The Jesus Answer Book by MacArthur, John F. -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction Jesus: Who He Is

His Birth

Why Can We Believe In the Virgin Birth of Jesus? How Is the Virgin Birth Possible? What Did Mary Model for Believers In Her Response to the News She Would Be Mother to the Son of God? Why Did Matthew and Luke Include Such Long Genealogies In Their Gospel Accounts? Why Are the Genealogies In Matthew and Luke Different? Why Is It Significant That Jesus Was Born In Bethlehem? What Do We Know About the Inn Where Mary and Joseph Stayed In Bethlehem? Why Does Luke Tell Us That Mary “Wrapped [the Baby Jesus] In Swaddling Cloths” (Luke 2:12)? So What Exactly Did Mary Lay Her Swaddled Baby In? Is It Odd That the Shepherds Were the Very First People to Hear About Jesus’ Birth? How Were Shepherds Regarded In That Time and Place? What Was Significant About the Angel’s Announcement, “Unto You Is Born This Day In the City of David a Savior, Who Is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11 ESV)? If the Angel’s Announcement Was More Significant Than a First Glance Suggests, What Is the Full Meaning of the Heavenly Host’s Words of Praise: “Glory to God In the Highest, and On Earth Peace, Goodwill Toward Men!” (Luke 2:14)? What Is Commendable About the Shepherds’ Response to This Good News Proclaimed from the Heavens? When the Magi Arrived At the Home of Jesus—A Toddler At That Point—They Brought Gifts As an Act of Worship. What Is the Significance of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh? Why Did Jesus, the Son of God, Need to Be Circumcised? Why Did Joseph and Mary Present Jesus At the Temple?

His Youth

What Do We Know About Jesus’ Childhood? Why Did It Take Joseph and Mary So Long to Realize Their Son Was Missing? What Was Happening In the Temple When Jesus’ Parents Found Him? What Happened When Jesus’ Parents Found Him? Since Jesus Is God, Why Did He Have to Learn Anything? Why Do We Sometimes See Jesus’ Omniscience and Sometimes We Don’t? Why Did Jesus Need to Be Born of a Virgin? Luke 2 Is a Key Account of Jesus’ Birth, But What Does the Book of Hebrews Teach About the God-Man Born In Bethlehem? What Seven Truths About Christ’s Preeminence Are Set Forth In Hebrews 1:2–3? Why Is It Valuable to Read Hebrews 1 In Conjunction With Luke 2?

Jesus: His Works and His Words

Preparing the Way

God Sent John the Baptist to Prepare the Way for Jesus. What Was John’s Message? Why Did Jesus Have to Be Baptized By John (Matthew 3:13–17)? What Confirmation That Jesus Was the Messiah Did John Witness? Why Was John Later Confused By Jesus’ Ministry?

Miracles

Healing the Leper An Amazing Catch of Fish Calming the Storm The Paralytic By the Pool At Bethesda The Paralytic Lowered Through the Roof Jesus Raised His Friend Lazarus from the Dead. What Was Significant About the Words of the Dead Man’s Sister Martha When Lazarus Still Lay In the Grave? The Feeding of the Five Thousand Why Were the Disciples Excited When Jesus Began to Do Miracles Like the Handful We’ve Looked At? In Addition to the Miracles He Did, Jesus Drew Attention to Himself When He Overturned the Money Changers’ Tables In the Temple. Why Did He Do That? How Did Jesus Handle Himself In the Fray? Jesus Didn’t Hesitate to Confront the Jews About Their Conduct In the Temple. What Did Jesus Do In Response to the Way the Jews Were Observing the Sabbath? Why Were the Pharisees So Adamant About How the Sabbath Should Be Observed?

Teachings

In Matthew 5:3–13, Jesus Opens His Sermon On the Mount With What Has Come to Be Called the Beatitudes. What Are the Beatitudes All About? What Was Unsettling, If Not Radical, About Jesus’ Beatitudes? Why Did the Beatitudes Upset the Pharisees, the Key Religious Leaders of Jesus’ Day? Why Did Jesus Say Again and Again In the Sermon On the Mount, “You Have Heard That It Was Said to Those of Old . . . But I Say to You . . .” (Matthew 5:21–22)? What Is an Example of Jesus Unpacking the True and Full Meaning of the Law? What Exactly Did Jesus Mean When He Closed This Section of the Sermon On the Mount With, “You Are to Be Perfect, As Your Heavenly Father Is Perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NASB)? How Did the Pharisees Hear Jesus’ Call to Perfection? Did Jesus Specifically Address the Pharisees’ Futile Practice of Their Man-Made Religion? In Addition to His Teaching About the Sabbath, What Are Some Specific Practices of the Pharisees That Jesus Spoke to? Why Didn’t the Pharisees Want to Change Their Ways? What Summary of the Old Testament Law and Teachings Did Jesus Offer? What Is Jesus’ Closing Point In His Sermon On the Mount? When Jesus Taught, What About His Delivery Attracted the People’s Attention? What Are Some Truths About God’s Forgiveness That Jesus Taught? What One Unpardonable Sin Did Jesus Teach About? What Harsh Words for the Pharisees Did Jesus Have? Jesus Began Seven of the Eight Woes With, “Woe to You, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!” What Is Significant About His Calling the Pharisees Hypocrites? What Other Aspect of Jesus’ Teaching Here Offended the Religious Establishment? What Did Jesus Mean When He Called His Followers to “Take His Cross and Follow After Me” (Matthew 10:38)? What Was Significant About Jesus’ Encounter With the Woman At the Well (John 4)? What Truth Did Jesus Set Forth Clearly for the Woman At the Well and Also for His Followers Today? What Did Jesus Mean When He Told Nicodemus—A Jewish Leader, a Pharisee, and a Member of the Sanhedrin—That He Needed to Be Born Again? In Response, Nicodemus Said, “How Can a Man Be Born When He Is Old? Can He Enter a Second Time Into His Mother’s Womb and Be Born?” (John 3:4). Did Nicodemus Really Not Understand What Jesus Meant? What Did Nicodemus Probably Understand Jesus to Be Saying? Why Was Jesus So Harsh With Nicodemus? What Can Today’s Defenders of the Faith Learn from Jesus?

Parables

What Is a Parable? Why Did Jesus Choose to Teach In a Way That Was Not Readily Understood By All His Hearers? What Are Some of the Parables Jesus Told That Both Puzzled and Enlightened—And What Truths Did They Teach?

Additional Teachings

What Are Some of the Truths Jesus Taught Without Using a Parable?

Reactions to Jesus’ Teachings

Why Didn’t the Religious Teachers of His Day Accept Jesus? Why Were Religious People of the Day Upset When Jesus Dined With Tax Collectors and Sinners? Why Were the Religious Leaders So Passionate About Getting Rid of Jesus? When Did Jesus Clearly Declare With His Words Rather Than Just His Miracles That He Was the Son of God? Why Did Jesus Treat His Opponents So Harshly? Didn’t Jesus Care About How People Felt When He Taught? When Jesus Discussed the Pharisees’ Approach to Their Christian Life, He Seemed to Be Commenting On More Than, Say, Hand Washing or Observing the Sabbath. What Was the Real Issue? So, Then, What Was the Main Purpose of Jesus’ Teaching and Preaching?

Jesus: His Passion

Palm Sunday

Jesus Entered Jerusalem to Celebrate the Passover and, As the Lamb of God, Consummate His Ministry By Dying On Behalf of Sinful Human Beings. What Evidence In the Mark 11:1–11 Description Is There That the People Were Welcoming Him As Military Leader and King? The Festive Palm Sunday Scene When Jesus Entered Jerusalem Offered No Hints As to What the Week Held for the One the Crowd Hailed With “Hosanna!” Why Were the People So Excited?

Cleansing the Temple

Now In Jerusalem, Jesus Went to the Temple and Cleansed It Just As He Had Done Three Years Earlier. Why Was This Act Significant?

The Last Supper

Based On the History of the Passover, What Is Significant About This Particular Celebration of the Historic Event? When Jesus and His Disciples Gathered for the Passover Meal, Why Did Jesus Wash Everyone’s Feet? In What Ways Did the Last Supper Point to the Church’s Celebration of Communion?

Jesus’ Prayers At Gethsemane

When Jesus Prayed In Gethsemane and Asked If God Would “Take This Cup Away” (Luke 22:42), What Exactly Was Jesus Referring to? Jesus Must Have Realized That There Was No Way the Cup Could Pass from Him, So Why Did He Pray Like This In the Garden?

The Arrest

Why Did So Many People Go to Gethsemane to Arrest Jesus? How Did the Mob Know Which Man In the Garden Was Jesus? The Arrest Was Easy, and It Was Time to Move to the Trial. What Difficulty Did Jesus’ Accusers Encounter?

The Trials

Did the Sanhedrin Treat Jesus Fairly? Why Did Jesus Never Say Anything In His Defense? As These Bogus Trials Were Playing Themselves Out, Peter Denied Ever Knowing Jesus. Why Did Peter Fall? Was There a Key Moment In These Bogus Trials That Clinched Jesus’ Death?

Jesus Before Pilate

Once the Sanhedrin Found Jesus Guilty of Blasphemy, Why Did This Jewish Rabbi Have to Go to Trial Before the Roman Authorities, Namely Pilate? Pilate Was Willing to Let Jesus Go Free. Why Did the Crowd Object? Pilate Ordered Jesus to Be Flogged Before Being Nailed to a Cross. What Did a Flogging Involve?

The Crucifixion

When Jesus Arrived At Golgotha, Why Was He Offered Something to Drink? Jesus Was Crucified. What Did Death By Crucifixion Actually Entail? Is Death By Crucifixion Often Death By Asphyxiation?

The Justice of Calvary

Was Jesus’ Death At Calvary the Worst Miscarriage of Human Justice In History? Were the People Who Crucified Jesus Innocent Pawns In a Divine Plan? How Could a Loving God Approve of This Plan, Especially When It Involved the Death of His Only Son? So the Crucifixion of Jesus—The Death of the Son—Was Part of God’s Plan? What Did the Crucifixion Mean for Jesus As a Flesh-And-Blood Human Being?

Jesus’ Final Words

Scripture Records Only Seven Brief Sayings from the Savior As He Hung On the Cross. What Is the Significance of Each of Those?

Jesus: Why He Matters

The Death of Jesus

Why Did the Apostle Paul Place So Much Emphasis On the Death of Christ Rather Than Always Stressing the Triumph of the Resurrection? Jesus Died On Friday, But He Rose On Sunday. How Is That Three Days? What Were Some of the Remarkable, Supernatural Phenomena That Accompanied Jesus’ Death—And What Was the Significance of Each? Why Did Jesus Die?

The Resurrection

How Can We Be Sure That Jesus Actually Rose from the Dead? Who Saw the Resurrected Jesus? Why Has the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Been Called the Single Greatest Event In the History of the World?

The Choice Between Life and Death

Why Does It Matter Who Jesus Is? What Are the Possible Consequences of What We Believe About God? What Are Some Guidelines for Considering Who God Is? Twenty-First-Century People Try Hard Not to Offend Individuals Who Have Different Beliefs; Tolerance and Acceptance Are the Rule of the Day. That Doesn’t Seem to Be the Choice Jesus Made, However. What Can We Learn from Him?

Jesus As Savior and Lord

What Is the Connection Between Naming Jesus “Lord” and Acknowledging Him As Savior? What Does Having Faith In Jesus As One’s Savior Look Like In Real Life? Turning to Jesus

Jesus’ Invitation to You

Sources

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