MARCH 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#10 “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?” (Matthew 10:29)

 

MARCH 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#10 

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?” 

(Matthew 10:29)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, another day and new mercies and “Hope” for our future.

 You Lord have commanded us to “take up our cross” daily 

and then with great assurance You immediately add 

that once we take up the cross that we

 are also commanded by You to “Follow Me” — 

Lord thank you for teaching us that by “following” you that You will help

 us bear the burden of our cross and even though it is a cross that is

 heavy to bear physically that it is a “spiritual blessing” and will lead us

 to the Narrow Gate and we can rest assured 

that You will be with us each step of the “Way”.    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS uses a simple sparrows and coin Question that points us to a

 simple plot of spiritual ground that seems to not hold anything of significance

 but once we have scratched the surface of His Lesson we find that 

we have uncovered many kingdom gems and if we continue digging

 in this tremendous Chapter 10 in the Gospel of Matthew we will

 find some extraordinary “Truths of God” that will help us to know how to

 please “our Father in heaven” and to inherit “everlasting life”. 

As we study the Teachings of Jesus we see that Jesus always Teaches that

 the physical “Choices” we make have “Spiritual Consequences”. 

Jesus always Teaches us how to look at the physical with spiritual eyes 

and Jesus promises that  our “Trust in God” will “cure our spiritual blindness” 

and we will be able to see the “Will of the Father”. 

Matthew Chapter 10 is a very important “Lesson” for all who seek to know

 the Father and want to follow His Only Begotten Son Jesus for we see

 that Jesus starts Matthew Chapter 10 by calling each of His disciples by

 name and then He sends them out to the

 “lost sheep” with His Message 

that the “kingdom of God is at hand”. 

Jesus gives His disciples a specific set of instructions of how to demonstrate the

 Power of God so that the “lost” can be saved 

and inherit everlasting life. 

Jesus informs the disciples what the cost of discipleship will be as well as

 what the compensation and rewards will be for following Him. Jesus always

 asks a Question in His Lessons that will laser-focus us on the most important

 aspect of the Lesson and in this very important Matthew Chapter 10 where

 Jesus is equipping His disciples to share His Message with the lost, 

Jesus keeps us focused on the “spiritual value” of those that choose discipleship. 

Jesus instructs the disciples to

 (J1) heal the sick 

(J2) cleanse the lepers and

 (J3) cast out demons — 

all actions which can only be 

accomplished by the Power of God —

 so we can be assured that Jesus will not ask them 

to perform a task He has not equipped them for!  

To draw the disciples attention to trusting God for their daily bread,

 Jesus tells them to “go” but not to take any money with them,

 not to pack a bag for their journey, 

not to take extra clothes, shoes, or staffs because 

God will provide 

for all their physical needs and will 

equip them with all their spiritual needs 

to accomplish their jobs as Jesus states:

 “for a worker is worthy of his food.” 

(Matthew 10:6-10). 

Jesus reminds them that they will be as

 “sheep in the midst of wolves”

 and that men will “scourge” them (Matthew 10:16-18) however, 

Jesus never told them the “cost” of discipleship 

without assuring them 

that God would “equip” them 

to both endure and prosper and 

most importantly 

that God would always be with them. 

Jesus tells them immediately,

 “But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what

 you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you

 should speak: for it is not you who speak,

 but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” 

(Matthew 10:19-20)

 Jesus continually points to the “Truth of God” that God will provide and

 that the “spiritual” should always take precedence over the “physical” as

 illustrated in the sparrow and copper coin (Matthew 10:29a) Question!

 We can glimpse this valuable “spiritual gem” if we but 

dig into the field of “God’s Truth” 

and we use these instructions on what to expect as disciples of Jesus

 doing kingdom work in a lost world, just get ready, roll up your sleeves and 

keep digging in God’s Word!

MARCH 20 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#10 “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?” (Matthew 10:29)

 

MARCH 20  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#10 

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?” 

(Matthew 10:29)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord I praise You for Your Faithfulness — I am amazed when I read

 a prayer lifted up to You (or as Pastor Steve says “spread it before the LORD”)

 that I wrote in 2004 and realize that many years after the prayer request was

 made and even though the answer to that prayer request took several years

 to be answered and arrived in a most unexpected “Way”, that the answer is

 definitely the answer to that specific 2004 prayer and is Your Divine Way,

 answered in Your Perfect Timing — “Answered Prayers” like this are 

beyond our expectations and imaginations and is the 

perfect example of “waiting upon the LORD”! 

This “looking back” at prayers lifted years ago and were faithfully answered

 definitely “grows my Faith”. I am also learning that I am to lift my prayer 

to You and then “wait on the Lord” without me telling You “How” to answer

 my prayer in the “Way” I think it should be answered but to

 “trust God” and “Your Perfect Way and Perfect Timing”!

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS uses a simple sparrows and coin Question as a contrast to a very 

serious set of commands that He uses to instruct His disciples how to go 

out into the world and share the Word of God with a lost and dying world,

 therefore the simple Question should be considered in its entire serious context. 

So far we have noted that there are some very serious instructions being

 given for a very serious task Jesus is assigning to His new disciples. 

A reading of the verses Matthew 10:1-28 are instructions Jesus gave to

 His disciples as He was equipping them with 

“tools” to successfully share the Gospel with the world 

and Jesus made it very clear that this “sharing” is for a very serious purpose

 and uses a vocabulary of serious terms and and lists

  “Eternal Consequences” such as “Eternal life in heaven 

or Eternal damnation in hell”. 

Jesus also showed the seriousness of understanding that our lives have

 a “physical” value and a “spiritual” value and that 

the ability of men to 

“kill” the “body” was inconsequential 

to the ability of God 

to “destroy” the “soul”. 

The world has told us the greatest thing to “fear” is our physical death

 but God reminds us that our physical lives are but a vapor 

and our bodies come from dust and at our death

 our physical bodies return to the earth from where it came.

 But of greater seriousness,

 our “soul” which God through His Holy Spirit 

made “eternal” 

returns to the Creator of our souls 

when the “physical body” dies. 

At the time of our physical death, 

the “body and soul” are separated and 

our “Eternal Soul” returns to God. 

Jesus Taught this same Lesson to the most learned man in Jerusalem and a

 leader of the Jerusalem synagogue in John 3:1-21 as Jesus tells Nicodemus 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again

 he cannot see the kingdom of God” 

(John 3:3) 

and again, 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one

 is born of water and the Spirit,

 he cannot enter the kingdom of God” 

(John 3:5) 

Jesus then tells Nicodemus that 

we have two births: 

(B1) a “physical birth” 

which is of our earthly (biological) father and 

(B2) a “Spiritual birth” 

which is from our heavenly (Divine) “Father” 

as Jesus tells Nicodemus plainly, 

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, 

and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” 

(John 3:6).

 

Therefore when Jesus is training His disciples to share His Gospel, 

He asks the sparrow and copper coin Question to make us consider the “value” 

of our earthly “body” and the lessons of the “flesh” as compared to

 the “value” of our “soul” and the

 Lessons of the Spirit 

which contains “eternal life”. 

It is the “Choice” we make with our “Spirit” 

that has “Eternal Consequences”.

 Jesus gives us “Hope” because He also tells the disciples how to please God

 so that God will accept them in Heaven as Jesus tells the disciples: 

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, 

him I will also confess before My Father who is in Heaven.”

 (Matthew 10:32) 

That is GOOD NEWS because we know the Father is “well pleased”

 with the Son and here the Son is telling us 

that He will accompany us 

to Heaven and present us Himself to 

“our Father who is in Heaven” 

(Matthew 6:9). 

Pleasing God is as simple as John 3:16 —

 read it for yourself and claim your promised eternal life!

PERSONAL TESTIMONY ON THE “WAR OF FLESH AND SPIRIT”:

NOTE: 3/19/17 JOE VEAL, FOUNDER OF U-TURN MINISTRIES 

IN MALAWI, SPOKE AT CALVARY ON ROMANS 7:13-25 

“THE WAR OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT” 

AND WHEN I WAS IN MALAWI 

GOD WORKED “THE MIRACLE IN MALAWI” 

THROUGH ME AS THE HOLY SPIRIT 

SPOKE THESE PASSAGES FROM JOHN 3:3,5-6 

THROUGH ME TO A DYING MAN (WHO HAD JUST DRANK POISON 

TRYING TO KILL HIMSELF)!!!  THE HOLY SPIRIT PULLED DEATH 

OUT OF THE POISONED MAN AND THE HOLY SPIRIT ALSO PULLED

 DEATH OUT OF ME IN THE PROCESS!!!  THE FACT THAT I HAD 

BEGUN A “WAR” BETWEEN MY FLESH AND SPIRIT ON 3/18/17 

SATURDAY AND JOE VEAL SPEAKING FROM ROMANS CHAPTER 7

 ON 3/19/17 SUNDAY SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THAT “WAR”, AND THEN 

ON 3/20/17 MONDAY THIS JESUS QUESTION IS ABOUT THE WORDS

 JESUS USED TO HEAL THE SUICIDAL MAN IN MALAWI FROM 

JOHN 3 ARE 3 “CONFIRMATIONS” FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT ON MY 

“WAR OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT” 

AND ALLOWS ME THE FREEDOM TO MOVE ON IN SERVICE TO GOD —

 AS JOE SAYS FROM A PASSAGE IN ISAIAH — 

“HERE I AM, SEND ME”!!!