SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/23/2022 10:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Setting”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 15:21
Message of the
verse: “21
And Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and
Sidon.”
We have been talking about how it is
that the Gentiles of Jesus’ day seemed to have less trouble understanding who
He was as compared to the Jews, and this should have been the opposite, but
because of the cult like teaching of the scribes and Pharisees this was true,
to their great shame.
MacArthur writes “But most of the
native Gentiles in and near Palestine were less religiously and intellectually
proud than their Jewish neighbors. They
had long since lost their military and commercial power as well as much of
their religious and cultural heritage.
Their pagan religious systems had repeatedly failed them and not had
little influence on their living. They
were empty, in need, and open to help.
Jesus had told the Jews of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum that if
Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom had experienced a revelation of God’s power such as they
had been witnessing, those Gentile cities would have repented and been spared
judgment (Matt. 11:21-23).” Like I
said, this is a very bad commentary on the Jews of Jesus’ day.
We have talked about what Jesus’
first priority was and that was to minister to God’s people, Israel, and to
reveal Himself as their Messiah and then to offer them the kingdom; but Jesus
extended Himself to open hearts and never refused a person of any race or
culture who came to Him in faith. It is
believed that the Lord taking His disciples to the Gentile region of Tyre and
Sidon must have been very refreshing for them because of first of all the
climate was better, a bit cooler, and second was that they would not have to
put up with the Jewish rulers who wanted to kill Him. As far as the people they were more open to
what Jesus had to say. These people were in darkness, but many anxiously sought
for the light as John spoke of in John 1:9-11.
It made no difference as to whether
Jew or Gentile, the person who approached Jesus with true faith and humility
was always received, and I certainly know that this is true. The person who came with and empty but open
heart left with a filled heart, while the one who came with a filled and closed
heart left with nothing. Here is what Jesus
declared in Matt. 11:28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I
will give your rest.” Then in John 6:37
He promised “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
MacArthur concludes this section by
writing: “The gospel came through the
Jews (John 4:22) and first to the Jews, but it was never intended to be only
for them. The gospel ‘is the power of
God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the
Greek’ (Rom. 1:16). The Great Commission
was to ‘make disciples of all the nations’ (Matt. 28:19), beginning with
Jerusalem but reaching ‘even to the remotest part of the earth’ (Acts
1:8). Israel was the channel through
which the gospel would be carried to the entire world.”
Ever since the Lord opened my heart
to believe He put a great love in my heart for the Jewish people.
7/23/2022 10:52
AM
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