Author: Jeff

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-37: Do the greatest and second-greatest commandments dissolve the Torah?

Jeff

Which is the greatest commandment (Matt. 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34) is the third of the four great questions the leaders of Israel asked Yeshua, scrutinizing the chosen Lamb of God leading up to one great Passover. The pinnacle of all these discussions is about the purpose and goal of the Law.

There isn’t a directly parallel “greatest commandment” passage in Luke, but there were earlier passages (Luke 10:25-37; 18:18-27) in which Yeshua was questioned about which commandments are connected to “eternal life.”

A distillation of the Law is meant to focus one’s attention on the “weightier matters of the Law,” rather than replace even the seemingly insignificant ones.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Luke 20:27-40: Yeshua reinforces hope in the resurrection

Jeff

Following Lamb Selection Day of the 10th day of the first month of God’s calendar, Pharisee and Sadducee leaders were closely examining Yeshua, the Lamb of God, without even knowing it by putting some very tough questions to Him (Lk. 20:27-40; Matt. 22:23-33; Mk. 12:18-27). Sadducees challenged Yeshua on the reality of the resurrection by lobbing a gotcha question at Him, and Yeshua responded by pointing to the hope God provides of a world made new.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Luke 20:20-26: Yeshua taxes our understanding of authority

Jeff

This is the first of four questions between Yeshua and various authorities in the Temple, who unbeknownst to them were examining Yeshua as the spiritually unblemished Lamb of God for the ultimate Passover.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Chanukah Discussions Prophets and Writings Torah

It’s all about Yeshua: Multilayered message of God’s Living Temple of hope for humanity

Yeshua/Jesus cleanses the Temple of money changers and merchants. (Photo by LUMO project via Freebibleimages.org.)

It used to be common to ask, “What would Jesus do?” Well, why did Yeshua visit God’s House on an extrabiblical Jewish festival — Chanukah — to make one of the most startling statements about God’s love for humanity? Why did the “disciple whom Iesous loved” record it? Rather than focus on layers upon layers of manmade tradition about a winter celebration of the birth of Yeshua, let’s dig through a number of layered messages that actually are in the Bible about God’s dedicating of a Living Temple — the Messiah — among humanity that could never again by left desolate or destroyed.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings

Luke 20:17-18: Don’t mock the Rock: The standards of God’s Chief Cornerstone

Jeff

Before delving into Yeshua’s battles with the leadership of the Temple recorded in Luke 20-21, let’s explore the quote from the Hebrew Scriptures in Luke 20:17-18, that God’s true Temple would have at its foundation a Chief Cornerstone that the leadership would reject. A cryptic “hearing but not hearing” message from God in Isaiah 28 about this Stone holds a key to these arguments between Yeshua and the leadership.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions Prophets and Writings

Luke 20:1-19: Yeshua tells parables of vineyard and figs against leadership of Israel

Jeff

“What did you know, and when did you know it?” That could have been what Yeshua asked the experts in God’s words upon their challenging of His authority to teach as and what He did. Instead, Yeshua reached into their “toolbox” — Torah, Prophets and Writings — and revealed that not only were some of their “tools” rusty from neglect but also neglected maintenance left them in danger of a catastrophic failure of the machinations they created about God’s Anointed One.

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Apostolic Writings Discussions

Luke 19:45-48: Yeshua relays prophecies that God’s ‘house of prayer’ would become a ‘den of robbers’

Jeff

Yeshua’s excited anger at the leaders of the Temple came with quotations from prophets Yeshayahu (Isaiah) — “My house will be house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7) — and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) – “den of robbers” (Jer. 7:11). The full context of those prophecies directly relates to why the leaders should have understood why Yeshua was quoting from those passages and why those prophecies applied to them.