SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/27/2023 10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “On The
Mount”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 24:3
Message of the verse: “3 And as He was
sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying,
"Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of
Your coming, and of the end of
the age?’”
I have to say that this SD is going to be very
short, but I think it will be worthwhile to read over. I mentioned that I wanted to talk about the
word “End” at the beginning of this Spiritual Diary and so what I usually do
when it comes to better understanding a word in a passage is quote from John
MacArthur’s commentary. “End translates sunteleia,a compound word that refers to
completion, as in the final culmination of a planned series of events. In the disciples’ minds the end of the age would
accompany Jesus’ full manifestation of His messianic power and glory, bringing
to a close the era of man’s sin and rebellion against God and ushering in the
divine kingdom of righteousness and justice.”
The truth is that the disciples’ had the right idea, but the wrong
timing. In our very long introduction to
this 24th chapter of Matthew I quoted much from John MacArthur’s
commentary showing why it was that the disciples believed the way that they
believed, and it is important to understand this truth or you will miss out on
some important things in these first three verses of Matthew 24 as they set the
stage for not only the rest of chapter 24, but all of chapter 25 as well.
Let
us go back to a parable that Jesus told where we also see the end of the age, but
this time Jesus is the one using these words.
The parable is the one about the wheat and tares, and also one about the
parable of the dragnet. I want you to
remember why it was that in this 13th chapter of Matthew that Jesus
began to speak in parables, and that is because the Jewish leaders were accusing
Jesus of doing his miracles in the power of Satan. It was at that time that Jesus spoke to them
about the unpardonable sin, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit who was
the One whom gave the power to Jesus to do miracles. It was over for them as far as having Jesus
preach to them directly, but began to use parables which because of their
blindness would not understand what He was talking about. Now in both of these
parables we see that they represented the gathering of the wicked by God’s
angels in preparation for judgment (Matt. 13:39, 49). He used the phrase the end of the age at the conclusion
of the Great Commission, assuring the disciples, “Lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
I
will conclude this SD, which concludes this first chapter in MacArthur’s 4th
commentary on the gospel of Matthew with a quote from this commentary. “The disciples’ question was about the
ultimate end of the age, not simply the end of an era or epoch of history, but
the final end of the present world system of darkness and sin—an end they
expected son. It was also, of course, a
question about the beginning of a new and eternal age of light, righteousness,
truth, and justice. The ungodly would be
forever damned, and the godly would be forever blessed. When would that transpire, they wanted to
know, and what sign would herald its arrival?”
In
my different studies of the book of Revelation I learned that chapters 6-19
parallel what we will begin to study in the rest of chapter 24 and 25 of
Matthew, which speaks of the tribulation period, that seven year period of time
that begins with the antichrist signing a peace treaty for seven years with the
nation of Israel. As I look at what is
going on in Israel today as they are fighting for their existence on a number
of fronts because the Arab nations who surround them desire to kill every Jew
in the world, that it could surely be described as a miracle to have someone
come in and forge a peace treaty to end the conflict that is going on now. I am not saying that this is the time for
this to happen, but I am saying that it will happen because that is what the
Bible teaches. I mentioned that earlier
this month that I began my 5th year in the study of Matthew, and
perhaps the timing of it is lining up with what is going on now in Israel at
this time, I don’t know, but God does know.
On my other blog I began eleven days ago going over the introduction to
the book of Daniel, something that I prayed that God would lead me into what
book that I would use to go onto that blog after my study of Acts, and Daniel
is the book that I believe that the Lord desires me to use. I am doing that a bit different than what I
usually do on that blog as I usually go over older Spiritual Diaries that have
been posted on this blog and go over them perhaps correcting some spelling
errors and then put them on that second blog.
This time I am using two sermons that John MacArthur preached in the fall
of 1979 to give his introduction to Daniel, and then will go back to what I
wrote beginning in March of 2013. I just
pray as always that the Lord will use the Spiritual Diaries that I write to be
used of the Holy Spirit to bring glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
11/27/2023 10:43 AM
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