Jesus and His Questions

By Jeff Lucas

Ever met someone who had all the answers? Even when you didn’t want to know what they were? The person who knew exactly what you should do in a situation you had been struggling with for weeks—even though he or she had been listening to you for only thirty seconds?
 
Jesus could have been like that, but He wasn’t. Instead, He was often the one asking the questions—and treasuring the answers. Jesus’ questions tell us so much about Him, and us, and how we should relate to Him and emulate Him. So let’s pinpoint and delve into the questions Jesus posed during His ministry on earth. They could transform your life as they have transformed the lives of so many before you—and will continue to do so for countless more in the future.
 
Bible Daily notes are written by Jeff Lucas to help you apply the lessons of God’s Word daily. Each day and with each devotion, Jeff uses his signature wit and wisdom to reveal insights and practical application you can use in your own life. Each Bible devotion takes only a few minutes to read, but the lessons learned can last a lifetime.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: David C Cook
• Release date: Mar 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9780830782819

Jeff Lucas

Jeff Lucas holds a teaching post at Timberline Church, Fort Collins. He is author of 18 books, and a highly popular speaker. He writes a monthly column for Christianity magazine and regular Bible notes for CWR.

Book preview

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CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Any Questions?

2. The Odd Quizmaster

3. Repent

4. He’s Not a One-Strike Jesus

5. Parables

6. A Time to Be Quiet

7. Jesus Asked Because He Wanted to Know

8. Questions with a Hint

9. Living with Questions

10. The Learning Years

11. Facing Questions

12. Nearest and Dearest

13. What Do You Want?

14. What Do You Want Me to Do for You?

15. Our Stuff Matters

16. Son of David

17. The Heart behind the Questions

18. What Is It You Want?

19. Gently Does It

20. Great Expectations

21. Close Friends

22. Cana

23. Imperfect Requests

24. Who Is My Mother?

25. A New Family

26. Hurt by the Question

27. What Are We Like?

28. Consumers

29. What Do We Really Believe?

30. Oxen and Humans

31. Silence Can Be Golden

32. What Are We Thinking?

33. But Who Do You Say That I Am?

34. Everything Will Change

35. Kingdom Warfare and Unity

36. It’s Not the Principle, It’s the Person

37. Where Is Your Faith?

38. Don’t You Care?

39. You Do It

40. Where’s Your Faith?

41. Didn’t I Tell You?

42. Why Did You Doubt?

43. Savior for All

44. What Are You Arguing About?

45. Do We Get It?

46. Forever

47. He Was Born, and He Grew Up

48. A Beautiful Thing

49. Motives Exposed

50. What’s Wrong?

51. Playful

52. Heartburn and Onward Travel

Introduction

His name was Mr. Ruff, and he was the greatest teacher I’ve ever met. David Ruff gave me a love for English, but also confidence that I could learn to use words well if I worked hard. In his classes, I learned far more than the mechanics of Shakespearean sonnets and the background to the saucy genius of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. I learned about life, about communication, about myself, about what I might do.

As great as Mr. Ruff was, the accolade of greatest teacher actually belongs to Jesus. His stories were riveting. His sayings were punchy and profound; you could spend a lifetime pondering them. But Jesus’ brilliance also lay in His ability to ask questions—nearly three hundred of them spread across the four gospels.

The Pharisees loved questions too, but they tended to ask a rhetorical question and then provide a legalistic answer wrapped in concrete, saddling weary, ordinary people with dead weights. Jesus’ questions, however, brought life, joy, understanding, and power.

Years ago, Andraé Crouch popularized a song called Jesus Is the Answer. And He is. But these days, I tend to think that He’s more the brilliant, beautiful question.

Day 1

Any Questions?

Matthew 21:23–27

Luke 20:1–8

Questions are usually the fruit of an inquiring mind, or a cry for help from the confused: clarify, if you please. In the brutal hands of the interrogator, questions become weapons, wearing the prisoner down. The learned use questions to test the knowledge—or ignorance—of their students. Questions are expressions of wonder, as the wide-eyed child asks for the eleventh time, But why, Daddy?

Jesus loved asking questions. He used them all the time. Perhaps there’s nothing unusual about that because He was a rabbi and proffering questions was definitely the Jewish teaching style. Not for them was the single-voice teaching style of the Greeks, where many sit and listen, and the one who stands at the front of the class tells. The Jews preferred a rough and tumble conversational style. Unafraid of conflict or disagreement, they felt questions were true stepping-stones to understanding. Jesus came not only teaching with an authority that made the common people gasp and the religious experts squirm, but with questions that penetrated the heart and kick-started the brain. He didn’t just tell the lost how to be found, but provoked them, activated a search in them. Let’s stand in the little crowd around Jesus and be the disciples of His that we are. Let’s open our hearts to allow His questions to come to us personally, not so that we can just gather more information, but so they might penetrate our lives and transform us. Jesus’ questions to His first disciples turned their lives upside down. Who knows what might happen to us?

Pray: As I seek today to answer the questions of yesterday, Lord Jesus, teach, challenge, and change me. What are Your questions for me, Lord? Amen.

Day 2

The Odd Quizmaster

Matthew 3:1–7

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