Matthew 22:23–46 The Great Commandment

[Study Aired October 6, 2025]

Today’s study is focused on the Sadducees asking the Lord about the  resurrection. Other issues to be discussed entail the great commandment and finally, the issue about Jesus being the son of David.  

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

Mat 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 

The Sadducees were an aristocratic and priestly sect of Jews in the time of Jesus. They were known for their political power, focused on the written Law of Moses and were rivals to the Pharisees. They did not believe in the resurrection, the afterlife and angels. These Sadducees represent our brothers and sisters in the church system of this world. When our focus is on the false doctrine of rapture, instead of the first resurrection of the Lord’s elect, then spiritually, we are like the Sadducees who did not believe in resurrection.  

The word “Rapture” is taken from the Latin Vulgate translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:16‐17, which says:

1 Thess 4:16-17 “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord”

The verse above is the basis of the rapture doctrine which an English Protestant minister named John Nelson Darby began teaching to his followers in the 1830s. There was no scriptural basis for Darby’s “Rapture” Theology. Neither was there a basis for it in tradition since it had never been a teaching of the historic Christian Church. The idea that God’s people will be rescued on earth from earthly persecutions is completely anti‐Biblical. At no time in human history did God ever pull His people out of worldly danger. The early Christians suffered horribly at the hands of their persecutors. They were crucified, fed alive to wild animals, beheaded and set on fire for following Christ. The idea that Christians in the future will be spared persecution is wishful thinking.

Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: 
Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 
Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 
Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 

Mat 22:23  The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 
Mat 22:24  Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 
Mat 22:25  Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 
Mat 22:26  Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 
Mat 22:27  And last of all the woman died also. 
Mat 22:28  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 
Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 
Mat 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.  

Jesus’ response to this story about each of the brothers marrying the wife of the eldest to preserve posterity, not only affirmed the fact of resurrection but also explained that the Lord is God of the living, not of the dead. Jesus’ explanation shows us that what holds us back from knowing the truth is our false doctrines or the idols of our hearts. These Sadducees’ inability to know the scriptures is their false doctrines which is described as the stumbling block of iniquity, which causes us to be deceived according to these false doctrines in our hearts and minds. 

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? 
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

Not knowing the scriptures does not mean that we do not know the letter of the word. What it means is that we are not given to understand the spiritual interpretation of His word. 

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 

Jesus’ answer in verse 29 also shows us that if we do not know the power of God, we end up erring from the truth. The question is, “What is the power of God?” According to the scriptures, the power of God refers to the word of God but specifically, the word of the Lord which deals with the cross we must bear or the judgment of our old man or flesh. 

2Co 6:7  By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

2Co 13:4  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

2Ti 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

It is through this judgment of our old man or flesh that we are able to hear the voice of the Lord. 

Deu 5:24  And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. 

Jesus’ response in verse 30 shows us that the angels of God do not marry. This statement refutes the false doctrine of angels (sons of God) marrying human beings and producing giants. 

Gen 6:1  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 
Gen 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 
Gen 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 
Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

The sons of God in these verses represent the Lord’s elect, in those days before the flood, who ended up marrying pagan women instead of the Lord’s elect. In other words, the Lord’s elect are seduced by the harlot woman or Babylon in every generation.  

Mat 22:31  But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 
Mat 22:32  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

When the Lord revealed Himself to Moses in the wilderness to instruct him to rescue His people from captivity in Egypt, He had to introduce Himself in a powerful way for Moses to believe Him. He told Moses that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses responding to the Lord’s call to rescue His people from captivity means that Moses believed in a living God, since no one will follow a dead God. Here in verse 32, Jesus is showing us that He is indeed, the God of the living and not a dead one. In other words, He is a God who is actively working out His salvation plan through us. 

Exo 3:6  Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. 
Exo 3:7  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 
Exo 3:8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 

We can know the Lord’s purpose and His ways through His dealings with our fathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What we need to understand is that the patriarchs were three, and the number three spiritually means the process of spiritual maturity through judgment. This implies that the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is showing us how He takes us from the pit of darkness to become spiritually mature sons through His judgment to accomplish His purpose. If we add together all the different aspects of the experiences of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob including Joseph, who was technically part of Jacob, we see a clear picture of the complete experience of the elect and our understanding of God’s eternal purpose and how His eternal purpose is being fulfilled through His elect.

Mat 22:33  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. 

Jesus was the first to explain the spiritual aspect of the word of the Lord. Before Jesus came, all the prophets focused only on the letter and therefore did not understand what they were saying. To the multitude, who represent the church system of this world or Babylon, they were amazed or astonished because Jesus’ teaching was not according to what they had heard before. As Isaiah stated, when we are exposed to new things of the word of the Lord, we refuse to believe. That is why many in the churches of this world reject our message, simply because they have not heard before.

Isa 52:15  So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. 

Isa 53:1  Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?   

The Great Commandment

Mat 22:34  But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 
Mat 22:35  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 
Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment. 

We can see that during the time approaching for the Lord to be sacrificed for our sins, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Herodians were all trying to find fault with the Lord so they could put Him to death. These represent all of humanity including us.  

Psa 2:1  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 
Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 
Psa 2:3  Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 
Psa 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 

All of these attempts to entrap our Lord did not yield any result. It rather portrayed the wisdom of the Lord.

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 
Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 
Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.

As indicated, the great commandment of the law is to love the Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. As we are aware, our love for the Lord is expressed through our obedience. We cannot say we love the Lord if we do not obey Him. On the other hand, our Lord expresses His love towards us by giving. 

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments. 
Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; 
Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 

Joh 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Joh 14:22  Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 
Joh 14:23  Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 
Joh 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. 

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

The whole of the law of Moses hinges on our obedience to the Lord. We know from the word of the Lord that on our own, we do not have the capacity to love the Lord or to obey Him. This implies that the whole essence of the law is to show us our sinful state as we are not capable of obeying the Lord on our own. It is when we come to this realization that we are given the power through faith to obey the Lord.

Rom 3:19  Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 
Rom 3:20  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 
Rom 3:21  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 
Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 

Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

To love thy neighbor as thyself means to extend the mercy that we have received from the Lord to others. The story of the good Samaritan illustrates this point. 

Luk 10:25  And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 
Luk 10:26  He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 
Luk 10:27  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 
Luk 10:28  And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 
Luk 10:29  But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? 
Luk 10:30  And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 
Luk 10:31  And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 
Luk 10:32  And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 
Luk 10:33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, 
Luk 10:34  And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 
Luk 10:35  And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. 
Luk 10:36  Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? 
Luk 10:37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. 

As demonstrated in this story, being a neighbor means showing mercy to others. It is worth pointing out here that some in their quest to demonstrate their love for their neighbors, have focused on the physical needs of those around us and in so doing, have strayed from the faith. It is good to meet the needs of those around us, given the opportunity. However, our calling is not to save the world now. In the fullness of time, the mercy we have received shall be extended to the whole of the human race. That is when we become true neighbors.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 

Currently, our focus as the Lord’s elect is on the house of faith, that is, the Lord’s elect. 

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Gal 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. 

Whose Son is the Christ?

Mat 22:41  While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 
Mat 22:42  Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 

In these verses, Jesus was subtly telling the Pharisees that He is Lord over David and all of humanity and not just a physical descendant of David. As we are aware, the Pharisees represent us when we were in the church system of this world. During this period, the Lord spoke to us in parables.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 

The Jews, through the scriptures, knew that a descendant of David will ascend on the throne of David. They therefore believed that this Messiah shall deliver the people of Israel from captivity to the Romans. However, they were not given to know that Jesus was not going to be a physical king sitting on the throne of David. Their expectation was based on the following verses:  

Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Isa 11:1  And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 
Isa 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

Psa 89:35  Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. 
Psa 89:36 His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me. 

The Pharisees’ answer to Jesus in verse 42 that Christ is the son of David was therefore something that they had known through the letter of His word. 

Mat 22:43  He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 
Mat 22:44  The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 
Mat 22:45  If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 
Mat 22:46  And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. 

Here in these verses, Jesus was trying to point the Pharisees to the fact that this son of David is Jesus and has a higher pedigree than David. That is why David called Him Lord. The reason Jesus did not reveal Himself to them as the Lord is that they treasured the idols of their hearts more than the truth. It is these idols of the heart which were causing them to find means to murder Jesus. This is the problem with the church system of this world. They consider themselves as spiritually rich because of the false doctrines in their hearts and minds as they consider we, His elect, as spiritually dead in the street of Jerusalem. As a result, they remain in their ignorance. Their unbelief is our gain as we are being shown mercy at their expense. In the fulness of time, they will also be shown mercy. 

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. 
Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 

On the other hand, if we look at Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well, she also had idols of the heart as she did not want to have anything with do with Christ because she was not only a Samaritan, but a woman. However, her willingness to know the truth about the living water made it easier for the Lord to reveal Himself to her. The difference was that the Pharisees did not want to know the truth, but this woman wanted the truth.  

Joh 4:10  Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 
Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 
Joh 4:12  Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 
Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 
Joh 4:15  The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
Joh 4:16  Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 
Joh 4:17  The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 
Joh 4:18  For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 
Joh 4:19  The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 
Joh 4:20  Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 
Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Joh 4:25  The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 
Joh 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 

Are you hungry for the truth? When the word of the Lord says that blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, it means that it is those who thirst for the truth regarding righteousness, which entail the Lord’s judgment, who are the ones who are going to be filled. 

Mat 5:6  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 

May the Lord be merciful to us as we seek for the truth of His word. Amen!!

Matthew 16:1–12 The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees 

[Study Aired July 28, 2025]

Our study today is centered on the Pharisees and Sadducees demanding a sign from the Lord. The study also explains the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The Pharisees and Sadducees Demand Signs

Mat 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. 

In the Bible, the Pharisees were a prominent Jewish religious and political group during the time of Jesus. They were known for their strict adherence to both the written Law of Moses and their interpretations of it through oral tradition. They believed in the resurrection of the dead, the existence of angels and spirits, and the importance of both written and oral law. 

The Sadducees on the other hand, were known for their adherence to the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) and their rejection of the “traditions of the elders,” which were interpretations of the law developed by other Jewish groups. They were often in conflict with the Pharisees, and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead or the existence of angels or spirits.

These groups represent the church system in Jesus’ days. They therefore depict the church system of this world which is divided into millions of different factions based on their numerous beliefs. The fact that these religious groups were divided shows us that the church system of this world has failed in its walk with Christ. This is what the word of the Lord says about this:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 
1Co 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 

1Co 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 
1Co 1:11  For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 
1Co 1:12  Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 
1Co 1:13 Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?  

In verse 1, we are shown one of the key characteristics of the church system of this world or Babylon represented by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Their belief system is based on physical evidence of signs and wonders; that is why they wanted Jesus to show them a sign from heaven. No wonder the church system of this world or Babylon, thrives on signs and wonders. When our faith is based on signs and wonders, then we are not walking by faith at all. This is because faith is based on what we have not seen. 

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.    
Heb 11:2  For by it the elders obtained a good report. 

Mat 16:2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. 
Mat 16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? 

In these verses, the Lord is telling us, His elect, through the Pharisees and the Sadducees, about one of the key principles of understanding the word of the Lord. That is, from the things that are made, we are able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. 

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 
Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 
Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 

However, in the case of these Pharisees and Sadducees who represent the apostate church in this world, they could not discern the signs of the times because they were not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. This implies that it is not given to our brothers and sisters in the churches of this world to discern the times we are in or simply, they are not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven. 

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

The signs of the times refer to the reformative work of the Lord in this dispensation which enables us to worship the Lord in truth and in spirit. It involves the changing of the law of sin and death to the law of the spirit of life. As a result, our worship of the Lord is now spiritual. 

Heb 7:11  If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 
Heb 7:12  For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. 

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Unfortunately, our brothers and sisters in the churches of this world cannot discern the signs of the times as they still cling to the law of Moses with its physical interpretation of the word of the Lord, just like the Pharisees and Sadducees who were adept at predicting the weather but did not understand spiritual reality of the Lord’s words. The letter or physical interpretation of the word of the Lord kills or profits nothing. It is the spirit that gives life.

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 

Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

Mat 16:4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.    

The wicked and adulterous generation refers to us during our time in the churches of this world where we were enthused by signs and wonders. This is the situation with our brothers and sisters in the churches of this world who authenticate their belief in the Lord by the miraculous signs and wonders they observe in their churches. As indicated earlier, our faith is not based on what we see but what we believe, even though we have not seen. 

Joh 6:2  And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.  

We must understand that the signs and wonders were initially necessary to authenticate the resurrection of the Lord as we saw the disciples performing miracles, signs and wonders in the early part of the church history. 

Act 4:33  And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. 

However, over time the Lord cut back on physical signs and wonders as the disciples had to learn to walk by faith and not by sight. For example, in the letters of Paul, we see Trophimus being left sick, while Timothy had problems with the stomach. One would then ask, where were those signs and wonders that even the shadow of Peter brought about healing?  

Act 5:14  And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) 
Act 5:15 Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.  

2Ti 4:20  Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

1Ti 5:23  Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.  

We are not saying that the Lord is not in the business of signs and wonders. Our walk with Christ every day is a miracle. It takes a miracle for us to be lifted out of the miry clay and be established on the rock, who is Christ.

Psa 40:2  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. 
Psa 40:3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 

The very signs and wonders which testified of the resurrection power of the Lord at the birth of the church of the first born, is now being used to deceive the many. That is why we are warned by the Lord to pay attention so that we are not deceived by false prophets.

Mat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 

Mat 24:11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

The question is “By what means are we deceived?” It is through signs and wonders as shown in the following:

2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 

Now let’s turn our attention to the sign that the Lord has given to us – the sign of the prophet Jonah. What is the sign of the prophet Jonah? We know from the word of the Lord that Jonah was swallowed by a whale for three days and three nights in the depth of the sea. After these three days, the whale vomited out Jonah on dry land.   

Jon 1:17  Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jon 2:1  Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,

Jon 2:10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Jonah’s three days and nights experience in the belly of the whale is what  Jesus is referring to as a sign for this wicked generation. Spiritually, the three days and nights of Jonah in the belly of the whale signify Jesus’ death and burial in the heart of the earth. The whale vomiting Jonah on dry land after the Lord spoke to the whale represents Jesus’ resurrection after three days. Jesus’ death and resurrection is therefore the sign for us who were part of this wicked generation. 

The healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple by Peter and John demonstrated the power of the resurrection of the Lord to take us out of the miry clay and to establish us on the rock, which is Christ. Now, what the Lord is doing is all spiritual. In effect, what the Lord is telling us is that if we are able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom and our flesh is being crucified daily, then we are seeing His resurrection power (signs and wonders) at work in our lives.

Luk 7:22  Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. 

Act 4:9  If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; 
Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 
Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.      

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees

Mat 16:5  And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. 
Mat 16:6  Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 
Mat 16:7  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 

The disciples at this stage of their walk with Christ, did not know Him. Therefore, while Jesus was talking to them regarding spiritual matters, they were thinking about physical issues. This situation is what characterized our walk when we were in the churches of this world or Babylon. Our focus was on the physical as we had no understanding of spiritual reality of His words. In other words, our attention was on the letter of His words and not on the spiritual significance of His words. We were therefore spiritually dead since the letter kills or profits nothing in our spiritual journey with Christ. 

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

Our circumstance at that time of our walk in the church system of this world was characterized by the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well. While Jesus was talking about deep spiritual truth regarding the water of life, which is His word, the woman was only paying attention to ordinary water, which represents the letter of His words. This was what transpired between them at the well:

Joh 4:7  There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Joh 4:8  (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) 
Joh 4:9  Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. 
Joh 4:10  Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 
Joh 4:11  The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 
Joh 4:12  Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? 
Joh 4:13  Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 
Joh 4:14  But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 
Joh 4:15  The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. 
Joh 4:16  Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. 
Joh 4:17  The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 
Joh 4:18  For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 
Joh 4:19  The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. 
Joh 4:20  Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. 
Joh 4:21  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 
Joh 4:22  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
Joh 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Joh 4:25  The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 
Joh 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. 

We know from the word of the Lord that a woman represents the church. This Samaritan woman therefore represents the church system of this world. We were fetching water regularly as we read the word of the Lord daily. However, because our focus was on the letter of His word, our spiritual thirst were never quenched, until Jesus came to us to show us the living water (the spiritual aspect of His word) which quenches all thirst. 

Jesus pointed out the problem of the woman – she has had five husbands and the man she was with was not her legitimate husband. The negative application of the number five is famine which leads us to spiritual poverty as shown in the following verse:

Gen 45:11  And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.   

Jesus telling the woman that she has had five husbands means that when the devil is our husband, we go through a famine period of the word of the Lord which brings us to spiritual poverty. The fact that the man the woman was currently with was not her husband signifies that during our walk in the corridors of the churches, Christ was with us, but He was not yet our husband. That was our situation in the church system of this world, just like the disciples when they were with Jesus. 

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. 

Coming back to Matthew 16:6-7, the Lord cautioning His disciples to be wary of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees was to let them know of the danger that false doctrines of the churches of this world pose to our marriage with Christ as leaven signifies false doctrines. This leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees refers to man’s wisdom and traditions which prevent us from coming to know the truth of the word of the Lord. 

Mar 7:5  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?
Mar 7:6  He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 
Mar 7:7  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 
Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. 
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 

We know from the word of the Lord that by the things that are made, we are able to understand the Godhead. In a marriage, for example, when we are filled with false knowledge of our partner, the marriage suffers, and in most cases it leads to divorce. 

The  leaven or false doctrines serve as idols of our hearts and minds and therefore becomes the stumbling block of iniquity, which bounces off the truth of the word of the Lord. 

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. 
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them? 
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols; 

Mat 16:8  Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 
Mat 16:9  Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 
Mat 16:10  Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 
Mat 16:11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 
Mat 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 

There are three instances in the Bible when Jesus rebuked His disciples for being of little faith. Verse 8 is one of them. The other two are as follows:

Mat 6:30  Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Mat 8:26  And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.    

These instances show us that during our time in the churches of this world, our faith was negligible. We know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord. 

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

This implies that when we were in the church system of this world, we were not understanding the Lord’s word which brings us the faith that we needed. We were just like the disciples who were hearing the word of the Lord but were not given to understand. It was after Jesus’ resurrection that they were given the power to understand His word. 

Luk 24:44  And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,   

The next three verses (Verses 9-11) confirm the lack of the disciples’ understanding of the word of the Lord, just like us, during our time in the churches of this world. It was not until faith came to us through the Lord’s coming to us with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness that we left behind the law of Moses which emphasizes the letter of His word, to understand the Lord’s words in spirit and in truth.  

Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (the law of Moses). 
Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.   

In verse 12, the disciples understanding that the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees refers to the doctrine of these religious groups is to make us aware that we, His elect, shall come to know His word. That is the same as being given the keys of David. It is these keys that grant us access to understanding the word of the Lord in the spirit and to be able to worship the Lord in truth and in spirit. 

Isa 22:22  And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 
Isa 22:23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house. 

Rev 3:7  And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 

We thank you our Heavenly Father for your mercies towards us in this age. May your name be praised. Amen!!    

Acts 23:1-18  We Will Eat Nothing Until We Have Slain Paul

[Study Aired September 10, 2023]

Act 23:1  And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Act 23:2  And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.
Act 23:3  Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?
Act 23:4  And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest?
Act 23:5  Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.
Act 23:6  But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.
Act 23:7  And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.
Act 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
Act 23:9  And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
Act 23:10  And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.
Act 23:11  And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.
Act 23:12  And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
Act 23:13  And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy.
Act 23:14  And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.
Act 23:15  Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to morrow, as though ye would enquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.
Act 23:16  And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.
Act 23:17  Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain: for he hath a certain thing to tell him.
Act 23:18  So he took him, and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath something to say unto thee.

Our study today begins with Paul being brought before the Sanhedrin after being saved from the blood-thirsty Jewish mob, which had been stirred up by false accusations from “Jews which were of Asia”, a province in which Paul spent much of the time of his ministry. The chief captain had permitted Paul to address the mob, but when Paul told the mob that the Lord had warned him that the people of Jerusalem would reject his testimony, and that the Lord had told Paul “I will send you hence to the Gentiles”, at that word ‘Gentiles’ the mob began once again demanding Paul’s death. At that point the chief captain told the soldiers to take Paul into the castle to be interrogated by a beating. As the soldiers were binding Paul in preparation of his beating, Paul called the centurion in charge and pointed out to him that they were in the process of beating a Roman citizen who had not yet been condemned. The centurion informed the chief captain that Paul was a Roman citizen, and the chief captain immediately stopped the preparations for the scourging and decided instead to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin to determine what laws Paul had broken:

Act 23:1  And Paul, earnestly beholding the council [G4892: ‘sunedrion’ the Sanhedrin] said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

“Paul earnestly beholding the council” means that he was looking everyone in the eye, just as everyone looked upon Peter and John when they healed the man who was born lame and had been begging for decades at the gate of the temple. The Greek word for the two English words, “earnestly beholding” is G816, ‘atenizo’. The ‘z’ always has an ‘idz’ sound when being pronounced in Greek, and it would be pronounced at-en-id’-zo. It means that you give something or someone your undivided attention.

Act 3:11  And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
Act 3:12  And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

All four English words “look ye so earnestly” are properly translated from the single Greek word, ‘atenizo’. Peter and John had the undivided attention of the multitude, and they took advantage of that ‘attention’, that ‘atenizo’, to witness for Christ, just as Paul is taking advantage of the attention being placed upon him by the members of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. Paul knew this Sanhedrin whole-heartedly agreed with the mob which had “[gone] about to kill him” the previous day. The high priest made his own sentiments concerning the apostle Paul perfectly clear, just as the religious leaders of this day feel about those who proclaim the doctrines of Jesus Christ:

Act 23:2  And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.

Paul is Christ’s ambassador:

2Co 5:20  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Make no mistake about it. If you or I, as ambassadors for Christ, make the statement that we are not to become entangled in the affairs of this age, or that we are not to take up arms against our enemies, the religious leaders of the churches of this day we live in would think nothing of “smiting (us) in the mouth.”

Act 23:3  Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?

Notice how quickly our own flesh, when breaking the law, thinks nothing of appealing to the law when it serves the interests of the desires of our flesh as those who wanted to smite Paul did:

Act 23:4  And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest?
Act 23:5  Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

Paul would not have rebuked the high priest if he had known the man was the high priest. Paul had rebuked the high priest not knowing he was the high priest. However, he could not deny the truth of the words he had spoken. He might well have thought that because Ananias had acted so unlawfully, he was not behaving as a high priest.

Here now we have another example of what Christ meant when He admonished us all to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Mat 10:16):

Act 23:6  But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

We are made aware of this difference between Pharisees and Sadducees in all three of the synoptic gospels:

Mat 22:23  The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

Mar 12:18  Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,

Luk 20:27  Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him,

The priests were almost all Sadducees, demonstrating that the highest-ranking religious leaders have always been the most corrupt and the most ignorant of the Truth of God’s Word.

Act 23:7  And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.

Paul had been told by the holy spirit that his testimony would not be received by the Jews at Jerusalem.

Act 22:17  And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, [from Damascus] even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;
Act 22:18  And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

Paul is relating what the holy spirit told him two decades earlier, but nothing has changed, and the Jews at Jerusalem are still rejecting ‘the testimony of Jesus Christ’. Both the Jews and the Christians, “the seven churches of Asia” reject “the testimony of Jesus Christ” until this very day. That fact is signified by placing the apostle John “in the isle that is called Patmos”:

Rev 1:9  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Paul had given his testimony, and it had been overwhelmingly rejected by the religious leaders and by the people of the city of Jerusalem as a whole. He was now being tried by the very same people who so hated him, and it appeared there was no way out. The holy spirit made the apostle Paul to be “wise as a serpent but harmless as a dove” and provided a strategy for saving Paul’s life and snatching him “out of the mouth of the lion” (2Ti 4:17):

Act 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.
Act 23:9  And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
Act 23:10  And when there arose a great dissension, the chief captain, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the castle.
Act 23:11  And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

“The night following” is that very night after the “great dissension” between the Pharisees and the Sadducees over whether there is a resurrection. These words of the Lord… “Be of good cheer, Paul: As you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome”… were of great comfort to the apostle Paul as they should be also to us. This promise of the Lord’s providence over our lives will see us through the storms of life, signified by Paul’s stormy journey to Rome to appear before Caesar. The venom of serpents which Paul will face on this journey to Rome signifies the serpents we handle and cast into the flames of the Lord’s fiery words, as we make our own journey in this life.

Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
Mar 16:18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Notice that it does not say, “They shall deliberately take up serpents” or “intentionally drink any deadly thing.” Such foolishness would be “tempting the Lord thy God” which Christ expressly told us not to do:

Mat 4:5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
Mat 4:6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Mat 4:7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again [“the sum of Thy Word” (Psa 119:160 ASV)], Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Jerusalem, where Paul was apprehended by the Jews, signifies the religious world which passionately despises the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rome signifies the secular world, which also hates the doctrines of Christ, but not to the point of wanting to kill Him:

Act 3:13  The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.

The Lord is telling Paul, in type, that he will judge this world and will then go on to judge angels in the lake of fire.

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

The Lord is telling Paul, and through Paul, He is telling us, that we are in His hands even in the midst of our severest trials. This is what the Lord is reassuring Paul:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We cannot see how our trials are working anything good while we are enduring the pain they bring us.

Joseph lived for 13 years from the age of 17 when his brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery until he ascended the throne of Egypt at the age of 30. During all that 13 years he outwardly appeared to be going steadily downhill. First, he was betrayed and sold into Egypt by his own physical brothers. Then he was sold as a slave to Potiphar, and from Potiphar’s house he was sent to Pharaoh’s prison. That is 13 years of fiery trials of Joseph’s faith in the Lord’s promise to make him a ruler and to make his brothers bow down to him.

It is the same with the apostle Paul, and it is the same with us. The enemies of the gospel are fervently determined to destroy Christ and His kingdom within us:

Act 23:12  And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
Act 23:13  And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy.

The fact we are told… “And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy” and the meaning of the number four (the whole of what is under consideration), being multiplied by ten, (the perfection of corruptible flesh), simply confirms these words of Christ:

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Conspiring with others to destroy the Lord’s chosen few comes as naturally to our flesh as breathing. All of Babylon has conspired to reject the Words of Truth throughout scripture. The scriptures teach “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Eze 18:4 and 20). The great harlot and her daughters have conspired to teach the false doctrine of eternal torment in literal flames of fire. The scriptures teach “it is not of him that willeth” (Rom 9:16). The churches conspire together to teach the false doctrine of ‘free moral agency.’ The scriptures teach that the fire of the Lord’s words will save all men (1Co 3:15). The churches of Babylon teach that the ‘fire’ will torment most of mankind for all eternity. The scriptures teach that the Godhead is understood by the relationship of a man with His wife (Rom 1:20, 1Co 11:3). The scriptures plainly state, “There is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and [besides this ‘one God’ there is also] one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things” (1Co 8:6). The great harlot and her daughters have all agreed to teach the false doctrine of a triune God head.

The Great harlot conspired to slay the apostle Paul, but once again the Lord delivered His elect ‘out of the mouth of the lion’:

2Ti 4:17  Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.

Act 23:14  And they [the “above forty” conspirators] came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.

This situation was first prophesied in the book of Genesis where the Lord cursed the serpent in the garden:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Act 23:15  Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to morrow, as though ye would enquire something more perfectly concerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.

“Above forty men” had conspired to kill the apostle Paul.

In 1972 I was working on ‘the mail analysis team’ at the headquarters of the World-Wide Church of God. In the span of five workdays, we received 25 paperback copies of a book entitled “None Dare Call It Conspiracy” by a man named Gary Allen. It was a book which documented the establishment of the unconstitutional and therefore unlawful, and purposely mislabeled Federal Reserve System. At that time, I was the most unpolitical person in the world. I despised the fact that the news headlines would interrupt my country music on the radio every hour on the hour. I was a member of the only true church, and I was convinced that by virtue of being a member of that church I was going to be carried to a “place of safety” which we had been told would be the city of Petra in Jordan. Our doctrine forbade us from taking any part in the affairs of this world, and that was fine with me. Therefore, I had no interest whatsoever in politics. Nevertheless, it was my job to ‘ analyze’ any trends in the mail we received, and those 25 paperbacks were definitely a trend. We were also receiving many other letters asking about what was in that book.

So, I took the book home and read it and began to have my eyes opened to whom the Lord is using to control all the nations on the earth. The scriptures reveal who that is in this verse:

Pro 22:7  The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

As it turns out the Federal Reserve Bank is neither ‘Federal’ nor does it have the ‘reserves’ it is supposed to keep on hand to avoid a depression. Back in the 70’s we had something called ‘telephone books.’ Some of you will remember that. In all those phone books there was a section called the blue pages which had the phone numbers of all agencies connected to federal, state, and local governments. The ‘Federal Reserve’ was nowhere to be found in the blue pages for the simple reason that it is not connected to nor subservient to the U.S. government, even though it is indeed a quasi-governmental organization, but with absolutely no ability to be audited by the federal government until this very day.

The Federal Reserve Bank is a privately owned bank, and it was to be found in the white pages right next to ‘Federal Express’, the privately owned package delivery service here is the United States. It is no more ‘federal’ than any local bank yet it wields incredible power because the nation is in debt to the Federal Reserve Bank to the tune of trillions of dollars which cannot possibly ever be paid back. Every dollar is a “Federal Reserve Note”, and it is plainly labeled as such. What that means is that it must be repaid, and it must be repaid with interest. The payments on the debt are fast approaching the point of this nation not even being able to pay the interest on its debt.

The Lord was not lying when He told us:

Pro 22:7  The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

That book documented how the Federal Reserve Act was passed through Congress just before Christmas day in 1913, after all the patriotic congressmen were home with their families. It ignored Article One section 8 of the constitution which demands that “Congress shall… coin money and regulate the value thereof”, and it gave the right to print paper money from thin air to a group of already very wealthy men, with very little accountability to the federal government. The independence of the federal reserve is acknowledged until this very day.

I am relating all this just to tell you that when I read that book entitled ‘None Dare Call It Conspiracy’ which documented how this cabal of wealthy men conspired to become the owners of all the money in the nation, I went to the most highly regarded historian in the World-Wide Church of God. It was a minister and professor named Dr. Herman Hoeh. With my newfound knowledge of the history of the creation of the Federal Reserve Act, I asked him, “Dr. Hoeh, what does the Bible have to say about conspiracies? Is there anything in scripture about a conspiracy to rule the world through the banking system?” Dr Hoeh brushed me off with an emphatic, “No, there in nothing in the scriptures about conspiracies. If there were, Mr. Armstrong would have written something by now.” He then turned to a fellow German and said, “Hello, Herr Haupt, how are you today?” There would be no discussion of what I had learned with Dr. Herman Hoeh.

The fact is that the scriptures are full of accounts of conspiracies being carried out against those who were sent by the Lord to speak for Him. Beginning with Joseph’s brothers conspiring to destroy him, to Absolom and Ahithophel and many other conspirators who were determined to dethrone and kill King David:

2Sa 15:12  And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counsellor, [also Bathsheba’s grandfather (2Sa 11:3, 2Sa 23:34)] from his city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.

The most famous of all conspiracies was that of the chief priests with Judas who betrayed our Lord into their murderous hands.

Mat 26:14  Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
Mat 26:15  And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted [conspired] with him for thirty pieces of silver.
Mat 26:16  And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

The holy spirit saw to it that Christ was always made aware of those who conspired to kill Him until His time to be betrayed arrived. Then Christ went up to Jerusalem knowing He was going there to be killed. Notice the difference between these two sections of scripture:

Joh 7:1  After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Joh 7:2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. [Notice how John distances himself from ‘the Jews’]
Joh 7:3  His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
Joh 7:4  For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.
Joh 7:5  For neither did his brethren believe in him.
Joh 7:6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.
Joh 7:7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
Joh 7:8  Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.

Twice Christ told His own unbelieving brothers, “My time is not yet come… My time is not yet full come”, and then later, when He knew His time had “full come” this is what He told His disciples:

Mat 20:17  And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,
Mat 20:18  Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,
Mat 20:19  And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

When Christ returned to the area of Jerusalem to raise Lazarus from the dead, His apostles somehow knew that the Jews wanted to kill their Lord:

Joh 11:1  Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
Joh 11:2  (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
Joh 11:3  Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
Joh 11:4  When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Joh 11:5  Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
Joh 11:6  When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
Joh 11:7  Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
Joh 11:8  His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?

The point to be made is that the holy spirit looks well to the Lord’s flock and warns those who would do harm to His prophets:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Isa 1:24  Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
Isa 1:25  And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

Obviously Paul’s time was “not yet full come” because the Lord had “Paul’s sister’s son” strategically placed to hear and warn Paul about the conspiracy among “above forty men” to kill Paul:

Act 23:16  And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle, and told Paul.

The Lord has people who are strategically placed in our lives to be in the position to help “the apple of His eye” when the need arises. Jonathan, the son of David’s arch enemy, King Saul, was just such a person. The Lord placed Jonathan in Saul’s household for David’s sake. This is a true statement:

Zec 2:8  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

The scriptures do not tell us whether any of those 40 men starved to death, but it does tell us that Paul was still alive for several more years.

Act 23:17  Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain: for he hath a certain thing to tell him.
Act 23:18  So he took him, and brought him to the chief captain, and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath something to say unto thee.

The whole world hates the Lord and His Christ. Nevertheless the Lord also gives us favor in the eyes of those who are of this world when we need it most. This ‘chief captain’ was just such a person. He was a Roman whom the Jews hated, but Paul’s ways apparently pleased the Lord because we are told:

Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Next week we will see how the Lord takes care of the apple of His eye, both then and now.

Acts 4:1-22 We Cannot but Speak the Things Which we Have Seen and Heard

[Study Aired December 25, 2022]

Act 4:1  And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,
Act 4:2  Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
Act 4:3  And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
Act 4:4  Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
Act 4:5  And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Act 4:6  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Act 4:7  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
Act 4:8  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
Act 4:9  If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Act 4:13  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Act 4:14  And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
Act 4:15  But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
Act 4:16  Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.
Act 4:17  But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.
Act 4:18  And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
Act 4:19  But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Act 4:20  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Act 4:21  So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.
Act 4:22  For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

The mysteries of the kingdom of God (Mat 13:10-11) are in the process of being revealed and the events of the day of Pentecost and the healing of the 40-year-old man who was lame from birth are the events the holy spirit chose to establish beyond any doubt that the crucified Christ is indeed the Son of God and the Messiah Israel has been waiting for ever since this prophecy was given by Moses:

Deu 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

“A prophet from the midst of thee, of your brethren, like unto me” means that this prophet will be a reformer like Moses was.

Before Moses, mankind could offer a burnt offering to the Lord upon any altar at any time and any place. When Moses was given the law, that all changed, and from that moment on every offering to God  had to be offered only at the tabernacle of the congregation and later at the temple in Jerusalem. Israel was prohibited from offering sacrifices anywhere but at the temple in Jerusalem:

Deu 12:5  But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
Deu 12:6  And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks:

This commandment was given by the Lord Himself, and the Lord Himself is the only being in the world who could possibly change it because He has come in “the time of reformation”, and He alone is “greater than the temple” and “Lord also of the sabbath”:

Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3  But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

Being required to come to the tabernacle to offer an offering was just one of the six hundred and thirteen laws this great reformer, Moses, instituted. The ‘prophet like Moses’ had arrived in Israel and everyone in Jerusalem had witnessed Jesus performing miracles of healing on the sabbath day, and all knew their leaders had condemned Him for breaking the sabbath and claiming that He was God’s Son:

Joh 5:12  Then asked they him [the lame man Christ had healed], What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? [on the sabbath day]
Joh 5:13  And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.
Joh 5:14  Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.
Joh 5:15  The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.
Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

The gift of languages on the day of Pentecost was witnessed by the many thousands of devout Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, and all who were native to the city of Jerusalem knew that the 120 people who had been given the gift of languages were all Galileans who were disciples of Christ.

Act 2:7  And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Act 2:8  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10  Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11  Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
Act 2:12  And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

What this means is that “the time of reformation, spoken of by Moses, was being introduced in a way that caused it to be spread throughout the entire Roman Empire by those who had been there on that day and witnessed what had happened and who heard “the wonderful works of God”.

Heb 9:10  Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

This is what Christ had to say about this “time of reformation”:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

We all live our own “time of reformation”, as the Lord replaces the law of Moses within us with His “law of love”, and His fear which will cause us to “tremble at his word”:

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Isa 66:3  He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.
Isa 66:4  I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not [Sacrifices rather than obedience to the Reformer].
Isa 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

The healing of the forty-year-old man who was lame from birth and was “laid daily at the gate of the temple” was another undeniable proof that Jesus was indeed the reformer Messiah. This man had been there begging for decades and everyone who went up to the temple was familiar with this man.

In our last study, we read what the holy spirit had inspired Peter to say to that forty-year-old man who was born lame:

Act 3:1  Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour [3 P.M.].
Act 3:2  And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
Act 3:3  Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
Act 3:4  And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
Act 3:5  And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
Act 3:6  Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Act 3:7  And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
Act 3:8  And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
Act 3:9  And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
Act 3:10  And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

Act 4:1  And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,

Notice that we are told “they spake unto the people”. Therefore, John was also preaching the gospel and saying the same things “unto the people” that Peter was preaching and teaching, which was confirming that Christ was the prophesied ‘prophet like Moses’ who would be a reformer to be rejected and crucified as the prophets foretold:

Act 2:22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Act 2:23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Act 2:24  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

Act 4:2  Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
Act 4:3  And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.

The priests were all Sadducees (Act 5:17), and they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Neither did they appreciate being accused of “by wicked hands having crucified and slain” their own Messiah.

Act 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

The Sadducees were little better, if any, than atheists. They taught that this life was all there is. They did not believe in being raised “as the angels in heaven”, so they denied there was a resurrection. Christ saw right through their hypocritical questioning when they just knew they could make Him look foolish:

Mat 22:23  The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Mat 22:24  Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Mat 22:25  Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Mat 22:26  Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Mat 22:27  And last of all the woman died also.
Mat 22:28  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.
Mat 22:30  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

These are the same hypocritical people who covenanted with Judas to betray the Lord:

Luk 22:3  Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
Luk 22:4  And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.
Luk 22:5  And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.
Luk 22:6  And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.

Luk 22:52  Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?

The only difference in the description of those who arrested Christ and those who arrested Peter and John is not really a difference at all because that difference is merely the name of the sect of the Sadducees to which the priests belonged.

Act 5:17  Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,

These are the same people who insisted on the crucifixion of Christ, and there is no doubt they would have loved to crucify Peter and John also. However, the healing of a man who had been born lame, and who was “laid daily at the gate of the temple”, was so powerful a witness to the resurrection of Christ that five thousand were added to the church that day via the preaching of Peter and John. The fact that this beggar was “above forty years old” (Act 4:22) means he had been begging there at the temple for decades and was known of by everyone who came to the temple, especially to “the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders” who went up to the temple for all those decades.

Act 4:4  Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

That is two thousand more than were added on the day of Pentecost.

Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Act 4:5  And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
Act 4:6  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Act 4:7  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
Act 4:8  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
Act 4:9  If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Act 4:13  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

As we familiarize ourselves with the Word of God, we, too, ‘have been with Jesus’, and it cannot be hidden from this world because we will be like Him “the light of the world”:

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Joh 9:5  As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

If we are given to desire to know Him, then He will live His life in us, and we, too, will be “the light of the world”:

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Being the light of the world will not make us popular with the world. To the contrary we will be “hated of all men” because the world lies in darkness, and it hates the light:

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Act 4:14  And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

Hypocrisy is inherent in our flesh. If we are indeed guilty of having a man who was prophesied to be a reformer crucified for breaking the sabbath and claiming to be the son of God, and then that same man is raised from the dead and is seen by over 500 people at once, and then that same man is credited with giving the gift of speaking in languages to 120  people, and then just a few days later that man we had crucified heals a man who was born  lame and is over forty years old and is known by the entire city, and His disciples are telling the people that they and their leaders are guilty of crucifying their own Messiah, we just naturally defend ourselves as opposed to repenting of the obvious humiliating, murderers we are proven to be.

What to do???

Act 4:15  But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
Act 4:16  Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it [‘Nothing to see here’].
Act 4:17  But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.

Here we are brought face to face with the one condition under which we are not to “be subject unto the higher powers”, as “the sum of Thy Word” demonstrates. Do not the scriptures command us to submit to the higher powers? Yes, they do:

Rom 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Rom 13:3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Rom 13:4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Rom 13:5  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
Rom 13:6  For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Rom 13:7  Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

In Christ’s day the priests and captains of the temple were “the higher power” to whom Christ and His disciples were subject, and Christ taught that as His doctrine:

Mat 23:1  Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
Mat 23:2  Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
Mat 23:3  All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

When Christ healed a leper, He commanded the leper to ‘show himself to the priests and to offer an offering for his cleansing, according as Moses commanded for a testimony unto them’:

Luk 5:12  And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Luk 5:13  And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.
Luk 5:14  And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Act 4:18  And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
Act 4:19  But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Act 4:20  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

This is where every future priest and king finds himself in time. We will all have our faith tried to show us whether we are worthy to be Christ’s disciples:

Mat 10:37  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Mat 22:8  Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Luk 14:25  And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
Luk 14:26  If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:28  For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Luk 14:29  Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Luk 14:30  Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Luk 14:31  Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32  Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
Luk 14:33  So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

Peter and John are types of us when the Lord gives us the resolve to forsake all that we have, to be a witness of His resurrection power as His disciples.

Act 4:21  So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.
Act 4:22  For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

Just a few weeks earlier both Peter and John had fled from the very people they are now boldly confronting with their witness that the healing of this lame man who is known by the whole city is the work of the resurrected Messiah, whom these men had murdered.

Peter and John and the whole church, which now numbered well over eight thousand men, “all of one mind and one accord” in believing that Christ is the resurrected Messiah who will establish the kingdom of God on this earth. The apostles did not go to the higher power looking for a fight, but when the higher power came to them demanding that they ignore the power that was higher than they, then the apostles, as types of us, had to be willing to lay down their lives rather than disobey Christ and His Father who are the highest power of all.

It is true that at this point the thought of the Gentiles becoming part of that kingdom has not entered their minds, but they are remaining true and faithful to what they are given to understand.

It will be another thirty or forty years before all the apostles, James and John, along with Peter and Paul and Barnabas, will all acknowledge that “if ye be in Christ, then ye are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”:

Gal 3:26  For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27  For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

This simply is not yet understood because the holy spirit has not yet revealed this to any of the apostles. It wasn’t yet revealed because the holy spirit knew that no one was yet capable of receiving that message. If Peter and John here at the beginning of their ministry had told the multitudes on the day of Pentecost that…

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

They would have had the same reception Christ had when He began His ministry with just that message:

Luk 4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Luk 4:17  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luk 4:18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luk 4:19  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luk 4:20  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
Luk 4:21  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luk 4:22  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
Luk 4:23  And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
Luk 4:24  And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25  But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Luk 4:26  But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a [Gentile] woman that was a widow.
Luk 4:27  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the [Gentile] Syrian.
Luk 4:28  And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
Luk 4:29  And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luk 4:30  But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

Christ made this point at the very beginning of His reforming ministry for our benefit. We have no record of Him regularly making this point during His ministry. He was very clear to the Samaritan woman at the well that the day would come when physical Jerusalem would no longer be prominent in the worship of God, but this was not a prominent part of His gospel of the kingdom of God to the Jews to whom He came first:

Joh 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

These words at the beginning of the gospel of John demonstrate that this apostle had come to see that:

Gal 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

John’s is also the only gospel which refers to the holy days of Moses as “feasts of the Jews”, distancing Himself from those who had rejected their own Messiah.

Joh 6:4  And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

Joh 7:2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.

If the apostles had brought this message to the multitudes of “devout Jews from every nation under heaven” on the day of Pentecost, they would have been stoned on the spot. It simply was not yet time for this to be known among the devout Jewish disciples of Christ, and Christ Himself was aware of the ‘frame’ of His own creatures:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

The calling of the Gentiles was part of the “things to come” which neither the apostles nor the people could bear at the time surrounding the day of Pentecost. It would have been too much for them to bear:

Psa 103:13  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Psa 103:14  For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

It was more than “the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees” could bear just to hear that they had crucified their own Messiah. However, it was given to many to accept that revelation and to repent so that:

Act 4:4  Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

Peter and John were faithful to what they were given to believe and now, through the holy spirit which was given to them on the day of Pentecost, they both “had respect unto the recompense of the reward” for being faithful to the end, and they did not value their life in this world above “the recompence of the reward” of life eternal in the age to come.

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ [in type] greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Peter and John were now willing to die with Christ and not just for Christ.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

“The recompense of the reward” is to become “the manifestation of the sons of God” and the saviors of all mankind:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God [“The recompense of the reward”].

Mat 22:23-33, Mar 12:18-27, Luk 20:27-40

[Study Aired July 6, 2021]

Mat 22:23 The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,
Mat 22:24 Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
Mat 22:25 Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:
Mat 22:26 Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
Mat 22:27 And last of all the woman died also.
Mat 22:28 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.
Mar 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
Luk 20:34 The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
Luk 20:35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
Luk 20:36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
Mar 12:26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
Mar 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.
Mat 22:33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Luk 20:39 Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said.
Luk 20:40 And after that they durst not ask him any question at all.

In the first section of scriptures the Sadducees ask a question about the resurrection of the dead. Now they do not even believe in a resurrection. Here are the scriptures the Sadducees ask their question.

Deu 25:5-10 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her. And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house. And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

What was the purpose of their question? This was answered in our last study. Just as the Pharisees tried to entangle Christ in his words the Sadducees tried to do the same.

Mat 22:15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

The Sadducees and the Pharisees do not have the same doctrines but they do agree that Christ must be stopped, and they will do whatever they can to stop him from teaching.

Act 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

Christ answers them with the following.

Mar 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?
Luk 20:34 The children of this world [aion] marry, and are given in marriage:
Luk 20:35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [aion], and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
Luk 20:36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

Just as written in Matthew 5, Christ changes the law. Here is an example.

Mat 5:21-22 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

Who are “they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [aion]” and “Neither can they die any more” from his answer?

2Th 1:3-10 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

1Ti 5:17 Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

Heb 3:1-4 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

Rev 2:8-11 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Those who are counted worthy are the Church, the head and the body. Christ continues His answer.

Mar 12:26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
Mar 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Christ is quoting Exodus chapter 3:

Exo 3:1-10 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 

This answer can be put another way. If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are dead, then there cannot be a God of the living if there is not a resurrection.

Christ tells them they are in error for not understanding the sum of God’s word.

Mar 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.

In this same section of Psalms is the truth about the resurrection and the order it happens.

Psa 119:153-160 RESH. Consider mine affliction, and deliver me; For I do not forget thy law. Plead thou my cause, and redeem me: Quicken me according to thy word. Salvation is far from the wicked; For they seek not thy statutes. Great are thy tender mercies, O Jehovah: Quicken me according to thine ordinances. Many are my persecutors and mine adversaries; Yet have I not swerved from thy testimonies. I beheld the treacherous, and was grieved, Because they observe not thy word. Consider how I love thy precepts: Quicken me, O Jehovah, according to thy lovingkindness. The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.

“Salvation is far from the wicked” is not saying that they will not be saved, but that they will instead not be raised in the first resurrection. Paul explains the resurrection.

1Co 15:12-18 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Paul was given great understanding of the resurrection. The false doctrine of the Sadducees continued throughout Paul’s day and continues even today and will until the end.

2Ti 2:14-24 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

This spirit given to the Sadducees and Pharisees both within and outwardly will try to entangle Christ and His body in their talk and will cause confusion. This is an attempt by Satan and his angels to divide the body. This is their charge. God sends them to try our faith which will serve the purpose of strengthening the body so that as Christ demonstrates in this story we will be able to shut their mouths and stop them from asking us these questions.

Mat 22:33 And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Luk 20:39 Then certain of the scribes answering said, Master, thou hast well said.
Luk 20:40 And after that they durst not ask him any question at all.

Psa 103:19-22 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

Always keep this in mind when the war within seems to be unbearable.

1Jn 3:1-2 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.