MAY 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#18 “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

 

MAY 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#18  “But who do you say that I am?” 

(Matthew 16:15)

MAY 28  LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Your Grace is sufficient. 

Lord, let this journey that You have placed before me 

reflect a prayer prayed in 2004 where I prayed,

 “Lord, help me take my head knowledge 

and convert it into heart knowledge 

because I know what I should be doing 

but my heart keeps hanging on to the old nature, 

take me away from the old nature and 

clothe me as You promised with a new creature that I may 

‘…go and sin no more…’ [G A S N M] against You and Thy Kingdom.” 

Lord Jesus, we need Thee every hour!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is relentless in getting His Teachings across to us and

 He desires for us to look deep into our own lives and souls 

so that we can truly understand “Who” He really is 

and “Why” the Very Son of God took on flesh! 

When we think that we have come to a deep understanding, 

most often it is in reality still just a “surface” knowledge of His Grace. 

Jesus with His Questions makes us stop and think

 on a level that always takes us 

“deeper still”! 

The disciples have experienced Jesus first hand in their daily lives 

as they have literally spent 24/7 with Him and have seen Him

 accomplish miracle after miracle yet,

 Jesus with every Lesson and Life Experience 

always pointed to “our Father in heaven” 

as the source of His Power, 

so if anyone knew “Who” Jesus really is, 

it should have been the disciples

 that had seen Him calm the wind and the waves twice already 

and healed the multitudes every where He went! 

The disciples have seen Jesus take a few loaves and fishes 

and feed thousands and thousands just by breaking bread 

and praying to His Father to bless and to provide and 

God being faithful, answered all the prayers of Jesus. 

The disciples had just been given a great Lesson

 on discernment when Jesus taught

 “beware the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees” 

as the Pharisees and Sadducees were teaching “doctrines of men” 

and not “God commandments” to men, 

and we read in Matthew’s gospel that,

 “When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, 

He asked His disciples, saying 

“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” 

(Matthew 16:13) 

This Question would make the disciples stop and answer Jesus 

from the literal viewpoint of what they had heard other men say

 about who they thought Jesus was 

but we just like the disciples will miss the Lesson Jesus is about to Teach

 because the Main Question Jesus is asking is,

 “But who do you say that I am?” 

(Matthew 16:15) 

This very important personal Question

 is not a Question Jesus asked His disciples 

to give Jesus knowledge or information for we know that

 Jesus “knows the heart of men” 

so by now the disciples should know 

that when Jesus asks a Question 

that He is about to take us 

“deeper still” 

and sure enough this Question is a lead-in Question 

that Jesus uses to get us to focus our attention on another

 Truth of God! 

This method of Teaching is starting to reach His disciples and

 it is at this point of studying about Jesus 

that we also should pause and reflect on the Person of Jesus 

and look not at what men say about Jesus 

but dig deep into our personal experiences 

and ponder what it is 

that we really “know” about Jesus 

and not just what we have “heard” 

what other men think about Jesus. 

Jesus is asking a Question that will change 

your personal viewpoint for eternity ——— 

answer this Question from your personal experience 

and Jesus will change your heart from “I heard” to “I know”.

 Everyone who hears the question will find 

that what we think about Jesus is our “reality” of Jesus 

and don’t you think you know what is in your heart of hearts 

better than what men tell you should be in your heart? 

Think about this lead in Question 

and then answer what I believe to be the most important answer 

in regards to your eternal soul 

as you honestly answer Jesus face-to-face 

as He asks you this very, very personal question, 

“But who do you say that I am?” 

(Matthew 16:15) 

MAY 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#17 “How many loaves do you have?” (Matthew 15:34)

 

MAY 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#17  “How many loaves do you have?”  

(Matthew 15:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, take our daily desires of the world and Resurrect  them instead 

to the Will of the Father in Heaven. 

When we start our day with prayer to the Only Begotten who died for our sin,

 let it be as Paul told the Corinthians, 

“We…plead [within ourselves] … not to receive the grace of God in vain…” 

but that with all our hands find to do, that we will be doing it for the 

Glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Lord let us hear anew each morning Your Prayer for us

 that we will be “one with the Father” 

and know that it was the Father’s Will that His Only Begotten Son 

would be obedient the the Father’s Will and die on the cross for our sins 

thereby providing for the Salvation of all who would 

call on the Name of JESUS, 

so let us as be obedient to the Father’s Will and take up our cross daily

 as we die to our sins and follow Jesus 

for we know He is One with You 

and has prepared a place that we may be together

 as “ONE” for Eternity,

 but only through the shed blood of Jesus who purchased our “pardon” ——— 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is pictured as God giving the “gift” of “understanding” to His 

newly created world as God’s first recorded act of addressing sin

 was accomplished with the first words God spoke to address

 the “darkness” of the earth as God declared,

 “Let there be light, and there was light.” 

(Genesis 1:3)  

We know that “light” is the “understanding” 

that Jesus keeps trying to Teach us because the “Light” 

is the greatest weapon against the darkness of sin and the 

“Light” IS the LIGHT (UNDERSTANDING) OF JESUS 

who as the apostle James wrote of Jesus,

 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, 

who gives to all liberally…” 

(James 1:5) 

This advice to seek “wisdom” came as James was addressing the fact that

 “knowing the testing of your faith produces patience…” 

and then the solution was to ask God for wisdom for the 

Truth of God that Jesus is Teaching with the “bread” Question 

is that we must eat the “good” bread that God Himself provided, 

just as He sent Manna from Heaven to feed the Israelites 

while they were learning to follow God 

while wandering in the wilderness. 

So if God gives us “Light” to dispel the “darkness” 

then we should develop the “understanding” that 

“man cannot live by bread alone…” (Matthew 4:4) 

but to resist temptation by consuming the word of God.

 So Jesus uses the “bread” illustration to give us “understanding” 

that our only way to fight “sin and darkness” is to

 abide in the “Light of His Word” —

 the “Light” is Jesus ——— 

“[Jesus is] the true Light which gives light

 to every man coming into the world.” 

(John 1:9) 

Jesus had been Teaching the disciples all along that 

by our “belief” that we will be “healed of our infirmities” 

and Jesus was continually “Teaching” and then asking

 “do you understand(?)” 

and then to make sure we get the point, 

Jesus gives us a deeper explanation by using examples of everyday things

 that we have a common knowledge about ——— 

so the “bread” Lesson that Jesus is Teaching in this passage 

is to remind us that

 

our “need” for “bread” is “daily” 

and it is by “understanding” of the Word of God  “DAILY” 

that we nourish our spirits,

 in essence we fulfill the prayer Jesus prayed when the disciples asked Him

 to “teach us to pray” and Jesus prayed: 

“Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name, 

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day our daily bread…” 

(Matthew 6:9-11) 

So if Jesus is the Light and He has come

 with the single purpose 

to reconcile our sin 

so that we may have fellowship 

with God the Father in heaven, 

don’t you think it would be wise to 

“UNDERSTAND”

 that in order for “bread” to nourish our bodies 

that we must “consume” it?  

As Jesus told the Pharisees that were continually testing Jesus 

as to being the Son of God — Jesus told them 

“A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, 

and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

 (Matthew 16:4) 

Jesus is the fulfillment of the sign of the “prophet Jonah” 

as the “Bread” was “broken for our sin” 

and the “Blood” was shed, 

and the “Light” was buried IN DEATH 

but on the THIRD DAY Jesus rose victorious 

over “darkness, sin, death, and the grave”!!!   

Don’t you think 

that’s a pretty good days work 

on a loaf of

 “Bread” 

and a drink of

 “Living Water”?