AUGUST 11 JQ#21-16 “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

AUGUST 11   JQ#21-16  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, Precious is that Name, the Name above all names, all praise and honor go to the Name of Jesus. The Only Begotten of the Father, yeah the only One of all the children of God that was able to live a Perfect Life while in the flesh, and even to the point of death at the end of His Life for Jesus maintained that Perfection even in dying such a cruel death on the Cross! Jesus took His death and turned it into our Victory! Jesus, You are Faithful to fulfill Your Promises to us and Your Word is Pure! O Holy Spirit, my heart is yielded and my soul longs for Your Touch, my mind yearns to be filled with Your Understanding and even the most inward parts of my being begs for Your Salvation and Sanctification. Teach me, guide me, and lift up my soul to the Father!      AMEN

The Jesus Questions

AUGUST 11   JQ#21-16  “What do you think about fish, taxes, lost sheep, forgiveness, and your fellow servants?” (Matthew 17:25, 18:12,33)   Jesus always has a purpose for every question, and that single purpose is to reveal the Father to us, so why is Jesus spending so much of His Effort in Teaching us about “sin”?  Jesus asked JQ#21 in Matthew 17:25 just after telling His disciples that “The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” (Matthew 17:22) and immediately Jesus jumps to asking “From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” (Matthew 17:25) — or is this a “jump” going from talking about the resurrection (being raised the third day) to the kings of the earth extracting “taxes”? Jesus made a very interesting statement to Peter once Peter answered that the “kings of the earth … take customs or taxes” from “strangers” and not from their “sons” and Jesus declared “Then the sons are free.” (Matthew 17:26) After Jesus made the “sons are free” statement He performed the miracle with the “fish and taxes” which illustrated that God wants us to continue in our daily lives and to trust Him to provide for us. Then Jesus teaches in Chapter 18 about “sin” starting by addressing the worldly desire for “greatness” as expressed by His own disciples. Jesus makes this statement when the disciples asked Him “who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1) and Jesus answers “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted…you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven…” (Matthew 18:2) and then for the remainder of Chapter 18 Jesus is teaching about “Sin” !?!?!? These verses when viewed individually feel somewhat disjointed to me and the amount of verses dedicated to “sin” seems out of proportion to me, but then I read these passages as a whole and I see God’s Master Plan of Salvation in Matthew 17:20 - 18:35. When these passages are viewed as the Plan of Salvation it becomes evident that God is serious about resolving the sin problem and to illustrate the magnitude of His Compassion for a lost world Jesus spends His earthly ministry teaching “Repent … the kingdom of heaven is at hand…” (see Matthew 3:2 and Matthew 4:17) and He emphasizes that God has prepared a heaven for those that “repent” or are “converted” from their sin and that God has also prepared a “hell” for those that reject God. Time and time again Jesus has stated that we must make this decision that determines where we will spend our “eternity” during our “lifetime on earth” which begins with our “physical” birth to an earthly mother and father and this “physical” lifetime will be terminated by our “physical” death or our “spiritual birth” into the “Spiritual kingdom of God” to which Jesus alluded to with “the sons are free” statement in Matthew 17:26. So the Master Plan of Salvation is God sends His Only Begotten Son to the earth to become flesh so that Jesus can live a perfect life which will be an acceptable Substitutionary Sacrifice wholly acceptable to the Father and this “Acceptable Sacrifice” will be a “Once for All” Sacrifice for All Sin. Mankind is sinful and must be punished by a Just and Faithful God who at the beginning of HIs creation declared the “penalty of sin is death”. As a sinner, we must admit our sin and then “repent” of our sin and we will receive the gift of “Grace” and “Forgiveness” of our sins because Jesus paid our debt when He was “betrayed into the hands of men … [and killed]” God sealed His Promise by resurrecting Jesus from the grave on the “third day”!!! Jesus has stated His purpose was to “save that which was lost [in sin]” (Matthew 18:11) and so our decision to determine our eternity with God or separated from Him boils down to a simple question ——— “Do we believe God means what He says?”