AUGUST 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

AUGUST 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#24  “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?””  (Matthew 21:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, praise be to the Son that was obedient to the Father’s will, praise be to the Father that loved the world so much that the Father desired to provide for the salvation of His Creation and was willing to go to the greatest extent to prove His Love for us as the Father’s Plan for our salvation willed that the Son, His Only Begotten Son, the Only Acceptable Sacrifice for All Sin would become flesh and dwell among sinful man that the Righteousness of God could be substituted for the world’s iniquities against the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God! For God desires that none should perish, thereby God offered Himself as The Sacrifice providing the Only Way to restoring the “broken” Fellowship through Repentance and the acceptance of the Divine Gift of Grace, freely bestowed on all who believe! I believe Lord Jesus that You died for my sins, again I pray that You become Lord of my life, fill me daily with Thy Holy Spirit, lead me in paths of Righteousness, restore my soul and then return to me the Joy of my Salvation by Grace. Have Mercy, O Lord, on me, a sinner.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has drawn “near to Jerusalem, and [He has come] to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 21:1) and instructs two of the disciples to go into the walled village of Bethphage to get a donkey that THE HOLY SPIRIT has arranged to be waiting for THE MESSIAH TO USE FOR HIS TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM!  Jesus tells the disciples that “if anyone says anything to you” that they are to simply say, “the Lord has need of them”. (Matthew 21: 2-3) These places and the events are significant because the earthly ministry of Jesus is about to climax and Jesus will be crucified!  His death is but the fulfilling of prophecy about the Messiah that has been expected and prayed for for thousands of years!  Within the upcoming week, the very people that will first receive Jesus as their long awaited King will then cry for His crucifixion! The significance of when and where these last events in the earthly ministry of Jesus occur are a witness to the TRUTH OF GOD that God loved the world so much that He was willing to give His Only Begotten Son as the Sacrificial Lamb!!! God began with one man Abraham and promised Abraham that if Abraham would follow God that God Himself would “make [Abraham] a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3) God then led Abraham to Canaan and God told Abram, “to your descendants I will give this land”  (Genesis 12:7) and later when God gave Abraham and Sarah their son Isaac, the “Child of Promise”, which God had told Abram, “…Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.” (Genesis 17:19) and after Isaac is born and grows to a young lad, God tells Abraham to “take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2)  Abraham and Isaac willingly obeys God and builds the alter on which Isaac the son was to be sacrificed by his father Abraham and Isaac asks his father “look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” and Abraham replied “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb…” (Genesis 22:7-8). So here as Jesus is about to enter Jerusalem for the Passover and all thought of the Jewish nation is centered on God delivering Israel from their bondage in Egypt which God had accomplished by sending the death angel to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, all except those that had listened to God and had applied the blood of the Passover lamb as they were instructed “take some of the [Passover lamb’s] blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where [you] eat [of] it…” God then explained the significance of “applying the blood of the Passover Lamb”  when God told His people at that first Passover,  “For I will pass through the land… and will strike the firstborn… I will execute judgement… I am the LORD… when I see the blood [of the Passover Lamb] I will pass over you…” (Exodus 11:1-10, 12:1-13) When Jesus calls for the donkey that has been reserved for Him in the Mount of Olives at Bethphage to be brought to Him, we can see that Jesus is fulfilling Promises of God that had been made with the “Father of Faith” and the Patriarch of Israel, Abraham, and the Promised Child, Isaac for with His death Jesus fulfilled all prophecy of the Messiah! This fulfillment of prophecy was summed up after the crucifixion as John recorded these Words of Jesus the Son explaining the Motives of God the Father: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but through Him the world might be saved.” (John 3:16-17) The connection here between the Passover and the purpose of God is to obvious to be called coincidental but then aren’t we still today arguing about “Who” has the “authority” over our daily lives, “the doctrines of men, or the commands of God?”