AUGUST 26 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#27
“Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?”
(Matthew 22:12)
LIVING FOR JESUS Daily Prayer
JESUS I come today praising You for that “fresh anointing” that You
bestowed on me yesterday for I had re-prayed a 2004 prayer
asking that You would grant Your Holy Spirit in my life and Lord
You proved Yourself Faithful in answering YET ANOTHER prayer.
Lord today I pray that even though I am in the world that today
I will not be “of the world” but that I will be a conduit of Your
Holy Spirit that You have so abundantly granted me in my life and
Your Spirit will flow out of me to that one that You will place in my
way today that needs Your Holy Spirit — so let my spirit be yielded
to Your Holy Spirit so that the desires of my flesh will give way to
the surrender of my Faith and through Your Grace I will be a blessing
to someone that needs what only the Christ can offer,
Peace-Love-Joy and a Hope and a Future
in our Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN
THE JESUS QUESTIONS
Jesus paints a very clear picture of God and the kingdom of heaven
with this third and most important parable that Jesus used in
pronouncing the fate of the religious rulers of Israel and all those
that reject God and fail to see His purpose for His creation! So let
us look at this very, very important parable (Matthew 22:1-14) in
enough detail to find the
Truth of God
that Jesus is Teaching.
Jesus starts the parable with:
“The kingdom of heaven is like…” (Matthew 22:1a)
so there is no doubt that Jesus is talking about “heaven” and if
we look at the simple phrase “kingdom of heaven” then we know
that there will be “king” that is the
Supreme Ruler over the Kingdom of Heaven
and in this phrase we can easily assume that the “king” of “heaven”
is that “Supreme Ruler”. When Jesus continues
“…the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king…”
then the religious rulers and everyone in Israel knew and accepted
that God is the “certain king” for
“God created the heavens and the earth…” (Genesis 1:1)
and that God Himself is the Supreme Ruler over His Creation
which includes the “heavens and the earth”!
Jesus has introduced this third parable Lesson as being about
the Supreme Power and Authority over the entire creation of God
and that the Truth of God is Eternal!
Jesus concludes His introduction of the parable with
“…a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son…”
so after the phrase about the “certain king” arranging a “marriage”
for “his son”, the chief priests and Pharisees knew that
the “certain king” is the Almighty God and that
He is the Supreme Ruler over all creation,
however, the concept of God having a Son and then God having
“arranged a marriage” for Him
is what the chief priests, religious rulers of Israel, the scribes,
the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees were
having a problem with — because instead of embracing
Jesus as the Son of God
they were missing the main point of the
Father God and His Begotten Son Jesus
and God’s Plan of Salvation
for the whole world and all future generations! So this third parable
is most important when we consider that
Jesus IS the Son of God,
that Jesus fulfilled ALL the prophecies of the Chosen One,
the Messiah, and that Jesus is about to
complete the Plan of Salvation as the Lamb of God!!!
The Holy Scriptures Teach that as Abraham was about to sacrifice
his beloved son Isaac who asked his father,
“…but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
and Abraham said, ‘my son,
God will provide for Himself the lamb…’” (Genesis 22:7-8)
This ties back to the “Baptism-of-John” Question which started this
series of “power and authority” Lessons that Jesus is Teaching
in His last week on earth before being crucified at the end
of the Passover Week. It was John who baptized Jesus and
John bore witness of Jesus. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming
to him to be baptized in the Jordan River, the forerunner of the Messiah
announced:
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”
and immediately after baptizing Jesus, John saw
“the Spirit of God descending from heaven”
and remained on Jesus — at which point John declared:
“And I have seen and testified that
[Jesus] is the Son of God.” (Genesis 1:26-34).
Therefore this third parable joins together all the Holy Scriptures
and all the prophecies except the crucifixion and the resurrection
on the third day which are about to be fulfilled so that the Apostle John
will write after the death, burial, and resurrection
“For the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
(John 1:17).
Jesus Himself had said,
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill [the Law and the Prophets]”
(Matthew 5:17)
When we think of the significance of this third parable in the
fulfilling of prophecy and God’s Master Plan
we can take a deep breath of gratitude that with only a few days left
on earth that Jesus is being so thorough in His Teachings of
God’s Plan ——— The Divine Plan for mankind
which the Apostle John summarized for us:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
(John 3:16)
— Jesus is always Teaching,
the question is
“Are we believing what Jesus is Teaching?”
