SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/5/2024 9:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-4
“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.’”
I want to continue looking at these verses in today’s SD,
and I want to begin by talking about the angel who invited the women to Come; see the place where He was lying.
Notice I highlighted to word was because He was not there anymore for He
had risen from the dead. So now at this
point the women went into the tomb and they observed that it was indeed
empty. The angel would join them in the
tomb and reiterated the same basic message, saying, “Do not be amazed; you are
looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is
the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).
It is possible that this message was repeated because the women found it
so hard to believe, despite the fact that they now remembered Jesus’ prediction
that He would rise on the third day. It
was hard to believe it when He told them that He would rise on the third day,
and now that He had been raised from the dead it was still hard for them to
believe it. The resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead is certainly a very key point in the gospel message
because if He had not been raised from the dead then He would be like all the
other religions in the world because none of them have a risen Savior and Lord
like Christianity.
A short time later Peter and John
entered the tomb and they “beheld the linen wrappings lying there, and the
face-cloth, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but
rolled up in a place by itself” (John 20:6-7).
So the burial clothes were just as they were when Joseph and Nicodemus
laid the body to rest, except for the face-cloth, which was set to one
side. So this means that Jesus did not
have to unwrap any more than He had to have the stone removed. At one moment He was encased in the linen,
and the next He was free, leaving the wrappings unchanged. I have to say that this was a great miracle,
the greatest miracle that has ever happened, a miracle that was planned from
eternity past when there was no earth, no stars no anything where are planets
are today.
I will now complete this Spiritual
Diary by quoting two paragraphs from John MacArthur’s commentary and perhaps
will be able to finish this rather long section in my next SD tomorrow.
“While the women were in the tomb,
another angel joined the first ‘one at the head, and one at the feet, where the
body of Jesus had been lying’ (John 20:12).
Their positions are reminiscent of the two golden cherubim who were on
either side of the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the covenant (Ex. 25:18). The two angels in the garden were posted at
either end of the tomb of Jesus, who, by the sacrifice He had just made of His
own life, became the true and eternal Mercy Seat for sinful mankind.
The two angels gave still another reminder to the
women, ‘Why do you seek the living One among the dead?’ they ask ‘He is not
here, but He has risen. Remember how He
spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be
delivered into the hands of the sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day
rise again’ (Luke 24:5-7). For a third
time the women were told the glorious truth of Jesus’ resurrection, a truth
whose fulfillment they should have been eagerly expecting.”
I certainly do not fault these women
or even the disciples who had a difficult time believing that Jesus had indeed
been raised from the dead. The truth is that
He did rise from the dead, and the truth is that all who come to believe in Him
to forgive all of their sins must believe this truth too.
Once again I want to ask those
believers who are reading my Spiritual Diaries that are on the internet to
please continue in praying for the nation of Israel as Satan is using other
countries near Israel to try and destroy them.
Please pray for the peace of Jerusalem for that is Biblical.
10/5/2024 9:57
AM
No comments:
Post a Comment