APRIL 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 15) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01.01—JQ#13.07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

 

APRIL 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS 

(Day 15)  Summary Review of JESUS Questions 

JQ#01.01—JQ#13.07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, again we pray “Give us this day our daily bread…” with 

all the confidence that the “good work” You have begun in us will 

be completed and that we will proclaim like King David

 “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want!” 

Lord Jesus, each time I feel circumstance start to cloud up my “Joy”,

 I stop and remember that You Lord are eternal and that everything You

 have done is because You chose to “love” me even though I am a sinner 

and that You have a “plan” for me to have a “hope and a future” and that 

this time on earth is but a “vapor” that is but here today and gone tomorrow

 while Your Mercies Endure Forever! 

Lord Jesus, I trust that Your Rod and Your Staff will provide me with all 

my needs so that I will proclaim also

 “surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life 

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”      

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has been Teaching us with the first 13 JESUS Questions to know

 what is expected of all those that choose to “Follow Jesus” in terms of

 “discipleship” and to understand that life is both

 “physical” and “spiritual”. 

Jesus then transitions us to a deeper level of understanding as Matthew records

 an interesting section of Jesus Teaching us how to view the world from 

God’s Perspective highlighted by

 

Matthew 12:14 “Then the Pharisees went out and plotted against Him, 

how they might destroy Him.” 

This attack by the “legalist” and the way Jesus responded to it

 begs the transition question: 

“What do our enemies tell us about ourselves?” 

There are many ways to look at each situation that life confronts us with

 that on the surface may appear to be “damaging” but when we have

 learned to “Trust in God” we will look at these circumstances 

with “spiritual” eyes and see the “Truth of God”. 

One such instance happened as I was reading the introduction to JQ#13

 and how Jesus had addressed a situation with a group of Pharisees that had

 come to bring accusations against Jesus for they had been plotting 

“against Him, how that they might destroy Him.” 

It was at this point that the Holy Spirit directed me to make a note that after 

writing the “Summary Review” for The Jesus Questions 1-13 that I was to

 come back to this scripture and write a separate article on 

what we can learn about ourselves by asking ourselves 

who our own enemies are and what they accuse us of! 

This seems like a strange question until it is studied in the context of what kind

 of “witness” that was given about Jesus by His “enemies”. 

The thought was placed in my spirit to consider that Jesus could have built 

a very impressive resume just from the statements that His enemies had 

made trying to find fault in Him and I thought to myself 

“What kind of enemies do I have and what kind of witness 

would they have about my Christian character?” 

For example we read in Matthew 12:24 

“Now when the Pharisees heard [Jesus was casting out demons and 

healing the blind and the mute, and often Jesus did these miracles 

on the Jewish Sabbath] they said, 

‘This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, 

the ruler of the demons.’” 

The reason that the Pharisees were out to get Him was because Jesus had

 healed a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath in response

 to being asked if it was “lawful” to heal on the Sabbath. 

Jesus did not answer with words to be disputed

 by the “law makers” in a legal debate

 — Jesus answered the question by performing a miracle on the Sabbath 

and then gave His questioners an “in-your-face-Truth-of-God” answer as 

He healed the man then said, 

“Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12) 

and then Jesus turned and healed the man. The Pharisees then started building

 up Jesus’ resume as they exposed themselves like they did in Matthew 12:24 

by accusing Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebub.

 By making the accusation the Pharisees were acknowledging and documented

 the fact by way of their accusations that indeed Jesus had been casting out

 demons, in fact the Pharisees were admitting that Jesus had been doing 

many miracles which could not be denied and each time they accused Him,

 they added to His resume because they said the things He was “doing” were 

illegal by their laws — 

in other words, they did not claim that Jesus was NOT doing miracles, 

the Pharisees claimed that the miracles that He WAS DOING 

were either against the “Law” of the Pharisees 

or that the “Power” Jesus used to DO the Miracles 

was some power other than God! 

So the enemies of Jesus were actually being a 

witness to the miracles of Jesus 

because if He hadn’t done these miracles 

the Pharisees could not accuse Him of anything. 

If we had to let our enemies take the stand 

and accuse us of “Living for Jesus”, 

what kind of evidence could they present to a jury 

that we might be found guilty of being called “Christians”?