Chag haMatzah sameach and Shabbat Shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah! Welcome to the final day of the seven day-long Feast and to the end of the spring festivals. I am sorry we have not been able to produce materials for each of the days of Unleavened Bread as we traditionally do but health issues and a number of unforseen events that interrupted our plans conspired against us having extra assemblies this year. But there is no doubt that Yahweh has been at work amongst us and I can certainly testify of that for myself.

In seeking out what Yahweh wanted me to speak to you about today I was led to a passage in the 13th chapter in the Book of Matthew Scripture which I will come to in a minute. (You might want to open your Bibles and have them ready there). It forms the conclusion of a sequence of illustrations or parables to give the talmidim (disciples) a clear idea of what the Kingdom of Heaven looked like. Yah'shua (Jesus) began with the well-known and oft spoken of Parable of the Sower (Mt.13:1-23) followed by the Parable of the Weeds Among the Wheat (Mt.13:24-29), the Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mt.13:31-31) and the Parable of the Yeast (Mt.13:33). Twice He paused to explain what the parables were and why they were necessary, and then gave explanations for the benefit of the baffled talmidim (disciples). One of the reasons for parables, He said, was to keep the deep things of Heaven hidden from unbelievers so as not to cast pearls before swine to be trampled as though they had no value. Quoting the navi (prophet) Isaiah, He then said:

"I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world"
(Mt.13:35, NRSV)

In other words, there are times and seasons for the revealment of hidden emet (truth). We discussed one of those the other day - how Yahweh hid the mystery of the resurrection so that Satan in partciular would have no idea what was coming. And his ignorance was proved by the fact that Yah'shua's (Jesus') death at Pesach (Passover) caused the demonic hosts and their human agents to celebrate. Had they known that He would rise on the third day, I guarantee they would not have been partying!

Another reason for heavenly truths being purposefully hidden in parables and in other ways in the Scriptures is to keep Satan and his followers ignorant of the sequence and nature of end-time events. Take the Syrian war, for example. The satanic political élites were not expecting to be defeated, having roller-coasted their way across numerous nations inlucing Iraq and Libya. Yet Satanists and believers alike were going along with Albert Pike's satanic narrative, assuming it was set in cement.

For years I have been saying that final judgment was not imminent, only a preliminary one. You have to have the Ruach (Spirit) to interpret the Davar (Word) and without it you will be misled, a reason prophecy has been designed the way it has. All those who are clinging onto the false Israel narrative - are going to be confused when their interpretations are proven false. Only the other day I was trying to explain to a dedicated Pentecostal why his perception about the Jews was wrong but he adamantly refused to discuss the matter. There is a certain 'enchantment' in false doctrine and Satan goes to great lengths to add artificial psychic sweetners that resemble the Ruach (Spirit) but which are counterfeits in order to fool believers.

The final illustration in the string of parables in the Gospel of Matthew is particularly interesting in this regard. Let me read it to you first and then ask you if there is anything you have noticed today - having the benefit of the presence of an abundance of all Seven Ruachot (Spirits) of Elohim (God) - and particularly today, which is full of the Ruach haSukkot or the Ruach Shibi'i - something which you may not have seen before. I have checked a number of translations and they all agree.

So here is the text which I am going to divide into the four parts which make it up:

(1) "'Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is a like a fishing net thrown into the water and gathers fish of every kind. When the net is full, they drag it up onto the shore, sit down, sort the good fish into crates, and throw the bad ones away.

(2) "That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The malakim (angels) will come and separate the wicked people from the godly, throwing the wicked into the fire. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you understand?'

(3) "'Yes,' they said, we do.'

(4) "Then He added, 'Every teacher of religious law who has become a talmid (disciple) in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a person who brings out of the stone house ('storeroom', NIV) the new teachings as well as the old'" (Mt.13:47-52, NLT)

So, let me summarise and then I will throw this open for your input. First, the Kingdom of Heaven is a separating power and Yah'shua (Jesus) uses the imagery of a net catching fish. First of all, we have to understand the net imagery better because this is one that has been used before but with Satan as the fisherman:

"O Yahweh, are you not from everlasting?
My Elohim (God), my Qadosh (Holy) One, we will not die.
O Yahweh, you have appointed them to execute judgment;
O Rock, you have ordained them to punish.
Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
You cannot tolerate wrong.
Why then do You tolerate the treacherous?
Why are You silent while the wicked
swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
You have made men like fish in the sea,
like sea creatures that have no ruler.
The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy? (Hab 1:12-17, NIV)

In our passage in Matthew 13, Yahweh does what He has hitherto permitted others to do in the nations. In Habakkuk, the net symbolises imperial aggression and destruction, and the navi (prophet) is complaining about Elohim's (God's) apparent indifference to the suffering caused by these wicked fishermen to the more righteous. In a prophecy made by Ezekiel about Egypt, we read:

"The fishermen will groan and lament,
all who cast hooks into the Nile;
those who throw nets on the water
will pine away" (Isa.19:8, NIV; cp. Ezek.26:5,14).

The same imperial language used by Habakkuk then, is used by Yah'shua (Jesus) in Matthew. This isn't going to be a gentle affair. So what is the Saviour doing in this last image of the Kingdom of Heaven? He is saying that the final separation will be violent, using the same kind of violence used by the wicked nations. Now justice is turning right around and what was meeted out by the wicked against the righteous will be meeted out to the wicked finally. This is end-times imagery which fits everything else we know about this period of time in prophecy. This is a Cosmic Chag haMatzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread) event, in which Yahweh removes the leaven of wickedness from the whole planet, and He does so with the same attention to detail and in such an uncompromising way that we are supposed to get the leaven of sin out of our own individual lives. That's the first point.

The second point is that malakim or angels will do this fishing. They are the separators. This must meanm, then, that malakim (angels) are very involved in the cleansing of the last days. They are the executors of judgments by whatever means Yahweh ordains. They are the ones who remove the human chametz or leaven that is threatening to leaven or overwhelm the whole world, including Yahweh's own people. Their job is to "separate the wicked people from the godly [and] throw[] the wicked into the fire" and you can look at that as both a process and an event. The process is causing wicked men's consciences to be seared by the fire of judgment, and the event is their casting into the Lake of Fire. And this isn't just the destruction of the wicked from the face of the earth but also all the political and social structures and systems they set up too. This is a complete purging of ungodly chametz (leaven) from Yahweh's now very polluted planet.

I can imagine that the talmidim (disciples) who were listening to Yah'shua's (Jesus') words were in a state of awe, shock and delight, because life under imperial Roman domination had been no pleasure ride. So He says: "'There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you understand?'" And what is ther response? "'Yes...we do'" And that, you might suppose, could or should have been the end of it. The wicked will be judged and thrown into the fire, sparing the righteous from their torment at the hands of the ungodly. But no, Yah'shua (Jesus) adds this, at first sight, very strange addendum, linking it to what He has just said about the Judgment. Let me read what He next said in a literal translation so that you get the connection better:

"And He said to them, THEREFORE every Torah-teacher (scribe) who has been trained for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" (Mt.13:52, NRSV).

If believers are to make sense of the end-times and the chaos and violence that is taking place and will take place, then there must be trained Torah-Teachers in the Messianic Community (Church) who, like a diligent husband and father teaching his family, who has a treasure trove of Scriptural knowledge and wisdom containing both old truths and new. What an interesting and strange thing to say. And He doesn't explain any more. He leaves that without further commentary. "When Yah'shua (Jesus) had finished these parables," the passage says, "He left that place". After this criticaly important discourse on the Kingdom of Heaven and its characteristics, He adds a remark about the necessity of seasoned congregational Instructors who make use of both that which is "new" and "old". What did He mean by that? And how is this applicable to this Chag haMatzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread) season?

So who are the Torah-teachers here? The talmidim (disciples) themselves! True to their identity, because they are born again and instructed of the Master (having had the equivalent of a three-year university course on the move), the true talmidim (disciples) understand! They are all teachers but not like their national leaders. All the Remnant are teachers too, but not like the churched who live by tradition. How is it that they can be teachers? Because they are disciplies - they are disciplined, trained, and instructed, by the Master, for Kingdom service. They understand and live the way of life or lifestyle that that Kingdom creates. And most importantly - and this is why Yah'shua (Jesus) added this to the end of His parables on the Kingdom - they anticipate the Kingdom's triumphant future. They are in continuity with Israel but they are reinterpreting Israel's scriptures and practices in the light of the new revelation they have received. Now they see the past in relationship to the person of Yah'shua (Jesus) from beginning to end.

Now before anyone throws up their hands in horror or despair and insists they are not gifted to be teachers, let me say this. True, congregations have Torah-teachers who are gifted and called for the purpose, just as every man (husband and father) is called to be the Torah-teacher to his household and by extension, every mother is a delegated Torah-teacher to her children when he isn't instructing the family as a whole or individually. Not everybody here is an evangelist or a missionary yet every member is a witness, is he or she not? Not every one is called to the office of a navi (prophet) but we are all called to prophesy about Yah'shua (Jesus) (Rev.19:10). Every member is a teacher too, with the caveat that we are all called to teach no more than what we actually know to be true and what the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) reveals to us. All we have to do is stay clean (by getting the leaven of sin out of our lives), study the Scriptures, pray and listen attentively to what the Ruach (Spirit) ia telling us.

Which beings us to the matter of "old" and "new". In the general sense, we are not to spurn the old for the new. The new, in this context, is gaining new insights gleaned from Yah'shua's (Jesus') parables in light of the old truths, and vice versa. This means, quite obviously, that we have to know our Tanakh's or Old Testaments thoroughly. You cannot possibly be a sound talmid (disciple) or teacher and assume that all you have to know is what is in your Messianic Scriptures (New Testament). The New cannot make any sense without the Old. And there are altogether far too many Christians who claim the Old has been done away with and is not relevent any longer. There's even one prominent group which refuses to use anything but the Book of Acts!

The "new" is, first and foremost, what Yah'shua (Jesus) taught to His talmidim (disciples) as recorded primarily in the four Gospels but also elsewhere. It is also what He taught after His resurrection and ascension and what He has been revealing since, and will continue to reveal. he taught Paul this way and revealed the contents of the Book of Revelation to John this way too. Revelation, as we have insisted for the last 30 years, is an ongoing thing but it is always built on what went before, starting with the Tanakh (Old Testament) and continuing in the New. Everything must harmonise and expand on what was revealed before, unlocking the many hidden truths in the old.

Every single believer brings, I suggest, something "new". Yes, you - your life in Messiah - is a 'new' revelation. You are Messiah revealed in a unique way but your foundation is on the "old", and that is what connects us all and ensures we teach the same emet (truth). You have a contribution to make to the Kingdom and in its expansion through the winning and edification of souls.

You are the called - male and female, old and young. All are called into the Royal Melchizedek Priesthood. All you have to do is to be faithful to what you know and be prepared to receive whatever "new" you are given by the Ruach (Spirit). And finally, "new" doesn't just mean 'different', like a new insight into divine tavnith (pattern), for example. Like the 'New Covenant', which is both a 'renewal' of both something that is 'old' (like the moral Torah) and the bringing forth of something entirely different which then completes the 'old', so the 'new' that you bring forth may simply be a refreshing - an injection of chayim (life) into something that was previously just 'letter' but now becomes 'spirit' (2 Cor.3:6). In the end, we are all called to be channels of Yah'shua's (Jesus') Chayim (Life), making Him real to others.