MARCH 07 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 

MARCH 07  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#08 

“Why do you think evil in your hearts?” 

(Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord, Savior, the Prince of Peace, my Redeemer, what Joy it is

 to awake to a new day and to know that I will not have to face this world

 alone for You are with me. Lord forgive me of the many years I spent 

running to my sin which is nothing more than running away from You. 

Thank You Jesus for showing me that it is my sin that separates me 

from You and that it is the purity of our lives lived through Your strength

 and sacrifice that draws us nearer to You — I pray to always be moving 

towards the Savior that my Joy may be made full.    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS addressed a very personal issue which is universal to mankind

 when He addressed “evil” in 

JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4) 

Our natural tendency is to suspect that the “evil” addressed by Jesus

 was directed at those that had chosen to follow man’s law instead of

 accepting the Truth of God. Indeed, Jesus had pointed out that God is

 not limited to what the Pharisees and their interpretation of what God

 “really meant to say”. 

Usurping the Power of God makes the Pharisee’s actions “evil”.

 God cannot be restricted in His Power and His Divine Sovereignty

 by anyone or anything so for the scribes to witness God’s Power 

being displayed through His Only Begotten Son in the healing of 

the paralytic, the Pharisees should have reasoned that if only God

 can do the things that Jesus was doing, then Jesus must be God!!! 

Instead “at once” the scribes passed judgement on Jesus based on

 the Pharisee’s laws and accused Jesus of blasphemy! Jesus knew what

 was in their hearts so He immediately asked the scribes who were blinded

 by the “legalism” of their day a second question, that if answered in the 

Spirit of Truth, would result in their faith being elevated to the point that 

their spiritual blindness would be healed and they would be able to see 

that Jesus was what He said He was, the

 SON OF GOD sent to do the work of THE FATHER. 

The second question Jesus asked the “evil” scribes immediately was JQ#8b, 

“For which is easier, to say ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ 

or to say ‘Arise and walk’?” 

(Matthew 9:5) 

which Jesus knew could only be answered by saying that “Only God” 

could heal the paralytic and “Only God” can forgive sins so both are

 above the power of men and only possible through the Power of God!  

Jesus didn’t leave them hanging as He  immediately told them the answer:

 “But that you may know that the Son of Man 

has power on earth to forgive sins” — 

then He said to the paralytic,

 “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

 (Matthew 9:6)

 Just as Jesus pointed out that the “evil in their hearts” 

was the fruit of their unbelief in Him, 

He immediately gave them a visual 

to prove He was God 

as Jesus commanded the paralytic to “Arise”. 

We witness the fruit of the paralytic’s belief in Jesus because the paralytic 

“arose and departed to his house”! (Matthew 9:7)

 Jesus never leaves us hanging and He always makes it clear what answer

 we should give. The case of the scribes and the paralytic are no different. 

The scribes refused to see the Truth of God and therefore the

 “fruit of their faith in the doctrines of men” was “evil hearts” 

whereas

 the paralytic believed Jesus

 and the “fruit of his faith in God” was “healing”. 

Both the scribes and the paralytic heard Jesus but it was the paralytic

 that believed Jesus had the Power to Heal so he received healing

 and the scribes refused to acknowledge what they had witnessed 

so their hearts remained “evil”. 

It was the tradition of the Jews that it only took two witnesses

 and in this case there was a “multitude” of witnesses 

and the verdict of the multitude was that they 

“marveled and glorified God” — 

Jesus 

is indeed guilty — 

guilty of being the 

Son of God! 

Jesus 

gives us the 

Truth of God

 but it is up to us to

 “Arise and walk”!

MARCH 06 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#08 “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” (Matthew 9:4)

 

MARCH 06  THE JESUS QUESTIONS

  JQ#08 

“Why do you think evil in your hearts?” 

(Matthew 9:4)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, all Praise, Glory, and Honor to the King of kings, who by

 His Great Sacrifice for all mankind has earned true Praise, Glory, and

 Honor from all mankind for there is no other name but the Name 

of the One that lived a Perfect Life before God the Father, 

even our Lord Jesus Christ! 

Only the Perfect Life of the Son of God was the Acceptable Sacrifice

 demanded by the Perfect Father and only through the Perfect Sacrifice

 of the Son of God can sinners be made Perfect before the Father.

Lord Jesus, I BELIEVE, make me Perfectly Acceptable to God!

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS always Taught us the “Truth of God” and

 Jesus demonstrated the Power and Greatness of the Father 

both in His earthly life and His Divine Death, Burial, and Resurrection!  

The world teaches mankind, “Do as we say, not as we do” but when Jesus

 came to reveal the TRUTH of the FATHER, Jesus Taught men,

 “Do as I do for I reveal the Truth of God 

but what a man does on his own 

in opposition to God’s Truth IS SIN.” 

JQ#08 is the first time in the gospels that Jesus directly challenged the “legal”

 authority that mankind had usurped from God. Some background here

 on the “scribes” is helpful ——— the scribes were used by the prophets

 and religious leaders of Israel to write down the words of God; therefore,

 by their association with the Holy Scriptures, the scribes were 

considered very important in Israel.  The Pharisees used scribes to write

 down man’s interpretation of what the Pharisees “thought God meant” 

when He spoke His Word. 

This is very similar to the situation today in America where we have a

 “Constitution of the United States of America” 

that was written down by our founding fathers but now there is a

 “supreme court” where officials appointed by the ruling political party

 write “opinions” of what they think the “Constitution” and America’s

 founding fathers really meant to say?!?!? 

It should be understood also that 

“blasphemy” was defined 

during the time Jesus Himself walked the earth, 

as taking from God the Unique and Divine authority

 “to forgive sin”. 

 Nowhere in the Old Testament writings studied by the Pharisees 

contemporary with Jesus had the Pharisees given even the 

Messiah Himself the “right” to “forgive sin” so when Jesus spoke to the paralytic, 

“Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” 

(Matthew 9:3)

 the Pharisees started quoting their interpretation of God’s Law 

(as the Pharisees had determined what God had “really meant to say”) 

{see paraphrase of Genesis 3:1 

“Now the [Pharisee] was more cunning

 than any [religious leader in Israel] which the LORD God 

had [put in authority] and [the Pharisee] said [to Israel] 

‘Has God indeed said…’ 

(Genesis 3:1)} — 

the Pharisees declared that Jesus, by “forgiving sin” 

had called Himself “God” 

because according to the Pharisees interpretation 

of the “law” in Holy Scripture

 and written “officially” by the scribes, 

only God Himself had the Authority 

to “forgive sins”. 

Do you not see that Jesus is confronting “legalism” here and in TRUTH,

 Jesus is revealing that the ones that are condemning Him of “blasphemy” 

are really the guilty ones for usurping the authority of God from God’s Law 

and making man’s law the “law of the land” that the people must live by? 

When I read passages like these, 

the Holy Spirit stirs me to ask my contemporaries; 

“How is our modern laws on abortion 

which usurp the authority of God, 

any different from 

the law of the Pharisees which

 condemned our Lord Jesus Christ of 

“blasphemy and to death on a cross?”   

If we as Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God

 who was sent by God Himself 

and promised by God 

that if we will believe

 that God sent His Son to us as a gift 

that we would not have to 

“perish but have everlasting life” — 

then how can we support a “man-made law” 

 made by the “opinion” of man that

 denies the unborn their right to receive God’s gift of life? 

An “aborted unborn” has “perished” 

and man’s legalism is responsible for 

taking God’s authority and Gift of Life

 away from the unborn, 

and the “legal” death of the “unborn” can be 

interpreted as nothing but modern day blasphemy by 

America’s lawmakers resulting in the taking away of 

the unborn’s God-given right to life!!! 

Jesus confronted the legalists of His day and the TRUTH is that not only

 did Jesus demonstrate the Power of God over the “physical” by healing

 the paralytic, He also healed the paralytic “spiritually” by “forgiving” his

 sins and the “verdict” of a “jury of the (paralytic’s) peers” was that 

“the multitudes saw [Jesus heal the paralytic 

and heard Jesus say that He could forgive sin], 

[and] they marveled and glorified God”.

 (Matthew 9:8)  

Let TRUTH be our judge and jury 

as to the “Consequence” of our “belief”

 that Jesus is the Son of God!

 

More importantly, let TRUTH guide the way

 we live our day-to-day lives and treat the unborn

 with all the dignity we demand for ourselves!  

Having a “position” in any governing body 

does not give anyone the “legal authority” 

to deny the “unborn” of their  

“God-given” Right to  Life!!!