SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/24/2022 10:12 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “They Are Taught By The Lord”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 16:5-12
Message of the verses: ““5 And the
disciples came to the other side and had forgotten to take bread. 6 And Jesus
said to them, "Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
Sadducees." 7 And they began to discuss among themselves, saying, "It
is because we took no bread." 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said,
"You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you
have no bread? 9 “Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the
five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? 10 “Or the seven loaves of the
four thousand, and how many large baskets you took up? 11 “How is it that you
do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of
the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." 12 Then they understood that
He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.”
We
begin with a quotation from the Apostle Paul, from 1 Cor. 2:2-5 “2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much
trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive
words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the
wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”
The focus is the highlighted verses, 4-5. Paul was writing as God’s apostle so Paul’s
word was God’s Word, not human wisdom but divine. “For our gospel did not come to you in words
only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1
Thess. 1:5). Paul’s life like ours
should be done in the power of the Holy Spirit and not at all bragging about
what the Lord does through us, but just being obedient to His call.
We
have to go back for a moment to Jesus’ answer to a question posed by His
disciples after Jesus began to speak to the crowds in parables, and they
wondered why. He answered and said to
them, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it has not been granted’” (Matt. 13:10-11). I think that you remember that just before
the Lord began to use parables that the Jewish leaders were accusing Him of
doing His miracles in the power of Satan, and this was pretty much the last
straw for them. Most of the people who
actually heard Jesus speak were probably in it for the miracles that He was
doing, and just hung around for the preaching.
We know some came to know Him as their Savior and Lord, but many did
not. We see after His resurrection 120
believers in the upper room waiting for Pentecost to come. I’m sure there must have been more believers,
but not many more. Jesus explained While
seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they
understand…For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears
they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes lest they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and
return, and I should heal them” (vv. 13-15).
Then Jesus said to the twelve “Blessed are your eyes, because they see;
and your ears, because they hear (v. 16).
The difference was not in the innate ability of the disciples but in
their willingness to be taught by God.
They, too, were spiritually blind, but through their faith the Lord
enabled them to see. I have to say that
certainly was the same for me as I was blind, but now I see, thanks to the
effectual call of God’s Holy Spirit.
John
MacArthur quotes some Bible verses: “Things
which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the
heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him,’ Paul wrote, quoting
Isaiah. ‘For to us God revealed them
through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God…Now
we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God,
that we might know the things freely given to us by God’ (1 Cor. 2:9-10, 12,
cf. Isa. 64:4; 65:17).”
I
think it best to take one more day to finish this section and then we will be
looking on Friday as “The Supreme Confession” found in Matt. 16:13-17.
8/24/2022 10:37 AM
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