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Caption transcript for The First Christians (2019): “Government” (6/9)

• 00:00 Jeffrey Seif: You ever find yourself working under less than perfect circumstances? Can God work through less than perfect circumstances? Let's see how he did it in century 1 when we look at the birth of Christianity in the days of an oppressive Roman empire.
• 00:24 male announcer: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God
• 00:27 for Israel is that they might be saved.
• 00:31 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:
• 00:34 for the same Lord over all is rich unto all
• 00:37 that call upon him."
• 00:39 "Zola Levitt Presents."
• 00:41 ♪♪♪
• 00:49 ♪♪♪
• 00:58 David Hart: We are so glad you've joined us
• 00:59 today on "Zola Levitt Presents," I'm David Hart.
• 01:01 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
• 01:02 Jeffrey: I'm Jeffrey Seif, and today we're gonna look at
• 01:04 bad government in century 1.
• 01:07 Kirsten: And we complain now about our taxes,
• 01:10 but back then life was rough under Roman rule, was it not?
• 01:14 Jeffrey: Yes, and taxation was just one problem.
• 01:17 There were others as well.
• 01:18 Kirsten: Let's go learn more about all of this in Jerusalem
• 01:22 as our founder Zola introduces his first guest.
• 01:27 Zola Levitt: For our background study of government
• 01:29 during the 1st century, we visit this
• 01:31 fascinating site in Jerusalem.
• 01:34 Adjacent to Jerusalem's Holy Land Hotel,
• 01:37 this model of the city during the time of Jesus is highly
• 01:41 detailed and a most popular tourist attraction.
• 01:44 Dr. David Friedman, academic Dean at King of Kings College,
• 01:48 gives us a brief background to the
• 01:50 political authority of the day.
• 01:53 Dr. David Friedman: Good morning, I'm gonna speak with
• 01:54 you for a few minutes about what the government in Israel was
• 01:57 like at the time of Jesus so you can understand what the common
• 02:00 people would have faced in terms of political authority during
• 02:03 the time of the New Testament.
• 02:05 First of all, we know that there were three governmental
• 02:07 authorities in Israel at the time of Jesus.
• 02:10 The most important of these authorities
• 02:11 was the Roman Empire.
• 02:13 In the year 66 B.C., the Roman Empire invaded Israel as part of
• 02:17 their policy of expanding across the Middle East and in sharing
• 02:20 the peace of the Middle East.
• 02:22 They were represented in Israel by a person they called the
• 02:25 prelate, and we know that during Jesus's time,
• 02:27 this was Pontius Pilate.
• 02:29 This was the main Roman authority who had total
• 02:31 political control over the area.
• 02:33 He didn't live here in Jerusalem,
• 02:35 but in Caesarea, northwest of Jerusalem,
• 02:38 and came to Jerusalem a number of times a year,
• 02:40 either on state diplomatic visits or during holidays,
• 02:43 when he'd be here to make sure that the policing of the area
• 02:47 was done correctly to prevent rioting and to ensure the peace.
• 02:51 The second governmental authority would have been the
• 02:53 Herodian dynasty or the Herodian king of the time.
• 02:56 And the Herodian king was always subject to the Roman Empire.
• 03:00 Now, a little bit more about the Jewish government at the time.
• 03:03 We know that the Jewish people were represented
• 03:06 by what was called the Sanhedrin.
• 03:08 You read about it in the New Testament.
• 03:09 It was a group of 70-plus Rabbis and their students who more or
• 03:14 less directed the Jewish religious law of the time,
• 03:17 legislated in terms of religious
• 03:19 belief and religious practice.
• 03:20 However, they did not have any governmental authority in terms
• 03:24 of the actual ruling, policing of, or taxation of Israel.
• 03:30 The taxation system was handled by King Herod.
• 03:33 In other words, Herod the Great during this time,
• 03:35 and his son Antipas during his time, and they would
• 03:38 collect taxes in the name of and for the Roman Empire.
• 03:41 Herod and his nobles would have gotten a certain cut of the
• 03:46 taxation system, and of course the Romans would
• 03:48 have gotten the greater share.
• 03:50 Now, in terms of the Herodian king,
• 03:52 he was always here in Jerusalem.
• 03:55 And if we look a little behind me here,
• 03:58 we see the Herodian palace of 1st century Jerusalem.
• 04:01 This is where King Herod would have lived and where he would
• 04:04 have entertained his guests.
• 04:05 King Herod I and his son Antipas after him
• 04:08 were very much Hellenized.
• 04:10 In other words, they thought it their mission to attach
• 04:13 Israel to the Roman Empire.
• 04:14 If Israel could come into the Roman Empire,
• 04:17 impress the Romans, and be political allies to the Romans,
• 04:20 this would ensure that Herod's dynasty, first of all, would
• 04:22 continue to rule in Israel, and second of all, would ensure that
• 04:26 Israel would live in whatever kind of peace there could be.
• 04:29 So Herod I and his son after him had a struggle the
• 04:34 entire time that they ruled.
• 04:36 And Herod ruled--Herod I ruled for 33 years in a very cruel way
• 04:41 because he wanted to make sure that there was no rebellion
• 04:44 against him and that Rome did not feel threatened.
• 04:47 He wanted, in other words, to be an ally of Rome and he was
• 04:50 considered by Rome as such, in order to make sure that the
• 04:55 Romans would not destroy the city of Jerusalem, which
• 04:58 happened in the year 70 A.D. as you might recall.
• 05:02 The only way that he could ensure this was to keep his
• 05:05 own Jewish people subjugated.
• 05:07 He did this by means of having a foreign mercenary army which was
• 05:11 in Jerusalem the entire time that Herod ruled.
• 05:15 Zola: This remarkable model of ancient Jerusalem was
• 05:17 completed in 1967 after three grueling
• 05:21 years of meticulous assembly.
• 05:23 It was built to a 1:50th scale using the same materials as were
• 05:27 employed to build the original city.
• 05:29 Stone, marble, wood, copper, and iron were all used to
• 05:33 reconstruct the magnificent city of gold.
• 05:38 Despite the Roman authorities, the first
• 05:40 Christians lived here in Jerusalem.
• 05:42 Just before his ascension, Jesus said,
• 05:45 "Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his
• 05:48 name among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem."
• 05:52 Dr. Friedman: If we look right in this direction,
• 05:54 we'll see the towers on top of the actual walls
• 05:56 around the palace and down.
• 05:58 As we go across the city wall, we see a tower here,
• 06:01 for example, and one here.
• 06:03 Here's where Herod would station his soldiers,
• 06:05 both to guard over the city from the outside,
• 06:07 but also from the towers here, and in particular the towers
• 06:11 along the wall over the lower part of the city.
• 06:14 Herod could place his soldiers so that they would be able to
• 06:16 see the common people at all times during day or night.
• 06:20 In this way, Herod could watch and make sure that there would
• 06:23 be no demonstration or no riot against them.
• 06:25 And it was particularly important for him to do that
• 06:28 because he wanted the Romans to know that he
• 06:30 could control his own people.
• 06:31 Therefore, there's no threat to the Roman Empire.
• 06:34 The Roman Empire was concerned about one thing and one thing
• 06:36 only in Israel, and that was what was called the Pax Romana.
• 06:40 That is, that Israel would be a part, a province, in the
• 06:43 Roman Empire, would not rebel against the Romans, would
• 06:45 pay their taxes, and allow Rome to protect them militarily.
• 06:49 If we look in this direction toward the Antonia Fortress and
• 06:54 beyond it, you'll also see towers from which the temple
• 06:57 area could be watched.
• 07:00 Zola: The Temple area was of course the
• 07:01 jewel in Jerusalem's crown.
• 07:03 This was God's residence on earth.
• 07:06 Worshippers would flood these courtyards in accordance with
• 07:08 the command to faithfully honor the God of Israel.
• 07:12 Ever present, however, looming on the horizon,
• 07:15 were the foreboding towers of the Antonia Fortress.
• 07:20 Dr. Friedman: Here we are at Antonia Fortress,
• 07:22 which I had just mentioned.
• 07:24 This was built by King Herod in honor of Mark Anthony,
• 07:26 the Roman patrician, who was his political ally
• 07:29 and his advocate in Rome.
• 07:31 Herod had this built for two reasons.
• 07:34 Number one is so that he could station his soldiers close to
• 07:37 the temple area, and I'm pointing right here toward the
• 07:40 magnificent temple also that King Herod built.
• 07:43 And from having his soldiers stationed here at the tops of
• 07:46 the four corners of the fortress, he could see
• 07:49 the entire temple area and make sure that no anti-Herodian
• 07:54 or anti-Roman riots would break out during the holidays,
• 07:58 when sometimes up to a million Jewish people would crowd into
• 08:01 the city of Jerusalem to celebrate a particular festival.
• 08:05 Also, this is the site where Jesus was brought when there
• 08:07 were lots cast for his garment just before he was crucified,
• 08:11 that we read about in the New Testament.
• 08:13 Matter of fact, today if you come to Jerusalem,
• 08:15 you can actually go under the convent which is above the
• 08:18 basement here and see an actual site where possibly soldiers
• 08:21 played a Roman game for his garment.
• 08:24 Okay, this is also the site where Pilate would have sent his
• 08:27 soldiers to be quartered if he came
• 08:31 on a diplomatic or state visit.
• 08:33 And again, Pilate's soldiers could also stand up here and
• 08:35 police the entire area to make sure that there were no
• 08:38 anti-Roman riots taking place or any type of gathering that would
• 08:42 threaten his political power.
• 08:45 The view from the four towers is very, very good.
• 08:48 And as I move in this direction, from these two towers you could
• 08:51 look out over the northern side of the city and see of any
• 08:55 possible threat, although most often there would be no threat
• 08:57 from the northern part of the city because, again, these
• 08:59 are Sadducees' and high priests' relatives living here who
• 09:03 would have tended to be friendly toward the Roman authorities.
• 09:07 From these two towers, again you could look into the lower city.
• 09:10 You can begin to see the lower city of Jerusalem where indeed,
• 09:13 if there were any kind of threat, it would probably
• 09:15 be suspected to have come from there.
• 09:18 So, this is the Antonia Fortress.
• 09:19 There were four stories to it.
• 09:22 And you can see it really was a massive building,
• 09:24 I think some 35 meters high from the base of it to the tower top.
• 09:30 That would make it approximately 105,
• 09:33 I believe, feet off the ground.
• 09:36 So, it was very tall, very massive, and again, purposely
• 09:39 built on the side of the temple with connection into the temple
• 09:43 area in order to police and patrol it in case of any danger.
• 09:47 ♪♪♪
• 09:54 announcer: Are Gentile believers meant to adopt the Mosaic law?
• 09:57 Is there a separate salvation covenant for Israel that removes
• 09:59 the necessity of faith in Yeshua?
• 10:02 Eitan Shishkoff tackles these questions and more in today's
• 10:05 resource, "What About Us?"
• 10:08 In this book, Eitan uncovers concrete scriptural evidence of
• 10:12 God's original plan for Jews and Gentiles to become one in
• 10:16 Messiah and work together for salvation of national Israel.
• 10:20 Learn the importance of how the Gentile church should relate to
• 10:23 the remarkable Messianic movement
• 10:25 of Jews accepting Jesus.
• 10:27 An important read for believers of all walks of life.
• 10:30 Please call us or go online and ask for the
• 10:32 resource, "What About Us?"
• 10:36 ♪♪♪
• 10:41 announcer: The wonder.
• 10:42 ♪♪♪
• 10:47 announcer: The beauty.
• 10:49 ♪♪♪
• 10:54 announcer: The soul of the Holy Land.
• 10:56 ♪♪♪
• 11:00 announcer: For more information on our next tour to
• 11:02 Israel, call 1-800-WONDERS.
• 11:08 Kirsten: Earlier, you were able to see the very famous
• 11:11 Jerusalem model, which is huge, and this is something that we
• 11:15 get to see every time we go to Israel.
• 11:17 It has moved since Zola taped in 1995.
• 11:20 It's now located at the Israeli Museum.
• 11:23 We'd love for you to come see it for yourself.
• 11:25 We go every spring and every fall.
• 11:27 Now, let's go back to Zola.
• 11:31 Zola: Well, we're beneath the streets of the old city of
• 11:35 Jerusalem, the street to which our expert referred, with the
• 11:40 Roman carvings in the pavement stone is right next to us.
• 11:43 This is a medieval cellar just inserted
• 11:46 right into the Roman street.
• 11:48 And of course, this being the Antonia Fortress,
• 11:52 it reminds us of the government of Israel,
• 11:56 which really was an occupational government of the Romans in the
• 11:59 time, and that, in turn, the new government,
• 12:03 the kingdom that's coming, a new concept,
• 12:04 a new kind of kingdom to this earth,
• 12:07 a really righteous kingdom.
• 12:09 When our Lord preached the Sermon on the Mount,
• 12:12 he talked about the kingdom of God
• 12:15 and how you get in and how it worked
• 12:16 and so forth; and in that sermon, he gave a principle that
• 12:22 this kingdom is for the meek.
• 12:25 This was a kind of new concept.
• 12:28 I read from the Scofield Note, "Having announced the kingdom of
• 12:32 heaven as 'at hand,' the king, in Matthew 5 to 7,
• 12:36 declares the principles of the kingdom."
• 12:39 And he goes on to say that the Sermon on the Mount has an
• 12:41 application literally to the kingdom that's coming,
• 12:45 and then, more figuratively, to the kind of people who
• 12:51 were going to inherit it.
• 12:53 And it's wonderful how he says, "Here lies the deeper reason why
• 12:58 the Jews rejected the kingdom," and that is
• 13:00 the Jews that did not believe.
• 13:02 Of course, some of Israel did believe the Lord.
• 13:04 "They had reduced 'righteousness' to mere
• 13:06 ceremonialism, and the Old Testament idea of the kingdom to
• 13:10 a mere affair of splendor and power.
• 13:13 They were never rebuked for expecting a visible and powerful
• 13:16 kingdom, but the words of the prophets should have prepared
• 13:19 them to expect also that only the poor in spirit
• 13:23 and the meek could share in it.
• 13:25 The 72nd Psalm, which was universally recognized by them
• 13:29 as a description of the kingdom was full of this."
• 13:32 And if we look at that Psalm, we'll see that easily.
• 13:36 It begins this way, "Give the king thy judgments,
• 13:40 O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son.
• 13:43 He shall judge the people with righteousness,
• 13:46 and thy poor with judgment.
• 13:47 The mountains shall bring peace to the people,
• 13:49 and the little hills, by righteousness.
• 13:51 He shall judge the poor of the people,
• 13:54 he shall save the children of the needy,
• 13:57 and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
• 14:00 Yea, all kings," verse 11, "Yea, all kings shall fall down before
• 14:03 him: all nations shall serve him.
• 14:05 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth;
• 14:08 the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
• 14:11 He shall spare the poor and needy,
• 14:13 and shall save the souls of the needy.
• 14:15 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence" and
• 14:18 precious shall be their blood in his sight."
• 14:22 That is not the kingdom anticipated by the secular
• 14:26 government of Israel, such as it was
• 14:28 when the Romans were occupying.
• 14:29 They were looking for a kingdom to compete with Rome.
• 14:33 And here is the second application, the moral
• 14:36 application to the Christian of the Sermon on the Mount.
• 14:40 "It always remains true that the poor in spirit, rather than
• 14:43 the proud, are blessed, and those who mourn because
• 14:46 of their sins, and who are meek in the consciousness of them
• 14:49 will hunger and thirst after righteousness,
• 14:52 and hungering will be filled."
• 14:55 This is what the Lord said in the Sermon.
• 14:57 "The merciful are 'blessed.'
• 14:58 The poor in heart do 'see God.'
• 15:01 These principles fundamentally reappear in
• 15:03 the teachings of the epistles."
• 15:05 What the Lord taught here is very important in understanding
• 15:09 that he was not preparing a kingdom to overthrow
• 15:14 the Roman occupation of Israel.
• 15:16 And in that manner, he was rejected by the prevailing
• 15:22 Israeli government because that is what they wanted,
• 15:26 unreligious men who struggled under the yoke
• 15:29 of Rome, wanted deliverance.
• 15:30 It was God versus Caesar as far as they were concerned,
• 15:34 but with the Lord, it was grace versus law.
• 15:37 Caesar changed institutions and made them this way and that way.
• 15:41 He had the power. The Lord really changed men.
• 15:45 He says in Luke 22:25, the Lord is speaking,
• 15:49 "And he said unto them, 'The kings of the Gentiles exercise
• 15:52 lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon
• 15:55 them are called benefactors.
• 15:58 But ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you,
• 16:03 let him be as the younger; and he that is chief,
• 16:06 as he that doth serve.'"
• 16:09 This wouldn't have been--to a Roman.
• 16:13 "And I appoint unto you," verse 29 in Luke 22,
• 16:17 "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto
• 16:21 me; That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom,
• 16:25 and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
• 16:28 He's talking to his disciples and trying
• 16:30 to draw the difference.
• 16:32 "I'm not Caesar," he says in effect, "and you are servants
• 16:37 if you want to be rulers in my kingdom."
• 16:39 This is really a different kingdom.
• 16:41 He characterized it when he--at his trial when he's asked if
• 16:46 he's a king, and his kingdom, he said,
• 16:47 is not of this world.
• 16:50 It doesn't mean it's on another planet.
• 16:52 It means it's not the way this world thinks
• 16:55 and he's not that kind of king.
• 16:59 Well, the authority over the citizens in any kingdom is
• 17:04 placed there by God, Paul taught.
• 17:06 And it's surprising, you know, as long as we're in this world,
• 17:10 then Paul, a Roman citizen by the way,
• 17:12 stressed that citizenship in God's kingdom required being
• 17:17 good citizens in this world to start with.
• 17:20 And you know, he went to Gentiles.
• 17:21 He was the apostle to the Gentiles,
• 17:23 and he gave them some very good news.
• 17:26 Ephesians 2:19, speaking to them of the coming kingdom,
• 17:33 he talks about Jews and Gentiles becoming one body in Christ.
• 17:37 The Gentiles of the kingdom, once they learned the teachings
• 17:39 of Christ and so on, were more or less admiring of Jewish
• 17:44 society, Jewish law, the Jewish way.
• 17:46 But they became one, Paul taught them,
• 17:48 with the Jews, and he says it powerfully this way.
• 17:51 "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
• 17:54 but fellow citizens with the saints,
• 17:57 and of the household of God.
• 17:59 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
• 18:01 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone."
• 18:05 So, the citizens of the kingdom, like citizens of any earthly
• 18:09 kingdom, are joined together under one ruler.
• 18:12 And Paul taught in Romans 13 that earthly governments
• 18:16 themselves are ordained by God.
• 18:20 I'll get a lot of mail about it if I say so,
• 18:22 but the American government, whatever it is and however you
• 18:26 like it or dislike it, is ordained by God.
• 18:29 It was in previous administrations, it is in this
• 18:32 administration, and it will be in future administrations, until
• 18:36 that kingdom not of this world arrives.
• 18:39 Worldly kingdoms are ruled by rulers that God knows about.
• 18:44 And the psalmist says, "The heart of the king is
• 18:46 in the hand of the Lord."
• 18:48 In the parable of the pounds, we had an interesting situation.
• 18:52 A nobleman goes.
• 18:54 He is going to come back and occupy his kingdom.
• 18:56 He gives pounds, talents in one version,
• 18:59 to various of his subjects.
• 19:02 And one of them takes--the amount actually is
• 19:07 around $500 in today's money.
• 19:10 He gives 10 pounds or talents to one servant,
• 19:15 and another, and another.
• 19:16 And one makes interest on them and the
• 19:20 Lord praises him for that.
• 19:23 One keeps the pounds safe until the kingdom should come.
• 19:30 Nobody has robbed them, they're not gone,
• 19:31 but he didn't make any interest on them.
• 19:33 And the king, as you know in the parable,
• 19:35 censures him for that.
• 19:37 The third one did nothing whatever.
• 19:42 And well, one wins, one's even, and one actually loses.
• 19:47 And finally, the Lord is angry and says,
• 19:50 "To he hath, it shall be given.
• 19:52 To he that hath not, it shall be taken away,
• 19:54 even that which he hath."
• 19:55 An interpretation of the parable is,
• 19:57 in preparing this new kingdom, we who are given the keys--the
• 20:02 Lord handed the keys to Peter in our behalf,
• 20:04 and all believers can enroll people in this kingdom.
• 20:07 We can use those keys, we can tuck the keys away,
• 20:11 or we can lose the keys.
• 20:12 And in reality, the one is praised who earns interest.
• 20:19 In other words, we reproduce. We are living.
• 20:22 We need to go out and we need to reproduce this faith and enroll
• 20:25 people in this kingdom.
• 20:26 The kingdom might well have started in Israel with the Jews
• 20:31 when the king said it was at hand if enough had come.
• 20:35 Okay, enough didn't come, but then as the witness went out,
• 20:39 conceivably in every generation, could there be enough,
• 20:42 could there be enough.
• 20:43 And finally, there came a time when Paul was teaching the King
• 20:48 could come at any moment.
• 20:49 Better to wait, better not to marry,
• 20:51 et cetera, what he said, "Remain in your state in case."
• 20:54 And that is correct Christian teaching;
• 20:56 but as we go on, evangelism is what makes the kingdom.
• 21:00 It's what makes it come, so as the Lord said to the Jews in
• 21:04 Matthew 23:39, "Ye shall not see me henceforth until ye shall
• 21:08 say, 'Baruch haba b'shem Adonai, Blessed is he who
• 21:11 comes in the name of the Lord.'"
• 21:13 So, you know, when we take our tours, we print in our
• 21:16 brochures, "Preach, and as ye go," this is Matthew 10:5, 6, 7,
• 21:22 "say, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"
• 21:25 Always trying to enroll the people in the kingdom.
• 21:29 And is the kingdom gonna be in heaven as some teach?
• 21:32 No, the kingdom's gonna be on earth.
• 21:34 It's an earthly kingdom of 1,000 years.
• 21:36 That is given in Revelation 20, verse 4.
• 21:38 And an earth that we know, an earth that we can remember,
• 21:42 an earth that we see.
• 21:44 It's changed somewhat because the lion will lie down with the
• 21:46 lamb, men will not learn war anymore in his holy mountain.
• 21:50 It will be a kingdom of peace, but it will be
• 21:52 a kingdom in this world.
• 21:55 Now, Christians picture reigning in the city where they live or
• 22:00 being--Americans stay Americans and so forth.
• 22:03 In reality, the kingdom is in Israel,
• 22:05 there's no question of it.
• 22:07 Well, the whole Scripture points to this
• 22:10 land, this holy mountain.
• 22:11 We are virtually under Mount Moriah or in Mount Moriah.
• 22:16 The temple goes here, the palace of the king goes here,
• 22:19 and we, now the bride of Christ, then the queen of the kingdom to
• 22:23 come will live with him here.
• 22:25 A queen lives with her king.
• 22:26 I always say, unless you're in the foreign service in the
• 22:29 kingdom, you'll be an Israeli.
• 22:31 And I like to stress that, however, if you're a Texas and
• 22:34 proud of it, and there are a lot of Texans proud of it,
• 22:37 whether you have three score and ten or whatever you get in
• 22:40 Texas, when all is said and done, you'll be a
• 22:43 thousand years an Israeli.
• 22:45 I think that churches are singing the Hebrew hymns and
• 22:49 doing Israeli dances because they're
• 22:51 getting ready for this trip.
• 22:52 It's a sign of the kingdom coming on.
• 22:56 And the idea of the kingdom in Israel was known even all the
• 23:02 way back to the disciples, and there is a passage that is very
• 23:07 clear as a proof text of kingdom in Israel.
• 23:11 I refer to Acts 1:6, "The Lord had been with them forty days."
• 23:17 It says he taught them the things of the kingdom of God.
• 23:20 The things of the kingdom of God
• 23:21 are written in the Old Testament.
• 23:22 I would have loved to go to the Lord's six-week-old testament
• 23:25 Bible school, 'cause I know what happened to
• 23:27 Peter, a relative of mine.
• 23:29 He had three times said he didn't even know the Lord seven
• 23:33 weeks before, and at Pentecost he stood up and was able to
• 23:37 preach a sermon to learned Jews who were there to celebrate the
• 23:41 feasts, quoting from the prophet Joel,
• 23:43 from the Psalms, obscure passages, and applying them
• 23:47 unerringly and specifically to what they were seeing.
• 23:50 "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel," he said.
• 23:53 "I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh."
• 23:55 That was expertly done, so he learned a lot in that time.
• 23:58 And one thing he must have learned is where the kingdom
• 24:00 was, because in Acts 1:6 it says this,
• 24:03 "When they therefore were come together,
• 24:05 they asked of him, saying, 'Lord, wilt thou at this time
• 24:09 restore again the kingdom to Israel?'
• 24:14 And he said unto them, 'It's not for you to know the times and
• 24:17 seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.'"
• 24:19 A simple dialogue, "Lord, is this the time you'll restore
• 24:23 the Kingdom to Israel?"
• 24:24 and he says, "It's not for you to know the time."
• 24:27 But he didn't go on and say, "And you're
• 24:29 wrong about the place.
• 24:30 It's not gonna be in Israel."
• 24:32 No, he accepted the question to Israel and only
• 24:36 said, "It is the time."
• 24:37 And he gave them something to do,
• 24:38 which we need to take to heart.
• 24:41 You've heard it before, until that kingdom comes,
• 24:44 "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is
• 24:47 come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
• 24:51 Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria,
• 24:55 and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
• 24:57 ♪♪♪
• 25:07 ♪♪♪
• 25:17 ♪♪♪
• 25:27 ♪♪♪
• 25:37 ♪♪♪
• 25:47 ♪♪♪
• 25:57 ♪♪♪
• 26:07 ♪♪♪
• 26:17 ♪♪♪
• 26:28 David: So, we're at the end of this program today.
• 26:30 It's all about government, good and bad.
• 26:32 Jeffrey: Yes, and there is bad government all over the world.
• 26:36 That's the bad news.
• 26:37 And there's darkness, and that's bad news.
• 26:40 But the good news is the light shines in the darkness and the
• 26:44 darkness does not overcome it.
• 26:46 Our kingdom eclipses the prince of darkness in this world.
• 26:50 Kirsten: Right, it's not of this world.
• 26:52 Jeffrey: No, it's something that's greater than,
• 26:54 because greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.
• 26:59 We're in a kingdom triumphant.
• 27:02 God bless you, friends.
• 27:03 Thank you for going with us on the journey.
• 27:05 Let's do it again next week.
• 27:07 But as you go now, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
• 27:10 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:13 ♪♪♪
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• 27:23 is free and full of insightful articles and news commentary
• 27:27 from a Messianic perspective.
• 27:29 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter,
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• 27:47 male announcer: Your donations to Zola Levitt
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• 27:52 female announcer: Thanks again for joining us this week.
• 27:54 Zola Levitt Ministries and this television program depend on
• 27:59 tax-deductible donations from viewers like you.
• 28:04 ♪♪♪
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• 28:25 male announcer: This has been a paid program brought to you
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