SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/21/2024 8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “Sorrow”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 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 begin this SD by talking about the fact
that none of the gospel authors mentions anything about Satan being involved in
what is going on with the Lord Jesus, but it seems evident that he is
involved. In John 13:27 we read the
following about Judas “After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore
Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly.’” Judas then left the upper room to begin his
betrayal of Jesus, and as we can see Satan entered him at this point. Let us compare now the temptations that Jesus
had at the beginning of His ministry with what He is going through now. MacArthur writes “Satan tempted Jesus to
demand His rights, first for food, then for protection, and finally for
sovereignty over the world. Now he
tempted the Son of God again to demand His rights. Jesus did not deserve to suffer, much less to
die. He deserved honor, glory, and
reverence, not the cross. Why, the devil perhaps whispered in Jesus’ ear,
should the Author of justice be submitted to such gross injustice? Why should the Creator of life be submitted
to the ignominy of death? He called
Jesus to revolt against God and thus disqualify Himself from being the
sacrifice for sin and the destroyer of Satan, death, and hell.
“In
all of those temptations—in the wilderness, in the garden, and throughout Jesus’
earthly life—Satan sought to make Him disobey God and to rebel as he had
done. He knew that in Christ’s obedience
to the Father was his (Satan’s) own destruction. Therefore the intent of every temptation of
Jesus was to lead Him away from the cross God had planned. It was when Peter brazenly declared that
Jesus would never be crucified that the Lord said to him, ‘Get behind Me,
Satan!’ (Matt. 16:23). Although Peter’s
desire was to protect His Master, nothing he said could have been more contrary
to his Master’s will and work, or more supportive of Satan’s effort.”
Here
is what Jesus said after He dismissed the Satan-filled Judas from the upper
room “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is
coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30).
It seems that Jesus was speaking about the intense conflict with Satan
He would soon experience in the garden, and this is where the ruler of the
world makes his final onslaught. Just as
in the wilderness, where Satan would engulf Jesus in three waves of great
temptation, each designed for the single purpose of causing Him to avoid the
cross, in open revolt against God, which would prevent the work of salvation
and leaving all men under the damnation of hell. Now as I think about that statement it surely
means much to me, and it gives me much to be thankful and grateful for that
Jesus did not subsume to the temptation of Satan. I know that there is no way that Jesus, being
God could do that, but I also know that this temptation that He was going through
was the most intense temptation any one has ever gone through.
One
more quotation from MacArthur commentary and I will be done with this SD,
leaving me one more day to finish this rather long section that we have been
going over for now five days.
“From
the time of Jesus’ arrest until His death, Satan seemed to have the upper hand
in the events, but that was both temporary and by divine allowance. Jesus told the chief priests and officers of
the Temple when they came to arrest Him, ‘This hour and the power of darkness
are yours’ (Luke 22:53). That was Satan’s
hour, and by the Father’s permission he attacked the Son with the full power of
his malevolence. Satan’s purpose was to
induce Jesus to compromise His holiness and to relinquish submission to the
Father and thereby deflect Him from the cross.
God’s purpose, on the other hand, was to prove the Son’s righteousness
and to demonstrate the Son’s power over the severest temptations Satan could devise. Scripture nowhere teaches that Satan plotted
to kill Jesus; rather, His death was by God’s foreordained plan (cf. Acts
2:22-23), which Satan wanted to thwart.
Once it became apparent that he could not prevent the Lord’s death,
Satan did all he could to make that death permanent. And when he failed at that, and Jesus arose,
he inspired a conspiracy to deny His resurrection (see Matt. 28:11-15).”
“11 Now
while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported
to the chief priests all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with
the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the
soldiers, 13 and said, "You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and
stole Him away while we were asleep.’ 14 "And if this should come to the
governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble." 15 And
they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was
widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”
I
never could understand how these guards knew that the disciples came and took
Jesus’ body away when they were all asleep.
5/21/2024 9:22 AM
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