Jesus And Questions

We have come today, fully and confidently aware that our Teacher is none other than the Holy Spirit. We are not second guessing Jesus and what He has told us time and time again about the works of the Spirit. Our minds have been made up to believe, receive and live the Spirit’s truth in us.

Pentecostal Holy Spirit, grant me Your perfect wisdom and understanding please. Let me die to all that is of me - all my ways and thoughts - that I may live to all that is of You. Amen!

We are following the Teacher as we learn through the teaching method of the question. You and I know that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are One, just as Jesus and the Father are One. You also know that the Holy Spirit works the things of Jesus, for as Jesus has declared, the Spirit will not speak on His own, but He will speak and do as Jesus, for He and Jesus are One. It stands to reason then that as Teacher, He will be and do exactly as Jesus.

Where is all this taking us? It is guiding and leading our focus to Jesus and the teaching methods He employed. As Teacher or Rabbi, while He was in the flesh, He was a skilful, smart and successful Teacher, using the means of stories, parables, statements and questions. We are well acquainted with His use of parables, but many of us don’t really take full account of the use of questions in His teaching. These are questions which come from different angles and different sources. This is what I mean.

There are questions which people have put to Him and He has used as a springboard to teach lots of life-truths. Here’s an example. When some people saw disciples of John the Baptist and the Pharisees fasting, they came and asked Jesus this question outright. How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not? Mark 2: 18b. Jesus seized the question, taking full advantage and made it into a teaching session, which is still invaluable to us today.

There are questions which Jesus Himself asked and used as His entry point to school all who would hear and receive life-saving facts. Here’s an example. Jesus is informing His disciples of His suffering and death and how absolutely necessary and imperative it is for anyone who wants to follow Him, to give up his or her natural ways of thinking and have in mind only the things of God. Then Jesus asks these questions. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Mark 8: 36 – 37. It is from these rhetorical questions that Jesus launches into sound, doctrinal and Spiritual treasures.

There are also questions which have not been directly asked of Jesus, yet Jesus takes them up and uses them to teach profound lessons. Here’s an example. One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with them and Jesus graciously accepted the invitation. During the dinner, a well-known woman of disreputable character enters and is touching Jesus. In his mind, the Pharisee is asking himself questions about the genuineness and authenticity of Jesus as a prophet. If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner. Luke 7: 39b.

Jesus hears the Pharisee's unspoken questions and queries and what a teaching takes place from these unarticulated questions.

Now we have noted how Jesus used questions in His teaching others, we will note the same with the Holy Spirit.