FBC Daily Devotional – May 21, 2021

Well, here we are, last day of the work week, I think, for most of us anyway, this Friday, and I trust you're wrapping up the week well. Looking forward to the weekend. I am looking forward to the Lord's Day.

It's going to be a good day. We have a guest with us this Lord's Day. Scott Williquette is one of our supporting missionaries our church supports, and he's going to be with us in the morning teaching, giving us really an update on his ministry in the Sunday school hour at 930, and then he'll be speaking in the morning service and sharing with us in that time.

So it should be a good day on the Lord's Day. And as you anticipate that, I hope you'll be praying for the Lord to bless you richly on that special day. Well, in Mark chapter 15, it's a sobering chapter because it's the chapter that recounts the crucifixion and all of the events surrounding it.

Divine Appointments in the Crucifixion

But let me just share a few thoughts on three words. One is appointment, determination, number two, and lamentation, number three. Appointment. You know, nothing really happens by mere chance or coincidence.

We can think of things as divine appointments instead. And what I'm getting at is this man, Simon of Cyrene, who just so happened to be walking by in Jerusalem as Jesus is carrying the crossbeam and he falls beneath the weight of that, and Simon is compelled to carry that crossbeam for Jesus.

That's not a coincidence. It wasn't just happenstance that Simon was walking by. This was a divine appointment. One of the little hints of that is that Mark tells us that this Simon the Cyrenian, he's from Cyrene, Mark says he's the father of Alexander and Rufus as he was coming out of the country and passing by, he was compelled to bear the cross.

The father of Alexander and Rufus. Now Mark just mentions that in passing, that here's this Simon the Cyrenian. If he had said Simon the Cyrenian was compelled to, he was passing by, he was compelled to carry, then you could easily conclude, well boy, you know, he just happened to be at the right place at the right time or wrong place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it.

But no, he adds that little detail that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus, which tells you that those who are reading this record, the original readers, would have understood who those men were.

They would have recognized the names Alexander and Rufus. Which leads us to wonder, was this the divine appointment that resulted in Simon coming to faith in the one whose cross he carried? And that faith also found its way in the hearts of his sons, Alexander and Rufus, who also came to Christ and followed him.

I suggest that this was a divine appointment. It wasn't just a sheer coincidence that Simon was there at that time. Appointment. The second word is determination. So you have these blind, not literally, spiritually blind priests and scribes, who in verses 31 and 32, as Jesus is on the cross, they were mocking Jesus.

And they said, they said to him, and it's among themselves, he saved others, himself he cannot save. And then they said, let Messiah, let Christ, let the King of Israel descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.

Well, they're making fun of Jesus because Jesus remains on the cross. But what these blind religious leaders failed to see was that Jesus chose not to save himself, so that he could save others. He was determined to see this through.

He was determined to come to the point where he said, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And then the third word is lamentation. You think of all that Jesus endured. The betrayal, that betraying kiss of Judas.

Then the mock trial, the lies that were leveled against him, the physical abuse that he suffered with the beatings and the spitting and the crown of thorns and and then of course the excruciating pain.

Of.

The nails driven into his hands and his feet. The shame of the nakedness as he hung there on that cross. And the people who seem to have so little empathy for this one whose life is being, is ebbing away from him, mocking him, making fun of him.

And in all of that treatment that Jesus received, he did not, he did not utter one word of lament. Not one. Yeah, one time he said he was thirsty. That wasn't a lamentation. That was a statement of fact, but no lament.

The only statement of lament comes when he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The one thing that caused him the greatest agony was the loneliness of the cross. That even the father could not look upon his sin-bearing son, the savior on that cross.

The only word of lament was that alienation from the father. I wonder what it is that causes us to lament. How easily we complain about the little inconveniences of life and some of the difficulties that we face.

Some pretty severe to be sure. And we're very quick to lament those things. But how's our, how's our soul with God? Do we lament when we feel a distance, when we sense that things aren't right with our God?

Oh,.

Oh that we, oh that we would lament then. Especially then. Well, I trust this chapter is a blessing to you as you read what our savior determined to endure in our behalf. Even, even the forsaking of the father as he bore our sin in his own body on the tree.

Lament Over Sin and the Forsakenness of Christ

So our father and our God, we do thank you today for our sin bearer, for Jesus, and for all that he did in our behalf. And I pray father that even as he lamented the the turning away, that you could not look upon him because of the sin that he was bearing in our place.

I pray that we too would truly lament when sin has separated us from you. And we would make short account of such things and repent. We would be quick repenters turning back to you. May we lament over the right things we pray.

We thank you also father that you arrange divine appointments as you did for Simon. And we thank you that we can trust you in the affairs of life. Even for these unusual things that we may not enjoy, but may bear much fruit.

So father, thank you for these lessons today. And we pray you bless them to our hearts and we ask in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. All right again, have a good rest of your Friday and a wonderful weekend.

And I hope you can make it to the Lord's house on Sunday. Gather together with God's people, hear from his word. Worship him as he longs and loves to be worshipped. Good day. God bless.