SEPTEMBER 14 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 

SEPTEMBER 14  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28 

“Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, You are greatly to be praised. Every knee shall bow 

and every tongue shall confess that You are the Beloved Son 

that pleased our Father God. Lord, only You are worthy of 

the honor and glory of the praises of every soul that ever lived 

for only You indeed did anything that directly affected every soul

 that has ever lived or will ever live!!! I am not worthy to 

stand in Your Presence, Lord no one is worthy compared to Your Glory.

 Lord Jesus, You have already paid the price for every sin that 

has been or ever will be committed so we know that

 IF WE REPENT

  our sins WILL BE FORGIVEN   

We are undeserving of Your Love which You freely give, we are 

equally undeserving of Your Forgiveness; however, 

Your Grace and Mercy are abundant and “endureth” forever,

 as does Your Love!         

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught three parables on “True Power and Authority” 

after asking the Question (JQ #24): 

“The baptism of John — where was it from?

 From heaven or from men?” (Matthew 21:25) 

Once Jesus had their focus on the 

“Source of True Power and Authority” 

Jesus then told them the Three Parables to demonstrate that God

 alone is Sovereign and all earthly authority is given by God — 

but the problem with following “men” is that power in the 

hands of men not tempered by the fear of God 

always leads to “abuse” of those powers. 

Once Jesus had Taught the Three Parables the religious leaders 

and political forces united to try and “entangle Him in His talk” 

and regain their former power by showing their superior intellect — 

but what were they thinking, would you like to match wits 

with the Supreme Knowledge? First the Pharisees and Herodians 

posed a question about paying taxes and Jesus Taught 

Spiritual Law #1 — 

“Render unto God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:21)

 and when they knew they had no argument they tucked their tails 

between their legs and left Jesus. But, “the same day” the 

Sadducees tried to use the Law of Moses to “entangle” Jesus 

as the Sadducees asked about the tradition of brothers raising

 up offspring with a deceased brother’s wife and asked Jesus,

 “Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven 

will she be? For they all had her?” (Matthew 22:28) 

Jesus quickly put them in their place by reminding them that they were

 “mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” 

(Matthew 22:29) 

Jesus then taught from the Law of Moses

 Spiritual Law #2 — 

“The Great I AM GOD is not the God of the dead,

 but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32) 

The Sadducees failed in their attempt as did the Pharisees and

 the Herodians and they too went their way. However, 

“…when the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced 

the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, 

a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,

 ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment of the law?’” 

(Matthew 22:34-36) 

Jesus responded with 

Spiritual Law #3 

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all

 your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is 

the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” 

(Matthew 22:37-39) 

Then to make it perfectly clear to the “lawyer/legalist”, Jesus stated unequivocally,

 “On these two commandments (Spiritual Law #3) 

hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)  

So now Jesus completes the Lesson on 

“True Power and Authority” 

by making His detractors consider the True Source of Power,

 then Jesus Taught in succession 

Three Parables on “True and Supreme Authority” 

and then Jesus gave us 3 Spiritual Laws 

that confirm God IS the “

True and Supreme Authority” 

and is still “Active” and in “Control”. 

Why do we have such a hard time letting God be God?

 Why do we try to assume the “power and authority” for our own self-gratification?

 Jesus spent a lot of time and energy when His time 

and energy were about to be extinguished on a cross 

at the Passover so shouldn’t we “listen to Him” 

like God said if we truly want to be free 

and know the pathway to “eternal life”?!?!?!?  

SEPTEMBER 13 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#28 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?” (Matthew 22:18)

 

SEPTEMBER 13  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#28

 “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites?”  (Matthew 22:18)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, the Son of God Most High all Praise and Honor is Yours

 and Yours alone. God has declared JESUS His Only Begotten Son,

 God declared the He is well pleased with “HIS SON” and 

commands us to “LISTEN TO HIM”. 

Lord Jesus, the mystery is why did You become flesh, 

suffer all things in life as we must suffer them and why would You 

even bother to “Talk” to us at all? Lord we continually choose to go

 our own way, we defile all the blessings You bestow upon us,

 we daily quench the Holy Spirit You have sent to comfort us and

 still You are there offering us forgiveness of all our iniquities and

 reward Repentance with eternal life! The Truth of God is that it was

 His Choice to Love the world and to have His Plan to save 

us from ourselves — O Glorious Plan but at such a Great Price

 and Divine Sacrifice! Lord Jesus, each day You are there with 

fresh Mercy and we find ourselves once again ready to start a new 

day so we seek to be centered in Your Will and covered by Your Grace.

 Thank You Lord for Salvation and for turning our evil thoughts 

and wicked ways into Praise and Thanksgiving for You have finished

 Your Work, all we have to do is know You cared enough about us

 not to let us remain in our sin and You have provided a solution to

 our sin problem through Repentance, 

soften our hearts that we may hear the gentle call of God

 and accept His Gift!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus cleansed the temple and made it a house of prayer 

as God had originally intended for His Holy Temple in Jerusalem 

and once in the temple Jesus answered prayers and healed all 

who came to Him in the temple and yet His last week on earth 

was spent in contention with the religious and political rulers?

 These “contentions” were all centered around “power and authority”.

 Jesus used each “confrontation” to Teach another 

Truth of God 

as He addressed each group and exposed the Truth that they 

were not interested in the work of God but in maintaining their 

“status quo” in their respective positions of “authority”. 

Jesus confronted the Pharisees and Herodians and Taught 

Spiritual Law #1 - 

“Render unto God the things that are God’s things.” 

(Matthew 22:21) 

and it was recorded that when the Pharisees and Herodians 

“…[heard His] words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.”

 (Matthew 22:22) 

As soon as word got around that the Pharisees and Herodians 

were not able to “entangle Him in His talk” that “The same day 

the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, 

came to Him and asked Him, saying: ‘Teacher…” 

(Matthew 22:23) 

and it is interesting to note that the Sadducees started their 

confrontation the same way the Herodians and the Pharisees 

had started, by calling Jesus, “Teacher”. This greeting exposed

 one of the main problems all the groups were having, and that was

 that they did not recognize Jesus as the Chosen One, the Messiah.

 Jesus is the Master Teacher but He is first LORD, so the Sadducees

 started their attack on God without acknowledging that 

Jesus was in fact the Son of God sent to fulfill the Law 

that God Himself had given to the world. 

The Sadducees concocted an imaginary scenario where there were

 seven brothers who all married the same woman according to what 

Moses had taught about raising offspring of a deceased brother 

and then posed the question to Jesus 

“Therefore, in the resurrection {in which the Sadducees 

did not believe in}, whose wife of the seven will she be? 

For they all had her.” (Matthew 22:23-28) 

The question Jesus had asked the Pharisees and Herodians still applied,

 “Why do you test Me?” 

and Jesus quickly summed up the problem and showed the Sadducees

 their wrong thinking about the things of God as Jesus answered them:

 “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures

 or the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) 

So once again Jesus went right to the point and exposed to the Sadducees

 that it was their interpretation of "power and authority" that was

 the true “mistake”. Jesus then said, 

“But concerning the resurrection of the dead, 

have you not read what was spoken to you by God…”

 (Matthew 22:31) . 

So Jesus confronts the Sadducees with the 

Truth of God that God IS the POWER, 

and that God HAS ALREADY SPOKEN 

——— our problem is that we ignore what God has already told us 

and we interpret His Commands in a way that satisfies our selfish desires! 

Jesus then gave them Spiritual Law #2 

as He asked the Sadducees if they remembered the Scriptures

 where God is quoted describing Himself to Moses —

 “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 

and the God of Jacob’? 

God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” 

(Matthew 22:32) 

So now Jesus has addressed the issues brought against Him by

 the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees and instead of them

 “entangling" Him in His speech,

 Jesus has Taught them two Spiritual Laws that state that all power

  belongs to God and that God is a living God and still involved 

with our day-to-day lives

 as stated in

 

Spiritual Law #2 - “God is the God of the living”. 

This says to me, that as long as I have breath and life that I must 

subject myself to the "authority" of God for I have no “power” to

 interpret or change what God has already spoken to us concerning

 the pattern of how to live our daily lives abundantly and to inherit

 the promised land and eternal life —

—— or would you rather listen to men who are interested in

 maintaining their “power” over the people at all costs, 

including death to all that get in their way?!?!?!?