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 13th
chapter of Matthew’s gospel, something that we have been looking at since March
15th 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 4th
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
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