PT-1 "Intro to 'Compassion for the Outsider"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/30/2022 8:52 AM

 

My Worship Time                                      Focus:  PT-1 “Intro to ‘Compassion for the Outsider’”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 15:29-39

 

            Message of the verses:  “29 And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up to the mountain, He was sitting there. 30 And great multitudes came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, dumb, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them, 31  so that the multitude marveled as they saw the dumb speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel. 32 And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, "I feel compassion for the multitude, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not wish to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way." 33 And the disciples said to Him, "Where would we get so many loaves in a desolate place to satisfy such a great multitude?" 34 And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few small fish." 35 And He directed the multitude to sit down on the ground; 36  and He took the seven loaves and the fish; and giving thanks, He broke them and started giving them to the disciples, and the disciples in turn, to the multitudes. 37 And they all ate, and were satisfied, and they picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, seven large baskets full. 38 And those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children. 39 And sending away the multitudes, He got into the boat, and came to the region of Magadan.

 

            A couple of things that I want to say before discussing the introduction to this rather long section of Scripture, and first is that once we complete this entire section then we will have completed looking at the second of four commentary books that John MacArthur wrote on the Gospel of Matthew.  It is no secret that I like listening to his sermons and reading his commentaries in order to better understand what is written in the New Testament.  I have stated that the reason that I like learning from his commentaries is because they are deeper than other New Testament Commentaries that I have read.  Second what we will be looking at here is very similar to the feeding of the 5000 which we studied earlier, with the exception that Jesus is now feeding Gentiles, but does it is very similar manner as He fed the 5000, so there are some deeper meanings that we will be looking at.  Let me first begin with a quotation.

 

“Alfred Edersheim, the great scholar - Jewish scholar - says ‘the Lord ended each phase of His ministry with a feeding. He ended the ministry in Galilee with the feeding of the 5,000, He ended the ministry in the gentile area with the feeding of the 4,000, and He ended the Judean ministry before His death on the cross with the feeding of His own in the upper room, and the Lord always leaves people fed.’”

 

            Now I will quote the very first paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary and then that will end up our short SD for today.  I still have some work on my Sunday school lesson for tomorrow, a lesson that comes from the last several Spiritual Diaries that we have been looking at over the past week or so, the teaching about the Gentile woman who had the demon- possessed child.  I have been teaching through the book of Hebrews for the last year or so and am now in the eleventh chapter, the “faith chapter,” and we saw in our series of SD that were about this woman and what she went through that Jesus told her that she had great faith, which certainly goes along with the people who are spoken of in Hebrews chapter eleven.

 

            “The God of Scripture is a God of compassion.  He suffers with people; He feels their pain and their sorrow and seeks to alleviate it, because He deeply cares for their welfare and happiness.  John 3:16 could be translated, ‘God had such compassion on the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’  It is God’s compassion for man that, from the time of the fall, has offered the way back to Him.  Jeremiah declared, ‘The Lord’s lovingkindness indeed never cease, for His compassion never fail’ (Lam. 3:22).  The Authorized Version of that verse reads, ‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.’  The Lord’s compassion restricts his judgment and extends His mercy, giving fallen mankind opportunity to repent and be saved.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am so very thankful that the God that I serve has compassion on me, something that I don’t deserve.  I am also so thankful that the Lord I serve went through suffering in order to pay the price for my salvation and knows when I suffer and has compassion on me when that happens.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust the Lord to be able to teach a very small Sunday school class tomorrow, and that my thoughts will be clear and that the Holy Spirit will cause me to teach the things that He desires for the people there to be fed from His Word.

 

7/30/2022 9:18 AM