SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/29/2024 9:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 "The Animosity of the
Crowd"
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: (Matt.
27:15-23)
Message of the verses: “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!"
I want to begin by writing
about our church services that I attended yesterday as there was one family
that taught the Sunday school class and his son preached both the morning and
evening services. Both worked for a
mission agency called Baptist Mid Missions located near Cleveland, Ohio. The father is the retired president of the
mission, and now his son works there and has for the last three years. The son does a podcast and I will give you
the info in order for you to listen to it.
https://www.bmm.org/serve/send938. There is also a pray938 booklet that one can
get from BMM. I will now insert how I
pray for this which comes from my prayer list that I use at least five days a
week: “27. Pray 938, that is from Matthew 9:38 “"Therefore beseech
the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’” I pray that the Lord will work in the hearts
of His Church to send new missionaries out into the field to do work for the
cause of Christ. I pray for those who
are living in their homes that they too will be ready to give out the good news
of the Gospel to those that the Holy Spirit brings into their lives. Use me to do this in our neighborhood, and
around the world through the blogs that I write.”
I am hopeful that this information will be something that
some of you who read these Spiritual Diaries will use as I believe that if you
do it will bring glory to the Lord.
I
now want to try and complete this section of Scripture that we have been
looking at for the last three days and will begin with a quote from MacArthur’s
commentary. Innocently John MacArthur
had to have a heart valve replaced a couple of weeks ago. He is 85 years old and the report I heard was
that he is doing fine, resting at home.
“It
is possible that Pilate and his wife already had discussed Jesus many times
that week. His triumphal entry was
common knowledge, as were His healing miracles, including the recent raising of
Lazarus just outside Jerusalem. They
knew of His daring and dramatic cleansing of the Temple and probably laughed
over the consternation He caused the chief priests and the Temple merchants by
that act.
“Whatever
the wife’s personal understanding of righteous may have been, she was corrected
in her assessment of this Man, and she suffered greatly because of that awareness
Matthew does not explain the source of her dream, and there is no justification
in insisting it was given directly by God.
“Everything that happened here was according to the predetermined plan
and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). But
although God worked supernaturally through the dream, Pilate’s wife may simply
have been convinced of Jesus’ innocence in her own mind and had the dream as a
result of that concern. In any case, she
was frightened for her husband and insisted that he have no part in Jesus’
condemnation or punishment. In doing so,
she added her attestation to Jesus’ perfection and innocence.”
I
think because of what his wife had just informed him about her dream that this
gave Pilate a compound problem. There
was great pressure for him to release Jesus as he himself felt that Jesus was
innocent and now his wife felt the same way.
Pilate was caught in the middle of this great problem and in the end
would not do the right thing, but in not doing the right thing he would be
fulfilling prophecy that had to be fulfilled in order to bring about salvation
to those who are willing to accept it.
After Pilate got the message from his wife the chief priests and the
elders took advantage of the opportunity and persuaded the multitudes to ask
for Barabbas, and to put Jesus to death.
The governor then realized that he had again underestimated the
craftiness of the Jewish leaders and overestimated the convictions of the
fickle crowd.
Pilate
was actually unaware of what the leaders had managed to accomplish among the
crowd while his attention was turned to his wife’s warning, the still hopeful governor
answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you? There was no hesitation from them as with one
voice they all said, “Let Him be crucified!”
“MacArthur
concludes by writing “The multitude clearly wanted blood, not justice, and even
to the hardened, pagan mind of Pilate their vicious response must have been
blood chilling. Why, what evil has He
done?” he rebutted, again proclaiming the Lord’s innocence before the
world. As he should have known, that question
only inflamed the mob to greater frenzy, causing them to keep shouting all the
more saying, ‘Let Him be crucified!’ Just
as they had done before Herod, but with even greater vehemence, they demanded
nothing less that Jesus’ death.”
7/29/2024 9:50 AM
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