AUGUST 15 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 15  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, Lord Jesus, thank You for letting me see who I really am,

 a sinner, a dirty unclean disobedient child of God! I say again 

Thank You for letting me know that everything I do is but filthy rags

 … everything but one … Obedience to the Father’s will — 

for now that I know that You KNOW who I am and You have called

 me HOME  even though it is You that I have sinned against!?!?!?   

I can say again, “Thank You Lord”!!! Knowing that I am a sinner

 is a good thing because I know that You KNOW and so there is

 nothing to hide from the One that says to my soul, 

“I know you are a sinner, 

that’s why I died on the cross for you! 

I KNOW you are a sinner — BUT — 

You are a child of the KING,

 REPENT and come HOME to the FATHER who FORGIVES.” 

When I know I am a sinner and know how worthless I am,

 It gives me gives me Great Spiritual Strength to know 

that if I OBEY the Father, and REPENT of my sins,

 that He stands

 WITH OPEN ARMS REJOICING and I hear Him say,

 “For this [child] of mine was dead [in sin] 

and is ALIVE AGAIN” [Luke 15:24] 

— “kill the fatted calf and we will celebrate!”    

Sin is good for one thing, when you REPENT from your sins, you have 

a Loving Father calling you HOME!!!   

OBEY the Father that KNOWS 

you are a sinner, 

REPENT and COME HOME to the

 FEAST HE HAS PREPARED for you!!!!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus leaves Jerusalem and walks to Bethany to spend the night

 and we wonder why He would leave the temple of God that He had

 just cleaned out and the city of God where He had just been declared

 “King” by the multitudes?  But it is not a mystery when we consider

 that Jesus had declared that He 

“knows the hearts of all men” 

(John 2:24)

 and 

“destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”! 

(John 2:19) 

Jesus knew the mood in Jerusalem in spite of what the “multitudes” 

were “saying” so Jesus is demonstrating that by His leaving the city 

of Jerusalem and going to the little village of Bethany that 

our Spiritual Reality is not what we say with our lips 

but what we believe with our hearts! 

We know that the “houses” in Bethany were not like the grand houses

 in Jerusalem but then maybe Jesus wasn’t going to a “house” in 

Bethany but He was most likely going to a “home”. 

In fact, Bethany was the “home” of

 Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and also Simon the leper.

 There are no big houses in Bethany so why would Jesus choose

 to abandon the “big city” and go “lodge” in a humble dwelling?

 There can be only one explanation: 

Jesus was going where there 

were people whose hearts 

had previously “welcomed” Jesus and 

He knew that He would feel “at HOME” with them! 

Bethany was a special place to Jesus, not because of the real estate

 in Bethany but because of the “real state” of some special hearts

 that made their “home” in Bethany, humble hearts, welcoming hearts

 in Bethany that Jesus simply could not find in Jerusalem!!! 

Therefore, Jesus shows us that He will “lodge” where there are

 warm hearts that welcome Him into their “home” because He is not

 concerned with the structure of the house! 

Jesus is showing us 

that what is on the outside is called the house

 but how we prepare the inside

 is what makes a “house” a “home”! 

Have you prepared a 

“grand house” for the admiration of the “multitudes” or have you

 prepared your “home” where Jesus would be comfortable “lodging” there?

  God is demonstrating with every step Jesus takes toward 

Bethany that what is in our heart is of more value 

than what is in our bank accounts! 

Jesus was called the “Son of David” by the multitudes during 

the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem; however, much of that

 could have been mass hysteria for the masses soon changed 

their rhetoric to “crucify Him”, but if they had read the scriptures they

 would have read where King David himself had written: 

“For You [LORD] do not desire sacrifice, 

or else I would give it; 

You do not delight in burnt offering. 

The sacrifices of God 

are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart — 

these [sacrifices] O GOD, You will not despise.” 

(Psalm 51:16-17) 

The mystery is solved for me for I know that the hearts of Mary, 

Martha, Lazarus, and Simon the leper were grateful hearts, open

 and welcoming to Jesus but in Jerusalem all Jesus had 

encountered were empty defiled temples and greedy, ungrateful 

hearts — so which would you choose? Would you rather “lodge” 

with friends and loved ones or stay in a fancy room filled 

only with rejection? 

Bethany is sounding like a pretty good place 

to spend the night don’t you think?  

At least Jesus thought so ———

AUGUST 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 14  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, I pray for Your Holy Spirit to direct my steps today and keep 

me focused on finishing well — Lord I know that even though they

 are “good intentions” on my part, far to often do I let my “good intentions”

 draw my focus off the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and then before

 I know it, I am blindsided with my own “good intentions” and find I 

have drifted from the “main thing” towards “self” again, it is slow, it is

 a subtle drift, but it is a drift “away” and Lord I pray that Your Spirit will

 warn me when I start drifting to “self” for the results are never good,

 regardless of my intentions — I have surrendered to Your Way 

and pray to remain surrendered to Your Will, completely!!!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus clearly never Taught a Lesson without first 

“living the answer” 

——— with “Supreme” confidence can a “follower” step in 

THE FOOTPRINTS OF CHRIST and KNOW THEY LEAD 

THE “WAY” TO THE FATHER! 

When we read that Jesus cleansed the temple of God in Jerusalem,

 we can see the Messiah executing the will of the Father in the 

Father’s temple, and when Jesus is attacked after healing and forgiving sins

 in the midst of the temple that He had just cleaned, we can see 

the Son of God declaring

 “Have you not read [My Father’s words]?” 

(Matthew 21:16)

 so then we must know that there is a deep spiritual message when 

“[Jesus] left them and went out of [Jerusalem] to Bethany, 

and He lodged there.” 

(Matthew 21:17) 

Jesus had made a Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, He then 

cleansed the temple by driving out the moneychangers and after 

reclaiming the temple for its rightful purpose and establishing the

 temple as a “house of prayer”, the temple filled with multitudes

 needing healing of various types 

“and [Jesus] healed them.” 

(Matthew 21:14)

 Then when 

Jesus, the very Son of God, 

was attacked for doing the Father’s work, in the Father’s house,

 in the Father’s city, Jesus rebuked them and sent them away and

 one might expect that once Jesus got things in order there in 

Jerusalem that He would have “lodged” there but no, Jesus went 

out the Eastern Gate, walked through the Garden of Gethsemane

 and across the Kidron Valley for about 30 minutes and then up the 

ridge at Olivet into the small village of Bethany on the southeastern 

slope of the Mount of Olives — and Jesus found lodging there 

instead of “downtown Jerusalem”!  Jesus was always letting 

His life show the “priorities” that He consistently used to guide 

His actions and in this particular case, the fact that Jesus preferred 

staying in a humble abode in Bethany instead of some lavish room 

in Jerusalem spoke volumes ——— for there were some circumstances

 existing in Bethany that caused Jesus to take the walk “out of the city”,

 across the Kidron Valley into Bethany and “lodge” there instead! 

There is much to be considered here if one is a follower of Jesus or if

 one is a defender of the “doctrines of men”. There was something 

or someone in Bethany that made the Savior, the Messiah, 

the King of the Jews, the Son of David want to “lodge there”.

 If we want Jesus to come “lodge” with us it would be good to know

 what it was in Bethany that was so appealing to our Lord. On the 

other hand, if you don’t want to open your house and home to Jesus 

then you might hang a sign out that says “There’s NO ROOM in the Inn”

 or flash a big “NO VACANCY” sign and point out to Jesus that

 His room in Jerusalem was already “rented out”!  

Before we head back to Jerusalem, don’t you think it would be a good idea

 to find out what drew Jesus to “lodge in Bethany”?!?!?