JANUARY 08 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

JANUARY  08   THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-08: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS we thank You for Your daily Presence in our lives as we see You revealed by Your Holy Word and Your Holy Spirit. Lord I pray that in my life that I will know that You are always there! If I fail to recognize You, then it is my own flesh that is blinding me and I pray the Spirit will remind me that it is my fault that I can’t see You! I further pray that Your Spirit be Resurrected in us and illuminate our darkness with YOUR PRESENCE AND YOUR LIGHT! Lord, our daily walk is our “now” and “now” is the “time” when we can experience GRACE — but only if we decrease and You are allowed to increase in us can we behold the Messiah! Forgive me of my daily shortcomings and my failure to see You working in my life — even so, come now Lord Jesus!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was revealed as the Messiah by circumstances beyond His control but though they were not controlled by Jesus Himself, (events such as His “virgin” Birth or who His earthly parents would be), these events were obviously circumstances coming about as part of God’s Master Plan that Jesus had no control over but was the Will of God! Up to the point where Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river, the Messiah was validated by many witnesses to be Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth, but now Jesus, with His statement: “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15) will begin His Public Ministry. His Public Ministry and the way Jesus lived His Personal Life in the flesh was a “witness” to the TRUTH that JESUS IS THE MESSIAH !  Everything that Jesus ever did or will ever do, He publicly proclaimed that He does ALL at the direction of His Heavenly Father. Before beginning the actual JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#1-JQ#33 (that also reveal and witness to Jesus being the Messiah) let us look at one more detail of Matthew’s introduction of Jesus. The genealogy of Jesus  is also a separate witness to Jesus being the Messiah and what His “Mission” and “Purpose” was in being born in the flesh, at this particular time, in this particular place, to these particular parents. Matthew starts his Gospel of Jesus Christ with “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) and within this “genealogy of Jesus Christ” is a further “witness” to God’s Master Plan and to Jesus being the Messiah — Jewish tradition from the very beginning placed great importance on the “lineage” or family line perpetuated by the first born Jewish male and one of the main reasons that “lineage” is so important in the Jewish community is that the lineage determined (and still does) their “tribal inheritance” based upon the fact that it was at God’s directions that each Jewish tribe had initially received a particular piece of land. For any person to inherit land in a particular area assigned to a specific tribe, that person had to produce evidence that he was from that tribe — and that “evidence” of inheritance was his “birth” into a “tribe” which came through the Jewish family genealogy — hence the term “birthright”. The genealogy of Jesus therefore will determine His Inheritance and a close look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ reveals some very important “signs” or “evidence” of some miraculous claims by Jesus as they relate to the “Purpose and Life” of the Messiah which was revealed by Jesus being born “the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) Now is a good time to revisit the “book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” as listed in Matthew 1:1-17 and ask yourself about the importance that your personal “spiritual” lineage has in “inheriting” what has been set aside for you in “the kingdom of heaven”??? This investigation of your personal “spiritual inheritance” can really best be understood by reading what Jesus told Nicodemus in John Chapter 3 verses 1-21 which includes these statements that address your spiritual inheritance (1) “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3) and (2) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but [inherit] everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Therefore, by reading the “promise” of God for your inheritance you must ask yourself “Have I received Him and claimed my right to become [a child] of God” by “believing on the [Name and Person] of Jesus?” (See John 1:12-13) The Bible starts with 4 words that you must get past to be able to understand the rest of the Bible and those 4 words are “In the beginning God…” (Genesis 1:1) and this genealogy set forth in Matthew dealing with the lineage of Jesus Christ is another of those “faith/factual” Divine Declarations in God’s Holy Word that we have to accept to be able to understand the mind of God and the “faith/fact” that the genealogy of Jesus declares that Jesus is a Jew, born into a Jewish family. The Life of Jesus was that of an Israelite and Jesus called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the endearing term “Abba Father”! We should keep in mind that “God did not send His Son [Jesus] into the world to condemn the world, but that through [His only begotten Son] the world might be saved!” (John 3:17) The consequence of our God-given Freewill “Choice” to “NOT believe in Jesus as the Son of God” is declared in the next verse: “…he who believes in [Jesus as the Son of God] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) The Bible only makes sense if you believe that “In the beginning” it was “God” that chose to create the world and that after creating the world and seeing mankind’s rebellion against Him and His Creation that God would also choose to save the world through His “only begotten Son, JESUS” whom God had announced as “The Chosen One, God’s Anointed” through Jewish prophets hundreds of years before His Virgin Birth, in addition Old Testament prophets declared that the Messiah would be born of a “virgin” and in the line of King David from the family of Judah and this “Virgin-born Savior” would be called “IMMANUEL — God with us”!   God created all life and has the only right to declare “IF” and “HOW”  He intends to provide for our “SALVATION”!!!  We, on the other hand, only have the right to be THANKFUL that God even bothered with a mankind that continues to reject Him and His Love for us!!!   ———  Go figure!?!?!?