SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/12/2023 8:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Connection”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
21:31b-32
Message of the verses: “Jesus said to
them, "Truly I say to you that the tax-gatherers and harlots will get into
the kingdom of God before you. 32 "For John came to you in the way of
righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots
did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so
as to believe him.”
We
begin by looking at verse 32 this morning "For John came to you in the way
of righteousness” in this we can see that Jesus continued, giving the answer to
the question that His opponents had earlier refused to answer, the question
about John the Baptist. For Him to say
that John came…in the way of righteousness was to actually say not only that
his ministry was from God, but that he was certainly a godly man. John was a holy, righteous, virtuous, and
Spirit fill man, the one that God had sent to prepare the way for His Son, the
Messiah. John preached a righteous
message and also lived a righteous life.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:11 “Among those born of women, there has not
arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist.” If you are looking for more
insight into that verse you can look up my Spiritual Diary on Matthew chapter
eleven dated 12-05-2021.
Jesus
goes on to tell them but “you did not believe him.” If you go back to when John
began his teaching you will find out that the Jewish leaders sent men to look
into him and his teaching. John was not
very polite in what he said to them, but what he said about them was the truth. “But when he saw many of
the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You
brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matt. 3:7).
“But
the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him;” Jesus said. Some of the tax-gathers
had been open to the gospel even in its incomplete form taught by John the
Baptist. Now as evidence of their
sincerity in being baptized for the repentance of their sins, they asked John, “Teacher
what shall we do?” (Luke 3:12). Although
there is no specific reference mentioned in the gospels, Jesus makes clear that
among the multitudes who were baptized by John there were also some harlots who did believe him and who, like those
tax-gatherers, confessed their sins and were forgiven as seen in Matthew 3:5-6.
MacArthur
concludes this section “Concluding His indictment, Jesus said, “And you, seeing
this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” They did not believe John’s message when they
heard it themselves and did not even believe him when they saw the transformed
lives of the tax-gatherers and harlots who had believed. In other words, they would not be convicted
either by the truth of the message of its power to transform sinners.
“They
had been exposed to the full light of the prophet of God and the even greater
light of the Son of God, yet they refused to be enlightened. They had heard the message of the herald of
the King and the message of the King Himself, yet they would not listen or
believe. They had witnessed the power of
John and the power of Christ, yet they would not be moved.”
There
are people today who have seen the lives of those they know changed by the
power of the gospel, and yet many think that the person is actually doing this
on their own. I have mentioned that in
order to tell as best as a human can tell when a person gets saved from their
sins through the power of the gospel is that that person will bear fruit as
Jesus explained in a parable. Bearing
fruit for the cause of Christ is what true believers have a desire to do.
7/12/2023 9:21 AM
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