SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/7/2024 8:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-6
“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.’”
There
is only one more section to look at in these verses, He
is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told
you. This is the angel’s further
instruction to the women, and they were to tell His disciples this.
It
was earlier in the week that Jesus would tell His eleven disciples, Judas had
left to betray Him, “After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee”
(Matthew 26:32). MacArthur adds “Being
both Jewish and Gentile, Galilee represented the world at large. It was there that Jesus began His ministry,
in ‘Galilee of the Gentiles,’ where ‘the people who were sitting in darkness
say a great light’ (Matt. 4:15-16). It
would be in Galilee that the disciples would receive the Great Commission from
the Lord to ‘go therefore and make disciples of all the nations’ (Matt. 28:19).”
Now here is the part where one has to look at all
the different gospels in order to try and piece together the timeline of when
Jesus would appear to them, and it was not that Jesus would first appear to the
disciples in Galilee, because He manifested Himself to them several times
before that. It must have seemed
important to talk about Galilee to Matthew.
Jesus “appeared to Peter (Luke 24:34), to the two disciples on the road
to Emmaus (Luke 24:15; cf. Mark 16:12), to ten of the disciples as they were
assembled on resurrection evening (John 20:26), and to seven of the disciples
as they were fishing in the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1),” writes John MacArthur.
He
concludes this rather long section by writing “But Jesus’ supreme appearance to
the disciples was to be in Galilee, where He ‘appeared to more than five
hundred brethren at one time’ (2 Cor. 15:6) and where He would c omission the
eleven to apostolic ministry.”
I
thought that because I only had a little bit of these verses to finish this
morning that I would also look at the next section which is very short.
JOY
“And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and
great joy and ran to report it to His disciples (28:8).
It
was obvious that they were responding to the angel’s command that the women departed
quickly from the tomb. We can be assured
that they had the angel’s comforting assurance; the women understandably had a remnant
of fear. I think that is very
understandable that they had a degree of fear, for after all they had just been
talking to an angel, something that people don’t do every day. So their fear was not tempered by having great
joy at learning the good news of Jesus resurrection.
Mary
Magdalene was the one who had left the tomb before the angel talked to the other
women as she went on her own initiative to talk to Peter and John saying, “They
have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have
laid Him” (John 20:2). I think of all
the women that Mary Magdalene loved the Lord the most for what He had done for
her in casting out (I think) seven demons from her. Mary then followed those two disciples back
to the tomb, where they, too, found only the linen wrappings. The other women and the angels had left the
garden, and disappointed and confused, the two men “went away again to their
own homes” (vv. 5-10). It was then while
Mary remained outside the tomb weeping, the two angels appeared to her and then
the Lord Himself came to see her. It was
not until Jesus called her by her name that she would then recognize Him and
then shouted, “Rabboni” (vv. 11-16).
After than she then reported her wonderful experience to the disciples
in Jerusalem (18). “Mary Magdalene came,
announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that
He had said these things to her.”
I like the way that John MacArthur pieces these
happenings together so it makes it easy to follow. He concludes this very short section by
writing “When she told the other apostles about her encounter with the resurrected
Christ, they did not believe her (Mark 16:11).
Their disbelief (see also Mark 16:13; Luke 24:10-11) clearly proves that
they had no intention of stealing Jesus’ body in order to propagate a
counterfeit resurrection, as the chief priests and Pharisees feared they would
do (Matt. 27:62-64; 28:13).”
As
I look at all the evil that the Jewish leaders had in their hearts, and as I
look at all the evil that certain people in our country have in their hearts I
think that if the Lord had not saved me over 50 years ago that I may have that
same evil that these men then and now have for the Lord Jesus Christ. However Jesus is forgiving and paid the price
for them and paid the price for me in order to change my heart. I truly believe that this world system that we
are living in does not have too long to go before the Lord comes first of all
to take His bride, the Church to heaven with Him and then some seven plus years
later will return to end what will be the worst time on planet earth as we
learn from Scripture that if He did not come back when He did that mankind
would blow up planet earth. But He will
come back to end the terrible fighting that will be goin on then and will then
judge between the sheep and the goats, the goats being the evil ones and send
them into Sheol were after 1000 years will judge all who are there and then
send them to hell for eternity. Not a
pleasant thing to think about. You don’t
have to end up there, you need to confess that you are a sinner and that you
sin because of that and then ask the Lord Jesus Chris to come into your heart
to forgive your sins and He will do that for you.
Believers
who are reading this please continue to pray for Israel as it was one year ago today that they were
attacked and there are still hostages that need to be found and taken back to
their families. It is important to keep
the children of Israel in your prayers each day. Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem.
10/7/2024 9:00 AM
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