PT-4 "Intro to Matt. 26:57-68"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/19/2024 9:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 26:57-68”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:57-68

 

            Message of the verses:  “57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. 60 They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, 61 and said, "This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’" 62 The high priest stood up and said to Him, "Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!" 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?’”

 

            I have to say again that there is a lot of introduction to these verses in this 16^th chapter of John MacArthur’s commentary, actually the 4^th commentary on the book of Matthew, something that I have been studying for over five years.  Someone could just preach through this book of Matthew and not go into the things like we are looking at in this introduction, but they would miss out on looking at all the laws that were in place for the nation of Israel which God gave them when they first came out of Egypt, laws that in the United States were used by the founding fathers to put into place, which as of the days we are living in are not followed, and in the cause of our former President, Donald J. Trump, the left is doing similar things to him that were done to Christ in this sham trial.  One can see in both cases that Satan is behind what was going on then and what is going on in our country at this time.  It is hard to understand in our human minds that what went on in Jesus’ sham trial was exactly what was planned to happen even before the world is made in eternity past. The second person of the godhead, Jesus Christ knew that this would happen to Him, and to best understand this we must understand that Jesus Christ was the One in control of all that was going on to Him.  I now want to continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary as we continue to look at the many laws that were broken during His sham trial.

 

            “The governing principle in capital cases was: ‘The Sanhedrin is to save, not destroy, life.’  In addition to the above provisions, the president of the council was required to remind prospective witness of the preciousness of human life and to admonish them to be certain their testimony was both true and complete.  No criminal trial could be begun during or continued into the night; the property of an executed criminal could not be confiscated but was passed on to his heirs, and voting was done from the youngest member to the oldest in order that the former would not be influenced by the latter.  And if a council voted unanimously for conviction, the accused was set free, because the necessary element of mercy was presumed to be lacking.

 

            “It is obvious that, when properly administered, the Jewish system of justice was not only eminently fair but merciful.  It is just as obvious that the system did not operate either fairly or mercifully in Jesus’ trial, because the Sanhedrin violated virtually every principle of its own system of jurisprudence.  Jesus was illegally tried without first having been charged with a crime.  He was tried at night and in private, no defense was permitted Him, and the witnesses against Him had been bribed to falsify their testimony.  He was executed on the same day He was sentenced, and consequently, the judges could not have fasted on the intervening day that should have transpired and had no opportunity to reconsider their verdict.  The only procedure that was properly followed was the offering of the stupefying drink, but that was done by Roman soldiers, not by representatives of the Sanhedrin (Mark. 15:23).

 

            “As clear from the gospel accounts, Jesus had two major trials, one Jewish and religious and the other Roman and secular.  Because Rome reserved the right of execution to its own courts and administrators, the Sanhedrin was not allowed to dispense capital punishment (John 18:31).  The fact that it did so on several occasions, as with the stoning of Stephen (Acts 6:12-14; 7:54-60), does not prove the legibility of it.  It is likely, however, that many illegal executions by the Sanhedrin were simply overlooked by Roman authorities for the sake of political expediency.  For them, the loss of a single life was a small price to pay to keep order and peace.  The only blanket exception that Rome granted was for the summary execution of a Gentile who trespassed a restricted area of the Temple.

 

            “It is also significant that both the Jewish religious and Roman secular trials of Jesus had three phases, meaning that, within about twelve hours, Jesus faced legal proceedings on six separate occasions before His crucifixion.  The Jewish trial began with His being taken before the former high priest Annas in the middle of the night.  Annas then sent Him to the presiding high priest, Caiaphas, who had quickly convened the Sanhedrin at his own house.  Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin met a second time after daylight on Friday morning.

 

            “After the Jewish religious leaders had concluded their sham hearings, they took Jesus to the Roman procurator, Pilate, first of all because they could not carry out a death sentence with his permission.  But they also went to him because a Roman crucifixion would help obscure their own nefarious involvement in what they knew were totally unjust proceedings and condemnation.

 

            “When Pilate discovered Jesus was a Galilean, he sent Him to Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, who was in Jerusalem for the Passover.  After being questioned and treated with contempt by Herod and his soldiers, Jesus was sent back to Pilate, who reluctantly consented to His crucifixion. 

 

            “Matthew 26:57-68 reveals at least five aspects of that illegal and unjust treatment of our Lord: the convening of the Sanhedrin (57-58), the conspiracy to convict Jesus without evidence (vv. 59-61), the confrontation to induce His self-incrimination (vv. 62-64), the condemnation based on false charges and testimony (vv. 65-66), and the conduct of the court in the physical and verbal abuse of Jesus (vv. 67-68).”

 

            With that we conclude the introduction to these verses in Matthew chapter 26:57-68 and I look forward to continue to look at what was going to happen to my Lord and Savior in order for Him to pay for my sins upon the cross, for which I am eternally thankful.

 

6/19/2024 10:02 AM

PT-3 "Intro to Matt. 26:57-68)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/18/2024 9:03 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-3 “Intro to Matt. 26:57-68”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:57-68

 

            Message of the verses:  “57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. 60 They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, 61 and said, "This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’" 62 The high priest stood up and said to Him, "Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!" 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?’”

 

            The more times that I read over these verses the sadder I get.  I know that in order for me to become a child of God that Christ had to die in my place, but nonetheless it is sad to see what Christ had to go through in order to save me.  I now want to continue to look at more commentary from MacArthur’s commentary as we continue looking at the Jewish laws, which as we will see that the Jews did not follow any of them in order to crucify Christ, it was like mob rule with no laws followed.

 

            “Rabbinical law required that a sentence of death could not be carried out until the third day after it was rendered and that during the intervening day the members of the court were to fast.  That provision had the effect of preventing a trial during a feast, when fasting was prohibited.  The delay of execution also provided additional time for evidence or testimony to be discovered in the defendant’s behalf.

 

            “Simon Greenleaf was a famous professor of law at Harvard University in the last (19^th) century.  In his book The Testimony of Evangelists ([Jersey City, JM: Frederick P. Linn, 1881], pp. 581-84) a section written by lawyer Joseph Salvador gives fascinating and significant information about proper Sanhedrin trial procedure.  Because a defendant was protected against self-incrimination, his confession, no matter how convincing, was not sufficient in itself for conviction.

 

            “On the day of the trial, according to Salvador, the court officers would require all evidence against the accused person to read in the full hearing of open court.  Each witness against him would be required to affirm his testimony was true to the best of his knowledge and was based on his own direct experience and not on hearsay or presumption.  Witnesses also had to identify the precise month, day, hour, and location of the event about which they testified.  A council itself could not initiate charges agains a person but could only consider charges brought before it by an outside party.

 

            “A woman was not allowed to testify because she was considered to lack the courage to give the first blow if the accused were convicted and sentenced to death.  Children cont not testify because of their immaturity, nor could a slave, a person of bad character, or a person who was considered mentally incompetent.

 

            “There was always to be presumption of innocence, and great latitude was given the accused in presenting his defense.  In a local council, eleven votes out of the total of twenty-three were required for acquittal, but thirteen were required for conviction.  If the accused was found guilty, the sentence was not pronounced until two days later and, as mentioned above, the council members were required to fast during the intervening day.  On the morning of the third day the council was reconvened, and each judge, in turn, was asked if he changed his decision.  A vote for condemnation could be changed to acquittal, but not the reverse.

 

            “If a guilty verdict was reaffirmed, an officer with a flag remained near the council while another officer, often mounted on horseback, escorted the prisoner to the place of execution.  A herald went before the slow-moving procession declaring in a loud voice, ‘This man [stating his name] is led to punishment for such a crime; the witnesses who have sworn against him are such and such persons; if any one has evidence to give in his favor, let him come forth quickly.’  If, at any time before the sentence was carried out, additional information pertaining to innocence came to light, including the prisoner’s recollection of something he had forgotten, one officer would signal the other, and the prisoner would be brought back to the council for reconsideration of the verdict.  Before the place of execution was reached, the condemned person was urged to confess his crime, if he had not already done so and was given a stupefying drink to dull his senses and thereby make his death less painful.”

 

            I have to say that there is much more to this introduction which is explaining what the laws were like in Israel at the time when the mock, fake trial was going on which would end up in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

 

6/18/2024 9:33 AM

PT-2 "Intro to Matt. 26:57-68"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/17/2024 9:26 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                         Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Matthew 26:57-68”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Matt 26:57-68

 

            Message of the verses:  “57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. 60 They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, 61 and said, "This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’" 62 The high priest stood up and said to Him, "Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!" 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?’”

 

            I want to continue to talk about the laws that the Jewish people had, as we will see that they broke many of them in this sham trial that was going on with the Lord Jesus Christ.  The laws that I am talking about come from the quotation that I gave in the last SD from Deuteronomy 16:18-20, and they added general principles to this section of Scripture as MacArthur writes:  “They determined that any community that had at least 120 men who were heads of families could form a local council.  In later years, aft er the Babylonian exile, that council often was composed of the synagogue leadership.  The council come to be known as a Sanhedrin, from a Greek term (sunedrion) that had been transliterated into Hebrew and Aramaic, as it now is into English.  It literally means ‘sitting together.’  A local Sanhedrin was composed of up to 23 members and the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was composed of 70 chief priests, elders, and scribes, with the high priest making a total of 71.  In both the local and Great Sanhedrin an odd number of members was maintained in order to climate the possibility of a tie vote.”

 

            Now it is because I use the NASB in my SD’s we need to know that when referring to the national body in Jerusalem, sunedrion is usually translated “Council.” When referring to a local body it is translated “court.”  Luke tells us that the Great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was also sometimes referred to as “the Senate of the sons of Israel” (Acts 5:21) or “the Council of the elders” (Luke 22:66; Acts 22:5).

 

            MacArthur goes on to write “Members of the local sanhedrins were to be chosen because of their maturity and wisdom, and the Great Sanhedrin was to be composed of those who had distinguished themselves in a local council and had served a form of apprenticeship in a national council.  But long before Jesus’ day membership in the Great Sanhedrin had degenerated largely into appointments based on religious or political favoritism and influence.  The Herods, especially Herod the Great, exercised considerable control over the Great Sanhedrin, and even the pagan Romans sometimes became involved in the appointments or removal of a high priest.

 

            “The general requirements of fairness and impartiality prescribed in Deuteronomy 16:18-20 and elsewhere in the Mosaic law were reflected in the rabbinical requirements that guaranteed an accused criminal the right to a public trial, to defense counsel, and conviction only on the testimony of at least two reliable witnesses.  Trials were therefore always open to putlic scrutiny, and the defendant had the right to bring forth evidence and witnesses in his own behalf, no matter how damning the evidence and testimony against him might be.

 

            “To guard against false witnessing, whether given out of revenge or for a bribe, the Mosaic law prescribed that a person who knowingly gave false testimony would suffer the punishment the accused would suffer if found guilty (Deut. 19:16-19).  A person who gave false testimony in a trial that involved capital punishment, for example, would himself be put to death.  For obvious reasons, that penalty was a strong deterrent to perjury and an effective protection of justice.  An additional deterrent was the requirement that accusing witness in a capital case were to initiate the execution, making them stand behind their testimony by action as well as words (Deut. 17:7).  It was that law to which Jesus made indirect reference when He told the accusers of the woman taken in adultery, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her’ (John 8:7).’”

 

            There is more to this that is speaking about the laws that were in place, that were not used in the sham trial of Jesus that we will look at in the next SD.

 

6/17/2024 10:14 AM

 

PT-1 "Intro to Matthew 26:57-68"

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/16/2024 9:34 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-1 “Intro to Matt. 26:57-68”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matt. 26:57-68

 

            Message of the verses:  “57 Those who had seized Jesus led Him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered together. 58 But Peter was following Him at a distance as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and entered in, and sat down with the officers to see the outcome. 59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, so that they might put Him to death. 60 They did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward, 61 and said, "This man stated, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.’" 62 The high priest stood up and said to Him, "Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?" 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." 64 Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN." 65 Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy; 66 what do you think?" They answered, "He deserves death!" 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him with their fists; and others slapped Him, 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, You Christ; who is the one who hit You?’”

 

            There is something that we need to know about the judicial systems that were in the nation of Israel and in fact what we have in the Western world have their foundations in the legal system of ancient Israel, which itself was founded on the standards set forth in their Scriptures, that is the Old Testament.

 

            I want to quote Deuteronomy 16:18-20 which gives the essence of the Old Testament system of jurisprudence:  “Overview. The word jurisprudence derives from the Latin term juris prudentia, which means "the study, knowledge, or science of law." In the United States, jurisprudence commonly means the philosophy of law.”

 

            “18 "You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your towns which the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 “You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 20 “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, that you may live and possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”

 

            As one reads over these verse from Deuteronomy and think about how when our country was founded that this is what they set up the laws in our country, and that has to be good because it comes from the Word of God.  Now as one listens to what is going on in our country now we can see that we have fallen way short of what the Lord wrote to the children of Israel and our founders have patterned after that for our laws.  Satan is the one who is behind what is going on in our country at this time, and he is using a Jewish man who turned his back on the Jewish people during WWII.  Yes he is old and his name is George Soros. His parents should have named him Judas.

 

6/16/2024 9:55 AM  

PT-3 "The Defection of the Disciples" (Matt. 26:55-56)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/15/2024 9:11 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-3 “The Defection of the Disciples”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:55-56

 

            Message of the verses:  “55 At that time Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. 56 "But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets." Then all the disciples left Him and fled.”

 

            I want to finish quoting from MacArthur’s commentary on what he wrote that goes along with these verses.  Lord willing tomorrow we will begin looking at the remaining verses in chapter 26 of Matthew.  I listened to the sermons that MacArthur preached on those remaining verses yesterday while taking my walk, and so by doing that it gives me a better idea of what we will be looking at beginning tomorrow.

 

            “The exact reason for the multitude’s temporary immobility is not revealed, but doubtless it was caused by the overwhelming power of Christ.  Although the Jews in the group would have associated Jesus’ words with the name of God, on a previous occasion when He claimed that name for Himself they were enraged rather than fearful and tried to stone Him to death (John 8:58-59).  And that name would have had no significance at all to the 600 Roman soldiers.  In addition, it seems almost certain that many of the men in that huge crowd could not hear what Jesus was saying.  Therefore their instantly and involuntarily falling to the ground as on man was not caused so much by fear as by a direct, miraculous burst of power of God.  It was as if the Father were declaring in action what He had previously declared in words ‘This is my beloved Son’ (Matt. 3:17; 17:5).  The multitude was able to rise only when God’s restraining hand was lifted.

 

            “Perhaps while they were still lying dazed and perplexed on the ground, Jesus again ‘asked them, ‘Whom do you seek?’’ and they again replied, Jesus the Nazarene’ (John 18:7).  He then said, ‘I told you that I am He; if therefore you seek Me, let these go their way’ (v. 8), referring to the disciples.

 

            “The multitude that night reacted to being cast to the ground much as the homosexuals of Sodom reacted to being struck blind.  Those wicked men were so consumed by their sexual perversion that even in blindness they persisted to point of exhaustion, futilely trying to satisfy their lust (Gen. 19:11).  In a similar way the men who came to arrest Jesus were so bent on their ungodly mission that they crawled up out of the dirt as if nothing had happened, determined at all costs to carry out their wicked scheme.  Though not to the degree of being indwelt by Satan as was Judas, the entire multitude was subservient to the prince of this world.

 

            “Jesus had already unmasked the duplicity and cowardice of the leaders of the multitude when He asked why they had not arrested Him earlier in the week.  He not only had been in Jerusalem every day but had been the focus of public attention on several occasions, most notably when He entered the city triumphantly and when He cleansed the Temple of the money changers and sacrifice merchants.

 

            “In His confrontation with Judas, the Lord also demonstrated His majesty and His sovereignty.  He not only had predicted Judas’s betrayal but had declared that even that vile act would fulfil God’s prophecy (Matt. 26:21, 24).  When the moment of arrest came, He faced it without resistance, anger, or anxiety.  He was as perfectly confident of following His Father’s plan and of being under His Father’s care at that moment as when He performed His greatest miracles or was transfigured on the mountaintop.

 

            “In His confrontation with Peter and the other disciples, Jesus demonstrated His perfect faithfulness in face of their utter faithlessness.  While they demonstrated their absence of trust in the Son, the Son demonstrated His absolute trust in His Father.”

 

            Now as I look back at what the Lord went through during His prayers to the Father, while the disciples were sleeping, that there came a point during those prayers that He prayed to His Father that Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit overcame what Satan was tempting Him not to do, that is dying on the cross, that Jesus became ready to do the word of redemption.  What I am trying to say was that Jesus was ready to do the work that was planned for Him to do before the foundation of the earth.  What Jesus was about to do was the most important act that was ever done, for without His sacrifice on the cross for the redemption of sins there would never be anyone saved.  Even those in the section of Sheol that were with Abraham would not have been saved if Jesus did not go to the cross and offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin.  Yes Jesus was ready and what He is about to go through will be the hardest thing that He ever went through while on planet earth.  It was not just the physical pain He would go through that would be the worst for Him, but those dark hours while on the cross that He would be separated from His Father is what He was dreading the most, for that had never happened before, nor will it happen again.

 

6/15/2024 9:46 AM

PT-2 "The Defection of the Disciples" (Matt. 26:55-56)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/14/2024 12:21 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-2 “The Defection of the Disciples”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:55-56

 

            Message of the verses:  “55 At that time Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. 56 “But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets." Then all the disciples left Him and fled.”

 

            I have come to the point in this section of John MacArthur’s commentary where he is just writing things that go along with these verses and I usually just quote from the things that he has to write about different verses, and the reason that I do this is because what he has to say about these verses is much better than what I would have to say and so I learn by reading them and you learn by reading these things on my blogs.

 

            “Just as there are common marks of false disciples there are common characteristics of defective disciples, as the eleven proved to be on this occasion.  First of all, they were unprepared.  All of them, including the three Jesus chose to accompany Him into the garden, had fallen asleep at this time of Jesus’ great struggle.  Because they confused good intentions with spiritual strength, they were powerless when testing came.  They were overconfident and felt no need of prayer.  Had they taken to heart the Lord’s marvelous promises in the Upper Room discourage (John 13-17), they would have had the divinely provided wisdom and strength to meet the crisis.

 

            “But because they had paid little attention to Jesus’ teaching and had neglected prayer, the disciples discovered they were unprepared and inadequate.  It is an absolute spiritual law that a believer who neglects the study of God’s Word and neglects fellowship with Him in prayer will be unprepared (cf. Matt. 26:41).  When testing comes he will be weak, afraid, unfaithful, and ineffective.”  (Matt. 26:41 “41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’”

 

            “A second mark of a defective disciple is impulsiveness.  The eleven disciples, and Peter in particular, reached on the basis of emotion rather than revelation.  They did not look at the situation from the perfect perspective of God’s truth but from the imperfect and distorted perspective of their own understanding.  Therefore, instead of acting on the basis of God’s Word and in the promised power of His Spirit, they reacted on the basis of their emotions and in the weakness of their own resources.

 

            “The believer who fails to saturate himself in God’s Word and to have fellowship in God’s presence becomes a captive of circumstances.  His thinking is based on the emotions of the moment, and his actions are based on the impulses of the moment.

 

            “A third mark of a defective disciple is impatience.  Because the disciples refused to take Jesus’ truth and promises to heart, they became anxious and impatient when things did not go as they thought they should.  They could not wait for the Lord’s deliverance and so devised their own.”

 

            “Many Christians take the easy route of fleeing from trouble rather than trusting God to see them through it.  Instead of trusting the Savior to deliver them, and in so doing to demonstrate His grace and power they try to avoid trouble at any cost and thereby bring reproach upon Him.

 

            “A fourth mark of a defective disciple is carnality.  The disciples typified by Peter, depended wholly on their own fleshly power to protect them.  Because he refused to trust his Lord’s way and power, Peter had nothing to rely on but his sword, which was pathetically inadequate even from a human perspective.

 

            “When believers lose their fleshly weapons of discover those weapons are ineffective, they sometimes simply flee in desperation.

 

            “The major participant in this garden scene was Jesus Himself and in Matthew’s account we see His triumph even while His enemies were taking Him captive.  Through their evil plot ot put Him to death He would accomplish the divine plan for giving men eternal life.

 

            “All of His disciples deserted Him, and one betrayed Him, yet the divine work of redemption continued to be fulfilled on schedule, precisely according to God’s sovereign and prophesied plan.  As the disciples’ faithfulness decreased, Jesus’ demonstration of power and glory increased.  As the plans of His enemies seemed to  prosper, the plan of God prospered still more in spite of them.

 

            “It is not clear exactly when it happened, but perhaps right after Judas’s kiss, Jesus took the initiative and confronted the multitude.  To assure His enemies that He was not trying to hide or escape, and perhaps to strip Judas of any credit for indentifying Him, He said, Whom do you seek?’ When they replied, ‘Jesus the Nazarene,’ He said, “I am He,’ and at those words ‘they drew back, and fell to the ground’ (John 18:4-6).  ‘I am He’ translates ego eimi, which laterally means ‘I am,’ the covenant name of God (see Ex. 3:14).”

           

            There is only a little bit more to look at and I will save it for tomorrow’s SD.  I have listened to the two sermons that go along most of the rest of chapter 26, and I can say that this chapter in MacArthur’s commentary is at least 20 pages so I guess I will be camped out on that chapter for some time.  These are very important verses that we are looking at and as one looks at what Matthew has written about this difficult time in the life of our Lord one has to glance at the other gospel writers to put the picture together. 

 

            I have to say that the first part of this SD has stepped on my toes and so I need to do some praying and looking at these things that have effective me in this way so that by the power of the Holy Spirit and of the Word of God things can change for the better.

 

6/14/2024 1:03 PM

PT-1 "The Defection of the Disciples" (Matt. 26:55-56)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/13/2024 11:23 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                   Focus:  PT-1 “The Defection of the Disciples”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:55-56

 

            Message of the verses:  “55 At that time Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. 56 “But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets." Then all the disciples left Him and fled.”

 

            As we begin to look at this section one must wonder if what Jesus is saying to the multitude was sarcasm.  He may have been saying something like this:  “Am I so dangerous, that you have to come out in such great numbers and with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber?  Am I so elusive that you had to capture Me by stealth in the dead of the night?  You know very well that Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching.  How come you did not seize Me then?”

 

            I think we know the answer to this question and the answer is that prophecy had to be fulfilled.  MacArthur writes “Jesus knew that no amount of truth or logic would dissuade His enemies from executing their plot against Him.  They knew their charges were spurious and unjust and that they had had countless opportunities to arrest Him publicly.  But when evil men are determined to have their way, they will not be deterred by such considerations as truth, justice, legality, or righteousness.”

 

            In verse 56 we read the answer to the question, something that I have already written about “But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets."  I did not really have to do with their personal reasons and motivations were, prophecy had to be fulfilled.  They were unwittingly accomplishing what their own Scriptures have said through the prophets what you would do to your Messiah.  This was completely apart from their own evil intentions as God is sovereignly using them to accomplish His righteous and gracious purposes.  So in doing this He will demonstrate that His infallible Word through the prophets would be fulfilled.

 

            These men who are doing this to Jesus were not mere robots in following the prophecies that they were helping to full, this was what was in their own hearts and without salvation they will suffer great consequences in hell for doing this.

 

            Now when we come to His disciples this brought little comfort to them as they had forgotten what the Lord had just spoken to them, telling them that they would all flee.  “Then Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED’” (Matt. 26:31).  Let us also look at John 18:4-5 which helps explain why they really did not have to run away “4 So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" 5 They answered Him, "Jesus the Nazarene." He said to them, "I am He." And Judas also, who was betraying Him, was standing with them.”

            MacArthur adds “It is easy to criticize the disciples for their faithlessness and cowardice.  But every honest believer knows that at times he has run from possible embarrassment, ridicule, or mockery because of his association with Christ.  We have to confess that we, too, have left our Lord and fled when the cost of discipleship has seemed to high.”

 

6/13/2024 11:56 AM