AUGUST 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
JQ#27
“Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”
(Matthew 22:12)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, my Lord and my Redeemer, my Rock and my Salvation,
You are the Calm in my storms ——— Lord Jesus I can only give
You Praise for You are Worthy! Lord I wake each morning and my
thoughts are again turned to Your Grace and Mercy because each
day as I rise I know I am rising because You have been Gracious
and Merciful to this sinner and were it not for Grace and Mercy
to carry me through my guilt and shame, I simply would not make
it through my days. Jesus I come and bow my heart, my head
and my soul to You and place my worthless self at the foot of
Your Cross and ask that You lead me down Your Paths of
Righteousness through this Valley of the Shadow of Death
just one more day.
I know that I am lost without You.
Lord Jesus, this I KNOW —
You ARE MY LIGHT, MY HOPE, and MY JOY
which are my “Way”, my “Truth” and my “Life”
on my “Journey to You”!!!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus as the Master Teacher, Teaches using very specific
“words” and “word order”. Jesus started this series of Lessons in
the temple of God in this specific week leading up to
the Passover where Jesus is going to fulfill
the prophecy of the “Suffering Servant”
written by the prophet Isaiah 800 years
earlier about the Coming Messiah.
The first thing Jesus did after entering Jerusalem was go to the
temple and put God’s temple in order when He drove out all who
were making it a “den of thieves” instead of “a house of prayer”.
Once in the temple, Jesus demonstrated the Power of God
by doing the work of God as Jesus performed miracle
after miracle for everyone that came to Him in the temple and
made their requests and prayers known to the “Son of David”.
Jesus left Jerusalem that evening to stay in Bethany but returned
the next day and continued “driving out”
all that was against the “commands of God”
and had been defiled by the “doctrines of men”!
These actions of Jesus
had caused the “ruling authorities” in Jerusalem
who had not been consulted by Jesus, to confront Jesus
and since they could not deny the “works” that Jesus had been doing,
the ruling authorities questioned Jesus as to His “authority”!?
(Side note: It is this author’s opinion that these “ruling authorities”
were proving Jesus right in exposing their “inadequacies”
— I was taught at a very early age that you do not question
the man doing the work, especially if he has a big stick in his
hand and the work he is accomplishing
is going to benefit everyone concerned.)
Once Jesus had His “authority” questioned,
He began a series of Lessons to not only prove His “authority”,
He was Teaching in a way that He proved that those questioning
His “authority” already knew where His “Authority” was coming
from but simply refused to admit the Truth of God.
Jesus accomplished this by first cursing the fig tree,
then when first questioned about His “authority”
Jesus asked about the “baptism of John”
which had been a “hot topic” for the ruling authorities since the
multitudes had been seeking out John the Baptist in the wilderness
around the Jordan and were
“Repenting” of their sins against God
and were being baptized by John
who witnessed that his calling was to be
“…the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make straight the way of the Lord…”
(John 1:23).
Once Jesus had everyone’s attention on the baptism of John,
Jesus asked, “The baptism of John
(which was now an accepted FACT by all Israel) —
where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
(Matthew 21:25)
The answer was obvious so Jesus moved to the first of three parables
to teach details of God’s Authority, Parable #1 (Matthew 21:28-32)
JESUS Taught that God has called us to “obey”
and we either choose to “obey” His commands
or we choose to “disobey” God,
and it is not what we say we do that God acknowledges,
it is what our actions prove about us
that God is going to fairly judge us by, therefore we learn the
Truth of God
that we condemn ourselves and God only passes judgement
on our actions, we are either guilty of disobeying God and will
be punished according to our choice or we will be rewarded for
obeying God. Jesus then moved to Parable #2 (Matthew 21:33-46)
where Jesus taught that God has a plan for mankind and God
will provide all the tools and circumstances we need to accomplish
the task God places before us, but if we take the “provisions” of God
and try to take “possession” of God’s Authority for “personal gain”,
once again our actions will determine our final judgement,
God’s Authority is Supreme
and we cannot alter or change in any way God’s commands
or His Plan for mankind, even if we refuse God’s constant attempts
at correcting our misguided course and poor life-choices, up to
and including denying that He has no “authority” in our lives
or even if we crucify His Son!
Now Jesus is completing this
series of Lessons on “authority” by Teaching the 3rd Parable
(Matthew 22:1-14) about a “certain king” who
“arranged a marriage for his son” and just like Jesus
Taught these Lessons in a specific order to get us “on point”,
Jesus is now Teaching the
Truth of God
in this 3rd Parable by a specific word order and selection of 15 phrases
that we must look at each individually in the order in which Jesus
gave them in order for us to see God Almighty.
Jesus told Thomas,
one of His disciples (also known as “doubting Thomas”)
“…if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father…”
(John 14:9)
This would be a good time to look again at the 15 Phrases
in this passage in Matthew 22:2-4 and then look at how Jesus reveals
the “Father” to us through this passage in this 3rd Parable,
unless of course you are not interested in knowing the answer
to the Question that will determine
where you will spend your “eternity”!?!?!?!
