Questions Jesus Asked (Matthew) I. Introduction. A. The asking of questions may involve several purposes. 1. To seek information: John 5:6. 2. To provoke people to think: John 6:67. 3. As a reply to a question: Mark 11:29-30. 4. In order to teach: John 3:10. 5. To find out how much one knows on a subject. 6. Jesus was the Master Teacher--asking provoking, pointed, and profitable questions. B. Some questions are personal--intended for one person. 1. Example: John 21:15(asked 3 times). 2. Desire to provoke one to righteousness. 3. Aim is also to cause one to think. 4. To realize personal conditions. C. Some questions are general--intended for a group, a class, or all people. 1. Principles apply to those present and has a teaching affect: Luke 6:46. 2. Can also address all people for all times. II. Body. Jesus taught asking questions... A. "Have you understood all these things?" Matthew 13:51. 1. Jesus had been speaking in parables. 2. This was the first great group of parables: preparing these disciples for service. 3. They did not always understand what the Lord said: would not fully until after resurrection. 4. How well do we understand or seek to understand? B. "For it ye love them that love you, what reward have ye?" Matthew 5:46a. 1. Are disciples different? v. 46-47. 2. Those who follow the Lord are to seek: v. 48. 3. It is not easy to love some: a. Out of social category... b. A different race... c. Dirty and uncouth... 4. Jesus loved them all: He cared for their souls. 5. When one reaches down to help and teach someone who needs help---one is beginning to know how to be a Christian. C. "Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?" Matthew 6:25. 1. How much worry and effort do people put forth to feed and clothe the body? 2. God provides for us and for all of His creatures: v. 26. 3. Worry and anxiety do not help: v. 27. 4. Jesus is teaching proper values and priorities: Matthew 6:33. D. "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" Matthew 15:3. 1. How ones past often interferes with accepting truth. 2. Not wrong to wash before eating: turning such into a religious ritual is wrong. 3. The Pharisees found ways to get around God's law: v. 4-6. 4. They were hypocrites! 5. Separating tradition from truth is not easy for some. E. A pointed question: Matthew 7:3. 1. It is easy to see faults in others; not easy to recognize our own. 2. A common ploy: point out sin and error; folks try to find sin in you. 3. The procedure: v. 5. 4. Over the years, amazing how many seek to find something wrong in the teacher's life or teaching when approached about sin/error (if found, that does not make person right!). F. A thought provoking question: Matthew 16:26. 1. One cannot take a single penny into the Hadean world. 2. Deeds in this life count: v. 27. 3. One's values determine one's behavior(frozen bodies). G. "Are you able to drink the cup that I am able to drink?" Matthew 20:22. 1. Jesus was going to die. 2. The disciple said they were able to die for righteousness as well. 3. Are we? The apostles died! 4. That cup Jesus drank was for each and every soul from Adam to the last person on earth. III. Conclusion. A. "What think ye of the Christ?" Matthew 22:42. B. The answer to the above is one's reaction to His commands and the kind of life one lives.-James L. Yopp