JANUARY 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS Introduction-07: Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33 (Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

 

JANUARY  07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS   Introduction-07: 

Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus: JQ#1-JQ#33  

(Matthew 1:1 thru 3:17)

LIVING FOR JESUS   Daily  Prayer    

JESUS, praise the Name of the Only Begotten Son of the Living God. 

Lord Jesus, I write Your Name “JESUS” and I marvel at both the “Name” 

and its “Meaning” but it is hard for our finite minds and mortal intellect to

 actually understand the “fact” that Jesus IS the Son of the Living God! 

The other fact that is difficult to “wrap our finite mortal mind around” is

 that the “Living God” who Loved the world with a Love that cannot be

 comprehended by mortal man would remain 

TRUE to HIS INFINITELY DIVINE CHARACTER 

and PROVIDE for our SALVATION 

as explained by Abraham to Isaac,

 “God will provide  Himself the Lamb…” (Genesis 22:8)! 

 Man who is flesh cannot conceive that the Living God who is SPIRIT 

would allow His Only Begotten (Divine) Son to be born of a (mortal) “virgin”,

 live a perfect life in the FLESH and then as part of God’s Master Plan 

for mankind, the Omnipotent would offer His ONLY BEGOTTEN Son 

as the Atonement for the sins of the world?!?! 

Why would a God that has unlimited Power and has absolutely ZERO need 

of mankind Sacrifice so much of Himself in order that the same 

mankind that has rejected and denied Him would have a pathway to

 FORGIVENESS of our iniquities against God — surely this is the

 “MYSTERY OF GOD” that is to be revealed when He RETURNS to

 “Bring Home” those that have “received” Him! 

Praise God for His Master Plan!!!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was known as the Messiah by all those that had been blessed

 by the angel’s declaration: “For there is born to you this day in the 

city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11)

 and those that had traveled to Bethlehem and had seen with their own

 eyes the Christ Child laying in a manger.  Jesus was next revealed as

 the Messiah to a man named Simeon in Jerusalem for (as per Jewish tradition)

 “after eight days were completed” it was customary for Jewish families

 to take newborn males to the temple for circumcision. 

“Now when the days of her [Mary the mother of Jesus] purification

 according to the law of Moses were completed, [Mary and Joseph 

brought their Child named Jesus who was born in a manger 

in Bethlehem] to Jerusalem to present Him to the LORD…And 

behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,

 and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, 

and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him 

by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen

 the Lord’s Christ.” (Luke 2:22-26)  Simeon being an official in

 the temple at Jerusalem and very familiar with the “Consolation of Israel” 

(which was a common name for the Messiah used by the Jews) that when

 Mary and Joseph presented Jesus to Simeon, Simeon was aware that he

 was holding in his arms the “LORD’s Christ”! Simeon said when

 “he took [Jesus] up in his arms and blessed God… ‘LORD, now You

 are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; 

For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared 

before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, 

and the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:27-32) 

John the Baptist was among the few that had been informed by the angel 

of God or by the Holy Spirit Himself that the Messiah had arrived but 

unlike those that had beheld the Child in Bethlehem, or Simeon who

 had held the Messiah in his arms at the circumcision ceremony 

in the temple in Jerusalem 

 {{side thought: Simeon most likely circumcised

 Jesus knowing it was God’s Son that he was circumcising!!!!!!!!Selah}},

 

John, the foretold “forerunner” of the Messiah, had not yet seen the Messiah 

but John had been proclaiming about the Messiah, “…He [the Messiah] 

who is coming after me is mightier than I…[the Messiah] 

will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11). 

John the Baptist had been proclaiming that the “kingdom of heaven

 is at hand” but John had not actually seen the Messiah in the FLESH; 

however, when Jesus came to John to be baptized in the Jordan,

 it was at that very “moment” when John first saw the Messiah with his

 own eyes that the Holy Spirit revealed to John that this Man approaching

 him in the Jordan was the Messiah in the flesh!!!  John felt unworthy

 and tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him (see Matthew 3:14)

 but through that Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan, 

Jesus publicly revealed Himself and John as Messianic Prophecies being

 publicly fulfilled in the presence of many eyewitnesses!   Prior to Jesus

 being baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, Jesus had been

 revealed as the Messiah by a host of other witnesses and by 

circumstances beyond His control — but clearly all His prior

 circumstances are themselves a witness to the fact that 

God has a Master Plan and that Jesus IS the “Anointed One”! 

Now here at the Jordan, prophecy was simultaneously being fulfilled in

 the sight of a multitude of “eyewitnesses” that left no doubt that John

 was the “forerunner” of the Messiah and that this Jesus whom John 

had just baptized in the Jordan was the long-awaited Messiah! 

These prophecies were not fulfilled by Jesus simply proclaiming 

Himself to be the Messiah but the prophecies were fulfilled by

 documented factual circumstances surrounding His Birth and

 by a multitude of witnesses that proclaimed they had seen the Messiah

 with their own eyes! But here at the Jordan, Jesus begins His Ministry

 as the Messiah by declaring to John in the presence of those many witnesses: 

“Jesus … said to [John], 

“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15)  

“Now” also is a good time for “us” to consider the great cloud of 

witnesses before us that included individual “eyewitness accounts” of 

having seen the Messiah — we ourselves should “Now” listen to Jesus 

and take His advice to “us” for “now” is the time for “us” to be led

 by the “Spirit” into His Presence and to listen when Jesus, by the 

Holy Spirit encourages “us” to: 

“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) 

Remember — Today is the Day of Salvation and only through Salvation

 can we “fulfill all righteousness”!!! Are you like Simeon looking expectantly

 to see the Messiah??? Remember Jesus promised 

“Seek and you will find, 

knock and it will be opened”!!! (Matthew 7:7)