APRIL 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS
(Day 12) Summary Review of JESUS Questions
JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS, Jesus, Jesus, “sweetest Name I know, fills my every longing,
keeps me singing as I go” ———.
Lord Jesus, You deserve all praise because Your Life makes our life have
thoughts like those expressed in songs as we sing about Your Name,
“the sweetest Name I know”, “fills…every longing”, “and keeps me singing”
are expressions not associated with any other name
except the Holy Name of Jesus!
There is a reason that it is Jesus and only Jesus that causes these responses
and that reason is called “TRUTH”, for Jesus IS the Son of the Living God,
His Holy Spirit dwells within us, and our hearts are filled with His song, and
our desires are satisfied, so Lord I simply speak Your Precious Name once
more to start my day ——— JESUS!
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus has led us to a realization of the importance of our concept of the
“spiritual” life that we are living in conjunction with this earthen vessel
we call the body. The concept of the “soul” is not foreign to us but the
“eternal consequences” dictated by our stewardship of our souls
is usually overlooked as we are blinded by the physical desires that are
pushed on us by the world and its desires and lusts.
Lesson 11 JQ#11 “What are your ‘Spiritual Expectations of Jesus?”
Matthew 11:1-30
Jesus has been gracious in His Lessons for they make us aware that our
individual bodies define who we are “physically”, HOWEVER
our physical bodies are “temporary”
and do not define who we are “spiritually”!
Jesus Teaches that it is what we DO with our bodies
that determines our “character” and
“our character” is “purely spiritual”
— but the body and the daily aging process is God’s reminder that our
time on earth and this earthly body is only “physical” and is “temporary”
but our “HOPE” resides in knowing that there is something beyond
the “physical”
and Jesus Teaches us to be aware that
the “physical” is finite but the “spiritual” is “eternal”.
The more we can focus on the “spiritual” aspect of our lives,
the more we are aware that
“stewardship of our own soul” has “eternal” implications.
Jesus always goes the extra mile in His Teachings so in JQ#10 Jesus makes us
aware of our “Spiritual Value” and then when He has our attention on the
“Spiritual” in general He then asks a very specific serious Question in
JQ#11: “What are your ‘Spiritual Expectations’ of Jesus?”
Jesus made it clear in His response to the disciples of John the Baptist that
the Messiah is the One that does the Holy Work of the Messiah!
John the Baptist had been preaching in the wilderness about the
“Coming Messiah” and the need to “Repent”
so John’s followers were “expecting the Messiah”
but they were not sure because their “spiritual expectations” of the “Messiah”
had been shaped by the religious leaders whose “personal expectations”
of the Messiah had evolved over several generations
of leaders of the nation Israel.
Jesus is warning that
our “personal expectations” DOES NOT DEFINE the True Messiah.
What Jesus is Teaching us is that if we try to make Jesus fit
our “personal expectations” then we might miss seeing the True Jesus
because He does not fit our “personal expectations” of Him!
Many of the Jews had “expected” a Messiah that would be a powerful king
and free them from the Roman government —
they did not want a Messiah that made them aware of their
spiritual shortcomings
and was preaching the need to
“Repent” and receive “Forgiveness of their sins”
which included thinking wrongly about what and who the True Messiah
would be! Jesus Taught that He was not going to “make any claims” but rather
Jesus was confident that everyone that knew the scriptures would
recognize the True Messiah because of the “Works”
that would be accomplished by the Messiah.
Jesus pointed John’s disciples to what His Ministry had accomplished and left it
up to all those that had observed what He had achieved through the Power of God
to determine if anyone but the Messiah could perform these miracles as
foretold by the scriptures when Jesus listed His accomplishments
that had been witnessed by the multitudes:
“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Go tell John the things which you hear
and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed
and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have
the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.’”
(Matthew 11:4)
Do you “expect” Jesus to be a “genie in a bottle that grants you your wishes
when you rub a magic lamp” or do you “expect” a
Savior that has come to give you “forgiveness and eternal life”?
What more could anyone do to demonstrate that
the Messiah is God’s Messiah
and not our “personal expectations” of Him?
