Tag: Matthew

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The Multitude Kept Silence

Open Door Baptist Church

Acts # 40 – 15:12-21

12 Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
13 And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: 14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. 15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
18 Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. 19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: 20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. 21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

( Acts 15:12-21 ) KJV
  1. Silence
  2. Seek
  3. Sentence

1. Silence

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

( Psalms 46:10 ) KJV

2. Seek

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

( Matthew 6:31-33 ) KJV

What does the Word of God say?

11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
12 That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

( Amos 9:11-12 ) KJV

3. Sentence

Back to the basics.

  • pollutions: ἀλισγημάτων – alisgéma
  • fornication: πορνείας  – porneia
  • things strangled: πνικτοῦ  – pniktos
  • blood: αἵματος  – haima

But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.

( Genesis 9:4 ) KJV

10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. 12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. 13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust.
14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

( Leviticus 17:10-14 ) KJV
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The Sect of the Pharisees

Open Door Baptist Church

Acts # 39 – Acts 15:1-11

1 And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. 2 When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. 3 And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. 4 And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. 7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

( Acts 15:1-11 ) KJV

Two steps forward and one step back. There is more discussion of this event, referred to as the Council at Jerusalem, in Galatians chapter 2.

  1. Inertia
  2. Inquiry
  3. Impetus

1. Inertia

  1. a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.
  2. a property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line, unless that state is changed by an external force.

Pharisees got saved. That’s great, but evidently they saw the coming of Jesus Christ as not only the fulfillment of prophecy, but as the sign that they should continue just as they had been doing.

2. Inquiry

What should be done about this? How is it to be handled?

WWJD?

We have a clue in v. 10 when Peter refers to something that Jesus said.

Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

( Acts 15:10 ) KJV

This points us to Matthew 23.

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

( Matthew 23:4 ) KJV
  1. (13). for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.
  2. (14). for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
  3. (15). for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
  4. (16). which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!
  5. (23). for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
  6. (25). for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
  7. (27). for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
  8. (29). because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,

3. Impetus

  1. the force or energy with which a body moves.
  2. the force that makes something happen or happen more quickly.

There is a new impetus towards the law of grace, but the inertia of the Law of Moses has to be overcome.

This is what Paul had to deal with in the letter to the Galatians.

6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

( Galatians 1:6-7 ) KJV

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,

( Galatians 2:16a ) KJV

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

( Ephesians 2:8-9 ) KJV
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Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ( Matthew 27:46 )

Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross was the symbolic fulfillment of the sacrifice that was made on the first day when God said, Let there be light, and caused formerly pure water to become corrupted with the general messiness that is necessary for life to form.

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Bound in Heaven

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

(Matthew 16:17-19) KJV

I have used part of this passage, verses 17-18, before as the basis for my post Who Wants to Attack Hell With Me? but today I want to focus on verse 19, about binding and loosing.

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July 23rd

Occam’s Razor

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

(Matthew 7:13-14) NKJV

Occam’s Razor is a problem-solving principle attributed to William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347), who was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher and theologian. The principle can be interpreted as stating:

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Matty’s Paradigm is New

Cutaway of planet Earth showing the relative depth of Noah's flood

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

(Ecclesiastes 1:9-10) KJV

You’ve probably heard that there’s no new thing under the sun, right? So how on Earth can Matty pop up and claim to have resolved the apparent differences between science and the Bible?

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The Midst Of Hell

The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

(Ezekiel 32:21) KJV

In the King James version of the Bible the word hell occurs 54 times. In the Old Testament this is a translation of the Hebrew word sheol – שְׁא֣וֹל. In the New Testament the word hell is a translation of three Greek words: hades– ᾅδῃ, tartarus – ταρταρώσας and gehenna – γέενναν. I will explain how all of these words relate to the internal structure of the earth or, in one case, why it doesn’t.

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Matthew 2000

Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.

(Isaiah 58:1) NKJV

Matty’s Paradigm began years ago as a little booklet called Matthew 2000, published in 1999, in which we effervesced about our salvation and our excitement at beginning to understand science in Biblical terms.

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November 30th

The Mystery of God

And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

(Revelation 10:5-7) KJV

If all of the impurity and corruption has been disposed of in the lake of fire in outer darkness then the center of creation is free for God to inhabit with his people: those who chose him because they had freewill.

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November 17th

The Voice of One

As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

(Luke 3:4-6) KJV

How does geometry interact with prophecy? The dry land will be a gently sloping incline: a great mountain. From any point on Earth the temple in Jerusalem will be directly visible.

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