DECEMBER 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-15 The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 DECEMBER 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-15   The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer to JESUS    

JESUS, Your Grace has been sufficient for my every need, You have kept Your promise to lead us through the valley of the shadow of death and to lavish upon us the abundant life!  Lord, I started the year praying that each day You would fill us with Your Spirit and guide us through every situation and You have! Lord Jesus, today I simply lift my voice and my heart to You in Praise - giving You all the Glory - for You alone are Worthy - for You are my Passover that has delivered me from this body of death - Your  Blood is Victorious over the world and all its lusts that rob us of Your Joy and Peace - Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Praise to Your Holy Name JESUS!!!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was shown to be the Messiah by a series of prophecies that were fulfilled with the events surrounding His “virgin birth” and each one is unique in that each event came about as simple undisputed facts that could not have been controlled or manipulated by someone after the event itself occurred such as the lineage of His parents and subsequently because of His parents lineage Jesus was born in Bethlehem, none of us get to choose our parents or where we are born!  

Then when Jesus began His earthly Ministry He was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist who was the prophetic fulfillment of the forerunner of the Messiah and it was at this occasion that John declared about Jesus: “Behold [JESUS], the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!”. John, the Messiah’s forerunner, had been foretold thousands of years earlier and John’s declaration and message of “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and his claiming that Jesus was the “Lamb of God” are Biblical facts that point to Jesus as being the long awaited Messiah — all of which are historical facts that could not be made up by followers of Jesus after His death! 

These “FACTS” pointing to Jesus being the Messiah could not have been “manufactured as part of some conspiracy” after Jesus was crucified because the Jewish leaders who had Jesus crucified by the Romans simply would have disputed any “made up” events because the Jewish traditions are built entirely on the preservation of their lineage and in addition the Jewish leaders were well versed in the Jewish Holy Scriptures which are filled with the prophecies of the Jewish Messiah and would have corrected any false claims immediately. 

Add to those facts about John the Baptist fulfilling the prophecy of the forerunner of the MESSIAH and the Jewish leaders protecting their Jewish heritage, these same Jewish leaders were the ones that condemned Jesus to death in the first place because of His claim to be the Son of the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, these same Jewish leaders would not have allowed any sect of “blasphemers” to fabricate a story using the Holy Scriptures to put the religious leaders in such a bad light!  Then to add insult to injury, the Jewish leaders had to stand by and let all these “false fables” become The New Testament and become the most printed and most widely read book in the history of the world! 

If Jesus had not existed and had not the “facts” surrounding Him not been true, then those “fabricating blasphemy” would have been punished because history itself proves that the Jewish leaders had the “power” to put someone to death if they were guilty of blasphemy — indeed this claim that He was the Chosen One is the very reason they used to put Jesus Himself to death! The odds are absolutely astronomical that these many facts could be fabricated for one man especially when the facts bring so much “shame” on a group of Jewish leaders that were so “all-powerful” and had dedicated centuries to preserving their heritage and control over the Jewish traditions! 

Matthew, who was a Jew himself and an eyewitness to the life Jesus lived and knew full well the Jewish heritage that had been handed down to him through his Jewish family plus Matthew was a well-educated Jew who was taught the Jewish Holy Scriptures and prophecies of the Coming Messiah making Matthew indeed the best qualified person to recognize that JESUS FULFILLED PROPHECY and was indeed JESUS CHRIST, THE MESSIAH!!!  

Matthew had written his Gospel of Jesus account  C. A.D. 50 and that would have been contemporary with many of the powerful Jewish leaders that had  been responsible for Jesus being executed for “blasphemy” against the Jewish traditions and Holy Scriptures and had Matthew simply fabricated these “facts about the life of Jesus” then Matthew himself would have been stoned to death and his writings would have been utterly destroyed. The simple fact that Matthew’s Gospel still exists is proof that the Gospel is the TRUTH OF GOD and JESUS IS GOD’S SON!!! 

The body of evidence is so great that one must fabricate reasons NOT TO BELIEVE — it is not a lack of FACTS that prevents one from BELIEVING IN JESUS — no, as with all things relating to faith in anything, it is our own “BELIEF” in the “FACTS” that establishes our “FAITH” — even atheists have “faith” but God cannot be “dis-proved”!! 

Hence, everyone is left with the individual responsibility of determining where we will spend our “eternity” — and that final determination will be based on what you “BELIEVE” to be “TRUE” about “JESUS” because the FACT of ETERNITY does not exist outside the FACT OF GOD!  It was God Himself that declared when the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove after Jesus was Baptized in the Jordan, 

“You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) 

There is no other man in all of history that can show from prophecy  past to prophecy future that He is the Son of God for we know from these God Protected and God Preserved Holy Scriptures that JESUS IS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD — the facts prove it, but will you believe it to be true?