SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/9/2022 8:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matthew 16:27-28
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 16:27-28
Message of the verses: “27 "For the
Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and
WILL THEN RECOMPENSE EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. 28 "Truly I say to
you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death
until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.’”
A couple of things I want to say before we get into
looking at these two verses, and the first one is that these are the last two
verses that are in the 16th chapter of Matthew. Second is that John MacArthur entitles this
chapter in his commentary “Promise and Warning Concerning the Second Coming.” I guess that there is one other thing to say
and that is as you look at the other gospels that cover this there is no break
in the chapter, and I have heard pros and cons as far as having a chapter break
at this point of the story that we will be looking at when we begin the 17th
chapter of Matthew, the story of Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.
You
may know that there are more than 1,500 Old Testament prophecies of the coming
of the Messiah, the Christ, but it was not revealed clearly to the saints of
that era in the Old Testament that His coming would be in two separate stages
which are thousands of years apart. The
first coming of Christ was the part when Jesus would come in order to pay the
price for our sins, while the second coming, which is also in two parts, the
rapture and then the literal second coming in order for judgment. MacArthur writes “The central focus of the
New Testament is on Christ’s first coming, but the second coming is also mentioned
or alluded to once in every twenty-five verses, a total of some 320 times.
We
have talked in earlier SD’s that when Jesus came the first time that Israel was
not looking for a suffering Messiah, but a conquering King who would take them
from under the yoke of the Romans. The
Jewish leaders forgot to look at passages from the book of Isaiah and also from
the Psalms as both speak of the suffering Messiah. Now because of their blindness Jesus moved
closer to His time of suffering, He continued to prepare His disciples for what
they all but refused to believe; that is He, the divine Son of Man and the
Messiah, rather than conquering His enemies and then establishing His eternal
kingdom on earth at that time, would first have to die at the hands of those
enemies, and the enemies were actually His people Israel.
MacArthur
concludes this introduction: “Matthew
16:27-17:6 contains one of the great highlights of the Lord’s ministry on
earth. It looks ahead to His coming that
second and last time, the time of His return in exaltation and glory, when all
His enemies will indeed be placed under His feet and He will establish the
long-hoped-for eternal kingdom. As He
introduces this teaching (16:27-28), Jesus gives a promise, a warning, and then
a repeat of the promise.” Those are the
subjects that we will be looking at as we move through these verses which end
chapter 16 of Matthew.
10/9/2022 8:27 AM
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