Category Archives: Kingdom

The Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23

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I have had a season of studying on bread, The Lord’s Prayer, epiousious, and I have looked at Psalm 23. These all came together when I thought about epiousious and the Lord preparing a table for me. The Father’s message about His Kingdom does not change, He may say it in a different way but the meaning is the same.

As I am learning how to use columns in WordPress this is visually off. It is the NASB translation; I have added the different effects to show how I think the sections relate.

Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread.

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And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The Lord is my shepherd,


I will not be in need.
He lets me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside quiet waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the paths of righteousness
For the sake of His name. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.


You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil;
My cup overflows.


Certainly goodness and faithfulness will follow me all the days of my life,
And my dwelling will be in the house of the Lord forever.

Bread in the Bible – The Meal He Wanted to Share

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The trail of “breadcrumbs” in the Book of Matthew starts with the devil tempting Jesus, goes to the Sermon on the Mount, nourishes thousands (including Gentiles), rises to challenge Pharisees and Sadducees, and comes to Matthew 26:26 and His last meal before the crucifixion. Those loaves of bread, leavened and unleavened, were physical and metaphorical. That bread feeds the body and soul of the Kingdom Jesus brought to His people and the world.

A true smorgasbord of facts, opinions, beliefs, and doctrines have fed the Christian world for hundreds of years. I have read recipes, mixed ingredients, risen and kneaded this study for a while. When heat is applied, a crust will still form with a soft inside and supply energy to the eater, but I am sure not everyone will want to finish their piece.   

Food, Eating, and a Meal

As this post I pondered, my mind wandered through the Bible from beginning to end. Our story (people) began in a garden eating and goes to a garden city where we will have a banquet. Many of our Bible stories and favorite characters have food or eating as part of their story. Jesus’ parables frequently featured food, fishing, farmers, or feasting. This last koinonia or fellowship Jesus wanted to share with His disciples was an evening meal. He sent John and Peter to prepare/arrange for the meal (Luke 22), they “sat” at a table, Jesus even washed the disciples’ feet (part of the “greeting” going into a Hebrew home). This party even had singing.

The Sacrament of Christian Communion started as two parts of a Jewish dinner. “Breaking bread” (G2800) and “broke bread” (G2806) both have references to eating a regular meal and communion (See Luke 24:30). Jesus’ last meal had unleavened bread (no yeast, it was Passover), it may have been a “matzah”. Not all “flat breads” are dry, hard crackers or convenient, tasteless wafers. I will stop and leave our denominational traditions alone.

This is a list of communion references, this is not a list of “body and blood” references Paul uses in his Letters – Matthew 26, Luke 22, Mark 14, John 6, and c. John’s reference about Jesus’ Body and Blood is in Chapter 6 after the Feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus is addressing people on the other side of Lake Galilee. John’s account of the last meal is in Chapter 13. Okay, I am going back to bread and SOME of the symbolism of His Body.

Bread

As I thought about bread in the Bible, the Holy Spirit reminded to include the seeds or grain, in this Kingdom teaching, that the finished loaf is made from. Oil, water, salt, yeast, and flavorings may be added as another study, but not today. Jesus used a sower, farmers, gardeners, and a bread maker when He taught about His Kingdom. Joseph saving grain in Egypt, Gideon preparing and protecting his grain, and Ruth in the fields of Bethlehem are important introductions of God’s thoughts on His Kingdom.

Passover is at the beginning of barley harvest; the wheat harvest is around Pentecost (See Ruth). Both of these grains were important to Israel. Sometimes it clearly says barley or wheat, but not always. Flour is ground up seeds of grain and does not always mean wheat. Unless it was a new crop, the bread that Jesus’ broke was stored away from the previous harvesting season and could have been either barley or wheat.

Unleavened bread (no yeast) is quick to make and bake, think about leaving Egypt. Yeast bread takes longer to make and bake and is really just a different loaf of bread. Yeast is not always bad. The grain offering at Pentecost was two loaves of yeast bread, that symbolizes Jews and Gentiles (Leviticus 23). The woman mixed yeast into a large amount of flour to represent how the kingdom should grow (Matthew 13:33).

For Jesus to have that loaf of bread to break the ground had to be prepared, seeds had to be sown, the grain was harvested and the poisonous tare seeds removed. Threshing to remove the husk was the last step before storing it until needed. Then many individual grains had to be ground together to make flour, so the final loaf of bread could be baked in a fire or hot oven. All of that sounds like Kingdom work to me.

Take and Eat

Matthew 26:26 – Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it out, and said, “Take and eat; this is my body”.

1 Corinthians 10:16 – Is the cup of blessing which we bless not a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is the bread which we break not a sharing in the body of Christ? (NASB)

The Body of Christ is an important topic in Paul’s writings. 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 highlight his vision of the Body. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul makes a point that he got the communion service “from the Lord”. You can get the feeling that Paul had some powerful times in the Lord’s presence. As a part of that revelation Paul and Luke add that communion should be a time of remembrance of the Lord and His Body -Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:24 and 25. That word is used only one other time, Hebrews 10:3 and it is in connection with the sin sacrifice.

κοινωνία | Free Online Greek Dictionary | billmounce.com  koinonia or fellowship

ἀνάμνησις | Free Online Greek Dictionary | billmounce.com remembrance

Final Thought

Jesus’ last meal, before He said, “Tetelestai”, had wine and bread in it. In Matthew 26:28 He said His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. In 1 Peter 2:24 it says that He took our sins in His body and put them on the cross and that His wounds were for our healing. His wounds bled and covered His body with His blood so that we could be saved and healed.

Perisseuō

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This is more than enough post about Greek words! Okay, my pun will be clear later. My objective in this post is to talk about perisseuō, Strong’s number: G4052, and give some tools for understanding our study helps, like Strong’s and Mounce’s Greek Dictionary.

Concordances do not list every form of a word. That is why they will have more than one definition in a listing. Especially in the On-line Mounce Dictionary you will see something that looks like this: fut pass ind 3 sg. Ignoring those is easy, after all its Greek to me, right. But those strange letters behind some italicized words can further your study, if you take the time to do look that up. These may help. Do not feel bad if, like me, it takes a while.

Matthew 13:12 shared the word perisseuthēsetai with Matthew 25:29 and my study overflowed into this post. My reference tool was – περισσεύω | Free Online Greek Dictionary | billmounce.com

Depending on your translation those two verses are saying the exact same thing – If you have it, you will get more and have an ABUNDANCE; if you don’t have it, even that is taken away. (Mark’s Translation) Then I noticed (fut pass ind 3 sg) for both of them and decided to learn something new. I possibly learned about parsing in high school, enough said. This is from the Lesson V link above.

  • The future is used to describe a simple or ongoing action in the future.
  • The passive voice is used to show that the subject of the verb is acted on.
  • The indicative is the most common verb form you will encounter. It is used for simple statements and questions.
  • The English third person singular (3 sg) pronouns are ‘he’, ‘she’, and ‘it’.

Yes, both are in Matthew but the “where and who” really pushed me to look further in. The back story of 13:12 is it is early in Jesus’ ministry; I call it the Second Block of Kingdom Teaching. This story seems to start in Chapter 12 and may cover only a few days. Jesus has upset the Religious; healings, casting out demons, not preforming on-demand miracles, and taking care of business on the Sabbath. This verse is referring to knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom and why He speaks in parables. Jesus then goes on to talk about more seeds, weeds, treasure, pearls, and nets. After all of this He leaves for Nazareth. Block Three more or less starts with John’s beheading, Chapter 14.

Matthew 25:29 is in His last block of kingdom teaching, and I have been referring to them being His Sermons on Two Mounts. This verse is in the Parable of the Talents and this sermon was given to His followers on the Mount of Olives after He left the Temple Mount. Money or using your gifts and giving them back to God are two favorite lessons taught from one of the last teachings He gave before His death.

Jesus wants an ABUNDANCE of knowledge of His Kingdom and your talents used in His Kingdom for every one of us. He rode into Jerusalem to pay the Bride’s Price so He could gather His Family in advance of His Second Return.

If you continue studying perisseuō, you will find it associated with the bread in the feeding of the four and five thousand, and Paul uses it 1 and 2 Corinthians several times. I hope I have given you more than enough for you to continue this study.

ARMOR in Ephesians

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The armor in Ephesians 6 has been the object of at least one other study and probably will get a few more. See Putting On or Spandex Tight | Mark’s Bible Study (ificouldteachthebible.com) for my first post. Today, I will write on some of the reasons why Paul told us to put that armor on (enduo).

The Struggle or palē – This word is also translated wrestle and fight. Strong’s Greek: 3823. πάλη (palé) — wrestling, generally fight (biblehub.com) It is used once in the New Testament. (For a little advanced learning. Translators will use other Greek sources, like Homer and Herodotus, to get the meaning of these words.) The winner of Greek wrestling matches won only when they “stood” on the loser’s neck. This is what we are to do to the rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces of darkness and evil. Unfortunately, we ignore this is not for flesh and blood, and certainly not fellow believers in Christ Jesus.

Stand or histēmi – See Strong’s Greek: 2476. ἵστημι (histémi) — to make to stand, to stand (biblehub.com)  This word is used many times in the New Testament and in a variety of ways.

Stand or anthistēmi – See Strong’s Greek: 436. ἀνθίστημι (anthistémi) — to set against, i.e. withstand (biblehub.com)  The KJV translates this as “withstand”; this seems weak in today’s uses of that word. Some Greek literature uses this as a military term, which fits the context of Paul’s writing. We are to oppose the darkness with force using the armor we are being instructed to wear/use. I think I might say “defend your ground”.

My Observations

  1. Jesus won.
  2. Our Old Testament has spears, bows and arrows, and slings. Did Paul forget these? They are long range weapons.
  3. I tend to think of this in Roman terms, which could be fair, expect armor has been around long before them. See 1 Samuel 18:4, this is Jonathan giving David his armor and weapons.
  4. The armour and weapons usually listed are for personal protection or close-quarter combat.
  5. The enemy uses flaming arrows.
  6. Christians have a Sword! Lol our “S – word”. Our Holy Spirit Word.
  7. Two things that do not make the list very often are the Spiritual weapons – Praying and Watching, verse 18. These may make us “Weap-on”.
  8. Have you ever seen a Sunday School lesson with a woman clothed in her armor and ready to anthistēmi?
  9. Notice the order of putting on the armor and weapons in Ephesians 6:13-18, it is how someone would get dressed by themselves to go into battle.

I like the Book of Ephesians, and the Armor section in Chapter 6. No, it is not an accident that Paul ended Ephesians with the armor in Chapter 6.

Bread in the Bible – Epiousios

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Because epiousios is in Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3 it is the second best-known bread in the Bible. Those references are in the center of the Lord’s Prayer, along with forgiveness, and they contain the special Greek word epiousios. How special? It is only used twice in the corpus of Greek writings and literature. Okay, I did not say just the Bible, I said all of Greek literature before the time of Jesus. (God bless translators.) It has been rendered “daily”. Never have I heard this word or how special it is; take some time and check out these links. O the verse- Give us this day our DAILY bread. (Mark translation.)

Since there is nothing to compare it to, my first reaction was MANNA! What is this special concept in the Lord’s Prayer that is sandwiched between “give us this day” and “bread”? “Daily” has worked; “for the coming day” may be just as good, or is there even more? As this is a study, I will put it in context with the Sermon on the Mount and then break that compound word down. After all of that, I will share my crust with you (The crust on a loaf of bread is special to me.).

Luke – Only Matthew and Luke recorded this prayer by the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit. Luke had heard this prayer many times before he wrote it to Theophilus. There are slight variations between the two in the Greek text but that should be expected. Others have added more and bigger changes than these slight variations. (I am working on a study on the Lord’s Prayer.) Luke 11 to me is the start of his version of the Sermon on the Mount, it does go for a few chapters.

Thoughts on the Word

The Author of Creation and the Word of Life coined a word. Epiousios was not a mistake or an accident. If you look at verse 11, it could have been said “Give us today our bread” and the meaning would have been clear.

I thank the Father for the food we have to eat and His grace for willingly taking care of my family. Do I have a simple explanation for epiousios. No, but the study has moved some “tent pegs” because my God has pushed my box out of shape. I will try to put this compound word into the context of Jesus’ sermon and His teachings for His Kingdom. Now, let’s think above our possessions.

The Sermon – I need to start/mention the baptism of Jesus (3:13), which compares to the Children passing through the Red Sea. He then goes into the wilderness and is tempted (4:1-4). The first temptation is about bread or what He needs to live on. (If it is just a number reference it is from Matthew.) Jesus then picks up and adds to John the Baptist’s message; the good news that the kingdom of heaven/God is near (4:17) and He is healing every disease (4:23). Remember that the Children came out of Egypt healed. Relax take a breath and view the Sermon as a Jesus version of the Ten Commandments and the Law. Now consider how food, water, manna, and quail played into the trip to the mountain where they met God. A note to myself – they had gold, silver, and possessions but no food or water; what did they complain about?

The Sermon has several references to food, eating, and what is needed to maintain our lives. I decided the best way to study these was to list them.

  • 5:6 – those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
  • 5:13 – you are salt (needed for life) stay flavorful
  • 5:42 – help those who need to borrow from you
  • 6:11 – gives us bread every day and “more”. We could be praying every day for what we need tomorrow. It could be a statement to give us above what we need so we can share.
  • 6:19 – watch what you are storing up
  • 6:25 – life is more important than food, Father knows we need it so don’t worry
  • 6:31 – don’t worry about what to drink or eat
  • 7:9 – if you ask Father for bread or fish, He is not going to give you something harmful
  • 7:16-20 – good fruit comes from good trees

Actual and metaphorical these verses help to open the Kingdom and show the righteous relations that God wants with the Body of Christ and that we are to have with the other parts of the Body. Luke 6:38 with the “good measure” being poured for us, then pressed, shaken, and running over is exhorting us to get out of our box and give above what is sufficient. I am beginning to feel that is a good picture of epiousios.

The Parts

Epi is a prefix in Greek, and I have seen it as a word. It can mean upon or above. We are talking about Father God, the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills.

Ousios in our “modern” jargon carries the concept of substance or being. In the Wiki article above that concept was part of the trinitarian doctrine and the controversy that arose in the early church. See Luke 15:12+13.

My Musings

I may say “daily” but I am not sure I can go that small in my thinking ever again.

Metaphorically I can see epiousios as the crust on a loaf of bread. It is on top of the substance that most people like. It has formed from the heat changing the dough to make a shield for the soft inner part. The crust can have a pleasant color. It gives me something to chew on while I enjoy the softer inside. Personally, I like to eat the crust.

Many kernels of grain are needed to make a loaf of bread. They are picked, ground up, and mixed together to make bread. The Body of Christ has many individual “kernels” that are being prepared so we can be the Bride and be presented spotless and perfect.