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
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