Jesus Christ's Real Life Story, Pt. 6

Ron Weinland

April 17, 2017

Today we're continuing with Part 6 of the real life story of Jesus Christ, or as it's titled Jesus Christ's Real Life Story.

I am dumbfounded as I go through some of this and as we are progressing along. I have some concern about doing too many of these in a series, but for those who come along later on they're really not going to care how many there are in a series when this world gets to a point of being in the kind of shape that it is. We are at a very unique time in history. You're witnessing things coming together in an awesome way in this world.

This is different than what it was before 2012, and we've talked about a lot of that. Before that period of time things had already been judged, things were going to happen in a specific way with specific countries. That's why I'm in awe of the Great God that has extended the kind of mercy that He has that when things begin to turn bad, as they're going to before too long, then people have the opportunity to repent and to change, to listen to God. Very few have listened in 6,000 years. Very few. You look at the history of what's written in the Old Testament, that's about 4,000 years of history there, so few have ever listened to God. Only one nation ever has, and we know that, the nation of Nineveh, the Assyrian people, basically, those who are the Germanic people. They repented, and an entire nation of people—Awesome!—because of what they witnessed, because of Jonah, and their basic beliefs, things that took place. I don't want go through that story.

But I so look forward to the potential for people, even nations, of changing, of being able to hear and the sharpening of the hearing is going to be magnified many times over when this all begins. This is a unique period of time to mention some of that because of what it talks about, as we went through the story of Egypt, the Israelites in Egypt in slavery and bondage, and their first Passover, a Passover that was a "type," that pictured things that Jesus Christ himself was to fulfill in time. But that was the first Passover that God gave to His people, and He began to introduce them then to that and the Holy Days and some of the things that came as time went along of a purpose and a plan that He had that He was going to begin working out. They only saw what was immediately affecting them.

But what I am dumbfounded by is an attitude of people, portrayed by the Egyptians themselves and by Pharaoh, stubborn, stubborn, stubborn self-will that human beings have, and the more that they have, the more power, the more wealth, the less likely they are of letting it go in any fashion or form. So Pharaoh refused plague after plague after plague. You look at all the plagues that came upon Egypt to humble a nation of people and to humble Pharaoh, so that he would let the children of Israel leave. He didn't want to give them up! They were like the conveniences of life for them. They provided; they took care of the Egyptians. They were their slaves in everything as far as life is concerned. The main thing we think about is the building side of it, but they did many things for the Egyptians.

And finally, it wasn't until Passover, Passover night when all the firstborn of Egypt died, the animals and people and Pharaoh's own son died. The Israelites were saved because they sprinkled the blood of a lamb on the doorposts, on the side posts and on the doorposts of the houses where they kept the Passover, and sadly that example has escaped human beings, of the importance of what it pictures. It's all about Jesus Christ and how we can be saved from sin, and that death passes over us. He is our Passover. That's why I mentioned how Paul mentioned our Passover in scripture, that Jesus Christ is our Passover who was sacrificed for us. Yet Traditional Christianity doesn't acknowledge that! Traditional Christianity doesn't focus upon that. They don't listen to what Paul wrote long after Jesus Christ was dead, because they like to say, "Oh, the law has been done away with. Passover has been done away with, and therefore, there is no need to obey those things." And yet Paul, long afterward, talked about in 1st Corinthians there, "Let us keep the Feast." He was talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He went on to Chapter 10 then and Chapter 11 and talked about Passover and why we keep Passover.

It blows my mind sometimes when you think about human beings and what they willingly refuse and they will not listen to God. So this nation first, and many other nations in the world are going to experience some horrible things so people can begin to listen, because it's only when people are brought low that they will begin to listen to God. And thankfully, God is making a means and a way that they be able to hear the truth, so they'll be able to know the truth. Awesome!

So in this section here where we left off in Part 5 we were in Mark 11. I'm going to read that again. Mark 11. We've been going through the journeying of Jesus Christ in the last few weeks of his life, just basically the last three weeks of his life as he began to travel down from the area of Samaria, because they were in Ephraim and then they were in Samaria and Galilee and began to come down the Jordan River. Then it talks about a point in time when they passed from one side of the Jordan River on to the other side toward Jericho and then they were around Jericho for a while and he performed certain miracles there.

This entire story is a matter of Jesus Christ preparing to become the Passover. At some point along the way there, as we talked about it, when he was around Jericho especially, he told the disciples that that's where they were heading again. They were heading back down toward Jerusalem, and they were somewhat discouraged by that. They didn't really want to go. They tried to forewarn him and say, "The Scribes and the Pharisees have been seeking you anyway to stone you, basically, you know, to put you to death, and you're wanting to go back down there? You're wanting to go back down there to Jerusalem where they are, where they have the power and the authority?" They didn't understand what he was getting ready to do even though he told them several times, but their minds were closed to it. They couldn't see it even though he said it plainly a few times. Awesome story!

An awesome thing, too, to understand how God can work with the human mind to give us the ability to see when He desires that we be able to see, where nothing's hidden. Choices have to be made then, but we're able to see things that we couldn't otherwise see. Then people have to make choices, and that's where the world is today, getting very close to the eyes being opened up so they can "see."

Things that are going on in the world right now with Russia, with Syria, with North Korea; the timing of this is incredible. Sometimes it makes me wonder, "Will we have another Feast after this Feast of Tabernacles?" I feel that we have great potential to do so but things are different this time around because there is a timing that isn't exact anymore because of how God is working with nations and how things are taking place in the world. So we don't know. We don't know exactly the timing of some of these things.

But for those listening now who are a part of the Church, they've heard these stories. Some is being added along the way in this particular series as we go through it, but for those who are new that come along, they've never heard any of this. They have never heard any of this. And even if they've read through it in their Bibles, there's nothing there. They can't put it together. They don't understand it. They've never been taught it. Sad and incredible, but a part of God's purpose as well.

So Mark 11:15. We have come to a point where we're right down to the last few days of his life. We know a part of the story here as was covered. He's coming into Jerusalem and that which is covered in Part 5 of how people began to lay palm branches out in front of him and they began to sing, "Hosanna in the highest." They began to cry out in the streets of Jerusalem and some of the Scribes and Pharisees tried to get Christ to quiet the people: "Don't let this take place. Don't let this happen. Don't you understand what they're saying about you and toward you?" They didn't understand this was the Messiah! It is the same word for "Christ," the same. "Messiah" is used in the Old Testament in Hebrew. The word "Christ" is in Greek as far as what is translated into English in the New Testament. They both mean exactly the same thing: "Jesus the Anointed One." All the anointing has to do with what it says about the Messiah in the Old Testament, that he was to become a King. A King. The people thought a King was coming into Jerusalem and they cried out about the one who was born of David, the son of David, in essence, as far as lineage is concerned, because it was prophesied that a Messiah would come through the lineage of King David. So they were looking forward to this for a long time, especially under the Roman rule at this particular time and they wanted to be delivered from out of the hard hand of the Roman government.

They thought that finally it had come, because they'd heard these stories, and the last one they heard was about Lazarus. Jesus Christ, just a couple of days before here, resurrected a few days before, resurrected Lazarus from the dead. It wasn't a matter of a healing that just took place. He told the disciples they weren't going on down there right then, they weren't going to respond when they received the message, "Lazarus is sick." He finally told them, "Lazarus, he is dead." He didn't rush down to heal him. He could have. He waited until he was dead and buried because people have a funny way about them. Even with the things that Jesus Christ performed, or things that happened in the Church about healing sometimes and things that happen in people's lives, and human nature can excuse something away. "Well, maybe it was the timing and maybe something else happened, and maybe it was something else he was given, and maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe." But when someone has been dead and he says, "Lazarus, rise up!" And it talks about him coming out and he was kind of like some of these stupid movies of mummies, because he was wrapped. He came out; he was wrapped up. It talks about things over his face and his body wrapped up with the type of cloth that they used, that they did at that particular time for burials, and here he is walking. Christ said, "Remove the wrapping from him." And that story, there's no way to get around that. Jesus Christ told them that he "is the resurrection, and the life." Awesome! From that moment on that word spread because that's two miles outside of Jerusalem. What happened there spread throughout the city. People had come in from all around Judea to keep the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So there was a lot of people there besides those who normally lived in Jerusalem. Awesome story!

So we're at a point in time here of Jesus Christ, where he'd gone into the temple on the Sabbath day. Mark 11:15—And they come to Jerusalem. And Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out those who sold and bought within the temple, and he overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those who sold doves. People don't picture Jesus Christ as that way. Instead, they like to picture him as this effeminate, longhaired, weak person. He wasn't that kind of a person. He was a carpenter and he worked with stone and rock! Hardy men did stuff like that! That's what he grew up with. And he went in there and he flipped the tables over inside the temple. He chased the moneychangers. He chased people out of the temple. It wasn't a small thing he did. They were scared of him. Here's someone coming in with authority and strong and throwing over tables and telling them to get out of the temple. That's what he did.

So it says, he overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those who sold doves, and would not allow that anyone should carry any vessel through the temple. You know why? It was the work of the Levites! Only the Levites should have been doing service inside the temple, and here they were selling junk to make their little sacrifices. "Offer a dove. Buy a dove, and go and offer it," whatever type of thing they did. They were sick, sick minds, of things that should never have been done in the temple. Yet the Pharisees and the Sadducees were allowing this to take place. They never intervened. They never stepped in to change things, to try to enforce God's way of life and the truth.

So, he taught them, saying, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? But you have made it a den of thieves! He is talking about their greed. He is saying, "What you're doing, you're robbing from God of the purpose and the intent of the temple! And you're not allowing things to work in the way that it should be functioning?!" So he was strong and he meant what he said and he ran them out of the temple. Incredible! I wonder how many people hear of stories like this on a regular basis, what kind of man he really was.

And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought that they might destroy him, for they feared him. Well, they feared his following. That's what they feared. They wanted to kill him, so they didn't fear him in the sense of a man. That's all they saw was a man. They wanted to put him to death! They wanted to kill him. They wanted to get rid of him because he was interfering in their lives and the power that they had over the people, and the power that they had from the Roman government as well. And it says, they feared him, because the people were astonished by his teachings. So this is a part of it. Other parts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they add little parts by their witness and by what they saw. So it says, "they were astonished by his teachings," because the people were looking up to him as a teacher and they weren't looking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That was a threat to their authority and their power.

And when the evening had come, it says, he went out of the city.

Matthew brings up the similar account here. Let's look at Matthews account in Matthew 21, continuing on now from where we left off from last week, or in the last series here I should say, in Part 5. Matthew brings in a few things that are a little different in the chronology and things that have happened here. But it says in Matthew 21:12—And Jesus went into the temple of God, and this was after the fig tree had been cursed, and it is still on the same day, this now talking about Sunday the 11th. So again, they tell their stories from a different perspective so this is the timing for what he was looking at. So it's looking back and it says, and he cast out all them who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those that sold doves, and said to them… So Matthew's account is looking back at what happened on the Sabbath and telling the story where Jesus Christ said, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you made it a den of thieves.

Now, what's awesome to me in this part of the story here is what is pictured by this of something that we're going to spend a little more time on in this particular series, looking at what he's talking about: "My house is a house of prayer." So the temple and some of the things that were done there in that particular part of the temple, of those things that people could be involved in are unique, but they have great spiritual meaning of something to be fulfilled in a greater way. Everything that was in the temple, everything that was there had meaning. It was a "type" of something that had meaning for God's people, for God's Church, and for God's family in the future.

So this is a very physical thing here of things that were existing still to this point in time, and it went on to say, And when the chief priests and the scribes saw the astonishing things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, so here are children crying in the temple, saying, Hosanna to the son of David. So people were on the streets before he ever came into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. When he was coming in there, that's what they did. On this account here now when he's actually in the temple and he's doing some of these things here, it goes on to say here that, the children themselves were crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, it says, they were sore displeased. So when the priests and the scribes saw this they were displeased. This word here in the Greek really means "highly agitated and angry," because of what they saw, the children crying out in this manner.

And the chief priest—notice this—The chief priest said to him, Do you hear what they're saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have perfected praise? So he's quoting things here written in the Old Testament that they have read through. They fancied themselves as being experts in those things written in the Old Testament. So that's why he said, "Have you never read…?" So what are they supposed to respond to that? So he knows exactly what they're saying to him and he's using something very physical here, again, things that are written in a physical part that have spiritual meaning as well. We'll maybe go into that another time here.

Verse 17—It says, And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany and lodged there. So again, the chief priest here didn't like what was taking place and they continued to try to get Jesus Christ to stop the people from saying the things they did. They were just simply crying out things about being of the lineage of David. The priests, they knew exactly what they were saying. It had to do with the Messiah! They weren't going to accept him as being a Messiah, being the Messiah who was to come. So they basically were asking him at different times, "Don't you know what they're saying? Don't you hear them? Shouldn't you quiet them down so that they're not speaking these things about you and to you? Are you going to allow them to lift you up like this?" That's what they were saying. And basically, he told them, "Yes." He told them on one occasion there, if you remember the story here, that was in Part 5 there, that if the people didn't do this the stones themselves would cry out. Incredible!

Matthew 21:18. Matthew now reflects back to the account of the fig tree earlier that morning. So again here, I think I mentioned Sabbath and I spoke of Sunday here. I want to make sure I get this right here; I didn't leave this out. But Sunday morning on the 11th he'd gone into the temple. On the Sabbath, people had cried to him, praised him, and so forth, but toward the end of the day there he was at the temple. He went back to the area of Bethany and came back the next morning. It talked about cursing that particular tree.

So on this Sunday here, having done some of these things then at the temple itself, and giving some of these teachings, it says, verse 18—Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he was hungry. Again here, it's saying "early that morning." It’s just speaking about that particular morning. And when he saw a fig tree along the way, he came to it, and found nothing on it, but only leaves, he said to it, Let no fruit grow on you from this point forward forever. And at that time the fig tree began to wither away. So from that moment on the entire tree began to die. And when the disciples saw it, which, again, in the chronology is actually the following morning of the 12th when they came back and saw it being dead, they marvelled.

So again, I try to keep this chronology straight for everyone, and sometimes I refer back to different stories as well, but it's tough keeping this chronology straight here as you go through Matthew's account, Mark's account, Luke's account, and so I apologize at different times here for not keeping this fully straight, but he's jumping all over the place. They go back a couple days, they go forward a day, and this particular point here is when on a Sunday when some of this took place. The chronology is that the morning of the 12th, which was on the Monday, they were returning to Jerusalem again and this is when they saw the tree.

So he curses the tree on Sunday, now it's Monday, and they're going by the tree and they see it. And they marvelled, saying, Look how quickly the fig tree has withered away! So what he pronounced the morning before as they were going into Jerusalem, now the next morning they are going by and it's dead. "Look how quickly this tree died!" That's basically all that they're saying. So now this is Monday on the 12th.

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If you have faith, and don't doubt, you shall not only do that which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say unto this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. People don't understand at all what he's talking about here, and oftentimes within the Church it's been difficult to understand some of the things that are being said here because we tend to think physically and we don't grasp then the entirety of a story, of something that Jesus Christ is giving principles and truths and so forth that we're to learn from. They’re going by the tree now and seeing not only will it not have fruit, but that the tree itself is dying. They marvelled at what they saw.

But there are reasons why Jesus Christ did these things all along the way to teach lessons of things that people can learn from. As a whole they're spiritual lessons, but for those listening and those that are new there's not even a need at this point to go into some of those things. So we're going through a chronology here following the story.

Mark 11. So we're looking at each one of these different stories, how Mark, Matthew, and Luke talk about some of these things. Again, looking at this account, they're passing by the fig tree, as they talked about the next morning after it was cursed. So it was cursed on a Sunday morning and then this is Monday on the morning of the 12th. Mark 11:20—And in the morning, Monday morning of the 12th, as they passed by they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. So this is Mark's account. And Peter calling it to remembrance said unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. And Jesus answered, said unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whatsoever you shall say unto this mountain, if you shall say, Be removed, and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he says. So people think about casting something into the sea. What's the purpose?

Jesus Christ had purpose in what he did, things that he taught along the way, different miracles along the way, even cursing this particular tree and lessons that are to be gleaned from it, and there is a purpose and there's God's purpose in the matter because He's leading up to a bigger story here. He's leading up to the very purpose of why he is the Passover and what he is getting ready to do. Remember the story here, "Is not My house to be called a house of prayer?" It's about a relationship with God and how people can have a relationship with God Almighty. So he focused on something in a very physical manner that he's getting ready to teach, those who can hear it, things on a spiritual plane about His people and about something far more important than doing something physically as casting a physical mountain into a sea. But if you knew it was a part of God's purpose to do it, not doubting, it would be done. But you've got to know it's God's purpose! What is God's will? That's the point of what Jesus Christ is getting across here. What is God's will? He's going to bring us around full circle. What is the most important thing they're being told? What is the most powerful and most important thing they're being given right now? What is it he's getting ready to accomplish and to do? He came into Jerusalem to be killed. He came into Jerusalem to die, to become the Passover for all mankind so that all mankind could potentially have a relationship with God, not in a physical temple, but a spiritual one. Awesome!

What he is offering to them is far, far greater than anything that could be asked for and fulfilled on a physical plane. What does it mean to cast a mountain into the ocean or into the sea? What's the purpose? To show off? "Oh, you're great! You're close to God! Look what you can do." Not at all. It's not about that. It's about Jesus Christ. Mankind does not grasp and understand that because of how we've chosen to live life, because we're selfish human beings, that every one of us is condemned to death. Because of sin God says that everyone must die. Everyone who commits sin must die. So we have to have blood that's spilled to the earth. We have to have a Passover so that God will pass over us with the death penalty, so that we don't have to die because of sin. Jesus Christ is coming along to fulfill something for human beings, to make a way that we can live on into life, into a purpose that God has for us that's far greater, far more important than praying about something on a physical plane and it being accomplished.

There are things you're supposed to be able to pray about later that are far more important to your life if you desire to live on because the reality is every one of us has to have our sins forgiven or we will be dead forever. If sins aren't cleansed out of our life and forgiven by God then there is an eternal punishment. That's something else in Traditional Christianity. It's not being eternally punished like some think about a hell fire and these little things running around with these hot pitchforks ramming you in the butt every once in a while and you yell out, just like all these stupid cartoons some kids grow up with. Kids grow up with some cartoons like that, seeing little things running around with pitchforks.

Sick world to think that God Almighty would like, would want to see people who disobey Him punished in a fire, in a fiery hot area for all time? That would be a perverted God! That would be a perverted, sick minded God to do that, and God is not like that! And those who teach that in Traditional Christianity, that like to get people worked up and to teach a hell fire, a burning place where people are going to go if they don't live right and they hold that over people, it’s sick. It's perverted! It's far from the truth! What a sick thing this world has done, that Satan has done to hold over mankind, that if you're not good, if you're not nice – reminds me of the thing about Santa Claus, which is also a big, fat lie and some of the things that little kids grow up learning how to say and talk about having to be nice and if you're not nice what's going to happen and so forth. Then it goes on into adult life and people believe these things. I think of one church in particular in the south. This is a big thing for them to be able to teach about hell fire. "You're going to die in hell fire!" or ever how they say it. That's just sick. Or you're not going to die there; you're going to live on forever there. It's not like that. It's not like that at all, but all human beings have to have sin paid for and Jesus Christ is the only one that can do it "as our Passover," as Paul said, "who is sacrificed for us," for me, for you, so you can have a relationship with the Great God of the universe because you can't if you're in sin. Sin cuts us off from God. God said that over and over and over again to the Israelites. Sin cuts you off from God. That's why it says God will not hear you. It's your sins that have cut you off. So it is with the Church. Anyone who continues to abide in, to live in sin and doesn't strive to conquer and overcome and to live a different way of life, well, it's a choice. Jesus Christ is teaching things here along the way of what he's doing. Everything that's on his mind and everything he's teaching is about what he's getting ready to fulfill. He's getting ready to die. He's getting ready to be beaten so severely. It talks about it, prophesies about it in Isaiah that no one would be able to recognize him, who he was, because of the "cat o'nine tails" that are used by the Romans to rip the skin off the body, off the face, to be beaten like that before he was ever hung on the stake… nailed to it, I should say.

And so, continuing in this story of Mark. Everyone adds a little bit more, adds something a little different, gives a little different light. God reveals things this way through four people who were witnesses of these things, who wrote about them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, referred to as the gospels. They saw these different events and they recorded them, they talked about them, but from their vantage point of what they saw, of what they heard.

Again here, they were calling to remembrance this tree here, what had happened the morning before. So I'm reading it again here, And Peter calling it to remembrance said unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which was cursed and withered away. So this is where he goes into and talks about prayer and being able to believe and to know that this is from God, and if you have faith, in other words, if you believe it to the point of knowing this is from God, it will be accomplished.

Then it goes on in verse 24 and it says, Therefore… He said all this and then he says now, "Therefore." This is why he said what he said before this: Therefore, I say unto you, Whatever things you desire, when you pray, believing… Believing what? Believing what he's getting ready to fulfill, believing what he taught all along the way. From the very beginning in Matthew the world of Traditional Christianity doesn't teach what he taught. They have stories, little stories about Jesus Christ when he was a baby that aren't true, that we've already gone through in this series. They have little stories along the way about what happened at his death, which aren't true and didn't happen that way at all, and if they really believe what they teach, it would actually disprove that he's the Messiah, because of what he said.

So people don't want to listen to what he said. They want to believe in something else that started several hundred years after the disciples, a different church calling itself of God, calling itself Christian. Sick! Sick! Sick! And it's filled the earth with hundreds of millions of people who call themselves Christian who don't listen to Christ, who don't do what he said. God is about ready to clean up the world, not only because of all the false religions, of all the other billions of people on the earth, but because of those who call themselves of Christ and aren't.

So he said, Believing you shall receive them, you shall have them. And when you stand praying, forgive. Hmmm. See, there's more to the story about what to pray about. It's not about some mountain being cast into the sea. There are other things in principles here he's teaching and why he's teaching it. Again, it's all about him being the Passover and what you can do, what you're going to be able to do as human beings that you have never been able to do. Later we're going to go into the book of Hebrews, that it's so dumbfounding what it has to say back there.

But he goes on to say, And when you stand praying… So where were people able to go before as a people, as a physical people to pray to God? "Is not My temple a house of prayer?" So he's going to introduce a new temple, the Body of Christ, the Church of God, a spiritual one, which we'll talk about that's in the book of Hebrews. So Jesus Christ is giving a little bit, not all of it, not all the story. It wasn't for quite some time later when Paul wrote the book of Hebrews. It was a few decades later from this when Paul wrote about some of those things and magnified what Jesus Christ was talking about here. Progressive revelation. And when you stand praying, forgive. So this is what people are supposed to do. This is how people are supposed to live their lives. When you stand praying before God, what is it you should do as human beings? What is the law about? The last six commandments are about our relationships with one another. The first four commandments of the 10 Commandments are about our relationship with God and how to honor God and how to love God. The last six are about how to love our fellow man. See? Who learns that in the world? Well, basically God's Church in spirit and truth, but even there we have battles, some problems.

So we're to be able to forgive others, not hold things against others. That's a toughie. Human beings are easily offended by things around them, by things that happen. We take offence in what others do. We're harsh in judging others. We're not like God. We're not merciful and patient, longsuffering. God is longsuffering with human beings. He has been for 6,000 years because He has a great purpose for us, but He hasn't revealed all that purpose yet—but is at that point of doing so to the world—just a little bit through time.

And when you stand praying, forgive, and if you have anything against any… Anything! Whatever it is, it doesn't matter. This is how people are supposed to live! If you have anything against anyone! So, If you have anything against any: that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. So again, "So when you stand praying, forgive," because, as it says, "If you have anything against any, that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." In other words, if you don't forgive you're not going to be forgiven. That's an awesome thing! If we're not willing to forgive others, if we're not willing to extend patience, longsuffering, love, care, whatever it might be, if we're not willing to swallow our own feelings of what we think have been hurt or offended by someone else and we want to hold something against someone else? I have given so many sermons on this subject that no human being has the right to hold anything against anyone because only God Almighty and Jesus Christ can do that in spirit and in truth with true justice. Mankind, we can't, and we don't have the right to hold something against anyone anyway, because it's through Jesus Christ that we're able to be forgiven. It's the one who suffered for us, who went through what he did for us as our Passover, and we just observed the Passover and what that means that he spilled his blood to the earth and was beaten like he was for us.

Again, it is a very basic teaching here having to do with prayer. But what do people focus on? The mountain being cast into the sea. That's the big thing. The point is, no, it's not. If you believe what he says, this, this is the big thing. The ability to be forgiven of sin if you're willing to forgive others, if you're willing to obey God and learn to live a different way of life, if you're willing to learn to be merciful, patient, longsuffering with others and not to be easily offended, not to be jealous, not to be envious as human beings are, filled with this kind of garbage and stupidity, then we're able to be forgiven if we're willing to not hold something against others. You know what it's about? It's about bringing into check our own emotions. It's about bringing into check our own selfish feelings. It truly is. It's learning how to love like Jesus Christ loves.

Again here, And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any: that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you of your trespasses. The point being is if you don't do it you're not going to be forgiven because you're not listening to God, you're not doing what you're supposed to do, so you can't ask for forgiveness of your sins, believing that you're going to be forgiven. Jesus Christ suffered like he did to the degree he did so that we can have the ability to go before the throne of Almighty God in prayer in the temple of God and ask for forgiveness of our sins, but not if we're not willing to forgive others. So if you believe what Jesus Christ is saying and you believe what he said about the process whereby you can be forgiven then we had better well listen to what he had to say of how we start the process. We're a part of the process; we'd better be willing to forgive others.

It wasn't till two days after the Passover in Europe that two ministers — one minister, actually, who got offended at another one, got offended at another one and left in a puff. To their shame they're going to hear this, okay? They left in a puff from an environment where ministers were together in God's Church because they weren't willing to forgive and have a right attitude and spirit toward another one. You think that happens within the Body as well? Not just a little, but a lot, too much so. God looks at us especially, and we're to live a different life than what the world does. The world doesn't understand these things, but we do. That's why we're going through a particular period of time here of a cleansing of a temple, that we're not to be outside in the courtyard. If we want to be in the temple we've got to fight to be inside the temple and we've got to fight to live the way of life God said, truly, and to have right feelings toward one another. It blows my mind.

Another account right afterwards, individuals talking to some other ministers about someone else in the Church, about certain things they didn't feel right about them and things they think they're doing wrong. My first question is, "Did you go to your brother alone?" Because they didn't! How many times have I preached those things? You go to your brother alone and get things out in the open. A lot of times you'll find out that what you thought you saw or thought you heard wasn't right at all. You misinterpreted things. You misinterpreted the intent. You don't know the intent and the heart of why people sometimes say or do things the way they do. Sometimes there's a reason why something was said and it wasn't meant in the way you took it! How often have I known as a pastor, as a minister, people who have said something to someone else and people hear all kinds of things and not what was actually stated and the intent of what was presented? Sad, human beings.

So all the things that Jesus Christ taught; it's about believing him. It's about believing what he said, not believing some nice little story about different ones coming along and he's in a manger and all of a sudden these wise men came when he's in the manger because we already went through that. They didn't come that time of year anyway. They didn't even come to him in a manger; they came to him and he was already in a house! The shepherds in the field, they came to a manger and found him there. But all these crazy little stories that people have and some of these beliefs about Christmas, the mass of Christ that started with the Catholic Church. It never was in God's Church. The apostles never kept it. They never observed it, but later on the Catholic Church, the mass of Christ, they conjured up a celebration for the birth of Christ. Sad. Pathetic.

And when you stand praying, forgive; if you have anything against any: that your Father which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you your trespasses. Bong! It's just like somebody taking a big round piece of metal and taking a stick to it and banging the side of it and the sound vibrates out, you know, reverberates, "Bong!" it ought to jar something in our brain. We want to be forgiven? It's not some nice little platitude just because Jesus Christ died, and then we take that in vain and somehow we can live ever how we want to live amongst one another or in the world and live ever what way we want to and somehow pray to God. Because, see, this happens a lot, where people go to God and pray to God about different things and, "I want to be forgiven of 'this' and I want to be forgiven of 'that,'" and yet they're not forgiving others. Just don't even bother getting on your knees. Don't even bother holding up your hands to God Almighty because He already said if you really believe God, "I'm not going to listen to you. I'm not going to forgive you. You're not going to be forgiven of your sins, whatever your sins are, if you're not willing to forgive others. Check it in! Quit playing hypocrisy! Quit lying! Quit lying to yourself and quit lying to Me!" That's basically God's response to human beings. If we believe what Jesus Christ said, if we believe then we're able to pray.

Do you know how awesome it is to be able to know that you can go before the Great God of this universe and say, "Holy Father, forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me from all unrighteousness," and to walk away from that knowing, knowing, believing that you have been forgiven. That's what he's talking about. That's the most miraculous, the most awesome thing that's been given to mankind, in so many ways, through our High Priest Jesus Christ when he fulfilled Passover, so that we could be forgiven. So what do we believe? What do we live by? That's what Jesus Christ is teaching here. He is not teaching about some crazy mountain and you can pray about anything you want to and you'd like to win the lottery and you've got this lottery ticket in your hand. "I could help the Church so much if I win this one," at least that's my motivation, "I want to help the Church." Bull! Human beings, we deceive ourselves.

Matthew 21. What we're to believe is that Jesus Christ is our Passover and to be forgiven we must do certain things in our life to receive that blood, in essence, that sacrifice in our stead. Awesome!

So now we're looking at those events and the teachings of Jesus Christ, again, just two days before Passover, which is the 12th day of the first month, which was on a Monday during the daylight hours here. And we get into Matthews account in chapter 21, of verse 20. Matthew 21:20—And when the disciples saw, again here, talking about the fig tree, withered. So here it's talking about when they saw it, which was on a Monday morning on their return to Jerusalem, they marvelled, saying, Look how soon that fig tree withered away! And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If you have faith, and don't doubt, you shall not only do that which is done to this fig tree, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Be removed, and be cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things—all things—whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing… How many of you think you can go out here believing there's a great purpose in it to somehow cast a mountain into the sea? Not a one. There is no purpose in it whatsoever. God didn't say you could ask for that. God didn't say He was going to grant that to anyone. So we don't ask for that, but what we do ask for is greater and that's something that's hard for us to comprehend, that someone could die for us, have their blood spilled to the earth for us, and now be able to be forgiven of that so that we don't have to die for eternity, be dead for all time, meaning we'll never be given life again? That's the eternal punishment. That is what we want to be saved from. Instead we want to have life again at some point. That's what it's about, not being eternally punished but a pronouncement if we don't have that death penalty removed from us over and over and over again.

Because every time we sin it's there again and we have to cry out to God to forgive us again, and every time we ask God to forgive us we have to have something happen in the mind. Is there anyone that we hold something against? Is there anyone with whom we're not getting along? Is there anyone that I feel something toward that should be cleansed in my life? Sometimes what we do instead is we want someone else to do something, to change or to say, "I'm sorry." Candidly, before God they don't have to in order for them to have a right relationship; they may or may not be wrong. But you don't know! Sometimes we expect things from others that isn't right or reasonable. And then maybe again, maybe they should. Maybe in reality they are wrong about something they've done. Who are you to hold it against them? We’re not supposed to do it. Awesome what he's teaching here, how to live life, how to live life right before God, how to be able to pray to God and to know that you're heard by God in a continuing relationship with God because that's why Jesus Christ died, not just so you could be forgiven of sin, but so you can have a continual relationship with God. They had a very limited one. Can you imagine going to Jerusalem to the Holy Days, whatever it might be, going to the temple to pray? People in God's Church can pray anytime, whenever they want; God's there. We're going to go into some of that later on as we talk about.

So a lot of what he's teaching here goes right over the top, over the tops of people's heads. They don't hear. They don't because they've never been shown. They've never been taught what he's teaching, what he's saying.

And so it says here, verse 22—And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, if it's something to do with truth, because what you believe is what you live by. Whatever it is in life, whatever it is you believe is what you live by and that is your faith. That's the kind of faith you live by. People believe in the world that they can go to church on Sunday and that's their faith. It's not the faith that God says people should have. Or they go to Easter here, sunrise services. They go out to Easter services and have certain ideas in their mind about what that means. Sad. That's the faith they live by. That's why it says over and over again, it's about what you believe. Because if you really believe it, that's what you'll live, and that's the faith you live by. That's the faith he's talking about here. And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive, if you believe what he says, and the major thing he's telling them and teaching them is about believing he is the Passover because no one in Traditional Christianity, as a whole, looks to him as their Passover and observes the Passover year by year by year. It's not happening. It doesn't take place in the world. They don't live by that kind of faith.

Verse 23— And when he had gone into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority are you doing these things? What authority do you have to come into the temple? You're not even a Levite! You're of the tribe of Judah. Where did you get your authority to say and to do the things you're doing inside the temple? Who gave you this authority?

And Jesus answered and said to them, I will also ask you one thing, which if you will tell me, then I will tell you like wise by what authority I am doing these things. The baptism of John, where did it come from? It's amazing. He knew them. He knew them inside and out, their motives, everything that was taking place. So where did it come from? From heaven, in other words, from God, or from men? And they reasoned among themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he shall say to us, Then why didn't you believe him? "If it's from God why didn't you believe him?" But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people. Now, it wasn't a fear of the people, it's the fear of what they would do in their response to them. Their problem was all about authority and power and having an ability to lead and sway the people in their thinking. That's all it was about. So that's what they feared, of losing people, losing people to Christ. But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people, for all hold that John was a prophet. So it’s a catch-22. They couldn't answer it and Jesus Christ knew that.

And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell you. And he said unto them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. It should have been obvious but they weren't about to accept it. And so I marvel at that, about the Passover as I was mentioning here, and some of the things we've been talking about here, of what people live by and what their faith is. I think of the Jewish religion who rejected Jesus Christ, who still reject Jesus Christ as being the Passover. Incredible what the world has done, both in Judaism and in Traditional Christianity, neither following God, neither obeying God, neither believing God.

Matthew 21:28. Jesus continued on with another parable then. Remember that all that he was doing and saying is leading up to the Passover. This is what's in his mind. It's awesome when you go through all this and you see his teaching. I don't even have time in the series to go through everything he did and taught in that last three weeks of his life because there is so much that he gave and so much of it just in the last few days here. Over and over again teachings and things that he gave.

Matthew 21:28—And what do you think about a certain man who had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir. So he gives him the right words that he thinks his father wants to hear, in essence, and he said, and he didn't go. Which of the two did the will of his father? And they said unto him, The first. And Jesus said unto them, Truly, I say unto you, That the publicans… Now, again here, they’re not well liked; they’re tax collectors. That's who the publicans are, they're tax collectors. They’re not well liked. It’s kind of been a thing through history. Tax collectors! He said, that the tax collectors and the harlots will go into the Kingdom of God before you. Awesome! Why? Well, we know why.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him: but the publicans and the harlots believed him. People out here, they believed him. People you look down upon, they believed him, what he had to say. But you, basically, you who are puffed up, you who see yourselves in a plateau and in a way that looks down upon others do not believe. The publicans and the harlots believed him, and you, when you had seen it, did not repent afterward, that you might believe him.

Listen to another parable: There was a certain householder, who planted a vineyard, and he made a hedge, in other words, a fence around it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out, in other words, what we'd refer to as leasing it, renting it out, leasing it to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time for the fruit drew near, in other words, time for the harvest, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, somewhat like a renter, a tenant of the land, in other words, that they might receive the fruits/produce. In other words, this is something that even goes on to this day in some places. It was when I was growing up. Someone could farm someone else's land in an agreement. Say you're planting wheat, and when it's time for harvest a certain percentage would go the landlord, to the person who owned the property. That's what this is talking about. It's about working the land. It's about taking care of things. It's about having the ability to harvest it and doing work, and when it's all done you keep the larger share, but there's a good portion then that goes back to the individual who's given it to you. So things about weather that might come along that would interfere with the crop, if it's a bad year it's going to be a bad year for both, the one who has the land and the one who works the land. So there are things like that done to this day in this world. So this is a bit of a parable here of something he's telling them.

It went on to say here in verse 35—And the husbandmen, the tenants, took his servants, and beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So here are the things that happened. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, because he's far away, they're not paying up, and look how they're treating and taking care of what's taking place here. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they all did likewise to them. But last of all he sent to them his son, saying, and we all know what the story is about. It's about God Almighty and the different ones He's sent to people time and time and time again. But last of all he sent to them his son saying, They will show honor to my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said unto themselves, This is the heir! Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. In other words, take it. So he's giving an example here of something that takes place.

So again here, it doesn't escape us what he's talking about. It's talking about God Almighty and about Him sending His Son, but here it's about a relationship then with those that are there. And it says, when the husbandmen saw the son, they said unto themselves, Let's take this heir and seize him, basically, seize his inheritance and kill him. That's basically what they were doing. Christ knew that that's what was going to happen to him. Here they were listening to something and they knew that he was talking about them because they were out to get him. They were out to find him some way there before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, before the Passover to put him to death.

Verse 39—And they caught him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Therefore, when the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those husbandmen? And they replied unto them, He will, kind of an awkward word here, miserably, different translations but it talks about destroying, in essence, destroying them, or putting to death. That's what it's talking about. ...those wicked men, and will let/rent out his vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render (restore), give back to him the fruits in their season. It's an incredible story here, even this one here, because we know the whole story. We know exactly how God is doing this. We know the Millennium is coming. We know the Great White Throne that's coming. We know how people are going to respond to God in a different way than they have for the past 6,000 years, because for the past 6,000 years God has sent prophet after prophet after prophet, servant after servant after servant and look how people have treated them through time. Most of them have been killed through time, in essence, just like the original apostles. We know of one that we believe died a natural old age, and that's the apostle John. And the rest, and some of them, died some horrible, horrible deaths, truly.

Verse 42. These are the very things he's giving here as an example, the very things that have been done throughout time and even happened to the apostles after Jesus Christ had himself died and been killed.

Then Jesus said unto them (verse 42), Have you ever read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, and it is amazing to see? Therefore, I say to you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And that's why I marvel at the names, like the name "Israel" and how that people can only see something physical. They don't understand that God has chosen names for a purpose to be fulfilled later on in time. They have meaning for later on, just like the city Jerusalem and talking about a City of Peace and the things that God is going to fulfill to bring peace to mankind, true peace. He uses these different names of things that are physical to teach something, to be a "type" of something that's going to be fulfilled in a great way spiritually later on, and physically in part. But again, the Church is referred to as the Israel of God. God's Kingdom is referred to as basically the Israel of God, Mount Zion, Holy Jerusalem, and so forth, names that have nothing to do with the physical place itself, but that which is spiritual.

Verse 43—Therefore, I say unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, the Israel of God, those who come into God's Church. Those who receive of God's spirit. They enter into a special relationship with God and they respond to God in the right way. Natural, physical human beings, all of Israel, they never did.

And whoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Incredible! And when the chief priests and the Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he had spoken of them. They didn't get it, but they knew they'd just been put down, in essence, they knew that this had to be about them because they knew some of the things they were doing and had done. Although they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they looked upon him as a prophet. So even then they weren't going to take him because they feared what people might do in responding, how they were already responding to him; they looked upon him as a prophet. So they didn't want to take him at that moment in time. They wanted to do it in another fashion.

Mark 12. The same thing is recorded that's recorded in this area here, but again, adds a little more. Mark 12:12—And they wanted to lay hold on him, but feared the people, for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. And they left him and went their away.

And they sent to him certain of the Pharisees and the Herodians. Now, these are political supporters, if you will, of Herod. It's about power. It's about recognition amongst the Jewish people, but they are Jewish and in the administration of Herod's government. So there were Jews that worked for power and position and wealth and so forth for the Roman government. So it's talking about some of them, not just the Pharisees here, because none of them wanted to lose their power and their wealth and their prestige that they thought they had. It talks about here then these individuals trying to trap him in his words.

I'm going to read it here. We'll come back to this in a moment. I want to read this in Luke 20. You don't have to turn there. Luke 20:19—And the chief priests and the scribes that same hour sought to lay hands upon him, yet they feared the people—for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. And they watched him, and sent forth spies who should feign themselves, in other words, falsely represent themselves to pretend that they were representing or had a different purpose, and yet their purpose all along was to get their hands on Jesus Christ and put him to death. So they came across in a different way to him. And so it says, they feigned themselves as just men, that they might take hold of his words, so that they might deliver him to the power and authority of the governor.

What they're trying to do here is to find some grounds whereby they can have him put to death as far as the Roman government is concerned. So they're doing various things here to try to pull things out, to find something that they can twist and distort just enough so they can take it to the Roman government. That's what their objective was. So they're coming across in different ways and coming across in a friendly kind of way, and so forth, but their motives are far from being friendly.

So back to the story flow of Mark 12:14— And it says, And when they had come, they said to him, Master, we know that you are true, and care for no man. It's incredible, human deceit and trickery or cunning ways in which people do things to twist and distort. I've lived that. I've learned about that in ways that dumbfound the human mind, and seen it up close, but it's happened from the beginning of time. Here is an example of it, why they were doing exactly what they were doing, what their real motive was. They're objective is, in this case, to kill him. They said, "We know that you are true, and you care for no man." In other words, no special favors given. For you do not regard the person of men. "You're not a respecter of people. You're a better person than that." So anyway, far from their motive here, but this is their nice side supposedly, but you teach the way of God in truth. Boy, they're laying it on thick! And here it comes: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? See, if they can get the answer they think they're going to be able to get they can take it and say, "Look what he's saying. Look what he's doing. It's worthy of death!" Shall we give, or shall we not give? Well, what do you think the Roman government thinks about that? They better be giving.

Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Incredible, the human mind and what people do! Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he knew their hypocrisy, and said to them, Why are you trying to entrap me? That's basically what he said, "test." It's the word "test" but in this context, "Why are you trying to entrap me?" Bring me a denarius; it's a small silver coin of the Romans at that time. Bring me a denarius, so that I may see it. And they brought it. And he said to them, Whose image and inscription is on this? And they said to him, Caesar's. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. That's what we teach in God's Church, but you wouldn't think that by what some have twisted and distorted. Anyway, all I can do is shake my head. And they marveled at him. They marveled at what he said.

So this is nothing new, what people have done and how they try to come at individuals and how they try to get at people. So they were literally trying to get something on him and twist and trick and deceive in such a manner that they could take this to the Roman government and say, "Look what he's doing. He should be put to death for teaching this kind of stuff to others."

Then the events just continue on that same day, on Monday two days before Passover, the daytime of Passover, I should say. Let's notice here, verse 18 [Mark 12:18]—Then the Sadducees came to him, who say there is no resurrection. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees didn't agree about this particular part, this particular area here, but in this particular case the Sadducees believe there is no resurrection, and they asked him, saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us… So when I read through something like this I think of funerals in the world in Traditional Christianity. They have no idea what Jesus Christ taught in these areas and what he said because they've been led to believe that when you die, they have a teaching about the immortal soul, that human beings have an immortal soul. You have something inside of you that no one can really explain, but it's called a soul and it's immortal, so that when you die physically this little immortal thing, whatever it is, it leaves your body, and it goes somewhere. Now, most hope that it goes up, but there are those who worry and are concerned about different ones that they know and love that didn't live a good life and maybe lived a bad life, really bad life, and they have a fear maybe they're down there with that hot place, because the immortal soul goes somewhere.

What a crock! No such thing as an immortal soul. What a sad thing that people can't just believe what God says and what's recorded in scripture. "The soul that sins," it says, "it shall die." It is very clear in scripture what it says. It's just talking about the life, the person. There's nothing about this weird kind of thing inside of people that has some kind of life. It's just talking about life, the life, the person who's living life, if they sin, that person is going to die. Now, it's not talking about the first death. People don't understand that. They don't understand that people can live twice, that the vast majority of all mankind is intended to live two lives as a physical human being. People scratch their head on that one. Yet we read that already. I don't know if it was in Part 5 or Part 4, in Romans 20 where it talks about a second death, a second death for human beings! You think, "How on earth can someone die twice?" Because there are not preachers out here, there are no ministers in the world that teach that people can die twice. That would mean you have to live twice, doesn't it? Well, welcome to reality. Welcome to the truth. That's exactly what God teaches. Human beings can live in a human body, and most are going to live in a human body twice. Awesome! What does it all mean? How is it possible?

That's why we read the story about Mary and Martha and their conversation with Christ and the idea here, I believe it was Martha that made the comment (might have been Mary, but anyway), Jesus asked about Lazarus and if he's going to live again, and she believed that he would "in the last day," that he would live again in the last day, the Last Great Day, what that pictures. She even knew about that. She'd been around Christ. She'd been taught. Jesus Christ, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were close. There are a lot of things in this book here that aren't even recorded, of things he spent time with and taught, but there were certain ones that were to write and that was Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they were to write the things that they witnessed, but not everyone that Jesus Christ was around wrote. So Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus are good examples of that. She knew the truth about a resurrection and then in time she believed that Lazarus would be resurrected "in the last day," whenever that is, whenever that time comes that he would have life again. She knew that just as God's Church knows that, resurrected from a physical body into another physical body. Incredible! No immortal soul. "The soul that sins, it shall die." Over and over again it talks about those who die they're put in a hole in the ground. The Old Testament, it's the word "sheol" and in the New Testament it's the word "hades." Traditional Christianity has liked to translate that as hell, as some place (wherever that is), a long time ago here believing it was way down in the center of the earth or wherever it's really hot, wherever they believe. I don't know. Anyway, they believe it's somewhere down. It's that direction and it's hot, and that teaching has gone on for decades, for centuries. Sad. Pathetic. Nobody goes there. They do go to hades. They do go to sheol. They go into a hole in the ground when they die, as most human beings do. Some, who maybe go through a process of the body being burned and sprinkle around the ashes, it just speeds up the process, but most have gone into the earth, under the earth.

Mark 12:18—So again here, Then the Sadducees came to him who say there is no resurrection. The point being is there is. There is a resurrection to life again. People don't know what that is. So like I mentioned earlier, people who have these funerals, ministers speak of one thing, of all of a sudden somebody is already up there in heaven looking down on all of us today. He or she is looking down upon us and they're up there in this place of bliss, wherever that is, and we don't have to worry about them anymore. You can be comforted, they're up there. They never preach them down to hell; they always preach them up. Yet a little bit later they'll talk and they'll read scriptures about a resurrection, and you think, "Why do you need to be resurrected if they're already up there?" If at death they already went someplace why do you have to worry about a resurrection? They don't know. They can't answer those things because they've never heard such things. Sad.

I'm so thankful that God is getting ready to open up the minds of human beings around this earth. He's going to begin pouring out His spirit, something that He's never done yet, upon all mankind, to give all mankind the ability to "hear," the ability to "see" things that they have never seen nor heard. Awesome! Because in the past 6,000 years He's only given that to a few through time, because that's His purpose.

And so they ask him, the Sadducees, Master, Moses wrote unto us if a man's brother dies, and leaves his wife behind, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. Now, there were seven brothers, and the first took a wife; and dying, left no seed. There was no one born. And the second took her, and died; and neither left any seed. And the third likewise. And the seven had her, seven brothers all the way through time here, marrying the same person; none of them had any children. So they're all married over a period of time. Because the brother died so another brother took her in marriage, but no children. And the seven had her and left no seed. And at last the woman died also. In the resurrection… See, they knew what the Sadducees believed. They knew the teachings about there is a resurrection. They chose not to believe in such a thing. So it says, In the resurrection, therefore, when they shall arise, whose wife shall she be? For the seven had her to wife. In other words, knowing the teaching, what it is, they're given life again. Here they are, what's going to happen? Who's going to have her?

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Do you not therefore err, in other words, a word here, "Do you not know you're deceiving yourself?" That's what the word really intends in Greek. …because you don't know the scriptures nor the power of God? So he doesn't get into a matter here of whether a second time they’re coming back as physical human beings, he just jumps ahead and tells the story of something they can't grasp anyway. For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels who are in heaven. And concerning the dead, that they rise… So even here, physically if we look at the story here, even physically, they’re back as physical human beings, they are as the angelic realm in that sense. Whether we talk about the Kingdom of God or even the second resurrection, it's immaterial because there will be no situation where there is more birth during that Hundred Years. So it's not God's intent at that time that life continue on, only that those who had life can have opportunity to now learn and grow and change and be transformed and have an opportunity to receive Christ as their Passover. So he's addressing some of this.

So for when they shall rise from the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels who are in heaven. And concerning the dead that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spoke to him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? So again here, we understand what takes place in the Great White Throne. That's not his purpose of addressing this. He's jumping ahead and explaining something in a greater plane. But the reality is, is there will be no more procreation, if you will, of human life. But there will be opportunity of people living lives together in marriage, but they'll just not have children. There will be no more proliferation of life. But Jesus Christ didn't bother going into all of these things because it wasn't the time to go into it and teach those things in the first place. And candidly, a lot of this has not been known until the time of Mr. Armstrong. Then God began to reveal more about what His purpose was in the Great White Throne because even the early apostles didn't understand all those things.

And it goes on to say in verse 27—He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. And therefore, you are greatly mistaken. Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, he asked, Which is the first commandment of all? So just going through different teachings here, all these things happening. We can read through the Bible and not realize there is so much that Jesus Christ taught, but he taught it just before he died. In the few weeks before, and especially in the few days before teaching after teaching after teaching.

And anyway, I'll just read this in Matthew 22, a part of this account here before we continue on with some of this. I'll just read it. Matthew 22:34 it says, But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, it says, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, again, testing him, Master, what is the great commandment of the law?

And Mark 12:29—And Jesus answered him, so this is continuing on with the story where we were, The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. So if you want to sum up the Commandments, here they are. The first and the greatest is this, because this sums up the first four commandments. It's about God. It's about how to have a relationship with God, and basically, that is about how you love God, how you have a right relationship with God. That's what the first four of the 10 Commandments teach, how you can have a right relationship with God and love God. Just like the Sabbath, we understand how the Sabbath is a part of that, the weekly Sabbath and the annual Sabbath's. And how, if we love God we're going to esteem that day and hold it up and set it apart like God says to do it, because we love God because we don't want to work on that day. We don't want to do things on that day that God says we shouldn't do. We want to honor God. So if we love God we're going to do as God said. That's what people do then who believe Him.

And the second is like unto it. So here is the second then. Now he's going to sum up the last six commandments: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these, because it sums them all up. Awesome, what he taught! "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The thing we all come to learn in time is no one can love like that. We are incapable as human beings, of loving God with all of our heart, with all of our being, with all of our might. Now, we're to grow in that and we're to strive to work toward that, but the reality is we're selfish by nature. If we were able to love like that we would never sin again, but we can't not have sin because we're selfish human beings! What we do by motivation in our lives so often stems from selfishness. We want our way! That's why people have problems. That's why people have confrontations. That's why people have difficult situations in life. That's why people might raise their voice at someone else. That's why someone might get jealous of someone else or envious of someone else, whatever it is in life, or lust after someone else. Horrible, what human beings can do because they can't love this way. We have to have God's help and God's spirit to grow in this kind of love, in the same way in a relationship with others. We're ever growing in that.

I don't care how long you've been in God's Church, you will always work on those things, your own human selfishness and fight against it, to not always put self first, because that's what we tend to do. That's what selfishness is; it puts self first, not others, above us. Yet that's what we're told we're supposed to do. So we learn and we grow.

So he told them this. What an awesome thing he taught, spiritual in nature and they couldn't fully grasp it. They could grasp it in part.

And the scribe said to him, Well, Master. You have spoken the truth. There is one God. Yet Traditional Christianity doesn't believe that, that there is just one God. They believe that Jesus Christ was God, that he's lived for all eternity. They believe that there's something called the holy ghost or the holy spirit. That's why they translate it that way, because that's a teaching that goes way, way back in time. People today don't call, say anything about the holy ghost, but that's why it's called "holy ghost" in the King James version a long time ago, see, when that was written, because it's like there's this being, different from God and different from Jesus Christ, and there's this holy ghost too, all three. They're kind of like this three musketeers thing: “Three for one and all for one” type of thing, you know. They're all different and distinct but they're all one somehow.

It's a mystery. That's what the Catholic Church says, "You can't understand it. It's a mystery." It's a mystery all right because it isn't true. Yet people believe it and they have this thing they repeat, the Apostles Creed. They repeat about the trinity. The disciples, who became the apostles, and Paul who was called later, they never, never, never taught about a trinity. They never taught that there were three beings in the Godhead somehow. Never! That there were somehow these three beings that coexisted together, they never taught that! But the Catholic Church at a point sometime after 325 A.D. began to teach about a trinity. It didn't come out of the Bible. They acknowledge that. Amazing what people can believe.

So all the world, all the Protestant world has followed the authority of the Catholic Church to establish the mass of Christ, Christmas, to establish the trinity, to establish Easter instead of Passover, because that's what they did after 325. They said, "No longer is Passover to be observed." They introduced Easter, and they came to a point it became so strong they said, "No longer is the seventh day Sabbath to be observed. But Sunday, the day of the sun, the first day of the week is now to be the official day of worship for the Roman Empire. And those who don't do it that way? Kill them." That's the punishment. So it wasn't that hard to sway a lot of people, because they'd rather live than die.

After a time they started believing this garbage because they had a lot of power. That church had a lot of power as it got started. Yet today the Church of Christ, the Lutheran Church, the Methodist Church, the Episcopalian's, the Seventh-Day Adventists even, because they accept some of those doctrines, the authority they have for the things they believe, as a whole, came from the pope. But they don't accept the pope as the one who leads and guides them now, but that's their authority. That's where their doctrines came from. Isn't that amazing? How much do you think people love us, love me, or love anyone who says such things, for saying something like that? Yet this is the kind of thing Jesus Christ was teaching to the Sadducees and Pharisees over and over again, of things that were true. They didn't like it. They didn't like what he had to teach and what he was saying.

See it says, Well said, Master. You have spoken the truth. For there is one God, and there is none other but Him, exactly what Yahweh Elohim, God Almighty said in the book of Isaiah over and over. It said that He was God and there is no one else, not Jesus Christ, not this holy ghost thing, only Him. Awesome! He identifies Himself as Yahweh Elohim, the One Almighty Self-Existing God, and He said there is no one else. They understood that and they responded back like that. The scribe said, "You've spoken the truth. There is one God and there is none other but Him." And to love Him with all ones heart, and with all ones understanding, and with all ones life, and with all ones strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. What an incredible thing he just said because that's what it's all about; it is more than all burnt offerings that can be offered upon the altar. This is what it's all about!

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said to him, You are not far from the Kingdom of God. And after that no one else dared ask him a question. They shut their mouths. They saw something that was stated here and how he responded… and incredible!

Matthew 22, going over to Matthew's account now during this same day, on Monday, two days before Passover. Matthew 22:41—While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What do you think of Messiah? That's what they said. They didn't say "Christ" because that's another word that came out later on and through the Greek language. Even here people don't understand that Matthew, Mark, Luke, they weren't even written in the Greek language. They were written in Aramaic. That was the language of the time. Later on they were translated into the Greek language. So here they're speaking of the Messiah, which means the same thing as the word "Christ," "The Anointed One." It's just people are never taught. They don't learn these things that are so simple and so basic. …saying, what do you think of Christ? Whose Son is he? So if you look at the Old Testament here you know what the Old Testament says. "Who do they say that the Messiah is the son of?" And they said to him, Of David. Because he's from that lineage so he's the son of David, because he comes through that lineage.

He then replied to them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord? If he's of that lineage how is he calling him Lord? I'm going to go on here but I just want to give you a quick scripture here. This is Mark 12:36. It says, For David himself said by the holy spirit… So what he's saying is here David was inspired to say something. He was noted as a prophet of God and he was inspired through the holy spirit to say this and to write this. That's what it's being recorded there in Mark.

So going on in Matthew 22:42—What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he? And they said, David. He then said, How is it then David in spirit, in other words of the holy spirit, being inspired by God, calls him Lord saying, The LORD, and if you go back and look at what's being recorded here out of the Old Testament this is the word for Yahweh, the Eternal. The LORD said unto my, in other word, David's Lord, so He's not saying this to David because the Jews were reading something different here. They didn't understand what was being said here. So He said unto my (David's) Lord, Sit you on My right hand. So this is what God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim is saying to the Messiah, Sit on My right hand until I make your enemies (Jesus Christ's), your enemies your footstool? If David then called him Lord, how is he then his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither did anyone dare from that day forward ask him any more questions. Awesome what he told them. They couldn't, they didn't understand, but they knew that's what the scripture said. So how could he be of the lineage of David? How could he be David's son because that's how they looked upon it? The point being he was the Son of God. That's the point Jesus Christ is driving home. The Messiah is the Son of God and he's going to sit upon, on the right side of, if you will, being of the power and authority of the throne of God Almighty Himself. That's basically what it's talking about here.

So I think of verses like this and I think of something that God revealed to the Church not too long ago, about some of these things that are written in the Old Testament that the Church hasn't even fully grasped nor comprehended. I think it'd be good to at least start part of this story that we can go into in the next part here. So before continuing on with the real life story of Jesus Christ, because this is a part of it, I think it'd be good to go back to the book of Acts, after Jesus Christ is dead, after he's been resurrected, and read something that was stated back then along the same lines because it shows, again, things of Traditional Christianity that are not taught the way it's written in scripture, things of Traditional Christianity that they gloss right over these areas and don't acknowledge what it says so clearly, so plainly. That's why we're going to go into a part of this, because it's a part of the same story of what Jesus Christ was telling them when he said, "Whose son is the Messiah?" This is important to know. Whose son is he?

So even today people have difficulty with understanding some of this and what took place and what it means that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that he had no life before this, that he was indeed begotten of God Almighty in a woman, a virgin who had never had child, and something began to grow in her and God Almighty was the father. Awesome! Incredible story. Incredible story of the very mind that he had, of something that we cannot fully grasp as human beings. We grow in that understanding as time goes along, but to understand his mind, that there was a mind within him that God was able to work within that mind, within that being, and yet he was becoming his own person, as it were, but there was that knowledge, insight and understanding of things that no child has ever had, let alone adults as a whole as we begin to learn and understand some of this.

But let's just begin here a little bit of the story in Acts 2. Acts 2:1—And when the day of Pentecost had fully come… Now, it blows my mind again in Traditional Christianity, if people will be truthful and honest about certain things, here it is the day of Pentecost, something the apostles were keeping, something the disciples were keeping. People today don't even know what Pentecost is. They do in Europe. They have a holiday over there called Pentecost, but it's not our Pentecost. When they learn certain things of religion about it they don't learn what we learn, they don't know what we know. They don't commemorate and believe the same things we do by any measure, but it's just a holiday given by the church over there. Amazing!

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all of one accord in one place. People in the United States, they don't know what Pentecost is. "What's a Pentecost?"

Verse 22. Jumping on down here a little ways. So here it is the day of Pentecost was there, God pours out His holy spirit on men in a way that has never happened. Now, God gave His holy spirit to different ones of old, like we just read about David and to different prophets and so forth through time and worked with them individually, but now something new is beginning, when all of a sudden God poured out His holy spirit on them and upon others as well as time went along here and the Church began to grow, but it was such a powerful thing that there were those who were watching who couldn't understand what's taking place, when they began to hear certain things in their own language, from what Peter was saying, as an example here, and some of the other disciples, what they were saying. And all these people that were gathered together in Jerusalem of different languages were hearing in their own language. The only way they could deal with this on a physical plane was saying they're drunk. 9:00 in the morning and they're drunk because there was no explanation. What's going on here?

And so Peter begins to teach some things and lets them know that no, they are not drunk. And he starts to address them here in verse 22—You men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man who has been proven of God among you, in other words, God proved him. He has proven whom he is by the things that were done in and through him, he revealed to him who he is, or he revealed to them if they had the ability to "see" who he is. He was the Christ, if you have the ability to hear and to listen and to acknowledge. So God has proven already to you by the miracles he did, by raising Lazarus from the dead, and all the other things of healings that took place, by wonders, and signs which God did through him, by him/through him is what the word means, in the midst of you, and you yourselves also know—him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, in other words, it was God's purpose that he die. He had to fulfill the Passover. It was God's predetermined purpose that he should go through all of this, that he should be betrayed, that he should be beaten as he was, that his blood should spill to the earth and he die on a pole.

And so all this, the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken him by wicked hands, have nailed him to a pole. That's what the word means: "You have nailed him to a pole. You took spikes and put them through his hands. You took spikes and drove them through his feet and put him on a pole to die." …nailed him to a pole, and killed; whom God has raised up, having released him from the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it, that he should be held by death. God has raised him up from the dead.

I think it's good to note here certain things. I've mentioned it several times already but this thing about being nailed to a pole. I think, when people begin to realize, when they begin to be taught, when they begin, for the first time, to begin to acknowledge a simple truth, that Jesus Christ did not die on a stupid looking cross, that it's a religious relic and symbol of the Catholic Church that they brought along because of some stupid things that happened in the past. It has nothing to do with God. It has nothing to do with the truth. Yet mankind believes it and they have them all over their walls as though it is some kind of special relationship and you can be closer to God the more you have on your wall, you know, these little symbols. People wear them around their neck and somehow they're closer to God. That doesn't make anyone close to God, especially it being a lie. If they were going to wear something it ought to be just a pole. Wonder how popular that would be, you know, straight up and down little piece of metal, you know, around a chain.

I'm going to read what I've written down here: "Reputable sources concerning the history or etymology of words in the Greek language concerning a cross clearly show that in classical Greek up until the 4th Century B.C…" Anybody can look these things up. People can look this up! Who cares, though? And they don't want to know. "…and the writings of Homer that follow several centuries later that went beyond this and followed later on, the word stauros," s-t-a-u-r-o-s, it's in the Greek language, "always meant an upright stake." Everything written in any Greek literature, anything that people can find throughout this period of time, a stauros in the Greek language was always a pole! Always a pole! That's all the word could mean in the Greek language, and that's how all people in their writings wrote about it in the Greek language. "…an upright stake or pole on which anything might be hung or impaled in a piece of ground." In other words, it was put down into the ground like a fence pole, post, as people put into the ground. That's how they were referred to in that regard. "It's used a lot in the terminology of fencing when people put poles in the ground. So in literature during those periods of time the word is never used to mean two pieces of wood or timber that is placed together or across one another at any angle."

These are in books. This is written in books! You never find that word used to depict something that's been put together at any angle across one another, fastened together in any form, but only as one piece or section alone. That word is never used to mean cross. There are other words, but never this word. Isn't that amazing? But that's been lost through time. Who cares? People don't want to hear it. Who's going to take down their crosses? Because it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ's death, and they don't understand the most basic story that we're going to go into in time here, that I enjoy telling and showing because it shows the lies of traditional Christianity, primarily the Catholic Church, that his hands were stretched out and a peg was put through each hand and that somehow he was up there like that and the two thieves beside him, and that because they were up there like this that he died. He didn't die that way.

They don't know the most simplest of stories, of why the Jews wanted them to die quickly before the Passover was over, before the High Day, the Holy Day began, because they wanted them down off of the poles and put into the ground before the Holy Day when they couldn't work. So they went and had their legs broken, the two thieves. Simple little story but nobody knows it. Nobody cares why they did that. The reason they went up there and took something and broke the legs of both thieves was so that they couldn't push themselves up anymore, because they were hanging with their arms above the head and if you can't push yourself up to breathe anymore you start sagging down and you choke to death. You die. You can't die like this quickly with your legs broken and your hands held out like that. You can still breathe.

Something simple and basic like that and people lie about it and say, "Oh no…" You can read; people get into arguments about that one. You can go on and find some stories about that. "Oh, no, no, no, you can die that way. Oh yeah, you can have your hands like that." Bull. It’s bold-faced lies. I’m so sick of lies in this world, the lies that people have taught one another, the lies ministers out here teach knowing that they're lying sometimes and the things they teach. You know, they don't know either, but those who have studied and those who know, they know they're lying, because they do exactly what the Sadducees and the Pharisees did. They tell people what they want to hear and what they want them to hear, these stories. They don't want them to know the truth.

Well, I get a little worked up in some of these things because I'm sick of lies. I'm so thankful that God is getting ready to open up the minds of human beings so they can see and understand some of the simplest of things. Just like that one, how Jesus Christ, the real life story of Jesus Christ, of why it was that a soldier came up with a spear and rammed it up into his side, and that's why he died, because he bled out to the earth. So when they came by it says, they already saw him dead. So when they were breaking the bones of the two thieves they saw that he was already dead. There was no point of breaking his legs because God said not a bone in his body would be broken. He prophesied it. The two thieves were, but his weren't because he already bled out because that's how he had to die. He couldn't die up there having his legs broken because God gave an example of a Passover lamb that had to have his throat slit and the blood come out. The blood had to be put on the doorposts and on the side posts and passed over. Jesus Christ's blood had to spill out to the earth to fulfill the story of being our Passover. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! An awesome time of year, of things we're observing in the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1