SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2024 8:30 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1
“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.”
We begin this rather long section by saying that
Matthew’s account relates to the fulfillment of two key prophecies, and one
comes from Isaiah 53, while the other comes from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
I think that anyone who has read over, actually the end
of Isaiah chapter 52 and all of chapter 53 will agree that this is the Old
Testament’s most beautiful and detailed prediction of the Messiah’s suffering
and death. I have to say at this point
that Psalm 22 also talks about the death of Jesus on the cross in a way that
one wonders how David could give such details of what happened to Jesus while
on the cross. Now I know that it is the
Holy Spirit who inspires all that is written in the Word of God, and that the
Holy Spirit does use the personality of all who have written the Word of God
and there are many, many authors who wrote the Word of God, but One Holy Spirit
what actually inspires the to write what He wants written. Let us now look at Isaiah 53:9 where we read,
“His grace was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His
death.” MacArthur adds “That obscure
prophecy would have been impossible to comprehend fully until the Messiah’s
burial actually took place. We now
understand that the Holy Spirit was revealing that, although Christ’s enemies
intended to bury Him with common criminals, God’s plan was that He be buried
not with the wicked but in the tomb of a wealthy man, who, by inference, was
godly.” These kind of precise details
show that only God could cause them to happen exactly how He said they would
happen. Now many know that the details
of Isaiah chapter 53 have been denied by Jewish scholars saying that this has
to do with the nation of Israel and not their Messiah. There will come a time when as Paul writes in
his letter to the Romans that all Israel will be saved. “Ro 11:26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "THE
DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.’”
Now let us talk about the second prophecy fulfilled
in Jesus’ burial and that, as mentioned was His own declaration that “just as Jonah was three days and three
nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 ; cf. 16:21;
26:61). Now I want to look at those last
verses mentioned. Matthew 12:40 “for
just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth.”
Matthew 16:21 “From
that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and
suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and be raised up on the third day.’
Matthew 26:61 “and
said, "This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to
rebuild it in three days.’’” Now we know
from the context of this section that Jesus was talking about Himself who would
be raised in three days after His death.
Let me just say something that I have thought about for a long time, and
perhaps what I am about to write will not come true, but I know that if God
wanted it to come true it would because He certainly is able to make it come
true. What I am saying is it is in my
opinion that Jesus after He returns to set up the Millennial Kingdom would take
three days to build the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. If I were talking about this when teaching a
lesson I would diffidently have to stand away from the center of the podium as
it is just my opinion and not taught in Scripture like that.
Lord willing we will pick up
tomorrow morning where I left of this morning.
9/14/2024 9:09
AM
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