Vox populi anything but Vox Dei

When Jesus went around speaking and doing miracles many gathered around him and his disciples. Some wanted to be part of those around Jesus and where happy to chant for him that he was praised.

Some or perhaps many of those who chanted at the gates of Jerusalem

Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

a few days later were perhaps crying with others to have him impaled.

They had expressed their delight and expectation.

Alas! how soon this gleam of sunlight gave place to black darkness. The day of palms was closely followed by the day of crucifixion. Thus fickle are the sons of men. “Vox populi” is anything but “Vox Dei.” {Spurgeon}

In the olden times, the Israelites were accustomed to use this cry,

“Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,”

when their heroes returned victorious from the battlefield. When they went up to the temple to give thanks publicly to God for victories over their enemies, they were met by the people, with this exclamation of joy,

“Blessed, is he that cometh in Jehovah’s name.”

Very unlike to the cries of other nations! Some nations only extolled the heroes, but the people of God see the hand of God, and they mark that the hero only comes in the name of the Lord, and while they give him blessings and wish him every good thing for what he has done, yet the praise is ascribed to the Master in whose name he comes — even Jehovah. {Spurgeon}

Now the people could see the Nazarene master teacher coming to the capital. He was looked at as a hero, even as a king. They seemed to be aware that this one who always claimed to be a sent one from God, was the

“Blessed … that cometh in the name of Jehovah.”

In a few days time the people present in Jerusalem for Passover had changed their mind and expressed their dislike for the one who had spoken about a coming Kingdom of God.

Also today we can find lots of people who do not want to accept Jesus for whom he is. They do not accept the words God Himself said about this man

“… “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”” (Lu 3:22 NIV)

They refuse to accept Jesus as the son of God and have made him into their god, telling others he is “god the son”. Many made Jesus into their idol or “god son” instead of accepting that he is the sent one from god, they claim he would be God having come down to earth. They seem to ignore the writing in the Holy Scriptures

“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,” (Ga 4:4 NIV)

Instead of thanking God for sending his son, they worship that Nazarene man who always asked not to adore him but to worship his heavenly Father. Jesus even taught them how to pray (the Lord’s prayer).

God had given the people the time to get to know His sent one, who came to declare God’s Word and to bring the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God. He allowed Jesus to have an entry in His City as a king as an ‘advance mirroring’ or mirror image of the one who was going to return and to enter the capital of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is that king spoken of in the many prophecies.

But the majority of people want to adhere to people’s theories and stick to human traditions and festivals instead of keeping to the festival days God gave mankind. Like in Jesus time when lots of people wanted to please the Pharisees and wished to lick the feet of the Jerusalem administration, today lots of people prefer licking the feet of their religious institution. Most often they do everything to show others they are part of the “Vox populi”. Many are literally afraid to be looked at someone of the “Vox Dei,” the People of Jehovah. Several even go so far to become anti-Jehovah people.
One could consider them belonging to the many who like to shout with others, but do not dare to bring out their personal voice in public when they stand alone.

Let us make it clear we belong to Vox Dei, Jehovah’s people, and be real followers of the real Jesus Christ, the Messiah or anointed, the son of God, who gave his life for us all.

Let us not be deaf and blind like there were so many in Jesus time. In that day the moment of no excuse had come. Before that day if could be said that the day was coming when God would sent His son. Now the time has come we should know that this sent one shall restore the nation of Israel. It is him they could see entering Jerusalem. We too should come to recognise that sent one who is to bring peace and salvation and to set up his Kingdom on earth. We should be thankful to God for that sent one who is going our king and act as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light. and invited us to be part of his body.

+

Preceding

Israel, Fitting the Plan when people allow it

Matthew 21:1-3 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Sent Ahead for a Donkey

Matthew 21:4-5 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Your King Is Coming upon a Donkey

Matthew 21:6-9 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Blessed the One Coming in God’s Name!

God’s Face shining on His servant

Multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David

10 Nisan An entrance for a king

++

Additional reading

1. Entrance of a king to question our position #1 Coming in the Name of the Lord
2. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be

+++

Related

1. Exodus 33-34: Reflections of Glory
2. January 22, 2019 – Grafted In, by Faith, the Gift of God- Romans 10:13-24
3. More meanings from the margins
4. 54. A Time to Regain our Identity
5. Verse of the Month: February 2019
6. A Lesson Unlearned
7. God’s Holy People On Display
8. Sermon Recording- Persecuted People (Acts 5.12-42)

Spurgeon’s view on trying to save your life

25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it,

Now they were to practice the doctrine he had taught them before. They could only save their real selves by the loss of this present life, but if they settled it in their own minds that they must first and foremost save their outer life, it would be at the expense of their truest being. To tell them plainly of this was honest dealing on our Lord’s part, and it argued well for the disciples that they still remained faithful to him. Alas! there was one even of the chosen twelve who probably at this very moment was scheming how he could continue to keep the bag, and yet could ultimately escape from the consequences of his Master’s demand.

26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

If he loses his real life, how can he profit, even if the world be his? The true gain or loss is a gain or loss of life. All external things are trifles compared with that life. Even now, “What is a man profited?” He has no real life in Christ, and what is all else that he may possess? What but a painted pageantry with which he is amusing his soul upon the brink of hell? As to the world to come, there is no question. To lose eternal life is overwhelming loss indeed.

Nothing can be compared with eternal life. The soul’s value cannot be estimated by ordinary reckonings. Worlds on worlds were a poor price.

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul”

Barter is out of the question. His soul is so a man’s sole inheritance that if he has lost it he has lost all.

Charles H. Spurgeon

+

Preceding

Ezekiel 18:4 – What the Bible teaches about Soul and Spirit

Matthew 16 Asking for signs from heaven

Matthew 16 Calvin’s view

Matthew 16 Spurgeon’s view

Matthew 16:1-4 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The Signs of the Times

Matthew 16:5-12 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Watch Out for the Leaven of False Teaching

Matthew 16:13-20 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Building a Hades-Proof Congregation

Matthew 16:21-23 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Think God’s Thoughts

Matthew 16:24-28 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: A Disciple Must Disown Self

Demanding signs or denying yourself

To follow Christ

Every one who would be Jesus his follower must sacrifice himself

Calvin’s view on taking up the cross

Calvin’s view on trying to save your life

++

Please read

1. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #1 Intro
2. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #2 Psyche, the word
3. Mortal Soul and Mortal Psyche #5 Mortality of man and mortality of the spirit
4. God’s wrath and sanctification
5. Dying or not
6. Immortality, eternality – onsterfelijkheid, eeuwigheid
7. Stick to one God
8. It is Today

Every one who would be Jesus his follower must sacrifice himself

24. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

As our Lord, to fulfill his destiny, must sacrifice himself, so also must every one who would be his follower. To keep close to our Lord (which he intends by the words “come after me,”) we must have done with self, for he denied himself to redeem his people. We must not know self, nor assent to it, but we must each one “deny himself.” Doing this, each man must cheerfully shoulder his own personal burden of sorrow and service, and carry it with self-sacrifice, as Jesus carried his cross.

He had told them of his cross, now he tells them of their own crosses. They might now choose again whether they could and would follow him. With their increased information as to his destiny, the question was again set before them, whether they would follow or forsake him. If they did continue to be his followers, it must be as cross-bearers and self-deniers.

Nor are the terms altered in these days. Do we accept them?
Can we keep step in the long procession of crosscarriers, or will we fall in with the spirit of the age, and say fine things about Jesus, while we deny his substitutionary sacrifice, and shirk the personal selfdenial which he demands?
Our own wisdom, if it leads us to think lightly of “the precious blood,” must be utterly denied and even abhorred.

– Charles H. Spurgeon

+

Preceding

Meaning of Sacrifice

We are redeemed; we are “bought with a price”

More than just a man with authority of speaking

Matthew 7:13-23 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The True Disciple #5 Matthew 7:28-29 – The Crowd’s Reaction

Matthew 9:32-34 – How others look at the blind, speechless and demoniac being healed

Matthew 9:35-38 – Looking at Jesus our shepherd

Matthew 10:24-31 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Do Not Fear – Preach!

Matthew 10:32-39 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: I Came to Cause Division

Matthew 12:46-50 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The True Family of Messiah

Matthew 16 Asking for signs from heaven

Matthew 16 Calvin’s view

Matthew 16 Spurgeon’s view

Matthew 16:1-4 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: The Signs of the Times

Matthew 16:5-12 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Watch Out for the Leaven of False Teaching

Matthew 16:13-20 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Building a Hades-Proof Congregation

Matthew 16:21-23 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Think God’s Thoughts

Matthew 16:24-28 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: A Disciple Must Disown Self

Demanding signs or denying yourself

To follow Christ

++

Additional reading

1. Self-preservation is the highest law of nature
2. A treasure which can give me everything I need
3. To sacrifice our being for Christ
4. The Realm of profession in Christianity

+++

Related

1. I truly believed, and most definitely behaved, as if I was somebody.
2. Deepening our Faith in Christ
3. Loss & Found
4. Fruit Bearer
5. I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God
6. St. John’s Contemplative Gospel – Selfless Serving Of Others (Chapter 13)
7. Do We Look at Them and Love Them?
8. Standing out and blending in
9. Selflessness vs. Self-care, the Perpetual Dilemma
10. B.B. Warfield – Christ’s Self-Sacrifice and Our’s
11. Are You Sacrificing Yourself

Matthew 16 Spurgeon’s view

The King and his chosen sign

1. THE Pharisees also with the Sadducees come, and tempting desired him that he would shew them, a sign from, heaven The King is again met by his foes. Two sects, which were violently opposed to each other, unite their forces against him. It is the way of the wicked to become friends when seeking the overthrow of the kingdom of heaven.

On this occasion they come not with a question, but with the old demand for a sign. This time it must be “a sign from heaven,” possibly a marvel in the sky. What right had they to set him a test of such a sort as their fancy might suggest? What need for more signs when his miracles were so many? Were not all his miracles signs from heaven? Did not this demand cast a slur on all that he had already done? Was it not a practical ignoring of all his previous works of power? Too often we also have fallen into the weakness of asking a new token of divine love, thus undervaluing former favors. If the evidence we have already received of our Lord’s grace and power is not enough, when will our doubts be ended?

In this demand for a sign, our Lord’s foes were tempting him. Did the temptation lie in urging him to seek his own glory by some ostentatious display of power, for which there would be no real need? Whatever it was, our Lord passed scathless through this ordeal, for there was no pride in him. Pharisees and Sadducees will tempt us also. From their wiles and smiles may the Lord deliver us! From the desire to stand well with men may we be happily freed by our love to Jesus!

2, 3. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

They could prognosticate the weather by certain signs, and our Lord Jesus mentions the weather-tokens of Palestine, yet they could not read the plainer and more plentiful warnings of the near future. Weather-signs are doubtful, but there were moral and spiritual tokens around them which could hardly be misunderstood if they would only consider them. Each country has it’s own sky warnings, and those of Palestine differ from those of England, but the signs of the times are the same in all lands. Our Lord singled out an instance of their supposed weather-wisdom: the same sign which, in the evening, was a token of fair weather, was, in the morning, a mark of foul weather.

They were able to draw nice distinctions on the variable condition of “the face of the sky:” why could they not “discern the signs of the times?” They could have seen, if they had chosen to do so, that all the prophecies were one in declaring that the date of Messiah’s appearing had arrived, and they could also have observed that every event was fulfilling those prophecies, but they were false at heart, and would not see, and yet cried out for a sign. Signs were all around them, and yet they repeated the parrot cry

“Show us a sign.

Most justly our Lord was indignant with them, and upbraided them, using the justly severe words,

“O ye hypocrites!”

Today the men who want more evidences of the supernatural deserve a similar denunciation.

**

Lord, do not allow any of us to be blind to the heavenly signs, thy cross, thy resurrection, thy Word, thy Spirit, and thy work of grace, Teach us carefully to “discern” these things as being in very deed the abiding “signs of the times.” Even in the growing coldness of the church, and the abounding iniquity of the world, let us see the tokens of thine Advent, and stand waiting and watching for thy long promised appearing.

**

4. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

It was not lack of evidence, but the sad depravity of their minds, which set them upon seeking after a sign, and therefore the Lord would not satisfy their unhealthy cranny. They were wicked in morals, and adulterous in heart in their forsaking the one true God, and then they turned round and justified their unbelief in the Son of God by pleading want of proof, demanding more miracles to enable them to come to a right conclusion. Such is the deceit of man’s heart.

Our Lord repeats his former answer: he will give them no other. In the compass of the Old Testament there is no fuller sign of our Lord than Jonah. Our Lord knew that he would fulfill the type of Jonah even in it’s details, and therefore he points them to that prophet’s life.

This is a subject which deserves our careful meditation, but we cannot enlarge upon it here. Our Lord looks to his death and resurrection, and gives the prophet Jonas as his sign. Jesus will be buried, and will rise on the third day, and in the power of his resurrection, will win the Gentiles to repentance: in this he will be the antitype of Jonah, and this shall be the sign that he is indeed the Christ of God. This our Lord had said before, and he here repeated it, because it was a sufficient reply, and there was no need to study variety with a set of people who, themselves, harped perpetually upon one string.

Our Lord quitted such persons, for there was nothing to be done with them. “lie left them, and departed,” and that place saw him no more.

**

Lord, do not leave any one of us, for that would be a sure sentence of death to us.

**

+

Preceding

Matthew 12:38-42 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Signs in Jonah and the Queen of the South

Matthew 16 Asking for signs from heaven

Matthew 16 Calvin’s view

++

Additional reading

1. Science, scepticism, doubts and beliefs Can a Christian have doubts?
2. May we have doubts
3. Know by trying
4. Faith is knowing there is an ocean because you have seen a brook.
5. Doubting and going astray
6. Have faith in your faith…doubt your doubts
7. When you don’t know what to do and hate yourself
8. Let me keep to “first importance” things

+++

Related

1. This Wicked and Perverse Generation
2. Faithless and Twisted.
3. Timeline for the Lord’s Coming
4. God is speaking – are you listening?
5. Watch and Pray
6. The Meaning of End Time Signs
7. Time to Awake Church

Matthew 15 Spurgeon’s view

Our King combatting formalists

1. THEN came to, Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hand, when they eat bread.

When our Lord was busiest his enemies assailed him. These ecclesiastics “of Jerusalem” were probably the cream of the set, and from their great reputation they reckoned upon an easy victory over the rustic preacher.

Perhaps they were a deputation from headquarters, sent to confound the new Teacher. They had a question to raise, which to them may have seemed important, or possibly they pretended to think it so to answer their own purposes. Traditions of the elders were great things with them: to transgress these must be a crime indeed. Washing of the hands is a thing proper enough, one could wish it were oftener practiced, but to exalt it into a religious rite is a folly and a sin.

These “scribes and Pharisee” washed their hands, whether they needed washing or not, out of a supposed zeal to be rid of any particle that might render them ceremonially unclean. Our Lord’s disciples had so far entered into Christian liberty that they did not observe the rabbinical tradition: “they wash not their hands when they eat bread.” Why should they wash if their hands were clean? Tradition had no power over their consciences. No man has any more right to institute a new duty than to neglect an old one.

The issuing of commands is for the King alone. Yet these religionists enquire why the Lord’s disciples break a law which was no law. It will be well if our opponents are unable to bring against us any worse charge than this.

+

Preceding

Matthew 15 Calvin’s view

Matthew 15 An argument with the Scribes – Teachers and traditions

+++

Related

1. Think About It…
2. The Dance of Isaiah!
3. Faithful Catholics Respond After Abuse Scandals: Commitments to Change and Belief in Pope Francis
4. Five Reasons Why Churches Won’t Grow
5. Editor’s Pick: N. T. Wright on Biblical Authourity
6. Focus on Scribes
7. Scribes