Tuesday, May 24, 2022

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

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