AUGUST 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 AUGUST 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#24  “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?””  (Matthew 21:25)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are forever the Unchanging Faithful One, full of Mercy and Grace. We are nothing next to Your Glory, we are weak and we have no good in us if we have no God in us! Apart from You we find we live our lives selfishly and think we can do our own thing if we just build up enough “spiritual brownie” points — Lord I know better     and I beg Your forgiveness for even this slightest of touches against my total and unyielding faith in living a totally surrendered life to You.  I pray to completely abandon self, take up my cross daily, and live only a “life in Christ”.  Lord Jesus, I pray for the day when I will know that I shall never look back or even think of looking back. There is no excuse for my ever turning from You or taking my eyes off You for even the slightest of seconds. Forgive me, for when I am not looking at You, I am looking at self and it is when I am “in self” that I sin, but when I am “in Christ” my true life begins again!!!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has just made His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem but was met with contention by the chief priests and elders so Jesus left Jerusalem and spent the night in Bethany. Now as He returns to Jerusalem He curses a fig tree and “Immediately the fig tree withered away.” (Matthew 21:19) Instead of entering into a debate among ourselves as to “why” Jesus would “curse” a fig tree, we should instead consider the eyewitness accounts and then look at the other actions of Jesus to see if He “explains” the “why” for us. “And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither away so soon?’” (Matthew 21:20) The eyewitnesses were the disciples of Jesus and this is not the first “miracle” they had seen Jesus do — they had observed Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, they had seen Jesus feed the multitudes with a small boy’s lunch, and they had witnessed demons being cast out and every infirmity that had been brought to Jesus, Jesus healed them all; however, when the fig tree withered and died “immediately” these disciples “marveled”. Perhaps not all of these disciples that were following Jesus in Jerusalem were with Jesus earlier in His ministry when He taught “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Matthew 7:1) and then Jesus called those that lord themselves over others as “Hypocrites!” (Matthew 7:5) Then Jesus rebuked false teachers and He declared, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing …you will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit…Every bad tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  (Matthew 7:15-20)  There is much correlation to be made from the circumstance in which this “fig tree” was cursed in the village of priests and judges in the walled village of Bethphage that stood as the Supreme Court over Israel and were supposed to be handing down decisions based on the Holy Scriptures and not the doctrines of men! It can easily be seen that since Bethphage means “house of unripe figs” that Jesus has passed the sentence of death onto the Sanhedrin for being a “bad tree” that has not produced good spiritual fruit and therefore this “Supreme Court” is now cut down and will be thrown into the fire! It makes sense that just yesterday Jesus executed the Divine Duties of the Office of Messiah and cleansed the temple of God in Jerusalem and today Jesus is addressing the source of the problem and is pronouncing sentence on those who have been found guilty of defiling the temple of God by abusing their “office” and “responsibility” of handing down Godly decisions! Instead, the ‘religious rulers’ had made the temple a center of commerce instead of a house of prayer!?!?!   Jesus said that you will know a tree by the fruit that it bears and He demonstrated by the cleansing of the temple that He had indeed “come in the name of the LORD” !  We can see that the temple was defiled by the fruit of commerce and that unGodly fruit could only have been produced by an unGodly tree which we know was planted and watered by the Sanhedrin! We know also that the Sanhedrin was not an office instituted by God, but was formed and maintained by men as they handed down judgments based on what they thought was “best” for Israel. Once the disciples saw the fig tree wither away immediately, Jesus made it clear that the Lesson He intended for the disciples was about their “faith” because when they asked “How did the fig tree wither away so soon?” (Matthew 21:20) that “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea, it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive'.” (Matthew 21:21-22) When one considers the context, one can quickly see Jesus Teaching and these last Lessons on “Faith” and “Obedience to God” should be studied and not doubted — our attention should not be on “why” we think Jesus did what He did with the fig tree, our attention should be firmly fixed on the fact that Jesus cursed a fig tree outside the eastern gate and at His command, the tree withered away immediately — where do you think the “power and authority” to accomplish this miracle came from, “from heaven or from men?” !?!?!?!?