JANUARY 10 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-10: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

JANUARY  10  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-10: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, as we enter the new year we realize that the “Good News” is that we have another year and our complete future in which we can spend our lives in Your Presence each and every day! With Great Hope and Expectation we can look forward to a year with the KING of kings and LORD of lords! If it be Your Will for us, I pray that You grant Your servants the Grace and Mercy of another year that we will get to spend with the One that is Worthy and has given us this Divine Advice and Promise: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) and as God Promised His people through Moses as they were being delivered by the Mighty Hand of God from their bondage in Egypt and were about to face unknown enemies on their way to the “Promised Land”: “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of [your enemies]; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes before you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6) I can’t think of a better way to begin a new year than to know that it is God Himself that is going before us and His Divine Promise will lead us safely through!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been introduced by St. Matthew in his Gospel of Christ Jesus in such a manner that Jesus is first revealed as the Messiah by (1) <<Matthew 1:1-17>> “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1) and this genealogy also establishes Jesus to be “the Son of David” and “the Son of Abraham” thereby fulfilling the minimum requirement for the long awaited and highly anticipated Messiah, who in Jewish eschatology is a future Jewish king from the Davidic line. It is interesting to note that in addition to Jesus being the “Son of Abraham” in this genealogy given by Matthew that in the ancestry of Jesus the line of Abraham extends back in Jewish history through Shem who was the son of Noah. The Holy Scriptures record: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 8-10) The fact that the Holy Scriptures includes Noah in the line of the Messiah is paramount to understanding the “Purpose” of the Messiah and God’s “Intent” in sending Jesus to earth to be born at that particular time into this particular family. A monumental clue exists here in the introduction and genealogy of Noah, that the Holy Scriptures record of the time of Noah: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:11) Everyone even vaguely familiar with the Bible can tell you the story of the flood and of Noah’s ark and how God made it rain 40 days and 40 nights but not many can quote what God spoke directly to Noah as to the reason Noah was to build the ark for God: “So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.’” (Genesis 6:12-13) Remember Matthew is writing to Israel and all Israel had been reading the Book of Moses for generations upon generations and they would have understood from reading Matthew’s genealogy that Jesus had in His ancestry King David, Abraham, and Noah thereby linking Jesus directly to men whom God had called out individually to lead the nation Israel in a Divine Way!!! These individual men in the same family line can also trace their ancestry back to the first man that God created with His Own Hands and became a “human being” when God used His Own Breath to Breathe Life into, Adam — thereby making Jesus the “Son of Man” as well as being the “Son of God”. The Hebrew word for “begot” that is found in all genealogy in the Holy Scriptures does not just mean “only” in reference to being the “son of” but is best rendered as “became an ancestor of” thereby the Biblical word for “son” is the equivalent of our English word “descendant” so by tracing the genealogy of Jesus through King David and Abraham, Matthew also demonstrates that not only is Jesus from the family line God has chosen to raise up leaders for Israel but Matthew also through the genealogy of Jesus demonstrates that Jesus is of the line that God announced would bring forth the Messiah and is also the family that can trace its lineage back to Adam, making Jesus eligible to be the Messiah, the Son of God AND the Son of Man! The continuing genealogy of Matthew also reveals Jesus is the Messiah by (2) <<Matthew 1:18-25>> His “virgin birth” as prophetically written over 700 years before by the prophet Isaiah “Therefore the LORD Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 11:1,Isaiah 7:14, & Numbers 24:7,8a,16-17a) (3) <<Matthew 2:1 - 2:23>> Prophecies fulfilled by Herod about the Messiah’s birth being in “Bethlehem” - the city of David  (Isaiah 40:3, Jeremiah 31:15, Hosea 11:1, & Micah 5:2) and finally (4) <<Mathew 3:1-17>> The testimony of John the Baptist the “forerunner of the Messiah” who was preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand…” (Matthew 3:2) and was baptizing in the Jordan all those that went out to him in the wilderness to hear his message of “Repentance” and “were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins…” (Matthew 3:6) and when John saw Jesus he proclaimed that Jesus was the One that John had been sent by the Holy Spirit to “prepare the way of the Lord”. (Matthew 3:3) John also said when he saw Jesus coming to him in the Jordan, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) and finally  (5) Jesus is proven to be the Messiah by the way He Lived and what He Taught others as the Holy Scriptures record in <<Matthew 4:1 - Matthew 28:20>> that Jesus is the Messiah by virtue of His Lifestyle, the Lessons and Parables Jesus Taught, and with His Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection which when taken altogether “is sufficient evidence” that Jesus IS THE MESSIAH, GOD’s ANOINTED, GOD’s ONLY BEGOTTEN SON”!  Therefore, we find in the Gospel of Matthew enough evidence and eyewitness testimonies to prove in any modern court, that Jesus IS the “rightful Heir to His Father’s Kingdom” ——— but it is as true today as it was when Jesus walked the earth that each of us must view the “evidence” through the filter of our personal “FAITH” and provide the final “verdict” for ourselves with an honest answer for the single most important Question you will ever be asked ——— for one day you will stand in His Presence and Jesus will ask you face-to-face  — “But who do you say that I am.” (Mark 8:29)