DECEMBER 30 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-16 The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 

DECEMBER 30  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-16 The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life,

 Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Lord as I come to the last days of another year that You have

 so graciously provided for us, my thoughts are turned to the wonders

 of Your Love which You have so graciously bestowed on such an 

unloveable creature as me. Lord Jesus, I know that aside from those

 Good Things You have given me and my family over the past year that 

there would be little to no good at all in my life were it not for 

Your Forgiveness of my many shortcomings and I would still be lost in my sin —

 BUT GOD, O the Mystery of God’s Love that has been given without

 condition or limit and we, the recipients of that UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF GOD,

 have experienced the Abundant Life.  As I look toward another year

 I confidently pray, not my will, but Thine be done!      

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was shown by circumstance to be the Messiah as recorded in

 the first four chapters of Matthew’s Gospel of Jesus Christ and starting with

 Chapter 5, Matthew records the Sermon on the Mount with which Jesus 

started demonstrating through His Life and Teachings that He was the 

Son of God and the long awaited Messiah. Jesus was first 

recognized as an extraordinary Teacher after the Sermon on the Mount

 and throughout the remaining writings of Matthew, Jesus then asked 

a series of Questions which would focus our attention on a specific topic

 or Lesson that Jesus used to explain to us 

“How” to live a life pleasing to “our heavenly Father”. 

The Lessons that Jesus Taught from His Questions were always

 built around an Example that Jesus Himself had Lived. That Jesus

 was Teaching Spiritual Lessons from God the Father was evident to 

everyone that had witnessed the Life that Jesus Lived and the 

Lessons of God that Jesus was Teaching. 

This Teaching of God and His Kingdom of Heaven “Fact” was best 

expressed in a conversation Jesus had with 

“a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 

He [Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 

‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; 

for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.’” 

(John 3:1-2) 

Jesus went right to the “Point” of His Teachings:

 “Jesus answered [Nicodemus] and said to him,

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

he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3) 

Nicodemus knew that Jesus was Teaching about the things of God 

and if we study all the Questions Jesus used to introduce each 

Kingdom Lesson we too will know Jesus is the Greatest Teacher

 of the Mysteries of God that will ever walk the earth and in our

 “understanding” (that Jesus was so concerned about) of His Lessons 

that we also will “know” that 

Jesus IS the Son of God and was sent to bring Salvation 

to a lost and dying world. 

Jesus certainly didn’t ask Questions to gain “understanding” from us but rather, 

Jesus asked His Questions to impart “understanding” to us 

that we may know that God “so loved the world” (JOHN 3:16)  

…and that there were no limits to what God would do to impart Kingdom Knowledge

 to us in order to lead us “Home to be with our Heavenly Father”!!! 

The Gospel of Matthew begins: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…” 

(Matthew 1:1) and ends with Jesus summing up His Lessons: 

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them

 in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

 and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen 

(Matthew 28:19-20) 

Jesus never got off Point and Jesus never spoke without Teaching

 and for certain, after studying the Birth, Life, Death, Burial, 

and Resurrection of Jesus, 

we can confidently proclaim Jesus as the Messiah. 

To confirm to yourself the intent of The JESUS Questions, all one 

needs to do is “understand” that 

Jesus, the Son of God is asking the Questions directly to you 

and if you will give Jesus an “honest answer” — 

you will KNOW as did Nicodemus that 

Jesus is Teaching us about the Kingdom of God”!!! 

Once you “learn” what Jesus is Teaching, you will possess all the knowledge

 necessary “to become children of God…

born not of…the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13) 

The study of Matthew introduces Jesus Christ as the Son of God and 

if we learn the Lessons Jesus Taught with His Questions we will

 be equipped to enter into God’s Labor with Him for the Kingdom’s Sake 

and 

as we stand before God at the Final Judgement 

we will hear God declare to us 

“Well done thy good and faithful servant…

enter into My Rest!!!”  

DECEMBER 29 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-15 The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

 

DECEMBER 29  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  

JQ#1-33 SUMMARY-15   The Gospel of Matthew: A Study of the Life,

 Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ 

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer to JESUS    

JESUS, Your Grace has been sufficient for my every need, You have

 kept Your promise to lead us through the valley of the shadow of death

 and to lavish upon us the abundant life!  Lord, I started the year praying 

that each day You would fill us with Your Spirit and guide us through 

every situation and You have! Lord Jesus, today I simply lift my voice 

and my heart to You in Praise - giving You all the Glory - for You alone 

are Worthy - for You are my Passover that has delivered me from this

 body of death - Your  Blood is Victorious over the world and all its lusts

 that rob us of Your Joy and Peace - Lord, Savior, Redeemer,

 Praise to Your Holy Name JESUS!!!      AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus was shown to be the Messiah by a series of prophecies that

 were fulfilled with the events surrounding His “virgin birth” and each one

 is unique in that each event came about as simple undisputed facts 

that could not have been controlled or manipulated by someone after

 the event itself occurred such as the lineage of His parents and 

subsequently because of His parents lineage Jesus was born in Bethlehem,

 none of us get to choose our parents or where we are born!  

Then when Jesus began His earthly Ministry He was baptized in the

 Jordan River by John the Baptist who was the prophetic fulfillment of the

 forerunner of the Messiah and it was at this occasion that John declared

 about Jesus: “Behold [JESUS], the Lamb of God 

that takes away the sins of the world!”. 

John, the Messiah’s forerunner, had been foretold thousands of years

 earlier and John’s declaration and message of 

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and his claiming

 that Jesus was the “Lamb of God” are Biblical facts that point to Jesus 

as being the long awaited Messiah — 

all of which are historical facts that could not be made up by followers of Jesus

 after His death!  These “FACTS” pointing to Jesus being the Messiah

 could not have been “manufactured as part of some conspiracy” 

after Jesus was crucified because the Jewish leaders who had Jesus 

crucified by the Romans simply would have disputed any “made up” 

events because the Jewish traditions are built entirely on the 

preservation of their lineage and in addition the Jewish leaders were

 well versed in the Jewish Holy Scriptures which are filled with the 

prophecies of the Jewish Messiah and would have corrected any 

false claims immediately.  Add to those facts about John the Baptist

 fulfilling the prophecy of the forerunner of the MESSIAH and the 

Jewish leaders protecting their Jewish heritage, these same Jewish 

leaders were the ones that condemned Jesus to death in the first place

 because of His claim to be the Son of the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob,

 these same Jewish leaders would not have allowed any sect of 

“blasphemers” to fabricate a story using the Holy Scriptures to put the

 religious leaders in such a bad light!  Then to add insult to injury,

 the Jewish leaders had to stand by and let all these “false fables” become 

The New Testament and become the most printed and most widely read

 book in the history of the world!  If Jesus had not existed and had not

 the “facts” surrounding Him not been true, then those “fabricating blasphemy”

 would have been punished because history itself proves that the Jewish

 leaders had the “power” to put someone to death if they were guilty

 of blasphemy — indeed this claim that He was the Chosen One is 

the very reason they used to put Jesus Himself to death! The odds are

 absolutely astronomical that these many facts could be fabricated 

for one man especially when the facts bring so much “shame” on a group 

of Jewish leaders that were so “all-powerful” and had dedicated centuries

 to preserving their heritage and control over the Jewish traditions! 

Matthew, who was a Jew himself and an eyewitness to the life Jesus lived 

and knew full well the Jewish heritage that had been handed down to him 

through his Jewish family plus Matthew was a well-educated Jew who was

 taught the Jewish Holy Scriptures and prophecies of the Coming Messiah

 making Matthew indeed the best qualified person to recognize that 

JESUS FULFILLED PROPHECY and was indeed 

JESUS CHRIST, THE MESSIAH!!!  

Matthew had written his Gospel of Jesus account  C. A.D. 50 and that

 would have been contemporary with many of the powerful Jewish leaders

 that had  been responsible for Jesus being executed for “blasphemy” 

against the Jewish traditions and Holy Scriptures and had Matthew 

simply fabricated these “facts about the life of Jesus” then Matthew himself

 would have been stoned to death and his writings would have been 

utterly destroyed. The simple fact that Matthew’s Gospel still exists

 is proof that the Gospel is the 

TRUTH OF GOD and JESUS IS GOD’S SON!!! 

The body of evidence is so great that one must fabricate reasons 

NOT TO BELIEVE — it is not a lack of FACTS that prevents one from 

BELIEVING IN JESUS — no, as with all things relating to faith in anything,

 it is our own “BELIEF” in the “FACTS” that establishes our “FAITH” —

 even atheists have “faith” but God cannot be “dis-proved”!! 

Hence, everyone is left with the individual responsibility of determining where

 we will spend our “eternity” — and that final determination will be based on

 what you “BELIEVE” to be “TRUE” about “JESUS” because the

 FACT of ETERNITY does not exist outside the FACT OF GOD!  

It was God Himself that declared when the Spirit descended on Jesus

 like a dove after Jesus was Baptized in the Jordan, 

“You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) 

There is no other man in all of history that can show from prophecy 

 past to prophecy future that He is the Son of God for we know from

 these God Protected and God Preserved Holy Scriptures 

that JESUS IS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD — 

the facts prove it, but will you believe it to be true?