SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/26/2023 10:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Supernatural Privilege”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
20:32-34
Message of the verses: “32 And Jesus
stopped and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for
you?" 33 They said to Him, "Lord, we want our eyes to be
opened." 34 And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and
immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.”
I have been talking about the spirituality of these
blind men, and want to continue doing that as I begin this SD. There is further evidence of the former blind
men’s desire for spiritual as well as physical sight and that is the fact that,
after Jesus restored their sight; they “followed Him.” Now I think that it is good to remember that
there was a large group following Jesus as seen in verse 29 “29 And as they
were going out from Jericho, a great multitude followed Him.” So I think that it is evident that there were
not just the disciples who were following Jesus, but many others. However the fact that Luke says Bartimaeus,
and presumably his friend, not only followed Jesus but were “glorifying God” as
seen in Luke 18:43, and this gives good reason to believe the men were restored
spiritually as well as physically.
Let
us now look at Mark 10:52 “And Jesus said to him, "Go; your faith has made
you well." Immediately he regained his sight and began following
Him on the road.” Now remember in Mark’s
and Luke’s account only one of the blind men, Bartimaeus, was talked about, and
so I think we can assume that his friend was following Jesus as well. It just seems that Bartimaeus was the vocal
one. John MacArthur writes about “made
well” in his commentary. “Made…well is
from sozo, which referred to any kind
of rescue or deliverance, including deliverance from physical affliction or
peril (see Matt. 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35).
But it is also the most common New Testament term for salvation, the deliverance
from sin through Christ, and that would seem to be its meaning in Jesus’ final
words to these men.”
I
have mentioned that many of the people that Jesus healed were not believers,
and so I think we can conclude that faith was not a requirement for Jesus’
healings. Jesus healed many people at
the request of someone else, as in the case of the centurion who pleaded for
the healing of his paralyzed servant seen in Matthew 8:5-13. It is true that the infants that Jesus healed
along with those who He raised from the dead could not have exercised any kind
of faith. Now we must compare the
healings that were done without faith with salvation which can only come by
faith as seen in Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God.” MacArthur then writes “It therefore seems that inherent in Jesus’
declaration “your faith has made you well’ was His assurance of the men’s
salvation. He spoke exactly the same
words to the single leper who glorified God for his healing and came back to
give Jesus thanks (Luke 17:12-19). All
then lepers had been healed physically, but only this man was “made…well” because
of his faith, strongly suggesting that, whereas his cleansing (v. 14) were
physical, his being made well (v. 19) was spiritual.” I think that MacArthur is making a very
strong case that these two men did come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ
and then they followed Him, which is a picture of what all true believers do and
have done since Jesus paid for their sins on the cross.
There
are three features of Jesus’ healing of physical afflictions that become clear
in this story. The first is this
powerful dramatic demonstration of God’s compassion for men was a proof of
Jesus’ messiahship. Next, it was a preview of the millennial kingdom, when
there will be a thousand-years of freedom from sickness, disease, and other
physical afflictions. Third, His
healings were symbolic, and this is something that I have believed because as
we look at the end of John’s gospel we see that he testifies that if all the
things that Jesus did while on the earth could not be contained in all the
books, and I think that there is some hyperbole there, but the point is that we
don’t hear of all of His healings, and the ones we hear about are symbolic. MacArthur concludes “His healing of blindness
was a picture of His immeasurably more wonderful healing of spiritual blindness. What He did for blind eyes was a vivid
portrayal of what He desires to do for blind souls.” With that said I think that those who may be
reading this who realize that spiritually they are blind can be like these two
physically and spiritual blind beggars and come to Christ, confessing their
sins and then asking Jesus to come into their heart to forgive them, and then
like these two blind beggars follow Him.
5/26/2023 11:07 AM
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