PT-3 "Strength" (Matt. 26:45b-46)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/31/2024 10:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “Strength”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:45b-46

 

            Message of the verses:  “Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

 

            As I was looking at this verse and a half of verse the thought came to me that this is a dividing point in the book of Matthew.  Let me explain what I am thinking about.  Jesus seemed to have His disciples around Him for the most part since around the fifth chapter of Matthew, and now would be the last time that He would have all of them around Him in this way.  The next time would be after His resurrection where He would come to them at different times to show Himself to them, which is different from the times in chapters 5-26:45.  It would be time for the disciples to begin to depend mostly on the power of the Holy Spirit in a new way, in the same way that the Church today is suppose to do.

 

            Now we move onto the verses at hand and see that in Matthew 26:36-46 give the pattern and the sequence of spiritual tragedy, which may be summarized in the words, confidence, sleep, temptation, sin, and disaster.

 

            We have been talking about the self-confidence that the disciples had in stating that they would never leave the Lord, but yet could not even stay awake while He was praying.  This kind of thinking will open the door to temptation.  Now the first step of a believer’s falling into sin is false confidence that he is able to be faithful to the Lord in his own power.  So like the disciples on the Mount of Olives, he is certain he would never forsake Christ or compromise His Word, and they were wrong.

 

            The third step is temptation, which Satan’s system is constantly ready to place in the way of God’s people.  As with Jesus, the temptation appeals to one’s personal rights and calls for rebellion against God. 

 

            Now we move onto the fourth step which is sin, because a believer who is spiritually self confident, who is indifferent to sin, and who does not turn to the Lord for help will for sure fall into sin.  There is no person, not even a true believer that has the capacity within himself to withstand Satan and avoid sin.

 

            Fifth and this is the final one of the sequences is disaster.  Just as temptation that is not resisted in God’s power always leads to sin, sin that is not confessed and cleansed leads to spiritual tragedy.  So the point to me here is to look at Psalm 139:23-24 daily in order to keep a short list of sins that one commits in order to continue to walk with the Lord.  “23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

 

            MacArthur concludes this section by writing “That is the pattern the disciples followed that last night of Jesus’ earthly life and that every believer follows when he does not depend wholly on the Lord.

 

            “But this passage also contains the pattern for spiritual victory, manifested and exemplified by Jesus.  The way of victory rather than tragic defeat is confidence in God rather than self, moral and spiritual vigilance rather than indifference, resisting temptation in God’s power rather than in our own, and holding to obedience rather than to the rebellion of sin.”

 

5/31/2024 11:13 AM

PT-2 "Strength" (Matt. 45b-46)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/30/2024 7:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  PT-2 “Strength”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:45b-46

 

            Message of the verses:  “Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!

 

            I wrote about my love for Israel in our last SD and gave you some portions of from my prayer list and some verses, but I left one important verse out and it is actually three verses written right at the beginning of looking at when God called Abram, later to rename Abraham.  God says the following in Genesis 12:1-3 “1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’” (Italics added)

 

            You can go through history to find out the peoples, and the nations who treated Israel badly just because of who they were and in the end will find that God curses them.  In our study of the book of Matthew I talked about the awful punishment that Judas would receive because of what He did to Christ in betraying Him.  I think that there is another modern day Jew who will, in my opinion will receive great punishment in hell if he does not repent and that would be George Soros, a Jew who has turned His back on the Jews in his effort to make a one world government, something that the Bible prophecies will happen.

 

            John MacArthur writes “the word behold is used to call attention to something.  As Jesus walked back to the three disciples, the men coming to arrest Him were already within sight.  In fact, they arrived ‘while He was still speaking’ (v. 47).  As the approached, Jesus could make out the Roman soldiers from Fort Antonia and the chief priests and elders.  Most clearly of all, He could see Judas, who led the motley contingent.”

 

            Jesus had spent, I suppose, several hours in prayer to His Father where we read that this is the only time in Scripture where He calls God “My Father.”  The Father and the angels who were sent to Him gave Jesus the strength that He needed as He was tempted by Satan who was trying to get Jesus to avoid the cross, and not the temptation was over because of prayer and the strength given to Him by this angel.  Jesus after all was sweating great drops of blood which could have killed Him if not for the strengthening of the angel.  Now the time has come for the Lord to move forward with the most gracious event ever to happen on the face of this earth, and that is that Jesus will soon be sacrificed for the sins of the world, for we read that with sadness Jesus said “The hour is at hand.”  Jesus was not sad because He was unwilling to face the cross but because He was about to become sin.  And His sadness was made the more bitter because His beloved disciples would not stand with Him as He gave His all for them. MacArthur writes “With a strength made even more magnificent by its contrast with their weakness, the Son of Man graciously submitted to being betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

 

            I will now quote two more paragraphs from MacArthur’s commentary and then will, Lord willing try and finish this tomorrow.  “There was nothing more that Jesus needed to do and nothing more the disciples were willing to do.  ‘Arise,’ Jesus therefore said, ‘Let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!’  Rather than being weakened and deterred by the temptations, Jesus became stronger and more resolved; and instead of waiting for His enemies to come to Him, He went out to meet them.

 

            “With the courage of invincibility, Jesus had made the ultimate and final act of commitment to His heaven Father, who He knew would raise Him from the dead on the third day.  As He moved toward the crowd who came to arrest Him, He also resolutely moved toward the cross.  ‘For the joy set before Him [He} endured the cross, despising the shame.’ (Heb. 12:2).”

 

            I just want to say one more time that it was Jesus Christ who was in control of all that is happening during this time when He would be crucified, and not those who thought they were in control, for if they would have been in control Jesus would not have been crucified and died at the exact time the Passover Lambs were slain.

 

5/30/2024 7:38 AM

PT-1 "Strength" (Matt. 26:45b-46)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/29/2024 10:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                      Focus:  PT-1 “Strength”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Matthew 26:45b-46

 

            Message of the verses:  “Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

 

            I have to say that I won’t get too far into looking at these verses today as it has been on my heart to quote a section from my daily prayer list and put it onto one of my Spiritual Diaries, and today is the day.  The part that I am going to put onto this SD has to do with my praying for Israel and the war that is going on over there and has been going on for well over 200 days.

 

9.         Our elected officials:  Father it is your plan for us to have this President, someone we deserve because of the sinfulness of our nation and the backsliding of our churches.  I pray for him that you would work out Your plans through him.  He is our leader so I pray for him.  He is our enemy and so I pray that You would save him.  I continue to pray for Donald Trump as this government is now taking things out on him for doing the right things.  Satan seems to be in control LORD, but LORD, I know You are in control, and in the end will bring justice to all those who are against You.  LORD please save our nation!!  I pray especially for the believers in Ukraine and Russia that You would use them to bring glory to Your name as this war continues. I also pray that You would bless the soldiers of Israel who are in the fight of their lives as they take on Hamas and other Iranian back terrorist groups that are trying to wipe Israel off the map.  I know that You are in control of this and that Israel will not be wiped off the map for they belong to You.  Bless them as they fight against these terrorists.

 

19.  I continue to pray for revival in my life, in my family’s lives, in our church, in our community, and also in our nation.  I pray that those who read the Spiritual Diaries that I write will receive revival from the Holy Spirit as they read them.  Use them for Your glory.

            Needles to say that it is important for me to pray for the nation of Israel, for that is what the Lord desires all believers to do, and the Psalmist say “Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem,” and the question is has there ever been true peace in Jerusalem?  I know that there will be true peace in Jerusalem when their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ returns to the Mount of Olives which is where He rose into heaven from and Zechariah tells us “3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4 In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. 5 You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! 6 In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. 7  For it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light” (Zechariah 14:3-7). 

 

            I guess we will get to looking at strength in our next SD, but this subject is very important to me, that is praying for Israel for Israel is the key to the end times which may come sooner than people suspect will come. 

 

5/29/2024 10:41 AM

 

 

PT-6 "Supplication" (Matt. 26:39-45a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2024 9:18 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-6 “Supplication”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 26:39-45a

 

            Message of the verses:  “Me." 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?”

 

            I have to say that most of today’s SD will be quoted from John MacArthur’s commentary, as I have explained earlier that there are times in his commentary where he just writes a lot between the verses that he is looking at and give great information, so I think it best just to copy what he writes and share it with those who read these SD’s on my internet blog posts.

 

            “The fact that Jesus again…came and found them sleeping indicates that the disciples fell asleep even after He had awakened and admonished them.  Their eyes were heavy, and because they would not seep the Father’s help they found themselves powerless even to stay awake, much less to offer intercession for or consolation to their Master.

 

            After He found the disciples sleeping the second time, Jesus left them again, and went away and prayed a third time.  Although the gospels do not indicate it specifically, it would seem possible that, as already mentioned, Jesus had three sessions of prayer in response to three specific waves of Satanic attack, just as in the wilderness.  It took three attempts for Satan to exhaust his malevolent strategy against the Son of God.  Each time Jesus suffered more extreme torment of soul, but each time He responded with absolute resolution to do the Father’s will.  After the third siege, our Lord said the same thing once more to His heavenly Father, that is, ‘Thy will be done’ (see v. 42).

 

            In these prayers, as in all His others, Jesus gives His followers a perfect example.   Not only do we learn to confront temptation with prayer but we learn that prayer is not a means of bending God’s will to our own but of submitting our wills to His.  If Jesus submitted His perfect will to the Father’s, how much more should we submit our imperfect will to His?  True prayer is yielding to what God wants for and of us, regardless of the cost—even if the cost is death.  The nature or character of our praying in the face of temptation should be to cry out to the Lord for His strength to resist the impulse to rebel against God’s will, which is what all sin is.

 

            “We can be sure that the more sincerely we seek to do God’s will, the more severely Satan will attempt to lure us from it, just as he did with Christ.  And like our Lord, our response should be prayerful, single-minded determination to draw near to God.

 

            “After the third time of supplication Jesus was the victor and Satan was vanquished.  The enemy of His soul was defeated, and Christ remained unscathed in perfect harmony with the will of His Father, calmly and submissively ready to suffer and to die.  And in that death He was prepared to take upon Himself the sins of the world.  If the very Son of God needed to cry out to His heavenly Father in time of temptation and grief, how much more do we?  That was the lesson He wanted the eleven and all His other disciples after them, to learn.

 

            “After the third session of prayer, Jesus came to the disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?’  Even after that two rebukes and heartfelt admonitions from the Lord, the three men were still sleeping.  Their eyes were still heavy (cf. v. 43) because they were controlled by the natural rather than by the spiritual.  They were so totally subject to the flesh and its needs that they were indifferent to the needs of Christ.  They were even indifferent to their own deepest needs, because, just as Jesus had warned a short while before, they were about to be overwhelmed by fear for their own lives and by shame of Christ.  Yet instead of following their Master’ example through agonizing in prayer, the blissfully rested in sleep.

 

            “Jesus was teaching the disciples that spiritual victory goes to those who are alert in prayer and who depend on their heavenly Father.  The other side of that lesson, and the one the disciples would learn first, was that self-confidence and unpreparedness are the way to certain spiritual defeat.”

 

            I have studied the gospels of both Mark and John, but my study of Matthew has enlightened me more on what Christ and His disciples went through in learning than the other two gospels I studied.

 

5/28/2024 9:47 AM

PT-5 "Supplication" (Matt. 26:39-45a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/27/2024 10:01 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-5 “Supplication”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 26:39-45a

 

            Message of the verses:  “39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?”

 

            I don’t think that I will ever understand what the Lord Jesus Christ was going through as seen in these verses.  He definitely had the weight of the world on His shoulders and therefore it was His desire to have His disciples to just stay awake and pray for Him as He went through this great temptation which I believe Satan was the one behind.  It had to break His heart when He said to Peter, but also for the benefit of James and John, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?”

 

            MacArthur writes “Considering the circumstances, the rebuke was especially mild.  It was not Jesus’ purpose to shame the disciples but to strengthen them and teach them their need for divine help.  “Keep watching and praying”  He implored, that you may not enter into temptation.’

 

            The Greek verbs behind keep watching and praying are present imperatives and carry the idea of continuous action, indicated in the NASB by keep.  The need for spiritual vigilance is not occasional but constant.  Jesus was warning His disciples to be discerning enough to know they were in spiritual warfare and to be prepared by God to resist the adversary.  He was warning them of the danger of self-confidence, which produces spiritual drowsiness.

 

            “The only way to keep from being engulfed in temptation is to be aware of Satan’s craftiness and not only to go immediately to our heavenly Father in prayer when we are already under attack but to pray even in anticipation of coming temptation.  Peter perhaps first began to learn that lesson on this night in the garden.  And after serving faithfully as an apostle for many years, he admonished Christians: ‘Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8).  He also gave the assurance however that ‘the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation’ (2 Pet. 2:9).

 

            “We cannot overcome Satan or the flesh by our own power, and we risk serious spiritual tragedy when we think we can.  When a military observer spots the enemy, he does not single-handedly engage him in battle.  He simply reports what he saw and leaves the matter in the commanding officer’s hands.  In the same way, believers dare not attempt to fight the devil but should immediately flee from him into the presence of their heavenly Father.  As our Lord taught, we are to pray for God not to ‘lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ (Matt. 6:13).”

 

            Jesus knew that this would be hard to do as He says “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."  This is such a truthful statement because when a person is born-again they receive the Holy Spirit to live within them to guide them, but the problem is that we are complicated in that we still have the old nature which fights against us doing the right thing, and so it is our “spirit” which is willing to do the right thing, but our flesh which can be greatly tempted by the forces of evil, which is weak, so we are in the need of constant prayer when tempted to do what is wrong.  MacArthur adds “Regenerated people who truly love God have a desire for righteousness and they can claim with Paul that they genuinely want to do good.  But they also confess with Paul that they often do not practice in the unredeemed flesh what their regenerated spirits want them to do.  And, on the other hand, they sometimes find themselves doing things that, in the inner redeemed person, they do not want to do (Rom. 7:15-29).  Like Paul, they discover that ‘the principle of evil is present in [them],’ that there is a law of sin within their fleshly humanness that wages war against the law of righteousness in their redeemed minds (vv. 21:23).’”

 

            Paul goes on to say that in light of that troublesome and continuing conflict as he lamented, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”  He then goes on to answer his own question by writing “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin (vv. 24-25).  This shows us that the only source of victory is the power of Jesus Christ.

 

            I am not sure but perhaps I can finish this rather long section in the next SD.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The only source of victory is the power of Jesus Christ!

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:   I am trusting the Lord to find a doctor for my wife which will prescribe an MRI so that we can find out what is going on with the rapid loss of her hearing.  This is something that is troublesome to both of us, especially her as it could be very serious.

Prayers are appreciated greatly!

 

5/27/2024 10:38 AM

 

           

PT-4 "Supplication" (Matt. 26:39-45a"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/26/2024 7:26 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-4 “Supplication”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Matthew  26:39-45a

 

            Message of the verses: “39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?”

 

            The following is something that I find very interesting, and it has to do with who Jesus Christ really is as He is 100% God and 100% human and so Jesus knew that His disciples would be sleeping  when He returned to them He found them sleeping.  The point I am trying to make is that even though Jesus found them sleeping because of His deity He knew that they would be sleeping, but because of His humanness it still hurt Him that they could not stay awake to watch and pray with him in the last hours of His life.

 

            When one goes back and looks at what is called the “transfiguration” found in Luke 9:28, and 32 they will see that the disciples were also sleeping at the moment to. Now they were sleeping at the moment of the greatest spiritual conflict in the history of the world.  These three were oblivious to the agony and need of their Lord.  However despite His warnings of their abandonment and of Peter’s denial, they felt no need to be alert, much less to seek God’s strength and protection.  MacArthur writes (How we can thank the Lord for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who continually prays for us!  See Rom. 8:26-27.)”  “26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27  and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

 

            MacArthur explains the following:  “It was probably after midnight, and the need for sleep at that hour was natural.  Jesus and the disciples had had a long and eventful day, and the they had just finished a large meal and walked perhaps a mile or so from the upper room to the Mount of Olives.  But even the disciples’ limited and confused perception of His imminent ordeal and of their desertion of Him that He had predicted should have motivated and engerized them enough to stay awake with Him at this obviously grave time.

 

            “In fairness, it should be noted that sleep is often a means of escape, and the disciples may have slept more out of frustration, confusion, and depression than apathy.  They could not bring themselves to face the truth that their dear friend and Lord, the promised Messiah of Israel, not only would suffer mockery and pain at the hands of wicked men but would even be put to death by them.  As a physician, Luke perhaps was especially diagnostic in viewing their emotional state, and he reports that, as we might expect, they were ‘sleeping from sorrow’ (22:45).

 

            “But even that reason did not excuse their lack of vigilance.  They did not fully believe Jesus’ predictions of His death and of their desertion primarily because they did not want to believe them.  Had they accepted Jesus’ word at face value, their minds and emotions would have been far too exercised to allow sleep.

 

            “The startling events and controversies of the last few days—the institution of the Lord’s Super, Jesus’ repeated predictions of His suffering and death, the prediction of their fleeing in the time of trial, and the obvious anguish He now experienced—should have provided more than sufficient motivation and energy to keep them awake.  But it did not.  Had they sought the Father’s help in prayer as Jesus did and as He exhorted them to do, they not only would have stayed awake but would have been given the spiritual strength and courage they so desperately needed.”

 

            With that we will, Lord willing pick up more in the next SD.  This is a very long section in MacArthur’s commentary as he has much to say about these verses.

 

5/26/2024 7:54 AM

PT-3 "Supplication" (Matt. 26:39-45a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/25/2024 8:43 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-3 “Supplication”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 26:39-45a

 

            Message of the verses:  “39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and *said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?”

 

            I want to begin to talk about the following "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.”  Now by the Lord asking “if it is possible,” Jesus did not wonder if escaping the cross was within the realm of possibility.  Jesus knew that He could walk away from death at any time that He chose to.  “I lay down My life that I may take it up again,” Jesus explained to the unbelieving Pharisees.  “No one has take it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18).  What Jesus was asking here if avoiding the cross were possible within the Father’s redemptive plan and purpose.  The agony of becoming sin was becoming unendurable for the sinless Son of God, and so He wondered aloud before His Father if there could be another way to deliver men from sin.  The humanness of our Lord surely can be seen in these requests that He is asking His Father, and this shows that Jesus Christ was truly both human and God, 100% both, and don’t ask me to explain that.

 

            MacArthur writes “God’s wrath and judgment are often pictured in the Old Testament as a cup to be drunk (see, e. g., Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17: Jer. 49:12).  This cup symbolized the suffering Jesus would endure on the cross, the cup of God’s fury vented against all the sins of mankind, which the Son would take upon Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God.

 

            “As always with Jesus, the determining consideration was God’s will.  ‘I did not speak on My own initiative,’ He declared, ‘but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak’ (John 12:49; cf. 14:31; 17:8).  He therefore said submissively, ‘Yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt.’  This conflict between what I will and what Thou wilt reveal the reality of the amazing fact that Jesus was truly being tempted.  Though sinless and unable to sin, He clearly could be brought into the real conflict of temptation (see Heb. 4:14).”  “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

 

            In the next SD we will see what happens when the Lord goes back to find His three disciples still sleeping.  5/25/2024 9:07 AM

PT-2 "Supplication" (Matt. 26:39-45a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/24/2024 9:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “Supplication”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:39-45a)

 

            Bible Reading & Meditation:  “39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and *said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?”

 

            I want to begin by talking about something personal.  Yesterday, May 23^rd, 2024 began with me going to the doctor’s office and getting some pre-cancer cells taken of my face, neck, and head.  I went home and began my 5 mile walk, and then came in and cut the grass.  After that I took my wife to the doctors as here hearing has been going bad.  This is where the potential bad news was given to us.  Her hearing went downhill very fast and the doctor told me that she will need an MRI, and after investigating a little I came to the conclusion that this could be a very bad problem.  Yesterday was also the anniversary of my father’s passing back 23 years ago.  I realize that the Lord is in total control of all that is going on, and that comforts me, but I have to say that I am hurting very much at this time.  Prayers will certainly help!

 

            Now back to our lesson from these verses that we began to look at yesterday. 

 

            I mentioned that when we look at verse 42 is seeing the words “My Father,” that this is the only time that Jesus ever used this term.  He had called Him Father before, but never “My Father,” as this intensified the intimacy.  The more Satan tried to divert Jesus from His Father’s will and purpose, the more closely Jesus drew into His Father’s presence.  We can look at Mark’s writing as he added that Jesus also addressed Him as “Abba! Father!” (Mark 14:36), Abba being an Aramaic word of endearment roughly equivalent to “Daddy,” and this is such an address that would have been unthinkably presumptuous and blasphemous to the Jews.

 

            I have to say that with what that is going on in my life with the problem that my wife is having that I believe that my Spiritual Diaries are going to be much shorter than before.  Sunday will be the last Sunday school class that I will be teaching, as I made that decision a couple of weeks ago and have had to rush my lessons in the book of Zechariah in order to finish it before the first of June as our class will be joining another class for the summer, and then I don’t know what will happen with our class.  My prayer is that the Lord will provide another teacher for our class. 

 

            As I look at what Jesus was going through in His preparation to go to the cross, and how He is so interment with His Father it makes me so much more confident of how much he loves me and also my wife who is truly a believer that I know that He will see us through this very difficult time in our lives for I can call on my heavenly Father to aid me just like He was help to His Son.

 

5/24/2024 9:49 AM

 

PT-1 "Supplication" (Matt. 26:39-45a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/23/2024 7:47 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-1 “Supplication”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                          Reference:  (Matthew 26:39-45a)

 

            Message of the verses:  “39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." 40 And He came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done." 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?’”

 

            Today we begin another long section which will take a few days to get through.  These are very important verses to understand, in order for us to better see what the Lord Jesus Christ went through in paying for the sins of the world, but remember God has no grandchildren, only children as each person has to understand that they are a sinner, born a sinner, and on their own can do nothing about it, but through the blood of Jesus Christ which He shed on the cross for sin, can accept that forgiveness that He has to offer.  You can pray something like this in order to be sure of heaven.  “Lord I know that I am a sinner, and because of that I sin and am in need of your forgiveness.  I realize that on my own I can do nothing to take care of this sin problem.  I realize that You died on the cross in order to pay for my sin, and so Lord I invite You into my life to forgive me of all of my sins, past, present, and future.  I desire to walk with You, to serve You in the way that You have designed me to do this.  Thank You Lord Jesus for dying for me, help me to live for you from now on.”

 

            Now we begin this long section where we see the prayer that the Lord prayed to His Father.  Now we see in verse 39 Jesus said My Father, and most of the time Jesus would say “Father,” but because of the situation He was in He said My Father. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “These verses focus alternately on Jesus’ supplication to His heavenly Father and on the three disciples’ falling asleep.  On the one hand is Jesus’ intense, self-giving desire to do His Father’s will, even to the point of becoming sin to save sinners and by prayer to deal with temptation cast at Him.  On the other hand is the disciples’ indifferent, self-centered inability to watch and to comfort the conflict and danger with intercession on their Lord’s behalf.  While Jesus, understanding the power of the enemy, retreated to prayer, they retreated to sleep.”

 

            MacArthur goes on to talk about what I mentioned about what He called His Father, and with this quotation I will end this first SD on this subject of “Supplication.”

 

            “Again going a little beyond the three disciples, Jesus fell on His face and prayed to His Father.  Except at the time when He quoted Psalm 22:1 as He cried out from the cross, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’  (Matt. 27:46), Jesus always addressed God as Father.  In do doing He expressed an intimacy with God that was foreign to the Judaism of His day and that was anathema to the religious leaders.  They thought of God as Father in the sense of His being progenitor of Israel, but not in the sense of His being a personal Father to any individual.  For Jesus to address God as His Father was blasphemy to them, and ‘for this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God’ (John 5:18).”

 

5/23/2024 8:10 AM

PT-6 "Sorrow" (Matthew 26:36-38)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2024 10:39 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  PT-6 “Sorrow”

 

My Worship Time                                                                                   Focus:  Matthew 26:36-38

 

            Message of the verses:  “36 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.’”

 

            I want to talk about the phrase “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.”  The question is can a person get so grieved and die from it?  The answer is yes and we see in the other gospel accounts that angels had to come and minister to Jesus because of this grief.  I have a movie at home entitled “Undaunted” which tells the story of the early life of Josh McDowell, and his early life was a huge challenge, especially for his mother.  His mother was a very big woman and his father was a drunk.  When people came over to their house they had to tie up his father in the barn because he was a drunk.  There was a man how sexually abused him when he was young which also was part of the problem.  All his mother wanted for him was to see him graduate from high school, and once he did his mother because of her deep grief just died.  Many know the story of Josh McDowell’s turning to Christ as he became a strong believer and has wrote many books and spoke at many different conferences.  Two things happened after the death of his mother.  The first one was that his drunken father became a believer, and this actually upset Josh because of all the harm he had done to his wife.  Second was that he confronted the man who had abused him to make sure that he would not do that again.  The story in the town that he lived in was that his drunken father had became a believer in Jesus Christ and was telling others how they too could be saved.  The point I am making is that deep grief can cause death.

 

            Now back to some quotations from John MacArthur as I desire to complete this section this morning.  “It is therefore hardly surprising that Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death.’  Perilupos carries the idea of being surrounded by sorrow.  It is possible to die from sorrow just as from other strong emotions, such as fright and anger.  Jesus’ anguish was enough to kill Him and doubtlessly would have done so had He not been divinely preserved for another kind of death.

 

            “The agony of this temptation was unequaled.  It was Jesus’ most intense struggle with Satan, more agonizing even than the encounter in the wilderness.  The magnitude of His grief apparently caused Jesus’ subcutaneous capillaries to dilate and burst.  As the capillaries burst under the pressure of deep distress and blood escaped through the pores of His skin, it mingled with His sweat, falling down upon the ground’ (Luke 22:44).  It was to this experience, no doubt, that the writer of Hebrews referred in saying that Jesus ‘offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death’ (Heb. 5:7).

 

            “Jesus was not grieved because of fear He would succumb to Satan’s temptations.  As mentioned above, He had already declared that Satan ‘has nothing in Me,’ meaning that there was no sin or evil in Him in which temptation could take root.  Nor was He grieved over a possibility of not conquering sin or surviving death.  He had repeatedly spoken of His coming resurrection and even of His ascension.  There was no doubt of our Lord’s mind about the outcome of the cross, by which He would become victor over sin, death, and the devil.  Jesus was deeply grieved, to the point of death because of His having to become sin.  That was the unbearably excruciating prospect that made Him sweat great drops of blood.  Holiness is totally repulsed by sin.  The prophet Habakkuk revealed this when he wrote, Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor’ (Hab. 1:13).

 

            In that deep sorrow Jesus knew His only solace was with His heavenly Father, and with each wave of temptation and anguish He retreated to a place of seclusion some distance away (see vv. 36, 39, 42).  Luke reports that ‘He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw’ (Luke 22:41), which amounted to thirty to fifty yards.  The intensity of temptation and of Jesus’ prayer response increased with each of the three sessions and is reflected in the positions the Lord took.  At first He knelt (Luke 22:41), but as the intensity escalated He fell prostrate on His face (Matt. 26:39).

 

            While He went to be alone with His father, Jesus asked His three dear friends to keep watch with Him, leaving them not only to watch but also to pray in view of temptation (see v. 41), just as He would be doing.”

 

            We have finally reached the end of this section and I have to say that this part of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ has brought new meaning to my heart.  Now human being will ever be able to understand what the Lord Jesus Christ went through while He was in the garden praying to His Father.

 

5/22/2024 11:24 AM