Lazarus and Lazarus
&
The
Sign of Jonah
Resurrection, Signs and Wonders
How Many SIGNS Does It Take?
From
Law to Gospel
And at the
End of Eight Days,
when
He was CIRCUMCIZED
He was called
JESUS
the NAME given by
the ANGEL
before
He was conceived in
the WOMB
Luke 2:21
In the formulation of the description concerning the naming of Jesus. His circumcision appears as an incidental event. All emphasis falls on the name that was given to Him and on the divine origin of this name. And the circumcision is described as an attending circumstance surrounding the name-giving.
All this does not mean to state that the circumcision of the Lord Jesus is not important for us. Circumcision was an important sign for every Israelite son, and here the Lord Jesus is Included in the number of the sons of Israel. It served as a sign that He was enrolled among the elect people of God, and that He was set apart for service in the kingdom of God. As baptism is today, circumcision was a sign of being ingrafted into the Church, the family of God.
The shedding of blood in the sign also had a special significance. It showed that the sins of the child were paid for, and that he so enjoyed the forgiveness of sins and the entrance into eternal fellowship with God. For the child it served as a kind of receipt It said to him: it is now as if you have paid in full, and you are now qualified for service in God's kingdom. In the shedding of blood the Israelites were to attach the same significance as they were called to attach to the sacrifices. It pointed to a greater sacrifice that was coming, through which atonement would be given to God for the sins of all His children.
Yet this latter significance could not apply to the Lord Jesus and His circumcision. For He was without sin! Although born out of Adam, He did not share Adam's guilt and corruption. So the sacrament of circumcision has a different significance for the Lord Jesus. He willingly submits to being circumcised. But this does not show His sins are forgiven; rather, it shows that He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. In submitting to circumcision, the Lord Jesus, who remained without sin, fully takes on the likeness of sinful flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh, Romans 8, 3. For others circumcision was a receipt; for Him it was an account. God says to Him: you must pay this bill in full. The shedding of blood in this case demanded His own blood!
This special significance of Christ's circumcision is brought out in His name-giving, and this is why the name-giving has all the emphasis in this passage. Literally the text says: "When the days were fulfilled for circumcising Him, then He was called Jesus…" This means that with the fulfillment of the law, the gospel comes to light! For the name Jesus means Saviour. And this was a name not given Him by man, but by God Himself, Matthew 1:21.
The accent on the name-giving also makes clear the character of the Son's obedience. The more He submits to the law, the more He is exalted in the word of prophecy. Therefore, the name-giving is also a prophetic and proleptic exaltation. He may now have no honour in human eyes; but God honours Him from heaven! The LORD shows from heaven that the self-offering of the Son is accepted at God's throne!
For the name Jesus proclaims to us the deliverance from the just requirements of the law. Where we could not pay, God provides a way! He becomes the victim and sin offering which makes full payment for our sins. And He becomes the faithful High Priest who imparts the blessing of His sacrifice to us!
Still today the name Jesus appears as nothing in the eyes of the world and our natural hearts. But we know the results of His circumcision! We know that He fully completed His task and calling on earth, and He was exalted to heaven where He still serves as our Saviour and Highpriest today. We do not yet see His full glory on earth. We do not yet see all things subjected to Him.
But we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.Hebrews 2:9
From law to grace! When the law is fulfilled the gospel is ushered in. Just as the just demands of the law are met, our Saviour is revealed! As the law comes to completion, the gospel comes to light! Here the law is the lesser, and the gospel is the greater. There is only one way for us to meet the just requirements of God's law: to cling in faith to Jesus! We are to hold fast to Him as the only true offering for sin, and as the only faithful Highpriest in God's house. And this will also bring forth from us a thank offering of obedience that permeates our whole existence. For all the riches of God come to us in Him. He was circumcised; therefore, we may be baptized. He was circumcised; therefore we may share His body and blood at the Lord's Supper. He was circumcised, and placed under the full bondage of the law, in order that we might be set free from the law and live all our days in joyful thanksgiving to our Creator.
Let our lives be thank offerings in praise of Him!
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and Leaven in Luke 13:18-21 describe the growth and spreading influence of the church, but from different approaches. The parable of the mustard seed is about outward growth. Birds from outside fly into and become part of the tree. The parable of the leaven is about inward growth. The leaven works from inside the dough. Leaven makes dough rise from within which pictures the way the gospel changes us inwardly: it changes our hearts and then works its way into our actions.
MATTHEW 13:31–33
"He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened’”
(v. 33).
As we begin our study today, note again that parables are usually stories drawn from everyday life. Jesus’ comparison of the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed and leaven illustrates this fact (Matt. 13:31–33). Men typically worked in agriculture, and women performed domestic chores like the baking of bread in first-century Palestine. In telling parables related to these tasks, Jesus conveys His message in terms that are familiar to ordinary people.
Our studies in Matthew have thus far shown that the Messiah ushered in God’s kingdom in a manner that did not meet the expectations of His contemporaries. Instead of an immediate and final entry of God’s saving presence, there was an inauguration of the kingdom that is followed by a long period of growth before the final consummation. The mustard plant’s growth and the leaven’s permeation, both of which take time, illustrate this point.
For clarity’s sake, the NIV describes the mustard seed in verse 32 as “the smallest of all your seeds” (emphasis added). Smaller seeds than those of the mustard plant exist, but Jesus is not making an absolute statement on the size of seeds. Mustard seeds are the smallest of those commonly used by His audience and are used in the parable to make His point easy to grasp. Like the seemingly insignificant mustard seed, God’s kingdom starts out small and all but hidden. In time, however, it becomes so large that no one can ignore it — just like the Palestinian mustard plants that can reach ten feet in height. Despite its humble beginning, the kingdom will grow to an immense size (Dan. 2:31–45).
The parable of the leaven makes virtually the same point, albeit from a slightly different perspective (Matt. 13:33). A morsel of yeast is seemingly engulfed and consumed in the larger lump of dough; however, the leaven actually ends up permeating the flour, transforming the dough and making it rise. So too will the Gospel, with slow growth at first, penetrate and transform society. John Chrysostom comments, “The leaven, though it is buried, is not destroyed. Little by little it transmutes the whole lump into its own condition. This happens with the gospel” (Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, 46.2).
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven Read Matthew 13:31-33
These two parables are part of an entire chapter of parables. So far in the chapter, each parable has taught something about the kingdom of heaven. First there was the famous parable of the Sower; Jesus there declared that the kingdom comes by way of the Word of God taking root in the hearts of believers, growing, and bearing fruit, while there are many other people in whom the Word of God does not bring forth fruit (vv. 1-9). Next there was the parable of the wheat and the tares. There Jesus made clear that the visible kingdom will remain a mixture of good and bad until His return on the clouds and the final separation of the righteous and the wicked (vv. 24-30). There was more for His followers to learn about the kingdom, however, and so Jesus continued His teaching in the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven. Through these two parables Jesus focused His disciples on the remarkable, invisible power revealed in the growth of the kingdom through the gospel. He compared this power to two very familiar things.
It’s like a Mustard Seed
The mustard seed is miniscule, about the size of the tip of a pencil lead. Your eye would scarcely notice it. Were a mustard seed to fall on you, you might not even take the effort to brush it off – it’s that small. A bird looking for seeds to eat might miss this tiny seed and move on to something larger, such as a sunflower seed. Nevertheless, if this mustard seed falls into the soil and if rain and sun nurture it, a month or two later you could see a remarkable bush that has grown from that very small seed. How is that possible? When it was a seed, it looked like nothing. It seemed worthless and lifeless. But after it has nestled in the soil and received sun and water, the bird that didn’t notice it before might soon find this bush a good place to build its nest.
Likewise, the kingdom of God may look insignificant, worthless, and lifeless to us. We might be tempted to pass over it in our thinking and instead dwell on things seemingly more substantial and eye-catching – things like earthly governments, the media, popular trends, political figures, human institutions, and so on.
The same would have been true of the kingdom of God in Christ’s time. If you had lived then, perhaps your attention would have been focused on the Roman government as it controlled the then-known world. Uprisings, taxes, political intrigue – many such things would have seemed a lot more significant than a wandering rabbi from the back country of Galilee with a band of twelve followers. Like Nathanael, many would have said: “Can there come any good thing out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
How many throughout the Roman Empire do you think noticed what happened one Passover outside of Jerusalem, when Jesus was crucified between two thieves, with all His followers scattered and offended? Don’t you think what happened there seemed like just a little dark mustard seed compared to things that must have seemed more important? What significant change could be expected to come out of a tomb in a garden just outside Jerusalem? What lasting good could come out of Galilean fishermen spreading the news about things they saw and heard?
Yet, when we survey the growth of God’s kingdom since Christ’s death, what a gigantic “bush” has grown up! And it continues to spread, over lands and nations, across oceans and deserts. People from every corner of the earth have seen this “bush” branch out right in front of them, and, like birds, many have found a place to hide and shelter among its branches – all from a single, miniscule “mustard seed” planted in the soil outside of Jerusalem long ago.
But Christ wants to teach another aspect of the kingdom of God and its growth. He goes on to use another familiar picture.
It’s like Leaven
Leaven or yeast is a fermenting fungus. What Jesus refers to would have been a piece of fermented dough from a previous baking, which a woman would knead into a new batch of dough. Imperceptibly, the leaven would move throughout the whole dough, powerfully impacting all of it and making it rise.
Sometimes the Bible uses the picture of leaven for something evil, such as “the leaven of the Pharisees” (Luke 12:1) or “the leaven of malice and wickedness” (1 Cor. 5:8). Evil can indeed move imperceptibly and powerfully. However, in this passage, Jesus is not referring to something evil; He is again referring to the kingdom of heaven and its growth within individuals throughout the world. So how does the kingdom of heaven work like leaven?
- Its work is hidden from view. The process of leavening cannot be seen with the human eye. Neither can the growth of the kingdom of God in a person’s heart. The Spirit changes a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. This new heart is soft and pliable. Although the effects of His work will indeed become visible, this radical transformation is in itself mysterious and invisible.
- It changes from the inside out. Jesus accused the Pharisees of cleaning only the outside of their “cup,” while the inside remained dirty (Luke 11:39). Their lives might have seemed righteous on the outside, but their hearts remained unclean and evil. This is not how the kingdom of God works in the heart. Like leaven working from the inside out, the changed heart brings forth a changed life (Prov. 4:26).
- It works a comprehensive change in the end. Leaven makes the whole loaf rise. It makes it light and airy and tasty throughout; not one bit of loaf is left unaffected. Likewise, someone whose heart has been affected by the gospel will ultimately show in his whole life that a change has taken place. It’s true that, on this side of eternity, the believer will still continue to be plagued by sin, since there are still two principles at work in his life. Yet, the growth of the kingdom within him will impact all of him: his thoughts, his habits, his actions, his words, his pursuits, his priorities – in short, his life as a whole will be dramatically changed.
Luke 13:1-9 On an early spring day some years ago, I saw a dogwood splendidly in bloom. I commented on its beauty to the owner of the tree, who stood nearby. “This is the first year it has bloomed like this,” he said. “In fact, in previous years, it was doing miserably. I thought I should just take it down and replace it with another.” His explanation begged a question, which he proceeded to answer. “I was complaining about the tree to a farmer, who said: ‘Try giving it a few kicks.’” He paused: “I don’t know the scientific explanation, but last fall I kicked it a few times, and look at the results.”
There is an interesting spiritual lesson there. Blows to the trunk of our life often help us grow spiritually. Hardship can be helpful. Yet, the Lord does more than that in His people’s lives. In our parable, usually known as the unfruitful fig tree, Christ tells us that He both digs around us and fertilizes us (v. 8) in order that we would bring forth fruit.
This parable has an interesting context. Verse 1 mentions a horrifying atrocity ordered by Pilate. Bloodshed was not uncommon in the many conflicts between the Romans and Jews during this time, but this time, human blood had become mingled with the blood of animals that were being sacrificed daily at the temple in Jerusalem (13:1). This would have been appalling even to pagans — much more so to the Jews. This would have desecrated their temple in a horrible way. And if the temple was not the boast of their nation and religion, what was?
We all vividly remember when terrorists brought down the twin towers in New York; the attention of the whole world was gripped. All people spoke about for days and weeks was the number of people who died, the rescue efforts and rescuers, the perpetrators, the stories of survival, how to prevent such a thing again, etc. Man brought all his available wisdom to bear on the situation, and felt the need to be able to say something to explain it.
Back in our passage, the people clearly wanted some reassurance from Jesus that they were different and better than the victims of the calamities around them. They craved a barrier between themselves and the real message of the calamity. Jesus’ response shows this: “Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?” (v. 2). These people wanted to rank themselves on a higher plane than the victims. If they couldn’t do that, they would have to face the fact that such judgment could just as easily have come upon them — and would, if things didn’t change. Would Jesus reassure them? Would He, to quote Jeremiah, heal the wound of the daughter of my people slightly (Jer. 8:11)?
At first glance, the parable might seem to have little or nothing to do with calamity. Nevertheless, the context shows that it must, and a more careful read reveals that it does. Here is how the parable unfolds: Christ pictured a fig tree in the middle of a vineyard. For three years, the owner came looking for and expecting fruit, but did not find any. So he instructed the keeper of the vineyard to cut it down. “Why cumbereth it the ground?” (13:7). It was wasting space and soil, water, and care that could be used much more profitably elsewhere. Then Jesus records the plea of the laborer to the owner: “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (vv. 8-9).
Jesus announced the theme of the parable already in verse 3: “Except ye repent, we shall all likewise perish”(13:3). The parable only serves to drive home this point (Luke 13:6-9). Its basic message is this: “God is still giving you time to see if you will bear fruit; if not, you too will soon be cut down.”
The Unfruitful Fig Tree Read Luke 13:1-9
On a day in the early spring some years ago, I saw a dogwood splendidly in bloom. I commented on its beauty to the owner of the tree, who stood nearby. “This is the first year it has bloomed like this,” he said. “In fact, in previous years, it was doing miserably. I thought I should just take it down and replace it with another. ” His explanation begged a question, which he proceeded to answer. “I was complaining about the tree to a farmer, who said: ‘Try giving it a few kicks.’” He paused: “I don’t know the scientific explanation, but last fall I kicked it firmly a few times, and look at the results.”
There is an interesting spiritual lesson here. Often blows to the trunk of our life help us grow spiritually. Hardship can be helpful. Yet, the Lord does more than that in His people’s lives. In our parable, usually known as the unfruitful fig tree, Christ tells us that He both digs around us and fertilizes us (v. 8) in order that we would bring forth fruit.
This parable has an interesting context. Verse 1 mentions a horrifying atrocity ordered by Pilate. Now bloodshed was not uncommon in the many conflicts between the Romans and Jews during this time. However, this time, human blood had become mingled with the blood of animals that were being sacrificed daily at the massive temple complex in Jerusalem (13:1). This would have been appalling even to pagans; much more so to the Jews. This would have desecrated their temple in a horrible way. And if the temple was not the boast of their nation and religion, what was?
Similarly, when terrorists brought down the twin-towers in New York, the attention of the whole world was gripped. All people spoke for days and weeks about the number of people who died, the rescue efforts and rescuers, the perpetrators of the crime, the stories of survival, the underlying causes, how to prevent such a thing again, etc. Man brings all his available wisdom to bear on the situation, and feels the need to say something.
Back in our passage, the people clearly wanted some reassurance from Jesus that they were different and better than the victims of the calamities around them. That way they could put up a barrier between themselves and the real message of the calamity. Jesus’ response shows this: “Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things?” (v. 2) These people wanted to rank themselves on a higher plane than these victims. If they couldn’t do that, they would have to face the fact that such judgment could just as easily have come upon them, and would, if things didn’t change. Would Jesus help reassure them? Would He, in the words of one of the prophets, heal the wound of the daughter of my people slightly (Jer. 8:11)?
At first glance, the parable might seem to have little or nothing to do with calamity. Nevertheless, the context shows that it must. And when you read it carefully, you see that it does.
Here is how the parable unfolds. Christ pictured a fig tree in the midst of a vineyard. For three years, the owner came looking for and expecting fruit, but did not find any. So he instructed the keeper of the vineyard to cut it down. “Why cumbereth it the ground?” (13:7) In contemporary terms, we would say: “It is wasting space and soil, water, and care that could be used much more profitably elsewhere.” Then Jesus records the plea of the labourer to the owner:
Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.vv.8-9
Jesus announced the theme of the parable already in verse 3: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (13:3). The parable only serves to drive home this point (Luke 13:6-9). Its basic message is this: “God is still giving you time to see if you will bear fruit; if not, you too will soon be cut down.”
Repentance A Christian changes radically
.... I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. Acts 26:20
The New Testament word for repentance means changing one’s mind so that one’s views, values, goals, and ways are changed and one’s whole life is lived differently. The change is radical, both inwardly and outwardly; mind and judgment, will and affections, behavior and life-style, motives and purposes, are all involved. Repenting means starting to live a new life.
The call to repent was the first and fundamental summons in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2), Jesus (Matt. 4:17), the Twelve (Mark 6:12), Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2:38), Paul to the Gentiles (Acts 17:30; 26:20), and the glorified Christ to five of the seven churches in Asia (Rev. 2:5, 16, 22; 3:3, 19). It was part of Jesus’ summary of the gospel that was to be taken to the world (Luke 24:47). It corresponds to the constant summons of the Old Testament prophets to Israel to return to the God from whom they had strayed (e.g., Jer. 23:22; 25:4-5; Zech. 1:3-6). Repentance is always set forth as the path to remission of sins and restoration to God’s favor, impenitence as the road to ruin (e.g., Luke 13:1-8).
Repentance is a fruit of faith, which is itself a fruit of regeneration. But in actual life, repentance is inseparable from faith, being the negative aspect (faith is the positive aspect) of turning to Christ as Lord and Savior. The idea that there can be saving faith without repentance, and that one can be justified by embracing Christ as Savior while refusing him as Lord, is a destructive delusion. True faith acknowledges Christ as what he truly is, our God-appointed king as well as our God-given priest, and true trust in him as Savior will express itself in submission to him as Lord also. To refuse this is to seek justification through an impenitent faith, which is no faith.
In repentance, says the Westminster Confession, a sinner, out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent; so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all ways of his commandments. (XV.2)
This statement highlights the fact that incomplete repentance, sometimes called “attrition” (remorse, self-reproach, and sorrow for sin generated by fear of punishment, without any wish or resolve to forsake sinning) is insufficient. True repentance is “contrition,” as modeled by David in Psalm 51, having at its heart a serious purpose of sinning no more but of living henceforth a life that will show one’s repentance to be full and real (Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20). Repenting of any vice means going in the opposite direction, to practice the virtues most directly opposed to it.
The Beginning of Our Sanctification The work of the Holy Spirit in the sanctification of our life has received more attention recently. Much has been said and written about the progress of the Spirit’s renewing work in God’s children. Whoever allows himself to be led by the Spirit may expect much from him. The life of a Christian has no standstill. The life that the Spirit works in us deepens and broadens. It has been emphasized that a Christian may, and therefore must, grow. Does not Paul speak of being changed into the image of Christ “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18)? And does not Peter call for being and becoming “holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15) and for an increasing “growing in grace and knowledge” (2 Peter 3:18)?
In all this speaking about growth in faith, however necessary it is, I have sometimes missed the attention for the beginning of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. In a few articles I want to talk about this start. If we wish to honour the Holy Spirit as the great Giver of life and the Renewer of it, then the beginning of his work in us will also need to receive attention again and again. For it is precisely this beginning that teaches us how “immeasurably great” his power is for us who believe (see Eph. 1:19).
As the Spirit of Christ
Our confession attributes the sanctification of our hearts and lives to the Holy Spirit. Lord’s Day 8 of the Heidelberg Catechism speaks of “God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification. In Article 9 of the Belgic Confession of Faith, the Holy Spirit is called “our Sanctifier”. And when the Canons of Dort speak about the conversion of man, they expressly confess in chapters III/IV the work of the Spirit. Indeed, in Scripture, the sanctification or renewal of people is presented to us as the work of God’s Spirit. David connects the creation of a pure heart to the work of the Holy Spirit in Psalm 51. The Lord promises Israel, “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezek. 36:27). In Romans 8:1-17 Paul describes the Christian life as a life “in” and “according to” the Spirit. The same apostle testifies of “sanctification by the Spirit” (2 Thess. 2:13). However, as much as sanctification is to be honoured as a work of the Holy Spirit, we must not lose sight of Christ. He is the Saviour, who acquired everything for us. Sanctification, too, concerns a gift that we may receive from his hand. Not only did he justify us (i.e., brought about righteousness), he also became sanctification to us (see 1 Cor. 1:30).
Anyone who wishes to speak about the renewal of our lives will always have to start with Christ. He has acquired salvation for us. He is also the One who makes us share in it. Behind the coming of the great Giver of life on Pentecost stands the Christ (see Acts 2:33). The Spirit who is at work in our hearts and lives is the Spirit “of Christ” (see Rom. 8:9). It is the Spirit who allows himself to be sent by Christ in order to make people partakers of all that they have received in Christ.
It is always striking how the Heidelberg Catechism speaks of this work of the Spirit through Christ. It is Christ who, through his Holy Spirit, assures us of eternal life and makes us ready to live unto him (QA 1). It is Christ who rules us with his Word and Spirit (QA 31, who sends us his Spirit (QA 49), who gathers his church by his Spirit and Word (QA 54), who renews us into his image by his Spirit (QA 86).
The Spirit Takes Control of Our Heart
When Scripture talks about changing people, the heart is almost always mentioned. People need to be given a different, a new “heart”. In Scripture, the heart of man comes to the fore as the centre of his feeling, willing, thinking and acting. The poet of the proverb says: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23). All life springs from our hearts. What we do is planned in our heart. Through sin our heart has become corrupt. Evil has affected the core of our life. Therefore, what our heart produces in us is “evil” from our youth (Gen. 8:21). Our heart is “deceitful above all things, even desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9). Men have a “crooked heart” (Prov. 17:20), and are “uncircumcised in heart” (Acts 7:20). Sin did not only affect the external personality, but it is “engraved on the tablet of the heart” (Jer. 17:1).
It is therefore this corrupt heart that the Holy Spirit takes hold of when he renews us in Christ’s image. The beginning of our sanctification consists in the fact that the Holy Spirit changes, renews and radically transforms our hearts. The Scriptures use various distinctive terms for this radical renewal. It speaks of a “circumcision” of the heart (Deut. 30:6), of the removal of “the foreskin” from the heart (Jer. 4:4), of giving a “new heart” and of giving people a “heart of flesh” (Ezek. 11:19). David prays for a “clean heart” (Ps. 51:10). And the Lord promises to give a heart to fear him (Jer. 32:39) and to know him (Jer. 24:7). We find the echo of this speaking of Scripture when the Canons of Dort deal with the conversion of man. At this conversion the Holy Spirit not only enlightens our understanding and renews our will, but he works in our heart (CoD III/IV.12). “He opens the closed and softens the hard heart, circumcises that which was uncircumcised” (III/IV.11). Over against the remonstrant idea that at conversion God extends a friendly appeal to us and acts on our feelings, the Canons confess another, much more powerful and divine working of the Holy Spirit: he gives us a new heart and a new spirit is put within us (III/IV, Ref. Error 7).
Our hearts are touched and renewed by the Finger of God (see Luke 11:20). A.A. van Ruler calls this touch the great element in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.1 Just as the atonement represents the mystery of salvation in the doctrine of Christ, so is the divine contact in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit, it is God himself who touches us in our hearts, in the centre of our lives, and thus he transforms us. With this touch our sanctification begins. All of our faith and all of our love for the Lord is preceded by this touch. Here we are dealing with the deepest level of a person’s conversion. It cannot be put into words. There is something that cannot be searched out in the work of the Holy Spirit in the transformation of our hearts. We are faced with “a supernatural, most powerful and at the same time most delightful, marvellous, mysterious, and inexpressible work” as we confess in the words of the Canons of Dort (III/IV.12).
When the Holy Spirit begins his renewing work in the lives of God’s children, he comes to dwell in their hearts. This indwelling of the Spirit is the background of all that he is doing to God’s children. The Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, to dwell in us. It is not merely a divine power that is working with us, but God himself has taken occupancy of our hearts as the basis for his work of renewal. We receive indwelling in the centre of our personality! No one less than God himself, namely God the Holy Spirit, lives and dwells in us. We might say with Jodocus vanLodensteijn that the entire Trinity dwells with us in the manner and in the power of the Holy Spirit.2 Paul speaks repeatedly of this indwelling of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 2 Tim. 1:14). Through this indwelling, both the single believer (see 1 Cor. 6:19) and the entire church (cf. 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21) become temples of the Holy Spirit. The term “indwelling” points to the inner and permanent character. According to the Word of Christ, the Spirit dwells with us and will be in us (see John 14:17).
Thus this expression characterizes the progress of salvation.3 We do not read in the Old Testament that the Spirit “dwells” in the hearts of believers and that they are his temple. That is the riches of the new covenant in Christ’s blood. The God who dwelt in tabernacle and temple now comes to dwell in the hearts of his children (see 2 Cor. 6:16). It could not be any more intimate and internal! The Holy and Exalted One is in us and remains with us.
Regeneration
The Scriptures use different terms for the work of the Holy Spirit in and on God’s children. We find words such as calling, enlightening, converting, renewing, cleansing, sanctifying. In the dogmatic reflection, the reformed people began to call this beginning of the renewing work of the Spirit as “regeneration”. Does not the Lord Jesus speak of being “born of the Spirit “(see John 3:5) and the apostle John of being “born of God” (see 1 John 2:29)? And does not Peter call the believers “born again” of an imperishable seed (see 1 Peter 1:23)? There is much to be said for designating the beginning of the Spirit’s work in us in this way. More than other expressions in Scripture, “regeneration” or “being born again” determines the radical nature of the work of the Spirit. We need rebirth in order to enter into God’s kingdom. We must become different people. No less than a “new” birth is needed for faith and obedience to be found in us!
The Canons of Dort unmistakably use the term “regeneration” for the beginning of the renewing work of the Holy Spirit (see III/IV.11,12). But it should not escape our notice that our confession also uses the word in a broader sense. It then points to the ongoing work of the Spirit in the renewal of our lives. Thus Article 24 of the Belgic Confession of Faith states that true faith regenerates a person and makes him a new man.4 The question now arises: what does this beginning of God’s work in us, which we call regeneration, entail? What kind of change is involved here? Especially a person such as Dr. A. Kuyper occupied himself with this question. Anyone who reads Kuyper’s reflections should not forget that Kuyper’s concern was to get rid of all human pride and to highlight the priority of God’s work in us.
For Kuyper, the quickening (making alive) of our hearts is about the implantation of the new life,5 of the start of a new life,6 about the planting of a seed of life7or of the ability to believe8 , about introducing “something” new9 , about connecting our souls with the life source of the Holy Spirit.10 Although Kuyper certainly does not want to think of a change of substance11 , the terminology he uses can easily suggest this notion. In particular, his reference to the introduction of a “seed” or “germ” of life12 raises the question as to whether we are still doing justice to the miracle of our rebirth as a spiritual transformation of our hearts.
Rather than with Kuyper, I prefer to align myself with the Canons of Dort when they attempt to further describe the miracle of regeneration. They confess that this conversion is about the opening of the closed heart, about softening what is hard, about circumcising what is uncircumcised (III/IV.11), about the new creation, the raising from the dead, and the making alive (III/IV.12). When the Holy Spirit regenerates us, he takes hold of us at the centre of our lives; he opens, renews and renews our hearts and thus raises us from the dead and makes us alive.
In considering what the Spirit is doing at the beginning of our sanctification, we must keep in mind that he is the Spirit who also proceeds from the Father. Here too the confession of God’s Trinity carries significant importance! The Spirit honours the Father’s work of creation. Sanctification does not negate this work of the Father, but redeems it from sin and death and restores it to God’s purpose. The Canons honour this in the way they speak about what is happening to our will at regeneration. The Holy Spirit “makes the will, which was dead, alive; which was bad, good; which was unwilling, willing; and which was stubborn, obedient” (III/IV.11).13 The Holy Spirit takes hold of what has been corrupted by sin, but does not bring about an entirely new, second creation. This applies not only to our will, but to everything that makes me my own personality, this actual human being. As H. Bavinck says, the continuity of our own self, of our nature with all its faculties and powers, is maintained at the time of regeneration.14 In a marvellous way, the Spirit leaves all this intact, while renewing and sanctifying it. I remain myself, and yet become radically different!
This radical renewal of our hearts does not mean that there is no more sin in our innermost being. We have indeed been redeemed from the tyranny and slavery of sin (CoD V.1), but there are still remnants (reliquiae, CoD V.3) of sin in us. Even as born-again people we still have a sinful nature, against which we have to struggle throughout our lives (HC QA 56). There remains evil in us (QA 126). Paul knows of the constant struggle between “spirit” and “flesh” (Rom. 7:14-26; Gal. 5:16, 17) and he calls the believers “to put off the old self” (Eph. 4:22).
Calvin and the early reformers have spoken in this context of a born-again “part” and an unregenerate “part” in the believer. A. Kuyper spoke of a born-again “core” and a yet-to-be-renewed “accommodation”.15 But in Scripture we find no occasion for all of this. Our “heart” is being renewed and “we” are born again. It is about a conversion of the whole person at the core of his personality. W.H. Velema rightly says: “The problem of old and new in a heart cannot be made transparent in an anthropological and terminological way”.16 We have a “new” heart while at the same time our “corrupt nature” still moves us. However, “old” and “new” do not coexist in the same way and with equal rights (see Rom. 6:6; 7:17). We have our minds “on the things of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:5), “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), even though we also know the desires of “the flesh”. It is telling that the Canons speak of the “remnants” of sin in us!
In all of this we must remember that the renewal of our hearts is also an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. We are being transformed into Christ’s image (see 2 Cor. 3:18) and the new self is being renewed (see Col 3:10). The born-again David prays for a “clean heart” (Ps. 51:10). Believers, too, because of “the evil which still clings to us” (HC QA 126), cannot do without prayer: “Create in me a pure, clean heart, I pray; renew a steadfast spirit deep within me. Give me new life...!” (Ps. 51:4; rhymed version).17
During His ministry
Jesus
often used the term
“beware”
He told His followers to beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils, and scourge you in their synagogues. Beware of false prophets that deceive. But there was another warning He issued, something He told His disciples to beware of, and the first time He warned them, they didn’t get it. “Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread” (Mark 8:14-16).
The disciples at this point did not perceive what Jesus was really getting at. Bread itself was not the point. Leavening was! “How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:11-12).
“Leaven translated as sour dough, is the remnant of dough from the preceding baking which had fermented and become acid” (Easton’s Bible Dictionary). “A small portion of fermented dough used to ferment other dough and often symbolizing a corruptive influence” (Holman’s Bible Dictionary).
By analogy Jesus used three symbols of leavening - the Pharisees, the Sadducees and King Herod. Leaven of the Pharisees represented hypocrisy (Luke 12:1). The name “Sadducees” means “righteous ones” but, in fact, they were leavened with self-righteousness and false teaching. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead (Luke 20:27, Mark 12:18). The leaven of Herod represented political and religious worldliness under the influence of the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Our world has been permeated (corrupted) with the leaven of the devil. And when Jesus referred to the sin of leaven, He was referring to sins of the heart. “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matthew 15:11). “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man” (verse18).
Leaven has corrupted the true teachings of the Bible. Indeed too many religions, while claiming to be pious are, in fact, leavened with misguided traditions. Jesus had to address just such a concern among the Pharisees. For instance, the Pharisees meticulously cleansed the outside of their cups and dishes. However, inside they were filled with greed and self-indulgence. Jesus explained that external cleansing was not sufficient. Furthermore Jesus taught: “even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Matthew 23:28-29). Misapplied and misunderstood traditions like permeating leaven can cause division even in the Christian church.
Paul dealt with a leaven problem within the congregation of the church at Corinth. An individual was committing incest, and in responding, Paul compared the problem to leavening the entire church. “And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you” (I Corinthians 5:2). “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (Verse 6).
Each year when we observe the Passover we recognize that Jesus is indeed: our bread of life (John 6:35, 48); the true bread that came down from heaven; that He was without sin; the unleavened bread of life.
Following Passover, we observe the “Days of Unleavened Bread”, an observance symbolizing the putting away of sin, as we remove all leaven products from our home. But we are also commanded to eat unleavened products symbolizing taking in more of Jesus Christ. When we partake of unleavened bread, that bread becomes part of us. We ingest it into our physical body. It is a portion of the fuel that keeps the body functioning. When we observe the Passover and eat of the body and drink of the blood of Jesus Christ, it is spiritual fuel. To eat His body is to ingest into our hearts and minds more of an unleavened Saviour. We are continuing the covenant made at baptism, that we accept His sacrifice for our sins.
Observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread is our reminder of a spiritual commitment that will one day allow us an opportunity to enter the Kingdom of God.
We are reminded by the apostle Paul that we are to keep the feast, that we are to put leavening out of our homes for seven days and to eat unleavened bread. But Paul meant more than just eating physical bread. “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
As we approach the spring Holy Day season, the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, we are admonished to beware of leaven, the puffed up self-righteous hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the false doctrinal concepts of the Sadducees, and the diabolical political chicanery of Herod.
We are to “to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness;” and substitute “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”, with the guiding hand of the true Bread of eternal life, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!
Salvation is a Gift of GodSalvation is an experience of divine favor which God gives to those who humble themselves and repent of their sins. Salvation is not attained through one’s own strength, fortitude or ability; but it is a miraculous work of God. The scripture warns that it is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). Self-righteousness is the strong belief of one’s own goodness, opinions and actions while believing that other people’s are wrong. There have been many that have committed the sin of self-righteousness. A professing child of God who is self-righteous is one who trusts in his own goodness and works in an attempt to be justified before the Lord. Jesus spent much of His earthly ministry addressing those who had spiritual pride and were self-righteous. “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,” Christ instructed. That leaven is hypocrisy, self-righteousness and a deluded sense of one’s ability and position.
Holiness is Possible Only Through Christ & the SpiritAll have sinned and come short of the glory of God and are in need of a savior. It is only through Christ that mankind is able to live holy. Hence, all glory and honor goes to the Father and there is no place for pride or spiritual egotism. The Apostle Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Galatians 2:20). All grace and ability to live acceptably before God comes only from the work of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. The focus and dependency should be on the power of God, not on the feeble ability of man.
Signs of a Self-Righteous Spirit
The self-righteous are characterized by a number of traits which are identified in the scripture. It behooves the saint of God to be aware of this sin and to be able to recognize it when it crops up. The self-righteous tend to justify themselves (Luke 10:29) when their lives are less than what the Bible teaches. As exemplified by the Pharisees, they often follow some commandments rigidly in outward observances so that they might appear righteous. Jesus said that they appeared beautiful outwardly but were within full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Matthew 23:27-28). They love to be exalted and seen as an icon of spirituality (Matthew 6:1-2).
Establishing One’s Own RighteousnessPaul spoke of those who went about to “establish their own righteousness, [and] have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Romans 10:3). The self-righteous allow their opinions and ways to take precedence over the simplicity of God’s Word. They are quick to proclaim their own goodness (Proverbs 20:6) and are pure in their own eyes (Proverbs 30:12). All the while, their spirits are filthy and prideful. They profess and appear holy (Isaiah 65:5) but their works are unacceptable with God.
The self-righteous
tend to be judgmental and quick to condemn others (Luke 6:41). “Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
Man’s Righteousness is ExternalThe righteousness of God within a person leads him to outward holiness with a spirit of humility and love. The righteousness of man is external (Luke 11:42-44) and is as filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6). Man has no true righteousness of his own and has no power to change the condition of his heart without the power of God. All of the righteousness of man will profit nothing (Isaiah 57:12). Good works and deeds are beneficial but without the motivating power of God Himself working within, they are of no eternal value.
The Self-Righteous
Will Not Enter
Self-righteousness has a blinding effect
and often people are deceived into a false spiritual security. “Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17). The congregation at Laodicea thought themselves sufficient and spiritually rich; but without the fervent love of God, they were poor, naked, and blind in their self-righteousness. They had lost their dependency on God and rested in their ritualistic good works. Self-righteousness is sin and will keep one from going to heaven. Jesus said, “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
A Form of GodlinessThe Pharisees had a form of godliness. They prayed, fasted, tithed, etc. but they trusted in their own merits rather than in the redeeming grace of God. “A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ….by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16). A man can follow many of the doctrinal teachings of the word and dress ever so modestly. He can give liberally and pray much. He can be faithful in worship service and yet miss heaven because he lacks the spirit of love, humility and dependency upon the righteousness of Jesus alone. While outward standards and precepts are important,
true
holiness begins in the heart.
Where Is Your Focus?
Self-righteousness focuses on self rather than God. God will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 42:8). When God stops getting the glory, the glory stops. The glory is not defined by how loud a group of professing saints can shout or how they can dress up. The glory is the divine anointing of God in the daily life which brings peace, joy, power, love, and humility. “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth” (2 Corinthians 10:17-18). As a child of God brings forth good works in their life, it should be for the purpose of glorifying the Father which is in Heaven (Matthew 5:16).
Then Jesus said unto them,
"Take heed and beware
of the leaven
of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”
(Matthew 16:6)
As we comprehend and walk in the blessings and authority we have “in Christ” we must be very mindful of Jesus’ words warning His disciples concerning the leaven of the Pharisees. What is the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Jesus tells us it is hypocrisy, spiritual pride, and self-righteousness. It was the “doctrine [teaching] of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:12).
Satan will always try to pervert the truth with subtle lies. He did it with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-13), he tried to do it with Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11), and he certainly tries to do it with us. That is why the Apostle Paul and others warned us to be alert to the schemes of the devil.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. (I Timothy 4:1)
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (I Peter 5:8)
At the root of every attempt of the devil to deceive us, and at the root of the “doctrine of the Pharisees” is pride. Even if it is masked in spirituality or religion, it is still pride. It is resistance to faith in Jesus as our Savior and King, and it is unwillingness to surrender to His lordship and obey His commands out of love for Him. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees because they elevated religious traditions over the commandments of God (Matthew 15:1-9), and they imposed heavy religious duties upon the people that they did not do themselves. (See Matthew 23.) Jesus rebuked them for their hypocrisy and lack of love. They had a “form of godliness” (II Timothy 3:5), but they rejected the means of having a relationship with God—faith in Jesus as the Christ.
All of us are subject to temptation because of our lusts. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14). But whether it is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or the pride of life (I John 2:16) the root of all sin is pride. Satan tempts in our areas of weakness to get us, in effect, to put “self” on the throne of our life rather than Jesus.
It is important to note that in the midst of His rebuke to the Pharisees for their spiritual pride and efforts to be “seen of men” (Matthew 23:5) Jesus instructed His disciples on greatness in the kingdom of God.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. (Matthew 23:11-12)
Jesus has given us “all spiritual blessings in heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). He has clothed us with righteousness. He has given us authority to heal the sick, cast out devils, proclaim the gospel of salvation, and make disciples of all nations. But we must always and everywhere be mindful and thankful that it is only He that is the power. We are His servants, for His work, in His kingdom, for His glory! We cannot do in the flesh, what Jesus gave us authority and power to do only in the Spirit!
Spiritual pride can manifest in different ways, but it can always be discerned or detected by a lack of love. It does not matter if we understand the mysteries of the Scriptures, exercise spiritual gifts, or do great works for God. If we are not motivated by a love for Jesus and for others, we are not ambassadors of Jesus. In fact, Jesus called such self-motivated manifestation of power and good works “iniquity” and such individuals will have no place in the eternal kingdom of God.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21-23)
The Apostle Paul put in this way:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
So, yes we are to glory in our position in Christ and what He has given us, but we always need to remember that He is the vine and we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we will bring forth much fruit, but apart from Him, we can do nothing (John 15:5). “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth” (II Corinthians 10:17-18).
God gives grace
to the humble
but opposes the proud.
(James 4:6; I Peter 5:5).
If we humble ourselves as servants of the King, we have great authority and opportunity to advance the kingdom of God. But it is
He that will reward and exalt us. (I Peter 5:6)
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. (Philippians 2:1-4)
In John 3:14–15 Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” This is the first of three references in the book of John to Jesus being “lifted up” (see also John 8:28 and 12:32). Together, these verses speak of two ways Jesus would be “lifted up”: 1) on the cross at His crucifixion and 2) in His glorious exaltation as the One seated above all things.
When Jesus said the Son of Man must be lifted up “just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness,” He was referring to Numbers 21:4–9. In that passage, the Israelites were wandering through the desert and “grew impatient on the way” (verse 4). They became frustrated at their circumstances and complained against God and Moses. As a judgment for their rebellion and lack of faith, the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the Israelites, and many people died. During this ordeal, the God’s people repented of their rebellion and pleaded with Moses to ask God to take the snakes away. Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord responded to him, saying, “Make a snake, and put it on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live” (Numbers 21:8, GW). Moses obeyed the Lord’s instruction and mounted a bronze snake on a pole. Many of the Israelites then looked upon it and were saved from the snakebite as a result.
It’s important to note here that there was nothing magical or idolatrous about what God told Moses to do. Neither the snake nor the pole had any healing power in and of itself. Rather, it was God’s power that saved and healed the Israelites. By looking at the snake on the pole, the Israelites acknowledged their sin, repented of their rebellion, and turned to God in faith to save and heal them.
In a similar way, Jesus was lifted up on a “pole“ (i.e., the cross), and all who look to Him in repentance and faith will be saved. Jesus removes the sting of death and preserves us from the “snakebite“ of Satan, that old serpent (see Revelation 12:9). The first and primary meaning that Jesus had in mind when He said that the Son of Man must be lifted up was that He would be literally lifted up from the ground at His crucifixion.
However, secondarily, Jesus was also speaking of being lifted up in His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. Jesus was “lifted up” from the grave when God raised Him from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Jesus was “lifted up” from the earth and returned to heaven after His resurrection (Acts 1:9–14). And now Jesus is “lifted up” over every angel, authority, and power (1 Peter 3:22–23). He sits at the right hand of God the Father, above all creation (Ephesians 1:20–23).
So, Jesus’ reference
to the
Son of Man being lifted
up in John 3:14
was a foreshadowing of
both
His crucifixion and exaltation.
Why do the first Christians
believe that
Jesus was raised?
There were three major reasons that the early Christians, who were all Jewish Christians remember, gave for believing the Resurrection. First, the empty tomb. All four Gospels tell us that Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea after his death and that when they went back on Sunday morning, because they had to rest for Saturday, Saturday was the Sabbath so they couldn’t do anything to the body on Saturday, so they wait for dawn on Sunday morning, they go back on Sunday morning, and what do they find? The tomb is empty. That's the first sign of the Resurrection, that is the first motive of credibility. The tomb is empty. That’s the first sign of the Resurrection, it’s the first motive of credibility for the Resurrection. Now, it's necessary for the tomb to be empty, but it’s not a sufficient reason because the tomb could get emptied in other ways, right. I mean somebody could have stolen the body — even though that was impossible because it was guarded by a Roman guard, soldiers, and the penalty in Rome for falling asleep on guard duty was execution. So you don’t fall asleep at the post if you’re a Roman soldier because they’ll put you to death immediately. So the empty tomb is not enough, there had to be another reason.
The second reason for believing the Resurrection was the appearances of the risen Jesus. So again we have multiple accounts: Matthew 28, Luke 24, John 20-21 and 1 Corinthians 15, that tell us that Jesus appeared to Peter, Jesus appeared to James and John, he appeared to Mary Magdalene, he appeared to the 11 apostles, he appears to Thomas, he appears to 500 brethren, 500 Christians at one time, St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. So we have all these appearances of Jesus which was really the major motivation for thinking oh wow, he’s back, right. He is alive again.
He’s raised from the dead.
Now the third reason though is the one I want to focus on as we wrap up here with the presentation, and it is the fulfillment of Scripture. Now this is one that modern-day Christians don't usually make. A lot of times when you hear contemporary Christian apologists saying why they believe in the Resurrection, well they’ll say things like this: the apostles believed in the Resurrection so fervently that they preached it throughout the Roman Empire and they gave their lives for the sake of the Resurrection, so we should believe it too. Like in other words, the argument is why would they have died for what they knew to be a lie. Does that make sense?
Now that's a good argument but it's got a couple of problems. Number one, that’s not the way they argued for the Resurrection, right. In other words, there’s kind of a disconnect. The ancient Christians didn't say you should really believe Peter because he’s so zealous for it, because people can be zealous for things that are actually wrong. Like there are people who give their lives today in the service of radical terrorism that are sincere, but they’re sincerely wrong.
So that’s a subjective argument but there’s also an objective argument for Jesus’ Resurrection, and it’s that his Resurrection was the fulfillment of Scriptures.
If you look in 1 Corinthians 15, Luke 24, and John 20, over and over again in the New Testament it says Jesus died and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. So as soon as you see that you have to ask yourself, what scriptures? And then you run into a problem, because if you go to the Old Testament there isn't any prophecy of Isaiah or Jeremiah or Daniel that says the Messiah will be raised on the third day. It doesn't exist, there isn’t a prophecy.
Yet all the New Testament writers, not all of them but many of them, are saying Jesus was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. So what Scriptures are they referring to? Well there’s only one Scripture in the Old Testament that links with this, and it’s not a predictive prophecy like we would normally think, it's a story from the Book of Jonah. Jesus links his Resurrection only one time with the Old Testament. It's in his famous account of the Sign of Jonah. So I know you probably heard this saying of Jesus before at mass but bear with me and let’s listen to it again. Watch what happens. Remember, the Pharisees come to Jesus and they say hey, if you’re the Messiah prove it, like give us some proof here, give us some evidence, perform a sign. And how does Jesus respond? He’s very nice to them. He calls them wicked and adulterous. He says:
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:38-41)
Alright, so what’s Jesus doing? He’s alluding to the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament and he’s drawing two analogies. He’s saying just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights so will the Son of Man, now you know what that means right, it’s that himself as Messiah will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Then he says and the men of Nineveh — Nineveh was the great pagan city and the capital of Assyria that Jonah went to and preached to and they all converted — and he says the men of Nineveh are going to rise up at the judgment and they’re going to condemn this generation because they repented when Jonah preached to them, but something greater than Jonah is here. Namely what? Himself. That's Jesus’ one allusion to the three days of the Old Testament prophecy of the Resurrection.
Now I'll be honest with you, for a long time when I read this prophecy I kinda went away not all that impressed. Like with all due respect Jesus, I get it three days, three nights, but it’s kind of a weak analogy for the Resurrection. And also, to lots of people the story of Jonah is so unbelievable. I mean how can a man live in the belly of the fish for three days with no air, no water, no food. It just sounds like Pinocchio, right. You all have the Pinocchio image, right, the Disney movie. It sounds more like folklore or fairytale. And so most people don’t think of the Sign of Jonah when they think about Jesus’ Resurrection. But then one day I went back and actually read the Book of Jonah, and I looked at it in Hebrew and something leapt out at me. Namely this, if you read the Book of Jonah very carefully you will see Jonah is not alive, he’s dead. It says it. Is Jonah alive for three days? Jonah 1 says this:
And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying…Here’s the key.
Everyone skips the prayer, watch the prayer.
“I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and
he answered me;
out of the belly of Sheol I cried... I went
down to the land
whose bars closed upon me for ever;
yet you brought up
my life from the Pit, O Lord my God.
Now pause there.
In the Old Testament what is
Sheol and the Pit?
What are those names for?
It’s names for the realm of the of the dead.
So where does Jonah go?
Where does he cry out to the Lord?
From the realm of the dead.
If you have any doubts look at the next line.
When my soul fainted within me…
Literally in Hebrew that’s the nephesh, right, same word we use for soul, his life. In other words, when I died, when my soul expired.
I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came to thee, into thy holy temple.
So in his dying breath Jonah begs God for mercy. He cries out to the Lord and the Lord responds.
And the Lord spoke to the fish,
and it
vomited out Jonah upon the
dry land.
So what does it vomit out?
I would suggest to you that it vomits out Jonah's corpse.
Then the word of the LORD
came to
Jonah the second time,
saying, “Arise,”
Same word in Hebrew, the word is cum.
Remember
when Jesus goes to the little girl,
what does he say?
Tal’itha cu’mi. Little girl what?
Arise.
“Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and
proclaim to it the message
that I tell you.” (Jonah 1:17-3:1)
This time Jonah does it,
right. I’m not going through that again, okay.
So he gets up,
he goes to Nineveh, he preaches to the city and the
whole city repents.
This is the capital of Assyria.
These guys are pagans.
They are wicked. The Book of Jonah says they don't know their right hand from their left. In other words, they’re so immoral they don't know what's good and what's bad. They don't know what's up and what’s down.
They’re completely, completely lost.
And yet when Jonah preaches the word to them every single one of them repents, from the pagan king all the way down to the pagan servant at the bottom of the totem pole, everyone in the whole city.
It's a miracle that they all repent.
So with that in mind,
now that you’ve got the
Old Testament,
go back to Jesus’ words:
no sign
will be given to this generation
except the sign of the
prophet Jonah.
So what is Jesus saying?
Just as Jonah died
and
went to Sheol,
there's your connection to the Creed by the way.
Why do we say Jesus descended into hell?
Because hell is the Greek translation,
Hades, of the Hebrew word Sheol.
It doesn’t mean Jesus was damned, it means he descended to the realm of the dead. He was really dead. His soul and his body separated. His soul went into the realm of the dead. So he descends to the realm of the dead for three days and then on the third day he is raised. And then what does he do?
He does exactly what Jonah does. He sends his apostles and he says go forth to all the nations, to the pagans. Teach them everything I told you, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
And guess what happens? Not just one pagan city converts, but all the pagan cities. Within two centuries the entire Roman empire is converting.
Millions and millions and millions of pagans, who for centuries had worshiped idols and false gods and demonic spirits and temples to this goddess and that god, all that collapsed. One by one they all become Christians and they all start to worship not just Christ, but the God of the Jews that they had despised.
So what is the Sign of Jonah? It’s not just a miracle of the Resurrection, it's the miracle of the conversion of the pagans. And you don’t have to take my word for it. You can go back to the early church fathers, last quote here, these ancient Christians. When ancient Christians would argue that Jesus was the Messiah, one of the main things they would love to point out was look around, the whole world is converting to worship the God of Israel. This is what he said. This is from Eusebius, he was a Fourth Century church historian, and look what he says. There’s a lot more than this.
The Proof of the Gospel:
Behold how today, yes, in our own times, our eyes see not only Egyptians, but every race of men who used to be idolaters . . . released from the errors of polytheism and the demons, and calling on the God of the prophets! . . . Yes, in our own time the knowledge of the Omnipotent God shines forth and sets a seal of certainty on the forecasts of the prophets. You see this actually going on, you no longer only expect to hear of it, and if you ask the moment when the change began, for all your inquiry you will receive no other answer but the moment of the appearance of the Savior. . . . And who would not be
struck by the extraordinary change—that men who for ages have paid divine honor to wood and stone and demons, wild beasts that feed on human flesh, poisonous reptiles, animals of every kinds, repulsive monsters, fire and earth, and the lifeless elements of the universe should after our Savior’s coming pray to the Most High God, Creator of Heaven and earth, the actual Lord of the prophets, and the God of Abraham and his forefathers? (Eusebius of Caesarea, The Proof of the Gospel, 1.6.20–21)
Wow. How do you explain it? And look around everybody, they’re still converting today. The nations are still converting. If you look at what’s going on in Africa, what’s going on in Asia right now, and if you look at what’s going on even where there is terrorism and martyrdoms of Christians, the blood of those martyrs is the seed of the church. People are converting by the millions, by the tens of millions, to Christianity to this day. How do you explain that? How do you explain that if you’re just an atheist, if you’re an atheist or an agnostic?
Is that just a coincidence that it just so happened that the
Prophet said that the nations of the world would
come to worship the
God of Israel,
and they just so happen to all throw their
idols away and
begin to worship the God of Israel
at the time immediately following the
death and Resurrection of
Jesus of Nazareth. Is that a
coincidence?
I think it’d take a lot more
faith to
believe that.
That’s more of a miracle than just believing that Jesus was who he said he was, and that the
Gospel is true,
and that Christ really is not
just the
Messiah but the divine Son of God.
So at the end of the day when we look at the evidence,
when we look at the biblical and the historical evidence,
we still have to answer the question,
who do you say that I am?
Leaven (or Yeast)
Most Bible teachers
state that leaven is analogous to sin.
Although the two are connected,
leaven does not represent sin.
Instead, it represents self-righteousness –
or simply legalism.
A person living under legalism relies on following rules to be pleasing to God. The rules can be anything –the Ten Commandments,
Jesus’ example, avoiding the bad and doing the good found in the New Testament, or just “doing the right thing.”
However, that is a life of works –and it is the very opposite of living by faith.
Everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)
Leaven puffs up a loaf of bread making it appear larger than it would be otherwise. Legalism (or self-righteousness) makes a person measure himself based on his own works. And it leads to a most prideful (puffed up) attitude.
The description of the Passover is found in chapters 12 through 14 of Exodus. In that passage, the two primary things that the people were told to do were slay and eat their lamb; then rid themselves of all leaven –they could not possess it nor could others see them with it.
And for the week beginning at Passover, they were to celebrate the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. These were to be an annual reminder that God was trustworthy –for He took them safely out of Egypt. It marked the beginning of the new year –a time of starting over.
All they were to do was follow Him by faith. The lesson to be learned from this feast is that there is nothing that people can do to make their rescue successful. God did all the rescuing. If their good works were involved, then they would have been puffed up –arrogant in their thinking.
But He provided the lamb –Jesus the Lamb of God– to be slain for us. And He provided the unleavened bread –Jesus the Bread of Life. All that we are to do is take Him in –by faith.
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3)
The connection of legalism to sin is much like that of a tree to its fruit –one is a natural result of the other. When a person thinks that his efforts help to bring him salvation or even improve his position with God, he is living by works –not faith. That Romans passage above describes this as sin.
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:8)
When attempting to live life by following rules, people naturally boast and compare themselves to others which breeds malice and wickedness. So let’s live by God’s truth –His word– which explains that the way of life is one of faith.
Matthew 13:33
Most of the time, commentators interpret this parable just as they interpret the Parable of the Mustard Seed—that the Kingdom would grow big and eventually encompass the whole earth, and everything would be great. Hallelujah! But is this correct?
When the Jews heard this parable, they must have been astounded. If Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God was like leaven in bread, what would we think? It does not sound very good to us—nor did it sound right to the Jews—because we know what leaven represents in Scripture: the corruption of sin. How can the Kingdom be likened to leaven? It is almost unthinkable that the Kingdom of God would be full of leaven throughout. Is the Kingdom evil? Is it full of sin? This does not square with what we learn in the Old Testament. The Kingdom is supposed to be glorious and pure, and Jesus is telling us that the Kingdom is full of leaven. How can this be?
And we are right! Everywhere else in the Bible where the word "leaven" or "unleavened" appears, "leaven" carries with it a negative implication. Yet, according to the commentators, this one case is the exception! In 87 out of 88 times, it means something bad, but here in Matthew 13, leaven is positive. Why? It does not make sense for a God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Leaven must still be negative here.
The commentators are uncomfortable with the idea that the Kingdom of God in its present form can have leaven in it, that it could be full of sin. But we need to remember that Jesus was seeing what would happen between the time He died and the time He returned. He saw that the people would be full of leaven, and they would always be, until they were changed to spirit.
That is the beauty of grace—that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and we can then come under His blood and be cleaned. This does not mean we are clean forever—we still sin after we are cleaned.
So we have to go back before the
throne of grace and plead
for mercy and forgiveness
again and again and again--
even up until the time that
we die or we are changed.
We sin
because we are full of leaven,
and we spend our
whole lives getting rid of it.
Every year, we
keep the
Days of Unleavened Bread
to depict just this process and to be thankful that we have this sacrifice—Christ our Passover—who saves us and forgives us. In the Levitical sacrifices, no leaven could be in any of the offerings that were made (Leviticus 2:11), because they typified the sinless Christ. The two wave loaves that were offered on the day of Pentecost (Leviticus 23) were made with leaven, because they represent us, the Old Testament and the New Testament, or the Old Covenant and the New Covenant—the churches of those times that were full of leaven, that is, sinful people.
But God accepts them because the blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin (I John 1:7).
He knows our frame and gives us grace (Psalm 103:14).
In I Corinthians 5:6, Paul writes, "Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" This sounds like the Parable of the Leaven. The leaven went throughout the Corinthian church. In verse 7, Paul says, in essence, "You are supposed to be pure. Get that sin out, so you can repent." In verse 8, Paul defines leaven as "malice and wickedness." In other words, it is sin.
In Galatians 5:7-9, Paul calls leaven a "persuasion [that] does not come from Him who calls you," one that hinders us from obeying the truth. Putting these three verses together, this is how he defines leaven, as "a persuasion that does not come from God." In Luke 12:1, Jesus says that the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy—hypocrisy in religion. In Mark 8:15, He speaks of "the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
Herod had leaven, too,
and his was basically secularism
or the
use of religion for political purposes.
Then, in Matthew 16:5-6, 11,
Jesus clearly says that
the leaven
He spoke about was the
doctrine of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees.
So, then, what is leaven?
In its most basic sense, it is a symbol of corruption, which has a tendency to multiply and spread like yeast. A little bit of yeast in the dough will make the whole thing rise because the yeast ferments and spreads throughout the entire lump of dough, making it all rise. In this parable leaven symbolizes sin that corrupts and spreads.
God did not send His Son to condemn the world
(John 3:17)?
John 3:16 presents Bible readers with what is likely the purest, most straightforward summary of the good news of God’s saving love that Jesus Christ brings to the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus, speaking with the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus, continued, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world was an important truth and a new revelation that Jewish believers would need to wrap their heads around. The Jews had no problem accepting the idea of God’s special love for Israel, but the notion that “God so loved the world” was groundbreaking theological material to the Jewish mindset. With this statement, Jesus revealed the all-embracing scope of God’s love under the New Covenant.
God’s agape love does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile, enslaved person or free, male or female (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). The Father sent His Son to destroy prejudices and break down barriers of division to bring God’s great love and salvation to every man, woman, and child in the entire world (Matthew 28:19). And His plan of salvation has been a global strategy all along (See Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world because the world was already condemned. The Greek word (krinō) translated as “condemn” in John 3:17 means “to declare guilty; to pronounce guilt and a punitive sentence on someone in a legal sense; to judge.” The Bible says that all people are born in sin inherited from Adam (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5). We come into this world already pronounced guilty and condemned to die (Romans 5:17–19; 6:23).
In Romans 3:21–31, the apostle Paul teaches that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sin upon Himself when He sacrificed His life on the cross. He died so that we could be “made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (verse 22, NLT). Anyone who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ is restored to fellowship with God (verse 26). Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer condemned because “the power of the life-giving Spirit” frees them “from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:1–2, NLT).
Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to escape a guilty sentence: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). Rejecting Jesus results in condemnation and death (John 3:36). Ultimately, salvation for everyone in the world, from the beginning of history until the end of time, is rooted in faith in Jesus Christ (see Romans 4:1–24; Hebrews 11:6, 13, 26; John 1:12). There is no other way to be saved (John 3:14–15; 11:25; 14:6; Acts 4:12).
God sent His one-and-only Son to die, not just for the people of Israel, but as a loving Savior for everyone. He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save those who believe in Him. Our Savior’s mission was not to sentence people to death: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Christ laid down His life to take away the curse of sin that separates sinners from God (Romans 8:33–34). Jesus came to bring His Father’s gift of salvation so that all who believe in Him might enjoy fellowship in His presence for all eternity.
What does Luke 5:31 mean?
Jesus is explaining to the Pharisees and scribes why He feasted with a group of cultural outcasts and "sinners." He hasn't come for those who believe themselves sinless. He can't heal proud religious leaders who don't think they need God's forgiveness. He has come for those aware enough to know they are sinners and humble enough to repent—like Peter (Luke 5:8).
Peter may have been present at this feast—the text isn't clear if all Jesus' disciples were—but he doesn't immediately get the point that Jesus has come for everybody. Years after Jesus ascends to heaven and Peter becomes a significant church leader, God will go to great lengths to convince him to visit the home of a godly Gentile (Acts 10). When he visits Syrian Antioch, Peter eats with Gentiles until legalistic Jews from Jerusalem arrive and shame him (Galatians 2:11–14). Peter eventually learns to accept Gentiles (Acts 15) and welcomes them as part of the church (1 Peter 2:10). If Peter takes so long to understand following Jesus means breaking tradition and associating with people with varied social standings, the Pharisees' initial interpretation of Jesus' actions as improper is understandable.
A "physician" is someone who cures physical ailments.
For a physician to concentrate on healthy people, ignoring those with ailments, is foolish. It's especially unwise when the sick are plentiful and willing to be healed. As with the paralyzed man (Luke 5:23–24), Jesus is using physical healing as a metaphor for spiritual healing. His words here might be a cultural proverb of that era.
It's important for local churches to embody Jesus' statement. We should expect and welcome "sinners" into our congregations. Hospitals and churches are both meant as places people can come with their problems, seeking comfort and relief. A hospital is of little use without those
willing to accept that they are sick.
In John 3 a Pharisee
named Nicodemus approaches Jesus, seemingly to inquire about the kingdom of God. The passage ends with a discussion of the results of belief and disbelief in the gospel of Christ. John 3:18clearly lays out the need to believe: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
To condemn, in this context, is to pass negative judgment on someone—to find him guilty of a wrongdoing. John 3:18 says that, without faith in Christ, everyone is found guilty. The guilt has already been decided—they are condemned already. The reason is that everyone is a sinner, and apart from the Savior, everyone will receive the penalty due for sin (see Romans 3:23; 6:23).
John 3:18 directly follows a wonderful declaration of the good news, the gospel of Christ: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:15–17).
The historical incident Jesus refers to in John 3:15 is found in Numbers 21. Israel was traveling from Egypt to Canaan. Along the way, they sinned against the Lord by grumbling and speaking against Him. God judged the people by sending poisonous snakes into their camps, resulting in the death of many Israelites. The Israelites asked Moses to intercede for them and
deliver them from their condemnation.
The Lord told Moses to lift up
a pole
with a bronze snake on it;
anyone who looked upon it
would be healed
and delivered from God’s judgment.
The Israelites were condemned for their sin,
but God made a way of salvation.
Just as the Israelites were condemned in Numbers 21, the world is condemned already because of their sins. The snake has already bit. However, God has provided the way of salvation. Just as the snake was lifted up in Numbers 21, Jesus was raised up on the cross. Just as looking to the serpent in the wilderness delivered the Israelites from certain death, looking to Jesus in faith delivers all those who believe in Him (John 3:14–18).
Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17). There was no need to condemn the world, for everyone already stands condemned (John 3:18). But there was a need for a Savior. Jesus came to save. He provided the proper sacrifice for sin, and all those who believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ are relieved of their condemnation (Romans 8:1). They are made His children and provided eternal life (John 3:16).
Matthew 12:4040
For just as Jonah
was three days and three nights
in the belly of the great fish,
so will the Son-of Man
be three days and three nights
in the
heart of the earth.
Jonah 1:17
And the LORD
appointed a great fish to swallow
up Jonah.
And Jonah was in the
belly of the fish
three days and three nights.
Matthew 17:22–23
As they were
gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them,
“The Son of Man
is about to be delivered
into
the hands of men,
and they will kill him,
and
he will be raised on the
third day.”
And they were greatly distressed.
God’s Chosen Servant
Jesus, aware of this,
withdrew from there.
And many followed him,
and he-healed
them all and ordered them
not to make him known
This was to fulfill
what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
behold,
my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved
with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will
proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will
anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will
not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
21 and in his NAME
the Gentiles will hope.”
Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 and all the people were amazed, and said, Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 zKnowing their thoughts, he said to them,
“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste,
and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.
How then will his kingdom stand?
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your son's cast them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the Spirit of god that I cast out demons,
then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods,
unless he first binds the strong man?
Then indeed he may plunder his house.
whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy
will be forgiven people,
but the
blasphemy against the spirit
will not be forgiven.
And whoever speaks a word
against the
Son of Man will be forgiven,
but whoever speaks against the
Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,
either in this age or in the
age to come
A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit
Either make the
tree good and its fruit good,
or make the
tree bad and its fruit-bad,
for the
tree is known by its fruit.
You brood of vipers!
How can you speak-good, when you are evil?
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
the good person out of his good treasure brings forth good,
and the evil person out-of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
I tell you, son the day of judgment
people will give account for every careless word they speak,
for by your words you will be justified,
and by your words you will be condemned.”
The Sign of Jonah
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, wwewish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them,
An evil and yadulterousgeneration seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of theprophet Jonah.
40 For just as Jonah
was three days and three nights
in the
belly of-the great fish,
so will the
Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.
the men of Nineveh
will rise up at the
judgment
with this generation-and
condemn it,
for they repented at the
preaching of Jonah, and behold,
something greater than
Jonah is here.
The queen of the South
will rise up
at the judgment
with this generation
and condemn it, for she came from
the ends of the earth to
hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold,
something greater than Solomonis here.
Return of an Unclean Spirit
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through hwaterlessplaces seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house fromwhich I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and theyenter and dwell there, and ithe last state of that person is worse than the first. So alsowill it be with this jevil generation.”
Jesus’ Mother and Brothers46 While he was still speaking to the people, behold, khis mother and hislbrothers1 stood outside, asking to speak to him.2 48 But he replied to the man whotold him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out hishand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 50 Formwhoever ndoes the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister andmother.”
The Parable of the Sower13 That same day Jesus went out of the house oand sat beside the sea. 2 Andgreat crowds gathered about him, pso that he got into a boat and sat down.And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And qhe told them many things inparables, saying: r“A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell alongthe path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground,where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had nodepth of soil, 6 but swhen the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had noroot, tthey withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among uthorns, and the thorns grew upand choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some vahundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 wHe who has ears,1 let him hear.”
The Purpose of the Parables10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them inparables?” 11 And he answered them, x“To you it has been given to know ythe secretsof the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 zFor to the one who has,more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not,aeven what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables,because bseeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, cnor do theyunderstand.
Indeed, in their case the
prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled
that says:
You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears ethey can barely hear,
and ftheir eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and gunderstand with their heart
and hturn, and I would heal them.’
16 But iblessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 iFor truly, Isay to you, jmany prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and didnot see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
The Parable of the Sower Explained18 k“Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of lthekingdom and mdoes not understand it, nthe evil one comes and snatches away whathas been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what wassown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately oreceivesit with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but pendures for a while, and whentribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately qhe fallsaway.2 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, butrthe cares of sthe world and tthe deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and itproves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears theword and munderstands it. He indeed ubears fruit and yields, in one case vahundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
The Parable of the Weeds
He put another parable before them, saying, w“The kingdom of heaven may becompared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men weresleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds3 among the wheat and went away. 26 Sowhen the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And theservants4 of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sowgood seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemyhas done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gatherthem?’ 29 But he said, x‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat alongwith them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tellthe reapers, y“Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, butgather the wheat into my barn.”’”
The Mustard Seed and the Leaven31 He put another parable before them, saying, z“The kingdom of heaven is like aagrain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of allseeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree,so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
33 He told them another parable. b“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that awoman took and hid in cthree measures of flour, till it was dall leavened.”
Prophecy and Parables34 eAll these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing tothem without a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables;
gI will utter what has been hidden hsince the foundation of the world.”
The Parable of the Weeds Explained36 Then he left the crowds and went into ithe house. And his disciples came to him,saying, j“Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The onewho sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seedis kthe sons of the kingdom. The weeds are lthe sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemywho sowed them is the devil. mThe harvest is nthe end of the age, and the reapers areangels. 40 Just as the weeds oare gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at ntheend of the age. 41 pThe Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of hiskingdom all qcauses of sin and rall law-breakers, 42 sand throw them into the fieryfurnace. In that place tthere will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then utherighteous will shine like the sun vin the kingdom of their Father. wHe who has ears,let him hear.
The Parable of the Hidden Treasure
Thr The kingdom of heaven xis like treasure hidden in a field,
which a man foundand covered up. Then in his joy yhe goes and sells all that he has and zbuys that field.
The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who,on finding aone pearl of great value, ywent and sold all that he had and zbought it.
The Parable of the Net47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is blike a net that was thrown into the sea andcgathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, dmen drew it ashore and sat downand sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at ethe endof the age. The angels will come out and fseparate the evil from the righteous 50 gandthrow them into the fiery furnace. In that place gthere will be weeping and gnashingof teeth.
New and Old Treasures51 h“Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” 52 And he saidto them, “Therefore every iscribe jwho has been trained for the kingdom of heaven islike a master of a house, who kbrings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 landcoming to mhis hometown nhe taught them in their synagogue, so that othey wereastonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
Is not this the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother called Mary?
And are not this
brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
And are not all his sisters with-us?
Where then did this man get all these things?”
And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them,
A prophet is not without honor except in his
hometown and-in his own household.”
And he did not do many
mighty works there, because of their unbelief.
The Death of John the Baptist
at that time wHerod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, 2 and hesaid to his servants, x“This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from thedead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 3 For yHerod hadseized John and bound him and zput him in prison for the sake of Herodias, hisbrother Philip’s wife,1 4 because John had been saying to him, a“It is not lawful foryou to have her.” 5 And though he wanted to put him to death, bhe feared the people,because they held him to be ca prophet. 6 But when Herod’s dbirthday came, thedaughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, 7 so that hepromised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. 8 Prompted by her mother,she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.”
And the king wassorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. 10 He sentand had John beheaded in the prison, 11 and his head was brought on a platter andgiven to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. 12 And ehis disciples came and tookthe body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand13 Now when Jesus heard this, fhe withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate placeby himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.14 When he went ashore he gsaw a great crowd, and ghe had compassion on them andhealed their sick. 15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said,“This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go intothe villages and buy food for themselves.”
But Jesus said, “They need not go away;iyou give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves hereand two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowdsto sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, jhe looked up toheaven and ksaid a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples,and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
And they all ate and were satisfied. Andthey took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who atewere about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Jesus Walks on the Water
lImmediately he mmade the disciples get into the boat and go before him to theother side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds,nhe went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When oevening came, he was therealone,
but the boat by this time was a long way2 from the land,3 beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.
And in the fourth watch of the night became to them, walking on the sea.
But when the disciples saw him walking on thesea, pthey were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying,
Take heart; it is I. qDo not be afraid.”
28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on thewater.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and rwalked on the water andcame to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind,5 he was afraid, and beginning to sink hecried out, s“Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took holdof him, saying to him, t“O you of little faith, why did you udoubt?” 32 And when theygot into the boat, sthe wind ceased. 33 And vthose in the boat wworshiped him, saying,x“Truly you are ythe Son of God.”
Jesus Heals the Sick in Gennesaret34 zAnd when they had crossed over, they came to land at aGennesaret. 35 Andwhen the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region andbbrought to him all who were sick 36 and implored him that they might only touchcthe fringe of his garment. And das many as touched it were made well.
Jesus spoke of the
"leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”
in Matthew 16:6 (NKJV; cf. Mark 8:15 and Luke 12:1). As in many of His teachings, Jesus used an everyday item, in this case leaven or yeast, to demonstrate a spiritual truth. In Luke 12:1, Jesus refers to “the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Jesus’ point was that the teachings of the Pharisees were pervasive and produced hypocrisy and unbelief.
When the disciples heard Jesus’ comment about the leaven of the Pharisees, they were quick to jump to a wrong conclusion: “It is because we did not bring any bread,” they said among themselves (Matthew 16:7). Jesus reminded them of the two miracles of feeding the five thousand and the four thousand (Matthew 16:8–11) and emphasized that they did not need to worry about food. Jesus was not speaking of physical leaven.
Jesus had done many miracles, yet the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians (mentioned in Mark 8:15) still did not believe in Him. Shortly before Jesus warned His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisees, “the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven” (Matthew 16:1). Jesus had refused to give them a sign, but promised them the “sign of Jonah” as the only evidence to come (verse 4). This exchange gives significant context to Jesus’ mention of leaven. The “yeast” or “leaven” of the Pharisees was the subtle yet pervasive influence the Pharisees exerted over people. Those who followed the Pharisees might demand signs, but they would gradually increase in unbelief until they had hardened hearts, just like the Pharisees.
The man-made teachings of the Pharisees were as pervasive as yeast in a loaf of bread. Their corruption advanced in hardly perceptible ways, but it was extensive. Jesus denounced the Pharisees on several occasions (e.g., Matthew 23:1–39), and their hypocrisy was a common theme. The Pharisees displayed an outward conformity to the law, but their hearts were full of unbelief and sinfulness (Mark 7:6–13).
By warning the disciples against the hypocrisy, or “leaven,” of the Pharisees, Jesus sought to keep His followers from an insidious influence that would undermine faith and corrupt their walk with God. Believers today should heed the same warning from the Lord and guard against pharisaic attitudes and the temptation to take pride in man-made teachings and traditions. Once a bit of pharisaism is introduced into the church, it can quickly spread.
The adjective pharisaical literally means
“similar to the Pharisees.”
In common usage, though, the word pharisaical is employed to describe someone who is hypocritical and/or self-righteous, traits that the
Pharisees in the
New Testament
were known for.
The Pharisees often received
harsh rebukes from Jesus.
In Matthew 23, in the seven woes, Jesus describes the Pharisees as those who do not practice what they preach (Matthew 23:3); lay heavy burdens on people (Matthew 23:4); do their deeds to be seen by others (Matthew 23:5); love the seat of honor (Matthew 23:6); shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces (Matthew 23:13); make their followers twice as much a child of hell as they are themselves (Matthew 23:15); and are rightly called blind guides (Matthew 23:16), blind fools (Matthew 23:17), hypocrites (Matthew 23:25), whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27), and a brood of vipers (Matthew 23:33).
The Pharisees placed burdens on people that God never intended and then hypocritically exempted themselves from the very rules they taught. Biblically speaking, that is what it means to be pharisaical. The Pharisees thought that, since they obeyed the letter of the law, they were right with God. Jesus strongly disagreed (Matthew 15:8; cf. Isaiah 29:13). The Pharisees believed that adding rules to God’s law was necessary. God’s Word says otherwise (1 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 22:18–19).
To avoid being pharisaical today, we should practice what we preach, not attempt to improve upon God’s Word (Isaiah 55:11; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; Hebrews 4:12), and observe true righteousness (Galatians 6:2; Matthew 5:21–30; James 1:27).
The Pharisees were the ultimate hypocrites, claiming nearness to God yet rejecting the Son of God who stood right in front of them. While we cannot completely avoid hypocrisy in that we preach an impossible standard (1 Peter 1:16), we must be humble and repentant when we fall short of that goal.
The Pharisees elevated their own traditions to the level of Scripture. While not denying the value of some traditions, we should make sure we hold to our traditions lightly while we have an iron grip on God’s Word.
The Pharisees pretended to be passionate for God while their hearts were far from Him. We should strive to obey the law of Christand urge others to do the same, declaring God’s truth with compassionate love (Ephesians 4:15).
In essence, “hypocrisy” refers to the act of claiming to believe something but acting in a different manner. The word is derived from the Greek term for “actor”—literally, “one who wears a mask”—in other words, someone who pretends to be what he is not.
The Bible calls hypocrisy a sin. There are two forms hypocrisy can take: that of professing belief in something and then acting in a manner contrary to that belief, and that of looking down on others when we ourselves are flawed.
The prophet Isaiah condemned the hypocrisy of his day: “The Lord says, ‘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’” (Isaiah 29:13). Centuries later, Jesus quoted this verse, aiming the same condemnation at the religious leaders of His day (Matthew 15:8-9). John the Baptist refused to give hypocrites a pass, telling them to produce “fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). Jesus took an equally staunch stand against sanctimony—He called hypocrites “wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matthew 7:15), “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27), “snakes,” and “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33).
We cannot say we love God if we do not love our brothers (1 John 2:9). Love must be “without hypocrisy” (Romans 12:9, NKJV). A hypocrite may look righteous on the outside, but it is a façade. True righteousness comes from the inner transformation of the Holy Spirit not an external conformity to a set of rules (Matthew 23:5; 2 Corinthians 3:8).
Jesus addressed the other form of hypocrisy in the Sermon on the Mount: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5). Jesus is not teaching against discernment or helping others overcome sin; instead, He is telling us not be so prideful and convinced of our own goodness that we criticize others from a position of self-righteousness. We should do some introspection first and correct our own shortcomings before we go after the “specks” in others (cf. Romans 2:1).
During Jesus’ earthly ministry, He had many run-ins with the religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees. These men were well versed in the Scriptures and zealous about following every letter of the Law (Acts 26:5). However, in adhering to the letter of the Law, they actively sought loopholes that allowed them to violate the spirit of the Law. Also, they displayed a lack of compassion toward their fellow man and were often overly demonstrative of their so-called spirituality in order to garner praise (Matthew 23:5–7; Luke 18:11). Jesus denounced their behavior in no uncertain terms, pointing out that “justice, mercy, and faithfulness” are more important than pursuing a perfection based on faulty standards (Matthew 23:23). Jesus made it clear that the problem was not with the Law but the way in which the Pharisees implemented it (Matthew 23:2-3). Today, the word pharisee has become synonymous with hypocrite.
It must be noted that hypocrisy is not the same as taking a stand against sin. For example, it is not hypocrisy to teach that drunkenness is a sin, unless the one teaching against drunkenness gets drunk every weekend—that would be hypocrisy.
As children of God, we are called to strive for holiness (1 Peter 1:16). We are to “hate what is evil” and “cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9). We should never imply an acceptance of sin, especially in our own lives. All we do should be consistent with what we believe and who we are in Christ. Play-acting is meant for the stage, not for real life.
In His great Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ sometimes employed a literary tool known as hyperbole to make a point. In one such example, Jesus asked, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3–5).
Jesus drew a brilliant word picture of someone struggling with the sensitive business of extracting a tiny speck of sawdust from a friend’s eye. In contrast, a sizable plank of wood in that person’s own eye completely obstructed his vision. Such a feat would be impossible. It’s evident that Jesus was not speaking literally here. Instead, He used exaggeration to drive home the truth that people are often blind to their own faults while keenly focused on weaknesses in others. This segment of Christ’s sermon addressed the natural human tendency to see shortcomings in others and to be judgmental of their sin while ignoring, minimizing, or excusing our own sin.
When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, He confronted the same issue by telling the scribes and Pharisees, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7, ESV). Jesus wasn’t excusing the woman’s sin but instead pointing out the need for consistency, honesty, and humility when passing judgment.
The Lord would have us remember that the blade of judgment cuts both ways. When we judge others, we condemn ourselves as well. If we are not willing to evaluate ourselves honestly and accurately, we’ll undermine our right to scrutinize the lives of others. Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged” (Matthew 7:1–2; see also Luke 6:37–42). Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged” (CSB).
Sadly, Christ’s instruction to “take the plank out of your own eye” is often misinterpreted as a general prohibition against all judgment. We can’t overlook the fact that Jesus said both the speck and the plank were to be removed. Believers are indeed called to help other Christians who become entangled in sin. Paul said, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path” (Galatians 6:1, NLT). But before we can help a fellow brother or sister onto the right path—before we can remove the speck from another’s eye—we must first deal honestly with our own sin.
In the Lord’s illustration, the fact that there is a “plank” in our eye, but only a “speck” in our brother’s eye, exposes the hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and pride at the heart of the matter. Somehow, we can’t discern that our own sins are more glaringly serious than those we concentrate on in others. We criticize others while absolving ourselves. Yet, often, those faults we pass judgment on in others are the very same flaws we can’t bear to admit in ourselves.
The Lord’s choice of an illustration involving the eye also ties in with a person’s overall spiritual condition: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22–23).
The Lord calls all believers to live holy, godly lives (1 Peter 1:14–16). To do that, we must never forget our propensity to overlook our own faults while arrogantly locking on to those same faults in others. All ungodliness is cause for concern, whether it be in ourselves or in others. If we hope to help and restore someone else, we must honestly face up to our own sins and confess them—we must first take the plank out of our own eye.
During the time of Christ and the New Testament era, the Sadducees were a religiopolitical group that held a great deal of power among the Jews in Israel. The Sadducees confronted Jesus on occasion, attempting to trip Him up (Matthew 16:1; Mark 12:18), and they later opposed the preaching of the apostles (Acts 4:1–2).
The Sadducees, sometimes historically called “Zadokites” or “Tzedukim,” are thought by some to have been founded by a man named Zadok (or Tsadok) in the second century BC. Another school of thought is that the word Sadducee is related to the Hebrew word sadaq (“to be righteous”). The Sadducees were an aristocratic class connected with everything going on in the temple in Jerusalem. They tended to be wealthy and held powerful positions, including that of chief priests and high priest, and they held the majority of the 70 seats of the ruling council called the Sanhedrin.
The Sadducees worked hard to keep the peace by agreeing with the decisions of Rome (Israel at the time was under Roman control), and they seemed to be more concerned with politics than religion. Because they were accommodating to Rome and were the wealthy upper class, they did not relate well to the common man, nor did the common man hold them in high opinion. The commoners related better to those who belonged to the party of the Pharisees. Though the Sadducees held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin, history indicates that much of the time they had to go along with the ideas of the Pharisaic minority, because the Pharisees were more popular with the masses.
Not all priests were Sadducees, but many of them were. The Sadducees preserved the authority of the written Word of God, especially the books of Moses (Genesis through Deuteronomy). While they could be commended for this, they definitely were not perfect in their doctrinal views. The following is a brief list of Sadducean beliefs that contradict Scripture:
1. The Sadducees were extremely self-sufficient to the point of denying God’s involvement in everyday life.
2. They denied any resurrection of the dead (Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18–27; Acts 23:8). Due to this belief, the Sadducees strongly resisted the apostles’ preaching that Jesus had risen from the dead.
3. They denied the afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death and therefore denying any penalty or reward after the earthly life.
4. They denied the existence of a spiritual world, i.e., angels and demons (Acts 23:8).
Because the Sadducees were basically a political party rather than a religious sect, they were unconcerned with Jesus until they became afraid He might bring unwanted Roman attention. At that point the Sadducees joined with the Pharisees and conspired to put Christ to death (John 11:48–50; Mark 14:53; 15:1). Other mentions of the Sadducees are found in Acts 4:1 and Acts 5:17, and the Sadducees are implicated in the death of James the brother of John in Acts 12:1–2. The historian Josephus also connects the Sadducees to the death of James, the half-brother of Jesus.
Since the Sadducees left no written description of themselves, all we know about what they believed or what they did is what is found in the Bible and secondhand sources. According to most historical records, including those of Josephus, the Sadducees were rude, arrogant, power-hungry, and quick to dispute with those who disagreed with them.
The Sadducees ceased to exist as a group in AD 70, when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Romans.
In Matthew 23 Jesus pronounces “woes” on the scribes and Pharisees, the religious elite of the day. The word woe is an exclamation of grief, denunciation, or distress. This was not the first time Jesus had some harsh words for the religious leaders of His day. Why did Jesus rebuke them so harshly here? Looking at each woe gives some insight.
Before pronouncing the woes, Jesus told His listeners to respect the scribes and Pharisees due to their position of authority but not to emulate them, “for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Everything they do is done for people to see” (Matthew 23:3–5). The scribes and Pharisees were supposed to know God and help others know Him and follow His ways. Instead, the religious leaders added to God’s Law, making it a cumbersome and onerous burden. And they did not follow God with a pure heart. Their religion was not true worship of God; rather, it was rooted in a prideful heart. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount emphasizes the true intent of the Law over the letter of the Law. The scribes and Pharisees emphasized the letter, completely missing its spirit.
The first woe is, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matthew 23:13). Jesus cares for people. He desires for them to know Him and to enter into His kingdom (John 3:16–17; 10:10, 17; 2 Peter 3:9). After rebuking the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus lamented over rebellious Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37–39). Clearly, His heart is for people to find life in Him. It stands to reason, then, that He would have harsh words for those who prevented people from finding salvation. The teachers of the Law and Pharisees were not truly seeking after God, though they acted as if they were. Their religion was empty, and it was preventing others from following the Messiah.
In the second woe, Jesus condemns the scribes and Pharisees for making strenuous efforts to win converts and then leading those converts to be “twice as much” children of hell as the scribes and Pharisees were (Matthew 13:15). In other words, they were more intent on spreading their religion than on maintaining the truth.
The third woe Jesus pronounces against the scribes and Pharisees calls the religious leaders “blind guides” and “blind fools” (Matthew 23:16–17). Specifically, Jesus points out, they nit-picked about which oaths were binding and which were not, ignoring the sacred nature of all oaths and significance of the temple and God’s holiness (verses 15–22).
The fourth woe calls out the scribes and Pharisees for their practice of diligently paying the tithe while neglecting to actually care for people. While they were counting their mint leaves to make sure they gave one tenth to the temple, they “neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). Once again, they focused on the letter of the Law and obeyed it with pride, but they missed the weightier things of God. Their religion was external; their hearts were not transformed.
Jesus elaborates on their hypocrisy in the fifth woe. He tells the religious leaders they appear clean on the outside, but they have neglected the inside. They perform religious acts but do not have God-honoring hearts. It does no good, Jesus says, to clean up the outside when the inside is “full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25). The Pharisees and scribes are blind and do not recognize that, when the inside is changed, the outside, too, will be transformed.
In the sixth woe, Jesus claims the scribes and Pharisees are “like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27). The deadness inside of tombs is likened to the “hypocrisy and wickedness” inside the religious leaders (verse 28). Once again, they appear to obey God, but their hearts are far from Him (see Matthew 15:7–9 and Isaiah 29:13).
Jesus concludes His seven-fold rebuke by telling the religious leaders that they are just like their fathers, who persecuted the prophets of old. In building monuments to the prophets, they testify against themselves, openly admitting that it was their ancestors who killed the prophets (Matthew 23:29–31). Although they arrogantly claim that they would not have done so, they are the ones who will soon plot the murder of the Son of God Himself (Matthew 26:4).
Jesus’ words are harsh because there was so much at stake. Those who followed the Pharisees and scribes were being kept from following God. So much of the teaching in Jesus’ day was in direct contradiction of God’s Word (see Matthew 15:6). The religious leaders made a mockery out of following God. They did not truly understand God’s ways, and they led others away from God. Jesus’ desire was that people would come to know God and be reconciled with Him. In Matthew 11:28–30 Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.” Unlike the burdens the scribes and Pharisees laid on the people in a human effort to gain reconciliation with God, Jesus gives true rest. The religious leaders spread lies covered in a veneer of godliness (John 8:44); Jesus spoke harshly against them because He came to bring life (John 10:10).
Also, the word woe carries with it a tinge of sorrow. There is an element of imprecation, to be sure, but with it an element of compassionate sadness. The seven woes that Jesus pronounces on the religious leaders are solemn declarations of future misery. The stubbornness of the sinners to whom He speaks is bringing a judgment to be feared. The scribes and Pharisees are calling down God’s wrath upon themselves, and they are to be pitied.
Immediately after Jesus’ rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees,
we see Jesus’ compassion. He asks
, “How will you escape being condemned to hell?” \
(Matthew 23:33).
Jesus then expresses His desire to gather the
people of Israel to Himself for safety,
if only they were willing (verse 37).
]
God longs for His people to come to
Him and find forgiveness.
Jesus was not harsh to be mean.
He was not having a temper tantrum.
Rather, love guided His actions.
Jesus spoke firmly against the
deception of Satan
out of a desire for
people to know truth and find
life in Him.
In Judaism,
the story of Jonah
represents
the teaching of teshuva,
the ability to
repent to
God for forgiveness.
Jesus of Nazareth, in the New Testament of Christianity, calls himself "greater than Jonah" and promises the Pharisees "the sign of Jonah" in reference to his resurrection.
Bible Question:Did Jesus fulfill the sign of Jonah? In Matthew 12:40 Jesus said that He would be in the grave three days and three nights. Did Jonah die in the fish or did he stay alive? That would mean that Jesus died or stayed alive.
Bible Answer:In Matthew 12:38-40 some scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign. Jesus responded with,
An evil and adulterous
generation craves for a sign;
and yet no sign shall be given
to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
for just as
JONAH WAS
THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS
IN THE BELLY
OF THE SEA MONSTER,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth
. (NASB) Matthew 12:39-40
Historical Event of JonahJonah was an Old Testament prophet who attempted to disobey God. He may have “successfully” disobeyed God before, but he was not going to this time. God caused a fierce storm that terrified the sailors on Jonah’s ship. The sailors wanted to understand the reason for the storm and eventually discovered that Jonah was the cause of the storm. It is an reminder that God may use the forces of nature or people to discipline us. So the sailors threw Jonah overboard and he was swallowed by a large fish. Jonah was in the fish for three days and three nights. Jesus chose to use the account of Jonah and the fish to gave the scribes and Pharisees a sign. Jesus said that He would be in the grave or tomb for three days and three nights too!
It was the sign of Jonah.
But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. (NIV) Jonah 1:17
Jonah Died Inside the FISH
Jonah’s suffering had just started. The second chapter of Jonah covers the entire time he was in the fish’s stomach. We do not know all that Jonah suffered while there, but the passage is clear that he did.
From inside the fish Jonah prayed
to the LORD his God. He said:
“In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again towards your holy temple.’ The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in for ever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O LORD my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (NIV) Jonah 2:1-10
The literal Hebrew of verse 6 is wonderful for it says, ” . . .
my head to the bases of the mountains I went down, the earth with her bars was about me forever. But you brought up from the pit my life . . .” The term “pit” is a place in Sheol. Jonah says he died and God brought him back to life – “brought my life from the pit.” J. Vernon McGee, the teacher on Thru the Bible Radio, says,
What we have here . . . is a definite statement by Jonah that he died.
The miracle here is resurrection. . .
]
Three Days and Three Nights –
Jewish IdiomHow long was Jonah inside the fish? Was he there three days and three nights? We cannot assume he was there for a literal three days and three nights because the passage does not say that he was there for seventy-two hours. The phrase must be understood as referring to parts of the first and third days since the Jews counted parts of a day as a full day.
That is the custom and habit of people even today.
In the Jewish tract Schabbath, we find a discussion about
the length of three days,
But how much is the space of an Onah? [Rabbi] Jochanan
says either a day or a night
In the Jerusalem Talmud we read,
[Rabbi] Akiba fixed a day for an Onah, and a night for an Onah: but the tradition is, that Rabbi Eliezar Ben Azariah said, . . .”A day and a night make an Onah, and a part of an Onah is as the whole.” . . . [Rabbi] Ismael computeth a part of the Onah for the whole.
The Onah was a measure of time.
The point is clear that the ancient Jewish custom counted any part of a day as the whole day. So Jonah could have been tossed overboard in the late afternoon (first Onah or first day) and been spit out not the next morning (second Onah or second day), but the following morning
(third Onah or third day).
The expression “three days and three nights” referred to three Onahs since an Onah referred to a part of a day or the full day.
That adds up to three days according to ancient Jewish culture. Jesus was in the grave late in the first day and returned to life the second morning. That adds up to three days according to Jewish custom. Both Jonah and Jesus died, were buried (Jesus in a tomb, Jonah in a fish), and came back to life after three days and three nights. Jesus fulfilled the sign of Jonah.
Three days and Three Nights – Old Testament ExamplesAnother reason for understanding the phrase “three days and three nights” as referring to parts of three days – not necessarily as a literal seventy-two hour period – is that there are examples in the Old Testament where the phrase did not mean seventy-two hours. The first example is found in Esther 4:16. Esther commands that the Jews fast for three days and three nights.
Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day . . . Esther 4:16 (NASB)
Sometime during the first day she gave this command. Then in Esther 5:1 we discover that on the third day she visits the king.
Now it came about on the third day that Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace in front of the king’s rooms, and the king was sitting on his royal throne in the throne room, opposite the entrance to the palace. Esther 5:1 (NASB)
In this verse we discover that Esther visited the king on the third day, but she did not wait until the end of the night. That is, she gave the command sometime during the first day and visited the king sometime during the third day. It is obvious that she did not give the command at 12:01 am and then arrive at 11:59 pm at night. She gave the command during some part of the first day. Then she visited the king during some part of the third day. This agrees with Esther’s statement in Esther 4:16.
Another example is found in 1 Samuel 30:12-13.
They gave him a piece of fig cake and two clusters of raisins, and he ate; then his spirit revived. For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. 1 Samuel 30:12 (NASB)
Here we are told that an Egyptian slave had not eaten or drank water for three days and three nights. Then we are told in the next verse that the slave had left three days ago. That is, the slave had left the day before yesterday. A full three days and three nights had not elapsed.
David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago.” 1 Samuel 30:13 (NASB)
Did Jesus Fulfill the
Sign of Jonah?
Jesus fulfilled the sign of Jonah
since He
was in the grave on Friday night,
all day Saturday, and the
early part of Sunday.
Many have tripped over Matthew 12:38-40
because they
did not know or understood the ancient
Jewish customs of Jesus’ time.
Jewish literature, after
Jesus’ death and return to life,
tried to discredit
Jesus’ miracles by claiming
He was demon possessed and that
He practiced Egyptian magic.
Why try to explain it away?
Their explanations are an admission that
Jesus did do miracles!
Why try to explain away Jesus’ return to life?
To do so is to admit that Jesus returned to life.
He fulfilled
the sign of
Jonah.
: “three days and three nights”
does not necessarily refer to three full twenty-four hour days or seventy-two hours. The phrase simply referred to any part of three days, just as is the custom in many cultures today.
Since Jesus was in the grave
on Friday night, all day Saturday, and the
early hours of Sunday morning,
according to Jewish custom,
Jesus was three days and three nights in the grave.
When the
scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus
to provide a sign from
heaven to prove his message,
he flatly refused to oblige.
Instead, he rebuked
them:
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign,
but no sign will be
given to it except the
sign of Jonah”
Matthew 12.39).
What did Jesus mean by
this
cryptic response?
In order to answer that question, we need to understand Jonah’s story.
Jonah was perhaps the most belligerent prophet in the Scriptures. He is the only
prophet who flatly refused to speak a message from God. When instructed to
leave Israel and travel to the Assyrian empire to warn against their destruction,
Jonah promptly boarded a ship and attempted to sail in the opposite direction – to
Spain! When a violent sea storm halted his progress, he convinced the sailors to
throw him overboard. Instead of drowning, however, God sent a gigantic fish to
swallow him and then vomit him onto dry land. Jonah finally went to Assyria,
spoke his message as quickly as possible, and then furiously watched the
Assyrians repent of their sins and enjoy the forgiveness of God.
When Jesus spoke of the sign of Jonah, he partly meant that Jonah’s
story pointed forward to his own. He went on to explain: “For just as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (vs. 40). Although Jonah was
thrown overboard and seemed gone forever, he reemerged to live again.
Although Jesus seemed gone forever as he died on the cross and was buried in
Joseph’s tomb, he reemerged to live again. His powerful resurrection
authenticated his message.
But there’s more to this “sign of Jonah.” By using Jonah’s story, Jesus
caused his enemies to think about their unsettling similarities to Jonah.
Jonah
was angry that God
extended his blessings to
foreign nations
outside of ABRAHAMS family
. The Assyrians were
idolatrous pagans
known for their
barbaric cruelty.
How could God forgive them and insist on using an Israelite to bring that
message? This attitude of Jonah was the same mindset as the scribes and
Pharisees. Jesus came to set up an international kingdom where anyone, Jew or
non–Jew, can find an equal place at the table of fellowship. Like Jonah, the
scribes and Pharisees angrily ran as far from that plan as possible. And like
Jonah, they quickly discovered the futility of fighting against God in his work of
loving his enemies.
What about us? Do we pay lip service to Jesus’ gospel plan to extend
forgiveness to all nations, but harbor anger in our hearts towards certain
individuals or people groups? Do we only want certain kinds of people in our
church? Are we truly interested in joining hands with people of different
personalities, ages, educational backgrounds, and economic levels in Jesus’
kingdom? If not, perhaps we also need to ponder the sign of Jonah.
–Nathan
Matthew 12:41-42 (The Men of Nineveh and The Queen of the South)What do these verses teach about the reality of a future judgment? Cf. Acts 17:31. As a rule, do people today believe in and live their lives as if there will be a future judgment? What effect does an understanding of future judgment have upon people’s lives? Think: did Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc… believe in a future judgment? What is the essential nature to the gospel of a future judgment?
Why does Jesus say that the men of Nineveh would condemn that generation at the judgment? What is the implication in regard to the scribes and Pharisees of His statement that the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah? Considering that Jesus spoke these words to the Pharisees who were the most evangelical, biblically sound people of the day, what does this teach us about the importance of true, heart-felt repentance to salvation, and the great danger of the false security that results from religious pretense?
Cf. Mat 3:7-9, Luk 13:23-28, Jer 7:1-15. What was the “something greater than Jonah” that was there? Hint: See Mat 12:28, Luk 4:18, and consider that the gender of the Greek word is neuter, as is the word for the Holy Spirit, by whom He cast out demons and with whom He was anointed to preach the gospel with even more power than Jonah preached to the Ninevites; cf. Mat 12:6 for a similar statement where Jesus was referring to the temple of the Holy Spirit He was building of living stones.
Why does Jesus say that the Queen of the South would condemn that evil and adulterous generation? In light of the wisdom of Solomon that she came so far to hear, what was “the something greater than Solomon” that was there and that the religious leaders were not seeking out and indeed actively resisting? Think: by what means does God impart wisdom? See 1Co 2:6-11. Who was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power so that the Spirit of wisdomand understanding would rest upon Him? See Act 10:38, Isa 11:2. Read John 3:34; if the Queen of the South came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, how much more would she have come to receive of that wisdom from Him who gives the Spirit without measure?
What is especially significant about “the men of Nineveh” and “the Queen of the South” to those religious Jews to whom Jesus was speaking, and to those Jews at the time of Matthew’s writing who were rejecting the gospel because it had gone forth and was being received by so many Gentiles? What apologetic value would Jesus’ words have had for those to whom Matthew was writing who were in danger of rejecting Jesus as their Messiah because of the increased persecution by the unbelieving Jews as the gospel went forth to the Gentiles?
Do you think that it was only that generation living at the time of Jesus that the men of Nineveh and the Queen of the South will rise up and condemn at the judgment, or do you think there might be other generations equally guilty, perhaps even our own? See Mat 12:39 and think: how much more light do we have from our historical perspective and the complete counsel of all the word of God than was available even to those like the Pharisees who lived in Jesus day? Cf. Heb 2:1-3a.
Besides being condemned in the day of judgment by the men of Nineveh and the Queen of the South, in what two other ways did Jesus say those Pharisees who were opposing Him would be condemned in the day of judgment? See Mat 12:27, 37. What does this teach us about the perception that in the day of judgment it is only before God that we shall stand, and only His condemnation that we will receive? What does it teach us about how all of the justifications we make for our sin in this world will hold up in the day of judgment in God’s court where all can see clearly in the presence of every generation of creation the horrible results of their sin and where even other generations and peoples can condemn us for our unbelief, compromise, and hard-heartedness? In that day, what condemnation might await us from our own words, from our own sons or followers, and from past or even future generations, not to mention the condemnation from those who have directly suffered from our lies, our thefts, our deceit, our adulteries, our slanders and our murders, and not to mention the condemnation from God Himself for how our sins have personally offended Him who not only gave us clear
commandments against
such things but also gave us
His only begotten
Son to deliver us from them?
May God
have mercy on our souls and
grant us a true and sincere,
heart-felt
repentance from all of our sins.
Matthew 15:29-16:12 –
More Bread, Jonah, and Bad Leaven
two times Jesus miraculously multiplied small amounts of bread and fish to feed a large number of people. While our focus will be directed toward the second miracle (Matt. 15:32-39), some important points need to be made by way of comparison to the first (Matt. 14:13-21).
The first miracle occurred after Jesus had been seeking solitude due to the passing of John the Baptist, while the second miracle occurred on a fairly normal day. Instead of seeking solitude during the second miracle, Jesus seems to be welcoming the crowds into his presence. Matthew writes,
Jesus went on from there and walked beside
the Sea of Galilee.
And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing.
And they glorified the God of Israel.
Matthew 15:29-31When Jesus performed the first miracle, he was still in the throes of struggling with the death of his cousin John, but this did not keep him from healing the people who had followed him; doing the will of the Father did not depend on his emotional status. Jesus was apparently in a much better emotional state when he performed the second miracle of multiplying the bread and fish, but the result was the same: the people were fed. Jesus didn’t, during the first miracle, pull an excuse out of his pocket and say “I’m having a bad day.”
When it came to helping others Jesus put others’ needs before his own. Or, to make it a bit more personal us, when we seek the Father’s daily bread we can always expect that he will provide; there is no such thing as God having a bad day. But it shouldn’t stop there. We are Jesus’s hands and feet on earth here and now and, as his representatives, we should strive to emulate his example. Just as we expect the Father to always supply us with his daily bread, we should always be prepared, no matter how we feel, to be grateful and reliable conduits of His daily bread to others.
The next point of comparison between the two miracles appears in
Matthew’s next words. He writes,
Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.
And I am unwilling to send them away hungry,
lest they faint on the way.”
Matthew 15:32In the first miracle,
Jesus’s compassion for the crowds led to him healing the sick (Matt. 14:14), but, in the second miracle, Jesus’s compassion rises up after he heals everyone and when he saw the hunger of the crowds (Matt. 15:32). This second miracle occurred after Jesus witnessed a Canaanite woman’s great faith (Matt. 15:21-28). It is not hard to imagine that Jesus, filled with great joy after seeing the woman’s display of faith, had compassion on the crowd when he saw the sacrifice they had made in coming to him and how it translated into their hunger. He was unwilling to allow them to leave his side before their hunger was met. Jesus never said “suck it up” or “deal with it” to those who were sick or hungry. His compassionate hand touches us when we are sick, when we are hungry, when we are embroiled in sin, or when we need his hand to keep us from temptation. Jesus, the Father’s daily bread is always in the Father’s open hand awaiting our grasp.
The next notable point of distinction between the two miracles is found in who brings up the fact that the crowds were without food. In the first miracle, the disciples were the ones to say there wasn’t enough food to feed the crowds (Matt. 14:15). But in the second miracle, Jesus was the one who brings up the fact that the people were hungry. Remember, in the first miracle, the disciples had enough food for themselves — they had five loaves and two fish — but they had to be told by Jesus to give their food away (Matt. 14:16-19). In the second miracle, however, instead of telling Jesus that they don’t have enough, they simply ask Jesus where he thinks they will get enough food to feed them. Matthew writes,
33 And the disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd?”
Matthew 15:33I find the disciples’ question sadly humorous. Why are they wondering about where to get enough food to feed the crowd? Hadn’t they already seen Jesus take a small amount of food and feed 5,000 people? Don’t you think, instead of asking where to get the food, they should have just asked Jesus how many baskets to prepare for the leftovers? I realize it’s probably not right to judge them on this point; most of us would probably have done the same thing. Faced with a large crowd of hungry people, I’m pretty sure I would have been secretly thankful for the little bit of food hidden away in my pocket when I asked Jesus how he wanted to handle feeding the other people. But Jesus sees through their question and goes straight to the heart of the matter when he replied. Matthew writes,
34 And Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”
Matthew 15:34In the first miracle, the disciples immediately told Jesus the amount of food they had (Matt. 14:16-17), but in this second miracle, Jesus had to pry it out of them. I wonder if the disciples didn’t let Jesus know what food they had because they knew Jesus might take it from them. If so, it’s possible that when Jesus asked his question, he did it to show the disciples where their true intentions lay. Even though their initial question seemed to make it appear as though they were worried about the needs of the masses, the fact that they didn’t immediately offer their own food seems to indicate they still were worried about themselves.
This point is, I believe, necessary to accept if we are to understand the result of these two miracles. After the first miracle, there were 12 baskets left over — one for each disciple — an indication that Jesus wanted his followers to know that no matter how much they gave away there would still be enough for them. But the result of the second miracle is a little different. Matthew writes,
35 And directing the crowd to sit down on the ground, 36 he took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 38 Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.
Matthew 15:35-38I must admit the possibility that the number of baskets remaining is meaningless. Numbers in the Bible are often just numbers, but there are times when numbers actually convey meaning. In these two miracles, I believe the numbers do convey meaning. The first miracle had one basket for each disciple as if Jesus were saying, “I’ll always provide for each of you.” The second miracle had 7 baskets, but we probably shouldn’t conclude that Jesus didn’t like 5 of the disciples. The number 7 in scripture nearly always represents perfection or completion, the most obvious example being the 7 days of creation. With this in mind, when the excess of this second miracle filled 7 baskets, it seems that Jesus was saying to his disciples, “My bread, the bread from the Father’s hand, is enough (perfectly complete) for everyone.” These two miracles show that Jesus, the bread of heaven, supplies every need of his followers (12 baskets), and he perfectly and completely supplies every need of any who seeks him (7 baskets).
Once the excess is gathered and counted, Matthew writes,
And after sending away the crowds, he got into the
boat and went to the region of Magadan.
Matthew 15:39Following the first miracle, Jesus retreated into solitude so as to be fed by his Father in the wake of the death of John the Baptist, but following this second miracle, Jesus continues preaching and teaching the kingdom of heaven. There is no formula for how our days might go when we follow the will of the Father: some days may find us in the depths of despair, loneliness, and pain, while other days might find us filled with joy. Regardless of which sort of day in which we find ourselves, there are three constants: 1) we need the Father’s daily bread daily, 2) the Father’s supply of daily bread is ours whenever we ask for it, and 3) the Father wants to use us to feed others.
Following this second miracle, Jesus continued his work and arrives in the region of Magadan ahead of his disciples (Matt. 16:5). Then, after landing, he encounters the Pharisees. Matthew writes,
1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ 3 And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
Matthew 16:1-4The Pharisees and Sadducees were the stewards of the laws and traditions and, as such, knew more about scripture than the average Israelite. They read it, they studied it, they memorized it; there was nothing about the scriptures they did not know. Yet, when confronted with the true and living bread from heaven, the very Son of God, they rejected him. They had the very words of God, but they wanted something more. Since they were unwilling to accept the Father’s present daily bread, there was nothing left for them but judgment.
I have often been told that the sign of Jonah points to the three days of Jesus’s death and resurrection, but I think it may also point to Jonah’s rejection of God’s compassion. Jonah had been sent to a sinful nation with the word of the Lord, but Jonah was unhappy with God’s show of compassion, so he pouted. Jonah wanted the Ninevites to pay for their sins. It seems that this sounds a little bit like the Pharisees and Sadducees too. They were in charge of God’s laws and man’s traditions and thought there should be no compassion for those who broke them. But when Jesus showed compassion, forgave others of their sins, and healed the sick, the Pharisees and Sadducees seem to pout and want to get rid of him. They wanted God’s judgment to be handed out to all deserving of it.
But that’s not the only point of comparison to be made between Jonah and the Pharisees and Sadducees. Even though Jonah was given a vine to rest under, he still complained about God’s compassion. He even complained when God took away the vine that God had provided. Interestingly enough, that is how the book of Jonah ends: Jonah is upset that God would show compassion to the Ninevites.
It is worth contemplating that prior to Jesus feeding the 4,000, Jesus healed a Canaanite woman, and then after feeding the 4,000 we read of the Pharisees and they are told of Jonah who went to Nineveh. The Ninevites were descendants of Cush, the son of Ham, and the Canaanites were their cousins as they were descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham. The line of Ham is nearly always the antagonist in the history of Israel, and when Matthew places these two nations on either side of Jesus’s feeding of the 4,000, it seems possible that he is connecting the final plight of Jonah with the current state of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Just as the book of Jonah ends with Jonah’s anger about God’s compassion and being unprotected from the sun’s heat, so also do we find the Pharisees and Sadducees upset at Jesus, the bread of heaven, who compassionately meets the needs of everyone,
leaving them unprotected from the
Father’s judgment.
It is with this
state of the Pharisees in mind that
Matthew writes the following,
5 When the disciples reached the other side,
they had forgotten to bring any bread.
Jesus said to them,
“Watch and beware of the leaven
of the
Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:5-6Sometimes I think the disciples are keystone cops, bungling their way through their life with Jesus. After coming from the far side of the lake where Jesus had miraculously multiplied bread for a second time, Jesus begins talking about the Pharisees and Sadducees. Granted, the disciples weren’t aware of Jesus’s most recent conversation with the Pharisees and Sadducees, but even so, this does seem like an odd way to greet the disciples. I mean, when was the last time the Pharisees or Sadducees gave the disciples any bread? Instead of taking the time to understand what Jesus was saying, they…well, just read what Matthew writes:
7 And they began discussing it among themselves,
saying, “
We brought no bread.”
Matthew 16:7They started discussing their lack of bread. If I’m not mistaken, they just left the other side of the lake where there were 7 baskets of food remaining. Maybe they ate it all on the way over or maybe they left it with the crowds, I don’t know. But in either case, they had no clue what Jesus was talking about.
To clarify his point to his ignorant disciples,
Jesus responded this way:
8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Matthew 16:8-12Jesus was not talking about the 7 baskets of food or the bread they ate that morning. He was not even talking about the manna that came down from heaven in the Old Testament. Jesus was talking about spiritual food. He was warning the disciples that any food from the Pharisees and Sadducees would not sustain their lives. For that, they need real bread from heaven; they need Jesus.
The prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” is not just a prayer for the right food, it is also a prayer that we do not eat the wrong food. There is false and moldy bread available which we can eat if we are not careful; the spiritual leaders during Jesus’s time offered such bread. Their teachings, regulations, traditions, and expectations led their followers into unhealthy lives. The bread they offered did not draw people closer to the Father; it pushed them further away. In one of my favorite passages of scripture, Jesus says to the Pharisees,
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 5:39-40The Pharisees preferred bread of their own making. But they were blind and unable to see that such bread would not give them life. Only the bread of heaven, Jesus, can give life to humanity. But sadly the Pharisees had leavened the bread from heaven with their own teaching, thus making it no longer life-giving to themselves or to others.
Even though we don’t literally have the Pharisees and Sadducees running around right now, we have many sources of stale leaven. In general, anything that does not come from God is potentially improperly leavened. Specifically, and you might not like this, but I think we need to consider putting down the majority of the religious books we are reading. I think we should also consider turning off the podcasts and stop reading memes, tik-toks, Instagrams, and other social media from which we hope to garner some spiritual food for the day. Even though we might be able to find a few crumbs of good bread mixed in there, the real bread from heaven comes from the Word of God: the Bible.
That is where our daily feast should come from each day.
The prayer,
“Give us this day our daily bread,”
is a prayer, at the very least, that we would trust God to amply feed us both materially and spiritually with the good bread from heaven; it is a prayer that the Father would guide us to discern the differences between poorly leavened bread and bread from heaven; and it is a prayer to give us the strength to reject any bread made with bad leaven, even if we have become addicted to it.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah
is a symbol found in Genesis and Revelation.
In Genesis, Jacob blesses his son Judah, referring to him and his future tribe as a lion’s cub and a lion (Genesis 49:9). In Revelation, this symbol is seen again when the Lion of the tribe of Judah is declared to have triumphed and is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals (Revelation 5:5). Jesus is the One who is worthy to open the scroll (see John 5:22). Therefore, Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
In Genesis, as Jacob blesses his children, he promises Judah that his brothers will praise him and that they will bow down to him. Jacob also tells Judah, “You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?” (Genesis 49:9). Jacob says that in the future the scepter and ruler’s staff will not depart from Judah “until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be His” (Genesis 49:10). This messianic prophecy points forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus, the descendant of Judah who will rule the earth (Revelation 19:11–16).
Based on Jacob’s blessing, the lion is a symbol of the tribe of Judah, which is known as the kingly tribe (King David was of the tribe of Judah). Lions symbolize power, fierceness, and majesty. Lions are the king of the beasts, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah is the king of everything. In the Old Testament, God is sometimes described as being like a lion. In Isaiah 31:4, just “as a lion growls, a great lion over its prey—and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts . . . so the LORD Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.” The Lord is not afraid of His enemies. He protects His people and does not allow them to be conquered. In Hosea, God is angry at Israel because they became proud and forgot Him. God says, “I will be like a lion to them. . . . like a lion I will devour them. . . . You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper” (Hosea 13:7–8). It is better to experience the help and protection of the Lion than to deny His kingship and face His fierceness.
In Revelation 5, Jesus is the long-awaited Lion of the tribe of Judah. John weeps because no one was found worthy to open the scroll of God’s judgment or even to look inside it. Then one of the elders says to John, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:4–5). Both of the genealogies in Matthew and Luke record that Jesus is a descendant of the tribe of Judah. When Jesus is revealed as the promised Lion of the tribe of Judah, it reveals His deity. He is the true king and the One to whom belongs the long-awaited obedience of nations. Yet it is not His fierceness or the force of His power that makes Him worthy. The Lion has triumphed because He became a Lamb (Revelation 5:6–10; cf. John 1:29). Jesus Christ is worthy because He lived a perfect, sinless life and in shedding His blood defeated sin and death. His death and resurrection have resulted in a protection for His people and an eternal kingdom that will honor and worship God. Ruling this kingdom will be Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
The Sign of Jonah and the Queen of Sheba (Luke Typically, when someone is thinking of the “lion and the lamb,” Isaiah 11:6 is in mind due to it often being misquoted, “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.” The true “Lion and the Lamb” passage is Revelation 5:5–6. The Lion and the Lamb both refer to Jesus Christ. He is both the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb who was slain. The Lion and the Lamb are descriptions of two aspects of the nature of Christ. As the Lion of Judah, He fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 49:9 and is the Messiah who would come from the tribe of Judah. As the Lamb of God, He is the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for sin.
The scene of Revelation 4—5 is the heavenly throne room. After receiving the command to write to the seven churches in Asia Minor, John is “caught up in the spirit” to the throne room in heaven where he is to receive a series of visions that culminate in the ultimate victory of Christ at the end of the age. Revelation 4 shows us the endless praise that God receives from the angels and the 24 elders. Chapter 5 begins with John noticing that there is a scroll in the “right hand of him who was seated on the throne.” The scroll has writing on the inside and is sealed with seven seals.
After giving us a description of the scroll, an angel proclaims with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” John begins to despair when no one comes forth to answer the angel’s challenge. One of the 24 elders encourages John to “weep no more,” and points out that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has come to take and open the scroll. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is obviously a reference to Christ. The image of the lion is meant to convey kingship. Jesus is worthy to receive and open the scroll because he is the King of God’s people.
Back in Genesis 49:9, when Jacob was blessing his sons, Judah is referred to as a “lion’s cub,” and in verse 10 we learn that the “scepter shall not depart from Judah.” The scepter is a symbol of lordship and power. This was a prophecy that in Israel the kingly line would be descended from Judah. That prophecy was fulfilled when David succeeded to the throne after the death of King Saul (2 Samuel). David was descended from the line of Judah, and his descendants were the kings in Israel/Judah until the time of the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC.
This imagery of kingship is further enhanced when Jesus is described as the “root of David.” This harkens us back to the words of Isaiah the prophet: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. . . . In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious” (Isaiah 11:1, 10). As the root of David, Jesus is not only being identified as a descendant of David, but also the source or “root” of David’s kingly power.
Why is Jesus worthy to open the scroll? He is worthy because He “has conquered.” We know that, when Jesus returns, He will conquer all of God’s enemies, as graphically described in Revelation 19. However, more importantly, Jesus is worthy because He has conquered sin and death at the cross. The cross was the ultimate victory of God over the forces of sin and evil. The events that occur at the return of Christ are the “mop-up” job to finish what was started at the cross. Because Jesus secured the ultimate victory at Calvary, He is worthy to receive and open the scroll, which contains the righteous judgment of God.
Christ’s victory at the cross is symbolized by his appearance as a “Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Prior to the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites were commanded by God to take an unblemished lamb, slay it, and smear its blood on the doorposts of their homes (Exodus 12:1–7). The blood of the slain lamb would set apart the people of Israel from the people of Egypt when the death angel came during the night to slay the firstborn of the land. Those who had the blood of the lamb would be spared. Fast forward to the days of John the Baptist. When he sees Jesus approaching him, he declares to all present, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus is the ultimate “Passover lamb” who saves His people from eternal death.
So when Jesus is referred to as the Lion and the Lamb, we are to see Him as not only the conquering King who will slay the enemies of God at His return, but also as the sacrificial Lamb who took away the reproach of sin from His people so they may share in His ultimate victory.
11:29-32)As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, He said, “This evil generation keeps asking Me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah. What happened to him was a sign to the people of Nineveh that God had sent him. What happens to the Son of Man will be a sign to these people that He was sent by God. The queen of Sheba will stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it, for she came from adistant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen. The people of Nineveh will also stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent.”
Luke 11:29-32So what sign is Jesus talking about here? If they are an evil generation because their hearts are filled with wrong motives, what does the sign of Jonah and the sign of the Queen of Sheba refer to? Jesus told them, “The only sign that will be given to them, will be the sign of the prophet Jonah. This evil generation wants a sign of the miraculous. But no sign of miracles will be given to them”. Just as Jonah was a sign to the people of Nineveh, so too will they receive only the same sign as the Ninevites got from Jonah. What was that? Was it connected with the Lord’s dealing with his disobedience, and being swallowed by the whale? Is that the lesson or the sign they were to receive? No, the Ninevites knew nothing of that happening to Jonah. All they knew was his message to them. A message of repentance! Ah, there it is. That’s the sign that this evil generation has in store for them: a call to repentance of the kind the Ninevites received.
You evil people need to repent, just as the unbelievers did in Nineveh, long ago. And yes, there is one more analogy that we can apply from the prophet Jonah. This analogy is applied by Jesus, in the gospels, from the story of Jonah. Matthew 12:40-41 makes it clear there are two points of comparison.
The first is the matter of repentance. The second is Jonah’s three days in the whale, being analogous to Jesus three days in the bowels of the earth. So the main connection is repentance. Do you evil people want a sign?
I will give it to you –
REPENT.
And do you want a miracle?
I will give you that too –
at My death.
The people of Nineveh will stand up
against this
generation at Judgment Day
and condemn it.
Why? Because they didn’t repent. You had all the knowledge of the Law and the Prophets and the Writings given to you, and still you missed it. We, the people of Nineveh, only received the message of the prophet Jonah, and yet “we” repented. You were warned ahead of time about the kinds of signs which would accompany His coming, but you refused to believe. Not only that, but you asked for more signs, when you knew full well that what you had received already, were the “signs” that were promised.
We, the people of Nineveh,
took advantage of the moment of our visitation.
You spurned it and turned your back on it.
Repent!
What is the link with the
Queen of Sheba?
Here is a Gentile woman
who came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom
because news of his fame had reached her ears. She travelled from a distant land to get there, so that she could listen to the wisdom of one so obviously sent from God. You have One greater than Solomon, One toward Whom all the prophets and the sages point. One right here in your midst, and yet you spurn Him. You turn your back on Him and waste the moment of His being in your midst. How evil is that? Just like the evil King Ahaz, you pretend spirituality, but in reality, you are far from it. The only reaction left for you is to repent.
Hence, the message of
Jonah is for you too, you evil generation.
Note the repetition here:
- The queen of Sheba will stand up against this generation on Judgment Day and condemn it,
- The people of Nineveh will also ,
- she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
- for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah.
- Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.
- Now someone greater than Jonah is here – but you refuse to repent.
It is very clear what is being said, isn’t it? And very clear what the point of comparison is in this analogy, right? Furthermore, the repetition hammers the point home. Take note of repetition when you see it. Something important is being said, just like when your mother repeated herself to get her point across. It is the sign of Jonah preaching repentance that is in focus. And it is the sign of the Queen of Sheba’s willingness to listen to wisdom. In each case, Someone greater is here. Yeshua Ha Meshiach, but you turn your back on Him and have the impudence to ask for more signs.
No, you have had all the signs you will be given.
These people who repented and responded will be there on Judgment Day to bear witness against you.
Work out your salvation in fear and trembling
Philippians 2:12
The phrase bind the strong man (or strongman) is a reference to a passage in the book of Mark, where Jesus is responding to some Jewish scribes who were accusing Him of being possessed by Beelzebul. Their argument was that “by the prince of demons he is driving out demons” (Mark 3:22). In other words, the reason the demons listened to Jesus was that they were in league with Him and recognized Him as their commanding officer, so to speak.
Jesus refuted their blasphemous argument with plain logic: “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (Mark 3:23) and then gave them a parable. First, Jesus spoke of the principle of a divided kingdom, which cannot stand (verses 24–26). Then He told them, “No one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house” (Mark 3:27). Jesus refers to Satan as the “strong man” and to Himself as the One who enters the house and plunders the place. Of course, before Satan allows his domain to be “plundered,” he must be incapacitated. Jesus was not in league with Satan, as the scribes suggested, but had come to the earth, to what is essentially Satan’s “house” (1 John 5:19), in order to bind Satan and plunder his “goods,” which are the souls of men (John 17:15; Luke 4:18; Ephesians 4:8).
A parallel passage says this: “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder” (Luke 11:21–22). Satan is strong, and he holds possessions that he guards jealously. But Jesus is the One who was and is stronger than the strong man. He is the only One who can bind the strong man and rescue us from his clutches (see John 12:31).
Some Christians, usually in the Charismatic or Pentecostal movements, apply Jesus’ parable to the spiritual warfare that believers must wage. They teach that Christians are the ones who must “bind the strong man” in their lives or in their cities and then win the victory in Jesus’ name. Some Charismatic preachers even name the “strong men” and attempt to identify the cities or geographical areas over which they hold power. Such doctrines go far beyond what Jesus said. The Lord’s parable was simply to impress upon the scribes that He was not in league with Satan. Never does Jesus instruct us to “bind the strong man” or tell us how to do it. We do not have warrant to interpret the parable as a spiritual reality over geographical regions.
There are three accounts in the Gospels in which Jesus states that a kingdom divided against itself is laid waste or a house divided cannot stand (Luke 11:17; Mark 3:25; Matthew 12:25). All three instances of this statement are spoken in response to the Pharisees’ accusation that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of Satan—a blasphemy that Jesus said would not be forgiven them.
Jesus’ argument to the Pharisees was logical: a kingdom that is at cross-purposes with itself will fall. Any household riven by infighting will tear itself apart. Jesus was obviously casting demons out of people. If Jesus was in league with Satan, or if Satan was somehow working through Jesus, it is unlikely that exorcisms would be a priority, because why would Satan cast himself out? Satan has more practical wisdom than to allow his demonic underlings to group themselves into warring factions.
By saying that a house divided cannot stand, Jesus is illustrating the fact that success relies on congruency. This is something we see in daily life all the time. Whether it is a machine, a sports team, a government party, or one’s own mind, things have to work together if anything is to be accomplished. The Bible says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways (James 1:8), and Paul appeals to the churches that there be no divisions among the believers (1 Corinthians 1:10). In fact, churches should be unified in their purpose and judgment, avoiding people who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to sound doctrine (Romans 16:17). Christians are not to quarrel but to be unified around a common understanding of truth. “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).
God commands unity among believers because, once conflict enters the midst of any assembly or entity, productivity and usefulness inevitably grind to a halt and the whole organization is weakened and becomes vulnerable to attack. As Jesus said, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.”
A fruit of the Spirit
is peace (Galatians 5:22). Christians are, as followers of the Prince of Peace, peaceful people (Matthew 5:9). We are called to live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16) and, as far as it depends on us, to be at peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14). Jesus Christ is building His church (Matthew 16:18). His “house” will stand; “his kingdom will not be destroyed, / his dominion will never end” (Daniel 6:26).
In the apostle John’s first letter,
John discusses a number of characters. Of course, he talks about God and about believers—especially referring to them as brethren, little children, children, young men, and fathers. But John also makes repeated mention of the evil one or the wicked one (1 John 5:19).
John explains that the young men he was writing to have overcome the wicked one (1 John 2:13–14). John observes that Cain was “of the evil one” or the wicked one (1 John 3:12). John encourages his readers by explaining that those who are born of God are not touched by the wicked one (1 John 5:18), and he reminds them that this world is “in” the wicked one; that is, the world is in the power of the wicked one or under his control (1 John 5:19). Still, with all these cautions, John doesn’t directly identify the wicked one in his first letter. He writes as if his readers are already familiar with the identity of this wicked one.
In John’s Gospel, John recorded a prayer of Jesus in which He asks the Father to protect His disciples from the evil one, or the wicked one (John 17:15). Matthew also recorded Jesus as explaining that the wicked one snatches away the word of the kingdom (Matthew 13:19) and that those who choke the growth of the sons of the kingdom are the sons of the wicked one (Matthew 13:38). Paul adds that the wicked one attacks believers with flaming arrows (Ephesians 6:16), that the Lord will strengthen and protect His believers from the wicked one (2 Thessalonians 3:3), and that the flaming arrows of the wicked one can be extinguished by the shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16).
While it may be curious that in these contexts the wicked one is not directly named, it seems clear that this is indeed Satan. Note Paul’s description of believers being rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13). Because of that transfer, believers should be focused not on the things of earth but on the things above where Christ is (Colossians 3:1–4). This world is still part of the domain of darkness, and it is governed by a prince (Ephesians 2:2) who is an enemy of believers. In Paul’s defense of the gospel before King Agrippa, he recounted his conversion, saying that Jesus had sent Paul to Jews and Gentiles “to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18). Further, in Revelation 12:11 John again records that “the brethren” overcame the accuser—specifically identified as Satan (Revelation 12:9). This corresponds with 1 John 2:13–14, which says that believers have overcome the wicked one. The one believing in Jesus overcomes the world (1 John 5:4–5), because Jesus has overcome (Revelation 5:5).
Based on these contrasts
of light and darkness and
God’s kingdom and Satan’s dominion;
and based on Jesus’ overcoming and
His believers’ overcoming of Satan,
it is evident that the
wicked one is another title
for Satan.
The first reference to the
morning star
as an individual is in Isaiah 14:12: “How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” (NIV). The KJV and NKJV both translate “morning star” as “Lucifer, son of the morning.” It is clear from the rest of the passage that Isaiah is referring to Satan’s fall from heaven (Luke 10:18). So in this case, the morning star refers to Satan. In Revelation 22:16, Jesus unmistakably identifies Himself as the morning star. Why are both Jesus and Satan described as the “morning star”?
It is interesting to note that the concept of the “morning star” is not the only concept that is applied to both Jesus and Satan. In Revelation 5:5, Jesus is referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In 1 Peter 5:8, Satan is compared to a lion, seeking someone to devour. The point is this, both Jesus and Satan, to a certain extent, have similarities to lions. Jesus is similar to a lion in that He is the King, He is royal and majestic. Satan is similar to a lion in that he seeks to devour other creatures. That is where the similarities between Jesus, Satan, and lions end, however. Jesus and Satan are like lions in very different ways.
The idea of a “bright morning star” is a star that outshines all the others, and Jesus is the One who is called “bright.” Satan was a morning star. Jesus, as God incarnate, the Lord of the universe, is the BRIGHT and morning star. Jesus is the most holy and powerful “light” in all the universe. So, while both Jesus and Satan can be described as “morning stars,” in no sense is this equating Jesus and Satan. Satan is a created being. His light only exists to the extent that God created it. Jesus is the light of the world (John 9:5).
Only Jesus’
light is “bright” and self-existent.
Satan may be a
morning star, but he is only a
poor imitation
of the one true bright morning star,
Jesus Christ, the light of the world.
The Shulammite woman,
or Shulammite maiden,
is the bride of Solomon
who features in the Song of Songs.
She is only mentioned once by the
title “Shulammite,”
in Song of Solomon 6:13.
Her exact identity is unknown, although
there are a couple of theories.
She is most likely called the Shulammite because she came from an unidentified place called Shulem. Many scholars consider Shulammite to be synonymous with Shunammite (“person from Shunem”). Shunem was a village in the territory of Issachar, north of Jezreel and south of Mount Gilboa. Other scholars link Shulemwith Salem, believing Solomon’s bride was from Jerusalem. Still others believe that the title Shulammite(“peaceful”) is simply the bride’s married name, being the feminine form of Solomon (“peaceful”) and only used after her marriage to the king.
One theory on the identity of the Shulammite is that she is the daughter of Egypt’s king, whom Solomon married (1 Kings 3:1), but there is no evidence supporting this theory in the Song of Solomon. Another speculation points to Abishag, a young Shunammite who served King David in his old age (1 Kings 1:1–4, 15; 2:17–22). It is plausible that Abishag is the Shulammite; we know she was from Shunem, which could be the same place as Shulem. Also, as David’s personal servant, Abishag would have been known to David’s son, Solomon. Solomon’s half-brother Adonijah attempted to have Abishag as his own wife, and Solomon prevented the union (1 Kings 2:13–25).
Solomon uses passionate language to describe his bride and their love (Song 4:1–15). Solomon clearly loved the Shulammite—and he admired her character as well as her beauty (Song 6:9). Everything about the Song of Solomon betrays the fact that this bride and groom were passionately in love and that there was mutual respect and friendship, as well (Song 8:6–7). This points to the fact that the Song of Solomon is the story of Solomon’s first marriage, before he sinned by adding many other wives (1 Kings 11:3).
Whoever the Shulammite was, she was
Solomon’s first and truest love.
The Queen of the South
is mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 12:42 and its parallel passage, Luke 11:31. Jesus says the Queen of the South will bear witness on the Day of Judgment, condemning those Israelites who rejected Jesus as Lord. Jesus identifies the Queen of the South as a queen who visited King Solomon to benefit from his wisdom. From this, we can deduce that she is the Queen of Sheba who came to test Solomon with difficult questions (1 Kings 10:1).
Most biblical scholars believe
that Sheba
was a city in modern-day Ethiopia or Yemen, and that the
Queen of the South
was the ruler of that city, a
woman of amazing wealth and power.
Having heard reports of King Solomon’s wisdom, the Queen of Sheba wanted to find out if what she had heard was true, if there really could be a king that wise. So she traveled to Jerusalem to quiz Solomon with riddles. She also brought a wealth of gifts and spices and jewels from her own land to give to him (1 Kings 10:10; 2 Chronicles 9:9). Solomon answered all her questions (1 Kings 10:3) and repaid her in gifts of equal value.
The Queen of the South then returned home (2 Chronicles 9:12).
The Queen of the South
has been the subject of many artistic works and legends. Some people also speculate that the Queen of the South is the same woman as the Shulammite mentioned in the Song of Solomon, because of the reference to the Shulammite’s dark skin (Song of Solomon 1:5).
However, there is stronger evidence to suggest that the
Shulammite came from Shunem,
a region near Israel.
Jesus mentions the
Queen of the South
in the context of Israel’s rejection of their True King. Though she was a Gentile, she traveled a long distance to hear Solomon, and the treasures she brought showed her respect for him and the wisdom he possessed. In contrast, the Jews of Jesus’ time were unwilling to travel any distance to hear the King of kings. The Queen of Sheba’s lavish respect for Solomon stood in stark contrast to Israel’s flat-out rejection of Christ. Yet Christ is greater than Solomon (Matthew 12:42). Solomon was a son of David, but Jesus is the Son of David. Solomon was rich, but Jesus is the Creator of all riches. Solomon possessed the gift of wisdom, but Jesus is wisdom personified (1 Corinthians 1:30).
The Kingdom of Judah
Hebrew: יְהוּדָה, Yəhūdā; Akkadian: 𒅀𒌑𒁕𒀀𒀀 Ya'údâ [ia-ú-da-a-a]; Imperial Aramaic: 𐤁𐤉𐤕𐤃𐤅𐤃Bēyt Dāwīḏ, "House of David") was a Semitic-speakingkingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands of Judea, the landlocked kingdom's capital was Jerusalem.[3] Jews are named after Judah and are primarily descended from it.[4][5]
The Hebrew Bible depicts the Kingdom of Judah as a successor to the United Kingdom of Israel, a term denoting the united monarchy under biblical kings Saul, David and Solomonand covering the territory of Judah and Israel.
The tribe of Judah
settled in the region
south of Jerusalem
and in time became the
most powerful and most important tribe.
Not only did it produce the
great kings
David and Solomon
but also, it was prophesied,
the Messiah
would come from among its members.
In the Bible
we are introduced to an
unnamed
queen from the land of Sheba
who travels to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon (see 1 Kings 10; 2 Chronicles 9). Accompanied by many attendants and camels, the Queen of Sheba brings a large quantity of spices, gold and precious stones with her. She is drawn to Jerusalem because of Solomon’s fame, and she tests the king with hard questions. Solomon is able to answer them all.
Impressed by Solomon’s wisdom—and by the riches of his kingdom—she proclaims, “Your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard” (1 Kings 10:7). The queen gives King Solomon 120 talents of gold, precious stones and the largest quantity of spices ever brought to Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:10). In return King Solomon gives her gifts and “every desire that she expressed” (1 Kings 10:13). After receiving these gifts, the queen returns to the land of Sheba with her retinue.
The Queen of Sheba, according to the biblical narrative, was a woman of great wealth, beauty, and power. Sheba, believed to be either in Ethiopia or Yemen by most biblical scholars, was a well-established city, and, although there is little evidence outside the Bible as to the nature of the monarchy and how it was established, it is clear that the Queen of Sheba ruled alone and was not enamored with the religions in her own land.
The Queen of Sheba traveled to Jerusalem as she had “heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the LORD, [and] came to test Solomon with hard questions” (1 Kings 10:1). As God had granted Solomon the gift of wisdom (1 Kings 3:5–12), “nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her” (1 Kings 10:3). After a meal together, the Queen of Sheba declares how impressed she is with Solomon’s answers, hospitality, and the reputation that preceded him. The story ends with an exchange of resources and the Queen of Sheba returning “with her retinue to her own country” (1 Kings 10:13).
Sources outside the Bible suggest that the Queen of Sheba conceived a child in secret with King Solomon, while some Bible commentators have suggested that the nameless woman in the Song of Solomon is the Queen of Sheba (with the man being King Solomon). Both are speculative and, while interesting, cannot be declared factual. Whether she has any relation to the “Sheba” mentioned in Genesis 10:7 and 28, or if she was the ancestor of “Candace, queen of the Ethiopians” (Acts 8:27), is, again, open to speculation.
The Queen of Sheba is mentioned again in the New Testament by an alternative title, the Queen of the South (Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31). Jesus refers to her, reaffirming her historical personage, as a means to illustrate the point that, despite being originally pagan in belief and Gentile in race, the Queen of Sheba recognized the truth and reality of God, unlike the religious leaders who opposed Jesus. As such, they would be condemned for their ignorant and defiant nature.
Two lessons can be learned from the story of the Queen of Sheba. First, like King Solomon, believers are to show evidence of God’s favor in their lives, whatever their role, profession, or environment. Second, the reputation of believers should precede them by their godly words and actions, for we are “Christ’s ambassadors” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Riddles were a type of word puzzle widely used in ancient times, both for entertainment and as a test of wisdom. Riddles allowed the speaker to obscure valuable information from the undeserving while simultaneously disclosing a vital truth to worthy listeners. Typically, the language of a riddle functioned on two levels: it conveyed a straightforward meaning and a symbolic or allegorical point that was understood only by discerning individuals.
Likely the best-known riddle in the Bible is the one Samson told at his wedding feast. Samson’s riddle was the amusement type often used at weddings, banquets, feasts, and intellectual gatherings of the ancient world. The groom, Samson, entertained and challenged his thirty male Philistine guests by asking them to solve a riddle within seven days. The prize Samson offered was thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing to the deserving guest. If no one solved the riddle, the guests would have to give Samson an identical prize. Samson’s riddle consisted of a poetic couplet: “Out of the eater, something to eat; / out of the strong, something sweet” (Judges 14:12–14). Unable to solve the riddle, the thirty men threatened Samson’s Philistine bride for the answer, which came in the form of a riddle as well: “What is sweeter than honey? / What is stronger than a lion?” (verse 18). Samson’s anger over their “cheating” resulted in his slaying of thirty Philistine men (verse 19), which in turn led to escalating violence and the death of Samson’s bride (Judges 15:6).
The same word used for Samson’s riddle, ḥīdhāh, is translated as “hard questions” that the queen of Sheba put to King Solomon: “When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the LORD, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan, . . . she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her” (1 Kings 10:1–3). Someone who could solve riddles was considered a wise and discerning person. Like Solomon, Daniel was a skillful interpreter of riddles (Daniel 5:11–12).
Some proverbs such as those found in Proverbs 30:15–31 were initially considered riddles. These proverbs employed riddles as a way of teaching and testing wisdom (Proverbs 1:6) as well as exposing vices. In Ezekiel 17:1–10, a symbolic riddle compares King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to an eagle. And, in the New Testament, a mathematical riddle appears in the mysterious number of the beast, 666 (Revelation 13:18).
Jesus sometimes used riddles to outsmart His opponents, such as the case when He asked, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” in Mark 3:23. In another passage, Jesus made use of a riddle to silence the religious leaders when they challenged his authority in Matthew 21:23–27.
The predominant reason for the use of riddles in the Bible was to hide information from the hard-hearted who rejected the truth while revealing it to true believers. In Matthew 13:10, the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables. Jesus answered, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them” (verse 11). Then Jesus pointed to the book of Isaiah: “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (verse 15, quoting Isaiah 6:10).
Because of the condition of their hearts, the people who lacked faith were unable to comprehend the meaning in the parables. However, the people of faith had received God’s gracious favor and the ability to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Unbelief will cause a person to hear the truth and yet become more and more shrouded by his choice to disbelieve. However, those who receive and respond to God’s Word with an open heart will discover ever-broadening insight and revelation into spiritual truth.
Proverbs 25:2 says,
“It is the glory
of God to conceal a matter;
to search
out a matter is the
glory of kings.”
God is glorified by concealing information because a certain level of mystery about spiritual matters increases our sense of wonder and quest for discovery. God hides some truth so that we must search it out. Like looking for seashells or panning for gold, rarely do we find the most valuable treasures scattered on the surface of
God’s Word.
God includes riddles in the Bible because treasured truth must be
searched for as we rely on the Spirit of God.
The Shulammite,
the woman Solomon loves,
refers to herself as having dark skin: “Do not gaze at me because I am dark” (Song of Solomon 1:6, ESV). In the NASB, she is “swarthy”; in the KJV,
she is “black.”
Some have suggested that the Shulammite woman was a dark-skinned woman, perhaps of African descent. However, a more likely answer is found in the very same verse. Immediately following the mention of the woman as “dark,” we read, “Because the sun has looked upon me” (ESV). In the NIV, it’s clearer what she means: “Because I am darkened by the sun.” And the rest of the verse explains why the Shulammite was in the sun: “My mother’s sons were angry with me / and made me take care of the vineyards; / my own vineyard I had to neglect” In other words, she was forced to work outside in the sun and had not taken care of her skin as she preferred.
In modern Western culture, many women go to great lengths to tan and darken their skin. However, the opposite was true of women in the ancient Near East. Dark or tanned skin was undesirable because it indicated a woman had spent significant time working in the sun, something that servants or poor women did. More affluent women would not labor in the sun; they would stay indoors more or have nicer clothing that covered their skin.
The Shulammite woman
did not
want to be stared at because
of her tanned skin.
In Song of Solomon 1:5 we read,
“Dark am I, yet lovely, / daughters of Jerusalem, / dark like the tents of Kedar, / like the tent curtains of Solomon.”
The tents of Kedar were made from the wool of black goats.
The curtains of Solomon is a difficult phrase to render from the Hebrew text. Many believe the correct understanding is instead “the tents of Salma.” If so, the word picture is fitting. The Salma people lived in the same general region as Kedar and likely also constructed their tents with black wool. Otherwise, the curtains of Solomon were likely purple, the color of royalty, a color that would not fit the description in verse 6. Regardless, the Shulammite is telling the other women not to think poorly of her because of her tanned skin.
Some have also sought meaning in Song of Solomon 1:6 based on the identity of Shulammite. The term Shulammite has been interpreted in different ways. Two of the most likely interpretations are that Shulammite means “O perfect one” or that it refers to an area called Shunem (as the LXX chooses). If this latter interpretation is correct, the Shulammite was from Shunem, a village near Jezreel inhabited by the Jews during Solomon’s time.
The woman would likely have had an
olive complexion,
though darker than some due to
her working out of doors.
Though the
woman in Song of Solomon
had some concerns about her appearance, she was clearly loved by Solomon and desired by him. The Song of Solomon offers a great example of how, though imperfect, a man and woman accept and love one another unconditionally and pursue love and intimacy in the context of marriage.
The Book of Song of Solomon
shows the love of the Lord Jesus to His bride, the Church, who is called Shulamite. Shulamite in Hebrew is the feminine noun for Solomon.
5 I gcame to my garden, my hsister, my bride,
I gathered my imyrrh with my spice,
I ate my jhoneycomb with my honey,
I kdrank my wine with my milk.
, lfriends, drink,
and be drunk with love!
The Bride Searches for Her BelovedSHE2
I slept, but my heart was awake.
A sound! My beloved is mknocking.
“Open to me, my nsister, my olove,
my pdove, my qperfect one,
for my head is wet with dew,
my rlocks with the drops of the night.”
3 sI had put off my garment;
how could I put it on?
I had tbathed my feet;
how could I soil them?
4 My beloved put his hand to the latch,
and my heart was thrilled within me.
5 I arose to open to my beloved,
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with uliquid myrrh,
on the handles of the bolt.
6 I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
My soul failed me when he vspoke.
wI sought him, but found him not;
xI called him, but he gave no answer.
7 yThe watchmen found me
as they went about in the city;
they beat me, they bruised me,
they took away my veil,
those watchmen of the walls.
8 I zadjure you, O adaughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved,
that you tell him
bI am sick with love.
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
O cmost beautiful among women?
What is your beloved more than another beloved,
that you thus zadjure us?
The Bride Praises Her BelovedSHE10
My beloved is radiant and druddy,
edistinguished among ten thousand.
11 His head is the finest gold;
fhis locks are wavy,
black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves
beside streams of water,
bathed in milk,
sitting beside a full pool.
His cheeks are like beds of spices,
mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.
His lips are lilies,
dripping liquid myrrh.
His arms are rods of gold,
set with jewels.
His body is polished ivory,
bedecked with sapphire.
His legs are alabaster columns,
set on bases of gold.
His appearance is like oLebanon,
choice as the cedars.
His -mouths is most sweet,
and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
The
Queen of Sheba
and
Sign of Jonah
Hebrew: מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא, romanized: Malkaṯ Səḇāʾ;
Arabic: ملكة سبأ, romanized: Malikat Sabaʾ;
Ge'ez: ንግሥተ ሳባ,
romanized: Nəgśətä Saba)
in the
Hebrew Bible
she brings a caravan
of valuable gifts
for the
Israelite King Solomon.
The Queen of Sheba
(Hebrew: מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא, romanized: Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ,
in the Hebrew Bible;
Koinē Greek: βασίλισσα Σαβά, romanized: basílissa Sabá,
in the Septuagint;[6] Syriac: ܡܠܟܬ ܫܒܐ;[7][romanization needed]
Ge'ez: ንግሥተ ሳባ,
romanized: Nəgśətä Saba[8]),
Whose Name is Not
stated,
Came to Jerusalem
"with a very great retinue,
with
Camels bearing Spices,
Very much Gold, and Precious Stones"
(1 Kings 10:2)
"Never again came
such an
abundance of spices"
(10:10; 2 Chronicles 9:1–9)
As those she
Gave to Solomon
She came
"To Prove Him with Hard Questions"
which Solomon
answered to her satisfaction
They exchanged gifts,
after
which she Returned
To her Land
Solomon and The Queen of Sheba;
"Queen of the South"
(Greek: βασίλισσα νότου, Latin: Regina austri),
who
"Came
From the uttermost Parts
of the Earth",
from the extremities
of the
Then Known World,
to hear the
Wisdom of Solomon
(Mt. 12:42; Lk. 11:31).[21]
The mystical interpretation of
The
Song of Songs,
which was felt as supplying a
literal basis for the
speculations of the allegorists,
makes its first appearance in Origen,
who wrote a voluminous commentary on
the Song of Songs
In his
commentary, Origen identified the
Bride
of the
Song of Songs
with the
"Queen of the South"
of the Gospels
(i.e., the Queen of Sheba, who is assumed to have been Ethiopian).
Others have proposed either the
Marriage of Solomon
with the
Pharaoh's daughter,
or his Marriage
with an
Israelite woman;
The Shulamite
The bride of the Canticles
is assumed to have been black
due to a
passage in Song of Songs 1:5,
which translates
as
"I am very dark",
"I am black and beautiful"
Septuagint
Ancient Greek: μέλαινα εἰμί καί καλή
One legend has it that the
Queen of Sheba brought Solomon
the same Gifts that the
Magi
Later gave to Jesus
the Shulammite
is specifically characterized in the
Song of Solomon.
She is described as very close to her mother, assertive, and extremely beautiful; images of plants and animals are often used to allude to her appearance. Her narrative is sensual and filled with longing as she waits for her lover. The Shulammite does not shy away from declaring her feelings and desires, and the Bible portrays her as a complex woman whose eroticism is celebrated.
Identity and Lineage
The Shulammite (from Hebrew shulammit, “woman of Jerusalem”) is the central figure in the Song of Solomon (also called Song of Songs or Canticles) and one of the most positive representations of young womanhood in the Hebrew Bible. As the embodiment of erotic pleasure, innocent and savored for its own sake, she is to be contrasted, on the one hand, with the wily seductress of Proverbs 7, whose sexuality is insidious and destructive, and on the other with figures such as Tamar and Ruth, whose sexual boldness is in the service of perpetuating the family line. In the Shulammite, indeed, we find one of the most unqualified celebrations of female eroticism in all of Western literature.
Like her lover, the Shulammite is not given a proper name. The epithet “the Shulammite,” which occurs (twice) in only one verse of the Song (6:13) and nowhere else in the Bible, is of uncertain meaning. Medieval Jewish exegetes such as Ibn Ezra understood the word as “the Jerusalemite,” a feminine epithet derived from Salem (Hebrew shalem), an ancient poetic name for Jerusalem (Psalms 76:2). The epithet Shulammite, with its root s-l-m, may have been chosen also because of its allusions to Solomon (Shelomoh), who figures in the poem, and to the young woman’s role of bringing “peace” (shalom) to her lover (8:10). Other less likely interpretations involve the village of Shunem or Shulem (the home of King David’s attendant, Abishag, 1 Kings 1:1–4), or the Mesopotamian war goddess Shulmanitu, perhaps Ishtar.
Although she is not as fully articulated as the characters in biblical prose fiction, the Shulammite has a distinct consistency of characterization throughout the Song. That she is probably just past the age of puberty is implied by the dialogue with her brothers in 8:8–10. They consider her a child (“We have a little sister,/and she has no breasts”); her spirited response (“my breasts are like towers”) indicates that she has already reached sexual maturity (see Ezekiel 16:7–8). There is no mention of a father in the poem; thus, the Shulammite’s brothers take responsibility for her conduct, about which they have rebuked her (1:6), as well as for marriage negotiations with potential suitors (8:8–9).
Her relationship with her mother appears to be close and tender. The Shulammite is called her mother’s favorite (6:9). She speaks of bringing her lover to her mother’s house (3:4; 8:2), perhaps to signify a more binding relationship or perhaps in reference to the fact that, from a female perspective, the family household was the mother’s domain. In one possible reading of 8:2, her mother can be seen as instructing her in the arts of love. The Shulammite addresses her feelings about love and her lover to a group of young women,
the daughters of Jerusalem,
who serve as a kind of chorus in the poem.
Physical DescriptionsThe Shulammite’s beauty is celebrated in three formal praise songs, often called by the Arabic term wasfs (4:1–7; 6:4–10; 7:1–7; compare the praise of the man’s beauty in 5:10–16). The homage to the nude body is unique in the Bible and may perhaps indicate the influence of Hellenistic art. The poet’s metaphors and similes are not literally descriptive; they convey the delight of the lover in contemplating the beloved, finding in the body a reflected image of the world in its freshness and splendor.
Like her lover, the Shulammite is portrayed in images that suggest tenderness (lilies, doves, gazelles), as well as strength and stateliness (pillars, towers). The poet’s metaphors move back and forth between the actual landscape, suffused with erotic associations, and the landscape of the body: the Shulammite waits for her lover in a garden, but she herself is a garden. The lovers go out to the vineyards to make love, but she herself is a vineyard, her breasts like clusters of grapes, and their kisses an intoxicating wine. When the lovers are compared to animals, it is in tribute to their beauty and undomesticated freedom. Like her lover, the Shulammite has dovelike eyes and is associated with deer and gazelles. Perhaps strange to the contemporary reader is the comparison of the Shulammite in 1:9 to a mare (a familiar trope in Greek poetry), suggesting her elegant gracefulness.
The Shulammite
calls herself “black and beautiful” (1:5–6).
This is apparently a reference to her sunburned skin—according to her poetic phrase “the sun has gazed on me” (26). Working outdoors (she is “keeper of the vineyards” in 1:6) is perhaps associated with a lower social status; those who could afford not to work outdoors would have a fair complexion. The Shulammite’s need to account for her dark skin may sound apologetic; on the other hand, it is likely that she is boasting, not apologizing.
Apart from her youth and beauty, the Shulammite’s most striking characteristic is her assertiveness. She is described by her lover as ayummah (6:10); the word daunting conveys the spirit of the Hebrew better than the commonly rendered terrible. Only she makes dramatic statements about herself (1:5; 8:10), and only she commands the elements (4:16). She goes out into the streets of Jerusalem at night to search for her lover—bold and unusual behavior for an unmarried woman (3:1–4; 5:6–7). Her invitations to love (4:16; 7:11–13; 8:2) are more outspoken than his, and she is the one who apparently takes the initiative in their lovemaking: “I awakened you” (8:5).
Descriptions of PersonalityThe Shulammite speaks the first words in the poem—“kiss me” (1:2)—and the last (8:14); she delivers most of the lines, including the rousing speeches about the power of love (2:7; 8:6–7).
Her voice and thoughts come directly to the reader, unmediated by a narrator. Her repeated adjurations to the daughters of Jerusalem (2:7; 3:5; 8:4), filled with awe at love’s power, convey the seriousness with which she regards this relationship. When she asks her lover to be true to her forever (8:6), she is expressing a hope for a permanent bond in language that is characteristically emphatic.
The lover’s affectionate phrase “my sister, my bride” (4:9–10, 12; 5:1, 2) is not to be taken literally; both epithets express closeness and intimacy. (In Egyptian love poetry, the lovers refer to each other as “sister” and “brother” as a sign of closeness.) In 8: i, the Shulammite says she wishes her lover was “like a brother”; then she could kiss him in the streets and no one would scorn her.
The word bride reflects the young man’s desire for a permanent relationship; the Shulammite expresses a similar wish in 8:6. There is no indication in the poem that the lovers are married; that they meet secretly in the countryside at night and part at daybreak implies the contrary.
The most complex
portrait of the Shulammite
is also the most dramatic scene in the poem (5:2–8),
conveying passion, coquetry, self-reproach, and yearning in quick succession. Her lover knocks at her door at night, ardent and impatient, but the Shulammite coyly pretends reluctance; as soon as he leaves, she is filled with regret and longing. Running through the streets of Jerusalem to search for him, she is apprehended and beaten by the city watchmen—one of the few dark moments in a poem filled with delight and celebration.
The
“Sign of Jonah”
was used by
Jesus as a typological metaphor for
His future
Crucifixion, Burial, and Resurrection
Jesus answered
with this expression when asked
by the
Pharisees for miraculous proof
that
He was indeed the
Messiah.
The Pharisees remained unconvinced of Jesus’ claims about Himself, despite His having just cured a demon-possessed man who was both blind and mute. Shortly after the Pharisees accused Jesus of driving out demons by the power of Satan, they said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a 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. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:38–41).
To fully appreciate the answer that Jesus gave, we must go to the Old Testament book of Jonah. In its first chapter, we read that God commanded the prophet Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and warn its people that He was going to destroy it for its wickedness. Jonah disobediently ran from the Lord and headed for the city of Tarshish by boat. The Lord then sent a severe storm that caused the crew of the ship to fear for their lives. Jonah was soon thrown overboard and swallowed by a great fish where he remained for “three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:15–17). After the three-day period, the Lord caused the great fish to vomit Jonah out onto dry land (Jonah 2:10).
It is this three days that Jesus was referring to when He spoke of the sign of Jonah. Jesus had already been producing miracles that were witnessed by many. Jesus had just performed a great sign in the Pharisees’ presence by healing a deaf man who was possessed of a demon. Rather than believe, they accused Jesus of doing this by the power of Satan. Jesus recognized their hardness of heart and refused to give them further proof of His identity. However, He did say that there would be one further sign forthcoming, His resurrection from the dead. This would be their final opportunity to be convinced.
Jesus’ paralleling of the Pharisees with the people of Nineveh is telling. The people of Nineveh repented of their evil ways (Jonah 3:4–10) after hearing Jonah’s call for repentance, while the Pharisees continued in their unbelief despite being eyewitnesses to the miracles of Jesus. Jesus was telling the Pharisees that they were culpable for their unbelief, given the conversion of the people of Nineveh, sinners who had received far less evidence than the Pharisees themselves had witnessed. Interestingly, from the time of Jonah’s preaching, the people of Nineveh had 40 days to repent, and they did, sparing their city from destruction. From the time of Jesus’ preaching, the people of Jerusalem had 40 years, but they did not repent, and Jerusalem was destroyed.
But what are we to make of the phrase “three days and three nights”? Was Jesus saying that He would be dead for three full 24-hour periods before He would rise from the dead? It does not appear so. The phrase “three days and three nights” need not refer to a literal 72-hour period. Rather, according to the Hebrew reckoning of time, the days could refer to three days in part or in whole. Jesus was probably crucified on a Friday (Mark 15:42). According to the standard reckoning, Jesus died at about 3:00 PM (Matthew 27:46) on Friday (day 1). He remained dead for all of Saturday (day 2) and rose from the dead early on Sunday morning (day 3). Attempts to place Jesus’ death on Wednesday to accommodate a literal 72-hour period are probably unnecessary once we take into account the Hebrew method of reckoning of each day as beginning at sundown. So it seems that the expression “three days and three nights” was used as a figure of speech meant to signify any part of three days.
God would often use signs (or miracles) in the Bible to authenticate His chosen messenger. The Lord provided Moses with several miraculous signs in order to prove to others that he was appointed by God (Exodus 4:5–9; 7:8–10;19-20). God sent down fire on Elijah’s altar during Elijah’s contest with the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36–39). He performed this miracle to prove that the God of Israel was the one true God. Jesus Himself would perform many miracles (or “signs”) to demonstrate His power over nature (Matthew 4:23; Mark 6:30–44; Luke 8:22–24; John 6:16–24). The “sign of Jonah” would turn out to be Jesus’ greatest miracle of all. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead would be God’s chief sign that Jesus was Israel’s long-awaited Messiah (Acts 2:23–32)
and establish Christ’s claims to deity (Romans 1:3–4).
Does Matthew 12:40 imply that Jesus did not die on a Friday? On what day of the week did Jesus die?
Christian tradition states that he died on a Friday, and Christians commemorate his suffering and death every year on the Friday before Easter. But the Good Friday tradition is difficult to reconcile with Matthew 12:40 which says, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights 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.” If Yeshua rose on the first day of the week as the Gospels maintain, then how can we account for three days and three nights between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. At best, we might have thirty-six hours: two days and two nights.
In this article, we will attempt to solve this apparent contradiction. We will be using material that I developed for First Fruits of Zion’s Torah Club program, particularly Chronicles of the Messiah, a Messianic Jewish commentary on the life and teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth.
A Wicked and Adulterous GenerationWhen a group of cynical religious leaders asked Yeshua for a miraculous sign that might verify his apocalyptic warnings, he ignored their request as disingenuous, more of a diversion than a real request. If they were sincere, they would not have dismissed the miracles that followed him. He 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” (Matthew 12:39).
The last generation before the destruction of Jerusalem was a “wicked” generation. Rabbinic sources point to the baseless hatred of the day, which erupted in slander, murder, and warfare between Jews. The histories of Josephus confirm Yeshua’s sentiments. Rampant political and religious corruption had brought about societal decay, which adopted Roman values and dealt in bloodshed, intrigue, and greed. The Master’s exasperated denouncement of the generation alludes directly to the Song of Moses, which describes the generation doomed to exile as “a perverse and crooked generation” (Deuteronomy 32:5). The Master knew that His generation stood at an important crossroad. They had the potential to believe, repent, and enter the kingdom, but they also had the potential to miss the opportunity and go into exile as the Song of Moses warned.
A series of similar statements reveals that Heaven held the generation of the Master accountable for the culmination of sins committed through the Second Temple Era. Had they repented under the teaching of John the Immerser and the Master, they might have found redemption, escaped the doom that hung over them, and entered the Messianic Era. Without national repentance, however, the Master’s presence only exasperated their guilt.
John the Immerser called for repentance and found himself in the prison of Herod Antipas. Yeshua called for repentance and was accused of sorcery. Even the wicked Assyrians of Ninevah repented when Jonah preached to them. Even the Gentile queen of Sheba repented when she heard Solomon’s wisdom.
The Sign of JonahThe Master dismissed the request for a sign, saying, “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.” What is the sign of Jonah?
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “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 nights 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. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment, and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” (Matthew 12:38–42)
It seems obvious, especially based on Matthew 12:40, that the “sign of Jonah” to which Yeshua referred was His three day and three night sojourn in the grave. Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, Yeshua must spend three days and three nights in the belly of the earth, i.e., a tomb:
And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 2:1[1:17])
Good ThursdayWhen I was first introduced to the Hebrew Roots movement, this verse was used to discredit the Christian tradition of Good Friday. No matter how creatively you might attempt to make it fit, you cannot squeeze three days and three nights between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.
This creates a problem. According to Matthew 12:40, the only sign that Jesus offered to his entire generation was that the Son of Man would be in the heart of the ground for three days and three nights. It was supposed to be the definitive sign. Is it possible that he did not even get it right?
To solve this contradiction, the Hebrew Roots movement commonly teaches that he did not die on a Friday. Although the Gospels clearly state that “it was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin” when they buried him (Luke 23:54), how do we know that it was a Friday? The first day of Unleavened Bread is a special holiday which imposes many of the same prohibitions as the Sabbath day:
On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you. (Exodus 12:16)
On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. (Leviticus 23:7 )
Perhaps the gospels referred to the preparation day for the first day of Unleavened Bread rather than the weekly Sabbath. In that case, if the first day of Unleavened Bread fell on a Friday that year, Yeshua might have died on a Thursday. This would allow for three days and three nights in the tomb:
- Thursday Day: One day
- Thursday Night: One night
- Friday Day: Two days
- Friday Night: Two nights
- Saturday Day: Three days
- Saturday Night: Three Nights
This explanation appealed to me. It made sense to me, and I taught the passion chronology according to this explanation for several years. I called it the “Good Thursday Model.” It seemed to tie up all the loose ends, but as I began to teach this model, I discovered new loose problems that Good Thursday created.
Church TraditionOne thing about this explanation did bother me. Anyone familiar with the tenacity of religious tradition will find it difficult to explain how the church could have possibly forgotten the day of the week on which the Master died, especially when the early church made such a big deal about the day of the week on which he rose.[2] The Good Thursday teaching defies a strong and well-attested historical memory in early church tradition that the Master died on a Friday. Early second century Christians regarded Friday as the day on which the crucifixion occurred. To accept the Good-Thursday Model, we have to accept the idea that all Christians inexplicably forgot the day of the week on which the Master died
Preparation DayAnother problem with Good Thursday is that the teaching contradicts the literal reading of the gospels at Mark 15:42 and Luke 23:54. Mark says, “It was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath.” Contrary to the explanation I offered above, Mark explicitly identified it as the day before the Sabbath. He did not say, “The day before the holiday” or “The day before the festival,” or “The day before Passover.” Likewise, Luke says: “It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin” (Luke 23:54). Luke does not say, “The Passover was about to begin,” and he does not say, “The festival was about to begin,” he says, “The Sabbath was about to begin.”
Because the Torah forbids work on Shabbat, Fridays are a day of preparation for Sabbath keepers. “Preparation day (paraskeue, παρασκευή)” is a technical term in Jewish Greek for Erev Shabbat,[3] i.e., “Friday.”[4] The Didache refers to Friday as “the preparation” and recommends fasting on that day, presumably in commemoration of the crucifixion.[5] Josephus calls Friday “the day of preparation (paraskooe’) for the Sabbath day.”[6] Mark and Luke knew that not all of their readers would know what the Jewish Greek word paraskeue meant, so they offered an explanation. Again, Mark says, “It was the paraskeue, that is, the day before the Sabbath” (Mark 15:42).
The Fourth DayYet another problem with Good Thursday arises. If taken at face value, the sign of Jonah in Matthew 12:40 required the Master to rise from the dead on the fourth day after his death, not the third day. That presents a problem because eleven texts in the New Testament report Him rising “on the third day,” not the fourth.
Yeshua said:
The Son of Man is going
to be delivered into the hands of men;
and they will kill Him,
and He will be
raised on the third day.
(Matthew 17:22–23)
The Two on the way to Emmaus said:
It is the third day
since these things happened.
(Luke 24:21)
Peter said:
God raised
Him up on the third day
(Acts 10:40)
Paul said:
He was buried,
and that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures.
(1 Corinthians 15:4)
If we insist on three literal days and three literal nights in the tomb, all of these passages are wrong. They should say that he rose on the fourth day. If he died on the fifth day of the week (Thursday) and rose on the first day of the week, he rose on the fourth day and not the third. Matthew 12:40 is the only text in the New Testament which places the time in the grave as three days and three nights. Therefore, Good-Thursday relies on one verse in the New Testament to contradict eleven others. In his commentary on Matthew, John Nolland notes that Matthew uses Jonah’s three days and three nights loosely: “Matthew repeats ‘three days and three nights’ in connection with Jesus’ death despite its lack of a precise literal fit.”
Appearance to only a FewYeshua said that the sign of Jonah is supposed to be the definitive sign for the “evil and adulterous generation.” According to Matthew 12:40, the sign of Jonah is the three days and three nights he spent in the tomb prior to his resurrection. That means that the sign of Jonah refers to His resurrection from the dead, but in reality, the risen Messiah did not appear to that evil and adulterous generation. He appeared only to His followers. How can his resurrection be a sign to the whole generation if he did not appear to the people of his generation?
This leaves us with a difficult puzzle. If the sign of Jonah is not the three nights and three days, as Matthew 12:40 implies, and it is not the Master’s resurrection, what is it supposed to be?
Gospel ParallelsFortunately, the same teaching appears in two parallel gospel texts:
Signs of the Times
And in the morning, “There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.” Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah. (Matthew 16:3–4)
A Sign to the Ninevites
As the crowds were increasing, He began to say, “This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The Queen of the South will rise up with the men of this generation at the judgment and condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up with this generation at the judgment and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Luke 11:29–32)
The “three days and three nights” of Matthew 12:40 do not appear in the Matthew 16 version of the saying either, where Yeshua declares that the “sign of Jonah” is something currently observable in His ministry—a sign of the times—prior to His death and resurrection. Nor does it appear in Luke 11 where the sign of Jonah consists of the fact that “Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites.” In the Lucan version of the teaching, the sign of Jonah is not the death and resurrection of the Master at all, but instead, the sign of Jonah is Yeshua’s call to repentance. Just as the Ninevites repented when they heard Jonah preaching and just as the Queen of Sheba repented when she heard Solomon’s wisdom, the Master’s generation should repent because something greater than Jonah or Solomon is present. In that case, the sign of Jonah alludes to the dire consequence that will fall upon His generation should they fail to heed His message. Just as Jonah predicted the fall of Ninevah within forty days, our Master predicted the fall of Jerusalem within a generation (forty years). At the time of the final resurrection, the men of Nineveh will condemn the Master’s generation because the Ninevites heeded Jonah and repented whereas the men of Galilee and Judea did not heed the call of one greater than Jonah.
Notice that Matthew’s “three days and three nights” version of the teaching is almost identical to Luke’s if not for the words, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights 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 12:40). Those words do not appear in Luke’s version. In fact, at one time, they did not even appear in all the versions of Matthew.
The Jewish VersionWe have pretty good evidence that Matthew 12:40 was not part of the original teaching Yeshua gave that day. In one of our manuscripts of Matthew, an early scribe copying the Greek manuscript of Matthew left a scribal note at Matthew 12:40 explaining, “The Jewish Gospel does not have the words, ‘Three days and three nights.’”
This means that the scribe who copied our Gospel of Matthew also had another version which he had obtained from the Jewish community, perhaps a Hebrew or Aramaic version of the gospel. He consulted it as he worked, and he observed that in the “Jewish” version of the text, the words “Three days and three nights” did not appear in Matthew 12:40.
A Midrashic ExpansionSince the “three days and three nights” do not seem to be essential to the meaning of the “sign of Jonah,” appearing in only one out of three instances in the Gospels and not even in the “Jewish version,” we should understand Matthew 12:40 as an expansion of the Master’s original teaching, but not germane to it. The “sign of Jonah” need not literally require a full three days and three nights in the grave, nor does it even require the Master’s resurrection to fulfill it. Instead, it requires His prophetic call to repentance in the face of a looming judgment from God. Just as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites and he warned them about the coming wrath, Yeshua was a sign to His generation.
Donald Hagner comes to the same conclusion in his commentary on Matthew:
An allusion such as this to Jesus’ death, burial, and (implied) resurrection would not have made much sense to the Pharisees (nor even the disciples) at this juncture, but in retrospect the words would have been filled with meaning. The analogy with Jonah may well have originally concerned only the preaching of Jesus and Jonah and then later have been elaborated by the post-resurrection Church to refer to the burial (and resurrection) of Jesus.[10]
In other words, Hagner suggests that Matthew 12:40 was the gospel writer’s own interpretive addition to the original saying of the Master—an additional insight supplied by one of Yeshua’s followers.
After the fact of the resurrection, the disciples of Yeshua might have made several associations between Yeshua’s death and resurrection and the story of Jonah. In Judaism, Jonah has other associations with resurrection. According to one story, Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, the boy that Elijah the prophet raised from the dead. Midrash Shocher Tov says: “The son of the widow of Zarephath was Jonah son of Amittai. He was perfectly righteous, having been purified inside the fish in the depths of the seas. He did not die [again] but entered Paradise in his lifetime” (Shocher Tov 26:7). In the mysical Zohar, when Jonah was cast into the sea, his soul flew out of his body. He was already dead when the fish swallowed him, but he was resurrected in the mouth of the fish.
Perhaps Yeshua only implied a connection between his own ministry and that of Jonah’s prophetic ministry, but after the resurrection, the disciples elaborated on the idea, adding a midrash, so to speak, with the words of Matthew 12:40, to emphasize another parallel they saw between Yeshua and the prophet Jonah.
The resurrection-interpretation of the sign of Jonah in Matthew 12:40 has an interesting parallel in the Midrash Rabbah regarding the resurrection of the dead:
It is written [in Hosea 6:2], “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him.” … on the third day of Jonah, [as it says in Jonah 2:1], “And Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.” (Genesis Rabbah 66:1)
Notice that the author of Midrash Rabbah saw no conflict between the words “three days and three nights” and “the third day.” Likewise, the apostolic author of Matthew 12:40 was not concerned about a the contradiction between third day and fourth day, but rather he seized upon the common element, associating “three days” with “third day” just as the sages did in the Midrash.
Despite these resurrection associations, when Yeshua said, “No sign wil be given except the sign of Jonah,” he was not referring to the day of his resurrection. To Yeshua, the sign of Jonah was the urgent call for repentance in the face of a looming catastrophe that hung over the generation. That message required no sign whatsoever to verify. Neither did Jonah offer the Ninevites a sign. He just delivered the message, and that was sufficient.
What Day Did He Die?At the outset of this article, I asked the question, “On what day of the week did Jesus die?” All the gospels agree that His death took place on a Friday, and all the evidence supports that conclusion. The only objection to that conclusion arises from Matthew 12:40, a text which should not be regarded as the original, intended meaning of the sign of Jonah.
Soon after calling Matthew to follow Him, Jesus ate a meal with “many tax collectors and sinners” in Matthew’s house (Mark 2:15). Matthew had been a tax collector, and these “sinners” were his friends and acquaintances who were now spending time with Jesus. Matthew wanted to introduce people in his social circle to Jesus. The scribes and the Pharisees, who despised tax collectors, complained, but Jesus’ actions in spending time with sinners were in perfect accordance with His mission to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10).
In Jesus’ day, rabbis and other spiritual leaders enjoyed widespread respect and were held in high esteem in Jewish society. Almost everyone looked up to the Pharisees. They were strict adherents to the Law, they were the guardians of tradition, and they were the exemplars of piety. In their vaulted position, they avoided those whom they deemed “sinners”—those who did not follow their system of rules. Pharisees and the other religious class of Jesus’ day would definitely not have socialized with tax collectors, who were infamous for embezzlement and their cooperation with the hated Romans.
Jesus chose to eat with sinners because they needed to know that repentance and forgiveness were available. As Jesus’ ministry grew, so did His popularity among the social outcasts of society. Once Matthew was part of His inner circle, Jesus naturally had more contact with the pariahs of His society. Spending time with the tax collectors and sinners was only natural, since He had “not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). If Jesus was to reach the lost, He must have some contact with them. He went to where the need was because “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick” (Luke 5:31).
Sitting at Matthew’s feast, Jesus broke societal taboos and condemned the Pharisees’ legalistic system of attaining righteousness. The fact that Jesus ate with sinners shows that He looked beyond culture to people’s hearts. Whereas the Pharisees disregarded people because of their past behavior, Jesus saw their spiritual need.
All through Jesus’ ministry, He reached out to those who needed Him. He conversed with a despised Samaritan woman at a well—surprising even His disciples (John 4:27). He forgives an immoral woman in Luke 7, He helps a Syro-Phoenician woman in Mark 7, He touches a leper in Luke 5, and He enters Zacchaeus’s house and dines with him in Luke 19. Again and again, Jesus touched the untouchable and loved the unlovely.
Jesus came to save sinners. Tradition, cultural bans, and the frowns of a few do not matter when a soul’s eternal destiny is on the line. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus saw individuals, not just their labels. He had compassion and sought to meet the needs around Him. In sharing the word of God, Jesus ate with sinners and spent time with them. Seeing all of this, sinners were no doubt inspired to know Him better. They recognized Jesus as a righteous man, a man of God—the miracles He performed bore witness to that—and they saw His compassion and sincerity.
Jesus didn’t let social status or cultural norms dictate His relationships with people. As the Good Shepherd, He sought the lost sheep wherever they had strayed. When Matthew hosted the dinner party, Jesus accepted the invitation. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the good news of the kingdom with those who most needed to hear (see Matthew 4:23). He was criticized for His actions by the self-righteous legalists of His day, but criticism did not deter Him.
Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus didn’t require people to change before coming to Him. He sought them out, met them where they were, and extended grace to them in their circumstances. Change would come to those who accepted Christ, but it would be from the inside out. The kindness of God leads sinners to repentance (Romans 2:4), and Jesus was full of kindness.
Jesus showed us that we shouldn’t let cultural norms dictate whom we evangelize. The sick need a physician. Lost sheep need a shepherd. Are we praying to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the field (Luke 10:2)? Are we willing to go ourselves?
There are several judgments mentioned in the Bible. Our God is a God of justice, as the psalmist says, “A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom” (Psalm 45:6). It is the Lord Jesus Himself who is the Judge of all the earth: “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). Jesus alone is worthy to open the scroll (Revelation 5:5). Here is a list of significant judgments in their likely chronological sequence:
Judgments that have already occurred:
The judgment of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:14–24). God banished the first couple from the Garden of Eden for violating His clear command not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This judgment affected all of creation (Genesis 3:17–18; Romans 8:20–22).
The judgment of the antediluvian world (Genesis 7:17–24). God sent a worldwide flood in judgment of mankind’s sin in Noah’s time. The flood destroyed all of mankind and the animal world, except for Noah and his family, whose faith led them to obey God’s command to build the ark.
The judgment at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:5–9). Noah’s post-flood descendants remained in one location in defiance of God’s command, so God confused their language, causing them to disperse over the earth.
The judgment of Egypt and their gods (Exodus 7—12). The ten plagues against Egypt at the time of the exodus were “mighty acts of judgment” (Exodus 7:4) against a stubborn, cruel king and an idolatrous people and their gods (Exodus 12:12).
The judgment of believers’ sins (Isaiah 53:4–8). Jesus took this judgment upon Himself by His crucifixion and death. “He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9). Because our sin was judged at the cross, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). It was also at the cross that God pronounced judgment on the unbelieving world and on the enemy of our souls, Satan. As Jesus said shortly before His arrest, “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31).
Judgments occurring now in the church age:
Self-evaluation (1 Corinthians 11:28). Believers practice self-examination, prayerfully and honestly assessing their own spiritual condition. The church helps in this endeavor to purify the Body of Christ (Matthew 18:15–17). Self-judgment requires each believer to be spiritually discerning, with a goal of being more like Christ (Ephesians 4:21–23).
Divine discipline (Hebrews 12:5–11). As a father lovingly corrects his children, so the Lord disciplines His own; that is, He brings His followers to a place of repentance and restoration when they sin. In so doing, He makes a distinction between us and the world: “When we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). Whom Christ loves, He chastens (Revelation 3:19).
Judgments to occur in the future:
The judgments of the tribulation period (Revelation 6—16). These terrible judgments are pictured as seven seals opened, seven trumpets blown, and seven bowls poured out. God’s judgment against the wicked will leave no doubt as to His wrath against sin. Besides punishing sin, these judgments will have the effect of bringing the nation of Israel to repentance.
The judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). Resurrected (and raptured) believers in heaven will be judged for their works. Sin is not in view at this judgment, as that was paid for by Christ, but only faithfulness in Christian service. Selfish works or those done with wrong motives will be burned up (the “wood, hay, and stubble” of 1 Corinthians 3:12). Works of lasting value to the Lord will survive (the “gold, silver, and precious stones”). Rewards, which the Bible calls “crowns” (Revelation 3:11) will be given by the One who is “not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him” (Hebrews 6:10).
The judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31–46). After the tribulation, the Lord Jesus will sit in judgment over the Gentile nations. They will be judged according to their treatment of Israel during the tribulation. This judgment is also called the judgment of the sheep and the goats because of the imagery Jesus uses in the Olivet Discourse. Those who showed faith in God by treating Israel favorably (giving them aid and comfort during the tribulation) are the “sheep” who will enter into the Millennial Kingdom. Those who followed the Antichrist’s lead and persecuted Israel are the “goats” who will be consigned to hell.
The judgment of angels (1 Corinthians 6:2–3). Paul says that Christians will judge angels. We aren’t exactly sure what this means, but the angels facing judgment would have to be the fallen angels. It seems that Satan’s hordes of demons will be judged by the redeemed ones of the Lamb. Some of these demons are already imprisoned in darkness and awaiting judgment, according to Jude 1:6, due to their leaving their proper dwelling place.
The Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11–15). This final judgment of unbelievers for their sins occurs at the end of the Millennium, before the creation of the new heaven and earth. At this judgment, unbelievers from all the ages are judged for their sins and consigned to the lake of fire.
In Job 8:3, Bildad, one of Job’s friends, asks, “Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?” The answer, of course, is “no.” “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just” (Deuteronomy 32:4), and God’s judgments will make His perfection shine forth in all its glory.
One of the Holy Spirit’s
tasks in this world is to convict the world of coming judgment (John 16:8–11). When a person truly understands his sin, he will acknowledge his guilty position before a Holy God. The surety of judgment should cause the sinner to turn to the Sa
• Revelation 1:4–5, “John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ . . .”
• Revelation 3:1, “To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God . . .”
• Revelation 4:5, “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.”
• Revelation 5:6, “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”
The identity of “the seven spirits” is not explicit in these passages, but arriving at the proper interpretation is fairly straightforward. The “seven spirits” cannot be seven angelic beings such as seraphim or cherubim because of the context of Revelation 1:4. John says that “grace and peace” are coming to the churches from three sources: “him who is, and who was, and who is to come” (verse 4), “the seven spirits before the throne” (verse 4), and “Jesus Christ” (verse 5). This is a depiction of the Trinity: grace and peace are given by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the three co-equal Persons of the Godhead.
In Revelation 3:1 Jesus “holds” the seven spirits of God. In John 15:26, Jesus “sends” the Holy Spirit from the Father. Both passages suggest the superordinate role of the Son and the subordinate role of the Spirit.
In Revelation 4:5 the seven spirits of God are symbolized as seven burning lamps that are before God’s throne. This picture agrees with Zechariah’s vision in which he sees the Holy Spirit symbolized as “a solid gold lampstand . . . with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it” (Zechariah 4:2).
In Revelation 5:6 the seven spirits are the “seven eyes” of the Lamb, and they are “sent out into all the earth.” The seven eyes speak of the Spirit’s (and the Lamb’s) omniscience, and the fact that He is sent into all the earth speaks of His omnipresence.
Once we identify
the “seven spirits” as the Holy Spirit,
the question remains, why are there “seven” of Him? The Bible, and especially the book of Revelation, uses the number seven to refer to perfection and completion. John’s vision includes a picture of the
perfect and complete Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 11:2 also references the
Holy Spirit
using a seven-fold description: “
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him--
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and
of the fear of the LORD.”
The prophecy is that the
Messiah
would be empowered not by
seven individual spirits
but by the
One Spirit, described seven ways:
1) The Spirit of the LORD
2) The Spirit of wisdom
3) The Spirit of understanding
4) The Spirit of counsel
5) The Spirit of power
6) The Spirit of knowledge
7) The Spirit of the fear of the Lord
The “seven spirits of God”
in the
book of Revelation
are thus a reference to the
Holy Spirit
in the perfection
of His manifold ministry.
spirit of the antichrist
is
found in 1 John 4:2–3: “
This is how you can recognize the
Spirit of God:
Every spirit
that acknowledges that
Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh is from God,
but every spirit that
does not
acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This is the spirit of the
antichrist,
which you have
heard is coming and even now is
already in the world.”
It’s vital to understand the context of John’s statements. A predominant worldview when he wrote this letter suggested that diverse spirits were at work in the world. Many false teachings, mystery religions, spiritual experiences, and variations of Christianity were emerging at the time. The spiritual atmosphere was not unlike the one present in our world today. People entertained countless views regarding truth.
John presented a definitive solution for wading through this variety of beliefs and teachings. He instructed his readers to pay attention and test the spirits: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).
But how do we test the spirits?
How can we discern which
teachers are
imparting truth?
How do we recognize the
spirit of the antichrist?
These “spirits” John spoke of
were not merely disembodied, supernatural beings. John taught that a prophet or teacher was the actual mouthpiece for a spirit. Spiritual doctrines are promulgated through human spokespersons. Teachers of truth are filled with the Spirit of God and thus are agents who speak for God. Teachers of falsehood are spreading the “doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1, NASB).
So, the first test relates to theology or doctrine: “Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2). We can ask, does the content of the person’s teaching acknowledge that Jesus Christ—fully God and fully human—has come in the flesh? If the answer is yes, then we know the Spirit of God inspires that person. If not, his entire teaching ought to be rejected. This particular test was especially apropos in John’s day, as the heresy of Gnosticism was becoming prevalent; Gnosticism taught that Jesus only appeared to have a human body but was not actually a flesh-and-blood person.
Next, John says, “But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:3). Anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Bible presents Him is inspired by the spirit of the antichrist.
The word antichrist means “against Christ.” People who say that Jesus is not from God are controlled by the spirit of the antichrist. Satan opposes Christ, and he desires to deceive people into a false view of who Jesus is. The spirit of the antichrist teaches against Christ. To twist the truth about Jesus Christ is to pervert the gospel. Satan works to spread lies about Christ and keep people in the dark: “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 1:7).
The spirit of the antichrist is the birds that eat the seeds along the path in Jesus’ parable (Mark 4:4, 15). It is “the god of this age” who blinds the minds of unbelievers, keeping them from seeing “the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). It is “the father of lies” (John 8:44). The spirit of the antichrist is “the great dragon . . . who leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9).
The Bible teaches that the world will eventually produce a world ruler, called “the beast” in Revelation, who will wield great power and demand worship of himself. He will have “a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies” (Revelation 13:5) and is empowered by Satan (Revelation 13:2). He is called “the man of lawlessness . . . the man doomed to destruction” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. This final Antichrist will be the culmination of the evil workings of Satan throughout the centuries. The Antichrist of the end times will embody all the deception and perversion of truth that the spirit of the antichrist has always promoted. Today, “the secret power of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). The same spirit that will empower the Antichrist of the last days is currently operating in the world to bring confusion and deception to the issue of Jesus Christ’s person and work. “This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world” (1 John 4:3).
Even given the pervasive influence of the spirit of the antichrist, there is no need to fear. As John reminds us, the Spirit of truth indwells all believers and provides protection from the spirit of the antichrist: “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
We have some practical ways to distinguish the false spirit of the antichrist from the true Spirit of God: “[False prophets] are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood” (1 John 4:5–6). Those who are influenced by the spirit of the antichrist are of the world. They have the same values as the world; therefore, the world listens to them. Those who acknowledge Christ have His Spirit of truth, and they embrace the apostles’ message. The gospel the apostles preached is never popular in the world, but it is that very gospel that holds the power to save, through God’s Spirit of truth (Romans 1:16).
The believer’s job is to test the spirits carefully (1 John 4:1). We must be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16, ESV). We should not automatically embrace the message of any preacher or teacher simply because of his or her reputation or credentials; rather, we must listen cautiously to their Christology. What they say about Jesus is of utmost importance.
Having a right relationship with God begins with acknowledging your sin. Next comes a humble confession of your sin to God (Isaiah 57:15). “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 10:10).
This repentance must be accompanied by faith – specifically, faith that Jesus’ sacrificial death and miraculous resurrection qualify Him to be your Savior. “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). Many other passages speak of the necessity of faith, such as John 20:27; Acts 16:31; Galatians 2:16; 3:11, 26; and Ephesians 2:8.
Being right with God is a matter of your response to what God has done on your behalf. He sent the Savior, He provided the sacrifice to take away your sin (John 1:29), and He offers you the promise: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).
A beautiful illustration of repentance and forgiveness is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). The younger son wasted his father’s gift in shameful sin (verse 13). When he acknowledged his wrongdoing, he decided to return home (verse 18). He assumed he would no longer be considered a son (verse 19), but he was wrong. The father loved the returned rebel as much as ever (verse 20). All was forgiven, and a celebration ensued (verse 24). God is good to keep His promises, including the promise to forgive. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18).
If you want to get right with God, here is a sample prayer. Remember, saying this prayer or any other prayer will not save you. It is only trusting in Christ that can save you from sin. This prayer is simply a way to express to God your faith in Him and thank Him for providing for your salvation. "God, I know that I have sinned against You and am deserving of punishment. But Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in Him I could be forgiven. I place my trust in You for salvation. Thank You for Your wonderful grace and forgiveness – the gift of eternal life! Amen!"
“‘Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
never again will foreigners invade her.
In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk;
all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house
and will water the valley of acacias.
But Egypt will be desolate,
Edom a desert waste,
because of violence done to the people of Judah,
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
Judah will be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem through all generations.
Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
No, I will not.’
The Lord dwells in Zion!”
The ideas presented in this prophecy follow this arrangement:
A - God dwells in Zion (verse 17a)
B - Jerusalem is holy (verse 17b)
C - Foreign invaders are banished (verse 17c)
X - The blessings of the Kingdom (verse 18)
C - Foreign enemies are destroyed (verse 19)
B - Jerusalem and Judah are preserved (verses 20–21a)
A - God dwells in Zion (verse 21b)
Other passages that provide examples of chiasms include Ecclesiastes 11:3—12:2; Genesis 6—9; Amos 5:4–6a; Isaiah 1:21–26; and Joshua 1:5–9. Chiastic patterns in the Bible are just one more example of the richness and complexity of God’s inspired Word.
Author: Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, according to the first verse. This song is one of 1,005 that Solomon wrote (1 Kings 4:32). The title “Song of Songs” is a superlative, meaning this is the best one.
Date of Writing: Solomon most likely wrote this song during the early part of his reign. This would place the date of composition around 965 B.C.
Purpose of Writing: The Song of Solomon is a lyric poem written to extol the virtues of love between a husband and his wife. The poem clearly presents marriage as God’s design. A man and woman are to live together within the context of marriage, loving each other spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
This book combats two extremes: asceticism (the denial of all pleasure) and hedonism (the pursuit of only pleasure). The marriage profiled in Song of Solomon is a model of care, commitment, and delight.
Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; 8:4 - “Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.”
Song of Solomon 5:1 - “Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, O lovers.”
Song of Solomon 8:6-7 - “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.”
The poetry takes the form of a dialogue between a husband (the king) and his wife (the Shulamite). We can divide the book into three sections: the courtship (1:1 - 3:5); the wedding (3:6 - 5:1); and the maturing marriage (5:2 - 8:14).
The song begins before the wedding, as the bride-to-be longs to be with her betrothed, and she looks forward to his intimate caresses. However, she advises letting love develop naturally, in its own time. The king praises the Shulamite’s beauty, overcoming her feelings of insecurity about her appearance. The Shulamite has a dream in which she loses Solomon and searches throughout the city for him. With the help of the city guards, she finds her beloved and clings to him, taking him to a safe place. Upon waking, she repeats her injunction not to force love.
On the wedding night, the husband again praises the beauty of his wife, and in highly symbolic language, the wife invites her spouse to partake of all she has to offer. They make love, and God blesses their union.
As the marriage matures, the husband and wife go through a difficult time, symbolized in another dream. In this second dream, the Shulamite rebuffs her husband, and he leaves. Overcome with guilt, she searches the city for him; but this time, instead of helping her, the guards beat her—symbolic of her pained conscience. Things end happily as the lovers reunite and are reconciled.
As the song ends, both the husband and wife are confident and secure in their love, they sing of the lasting nature of true love, and they yearn to be in each other’s presence.
Foreshadowings: Some Bible interpreters see in Song of Solomon an exact symbolic representation of Christ and His church. Christ is seen as the king, while the church is represented by the Shulamite. While we believe the book should be understood literally as a depiction of marriage, there are some elements that foreshadow the Church and her relationship with her king, the Lord Jesus. Song of Solomon 2:4 describes the experience of every believer who is sought and bought by the Lord Jesus. We are in a place of great spiritual wealth and are covered by His love. Verse 16 of chapter 2 says, “My beloved is mine, and I am his. He feeds his flock among the lilies” (NKJV). Here is a picture of not only the security of the believer in Christ (John 10:28-29), but of the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep—believers—and lays down His life for us (John 10:11). Because of Him, we are no longer stained by sin, having had our “spots” removed by His blood (Song of Solomon 4:7; Ephesians 5:27).
Practical Application: Our world is confused about marriage.
The prevalence of divorce and modern attempts to redefine marriage stand in glaring contrast to Solomon’s Song. Marriage, says the biblical poet, is to be celebrated, enjoyed, and revered. This book provides some practical guidelines for strengthening our marriages:
1) Give your spouse the attention he or she needs. Take the time to truly know your spouse.
2) Encouragement and praise, not criticism, are vital to a successful relationship.
3) Enjoy each other. Plan some getaways. Be creative, even playful, with each other. Delight in God’s gift of married love.
4) Do whatever is necessary to reassure your commitment to your spouse. Renew your vows; work through problems and do not consider divorce as a solution. God intends for you both to live in a deeply peaceful, secure love.
John 3:16 presents Bible readers with what is likely the purest, most straightforward summary of the good news of God’s saving love that Jesus Christ brings to the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus, speaking with the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus, continued, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world was an important truth and a new revelation that Jewish believers would need to wrap their heads around. The Jews had no problem accepting the idea of God’s special love for Israel, but the notion that “God so loved the world” was groundbreaking theological material to the Jewish mindset. With this statement, Jesus revealed the all-embracing scope of God’s love under the New Covenant.
God’s agape love does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile, enslaved person or free, male or female (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). The Father sent His Son to destroy prejudices and break down barriers of division to bring God’s great love and salvation to every man, woman, and child in the entire world (Matthew 28:19). And His plan of salvation has been a global strategy all along (See Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world because the world was already condemned. The Greek word (krinō) translated as “condemn” in John 3:17 means “to declare guilty; to pronounce guilt and a punitive sentence on someone in a legal sense; to judge.” The Bible says that all people are born in sin inherited from Adam (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5). We come into this world already pronounced guilty and condemned to die (Romans 5:17–19; 6:23).
In Romans 3:21–31, the apostle Paul teaches that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sin upon Himself when He sacrificed His life on the cross. He died so that we could be “made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (verse 22, NLT). Anyone who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ is restored to fellowship with God (verse 26). Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer condemned because “the power of the life-giving Spirit” frees them “from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:1–2, NLT).
Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to escape a guilty sentence: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). Rejecting Jesus results in condemnation and death (John 3:36). Ultimately, salvation for everyone in the world, from the beginning of history until the end of time, is rooted in faith in Jesus Christ (see Romans 4:1–24; Hebrews 11:6, 13, 26; John 1:12). There is no other way to be saved (John 3:14–15; 11:25; 14:6; Acts 4:12).
God sent His one-and-only Son to die, not just for the people of Israel, but as a loving Savior for everyone. He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save those who believe in Him. Our Savior’s mission was not to sentence people to death: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Christ laid down His life to take away the curse of sin that separates sinners from God (Romans 8:33–34). Jesus came to bring His Father’s gift of salvation so that all who believe in Him might enjoy fellowship in His presence for all eternity.
John 3:16 presents Bible readers with what is likely the purest, most straightforward summary of the good news of God’s saving love that Jesus Christ brings to the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus, speaking with the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus, continued, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world was an important truth and a new revelation that Jewish believers would need to wrap their heads around. The Jews had no problem accepting the idea of God’s special love for Israel, but the notion that “God so loved the world” was groundbreaking theological material to the Jewish mindset. With this statement, Jesus revealed the all-embracing scope of God’s love under the New Covenant.
God’s agape love does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile, enslaved person or free, male or female (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). The Father sent His Son to destroy prejudices and break down barriers of division to bring God’s great love and salvation to every man, woman, and child in the entire world (Matthew 28:19). And His plan of salvation has been a global strategy all along (See Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world because the world was already condemned. The Greek word (krinō) translated as “condemn” in John 3:17 means “to declare guilty; to pronounce guilt and a punitive sentence on someone in a legal sense; to judge.” The Bible says that all people are born in sin inherited from Adam (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5). We come into this world already pronounced guilty and condemned to die (Romans 5:17–19; 6:23).
In Romans 3:21–31, the apostle Paul teaches that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sin upon Himself when He sacrificed His life on the cross. He died so that we could be “made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (verse 22, NLT). Anyone who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ is restored to fellowship with God (verse 26). Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer condemned because “the power of the life-giving Spirit” frees them “from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:1–2, NLT).
Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to escape a guilty sentence: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). Rejecting Jesus results in condemnation and death (John 3:36). Ultimately, salvation for everyone in the world, from the beginning of history until the end of time, is rooted in faith in Jesus Christ (see Romans 4:1–24; Hebrews 11:6, 13, 26; John 1:12). There is no other way to be saved (John 3:14–15; 11:25; 14:6; Acts 4:12).
God sent His one-and-only Son to die, not just for the people of Israel, but as a loving Savior for everyone. He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save those who believe in Him. Our Savior’s mission was not to sentence people to death: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Christ laid down His life to take away the curse of sin that separates sinners from God (Romans 8:33–34). Jesus came to bring His Father’s gift of salvation so that all who believe in Him might enjoy fellowship in His presence for all eternity.
John 3:16 presents Bible readers with what is likely the purest, most straightforward summary of the good news of God’s saving love that Jesus Christ brings to the world: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus, speaking with the Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus, continued, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world was an important truth and a new revelation that Jewish believers would need to wrap their heads around. The Jews had no problem accepting the idea of God’s special love for Israel, but the notion that “God so loved the world” was groundbreaking theological material to the Jewish mindset. With this statement, Jesus revealed the all-embracing scope of God’s love under the New Covenant.
God’s agape love does not discriminate between Jew and Gentile, enslaved person or free, male or female (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11). The Father sent His Son to destroy prejudices and break down barriers of division to bring God’s great love and salvation to every man, woman, and child in the entire world (Matthew 28:19). And His plan of salvation has been a global strategy all along (See Revelation 5:9; 7:9; 14:6).
Jesus did not come to condemn the world because the world was already condemned. The Greek word (krinō) translated as “condemn” in John 3:17 means “to declare guilty; to pronounce guilt and a punitive sentence on someone in a legal sense; to judge.” The Bible says that all people are born in sin inherited from Adam (Romans 5:12; Psalm 51:5). We come into this world already pronounced guilty and condemned to die (Romans 5:17–19; 6:23).
In Romans 3:21–31, the apostle Paul teaches that Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sin upon Himself when He sacrificed His life on the cross. He died so that we could be “made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are” (verse 22, NLT). Anyone who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ is restored to fellowship with God (verse 26). Those who belong to Christ Jesus are no longer condemned because “the power of the life-giving Spirit” frees them “from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:1–2, NLT).
Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to escape a guilty sentence: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). Rejecting Jesus results in condemnation and death (John 3:36). Ultimately, salvation for everyone in the world, from the beginning of history until the end of time, is rooted in faith in Jesus Christ (see Romans 4:1–24; Hebrews 11:6, 13, 26; John 1:12). There is no other way to be saved (John 3:14–15; 11:25; 14:6; Acts 4:12).
God sent His one-and-only Son to die, not just for the people of Israel, but as a loving Savior for everyone. He is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save those who believe in Him. Our Savior’s mission was not to sentence people to death: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Christ laid down His life to take away the curse of sin that separates sinners from God (Romans 8:33–34). Jesus came to bring His Father’s gift of salvation so that all who believe in Him might enjoy fellowship in His presence for all eternity.
Lazarus and Lazarus
&
The
Sign of Jonah
Resurrection, Signs and Wonders
How Many Signs Does It Take?
“One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, ‘Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.’
“But Jesus replied, ‘Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights’” (Matthew 12:38-40).
His very birth changed the course of history and the measurement of time … from B.C. to A.D.
Jesus turned water into wine. He made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. He healed the deformed in an instant, and fed thousands of hungry people with a few loaves and fish. He cast out demons from many who were possessed, and even raised the dead. The religious leaders had personally witnessed or had first-hand accounts of these and many other of his miracles. Time and time again, he did the impossible. The evidence of Jesus’ incomparable divine power was overwhelming. Still, right then and there, they demanded that Jesus show them a miraculous sign to prove his authority.
The Pharisees and Sadducees had eyes to see but were blinded by their preconceived view that Messiah couldn’t be anyone other than whom they decided he would be and should be. They had ears to hear but were deafened by their shouts of programmed tirades against a man who spoke words of light and life to the people. A man who dared claim that he was the Son of God; that he came to fulfill the Law of Moses with a New Way to God through a New Covenant with God.
What kind of miraculous sign did they want? Would another sign convince all of them or just one or two of them? Would each have preferred a miracle of his choice? Would one more sign be enough?
What if Jesus had obliged them by calling down fire from heaven as Elijah twice had done? (With one of the two incidents resulting in the death of 100 soldiers who had come to arrest Elijah. See II Kings Chapter 1, and the other on Mount Carmel). Only this time the fire would have consumed all but one of the Pharisees? Would the survivor have believed in Jesus’s authority then?! If the one left behind had returned to his fellow Pharisees and told them what had happened, would they believe him? Or would they demand another miraculous sign just for themselves?
Jesus knew all too well the rock-hard condition of their hearts. That was the real problem, not what they could or couldn’t see or hear. For it didn’t matter how many or how stupendous Jesus’s miracles were; their “evil, adulterous” hearts wouldn’t allow their eyes to see or ears to hear the truth that Jesus was their Messiah—the Son of God, the Son of David, the Son of Man.
Today’s Superficial Supernatural
What about planet Earth in the 21st century? Have we been desensitized to the miraculous, the Divine, by the countless books and movies that incessantly depict the supernatural as natural? That any number of fantasy super villains and super heroes can perform paranormal wonders whenever and however they choose, including return from the dead. Thereby, marginalizing actual (real-life) miracles to a ho-hum happening that barely merits a turn of our head, let alone a change of our heart.
So many in today’s world have dismissed out-of-hand the authenticity of the Bible as the very Word of the true and living God; despite the stunning evidence of countless miracles and fulfilled prophecies. If Scripture is not enough, then how many other supernatural signs would it take for people to believe in the God of the Bible? What more miraculous proof would they require before they believed and received Messiah Jesus as Lord and Savior?
How about you? Would you believe if just one of the ten plagues struck your neighborhood as God did with the Egyptians in Moses’ time? Or would it take all ten miracles to convince you … as it did with Pharaoh? Remember: The final miracle was the death of every firstborn son in Egypt.
If horrible malignant sores broke out suddenly on people the world over; if all the oceans, rivers, and lakes turned to blood and every salt and fresh water creature died; if a massive solar flare from the sun scorched people on the earth with one mighty blast; if the earth was plunged into the darkness of a subterranean cave; if a cataclysmic earthquake toppled mighty cities, flattened majestic mountains, and submerged entire islands, would you change your mind about Christ—who he is, what he has done for us, and what he will do? (See Revelation Chapter 16 … these are just five of twenty-one judgments during the Great Tribulation).
Or would you do what millions upon millions of people, determined to do their own thing and go their own way apart from their only hope of salvation, will do:
“…and they cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God” (Revelation 16:11). *Note: They didn’t just blame God for anything and everything, as millions have unjustifiably done through the ages; they actually cursed him.
There is no doubt that the vast majority of those left behind at the Rapture will fully comprehend that it is God who is delivering these judgments. Thus, it is not now nor will be then a matter of seeing miraculous signs that would/should cause them to believe. It is not a matter of the mind or eyes or ears; rather, it is a matter of the heart … the will. A heart that refuses to accept the obvious. That God will judge the world ultimately for one thing and one thing only: rejection of so great a salvation purchased by the highest price ever paid—the sacrificial substitutionary death of his Son, Jesus Christ. Just as Israel was disciplined for rejecting him as Messiah.
As he approached Jerusalem for the last time before the people crucified him, Jesus began to weep and uttered these heartbreaking words:
“How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long you enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not accept your opportunity for salvation” (Luke 19:42-44, italics for emphasis).
Less than 40 years later, the Romans pillaged Jerusalem, demolished the Temple, slaughtered six hundred thousand Jews, and exiled the survivors to the four corners of the earth.
No, Jesus did not condemn the Pharisees then and there nor did he come the first time to this earth to judge. In another (one of many) scene in which the Jewish religious leaders confronted him, Jesus said:
“But I have a greater witness that John (the Baptist)—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me … and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you” (John 5:36,38).
Then Jesus spoke these extraordinary words: “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?” (John 5:45-47).
Nor would he entertain them with a miraculous sign, except one—a miracle that he would do at the appointed time, on his terms; to accomplish his Father’s providential plan to save the human race. With no preconditions, no strings attached. With nothing else required of people except as Jesus said, “to believe me—the one he sent to you.”
So Yeshua gave them the sign of Jonah: his death, burial, and resurrection that had not yet taken place. Surely they would believe him then. What more evidence could anyone want or expect than someone returning from the dead?
Shouldn’t that be enough proof for you, for me, for the whole world?
Whether the answer is yes or no to this question, depends entirely on where our heart is when we hear the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as foretold by the prophets in the Old Testament; personified and carried out by Messiah Jesus as recorded in the Gospels; encapsulated in the tenets of the Christian faith through the New Testament epistles of Paul, Peter, James, and John.
Let’s see why, by looking at the only story that Jesus told that was not a parable, which is a story told to illustrate a moral and spiritual truth. A true story in which Jesus even named one of the two men. One in which Abraham, Moses, and the prophets also are mentioned. And a narrative that provides some fascinating features of life after death, not found anywhere else in Scripture.
Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31)
The Narrative (Passage): “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury” (Verse 19).
Commentary: Unfortunately it is extremely difficult for the wealthy or powerful of the world to want anything to do with God … to see their need for personal redemption God’s way in order to live forever in heaven. Their version of heaven is fame and fortune while alive on earth.
Said Jesus: “In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” But Jesus then said concerning salvation: “What is impossible for people is possible with God” (Luke 18:25, 27).
The Lord used the more extreme example of the super-rich for ultimate contrast in this true story. However, even the less fortunate can love the pleasures of this world so much that they would forfeit their own souls in order to passionately pursue and personally possess whatever they think can satisfy them the most.
“If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it” (Luke 17:33, Words of Jesus).
Also, the Pharisees held the misguided opinion that wealth was always a sign of God’s favor or blessings. Thus, I’m sure that the religious leaders were startled, even dumbfounded, by this reversal of roles which weighed God’s divine long-term perspective of eternal values against the world’s short-term measure of success.
The Narrative: “At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores” (Verses 20-21).
Commentary: Jesus was not at all reluctant to use graphic language to illustrate and reinforce what he was saying. For example, he called the elite religious leaders: hypocrites, brood of vipers, blind leading the blind, whitewashed tombs (clean on the outside, defiled on the inside), and even sons of the devil. Here, in Godly empathy, he vividly described the plight of a poor, diseased man whose only hope for some measure of relief from pain and hunger on this earth was the generosity of a man who had more than enough for himself … the rich man.
The Narrative: “Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side” (Verses 22-23).
Commentary: Most translations use the term, “Abraham’s bosom,” but it’s clear that the poor man went to be with Abraham. This story (passage) tells us where the souls of those who died before Jesus arose from the dead were transported (by angels). In the Old Testament, the place of the dead is called in the Hebrew, Sheol. In the New Testament Greek: Hades; which is commonly translated, Hell. All those who died before Jesus initiated the New Covenant by shedding his blood on the cross (dying) and sealing that Covenant with his magnificent resurrection, were taken to Abraham who was the Father or predecessor of all whose faith in the Lord was “counted as righteous(ness)” (Genesis 15:6).
Under the New Covenant, one’s faith must be more than just in God the Father. It now must be in God’s Son, Yeshua, whom God anointed as the Messiah (the Chosen One) to make people right with him.
“For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time” (I Timothy 2:5-6).
Surprisingly and also ironically, the place of the dead (for the unrighteous) was close enough for those sent there to see Abraham and all who had been declared righteous by the Lord. The rich man was so close, but oh so far. And he was in great torment.
The Narrative: “The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’ But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there’” (Verses 24-26).
Commentary: Hades, which at the final judgment becomes part of the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20), is not where you want to be, certainly not forever. Jesus spoke more about hell than heaven, because he doesn’t want anyone to go there. “The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise (the promise of his return), as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (II Peter 3:9, parenthesis mine).
As Scripture repeatedly tells us: God is Love, but God is also Holy. He cannot tolerate sin in his presence. That is something that unbelievers cannot or will not grasp. However, all those whose sin has not been forgiven and who have not been made right with God will get their wish; that God would leave them alone to do their own thing and go their own way. Sadly, this is what the majority of people down through the ages to this very day have done. Through indifference, neglect, or outright rejection they have spurned the message of the Gospel.
“…And that message is the very message about faith that we preach” (Romans 10:8).
The second major difference between the rich man (in torment) and Lazarus (in comfort) was a great chasm, an impassable gulf that separated the righteous from the unrighteous, the saved from the unsaved, believers from the unbelievers. Never the two shall meet.
Return from the Dead! They’ll Believe Then, Won’t They?
The Narrative: “Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment” (Verses 27-28).
Commentary: Here we learn more about the devastating results when we leave this earth without Messiah Jesus as our Savior. Once we die, there is no hope, no second chance for salvation. It’s crystal clear the rich man knew that, as he had no argument or made no plea to return to earth or even change his mind while in Hades. It was simply too late. He found himself in an afterlife, a reality that he had dismissed and ignored during his lifetime. His reward was whatever gratification his riches (or anything else in life) brought him while on earth. And his temporary reward was long gone along with all the fleeting pleasures he had pursued.
The Narrative: “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote’” (Verse 29).
Commentary: Through a combination of his agony and remorse for snubbing God’s gift of redemption while on earth, the rich man pleaded with Abraham for Lazarus to return on his behalf and warn his brothers (that they must repent … change their mind about faith in God and his Messiah). To that all too belated request, Abraham gives the solemn reply that was just cited, in the same vein of what Jesus said to the Pharisees in the passage quoted earlier in today’s article.
Moses wrote about the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God made it clear to Moses that it was their faith by which God credited his righteousness to them. Through the prophets—especially Isaiah and Jeremiah—God declared that a New Covenant (of Grace) would complete and perfect the Old Covenant that the people could not and would not keep. This would be an unconditional covenant, a gift from God that required only one thing: Agreeing with God by personally believing in and trusting the finished work of Messiah … our sin debt paid in full as so wonderfully affirmed by the miracle of Messiah’s empty tomb.
It was Moses who first foretold of the One through whom God would be revealed in a person, a prophet superior to Moses, the Child of Promise greater than Abraham’s promised son Isaac. (See Eye of Prophecy articles, The Child of Promise Part I & Part II, published 8-23 & 8-30-14).
“Moses continued, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15).
Then God speaks in the first person about his prophet: “…I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him. I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf” (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).
Do you remember who was with Jesus when he was transfigured on the mountain and the glory of his divine essence was brilliantly displayed to the astonishment of three of his disciples? Read with me the amazing account:
“About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:28-31).
While still on the mountain, the disciples heard God’s voice (I’m sure his voice thundered as it did from Mt. Sinai when God spoke to Moses and the Israelites … see Exodus 20). God said:
“…This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him” (Luke 9:35).
Yes, the same Moses through whom God gave the Covenant of the Law. The same Elijah who represented the mighty prophets of the Old Testament proclaiming God’s truth about Israel’s glorious past, troubled present, and ominous but triumphant future, and especially about the coming Messiah. I’m convinced that these same prophets will be the two powerful witnesses during the Great Tribulation (Revelation 11).
(See Eye of Prophecy articles, The Two Witnesses, Part I, II, & III, posted 6-7, 6-14, & 6-21-14).
And what did God say about his Son? Precisely what he said to Moses and the Israelites about the Prophet of all prophets to come as we just read in Deuteronomy: “Listen to him.”
But Jesus told the Pharisees that if they wouldn’t listen to Moses and all the prophets who spoke of the coming Messiah, then neither would they listen to him.
Which is what Abraham told the rich man: “But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote’” (Luke 16:29).
Let’s pick it up again in that passage as part of today’s subject and emphasis concerning what it takes to acknowledge that the God of the Bible is God. And that Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah, the very Son of God.
Resuming the Narrative: “The rich man replied. ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’” (Luke 16:30).
Commentary: Surely, someone (Jesus) who had claimed that he existed before Abraham was even born (John 8), and proved that he was God by raising people from the dead, would be acknowledged as the Son of God. Certainly, a man who said that Moses and the prophets wrote about him, and a short time later would, himself, rise from the dead on his own (without any prophet’s intercession or intervention) to prove that he was who he said he was, would be believed by all the people … particularly the religious among them.
Or would they?
(Also, please see Eye of Prophecy article: There’s Resurrection; And There’s Resurrection! Posted 3-19-16).
The passage about the rich man and Lazarus concludes with:
“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead’” (Luke 16:31).
Another Man Named Lazarus
Many know the story of Jesus raising Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, from the dead. However, before Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out of his tomb where Lazarus had been buried for four days, he told Martha (and the whole world), “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this Martha?” (John 11:25-26).
The sacred majestic name of God is, “I AM.” Jesus referred to himself by that very name (Yahweh).
That says it all. It says that the Triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—is from everlasting to everlasting. It says that he predated and created the universe and all living things; he is separate from and supreme over his creation. It says that he: Was; Is; and Is To Come. It says that he is the First and the Last. He always has been and always will be.
Jesus didn’t just show people the right (only) way to God. He didn’t just preach the truth about a Holy and loving God and sinful man and salvation. He didn’t merely explain through parables and demonstrate through miracles what our life on this earth is all about and what must be done to inherit the Kingdom of God. Oh, he did all of these things and much more.
Above all, Jesus unequivocally declared (backed up by the greatest proof of all … his resurrection):
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
What Jesus is saying could be expressed like this:
“I AM.”
(The) Way.
Truth.
Life.
Or, like this: Jesus IS (the) Way. Jesus IS Truth. Jesus IS Life.
Jesus arose from the dead to validate God’s New Covenant with Jew and Gentile alike. Salvation is a free gift from God … by grace through faith in Messiah’s atoning sacrifice for our sins.
What more is needed before someone will believe and receive this gift? Is the resurrection of Christ Jesus not enough? If not, what is? What will it take to convince you and me and her and him, and them? The answer is transparently obvious: There is no greater proof than the resurrection. Thus, it’s not a matter of the evidence.
Instead, it is a matter of the heart. A question of preference. An issue of our way or God’s way. Which way have you chosen? To whom or what will you entrust your eternal destiny? A man-made religion? A philosophy? A government? A charismatic leader? Yourself?
As a result of Jesus spectacular raising of Lazarus from the grave, “Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen” (John 11:45).
But many did not, including the religious leaders who soon heard of what Jesus had done for Lazarus and his family. “So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus’ death” (John 11:53).
Just a few days later, not only the religious leaders but many others shouted in Pilate’s courtyard, “Crucify him. Crucify him.”
And they did.
For sure, thousands did believe in Jesus while he was on this earth, and millions down through the ages. Praise God for that! But, tragically, many more have not believed including billions on this planet today, despite the greatest miracle of all—resurrection from the dead.
As Jesus said to those who doubted him, many of whom wanted to kill him because he claimed to be the Messiah:
“…why do you call it blasphemy when I say, ‘I am the Son of God?’ After all, the Father has set me apart and sent me into the world. Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father” (John 10:36-38).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundational cornerstone of God’s remarkable redemption plan for the human race. Jesus would have been proven a fool, an imposter or worse, a maniac, for making statement after statement that he was sent by his Father from heaven to save a lost world; if, he hadn’t risen from the dead, just as he said he would.
“But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.
“The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, ‘Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day’” (Luke 24:1-7).
Then later in a captivating account of Jesus with two men on the road to Emmaus, after he arose from the dead:
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?’ Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25-27).
I’ve sometimes thought: If there was one time and place that I could have been with the Lord Jesus when he was on this earth, it would have been to walk closely behind him and the two men on their seven mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus!
I would listen to him! Would you? Have you?
For two reasons: (1) He’s no longer dead. He has risen! He has risen, indeed! (2) He explained all that Moses and the prophets wrote about him. It was undoubtedly the best Sunday school lesson of all time! Yes, it was the same day of his resurrection, Sunday, when Jesus went to Emmaus (Luke 24:13).
Things to Ponder
So you see, it’s a double-edged sword that so many people have fallen on when they say, No, to Jesus and so great a salvation that he purchased with his life’s blood.
By the authority of Scripture, I can say with a heavy heart: There are countless many in Hades this very moment who wished they had accepted the truth of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, as eternal proof that he can and does save all who believe and receive him as personal Savior.
“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10, words of Jesus).
On one side of the sword they have not come to terms with the truth of the Scriptures, given directly by God through his prophets and apostles, backed up by powerful (fulfilled) prophecies and mighty miracles. On the other edge of the sword, they have denied the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ outright, or have disregarded its personal meaning for them … for all people.
Why? Why do so many dismiss the historical evidence that Jesus arose from the dead. That he is the Messiah, alive today at the right hand of God the Father … awaiting the appointed time to return to the earth as King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
The answer is sadly all too clear: They don’t want to believe.
It’s, “don’t bother me with the facts, because my life is my own. I’ll do with it as I please. If I want to find God, I’ll find him my way when I’m good and ready, for there are many paths to God.”
Really? Then why does God (the only true and living God of the Scriptures) declare in no uncertain prophetic terms (Old Testament) and fulfillment terms (New Testament) the following:
Old Testament: “I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet (Messiah who is Jesus) proclaims on my behalf” (Deuteronomy 18:19).
New Testament: “For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12).
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!
Praise and honor and glory and power and majesty belong to the Lion from the Tribe of Judah!
