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 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…”?  

MARCH 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 26  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 give You and the Holy Spirit Praise for the wonderful lesson on “Spiritual Expectations about Easter” that You Taught in our 3rd/4th Grade Sunday School class using John 3:16. Lord it is so exciting to see You move and as the teacher of these really bright young Christians I feel really “Blessed” to be learning about You through them!  

Lord, may I never lose sight that You and the Holy Spirit are the Master Teachers and always keep me aware OF THOSE ANOINTED LESSONS when You have taken over so that I will not get in the way of THE SPIRIT’S TEACHINGS, especially one that Taught 3rd and 4th Graders both “how” and “why” they should “share” the Good News about the True Meaning of Easter! 

Lord, how my heart leaped as each one took their turn describing Easter as the Resurrection, all Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Holy Spirit for empowering them and to the Risen Lord for dying and defeating death that we may LIVE!    

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS always asks a simple Question which can immediately be rephrased as a Divine Spiritual Inquiry which is the case of JQ#11 which can be written as:  “What are your spiritual expectations of Jesus?” (Matthew 11:7). The actual JESUS Question asked in Mathew 11:7 is from a series of JESUS Questions asking basically the same thing as we read these Questions in Matthew 11:7-9. The important context of the Question was that the disciples of John the Baptist had come to question Jesus with the intent of determining if Jesus was the “Coming One” which is the sermon topic that John the Baptist had been preaching about in the wilderness. 

The multitudes had been traveling out into the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach “Repentance” and the soon coming “Christ”.  John was considered by all Israel as a prophet and even the Jewish priests and leaders acknowledged that John was preaching in the Power of God!  We read in John 1:19-20 

“Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ [John] confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ’” (John 1:19-20) 

From this passage we can determine that John had been preaching that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and that the long awaited Christ was “coming” and John’s message was so powerful that all Israel was talking again about the “Coming Messiah”. John’s Message about the “Coming Messiah” was so powerful that it had gained the attention of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem because John was the first prophet speaking the Word of God in Israel since Malachi, the last prophet of God who had spoken hundreds of years ago — God’s prophets had been silent now for about 400 years so John appears on the scene declaring 

“REPENT” and “the Messiah is Coming soon” and now everyone is “expectant” that the Messiah has come just as the prophecies of old had promised!  

After John had “confessed” that he was not the Christ, John then quoted the prophet Isaiah: 

“[John] said: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘make straight the way of the Lord’” (John 1:23 & Isaiah 40:3) 

So when Jesus lists His earthly accomplishments to the disciples of John, Jesus was in effect telling everyone that because of “His works” that He had been doing among the people of Israel that Jesus was indeed the “Messiah” that Israel had been “expecting”!!!  

The important thing to note here is that Jesus lists the events that proved He was indeed the Messiah but immediately after stating the 

Divine Truth that JESUS IS THE MESSIAH 

that Jesus turned and asked this Question to enlighten the multitudes — “What did you expect?” (Matthew 11:7-9A) and then added this statement about what they had expected to find: “A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.” (Matthew 11:9B)  

As we read the Gospels and throughout the entire New Testament, Jesus is doing everything the prophecies said the Messiah would do and yet it took His death, burial, and Resurrection before even Jesus’ own disciples believed that Jesus was Truly the Son of God, the Messiah. 

The same problem exists in the Church today as we declare like a modern day Thomas : “…unless I see in His hands the print of the nails…I will not believe…” (John 20:25) Jesus knew there would be doubt and He is Teaching in JQ#11 that our “spiritual expectations” of Him will be guiding our belief about “who” Jesus will be in our lives! There is nothing more that Jesus needs to “do” to prove He IS the Messiah so the problem is simply a matter of our “spiritual expectations of the Messiah and our Belief/Unbelief” —

Jesus is Teaching “us” here that if we are “expecting” a knight in white armor riding in on a horse leading a great army that we may actually miss the “real deal” of the True King riding in on a donkey— 

and the fault does not rest with God, the fault rests entirely on our “spiritual expectations of Jesus” — Jesus IS the Son of God - so, what are your “expectations” of Him??? 

SPIRITUAL TRUTH: THE MESSIAH IS WHO GOD HIMSELF DECLARES IS THE MESSIAH AND WHOM GOD ANOINTS WITH THE POWER OF GOD TO DO THE WORK OF THE MESSIAH AS GOD HAD PLANNED AND PURPOSED THE MESSIAH TO DO — THE MESSIAH IS NOT THE MESSIAH BECAUSE HE MEETS THE WORLD’S EXPECTATIONS OF HIM BUT THE MESSIAH IS THE MESSIAH BECAUSE HE MEETS GOD’S EXPECTATIONS — JESUS AND ONLY JESUS HAS FULFILLED GOD’S EXPECTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH — AND THAT’S THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!!!

MARCH 25 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 25  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 pray for the Holy Spirit to consume all my desires, that daily I will take up my cross and follow hard after Jesus. Lord, there is nothing good in me except for Your Spirit so Lord I pray as did John, let me decrease that You may increase. Jesus as You lead I will follow, as You command I will obey, and as You live, so will I live that others may see You in me and come to know You as Savior. 

Forgive me when I fall short of Your Glory for it is my flesh failing in me and I pray to be strengthened by Your Spirit that I may endure to the end and my spirit will join You, the Father, and the Holy Spirit that we may be “One in the SPIRIT” as You have declared.

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS actually asked this Question to the multitudes that had heard the answer that Jesus had given to John’s disciple’s question when they directly inquired of Jesus — “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3)  John the Baptist had been preaching about the Messiah in the wilderness quite probably to this same multitude of those seeking the “Truth of God” and  who were now following Jesus because the things Jesus had been doing could only have been done by the “Anointing Power of God”. Jesus answered their question with: “Go tell John the things you see and hear.” (Matthew 11:4) 

Then Jesus listed the things that He had been doing in the Father’s Name for the kingdom’s sake — preaching, healing, and forgiving sins — and as Jesus listed things they had seen Him do and the Message He had been preaching to them, He said: “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.”  (Matthew 11:5) Only the Son of God, the Messiah could do these things that Jesus had been doing so Jesus is saying by His actions (by the “fruit” of His Spirit), “I am the Son of God, the Messiah, the Anointed One.” 

The things He had been “doing” proved Jesus IS the Messiah! Jesus gave the disciples of John a very serious answer because they had asked a serious question to Him that revealed that they were “expecting” the Messiah when they asked Jesus pointedly: “Are You the Coming One…?”  

As soon as Jesus gave the proof that He was indeed the Messiah we read that He sent them to give John the Baptist an affirmative message and Matthew notes, 

“As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John…” (Matthew 11:7a) 

which the reader today can paraphrase as “As they left to give John the Baptist the message that Jesus was the Messiah, that Jesus turned to the multitudes and started teaching them.”  Jesus is always Teaching. Jesus is God and knows all things and He wants to Teach everyone that will listen to Him a specific Lesson. 

Jesus often first introduces the subject and then He asks a simple Question that focuses our attention on a specific “Truth of God”. In this case Jesus states without a doubt that He IS the Messiah and then Jesus asks the multitudes to consider their own “spiritual expectations” of Him with a series of Questions in quick succession:

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

A reed shaken by the wind? 

But what did you go out to see? 

A man clothed in soft garments? 

Indeed, those wearing soft clothing are in king’s houses. 

But what did you go out to see?” 

(Matthew 11:7-9) 

Jesus was definitely referring to John the Baptist who had been out in the wilderness preaching to the “lost sheep of Israel” about the “Coming One”! John was not preaching in the synagogues — John was in the “wilderness” preaching about the coming Messiah and the need for the people to “Repent” and now Jesus immediately Questions the multitudes about their “spiritual expectations” of the Messiah and then Jesus pointedly Questions them as to what did they “expect” to see the Messiah do in their personal lives? 

That is a good question for us to ask ourselves — what are our “spiritual expectations” of Jesus and His Church and have we heard the Message of Jesus that as His Church we are to “teach and preach the kingdom of heaven in [our] cities” (Matthew 11:1) and as His Church followers of Christ are to take the Message of “Repentance” out of the “synagogue” into the “wilderness” where the “lost sheep” are!!!

As Jesus listed things they had seen Him do and the Message He had been preaching to them, He said: “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.”  (Matthew 11:5)…………………..

Matthew 11:5 can very well be used as a List of Divine Tasks for His Church:

1. The blind see - We are to enlighten the spiritually blind with the Holy Scriptures that they may see the “Truth of God”
2. The lame walk — We are to teach those crippled with sin how to walk upright  on the straight and narrow “Pathway of Righteousness”
3. The lepers are cleansed — We are to teach them God’s statutes and His judgements that they may be made “clean” by God’s standards
4. The deaf hear — Only the “Truth of God” spoken with a small still voice can speak loud enough to be heard over the noise of the world
5. The dead are raised up — We are all “dead in our sins” and only the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the Pathway to Everlasting Life
6. The poor have the gospel preached to them — We seldom find the “poor” sitting in the pews but are “lost” in the “wilderness” of the world, and like John preaching “in the wilderness” we should take the Message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the poor neighborhoods of our cities.
7. Consider our own “expectations” of the Messiah and align them with the Declared Truth of God 

MARCH 24 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#11 “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7)

 

MARCH 24  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, my God, my Redeemer Praise, Glory, and Honor to the Only Begotten of the Father, the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the earth! O Blessed Thought — THOU ART MINE!! Jesus, the Name above all names, have mercy on this sinner saved by Your Grace, guide me each day as I look for Your Daily Manna to “reign” down from Heaven for my daily “spiritual” bread!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

JESUS moves from one Question to another in a way that keeps us focused on the “Spiritual Lessons” needed for us to live our lives in a manner pleasing to God “our Father in heaven” by building “precept upon precept, line upon line” — St. Matthew who was led by the Holy Spirit, divinely documented these “logical transitions” from one JESUS Question/Lesson to the next; for example, Matthew starts Chapter 11 with “Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.” (Matthew 11:1)  

Recall that JQ#10 was themed “What is your spiritual value?” (Matthew 10:29) because Jesus asked JQ#10 by referring to two sparrows and a copper coin and remember Jesus asked this Question in the middle of equipping His twelve disciples to go out into the world as we read in Matthew 10:1 “…[Jesus] gave them power..” (Matthew 10:1) before sending them out “…as sheep in the midst of wolves…” (Matthew 10:16) and then Jesus assured His disciples of their “spiritual value” in verses Matthew 10:30-42 where Jesus states “…[My disciples] shall by no means lose [their] reward!” — essentially telling His disciples that if we go in His Name that we will never lose our “spiritual value”! 

Now Jesus transitions to His next Lesson/Question as He asks,

 

JQ#11: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?”  (Matthew 11:7) 

There is no doubt that the Lesson Jesus is going to Teach is about our “spiritual expectations” and the Lesson is meant for all generations; because in verses 1-6 preceding the Question, Jesus refers to Himself to the disciples of John the Baptist as the “Coming One” [recall that John’s mission was] to point to “…the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) and as soon as Jesus explained to John’s disciples why He declares Himself to be the “Coming One” that Matthew 11:7 states: “And as [the disciples of John the Baptist] departed [with the revelation that Jesus is the Coming One], Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning [the message of] John [the Baptist]…” (Matthew 11:7A)  “What did you go into the wilderness to see?” (Matthew 11:7B) 

Therefore Jesus establishes the fact that He is moving from equipping the disciples and Teaching about our “Eternal Spiritual Value”  in JQ#10 in Matthew Chapter 10 to a new Lesson in Matthew Chapter 11 about our “Spiritual Expectations” as He establishes clearly the fact that JESUS IS THE COMING ONE and we should evaluate our individual “spiritual expectations” of who we believe is the “Coming One” and what are our “spiritual expectations” of the “Messiah”? 

Jesus revealed Himself as the “Coming One” first to the disciples of John because they had read the Holy Scriptures and were “expecting” the "Messiah" spoken of by the prophet Isaiah and John the Baptist had borne “witness of Him and cried out saying, ‘This is He’ [the Messiah]…”.  (John 1:15) John the Baptist had clearly stated that his personal mission was to “Make straight the way of the Lord” (John 1:23)

 and then as John the Baptist first laid eyes on Jesus, 

John made his famous declaration 

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) 

There is no room for doubt, in the JQ#11 Question that 

Jesus is Teaching that He IS the Messiah and we should evaluate our “spiritual expectations” of Him --- the Divine Truth of God is that God sent His Only Begotten Son to the world as the Messiah 

— the Truth of God is not based on our “physical expectations” — but The Truth of God is based entirely and singularly on God’s Declarations! Did you ever stop to consider your personal “spiritual expectations” of Jesus Christ?    

SPIRITUAL FACT:

             ***THERE IS NO TRUTH BUT WHAT GOD HIMSELF DECLARES!!!***