Matthew 17:23 KJV
And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.
This is an interesting commentary. The disciples only heard part of the Lord's words. They heard that He would be betrayed and they heard that they would kill Him. But they did not hear that He would be raised again the third day. Their sorrow was the result of "selective hearing" or of becoming so shocked at the first two points of the message that they did not listen to the conclusion.
This is very likely the source of most of our sorrow as believers. We are not listening to the whole message of Christ.
We hear that all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution
We hear that we should take up our cross and follow him
We hear that "if we say we have no sin, we make Him a liar"
We hear that if the world hated Christ it will hate usAnd we fixate on that. We don't hear the rest of the message because we focus too much on the earliest parts of the message.
We miss that we will rule with Christ
We miss that He came to give life abundantly
We miss that in heaven there will be no sin
We miss that we will be joint-heirs with ChristAnd we are sometimes sorrowful because of it. We have fixated on the wrong parts of the message. We forget to look into glory. We forget that that is but a brief time on earth and all of eternity is ours for the pleasure of it.
There is glory in the message of Matthew 17:23 if we will hear it. There is roof-raising, amen shouting, soul-stirring, heart-warming victory in the verse. If we will just hear it.
And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.
This is an interesting commentary. The disciples only heard part of the Lord's words. They heard that He would be betrayed and they heard that they would kill Him. But they did not hear that He would be raised again the third day. Their sorrow was the result of "selective hearing" or of becoming so shocked at the first two points of the message that they did not listen to the conclusion.
This is very likely the source of most of our sorrow as believers. We are not listening to the whole message of Christ.
We hear that all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution
We hear that we should take up our cross and follow him
We hear that "if we say we have no sin, we make Him a liar"
We hear that if the world hated Christ it will hate usAnd we fixate on that. We don't hear the rest of the message because we focus too much on the earliest parts of the message.
We miss that we will rule with Christ
We miss that He came to give life abundantly
We miss that in heaven there will be no sin
We miss that we will be joint-heirs with ChristAnd we are sometimes sorrowful because of it. We have fixated on the wrong parts of the message. We forget to look into glory. We forget that that is but a brief time on earth and all of eternity is ours for the pleasure of it.
There is glory in the message of Matthew 17:23 if we will hear it. There is roof-raising, amen shouting, soul-stirring, heart-warming victory in the verse. If we will just hear it.
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