Surprise of the Day  

What did it mean that the Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary and she would become pregnant?

Luke 1:35  –  Genesis 1:2

Fact of the Day

• The term Gabriel, the angel, used to explain how Mary would become pregnant with the Son of God was “overshadow”.  God’s Holy Spirit was going to overshadow her.
• It is the same term at the creation of the world when the Holy Spirit “hovered” over the seas.

Oops of the Day  

Mary said yes to her divine pregnancy the moment Gabriel told her.

Luke 1:26-38, 56

Fact of the Day

No! 

• She “kept pondering” why he greeted her in the way he did – “favored one”.
• Then she became afraid.
• Then she questioned the logic of what he told her; she was unmarried.
• Oddly, she did not question the baby being the Son of the Most High, so he repeated himself saying he will be the Son of God.
• She must have pondered again,
• so the angel added some reassurance; her elderly cousin, Elizabeth was pregnant too, and that should be proof to her that God can do the impossible.
• She accepted the “holy challenge”

Then Mary rushed to see Elizabeth. If Elizabeth really was pregnant, then Mary knew she was too. She stayed three months, long enough to hold Elizabeth’s miracle baby in her arms.

Surprise of the Day  

How far away was execution hill called Golgatha from Jerusalem?

Matthew 27:33

Fact of the Day

The hill thought to have been Golgotha where Jesus was crucified was 1-1/2 miles from the nearest Jerusalem gate.  He was required to carry his cross a long way. No wonder he needed help.

Oops of the Day  

Only a priest or bishop can hand out the bread of the Lord’s Supper.  In fact, common worshipers are not allowed to touch it with their hands because it is so holy.  The priest or bishop has to set it on the tongue of the worshiper.

Matthew 26:26  –  Acts 20:4-8

Fact of the Day

No! Jesus gave the bread to his apostles and told them to break off a piece to eat.    He did not set it on their tongues.  Further, years after Jesus died, a group of Christians met together on the first day of the week to break bread.  (In Greek “met” was a religious meeting.) They broke their own piece of bread off to eat.

Oops of the Day  

Jesus died on Friday because the Passover Sabbath was the following Saturday.

Matthew  26:17  –  Matthew 27:62  –  John 19:31  –  Leviticus 23:24-25

Fact of the Day

No!  The 14^th day of the first month was Passover.  It fell on different days each year. (Leviticus 23:5-6).  John called it a “special Sabbath.”  Sabbath does not mean seventh; it means “rest from labor”.  For example, the Feast of Trumpets was called a special sabbath because it was celebrated on the first day of the seventh month, whatever day of the week it might fall on.  Jesus died on Thursday.

Oops of the Day  

Jesus was condemned because he said he would destroy the temple and build it back in three days.

Matthew 26:61  –  John 2:18-19

Fact of the Day

No!  Jesus did not say that.  When the Jewish leaders challenged Jesus,  he answered, [You] destroy this temple, but I will rebuild it in three days.  Their worldly minds meant the stone temple they were standing in.  Jesus meant the temple of his body.

Surprise of the Day  

By the end of Jesus’ first year, the religious leaders were so jealous of him, the Bible says eight different times they kept trying to kill him…

Not counting the king’s failed attempt when he was a baby.

Matthew 12:14  –  Matthew 26:4  –  Mark 14:1  –  Luke 22:2  –  John 7:1-2  –  John 7:19-25, 30, 44  –  John 8:59  –  John 10:31 & 39  –  John 11:53;

Fact of the Day

For 2-1/2 years the religious leaders tried to kill Jesus.

1. Right after he healed on the Sabbath
2. Right after he fed 5000 miraculously
3. Right after he called himself the Bread of Life
4. Right after he told the religious leaders they were sons of Satan
5. Right after he told the religious leaders he could grant eternal life
6. Right after he brought Lazarus back to life
7. Right after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem as their king
8. Just before the 3^rd Passover during Jesus’s ministry.

How they hated their creator.

Oops of the Day  

Palm branches were always waved to celebrate Passover, so that’s what people waved when Jesus entered Jerusalem as their king.

Matthew 21:7-10  –  Leviticus 23:39-43

Fact of the Day

No! Palm branches were part of the Feast of Booths which was an extension of the Day of Atonement – the Day of SALVATION.  Passover was in the 1st month (spring), Feast of Booths in the 7^th month (autumn). So the people declared him their SAVIOR symbolically with the palm branches and would have no matter what part of the year it was.

Oops of the Day  

When Jesus returns, the first thing he will do is send the angels out to gather up people of the world to be punished

Matthew 13:24-30 & 36-43

Fact of the Day

No! The parable where good wheat is planted, then an enemy plants weeds among it during the night is about hypocrites. Notice, verse 41 says the angels will gather “out of the kingdom” (out of the church) those who cause others to stumble and are vulgar and pornographic and will punish them all.