JUNE 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#20 “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

 

JUNE 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#20  

“O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? 

How long shall I bear with you?” (Matthew 17:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You Lord are to be praised and You are Worthy of the praise 

that is now coming from the lips of men and You are Worthy

 of the Glory and Honor that every tongue will profess - 

Glory and Honor that belongs to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, 

for the Father has declared that every knee shall bow 

and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, 

and I praise You Jesus for completing God’s Plan of Salvation

 by becoming flesh, dwelling among us, living a sinless life for our sakes,

 and then becoming the very Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the earth,

 the Only Holy and Acceptable Sacrifice to pay in full the penalty

 of death and blood for the sin of all mankind. 

Lord Jesus, my prayer is for this sinner to decrease 

and let the Savior increase in every aspect of my daily life 

as I move towards my eternal destination 

 in and with the Power of the Holy Spirit.     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus started JQ#19 announcing to His disciples that He would

 “suffer and die”

 in Jerusalem and that the ones responsible would be

 “the elders and chief priests and scribes” (Matthew 16:21) 

which were the teachers and leaders of Israel. 

Jesus never leaves a problem without introducing the solution 

and as soon as Jesus said that He would

 “be killed” 

by men that He immediately resolved the issue by stating that

 He would be “raised from the dead” on the “third day” 

but the disciples had not yet believed in the 

True Power of God  

because when the disciples witnessed Jesus doing all the miracles

 they had seen previously, that they saw Jesus as a man

 and failed to see Jesus as God!

 Jesus addressed their wrong thinking by telling them

 their mistake came because they were 

“not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men” 

and then added that if we are to 

“follow [Jesus]” 

that 

we must take up our “cross” just as He 

was going to take up His Cross in Jerusalem. 

Then after Jesus Teaches the 

eternal significance of our “souls”, 

Jesus turns to the next Lesson with JQ#20 

as He had to “rebuke” a demon that possessed a boy 

and the disciples were unable to cast the demon from him.

 Because the disciples could not cast out the demon, 

the father of the boy took him to Jesus and said that the disciples 

“could not cure him”. (Matthew 17:16) 

Jesus immediately rebuked the demon from the boy 

but only after Jesus used the circumstance to point out the reason

 for the disciples failure as Jesus declared

 “O faithless and perverse generation” (Matthew 17:17)

 which was directed not only at the disciples 

but to the father of the demon possessed boy as well. 

Failure to cast out the demon was identified as 

“faithless” 

and since Jesus added the term 

“perverse” to accompany “faithless”

 it would be reasonable to assume that Jesus is Teaching that

 our faith is futile if we build it on the wrong foundation

 — and since 

Jesus has been Teaching that our faith is misdirected 

because we trust “the things of men” 

more than we trust “the things of God”, 

that if our “faith” is in the power of men 

and not in the Power of God Himself that we will fail 

in our attempts to use our “faith” to help others. 

Jesus is using the Question

 “How long?” (JQ#20  Matthew 17:17) 

to illustrate that He will not always be here on earth 

for us to bring our demon possessed children to and that the 

Truth of God 

is that we must develop our 

“faith” in God’s Ultimate Power 

in order that we shall be able to perform those things Jesus did, 

this working of the 

Power of God 

through us only comes when we realize that it is not the things of men 

that give us that 

Divine Power.

 Only the things of God working through men will bring the 

Power of God 

to bear on our worldly problems. Like the disciples, we see Jesus

 as a man doing miracles and fail to see that

 Jesus is the Son of God who came to reveal the Power of God 

and witness to the Glory of God 

and yet once Jesus had completed His earthly mission

 He would return to the Father.  

The Legacy of Jesus is that He came to earth 

and to men to demonstrate how to connect to God

 and His Ultimate Power!  

Our ability to be like God is through our 

“Faith in God”. 

Jesus was sent by God to “suffer” and to “die” 

but because Jesus had “FAITH IN GOD” 

and Jesus knew that God has Divine Power over Death and the Grave 

that God would demonstrate His Power to give life 

by raising Jesus the “third day” 

— we must see the death of Jesus 

not as a man being killed by men 

but as the Perfect Divine Sacrifice 

as God uses what man intends as evil 

to complete His Plan of Salvation 

and then we will no longer be a 

“faithless and perverse generation” 

— sounds  like “tough love” does it not?