PT-1"More on the Sufferings of Jesus"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/19/2023 11:38 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  “More on the Sufferings of Jesus”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 20:17-18a

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            In today’s SD I am going to quote from the sermon by John MacArthur that goes along with these verses.  It is kind of a bonus SD that will speak more about what the Old Testament predicts about Jesus’ sufferings.

 

            “Now let me talk about a second point. First, the plan of His suffering. Secondly, the predictions of His sufferings. He adds to what the Old Testament prophets say His own prophecies: “We go to Jerusalem. The Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and the scribes.” Look at the detail. “They shall condemn Him to death; shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, to crucify; and third day He’ll rise again.” I mean He’s predicting these things.

            “And only God knows that. Only God can tell the story before it happens, right? Only God can make history before it even occurs. This is God in human flesh; who else knows all of that? I mean who else can give all these incredible details: betrayal, handing over to chief priests, scribes, condemned to death, handed over to the Pagans where He will be mocked. Matthew and Luke add, “He will be spit on.” He says, “I’ll be spit on.” How did He know all of that? “And then I will be scourged, and then crucified, and then rise again.”

            “Well, how does He know all of that? I’ll tell you, there’s only one who knows that; that’s God, and that’s who He is. This is no ordinary man. He knew how many husbands a strange woman he’d never met had; and the one she was living with wasn’t her husband. And He knew a conversation before a conversation occurred. He told His disciples to go get the colt, the foal of an ass; and He told them the conversation that would happen when they asked the guy for the animal, before the guy even was asked.

            “He forecast the fall of Jerusalem in Matthew 21. I mean this is God. He calls Himself the Son of Man; that was His favorite term. He used it 80 times – or it’s used 80 times, I should say, in the Gospels. It’s a term of His humiliation; but it also incorporates His exaltation out of that humility.

            “But He says the Son of Man, first of all, shall be betrayed. Now the verb “betrayed” is not here, it’s simply the verb “to be handed over.” But it was obvious that it implied the betrayal. And that’s why the translators put it in here, because it was Judas who turned Him over. It was a betrayal.

            “And He was turned over the chief priests – the chief priests among the priests, and there were thousands of them. The chief priests were the upper echelon ones. There were the Levites; they were at the bottom of the priestly totem pole. And then there were the normal course of priests. And there was the guy who was the head of the daily course, the guy who’s ahead of the weekly course. And then there was the sort of the captain of the temple, and then there was the high priest. And the guys at the top of the ladder were known as the chief priests. And so these chief priests were the hereditary aristocracy. They were in the priestly line; they got their rank by heredity.

            “They were also accompanied by the scribes, who got their rank not by heredity, but by knowledge. They attained to knowledge by studying the law. They were the lawyers, and nobody could interpret anything without them. Very much like today, if you want to interpret any kind of law, you get into any kind of legal situation, you have to have a lawyer. Well it was that way then. In trying to interpret the Mosaic economy, they had to have “lawyers,” quote/unquote, who really were the scribes who could come along side and explain the meaning of the law, and interpret the law, and so forth.

            “So you had the hereditary aristocracy, and you had the knowledge aristocracy, and they made this body of people who ultimately condemned Jesus Christ to death, because He so threatened the security of their system. Well, Jesus sees Himself being betrayed to them, to this executive body of the temple priesthood, being handed over. And, indeed, that’s what happened; Judas betrayed Him. The priests were simply Christ rejecters who were in a position to pull off a fake and mockery trial, and condemn Him to death. And that’s what He saw happening, and that is exactly what happened. This is not a surprise. This is exactly the way it was planned, and He predicts the details.

            “Now obviously they couldn’t kill Him because the Romans had removed their right to do that, and so they had to give Him over to the Gentiles, verse 19. After the condemn Him to death in a false trial, said He should die for what He’s done, trumped up charges against Him. Ultimately the charge was that He speaks against Caesar and so forth, because they knew that the Romans wouldn’t like that. They delivered Him over to the Pagans, because the pagans, the Romans, had the right of execution, and they alone could take His life.

            “And you remember the story, Pilate couldn’t find anything wrong with Him, but finally succumbed to crucifying Him because of blackmail. They said they’d tell Caesar. And he already had two strikes against him in his relations with the Jews; and Caesar probably would have taken him out of there, and maybe taken his life with one other mistake; and so he succumbed.

            “But in the meantime, you read the story of what happened when they took Him down into the Fort Antonia. They mocked Him. Remember they put a reed in His hand, crammed a crown of thorns on His head, spit all over Him, and they jeered at Him – and all of that kind of mockery He describes. Then they scourged Him. They lacerated His back with leather thongs in which there were bits of bone and metal in the end. And they did all of this because they were laughing to scorn at Him. And, ultimately, they crucified Him. And all the details are there. And, of course, He rose from the dead.”

            I will add some more from this sermon in our next SD.  I think that it is very important to understand more about the sufferings of our Lord, and the reason is that He did it for us.

4/19/2023 11:55 AM

           

 

PT-5 "The Plan of His Suffering" (Matt. 20:17-18a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/18/2023 10:19 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-5 “The Plan of His Suffering”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 20:17-18a

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            I want to begin with a quotation from John MacArthur’s commentary, one that I have highlighted in that book.  “The disciples knew they were going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with Jesus, but they did not know that Jesus was Himself God’s ultimate and only true Passover Lamb.  They were still thinking lion, but He was thinking Lamb.  They were thinking kingdom, but He was thinking sacrifice.  They were thinking glory, but He was thinking suffering and death.”  I wonder what people are thinking today?

 

            The truth is that the Old Testament told exactly what was going to happen to the Messiah, as I have mentioned before in talking about Psalm 22, Isaiah, 53, and also different passages in the book of Zachariah. It is easier to think about Jesus as the Lion rather than the Lamb, especially when one sees all that is going on in, not only our country, but all over the world as we are in great need of the Lion of Judah to come and take care of all the evil that we see everywhere.  God is in charge, and just as Jesus came as a Lamb, He will come as a Lion at the end of the Tribulation period and then all the evil from that period of time will end. He will take those who are still alive and have done so much evil and send them to where all the non-believing evil people are, and eventually, at the Great White Throne Judgment will send them into a Christless eternity in hell.  You have to accept the Lamb and what He has done for you before you can accept the Lion.

 

            One of my favorite passages in the Word of God, and I have many, but in Luke chapter 24 the story is told about two disciples who even after the resurrection, was known did not fully understand what Jesus had done.  “25 And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’” (Luke 34:25-26).

 

            When writing to the Corinthians in what is called the resurrection chapter Paul again had to remind them of something that he had taught them when he was there teaching them about salvation and other spiritual matters.  He writes “1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He

was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

 

            Here is something that Peter wrote “10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).The sufferings would come first and then the glories would follow just as Peter wrote.

 

            The sufferings and death of Jesus were always in God’s plan.  When Jesus was only a few weeks old and when His parents brought Him to the Temple we read what Simon told Mary, His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—and a sword will pierce even your own soul” (Luke 2:34-35).  In the gospel of John we read what John the Baptist said “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).  A couple more verses from the book of Revelation “6 And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.”  “Saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing’” (Rev. 5:6, 12).

 

            I close this SD with another quote from John MacArthur’s commentary “Jesus was going to Jerusalem because that is where He was to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world, in perfect accordance with God’s revealed plan.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am so thankful that the plan of God included me to receive an effectual call from His Holy Spirit.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I want to continue to keep my friends Troy and Charlotte in prayer that I will have the opportunity to do a short Bible study with them.

 

4/18/2023 10:56 AM

 

PT-4 "The Plan of His Suffering" (Matt. 20:17-18a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/17/2023 9:43 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-4 “The Plan of His Suffering”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 20:17-18a

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            I want to begin with a quotation from John MacArthur as he begins to talk about some OT passages which speak of the Messiah:  “Through Moses, God had predicted that none of the Messiah’s bones would be broken (Ex. 12:46).  Through the psalmists, He predicted that, on the cross, the Messiah would be pierced (22:16), that lots would be cast for His garments (22:18), that He would be given vinegar to drink (69:21), that He would cry out in pain (22:1), that He would rise from the dead (16:10), and that He would ascend into heaven (101:1).  Zechariah predicted the Messiah’s entering Jerusalem on a colt (Zech. 9:9), His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12), His desertion by His friends (13:7), and His being pierced (12:10).

 

            “The whole sweep and flow of the Old Testament in its types and symbols demanded that the Messiah, the Lord’s Anointed, die for the sins of a world that could never itself atone for those sins.  The death of Christ has been called the scarlet thread of Scripture, the supreme truth around which all others are woven.

 

            “When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately became aware of their nakedness, and to provide them clothing of skins, animals had to be killed.  From the beginning, guilt and shame had to be covered by sacrifice.  That was the first great principle of redemption taught in Scripture.  But those skins, like all the countless sacrifices thereafter, were only symbolic.  They could cover man’s nakedness but not his sin.” 

 

            The above was the first principle of redemption and the second principle is that God reveled that He Himself would provide the necessary sacrifices for man.  In the book of Genesis God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son through whom the divine promises could be fulfilled. In that portion of Genesis we see that Abraham took Isaac to the exact mountain where many, many years later we see that David would also buy and offer sacrifices in order to stop a plague that he started because of his sin. It was also on that same mountain Solomon, his son would build the temple.  On the day that Abraham took Isaac to the mountain he had him carry the wood for the sacrifice and then Abraham tied Isaac and raised his knife to kill his only son, but God stopped him and provided a ram to take his son’s place.  Abraham named that place of sacrifice, “The Lord Will Provide” (Gen. 22:14).

 

            We now move onto the third great principle of redemption that God revealed, and that was that acceptable sacrifice had to be unblemished.  MacArthur writes “When the death angel was about to pass over Egypt, striking dead all the first-born, God provided for the Israelites to be protected by smearing the blood of an unblemished lamb on their doorposts and lintels (Ex. 12:5-7).

            “But in the requirements and rituals of the Old Testament, those principles were only pictured.  No sacrifice offered by man could cover sin, provide a substitute for himself, be morally and spiritually unblemished, or become an acceptable act of worship to God.  Only God Himself could present such a sacrifice, and it is that divine sacrifice to whom all other sacrifices pointed.  And when that perfect sacrifice was made, the others no longer had significance.  When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the Temple was torn in two and the validity of the sacrificial system ended.  Less than forty years later, with the total destruction of the Temple in A. D. 70, even the possibility of other Old Testament sacrifice ended.”

 

            With that we will end this SD, and I believe that we will be able to finish this section in our next SD.  I have to say that this SD has a lot of very important things in it, and if those who read it will take the time to read all the Biblical references in it then it will make it even richer.

 

4/17/2023 10:11 AM

 

           

PT-3 "The Plan of His Suffering" (Matt. 20:17-18a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2023 10:14 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-3 “The Plan of His Suffering”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Matthew 20:17-18a

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18  "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            “32 They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him,” (Mark 10:32).

 

            I want to focus in on the part where we see that Jesus was walking in front of His disciples. This reminds  me of a military commander going into battle at the head of his troops, bravely putting Himself in the most dangerous and the most vulnerable position.  This is exactly what the Lord is doing as He marches His little spiritual army into the battle, the battle that will end up in victory for all who will come to Him in faith.

 

            I have to say that this will be a very short SD because of the lateness of the hour.  But I do want to say that everything that Jesus is doing has been planned out for Him to do from before the foundation of the earth.  I also want to say that I truly don’t understand all of that, but I do believe it.  When Jesus came to planet earth we read that it was the Spirit of God who was the One who caused Mary to become with child, and again I don’t understand that but believe it.  It was the plans of God for Jesus to be born and once He was born He began to fulfill what the plans of the Father were for Him to accomplish while on earth. It was the Spirit of God who empowered Him to accomplish the things that He was to do, and the most important thing for Him to do was to go up to Jerusalem where He was entirely in control of what would happen there even though when one reads about it they may think that others, like the Jews and the Romans were in control, but they were only doing what was planned for them to do in order for Jesus to go to the cross in order to pay for our sins, but one has to realize this and make it personal by confessing that you are a sinner and then believing that Christ died to take you place and invite Him into your heart and you will receive forgiveness of your sins.

 

4/16/2023 10:28 PM 

PT-2 "The Plan of His Suffering" (Matt. 20:17-18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/15/2023 10:01 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-2 “The Plan of His Suffering”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                           Reference:  Matthew 20:17-18a)

 

            Message of the verses: “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            In verse 18 we see that the first word is “Behold,” and this was a common exclamation, a means of calling special attention to something of importance.  In the context we find here it also carried the idea of resolution and conviction.  Let’s look at Luke 9:51, a similar time in the life of our Lord “Now as the days before he should be taken back into Heaven were running out, he set his face firmly towards Jerusalem, (Phillips).  The difference in the Luke passage and the Matthew passage is that in Matthew we see that He did not plan to go their alone, but He told the Twelve, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            As mentioned in earlier SD’s the disciples had a difficult time accepting the idea of a suffering and dying Messiah, and it was common knowledge that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were going to try and have Him killed.  So therefore the disciples “were amazed, and those who followed were fearful” (Mark 10:32).  The disciples did not think that this would be necessary and it would be foolhardy for Jesus even to think of going to Jerusalem.  One thing is for sure that by the time of the celebration of Pentecost would come to pass that they would have a much better understanding of why the Lord had to suffer and die.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The Greek word behind amazed is thambeo, which refers to great astonishment or bewilderment, and sometimes even carried the idea of immobility because of fright.  It denoted complete inability to correctly comprehend and react to an idea or event.  The disciples had witnessed nearly three years of Jesus’ divine, miraculous power and of hearing His authoritative teaching.  They had left everything for Him and had put themselves completely into His care.  Now everything seemed hopeless and pointless, and they could make no sense at all of what was happening.” 

 

            I think that at this time in the lives of the disciples that they were confused, and were giving up on the idea of having the kingdom come immediately.  I mentioned earlier that in my opinion selfishness is the sin that can cause a great deal of problems in the life of a believer, and that seems to me what is going on in the lives of the disciples.  Sometimes we only think of Judas as being the selfish one of the disciples because it was he who turned Jesus in to the Jewish leaders.  The truth is that all of the disciples were selfish because all of them desired to sit on thrones with Jesus in the Kingdom of God.  They would eventually do this but after they too would suffer and die for the cause of Christ.  We can see from the disciple’s point of view that Jesus was doing nothing to bring about a political following and certainly was not raising up an army.  If He was powerless against the Jewish establishment, He was totally insignificant as far as the Roman government was concerned.  They knew that to go to Jerusalem was certain death, and “Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with Him’” (John 11:16).  This was the most positive attitude they could muster, a heroic but hopeless resignation to go and die with their Master.”  As mentioned earlier they would do this later on.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that when I am selfish that at times I can miss out on what the Lord desires for me to do.  However in the life of the disciples who were selfish as seen in the commentary on these verses they would learn to do the will of the Lord, as He was very patient with them and is for me too.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am learning to trust the Lord more and more.  I am reading a book on the life of Moses each night out loud as my wife is listening to it too.  In the part of Moses’ life where the children of Israel are caught by the Egyptians as they were on what could be described as a cul-de-sac, and they literally had no place to go, and Moses then tells them to trust the Lord for the Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  They had to stand and trust the Lord, as they could do nothing.  I to have problems in being in cul-de-sacs and I to desire to do something to get myself out, and I to have trouble in just sitting down and trusting the Lord.  I had one yesterday as I met with a few of my old friends, friends that I had before I became a born-again believer.  I thought about this lesson as I was driving to have breakfast with them and the Lord calmed my heart.  Actually it was my desire to meet with my long-time friend Troy and his wife Charlotte, but the Lord had other plans, plans that I pray will allow me to witness to some of these old friends as like me, they are all getting older and perhaps more willing to listen to the gospel.

 

4/15/2023 10:43 AM   

 

PT-1 "The Plan of His Suffering" (Matt. 20:17-18b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/14/2023 8:16 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-1 “The Plan of His Suffering”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                           Reference:  Matthew 20:17-18a)

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem;”

 

            I want to first take a look at how Jesus got to where He and His disciples got to where they are when He spoke these words.  In an earlier SD we talked about how Jesus had finished His Galilean ministry and then He had crossed into Perea, which is on the other side of the Jordan River.  “When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan;” (Matt. 19:1).  This is the way that many Jewish travelers went in order not to go into Samaria, but this was not the reason that Jesus went this way. The very first person that became a believer in Him as recorded in John chapter four was a Samaritan woman who had five husbands and was living with another man.  Now Jesus would travel down the east-side of the Jordan and then cross over to Jericho which is seen in Matthew 20:29 “29 As they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed Him.”   

 

            I can’t tell you why but Jericho has always fascinated me and I suppose it is because of its location.  Jericho was the first city that the children of Israel conquered after leaving Egypt.  It is much lower than Jerusalem and to travel to Jerusalem the Bible says “going up to Jerusalem,” as it is the highest place in that area of Israel.  Jericho was at the end of the northern part of the Dead Sea, which is over 1,000 feet below sea level. Jerusalem is only 14 miles due west of the Dead Sea, it is at an elevation of 2,500 feet above sea level, making the trip up from Jericho quite steep.

 

            There can still be troubles in a trip from Jericho to Jerusalem even today, and especially during the time when Jesus walked the earth as many robbers would hide out and attack travelers going either up to Jerusalem or down to Jericho.  Now as we look at verse 17b we see that He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and this shows that they were traveling in a group which was the safest way.  I believe that many in this group had been following Jesus for a while now as seen in verse 29.  The Passover was coming shortly and that is why many people were traveling up to Jerusalem as I have learned that close to a million people would be in the city of Jerusalem during that time of the year.  Jesus had always attracted a large crowd, that is until the crowd turned on Him as He was about to suffer during His crucifixion. 

 

            I will stop at this point even though this will be short.  I have to meet a friend for breakfast this morning, people that I have not seen for probably 25 years.

 

4/14/2023 8:41 AM

 

           

Intro to "The Sufferings of Christ" (Matt. 20:17-19)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/13/2023 10:00 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  Intro to “The Sufferings of Christ”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 20:17-19

 

            Message of the verses:  “17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18  "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19  and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.’”

 

            I have to begin with saying that I was listening to the sermon that goes along with this section last week, which was what is called “Passion Week” as Good Friday, and Easter are in that week as true believers all over the world will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, something that should be done by believers each and every day.  In this section we see the third time that Jesus has warned His disciples that He was going to go to the cross and die, something that they did not seem to be interested in because they were all thinking about what their positions would be in the coming Kingdom of God.  In Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23 we sae the first two times that Jesus spoke to His disciples about His coming sufferings and death.  We can be sure that Jesus was not teaching a parable when He talked to them about this, and He was not speaking in figures of speech either.  He was speaking in very ordinary, unambiguous terms.  Jesus was not revealing a mystery or explaining deep theological truths, as He was simply stating what would soon become historical facts.

 

            John MacArthur writes “The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the central events of biblical revelation in both the Old and New Testaments.  It is those two historical events, and certain others surrounding them, that Jesus now again predicts to the Twelve as being imminent.”

 

            It has happened throughout history that there have been some people who have portrayed Jesus as a well-meaning, loving gentle, peaceful, but naïve visionary who somehow got caught in a hostile world and accidentally would up being crucified.  I know, for that is partly the way that I thought about Jesus right after I became a believer, but through the study of God’s Word and the teaching of gifted Pastors and teachers I realized the truth about Jesus Christ. I have been continually studying the Bible to learn more about Him for the last 49+ years, and what a joy it is.  There are others who less generously pictured Him as a self-styled, would-be conqueror who tried to pull off a coup of sorts and became a victim of His own ambition.  I have to say that this has never entered my mind at all.

 

            MacArthur continues to write in his introduction to these verses:  “But such views do not reflect at all the biblical record.  The sufferings and death of Christ were no miscalculation or accident.  They were not the least surprising to Jesus. On the contrary, He knew about them even before His murderers had thought of their evil plans.  The Messiah’s suffering and death were planned by our holy God ages before they were plotted in the minds of evil men.  Jesus knew why He was on earth, including every detail of His life and ministry.  And because He had that divine foreknowledge, He must have endured many sufferings a thousand times in His mind before they transpired in His life.”

 

            Now as mentioned before this is the third time that Jesus has spoken to His disciples about this and so we can be assured that the Lord wanted them to understand what He would soon face, as well as prepare them for what would also be a time of severe sufferings and danger for them.  For almost three years they were so attuned to the popular Jewish concepts of the glories, conquering, reigning Messiah that anything He taught to the contrary seemed to go by them, something that I think that they had just pushed out of their minds, something that they thought would never happen.  I have mentioned that everything that was going to happen to Jesus Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament as all of it was planned from eternity past.  Jesus was fulfilling what was to happen to Him while on planet earth.  In the early chapters of Luke we read about Jesus, being lost to His parents, sitting and teaching in the temple, and when His parents found Him He said that He had to be about His Father’s business.  He was talking about the plan that His Father had for Him to do.  Near the end of John’s gospel while Jesus was about to die on the cross He stated “It is finished,” meaning that what He was doing, what was planned from eternity past was done, which was making a provision for unbelieving men to have a way of redemption through His shed blood on the cross as He took the punishment for every sinner who had been or would be born.  He did this through His sufferings and in this section that is what we will be talking about and as I listened to the sermon on this section I learned much more about His sufferings that I had ever known before, and that is what I wish to share with all who read these SD’s.

 

            MacArthur concludes his introduction with the following paragraph:  “So for the third time it is recorded that the Lord calls them aside and seeks to impress on them the reality of what is about to happen to Him.  First He assures them that these events are a part of God’s revealed plan.  Then He gives detailed predictions of the particular events, and finally an idea of the proportion and power of the sufferings He would endure.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am happy about being given the chance to go over the sufferings of Jesus Christ. I realize that there may come a time in my life when He may call me to suffer for the cause of Christ as this world that we are living in is winding down very fast, and there will be continual sufferings for the cause of Christ as we make our way toward the next main prophetic event, the rapture of the church. 20 He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” Rev. 22:20).

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have been thinking that perhaps the greatest sin that a person can commit is selfishness, as it seems to me that all sin comes from being selfish.  It is my desire not to be selfish, and this can only be done through the power of the Holy Spirit as He fills me each and every day.

 

4/13/2023 10:38 AM