MARCH 28 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 28  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#11 

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” 

(Matthew 11:7)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, another morning I awake and it is overwhelming to think

 that You ARE Lord and that You ARE right here to answer my prayers

 and concerns and provide for my daily bread. Lord, how did I live all 

those anxious years trying to make it through this

 valley of the shadow of death without You? 

Jesus, I will continue to lift up my praises to You for what You’ve already done,

 which is much more than I deserve, and I will give You Honor for the Grace

 You have given to me and the Mercy that You renew daily each morning. 

Lord, forgive me of all my shortcomings and strengthen me

 as I daily try to Glorify God.    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus is the Master Teacher and the previous Lesson the Master Taught 

using the sparrows and copper coin Question

 was Taught by the Son of God to make us aware 

of our “Spiritual value” to the kingdom 

and “our Father in heaven” —

 now Jesus is asking us another simple Question

 to make us aware of another

 

Kingdom Truth that our “Spiritual expectations” of the Messiah

 affects our “spiritual vision”.  

A.W. Tozer in his book “The Knowledge of the Holy” addresses JQ#11

 in a powerful way as Tozer titled the first chapter 

“Why We Must Think Rightly About God” 

and in his opening prayer to start Chapter 1 Tozer prays: 

“O Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise 

but the God of the prophets and apostles…[those that do not know 

the True God] worship Thee as a creature of their own fancy…[but] 

enlighten our minds that we may know Thee as Thou art, 

so that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee. 

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”.  

Tozer’s first sentence in his insightful book is a most powerful thought

 about how important our “thinking” about who God really is and

 answers JQ#11 perfectly when Tozer writes:

 “What comes to our minds when we think about God 

is the most important thing about us.”  

Tozer in my mind is most likely answering the Jesus Question about our

 “spiritual expectations” of God with that opening prayer and his first

 sentence to open that first chapter; and if we look at the context in 

Matthew 11 immediately following JQ#11 found in Matthew 11:7-9 

Jesus encourages our personal discipleship and prays to the Father: 

“I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You

 have hidden these things from the wise and prudent

 and have revealed them to babes.” 

(Matthew 11:25)  

Tozer, if he intended it or not, is giving all the right answers to JQ#11 as he

 writes an entire book about who God really is and states in an opening prayer

 that we should know God as He reveals Himself to us and not the God

 conjured up by “[wise and prudent] philosophers”. Tozer says that 

we ourselves should “think rightly about God” 

and then Tozer makes it clear that the

 “most important thing about us” is what we “expect” from “God”.  

Just after Jesus had asked the multitudes, “What did you ‘expect’ to see?”

 He immediately draws our attention to great cities that would come 

under future judgement because they had different “Spiritual expectations” 

for the Messiah therefore they “saw” the Divine work of the Messiah but

 rejected “His mighty works…and did not repent!” 

(see Matthew 11:11-24) 

Then after Jesus announces the judgement on those that 

have “false expectations” of the Son of God, Father God, and

 the Holy Spirit, Jesus assures us that if we will accept Jesus as 

the Son of God sent by the Father as the True Messiah 

then Jesus will reveal Himself and the Father 

to us through the Holy Spirit of Truth! 

Jesus concludes that if we “Come to [Him],” then He will “give [us] rest”. 

Jesus concludes with this promise:

 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle

 and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

(Matthew 11:30) 

Be honest, were your “Expectations of Jesus”  to find “rest” for 

your troubled soul? Our “expectations” ARE directly linked to our “faith” 

and how often did Jesus say TO THOSE HE HEALED, 

“Your FAITH has made your well.”?

MARCH 27 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 27  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#11 

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” 

(Matthew 11:7)

LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord, I come before You this morning with so much  “thanksgiving”

 in my heart that I fear my words will once again fall short of glorifying You,

 for my words are from a finite intellect trying to glorify the 

Infinite Knowledge, Mercy, and Grace of Jesus Christ!!!  

Lord indeed Your Ways are higher than my ways and Your Thoughts higher

 than my thoughts but Lord look again into my heart and may the Holy Spirit

 speak my “heartfelt-thanksgiving” in words of praise worthy of the Honor due You.

 Lord Jesus, I pray again these words first prayed from my heart in 2004:

 “Lord, strengthen my resolve to make every day-to-day choice 

with the desire to live my life to glorify God!”    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus, used the context of this simple Question to make it of 

Divine Significance

 by the fact that Jesus asked this Question 

“to the multitudes” (Matthew 11:7a) 

just after declaring Himself to be the Messiah to the disciples of John the Baptist.

 The Question alerts us to where our “focus” should be 

as we try to answer His Teaching Question about our 

“spiritual expectations of God”. 

Jesus began His Teaching of the multitudes with this question: 

“What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” 

(Matthew 11:7b). 

We know that it is a Teaching Question because Matthew states in verse 1

 of Chapter 11 that Jesus had “finished commanding His twelve disciples” 

and that Jesus had 

“departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities” 

(Matthew 11:1) 

hence we can know that Jesus intends to

 “teach and to preach” —

 and through our study of the previous JESUS Questions we know that 

His Questions are all rhetorical for 

Jesus is God and therefore is ALL-KNOWING,

 

so we can come quickly to an understanding that Jesus, being ALL-KNOWING,

 does not ask Questions to gain knowledge but rather, Jesus asks Questions

 to get us focused on a specific topic in order for us to see the

 

Truth of God that Jesus Teaches with each Question/Lesson. 

With JQ#11 Jesus is asking us to stop and consider 

all our “expectations” and specifically our 

“spiritual expectations of the Messiah”. 

We can easily paraphrase JQ#11 from 

“what did you go out…to see?” to 

“what are your [spiritual] expectations?” 

and since Jesus had just detailed His list of 

“Divine” accomplishments 

proving Himself to be the “MESSIAH”,

 one should be able to make a direct correlation from the 

“works” Jesus performed in the name and from the Power of God 

with how the prophets and the Holy Scriptures had described the Messiah, 

plus John the Baptist declaring himself to be a “messenger of God” sent to 

declare to Israel that the Messiah is soon coming,

 and then John, at the JORDAN, seeing Jesus declared: 

“Behold, the Lamb of God 

who takes away the sin of the world.” 

(John 1:29) 

one would wonder how all Israel was not proclaiming loudly that 

Jesus IS the MESSIAH!!!  

What Jesus Himself had accomplished in His ministry so far 

and had been publicly witnessed by the multitudes, 

ONLY the Messiah could accomplish

 what Jesus had been doing! 

There had never been anyone before Jesus that so completely

 fulfilled the requirements of the Messiah and there has been no one

 after Jesus that has fulfilled even one or two, let alone 

one man (JESUS OF NAZARETH) that fulfilled ALL 

of those Divine Attributes 

belonging Uniquely to the Messiah! 

Jesus by His Divine accomplishments proved He is the Messiah 

so why didn’t those that saw 

Jesus performing miracle after miracle including healing, 

casting out demons, and resurrecting the dead, 

and many, many, more signs believe that He was the Messiah

 without Him having to “lay it out” for them??? 

My pastor Steve McDonald uses the phrase: 

“Jesus lays the cookies on the bottom shelf 

so everyone can reach them” 

and Jesus had been performing 

Divine acts unique to Messiah 

so why couldn’t the multitudes who had seen,

 heard, and experienced Jesus in the flesh

 understand by their own observation that 

Jesus IS the Son of God and God’s Messiah? 

The same is true today because each generation has had God revealed to them,

 and today we have the Holy Bible that “lays the cookies on the bottom shelf” for us,

 so why don’t we reach out and listen to Jesus and give Him a serious personal

 answer to this serious personal Question Jesus asks each of us as individuals,

 “What are your spiritual expectations of Jesus?”  

Why don’t you take a bite of the cookie being offered 

and understand Psalm 34:8 

“Taste and see that the Lord is good…”?