SEPTEMBER 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You are greatly to be praised. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that You are the Beloved Son that pleased our Father God. Lord, only You are worthy of the honor and glory of the praises of every soul that ever lived for only You indeed did anything that directly affected every soul that has ever lived or will ever live!!! I am not worthy to stand in Your Presence, Lord no one is worthy compared to Your Glory. Lord Jesus, You have already paid the price for every sin that has been or ever will be committed so we know that IF WE REPENT  our sins WILL BE FORGIVEN   We are undeserving of Your Love which You freely give, we are equally undeserving of Your Forgiveness; however, Your Grace and Mercy are abundant and “endureth” forever, as does Your Love!         AMEN

SEPTEMBER 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught three parables on “True Power and Authority” after asking the Question (JQ #24): “The baptism of John — where was it from? From heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25) Once Jesus had their focus on the “Source of True Power and Authority” Jesus then told them the Three Parables to demonstrate that God alone is Sovereign and all earthly authority is given by God — but the problem with following “men” is that power in the hands of men not tempered by the fear of God always leads to “abuse” of those powers. Once Jesus had Taught the Three Parables the religious leaders and political forces united to try and “entangle Him in His talk” and regain their former power by showing their superior intellect — but what were they thinking, would you like to match wits with the Supreme Knowledge? First the Pharisees and Herodians posed a question about paying taxes and Jesus Taught Spiritual Law #1 — “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) and when they knew they had no argument they tucked their tails between their legs and left Jesus. But, “the same day” the Sadducees tried to use the Law of Moses to “entangle” Jesus as the Sadducees asked about the tradition of brothers raising up offspring with a deceased brother’s wife and asked Jesus, “Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her?” (Matthew 22:28) Jesus quickly put them in their place by reminding them that they were “mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) Jesus then taught from the Law of Moses Spiritual Law #2 — “The Great I AM GOD is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32) The Sadducees failed in their attempt as did the Pharisees and the Herodians and they too went their way. However, “…when the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law?’” (Matthew 22:34-36) Jesus responded with Spiritual Law #3 “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39) Then to make it perfectly clear to the “lawyer/legalist”, Jesus stated unequivocally, “On these two commandments (Spiritual Law #3) hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)  So now Jesus completes the Lesson on “True Power and Authority” by making His detractors consider the True Source of Power, then Jesus Taught in succession Three Parables on “True and Supreme Authority” and then Jesus gave us 3 Spiritual Laws that confirm God IS the “True and Supreme Authority” and is still “Active” and in “Control”. Why do we have such a hard time letting God be God? Why do we try to assume the “power and authority” for our own self-gratification? Jesus spent a lot of time and energy when His time and energy were about to be extinguished on a cross at the Passover so shouldn’t we “listen to Him” like God said if we truly want to be free and know the pathway to “eternal life”?!?!?!?  

SEPTEMBER 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, the Son of God Most High all Praise and Honor is Yours and Yours alone. God has declared JESUS His Only Begotten Son, God declared the He is well pleased with “HIS SON” and commands us to “LISTEN TO HIM”. Lord Jesus, the mystery is why did You become flesh, suffer all things in life as we must suffer them and why would You even bother to “Talk” to us at all? Lord we continually choose to go our own way, we defile all the blessings You bestow upon us, we daily quench the Holy Spirit You have sent to comfort us and still You are there offering us forgiveness of all our iniquities and reward Repentance with eternal life! The Truth of God is that it was His Choice to Love the world and to have a Plan to save us from ourselves — O Glorious Plan but at such a Great Price and Divine Sacrifice! Lord Jesus, each day You are there with fresh Mercy and we find ourselves once again ready to start a new day so we seek to be centered in Your Will and covered by Your Grace. Thank You Lord for Salvation and for turning our evil thoughts and wicked ways into Praise and Thanksgiving for You have finished Your Work, all we have to do is know You cared enough about us not to let us remain in our sin and You have provided a solution to our sin problem through Repentance, soften our hearts that we may hear the gentle call of God and accept His Gift!   AMEN

SEPTEMBER 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus cleansed the temple and made it a house of prayer as God had originally intended for His Holy Temple in Jerusalem and once in the temple Jesus answered prayers and healed all who came to Him in the temple and yet His last week on earth was spent in contention with the religious and political rulers? These “contentions” were all centered around “power and authority”. Jesus used each “confrontation” to Teach another Truth of God as He addressed each group and exposed the Truth that they were not interested in the work of God but in maintaining their “status quo” in their respective positions of “authority”. Jesus confronted the Pharisees and Herodians and Taught Spiritual Law #1 - “Render unto God the things that are God’s things.” (Matthew 22:21) and it was recorded that when the Pharisees and Herodians “…[heard His] words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.” (Matthew 22:22) As soon as word got around that the Pharisees and Herodians were not able to “entangle Him in His talk” that “The same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Him and asked Him, saying: ‘Teacher…” (Matthew 22:23) and it is interesting to note that the Sadducees started their confrontation the same way the Herodians and the Pharisees had started, by calling Jesus, “Teacher”. This greeting exposed one of the main problems all the groups were having, and that was that they did not recognize Jesus as the Chosen One, the Messiah. Jesus is the Master Teacher but He is first LORD, so the Sadducees started their attack on God without acknowledging that Jesus was in fact the Son of God sent to fulfill the Law that God Himself had given to the world. The Sadducees concocted an imaginary scenario where there were seven brothers who all married the same woman according to what Moses had taught about raising offspring of a deceased brother and then posed the question to Jesus “Therefore, in the resurrection {in which the Sadducees did not believe in}, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had her.” (Matthew 22:23-28) The question Jesus had asked the Pharisees and Herodians still applied, “Why do you test Me?” and Jesus quickly summed up the problem and showed the Sadducees their wrong thinking about the things of God as Jesus answered them: “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) So once again Jesus went right to the point and exposed to the Sadducees that it was their interpretation of "power and authority" that was the true “mistake”. Jesus then said, “But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God…” (Matthew 22:31) . So Jesus confronts the Sadducees with the Truth of God that God IS the POWER, and that God HAS ALREADY SPOKEN ——— our problem is that we ignore what God has already told us and we interpret His Commands in a way that satisfies our selfish desires! Jesus then gave them Spiritual Law #2 as He quoted God describing Himself to Moses — “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32) So now Jesus has addressed the issues brought against Him by the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees and instead of them “entangling" Him in His speech, Jesus has Taught them two Spiritual Laws that state that all power  belongs to God and that God is a living God and still involved with our day-to-day lives as stated in Spiritual Law #2 - “God is the God of the living”. This says to me, that as long as I have breath and life that I must subject myself to the "authority" of God for I have no “power” to interpret or change what God has already spoken to us concerning the pattern of how to live our daily lives abundantly and to inherit the promised land and eternal life ——— or would you rather listen to men who are interested in maintaining their “power” over the people at all costs, including death to all that get in their way?!?!?!?

SEPTEMBER 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, the Only Begotten Son, was Obedient to the Father’s Will, endured a Cruel Sacrificial death, and though He was Innocent, Jesus took upon Himself the pain that must be paid for each and every sin in the world — a pain that cannot be described in terms that can fully expresses the agony that Jesus, the Very Son of God Suffered on our behalf, for You Lord Jesus are Innocent yet You became Guilty for our sakes, and there is nothing we can do but to raise Praises of Gratitude to say Thank You for becoming sin for us! Lord, this world consumes us daily and even on the best of days we truly fall short of Your Glory and on the worst of days it seems like we have somehow blinded ourselves and let the lusts of the world call us away from Your Path of Light into the darkness of disobedience. Forgive me Lord and turn my heart from the world back to Your Word.          AMEN

SEPTEMBER 12  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus used this Question “Why do you test Me…?” not as a Question per se but to let the legalists plotting against Him know that He knew that they were “testing” Him! The first group to try “testing” Jesus was the Pharisees who sent their disciples along with the Herodians which should have raised suspicions and eyebrows in Jerusalem because the Pharisees and the Herodians were political foes but had joined forces on this occasion to attack Jesus? Historians list the Pharisees as a Jewish sect that believed the way to God was through keeping the law as written in the entire Old Testament and “According to Josephus, the Pharisees were the group most influential with the people, [the Pharisees] were noted for their accurate and therefore authoritative interpretations of Jewish law, and had their own traditions and way of life to which they were faithful. They had a simple standard of living and cultivated harmonious relations with others.”  The Herodians differed politically from the Pharisees in that the Herodians wanted to restore a Herod to the throne in Judea and the Pharisees wanted to restore the kingdom of David.  Jesus posed such a great threat to both sects and political parties that they put aside their political differences and were plotting together how to kill Jesus to protect their traditions and centuries old way of life in which they held “offices of power” over the multitudes. Thousands of years earlier there was a multitude of Israelites that were slaves in Egypt and God sent Moses to free them for Egypt’s power and authority and now Israel is crying for “deliverance” from the power of the Roman Empire and God sends His Only Begotten Son to deliver them from their bondage to sin and to free them from the “political powers” that now enslaved the multitudes with their interpretations of God’s Law. The first attack coming from this hybrid group did not catch Jesus off guard because He had earlier Taught His disciples, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:15) This quote from Jesus taken in this context of Him Teaching in the temple of God in Jerusalem at the Passover feast (which celebrated their “exodus” from Egypt) makes the warning of “leaven” even more critical in understanding that Jesus had come to set the multitudes free  that they might for themselves go in and inherit God’s “Promised Land”.  The joining of these political foes against Jesus demonstrates the desperation of  “power mongers” to retain their “powers” at all costs, in this case they were willing to do what Jesus had just Taught in His Three Parables on “Power and Authority” that “Then last of all [a certain king] sent his son to them, saying, ‘they will respect my son’ — but — when they saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’” (Matthew 22:37-38) 

This attack against Jesus by political foes uniting forces to maintain their respective “offices of power” is a reflection of our modern society as we have seen that all politics and political parties are on the “attack” against God and His Authority, our political parties who are “political foes” are united in their attempt to undermine God and His Law and it is all done that they might retain their political office — Does the term “Political Correctness” ring a bell?!?!? It is also interesting to note that the “attack” from the Pharisees (the lawyers) and the Herodians (doctrines of men) centered around asking Jesus “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:17) which is obviously about “money and power” and physical things of the world — so that is why Jesus turned their “test” into a “Spiritual Lesson” as He had them look at the image of Caesar and Jesus Taught Spiritual Law #1:  “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”. (Matthew 22:21) This Spiritual Law #1 enforced  two other Truths of God (1) “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” (1 Timothy 6:10) and (2) “Thou shalt not make …any graven image…Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them…for I the LORD your God [AM] a jealous God…” (Deuteronomy 5:8-9) Whenever we find ourselves questioning the “authority of God” we should revisit the Lessons of Jesus and these “Spiritual Laws” given to answer the “legalists” and the “doctrines of men" which are simply man’s interpretation of God's Law enforced by earthly authority on the populace — can any law be truly “legal” if it is not approved by the Divine Law Giver???

SEPTEMBER 11 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, each day as I awake to start another day, my mind turns to thoughts of this daily prayer to You and my soul is touched that You and the Father have made Yourself available to us 24/7/365-Forever! You Lord have never changed and we know You are the same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow and that is a comforting thought, especially when I think that Your Character is based solely on WHO YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO BE and not on what this world of sinners chooses to do — Lord, we lie, we cheat, we steal, we are sexually immoral to a fault, our society is now killing our unborn children and we claim we have the “right” to decide by a majority vote the moral standard by which we desire to live in moral decay — and all along we reject the only solution to our growing problem — Your Forgiveness! Yet, You Lord continue to LOVE us and extend Your Invitation of Forgiveness and Salvation because that is WHO GOD CHOOSES TO BE! Lord Jesus, I know I fall short of Your Glory even on my best days and I fully understand that all my good deeds done by this defiled body are but as filthy rags so LORD JESUS, may I decrease and let You increase in my daily life and may I grow daily in Christ until the day that Your Righteousness will shine in my life instead of my wretched soul casting a dark shadow that surrounds a sin-filled life!   AMEN

SEPTEMBER 11  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been greeted as the Son of David by the multitudes but the religious leaders were skeptical that this was the Messiah and therefore they started confronting Jesus trying to “expose” Him as an imposter but each “test”, Jesus used these “exams of His Character” to prove that He was the Chosen One and then used the circumstance to reveal another Truth of God. If we look at this next section <Matthew 22:15-40> we see that the religious rulers, scribes, and elders that were holding onto their “traditions” and the “doctrines of men” were blinded to the Truth that Jesus was God’s Son. Even though their “physical” eyes beheld Jesus doing “wonderful things” their “spiritual” eyes were blinded by their desires to maintain their lofty titles and important offices, hence they “plotted” against Jesus — but “how” they intended to catch Him was like trying to put out a fire with gasoline! So far the religious rulers have included the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees. Each of these “power and authority” groups had sent representatives which were “lawyers” and they were trying to use “the law”  to expose “The Law Giver” and instead of putting out the “fire” with their “legalist gasoline” they were actually fanning the flames! Jesus in this section not only proves He is the “Law Giver” and has come to “fulfill the Law and the Prophets”, Jesus also uses these attacks to introduce “THREE Spiritual Laws” as He answers each attack from these set out to prove Him a fake? The THREE Spiritual Laws are: Spiritual Law #1 — “Render unto God the things that are God’s things.”  (Matthew 22:21); Spiritual  Law #2 — “The Great I AM is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32); and Spiritual  Law #3 — “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and also you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40) Jesus introduces the THREE Spiritual Laws with a question directed at the religious rulers that had “plotted” against  Him: “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18) The Holy Scriptures then documents how Jesus answered the questions of the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees and their “legalist” attacks and used each situation to Teach the THREE Spiritual Laws. This is a good time for all of us to reflect on all the times that we as individuals and as a society have tried to “legislate morality”  according to our own selfish desires and blinded ourselves to the Truth of God that He is the Law Giver and not “one jot, or one tittle” of God’s Law will pass away until all the Law is fulfilled — IN GOD’S WAY and IN GOD’S TIMING — and when we realize that LAW is really the thing that belongs to God, then we will begin to uphold Spiritual Law #1 and “Render unto God the things that are God’s” and we will find ourselves healed of our “spiritual blindness” !!!

SEPTEMBER 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, it is still a mystery to this sinner why such Divine Perfection would be Sacrificed for my wretched soul — why would the Almighty Creator God that is completely Self-Existent even bother to expend so much effort to insure that creatures that He does not need can be Redeemed from our self-made iniquities against such a Gracious God??? Lord Jesus, that You would Suffer and Die to Purchase my Pardon is indeed unfathomable but Lord I Praise You for Your Mercy and Your Grace, for I know I have done nothing and can do nothing to earn such Divine Favor except to accept the Gift of God which is Salvation through Belief in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, I do not need to know why any more, for Your Grace is Sufficient and I pray that my Faith grows each day as I learn to die-to-self daily and let Your Holy Spirit dwell in this new vessel of Divine Regeneration — for now I am learning to pray “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” Thank You Jesus for life, guide me throughout my day that I can worship You and the Father in Spirit and in Truth!   AMEN

SEPTEMBER 10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus fulfilled prophecy when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, then upon entering the city Jesus demonstrated that He was the Messiah as He went immediately to the temple and put His Father’s House in order which is what any Obedient Son and Heir would do for His Father’s Kingdom. It is interesting to note that the actions of Jesus were never questioned but that once Jesus demonstrated His “Authority-from-God” that all those that had previously been in “self-appointed authority” who now were being exposed for their sins were trying to defend themselves and their man-made doctrines which they had been imposing on God’s chosen nation, Israel. Jesus cleansed the temple which they had defiled (see Jeremiah 7:11-15) and then He entered the temple and began giving sight to the blind and the lame could walk again for everyone was “healed” that “came to Him in the temple” (Matthew 21:14). Again, if Jesus was an actual criminal and was guilty of any punishable crimes against the temple then surely the temple guards that were there on the premises would have arrested Him yet Jesus “drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple” and then immediately Jesus sat down and began performing miracles of healing that could only be accomplished through the Power and Authority of All Mighty God Himself, hence there were no arrests for even “the chief priests and scribes [in the temple] saw the wonderful things that [Jesus] did” after cleansing the temple (den of thieves who were robbing God) and returning its function back to God’s Intended Purpose which was to be “A House of Prayer”. None of the works that Jesus was doing could be questioned so all the religious rulers probably got together and “plotted” how they might make Jesus look bad in front of the multitude and regain their positions of “self-appointed authority” where they had high offices and lofty titles which Jesus was stripping away with every Lesson He Taught this final week before culminating His earthly ministry at the Passover with His Sacrificial Death on the Cross as the Lamb of God! We should also note that the common thing among all the “authorities” was that they all used the same argument to try and trap Jesus as they each asked in their own ways “Is it lawful?” which in reality is the reason why Jesus was on earth in the first place, because man had ignored the “commands of God [The Law]” because of their “manmade traditions” [doctrines of men] and here they were facing God in the flesh who was performing works that could only be performed by God and they not being able to cast aspersions on His Works tried to attack the Creator of the Law with those things that are “lawful”??? We should look closely at our own “arguments” against God, especially when our arguments are based on things that are clearly “things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21b) !  Jesus made it clear early on in His Ministry why He was here on earth when He gave the Sermon on the Mount and then declared, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Jesus then expressed clearly why the “self-proclaimed authorities” were in trouble as He continued on His fulfilling of the LAW of GOD as He said, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:17-20) And yet, here in the temple of God where Jesus has just cleaned out all who bought and sold in the temple, what makes these scribes and Pharisees think that Jesus will not also clean up the “spiritual garbage” as well??? — maybe we should remove the plank in our eye so that we can see the Truth of God that Jesus came to Teach to all people and for every generation??? Review your life and see how it lines up with God’s Truth and not your “traditions” because there are both “Blessings” and “Curses” being taught in God’s Truth, and He Teaches everyone, it is our responsibility to “Listen and Learn”!!!    

SEPTEMBER 09 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, praise the Name of Jesus, the Light of the world, the Way, and the Truth, the Worthy Lamb! All Glory and Honor is Yours and Yours alone! Lord, You came to earth and become flesh and took on the sin of the world, so that man could have fellowship with our Holy Righteous Father in heaven. Out of Obedience to the Father’s Will You endured a Pain greater than any man could imagine, and now all we have to do to live life eternal with the Father is to Believe in the Son whom the Father sent. Lord Jesus, I believe, and now I look forward to the day when my Faith will be made Sight, for this world is not my home! Forgive me of the many, many thoughts that take my attention off You and praising Your Holy Name — guide each step, each day.   AMEN

SEPTEMBER 09  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus responded to the questioning of His Authority and from whom did He “receive” His Authority by Teaching several parables and now Jesus is going to silence all the other objections presented by the religious leaders including the Herodians, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees as each attempted to assert their self-proclaimed authority. The first assault came as the Pharisees “sent to [Jesus] their disciples and the Herodians, saying “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the performance of men. Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Matthew 22:15-17)  Jesus revealed Himself as the All-Knowing God because He knew the intent of their hearts as we read: “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, ‘Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18) It must have been a big “wake-up” call for the Herodians and the Pharisees to have to stand facing God and have Him call you a “hypocrite”! Jesus then said, “Show Me the tax money.” and “they brought Him a denarius”. (Matthew 22:19) Jesus looked at the coin and then asked, “Whose image and inscription is this?” (Matthew 22:20) The Herodians and Pharisees answered that it was “Cesar’s” and then Jesus spoke the line everyone knows, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21) The Holy Scriptures records that the Herodians and Pharisees who had initially tried to entangle Him with their question on taxes that “When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.” (Matthew 22:22) If we look at this exchange, the Herodians and Pharisees started the confrontation by calling Jesus “Teacher” and then they said they knew that Jesus was “true” and that Jesus Taught “the way of God in truth” and then they said they knew that Jesus “[Jesus] did not regard the person of men” and yet they tried to test Him even though they knew they were actually testing God!?!?!? — we are that arrogant today as we pass laws and take God out of our government and our schools, we know that God is Truth yet we continually test Him with our arrogance --- I have to ask “Do you really think you can trick God and use your most brilliant intellects to make God look bad?”  We really ought to use our common sense here and render unto God all things that are His!

SEPTEMBER 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

SEPTEMBER 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, King of kings, Lord of lords, my Savior, Redeemer and Friend, You are the Worthy Lamb, You are the Son in whom the God Most High is well pleased. You and You alone will be praised by every tongue for by the Name of Jesus all souls will be judged and each soul will then spend eternity praising Your Holy Name, the Matchless Name of Jesus! For every one that does not call on You for Salvation will be condemned to Hell because they did not believe, but they still will confess You as Lord. O Lord, Your Ways are so marvelous and Thy Works are to be praised forever. Holy Spirit, breathe on me this day, let my old ways fade into yesterday’s past and my new nature walk proudly through today proclaiming the Matchless Name of Jesus and may all my tomorrows be directed by Your Mercy and Grace and may my only claim be as Paul proclaimed — “…to LIVE is CHRIST”!   AMEN

SEPTEMBER 08  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been in Jerusalem for less than a week and all he has received from the religious authorities has been contention. The major confrontation during His Triumphal Entry came as the multitudes cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9) and immediately the religious leaders began their confrontation with Jesus as “some of the Pharisees called to [Jesus] from the crowd, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.’ But [Jesus] answered and said to them, ‘I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.’” (Luke 19:39-40). Once into the city Jesus went immediately to the temple in Jerusalem “and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple” and when confronted by the religious leaders Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.’” (Matthew 21:12-13) Once the temple had been cleansed, “the blind and the lame came to [Jesus] in the temple, and He healed them. But the chief priests and scribes…were indignant…” and confronted Jesus as He was Teaching and Healing in the temple. Jesus responded to their indignation towards Him by quoting passages from the Psalms that clearly pointed out that Jesus was fulfilling prophecy. Jesus then, “left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.” (Matthew 21:15-17) The next day as Jesus returned to Jerusalem and was going to enter the city through the Eastern Gate, He cursed a fig tree and “…immediately the fig tree withered away…” and when His own disciples marveled and asked Jesus “how did the fig tree wither away so soon?” that Jesus began teaching them “…if you have faith and do not doubt…whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:18-22) As soon as Jesus entered the temple, “the chief priests and the elders confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” (Matthew 21:23) The works of God that Jesus was doing in the temple never came into question but rather their question was by what “authority” was Jesus doing these “wonderful things”(?) that was causing all the confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders! This questioning of His “authority” and wanting to know “who gave” [Jesus] this “authority” is what began a series of some of the most important “Teachings” of Jesus in these last days of His Life before the Cross, before the Only Begotten Son of God surrendering Himself willingly to be the Ultimate Sacrifice, before fulfilling all the Messianic prophecies of Holy Scripture during the Passover! Jesus began these Lessons on “Authority” by asking His own Question: “The baptism of John — where was it from? From heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25)  and once Jesus had turned the discussion to making a “choice”, and that “choice” being whether we will choose to follow the “commands of God (heaven)” or the “traditions and doctrines of men” that had been established by the religious leaders (doctrines of men), Jesus Taught a series of parables to reveal the Truth of God that God IS the Supreme Power and Authority of all creation! Jesus Taught in succession (1) a parable of a father that asked his two sons to go work in his vineyard, one said “yes” but did not go and the second son initially said “no” but later “regretted” disobeying his father and went and worked in the vineyard as the father had requested. Jesus asked the religious rulers and elders, “Which of the two did the will of his father?” (Matthew 21:28-31) (2) Jesus next Taught a second parable of a landowner that planted a vineyard and “leased” it to the vinedressers who later decided to “seize” the “inheritance" and killed the son of the landowner. Jesus then asked what should happen to the vinedressers when the landowner finds out what they had done to his son? The religious rulers condemned themselves as they answered, “…the [landowner] will destroy those wicked men miserably…” and Jesus then let them know that their “authority” was going to be taken from them and given to others when He told them that the landowner would “…lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their season.”  (Matthew 21:33-40) (3) Jesus continued His Lesson on “True Authority”  to the religious leaders as He Taught the parable of the marriage feast, “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.” (Matthew 22:1)  Jesus, after Teaching those 3 parables continues His Teaching on the “Authority of God” (and NOT the “doctrines of men”) for when “…the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk…” (Matthew 22:15) Jesus confronts them with yet another accusing Question, JQ #28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18) So now Jesus has called out the religious leaders who choose to question His Authority given to Him by God and called them “hypocrites” ——— maybe we as a nation (that is “no longer just a nation of Christians” as observed and stated by a former President of the United States of America) should stop and reflect on why our society and the world is questioning the “Authority of the God of Jacob” and pushing the “doctrines of men” !?!?!?!?!