SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/10/2024 10:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Jesus’ Omniscience”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
26:31-32
Message of the verses: “31 Then Jesus said
to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is
written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE
SCATTERED.’ 32 "But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to
Galilee.’”
Jesus
is saying that in the broadest sense, the sheep that would be scattered will be
Israel, and that is because Israel as a nation rejected and crucified her
Messiah. We know that Jerusalem and the
Temple were destroyed in 70 A. D. which was a result of Israel rejecting their
Messiah, and after that they were scattered throughout the world for 2000 years
only to become a nation 76 years ago in four more days as they became a nation
again on May 14, 1948. I have to say
that just like when Israel was taken captive to Babylon and they had a chance
to return in 70 years that many of them did not return, and so today there are
many, many Jews around the world that have chosen not to return to their
nation, and many of them are in the USA.
Now
Jesus is actually referring to the disciples when He says “the sheep.” He said this to them while on the Mount of
Olives, and they were the first group, as it were, representative of and
picturing all those who would be scattered when He, the shepherd, was struck.
Jesus
would immediately encourage the disciples with the assuring words “But after I
have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.’” MacArthur writes “Jesus faced death with
supreme courage because He knew He had supreme power over death. But the disciples were still afraid of death,
and even of imprisonment or humiliation.
Jesus knew He would be raised from the dead by the power of His Father,
just as He had predicted to the Twelve many times before (see Matt. 16:21;
17:9, 23; 20:18-19; cf. Rom. 6:4). Even
more certain than the faith by which Abraham believed God could raise Isaac
from the dead (Heb. 11:17-19) was the divine omniscience of Jesus. By that knowledge our Lord knew His heavenly
Father would raise His only begotten Son from the dead on the third day.”
MacArthur
calls the disciples “hard-headed and weak in faith.” For they should have remembered and believed
those predictions that the Lord had given to them, and they should have
remembered those whom Jesus Himself raised from the dead especially the recent
raising of Lazarus from the dead where Jesus said “I am the resurrection and
the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies” (John 11:25). However fear had eclipsed their memory and it
subdued their belief, something that fear can do to a person, even a true
believer in Christ.
Now one thing that we know that Jesus had was
infinite patience and in that Jesus told them again that He would be raised and
that He would then go before them to Galilee and He would meet them there. MacArthur writes “That, of course, is exactly
what He did. Outside the garden tomb,
the angel told the two Mary’s, “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has
risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you
will see Him” (Matt. 28:27). When the
resurrected Lord appeared to the two women a few moments later, He repeated the
promise and the instruction (v. 10).
Sometime later “the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the
mountain which Jesus had designated. And
when they saw Him, the worshiped Him” (vv. 16-17). Matthew’s inspired record of the disciples’
tragic weakness clearly affirms the omniscience of the Lord Jesus.”
Lord
willing, we will look tomorrow at “The Disciples’ Ignorance” from Matthew
26:33-35).
5/10/2024 10:55 AM
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