Tag Archives: Matthew

What to do when your brother sins against you…

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Matthew 18:15, When your brother sins. Yeshua says that when your brother sins against you, you‘re to follow certain protocols to correct him in effort to restore him to spiritual relationship. Many people read this verse to mean that when your brother offends you or hurts your feelings, you’re to go to him. This is not what Yeshua is saying here. He says, if your brother sins against you. By biblical definition, sin is the violation of the law or Torah of Elohim (1 John 3:4). Therefore, if your brother lies to you, steals from you, or sexually violates your wife, you are to go to him, and possibly the church leaders — not if your brother offends you (hurts your feelings) in word or in deed. In this case, Yeshua instructs us elsewhere that we’re to turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies, bless and not curse, and do good to them.

Below is a further discussion on this topic. (Written by Sandi Lawrence)

Have you heard someone say that they are claiming their Matthew 18 rights because they have been offended by this or that person? It’s actually quite common and is often what is taught as how to handle offenses between brothers.

What are our Matthew 18 rights that we keep wanting to invoke? Let’s look at this section that keeps getting called out…

Matthew 18:15-17 (NASB) says…

“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

What does it address? Does this address if you are offended? Or does it address what to do if your brother is sinning; that is, he is going against Torah? Let’s not forget that the Bible defines sin as the violation of the Torah (1 John 3:4).

There is a common misappropriation of this instruction that every time we perceive that our brother (or sister) has offended us that we are to go and confront our brother about it. As an extreme (my opinion) but a real-life example, in our own congregation a couple Continue reading →

 

Five Old Testament Scriptures That Specifically Prophesy That Yeshua Is the Messiah

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Matthew 16:16, The Son of the living Elohim. One day, Yeshua asked his disciples who they thought he was. Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. (Matt 16:15–16) How did Peter know this? Were there any hints in the Tanakh (Old Testament) that the Messiah would be the Son of Elohim, since these were the only Scriptures Peter had?

Their are numerous prophecies in the Tanakh about the Messiah. Here is a list of scriptures that prophesy specifically that he would be the Son of Elohim with some brief comments following.

Therefore Adonai himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [Heb. God with us]. (Isaiah 7:14)

Many Bible prophecies have double meanings or fulfillments. Such is the case with this prophecy. It was partially fulfilled in Isaiah’s life (Isa 8:3), but not completely. Isaiah’s son was neither deity nor was he known as “God with us.” Yeshua the Messiah was (Matt 1:23).

He shall cry unto me, “You are my father, my El [God], and the rock of my salvation.” Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. (Psalm 89:26, 27)

Again, this prophecy has a double fulfillment. It was partially fulfilled by David and his sons, but not completely. Only Yeshua, who also was from David’s lineage, fulfilled the superlative aspects of this prophecy. Not only Continue reading →

 

Who are what is the church, and do you really want to be called by that name?

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Matthew 16:18, The church. This is the first place the word church is found in the Testimony of Yeshua. This causes us to ask several questions. Did the first-century followers of Yeshua call themselves a church or meet in a church? Emphatically, no! In the Testimony of Yeshua, the Greek word translated in our English Bibles as church is the word ecclesia which means “a gathering of people called out from their homes to either a secular or a religious gathering in a public place.” It does not mean “a building,” but rather “a group of people.” So accordingly, the saints don’t meet in a church or go to church — they are the church!

Church congregation 16958344

In our modern vernacular, the word church not only refers to the building where the saints meet, but to the group of saints that meets in the building. The first definition is biblically incorrect, while the second definition is biblically correct.

But even the modern term church, while referring to a group of people has, by in large, lost its spiritual potency. It now simply means a group of religious people — normally Christians — that have formed a social clique.

Church altar 60505979

What’s really behind our English word church and is this a term saints should be applying to themselves? The Greek word for church is ecclesia meaning “the called out ones.” Called out from what? The saints are called by Elohim out from the world and a secular or heathen lifestyle. Sadly, most church-goers while failing to understand the true meaning of the word also fail to live up to its stringent definition — to come out spiritually and to be separate themselves from the pagan culture around them and to adopt a biblical congruent world view and lifestyle.

Even the derivation of English word church is antithetical to how the term ecclesia is used in the Testimony of Yeshua. Ironically, according to the dictionary the word church originates from the German word kirche and the Old English word circe. Circe is of Greek origination and is the name of the sorceress and enchantress goddess daughter of Sol or Helios, the pagan sun god. Some historians claim that Circe and Kirche are the same individual who was the Babylonian moon goddess. The word circe is related to the common words circle, circus and circumference. Just as the sun is circular, and the Romans worshipped their sun-god in circular arenas called circuses where horse races and other athletic competitions occurred in honor of the sun god, so today many well-meaning individuals worship today in churches on Sun-day. (Information sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition; The Final Restoration, by C.J. Koster; Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Random House, 1983.)

 

Many Called; Few Respond — Yeshua Desires Quality Over Quantity

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Matthew 13:14, Hearing you will hear. In Yeshua’s Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3–23), we are confronted with the difficult issue about who will receive the gospel message and thus enter into the kingdom of heaven and who will not. Put into modern vernacular, Yeshua is discussing who will receive YHVH’s free gift of salvation resulting in immortality and who will die in his sins to perish for eternity.

Yeshua’s discussion all started when his disciples asked him why he taught the people using parables. To them, it was as if he were deliberately obscuring the gospel message.

A superficial reading of his response in verse 15 to their question may imply not only a lack of impartiality but a brutal selectivity on the part of Elohim when it comes to determining who he will choose to receive the gift of salvation including the gift of immortality. If this is the conclusion one draws from Yeshua’s response, then what he said contradicts other scriptures that indicate Elohim’s unconditional love for the whole world and his desire that all be saved (John 3:16; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Pet 2:9).

The fact is that a thorough reading of this passage shows us another important truth, which in no way impugns the character of Elohim, but instead leaves the onus on man.

After giving this parable, Yeshua quotes Isaiah the prophet (Isa 6:9–10), where we learn that it’s up to the individual as to how far they want to go with Elohim spiritually. All humans have eyes and ears to see and hear, but merely seeing or hearing doesn’t equate with understanding or perceiving. Sadly, many people want to dabble in religion, or to have a Continue reading →

 

Did Yeshua Break the Sabbath?

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Matthew 12:1–14, On the Sabbath. (See also Mark 2:23–28; also see note on John 5:18.) From this passage, many Christians reason that since Yeshua is the Lord of the Sabbath, it was therefore permissible for him to break it. Does this passage substantiate this line of reasoning from Hebraic thought? Let’s examine this issue.

First, there is no law in the Torah prohibiting picking food to eat as one is walking along the way. This is not harvesting a field — something which is work, and is thus forbidden on the Sabbath. Instead, Yeshua was violating a non-biblical, man-made Jewish legal regulation.

Moreover, this scripture teaches us that there are levels of Torah laws, and some laws take precedence over others. For example, the priests technically violated the Sabbath during the tabernacle and temple service, but were guiltless because Torah commanded them to do certain things on the Shabbat that otherwise would have been forbidden. The Talmud explains this by saying that whenever a positive commandment and a negative commandment contradict, the positive commandment takes precedence over or supersedes the negative one (b. Shabbat 133a). What Yeshua is teaching in this passage is that the temple service trumps the Sabbath, and human need or saving life (i.e., the ox-in-the-ditch scenario) trumps the temple service. This view is confirmed by the Jewish sages (b. Yoma 85b). In verse six, when Yeshua said, “But I say unto you, that in this place is one [a supplied word and not found in the Greek] greater than the temple” he is not saying that he is greater than the Sabbath, and hence it is permissible for him to break it. If this were true, then two things would be true which contradict the Scriptures: a) It is permissible for Yeshua to sin, for sin is the violation of the Torah, and b) YHVH magnifies his word above his name (Ps 138:2); therefore, he’s obeying his own word (making him a liar!) by breaking the Sabbath, which he commanded men to keep (Exod 20:8–11, the fourth commandment). What Yeshua is really saying here is that the thing greater than the temple was the hunger of his disciples.

Furthermore, Leviticus 18:5 states, “You shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them.” The Jewish sages take this to mean that a commandment can be set aside to save life (again, the ox-in-the-ditch scenario). The saving of a life trumps the keeping of the commandment, since this verse says that man is to “live by [the Torah]” not die by it. Therefore, it is permissible to “violate” the Sabbath to preserve life. In fact, the sages go so far as to say that any commandment could be broken to save a life except those against murder and sexual immorality (b. Sanhedrin 74a).

This is why Yeshua quotes Hosea 6:6 that YHVH desires mercy (or loving-kindness), not sacrifice; the knowledge of Elohim, not burnt offerings (Matt 12:7). The heart and spirit of the Torah, in Yeshua’s thinking, are the weightier matters of the Torah although they do not replace the letter of the Torah. In Yeshua’s mind, to properly keep the Torah, one needs to keep both the letter and the spirit (Matt 23:23).

On several occasions, Yeshua used the Hosea 6:6 passage to teach us that love, compassion and mercy for one’s fellowman takes precedence (at times) over fulfilling the letter of the law, although this is not a justification for habitually and intentionally violating the Torah (Matt 9:12–13; Mark 12:33; Luke 10:36–37). Paul echoes this truth about the preeminence of love in the famous chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13. There we learn that all manner of spiritual activity is meaningless in the eyes of Elohim if it is not accompanied with love.

In Mark 2:23–28 (the corollary passage to Matthew 12:1–7), Yeshua declares, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath; therefore, the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath” (verses 27–28).

Yeshua is greater than the Sabbath because he is the lord of the Sabbath, for he created the Sabbath (verse 8), and because he was the perfect epitome of walking out both the letter and spirit of the Torah. Whatever he was doing on the Sabbath, it wasn’t a violation of the Sabbath’s no work principle. Also, saving life was greater than the temple service, as is Yeshua who was the Living Torah-Word of Elohim incarnate.

 

Who Are the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel?

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Matthew 10:6, Lost sheep of the house of Israel. The phrase the house of Israel has several different possible meanings depending on the context of the surrounding verses in which it is found. The phrase the house of Israel is used 146 times in the Scriptures. Prior to the division of the united kingdom after the death of Solomon, this phrase referred to all twelve tribes of Israel. Afterwards (during the time of the prophets), it was used in contradistinction to the phrase “house of Judah” in reference to the Northern Kingdom.

herd of white sheep

In the Testimony of Yeshua, Yeshua makes reference to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 10:6; 15:54). Elsewhere in the Testimony of Yeshua this term refers to all twelve tribes of Israel (Acts 2:36; 7:42; Heb 8:10), and in some references it refers to just the Northern Kingdom (Heb 8:8). The context of the passage of scripture surrounding this phrase determines its meaning.

Although this phrase can include all the tribes of Israel and not just the Jews who were largely from the tribe of Judah, in Matthew 10:6, Yeshua seems to equate the lost sheep of the house of Israel with the Jews who were living in the land of Israel in his day, and not to the rest of the Israelite tribes who were at that time scattered among the Gentile nations. It was Yeshua’s priority to take the gospel message first to the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea, and then to the rest of the world, and he expected his disciples to follow this same pattern (Acts 1:8).

In the larger sense, the Scriptures reveal that all of YHVH’s people have been like sheep that have gone astray spiritually, every man to his own way, because of sin (Isa 53:6). So in the broadest sense, this phrase refers to all the tribes of Israel including Gentiles with which they have mixed themselves through intermarriage.

Eventually, the gospel message is for everyone universally. Yeshua demonstrated this when, on several occasions, he ministered to non-Jewish Gentiles including preaching the gospel message to the Samaritan woman in John chapter four. 

 

The Hebraisms of Light Versus Darkness in Yeshua’s Saying

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Matthew 8:12, Children/Sons of the kingdom. This is a Hebraism or biblical metaphor for the Jewish people. They are the ones who were first presented with the gospel message, but most of them rejected it. The sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness because they didn’t accept Yeshua the Messiah, who is the light of the world (John 1:9; 8:12). It’s rather ironic to be cast into darkness for not accepting the light. Unrepentant sinners prefer darkness over the light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19), so in the end they get what they really wanted.

Anointing

Outer darkness. (Also 22:13; 25:30.) Ancient banquets were held at night in brilliantly lit rooms, and anyone excluded from the feast was cast outside into outer darkness. In his teachings, Yeshua’s uses this term as a metaphor for judgment in reference to those who will be excluded from his kingdom. In the oriental mind, in the days before street lights, it was a dreadful thing to be found outside, late at night no lamp or simply a small clay lamp of that day that put out a tiny, dim flame (Manners and Customs, pp. 62–63). This speaks of the fear that those whom Yeshua will reject will experience.