SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/6/2022 11:09 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “The
Principle”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 18:5
Message of the verse: “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;”
It was because that I was sick for the last couple of
weeks that I did not do my Spiritual Diaries last week and so as am beginning
to feel better I began walking again and while I walk I listen to sermons, and
I listened to the sermon that John MacArthur preached on Matthew 18:5-9
yesterday. I needed to go over this sermon
again as I suppose the older you get the fact is that you do not retain the
information that you could when you were younger. Now I promised to go over the word “receives”
as we begin this SD.
MacArthur writes “Receives” is from dechomai, which means to deliberately and readily take something or
someone to oneself. The term was often
used of welcoming honored guests and meeting their needs with special attention
and kindness. Jesus’ primary point here
is that the way a person, believer or unbeliever, treats Christians is the way
he treats Jesus Christ. When anyone
welcomes with an open heart a Christian as an honored guest and friend, he
welcomes Christ as his guest and friend.
When he treats any Christian with tenderness and kindness, he treats
Christ in the same way.”
Now as I was listening to the sermon yesterday and this
section from the fifth verse I have to say that if I knew this, and I probably
did, that it had new meaning to my heart.
To think that if a person, believer or non-believer treats me or any
other believer wrongly because of Jesus Christ that no matter what they would
do to me or any believer they are doing to Jesus Christ, and one day those
unbelievers will have to answer for what they have done.
Let us look at an example of this teaching that comes
from the 25th chapter of Matthew, a chapter that speaks of the
Tribulation period that has yet to come, but will come, and in my opinion will
come soon.
31 "But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and
all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “All the
nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one
another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put
the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say
to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was
hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me
something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you
visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord,
when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something
to drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked,
and clothe You? 39 ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40
“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that
you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them,
you did it to Me.’”
In
the next verses Jesus talks to the unbelievers who did nothing for any of the
believers and He tells them the same thing as we see in verse forty.
Believers
are to receive one another with tenderness, care, kindness, and love, opening
up their hearts to welcome fellow believers no matter who they are. I know that sometimes this is a difficult
thing to do, and we will certainly need a great deal of grace in order to do
this, but that is what we are to do, and in doing this believers will embrace
the Lord Jesus Christ who lives in them.
We are to care for each other like precious children as Jesus was
illustrating by having a child on His lap while teaching this section of
verses. This is a vital message to the
church, especially in the times we are living in now.
12/6/2022 11:31 AM
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