JANUARY 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-07: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

JANUARY  07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-07: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily  Prayer    

JESUS, praise the Name of the Only Begotten Son of the Living God. Lord Jesus, I write the Name “JESUS” and I marvel at both the “Name” and its “Meaning” but it is hard for our minds to actually understand the “fact” that Jesus IS the Son of the Living God! The other fact that is difficult to “wrap our finite mortal mind around” is that the “Living God” who Loved the world with a Love that cannot be comprehended by mortal man would remain TRUE to HIS INFINITELY DIVINE CHARACTER and PROVIDE for our SALVATION as explained by Abraham to Isaac, “God will provide for Himself the Lamb…”  (Genesis 22:8)!  Man who is flesh cannot conceive that the Living God who is SPIRIT would allow His Only Begotten (Divine) Son to be born of a (mortal) “virgin”, live a perfect life in the FLESH and then as part of God’s Master Plan for mankind, the Omnipotent would offer His ONLY BEGOTTEN Son as the Atonement for the sins of the world?!?! Why would a God that has unlimited Power and has absolutely ZERO need of mankind Sacrifice so much of Himself in order that the same mankind that has rejected and denied Him would have a pathway to FORGIVENESS of our iniquities against God — surely this is the “MYSTERY OF GOD” that is to be revealed when He RETURNS to “Bring Home” those that have “received” Him! Praise God for His Master Plan!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was known as the Messiah by all those that had been blessed by the angel’s declaration: “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11) and those that had traveled to Bethlehem and had seen with their own eyes the Christ Child laying in a manger. Jesus was next revealed as the Messiah to a man named Simeon in Jerusalem for (as per Jewish tradition) “after eight days were completed” it was customary for Jewish families to take newborn males to the temple for circumcision. “Now when the days of her [Mary the mother of Jesus] purification according to the law of Moses were completed, [Mary and Joseph brought their Child named Jesus who was born in a manger in Bethlehem] to Jerusalem to present Him to the LORD…And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” (Luke 2:22-26) Simeon being an official in the temple at Jerusalem and very familiar with the “Consolation of Israel” (which was a common name for the Messiah used by the Jews) that when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to Simeon, Simeon was aware that he was holding in his arms the “LORD’s Christ”! Simeon said when “he took [Jesus] up in his arms and blessed God… ‘LORD, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:27-32) John the Baptist was among the few that had been informed by the angel of God or by the Holy Spirit Himself that the Messiah had arrived but unlike those that had beheld the Child in Bethlehem, or Simeon who had held the Messiah in his arms at the circumcision ceremony in the temple in Jerusalem {{side thought: Simeon most likely circumcised Jesus knowing it was God’s Son that he was circumcising!!!!!!!!Selah}}, John, the foretold “forerunner” of the Messiah, had not yet seen the Messiah but John had been proclaiming about the Messiah, “…He who is coming after me is mightier than I…[the Messiah] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11). John the Baptist had been proclaiming that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand” but John had not actually seen the Messiah in the FLESH; however, when Jesus came to John to be baptized in the Jordan, it was at that very “moment” when John first saw the Messiah with his own eyes that the Holy Spirit revealed to John that this Man approaching him in the Jordan was the Messiah in the flesh!!!  John felt unworthy and tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him (see Matthew 3:14) but through that Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan, Jesus publicly revealed Himself and John as Messianic Prophecies being publicly fulfilled in the presence of many eyewitnesses! Prior to Jesus being baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, Jesus had been revealed as the Messiah by a host of other witnesses and by circumstances beyond His control — but clearly all His prior circumstances are themselves a witness to the fact that God has a Master Plan and that Jesus IS the “Anointed One”! Now here at the Jordan, prophecy was simultaneously being fulfilled in the sight of a multitude of “eyewitnesses” that left no doubt that John was the “forerunner” of the Messiah and that this Jesus whom John had just baptized in the Jordan was the long-awaited Messiah! These prophecies were not fulfilled by Jesus simply proclaiming Himself to be the Messiah but the prophecies were fulfilled by documented factual circumstances surrounding His Birth and by a multitude of witnesses that proclaimed they had seen the Messiah with their own eyes! But here at the Jordan, Jesus begins His Ministry as the Messiah by declaring to John in the presence of those many witnesses: “Jesus … said to [John], “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15)  “Now” also is a good time for “us” to consider the great cloud of witnesses before us that included individual “eyewitness accounts” of having seen the Messiah — we ourselves should “Now” listen to Jesus and take His advice to “us” for “now” is the time for “us” to be led by the “Spirit” into His Presence and to listen when Jesus, by the Holy Spirit encourages “us” to: “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) Remember — Today is the Day of Salvation and only through Salvation can we “fulfill all righteousness”!!! Are you like Simeon looking expectantly to see the Messiah??? Remember Jesus promised “Seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened”!!! (Matthew 7:7)