SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/16/2023 9:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The Pattern For True Greatness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 20:28
Message of the verses: “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.’”
This is a wonderful verse and the emphasis on it is
in the words just as the Son of Man. What
the Lord is saying about Himself should also characterize those who are His
followers. Jesus is saying “I am your
perfect Pattern,” He is saying, “I am your supreme Example. My attitude should be your attitude and My
kind of living should be your kind of living.
If you want to be great as God wants you to be great, be like Me.”
In
order for Jesus’ disciples to discover what it means to become a godly servant
and slave, they had only to look at the Son of Man Himself. I have mentioned that at this point of Jesus’
disciples lives that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit because Jesus
had not yet died, however they had been following the very Son of God for
almost three years at this point, but as we have been learning they were still
being selfish, wanting things for themselves.
This would change after the Lord was resurrected and then went back to
heaven. Shortly after that the disciples
would receive the Holy Spirit and begin to do the things that the Lord had
planned for them to do. They would
understand the things that the Lord wanted them to understand, and do the
things that He had planned for them to do.
It was many years after the apostle John asked Jesus to sit on his right
hand in His kingdom that he would write:
“The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same
manner as He walked (1 John 2:6). MacArthur
adds “As once his life had centered in himself and his treat desire had been to
lord it over others, now it was centered in Jesus Christ and was abandoned to
the selfless service of others in His name.
He no longer sought to manipulate Jesus but to emulate Him.”
Let
us now look at some very famous and favorite verses from the pen of Paul as he
wrote to the Philippians. In these
verses we will see that Jesus in His incarnate role as Son of Man did not come
to be served but to serve: “6 who, although
He existed in the form of
God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be
grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being
made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For
this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is
above every name.”
MacArthur helps us understand these wonderful
verses: “Jesus is the supreme example of
humility and servanthood, because, as the sovereign of the universe and of all
eternity, He subjected Himself to humiliation and even to death. He is the most exalted because He faithfully
endured the most humiliation. Although
He was the King of kings and had the right to be served by others, He
ministered as a Servant of servants and gave His life to serve others.” This is “The Pattern For True Greatness”
I
have one more section that I want to go over as I finish this SD, and that has
to do with the time when our Lord implemented what we call “The Lord’s Table,”
or “The Last Supper.” It was during this
time that the disciples were still arguing about which of them was the
greatest, and then Jesus asked “Who is greater, the one who reclines at the
table, or the one who serves? Is it not
the one who reclines at the table? But I
am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:27). It may have been at this exact time that
Jesus gave them the beautiful object lesson of servanthood which is recorded in
John 13:4-5, 12-17.
[Jesus] laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself about. Then He poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel which He was girded…And so when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments, and reclined at the table again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, neither is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”
The ultimate act of Jesus’ servanthood; however was to give His life. “Greater love has no man than this,” He said, “that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There are
times when I think about Jesus coming to earth, and the though goes through my
mind whether He had to come to do this or not.
I know that this was planned in eternity past for Him to do this, and
therefore I think that this was something that He had to do. Other times I think, and I believe this is
the best answer to my dilemma, and that is that He volunteered to do this, and
He did it because He loves me, more than I can even understand.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Live my life
like I am thankful for what Christ did for me, and continues to do for me each
day as I follow Him.
5/16/2023 10:55 AM
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