Jesus Christ's Real Life Story, Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

March 18, 2017

There is much information in God's word concerning this season of the year, but that meaning has been diluted more and more over the centuries, and it's just gotten worse and worse as far as what began in the early Church and the things that the Church understood. We know much of that history, but there is a reason why this is being mentioned now and the things we're going to go into in this particular series that we're getting ready to begin here.

The world is truly lacking in understanding of the actual life of Jesus Christ and what scripture tells us about him. For the world of Traditional Christianity some are now in a period that they call "Lent," that began in what is referred to as "Ash Wednesday." This is a period of time that begins 46 days in a countdown to Easter, but what do these things have to do with scripture? What does Lent, what does Ash Wednesday, what does Easter have to do (if anything) in scripture? They're not mentioned in the Bible. They're not even referred to anywhere in scripture, and yet they're observed by many sects and denominations in Traditional Christianity.

So why is it that so many people, millions, believe in and observe religious times that are found nowhere in the Bible, nowhere in scripture? They’re not mentioned, not even referred to, let alone the names, yet that which is in scripture is not recognized, is not observed as God and Christ said they should be. That's awesome to understand. You are very blessed to grasp and comprehend such things if you've heard them.

The word "Easter" doesn't even occur once in the Bible. It does in the Old King James in one place. It's a mistranslation, translated purposely, on purpose, as the word "Easter," when the Greek word is about the word "Passover." Neither does the word "Lent" or the term "Ash Wednesday" occur in scripture. Not only are these words never recorded in scripture, again, they're never mentioned in any kind of terms or reference or anything that you can misconstrue as being related to what people observe. They're just not there. They were not discussed in the early Church by any of the apostles, but they began to appear in writings a few hundred years later. So what happened?

Above all this, why is Jesus Christ not referred to as the Passover for all mankind? Many have read the Bible in Traditional Christianity, but they don't seem to grasp a connection between Passover and the life and death of Jesus Christ. Awesome! Yet this is mentioned in scripture and the story is referenced throughout the Bible.

It was seven years ago, to this same month in March, that we had a long sermon series entitled, The World's Passover, and now that we're beginning to have video recordings on YouTube, I thought it would be good seven years later now to go through this, to have these posted because this really isn't as much for the Church as it is for those who are going to be able to watch these later on. That's what's going to take place in a matter of time here.

So for us it's a reminder of many of these things, and we're going to go into some of the things that were discussed then, but this is the time of year God tells us to review, to talk about, to focus on things, and on Holy Days, annual Holy Days especially that has to do with discussing the meaning of those days. So this will be good for us to be able to go through this entire series that will take us all the way through the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover period so the Church can be nourished by those things. Also it is good for others who have never heard such things. We can begin to take some of these things for granted. We know them. We understand them, but there was a time for most of you that you never understood and you never knew these things.

So we're going to go into a series that's entitled, Jesus Christ's Real Life Story with this being Part 1.

Jesus Christ's Real Life Story. So where do you begin? Well, we're going to begin at the beginning back in Genesis 3. We've reviewed some of this recently, but now in this context in this particular subject matter it's good to begin right there because this is the first time that God Almighty mentions, refers to the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ, and what would take place in time. So through the Bible, beginning with the book of Genesis and Adam and Eve and on through time, God began to reveal more and more of His plan and His purpose for why He put mankind on this earth, why we have life.

That, to me, is an awesome thing that, again, we can begin to take for granted and people in the world don't understand. As a whole, people don't know why God created mankind and with schools, with science (so-called), some who teach, some of their ideas, their mind set is one of getting people farther and farther away from anything to do about an idea about a God. Instead, it goes into evolution and all kinds of things, but they don't want there to be an authority over life, and yet by doing that people don't know why they exist. They don't know why God made mankind. They don't know what's in the future. You know, people live and then they die, and then there are all these ideas and so many religions about what happens after you die. Some think you come back as an animal. Some think you come back as a relative in a human form and there are all kinds of ideas out here! They're confused and they don't really know.

So again, right here in the book of Genesis 3:1, it says, Now, the serpent was more subtle, meaning crafty and shrewd. Now, this is speaking of a being that the world, as a whole, doesn't believe in. There are some who do, who believe some of the things that are written in scripture about a being called Satan, Lucifer, one who rebelled against God, but it's not very meaningful to a lot of people because, frankly, it's gotten to a point in time where things that God has said are not really that meaningful to a lot of people. So Satan is kind of a side note and it's hard for people to believe that there is actually a being, a spirit composed being. They have no idea what demons are or don’t have a belief too much, except maybe in some story they heard in the New Testament in the beginning of a period of time there when Jesus Christ addressed some of that and even dealt with some at one time. Some know of a story where he cast demons into a herd of swine and they went over a cliff, killed themselves. People read, hear stories like that and think, "What do you mean?" They can't grasp such a thing!

So for such beings to exist, it's hard for the human mind to comprehend such a thing. It's just a story and they don't take it seriously and they don't realize that this world is so screwed up, has been led so far away from things that are true and right that God has told mankind. They don't understand that all the religions out here are a result of that being! They don't believe that there's a powerful being who can influence the minds of human beings. Yet they can! They can broadcast just like a radio broadcast. Mr. Armstrong used to explain it that way, something we could understand, that they broadcast in the air. He's referred to, this being, "the prince of the power of the air," and it's because he's able to broadcast. Minds can become receptive, tuned into such things. They don't know it. They don't understand it.

It's kind of like certain situation that happen at times when someone gets angry about a matter and they just totally lose control and do crazy things. It's because beings can feed upon those emotions and those things and stir them up to respond, to be more pronounced. Now, it's a choice whether a person does or doesn't, but human beings tend to respond to such things. They get angrier or they get more upset. Driving down a highway, someone pulls out a gun and shoots somebody. People think, well, that's just human beings acting as human beings. No, there are a lot of beings out there who stir things up, who stir people to do things that are very wrong. Anyway, there is a real spirit being called Satan, the devil, and he has millions who follow him, spirit beings who are confined to this earth for a purpose, to live and dwell where mankind lives and dwells. It is incredible to understand that, if you understand the whole story, but that's not the purpose of this particular sermon. This is about what we're going to read in a moment here.

So there was a serpent; he was referred to as that. He wasn't a serpent. It was a spirit being. It's referring to how Satan acts. He acts, he responds in life like a slithering creature in the grass, a snake in the grass in the way he deals with God and mankind. So it says, He was more crafty, shrewd than any creature of the land which the Eternal God had made. And he said to the woman, Hasn't God told you that you shouldn't eat of every tree of the garden? Now, it doesn't go into detail to tell us how he was manifest, how he appeared. In drawings and things that people do they have this snake out there wrapped around this tree and a snake can talk. Well, snakes don't talk. There was no snake that talked then. It wasn't done as a snake that talked to them, but whatever it was, in whatever way, this being communicated to her, very possibly just influencing her thoughts, her thinking, and what went on in her own mind and how she dealt with this. So again, God doesn't get specific about how it happened, but He uses a story to teach us some very powerful lessons.

And he said to the woman, Hasn't the Eternal God told you that you should not eat of every tree of the garden? Now, I think of so often when people come forward in life and they talk about different things they've gone through and thoughts that come into their mind and how they begin to question various things and there's this battle. We all have certain things that happen in life. People can begin to question something, question something that someone had to say, question what God had to say, question what a minister of God has to say: "Well, that's his thoughts. That's his idea." Anyway, sometimes they're right in life and sometimes they're wrong in life. So this just shows a natural consequence that happens in life with human beings as it is anyway, to begin to question something that God has said.

Hasn't God told you that you shouldn't eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman answered the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. You don't know how that happened. You don't know what went on there. Have you ever had situations in your life where you're thinking back and forth about a matter in order to work it out and something comes into your mind, and how are you going to address it then, something that's been told? Perhaps it's about some of the things we've heard in times past, that Jesus Christ hasn't eternally existed. How does a person address some of that, and they start thinking about that, if they're having a battle with that, and they can begin going back and forth in their thinking and thinking, what was said, and what wasn't said, and is this possible? It depends on what you're drawn to as well in life.

That's a part of the story here. It's what she was being drawn to. She was told not to do something. What do human beings do when they're told not to do something? What does a child oftentimes do when they're told not to do something? "Don't touch that." You leave the room…. It's to be desired! Mom and Dad said, "Don't touch that! Stay away from that. Don't touch that, that's on the table. Don't eat that!" Oh, man, it's like candy! Whether you've ever had it or not, it's like something that's just drawing you to it! That's where it begins. So someone tells you not to do something, a child not to do something, and they want to do it. There've been studies like that. Tell a child not to do something. You leave the room. You come back; where are they at? Right there where you told them not to be because they just can't help themselves. Well, adults aren't much different. We just grow up and we become more subtle in life in how we think and what we do. We don't know what stage this happened, possibly very early on. We really don't know. God doesn't tell because that's not what's important. What's important is what happened.

And the woman answered the serpent; We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Hmmm. "Don't touch it lest you die?" If you tell a child, "Don't do 'something' or this is going to happen," sometimes they go ahead and do it, and sure enough, something else has to happen.

Verse 4—And the serpent replied to the woman; this being in whatever form that he broadcasts, in whatever form he tries to move people away from what is true in life, replied. They do; he does broadcast. If he knows you're having a battle with something, especially in God's Church, especially when God's spirit is working with someone, there are those things he broadcasts to create doubt, to create thoughts, to create thinking. Then you have to make choices as to what it is you choose. Awesome, what takes place! And the serpent replied to the woman, You shall not surely die. Can he broadcast such a thing without even verbally saying it? Absolutely. Absolutely! Have you ever had occasion where things come into your mind? You think it's always just your mind, that a question has arisen to cause you to question something that's been stated or said and it just seems to gnaw at you perhaps? Because as a whole, somewhere along the line, whether you recognize it or not, it happens. It happens in life. For God does know that in the day you eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. That's how he works.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food… You know, "Don't touch it." What happened? It was in her mind! It's just like the child. "That looks good for food." It was attractive, whatever it was. It wasn't ugly. It didn't smell bad. It probably smelled very good, whatever it was, if you're looking at something physical here, compared to other things around that they knew that they could have, or that she knew she could have. She was drawn to it just like a child is. That's what was taking place! …and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired. Do you see what's being said here? It's something that was working in her heart, in her mind, turning her thinking to a desire! She was fighting against something that God said don't do and she was desiring it. It already had begun. Just like a child. …a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened.

So not very much is said here through these chapters, but God said later on why He cut them off from that garden was because of what they did, because they had made themselves as God, to determine what is right and wrong in life, and every human being since that time has done the exact same thing. We don't realize that as human beings. If we do something other than what God says, we have made ourselves as God, that we have the ability and power to decide for ourselves whatever it is we want to do in life. And that's the way all human beings are – they do whatever they want to do in life. The only thing that will cause anything to change on that is if there is a conviction that they shouldn't do it, for whatever reasons. It might be totally selfish, and as a whole generally is, or in some cases for those who listen it's because God has said something you shouldn't do and that works on their mind and something happens in the conscience because of that and they have to make choice and decisions as to their action. Are they going to not do something because God says not to do it? So human reasoning is a very powerful thing, to reason around things, to do things we want to do, to go our own way. It's the lesson through time. It's up to people to listen when God begins to work with them.

And the eyes of them both were opened… and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. I still marvel. I don't care how often I go through this, I marvel at what took place, the process. Here is where sexual perversion came in. You sin against God, something happens in the mind and that is a very powerful thing in the human mind, in men and women as they mature in life. It's a very powerful thing, and because of that, the mind begins to have something take place that corrupts the mind. Sin begins to corrupt the mind. Most people don't believe that. People don't believe that in the world, but that's what happens. It's like a program in a computer; you begin to have corruption in the program, and we have corruption in our minds, in what takes place in our thinking.

So here is one where God was going to give them and showed them how to have various kinds of clothing and animal skins and so forth that they could make. "Fig leaves? They may not have a long span of life, you know? There's something better out here. It's the skin of animals; it will last longer than a fig leaf. Fig leaves will tend to deteriorate and what you're trying to do is not going to work too long." But this is a temporary thing and all they could come up with because they felt something. They felt ashamed. Isn't that an amazing thing? They began to feel ashamed that they would appear before God, and yet God is the one who made every part of them and every purpose for them. Yet they began to feel ashamed and so they thought they had to cover up. Where did that come from? That same being. That same being that began to work with the mind. The mind then becomes more attuned to that being, the being's influence, if you will. Other things he can broadcast, they easily listened to. That's where it began.

So they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Eternal God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Eternal God among the trees in the garden. There is something that happens. You know, a child that goes and does what they're told not to do, and even animals will do this. There's something there that you can tell an animal, a dog, correct it, and you come back and where's it at? You know, right back where it's not supposed to be. They know they've done something wrong! I remember a dog we had that was never allowed on any of the couches. First time I caught it on a couch, coming in, I walked around the corner and it was there, he jumped up and got off there. It was like he'd been struck by lightning because he knew he wasn't supposed to be there, you know? But even an animal can know that. How much more human beings and the thinking process that takes place?

Because of what Satan had done, God told him what would follow him in the future and what would happen to him. Please understand, before this he didn't know this. He didn't know this. He didn't know fully what God told him even then. It had to be revealed in time, the greater meaning of what actually was to take place in time. [Verse 14] And the Eternal God said to the serpent, Because you have done this you are cursed. That's what happens. When someone sins they don't realize that that brings something into life that can't be good fruit where you receive blessings, but it's going to produce something bad in life. That's just automatic because there are laws that regulate life. They're already out there. There are already things that take place, the human mind, and so forth, and the way God created everything in creation. When someone makes a wrong choice then they can't be blessed in life. Instead, they are going to have problems of some sort and they're referred to in scripture as curses, because that's what comes as the result of sin.

So He said, Because you have done this thing you are cursed above all living creatures, whether they be spirit or physical, and above every living creature (as the word means here) of the field, or the land or the cultivated field. In other words, what God had created and given. Upon your belly shall you go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life. So we look at that physically, just as much as the time when Jesus Christ found the woman and she was at the well, and he said there was “living” water, but in her mind when she heard about this living water, as he described it, she felt like this was great because now she didn't have to come back and forth every day lugging these things of water. She wanted that water! "So I don't have to keep going back?" All she could see was physical and that's the way we are as a human beings. We tend to see things physical. So it is here, people hear this story, and they see this tree, this snake wrapped around, and they have no idea what was taking place. This goes on here in some of the story and they see this snake that's slithering on the ground, and he doesn't have the form of a snake, yet that's what people think because they see something physical.

He's showing something on a spiritual plane: "The way you are, the way you act, this is the way you go. This is the way you will be. This is the way you are! You are cursed and because of this you're going to lick the dust of the earth." Yet this is prophetic and it has great meaning to it. I think, what an awesome thing, it says, "You're going to eat dust all the days of your life." The very thing that God used to create Adam and Eve, dust of the earth – they were made from the elements of the earth – and it's that dust that he was going to have to swallow. It's a way of expressing something. "You're going to see things that God is going to do in and through mankind that is going to be hard to bear because you're cursed." This is a curse. "And you're not going to enjoy the blessings" of what He does, like the rest of the angelic realm as they see what God does with mankind and the purpose He's fulfilling through time.

Verse 15—Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! And I will put enmity between you and the woman, the woman. The woman that you communicated to and led astray and led away from the truth and worked with her in her mind and her thoughts to turn against Me, her Creator, I will put enmity between you and the woman, not that woman, but what would come from woman, what would be a result of life that would continue on in time because this is prophetic and recognized even by some teachers in the Protestant world for exactly what it's saying here. …and between your seed and her seed. "Between your seed and her seed." It's about a seed that would come out of woman, Jesus Christ. It's about that which God was going to do to save mankind. It, speaking of that seed, Christ, shall bruise, the word means "to crush and to break." Now, he didn't really grasp and understand fully what was being said here. …your head, and you shall, as it were, only bruise his heel.

He actually influenced and tried to have babies killed trying to get to Christ, trying to destroy and kill the Messiah, Jesus Christ after his birth, and tried to find out, tried to work through a particular king at that particular time. We know the story of things that took place there. Satan has always tried to thwart God's plan or to interfere with it anywhere he could and this is one of those areas. So, again here, some of this prophecy of what was taking place of what He told him, concerning a time where he actually had influence then over leaders to kill Jesus Christ. But it was a part of God's purpose that Jesus Christ should die yet this being didn't understand that, but he was instrumental in having him put to death. It talks about Judas Iscariot and what took place there. It said that Satan basically had put into his mind to do what he did, to betray Jesus Christ. That's the point. So even there Satan was very instrumental then in being able to betray Jesus Christ in a particular timing that we'll discuss later on in the sermon series.

So he was able to bruise his heel. So it was temporary because God resurrected him from the dead. So it was a temporary thing. He was only able to bruise his heel. It hurt. He suffered. Jesus Christ suffered, but it didn't last very long and he was made mightier and greater when it was all said and done. Yet it says here what would happen to Satan as a result of this, of what Christ would do to him in time. "That seed would bruise," which means in the Hebrew to crush and to break, "his head," which means to kill, and yet Satan never really grasped that.

So again, from the very beginning of time God set a process in motion prophetically saying what would take place in time, that there would be a seed come from woman who would bruise, crush, and break Satan's head. There would come a time when there was a Messiah to come, and that's spoken of in different places in scripture, but we'll speak of some of those as we go along.

I want to turn to Isaiah 7 and just jump ahead here because God spoke of Jesus Christ, this particular seed at another time then, and many places throughout the Bible, but we're just picking out a few here.

But in Isaiah 7:14, again, a story we know so well and that people generally read in the New Testament, those who are in Traditional Christianity who know, to a point, but it says here in verse 14, again, something prophesied long, long, long before it happened. Even what was prophesied in the very beginning there with Adam and Eve, prophesied long, long, long, nearly 4,000 years before it happened. Here now with Isaiah it says, Therefore, the LORD Himself shall give you a sign… So we're breaking into the thought here, but this is something that would be given to Judah, if you will. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, so again, what an incredible story of what God did, and shall call his name Immanuel, which is "God with us." Again here, not the entire story of how it would take place, of what was to come, but just a little bit. There's a little bit here and there throughout scripture, things that God inspired David to write in the Psalms about Christ, and here, to inspire Isaiah to write some things. Even on Passover night there are things that we may still touch upon in this sermon series that are said toward the end of Isaiah that are prophesied, explicitly so, about the suffering Jesus Christ would go through. All prophetic, of things that were to take place, in some cases, thousands, and some cases hundreds of years before it came to pass.

Let's go ahead now, jump ahead to Matthew 1 in the New Testament, because then we can easily read the fulfillment of this in Isaiah, because it refers back to this. Matthew 1:18—Now, the birth of Jesus, and just so people know, that word, I look forward to a time in the future when that's going to be corrected because the world as a whole refers to and knows this story by that name, by Jesus, but his name was Joshua. He was called Joshua. That was his name. It wasn't Jesus, but that has been changed and misconstrued through different translations and languages through time. I would mention it to the Church that we should call him Joshua Christ, the Messiah, but we don't do that because there are some weird groups out here that do that kind of stuff and they're so far out in left field that we're not going to be associated with them. Just like certain types of things that we don't do in practices of prayer and so forth that the world does around us because it demeans, it takes away from things that God wants us to understand on a spiritual plane. So just setting the record straight here.

We're not going to start doing that until Jesus Christ returns. Then he will set those things right in the world, that his name is not Jesus Christ; it is Joshua, the Christ. Okay? Because that individual that is pictured by the world, that name is not right. It is not true. The stories that go with it, just like Lent or Ash Wednesday, they're not in the Bible; Easter is not in the Bible. Instead, we’re going to find out in time here that they're very much against what God has said should be done and lived and exercised in life.

So we will continue to refer to him as Jesus Christ because otherwise the world wouldn't know who you were referring to. It is just a name, but names have great meaning, and so does the word "Joshua" have great meaning. But I hope all of you understand what I'm saying because the world around us wouldn't know who we're talking about, and so we're going to continue to use something that has been messed up through translations. In time through language and etymologies, things change, meanings of things change, and it does, we know what it means. We know who it's talking about, but I look forward to the time that not only is truth set right and doctrine set right in the world, but even names, like this name, is set right in the world. It's going to be a beautiful time when things have greater meaning and purpose.

So, now the birth of, as it truly is, Joshua, the Messiah, the Anointed One. A lot of people don't even understand. They hear the word "the Messiah" and they think of things that are said by Jews or by Messianic Jews and they don't understand it's the word in the Old Testament that means "the Anointed One." They don't understand the word "Christ" that's translated out of Greek, that it means the same thing. They both mean exactly the same thing, "the Anointed One." It's about one that God prophesied would come in time who was to be “the anointed one” to be the King of kings over this earth and to be over God's Government, over God's Kingdom. People don't understand that. It has to do with an anointing and setting apart for a very special purpose by God Almighty. So that's why he bears that name, the Messiah, or the Christ. So people have strange things in their mind because of what they've been taught by their teachers, by their religious teachers.

This is about his birth. When as his mother was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the holy spirit. What an incredible thing. Joseph and Mary hadn't come together yet—we understand what that means—in order to have a child begotten. It's talking about something here. Mary had a child in her. She had been begotten by the holy spirit, by God Almighty. What an incredible thing! A seed. Because man, in this case, wasn't going to have anything to do with it. It was going to be the woman and God Almighty, who would have a child begin to be born for a very specific purpose. Only one was to ever be like that in all of time, only one purpose of one Messiah, the Christ. Incredible thing that took place here that God reveals.

It goes on and tells about Joseph because what would a person do? Here is your wife to be, as it were, the one you're espoused to, the one you're marrying, the one you marry and she is with the child. We know what society thinks about such things if something like that were to happen and two people are married and it comes out that this happened before marriage, especially back in that time, or in this particular case here he knew that they hadn't come together yet. And because of the way things are in the world it says, Then Joseph her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was mindful to put her away privately. In other words, to separate her from people, from the community, to let her not be seen, to not go through this process here of questions coming up because the pregnancy had already begun and they hadn't come together yet, been united yet.

Verse 20—But while he thought on these things, it says, speaking of Joseph, because he is wondering what to do and how to do it, see, and troubled by some of this. I mean put yourself in that position. You believe her. She says she's not been with any man. I'm sure there was some conversation involved. She was already showing signs. She knew she was pregnant. She may have been throwing up, whatever happens sometimes with wives, with mothers in life, and maybe showing by this time. I don't know what the whole story is and when he intervened and these things began to happen because we're not told all the story. We're just given parts of it. We're given the most important parts.

So while he was mindful of some of this, what an awesome thing, it says, While he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, very real, very powerful, a kind of dream that you know that this isn't a normal dream when you're awakened. You know that this isn't a normal kind of dream you might have in life. This is powerful and clear and mighty, as it was. …and saying, Joseph, you son of David, do not fear to take unto you Mary your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the holy spirit. Pshew! Incredible! We can't really imagine what it would be like to be there, to be in such a circumstance, to be in such a situation. Those things don't happen: A virgin who all of a sudden is pregnant, never having had a relationship with any man. But it happened here. Awesome story! Awesome thing that God revealed! So this is very powerful in the mind of Joseph and what he saw and what he heard.

Notice, it goes on to say in verse 21—And she shall bring forth a son… You know, it wasn't a matter of being able to go in and put the jelly on the stomach and all of a sudden run this thing back and forth and say, "Yeah! It's a boy!" He is told well before, long before birth he's a son. …and you shall call his name Joshua, which in the Hebrew means, "Yahweh is salvation." "Yahweh is salvation." He is going to be the one who brings salvation to mankind. Names have great meaning to them. They truly do, just like The Worldwide Church of God and what God was doing in the world through Mr. Armstrong, and just like The Church of God—PKG. Not a package, like some have thought out there. Sometimes we've had requests for the complete package. Okay, in time you'll receive it. But anyway, that's another story, but Preparing for the Kingdom of God. I mean, we had no idea how important that would become as time went forward. Yet names have incredible meaning to them, powerfully so.

And he shall save, for it goes on to explain here why he carries that name, "Yahweh is salvation," For he shall save his people from their sins, because of sin the penalty is death. God is beginning to reveal here more now to the world because you can't find all these things in the Old Testament yet. There is certain knowledge, but it's very minimal. Now this is beginning to reveal more and more and more about a process God has for the very subject matter of what we're going through in this particular series. "For he shall save his people from their sins," save all of mankind, those who can receive it, if they will, from their sins, the means by which mankind can be forgiven of sin.

Now all this was done (verse 22) that it might be fulfilled… So it goes on to explain where this is coming from and what it's going to fulfill in the Old Testament prophecies. Many of them you don't know what they are until God says, "This is what it fulfills. This is what it's about."

So again here, talking about …that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the LORD through the prophet, and it's the prophet Isaiah of the scripture we just read a moment ago in Isaiah 7:14, and they shall call his name Immanuel. See, that's where it came from. It came back there from Isaiah, what God said, and the very thing that we read there where it says, "Therefore, the LORD Himself shall give you as sign, because a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel," "God with us." So that's what happened. He would bear that name. He would carry that name as well, which it goes on to say, which being interpreted is, God with us.

So why or how was he to bear the name Immanuel, meaning "God with us”? To me this is a fascinating story of things that God reveals through His word and why he would carry that particular name and what it means because people in the world, if they hear this say, "Well, what do you mean, 'God with us’? What is meant by that expression?" Yet God tells us.

Let's turn over to John 14. To me, it is one of the most profound and powerful chapters in the Bible. Probably because it's one that God has given in the end-time to understand, at the very end of the end-time to understand more fully, more completely.

So in John 14:4 it says, And where I go, the way you know. So this is something we're very familiar with that's in a service once every year that we'll get into farther into the sermon. And Thomas said unto him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. So Jesus Christ, all of a sudden, he's saying, "Where I go you know, and the way you know," and Thomas’s natural, carnal, physical, human response is, "What do you mean? You haven't even told us. You haven't told us about anything, about where you're going." So he didn't know what was going on here and that's what he's saying. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? And Jesus then said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father, but by/through me. Awesome! I feel sorry for the world. I feel sorry for the world of Traditional Christianity that doesn't grasp such things as this, those who have not been taught such things as this. Once it's being taught it really isn't all that difficult to even comprehend.

Verse 7—If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know Him, and have seen Him. So he just went from one thing to the next. It's like talking about this way, and the way you know, and so forth, and you know where I'm going. Anyway, again, it's like a puzzle to them. “You just told us and now you're saying that you're the way and now you throw this at us about your father? We've never met your father. We don't know who your father is. You've never introduced us to your father and now you're saying this." These things were just puzzling to them. Now, the disciples went through a lot of that. A lot of things that Christ said they would come to him later to try to understand. Even when he'd give them something a lot of times it'd be in a parable and they still didn't grasp and comprehend what he was saying. They really didn't start grasping and comprehending what he was saying until after Pentecost in 31 A.D. (awesome to understand that) when God began to give the ability for them to understand what he was saying.

He said, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also." I'm sure that was puzzling. They'd been with him all this time. "You're saying we don't know you?" They didn't really know him, did they? They didn't grasp what he was saying. They didn't understand the stories of things he said. They didn't understand the deeper meaning of things that we can grasp and understand. So he says, "If you had known me, you would have know my Father also. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him." They still didn't get it! Nothing! Nothing there. It's like this goes from one confusing moment to another confusing moment and it just doesn't all fit together. It's disconcerting. It was to them because they wanted to know. They wanted to understand. They loved him, incredibly so! They gave up their lives, things they were doing in their life to follow him, to hear him, and they saw incredible things along the journey, especially toward the end in the last few weeks as he was going to Jerusalem to fulfill what he was to fulfill. Awesome!

Sometimes we read stories like this and we can't be in the moment, we don't grasp fully what they were going through and how they were thinking. And Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and that'll be sufficient. Its like, "What do we do? Show us the Father and we'll get that, we'll understand something. But what you're saying to us," in essence, what he was saying, "it doesn't make a bit of sense." It was exasperating to them.

Verse 9—And Jesus said unto him, Have I been such a long time with you, and yet you have not known me, Philip? Can you imagine being in his shoes, following him, being Philip and following Christ all this time and the one you look up to in such a powerful way, to know that God was working with him in such a meaningful way, to know that he was the one because God brought them to the point to be able to see certain things, and they did see that he was the Son of God. They had come to that conviction already. They believed that. "You are the Son of God!" Awesome! And then for him to tell him, "You've been with me all this time and you don't know me, Phillip?" That had to hurt! That had to hurt inside as a human being who didn't really "see" the whole picture, to think, "He's telling me this… I opened my mouth…" Have you ever been in times when you've opened your mouth and you wished you could take back what you just said? He felt that. He felt like that, but that's how we grow. That's how we learn. It goes on to say here, Have you been so long with me that you don't know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; so how can you say then, Show us the Father? He was showing them something on a spiritual plane that they didn't yet fully grasp; maybe a little bit here as he was going through some of this, but they still couldn't, they still didn't get a hold of it, but it was a beginning and he was showing them, in essence here, "That's what I'm manifesting to you."

Sometimes we don't grasp in the Church of God what we're to manifest to the world around us. Not selfishness. Not ourselves. But a different way of life. That's what people are to see. They're to see someone who treats them in a different way. Truly! It's a part of the same sort of thing here if we grasp it and understand it, the incredible responsibility and opportunity that God gives to us to live a different way before people around us in the world, to be a light, to be an example. We're not that light, but we have opportunity that it lives through us. What an incredible thing to understand!

Verse 10—Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Wow! "This is why you should have seen the Father. Don't you believe that the Father's in me and I am in the Father?" Well, they didn't yet. They didn't grasp that yet. They're going to start seeing some of it and they'll understand a whole lot more after Pentecost.

Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I do not speak of myself. That's profound what he just said. He says, "The words, the things that I tell you, the things that I've taught you, the things that I've spoken to you, they're not my words. They're not from me. They're not from the way I see things and the way I am. They're from the Father!" Everything he's taught, everything he spoke was about God, about God's plan, about God's purpose. Everything he had in conversation was fully about what God was doing on the earth. The things that they witnessed were about what God was doing on the earth. He says, "What you see, what you hear, the works that I have done, it's the Father. It's not me! I didn't do these things," and neither do we! Any good that we can do in life it isn't our good. It comes from God. It's something that can live through us. It's like God's love, agape; it's not ours. We're not the source of it. The source is God. If it can come through us and someone else receives of it and benefit from it in life by how they're treated, what an awesome thing, because that's the way it's supposed to be.

The words that I speak unto you I do not speak of myself; but the Father who dwells in me, He does the work. He's explaining something here that's on a spiritual plane. He's not speaking of something of possession of a body, of a life. It's not about that. There's a demonic world that would like to do that, but God Almighty is not like that. He gives of His holy spirit. He gives of His mind, of His being to those who can receive it in life, of a way of life of how to live because there's only one true way of life to live and it comes from God Almighty. If we can receive that and live that then it's because of God Almighty. Human beings can't because by nature human beings are just selfish. That's the way we are. We're selfishly motivated. People don't like to hear that, but that's the way it is. That's what our human nature is like.

The words that I speak unto you I do not speak of myself; but the Father who dwells in me, He does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake, so the things they witnessed, the things they saw, the things they experienced by this time, what they had seen just a few days before this when he brought Lazarus back to life, what an incredible story. They saw so many things! He's telling them now, "The works, at least believe because of the works that were done," but he said it's the Father that does it. It wasn't him. He didn't take the credit and the honor. It came from God Almighty. What an incredible thing to know. What an incredible thing that he said.

Dropping on down a little bit here. You know, understanding this on a spiritual plane is why it's such an incredible thing that Christ had to say this, and a little bit later in verse 19, because it's a story flow here of something he's showing and why he revealed this and said this is so that later on in time the Church could come to understand, God's people could come to understand, certain things about what God intended for the Church, not just in a relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ, but how it would be in a body, the Body of Christ.

John 14:19—Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you will see me. This was a little puzzling too. This was puzzling too. He said so many things on this night. This is the last night as a physical human being on earth. The things he had to say here were difficult for them. He's telling them now, A little while the world will see me no more; but you see me, you will see me. Because I live, you shall live also. They didn't grasp what he was saying. At that day you shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. When they come to understand, when they come to "see," when this time comes in their life that the mind is able to grasp and comprehend what is taking place here, then we're to grasp and comprehend something else far beyond, that the whole purpose of what Jesus Christ was revealing was not only that God the Father and Jesus Christ had this unique relationship of God the Father dwelling in him through the power of the holy spirit, and Jesus Christ dwelling in him on a spiritual plane, but now it's going to happen to the disciples "at that day." For them that was the day of Pentecost. That's when that began, when that power began to live in them and dwell in them and they were able to experience something that Jesus Christ lived. What an incredible thing to understand, that we receive a portion of God Almighty to help us to understand, to see, to know the things that we know and "see" that can't be "seen" until God gives of His holy spirit.

So because the world is not taught the truth of these things and what they actually mean in a complete plan and purpose that God has for creating mankind, people don't understand this as a part of the very purpose God created human beings. They don't see it. So the teachers of religion have espoused things that are not contained in scripture and have no actual true meaning about what God is doing at all. Ash Wednesday has no meaning with what God says in scripture. That's why it's not mentioned in the Bible. That's why it's not there. Easter has no meaning with what God teaches in the Bible. People say, "Oh, yes it does. It has to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ." No, it doesn't. It's not in the Bible. It's not taught. Something else is taught and people don't know what it is. What an incredible thing to understand.

I look so forward to the time that's coming very soon when that ability for people to see that and perceive that on a massive scale. You talk about such a momentous time in a progressive revelation of things on this earth, that's going to be so incredible! It truly is. Again, the world's confused. Religions don't understand. They've espoused things that are not contained in scripture and have no actual meaning at all about what God is doing and why Jesus Christ actually died. They have a portion in their mind of what they think it's all about, but they don't understand the whole story. They think it's about being able to be forgiven of sin and to a point. They don't even understand what that means—sad—because they're not taught. So instead religious teachers have come up with things that just aren't found, over and over again that aren't found in the Bible.

Let's go back to John 1. That's why people don't understand what God has given through the apostle John. Again, a person has to clear their mind of things that they think that they've been taught and just hear what God has to say and what God reveals. In time, that will become the norm.

John 1:1. Even for us it's taken time to come to understand these verses and to understand what's being said. It's very plain if you don't have twisted distortion of other things in your mind and what's being said. In the beginning was the Word. "In the beginning," really something that human beings can't grasp and comprehend. It says, "In the beginning was the Logos." What is that? Well, as we go on we begin to learn and understand what it's talking about. It's talking about, as Mr. Armstrong used to explain it, it's the best expression, "the revelatory thought of God," something that God has to reveal. His thinking. His mind. His way of life that God intends for mankind to have, as an example, of what He intended that we should live.

So, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was, not with… It isn't a Greek word that means something is with you, that you have something with you. I have with me a pen. No, it's not about that. Or, my wife is with me; I'm with my wife. It's not that kind of a word. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was unto God. In other words, it was His Word. It was God's. It revealed God, the revelatory thought, the mind, the thinking, the being of God, who God is, the way of God, everything else, the truth, whatever you want to say, different words that express that. This is what it's explaining here. I love back in the book of Proverbs when it talks about wisdom. It's that wisdom. It's that mind being spoken of there. It's the Word of God. It's the revelatory thought, the being of God that gives such things. …and the Word was unto God, and the Word was God. That's who God is, everything that reveals who He is – the mind, the being of God Almighty. That's a profound thing to understand because the world doesn't understand that. Do you? How do you? What have you been given?

The same was in the beginning unto God. It's always been with God because it's God. It's who God is. It reveals who God is. You know what? Your body does not reveal who you are. Your body, your form, doesn't reveal who you are as a human being, but what's “upstairs” reveals what you are, who you are, because everything you do has to do with your thinking. Every action, every spoken word that comes out of you, where does it come from? Upstairs. Hopefully, in the mind. No, just kidding, out of our mind. A lot of times it's just not too good, but what comes out of our mind, that's why we do the things we do. That's why we act the way we do. That's why some people get a piece of charcoal put on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, because of what they believe, because of what's in their mind, what they've been taught that isn't in the Bible, that isn't in scripture.

I would want to ask the question, "If this never happened in the Bible, if it never happened during the time of the apostles, when did it start happening?" That's kind of what I'd like to know on a physical plane, not a spiritual plane, but why is it we go through or people will go through such a thing and you see this big ole' smudge then on Wednesday's and people have it on their forehead. You think, "What does that mean to you? What are you doing? What? Where in this book does it talk about this?" Because it doesn't. There are no ashes. There are no ashes that are being wiped on people's foreheads or any part of the body, so where do you think that came from? It'd be good to do a little history checking. Go back and do a little research. Why don't people do things like that? Why just listen to somebody and do something nonchalantly without thinking about it? "Well, my mom and dad told me to do it. I started doing this when I was a child." Why? "Well, because our preacher said we should do it." Why? Where's it in the Bible? Where do you find this? Do you know?

I am so thankful that people are going to begin to see these things and understand these things, massively so before long. We're getting so close. This world and what's being revealed to this world right now is dumbfounding. It's starting right here in this country. Things that people are beginning to see and understand in ways that they never could before, so much of it to do with technology and what mankind has done with technology and because everything's instant now a days. Like what this one individual gets in a lot of trouble for. Tweeting! Everybody knows what I'm talking about. Tweet! Tweet! Tweet! I don't tweet. The only tweet I ever knew was in a comic book, but people do it and they use it as a form of communication and it's instant. People everywhere, and I mean all around the world, know it, hear things instantaneously. Things come out and things are being done and it's revealing. It's like stirring a pot. It's like there's some stuff at the bottom here and no one has ever seen it and it stinks, and you start stirring it up and all of a sudden this stuff starts to come up. "That was down there?" Amazing! Now people are starting to see it. It's not going to be that great a transition then in time to be able to help people to see, as God's spirit's poured on this earth, to take it a step farther, to see why it's that way and what it really is, and showing that mankind, we're proving it now in extremes real-time that mankind cannot govern himself. We have not been successful in ruling ourselves and now it's coming to the surface. A lot of it's moved, if you will, stirred up more because of technology. We can't govern ourselves in this world. We're headed down a very slippery slope.

I hope we're able to make it to the Feast of Tabernacles this year. I believe we are. I believe because of where the book is and where we are in the scheme of things that God is going to give us that, but I'll tell you what, at some point here things are going to turn nasty out here. It only takes one moment in time and all of a sudden everything around you has changed. I saw an individual here, being interviewed here yesterday, who made comments about the economy. They were talking about, basically, how many years up the road is this? He said, "It's not years. It could be in May that these things can hit." We are going up against a big brick wall and we don't even understand it as a world, as a nation, as a people. All the nice things that people might plan for but you get down to it and you find out you can't just do what you want to do. It's not that kind of a system. You can't just do whatever it is you want to do. Somebody has to pay. Who pays and how do you pay? Anyway, I marvel at what's coming out and how fast these things are happening in the world, and attitudes and feelings and things that are taking place. I hope you're alert to some of that, what's going on.

So the world's confused and doesn't understand why they do the things they do. Yet there are things said in this particular series we're going to cover, and you think, why hasn't anyone ever heard these things? Why is it religious leaders don't talk about them? Not even the Jews, who have some of this history, talk about these things. Not as they should. Incredible! Even in this season of the year and what they're getting ready for. They'll talk about eating a lamb. They'll talk about a certain meal they have, but you know what? They don't even call it what it's supposed to be called anymore. They call it something else. Incredible!

So continuing on here, things about God. The Word was with God; it was unto God because it was God. It's who God was and is. All things were made by Him, and it gets a little more explicit here. It says that was in the beginning. There wasn't anything else, just God, the Word, the mind, the being of God. Do you think human beings can grasp that one? I marvel how we'd prefer to believe that somehow we struggled over millions of years to come out of something slithering and slimy in the water. They're so desperately trying to find life out there off of other planets or asteroids or whatever it might be, and so wanting to find something. They might even find something before this is over with in the next year or two, because we know how some of that stuff got out there and we know where it came from, and it didn't come from someplace else, it came from right here on this earth. Anyway, another story.

Verse 3—All things were made by Him; and without Him there was nothing made that was made. Everything that exists, He made it. There's nothing out here, in other words, that God didn't make. Everything was made by God. Everything! There was nothing that wasn't made by God. Nothing exists except what God brought into existence. Awesome!

All things were made by Him; and without Him there was nothing made that was made. In Him was life. Life, and we'll take it a little step farther today because it has prophetic meaning in it as well. It's about a life. It's about something He was going to give to His own Son and that was to come into all the world through him. A life; it's in him. This life, His intent, His purpose in what He's going to accomplish and do, it was going to be in this manner. It's about Jesus Christ. It's all about God's plan in and through Jesus Christ who was purposed from the beginning before anything else that was made. Awesome story!

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. It's only through Jesus Christ that mankind can begin to know and "see" the Father, to understand and "see" God Almighty. That's what's being told here in the story. Just like Jesus Christ said, "No one comes to the Father but through him." Incredible. And it’s vice versa, in one respect. So it's through Jesus Christ that we are able to come to see and understand the things that we do. And the life was the light of men. So it's prophetic of the life to be given through the birth and the life of Jesus Christ. That's where it began. He was or is to be the light of men, in that respect.

Verse 5—And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it, doesn't grasp and comprehend what God is doing, doesn't understand things about Jesus Christ and what's taking place unless there is something that takes place in the mind where all of a sudden there's a light like a light bulb that goes off and all of a sudden a person can "see." Before that, they can't "see." All they can see is Lent, Ash Wednesday, Easter, or things like that that aren't in the Bible, that aren't in scripture, that are in darkness, because they're not understood and people don't even know where they came from because they've just accepted it as that's the way it is from whatever stage of life that they began to experience it and live it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came as a witness to bear witness of the Light! Awesome, because this is the first place and a powerful means that God began to reveal something to mankind. "If you have seen me," he told his disciples, "you've seen the Father." Awesome! Awesome, what he was saying! And so here is one, John, who came to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. It's the only way people can begin to see and know and to understand God. It's through Jesus Christ. It's through this whole story of what we're going through in this series, of what makes that possible, which becomes more and more exciting the farther we go into it.

He was not that light, speaking of John, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lightens every man who comes into the world. In other words, the potential and the power, because not everyone can receive it or choose, or will choose to receive it. That's up to individuals, but those who are enlightened and who come to see and to know, this is how it happens. That's what it's saying here.

Verse 10—He was in the world, and the world was made, not by him. It's not the word for "by" again here, as though he was the one that did it. That's not what it's talking about. It's through; it's about a purpose that God has in and through Jesus Christ. …and the world was made, in essence, through him, and the world knew him not. In other words, it goes all the way back because we've talked about so many times, to the very beginning, before God made anything He had a desire and a purpose for Himself and for what we understand to be Elohim, the God Family, the Family of God. There was a means by which that would come into existence. Everything that was created was made because of him, through God's purpose in his life that He was going to give in Jesus Christ.

Verse 11—He came unto his own, and his own did not receive him, speaking of that which then God gave through Jesus Christ to come into his own. Who? Those that God had worked with, those that God led out of Egypt, and those at this time that were mainly the Jewish people, the tribe of Judah and a couple of the scattered tribes there. And he came unto his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. So going on in time. This is not just a one-time event; it's a thing that will continue on through time, from now on into the Millennium and on into the Great White Throne period.

So "as many as received him," in other words, not all will choose to receive him when they have the ability to, when they have the ability to "see," but to those who did, to those who do make certain choices in their life, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to be a part of the God Family.

You say things like that and the world doesn't have any idea. People talk about going off to heaven (and I've talked about this at times), and they go fishing, or whatever it is "Joe" liked to do. People like to think they're going to be doing that for all eternity. People talk like that. People have no idea of what happens after death, as a whole. They hope that the one they love is up there because that's what they believe. That's what they've been led to believe, that everybody goes to heaven. We'll address some of that as we go along. Incredible! Things that aren't true. Things that aren't in the Bible.

What an incredible thing, people want to go up there and be with Jesus and yet he's coming this way. He's coming to this earth a second time. That's what the Bible teaches. It says it very clearly, very powerfully so. Scriptures in Revelation that are very powerful in that, and yet who believes those things? Even just physically reading it, who believes what's written there? They don't. They can't.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to those/to them who believe on his name. So that's the only process whereby we can be saved. That's why he carries the names that he does, of Joshua, of Immanuel, and so forth because they have meaning of a process and purpose that God has in and through his life.

Who were born, begotten, better stated, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. To be begotten? To be able to receive the impregnation of God's holy spirit in the mind, as it teaches? People don't understand that. They don't grasp that that's God's purpose, that that's what is used over and over again by the apostle Paul and Peter and different ones when they talk about being begotten and how we're begotten. It's a spiritual thing that happens in the mind of a human being, and the process that begins then of a change in life where we can be transformed, as it talks about in Romans 12.

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Beautiful! The Word, the revelatory thought of God was made flesh, made a human being. It started as soon as he was born, a process, something working in his life, God Almighty. He was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and he came to a point in time where he, too, though he was, his Father was God Almighty, he had to do what we all do when we come to a point of having to be baptized. He set that example for all who have to follow. He came up out of the water and God gave him that day the begettal in his mind, which was from God, but now on a spiritual plane in a way of begettal through the holy spirit. "This day have I begotten you," is what He said on that particular day. Awesome what took place! So that which continued to grow in a more powerful way then and the things he did later in a far more powerful way because of a life now that was him, his alone on a spiritual plane.

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father). Physically and spiritually. We're not that way. We're born, from the time of Adam and Eve on down through to Noah, and then those who came from Noah and the family that was there that was brought through the flood, and then all the way into humanity, into mankind. But here is one who had a physical beginning in a physical life because he was begotten of God Almighty, and he had a spiritual one as well. No other human being like him. No other human being ever intended to be like him, fully the Son of God. Physical and spiritual.

Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 5, because all this now leads us to a very important area of scripture that most in Traditional Christianity never ever think upon or have even heard of such things in the Bible, the same people who do things that are not in the Bible, but have no real knowledge of what we're now going to cover here in the actual life of Christ and what it talks about here, what's spoken of here by the apostle Paul.

I only had one time in my three years where some wanted to know certain things, so I sat down with a few, and this is where I turned. And I said, "Why don't you believe this? Why don't you do this? Why are you doing what you do?" Well, I knew they couldn't hear and I shouldn't probably even have done it, but I couldn't help myself, because I'd heard enough at this point in time and that made a separation between me and everyone else, obviously, in a very powerful way, because things spread around very fast.

1 Corinthians 5:6. Paul had a difficult time with the Corinthians because of the life that they were being called out of, the lifestyles and the corruption that was in that part of the world at that particular time. There were things happening within the Church that needed to be cleansed and Paul was addressing some of those things very early on, and I’m not going to go into the story of what specifically took place here, but basically they wouldn't address it and they were kind of “winking an eye” at it and knew certain things and they wouldn't address something that they knew was wrong against God and they wouldn't stand for God, which is something that everyone has to do. You have to stand up for God before all other in this world, no matter who it is, and say that God is first in our lives.

And because of that, then, Paul is addressing them about certain matters that were taking place here, and he said, Your boasting is not good, because spiritually that's what they were doing. By not doing what God says you're lifted up with a kind of pride and boasting here that's repulsive; it's wrong, and you're not to do this. Your boasting, your spirit, who you think you are, that you can do something against God? That's what he's basically telling them. So he said, Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? So right now, anyone who might be listening that has never heard such things, we're talking about bread, a little leaven. It just takes a little bit of leaven. So a lot of people listening don't have any idea because they don't know how maybe their mom or whoever made bread, but now a days you pretty much just go down to the grocery store and you buy it in a loaf that's on the shelf and you don't know how it's made. Maybe you even know it has flour in it. You know, a lot of people don't even know that, and all the preservatives that allow it to be there for weeks and months on end.

But anyway, a little leaven. So it's talking about a leavening agent, a little bit of yeast or whatever that you can sprinkle into the dough and you let it rise first. It has to rise and then you can bake it. Basically, isn't that where bread comes from? But anyway, its saying here, "Don't you know that it just takes a little bit of leaven to leaven the entire lump." You know, you mix it in the dough, something so small, and yet all this dough, all of a sudden it starts to rise. It starts to get puffed up. Then you can bake it. Awesome! Process here of cooking. Why in the world is he talking about this to the Corinthians? It has great meaning and great purpose, but the world is blind to it. They'd rather have a little dark spot of some kind of thing that's been burned and ashes up here on the forehead and walking around with that not knowing really, fully what it means or where it came from or where it even began because it didn't start in the New Testament. It didn't start with the disciples. It started a few hundred years later, but where, why, how? Incredible what people are willing to believe.

But this here and what Paul was saying, people don't know. They probably have never heard it in their life. They may have read it on their own, but they don't hear any preachers preaching this, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." Well, if they did I'll guarantee that's where they're going to stop. They're not going to read the rest of the story.

It goes on to say here, Paul says here, Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. "Purge out, therefore, the old leaven." So people have no idea what this means, but we know. It has incredible meaning because we understand what it goes with, with other teachings of things that God has given in scripture. What a sad thing that people read something like this and they've never been told what it means! They've never been told the truth about it. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that you may be a new lump. What on earth does that mean? It means that a human being is to become a new lump? Well, they don't understand that leaven is used in the Bible as an example of that which puffs up – pride, sin. People sin because they're puffed up. They think they can do whatever they want to against something that God says you shouldn't do. God says don't do a certain thing and so people go out and do it and that's being puffed up. Paul is using this example about leavening because it even has far greater meaning in the Bible as we go along and read the story.

How awesome that you see these things. You know, again, I hope everyone takes this to heart during this season of the year, to understand how much you know, to understand how much you've been given to see, that if we're not careful we can begin to take for granted. But to be able to see it and know it, to grasp what it means, and millions and millions and millions who call themselves Christian have no idea what this means; they have never been taught it. They have never been shown it. What a horrible thing!

Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump even as you are unleavened. So it's about something that God reveals that we're going to look at in Part 2, about a period of time that God says mankind is to observe as a religious, as a holy time, not Easter but a different time that he said people are to keep. Right here, Paul, long after Christ was dead is telling the Church what to keep, because people like to say, "Well, the law was nailed to the cross, and so you don't have to do this." Well, here Paul was telling the Church, "Oh yes, you do have to do this." This isn't nailed to a piece of wood. It's still in force. It's still to be lived. It's still to be obeyed, and people don't even know what it is.

"Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that you may be a new lump even as you are unleavened." It's telling them, and the Church did it, that when you enter into this period of time it's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread and you're to have all leavening out of your homes. So at this time the Jews put all the leavening out of their homes. You're not to have leaven in your home. You're not to have bread in your home. They were told to eat unleavened bread for seven days, and we'll come back to this in Part 2. But again here, they were to be unleavened. So he's referring to the fact that their homes now are unleavened, so you are to become unleavened in your life. That's what he's saying; become unleavened like your homes are unleavened. You're to become, you're to live without sin. You're to get rid of the sin in your life. So that's the focus.

Notice what it says, though, next: For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Who on earth out here hears in Traditional Christianity that Jesus Christ is our Passover? They don't hear that! They hear things about Easter. Children hear about rabbits that are running around laying eggs and they go out and they pick up eggs, they try to find eggs. They don't know what this means. Yet it says Jesus Christ is our Passover. He's not our Easter. It doesn't say that. It says he's our Passover. That one word in the King James that's translated as Easter, it's the word Passover because it's about Passover. Yet people don't understand how important this period of time of the year is, that we're approaching Passover. So there's a counterfeit. Fake news, you know, that has been taught for hundreds and hundreds and almost 2,000 years. Not quite, but that's what we'd have to label it as: Fake news or fake things that are out here. Easter is fake. It's not real. It's not true. God nowhere told people to keep it, but He said to keep Passover.

For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. What on earth does that mean? As I go through this and I think about this and talking to the Church about this in this time of year as we go through the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover season, I think how awesome it is that we "see" all that we "see"! Because we as human beings do begin to take things for granted, and the appreciation, the gratitude, and how we respond to God begins to wane and begins to go by the wayside. Yet we are filled with riches on a spiritual plane. Do you really grasp how much you've been given? Do you really grasp how much you are blessed to "see" the things you see? Because we're addressing and talking to people today that will hear it in time that have no idea, may not even have ever heard the word "Passover," and if they have they've never heard that Jesus Christ is our Passover. Why aren't they taught that?

For even Jesus Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. Basically, that's where my conversation ended that I talked about, that one time I did it in three years time that I was there in “la la land.” What an incredible thing here. Let us keep the Feast. So I ask, "Why aren't you?" This is not a suggestion. It's something that Paul is saying that we should be doing as the people of God, as the Church of God. That's who he was addressing. He was addressing the Church at Corinth and telling them that this is something you're to do. Christ is our Passover, sacrificed for us: "Therefore, let us keep the Feast." People have no idea what it's talking about. Instead they're taught to keep Easter, and it's no Feast. It's not in the Bible, but the Feast that's mentioned here, that Paul refers to long after Christ was dead, says that we're supposed to be keeping a Feast. It's the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

We'll continue with that in Part 2.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1