NOVEMBER 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)

 NOVEMBER 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, each morning my spirit looks to Your Spirit for the renewing of Your Mercies and for my “daily bread” that will nourish both my soul and my physical body. Lord You  were obedient to the Father unto death as You suffered and died for my iniquities in order that my sins would be forgiven and through Your Righteousness and through the Remission of Sin I might have Fellowship with the Father — and the Really Good News is that “IT IS FINISHED” and there is NOTHING LEFT FOR GOD TO DO!!!

To receive God’s Free Pardon from sin and Your Perfect Peace, all that we need to do is to Believe “IT IS FINISHED” and accept “YOUR GIFT OF GRACE” — so I pray as did the disciples that You would daily grow my FAITH and help me with my unbelief. Lord You are Sovereign and I believe that “all things are possible with God”!!!   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus had just sat down at the Passover Table in the upper room and Jesus opened the Passover Meal with an announcement that one of the disciples eating this Passover Meal would “betray” Him. (Matthew 26:21b) This statement of imminent betrayal got the disciples attention and it should get our attention as well for Jesus is the Master Teacher and is demonstrating that His Purpose is to educate the world of God’s Plan of Salvation and with both by His Life and soon, very soon, His Death! 

Jesus will reveal the importance of  Living a Sinless Life up to His Death on the Cross to completing God’s Plan which was in place “before the foundation of the world”!!! As the murmurs of His disciples died down as they each had asked “Is it I”, that “Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.” (Matthew 26:26) This was the institution of the Lord’s Supper or Communion which is still observed today but even still today after being observed for over 2000 years. 

We still miss the total significance of what Jesus meant when He said, “Take, eat…” in reference to the Passover Bread He offered to the disciples as Jesus “broke” the bread which He explained as He had done with His Parables that the “bread” was symbolic of His Body which Scripture records that Jesus broke the bread with His own hands and then Jesus “gave it to the disciples” (Matthew 26:26) We miss that Jesus voluntarily “broke” the “bread” and “gave it” freely to those that had chosen to share the Passover with Him. Jesus then did the same with the Passover Cup as Jesus clearly commanded His disciples, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sin.” (Matthew 26:27-28) 

Jesus could not have Taught a better Lesson than calling our attention to our “sin of betrayal” of which we are all guilty and then Jesus demonstrated God’s Solution to the sin problem by Jesus Himself having “His Body Broken” and “His Blood Shed” for the “remission of sin”!!! In the continuity of God’s Master Plan, Jesus and the disciples ate the Passover Meal and went out to the Mount of Olives and again to get the disciples attention and to focus them on the important issue, Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night…” (Matthew 26:31) 

But as with all Lessons Jesus Teaches, He never leaves us hanging as to what He “Means” for immediately Jesus referred to Scriptures and explained “the Shepherd” would be killed and the “sheep scattered” but as part of God’s Plan that once the “Shepherd” is killed that God will “resurrect” the “Shepherd” and Jesus has made it perfectly clear that He is the “Good Shepherd” and that He has Supreme Confidence that He “MUST DIE” and that He “WILL BE RAISED THE THIRD DAY”!!! Once again God demonstrates that everything is part of God’s Plan of Salvation and everything is “Under His Control” — up to and including death — AND RESURRECTION!!!