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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