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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
Waiting On The Past
What if understanding ancient prophecy could transform your faith today?" Join us as we unravel the intricate world of biblical prophecy and allegory, challenging traditional interpretations that have shaped our beliefs for centuries. We question long-held views on Jesus' teachings about heaven and earth, particularly through the lenses of Matthew 24:35 and Matthew 5:17-18, inviting you to consider the profound impact of these scriptures from a first-century Jewish perspective. This episode promises to offer you a fresh perspective on why the heaven and earth narrative may not be as literal as many have thought, unlocking new depths of understanding in your spiritual journey.
As we journey through the complexities of biblical law, we explore the relevance of Old Testament commandments in a modern Christian context. Are we truly bound by the 613 laws, or does Christ's fulfillment of the law herald a new path? Our discussion traverses the challenging intersections between Old and New Testament teachings, questioning how these ancient laws fit into today's world and provoking a re-evaluation of what it means for heaven and earth to pass away. By situating these laws in their historical and cultural contexts, we uncover new interpretations that could reshape your practice of faith.
Listeners will also be drawn into a rich discourse on the symbolism of the Jewish temple and its existential ties to heaven and earth concepts. With insights from esteemed teachers like Tommy Miller, Jamie Englehart, and Chris Lackey, we reflect on the transformative journey from the old covenant to the new, marked by the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. This symbolic shift from a physical to a spiritual dwelling place for God invites us to see ourselves as the body of Christ, encouraging a more profound and active role in our communities. Engaging with multiple perspectives, we aim to inspire a deeper, more contextual understanding of faith, broadening horizons through collaborative teachings and shared insights.
That's what grieves the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is there to give us these things, to take us into these deeper truths and not just be stuck on religion. And when I started studying, it moved me into a place and I started studying something out. And then I flipped over. I was going through Facebook, too, while I was looking at some stuff, and Jamie Englehart had something on there and it was exactly what I was studying and I said wow, and I started reading Jamie's and I read a lot of Jamie's stuff. I love the way he breaks things down. So I used some of his stuff and some of what I was studying, because it was the same context of where I was wanting to go with this. And I love looking at verses that we have always interpreted one way and just really diving down into it and saying what did God really mean here? Not to try to trip people, not to try to say, oh, you had that wrong, it's nothing like that. But let's bring the true understanding of this thing out, because if we don't, we're going to continue reading verses and we're not going to really know what it means. I even put something up here on the title that is kind of crazy sounding, but it's the truth. Waiting on the past. You know how frustrating it is to wait on the past. It's gone, but we're waiting on it and that's where I'm headed into today.
Speaker 1:So let me start off by asking you a question here Will heaven and earth cease to exist and there be a new one? That's what we've always heard. Okay, that's what we've always been taught. You know why we've been taught that? Because it's in the Bible. It's literally in the Bible, and not only that, but Jesus is the one who said it. Two verses right here I want to come to, and I want to start right here Matthew 24, verse 35. Look at what Jesus says. Both of these verses is Jesus speaking? Heaven and earth will pass away. Hear that Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Now I would love if we had the time just to stop and say Sherry, what do you think that means? Kim, what do you think that means? Miss Louise, what do you think that means? I would love to just stop and get an understanding of what everybody thinks that verse means, because I can tell you years ago what I thought it meant, and then I got into a place of understanding, finished work and it meant something totally different.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's look at the next one Matthew 5, 17 and 18. A lot of the same thing being said. But do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For surely I say to you listen to this till heaven and earth pass away. So one verse he's already said is passing away. And now he says until heaven and earth passes away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law. Till all is fulfilled. This can be a little bit confusing verse right here, but I love it. I'm going to put it in my own words. He says until heaven and earth is passed away, that the law is still in effect. The law will be in effect until heaven and earth has passed away. You go research it, study it out. If I'm wrong on that, please come back and tell me. But that's my understanding of what this verse is saying right here. He's saying until heaven and earth passes away, not one little jot, not one little tittle, not one thing in the law is done away with. Okay, until all is fulfilled.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to get into that question in a minute. What does that mean? Until all is fulfilled? Now, if I stopped right now and just said y'all have a good day, y'all would say I have contradicted everything that I've just preached in the last several months. Okay, but I haven't.
Speaker 1:Okay, the problem is that we're reading a first century book through a 21st century lens and it don't work out very well like that. Okay, because we take everything that's in there when we read it through our 21st century lens and we think everything that we're reading is literal and it's not. I know some people would like to hear that, because they, you know, they think that you're saying that the bible is not true or that that's god's word and it's not real, that that's not what it's saying. There's a lot of allegory in the Bible. There's a lot of different ways that people spoke, but they weren't speaking on literal things. Okay, and I want to slow down here because I want you to see this We've got to put ourselves in the minds of a first century Jew. Okay, if we do that, we have to do that. Why? Because that was the audience that he was speaking to when he said these two verses in Matthew 24 and Matthew 5 that I just read out. He was talking to people who were Jewish in the first century. That's who he was speaking to. He was not speaking to us today, because it's going to mean something different to us, okay.
Speaker 1:So let me just ask you a few questions right here, just to get you, just to get your mind going, just to get you thinking a little bit. You don't have to agree with these questions, you don't have to answer them out loud, but just something that there are questions that come up and I ask myself these when I'm reading. So think about this why would heaven ever need to pass away if it's the perfect place of God's manifest presence? Now, the verse just said heaven and earth will pass away, so why would heaven need to pass away if it's the place where God's manifest presence is, and it's a place of perfection? That's just one of those dumb questions that I ask myself when I read something like this, because it don't make sense to me. Okay, and I know if it's not making sense to me, there's got to be something that I'm looking at in the wrong way. Okay, because God's Word is true. It's not a contradiction, it's not messed up.
Speaker 1:For some reason I'm misunderstanding or misinterpreting what is being said. Okay, if there is a problem with heaven, if it's got to be passed away or got to be done away with, then naturally we would have to say something's wrong with it. And if there is something wrong with it, then why are we so adamant about going there? That's the whole plan for every Christian. That's the purpose of salvation. The purpose of salvation in the Christian church today is not so we can understand our identity in Christ and understand who we are and do the things on the earth that he's called us to do. Our purpose in salvation in the earth, in the church today, is to get to heaven, to leave one natural place and get to another place. That's our goal. But if it's going to pass away, why are we so adamant on getting there? Just another question. That don't make sense.
Speaker 1:We're told several times in the Old Testament that the earth will remain forever. I didn't write the verses down, but I can tell you that there's at least three times that I know of when I look them up. Three times in the Old Testament it says that the earth will remain forever. My first mindset, going back to Matthew 5, 18, is well, there's a contradiction. There's several verses that says it will remain forever. But then when you go back to Matthew 5 and 18 just a minute, when you look back at verse 5 and 18 Matthew 5 and 18 look at what it says, for assuredly, I say to you, assuredly, assuredly, think about what that means. It's going to happen, you can rest assured. This is going to happen Till heaven and earth pass away. And then we come up to verses that says the earth will remain forever.
Speaker 1:Now, if I'm an atheist or I'm an agnostic or I'm somebody who just wants to battle with a Christian, this is the kind of things I'm going to bring up Because I want to know can you tell me why there's a contradiction here? Now, it's not a contradiction, but to somebody who just wants to argue for the sake of arguing, just to see how much you really know, this is what they would bring up. These are the kind of things that I believe it's important to get an understanding of it and to truly understand the context of it. So if somebody does say that, you can say no, no, no, no. That's not a contradiction, it's just a lack of understanding on your part. We can guide them in what this thing is really saying.
Speaker 1:And there's people that will argue on this stuff and they'll take this verse and they'll take this verse, and they'll take this verse and say wait a minute now. See there, the Bible is not perfect. One of those verses has got to be a lie, because they can't both be true. But can they? But can they? If we read them through our 21st century lens, then it tells us they can't both be true. Therefore, one of them has to be a lie. But if we understand context and who he was speaking to and what he was saying, now it begins to make sense to us.
Speaker 1:So if we're still waiting on a future passing away of heaven and earth, and based on this verse I'm going to read this verse one more time for us, surely I say to you till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot, not one tittle will by no means pass from the law. I want to slow down and just picture this the earth. Until the earth and the heavens is gone, the law remains in place. That's what it's saying. So if that's the case and we're waiting on a future heaven and earth to be destroyed, some event that's going to happen one day in the future, in the end of time. That's what we're waiting on. If that's what we're waiting on, then that by reason tells me we're still under the law today. So that's the question Are we still under the law? If that's the case, should still under the law and should we? If that's the case, should we throw out most of the New Testament which tells us that we're not under the law?
Speaker 1:Some people say, oh, another contradiction. It'd be easy, if I wanted to, to just become an agnostic and argue against all this stuff because most Christians don't understand the context of it. And it would be real easy to argue with people and say there's so many contradictions in that Bible that you're believing. But there's not. It's just what it says. The Bible says we're destroyed for a lack of knowledge. We don't understand context a lot of times in it.
Speaker 1:Last question what is till all fulfilled? Till all is fulfilled, what is that talking about? Is it talking about the end of the world, because that's what we always say? Is it talking about the fulfillment of all biblical prophecy from the Old Testament? Just questions to think about, because we know that in Christ, in His finished work, he fulfilled the law. I mean, he fulfilled the law and the prophets. He said that. He stated that.
Speaker 1:So when you look at that verse in 5 and 18 right here and I'm stuck on this one right now because it's got so much in it it says it talks about heaven and earth being passed away, but it also talks about that the law will remain in place until everything is fulfilled, until everything is finished, complete. So we have to look at this. I believe, as Christians, we have to look at this. I believe, as Christians, we have to look at this and we have to say what does this mean? Because I can't just glance over it and say, well, that's the Bible, that's true, because from a 21st century mindset, it's not going to make sense with the rest of the Bible, let there be light said, it's not going to make sense with the rest of the Bible, let there be light.
Speaker 1:So, according to this, no law, the law was not passed away. I want you to see this. That is talking about all 613 commandments, laws, all of them that began with the Ten Commandments. Some of y'all are looking at me like all of the Mosaic law, which was the law in the Old Testament time. They had all kinds of law. If we sit up here and listen to all of them off. They'd fill this wall up. They started with the Ten Commandments and then moved from there.
Speaker 1:Now I know they're broken down into different categories. Some of them are ceremonial laws, some of them are moral laws. They're broken down and that's the reason that some people say, well, we've got to let that go. We're not going to sacrifice animals anymore, but we are going to do not commit adultery. Why? Because that's morality. We don't want you to go out and murder somebody. Just do not kill, do not commit murder. We don't want you to go out and murder somebody. It says do not kill, do not commit murder. So that's a morality law. So we say, well, we're going to hold on to this one. Why? Because it's a moral, right thing to do. But cutting off somebody's hand because they stole something, well, that's not moral anymore. So we're going to let that one go. Wearing cotton and some other material together? Well, our clothes are made of a mixture of fabrics, so therefore we need to let that one go too, because it don't really matter anymore. See, we pick and choose. When truth be told, he died to fulfill all the law, all 613, including the 10. We don't like to talk about that.
Speaker 1:If we're still waiting on some cataclysmic event to take place before we're set free, think about what this means practically for the church today. And we don't think about that a lot of times. We just think we're living a Christian life. We're going to church. I profess to be a Christian, therefore I know where I'm going. When I'm gone, I can't do nothing else about it. When my time's up, my time's up. He got me on the clock and none of us knows when our time is up.
Speaker 1:One day God's just going to say it's your time, even though in the Word it says that he's come to give us life and life, and more abundantly, and that he is not a God that takes life, he is a God that gives life. You know? I mean I don't think each one of us has got a calendar, you know, and our name's written down somewhere. That's the specific time and way that we're going to go. I mean, what if God had me on the calendar for the next when I was 82, and I decided to go, get on this building and dive off headfirst today? Was God wrong? I mean, I'm just, we got to think a little bit, I mean, because we say those things. Oh, it was just his time. I mean, really it's crazy some of the stuff that we say sometimes.
Speaker 1:Now I don't know, I don't understand. I can't explain completely why things happen the way they do. I'm not even going to try to say that I can do that, but I know that some things that we believe and some things that we say is just absolutely crazy sometimes. And we've got to start, as Christians, start challenging some of those things, challenging our own thought process and saying you know, I know I've heard that for the last 50 years, but it just don't make sense, and be okay with doing that. I'm not saying change your whole theology around. I'm not saying that grandma and granddaddy was wrong. I'm just saying let's challenge it. Let's be intelligent enough to say I'm okay with looking to say why does this not make sense to me? Why does this seem like the Bible is contradicting itself, when I know that it's not so? Therefore, there has to be another explanation. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Let's look at it, because if we're still waiting on that big event that's going to happen before we're set free from the law, then we really have to ask ourselves how does it affect us today? It would have huge implications If heaven and earth haven't passed away. If we're still waiting on it to happen, then we would have a backlog of Jubilee years to celebrate. Think about that. In the Bible, the year of Jubilee was a time that would come over 50 years, and it was a time when debt was canceled, when land was returned to its original owner. There was no work on that day, nobody was plowing fields, and all that. That year it was a year of jubilee, and every 50 years it would come around and everything that was yours was returned to you. How many still in debt today? Maybe you're not, hopefully, but I am. I haven't had my year of jubilee yet. If we're still under the law, then we should be seeing a year of jubilee come up at some point.
Speaker 1:We would also have to abide by specific dietary laws. Leave that catfish alone, leave that pork alone, leave all this other stuff alone. We would also have to abide by I said it a while ago certain clothing laws Can't mix certain materials together. That's against the law. That is against the law, all of the 613 laws, all of them, all the way back to the Ten Commandments. There's certain ones that we're saying, okay, yeah, we'll grab on to them. I mean, we're going to hold you accountable as Christians to them. But then there's others. We're saying, oh no, you got to do that.
Speaker 1:But if we read this through the 21st century lens, then it says that the law is still in effect. All of the law is still in effect. All of the law is still in effect until heaven and earth has passed away. And if heaven and earth in our mind has not passed away yet that it's going to happen one day in the end of days then you are still bound by the law. So you need to start following all 613.
Speaker 1:Now, how many Christians would agree to that? Not many. So I'm saying that jokingly to say this We've got it messed up somewhere, we've missed some stuff somewhere, because we're not under the law anymore. We're under a new covenant, okay. So why don't Christians obey every letter of the law if Jesus said it applies until heaven and earth pass? It's an important question to ask. Very few Christians ask that question. Very few take the time to really go deeper into it, to really look and say what does this really mean? So before we start enforcing the law of Moses again, let's understand what Jesus is really saying, let's dive into it. We're not going to go deep into it, we're all going to look at a couple of things and let's really break it down and see what's really being said.
Speaker 1:The historical background on this is not just important. I could stand here and say, man, you've got to understand the historical background, you've got to understand this. It's important. It's not just important, though. It's necessary. Without going back and looking at the historical background of this verse, these two verses that we went over in Matthew, you cannot understand what's being said and therefore there's a misunderstanding, a misrepresentation of the Word. And then, therefore, we come up with all these ideas about what's going to happen one day, and then we put ourselves right back under the law again, because, according to that verse, if I'm believing one day, then I should be under the law right now. Does that make sense or does it just make sense to me? Okay, so historical background matters. Now, this is going to require you to put down the earth, blowing up theory about all the things that's going to happen, and start seeing the world through the way Jesus saw it, looking through his eyes instead of ours. It's going to force you to have to do that. Okay, to understand what Jesus meant.
Speaker 1:We must realize that when the first century Jew again, that was the audience, the first century Jew heard the words heaven and earth, they didn't think about heaven, the place God lives, and earth, this rock that we're living on. That was not what they were thinking about. That was not the meaning of those words. That's the meaning to us. If somebody says heaven, you naturally think God Place up there, somewhere on the other side of Pluto. When they say earth, you think planet. That's our mindset. That was not the mindset of the first century Jew. It was totally different. So if I look at it from my mindset, I'm going to get a different understanding of what the first century Jew would have had. Listen to Psalm 78 and 69.
Speaker 1:He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever. So they're talking about. His sanctuary was built like the heavens and the earth, like the heavens and the earth, like the heavens and the earth. I want to show you a couple pictures right here. The first one is the sanctuary. Here's the sanctuary. This is what the sanctuary would have looked like, like a temple. The next picture it's harder to see on this TV screen, but I want to show you that there was areas in here that if you look if you look, you can see the courtyards. I know it's hard to see the wording and everything, but there's an area inside here.
Speaker 1:This first area right here, that's kind of like a walled in was the outer court. We know it as the outer court, the inner court and the holy of holies. Right, that's the way we always hear it, that's the way we're taught and that's what it is. But that's not what the first century Jew called it. The first century Jew. They had a name for the outer court, they had a name for the inner court and they had a name for the holy of holy.
Speaker 1:Jews called the outer court the sea, just like the water, what we think about. They called it the sea. They called the water, what we think about. They called it the sea. They called the inner court earth and they called the holies of holies heaven, because that was the place that God dwelled. That was the place that not everybody could get into. We could go off and preach another sermon on that, because everybody couldn't get into heaven. Come on now. Everybody couldn't go into the Holy of Holies, only certain one, but it was the sea. I want you to see how this was laid out it was the sea, and then it was the earth, and then it was the earth and then it was heaven.
Speaker 1:So when you said heaven and earth to a first century Jew, they ain't talking about the rock and the sky, they're talking about the temple. They're thinking temple. There's all kind of evidence. You can go back and read the Bible, but there's also other books out there that support this and would show you this that I didn't go into today because it's a lot of stuff. So to a first century Jew who was Jesus' audience, by the way, and not 21st century Americans when their temple and holy city was destroyed in 70 AD, when their whole temple was torn down, their heaven and earth passed away. Heaven and earth passed away, gone Gone. This fulfilled the law and the prophets, for there was no place to offer sacrifices and the law, which the cross had made obsolete, had now passed away. Because what did it say? It said that the law was in effect until heaven and earth passes away.
Speaker 1:We don't understand that verse because we're thinking there and here, but when you go back and understand the true context of what that conversation was about. It's talking about the temple. When the temple was destroyed, heaven and earth passed away and the law was fulfilled. The law was no longer in effect. People don't like to hear it. Ten Commandments no longer in effect.
Speaker 1:All the other things not saying they're not morally good Don't get me, I don't want to get on that but that's not to say that they're not morally good laws Again, don't go kill, don't go sleep with somebody that you're not married to, don't go do all these other things. They're good morality laws, but there are certain things that they were still up under the law 613, mosaic laws which come to an end when heaven and earth was destroyed. My opinion no. The Word of God. It said that it would come to an end. He'd come not to destroy it but to fulfill it. The fulfillment happened when the temple was destroyed in AD 70.
Speaker 1:That's when it happened, we're told in Revelation 21 and 1, the first heaven and I didn't put this up, but you can go read it Revelation 21 and 1. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Now go study that verse out. The first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Now go study that verse out, because what I'm telling you right now I want you to see that it's in the Bible. I'm not making any of this stuff up. The first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more sea To understand that.
Speaker 1:We must ask what was the first heaven and what was the first earth to the first century Jews? Because if I go back and I've heard some people say, well, I'm going to start studying Revelation because I think the end times is near and they get themselves so confused, why? Because it's not literal. If you haven't studied Revelations and I don't want to mess it up for you, but there is very little in Revelation that's literal, very little if any. So we've got to again say, when I'm reading this, what was a first century Jew hearing? Because that's what the conversation was for or who it was for.
Speaker 1:So again, you go back, you look at the first heaven, the first earth, what it was to them. It was their temple, heaven and earth where they worshipped and offered sacrifices and where God's presence was had been completely destroyed. And now there is a new heaven and a new earth. Our bodies and I can give you plenty of Scripture on this. I'm trying, for the sake of time I'm not going into all this but there's a new heaven and a new earth, which is our bodies, which is the new temple. One temple is destroyed, and now is our bodies, which is the new temple. One temple is destroyed and now he says your body is the temple. One temple destroyed, another temple raised up. Your body is the temple and it was made with hands of, not made with hands of bricks and straw or mortar, but made by God. So we're not talking about a building, we're talking about you and me, because the Word of Scripture states that it was not made with brick and mortar. So that tells us it wasn't another building somewhere out there, it was talking about us. We are the temple.
Speaker 1:This is no wonder that Paul, when he said this, remember when he said you are the temple. But think about what he said before that. He said know ye not? Know ye not? Basically, what he was saying there in our language is do you know? But he said do you know? And then he stopped is do you know? But he said do you know? And then he stopped and said do you know? He said it twice why? Because then he was saying something really important. Do you know? Do you know that you are the temple of God? And he said it twice because I think he wanted to get their attention so they would understand what he was trying to explain to them. You are the temple of God.
Speaker 1:Also, there's no more sea or outer court with brazen altars and places for the priests to wash their hands, to get all clean, because there was rituals that they had to go through before they could enter into the Holy of Holies. There's no more of that. I can enter in now. Dirty, messed up, done away with the law that said only a few can enter but you had to have certain criteria met. New covenant says come as you are, come as you are, come as you are, he'll clean you up. It's a different mindset now. We are cleansed once for all by the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1:We are now in a new covenant with a new Adam. This is mind-blowing when you think about it. We're in a new covenant with a new Adam, jesus. There's a second Adam, the last Adam. Some people say second Adam, not a second Adam, because that would say that there could be a third. There's a second Adam, the last Adam. Some people say second Adam, not a second Adam, because that would say that there was a could be a third. There's a last Adam. Last means there's not another one. There was one first Adam and then there was the last Adam.
Speaker 1:So we're in a new covenant with a new Adam, jesus, a new Eve, the bride living in a new Jerusalem, in a city, a church clothed in white, a new temple which is the body of Christ enjoying the fruit of the second tree, which is life. With the first tree, the law of sin and death, now cut down and defeated, don't exist anymore. It says you're dead to sin. See, these verses that we talked about starts to make sense when you read them in context. And the Lamb's resurrection, life infusing us to enjoy the life of the age to come, eternal life, which is heaven invading earth here and now, not one day. Here and now, we are the new heavens and earth, but we are the place where heaven and earth merge in Christ. Think about this. This is so powerful. Right here, we're the temple and we're the place that heaven and earth merges together. That word temple is naos and it actually means inner sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. The holy of holies is now in you. Think about that. The place that they were trying to get to, that only a few was accepted, only a few people could clean themselves up enough to get to, is now living on the inside of you. The Holy of Holies is in each one of us, and we are where God has always wanted to dwell, for, behold, the tabernacle is among men. I'm just giving you some verses here that I know you're familiar with, just to show you the connection, how all these things start to make sense.
Speaker 1:Jesus knew that Jerusalem and the temple were about to be destroyed. He knew that. Go back and you read and study the words of Jesus out. He said it many, many times. He prophesied it to people. He said this is about to happen and he gave it great significance in His teaching. He said this is about to happen and he gave it great significance in his teaching. He talked about this the entire Torah, old Testament, first five books of the Old Testament. The Torah would be set aside.
Speaker 1:Listen to this. It's hard to say because people think, oh, you're saying the Old Testament's not important. No, I'm not. It was important. It was very, very important. But it was laws. It was the Mosaic law, and he said that once heaven and earth passed away, that the law was fulfilled. So is that to say that the Old Testament was not important? No, I'm not saying that it was important, but it was fulfilled. The law was fulfilled when this happened. So the entire Torah would be set aside.
Speaker 1:Once the temple crumbled, what would replace it? Jesus is redefining Torah in the same teaching where he says until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the law. Think about what he said. The Torah will remain in force as long as the temple stands. But Jesus gave a new Torah when it fell. He said Old Covenant will stand until heaven and earth passes away, but as soon as it was demolished, I have a new covenant for you. We're no longer in life and death and sin, and we're no longer in all that. Now we're in a new covenant. We're no longer in life and death and sin. We're no longer in all that. Now we're in a new covenant. We're stepping over when heaven and earth.
Speaker 1:For Jesus, heaven and earth wasn't a planet in the galaxy somewhere, or just the place that his daddy lived. He was obsessed with where heaven met earth, not the physical universe. That's what the Holy of Holies was. When you look at this, this was the place, the temple was the place that heaven and earth joined together. That was the only place you couldn't talk to God. These priests had to go in, clean themselves up, make themselves right, and they could go in and speak to God on your behalf. Heaven met earth. Now the Holy Spirit resides on the inside of us and heaven is meeting earth where, among men and in men, the way God chose to, the way God wanted it all along.
Speaker 1:But when we mix our assumptions with Jesus' message, we mess a lot of stuff up. We mess a lot of stuff up. We create confusion and contradictions of thought. It's not saying the Bible, there's nothing that we're teaching that's contradicting the Bible. There's nothing that we're saying that's saying the Bible is not true or the Bible is not this or that. All we're saying is don't create contradiction of thought in the Bible. What is a contradiction of thought? It's a misinterpretation.
Speaker 1:I think one way, because I read this, but really that's not what it says. It's not saying it's wrong. It's not saying anybody's bad or anything like that. It's just saying you read something out of context and because of that you took on a certain thought process that just is not accurate because it was read out of context. So the more I can understand this and read it in context, the more it makes sense to me.
Speaker 1:So when we say it's finished and people say, yeah, but what about this and what about that? And Jesus is going to come back and the earth's going to be destroyed and this and that, and we can say, but it's finished, yeah, but the heaven and earth has got to pass away Because now a new Jerusalem is going to be a. It's finished. I mean really it's finished. And you can take these verses and you can show them in context. Now it's not finished to them because they're reading it out of context and it don't make sense. Now it's not finished to them because they're reading it out of context and it don't make sense. That's why it says that the word to the people who don't understand it is foolish. It's foolishness. You know how many people look at what we're teaching and say that is foolish.
Speaker 1:I had somebody me and my brother was talking the other day and he said that somebody told him one of his members was talking to somebody day and he said that somebody told him one of his members was talking to somebody from another church. I won't call it out, but they talked to somebody from another church and they said you need to get away from what he's teaching. He's teaching the same thing. We're teaching Finish work, but people, if they don't understand it, they don't have nothing else to say about it. But I got to get back. That don't line up with what I've always been taught and what I love about it and why I finally got to a place and I ain't always been here but why I'm finally getting to a place now to where I can literally say I don't care if you disagree with it, because I can show you Scripture to back up what I'm saying. I'm not saying that in a mean tone. I'm saying that we've got Scripture now that we can show you and make you think, and make you look at it and challenge your way of thinking. And if you can read it and say I still don't get that, okay, great, no problem, you're still Christian. No problem, you're still Christian. But we've got to understand what it's really saying. That makes a difference Because, again, when we mix our assumptions, we mess a lot of things up.
Speaker 1:When we read out of context, we have to conclude these verses. I just read I just pulled two verses out because I didn't want it to be confusing I just pulled these two verses out that we read earlier in Matthew. But when we read those verses out of context, then we have to conclude that the Mosaic Law still reigns until the end of days when the earth is going to be destroyed, and that's what most people here was taught. I was so if we read that out of context, then that is the only logical explanation for what it's saying. We also have to take a step further than that and we have to ignore Matthew 5 and 18, along with other verses that make no sense outside of their original context. When I step into understanding it, it changes everything it really does.
Speaker 1:And we're not saying this so that we can get in debates with people and challenge people on it. Do I think that we do need to be challenging sometimes? No, I'm not saying that in a negative way. I'm saying that we need to be light in darkness. Darkness is simply ignorant. I'm not saying the person's stupid. It's saying that some people don't know and light is knowledge. When we got knowledge, I can't take that knowledge and just keep it here, and then when I go somewhere else when other people Go along with what they're saying, that's grieving the Holy Spirit. Why? Because you have come to an understanding that's deeper Now. I understand.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we may hear it and we may say, yeah, that makes sense. But I understand, sometimes we may hear it and we may say, yeah, that makes sense, but I'm not quite sure how to talk to people about it. Yet that's what we're trying to do. That's why I'm bringing out these verses. It's because we should be at a place to where, when somebody says I heard your pastor say something about finished work, what is he talking about? That we can at least give an explanation of what it means. We should be able to do that.
Speaker 1:That's why we want to study these certain Scriptures out. That's why certain ones that we look at and we say, if you read this, this is the mindset that you're going to get out of this, and if you adopt that mindset, this is the mindset that you're going to get out of this. And if you adopt that mindset, then you are automatically waiting on a future event to occur. But if I realize that it's already occurred, it's already happened and now the Holy Spirit is living on the inside of me and I am the new temple, because I am the body of Christ and he wants me to be light in a dark world and he wants me to be a mouthpiece and he wants me to do certain things. I understand my identity of who I am now. I'm not some lost person out here waiting on some event to happen one day, and this amends people's theology. I'm telling you it's hard for people to hear it because it goes against a lot of what most of us have been taught and I do understand that. But I guess what I'm saying while it goes, I've come to a different place. Used to, I was more like let's not rock the boat too much. Now I want to turn the boat over In a nice way, but we're getting more understanding to explain it and I guess that's what I'm saying is, I've got more to support what I'm saying now.
Speaker 1:Where before I believed it? Because I studied it and I heard other people preach it and it resonated with me, but I didn't have the ability to go out and really speak on it. I've said it before. I preached these messages back in 2010, 2011, but I will honestly stand here and admit to you today. I preached them, but I really did not know what I was talking about. They made a little bit of sense to me, but not on the level that it does today.
Speaker 1:Now I feel confident, walking up to somebody and saying, oh yeah, that's what I said. Let me explain to you why you don't have to somebody and saying, oh yeah, that's what I said. Let me explain to you why you don't have to agree with me. But let me at least hear my side before you cast me out. You know, at least let me explain to you what I'm saying. That's what I want us to be able to do, because I know some of y'all have other people that y'all talk with and you know things and they may ask you questions and stuff.
Speaker 1:And I believe that's why I used to and I don't say it anymore, but I used to say it all the time that we're not going to be a church that's going to have 150 people in it, and that's the reason I used to say that is because everybody's not going to agree and see and come into agreement with what we're teaching. It's not because we're way out there. I believe we're there. I really do. I believe that we've got an understanding on some stuff. That's right because it's biblical, it's context.
Speaker 1:But if we can't explain it, one of the things I've always said is how do you know when somebody's truly getting it? They can explain it. They can explain it. And if I've got to sit down and go over it and write it out and try to make it fit in my own way because I could hear Jamie Englehart teach on something or Tommy teach on something or Chris teach on something it don't make any sense to me at first. But then, when I go back and I start studying it, it makes sense to me. But you know what, if I'm going to come back and teach it to you, I've got to put it in my own language the way I understand it. I can't preach it like Tommy preaches it. I can't preach it like anybody else preaches it. I understand it in my way. How does it make sense to me? And then that's the way I try to bring it out.
Speaker 1:Now there's some things you just can't change because it's Bible. But that's what I want out of you guys. I want you guys to say okay, I want to know what he's talking about there and I want to know how to break this thing down. I want to know, even though I don't agree with that, I like that even more when somebody says that. I honestly like that. When somebody says I don't necessarily agree with what you're saying, but it did pick my interest, that's fine. That's all we want. All we want. My job is to provoke you to think beyond what you've always thought. That's it. I'm not trying to change anybody's theology.
Speaker 1:Ultimately, I think your theology is going to change itself. I mean, I really do. I believe that if you get into it and you really study this out, it'll begin to change itself. And I think most people in here would say that if you get into it and you really study this out, it'll begin to change itself. And I think most people in here would say even if you're not fully there yet, you may not agree with everything I say, but for the most part, something has changed from what you used to believe to what you believe now. Not because the events are different or you was wrong here and now you're right, but because your intelligence improved, your your understanding improved and now you're. You're reading it in context and it makes more sense. Anyway, that's.
Speaker 1:We're going to start hitting some more of this stuff like this, just because this is something that I guess it's been on my heart so much, because I want to be able to talk to people about it, not just from a pulpit. But if somebody on the street says what do you mean by this? I want to just be able to. At least I don't have to be a Bible scholar, but I can at least say well, if you look back in Matthew, this is what he says right here. And if you read it like that, then we get a wrong interpretation about it. But if you really look and you can stop and say, hey, did you know that the first century Jews didn't look at heaven and earth like we look at it? They actually called the temple, they had a sea, and then they had an earth and then the Holy of Holies was heaven, did you know that? And they might say, huh, I didn't know that, check, check that out sometime. And then when they start checking that out and they understand the language of the first century Jew, guess what? That verse don't make sense to them anymore. And then they come back and say, hey, I was reading back over this verse and it just ain't. Can you help me out with it. And now we begin a conversation.
Speaker 1:So we're not debating people, we're just asking questions. Just ask questions. Let them get the revelation on their own through the Holy Spirit. But we have to before we can ask the questions. We've got to understand it. We've got to get to a place to where we are prepared enough, feel confident enough to do that. We've got to get to a place to where we are prepared enough, feel confident enough to do that.
Speaker 1:I think we've got quite a few in here that are. They really are. So I want everybody to be there. Anyway, you can stand to your feet. If not, I'm going to keep going. Y'all stay sitting down. I've got a lot more of steaks sitting down. I got a lot more. There's people out there too.
Speaker 1:Again, I say this all the time but there's people that you can go on there and listen to. Tommy Miller, jamie Englehart I give you a list of names. There's different ones. Chris Lackey I'm trying to think of the other guys' names. I can't think of them, but anyway, I could write you down. I'd have to go in and look through my Facebook and all.
Speaker 1:But what I'm saying is there's pages you can go on. You can go on their Facebook page. You don't have to go watch their Facebook live every day. Sometimes they just make a little blog or something you know and it's so interesting just reading those things. It'll make you think so, sometimes connecting yourself with other people besides me that are saying this because you know it's easy for you to look at me and say Pastor Brian must be wrong. But when you start hearing other people say it too and we're all coming and we're all saying the same thing and we're all you know it's a little bit different when you're hearing other people speak on this. If you want to hear Jamie Englehart speaking what I spoke on today, you're probably going to get a lot more out of it because he goes a lot deeper into it than what I did today. So just search some of those people out. If you don't remember them, text me. I'll text you the name and just go to their Facebook. They don't even have to know you're looking at the stuff. Just go on Facebook and look at it and familiarize yourself with some other people who are teaching what I call right now is truth in context. What other people's teaching is truth, because it's the Word, but is it truth in context.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's pray, father. We thank you for this word. We thank you for what you're doing during this season for us, father, in this ministry. We thank you for everything that you're preparing for us, things that we don't even see yet, things that we don't even realize how it's going to happen yet. But we know that if You've given us provision, father, you will provide the provision that you will give us every plan, every purpose. You will provide the finances that we need to do the things that You've called us to do, that we will touch this community in a way like we've never had before. We will do things in this community to cause change, to create people to think and to shift their mindset. We're not trying to create just another church. We want to create a place that truly causes people to repent, change the way they think. Father, we thank you for everything and we'll be careful to give you the praise, honor and glory in everything that we do, everything that happens in every one of our lives, in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.