Alright, what questions do you have? I apologize, I was going to do Acts chapter 1, part 3, but I prayed about it, and I'm like, you know what? Q&A. Yes ma'am? The Bible story about the lady washing her teeth while pouring the oil on her. There there was a whole I'm not fresh on it. I Can you tell me exactly which passage you're referring to? Because there's two different ones that involve anointing and... The alabaster box, maybe? Is it Matthew 26 or is it Mark 14? Mark 14, three. All right. Turn over there real quick. And what specifically was your question about that? Alright. So, it says in Bethany, v. 3, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and she broke the box and poured it on his head. She didn't break the box over his head. She broke the box and poured the oil or ointment on his head. And so about that, so what is the ointment? We'll answer first some descriptive matters. from the text and then I'll use a blue letter Bible here to give you the Greek word and how it's used and all that. So some were pretty upset about it. Verse 4, and there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than 300 pence and have been given to the poor. and they murmured against her." Now, y'all know how much 300 pence is? 300 pence. A pence or a penny was typically a day's wage. 300 pence when you take your typical six day work week, it's roughly, not exactly, but roughly a year's wages for the average laborer, not necessarily for like the Roman soldier or for the, you know, the priests or whatever. But it was a year's wages for the average laborer in that day. And so very, very expensive ointment. Now, the other thing to consider before I answer your question there is actually the box that the ointment was in. Alabaster. Does anybody know anything about that? It was a stone box. Alabaster is a stone. It's like a... I always picture it being like a white stone. Excuse me. Well, it's a certain type of stone. Um, what'd you say? Like a soapstone. Really? Huh? Man, if I would've known she was going to ask that question, I could have robbed. Got soapstone in the truck actually. Um, let's see. So alabaster, let's see. I'm reading here. Um, The word alabaster It's a name of stone Yeah, it doesn't really give a full description there But, I have another option. It is a fine-grained, translucent form of gypsum, typically white, often carved into ornaments, or in this case, a box. Melissa, would you happen to know where to get my soapstone out of the truck? Do you know where it is? on the RAM box on the driver's side. Push the button and open it up. It's a little box. It's a little cardboard box, about that big. I use it for sermon illustrations on Sunday night. I use it for insurance adjusting. The box made of alabaster in which These the ointment was preserved it says the ancients considered alabaster to be the best material in which to preserve their ointments breaking the box probably means breaking the seal of the box What's that yeah maybe maybe sounds about sounds legit to me a wax seal yeah yeah all right this is soapstone which would seem to be Slightly translucent, see? Don't write on anything with this because it'll scratch it. I'm going to pass around a couple pieces here. You can kind of feel it, pass it on. Hand it to him when you're done and then you pass it forward when it gets to the middle. Yeah. Yes, but she wasn't concerned about alabaster. So let's look at the actual thing she asked about. Leave it to me to distract myself. Spike Nard. The Greek word is Nardos. Nardos. And this is, in Biblical usage, it's Nard, the head of or spike of a fragrant East Indian plant. You can just give them to her. Let me read that again here. It says, it's the head or the spike of a fragrant East Indian plant belonging to the genius Valerina, V-A-L-E-R-I-A-N-N-A, which yields a juice of delicious odor, which the ancients used, either pure or mixed, in the preparation of most precious ointment. It is only used In two places, it's translated Speichnard, both places. It's Mark 14.3 and John 12.3, where in Mark, it's his head, in John, it's his feet. Likely two different accounts using the same ointment. So I'm interested to see other examples here. I've got a picture of this Valeriana. Where'd the picture go? Oh, there it is. So here is a picture of it, of the flower that would have been pressed or whatever to extract the juice to make the ointment. It is of the, it's a genus of flowering plants in the honeysuckle family. It is named for the Mayan city, Valeriana. At least, that's not Speichner, but that's the family of it, the overarching family there. has centers of diversity in Eurasia, South America, especially the Andes, is represented by native plant, native species in the continents of, in all continents except Antarctica. So, interesting, interesting thing there. Were you given other information that it was akin to something else? And frankincense is a different different thing Spike nerd Ointment Ointment because of this the scent now the It would likely be used in burial ointments because of the scent, the pleasant scent. No, I think it's primarily just for its smell. I don't think that there are like medicinal, further medicinal purposes, at least from what I can tell. Obviously, you know, I'm not given a full medical Review of it that there's some things in on Wikipedia, which is iffy There's some information The botany there gives some info Let's see I Was wondering if it had a section on medicinal properties, but it does not appear to have a And it may be because that particular genus may be very varied and largely varied. There could be hundreds or thousands of different plants that fall under that same genus. So, but let's see, we can do another little look here. So this dictionary definition of the word spikenard says that it is a costly perfumed ointment which are much valued in ancient times. The Himalayan plant of the Valerian family that produces a rhizome from which this ointment was prepared. Also, a plant resembling spikenard in fragrance is another definition. Likely, yeah. Yeah, it was an ointment, like an essential oil type thing, if that makes sense. So, as a matter of fact, I believe that you can get Spikenard essential oil. And smell what it smells like yourself. Does that answer what you were looking for there? Did you need more on it? All right. Other questions? I wonder if when Christians die, do they all go back into that rest? If God is in my rest, then He's not rescuing me all over the world, of course He never does. Do we enter that rest the moment we die? Well, yes and no. And I'll answer that. So the question for anybody that didn't hear is that seventh day of rest is what he was saying. But I think what you're, what you are, you're taking two concepts and putting them together to one and generally speaking rest Yeah, in Hebrews 3 I believe it is where he says that. So, you're kind of combining the concept of rest and the seventh day of rest. As Hebrews does compare and contrast the concept. So, the specific thing that he's talking about in Hebrews is his rest He's talking about the seventh day of rest, the Millennial Kingdom. We don't enter the Millennial Kingdom when we die. So, to answer it that way, the answer is no. But, we do enter His rest in the sense that our soul and spirit rest with God in Heaven and our body rests in the ground. But we will be, and there's actually three aspects to it, we will be with our whole being in His rest, in His Kingdom, during the Millennial Kingdom. However, there's the other aspect, and that is the rest that we enter into when we believe, when we trust in Him. So we are resting from our labors, resting from our sin, and we are now resting in Him, resting in His work at Calvary. And so we're no longer working in that sense. Now, he says there in Hebrews 3 to labor to enter into His rest. Right. Those who have rejected will not enter into His rest. Right. And now the three gifts. We'll give you a bonus question there since we answered that one quickly. What were they for? OK. So. Hey, can you go get my book out of the new book out of my office? I'm sending you on field trips and errands here all the time that the devil's theft. So you haven't read it yet. That's right. Golden Frankincense and a disclaimer here. The Christmas songs that we sing are not 100% accurate, biblically. No, not that song. Although, yes, that one's also not accurate. So, like the ones we sang tonight, like she played We Three Kings, we sang about three kings, we sang about kings coming. There's no biblical indication that it was three. And they didn't show up the same night that the shepherds were there. The three gifts. Because of the three gifts. Could have been two guys. with three gifts. Or it could have been hundreds of guys, you know, just with the, you know, we don't exactly know, but we know that there were three gifts and the three gifts have particular symbolic nature. I don't think I go real deep into it in the book, but I do talk about the symbols. Very very the thing is if I wrote if I if I like Detailed out you'll see that like the book really you kind of have a lot of bullet points if I went into the detail of all I mean we'd be like 1,500 pages easy easy And I could do additional books on the subtopics, you know So, let's see I was just going to read what I said. We talked about that Wednesday at noon Bible study. We didn't talk about where it got started, but we just talked about whether or not it's Christian or can have Christian. Yeah, if we had room we'd have one somewhere around here if we had room and somebody to put it up and do something with it, so but I'm not I'm not opposed to it. Let's see I'm not finding it here But I wanted to give the answer out of this because I do I There it is. Chapter 13. Alright. Correcting the caricatures. Before exploring the real identity of the wise men, we must first clear away the misinformation. A. They were not three. Or at least, we don't. We can't prove that they were or were not, but they weren't necessarily three. Matthew never gives us a number. The quote, three kings ideas comes from the three gifts. In reality, their journey from the East, likely Persia or Parthia, would have required a large caravan, guards, supplies, attendance, significant resources. This is more like a royal diplomatic delegation than three men on camels. They were not kings. The text calls them magi, not kings. Medieval tradition transformed them into monarchs, but Scripture does not. C. They did not arrive at the manger. Matthew 2.11 states that they arrived at a house, not a stable. Herod's massacre targeted children two years old and under, suggesting the wise men likely arrived months after birth and possibly up to a year or more afterward. D. They were not practicing pagan astrology. The Magi were not following astrological omens. This was divine revelation, not horoscope reading. They were not unaware Gentiles stumbling upon Jewish property, or property, prophecy. They came with intentional knowledge of a king, a star, a birth, and Jewish expectation. Their question is precise. In Matthew 2, they say, where is he that is born king of the Jews? This is not confusion. This is informed anticipation. Number two, who they actually were. To understand the Magi, we must go back centuries before their arrival. The Magi were a priestly class in the Persian or Parthian Empire. Historically, the Magi were scholars, priests, astronomers, not astrologers, dream interpreters, political advisors. They were similar to Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. who were placed among the wise men of Babylon and Persia." Daniel chapters 1 and 2. They were king makers. Parthian Empire, successor to Persia, the Magi formed the Magusla, a hereditary priestly caste. They had power to recognize or reject kings, serve in the royal courts, form diplomatic missions. This explains why Herod, half Idumean, insecure and paranoid, was terrified when the Magi asked, where is the king? He was probably thinking, you're talking to him. And they weren't. So in Matthew 2.3 it says, When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. A Parthian diplomatic envoy arriving in Jerusalem would alarm the city. Let us see their connection to Daniel. Daniel was appointed chief of the Magi in Daniel 2.48. This influence lasted for generations. Jewish prophecy spread throughout the East through Daniel, exilic, or the Jews that were in exile, exilic Jews, synagogues in Babylon and Persia. Thus, the Magi likely knew Messianic prophecies, expected a coming Jewish king, watched for signs consistent with Numbers 24, verse 17. The star. We're getting there to the gifts. I think. I'm pretty sure that I... Yes. Did they use those gifts to go to Egypt? Wow, I spent a lot of time talking about the star. Yes. So... We can answer about the star later. If somebody has a question about the star, I'll go back to that. So number six, God bringing wise men to worship the true king. Matthew 2 is as much about worship as it is about birth. A, gold, his royalty. Gold is the medal of kings. The wise men proclaim Christ's kingship by giving a gift of gold. Now, what did they use it for? Probably to flee to Egypt, to come back from Egypt, to set up their home in Nazareth when they came back. Set up his shop there as a carpenter. So, frankincense. This is His deity. Frankincense was used in priestly worship, in temple incense, and as a symbol of prayer. They acknowledge that Christ is God. So, frankincense. You want to go on another field trip for me? You want to go get the frankincense and myrrh out of my office? Do you know where it is? I think it's in the drawer, the file cabinet drawer. There's like, there's like peppermint, frankincense, myrrh, and probably cinnamon. You just bring the frankincense and myrrh. All right, and bring me two paper towels. So they acknowledge Christ as God. And then the third gift was myrrh. And this is his sacrifice. Myrrh was used for embalming, in burial, and symbolizing suffering. Not to be confused with mirth. Mirth is just merriment, happiness. They point to Christ's death. The gifts are not arbitrary. They form a theological declaration that Christ is King, God, and sacrifice. This cannot be pagan. Oh, that's my thesis. This cannot be pagan. Pagan rituals do not match biblical theology so precisely. So, the thesis there of that chapter is that the wise men were not pagan. The whole point of the book is that that Christmas and God's things, Christianity, is not pagan in origin, but rather paganism tries to copycat, duplicate, imitate God's things. A lot. A lot. Does that answer your question? And what was it used for? I don't know. I don't know. But the gold would be very useful for some of the traveling that he had to do. And frankincense and myrrh, also, if it was in good quantities, it would be, it could very well be sold if needed or used you know so I don't we don't really have any record of them saving it or having it later or anything like that mm-hmm yep Yeah. The star thing, I'll kind of, I won't read through the whole thing, but I'll just kind of give it away. I don't believe the star was a, was necessarily a astrological divination. It wasn't a star like we would think about a star. It was kind of like Similar to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire where God used supernatural means to guide them. What? Oh, that doesn't do us any good. They took off the green and the green took off the green. They were the same guy again. The other row. Oh yeah. Yep. Interesting things. I'm right now listening to books. My listening list right now, I'm in a history dive. I'm listening about Alexander the Great. And then I'm going to be looking at Roman things and the philosophers and the tie to him and then Rome. Then I'm going to go backwards and look at Babylon and Persia and some of the history and historical figures and things. Yeah. I haven't gotten to that point yet in the book, but. So. Yeah. I think it was poison or something. All right. What other questions do we have? What other questions? Yes, sir. He's talking about some group of people who are liars and so on. He says this statement is true. He's saying that the guy who wrote it said it or that they are those things. You know what I'm trying to say. Yeah, so he says, oh, is that in chapter 1? Of what chapter? Chapter 1? It's not 13. 12? Yeah, so he says, one of themselves, one of the Cretans, says, a prophet of their own, the Cretans, he said, the Cretans are all way liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. I would say it's both. He is agreeing that they told the truth. It's kind of like when an American writer Comic because you know comedians aren't always people that just speak sometimes they write and so one of their As he says they're one of their prophets, you know said that they were always liars Evil beasts slow bellies and I I'm going to tell you, but every time I come across that, I think about, I wonder about the prophet that he's quoting. Like I wonder if I can find that, you know, statement that he's quoting and see what else this prophet said about his people. But it's kind of like when we talk about, you know, Americans, you know, Americans, I remember at one point somebody said, you know, people from Indiana are like their, At one point like there were more people that would smoke that were that would be addicted to nicotine and smoke and stuff In indiana than any other state or that we were fatter than every other state at one point or something, you know, or or we You know america has the biggest obesity problem, you know talk about so slow belly's there. It's actually argos gustier, which is slow belly. It just literally means slow belly. And I mean, I could I could look up the words, but it's so Argos is having to do with laziness, shunning labor, being at leisure, that kind of thing. It's used in other ways throughout the New Testament. It's also translated in other places in the New Testament as idol. slow and barren, like fruitless. And so, where Peter says, if these things be in you and abound, they shall make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. And of course, we have this passage, slow bellies, and then 1 Timothy talking about the The widows, the younger widows, they learn to be idle. He uses the word idle twice. He says they learn to be idle, wandering from house to house and not only idle, same word, but tattlers also and busybodies and so on. Also, you have Jesus talking about the men standing idle in the market. This is that word as well, twice in that verse as well. In Matthew 20 verses 3 and 6, and then also Matthew 12, 36 where it says every idle word, like a casual word. Yeah, so the belly, the stomach, you know, this. So this also could because it talks about this leisure, lazy, whatever. It also fits with gluttony, also fits with. Man, I am going to learn to use this word. Gourmandizer. Isn't that a cool-sounding word? Gourmandize or gourmandizer. It means to eat food, especially to excess. So instead of calling someone a glutton or saying that you're being gluttonous, I'm going to say you're gourmandizing. You're a gourmandizer. I don't know if they're being complimented or insulted. So, here's another way that it's described. This term is described. A man who is, as it were, all stomach. That's in the usage of the term. Interesting. Was it slow belly? Yeah. Well, it actually is a direct translation of two Greek words. But the two Greek words, the one for belly is is gusty gusty day. And it's it's like where we get like gastro. You know, it's it's the medical actual term, but then the way the word it was used in Greek And then, you know, what we understand in English is the way it was used has to do with like the belly, the stomach, the womb sometimes, depending on the context. But in this context, it's more along the lines of a glutton, gourmandizer, a man who is, as it were, all stomach. Slow bellies, lazy eaters. You know, lazy big bellies. That's that's but Of course, there's also their lying and being evil beasts, which I believe would be equally problematic and sinful. But in this particular case here, you were asking about slow bellies. He's in my reading list as well. It's like 25 hours for that book. I don't know. That's going to be next year sometime. Does that help answer your question? Slow bellies? Yeah, you could dig a little deeper on the prophet from Crete that Paul is speaking about there. That's kind of a personal study. I don't know that that's like a sermon. Bible study like that's that's like a that's interesting. I'll dive down that rabbit hole at home You know and kind of come up with some of those, you know, it's just an interesting thing. But yeah So my wife will have to remind me later to look into that further Maybe I'll dig into it a little bit tonight. And if I find anything interesting, I'll send it to you. Maybe in an email All right, what other questions do you have we have a few more minutes yes, sir, I Well, it wasn't the Apostles. I don't know right offhand. Honestly, that's a question I would just Google to see what people say. I always associated that with Catholicism. But this church was saying that they weren't. So I don't know, maybe they're hoovering. There are Protestant groups that do hold to some things that are carryovers from Catholicism. Whether it's Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Congregational, there's a bunch of carryovers that go into that. Methodist, a lot of that. Were you going to say something about that? It's closely tied to the Rosary. Yeah, that's where they put that sometimes. There are some who say it predates Catholicism. But. Then they add that the whole quote unquote Holy Catholic Church, but really what that means isn't necessarily referring to Catholicism as we understand it today. Catholic to them at universal and there were universalists before there was such a thing as Catholicism. I we don't agree with that doctrine, but. I say universalist. There's two different concepts for universalists. There's universal church and there's universal salvation. I forget his name. I think he was Presbyterian. But instead of saying God picks and chooses, he's like God chooses everybody. He wrote a book years ago, and it was basically, in the end, everybody ends up getting saved. It's universal. That's that particular form of universalism. But when I say universalist like that, I'm talking about people who believe in a universal church. And there are different views on that. There are some who believe in a universal a visible church, Rome, Roman Catholicism, and then there are those who believe in a universal invisible church where all the saved people are part of it or something. And really all that is is a carryover from Augustine and some of those pre-Catholic Catholics. That universal salvation from the Catholic Church, they believe they can go over and tell the Hindus to believe in Hinduism and that's what's going to happen. Yeah, that's a whole different thing, but it's very similar in heresy. Yeah. So, what else? Yeah, sorry I couldn't give you a full answer on that. That's more of a thing I would just kind of dig a little bit and see what people say and then try to validate whether those things are true or not. So orthodox Like Greek Orthodox is a, or Orthodox in general, is a split. It's also a split. from Catholicism or of sorts. And some of them actually say that they predate Catholicism and that they're the real... No, no, no, they're a little less... I mean, they're not where we're at, but they're a little less... Pagan in the sense. They're a little less With breaking the the second third commandment, you know that but they there's some of them do go ahead You had your hand up about something Mm-hmm Yes. Yes. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For sure. I mean, there are a lot of holidays during this time of year. And I don't just mean non-Christian. I mean, just that our country celebrates, whether it's Christmas or New Year's. Like Menards used to do, they'd say, Seasons Greetings. Huh, I'm sorry They they're they're really good at those jingles that get stuck in your head. What were you gonna say, bro? Now that you got to wash that jingle out of your head. Sorry Uh-huh Nowadays, I'll go through the line and buy something anywhere. And they'll say, happy holidays. And I'll say, well, happy Jesus' birthday. Because they don't want to say Merry Christmas anymore. They can't say that. So I get more poignant with it. Some people avoid it because they don't want to offend people like if you're not. They're taught in their corporate umbrella that they can't say it. So that's why we need to say it much more. Just tell me what it's from, Pat. Well, they're employees. They're programmed to not. They can't say that because somehow or other they can get in trouble. I think also people, people do have free choice and, you know, if they can quote unquote get away with it, they'll say what they want, you know, but right. Yeah, that that agenda is thankfully it's dying at least for now. So that's right. That's right. They're just confused. That's all. Yep. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it got pretty crazy. Even in public schools. They were you that you could define your identity as as an animal. And yeah, Yes. I was told, and I don't know if it's true or not, but I was told of a particular school that I went to that had litter boxes in the bathrooms. Public school high school. I will we can confirm it after service tonight because somebody Currently goes there we could ask them if they did if they did that or still do So that they can validate that students Belief that they're a cat Because people People have been indoctrinated with doctrines of devils, is what it is. So, any other questions? We can fellowship like this outside of service, but any questions? We have about ten minutes if we want to use it. We don't have to, though. We can close in prayer if you don't have any more questions you want to discuss. No. No. But it was practiced in Germany. I address that as well in the book. Loosely. Lightly. But it predated their pagan use of it. Christmas predated. Yeah. Yeah, the way they used to do those things, it could be quite dangerous. Yes, sir? California? Yep. Wow. Well, North Valley got hit with with fines for having service. Yeah. Yeah. Now they actually started doing outdoor services for a while and they had a pretty legit outdoor service thing going. I mean they they had a. It was pretty neat. But they but they they did do indoor services for awhile and the state was trying to take him to take him down. Yeah. Yeah, so I don't know if there's if if North Valley still fighting it or if it was so. MacArthur's church fought it a bit. I don't remember what the name of that was, but he. He was fighting the state and he's he's passed away, I believe so. OK. Wow. They were fines for for for like breaking breaking the ordinance or whatever. Yep. Oh yeah, it'll it'll go to the Supreme Court if it has to. So what's that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we never, we never shut down. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's that's true. Huh, man. Crazy. All right, well, let's pray and we'll, we'll, we'll talk some more. as we fellowship around uh y'all eating some pizza and stuff it's uh it's almost a heat wave 33 degrees outside so it's a lot better than friday friday was freezing so yeah Alright, let's pray. Lord, we thank You so much for Your goodness. We thank You, Lord, for just being able to discuss these things tonight. Lord, we thank You that You did come and You were born as was prophesied and You accomplished all of the things that You that was prophesied that you would accomplish in your first coming. We thank You, Lord, that You took our sin upon Yourself at Calvary, and You paid the price so that we don't have to if we simply receive the gift of God by faith in the work of Jesus. We just pray, Lord, that everyone here is confidently trusting in the work of Christ for their soul's salvation, I pray, Lord, that You'd be with our fellowship. Bless the food. Bless all who've had a part in it, getting it to us, donating it, all of that. Lord, we just pray that You would just give us a good, productive week for Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.