AUGUST 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 18  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, Thank You Lord for being the Great Physician, 

the Great Healer, the Master Teacher. 

Lord Jesus You have guided those that are our earthly physicians

 and earthly teachers and You Lord give us the abundant life as

 You take us safely through the Valley of Sickness and the 

Darkness of Spiritual Ignorance and bring our bodies and minds 

back to health. Jesus, I thank You for the infirmities that You allow

 in our lives and I pray that the Holy Spirit will keep our heart,

 eyes, and mind open during these times of doubt and trials that we

 will always see Your Healing Hand and Teaching Spirit at work 

in our lives, both the physical and the spiritual. Lord Jesus, 

forgive me when I get caught up in the world and fail to see 

that everything should be used to glorify the Father instead 

of getting lost in self-pity — Lord Jesus, Praise, Glory, and Honor to

 the Son that was Obedient unto death to the Will of the Father,

 forgive me when I fail to honor the Father and the Son while 

enjoying the Abundant Life You have laid before all who will believe.   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is entering Jerusalem the day after His Triumphal Entry 

which was met in Jerusalem with “mixed reviews” and the immediate

 “cleansing of the temple” did not win Jesus any friends on the 

Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce! Jesus had cursed a fig tree

 outside the Eastern Gate which can only be viewed in light of 

all the other actions Jesus has performed in the name of God as 

a curse on those that would defile the temple of God, His Holy City,

  and all those that were seeking to worship God 

“in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:24).

 Therefore His curse was not on an isolated single fig tree but on 

the Sanhedrin itself, the Sanhedrin being the most influential spiritual

 body in all Israel and they were cursed because they were abusing

 their “power and authority” by defiling the command of God in order

 to further the “doctrines of men”! Jesus had told His disciples 

that the “power and authority”  He had displayed in His 

cursing the fig tree and the tree’s immediate destruction was a

 product of “Faith, Prayer, and Belief” ———

 the Lesson to learn from Jesus cursing the fig tree

 is that God and God Alone IS the SUPREME AUTHORITY 

and the SUPREME POWER!!! 

Jesus curses the fig tree,

 Teaches the Lesson on “Faith and Belief” and then 

enters Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate 

— keep in mind that this is the last week on earth that 

Jesus will spend in His earthly form and His every action, 

breath, and Word will be full and overflowing with the 

Truth of God 

so it is important to consider every move made 

by Jesus in this most important of weeks!!! 

“Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests 

and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was 

teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing 

these things? And who gave You this authority?’” 

(Matthew 21:23)

  Jesus is the Master Teacher and He always takes our questions

 and uses His Question to laser focus a Truth of God onto the problem 

at hand and at the same time Jesus will present a Question to us

 that will reflect that Truth of God and illuminate the solution for us.

 He has been demonstrating that 

everything Jesus does is to 

Teach the Truth of the One True Living God 

and Jesus has made it clear that He is here on earth 

to do the “Will of His Father in Heaven”. 

In this particular case, Jesus answers the chief priests and elders

 of the people with what I consider to be (by virtue of where 

and when it was asked) the summation of all the 

Truths of God 

that Jesus has spent 33 years in the flesh Teaching to all who would

 listen as Jesus asked:

 

(JQ#24) “The baptism of John —where was it from? 

From heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25)

 

By asking this Question in the temple of God in the city of Jerusalem 

and by directing the Question at those that had been wielding power

 and authority over the multitudes, Jesus has set up the ultimate

 confrontation between the 

“commands of God [from heaven]” 

and the 

“doctrines [originating from] men” 

— a confrontation between what God has clearly stated in 

His Holy Scriptures as “TRUTH” and what man in a self-assumed

 position of authority has defiled and manipulated and then has

 handed down as the “doctrine [of men]”.

 Not only has Jesus set up the ultimate confrontation 

but this Question points to the 

Ultimate Truth of God — 

God is the Living God 

and is still and forever will be involved in His Creation. 

The First Truth of God from JQ#24 is that the scriptures tell 

of a forerunner to the Coming Messiah and that prophecy was

 fulfilled by John the Baptist. When John came on the scene,

 the question was asked of him by the rulers and authorities,

 “Are you the Messiah?” John had answered “no” 

and said that he was there 

to “witness” and point to the Messiah when He arrived

 and then John kept preaching 

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

and John kept baptizing. John then declared as he saw

 Jesus coming to him to be baptized, 

“Behold the Lamb of God 

that takes away the sins of the world.” 

(John 1:15-29)  

When Jesus asked about the “baptism of John”, the chief priests 

and elders were really over a barrel for they had to recognize 

the fact that “baptism” is real and they knew that John had 

not come to them for “approval” to baptize so there was no way

 that the Sanhedrin could claim “authority and power” over the

 actions of John the Baptist. Now what were they going to do with the

 “True authority and power of God” 

that Jesus was demonstrating in the temple of God

 in God’s Holy City of Jerusalem? The Question Jesus asked sitting 

in the temple is still of utmost relevance today, what would your 

response be if Jesus sat down with you and asked, 

“The baptism of John — 

is it from heaven or from men?” 

— what answer could you give?  

AUGUST 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 17  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 forever the Unchanging Faithful One, 

full of Mercy and Grace. We are nothing next to Your Glory, we 

are weak and we have no good in us if we have no God in us! 

Apart from You we find we live our lives selfishly and think we 

can do our own thing if we just build up enough “spiritual brownie”

 points — Lord I know better  and I beg Your forgiveness for 

even this slightest of touches against my total and unyielding

 faith in living a totally surrendered life to You.  I pray to completely

 abandon self, take up my cross daily, and live only a “life in Christ”. 

 Lord Jesus, I pray for the day when I will know that I shall never 

look back or even think of looking back. There is no excuse for my

 ever turning from You or taking my eyes off You for even the 

slightest of seconds. Forgive me, for when I am not looking at You,

 I am looking at self and it is when I am “in self” that I sin, but when 

I am “in Christ” my true life begins again!!!      

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has just made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem but was 

met with contention by the chief priests and elders so Jesus left 

Jerusalem and spent the night in Bethany. Now as He returns to

 Jerusalem He curses a fig tree and 

“Immediately the fig tree withered away.” 

(Matthew 21:19) 

Instead of entering into a debate among ourselves as to “why” 

Jesus would “curse” a fig tree, we should instead consider the 

eyewitness accounts and then look at the other actions of Jesus

 to see if He “explains” the “why” for us. 

“And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, 

saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither away so soon?’” 

(Matthew 21:20) 

The eyewitnesses were the disciples of Jesus and this is not the 

first “miracle” they had seen Jesus do — they had observed 

Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, they had seen Jesus feed 

the multitudes with a small boy’s lunch, and they had witnessed 

demons being cast out and every infirmity that had been brought

 to Jesus, Jesus healed them all; however, when the fig tree

 withered and died “immediately” these disciples “marveled”.

 Perhaps not all of these disciples that were following Jesus in

 Jerusalem were with Jesus earlier in His ministry when He taught

 “Judge not, that you be not judged” 

(Matthew 7:1) 

and then Jesus called those that lord themselves over others as

 “Hypocrites!” (Matthew 7:5) 

Then Jesus rebuked false teachers and He declared,

 

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing 

…you will know them by their fruits. 

Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?

 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree

 bears bad fruit…Every bad tree that does not bear 

good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” 

 (Matthew 7:15-20)

 

 There is much correlation to be made from the circumstance 

in which this “fig tree” was cursed in the village of priests and

 judges in the walled village of Bethphage that stood as the

 Supreme Court over Israel and were supposed to be

 handing down decisions based on the Holy Scriptures 

and not the doctrines of men! 

It can easily be seen that since Bethphage 

means “house of unripe figs” that Jesus has passed the sentence

 of death onto the Sanhedrin for being a “bad tree” that has not 

produced good spiritual fruit and therefore this “Supreme Court”

 is now cut down and will be thrown into the fire! 

It makes sense that just yesterday 

Jesus executed the Divine Duties of the Office of Messiah 

and cleansed the temple of God in Jerusalem

 and today Jesus is addressing the source of the problem and is

 pronouncing sentence on those who have been found guilty of

 defiling the temple of God by abusing their “office” and 

“responsibility” of handing down Godly decisions! 

Instead, the ‘religious rulers’ had made the temple 

a center of commerce instead of a house of prayer!?!?!   

Jesus said that you will know a tree by

 the fruit that it bears and He demonstrated by the cleansing of the

 temple that He had indeed “come in the name of the LORD” ! 

 We can see that the temple was defiled by the fruit of commerce

 and that unGodly fruit could only have been produced

 by an unGodly tree which we know was planted 

and watered by the Sanhedrin! 

We know also that the Sanhedrin 

was not an office instituted by God,

 but was formed and maintained by men

 as they handed down judgments 

based on what they thought was “best” for Israel. 

Once the disciples saw the fig tree wither away immediately, 

Jesus made it clear that the Lesson He intended for the disciples 

was about their “faith” because when they asked 

“How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” 

(Matthew 21:20) 

that “Jesus answered and said to them,

 ‘Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt,

 you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also 

if you say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into 

the sea, it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, 

believing, you will receive'.” 

(Matthew 21:21-22) 

When one considers the context, one can quickly see Jesus Teaching

 and these last Lessons on 

“Faith” and “Obedience to God” 

should be studied and not doubted — our attention should not be

 on “why” we think Jesus did what He did with the fig tree, 

our attention should be firmly fixed on 

the fact that Jesus cursed a fig tree outside the eastern gate

 and at His command, the tree withered away immediately!!!

 Where do you think the 

“power and authority” 

to accomplish this miracle came from,

 “from heaven or from men?” !