SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2023 10:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Dominant
Dictatorship” & “Charismatic Control”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 20:25 a & b
Message of the verse: “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, (20:25a).
We will be looking at two rather short sections from
the 29th chapter of Matthew today and begin with 20:25a.
It is evident that the other disciples had been standing
near to Jesus and they had overheard what He had been discussing with James,
John, and their mother. So He called
them to Himself, and He reminded them of another wrong way of achieving
spiritual greatness besides the two they had just demonstrated. This could be called the way of the dominant
dictator. MacArthur writes “Katakwrieuo (lord it over) is a strong
term carrying the idea of ruling down
on people, the prepositional prefix kata intensifying
the verb.
“The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over their subjects,’
Jesus said. Virtually every government
that day was a form of dictatorship, often of a tyrannical sort. Gentiles such as the pharaohs, Antiochus
Epiphanes, the caesars, the Herods, and Pilate—under all of whom the Jews had
suffered greatly.”
In our world today we can see that one of the reasons
many countries in the third world are susceptible to the deceitful attractions
of Communism is that they have lived so long under oppressive
dictatorship. It was because of many
hears under an oppressive dictatorship that they fall to Communist rule.
Charismatic Control: “and their great men exercise authority over them (Matt. 20:25b).
There is a fourth wrong way to achieve spiritual
greatness and that is that of charismatic, manipulative control. MacArthur writes “The expression great men
(megaloi) carries the idea of distinguished, eminent, illustrious, or
noble. It represents those who have high
personal appeal and have achieved high stature in the eyes of the world and who
seek to control others by personal influence.
They can be seen as different in style from those in verse 25a. Whereas the dominant dictator uses the sheer
power of his position and is often hated, the charismatic leader uses the power
of popularity and personality. By
flattery, charm, and attractiveness, he manipulates others to serve his own
ends.
“Exercise authority over also translates a strong and
intensified Greek verb, combining kata (down)
and exousiazo (to have authority),
and could be rendered “to play the tyrant.”
As we look at church history, including what happens in
the church today we can see that it has never been without self-seeking leaders
who capture the fascination of the people who willingly follow them while they
make merchandise of the gospel in order to feather their nests and build up
their reputations. Let us look at 2
Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when they will
not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they
will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires.” Perhaps we could say that the time has come,
instead of will come. These kind of
people take advantage of selfish gullible believers. I think of a verse
in Acts where it talks about the Bereans who were more noble than the Thessalonians
for they searched the Bible to see if what Paul was preaching lined up with the
truth of the Bible. This is how you can
make sure if a church leader is speaking the truth.
5/8/2023 11:14 AM
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