SEPTEMBER 28 JQ#27-5 “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” (Matthew 22:12) The Jesus Questions

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

SEPTEMBER 28   JQ#27-5 “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”  (Matthew 22:12) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, my Lord and my Redeemer, my Rock and my Salvation, You are the Calm in my storms and 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 so 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 through this Valley of the Shadow of Death down Your Paths of Righteousness 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

SEPTEMBER 28   JQ#27-5 “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”  (Matthew 22:12)  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” the prophet Isaiah had written about the Messiah 800 years earlier. The first thing Jesus did after entering Jerusalem was go to the temple and He put God’s temple in order by driving out all who were making it a “den of thieves” instead of “a house of prayer”. Once in the temple Jesus started doing the work of God and performed miracle after miracle for all that would come to the temple and make their requests and prayers known to Jesus. 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) 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” that 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 man, 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 nor 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 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 to see God. 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”!?!?!?!