Leen Ritmeyer - The Power of Bible Places and their Lessons for Us - Class 2 - He shall be called a Nazarene

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1. 0:01

   This is the 2010 Ontario Winter Bible School. Our speaker for this second session is Brother Lane Rittmeyer from Cardiff, Wales. His theme this week is The Power of Bible Places and their Lessons for us. This is his second class and the subject for this class is He shall be called a Nazarene. Our reading was taken from Matthew chapter 2. Dear brothers and sisters and young people, it’s very pleasing to hear Josiah read Matthew Chapter 2 for me, one of my former students, to see Chris Ayles here, former teacher of Heritage College, and Tim Badger and other children here that were my students.

2. 0:46

   It’s lovely to be here in your midst. It makes me feel really at home. Yesterday we start to look at the land of Israel and he saw that God has created that land. He loved that land. His eyes were always on that land. But it was also to be used as a teaching aid. And we’ve seen a few of these lessons and hope to bring out many more.

3. 1:09

   We saw that the land of Israel was placed in the midst of the earth in between those continents of Asia and of Europe and of Africa. How in the past they were vetted between the powers of Egypt and the empires of Assyria, Babylon and and Persia. And we’ve seen that it was both an opportunity to stay isolated, to be separated under the surface of God, or to be influenced by those people that use that land as a land bridge to fight with one another.

4. 1:38

   And then we looked at the Angel Gabriel going to that magnificent temple which Herod had built in Jerusalem, the most beautiful building that was ever built in the land of Israel. But his message was met with unbelief. A lady was sent to Nazareth, a humble village, a small village in a humble abode, and there the message was received with joy.

5. 2:06

   And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me, even according to thy word. What a contrast that was. Then we’ve seen how the Angel intimated that she should go to visit her cousin Elizabeth. And we’ve seen that she lived in the city of Aaron because she was a daughter of Aaron, married to a son of Aaron, living in the city of Aaron, which was Hebron.

6. 2:29

   And we looked through the history of Hebron, how the patriarchs were buried there, how David was anointed king in Hebron. And so we saw the power of that place of, of Hebron where Elizabeth was living. And those two women, Mary and Elizabeth, had so much to share between them. In the chapter we read today, we talked about the fulfilment of Jesus having to be born in Bethlehem. And we’ve seen how 1000 years before Christ actually was born, God had already prepared a place for him to be born in the Inn of Kim Ham.

7. 3:07

   And so we can only marvel at God’s foresight, at his care for the preparation for the birth of his Son. And in this chapter, again, we see that all the time prophecy is being fulfilled In verse 15, we read it out of Egypt. Have I called my son? He wondered. It’s going to tell Joseph, Mary to take little baby Jesus and run to Egypt because otherwise he would be killed by Herod.

8. 3:36

   I don’t think that was the case. If God can command legions of angels than the power of heritage, absolutely nothing compared to Him. But they had to go there to fulfil a prophecy out of Egypt. Have I called my son? Now the calling out of Egypt, of Israel is a theme that goes right through the Scriptures. Brother Tim has been referring to it and all the time you have this reference of Israel being saved out of the House of bondage, the House of sin out of Egypt. But why is this particular prophecy referred to out of Egypt?

9. 4:15

   Have I called my son? It’s a reference you won’t find in Exodus or in Numbers, Leviticus or Deuteronomy or Joshua. You find it in the prophecy of Hosea. So let’s go to the prophecy of Hosea Chapter 11 and see why this particular verse has been chosen to be fulfilled. So Hosea, Chapter 11.

10. 4:53

    And there we have it, right in the first verse when Israel was a child. Then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. So the definite parallels there between the nation of Israel coming out of Egypt and Jesus having to go to Egypt 1st and then to come out of Egypt again, although he was totally unaware, I suppose of what was happening to him because he was only a little baby.

11. 5:21

    But was the first sentiment in this verse, Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt? He says because I loved him. And this chapter is Speaking of the great love which God has for Israel, but also for his son. If you continue reading in verse three, he said I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms. Now that’s what happened to Jesus as well. He was a little baby and I think he learnt walking in the land of Israel.

12. 5:56

    He’s only up to two years old and Joseph must have held his hands out of dummies and all fires have dummies, their sons and their daughters. And he taught teaching him how to walk. God is showing his love for his son in this chapter and that’s why I believe this chapter is referred to in Matthew chapter 2 in verse 4I drood him with chords of of a man with bands of love.

13. 6:25

    It’s how a man wants to bind his wife to himself in in love. And that is why this particular prophecy has been referred to. Although there were times that got absolutely despaired of Israel. Look at the previous chapter, verse 9. It says there in verse 15 all their wickedness is in Gilgal. For there I hated them for the wickedness of their doings. I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more.

14. 6:59

    All their Princess are revolters. Ephraim is smitten. Their root is dried up. They show they bear no fruit and God can’t work as people like that. He can’t love them. But then God’s bowels were yearning for Israel. He did not want to cast them off. It says in verse seven of the chapter.

15. 7:21

    Readers read Chapter 11. My people are bent to backsliding for me, though they call them to the Most High. None at all would exalt him, or would glorify or or sanctify God. And he was. In the meantime she was ready to cast them off and to destroy them. But then he says in verse 8, How shall I give thee up? If I am, How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Atman?

16. 7:50

    How shall I set thee as Zeboim? We go to see tonight. God willing. I would. God destroyed those cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Atma and Zebovim, because he couldn’t tolerate their sin anymore. But think about Israel. My heart is turned within me, my repentings. I’m are kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger.

17. 8:15

    I will not return to destroy Israel. Why Bradley sisters? Because he says I am God. I’m Elohim, I’m not man, and that’s the greatest of God, that He can forgive our sins, although He doesn’t hold the guilty innocent, that he could never give up Israel. And it’s amazing to see the nation of Israel still gathered together in Israel. They have been gathered together there out of God’s love, so that they can look upon Him whom they have pierced. Jesus was totally unaware of all this happening. But you saw yesterday the beautiful character of Mary who kept all those things in her heart, who pondered about all the things that were being said to her when she had given birth to Jesus.

18. 8:59

    Almost too much to take in, but she remembered everything. By meditating on them, she eventually realised how old the prophecy had to be fulfilled for her Son Jesus Christ. And when he was growing up, He must, He must have told Him all those things, because God is the Father of Jesus Christ. He wanted Jesus to know that even if Jesus found life difficult, that God would never give him up, just like he couldn’t give up Israel. How shall I give thee up if I am? Because Jesus wasn’t born perfect. He had to develop God’s character also. You know the passage in he was 5 and 8. So well, though he were a son, he had learnt the obedience by the things which he suffered.

19. 9:46

    If he had to learn obedience, that there must be moments that he didn’t want to be obedient. And like any other child, he’d like to disobey sometimes. But of course, Jesus never ever did. And it was a process by many sisters, that learning of obedience that continued to the end. Let’s go to Mark chapter 14.

20. 10:11

    And God understands all that in Mark chapter 14, verse 34, we now at the end of the earthly life of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, He says in verse 34, My soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tarry you here and watch. And he went forward a little and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour might pass from him.

21. 10:40

    He said, ABBA Fateh, all things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me, and if there’s not what I know, but what thou build. And so in learning to obey his mother and Joseph, who was a father figure to him, she’s learnt to obey God even unto the end. It’s a salutary lesson by the sisters and young people for for parents to learn to always love their children, even when they’re disobedient. And it’s a good lesson for children because by obeying their parents, they learn to obey God as their parents are also obeying God.

22. 11:21

    So although we don’t know exactly where in Egypt they went to, you can see the the the journey in in red. So they must have left Bethlehem and gone down the road to Ascalon, go all the way down the coast by Gaza and went into Egypt, probably staying there. The children of Israel were in captivity where they built all those buildings with mud bricks.

23. 11:46

    And then they had to come back again to fulfil another prophecy that he shall be called a Nazarene. What does that mean? What is a Nazarene? After many speakers badly sisters, young people about it, they think it’s a Nazarite, but it’s a completely different word in Hebrew. And Nazarite is a man who consecrates himself to God, who let his hair grow along like Elijah did in John the Baptist when at a certain time it was cut off and offered to God. But that is not what it is, what it is saying here. A Nazarene is an inhabitant of Nazareth. But there’s much more to that as well today. If you look at Nazareth, we saw this slide yesterday. So we’re going to have a look at the power of the Bible place. Why did Jesus have to go back there or go there for the first time for him and be grow up growing up in Nazareth? Yesterday I showed this slide.

24. 12:43

    Now it’s a very large city, a lot of Christian Arabs living there. But in the 100 years ago, this picture was taken, 100 years ago, it was just a very small village. And that is where Jesus grew up. It shows he was not a city kid. God, he didn’t choose Jerusalem for his child to be educated. He chose a small little village far away from Jerusalem in the Hill Country of Galilee, in a little bowl where you can’t see much beyond the limit of your village. And that’s where that’s where he was educated. Robert Roberts he wrote about the spiritual benefits of growing up in despised Nazareth.

25. 13:29

    It was a place of preparation for the public life of Jesus. Robert Roberts says this an unexciting lowly life of private manual labour was chosen by God as the right school for the training of his beloved son for the heirship of all things. If you continue reading about Robert Robert’s work words about the first formative years of Jesus, he says the work the life of a working man means the full development of man, whose strength a strong frame, a kind and firmly muscular hand, a simple and independent character combined with humility of deportment. If to these we add the clearness, clearness of a divine intellect, the fire of godly zeal, and the tenderness of true kindness and compassion, we get an approximation to Jesus of Nazareth in God was working out the archetype to which all his family needs to be conformed.

26. 14:34

    But the more fundamental reason is the fulfilment of this prophecy of Isaiah. He shall be called a Nazarene. So what is that all about? Let’s go to Isaiah Chapter 11 because that’s where the the code comes from in Isaiah Chapter 11. I’ve got a wonderful description of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

27. 15:15

    But the preparation for that took place in Nazareth. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. But the stem of Jesse was cut off. The House of David was cut off. There were no kings in Israel anymore after the Babylonian destruction of 586 BC.

28. 15:41

    So the the IT was like a stump of a tree, but a branch, a chute came forth out of his roots. And that word, the branch, is netzer. In Hebrew, netzer is the branch, but Nazareth is the same word. It’s Nazareth in Hebrew. It’s the plural word of branch. It’s a place of branches.

29. 16:10

    That’s what it means. If you continue reading, we can see how God chose that place to educate His Son. The Spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding. The spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yawa, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of Yawa.

30. 16:33

    He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reproof after the hearing of His ears, but His righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove his equity for the meek of the earth. And the time will come that He will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. With the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked, and righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reigns.

31. 16:57

    You could never develop such characteristics in a big city in the city of Jerusalem. It’s just full of the hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees who are teaching their students to be just like them. God chose Nazareth, the place of a branch to bring up His Son. You go to Isaiah chapter 60.

32. 17:27

    So Naz was chosen for that new branch out of the stump of David to grow again. And we just read in verse 21, Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land forever. The branch of my planting as the Lord Jesus Christ, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. That called for the education of Jesus in Nazareth, so that eventually a little one shall become 1000 and a small one, a strong nation.

33. 18:03

    I Yahweh will hasten it in his time. So in a Chapter 11, Jesus called the branch the Netzer who lived in the place Natserrat, the place of branches, because there were two branches there. Brethren, sisters got that carefully chosen Mary to be the mother of his son and Joseph as a father figure. They were both descendants of the House of David. As you can read in Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 32, branches of the House of David came together in the place of branches to bring forth the branch that came out of that cut off stump of the House of David.

34. 18:49

    Mary was descended from David through Solomon and Joseph through another branch of David through Nathan. Both were branches of the House of David, living in the place of branches to bring up the greater branch of the House of David. If you go to Psalm 80, it speaks again about the Lord Jesus Christ as a branch, and you can see how God has chosen that particular place to make Him strong.

35. 19:13

    In Psalm 80 and in verse 14, we return, we beseech the Yabweh of armies, look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine and the vineyard which thy right hand has planted, and the branch that made us strong for thyself. It’s burnt his fire, it’s cut down. They perish as the rebuke of thy countenance.

36. 19:51

    But let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man. That is the branch whom thou made this strong for thyself. And so God has chosen that place in Nazareth to educate His Son, to prepare him for a very difficult public ministry, actually in Hebrew. The word for Christians is not, not sreen Nazarenes.

37. 20:17

    The Jews call us Christians Nazarenes, not sreen. Have you just imagine how Jesus would have grown up there? Because he grew up in quite a large family. He was the eldest in the family. Joseph and Mary had other children. We know some of the names like James and Joseph, Jude and their sisters.

38. 20:37

    So Jesus grew up in quite a lively family, and if you go through the epistles of James and of Jude, it’s quite clear that they knew their Bible stories. They knew the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, of Cora Jason, and the Byron of Adam and of Enoch. So we can imagine that Jesus and his brothers and his sisters grew up in the family with the Bible that was being read every day.

39. 21:03

    A beautiful example for our families, brother sisters, as most of the families do, reading the word of God and making those stories of the Bible alive so that they will remember them. So when Jesus was growing up, Mary must have told Jesus slowly all that had happened to her. From the time that the Angel gave your first appeared to her in Nazareth, there has been a time when Jesus asked his mother, why do the kids call me by that B word. And he had to listen to that explanation that people don’t understand the power of God, which he had experienced in her own body.

40. 21:47

    And he had a sharp mind and but Mary had to find out how much at a young age he could absorb. But he was made of quick understanding and he must have surprised her quite a few times with his understanding because his ears were open from a young age. He started to read the scriptures himself and praying to his father.

41. 22:09

    That is how God spoke to him. And he grew up with the knowledge of his father. But of course, as any child, if you live in a place, eventually you want to spread your wings and you want to expand your horizons. Now here we see a map where Nazareth is located. So Nazareth is right here in between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea. Right in in the South is the Jezreel valley. Mount Tabor is very nearby and a place which has been excavated Sephoris and that is more or less the surroundings with Angharad and Mount Kilboa where Jesus grew up. So I can just imagine him leaving home and creeping up the brow of the hill and then looking out and what did he see? Eventually you would have ventured further afield. From Nazareth you can go to Zephyrus and then to Cana of Galilee, where he went later on.

42. 23:07

    And it’s not too far to go to Capernaum. And so all those places which we read about were quite close by. And actually right here beside in between Nazareth, just to the northward is the tomb of the prophet Jonah. It’s also features heavily in the life of Christ. If you stand on the top of Mount Tabor, that’s where you can see Nazareth located here. It was in the deep here just behind the hills. And so Jesus Rudhev grown up close to the home inside the village, but eventually climbing up over the mountain and and look over the horizon.

43. 23:43

    And what did he see? Well, the first thing he saw was that special mount, Mount Tabor right in front of his eyes. And it would have been remembering all the stories of Deborah and of Barack and of Gideon and his 300 men of Seoul losing the battle and dying on Mount Kilboa. But you can see actually from from Nazareth, this is a photograph taken from Mount Carmel.

44. 24:09

    So it’s fairly to the West. We can see the whole of the Jezreel Valley. And here is Nazareth, and here’s Mount Tabor. That was his field of vision. And knowing the Scriptures, it’s such great fun burden, sister, to travel through the land of Israel to go a place open by. Oh, this happened here. You understand why?

45. 24:34

    What did he see? What did he recognise apart from Mount Carmel on which we are standing? Well, here’s Nazareth, here’s Tabor, here’s Endor, here’s the hill of Moray, here’s the well of Kharghod, Jezreel, and Mount Gilboa. And here the Jezreel Valley and the Kishon River running right through there were the associations. There are as all those places on Mount Tabor. Probably Jesus was later transformed into His glory. But look at Mount Gilboa and the well of Kharghod. We have the great victory of Gideon with 300 men overcoming the Midianites who were there on the hill of Mohair and the 300 men of the mighty army.

46. 25:25

    But later, when Saul was fighting against the Philistines, he was in the same location he was in, just real. The Philistines were on the hill of Mohair. Endors on the other side for Saul to breakthrough, to go to Endor, to go through the ranks of the Philistines and talk to that witch in Endor. But he never learnt anything from what he saw. He didn’t realise he was in the same place where Gideon with 300 mighty men overcame a huge army, but bigger than the Philistines. Therefore it is a much larger army. He lost the battle.

47. 26:01

    What lessons were than sisters Mount Tabar where we got Deborah and Barak calling all the tribes together, Issachar and Naftali and Zebulun fighting against the canines. We had to flee away and the the the views of the church were stuck in the Kishung River which overflows its banks. Now when we do our readings ban, this is get an Atlas out, get the map out, and see what happened in those particular places, because the power of those places is overwhelming at times and we only neglect him at our peril.

48. 26:37

    So here’s Nazareth then, viewed from sufferers. The Jesuit Valley is on the other side, and this is Nazareth. We told that Jesus was a Carpenter. I don’t think he was actually, because the Greek word for a Carpenter is tecton. It means a Craftsman, a Craftsman in hard materials. It could be wood, it could be stone or metal or precious stones. That’s what Jesus did.

49. 27:03

    But the interesting thing is that Belgies was growing up, a new city was being built, Sephorus, a Roman city, beautiful buildings and a theatre. And it has been suggested that Jesus actually worked with his dad was was Joseph, at least in this particular place. And every morning he would walk for an hour or so.

50. 27:25

    He was through the fields, passing by the tomb of Jonah and then going to Sephorus. While he was walking through the fields, he was very observant. He knows the flowers of the field. Do you look at the flowers of the field? And do we think of the scriptural lessons Jesus did? He saw the birds of the airs flying overhead, learned the lessons from it.

51. 27:48

    He saw the soil and the grain in that every time, walking to work and back again. He was an observant young man. He noticed everything. And so should we, Brendan sisters, because when you look at the parables, they’re all taken from his walk from Nazareth to work and back again. He saw farmers working, ploughing, sowing, weeding and weeping. The fields were full of flowers and birds which later featured in the sayings of Jesus.

52. 28:15

    It knows. It shows that we also need to be observant, use our eyes and our ears and our noses, our brains and use the scripture as our guide. Now the Sepphoris is then not far away, only hours walk and we imagine Jesus walking there going to work. You can go there today and you can see the beautiful paved St.

53. 28:36

    which had calms on both sides to the citadel high on top and inside. Here they’ve reconstructed a house with a beautiful mosaic floor. The centrepiece was the the face of the woman of the house called a Mona Lisa of Sapphiris. But that city was being built at that particular time and there was a theatre being built as well at the very time when Jesus was growing up.

54. 29:02

    There’s a normal theatre cutting the mountainside with a stone. Benches cut exactly every stone to shape and it’s just wonderful to be able to go there and sit and contemplate on Jesus. If you think, if you go through the Gospels, look at the references to wood and the references to stone, only one of wood splinter in your eye. But there are hundreds of stone and the word hypocrite has been used 17 times by Jesus.

55. 29:36

    Why did he use the word hypocrite actually portrayed the carrot of the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Because the word hypocrite is an actor who puts on a mask, and all these masks have been found in different places because they pretend to be somebody else. And Jesus learned that language of a hypocrite in the theatre of Zeprat, which he actually may have helped building himself. Look at all the reference to stone, the stone which the builders rejected, Cephas, Cephas, a stone, but one stone left upon another got him of the stones to raise up, and so on. Jesus knew everything about house building, about stones, much more than woodworking.

56. 30:20

    So all those nice pictures of Jesus in the little carpet shop with his father Joseph and the blaming piece of wood is all nonsense. So we know where he lived, but what do we know? Him as a growing teenager and as a young man. Let’s go to Luke chapter 2.

57. 30:45

    I think the more we realise under what circumstances and in what powerful place Jesus was brought up, a place chosen by God, then he also understands that he used all those 30 years to prepare himself for the ministry. He learned all those lessons before he spoke to the spoke to the people in verse 40 of Luke chapter 2.

58. 31:11

    The child grew well. Children can’t help that. I see some students here that haven’t seen for three years. My goodness, they’re almost taller than I am now. So that’s quite normal. But they vexed. He vexed strong in spirit. He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. We need to give proper nourishment to our children so they can grow up and they do that whatever you do, but to fill them with wisdom.

59. 31:38

    We can only do bread and sister by reading the scripture with them and making it a life and illustrated with lessons from life. And the grace of God was upon him. That’s wonderful. And then in verse 52 we see that Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man.

60. 32:00

    So the place was well chosen and made me think about the education of our children, Bread and sisters. It’s not always the the top grade university that is the best education for our children. They need to be educated and I fully agree with that. We need to have a job, but that’s the only reason why we should be educated.

61. 32:17

    The greatest education is in the Word of God because that gives them wisdom and understanding, not just knowledge which you can get in many, many places. But think of this little country bumpkin, as people would perhaps call him in the little village of Nazareth, now going for the first time to Jerusalem. What an impression that would have made on him.

62. 32:40

    One more thing has said it. On his way to Sephorus, he passed by the tomb of Jonah. There’s still a mount Jonah called here and he says an evil in the daughter’s generation seeketh after sign, and shall no sign be given it to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah, because John was three days and three nights in the middle’s belly, so shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

63. 33:03

    And he has learned that already when he was growing up in in Nazareth, but now 12 years old. What an excitement. We’re going now to the temple. And that is not another very powerful place. We’re still in Luke chapter 2. And let us read from verse 41. Now, as parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of Passover, what a faithful family. Every year they went to Jerusalem, they must have left their little children behind.

64. 33:36

    It shows they lived in the community of caring brothers, sisters who would look after their children if their parents went to Jerusalem. And it’s a long journey. It took perhaps a couple of weeks before they were back again. So it’s good to create good customs to go to the meeting on a Sunday in the go to the lecture, go to Bible class, bring your kids to Sunday school, to Bible schools, wherever they can make friends and learn about God. So when he was 12 years old, he was being so excited he went up to Jerusalem at the custom of the feast. And then they had fulfilled the days. As they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they look how comforting this is, supposing him to be in the company.

65. 34:23

    And that’s so good, brothers, sisters, to bring up your children in the Christian community. We always didn’t know where our children were, but there would be always brothers, sisters looking after them, and we would bring them together again. So they supposed him to have been in the company. He went for a whole day’s journey, for 24 hours. They’d even bought it.

66. 34:42

    Because he will be all right, because the other brothers and sisters will take care of him. But then they started to get worried and sought him among their kinsfroken acquaintance. They found him not they really got worried now, and they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. He used every opportunity by an assistor to to to challenge the the authorities and to see how much they knew and how much he knew he wanted to learn from them. But for actually the elevator round happened. I learned from him because all that hurt him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

67. 35:20

    And we can say, of course, you had the Spirit of God. No, he didn’t bring the sisters. That only happened when he was 30 years old. I’m sure he was reading the scriptures because we suggested when those three wise men came to to Bethlehem, that gold and frankincense and myrrh, not for Joseph, for Mary, for the baby Jesus.

68. 35:39

    What can the baby do with gold? What does the baby do with frankincense and myrrh? It has been suggested, I can’t prove it at all, but that they would have kept that money for Jesus and they would have bought scrolls for him when he was growing up. If you look at the references to the Old Testament in the Gospels, there are three books that stand out, Deuteronomy, Psalms and Isaiah.

69. 36:02

    And I believe he had those scrolls himself. He would have learnt reading Hebrew in synagogue with his own scrolls. He was reading them. And in that reading he God opened his ears and he would have asked him for wisdom. And God gave it to him, but now become. When they found him in the temple, it was 47. They were astonished at his understanding and answers. And they when their son, they were amazed, his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou dealt thus with us? We all thy father, and I sought thee, sorrowing thy father. Joseph wasn’t his father.

70. 36:39

    God was his father. And he said to them, How is it that he sought me? Is he not that I must be in my father’s house? God was his father. He knew that at the age of 12. He was never disrespectful to his parents. He was never disrespectful to Joseph, but he knew that God was His Father.

71. 37:01

    We talked early about children being obedient because his parents, if he was 15, did not understand the saying which He’s spoken to them. They had still much to learn. But look, the Son of God, such a wise young man, could hold a conversation with the wise sages of Jerusalem. He went down with them, He came to Nazareth, and He was subject unto them. But His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. Government went to Jerusalem, or did he see? What do you know about the Temple? Nowadays we can see the Temple Mount, and the Dome of the Rock stands where the Temple Mount stood. He used the Easter Wall of the Temple Mount, the southern wall, and having worked there for many years, we was able to make reconstruction drawings.

72. 37:53

    These ones were done for the ESV study Bible. It shows a huge complex. The sun was 280 meters long and 500 meters long, half a kilometre long. Istanbul and Westernbul and the temple stood there in the in the in the centre, surrounded by the buildings of the temple. There are porticoes built all around the temple, and the Antonia Fort was there. That was the temple complex which Jesus saw for the first time.

73. 38:21

    Here’s the Western Wall was Robinson’s Arts and Warrensgate, Barclays and Wilson’s Arts, a massive complex. It’s an astonishing complex. And coming from a small village of Nazareth, it must be absolutely overwhelming to see this. But he saw everything in perspective. He still called this my father’s house. And so we were able to build a model a long time ago. And based on the these these drawings, you can see the temple, how high it was covered over his gold towering over the whole temple complex.

74. 38:52

    And that was where God’s presence was. And Jesus knew this is my father’s house. Now here’s the temple itself all covered over with gold. Here’s the holy place where yesterday we looked at how Zecharias was offering incense. He’s a massive veil separating the holy from the most holy. But Jesus, of course, he came from the tribe of Judah. He wasn’t allowed in this temple. Around the temple were the courts, several courts, the temple court, the court of the Israelites, and it’s the court of the women.

75. 39:25

    And that is where all Israelites that were purified were allowed together was called the treasury. And because genius did a lot of teaching there. So this magnificent complex, Mr. Royal stole a hole at a sudden end where the money change was sitting, and he was observing how they were fleecing the tourists like they do nowadays in most Middle Middle Eastern cities and later.

76. 39:47

    And he was grown up. He took a court and he threw them all out of his father’s house because they were defiling the House of his father. And he was presented as a baby. That happened in this courtyard. Here he met Simeon and Anna the prophetess. And under the colonnades were money boxes. Which had a copper funnel to guide the money into the box. So when Jesus laid it, saw the poor widow cast in the last two nights, he could hear by the sound of those two little coins going into that box, He knew exactly how much she has cast in.

77. 40:20

    In contrast to the Pharisees with a big handful of shackles, heavy coins and clank, clank, clank, everybody knew how much they threw in. So Jesus learnt all those lessons, but he went there at the time of Passover and it’s a very important feast, of course, in the calendar of the Jews. Peter and John, for example, were told by Jesus to kill the Passover. They would have stood in this row in a line with a little sheep, and the priest at the end of this row would cut the jugular vein, catch the blood in silver and golden vessels passed between rows of priests and splashed at the bottom of the altar.

78. 40:59

    And so that was how they kept the Passover in the temple that you still keep the Passover today. And it’s quite interesting to know how they did it. If you read a Luke chapter was a 22. We read actually, we’re not going to read it. You may remember that at least two cups mentioned.

79. 41:21

    But since you’re going there, I may as well follow you. Now I’ve got to find myself as well. In verse 17 we read that he took the cup and gave thanks. I said, take this and divide among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine unto the king of God shall come. But later on he said there was another cup, because then he took the bread.

80. 41:51

    The verse 19 gave thanks and break it. And then verse 20 says like there’s also the cup after supper, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. There are two cups I mentioned here. Actually the Jews still today, as Jesus did at that particular time, drank 4 cups of wine.

81. 42:11

    We were four cups of wine when we were still in Adelaide. We had a relationship with the rabbi of Adelaide who let me take the students to the synagogue and they can see how a synagogue worked and all that. But we were invited once to his Passover party because they must always have a Gentile there or, or to sit on the empty chair of Elijah.

82. 42:33

    And he had his four cups. And like it says in Psalm 23, my cup flow is over. He had his first cup, quite a big cup, and it they filled it out, overflowed and he drank it. And he continued with his Passover story. But after the 3rd and 4th cup, he didn’t know what he was talking about anymore. That is exactly the purpose of it. The Jews like we just read in verse 18, Jesus said I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God shall come.

83. 43:05

    The fruit of the vine is the collective name for those four cups and all those cups have a name and they take it from Exodus. So if you go to Exodus chapter 6. Therefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Yahweh, and here’s the name of the first cup. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptian. That was the first cup.

84. 43:43

    The name of the first cup they drank at Passover. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Cup #2 was called. I will rid you out of their bondage. There’s a second cup, the third cup. It’s called I will redeem you. That’s the cup of redemption, and that’s actually the cup which we drink every Sunday. If you know about the three cups and you follow the the Passover service, then Jesus sent out Judas just before they drank the third cup.

85. 44:17

    Jesus was very merciful, but he wouldn’t let a betrayer drink of the cup of redemption. That’s the cup which we drink every Sunday. So we also, we remember the redemption of God because He loved Israel. He took his son out of Egypt because He loved him and He loves us also. But the fourth cup is called in verse 7. I will take you to meet for a people and I will be to you and Alabin, and ye shall know that I am Yao Alabin, which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. He didn’t drink that cup and aren’t we glad brethren, sisters, that he didn’t, because if he would have drunk that cup, which means I will take you to me for people, You didn’t all have to hang on the cross.

86. 45:09

    Jesus did it once for all. But he said I will not drink of the cup of the fruit of the vine until I drink it new with you in my Kingdom. That is when the Passover will be completed, when the Saints have that have been resurrected and Judge writes us, we’ll hold the Passover and complete it in a sense, and I miss Jesus. We will drink that fourth cup because then in our immortal state we will be taken to Him for a people, and then truly He will be to us God.

87. 45:42

    And then shall we fully know that He is Yahweh, your Elovim, that being brought out of the burdens of the Egyptian. We’ve been brought out by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is representing that cup of redemption, the third cup. And we pray when the sisters and young people that may continue to walk worthy of Our Calling, so that we may be there when Jesus will drink that last cup anew in the Kingdom, and He will take us to Himself for a people.