The Directive (Matt. 26:26a,27)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/1/2024 12:00 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus:  “The Directive”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Matthew 26:26a, 27

 

            Message of the verses:  “And while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said “Take, eat;…” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying “Drink from it, all of you;”

 

            It is not really certain what part of the meal they were eating at this time, but the supper was still in progress, and our Lord instituted the new memorial in the midst of the old, as He instituted “The Lord’s Supper.”

 

            The first thing that Jesus did was He took some bread, and as He always did before eating He gave thanks for the food He was about to eat.  See Matthew 14:19 and 15:36 to show Him doing this.  MacArthur describes the following:  “The unleavened bread was baked in large, flat, crisp loaves, which Jesus broke into pieces before He gave it to the disciples with the instructions, “Take, eat.”  The fact that He broke the bread does not symbolize a broken body, because John makes clear that, in fulfillment of prophecy, ‘Not a bone of Him shall be broken”  (John 19:36; cf. Ps. 34:20), just as no bones of the original Passover lambs in Egypt were broken (Ex. 12:46).”

 

            The next thing He did shortly after giving out the bread when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying “Drink from it, all of you.”  MacArthur adds “The verb behind given thanks is eucharisteo, and it is from that term that we get Eucharist, as the Lord’s Supper is sometimes called.”

 

            He goes on to write “As would be expected, all eleven disciples drank of it (Mark 14:23).  It should be noted that the Roman Catholic practice of not allowing the entire congregation to partake of the cup is in direct contradiction of Jesus’ explicit directive, of the disciples’ obedient example, and of Paul’s later teaching (see 1 Cor. 10:16, 21; 11:28).

 

            “Those two acts of Jesus were normal features of the Passover, in which unleavened bread was eaten and diluted wine was drunk at several points during the meal.  This was probably the third cup, called the cup of blessing.  Paul refers to it by that name in his first letter to the Corinthians:  “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ?” (10:16). It is from the King James translation of that verse (“…is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?”) that Communion, another name for the Lord’s Supper, is derived.  A few verses later Paul refers to this cup as “the cup of the Lord” (v. 21).”

 

            I hope that this has been something that will be useful for those who read this and will think about it when The Lord’s Supper is given and you partake in it.

 

5/1/2024 12:26 PM

 

             

 

Establishing the Future Provision (Matt. 26:26-29)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/30/2024 11:08 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  “Establishing The Future Provision”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 26:26-29

 

            Message of the verses:  “26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." 27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. 29 "But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.’”

 

            What we will be looking at in this rather short SD is actually an introduction to these verses and what went on after Judas had left to do his awful deed of betrayal.  What Jesus is doing in these verses, and we will look at them in more detail in the coming days, is transforming the Passover of the Old Covenant into the Lord’s Supper of the New Covenant.

 

            The history of the children of Israel began when God called Abram in Genesis chapter twelve, and after a long period of time, through a miracle Sarah, Abraham’s wife had a son named Isaac.  Isaac was married to Rebecca who had twins, one would be a believer one would not.  Jacob the believer had twelve sons through four different women, and these became the twelve tribes of Israel.  They all ended up on Egypt and for the four hundred years that they were they God turned this family into a nation, but this nation of Israel were slaves for those four hundred years.  The Passover became the first and oldest festival for Israel as it celebrated God freeing Israel the nation of slaves from Egypt.  This festival was even older than the covenant with Moses at Sinai.  It was established before the priesthood, the Tabernacle, or the law.  It was ordained by God while Israel was still enslaved in Egypt, and it had been celebrated by His people  for some 1500 years.

 

            MacArthur writes:  “But the Passover Jesus was now concluding with the disciples was the last divinely sanctioned Passover ever to be observed.  Now Passover celebrated after that has been authorized or recognized by God.  Significant as it was under the Old Covenant, it became a remnant of a bygone economy, and extinct dispensation, an expired covenant.  Its observance since that time has been no more than a religious relic that serves no divinely acknowledged purpose and has no divinely blessed significance.  To celebrate the Passover is to celebrate the shadow, after the reality has already come.  Celebrating deliverance from Egypt is a weak substitute for celebrating deliverance from sin.

 

            “In fact, Christ ended the Passover and instituted a new memorial to Himself.  It would not look back to a lamb in Egypt as a symbol of God’s redeeming love and power, but to the very Lamb of God, who, by the sacrificial shedding of His own blood, took away the sins of the whole world.  In that one meal Jesus both terminated the old and inaugurated the new.

 

            “Jesus’ institution of the new memorial consisted of three primary elements: the directive (vv. 26a-27), the doctrine (vv. 26-28), and the duration (v. 29).”  This is the outline that we will be looking at beginning in tomorrow’s SD, Lord willing.

 

4/30/2024 11:32 AM

Signifying The Traitor (Matt. 26:25)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/29/2024 10:16 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                        Focus:  “Signifying The Traitor”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                    Reference:  Matthew 25:25

 

            Message of the verse:  “And Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?”  He said to him, “You have said it yourself.”

 

            Now as I look at what John MacArthur writes in his first paragraph on this section of Scripture I have to admit that I have never thought about it like this before.  “Had Judas not said to Jesus the same thing as the others, he would have become suspect.  He therefore imitated their astonished disbelief and parroted their anxious queries to the Lord.  He even called Jesus Rabbi, as if to reinforce his feigned loyalty.”

 

            Another thing that I have always wondered about and that is the answer that Jesus gave to Judas as He did not respond with a direct accusation but said simply “You have said it yourself,” affirming that Judas had not condemned himself out of his own mouth.

 

            It is fairly obvious that the other disciples did not overhear what was said briefly between Jesus and Judas because Peter privately asked John to question Jesus about the betrayer’s identity, which he did.  “Jesus therefore answered, ‘That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.’  So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot” (John 13:24-26).  We can see from this that John then learned the appalling truth about Judas, but he apparently did not tell Peter at that time.

 

            John 13:27 tells us what happened to Judas when he took the morsel as it sealed His fate “Satan then entered into him.”  MacArthur writes “The supreme adversary of God and the ruler of darkness came himself to reside in Judas, and he became hellish to the core of his being in a way that perhaps no other human being has exceeded.  In betraying the Son of God, Judas became the archsinner of all human history.”  Now my thoughts are that as I expressed before that it will be Judas who will receive the most severe punishment in hell as there are different degrees of punishment in hell.

 

            It was after Satan had entered into Judas that Jesus said to Judas “What you do, do quickly” (v. 27b).  John seems to be the only one, other than Jesus who knew why Jesus gave that instruction to Judas but supposed “because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, ‘Buy things we have need of for the feast’; or else, that he should give something to the poor (vv. 28-29).  Jesus knew who the betrayer was, John knew; and Judas himself knew.  But the rest did not know.  I think that it is safe to assume that Jesus wanted Judas out of their after Satan entered into him so not to disrupt the last moments that He would have with His eleven disciples.

 

4/29/2024 10:37 AM

PT-4 "Shocking the Twelve" (Matt. 26:21b-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/28/2024 7:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: PT-4 “Shocking the Twelve”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                            Reference:  Matthew 26:21b-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me." 22 Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?" 23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. 24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."

 

            I begin with a quote from John MacArthur’s commentary that goes along with what I was writing about in the last SD.  “Contrary to the perverted reasoning of some interpreters, the fact that this sinful act was used by God to provide salvation from sin did not justify Judas by making evil good.  God’s sovereignly turning evil to His own righteous purposes does not make a sin any less sinful or the sinner any less guilty.  God turned Judas’s betrayal to His own divine purposes, but He did not thereby transform the son of perdition (John 17:12) into a son of righteousness.  Judas was not an unwitting saint but a willing devil (John 6:70).  The suggestion that he intentionally betrayed Jesus in order that the world might be redeemed through the crucifixion is as unscriptural as it is ludicrous.  He had no interest in the salvation of the world or the coming of the kingdom.  He was a consummate thief, a disillusioned, selfish mercenary who soon would sell out his teacher and friend for a mere thirty pieces of silver.”

 

            The Lord made it very clear that Judas’s destiny was damnation.  Despite the fact that God used the betrayal to fulfill prophecy, Jesus said, “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’”  Judas’s future in hell was so terrifying that he would have been infinitely better of if he had not been born.  Judas is the most graphic and tragic example of the people about whom the writer of Hebrews says that, because they “go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries…How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under the foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”  (Heb. 10:26-27, 29).

 

            I have stated that even though Judas’s sinfulness in betraying the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus did love him, and that is certainly hard for me to understand.  Jesus’ fearsome warning of judgment seems also to have been a final gracious appeal for Judas to turn to Him for salvation before it would forever be too late, however as we know Judas refused.

 

            Lord willing I want to look at verse 25 in the next SD “Signifying the Traitor.”

4/28/2024 8:07 AM

 

 

PT-3 "Shocking the Twelve" (Matt. 26:21b-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/27/2024 10:53 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “Shocking the Twelve”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:21b-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me." 22 Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?" 23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. 24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’”

 

            I ended up yesterday by stating that it was credit to the disciples by thinking that they were the ones who were guilty, but I don’t think that they really realized what the consequences of the person who was guilty were going to be.  Another thing is that the disciples had recently been rebuked by Jesus for their self-serving egotism and fleshly ambition that they now showed signs of genuine humility and self-distrust.  At this point they were brought face to face with the sinfulness of their own hearts, and I have to say that this was a good thing for them or for anyone who truly is a believer.  Now because their sins of pride had been so clearly exposed, they were open even to the possibility that somehow they had perhaps unwittingly said or done something that would endanger their Lord. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “Jesus’ response did nothing to alleviate their anxiety.  In fact, it emphasized again that the betrayer was one of them.  He said cryptically, ‘He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me.’ Because each one of them had dipped his hand…in the bowl, the disciples had no better idea of the betrayer’s identity than before.  Jesus did, however, assure them that only one of them was guilty and that the others genuinely belonged to Him.  ‘I do not speak of all of you,’ He said.  ‘I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scriptures may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me’ (John 13:18).  Ahithophel was an Old Testament parallel to Judas, the ultimate betrayer.”

 

            Now I am going to quote some more from MacArthur’s commentary and then write something about what he wrote.  “But Jesus then put the betrayal in its divine perspective by assuring the disciples that the heinous act would work to the fulfillment of God’s sovereign plan. ‘The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him.’”  I have heard from time to time from different people that they felt sorry for Judas, in fact one person that I know actually said that he thought that because Judas said to the priests in the temple “I have sinned against innocent blood,” that Judas was a believer.  Of course that is not true at all.  Judas did what he did because that is what he wanted to do.  Just because it was prophesied that this would happen does not mean that Judas did this  kind of like a robot, for like I said Judas really wanted to do this, and I believe the reason was that he was disappointed in the fact that Jesus was not the prophesied Messiah that would come in great power and destroy Rome.  That is the next time that He comes that He will do that, this time was to pay for the sins of the world, the ones who would accept the forgiveness that He has to offer.  MacArthur goes on to write “Jesus did not fall into Judas’s trap but rather Judas, by his wicked rejection of Christ, became an instrument of God’s plan.  God would use even that vile scheme to work the righteousness of the Son of Man.  The betrayal had been written ages beforehand in the pages of divine prophecy.  Jesus Christ was ‘delivered up by the predetermined plan and knowledge of God’ (Acts 2:23).  Judas’s malicious decision to reject and betray Christ was used by God in fulfilling Christ’s gracious mission of redemption.  An unholy man in the hands of a holy God was used to accomplish a holy purpose.”   I like that statement as it sums up what Judas did in a very short true statement.

 

4/27/2024 11:24 AM

PT-2 "Shocking the Twelve" (Matt. 26:21b-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/26/2024 10:20 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  PT-2 “Shocking the Twelve”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:21b-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me." 22 Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?" 23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. 24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’”

 

            We did not get too far in looking at these verses yesterday, but that was okay as when the Lord is leading me to writes something I must obey. 

 

            Now we want to begin by writing about how meals were done in the Near East, as the eating of a meal with someone was considered a mark of friendship, and so to eat with a person just before betraying him would be to compound the treachery.  The following is what Kind David wrote in Psalm 55:12-14 after he experienced the betrayal of a trusted friend: “12 For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, Then I could bear it; Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, Then I could hide myself from him. 13 But it is you, a man my equal, My companion and my familiar friend; 14 We who had sweet fellowship together Walked in the house of God in the throng.”

 

            We know because Jesus is all knowing that He was aware that He had many enemies, and the disciples of Jesus also knew He had many enemies, so they were hardly surprised that He would be betrayed.  However it was unbelievable that the one who will betray Him would be one of their own group.  We can understand that they were deeply grieved as John reports that they were “at a lost to know of which one He was speaking” (John 13:22).  Judas was perhaps among the least who was suspected and the reason was because of his being the group’s treasure and this indicated his integrity was thought to beyond reproach.  It can be understandable to think that once Jesus gave the news of betrayal that there were probable tears.  Let us look at Luke 22:23 “And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to do this thing.”  MacArthur adds “While discussing the matter among themselves, they may have pointed accusing fingers at one another, as Luke’s account might suggest (cf. v. 24).  But to their credit, the primary concern of each man was the possibility of his own culpability, and they each one began to say to Jesus surely not I, Lord?”

 

            I am sorry to say that I must stop and hopefully I can do better tomorrow, but I did not sleep well last night and am having a hard time keeping my mind on the subject matter today.

 

4/26/2024 10:40 AM

PT-1 "Shocking the Twelve" (Matt. 26:21b-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2024 11:24 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “Shocking the Twelve”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matt. 26:21b-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “He said, "Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me." 22 Being deeply grieved, they each one began to say to Him, "Surely not I, Lord?" 23 And He answered, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the bowl is the one who will betray Me. 24 “The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.’”

 

            We begin by looking at the word “betray.”  MacArthur writes that this word in the Greek is Paradidomi, and “literally means to give over and was often used to delivering a prisoner over to prison or punishment.  Jesus had mentioned His impending death to the disciples several times, but this was the first time He mentioned His betrayal.  And it was especially painful for the disciples to hear Jesus say that the betrayer would be “one of you.’”

 

            I suppose that there are times when I read over this section that I just kind of read it and not think too much about what it means.  Jesus knew that it was prophesied that someone would betray Him, and because He knows all things He knew it would be Judas, but as we dig more and more into this passage we will see that all of the disciples, excluding Judas, were surprised that someone in their group would betray Jesus.  I wonder if they knew what Jesus would be betrayed to and for what reason He would be betrayed.  I think that what affects me the most about His betrayal is that Jesus deeply loved Judas and so I have to believe that it was very hard on Him.  Now think about the fact that Judas’ punishment in hell will most likely be one of, if not the most severe punishment given out, and then think about Jesus’ love for Him knowing what his outcome would be.  I am not saying that he did not deserve what did and will happen to him, but we all deserve the same punishment in hell, maybe not the most severe but we all deserve to be punished for our sins.  Jesus loves all people, but knows that not all people will accept the payment that He made for them and accepting that forgiveness that Jesus offers is the difference between spending eternity with Him, or spending eternity in the place where Judas will spend eternity.  Read the following wonderful verses and think deeply about them:  “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).  Paul was writing to believers in Corinth and was about to write about the resurrection to them in the next 54 verses, but first he takes the time to remind them of what happened to them when they first became a believer, and this happened after Paul preached the gospel to them, and then Paul goes on to tell them what the gospel message is about and what they did in order to become believers. 

 

            This is the most important thing that will ever happen to any person who has, is, or will be born on planet earth, the biggest decision one can make so take some time to ask the Lord to show you the things that are in these highlighted verses and then if you are not a believer, a born-again believer take the time to tell the Lord that you know that you are a sinner, that you were born a sinner and in need of salvation.  You also know that there is nothing on your own that you can do to become a believer, but there is something that Jesus Christ did for you which will give you eternal life, eternal life that begins with salvation and will never ever end.  The gospel song says “Jesus paid it all, and all to Him I owe” and living for Him after you become a believer in Him is what you owe to Him for dying for you.

 

4/25/2024 11:52 AM