DCW week 6 - Jesus

Good morning One River,

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at a topic called the Divine World Council view. This is the idea that there are more supernatural creatures in heaven and on earth than just angels and demons as we know them through our traditional church teachings.

We’ve looked at the nature of sin. We know that it entered the world, not through a single event in the Garden, but a complex series of events. The Garden of Eden, the Tower of Babel, the introduction of the Nephilim and the flood narrative of Noah.

We’ve looked at the Nephilim and their offspring, demons, which are disembodied spirits from these offspring. Sometimes referred to as “unclean spirits”. Unclean, meaning a mixture of two things that should never be mixed. In this case, the natural and the supernatural.

They were evil creatures in life and continue to be so in death. The Nephilim were created when Elohim from Yahweh’s divine council took positions on earth and chose to procreate with humanity. They also chose to influence our technological evolution by teaching us things that we were not yet ready for. This began with the creation of the tower of Babel but continues to this day.

I keep promising that as we follow this track eventually we’ll get to Jesus. Well guess what? Today we get to Jesus.

I have said repeatedly that this was the ancient Jewish and Christian belief of the Supernatural worldview and it was therefore Jesus’ supernatural world view. But let’s see if we can put some of the pieces together. We all know that the Jews by-and-large, never accepted Jesus. They were looking for an earthly physical Messiah to lead them to freedom through a violent insurgence and to cast out the Roman empire. But we know, that’s not what happened. Jesus was a manifestation of Yahweh, and Yahweh is a supernatural being. Jesus was sent to free us in the supernatural realm.

There are three major areas where sin entered the human world. Let’s take them one at a time and see if we can tell what Jesus thinks of this worldview. I want you to remember as we do some of the readings and tell some of the stories, that things like names and numbers are all there for a reason. They’re part of the story and used by the writers to tell us what’s going on and to make connection.

In Genesis ten we get this kinda weird, protracted genealogy of the descendants of Noah. To the casual reader it may seem a little out of place. It’s right after God and Noah settle things and Yahweh promises not to flood the earth again. Then we get this genealogy of 70 descendants that we’re told are the heads of all the nations of the earth. But the story is more about the number than the genealogy. 70 is the Jewish number for whole. It’s the bible’s way of saying everyone, the entire world was run by one government, one family, one language. I’m going to save you and not read through it. But if you have your bibles with you feel free to thumb through it. Some of the names will come up in a bit.

Then we immediately cut to the story of the Tower of Babel. I’ve read that to all of you a few times in the last few weeks and it’s a pretty famous bit, so I’m not going to read that again. But let’s cut to Deuteronomy 32:7-12

7 Remember the days of old;

consider the generations long past.

Ask your father and he will tell you,

your elders, and they will explain to you.

8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,

when he divided all mankind,

he set up boundaries for the peoples

according to the number of the sons of (God) Israel.

9 For the LORD’s portion is his people,

Jacob his allotted inheritance.

10 In a desert land he found him,

in a barren and howling waste.

He shielded him and cared for him;

he guarded him as the apple of his eye,

11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young,

that spreads its wings to catch them

and carries them aloft.

12 The LORD alone led him;

no foreign god was with him.

Again, this is Moses telling the recently freed Hebrew people their history. This is where Yahweh placed those elohim over the nations. How many? 70. When Moses is talking about portions, he’s referring to this Genealogy. Some of the ruling elohim, we don’t really know how many, but enough, became evil. They decided to turn the people under their charge to worship them. Jesus knows this. Luke 10: 1-4 tells us -

10 After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

I think we’ve long looked at the number here as 72, but the earliest translations all have this as 70. This is a direct reference to the 70 ruling elohim of the nations. When Jesus sent out his 70, he was reclaiming his father’s heavenly authority over all the nations of the earth. The harvest Jesus is speaking of, are the followers of Yahweh around the world. The workers that are few, that is chosen few, that know the truth about Jesus, gathering the people back to Yahweh.

It’s even part of his speech after he sends them out.

Luke 10:5–16 (NIV)

5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.

16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

Ok, there’s some interesting stuff happening here. First, I would point out the names. Did you recognize the names Tyre and Sidon? These are the names of places where elohim rule was established under the divine council. Jesus wants you to connect these two events when he’s talking about sending out the 70.

This has all happened either while Jesus was preparing them to be sent out, or as they were out. The timing changes during this pericope. 5-9 Jesus is giving them instruction on how to behave. But 12-16 seems to take place while there out. Either that or Jesus was telling them ahead of time where they would not be welcome.

But right there in verse 11 we see. “Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.” This is an arrival verse. Jesus is telling them flat out Yahweh is moving. The kingdom of heaven is arriving, it’s come near.

But why? Why now? Because he sent out the 70. They’re actively working to reclaim the leadership for the elohim of the opposing kingdom. They’re casting out demons, all under the name of Jesus. The one Yahweh has appointed as the new ruler of all.

If you remember last week, we read the conclusion to this piece.

Luke 10:17–20 (NIV)

17 The seventy returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

We talked last week about Satan and his final fall. This is it. He fell, the final time, never to return when Jesus sent out the 70 to reclaim the authority of heaven and earth under the rule of Jesus.

This is where the nature of Jesus comes into play. See. For basically the first 500 years of the early church, all the debates that raged on in the church intellectual circles were about Jesus. What was his nature. We finally figured it out after much debate and a couple of priestly fist fights. Jesus is fully God, and Fully man. We don’t know how this works exactly. It’s called one of the great mysteries of our faith. But it was because of this nature he was able to use his supernatural power and title to fight against Satan and win in the supernatural realm, while reclaiming the earthly kingdom, which at the time, was the residence he presided in.

All the strings connect. Has anyone ever told you why Jesus needed to be fully man and fully Elohim? This is it. The conundrum of the ruling authorities. Yahweh demanded that the new ruler be Elohim, that was the nature of the relationship He setup after the fall of Babel. But it needed to be someone human to reunite the kingdoms as was always His heavenly plan.

There are many stories in scripture about having a united kingdom. Initially the Hebrews had one ruler. Yahweh, whom they followed. He acquiesced to their request, in the form of Saul. That didn’t work well. It split the leadership between the kingly ruling class and the heavenly or priestly class. Israel spent much of its time over the centuries trying to reunite the office of the “High Priest” and the king. They had a few instances of success. But, it was always brief, and it NEVER turned the people back to Yahweh.

Jesus, fully man and fully Elohim, filled all of these offices. He alone was the embodiment of Yahweh. He alone had the authority to undo the years of Israelite and human sin. He alone could usurp the usurper. He alone could take over the heavenly ruler of the earth and while reuniting the earthly offices of king and High Priest. It was Jesus and he needed to come exactly as he did. He walked back the powers of Satan and the Faustian bargains we made to save us from ourselves.

Jesus came to earth prepared to do battle. It just wasn’t an earthly battle. Let’s look at another example. What are some ways you can think of that Yahweh deals with sin? Water, right?

Genesis 7:1–4 (NIV)

The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

Yahweh sent a flood to wipe sin from the earth. Then he promised never to do it again, despite the fact that this didn’t actually solve our sin issue, or our Nephilim problem.

How about this one?

Exodus 14:21–28 (NIV)

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt.”

26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. 28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

Same story, sin, unrepentance, Yahweh cleansed this issue with water. But if we follow this story, how did the Hebrews do? They sinned again quickly, and God sentenced them to walk the desert for 40 years.

Are we starting to see a pattern. I know it takes 3 to make a pattern, trust me I’m getting there. We see the number 40 and we see cleansing by water. So far these are both failed attempts to reclaim the supernatural authority of Yahweh on the earthly plain.

Which don’t get me wrong. I don’t think any of this surprised Yahweh. He knows His people. He had a plan since the beginning. He set the stage for Jesus.

What does this have to do with Jesus. Where to we see water, 40, and sin or in Jesus’ case temptation?

Matthew 3:13–4:11 (NIV)

The Baptism of Jesus

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

– What does that mean? It’s Jesus walking through water, being flooded and how did the heavenly kingdom respond?

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

-Yahweh himself testifies on Jesus’ behalf. So he survived the flood, and walked through the water to cleanse himself. Yes, even though he really didn’t need to be absolved of his sins. There’re two things happening here. He’s modeling a behavior for us, and he’s walking through all of our failures and passing the tests. Literally the next thing is scripture shows us this.

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

This is the first test of our failures. We ate the forbidden fruit. Jesus is tempted with bread, but refrains and passes the test.

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

This is the second of our failures, “you can be like Yahweh, climb high. You too can be like a god.” This is the tower of babel. Again, Jesus passes this test. He made it.

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Remember, this is actually Satan’s domain here. These kingdoms are his to give, and he wants us to worship him.

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

He’s reclaiming the authority structure. We’re done worshiping false god’s, evil, self-seeking elohim. There is only one Yahweh. Away from me Satan.

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Jesus walked out the recreation of our greatest hits of supernatural sin. He passed them all, so that he could reclaim the authority that we lost to earthly powers and principalities.

Alright, I think this is a good place to stop for today. Questions?