SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/6/2024 7:44 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matthew 26:1-16
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 26:1-16
Message of the verses: “1 When Jesus had
finished all these words, He said to His disciples, 2 "You know that after
two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over
for crucifixion." 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people
were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas; 4 and they plotted together to seize Jesus by
stealth and kill Him. 5 But they were saying, "Not during the festival,
otherwise a riot might occur among the people." 6 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home
of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly
perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table. 8 But
the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why
this waste? 9 “For this perfume might have been sold for a high price
and the money given to the poor." 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said
to them, "Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.
11 “For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me. 12
"For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for
burial. 13 "Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the
whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of
her."14 Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief
priests 15 and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to
you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him. 16 From then on
he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.”
John MacArthur entitles this 11th chapter
of his fourth commentary on Matthew “Preparing for Christ’s Death.” Yesterday when I was about to take my walk I
was looking forward to listening to the sermon by MacArthur that goes along
with this chapter, but when I looked on my phone it was not there and I don’t
know why it was not there. Needless to
say that I was disappointed, but I did listen to the next message and he always
gives a review of the previous message.
These
last three chapters of Matthew and for that matter the last chapters of any of
the gospels are difficult for me to read and study because I know that Christ
will die on the cross, and yet that sadness does bring joy because of the fact
that His death paid not only for my sins, but for the sins of the whole world,
past, present, and future sins. Not only
that for after He was buried for three days He arose from the grave which was
proof that God the Father had accepted the sacrifice that He had just
made. By being dead in the tomb for
three days, wrapped in grave clothes that from what I remember when studying
this weighed around 100 pounds so even though some say that He was not dead, He
was dead and went to the place where the dead was to proclaim that salvation
had been paid for. I believe that at the
moment of His resurrection that those who were in what the Bible calls Abraham’s
bosom that those saved persons were then transported to heaven leaving only the
non-believers to occupy that place. I
have mentioned that there is no one in hell at this time, but those who are in
that place I am discussing will one day go into Hell right after the Great
White Throne Judgment spoken of by John in the book of Revelation.
John
MacArthur writes at the beginning of this chapter “Chapter 26 begins the last
and most pivotal section of Matthew’s presentation of the gospel. Everything else has been a prologue, an introduction
to the great conclusion, which focuses on the cross of Jesus Christ—the culmination
of the gospel and the culmination of redemptive history, the only eternal hope
of fallen mankind.
“The
hymn writer John Bowring exulted,
In
the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring
o’re the wrecks of time.
All
the light of sacred story
Gathers
round its head subline.
“Everything
in the sacred story of God’s redemptive plan does indeed center on the cross,
apart from which no other revelation or work of God would have any ultimate
value for sinful man. It is through the
cross of Christ alone that the Lord has provided the way for sinners to be
saved and united with Him, the holy God.
There is no salvation, no gospel, no biblical Christianity apart from
the cross of Christ. It is because he
unequivocally believed that central biblical truth Paul could tell the
Corinthians, ‘I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and
Him crucified’ (1 Cor. 2:2).”
4/6/2024 8:09 AM
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