A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Zechariah 14 … The LORD Comes and Reigns

A day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you. I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.(Zech 14:1-2)

As the final battle begins, the armies of the anti-Christ will attack and for a little while control the Holy City. It will be a terrible time for those who have not heeded the Lord’s earlier warning to flee into the desert. Their belongings will be taken from them and distributed to their enemies right before their eyes.

Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. (Zech 14:3-5)

When it looks as if all is lost, the Lord will descend to the Mount of Olives, to the place He left from nearly 2000 years ago. As He does, an earthquake will cause the Mount of Olives to split in half forming a deep valley that runs to the Mediterranean in the west and to the Dead Sea in the east. I’ve been told that on a geological survey map you can see the fault line and trace the path of the coming earthquake. It will run straight through the current Temple Mount just west of the Mt. Of Olives, causing it, the Dome of the Rock, the Al Aksa Mosque and much of the Old City to disappear into the bottom of this valley.

The Lord’s return will cause the immediate defeat of His enemies, after which He’ll make His triumphal entry into the city followed by His legions of Holy Warriors.

On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime—a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.(Zech, 14:6-9)

According to Ezekiel, the water that will fill this newly formed valley to create a mighty river originates under the Coming Temple, located a few miles to the north. Connecting Ezekiel 47 to this passage, a growing number of scholars have come to believe that the next Temple will be built just north of Jerusalem, and not on the current Temple Mount. (I’ve held this view for almost 10 years and have documented my reasons in an article called “The Coming Temple”.)

In his vision, Ezekiel saw the water flowing from beneath the south side of the Temple and Zechariah shows it doing so on the day of the Lord’s return. Since the earthquake will have buried the current Temple Mount earlier in the same day, it’s easy to see how this all fits together. In any case, when the cascading water reaches this valley, half flows east into the Dead Sea and half flows west into the Mediterranean, forever drowning the rubble from the current Temple mount.

In the idiom of the day, flowing water was said to be living because it had a voice (as in a babbling brook) and because it nurtured life, whereas a pool of still water became stagnant and caused everything in it to eventually die. The bath of purification (mikvah) had to be taken in living water. Immersion in the mikvah brought ceremonial cleansing from sin and symbolized new life. Christian baptism originated from this Jewish tradition. Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to living water in John 7:37, in that He’s the source of our new life, cleansing and nurturing us, and in Ezekiel 47 this living water from beneath the Temple freshens the Dead Sea allowing fish to thrive there again, and fruit trees to grow along its banks.

This will also be the day of fulfillment for Philippians 2:9-11; Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

But that’s not all. Psalms 2 and 110 will also be fulfilled along with a host of other prophecies, as the Messiah-King takes possession of that which He’s paid for, Planet Earth. In the process the topography of the land surrounding Jerusalem will be forever changed.

The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.(Zech. 14:10-11)

The Arabah contains the Jordan River and the Dead Sea and continues to the Red Sea. It’s the lowest place on Earth, over 1300 feet below sea level at the Dead Sea. The area south of Jerusalem will be lowered to match it, while the city itself will be elevated. And finally, for the first time in thousands of years, it will be secure, a City of Peace at last.

This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. On that day men will be stricken by the LORD with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other. Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing. A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.(Zech. 14:12-14)

Shades of Raiders of The Lost Ark! A Neutron bomb liquefies flesh while leaving solid structures like buildings, and apparently skeletons, intact. Some have estimated that as many as 400 million combatants will be assembled for the Battle of Armageddon not counting animals. Perhaps this is what produces the volume of liquid necessary to form a river of blood 175 miles long and 4.5 feet deep as mentioned in Revelation 14:20.

Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The LORD will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

On that day HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the LORD’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD Almighty.(Zech. 14:16-21)

We also learn from Ezekiel 45:21-25 that three of the 7 Levitical Feasts will still be celebrated in the Millennium; Passover (but no lamb), Unleavened Bread, and Tabernacles. All the nations on Earth, having been repopulated by Tribulation Believers who were too late for the rapture but survived the Great Tribulation, will be required to observe these feasts. The Lord will dwell among His people, and His city will be the Holy City once again. And finally the commandment He gave to Joshua to destroy every trace of the Canaanites will have been fulfilled.

In this brief view of the End Times, Zechariah has revealed an enormous amount of information. These three chapters have given us glimpses of

1. A World Confederation aligned against Israel
2. The Time of Jacob’s Trouble (The Great Tribulation)
3. The National Conviction of Israel
4. The presentation and acceptance of Jesus as their rejected Messiah
5. A National Day of Atonement
6. The Cleansing of Their Hearts
7. Purging the land of idols and false prophets

8. The partial success of the invasion of Jerusalem
9. The appearance of the Messiah with the Saints
10. The Victory of God’s People
11. A changed and renovated Holy Land
12. The establishment of the Messianic Kingdom

13. The punishment of the Nations
14. The Celebration of the Kingdom Feasts
15. The complete restoration of the people of God to a Holy Nation

No other Old Testament Prophet gives us as much detail about the End of the Age in such a brief description. Not until the Revelation, written nearly 600 years later, would such a clear presentation be made. If you listen closely, you can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah. 07-03-05

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O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.

How often it feels like the world is mobilized against us. People cut us off on the freeway, steal our parking place at work, take credit for our efforts, and in general build themselves up by putting us down, trying to destroy our self-esteem in the process.

There are four sources from which we gain self-esteem. Three are doomed to failure because they depend on the fickle nature of this world, but one works wonders.

The first is appearance. Some rely on that alone, feeling good about themselves because they look good to others. But all too soon they grow old, and their looks fade. Even spending thousands of dollars on plastic surgery can’t help and they often wind up looking like pitiful caricatures of their former selves.

Others gain their self-esteem from performance. But one day they find they can’t perform anymore. Age or poor health or even the obsolescence of their skill renders them incapable. These are the ones who have problems with retirement. No longer able to perform they cease to feel useful. Some go back to work, some become a burden to their families, and some simply die. Having worked all their lives to enjoy their retirement, they wind up feeling miserable and useless.

Still others rely on progressively greater achievements to bolster their self-esteem. But again age and infirmity undercut their ability with the same result as their performance oriented counterparts above.

It’s the fourth source of self-esteem that David speaks about in Psalm 3; the only one that can’t fail. No matter what hand the world deals us, we have a Creator Who loves us unconditionally. We’re the highest and best example of His Creative Power; His work of art (Eph 2:10). He is the reason we can hold our heads up high no matter what. He lifts us up when others put us down. He provides for us. He sustains us. He gave His life for us. And one day soon He will take vengeance on our enemies. “I will make them come and fall down at your feet, and acknowledge that I have loved you,” He promises (Rev 3:9). He’ll wipe every tear from our eyes, and for us, there will be no more death or crying or mourning or pain. And then He will take us to dwell with Him forever in a place of unimaginable bliss, while those who rejected Him and oppressed us spend eternity in torment and pain.

When we lie down our sleep is sweet for the Lord is our confidence. He’s a shield about us, our glory, the lifter of our head. He’s the source of our self-esteem.

Prayer: Lord let me find my self-esteem in you. Let me not be distracted by the things of this world or seek to define who I am according to it’s standard, but make me more certain of who I am in you. Amen

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The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” The LORD will extend your mighty scepter from Zion; you will rule in the midst of your enemies. (Psalm 110:1-2)

The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4)

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, ” ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”‘

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Matt 22: 41-46)

It’s pretty clear that both the Lord and the Pharisees he was addressing believed that Psalm 110 referred to the Messiah and that the Holy Spirit had inspired King David to write it. Where they differed was in their understanding of the Messiah’s origins. The Pharisees believed he would be a human descendant of King David, and nothing more. The Lord knew He was also God in the flesh, and quoted Psalm 110 to remind them that David knew this too.

Many translations show the first appearance of Lord in Psalm 110 all in caps (LORD) and the second one in lower case except for the first letter (Lord). This is to show that David was writing of a conversation he overheard, through the power of the Holy Spirit, between the Father and the Son.

There are two facts to support this conclusion.  First, Lord is a title one uses in addressing a superior, and only two were superior to the King. One was God the Father, represented by LORD and the other was God the Son, called Lord.  In effect Jesus reminded the Pharisees that David would have referred to a merely human descendant as his son, not as his Lord.

And second, in Hebrew the “word” translated LORD is YHWH, the four initials of the unpronounceable name of God, and used only of Him, while the one translated Lord is a different word, Adonai.

Responding truthfully to the Lord’s question would have forced the Pharisees to agree with David, something they weren’t prepared to do. Not then, not ever. At His trial before the Sanhedrin, the Lord’s declaration that He was the Messiah and that they would all see Him seated at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of Heaven is what stirred them to convict Him of blasphemy, a capital crime. (Matt. 26:64)

Their only problem was that the Romans wouldn’t let them execute anyone without permission.  So they took him to Pontius Pilate.  Pilate wasn’t concerned about the charge of blasphemy. That was an internal matter among the Jews. But in calling Himself a King (John 18:33-37), Jesus was confessing to treason under Roman law, also a capital crime (Matt.27:11). Even then Pilate was inclined to release Jesus, but when the crowd became adamant, he saw a way to yield to their wishes while remaining within Roman Law. That’s why he had them place a sign on the Lord’s cross that said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  He was announcing that the crime for which Jesus was being executed was treason.

King Jesus, Our High Priest

David had written that the Messiah would be both a king and a priest just like Melchizedek had been. From Genesis 14:18 we learn that Melchizedek, whose name means King of Righteousness, was both a priest of the Most High God and the King of Salem, a Jebusite city that later became known as Jerusalem.  When David conquered the Jebusites he made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and purchased the land on nearby Mount Moriah where Abraham had sacrificed Isaac several hundred years earlier for the Temple location.

Never since the founding of Israel had one man been both a king and a priest. It was forbidden. Kings came from the tribe of Judah, while priests were descended from Levi.  One king who tried to function as a priest earned the Lord’s immediate displeasure, and serves to illustrate the point. Daring to offer incense in the Temple, King Uzziah immediately contracted leprosy and was quarantined till his dying day (2 Chron. 26:16-21).  Some prophets were also priests, Ezekiel and Zechariah for example, and David was a king and a prophet.  But no one was ever both a king and a priest in Israel.

However, prophecies in Ezekiel 21:25-27 and  Zechariah 6:9-13 tell us the two offices will eventually be united when Messiah comes and that He will be both a king and a priest.   And of course in the Book of Hebrews Jesus is called our King (Hebr. 1:8) and Our High Priest (Hebr. 4:14).  This is possible because Jesus is not a priest in the Levitical sense but in the higher order of Melchizedek.  All of Hebrews 7 is devoted to this topic.

I Know I Am But What Are You?

In Exodus 19:6 Israel is called a kingdom of priests but in 1 Peter 2:9 we read, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” He was speaking to the Church, calling us a royal priesthood.   Only kings are considered royalty.

And in Revelation 1:5-6 it’s even clearer. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (KJV)

Some of the modern translations prefer the word kingdom over kings in the passage above, and it’s true, the Greek word there can be translated either way. They try to compare the Revelation passage with Exodus 19:6 to bolster their replacement theology bias, making the Church look like Israel. But to most conservative scholars it’s clear that both the context and the grammatical structure of the passage require that the Greek word be translated kings. (The same is true in Revelation 5:10 where the same phrase is repeated.)

Kings Of What?

The Bible doesn’t have a specific answer for this, but in Ephesians 2:6-7 Paul wrote,  “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” 

The “coming ages” alludes to the time of the Millennium and beyond where we’ll serve as living examples of the incomparable riches of God’s grace, seated with our King and High Priest on His throne.

Throughout human history the best kings have always been the ones most sincerely devoted to the well being of their subjects. And  the priests  were not just religious officials.  In most generations they were their society’s repository of knowledge in philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history and language. If these can serve as worldly models of our heavenly future, then we can assume there’s a lot more to being a king and a priest than sitting on a throne or conducting a worship service.

In the USA we don’t have a royal family so many of us don’t know what that’s like.  But people from other countries do, and they know that for the most part, “royals”, as they’re called, don’t work.  Many of them don’t even help run the countries their families rule.  They follow a higher calling,  pursuing personal interests and living lives of service.  They have no need to support themselves, so they’re free to devote all their time, energy, and intellect to the things they find to be the most fulfilling.

On Earth we all have a sin nature, so we can be drawn off the path of righteousness, and we’ve seen that happen with many royals.  And because of our fallen nature even the best of us can only achieve a small percentage of our nearly limitless potential.  But in our perfected state, these things won’t be a problem.   We’ll discover that God created us with capabilities we’ve barely used.  Now we’re like a thoroughbred race horse that has been consigned to pulling a child’s cart.  But all that will change forever at the rapture.  Finally there will be nothing to prevent us from achieving our full potential in any undertaking we can imagine.

Both Paul (1 Cor. 15:42-44) and John (1 John 3:2) made it clear that we won’t know in advance exactly what we’ll be like after the rapture/resurrection.  Our motives, our capabilities, and our  appearance may all be different.  But they both said we’ll be like Jesus. That means whatever we do will be pleasing to God and done for His glory. We can only speculate about the specifics.

Does all this exceed the limits of your imagination? Of course it does. That’s why Paul called it “the incomparable riches of His grace.” He also said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Having been there and seen our future (2 Cor. 12:2-4) he knew it was beyond the ability of our sin-contaminated minds to imagine.  But know this.  Being both a king and a priest will be by far the most rewarding, fulfilling calling we’ve ever had. Selah 05-11-13

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Zechariah assumed his role as a prophet in 520 BC, a few years after Israel’s return from the 70 year Babylonian captivity. The first half of his book describes eight visions that all came to him on a single night, February 15, 519 BC. Then there’s a short interlude where he relates the Lord’s answers to questions the Jews had about their current situation. Chapters 9-14 were written nearly 40 years later. 9-11 deal mostly with prophecies for the times leading up to and including the Lord’s first coming, and 12-14 focus on the End of the Age. These final three chapters are the object of our interest because they describe the End Times According to Zechariah.

Chapter 12 … Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed

An Oracle

This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the LORD. “I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’(Zech 12:1-5)

In case there’s any doubt about Who’s speaking, the Writer identifies Himself as the One Who stretches out the Heavens, lays the foundation of Earth, and forms the spirit of man. The fact that these verbs are all in the present tense indicates that this is an ongoing effort.

Notice the two separate thoughts here.  First the Lord says He’s going to send all the surrounding peoples reeling.  I believe this is a reference to the Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17 battles that only involve Israel’s next door neighbors and will set the stage for Ezekiel 38, the battle that will reawaken Israel to the Lord’s presence.  These battles will take place before Daniel’s 70th Week begins.  Later, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against Israel, He will show His ultimate strength in the battle we call Armageddon. This battle takes place at the end of Daniels 70th Week.

“On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place. “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them. On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.(Zech 12:6-9)

Jerusalem will not fall completely and the surrounding areas of Judah will be spared as well, but by the time it’s over Jerusalem will be rescued and all the attacking nations will be destroyed.

Mourning for the One They Pierced

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.(Zech 12:10-14)

But before the final battle begins, the Lord will send His Spirit of Grace, and the eyes of the spiritually blind will be opened, and they’ll behold their Messiah, Jesus, the One they crucified. They’ll all grieve bitterly, as if for a firstborn son, from the royal line of David, to the rest of Judah, represented by Solomon’s brother Nathan, to the priests of Levi and the other Levite families under Shimei, and to all the tribes and clans of Israel. It’s the National Awakening into a New Covenant relationship as foretold in Jeremiah 31:31, and both civil and religious authorities will lead the way.

By the way, there are two un-translated letters in the Hebrew text following the phrase “look upon me” in Zechariah 12:10. The two letters are the aleph and the tau, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Their better-known equivalents are the alpha and the omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, used to describe the Father in Rev. 1:8 and 21:6 and the Son in Rev. 22:13. The same two un-translated letters appear in the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1 following the phrase “In the beginning God …”. Are these clues that God placed there to identify Jesus as the Messiah, and to confirm His role as our Creator as well as our Redeemer? Does the use of the phrase “alpha and omega” at opposite ends of The Revelation and attributed first to the Father and then to the Son mean that they are One as Jesus claimed in John 10:30? It certainly seems so.

Zechariah 13 … Cleansing From Sin

“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
“On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother, to whom he was born, will say to him, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the LORD’s name.’ When he prophesies, his own parents will stab him.
“On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his prophetic vision. He will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. He will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ If someone asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ he will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’(Zech 13:1-6)

As they finally see and accept Jesus as their Messiah, the blood He shed on the cross will wash them clean, and the life He gave will ransom them, just as it has us. The Angel Gabriel told Daniel that six things would be accomplished during Israel’s final 490 years, and one of them, sealing up vision and prophecy, is accomplished here. (Daniel 9:24) No longer will God use prophets to communicate with man, He’ll soon be dwelling among them again, and will deliver His Word personally. Anyone claiming to be a prophet will be executed by his own friends and family if necessary, to avoid offending the Lord.

The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!” declares the LORD Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones. In the whole land,” declares the LORD, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’ “(Zech 13:7-9)

Here’s an overview connecting the Lord’s first and second coming. He quoted from this passage on the night of his betrayal. (Matt. 26:31) Today many well meaning but scripturally inept Christians go running through Israel telling people that they’d better come to Jesus because two thirds of them are about to die in the coming Great Tribulation. As far as I know, not one convert has resulted from this misuse of Scripture. Even a casual reading shows that two thirds are struck down first and it’s the remaining third that the Lord brings into the refining fire, a euphemism for the Great Tribulation.

By most accounts, there were 9 million Jews alive in the days before World War 2. Six million, two thirds, perished in Hitler’s extermination programs. Many of those left alive at the end of the war came to the newly re-born Nation of Israel and became its first residents. After the Battle of Ezekiel 38-39, the Lord will gather the rest of them, not leaving any behind. This is the remaining third that will experience the Great Tribulation and upon whom He will pour out His Spirit. (Ezek. 39:28-29) It is this remaining third, the remnant of Israel, who will call on His name and be saved.

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.(Joel 2:28-32)

Next time we’ll cover chapter 14, the day the Lord arrives. See you then. 6-25-05

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Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, and set apart to the gospel of God (Romans 1:1).

Most translations of Romans 1:1 use either slave or servant in defining Paul’s relationship with the Lord, but the phrase “bond servant” is actually the most accurate. In effect, a bond servant enters into the relationship voluntarily with the understanding that it’s a lifetime commitment, with no provision for release.

This type of relationship comes from Exodus 21:1-6. According to the Law, a man who couldn’t pay a debt he owed had to become the servant of his creditor in order to work off the debt, or until the next sabbath year, whichever was shorter. If, during the time of his temporary service, he concluded that his master was a good man to work for, he could voluntarily convert his term of service into a life long commitment. In doing so he was agreeing to permanently subordinate his own interests in favor of his master’s, to do whatever the master required. This bears repeating. It was the servant’s choice to enter into a bond servant relationship with his master, but once the agreement was made he could not choose to undo it later. It was a lifelong commitment.

If his master agreed, they would go before the judges to make the arrangement official, and then the master would drive an awl through his servant’s earlobe and into the door post of the house. This was to signify that the servant had become permanently “attached” to the master’s household. According to some traditions a golden ring was inserted through the hole in the bond servant’s ear to memorialize the event.

Because of the nature and permanence of the relationship, a bond servant frequently became a trusted member of his master’s household, eventually representing him in matters pertaining to his business or personal interests.

A Divine Example

David made reference to this kind of relationship, describing how the Messiah would see Himself in service to His Father.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—but my ears you have opened—burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:6-8).

The writer of Hebrews put these words in the Lord’s mouth in explaining His once for all sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:5-7). The phrase “my ears you have opened” is also translated “my ears you have pierced”, recalling how the master pierced the ear of the bond servant.

This is why Jesus said He could do nothing on his own but only what He saw his father doing (John 5:19) and that he did not speak on His own accord, but the Father commanded him what to say and how to say it (John 12:49). A bond servant subordinates his will to the will of his master.

In a similar description, Paul said that Jesus, who being God in His very nature, didn’t try to make Himself equal to God, but made Himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Phil 2:6-7). The Greek word for servant in this passage is “doulos”. It means “bond servant” and is the same word Paul used of Himself in Romans 1:1. These references stressed the voluntary nature of the Lord’s mission to die for the sins of the people.

What About Us?

So, a bond servant chose to enter into a life of service to his master, subordinating his will to his master’s, and knowing that he couldn’t change his mind and undo the arrangement later on. He was in for life.

The Greek word “doulos” appears in 112 verses of the New Testament, mostly in reference to our relationship with the Lord. It is usually translated “servant” but as we saw it literally means “bond servant.”  I believe it can serve as a model for us to consider for ourselves.

We also had a debt we couldn’t pay and chose to enter into a life long relationship with the Lord in exchange for having the debt forgiven. It was our choice to do so but once we made the choice, we gave up the right to undo the arrangement later on. In effect, we put aside our own interests and agreed to dedicate our life to the pursuit of His interests.

This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). This verse has been widely misinterpreted as calling the believer to a life of deprivation and suffering. But in fact it is describing the bond servant relationship. As followers of Jesus we are to put our own hopes and dreams to death in favor of the Lord’s plans for us, making our interests subordinate to His.

Paul emphasized this same idea in Romans 12:1-2 telling us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship (literally, our reasonable service). He said we should no longer conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Then we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

As believers, we are called to abandon the typical dreams for the future that society encourages and instead search for God’s will for our life.

When we became believers, God anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our heart as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:21-22). That means we belong to Him now. We are no longer our own, but have been bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and that price is the precious blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:18-19). With it He wiped away all our debt, and in view of His mercy we are urged to offer our bodies to Him as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

Those who say that since we chose to become saved we can choose to walk away. They are applying human thinking to the equation, thinking it makes sense that it should work that way. But there is no Biblical support for that opinion. In fact, as we’ve seen, it’s not the case at all. As bond servants of the Lord we gave up our right to self determination when we surrendered our life to Him. This is what Paul meant by saying, “You are not your own, you were bought at a price.” When God set His mark of ownership on you He was claiming you as His property, the way a rancher would place his brand on the cattle he owned. Like the bond servant of Old Testament times, we belong to our Master and are not free to walk away.

Contained In The Old, Explained In The New

All Old Testament models are necessarily incomplete.   After all, they were just shadows of the things that were to come (Colossians 2:17, Hebrews 10:1).  In the bond servant model the arrangement was between two men; the master and the servant. What earthly master would agree to support a servant for life without requiring a comparable amount of service in return? This was a two sided arrangement with clear responsibilities for each party. In return for being supported all his life, the servant agreed to do whatever the master desired.

But when God agreed to pardon you for the enormous debt of sin you owed and claimed you a member of His household, He placed only one condition upon you in return. He said you must believe that when Jesus died on that cross, He died for your sins. That’s all He requires of you (John 6:28-29).

Our arrangement with God is not one that requires a prior commitment to certain levels of performance. We are saved by grace through faith and not by works (Ephes. 2:8-9). While the New Testament contains numerous admonitions to live our lives in a manner that’s pleasing to God, none of them have been imposed upon us as our part of the bargain. They are presented as things we can do to express our gratitude for what the Lord has unconditionally done for us. Our willingness to do these things is what Paul called “living up to what we have already attained” (Phil. 3:16). In other words, we don’t do them in the hope of qualifying for eternal life, but as our way of saying thanks because we already have it.

Certainly Paul and other New Testament writers put these admonitions in strong terms. They knew better than most what an incredible gift we’ve been given and what an enormous price God paid to give it to us. But they never said our salvation depends on us obeying their instructions, or that our failure to perform would result in our arrangement with the Lord being canceled.

On the contrary, doing these things will result in the accrual of additional blessings, in this life and the next one, above and beyond the pardon for our sins and the gift of eternal life that we’ve already received. So the base line of our relationship with the Lord, below which we cannot go, is forgiveness for our sins and eternal life with Him. Anything we do out of gratitude for that brings extra blessings.

How much more then should we be willing to put our self centered hopes for our life aside in favor of discovering God’s will for us? Knowing He came so we could have an abundant life (John 10:10), that He is not going to impose a heavy work load on us (Matt. 11:30), and that He will always be with us to direct and empower us in bearing much fruit (John 15:5), how can we lose?

“Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30). 04-18-15

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Once in a while I’m asked to do a study on a specific portion of Scripture.  I’d like to respond to a request I received recently concerning a portion of the Sermon on the Mount commonly called “The Beatitudes”. It’s found in Matt. 5:3-12 with an abbreviated and slightly different version in Luke 6:20-23.  While everyone in the world seems to be talking about other things, it might be refreshing to think about peace for a moment. Not peace in the world necessarily, or even in the Middle East, but peace in our hearts and in our lives.  If events are leading us in the direction we think, we’ll want to remember these exhortations from our Lord.

By the way.  If you’re one of those folks who believe certain portions of the Gospels were not written to the Church, you probably include the Sermon on the Mount among them.  It is true that the Lord was speaking primarily to Israel, but if you don’t see anything there for the Church, then you need to give them another look.  This study will help you.

The Sermon on the Mount was given near the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, but already He had achieved widespread fame because of His healing power. In Matt. 4: 23-25 we learn that huge crowds were gathering around Him. They came not only from the Galilee, but from what we now know as Jordan, southern Syria, and Lebanon in the east and north, and from Judea and Jerusalem in the south. Remember, this was in a time when there were no phones or other means of long range communications and nearly all travel was on foot. These crowds gathered by word of mouth and although many were in pain, they had walked for several days to reach Him. The lame, the paralyzed, the sick, those who were demon possessed, afflicted with seizures and such had made long and arduous journeys to find Him and He healed them all.

On this occasion they found themselves in a natural amphitheater on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was and is a peaceful, tranquil place where even today there’s no sign of encroaching civilization except for a beautiful octagonal chapel over looking the sea. It was completed in 1938 with funds donated by Benito Mussolini.

Each of the groups I’ve taken to Israel has picked the area as among their favorites and has tried to linger there as long as possible. I could always sense the regret they felt at having to leave, and even though I reminded them that we had to maintain some semblance of a schedule, I admit that I always felt it too. It’s as if the Spirit of the Prince of Peace dwells there today, comforting our restless hearts with His timeless message.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:3)

According to Strong’s Concordance the phrase poor in spirit describes those who are “destitute of wealth of learning and intellectual culture which the schools afford.” Several times in the Scriptures, the Lord mentions the fact that an  excessive reliance upon worldly education can actually be a hindrance to entering into the Kingdom.

In Isaiah 29:13-14 He said, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”

Paul, who was by most accounts the towering intellect of New Testament writers, built upon this in 1 Cor 1:18-25 when he wrote;

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

As I’ve grown older and become more reflective I’m more aware of the fact that much of man’s knowledge is flawed, just as man is flawed. And some of it is intentionally so, since some who are considered intellectuals have a bias against God and use their positions of influence to further their views. Their success in making the theory of evolution the standard for public education is one case in point, among many.

We must become as little children, The Lord admonished us (Mark 10:15), and for me that meant discarding much of what I was taught in favor of taking God at His word.

But those who refuse to allow the wisdom of this world to displace their native knowledge of God and instead pursue His word for His wisdom will receive the Kingdom as their reward. Speaking of God’s wisdom, King Solomon wrote, “For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord.” (Proverbs 8:35)

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matt. 5:4)

Mourning is evidence of love and compassion. It’s a strengthened version of the Greek word for suffer from which it’s derived. To mourn is to feel sorrow or grief. When we mourn the loss of a loved one we’re expressing our grief over the reality of death. Our Lord feels the same way. He’s called a man of sorrows, familiar with grief. (Isaiah 53:3) Only one who knows sorrow and has experienced grief can effectively comfort those who mourn. As someone once wrote, “In every pain that rends the heart, the Man of Sorrows has a part.” Unlike others who claim to do so, He really does feel our pain. He’s the only one who truly understands and can offer unconditional comfort during our times of mourning.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Matt. 5:5)

The word translated “meek” means mild of disposition or gentle of spirit. It’s not the same as being a doormat. Moses was called the meekest man on Earth, (Numbers 12:3) but he faced down Pharaoh, talked with God, and supervised over a million people on a 40 year camping trip in the wilderness. You can’t accomplish that by being a doormat.

My favorite paraphrase of this verse is, “Blessed are those who’ve been given everything, for they don’t have to worry about anything.” This applies to no other group as much as to the Church. We’re the ones who can approach every circumstance of our lives with a mild disposition and a gentle heart for we know that we’ll inherit the earth. We can afford to turn the other cheek, to go the extra mile, to give generously to everyone who asks, because all that and more has been done for us. We don’t have to be concerned with the little things of this life because we’ve been given everything in the next one.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. (Matt. 5:6)

Do you wish you could avoid sinning? Does your behavior sometimes surprise or even embarrass you? Do you feel bad about having to ask God to forgive you again and again? If so, then you hunger for righteousness. You want so badly to please Him by living in accordance with His standards. That yearning can never be satisfied as long as we’re here, but one day we’ll be changed and the most delightful thing about it will be our ability to finally live in a manner pleasing to God.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matt. 5:7)

Micah 6:6-8 is an incredible passage because it demonstrated what’s really important to the Lord almost 8 centuries before the New Covenant. Let’s read it.

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Acting justly is hard to do, but the idea is easy to understand. Loving mercy is another matter. Micah’s answer to his own question runs exactly counter to human nature. Mercy is sometimes defined as not getting what you deserve. Mercy is something we all want for ourselves, but for everyone else we demand justice. Micah tells us that if we want to please God, we should be very careful to ensure that our own behavior comes as close as possible to His standards for justice, and we should rejoice whenever He shows someone else mercy.

That takes some doing, but the Lord said that with the measure we use it will be measured to us. Are we merciful? When some one wrongs us, do we ask the Lord to forgive them, or do we spend the next little while conjuring up clever ways to get even? Remember, if we think it, it’s as bad as having done it. To love mercy means to show it in our own actions toward others and to rejoice whenever someone else doesn’t get what he deserves.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matt. 5:8)

Like Micah 6, Psalm 24 also contains a rhetorical question or two. Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His Holy Place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. For he will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. (Psalm 24:3-5) Clean hands, no bad works, and a pure heart, no bad motives. Who can do this? As Jesus told Peter, with man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God. (Mark 10:27) When we’re washed in the blood of the Lamb, we’re given clean hands and a pure heart and we will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matt. 5:9)

In the middle of a long list of exhortations on behavior, Paul said, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) We can’t control the circumstances that confront us but we can control our response to them. We can be like oil on troubled waters.

For environmental reasons it’s no longer done, but in days gone by sailors deliberately poured small quantities of oil onto the water in order to forestall rough seas. The oil had a calming effect on the waves as it spread over the surface. Small quantities of oil can cover a surprisingly large area, becoming a layer just a few molecules thick. The surface tension of the oil layer has an effect similar to that of a thin skin, containing and calming the waters beneath it.

By our words and actions, we can have a similar effect on those around us, and as we do we identify ourselves as children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:10)

There’s a lot of persecution in the world today, but not all of it is covered by this verse. Only that which we endure in the pursuit of righteousness is mentioned. And only those who’ve truly given their hearts to the Lord will endure this kind of persecution. Those who are just going through the motions will soon fall away.

The story is often told of the little house church in the former Soviet Union where religious observance was illegal. One Sunday morning soldiers burst in and lined the small group of worshipers up against the wall. “Worshiping God is illegal,” they said, “Punishable by death. If you’ve come here by accident and didn’t intend to break the law, leave now and don’t ever come back.” About half the group quickly left. The soldiers took aim at the rest and said, “Are you willing to die for your faith? When no one moved, the soldiers put down their weapons and said, “Good. Now we know it’s safe to worship here.”

It’s an extreme example that may or may not be a true story, but you get the point. More likely you and I would just be laughed at, the brunt of some bad joke, or have our lifestyle disparaged on TV or in a movie. But some of us know people who’ve had complaints filed against them for having a manger scene on their lawn, or whose kids have been told they can’t pray on school grounds, or whose car has been vandalized because of the fish symbol on the back. And in parts of the world where it’s still illegal to be a Christian, like China and some Moslem and Hindu countries, people are dying for their faith every day. Blessed are they, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt. 5:11-12)

Technically, verses 11 and 12 above aren’t part of the 8 beatitudes that are the inspiration for Mussolini’s octagonal chapel, but they make a good summary statement. The next time someone offends you because of your faith, just smile and say thanks. It’s guaranteed to take all the fun out of it for them and it will remind you that this has been going on since the beginning. It also helps to remember that the Lord’s keeping track of all this and has promised to take vengeance on your behalf. Selah 09-17-11

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The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil-an offering made to the LORD by fire, a pleasing aroma and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. (Lev. 23:9-14)

Three Spring Feasts

Often overlooked because Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread overshadow and surround it, I think the Feast of First Fruits is the most important Feast of them all—at least from a Christian point of view.  It’s easy to miss its importance, since the Gospel accounts don’t even mention First Fruits and also seem to use Passover and Unleavened Bread interchangeably. Because of this, it can be hard to tell there were actually three feasts being celebrated at once.

Although it’s not obvious from the passage above, the Lord was referring to the Sabbath that comes after the Passover. While the Passover can fall on any day of the week which also happens to be the 14th day of the first month, the Feast of First Fruits is always the following Sunday, the day after the Sabbath after Passover. Unleavened Bread begins on Passover and lasts seven days, so First Fruits comes before Unleavened Bread ends.

The year the Lord was crucified, Passover fell on a Thursday. Three days and three nights later it was Sunday morning, the Feast of First Fruits. And for several hundred years afterward, the Sunday morning after Passover was known to Christians as Resurrection Morning.

What Day Is It?

But at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, Eastern and Western bishops of the Church disagreed over the official date for the Church’s most important Holy Day. Eastern bishops favored staying with the calculation involving Passover as Leviticus describes, since many of them were of Jewish origin, and since the Gospels had placed Resurrection Morning just after Passover.

Western bishops, being mostly Gentile, favored a date closer to the beginning of spring because there were already a number of pagan festivals held during that time and a religious holiday would fit right in. Perhaps this is when the Western church began referring to Resurrection Morning as Easter Sunday, after the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar. The Feast of Ishtar was always celebrated at the beginning of spring and involved eggs and rabbits and other signs of fertility. Even today, you can see how elements of the two have been merged together.

Eventually, (due in part to their view that since the Jews had rejected Christ Jewish traditions shouldn’t be used in selecting the date for Easter), the Western Church settled on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Soon Easter Sunday became disconnected from Passover by as much as several weeks.

The adoption of the Gregorian calendar (the one we use in the west today) in 1752 did nothing to correct this disconnect, and since the Eastern or Orthodox Church stuck with the earlier Julian calendar, we now have two dates for Easter in most years. (In 2004, the Feast of First Fruits, and Orthodox and Western Easter all came on the same day, a rare occasion.)

The Common Practice

But back to the Feast of First Fruits. Grains were planted in the fall in Israel. They germinated in the ground through the winter, shot up as soon as the weather got warm, and ripened in the spring, barley first and then wheat. The stalks were cut and stacked in sheaves for the harvesters to collect for thrashing. But harvesting or eating any of the grain was not permitted until a sample sheaf was brought to the Temple at sunrise on the first day after the Sabbath following Passover. This day was called the Feast of First Fruits. A similar ceremony for the wheat harvest took place on Pentecost, also a Sunday, seven weeks later.

As you know, the Lord required the first fruits of all their harvest be given to Him, whether plant or animal. (In the case of animals, only the very first offspring of each animal was required, not the first of each season. For humanity, a small ransom was paid at the Temple to redeem the firstborn son. (The Lord expressly forbade any form of child sacrifice.)

The priest took the sheaf of grain and waved it before the altar of the Lord as a sample of the harvest. This was called the wave offering. To be sure it was acceptable to the Lord, a year old lamb was also offered, along with about 4 quarts of flour and oil mixture and a quart of wine. The mixing fragrances of the roasting lamb, the baking bread dough, and the steam from the wine made a pleasant aroma for the Lord, and the offering was accepted. The Lord having received His required first portion, the harvest could proceed, and the grain could be ground into flour for their daily bread.

The Prophetic Fulfillment

At sunrise on the morning of the Feast of First Fruits in 32 AD, as the priests were waving the sheaf of grain before the altar, the women arrived at the Lord’s tomb to prepare His body for permanent burial. Remember, there wasn’t enough time before sunset on the day He was crucified and the following two days were both Sabbaths, so no work was permitted. (Interestingly, work was allowed on the Feast of First Fruits, although not on Pentecost.)

But the tomb was empty. He had risen, the First Fruits of them that slept. (1 Cor. 15:20) Later that day many Holy people from Israel’s past were seen in the city of Jerusalem, also having risen from their tombs. (Matt. 27:53) This was the Lord’s wave offering, a sample of His harvest of souls. I think the aroma of the Temple offering was especially pleasing to the Lord that morning. The days of substitutes were over; the real thing had come. (Hebr. 10:1)

The Ultimate Triple Play

For Christ, our Passover Lamb had been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7), and on the very day, fulfilling the Passover Prophecy. For seven days beginning on Passover, the Israelites ate bread without yeast in celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in fact went to great lengths to rid their homes of any trace of leaven. This Feast symbolized a promise that the sin of man, represented by the leaven, would be completely taken away. The Lord’s death fulfilled this one as well, for He’s the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) And take it away He did, as far as the East is from the West. (Psalm 103:12)

And right on schedule, the Lord rose from the grave, fulfilling the Feast of First Fruits. He is the First Fruits of them that slept, and His resurrection confirmed His victory over sin and death. And ours too, for if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom. 10:9) Selah 4-18-04

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If you follow our “Ask a Bible Teacher” feature, you know how many comments I’ve received lately that question the Doctrine of Eternal Security (aka Once Saved Always Saved or OSAS). Based on their content I’ve concluded that many people neither understand OSAS nor have they considered the alternative.

Let’s Begin At The Beginning

It’s time to set the record straight once and for all. What does it take to be saved? I think the best answer to that question is the one the Lord gave in John 6:28-29.

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Here was a perfect opportunity to list all the things we have to do to meet God’s requirements. Jesus could have rattled off the 10 commandments. He could have repeated the Sermon on the Mount. He could have listed any number of admonitions and restrictions necessary to achieve and maintain God’s expectations of us. But what did He say? “Believe in the one He has sent.” Period. It was a repeat of John 3:16, confirming that belief in the Son is the one and only requirement for salvation.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

A few verses later in John 6:38-40 He said that this wasn’t just His idea, as if that wouldn’t be enough, but that His Father was in complete agreement. And not only would our belief suffice to provide us with eternal life, but that it was God’s will that Jesus lose none of those who believe. You and I have been known to disobey God’s will, but has Jesus ever done so? And isn’t He the one who’s been charged with the responsibility for keeping us? Let’s read it.

“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:38-40)

Just in case we missed this promise, Jesus made it again even more clearly in John 10:28-30. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” The Father and the Son have both accepted responsibility for our security. Once we’re in Their hands, no one can get us away.

I have purposely only used words straight from the Lord’s own mouth to make this case because I can already hear the choruses of “Yes Buts” mounting as those who refuse to take them at face value get ready to trot out their favorite verses denying Eternal Security, misinterpreted though they are.

The one characteristic of God’s that gives us the most comfort is knowing that He can’t lie or change His mind or contradict Himself. He can’t say something in one place and then say something entirely different in another. He’s consistent. If He says that we’re saved solely because of our belief in Him, and that He’s accepted responsibility for keeping us so, then we can count on that. As we’ll see, anything in the Bible that seems to contradict these simple, straightforward statements has to be talking about something else.

But first, since He puts so much emphasis on belief, let’s take a closer look at that word. What does He mean when He says “believe”? It must be more than just a casual thing because reliable statistics show, for example, that 85% of those who come forward to “receive the Lord” at a crusade or other evangelistic outreach never form any connection with a church or Bible Study or in any other way demonstrate a relationship with the Lord afterward.

And Jesus spoke of the seed that fell on rocky places. He said, “This is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.” (Matt. 13:20-21) If these people were saved and then fell away, all His promises above have been broken. There must be more. So what does it mean to believe?

The Greek word for believe is “pistis.” According to Strong’s Concordance, it’s a “conviction or belief respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervor born of faith and joined with it.” In connection with the Lord Jesus, it means “a strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God.”

The Apostle Paul gave us valuable insight into the nature of this belief. He wrote, If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

This isn’t just some intellectual thing that carries us away on the words of a captivating speaker, only to leave us flat a short time later. It’s a conviction that’s formed deep in our heart, the realization that Jesus is not just a man. He’s the Lord Himself, and He took upon Himself the penalty due us for our sins, which is death. And to prove that God counted His death as sufficient, He raised Jesus from the dead to be seated beside Him in the Heavenly realms. (Ephes. 1:20) Since God can’t dwell in the presence of sin, and since the wages of sin is death, every one of our sins has to have been paid for. If even one remained unpaid, Jesus would still be in the grave. We have to believe that Jesus rose from the grave in order to believe that we will.

It’s that kind of belief that gets you saved and keeps you that way, because it sets in motion a chain of events that’s irreversible. There are four links in this chain. You supply two and the Lord supplies two. You hear and believe, and the Lord marks and guarantees.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

The word translated “deposit” is a legal term. Today we would say Earnest Money. It’s a down payment that constitutes a legal obligation to follow through with the purchase. If you’ve ever bought any Real Estate, you’re familiar with the term. If not, here’s another example. It’s like we’ve been put on “layaway.” The price has been paid and we’ve been taken off the display shelf until the one who has purchased us returns to claim us. In the meantime, we cannot be bought by anyone else, because we legally belong to the one who has paid the deposit. “You are not your own,” we’re told. “You were bought with a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

All of this happened at our first moment of belief, before we could do anything to either earn or lose our position. The man on the cross beside Jesus is the prototype for this transaction. Having done something bad enough to get himself executed, he was promised a place in Paradise solely because he believed in his heart that Jesus was the Lord of a coming Kingdom.

Paul made it even clearer when he repeated this incredible promise in 2 Cor. 1:21-22. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

This time He removed all doubt as to just Who it is that keeps us saved. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. What could be clearer?

Union And Fellowship

If the Doctrine of Eternal Security is so clear then why all the disagreement about it? I’ve found two reasons. The first is the two-sided nature of our relationship with the Lord. I call one side Union. It’s eternal and unconditional, based only on our belief. Ephesians 1:13-14 describes our Union with God, sealed and guaranteed. Once we’re born again, we can’t become unborn. It’s good forever. The Holy Spirit is sealed within us from our first moment of belief until the day of redemption.

I call the other side Fellowship, and it’s a bit more complicated. Fellowship is that state of continual closeness to God that enables Him to bless us in our daily lives, by making things happen for us and protecting us from attack. It’s like He’s teamed up with us to give us a supernatural advantage. Fellowship is defined by 1 John 1:5-9 as being both Earthly and conditional upon our behavior. Even as believers, as long as we’re here on Earth we’ll continue to sin. Since God can’t abide in the presence of sin, our unconfessed sins interrupt our Earthly relationship with Him and may deprive us of blessings we might have otherwise received. We’re still saved in the eternal sense, but out of Fellowship here on Earth.

When we’re out of Fellowship, we’re legitimate targets for our enemy’s mischief, just like Job was. His sin was self-righteousness and because he wouldn’t confess it, God had to let Satan afflict him in order to bring him to his senses. For a New Testament illustration, look at the parable of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32) Like the younger son, we’ll still belong to our Father’s family but won’t receive any of its blessings while we’re out of Fellowship. And like both Job and the Prodigal, when we return to our Father and confess our sins, we’re immediately purified from all unrighteousness and restored to Fellowship.

One reason that many Christians live such defeated lives is that having only learned about the Union part of being a believer, they only know that God has forgiven their sins and that they’ll go to be with Him when they die or are Raptured. They don’t realize that they still need to confess every time they sin to stay in Fellowship. And so, being deprived of God’s providence, they may become discouraged and even stop praying and attending church. Other believers, who don’t understand the dual relationship either, look at the mess they’re in and think they must have lost their salvation. Like Job’s friends, they look in God’s Word for confirmation, and by taking verses out of context, believe they have found the proof.

Union and Fellowship are not just New Testament ideas. In the Old Testament, even when Israel was obedient in thought and action, doing their best to please God, the priests still had to sacrifice a lamb on the altar every morning and every evening for the sins of the people. 1 John 1:9 is the New Testament equivalent of those daily sacrifices for sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. It was written for believers who are already saved, but are in danger of being out of Fellowship because of their sins.

The Gift And the Prize

The other reason people get confused is that there are two types of benefits in Eternity. The first is the free Gift called Salvation that’s given to all who ask in faith irrespective of merit and guarantees our admission into the Kingdom. Ephesians 2:8-9 is the model, saying that salvation is a Gift from God.

The second consists of Heavenly rewards we can earn for the things we do as believers here on Earth. Philippians 3:13-14 are good verses for explaining this. Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. In addition to the Gift, there’s a Prize.

A gift is something given out of love, irrespective of merit, and is never taken back. A prize, on the other hand, is something we qualify for and earn. And if we’re not careful we can lose it. (Rev. 3:11) Paul had already received the Gift of salvation, it was behind him. Now he was focused on winning the Prize as well.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 he explained the difference in greater detail. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

No Olympic athlete was satisfied just to have qualified to participate in the games. Everyone wanted to win the victor’s crown. Likewise, we shouldn’t be satisfied just to have received the Gift of salvation. We must now live our lives as believers in such a way as to win the Prize as well.

The Bible calls some of these prizes crowns, and while the athlete’s crown soon wilted away (it was a wreath of ivy) the crowns believers can win last forever. They’re worth making some sacrifices for. That’s why Paul said, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Cor. 9:27) The crowns are identified as the Everlasting Crown (Victory) in 1 Cor 9:25, Crown of the Soul Winner in Phil 4:1 and 1 Thes 2:19, Crown of Righteousness in 2 Tim 4:8, Crown of Life in Jas 1:12 and Rev 2:10, and the Crown of Glory in 1 Peter 5:4.

The difference between the Gift and the Prize is also seen in 1 Cor. 3:12-15. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

At the judgment of believers, the quality of our work on earth will be tested by fire. Only work that survives the test will bring us a reward. But notice that even if all our work is destroyed in the fire, we’ll still have our salvation. Why? Because it’s a free Gift, given out of love, irrespective of merit.

The Lord mentioned other rewards as well. In Matt. 6:19-21 He advised us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

There are things we can do as believers while here on Earth that will cause deposits to be made to our heavenly account. Some believe that this passage refers to the way we use the money we’re given. Do we use it to enrich ourselves, stacking up possessions that far exceed our needs? Or do we use it to further the work of the Kingdom? Here’s a hint. Our tithe is what we owe to God. It’s what we do with the money we have left that really counts. And with the measure we use, it will be measured to us. (Luke 6:38)

To summarize, in the New Testament there are verses like Ephesians 1:13-14 that talk about Union. There are verses like 1 John 1: 8-9 that talk about Fellowship. There are verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 that talk about the Gift and there are verses like 1 Cor 9:24-27 that talk about the Prize.

Union verses:
The verses that stress belief, explain the permanent nature of our bond with God, and are directed toward eternity are Union verses.

Gift verses:
Those that involve grace and faith are Gift verses.

Fellowship verses:
Those that require work and are directed at the quality of our lives on Earth are Fellowship verses.

Prize verses:
And those that require work and involve eternal rewards are Prize verses.

When you view Scripture from this perspective, all of the apparent contradictions disappear and you no longer have to wonder why God seems to be saying one thing here and something different there. The issue becomes one of correctly identifying the focal point of the particular passage you’re looking at. Determine the context by reading verses around it, and assign it to one of the four categories.

Give Us An Example

Hebrews 6:4-6 is a passage often cited in opposition to Eternal Security. The entire letter is to Jewish believers who are being enticed back into keeping the Law, so the context is New Covenant vs. Old. And in verse 9 the writer hints that he’s been talking about things that accompany salvation. That tells us that verses 4-6 are not related to salvation but things that accompany it. More importantly, the idea that a believer could do something to irretrievably lose his salvation is in direct contradiction to the very clear promise that the Holy Spirit is sealed within us from the very first moment of belief until the day of redemption.

So what could these believers be in danger of falling away from due to their sins? Fellowship. And what could prevent them from being restored? The practice of Old Covenant remedies for sin rather than invoking 1 John 1:9. They’d be relegating the death of the Lord to the same status as that of the twice-daily lamb. The Law was only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. Once the Reality appeared, the shadow was no longer effective. And what would be their penalty? Living a defeated life, bearing no fruit, all their works burned in the judgment of 1 Cor. 3. But still saved? Yes. Hebrews 6:4-6 is a Fellowship passage.

Suppose There Is No Security?

In closing, let’s look at the alternative. What are we faced with? If Hebrews 6:4-6 for example applies to our salvation then if we ever sin after being saved we’ll be lost forever with no way back, because the Lord would have to be crucified all over again to retrieve us. The New Covenant would be worse than the Old, not better. They were condemned for their actions. According to Matt. 5, we’d be condemned for our thoughts. They couldn’t murder. We couldn’t even be angry. They couldn’t commit adultery. We couldn’t even have a lustful thought. Think of it. No anger, ever. No lust, ever. No envy, ever. No idolatry, ever. No favoritism or discrimination, ever. No impure thoughts or deeds of any kind, ever. Is this the Good News, the incomparable riches of His Grace? Did God become man and die the most painful death ever devised only to put His children into an even more untenable position than before? Are we saved by grace only to be placed under the constraints of an even more severely administered law? I can’t believe so.

Some take a more moderate view of this saying that God would never take back the gift of salvation, but that we can return it. To justify this position they have to put words in the Lord’s mouth. When He says in John 10:28, “No one can snatch them out of my hand,” they have to insert the phrase “but us” after “no one”. Same with Romans 8:38-39.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. They have to insert the phrase “but us” after “in all creation”.

None of this defense of Eternal Security is intended to condone sin. As an indication of our gratitude for the gift of salvation, believers are continually admonished in Scripture to live our lives in a manner pleasing to God. Not to earn or keep it, but to thank the Lord for giving it to us. And to help us do that, the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us to guide and direct us, and to pray for us. Since the Spirit of God lives in us we are no longer controlled by the sin nature and can choose to please God by the way we live. And even though we do this out of gratitude for the Gift He’s already given, which is Union with Him, He blesses us both here on Earth (Fellowship) and in Eternity (the Prize). Selah 10-07-06

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The Feasts of Israel have both a historical and a prophetic fulfillment. In this study we’ll review the account of Passover, the world’s oldest continuously celebrated Holy Day, from these two perspectives.

First, here’s the background. God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham. But before Abraham could actually take possession, the Canaanite people still had 400 years to decide if they were going to repent of their pagan ways and return to God. He already knew they weren’t going to decide in His favor and He would have to evict them, but He was committed to giving them the 400 years first. So it would actually be Abraham’s descendants who would take possession of the land. In the interim, God said, they would migrate to Egypt and eventually become enslaved there.  When the 400 years were up, God would bring them back to give them the land and would also give them the wealth of Egypt, as compensation for their time of slavery (Genesis 15:13-21).

To make sure there was no confusion about this, God repeated His promise to both Isaac (Genesis 26:2-3) and Jacob (Genesis 28:10-15), Abraham’s son and grandson.

When the time came, God called Moses to be the deliverer of the Jewish people (Exodus 3) and appointed his brother Aaron to help him bring Abraham’s descendants back to the Promised Land (Exodus 4:14-17).  But when they approached Pharaoh, he flatly refused to let the people go (Exodus 5:1-3).  After nine judgments that nearly destroyed Egypt (Exodus 7:14-10:29), God told Moses and Aaron how to prepare the people so they could protect themselves from the 10th and final judgment, the death of the firstborn.

The Historical Fulfillment

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. (Exod. 12:1-5)

From the dawn of the Age of Man until that time, the month to which the Lord referred had been the 7th month, called Nisan. In the announcement above He basically ordered a 6 month shift in their calendar. The 7th month was now the 1st. Because of their dependence on agricultural cycles, the Israelites retained their original calendar, with its Fall beginning, and super-imposed this new calendar over it. From then on they had a religious calendar, beginning in the Spring, and an agricultural calendar, beginning in the Fall. (That’s why Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, comes in the Fall.)

Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire-head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. (Exod. 12:6-11)

Until the 14th means through the end of the 13th, just like a present marked “do not open until Christmas” can’t be opened until the 24th is over. Also, Jewish days begin at sunset in line with the Biblical account of Creation, “There was evening and there was morning…” (Genesis 1:5, etc.).  As the sun was setting on the 13th, the Lambs were to be slaughtered and roasted. Some of the lamb’s blood was to be painted on the lintel and post of the door to each family’s house. Then, when the lambs were cooked, they were to be eaten in haste, along with some unleavened bread and bitter herbs (horseradish). Thus, the Passover meal was the first meal of the 14th, eaten after the sunset that marked the beginning of the day. It was a quick meal, more like a sandwich really, bearing no resemblance at all to the leisurely and sumptuous festival meals of today.

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn-both men and animals-and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt (Exod. 12:12-13).

Around midnight, after their hasty meal,  the destroying angel passed through Egypt and the firstborn of man and animal perished. The angel passed over homes where the doorposts had been painted with lamb’s blood, sparing the people huddled trembling within. They weren’t spared because they were Jewish, or because they had eaten lamb for dinner. They were spared because they had the faith to paint their doorposts with blood. They were saved by faith through the blood of the lamb.

Many years later, when the Passover Seder had become a traditional celebration, it became common for the participants to dip a finger into their wine glass to collect a drop of wine which they then let fall onto their plate.  They do this for each of the 10 plagues of Egypt, each time saying, “We are saved by the blood of the lamb.”

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat-that is all you may do.

“Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.” (Exod. 12:14-20)

The Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the 15th and lasted through the 21st. No yeast could be used in any food preparation, nor could any be present in the house during that time. When they settled in Israel, since the 15th was a major feast day and special sabbath, after the ceremonial “lamb sandwich” was consumed the rest of the 14th was spent in preparation because no work could be done after sundown. Any yeast found in the house was discarded, and the bulk of the food purchasing and preparation was done. This is how the 14th became known as Preparation Day (John 19:31).

From that day in the wilderness till this, the Lord’s Passover has been celebrated, one of the most dramatic displays of His power ever seen. During the meal they drink four special cups of wine, one each for the four promises God made to Moses from the burning bush.

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD , and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians (First cup, Sanctification). I will free you from being slaves to them (Second cup, Deliverance).  I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment (Third cup, Redemption).  I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.”(Fourth cup, Acceptance) (Exod. 6:6-7).

He freed His people from the bonds of slavery, defeating the world’s most powerful country without an army, without a single casualty among His own, by the power of His outstretched arm. Over a million former slaves walked out of Egypt the next morning carrying the wealth of their former captives, back wages for their hard labor. The sick were healed, the lame walked, and the weak were made strong. Not a single one was left behind.  This detail was overshadowed by other events of the day, but it was most likely the greatest healing miracle of all time.

Prophetic Fulfillment

In the first chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus was introduced as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Throughout His ministry people proclaimed Him as Israel’s Messiah, but only on one day did He encourage it. On the Jewish calendar, it was the 10th day of the first month. We know it as Palm Sunday. Through out Jerusalem Passover lambs were being selected, but on the Mount of Olives The Passover Lamb was being welcomed into the city with shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Matt. 21:9)

From then until the end of the 13th He received the most aggressively intense questioning of His ministry.  He was being carefully scrutinized for some defect in His teaching until finally “no one dared ask Him any more questions” (Matt 23:46).

Sundown at the end of the 13th brought the Passover, called Preparation Day in His time.  He ate an abbreviated Passover meal with His disciples, stopping at the 3rd cup, the Cup of Redemption. It was a Thursday, the 14th of the month, and before the day was over He had been arrested, tried, convicted and executed by crucifixion. The Passover Lamb had been put to death on Passover. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed, Paul would later say (1 Cor. 5:7).

Just before He died, knowing that all had been completed and so the Scriptures would be fulfilled, He asked for a drink (John 19:28-29).  In taking the wine they offered, He drank the 4th Cup of the Passover, the Cup of Acceptance. “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” From that day forward, anyone who accepted His death as payment for their sins would in turn be accepted into the family of God and receive eternal life. They are saved by faith through the Blood of the Lamb.

Earlier a group of Jewish officials had asked Jesus for a miraculous sign to prove that He was who He claimed to be. He said, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:39-40). They would get their sign but only after they had put Him to death.  And it would be unmistakable.  No one had ever come out of the grave in a resurrection body before. 

The day following the crucifixion would be Friday the 15th, the first Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a special Sabbath where no work could be done (John 19:31).  Knowing this, the chief priests asked Pilate to hasten the deaths of the condemned men so they could get them off their crosses before sundown. But Jesus was already dead. He had died at three o’clock and though His body was still on the cross, His spirit was already in Sheol, the abode of the dead. Day one.

At sundown the Feast of Unleavened Bread began, and with it Night One, followed in the morning by Day Two. Saturday the 16th was the regular weekly Sabbath and again no work could be done. It began with Night Two and in the morning became Day Three. Then at sundown it was Sunday the 17th, Night Three.  Three days and three nights, just as He had prophesied.

At sunrise Sunday morning the 17th, the Feast of First Fruits was being observed at the Temple when the women came to the tomb where He’d been laid to rest (Matt. 28:1). It was their first chance to anoint the body for burial since both Friday and Saturday had been Sabbaths. But the tomb was empty. He had risen, the First Fruits of the First Resurrection.

The two disciples who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus that Sunday (Resurrection Day) help us to confirm this sequence (Luke 24:13-35).  At first they thought the Lord must have been a very recent visitor to the area when He asked them to explain why they were so sad.  In the course of the discussion they indicated it was the third day since the crucifixion.  It being Sunday, the previous day, Saturday, would have been the 2nd day since it happened, and Friday would have been the first day since, making Thursday the day it happened.

By His death, He freed His people from their slavery to sin, defeating Heaven’s most powerful adversary without an army, without a single casualty among His own, by the power of His sacrificial life. Billions of former slaves will walk out of this world one day soon, receiving wealth beyond measure. The sick will be healed, the lame will walk, and the weak will be made strong. Not a single one will be left behind. It’s the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover Prophecy.

Shabbat Shalom. May the peace of the Sabbath rest upon you, and may the Grace of our Lord Jesus abide within you, both now and forever more. 04-12-14

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A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

In Matthew 12:38 Jesus was asked for a sign to show that He was the promised Messiah. The religious officials had just accused Him of using the power of Satan to perform His miracles, and so He described the only sign they would see. “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,” He said, “So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:40).” By this He meant that because of their hardened hearts they would only know for sure that He was their Messiah after He rose from the dead, an unmistakably miraculous sign.  History shows they didn’t accept even as incredible a sign as this, but His response has resulted in a 2,000 year controversy surrounding the time of His death.

What’s A Sabbath?

People who were unfamiliar with the sequence of the spring Feasts of Israel determined that the phrase in John 19:31 identifying the day after the crucifixion as a special Sabbath meant that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, because everyone knows that the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday.  And almost everyone agrees that He rose again on Sunday.  But there isn’t any way you can put three days and three nights between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.  Hence the controversy.

So let’s set the record straight. Sabbath is a Hebrew word that means means “rest” and refers to holy days when no work is allowed. There is one every Saturday in Israel, but there are also several during the year that are date specific. That means they are always observed on a specific calendar date, regardless of the day. They’re like our Christmas. Every year it comes on the 25th of December no matter what day of the week that happens to be.

The special Sabbath John referred to is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it’s a date specific holy day; always observed on the 15th of the month they call Nisan, which corresponds to March/April on our calendar. So the first thing we learn is that the special Sabbath mentioned in John 19:31 didn’t have to be a Saturday.

Originally there were four special days in the month of Nisan.  The first was Passover on the 14th.  Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread which began on the 15th and ended on  the 22nd, both of which were special Sabbaths. And finally, there was the Feast of First Fruits which fell on the Sunday morning following Passover (Leviticus 23:4-14).

Of the four, only the two that opened and closed the Feast of Unleavened Bread  prohibited work like the weekly Sabbath, but all have both a historical and prophetic purpose and like all days in the Jewish calendar they begin at sundown, following the pattern of Genesis 1 where God repeated the phrase, “and there was evening and there was morning” six times, once for each day of creation.

The Passover Lamb

The next issue we have to consider is the sequence of events in the week we call Holy Week.   In Exodus 12:1-13, where the Passover was ordained, we learn what  that sequence was.  God told the Israelites to select a lamb on the 10th day of the month and inspect it for defects until the 14th. This means through the end of the 13th. Then at twilight they were to slaughter and roast it, eating it that same evening, as the 14th was beginning.  Using some of its blood they were to paint their door posts red to protect them from the plague coming upon Egypt at midnight.

Jesus came to fulfill the prophecy of the Passover Lamb, to save from death everyone who spiritually applies His shed blood to their lives. The only day He ever allowed the people to hail Him as King was on the day we call Palm Sunday, and as we’ll see it was the 10th day of the month. He did this to fulfill the selection process for the Passover Lamb.  When the officials told Him to rebuke His disciples, He said that if they became quiet, the very stones would cry out (Luke 19:40). For this was a day ordained in history. It was the day He officially presented Himself as Israel’s Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). It was 483 years to the day from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet (Daniel 9:25).  A little while after the officials cautioned Him, He condemned Jerusalem to utter destruction because they did not recognize the day of His visitation (Luke 19:41-44).

The next three days were filled with the most aggressive debate and confrontation with the officials in His entire ministry.  He was being inspected for any doctrinal spot or blemish that would disqualify Him as the Lamb of God. They found none, and finally no one dared ask Him any more questions. (Matt. 22:46)

Tradition, Tradition

Some years before the birth of Jesus, the Passover celebration had been changed and in the Lord’s time called for a brief ritual meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs (horseradish) to begin the 14th followed by a great and leisurely festival meal on the 15th, when the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins.  This meal is called the Passover Seder.

The 14th became known among the people as Preparation Day , because during the day they made ready for the great feast day beginning at sundown,  after which no work was permitted.  Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:31  all identify Preparation Day as the day of the Lord’ s death, while Matt. 27:62 says the day after the crucifixion was the day after Preparation Day.   So all four Gospels agree; Jesus died on Preparation day, the 14th of their month Nisan, which is Passover.  As evening began the day, He ate the ritual meal with His disciples in the Upper Room, and then was arrested, tried, convicted, and put to death; all on Passover.  So just like the Lord had commanded in Exodus 12, our Passover Lamb was selected on the 10th, inspected on the 11th, 12th, and 13th, and executed on the 14th of Nisan.

How Do We Know This?

A little over 100 years ago a believer named Robert Anderson was head of Scotland Yard’s investigative division. He became intrigued by the three days and three nights issue and enlisted the help of the London Royal Observatory to investigate the problem since astronomers can locate the exact position of the planets and stars on any date in history. Since Passover always falls on the 14th, and since the Jewish calendar is lunar (moon) rather than solar (sun) oriented, there is always a full moon on Passover. This fulfills Genesis 1:14.

Plotting the course of the Sun and Moon they documented the day and date of every full moon. The Royal Observatory discovered that the first Palm Sunday was the 10th of Nisan, the day when Exodus 12 says to select the lamb.   Therefore Passover, the 14th, was a Thursday.  The Feast of Unleavened bread began on Friday the 15th, Saturday the 16th was the weekly Sabbath, and Resurrection Morning was also a Sunday, the 17th, when the Feast of First Fruits was celebrated.  From Thursday to Sunday there are three days and three nights.  It’s a little confusing to our way of thinking because the Hebrew day changes at sunset, which means that night precedes day.  But read carefully and you’ll see that it makes sense.

As I’ve said, Jesus had to die on Passover to fulfill the prophecy. Early that Thursday morning the Jewish leadership had gotten permission to crucify Him. (Matt. 27:1-26)  His fate was sealed and He was hanging on the cross by 9 AM, as good as dead.  His actual time of death was about 3 PM and His body was laid in the tomb sometime later, since the officials wanted it off the cross before sundown brought the Feast of Unleavened Bread, after which no work was permitted.  By then Jesus had been in Sheol for several hours.   Thursday was day one.

Because in Jewish reckoning the night precedes the day, at sundown it became Friday the 15th, night one, and the special Sabbath John mentioned began (John 19:31). At sunrise it was Friday morning, and day two began. The next sundown brought Saturday night the 16th, night two, and the regular Sabbath began. As of sunrise it was Saturday day, the beginning of day three. At sundown on Saturday it became Sunday night the 17th, night three, and sometime before sunrise Jesus rose from the tomb. Three days and three nights. When the women arrived at sunrise to anoint His body early in the morning, He was already gone.

So in the week Jesus died two Sabbaths that permitted no work were observed back to back: The Feast of Unleavened Bread on Friday the 15th, and the regular weekly Sabbath on Saturday the 16th. In Matthew 28:1 we read that at dawn on the first day of the week (Sunday the 17th) the women who were close to Jesus went to the tomb.  Luke 24:1 tells us they were going to anoint His body for burial. The two consecutive Sabbaths had prevented them from doing so earlier (Luke 23:55-56). But He wasn’t there. He had risen.  Being the Sunday after Passover, at the Jewish Temple it was Feast of First Fruits.  At the Empty Tomb it was Resurrection Morning.

How Can We Confirm This?

Some people try to equate his time of death with the burial of His body and say you can’t count Thursday as day one, because His body wasn’t laid in the tomb until sunset was upon them.  But that doesn’t make sense.  A person’s death always precedes his or her burial, sometimes by several days.  In the Lord’s case it was several hours between the time He died and the time His body was laid in the tomb.

The two disciples who met the Lord on the road to Emmaus that Sunday (the day the Lord’s resurrection was discovered) help us to confirm this (Luke 24:13-35).  At first they thought the Lord must have been a very recent visitor to the area when He asked them to explain why they were so sad.  In the course of the discussion they indicated it was the third day since the crucifixion.  “Since” is roughly equivalent to “after”.  It being a Sunday, the previous day (Saturday) would have been the 2nd day since it happened , and Friday would have been the first day since it happened, making Thursday the day it happened.

Others argue that this view doesn’t permit three full days and three full nights in the tomb but that’s not what the Scripture says. It simply says three days and three nights. If you move his death up to Wednesday to get three full days you violate the Passover Lamb prophecies, the women wouldn’t have waited until Sunday morning to prepare the Lord’s body because they could have done it on Friday, and the disciples on the Emmaus road would have said Sunday was the fourth day since the crucifixion.  So the Thursday date is the only one that will accommodate both the Passover Lamb and the three day three night prophecies. Mystery solved.

Most of us see our “day” beginning when we get out out of bed in the morning, but the reality is that it began hours before, at midnight. If you keep that subtle difference in mind, it shouldn’t be too difficult to back up a few more hours to sundown of the previous day. That’s when the Jewish calendar day began. In this calendar, each column represents one day of the week, just like your daily calendar. The top row represents the daytime hours while the bottom row represents the nighttime hours, just as you’re used to. The difference in this calendar is in the dating. Since the Jewish day begins at sundown, the first half of each day is shown on the bottom half of the calendar. To follow that day to it’s completion, you jump to the top of the next column to the right.

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Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).

He came into Jerusalem just like the prophecies said He would and the whole town lit up. Jerusalem was filling up with Passover pilgrims and they joined the locals in lining the steep street that led down from the top of the Mt. of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane and then across the Kidron valley to the East gate of the Temple. They laid their outer garments and branches from nearby palm trees across the street and sang,

“Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD (Psalm 118:25-26). Hosanna in the highest!”

This is the only day He ever let them do that. Always before He had told them to be quiet or had disappeared from among them. But on this day things were different. They were singing the Psalm reserved for the arrival of the Messiah and when the Pharisees told Him to stop them, He refused, telling them that nothing could stop this from happening (Luke 19:39-40). On this day He was fulfilling a prophecy from Daniel 9 as well as the one above from Zechariah 9.

“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.” (Daniel 9:25)

A “seven” was a period of seven years. 7 sevens plus 62 sevens equals 69 sevens or 483 years. On the day He rode into the city it had been exactly 483 years since the Persian King Artaxerxes had authorized Nehemiah to go to Jerusalem and rebuild it (Nehemiah 2:1-9). As Jesus approached the city He told the people that Jerusalem would be destroyed because their leaders didn’t recognize the time of God’s visitation (Luke 19:41-44).

His arrival made the religious leaders very nervous. Ever since He had raised Lazarus from the dead they’d been looking for a way to kill Him (John 11:45-53) and now He was here in their midst. They had to do something fast because everybody was talking about Him.   In desperation they agreed to let  one of His followers betray Him for money.

Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. (Psalm 41:9)

Jesus had reserved a room in which He and His disciples could observe the Passover, where He identified Judas as His betrayer (John 13:26). Immediately afterward Judas left to complete his act of betrayal. He would bring the soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane where he knew Jesus would be, and point Him out to them. The other disciples remained with the Lord and received His teaching on the New Covenant. It was shortly after sunset so the day had just begun. Before it was over, He would be arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced to death, executed and buried. All on Passover.

After the meal they sang a song. By tradition it was also part of Psalm 118.

The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:22-24).

It’s impossible to imagine how the Lord must have felt, knowing what was coming as He sang. Hebrews 12:2 says it was the joy set before Him that helped Him endure the cross. The source of that joy was the knowledge that He was redeeming us by paying the penalty for our sins. It took the life of a sinless man to rescue us from death and He considered the outcome to be well worth the price He had to pay. After the song they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane.

A little while later Judas arrived with the soldiers to arrest Him. Jesus convinced them to just take Him and let the others go. Only Peter and John followed behind Him while the others scattered. Earlier He had said this would happen, quoting Zechariah 13:7.

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me!” declares the LORD Almighty. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.”

When the chief priests made their deal with Judas they didn’t realize they would be fulfilling a prophecy from Zechariah 11 in conspicuous detail.

I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter (Zechariah 11:12-13)

The price was the same, the location of the transaction was the same, even the ultimate recipient was the same. After Judas had betrayed the Lord, he was filled with remorse. He returned the money by throwing it at the chief priests in the Temple (Matt. 27:5). This caused them a problem. They couldn’t take it back into the treasury because it was tainted. Since they were responsible for burying any travelers who died in the city, they used the money to buy a field they could turn into a burial ground. The man they bought the field from was a potter by trade (Matt. 27:6-7).

After trials before the High Priest and King Herod, Jesus was condemned to death. But the Jews had lost the authority to carry out an execution so they held Him over until they could see Pilate in the morning to make it official. Jesus spent the rest of the night alone in the darkness, shackled in a dungeon beneath the High Priest’s residence.

You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. (Psalm 88:8-9)

As Pilate listened to their accusations, he realized the charges were politically motivated and not legitimate. He decided to see if having Jesus scourged would satisfy them and sent Him to be beaten and flogged with whips.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4).

Pilate’s attempts to save Jesus failed, and after his offer to set Jesus free was rejected, he washed his hands of the matter and sent Him off to be crucified. During all this time, Jesus didn’t protest His innocence or offer any kind of defense. He knew He wasn’t dying for His crimes, but for ours.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53:5-7)

By nine o’clock in the morning Jesus had been nailed to the cross and consigned to die the most agonizing form of death ever devised. They had offered Him some wine vinegar laced with gall to lessen the pain, but He refused it. He had told His disciples He wouldn’t drink wine again until the Kingdom had come.

They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst. (Psalm 69:21)

He hung there for several hours slowly suffocating without complaining about the excruciating pain but then something happened that changed everything. Having taken upon Himself all the sins of mankind, He actually became the physical embodiment of sin (2 Cor. 5:21). The Father could no longer bear to look at Him and turned away. As He did He took the light from the world and at noon it became like night.

“And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight” (Amos 8:9)

Separation from His Father is something Jesus had never experienced and could not have anticipated, and it was so much worse than the physical pain that He finally cried out in anguish.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

Psalm 22, written 1000 years earlier, is a first person account of what it feels like to be crucified and contains several details specific to the Lord’s ordeal.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;  you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. (Psalm 22:14-18)

Finally, after spending 6 hours in a consuming fog of pain that none of us will ever experience, He died. In the last act of His life, He asked for and received a drink of wine. He did this knowing that the work He had come to do had been completed. The Scriptures had been fulfilled. Having paid the price for our sins He knew the Kingdom of God had come to Earth. The drink of wine He took is our proof of this because He had sworn not to drink of the fruit of the vine again until it did (Luke 22:18). Then He said, “It is finished” and died (John 19:28-30). The price for all the sins of mankind had been paid in full. Light returned to the Earth.

A few hours later, the Chief Priests asked Pilate to allow the soldiers to hasten the deaths of the men being crucified. At sunset the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread would begin and it was a special Sabbath on which no work could be done (Exodus 12:16). They wanted the men dead and off their crosses before the Sabbath began. Since crucifixion is ultimately a death by suffocation, breaking the men’s legs would prevent even their limited breathing and they would quickly die. When the soldiers came to Jesus He was already dead so they didn’t break His legs, but stabbed Him in the heart instead.

“(The Passover Lamb)must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. (Exodus 12:46)

A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken. (Psalm 34:19-20)

Typically, crucified men were denied burial. Their dead bodies were simply thrown on the city’s garbage dump where wild dogs consumed them. But one of the richest men in the area petitioned Pilate for the body of Jesus and laid it in his own tomb near the site of the crucifixion.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. (Isaiah 53:9)

But that was not the end of it. Three days and three nights later, before His body even began to decompose, He rose from the grave, fully and eternally alive.

You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. (Psalm 16:10)

It was proof positive that His death had paid the full penalty due for the sins of mankind. He was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It was also the unmistakable sign of Jonah. He was Israel’s Messiah.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11)

On the night of His arrest, Jesus had prayed that if there was any other way to redeem mankind, He wanted to be released from His commitment to die for us. Then He prayed that not His will but the Father’s will be done. (The Hebrew word translated knowledge above also means perception or discernment. The Lord perceived that His Father’s will was correct and chose to follow it rather than His own.)

This passage from Isaiah shows us that there was no other way. It was the Father’s will for the Son to die so we could live. But it was also His will that the Son be resurrected, because without the resurrection there would be no proof that they had been successful in redeeming us. This is why Paul said we have to believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead in order to be saved (Romans 10:9). The Resurrection is proof that all our sins have been taken away. The fact that He conquered death is proof that we will too. Therefore, belief in a bodily resurrection from the dead is absolutely essential to our salvation.

Writing to the Ephesians Paul said, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:18-21).

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

The resurrection is the synergistic combination of power and love. Greater than the Creation or the Exodus, which required only power; greater even than the birth of the Messiah, which required only love; it’s God’s crowning achievement. Resurrection Sunday was nothing less than the greatest day in the history of human existence. He is risen! 04-23-11

The post Prophecies Of The Lord’s Death And Resurrection appeared first on Grace thru faith.

“Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”  (John 20:29)

Note: This article is one of Jack’s Bible Through the Eyes of its Writers category, which is one of my favorites! Written in the first person as if Mary Magdalene herself is telling us her story. Enjoy! -Samantha

I am Mary of Magdala, or Mary Magdalene, so named because I came from the village of Magdala, located on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, between Tiberius and Capernaum, and not far from Nazareth.  It also helped to distinguish me from the several other women named Mary who were associated with Jesus during His ministry.  Just as Peter was considered to be the informal head of the male disciples, I was considered to be the head of the females.  I was with the Lord through much of His ministry and, along with the other women, helped to provide His financial support.  Several of us came from families of means and since the men had left everything to follow the Lord, we did our part by making sure there was enough money to pay the bills.  The Lord had healed us all of various diseases so we were happy to be able to contribute to His work in this way.

I was present at the Lord’s crucifixion, and was the first one to see Him after His resurrection.  This is my story of that glorious day.

Some of the other women and I hurried quietly through the streets of Jerusalem toward the Damascus gate.  We were trying not to attract any unwanted attention in case the officials were looking for us. It was just barely sunrise on Sunday morning, the first day after the Sabbath that followed the Passover. We could hear the priests at the Temple blowing the shofar announcing the Feast of First Fruits, the dedication of the spring harvest.

Normally we didn’t wait so long before preparing a body for burial but by the time Joseph and Nicodemus had gotten the Lord’s body off the cross and laid Him in Joseph’s tomb it was nearly sundown and the special Sabbath known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread was about to begin.  When it did, no more work would be permitted.  So after seeing where they put His body, we rushed home to prepare the spices and perfumes we would need for His burial.  The day after Unleavened Bread was the regular Sabbath, and again no work could be done. But finally it was Sunday morning, the 3rd day since His death, and we could properly cleanse the body and apply the aromatic spices whose aroma would mask the smell of decay while the body decomposed.

We’d spent the last three days hiding in fear of the Temple Guard and trying to get over the shock of His death. Maybe you can imagine what an emotional time we were going through.  Just a week earlier, on the day you call Palm Sunday, we had accompanied Jesus into Jerusalem to shouts of “Hosanna, hosanna to the Son of David … Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Then there was that incident at the Temple on Monday when He drove out the money changers, and the constant tension between Him and the officials in the days afterward.  His betrayal and arrest, and His trial and execution all took place on Thursday, and then He was gone.   Talk about extremes.  Of course, this is exactly what He told us would happen.  But believe me when I say that talking about it and experiencing it were two different things.

Among all of us, I was perhaps the only one who truly had a grasp of what this was all about, but even I couldn’t keep from glancing furtively over my shoulder to make sure no one was following, and the pain I felt at having lost Him was almost unbearable. But life goes on, and there was finally some work we could do. Maybe that would help.

The Empty Tomb

As I look back on that morning, I realize we had no idea how we were going to get into His tomb, but our tradition required that a dead body be made ready for burial as soon as possible.  So we had to find a way to get the tomb opened and we had to do it that very day.

We felt the earthquake as we were nearing the tomb, but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw when we got there. The huge stone that had sealed it was rolled away, and there was a man whose clothing shone like the sun sitting on it. He told us the tomb was empty, that Jesus had risen just like He said He would. We couldn’t believe it! “See for yourselves,” he said, “Then go and tell His disciples that He’ll meet you all in the Galilee.”

I was in shock! I guess my time of emotional extremes wasn’t over yet.  I don’t remember where the other women went, but I wandered around in a daze crying my eyes out until I came upon a man I thought was the gardener.  When he asked why I was crying, I foolishly asked him where he had taken the body. “Tell me where you put Him,” I said, “And I’ll bring Him back.”

When He spoke my name I recognized His voice and falling to my knees, I clung to Him. No one was ever going to take Him from me again if I had anything to say about it!  I hadn’t recognized Him at first because I never expected to see Him alive again, at least not in this world. But the sound of His voice was undeniable.

“Don’t cling to me Mary,” He said. “I have not yet returned to the Father.” Much later I understood Him to mean that he was on His way to the real Temple, the one in Heaven, in the role of our High Priest.  There He would sprinkle His own blood on the altar and perform His final act of atonement for our sins, just as the law required. Reluctantly I let Him go, and ran back to the disciples as He told me to.

Of course, they didn’t believe me. After all, this was a man’s world and I was only a woman. What could I know? But Peter and John went to see for themselves and finally, finally, they got it. He had risen from the dead. He was alive. In a great rush of comprehension, they finally believed in their hearts that which they previously had only considered in their minds.  Later that day two of the other disciples also reported seeing and talking with Him on the road to Emmaus, but we got the ultimate confirmation that night when He appeared to us in the upper room.

The implications were staggering. He had taken upon Himself all the sins of the world as He was nailed to the cross, and had paid their enormous penalty with His life.  Then He went to stand before the throne of God the Father Almighty. God cannot tolerate the presence of sin, so if even one tiny sin among all those that ever had or ever would be committed by mankind remained on Him, Jesus could never have escaped the tomb to stand before Him. His resurrection was absolute proof of the certainty of ours. From the first human to the last, all who accept in faith the pardon that His death had purchased for us would be forgiven and receive eternal life. It was unbelievable!

Doubting Thomas

And of course, there would always be some who wouldn’t believe it. Thomas, who had been missing that first Sunday evening, serves as their example.  Even after hearing other reports from disciples who had seen Jesus, Thomas refused to believe until he had absolute proof.  A week later we were all together again and Thomas was with us. Suddenly Jesus appeared in the locked room. “Shalom alechem,” He said, which means “Peace be with you.”

Calling Thomas over, He had him put his finger into the nail prints in His hands and the wound in His side. “Stop doubting and believe,” He said.

Thomas fell to his knees saying, “My Lord and my God.”

“Because you have seen you believe,” Jesus said. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

By saying this, He was pronouncing a special blessing on those who would become part of the Church, that great body of believers who accept in faith the validity of events I witnessed first hand. In all of humanity, the church is singled out and set apart for special blessing for that reason alone.

Over the next 40 days before His ascension, Jesus appeared to more than 500 people, and later came back to personally prepare Paul to carry His message to the Gentiles.  Through this instruction Paul came to understand the essential requirements of salvation. If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved (Romans 10:9). It stands to reason. I mean if you can’t believe that God would raise His own Son from the dead, how can you believe He would do it for you?  04-04-15.

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When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Col. 2:13-15)

It’s an interesting passage, these three verses, and not often mentioned. But it packs a huge dose of theology.

Verse 13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

We didn’t work our way to this reward. We did nothing to earn or deserve it.  We didn’t even make the first move, earning the right to a response. While we still hated Him, He loved us enough to die for us, as if saying, “Here’s the gift of life, reserved for you. All you have to do is ask to receive it” (Matt. 7:7-8).

Verse 14

“He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Today we would call this written code with its regulations the list of charges filed with the court; a bill of indictment for all the crimes we’d been accused of. Since the Lord offered Himself “once for all time” the phrase all our sins means a couple of things.  Collectively it means all the sins of mankind, from the first sin of the first man to the last sin of the last one. Individually it means all the sins of our life, past, present, and future. The Greek word for all literally means each and every sin has been forgiven.

In the Lord’s day, if we had been convicted of non-capital crimes, a list of them would have been nailed to the door of our prison cell, along with the sentence we’d received. As we served our time, paying our “debt to society” as they called it, the intervals would be marked off until at last, we had served our full sentence. At that time we would be handed the list, and the Greek word tetelestai, which means paid in full, would be written across it as proof we had completed the term of our sentence.  This would be our protection against double jeopardy, in case we were ever charged again.

If we had been convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death, our crimes would have been inscribed on a placard and affixed above our head to the cross on which we hung, as a deterrent to all who passed by and witnessed our agony. Crosses were mounted along-side major thoroughfares for maximum public exposure.

As the Lord hung on His cross, the placard above His head read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” identifying His crime as treason for all those in the temporal realm to see. But in the spiritual realm, a different sign was being displayed. It listed all the crimes against God (sins) that ever had been or ever would be committed during the entire age of mankind. Beside each sin were the names of all the people who had or would commit them. It is this sign Paul describes as being nailed to the cross in Colossians 2:14.

Verse 15

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

You see, all of humanity’s crimes against God are capital crimes, punishable by death, and we’re all guilty. Satan knew that because of this, all of humanity was forever estranged from God. Jesus had come to reconcile God and man, but now by murdering Him, Satan could make sure that no one could ever rescue mankind. We’d all be lost forever. The moment of his greatest victory was at hand.

But wait! That sign over His head said that the Lord wasn’t dying for any crime He had committed. His name wasn’t even on the list. He was dying in mankind’s place for all the crimes WE had committed. How can this be? It can’t possibly work.

From the cross Jesus cried, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” He had become the physical embodiment of sin itself (2 Cor. 5:21), and God had to turn away from Him, abandoning Him there. For the first time in eternity, the Father and the Son were no longer One. There’s hope yet, the devil must have thought. Even the Father can’t rescue Him! We’ve won after all!

But then Jesus cried out one last time. And suddenly Satan understood. He’d been set up. They were in it together, the Father and the Son. In 1 Cor. 2:8 Paul explained that Satan and his minions didn’t realize this until then, because if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. They thought that by killing the Christ they could separate us from God forever, but instead, they were guaranteeing our reconciliation (Col. 1:19-20).

Later, when John, an eyewitness to the event, wrote down the Lord’s last word from the cross, he used the same Greek word as the one the jailers wrote across the written code when they released their prisoners. “Tetelestai!” Paid in full! We were free. The terms of our sentence had been fulfilled and we could never be charged again. Our long estrangement from God, begun in the Garden, was over.

You see, before the foundation of the world was laid, the Father and the Son had entered into an agreement. Knowing all that was to come, the fall into sin and all its horrific consequences, the Father had said to the Son, “Son, if you’ll die for them I’ll forgive them.” And the Son had replied, “Father, if you’ll forgive them I’ll die for them.” It’s called the Everlasting Covenant, and because of it all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And on that central day in history, it had come to pass. The everlasting covenant was fulfilled.

Verse 15 Again

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

So what was to have been Satan’s greatest victory had become his ultimate defeat. And right there in full view of all the host of heaven. A public spectacle. Humiliated!

And what’s the proof? Resurrection Morning, 3 days and 3 nights later. On that sunny Sunday morning, the tomb broken open and empty, Mary Magdalene and the other women became the first to know for certain what mankind had dreamed about for several thousand years. The Redeemer had come, as promised from the days of Adam. And with His blood shed on the cross He had ransomed all who would accept it from death to life. The empty tomb proved it (1 Cor. 15:17).

Having become so much the embodiment of sin that God couldn’t even look at Him just three days earlier, Jesus had now come out of the tomb ready to sit at the right hand of Majesty. His death had paid in full the price for all our sins. It had to, because He took the blame for all the sin in the history of mankind and if the penalty for even one of them remained unpaid, He’d still be in the grave, still separated from His Father. God cannot abide the presence of sin!

But John called Him the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). All of it. And so here He was all dressed in white, on His way to the Throne in Heaven. His Father was satisfied, His need for justice having been met, they were One again. And as they were one with each other we became one with them (John 14:20), as righteous as God Himself (2 Cor. 5:21), as perfect as though we had never sinned (2 Cor. 5: 17), and destined to dwell in the House of the Lord forever. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebr. 10:14). 04-11-04

Hallelujah, He is Risen!

The post Easter in Three Verses, He Is Risen! appeared first on Grace thru faith.

Wednesday 13 Nisan. The Betrayal

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people.  Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present. (Luke 22:1-6)

Much has been written about the motives that drove Judas to betray the Lord. Some say His intentions were honorable while others say they weren’t, but the Bible is silent on the issue. What it does say is the betrayal came as no surprise. Jesus had already predicted it. Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.) (John 6:70-71).

Some of the disciples asked Jesus where He wanted to celebrate the Passover because as soon as the sun set it would be Thursday, the 14th of Nisan.

He told them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” (Mark 14:13-15)

Thursday 14 Nisan. The Crucifixion, Passover

When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely not I?”

“It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me (Mark 14:17-20).

John 12:26-30 confirms that it was Judas, who went out to alert the authorities as soon as he had taken the bread. His betrayal was a fulfillment of Psalm 41:9, written by David 1,000 years earlier. Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

During the meal, which was eaten at the same time Moses and the Israelites had eaten the first Passover in Egypt, Jesus introduced the New Covenant. He took bread and said it represented His body, given for us, and the wine in the cup He held represented His blood, shed for the remission of sin. He said whenever we eat of the bread and drink of the cup we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes (1 Cor. 11:23-26). From that day to this, Christians have celebrated communion on a regular basis, each time looking back to the cross, where He died in our place, and forward to the crown, with its promise of eternal life. Paul called it the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will award to all who have longed for His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8).

After the meal, they went outside the city heading east toward the Mount of Olives, where the Garden of Gethsemane was located. It was an olive orchard just across the narrow Kidron Valley from the East Gate of the Temple. On the way, Jesus reminded them of His coming death and told them they’d soon be scattered for fear of the authorities, in fulfillment of Zechariah 13:7. But He promised He’d see them again after His resurrection. Peter denied that he’d fall away, even if all the others did. In reply Jesus said “I tell you the truth, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times” (Matt. 26:34) It happened just as He said.

When they arrived at the Garden, Jesus told them to wait while He went a little further to pray alone. 1,000 years earlier, David had described what it feels like to be crucified (Psalm 22:1-18) and Jesus knew full well the terrible suffering and pain that awaited Him. Three times He asked the Father to not to make Him go through with it if there was any other way to save mankind from their sins. Some theologians call this the unanswered prayer, but the Father’s silence was the answer. There was no other way.

Without the shedding of blood, there can be no remission of sin (Hebr. 9:22), but the blood of sacrificial animals was not sufficient to the task. It only served to remind the people of their sins (Hebr. 10:3-4). It took the blood of a sinless man to redeem sinful mankind once and for all (Hebr. 10:11-14). Jesus knew His prayer had been heard when an angel from Heaven came to strengthen Him, and He rose to face His accusers.

A couple of the most obvious indicators of the Lord’s messiahship happened during the course of His arrest. When the Temple guards arrived, Jesus asked who they were looking for, and they replied, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said, “I am He,” which caused them all to fall to the ground (John 18:4-6). The word “He” doesn’t appear in the original text. It was added by the English translators. Jesus only said “I Am,” the name by which God identified Himself to Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3:13-14).

It was a clear demonstration of His power, to single-handedly defeat them, had He chosen to. And as if that wasn’t enough, He told Peter He had more than 12 legions of angels at His disposal (Matt. 26-53). That’s 72,000 angelic warriors standing by, ready and waiting.

At that point, Peter drew a sword and cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant Malchus (John 18:10). Jesus touched the man’s ear and healed him (Luke 22:51), telling Peter to put away his sword, saying all who drew the sword would die by the sword (Matt. 26:52).

The word servant is misleading. Malchus was most likely one of the High Priest’s most trusted assistants, sent with the guards as his representative to make sure the arrest went as planned. There’s no indication he was a believer, nor did he ask to be healed. With this miracle, the Lord protected Peter from arrest by reversing the effect of his impulsive act.

By the way, Jesus was not arguing against the taking up of arms in the general sense. It was a reminder that Peter was hopelessly outnumbered by professional soldiers. If he insisted on brandishing his sword, he would surely die from the thrusts of their swords.

That night Jesus endured numerous trials, all of them illegal. The Jews prided themselves in their mercy and only rarely invoked the death penalty. Formal charges always had to be filed before bringing an accused man to trial. Trials were never held in secret or at night. Conviction required a unanimous decision by the Sanhedrin, and they had a “sleep on it” rule that meant they voted again the next day. It took the confirming testimony of two independent witnesses to establish a man’s guilt. None of this was the case in the Lord’s conviction. No formal charges were filed. The group of leaders who tried Him purposely excluded anyone who would have been sympathetic toward Him. He was convicted on His testimony alone, and confined to a cell for an early morning execution. The sleep on it rule was ignored.

When he learned Jesus had been convicted, Judas, recognizing the terrible mistake he had made, tried to undo it by returning the 30 pieces of silver he’d been paid to betray Jesus. Failing in this, he threw the money into the Temple and fled. Because it was tainted, the priests were unable to return the money to the treasury, so they purchased a field to be used as a burial ground from a man who earned his living as a potter (Matt. 27:6-7). All this had been foretold in remarkable detail 450 years earlier (Zechariah 11:12-13). In his despair Judas took his own life.

Because the Jewish leaders lacked the authority to execute a criminal, Jesus had to be found guilty of a capital crime under Roman law. So they took Him to Pontius Pilate and stated their case. But Pilate was not persuaded. He tried to have Jesus released, but the unruly crowd that had gathered around demanded that Jesus be crucified. The Jewish leaders had stirred them up against Jesus and they weren’t going to settle for anything less than His execution. When Pilate insisted that Jesus had done nothing deserving of death, they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” Finally he called for water, and symbolically washing his hands, he said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is your responsibility” (Matt. 27:24).

All the people answered, “Let His blood be on us and on our children!” (Matt. 27:25) And so it has been. Pilate had Jesus flogged and turned Him over for crucifixion.

The Roman method of flogging was so brutal that many prisoners didn’t survive it. When they were finished with Jesus, He was in deep shock. Their whips had torn the skin and muscle from His back exposing the bones of His rib cage. But the worst was yet to come.

It was nine AM when Jesus was nailed to the cross, and for the next six hours, He endured the most painful method of execution ever devised. Crucifixion is essentially a death by suffocation. Because the condemned man was hanging by his arms, he couldn’t draw a full breath unless he supported His weight with His feet. But pushing against the nails that were driven through his feet was so painful he could only do it for a few seconds at a time, so his lungs slowly filled up with carbon dioxide until he could no longer breathe. Isaiah 53:4-5 tells us the magnitude of our sins made this brutality necessary to ensure our spiritual and physical healing.

At noon darkness came over the whole land. God had turned away, unable to watch, taking His light from the world as He did. 750 years earlier the prophet Amos had warned them this would happen.

“In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord, “I will make the Sun go down at noon and darken the Earth in broad daylight” (Amos 8:9).

Throughout this unspeakable ordeal Jesus had uttered not a whimper. With all the power of the Universe at His command He allowed himself to be led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7). But the pain of being separated from His Father was too much for Him to bear. Finally, at 3 PM He cried out for the first time. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”(Matt. 27:46)

Knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30)

At the last supper Jesus said He wouldn’t drink wine again until the Kingdom came (Matt. 26:29), and He had refused a drink of it earlier in the day (Matt. 27:34). But now He was asking for one.

Also, the Greek word translated it is finished was a commonly used term that meant paid in full in standard legal and commercial affairs. The debt of sin mankind owed to God had been paid. Taken together these two things indicate that with the Lord’s death phase one of the Kingdom, later to be known as the Church, had come.

Although it would be several hours before the Lord’s body was removed from the cross and placed in a tomb, by 3 PM His Spirit had departed and was in paradise. All four Gospel accounts agree that the Lord’s death took place on Preparation Day, as Passover had come to be known (Matt. 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:31). Christ, our Passover lamb had been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7) on Passover.

The Jewish leaders asked Pilate for the crucified men to be off their crosses by sunset when it became the 15th of Nisan, beginning the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was a special Sabbath, on which no work could be done, (Lev. 23:6-7) and they wanted the crosses to be empty by then (John 19:31). Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man and a believer in Jesus, asked for and received the Lord’s body. He and Nicodemus, another prominent believer, laid it in Joseph’s own tomb but were unable to complete the burial process before the sunset brought the Holy Day.

Friday, 15 Nisan. The Feast Of Unleavened Bread

For most of Israel in Biblical times, the 15th of Nisan was a day of celebration and rest, commemorating their release from slavery in Egypt. At the beginning of the 14th, they ate a quick ceremonial meal of lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs like their ancestors had done. The rabbis said if they consumed a piece of lamb the size of an olive they had met the requirements for the day. Then they spent the rest of the 14th hurriedly preparing for the coming feast. That’s why the 14th became known as Preparation Day.

But on the 15th it was a different story because that’s when they ate a large, leisurely meal while they recounted the story of the Exodus. It was a national holiday on which no regular work could be done.

For the disciples it was a time of mourning. Their teacher, their Messiah, had been executed and it felt like three years of preparation for the coming Kingdom had been for nought. They were also afraid they might hear the sound of soldiers coming for them too, in an effort to completely stamp out the Messianic movement in which they had placed such great hope. Jesus had told them they would weep and mourn while the world around them rejoiced. He said they would grieve, but their grief would turn to joy that no one could take away (John 16:20-22). But for now there was only grief.

Unseen to the living, another group was having an even greater celebration than the Jews in Israel. The spirits of Old Testament believers who had died in the hope that a redeemer would come to pay for their sins had finally met Him. Jesus had promised one of the men being crucified with Him they’d be together in paradise that very day (Luke 23:42-43). And, sure enough, there He was, preaching the Good News that their faith had been justified. He would soon be taking them to Heaven (Ephes. 4:8).

For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. (1 Peter 4:6)

He wasn’t there to be tormented by the devil, as some teach, but to announce His victory, a victory in which those in Paradise would soon share. Remember, just before He died, He had said, “It is finished.” The price had been paid in full, the work was done. There would be no more suffering.

While He was there, He also proclaimed His victory to the spirits in prison who had rebelled against God in the days before the Great Flood (1 Peter 3:18-20). Some say these are the fallen angels who are being held in chains while awaiting their final judgment (Jude 1:6).

Saturday, 16 Nisan. The Weekly Sabbath

Coming on the heels of the previous day’s special Sabbath meant that the women were once again prevented from preparing the Lord’s body for burial. Had there been a regular work day between the crucifixion and the resurrection they would have prepared the body immediately, as was the custom, and would not have been there to discover that it was missing.

Sunday, 17 Nisan. The Resurrection, The Feast Of First Fruits

The Feast of First Fruits always came on the day after the Sabbath that followed Passover. As the priests were taking a sample of the harvest to the Temple for dedication, the women were preparing to finish the job Joseph and Nicodemus had begun three days earlier. But when they arrived at the tomb they discovered the Lord’s body wasn’t there. An angel told them He had risen, just as He said He would, the first fruits of the first resurrection.

Jesus appeared and spoke briefly with Mary Magdalene outside the tomb that morning, asking her not to hold onto Him because He was going to the Father. The writer of Hebrews tells us He was taking His blood to sprinkle on the altar in Heaven in His capacity as our High Priest (Hebr. 9:11-12). This would open the gates of Heaven to all believers. Mary ran back to tell the others, but by the time Peter and John got there, the Lord was gone. They both inspected the tomb carefully, amazed to find it was empty.

That afternoon Jesus came alongside two of his followers on the road to Emmaus, but they were initially kept from recognizing Him. When He asked why they appeared so downcast, they explained all that had happened concerning Jesus of Nazareth and were surprised that He hadn’t heard about it. And what’s more, they said, it was the third day since all this had taken place (Luke 24:13-21).

That comment alone should have forever put to rest the controversy surrounding the actual day of the Lord’s crucifixion. Think about it. It was Sunday, the third day since it happened. That means Saturday would have been the second day since it happened, Friday the first day since, making Thursday the day it happened.

That evening Jesus appeared to ten of the disciples. (Judas was dead and Thomas was missing.) For the first time, they received the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-22).

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:45-49).

In these eight days the Lord lived out the essential doctrine of our faith. Paul would later write, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4) Believing this is what makes us Christians. The empty tomb is proof that our faith is not in vain. Selah 04-07-12

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Tuesday 12 Nisan.  A Prophecy Lesson

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:1-2)

How this must have astonished the disciples. Over 500 years earlier the prophet Daniel had revealed that beginning with a decree authorizing the reconstruction of Jerusalem, Israel would be given 490 years during which all necessary preparations for the Messianic Kingdom would be made. They would finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for wickedness, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy (place). The most holy place refers to the Temple. Accomplishing this would require the Messiah to come and die for the sins of the people (Daniel 9:24-26).

The disciples knew the 483 year mark had been reached a few days earlier and that the Messiah was among them. He had explained to them that when they got to Jerusalem He would be executed but would come back from the grave three days later (Matt. 16:21, Luke 18:31-33). So there were only seven years left of the 490 years. The Temple had been undergoing a major reconstruction that so far had required 46 years (John 2:20) and wasn’t complete yet. But now Jesus was saying everything would be torn down. Not one stone would be left standing on another. How could that be?

As they began their trek up the Mount of Olives on their way back to Bethany, four of the disciples (Peter, James, John and Andrew) approached Jesus to ask Him about these things. They had three questions for Him. First, they wanted to know when this would happen. They also wanted to know what would be the sign of His coming, and what would be the sign of the end of the age (Matt. 24:3).

By their questions, we can tell they’d been discussing this among themselves. Wanting to know when the Temple would be destroyed was an obvious reaction to his earlier statement, but the Lord’s Second Coming was still a new idea to them. And if the Temple was going to be torn down how would they know when the end of the age would come? They certainly could no longer count on it happening in 7 years.

Matthew’s account of the Lord’s response does not contain an answer to their first question. But Luke’s does, so let’s go there first.

Jesus told them, “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies you will know its desolation is near. There will be great distress in the land (Israel) and wrath against this people (the Jews). They will fall by the sword and be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:20, 23,24).

The disciples were to understand that when they saw the Roman Armies surrounding Jerusalem, it would mean Temple was about to be destroyed. The Jews mounted an unsuccessful revolt against Rome in 66 AD and by 70AD Jerusalem and the Temple lay in ruins.

In answering their 2nd and 3rd questions, Jesus began with an overview. In the times ahead there would be false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, but they would not signal the end. He said nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There would be famines and earthquakes in various places. He characterized these as the beginning of birth pangs, meaning they would be indicators that the time of the Second Coming was near.

He said the Jewish people would be persecuted and hated by all nations because they would be blamed for His death. There would be false prophets, and an increase of wickedness, but he who stands firm to the end would be saved (Matt. 24:4-13).

We know he wasn’t talking about the Church here because our salvation is not contingent upon standing firm to the end. Our salvation was assured from the moment we believed (Ephes. 1:13-14). God has set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing this (2 Cor. 1:21-22). Jesus had post rapture believers in mind here, because they have no such guarantee. As you’ll see, there’s no mention of the Church anywhere in this discussion because Jesus was speaking as a Jewish prophet explaining to His Jewish disciples about the end times as they concern the Jewish people. Remember, their questions to Him were about the remaining seven years of Daniel’s 70 Week prophecy, which is all about Israel.

Then He completed His overview by saying the Gospel would be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14). Now before you say, “There’s where the Church comes in,” let me take you to Rev. 14 to see the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (Rev. 14:6-7)

Now the Lord gave them the first specific sign in answer to their questions. He said when the people of Judea see the abomination that causes desolation standing in the Holy place they should immediately flee for their lives (Matt. 24:15-16). The term abomination that causes desolation was well known to them even though it had only happened once previously. In one of history’s clearest models of the anti-Christ, the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes placed an image of the Greek god Zeus with his own face on it in the Temple and demanded that the people worship it on pain of death. This rendered the Temple unfit for use and started the three and one half year Maccabean revolt. The annual celebration of their victory over the Syrians is called the Feast of Hanukkah. Every Jew knows the meaning of the abomination of desolation from this celebration. It was a sign they could all could recognize.

Jesus told the people of Judea to pray their flight wouldn’t be in winter or on a Sabbath when that happens again because that sign would signal the beginning of the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:21). It’s harder to flee one’s home in the winter, and it’s against the Law for Jews to travel on the Sabbath.

It’s hard to over estimate the significance of that statement. Even though Jesus had earlier warned the disciples the Temple was soon to be destroyed and the people would be scattered among the nations, He now said there would be a Jewish nation in Israel with a working Temple again as the End of the Age approached. From about 135 AD until 1948 there was no Jewish nation, and since 70AD there hasn’t been a Temple there.

With 20-20 hindsight we can see that with the rejection of the Messiah, Daniel’s 70 week prophecy was suspended 7 years short of it’s fulfillment. The Lord’s brother James explained to the Early Church leaders that this suspension would remain in force while the Lord took from the Gentiles a people for Himself (the Church) and after that Israel would be restored (Acts 15:13-18). Therefore, the Church Age didn’t cancel the remaining seven years, it has just postponed their fulfillment. After the Church has been raptured, Israel’s final 7 years will resume and this time all their objectives will be reached.

The 3 ½ years of judgment that begins with the abomination that causes desolation will be the worst the world has ever seen or ever will see again (Matt. 24:21) No period of time is more carefully measured in all the Bible. It’s variously described as being 3 ½ years, or 42 months or 1260 days long. And then the Lord will return and put an end to it. He said if it was allowed it to run its course not a single human being would survive, but for the sake of His elect He will put an end to it at its appointed time (Matt. 24:22).

Immediately after the end of the Great Tribulation the Sun and Moon will go dark, and the stars will fall from the sky. The world will be plunged into darkness. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear as the only light in the sky, and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. Then they will see the the Lord coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory (Matt. 24:29-30).

Jesus said, in effect, the generation of people being born when the first of the end times signs appear will still be alive at the Second Coming (Matt. 24:34). Since He began by saying there will be a nation of Jewish people in the Promised Land in the end times, and since that hadn’t been the case until 1948, scholars believe the rebirth of Israel was the event that kicked off the End Times. If so, then many of the people who were born in 1948 will still be alive when He returns.

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36)

From Matt. 24:29-30 we can tell Jesus was speaking about the day and hour of his return to Earth after the end of the Great Tribulation. And while you have likely seen different interpretations of what follows, it’s important for you to understand all of it pertains to the time immediately surrounding the Second Coming.

First, He said it would be similar to the days of Noah. Before the flood, unbelievers had no idea what was coming or why. And when Noah tried to warn them about it they just laughed, as if he was crazy. Right up to the day of the flood, they kept going about their lives, clueless to the fact that life as they knew it was about to end forever. It will be like that at the End of the Age as well. This is why Jesus said the nations will mourn when they see Him coming (Matt.24:30). They’ll finally realize that what they’ve been hearing is true and it will be too late for them to do anything in response.

He gave three examples of people appearing to be just alike and doing the same things, but one would be received into the Kingdom while the other would be sent away to eternal punishment. Matthew mentioned only two of them, the men in the field and the women grinding with a hand mill (Matt. 24:40-41). Luke added the two people sleeping in the same bed (Luke 17:34). The Lord’s point was that what differentiated them was not external and physical, but was internal and spiritual. It’s what they believe that makes them different.

The key to understanding these examples lies in the words taken and left. The Greek word for taken means to take unto oneself, or receive, and refers to surviving believers who will be received into the Kingdom. The word for left means to send away. These are the unbelievers who will be sent away for judgment. This example speaks of Tribulation survivors who will stand before the Lord upon His return to learn of their destiny.

Then He gave a warning that those who survive the Great Tribulation will not know the day or hour of His return so they should be watching for Him like a homeowner watches for a thief he knows is coming (Matt. 24:42-44).

Next, the Lord told them four parables, each one an example of how it will be just after the Second Coming. You’ll see that throughout this discussion there’s been no mention of a rapture or even of the Church itself. Nor will there be. This discussion is about Israel’s last seven years. The Church will be gone by then.

The Faithful Servant. (Matt. 24:45-51)

The first parable is about servants of a master’s house who’ve been given the responsibility of seeing his other servants are fed. Remember, a parable is a fictional story placed in an Earthly context that’s designed to convey a Heavenly truth. Every character or event is symbolic of something else. Understanding what they symbolize helps us discover the Heavenly truth.

The servants in charge are post rapture ministers of the Gospel, which is symbolized by the food they provide for the other servants, their congregations. Their master is the Lord. None of them know exactly when He will return. but when He does, those who have been faithfully preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom will be rewarded. Those who’ve misled their flocks and preached a false Gospel will be punished. James warned us that those who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). By their actions, these servants will have shown themselves to be false teachers and will be judged accordingly.

Keep in mind eternal security is a blessing given only to the Church. Post rapture believers will have to maintain their own righteousness or risk losing their salvation. Rev. 14:12 says they’ll have to keep God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. And Rev. 16:15 says, “Behold I come Like a thief. Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” When used symbolically, clothing stands for righteousness (Isaiah 61:10) and post rapture believers will be responsible for their own. (See The Nature of Post Church Salvation for more on this.)

The Ten Virgins. (Matt. 25:1-13)

Next, He told the parable of the ten virgins or bridesmaids. Once again, He began by identifying the time frame of the parable. By saying at that time He was referring to Matt. 24:36, the day and hour of His 2nd Coming, which follows the end of the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24:29).

The story is about ten young women who’ve been waiting a long time for the bridegroom to come. It’s late and all ten have fallen asleep. Suddenly, they hear someone shouting the bridegroom is finally coming. They’ve all been given lamps and oil to help light the way, but five of them have run out of oil, and the other five can’t lend them any. Those without oil hurry to buy more, but while they’re on their way the bridegroom arrives and the wedding banquet begins. Arriving late, they ask the bridegroom to let them in but he claims not to know them and they’re denied entrance.

This is another example of how some tribulation survivors will be received into the Kingdom while others will be excluded. The key ingredient here is oil, which symbolizes the Holy Spirit and identifies the five who have it as faithful believers, while those without it are not.

Those who try to find the Church in this parable overlook the fact that the timing is all wrong, and the church is the bride, not a bridesmaid. A bride doesn’t need the groom’s permission to enter her own wedding banquet. Also, characterizing the five without oil as backslidden Church Age believers violates the one condition of our salvation, which is belief, not behavior. And finally, a Church Age believer cannot lose the Holy Spirit, who is sealed within us as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Once again, the Lord warned those on Earth at the time to keep watch because they won’t know the day or hour of his return (Matt 25:13).

The Talents. (Matt. 25:14-30)

Using the word again to begin this parable indicates the Lord is still speaking of the time just after His Second Coming—and that means the servants are Tribulation survivors. It’s the story of three servants who were given allotments of money, five talents, two talents, and one talent respectively, by a master who was going away for a time. When He returned he called them in for an accounting. The servants who were given five and two talents had both doubled their master’s money and were commended. The servant given one talent had buried it in the ground and returned it to him untouched. This servant was rebuked. The talent was taken from him and he was thrown into the outer darkness.

Remember, in a parable everything is symbolic. The key to understanding this one lies in discovering what a talent of money symbolizes. Five talents was a lot of money, so the talents must represent something very valuable to the Lord, but there’s no indication in the Bible that money is valuable to Him. Seeing them as abilities we have is also a mistake because we don’t have anything He needs. Even the most “talented” among us can not contribute anything to His accomplishments. Out of love He sometimes lets us help, but He doesn’t need our help. Job 35:6-8 tells us our sins don’t hurt Him and our righteousness doesn’t help Him. They only affect us. However, according to Psalm 138:2 He values His name and His word above all things.

God must fulfill the promises He has made. We call these promises prophecy. He’s given His word that He will do all He says (Isaiah 46:11) because His name is at stake (Ezekiel 36:22-23). Study His word and, your faith will multiply as you read of prophecy after prophecy being fulfilled.  But ignore it, and you’ll lose even the little bit with which you began. In the Church Age we’re protected against total loss (1 Cor. 3:15), but it won’t be so afterward. If they don’t use, they’ll lose it. And they’ll lose their place in the Kingdom as well.

The Sheep And The Goats. (Matt. 25:31-46)

The Lord’s final example leaves no doubt as to its timing. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.” (Matt. 25:31) It’s the time just after the Second Coming when He will bring all the world’s tribulation survivors to stand before Him in judgment. He’ll separate them based on how they treated His brothers during the Great Tribulation. Believers, called sheep, will be placed on His right and welcomed into the Millennial Kingdom where they’ll help repopulate the Earth. Unbelievers, called goats, will be placed on His left and then thrown into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

This appears to be a judgment based on works, but as with everything else, the Lord looks at the motive behind our actions. Only a true believer would be willing to take the risks necessary to help protect the Jewish people against the anti-Christ’s determined effort to wipe them out to the last one. If he can do this before they petition the Lord’s return he will have won, so his extermination efforts will be even more relentless than Hitler’s. Anyone caught trying to thwart his effort will share the fate of the Jews. Those who help the Jews will be doing so at their own peril. But it will be as if they are helping the Lord Himself out of gratitude for all He’s done for them. Their faith will be rewarded.

After Jesus had told them all these things, they joined the rest of the disciples and continued on their short walk to Bethany, where they were staying. More next time. 03-31-12

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10 Nisan, Palm Sunday

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” (Luke 18:31-33)

The time had come for the Lord to make His official appearance in Jerusalem. Having spent the bulk of His ministry in and around the Galilee, He now set His sights on the Holy City for what He knew would be His final showdown with the religious leaders. It was a long walk and would require most of the day.

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey (Zechariah 9:9)

As they came to the twin villages of Bethpage and Bethany on the Eastern slope of the Mt. Of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples ahead to fetch the donkey He knew would be waiting there, and as He crested the Mount of Olives, he saw the beautiful city spread before Him. Large crowds were arriving for the Passover, and many of them had already heard He had raised Lazarus from the grave. Surely this was the long awaited Messiah. Some spread their cloaks on the road while others cut palm branches and laid them in front of Him as He rode down the western slope, across the Kidron valley, and into the city. There were large joyful crowds both in front of and behind Him spontaneously shouting the portion of Psalm 118 that was reserved for the entrance of the Messiah into the city.

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:9-10)

A contingent of the ever-present Pharisees was there, and some of them instructed Jesus to rebuke His followers. If Jesus was not the Messiah—and they didn’t think He was—the crowds were committing blasphemy.

“I tell you,” He replied, “If they keep quiet the stones will cry out.” (Luke 19:40)

It was 483 years from the day Persian King Artaxerxes had issued the decree authorizing the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem after the 70-year Babylonian captivity (Nehemiah 2:1-10). It was the day ordained in history for the Messiah King to officially present Himself to Israel (Daniel 9:25), and instead of rebuking His disciples He rebuked the Pharisees for not knowing this.

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (Luke 19:41-44)

It was also the 10th day of Nisan, the day when God commanded the Jews to select the Passover lamb. Then for three days, they were to carefully inspect it to make sure it had no spot or blemish that would prevent it from being used in the Passover celebration on the 14th. (Exodus 12:3,6). Over the next three days, Jesus would be subjected to the most intense scrutiny of His ministry as the Jewish leadership tried to find some proof against Him.

Matthew and Luke take us right into their accounts of the Temple clearing, leaving the impression that it might have happened on that first Palm Sunday. But Mark makes it clear when Jesus finally entered Jerusalem He went to the Temple and looked around at everything, but since it was late, He took the disciples and went back to Bethany where they were staying (Mark 11:11).

Monday 11 Nisan.  Clearing The Temple.

In the morning, Jesus left Bethany in the company of His disciples. He was hungry and seeing a fig tree went to pick some of its fruit, but there was none. He cursed the tree saying, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (Mark 11:14). Much has been made of this, the only negative miracle Jesus ever performed. Some scholars see it as a prophecy that Israel would soon wither and die, never again bearing fruit for the Kingdom. History has given evidence supporting the validity of their interpretation.

Upon reaching Jerusalem, the Lord headed straight for the Temple, and when He got there, He began driving out those who were buying and selling, overturning the tables of the money changers. He said to them, “It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7), but you have turned it into a den of robbers.” (Jere. 7:11)

He was referring to the fact that the pilgrims who traveled a great distance found it safer to buy animals for their sacrifices in Jerusalem than try and bring them from home. The priests would only accept Temple coinage in payment for these animals and for offerings the people made. Some say they charged exorbitant prices for the animals and also maintained an unfavorable exchange rate for foreign currency. Most likely, this is what prompted the Lord’s accusation.

Word that Jesus was at the Temple spread quickly. The blind and lame came to Him, and He healed them. The children who had also gathered around began shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” a Messianic reference. The chief priests and teachers of the Law were indignant, but Jesus said, “Have you never read, ‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise’ (Psalm 8:2)? Then He left the city and returned to Bethany. (Matt. 21:14-17)

Tuesday 12 Nisan. A Long Day Of Teaching And Confrontation.

The next morning Jesus set out early for the Temple. After being challenged by the Pharisees again, He launched into a series of parables. A parable is a fictional story placed in an Earthly context that’s designed to convey a Heavenly truth. Every character or event is symbolic of something else. Understanding what they symbolize helps us discover the Heavenly truth.

He began with the parable of the two sons, one obedient and other not. One son said he would obey then didn’t. He represents the Pharisees. The other son said he would not obey but then did. He represents the tax collectors and prostitutes. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him” (Matt. 21:28-32).

Then came the Parable of the Tenants. It’s about a landowner (God) who rented his vineyard (His Land) to tenants (Israel). But when harvest time came they refused to give him his share of the fruit (the salvation of mankind). They killed the servants he sent (prophets) and even killed his son (Jesus) to keep everything for themselves. Jesus asked them what they thought the landowner should do to them when he returns. They said he should bring them to a wretched end and rent his vineyard to other tenants who will give him his share. Jesus agreed and said, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit”

The chief priests and Pharisees understood that Jesus was talking about them (Matt. 21:33-46).

In the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, which came next, Jesus spoke of the invited guests refusing to attend a banquet celebrating the marriage of a king’s son. The banquet represents the Kingdom, the King is God, His Son is Jesus, and the invited guests are Israel. Enraged, the king sent his army and burned their city (Jerusalem). Then, as the time for the banquet approached he sent his servants to collect anyone they could find to attend as his guests. At the banquet, the king found a guest who was not properly attired and had him ejected. (Matt. 22:1-14)

Many Christians have misinterpreted this group of guests as representing the Church. But the Church is the bride, not a random group of last minute guests. And the guest ejected from the wedding is not a backsliding believer. Clothing is symbolic of righteousness, and our righteousness is by faith (Romans 3:21-22), not by works. The last minute guests are Tribulation Survivors, and the ejected guest is an unbeliever trying to gain entrance to the Kingdom in his own righteousness, which is woefully inadequate.

At the time of the 2nd Coming Jesus will gather all Tribulation survivors together. Believers will be clothed in the righteousness of the Lord and ushered into the Kingdom, while unbelievers will be escorted off the planet to eternal punishment.

In an effort to trap Him, the Pharisees asked Him if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar. Responding with a question of His own, Jesus took a coin and asked them whose portrait and inscription were on the coin. When they said it was Caesar’s Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. They were amazed at His answers, so they left Him and went away (Matt. 22:15-22).

Then another group, Sadducees this time, asked Jesus about marriage in the resurrection. Sadducees didn’t believe in a resurrection but told Jesus a story of a woman who sequentially married seven brothers, each marriage following the death of the preceding brother. It was an outlandish exaggeration of the law of levirate marriage, which provided that the brother of a deceased Israelite marry his brother’s widow and have a child with her to produce an heir for the dead brother’s inheritance (Deut. 25:5-6).

Jesus accused them of not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. In the resurrection, there will be no marriage. Then He attacked their denial of the resurrection. He reminded them that in the Book of Moses (the Torah) God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “He is not the God of the dead but of the Living,” He said. The people listening were astonished at His answers (Matt. 22:23-33)

Then they asked Him which of the commandments is the most important. He replied, quoting Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40)

The first four commandments explain how we are to love the Lord, and the last six tell us how to love one another. Together they summarize all of God’s word.

Then He asked the Pharisees a question.

“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” they replied.

He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,

“‘The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet”’ (Psalm 110:1)

If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Matt. 22:42-46)

His examination was complete. They had found no fault in Him. He was qualified to be the Passover Lamb.

Now It’s My Turn

Having defended Himself against all their tricks and traps, the Lord now went on the offensive with a scathing indictment of their religious practices. It was payback time for all the resistance they’d shown, all the criticism they’d leveled at him. He called them hypocrites who told the people to obey what they say but not to do what they do. He said all their actions are just for show to make themselves look pious and important. Not only would they not enter the Kingdom, but they prevented others from entering as well. He called them false teachers and blind guides, saying they were obsessed with little things but neglected the more important matters of the Law. He said they were like whitewashed tombs, all clean on the outside but full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. He called them snakes, a brood of vipers (seed of the serpent) and held them responsible for the blood of all the prophets their predecessors had killed (Matt. 23:1-36).

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” He cried, “You who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matt. 23:37-39)

Then He left the Temple and walked out of the city. But His day was not over. On the way back to Bethany the Lord gave four of His disciples a critical lesson on End Times prophecy. We’ll pick it up there next time. 03-24-12

The post The Last Eight Days, Part 1 appeared first on Grace thru faith.

With the death of Haman and the elevation of Mordecai to Chief Counselor, you’d think my problems would be over, but we still had the extermination order against all my people in Persia to deal with. I fell on my knees and begged the King to rescind Haman’s order.

The King replied to Mordecai, “Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows. Now write another decree in the king’s name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king’s signet ring – but no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked.”

Most English translations of my story render the last part of the King’s reply as … “for no document written in the king’s name and sealed with his ring can be revoked” instead of the way I’ve presented it above. Let me make clear what the King was saying, and you’ll see that my version is more accurate. He was giving Mordecai the authority to issue another order that would supercede the extermination order, but even he was powerless to rescind Haman’s order since it had been published over the King’s signature and sealed with his seal. The Jews were still under threat of death and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

So it is with you. When you reached the age of accountability you became liable for execution under the Law of Sin and Death. There’s nothing you can do to change that. All your attempts at self-help are futile. In fact, the harder you try the worse your plight becomes. Only the Holy Spirit can change things. With Him in your life you can appeal to a higher law, the Law of Grace. It supercedes the Law of Sin and Death. The Apostle Paul would one day write about that in his letter to the Romans, chapter 7.

Upon reading Haman’s edict again we discovered that he had forbidden Jews to organize and defend ourselves against our enemies. Here was the loophole we were looking for. Forced to leave the extermination order in place, we simply published a modification permitting the Jews to fight in their own defense. And since Haman had authorized their enemies to seize the wealth and property of any Jews they killed, we extended that same privilege to Jews who overpowered their attackers. The playing field now appeared level, but our enemies would soon discover that we had a secret weapon. Though my people would still have to fight for their lives, victory was now assured.

When Mordecai left the palace that day he was dressed in royal garments of blue and white, with a large crown of gold on his head and purple robes about him. At the sight of him, a spontaneous celebration erupted among my people in the capital city that soon spread through out the entire Kingdom. Mordecai’s power and influence grew quickly because of the edict he had published giving us the right of self-defense. Many people of various nationalities began converting to Judaism, and the governors of all 127 provinces hastened to earn Mordecai’s favor through their kindness to us.

On the day Haman’s edict went into effect, Jews everywhere banded together and went on the offense against those who had gathered to attack us; I believe you would call it a pre-emptive strike. Because of Mordecai’s power and his influence with the King, there was great fear of the Jews and no one could stand against us. All the officials of Persia helped us so as to avoid displeasing Mordecai. My people’s power was coming right from the throne. We struck down all our enemies, even slaying Haman’s 10 sons, but did not take any of the plunder to which we were entitled. Victory is only pure in the absence of personal gain.

Under the Law of Sin and Death, no defense is permitted. Everyone is guilty and must submit to punishment. The Law of Grace supercedes the Law of Sin and Death, but a pre-emptive defense is required. (You must apply the Blood of the Lamb.) So you also use power that comes right from the Throne to achieve victory over your spiritual enemy and nullify the extermination order against you.

At the end of the day the King asked me if I desired anything further, once again offering up to half the Kingdom. I replied that I wanted the edict permitting the Jews to attack their enemies extended for one more day. I also asked that the bodies of Haman’s dead sons be hanged in the public square for everyone in the capital city to see. The King happily granted both these requests.

When my story was originally written down, each of Haman’s 10 sons was listed in large letters on a separate line with the name at the beginning of the line and the Hebrew word for “self” at the end separated by a long blank space in the middle. When you see these 10 names translated into English, this puzzling manner of listing them will make sense to you. Here they are with their English meanings and the word self added at the end.

Parshandatha means “curious-self,” a busy body.

Dalphon means “weeping-self,” self-pity.

Aspatha means “assembled-self,” self sufficient.

Poratha means “generous-self,” self-indulgent, a spendthrift.

Adalia means “weak-self,” an inferiority complex.

Aridatha means “strong-self,” assertive, over bearing.

Parsashta means “preeminent-self,” ambition.

Arisai means “bold-self,” impudence.

Aridai means “dignified-self,” pride.

Vaizatha means “pure-self,” self righteous.

Publicly displaying the bodies of Haman’s 10 sons signifies putting these 10 representative sins to death. (The number 10 implies completeness of the Divine order; that nothing is left wanting, the whole cycle is complete.) Their names reveal the intensely personal value of victory over the sin nature. As you can see from the first meaning of the names, each of the 10 was originally a desirable characteristic, part of the Image of God in which we were created. But the contamination of the sin nature, symbolized by the addition of the word self, distorted them as indicated by the second meaning, and they became offensive to Him. Satan has turned all of God’s creation, which was a source of endless joy to Him, into a perversion of its original state.

Reversing this contamination is not as simple as just trying to change your behavior. Because of his sin nature, the heart of man is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. (Jeremiah 17:10) Putting the sin nature to death and yielding your life to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is the only way regeneration can begin, and even that will only be complete at the resurrection when our corrupt selves are once again made incorruptible, the way God designed them to be.

Finally the battle was over and the victory won. Once again peace was the order of the day. Mordecai ordered that a celebration be held and he and I chose the name “Purim” for it. It’s the plural form of our word pur, which means lot. (Remember, Haman and his cronies cast lots to determine on which day we should all be killed.) We then issued a proclamation throughout the Kingdom establishing the 14th and 15th of our month Adar (Feb.-Mar.) as the annual celebration of the Feast of Purim, and so it is to this day.

By the fact that this feast is still celebrated in Jewish communities all over the world, you can see that the events of my story actually took place. The story behind the story describes the battle between the Spirit and the sin nature and illustrates the proper order of communications between our Creator and us. It shows you why the Lord ordained that my story be a part of His Book, which after all is the Owner’s manual for humanity.

Now that you’ve read and understand my story, you’re better equipped to fight and win this battle and experience the incredible joy that only proper spiritual communications can bring. Doing this will please our Lord greatly and make it possible for you to live the life to which He’s called you.  Shalom Aleichem, peace be upon you. 12-05-04

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As Esther might have told it today…

The foiled assassination plot against the King can be likened to your salvation experience. Remember, due to Mordecai’s timely warning the two officers who plotted the King’s death were discovered and sentenced to die. Most translations of my story say they were hanged, but in those days hanging meant something different than it does today. It meant that they were nailed to a tree or wooden post and left to hang there till they died, and that’s what happened to the would-be assassins. It was an early form of crucifixion, and it saved the King from death. The event was then recorded in the Annals of the King.

Because of your sin, represented by the two officers, you too were appointed for death. But the Holy Spirit intervened and your sin was dealt with in the only way possible. It was nailed to the cross and you were saved from death. The event was then recorded in the Lamb’s book of Life.

When the King made Haman his chief counselor and empowered him to act on the King’s behalf, it symbolized man giving his sin nature authority over his behavior. Believers are sometimes surprised when they discover the extent to which the sin nature still controls their responses to events in their lives. They don’t realize that while being saved gives them the right to choose a new Counselor, they have to make that choice daily and then follow His advice in order to attain the victorious life. (If you’re starting to suspect that my story is a model of the Book of Romans, you’re catching on.)

One of Haman’s first official acts was to mount an effort to wipe out Mordecai and all the Jews, symbolic of the sin nature’s attempts to undo all the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

When Mordecai told me what Haman had done, I was sick at heart. And when he said that I had to help save our people by going to the King, I was scared to death. I reminded him that no one, not even the Queen, could approach the King with out first being summoned. Barging in on him unannounced was an offense punishable by death, and the King hadn’t sent for me in over 30 days. Who knew if he ever would again?

Mordecai was not impressed. He curtly explained to me that God doesn’t miss out on an opportunity to advance His Kingdom just because of our reluctance, we miss out on the opportunity to be involved. If I didn’t help save my people, the Lord would raise up someone else who would. But, he said, I shouldn’t think I would escape this danger just because I was the Queen. I was still Jewish after all. And besides, who could say that I wasn’t elevated to my royal position for just such a time as this?

“OK,” I said. “Have all the Jews in the city fast for 3 days and 3 nights. My maids and I will do the same. At the end of that time, I’ll go see the King even though it’s against the law. If I perish, I perish.” Mordecai went out and did all that I asked.

On the third day, with my heart beating so loudly that I’m sure everyone around me could hear it, I put on my royal robes and stood just outside the King’s Hall. He was sitting there on his throne facing the entrance. When he looked up and saw me his eyes lit up and he smiled as he motioned me into his presence. My life had been spared, at least for that day.

“What is it?” he asked. “What’s your request? Even if it’s for half the kingdom, I’ll grant it.” By law, half the kingdom is the most the King was permitted to give someone, so that was a good sign. But all I asked for was the pleasure of his company at a private luncheon that afternoon, along with permission to invite Haman as well. He happily agreed.

After the meal, as the King and Haman relaxed with me over drinks, the King again asked what I wanted him to do for me, and again offered half the kingdom. “Come dine with me again tomorrow, the two of you,” I responded. (I wanted to make absolutely sure the King was being sincere in his offer to do anything I asked.) “If this is agreeable, then tomorrow I’ll tell you what I want.” They both accepted my invitation and left.

Haman was really full of himself after the luncheon. “The Queen invited only the King and me,” he bragged to any one who would listen. But later as he passed by the King’s Gate, Haman noticed that Mordecai refused to bow down and was enraged all over again. Complaining long and loud to his family about Mordecai’s insubordination he was finally cheered by his wife’s suggestion that he have a giant gallows constructed and first thing in the morning ask the King’s permission to hang Mordecai on it for refusing to obey the King’s order. He rounded up the workers and had the gallows built that very day. (As I explained earlier, hanging him on it meant nailing him to it.)

That night the King couldn’t sleep, so after tossing and turning for some time, he had the historical record of his reign brought and read to him thinking that would help him relax. But when he heard the part about the assassination plot Mordecai had discovered, saving his life, he sat up in bed and asked how Mordecai had been honored for this act of loyalty.

“I don’t think we did anything,” his attendants replied. By then it was nearly morning, so the King asked if there were any officials in court yet. After looking around they reported, “Haman has just come in”. (Haman was there early to get permission to hang Mordecai as soon as he could.)

Calling Haman in, the King asked him how he would suggest they honor someone who had done a great service to the King. Haman assumed the King was planning to honor him, and said, “Put one of your own robes on him and seat him on one of your own horses. Then have one of your most trusted officials lead him through the city loudly proclaiming that this is what is done for someone the King delights to honor.”

“Great idea,” the King exclaimed, “Before you do anything else, go yourself and do this for Mordecai!”

Haman was speechless! He had come in early thinking he’d get permission to execute his archenemy Mordecai first thing, and now he was being ordered to personally honor him in the King’s name, in broad daylight and in front of the whole city. How humiliating! He was still moaning and groaning to his family after carrying out the King’s order when my servants arrived to bring him to the luncheon.

Little did he know, his problems were just beginning. After we had eaten, the King again asked for my request, and for the third time offered me up to half the kingdom. By now I knew he was sincere, so although my stomach was turning flip-flops, my voice was steady as I told him how my people had been placed under an extermination order and scheduled for annihilation. I said that if we had merely been ordered into slavery, I wouldn’t have thought to bother him, but I couldn’t stand by and let my family and all my people be slaughtered without speaking up.

I could see Haman’s astonished look as for the first time I revealed my true nationality. He had no idea he’d condemned the King’s beloved to death in his dastardly plot against the Jews.

The King was furious! “Who is the man who has dared to do such a thing?” he demanded.

“The adversary and enemy is this vile Haman,” I replied.

Haman was white with terror. The King jumped up and stormed out of the room. Haman knew what was coming and, throwing his arms around me, begged me to spare his life. The urgency of his plea threw us both back on the sofa where I was seated, and he landed on top of me. Just then the King returned. It looked for all the world like Haman was trying to molest me, and for the King this was the last straw. As he roared in anger, the guards grabbed Haman and pulled him off me.

One of them told the King that Haman had just constructed a giant gallows for the purpose of executing Mordecai. Pointing a condemning finger at Haman, the King shouted, “Hang him on it instead!” No due process here, no endless arguments on the finer points of the law, no jury deliberation. The King’s word was the law.

That very day they hanged Haman on the gallows he had built for Mordecai, and the King’s fury subsided. He confiscated Haman’s substantial estate and gifted all of its money and property to me. I introduced Mordecai to the King and for the first time revealed our family relationship. Remembering his loyalty, the King named Mordecai to Haman’s now vacant position as chief counselor giving him the official signet ring he had taken from Haman’s finger. This authorized Mordecai to act in the King’s name. I made Mordecai administrator over all my newfound wealth as well.

Listening to his spirit, man finally learns of the true intentions of the sin nature. But putting the sin nature to death isn’t enough. The Holy Spirit has to be installed as Chief Counselor, and empowered to act. Even though He was sealed within you at the instant of your salvation, you still have to put Him in charge. You see, it’s never a question of how much of the Spirit is in you. The question is always how much of you is in the Spirit. Mordecai was always there for the King. His increasing influence over the affairs of the Kingdom represents the Holy Spirit moving from being with you, as He was before you were saved, to being in you, as He became at the moment of your salvation, to being upon you as you authorize Him to govern your behavior. Only then will you begin to act in His power.

As the Lord Jesus would one day tell His disciples, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” (Matt 12:43-45)

You can’t leave the position of Chief Counselor vacant. Either you appoint the Holy Spirit, or the sin nature will return to re-appoint itself.

This is not the end of my story; it’s only the beginning of the end. My people are not out of danger yet. We still have to overcome the problem of the extermination order against us that even the King cannot rescind. And as we’ll see, the sin nature has offspring that must also be put to death. Stick around. What happens next will astound and amaze you. 11-28-04

The post Esther’s Story … Part 3 (Chapters 4-8) appeared first on Grace thru faith.

As Esther might have told it today…

As I mentioned last time Mordecai is my cousin, although he’s so much older than I am that he actually remembers life in Jerusalem before the Babylonians destroyed it. When my parents died he took me in and raised me as his own. Our age differences made him seem more like a grandfather to me than a cousin and I loved and trusted him completely.

As soon as news of the King’s search for a replacement Queen was made public, Mordecai convinced me to enter the competition and sent me to Hegai, the man in charge of the King’s harem. Hegai took a liking to me right away, recognizing that there was more to me than just a pretty face and pleasing figure. He arranged for me to have extra beauty treatments and a special diet, assigned 7 maids to look after me, and gave me the best apartment in the harem.

Mordecai had warned me not to reveal my nationality, so I didn’t keep to the “kosher” diet or other unique traditions of my people while in the harem. (My “Jewishness” was something else hidden in my story, at least for the time being.) Somehow, Mordecai was certain I would be selected from among all the candidates to be the next Queen of Persia, even though at this point the King didn’t even know I existed. I guess he thought that if my Jewish heritage became known, it would hurt my chances in the competition.

As I reflect on Mordecai’s certainty, I’m reminded of the debate in your time over predestination vs. free will. The King was going to exercise his own free will to make a random selection from among all the girls in the competition, but my cousin already knew what his decision would be and had made sure I was available and prepared.

When you chose to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you were exercising your own free will, but God, Who sees the end from the beginning, knew what your decision would be before He laid the foundations of Earth, and made sure there was a place for you in His Kingdom. From His point of view, it was predestination. From yours, it was free will. Once you understand that God simply knew in advance what decision you would make, the problem goes away.

Before any of the harem girls were permitted to visit the King, we underwent 12 months of beauty treatment with herbs, perfumes, and cosmetics and were also given other training and preparation to make certain we were absolutely our most attractive selves possible. Then, one at a time we would be taken to the King in the evening, returning the following morning to another part of the harem. We would never see the King again unless he specifically asked for us by name. Needless to say, this put a tremendous amount of pressure on each girl since her one night audition would determine whether she would be chosen to live a life of unimaginable wealth and privilege as the Queen of Persia or spend the rest of her days confined in a “gilded cage” with no hope of a normal life.

Every day of that long year, Mordecai walked along the courtyard just outside the harem, checking with officials to find out how I was and what was happening to me. Remember I told you last time that Mordecai is a model of the Holy Spirit in my story. He was watching over me before I was chosen, making sure everything was going all right and that nothing would hinder the success of my audition with the King. In just this way the Holy Spirit watched over you every day of your life, even before you chose to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior, making sure nothing would interfere with your opportunity to make that choice when the time came.

Finally it was my turn to visit the King, and just as Mordecai had known it would be, the King found me more attractive and more pleasing than any of the other virgins who had been brought to him. He placed the royal crown on my head and proclaimed me Queen of Persia. Then he hosted a huge banquet in my honor. He invited all his princes and nobles, made the banquet day a holiday throughout the kingdom, and distributed gifts to his subjects with royal liberality. It was the kind of day that girls like me don’t even dare dream about.

But you’ve had one just like it. My coronation celebration was a model of each believer’s salvation experience and the rejoicing that took place in heaven on that wondrous occasion when your spirit was united with the Holy Spirit of God. The King of Kings and His Heavenly Host stopped everything to sing and shout for joy! Did you know that the Bible records only five events that are cause for such celebration? They are the creation of the Earth, (Job 38:1-7) the birth of the Messiah, (Luke 2:13-14) the decision to finally unseat Satan from the Throne of Earth, (Rev. 5) the Messiah’s victorious 2nd Coming (Rev.19) and the welcoming of a new believer into the Kingdom. (Luke 15:7) That shows how important your salvation is to the Lord!

Now in those days the main gate of a city was actually a building, constructed as part of the city wall. This building usually became the major commercial and legal center of the city and ours was no exception. It was called the King’s Gate and most of the important men in the city gathered there every day. Mordecai was often there and one day happened to overhear a private conversation that troubled him greatly. Two of the officers who guarded the King’s Gate had become so angry with the King that they were actually plotting to assassinate him!

Mordecai rushed to tell me and of course I informed the King, crediting Mordecai as my source. (In obedience to my cousin, I was still keeping our family relationship secret so I didn’t tell the King anything about that.) When Mordecai’s claim was investigated and found to be true, the two officers were tried and convicted and hanged on the gallows. The entire event, including Mordecai’s part in it, was recorded in the Annals of the King.

This is an example of the spiritual communications I described last time working properly now that the lines were open again. By placing a queen on the throne the order was restored and warnings of impending danger could come from the Holy Spirit (Mordecai) to man’s spirit (the Queen) to man’s soul (the King) where it could be translated into behavior. Things were functioning the way they should again and peace was the order of the day.

But the sin nature doesn’t give up so easily, and unfortunately can often enlist the soul in its efforts to rule over us. Man’s soul has the power to act autonomously and can take advice from any source. It’s where our freedom of choice, sometimes called agency, resides. Before we’re saved, our soul has only the sin nature to advise us on how to behave, but once salvation has taken place, it’s the role of the Holy Spirit to resist and displace that once trusted advisor. What happened next is another example of the harm that comes from ignoring the promptings of the Spirit and acting on our feelings instead.

One day, for no particular reason, the King decided to honor a friend of his, a noble named Haman. He named Haman to a position of special counselor and made him superior to all the other nobles in his court. Even though Haman hadn’t done anything to deserve this honor, the King required everyone to bow down and pay homage to Haman whenever he passed by. Mordecai was incensed and refused to do so.

Perhaps a little history lesson will help explain the contention that existed between Haman and my cousin Mordecai. Haman was a descendant of Agag, King of the Amalekites, traditional enemies of the Jews. Years earlier, Israel’s King Saul had spared Agag in disobedience of the Lord’s command. The Amalekites had attacked the Jews when Moses was leading them through the wilderness and the Lord had sworn to wipe them off the face of the Earth for doing so. Saul was commanded to carry out the Lord’s judgment. (1 Samuel 15:1-9) By sparing Agag, he permitted the Amalekites to survive and their animosity toward the Jews to remain. Even though the Prophet Samuel killed Agag a few days later, the damage was done. As we’ll see, Haman was determined to show God just whose people would be exterminated.

When Haman learned of Mordecai’s refusal to bow before him, he was furious. Then he found out that Mordecai was Jewish, and this enraged him even more. Not being satisfied with just killing Mordecai, Haman conceived an evil plot to rid the entire kingdom of all of its Jews. Casting lots with his co-conspirators, he chose a day on which all the people of Persia were to rise up as one against my people to completely annihilate us from the Kingdom. Using his new found influence to poison the King’s mind against us, Haman got the King to issue a decree giving his plan the force of law, and promising the Persian people the property and possessions of all the Jews they killed for carrying out this heinous act. Finally, Haman pledged 10,000 talents of silver to the King’s Treasury to seal the bargain.

The King, who was already rich beyond measure, replied, “Keep your money, but do with the people as you please.”

Well, as you might guess, the King’s edict put the whole kingdom into a turmoil. Everywhere you went, Jews were wailing and tearing their clothes, throwing dust in the air and wearing sackcloth, and Persians were perplexed by this seemingly uncalled for extermination order. No one knew quite what to do.

Remember, Haman is a model of our sin nature. When our sin nature is elevated above the Holy Spirit in terms of influence in our lives, it immediately works to nullify all the fruits of the Spirit’s regenerative work in us. Both our spirit and our soul suffer anguish, and those around us become perplexed by our contradictory behavior. As the Apostle Paul would later write, “The sin nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sin nature. They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want.” (Gal. 5:17) So it was between Haman and Mordecai.

In our next episode, Mordecai confronts me with the frightening truth that only I can save my people, and to do so I’ll have to risk everything, my prestige, my crown, even my own life. Little Hadassah, still in her teens, will be forced to confront the most powerful ruler on earth, a man who literally holds the power of life or death over her. My secret identity will become known and I’ll have to count myself among those scheduled for extermination. See you then.

The post Esther’s Story … Part 2 (Chapters 2-3) appeared first on Grace thru faith.

(NOTE: Ray C. Stedman’s book “The Queen and I” was a major source of inspiration for this series of articles on the Book of Esther.)

This is part of Jack’s, Bible Thru the Eyes of Its Writers series where he tells the stories in first-person—as if the authors were telling the story themselves.

As Esther might have told it today…

Although my Hebrew name is Hadassah, which comes from our name for the myrtle tree, most people know me by my Persian name, Esther. This is the story of how I rose from an orphaned captive Jewish girl to become Queen of Persia, the most powerful nation of my day. Many “learned” people (Martin Luther was one) have expressed doubt that my story should even be in the Bible because it seems to have such a secular theme. As evidence of this they claim that the Name of God is never mentioned. But as I’ll show you His Name appears five times, although each time it’s hidden in the Hebrew text. In fact “Something Hidden” is a good sub-title for my story because as it unfolds you’ll see that there is much more hidden than just the Name of God. It was all placed here for your learning, as a reward for the diligent student.
Many years before I was born, my parents had been brought to Babylon from Jerusalem with all the other Jews during what’s now called the Babylonian Captivity, a 70 year judgment that began in 586 BC with the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple.  My parents died there when I was still a young girl, so my older cousin Mordecai raised me as his own. My story takes place after Cyrus the Persian had conquered Babylon and released my people from our servitude but before Ezra left with a large group of volunteers to begin rebuilding our Temple in Jerusalem and reestablishing our nation.

It was a glorious time of peace in the Persian Kingdom and the air felt fresher, the sky looked bluer and the stars brighter because of it. All of Persia’s enemies had been conquered, including the great Babylon, long thought to be invincible. With no external threat present, King Ahaseurus, also called Xerxes, decided to host a grand celebration honoring the peace. Inviting his governors and other officials from all over the kingdom (it stretched from India to Egypt and encompassed 127 provinces) he threw a bash that lasted a full 180 days and was capped off by a lavish 7-day banquet! On the last great day of the banquet the King was feeling no pain and after extolling the flawless beauty of his Queen, Vashti, he commanded his servants to bring her into the banquet hall so all his princes and nobles could feast their eyes on her and envy his good fortune.

You’d think the Queen would be thrilled to receive all that attention, but to everyone’s amazement, she refused to appear before them. To say the King was beside himself with anger would be a massive understatement. Nobody disobeyed the King of Persia and lived to tell about it! He and his nobles quickly agreed that if she wasn’t punished, all their wives would soon become disobedient. They advised him to banish Queen Vashti from his presence and find a new queen to replace her, and he agreed. That very day he issued the decree deposing Vashti, vowing never to see her again.

In the Hebrew text describing this event the first hidden appearance of God’s name appears. The first letters of the Hebrew words for “all the women will respect” in what is now called verse 20 of chapter 1 form the acrostic acronym YHVH, the initials of God’s Name. There are a total of four such appearances. This one is spoken about the queen. The next will be spoken by the queen (5:4) and like it is made up of first letters. In both cases where the acronym consists of first letters the initial facts of an event are being revealed.

The third one will be spoken about Haman, (5:13) and the fourth by Haman (7:7). These two are made up of the last letters of the Hebrew words in the respective passages, and both times the final stages of events are being described. All four of these acronyms consist of the letters YHVH.

The first and third acronyms are spoken by gentiles and read left to right like all languages west of Jerusalem. The second and fourth are spoken by Israelites and read right to left like all languages east of Jerusalem.

There is also a fifth one (7:5) made up of last letters but in reverse order, and in this one the letters used are EHVH, another form of the Name of God, the one He used at the burning bush and that we translate “I am”. That makes five concealed appearances of God’s name. Five is the number of grace and indeed my story is a beautiful illustration of the Grace of God, concealed in the Old Testament, but revealed in the New.

But back to my story. It wasn’t till later that I discovered Queen Vashti’s reason for disobeying. She had refused the King’s command to parade before all those drunken nobles at the banquet because he had commanded her to appear wearing her crown, and only her crown. No wonder she declined.

After the party ended and the King had sobered up, he remembered how much Vashti had meant to him, and he regretted banishing her. Her absence created a great longing in his heart, and he missed her sorely. But Persian laws cannot be reversed, even by the King, so he was stuck with his decision. His advisers, seeing how sad and lonely he was, suggested combing the Empire for beautiful virgins they could bring to the capital city to be carefully prepared for him. After auditioning them, he could choose his favorite and she could help him forget Vashti. The King agreed, and that’s how I came into his life.

Now’s a good time to stop and introduce something else hidden in my story. In addition to being an actual historical event, the highlights of which are celebrated among Jews even today in the Feast of Purim, my story is also an amazing model of man’s proper relationship with God. It’s like a parable where every character also represents someone else.

To reveal these hidden mysteries, we’ll have the King represent our soul; our mind, will, and emotion. The Queen represents our spirit, our eternal essence. My cousin Mordecai, who we’ll meet soon, represents the Holy Spirit. Haman, an evil adviser to the King who we’ll also meet next time, represents our sin nature, or flesh, under the influence of Satan. The Capital City is our body, and the Kingdom, our world; the surroundings over which we exert influence.

The proper order for spiritual communications has God at the top, and in descending order the Holy Spirit, our spirit, and then our soul. As created beings, we’re designed to operate on the basis of the revealed Word of God, communicated through the Holy Spirit to our spirit and then to our soul, where it’s translated into behavior. When that’s happening we’re at peace.

When our story opened, the King and Queen were on their thrones. There was peace in the Capital City and indeed throughout the Kingdom. This represents man, functioning according to design, ruling over his kingdom within the parameters of God’s revealed Word as communicated through His Spirit.

But in his impaired state, the King reversed the order of communications, allowing the emotions emanating from his soul to govern his behavior. His lust prompted an improper command, and his anger at her disobedience caused him to banish the Queen. He soon regretted it, feeling sad and lonely, but the damage was done. This is what happens when we let our feelings replace the Word of God as the guide for our behavior. The line of communications is broken and we begin to feel sad, and alone. We’ve lost contact with our Counselor. And as we’ll see, once that happens there is no peace, either within us or in our surroundings, because it opens the door for the sin nature, or flesh, to take charge.

Next time the search for a new Queen begins, Haman and Mordecai begin their battle for the King’s ear, and a conspiracy to assassinate the King leads to an even more sinister plot to destroy my people, the Jews. We’ll also see how ruthlessly the flesh battles to maintain authority over the spirit once we permit it. So hang on, we’re just getting started.

The post Esther’s Story … Part 1 (Intro and Chapter 1) appeared first on Grace thru faith.

Some of the confusion regarding the permanence of our salvation comes from our failure to distinguish between the two facets of our relationship with the Lord: union and fellowship.

Basis and Status

Union describes the basis of our relationship and is explained in John 17:20-23. The summary of the passage is verse 23; “I in them and You in Me.”

Ephesians 1:13-14, and 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 clearly state that at the moment of belief we’re united with God and the Holy Spirit is sealed inside us as “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.” In John 17:23 Jesus claims to be in us as well. And since the Father is in the Son and the Son is in us then the Father is also in us. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; all in us. Union.

Fellowship defines the status of our relationship at a given point in time. Are we together frequently and conversing often, or has something come between us, causing us to be estranged from one another?

The Need for Both is Clear

The Lord wants us to learn the lessons taught by Israel, first that the most concerted effort ever put forth by man could not produce a single life good enough to meet God’s standards for righteousness.

But even so He still wants us to live in a way that is pleasing to Him, obeying His laws and receiving His blessings. He knows we’ll be happier and live longer, better lives that way. And that’s the second lesson.

Of course we can only be truly free to live happy blessed lives if we’re not constantly afraid of losing everything, and yet our sin nature will cause even the best of us to fall short on many occasions. So He made sure that His promise of Eternal Life could be kept irrespective of our merit by paying the whole price Himself, and then made it irrevocable by sealing Himself inside us. The old hymn calls it “Blessed Assurance.” He calls it union.

And He made sure that when we continued to sin by breaking His laws even after being saved we could restore our relationship simply by confessing our sins and asking His forgiveness. Its called maintaining fellowship and He made it possible by paying for all the sins of our lives in advance.

Who Are You Calling Stubborn?

He knew that being stubborn and rebellious creatures, we would sometimes deny our sins, justifying our behavior and refusing to repent. Since He never could tolerate sin, He knew that this would interrupt our fellowship and require Him to withdraw His blessing temporarily (its called discipline). He hopes this will prompt us to repent and confess our sins so we can be forgiven and restored, having no fear of being refused or rejected. (1 John 1:8-10)

There are two reasons so many Christians live defeated, fruitless lives:

1. They’ve been taught a doctrine that omits any reference to Holiness so they live out of fellowship and don’t even know it.
2. They’ve been convinced that they’re somehow beyond God’s forgiveness and therefore can’t restore their relationship with Him.

Both ignore the admonition and promise of 1 John 1:8-10 and are the main battery weapons in Satan’s artillery against us.

The Lord’s Prayer

So next time you pray “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” you’ll know you’re asking to be restored to fellowship after being angry with someone who’s wronged you.

You’ve forgiven them and can now be forgiven for your anger (Matthew 6:14 ). Justified or not, anger’s a sin (Matthew 5:22)

And Then There’s Hebrews 6:4-6

And the next time you read this famous passage, you’ll know that the writer was warning Messianic Jews that if they went back to sacrificing lambs for their sins (falling back into Jewish ritual) it would be impossible for them to restore their fellowship with the Lord. The shadow had been replaced by the reality. He wasn’t threatening them with irretrievable loss of salvation but with loss of fellowship.

How Do You Know This?

There are several places we could look to for support for this idea, but perhaps the clearest is in the parable of the Prodigal son. It’s found in Luke 15:11-32 if you want to review it.

Two points are critical:

1. When the son demanded the right to leave his father’s house and go his own way, he didn’t stop being his father’s son
2. and when he finally came to his senses and returned, his father welcomed him back with celebration. Union was never broken and fellowship had been unconditionally restored.

When you gave your heart to Jesus He gave you the authority to become a child of God (John 1:12).

Since you are His child, you are also His heir (Galatians 4:4-7) and your inheritance is eternal life (Titus 3:7).

Your unconfessed sins will interrupt your fellowship with God, but you can never stop being His child.

The post I in Them and You in Me appeared first on Grace thru faith.

Since 9/11,  it has been popular to identify Mystery Babylon as New York City.

Consider, though, the following:

1. You can connect the Scriptural dots and come clearly and directly to Babylon in Iraq.
2. There’s not a shred of Biblical evidence to support the New York City view.
3. There’s no compelling reason to spiritualize the Biblical passages on the subject.

The above three points against this don’t seem to bother those in favor of this view.

The late Dr. David L. Cooper advised, “Where the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate text clearly indicate otherwise.” It’s come to be known as the Golden Rule of interpretation. We’ll apply it to see what the Bible says about Mystery Babylon.

The first place to look is the only place it’s mentioned, Revelation 17. There the words “Mystery Babylon the Great” appear, written on the forehead of a symbolic woman seated atop a symbolic beast with seven heads and ten horns in a vision John was given. We know they’re symbolic because in the passage the angel describing them says so, and tells us what they symbolize. This fits with Dr. Cooper’s rule.

The angel explained to John that the beast symbolized Satan, who would become the object of worship in the world and manifest himself in one we call the antichrist. The seven heads were seven hills and also seven kingdoms. Five of these had fallen when John was writing (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece) one was currently in power (Rome) and one was still to come (hold that thought). The ten horns were ten kings who didn’t yet have a kingdom but would each receive one for the purpose of serving the antichrist and making war against the Lord. And finally, the woman was the city that in John’s time was ruling over the world.

When In Rome …

So far we have three references to Rome. It sits on seven hills, it was the kingdom currently in power, and it was the city from which the world was ruled. Most scholars accept the fact that in John’s time, when the Revelation was written, the vision of the woman on the beast represented Rome, and that’s why she was called Mystery Babylon.

(In the Greek language, the word we translate mystery literally means a revealed secret. The pagan religious system first practiced in Babylon had been transplanted to Pergamus in Biblical times (see Rev. 2:12-17) but in the 4th century AD would be merged with Christianity in Rome. That’s the secret John was revealing.)

Throughout much of church history Mystery Babylon has been a euphemism for Rome. But what about today?

The Roman Empire was never really defeated in the sense that the other ancient kingdoms were. It was split up and parts of it were overcome, but in the 300’s it was transformed into the Holy Roman Empire and for all practical purposes ruled over Europe until the 1500’s. And even after that parts of the old Roman Empire were pre-imminent in the world for a time, specifically Spain and England.

Currently the USA is the undisputed super-power, but lately, the European Union has begun challenging the USA for leadership in the world. This turn of events is particularly interesting to prophecy buffs because of Daniel 9:26. “After the sixty-two ‘sevens, the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”

Those of us who believe that this portion of Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy is still in the future, knowing that the Romans destroyed the city (Jerusalem) and the sanctuary (The Temple) in 70 AD, believe that it predicts a ruler emerging from a revived Roman Empire at the end of the age. This ruler is called the antichrist by most, who also see the European Union as a revival of the Roman Empire. That being the case, the kingdom described to John in Rev. 17 as the one that was still to come would be the European Union, a modern version of the Roman Empire.

When the antichrist comes to power, we believe he’ll divide the world into 10 regions and place a leader over each of them, hence the 10 kings loyal to him.

But Wait There’s More

Seeing Rome as both the 4th and 5th kingdoms of John’s vision fits with other prophecies as well. For instance, in Daniel 2&7 we’re given two views of Gentile Dominion, the time in world history when gentile powers are superior to Israel. In both, the dream Daniel interprets in Daniel 2 and his parallel vision of monsters coming out of the sea in Daniel 7, there were only four gentile kingdoms identified from Daniel’s day to the Kingdom Age. By comparing the symbolism of the visions with what we know of history, we can identify the first one as Babylon, in power when Daniel was alive having conquered both Egypt and Assyria. Then came the Medo-Persian Empire, followed by Greece and finally Rome. The only kingdom after Rome is the Kingdom of our Lord, a Kingdom that will never be defeated or given to another. So Rome is the last Gentile world power before the Lord’s return.

In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) of the huge poly-metallic statue that symbolized the four Gentile powers, the two legs of iron represent Rome’s Eastern and Western components that ultimately became the Holy Roman Empire’s Catholic and Orthodox churches. The feet and toes of iron mixed with clay stand for the End Times Revival of the Empire and signify the problems that have plagued Europe’s attempts to unite (iron and baked pottery neither mix nor adhere well) as well as the 10 regions (the toes) into which the Antichrist will divide the world. Interestingly, it was the Treaty of Rome that in 1957 gave the European Union its beginning. So the clear hints of the two incarnations of Rome have now been verified in history.

What’s The Point?

So how does all that relate to literal Babylon? Rev. 18 claims that in the final days the City of Babylon will once again be a world center for government, commerce, and religion and describes the worldwide distress caused by its destruction just before the Lord’s return. For years scholars, believing Babylon to have been destroyed long ago, searched for the modern city they believed the passage to be symbolizing, and many chose New York. But during the first Gulf War, they discovered that ancient Babylon had never been destroyed in the way the Bible describes. Further research showed that it’s been continuously inhabited since the days of Nebuchadnezzar and that Saddam Hussein had expended much effort in restoring it. More on this below.

But before we go on, let’s understand a little more about why some believe Rev 18 describes New York City. Being home to the UN it could be considered the center of world government, the New York Stock Exchange has a tremendous influence over world commerce, and of course, it’s located in the USA, the most obviously Christian nation in the world today which connects it with a major religion. And then there’s the indisputable fact that having been so richly blessed, the US certainly deserves to be judged, and New York is arguably its most prominent city.

What Makes You So Great?

Biblical scholars from other countries complain that only the arrogance of Americans causes us to look for ourselves in the Bible. Sure we’re on top now, but the US is such a newcomer on the world scene, barely over 200 years old in a history that at its most conservative estimate stretches back over 6000 years. And the battle between the city of Satan (Babylon) and the city of God (Jerusalem) had been raging for several thousand years before America was even discovered. In a nutshell, the long view of history argues persuasively for reading Rev. 18 literally. If so, how does Babylon get to be center stage again after so many centuries of obscurity?

He’s Up In The Night

In the Book of Zechariah, a series of night visions concerning the end times occupies the first six chapters. The one recorded in Zechariah 5 gives us the answer. Zechariah describes being told in this vision to inspect a large basket with a lead cover. An angel tells him the basket contains the iniquity of the people throughout the earth. When he looks inside, he sees a woman, who the angel identifies as the symbol of their wickedness. Then two other women, each with the wings of a stork, lift the basket and begin to fly away with it. (According to Lev. 11:19 storks would be able to carry this load of wickedness without becoming defiled by it because they’re already unclean.)

“Where are they taking the basket?” Zechariah asks. “To the country of Babylon,” the angel replies, “To build a house for it.” (Literally to the plains of Shinar, the location in ancient Mesopotamia of the City of Babylon). “When it’s ready, the basket will be set there in its place.” (Zech. 5:5-11). The fact that an actual physical location is given for the basket’s final destination should discourage anyone from spiritualizing that part of the passage. Again we’ve applied Dr. Cooper’s Golden Rule of interpretation.

Where Are They Coming From?

OK, so we know where the basket is going, but where will the stork-women be taking it from? According to many scholars, the woman in Zechariah’s basket is the woman from Rev. 17, Rome. At the end of the age, after all its true believers have been whisked away in the Rapture, the religious system currently headquartered in Rome will be returned to Babylon from whence it came, to be absorbed into antichrist’s one world religion. (The End Times Empire will also be absorbed, but into antichrist’s one world government, bringing the world’s political, commercial, and religious power together under one central authority.)

Zechariah’s visions followed Babylon’s defeat by the Persians. And almost from his day to ours, Babylon was a forgotten city. Although Alexander the Great later lived and died there, his plan to dredge a big harbor to lure Persian Gulf boat traffic to Babylon was never implemented. After his death, a natural harbor was found on the Tigris River and soon became the regional center of commerce Alexander had envisioned. The city that grew up around this harbor was named Baghdad. Although only about 62 miles (100 km) away, Babylon slowly faded into obscurity dwindling to as few as 10,000 inhabitants. It was never again a center for government, commerce, and religion, but neither was it ever destroyed as Revelation 17-18, Isaiah 13-14 and Jeremiah 50-51 all prophesy. These events are still in our future.

Babylon Re-born

As I indicated earlier, Saddam Hussein spent millions restoring ancient Babylon into a ceremonial city, perhaps unknowingly preparing it for its final role in world events. Since the Lord is committed to doing all that He’s promised (Isaiah 46:8-11), when the time is right, the basket symbolizing the world’s wickedness will be set in the place prepared for it on the plains of Shinar. And then the ancient City of Babylon will once again become the world headquarters for the three great evils of mankind’s design:

1. Government: which enslaves men politically.
2. Commerce: which enslaves us economically, and
3. Religion: which enslaves us spiritually.

Does the City of New York deserve to be judged? Absolutely, along with the rest of America, and most of the world for that matter. But is New York the Mystery Babylon of Rev. 17-18? I hope this article has persuaded you otherwise. But to be sure, become a Berean and search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things be true. (Acts 17:11) 05-16-04

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Part 2. The Gospel Of Grace

The word “grace” appears 170 times in the English translation of the Bible, 37 of them in the Old Testament. Of the remaining 133, only four are contained in the gospels and they all refer to the Lord Jesus (Luke 2:40, John 1:14, 16, 17). The Book of Acts contains 10 appearances, and 2 others can be found in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 1:4, Rev. 22:21) where they essentially open and close the book. That leaves 117 references to grace in the various Epistles.

As it’s used in the New Testament, grace is clearly a word that is meant for the Church. It comes from the Greek word charis, which in the Biblical context is defined as “the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”

Much has been written about the different approaches taken by Peter and Paul in presenting the Gospel of Grace to their audiences.  The Bible makes it clear Peter believed in salvation by grace.  In Acts 15:11 he said, “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we (Jews) are saved, just as they (Gentiles) are.”  But some claim that Peter didn’t mention having our sins forgiven by the Lord’s sacrifice but instead preached a message of repentance and baptism.

In contrast, they say Paul emphasized the redeeming power of the Lord’s blood, shed on the cross. He didn’t say much about baptism, claiming the Lord hadn’t sent him to baptize but to preach the gospel (1 Cor. 1:17), and spoke even less about repentance.  From this some have concluded that Peter and Paul preached two different gospels.

Let’s take a closer look at this opinion. We’ll use Peter’s first public message after the Ascension as an example. Remember, he was talking to the crowd on the Temple Mount during their observance of the Feast of Pentecost. All of them were Jews and many of them were well versed in their scriptures. Let’s join the conversation.

“Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:36-38)

To repent actually means to change our mind about something. While it can bring about a change in behavior, none is necessary to fulfill the meaning of the word. In the case of Peter’s audience the Jews had to change their minds about what it takes to be saved. They had been taught that obedience to the law is what makes one righteous and that was wrong. Peter said it’s believing in Jesus that brings forgiveness. It’s exactly what he had heard the Lord Himself say on numerous occasions (John 3:16, John 6:28-29, John 6:38-40). Later Peter would say, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Believing in Jesus means believing He was the Son sent by the Father to die for the sins of the people. He was both Lord and Christ.

Then Peter told them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. According to my concordance, the Greek phrase translated “in the name of” invokes every thought or feeling that is aroused in the mind by mentioning, hearing, or remembering the name being referenced. It can be used to establish one’s rank or authority, and to convert a request into a command. A servant acting in the name of his master had the authority of the master himself.

To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to recognize His authority to do what He came to do and promised to do (to save us from our sins). It means we believe He has such authority and has exercised it on our behalf. That’s why John’s baptism didn’t bring either salvation or the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7). He had no authority to save us from our sins. Only Jesus had that authority (Mark 2:6-12).

And finally Peter promised them the Holy Spirit. There’s only one way to receive the Holy Spirit and that’s to believe that the Lord’s death paid the full price for all our sins as confirmed by His resurrection. The Holy Spirit was not given to anyone until the Lord’s atoning sacrifice had been perfected in His victory over death (John 7:37-39, John 20:19-23) .

Somewhere in our past, legalistic preachers began teaching that repentance means to change our behavior, and without a change in behavior there was no repentance. But if that was the case, the phrase “repent and be saved” would require us to stop sinning before we could ask God to save us. (It amazes me that some of the same preachers who preach this also lead their congregations in singing “Just As I Am” while issuing an altar call.)

In his answer to their question, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter did not invoke the Law or their traditions, nor did he set forth any other preconditions. He simply said, “Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit.” To his Jewish listeners these few words carried the full impact of the Gospel of Grace.

A Matter Of Perspective

I’m convinced that the whole debate over whether Peter taught a different Gospel than Paul can be resolved by a clearer understanding of the vastly different perspective of their two audiences.

Peter didn’t speak of the blood because the Jews already understood the idea of shedding innocent blood for the remission of sins. Untold thousands of innocent animals had shed their blood in the previous two millennia to set the sins of the people aside and stay the hand of judgment against them. Their Temple was called a house of blood because at times blood had flowed like a river from beneath the altar. They needed to change their minds and understand that all those animals they sacrificed were but a temporary substitute for the sacrifice the Messiah made on their behalf, and while the blood of animals had set temporarily aside the peoples’ sins, the blood of Jesus washed them clean forever (Hebrews 10:1-4, 11-14).

On the other hand, Paul didn’t speak of the need to repent because Gentiles didn’t need to change their mind about the way to salvation. They had no way to salvation. They needed to learn that there is a God and they were sinners destined for His judgment. They needed to know that this God had made a way for them to be saved from the penalty of their sins, and that way was the blood shed by the Lord Jesus for the remission of their sins.

Put another way, Peter summarized the Gospel like this.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1 :18-21).

While Paul said it this way.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

It sounds like the same gospel to me. Please remember that although these two men certainly had their differences in the flesh, when they preached or wrote about the Gospel they were both under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, who cannot contradict Himself. The idea that Peter and Paul taught different gospels is not supported in Scripture.

A New Race Of Human

Whether Jew or Gentile, here’s what the Gospel of Grace means to us.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28).

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility (Ephes. 2:14-16).

In building His Church, God was taking some from among the Jews and some from among the Gentiles to create a new race of mankind. We’re saved only by His grace, through faith (Ephes. 2:8-9), for the purpose of demonstrating the manifold wisdom of God to the heavenly beings (Ephes. 3:10-11). All the sins of our life have been forgiven (Colossians 2:13-14) and we’ve been invested with the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (Ephes. 1:13-14). We’ve also been given the authority to become the very children of God (John 1:12-13) and heirs with Christ in His inheritance (Romans 8:17).

Being in Christ, we’ve become a new creation in God’s eyes. The old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17). From His perspective we’re already seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, in order that in ages yet to come He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus (Ephes. 2:6-7). To this end God has taken ownership of us and accepted responsibility for making us stand (1 Cor. 6:19-20, 2 Cor. 1:21-22). There’s no power in Heaven or on Earth that can do anything to change that (John 10:27-30, Romans 8:38-39).

Soon he’ll descend into the upper atmosphere and with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, He’ll call us up to His side (1 Thes. 4:16-17) and carry us off to the place He has prepared for us in His father’s house (John 14:2-3). From that time on and forever we’ll always be with Him, joint heirs with Him in the inheritance His father has given Him (Psalm 2:8).

Meanwhile, Back On Earth

At the time of our departure the Gospel of Grace will see its fulfillment and the pause between the 69th and 70th Weeks of Daniel will come to an end.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt. 24:14)

By saying the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world again the Lord provided us with another confirmation that the Age of Grace will have ended and Daniel’s 70th Week will have begun.

In the New Jerusalem, the incredible home our Lord has been preparing for us, the Church will be enjoying the first chapter of our eternal life with Him, hidden away like a bride in her bridal chamber. But on Earth Daniel’s 70th Week will bring horrific judgments as God prepares the creation for its restoration.

Then the Times of the Gentiles will end, the creation will be restored to its original splendor. The Lord will assume His rightful place as King of the whole Earth, and the Kingdom Age will begin. The New Jerusalem will descend out of Heaven to take its place as the source of light for the world (Rev. 21:24). The Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of Grace will have both found their fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Selah 11-03-12.

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Part 1. The Gospel Of The Kingdom

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matt. 3:1-2)

Prophecies of a Messianic King appear throughout the Old Testament and many in the Jewish leadership saw John’s arrival on the scene as their fulfillment. They sent representatives to the place where John was baptizing to see if he was the promised Messiah. He said he wasn’t, but that the one they had been expecting was even then in their midst (John 1:19-28).

750 years earlier Isaiah had said when the Messiah came He would reign on David’s throne forever (Isaiah 9:6-7) but when John appeared on the scene the throne of David had been vacant for 600 years.  He had come to tell them the time was finally at hand and they had better get ready for Him.

When Jesus began His ministry, John introduced Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:8) and publicly testified that Jesus was the Son of God (John 1:34). Right from the beginning Jesus began teaching that the Kingdom of Heaven was near (Matt. 4:17), and sent His disciples through out the land to alert the people to this fact as well (Matt. 10:7-8).

But even with Isaiah’s prophecies, John’s testimony, and the Lord’s teaching, the Jewish leaders refused to accept the fact that Jesus was the Messiah. They questioned His claims, His doctrine, and His miracles in spite of the fact that all were clearly foretold in their prophecies.

Isaiah had also said when the Messiah came He would have no beauty or majesty that would attract them to Him and that nothing about His appearance would make them desire Him (Isaiah 53:2). Even so, the fact that Jesus was not like they expected Him to be was a big problem for them. They were looking for a conquering King, like David, and He didn’t fit the description.

Just before John was executed, He had sent a delegation of his disciples to confirm for themselves that Jesus was who He claimed to be.

In reply Jesus said, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” (Matt. 11:4-6)

Jesus fed the multitudes, walked on water, healed the sick and raised the dead and still they asked for a miraculous sign. Finally in frustration He responded, “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:38-40). They would get their sign, but only after they had executed Him.

Later, just a few days before His execution, He warned them again. “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit” (Matt. 21:43). He was speaking of the coming Church.

After the resurrection, having performed the miraculous sign He promised them, Jesus waited 40 days for them to acknowledge it. But upon being informed of the empty tomb the Jewish leaders bribed the soldiers to keep them quiet and refused to recognize the Lord’s fulfillment of the sign of Jonah (Matt. 28:11-15).

At the end of the 40 days His disciples asked if He was now going to restore the Kingdom to Israel. Jesus said it was not for them to know the times or dates the Father had set by His own authority (Acts 1:6-7) and after telling them to wait for the Holy Spirit to appear  He ascended into heaven (Acts. 1:8-11).

An Ambivalent Answer?

Some have criticized His response as being ambivalent, but I disagree. The disciples knew 69 of Daniel’s 70 weeks had passed, and there was one week (7 years) left to fulfill. They knew the Messiah had been cut off (put to death) like Daniel had prophesied (Daniel 9:26) and from His teaching they knew why. It was to fulfill three of the six objectives the angel had set forth when he gave Daniel the 70 weeks prophecy over 500 years earlier.

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy”. (Daniel 9:24)

The purpose of the Lord’s death was to finish transgression, put an end to sin and atone for wickedness. What was left was to bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the Most Holy. Bringing in everlasting righteousness is a reference to Isaiah 9:7 which says the Messiah will reign with justice and righteousness forever. Sealing up vision and prophecy means to bring them to their conclusion by fulfilling them. Anointing means to consecrate or sanctify, and the Most Holy probably refers to the Temple.

By telling the disciples it wasn’t for them to know the timing of the kingdom’s restoration and immediately changing the subject to the coming Holy Spirit, I think the Lord was saying the offer of the kingdom was still on the table for Israel, but His focus was about to change. Obviously God knew they had rejected the kingdom at that time, but He was leaving the door open for them to accept it at some point in the future.

This is borne out by a prophecy He spoke through Hosea 750 years earlier.

“Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (Hosea 5:15). Please note the word “until” because it conveys the notion of “not now” rather than “not ever.” The door was still open.

A Parenthetical Statement

10 days after the Lord’s ascension, the Holy Spirit came to the disciples, and for about 20 years what would become the Church remained mostly an offshoot of Judaism.  Then James, the Lord’s half brother, revealed that the Lord was first going to take from among the Gentiles a people for Himself before moving to restore Israel (Acts 15:13-18). This was a clear promise of a future for Israel apart from the Church.

But shortly after that Israel ceased to exist as a nation and has been absent for most of the past 2000 years while God’s focus has been exclusively on the Church. Because of this many scholars began to express doubt that Israel would ever return, even asserting that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s plan and all the unfulfilled promises to Israel have been inherited by the Church. As far as they were concerned, there was no longer a reason for Israel to exist.

I’ve been going to church all my life but I was nearly 50 years old before I realized that the Age of Grace, aka the Church Age, only exists in a parenthesis between Daniel’s first 69 weeks and the coming 70th one. It began when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost after the Lord’s Ascension and will end with the Rapture, which James also hinted at.  The Greek words translated “taking from the Gentiles” in Acts 15:14  can mean “to carry away, out of the nations”   Once the Church has been carried away the Lord will turn back to Israel to fulfill Daniel’s 70th week and implement the kingdom Daniel prophesied.

“In the time of those kings (the Gentile powers who control the Earth) the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever” (Daniel 2:44).

In Daniel’s time it was already understood that this kingdom would be headquartered in Israel, but would have authority over all the Earth. Speaking through David, God said, “I have installed my King on Zion, My Holy hill” (Psalm 2:6).

He was referring to His Son, to whom He said, “Ask of Me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the Earth your possession” (Psalm 2:8).

Have You Forgotten Anything?

Those who teach that there’s no future for Israel have forgotten that James had foretold of one that would begin after the Lord finished with the Church (Acts 15:13-18). They have also forgotten that Paul confirmed this in Romans 11:25-27. And they’ve forgotten (or ignored) all the unconditional promises God had made to Israel.

This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name:

“Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me” (Jeremiah 31:35-36)

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms” (Ezekiel 37:21-22).

I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God (Amos 9:14-5).

There are probably dozens of others, but I’m sure you get the idea. Only by refusing to read these promises as they’re written can one deny that they are meant for Israel.

The Offer Still Stands

So the offer of a Kingdom to Israel was never rescinded, it was only set aside while the Lord builds His Church. Following that, He will turn His attention once again to Israel for the final segment of Daniel’s 70 Weeks prophecy. To say this will be a difficult time would be a gross understatement because Israel has to atone for the sin of rejecting the Lord’s earlier offer. Jesus called it the worst time of trouble the world ever has or ever will see (Matt. 24:21) but just as Hosea had prophesied, in their misery they will earnestly seek Him.

“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence” (Hosea 6:1-2).

God will hear their prayer and pour out His Spirit of grace and supplication, allowing their hearts to be softened and their eyes to be opened to the fact that the one they put to death was their promised Messiah (Zechariah 12:10-14). After a period of intense mourning, they will admit their sin, and the blood guilt that He has not pardoned, He will pardon (Joel 3:21). It will be national conversion and it will change everything. Remember, it doesn’t matter who you are, no one comes to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6).

Thy Kingdom Come

Then the Lord will appear over Jerusalem and fight against all the nations of the Earth, who have gathered against His people (Zech. 14:3). He will strike them with a plague that causes their flesh to rot while they’re still standing. Their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues will rot in their mouths. Those who survive will be stricken with great panic and actually begin attacking each other (Zech. 14:12-13). At the end of the day the victory will belong to the Lord, and He will be King over the whole Earth. There will finally be only one Lord and His name the only name. (Zechariah 14:9).

After that, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it (Isaiah 2:2).

From all over the world people will say “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

 The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:3-4).

This will be a time of rejoicing for Israel such as the world has never seen. The creation itself will join in the celebration.

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God (Isaiah 35:1-2).

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12).

The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away (Isaiah 35:10).

For this is what the Lord says, I will extend peace to her like a river and the wealth of the nations like a flooding stream. When you see this your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass (Isaiah 66:12,14).

The promised kingdom will have come to Israel, and the world will finally be at peace. Next time, the Gospel of Grace. 10-27-12

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“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. “He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
“‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matt.20: 1-16)

What’s That All About?

I’ve been a management consultant most of my life and before I became a believer I thought the Lord had violated all kinds of motivational principles, not to mention the theory of fair compensation, with this story. Seemed to me like the landowner in the parable was training his workers to show up late. They’d still get paid for the full day.

Then I was born again and learned that the Lord’s objective in teaching through parables was to enlighten His followers on the ways of the Kingdom while confusing everyone else. (Matt. 13: 11-13) It had sure worked with me.

I learned that a parable is a heavenly story put into an earthly perspective, and that all the characters represent someone or something else. This one was no different. As usual, the landowner represents the Lord, the workers His followers, and the vineyard, His Kingdom. The pay stands for the rewards of salvation. The work is what His followers do to deserve the reward, and the day is the length of time they’re given to do it, normally their lifespan. This parable wasn’t meant to be a management seminar. It was given to illuminate three critical principles having to do with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Three Principles

First, no matter when in your life you decide to join His Kingdom, you are entitled to all the rights and benefits pertaining thereto the moment you do. (Ephe 1:13-14) The last ones hired got the same pay as the first.

Second, you have to sign up before the end of the day. (Hebr. 4:7) No one was hired after the end of the day and as I said, the day represents our lifetime.

Third, if you think you deserve more in the Kingdom because you worked longer or harder or lived a better life than someone else, then you’ve forgotten how you got in. You weren’t saved because of your merit or worthiness, but because of His mercy and grace. Thinking He owes you something extra is a sin that if left unconfessed won’t get you thrown out, (remember every worker is a believer) but it could put a strain on your relationship with the Lord during your life and will certainly diminish your joy at having been accepted into the Kingdom.

Is Your Work All Done?

So what about the work that everyone, whether first or last, had to do to earn their pay? I thought salvation was free, and couldn’t be earned. Earlier, the people had asked the Jesus, “What is the work God requires of us?”
“The work of God is this,” He replied. “Believe in the One He has sent.” (John 6:28-29)

What a perfect opportunity to point out all the things required of us; the 10 Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, or some new list that combined them both and added regular church attendance, tithing, with maybe some missionary work thrown in. No. “Believe in the One He has sent.” Period. End of Story.

The workers who worked all day represent those who have believed in the One He has sent, but then for the rest of their lives have labored long and hard for the Kingdom. Nothing wrong with all their hard work, and it has probably achieved much good, but at the end of the age, if they think they’ll be in for some extra credit, their true motives will be exposed. The jealousy they feel when a terrible sinner makes a last-minute confession and is saved without any good works to his credit shows they haven’t been working to express their gratitude to the Lord for what they’ve already been promised, but to earn something more for themselves. (1 Cor. 4:5)

And The First Shall Be Last

When the Lord said, “The last will be first, and the first will be last,” He was describing the spiritual equivalent of being sent to the end of the line. Something like that happened to me once. I arrived early for a popular seminar, found a good parking space, took my place near the head of the line that was already forming, and began mentally selecting the great seat I’d head for when the doors opened. As the line quickly got longer and longer, I began gloating over the fact that I wasn’t going to be one of those losers who always arrive at the last minute and get terrible parking and worse seats. No sir, not me.

Finally the doors did open and to my shock, I discovered I’d been standing in the wrong place. The first ones there had been misinformed and had started the line in front of the wrong door. The real entrance was at a different door and suddenly I was nearer the end of the line than the beginning. Bummer! I had been feeling so smug and superior, and now I was the loser. I mentally missed the first 15 minutes of the seminar trying to calm down and never did get over the fact that I had waited all that time to get preferred seating and now my seat was no better than anyone else’s. Going from first to last stole my joy that day, and my superior attitude made it all the worse.

Take Home Pay

If you’re one of those believers the Lord could accuse of being jealous of what someone else is getting, confess and do it now. Don’t let another day go by, estranged from Him by your jealousy.

And here’s one way the parable is different from life. Everyone knew the workday was 12 hours long, so all could predict its end. But who among us can predict the end of our lives? If you’re someone who hasn’t yet fully committed to becoming one of His followers please heed the advice from Hebrews 4:7: “Today if you hear His voice, don’t harden your heart,” and from 2 Cor. 6:2 “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” Join Him now, the wages are great, and they pay eternal dividends. Selah 2-7-04

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