SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/23/2023 8:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 23:1-12”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
23:1-12
Message of the verses: “Then Jesus spoke
to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the
Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 “Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that
observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do
not do. 4 “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on
men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers. 5 “But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make
their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 “They
love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 “greetings
in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ 8 “But you, do
not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all
brethren. 9 “Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father,
He who is in heaven. 10 “And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher,
the Christ. 11 “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 “And
whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be
exalted.”
I want to begin by stating that Jesus referred to counterfeit
religious leaders as “false Christs and false prophets [who] will arise and
will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible even the elect”
(Matt. 24:24). In Galatians 1:8 we see
that Paul called them preachers of a perverted gospel, and purveyors of the
doctrines of demons in 1 Timothy 4:1.
Then Peter spoke of them as those who “secretly introduce destructive heresies,
even denying the Master who brought them” (2 Peter 2:1). In 1 John 2:18, and 22 we see that John
called them antichrists who deny that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. Let us look at Jude 8 to see what Jude calls them
“Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject
authority, and revile angelic majesties.”
When Paul had his last encounter with the Ephesians elders on the beach
as seen in Acts 20:29 he tells them that these people are “savage wolves” telling
them that they will come in and disrupt the Ephesian church, which they did as
seen in Revelation chapter two.
MacArthur
writes “The religious pages of major newspapers in our day are filled with
advertisements for every kind of sect and false religion, including deviant
forms of Christianity as well as cults and the occult. Many of those groups masquerade as forms for Christianity
and claim to teach a new and better gospel.
But while purporting to offer spiritual life and help, they instead
teach the way of spiritual death and damnation.
While claiming to lead people to heaven, they usher them directly into
hell.” On my way into the grocery store
yesterday I was approached by two young ladies from the Mormon “cult” who
wanted to talk to me about their cult, although they certainly did not call it
a cult. Once I saw their sign I told
them I go to a church and left.
I
have thought that we are certainly getting much closer to the return of Christ
in what is called the rapture, and one of the signs of His second coming is
that counterfeiters of the gospel will proliferate and ammas to themselves
great followings and immense
influence. This can be seen in 2 Thess.
2:3-4; 1 Tim. 4:3; 2 Tim. 3:1-9; 2 Pet. 2:1-3.
MacArthur then adds “The only time in history equal to what that future
demon-inspired age will be like was the time of our Lord’s ministry on
earth. At that time all hell garnered
its forces in a three-year assault against the Son of God in a desperate effort
to contradict what He taught and to counteract what He did. It is against the human instruments of that
satanic attack that Jesus addresses this last public and permanently
instructive message, given near the end of a long and grueling day of teaching
and confrontation in the Temple.”
We
learned that the dialogue that was between Jesus and the Temple authorities had
ended as seen in Matthew 22:46 where we read “no one was able to answer [Jesus]
a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.” What we see in this 23rd chapter
of Matthew was not really uncommon as Jesus had spoken against the Pharisees
and other rulers in His ministry earlier.
Here is one example from John 8:44 where Jesus said “"You are of your
father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is
no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.” In this 23rd chapter Jesus certainly
felt it necessary to go after these false teachers one last time, and in His
preaching to them if they would have truly listened then they could have seen
that the true message He was giving them could have made a great deal of
difference in their eternal existence for if they did not listen, and it
certainly looks like they did not listen they then would have gone to hell.
MacArthur
ends his comments on this section by writing “It seems evident that many hearts
were softened to the gospel that day, including the hearts of some of the
leaders. One the day of Pentecost alone
some three thousand souls came to the Lord (Acts 2:41), and it may well have
been that eight or ten times that number believed within a few more months, as
the apostles “filled Jerusalem with [their] teaching’ (Acts 5:28). We can be certain that many, and perhaps
most, of the converts in those early days had seen and heard Jesus personally
and been drawn by the Holy Spirit to His truth and grace. Perhaps for some, this message was the point
of initial attraction to Jesus Christ.”
In the last paragraph I was speaking of the Jewish leaders who had not
listened to Jesus and not the crowd of common people who heard Him in the
temple.
9/23/2023 9:31 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment