SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/20/2023
9:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “More of the Sufferings of Jesus”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:17-19
Message of the verses: 17 As Jesus was
about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by
themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 "Behold, we are going up to
Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and
scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and will hand Him over to the
Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He
will be raised up.’”
I want to continue quoting from a sermon by John MacArthur
on the subject of the sufferings of Jesus.
I suppose that when I am done quoting from this sermon and I move onto
looking at verses 18b-19 that some of the things will be similar to what is in
this quotation, but I just think that it is a great thing for all of us to
better understand the sufferings of our Lord.
“So
you have the plan of the sufferings and you have the prediction of His
sufferings. Now that takes me to the heart of this passage which I’d like to
call “the proportion of sufferings.” I don’t know that I’ve ever really thought this through to the
extent that I did in looking at this passage; but the thing that hit me as I
read over and over this little section of three verses was how in detail He
talked about His suffering. It seemed more detailed than any other time
that Jesus ever spoke about this. And I began to think about His sufferings,
and tried to look through the Word of God and see what I could learn.
“The
first thing I found out was that when referring to sufferings, using that word,
it appears in the plural. For example, in 2 Corinthians 1:5 it mentions the sufferings of Christ.
In Philippians 3:10, the fellowship of His sufferings. First Peter 1:11, the sufferings. First Peter 4:13, the sufferings. Luke 24:26, “suffered many things.” Hebrews 2:10, His salvation was made perfect through
sufferings.
“In
other words, I got the idea that it wasn’t just one dimensional suffering that
the proportion of His suffering was beyond anything I’d ever thought about. I
mean I don’t know how you’ve looked at it, but kind of growing up in the
church, you sort of think of the suffering of Christ having to do with the
nails, or the sphere, or the crown of thorns. The body has a way to deal with
that kind of thing. That is a suffering, there’s little question about it.
“But
Josephus writes in one particular account of three men that were crucified:
“They were left there until such a time as they should have been dead and taken
down. Two of them lived, one died.” Which is to say that crucifixion in and of
itself didn’t necessarily kill everybody. In fact, there’s a record even beyond
those three of many who lived through crucifixion. That is why they scourge
those that they especially wanted to die, because the tremendous loss of blood,
exposure of the internal organs, and all the pain involved in that would speed
up and make secure the death reality in crucifixion.
“But
there was much more to the suffering of Christ than just the nails on the cross.
I mean the body shock system has a way to deal with that kind of trauma. And so
I began to think about all of the facets of His suffering. And with that in
mind, I want you to look at Isaiah 53 for just a brief moment, and see if
I can’t show you how clearly this is revealed; and yet perhaps you have not
thought of it in these terms.
“The
proportion or the dimensions of Christ’s suffering. Isaiah 53 obviously
describes the suffering of Christ. And it starts out in verse 2, for our
benefit, that, “He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there’s no
beauty that we should desire Him.” And you have the suffering of being ugly, the suffering of being rejected,
the suffering of no form,
no comeliness, people turning away. It says in verse 3, “We hid” – as it were –
“our faces from Him,” so ugly. There’s a rejection kind of suffering.
“And
that’s what’s pointed out in verse 3, “He is despised,” – that’s hated – “rejected,
filled with sorrow,” – the suffering of sorrow, the suffering of grief, the
despising, the lack of esteem or regard or dignity or respect. So He was
suffering the internal pain of knowing you’re ugly and having people gaping at
you in your ugliness; the suffering of being despised, rejected, filled with
sorrow and grief, and getting no esteem and no respect. And remember who this
is. This is not one whose ever known this until the incarnation, and one who
never was worthy of it.
“And
then you have the suffering, in verse 4, of bearing others griefs, of carrying others sorrow.
Sometimes we suffer as much when we carry the pain of someone else as we do
with our own. And then the suffering of being stricken, smitten and afflicted
by God Himself, having God smash His fist of wrath against you; blows from God
where you find Him crying out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
“And
then you have the suffering of being wounded and being bruised – and here it’s
more physical – and having stripes against the body, the suffering of physical
pain, as well as inherent in that the wound of transgression, the bruise of
iniquity, and feeling the chastening of God to accomplish peace for someone
else.
“And
then in verse 6 you have that lonely, lonely statement, “All we like sheep have
gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord’s laid on Him
the iniquity of all of us.” Here He is all alone, bearing all the sins of all
the world – a cosmic kind of divine loneliness.
“And
then in verse 7, you have the tremendous suffering of oppression, affliction,
and silence. He can’t even speak. He can’t even defend Himself. He can’t push
them away and say ,“Stop, I’m the Son of God. I will not have this.” He has to
suffer in absolute silence. He has to keep His mouth closed. The suffering of
knowing you’re right, knowing you’re just and holy and pure and good, and not
being able to say it.
“And
then there’s the suffering of prison, the suffering of a false judgment in
verse 8, the suffering of death – that’s what it means to be cut off from the
land of the living – the suffering of being stricken by God to bear sin, the
suffering of burial and being counted as a common criminal. And then the
suffering of knowing that you hadn’t done anything and you didn’t deserve any
of this – no violence, no deceit. And then the suffering of knowing it pleased
God to do this to you, to put you to grief.
“And
then the suffering of verse 11, the pain of the soul. And then in verse 12, the
pouring out of the soul to death, being numbered or counted with transgressors,
bearing the sins of many, and so forth. I mean if you look at that that way,
it’s just overwhelming to conceive of the proportion of the suffering of our
Lord. And I think that’s what’s in His heart this day as He goes up the hill to
Jerusalem. I think this is what’s in His heart, I really do.
“Let
me show you what He says here. First of all, I believe that when He talks about
being handed over to the chief priests, He is suffering the pain of disloyalty.
Now remember this: He suffered all of this in anticipation. Because He knew it
was going to happen, He could suffer the pain even now. And the first pain I
see here, the first area of suffering is the suffering of disloyalty.
“What
the psalmist said in Psalm 41:9,
“Mine own familiar friend has lifted up his heel against Me, the one who ate
bread with Me.” Here was one He loved, one that He walked with and talked with;
one who affirmed to Him love, and intimacy, and care, and trust, and all of
that; and He was betrayed by Judas. And He was not only betrayed, He was
betrayed with a kiss. The suffering of betrayal, the overwhelming suffering
when someone close to you violates that intimacy and seeks to destroy you; the
ugly sin, the deep pain of being betrayed by a friend.
“And
then I believe He suffered the suffering of rejection. He was turned over to
the chief priests and the scribes, and they condemned Him to death. John put it
very simply: “He came unto His own and His own” – what? – “received Him not.”
“And He sat over the city of Jerusalem,” – the Bible says – “and He wept.” He
said, “How often I would have gathered thee as a hen gathers her brood, and you
would not.” They just rejected Him. Isaiah said, you remember we just read it, “He
was despised and rejected of men. He was the stone the builders rejected.” They
didn’t want a thing to do with Him.
“And
so those He loved, His own people, those that He worked with and healed and
taught, they rejected Him. The heartbreak is enough to crush you. Here He’s
been betrayed by a friend, and rejected by His own people. And I believe in all
of this He suffered a broken heart; and that’s why when the spear went in, out
came a combination of blood and water. I think the anxiety had already crushed
Him, burst Him.
“And
then to add to that, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” not only is
He rejected by men, He’s rejected by God, rejected by God. It says in Matthew 26:56 that all the disciples forsook Him and
fled. He didn’t have anybody: rejected by the people, rejected by the
disciples, rejected by God. So disloyalty and rejection.”
One
more to go and then I don’t know if I will continue to write more about this or
not.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful to
better understand the sufferings of Christ, and the truth is that He did this
for me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to walk more
closely to the Lord after learning more about the sufferings that He did for
me.
4/20/2023 10:00 AM
