SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/21/2022 9:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Continue
Looking at Matt. 18:1-4”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 At that time the
disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?" 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you
are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven. 4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in
the kingdom of heaven.”
I
said that we would talk about the child that Jesus called to himself, and the
word in the Greek is Paidion and this
identifies a very young child, sometimes even an infant. I think that it is fair to say that this
child must have been old enough to be able to run to Jesus after He called the
child to Himself. We have talked earlier
that this gathering may have taken place at Peter’s house as that is where we
think that Jesus stayed while ministering at Capernaum. If that were the case
the child may have belonged to Peter’s family and already been well known to
Jesus. I guess this all makes sense but
not sure how factual it is. So in any
case, he readily responded and allowed himself to be taken up into Jesus’ arms
as seen in Mark 9:36. We know that Jesus
loved children, and that children loved Him.
So Jesus was sitting before the disciples holding this small child in
His arms, and so this was a beautiful setting in which to teach them profound
lessons about the childlikeness of believers.
In
our introduction to this section we mentioned that this entire chapter was
lessons for the disciples and that would make them lessons for us also. In verse three we see the essence of the
first lesson: "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become
like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” MacArthur adds “That is an absolute, and
far-reaching requirement of ultimate importance. Entrance into Christ’s kingdom demands childlikeness. There is no other way to receive the grace of
salvation than as a child.
The
kingdom of heaven, a phrase Matthew uses some thirty-two times is synonymous
with the kingdom of God. It has become
common for Jews at the end of the Old Testament era, and especially during the interestamental
period, to substitute out of reverence the word heaven for the Hebrew tetragrammaton (YHWH), God’s covenant name
(often rendered as Yahweh, or Jehovah).
Used in that way, heaven was simply another way of saying God. Both phrases refer to the rule of God, kingdom
of heaven emphasizing the sphere and character of His rule, and kingdom of God
emphatically pointing to the ruler Himself.
God rules His kingdom with heavenly principles and heavenly blessings
and in heavenly power, majesty, and glory.
Entering the kingdom means coming under the sovereign rule of God.”
I
have a couple of more paragraphs to quote from MacArthur’s commentary, paragraphs
that are very important for us all to understand. Perhaps you may already understand what will
be written, but if that is the case it is a good reminder.
“Our
Lord is talking directly about entering God’s kingdom by faith, through
salvation that will result in future millennial blessing and eternal
glory. The phrase ‘enter the kingdom of
heaven’ is used three times in the book of Matthew (see also 7:21; 19:23-24)
and in each case refers to personal salvation.
It is the same experience as entering into life (18:8) and entering into
the joy of the Lord (25:21).
“The
fact that a person must enter the kingdom assumes he is born outside of it
under the rule of Satan and that he is not naturally a heavenly citizen under the
rule of God. The purpose of the gospel
is to show men how they may enter the kingdom and become its citizens, moving
from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col.
1:13). It is God’s desire to have men
come into His kingdom and He does not wish ‘for any to perish but for all to
come to repentance’ (2 Pet.3:9). The
purpose of Christ’s ministry and the ministries of John the Baptist and the
apostles was to call people to the kingdom.
That is still the supreme task of the church.
“The
central focus of Matthew’s gospel is to draw men and women into the kingdom
through faith in Jesus Christ, and that is doubtlessly one of the reasons the
Holy Spirit placed this book at the beginning of the New Testament. Throughout his gospel, Matthew carefully and
systematically presents the components of genuine belief.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It is good to go over exactly what happened
to me when I became a born again believer in Jesus Christ almost 49 years
ago. I certainly did not realize all
that happened to me then and so it is good to go over this in my SD for today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I do have faith that the Lord is suing these
Spiritual Diaries that go onto my two blogs each day and are read by somewhere
around 100 persons per day in many different countries. I believe that the Lord called me to write
these Spiritual Diaries each day way back in eternity past as this is a part of
what Ephesians 2:10 speaks of, and have spoken to my heart on many occasions.
11/21/2022 10:40 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment