The following Scripture passages are offered to aid beginning fellowships. The readings and commentary for this week are more in line with what has become usual; for the following will most likely be familiar observations. The concept behind this Sabbath’s selection is the second Elijah’s preaching of repentance and baptism.
Weekly Readings
For the Sabbath of March 17, 2007
The person conducting the Sabbath service should open services with two or three hymns, or psalms, followed by an opening prayer acknowledging that two or three (or more) are gathered together in Christ Jesus’ name, and inviting the Lord to be with them.
The person conducting the service should read or assign to be read Acts chapter 8.
Commentary: Before the stoning of Stephen, “many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles” (Acts 5:12), so many that multitudes of men and women “carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them” (v. 15), and “they were all healed” (v. 16).
Healing has not been well understood by the Church, either in the 1st-Century or in the 21st-Century. Certainly, healing was and is understood to be the renewing of the body of the one who lay sick. But why healing occurs, and how it occurs is one of those things that is difficult to explain (Heb 5:11) to those who are dull of hearing, an aggressive beginning to a subject that was central to Jesus’ ministry and His credibility. Thus, the argumentative claim is here made: healing is a speech-act of God the Father that occurs when He sends forth His divine Breath [pneuma hagion] as a human being utters words through modulation of his or her deep physical breath [pneuma].
The Psalmist wrote, “When you [YHWH] hide your face, they [the great creatures of the sea] are dismayed; / when you take away their breath, they die / and return to their dust. / When you send forth your Spirit [Breath as in shouted sound], they are created, / and you renew the face of the ground” (104:29-30) … God’s Breath—the Holy Spirit [pneuma hagion]—is a renewing force. When God sends it across dimensions it gives life to what was dead, thereby raising the dead (John 5:21). It gives physical life to what was physically dead as in when YHWH Elohim breathed into the nostrils of the man of mud (Gen 2:7), causing animation to occur in this clay vessel that is the first Adam. It also gives spiritual life to what was spiritually dead, as in a living human being animated by physical breath in this physical realm but without life in the heavenly realm. Note: A living human being prior to being born of Spirit is the spiritual equivalent to the physical corpse that would become the first Adam when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed life into his nostrils.
Thus, all healing comes through the renewing divine Breath of God [pneuma hagion] passing over or remaining on (or in) a person as it visibly did in the form of a dove descending upon Jesus when He emerged from being baptized (Matt 3:16).
Human utterance [speech] is confined to modulations of breath that form sound waves heard with physical ears. The dullness of hearing that Israel suffered in Isaiah’s day and was still suffering throughout Jesus’ ministry and was suffered by the saints to whom Hebrews was written did not come from any inability to hear physical utterances, but from an inability to perceive that miracles were modulations of the divine Breath of God, with these modulations forming renewing speech-acts that transcended controlled sound waves. The seven recorded miracles Jesus performed on Sabbaths were the speech-acts of the Father as he placed His approval on Sabbath observance; for it was within the power of God to cause these miracles to occur at another time. And since Jesus did not speak His own words but only the words of the Father throughout His ministry, those things that Jesus uttered and those things that Jesus did, together, can be positively identified as the speech-acts of the Father as He modulated His divine Breath to produce what was not before done. This is why Jesus said, ‘“If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father’” (John 10:37-38). To believe the works is to believe the Father, for the works of Jesus are the utterances of the Father.
Repetition is sometimes necessary for emphasis: The one who believes the works of Jesus by extension hears the words of Jesus and believes the one who sent Him (John 5:24). This person passes from death to life and does not come under judgment. This person will have been born of Spirit. Thus, to believe the works requires the ability to hear spiritual things, spiritual utterances, and is an aspect of the sheep knowing the Shepherd’s voice.
So it was not Peter’s shadow that healed, but
the Breath of God that was transferred to Peter when Jesus breathed on ten of
His disciples (John 20:22). Literally, Peter as a vessel of clay was overfilled
with the Holy Spirit, and was used by God as the spokesman for the Apostles.
Therefore, the speech-acts (the utterances) of the Father, passing through
Peter and the others, all having been drawn by the Father (John 6:44) and given
to Jesus to keep in the Father’s name (John 17:12), caused healings to
occur after Jesus’ death and glorification. These healings happened when
even the shadows of the Apostles fell across someone needing to be renewed by
the divine Breath of God; hence, the Father was doing and saying much in the
first years following
Healings occur in this world when the Father speaks through a human individual. And healings do not occur when the Father withholds His speech-acts and remains silent. It’s as simple as that.
At a certain point in early Church history the healings stopped occurring. The Father quit speaking. Why? What changed?
The answer to this question has puzzled theologians
for centuries: most theologians agree that the age of public miracles ended.
The Church was and is still in need of miracles, but something happened. Restorationists will claim that the
Church made a wrong turn, that if endtime disciples can return to the point
where this wrong turn was made then the miracles will again occur. But what
these restorationists don’t
understand is that it was not a wrong turn that was made, but the crucifixion
of the Body of Christ. The Body died from loss of divine Breath just as
Jesus’ physical body died on the cross at
In all things spiritual, the visible reveals the invisible (Rom 1:20), and the physical precedes the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46). What happened to Jesus’ visible, physical body is what happens to His invisible, spiritual Body. And what happens is that disciples are crucified with Christ, die with Christ, lay dead in the heart of the earth until the end of the third day, then are resurrected to life; for the gates of Hades shall not prevail over the Body (Matt 16:18). When the Body is resurrected to life, miracles will again occur as the Father speaks through those human beings that then form the empowered Body. Thus, the beginning reveals the end, with both the beginning and the end being Christ Jesus (Rev 22:13).
This is all too easy an explanation for why no miracles—but too easy for whom? Not for those ready for spiritual meat, the beef-eaters. It may, however, be too simple to be comprehendible by those disciples still nursing the milk of Paul’s epistles or by those disciples who avoid eating meat.
The visible ministry of John the Baptist preceded the visible public ministry of Jesus. Likewise, an invisible or mostly so ministry like that of John the Baptist will precede the endtime invisible ministry of Christ Jesus during the first half of the seven endtime years of tribulation—prior to the beginning of these seven endtime years, an invisible or nearly so ministry will again baptize disciples into repentance as it makes straight the endtime way to the Lord.
Repentance from what? From lawlessness! Sin! From
transgressing the commandments of God: John’s baptisms were not of
Gentiles, but of physically circumcised Israelites who realized, by hearing his
preaching with their ears, that they needed to repent of their transgressions
and to return to God. John did not baptize for inclusion into the
About John the Baptist, Jesus said, “‘For
all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to
accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him
hear’” (Matt 11:13-15). Elsewhere Jesus, in answering His
disciples’ question about why the scribes say that first Elijah must
come, said, “‘Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But
I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but
did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer
at their hands’” (Matt 17:11-12) … if John the Baptist were
the endtime Elijah who restores all things and turns the hearts of children to
their fathers and the hearts of fathers to their children (Mal 4:5-6), then
Jesus would not have said, He who has
ears to hear, let him hear. Throughout His ministry, Jesus utters only the
words of the Father—by His own declaration, He speaks none of His own
words. Thus, to “hear” what Jesus said about John being the Elijah
who is to come, endtime disciples need to “hear” spiritually, which
will have John the Baptist being a shadow and copy, a type, of the endtime
Elijah in a relation similar to how Jesus in His earthly ministry formed a
shadow and copy of the glorified Jesus in His endtime spiritual ministry,
during which He will be invisible throughout the first half of the seven
endtime years but works through the two witnesses, the two olive trees or two
anointed ones who stand by the Lord (cf.
Zech 4:3, 12, 14; Rev 11:4). During the second half of the seven endtime years,
the 144,000 follow the glorified Jesus wherever He leads (Rev 14:1-5), so He
remains concealed from the world, but not from the elect of natural
So there is no mistake: the position of The Philadelphia Church is that the
endtime Elijah who restores all things and who turns the hearts of the sons of
God to the Father and the Father’s heart to His sons is the glorified
Christ Jesus. This endtime Elijah is not a human being, and is certainly not
(as some who misuse the name
The one[s] who from a spiritual wilderness makes straight the endtime way of the Lord will preach repentance, and will baptize born-of-Spirit Israelites into repentance. And because of the empowerment of the twelve Paul baptized at Ephesus, those who have been baptized into repentance will be empowered by the Holy Spirit when the Body of Christ is resurrected from death at the second Passover liberation of Israel.
Again, John the Baptist was baptizing those who
were already of
Understanding that circumcision is the inclusionary rite, baptism now is for the death of the old self, a symbolic death certainly, but a real death as far as God is concerned. Baptism represents in an individual way the Flood of Noah’s day—Noah was a preacher of righteousness. To be saved from death, a person must repent from the evil ways of this world (Gen 6:5-7). A person must hear the preaching of righteousness and figuratively get on the boat, the spiritual Ark of the Covenant. Thus, baptism represents the death of the old self through repentance from sin or disobedience.
What happens when a person who is a so-called
Christian and truly believes that he or she has been born of Spirit, finds that
he or she has been living in a lawless manner, transgressing the commandments
of God? The answer is that this person should be baptized [that is fully emersed
or submerged] in water for repentance. Then this person should take to the
temple the only acceptable offering: serving God for the remainder of his or
her natural life … the person is the
We are now ready to return to Philip, one of those
scattered by Saul’s persecution of the saints, and one who went about
preaching the word of God. Philip was one of the seven who were of good repute,
full of the Spirit and of wisdom, and who had been chosen to wait tables so
that the Apostles could devote themselves to preaching the word of God (Acts
6:2-5). As one of the seven, Philip was set before the Apostles, and they
prayed and laid hands on them … note here: hands were laid on Philip by
the Apostle, and Philip was full of the Holy Spirit, but when Philip baptized
the people of
Peter could not transfer authority to bestow the Holy Spirit unto others. Only God can. Only the Father decides through whom He will speak, for the Holy Spirit [pneuma hagion] is His divine Breath, not another person within the godhead. And again, only the Father decides when He speaks and through whom.
Whereas Philip could not impart the Holy Spirit to
the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch was another story: apparently this
Ethiopian was born a Hebrew. It is unlikely that he would have been coming to
Jerusalem to worship if he was not of natural Israel, and his status as a
eunuch would not have removed the evidence of his physical circumcision …
it is likely that the prophet Daniel was a eunuch, based upon the Chaldean
practice of making eunuchs from captives. Thus, what is seen in the story of
the Ethiopian is belief followed by repentance in a manner seen on that day of
Pentecost that followed Calvary (Acts 2:38), with baptism being unto the death
of the old self which is replaced by the new self, a son of God born of Spirit.
And while precise language that says the Ethiopian received the Holy Spirit is
absent, the Holy Spirit at the time had fallen on natural
Now to what takes spiritual discernment: the
Apostle Paul lays the foundation for the spiritual house of God, not Peter,
John, James, and any of the first Apostles. The spiritual house doesn’t
descend through the Apostle Peter, just as it doesn’t descend through
Philip. It descends through Christ Jesus only, and the foundation that Paul
laid is that of Christ Jesus (1 Cor 3:10-11). Therefore, the narrative thread
that will again be picked up is the story of those twelve Israelites baptized
with the baptism of John that Paul rebaptizes at
The Church is not divided: Peter does not teach a different gospel than does Paul, nor does John teach a different gospel. But it was to Paul that the Father consigned the ministry of the Gentiles, and He confirms Paul’s ministry by having Paul deliver His speech-acts in this world.
Peter said that Paul was hard to understand, and that the lawless twisted his epistles to their own destruction (2 Pet 3:15-17). If the one who makes spiritually straight the endtime way of the Lord is a type of John the Baptist, who preached repentance, and if this endtime way builds on the foundation that Paul laid, then Paul did not preach lawlessness, but that the uncircumcised person who keeps the precepts of the law shall have his uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26). Paul preaches to the inner new creature that is not born consigned to disobedience; that is not male nor female, Jew nor Greek, free nor bond; that is not of the flesh, but is of Spirit. Therefore, what Paul preaches is to be received by the inner new creature, not necessarily by the flesh which, if ruled by this inner new creature that is circumcised of heart and mind, will by faith walk as a Judean, walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).
The person who refuses, by faith, to keep the
commandments builds on another foundation, its footers in
Those teachers of lawlessness who would have the Body ignore the commandments of God will be denied when their judgments are revealed (Matt 7:21-23). They are the spiritual descendants of 1st-Century teachers of lawlessness, who were the reason why John the Baptist had a necessary ministry before the coming of Jesus’ ministry. It is necessary today to again preach repentance as John preached repentance.
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The person conducting the Sabbath service should close services with two hymns, or psalms, followed by a prayer asking God’s dismissal.
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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."