This program is brought to you by Israel Restoration Ministries.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org.
That’s friendshipwithgod.org.
Welcome to Friendship with God with our Bible teacher, Tom Cantor. Today’s message and previous messages can be listened to or downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org.
But he said, untie this body, and in three days I’ll raise it up. And he raised it up, he used an interesting word, igero, which is the same word which is used in Romans 13, 11. Romans 13, 11, which says, and knowing that the time, that now it is high time to awake igero out of sleep.
In Ephesians 5, 14, Ephesians 5, 14, 14, it says, wherefore he sayeth, awake igero thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life. That’s the word that describes being resurrected out of death. It is the word to wake up, wake up.
Actually, Daniel tells us that everyone will be resurrected out of death. Everyone will wake up after they die in Daniel 12.2, Daniel 12.2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Everyone’s gonna wake up after they die. Everyone’s gonna wake up because death for everyone is a sleep to be wakened up from. And that waking up, it’s either gonna be a wake up in heaven to what Daniel calls Daniel 12.2, Daniel 12.2, waking up to everlasting life, or it’s a waking up where it’s opening the eyes in hell, which Daniel calls in Daniel 12.2.
He calls that waking up to shame and everlasting contempt. That’s what happened to the rich man when he opened his eyes in Luke 16.23, Luke 16.23, and in hell, he lift up his eyes being in torments, and see that Abraham afar off. Now, when it says that in Luke 16.23, Luke 16.23, in hell, he lift up his eyes, that means he woke up in hell.
But here in verse 19, Jesus said that in three days, he would wake up or be raised up, and that’s what he meant. And that’s what every believer can expect. When he closes his eyes in death, that he’s only going to sleep.
And he’s gonna wake up in heaven. What a wonderful hope. That’s why Christ said about Lazarus in John 11.
John 11, 11, these things said he, that after he saith unto him, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said to the disciples, Lord, if you sleep, you shall do well. Albeit Jesus spake of his death, but they thought he spoke of taking, the rest, and sleep.
Then said Jesus plainly unto them, Lazarus is dead. So this idea that it’s all over when you die, it’s not true, it’s not true. And again, it reminds me of Israeli family, again, hosted in Loretto, and they were telling me about a friend they had in Israel who didn’t wanna live any longer.
So she went to Switzerland where suicide is legal. And there’s a hotel in Zurich for suicide where people go and they sit down in a comfortable chair and they put the IV into their veins. And then they leave the room, so the person’s just alone there, and the person has a lever.
And when he pushes the lever down, then flows into their vein the poison that kills them. And they think, well, when you’re dead, you’re dead. But the reality is switching that lever does not end it all.
There’s a waking up after death that every person will experience. Now, it’s very interesting that Christ referred to his body as a temple. As a temple.
There’s a lot of parallels. For example, a temple was the place where God was, and Jesus is Emmanuel. He is God, with us.
In Solomon’s Temple, when it was completed, we read in 2 Chronicles 7-1, 2 Chronicles 7-1, when Solomon had made an end of praying, fire came down from heaven, consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple, filled the house. So as God filled the temple, so we read about Jesus in Colossians 2-9, Colossians 2-9, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily. Now, people came to the temple to be healed.
They came to the temple to be healed, and that’s why they came to Jesus. Acts 10-38, Acts 10-38, God anointed Jesus Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. But from the very start of the temple, that nucleus building called the Tabernacle, God told Moses in Exodus 25-21, Exodus 25-21, Thou shalt put the mercy seat above the ark, upon the ark, and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony I’ll give thee.
There I will meet with thee and commune with thee. So it was there in the temple where God met man. And it’s in Jesus where God meets man.
As it says in 1 Timothy 2-5, 1 Timothy 2-5, for there’s one God, one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, brings him together. Worshippers were told, no matter where you are in the world, face toward Jerusalem and pray. Look toward Jerusalem and pray.
1 Kings 8-30, 1 Kings 8-30. Harken thou to the supplication of thy servant, of thy people Israel. When they shall pray toward this place, hear thou in heaven and dwelling place, and when thou hear us, forgive.
And when we pray, we look toward Jesus when we pray. Hebrews 12-2, Hebrews 12-2. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Now, that nucleus of the temple or the traveling temple or the tabernacle gave people direction in the wilderness. When they should move, when they should not move. Exodus 13-21, Exodus 13-21, the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way.
And this is what Jesus does. He is our great counselor. He’s the wonderful counselor who tells us what to do in life.
Also, that traveling temple, the tabernacle gave the people in the wilderness light in the darkness, as it says in Exodus 13-21, Exodus 13-21. And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. And that’s what Jesus does.
In the darkness of our life, Jesus speaks, John 8-12, 8-12. Then speak Jesus again to them saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
And of course, the first thing that people encountered when they went to the temple was the altar, the sacrifice, the place of the sacrifice. That was the place. As God said in Leviticus 17-11, Leviticus 17-11, the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for their souls.
It’s the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. And on the cross, Christ was the altar. He was the sacrifice on the altar, like in the temple.
Now, when the Jews responded to Christ, which they did there in verse 20, verse 20, they said 40 and 6 years was this temple in building. Now, they meant that the temple was 46 years into the construction project. It had been building for 46 years.
It was a construction project which was started by Herod, and it was going to take another about 20 years longer to actually finish because there was the actual temple, there were the grounds, there were the buildings around the temple, and those took a long time. But the outer part of the temple, that was not built yet. That was still in construction.
And like I said, it was completed about 20 years after Christ died on the cross, and the actual finished temple only survived for about 10 years until the destruction caused by Titus and his army came and destroyed Jerusalem, 70 AD. So, this is what they’re referring to when they say that 46 years was this temple in construction and you’re going to raise it up in three days. But in verse 21, John, as an author here, he wants to make it very clear to us and to everybody who’s reading his book that he’s talking about his body.
And so, he says in verse 21, verse 21, but he spake of the temple of his body. Now, that’s interesting because then there’s a little note after that about the disciples and what they were thinking. And so, it says in this little note, which is very interesting in verse 21, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said the son to them and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had said.
So, what this is saying in verse 21 is that they heard him say, destroy this body and in three days and I’ll raise it up. John plugs in here, this little note. He’s talking about his body.
But his disciples, they don’t get it. They don’t really understand what he meant when he said, destroy this body and in three days, I’ll raise it up. But it says in verse 22 that they remembered this after he was risen from the dead.
They put the pieces together after it was risen from the dead. And then they believed it. Now, that really does lead us to believe that the disciples didn’t really fully understand at the time what Jesus meant by this prophetic statement about his body was going to be destroyed in three days, he was going to raise it up again.
But even though they didn’t understand, they kept it in their minds, in their memories, in their hearts. So that after Christ was raised from the dead, they understood. Then they understood.
To me, that gives me the path for how to deal with future events and prophecy. Everybody’s asking me, is this or that? This is happening, that’s happening.
And a guiding verse for how to deal with prophecy is isaiah 42 23. isaiah 42 23, which says, Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?
That’s the principle. The guiding principle for dealing with future events, as given to us in prophecy, is isaiah 42 23. isaiah 42 23.
Hear for the time to come. That’s what the disciples did. They heard him say destroy this body, prophetic, destroy this body in the three days they’ll raise it up.
They heard it for the time to come. They heard it, they remembered it. It was in their mind.
They didn’t put it away. They didn’t, but they heard it for the time to come when they would understand. So just as those disciples hear, listen to what Jesus said about destroying his body and him raising it up again, and they kept what he said which was about the resurrection in their hearts, then after the resurrection happened, then they understood.
To me, that’s what we should do. That’s isaiah 42, 23 in action. isaiah 42, 23, here for the time to come.
Now, people ask me about prophecy, and I tell them, I’ll tell you after it happens.
I always saw that.
Because I don’t like to be wrong. So I’ll tell you after it happens, and we don’t really need to know all the exact one, two, three details for the future. All we need to know about prophecy is isaiah 42, 23.
isaiah 42, 23, here for the time to come. Here for the time to come. Just keep the prophecies in mind, as they will become revealed in the future.
You know, the great mathematician, Pythagoras, Scott, you know all about Pythagoras. You know, he has his famous theorem. Scott could tell you the Pythagorean.
He could actually tell you how to pronounce the word. But he said about his theories, he had a lot of theories. He said about his theories, he told his students this.
He told his students, you should freeze my theories until you’re 40 years old, he said. And then they’ll begin to thaw out. He said that.
So what Christ said about the resurrection destroyed this body, and in three days, I’ll raise it up. Verse 19. It just kind of froze inside the disciples.
And after the resurrection, then the words of Christ thawed out in the disciples, resulting in them believing the truth that Jesus really was resurrected from the dead. And that thawing out process is seen in two of his disciples when they walked to Emmaus, and they walked to the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, 45. Luke 24, 45, when it says what Christ did, it says, Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.
So the thawing out process in those two disciples happened when Christ did, Luke 24, 45, Luke 24, 45, then Jesus opened their understanding. The prophecy, the events, he opened their understanding. So prophecy, events will explain the prophecy.
When it happens, it will explain the prophecy. That’s what happened with the disciples. They heard this, destroyed this body, and three days and they raise it up.
It froze in them, they didn’t understand it, but they kept it in the freezer. They kept it in the freezer of their minds. And then the events, the empty tube, they explained the prophecy that in three days he would raise up.
Okay. Now we read in verse 23. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did.
It was the miracles that convinced many that Jesus Christ was as his name described him. Jesus, which means God saves, literally, and it is through Jesus that God saves. Christ means Messiah or sent by God.
It was God the Father that sent Jesus into the world. So when the people saw the miracles, they put it together in his name and they say, oh, he is the one sent by God to save us. That’s what they believed.
And now we read in the next verse, a particular caution that Jesus exercised in the last two verses, verse 24 and 25. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. So what were we reading here?
We’re reading here that Jesus had a distrust of these new believers. He didn’t trust them, says that, because he knew what was in them. What did he know that was in them that caused him not to trust them?
He knew that this same crowd on Palm Sunday was going to cry out Mark 11, 9, Mark 11, 9, they that went before and they that followed cried, saying, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And he knew that it was going to be these same people in less than a week on Good Friday who were also going to cry out Luke 23, 21, Luke 23, 21. But they cried, saying, crucify him, crucify him.
And so he knew this, so he didn’t trust these new believers because, verse 24, verse 24, he knew all men because, verse 25, verse 25, he knew what was in man. So the powerful hands of Christ made all these people, but the powerful eyes of Christ saw who they really were. He saw who they really were.
We can’t do that. He didn’t need for anyone like us to tap on them on the shoulders, say, well, let me give you the lowdown about this person. He didn’t need that because he knew what was inside people, and his eyes run back and forth across the whole earth.
2 Chronicles 16, 9, 2 Chronicles 16, 9, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. We only know what’s on the outside of man. We only know people by their acts.
But Christ knows what’s on the inside of man. He knows their thoughts just like the Word of God. The Word of God says about itself in Hebrews 412, Hebrews 412, the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrows, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Normally, if somebody knows a secret about you, knows something very intimate that not everybody else knows, there’s a fear, what if he tells somebody else? What if he exposes me?
What if he uses that against me? Never happens with Christ. He never uses his knowledge about us just to expose us, just to embarrass us, just to put us to shame, just to hurt us.
He doesn’t do that. He uses the knowledge about us to help us. And that makes Christ wonderful.
And this also makes Christ a great physician because he alone knows what’s on the inside. I mean, people go to psychiatrists, they call them shrinks, you know, to try to find out what’s wrong with me. Christ knows.
He knows what’s wrong on the inside. Now, and this can be the biggest challenge for psychiatrists, for doctors. What is wrong reminds me of my cousin’s trainer, that my cousin’s trainer has a terrible pain right now in her side.
And they don’t know what it’s from. They suspect maybe the Covine vaccine or maybe the fact that she got Covine. They don’t know.
Terrible pain. And so trying to find out, and the doctors can’t tell. They don’t know what the pain is from.
And she lives with this terrible pain. For her, her prayer is, oh, for a doctor who could find out what’s wrong with me. This is what’s so great about Christ.
Because verse 25, verse 25, he knew what was in man, and he doesn’t use it to hurt us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And that’s what makes his correction so valuable.
As the Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3, 16. 2 Timothy 3, 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So there we have it. Really, there shouldn’t be a chapter break here, especially here.
They asked me where the chapter break should go. I would have said, put it up at verse 18, but then would never ask me. So the reason there shouldn’t be a chapter break here is because the flow from what’s being said here among these religious Jews is a setup for saying not every religious Jew believes that and move into Nicodemus.
But anyway, in this passage, what we have seen so far is Christ coming to his temple and he’s really come in the office of a prophet, priest, and king. As a prophet, he here now is predicting the future that his body will be destroyed and he will be rebuilt. As a priest, he’s restoring the temple to a place of prayer.
And as a king, he’s come with authority over his temple to cleanse the temple. Let’s pray. Father, thank you so much for our wonderful Christ, and it’s so great to say that our Christ and not just Christ.
We thank you, Lord, for him. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Tom Cantor’s messages can be listened to and downloaded for free at friendshipwithgod.org. For other free resources, email us at tomcantor at friendshipwithgod.org or call us at 800-247-3051. Join our live services on YouTube by searching Friendship with God with Tom Cantor every Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
What are you doing Sunday nights? Come join Friendship with God radio Bible teacher Tom Cantor of the Friendship with God Fellowship Church every Sunday night at 5:30 p.m. at The Vine at 9336 Abraham Way, Santee, California. Watch and listen live around the world to Tom Cantor Sunday evening on youtube.com by searching for Friendship with God Fellowship or by going to our homepage at friendshipwithgod.org That’s friendshipwithgod.org This program is brought to you by Israel Restoration Ministries.
