PT-2 "The Rejectors Punished" (Matt. 22:6-7)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/31/2023 10:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-2 “The Rejecter’s Punished”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 22:7-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 “But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. 8 “Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.”

 

            In our last SD we ended by talking about the fulfillment of the second prophetic feature in this parable which occurred in 70 A. D.  I want to go on to talk some more about this event in this SD, which I believe will end this section.  There was a Roman General named Titus who came into Jerusalem and tore down the city and also the Temple, and one of the things that I have heard about this is that he did not want to destroy the Temple but in between the large blocks was gold and the only way to get the gold out was to take apart the Temple, which he did.  Titus soon after this battle in which he killed 1,100,000 Jews actually became the Roman Emperor.  During this battle their army crucified 500 people a day and actually used most of the forest around the city to make the crosses.  Many of the dead bodies were thrown over the walls because of the smell that they were making.  MacArthur quotes the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, graphically as he chronicled the horrible scene:

 

“That building [the Temple at Jerusalem], however, God long ago had sentenced to the flames; but now in the revolution of the time periods that fateful day had arrived, the tenth of the month Lous, the very day on which previously it had been burned by the king of Babylon…One of the soldiers, neither awaiting orders nor filled with horror of so dread and undertaking, but moved by some supernatural impulse, snatched a brand from the blasing timber and, hoisted up by one of his fellow soldiers, flung the firery missile through a golden window…When the flame arose, a scream, as poignant as the tragedy, went up from the Jews…now that the object which before they had guarded so closely was going to ruin…While the sanctuary was burning,…neither pity for age nor respect for rank was shown; on the contrary, children and old people, laity and priests alike were massacred…The emperor ordered the entire city and sanctuary to be razed to the ground, except only the highest towers, Phasael, Hippicus, and Mariamne, and that part of the wall that enclosed the city on the west.”

 

            We read in verse eight the following as the king explained to his slaves that the wedding was ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to attend.  As I look over this part of verse eight it is heartbreaking to me, but the truth is that they had been asked on two different occasions to come to the wedding of the King’s Son, but refused.  MacArthur adds “Their unworthiness was not because in themselves they lacked the required righteousness.  Neither the original invitation nor the subsequent calls were based on merit but solely on the king’s gracious favor.  Ironically and tragically, they were declared to be not worthy because they refused an invitation that was in no way based on worth.  As the parable goes on to make clear (v. 10), ‘both evil and good’ people were called.”

 

            Now here is the most important aspect of this parable:  That which makes a person worthy or receiving salvation is not any sort of human goodness or religious or spiritual accomplishment but simply his saying yes to God’s invitation to receive His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord. I will admit that when I first became a believer that I did not realize that Jesus Christ was my Lord until sometime later, and I suppose that is the truth of many who have received Him as their Savior, but a true believer will sometime after receiving His as their Savior will then receive Him as their Lord and when that happens they are willing do to anything asked of from Him because He is their Lord. 

 

            When Adam and Eve fell into sin in the garden of Eden they were not worthy of belonging to the Lord, but the Lord saved them when He died on the cross for them.  Yes they knew that they were believers, but their sin was not totally paid for until Jesus died in their place.  Old Testament saints looked forward to the cross New Testament saints look back at the cross.  The point I am making is that no one is worthy of salvation, no one can do anything on their own in order to become a believer in Jesus Christ, but by grace through faith a person can receive the free gift of salvation.  I prayed for my father-in-law for many, many, years.  I told him the good news of the gospel over and over, and yet two days before he died at the age of 102 he asked me what he needed to do to become a believer. I told him that he had to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior and to this day I don’t know whether or not he did.  In my very young age I was married to my neighbor for four years, and we had a daughter.  She decided that I was not the man for her and married another neighbor.  Years later he died very suddenly and a couple of years after that she got cancer and was dying.  I wanted to see her, and she allowed me to see her.  On that visit she apologized to me for being unfaithful to me.  I told her that I did not come to see her for that, but I came to see her to tell her how she could have eternal life through Jesus Christ.  I explained the gospel to her and prayed for her, and then left.  I was to see her again to introduce my son to her but that never happened.  I went to her funeral and I don’t know where she is at today, but I do know that she did have the gospel shared with her before she died.

 

            We know from history what happened to Israel 40 years after Jesus went back to heaven, and it was not good.  God loves Israel as He called her to be His people, but there were times of punishment that they had to endure and even now when the Lord brought them back into their land on the 5^th or May, 1948 they mostly still now know who their Messiah is, and won’t know that as a nation until the last judgment of the tribulation period when what Paul wrote to the Romans “and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.’”  How about those who are reading this SD and are not sure that they truly are a believer in Jesus Christ, are not sure where they will spend eternity, how about talking to God, tell Him that you are a sinner in need of salvation, tell Him that You believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place on the cross and then accept what He did for you and you will be saved.  Then get down on your knees and thank the Lord for saving you!!  You will never regret it.

 

7/31/2023 11:35 AM

PT-1 "The Rejectors Punished" (Matt. 22:7-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/30/2023 7:55 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “The Rejecters Punished”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 22:7-8

 

            Message of the verses:  “7 "But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. 8 “Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy.”

 

            We now move on to the second scene and this scene involves punishment of those rebellious subjects who had rejected the king’s call. I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that God is patient, but that His patience will run out, and then there will be punishment involved.  I have looked at God’s patience as like having a bottle in heaven, a bottle of patience, and when that bottle gets filled the patience of God then runs out and He is forced, according to who He is to do something about it, which He will do.  Now as we look at the parable we have seen that the King had set messengers, (slaves) to the people whom he had invited to the wedding feast of his son on more than one occasion, and they had refused all of his invitations, as they had actually ignored all of his callings to the feast.  I have to say that as I go back and look at the excuses that they gave that of one going to work on his farm, another on his business, but the rest of them became hostile and then killed the king’s slaves.  Think about that in giving out the gospel message today.  Many who hear it don’t want anything to do with it, but some become very antagonistic and so they will kill the messengers who are giving out the gospel message.  I have heard a long time ago that there are many, many people each day who are killed for the cause of Christ, and we can see this in this parable that Jesus gives.  We talked about John the Baptist, and Jesus who were killed, and 11of the apostles were also killed for the cause of Christ, and it has gone goes on since then.  Living in the United States of America since it began over two hundred years ago has been a time in history when this did not go on here, but things are changing now and people are now being jailed for the cause of Christ, and if some of these evil people have their way murders will be next, and then if the Lord tarries the killing of believers will be like doing a favor to those in charge.  Satan never rests!

 

            I will now quote one paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary and then Lord willing will finish this section in our next SD.  “The term behind armies (strateuma) refers to any group of armed forces and is probably better translated ‘troops,’ since the king would hardly have needed his full military might to accomplish his purpose.  According to the king’s instructions, the troops both destroyed the murderers responsible for killing his emissaries and set their city on fire.  The fulfillment of the second prophetic feature in the story occurred in A. D. 70.”

 

7/30/2023 8:18 AM

PT-5 "The Invitation Rejected" (Matt. 22:1-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2023 9:44 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-5 “The Invitation Rejected”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 22:1-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."’ 5 "But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”

 

            Before I begin to look at these verses this morning I want to say that this will SD number 10,000 that I have posted on my blogs.  It all began on the 25^th of July, 2011 while sitting in our kitchen on the island of Kauai.  I had just began to look at the book of Nehemiah and so I thought it was time to begin my first blog posting.  A little over twelve years later, and after having two blogs this will be number 10,000.  It is my desire to follow the theme verse of my blogs 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  It is my desire to learn from the verses that I am looking at and then to pass them onto those who will read them in order to bring glory to the Lord who saved me 49 and a half years ago.  Since that first blog was posted there have been over 350,000 of these Spiritual Diaries that have been looked at, and I must say that there have been more Spiritual Diaries looked at this year than any one year before, due to the great interest from the nation of Singapore.  To God be the glory great things He has done.

 

            Now back to Matthew 22 as we want to begin by writing about the slaves God sent to call again and again those who had been invited who were John the Baptist, Jesus Himself in His preaching-teaching ministry, and the New Testament apostles, prophets, and other preachers and teachers.  New Testament preachers were also slaves too because their message pertained to the King’s Son Jesus Christ.  Now God was saying to Israel, His already-invited guests, much the same as He had said from heaven at Jesus’ baptism:  “Here is My Son; come and give Him honor.”  We know that John the Baptist was rejected and beheaded, Jesus was rejected and then crucified, and the apostles and prophets were rejected and persecuted, many were also put to death.

 

            MacArthur writes “The indifferent guests in the parable represent people who are preoccupied with daily living and personal pursuits.  They are essentially the secular-minded, those who are interested in the here and now and have no interest in spiritual things.  They are the materialists, whose primary interest is accumulating things, and the ambitious, whose main concern is ‘getting ahead.’  They are not usually antagonistic to the things of God but simply have not time for them.

 

            “Those who are actively hostile to the gospel invariably are people involved in false religion, including the many forms of humanistic religion that parade under the guise of philosophy, mysticism, or scientism.  The history of persecution of God’s people shows that the chief persecutor has been false religion.  It is the purveyors of error who are the aggressive enemies of truth, and it is therefore inevitable that, as God’s Word predicts, the final world system of the antichrist will be religious, not secular.

 

            “The fact that the kings sent his messengers on two different occasions cannot be pressed to mean that only two calls were extended or that the first group consisted of John the Baptist and Jesus and the second consisted of the apostles.  The parable makes no distinction in the types of slaves, or messengers.  The point of the two callings of the invited guests was to illustrate God’s gracious patience and forbearance with the rejecters, His willingness to call Israel again and again—as John the Baptist had done for perhaps a year, as Jesus did for three years, and as the apostles did for some forty years, until Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in A. D. 70.”

 

            I gave this rather long quote from MacArthur’s commentary because it brought some things to my mind that I certainly did not conclude from this portion of this parable.  By the way both John MacArthur and the late Warren Wiersbe have been two people who have helped me in my quest to better understand the Bible, and I am thankful to both of them.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to reach the kind of people that are described in this parable, as I know many who fall into the category that are similar to those who heard the message, but had to them, more important things to do than hear the Word of God.

 

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  “Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  Lord willing to begin 10,001 & 10,002 tomorrow.

 

7/29/2023 10:14 AM

PT-4 "The Invitation Rejected" (Matt. 22:1-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/28/2023 9:12 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-4 “The Invitation Rejected”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                  Reference:  Matthew 22:1-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”

 

            I have been writing lately about what is seen in verse five where the first group of people that were offered an invitation to the king’s son’s wedding just paid little attention to the slaves who came, actually the second time, and just went their way in doing what could be described as normal things.  In today’s SD I will be talking about what could be described as worse than indifferent as they were actually hostile to the slaves who came this second time to invite them to the wedding feast that actually was all ready to begin.  In an act of unbelievably brutal arrogance, they seized the king’s slaves and mistreated them and killed them.  In treating these slaves with contempt they actually demonstrated contempt for the king himself, and in mistreating and killing his slaves they committed a flagrant act of rebellion.  I think that we all know where this is going, as John MacArthur writes “As already noted, because Jesus had said that the parable was about the kingdom of heaven, its meaning needed no interpretation to any thinking hearer.  The king obviously was God, and the invited guests were His chosen people, Israel, those who already had been called by Him.”

 

            MacArthur then goes on to give a short history of how the nation of Israel began, which can be seen in Genesis 12:1-3 when God called Abraham, whose descendants would be blessed and also be a channel of blessing to the rest of the world.  As I think about this my mind goes to the Sunday school class that I am teaching from the book of Zechariah, and what I think I will do now is quote from one of the lessons which will also include a quote from John MacArthur’s sermon from Zechariah answering the question as to “Why God chose Israel.”

 

            Let me say at the outset of this quotation that it will be fairly long but I think worthwhile reading.

 

          “In the first part of this lesson I want to try and answer the question “Why did God chose Israel?”  I mentioned that some of the things in these lessons will come from the time when I studied Zechariah beginning in April of 2016.  As we look at several reasons why God chose Israel I will end by playing a small portion of a sermon from John MacArthur, but I will have it on the paper so that you can follow along.  It is important for us to understand why God chose Israel for after all Paul tells us in Romans 11 that we as believers are grafted into Israel.

 

            The first reason is that God needed a nation of people in the world, in order to proclaim the existence of the true God.  After sin entered the world and the people began to move around to different parts of the world, God, because of His love for them desired to show the people about His love, but people did not want to hear about God and His love for them and so they ended up seeing His wrath as He drowned every person on the earth with the exception of eight, Noah and his family.  After the flood people still did not want to know about God and so sometime after that God called Abram who later named him Abraham to begin a nation where God could accomplish the things that we are going over.

            The second reason needed a nation of people in the world was that He needed that nation to reveal the Messiah.  Jesus said in John 4:22 “Salvation is of the Jews,” notice that He did not say that salvation is for the Jews, although many Jews will receive God’s salvation.

            The third reason God needed a nation was He needed a nation to be a priest among men.  Understand that a priest is one who speaks to God on the behalf of men as he intercedes for men, and on occasions will speak to men about God.  Let us look at Exodus 19:5-6a “5  ’Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6  and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”

            Next God chose Israel to transmit and preserve Scripture.  I believe that almost every book in the Bible was written by a Jew and not only did they write what God told them to write, but they also persevered what God told them to write.  We have today many copies of the Word of God, more copies of these ancient manuscripts than any other ancient book and when you compare them they are virtually the same.

            Fifthly God needed a nation that could show to the world that He is faithful.  God kept or will keep in the future all the promises that He has made to the nation of Israel and so as people look at these promises and see that God fulfilled them then they will know that God is faithful and a covenant keeping God.  John MacArthur writes “Israel stands for all time as proof that God is a covenant keeping God,   He always keeps His promise, and the world needs only to look at the history of Israel to see that that is proven.”

            The seventh reason God needed a nation was to show the world that He is a gracious God who can forgive sin.  Micah writes in Mic. 7:18 “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in unchanging love.

            Our next reason is that God needed a nation to show His anger, so we go from being gracious to being anger and both of these qualities are attributes of God, both are who God is.

 

            “This last point I want to mention in some detail for a minute. God chose Israel in order to show the world His reaction against an unrepentant heart. Back in Leviticus 26:14 God said to them, "If you will not hearken to me and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall despise my statues, if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, I will also do this unto you. I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, the burning fever that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart. You shall sow your seed in vain for your enemy shall eat it." That means your enemies will kill your children. "I will set my face against you, you will be slain before your enemies, and they that hate you shall reign over you and you shall flee when nobody is pursuing you. And if you will not for all of that hearken to me, I will punish you seven times more than that for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power." That's pretty clear language. God says, "You're going to be judged." In verse 32, "I will even bring you into the land which is desolation. Your enemies who dwell therein will be astonished at you. I will scatter you among the nations. I will draw out a sword after you and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." You know something? That happened in Israel's history, and it's happened again and again, recurrently in their history, whenever they have been unrepentant, whenever they have been denying sin, whenever they have failed to bow to a holy God, they have found that that has come to pass again and again and again, even in modern times.

“In Deuteronomy again, the same thing indicated in chapter 28 and verse 37. It says, "And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, a byword among all nations to which the Lord shall lead thee." In other words, there might even be a proverb like this: "He's as homeless as an Israelite. He's as chastened as an Israelite, because you will be the very byword for chastening, the very byword for homelessness, for wandering." In verse 64 of Deuteronomy 28, says "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth to the other, and there thou shalt serve other gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone, and among these nations shalt thy find no rest, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest, but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing eyes, and sorrow of mind and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and thou shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say 'Would God it were evening' and at evening thou shalt say 'Would God it were morning,' for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." God says, "It's going to be awful, it's going to be terrible, it's going to be fearful, when you're scattered among the nations because of your sin and your failure to repent and turn to me."

“It is precisely at that juncture in the life of Israel that we enter the book of Zechariah. This nation had been in sin, and they had not repented of that sin. They had failed to acknowledge that sin to God. And as a result God said, "You're going to get scattered again." And they did and they were taken captive into Babylon and that Babylonian captivity, as we saw last time, lasted for a period of 70 years. Look in your Bible at 2Chronicles chapter 36, that's the last chapter in the book, 2 Chronicles chapter 36, verse 14, and here's the historical setting for what had happened in the Babylonian captivity. And by the way, the principle of judgment upon sin has not changed at all. God still reacts violently against sin. But notice 2 Chronicles 36:14, "Moreover all of the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the nations and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem." Now it's gotten pretty debauched at this point in the history of Israel. They have polluted everything possible. Verse 15, "And the Lord God of their Fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place." He sent messengers because He cared and the messengers were the prophets and God sent them in love but verse 16 says, "They mocked the messengers of God. They despised His words, misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans who slew their young men with the sword in the house of the sanctuary and had no compassion upon young men or maiden, old men or him that stooped for age. He gave all into his hand, and all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the King and of the Princes. All these he brought to Babylon. And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels." It was pretty sad to see that great, magnificent temple into shambles. And those who had escaped from the sword, those who happened to live through the terrible siege, and the terrible killing that occurred, He carried away to Babylon. And you notice the "He" in all of these verses is God really. It's God doing it, using the Babylonians as His agents.

“Well, they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the King of Persia. The King of the Chaldeans, of course, is the primary "he," but behind the scenes it's God. Why? To fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. For as long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath to fulfill three score and seven years. 70 years, the land would be desolate, they would be carried away into captivity. And God was chastening their unrepentant hearts.

“Then after 70 years, you remember what happened, God said "That's enough. That's enough chastening." And then verse 22 picks up the story from there. 2 Chronicles 36:22, "In the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia, the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished." You remember Jeremiah 29:10 prophesied that it would only be 70 years. So in order to fulfill that prophecy, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, King of Persia, and he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and putting it in writing saying, "Thus saith Cyrus, Kind of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, God of heaven, given me. He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people, the Lord is God be with him, and let him go up." And there was the decree of Cyrus that sent the people who wanted to go back to the land.”

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful that God chose Israel because through Israel came my Savior Jesus Christ who came to earth to suffer and die in my place so that one day I can be with Him forever in heaven.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to live for the Lord and do the things that He has called me to do for the cause of Christ, including writing my Spiritual Diaries each day and posting them onto my blogs so others can see their need of the Savior.

 

7/28/2023 10:06 AM

           

 

           

PT-3 "The Invitation Rejected" (Matt. 22:1-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/27/2023 8:40 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus: PT- “The Invitation Rejected”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference: Matthew 22:1-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6  and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”

 

            As we continue looking at this parable it can be noticed that there are some similar things that happened to the slaves in both parables, as some were mistreated, and then also some were killed.  What would be the motivation for this to happen in this parable?  With the wine-growers the motivation was to seize the vineyard, but it seems no motivation in this parable we are looking at.  One can be sure that to those whom Jesus is speaking this parable would have a difficult time wondering why people would not only want to go to a Royal Wedding, but why would people kill those slaves who were bringing the invitation.

 

            MacArthur writes “The initial response of the king, like the initial response of the vineyard owner, is as amazing as the response of the guests.  Few monarchs were known for their humility and patience, especially in the face of open insult.  But that king sent out other slaves saying, “Tell those who have been invited, ‘Behole, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.’”

 

            I have talked about how long this type of formal wedding ceremony would be, lasting for many days, and thus the dinner was the first of many meals eaten during the feast, and it was ready to be served.  “Reminded the guests,” the king in effect, “of all the preparations that have been made.  He spoke of the oxen and fattened livestock are all butchered, and waiting to be roasted, and everything else is ready also.  Plead with the people to come to the wedding feast now.

 

            Verse five not gives the final response as to why they would not take the time to come to the wonderful Royal Wedding:  “5 “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business.”  One could say that they were selfishly preoccupied with personal concerns for profit that the invitation and the repeated calls of the king to stop work and attend his son’s wedding were altogether ignored.  These people in this kingdom willingly and purposely forfeited that beauty, grandeur, and honor of the wedding for the sake of their everyday, mundane, self-serving endeavors.  They were not concerned about the king’s honor but only about what they perceived as their own best interest.

 

            As mentioned yesterday this will take some time to work our way through this parable.

 

7/27/2023 9:07 AM

PT-2 "The Invitation Rejected" (Matt. 22:1-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/26/2023 12:23 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “The Invitation Rejected”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                  Reference:  Matthew 22:1-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2 "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."’ 5 "But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”

 

            I think that it would be best to quote from MacArthur’s commentary on the subject of the ancient near east wedding.  “In the ancient Near East, a wedding feast was inseparable from the wedding itself, which involved a week-long series of means and festivities and was the highlight of all social life.  For a royal wedding such as the one Jesus mentions here, the celebration often lasted for several weeks.  Guests were invited to stay at the house of the groom’s parents for the entire occasion, and the father would make as elaborate provisions as he could afford.  A royal wedding, of course, would be held in the palace, and a king would be able to afford whatever he desired.

 

            “A wedding feast that a king prepared for his son would be a feast of all feasts, and Jesus was therefore picturing the most elaborate celebration imaginable.  The fact that it was a wedding celebration was incidental to the purpose of the parable, the only mention of the groom being that of identifying him as the king’s soon.  No mention at all is made of the bride or any other aspect of a wedding.  The point is that because the feast represents the greatest festivity imaginable, given by the greatest monarch imaginable, for the most-honored guests imaginable, a royal wedding feast was chosen as the illustration of the ultimate celebration.”

 

            These are some interesting facts that I certainly did not know about and so I am happy to pass them along to those who read this SD.  Even though this is a parable of our Lord does not take away from the history of elaborate weddings of that day.

 

            Now after this king had all the preparations for this wedding taken care he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast.  The truth is because they had been invited, that this indicates that the guests were invited earlier and already knew they were expected to attend the wedding.  To be a pre-invited guest to the king’s wedding was certainly among the highest honors possible, and no doubt those who had received invitations were boasting to all their neighbors and friends.  It is so inconceivable that when they got the invitation that the king now sent out that they would not come.

 

This section is going to take us a while to go through, but I do believe it will be worthwhile.

7/26/2023 12:45 PM

PT-1 "The Invitation Rejected" (Matt. 22:1-6)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/25/2023 9:44 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “The Invitation Rejected”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 22:1-6

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2  "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6  and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.”

 

            This is the first of four scenes of this last of the three parables that Jesus gave to these Jewish leaders on judgment.  Needles to say is that a royal wedding feast was something very special even though perhaps many of His listeners have not been to one.

 

            As we began looking at these three parables on judgment it was mentioned that the Jewish leaders were challenging Jesus’ authority, and the reason that they were doing this was because He was not a part of their “click” and did not go through their rituals in order to be a Rabbi, and also because they did not believe in Him as their Messiah they did not realize that because He was the second person of the Godhead who came in a body then they would not understand His authority.

 

            It was way back in the gospel of Matthew when Jesus began to teach in parables and that was because these Jewish leaders accused Jesus doing His miracles in the power of Satan, and it was then that we discussed “the unpardonable sin.”  They went too far and so Jesus began to speak in parables in the remaining part of His ministry.

 

            MacArthur writes “In His first two parables Jesus gave no introduction, saving the explanation and application to the end.  In this parable, however, He begins by stating that it illustrates the kingdom of heaven.  Because most Jews believed that the kingdom of heaven was reserved exclusively for them, and possibly a few Gentiles proselytes, the audience in the Temple immediately knew that what Jesus was going to say closely applied to them.

 

            “Although they had many perverted ideas about the kingdom of heaven, because the term heaven was so often used as a substitute for the covenant name of God (Yahweh, or Jehovah), most Jews would have understood that it was synonymous with the kingdom of God and represented the realm of God’s sovereign rule.  There are past, present, and future as well as temporal and eternal aspect of the kingdom, but it is not restricted to any era or period of redemptive history.  It is the continuing, ongoing sphere of God’s rule by grace.  In a narrower sence, the phrase is also used in Scripture to refer to God’s dominion or redemption, His divine program of gracious salvation.  As Jesus uses the phrase here, it specifically represents the spiritual community of God’s redeemed people, those who are under His lordship in a personal unique way because of their trust in His Son.” 

 

            We will stop here is that is enough to digest at this time.

 

7/25/2023 10:05 AM

Intro to Matthew 22:1-14

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/24/2023 1:37 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  Intro to Matthew 22:1-14

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Matt. 22:1-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying, 2  "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3 “And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. 4 “Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast."’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6  and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. 7 “But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. 8 "Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 ‘Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ 10 "Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, 12  and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. 13 “Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.’”

 

            We begin today to look at the third parable that Jesus uses in order to confront the Jewish leaders that came up to Him the next day after cleansing the Temple.  I don’t always understand chapter breaks in the Bible.  I do know that they were not there when the Bible was first written, and they are put into the Bible to make it more understandable.  I think that you can understand what the problem is here as Jesus speaks three parables in a row, and two of them are in chapter 21, and then chapter 22 begins with this third parable.

 

            These three parables can be called “Jesus’ trilogy of judgment parables.”  MacArthur adds “It is among the most dramatic and powerful of all His parables, which, through directed specifically at those leaders and all unbelieving Israel whom they represent, also has far-reaching significance and application for subsequent times, certainly including our own.”

 

            There are some other things that I really don’t understand in my studies of the Bible, especially the New Testament, and especially the four gospels.  I have mentioned many times that in order to help a believer to understand the Bible they must better understand the attributes of God.  The attributes of God are like looking at an orange or a grapefruit.  An orange or a grapefruit is one fruit with different divisions in it, but they all are a part of the orange or grapefruit.  When you look at the attributes of God they are all a part of who God is but they have divisions in them which to me are difficult to understand.  God is love, and God is just, and from a human understanding of this they can seem to be opposite. With God they are not. 

 

            Think about this with what I am about to write.  Jesus had been preaching the kingdom of God for about three years, and for the most part had been preaching it to Israel, proclaiming that He was their Messiah, sent from God to them just as God had promised that He would do.  However at the end of those three years, all but a handful of Jews had rejected Him.  Although Jesus had always been popular with the masses wherever He ministered, their acceptance of Him was for the most part superficial and selfish.  Now we know that one of God’s attributes is that He is all-knowing, and so the only way that this can make sense to me is that when Jesus became man, yet still God, He would have had to know this, for after all it was prophesized that this would happen.  I guess that one thing is sure and that is when I get to heaven I will understand some of these mysteries that I don’t understand at this time.  However I will keep on studying the Word each day, and perhaps some of these mysteries that I don’t understand will be made clearer to me.

 

            Jesus had a great following but many of them were looking at Him to be the type of Messiah that is also spoken of Him in the Old Testament prophets.  Once they found out that this was not why He came, as He came in order to die for their sins, many of them would have no part of what He was teaching.  I have mentioned this when I was going over the text about what is called Psalm Sunday and all of those who were their when Jesus came in to offer Himself as their Messiah, will soon cry out for Him to be crucified because their hopes of having a Messiah in order to get out from the Roman Empire were dashed. 

 

            John MacArthur writes the following at the end of his introduction:  “But when the people finally realized the kind of Messiah Jesus was, and especially that He had no plans to deliver them from the Roman oppressors, their acclamation quickly turned to rejection—as is evident in their change of mood from Sunday to Thursday of this last Passover week of Jesus’ ministry.  Therefore, as He continued to respond to the Jewish leaders in the Temple, where He was teaching on Wednesday morning (21:23), it was also to the multitudes that the third judgment parable was directed.”  I am happy that some of the things that I have written go along with what MacArthur writes.

 

7/24/2023 2:12 PM

"The Reaction" Matt. 21:44-45)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/23/2023 8:07 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  “The Reaction”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                   Reference:  Matt. 21:45-46

 

            Message of the verses:  “45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. 46 When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet.”

 

            In our study of the gospel of Matthew we are drawing closer and closer to the time when Jesus will be crucified.  Make no mistake about this, and that is Jesus is in complete control of when and how it will take place even though as you read through the time when this is about to happen you may think that the Jews and the Romans are in control, but they will only be doing exactly what Jesus will want done.

 

            These Jewish leaders that Jesus is talking to have finally figured out that the parable Jesus is giving is based on them, and like always that makes them mad, but as stated Jesus is in control of when He will be put to death, not them.

 

            They knew  this parable was about them, each and every part of it.  I think they may have been upset for answering what would be happening to them because of the answer that they gave to Jesus about the punishment they now know that they could get.

 

            This parable would come true, but the truth is that these leaders hardly ever put any stock in what Jesus had said.

 

            They wanted to seize Him, but they feared the people, so they did not lay hands on Him.  Later on when the crucifixion was near these men chose to release Barabbas instead of Jesus.

 

            MacArthur writes “This amazing passage portrays God’s gracious provision for men, His patience with their unbelief and rejection, and His love in sending even His only Son for their redemption.  But it also displays His righteous judgment that will be executed when His divine patience has run its course.

 

            “The passage also portrays Jesus’ deity as the Son of God, His obedience to His Father’s will, His willingness to come to earth and die for man’s redemption, and His resurrection.  But it also displays His coming one day as the instrument of divine judgment, to destroy and break in pieces those who have rejected Him.

 

            “And the passage portrays sinful mankind, its great blessings and privileges from God, its opportunity to receive truth from His prophets and eternal life from the Son.  It portrays their responsibility and their accountability before a loving but just God, before whom they will be either redeemed because of faith or condemned because of unbelief.”

 

7/23/2023 8:33 AM

 

PT-2 "The Application" (Matt. 21:43-44)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/22/2023 9:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  PT-2 “The Application”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 21:43-44

 

            Message of the verses:  “43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it. 44 “And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.’”

 

            As mentioned in our last SD God chose Israel and will always love Israel, and will discipline Israel when they need to be disciplined, and that is what is soon going to happen to them, for less than 40 years from the time Jesus was talking to these leaders Jerusalem will be destroyed and their system or religious activity will be done with.  Remember what they were imposing on the Jewish people was not what Judaism was all about.

 

            Jesus says that the Kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a “people” (NASB95) who will produce fruit.  Jesus is talking about the church age, which would begin on the day of Pentecost as seen in the second chapter of Acts.  Let us look at what Paul writes about this in Romans 9:25-26 “25 As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’" 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’" (ESV).

 

            John MacArthur writes “And he who falls on this rejected stone, that is, Jesus Himself, will be broken to pieces.  The Jewish leaders who, as it were, fell on Jesus and put Him to death would themselves be broken to pieces.  And on whomever it, Jesus the stone falls, it will scatter him like dust.  For those who will not have Jesus as a Deliverer, He becomes Destroyer.  Just as the Father has given all salvation to the son (John 14:6), He has also “given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22).”

 

            Paul declared the following in 1 Cor. 16:22 “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Now as we look at this and compare it to the language of our text, let such a person be broken to pieces, crushed into power and scattered like dust, just as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had warned.  MacArthur adds “God’s enemies are destined to be pulverized into nothingness.  To try to destroy Christ is to assure one’s own destruction.  Through Daniel the Lord predicted Christ’s ultimate coming in judgment against the unbelieving peoples and nations of the world, represented by the magnificent and seemingly invulnerable statute of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay.  As the ‘stone…cut out without hands,’ Jesus will one day strike the statue of unbelieving mankind, and ‘then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold [will be] crushed all at the same time, and [become] like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the will [will carry] them away so that not a trace of them [will be] found’ (Daniel 2:32-35).”

 

            Lord will we will be looking at the last section in the 21^st chapter of Matthew in our next SD.

7/22/2023 10:35 AM