[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 Feet,
Soaring Through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. [MUSIC PLAYING] Turn in your Bibles to the
blank page between the Old and the New Testament. See I'm holding
mine up right here. That's the blank page. Tonight, we're going to cover
the intertestamental period. I don't know how
many churches that would announce that
as their sermon, especially, in a midweek. We're covering the
intertestamental period, or that blank page-- that space between the
Old Testament and the New Testament. You know, because it's
the Bible from 30k, I have taught on a book
of the Bible in one night. I've also taught on a chapter
of the Bible in one sitting. I've also taught on a
paragraph of the Bible. I've also taught on a
single verse of the Bible. I've taught on a phrase. I've taught on a word. I've even taught on the
comma in Isaiah 61:2. Did a whole message on that. But this probably is a first
where I'm doing a whole message on a blank page-- on the space between the
Old and the New Testament. And here's why I'm doing it. The average reader closes
the Old Testament book of Malachi, which is a
prediction, as you know, of Elijah the
prophet coming again before the great
day of the Lord. The prophet said he's going to
turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. The heart of the
children to the fathers. Lest I come and smite the
Earth with a curse, period, end of Old Testament. You turn a page, you
turn another page, and then you get to Matthew 1:1. The genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. When you go from the
Old Testament Malachi to the New Testament
Book of Matthew, the average reader notices
immediately a change has occurred. They just don't know what. There's a radical
change in circumstances, radical change in conditions. The Old Testament
closes where the world is under Persian control, the
Jews are back in their land, only 50,000 of them. They have rebuilt the temple
Ezra and Nehemiah brought them back. Really that closes off the Old
Testament-- brings them back. They start rebuilding
their temple. They wane a little bit in the
rebuilding of their temple. A couple prophets come along-- Haggai, Zechariah--
give them some messages. They start building it again. Then Malachi, then it closes. So you've got Jews in the
land, Persian domination of the world. Only 50,000, small group
in the lands struggling. You open the New Testament
things are different. Same people, same land,
greatly multiplied. Not Persian domination,
Roman domination. Things are completely different. Not only is there Roman
rule in the world, but Israel is ruled
by a vise regent-- a vise King who is an
Edomite by the name of Herod. And these names, these
offices, these governments were not in place in
the Old Testament. So when we opened
the New Testament several things are different. The politics are different. The language base is different. The meeting places of
worship is different. The Bible translation
is different. The Jewish religion
itself is different. And world communication
is different. And so we ask, why? And the answer is
that blank page. And if it's blank maybe
you'll take notes in it so you'll have not a blank
page but a filled page by the end of tonight. Now I'm going to cover 400
years of history tonight. But it is the Bible
from 30,000 Feet, so books have been written
on these 400 years. I'm going to just
give you, hopefully-- God willing, a
skimmed over version. 400 years from the closing
of the book of Malachi to the announcing of John the
Baptist in the gospel accounts of the New Testament. Now throughout
history, God has been in the communication business. He is speaking to people. The book of Hebrews
opens up by saying, God who at different
times and in various ways spoke in times past to our
fathers by the prophets. There the author announces
God has always spoken. How has God spoken? He spoke through creation. He spoke through Moses. He sent prophets. He sent poets. He sent seers. He sent a number of
different people, a number of different ways. But primarily, God
spoke in two ways. God spoke through his
world, that's creation. God spoke through his
word, that's revelation. Through his world
and through his word primarily is how God speaks. Psalm 19 begins by
saying, the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows
his handiwork. Day and today they
utter their speech. Night and tonight they
utter their voice. There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard. God speaks through the world. Go down a few versus. Verse seven of that psalm
says, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The testimonies of the Lord are
sure making wise the simple. So there in that
psalm, it says God speaks through the world
generally and through his word specifically. For 15 centuries, almost,
in the Old Testament, God was speaking
through his world generally to unbelievers
as well as believers and through his word in the
revelation of scripture. Then we close
Malachi and there's what they call in the
broadcast business, dead air. Dead air is a term in radio
and television broadcasting, it's like the worst
thing that can happen for a radio
broadcast-- to have dead air. Dead air is where there's
no broadcast signal either by user error or
a malfunction technically it goes off the air. There's no sound. So we open our Bibles,
we find that there are 39 books of
the Old Testament, and then we turn the page and
there's dead air for 400 years. Now I just want you to get
that perspective for a moment. God didn't send a prophet,
didn't send a poet, didn't send a seer,
didn't send a law giver. He was done communicating
as he always communicated for four centuries. If you get worried because you
haven't heard from God lately-- [LAUGHTER] I have people say, you
know it's just been weeks-- months, and God
hasn't spoken to me. 400 years. That's a long, long time. They are called
400 silent years, not because everybody
was quiet, they weren't. The world was tumultuous. But God wasn't speaking from
heaven during that time. So what I want to look at is
primarily tonight three things. What was going on between the
testaments geopolitically, culturally, religiously? Those are the three prongs I'm
going to cover in this message. Geopolitically, what
was going on culturally that set up the New Testament? And what was going on
spiritually, religiously? OK. I mentioned, when you
close the Old Testament, the big kid on the block-- the one in charge of the
world is the Persian Empire. Cyrus was the one that allowed
the Jews to go back and rebuild the temple. Artaxerxes, the
Persian, allowed them to have further fortification
of the wall, et cetera. You know that story. So the Medo Persian
Empire had taken over from the Babylonian Empire. And then there's 400 years-- again, silent probably
isn't the best term for it, because they were 400
very active years. Now though we don't have
any Bible history about what happened, unless you believe
in the apocryphal books, which I don't. I'm not going to cover tonight. But we don't have history. But we do-- and you
should know this-- have prophecy about
those 400 silent years in the book of Daniel. Very detailed prophecy that
turned out to actually happen exactly like it was said. So if you don't
mind-- if you want to, you could turn over
to Daniel 7 and I'm going to show you something. Daniel 7. Since it is a Bible study,
it'd be good, at least, not just to hold that book
and hold that blank page, but go over to Daniel 7. Now let me just set up Daniel 7. Daniel's in Babylon,
they're in the captivity. The King of Babylon,
Nebuchadnezzar, one night is troubled. He goes to sleep,
he has a wild dream. He says he can't
remember the dream. He calls all of the soothsayers
and wise men of the kingdom to come in and not
just tell him what his dream means because
anybody can make some up. He says, tell me what I
dreamed because I'm not going to tell you, you tell
me what it was I dreamed and then what it means. And if you don't, I'm
burning your houses down chopping your heads off,
all you guys are dead meat. That's the decree,
take it or leave it. You've got to take it. Daniel hears about it,
calls his buddies together, they have a prayer meeting. Daniel comes before
the King and he goes, I know exactly what you dreamed. I'm about to tell you. And it was revealed
to me not because I'm holier than anybody else, but
God wanted to spare our lives. So here's what you dreamed. King you are lying on your bed
and you were wondering, what's going to happen after me? What's going to happen now? I'm in charge. I'm Nebuchadnezzar. I rule the world,
not only in Babylon, but I've conquered
all these kingdoms. What's going to happen next? And so in your dream
you saw an image. Nebuchadnezzar stroking that
long Babylonian beard going, yep. Exactly right. The image had a head of gold. It had a chest and
arms of silver. It had a stomach and
thighs of bronze. Its legs were made out of iron. And the feet were partly
iron and partly clay-- the 10 toes were partly
iron and partly clay. Nebuchadnezzar is
just looking at Daniel because he knows that's
exactly what he saw. He says, here's what it means. You, o King, are
the King of kings you are that head of gold. But after you another kingdom
will arise inferior to yours. And after that a third
kingdom, the bronze. And after that a
kingdom of iron. And Daniel says, King, you
saw in your dream world dominating-- world
governing empires. You're the first,
but there's going to be others that will follow. You saw the future
world history. World governing empires. That's what the King
saw, Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel himself got a
similar revelation, though not of an image, but in chapter
7 of four ferocious beasts, which tell the same story. Now I'm in Daniel 7:1, the
first year of Belshazzar, the King of Babylon. Daniel had a dream and visions
of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream
telling the main facts. Daniel spoke saying, I saw
in my vision by night behold, the four winds of heaven were
stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up
from the sea each different from the other. The first was like a lion-- by the way, that was
the symbol of Babylon-- and it had eagle's wings. You can go to the British
Museum today and see a lion with eagle's wings,
that represents the kingdom of Babylon. I watched till its
wings were plucked off, it was lifted up from
the earth and made to stand on two feet like
a man and a man's heart was given to it. And suddenly, another
beast, a second like a bear, was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its
mouth between its teeth. And they said thus to it,
arise, devour much flesh. That's the second kingdom
of the Medo Persian Empire. This bear is displaced a
little bit off to one side because the Medo Persian Empire
was not equally dispersed. The Persian part of
the Medo Persian Empire was much stronger than
the median part of it. And then verse 6. After this I looked,
and there was another like a Leopard, which had on
its back, for wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads
and dominion was given to it. Without going through
the book of Daniel and showing you,
interspersed in the dreams and visions of the future, the
kingdoms are mentioned by name. Babylon, Medo Persia,
and the Grecian Empire are all foretold by name
in the book of Daniel. The only one that is the Roman
Empire, the legs of iron. The last beast in
this for beast vision. But this third one is a
prophecy of the Grecian Empire that would supersede
the Medo Persian Empire. Remember, the Old Testament
closed with the Medo Persian Empire in charge of the world. Opens up with the Roman Empire. So I'm giving you
the in-between. The head of the
Macedonian Empire that fought against
the Medo Persian was ruled by a
man named Philip-- Philip of Macedon. Philip of Macedon
was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. His son-- Philip's son
was named Alexander. Alexander was not a
fighting man, he thought. He was a bookworm. His dad, Phillip,
actually thought that young Alexander
wouldn't amount to much-- wouldn't become all that great. He'd just like to
read a bunch of books. So he thought, well, if
he likes to read books. I should get him a good tutor. So we got him a tutor by
the name of Aristotle. Pretty good tutor. Alexander was 19 years old
when his father, Philip was assassinated. Something just steeled his
nerves when his dad died. He decided to take
up his cause-- his father's cause and
March against the hordes of the Persians that had
assaulted the Macedonian Empire. So he marshaled an army, not a
large one, but a very fast one. And this prophecy in Daniel
speaks of the rapidity-- this fierce, fast moving
army like a leopard with wings moving
from west to east. So he marshaled his army,
moved from west to east against the Medo Persians. Not only conquered them,
but within about a decade-- a little over a decade,
conquered the entire world. Still to this day, no one
parallel the kind of victories that Alexander had. OK. Snapshot, Alexander the Great
moves to the city of Tyre to take out the Medo Persian
hordes that are there. The Phoenician city of Tyre that
is on the seacoast of Lebanon. After he pushes out
the Medo Persians, he then decides I'm turning
south to attack Jerusalem. This is where it
gets interesting. As he's coming to
Jerusalem with his army-- this is from the writings
of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian-- there was a high priest serving
in Jerusalem named Jaddua-- J-A-D-D-U-A, If
you're taking notes. Jaddua the high priest. Jaddua the high priest heard
that Alexander was coming. Jaddua, with a contingent of
priests, went out to meet him. He was dressed in his
sacerdotal robes-- his high priestly robes. The other priests were
dressed all in white. He had in his hand a copy of the
scroll of Daniel the prophet. You see, Jaddua believed
after reading and hearing what was going on with
Alexander the Great, that Alexander the Great
fulfilled the prophecy of the leopard in Daniel 7. He said, this is the
fulfillment of the scripture. So he goes out to meet him. When he sees Alexander,
Alexander saw him, Alexander got off his horse--
this is all in Josephus and bowed down before Jaddua
the high priest saying, I recognize you as a
true representative of the God of heaven. I had a dream about you. And I had a dream. And in my dream, I
was told that you would tell me something good. Well, Jaddua was there
with the scroll of Daniel to show him how he-- Alexander-- had fulfilled
prophecy written by Daniel taking over
the Medo Persian Empire. When he was shown the very
plain reference of the Grecian Empire taking over the
Medo Persian Empire, he swore to spare
Jerusalem, which he did and give protection
to the temple while it stood in Jerusalem. So now you have not
the Medo Persian, but you have a ruling world
governing empire now called Greece. In 332 BC, 12 and 1/2 years
from the beginning of his reign, now to the end of
his reign, Alexander is in Babylon in the palace of
Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon. He has made it from Macedonia
all the way to Babylon. And in 12 and a half years
he conquered all the way from the Danube River and North
Africa all the way to India. It was his. In Babylon, he died at age 33. There's a dispute
as to how he died. But he was sort of
in a drunken stupor. They don't know if he was
poisoned or what it was. But he dies. Problem. He didn't have a successor. He didn't make clear what
should happen to his kingdom when he died. He just said give
it to the strong. Alexander the
Great, when he died, had an unborn son
still in the womb that was born posthumously. His name was Alexander II. His four generals decided that
they would manage the kingdom-- the world that Alexander left
behind and let Alexander II grow up. And they would manage the
world until he came of age, and then they would set him as
the new King over this world governing empire. Didn't quite work out that way. And here's why. It's awfully hard to let go
of power when you have it. So instead of giving it to
Alexander's rightful successor, Alexander II-- who was born, again,
posthumously after he died-- after Alexander died-- these four generals
killed that child. Killed Roxanna, his mother, the
wife of Alexander the Great. Killed a brother of Alexander. So he had no one
from his ancestors-- from his posterity to rule. And they decided they'll
split up the world and they ruled the world. Now before I give
you their names, I want you turn a few
chapters in Daniel to 11. I'm not going to
explain a lot here because there's 135 fulfilled
prophecies in this one chapter. So it would take a
monumental amount of time to go through it. And I have done that
on other occasions. But in 11:4 it's a
prophecy about Alexander. It says, and when he has arisen
his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward-- notice-- the four winds of heaven. Just like the beast had
four horns, now that's the four winds of heaven. But notice this. But not among his posterity,
nor according to his dominion with which he ruled. For his kingdom shall
be uprooted even for others besides these. Alexander had other
relatives, they were all killed by the generals. The generals didn't
want to let go of power. And so these four
generals, by the name of Cassander, Lysimachus,
Selucus, and Ptolemy-- their names will be up on
the screen, I believe-- ruled the world. This is how it was divided. Cassander, general number one,
took Greece and Macedonia. Lysimachus took the area
of Asia Minor and Thrace-- or what we would
call modern Turkey. Leaving two generals,
General Selucus took Syria and Babylonia. And the last general, Ptolemy
took Egypt, North Africa and Arabia. Now those last two generals
are the most important-- Selucus and Ptolemy-- because
the Kings that came out of Selucus and Ptolemy
became the Seleucid and the Ptolemies-- plural. The Seleucid Empire and
the Ptolemaic Empire. It lasted for a
couple centuries. Now why are those two important? Because you've got
Syria and Babylonia, you've got North Africa
and Egypt down here. And they're fighting
each other for control. In between the
North and the South is a very particular
country called Israel. And so in chapter 11
there are several verses about the Kings of the North,
and the King of the South. Then the King of
the South did this. And the King of the North-- and it's 200 years of history,
135 fulfilled prophecies from our vantage point that have
to do with the Seleucid Dynasty and the Ptolemaic Dynasty. You follow? There's a series of kings
that fight each other. And the reason they are
talked about in such detail is because they're
fighting for control over this land called
the debatable land, and that is Israel. Israel is in the crossfire. So because their activities
touch the Jewish people, the prophecies get
very, very complicated. Now this brings
up a larger point. And that is, what is
the center of the world? I know, you're going, I know. The United States. And in class, I remember
being shown a world map, and all the world
maps in my schools had the United States
right in the middle. America, North
America, South America that's the center of the world. And we Americans are kind
of naive and proud to think that's the way it is. Not in God's mind. In God's mind, Israel is
the center of the world. In fact, in Ezekiel
5:5 God says, see, I have set Jerusalem
in the midst of the nations and the countries all around. God says, in my geography
class, Israel's in the midst-- the middle of all the nations. So that when you read about
the directions in the Bible-- north, south, east, and
west-- the four winds-- it's always in relationship
to the nation of Israel. So the kings of the
north, kings of the south are north of Israel
and south of Israel. We're not talking the
Hatfield and the McCoys, it's not the deep south or
the Civil War of the north. It's north and south, east
and west in respect to Israel. In fact, there is a little
quote in the Jewish commentaries of the Old Testament
known as the Midrash that state, the land of Israel
is at the center of the world, and Jerusalem is at the
center of the land of Israel, and the temple is at
the center of Jerusalem. It's their way of saying the
Temple Mount is the epicenter of God's plan in the world. Turns out to be true. So chapter 11, there's
all these prophecies-- Seleucid, Ptolemaic
history that happened between the testaments. I'm going to take you to a
couple of particular versus. This will be the last ones
that we right about here. Daniel 11, go to verse 21. As these two empires fight it
out, there comes, eventually-- it's prophesied here,
but now it's history. There comes a very particular
King in the Seleucid Dynasty. Remember the Selecids
are up north. They're the Syrian Dynasty. So this Seleucid kings-- the eighth Seleucid
of King is a guy by the name of Antiochus IV. There were several Antiochus'. But Antiochus IV, the
eighth Seleucid King, is spoken about
here in verse 21. And in his place-- that is the guy before him-- shall arise a vile person
to whom they will not give the honor of royalty. But he shall come in peaceably
and seize the kingdom by intrigue. With the force of
a flood, they shall be swept away from
before him and be broken and also, the prince
of the covenant. And after the league-- or covenant is made with him
he shall act deceitfully. For he shall come
up and become strong with a small number of people. He shall enter peaceably
even to the richest places of the province. He shall do what
his fathers have not done nor his forefathers. He shall disperse among them
the plunder, spoils, riches, and shall device his plans
against the strongholds only for a time. A lot of the book
of Daniel talks about this eighth Seleucid
King, Antiochus IV. He did not have
the right to reign. He seized the
throne by intrigue. He seized it illegally. And he gave himself the title. He wasn't just happy
with Antiochus IV, he called himself theos,
Greek word for God. Theos Antiochus. Theos Epiphanes, which means,
I am Antiochus, God manifest in the flesh. You think he had
a pride problem? He had no self-esteem
issues whatsoever. He so hated the Jews, he tried
to actually eradicate Judaism. How? He attacked Jerusalem,
killed 80,000 Jews, sold 40,000 of them as slaves. Placed guards around the
temple so nobody could come in and offer sacrifices. So he stopped the
daily sacrifices. One Sabbath day he
sent in soldiers to round up infants and
kill every infant child they could find and
every mother after that-- every woman after that that
their soldiers could summon up in that raid. He made idolatry
mandatory in Jerusalem. Set up a statue of
Zeus in the temple, sacrificed a pig on
the altar of sacrifice. You know how unkosher that is. And forced priests to eat
that pig on the altar. He stopped the
Sabbath observations. He burned scripture. He did not allow men and women
to circumcise their children on the eighth day. There is even a story-- there's several little
pericopes of that. But one little story that speaks
about two women that decided to defy Antiochus Epiphanes. They had their children
circumcised on the eighth day. He found out about
it, killed the babies in front of the mothers. Tied the dead babies
around the mother's neck, paraded them through
the streets of Jerusalem to the wall of the city. Then threw them over
to their deaths. This guy was cruel. He desecrating the
city for 2,300 days from September 6, 171 BC,
to December the 25th 164 BC. How did it end? Well, that's where
Hanukkah comes in. Now I've explained this on
a few different studies. But the Syrian raids were
getting heated and oppressive. So they traveled
from Jerusalem-- these contingent of soldiers-- and they went to one of
the town's called Modine. Modine is 12 miles to the
Northwest of Jerusalem. In it was a priest by
the name of Matthias, and he had five boys. Mattias, the head
priest of that village-- you can visit that
village today, by the way. We often go through it when
we're in the land of Israel. The Syrians came
in, built an altar, sacrificed a pig on that
altar in the town of Modine. Told Matthias that he
has to set the example and eat unkosher flesh. Not only did
Matthias refuse to do it, the Jew who
stepped forward to do that, Matthias killed, and
then killed the Syrian general. And started a revolt called
the Maccabean Revolt. The Maccabean Revolt would
grow in caves with stones and sticks-- this ragtag
kind of army of farmers-- over next several years. And finally-- making a long
story hopefully shorter-- one of his sons named
Judas Maccabeus-- one of the Maccabean Dynasty-- marched to Jerusalem,
overtook the temple area. Took it back from Syrian
hands into Jewish hands. Cleansed the temple and decided
to reinstitute the sacrifices. There was one cruse
of oil-- he wanted to line up the lamp
inside the holy place that burned every day that
the priest kept oil in. There was only enough
oil to last one day. The story goes--
the legend goes-- we don't know how true it
is, might be a miracle. The Hanukkah miracle. But it supposedly lasted
not one day, but eight days. Eight days. So that's why you see a
menorah is a seven branched candlestick. But then you see this
thing around wintertime that people pull out
called a hanukkiah. And I have everyone say,
why does this one have seven and this one have nine? The hanukkiah has nine
branches on the candlestick. The reason why is because
candle in the middle is the lead candle,
and then you have eight on the side that represent
the eight days the oil lasted. So they burn those for the
eight days of Hanukkah. So Hanukkah is called
the Feast of Dedication. So when we read the New
Testament gospel of John it says, Jesus was in the
temple, it was winter time-- 25th of December-- and it was
at the Feast of Dedication. Jesus was celebrating
Hanukkah in Jerusalem. You don't read about in the
Old Testament, it didn't exist. Now it exists in
the New Testament. OK, fast forward. After Babylon,
after Medo Persia, after Greek, after the split
up of the four generals conquering the world, the north
and the south fighting it out, the Maccabean Revolt,
63 AD, a general by the name of Pompeii-- the Roman general--
conquers Jerusalem. Places Israel under
Roman control-- Judea under Roman control,
and then to balance out power in the north-- the Galilee region-- he
puts a ring of 10 cities just south and east
of the Sea of Galilee called the Decapolis. So you read about Jesus
going through the Decapolis-- the 10 cities. So you have 10
cities-- the Decapolis, and then you have
Judea down south. Now at this point,
the Roman Empire is about at its
peak-- at its height. And the Roman Empire
was an amazing-- that's the fourth empire. The fourth world
governing empire that takes over that
Nebuchadnezzar saw, that Daniel saw in his vision-- the legs of iron. The fourth beast is
the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire managed to
bring world peace, relatively speaking. An enforced peace,
but world peace. First of all, they built
roads around the world. They built-- get this-- 250,000 miles worth of
roads around the world. 50,000 miles of those
were paved roads. I'm talking about stone pavers. You can walk on many of
those roads to this day, they're still around. So now they're letting the
world communicate to each other, letters can be sent freely. People can move
freely and safely because there are soldiers
garrisoned everywhere on the roads enforcing peace. This makes it really handy when
Paul the Apostle decides it take some missionary journeys. The waterways are opened up. The roadways have been built
just in time for the gospel through Paul the Apostle. OK. So now the fourth world
governing empire, Rome, is in control. There was a guy who
was named Antipater. Spelled with an A, Antipater. He was an Idumean. Idumea is the area of Petra. It's the area of Jordan today. He was he was
Idumean background. Antipater helped
Rome to settle Judea. And because of that he
became the Roman appointed governor of Judea-- Antipater. Antipater had a son
named Herod the Great. Herod the Great gets a
senatorial decree from Rome to be called-- get this-- the King of the Jews. Now that's the first
time that ever happened. They were waiting
for their messiah. But now you've got
this part Idumean married to a Jewish woman,
Herod the Great, who becomes the vise regent-- the vise King of Judea. And Rome-- the Roman Senate
calls him the King of the Jews. A title he proudly displayed. And this is why
his ire is up when a group of magi
from the east come in they say, where
is he to be born who is called King of the Jews? The reason he went on a
rampage against the children of Bethlehem because
that's a title he got from the Roman Senate. So that's that background. Anyway, enough geopolitically. Let me move to the
second two, quickly. And that is
culturally there were changes between the testaments. OK. Who's ruling the
world at this time? Rome. Roman rule but still
the culture is Greek, the language is Greek, the
lingua Franca of the world. Sorry about that. The lingua Franca, the
language understood by everyone is the Greek language. It was spoken everywhere. At the time of
the New Testament, there were three, in antiquity,
principal population basis, Rome Babylon, and Egypt. Principally, a town
called Alexandria, because of Alexander the Great. Now Jews had-- in a minute I'm
going to blow your mind with this statistic-- Jews fled to Egypt. One of the places they
fled when the temple was destroyed in 586 BC
by the Babylonians, they went down to Egypt. That was the closest
southern neighbor. So they took refuge down there. In fact, about a million Jews at
the time of the New Testament, were living down in
Alexandria, Egypt. It wasn't called Alexandria
until Alexander the Great. Before that it was just
several cities along the coast. Alexander formed the city,
gave favor to the Jews. It is thought that half of
the population of the city of Alexandria were Jewish. He gave them really great
parts of the city to settle in. About a million
Jews lived in Egypt altogether at the time of Jesus,
including, by the way, Jesus. He went to Egypt after the
Herod thing in Bethlehem. Joseph and Mary took
Jesus down to Egypt for a while, down to Alexandria
where the Jewish people lived for a while. A million Jews lived in Egypt. You know how many Jews
live in Egypt today? 18. Less than 20, one
eight, 18 Jews. That's the population. And that'll be an
interesting little homework I'm assigning you. Why? I'm not going to
give you the answer now because I don't have time. But I'll just throw that
in as a little teaser. There are 18. At the time of Jesus, there
were a million Jews down there. They're down there
speaking Greek. Everybody is speaking Greek. So you've got a
Jewish population, they have Hebrew scriptures,
but everybody is speaking Greek. And the new generation
is all speaking Greek. Fewer and fewer know Hebrew. Hebrew is becoming
a dead language. So there's the need to
translate the Hebrew scriptures into the language of the
people, which is Greek. And so-- remember I talked about
the kings of the north, kings of the south? The Ptolemies down south,
the Seleucids up north. One of the Ptolemaic kings
by the name of Ptolemy Philadelphus thinks it
would be a good idea if the Jewish scholars--
gave the permission to do that-- would
translate the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek. They translated the first
five books of Moses. It took him several years to
do the whole Old Testament. About a century to
get it all done. But they were able to translate
the Old Testament Hebrew into the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint
version of the scripture. The Septuagint joint
version of the scripture is the Bible Jesus read from,
its the Bible the apostles read from. The Bible quoted in
the New Testament-- if you ever read
the New Testament, you read an Old
Testament quote you go, it didn't sound
exactly like what it says in the Old Testament. I read it in the Old Testament. Because you are reading
from a translation of the Masoretic text of the
Old Testament and the Septuagint version that they were quoting
from in the New Testament. You follow me? So there is a
different language base that shows the minor
variations in the translation. OK, back to Judea because
that's where Jesus comes, that's where the apostles
lived, et cetera. Now you have-- because of
all these factors in Judea-- a multi cultural population
of Roman citizenship, Greek culture, Hebrew
language in the synagogues. You got Roman, Greek,
and Hebrew cultures all being mixed
together in Judea. This is why-- again, very
different from the Old Testament-- Pilate needed to put a sign on
the cross what he was doing, this is Jesus of Nazareth
the King of the Jews, in Latin, in Greek, in Hebrew. Because of this
conglomeration of population. So that is sort of painting
the picture culturally. Now religiously is the third
and final arm of this study. Take a breath. We're doing OK? You still with me? Your brain juice
is still flowing? You're tracking? OK. Good. OK. So let's think
the Jews religion. In 586 BC-- this is a
note you already know-- a building was destroyed down
in Jerusalem called the-- the temple. The temple was destroyed. It was burned by fire. The population was taken
captive to Babylon, including Daniel
and his buddies. A whole bunch of people
were taken to Babylon. So now the temples destroyed,
they don't have a temple. They certainly don't have
a Jewish temple in Babylon. So now you've got Jews dispersed
in a whole other population base. They cannot practice
ceremonial law. They can't offer sacrifice,
even though the Old Testament says they have to for
remission of sins. They can't, there's no temple. They can't practice
ceremonial laws. So they decide, the only thing
we can do is study written law. So the office of the scribe
develops during the captivity. The institution of the
synagogue develops in Babylon. You never read about a
synagogue in the Old Testament, never once. They don't exist. People migrate to the
temple for worship, and they don't
meet in synagogues. Now they do. In Babylon they start
having synagogues. Sunagógé is the Greek word. It means a gathering together. So they gather together. They go to the synagogue,
the scriptures are read. By the way, service
opened up very simply raising of the hands
toward Jerusalem. The prayer, [SPEAKING HEBREW]. The Lord, our God,
the Lord is one. The scriptures were read. They were then translated
into Aramaic, which they learned in captivity. And then later in the Greek. Because of Alexander's idea to
make the world Greek culture, to be favorable to
the Jews, synagogues were being placed in
cities around the world-- around the world. This happened between
the testaments. So you have synagogues
around the world. Why is this important? Well, when Paul travels
on those Roman roads with the language
everybody can now speak, he can have a point of contact. And that is the religious
community, the sunagógé. The synagogue,
the meeting place. According to Jewish
law, 10 men are required to start a synagogue. And so now they're throughout
the entire Mediterranean world. Also, during this blank space
between the testaments-- the 400 years, two
strong leadership groups emerge in Judaism. Not read about at all
in the Old Testament, but suddenly they appear
in the New Testament. Pharisees. Sadducees. And you think, where did
these crazy cats come from? Well, in the Old Testament,
you had priests and prophets. But now you've got
Pharisees and Sadducees. Pharisees were the result
of the Babylonian captivity. They were the ones
studying the scripture. Saying, what would Moses
do in this situation? Writing down all
of their thoughts. We read about Pharisees
in the New Testament, usually nothing good about them. Jesus called them
whitewashed tombs, woe unto you hypocrites-- you know the narrative. They didn't start out that way. They started out really good. They started out as
separatists, [NON-ENGLISH].. Pharisee means separated ones. They said, we don't want
to be like the world. We don't want to have
practice idolatry. We don't want to do
what our forefathers did in getting us in trouble. So we don't want to go
into captivity again. Good idea. As time went on, they got
legalistic, narrow minded, crotchety, angry. They started loving the
traditions of the rabbis as much as the scripture itself. And it became separated
from the people. Now the Pharisees
produced many good people. They weren't all bad people. Gamaliel was a Pharisee. Josephus was a Pharisee. Paul the Apostle had his
roots in Phariseeism. He called himself a
Pharisee of the Pharisees. But over time, they got bad. Other group was the Sadducees. Not because they were
always sad, you see. Although, the name fits because
they, unlike the Pharisees, denied everything supernatural. They denied a supernatural-- they denied miracles. They denied a Resurrection. They didn't believe in angels. They did not believe
in the Old Testament scriptures except the
first five books of Moses. They were very wealthy,
very aristocratic. They controlled the
temple because they controlled the Sanhedrin. And they scorn the
legalism of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the ones
that had trouble with Jesus. And the Sadducees had
trouble with the early church in the book of Acts. Very good reason for that. The Pharisees didn't want
their legalism stepped on. And Jesus stepped on it
all day long all the time. The Sadducees were
against the church because if they denied
the Resurrection, the disciples were saying
Jesus just rose from the dead. That was the very central
tenet of their faith, The Resurrection of the Savior. So the Sadducees become the
enemies in the book of Acts. Pharisees and Sadducees
were polar opposites. Pharisees were ritualists. Sadducees were rationalist. Pharisees were legalistic. Sadducees were liberals. Pharisees were separatist. Sadducees were compromisers. They wielded political
power, schmoozed with political power in Rome to
keep their aristocratic status. OK? The people despise
the Sadducees, loved more of the
Pharisees even though they were oppressed by both groups. All of that is the setup
geopolitically, culturally, religiously so that when we open
up to Matthew we'll go, oh, OK. I get it. Herod-- OK, I get it. Feast of dedication. Oh, OK. I get it. Pharisees, Sadducees, et cetera. But here's the big deal. By the time you get
to the New Testament, now you have the gospel in
the most precise language ever, Greek. Under the most ideal
circumstances ever, Pax Romana-- or Roman
peace-- enforced peace. People who are hungrier
than ever because of Roman oppression, Medo
Persian oppression, et cetera and the gospel going
to more places than ever before, no wonder Paul
said in Galatians 4:4, so that in the fullness of the
time God sent forth his son. When the time was perfect. So silent years? Yeah, silent from heaven. But I love what JN
Darby used to say. He said, God's ways
are behind the scenes, but he moves all the
scenes that he is behind. He's backstage setting things
up for the entree of his son. So when was the 400
silent years broken? How was it broken? By a UFO. [LAUGHTER] Those shepherds heard
something, looked up. And suddenly, broadcast
from the heavens, the radio was active again. KNGL was broadcasting-- k-angel. Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace,
goodwill toward men. God's words where he was
announcing from heaven through that angel, Heaven
was speaking once again. My son, at just the
right time, has come. So God was in this speaking
business once again. And I started out with a verse. I have to close
with the same verse because I didn't
finish it on purpose. The beginning of Hebrews, I
announced, begins this way. God, who at various
times in different ways spoke in times past to our
fathers by the prophets, has-- and it would be better
translated-- has once for all spoken to us by his son, whom
he made heir of all things. And through whom also
he made the world. God's final word to
humanity was Jesus. It's his son. Here is my last
word to humanity, my son has come to
save you from your sin so that you can rule and reign
with him when he comes again. [APPLAUSE] 400 years in about, I
don't know, 55 minutes. Father, thank you that you
were working powerfully behind the scenes. Though not speaking
directly through a prophet or a poet or a law giver
or a songwriter or a seer, but you were moving so that
when the voice was active once again-- the angelic voice
announcing the Savior, and then the prophetic voice
of John the Baptist, and then finally,
the ultimate voice of our Lord Jesus who is
called the word made flesh, you were setting things up. Just like, Lord, you set it
up for us the day the night, we said yes to Jesus. You set up the right person,
the right set of circumstances, the concert, the friend we
had a conversation with, the evangelist we
went to go hear, the sermon we went to go attend. Whatever it was, you
were setting things up, just the right time. And, Lord, we're
thinking that just maybe, even though this was a history
lesson on a blank page, you may have reserved this night
for a few more who have not yet entered the Kingdom of God, who
have not said yes personally to Jesus. If you're here tonight,
your heads are bowed, our eyes are closed-- if you have not given
your life to Jesus, if you've not surrendered
your life to Him, but you want to surrender your
life to the God who has history in his hands, who
holds the universe and measures it by
the span of his hand-- you want to place your life in
the capable hands of creator and Saviour, there's a good
opportunity for you right here. No matter who you are, what
you've done, what your past is, if you haven't given
your life to Christ, but you are willing to do so-- not be just a religious person,
but a child of God by faith, or if you need to
come back home-- maybe you've wandered away
from Him, but you're willing to place
your faith in him, you just raise your
hand up in the air while our heads are bowed
and eyes are closed. Raise your hand up so
I'll notice your hand. I'll pray for you as
we close this service. I saw a hand right there. Keep it up for just a
moment so I can see. God bless you to my left. Right here in the
left, in the middle. Anybody else? Raise that hand up. God bless you in the balcony. Thank you for that hand. Anybody else? Anyone in the family room? Just raise your hand up. Way in the back, God bless you. Back row, love the back row. Father, we pray for each
one of these and pray that you'd strengthen
their commitment to faith. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
