SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/8/2023 9:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matthew 21:2-17
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 21:2-17
Message of the verses: “12 And Jesus
entered the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the
temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those
who were selling doves. 13 And He said to them, "It is written, ‘MY HOUSE
SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER’; but you are making it a ROBBERS’ DEN."
14 And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He
healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful
things that He had done, and the children who were crying out in the temple and
saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant, 16 and said to Him, "Do You hear what these
are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, ‘OUT
OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABES THOU HAST PREPARED PRAISE FOR THYSELF’?"
17 And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there.”
I was just thinking that as we have begin to study
the last week of the life of Christ on planet earth that it will probably take
a year to get through that week, a week in which we will see the death, burial,
resurrection, and then in the first chapter of Acts the assertion of Christ
back to heaven. The next step will then
be Christ returning in what is called the Rapture of Church where Christ will
bring all of the true Church to the air, both the living and the dead, and then
take them into heaven were we will be with the Lord forever. A couple of more things that will happen is shortly
after the rapture the tribulation will then take place and last for seven
years, then the return of Christ back to the earth where He will end the battle
of Armageddon and then shortly after that the Millennial Kingdom will begin,
where Christ will reign on planet earth for 1000 years. The Lord will then destroy or un-create the
entire universe. In heaven there will be
what is called “The Great White Throne Judgment” where God will judge all of
those who are unbelievers. They will all
get a chance to tell the Lord how good they were, but to no avail as all will
be cast into the lake of fire forever.
If you are reading this and have not come to the Lord for forgiveness of
your sins then please make this life changing decision and confess to the Lord
that you are a sinner in need of salvation that can only come through the Lord
Jesus Christ and invite Him into your life to save you and then you will not
have to go through “The Great White Throne Judgment,” and spend eternity in the
lake of fire.
I
have stated before that according to John MacArthur Palm Sunday really took
place on Monday, and have mentioned that I have heard different scenarios of
the last week of Christ’s life on planet earth, but since I use MacArthur’s
commentary to aid me in my study I will go with what he believes to be
true. We have just finished looking at
the events of Christ’s triumphed entry and now we move on to what happens after
that event. Mark tells us in Mark 11:11 “Jesus
entered Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at
everything, He left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.”
It was on Tuesday morning after spending Monday
night in Bethany He went back into Jerusalem.
Now between the time He left Bethany and gets into Jerusalem Mark tells
us something happened on the way. “On
the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry” (Mark 11:12). This is where Jesus finds a fig tree with
nothing on it to eat. There should have
been figs on that tree, but there were not and so Jesus curses it and
immediately it dies. I believe this is a
picture of spiritual fruit that Israel was supposed to have but hand none. Ok back to Matthew and our intro to these
verses. While listening to a really
great sermon on this section of verses MacArthur made mention that during the
time of Passover that the walled city of Jerusalem could not hold all of the
people and so it seemed like Jerusalem expanded to the small towns around it. MacArthur writes in his commentary: “Tradition hand long dictated that Passover
could be celebrated properly only in Jerusalem.
But because the city could not accommodate the increased multitudes that
came for that occasion, the religious leaders declared a special edict each
year that temporarily extended the city boundaries to include a sizable area
outside the walls, including several small villages such as Bethphage and
Bethany. Like many other visitors, Jesus
and His disciples spent the day within the walled city proper but spent the
night in a nearby community. Those who
could not find rental lodging and who had no friends living in the area often
camped in the open air.” I think that
Jesus and His disciples may have stayed with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.
While
in Jerusalem many of the people would go to the Temple to offer sacrifices, and
to pray and also perform rites of ritual cleaning and purification, and also to
present in the large trumpet-shaped receptacles located in the Court of the
women. I talked about this when I went
through the book of Mark as there were a series of these receptacles there.
Now
I have at this time have an issue with MacArthur’s commentary as he states that
what we are talking about here happened on Monday, but if I understand his
timeline of the week then it would be on a Tuesday when Jesus went into the
Temple. When He goes into the Temple to
cleanse it was for a unique purpose, which was to give further demonstration of
His messianic credentials. To the
thousands of celebrants, the religious leaders, and mot specifically to the
chief priests and scribes, He again offered clear testimony to the nature of
His kingliness and of His kingdom.
When
Jesus began His ministry there had been different times when the Jewish people
wanted to take Him by force to be their King in order for Him to overtake Rome,
but this is not what He came the first time as we have discussed earlier. I am reading a novel entitled “30 A. D.” and
in that novel the author writes about a certain Jewish man, who was there with
Jesus when He was a baby as he came with others to worship Him in
Bethlehem. He believes just like the
Jewish people in the gospels believed and that is that Jesus came to overtake
the Romans.
I
will end this SD by quoting the last short paragraph in MacArthur’s
introduction: “But Jesus now gave a
demonstration of kingliness that was in marked contrast to His humble
inauguration the previous day.” That
certainly is a true statement and we will begin looking at it in our next SD.
6/8/2023 10:18 AM
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