SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/3/2024 9:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 “Terror”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
28:2-7
Message of the verses: “2 And behold, a severe
earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and
came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like
lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of
him and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, "Do not be
afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 “He
is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come; see the place where He
was lying. 7 “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the
dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see
Him; behold, I have told you.’”
Now I want to mention again that the angel did not
move the stone in order to let Jesus out of the tomb, and there are many Easter
stories and paintings that suggest that.
Now think about this: If Jesus had the power to raise Himself from
the dead, which He certainly did “"No one has taken it away from Me, but I
lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have
authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father”
(John 10:18), He certainly had the relative minor power required to escape a
sealed grave. Jesus demonstrated during
several postresurrection appearances, just as He was no longer bound by death,
He was no longer bound by the limitations of the physical world or of even
time. Let’s look at a couple of verses
that go along with that statement: “Then
their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their
sight” (Luke 24:31). “After eight days
His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors
having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with
you’” (John 20:26). In His glorified
form He could escape a closed grave just as easily as He could enter a closed
room. In comparing the gospel accounts,
something that I think is very important when studying what Jesus did after His
resurrection; it becomes clear that Jesus had already left the tomb when the
stone was rolled away. The angel moved
the stone not to let Jesus out but to let the women and the apostles in.
Last
evening in our prayer meeting our Pastor stated that he wanted to begin a new
series, something that he has wanted to do for a long while. He asked for Biblical words to be given from
those who were there in order to begin this new series. I raised my hand and said “resurrection” and
the reason that I did that is because of what I have been studying in this section
of Matthew chapter 28. The resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead is the proof that God the Father was satisfied
with the payment that Jesus made for my sins and for your sins.
MacArthur
now begins to write about things from John’s gospel. “It seems that Mary Magdalene apparently left
the garden as soon as she saw the stone already taken away from the tomb
(20:1). Before the angel appeared, ‘she
ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and
said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know
where they have laid Him’’(v. 2). Obviously
she had missed the angel’s announcement of Jesus’ resurrection. She was so overwrought at discovering the
tomb empty that she ran frantically to the two most prominent disciples, Peter
and John, to tell them what she thought was terrible news. Id did not occur to her that Jesus might be
risen as He had predicted, and she assumed that someone had stolen the body and
hidden it. It is obvious that Peter and
John did not consider the possibility of resurrection either, as they
immediately ran to the tomb to find out what they could.” “3 So Peter and the
other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. 4 The two were
running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came
to the tomb first;” (John 20:3-4).
Now we want to look at what the angel did as he
manifested himself to those who were near the tomb, and his appearance was like
lightning. Now this could mean by this description
that God may have transmitted some of His own Shekinah glory to the angel, just
as He had transmitted a measure of it to Moses when he was on Mt Sinai as seen
in Exodus 34:29 “It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and
the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming
down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face
shone because of his speaking with Him.”
In a similar way the angels garment was as white as snow, suggesting God’s
purity and holiness. The angel bore the
very imprimatur of the character of God in order to make clear to those who
were there not only that he was a supernatural messenger but that he was an
agent of God and not Satan.
Now in my next SD I want to begin by
writing about what happened to the guards when all of these things were
happening.
I ask that those who read this
Spiritual Diary to please remember the nation of Israel as they are not
surround by their enemies trying to do something to them that God will not
allow to happen for Israel is the apple of God’s eye. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!!
10/3/2024 9:11
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment