SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/21/2022 7:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Proof of His Divine Authority”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
14:22-23
Message of the verses: “22 Immediately He
made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side,
while He sent the crowds away. 23 After He had sent the crowds away, He went up
on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there
alone.”
We begin this SD by looking at verse 23 “After He had sent the
crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was
evening, He was there alone.” It seems to me that as we began to look at this
chapter we saw that the Lord wanted to spend some time with His disciples
because they had just come back from a mission trip and Jesus had just found
out about the death of John the Baptist, but as we have seen they did not get
this accomplished, and so we now see that the Lord was praying for His
disciples as He sent them out into a storm, and then He would miraculously
encounter the disciples in the middle of the furious wind and sea.
John
MacArthur writes “Jesus’ temptations neither began nor ended with the three in
the wilderness immediately after His baptism.
At the end of that session, the devil only ‘departed from Him until an
opportune time’ (Luke 4:13). The enthusiasm
of the crowds and the disciples to make Him king was very much like the third
temptation in the wilderness, in which Satan offered Jesus ‘all the kingdoms of
the world, and their glory’ (Matt. 4:8-9).
‘What better time to establish your kingdom than the Passover season,
and in what better way than by marching triumphantly into Jerusalem at the head
of thousands of faithful, enthusiastic supporters?’ the devil may have asked. Jesus would surely gather many more thousands
on the way to the Holy City, and His supernatural power would guarantee victory
against any opposition. He could easily
conquer the Herods, and even mighty Rome would be no match for the Son of God. He could bypass the cross and avoid the agony
of having to take the sin of the world upon Himself.”
If
Jesus were only just human He would have fallen to Satan’s temptations a long
time ago, but He was more than human as He was the God/Man filled with the Holy
Spirit and He knew that He could not bypass the cross for indeed that was why
He came to earth. However when He comes
again with power and great glory at the end of the tribulation period with His
saints and angels then that will be the time when He will destroy the revamped
Roman Empire and put Satan into hell for 1000 years, but not at this time will
that happen as He still had the cross loom in front of Him, and that had to be
a great burden on His heart.
As
we think about how Satan could have been behind the crowd to make Him king,
Jesus went up to the mountain to pray.
MacArthur adds “In a sense He did celebrate a victory, but it was over
temptation, not Rome; and He turned His attention to His heavenly Father, whom
He joined in intimate, refreshing communion.
As in the garden, He doubtlessly longed to be restored to the glorious
fellowship He had had with His Father before the world even came into existence
(John 17:5). But He had other things yet
to do.”
It
was near the end of His earthly ministry that Jesus told Peter “Behold, Satan
has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that
your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32).
We know from our study of John, especially we saw in our Lord’s High
Priestly Prayer found in the 17th chapter of John did we see and
know that He was praying for His disciples, but we have to believe that Jesus
prayed for the Twelve many, many times while He was on earth.
Now
by this time it was the second evening of the day which lasted from six to nine
o’clock. The multitudes had been fed
during the earlier evening as seen in Matthew 14:15, which was from three in
the afternoon until six. Now at this time it would have been dark outside as
Jesus was “there alone” on the mountain.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Temptations are something that is seems to me
are very frequent in my life, and for this reason I am thankful that my Lord in
heaven is constantly praying for me to overcome these temptations. I pray that Jesus will continue to pray for
me so that as I go through temptations that I will come forth as wheat as the
chaff will finally be all removed.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to remember and praise the Lord for
praying for me today, and every day.
6/21/2022 8:11 AM
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