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

 

AUGUST 21  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, You Lord are the Only Begotten of the Great I AM, yet You

 came to earth in the form of a baby to live a life as we must live, 

in the flesh and dependent on God’s Spirit! Lord, we cannot

 comprehend God, the Truly Divine, the Creator and Sustainer

 of all life and all that exists in the universe and it is truly

 impossible for us to imagine a God that does not need anything

 or anyone to sustain Himself, why would so Powerful and 

Supreme a Divine Being conceive and execute a Plan of 

Salvation for a world of sinners and send His Only Begotten 

Son into a sinful world with the single purpose to 

“SAVE” the world from ourselves!?!?!? O Lord, I beg Your 

Forgiveness for all the times that I fail to see Your Plan for the world 

and Your Plan for me — You do not need us for anything but yet 

You present us the opportunity to “enter into Your labors” with You 

and by our belief in Your efforts that our sins will be forgiven and 

we become heirs to eternal life!!!! Lord Jesus, forgive me, for I am 

a sinner whose only HOPE IS GRACE!!      

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus really makes it easy for us when He asks this 

“power and authority” Question in terms of “baptism”

 being from “heaven” or “men” — 

there is no way to answer His Question without addressing our

 core Christian beliefs on their most basic level. We must first 

logically admit that somewhere the doctrine of “baptism” began 

and we can read historians writing about this era in Jewish history 

as a man named John who lived off locusts and wild honey in the

 wilderness outside of Jerusalem with a single purpose in life

 — not to gain possessions of any kind, nor to rise to any position

 of “power and authority”, but this single purpose by this man 

with a different lifestyle was recorded in the Holy Scriptures as:

 “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, 

that all through him might believe.” 

(John 1:6-7)

 

The mission of John is recorded in the Scriptures as:

 

“In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the 

wilderness of Judea, and saying, 

‘Repent, 

for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’” 

(Matthew 3:1-2) 

The Scriptures which were well known by the Jews of John’s 

generation and these Jews were well aware that the prophet

 Isaiah had written 800 years earlier about the Messiah as well 

as a “forerunner of the Messiah”, saying of this forerunner, 

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 

Prepare the way of the Lord…” (Isaiah 11:1)  

John was recognized as being from God 

and doing the work of God for the

 “Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem 

to ask [John], ‘Who are you?’” (John 1:19) 

John, knowing that they were referring to the Messiah 

because of the success John had achieved with the

 multitudes preaching “Repentance” and that the

 “kingdom of heaven was at hand”, John told them 

“I am not the Christ” so the priests and Levites asked 

“why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ?” 

John then told the authorities that he baptized with water but that

 “After me comes a Man who is preferred before me 

… I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed 

to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.” 

(John 1:15-34)

 

So when Jesus asks the Question built around

 “the baptism of John”,

 all Israel was aware that John was a prophet of God fulfilling

 a prophecy of Isaiah about the Coming Messiah 

— all Israel also knew that John the Baptist was sent by God to preach

 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”,

 and all Israel, especially the religious rulers knew that the multitudes

 had gone to John the Baptist in the wilderness 

“around the Jordan…and were baptized by him in the Jordan, 

confessing their sins.” (Matthew 3:4-6) 

This Question Jesus is now asking them about the

 “baptism of John” 

could only be answered for the 

Truth of God 

that it was, John was not the Christ but he was “baptizing” 

in the wilderness of Jordan all who confessed their sins against God

 and preaching 

“Repent”.

 John the Baptist clearly stated this was all about God and the

 “kingdom of heaven” 

so now when the religious leaders attack Jesus and demand to know

 “by what authority” Jesus

 is doing His miraculous works, Jesus makes them face the 

Truth of God 

that “baptism” and the “confession of sins” has only

 

One True Authority — the One True God! 

 

So when Jesus ties the “Baptism of John” together with 

“power and authority” 

and gives the rulers the choice

 “from heaven or from men”,

 the only answer that can be given is to admit that

 MEN HAVE NO AUTHORITY OR POWER EXCEPT THAT WHICH

 GOD PERMITS — 

TRUE POWER AND AUTHORITY COMES ONLY 

FROM GOD IN HEAVEN!!!!! 

The rulers knew that they had to give Jesus an answer or lose all

 authority but they also realized, that if they admitted the 

Truth of God 

that they were going to lose all authority! Jesus, being the 

Master Teacher has presented the “Question” and now He is going to

 use a parable to give us the “Answer” and sum up the 

“Baptism of John” and the 

TRUTH of GOD’S PLAN OF SALVATION! 

Do you need additional Lessons or are you ready to give Jesus 

an honest answer to His Question:

 “The baptism of John — is it from heaven or from men?”  

Jesus is saying to us:

“God the Father and His Heaven is real, 

I am His Only Begotten Son

 sent from Heaven with the 

PLAN OF SALVATION FOR ALL MANKIND 

and the Truth of God  is : 

REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!!!”  

AUGUST 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 20  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, Your grace is sufficient for all our needs, Your Love covers

 all our sins and iniquities — Your Resurrection has forever sealed

 the promise of God to His Creation therefore our Eternity is 

secure through our belief in the shed Blood of the Lamb of God!

  God has gone through such great efforts to supply our needs,

 both physical and spiritual as we read about God’s efforts 

and promises in the Holy Scriptures, 

“In the beginning God created 

the heavens and the earth” 

(Genesis 1:1) 

and from Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures document all the 

faithful promises of God and His great work in His Creation so 

that the Scriptures close with 

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

 be with you all. Amen” 

(Revelation 22:21) 

Indeed You Lord are the Alpha and the Omega and Your Mercy

 and Grace is all we need from the beginning to the end. 

So this believer also looks forward to the last promise 

“Surely, I am coming quickly.” 

and I pray

 “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” 

(Revelation 22:20)   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is addressing the greatest problem of every generation 

that ever lived, from Adam and the forbidden fruit to our modern day

 worldly desires to “do our own thing” — we are self-serving and

 are constantly declaring that it is our “right” to control our own 

destiny but in our self indulging demands we all make the 

universal mistake of failing to honestly ask ourselves, 

“Who and where does the Supreme Authority 

to declare ‘right and wrong’ really come from?” 

Then when we are confronted with the 

Truth of God 

that He and He alone has already established and maintains

 “righteousness” and has already given mankind a set of commands 

by which we can know “right from wrong”, mankind rebels and reverts

 to making up our own self-serving rules and doctrines. We are 

all guilty, every generation looks with lust at God’s Power and Authority

 and each of us fall to the temptation of listening to the Original Great Lie

 of the serpent as we hear,

 “For God knows that in the day you eat

 [of the forbidden fruit and decide for yourself 

what is “TRUTH” that] your eyes will be opened, 

and you will be like God…” 

(Genesis 3:5).  

Each of us in our desire to have “authority and power” look to be 

like the 

True Power and Authority which is God 

and fail to see that with great power and authority comes great

 responsibility and that is where we fail miserably, for we all desire to

 be “God-like” and desire in our fallen heart to wield the “power”

 and look grand and glorious in our self assumed “authority”. We assume

 it is our “right” and then immediately we abuse both “power and authority”

 and end up short of meeting our responsibility to the world and 

others as we blindly serve our selfish desires and lusts.  Jesus asks the

 “from-heaven-or-from-men-true Authority Question” 

to each of us in order to make us stop and consider what 

we see in the world for there is sin and death all around us — we 

recognize that there is “evil” that consumes everyone and everything 

yet we do not recognize the 

Truth of God

 that 

God Alone is Sovereign in His Creation 

and that 

ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY is from GOD! 

Simple Spiritual Blessings of God that we encounter in our daily lives like

 “Forgiveness”, “Love”, “Repentance”, and “Grace” 

are not bestowed upon us by the “doctrines of men” but we know

 they exist therefore we must acknowledge the

 

True Spiritual Source!

 

Therefore Jesus is pointing out the “simple” Truth

 that mankind ALWAYS falls to the temptation

 to assume personal “power and authority”

 for our selfish needs 

and each fallen generation tries to justify

 our weakness by proclaiming the

 Great Lie —

 “If there is no God, 

then there is no ‘right’ 

but that which our “selfishness” 

declares as ‘right’!!!” 

  We however, by choosing to partake of the forbidden fruit, 

fail to recognize the Truth that it is God Himself  that declares 

that the fruit is “forbidden” and it is God Himself 

Who declares the “consequence” of our actions 

— we have the “right to choose” our actions only because God Himself

 has granted us “Free Will” [see A. W. Tozer “Knowledge of the Holy”] 

— but the 

Truth of God 

is that 

God as the Supreme Power and Authority has given 

His Creation the “right to choose” but He also through 

His Supreme Authority has reserved His Divine Right 

and Authority to determine the Consequence 

of our actions and choices — 

we are free to choose but God determines the consequence 

of our choice 

{{THE DIVINE LAW OF CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE}} 

— the only way we can ever truly “be like God” is to choose to live 

our lives and make our choices based upon the “choices and standards”

 of God through His Holy Word in which God Himself has declared

 already the acceptable way to live, and has provided for us the

 Perfect Example in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus,

 who is reminding us with this Question on “power and authority” 

that we must decide for ourselves if we are going to usurp God’s 

position or are we going to let God be God and provide for our

 daily physical needs and our eternal spiritual needs —

 if we stop and think, we will have to admit, 

we cannot create “the heavens and the earth”

 nor do we have any control over “eternity” 

so what makes us think we should have

 “power and authority” over them?!?!?!?