MARCH 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 MARCH 25  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord I pray for the Holy Spirit to consume all my desires, that daily I will take up my cross and follow hard after Jesus. Lord, there is nothing good in me except for Your Spirit so Lord I pray as did John, let me decrease that You may increase. Jesus as You lead I will follow, as You command I will obey, and as You live, so will I live that others may see You in me and come to know You as Savior. Forgive me when I fall short of Your Glory for it is my flesh failing in me and I pray to be strengthened by Your Spirit that I may endure to the end and my spirit will join You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit that we may be “One in the SPIRIT” as You have declared!    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS actually asked this Question to the multitudes that had heard the answer that Jesus had given to John’s disciple’s question when they directly inquired of Jesus — “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3)  John the Baptist had been preaching about the Messiah in the wilderness quite probably to this same multitude of those seeking the “Truth of God” and  who were now following Jesus because the things Jesus had been doing could only have been done by the “Anointing Power of God”. Jesus answered their question with: “Go tell John the things you see and hear.” (Matthew 11:4) Then Jesus listed the things that He had been doing in the Father’s Name for the kingdom’s sake — preaching, healing, and forgiving sins — and as Jesus listed things they had seen Him do and the Message He had been preaching to them, He said: “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  (Matthew 11:5) Only the Son of God, the Messiah could do these things that Jesus had been doing so Jesus is saying by His actions (by the “fruit” of His Spirit), “I am the Son of God, the Messiah, the Anointed One.” The things He had been “doing” proved Jesus IS the Messiah! Jesus gave the disciples of John a very serious answer because they had asked a serious question to Him that revealed that they were “expecting” the Messiah when they asked Jesus pointedly: “Are You the Coming One…?”  As soon as Jesus gave the proof that He was indeed the Messiah we read that He sent them to give John the Baptist an affirmative message and Matthew notes, “As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John…” (Matthew 11:7a) which the reader today can paraphrase as “As they left to give John the Baptist the message that Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus turned to the multitudes and started teaching them.”  Jesus is always Teaching. Jesus is God and knows all things and He wants to Teach everyone that will listen to Him a specific Lesson. Jesus often first introduces the subject and then He asks a simple Question that focuses our attention on a specific “Truth of God”. In this case Jesus states without a doubt that He IS the Messiah and then Jesus asks the multitudes to consider their own “spiritual expectations” of Him with a series of Questions in quick succession: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those wearing soft clothing are in king’s houses. But what did you go out to see?” (Matthew 11:7-9) Jesus was definitely referring to John the Baptist who had been out in the wilderness preaching to the “lost sheep of Israel” about the “Coming One”! John was not preaching in the synagogues — John was in the “wilderness” preaching about the coming Messiah and the need for the people to “Repent” and now Jesus immediately Questions the multitudes about their “spiritual expectations” of the Messiah and then Jesus pointedly Questions them as to what did they “expect” to see the Messiah do in their personal lives? That is a good question for us to ask ourselves — what are our “spiritual expectations” of Jesus and His Church and have we heard the Message of Jesus that as His Church we are to “teach and preach the kingdom of heaven in [our] cities” (Matthew 11:1) and as His Church followers of Christ are to take the Message of “Repentance” out of the “synagogue” into the “wilderness” where the “lost sheep” are!!!

As Jesus listed things they had seen Him do and the Message He had been preaching to them, He said: “The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”  (Matthew 11:5)…………………..

Matthew 11:5 can very well be used as a List of Divine Tasks for His Church:

1. The blind see - We are to enlighten the spiritually blind with the Holy Scriptures that they may see the “Truth of God”
2. The lame walk — We are to teach those crippled with sin how to walk upright  on the straight and narrow “Pathway of Righteousness”
3. The lepers are cleansed — We are to teach them God’s statutes and His judgements that they may be made “clean” by God’s standards
4. The deaf hear — Only the “Truth of God” spoken with a small still voice can speak loud enough to be heard over the noise of the world
5. The dead are raised up — We are all “dead in our sins” and only the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the Pathway to Everlasting Life
6. The poor have the gospel preached to them — We seldom find the “poor” sitting in the pews but are “lost” in the “wilderness” of the world, and like John preaching “in the wilderness” we should take the Message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the poor neighborhoods of our cities.
7. Consider our own “expectations” of the Messiah and align them with the Declared Truth of God