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80 Where in Jerusalem Were the Disciples...

YEHOVAH God, the stream of the Gospel flowed out in a new direction -- and extended farther
than it had yet gone.

Still later, the gospel was carried into Europe and it came to Thessalonica -- not in word
only, but also in power, and in the holy spirit, and in much assurance (1 Thess. 1:5). The result was
“the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father, and in the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1). This was to
be an “example” or pattern for other churches, for the express reason, as the apostle wrote to them,
that “From you sounded out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in ev-
ery place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad” (1:8).

This pattern -- or modus operandi -- reached as far Glastonbury in the distant isles of Britain.

A Great Difference

Our study brings into view a great difference between the Temple -- YEHOVAH’s dwelling
place in the old dispensation -- and the Church -- YEHOVAH’s dwelling place in the new. In the
case of the Temple, sacrifices were brought to it, blood flowed in it, and incense (worship) ascended
from it. But no healing waters flowed from it. Therefore, what Ezekiel saw, and what was revealed
also to Joel and to Zechariah -- living waters going out from Jerusalem (Joel 3:18; Zech. 14:8) --
was something quite new, and to which the Temple and its ritual presented no analogy.

These prophecies concerning the “living waters” were fulfilled by the living waters of the
gospel which began, on the day of Pentecost, to flow out from the Temple in Jerusalem. Yeshua the
Messiah uses the expression “rivers of living water” in John 7:38, and the meaning of the expres-
sion is given in the next verse: “But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him
should receive.” It also is revealed that the Millennial Temple -- as pictured by Ezekiel -- will be the
ultimate fulfillment of these prophecies as physical AND spiritual waters gush out from beneath the
Temple occupied by the Shekinah Glory of YEHOVAH God, and administered by His High Priest
Yeshua the Messiah.

As a result, one of the chief lessons to be learned from the Scriptures we have studied is that
the “Spiritual House” of this era should be specially marked by being the SOURCE of a freely flow-
ing stream of living waters -- carrying life and health into all the regions round about. And where
this mark is lacking, even when the form of the House is quite correct, the explanation will doubt-
less be found in the conditions inside the House.

Upcoming Articles...

The Virgin Birth and the Messiah

Islam’s Peace

Was Yeshua the Messiah Really Born of a Virgin?

The Berean Voice March-April 2003