Tuesday, August 20, 2024

PT-5 "The Religious Wicked" (Matt. 27:41-44)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2024 8:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-5 “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.’”

 

As I begin this SD I want to again quote a paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary that I used in the last SD as this speaks volumes to me and hopefully to you. 

           

             “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.”

 

            We have been talking about the religious wicked men that are seen in these verses and these men had much to do with religion but nothing to do with God, and that creates a big problem for those who were suppose to be listening to them.  We have the same kind of problems in our world and in our country today.  I could be kind and not mention Joel Osteen but then I would be doing a disservice to those who read this, for he is an example of one like these religious wicked that are mentioned in this section.  We move on now to continue to talk about the religious wicked who were at the cross speaking insults to the Lord as He hung there about to die for them.  It is because these men professed great knowledge of Jesus and presumed to be pleasing to Him, there were the guiltiest of those who participate in Jesus’s death.  Let us now look at John 19:11 “Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.’”  Although they claimed to sit in Moses’ seat, they contradicted what Moses taught, and although they claimed to speak for God, they were in fact the enemies of God.

 

            Let us not look at Zechariah 12:10 “"I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.”  MacArthur writes “In the crucifixion the religious leaders represented all Israelites who hat that time rejected their Messiah and ‘pierced’ Him.  Everyone who rejects Christ shares in the guilt of His crucifixion and of putting Him to open shame, even more so if, like those religious leaders, a person has had special privileges from God and exposure to His truth (Heb. 6:4-6).

 

            “Matthew again mentions (see v. 38) the two robbers… who had been crucified with Him.  As already noted, they took the lead of the chief priests, scribes, and elders in vilifying Jesus, casting the same insult at Him.”

 

            Now I mentioned in an earlier SD that one of these robbers finally stopped his cursing and asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom to which Jesus replied “42 And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" 43 And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise’’ (Luke 23:42-43).

 

            There were many others who would later on come to Christ as their Savior and Lord and be a part of the very early church.  This would happen after Peter’s Spirit-empowered message at Pentecost as these hearers of this sermon “were pierced to the heart, and sto to Peter, and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren what shall we do?’  And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’…So then, those who had received his word were baptized and there were added that day about three thousand souls’ (Acts 2:37-38, 41).”

 

            MacArthur concludes this section and this chapter by writing “By the working of God’s sovereign grace, even some of the scoffing, condemning religious leaders came to salvation during the early days of the church, including ‘a great many of the priests’ (Acts 6:7).”

 

            Lord willing we will begin to look at the introduction to Matthew 27:45-53 “God’s Miraculous commentary on the Cross” in the next SD.

 

8/20/2024 8:51 AM

 

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