THE REBIRTH OF A KINGDOM PART 2

Genesis chapter 3













Today we are walking in: The Rebirth Of A Kingdom Part 2!!!!!

















Today we look to the word- CHANGE- H2015- haphak- a primitive root; to turn about or over; by implication, to change, overturn, return, pervert:—become, change, come, be converted, give, make (a bed), overthrow overturn), perverse, retire, tumble, turn (again, aside, back, to the contrary, every way).












The Torah Testifies…………….






Genesis 35:2




Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that werewith him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change H2015 your garments:




Leviticus 27:10




He shall not alter it, nor change H2015 it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change H2015 beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.







Leviticus 27:33




He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change H2015 it: and if he change H2015 it at all, then both it and the change H2015 thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.












The Prophets Proclaim………





Jeremiah 2:36




Why gaddest thou about so much to change H2015 thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.






Zechariah 3:4




And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change H2015 of raiment.






Malachi 3:6




For I am the LORD, I change H2015 not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.










The Writings witness……………





Job 14:14




If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change H2015 come.






Psalm 102:26




They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change H2015 them, and they shall be changed:






Proverbs 24:21




My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change H2015:







The King-Son Reintroduced the Kingdom of Heaven to Humanity




Yahusha’ first declaration in his public ministry was essentially his mission statement: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” He continually repeated this same message for three and-a-half years during his entire ministry on earth. Throughout the written record of his life in the New Testament writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we find him restating his central theme of the kingdom of heaven. Sometimes, he would use the phrase the kingdom of Yah. While these phrases are essentially the same, you could say that the kingdom of heaven is the place, while the kingdom of Yah is the influence. The kingdom of heaven is the headquarters, the invisible country where the King-Father resides. The kingdom of Yah is the influence of that country on its territories. Here is a sample of the King-Son’s other statements concerning the kingdom:




√ Yahusha went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.




√ “But if I drive out demons by the Ruach of Yah, then the kingdom of Yah has come upon you.”




√ “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants....”




√ “The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard....”




√ “The kingdom of Yah will be...given to a people who will produce its fruit.”




HaSatan (also called Satan) knew that the King-Son had come to overthrow him to restore the heavenly kingdom on earth. He therefore tried to tempt Yahusha away from his mission by appealing to his natural human desire to exercise dominion over the earth. Notice that HaSatan tried to get Yahusha to substitute the kingdoms of the world for the kingdom of heaven, which is basically the same thing with which he had tempted Adam and Eve. This would allow HaSatan to maintain his oppressive domination and destruction of the earth. Yet the King-Son was totally loyal to the kingdom. He countered HaSatan’s temptation by rebuking him with the words of the King-Father, which were first given to the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. The New Testament book of Matthew records,




HaSatan took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Yahusha said to him, “Away from me, HaSatan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Most High your Yah, and serve him only.’” Then HaSatan left him.




Baptism into Kingdom Philosophy




Yahusha’ temptation by HaSatan occurred right after his baptism by John. Many people are confused about the true nature of baptism and why Yahusha himself was baptized. While baptism is treated as a religious ritual by many people, it is actually a very practical act that is related to the will of the King and his desire for the colony of earth.




Changing One’s Thinking and Lifestyle




At the time Yahusha lived on earth, various rabbis, teachers, and groups (such as the Sadducees) baptized their followers. Baptism in this context meant you were publicly declaring you believed in a particular teacher and his philosophy. In fact, to a large degree, this was the significance of the baptism of John, which John referred to as a “baptism of repentance.” Our contemporary connotation of the word repentance doesn’t really convey John’s meaning. In its essence, repentance does not mean crying or wailing over wrongdoing. It simply means to change your mind, to reverse your way of thinking and acting. When a person was baptized, he was signaling that he was changing his thinking and actions and aligning them with the views and life of the teacher he had committed himself to follow.




This type of teacher-student relationship was not uncommon. The Old Testament makes references to “the company of the prophets,” also called the “schools of the prophets.” These particular prophets were closely associated with the well-known prophets Elijah and Elisha, supporting them and learning from them. In New Testament times, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Herodians had disciples. Outside the biblical world, we note similar teacher-learner arrangements among the Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and their followers. A philosopher, of course, is someone who sets forth his own ideas about life. Philosophers attract people who want to learn their ideas and imitate their lifestyles, and these become their students or disciples. The Greek word we translate as disciple means “learner” or “pupil.” Disciples were personally trained by their masters in the masters’ philosophies and belief systems, perhaps traveling with them as they learned to think and act like their masters.




Joining a School of Thought




When you became a student of a philosopher or other teacher, you joined what is called his school of thought. Schools were not originally associated with buildings. They were essentially the ideas unique to a teacher. They were the teacher’s philosophical concepts and ways of thinking, which he passed along to his followers.




From this perspective, the significance of baptism is not the water or even the act of being baptized—it has to do with the transformation of your way of thinking and living. When you were baptized in the name of your master teacher, you were saying, “I am choosing you above every other available teacher, philosopher, rabbi, and leader, and I am publicly declaring that I am submitting to your school of thought. I’m going to be associated with you only, so that whenever people see me, they’re going to know, ‘He belongs to that teacher.’”




As I mentioned, at the time of Yahusha, there were a number of teachers and philosophers, and all had their own schools of thought and their own disciples. In that culture, a man couldn’t begin such a school until he was thirty years old because this was the age at which a young man could be officially designated as a master teacher.




Therefore, when the Creator of heaven and earth himself came to earth as a man, he entered the culture of the day and presented himself in a way that the people would understand the life-changing nature of his message and its requirement of total commitment to him. It was at age thirty that Yahusha began his public ministry, became the ultimate Master Teacher, and welcomed those who desired to follow him. The kingdom was the embodiment of his teaching.




Yahusha’ Message Was in Harmony with John’s Message




Note that John the Baptist had been presenting the same message about the kingdom. Yahusha was fully aware of John’s message when he went to him for baptism. Many people are at first surprised to read of the King-Son submitting to a master teacher for baptism. Yet he did this to demonstrate to the people of the world that his teaching was not independent of John’s; rather, he was in total harmony with it. In fact, Yahusha himself was the fulfillment of the teaching of John who, as the faithful prophet of the King-Father, was proclaiming the message of the kingdom and preparing the way for the King-Son’s appearance in the world.




John had been gaining a number of disciples, and when people came to him with a sincere desire to repent (to change their thinking and lifestyle from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of heaven), he baptized them. Yet when Yahusha went to him for baptism, John was taken aback and said, in essence, “You should be the teacher, not me!” John recognized Yahusha as the King who would send the Governor to earth. In fact, John had said to the people earlier, “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Ruach HaQadesh.”




Yahusha, however, replied to John, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” He was saying, “I understand your reluctance to act as master teacher to me. However, in order to demonstrate to the world that I am aligned with the kingdom of heaven, I need to be identified with it through baptism. I need to publicly declare that I belong to the school of the kingdom of heaven, that I am fully integrated with the mind and ways of the kingdom.”




The Kingdom School Transferred to Yahusha




When a master teacher was no longer able to teach, he would decide which of his disciples would succeed him. Whoever was chosen to take his place would automatically gain his students. Yahusha had to be a part of John’s school in order to take over leadership of it. And John turned the whole school over to Yahusha; he released his disciples to him, indicating that Yahusha was the one they should follow because he was the King who would restore them to the kingdom. The New Testament book of John records,




The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Yahusha passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of Yah!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Yahusha. Turning around, Yahusha saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Yahusha.




Most importantly, we should note that the King-Father had appointed Yahusha as the ultimate Master Teacher of the kingdom school. After Yahusha submitted to John’s baptism to show that he was immersed in the philosophy of the kingdom and in alignment with it, what happened to him? The Ruach HaQadesh—the Governor—descended on him. The New Testa- ment book of Matthew says,




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




The King-Father was confirming, “This one has the Ruach HaQadesh; he is my Son, and he is fully integrated with my thoughts and ways. He is the one who will restore my Ruach to the earth.” Later on, the King-Father affirmed that Yahusha was the one whom his disciples were to listen to above all others, when he said, as documented in the book of Mark and elsewhere in the New Testament, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”




Yahusha had many disciples or students, but he chose twelve to be in full-time traveling work with him and to learn from him in an intense training relationship. Among these were the notable apostles Peter, James, and John. When Yahusha called various of his disciples, saying, “Follow me,” he was inviting them to join the school of the kingdom of heaven.




We are followers of Yahusha when we have decided to identify with the life and message of the King-Son and submit to him as our Master Teacher. Yahusha said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both Yah and Money.” Although this statement was about money, it also has broader application. In the context of baptism, it tells us, “You cannot be in two schools. You cannot have two philosophies that are in contradiction to one another.”