Saving the Best for Last | Matthew 23:31-32

[00:00:00] We'll truth, Daily This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman We'll be welcome back to Daily Truths. I was Edemun Australia pastor of a large church for some 25 years and there were parts of it that I really didn't like, especially doing year-end evaluations of our staff.

[00:00:20] I don't think they liked it either. So I'd start out with all the things that were doing well and what I loved about their ministry and I tried to affirm them in the gifts and talents that God had given them.

[00:00:30] But then I'd have to save the worst for last, things that they could shore up, things that they could improve in. Maybe things that they could work on in the coming year. I saved the worst for last.

[00:00:44] For three years Jesus conducted public ministry but He saved the very worst of His words for the Pharisees scribes and sadacies for the very last week of His ministry before His crucifixion. We pick up verse 31, a Matthew chapter 23 and this is what it says.

[00:01:02] Thus you witness against yourselves. He's talking to the scribes and Pharisees. Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. In other words, you're ancestors but many of the prophets to death and then He says this,

[00:01:16] fill up then the measure of your fathers. So what your ancestors started, you finish up by killing me and then as you're going to find out in the days ahead he talked about specifics of what that meant that He was going to be killed.

[00:01:31] So Jesus saved the very worst words for the scribes, Pharisees and sadacies for the very last week of His ministry. He saved the worst for last. There are many times early in Jesus ministry when He was not ready to go to the cross

[00:01:49] because his primary mission was to come to planter to save us by going to the cross. And so many times it talks about in the scriptures that it was not His time yet, that His time had not yet come.

[00:02:02] But finally here in this last week before his crucifixion, He saves the worst for last. He has these words that I just talked about. You basically you're going to kill me off kind of finishing up what the ancestors started.

[00:02:14] You're going to be killing me off and then in this context he is seven woes for the scribes and Pharisees. What do you? What do you? What do you? Well, finally Jesus after saying all these words and having these difficult things to

[00:02:27] say to the scribes, Pharisees and sadacies, finally he was ready to go to the cross. And his words kind of facilitated that, right? I mean, these guys were so angry they felt like well we have no choice but to put this false

[00:02:43] prophet, this false Messiah to death and that's what they did later that week. Now was it easy for Jesus to do that? Not at all. As a matter of fact, when he was in the garden of Gassemony, the night before he was

[00:02:57] crucified, remember what he said he was sweating, drops of blood which is physiologically possible. He was sweating, drops of blood and he was saying under great pressure. He was saying to the Father, Father, if it be your will take this cup of suffering away

[00:03:11] from me, so we know it weighed heavily on Jesus' heart to know what was going to happen in the next 24 hours to be nailed to a cross and flawed before that. It was not easy but was it necessary?

[00:03:23] It's not easy but was it necessary for him to be nailed to that cross? Absolutely, it was. So in his sense, Jesus was saving the best for last. Remember when Jesus came on the scene, when he began his public ministry and John the Baptist,

[00:03:41] looked at him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So Jesus as our sacrificial lamb, the fully holy sinless one was nailed to the cross for our sins. The Lamb of God who takes away our sins.

[00:03:58] So in his sense, Jesus was saving the very best of his life and his work until the last week. He was nailed to the cross so that we could be saving the very best for last. And now what do we have as a result of that?

[00:04:15] Oh, you hear me say it all the time, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, reconciliation with God, being part of the church having the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit with us the whole time every moment of every day, 365 days a year.

[00:04:33] This is what we have as a result of what Christ is done who's saved the very best for last. So today you can rejoice in that, you can reflect upon that and you can just bask. I love that word by the way, just bask in.

[00:04:51] It's kind of like the sun is out today. I'm doing this on a Saturday. The temperature today is going to be 101 for those who love the beach. Of course, we don't have beaches here.

[00:05:01] But for those who love the beaches are love being out in the sun, this is the day to just bask in the sun. And hopefully you can go in a swimming pool to cool off, right? But what a day to bask in the sun.

[00:05:11] So we bask in the sunshine of God's grace. In the unconditional love of God revealed through Jesus Christ who saved his best for last. So just bask in that today. That is today's daily truth. Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.