AUGUST 22 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, O the joy of starting each day knowing that You are always
there, my Lord and my Redeemer, my Shepherd that leads me
beside still waters! Thank You Jesus for the Mercy that is
renewed daily and Your Grace that You bestow so faithfully on
all that call upon the Name of the Only Begotten of the Father and
believe that God came in the flesh, was tempted in all ways that
we are tempted, yet You were without sin — what a glorious
thought that You suffered the trials of this world yet You remained
perfect so that You could introduce Redemption through
Your Perfect sinless Life — Godly Redemption bought by the
Precious Blood of the Lamb of God exchanged for the lives of
sinners unable to save ourselves — I cannot fathom “why an
ALL POWERFUL GOD” would die for a sinner such as I,
but I believe and therefore I rest in the Assurance that Your Grace
is Sufficient for ALL my daily needs and for my Eternal Security
and Future. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow, Praise
to the Son who gave Himself for the atonement of sin, and Praise
to the Holy Spirit that lives within believers and guides us
in paths of Righteousness and teaches us the “Way”.
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus proved Himself to be the Messiah sent from God each time He
confronted the problem of mankind moving away from the “command
of God” —— Jesus always exposed the lie spawned by the “doctrines
of men” in their selfish desires “to be like God” for the “lie” is always
exposed by the True Light that always illuminates the Truth of God.
Jesus was in the temple doing the work of the Messiah in the sight
of all Israel and yet the rulers, the chief priests and the elders dared
to question His “authority” —they did not deny the “works” that Jesus
was doing. Their blindness to the Truth of God however made
them revert to the “traditions of men”, for until Jesus took over control
of the temple the chief priests and elders had been in “control”
of the multitudes because the people had been led to believe that
the chief priests and elders were the only “authority” in Israel.
Spiritual blindness prevented the chief priests and elders
from seeing the Truth of God that the kingdom of heaven was at hand
and they failed to repent but continued in their sin against God
by questioning the authority by which Jesus was doing God’s Holy Work!
Jesus asked the
“Baptism-of-John”
Question because the
ONLY ANSWER
that could be given was
“all authority comes from God”.
Matthew records the chief priests and elders response to the Question
Jesus posed to them:
“And they [the chief priests and elders] reasoned among
themselves, saying, ‘If we say, from heaven, He will say to us,
Why then did you not believe [John]? But if we say,
From men, we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.’”
(Matthew 21:25-26)
It was at this point that the chief priests and elders made the universal
mistake of all generations that face the Universal Question of “God”
when they reasoned the
“TRUTH of GOD”
but mistakenly thought that they would get out of the problem by
not giving an answer (sound familiar?) —
“So [the chief priests and elders] answered Jesus and said,
‘We do not know.’” (Matthew 21:27)
It was at that point that all authority was clearly and undeniably with
Jesus as He then used the
“power and authority of God”
to Teach this
Truth of God
as Jesus Taught the parable of the two sons ———
He started the Lesson in the classic way, ———
Jesus now has the undivided attention of the chief priests and the elders
and so Jesus begins the Lesson by making us put on our thinking caps:
“But what do you think? A man had two sons…” (Matthew 21:28)
describing that the man went to his two sons and asked them to
go work in his vineyard, one son said “yes” but then did not go work
in the vineyard and the other son replied “no” but then later “repented”
and decided to go work in the vineyard as the father had requested.
Jesus ended the Lesson with another Question,
“Which of the two sons did the will of his father?” (Matthew 21:28-31)
Of course, when put in such simple terms, the chief priests and
elders gave Jesus the right answer:
“They said to [Jesus], [the son that did as the father had asked]”
and Jesus then pronounced judgement on them for not answering
His previous
“Baptism-of-John” Question which had just as obvious an answer —
“Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors
and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John
came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not
believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and
when you saw it you did not afterward relent and believe him.”
(Matthew 21:32)
The Lesson everyone should take away from this “refusal to answer God”
mistake is most important:
(L1) Baptism is real because sin against God is real.
(L2) Denying the reality of “baptism” or “God” has no bearing on the
Truth of God that God EXISTS!
(L3) God will present us the opportunity to “believe” but we must use our
God-given Freewill to choose to “Trust God”
instead of “trusting the doctrines of men”.
(L4) ALL POWER AND AUTHORITY IS FROM GOD
(L5) Ignorance or refusal to answer in not an acceptable response before
God, the Supreme Authority,
because refusal to answer God is the same as “denying God”!
God will Judge each individual according to Truth of God that God has
already firmly established and will be fairly administered to all —
we will get our “Just Rewards” as already determined by God Himself
for whatever actions we choose to take in our lives. Jesus asks
this Question of all generations and we must give Him an
honest answer, remember that
God knows your thoughts and nothing is hidden from God
— so how will you answer this Question God has placed before you —
“Is the power and authority of baptism
from heaven or from men?”
(JQ#24 — Matthew 21:25)
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