Jesus asked QUESTIONS.

 

1. Jesus asked curiosity questions.

Carey Nieuwhof has interviewed more than 500 people on his podcast. From my estimation, he has crafted the art behind asking great questions. He says, “Curiosity is your best friend as a leader. So when you’re interviewing, act more like a 6-year-old than a 36-year-old.”

The two best questions to ask if you are curious:

“How…”

“Why…”

Altogether, about 80 of the questions Jesus asked are “how” and “why” questions. He asked questions like “Why do you doubt?” and “Why are you thinking these things?”

Great leaders remain curious. They want to know how and why things work, understand how and why people are the way they are, etc. What stands out to me even more, though, is that Jesus was not only fully man but also fully God. Jesus was omniscient, all-knowing. So, in one sense, Jesus didn’t have to ask curiosity questions. He already knew everything! And yet, He still did!

Why did he do this?

To help us grow in our faith. Some would argue that bible verse questions are opposed to faith, but I think it’s fairer to say that our faith and questions together form a powerful pair. Our faith grows more in uncertainty, doubt, and trying times than it does when everything is in perfect order. Jesus asking questions of curiosity allowed His listeners to wrestle with their faith.

2. Jesus asked open-ended questions.

As you scroll through the questions Jesus asked, there aren’t many that could have a “Yes” or “No” answer. They go beyond the superficial “How are you doing” and “What do you do” questions that we typically start with.

On numerous occasions, Jesus would ask questions like “What do you want?” and “Why do you call me good?” These are questions Jesus asked that require the person to honestly think before responding. They likely can’t be answered quickly.

One of the things that prevent so many of us from asking good questions is that it feels like we are too hurried. If we ask open-ended questions and are genuinely interested in their answers, this means we need to have time for people.

Jesus, who had the most critical responsibility and task of anyone to ever walk this planet, was able to spend time going deep with family, friends, and sometimes even strangers. Do you have the time to do this?

3. Questions Jesus asked were challenging ones.

The heart of the Gospel is an invitation to be in a life-giving real relationship with God. This relationship includes the opportunity to follow Him daily, right here and now. As Jesus was announcing the Good News through preaching, teaching, and healing, He was unafraid to issue challenging questions to His followers and those listening.

Questions like “Will you really lay down your life for me?” and “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?”

The invitation to follow after Jesus is the most incredible opportunity any of us will ever have. It is a life filled with significance, meaning, and purpose. But, to truly live out the faith that Jesus is inviting us into will require a substantial cost. To do anything of significance comes with significant challenges, and following Jesus is no exception.

As a pastor, I often wonder how much growth the church loses out on simply because we don’t ask or challenge our people enough. I think most pastors are skilled at proclaiming the justification of Jesus, but far fewer are skilled at challenging their people towards a life of holiness. It’s good to ask someone to believe in Jesus, but it’s deeper and more challenging to ask someone to follow Jesus.

Amazingly, only once in Matthew, Mark, and Luke does Jesus ask a question with the word “believe” in it. Of course, we should never abandon the invitation to believe in Jesus, but we certainly should frequently be challenging our people to truly follow Jesus.

4. Jesus didn’t ask when questions…ever.

We ask a lot of “when” questions.

“When will I find a spouse?”

“When will we have a child?”

“When will I get my dream job?” 

“When will the pandemic be over?”

“When will the Cleveland Browns win a Super Bowl?”

“When will Jesus come back?”

I think that Jesus will be back before the Browns ever win!

Amazingly, not once, in all the 305 questions that Jesus asked, does Jesus ask a “when” question. So think about that, in everything we know that Jesus said, He never asks “when.”

While you will find the word “when” in 11 of His questions, never was “when” the question’s emphasis. For instance, Mark 22:35 says, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” Though the word “when” is in the question, the question’s emphasis is “did you lack anything?”

What could all of this mean?

Maybe “when” you live with an eternal framework as Jesus did, the “when” questions just aren’t as important. The more you have certainty and confidence in who Jesus is and the promises He declared, the less critical our “when” questions are. All of the “when” questions we ask may feel important at the time, and I don’t mean to trivialize what we go through in this life, but “when” you already know the outcome, you don’t need to live with worry. God is in control. More important to Jesus than when things happen is who we are following and how we are growing.

I hope that helps. Without further ado, here are the 305 bible verse questions Jesus asked. Which bible verse sticks out to you, and why?

305 Questions Jesus Asked:

Matthew:

1.   5:13 But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

2.   5:46: If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

3.   5:46: Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

4.   5:47: And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?

5.   5:47: Do not even pagans do that?

6.   6:25: Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

7.   6:26: Are you not much more valuable than they?

8.   6:27: Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

9.   6:28: Why do you worry about clothes?

10.   6:30: If this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

11.   7:3: Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

12.   7:4: How can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

13.   7:9: Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

14.   7:10: Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

15.   7:16: Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

16.   8:26: You of little faith, why are you so afraid?

17.   9:4: Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?

18.   9:5: Which is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk”?

19.   9:15: How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?

20.   9:28: Do you believe that I am able to do this?

21.   10:29: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

22.   11:7: What did you go out into the desert to see?

23.   11:7: A reed swayed by the wind?

24.   11:8: If not, what did you go out to see?

25.   11:8: A man dressed in fine clothes?

26.   11:9: Then what did you go out to see?

27.   11:10: A prophet?

28.   11:16: To what can I compare this generation?

29.   11:23: And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?

30.   12:3: Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

31.   12:5: Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?

32.   12:11: If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?

33.   12:26: If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?

34.   12:27: And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out?

35.   12:29: Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man?

36.   12:34: You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good?

37.   12:48: Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?

38.   13:51: Have you understood all these things?

39.   14:31: You of little faith, why did you doubt?

40.   15:3: And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?

41.   15:16: Are you still so dull?

42.   15:17: Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body?

43.   15:34: How many loaves do you have?

44.   16:8: You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?

45.   16:9: Do you still not understand?

46.   16:9: Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

47.   16:10: Of the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

48.   16:11: How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread?

49.   16:13: Who do people say the Son of Man is?

50.   16:15: But what about you?

51.   16:15: Who do you say I am?

52.   16:26: What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

53.   16:26: Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

54.   17;17: O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you?

55.   17:17: How long shall I put up with you?

56.   17:25: What do you think, Simon?

57.   17:25: From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own sons or from others?

58.   18:12: What do you think?

59.   18:13: If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one that wandered off?

60.   19:4: Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”?

61.   19:17: Why do you ask me about what is good?

62.   20:21: What is it you want?

63.   20:22: Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?

64.   20:32: What do you want me to do for you?

65.   21:16: Have you never read, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise”?

66.   21:25: John’s baptism—where did it come from?

67.   21:25: Was it from heaven, or from men?

68.   21:28: What do you think?

69.   21:31: Which of the two did what his father wanted?

70.   21:40: When the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?

71.   21:42: Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes”?

72.   22:18: You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?

73.   22:20: Whose portrait is this?

74.   22:20: And whose inscription?

75.   22:31-32: Have you not read what God said to you, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”?

76.   22:42: What do you think about the Christ?

77.   22:42: Whose son is he?

78.   22:43: How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him “Lord”?

79.   22:45: If then David calls him, “Lord,” how can he be his son?

80.   23:17: Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

81.   23:19: Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

82.   23:33: How will you escape being condemned to hell?

83.   24:2: Do you see all these things?

84.   24:45: Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?

85.   26:10: Why are you bothering this woman?

86.   26:40: Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?

87.   26:45: Are you still sleeping and resting?

88.   26:53: Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?

89.   26:54: But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen this way?

90.   26:55: Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?

91.   27:46: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark

92.  2:8: Why are you thinking these things?

93.  2:9: Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, take your mat and walk?”

94.  2:19: How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

95.  2:25: Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

96.  3:4: Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

97.  3:23: How can Satan drive out Satan?

98.  4:13: Don’t you understand this parable?

99.  4:13: How then will you understand any parable?

100. 4:21: Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed?

101. 4:21: Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?

102. 4:30: What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?

103. 4:40: Why are you so afraid?

104. 4:40: Do you still have no faith?

105. 5:9: What is your name?

106. 5:30: Who touched my clothes?

107. 5:39: Why all this commotion and wailing?

108. 6:38: How many loaves do you have?

109. 7:18: Are you so dull?

110. 7:18: Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?

111. 8:5: How many loaves do you have?

112. 8:12: Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign?

113. 8:17: Why are you talking about having no bread?

114. 8:17: Do you still not see or understand?

115. 8:17: Are your hearts hardened?

116. 8:18: Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?

117. 8:18: And don’t you remember?

118. 8:19: When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?

119. 8:20: And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?

120. 8:21: Do you still not understand?

121. 8:23: Do you see anything?

122. 8:27: Who do people say I am?

123. 8:29: But what about you?

124. 8:29: Who do you say I am?

125. 8:36: What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

126. 8:37: Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

127. 9:12: Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?

128: 9:16: What are you arguing with them about?

129: 9:19: How long shall I stay with you?

130: 9:19: How long shall I put up with you?

131: 9:21: How long has he been like this?

132. 9:23: If you can?

133. 9:33: What were you arguing about on the road?

134. 9:50: Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?

135. 10:3: What did Moses command you?

136. 10:18: Why do you call me good?

137: 10:36: What do you want me to do for you?

138: 10:38: Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?

139: 10:51: What do you want me to do for you?

140. 11:17: Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?”

141. 11:30: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?

142. 12:9: What then will the owner of the vineyard do?

143. 12:10-11: Haven’t you read this scripture: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?”

144. 12:15: Why are you trying to trap me?

145. 12:16: Whose portrait is this?

146. 12:16: And whose inscription?

147. 12:24: Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures of the power of God?

148. 12:26: Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?”

149. 12:35: How is it that the teachers of the law say that the Christ is the son of David?

150. 12:37: How then can be his son?

151. 13:2: Do you see all these great buildings?

152. 14:6: Why are you bothering her?

153. 14:14: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

154. 14:37: Simon, are you asleep?

155. 14:37: Could you not keep watch for one hour?

156. 14:41: Are you still sleeping and resting?

157. 14:48: Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me?

158. 15:35: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani–which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Luke

159. 2:49: Why were you searching for me?

160. 2:49: Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?

161. 5:22: Why are you thinking these things in your heart?

162. 5:23: Which is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up and walk?”

163. 5:34: Can you make the bridegroom fast while he is with them?

164. 6:3: Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?

165. 6:9: I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?

166. 6:32: If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

167. 6:33: And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you?

168. 6:34: And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?

169. 6:39: Can a blind man lead a blind man?

170. 6:39: Will they not both fall into a pit?

171. 6:41: Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

172. 6:42: How can you say to your brother, “Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?

173. 6:46: Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I say?

174. 7:24: What did you go out into the desert to see?

175. 7:24: A reed swayed by the wind?

176. 7:25: If not, what did you go out to see?

177. 7:25: A man dressed in fine clothes?

178. 7:26: But what did you go out to see?

179. 7:26: A prophet?

180. 7:31: To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation?

181. 7:31: What are they like?

182. 7:42: Now, which of them will love him more?

183. 7:44: Do you see this woman?

184. 8:25: Where is your faith?

185. 8:30: What is your name?

186. 8:45: Who touched me?

187. 9:18: Who do the crowds say I am?

188. 9:20: But what about you?

189. 9:20: Who do you say I am?

190. 9:25: What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

191. 9:41: How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?

192. 10:15: And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?

193. 10:26: What is written in the Law?

194. 10:26: How do you read it?

195. 10:36: Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

196. 11:11: Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?

197. 11:12: Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?

198. 11:18: If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?

199. 11:19: Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out?

200. 11:40: Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?

201. 12:6: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?

202. 12:14: Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?

203. 12:20: Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?

204. 12:25: Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?

205. 12:26: Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

206. 12:42: Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time?

207. 12:51: Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?

208. 12:56: How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?

209. 12:57: Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?

210. 13:2: Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?

211. 13:4: Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?

212. 13:7: Why should it use up the soil?

213. 13:15: Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?

214. 13:16: Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?

215. 13:18: What is the kingdom of God like?

216. 13:18: What shall I compare it to?

217. 13:20: What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?

218. 14:3: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?

219. 14:5: If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?

220. 14:28: Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?

221. 14:31: Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

222. 14:34: Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

223. 15:4: Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

224. 15:8: Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

225. 16:11: If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

226. 16:12: If you have not been trustworthy in with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

227. 17:7: Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat?”

228. 17:8: Would he not rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me, while I eat and drink?

229. 17:9: Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?

230. 17:17: Were not all ten cleansed?

231. 17:17: Where are the other nine?

232. 17:18: Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?

233. 18:7: And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?

234: 18:7: Will he keep putting them off?

235: 18:8: Will he find faith on the earth?

236: 18:19: Why do you call me good?

237: 18:41: What do you want me to do for you?

238: 20:4: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?

239: 20:15: What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

240. 20:17: Then what is the meaning of that which is written: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?”

241. 20:24: Whose portrait and inscription are on it?

242. 20:41: How is it that they say the Christ is the Son of David?

243. 20:44: How then can he be his son?

244. 22:11: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

245. 22:27: For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves?

246. 22:27: Is it not the one who is at the table?

247. 22:35: When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?

248. 22:46: Why are you sleeping?

249. 22:48: Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?

250. 22:52: Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come with swords and clubs?

251. 23:31: For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?

252. 24:17: What are you discussing together as you walk along?

253. 24:19: What things?

254. 24:38: Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your minds?

255. 24:41: Do you have anything here to eat?

John

256. 1:38: What do you want?

257. 2:4: Dear woman, why do you involve me?

258. 3:10: Do you not understand these things?

259. 3:12: How then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?

260. 4:7: Will you give me a drink?

261. 4:35: Do you not say, “Four months more and then the harvest?”

262. 5:6: Do you want to get well?

263. 5:44: How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

264. 5:47: How are you going to believe what I say?

265. 6:5: Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?

266. 6:61: Does this offend you?

267. 6:67: You do not want to leave too, do you?

268. 6:70: Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?

269. 7:19: Has not Moses given you the law?

270. 7:19: Why are you trying to kill me?

271. 7:23: Why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath?

272. 8:10: Women, where are they?

273. 8:43: Why is my language not clear to you?

274. 8:46: Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?

275. 8:46: If I am telling you the truth, why don’t you believe me?

276. 9:35: Do you believe in the Son of Man?

277. 10:32: For which of these do you stone me?

278. 10:34: Is it not written in your Law, “I have said you are gods?”

279. 10:36: What about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?

280. 10:36: Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, “I am God’s Son?”

281. 11:9: Are there not twelve hours of daylight?

282. 11:26: Do you believe this?

283. 11:34: Where have you laid him?

284. 11:40: Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

285. 12:27: Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say?

286. 12:27: Father, save me from this hour?

287. 13:12: Do you understand what I have done for you?

288. 13:38: Will you really lay down your life for me?

289. 14:9: Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?

290. 14:10: Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?

291. 16:5: Where are you going?

292. 16:19: Are you asking another what I meant when I said, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me?”

293. 18:4: Who is it you want?

294. 18:7: Who is it you want?

295. 18:11: Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?

296. 18:21: Why question me?

297. 18:23: But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?

298. 18:34: Is that your own idea or did others talk to you about me?

299. 20:15: Woman, why are you crying?

300: 20:15: Who is it you are looking for?

301. 21:5: Friends, haven’t you any fish?

302. 21:15: Do you truly love me more than these?

303: 21:16: Do you truly love me?

304. 21:17: Do you love me?

305. 21:22: If I want him to remain alive until l return, what is that to you?