Gathering for Understanding

Welcome to those present, those at home, on YouTube, Facebook, and in our online archives. If you haven’t been with us, we have deconstructed these gatherings down to the essentials: We begin with prayer, sing the Word of God set to music (as a means to get it into our heads), and then we sit for a moment in silence here at the Church/Studio. When we come back, we pick up where we left off last week in our verse-by-verse study.

Paul's Message Before King Agrippa II

So, Paul, last week, began his speech before King Agrippa II, a Jew. After conveying his young devoted life to the strict sect of the Pharisees and the ways of the Law, Paul said to the King:
Acts 26.6-8
September 10th, 2017
Milk

Acts 26:6 "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:"

We concluded with a general audit of the Old Testament and the passages that support Paul’s claim that the Jewish forefathers were given promises by God that He would send them a Hope, meaning a Messiah.

Paul continues at verse 7 and, speaking of the God of their forefathers, says:
7 "Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.
8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?"

Hope as a Joyful Expectation

Okay, back to verse 7. He has been talking about the God of his and Agrippa’s fathers and, after saying that this God has made promises to them, he says:

Acts 26:7 "Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews."

We note that in verses 6-7, Paul appeals to the term "hope" three times. The Greek word is "elpis," and it does not mean "wish." In other words, Paul is not saying that their forefathers really, really wished that God’s promises would come to be, but "elpis" is more of a happy expectation, a joyful anticipation based on true promises.

When a dad “sometimes” takes his children to Disneyland upon returning from a long trip, but not always, and he never tells the children his intentions, then the children can only really wish for a coming trip. They are not hoping in the biblical sense. But if the Dad consistently and without fail takes them to Disneyland upon his every return, the children are not then wishing he will, but they have hope in his return and the inevitable trip to the magic Kingdom. So when we say, “I hope” to something in a biblical sense, we are not saying we are wishing that there is a chance for something to happen. We are saying there is an absolute expectation that has no place for doubt. We anticipate it fully.

Where there is a biblical hope, there is actual joy, there is fact-based anticipation, and a straight-up expectation that we have faith will NOT be disappointed. And we can see that faith and hope are closely related. In the Old Testament, the Nation of Israel looked with a full expectation and happy anticipation for the promises of God to come forth. They were based on His actual promises. It required patience for them to manifest, but we have a record of Him being true to what He promised in the coming of the Promised Messiah.

We read those promises last week. Of course, it is in the New Testament that we read of the fulfillment of the promises from the Coming of John the Baptist to the birth of the Messiah, to His life, deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God., and resurrection. But even with the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises, the New Testament believers still lived by hope (or expectation).

Hope in the New Testament Context

How? While they were able to actually see and touch and feel the promised Messiah, and witnessed His resurrection after death, they still had to have “a hope” (a joyful expectation based on God’s promises) for Him to RETURN to save them from hell and from coming destruction. This was what all of the apostles who wrote to the early church reiterated. Have hope that He will come back as He promised!

Where and when were they given promises of salvation upon Jesus' return? All through the New Testament, but beginning with Jesus telling his disciples in Matthew 24 that everything He had described and promised them was going to come down within a biblical generation (or forty years). The Old Testament believers had a joyful expectation.

Hope and Expectation in the New Testament

for a Messiah that was promised to them.

He came. The New Testament believers had a joyful expectation that the promised Messiah would return to save them. Until He did the writers of the New Testament encouraged them to hold fast to their joyful expectations.

Biblical Hope in Scripture

We read in his letter to the church at Rome (5:5) “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” So we know that in hopeful expectation we are not ashamed for what we believe and expect from God.

He adds in Romans 12:12 that the Saint in His day were “Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulationA real historical event fulfilled in 70 A.D.—not a future apocalyptic crisis. More; continuing instant in prayer.” Later in the same book Paul reminds the believers in his day of something I suggest we need to remember today, saying

Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime (that is speaking of the Old Testament) were written for our learning (the learning of those of that day who were given the promises) that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” While I can’t prove that this was written to us I would suggest that this is the reason we study the scriptures today, that we too can say that they were written for our LEARNING, that WE TOO, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures MIGHT HAVE A JOYFUL EXPECTATION (or a biblical hope).

Assurance Through Faith

To the Church at Colosse, Paul wrote and reassured them of saving and salvation by saying:

(1:23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;

In 1st Timothy 1:1 Paul tells us who our hope is, saying, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;

Having Him as our hope, Paul says this in Titus 2:13, that they were looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Then in the next chapter he says Titus 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (to the joyful expectation, not the wishing, of the promise of eternal life.)

The writer of Hebrews places our very citizenship in the House of God upon a continuance of hope, saying:

In Hebrews 6:18 the believers are encouraged to “lay hold upon the hope set before them.”

A Lively Hope

Peter suggests strongly that God has begotten us through the resurrection of Christ from the dead to possess what he calls, “a lively hope,” saying

(1:3) “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Ten verses later he tells the believers in his day

1Pe 1:13 ¶ Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation (or the second comingChrist’s return, fulfilled in 70 A.D., ending the old covenant—not the world.) of Jesus Christ;

Then he admonishes believers in chapter 3 (1st Peter 3:15) “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope (the joyful expectation) that is in you with meekness and fear:”

John goes so far as to say that it is this hope, this assured expectation, that sanctifies a believer, saying the following remarkable things in 1st John 3:1-3

1st John 3:1 “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. 2 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. 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

From Paul we remember reading his last words in the chapter on Love where he says:

(1st Corinthians 13:13) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

John has said that when a man has the expectation that when Jesus would appear that he would

Hope and Eschatological Expectations

Be like Him seeing Him as He is, that this hope purifies or sanctifies such a believer. Brothers and sisters I submit to you then, that the Faith in Christ (serves to justify us) that the hope or joyful expectation serves to sanctify us, and that the Love is the abiding proof of the presence of the two. So, to them, God (Jesus) was true to His promises, and His apostles were true to theirs, and like the Old Testament believers who expected Him to come as promised, their hope, their expectation of His return was met . . . as promised.

Current Expectations

So, what about now? If everything that has been promised has happened, and the joyful expectations of believers in the Old and the New Testaments have been made, what do we have a hope in? It’s a more difficult question to explain and lets sort of work through why there is a difficulty before we explain where our expectations lie..

If a person has embraced what is called a futuristic eschatologyStudy of “last things”—TGNN teaches all biblical eschatology was fulfilled in 70 A.D. More then you, like the children of the Old Testament were expecting a Messiah and the Christians of the apostolic church were expecting His return, then you still looking and joyfully expecting (biblical hoping) for Jesus return to save and raptureA misinterpreted concept—biblical “rapture” language was fulfilled in 70 A.D., not a future escape event. More you from this fallen world. This is an actual living expectation that is living in dispensationalists and when it is challenged (and even proven wrong) then that biblical hope is lost (that biblical expectation) and this is too much for most people to handle.

Why?

Because they weren’t just wishing that Jesus would come back someday and save them they have been literally and actually expecting Him to do so because He promised (His disciples, by the way) that He would! So the “biblical definition of hope” is dashed in people when they are shown see things that differ with their actual expectations eschatologically. And when biblical hope is dashed to pieces people are often dashed to pieces. This is a reality. I have watched it happen and it causes me pain.

But Jesus Himself said the famous words in John 8: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In other words, if something is NOT true, it cannot set a person free – and those who embrace it will be in bondage to the error in some form or another – no matter how convincing or convenient the error might be to what they want to be true.

Religion and False Expectations

We see this in religious principles and practices all the time. Catholics pray to Mary. Orthodoxy relies on holy days. Mormons go to their temple. Calvary chapel(ers) preach second coming. Baptists an eternal literally burning hell. Calvinists a limited atonement.

On Tuesday's show, we had a guest who attends CAMPUS at times – Mark – a brother in the Lord. His contention is that religion – all of it – ought to be considered good because it leads people to discover truths in a progressive manner and that without it nobody would get to the real deal. I would correct that statement and say that religion does two unfortunate things to people which makes it NOT good:

It gets in the way of seekers, and it traps the complacent in the bondage of untruths – where they remain for life. Since Jesus said that only actual truth has the ability to really free someone completely then there is no justification for error along the way. I believe that seekers will find without the intervention of false religion and they might just get there sooner if we started off on the true foot.

And since I’ve gotten off on a tangent I might was well finish it. (GO TO BOARD)

See table at the end Tunnel of Brick and Mortar (four pages – 12 minutes)

Okay, so back to Paul. Standing before King Agrippa II, has said, I was a Jew of Jews: (verse 26-27)

Acts 26:6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: Acts 26:7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

“Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night hope to come.” We have had the prophetic promises made to us for 1500 years, and our Twelve tribes have hope to come into them.

Now, for biblical literalists we have an issue presented to us in the words Paul uses here. Twelve tribes was

The Concept of the Twelve Tribes

The name by which the Jews were designated. This we know from the Old Testament. But long before Jesus came to them as the Messiah, ten of the twelve were carried away captive into Assyria and over time they frankly disappeared by merging into other peoples and cultures. They are called the ten lost tribes by the Jews and Christians and “lost ten tribes” by the LDS, and there is conjecture run amok about them, but bottom line, by the time Jesus arrived on the scene, the tribes themselves were diffused. This left only the Southern Kingdom, which in Jesus' day was the Tribe of Judah and Benjamin and some of Simeon (which had been absorbed into Judah) and then some Levites.

The dissipated tribes were: Asher, Dan, Ephraim, Gad, Issachar, Manasseh, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, and Zebulun.

Paul here merely says that the ancient Jewish nation (as a whole) had hoped to come to that promise; it had been their united hope and expectation. So where he uses the name "the twelve tribes" to designate the Jewish people, this was not literal. We have another example of this in the Epistle of James where he opens the writing with:

James (1:1) “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”

In other words, Paul is saying that with the exceptionally small portion that were Sadducees, the great mass of the nation that remained held out hope for the promises to fall upon them. Now, just because the ten tribes were dissolved by integration with other peoples does not mean God did not have a way to reach them. That way would come by and through His reaching out to the Gentiles (like the Samaritans) who would en masse, receive the Good News.

Paul's Perspective on Jewish Zeal

Anyway, in describing the Nation or Twelve Tribes as he puts it, Paul says that they were all about “instantly serving God day and night (due to the) hope to come.” Instantly (ec-ten-ia) means intently, with zeal. So where they may have wandered off in terms of true worship, they certainly had not lost anything in terms of zeal, and served zealously day and night, Paul seems to be saying, as a result of “the hope to come.” It seems that it was on these grounds that Paul was presenting his case – that he was only believing in what the Nation itself had long believed, and his views were consistent with the traditions and the promises themselves.

The Miracle of Resurrection

Having established this, he now asks:

8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

The Greek translated by most scholars is called an “interrogative pronoun,” and where most of the translations put a “WHY” here, the pronoun can be Why, where or what. This has caused some of the more esteemed translators to suggest that Paul actually asked:

What? (Pause) Should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead.

Meaning, what is the big surprise? Now, think about this for a minute. First of all, note that when Paul says, “with you,” it is in the plural, therefore he is addressing not only Agrippa but perhaps all Jews present. Second, the question – especially in light of their scriptural history – is profound.

This was a people who believed that God spoke everything into existence. That He breathed into inanimate clay and it became a living soul. That He could make a donkey talk, confuse languages at Babel, turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of Salt, cause Sarah to conceive when her womb was dead, part the Red Sea, bring water from a Rock, drop the walls of Jericho, give Samson the strength of 1,000 men (without back problems), cause Mulberry trees to whisper, raise the widow's Son to life by Elijah, bring another woman's son to life by Elisha, cause an axe head to float, make the sun go backward, protect three Hebrew boys from fire, protect Daniel in a lion's den, and keep Jonah alive in the belly of a fish.

“What? (Paul says!) “Should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?”

The resurrection is no more incredible than ANY of the miracles surrounding us today. I mean, people mock it and suggest that it is an impossibility, but is it more impossible than the function and operation of the human body, the orbits of the solar system, the magnificence of nature? How deaf, dumb, and blind do people…

The Brick and Mortar Tunnel of Religious Observance

Have to be to exist in this world and yet condemn others for their belief that there is no God who could ever raise His Son (or anyone else) from the dead!

And if we find ourselves frustrated by this attitude in the world image how frustrated Paul must have been! I mean the audience that was trying to have him put to death cut their teeth on miracles from God – and even they rejected the proof that Jesus rose on the third day.

And I think this is really the bottom line to it all. They rejected the resurrection of Jesus because if they received and accepted it, they would have had to let go of their former ideas and beliefs and allow Him to reign.

The Struggle with Beliefs

That was too much for them. They loved the darkness, their pet beliefs too much, and so they clung to them – not because what Paul was sharing was so unfathomable. But because what he taught was a direct threat to their lives, their power, their security, their traditions.

And so they remained parked in the tunnel of religion, never wanting to really be set free. We will pick it up at this point next week.

Evangelical, Baptist, Mormon, JW, Catholic, Orthodoxy, Charismatics, Ists and Isms

Brick and Mortar practices, teachings, beliefs and participations.

Unbeliever vs. Believer

PROS CONS

A home Home with rules Order

Questions/Answers
Prayer

No Adams Road October 1st

Restriction of Total

Instruction
Slanted Information

Fulfillment

They’re responsible
You can’t be

Social center
Tithes
Unity through Conformity
Loss of freedom

Answers

Misdirection
General truths
Never the full truth

The Journey of Faith

Good for family
Untenable for seekers

The place where people are absolutely FREE to love. Where people stop and make a home along the way. They remain in the tunnel all their lives and do NOT want out. Where people break out of B&M religion and never go back. Some remaining believers, some abandoning the faith all together. Just what has been ultimately discovered?

Understanding the Biblical Narrative

The biblical narrative has been materially completed – all that remains are spiritually derived principles by which individuals see or do not see. Jesus has had the total victory over all things. The faith is subjectively lived and understood and not objectively demanded or lead. The Spirit leads to comprehension of the Bible messages. The Spirit is trusted in the lives of all people.

The Purpose of Human Existence

God has reconciled all to Himself through Christ. All will be resurrected and given the heavenly body God wants to bestow on them based on His purview. The entire purpose and purview of human existence is for people to choose to love God and

Faith and Love

Faith in God enables us to love Him and others in this way. Those who are His Sons and Daughters will love as He loves. Those who are not will not.

The Connection to Life

Our willingness and ability to abide in His presence after this life is directly tied to our willingness to love Him and others here.