the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Matthew 11:1-19
The Lord is not satisfied with sending out His disciples; He presses on with His own ministry. John the Baptist, by contrast, (Matthew 4:12), has ended his ministry in Herod’s prison. The question that John’s disciples have just put to the Lord Jesus on his behalf shows us his discouragement and perplexity: the One of whom he had been the great herald was not establishing His kingdom, and was doing nothing to deliver him. Was he then not the promised Messiah? The Lord answers him in a message which gently puts the finger on his weakness (v. 6). But in speaking to the multitudes, He gives unqualified witness to the greatest of all the prophets (vv. 7-15).
When it is a question of entrance into the kingdom, forcefulness (v. 12) becomes a virtue, an indispensable quality. God opens to us all His treasure-house, yet there must be on our part the earnest desire to possess that which He offers us; there must be the holy zeal of faith, which boldly lays hold of all the divine promises. Alas! how many young men, how many young women, through lack of decision and energy, through fear of conflict and of having to give up cherished things, remain outside the door! Let us not forget that the fearful will find themselves there in the company of unbelievers, murderers and all other sinners who are without repentance (Revelation 21:8).
