AUGUST 12 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 12  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, Precious is the Name above all names, Jesus, My Redeemer,

 my Savior. Lord I can Praise and Glorify Your Holy Name for You 

have delivered my soul, You have restored the Joy of my Salvation

 and I once again can see and feel Your Guiding Hand lifting me up 

and leading me on.  Jesus keep me on the paths of righteousness

 and keep me centered in Your will. I pray that my repentance be

 turned to true service to You and to the Kingdom and that my

 repentance will be an acceptable offering 

before the LORD-Whose-Name-Is-Great!!!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus continues His confrontation with the “Supreme Court” that had

 been abusing their position with God to promote the “doctrines of men”

 and had become trapped themselves in those doctrines. When 

they perceived that they were losing their power over “the multitudes”

 to Jesus (who was demonstrating the True Power and Authority

 of God) that they actually conspired to dispose of Him. Jesus had been

 in the temple of God in Jerusalem where He had driven out the

 “moneychangers”, and those that were “buying and selling” 

in the temple, and “the seats of those that sold doves” (Matthew 21:12). 

Jesus then declared the temple a “house of prayer” and healed 

the multitudes that were brought to Him in the temple, thus 

restoring the Temple of God back to the Purpose for God 

establishing His Holy Temple in Jerusalem {See Psalm 147:2-6}

 — every problem, sickness, ailment, disease, or 

broken-heartedness that was brought before Jesus in the 

temple of God and spread before the Lord in His 

“house of prayer” had their prayers answered as Matthew records: 

“[all that] came to [Jesus] in the temple…He healed them…

but when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful 

things that He did…[the chief priests and scribes] were indignant.”

 (Matthew 21:14-15) 

One must ask that if the chief priests and scribes “saw the wonderful things” 

that Jesus was doing for the multitudes in the way of 

answered prayers that had been lifted to God in the house of God,

 then why on earth were the chief priests and scribes “indignant”?!?!? 

I cannot get past the fact that Jesus is exerting the

 True Power and Authority 

in the Temple that bears God’s name, in Jerusalem, 

the city that God declared as the “City of God”, 

and yet the self-appointed “rulers” can look upon the 

True Work of God 

and become “indignant” ??? 

— it can only be that the “rulers” feared losing their self-appointed

 “power and authority” more that they feared the source of 

“True Power and Authority” 

and that the “indignant” will defend their little bit of power and fame

 however temporary and fleeting it may be. This is a major problem 

Jesus encountered and it is a major problem that society today 

is encountering and therefore we should look carefully at how Jesus

 reacted to those that defend the “doctrines and traditions of men”

 over the “commands of God”!!! Jesus addressed the indignation 

of the “power mongers” that He encountered while doing 

“wonderful things” 

in the temple of Jerusalem with the same type of response that He 

had used when facing Satan and the Temptation in the wilderness —— 

“And Jesus said to [the indignant chief priests and scribes], 

‘Have you never read’…” (Matthew 21:16)

 and then Jesus quoted the Holy Scriptures to the “indignant” chief priests

 what God had to say about the matter at hand. Matthew then records that

 after Jesus quoted from God’s word that 

“Then [Jesus] left them and went out of the city to Bethany, 

and He lodged there.” (Matthew 21:17) 

It is just as significant a point that Jesus leaves Jerusalem

 after His confrontation with the “chief priests and elders” 

(Matthew 21:23) and goes to “Bethany” and “lodged there”

 as it was when He “drew near to Jerusalem” that He 

“came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 21:1)!!! 

The significance of Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and being

 hailed by the multitudes as the “Son of David” cannot be overstated,

 especially when Jesus immediately went to the temple and drove out 

those that had been defiling the house of God by making it a commercial

 establishment instead of a house of prayer, and we know that it was 

the Sanhedrin Supreme Court that was located in Bethphage that

 had given permission (probably there were many “bribes” given to 

the Supreme Court) to the moneychangers and those that bought 

and sold in the temple to use the temple for commercial gain! 

Now that Jesus is exposing the “problem” we must read closely what

 it is that Jesus does next, for He never leaves a problem exposed

 without presenting the resolution to that problem — and so now Jesus

 has cleaned the temple of “money changers” as His first order 

of business upon entering Jerusalem, then after the confrontation 

He retired to “Bethany” — do you suppose that when Jesus returns to

 Jerusalem in the morning that He will resolve the problem? Another good

 question that it is appropriate to address to those that see the 

“wonderful things” that Jesus does and then they become “indignant” 

at the mention of His Holy Name, 

“Do you suppose that just because Jesus left and went to lodge outside

 the city for the night that He will ignore the problem in the city?” 

——— or to speak the language that our society listens to today I’ll ask 

the question in Hollywood language —

 “Just because [Jesus] walked away do you think you are safe? 

Did you not hear what He said as He was leaving ———

—— “”I’LL BE BACK”” ?!?!!?!?