesus’ brothers eventually came to believe in Him as their Savior (Acts 1:14), but several years after He began His ministry, they did not (John 7:5).”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It seems to me that I learned something this morning that kind of goes along with the situation in Nazareth.  I wear a “Fitbit” watch as I have a desire to walk at least five miles a day.  I keep track of my miles each week and add them all up since the 26^th of March 2020 when I found out that I had Type II Diabetes, so far I have walked over 4600 miles.  I wanted to log my mile in from last week but when I looked onto the Fitbit page on the computer they were not there.  I found a Youtube page that explained that I needed to re-sync my watch.  As I thought about that I believe that from time to time that I need to re-sync my walk with the Lord as things get out of shape with that from time to time.  The friends of Jesus in Nazareth needed to do this and begin to look at the truth, which probably is something they did not do, but others have done this as they take another look at the truth of what Jesus did for them, and have come to know Him as their Savior and their Lord.  Think about re-syncing today.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Ask the Lord to re-sync my walk with Him beginning today.

 

5/26/2022 10:32 AM     

PT-2 "Unbelief Builds Up The Irrelevant" (Matt. 13:55-56)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2022 11:44 AM

 

My Worship Time                                              Focus:  PT-2 “Unbelief Builds Up the Irrelevant”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:55-56

 

            Message of the verses:  “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?’”

 

            John MacArthur writes this interesting paragraph:  “The fact that the citizens of Nazareth did not regard Jesus and His family as being out of the ordinary completely undercuts myths that attribute bizarre miracles to Him when He was a child.  One story maintains that whenever He found a bird with a broken wing, He would stroke it gently and send it flying on its way healed and healthy.  This text completely mitigates against such fabrications.”  Now I have stated and even taught in my Sunday school class that it was not until after the baptism of Jesus done by John the Baptist that His ministry truly began.  After His baptism the Spirit of God descended upon Him like a dove lands, very softly, and then His Father spoke out of heaven.  After that Jesus went into the wilderness to fast 40 days in order to be prepared for the task that His Father gave Him to do, and this was accomplished through the Holy Spirit working through Him in order to do His Father’s will.  So what He did as a child was really not a part of His ministry other than obeying His earthly father and working alongside of him until it was time to begin His ministry.

 

            It seems that the next paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary goes along with what I have just written.  “When He came to earth, Jesus emptied Himself of certain divine prerogatives, ‘taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men’ (Phil. 2:7).  And although He was sinless and morally perfect during every minute of His life, His perfection was clearly not of the sort that called attention to itself or set Him apart as strange or peculiar.  To those who knew Him as a child and young man, Jesus was simply a carpenter and a carpenter’s son.  It was partly over the commonness of Jesus and His family that the people of Nazareth stumbled.  They found it impossible to accept Him even as a great human teacher, much less as the divine Messiah.”

 

            This truly is a tragic story that we are looking at in this section of Matthew’s gospel as most of the people living in Jesus’ hometown were like the very hard soil, which does not produce any crop.  This town had the great opportunity of seeing the Messiah being raised from a child to manhood, and yet once His ministry began and all the miracles that He did they were just blind to the truth of who He is.  People can find any reason at all not to hear the truth of the gospel message, and I suppose one of the ones used is to call the person who is giving the gospel to them a hypocrite.  Well the truth is that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” even those who are giving out the gospel

 

            MacArthur writes “As means of escape or self-justification, unbelief diverts attention away from the truth.  The genuine seeker may have many questions about the gospel before he is ready to commit himself to Christ.  But his sincerity is proven by his willingness to accept the truth once it is explained.  Each new ray of light leads him closer to belief.  For the confirmed unbeliever, on the other hand, each new truth prompts him to raise another objection, and his argument against that truth pushes him still further from salvation.

            “It is characteristic of unbelief to disguise itself, and in order to hide their self-satisfaction and refusal to accept the clear evidence about Jesus, the people of Nazareth dismissed Him on the basis of having known Him since He was a child and of knowing His family as ordinary citizens of the community.  They allowed pride, jealously, resentment, embarrassment, and a host of other wicked and petty feelings to fill their hearts and become barriers to salvation.”

 

            Now my question to those who are reading this Spiritual Diary, to those who know the truth of the gospel, but are turning their hearts away from that truth is to think about it, for if you know the truth, the very truth that can change your eternal address from hell to heaven and turn your back on it then I assure you that after a while you will permanently turn your back on it and the end will be something that you will not want at all.  I gave out the gospel to my father-in-law for forty-five years and two days before he died he was wondering what he should do to which I told him if he wanted to enter heaven that he had to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  Only eternity will tell if he did that or not.

 

5/25/2022 12:13 PM

Unbelief Builds Up The Irrelevant (Matt. 13:55-56)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2022 8:05 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  “Unbelief Builds Up The Irrelevant”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt 13:55-56

 

            Message of the verses:  “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 have been talking about how the overwhelming evidence of Jesus Christ being the Messiah has been seen, even to those in His home town, and yet what we see in these two verses are actually irrelevant things that the people were bring up.  MacArthur writes “It was indeed surprising to see someone they had watched grow up and with whom they had gone to synagogue all His life suddenly come on the scene as a great leader—with no formal training and no recognition by the accepted religious hierarchy.”

 

            Matthew is pointing out a number of facts about Jesus including that He had half-brothers and sisters, but again these were irrelevant in so much as Jesus being who He claimed to be and who had done things to prove that He was indeed their Messiah.  I have written in past SD’s about who the Jews were looking for in their Messiah, as they wanted someone to take them out of the control of Rome.  There are actually two pictures of Messiah in the Old Testament as one shows a conquering leader and the other shows of a Person who would come to earth humbly in order to pay for the sins of the world.  The people of Nazareth should have had overwhelming joy that God chose for their Messiah to be brought up there, but they didn’t to their shame.

 

            John MacArthur writes the following very important paragraphs:  “From this text and numerous others (see, e. g., Matt. 12:46-47; Luke 2:7; John 7:10; Acts 1:14), it is clear that Mary did not live in perpetual virginity, as Roman Catholic heresy claims.  After Jesus’ birth, Joseph began normal marital relations with his wife, and she bore at least four sons and two daughters by him.  Mary was a woman of extraordinary godliness, but she was not more divine than any other woman ever born, and certainly was not the mother of God, as Catholic dogma maintains.  She even referred to the Lord as ‘God my Savior’ (Luke 1:47), affirming her own sinfulness and need of salvation.

            “Joseph had been a tekion (carpenter), which was the general term for a craftsman who worked with hard material, including wood.  He may also have worked with bricks and stones.  In any case, he had surely built many houses, windows, doors, yokes, and other things for his neighbors in Nazareth; and many products of his workmanship probably still being used in the village.  Joseph was an ordinary laborer like most other men of the village, and Jesus learned carpentry under him and no doubt took over the business after Joseph died (see Mark 6:3).” “"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?" And they took offense at Him.”

 

5/24/2022 8:27 AM

PT-2 "Unbelief Blurs the Obvious" (Matt. 13:54)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2022 9:55 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Unbelief Burs The Obvious”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 13:54

 

            Message of the verse:  “54 And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers?”

 

            I suppose that what we see here in this verse is that for a second time the people of Jesus’ home town have rejected Him to be their Messiah.  The problem with this is because it was so obvious that He was who He said that He was for they marveled at the many miracles that He had done, yet did not believe in Him.  We have been talking for some time now about all of the great miracles that Jesus had been doing and I have to believe that as we look at these ending verses from the 13^th chapter of Matthew that the people in His home town knew all about it, but for some reason were blinded to who He was.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Jesus had not studied in any of the famous rabbinical schools and had no more formal training in the Scriptures than the average Jewish man.  Consequently, when He taught in the temple during the Feast of Booths, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem marveled at Him, ‘saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been educated?’’ (John 7:15).  Despite the absence of traditional credentials, His spiritual and moral wisdom was so true and profound that it could not be refuted even by His severest critics.”

 

            It was not only His great wisdom that Jesus showed but He had displayed supernatural power that all but banished sickness and disease from Palestine and had performed miracles of nature that astonished the most hardened skeptics.  Now at the very least it should have been clear that Jesus was a prophet of God who was unequalled by any of the Old Testament era.  So the question is “How could the people not believe Jesus was from God, when only divine power and wisdom could explain the greatness of what He said and did?”

 

            Back in the second chapter of John’s gospel we saw Nicodemus come to Jesus by night, and at that time he immediately acknowledged that Jesus had “come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2).  Back in the 12^th chapter of Matthew the Pharisees knew that Jesus was doing great miracles, something that they could not deny, but their great problem was that they hated Him so much because Jesus was causing them to lose power over the people of Israel and so they stated that Jesus was doing the miracles in the power of Satan. 

 

            It was like the scribes and Pharisees, that the people of Jesus’ hometown synagogue refused to make the logical and obvious connection between His power and His divinity because they were willfully unbelieving.  As we look back at the parable of the seed we can see here that the seed fell on the hard soil of Nazareth, and God’s truth could not make the slightest penetration.  Here are the words that Jesus said to Nicodemus, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:18-20).  These words are not only true of those in Jesus’ hometown, but for all who know the truth even today and turn their back on it.

 

            The ones who heard and saw Jesus did not reject Him for lack of evidence but in spite of overwhelming evidence they rejected Him, and for that their punishment in hell will be harsher than those who never heard of Him.

 

            We move forward to look at Acts 4:13 “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”  Things still remained the same even after Jesus went to heaven. 

 

            MacArthur writes “When a person willfully rejects the Lord, even the most compelling evidence will not convince him of divine truth.  Cultists and liberal theologians who refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the divine Son of God can find countless ways to discount or explain away the most obvious truths of Scripture.  They then congratulate themselves for their intellectualism in explaining Scripture without accepting its truths, for seeming to honor Christ without believing in Him or what He taught, and for calling themselves by His name while denying His divine nature and power.  To such false disciples Jesus continues to say, ‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven’ (Matt. 7:21; Luke 6:46).”

 

            There are people who hear the truth of the gospel many times, and yet keep looking and asking for more evidence are in reality just trying to find a way to not believe it.  Jesus explained in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).  MacArthur concludes “The person who does not accept the light from God he already has will not believe no matter how much more light he is given.”

 

            I will end this SD by asking a question, only wanting a one word answer.  “What does a person have to do in order to end up in hell?

 

5/23/2022 10:33 AM

PT-1 "Unbelief Blurs the Obvious" (Matt. 13:54)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2022 7:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                        Focus:  PT-1 “Unbelief Blurs the Obvious”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 13:54

 

            Message of the verse:  “54  And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers?”

 

            I remember a time when we were seeking a new Pastor for our church and so in order to get some wisdom on what I should do I spoke to a former Pastor that we had when I first came to this church years before.  The person who was seeking this job had gone to our church for a long time, ever since he was a child.  This was the issue that I had and so I brought this up with our former Pastor using this section of verses.  He said that it was wrong that the people of Nazareth had felt the way that they did just because they thought that they knew Jesus, and that certainly is a true statement.  I think that you can compare Jesus going back to His hometown with going to a class reunion from your high-school, as all your friends know you and if you come back as a famous person then there would be some wondering about how that person had made it big.

 

            In the case of Jesus, and this certainly is different because Jesus was the Messiah, He did nothing wrong, nor could He do anything wrong.  These people had tried to kill Jesus when He first came back as we talked about in the previous SD, and although they were not trying to kill Him this time they still could not realize “where then did this man get all these things?”  The things they were talking about were His wisdom, and His ability to do great miracles.  It was all a matter of doing research, which they did not do, for if they did they would have realized that Jesus was indeed their Messiah.  Instead of thinking that the father of Jesus was a man, they could have asked about how Mary became pregnant and listened to her answer and rejoiced that their Messiah had come to their little town to be raised right before their eyes.

 

            The same is true today, as so very many people in our world today do not take the time to research the truth about Jesus Christ, where He was born, the time that He came into the world which was promised in many different OT passages, including the great prophecy found in the 9^th chapter of Daniel.  All the evidence of knowing who Jesus is, is certainly found in the pages of Scripture, but there is another way to find out about Him and that is in the way that the lives of people have been changed after coming to Him and accepting the forgiveness that He offers, through the death that He died, “For God so Loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him will have eternal life.” 

 

            One of the reasons that I study the Bible and then post on my Blogs the things that I learn is so people can see that they are in need of a Savior, that this Savior has come into the World 2000 years ago and that after spending 30 years on planet earth he spent several very cruel hours on a cross outside of Jerusalem.  In dying on that cross He satisfied the wrath of God as He paid for our sins, but just knowing that is not enough as one has to first of all realize that you are born a sinner and that there is nothing that you can do about that on your own.  Once you realize that then in order to be saved you must accept the forgiveness that Jesus offered when He died on that cruel cross for you some many years ago.  Just invite Jesus into your heart in order to be saved from your sins.  Jesus Christ will change your life once you do that, and I can testify to that as He changed me once I became a believer on the 24^th of January 1974.

 

            Lord willing we will continue with this section from Matthew 13:54 in our next SD.

 

5/22/2022 8:24 AM

 

 

Returning to Nazareth (Matt. 13:54-58)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/21/2022 9:50 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                         Focus:  “Returning to Nazareth”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 13:54-58

 

            Message of the verses:  “54 And coming to His home town He began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they became astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these miraculous powers? 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?" 57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his home town, and in his own household." 58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.”

 

            What we will be looking at today is kind of another introduction, as there will be sub-sections that will follow after this introduction.

 

            We know from Scripture that Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth which is where they finally ended up after the birth of Jesus and then going to Egypt for a while.  In Matthew 4:12-13 we saw that Jesus went back to Nazareth after His baptism and temptations, and then we can learn from Luke that the response to Him then was the same as it was on this occasion.  We know the true story of how Jesus was conceived, which was by the Holy Spirit, and although I am not making any excuses for those who lived in Nazareth who had no idea of the truth behind how Jesus was conceived I am sure that there were some whispers that went on after this family moved back to Nazareth when Jesus was still a very young boy.  People just have a tendency to remember things like that.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Luke reports that, after the wilderness temptations, ‘Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit…And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:14a, 16.”

 

            It had not been too long when Jesus returned to Nazareth after His baptism and after His wilderness temptations and so when He went into the Synagogue to read this was probably something that had happened many times before, but Jesus was different then.  Jesus’ ministry began after he came up out of the waters of baptism and we see at that point that the Holy Spirit rested on Him as He came down on Jesus like a dove lands, very slowly, and then the Father Spoke from heaven, and so the trinity was all there as Jesus began His ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to do the will of God throughout His entire ministry.

 

            We know the story of when Jesus read the Scriptures from Isaiah 61:1-2.  Like all readers Jesus sat down to explain what He read and when He explained what He had just read by saying “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”; and He probably made other comments as well.  MacArthur writes “At first the people did not understand that Jesus was referring to Himself, because their initial response was quite favorable:  ‘All were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and the were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’” (Luke 4:17-22).”

 

            MacArthur goes on “Knowing that the people’s praise was based merely on faithless recognition of His popularity and power, Jesus began to expose their real motives.  He knew they wanted Him to duplicate in Nazareth the miracles He had performed in Capernaum.  And He knew that if He complied with their with their demand, they still would not accept Him as the Messiah, because ‘no prophet is welcome in his home town.’  In further rebuke of their hypocrisy and faithlessness, He reminded them that in the days of Elijah God had shut up the rain in Israel for three-and-a-half years and caused a great famine.  During that time the Lord showed mercy on none of the many suffering widows in Israel but showed great mercy on a Gentile widow of Zarepath.  He also reminded them that during the time of Elisha, God cleansed no lepers in Israel but cleansed the leprosy of the Gentile Naaman of Syria (vv. 23-37).  They could not have missed Jesus’ powerful rebuking point that a believing Gentile is dearer to God than an unbelieving Jew.”

 

            We conclude from the 4^th chapter of Luke’s gospel “28  And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29  and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.”  This happened after Jesus made clear that He understood their wicked motives and would not bend to their hard-hearted provincial desire to have their own display of miracles.  So in their attempt to kill Jesus, the evil character and unbelief became apparent.   They wanted entertainment from Jesus and they wanted a benefit for themselves from the miracle worker, but they were not looking for conviction of sin and a message of salvation by Jesus the Messiah. 

 

            In this introduction to verses 54-58 we see Jesus’ second, and a very similar, encounter with the former neighbors in Nazareth.  MacArthur writes “we can learn four important truths about unbelief:  It blurs the obvious, builds up the irrelevant, blinds to the truth, and blocks the supernatural.”  Lord willing we will begin “Unbelief Blurs the Obvious” in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today: I, and all people born into this world today are born with unbelieving, that is unbelieving that we are in need of a Saviour, and even after being born-again there is still unbelief at times in my life.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord even when things don’t seem like He is in control.

 

5/21/2022 10:38 AM