PT-7 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/120/2024 8:55 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-7 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            One of the things that I love about the study of God’s Word is the prophetic aspect that is in it, and this shows to me that the Bible, the Word of God is absolutely true.  We can see this aspect as we continue looking at Joseph of Arimathea and what he was doing with the body and burial of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now before I look at that I want to talk about death and in particular the death of Jesus Christ.  What happened to Jesus after He died, for it was just His body that died.  I think that He death was a different kind of death than the death of a believer in that He had paid for the sins of the world, and when a believer dies it is like falling asleep and waking up right away in the arms of Jesus. 

 

            I think that it is best to just quote a paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary for best understanding what Joseph had to do in order to get, prepare, and bury the Lord Jesus’s Christ’s body.  “Joseph did not hurry because he was afraid of violating the Sabbath.  He had already defiled himself for Sabbath observance by going into the Praetorium to see Pilate and was about to defile himself further by handling the dead body of Jesus.  He operated with haste because, like every other participant in this great drama, he was being moved under God’s divinely ordained and scripturally predicted power and according to His timetable.”  Now as we think about this, the truth is that once the Lord’s Supper was completed with Jesus and His disciples that this ended the Jewish celebration of the Passover, for Jesus and His disciples celebrated the very last Passover, and then celebrated the very first Lord’s Supper, and so en effect Joseph was not doing anything wrong for it had dawned a new day after the Lord’s Supper, ending the Passover celebration. 

 

            Now after removing the Lord’s body from the cross we see that Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.  John tells us the following in John 19:42 “Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”  In order to understand a few more things that were happening I am going to now quote from John’s gospel once again:  “38 After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. 39 Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. 40 So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. 41 Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. 42 Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there” (John 19:38-42).  Now we see that it was Nicodemus who was assisting Joseph of Arimathea in the preparation and burial of the Lord Jesus.  Notice that John gives more details on how the body of Jesus was prepared as there was about a hundred pounds weight in what Jesus was wrapped in.  I have to say that there are people who say that Jesus never really died as when He was put into the cool of the tomb that He revived.  To that I say it is nonsense as we see in John’s gospel that there was about a hundred pounds of what every was used to wrap His body.  Another thing is that is true and that is when the Roman’s crucified a person the end result was they were all dead.

 

            MacArthur adds that spices were used in the wrapping of the dead bodies by the Jewish people, unlike the Egyptians who took a very long time to embalm bodies after death.

 

            The following quote comes from A Harmony of the Gospels (Robert L. Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry, eds. [Chicago: Moody, 1978], p. 250).  “The disciples who had openly followed Jesus during His lifetime ran away at the end but the two who had kept their faith secret while He was alive…came forward publicly to give Him an appropriate burial.”

 

            MacArthur writes “Although the gospels mention only that Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses were watching the burial (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47), it is possible that they assisted Joseph and Nicodemus.  Later, they prepared their own spices and came to the tomb early Sunday morning, planning to further anoint Jesus’ body (Luke 23:56-24:1).”

 

            Now after all of the preparation of the body was taken care or Joseph “rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”  I think that in most places of the world today that when a person buried they are buried in the ground, six feet down in order to be below the frost line, but back then we see that the burial places had large stones in front of the cave or place where the burial took place in order not to allow animals in and desecrate the bodies.  Sometimes there were valuables involved in the burial site and so this was also why there were stones to cover the entrance.

 

            Well it has been a whole week to get to know Joseph of Arimathea and I have to say that I truly have a great deal of respect for the courage that he had in order to take care of the body of Jesus.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, we have a short look at “Two Marys.”

 

9/20/2024 9:36 AM

 

 

 

 

PT-4 "The Perfect Propitiation" (1 John 2:2)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/19/2024 10:04 PM

 My Worship Time                                                       Focus:  PT-4 “The Perfect Propitiation”

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 2:2

            Message of the verse:  “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

            Notice the following part of this verse “and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”  Some people who have read this portion of this verse think that this means an unlimited atonement, by which Christ provides a potential salvation for all people without exception.  This is the kind of problem when people take a portion of a verse and not do some research on the surrounding verses of to compare this with other verses that teach us the opposite because of only looking at a portion of a verse.  MacArthur writes “Logically, such an interpretation strips the work of Christ on the cross of any actual atonement for anyone specifically, and it provides only a potential satisfaction for God’s wrath.”  John MacArthur then writes “For an analysis of other aspects of the extent of the atonement, see John MacArthur, 2 Peter & Jude, MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago:  Moody, 2005], 72-76.)

            This is very important for us to understand this and so I continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary to help us best understand it.  “To be faithful to the truth revealed in Scripture, the whole world must be comprehended as a generic expression that refers to humanity throughout the earth, but not necessarily to every individual.  World simply identifies the earthly realm of mankind to which God directed His reconciling love and provided propitiation (cf. John 1:29; 3:16; 6:51; 1 Tim. 2:5-6; Titus 2:11; Heb. 2:9).  The language of Scripture is strong and clear, stating that Christ’s death actually satisfies fully and eternally the demands of God’s wrath for those who believe (John 10:11, 15; 17:9, 20; Acts 20:28; Rom. 8:32, 37; Eph. 5:25).  Though the Savior’s death intrinsically had infinite value, it was designed to actually (not potentially) secure the satisfaction for divine justice only on behalf of those who would believe.”

            The Jewish believers would certainly understood propitiation, and the reason was because they were familiar with the Old Testament sacrificial system, the function of the mercy seat, and the meaning of the Day of Atonement, as recorded in the following verses from Leviticus 16:15-17:

He [the high priest] shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and n front of the mercy seat.  He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and thus he shall do for the tent of meeting which abides with them in the midst of their impurities.  When he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, no one shall be in the tent of meeting until he comes out, that he may make atonement for himself and for his household and for all the assembly of Israel.

            However the children of Israel understood “The assembly of Israel” as including proselytes.  In Christ all national limitations were abolished “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11:18).  “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." (Rom. 1:17). “28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29).

 

            MacArthur writes “Jesus’ propitiatory death is for all classes of God’s elect, which He is calling out for His name ‘from every tribe and tongue and people and nation’ (Rev. 5:9; cf. John 10:16; Acts 15:14-18; 26:23; Rom. 9:25-26; Titus 2:14).  Christ’s work on the cross atoned for all those who would be sovereignly drawn by God to repent and believe (cf. Rom. 5:18)”  “So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.”  “not for those believers only who constituted the church in John’s day.  However, His death did not atone for or satisfy divine justice regarding the unrepentant, unbelieving millions who will appear before the Judge at the great white throne, from where they will be sentenced to eternal punishment in the lake of fire (Rom. 20:11-15).”

 

            Lord willing I will finish this section in the next SD.

 

9/19/2024 10:40 PM

 

 

PT-6 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/19/2024 7:47 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-6 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            People who were crucified by the Romans were done so because it was a serious consequence to oppose them and so there were times when a family member of the crucified would come to Roman officials and ask for the body of their loved one and sometimes Rome would refuse, and sometimes they would grant it to them for burial.

 

            Now we come to the case of Jesus and here is something that I have never thought about before and that is the fact that Joseph of Arimathea was a part of the Sanhedrin and so this was probably the reason that Pilate gave the body of Jesus to him.  Pilate, as mentioned in earlier SD’s was in trouble with Rome and the Jewish leaders could have caused a lot more trouble for him and so when a member of the Sanhedrin came asking for the body of Jesus he gave it to him.  The truth is that Joseph of Arimathea was a secret follower of Jesus and was acting not on behalf of the Sanhedrin but because of his love for the Savior.

 

            MacArthur writes that “Joseph probably came to Pilate with little hope of receiving the body, and there are many reasons why his request might not have been granted.  He certainly did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead or else he would not have given such careful attention to the body’s preparation and permanent interment.  Yet his great love for Jesus led him to face the wrath of his fellow Council members and friends as well as the wrath of Pilate in order to offer this last gesture of respect to Christ.

 

            “The Lord had sovereignly caused the Jewish leaders to do their part in demanding that the bodies be taken down from the crosses before the end of the day.  He had caused Pilate to grant that permission, caused Joseph’s request for the body, and caused Pilate’s permission once again before Friday evening ended.  None of those people realized they were fulfilling prophecy.  As far as his own motives and understanding were concerned, even the godly Joseph did what he did for personal reasons.  It seemed only right that this innocent Man in whom he had placed his faith have a respectable burial.  There is no indication Joseph was even aware he was doing God’s will, much less fulfilling God’s Word.”

 

            I suppose that is the truth for all who have fulfilled prophecy as seen in the Word of God.  Think for a moment of Judas and how he was fulfilling prophecy, for he certainly did not do what he did just to fulfill prophecy, he did what he did because he was disappointed in Jesus, disappointed that he would not become rich and powerful as a result of following Jesus.  There will come a time, and in my opinion that there will come a ruler who will rule over the whole earth, and there very powerful people who have been planning this for a long time, and not to really get into politics, but there is one man who is preventing this from happening at this time and there have been three times that assignations have failed on him.  God’s timing of this end time for having this one world government and one world leader will happen and not before.  My wife told me the other day that last Sunday evening she could not sleep and so she began to pray for Donald Trump’s safety and then later on that morning we learned of this attempt on his life.  I am thankful that the Lord woke her up so she could pray for him.

 

            Ok that will be enough of talking about this sort of thing, but as mentioned this one world government headed by what the Bible calls the Antichrist seems to be very close, and that means that the rapture of the church is also very close, so be sure to understand how you can be involved in the rapture of the church so that when it happens you will be taken directly to be with the Lord in the air and then taken directly to heaven.  No space ships are needed, just the power of the Lord to accomplish this.

 

            Looks like one more SD on the subject of Joseph of Arimathea, and then we can move on to looking at “Two Marys.”

 

9/19/2024 8:16 AM

 

 

PT-3 "The Perfect Propitiation" (1 John 2:2)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2024 9:00 PM

 My Worship Time                                                       Focus:  PT-3 “The Perfect Propitiation”

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 2:2

            Message of the verse:  “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

            I want to begin with by saying that salvation is something that is simple to understand as I have gone over how a person can be saved in many of my recent Spiritual Diaries, but to understand what God had to do in order to save sinful people, I have to say, that that there is a lot of things that had to be done.  This was no problem for God for He knows all things, but in explaining the things that God has done takes some time and part of that plan has to do with this word propitiation, something that we have been looking at for several Spiritual Diaries.  I think that it is best if I quote a paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary and I have to say that there are a lot of verses that he references in this paragraph.  I think that it would be good that at the end of this quote that I will then quote the verses in order that are referenced.

            “By God’s design, pictured in the law’s requirement of a lamb without blemish (Num. 6:14), the Lord Jesus Christ had to be sinless (cf. 2:1).  Otherwise He would not have been acceptable to the Father (cf. Heb. 9:14) and would have been subject to the judgment of God for His own sins.  But He is righteous (Isa. 53:11), holy (Rev. 3:7), innocent (John 8:46; 18:37-38), undefiled (Heb. 7:26), and separate from sinners—not merely the agent who made propitiation for sinners, He is the propitiation. 

Num. 6:14 “‘He shall present his offering to the LORD: one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering and one ewe-lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering and one ram without defect for a peace offering.”

1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Heb. 9:14 “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Isa. 53:11 “As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

Rev. 3:7 “"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:”

John 8:46 “"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?

John 18:37-38 “37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." 38 Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in Him.”

 

Heb. 7:26 “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;”

 

            “The prophet Isaiah portrayed Him as the ideal sacrifice:

 

“5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand” (Isa. 53:5-10).

 

            “The entire divine plan of redemption flows from the Father’s love for unworthy and undeserving sinners (Rom. 5:8; Eph. 1:4-7).  John made this truth plain when he wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (John 4:10; cf. Titus 3:5).

9/18/2024 9:57 PM

PT-5 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/18/2024 8:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-5 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            In my last SD I talked about how most of the bodies of those who had been crucified were just dumped into places where they were either eaten by animals or burned up.  This surely was not the case with the Lord Jesus Christ’s body for at the exact moment necessary, God moved in the heart of a godly man, a man that was not only godly but a man who was a rich man, a man who was a follower of Jesus Christ in kind of a secret way, and a man who was known to the Roman officials as we see that he went right to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus.  “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.”   Now evening was from the hours of 3:00 to 6:00 P. M. at which time the next day, in this case the Sabbath, was considered to begin.  “Had Joseph asked for the body any earlier, Jesus would not have been dead, and had he come any later, he could not have prepared the body for burial before the Sabbath began” writes John MacArthur.

 

            MacArthur goes on to explain “Joseph not only was a rich man, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa. 53:9), but was ‘a prominent member of the Council,’ the Sanhedrin, and ‘was waiting for the kingdom of God’ (Mark 15:43).  Contrary to the other members, however, he was ‘a good and righteous man’ who had not consented to their plan and action’ to condemn and execute Jesus (Luke 23:50-51).

 

            “The only thing known with certainty about Arimathea is that it was ‘a city of the Jews’ (Luke 23:51), that is, in Judea.  Although Galilee was in the heartland of ancient Israel, it had to become populated with many Gentiles and often was associated with the region to the east frequently referred to as Galilee of the Gentiles (see Matt. 4:15; cf. Isa. 9:1).”  “"The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matt. 4:15).  “1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles” (Isa. 9:1).  “Judea, however, was by far the most distinctly Jewish area of Palestine and was considered the land of the Jews.  Because Joseph presumably would have had his burial site close to where he lived, it is generally assumed that Arimathea was near Jerusalem.  Many scholars believe Arimathea was a form of the ancient Ramah, the city a few miles north of Jerusalem from which Samuel came.”

 

            Now it was at some point during the past three years that Joseph had become a disciple of Jesus, although he was a secret one, for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38).  I suppose that some would think that the word “disciple” connected him directly to being one of Jesus’ followers like the twelve disciples that are spoken much of in the New Testament, but they would be apostles as there were many disciples of Jesus. MacArthur writes “The Greek text uses the verb form of disciple and could be translated, ‘was discipled to (or by) Jesus.’ Joseph was a follower of and learner from Jesus, suggesting that he must have heard our Lord preach and teach and that he probably witnessed many of His miracles.”

 

            Being a secret “disciple” of Jesus Joseph must have learned about Him from his place being a member of the Sanhedrin, and then must have investigated more about Jesus and then came to realize that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.  He still kept that a secret as we see in John 19:38, but none the less a true believer in Jesus as His Messiah and Lord.  Joseph may have seen miracles and listened to Jesus preach as it must have been at that point the He became a secret follower (disciple) of Jesus.  He was at the right place and at the right time for God to use him to fulfill OT prophecy as he would bury the Lord in his own grave. 

 

            Mark 15:43 says “Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.”   Now we learn from Mark that “Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead.  And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph” (Mark 15:44-45).

 

            With that we will stop, but Lord willing will continue this rather long section in the next SD.  I can’t help but think that as I think about the time that Jesus died that He died exactly when God planned for Him to die and think that this must happen to everyone’s death, that is die exactly when the God plans for them to die.  I believe that there is comfort in this.

 

9/18/2024 8:53 AM 

PT-2 "The Perfect Propitiation" (1 John 2:2)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2024 9:00 PM

 My Worship Time                                                       Focus:  PT-2 “The Perfect Propitiation”

 Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 2:2

            Message of the verse:  “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

            I will continue to talk about the mercy seat as I begin this evenings Spiritual Diary.  Now the mercy seat was actually the lid or the cover of the ark, which was situated between the divine Shekinah glory cloud above the ark and law tablets inside the ark.  The following is a picture of the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy seat on the top of it.

            Now because the priests sprinkled the seat with blood from the sacrifices, it was the place at which atonement for sin occurred.  MacArthur adds “The sprinkled blood thus stood between God (the Shekinah) and His broken law (the tablets).  The sacrificial blood of animals never did placate God (cf. Heb. 7:26-28; 9:6-15; 10:1-18), but it pictured the future sacrifice of Christ that would fully satisfy the Father (Heb. 9:23-28; cf. Isa. 53:6, 10; Matt. 20:28; Eph. 5:2).  If the Old Testament sacrificial system had appeased God’s wrath once and for all, the Jews would not have continued endlessly to bring burnt offerings (Lev. 1:3-17; 6:8-13), sin offerings (Lev. 4:1-5:13; 6:24-30), and trespass offerings (Lev. 5:14-6:7; 7:1-10) over the centuries.”

 

            I want to again give a definition of the word propitiation as this is very important.   “Again, “to propitiate” means “to satisfy the wrath of God against sin,” “to turn away God’s wrath,” or “to offer a sacrifice that appeases God’s just judgment and righteous anger against us and our sin.” And note, Jesus is not simply “the propitiator” but the “propitiation.” He is what satisfies the justice of God.”

 

            Propitiation is necessary because of sin as the definition makes clear.  Sinners continually shatter God’s perfect law as seen in the following verses; Jer. 17:9; Matt. 15:19-20a; John 8:34; Rom. 3:9-19; 5:12-20; James 1:14-15; 2:10-11) and He, as the righteously offended Creator, must react justly in holy anger, wrath, and judgment (Gen. 6:6-7; Deut. 25:16; Job 24:21-22, 25; Ps. 5:4-6; Prov. 6:16-19; Isa. 59:1-2; Jer. 10:10; Nah. 1:2-3; Luke 13:27; 16:15; John 3:36; Rom. 1:18; 2:5, 8; Eph. 5:6; Heb. 3:17).  God’s justice must be satisfied.  Every sin ever committed by every person who has ever lived will be punished in one of two ways.  I think that you probably know the two was that I am referring too, as either God’s wrath will be s satisfied when all unbelieving sinners suffer eternally in hell as seen in Matthew 13:42; 25:41, 46; 2 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 20:15. The other and absolutely best solution to having sin taken care is to become a born-again believer by confessing to the Lord that you are a sinner and by agreeing with Him that Christ died for your sins, and then by inviting Jesus Christ into your life to save you from sins penalty.  Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, taking your sin in His body on the cross as He went through this horrible punishment of all sin on the cross for three hours as He was separated from His Father and became sin for us.  It is a free gift, salvation is, but we must claim it or else be sent to hell forever. 

 

            Lord willing we will continue this subject in the next SD, as this section is very long and will take us a while to get through it.

 

9/17/2024 9:31 PM

PT-4 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/17/2024 9:53 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-4 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            I have been writing about the order that the Jews wanted to happen to those on the cross that is that their legs be broken so that they could not hold themselves up any longer so that they would then die by suffocation.  Pilate, not wanting to offend the Jewish leaders any further gave this order.  Now the soldiers broke the legs of the men on both sides of Jesus and then they came to Jesus, however, the soldiers saw that He was already dead.  So consequently, “one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear; and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34).  This fulfilled one more Scripture.  John then goes on to explain the following in verse 36-37 “36  For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN." 37 And again another Scripture says, "THEYSHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED.’”  Psalm 34:20 is another Scripture that is relevant here:  “He keeps all his bones, Not one of them is broken.”  MacArthur adds “The Romans would not have known of that psalm and, in any case, would not have fulfilled it purposely.  They fulfilled the prediction because they were divinely directed to do so, whatever their human reasons may have been.”

 

            We will not look at more prophecy that was being fulfilled.  John explains of the prophecy was fulfilled by the spear would, “37 And again another Scripture says, "THEY SHALL LOOK ON HIM WHOM THEY PIERCED,’” (John 19:37) one we have already looked at, but I also want to look at Zechariah 12:10 here:  “"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.”  Now it was because the soldiers had already acknowledged that Jesus was dead, he had no human reason to administer the death stroke with the spear.  But he unwittingly did so in fulfillment of God’s Word, and the resulting wound was so deep that Jesus could tell Thomas to place his hand into it as seen in John 20:27.  Precisely as prophesied, no bone in Jesus’ body was broken, and His side was pierced. 

 

            MacArthur writes “In what many Bible students take to be a messianic psalm, David wrote, “Reproach has broken my heart’ (Ps. 69:20).  Some medical experts believe that, under extreme circumstances, it is possible for the human heart literally to burst from emotional strain, causing blood to spill into the pericardium surrounding the heart and mix there with the lymphatic fluid.  If that were the case with Jesus, His death fulfilled yet another prophecy.”

            During this time period in the Roman world, which crucified many, many people the bodies were ordinary thrown into a common grave for criminals, as Isaiah had prophesied the Messiah’s enemies had planned for Him:  “His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”  MacArthur adds the following:  “the Romans had absolutely no respect for the corpses, which often were thrown into a grave left open to scavenger animals and birds.  Sometimes the bodies were simply cast into a burning garbage dump, such as the one that continually smoldered in the Hinnom Valley (Gehenna) just south of Jerusalem.”

 

            It is possible that by the time that Jesus had died that John had already left Golgotha, and so there were only a few women left there after Jesus’ death.  These women were not able to care for the body by themselves, especially as the day was almost over, and in any case, they had no burial place for Jesus.  In steps God to use Joseph of Arimathea to fulfill yet another prophecy.  We will look at this in detail in the next SD.

 

9/17/2024 10:26 AM  

PT-1 "The Perfect Propitiation" (1 John 2:2)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2024 11:23 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                             Focus:  PT-1 “The Perfect Propitiation”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                           Reference:  1 John 2:2

 

            Message of the verse:  “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

 

            We begin a new section this evening and it has a word it in that will need to be explained and understood as we go through this section.  Now Christ could never make His case for the saints as their divine Defense Attorney if He were not also their Propitiator, the One who completely turned God’s wrath from sinners to Himself, thus removing all their guilt and condemnation.  John MacArthur writes “Propitiation through the death of Christ is one of the critical doctrines of the Christian faith, at the very center of God’s redemptive plan (Rom. 3:25; 5:1, 10-11; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:18-19; Col. 1:20-22; 1 Peter 1:18-20; cf. Lev. 10:17; 17:11; Matt. 26:28; Luke 24:47; Acts 20:28; Heb. 12:24; 13:20).  An accurate understanding of this truth is all its essential aspects is vital to salvation and the pursuit of a life of holiness.

 

            “The term propitiation, in definition and application, is most notably a biblical and theological word.  It is a translation of hilasmos, which means ‘appeasement,’ or ‘ satisfaction.’  Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross satisfied the demands of God’s justice, thus appeasing His holy wrath against believer’s sins.

 

            “Several related words provide additional understanding of the nature of propitiation.  The verb Hilasterion refers ‘to make satisfaction for,’ occurs in Luke 18:13 and Hebrews 2:17.  Hilasterion refers to the sacrifice of atonement required to placate God’s wrath (cf. Rom. 3:25).  The translators of the Septuagint (LXX) used this term to designate the mercy seat, which establishes propitiation’s link to the Old Testament sacrificial system:

 

They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and on and a half cubits high.  You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it.  You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it.  You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.  You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them.  The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it.  You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.  You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.  You shall make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.  Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.  The cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned toward the mercy seat.  You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you.  There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony; I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.  (Ex. 25:10-22; emphases added to indicate uses of hilasterion in LXX).

 

Lord willing we will continue talking about the mercy seat as we begin the next SD on this vese.

 

9/16/2024 11:50 PM

PT-3 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2024 8:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            I want to quote something from John MacArthur’s commentary on this section that shows how terribly wrong they were, how much “religion” can get in the way of true Christianity.  “Nowhere is the ungodly hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders more evident than in their insistence that Jesus’ body be taken down before the Sabbath.  They had no compunction about murdering the Lord of the Sabbath, yet they were meticulous in not wanting to defile the Sabbath by having His body hanging on the cross after that day began. 

 

            “Because the Romans would not permit a crucified man to be taken down before he was dead, the Jewish leaders requested of Pilate that the legs of the three men be broken to insure a quick death.  In such cases a large wooden mallet was used to shatter the legs of a victim, making it impossible for him to raise himself in order to breathe.  Although the added pain would be excruciating, it was short-lived, because death resulted quickly from suffocation.

 

            “According to the eminent Bible Scholar Alfred Edersheim, the soldiers would then administer what was called the death stroke, which consisted of jabbing a spear into the heart (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 1953], 2:612).  The reason for adding the death stroke to the crushing of the legs seems to have been to remove all doubt as to death having occurred.”

 

            I have to say that this kind of reporting on what happened to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is difficult for me to even write, and yet I have to remember that all of this was done for me, and for everyone who ever lived if they turn from their own sins by confessing to the Lord that they are sinners, and the word confess means to agree and so that person is to agree with God that they are sinners, born a sinner, and continue to sin because of that.  Agree with God that, on their own they can do nothing on their own to be saved from their sins, and then ask the Lord to save them from their sins as they invite Him into their hearts, which He will do.  Tell the Lord that you will live for Him the rest of your lives, thanking Him for sending the Holy Spirit into your life to lead and to guide you and to help you understand the Word of God as you read and study it.  1 John tells us that true believers will sin, for we all have a sin nature, but when we sin agree with the Lord that you have sinned remembering that once you became a believer that all of your sins have been forgiven, past, present, and future, so when you sin you are agreeing with the Lord that you sinned, and then thank Him for already forgiving you of that sin.  As I have been studying 1 John and putting those Spiritual Diaries onto this blog site I am learning some things that I did not properly understand about 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

 

            What I am learning is that this verse is not only for believers but for unbelievers as all unbelievers who become believers confessed their sins knowing that the Lord is faithful and righteous to forgive them of their sins as He cleanses them from all unrighteousness.  That is what happens to an unbeliever when they become a believer as they are cleansed of all their sins, past, present, and future.  Now for believers as I have already wrote, when a believer sins they understand that their sin is forgiven, and so when they sin they are to agree with the Lord that what they did in sinning was wrong, and then thank Him for already forgiving them of their sin.  Now this does not in any way, shape, or form mean that a believer can just go out and sin, knowing that they are forgiven, for when a believer sins they realize that they have sinned and therefore does not want to continue to do this sinful act.  In listening to John MacArthur’s different messages on this verse he stated that as he has meditated on this verse over the last five years that he continued to learn things from it.  I am thankful that he shared things that he learned from it and as mentioned I have been writing Spiritual Dairies in the evening on 1 John.

 

            I will now end this SD, realizing that I did not get very in writing about the verses from Matthew, but it is my desire as I write these SD’s that believers will grow in their walk with the Lord, and that the Holy Spirit will also speak to unbelievers who read these Spiritual Diaries about their need for salvation, and that many will be saved.

 

9/16/2024 9:31 AM

PT-2 "The Divine Defense Attorney" (1 John 2:1b)

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2024 11:17 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                     Focus: PT-2 “The Divine Defense Attorney”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  1 John 2:1b

 

            Message of the verse:  “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

 

            I want to begin by keeping with the imagery; God appears as the supreme Judge of the universe, as He is seated at the heavenly bench and judging all people according to the absolute perfection of His holy law.  He is the author (Lev. 26:46), interpreter (Ps. 119:34), and applier (Jer. 31:33) of the law.  Believers must view the reality of divine justice with great sobriety and respect as seen in 1 Peter 1:17, and we can compare with that Acts 17:31; Col. 3:25), since God possesses the power and authority to condemn to hell every sinner who ever lived.  Jesus gave this sober admonition:  “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).  Now the Old Testament prophets also gave clear warning about the kind of divine judgment as seen in Amos 5:18-20; Zeph.; 1:14-18).

 

            John MacArthur concludes this section by writing “Those who are saved, however, need not fear diving justice because they have an Advocate with the Father, none other than Jesus Christ the righteous.  Here Advocate translates parakletos (‘one who comes alongside’) and denotes in legal settings the defender or counselor who comes to aid his client.  (In his gospel, John used the same term, translated there as ‘Helper’ or ‘Comforter’ [14:16, 26; 16:7] to refer to the support given to each believer by the Holy Spirit.)  Christ is the perfect Advocate, since the Judge is His Father and they are always in perfect harmony (cf. Matt. 26:39; John 4:34).  Further, the Son completely understands the saints’ human weaknesses because He came to earth as the fully human Son of Man (Heb. 4:14-15; cf. Gal. 4:4; Phil. 2:5-8).  He accepts as clients only those who confess their guilt and their desperate need to receive Him as Savior and Lord )cf. Matt. 7:21-23; 25:31-46; John 6:37; 10:3, 14-15); and He becomes for them the incomparable intercessor who always gains acquittal for those who trust in Him.  In Old Testament language, He is their great High Priest (Heb. 7:25-28).”

 

            Next we will be looking at “The Perfect Propitiation” from 1 John 2:2.

 

9/15/2024 11:35 PM   

PT-2 "Joseph of Arimathea" (Matt. 27:57-60)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/15/2024 7:13 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Joseph of Arimathea”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:57-60

 

            Message of the verses:  “And when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.  Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him.  And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

 

            Let us begin this SD with what the time means “And when it was evening.”  This refers to the period from 3:00 P. M until 6:00 P.M., which period the Jews considered to be the end of the day and the beginning of the evening.  Jesus spoke His last Words at this time period as seen in Matthew 27:46-50.  It was about the ninth hour,’ or 3:00 P. M.

 

            MacArthur gives us two reasons that it was imperative that Jesus die several hours before the end of the day.  The first one was because the Sabbath began at six o’clock that day, and so He had to be taken down from the cross before then and prepared for burial in order not to profane the Sabbath.  The second reason, as explained in the details below (in MacArthur’s commentary), is that He had to be buried before the end of that day, Friday, in order to be in the earth at least a part of three separate days before his resurrection, as He Himself declared He would be.

 

            Now I have read that the time of Jesus’ death was exactly the time when the Passover lambs were sacrificed, and so that is the reason of the time of His death corresponds with the death of the Passover lambs, as Jesus is our Passover Lamb who died in our place so that believers will not have to die spiritually, although once a person has accepted Jesus Christ they are in Him spiritually and God sees them as dying with Christ, buried with Him and resurrected with Him.  That is what God sees of all believers for they are “in Christ.”

 

            Let us look at John 19:31 “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”  When I read statements like this one I can see that life seems to be very cheap during that time, and I suppose life is cheap in our time today as millions of babies have been killed in their mother’s wombs for convenience sake, just like what we see in this verse above.  MacArthur then adds “The fact that it was the day before the Sabbath proves conclusively that Jesus was crucified on Friday, commonly referred to by Jews as ‘the day of preparation.’”

 

            MacArthur goes on “Although rabbinical tradition had added many extreme and foolish restrictions to Sabbath observance, God Himself had commanded His people to ‘remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’ (Ex. 20:8).  Among other things, even food preparation had to be done the day before in order not to work on the Sabbath.  When the Lord provided manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness, He gave a double portion on Friday in order that no collection of it would have to be made on the Sabbath.”

 

            There is more that was required by the Mosaic law as it required that the corpse of an executed criminal not be left hanging “all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance” (Deut. 21:23).  Now if such things were defiling on an ordinary day of the week, it would be more defiling on the Sabbath.  John points out in the verse quoted above (19:31), the particular Sabbath that was about to begin was especially holy because it was also the high day of the Passover feast.  So it would therefore have been extraordinarily defiling for dead bodies to be hanging on crosses just outside the north wall of Jerusalem, possibly in sight of the Temple, on such a high holy day.

 

            I will keep on working on this section in the next SD, Lord willing tomorrow.

 

9/15/2024 7:43 AM