SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/28/2022 7:53 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “The Examination”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
16:13b-15
Message of the verses: “He asked his
disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14 And they
said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah
or one of the prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that
I am?’”
The words “Son of Man” are used some eighty times in
the New Testament making it the most common designation that Jesus has for
Himself. The Jews clearly knew what He
meant by calling Himself “Son of Man” as it is a title for the Messiah found Daniel
7:13 “"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of
heaven One like a Son of
Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented
before Him.” This title emphasizes our
Lord’s humanness and so the Jews did not like using it for they, for most of
them did not and still do not believe that Jesus is their Messiah, thus their
God, as they are mostly blinded to this truth.
One day during one of the very last judgments found in the book of
Revelation their eyes will be opened and they will understand who Jesus Christ
really is as they will look on Him whom they have pierced and realize that they
had killed their Messiah by crucifying Him some 2000 years earlier. Jesus did prefer this name to focus on the
humiliation and submission of His first coming and His work of sacrificial, substituionary
atonement.
MacArthur
writes “Jesus priority ministry in the world was to reveal Himself, to teach
and to demonstrate who He was. He
therefore began the examination by asking His disciples…Who do people say that
the Son of Man is?’ The people to whom
the Lord referred were the Jews, God’s chosen people, to whom the Messiah was
sent (Rom. 1:16; cf. John 4:22).” “For I
am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” “"You worship what you do not know; we
worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”
We know that Jesus knew the answers to the questions
that He was asking, but He wanted the Twelve to think very carefully about those
popular perceptions. Jesus was not
really concerned about the opinions of the unbelieving and hypocritical scribes
and Pharisees, some of whom had even accused Him of being in league with Satan
as seen in Matthew 10:25 and 12:24, and when it happened in 12:24 our Lord had
pretty much given up in telling them who He was and began to speak about the future
in parables. Jesus now was rather asking
about the thoughts of those who looked on Him positively, although uncertainly,
and who recognized Him to be more than an ordinary religious leader. After they had heard His preaching and seen
His miracles He wanted to know what their final verdict about the Son of Man was.
8/28/2022 8:15 AM
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