Cutting Room Floor: Why did Jesus reference angels in His talk with Nathanael?

This goes with the sermon “Making Him Known”, but didn’t make the final cut.

Jesus told Nathanael: And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (1:51). Like Jacob (Israel), Nathanael would eventually come to the same conclusion: “Surely the Lord was in this place, and I did not know it." But why THIS reference? How do angels play into Jesus’ ministry? The reality was that angels WERE there, in so many key moments!

Regarding Jesus’ birth, how was it announced? By angels!

After Jesus’ temptation, who ministered to Him? Angels!

At Jesus’ tomb, who was there? Angels again!

And when Jesus ascended back to the Father in Heaven, who was there to remind the disciples that He would come again? If you guessed an angel, you are a winner!

This helps make sense of why Jesus used that reference with Nathanael, the guileless Israelite!

Cutting room floor: In the beginning...

This was part of the first sermon (He Has Made Himself Known) that didn’t make it to the final cut that I thought was pretty interesting.

John’s gospel starts with “In the beginning” – does that sound familiar? That's how the Bible begins with Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created. The first thing He created was light. And the story begins with a man named Adam, the first human being.

John's Gospel starts in the beginning, also talks about creation, and talks about Jesus Christ, who the Bible calls the true light and the second Adam (Romans 5). The first Adam brought sin and death into the world, the second brought salvation and life. 

So John, in telling us how Jesus revealed Himself, draws many parallel truths from Genesis. One more reason that I personally believe that Genesis is literal history!

Satan's Meeting.

This was passed on to me from a friend. Good food for thought as we are focused on “Walking Wisely” at HBCPN! You are loved!

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church." "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth." "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior." "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken." "So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, but steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ." "This is what I want you to do", said the devil:

Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!" "How shall we do this?" his demons shouted. "Keep them busy in the essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow." "Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their pretty lifestyles."

"Keep them from spending time with their children." "As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!" "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice." "Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive." "To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly."

"This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ." "Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers." "Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day." "Invade their driving moments with billboards." "Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."


"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives." "Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night." "Give them headaches too!"

"If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere." "That will fragment their families quickly!" "Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas." "Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death." "Even in their recreation, let them be excessive." "Have them return from their recreation exhausted." "Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation."

"Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead." "Keep them busy, busy, busy!" "And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences." "Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus." "Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work!" "It will work!" It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives. I guess the question is, has the devil been successful at his scheme?

You be the judge! Does "busy" mean: B-eing U-nder S-atan's Y-olk?

Mystery Babylon is NYC? More food for thought...

In the sermon on Revelation 17 (audio link here), we discussed the location of “Mystery Babylon”. While we can’t say for certain, I gave some “food for thought” that many of the signs actually point to New York City as being the place depicted by the prostitute. Child sacrifice (late-term abortion), sexual immorality, the seat of the United Nations, and the giant statue patterned after Ishtar are some of the signs that point to NYC. Here are a couple more things to consider:

1) In Revelation 18, we saw the world-wide “funeral” as men wept over Babylon, knowing that their source of income was now a ghost town. Which city today, if wiped off the map, would be most devastating to the world? Which city would cause so much economic calamity with its demise? I believe there is only one, and that city could be even more important to the world economy in the last days.

2) This is almost surreal, but worship of Baal is becoming more public again! That sounds sooooooo Old Testament, for sure, but did you know there have been two “arches of Baal” built in the last few years… in the USA? One is in Washington DC, and the other is in NYC! Google “Arch of Baal” - even snopes verifies it, for what it’s worth. Not coincidentally, Baal worship is linked with child sacrifice. It is chilling, but the events of Revelation are bearing down on us!

pastor jeff

-am I crazy or “woke”?