New Testament Stories with Deeper Meanings...

did you know that jesus' Great Commission was fulfilled within the first eight chapters of the book of Acts did you know that Ephesians 3:10 although often skipped over is one of the most profound verses in all of the Bible or what about the hidden significance of the verse that describes the shield of faith in the armor of God this is part two to the deeper meanings video I uploaded not long ago and some of today's stories absolutely blew my mind whether it's rooted in the ancient culture an enlightening Old Testament reference or a real world

example I'm pretty certain most of you won't know all five let me know downstairs if you had them all figured out and of course if this content does bless you please consider subscribing it's free and helps out a lot in Matthew Jesus calls Christians to be the salt of the earth and there's much debate over what that salt actually represents regardless of which one you hold to the last part of the verse is oddly specific he says that once salt loses its saltiness it's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and Trampled

Under fooot This may be referring to the Roman practice of salting the streets anyone from Canada will know that salt is used to cover the roads in winter so that Vehicles can use them without slipping off I did of course confirm this with a Canadian myself it's possible that Jesus is saying that once we lose our salt we've backslidden and are tossed onto the road to be trample so that others who walk the path don't make the same mistake as we did and slip off before jesus' Ascension at the start of the book of Acts

he mentions a phrase we often Overlook his parting words to his disciples include the first locations the gospel would be spread Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the ends of the Earth now if we flip from chapter 1:8 to CH 8:1 we find something very intriguing after giving an incredible Spirit-filled speech to his adversaries Steven is the first Christian to be martyred here is where we are first introduced to Saul the persecutor of Christians but check out what the very next verse has to say on that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem

and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria this verse alone ticks off three of the locations mentioned by Jesus by name not even halfway into acts the gospel is being spread via this persecution to all the right places but that's not all in the very same chapter Philip baptizes an Ethiopian unic a very rich and influential Gentile who undoubtedly took the gospel message back to his hometown in Africa right at the edge of the Romans occupation which would have been considered by many the end of the Earth and also could be the

location of one of the first and oldest churches to ever exist So within one chapter the gospel had reached all the locations Jesus specified to his Apostles I discovered something I think you find quite interesting about the armor of God specifically The Shield of Faith the passage tells us to take up the shield of Faith so that we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the devil on the surface it seems to make sense protecting ourselves from spiritual attack but when we understand it in its ancient military context we get a far more detailed picture from

the enduring word commentary Paul here is describing not a small round Shield but a large oblong one designed to protect the whole body at the start of the battle Great Waves of fiery darts were fired not to injure the soldiers but to throw them into confusion and panic because of the fiery nature of these darts the shields would often Catch Fire tempting the soldiers to discard their Shield leaving them open for enemy spear thrusts The Shield of faith not only blocks the flaming arrows of the enemy but extinguishes them dissipating the chaos and panic entirely

meaning that the shield of faith is both a reliable defense and a means to advance upon the enemy jesus' Resurrection launched our world into what we call the church age but have you ever asked the question what is the true purpose of the church is it a place of Fellowship for believers is it a place of learning the scriptures from the pulpit or is it something much much much bigger Ephesians 3:10 is a verse that is so frequently skimmed over by readers but might actually answer the question on a scale you've never imagined before we

know the church has had an unquestionable impact on our realm but have you ever taken a second to consider the impact the church has had on the Unseen Realm of the spiritual World a few chapters after this incredible verse which I'll read in a moment we get a glimpse into a dark side of of the Heavenly realm one dominated by rulers and authorities and spiritual forces of evil it seems these forces are hellbent on not only undermining God's wisdom and Authority but also trying to destroy Humanity but this is where Ephesians 3:10 changes everything his

intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the Heavenly Realms God's ultim purpose in creating the church was not to provide a community for the Christian not to teach the believer through the pulpit but to use it as a pedestal to prove his wisdom to the rulers and authorities in his completed salvation plan the product being the Gathering of millions of diverse Sinners United under God's grace undermining Satan entirely after Peter's thirdd denial during Christ's arrest we're all familiar with the

infamous rooster crow that reminded Peter of the promise that he' just broken well that's what I thought until I read this comment which stopped me in my tracks claiming that the roosters weren't allowed in the city of Jerusalem of course I had to research it and what I discovered was that this dude is actually on to something the mishna is the earliest record of the Jewish oral law and it states that roosters or chickens may not be raised in Jerusalem due to Purity concerns they that the chickens would bring impurities from the streets in contact

with the sacrificial meat rendering it impure so if roosters were not permitted in Jerusalem does that mean this story is incorrect well the missioner again describes activities that went on in Jerusalem's temple one of which was the morning routine of the Priestly family on duty whoever was responsible for clearing the ashes from the previous day would rise early and begin preparations for the Temple's daily visitors this time was called cockro because it it was typically aligned with the roosters crow but this is where things get interesting at cockro they blew a sustained a quavering and

another sustained blast meaning that two trumpet blasts were blown to signify the start of the proceedings which is what we find in Mark's gospel this means that Jesus was referring to a specific time in the morning which Peter would have understood and also symbolizes the trumpet sound that started jesus' death the ultimate high priest who would ultimately cleanse the world of sin how many of those five meanings had you heard of before each one of these stories gave me a light bulb moment when I first heard them and I hope one or two had the

same effect on you please let me know in the comments of any crazier deeper meanings that you found in your own Christian Life and of course if anything I said was complete heresy but remember we are supposed to be Christians so please don't be too Savage to each other in the comments section we're representing Christ here love you guys God bless