JUNE 01 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#18 “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

JUNE 01  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#18  “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS ——— what Peace, what Comfort, to just utter the Name of Jesus and to know that there is unlimited Power in the Name of Jesus! Our “Peace” comes because the Name assures us of His Unlimited Provisions, “Comfort” comes because we know that God’s Unconditional Love is based on His Good and Perfect Character and there is nothing we need to “do” to get God’s Love but Accept the Ultimate Gift of Grace from the ONE that says to call Him “Abba Father”!!! We know there is Unlimited Power being brought into our lives from the One True God Powerful enough to SPEAK EVERYTHING INTO EXISTENCE and has given us His Unlimited Grace through His Infallible WORD!  Lord Jesus You are Worthy, for Worthy is the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world for that Grace and Mercy which indeed are the roots of our Peace and our Comfort, O Glorious Gifts of God!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has posed another seemingly simple Question that is “loaded” with unlimited possibilities to dig into. The Question implies with it that there is great personal responsibility being placed upon us in determining where we will spend our eternity! Jesus never asked anyone a Question for His edification or general information, but each Question Jesus asks is a Beacon pointing to God’s Truth and just as there is only One True God, there is only One TRUTH, and God Himself has reserved that ONE TRUTH for His Domain and His alone!  All His Lessons declare with great certainty that “GOD IS TRUTH”. The major implication of this specifically personal Question asked by Jesus over 2000 years ago as He was completing the Teaching-of-God’s Truth-Task that the Father had given the Son to accomplish while “in the flesh”.  JQ#18 “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15) was asked in such a way that only God could ask one simple Question yet apply His Divine Truth personally to every soul He has ever brought into existence since the dawn of time! We know that Jesus was asking the Question as the Son of God because He had asked His disciples who had been observing Him doing Kingdom Work, Works that could only be explained by the manifestation of the Power of God in the miracles that Jesus accomplished that related to the Holy Scriptures written about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The disciples had seen Jesus fulfilling the prophecies of those scriptures and had heard Him declare in the synagogue as He read from Isaiah, “Today this scripture is fulfilled…” (Luke 4-21 & Matthew 13:14-15) so there was no doubt that His disciples knew that Jesus was referring to Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior   as had been proclaimed in the prophecies of Israel’s Holy Scriptures and here was Jesus leading them into this ultimate confrontation that was highly personal and of eternal consequence. There was no other way the disciples could look at the Question asked in Matthew 16:15 other than this was the One that had fulfilled the prophecies of the Holy Scripture and had just asked them face to face, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” and as soon as they answered Him, Jesus, so that there could be no mistake what He was asking, immediately said, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)!!! So Jesus in two Questions stated without doubt that (1) it is not important what “men” say about Jesus and (2) that our eternity will be determined by nothing other that what we ourselves come to “know” of the Truth of God concerning His Only Begotten Son! Jesus declared by His accomplishing the Work of the Father and by doing the Will of the Father that Jesus was by example saying to us all, “I was sent by the Father into the world, not to condemn the world, but through Me, the world will be saved” (John 3:17) and then Jesus confirms His Mission and His Father when we read Jesus saying, “He who believes in Him 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) Jesus has asked the Question at this point and in this specific manner for the purpose of making it completely personal that each person examine the Scriptures and examine their own life and ultimately declare to Jesus face to face, not who they have heard other “men” declare Jesus to be, but we must declare to Him just exactly who we personally have come to believe Jesus is! This is really tough don’t you think since God knows our every thought and Jesus knows what’s in our hearts? Either God is God or God is a liar, what do you think?