Thursday, July 18, 2024

Intro to "What Shall I Do with Jesus" (Matt. 27:11-26)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/18/2024 9:36 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                  Focus:  Intro to “What Shall I Do with Jesus?”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:11-26

 

            Message of the verses:  11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned Him, saying, "Are You the King of the Jews?" And Jesus said to him, "It is as you say." 12 And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He did not answer. 13 Then Pilate said to Him, "Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?" 14 And He did not answer him with regard to even a single charge, so the governor was quite amazed. 15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the people any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16 At that time they were holding a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" 18 For he knew that because of envy they had handed Him over. 19 While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message, saying, "Have nothing to do with that righteous Man; for last night I suffered greatly in a dream because of Him." 20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. 21 But the governor said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." 22 Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Crucify Him!" 23 And he said, "Why, what evil has He done?" But they kept shouting all the more, saying, "Crucify Him!" 24 When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this Man’s blood; see to that yourselves." 25 And all the people said, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!" 26 Then he released Barabbas for them; but after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.”

 

            The question that is the title of this Spiritual "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" is a question that is on every human heart, and every heart must decide what to do with Him.  The most important and the most inescapable question every human being faces is this on that Pilate asked in this passage which I have highlighted above.

 

            MacArthur writes “Scripture clearly proclaims Jesus as being fully God.  Long before His birth it was divinely predicted that He would be called Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’ (Matt. 1:23; cf. Isa. 7:14).  He was called by divine names, such as ‘the Holy and Righteous One’ (Acts 3:14).  It declares that to know Jesus is to know God the Father (John 8:19; 14:7), to hate Him is to hate the Father (15:23), and to believe in Him is to believe in the Father (Matt. 10:40; John 12:44; 14:1).  It affirms that to see Him is to see the Father (John 14:9), to honor Him is to honor the Father (5:23), and to receive Him is to receive the Father (Mark 9:37).  It proclaims that Jesus is omnipotent (Matt. 28:18), omnipresent (Matt. 28:20), changeless (Heb.13:8), creator of the world (John 1:3), able to forgive sin (Mark 2:5-10), and is to be worshiped as God (Phil. 2:9-11; cf. Matt. 28:9; Heb. 1:6).”

 

            Now looking at the paragraph above we can see the deity of Jesus Christ, but Scripture also tells us that Jesus Christ was human, fully human.  Jesus was born into the world just as every other infant, He was circumcised, Jesus grew in body and mind, and He also experienced hunger, thirst, pain, weariness, temptation, and death.

 

            The following paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary speaks about “The Old testament gave precise details about the coming of the Savior-King.  Among other things, it predicted that in His human life He would be supernaturally conceived (Isa. 7:14), born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2), be Semitic in the line of Abraham and of David (Gen. 9:26, 22:18; 2 Sam. 7:13), be of the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), and would perform miracles (Isa. 35:5-6).  In His death He would be executed by rulers (Ps. 2:1-2), forsaken by God (Ps. 22:1), betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver (Ps. 41:9; Zech. 11:12), and have His beard plucked out and be spit upon (Isa. 50:6).  In His resurrection He would rise in three days (Hos. 6:2), would not experience decay of His flesh (Ps. 16:10), and would conquer death (Isa. 25:8).”

 

            Now I have never found any verses in the Old Testament that spoke of Jesus raising from the dead in three days, and as I look at this quote from MacArthur he speaks of Hos. 6:2 as a reference for the Lord being dead for three days, but it seems that he has changed his mind for in my MacArthur Study Bible and in my wife’s updated study Bible he states that this was not a reference of Jesus being dead for three days. 

 

            It looks like that I will have to do some more research on this.  I want to now look at 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “3  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  Like I said that this has always been somewhat of a mystery to me as to where in the OT that it tells that Jesus would be resurrected in three days. 

 

            I will try and find out more info on this and when I do I will put it on one of my Spiritual Diaries.  Looks like I will need to finish this introduction in my next SD, Lord willing.

 

7/18/2024 10:33 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment