Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Matthew. chapter 28

1 ¶ In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

The day starts in the evening. There are three days from Wednesday until 6pm to Saturday into Sunday morning, sometime during which Christ arose.

2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

Mark 16:3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.

Luke 24:1 ¶ Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:

These are called angels in verse 23. Angels are appearances of men. Angels have a sex and are not sexless beings.

John 21: 1 ¶ The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Matthew only mentions one of the angels.

4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

This is the greatest verse in the Bible. If you have ever lost anyone to death you will understand. If you are old and you are sick or dying you will understand. The problem with living isn’t money, fame, constipation, heartbreak, or hunger. It’s death. Death comes as the result of sin. Christ has conquered it by virtue of His resurrection. Think of it.

Mark 16:6 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

If you don’t believe this verse you can’t be a Christian and, truthfully, to even be one would be foolish.


7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

In other accounts we will see that they weren’t believed. They are several works that harmonize the gospels in time order and some are better than others. I won’t quote each gospel’s account, told from a different perspective, because I’ll hopefully get to each of the gospel accounts. There is a lot more information given in some accounts but Matthew is a gospel written specifically to the Jews and with doctrinal application primarily to the Tribulation and the Millennial reign of Christ.

9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
11 ¶ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

Government authorities have never stopped lying. Notice how the priests, the religious elite, are manipulating the government authorities.

14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

To this day, many Jews believe this.

16 ¶ Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

Jesus is now going to meet with the disciples in Galilee on a hillside. He gives other commissions to the disciples that are mentioned in other gospels.

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

This is telling the disciples to go out and reach ALL nations, not just the Jews as was ordered previously. The commission to the disciples has changed from just the house of Israel to ALL nations. When you put all three of these names together you get “the Lord”. The name of “the Lord” is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That is gentile baptism. Acts 2:38 is somewhat different being applied to the Jews.

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Look to the commandments which Jesus gave the apostles after they went out to the Jews. The word world here is a reference to the world system, not the physical earth. Notice the progression here, where Jesus starts out saying;

Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Matthew 15:24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

There is an overlap in Matthew that can confuse you if you don’t rightly divide it. Notice the references to the Gentiles as a hint of what is to come.

Matthew 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

Matthew 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

Do you notice that something has changed? This is called The Great Commission. Read the first part of the book of Acts and the end of Luke. You can get really messed up in the first part of Acts, not being able to discern the crossover and overlap between dispensations. Acts is a transitional book as we will see.

Not being able or willing to rightly divide the Bible’s dispensations can make you force the Bible to contradict itself. Beware.

2Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Word for the Day

Goldbrick (noun)
Pronunciation: ['gold-brik]
Definition: (1) A bar of gold; (2) a shirker, a faker, anyone who dodges work or duties.
Usage: Obviously, today's word may refer to a brick cast from gold. Interestingly, it is no longer used in that sense. Bricks now refer almost exclusively to the building material and gold bars are called "ingots." In fact, today's word is probably used more frequently now as a verb than as a noun: to goldbrick means "to shirk or only pretend to work, to avoid shouldering one's duties."
Suggested Usage: Goldbricking is a symptom of an ailing workplace, so it is found anywhere there is a job to be done, "The company went down under the sheer weight of the goldbricks it accumulated over the years." It is well beyond irony when the goldbricks at Enron ended up with all the gold. This word is another we inherited from military life (see 'Warspeak: Linguistic Collateral Damage' in our Library). In 'Once there was a War' (1959), John Steinbeck wrote, "In the ranks, billeted with the stinking, cheating, foul-mouthed goldbricks, there were true heroes."
Etymology: The second meaning of today's word originated in the late 19th century in reference to a swindle in which a fake goldbrick was created out of base metal except for one corner, which was solid gold. The entire brick was then gold plated. The mountebank behind the scheme would then offer the brick for sale in hope that some naïf would test the corner and buy the brick for solid gold. The colloquial sense of a goldbrick then became "a fake" and by World War I it was applied to those who faked wounds to avoid combat. By World War II it referred to any kind of shirker in the Army, a sense which was absorbed by the general vocabulary after the war.–Dr. Language, YourDictionary.com

Exodus, chapter 16

1 ¶ And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

The topic of the “wilderness of Sin” would make good preaching material.

2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

Here’s the murmuring again.

3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

The “flesh pots” would also make interesting preaching. God saved them from violent death, from thirst, and finally bread.

The first thing that God saves you from is the second death, then He attends to your physical needs; water, a type of the Holy Spirit, and bread, a type of the word of God, the Bible.

“Would to God” shows that most men would rather live in sin and die than be saved. They feel comfortable with their sin, and their misery.

4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Here the law is mentioned before it’s given. He’s going to test them before He gives them the list of rules that will separate them from all the other decadent peoples of the earth.

5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

This is the first indication that there will be a weekly Sabbath in the Bible. It is based on God’s own seventh day of rest seen in Genesis 2.

6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:
7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us?

The even is a type of rapture, and the morning a type of the Second Advent.

Murmuring against your Pastor is akin to murmuring against God although he is not God or any more godlike than you are. If you don’t like your Pastor or agree with him and praying for him hasn’t worked anything you need to realize that you need to leave the fellowship and not be a problem to God’s man in the pulpit. You sometimes need grace to get through things. The man that God has put in the pulpit through the voting members of the church should not be murmured against. If you are looking for a perfect Pastor or a perfect church you will never find it. If you want a better Pastor, pray for the one you have. Don’t murmur like these people did.

8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

Don’t murmur against your spouse either. The most impossible thing a woman can think she can do is to change a man after she’s married him. It almost never happens.

9 And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings.

There is no terror here as there will be later under the law. That is the difference between being under grace and the law. The law divides us from God. Grace draws us closer.

10 And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
11 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God.
13 ¶ And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.
14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.
15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.

God is providing everything they need. He is showing them who He is by His provision.
16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.

If you look at manna as a type of the word of God, then learn that if you gather much understanding of the word of God you won’t have any left over. If you gather little you won’t lack. God will give you what you need.

19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.

You gather the word of God daily. You are to read the Book of God every single day.

20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.

If the word of God is left unread then it can be a stinking thing, sitting there in your house perhaps keeping up a table leg. When you get God’s word you must do something with it and if you don’t you’ll go nuts. Show me a fundamentalist who has gone crazy and I’ll show you a Christian who has read and read the Bible, meditated on it, and yet won’t DO anything with it. Light rejected becomes lightning, said Dr. Ruckman.

21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
22 ¶ And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

Here is the first mention of the weekly Sabbath observance. No one before this knew about this sabbath.

24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

Unbelieving scholars will tell you this is a plant but it sure must be an unusual plant to melt and to appear in this manner during these days.

A better possibility might be found here. Although it could be a rabbit trail.
Psalms 74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

And who might this leviathan be?

Isaiah 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

And who might this dragon be?

Revelation 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Something happened to this supernatural entity after God’s first great miracle for the Hebrews. We don’t quite understand how, in reference to eternity, this occurred. Very clearly, many commentators have the seven heads of the dragon in Revelation representing future kings perhaps of the European Union, but here is what the Bible says about the seven heads later.

Revelation 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

This is clearly Rome, the seat of the paganized form of Christianity. Since, the serpent’s heads were broken before Christ, then at least some of these kings are not future or ones at the time of the fall of Jerusalem but represent fallen ones before the Exodus. Rome is the inheritor of the Babylonian religion. It is possible, perhaps, and I don’t know this to be true, but it would seem that either these references are to past events of great pagan kings of the Babylonian faith. Consider this verse.

Revelation 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

My point is that what if these five fallen kings were existing before the creation of the Jewish people as a nation? The papacy is the sixth king, and the Beast of Revelation is not yet come. So, then, my point would be, that these kings might be types of rulers or institutions under which rulers obtain authority. The question I would have is this; what five pagan types of priest/king existed before the Papacy? Of course, when you are dealing with events in a timeless eternity my argument may be a moot point.
Remember, that after the time of the Exodus we begin to deal with the Age of great empires. There is Egypt, Assyria/Babylon (two parts of the same culture), Persia, Greece, and Rome. Each of these pagan empires has its own peculiar signature. It’s just food for thought.

25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

Obviously, God has given them laws before the law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. This is a lesson to Christians. Although we are not under the Law we are not lawless. God has given us instructions to live by.

29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

This is where the idea of doing nothing on the Sabbath comes about and in order to collect manna that rabbinical tradition came about where you could only travel a specific distance on the Sabbath according to a couple of commentators I read.

31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
32 ¶ And Moses said, This is the thing which the LORD commandeth, Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
33 And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.
34 As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

There is no tabernacle yet but there is some kind of place used as Exodus 24:4 shows that something has been built.

35 And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

Every day a huge amount of this manna came down for forty years.