SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/19/2022 10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Plan of God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
16:21
Message of the
verse: “21
From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and
suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and be raised up on the third day.”
I think that it is fair to say that
there have been hints by our Lord before this to show the disciples that He
would have to die, but in this statement in verse 21 Jesus Christ began to show
His disciples some deeper and more difficult truths about His divine plan and
work. This statement was not a hint of
what was going to happen, but a direct statement of what was going to happen to
Him and where it was going to happen to Him.
Here is an example of a hint that He gave to His disciples found in
Matthew 12:40 ““For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of
the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.” He also said in
John 12:7 “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
John MacArthur writes about the word
“must” which I have highlighted in verse 21:
The must of which Jesus spoke was not that of human devotion to a great
local but a divine imperative and absolute necessity. God had no backup or alternative plan. This must came thundering out of
eternity. It was the essential,
unalterable plan of God set in motion before the foundation of the world.” This is a
very important word for us to understand about what God’s plan was, and had
been as was stated before the world began.
I truly cannot say that I understand this as far as before the world
began, but I certainly do believe it as it happened just like the plan was
devised by God in eternity past.
Now we will look at four things that made this plan
necessary. The first one is human sin,
for which the Messiah had to give His life as the penalty in mans stead, as “a
ransom for many” found in Matthew 20:28.
Next was the divine requirement that, “without the shedding of blood
there is no forgiveness” as seen in Hebrews 9:22. Third was the divine decree of God’s
sovereign foreknowledge as seen in Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 1:4-5. Fourthly was the prophetic promise that the
Messiah must die as seen in Psalm 16:22 and Isaiah 53. The plan of God is not subject to change. The plan can only be accepted or rejected.
In verse 21 we see that Jesus mentions four stages or
phases of that divine plan which He had come to fulfill, four things that He
must do before it would be completed.
As I mentioned this word “must” is very important and the
first must was for Him to go to Jerusalem.
I think that it is true that there were many other roads that Jesus
could have taken, but the road to Jerusalem was the one that He must take in
order to fulfill the plan of God. Jesus
could not have been the Savior of mankind, no matter how many more people that
He would have healed or how much more truth He would have taught. He had to go to the city of sacrifice, the
one that the Lord set up to offer all the sacrifices, the city of David where
the Temple was built on the direct spot where Abraham was going to offer his
son Isaac. The place where the plague
was stopped after David sinned in numbering the people where the Angel of the
Lord met him and where David bought the land and offered a sacrifice to the
Lord when He stopped the plague. Yes
Jerusalem had much history before Jesus arrived to offer Himself as a sacrifice
for the sins of the world, for my sins that gives me eternal life. It was here in Jerusalem that where Jesus who
was the Passover Lamb would offer Himself as payment for sins “once for all” as
seen in Hebrews 7:27, for no other sacrifice would ever be needed again for sin
as Jesus paid it all.
Lord willing we will continue looking at this first thing
that Jesus must do in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that Jesus chose to go to Jerusalem to die for me, to save me so that I will
spend eternity with Him. I am certainly
looking forward to the sound of the trumpet so that I can be with my Lord in
the air and then go to Him to heaven where I will be able to serve Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Lord will keep me close to Him
through His Spirit and His Word today, and remember the spiritual armor that I
can use whenever I am tempted.
9/19/2022 11:03 AM
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