SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/24/2022 10:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Protest of Christ”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
16:23a
Message of the verse: “But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me;”
We have been talking about how Satan was the one who
caused Peter to say what he said to Jesus, and the fact that this happened
after a great victory when Peter stated that Jesus was the Messiah that God had
sent into the world. So it was Satan who
put the rebuke in Peter’s mind as the Father had put the confession in his mind. MacArthur adds “Whether by obsession,
oppression, or simply by supernatural influence, Satan managed to prompt Peter
to oppose Christ’s way and try to lure Jesus into disobeying God’s will.” There is no mention in the text how this
temptation came about, but it does give the source, Satan. We see that Peter succumbed and found himself
opposing the very plan of God in the very same way that Satan did in the
wilderness, which we looked at in our last SD.
Peter found himself speaking for Satan, but at the time I am certain
that he did not realize this until, perhaps when Jesus rebuked him.
We know that Satan knew that if Jesus went to the cross
that it would stem defeat for him. I
know that in this world we live in we have a hard time in realizing that Satan
is a defeated foe. I have heard it said
that Satan is like a chicken who just had his head cut off and when that
happens a chicken can still run around even though the chicken is dead. Not sure how good of an example that this
is? It is because those who are
unbelievers that they are spiritual children of the devil as Jesus explained in
John 8:44 as He was talking to the scribes and Pharisees. Paul writes the following to the Corinthians: “For the word of
the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God.” “but we
preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,”
(1 Cor. 1:18, 23). The only path of mans
deliverance from darkness into the Light is through the cross and Satan knows
this, and that is why he was trying so hard to keep Jesus from going to the
cross, but Jesus going to the cross was God’s plan and Satan could not stop
it. MacArthur adds “After Christ died on
the cross, Satan tried to keep Him dead; but the grave had no power over Him,
just as it would have no power over His church (Matt. 16:18), the redeemed
fellowship of those who put their trust in Him.”
We can see that the temptation to
avoid the cross was a real temptation to Christ, because He knew the cross
meant inconceivable agony to Him. Psalm
22 gives us a picture of this agony that Christ went through. This temptation culminated in the Garden of
Gethsemane where we actually read of Christ sweating drops of blood. I have read that this can happen to a person,
but in order for that to happen one has to be extremely stressed. “Bloody sweating is
called
Now it was because
Peter had taken the side of Satan, he became a stumbling block to Christ. MacArthur explains “Stumbling block is from skandalon, a word originally used of an
animal trap, in particular the part where the bait was placed. The term eventually came to be used of luring
a person into captivity or destruction.
Satan was using Peter to set a trap for Jesus.” Michael Card has a song by that name. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wf8OGTqiSw This is the youtube site to listen to this
song.
9/24/2022 10:57 AM
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