Layman's Pulpit

 DECEMBER 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-16 The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord as I come to the last days of another year that You have so graciously provided for us, my thoughts are turned to the wonders of Your Love which You have so graciously bestowed on such an unloveable creature as me. Lord Jesus, I know that aside from those Good Things You have given me and my family over the past year that there would be little to no good at all in my life were it not for Your Forgiveness of my many shortcomings and I would still be lost in my sin — BUT GOD, O the Mystery of God’s Love that has been given without condition or limit and we, the recipients of that UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD, have experienced the Abundant Life.  As I look toward another year I confidently pray, not my will, but Thine be done!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was shown by circumstance to be the Messiah as recorded in the first four chapters of Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus Christ and starting with Chapter 5, Matthew records the Sermon on the Mount with which Jesus started demonstrating through His Life and Teachings that He was the Son of God and the long awaited Messiah. Jesus was first recognized as an extraordinary Teacher after the Sermon on the Mount and throughout the remaining writings of Matthew, Jesus then asked a series of Questions which would focus our attention on a specific topic or Lesson that Jesus used to explain to us “How” to live a life pleasing to “our heavenly Father”. 

The Lessons that Jesus Taught from His Questions were always built around an Example that Jesus Himself had Lived. That Jesus was Teaching Spiritual Lessons from God the Father was evident to everyone that had witnessed the Life that Jesus Lived and the Lessons of God that Jesus was Teaching. 

This Teaching of God and His Kingdom of Heaven “Fact” was best expressed in a conversation Jesus had with “a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. He [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.’” (John 3:1-2) 

Jesus went right to the “Point” of His Teachings: “Jesus answered [Nicodemus] and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3) Nicodemus knew that Jesus was Teaching about the things of God and if we study all the Questions Jesus used to introduce each Kingdom Lesson we too will know Jesus is the Greatest Teacher of the Mysteries of God that will ever walk the earth and in our “understanding” (that Jesus was so concerned about) of His Lessons that we also will “know” that Jesus IS the Son of God and was sent to bring Salvation to a lost and dying world. 

Jesus certainly didn’t ask Questions to gain “understanding” from us but rather, 

Jesus asked His Questions to impart “understanding” to us 

that we may know that God “so loved the world” (JOHN 3:16)  

…and that there were no limits to what God would do to impart Kingdom Knowledge to us in order to lead us “Home to be with our Heavenly Father”!!! 

The Gospel of Matthew begins: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…” (Matthew 1:1) and ends with Jesus summing up His Lessons: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28:19-20) 

Jesus never got off Point and Jesus never spoke without Teaching and for certain, after studying the Birth, Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus, we can confidently proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. 

To confirm to yourself the intent of The JESUS Questions, all one needs to do is “understand” that Jesus, the Son of God is asking the Questions directly to you and if you will give Jesus an “honest answer” — you will KNOW as did Nicodemus that Jesus is Teaching us about the Kingdom of God”!!! 

Once you “learn” what Jesus is Teaching, you will possess all the knowledge necessary “to become children of God…born not of…the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13) 

The study of Matthew introduces Jesus Christ as the Son of God and if we learn the Lessons Jesus Taught with His Questions we will be equipped to enter into God’s Labor with Him for the Kingdom’s Sake 

and 

as we stand before God at the Final Judgement we will hear God declare to us “Well done thy good and faithful servant…enter into My Rest!!!”