Scripture Matthew 16:15
What? Why? Where? When? Who? How?
Prayer
Matthew 16:15 "But what about you?" Jesus
asked. "Who do
you say I am?"
Luke 2:46-48 After three days they
found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47
Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
SIMPLY PUT:
We ask questions because we need to know the answer.
Jesus asked questions, because the one he asked…needed to know the answer.
But asking questions is NOT that simple…
There are various types of questions people ask and each determines what kind of answer/or/response can be given. Not all questions are looking for an answer but every question that Jesus asks, is looking for a response! We may ask different kinds of questions, like:
Information: What is 2+2? Easy to answer - 4.
Rhetorical - not meant to have an answer: Is water wet?
Meant to make
us think: Why did the chicken cross the road?
Like 2+2 = 4 it
is easy to answer but you can't be sure your answer is correct.
Why did the chicken cross the
road? - To get to the other side?
Why?
Running to get
dinner.
Running to keep
from becoming dinner.
Just going
home.
Just leaving
home?
Just as we can ask questions for different reasons, so does Jesus:
Jesus Asked a Lot of Questions.
Why?
If you read the Gospels, you’ll notice that Jesus asked a
lot of questions. Until now, though, I had yet to asked why He
asked so many questions.
So, why did Jesus ask so many questions? Asking
questions in teaching has been a common practice for many teachers. This is
true during the time of Jesus as well. Most of the time, the purpose of asking
a question is to generate a response and to encourage people to think more
deeply about something. Jesus often asked very pointed questions to different
audiences to get a response. The response would then be used for teaching, for
testing, for believing, for proclaiming, and for rebuking. In many cases,
Jesus’s purpose for asking questions falls into multiple categories
simultaneously.
Let’s look at a couple of examples of Jesus asking
questions and look to see why He asked them.
Questions
to engage others
Jesus used simple, short
questions to create a connection and draw people in. In the Gospel of Matthew,
for example, he frequently asks his disciples “What
do you think?” On the road to the village of Emmaus, the unrecognized
resurrected Christ says to the two unsuspecting men, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
(Luke 24:17). When he takes his disciples through Samaria and stops at a well,
he asks the lone woman, “Will you get me a drink?"
(John 4:7).
Rhetorical Question
(Mark 8:31-37) And
He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things
and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed, and after three days rise again. And He said
this plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But
turning and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are
not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said
to them, “If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For
what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his
soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?.”
Rhetorical questions are meant to illicit a response within the hearer. Just not a verbal one. Jesus is using these questions to teach the crowd to be introspective, or do some self-examination. He wants each of them to come to a conclusion on their own as to how they would answer these questions.
Response Invoking Questions
This type of question requires a verbal response.
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying,
“Teacher, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you
read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all
your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:25-28)
Jesus responded to the man’s question with a question of
His own, as he often did. “What is written in the Law? How do you
read it?”
It is clear that this question is meant to receive a
verbal response. No matter how the man answers it, Jesus would use his response
to teach.
Rebuking
Questions
What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first
and said, ‘Son,
go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to
the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but
did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax
collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not
believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And
even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe
him."
(Matthew
21:23-32)
Jesus is asking questions to rebuke the religious leaders and the people. He is rebuking them for their disbelief and subsequent rejection of God. The Son of God, Jesus, was standing in their midst. And they did not believe who he really was.
Testing
Questions
Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat
down, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward Him, Jesus said
to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for
He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread
would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” One of His
disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him, “There is a boy here who has
five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus
said, “Have the people
sit down.” So the
men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then
took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed them to
those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when
they had eaten their fill, He told His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that
nothing may be lost.” So
they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets full. (John 6:5-13)
The text tells us that Jesus asks the question to Philip
to test him. Philip did not pass the test. He was looking to what is seen.
Rather than looking to the power of God demonstrated in the Messiah, Jesus.
Jesus then used Andrew's response as a foundation to teach the truth.
Teaching
Questions
In Luke chapter 10, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. It begins with a question from a religious authority, “And who is my neighbor?” When Jesus finishes the parable, he asks, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” And the religious authority can only answer, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Believing
Questions
When Jesus encounters Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, he asks, “What do you want me to do?” (Mark 10:51). In John 5:6, at the Bethsaida springs, he asks the lame man, “Do you want to get well?” He is seeking an affirmation of their faith and a desire to change.
Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. So when
Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to Him and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my
brother would not have died." Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who
lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are
the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John
11:17-27)
One of the most important questions that we must answer
is, Do you believe
this? Do you
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world? I
do.
Martha believed.
Another time, many of His disciples turned back and no
longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the
twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know,
that You are the Holy One of God.”
CONCLUSION
Back to where we started - just thinking
about questions in general, then compared to the questions Jesus asked.
Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus only asked inspired questions?
What are Inspired Questions?
Inspired questions are the ones found in the inspired Word of God—the Bible. They help us sense the presence of God in our life and empower us to become more sensitive to the Holy Spirit. They reveal our hearts in ways other questions cannot. They drive us deeper into our own reading of the Scriptures. They are a uniquely powerful tool for unlocking key information in the Bible. They are for everyone who lives on this planet for the simple fact that God’s Word is for everyone. The fact that the Spirit inspired them means we should know what they are and consider what inspired answers there might be.
End with 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 from my Living Bible
1 Corinthians 2:1-16 (LIV)
Dear
brothers, even when I first came to you I didn't use lofty words and brilliant
ideas to tell you God's message. For I decided that I would speak only of Jesus
Christ and his death on the cross. I came to you in weakness-timid and
trembling. And my preaching was very plain, not with a lot of oratory and human
wisdom, but the Holy Spirit's power was in my words, proving to those who heard
them that the message was from God. I did this because I wanted your faith to
stand firmly upon God, not on man's great ideas.
Yet when I
am among mature Christians I do speak with words of great wisdom, but not the
kind that comes from here on earth, and not the kind that appeals to the great
men of this world, who are doomed to fall. Our words are wise because they are
from God, telling of God's wise plan to bring us into the glories of heaven.
This plan was hidden in former times, though it was made for our benefit before
the world began. But the great men of the world have not understood it; if they
had, they never would have crucified the Lord of Glory.
That is
what is meant by the Scriptures which say that no mere man has ever seen,
heard, or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love
the Lord. But we know about these things because God has sent his Spirit to
tell us, and his Spirit searches out and shows us all of God's deepest secrets.
No one can really know what anyone else is thinking or what he is really like
except that person himself. And no one can know God's thoughts except God's own
Spirit. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) to
tell us about the wonderful free gifts of grace and blessing that God has given
us. In telling you about these gifts we have even used the very words given to
us by the Holy Spirit, not words that we as men might choose. So we use the
Holy Spirit's words to explain the Holy Spirit's facts.
But the man who isn't a Christian can't understand and can't accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can't take it in. But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can't understand him at all. How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord's thoughts, or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer. But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.
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