"The Person Who Receives Discipline" (Matt. 18:15a)

 

SPIIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/31/2022 10:25 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                 Focus:  “The Person Who Receives Discipline”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 18:15a

 

            Message of the verse:  “And if your brother sins,”

 

            The first things we want to talk about is the word brother, and that speaks of any believer, either male or female.  So the one who sins, and this means continually sins and will not confess the fact that he or she is sinning. 

 

            MacArthur writes “The general, unqualified reference to your brother is absolutely inclusive allowing for no exceptions.  Every child of God, whether young or old, man or woman, educated or uneducated, wealthy or poor, leader or follower, is to be confronted when he or she sins.

 

            “Sins is from hamartano, which has the literal meaning of ‘missing the mark’ and is the basic New Testament verb for sin, missing the mark of God’s standards.  Just as the category of the sinner is inclusive, so is the category of sin.  Any sin, by any believer, requires discipline from the church.  All sin is an offense against God’s holiness and corrupts the holiness of His people.  It mars a believer’s fellowship with God and his fellowship with other believers.”

 

            I want to look at this section of verse 15 in the KJV as they add to it:  “15a Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee.”The highlighted portion is what is added and so we need to explain why it is there in the KJV and in other versions of the Bible it is not there.  We can see that these words “against thee” speak of an offense against a fellow believer.  Now when we look at verse 21 which is a question that Peter asks regarding forgiveness of those who sin against us gives support to the inclusion of “against thee,” and does the Lord’s teaching about rebuking and forgiving seen in Luke 17:3-4.  “3 “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4  "And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.’”

 

            I think it best to quote from MacArthur’s commentary at this point so we can best understand about this seemingly question that is brought up here.  “In either case, however, the basic responsibility is the same, because a person can be sinned against both directly and indirectly.  If he is maligned, abused, deceived, cheated, or the like, the sin against him is direct and obvious.  In such a case, the offending brother or sister is not only to be rebuked by the one who is offended but also forgiven if he repents.  The one who is sinned against should approach the offender in a spirit of humility and meekness, and his motive for rebuke should be the restoration of the brother or sister to holiness.  It should never come from a spirit of vindictiveness.  He should manifest a spirit of love and forgiveness even while he is rebuking, and he should be deeply concerned about the spiritual damage being suffered by the brother who sinned and have a genuine desire for him to be restored to holiness and its consequent blessing.”

 

            I remember a guest Pastor who is probably now with the Lord, who came to the church we were attending in Westlake, Ohio.  He told the story of a person who carried around a “yellowed” piece of paper, a receipt that he was cheated out of having to pay for something he should not have had to.  He never would forgive that person who sinned against him, and as far as I remember never confronted him about it.  The truth is that if we are sinned against or sin against a fellow Christian we should go immediately and talk to him about the sin.  That way it can be taken care of right away so that there is again fellowship with the other believer.  Note I have said that if you sin or if you have sinned against that person, either way, and by doing this right away it will not fester and cause greater problems later on.  Ephesians 4:32 tells us “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

 

            MacArthur now talks about what he says is the broader sense:  “But in a broader sense, believers are sinned against by any sin committed by any other believer.  Whenever a believer commits a sin, all other believers are indirectly sinned against.  ‘A little leaven’ does affect all (see 1 Cor. 5:6).  That Jesus here included indirect offenses seems clear from the fact that He makes no mention of forgiveness .  The focus is solely on repentance and restoration.

 

            “Some years ago a man in our church told me he had invited an attorney friend of his to attend the church.  But when he told the friend the churches name the friend said, ‘I’d never go there.  That’s where the most crooked attorney in Los Angeles attends.’  That man’s sin indirectly affected everyone in our congregation and tarnished the whole cause for Christ.”  I remember from the sermon on this section that MacArthur made an announcement about this from the pulpit and asked the man to repent or to leave the service.

 

            Every sin by a believer stains the entire fellowship of believers.  It makes no difference whether the sin is slander, stealing, gossip, sexual immorality, dishonesty, doctrinal error, or any other sin because every sin not dealt with by the offending child of God must be dealt with by the church.  The problem is, and we mentioned this before is that not many churches are doing this, and it causes great trouble in the churches by not doing this.

 

12/31/2022 11:06 AM   

PT-3 "Intro to Matt. 18:15-20)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2022 10:33 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-3 “Intro to Matthew 18:15-20”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 18:15-20

 

            Message of the verses:  “15 "And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16  "But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer. 18 "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.’”

 

            I have to begin by saying that this whole section covered in the 18^th chapter of Matthew has been informative to me but also difficult for me as in some ways it is stepping on my toes a lot, but then when the Lord steps on your toes I think that He is about to lift you up, and to that I look forward to.

 

            We can look through the history of both the Old and New Testament and find that the Lord has always disciplined His people, and He has always instructed His people to discipline themselves.  The Old Testament believers were told not to “reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe His reproof, for whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father, the son in whom he delights” (Pr. 3:11-12).  Human fathers are to discipline their children in order to make them better, in a similar way, a better way, the Lord does with His children.  Now a human parent can tell his child not to do something a hundred times, but if he does not discipline that child when he fails to do it then the rule is all in vain.  They need instruction, and then enforcement, and that enforcement is the discipline given to them when they fail to do the instruction.  Proverbs 13:34 says “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”  Our country has fallen way back with this process and the results can be seen in what is happening to our country. Notice Proverbs 3:12: “For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

 

            John MacArthur writes “After quoting proverbs (3:11-12) mentioned above, the writer of Hebrews says,

 

“7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

 

            While listening to the many sermons from Matthew 18 that MacArthur has preached one of the things that is mentioned more than once and that is that it takes more than preaching in church to get people to do the right things, as it takes discipline from the church to get the job done, and the problem is that disciplining in a church in our country today does not happen very often if at all.  Doing the discipline in church is not easy, it is difficult at best to do it, but it is necessary to do when a person or persons does not repent from sin or sins that they are doing.  I suppose an example could be that a wife or husband is not getting along with each other and one of them begins to befriend a person of the opposite sex and it goes too far.  Confronted with the sin by a person in the church the spouse will say that they are now happy for the first time in a long time and so they don’t want anything to change, they don’t care and keep on sinning.  The outcome of all discipline is restoration, but sometimes that will not happen.  When one person goes and noting happens then two go, and if they make no headway, then the church has to get involved, and if that still does not cause repentance then the person is to be treated like a tax collector, and people did not respect tax-collectors at this time in history from Israel.

 

            As seen in this paragraph above we can see that it is the churches responsibility to keep the church pure.  MacArthur writes, and we will conclude with these two last paragraphs in this section of his commentary:  “It is with the church’s responsibility to keep itself pure that Jesus deals in Matthew 18:15-20.  He is still teaching about the childlikeness of believers, illustrated by the young child He had called to Himself and set before the Twelve (v. 2).  He had declared that a person enters and is considered great in the kingdom by becoming like a little child (vv. 3-4) and that, once in the kingdom, believers are to be protected like little children (vv. 5-9) and cared for like little children (vv. 10-14).  He now declares that they must also be disciplined like little children.

 

            “In verses 15-20 Jesus presents five elements involved in godly discipline of sinning believers:  the person who receives discipline, the person who initiates it, the purpose of it, the process and place for it, and the authority for it.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Discipline is not fun for me or anyone else, but it is necessary.  I think of my Lord taking my punishment on the cross, something that He did not have to do, but because of His great love for me He did it.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To live, with the help of the Spirit of God, a holy life before my God.

 

12/30/2022 11:25 AM

PT-2 "Intro to Matthew 18:15-20)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/29/2022 10:01 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 18:15-20”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 18:15-20

 

            Message of the verses:  “15 "And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 "But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer. 18 "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.’”

 

            I mentioned that we would talk about a section of Scripture from the book of Acts, and chapter 5:1-11, as this story tells about the severe discipline of Ananias and Sapphira.  They were a married couple who had seen what other believers were doing in giving money to the church in Jerusalem.  At that time the money given to the church would be given to the apostles who would use it to care for those who were in need.  The believer would come and lay their money for the church at the feet of the disciples.  This couple had seen what some of the other believers were giving and so they decided to sell some land that they had and give it to the church.  Now I don’t know if they had planned to keep some of the money back or if once they got the money decided to hold some of it back, but that is what they did and then they both lied about it.  In the end both of them died as God killed them for lying to the Holy Spirit.  These people were believers and so they went to heaven but they certainly messed up their rewards by doing what they did.  I can very well think that lying was a thing of the past in the Jerusalem church after this happened.  God disciplined His children, and although I don’t know how many other times this has happened in the church age, I have to believe that it has happened again and again.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The selfishness of Ananias and Sapphira was deplorable, but their great sin was in lying about what they had done, not only to the church but to God.  In this particular case in the early church, God took discipline directly into His own hands and demonstrated before all how sin is to be dealt with by removing the offenders from the church and from the earth!  The purity of the church not only was protected by making God’s people more fearful of sin but also by helping to keep out of the fellowship those who were not true believers (v.  13).”  “But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.”

 

            In the book of Corinthians Paul mentions in the 11^th chapter about some others who had gone to be with the Lord sooner than they may have figured they would because of how they were getting drunk at the communion services.  Let us also look at 1 John 5:16-17 “16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

 

            The truth is that “God has not changed His attitude about sin or about purity.  He is every bit as much concerned for the holiness of His people today as He was when the church was born.  Sin has to be death with or it will destroy both those who practice it and those who tolerate it.  God may still act in supernatural ways to purge the church, but He has primarily given that the responsibility to the church itself.  The church must be ‘self=policing’ with regard to sin.  The horrendous scandals that have tarnished the church recently reflect the abysmal failure of believers to confront sinning leaders and followers.  The word often has had to expose what the church tried to cover up” (John MacArthur.)

 

            Looks like it will take one more SD to finish this very important introduction on Church discipline.

 

12/29/2022 10:27 AM

PT-1 "The Discipline of God's Children" (Matt. 18:15-20)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/28/2022 10:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                 Focus:  PT-1 “Intro to The Discipline of God’s Children”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 18:15-20

 

            Message of the verses:  “15 "And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16  "But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer. 18  "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20 "For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.’”

 

            I want to say that this will be a very interesting subject to look at, and I have no idea how long this will take us to finish looking at these verses, but perhaps you will learn something that you did not know before.

 

            When God made the earth, putting man on it as His very last act of creation, and I am speaking about both man and woman when I say man.  He made mankind perfect in every way including making Adam and Eve holy before Him, having purity of life, and we all know that this was lost in the third chapter of Genesis.  Even though sin had entered the universe it was and still is God’s plan for His people to be holy and that He is grieved by sin of any kind.  We also know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die in our place in order that all those who accept His forgiveness will be born-again being then a part of the family of God.  However there is still the problem with sin as even the Apostle Paul spoke about this in the seventh chapter of Romans where he was saying that he was doing the things that he did not want to do and not doing the things that he wanted to do.  I think that all true born-again believers can understand what Paul went through, but it is still God’s desire that all of His children walk holy before Him.  Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:14-16 “14  As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15  but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16  because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’”

 

            We know that God is extremely concerned about the holiness of His people, thus we also should be concerned too about living a holy life before the Lord.  There is a problem that we see in mot churches in our country and I am talking about those who preach and teach holiness from the Word of God.  The problem is not that the preaching is bad or unscriptural, but that the follow up to the people is not what it is suppose to be.  I remember when I was going to the first church that I went to after becoming a believer, and it took me four years before I went to that church as all I can say is that God was very patient with me, but then His Spirit moved in my heart and the heart of my wife and we joined that church in Westlake, Ohio.  One of the things that I do remember is that there were a number of times when the church had to discipline a few of its members because of un-repented sin.  This is certainly not a fun time, but a necessary time as God’s Word teaches this.  The truth is that this was something that is not done much, if at all in churches today.  I can also remember that once we got another Pastor years later that it seemed to me that whenever he wanted to discipline someone it was to get even or even punish them, which is the exact opposite of what discipline is all about, as discipline it to bring a person or persons back into proper fellowship with those they have harmed and back in a right relationship with the Lord. 

 

            I will conclude this first SD on the intro to these verses with a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary:  “The church has always had need for confronting sins of its people.  During its early days many foreign visitors to Palestine were converted to Christ and decided to stay in or near Jerusalem in order to enjoy the fellowship of believers there.  A large number of native Jewish converts there ostracized from their families and lost their jobs because of their new-found faith.  To help support those needy brothers and sisters, many of whom were virtually destitute, the believers who had property and possession sold them and gave the proceeds to the apostles, who distributed to each, as any had need (Acts 4:35).  That practice was the spontaneous reaction of generous Spirit-filled hearts to meet the practical needs of fellow Christians.”  Ok, many of you reading this know where we are going with this, but we will have to finish this in our next SD, and I think that you will understand why this story from the fourth chapter of Acts is in the introduction to Matthew 18:15-20.

 

12/28/2022 11:28 AM

"Believer's Relation to the Father"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/27/2022 12:21 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                        Focus:  “Believers’ Relation to the Father”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 18:14

 

            Message of the verse:  “14 "Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”

 

            Today we want to look at the third reason believers are not to despise each other, and that is because of their relation to their Father who is in heaven, who joins the Son and the angels in rejoicing over a believers who is restored.  I have said when we began looking at this section that I had never heard or understood that in this section we find out that Jesus is talking about how believers can despise other believers.

 

            The highlighted word “perish” in the Greek is apollumi, and it often carried the idea of total destruction or death, it sometimes, as here referred to nonpermanent ruin or loss.  That is good to know.  MacArthur adds “In Romans 14:15 the word parallels lupeo, you are no longer walking according to love.  Do not destroy (apollumi) with your food him for whom Christ died’ (cf. 1 Cor. 8:11).

 

            Now we move onto the word perish again seeing that this word of which Jesus here speaks relates to spiritual progress in the Christian life.  God the Father does not want a single one of His little ones to be spiritually wounded or marred, even for a brief time.  When His children fall into sin what happens is it destroys their usefulness to Him and to the church, and it undercuts their happiness and their right relationship to Him and to one another.  In other words it breaks fellowship with the Lord and with His children, (other believers).

 

            Let us look at 1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”  It is like the shepherd who searches for the lost sheep until it is found, the Father individually cares for each person who comes to Him through the Son and will see to it that every one of them who becomes wayward eventually will be brought back into the fellowship of His family and His kingdom.

 

            MacArthur talks about William Arnot who “makes the beautiful observation that, ‘If it did not please [God] to get me back, my pleasure would be small.’  It should be great comfort to stumbling believers to know that, when they repent and return, their angels, their Lord Jesus Christ, and their Father who is in heaven will all be overjoyed.”

 

            I know that that is a true statement, and I know that the Lord loves me and desires for me to continue to walk with Him each and every day of my life, however even if I know it is true I have a hard time realizing it from time to time and I think it is because of my humanness. 

 

            MacArthur concludes “For one believer to wound another is to attack the will of God and set himself up as God’s antagonist.  The Lord seeks the spiritual well-being of all His children, and we had better not do less.

            “This section of Matthew speaks powerfully to the church today.  The Body of Christ is filled with believers who look down on their spiritual brothers and sisters treating them with disdain, indifference, and rudeness because they consider them unworthy of special care and ministry.  It is at that very point of the church ‘s sin that it sets itself in opposition to the holy angels, to the Son of God, and to the Almighty Himself.”

 

            This has been a section that has caused me to think, and to pray that the Holy Spirit will not allow me to act in this way towards other believers, and it can only be done by the grace of God and the continued learning from His Word, and the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord to cause me to do a better job in loving other believers, for the cause of Christ.

 

12/27/2022 12:53 PM

PT-3 "Believers Reaction to Christ" (Matt. 18:12-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/26/2022 10:27 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “Believers Reaction to Christ”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 18:12-13

 

            Message of the verses:  “12 "What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 “And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.”

 

            The first thing I want to write is that I forgot to write in the December 24^th SD that I was going to put my Christmas SD on Christmas day, something I wrote a couple of years ago.

 

            Think about this as we look over these two verses, and that is that if a human shepherd can exhibit so much concern for each sheep under his care, how much more does the Lord Jesus Christ who is “the Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant” (Heb. 13:20), care when a single one of His people spiritually goes astray?  Now think about this also that after He fines and then restores it to Himself how much more heavenly rejoicing will happen over it…than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray? 

 

            I really do not believe that this is the kind of rejoicing you want in heaven because you went astray because if you need this kind of restoration over doing something wrong then you will have to go over the troubles of what you have done wrong. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “On another occasion, Jesus used the same parable to teach God’s concern for unbelievers.  ‘I tell you,’ He explained, ‘that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance’ (Luke 15:3-7).

 

            “There is a special joy expressed for the sheep that is found not because it is more valued or loved than the others but because its danger, hardship, and great need elicit special concern from the caring shepherd.  In the same way, when one child in a family is ill, particularly if it is seriously ill, a mother will devote much more time and attention to him than to the other children, often more than to all the rest together.  And when that child finally gets well, the mother does not rejoice for the children who have been healthy all along but for the one who was sick and suffering.  And if the brothers and sisters are loving, they, too, will rejoice in the restoration of their sibling.”  To me this quotation from MacArthur helps us to better understand the parable that Jesus is telling in Matthew’s gospel.

 

            In his commentary John MacArthur reminds us of a headline that took place in the fall of 1987 about a little girl who was not quite two years old who was trapped in an abandoned well shaft in west Texas.  She was finally rescued after a lot of drilling and other means to rescue her and then was taken to the hospital where she received many cards and presents.  Now it was not that she was more precious or worthy than countless other little girls, but that her need at that time was so great.

            Now if the Lord Jesus has such great compassion on all His children and cares for them when they go astray, then we as believers should never come down on them when they fall astray, but should love them like our Lord loves them, and help them as only our Lord can help them.

 

            We have one more section to go over and that comes from verse fourteen which speaks of “Believers’ Relation To The Father.”  Lord willing we will look at this tomorrow.

 

12/26/2022 10:54 AM

             

Merry Christmas

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

                I promised yesterday to write a Christmas greeting on my blog on Christmas Day.

 

            What I have today to say about Christmas has probably already been said before, well at least some of it, but if that is the case then I will say it again.  Christmas, to me, holds mixed feelings in my mind.  I am not one who likes going all out on buying presents just because it is Christmas, but want to remember what Christmas is suppose to be all about.  Now we know that Jesus Christ was probably not born on the 25^th of December, but we do know that He was born, and probably born in the winter months, and I do not know exactly know how the 25^th of December came about as the day we celebrate Christmas.  I suppose a little digging on the internet would answer that question, but I probably will not do that.  Like I say the important thing is that Jesus Christ was born into the world and the first prophecy of Him coming into the world goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, and right after Adam and Eve sinned we read “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."”  God is speaking of Satan in this passage and also He is saying that there will be war between Satan and the offspring of the woman.  “I’m declaring war between you and the Woman, between your offspring and hers. He’ll wound your head, you’ll wound his heel." (Message)” We see in the NASB that God speaks of the “seed of the woman,” and this is the only time we see this in the Word of God.  The seed comes through the man, but there were three differences in the Scriptures when this did not happen that way.  First God created Adam out of the earth, and then God created woman out of Adam’s rib, and then we read that Mary became pregnant through the Holy Spirit and this is where we get the seed of the woman as involved in the birth of Jesus Christ.

 

            Now as we read through the Old Testament we see how the Lord narrows down the line in which the Messiah would come from.  In the book of Matthew we see the bloodline of Jesus through Joseph, and in Luke’s gospel we see the bloodline of Jesus through Mary.  Both Joseph and Mary were descendants of David, but Mary came through the line of Nathan while Joseph came through Solomon.  Luke’s line of Jesus goes all the way back to God, while Matthew’s line only goes back to Abraham.  One of the kings of Judah, Jeconiah had a curse against him and so his line could not be in the line of the Messiah to be King.  As I said Mary came through the line of Nathan, Luke 3:31 “the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,.”   Joseph also came from the line of David and even though Jeconiah was in his line this did not permit Jesus from being the Messiah for He was not born of Joseph but of the Holy Spirit and Mary.

 

            Now as far as the place where Jesus was born and who was there when He was born, it is not like the nativity scenes we see in people’s yards or in their houses.  I read a historic novel a few years ago and the author incorporated into the birth of Jesus a place called Midgal Eder and this place is mentioned in the book of Micah 4:8 where we read “8 "As for you, tower of the flock, Hill of the daughter of Zion, To you it will come-Even the former dominion will come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”  The words “tower of the flock” in the Hebrew is Midgal Eder, and this place was near Bethlehem on the way to Jerusalem and is where the lambs were born who would go to the temple and used for sacrifices.  There was a cave there and many believe that Jesus was born in that cave where these sacrificial lambs were born.  When you think about this it all makes perfect sense.  Now as far as who was there we know that Joseph, Mary, Jesus and later on the shepherds came, but as far as the wise men they did not come and see Jesus until he was near two years old.  They probably came from what was once Babylon and they probably got their information from Daniel who prophesied in his book of the time when the Messiah would die and so they would know when it would be near time for Him to be born and looked for Him following a star.  They first came to see Herod and asked him where the Messiah would be born and then went to find Him, giving gifts to Him and were then told in a dream not to go back to tell Herod.  Herod then had all male boys from the age of two years old and younger killed as was prophesied by Jeremiah. 

 

            Okay so the story of Jesus’ birth is probably much different than what we use to celebrate it in our world today as I tried to bring out, but the point of all of this is that God was in control of all the things which would bring His Son into the world to fulfill what His plans were for Him to accomplish, and He accomplished all of them, and we can praise the Lord on this Christmas Day that He did accomplish all of them.  Jesus told His mother while in the temple that He came to do His Father’s will and at the end of His life, while hanging on a cross He said “It is finished.”  What was finished was His becoming sin for us so that we could receive His righteousness and have it credited to our account so that when the Father looks at those who have received this free gift of salvation He will see Jesus Christ and not our sinfulness.

 

            The all time very best gift a person can receive on Christmas Day or any other day is to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to confess that they are a sinner in need of a Savior and find out that Jesus paid it all, and receive Him as Savior and Lord.

 

            Merry Christmas to all!

12/25/2020 10:41 AM  As I was having a little trouble sleeping last night I was thinking about this SD that I was going to put onto my blog and also my FB story.  What I was thinking about was as one reads the story in the Bible about the birth of Jesus, perhaps they think that because of the reason that Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem that all of the inns were filled and so they had to find a farmer who had a barn and that is where Jesus was born.  I truly believe that the place where Jesus was born was certainly in the plan of God; for God was in control of all that His Son would be doing while on planet earth.  Why would not the Messiah who is later called “our Passover” and also we read the following in two places in the gospel of John “Joh 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  Joh 1:36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"  It was no accident of Jesus being born in Bethlehem as the OT says he would be born there and so why would not the “Lamb of God” who is our “Passover” be born in the cave where the Passover Lambs were born?  12/25/2020 10:49 AM

I, Jacob Howard, wrote Dr. Charlie Dyer, who is the speaker on the Land and the Book Radio, a question about Midgal-Eder, mentioned in Micah 4:8. This was Dr. Dyer’s response.

 

Jacob,

 

Thank you for your e-mail, and thanks as well for your kind words! Denny and I both appreciate the privilege God has given us to serve Him in this way. You have encouraged us both!

 

As far as Midgal Eder is concerned, there is no universal identification of the site. But I do believe it was a real site. The best thing I’ve read on the subject is from Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. (You can find his complete work online at Google Books.) I’ll include his quotation here, and then I’ll follow it with a few observations. (I’ll also highlight the key point he makes in the quote.)

 

But as we pass from the sacred gloom of the cave [i.e., he was just talking about the birth of Jesus in a cave] out into the night, its sky all aglow with starry brightness, its loneliness is peopled, and its silence made vocal from heaven. There is nothing now to conceal, but much to reveal, though the manner of it would seem strangely incongruous to Jewish thinking. And yet Jewish tradition may here prove both illustrative and helpful. That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction. Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Midgal Eder, “the tower of the flock.” This Midgal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheep ground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town, on the road to Jerusalem. A passage in the Mishnah leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for Temple-sacrifices, and, accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds. The latter were under the ban of Rabbinism, on account of their necessary isolation from religious ordinances, and their manner of life, which rendered strict legal observance unlikely, if not absolutely impossible. The same Mishnaic passage also leads us to infer, that these flocks lay out all the year round, since they are spoken of as in the fields thirty days before the Passover—that is, in the month of February, when in Palestine the average rainfall is nearly greatest. Thus, Jewish tradition in some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the Messiah from that Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Temple-flocks all the year round. Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak.

 

—Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, pp. 186-87

 

If Edersheim is correct (and I believe he is), the location for Midgal Eder would be north of Bethlehem and near the old road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. (That road is the old “Hebron road” one drives on between Jerusalem and Bethlehem today!) I believe this puts the location  somewhere between the Jewish kibbutz of Ramat Rachel and Bethlehem, probably just to the west of Har Homa. There used to be an actual sheepfold in this area where I would take our groups but, sadly, it has been covered over by the modern road that now goes to Har Homa.

 

A key point here. Edersheim indicates that Migdal Eder was an actual spot, but he is not saying it was a town or village. Rather, the name means “watchtower of the flock” which seems to identify it as a specific pasture area for sheep. And the sheep that grazed here were those specifically destined for Temple sacrifice. In that sense the shepherds keeping watch over the temple sacrifices were the ones to whom God announced the birth of the ultimate “sacrificial lamb.”

 

I’m attaching a screen shot from Google Earth that might be of help in identifying the location for Midgal Eder. Note that Ramat Rachel is at the top of the picture and Bethlehem is at the bottom. The road running along the left side of the picture is the old Hebron Road, and Homat Shemu’el/Har Homa is just to the right of center in the picture. Based on Edersheim’s description, I would place Migdal Eder almost in the center of the picture…north of Bethlehem, just to the west of Har Homa, and east of the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Since the word means “tower of the flock” it is likely a high spot in this area where sheep would graze. The hills right around (or right at) Har Homa are probably the best possible location.

 

I hope this is helpful!

 

Charlie

 

 

PT-2 "Believers' Reaction to Christ" (Matt. 18:12-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/24/2022 10:39 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Believers’ Relation to Christ”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 18:12-13

 

            Message of the verses:  “12 “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 “And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.”

 

            I want to begin this SD by talking about how the shepherd knew that one of his sheep was missing.  It is possible that because he knew his sheep so well that he could have sensed that one of them was missing without checking the entire number of sheep.  As we think about John 10:1-18 we can see from that section that the shepherd knew his sheep intimately, both as a flock and also individually.  MacArthur adds “He therefore instinctively knew when something was wrong or when one of them was missing.  He was also an expert at tracking lost sheep, and love for his defenseless and utterly dependent flock would not allow him to give up until he had found and rescued the one that was missing.  The loyal shepherd would fight off wolves, bears, lions, thieves, and any other threat to the sheep.  When an errant animal was found the shepherd would pour olive oil over any wounds or scratches and he would bind up a broken leg.  He would then tenderly place the sheep on his shoulders and carry it back to the field.”

 

            Now we can see from this parable that Christ’s love is illustrated in that of the shepherd that He certainly is, and that love is personal and also individual for each of His sheep, (that all of His believers).  Our Lord is as much aware and concerned when a poor believer in the slums wanders from Him as when a respected church leader stumbles into sin.

 

            There is another illustration that this parable illustrates, and that is the truth that the Lord’s care for His people is very patient.  He is infinitely patient with their self-willed, sinful foolishness and He will not give up on a single one of them, even though that person might be the least promising and least faithful of all His children.  I truly believe this, and yet being a human being I have to say that it is difficult to really understand it even though I have seen it in my own life many times.

 

            MacArthur writes “We also see here God’s seeking care.  He does not wait for a lost sheep to return on its own but personally goes as far into the wilderness as necessary to find and rescue it.  The Savior is infinitely more anxious and determined for restoration than is even the most repentant believer.”

 

            Lord willing we will finish this section in our next SD.

 

12/24/2022 10:59 AM

PT-1 "Believers' Reaction to Christ" (Matthew 18:12-13)

 SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/23/2022 2:34 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “Believer’s Relation to Christ”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 18:12-13

 

            Message of the verses:  “12 “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 "And if it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.”

 

            Now as I read from MacArthur’s commentary something that I would have never thought about and that is that in this section of two verses we see something that is implied, but not stated in this passage, a second reason believers are not to despise each other in their relation to Jesus Christ, and that is who I don’t believe I have ever thought about from these two verses.  Let us look again back at verse five:  “"And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.”  So every true believer—no matter how you, immature, unfaithful, unattractive, or deprived—is one with Jesus Christ, purchased with His own precious blood.  Therefore, to look down on any Christian and consider him to be worthless and useless is to despise Christ Himself, and this is something that seems to me has been the theme of the verses we have been looking at for a while now.  Do something to a believer and you are doing it to Christ and it is especially to have a believer do something to another believer that is sinful.  When you look at another believer as being worthless and useless is to despise Christ Himself and we know that is wrong.  “The one who listens to you listens to Me,” is what Jesus told the seventy when He commissioned them, “and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent me” (Luke 10:16). 

 

            We don’t have to look to far in the NT to find out what the Scribes and Pharisees thought about uneducated people who were of the lower class.  They thought they were better than these people and that is why they thought that they were better than Jesus Christ and His true apostles.  I have to believe that this is how many of the leaders in our country also feel about us “normal” people, (only the democrats do this.) 

 

            What we see in this parable is that gracious, divine concern that Jesus is illustrating here in this parable of the lost sheep.  What do you think? Is how this parable starts and it was a common phrase used by teachers to get their students to ponder carefully about what was being taught.  I suppose that this phrase is still being used today in schools.

 

            As we look at those that Jesus chose to be His disciples none of them were shepherds, but we know that Moses was for a while, and David was for a while, and so what we see here is that even though the disciples were not shepherds they were all familiar with shepherds and their ways.  MacArthur writes “This is a hypothetical story, Jesus told of a man who was a shepherd and who had a hundred sheep, one of which went astray.  In the rugged terrain of Palestine there were many ravines, gullies, caves, and crevices into which a sheep could wander or fall.  ‘When a shepherd discovers a sheep is missing,’ Jesus said, ‘does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is missing?’”

            I think we will stop there so we don’t get into the middle of the story and then stop.  I want to do this all in one SD so we all can get the point.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to say that I am still a little bit confused as to how Jesus is talking about despising a brother in this story but perhaps I will get better informed when I continue looking at this story.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Continue to trust the Lord as we continue to go through this winter storm.

 

12/23/2022 3:58 PM