This is the final post of our Angels and Demons blog series. I hope you have enjoyed reading these as much as I have enjoyed writing them. It is incredible to really dive into the battle in which we are engaged. And just a bit overwhelming. The battle is real, the enemy is powerful and evil, and the war is won!

Today, we’ll conclude the series by looking at the role angels played in the most significant event in history. We’ve already seen that angels are messengers from God. They bring news and instruction to His people. This was never more true than on the morning of the resurrection. Here we find two followers of Jesus going to the tomb where His body had been laid three days earlier.

Suddenly there was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his robe was as white as snow. The guards were so shaken from fear of him that they became like dead men. But the angel told the women, "Don't be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here! For He has been resurrected, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. (Matthew 28:2-6)

What a privilege for this angel to be the first to proclaim, “He is not here! He is risen from the dead.” No greater news has ever been proclaimed by a herald. It is important to note that when the stone was rolled away Jesus was already gone. He overcame death. The angel didn’t come to let Jesus out, but to let them in. In John’s account, we see another message from the angels to Mary Magdalene.

She saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where Jesus' body had been lying. They said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" (John 20:12-13)

This is a great picture, and one that would have been very familiar to the Jewish people. Two angels sat where Jesus had been, one at the foot and one at the head. When God instructed the Israelites to construct the Ark of the Covenant, He had them place an angel at each end of the cover with their wings spread over what was called the mercy seat. The presence of God would then appear in a cloud above the mercy seat, between the angels. Surely when God gave this instruction, He looked out across time to see His Son lying between the wings of these angels, the culmination of His appearance to and provision for humanity. When Mary arrived only the angels remained. Christ had overcome death!

The battle which we now wage on His behalf isn’t waged to bring about victory. The victory is already won. Rather, we fight to make Him known, to increase His glory, to remove blindness, and to see His kingdom evidenced on earth. In His name, even the demons will submit. (Luke 10:17)

Thank you for joining me on this blog journey through the unseen realm.

Till next time!

Today’s Scripture Reading:   Lev. 23:9-14; Matt. 28:1-10; 1 Cor. 15:20-28

“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

Where do I start today? There is so much that could be said. But I am going to focus primarily on the Feast of Firstfruits. If you're anything like me this is probably something you haven’t heard much about. However, the significance of the timing of this festival is incredible. God told Moses to tell the Israelites that when they entered the Promised Land and harvested their crops, they were to celebrate by bringing the firstfruits to the priest. He would then wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on their behalf. This was done after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is important to note that this was not after the High Sabbath but rather the weekly Sabbath. Thus this was always done on the first day of the week.

Now we have the women, including Mary Magdalene and others, coming to the tomb on the first day of the week, and finding the tomb empty. Christ was risen, the first of the harvest of those who have fallen asleep. Christ was the firstfruits just as 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us. Just as we were made dead to sin in Christ, so we were made alive in Christ. This was a day of triumph. 

Throughout scripture, God continually used this time of the year to demonstrate a renewed hope for His people.  This was true for the nation of Israel, and now it is true for all who trust in Him as their source of Salvation.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Do you face issues in your life that seem impossible to overcome?
2. Are you willing to trust in the power and love of Jesus who overcame death itself to be our Firstfruits?
3. Finally, are you willing to proclaim the hope you have in Him?

Thank you for joining me for an in-depth look at how the Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits all pointed to the perfect sacrifice offered by Jesus on the cross. I hope you found it both enjoyable and life-changing.

Check back often for updates on my adventures in publishing my book, as well as writing and editing the next one, not to mention all the other fun adventures that may come along.

HE IS RISEN!!!

Today’s Scripture Reading:   Exodus 12:1-6; Mark 12:13-34; Luke 22:66-23:14 

“Your lamb shall be without blemish,”

Here we see that the requirement for the Passover lamb was that it be without blemish. They would select the lamb on the 10th of Nisan and keep it under watch until the 14th of Nisan. This gave them time to inspect and observe it for any type of blemish. As we saw Sunday, Jesus was led into Jerusalem on the 10th of Nisan. So what was happening between the 10th and the 14th. Amazingly enough, He was being inspected. Look at the words used to describe the discussions Jesus had with the various religious leaders during this time period.

“The chief priest and the elders … confronted Him” (Matt. 21:23)

“The Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him …” (Mark 12:13)

“Some Sadducees, … asked Him” (Mark 12:18)

“One of the scribes … asked Him” (Mark 12:28)

Were all of these religious leaders coming to Jesus to learn from Him? No, they were trying to find fault with Him. They wanted to find a reason to kill Him. Ironically, it was the fact that they couldn’t find fault with Him, thus He was without blemish, that made Him the perfect sacrifice. Beyond these indirect methods of questioning we also see that on the 14th Jesus was actually put on trial to find a reason to kill Him. The inability of the Jewish leaders to produce two or three witnesses that could agree meant that, according to Deut. 17:6, He could not be put to death under Jewish law. However, that didn’t stop them from taking Him to Pilate, and then to Herod, and back to Pilate to get Him condemned. 

The final declaration of His being without blemish is found in Pilate’s summary statement in Luke 23:14, “I have found no fault in this Man.” Jesus was the Lamb without blemish.

Questions for Reflection

1. Are you without blemish, do you have sin in your life?
2. If someone was to spend 4 days inspecting everything you did, would you want them to make public the records? 
3. God tells us in Romans 3:23 that “all have sinned.”  This is why we needed someone who was sinless to take our place.
   
   

Today’s Scripture Reading:  Matt. 7:15-23; Mark 11:12-14,20-24

"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

Today we find Jesus and the disciples again walking from Bethany to Jerusalem. On their way they come across the fig tree that the day prior Jesus had cursed for not having any fruit. The tree is now withered and dried up from the roots. What was so significant about this tree? Why would Jesus have cursed it in the first place?

The Fig Tree:

It is important to first understand that a fig tree, prior to being in full leaf, should have had fruit from the prior year’s growth. Thus this particular tree would have appeared to have fruit but didn’t. I believe that Jesus was communicating a message about those who put on a show of spirituality but never produce fruit. As we saw in Matthew 7, Jesus is very clear about the consequences of fruitlessness. It is also interesting to note that throughout the Bible the fig tree is used to represent the nation of Israel and its leaders, such as in Hosea 9 or Jeremiah 24. Not too long prior to this Jesus had shared the parable found in Luke 13:6-9, about the owner of a vineyard who planted a fig tree and for three years it had not produced fruit. He threatened to cut it down. Likewise, Jesus’ public ministry had been for a period of three years and the leaders of Israel had still refused to be fruitful. Only 40 years after this the nation of Israel was scattered, and the temple was destroyed. They had failed to bear fruit. Now unless you would be tempted to write off the nation of Israel it is important to notice the prophetic words of Jesus in Mark 13:28-31 indicating the reappearance of the fig tree before the end.

So the question needs to be asked, what does it mean to bear spiritual fruit? Bearing fruit is a matter of the heart, here are some areas to examine for fruitfulness:

• Your words - “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34b)
• Your treasures - “For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:21)
• Your attitude - "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23)

Question for Reflection

1. Looking at these three areas of your life, are you bearing spiritual fruit?
   

Today’s Scripture Reading:  Deut. 16:1-8; Mark 11:15-19

“On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses.” (Ex. 12:15a)

As we saw yesterday in Exodus 12, and again today in Deuteronomy 16, it was declared by God that each household in Israel was to rid itself of any leaven within the house. This was ceremonially completed on Nisan 15, or the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So you might be asking, how does this relate to the passage of Christ entering the temple in Mark 11? Well, most of the time when leaven, or yeast depending on your translation, is referenced in the Bible it is a symbol of sin. So let’s take a closer look.

Leaven:

What are some of the properties of leaven? First, leaven grows or multiplies. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to make bread from scratch, you know that you can keep a batch of yeast around almost indefinitely. As long as you don’t use up the entire batch it will continue to multiply so that you never run out. This can also be observed with sin.  Sin has a way of multiplying. Tell a lie and it will inevitably lead to another, and another, and another. You get the picture. Second, leaven permeates an entire batch of dough with great ease and speeds up the rate at which it will spoil. Likewise, sin in one area of your life will eventually, and usually quite quickly, find it’s way into other areas of your life. A little sin will spoil an otherwise spotless life. God doesn’t set a limit on the amount of sin allowed because He knows that any sin affects the entire person. Finally, leaven puffs up. The whole point of using leaven when cooking is to cause the dough to rise, or become puffed up. This is symbolic of the original sin of pride. Isaiah 14:12-15 describes how Satan was cast out of Heaven for his pride.

At Passover, God required that each house be cleansed of any leaven, which represented sin. The money changers in the temple were cheating people who came with a sincere desire to worship God. This practice was despised by God, and even predicted and condemned in Jeremiah  7:11. Thus in Mark 11 we have Jesus entering the temple, His Father’s house, and removing the sin.

Questions for Reflection

1. Do you have any sin that will permeate your life?
2. Ask God to reveal to you the sin that He sees in your life.
3. Remember, you are the Lord’s temple, if you ask Him to He will help you cleanse your life just like He cleansed His temple in Jerusalem!