AUGUST 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#24 “Is the power and authority of baptism from heaven or from men?”” (Matthew 21:25)

 

AUGUST 20  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, Your grace is sufficient for all our needs, Your Love covers

 all our sins and iniquities — Your Resurrection has forever sealed

 the promise of God to His Creation therefore our Eternity is 

secure through our belief in the shed Blood of the Lamb of God!

  God has gone through such great efforts to supply our needs,

 both physical and spiritual as we read about God’s efforts 

and promises in the Holy Scriptures, 

“In the beginning God created 

the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) 

and from Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures document all the 

faithful promises of God and His great work in His Creation so 

that the Scriptures close with 

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

 be with you all. Amen” (Revelation 22:21) 

Indeed You Lord are the Alpha and the Omega and Your Mercy

 and Grace is all we need from the beginning to the end. 

So this believer also looks forward to the last promise 

“Surely, I am coming quickly.” 

and I pray

 “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is addressing the greatest problem of every generation 

that ever lived, from Adam and the forbidden fruit to our modern day

 worldly desires to “do our own thing” — we are self-serving and

 are constantly declaring that it is our “right” to control our own 

destiny but in our self indulging demands we all make the 

universal mistake of failing to honestly ask ourselves, 

“Who and where does the Supreme Authority 

to declare ‘right and wrong’ really come from?” 

Then when we are confronted with the 

Truth of God 

that He and He alone has already established and maintains

 “righteousness” and has already given mankind a set of commands 

by which we can know “right from wrong”, mankind rebels and reverts

 to making up our own self-serving rules and doctrines. We are 

all guilty, every generation looks with lust at God’s Power and Authority

 and each of us fall to the temptation of listening to the Original Great Lie

 of the serpent as we hear,

 “For God knows that in the day you eat

 [of the forbidden fruit and decide for yourself 

what is “TRUTH” that] your eyes will be opened, 

and you will be like God…” (Genesis 3:5).  

Each of us in our desire to have “authority and power” look to be 

like the 

True Power and Authority which is God 

and fail to see that with great power and authority comes great

 responsibility and that is where we fail miserably, for we all desire to

 be “God-like” and desire in our fallen heart to wield the “power”

 and look grand and glorious in our self assumed “authority”. We assume

 it is our “right” and then immediately we abuse both “power and authority”

 and end up short of meeting our responsibility to the world and 

others as we blindly serve our selfish desires and lusts.  Jesus asks the

 “from-heaven-or-from-men-true Authority” 

Question to each of us in order to make us stop and consider what 

we see in the world for there is sin and death all around us — we 

recognize that there is “evil” that consumes everyone and everything 

yet we do not recognize the 

Truth of God

 that 

God Alone is Sovereign in His Creation 

and that 

ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY is from GOD! 

Simple Spiritual Blessings of God that we encounter in our daily lives like

 “Forgiveness”, “Love”, “Repentance”, and “Grace” 

are not bestowed upon us by the “doctrines of men” but we know

 they exist therefore we must acknowledge the 

True Spiritual Source! 

Therefore Jesus is pointing out the “simple” Truth that mankind

 ALWAYS falls to the temptation to assume personal “power and authority”

 for our selfish needs and each fallen generation tries to justify

 our weakness by proclaiming the

 Great Lie —

 “If there is no God, then there is no ‘right’ 

but that which our “selfishness” declares as ‘right’!!!” 

  We however, by choosing to partake of the forbidden fruit, 

fail to recognize the Truth that it is God Himself  that declares 

that the fruit is “forbidden” and it is God Himself 

Who declares the “consequence” of our actions 

— we have the “right to choose” our actions only because God Himself

 has granted us “Free Will” [see A. W. Tozer “Knowledge of the Holy”] 

— but the 

Truth of God 

is that 

God as the Supreme Power and Authority has given 

His Creation the “right to choose” but He also through 

His Supreme Authority has reserved His Divine Right 

and Authority to determine the Consequence 

of our actions and choices — 

we are free to choose but God determines the consequence 

of our choice 

{{THE DIVINE LAW OF CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE}} 

— the only way we can ever truly “be like God” is to choose to live 

our lives and make our choices based upon the “choices and standards”

 of God through His Holy Word in which God Himself has declared

 already the acceptable way to live, and has provided for us the

 Perfect Example in His Only Begotten Son, Jesus,

 who is reminding us with this Question on “power and authority” 

that we must decide for ourselves if we are going to usurp God’s 

position or are we going to let God be God and provide for our

 daily physical needs and our eternal spiritual needs —

 if we stop and think, we will have to admit, 

we cannot create “the heavens and the earth”

 nor do we have any control over “eternity” 

so what makes us think we should have

 “power and authority” over them?!?!?!?