SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/20/2022 8:03 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2 “Entering as a Child”
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.”
The
disciples of Jesus had heard that He was speaking about humility, but they have
not accepted it, and they also had heard but not accepted what He had been
teaching about the kingdom. This is a
similar reaction to what Isaiah was speaking about in Isaiah 6:9 “He (God)
said, "Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’”
The disciples were listing but not perceiving, and looking but not understanding.
Jesus
had spoken to them three times about His impending death and resurrection, but
they just did not want to hear about it.
I know the feeling as there have been three times in my Christian life
when the pastor that I was sitting under left, two times because he was
retiring, and this last time because he was taking a different job, actually
becoming the president of a Mission Agency.
I am not sure what the Lord is teaching me, but I do know that I miss our
former Pastor very much. I had lunch
with him last Friday and told him that I missed having him leading our church.
Now
as for the disciples several months after this lesion in Capernaum, their
selfish ambition was still very evident.
Probably at her son’s instigation, the mother of James and John asked
Jesus, “Command that in You kingdom these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your
right and one on Your left” (Matt. 20:20-21).
We see in verse 24 that the other disciples were indignant.
I
do believe that this kind of behavior was hurtful to the Lord Jesus, as it did
not stop but even on the last day of His life, before He was crucified that the
disciples were still arguing about their own greatness (Luke 22:24). Their insensitivity and selfishness is thus
demonstrated as all the more sinful because it occurred at times when Jesus was
speaking of His own suffering and death.
Perhaps
the other disciples were jealous of Peter, the one who walked on the water, the
one who went on the mountain with Him along with John, and then the one whom
Jesus had to discipline telling him to “get behind me Satan.” Perhaps the other disciples were thinking
that after that they had a chance to become Jesus number one disciple. All I can say that as you look at the book of
Acts after the Holy Spirit came upon them that things finally did change.
John
MacArthur writes “The teaching here is desperately needed in the church today,
where selfish ambition is widespread and obligation to perform our duty to
fellow children of God is routinely ignored.
“Like
all of us, the disciples needed repeated lesions in humility, and here Jesus
used a child as His illustration. And He
called a child to Himself and set him before them.”
We will look more about who this child was, the age
mostly in our next SD.
11/20/2022 8:30 AM
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