MARCH 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#12 *Who decides what is legal, God or man?* ——— “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12a)

 

MARCH 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#12 *Who decides what is legal, God or man?*  ———  “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12a)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, I am overwhelmed again by Your Grace and Endless Mercy! 

Lord, the more I try to get rid of self and decrease, You seem to pour out blessings so rich that I pray for humbleness to know that it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with You! 

Lord keep me knowing that all that I do for the kingdom is nothing more than my “reasonable service” and that all the good that has come my way is just “crumbs” from the King’s Table. 

Lord, as I walk for this season on Your Holy Ground, my prayer is that I will keep my focus on Glorifying God and know that after the mountain top there is a valley where my “reasonable service to others” will be used for the uplifting of Your Kingdom!

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is a historical fact. The Holy Bible is the most published book, ever, and that is just another fact. The Holy Bible contains a consistent dialog throughout its 66 books even though the books were penned by various writers of which 44 have been identified over a period of over 1500 years. 

That single fact that there is a unity throughout the writings contained in the Holy Bible sets the Holy Bible apart from every other writing of any language or any nation or any people in the recorded history of mankind! Add to the unity exhibited in the Holy Bible the additional fact that the writers were from different cultures, different eras in history, and different social and economic strata yet each writer maintained this remarkable unity of thought! That single unique fact can not be matched by any set of writings previous nor will any set of writings in the future be able to supplant the Holy Bible as “The Book”! 

The Holy Bible has been printed in 2,454 languages and is “The All Time Best Seller” with over 5 billion copies having been printed! These “facts” can be found from more accepted scholarly sources than any other document ever printed and that also is a “fact” that makes the Holy Bible a completely unique entity. 

Not to get off track here, let me point out that the topic of JQ#12 deals with “legality” and if “legality” itself does not rest solidly on “facts” then legality itself does not have a “leg to stand on”! 

Jesus not only Teaches us God’s Truth with each Lesson but Jesus does so in a logical sequence that is the secret to the “Unity” discovered and documented in the Holy Bible and that secret is that 

God is in control of every thing in His Creation and only because He IS the Creator can He accomplish the Divine Unity that is a “fact” easily established by the Holy Bible. 

This “fact” is unique to the Holy Bible and the Creator God of the Holy Bible. 

It is important to establish as historical fact that Jesus walked the earth and just like court records of any legal proceedings, the Holy Bible has recorded the statements of eyewitness accounts of the events recorded in the Holy Bible. The “fact” that recorded statements of so many different people over such an extended period of time documenting that they have observed the same exact “Truth” should establish “precedent” that cannot be questioned in any court anywhere in the world — in any and every legal system ever established.  

It is with this “legal” establishment of the “facts” of these eyewitness accounts that we begin our “trial” of JQ#12 Jesus Question 

“Who decides what is legal, God or man?” 

by taking a statement from Jesus Himself that as after He had asked the Question on legality to the “lawmakers” of His time on earth (the Pharisees) that Jesus said to the lawmakers: 

“But if you had known [God’s Law] … you would not have condemned the guiltless.” (Matthew 12:7)  

The beginning of American Jurisprudence was established by our forefathers using God’s Law as the moral basis for making decisions and I question how it is that man has gained enough “wisdom” in 2000 years that we have now “legally” abandoned the Eternal Living God and excommunicated Him from our legal system — especially when we have so great a cloud of witnesses that know for a fact that God is not dead for we still receive blessings from Him on a daily basis? 

To legislate God out of the legal system is equivalent to making the oxygen in air and water illegal to consume!!! 

Without God, there is no TRUTH!!!

MARCH 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#12 “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12a). <<< *???Who decides what is legal, God or man???* >>>

 MARCH 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#12  “What man is there among you who has one sheep and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? 

Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?” (Matthew 12:11-12a).    

 <<< *???Who decides what is legal, God or man???* >>>

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, all Praise, Glory, and Honor to the King of kings, my Lord, my Shepherd. Lord my God, Your ways are so wonderful that my lips cannot speak nor my words express how in the midst of a storm that just the thought of “JESUS” can calm my fears. 

You work things out for our good in ways we cannot imagine and therefore we sing “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!” Lord, keep my heart, mind, and soul all on You and You alone, for 

“Thou art worthy, worthy is the Lamb!”    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is always Teaching us a Truth of God with every word and action that has been recorded in the Holy Scriptures and in this section in Matthew Chapter 12 that starts,

 “At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain to eat…” 

(Matthew 12:1) 

Jesus is going to introduce and address a problem among Israel which could very well be at the top of all the problems that Jesus was sent TO EARTH to address as Matthew records, “And when the Pharisees saw (…Jesus and His disciples plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath…), they said to [Jesus], ‘Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!’” (Matthew 12:2)  

Do you see the problem that has surfaced and where the source of the problem is with this section of scripture? Jesus has Taught with His previous Questions (1) “What is your Spiritual Value?” (2) “What are your Spiritual Expectations?” and now Jesus is going to be direct and ask bluntly (3) “Who decides what is legal, God or man?”  

When I embarked on this project “Living For Jesus —Daily Devotional” I did not know what road the Lord would lead me down, what doors He would open, and what doors He would close, but I did know one thing for sure, I desired desperately in my heart of hearts to be His faithful servant and disciple! I have the benefit of having a lot of water go under my bridge and I have been in some terrible storms, I have stumbled and despaired but every time I get down to my last hope I find once again that the only

 “True Hope” is the One Eternal Hope that is always there, JESUS! 

When the Holy Spirit directed me to start “journaling” back in 2001 with a verse from

 Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” 

I could not fully comprehend the significance of “seeking God” but the verse has been a Guiding Light to my life and all these years later as I sit and start this JESUS Question  JQ#12  I can still hear the Holy Spirit encouraging me to

 “stay the course” for ALL  ANWERS are found in God. 

The JESUS Questions have made this writer appreciate the “Divine Teaching” attribute of Jesus and I can appreciate why He was called the Master Teacher! JQ#11 was a 6 part lesson on “What are our spiritual expectations of Jesus” which had followed JQ#10 “What is your spiritual value?” and now that Jesus has us thinking in terms of the “spiritual” vs. the “physical”, Jesus now introduces His next concept and that is “God vs. man”!  (I would add here that God is Spirit and man is flesh so appropriately this Jesus Lesson is also about the one great battle in life that we ALL must fight: “The Spiritual against the Physical”!!!). 

 When this was revealed to me from the Holy Spirit while reading to find the “next question” I was immediately struck with the obvious answer that

 “God vs. man” is a “NOLO CONTENDERE” — NO CONTEST! 

Just the thought that man could even begin to contend with God now seems totally ludicrous to me but then the Holy Spirit called my attention to the fall of man, the fall of Satan, the Israelites forgetting God right after walking through the Red Sea, and example after example of those who knew God yet rejected Him?  

Let’s begin JQ#12 “Who decides what is legal, God or man?” by reading the Questions that Jesus asked (JQ#12a-e) in Matthew 12:4-12. 

The context for JQ#12 starts at Matthew 12:1 and runs through Matthew 12:23 — Jesus brings our attention to the “Question” in order to “Teach” us the answer, Jesus NEVER asks us a question without giving us the obvious answer!   

To get a “feel” for the “gravity” of the situation take a “leap of Faith” into God’s Word  and read this passage and ponder JQ#12 “Who decides what is legal, God or man?”  with the “expectation" of learning yet another “Truth of God” — and if that doesn’t motivate you enough then imagine yourself putting on some “boxing gloves” and getting “into the ring” with God Himself. When the bell rings, are you going to throw a punch or duck?!?!

MARCH 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, another morning I awake and it is overwhelming to think that You ARE Lord and that You ARE right here to answer my prayers and concerns and provide for my daily bread. Lord, how did I live all those anxious years trying to make it through this valley of the shadow of death without You? 

Jesus, I will continue to lift up my praises to You for what You’ve already done, which is much more than I deserve, and I will give You Honor for the Grace You have given to me and the Mercy that You renew daily each morning. 

Lord, forgive me of all my shortcomings and strengthen me as I daily try to Glorify God.    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is the Master Teacher and the previous Lesson the Master Taught using the sparrows and copper coin Question was Taught by the Son of God to make us aware of our “Spiritual value” to the kingdom and “our Father in heaven” — now Jesus is asking us another simple Question to make us aware of another 

Kingdom Truth that our “Spiritual expectations” of the Messiah

 affects our “spiritual vision”.  

A.W. Tozer in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy” addresses JQ#11 in a powerful way as Tozer titled the first chapter “Why We Must Think Rightly About God” and in his opening prayer to start Chapter 1 Tozer prays: 

“O Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise but the God of the prophets and apostles…[those that do not know the True God] worship Thee as a creature of their own fancy…[but] enlighten our minds that we may know Thee as Thou art, so that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”.  

Tozer’s first sentence in his insightful book is a most powerful thought about how important our “thinking” about who God really is and answers JQ#11 perfectly when Tozer writes: “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”  Tozer in my mind is most likely answering the Jesus Question about our “spiritual expectations” of God with that opening prayer and his first sentence to open that first chapter; and if we look at the context in Matthew 11 immediately following JQ#11 found in Matthew 11:7-9 Jesus encourages our personal discipleship and prays to the Father: 

“I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” 

(Matthew 11:25)  

Tozer, if he intended it or not, is giving all the right answers to JQ#11 as he writes an entire book about who God really is and states in an opening prayer that we should know God as He reveals Himself to us and not the God conjured up by “[wise and prudent] philosophers”. Tozer says that we ourselves should “think rightly about God” and then Tozer makes it clear that the “most important thing about us” is what we “expect” from “God”.  

Just after Jesus had asked the multitudes, “What did you ‘expect’ to see?” He immediately draws our attention to great cities that would come under future judgement because they had different “Spiritual expectations” for the Messiah therefore they “saw” the Divine work of the Messiah but rejected “His mighty works…and did not repent!” (see Matthew 11:11-24) 

Then after Jesus announces the judgement on those that have “false expectations” of the Son of God, Father God, and the Holy Spirit, Jesus assures us that if we will accept Jesus as the Son of God sent by the Father as the True Messiah then Jesus will reveal Himself and the Father 

to us through the Holy Spirit of Truth! 

Jesus concludes that if we “Come to [Him],” then He will “give [us] rest”. 

Jesus concludes with this promise: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

(Matthew 11:30) 

Be honest, were your “Expectations of Jesus”  to find “rest” for your troubled soul? Our “expectations” ARE directly linked to our “faith” and how often did Jesus say TO THOSE HE HEALED, 

“Your FAITH has made your well.”?

MARCH 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, I come before You this morning with so much  “thanksgiving” in my heart that I fear my words will once again fall short of glorifying You, for my words are from a finite intellect trying to glorify the Infinite Knowledge, Mercy, and Grace of Jesus Christ!!!  

Lord indeed Your Ways are higher than my ways and Your Thoughts higher than my thoughts but Lord look again into my heart and may the Holy Spirit speak my “heartfelt-thanksgiving” in words of praise worthy of the Honor due You. Lord Jesus, I pray again these words first prayed from my heart in 2004: “Lord, strengthen my resolve to make every day-to-day choice with the desire to live my life to glorify God!”    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, used the context of this simple Question to make it of Divine Significance by the fact that Jesus asked this Question “to the multitudes” (Matthew 11:7a) just after declaring Himself to be the Messiah to the disciples of John the Baptist. The Question alerts us to where our “focus” should be as we try to answer His Teaching Question about our “spiritual expectations of God”. 

Jesus began His Teaching of the multitudes with this question: 

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7b). 

We know that it is a Teaching Question because Matthew states in verse 1 of Chapter 11 that Jesus had “finished commanding His twelve disciples” and that Jesus had “departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities” (Matthew 11:1) hence we can know that Jesus intends to “teach and to preach” — and through our study of the previous JESUS Questions we know that His Questions are all rhetorical for 

Jesus is God and therefore is ALL-KNOWING, 

so we can come quickly to an understanding that Jesus, being ALL-KNOWING, does not ask Questions to gain knowledge but rather, Jesus asks Questions to get us focused on a specific topic in order for us to see the 

Truth of God that Jesus Teaches with each Question/Lesson. 

With JQ#11 Jesus is asking us to stop and consider all our “expectations” and specifically our “spiritual expectations of the Messiah”. We can easily paraphrase JQ#11 from “what did you go out…to see?” to “what are your [spiritual] expectations?” and since Jesus had just detailed His list of “Divine” accomplishments proving Himself to be the “MESSIAH”, one should be able to make a direct correlation from the “works” Jesus performed in the name and from the Power of God with how the prophets and the Holy Scriptures had described the Messiah, plus John the Baptist declaring himself to be a “messenger of God” sent to declare to Israel that the Messiah is soon coming, and then John seeing Jesus declared, 

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) 

one would wonder how all Israel was not proclaiming loudly that 

Jesus IS the MESSIAH!!!  

What Jesus Himself had accomplished in His ministry so far and had been publicly witnessed by the multitudes, 

ONLY the Messiah could accomplish what Jesus had been doing! 

There had never been anyone before Jesus that so completely fulfilled the requirements of the Messiah and there has been no one after Jesus that has fulfilled even one or two, let alone 

one man (JESUS OF NAZARETH) that fulfilled ALL of those Divine Attributes 

belonging Uniquely to the Messiah! 

Jesus by His Divine accomplishments proved He is the Messiah so why didn’t those that saw Jesus performing miracle after miracle including healing, casting out demons, and resurrecting the dead, and many, many, more signs believe that He was the Messiah without Him having to “lay it out” for them??? My pastor Steve McDonald uses the phrase: “Jesus lays the cookies on the bottom shelf so everyone can reach them” and Jesus had been performing Divine acts unique to Messiah so why couldn’t the multitudes who had seen, heard, and experienced Jesus in the flesh understand by their own observation that Jesus IS the Son of God and God’s Messiah? 

The same is true today because each generation has had God revealed to them, and today we have the Holy Bible that “lays the cookies on the bottom shelf” for us, so why don’t we reach out and listen to Jesus and give Him a serious personal answer to this serious personal Question Jesus asks each of us as individuals,

 “What are your spiritual expectations of Jesus?”  

Why don’t you take a bite of the cookie being offered and understand Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good…”?