Saturday, June 15, 2024

PT-3 "The Defection of the Disciples" (Matt. 26:55-56)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/15/2024 9:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-3 “The Defection of the Disciples”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:55-56

 

            Message of the verses:  55 At that time Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. 56 "But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets." Then all the disciples left Him and fled.”

 

            I want to finish quoting from MacArthur’s commentary on what he wrote that goes along with these verses.  Lord willing tomorrow we will begin looking at the remaining verses in chapter 26 of Matthew.  I listened to the sermons that MacArthur preached on those remaining verses yesterday while taking my walk, and so by doing that it gives me a better idea of what we will be looking at beginning tomorrow.

 

            “The exact reason for the multitude’s temporary immobility is not revealed, but doubtless it was caused by the overwhelming power of Christ.  Although the Jews in the group would have associated Jesus’ words with the name of God, on a previous occasion when He claimed that name for Himself they were enraged rather than fearful and tried to stone Him to death (John 8:58-59).  And that name would have had no significance at all to the 600 Roman soldiers.  In addition, it seems almost certain that many of the men in that huge crowd could not hear what Jesus was saying.  Therefore their instantly and involuntarily falling to the ground as on man was not caused so much by fear as by a direct, miraculous burst of power of God.  It was as if the Father were declaring in action what He had previously declared in words ‘This is my beloved Son’ (Matt. 3:17; 17:5).  The multitude was able to rise only when God’s restraining hand was lifted.

 

            “Perhaps while they were still lying dazed and perplexed on the ground, Jesus again ‘asked them, ‘Whom do you seek?’’ and they again replied, Jesus the Nazarene’ (John 18:7).  He then said, ‘I told you that I am He; if therefore you seek Me, let these go their way’ (v. 8), referring to the disciples.

 

            “The multitude that night reacted to being cast to the ground much as the homosexuals of Sodom reacted to being struck blind.  Those wicked men were so consumed by their sexual perversion that even in blindness they persisted to point of exhaustion, futilely trying to satisfy their lust (Gen. 19:11).  In a similar way the men who came to arrest Jesus were so bent on their ungodly mission that they crawled up out of the dirt as if nothing had happened, determined at all costs to carry out their wicked scheme.  Though not to the degree of being indwelt by Satan as was Judas, the entire multitude was subservient to the prince of this world.

 

            “Jesus had already unmasked the duplicity and cowardice of the leaders of the multitude when He asked why they had not arrested Him earlier in the week.  He not only had been in Jerusalem every day but had been the focus of public attention on several occasions, most notably when He entered the city triumphantly and when He cleansed the Temple of the money changers and sacrifice merchants.

 

            “In His confrontation with Judas, the Lord also demonstrated His majesty and His sovereignty.  He not only had predicted Judas’s betrayal but had declared that even that vile act would fulfil God’s prophecy (Matt. 26:21, 24).  When the moment of arrest came, He faced it without resistance, anger, or anxiety.  He was as perfectly confident of following His Father’s plan and of being under His Father’s care at that moment as when He performed His greatest miracles or was transfigured on the mountaintop.

 

            “In His confrontation with Peter and the other disciples, Jesus demonstrated His perfect faithfulness in face of their utter faithlessness.  While they demonstrated their absence of trust in the Son, the Son demonstrated His absolute trust in His Father.”

 

            Now as I look back at what the Lord went through during His prayers to the Father, while the disciples were sleeping, that there came a point during those prayers that He prayed to His Father that Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit overcame what Satan was tempting Him not to do, that is dying on the cross, that Jesus became ready to do the word of redemption.  What I am trying to say was that Jesus was ready to do the work that was planned for Him to do before the foundation of the earth.  What Jesus was about to do was the most important act that was ever done, for without His sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of sins there would never be anyone saved.  Even those in the section of Sheol that were with Abraham would not have been saved if Jesus did not go to the cross and offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin.  Yes Jesus was ready and what He is about to go through will be the hardest thing that He ever went through while on planet earth.  It was not just the physical pain He would go through that would be the worst for Him, but those dark hours while on the cross that He would be separated from His Father is what He was dreading the most, for that had never happened before, nor will it happen again.

 

6/15/2024 9:46 AM

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