SEPTEMBER 11 JQ#24-7 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

SEPTEMBER 11   JQ#24-7 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”  (Matthew 21:25) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, Precious is the Name above all names, Jesus, My Redeemer, my Savior. Lord I can Praise and Glorify the Name for You have delivered my soul, You have restored the Joy of my Salvation and I once again can see and feel Your Guiding Hand lifting me up and leading me on.  Jesus keep me on the paths of righteousness and keep me centered in Your will. I pray that my repentance be turned to true service to You and to the kingdom and will be an acceptable offering before the LORD.    AMEN

The Jesus Questions

SEPTEMBER 11    JQ#24-7  “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”  (Matthew 21:25)  Jesus continues His confrontation with the “Supreme Court” that had been using their position with God to promote the “doctrines of men” and had become trapped themselves in those doctrines and  when they perceived that they were losing their power over “the multitudes” to Jesus (who was demonstrating the True Power and Authority of God) that they actually  conspired to dispose of Him. Jesus had been in the temple of God in Jerusalem where He had driven out the “moneychangers”, and those that were “buying and selling” in the temple, and “the seats of those that sold doves” (Matthew 21:12) and after declaring the temple a “house of prayer” Jesus healed the multitudes that were brought to Him in the temple, thus restoring the temple of God back to the Purpose for His Temple in Jerusalem— every problem, sickness, ailment, disease, or broken-heartedness that was brought before Jesus in the temple of God and spread before the Lord in His “house of prayer” had their prayers answered as Matthew records: “[all that] came to [Jesus] in the temple…He healed them…but when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did…[the chief priests and scribes] were indignant.” (Matthew 21:14-15) One must ask that if the chief priests and scribes “saw the wonderful things” that Jesus was doing  for the multitudes in the way of answered prayers lifted in the house of God to God Himself, then why on earth were the chief priests and scribes “indignant”?!?!? I cannot get past the fact that Jesus is exerting the True Power and Authority in the temple that bears God’s name, in the city that God declared as the “City of God”, and yet the self-appointed “rulers” can look upon the True Work of God and become “indignant” ??? — it can only be that the “rulers” feared losing their self-appointed “power and authority” more that they feared the source of “True Power and Authority” and that the “indignant”  will defend their little bit power and fame however temporary and fleeting it may be. This is a major problem Jesus encountered and it is a major problem that societies today are encountering and therefore we should look carefully at how Jesus reacted to those that defend the “doctrines and traditions” of men over the “commands” of God!!! Jesus addressed the indignation He encountered while doing “wonderful things” in the temple of Jerusalem by the same response He used when facing Satan and the Temptation in the wilderness —— “And Jesus said to [the indignant chief priests and scribes], ‘Have you never read’…” (Matthew 21:16) and Jesus quoted from the Holy Scriptures to the indignant chief priests what God had to say about the matter at hand. Matthew then records that after Jesus quoted from God’s word that “Then [Jesus] left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.” (Matthew 21:17) It is just as significant a point that Jesus leaves Jerusalem now and goes to “Bethany” and “lodged there” as it was  when He “drew near to Jerusalem” that He “came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 21:1) !!! The significance of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and being hailed by the multitudes as the “Son of David” cannot be overstated, especially when Jesus immediately went to the temple and drove out those that had been defiling the house of God by making it a commercial establishment instead of a house of prayer, and we know that it was the Sanhedrin Supreme Court located in Bethphage that had given permission (probably there were many “bribes” given to the Supreme Court) to the moneychangers, and those that bought and sold in the temple! Now that Jesus is exposing the “problem” we must read closely as to what Jesus does next, for He never leaves a problem exposed without presenting the resolution to that problem — and so now Jesus has cleaned the temple as His first order of business, then He retired to “Bethany” — do you suppose that when Jesus returns to Jerusalem in the morning that He will resolve the problem? Another good question that it is appropriate to address to those that see the “wonderful things” that Jesus does and then become “indignant” at the mention of His Holy Name, “Do you suppose that just because Jesus left and went to lodge outside the city for the night that He will ignore the problem inside the city tomorrow?” or to speak the language that our society listens to today I’ll ask the question in Hollywood language — “Just because [Jesus] walked away do you think you are safe? Did you not hear what He said as He was leaving ————— “”I’LL BE BACK”” ?!?!!?!?