SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 10/3/2012 4:36:56 PM
(Mark
11)
We are now into the month of October
and this means that I want to look at the 11th chapter of the book
of Mark and so this SD for today will cover the first eleven verses of Mark 11.
Warren Wiersbe entitles his
commentary on the Gospel of Mark “Be Diligent” and the ninth chapter is
entitled “The Servant In Jerusalem.”
John MacArthur entitles his sermon on this section of Mark “The False
Coronation of the True King,”
We last left Jesus and His disciples
in Jericho as they were on their way up to Jerusalem to attend the Passover
celebration where there could be as many as a million people attending and this
would make it very difficult for the Romans who were in charge of this part of
the world at this time in history. It
would be wonderful for the Jews but not for the Romans. John MacArthur states that there could have
been as many as 100,000 people in the group that Jesus was in as they made their
way up the mountain some 2600 feet or so above Jericho. This was a road where bandits would hide out
on in order to rob those who were on their way to worship the Lord in
Jerusalem. In our SD’s on the part of the
book of Psalms that we are in now we are studying the “Ascension Psalm,” (Psalm
120-134), and these are the songs that the pilgrims would sing as they made
their way up to Jerusalem and probably the Lord and his disciples were singing
these psalms as they ascended to Jerusalem.
Jesus knew what lie ahead for him as
He traveled to Jerusalem for it would be exactly on the time when the Passover
lambs would be killed (I’m told at 3:00PM Roman Time) that Jesus would die as he
hung on the cross in order to pay the debt of sin that we all owed to God. This would be the last six days of Jesus’
life on planet earth, but His disciples did not realize it at this point but
according to John 12 they would understand it after He ascended into heaven
which is seen in the second chapter of Acts.
Dr. Wiersbe writes at the end of his
introductory commentary on this chapter these words: “Into this situation came God’s Servant with
less than a week remaining before He would be crucified outside the city
walls. In this section, we see God’s
Servant ministering in three different official roles.”
The first role he entitles “The Servant-King (vv.1-11):
At this time let us take a look at
the first eleven verses of Mark chapter eleven:
“1 ¶ As they *approached
Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, He *sent two of
His disciples, 2 and *said to them,
"Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it, you
will find a colt tied there, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and
bring it here. 3 "If anyone says to
you, ’Why are you doing this?’ you say, ’The Lord has need of it’; and
immediately he will send it back here." 4
They went away and found a colt tied at the door, outside in the street;
and they *untied it. 5 Some of the
bystanders were saying to them, "What are you doing, untying the
colt?" 6 They spoke to them just as
Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission. 7 They *brought the colt to Jesus and put their
coats on it; and He sat on it. 8 And
many spread their coats in the road, and others spread leafy branches which
they had cut from the fields. 9 Those
who went in front and those who followed were shouting: "Hosanna! BLESSED
IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; 10
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David; Hosanna in the
highest!" 11 Jesus entered
Jerusalem and came into the temple; and after looking around at everything, He
left for Bethany with the twelve, since it was already late.”
Jesus would enter through Bethany
and then Bethphage before getting to Jerusalem, and there is a breathtaking
view of the Holy City at this point because of the height and also the place
where they were.
The reason that John MacArthur calls
this section “The False Coronation of the True King,” is because although Jesus
was surely the King this would not be a coronation that he would deserve, but
that would come later when He returned to heaven from where He came. The Apostle Paul writes about this coronation
that Jesus received when He went to heaven in his letter to the Philippians and
in the second chapter we read, “5 Have
this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL
BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” This was the plan that the Father had for His
Son and Jesus fulfilled this plan while on the earth and so when He returned to
heaven He received His rightful coronation.
However He will receive another coronation when He returns to earth
which is described in the 19th chapter of the book of Revelations
and from then on He will rule for 1000 years on earth from Jerusalem and then
for eternity from the New Jerusalem. 11
¶ And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a
white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness He judges and wages war. 12
His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He
has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood,
and His name is called The Word of God. 14
And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and
clean, were following Him on white horses. 15
From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down
the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine
press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a
name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.’”
We see in the first six verses of
Mark eleven Jesus’ omniscience, for Jesus knew where the colt would be, who
owned it, and that when He would send His disciples to retrieve it that they
would give it to them. I suppose that
after they returned with the colt that the disciples would understand that
Jesus knew all things, but perhaps they did not at this time.
What we see in the next three verses
is a fulfillment of a prophecy from Zechariah.
“Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king
is coming to you; He is
just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a
colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “In fulfilling
this prophecy, Jesus accomplished two purposes: (1) He declared Himself to be
Israel’s King and Messiah; and (2) He deliberately challenged the religious
leaders. This set in motion the official
plot that led to His arrest, trial, and crucifixion. The Jewish leaders had decided not to arrest
Him during the feast, but God had determined otherwise. The Lamb of God must die at Passover.”
10/3/2012 5:35:31 PM
10/6/2012
7:03:05 AM
As we pick up the rest of this
story of Jesus entering Jerusalem which is called “Psalm Sunday” I want to talk
about how Jesus fulfills a prophecy that was written in the 9th
chapter of the book of Daniel, something that we have discussed in earlier SD’s
but important enough to talk about again since a part of Daniel’s prophecy was
fulfilled by Jesus as He rode into Jerusalem on this very day.
In the 9th chapter of
Daniel we find Daniel looking at a prophecy from the book of Jeremiah in which
he is reading that God said through Jeremiah that after the Southern Kingdom
would go into captivity into Babylon for 70 years that God would allow them to
go back to their land. In Isaiah chapter
44-45 we actually see that God calls a king to allow them to go back to Israel
many years before this king (Cyrus) was even born. Let us look at a part of this 9th
chapter of Daniel at this time, “24 “A
period of seventy sets of seven has been decreed for your people and your holy
city to finish their rebellion, to put an end to their sin, to atone for their
guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to confirm the prophetic vision,
and to anoint the Most Holy Place. 25
Now listen and understand! Seven sets of seven plus sixty-two sets of
seven will pass from the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until a
ruler-the Anointed One-comes. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong
defenses, despite the perilous times. 26
“After this period of sixty-two sets of seven, the Anointed One will be
killed, appearing to have accomplished nothing, and a ruler will arise whose
armies will destroy the city and the Temple. The end will come with a flood,
and war and its miseries are decreed from that time to the very end.” (Daniel
9:24-26 NLT) I have chosen to use the NLT
because of how verse twenty four is written when it states “A period of seventy
sets of seven has been decreed for your people.” This period of time is 490 years as the
Jewish new weeks of days and also weeks of years and in this case it is weeks
of years. We see in verse 25 that this
prophecy has a specific beginning “when the decree is given to restore and
rebuild Jerusalem and then 483 years after this we would see Messiah come and
be killed. Sir Robert Anderson in his
book “The Coming Prince” spent a great deal of his life working on this
prophecy to understand when it began and when it will end. In his book he changes the different
calendars to see just when this began and when it ended for the Jewish people
used a Lunar calendar while we use what is called the Julian calendar. He found that this prophecy began in the book
of Nehemiah chapter two and from the time that the order was given to Nehemiah
to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the temple there would be 183,880
days. When we read from the 19th
chapter of Luke, which is similar to what we see in Mark eleven we see some
additional things that are not recorded in Mark 11. “37 As
soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole
crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all
the miracles which they had seen, 38
shouting: "BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD;
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to
Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." 40 But Jesus answered, "I tell you, if
these become silent, the stones will cry out!’ (Luke 19:37-40) We see here that the disciples and the people
were shouting something that was only to be said when Messiah came, and this angered
the Pharisees for they knew about this.
Jesus tells the Pharisees that if this was not said by the people that
the stones would cry out. We have seen
in the life of Jesus that He did not really want people to know who He was
because this would have hindered the work that He had to accomplish, but not at
this time. Jesus goes on to say the
following, “41 ¶ When He approached
Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42
saying, "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which
make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” (Luke
19:41-42)
I want to talk about what Jesus
says when He says, “this day.” As Sir
Robert Anderson concludes this day was the 183,880th day since the
command was given to Nehemiah in Nehemiah chapter two by the king to restore
Jerusalem. Jesus knew that the people
would reject Him as their king and that as Daniel said He would be killed.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I see the
timing of God is all of this, and His timing was perfect as it always is. I have been told that if you were to cover
the state of Texas six foot high with silver dollars and then asked someone to
find a specific silver dollar in all that was there that the probability of finding
that one specific silver dollar would be less than all of the prophecies that
Jesus fulfilled when He came to earth and all of those prophecies that He
fulfilled were in the precise time that the Father had for them to be
fulfilled. The first recorded words of
Jesus are when He was 12 years old telling His parents that He had to be going
about His Father’s business and the last words He speaks from the cross are “It
is finished.”
10/6/2012
7:33:34 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment