Checked the headlines lately?

Israel is front-page news again. Israel, the cup of trembling, once again has the ire of the world at large concerning their blockade of Gaza.

I don't worry about Israel. The whole world can go ahead and condemn them. I'm not the least bit worried nor concerned about Israel. You know why?

Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The LORD will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever. --Psalm 121:4-8.

The Creator of all things keeps Israel. Do you hear me all you enemies of God's chosen? God keeps Israel, and He will neither slumber nor sleep! And for how long? Forever!

That is security.

Discern the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3): Israel's Messiah is returning soon: which side will He find you on?

May He Increase!

It seems like it's been a long time since I've posted here.

One day turned into two and before I realized it, it's been over a week. Things have been quite stressful for me at work and family life has been hectic of late. I decided to change my routing up a little, put the blog on the back-burner for a little while and try to find some rest in the Lord.

In truth, I found myself really leaning not upon my own understanding but on God's promises (Proverbs 3:5). I also felt a lot of spiritual warfare and lies whispered in my ear. Then one day last week, I heard a message on K-Wave 107.9 from 1 John. I believe it was Chuck Smith who was giving the message. The passage that struck me was:

We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. --1 John 3:19-20.

Friends, God is so good. I love it when God speaks to me right when I needed it most.

For God is greater than our heart and knows all things . . .

Amazing. But it continues:

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because keep keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. --1 John 3:21-22.

When Satan tries to lie to you and tell you: "Wow, you really screwed up your testimony there, buddy," God knows all things, He is greater than our heart. When your heart tries to tell you, "You really aren't doing all that much for the Kingdom," God knows all things, He is greater than our heart.

Really. What are we made of? Dust. What do you expect from dust? Nothing. God knows our frailties and God knows we are sinners. But in spite of this, He loves us. He knows how many hairs you have on your head! (Matthew 10:30) I know that, this side of heaven, I will never understand the depths of God's love for you and I.

God is greater than this wicked heart, out of which flow so much evil (Matthew 15:18-19). God provided Himself (Genesis 22:8) as the propitiation for my sins, my frailties, my wicked heart. That is the kind of love that I will never understand. But that is the kind of love that I can put my complete trust and faith in, that no matter how hard I may fall, He is there to pick me back up and get me on the path back to His home.

May He Increase!

Paul wrote two letters to the Corinthian church. In the first letter, there is a chapter on the doctrine of the resurrection, specifically in chapter 15.

But I wanted to look at just a small portion of this chapter that recently stuck out at me.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. --1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

In this passage, the phrase "according to the Scriptures" appears twice. I think a lot of us gloss over this without realizing what Paul is saying. At the time Paul was writing this, what were considered "the Scriptures?"

The answer is: the Old Testament.

So that brings up a question: where in the Old Testament does it prophesy that Jesus would die for our sins, would be buried, and would be raised on the third day?

The most common answer that people would probably come up with would be Jonah. After all, Jesus said:

"An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three night in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." --Matthew 12:39-40.

But did you know there are at least three other places in the Old Testament where Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection were prophesied? And not just His death (Psalm 22), not just His burial (Isaiah 53:9), but death, burial, and resurrection!

• Noah's Ark
• Abraham and Issac
• Rahab and the Spies

We've looked at each of these at some point, with Noah's Ark and Rahab being the most recent. The story of Abraham and Isaac we looked at in January 2009.

One thing I didn't really expand on in the post about Abraham and Isaac last year was that Isaac was dead to Abraham from the moment that God told him to "offer him there as a burnt offering" in Genesis 22:2. In Genesis 22:4, the specific, three-day interval is described.

You have to understand that God promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation. So when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac--the son of God's promise--Abraham knew that God's promise depended upon Him resurrecting Isaac!

A Little Extra

Continuing on the theme, I accidentally ran across the Holy Spirit lead me to this passage in my study.

From the book of Hosea:

"Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him." --Hosea 6:1-2 (Emphasis mine).

I love God's Word. The more you dive into it, the more He reveals to you!

Has God revealed something new to you recently?

May He Increase!

Today we celebrate Jesus' victory over sin and death! It's Easter Sunday 2010. All this week, we reviewed the Passion Week series from 2009.

Easter Sunday, 17th of Nisan 32 A.D.

All of the original study on Easter from 2009, the one thing I missed that I wish I hadn't was something my brother Ike pointed out to me:

The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. --Matthew 27:52-53,

The silence in this text is almost as wonderful as the miracle itself. No one, writing about a miracle of such magnitude, would have said so little. I've often wondered about this miracle but there is only silence.

It's an amazing passage. Can you imagine the scene? I had commented in response that I wonder what the chief priests, elders and especially the Sadducees--who say there is no resurrection, Matthew 22:23--had to say on that day!

But more importantly, what do you say? Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus died for the sins of all and rose again in victory over death?

Jesus is alive. He lives and is waiting for you to come to Him and make Him Lord of your life. Do it today!

May He Increase!

As we move closer to the most monumental events in the history of mankind, we need to start looking at the next couple of days in a more seamless manner. We're reviewing the Passion Week Series from 2009.

In our western mind, we reckon days from the stroke of midnight. But in the Jewish world, days begin at sunset. This will become important as we recall the events of this evening and tomorrow 2,000 years ago.

Thursday, 13th/14th of Nisan 32 A.D.

Judas has already planned the betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. During the day today, Jesus instructed His disciples to get the Upper Room ready so that He could celebrate the Passover with them.

So much occurs this night. After the "last supper," Jesus goes to the Garden of Gethsemane. It was during this time that Jesus prays to the Father, three times, that if there was any other way for mankind to get to Heaven except the cross, Jesus wanted to take it.

And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will." --Matthew 26:39.

Three times Jesus asks God for another way to Him but the cross. Each time the answer came back: only by the cross. Do you realize the enormity of this? If there was any other way to the Father but by the cross of Christ, then Jesus' prayer wasn't answered and He died in vain.

One of the greatest lies is that "there are many paths to God." Don't believe that for a second. If you do, you are buying into the same lie that Satan told to Adam and Eve in the garden. It's a lie that he keeps telling. He keeps telling it because people keep believing it. Don't make that mistake!

Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life! No one comes to the Father but through Him! (John 14:6)

May He Increase!

This week we have been looking back at the Passion Week Series from 2009.

On this day, several key events took place to start a chain of events leading to the cross.

Wednesday, 13th of Nisan 32 A.D.

Right after Jesus finishes His parable of The Judgement of the Gentiles, Jesus reminds the Disciples again that He must suffer and die at the hands of unbelievers.

Jesus also fulfills more Old Testament prophecy--again from Zechariah--when He's literally sold-out by Judas for 30 pieces of silver: the price of a slave.

Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed our thirty pieces of silver to him. From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus. --Matthew 26:14-16.

The price of a slave . . . the Creator of the world, the King of the Universe, betrayed for the price of a slave. Can you imagine? Our bondage to sin, our chains of death, imparted to the perfect, Holy, Lamb of God. What do we get in return? Heaven! He did this for you and I because He loved us too much to allow us to go into eternity apart from Him.

That is love that I cannot fathom.

May He Increase!

We've covered a few "Biblical gems" recently like the genealogy of Noah and the story of Rahab and the spies.

I ran across another one today that I've glossed over in the past while reading the book of Amos. It amazes me how many of these wonderful gems are tucked into the Word of God.

"It will come about in that day," declares the Lord God, "That I shall make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight." --Amos 8:9.

On the one hand, you might read this thinking that it's related to end-time prophecy and certainly there are those implications. But when else did the sun go down at noon?

Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. --Matthew 27:45.

We miss this because we don't tell time like this anymore. The "sixth hour" is noon by our modern reckoning. More on this verse in a moment. First, back to Amos.

"Then I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth on everyone's loins and baldness on every head." --Amos 8:10.

Obviously, the thought here is grieving. But look at what the rest of Amos 8:10 says:

"And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and the end of it will be like a bitter day." --Amos 8:10.

What was the rest of the passage from Matthew 27? A few verses after Matthew 27:45 we read:

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. --Matthew 27:50.

It was the day of the cross. It was the day that God grieved over His only Son. It was the day that the perfect, sinless Lamb of God was made sin for all the world so that you and I won't have to spend all eternity separated from Him! It was the day that our mourning could be turned to joy that we don't have to die in our sins!

May He Increase!

I'm sure most of you know what Philippians 4:6 says.

In case you don't, it says:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. --Philippians 4:6.

I like the translation of this verse that I heard recently:

"Worry about nothing, pray about everything, and give thanks for anything."

I like that, a lot. The only problem is, a lot of times, it's a lot harder than we think. I've had to remind myself lately that worrying is a sin. Did you realize that?

How many times did Jesus command us "do not worry?"

• Matthew 6:31
• Matthew 6:34
• Matthew 10:19
• Mark 13:11
• Luke 12:11
• Luke 12:22

Just to list a few. I guess "do not worry" means, well, "do not worry."

How often do we view our worrying in direct violation of His commandment?

May He Increase!

In the introductory post, we talked about how Jesus teaching in parables was a fulfillment of prophecy in Isaiah. We also talked about how the seven parables found in Matthew 13 are directly related to the seven letters found in the book of Revelation.

Today we want to look at the parable of The Sower and its relation to the letter to the church at Ephesus.

The Parable of The Sower

That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. --Matthew 13:1-2.

Before we get too far ahead, it should be noted that the parables we will be studying in Matthew 13 all deal with the kingdom after it had been offered to the people of Israel. This is based on:

• Whenever the kingdom is mentioned in the Bible, it comes in multiples of seven (seven parables, seven letters, etc.).
• The elders of Israel had effectively rejected Christ in the preceding chapters, most notably in Matthew 12:24, when they actually accused Jesus of doing miracles by Satan's power!
• The symbolism of Matthew 13:1-2.

When Matthew says "Jesus went out of the house," the symbolism is Jesus leaving the house of Israel for the gentiles. The sea that is mentioned is, of course, the Sea of Galilee, but symbolically it represents the nations of the gentiles. We see examples of this in the book of Daniel, for example, in Daniel 7:2-3. Therefore, this is Jesus giving parables of the kingdom from the time of His rejection to His Second Coming.

Jesus only interprets two of the seven parables: that of The Sower and that of The Wheat and the Tares. It's critical that we understand these two parables because the rest of them hinge upon the symbolism and interpretation of these.

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up." --Matthew 13:3-4.

The sower is Christ. The seed is the Word of God. What is crucial to understand is that the birds are representative of Satan.

"Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away." --Matthew 13:5-6.

How deep are your roots? Do you have a depth of relationship with Christ that your roots run deep into His Word and His promises? Or, when that sun comes up, blazing hot, do you wither away under it's heat?

"Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out." --Matthew 13:7.

Have the cares of this life and of this world choked out your relationship with God? Are you striving after things of this world that have no lasting value?

"And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear." --Matthew 13:8-9.

If you are bearing fruit for the kingdom, keep on bearing fruit! Don't stop if you think "I've done enough." If you're still on this earth, don't stop bearing fruit for God!

The Sower and the Letter to Ephesus

Jesus commended the Ephesian church for:

1. Deeds and toil
2. Perseverance
3. Intolerance of evil men
4. Testing those who call themselves apostles who are not
5. Perseverance (a second time)
6. Endurance for Christ's sake
7. Not growing weary

Each of these require roots in the Word of God. As Jesus said in Matthew 13:8-9, the Ephesians were bearing fruit through their deeds, toil, perseverance and endurance. They could not test those who called themselves apostles apart from the Word of God. Without the Word of God, they would fall into the trap of tolerating evil as well.

Without roots in the Word of God, the evil one can easily snatch you away on every wind of false doctrine.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. --Ephesians 4:14.

How do you avoid this? By getting rooted in the Word of God!

Next time

We will study the next parable, The Wheat and the Tares, and the letter to the church at Smyrna.

May He Increase!

Last November, we studied the seven letters of Jesus in the book Revelation. We looked at the letters from three aspects:

• Contemporary
• Composite
• Chronological

As a recap, the churches Jesus wrote to were:

1. Ephesus
2. Smyrna
3. Pergamum
4. Thyatira
5. Sardis
6. Philadelphia
7. Laodicea

These churches represented the following periods in church history:

1. "The Light of Asia," the period just after Pentecost.
2. The Persecuted Church
3. The Pagan Church
4. The Church of Romanism
5. The Protestant Church
6. The Revived Church
7. The Apostate Church

The Seven Parables of Matthew 13: A Summary

When you carefully read the seven parables of Jesus found in Matthew 13, you are struck by the parallels between those parables and the seven letters.

The seven parables and their audiences are as follows:

1. The Sower - publicly given
2. The Wheat and the Tares - publicly given
3. The Mustard Seed - publicly given
4. The Leaven - publicly given
5. The Hidden Treasure - privately given to the disciples
6. The Pearl of Great Price - privately given to the disciples
7. The Dragnet - privately given to the disciples

Over and over again in the Bible we are presented with the number 7. Even the division between the publicly spoken parables and the private ones are a sum of 7. All of this is evidence of the skillful and deliberate design of the Creator.

Some commentaries have pointed out that the first parable--that of the sower--serves as an introduction to the remaining six. Of the remaining six, they can then each be paired up: the second and the seventh, the third and the fourth, and the fifth and the sixth. Each of these pairs speak the same truth but each in its own way. This, too, is evidence of deliberate and supernatural design of the scripture.

Why Parables?

Jesus' disciples asked Him privately why He used parables to teach the people. Jesus told them,

"To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." --Matthew 13:11-13.

In other words, those who were rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, would be in capable of understanding the meaning of His words. This fulfilled exactly what Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah 6:9-10!

Jesus continues:

"But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." --Matthew 13:16-17.

This is why Jesus spoke in parables.

Next time

In the next post, we will study the first parable, that of The Sower and its relation to the first church in Revelation: Ephesus.

May He Increase!