SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2023 10:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 20:20-28”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:20-28
Message of the verses: “20 Then the mother
of the sons of Zebedee came to Jesus with her sons, bowing down and making a
request of Him. 21 And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said
to Him, "Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one
on Your right and one on Your left." 22 But Jesus answered, "You do
not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to
drink?" They said to Him, "We are able." 23 He said to them,
"My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left,
this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by
My Father." 24 And hearing this, the ten became indignant with the
two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that
the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise
authority over them. 26 “It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to
become great among you shall be your servant, 27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall
be your slave; 28 just as the Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many.’”
I want to continue to write about different people
from the Bible who are said to have humbled themselves, and Hezekiah, king of
Judah, who “humbled the pride of his heart” (2 Chron. 32:26). Now we learn from the story of Hezekiah that
he was a great king in Judah, and in that story we see that he was about to
die, as Isaiah told him, and then he prayed that he would not die, and Isaiah
came back and told him that he would live longer, I don’t remember the number
of years that the Lord was going to add to his life. During this time he had a son named Manasseh
who ended up being the longest reigning king and the worst king that Judah ever
had. You can read about his life in both
2 Kings and then in 2 Chronicles.
However the part that kind of amazes me is you don’t learn about how he
humbled himself before the Lord and thus became a believer until you come to 2
Chronicles 33:12 where we read “When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD
his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” Next we read about Josiah, king of Judah to
whom the Lord said, “Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself
before God,…I truly have heard you’ (2 Chronicles 34:27); Isaiah, who
confessed, “I am a man of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5); and this is just a small
sample as many others who were great in God’s sight because of their humility
and their self-sacrifice for His sake.
It
is not just in the Old Testament that we find humility that accompanies true spiritual
greatness it is also illustrated throughout the New Testament. John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus
Christ, and he was the man chosen to announce the Messiah and after he did this
we read in Matthew 3:11 “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am
not fit to remove His sandals.” The
following is something that we went over a while back in our study of Matthew
where we hear Jesus saying the following about John the Baptist. “Truly I say to you, among those born of
women there was not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 11:11).
I know that there are many times in the gospel that
we see Peter kind of put his foot in his mouth, but when it came to humility
Peter’s first hint of greatness was expressed in his saying “Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8).
John MacArthur writes on Peter “And at the end of his life, when “the
laying aside of [his] earthly dwelling [was] imminent,’ he could say of Christ
with perfect sincerity, “To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of
eternity” (2 Pet. 1:14; 3:18). Paul’s
greatness is seen in his declaring to the Ephesian elders that he had served ‘the
Lord with all humility’ (Acts 20:19).
“Each of those heroes of Scripture characterized the
person who is great in God’s sight, because they refused to seek personal
prominence but gave all prominence to the Lord.
It is only the humble heart, the servant heart, that enjoys greatness in
the kingdom of God.”
4/29/2023 11:25 AM
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