SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/15/2024 9:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Fickle Wicked”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
27:39-40
Message of the verses: “39 And those passing
by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, "You who are
going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If
You are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
I
did not intend to do all of that writing in the last SD, but it seemed to me
that what I wrote was what the Lord desired me to write, and so it seemed very
important to write about all of the prophecies that were being fulfilled, and
others that I think in the near future will be fulfilled.
MacArthur
continues in his commentary on these verses by writing “As they passed by
beneath the cross they were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads. The verb behind hurling abuse is in the imperfect
tense, indicating repeated, continuous defamation. To emphasize their disdain, they were also wagging
their heads in mockery, and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days save Yourself!”
Just as David had predicted some thousand years earlier, those who
looked on the Messiah sneered at Him, mocked Him, and wagged their heads,
saying, in essence, ‘Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; let Him
rescue him, because He delights in him’ (Ps. 22:7-8).” Now let me quote those verses from the NASB95
“7 All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
8 “Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him,
because He delights in him."
Now back to MacArthur’s quotation from his
commentary: You who are going to destroy
the temple and rebuild it in three days referred to the testimony of the false
witnesses during the hearing before Caiaphas.
Misusing a statement Jesus had made almost three years earlier referring
to His death and resurrection (see John 2:19-21), those witnesses accused Him
of claiming power to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple in three days (Matt. 26:61). ‘If
You could really do such a miraculous thing as that,’ His tormentors were
saying, ‘surely You can save yourself from death now. If You are the Son of God, come down from the
cross.’” Now just a personal note about
building the Jerusalem Temple, I think that it is possible the when the
Millennial kingdom begins that Jesus Christ may indeed build that Millennial temple
in three days. Ezekiel 40-48 gives a description
of the city and the temple and all of that kind of things but I must say that
it is difficult to understand all of it, but worth reading and studying it.
Back to MacArthur’s commentary: “While Pilate was listening to the warning
sent by his wife, the chief priests and elders had been inciting the multitude
to demand the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus, perhaps telling
them of His claims to rebuild the Temple and to be the Son of God (see Matt.
27:19-20). Some of those people were now
throwing the accusations in Jesus’ face as He was suspended on the cross. It was not enough that He was dying in
agony. The wicked, mindless, heartless,
and fickle crowd had changed in a few days from acclaiming Jesus as the Messiah
to condemning Him as a blasphemer.” Now
I wrote a bit about this earlier stating that the reason that many of those
people who were cheering Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem on what we call Psalm
Sunday were looking for the Messiah who would take over Rome, which He will do
when He returns seen in the 19th chapter of Revelation, but missed
the fact that the suffering Messiah was now here to die for their sins so that
they could be saved by accepting His suffering and death as in three hours of
darkness on the cross the Father would turn His back on His Son and punish sin
so that all who accept what Jesus did could be saved from their sins and live
with Him in eternity.
MacArthur goes on:
“Many people today are like them.
They may have been raised in the church, heard the truths of the gospel
many times, and know that Jesus Christ claimed to be the Son of God. They may have been baptized, made a
profession of faith, and attended church regulary for a while. But because Jesus does not fulfill their
worldly, selfish expectations they lose interest in the things of God. They may be quite willing to have the church
attack evils in society but are quite unwilling to be confronted with their own
sin and need for repentance and forgiveness.
In effect, they mock and sneer at Jesus as they turn their backs on His
truth, His righteousness, and His lordship.
The world is full of passers-by who once praised Jesus but now ridicule
Him.”
We have one more section in this chapter, this difficult
chapter which speaks of the sufferings that the Lord Jesus Christ went through
in order to pay for my sin and your sin.
8/15/2024 8:41 AM
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