SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/14/2024 9:06 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Plot”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
28:11-14
Message of the verses: “11 Now while they were
on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief
priests all that
had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted
together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 and said,
"You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we
were asleep.’ 14 "And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will
win him over and keep you out of trouble."
Now I want to pick up where I left off in the last
SD on these verses, and so let us begin with what is included in all the things
that had happened, and they were the earthquake, the rolling away of this
stone, the blazing angel sitting on the stone, and the empty tomb. That is
quite a list of miracles that happened, and yes they were all miracles from God
that would show the greatest miracle of all, and that was Christ’s resurrection
from the dead. Now think about all the
people that Jesus raised from the dead, and I won’t list all of them but will
mention Lazarus which is found in John’s gospel. Lazarus had been dead for three days when
Jesus raised him from the dead. The
point I wish to make is that all of those people that Jesus raised from the
dead, and all the people found in the Word of God who had been raised from the
dead died again, but not Jesus as Paul says He was the first fruits of those
who will be raised from the dead never to die again. Now back to our verses where I will let
MacArthur pick it up for us. “The
soldiers knew those happenings had a supernatural origin, and it was that
knowledge that caused them first to shake violently and then freeze in
catatonic fear. They did not try to
explain because of the guards’ report, the chief priests learned of Jesus’
resurrection even before the disciples did.”
It
is around the time of Easter that films come out about the resurrection of
Jesus Christ and there is one movie, I forget the title, which is about a Roman
soldier who was actually friends of Pilate and Pilate sent this soldier to find
the body of Jesus. The man looks and
looks but could not find Jesus’ body and as the movie goes on the man found
some of Jesus’ disciples who were in a house and so the soldier went into the
house with the disciples and the resurrected Jesus appeared with them. Now before that happened this soldier got in
contact with one of those soldiers who had been at the tomb and pressured him
into telling his the truth. In the end
this soldier went with the disciples of Jesus to Galilee where Jesus would go
back to heaven, according to the story and became a disciple of Jesus as he ran
away from the Romans. Most of the movies
are not real accurate in all of the things that the Bible has to say and that
is why I don’t really like to watch them, but this one was pretty good other
than showing Jesus’ resurrection in Galilee which was not right as that
happened in or near Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives which is where Jesus will
return to earth from that exact spot.
There is a fault there that could split the mountain, but it is waiting for
the foot of the Lord Jesus to land there and then it will split.
Now
the chief priests had heard that Jesus would rise on the third day, but even
though the evidence was clear to them that this is what happened, they chose
not to believe it. Greed and politics
were involved and so lies had to be told, and the truth is that this same kind
of lies are going on in our country and have been for a long time in the
politics now. Not sure who will win for
now but I know who will win in the future and that will be the return of the
Lord Jesus Christ to place His foot on the Mt. of Olives and then all lies will
stop and at that time Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats, the sheep
go into the kingdom and the goats go into Hades.
These
Jewish leaders blew it and the stories that they began are still going on in
Israel today, but it seems to me that the Spirit of God is causing the hearts
of many in Israel to realize that these are lies and that Jesus Christ is
indeed their Messiah. I pray for Israel
most every day, pray that their eyes will be opened to the truth that their
Messiah has already came to earth almost 2000 years ago, and He suffered and
died for them, so I pray that the Holy Spirit of God will be active in opening
the hearts of the children of Israel.
John MacArthur concludes this thought at the end of a paragraph in his
commentary with the following: The chief
priests were so evil, self-willed, and spiritually blind that they shut their
eyes to every confirmation of Jesus’ claims.
The god of this world had totally blinded their eyes (2 Cor. 4:4). “in whose case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Perhaps I will get this section concluded in the
next SD.
10/14/2024 9:40 AM
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