JANUARY 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-11: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

JANUARY  11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-11: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17) 

Daily Prayer to JESUS    

Jesus, my prayer is to be totally dependent on Your Mercy and Grace to lead me where You will. Lord, I pray not to be free of worldly influences but rather my prayer is to have the discernment to see past the world and the deceit of this world to Your Truth and to Trust Your Holy Spirit to take whatever worldly circumstance that I find myself in and use it to witness to Your Great Love — for there is nothing or no one that cannot benefit from Grace which You have provided so abundantly. Keep our hearts and eyes open to those times when we can take the circumstances of the world and use them to witness to your Glory.      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JANUARY  11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-11: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17) Jesus has already in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew fulfilled more prophecies than any one single person before Him and certainly Jesus has fulfilled more prophecies than anyone that has lived after Him. The Birth, Life, Death by Crucifixion, Burial in a “borrowed” Tomb, and His Glorious Resurrection on the Third Day are predictions filled by Jesus. The fulfilling of specific prophecies of the Messiah by Jesus have been documented by so many independent sources and written down and confirmed in the presence of so many eyewitnesses that there will NEVER be anyone but JESUS that can have the facts of His Life be the PROOF that He is the SON OF GOD. Some obvious supporting facts surrounding Jesus fulfilling the Messianic Prophecies come from the world of mathematics but are not always considered as “proof” (there will always be skeptics). Mathematics became involved because the “claims” that Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies got the attention of the scientific community and several well known mathematicians were asked to apply the science of “probability” to the scriptures. As a result of applying the science of probability to prophecy, the numbers generated from this investigation and sophisticated mathematical calculations produced such outrageous numbers that the numbers were rechecked and recalculated by dozens of sources and one such case resulted in  a conclusion written by the professor emeritus of science at Westmont College in Santa Barbara who had previously served as chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College.  Professor Peter Stoner had done a probability study on 11 general prophecies coming true and wrote that “the probability of these 11 prophecies coming true, if written in human wisdom, is…1 in 5.76 x 10⁵⁹ Needless to say, this is a number beyond the realm of possibility.” Professor Stoner used the following to illustrate the unbelievable number of 1 x 10 ¹⁷ of one person “accidentally fulfilling” only 8 Messianic prophecies: “Imagine filling the State of Texas knee deep in silver dollars. Include in this huge number one silver dollar with a black check mark on it. Then, turn a blindfolded person loose in this sea of silver dollars. The odds the the first coin he would pick up would be the one with the black check mark are the same as 8 prophecies being fulfilled accidentally in the life of Jesus.” {{See internet article: “Applying the Science of Probability to the Scriptures — Do Statistics Prove the Bible’s Supernatural Origin?” By Dr. David Reagan on the website http://christinprophecy.org}} If we look at just the “odds” from a numerical standpoint of one man “accidentally” fulfilling more than 8 prophecies as being impossible then what is the phrase that would have to be invented for a second person to fulfill more prophecies than the first person?!?!? The “odds” that one man could fulfill ALL the Messianic prophecies are so beyond our comprehension that many find it hard to believe it to be humanly possible and choose to believe that all of this “prophecy” stuff and “the Jesus story” is a “fairy tale” — which is still one of the main arguments put forth against Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit today and prevents many people from believing! On the other side of the coin others write: “The bottom line is that the fulfillment of Bible prophecy in the life of Jesus proves conclusively that He truly was God in the flesh. It also proves that the Bible is supernatural in origin.”  Many “unbelievers” are the very ones deny that Jesus is the Son of God and that God Himself exists yet they refuse to accept as “evidence” the “eyewitness” accounts such as each of the individual Gospels. If we accept simple things that must be true of the Messiah like the Messiah is a Jewish male born to a virgin in Judea and that He would have to be “sacrificed” to make atonement  for the sins of His people and not just any “sacrifice” but a unique death by crucifixion at the hands of a foreign government then when we look at the simple facts of eyewitness accounts of the life of Jesus who was a  Jewish male born in Bethlehem to a virgin and we have records of Jesus Himself starting His ministry by teaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” then eyes must be opened to the TRUTH!  Matthew, being an educated Jew met Jesus and then learned everything he could about Jesus and would eventually write the Gospel that would be an eyewitness account to the fulfilling of Jewish prophecy by Jesus. Matthew being a studied and educated Jew himself recognized the significance of the simple facts of the life of Jesus and wrote the Gospel that documented his findings. I can just imagine what Matthew felt like when he started following Jesus and hearing reports from the other apostles about the parents of Jesus and when Matthew traced the genealogy of Jesus back to King David, Matthew knew that there was something special about this first born Jewish male that could trace His genealogy back to King David! But can you imagine how Matthew felt when he learned the story that the mother of Jesus told the story how her firstborn son Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirt and that she was a “virgin” when she gave birth to Jesus! Then Mary and Joseph both told of the visit from Gabriel and Gabriel telling them to “call Him Jesus for He will save the people from their sins”!!! I can also imagine that Matthew started taking notes and studying the prophecies of the MESSIAH even more seriously because already Jesus had fulfilled the three most basic but difficult prophecies — for no one can choose where they are born nor whom their parents are much less who the parents of the parents are — secondly there is the “virgin birth” prophecy which no one can choose that their mother be a “virgin” and give birth!!! Those ARE IMPOSSIBLE things for man, but that makes the HOLY SCRIPTURE valid when it clearly states, “with man it is impossible but with God, all things are possible.” I am sure that Matthew started writing furiously when he heard Mary and Joseph tell the account of the “virgin birth” and I am sure that God fully intended for Matthew to be the one to write the Gospel and document this “impossibility” of Jesus — for the TRUTH is that indeed it is “impossible” for man to fulfill prophecy, only GOD can fulfill prophecy and only the Son of God could be “virgin born”!!! The first four chapters of Matthew then documents through eyewitness accounts all the simple facts of the Life of Jesus that points to the Divine Truth that Jesus is the Son of God!!!