SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/18/2024 8:49 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Religious Wicked”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
27:41-44
Message of the verses: “41 In the same way
the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him
and saying, 42 "He saved others; He
cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the
cross and we will believe in Him. 43 “HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE Him
now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’" 44 The
robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same
words. 45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the
ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE
YOU FORSAKEN ME?" 47 And some of those who were standing there, when they
heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah.’”
I will begin with a quote from John MacArthur’s
commentary as he writes “The Chief priests and the scribes and elders represented
the entire religious leadership of Israel, including the reigning and the
retired high priests and the Pharisees and Sadducees, all of whom resolutely opposed
Jesus and sought His destruction.
Although its hearings and condemnation of Jesus were illegal by its own
standards as well as by Mosaic law, the supreme ruling council of Israel, the
Sanhedrin, fully approved the ultimate and irreversible decision to put Jesus to
death (26:59: Mark 15:1).
“Those men were the religious authorities and the
supposed spiritual leaders of Judaism.
Many of them, such as the scribes, had devoted their lives to the study
of God’s Word and rabbinical traditions.
Because Judaism was rightly seen as the only true religion, these men
were held to be the most revered religious men not only in Israel but in the
world. If any group of people should
have known God’s truth and opposed and recognized and received the Messiah, it
was those men. Yet they not only opposed
and condemned Jesus themselves but enticed the people to support them in their
wicked rejection of Him.
“Perhaps because they felt above addressing Jesus
directly as He hung like a criminal on the cross, the leaders spoke to the
crowds as they were mocking Him and saying,
42 "He saved others; He cannot save
Himself. In saying that Jesus saved others, those men again acknowledged the
reality of His miracles, which they had never been able to deny. They criticized Him for healing ‘On the
Sabbath’ (Mark 3:2) and accused Him of receiving His miraculous power from
Satan (Matt. 12:34), but the reality of His miracle-working power was far too
obvious and extensive to repudiate. But
because He attacked their apostasy and they were convinced that God was on
their side, the religious leaders were also convinced that Jesus was not of God
and therefore could not now save Himself.”
The point here is that He could save Himself, but that was not the plan
of God. Think about the struggles that
Jesus had as He was praying to His Father about what was to take place with Him
as He was to suffer and die on the cross for the sins of the world. He struggled so much that He was sweating
great drops of blood, which could have killed Him right there, but angels came
and ministered to Him. I truly believe
that there were two big reasons for His struggles, and the first one was that
He would be separated from His Father, and the second on was that He would be
made sin so that His Father could take out the punishment on Him that was due
me and everyone else. “There is not
greater love than that one would lay down his life for another.” That was what caused Jesus to go forth and
receive the punishment from the Jewish leaders, but most of all by His Father
during those three dark hours while He was on the cross.
MacArthur continues” If He is the
King of Israel, as He claims, they continued, let Him now come down from the
cross, and we shall believe in Him.
“That declaration, of course, was
knowingly false and meant only as a taunt.
They had not believed Jesus either for the truths He taught or for the
miracles He performed. If He came down
from the cross, they would not believe Him, any more than they believed Him
when He rose from the dead, just as Abraham had declared in Jesus’ story about
Lazarus (Luke 16:30-31). One more miracle
or a dozen more, would not have persuaded them to believe Him.
“The only kind of power, natural or supernatural,
with which those religious leaders were concerned was that which would serve their
own expectations and interests. It would
seem certain that, if Jesus had used His power to conquer Rome and establish
Israel as the supreme nation on earth as most Jews expected, those leaders and
most other Jews would have followed Him enthusiastically. But they would not have believed in Him as
Lord and Savior but only given Him the superficial loyalty necessary to achieve
their own ends—just as His nominal followers had done throughout history and
continue to do today.”
Now really pay attention for this
last quotation from MacArthur that I will use today. “Jesus was not their kind of Messiah, and
they had no desires to follow Him in the way He demanded. They did not want to be made righteous but
successful. They did not want to be
cleansed but selfishly satisfied. They
did not want to give up anything for God but wanted from Him only the worldly,
material advantages they cherished. When
they realized Jesus offered no such favors, they had no more use for Him.”
Now
I want to quote a parable that Jesus quoted that goes along with what this last
paragraph means to me. 4 When a large
crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to
Him, He spoke by way of a parable: 5 "The sower went out to sow his seed;
and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and
the birds of the air ate it up. 6 "Other seed fell on rocky soil,
and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 "Other
seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it
out. 8 "Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and
produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He
would call out, "He
who has ears to hear, let him hear’ (Luke 8:4-8). 11 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the
word of God. 12 “Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil
comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe
and be saved. 13 "Those on the
rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and
these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of
temptation fall away. 14 "The seed
which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go
on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this
life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 "But the seed in the good soil,
these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and
hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance” (Luke 8:11-15).
8/18/2024 9:43 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment