Before launching into the verse-by-verse study of the scripture-text, Pastor Barry began with the general matters of The Gospel books (“one four-fold Gospel”); of the comparison and reception of various types of historical documents (citing Alexander The Great and how we know about him). The date of writing the book was pinned down to an early date by relating events noted in it to the known trends in the Roman empire.

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TRANSCRIPT OF THE SERMON
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PS0 ::::: TRANSCRIPT OF THE SERMON >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
There is a “button” labelled “Save Video” (or “Download Video” sometimes). This actually links to a text-file to download. It is a transcript of the sermon. At present it is at an experimental stage: it is an aid to getting the most out of the sermon audio. There is no substitute for listening to the verbal delivery of a sermon. However, searching through an audio file lasting the best part of an hour can be somewhat difficult. When you approach the search knowing that you’re sure there is something about “redemption”, for example, then a transcript text-search can take you right there and show you the time in the recording where you will find it! The file is simple “text” rather than a more sophisticated form so that you can edit or reformat as you prefer.

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The post John Chapter 1 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Having gone verse-by-verse through the Book of Ruth, in this session we look at the models that God had intentially woven into the naritive of this incredible book.

We will see how the story itself is a model of the gospel; how Naomi is a type of Israel, Ruth a type of the Church, Boaz a type of Christ, Orpha a model of the unbeliever, and even the position of the book is by Diving design!

We also look at the one character that, up to now, has not been mentioned! He plays a major role and yet is never mentiond in the book! But unlocking the mystery of this man who ‘hides in plain sight’ it helps us to see the brethtaking magnitude of God’s plan of Redemption!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study!

The post Ruth – Session 5 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we continue over verse-by-verse joutney through the book of Ruth. It has been said that this book stands out like a diamond on a black cloth, ‘a beautiful day in the midst of a season of storms’. Spurgeon said “The Book of Ruth is like a lovely flower in a garden of weeds. It shows us that even in the darkest times of the Judges, God had a people, and His grace was at work in the most unexpected places”. 

If the surface story in the book of Ruth is wonderful, then the models that God has given us are nothing short of breath-taking! As we look at the similitudes, we will begin to see how this book is a wonderful and powerful model that prefigures God’s work of redemption and plan for mankind. Specifically, we see how Naomi, as a type of Israel, through unbelief and rejection of God is expelled from the land, being dispersed among the gentiles, later to be brought home in bitterness before being restored. •We also see Ruth, as a type of the Church, being a gentile bride who finds grace in the eyes of Boaz who, as a Kinsman-Redeemer, purchases her for himself! •Then there is the land itself; as in the book of Ruth where the land was lost, only to be redeemed again by Boaz, so Adam lost the ‘title deed’ of this earth to Satan, only to find that the Second Adam, our Kinsman-Redeemer will redeem this earth and claim back what Adam lost!

Chapter 2

As we move into chapter two we meet the kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

The opening verse is the type of verse that preachers like Spurgeon would have spent an entire sermon expounding! We must be careful not to just read over the magnitude of what this verse is saying, for it ultimately speaks of Jesus Christ. Psalm 40:7 tells us “in the volume of the book it is written of me”, and many Bible commentators have pointed out that you can find Jesus on every page of the Bible, either boldly presented, or subtly concealed in the types, shadows and details. Proverbs 25:2 says: “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter”, and Paul explains, in regard to the feasts of Israel, that they too are “a shadow of things to come; but the substance (i.e. the fulfilment) is of Christ” (Col 2:17).

It seemed to have slipped Naomi’s mind that there was a relative who could, potentially at least, act as the kinsman-redeemer, to purchase back that which had belonged to Elimelech. As we will go on to see, Boaz was a wealthy man and of great standing in the community, but it’s when we turn to the types and shadows we see the depth in this verse. Four key facts that are revealed:

1) Naomi had a kinsman,

2) He was a mighty man of wealth

3) He was of the family of Elimelech

4) His name was Boaz

Firstly, Naomi had a kinsman: Later in the book we will not find Naomi complaining that she didn’t have a number of able kinsmen who could have redeemed her, nor will she complain that it was too restrictive, narrow and dogmatic to only have been offered one way out of her predicament – a predicament that had been brought about by her decision to leave the Land God had given her, ultimately, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The incredible fact here is the Naomi had a kinsman, there was a way, it was possible for a sinner to be restored because there was a kinsman-redeemer! Of course this speaks of Jesus; He is The way, The truth and The life. None can come (back) to the Father but through Him (John 14:6). The world may foolishly complain that Christianity is too exclusive, that it is narrow and dogmatic to affirm there is just One way to heaven – through Jesus Christ, but the most amazing fact is, that there is A way. It is actually possible. We have a Kinsman; one who is able and willing to redeem us (purchase us back). Furthermore, our Kinsman came to rescue us while we were yet sinners, lost and alienated from the commonwealth of Israel (just as Naomi had been). 

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Rom 5:6-9).The second point to mention is that ‘he was a mighty man of wealth’. Speaking of Boaz, we know that he was a wealthy land owner with a number of servants, and also that he was a man of great importance within the town, and the Hebrew implies he was mighty in valour. But this verse also speaks of Jesus. You could have a mighty man who had little in the terms of wealth; or you could have a wealthy man who had little or no might, but our Boaz (Jesus Christ) is both Mighty and of unfathomable wealth. Not only do we have a Kinsman, but He is mighty to save (Isaiah 63:1); He is the captain of the armies of the LORD (Joshua 5:14), who will destroy His enemies with the brightness of His coming (2 Thess 2:8). 

In regard to His wealth, Paul says: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33) God’s riches are not just confined to the material, and here Paul speaks of the unfathomable depth of the riches of both God’s wisdom and knowledge. God is all knowing, all powerful and all wise. I wonder how poverty stricken Ruth felt to discover she was related to a philanthropist millionaire?  How would you react to such a discovery? To discover that you have such a Kinsman in Jesus Christ, who is willing and able to redeem you, provide for your, establish you, and Whom will never forsake you, should fill your heart and mind with unspeakable joy and peace!

The third fact we are told is that Boaz was of the family of Elimelech. As we have noted, the name Elimelech means ‘God is my king’. Boaz was of the family of ‘God is my king’; his was a Godly family. His mother was Rahab, a gentile who had been saved by her faith in Yeshua. Although Rahab had once been known as a harlot, even by the time we are introduced to her in the book of Joshua, there is evidence that her life was changing, for we are told she was drying flax in the roof of her house. This was time consuming and would have been to produce garments for sale, to earn her living in a more honourable way (linen etc. was made from flax). Rahab’s encounter with the God of Israel changed her forever, and as Jesus Himself testified of another ex-harlot “Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little” (Luke 7:47). As with Boaz, Christ also is of the family of ‘God is my King’. God alone was His King; He came to do the will of His Father (John 5:30 / 6:38). Only one who seeks first the kingdom of God can be truly pleasing to Him (Matt 3:17 / Matt 6:33).

Finally, we are told that ‘his name was Boaz’. Boaz’ name means ‘to strengthen’. You can mix sand, stones and water together all day long and you will have a soggy mix of sand, stones and water. However when you add cement to your sand, stones and water you have something that you can make the largest buildings from. This is what Christ does for us. He puts into us something that was not there before. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13). Christ is our strength, and His strength is made perfect in our weakness (1 Peter 5:10 / 2 Corinthians 12:9). He was strong enough to endure temptation in the wilderness, to endure the trial in Gethsemane, to endure the mockery and scourging of the Pharisees and Romans, to endure the agony and humiliation of crucifixion, and ultimately to endure the wrath of God poured on Him for the sins of the world. What strength! What a Saviour!

“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Heb 12:3). Boaz must have make an impression on his great grandson, Solomon, for when Solomon was building the temple “ he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.” (2 Chron 3:17) Jacinth means ‘to establish’, and Boaz, ‘to strengthen’.

As we continue through this chapter there are many more insights and shadows that point to Christ.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Ruth Chapter 2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

That’s the question Paul asks in Romans chapter 11.

His emphatic answer should put an end to the debate, yet sadly, antisemitism has been as rife in the Christian church through the centuries as it has in the world.

Here, Paul not only makes his case from scripture, but warns against those who would just dismiss Israel.

Yes, ‘national Israel’ have been blinded, but that blindness is only temporary. Once God had gathered in all the Gentiles who will accept His call and the free-gift of Salvation through Jesus, Israel’s blindness will be removed and ‘so all Israel will be saved’ – both the believing remnant who formed the early church, and the unbelieving Jews who were blinded for their rejection of their Messiah.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 11:1-25 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

To put it another way, the Word of God causes us to hear, to perceive, to understand. It gives us an understanding of who God is, of what He’s done, of His faithfulness to the saints of old. By so-doing it produces faith. The more we read and study God’s Word, the more our faith grows.

But what is faith? It is not a blind leap in the dark. Dr George Eldon Ladd said:

“Faith does not mean a leap in the dark, an irrational credulity, a believing against evidences and against reason. It means believing in the light of historical facts consistent with the evidences, on the basis of witnesses”    

In this study pastor Barry looks at a number of examples to show us we really can trust God’s Word. We can have a faith that is certain and unshakable.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 10:18-21 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

It is a topic we cannot ignore! From Genesis 12 to Acts 2, the Nation of Israel is the major theme of the Bible; and we cannot escape the fact that Jesus was Jewish, as was all the early Christian church.

In chapters 9 to 11 of the book of Romans the apostle Paul asks the question, if God is so faithful and his promises sure, why have Israel as a nation been ‘cast off’? and what is to be the future for them? Have they really forfeited the blessings God promised them? Is it true that these blessings, (promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their biological descendants), now somehow fall on the church, as many in today’s church claim?

In this first part of our study on the opening five verses of Romans chapter 9, we look at some of the promises God made to Israel and consider the history of this nation, a nation unlike any other in the history of the world, and look at the staggering prophecies that foretold their future in advance.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study given by pastor Barry on 5th January 2025.

If you want to support this ministry you can donante here: https://www.calvaryportsmouth.co.uk/product/make-a-donation/

The post Romans 9 1-5 Pt1 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we conclude Romans 8 – one of the most incredible chapters in the Bible!

What does it mean to be saved? How secure is our salvation? Is there anything that can separate us from the love of God?

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans 8 18-39 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

What is the Gospel? Was it ‘plan B’ following the Fall?

Who is the Gospel for, and how do we share it with the world around us?

May you be blessed and encoueaged by this second part of a two-part study. 10

The post The Eternal Gospel (Pt2) first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study of Romans chapter 8:7-17 we continue looking at Paul’s teaching on how it is possible to live the Christian life, not by our own good intentions or will power (that will only end in failure and disappointment), but by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The slides used in this study are available for free download.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch8 7-17 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

What is the Gospel? Was it ‘plan B’ following the Fall?

Who is the Gospel for, and how do we share it with the world around us?

May you be blessed and encoueaged by this first part of a two-part study.

The post The Eternal Gospel (Pt 1) first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

The Apostle Paul begins the chapter by stating that there is no possibility of condemnation for those who are in Christ, and ends the chapter by asserting that there is no possibility of separation from Him either!

This should fill the hearts of every belliever with unspeakable joy!

In this study, pastor Barry takes just the first 6 verses of the chapter to contemplate the reality and the effect the indwelling Holy Spirit should have on the life and walk of the believer.

May you be blessed and encouaged by this study.

This study was given on the 3rd Novembe 2024.

The post Romans Ch8 1-6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

The Law leaves us defeated and like Paul we find we end up doing the things we know are wrong, and feeling powerless to do the things we know are right. Thus, the Law drives to cry out: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24)

If that were the end is would be a sad conclusion! But it is not the end of the matter, for Paul declares that there can be deliverance, there can be freedom, there can be the reality of walking in victory of the demands and dictates of the flesh life – and it is though the Person and power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch7 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

What does it mean to be buried with Christ? How sould someone who has given their life to Christ now live?

Some have tried to argue that we should continue living in sin that God’s grace may abound. In Romans chatpter 6, the Apostle Paul addresses this and makes it clear that a Christian is, by very definition, someone who has been changed from the inside out and is no longer to be a slave to sin.

May you be blessed as pastor Arron teaches through this chapter.

For more teaching from pastor Aaron, go to: https://discipleschurch.co.uk/sermon-speaker/aaron-evans/

The post Romans Ch6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In chapter 5, the Apostle Paul continues his explanation of salvation through grace.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch5 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

How can a just God justify sinful man? It doesn’t matter how good we may think we are, even our highest standard still falls short of the perfection of a holy God.

None of us could earn heaven by our efforts, no matter how hard we tried.

So how does God demonstrate His mercy and yet maintain His righteous justice?

The Apostle Paul takes us to two Old Testament examples, Abraham and David, to show that Salvation is not by works, nor by the keeping of the law, but by faith in His grace alone. But that faith will show itself to be genuine by the fruit it produces.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch4 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

At a time in history when antisemitism is on the rise, when the world is largely united in its condemnation of Israel, this is an important question that every Christian should have a clear answer to! For the majority of the Bible is concerned with the call, establishment, preservation and future of the Jewish people.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this chapter Paul addresses the plight of the immoral / pagan man who has willfully rejected God, chosen to worship creation rather than the Creator, and reaped the consequences of wanting to do it ‘my way’!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The post Romans Ch 1 8-32 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

On their website, Libertly University in America state: “The great apostle Paul authored at least 13 New Testament epistles. If he were here today with us, and was asked which epistle was the most needed for this time in history, I believe he would say without hesitation, the book of Romans. And the reason? Well, 2000 years ago he warned that “in the latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Tim. 4:1). So then, the only real cure for bad doctrine is biblical doctrine; thus, the most theological book ever written – the book of Romans!”

That is quite a statment, but one that will undoubtedly prove to be true as we begin a study through this incredible book.

John Calvin said: “if we understand this epistle we have a passage opened to us to the understanding of the whole of Scripture”.

Indeed, Romans unlocks, expounds and sheds Divine light on many of the key doctrines in Scripture. If all of the Bible were lost except Romans, scarcely any fundamental doctrine would be lacking. As he explained the gospel in Romans, Paul quoted from the Old Testament more often than in all his twelve other letters combined—showing how important the Old Testament is to understanding the gospel. No less than 57 quotes can be found.

Additional study notes from this session:

Author: Paul  this is not disputed.  – Paul was a Roman citizen (adopted by Sergius Paulus – governor of Cypress (hence for then on taking his family name).

• “Paul” = the least; the little one. Understood grace.
  • “I am the chief of sinners” 1 Tim 1:12-15
  • Significantly, the most devoutly religious man who ever lived!                   Phil 3:1ff
• So God has already saved one who is far worse than you or me!…

Addressee: The Saints in Rome (not a single church but the collective body of believers), various congregations, no doubt meeting from home to home.

Paul sent greetings to the church that met in the home of Aquila and Priscilla. Rom 16:5

28 people are named in the letter

• Many of the believers in Rome were Paul’s converts
• He was writing to believers
  • Not preaching for them to be converted
  • Teaching them what salvation is really all about

Written from Corinth

• Though he never mentions it, he wrote from Corinth.
  • Cenchrea being its eastern harbor. 16:1
• Written at the close of his third missionary journey on c. AD 57-58

Time of Writing:

In 1947 a Bedouin boy made one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all time in a cave at Qumran in southern Israel.

Much is said about the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls,…

They comprise some 800 documents

…dating from around 250 BC to 68 AD

Among the Scrolls are partial or complete copies of every book in the Hebrew Bible

except the book of Esther

But what is not so widely publicised is that fragments of a number of New Testament books were also discovered in cave 7… including the Book of Romans.

The caves at Qumran are famous for the hoard of Old Testament and other manuscripts that have been found there. But the thing which receives the least publicity (if any publicity at all) is the fact that the caves have also yielded fragments of New Testament books. This absence of publicity – this blanket denial of their identity – is not to be wondered at.

It was really most awkward. In fact, it still is very awkward for them, for it means that the fragments must have been written out – copied from even earlier exemplars – well before A.D. 68, which undermines everything that the critics have been claiming all these years.

The fact of the matter is this, that these manuscripts were deposited in the caves at Qumran by the year A.D. 68 at the very latest, when Qumran and the surrounding area was overrun by the Roman 10th legion, and according to the critics, the New Testament  had not been written by that time.  –  Dr Bill Cooper

This means that Romans – which we know was written by Paul – was written at a time the Christian church in the Roman world was not being persecuted, but was allowed to flourish and thrive!

Construction of the Colosseum began under the Roman emperor Vespasian between 70 and 72,

By that time, Romans, and indeed copies of the Book of Romans were already in circulation among the Christian church!

Theme:  The Grace of God Revealed:

• God’s righteousness,
• Our iniquity, and
• God’s remedy through Grace

There are many self-help books on the market today that all tell you to follow your heart!

The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked

Self-help books simply give you a new set of rules to follow that all too quickly you break and fail to keep!

The Book of Romans focuses on the Gospel – which does not merely give us a set of rules to follow, it tells us that firstly we cannot keep (any) set of rules, but that Jesus alters the mainspring of our lives, changes our disposition and places withing us something that was never there before, the Person of God’s Holy Spirit and by His power we can live!

• Christ did not come to make bad men good;
  but to give dead men life!

The Impact of the Book

• “The most profound of all literature”

Romans became the cornerstone to the Reformation in Europe.

Martin Luther had tried relentlessly to get right with God… but failed. A wise old monk told him to read Habakkuk – a man who like Luther knew a thing or two about struggling!

In Habakkuk Luther read “The Just Shall Live by Faith”

• Habakkuk 2:4 has lead to a Trilogy of epistles by Paul in NT.
• The Just… (Who are they?)  Romans Rom 1:17
• …Shall live (How?)                 Galatians Gal 3:11
• …By Faith!                                Hebrews Heb 10:39

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Romans Ch1 1-7 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

The audio and full PowerPoint slides are available for free download.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Reasons We Believe first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We continue our study of 2nd Corinthians as Paul restates the Christian’s calling, current ministry and future hope.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post 2 Corinthians Ch5 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

It is the light of the gospel reflecting from us that will reveal God to un unsaved world… but if any do not receive it is because their minds have been blinded by the god of this world. 

May this study bless and encourage you to shine for Jesus!

This study was recorded on 19th May 2024. 

The post 2 Corinthians Ch4 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this teaching, Pastor Barry looks at Paul’s admonition for Christians to shine and reflect the glory of Christ. If Moses’ face shone when he received the Law, how much more should Christians shine who have the privilege of being ambassadors of the Gospel of Grace to this world.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post 2 Corinthians Ch3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

What are you doing with your gifts? 

What are you doing with your weapon?

What are you doing with your salvation? 

May you be challenged and encouraged by this teaching. 

This study was recorded on 28th April 2024.

The post Are you faithfull with what you’ve been given? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Christ is our resurrection and hope. He not only raised from the dead Himself, but raises us up to new life, not just the coming resurrection as the time of the Rapture, when all the saints will be raised incorruptible, but even now Christ is able to bring life into that which had died in our lives. 

In this portion of scripture, the great Apostle Paul speaks for despairing of life itself! Wow! Can that be right? Did Paul really come to a point where he felt he just couldn’t go on? YES! …and what a great comfort to the rest of us who, at times, feel so crushed under the burden God seems to have laid upon us; be it health, financial challenges, emotional trauma, unappeased longing, emptiness, confusion of purpose… (and the list goes on and on!)

Paul was there too! and yet found that Jesus can raise us up. 

May you be encouraged by this study and strengthened by God’s grace.

The post 2 Corinthians Ch1vs12 – Ch2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In his clasic work, ‘Church History in Plain Language’ Bruce Shelley stated: ““1 Corinthians fixes belief in the historical resurrection of Jesus as the indispensable basis of salvation”

In this study on 1 Corinthains chapter 15, we consider Paul’s words which do indeed place the resurrection as the indispensible basis of salvation and the Christian faith. Without the fact of the resurrection we (as Christians) have no hope and no assurance that our sins are forgiven. The resurection of Jesus gives us both!

As Theoosus Harnack said: “To me Christianity stands of falls with the Resurrection!”

May you be blessed by this teaching.

This study was given by Pastor Barry Forder on 31st March 2024.

The post 1 Corinthians Ch15 12-58 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Palm Sunday… It was, of course, the day we remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey – famously fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9 given sone 500 years earlier. We know from scripture that a ‘multitude’ of Jesus disciples spread their coats on the ground, waved palm branches and sang praises to God (actually singing from Psalm 118) as Jesus rode by. That much tradition has passed down to us. (Palm Sunday is one of the few things tradition actually gets right!).  We know too that this really angered the Pharisees! – but why?

But why was this day really so important? Why does Psalm 118 speak of this specific day saying “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalms 118:24).

Did you also know that not only Zechariah but Daniel also recorded details of this specific day 500 years before it happened?

David spoke of this day one thousand years before it came to pass! That is mind-boggling! Try to think of an event on a specific day that will take place 1000 years in the future!

But we discover that even Moses recorded details about this day almost one thousand five hundred years before!

In fact, we can go back two thousand years before this day, to the time of Abraham, and find it alluded to in Genesis 22!

So what is really so special about this day? Why does this day stand out from the crowd and demand our attention?

The answer lies in one of the greatest conundrums in the Bible!

Jesus came to reveal Himself to Israel and the world, right? So why, for almost His entire ministry, did He play-down who He really was? He constantly told people He healed to not make him known! “See you tell no man” was Jesus’ reply to those who wanted to shout abroad His greatness. He even silenced evil spirits from revealing His identity: “And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God.  And he straitly charged them that they should not make him known“. (Mark 3:11-112). Incredibly, after feeding the 5000 the multitude wanted to crown Him and make Him their king there and then! But “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone” (John 6:15).

Whilst all this ‘downplaying’ his identity was going on, another strange phenomenon was taking place. On a number of occasions, Jesus’ enemies came to take Him by force to silence Him. Yet each time Jesus simply walked through their midst as if protected by a spiritual force-field! They just could not touch him!

But then, on Palm Sunday everything changed! Jesus not only allowed the crowds to worship Him as the Messiah (“Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD” ( Psalms 118:26 )), He actually arranged the whole event, telling the disciples to go and get the donkey, and riding into Jerusalem as a king (just as Solomon had ridden into Jerusalem as a king in 1 Kings 1:38). When the Pharisees tried to silence the disciples Jesus retorted that even the stones would sing out His praise, such was the significance of this day!

So why this day? Why reveal Himself now?

Because this was the one and only day, prophesied by the angel Gabriel (and recorded by Daniel) when the Messiah would reveal Himself to Israel!

The prophecy is found in Daniel chapter 9, and foretells the exact day that Israel’s Messiah would come – and He did! But although a group of His disciples acknowledged it, the nation slept on in their ignorance and unbelief. They missed the ‘time of their visitation‘ (Luke 19:44). As a result, Jesus pronounced national blindness upon them – which Paul tells us in Romans 11:25 will last until ‘the fulness of the Gentiles be come in‘.

The significance of this day to Jews and Gentiles alike cannot be overstated!

It stands as a testimony to a God who is outside of time and can tell the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10) foretelling events thousands of years before they happen. It stands as a warning to not neglect the prophetic scriptures and the signs of the times, and it stands as a reminder that the Gentiles have been ‘grafted in’ to the family of Abraham by faith.

19 “Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. 20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off”. Romans 11:19-22

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Palm Sunday 2024 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this chapter Paul continues to speak about the proper use of spiritual gifts within the church, and how they should be used for the glory of God and the edification of the whole congregation. There is not a competition as to who has the best gifts, or who can use it most frequently, they should be encouraged, sought after, but only for the building up of the congregation. 

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.  

The post 1 Corinthians Ch14 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

G. Campbell Morgan said that examining this chapter was like “dissecting a flower to understand it. If you tear it apart too much, you lose the beauty”.

Alan Redpath said one could get a spiritual suntan from the warmth of this chapter!

There is so much depth and instruction in these 13 verses that we can learn and glean from.

Love is, and what should be, the one thing that holds us all together wihtin the body of Christ – the Church. God is love. We are to take the free gift of His love and let it flow from us to those around us. Paul said: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom 5:5).

Without the love of God imparted to us by the Holy Spirit we cannot truly love others.

Of all the gifts Paul speaks about, love is the greatest.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post 1 Corinthians Ch13 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we consider the wisdom of God’s plan of redemption, hidden (but very present) in the Old Testament, but revealed in the New Testament. Through it we see the importance of the whole Bible in unveiling God’s will for all things to be brought together in Christ.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post 1 Corinthians Ch2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this concluding session of our 3-part mini-seies on ‘The Inheritance of the Saints’ was given by pastor Barry on 17th September 2023. 

In this final part we look at the day that is coming, referred to by the Apostle Paul as ‘The Judgment Seat of Christ‘ and what is means (or should mean!) for us now.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post The Judgment Seat of Christ first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

**unfortunalty the audio quailty of this teaching is very poor due to a technical issue at the time of recording**

Please accept our apologies for this.

All the PowerPoint slides used in this teaching are still available for free download.

The post Luke Ch11 14-54 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

There are three silent, but powerful, ‘enemies’ that hinder the work of God in our lives: Fear, doubt and unbelief. So often, fear leads to doubt and doubt to unbelief. James tells us: “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord”. (James 1:6-7 NIV). Jesus clearly stated that He was unable to work miracles in Nazareth that He did elsewhere ‘because of their unbelief’ (Matt 13:58).  Over 300 times we are told to ‘not be afraid’ / ‘fear not’, clearly showing that we have a choice! The only fear we should have is the fear of the LORD which is the beginning of wisdom! Oswald Chambers said that if you fear God, you’ll fear nothing else! 

Sadly, instead of fearing God we fear everything else, for what if God’s promises don’t ‘come true’? What then? That leads to us doubting God’s Word, which then gives way to unbelief.    

Thinking back to the four soils at the beginning of Luke chapter 8, we see that the seeds that fell on the wayside were immediately met by unbelief: “the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe” (Luke 8:12). The seed that fell on the rocky soil started well, only for doubt to consume and destroy (v13). The seed that fell among the thorns was choked by ‘life’s worries’ (v14) – in a word, fear. 

John Piper once said: “The tap root, out of which sprouts all the weeds of sin, is the tap root of unbelief in the promises of God. When you trust, or believe in a promise of God, you glorify God.  In fact, trusting somebody’s promise is the most fundamental honour you can do that person. The reverse is also true: The greatest contempt that you can bring down upon a person, is to say to them, ‘I can’t trust you’. So, when we don’t trust a promise of God, we bring contempt upon Him, we give Him a vote of ‘no confidence’.

In Luke 8:22-25 we see the disciples in a boat on the sea of Galilee. Whilst Jesus was asleep, a storm arose. In a state of fear the disciples awoke Jesus who then calmed the storm and chided the disciples for their lack of faith (v25) – their unbelief. Jesus had already ‘given His word’ and told them they were going to the other side of the lake, but here, overwhelmed by the circumstances’ they fear (demonstrating a lack of trust), doubt Jesus’ word, and their unbelief is exposed. 

In the remainder of Luke chapter 8 we see Jesus continuing to preach and actively demonstrate the ‘good news’. In quoting from Isaiah Jesus had said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). 

Now Jesus demonstrates that He had come to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) – both sin and sickness – by delivering a man who had been possessed by a legion of demons, healing a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years, and then raising from the dead Jairus’ daughter!

Significantly, Jesus tells the woman with the issue of blood “thy faith hath made thee whole” (v48).  

To Jairus (upon his hearing that his daughter had died) Jesus said “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.” (v50).

We cannot get away from the fact that two thirds of Jesus ministry were spent healing the sick and performing miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit – in direct fulfilment of Isaiah 61:1. This is an integral part of the gospel (good news!) He came to proclaim. The good news is that through Christ there can be reconciliation with God and forgiveness of sins, “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins“* He also heals the sick! Do you believe this? 

*(Luke 5:24)

Are you prepared to take God at His Word? Or do we receive the Word with joy, only to have doubt creep in and tell us that this is not how it is, that God doesn’t heal today?

Andrew Murray stated: “Oh, that we could learn to believe in the promises of God! God has not gone back from His promises; Jesus is still He who heals both soul and body; salvation offers us even now healing and holiness, and the Holy Spirit is always ready to give us some manifestations of His power. Even when we ask why this divine power is not more often seen, He answers us: ‘Because of your unbelief. The more we give ourselves to experience personally ‘sanctification by faith’, the more we shall also experience healing by faith. These two doctrines walk abreast. The more the Spirit of God lives and acts in the soul of believers, the more will the miracles multiply by which He works in the body. Thereby the world can recognize what redemption means.”.

“The Bible does not authorize us, either by the words of the Lord or His apostles, to believe that the gifts of healing were granted only to the early times of the Church; on the contrary, the promises which Jesus made to the apostles when He gave them instructions concerning their mission, shortly before His ascension, appear to us applicable to all times. (cf Mark 16:15-18)”

“Paul places the gift of healing among the operations of the Holy Spirit. James gives a precise command on this matter without any restriction of time. The entire Scriptures declare that these graces will be granted according to the measure of the Spirit and of faith.”.

“In this chapter (Isaiah 53), the expression ‘to bear’ occurs twice, but in relation to two different things. It is said not only that the Lord the righteous Servant bore our sins (v12), but also that He bore our sicknesses (v4). Thus, His bearing our sicknesses as well as our sins forms an integral part of the Redeemer’s work. Although He was without sin, He has borne our sins, and has done the same with our sicknesses. “As soon as a sick believer understands the meaning of the words, ‘Jesus has borne my sins’, he is not afraid to say ‘I no longer need to bear my sins’.  In the same way, as soon as he fully believes that Jesus has borne our sicknesses, he is not afraid to say  ‘I no longer need to bear my sicknesses.’ “Jesus, in bearing sin, bore sickness also, which is its consequence. He has made payment for both, and He delivers us from both. In Jesus, we have both pardon and healing. They are two sides of His redemptive work.”

Consider the impact on your family, friends, colleagues, if they heard of, or came to church and actually saw miracles of healing… It would be just like it was in the Book of Acts where we read: “and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles…  And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:43-47).  “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)… There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.” (Acts 5:14-16).

It will not and cannot happen except by the work and power of the Holy Spirit among a people who yield themselves to Him, to ‘Walk in the Spirit’ (Gal 5:16), and who are ‘Led by the Spirit’ (Gal 5:18).  Not wavering, not doubting, willing to take God at His Word, letting the Seed of His Word sink down into the good soil of faith and belief. Who not only hear, but also do!

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian believers and asked: “He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Gal 3:5). 

May this study challenge and encourage you to a deeper walk with the Holy Spirit.

The post Luke Ch8 26-56 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this chapter we see Jesus confronted by the Pharisees regarding, as they perceived, a direct violation of their Sabbath laws. Jesus undoes their arguments by quoting scriptural examples to show that ‘the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath’ (Mark 2:27). It is good that we rest one day a week, God has designed our bodies that way; and that rest should be a day when God is our central focus. But as the writer to the Hebrews points out*, the real heart of the Sabbath is the rest our soul’s find in Christ. He is the ultimate rest from our labour.

*Heb 4:1-11

Significantly, the Sabbath was not instituted by Moses at Sinai, it was given in Genesis and affirmed in Exodus 18 (with the provision of Manna) before the giving of the Law in Exodus 20. Also worth noting is that the observance of the Sabbath will continue throughout the Millennium (Isaiah 66:22-23 / Ezekiel 46:1).

We then see Jesus spend all night in prayer before choosing His 12 disciples. There is a great lesson here in the importance of bringing everything to our Heavenly Father in prayer before simply acting on impulse. (See Proverbs 3:4-5 / Proverbs 16:3 / Philippians 4:6) If Jesus needed to take prayer that seriously, how much more do we!

In the rest of Luke chapter 6 we have Luke’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, that Matthew records for us in Matthew ch5-7. This is so familiar to most Christians it’s easy to miss the import of what is being said, and exactly what is expected and required of a disciple of Jesus.

In essence, it is a call to become Chist-like in our thinking and attitudes; it is a call to live a life of prayer, being rooted in God and His Word. However, as Oswald Chambers insightfully points out: “Fancy coming to men and women with defective lives and defiled hearts and wrong mainsprings, and telling them to be pure in heart! What is the use of giving us an ideal we cannot possibly attain? We are happier without it. If Jesus is a Teacher only, then all He can do is to tantalise us by erecting a standard we cannot come anywhere near. But if by being born again from above we know Him first as Saviour, we know that He did not come to teach us only: He came to make us what He teaches we should be. The Sermon on the Mount is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His way with us”.    (Oswald Chambers, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount).

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The PowerPoint slides used in this study are available for free download.

The post Luke Ch6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this chapter Dr Luke records the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry at Bethabara, just north of the Dead Sea in southern Israel, around 18 miles east of Jerusalem.

As John started to preach the news spread and very soon a multitude came out from that towns of Judea to listen to this man. Whatever they expected they were no doubt surprised! John was not your ordinary son of a priest! He had chosen a simple lifestyle but thundered with a powerful message that shook his listeners to the core. Luke records that, not only the common people, but also the notorious tax collectors and unscrupulous soldiers, both renowned for corruption and their harsh treatment of the people, had been broken and convicted by John’s teaching.

John’s message was clear and simple. God is coming to judge the earth! It was time to choose whose side you were on! Israel had a history of ignoring the voices of the prophets God sent to warn of impending judgment, but here, albeit for a brief moment, there was genuine contrition as this Spirit filled man spoke of the coming kingdom.

Luke records that Isaiah had actually prophesied of John’s ministry some 700 years earlier, and that he would be a forerunner to the coming Messiah. Some of the people actually wondered if John himself were the Messiah, but John was quick to explain that he merely baptised the repentant with water; the Messiah would baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire!

John himself evidently expected the Messiah to establish His kingdom there and then. So much so that when Jesus seemed to be delaying His right to claim the title of the Earth and sit on the Throne of David, John sent disciples to ask if Jesus really was the Messiah. John, as did the Jewish leaders, and Jesus’ disciples, all failed to understand that the Messiah had to come first to suffer and pay for the sins of the world, and only then would He later return to establish His throne and rule all nations ‘with a rod of iron’ (Psalm 2) from Jerusalem.

Luke records that Jesus also went down to Bethabara – the place Joshua had led the Children of Israel across the Jordan into the Promised Land (see Joshua ch4) – and there was baptised by John. It wasn’t that Jesus needed to repent, but rather Jesus intentionally identified Himself with sinful humanity in an open declaration and acceptance of submission to His Father’s will. This led to one of two occasions where God the Father audibly declared His love for His Son and that Jesus’ sacrificial act was indeed pleasing to the Father.

Luke then gives us one of two detailed genealogies in the New Testament – the other being in Matthew chapter 1. To most gentiles, these are just boring lists of names, some of which we may recognise if we’ve read the Old Testament, but overall, something we don’t generally give much attention to. However, if you are a Jew, these lists of names, these historical genealogies, are of profound significance!

In A.D. 70 the genealogical records, that would allow any Jew to trace their family ancestry, were lost when the Temple was destroyed in Jerusalem by the Roman 5^th legion under the command of Titus. The real problem this posed for the Jews – then as well as now – is that they have no way to verify their coming Messiah, no way to check the authenticity of anyone claiming so be their long-awaited Hope. So much of a problem this will be that the Jews – according to Jesus Himself – will one day accept ‘Antichrist’ as their Messiah, albeit only briefly, but the tragedy that will result will be catastrophic.

Of course, no Torah-loving, God-fearing Jew would ever consider looking in the pages of the Christian New Testament for corroboration or confirmation! But one day the Christians will be gone; supernaturally removed from this earth and taken back to Heaven! The remaining gentiles to be saved will be martyred during the time of Great Tribulation coming upon the earth, and then, according to the Apostle Paul, the blindness that has been over Israel’s eyes for almost two thousand years will be removed (Romans 11:25).

Then, these genealogies that have been preserved by Luke and Matthew will become the most valuable documents on earth, for they will prove that Yeshua Ben David (Jesus the son of David) was and is the rightful heir to David’s throne, and more importantly, their Messiah! They will show He was of the line of Judah, of the family of David, born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Son of God!

These genealogies are for tomorrow, they are reserved for a time yet to come, Gentiles might read them now, but the Jews will come to treasure them!

God’s Word speaks to tomorrow as much as it does today. It anticipates and provides comfort for troubles that you have not yet encountered, but it will be there when you do. You might go through one of life’s storms some time from now, and when you do you will pick up God’s Word and words that were written thousands of years ago will speak to you in that very moment. They had been waiting for you all that time!

Can there be a better reason to pick up God’s Word daily than the knowledge that God already has something to say to you tomorrow? It’s been recorded ahead of time by the One who knows the end form the beginning.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching!

Join us online via Teams, or in person, every Sunday as we study God’s Word together.

The post Luke Ch3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This topical teaching by pastor Barry Forder was given on 18th September 2022.

Since Egbert in 827 A.D. the British Isles have had a Monarchy. Over the past week we have seen King Charles III travel to Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and various places in England – all places where the proclamation of his reign has been announced – and he has been greeted with almost unanimous joy, with huge crowds lining streets and shouting ‘God save the king!’

But should we pray ‘God save the king’? What about the small minority that do not want to be under a monarchy?

In this teaching pastor Barry looks at:

• The Biblical foundation of the Monarchy
• The Biblical mandate for Monarchy
• The Biblical future for the Monarchy

In these times of change and uncertainty, may this teaching give you confidence in our coming King.

The post The Monarchy – Past Present Future first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We are living in unprecedented times. We have the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, we are still feeling the effects of the Covid pandemic, and now one of the most consistent and stabilising influences in all of our lives – the reign of Queen Elizabeth II – has come to an end.

If nothing else, this brings home the fragile nature of our world and even of life itself. 

In these reflections on the death of the Queen, pastor Barry looks at Peter’s words where he asks us, “Seeing that all these things will be dissolved, what manor of persons ought you to be?” (2 Peter 3:11).

How should you be, given your limited time on this earth? Will you leave a legacy like our great Queen? What will people say of you? Will they point to your faith in Jesus as the bedrock and purpose for your life?  

May these thoughts bless and challenge you as you walk with Jesus.

The post Seeing these things will be disolved… first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Acts 16:6-10

6 Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
7 After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.
8 And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
10 And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

May this message bless you today.

The post The Macedonian Call first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul speaks of the ‘Mystery of Israel’.

David Torrance said:

“Despite wars, persecutions and repeated attempts to obliterate them, they have kept their peculiar identity. They have remained a people apart from the other nations of the world, a testimony to the preserving hand of God. “For I the Lord do not change therefore , you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal 3:6). “The very existence of the Jews in history, together with all that has happened to them in their long turbulent history, is proof that there is a God present and active, through His Holy Spirit, in history. By all normal laws of geography, history and ethnography, they ought as a distinct race to have disappeared long ago!”.

Most books on ‘systematic theology’ cover every major area of doctrine except one: the calling, purpose and future of the Nation of Israel. Yet 5/6ths of the Bible are devoted to the family of Abraham, and God’s unconditional promises to them.

Sadly, the erroneous doctrine that God has somehow finished with Israel has swept through the Christian church, leaving many unaware of just how important Israel are in God’s plan of redemption, salvation and restoration.

In this study we look at the Biblical origins of the nation of Israel, God’s unconditional covenants with them regarding the Nation, the Land, the Monarchy and the city of Jerusalem.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post The Mystery of Israel first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Chapters 7 & 8 are an historical interlude in the book of Zechariah, between the prophetic visions of the first six chapters and the prophetic climax to the book, from chapter 9-14.

In chapter 7 we see two individuals sent down from Jerusalem to Bethel (The House of God), to ask whether they should continue to keep the fasts they had been observing in the fifth month.

It was on the 5th month (from the 5th to the 10th day) that the Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar has destroyed and burned the temple and city of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. During their time in Babylon, the Jews had commemorated this time by fasting and mourning for the city and temple. But now they were back in the land the question is asked, do they need to continue this practice, after all, it wasn’t like the Feast of Moses that they were instructed to keep.

God’s response through Zechariah was to question why they had kept the fasts in the fist place. Was it for God they had done it? Or was is it for themselves? What was their motive?

God them reminds them of the Nation’s history that had led up to the captivity in the first place. It had been characterised by injustice, cruelty, and the leaders of the nation, in particular, had hardened their hearts toward God, not wanting to hear His Law or Prophets.

God now asks in effect, are your hearts still hard? Are you concerned about your ways or my ways? When you ‘celebrate’ your fasts, in the 5th month (when the city and temple were destroyed), or in the 7th month (when Gedaliah, the governor of Judah was assassinated), or in the 10th month (the anniversary of when the siege of Jerusalem had begun), are you celebrating with your thoughts on God? Or are you merely following a ritualistic practice, thinking that in some way, this makes God pleased?

God is not looking for sacrifice (or fasting), but for hearts that are His. If sacrifice and fasting follow, that is fine, but it has to be out of the overflow of a heart seeking God, and not just a religious practice.

In Chapter 8 God goes on to say how much He loves Israel, and thought He had to chasten them, He will restore them. The land will once again be filled with the young anf old living in security and prosperity, and the whole world will know that the Lord is with Israel.

This will not be fully realised until the Messiah returns and sits on the Throne of David, ruling over the whole earth from Jerusalem.. but God Has promised and is able to perform it! (Rom 4:21)

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Zechariah Ch7-8 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this study we look at the last of a series of eight visions that the prophet Zechariah had in one night. Each vision unveiled a little more of God’s plan to restore and rebuild the nation of Israel following the Babylonian captivity. The scope of these visions takes us from 518 B.C. when Zechariah had these visions, to the time ahead of us when Jesus will return to establish His kingdom on Earth.

In this eighth vision Zechariah sees two ‘mountains’ in juxtaposition, as if squaring up for battle. These may well represent the kingdom of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of this world, for we see that in the midst of them come riding four horsemen and chariots that bear a striking resemblance to the four horsemen we see in Revelation chapter 6. These are angelic beings that are ushering in a time of judgment, after which Israel’s enemies will be silenced and our King & high priest  will be crowned.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The post Zechariah Ch6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Zechariah had a series of visions, all apparently in one night. These visions not only gave comfort to Zechariah and the remnant that had returned from captivity in Babylon at that time, but also prophetically outline significant events that will take place as God restores His people Israel and readies the earth for the Millennial reign of Christ.

In the 4th vision Zechariah sees a menorah – the 7-branched lampstand that God gave Moses the instructions to build for the Tabernacle in Exodus 37.

In Revelation chapter 1, Jesus tells us that this lampstand, that was made from one solid piece of pure gold and hammered into shape, is an idiom of the Church. The Church also is one body in Christ, hammered into shape by our Master craftsman’s tender love and moulding. We are purified through the testing of our faith (see James 1: 2-3). As with the menorah we are to be filled with the oil of His Holy Spirit and bear His light to all around us.

Either side of this (that is, either side of the Church), Zechariah sees two olive trees, representative of the Nation of Israel. It is no coincidence that following the return from Babylon, God dealt with Israel up until the time they rejected their Messiah (see Luke 19:41-44). Whilst the early Church was indeed entirely Jewish, it soon became clear that the Gospel was to now go to the gentiles (see Acts ch10). Though many Jews believed, as a Nation, Israel’s eyes will remain blinded ‘until the fulness of the gentiles has come in’ (See Romans 11: 25-26).

God gives Zechariah comfort, declaring that the Temple will be rebuilt, that all the problems then facing the Nation of Israel, that seemed like a mountain to overcome, would be levelled. God’s promises to Israel would be fulfilled, not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit. It would be God’s Spirit that would be breathed upon and indwell the Church. The Church would be a work of Divine grace for Jew and gentile alike.

From what we read in scripture, following the Church-age, God’s attention will be once again wholly turned to Israel. Zechariah’s attention in then focused upon the two olive branches (seemingly as distinct yet part of one of the olive trees).  Zechariah is told that these are two anointed individuals that will (one day) stand before God, to serve Him.

We see these two individuals appear again in Revelation ch 11, as two witnesses whom God will raise up to preach to the world after the Church has been removed at the time of the Rapture.

They will perform miraculous signs and wonders as a witness and demonstration of God’s omnipotence and sovereignty during the first three-and-a-half-years of the coming time of Tribulation.

Zechariah Chapter 5 also seems to foretell an event that will occur during this time.

All false religion began in Babylon at the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel, shortly after the time of the Flood (see Genesis 10). Throughout the ages, false religion has taken many forms and faces, but Revelation 17 & 18 reveal that a One World religion is on our horizon, that will come under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church. This religious system has and will exert incredible pressure and influence over the kings of the earth, and Zechariah sees that it will eventually return to the plain of Shinar (modern Day Iraq) where Babel was located. There God will use the kings of the earth to pour out His wrath and judgment on this ‘abomination’ that has kept so many from the truth. Isaiah 13/14, Jeremiah 50/51 and Revelation 17/18 all foretell this coming judgment that was birthed and will be consumed in Babylon.

May you be blessed and encouraged to study God’s Word more as we see these day’s approaching!

The post Zechariah Ch 4-5 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Israel had returned from Babylon in 537 B.C. following the decree of Cyrus to allow them to return home. 19 years later the prophet Haggai stepped onto the scene and declared “Consider your ways”! In just a few months the heart of the people had changed from one of fear to one of boldness and the foundation of the Temple, that by then had lain in ruins for 89 years, was started.

Two months after Haggai started to preach, another young jewish man, in his mid to late teens, part of the new generation of  Jews born in the land, stood up to reveal a series of 8 visions God had given him in one night. These visions were so profound they challenge world governments and the religious establishment even to this day.

As we begin a journey though this incredible book, we will have unveiled, the history and future of the nation of Israel from their return from Babylon, to the first coming of Messiah, and then to the second coming of Messiah. We will see God’s verdict pronounced on the gentile nations of this world for their mistreatment of Israel, and God’s ultimate plan to bless the family of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when the LORD God Himself will rule over the whole earth from Jerusalem.

In the opening verse of chapter 1 we are given a brief genealogy of Zechariah: “the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet”. 

There are no meaningless details in the Bible, and this opening statement is an example of that fact, for in this list of names are a statement that sets the tone for the whole of this book.

• Zechariah = “Whom Yahweh Remembers.”
• Son of Berechiah = “Yahweh Blesses.”
• Son of Iddo = “The Appointed Time.”

This book of Zechariah is the account of a God who remembers, and who blesses His people at the appointed time!

May you be blessed and encouraged as we journey through this book.

The post Zechariah – Intro & Ch1 1-2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

The PowerPoint slides used in this teaching are available for free download.

Edmund Spencer once said: “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is condemnation before investigation”.

To reject something because you’ve investigated it and found it to be nonsense is just common sense! Who in their right mind wants to knowingly believe fables? But to reject something – in this case a presentation of evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – simply because of prejudice, i.e., you don’t think it’s true, or worse still, you don’t want to believe it’s true, is foolish.

But why does it matter? Well, quite simply, if the Resurrection can be shown to be an historical event, it provides a formal proof for Jesus’ Deity and God’s existence, one that is tangible, one that anyone can verify for themselves; and if God can be shown to be real, then it follows that the Bible and all therein, about life, death, sin, judgment, salvation, eternity – is true. It means every life is of value, there is a purpose and reason for our existence. It means we are not just meaningless blobs of matter in a pointless and random universe; and it means this life is not the end. Eternity no longer remains a concept for those who “have faith”, but a reality we all have to face. Ultimately, if the Resurrection can be shown to be a true fact of history, it means we all have to make a choice; and that choice becomes the single most important one of our lives.

The famous British mathematician and author, C.S. Lewis once said: “Christianity is a statement which, if false, is of no importance, and if true, is of infinite importance. The one thing it cannot be is moderately important”.

Paul contends that the very basis for the Christian faith is firmly rooted in an historical event that occurred in a garden in Judea some 2000 years ago, namely, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. If that event did not take place, Paul says we might as well just pack up and go home! There is no point just believing this thing ‘cos it gives us a warm fuzzy feeling. It is either true, and we can substantiate it, or it’s false and we should just get on with our lives and stop being so silly.

What Paul actually said was: “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain… And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins… If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Cor 15:13-19)

Did you get that? Paul says that if you (or your sceptic friend) want to disprove Christianity, simply show that the Resurrection did not take place; show that it was all a hoax or some elaborate plot.  Paul was that confident in the historical and factual basis of the Resurrection and knew that without it, there could be no Christianity, because everything Christians believe hangs on that one event.

Christian apologist and international speaker Josh McDowell said: “Everything that Jesus Christ taught, lived and died for depended upon His resurrection” [i]

 B. L. Shelley, in his thorough treatment of the history of the Christian church stated: “First Corinthians fixes belief in the historical resurrection of Jesus as the indispensable basis of salvation” [ii]

Quoting Theodosus Harnack, Josh McDowell again states: “Where you stand with regard to the fact of the Resurrection is, in my eyes, no longer Christian theology. To me Christianity stands of falls with the Resurrection”[iii]

Contrary to most people’s perception, Christianity is not based on Christ’s teaching, character, or the numerous miracles in His life, but on the simple undisputed fact (in the minds of His followers) of his Resurrection.

In this study we consider just some of the circumstantial evidence for the Resurrection.

J Warner Wallace, a former cold case detective and author of Cold Case Christianity poses the question: “Can the truth be proved beyond a reasonable doubt when all the evidence we have is circumstantial?”

His answer, based on decades of experience,  “Absolutely!”

There is overwhelming evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but just the circumstantial evidence alone is sufficient to convince any honest and open minded jury that Jesus Christ did rise from the dead as He said He would do.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

[i] Josh McDowell – Evidence That Demands a Verdict

[ii] B. L. Shelley,  Church history in plain language.

[iii] Theodosus Harnack: quoted by Josh McDowell,  Evidence That Demands a Verdict

The post The Miracle of the Resurrection first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Haggai was one of three prophets that God sent to speak to the nation of Israel following their return from captivity in Babylon (Zechariah and Malachi being the other two). For 19 years they had been back in the land, but had failed to rebuild the city of Jerusalem or their beloved Temple. Much of this was due to the intimidation and hostility of those now inhabiting the land. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah detail the oppression and threats the Children of Israel faced, and even the letters sent to the kings of the ruling Persian Empire seeking an injunction – which was granted – preventing the Jews rebuilding.

It was a time of national discouragement. Yet into this gloomy scene comes Haggai. His ministry is remarkable, for in just 24 days he changed the heart of a nation!

His message was clear. ” Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. (Haggai 1:4-5)

‘Cieled houses’ refers to panelled houses, i.e. houses that had wood panelling. Nothing wrong with that you may think; but this cedar panelling had originally been destined for the rebuilding of the Temple. Because of the oppression they faced, it had ended up being used to line their own homes instead.

The devil will ‘let us be’ if we forsake the work of God’s house and invest our time building our own. It is no threat to the kingdom of darkness if we are occupied trying to build our own houses, trying to provide for ourselves. We toil and labour to put bread on the table, we work hard to clothe ourselves, yet Jesus made it clear: “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. (Matt 6:25-33)

Oswald Chambers comments: “Take no thought for your life.” “Be careful about one thing only,” says our Lord—“your relationship to Me.” Common sense shouts loud and says—“That is absurd, I must consider how I am going to live, I must consider what I am going to eat and drink.” Jesus says you must not. Beware of allowing the thought that this statement is made by One Who does not understand our particular circumstances. Jesus Christ knows our circumstances better than we do, and He says we must not think about these things so as to make them the one concern of our life. Whenever there is competition, be sure that you put your relationship to God first”         

The Jews who returned from exile had lost sight of how big their God was. This was the God who rolled back the waters of the Red Sea, who caused Jericho to fall down flat, who subdued nations and giant kings before them, who made their enemies tremble at the thought of Israel’s God! This was the God that Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael boldly declared could deliver them from the fiery furnace… but even if He didn’t, He was still Almighty God, who’s ways are perfect and just, who is good and does good!

These Jews, like so many of us, had fallen for the world’s propaganda, “It’s foolish to trust God“; “You must do something yourself, you can’t just expect God to do miracles“; “God helps those who help themselves”… That is NEVER found in the Bible! God’s unfailing Word declares that He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph 3:20), He says “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). He says “Be anxious for nothing” (Phil 4:6). He says “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity… Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him” (Psalm 37:1-7)

Haggai steps onto the scene to tell the people that the reason “Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house”. (Haggai 1:9)

True blessings come not from our labour or endeavour, but from walking in the Way, walking with the LORD. From seeking Him first, building His house not our own.

This message is as timely today as when Haggai first uttered these words from the Lord.

May you be encouraged to consider your ways today!

The post Haggai Ch1 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This first part of our two-part study in the book of Zephaniah was given by pastor Barry Forder at Calvary Chapel Portsmouth on 13th March 2022.

Zephaniah was the great grandson of king Hezekiah. In the opening verse He traces his genealogy back through four generations, possibly to demonstrate his right to speak and his understanding of the corruptness of Judah’s kings. Following Hezekiah there had been over half a century of evil rule by Manasseh and Amon, but then, 8 year old Josiah came to the throne, surrounded by Godly influences – including his cousin, Zephaniah.

Zephaniah’s thunderous message of the coming wrath of God on account of Israel’s idolatry clearly had an impact on this young king, for in 2 Chronicles 34 we read:  “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.” (2 Chron 34:3-7).

The threefold theme of this book is

–1) The sin of Israel

–2) Judgment on Israel’s neighbours (Gentile nations)

• 6 specific nations are mentioned by name

–Philistines / Cherethites / Moabites / Ammonites / Ethiopians / Assyrians

–3) The restoration under Messiah

The key phrase is ‘the day of the Lord’, occurring twice (vs 1 & 14 of Ch1), but alluded to 12 times.

• Chapter 1:7 – the day of Jehovah
• Chapter 1:8 – the day of Jehovah’s sacrifice
• Chapter 1:9- the same day
• Chapter 1:10 – that day
• Chapter 1:14- the great day of Jehovah
• Chapter 1:15-16- a day of wrath, of trouble and distress
• Chapter 1:18- the day of Jehovah’s wrath
• Chapter 2:2 – the day of Jehovah’s anger
• Chapter 2:3 – the day of Jehovah’s anger
• Chapter 3:8 – the day that I rise up to the prey, says Jehovah
• Chapter 3:11- that day
• Chapter 3:16- that day

The prophecies in this book span history, speaking to the days in which Zephaniah lived of the coming judgment on Judah at the hand of the Babylonians; but it also speaks with uncomfortable clarity into our own times of the “day of the LORD” which is on our imminent horizon.

Arend Remmers said: “The whole book makes it clear that Zephaniah looks far ahead of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem on to that dreadful day of Jehovah, the day of His anger and judgment, upon which however will follow the blessing of the millennial reign of peace”.   

Zephaniah’s name means “The Lord hides [His precious ones]”, and one of the greatest truths revealed in this book is that God not only gives people and nations time to repent before bringing judgment, but that when the judgment finally comes, He will provide for, protect and even remove His own prior to pouring out His wrath.

This should come as no surprise as we see ‘the Judge of all the earth’ doing right (Gen 18:25)  and removing Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah before His judgment fell. David echoed this principle in Psalm 27 when he declared: “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock”. (Psalm 27:5).

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul reminded the Thessalonian believers of the coming ‘day of the LORD’, but stated that 1) we are not in darkness that this day would overtake us, and 2) that God has promised us a way of escaping the coming time of judgment, for we are not appointed to wrath, but rather are to ‘hidden in the day of the LORD’s great judgment’. (See 1 Thess 5:19). Jesus Himself confirmed that there would be a “way of escaping these things” in Luke 21:36.

200 years before Zephaniah, Isaiah records “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”

It is clear from this verse that the ‘indignation’ Isaiah refers to is the coming ‘day of the LORD’. In agreement with Zephaniah 2:3, the promise is made that the meek of the earth will be hid during this time.

Many Christians are ignorant of the Rapture of the church, the very thing Paul said we should NOT be ignorant about!

The Rapture is the fulfilment of a number of specific prophecies. Firstly, it fulfils the promise of Jesus to come back and take us to a place He has prepared for us (See John 14:1-3). Second, it fulfils the need for the Holy Spirit indwelt Church to be removed in order that the “mystery of iniquity can be revealed” (2 Thess  2:6-8). Thirdly, it is the time when the Heavenly Bridegroom will come and claim His bride, with the blowing of the Shofar (Ram’s horn), taking her back to Heaven for the marriage supper where Jesus will drink from the fruit of the vine once more as He promised His disciples at the Last Supper. (See 1 Thess 4:15-18 / Matt 22:2 / Matt 26:29). Finally, it is the fulfilment of this promise (Zephaniah 2:3) that the humble (meek) among the repentant Gentile nations, who seek righteousness, will be hid BEFORE His wrath is poured out on this idolatrous and unbelieving world.

When God used the Babylonians in Zephaniah’s day to bring judgment on Judah, there was no one who could say they had not been warned. Both Israel and her gentile neighbours had been given ample warning by God’s prophets.

Just so today. God has given ample warning. We have seen pestilences, earthquakes, famines, wars and rumours of wars. These are just the beginning. It is going to get much worse. Today is the day of salvation.

24 times in this short book we find ‘I will…’ statements of God. God is not going to sit passively by while morality is abandoned in the pursuit of so-called pleasure, injustice is promoted as ‘freedom of choice’, and from the classroom’s to the media, God’s Word is ridiculed and silenced in the name of inclusivity and tolerance.

Just as Zephaniah saw coming on near horizon in his day, we are entering a time of darkness, famine, war and turmoil.

There is only one place of safety, it is in the LORD God Almighty, Jehovah, Yeshua.

May you be stirred by this prophet who wrote what he did to stir all who have ears to hear!

The post Zephaniah Ch1 – Ch2v3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

We know practically nothing about the man Habakkuk, other than his name, which means to ‘wrestle’ and the fact this he calls himself a prophet – one of only three Old Testament prophets to actually give themselves this title. That is not to suggest he was self-appointed to the role, for this is a significant God-inspired man and book.

Habakkuk is one of those books that adds significant weight to the case for the Divine authority and authenticity of the Bible, for if the Bible were the work of mere men, this book would not feature! Habakkuk is about as real and honest as you can get. He starts by questioning God, for allowing the troubles Judah and Jerusalem were facing, and then by daring to question God’s wisdom in using the Babylonians to bring judgment on his nation.

Why would God choose to use an evil nation to fulfill His plans?

In response to Habakkuk’s questions, God answers!

Repeatedly we are told in the Bible that God is good; nothing He does can be anything other than good. There is no injustice in Him, no unrighteousness.

Habakkuk comes to see that God’s ways are above our ways, His thoughts above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9) . God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10). In the words of Steven Curtis Chapman:

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God

To know this, is what faith is all about, and through the trial and the pain Habakkuk was enduring, God declares to him: “The just shall live by his faith!” (Hab 2:4). Not by knowledge and understanding, not by resolve or determination, but by faith.

Not faith in faith, not merely hoping things will turn out ok, not wishful thinking, and certainly not a blind leap in the dark, but an unshakable faith in the person of God; that God is who He says He is. He is good (Psalm 119:68) and He is faithful (2 Tim 3:13), He does keep His promises (2 Cor 1:20), He is unchanging (Heb 13:8), He really is working all things together for good for those who love Him! (Rom 8:28). Though we may not see what God is doing or why, it is the faith that like Job says: “Though He slay me yet will I trust Him!” (Job 13:15). Though storms may come, though we may lose everything we ‘once held dear’, it is the faith that says: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21).

It is the faith that, like David, says: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7 ESV). It is the faith that, like Micah, says: “Therefore I will look unto the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7).

Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 was the verse that sparked the reformation in Europe. Martin Luther tried everything he knew to live a holy and pious life, but upon reading Habakkuk 2:4 suddenly realised that to be ‘just’, i.e. to be counted as ‘justified’ before a holy God, did not require endless self-mortification, penance or observance of rituals, it simply required faith… faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross. Christ paid it all, there was nothing that could be added by even the most devout lifestyle. Salvation is a gift, it cannot be earned, it is received by faith.

The just – those who are counted as justified and right before God –

shall live – that is, their way of living will be…

by faith – by an unshakable trust in the person of Jesus Christ who will never leave them or forsake them, who is the resurrection and the life, the same yesterday, today and forever, the great I AM, the beginning and the end, the Way, the Truth and the Life!

If Jesus is all this, and He is, trusting Him to deliver us, provide for us, protect us, and bring us safe to glory should be the easiest thing in the world!

Oswald Chambers once said: “Suppose God is the God you know Him to be when you are nearest to Him — what an impertinence worry is!”

This great book of Habakkuk reminds us it’s ok to question God. God knows our weaknesses.

Habakkuk asks God ‘How long‘….we often ask the same question. But while you are waiting for the answer, that is sure to come, remember that God asks the same question of you!

See: Exodus 16:28 / Numbers 14:11 / Joshua 18:3 / 1 Kings 18:21

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

If you have been blessed by this or other studies on this web site, you may want to consider supporting this ministry both financially and in prayer. https://www.calvaryportsmouth.co.uk/product/make-a-donation/

The post Habakkuk 1 – 2v4 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

How is the church in this country doing? Certainly, better than the world right?

The world is deserving of judgment, God’s divine wrath. But the church, well, we’re doing just fine… aren’t we? So why does Peter say that the coming season of Judgment will begin with the house of God!? (1 Peter 4:17).

That is exactly how Israel saw themselves in c.760 B.C. when Amos was called to bring to them a thunderous wake-up call.

In chapter 1 we saw how God, through Amos, uttered His judgment on six of the surrounding Gentile nations; but then, in chapter 2, the bombshell! “Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof” v4 and “Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof” v6. In God’s eyes, Judah and Israel were no better than their heathen gentile neighbours. Their transgressions were ‘full to overflowing’. The church today can scarcely be said to be any better than the world, embracing immorality and idolatry, all in the name of expediency. Tolerating what God calls abominations so as not to offend. We have become more concerned about our reputation in this world than God’s! In so doing, the light we are supposed to be, to a world that has lost its way, has often become little more than a flickering ember. Israel too, were to have been a light to the nations, to be a conduit through which God’s blessing would come to the world. Instead, they were ripe for judgment.

It has been said that our sin always looks worse on other people! We always try to play down and justify our own failings, but when we see the same in other people, we are quick to tut and roll our eyes in distain.  Judah and Israel had done just this, but now it was time to be faced with their sin and prepare for God’s rebuke.

In Amos’ day, the surrounding nations had incurred God’s wrath because of their cruelty (Damascus), merciless profiteering  (Gaza), betrayal (Tyre), hatred, (Edom), murder (Ammon), and contempt for others (Moab). However, Judah and Israel’s crime was much worse! Their crime had not been so much committed against their fellow men, but against God Himself! “because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments” v4. 

Jerome comments: ““Those other nations, Damascus and the rest, he upbraids not for having cast away the law of God, and despised His commandments, for they had not the written law, but that of nature only. So then of them he says, that “they corrupted all their compassions” – and the like. But Judah, who, at that time, had the worship of God and the temple and its rites, and had received the law and commandments and judgments and precepts and testimonies, is rebuked and convicted by the Lord, for that it had “cast aside His law and not kept His commandments;” wherefore it should be punished as it deserved.”    

God expects a standard from His people that He does not demand from the world; “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more”. (Luke 12:48).

How had it come to this? God answers: “their lies caused them to err”. 

“They would not have been deceived by their idols, unless they had first rejected the law of the Lord and not done His commandments.” They had sinned with a high hand: “despising” and so rejecting the law of God; and so He despised and rejected them, leaving them to be deceived by the lies which they themselves had chosen. So it ever is with man. Man must either “love God’s law and hate and abhor lies” Psalms 119:163, or he will despise God’s law and cleave to lies.” – Jerome

In the remainder of chapter 2, God reminds Israel of how He has cared for, provided for, and led them since the time of Egypt to the present day. Yet they still rejected Him and chose to walk their own path toward destruction.

In chapter 3, God gives them a number of idioms to drive home their predicament, such as the idea of a trap being sprung but not catching its pray.

Will then the jaws of such a trap suddenly spring up from the ground, on which before they were lying flat, and catch nothing? Shall they let the prey that was within them escape? Certainly not. So my trap is laid for these offenders; and when it springs up, (and they themselves will soon by their transgressions free the key,) shall not the whole family of Israel be inclosed in it? Most certainly they shall. – Adam Clarke

Chapter 4 ends with some of the most ominous words in scripture:

“Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel“. Amos 4:12

May you be blessed and challenged by this study!

The post Amos Ch2 vs4 – Ch4 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In Matthew 15 vs 15 Jesus asked His disciples “Are you also still without understanding?” This question came after Jesus had spoken many things in Parables.

Contrary to the way many view parables, they are not just quaint Sunday school stories! They are full of important instruction about and for the Church! They were not meant for the multitude, in fact, Jesus intentionally concealed these truths in Parables so that His own would understand, but the multitude, would not.

In Matthew 13:11 we read: “And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given”.

Yet after giving all these parables, so that His own would understand, we have the question above: “Are you also still without understanding?”

Imagine! they had Jesus as their teacher in the flesh, but they did not understand. So how much more should we meditate and pray to gain understanding of these things? Jesus considered these parables important enough to elaborate on that he even had them put within His Bible for us! I think we should all imagine that Jesus was stood here now, speaking these parables to us. How much more should we listen? But Jesus is speaking directly from the pages of the Bible to us whenever we read it. We have His Spirit with us, where two or three are gathered in His name. He is present with us.

We need to ask Him for understanding just as Peter did in Chapter 15. “Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”

May you be blessed and challenged by this study as Leon expounds truths that are missed by many.

The post Are you also still without understanding? – Mt 15:16 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In our previous studies we have seen how the book of Joel seems to prophetically outline the history of the Nation of Israel, up to and including the climactic conclusion as depicted in the last three feasts of Israel.

From the forthcoming ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ that will commence with the Feast of Trumpets / Trumpet judgments of Revelation 8-9, the subsequent flight of Israel into the wilderness, her repentance and acknowledgement of Jesus as her Messiah, fulfilling the Feast of Atonement; concluding with the return of Jesus to deliver Israel, subdue the nations and establish His throne on Earth, marking the Feast of Atonement.

It is incredible to consider that Joel, arguably the 1st of all the writing prophets, gives us, in this 3 chapter book, such an incredible framework of the key prophetic events surrounding Israel, from the Birth of the nation to the ‘completion’ when she will walk in harmony with her Messiah.

The Framework of Israel’s past, present and future, Genesis 12 to Revelation 20, is prophetically outlined in the incredible 3-chapter book of Joel! 

In this session we focused on the first two incredible verses of Chapter 3:

V1. “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem”,

Joel gives the outline, Ezekiel gives the detail:

“Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” (Ezekiel 37:21-28)

As an aside, these 7 verses should put an end forever to the nonsense of ‘Replacement Theology’ – the idea that God has finished with Israel, and that (somehow) all the blessings promised to Israel are now to fall upon the church. This heretical teaching was promoted by the likes of Augustine, embraced by the Roman Catholic church (for political reasons) and subsequently never addressed by the churches that came out of Rome at the time of the Reformation in Europe, such as the Church of England, Baptists, Lutherans and subsequently the Methodists, United Reformed, etc. Sadly tradition has made the Word of no effect for many!

However, Joel was not the first to declare that God would one-day bring Israel back into their own land. Way back in the Torah, Moses listed the blessings God would pour upon Israel for their obedience (Deut 28:1-14), but this was followed by the consequences of disobedience (Deut 28:15-68), including these chilling words: “And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone” (Deut 28:63-64).

However, as we read on in Deuteronomy, we come to a pivotal declaration:

“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers” (Deut 30:1-5).

Not only does this tell us that God, who is outside of time, knew Israel would be unfaithful and therefore scattered among the nations, but that whilst there, at some far distant point in time, they would turn to Him, and that would be enough for their compassionate God start the reversal, to undo all that had been done, to bring into effect the principle of the Jubilee, where everyone would return to their own Land, their own possession. “In the year of this Jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.” (Lev 25:13). The law of the Jubilee also states that the land must be transferred back to its original owner, those inhabiting the Land must relinquish it and the original connection between the owner and the land must be renewed!

In the first century, in the days of the Book of Acts, a gathering took place of Messianic Jewish believers, disciples, apostles, and leaders in Jerusalem. Peter specifically links this gathering to the words of Joel 2:31-32. It was from that gathering that the door of faith would be opened to the nations, the gospel would go forth beyond the land of Israel to the nations, and the Gentiles would now come in.

But as the first century neared its end and the days of the Book of Acts drew to a close, such gatherings of Jewish believers disappeared from the world. But in-line with the ‘Jubilee principle’, in the ‘days of return’ that which had disappeared must reappear! In essence there would be a reversal. Just as that first gathering had changed the course of the world, so would another gathering, the first such gathering in two thousand years, the first such council of Messianic Jewish believers since the days of the disciples!

They came from the nations, teachers, leaders, and emissaries, to the city of London. There they worshipped, prayed, shared, declared their identity, agreed on their purpose and mission, and arrived at a resolution that the Jews needed a homeland.

1867: The Year It All Began to Change

The timing of the gathering was significant. It took place in the year 1867, in fact, to be precise, on the 14th May!

Within 2 days, the Ottoman Land Code became law, allowing ‘foreigners’ to buy Ottoman land to try to recover the debts amassed as a result of the Crimean War. Without realising what they had done, the Ottoman Empire had opened the door for Jews to buy land in Israel!

30 days after the gathering a ship set sail from New York heading for the Promised Land. On board was sceptic and author, Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens – Samuel meaning ‘God hears’ and Clemens meaning ‘Merciful’.  Mark Twain proved that God does hear and is indeed merciful! – for Twain unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy of ‘the stranger’ in Deuteronomy 29:22-23:

“So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it; And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath”:

In what he would write, Twain almost quoted these words verbatim, then published them for the world to see.

Whilst Twain was in disbelief at what had become of the Land of Israel, another visitor arrived in Jerusalem, and ‘coincidentally’ ended up saying at the same place. It was Charles Warren who, in the coming months, would literally rediscover the old city of Jerusalem!

Jonathan Cahn, in his book ‘The Oracle’ states: “In the Jubilee the connection between the land and its original owner is restored. And so the consequences of Warren’s work were to restore and strengthen the long-lost connection of the Jewish people to the land. And with every restored connection, the idea that the Jewish people, after almost two thousand years, might somehow return to their homeland began to move one more step out of the realm of fantasy.”

After nearly two thousand years of exile, the man with the measuring line reappeared in Jerusalem as a sign that God was about to bring about a restoration. A measuring line is used when one is about to build something. So then the reappearance of the man with the measuring line in the person of Charles Warren was a sign that God was about to act, to move again, to build something . . . to rebuild that which once was and had fallen . . . the nation of Israel!”

“And when else do you use a measuring line?” When there’s about to be a transference of land. So when the man with the measuring line appeared in Jerusalem, it was a sign that the land was going to be transferred … back to the original owner. The land was being prepared for the return. So it was in ancient times when the prophet Zechariah revealed the meaning of the measuring line: “A measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem . . . And the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem”

This incredible sequence of events actually began in the year 1517, when the last ‘transference’ of ownership of the Land of Israel took place. Selim I the Ottoman prince took control of the Land, defeating the Mamluks at the Battle of Raydaniyah. The Land stayed under Ottoman rule for the next 350 years, that is  7 x 50  –  7 signifying complete, 50 being the number of Jubilee! God’s time to return the Land to His people was at hand!

1867 was the year of the gathering in London. It was immediately followed (2 days later ) by the Ottoman Land Code. That was subsequently followed by Mark Twain’s visit to Jerusalem (fulfilling Deuteronomy 29), which ‘coincided’ with Charles Warren’s visit where he rediscovered the historic Jerusalem – all this took place in 1867!

In December 1916 the government of the then British prime minister H. H. Asquith unexpectedly collapsed. The man who succeeded him was David Lloyd George. As foreign secretary, Lloyd George appointed Arthur Balfour.  Both George and Balfour were Bible believing Christians and in favor of a Jewish homeland and were suddenly lifted to the heights of world power at that critical moment. Cahn comments: “If Asquith’s government had not collapsed just when it did, what was about to happen would never have taken place. You see, Asquith was against the idea of a Jewish homeland. And it was only in that small window of time that these things could have come about. So his government had to crumble, and had to crumble just at that moment. Because it was the very end of 1916. 1917 was coming. And 1917 was the year of Jubilee. And it just happened to be the same year that the British Empire would be placed in the position of determining the future of the land of Israel. And as the Jubilee concerns the return of one’s ancestral land, so world history would now turn to the Middle East and to the land of the ancient inheritance”

As the year of Jubilee began, members of the British government held a conference concerning the future of the Land of Israel. By the middle of the year Balfour called for a draft to be made for a public declaration concerning the land. By autumn the British Cabinet was in discussion over the form the declaration would take, but it was determined that the plan wouldn’t proceed unless it had the support of the American president. On October 16, 1917, the British government was informed that the president, Woodrow Wilson, was in favor of the declaration. On October 31 the declaration was approved by the British War Cabinet. Two days later, on November 2, it went forth in the form of a letter penned by the foreign secretary.

Thus, after almost 2000 years in exile, the way was finally open for Israel to return to the Promised Land. As we know from history, that finally occurred on 14th May 1948! The city of Jerusalem was restored to Israel in the next Jubilee year in 1967!

What Joel prophesied is now unfolding before our eyes!

V2. “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land”.

God’s controversy with the nations is that they have acted with complete disregard to the fact ‘the Land of Israel’ belongs to God! In fact, it is the only piece of real estate on planet Earth that God actually lays claim to, and the Bible unequivocally states that God has entrusted this piece of land to the physical descendants of Abraham ‘for an everlasting possession’! (Genesis 13:15 / Genesis 17:8 / Genesis 48:4).

Throughout the centuries nations and empires have tried to lay claim to this land, the Canaanites, the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, the British & French, and more recently, the United Nations. The Vatican has tried to claim Jerusalem as its  own; Islam too, claim’s Jerusalem as it’s third most holy site! (despite Jerusalem never being mentioned by name in the Quran!).  All have had denied the Biblical mandate, all have taken, divided, partitioned and otherwise done to this land whatever they will. Yet is it a land with no significant natural resource. It is not rich in oil, it’s capital is not an international sea port, in fact, for the best part of 2000 years it has been a barren wasteland. There is no intrinsic value, no gold mines like Africa or Cedar’s like Lebanon. Yet this land and the city of Jerusalem have been the most fought over land and city in the word!

Significantly, of all places on the Earth, it will be the place the coming world leader will choose to place a statue of himself!

The Valley of Megiddo (a.k.a. the Jezreel Valley / Valley of Jehoshaphat) will also serve as the staging ground for the coming world-leaders’ ill fated attempt to annihilate Israel and claim this land as his own.

The Jezreel Valley – a.k.a. Armageddon 

But God calls Israel ‘my heritage‘ and the land ‘my land‘.

At the time of the Second Coming Jesus will return to fight for Israel against the combined armies of the World under the control of Antichrist. Jesus will win!

We will conclude our study of Joel next week!

May you be blessed and encouraged to study God’s word more!

The post Joel Ch3 vs1-2 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

What are the lessons we can learn from this incredible book of love and grace?

1. Nothing is able to quench God’s love for us
2. God suffers intense sorrow when men desert him:
3. The sacredness and sanctity of marriage typify our relationship with Jehovah.
4. The consequences of following unworthy teachers are tragic.
5. There can be no “double standard” of morals in God’s kingdom.
6. A nation declines rapidly when its leaders become corrupt:
7. Internal corruption in a nation is more dangerous to its existence than foreign enemies.
8. The greatest sin is that against true love.
9. There is a real danger of becoming like those we associate with (I Cor. 15:33).
10. The root from which all sins spring is unfaithfulness to God.
11. Genuine repentance will bring forgiveness and full restoration to God’s favor.
12. There is beauty in forgiving those who sin against us (Matt. 6:12-14).
13. The crushing blows of life can drive us to the arms of God.
14. “Who is he that he may understand these things? prudent that he may know them? for the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein:” (Hosea 14:9).
15. Our goodness must be more permanent than the morning cloud — fog and early dew (6:4).
16. May we not be half-baked Christians — burned on one side, mushy on top — and therefore useless (7:8).
17. All “these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (I Cor. 10:11).
18. God still prefers goodness to heartless sacrifice (6:6):
19. May we, like Hosea, be a living demonstration of our message:
20. Corruption in politics is bad, but in religion it is inexcusable.
21. God is not willing that any should perish, especially his children (II Pet. 3:9).
22. “It appears to be a universal law of this sin-stricken world that God makes perfect through suffering, that redemption is wrought through sacrifice.”

In chapter 13, the reality dawns that God’s judgment on Israel, at the hands of the Assyrians, is coming.

No longer is it distant prophecies of some future Divine rebuke; the moment has come and will be accomplished as quickly as the morning dew disappears (13:3). Even in this God reminds His covenant people that He was the One who had delivered them from Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness and brought them into the Promised Land. It had been the Nation that had rejected God, demanded a king so as to be like the nations around them, and then taken all the blessings God had given and used them to indulge in immorality and idolatry (13:5-11)

God then reminds Israel that His patience, up to this point, should not be mistaken for indifference to their sin. God had collated all of their sin (‘bound up’) (13:12) and was ready to mete out the appropriate judgment. Sadly, many today think they can ‘get away’ with sin because God doesn’t judge them instantly. Yet God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life! (John 3:16). God also is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Ecclesiastes 3:15 also reminds us that God requires and account of things past. On that day how will you plead? Sin must be paid for, the wages of sin is death. Either you face God as judge and suffer the eternal consequences, or you face Him as LORD, in which case, your sin still has to be paid for. Only Jesus Christ offers a remedy; only Jesus Christ died in your place, taking the full force of God’s wrath for sin upon Himself  whosoever would accept His offer of Salvation.

Chapter 13 ends with the lamentable warning of what Israel would imminently experience:

• Yahweh would hold Samaria, a metonymy for Israel, guilty for rebelling against Him, her covenant lord and God (cf. Hosea 7:13; Hosea 8:1).
• Israel’s soldiers would die in battle (cf. Leviticus 26:25), her children would suffer unmerciful executions (cf. Deuteronomy 28:52-57; Deuteronomy 32:25), and the Assyrians would even cut open her pregnant women with their swords (cf. 2 Kings 15:16; Amos 1:13).
• This gruesome form of execution killed both the mother and the unborn child making it impossible for the coming generation eventually to rise up and rebel against the conqueror.
• These were curses that the Lord warned would follow rebellion against the terms of His covenant (cf. Leviticus 26:25; Deuteronomy 28:21; Deuteronomy 32:24-25; Amos 4:10). – Dr. Thomas Constable

However, this is not the end of the story. Chapter 14 closes the book of Hosea with the certain hope that Israel will finally return* – albeit after 2700 years, the Assyrian captivity, the Babylonian captivity, the Roman occupation and subsequent destruction of the land in A.D. 70, the diaspora from 132 A.D. when all Jews were forced to leave the Land, the subsequent wanderings of the last two millennia, the Holocaust and the coming Tribulation (time of Jacob’s trouble (Jeremiah 30:7))  – But after all this, like a prodigal son, Israel will come to their senses and say: “Asshur (Assyria) shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. (v3)… What have I to do any more with idols? (v8)“

*Return (Shoob in the Hebrew) is used 21x in Hosea.

“In beauty of expression these final words of Hosea rank with the memorable chapters of the OT. Like the rainbow after a storm, they promise Israel’s final restoration. Here is the full flowering of God’s unfailing love for his faithless people, the triumph of his grace, the assurance of his healing-all described in imagery that reveals the loving heart of God”.  – Leon Wood

The book closes with an admonition from Hosea to pay heed to these things.

He who is well instructed will make a proper application of what he has here read; will tremble at the threatenings, and embrace the promises, of his God.

How instructive, how convincing, how awakening, and yet how consolatory, are the words of this prophecy!

Reader, lay them to heart. A godly mind cannot consider them in vain; such shall know them, and know that the ways of the Lord are right”. – Adam Clarke

May you blessed and encouraged to walk closer and deeper with the LORD our God through this study!

The post Hosea Ch13-14 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In our verse-by-verse journey through Hosea we have seen God’s call to Hosea to take a wife of whoredoms and love her despite her unfaithfulness. This was to be a sign to the Nation of Israel of God’s love for His people even though they had gone whoring after foreign gods – that were not gods at all!

When Gomer, Hosea’s wife, had reached the lowest point, sold into slavery, stripped naked and put up for auction, Hosea came and purchased her, clothed her, took her home, treated her with love and affection, and promised to provide for her. This is what God has done for each of us. We had been unfaithful (loving the things of this world – the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh & the pride of life) and, as a result, lost everything. We were sold into the slavery of sin. Yet it was while we were still sinners that Christ came and died for us (Romans 5:8), paying the full price to secure our freedom, clothe us with His righteousness and promise to provide for us!

However, Hosea also records that God is a God of justice, and Israel’s sin (murder, immorality, injustice, idolatry) if not repented of, would be met with His swift judgment. But even in His judgment God’s mercy is seen; for by letting Israel be overcome by the Assyrians, being taken away from their land, and taken away from her idols, Israel would inevitably come to her senses, and, just as with the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), realise all she had given up and lost in pursuit of her sin.

In chapters 11-13 Israel are reminded that God had rescued them from Egypt – synonymous with the bondage and  slavery of sin – and had placed them in a fruitful land. Yet they had crossed a line, judgment was now inevitable.

God’s assessment of the Nation is summed up in Hosea 13:9-10 “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee[?]“.

There is a warning here to believers today. God is not mocked. You cannot carry on in sin, for God will not allow His children to utterly corrupt themselves, but because of His amazing love, may allow some crises, or personal tragedy, or attack on your life you were not expecting, then He will reach to the greatest depths to find you as you cry out to Him, rescue you and bring you home.

Never assume God will ‘overlook’ those living in rebellion against Him – particularly His own. Beware also of saying that God’s ways are too hard to live by (which is really just another excuse for continuing in sin).

Oswald Chambers states: “Sin is not man’s problem, but God’s. God has taken the problem of sin into His own hands and solved it, and the proof that He has is the Cross of Calvary. The Cross is the Cross of God. On the ground of Redemption I can wash my robes, and make them “white in the blood of the Lamb”. Pseudo evangelism has twisted the revelation and made it mean “now that God has saved me, I do not need to do anything”. The New Testament revelation is that now I am saved by God’s grace, I must work on that basis and keep myself clean. It does not matter what a man’s heredity is, or what tendencies there are in him, on the basis of the Redemption he can become all that God’s book indicates he should be.”

However there is an incredible New Testament principle underlying all God said through Hosea. It is found in Romans 2:3-4:

“And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

As a last resort, God will bring judgment – as was the case for Israel on account of the magnitude of their sin, but God’s goodness is His preferred ‘discipline’. To love, then love more, then love yet more, then love even further until His love breaks through the hardness of our hearts, causing us to weep in repentance before Him.

So far has God’s Redemption gone that He states: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death” (Hosea 13:14). There is nothing-else and no-one-else who can do this. 

Note that God will ‘ransom them’ – literally pull them back from the precipice, setting them free from the power that had once exerted control over them. In redeeming God pays the price so that ‘sin and death’ no long have a claim over them. We have been bought with a price!

This is the story of Grace. It is the story of Hosea.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study

The post Hosea Ch11-12 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

As we noted in the last session, Daniel chapter 9 is, without doubt, one of the most important chapters in the Bible. Now, that is an audacious statement, but this chapter contains one of the most remarkable prophecies in the Bible that provides irrefutable evidence that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. On its own that sets it apart, but it also lays out God’s plan for the nation of Israel from the time of the Babylonian captivity unto the Second Coming of Jesus. It give us important prophetic details of the events on our near horizon, when a world leader, who will  emerge from within the nations that made up the old Roman Empire, will step onto the world scene and become famous for doing what presidents and kings have unsuccessfully tried to accomplish, bringing peace in the middle east! It is also a chapter the confirms, once again, what we have already seen in the book of Daniel a number of times, that it is God who rules in the kingdoms of man, and He will ultimately give control of the whole earth to His Son, Jesus Christ!

The 70 Weeks Prophecy

As we now look at the prophecy that Gabriel gives to Daniel, we find that it is broken down into four sections:

Firstly, verse 24 gives us the whole scope of the prophecy; it tells us to whom the prophecy referrers and what is to be accomplished during the time of the prophecy.

Verse 25 gives us the first section of the prophecy, namely the 69 weeks.

We then find an interval between the 69 weeks and the 70^th week that is dealt with in verse 26.

Finally, verse 27 explains the starting point for, and some specific details of the 70^th week.

Daniel 9:24  – The Scope of the Prophecy

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Seventy weeks

The first thing we need to understand is the term, translated in our Bible’s as, ‘seventy weeks’. In the Hebrew, the word for ‘weeks’ used here is ‘shabuwa’ (shaw-boo’-ah), which means ‘a week of years’. So what we have is ‘seventy weeks of years’. Whilst this may seem strange to us it was not unusual to the Jews, who not only had a week of days, but also a week of weeks, a week of months and, as is the case here, a week of years. Various examples of these ‘weeks’ can be found in the Bible: We are all familiar with a week of days, as outlined in Genesis 2:2 / Exodus 20:11. We find reference to a week of weeks (i.e. seven weeks) in Leviticus 23. From the Feast of Firstfruits, the Jews were told to count forward seven weeks (7 x 7 = 49 days), after which, the next day was to be the Feast of Weeks (also known as Pentecost – ‘pent’ meaning 50 as it was 50 days from the Feast of Firstfruits). The same idea applied to the Mosaic feasts which were all to occur in a week of months (i.e. a 7 month period). Finally we have the week of years (seven years = one ‘shabuwa’). This can be seen in various places in the Old Testament such as Leviticus 25 where God told the Jews that they were to work the land for six years, but in the seventh year they were to let the land rest. This was to be a Sabbath for the land. It was precisely because Israel failed to observe this law that God then told them in effect ‘you owe me 70 years’, and thus we have the 70 years in Babylon so that, as 2 Chron 36:19-21 explains, the land could enjoy her Sabbaths. In Genesis 29:27 we read that Jacob served for a ‘week’ for Rachel, which we are told was seven years. So returning to our text, the duration of this prophecy was to last for seventy seven-year periods, which is 490 years.

Another important thing to understand is that, when dealing with prophetic years in the Bible, they are always reckoned to be 360 days in length. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the earth used to be on a 360-day orbit of the Sun (we are currently on a 365¹/₄ day orbit). All the ancient calendars seem to have been based on a 360-day year that, for some reason, changed in 701 B.C. What caused this change is a matter of scholastic debate, however one of the most credible theories revolves (if you pardon the pun) around the planet Mars.

Mars has long been associated with war (we still use the term ‘marital arts’). For some unknown reason the ancient cultures seemed to be terrified of Mars, yet today very few of us could pick it out at night if we look up in the sky. There are also records of ‘freak’ natural disasters that seemed to occur at regular 104-year intervals. It has been observed that many of the unusual Biblical events recorded in the Old Testament coincided with these dates, including the flood of Noah, the long day of Joshua, Hezekiah’s sundial etc. It has been conjectured that Earth and Mars used to be on resonant orbits, Earth being 360 days and Mars being twice that at 720 days. If this is correct, then at two points in the year, March 20/21 and October 25^th, Mars and the Earth would pass by far closer than they do today causing massive tidal waves and earthquakes etc. Such an event would strike fear into those living at that time and would easily explain the paranoia. For those wanting to explore this in more detail, see Chuck Missler’s ‘Signs in the Heavens’ or commentary on Joshua – available from K-House: www.khouse.org

In regard to the 360-day year, Sir Isaac Newton said the following:

“…all nations, before the just length of the solar year was known, reckoned months by the course of the moon, and years by the return of winter and summer, spring and autumn; and in making calendars for their festivals, they reckoned thirty days to a lunar month, and twelve lunar months to a year, taking the nearest round numbers, whence came the division of the ecliptic into 360 degrees.”

In other words, the reason that we have 360 degrees in a circle, is because of this 360-day year that the ancient cultures worked to.

Seventy weeks…. are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city

Now we are told to whom the prophecy refers: the Jews and Jerusalem. As we have seen throughout this chapter, Daniel has been praying for his people and Jerusalem, therefore it comes as no surprise that Gabriel now gives him a prophecy concerning the same.

….to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

Here we are told what will be accomplished by the end of the 490 prophetic years. Whilst it could be said that ‘reconciliation for iniquity’ was accomplished by Jesus on the cross, the other criteria have certainly not been met yet; for we have not witnessed and end of sins, or the ushering in of everlasting righteousness; nor have we seen all prophecies fulfilled or the anointing of the most Holy [place] – which in this context’s referrers to the Sanctuary in the Jewish Temple.

Therefore we have just two options: either this prophecy did not come true (unlikely!), or, the seventy weeks are not continuous and part of the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled.

As we will see clearly in a moment, it is the latter.

Daniel 9:25 – The 69 Weeks unto Messiah

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Know therefore and understand…

Once again Gabriel tells Daniel ‘listen up ‘cos this is important!’ – see notes on v22.

…from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem…

Now we are given the starting point for the 490 years – the ‘commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem’. There were actually four commands given pertaining to the Jews (see slide), however only one of these – the decree by Artaxerxes Longimanus in 445 B.C. – was regarding the rebuilding of the city. All the other decrees were specifically in regard to the Temple only.

Thanks to the work of Sir Robert Anderson, who published his book ‘ The Coming Prince’ back in 1885, and who confirmed his findings with the Royal Greenwich Observatory, we know that the decree was signed on the 14^th March 445 B.C.  This is recorded in Nehemiah chapter 2 when Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, went before the king and was granted his request to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

…unto the Messiah the Prince

Having been given the beginning, Daniel is now told what will bring this first period to an end, namely the arrival of the Messiah! NB: The word translated ‘Prince’ is the Hebrew word ‘nagiyd’ which means ‘chief ruler’, i.e. king.

..shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks…

Therefore, from the command of Artaxerxes unto the Messiah there is to be seven weeks of years (49 years), followed by sixty-two weeks of years (434 years), making a total of 483 years. As we have mentioned, these years are each 360 days in length, thus it is possible for us to calculate the exact number of days that Gabriel says will expire between the command being given and Messiah the King. (See calculation below)

….the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

Gabriel states that during this time Jerusalem will be rebuilt, although it will be during troubled times; this is itself confirmed in the book of Nehemiah.

The question we should now ask is: Did anything of significance occur after 173,880 days had been completed?

In order to answer that question we need to turn our attention to a strange phenomenon that occurred throughout Jesus’ ministry, one that it is easy to miss by casually reading the gospels; however once it is noticed it is perplexing indeed. It stars at the wedding in Cana as recorded in John’s gospel: “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.” (John 2:1-4) Surely this would have been a great way to announce that He was the Messiah, at such a public gathering? Yet it was only His disciples who were aware of what had happened. And what did Jesus mean by ‘mine hour is not yet come’?

As we read on in John’s gospel we come to the feeding of the five thousand (chapter 6). Surely this would be the time, in front of so many, to declare Himself the Messiah? However we read: “Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.” (John 6:14-15)

A short while after this, at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles when all Jewish males were required by the Law of Moses to go up to Jerusalem, His disciples asked Him if He was going up with them; He replied: “ My time is not yet come: but your time is aIways ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” (John 7:6-8)

After a while Jesus did go up, but amazingly we read “But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.” (John 7:10) This is the Son of God, sneaking around so as not to be noticed!

Eventually the Jews found Him but an even more bizarre thing happens: “Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” (John 7:30)

Just stop and consider this: the Jews want to take Him, but inexplicably they can’t touch Him, and He just walks away.

In John 8:20 we read: “These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.”

We find exactly the same perplexing situation recorded by the other gospel writers. Luke records: “And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way,” (Luke 4:28-30)

In Matthew we read: “And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” (Matt 8:2-4)

So Jesus heals him and says in effect ‘keep it quiet’!???

And again: “And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.” (Matt 9:27-30)

Now it’s ‘keep it quiet – or else!’

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.….Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.” (Matt 16:13-21)

“And he charged them that they should tell no man” – Mark 7:36

“And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.” – Mark 8:26

And so it continued throughout Jesus’ ministry. Continually Jesus played down who He was and the miracles He had done. He refused to be taken as the people’s king or even allow His own disciples to tell people that He was the Christ – the Messiah.

Except that is, until one particular day.

In John 12 we read: “And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. …..Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.” (John 12:23-28)

What hour, what day was it? If we back up in John’s gospel we find that Jesus said this on what we know as Palm Sunday. Earlier that day Jesus had staged the most incredible spectacle imaginable. He had deliberately sent His disciples to go and get a colt and bring it back to Him so that He could ride it into Jerusalem, intentionally fulfilling the prophesy of Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” We pick it up in Luke’s account:  “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.” (Luke 19:37-38)

So not only did Jesus set this whole event up in the first place, He is now, for the first time in His ministry, allowing people to worship Him as their king. In addition to this the ‘song’ that the people were singing was Psalm 118 – the very Psalm that was to be sung when the Messiah came!!

The Pharisees were livid! “And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.” To them this was blasphemy; but what was Jesus’ response?…..“And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” Not what the Pharisees wanted to hear!

Luke continues:

“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42)

So what was this day? Why did Jesus suddenly allow the people to worship Him? Why on this day of all days did Jesus publicly and intentionally present Himself to Jerusalem as their Messiah?

Because this was exactly 173,880 days after the command was given by Artaxerxes Longimanus to restore and build Jerusalem; This was the day – the only day – that the Messiah of Israel would come. And He did!!

This is undoubtedly one of the most amazing prophecies in the entire Bible, and absolute proof that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of Israel, and that the Bible is the infallible Word of a God who is outside time and therefore able to declare the end from the beginning.

What however is sobering, is to realise that Jesus held the Jews accountable to know Daniel’s prophecy; and because they ‘missed it’, Jesus pronounced national blindness on them and then prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem – which occurred in 70AD – all because they ‘knewest not the time of thy visitation’

“And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” (Luke 19:42-43)

After a siege lasting almost a year, the Roman forces under Titus Vespasian took and destroyed Jerusalem. Titus had wanted to preserve the Temple but in the fighting, a burning torch was thrown through a window of the Temple starting a fire that was so intense that it melted all the gold on the walls inside. Consequently, Titus ordered the Temple to be taken apart stone by stone to recover all the gold. It was reported that over a million Jews died in the siege.

As a result of this, Jews were scattered around the world; their lives literally ‘hung in doubt’ (See Deut 28). This led some to conclude that God had finished with Israel, and that the promises given to Israel would now be fulfilled by the church. However as Paul made clear in Romans 9,10 & 11, God is not through with Israel: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Rom 11:25)

The same message was given by the church at Jerusalem in Acts 15. It had become clear that gentiles were to be included in God’s plan of salvation, but the question was then asked: ‘what about Israel?’ We read: “And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up” (Acts 15:13-16)

Throughout the Old Testament there are countless prophecies regarding Israel’s ultimate restoration; indeed as we will see, the 70^th week of Daniel’s prophecy has yet to be fulfilled, and as the whole of the prophecy was concerning ‘thy people and thy holy city’, Israel and Jerusalem still have a major part to play in God’s overall plan.

Daniel 9:26  – The Interval

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

With the 69 weeks now dealt with, we find two specific events in this verse that will occur after the 69 weeks, but before the 70^th. Firstly the ‘cutting off’ of the Messiah, but not for Himself; and then the destruction of Jerusalem by a people from whom another price is said to come.

As we know, less than a week after Jesus rode into Jerusalem completing the 69 weeks, He was crucified – but not for Himself: “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2) And then, just as Jesus had foretold, 38 years later, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans.

What this should immediately make us realise is that there is an interval between the 69^th and 70^th week of this prophecy.

Some ‘scholars’ have objected to placing a gap between the 69^th and 70^th week, but as is clear from the text, the 70^th week could not begin until after the Messiah had been cut of and Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans. Therefore, from what we know of history, this interval had to have lasted at least 38 years; however we find that it has now lasted almost two thousand years.

It is clear from the next verse that the event that will trigger the 70^th week is the confirming of a covenant with Israel for the last ‘week’ (seven years) of this prophecy. One simple way of knowing that this ‘week’ has not yet (nor could have) occurred is that for any covenant to be signed with Israel, Israel have to exist as a nation, and yet from AD70 right up until May 14^th 1948, Israel were not a nation, nor in their land. Thus if one stops and thinks about what this implies, we will see that this prophecy demands that all the prophecies about a future restoration and regathering of the Nation of Israel, after God has scattered them among all the nations of the earth, have to be taken literally. There is no way that this can be made to apply to the church. Two clear and unambiguous prophecies that underline this are found in Deuteronomy as follows:

Scattering 

“If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book….

…the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life” (Deut 28:58, 63-66)

Regathering

“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” (Deut 30:1-5)

Some critics would try and say that the prophecies regarding the regathering refer to the regathering of the Jews to the land of Israel after the Babylonian captivity; however Deuteronomy 28:36-58 clearly deals with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, whereas verses 63-66 warn of a far greater scattering ‘from the one end of the earth even unto the other’ and consistent with this, the regathering prophesied above is from ‘all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee’.

Another prophecy that confirms this is found in Isaiah 11:11-12 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

From the context, this 2^nd regathering of the Jews from around the world will occur at the time of the Second Coming when “He [Jesus] shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matt 24:31) In this verse from Matthew, Jesus was actually quoting from Isaiah 27: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” (Isa 27:13)

If this is the second regathering from around the world, when did the first regathering take place? Answer: In 1948, when, just as Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 66:8) a nation was born in a day, and countless Jews returned home for the first time since AD70.

Thus (getting back on track!), the 70^th week could not have occurred until 1948 when Israel were back in the land that God had given them.

It is worth noting that this is not the only time this ‘gap’ appears in scripture. There are in fact 24 occasions where we jump from the time of Christ to the Tribulation, omitting what has become know as the ‘church-age’. One of the obvious reasons for this is that the church was a mystery hidden in the Old Testament (cf Matt 13 / Eph 3:1-12). One of the other examples of this ‘gap’ is found in Luke 4:17-21

“And there was delivered unto him [Jesus} the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”

Why were all eyes fastened upon Him? Because Jesus stopped mid-way through a sentence. The Jews would have been familiar with this prophecy from Isaiah, but when Jesus reads it to them, rather than complete the verse, He simply stops. When we compare this to Isaiah’s prophecy, found in Isaiah 61, we discover the following: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn” (Isa 61:1-2)

Why did Jesus stop at the comer? Because, just as Jesus said, the first part of the prophecy was indeed being fulfilled in their ears; Jesus had come to preach good tidings, heal the brokenhearted, preach deliverance etc. but between this time and  the day of vengeance of our God there has been a period of almost two thousand years. Thus, just as with our prophecy in Daniel, the last part will not be fulfilled until after the church-age.

Daniel 9:27 – The 70^th Week

And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

In the last verse we were introduced to ‘the prince that shall come’ (a.k.a. Antichrist). There we were told that he will be of the people that destroyed the city (of Jerusalem). From history we know that these ‘people’ were the Romans; therefore this prince who is to come must also be ‘of the Romans’, or from the Roman Empire. It is important to realise that the Roman Empire was divided into two legs (remember the stature in Daniel 2); the western leg is what we are most familiar with from our history lessons, but the eastern leg that covered Turkey, Assyria, Iraq etc survived the western leg by about a thousand years. The reason this is of importance is that one of the other titles of the ‘prince who shall come’ is the ‘Assyrian’. (Is 10:24 / Is 14:24 / Mic 5:5-6), suggesting a strong link with the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Many Bible commentators have made the assumption that the final world empire that will be ruled by Antichrist, will come from the European Union / EEC etc. Whilst this may be the case, we should not ignore the possibility that it could be much broader than this, and there are those who see the 10 horns/ 10 toes / 10 kings, who will make up Antichrist’s government, as ten regions of the world, not just Europe.

As we noted in the last verse, the ‘prince that shall come’ will confirm a covenant for one ‘shabuwa’ – a week of years. This will be the 70^th and final week of the prophecy that Gabriel gave Daniel. We have already seen that all seventy weeks were concerning the Jews and Jerusalem, so it is no surprise that this covenant is centred on the Jews. This is confirmed by the fact that in the middle of the week (i.e. after three and a half years) the ‘prince who shall come’ will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. It is of course the Jews that will be doing the sacrificing as commanded in the Law of Moses. Who the ‘many’ are is a matter of scholastic debate; some feel it is the ‘many’ Jews who will by now be living in Israel; others feel that it will be the surrounding Arab nations, and thus this will be some sort of peace treaty. Whatever the situation, the result will be that Israel will be granted permission to start sacrificing once again. However in order for this to happen, the Jewish Temple will have to be rebuilt again. It is no secret that that the Temple Institute in Jerusalem are already planning for such a time. They have for some years now been making the tools required for the ceremonies as well as the priest’s clothing as required in the Law of Moses. It is apparently possible for the Temple to be rebuild on the Temple Mount alongside the Dome of The Rock . Whether this will be the case, or whether the Done of the Rock will be destroyed by an earthquake or act of war remains to be seen; but the Jewish Temple will be rebuilt one way or another.

A menorah, already made and ready for use in the rebuilt temple.

The Temple Mount in Jerusalem

In an act modelling that which was done by Antiochus Epiphanies (cf Daniel 8), this ‘prince who shall come’ (a.k.a. Antichrist) will stop the Jewish Sacrifices and, according to Revelation 13, erect an idol (image of himself) in the holy of holies. This will be an abomination to God, and will thus mark the beginning of the Great Tribulation (last three and a half years of the seven) as spoken of by Jesus: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matt 24:15-22)

In these few verses, Jesus points to Daniel chapter 9 as the key to understand these things (all of this chapter in Matthew was in response to the disciples asking Jesus ‘when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming?’). Jesus also makes it clear that this abomination will stand in the holy place. Furthermore, it is clear that Jesus’ warning is not to the church or Christians, but to Jews living in Judea, who will still be under the law and therefore will not be able to travel far if this event occurs on a Sabbath day; not will it be easy for them to escape if it occurs in the winter because many of the roads become impassable.

From Revelation 12 we find out that, at this point, Israel will flee into the wilderness (Bozrah or Petra) for the last three and a half years of the ‘week’. This will be a terrible time for the Jews as prophesied by many of the Old Testament Prophets:

“Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” (Jer 30:6-7)

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.” (Zech 13:7-9)

In the Nazi Holocaust, one in every three Jews were killed. In the Great Tribulation two out of every three Jews will be killed. Why does God allow this? Firstly to punish Israel for their iniquity; and secondly to cause them to repent and seek their Messiah. In Hosea we read: “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” (Hos 5:15) This is an incredible prophecy! God is speaking and says ‘I will go and return to my place’. In order to return to His place, He must of left it! Q. So when did God leave His place?

1. When He came to earth as a baby and lived and died to pay for the sins of the whole world.

Thus it will be during this time of immense persecution that Israel will repent and realise that Jesus is their Messiah: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zech 12:10)

At the end of this period Jesus will return to fight for His people against the armies of ‘the prince who shall come’ (read Zechariah 14), and will consume him with the brightness of His coming (2 Thes 2:8), thus bringing to an end the 70 weeks and bringing in everlasting righteousness.

Finally, not only will God reign in the kingdoms of man, Jesus Christ will rule over them!

Daniel 9:24-27 Overview

24 “Seventy weeks [490 years] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The post Daniel Ch9 vs24-27 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

This teaching was given on Resurrection Day 2021 by pastor Barry Forder.

The most important question ever asked was asked by Jesus to His disciples at Caesarea Philippi in Northern Israel, around 6 months before His crucifixion. After asking whom the people were saying that Jesus might be, Jesus turned to His disciples and asked them “But who do you say I am?”

It is not a trivial question that can be dismissed by a glib answer; how you answer this question will change the course of your life and eternal destiny. Everything in this life, every success or failure, gain or loss, are all brought into context by your response. In the end, EVERYTHING will be determined by this one question and your own personal answer to it.

Either Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God, or he was a deluded fool – or worse!

C.S. Lewis famously said: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God”. (Mere Christianity, 55-56)

In this study we explore some of the powerful testimonies and eye witness accounts of those who testified to this very fact, that Jesus was indeed the Son of God – God manifest in human flesh.

• We consider the testimony of Jesus Himself. The crucifixion was not a tragedy, it was an achievement! It was why Jesus had come. For the last 6 months of His ministry He foretold his own death and resurrection.
• The testimony of the Disciples – all the Disciples (with the exception of John) went to their deaths proclaiming Jesus was God.
• The testimony of the Roman Centurion – the first Gentile convert, who witnesses first-hand the events at Golgotha proclaimed that this man was no ordinary man, He was the Son of God and worthy to be praised!
• The testimony of Joseph of Arimathea – one of only 14 people in Jewish history to be called ‘honourable counsellor’ (Mark 15:43). Yet this member of the Sanhedrin became a believer and risked public disgrace to take a stand as a Disciple.
• The testimony of the Roman guard at the tomb – although paid to never utter what they had witnessed, they could not keep this world-changing truth to themselves! Their record is amongst the most compelling of eyewitness accounts of the Resurrection.
• The testimony of Pilate – the Roman governor who proclaimed Jesus ‘not guilty’ went on to write a letter to Emperor Tiberius confirming the events that had taken place in Jerusalem in A.D. 32. The arrest, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth! – From Tertullian (who wrote around 200 A.D.) we understand that Pilate became a follower of Jesus.

Finally, there is the testimony of Moses. Moses? Yes, for around 1500 years before the events in Jerusalem Moses wrote of Jesus being taken on the 10th day of the month (Palm Sunday), killed on the 14th as a spotless Passover Lamb, buried on 15th – the Feast of Unleavened Bread – and then becoming the Firstfruits to God raised up from the earth on the day after the Sabbath – the first day of the week – Resurrection Day!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study, and then be able to answer the most important question of all time by saying that Jesus is your Lord and your God!

The post Who do you say I am? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Why shepherds?

Have you ever wondered? Of all those who could have been invited to see Jesus as He lay in the manger, why did God chose shepherds?

As we study the Bible we begin to realise there are no meaningless details. 

Far from being a random choice, we discover there is much more hidden in the Christmas story that centuries of tradition as sadly obfuscated.

Shepherds were considered outcasts in 1st century Israel, so some say God chose them because He loves to choose the week things of the world to shame the wise.

Others say it was so news of Jesus’ birth could spread far and wide by people who had nothing to lose. But, if that were so, the Shepherds failed in their mission as the news of a ‘new born king’ didn’t even make it 8 miles up the road to Jerusalem, where Herod,  a particularly nervous and uneasy Idumean, appointed by Rome, sat on the throne of Israel as if it were his. When Herod did find out, as Magi from Babylonia arrived en masse in Jerusalem looking for this rightful King of Israel Herod proverbially lost it!

Did you know that the prophet Micah foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem? Quite probably, as it’s a scripture read each year at Christmastime:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

But did you know that Micah, just 7 verse before, foretold the exact location, and it was to be a shepherds lookout tower on outskirts of Bethlehem?

“And thou, O tower of the flock,
the strong hold of the daughter of Zion,
unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion;
the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem”. (Micah 4:8)

This tower at Migdal Edar (which is the words translated as ‘tower of the flock”) was not only used by shepherds as a lookout to keep an eye on their sheep to protect them from thieves and predators, it was also used as a lambing room, where new-born lambs could be born away from the ravages of the cold night air. At the base of this tower was an natural depression in the rock the shepherds call the ‘manger’. It would be in there they would lay the new-born lambs.

But, significantly, these were not ordinary shepherds, and their sheep no ordinary sheep. All the sheep on the hills around Bethlehem were for one purpose; to be offered as sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem.

• “Every day, according to the Torah, two lambs were required for a daily sacrifice in the Temple, meaning that 730 were needed each year plus the tens of thousands more lambs needed for Pesach (Passover) as well as for the other religious rituals”. – Harold Smith

For a lamb to be used as an offering it had to be without blemish. To protect it, the shepherds would wrap it in old priestly garments cut into strips, known as swaddling bands, to stop it kicking and thrashing about and damaging itself.

• According to the Talmud, all sheep found in the area “from Jerusalem as far as Migdal Eder” [Bethlehem] were deemed to be holy and consecrated
• They could only be used for sacrifices in the temple… in particular, for the Peace offerings and Passover sacrifices.

These shepherd’s primary duty was to inspect these lamb’s and confirm they were without blemish and able to be used as sacrificial lambs. It was their job to approve the lambs to be offered in Jerusalem to atone for sin!

• “Luke’s original audience would have immediately picked up on the religious significance of the Bethlehem shepherds watching their flocks by night”
• “Aware of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and the Jewish Temple worship of the day, they would have known that when you said Bethlehem, you said “sacrificial lambs”. The hills around Bethlehem were home to the thousands of lambs used in ritual worship in the Temple”. – Harold Smith

• For 1st Century Christians: Hearing that Yeshua was born in Bethlehem would have automatically triggered an image of the Lamb of YHVH who takes away the sin [of the World].
• With that in mind, it’s easy for us to imagine one of Luke’s listeners saying, ‘Of course the Lamb of YHVH would originate in Bethlehem – all the lambs for sacrifice came from there.  –Harold Smith

This is why, of all people, God sent these shepherds (without any directions), not to a stable, but to see a baby lying in a manger – their manger!

Jesus, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The PowerPoint slides used in this study are available for free download.

The post Why Shepherds? first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this chapter John plainly states that if you are content (and find no real problem) with this world and the things of this world, if you are ‘given over’ to this world, you cannot at the same time be given over to God. You cannot serve two masters. Either God is your real love, so that you gladly forsake worldly gain for the infinitely better reward of a relationship with Him, or you put God to one side and love this world – a world that John reminds us is all going to be burnt up.

What matters most to you? Your career? Your material possessions? Your hobbies? Your football team? Your favorite TV soap or Netflix? Your friends or even your family?

Jesus said: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” – Matthew 10:31

John then goes on to warn that false Christ’s will come – and are already around us, offering us alternative ways to ‘God’. These are just to forerunner to the Wicked One who is coming who will deceive the would world.

Deception will abound. Our only safeguard against deception is to abide in Jesus so that we can hear the gentle tender leading of His Holy Spirit.

These may be days full of challenges, there may be some difficult decisions to make, relationship and friendships that have to be severed, habits that must be broken, but there is the promise of reward and blessing greater than any of us can begin to imagine!

John’s message is to hold on! There is not much longer to wait!

The post 1 John ch2 14-29 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this chapter Peter underlines his reason for writing – namely to stir up your pure minds and to get you to remember:

• What you have been saved from – (we were in darkness and given over to the lusts and desires of the flesh)
• What you have been saved for – (you are to be a Royal Priesthood & Holy nation to show forth His praise!),
• The certainty of our faith – (it is based on real events recorded by eyewitnesses and furthermore we have the undeniable proof of fulfilled prophecy)
• Jesus is coming back – soon!
• The material world around us is temporary and will all be burnt up
• What you have awaiting you – the new heavens and new earth

However, Peter warns that in the last days people would scoff at the idea of Jesus returning, would deny that God is Creator, and would reject that there was once a worldwide flood to judge the earth.

In effect their argument will be that, because their perception is that apocalyptic events don’t happen (in their experience), they could not have happened in the past and the idea of divine judgment will not occur in the future.

To this Peter says they are ‘willingly ignorant’. Chuck Missler points out that this shows they have made a decision to not believe – not because there is insufficient evidence, but because they don’t want to accept it.

They would rather carry on in their own lusts – lusts for power and position, lusts for recognition and accolades, lusts to been seen as being intellectually superior. The notion of a God who will bring Judgment is unacceptable to them.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that we live in a universe that screams of many cataclysmic events, James Hutton, around the turn of the 19th century, proposed the now commonly accepted and taught view of uniformitarianism – ‘the past is the key to the present’ / ‘nothing changes, everything carries on as it always has’. He countered the then popular view Neptunism theory espoused by Abraham Werner et al which claimed that rocks had originated from a great flood and were basically sedimentary in origin – much as the Bible taught.

Within a few years Hutton’s ideas were picked up and championed by James Lyell, who wrote the infamous ‘Principle of Geology’ which in a stroke eradicated the writings of Moses in the minds of the worlds academia. There was now an alternative explanation of the history of the world that didn’t have to include the God of the Bible (and the personal moral challenge that entailed).

It just so happened that a young Charles Darwin was given a copy of Lyell’s book as he set out on his voyage on the Beagle. This changed his thinking and gave him a ‘millions of years’ framework from which would come his theory of evolution.

Thus Peter – and the Word of God – were proven right! Scoffers have come and they now do deny that  Jesus will return, that He is Creator, and that there was once a worldwide flood.

In this study we look at some of the clear evidence that shows the geologic column – the backbone to ‘millions of years’ – is pure fabrication. Without it the theories of Hutton, Lyell and Darwin come crashing down.

Peter concludes by asking; “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?” 

The answer is simple, we must be holy and Godly as we expectantly wait for Christ’s return which will usher in the end of this age and bring in ‘everlasting righteousness’!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.

The post 2 Peter Ch3 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In this session, we see how God has been working all things throughout history to His timetable and for His purposes.

This ancient mystery determines the course of world history, it touches everything from kings, to presidents, empires, superpowers, down to the most minute details… and, as we will see, everything happens to happen in the exact way, at the exact place, and at the exact time.

And no one’s orchestrating it, no one on earth.

We have already noted the rise and fall of empires, the raising to positions of authority those who will accomplish His will – all in accordance with the ancient Jubilean mystery. We now go on to explore hidden codes, prophetic messages from millennia ago now being fulfilled on the very days appointed. We will uncover secrets hidden in the earth for centuries!

But with all of this said, we still have to answer the ‘so what’ question.

Why does everything seem to revolve around this Jubilean mystery? –Prophecy, revelation, World History.

The simple answer is, that it’s because the principle of the Jubilee is about return & restoration.

The Jewish people stand for all people – what happens to them has to do with us all. In the natural, we have not all left our ancestral possession… But in the spiritual, all have lost what belonged to us, given up the title of what was once ours.

You can never feel at home in this world because it’s not your inheritance. It’s not your land. It’s not what you were created for!

Redemption is at the center of the mystery. But “Who is it that the Jubilee is for?” For the exiled, the separated, the broken, the fallen, the one who has lost.

May you be blessed, encouraged and challenged by this study.

The post The Greatest Mystery – Part 6 first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

In his final letter, shortly before his death, Paul writes from prison to encourage young pastor Timothy.

In this introduction we consider the life of Paul, from ‘church hater’ to ‘Apostle to the Gentiles’;  and look at this unique thing we call the church.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study.

The audio and PowerPoint slides used in this study are available from free download.

The post Introduction to 2 Timothy first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Pilate had asked Jesus the question “What is truth?”

To many, truth is merely relative, that is, we can each decide our own truth depending on our circumstances and experiences.

The day before Pilate asked this question, Jesus stated “Thy Word is truth!”, that it, God’s word does not merely contain ideas and concepts that are true, it is truth itself. Every part of it, every statement made, every doctrine taught is true. It is the fount of truth. Without out it, we would be lost in a sea of ideas, opinions, philosophies and dreams.

Sadly, today’s church has largely become blinded to this great fact, and has replaced the truth of God’s word for politically correct and socially acceptable axioms*.

1. *a generally accepted proposition or principle, sanctioned by experience; maxim

Today society seems to dictate truth and the church, like an obedient dog, walks on behind!

However, that is not the way it was in the early church! They knew they had been given something precious that they were to earnestly contend for! Despite what modernists and liberal theologians would have us believe, truth is non-negotionable!

Doctrine is not open to debate, and we do not get to decide what the Bible means – it tells us itself what it means and we have been given the Holy Spirit to teach us and lead us into all truth!

Today’s ministers and clergy can spiritualise and allegorise all day long. They can tell you the Second Coming is not going to be a physical return; they can tell you that God didn’t really Create everything in 6 literal 24 hour days if they like; they can tell you that God is not going to keep His untold number of promises to National Israel, that these somehow will now fall on the church. They can tell you these things and teach them in pulpits all over the land – BUT IT DOENS’T MAKE THEM TRUE!

They have missed the boat! Truth has already been declared (and God did not consult them first!). The Apostles Doctrine is as rock solid and non-negotiable today as when it was given. Christianity is based on this. The fundamentals are not open to debate!

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study!

As usual, the Powerpoint slides used in this study are available for free download.

The post Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

During the service, we celebrated the dedication of a child in the fellowship to the LORD, and as this was also the first service of 2019, Pastor Barry taught on the theme of dedicating our lives to the LORD at the start of another year.

In this study, we look at:

• the typical ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ people make and consider the Biblical alternatives.
• why the Bible is such an amazing book that should be read by all – and at the beginning of a new year, it’s a great time to start!
• why we dedicate our children to the LORD and consider the world’s alternatives to bringing children up in a godly home

The Powerpoint slides used in the presentation are available for free download, as is this audio recording.

May you be blessed and encouraged by this study!

The post A New Year Message… first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

There were many times David could have had confidence in the flesh, that is, trusted in his own abilities and strength, but repeatedly we see him trusting in God; to deliver him, to vindicate him, to provide for him…

As David wrote in Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God”.

Ilir’s teaching challenges us to remember that whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, if we are the LORD’s, the battle is His, not ours.

As we read in 2 Chron 16:9 “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him”.

You can listen to the audio on this web page, or save it for listening to later.

We hope and pray this teaching will bless you and encourage you to undertake your own personal study and adventure in God’s Word!

The post The Battle Belongs To The Lord first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

Ilir grew up in a Muslim family in Kosovo but came to know the love of Jesus for himself. In this study, Ilir shows from scripture the danger of impatiently seeking what we think we want right now, rather than patiently waiting for God’s best.

Ilir also highlighted the lure to be like the world when we should instead recognise we are not of this world. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. (1 John 2:15-16)

May you be blessed, challenged and encouraged by this teaching.

The post Waiting for God’s Best first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.

You can listen to the audio on this web page, or save it for listening to later.

We hope and pray this teaching will bless you and encourage you to undertake your own personal study and adventure in God’s Word!

The post Bob Stanton Uniqueness of Christianity first appeared on Calvary Chapel Portsmouth.