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to die.” Jesus means we live forever spiritually. One of the many gifts of God to us is eternal life.And we are told something that is almost unbelievable: God chose us to be with him before the world’s foundation and creation (Eph 1:4). We are told he called us into his own purpose and grace in Christ Jesus before the world even began (II Tim 1:9). How God can do this is beyond my understanding. This is why Jesus calls me a ‘believer,’ and not an ‘understander.’But the bottom line is we are to believe ALL things Jesus says, and not try to reason everything out. He says we are meant to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God — which is the gospel, this side of the cross.<h1 id="de7d">Question 48.</h1>Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?John 14:9The gospel is the only description of who Jesus and his Father are, who we are in them (our identity), and what we have in them. Anything else is man-concocted theology. I think Jesus may have been a hard person to believe. He wasn’t like a politician, and we’re told he wasn’t desirable, at least in most ways (Is 53:2). It was the same way with the Apostle Paul. He said he wasn’t much to look at and even considered himself unattractive.The gospel gives us inside revelation about who Jesus and his Father truly are. But again, we must forsake all other beliefs and repent of them, as Jesus says, and only believe his gospel to have access to this. As ‘The Gospel Life Coach,’ I work hard not to allow it to be mixed with anything else — none of those ‘10,000 instructors in Christ’ Paul talks about.The Jews of Jesus’ day knew a whole lot about God. But they didn’t know God personally. In fact, God had been silent for 400 years, and had not spoken to them at all, so how could they know much personally? (see John 7:28).Jesus says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn OF me…” (Matt 28–29). He didn’t say to just learn about his life history. If we come to him as he says, then we learn of him. We learn how he thinks. Come to know his heart.<h1 id="697c">Question 49.</h1>Do you love me? John 21:16This is the most important thing to Jesus: do we love him? It doesn’t just mean do we love what he does for us eternally, or do we love what he does for us on this earth. He asks, “Do you love ME?”We know Jesus was God with the skin on, so when we talk about God we talk about Jesus, and when we talk about Jesus, we talk about God. He plainly said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30

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). Jewish leaders knew who he claimed to be. It says they knew he was making himself equal with God (John 5:18). The Jews were going to stone him and said it was for blasphemy: “You, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:33).Jesus himself said we are to love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he said to love others as we do ourselves. But he was quoting the Old Testament law. He wasn’t preaching the gospel. I jokingly say he had his ‘black hat’ on and not his ‘white hat.’ Everything under the law is impossible to live (Acts 15:10, Rom 3:10). God knows we can’t love him with ALL we have — and have anything left over to love anyone else with at all.But our Abba Father God and his Son Jesus know if we love them — them personally, not what they do. And then Jesus says we are to love others — AS he loves us. The gospel is what draws us into loving God and his Son more than we ever thought possible and giving Jesus all the credit he is due.These are the two major faults of so many: (1) they don’t really love God, but what he does for them (they love the gift and not the Giver), and (2) They are afraid to give Jesus too much credit. They somehow seem to think they have a job to do to help Jesus out with what he started. They think Jesus was great, and what he did was great, but he didn’t finish his job, and we need to add our efforts to what he did.<h1 id="5916">Question 50.</h1>What if I want John to remain until I come? What concern is this to you? You follow me. John 21:22The first part of this is just a question personal to the time Jesus lived: a question to Peter about John. But the second part of this should concern us all. Jesus closed this question by telling Peter: “You follow me.”We judge others, but Jesus says don’t do it (Mat 7:1). We tend to compare ourselves to others, but Paul says we are not wise if we do (II Cor 10:12). Paul was diplomatic. At least he didn’t call us ‘stupid’ if we did.We aren’t all called to do the same things. We aren’t all called to be pastors. We aren’t all called to be evangelists on the mission field. We are just called to love Jesus, as we just talked about, and then to follow him, as this verse says, allowing him to at least be a big influence in our lives, if not run our lives.<blockquote id="1dc3">I’ve even stopped calling myself a Christian because this word means so many things to so many different people. I just call myself ‘a follower of Jesus.’</blockquote>It’s by following him that we are not as concerned with others who are following him, and what they are doing, and it’s really, I think, how we show him that we love him.</article></body>

50 Questions Jesus Asked! Can You Answer Them? (Numbers 46–50)

Jesus asked us some serious questions. We should know what these questions are, even if we haven’t yet answered them.

I provide answers, from ‘The Gospel Life Coach’ viewpoint, which is the title of my ministry, teaching, and booklets: Rogers-Inspiration-Books.com. These questions don’t appear in any sequence of importance, but in the order that they appear in the New Testament starting in Matthew.

Question 46.

If I am telling you the truth, why do you not believe me? John 8:46

This question follows hot on the heels of the last one, and on the heals of others we’ve reviewed in this message, and it comes just three verses later than the last question. Also, in verse 45 that precedes this one, Jesus says “Because I say the truth, you do not believe me.” Again, we must see that we must have eyes to see and ears to hear, to know the truth of Jesus. They must be open to whatever he says.

Too often what we do is listen to anything that comes down the Pike, coming from any preacher who sounds authoritative and confident. The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds says we have both good and bad things preached sown into our minds and hearts. That’s why God gave us the gospel, so we would be able to distinguish truth from fiction. We hear so much other non-gospel stuff preached, and Paul says we are often too trusting and gullible. The more non-gospel we hear, the less we can believe and live the gospel. James says we become ‘double-minded and unstable.’

The gospel gives us spiritual discernment and allows us to discern good from evil — right from wrong. But if we have so much other stuff in our so-called ‘truth box,’ we can’t know if something is truth or fiction, right or wrong.

If Jesus said to only believe his gospel, what do you think it was that he preached all the time? It was the gospel. He would not tell us to believe in creation and then go out and preach evolution, now would he? And he tells us we will be JUDGED by the words he says to us (John 12:48). We do not believe and trust him if we don’t believe and live his gospel.

Question 47.

Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? John 11:26

This of course does not say we will never die physically. We are told that all of us die physically: “It is appointed to man once to die.” Jesus means we live forever spiritually. One of the many gifts of God to us is eternal life.

And we are told something that is almost unbelievable: God chose us to be with him before the world’s foundation and creation (Eph 1:4). We are told he called us into his own purpose and grace in Christ Jesus before the world even began (II Tim 1:9). How God can do this is beyond my understanding. This is why Jesus calls me a ‘believer,’ and not an ‘understander.’

But the bottom line is we are to believe ALL things Jesus says, and not try to reason everything out. He says we are meant to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God — which is the gospel, this side of the cross.

Question 48.

Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?John 14:9

The gospel is the only description of who Jesus and his Father are, who we are in them (our identity), and what we have in them. Anything else is man-concocted theology. I think Jesus may have been a hard person to believe. He wasn’t like a politician, and we’re told he wasn’t desirable, at least in most ways (Is 53:2). It was the same way with the Apostle Paul. He said he wasn’t much to look at and even considered himself unattractive.

The gospel gives us inside revelation about who Jesus and his Father truly are. But again, we must forsake all other beliefs and repent of them, as Jesus says, and only believe his gospel to have access to this. As ‘The Gospel Life Coach,’ I work hard not to allow it to be mixed with anything else — none of those ‘10,000 instructors in Christ’ Paul talks about.

The Jews of Jesus’ day knew a whole lot about God. But they didn’t know God personally. In fact, God had been silent for 400 years, and had not spoken to them at all, so how could they know much personally? (see John 7:28).

Jesus says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn OF me…” (Matt 28–29). He didn’t say to just learn about his life history. If we come to him as he says, then we learn of him. We learn how he thinks. Come to know his heart.

Question 49.

Do you love me? John 21:16

This is the most important thing to Jesus: do we love him? It doesn’t just mean do we love what he does for us eternally, or do we love what he does for us on this earth. He asks, “Do you love ME?”

We know Jesus was God with the skin on, so when we talk about God we talk about Jesus, and when we talk about Jesus, we talk about God. He plainly said, “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). Jewish leaders knew who he claimed to be. It says they knew he was making himself equal with God (John 5:18). The Jews were going to stone him and said it was for blasphemy: “You, being a man, make yourself God” (John 10:33).

Jesus himself said we are to love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And then he said to love others as we do ourselves. But he was quoting the Old Testament law. He wasn’t preaching the gospel. I jokingly say he had his ‘black hat’ on and not his ‘white hat.’ Everything under the law is impossible to live (Acts 15:10, Rom 3:10). God knows we can’t love him with ALL we have — and have anything left over to love anyone else with at all.

But our Abba Father God and his Son Jesus know if we love them — them personally, not what they do. And then Jesus says we are to love others — AS he loves us. The gospel is what draws us into loving God and his Son more than we ever thought possible and giving Jesus all the credit he is due.

These are the two major faults of so many: (1) they don’t really love God, but what he does for them (they love the gift and not the Giver), and (2) They are afraid to give Jesus too much credit. They somehow seem to think they have a job to do to help Jesus out with what he started. They think Jesus was great, and what he did was great, but he didn’t finish his job, and we need to add our efforts to what he did.

Question 50.

What if I want John to remain until I come? What concern is this to you? You follow me. John 21:22

The first part of this is just a question personal to the time Jesus lived: a question to Peter about John. But the second part of this should concern us all. Jesus closed this question by telling Peter: “You follow me.”

We judge others, but Jesus says don’t do it (Mat 7:1). We tend to compare ourselves to others, but Paul says we are not wise if we do (II Cor 10:12). Paul was diplomatic. At least he didn’t call us ‘stupid’ if we did.

We aren’t all called to do the same things. We aren’t all called to be pastors. We aren’t all called to be evangelists on the mission field. We are just called to love Jesus, as we just talked about, and then to follow him, as this verse says, allowing him to at least be a big influence in our lives, if not run our lives.

I’ve even stopped calling myself a Christian because this word means so many things to so many different people. I just call myself ‘a follower of Jesus.’

It’s by following him that we are not as concerned with others who are following him, and what they are doing, and it’s really, I think, how we show him that we love him.