OCTOBER 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#29-3 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” (Matthew 22:42)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

OCTOBER  17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   JQ#29-3 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”  (Matthew 22:42) 

365 Prayers to JESUS 

Jesus, O the joy of calling on the Name of all names, for You are the Living, Loving, Redeemer and Lover of my soul. You are the Way, yeah the only Way to Live, for we spend our days in death when we do not turn to Thee for our Daily Bread. Lord, I praise You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit for the Grace and Mercy in the Plan of Salvation!!!  We, Lord, are deserving of death, yet even though we reject you time and again, You always extend Your Love and Forgiveness to us if we but Repent and turn to Thee. Lord, I am a chief sinner for I will lay my sins at the foot of Your cross but I do not let go of them and end up picking them up again with my selfish desires?!? O Lord Jesus, You are Loving and Forgiving and each time I return to Your Grace You receive me with open arms — so Lord I return yet again, forgive this sinner daily!    AMEN

The Jesus Questions

OCTOBER  17    JQ#29-3 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”  (Matthew 22:42)   Jesus is now addressing a group of Pharisees and scribes that “were gathered together” and after they responded to the question Jesus asked them about “Whose Son is [Christ]?” (Matthew 22:42) that Christ was “The Son of David”, Jesus asked them a final question from a Psalm of David (Psalm 118) but the Pharisees and scribes were unable to answer His question from the Holy Scriptures that they were supposed to be “the authority” on! Their inability to answer the question Jesus asked them proved that Jesus knew more about the Scriptures than they did so the Pharisees from that day on “did [not] dare question [Jesus] anymore.” (Matthew 22:43-46) But Jesus had more to say about the problem Israel had with them following the “doctrines of men” that had defiled their “offices” and for the sake of self-promotion had “usurped the power of God” for themselves by imposing their false doctrines on God’s chosen people. Jesus had previously taught His own disciples this lesson of seeking positions of high office for Jesus when asked to give special consideration to a couple of His disciples stated about “True Power and Authority” : “…but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.” (Matthew 20:23) and then Jesus elaborated about the problem with our assuming “power” without it being given by God when Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you…Whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28). It is interesting to note that this lesson on “Power and Authority” and submitting to the will of God and being obedient to the Father’s Plan for our lives came just after Jesus had told His disciples, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.” (Matthew 20:18-19) So it should have been no surprise that in this last week His disciples would see that the events were unfolding just as Jesus had prophesied and that Jesus would spend so much of His energy to teach about the abuse of power. What we as children of God should be aware of in our lives is mainly that God has a Plan for Salvation and that Plan includes “repentance and the remission of sin” and that our eternity is determined by how obedient we are to the Purity and Holiness of the Commands of God and not on the “defiled doctrines of men”!!! Jesus had taught “…no one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep [God’s] commandments.” (Matthew 19:17) The fact that Jesus continues teaching the multitudes about the abuse of power and seeking high office for self promotion can be understood as an extension of Jesus teaching a lesson on humility “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. [but] …whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:3-6) So now Jesus is going to conclude His Lessons on “Power and Authority” as we read “Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying…” (Matthew 23:1) and Jesus calls out the “scribes and the Pharisees” by name and pronounces 7 “Woes” on them and those that seek to “lord” their God-given “authority” over those under their rule!!! Surely it is obvious that this lesson is not a “knee-jerk” reaction by Jesus, He has been addressing this problem all along and now He concludes by announcing 7 "Woes" on those that are guilty. Let each of us stop and consider this simple logical question, “If this subject is this important to Jesus that He would be so thorough in His Teaching this Lesson throughout His entire ministry, then shouldn’t we give it a proportional amount of our attention as well?!?!?!?!”