The Temple in the New Testament

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

It's funny because what Christy and Angie were saying was exactly something that I was going to mention in this message that came to me last night actually. And it was about our vocation. And you guys hear me talk about our vocation, our job, description as believers, as those in covenant with God, as those in the kingdom, as those as part of the body. Our vocation is very clear. And I've always read Paul, how he elaborates on it in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. He says, we're ministers of reconciliation. We're ambassadors of Christ. And you guys hear me harp on that because that's just the job description.

Yes, the job was given in Genesis 1, right? The job was given when he made man in his image. Your vocation from the beginning of time was always to be an image bearer of the Most High God. It's fascinating because I think we have a DVD I did a while back, and I spoke a little bit about this concept. And since I've read some, I've been really enjoying some Christian scholarships, specifically N.T. Wright, and he starts talking about it too. And, you know, it's awesome because the word for image used in Genesis is tselim. Okay, tselim. Everybody say tselim. It just means image, right? Well, actually, if you look it up in a concordance and see where it's used, it's actually used for idol.

Joshua had to go up and tear down the high places and the images. Selim, image of God. It's fascinating because every single pagan culture throughout history had a temple that was set up with sacred places in it. Some would argue that there are pagan temples that are set up very similar to the temple of our God in the tabernacle. You have outer courts where various sacrifices go on. You have maybe an inner area that's more restricted. And then you have a place in Greek that's called the naos. That's the place where the image of this pagan deity would be set up. And so it's incredible because When you look in the temple of God that we're studying, you have the outer courts and sacrifices go on and a lot of different rites, cultic rites go on there as we read in Leviticus.

And then if you go into the hakel, the holy place, you have the menorah, the lampstand, the bread of face and the incense altar. And it's more restricted. Not everyone can go in there except for the priests, of course. And then you have a veil, right? And this veil... Is an entrance into the naos if you will the the central sanctum of god's house And and when you go beyond the veil, there's a throne there There is an ark that the ark of testimony where the voice of god speaks, but there is no image of our god Where's the image of our god? You're it. That was your purpose See, other pagan religions, they believe that the spirit of their deity up in the heavens would simultaneously fill this worthless statue that was made of wood and covered with gold and silver, as Jeremiah 10 states.

And they believed that the spirit, they would have mouth-opening ceremonies is what they called them, at least in Egypt. And they would pretend to open up the nostrils and the mouth of this little pagan idol. And they would say that the spirit of their pagan god would come in through the nostrils and the mouth of this idol. of this statue and then it was alive and of course after this this communal right where they inaugurated an idol to its temple of course you know it's alive gotta go and they rush it inside and you know it wasn't alive that's what God made you to be God made you essentially mankind was originally meant to take on the vocation of an image bearer where the spirit of God dwells within the image The job of the image is to be an ambassador for the spirit that dwells within it. You are an image bearer, or at least you're supposed to be an image bearer. I'm going to talk about this a little bit later, but I just can't.

I'll just talk about it now. Guys, we look at Scripture, and we're going to review this in about 30 minutes. We look at Scripture, and the concept of what sin was was taught to me in the Baptist church I was saved in a long time ago. It was taught to me in the Church of God, a more charismatic church. I learned how to worship in that church. The same concept was taught to me about sin. The same concept is still taught to me here in the Messianic movement. And the sin is defined, as we like to teach, as a works-based covenant or works-based contract. And In other words, God said, don't do this. And because you disobeyed that, you're a sinner.

Now, we have scriptures that seem to back that up. Like 1 John 3, 4, right? Transgression of the law is sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. And that's absolutely true. But why? Why is disobeying God's commandments a sin? What's the thought process behind that? The thought process behind disobeying God's order is that you're now creating chaos in God's kingdom, which is established order. It is his reign. You've chosen to walk away from your vocation as an image bearer and pursue idols and pursue idols in whatever form they would be. Guys, disobeying the commandments of God is a symptom of a bigger, bigger issue.

And it's your refusal to take upon yourself the vocation that God has freed you from sin, freed you from slavery of all idolatries and powers of be, so that you could once again stand in the midst of his presence. Get the uniform on and put your name tag back on and continue just as the original vocation was given to mankind, be an image bearer. Now, of course, as an image bearer, you have standards of holiness and the commandments apply and so on and so forth. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God. Honor your parents. Keep the Shabbat. Keep the feast. I mean, all those apply to the vocation that you are now hired to do.

But breaking those things, sin is a symptom of a much bigger foundation. And it's your decision to walk away from the job, from the vocation of an image bearer representing the King of Kings, Lord and Lords of all creation. And so when you guys during worship were speaking about being image bearers, I'm like, I didn't talk to them about this. There's a bigger issue. The essential foundation of all sin is idolatry. In the garden, mankind was made an image bearer. And when you have a job... Pete, you have a job at a guitar center, right? You have some authority in your position. As an employee, you have more authority to go places and do things than a person that just walks in off the street.

In your job, you have authority. When I worked at the hospital, I had a name tag that got me a pass at IT. You can get everywhere. Go into surgery, go into the pharmacy, work on their computers, everywhere. I had authority. You were given authority in the garden. dominion over the earth and your job was to expand Eden over the earth to be a witness to be an image bearer across the earth you had authority as when you forsake the vocation that's given to you as an image bearer you hand your authority that God has given to you over to something that is not God it can either be non-human it can be human the powers that be that Christ broke the chains of When you hand your authority as an image bearer over to something else in order to serve it, you're committing idolatry.

Every sin is based in that concept. Lust, guess what? Idolatry. Addiction? Idolatry. Stealing? Idolatry. The wiles of the flesh? I'm going to hand over my authority. In order to pursue this transgression. I don't really want to be in this vocation. Or the temptation is too strong for me to stay in this vocation. And I'm going to hand it over to something else. What happens when you hand your authority over to something else? It now has authority over you. We call that slavery. And that's all Paul talks about in the middle of Romans. Is being enslaved to sin. What the Messiah freed you from. Broke every chain.

It's important to understand these concepts. Because we look at sin as simply breaking the Shabbat. Or we look at sin as not forgiving our brother. Or we look at sin as not honoring our parents. Those are sin. But they have a root that is common. And the root that is common is the decision to walk away from the vocation that God initially gave to you in the garden. That through the Messiah, we have the opportunity to return to. So when we have times of prayer... If there is something in your life that has you chained up, as we're going to see, just like the cripple that was at the pools of Bethsaida, I have no one to put me in the water to heal me.

I have no one there to support me. I have no one here to help me go to the place where I know I will be healed. Guys, we're here for each other. Sometimes our enslavement, we need assistance in learning how to break away. Chains are broken. How do we walk away? Moses had to train Israel how to walk away from Egypt. So when we have times of prayer, it's not just a feel-good time of, oh, come up here, make yourself feel better, you know. No, it's a time for you to have the support of someone else who has been in this world, was born into this world, was forgiven of their transgressions, and is your brother and sister in the Lord.

Do not hesitate, do not hesitate to pursue your vocation as an image-bearer of the Most High God. We're continuing in the series, the temple series, and I don't really know how many messages we have left. You know, I haven't went real, real, real deep with the temple series because, guys, there's resources out there where you can go college beyond seminary level deep in studying the temple. And I've given you these resources. We're going to go over them again here in just a second. If you guys are interested in the temple, a very important topic, pursue it. Pursue it. Today I wanted to talk about the New Testament and the temple, or some things that where the temple pops up in the New Testament and some things that we may not have realized.

The way that Yeshua, the Messiah, interacts at the temple. The way the apostles interacted with the temple almost 30 years after Yeshua died and was resurrected. And so before we go any further, I have a few resources that I'm proud to give you guys this week. A lot of people, a lot of people... ask me, you know, how do you know so much? I don't. I'm not a smart guy. Not a smart guy. I do not know a whole bunch. I just read books. I read books from people that do know a lot. And so I want to pass on those resources back to you. First one, one of my main resources, and I talk about this every week, Joseph Goode.

Joseph Goode has been studying the temple as his focus in his ministry for the last 46 years. 40 years, 38 years? Maybe he's went to Israel 46 times. It's one or the other. He's worked with the Temple Institute. He just wrote a new book called Measure the Pattern. I would consider this man the leading expert in the temple, the Temple Mount, and the history of the temple in the first century. That is how much respect I have for him. You can get more information on his ministry, Hatik for Ministries, at JerusalemTempleStudy.com. For about 25 bucks a month, you can have access to the most in-depth study of the temple ever.

I could talk a while on that. My good friend and someone I consider a teacher is Ryan White, rootedintour.com. The information that I just spoke about being an image bearer was from a book, a Christian scholar I respect, N.T. Wright, but Ryan also did an entire Torah portion based around this, Ki Tisa, just two weeks ago. So rootedintour.com, check out the Torah portion. I have a lot of respect for Ryan. I trust him and I believe that the things that he teaches, the things that he presents are not only reputable but they're very edifying as well. And also Dina Dai in The Temple Revealed in Creation.

It's a small book. A lot of really, really, really cool stuff in this book. I want you guys to support her because, again, I trust Dr. Dai. She is a friend, and I consider her a teacher as well. And I'm also going to be quoting from the Mishnah this week when we talk about Yeshua's trial. The Mishnah, as you know, is a 2nd-3rd century compilation of rabbinic decrees based on what the Sanhedrin had decreed in the 1st and 2nd century and so on and so forth. And pretty much it's a history book. It's like a time machine when you read it. You go back to 1st century Judaism, more biased towards the Pharisees, but regardless, 1st century Judaism, and you can read how they thought, how they carried out certain things, how they interpreted certain biblical commandments.

So when you're reading the New Testament... you can compare the things that you're reading in the New Testament, which is what we're going to do today, to this historical resource, invaluable historical resource that we have, and kind of line them up. I was reading the tractate Sanhedrin, the first six chapters, first six chapters, and I was reading, and I dropped it, and I went back and re-read the Gospel account, specifically in Matthew and Mark, about Yeshua's trial. Very interesting stuff that I just never saw before. And so those are my resources. The first three, definitely I encourage you guys to check them out.

And so last week, you guys remember me kind of mentioning that everybody loves Paul, right? Paul is someone that has to grow on you. You really have to read him a couple times, understand where he's coming from, because Paul's letters are hard to understand at times, because we don't have all the responses and everything. But when we read Paul's letters, he has such... such an in-depth understanding of what happened on the cross that that is his focus. And it gets me excited about what happened. I mean, I should already be excited. You guys should already be excited about what took place on the cross.

Amen? And we should all be excited about what took place on the cross. But Paul is just, I boast about nothing except for the cross. Nothing. It's the cross, what happened on the cross, cross, cross. And so I love Paul's passion reinforcing the pinnacle of celebration and joy that happened in the history of creation. That's what took place on the cross. The biggest change that could have ever taken place in all history happened on the cross. So I was speaking about Paul, and Paul said some... He was very zealous, and he got accused of speaking against the commandments of God. He got accused of speaking against circumcision.

He got accused against... the Torah teaching against the Torah and the Halakha, the traditions of the fathers. And so James, the leader of the Jerusalem council, wanted to call Paul in and say, listen, we've been hearing some bad things about you, and we've got to deal with this. And so I want you to join me to Acts 21-17, and that's where we're going to start. And can we read a little bit of God's Word? You know when I say that with such enthusiasm, it's not going to be two or three verses. So we're going to start in verse 17, and we're going to go all the way. I wonder if we can read it. That looks like a lot of verses, doesn't it?

We're going to go all the way down through verse 26, but we're going to kind of stop halfway and just discuss some things. And so are you guys ready? Okay. So when we had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly, and on the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. Who were the elders? Do what? Do what? The church, the apostles, I would assume a lot of the apostles would be there and the men of authority that were there, exactly. So we have the elders of Jerusalem that were spear tipping what the next generation of believers was, they were the leaders.

They were leading the first century communities, if you will. Call Paul back, we heard a bad reputation about you. So we have all these Judeans, if you will, come into faith of Messiah, and they're just excited, excited, excited about God's Word. And you have been told that about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to the customs. What then is to be done? They were certainly here that you have come, right? And so the report came back that Paul is going to these Gentile cities, if you will, Gentile cities, non-Judaic cities, where of course, you know, this is during the Diaspora, the Judeans are cast all over the Roman Empire.

And the report came back that Paul's going up and talking to the Jews and saying, hey, you guys don't need to follow any of the commandments of God any longer. And you don't need to circumcise your kids either. You don't need to do any of that, right? What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Do therefore what we tell you. So they're going to command Paul to do something, okay? We have four men that are under a vow. Take these men, purify yourselves along with them, and pay their expenses. How many of you guys have ever taken a vow before? Nobody? A couple people? A vow of silence?

I don't know. A monk? A vow. A vow, how big of a deal is a vow in Scripture? It's not really that big of a deal, right? You just say something, I'm going to make a vow. It's a pretty big deal. So here are four men that made some sort of a vow, right? Anybody ever shave their head because of a vow before? Yeah? All right. This is a common thing in the first century. We're going to see this. Right? So Paul got a reputation that he was going around and telling people, listen, don't follow the law anymore. Don't follow God's commandments anymore. Don't circumcise your kids anymore. Don't do any of that anymore.

All right, Paul, we know that's not true. So Paul, what we need you to do is we need you to take these four men, which we're going to see, to the temple. And we need you to actually join them in purification rites. And we need you to pay for their expenses so that all y'all can shave your heads. For what purpose? so that they would know that you are not teaching against circumcision of your children. You are not teaching against thou shalt not kill. You are not teaching against loving your neighbor. You're not teaching against the holy commandment of following the Sabbath, keeping the Sabbath, the feast days, keeping yourself holy from the outside world, keeping yourself set apart.

We know that you're not teaching these things. And so we need you to go to the temple and And as we're going to see, we need you to make some sacrifices and we need you to pay for the sacrifices of four other men to prove and show everybody that that's nonsense. What's interesting is we have James decree Paul going to the temple and we're fixing to see in Numbers chapter six to make sacrifices. Now, guys, this is about 26 years after you 26, 27 years after Yeshua resurrected from the dead. If you see that somewhere, we're not making those numbers up. We know this because we know when Paul went to the temple, right, he was arrested, okay?

He was arrested, thrown in jail, and then he was taken down to Caesarea, and he was put in prison there. The manager of Judea that was put in place by the Roman Empire, Felix, was there. And Felix was questioning him, and Paul stayed there for a couple years. Two years after this happened, according to Acts, Felix was replaced by Festus because he was not managing Judea very well. Romans, all-out pagan culture. But they kept really good records. And we know that this happened in about, what was it? Was it 58, 59 C.E.? So if we assume that Yeshua died in 30 AD, just around there, almost 30 years after the resurrection has taken place, Paul's going to the Jerusalem council, and they're telling him to go to the temple and make sacrifices.

What is this vow? So in Numbers chapter 6, small print, I apologize for that. In Numbers chapter 6, we have an explanation in God's law, in God's Torah, in God's commandments, right? God's reign of holiness, if you will, we have an explanation of what's going on here. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "'Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, "'When either a man or a woman makes a special vow,' "'We're talking about a vow, right? "'The vow of the Nazir or the Nazirite "'to separate himself unto the Lord, "'he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. "'He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink, "'and he shall not drink any juice from grapes "'or eat grapes fresh or dried, no raisins, nothing.'

Verse 1. A year old without blemish for a chata, translated a sin offering, a purgation offering. One ram without blemish for a peace offering, a shelamim offering. And a basket of unleavened bread, loaves of fine flour mixed with oil, and unleavened wafer smeared with oil. And their grain offering, and their drink offering. And the Nazarite shall shave his consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair from the consecrated head and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offering. The peace offering was boiled in a cauldron, and that's where the hair would go.

It would go underneath the cauldron. In other words, this was a vow that could be taken by both men and women, slaves and free persons. And from what number six describes... Your kadushah would increase because of this vow. Your holiness would increase. How do we know your holiness increases? Because holiness is defined by restriction. So your life becomes more restricted at this point and you're devoting yourself to God. Stay away from dead folk. Can't go touch them. Can't do nothing. Stay away from grapes. No more wine. Stop it. Nothing. Stay away from it. Don't cut your hair. Let it all grow out.

During the first century, we know from the Mishnah that a typical, a standard was made because they had a problem with people saying, I'm going to take a Nazarite vow and be holy unto the Lord. And then like a day later, I want some wine. And then they'd go and complete it. I mean, I don't know. That's just some vague commentary, vague mention in there. So... A typical standard time set was set and said it had to be at least 30 days. So around 30 days was the standard in the first century to take on a Nazarite vow for whatever reason. You could take on a vow to give thanksgiving to God, if you were in prayer to God.

Scripture doesn't say exactly why someone would take on this vow, but people did it. We also have a few characters in the Bible that had lifelong vows. We have Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist, pretty sure John the Baptist, We have people that were devoted to God their entire lives through this vow. But nevertheless, when you complete the vow, or if you slip up and touch a dead body, regardless, you go to the temple, you bring all of these offerings. How much does a lamb cost nowadays that's perfect? I mean, a little 50, 100, but I don't know. How much do lambs cost? And a ram. There's a fourth one in there too, wasn't there?

You got the bread, you got everything. What was Paul told to do? You're going to pay for all these guys. To show what? You're not teaching against the scriptures. You're teaching that God's word is still valid. Just because you're teaching the cross doesn't mean that God's kingdom is somehow done away. We still have standards of restriction. We still have standards of the kingdom. We still have the, what is it, the ethics of the job. You're in Christ now, so you can be disobedient to your parents. No, no, keep on keeping on. If anything, it's a minimum requirement now, and now you've got to keep going.

So this is what Paul was told to do. Let's see here. But as... Do I have... If we keep reading, I think... But as for the Gentiles who have believed, he's about to refer back to Acts 15. It's fascinating because if you guys go to chapter 18 of Acts, I don't have an answer for this. I want to put a bug in here for you guys who like to study. It says that Paul shaved his head in Cancrae, a city that was not Jerusalem. He shaved his head because of a vow. So he had just somehow, somehow completed a vow that involves shaving the head. We assume it's Nazarite vow. In a city that's not Jerusalem and not at the temple three chapters earlier.

I don't... And so I'm assuming that either... I was actually speaking to Joe about this, and he said there's two opinions. He says one is that we had diasporan Judeans, Jews that were a little bit more liberal-minded in the first century. It is what it is. We know that's the case. And so perhaps that at the end of the 30 days, they would still partially complete the vow by shaving their heads, and then they would either, next time they're in Jerusalem, they would shave their heads again, or they would bring their hair to Jerusalem and somehow... I don't know. I don't know. But Paul shaved his head twice in three chapters because of a vow.

Okay then, just a nugget, tidbit. And so what's fascinating is we've read this before in Acts 15. You know, it speaks about the issue of Gentiles coming into the faith and not wanting to put a burden of all the halakha on them. And the Gentiles are coming in and they're learning from the synagogues and they're learning these new things because we know that that the Gentile fellowships hadn't really started yet. The home fellowships didn't really start until really when the persecution kind of set in. They were kicked out of the synagogues at that point. During this time, they were still kind of accepted.

The first century believers were still Judeans, majority, and Gentiles were coming in, and Antioch changed all that. And so they were seen, at least by the Roman Empire, we know they were seen as Jews. That's why the Romans didn't persecute them until Nero. The Romans thought they were Judeans, and the Judeans had a pass not to bow down and worship Caesar. They had a past. They had a clearance for that. And so you have the first believers, the first Christians walking around. They looked really, really, really a lot like Judeans in the way that they practiced their faith, when they met, what they did.

And then all of a sudden, the Judeans don't really like them anymore. And the Christians are starting to get, the Gentile Christians are starting to go head to head with the Judeans. All the revolts are happening in the Roman Empire. Judeans are not having a very good reputation. Well, the Romans look at the Christians and are like, wait a second, they're saying you're not one of them. And the Christians are like, at that point,there was a separation that took place, we know from the patristic writings. Yeah, we're not one of them. We don't want to be associated with the Judeans because they're causing all these problems in Jerusalem.

Well, then you need to bow down to Caesar and hail him as a deity. Uh-oh. Wow, we can't do that. That's when the persecution started. Sorry, that was an exit ramp, and I don't know where I was going. Acts 15. So what James is saying, or what's being written here, is they've already sent the judgment that these four things are what we need to impress on the Gentiles. Why these four things? Why these four things? These four things in first century Roman culture... Guys, you come from a Roman culture. There are temples that you go and worship at that in order to fulfill the standard of worship, you have to engage with the temple prostitutes, the sexual immorality, especially in Corinth.

Good gracious, right? That was day-to-day life, right? Strangled animals, animals sacrificed to idols, blood, all of it had to do with the imperial cult that was already in place. Idolatry, we need to get that out. Especially Acts 15, especially if the Gentiles are going to be engaging in the synagogues every week as they are. The Judeans, the unbelieving Judeans are not going to... No. We need to focus on spreading the gospel to Jerusalem, to Judea. To Judea first, right? That's what Paul says. To Judea. We don't need to bring all the Gentiles in and then the Jews looking at them and casting them away because they're still interacting with idolatry because they can't get their junk together.

No, we need to start at foundation. Bam! Get idolatry out of your life right now. These are the four things. Foundation, idolatry. Get it out. You need to learn that you're not a Roman anymore. You're a new creation in Christ. Right? You're not. Stop it. Yeah, the festival of so-and-so is hosted at the temple. Community festivals are typically engaged with imperial cult. But we go every year. Stop it. You got to eat some meat when you go? Well, of course I'm going to eat. Stop it. I want to show you guys something. Can I geek out? Do I have my... Yes! Can I geek out a little bit? Okay, so... Okay, so you can't see any of this, but that's okay.

I'm going to fill you in. This is an overlay of the Herodian Temple. Now, as I said before, you guys know that the Temple Mount had been expanded twice. I mean... The temple itself, this area, was the exact same size as Solomon's temple. Okay? The holiest of holies, the holy place, all that was the same size. When the temple was rebuilt, Ezra and Nehemia, after the Babylonian exile, it stayed the same size. When Herod came in, he wanted to make it huge. Pete's laughing. Thank you. He wanted to make it really big. And so he put a lot of money into it to make it really big. So he built the extra quarters.

He built the ulam here. The ulam is really cool. So this is this huge porch. You ever wonder when you see pictures of the temple, it looks like a T. The T is called the porch, the ulam. And it had two tables inside of it. One table was gold. One table was marble. And that's where the bread of face would sit. And so the new bread of face would come in and they'd sit it on the marble table. And when they took the bread out of the holy place, they'd sit it on the gold table and they'd replace it with the new show bread. And then on the far corners of the tea, that's where they placed, they had the cutlery rooms for the knives.

You know, there's a lot of Anyway, so we know that this is the temple, and we went over this, and we have the Azara here, the outer court here, and then we have the court of women, and this is where everybody was pretty much allowed to come. And you notice these four corners here? These are the four courts that were in the women's court. We know that they were courts. They had open roofs. This one right here was where you would go if you were a leper and you had been cleansed, so on and so forth. This one, this is a court of oil. This one right over here was the court of the Nazir, the Nazirite, the Nazirite vow.

When you were done completing a Nazarite vow, or if you had taken a vow and accidentally touched a dead body, walked into a hospital, morgue, you defiled, you had to go to the temple. In the first century, you would go here. Now, your burnt offering and your purgation offering are translated as sin offering. Of course, the hand ceremony would have to take place in the Azara. But out here is where your peace offering was boiled in the cauldron, in that room, in that square. That is where you would shave your head, and that is the place where you would toss your hair underneath the cauldron into the fire under your peace offering to complete the vow.

None of this information will edify your relationship with God, but I think it's really cool to learn about God's house and the technicalities of God's house. This is my geek out moment. Right there. So when Paul and the other four guys went to the temple, purified, that's where they went. Right there. They mikved outside the temple. They went up, went in there, started the ceremony. That is where they shaved their heads. That's where they boiled all the peace offerings that Paul just paid for. And everybody's looking at him. Oh, yeah, the show, right? And shaving his head, tossing what little hair he had in three chapters under the cauldron.

And the other four guys as well. So I wanted to give you a visual. So next time you read Acts 21 and you come across that verse about Paul having to go and pay for the four guys who took a Nazarite vow, you will have a visual. Wait, there it is. That's a lot better. You can see that one better. Herodian Temple. Inside, there we go. We got the four corner buildings right here. Here's the Court of the Women, Court of the Lepers, Court of the Nazarites right there. That is where Paul and the other four men were. So now you guys can have a visual. So I hope at least three years from now, when you read Acts 21, you'll have a visual now.

Yeah, I know where they went. Of course, Paul was arrested, yada, yada, yada, so on and so forth. Let's see, what else do we have? Did I... Just to note, if you're interested in Temple, I'm geeking out still, and I'm about to come back from the geek out mode. So we have these four corner buildings here. Okay? And... You will see a lot of temple imagery when you search online for Teheran's temple. A lot of temple imagery is based on the Rambam, the works of Rabbi Moshe Mamonides. He is incorrect on a lot of things. It's heresy to say that in Judaism, but it's true. We know from Josephus, we know from the Mishnah, we know that these four corner buildings right here were bigger than the temple itself.

Scripture talks about them being 50 by 100 emote or cubits. And Josephus follows up with that as well. The house of the hearth, you guys remember when we spoke about the house of the hearth? That's where the stones that the Hasmoneans took down, the Hasmonean altar were kept. The throne of dignity was underneath the house of the hearth. You guys remember that one? The throne of dignity? Alright. That is in the back corner, back here. Let's see here. We have the house of the spark, which was right here. Again, these buildings are much bigger. House of the spark was where they kept a perpetual fire going in case the fires on the altar ever went out.

You know, a wind just blows, I don't know, rain, something happens. The eternal fire was still kept in a sheltered area. And so if, heaven forbid... Some Samaritan water bomber came up there on the altar and ran up there and pulled the plug and water balloons put the water... I don't know. For whatever reason, if all the fires went out on the altar... I say that because... There's a reasons why they started locking the gates and I forget the date but the Samaritans used to come down with human bones and start tossing them in the porticoes of the temple before the feast days to make everything unclean because it was a constant.

Yes, Samaritans were not nice to the Judeans. Judeans were not nice to the Samaritans. So that is where the perpetual fire was always kept. Let's see, the treasury was back here, and then there's this building. And again, I want you to picture this building, but a big square rectangle bigger than the temple itself, or about the same, bigger, bigger than the temple itself. Huge, okay? Huge buildings. This place was known as the Chamber of Hewn Stone. The chamber of what? This is where the Sanhedrin met, right? So you have the 70 members, 71 members of the Sanhedrin meeting in that itty-bitty thing, No.

Rambam suggests that the width of the wall of the Azaroth, the wall that went around, was five cubits wide, and that's how big the chambers were. Five cubits times, what, five times 20 inches, 21 inches. 71 people? Anyway, this is where the Sanhedrin met. Now, Matt, why is this important? Because I want to read some scripture to you guys again. And I feel like this will be edifying because I want you guys to realize how Paul talks about if the powers that be knew that they crucified the Lord and Savior of the world, they would have never done it. It was corrupt what happened at the trial of Yeshua.

It was not legal. Okay? And so, let's just read what happened. Can you join me in Matthew 26? Is this at least interesting? Okay, fantastic. Matthew 26. This stuff gets me excited. I love talking about our Father's house. Because like I said, the temple is, the temple builds a foundation for who our King is. Right? He was the one that said in three days, in three days the temple will be destroyed and we'll be, I'll rebuild it, speaking about His body, speaking about Him. Why? Because the temple is what? What's the function of the temple? Where? The Lord. Holiness, but what happens? Who meets at the temple?

Do it? You and God. It's the place where heaven meets earth, right? That's who Yeshua was in his role. No man gets to the place where heaven meets earth was fulfilled and who our king was, our master at Yeshua the Messiah. On the cross, unconquered love manifested to break the chains that bound us, right? And that was where heaven met earth. It doesn't negate from the temple. I don't think they contradict each other. I'd love to see the temple rebuilt one day. I think it would be glorious. But we also have to understand what's going on also behind the scenes and what the concept was of the temple in the first century.

The Pharisees had that same concept. The Pharisees began implementing the physical temple rites spiritually in their everyday lives. The kitchen table is the altar and so on and so forth. Just different elements of the temple and holiness and standards in their everyday life. So when the temple was destroyed, Sadducees, they're gone. Their sect of Judaism can't rely without the temple. The Essenes were done killed off. Pharisees did not need necessarily a temple for their sect of faith to continue on. Neither did the believers at that point. Everybody mourned for the temple. Everybody mourned for it.

No one wanted to see their God's house destroyed. Absolutely not. But the Pharisees and the believers were the only two sects left after the temple was destroyed. Judaism today was the evolution of Pharisaic Judaism in the first century. Just history, right? What was I talking about? Matthew 26. Turn with me to Matthew 26, chapter 57. We know what happened. We know the story of how the passion started. We know Yeshua went to the garden and he prayed. And Father... I know what I'm gonna have to do father there's any way I mean if there's any way he just here's anyway that you can take this cut from me anyway happy happy fantastic but not my will be done the first comes true God so love the world he gave his only begotten son and so we know that he comes Judas We know Yeshua was arrested, and then he's taken to Ananias, and he was actually the previous high priest, but he still had a lot of authority in the role.

We know that Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, all of them are still president-elects. Obama, President Bush, President Clinton. They still have a status even though they're not in the office. The same thing went with the high priest specifically in the first century. They still had a lot of political status and weight. And so Yeshua was brought to him first and that really wasn't edifying at all. He couldn't do anything with them. And so then they took him to Caiaphas, which was the guy who was the high priest active at that moment. And let's see here. Matthew 26 verse 57, if you can follow along with me.

So it speaks about elders, and you've got to wonder, who are the elders here? In Mark's account, Mark 14, 55, it says Caiaphas the high priest and the council. In the Greek, the word for council is Sanhedrin. Okay, and so we know that Caiaphas was there and this was a trial that was about to take place and we're going to read the atmosphere of this trial. We know that there are scribes there. We know that there are elders there. We know that members of the Sanhedrin were there. I doubt the whole 71 people were there, but let's just keep reading. So from the get-go, was this a capital trial case? But they found none.

So many false witnesses came forward, and the last two came forward and said, This man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Yeshua remained silent. One of the fruit of the Spirit is called self-control. Why is it called a fruit of the Spirit? Long-suffering, joy, peace. Why is it called fruit of the Spirit? Because where does it come from? These are the attributes of God. Verse 1. Oh, you could have cut through the air with a knife. Then the high priest tore his robes, breaking the commandment in Deuteronomy.

The high priest had a double-stitched collar, not allowed to wear his clothes anywhere. He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. Who's high priest talking to? He's talking to someone who's going to make a decision. This would be Sanhedrin members. What is your judgment? He's asking them to make a judgment. Who can make a judgment in Israel legally? Sanhedrin members. They answered, he deserves death. Then they spit in his face and struck him and slapped him. That was not legal flogging. That was actually against Jewish law code at that moment. Slapping him, you're abusive at this point.

Okay, Matt, this seems pretty legit. Sanhedrin came together, right? Judges of Israel, they can make a, I mean, that's legal, right? This is when we pulled out the Mishnah. And in the tractate Sanhedrin, what do you think that tractate's about? The Sanhedrin. and what they can and can't do, and the limits of their powers, and what they're allowed to do, and how they do it. So chapter 4 of Tractate Sanhedrin states, number one, the high priest has no higher authority. I think it's chapter 2, the high priest. The high priest has no special authority in the Sanhedrin. The president going before the Supreme Court?

Who do you think you are here? High priest wasn't the guy leading. It was the Nassi. Now the high priest may have... He may have been a member, possibly a voting member. We're not sure. The Mishnah has an argument about that. He certainly was not the one leading trials. Okay, Matt, that's just whatever. I mean, that's not that big of a deal. It also states that the Sanhedrin can never meet on an evening, a feast day, or even the eve of a feast day. Why not? Because if you go into a courtroom of a case that's potentially, it might be a capital judgment case, the entire evening. It says that it can be done in a day.

It can be done in a day and done by night if the capital punishment charge ends with a positive note. In other words, not guilty. We're not going to kill you. You know, you're free. We can go ahead and wrap this up. If the capital punishment charge is going to be, it's going to be an extreme, we're going to kill, we need to stone him. We need to kill this man, burn him, burn her, whatever. Then it needs to go two days, day, night, day. Why? Because they were commanded, the Sanhedrin was commanded to take the entire evening to fast. You ever want to fast it overnight? Is it really that big of a deal to fast?

No, why not? You just go to sleep. They weren't allowed to sleep or eat or drink. They had to pray about the decision of this man, this person, man or woman, that is going to receive the death penalty. And then it wasn't until the next day that they were allowed to declare the judgment. Guys, 71 members of the Sanhedrin, or 70 members of the Sanhedrin, but one high priest is, anyway. They, the entire council, had to be gathered together for national decisions. Going to war, maybe some stuff about temple rites, right? If the high priest was being judged, everybody had to be there. It's kind of a big deal to get all those folks gathered together in one place.

So for civil matters, even capital punishment cases, you didn't need that many. You only needed 23. Now for stuff, intercalculation of the calendar, you only needed three. For this case to be legal, there had to be at least 23 members of the Sanhedrin in the chamber of hewn stone in the temple. Right there. Bigger, but that's the only place where capital punishment charges can be declared. According to Jewish law code, that, we believe, was accepted in the first century. But wait, they weren't in the chamber of hewn stone, were they? They were at Caiaphas' house. So you have, they're going to bring this guy to Caiaphas.

Hey guys, this is me to my house. We got my house. The Nassi is the prince, the leader of the Sanhedrin. We don't even see him in any of the biblical narrative. We see the high priest leading the charge, provoking Yeshua, pound and poke him. Look, look, blasphemy. What do you guys say? Right? And they say, we believe the judgment should be death. It was completely not a legal trial at all, according to the Jewish law code of the first century. Now, that may cause a little bit of mixed emotions. What if it was legal? We don't know. You think they would have found him guilty? Maybe he's just crazy. 23 members and their right mind sitting up at daytime.

Really? We're going to kill, murder, like capital... Big deal. I don't know. I don't know. We don't know. It was done this way for a reason. If they had known what they were doing, as Paul says, they never would have done it. So, when you... Stoning of Stephen, okay, legally declared. That was a decision that we believe is made when the apostles were taken. In Acts, when the apostles were taken before the Sanhedrin, we believe that that is where they were taken. So now, visual. I want you guys to have a visual when you read the scriptures because I don't want the scriptures to be a story novel. It's not.

These things took place and they're important to know what happened. And if you can get an accurate image in your mind of what happened... All it can do is better your understanding of God's Word and the pressure and the intensity of what took place, right? You guys should... You guys, I'll throw this in there. Why not? I think I put a slide in there. So... It was a big deal because in cases of idolatry, keep coming back to idolatry, in cases of idolatry, what's the punishment for God's law says if you worship idols, if you're in covenant with him, you're committed to him, you're sold out for him, you've accepted the job as a royal priesthood, if you will, and then you're going to worship another god and you're convicted of it, what happens?

What's the penalty for idolatry? So it was a pretty high charge. It was a big deal. This is how the Sanhedrin worked. Now we do know in 30 CE that that the Romans did put a ban on the Judean Sanhedrin from putting out capital punishment. We do not know how long that ban was. It could have been a temporary thing. Capital punishment, this could have been completely illegal according to Roman standards. We're not too sure. We know 30 years before the Common Era, there was some type of a ban put onto it because the Romans wanted to be in charge. We want to be the ones that deal out, right? There's a lot of friction between the the Jews a lot of freedom in the first century.

I mean, sure, they had to sacrifice twice a day to Caesar, who was a deity, but you know, I mean, other than that, I mean, they were allowed to keep the temple. There was, the things that took place between the relationship in Rome and Judea are fascinating. Not good, not bad, just history, and it's fascinating. And so we know that if you're an idolater and you're convicted, then you get the death penalty. What about... If you're a false witness. What if you're a false witness? That's exactly right. You receive the penalty of what you were accusing the other guy of doing. So if he was convicted guilty, you get his penalty if you're found guilty of false witness.

We see this in Deuteronomy 19, 16, right? If a malicious witness or malicious, I love that. I love that. Malicious witness. Arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priest and the judges. So this is the foundation of how the Sanhedrin, if you will, was built, the judges of Israel, the softim of Israel. Before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in the office of those days, the judges shall inquire diligently. That's a big deal, diligently. Not just emotional, no, we gotta... And if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him...

God speaking. What's that say? I have no pity for someone who accuses the brother falsely, who accuses the brother without any evidence, who accuses the brother with so much passion, absolute conviction, drawing him out, taking his name before the courts, before the fellowships, before everyone else, throwing him down and saying, look at his character. He's a pagan. He's doing pagan things. He's worshiping idols. Where is your evidence? Are you sure? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. You're pretty sure? According to what I think idolatry is, I'm pretty sure. You shall not pity him. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

I want to say something very serious. Not everybody does the same thing the same way in the body. Believers. There are many, many, many different types of believers. Even amongst our movement, Hebrew Roots Movement. Good Lord. We are not a single denomination. You know, the Hebrew movement, Messianic movement is not a standard movement. It's a mindset of wanting to apply God's word, every single aspect to it, to its fullness in our everyday walk, as much as we possibly can into our everyday walk. There are other believers that disagree with some things that we do. There's some believers that worship a little bit differently.

There's some people that may do things that we may not agree with at all. And we may take a second look. Oh, that just looks really wrong the way that they're worshiping our God. Once you say they're just a bunch of pagans, that's idolatry what they're doing. It might be. It might be idolatry. Are you willing to risk the penalty of not being right when you do that? You might be right, but there's a stake involved. You got to give something. because of holiness, because of Kedusha. The Passover, that can be eaten within the walls of Jerusalem. So Jerusalem, that's why they didn't raise roosters and chickens in Jerusalem or cattle in Jerusalem.

It was a holy thing. And so... Don't know if you can see this or not, but here is an image of an outline of the first century outline of Jerusalem. Again, can I give you guys some imagery? That way when you read scripture, you can just learn a few things. And if you ever visit Israel, you'll see remnants of the stuff we're fixing to talk about. Okay? This gets me excited. So how many of you guys know there were three walls in Jerusalem in the first century? Three different walls built at three different times. Okay? So this is an outline of Jerusalem after 40 to 44 C.E., And originally, over here to the left, if you look at the left circle, you see the city of David, right?

You see lower upper city, and you see this wall. This wall connects right here. It goes from the Temple Mount, and it goes up, takes a left, goes all the way around, and connects to the bottom corner of the Temple Mount, the southeast corner of the Temple Mount. And this is the first wall that was built in Jerusalem. It's said to be the strongest wall of Jerusalem. The first person to build this wall was King Solomon himself. He built this wall in Jerusalem. It's believed that it was reinforced and rebuilt possibly by the Hasmoneans, but he was the original one who built this big wall. And the temple was kind of the forefront of Jerusalem at that point.

Sometime after the Babylonian exile... In the second temple era, a second wall was built. More people moving in, you have a bigger expansion. And a second wall was built right here. So you have the second wall, let's see here, so right where the Trophian Valley is, you have the second wall that goes around. And this was the second wall. Again, this was built several hundred years before the time of Yeshua. Some scholars assert the Hasmoneans built this wall and repaired the first wall. It's a debate, but it was older, if you will. In the first century, the Romans had control of Judea, and Judea was a pretty popular place, especially Jerusalem.

If you moved to Israel right now, where would you want to live? If you could have a nice little spot in Jerusalem, that would be pretty cool, right? Jerusalem was expanding, and this new city, Beth Zeta, everybody say Beth Zeta? Beth Zeta, translated commonly as New City, was formed. It was a neighborhood community on the north side of Jerusalem. All over here is a neighborhood known as Beth-ed-ta or Beth-ed-sta or Beth-se-da. You've heard of Beth-se-da? That's where it is. So whenever you read about Beth-se-da in the Bible, it's this area. All this new city, if you will. Now, in 40, some believe 44 A.D. or C.E., King Agrippa... had some requests from the people of Bethsaida to secure them and build them a wall.

So he built what we call the third wall around Bethsaida to secure it. Josephus writes about the wall was never fully completed. It was supposed to be really thick. And so when the Romans in 70 AD, when the Romans began attacking Jerusalem, they started shooting the catapults at the wall and the Judean army just could not hold them off. And so they actually... back to the second wall, and the Romans destroyed the third wall pretty easily. But Josephus writes, if King Agrippa actually finished the wall, there'd be no way the Romans could have penetrated the city from the north side. Just a nugget. And so these are the three walls of the city, just so you know.

Now what's interesting about Bethsaida... pretty new up-and-coming neighborhood, and there were some pools that we found in Bethsaida that we're going to speak about called the Pools of Bethsaida, and they were right outside of the Sheep Gate, which we believe is where the sheep were brought in to the temple, right? Some assert that the sheep were actually washed in these pools. Some disagree with that regardless, and then they were led up to the Sheep Gate to be offerings into the temple. Let's see, do I have a... I don't think I have a picture of it yet, do I? We're going to turn there real quick.

You guys want to see something cool? I'm going to bounce around. ADHD doesn't always take over. So this is a modern view of Jerusalem. You guys recognize that? What's on top there? The Dome of the Rock, right? It's the mosque that's up there. What's that platform called? Temple Mount, exactly. That's the Temple Mount right there, and you can almost see, let's see here, this section was the Herodian extension, and then all on the sides and all this area was the Herodian extension, and then the Fortress Antonius was all right here in the top right-hand corner. You guys want to see what it would look like in the first century?

Beautiful, perfect fit, right? You have You have the royal stoa right here. So for a short time, the Sanhedrin actually rebelled against the... They wanted... People protest, so they protested and they didn't make any more statements or judgments in the stone, a huge stone, for a little while. And so they ended up making it over here. Again, the corner buildings of the temple, itty-bitty, they were huge. They were bigger than the temple itself. Four buildings that were bigger than the temple itself. Here is Fortress Antonius. It, again, was much bigger than this, but that's fine. It's not that hugely important.

Want to see it again? Today? 2,000 years ago. Today? 2,000 years ago. Okay? And so all this area, all this area is Bethsaida, is the neighborhood, all in the top right-hand corner. Right? And so here is a replica of the pools of Bethsaida. Now, we're fixing to read some scripture that talks about the pool. And it says the pool of Bethsaida had five porticos. So a portico is like a porch. So just kind of a porch. You porch outside your home. It has a little roof. It's a porch. How does a building have five porticos? Typically, if it's a square, it has four, right? Jeez, jeez, jeez, jeez, jeez. Let's see here.

Four... 1900 years, I guess, people have been thinking that the scripture was inaccurate because how could something, I mean, it was obviously a scribal error. You know, God didn't know what he was talking about. Early 1900s, we discovered two very deep pools right at the place outside the sheep gate. Mishnah talks about it, right? And the scriptures talk about it. And there were two pools, which we had four porticos around the pools, but there was one that was dividing. Five porticos, right? And so... After this, there was a feast of the Jews. This is John chapter 5. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

And now, let's see here, in Jerusalem, and there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, body of water, an Aramaic called Bethsaida, thepool of Bethsaida, which has five roofed porticos. And in these lay a multitude of idiots, blind, lame, paralyzed. One man was Imagine. Just imagine. Right now. Right now in your life. Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, And Yeshua said to him, But Jesus answered him, It's fascinating. I did a message a couple years ago about how the ancient Israelites read Genesis 1-1, and it was based on a scholar's name, John Walton. John Walton's book, The Lost World of Genesis 1, and he makes the statement that, you know, God rested on the seventh day of creation, right?

Did he go back to, I mean, did he stop? Did he sleep? Did he go back to work on the eighth day? Like, what did he... No, he's still in his rest. And how a king sitting down on his throne was referred to as a king resting in his kingdom. You've done everything to set up your kingdom, and now... You've done everything to run for president. You've gone to the debates. You've kissed all the babies. You've survived the rumors. And now you finally got elected. Inauguration day. Now you get to walk into the Oval Office and sit down in your role. Not that God should be related to the American president. Any American president.

The role, the position of an American president. But you see God spent... He created his kingdom. And on the seventh day... He sat down in it. It's his, right? And so it doesn't mean that God just stopped, right? Benjamin Franklin, is that what he believed? God just winded up the world and let it go? Eh, I don't care what happened to it. God didn't just stop caring about the world. He didn't stop working in the world. He's still on his throne today, resting on his throne, managing the creation that he himself created. So when Yeshua references, my father is working until now. Even on the Sabbath, my dad is still in charge.

My father is still in charge. He's still working for the sake of his kingdom. And you know what? So am I. And the Mishnah says that you can pick up a bed on the Sabbath if someone's laying in it but you can't pick up a bed if no one's laying in it yeah and we know why we know why they say that is because obviously if you're transporting somebody it's like a gurney to the hospital we need to go you know i can't you know you're saving a life you can break the sabbath for that um this guy had a mat that he rolled up apparently i mean he was laying there a little bamboo you know yoga mat what are you doing right it's fascinating um i was gonna forget what i was fixing to say um there's a concept that there was a tradition that the waters were healed and some scholars, some sources say that it used to be an old Greek temple of a god that was of healing and so it just kind of carried over into Judean culture.

Some say that there was a well when the spring would start into the pool, it would kind of stir the waters a little bit. Some translations of scripture talk about an angel coming down and stirring the water. So there was some superstition about the pools of Bethsaida having some type of healing powers in the first century. And that's what this man was referring to. Every time the water stirs, however often that happens, no one can put me in the pool. And Yeshua was like, just be healed. That's fascinating because the man was, how long was he crippled? 36, 38? 38 years. His entire life. Because of the healings, a lot of commentaries will say that a lot of people, crippled, blind, would go to the pools of Bethsaida and the more wealthier, higher class folks just wouldn't want to go near there.

Why would we want to be around? Notice where Yeshua is, where the work of his father can take place. And he says, you know, be healed. And so the man is healed. And I love the note, even though Yeshua didn't pick him up and toss him in the pool, I love how the man says, you know, I have no one that will help me. I have no one that will help me. And that was convicting for me because why was there no one to help him? I mean, Yeshua took care of it, but why was that need not met by those in the kingdom? The Judeans in the city, why was that such a difficult thing to help someone? Why is that such a difficult thing for you to help someone?

It's amazing because after the man is healed, Yeshua does a checkup on him. Hey bro, how you doing? You still, you doing good? Why is it so hard for you to check up on someone like Yeshua did? What's, what's your excuse? As an image bearer? Really? One thing that was really convicting was when Yeshua told the man, go and don't fall down those stairs anymore. Don't, don't have that disease anymore. You need to eat non-GMO, all organic and preservative free so this doesn't happen again. And rub some lavender on your feet at night. That's not what he said. He said, go and sin no more or else things are going to get a lot worse.

Was the man sinning? Was he a sinner? And you hate to have that accusation, but he says that about a lot of people that he healed. Go and sin no more. If someone has a disease or is crippled, they're automatically, obviously they're a sinner. Which was a thought process in the first century, but here Yeshua's endorsing it. This is where we look at context. We're in a corrupt world. Disease abounds. This is an insulin pump. Disease abounds. Even among the righteous. Why? I saw an author write once, he says the victory in the cross will be, how did he put it? The victory in the cross will will be implemented by the means of the cross.

In other words, when you become a believer, it's not a free pass on suffering. If we're supposed to follow Yeshua, take up the cross, what did Yeshua do on the cross? He was happy! He suffered. Why did He suffer? So that the unconquerable love of the Father could be displayed to the world. That's exciting because that's what you get to do as an ambassador! That's our vocation. When suffering comes, it's our job to display the fruits of the Spirit. It's our job to show the world what love looks like. Such a hard task to take on. But I believe it's possible. And so he says sin no more. And this is what I wanted.

I really got a lot of this from my friend Ryan White on his website when he was talking about the golden calf. He displayed something to me. He displayed Psalms 115. And you guys can turn there. You might want to highlight this because this is fascinating. Because this goes into what Christy was saying and what Angie was saying and what I said at the beginning of this message about idolatry. So Psalms 115 starting at verse 4. You guys got it almost? I'm cheating. I got mine printed out. And the psalmist is speaking about idols. Okay? Idols. And of course in the context, it's speaking about actual idols.

And he says their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. Noses, but they cannot smell. This is what? What's he talking about? Idols, yeah. Okay, man. They have hands, but they do not feel. Feet, but they can't They do not make a sound in their throat. They can't speak. Those who make them will become like them. So do all who trust in them. Those who make idols will become like idols. Those who trust in idols will become like idols. How do you become like an idol? The psalmist just told you.

When Ezekiel talks about the prayer that he has for God to remove the heart of stone from his body and replace it with the heart of flesh. Anyway. Jesus is the rock of my salvation. What's wrong with a heart of stone? I mean, it's a rock, right? An idol's heart was stone. When Yeshua was healing the lame, the blind, the dead, when Yeshua was healing those who had unforgiveness in their lives, hard hearts, when Yeshua was healing the crippled, the deaf, Scripture's trying to reference something. He's trying to reference what the effects of idolatry are. Scripture's not saying that just because you got diabetes or have high cholesterol, you obviously...

You worship old Molech, you. No. Scripture has intention behind the words that are written in it. It's trying to show us something. Go and sin no more. Walk away from your idols. Walk away from your idols. Because the idols that you serve, you will become like. Matt, we don't worship. We do. All of us are drawn to idolatry. Sex, money, power. That's the top three. That's the unholy trinity of idolatry. And there's more than that. It could be anger. It could be unforgiveness. Everything is a root of something else. And guess what? The more you follow, the more you accept, the more you worship, the more you allow yourself to hand over the authority that God gave you to have dominion over these things, the more you enslave yourself, the more like it you become.

You think the Israelites left Egypt looking like Israelites? Something distinct about them, but they probably had a lot of Egyptian culture. We know they took their weapons. King David fought with an Egyptian sword. Egyptian culture, the culture... Guys, slavery makes you like the atmosphere that you're enslaved in. Your addictions will change you. You will become like them. Your anger, you will become like whatever you were worshiping. Being addicted to TV will change you. Anybody ever been... Ron was talking about being addicted to video games. And anyone ever had like a teen that was addicted to video games all the time, right?

And then you... Hey, come to dinner. It happens. It happens. Right? And if you have video games, I mean, that's not that big of a deal. No, I mean, it's a huge, huge deal. It can evolve into something that is a big deal. Right? People have possessions in their life. People have relationships in their life that they're enslaved to. I didn't mean to just call out video games. I mean, that's unforgiveness, addictions. Guys, those who trust in them will become like them. That was the mission of Yeshua according to Paul. Was that the unconquerable love of God manifest through the suffering on the cross?

The place where man will meet God will break every chain. Will end the exile that caused slavery. You will no longer be a slave to sin. You will be a servant to God. Choose. Do you want to be like sin? Or would you rather be a servant to God and slave to God? Who would you rather become like? If you're an image bearer, the answer is right there. I believe this is why Yeshua, in most of his healing, said, go and sin no more. The point wasn't necessarily, oh, they're a sinner. No, the point is, this is the effects of what idolatry can do to you. And once you break free of it, don't hand your authority back over.

March in your vocation as an image bearer and an ambassador in Christ, as Paul says. I have a quote from Tom Wright's book. Tom Wright, N.T. Wright, he's one of the leading scholars of the New Testament in Christian academia. This is one of my favorite authors. Of course, I don't agree with everything he says, or I have different opinions, but his newest book, The Day the Revolution Began, I highly recommend everybody to read. You'll see some stuff. You'll probably identify the stuff, the little things that I don't really agree with. The point is the same. I highly recommend his book to every believer.

And I have a quote here. And the whole book is about the day the revolution began. What revolution? You know that when Yeshua was charged, it says that he was brought in. I think it says that he was charged. It was a charge against him to be a robber or whatnot. And he was also put up on the cross with two other what? Robbers. That word in Greek doesn't mean robber. It means revolutionary. These were men who were standing up against the authorities of the world. Probably in the wrong way. Yeshua was a, Jesus was a revolutionary. He started a revolution that night on the cross. It's still happening now.

And so N.T. Wright writes in his book, The Day the Revolution Began, "...when we worship and serve forces within creation, the creation for which we were supposed to be responsible, we hand over our power to other forces only too happy to usurp our own position." We humans have thus, by abrogating our own vocation, handed our own power and authority to non-divine, non-human forces, which have then run rampant, spoiling human lives, ravishing the beautiful creation, and doing their best to turn God's world into a hell. For many, as I said earlier, for many, we identify sin as a contract of works, do's and don'ts. That's part of defining sin, but guys, that's not the foundation.

I truly don't believe that's the foundation of sin. The foundation of sin is you not wanting to stand in your vocation as an image bearer of the Most High. Everything else is a symptom. It's a symptom of that. If you're intentionally rebellious against... This is why in Leviticus 4 and 5, there are sacrifices for unintentional sin. If you accidentally... You're an employee at work. You ever got written up accidentally for doing something accidentally? Yeah, they didn't fire you. They knew that you wanted to be a good employer. You just messed up. You got to be written up, whatever, right? Leviticus 4, you accidentally mess up, you got to bring a goat.

One year old... Bring it to the temple, right? You're going to put your hand on it to identify the impurity that's smeared on the altar. Throat's going to get cut. Blood's going to get caught. The blood will be manipulated in the corners of the altar, which is where the impurities go. And as long as you have a forgiven, repentant heart, which is the key, you're good to go. There's nowhere in scripture where intentional transgressions ever have a sacrifice that you can bring. David couldn't bring a sacrifice for Bathsheba. Was not one available. There's a difference between accidentally slipping up unintentionally and intentionally transgressing and rebelling against God and his kingdom.

See, intentional transgressors get fired from their job immediately. You keep unintentionally messing up, you get written up. What can I do to help you? How can we better facilitate what your position is? There's a difference. Intentional transgression of God's commandments is a symptom of you not wanting to work in the kingdom, not wanting that job as a minister of reconciliation. refusing to be an image bearer. Amazing. Serpent in the garden. Didn't even need to. How did the serpent get Eve to partake the fruit? It'll make you like who? She was already like God. She was already in it, the image of.

She handed her authority over. If the mission of God for humans is to be image bearers, if the mission is to worship and serve God, then the fundamental sin is allegiance to God. That is idolatry. If you're refusing to show allegiance to God, that's what idolatry is. This is why Yeshua says in John 8, 34, Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. I hope you learned something today about the temple. Did you learn anything about the temple? The Sanhedrin met, Chamber of Hewn Stone. You know there's a court of the Nazarites that in the first century, that's where they went, how they did things.

You know from the Mishnah, we can tell that the trial of Yeshua was, what do people say, a court of kangaroos? And I hope you walk away understanding just a little bit better. You will become like the idols you serve. You will become like your master. Walk away. The chains have been broken. You can walk away to take up your fullness of your position that God has given to you in Genesis to be an image bearer of the God Most High. That was the revolution that took place on the cross. That was the revolution that is still happening now. It's a revolution against the powers of the world. And we have victory.

Amen. Hey guys, I'm Matthew Vanderels, pastor at Founded in Truth Fellowship and I really hope you enjoy this message. If you would like to see more messages and teachings like this one, please subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here. You can also visit our website to find out more information about our ministry and what we do right here. And if this message has been edifying to you, please consider supporting us and the ministry through our secure online giving portal here. This will ensure this message along with many others will continue to reach those who find themselves far from God.

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