The Real Truth About Christ's Death, Pt. 5

Ron Weinland

June 17, 2017

We are continuing today with the current series entitled, The Real Truth About Christ's Death, and this will be Part 5.

We're going to pick up just with a few of the last verses where we left off on Part 4, so if you want to turn over there to John 19. There is so much contained here it's amazing. I'm not even covering everything in the full story here that we've been going through in the earlier series, or even in this one here, but awesomely exciting when you go back through and refresh yourself in some of these. God just continues to clarify things even more and gives us a better picture and a stronger understanding of those things that Jesus Christ went through, and obviously we see and understand in a very great way that the world is so blind and doesn't understand the timing, the events that took place. So much that's in error. I so look forward, we look forward to the time that they can begin to see and understand what is true and what is right.

So here in John 19:17, we'll pick it up. And he, referring to Jesus, carrying a wooden pole… Again, it wasn't a cross, it was a pole, straight up and down pole. And I'm going to repeat this over and over again if need be, but just so that it sinks deeply into the minds of those who come along who are new to understand that there is a Greek word that is used, "stauros" and it can only mean "a single piece of wood; a pole, oftentimes used in fencing, as especially…" Doesn't really matter; I don't need to go into that. But it's a pole, and that's how the word is used, was used during that time, was used in Greek literature for several hundred years after the time of Christ as well. So again, it can't be, that word cannot be used to mean a cross. There are other words you would have to use in conjunction with a piece of wood and what kind of wood it was and how it was configured in order to do that.

So again, it's a wooden pole. And so it says he was carrying a wooden pole, went out into a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. So again here, that's how he started, but he was very weak. He'd been beaten severely. He'd had skin ripped off his body. It reveals that you couldn't even tell who it was because he was so disfigured as far as his face was concerned and everything else he'd gone through. So again here, very weakened by what he had experienced, what he'd gone through, and he wasn't able to carry it very far. He was too weak to do so and it talks about then the individual they took and he had to carry the pole for him. So generally something like that kind of drug on the back of your shoulder and you're carrying something that you're going to be put upright in, in this particular case here.

It says, where they nailed him to a pole, at Golgotha. So they had these spikes, and as we understand, again, his arms were not straight out to the sides, but they were straight up above the head. They didn't waste nails and they didn't waste wood and they didn't waste time in what they did. They just had a single pole, hands together and a spike running through there and at the feet as well. That's how they affixed him then to the pole, as well as the two who were beside him, and so, nailed him to a pole, and two others with him, one on each side, and Jesus in the center.

Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the pole. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. And then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was nailed to a pole was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. So it had three different languages. There are sometimes people have quibbled over this. It just shows the incredible ignorance that people have of what is written in the Bible anyway, and so they get into this little bit of a debate that, well, these can't be true witnesses of what took place because they record that something else was stated. Well, it's because it was in three different languages, and if you translate out three different languages or into them there are going to be some differences in how it's stated. It’s not a big thing over all. It said the same thing.

Therefore, the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write, King of the Jews, but that he said, I am the King of the Jews. I love this because of what Pilate did after they threatened him about Caesar. In other words, Pilate would be in trouble if this news went to Caesar, that he’s not doing something about someone who is supposedly a king, and he is worthy of death because he raises himself to such elevation and that's a threat to the empire. There is not to be one king but, in essence, Caesar. Caesar is the ruler. So Pilate did give into having Christ put to death, but this is his way of having the last say. He says, What I have written, I have written. So kind of rubbing it in to the leadership there of the Jews, Scribes, Pharisees and so forth, that he was the King of the Jews, and King of the Jews indeed, King of Israel, King of the world.

Now continuing on now from where we left off: verse 23—Then the soldiers, when they had impaled Jesus to the pole, by those spikes, those nails, took his garments and made four parts. So they divided it into four different areas, what he was wearing, and to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam… This is pointing out here, anybody who knows the history of these kinds of things that were taking place, it was very expensive. It was a very expensive tunic, in that respect, and they all wanted it. So it says, woven from the top in one piece. So, unusual in that respect, very expensive to have something like that. And they, therefore, said among themselves, Let's not tear it, "Let's not divide it up that way." It'd be foolish, obviously, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be. So it shows here, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. So they were fulfilling something unwittingly, unknowingly, because of what he was wearing, of what Christ was wearing. It says, quoting Old Testament scripture, They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

So over and over again throughout the story of Christ's life, especially in those last 3½ years, over and over again he specifically pointed out times so that certain scriptures could be fulfilled, something was being done. Those things throughout the Old Testament, things that you couldn't normally pick out, you wouldn't know what it was saying except that God revealed them through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ revealed what was being fulfilled.

It says, Therefore, the soldiers did these things.

Now, there stood by the pole of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son! Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother! And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home. It’s kind of touching to read something like that and realize what he was going through and what they were experiencing, and yet the love that was there and the care and the concern and those things that were stated.

Now let's go over and pick up the story in Matthew 27. It's hard for us sometimes to put ourselves into various stories and things that people have gone through throughout time, throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament, if you will, but especially in the life of Jesus Christ and what he suffered for all mankind. It truly is awesome, incredible what he did for us – totally selfless.

In Matthew 27:39 it says, And those who passed by blasphemed him, shaking their heads saying, You can destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the pole. So people had known of the different things, heard the different stories of miracles that had been done, healings that had taken place and so forth, but so many, especially at this point in time, as human beings are prone to do, can turn against something so quickly and turn so incredibly ugly. This is what was being fulfilled here.

Incredibly ugly, the human nature that exists in this world, things that are being manifest at this time in this country and other countries around the world right now. It’s becoming clearer and clearer what mankind is like, what government is like. We cannot govern ourselves. This is a sick world and God is making it very clear what this world is really like and what truly is in the hearts of human beings on all sides! There is no side to take for God's Church. It's on all sides, the hypocrisy, the lying, the hatred, the bitterness, the judgment that exists. God's making those things clearer. It's because of those reasons you can't judge righteous judgment. It's because of those prejudices you have that you can't judge righteously, and therefore, you cannot govern! But people govern, but their way, to get across their ideas because they know their ideas are better than others. The world wanders round in the darkness because it really doesn't know how to govern, because it doesn't know God, it doesn't know God's way. It doesn't know why we're put on this earth. It doesn't know how we're supposed to live toward one another and so they don't even try. So it's a world in chaos, truly, in chaos. It’s sick and perverted in every way in thinking, but they don't know it. They don't understand that about themselves. They don't see themselves in that light. They can only see others that are sick and distorted and have sick minds.

But we can't see ourselves the way we really are as human beings unless God begins to show those things to us and it has to be made in contrast to Him. When He begins to reveal Himself and His purpose for mankind and how we're to live and how it’s the only way that any can live together in peace and harmony, then, when you begin to see that then you can begin to see how off base everything else is. When you begin to see things about God and the mind of God and the way God is, truly is, not the way the Protestant world has taught – because that's perverted and sick and distorted – but the way He truly is, then people can begin to see something in themselves and begin to see that we need change. And thank God He's bringing it.

Incredible things that go on in this world sometimes, truly. I can't help but think about that ship that was struck off the coast of Japan. There's a lot more in that story than what we're being told. I don't know if it'll ever come out at this point in time, but those accidents, those kinds of accidents with that kind of hardware don't just happen. So the world is going to be kept in dark about a lot of things that are going to take place, especially from this point forward as we continue on. The world is going to be held in the dark as to what is really going on behind the scenes until finally things erupt.

So they were mocking and making fun of Jesus Christ. "If you're the Son of God… You know, you're up there; this is proof. This is proof you're not the Son of God! You're not the Messiah! We had our hopes. We had built up our hopes that you were the Messiah, that you were the Christ, that you were the Son of God! Look at you! You heal people and you can't even heal yourself!" "That's who you are? You have the power to come down!" Ignorant. Ignorant. Ignorant. They had no idea what he was fulfilling, that he was their Passover. The Passover that they knew about. They knew of the Passover. They knew about a lamb that died every year, or lambs that were killed and eaten in a service by the Jewish people. Incredible! But could they put the two together in any fashion or form in their minds? No. Because of their prejudices and because of the teachings of the Pharisees and the Scribes and others at that particular point in time anyway.

Religion, if you want to call it that, from the Old Testament was so corrupted by that time. Jesus Christ condemned it over and over and over again and it hasn't gotten better in 2,000 years in Judaism. It's gotten far, far worse. Far worse! Then we have the Catholic Church and all the garbage that came out of that, and every other Church in the world, as a whole, that has accepted the doctrines that have come from the Popes who are supposed to be the ultimate authority. Incredible, the blindness of human beings. They have a lot to answer for, they truly do, because some have done what they have done and taught what they have done with more understanding and a little more knowledge, and have withheld things that they knew better.

Verse 41—Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders. This is a time for just everybody to get in on the same thing, mocking and making fun, because they so hated him anyway. They were threatened by him and so they hated him. Pilate knew that the only reason that they brought him was out of jealousy. He understood that. He had judged things for a long, long time and he knew their motives and he called them out, basically. Incredible!

They went on to say, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he is the King of Israel… It's more than Judah. If people really understood what Israel was all about they'd know it wasn't just a matter of physical nations and physical people's that are scattered all over the earth; it’s not just the tribe of Judah but all those other tribes as well. Incredible! All those people, where are they? Well, it really doesn't matter because the word for "Israel" goes far, far beyond that into something spiritual that God is creating which has nothing to do, per se, to the physical tribes except that it's their name, because of the names that are there that God gave, that God is using.

He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the pole, and we will believe him. That's a lie! That's a bunch of bull! They didn't believe anything up to that point in time anyway and if he came down and if something happened where he came down, do you think they would believe? Obviously not, they’re just a bunch of hypocrites and liars! They'd have been startled, but as soon as he started teaching, they'd hate what he was saying and they'd hate him again and they'd try to put him to death some other way. They'd plot and do whatever they could to kill him.

…He trusted in God, little do they know, he's a lot more than just trusted in God. Let Him, let God, in other words, deliver him now if He will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God. Amazing how much they were aware of, of things that had been said. Even the robbers who were on poles with him condemned him for the same thing. They got caught up in it and here they are right up there with him, and finally, one got his senses a little bit.

Luke 23:39—Then one of the criminals who were hung blasphemed him, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. So there's a little more to the story here. They would like that, obviously. It's about self-preservation. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong. Incredible how he knew this. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom. Now, we understand more of what this means. He didn't fully know what he was saying. He understood certain things about a kingdom. He understood things about a Messiah, or a Christ – same words, different languages – meaning "the Anointed One," which all at that time understood, the Jewish people understood what it meant. If the word Messiah is used it means, "One Anointed for the purpose of being King," in the Kingdom of God, in God's Kingdom and God's government. So they were aware of these things. They were aware that one was to come to save them. They didn't understand the extent of that. They didn't understand what that meant, but they had a little bit of knowledge about those things out of the Old Testament.

So he said, in essence, "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom." So there are a lot of different ideas about what would happen even after death, and so forth, but the idea there of being a Messiah and being a King, he was still speaking about some of this. So, "Remember me when you come into your Kingdom." And Jesus said to him, Assuredly… And this is something the Protestant world totally misquotes because they put punctuation in and translate by their belief, not by what is true. You have to understand God's purpose and God's plan to understand things that are written in Greek and Hebrew, Aramaic, or whatever that they're translated out of, because the early editions there of things that were written were written in Aramaic, not in Greek. So they were written in Aramaic – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I believe all four were. But anyway, those things that they wrote at that particular time, that's what they spoke at that time. That's why Jesus Christ referred to a name for Peter that means "rock" (that is in Peter) that we use in English and so forth. We'll come to some of that later on. But anyway, even those things caused the world confusion because they're ignorant, because they haven't studied God's word because people who do know don't even teach these things. Because there are people who studied the Bible enough to know certain things that they know what they mean, but they don't teach it because it conflicts with their ideas and beliefs. So teach something else, teach what people want to hear, teach what the Catholic Church, basically, told them they ought to teach.

People get upset about that. "Well, they didn't tell us to teach anything." Then why do you teach the trinity? It came out of the Catholic Church. You didn't come up with it. Your organization didn't even start until a hundred years ago, or two hundred years ago, or three hundred years ago, or maybe four hundred at the most, whatever it might be. Your organization started then. So where did you get your knowledge? Oh, you got it out of the Catholic Church. Isn't that amazing? You got the idea of the trinity out of the Catholic Church. You got the idea of Easter. You didn't come up with the idea of Easter; it came to you from the Catholic Church. And on and on it goes, the mass of Christ, Christmas. Blind. Blind. Blind. And sometimes willingly so. Sad world.

Remember me when you come into your Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Assuredly I say to you… Not, "Today you'll be with me in paradise," as they quote it, as they punctuate it, but I say to you today (while we're here), You will be with me in paradise. He didn't say in his Kingdom. He didn't say that because that hasn't been determined yet. They haven't been resurrected yet. They haven't been resurrected in the Hundred-year period yet. They haven't accepted yet Jesus Christ as their Passover. They haven't been baptized yet. They haven't had the transformation take place in their being. So whether they're going to be in God's Kingdom or not isn't to be known for a long, long time, especially from that point, nearly 3,000 plus years later. Incredible. But he said, "You'll be with me in paradise." "You're going to be resurrected. You're going to be given an opportunity to learn this way of life, to see me for who I am." He didn't explain all that to them, but that's what's there. Amazing.

Let's turn over again now back here to John 19:25—Now there stood by the pole of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son! Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother! And from that hour that disciple took her to his own. So again, different as you go back and forth in these stories. You go from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they all put in a little bit here and there. But people, when they try to go in there and find the true flow and the things that actually fit together, even in people that have done things like the harmonies and so forth of the gospels, they get confused. They tangle things up and so much of it because they don't know things about the timing. They don't understand the plan and purpose of God. They don't understand things about holy days and Sabbaths like they should, like they needed to in order to try to translate something into another language in the first place.

Let's turn over to Matthew 27. We're at a point of getting to the specific timing now involved in the death of Jesus Christ, which, again, the world of traditional Christianity is ignorant of, only ignores, and always rejects. The point of his death is on the Passover day, the daytime portion of Passover. So this is where we're getting into the story now of some of the things taking place. Again here, these things that we've been reading about at this point in time happened during the daytime portion, and this just continues on now getting very specific about the timing in that day, the Passover day, which was the fourteenth that started at sundown the day before. It starts at sundown, through the night time portion, and now we're in the daytime portion. He had his trial, the sun was starting (if you want to call it that) at dark, and then going into the daytime morning portion there until a point finally where they nailed him to the pole. So again here, this period of time, it’s just before sunset when a holy day would start, not the Sabbath day like traditional Christianity believes, because that's a bunch of hogwash, a bunch of stupidity.

Isn't that amazing? Their very belief disproves the very thing he said he would leave as a sign that he was the Messiah! So they don't believe in the Messiah by the very doctrine they hold dear: Easter sunrise service, death on Friday afternoon. It’s a bunch of bull! And you know what? This isn't hard to prove. It doesn't take God's spirit to know the truth about some of this if people are willing to look at it, if they're willing to read through the scriptures, if they're willing to do a little bit of studying, if they're willing to be honest with themselves and what they believe, but they won't do it until they're shaken to their bones in fear, only then will people begin to listen. Isn't that amazing about human nature in this world, and especially the world of traditional Christianity? Only then will they begin to listen a little because even initially it isn't enough. That's why they have to experience blow after blow after blow, over and over and over again, to magnify that fear in them in order to magnify their ability to listen. Awesome!

Matthew 27:45—Now from the sixth hour, talking about 12:00 noon, until the ninth hour, until 3 pm, thereabouts, there was darkness over all the land. Here he is on the pole before that period of time, and now from noon on to 3:00 there is darkness, not clouds, darkness. It was on the land, not night time, but darkness. How do you explain such things? Amazing. And about the ninth hour, about 3:00 pm, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Now, that's said for us, as a whole, though there are things he felt inside and the things he was suffering inside. But he knew. He knew why he went through the things he did. That's why when he prayed as earnestly as he did, "Father, if there is any other way, because You," in essence, "can do anything, remove this cup from me. But not my will but Yours be done." He knew the answer. We can go through a lot of things in life and we oftentimes know the answer. We'd like things to work out a little differently, but we learn God's in control. We know God's in control and that's magnified in our lives and we grow in greater faith because of that.

Again here, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" You ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that way, of things you go through and think, "Why am I going through this? Why am I having to experience this? I'm in God's Church. I have God's spirit. I have the impregnation." It's good to ask that and it's good to come to the right answers, but it's because we go through those things that we can come to the true answers and come to understand God's purpose and plan in a greater way. It's for that very reason we can become stronger in faith. I truly is. It's an awesome thing God's people, what God's people go through to be transformed, to be changed, to become something different.

And some of those who stood there (verse 47), when they heard that, said, This man is calling for Elijah! Well, even that's a wrong translation! He wasn't calling for a prophet! I mean, such stupidity, absolute stupidity! He was not calling for Elijah! He was calling on God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim! Why they do such things is amazing to me sometimes. It just, again, shows ignorance. It’s a word that means in the Hebrew, "My God is Yahweh." Who do you think he was crying out to, words that he used? "My God Yahweh!" That's what he was saying! But they translate it, "Well, it has the words like Elijah in the Hebrew, so it must be he's calling on the prophet Elijah." Dumb. It’s just dumb. I mean, it's not even dumb, it's just stupid. How dumb do you think Christ was? Translators, that's what they do. Everybody with common sense knows who he was calling upon. He was calling on the Great God, his God, our God, the Creator God, the Everlasting Almighty Self-Existing Eternal God of the universe. Awesome!

Sorry, but I get worked up about some of these things sometimes because I think of all the stupid things that have been done in the world by people who should know better and sometimes do, but they don't get changed, because if you change something you're going to shake people up and you're not going to have a following. People aren't excited when they find out where this leads. It leads to keeping the seventh day Sabbath and we're not going to do that. People won't follow that. So if you want to start a church out here, somebody, you know, like people do and they start these big, mega churches today and they have this great following, just start teaching about the Sabbath and see what happens to your mega church. Start telling them that Easter and Christmas is a bunch of hogwash, fairy tales, and absolute stupidity, and see what happens. Your mega church is going to turn into a mini church. You may be the only one there.

But that's why people do that. Sometimes people are interested, when they first hear things, "Well, that's amazing! He wasn't born around the 25th?" And they go look it up. "That's amazing!" But you've got to be careful because you can't go too much farther than that. "We're not going to change it though, because it's okay. It's okay to teach your children nice things, and it is about the birthday of Christ. Isn't that a nice thing to do? Even though it's not at that time of year, isn't that a nice thing to do, to give presents to your children at that time of year? I mean, it's so sweet. It's so nice." They don't look at the lies and the stupidity of it all, what they're perpetuating. They're going to have children grow up and think, "Well, if they lied to me about that, what's real? What's true?" Amazing! So people follow fake things and false things and things that kind of make them feel good inside. They're told, "Well, you know, just come as you are. God accepts you the way you are. You just come as you are you foul human being. You don't have to repent and change. You can keep smoking your marijuana. You can keep taking your drugs. And you can keep committing adultery. You can come in on Sunday and go right back out and have adultery that night again. It's okay because you're all forgiven because God knows that you can't help it. You're just a weak human being. Just come as you are. Sing with us. Feel better about yourself." Disgusting!

There's nothing about change, and the word "repentance" that's used over and over again in scripture, don't they know what the word means? They really don't: "To think differently," in the Greek language. Think differently! Don't think the same way you are. You can't come to God's Church and commit adultery. You can't come to God's Church and steal from God, like some still are!

To this day there are people still stealing from God! And I think, "What are you doing? You think I'm ignorant? Do you think I'm stupid as God's apostle?" Your time is running out. You've got just a few weeks left and you're gone – all of you – because there's more than one. There are too many and if you don't get it turned around immediately and repent before God it's sayonara, dos vedanya, auf wiedersehen. And I know you're only speaking English so it's goodbye. Sick. In God's Church we serve God. We seek to obey God in everything we do. There's no such thing as being able to have adultery in God's Church. There is no such thing as stealing from God, and on and on it goes. Those things aren't allowed in God's Church! We can't just come the way we are. God says we're to change. We're to think differently. If people don't, and if people want to play games and go through the motions, like send in maybe 5% or 3% just to kind of keep in the doorway, just keep the foot in the door a little bit and say, "I'm doing it. I'm doing it." You lying liar! Stealing from God Almighty! How on earth can anyone of a right mind do such things? That blows my mind! It really does.

How do you think you can have any kind of relationship with God and Jesus Christ by doing your own thing, by sinning week after week after week knowingly without fighting against it? If you're fighting against sin and wanting to change you're doing something different. You're striving to make some changes. You may fall on your face from time to time, but there's certain things you don't fall on your face in. There are certain things you don't fall on your face in, that you're going to be true to because it's directly a relationship with God. And if we aren't true in a right relationship with the Great God of the universe who sees every little thing we do, then we're not going to be right in the physical things we do in our life in the other six commandments that we're to be keeping in a relationship with human beings because it's easy to break some of those. It's easier to do some of those. But the human mind, if it's converted and it has God's spirit, if you're putting God first, there are some things you will never do once you come into God's Church. You will never work on the Sabbath day. You will never cheat when it comes to Friday sunset to Sabbath sunset. You just won't do it. You will fight against that. And when you find out you've ever done anything remotely wrong in those areas you repent quickly and they never get repeated because you're convicted and you want to honor God first and foremost in your life. Now, human relationships can take some more time because they're harder to see for human beings, but that with God shouldn't be so hard to see if God's spirit is in you.

So, anyway, didn't plan to go into that right now because we've got some sermons coming later. It just blows my mind how human beings can do the things we do.

And so again here, it says, Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. And the rest said, Let him alone; let us see if Elijah, so again, it's "my God Yahweh," if my God, Yahweh, or our God Yahweh, or the God Yahweh, if you will, because they're all together there in how the words are used even, will come to save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. So he died.

So there is that spirit essence that once the heart stops beating and circulation doesn't work any longer, no longer breathing, and there is that which happens of an essence that's in the human mind. It's not alive. It has no life in it, only when it's in a live body. And that essence, it's like a recording or something of that nature, returns to God. It's a spirit essence; it returns to God. God has that and it has everything about us throughout our entire lives from the time we are born. We can't understand that. It's something done spirit, in spirit. It's something that God has given to human beings that's apart from anything physical.

See, like a camera, it has a SD card in it. It records, if I remember to push the button, and we record sound on the computer, and we have those. It used to be that you did it in different ways. There are different ways to record things in times past, and now it's just gotten better and better, easier an easier. You can have micro SD cards that are even smaller and record tons of information. Well, those are all physical and physical components and many of those things, how they actually work and function, it's hard for us to grasp and comprehend. And what God has put in our minds is far, far, far beyond that because it's not physical, it's spirit in essence. No life in it, it's just a component of spirit essence, just like in God's creation there are those things that are spirit that those who are spirit can see, but they're spirit, but they have no life in them. There is no life there. So God just gives that back at a resurrection; He puts it back in a mind, a physical body or a spirit body. Awesome what God can do!

So Jesus Christ died and people can't deal with that one. It's like, "Uh, he was God before. God can't die so he really wasn't dead." They have some other scriptures in the Bible and they think he went to visit in Tartarus, he went to visit the demons and so forth in this place of wherever. So during those three days he went and had conversation with that world, the spirit world, you know, because you can't kill God and he was God. So they get caught up in these things. Even God's Church got caught up in some of those things in times past because we hadn't been fully freed of them yet until we came to acknowledge Jesus Christ never pre-existed. He was purposed – the first of God's great purpose that everything was going to be built upon – that there should be a son born of human life, the Son of God, who through his death and life God's Family could be created. Incredible! So it was the foundation. It was the beginning. It was everything. Everything was built upon that understanding, that knowledge, that wisdom from God Almighty before, as God says, before anything else was ever created. Awesome to understand those things, things the world doesn't know.

So "he yielded up the spirit." In other words, he died and God received that spirit essence. So he was dead for several days. Just dead, dead, dead, dead. Nothing. No life. No life anywhere. He wasn't there. He didn't go off to heaven. He didn't go down to this place where he went and talked to the demon world, or whatever it is they kind of try to conjure up in their own minds because they got to do something with the stupid belief over the trinity that doesn't exist.

John 19, just to interject here and we'll come back to Matthew 27. This is just to catch a little bit of the story. It's good to jump around to these different things because every one of them puts in something a little different, adds a little more to a story flow to better understand what was taking place. In this case here John 19:28, it says, After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst! So all these things he knew was coming, even when he said, "Father, if there is any other way." He knew what he was going to go through. So now he's on the pole, which is how he knew he would die, and there he is knowing he's about dead. He knows what's about to take place. At exactly what point the soldier came up and put a spear in his side it doesn't give the exact moment, but it's in this vicinity right here. So he knew that everything had been accomplished, everything had been fulfilled, and now he was getting ready to fulfill things far, far greater. Incredible.

And so he said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, and put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth. And when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished! "It is fulfilled." And bowing his head, he gave up the spirit. So we know that at this point here, just before this happened it had to be at some point here where the spear went into his side and he died. It's right here in John as well. But anyway, again, the timing of these things is right around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It's important to understand that because of the things that followed this. Again here, incredible story of the process of what he went through until the moment he died.

But let's return to the flow here in Matthew 27. Verse 51, continuing on, Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. So what an incredible thing. There was darkness over all the land between noon and 3 o'clock and now at the point of his death, when that happened, the temple within the veil was torn. When you go within the temple there is that two-thirds area where the priests were serving every day, but that last third behind the veil was where the ark was and it was reflective of things about the judgment seat of God, the throne of God, that area there that the high priest could only go into once a year on the Day of Atonement. It talks about that veil ripped from top to bottom, beautiful picture of what God did here because it reveals that now a way is being made into the Holiest of Holies for mankind—Awesome!—through Jesus Christ, through his death and what he had just gone through. So, beautiful things that God gives to help us to see things He's fulfilling and His purpose and His plan – physical and spiritual.

It says, And then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. It goes on to say, And the graves were opened. So graves were opened, it says. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

Well, interesting here. First of all the word "saints," how it's used. It's from the word for “holy” and simply means "those who are sanctified." Those who have been set apart for holy use and purpose by God, those whom God has called whom God gives of His holy spirit to set them apart for a particular purpose. Well, before this period of time there would have been prophets, there would have been different ones through time that God had worked with. It says here, who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the graves after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

So again, there are things here that God's Church has speculated about in times past and have wondered and I believe that God is revealing a little bit more about some of this now about what is taking place here and what this means and what it's about. "And coming out of the graves after his resurrection." This word "after" is most often translated and used as "with." "In coming out of the graves with his resurrection," "because of his resurrection." So again, it's about God's plan. It's about what's going to follow because of what he's just done, what he's just gone through. Just as the temple, the veil of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom, the way into the Holiest of Holies, that process hadn't started yet as far as the Church is concerned. The Church hadn't started yet. It didn't start until Pentecost of that year, 31 A.D., but that was a prophetic thing, showing something that was going to take place, that now the way into the Holiest of Holies was made possible through what Jesus Christ had gone through and his death, and that people now are going to have ability to go before God on a continuing basis in prayer, any time they want to, to enter into the Holiest of Holies, as we in the previous series even went through and talked about in Hebrews, in the book of Hebrews, and I believe even in a portion beginning of this one.

So, it’s an incredible story here of things that are taking place. It's showing here what is being accomplished and what is being fulfilled as a result of what he has just done in his life. It's not about something that just took place. It's never made sense. Who are these people that came into the city? And if they came into the city and different prophets were resurrected then when did they die, and how long did they live, and what did they say, and why is there no witness of all this and all these things that took place? Because there would have to be much writing. And some of the prophets, some of the disciples, some of the apostles would have referred this miraculous thing that had taken place. Yet it's more of a prophetic thing that God gave, showing that in coming out of the graves “with” or “as a result of” his resurrection. So when does that happen? Just like the veil of the temple – it's not immediately. "They went into the Holy City and," the word is not "appeared." It's not the word "appeared" in the Greek language. It's a word that means "declared." They spoke something. They began to declare certain things. "…and they began to declare much," as the word is. It's not even to many. It's not even a word that's used “to many people.” It's "…they declared much." Well, it's picturing a time in the future, candidly. That's what it's about. It's about something that's going to come about as a result of what Jesus Christ went through. It's what enables 144,000 to fulfill what they're going to fulfill. There comes a time, when indeed individuals, because of what he has gone through, because of his resurrection, that they are resurrected and indeed they will go into Jerusalem. If we understand what "Jerusalem" means that means a whole lot more. "…and they declare much." They're going to be very powerful in what they accomplish and in proclaiming God's way of life to this earth, teaching and judging in God's way of life on this earth.

So again here, I'm telling you very clearly this was not about some individuals who are resurrected and went into the city that day and all of a sudden a lot of people saw them. I know that is from God Almighty. So this is another correction of something we have to make here because we've even speculated that maybe some of that will happen when Jesus Christ returns. Well, God can do what He wants, but the two can't be connected together, and it’s doubtful that will take place because this is about something else. This is prophetic in nature. This is something that comes as a result of what he had just fulfilled. So it's showing a picture here, a story of something that magnifies what he just fulfilled, because he just died. As he said, "It is fulfilled." "It is finished." That's what it means. It's fulfilled. It's finished. Now, now the door is open; the way is opened for God's Family to be created in full because if he hadn't gone through that those who had died previously, in their faith and belief and trust in what was going to take place in time through a Messiah, couldn't happen. Now it can because of what he just fulfilled. He fulfilled it here. Awesome!

Verse 54—So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that had happened they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God! It shook them up, things that happened. Shook them. Shook them deep down inside. And for them to say that, a lot was said. Now, whether they held on to that or not, highly doubtful, as human beings are, because after a while it's like, "Well, maybe it was just something of physical time and chance."

Verse 55—And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons. So again, just another portion of the story here.

Let's go back into John 19 now. We have to jump around a bit to put all these together as we flow through this because sometimes just a little thing is added, maybe just a couple of words, but a part of the story just magnifies it a little bit more.

John 19:31—The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the pole on the Sabbath day… So here it is, it's being referred to as the preparation day. Now, it goes on to say (for that Sabbath day was a high day). So this was 3 o'clock when he died and they were still on the poles, all three, and so here they are whatever time, 4 o'clock, and they began to think about some of this, and they don't want the bodies up there any longer, because why? Because there's a high day coming and for what they believed and how they believed they didn't want the bodies to remain there. They couldn't be taken down on the high day because of their idea about working and so forth and that being a part of that and everything else that was involved in it, so because of beliefs they wanted the bodies taken down before the high day came. Which was when? It'd be at sundown. So we're getting closer to sundown, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, whatever it is when this takes place. It doesn't say exactly. So it's beyond 3 o'clock and they want the bodies taken down from those poles, and they want it done before the high day begins.

Now, this is where the world of traditional Christianity gets all screwed up, where they go so far off base because they read "preparation day" and their understanding of the Bible, understanding of God's holy days is so lame, so missing, that they think, "Well, the Jews preparation day is always on a Friday." Stupid. Dumb. Ignorant. It’s not if it's a holy day, an annual holy day. It can be any day of the week depending on when that holy day falls, because it doesn't have to come on the seventh day. Annual holy days can come at different parts of the week. So in this case here if you have a certain day of the week, not the Sabbath, the preparation day is not going to be Friday, and that was the case here with Jesus Christ. Incredible, what was taking place and it very well spells it out that what was getting ready to come wasn't the weekly Sabbath, like they think. That's why they think Friday. That's why they think he died on Friday. They call it Good Friday. I don't know why. There wasn't a whole lot good about that day when he died; when he was put to death it was pretty ugly. They ought to call it Ugly Sick Friday when they killed the Messiah, when they killed the Passover, but they don't do that. It's Good Friday. Good Friday. Anyway, some of their ideas and beliefs, that's why they believe then that he was resurrected on Sunday morning and they don't believe anything that Jesus Christ had to say and they don't uphold his word at all and they believe in something totally different and they believe in something that disproves that he was the Messiah. You'd think they give a little thought to that, but they just don't bother. They don't really care.

The Jews, because it was the preparation day, and so that the bodies would not remain on the pole on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath was a high day) that was coming, they besought, or "urgently appealed" if you will, is what the word means, "requested with urgency," in that respect, Pilate so that their legs might be broken, and that they can be taken away. Oh, they're nice people, aren't they? They don't just want to hang you on a pole, they want to kill you a little faster because their holy day is coming and they're going to have a festival and they can't have these dead bodies, or these bodies that are still dying on the Sabbath day up there on the pole that they so wanted in the first place. So let's go out there and kill them a little earlier so that we can take them down and get them in the grave and put them in burial before our holy day comes, because we're so righteous and we want to honor God. That's the way the world is today. It’s the same as it was back then. Sick. Sick, perverted when it comes to beliefs and what they uphold and what they believe.

And so even that in itself, they don't even question: "Well, why would they break their legs? How does that speed up the death process?" DUH! You know, really, give me a break. You think, why don't you ask questions like that? Why do you think that they want to go around and break the legs so they die a little quicker so they can get them off the poles? You think that would be a natural question to ask. Why interrupt a nice, little story flow. It's not a bedtime story, but maybe it is for some, I don't know. But it's a little story and we don't want to think about it too deeply, do we? I'm sorry, I can't help but mock and make fun a little bit of the stupidity of some beliefs and some ideas out here and why people don't ask questions.

So here they are, they go to Pilate, they want the legs broken so that they'll die faster. Now, I could see it if they had thought that, well, let's go out there and slice their throats or slice them somewhere where the blood would all come out and they die quickly. But oh no, let's add a little pain to this. Let's add a little more pain to this. We don't want them to die too quickly. We just want them to die so we can take them down off the poles and get them buried. So let's break their legs so they're still suffering a little longer and so we can watch the last gasping moments. Because what was happening? They weren't out there with their arms raised and spread to the sides when they broke their legs, they had their arms elevated straight up above the head so that when their legs were broken they couldn't hold themselves up and breathe anymore and they would hang down from this nail in the hands and they would choke to death. Choke to death. Amazing. They would begin to choke to death until they died. They wouldn't live very long like that. Sick, perverted ideas of human beings! I'd far rather have my ankles slit or something and let the blood get out quick so I can die quick because I don't want to suffer any longer than I have to. I don't know about you, but I don't want to suffer for a long time. I don't want to suffer in agony.

Can you imagine your legs being broken and how hard, how that has to hurt, your whole body pressing down on because you've got the nails through the feet and the rest of your body is pushing down on those broken legs because they've come up there with something and broken the legs? What a beautiful feeling that's got to be! Watch them suffer more! You know, all the agony in the legs and all the agony of trying to breathe so they didn't live very long. It was pretty quick, but they liked to see the suffering, great suffering. Incredible, human beings, what they're like, what we can be like as human beings, seeing other people suffer. "Well, they deserve it. They deserve to suffer. We're going to be able to observe our holy day because we're going to be able to put them in graves now," because that's the righteous thing to do, "so you kill them quickly," in that respect. Let them suffer but kill them quickly.

I'm sorry, but I get involved with some of the story when I'm telling it and I think of this sickness of human beings and when they come to understand what they did when they killed Jesus Christ. Because you see, something that human beings have a hard time coming to deal with and coming to really address is that every person who has ever lived killed Jesus Christ. They need to know the story. They need to know what he went through to pave the way, to provide a way for them to have live, to have a new life. Awesome! They have to come to acknowledge that their sin killed Jesus Christ, because they have to be forgiven of their sin through their Passover, Jesus Christ. So again here, so much to learn, so much that needs to be understood.

So here they are, they're asking for Pilate so they can have the legs broken and take them away, speed up the process of dying, because if they're just up there hanging and their legs aren't broken they're going to live on into the next day, and possibly the next day after that depending on their health, depending on their situation.

And so it says, The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who were hung on the pole with him. But when they came to Jesus, so after 3 o'clock, at some point there, 4 o'clock, whatever it was, and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs. There was no need, he was already dead. Why break his legs? It's over, and they had to see the blood that was there as well because of what the soldier had done, as the account in John is here as well where a spear went into his side and out came water and blood. That's what it says on the next verse here.

Verse 34—But one of the soldiers, so it's explaining here why he was already dead, with a spear pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water. So right around 3 o'clock when all this happened, when he said what he did and so forth. He knew that his time was over and everything was fulfilled and finished.

And he who saw it bear record, and his record is true. I love the way some of these things are written. Who do you think is writing this? It's John. It's what he's saying and he knows what he saw. And he who saw it bear record, is giving witness, in other words, and his record is true. So he can say that because he's the one that saw it. And he knows what he has said is true, so that you might believe. For these things were done so the scripture might be fulfilled, Not a bone of his shall be broken. Awesome! And again another scripture says, They shall look on him whom they pierced. So he was pierced in the side with a spear. So they're looking upon him whom they pierced, put to death that way. His blood had to spill out on the earth. He couldn't die by suffocating and he had to die by his blood spilling out on the earth.

Verse 38—And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews… Now, the story continues on here and there are different areas that talk about this, but he was a very wealthy man and he believed things that Jesus Christ was saying. He followed Jesus Christ. He was a disciple, in that sense, not one who become apostle, but again, one that supported and so forth the things that were taking place. And it says that this individual urgently requested of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. Therefore, he went and took the body of Jesus. Nicodemus also came, this is the Nicodemus back in John 3 that came to Christ by night because he didn't want to be seen by the others, an individual high in his religious surroundings and beliefs and those who were a part with him. Nicodemus also came, who at first came to Jesus by night, so it refers back to that account back in John 3, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes of about a hundred pounds. So they already had different spices, things prepared, things that they had acquired and could do so speedily because Joseph, again, was a very wealthy individual. It wouldn't have been hard for him to have this taken care of quickly. Then they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen clothes…

Now, he knew he was dead. He knew there was a period of time here that was taking place. They were watching. They had to have seen the spear that was rammed into Christ's side and what he said, what he cried out, and knew that he had died when his head slumped down and there was no movement at all. So they went perhaps right after 3 o'clock there. We don't know. It doesn't say. But again here, time is going on here, because to go to Pilate to get an audience and to come back and to get the body, time is moving on here. That's the point of all this, of things that were taking place in the timing. So they had all this. They took the linen cloth, and so forth, and wrapped his body. Again, time. It takes time to do all this. …as the manner of the Jews is for burial. Now in the place where he was hung on the pole there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre where no one was ever yet placed, so something hewn out in the rock. Joseph being very wealthy was able to prepare this place. He had it; it was a place that was his and already hewn out and very close here right in that same area. Therefore, they placed Jesus there, because of the Jews' preparation, for the sepulchre was nearby. So again here, referring to this being the preparation day, and the high day is about to come and so they want to get all this work of preparation for his body wrapped and everything else placed in the tomb. That's what they did, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Awesome! Incredible story.

Now let's look at the account in Mark. Mark 15:42—And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, and we know what Sabbath it was. So when somebody reads this it's easy to think its Friday. No, it's not Friday. Again here, he's talking about some of this and talking about the timing, talking about the preparation before this high day, this annual holy day, again, because it was a Passover, but also referred to as the preparation for that high day. It says, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable councillor, who also waited for the Kingdom of God, came and entered in boldly unto Pilate. So even this by what is translated here, how it was translated into English we know. We know that there's more in the writing here. We know that there are things that have not been translated properly just because we know the timing. It says, "And now when the even was come." We know that "even" wasn't there yet. We know that sundown hadn't taken place yet. We know that the high day wasn't there yet because by the very context it makes it clear! So the even was coming. It was almost there. It was getting close to it. That's why they did what they did on the preparation day. They were in a hurry to get these things done. Amazing! You don't even have to know Aramaic or Greek or anything else to know what this is. Yet that's the way it is in the original, not that it was already there, but it was coming. Incredible! And you know what? A lot of them know better, but they don't care. "It's not such a big thing," because it leads to other questions they don't have answers for.

Verse 43—Again, Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable councillor, who also waited for the Kingdom of God, came and entered in boldly unto Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. And Pilate marveled—notice—And Pilate marveled that he was already dead. How could he be dead already? Whether it was 3:30 or 4:00 by the time they got to Pilate, how was he dead? …and calling the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for a while. So again, he had to call for the centurion who would know, who was at the site, and have him brought back before he made his decision. How much time is passing? It's getting closer. It's getting closer to the high day. And when he knew of it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. He gave him permission.

Again, these different accounts add a little bit more and you put them all together and it makes it a clearer picture. So here time is still going by, he sends for a centurion, the centurion comes and tells him, "Yes, he is dead."

Then we have Luke's account. Luke 23. Again, every story all fits together, four different witnesses – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – of the events of Christ's life and his death, things that were written from their perspective. They wrote afterward, some time afterward, these events. And behold, there was a man named Joseph (verse 50), a councillor, and he was a man of possessions. The word "good" isn't even there in the Greek. It means "a man of possessions." That's what the word is all about, meaning great possessions. …and just, in other words, righteous in how he tried to live his life. The same had not consented to the council and deed of them. So he was a councillor among the Jewish people, looked up to in that regard, a man of great wealth, and makes it’s very clear he didn't consent with the rest in what they were doing and trying to get Christ in the first place and trying to put him to death. It says, He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself waited on the Kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate and requested the body of Jesus.

Verse 53—And he took it down and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein no one had ever been laid. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath was drawing on. In other words, it was getting closer. It was now dawning, in other words (that's what the word means), it was almost there. So here they are getting right up close to sunset, not yet sunset but finishing all the preparation they had to do and placing Christ in the tomb before the high day. And the women also who came with him from Galilee followed after, and looked upon the sepulchre and how his body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and ointments. So where did they return to? Well, to their homes, to their places. It says they prepared spices and ointments. And rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment. Now, anyone who has any knowledge of how you keep an annual Sabbath and a weekly Sabbath know there are certain things you do and certain things you don't do. You can't, you won't, and only on a preparation day before the Sabbath would they prepare the work and purchase spices and so forth.

So we know that right up to sunset here they barely got the body in the tomb, and here they were watching and observing how the body was laid and how it was prepared, and they watched Joseph and Nicodemus. So they still had desire to prepare more spices and those things that were in greater abundance even than what they had provided there. So their plan was then to go and prepare more. Well, they had to go purchase them. Well, it's almost the holy day so you can't do it then. So they rested on the high day and then they went and purchased them and bought them. When? On Friday because the high day was on Thursday during the daytime portion, and then the next day, a daylight period, would be Friday, another preparation day, this time for the weekly Sabbath. This is when they went and prepared the spices.

This isn't rocket science. Now, for the world of traditional Christianity it may be, because they willingly disbelieve these things when these things are pointed out and timing is pointed out. You can prove this. This isn't something where you have to have God's spirit to prove, okay? It's in scripture. The timing is there. The events are there. Those things that go along with Leviticus 23 are really quite clear, are really quite plain. It's just that people, as a whole, haven't been taught them, haven't been told them. They're ignorant of the Old Testament. They're ignorant of Leviticus 23 and so forth, but if people are willing to look at, yes, indeed, in this case they can come to see a timing involved here.

Jesus Christ said, "I'll leave you a sign," and it's one that can be counted by an unconverted mind. It can be counted by an unconverted mind. A lot of things can't be seen, nor understood. That doesn't mean that they'll even be seen and understood for what it's all about, but at least the very physical aspect of proving it can be seen. Proof was left for physical human beings to be able to see, and for them to believe Friday right at sunset to Sunday morning? Well, it just kind of stinks to me. It really does. It's like putting your head right down in the toilet after it's been filled up with everything you could think of that just doesn't smell good. That's what this is like. It stinks. It truly stinks. It's disgusting. It's horrible what they have done, what they choose to believe. Human beings can be so sick.

So it says, and they returned and prepared spices and the ointments. And rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment. Now, there's a certain order here. There is a certain order here, too, because we know when they went and bought the spices. We know when they prepared them. It was on Friday. Then they rested on the next day. They didn't take it to the tomb on Sabbath. They didn't take it to the tomb on Saturday. So when are they going to bring it? Just like they did, Sunday morning. They came to the tomb on Sunday morning to bring the spices because they'd already prepared it Friday. They couldn't do it on the Sabbath because that's an annual Sabbath, and so they weren't going to bring it then because it says they rested according to the Commandment. They understood the weekly Sabbath.

So again, very clear story here of what was taking place.

Matthew 27 once again. Matthew 27:57. It says, When… Again, unfortunate word to be used because it's not a matter of timing and it's not even a factor of time in this particular case here. That's not how this word is used. It's simply an expression like "whereas," "therefore," or "as a result." But it makes it sound like "when" in timing and it's not. So it's disgusting sometimes how some things have been translated and there's a being that had a big hand in that as well, but I don't want to get into that. So it's basically saying it's a part of the story flow, "now." Now the even was coming, that's where we are in the story. “Whereas” or “therefore” or “as a result” now the evening was coming, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph… So that's all its saying. It's saying now because we're getting late on the preparation day and on Passover, because it's a preparation day for the high day, the annual holy day that's about to come at sunset, the 1st day of Unleavened Bread, and because that's there, now because of that, and they know it, the even was coming, there was a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph who also himself was Jesus' disciple. So he was a follower. He believed things that Jesus did and said. He went to Pilate… Now, he was in a tough spot as a Jew, as a councillor, as a wealthy man. It was not an easy place to be. Incredible.

He went to Pilate and requested the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. So it makes it very clear this was his, he owned it, he had it done. He's a wealthy man. He had it chiselled out of rock and that's where he was going to be put when he died. And it says, and he rolled a great stone to the door. So it's hard for us to grasp some of these things unless you've ever been there and seen things that are done or seen something like this is done. But again here, it’s a large enough stone, but it's not a huge door, because it's a type of thing where you had to squat to get down into it. It wasn't a gigantic opening. But any size of rock and any kind of opening like that is going to be very heavy and it was heavy and it was round so that you could roll it in place. And so they rolled a great stone, it says, to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. So when did all this happen? It was all finished by the end of Passover day just before the high day began. That was their motivation, that was their purpose, and that's what God blessed them to accomplish.

So just before the high day, the 1st day of Unleavened Bread, the annual Sabbath began. It was complete and the stone was rolled into place and Christ was in the tomb before sunset. On what day? Not Friday. We'll come back to some of this as we go along here. I've already mentioned it but it's easy to follow.

Verse 62—Now, now this is the same as verse 57. Now they translate it this way. Why didn't they put "when?" Anyway. Now, the next day, it's just a story flow. Now, the next day. It's following through the story and saying it's the high day. We know it's the high day. So it says, Now, the next day which followed the day of preparation the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate… On the High Day! They were afraid. They would do something like this? They did something they wouldn't normally do on the high day of all days because all of a sudden something started bothering them. They started thinking (which, for these Jews, wasn't a good thing). It says, The chief priests and the Pharisees came together unto Pilate. So again, on the 1st day of Unleavened Bread, making it very clear when this is, saying, Sir, we remembered that this deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. They heard a little bit more than what they really wanted to acknowledge because they tried to twist all those things about the temple and so forth and mock and make fun of him about those things on a physical plane, when really they heard what he said, "In three days I'll rise again." They knew what it meant, see. They're liars. They're deceivers. They're the deceivers and they call Christ the deceiver? They're the deceivers and the liars, like so many in religion who know better. Many don't. Most don't. Most just grow up with it, and they never question it, they never think about it, and they're enslaved to it, truly. If they're a Catholic they remain a part of that, as a whole, the rest of their life. If they're Jehovah Witness, as a whole they grew up in it and they stay that the rest of their life. Seventh-day Baptist? Or I mean, Southern Baptist (don't even want to give them credibility for that one), but Southern Baptist, Baptist. You know, Catholics talk about, "Give me a Catholic when they're young and they're a Catholic for life." There's a lot of truth in those things, and so it is with a lot of religions.

So they said, "Remember, we heard this, After three days I will rise again. Therefore, command that the sepulchre be made secure until the third day, let's make sure for these three days. They didn't say for a day and a half. They said, "For these three days let's make sure that it's secure," lest his disciples come by night and steal him away. See, this could be a great conspiracy. They're going to come get him and say, "See! He did rise. He has risen!" …and say to the people, he has risen from the dead. So that the last error shall be worse than the first. This can only get worse if we don't put guard out there and secure it and make sure that his body stays there. Amazing! And Pilate said to them, You have a watch. "You have it." Going on he says, Go your way; make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone. So they not only put people out there to watch, they made sure that the stone couldn't be easily moved. This "sealing the stone" has to do with the way that stones are blocked. In this particular case, a round stone is blocked. They bring in large stones on both sides to secure it. That's their way of sealing it, blocking it, by the blocking they did with other stones. …and setting a watch. So that's what they did. That's how they manage this.

Going back here now to Luke 23. It's time to begin focusing on the timing of events that surround Christ's resurrection from the dead. So stories begin to jump ahead now because now he's placed in the tomb and now we're going to go through this period of time when a resurrection takes place.

First it needs to be noted what took place concerning what the women had done for preparing the spices for Christ's body, so we're going to go back to part of that. So we're going to go back and visit something that was already mentioned, and that's Luke 23:52 again here. Let's just read this again, put it in context here as we go forward. So it says in verse 52—That man went unto Pilate, speaking of Joseph of Arimathea, and requested the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein no one had ever been laid. And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. In other words, it's now dawning. It's getting close to that day. It was almost there; it wasn't quite there, but it was getting close to it. And the women also who came with him from Galilee followed after, and looked upon the sepulchre and how the body was laid. As we talked about, they stayed there until it was all taken care of. And then they returned, as it says, and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the Commandment. So again, that timing; it's important to understand what they did. They didn't go on the high day of the annual holy day. They went and purchased and prepared the spices on Friday, a preparation day, and then they rested on the Sabbath. So they rested on the weekly Sabbath.

Now Mark 16, because the story really picks up from this particular area. Mark 16:1—And when the Sabbath was past, the annual Sabbath, the annual holy day, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, it says, had bought sweet spices. So again, it makes it very clear here this isn't talking about Sunday because they were coming to the tomb on Sunday. So it wasn't the Sabbath day, the weekly Sabbath, so it was on Friday because they didn't do it on the high day. So that's what it's making very clear here. It says, "When the Sabbath was past." Now, anyone with a little bit of thought would follow through and think about this a little bit, but people don't! They just read through the scriptures and they don't think anything about timing because in their minds they have no question about anything because: "We observe Easter on Sunday morning. It's always been that way. That's when you do it. What happened before that, it's kind of a mystery. So we just read things as a story flow." They don't even think about it, don't even think about any of this. People ought to think a little bit. He is the Messiah. He gave proof that he was the Messiah. Is your religion in vain? Are you running around in circles no better than any other religion on the earth, Buddhism, or whatever it might be? Do you blindly believe everything you have or are their certain things you know that are simple and clear? Amazing!

So, "When the Sabbath was past," a little bit of thought makes it so clear. They didn't do this on Sunday because they came, they started going to the tomb when it was still dark on Sunday morning. It makes it very clear here the timing of things as the sun began to rise and events Sunday morning. So it's not talking about something that happened on Sunday. It happened on Friday. The Sabbath was past, the annual Sabbath that follows Passover, the 1st day of Unleavened Bread. Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome had bought, purchased in other words, sweet spices so that they might come and anoint him. So again here, this is simple, not difficult. It’s not rocket science. It's simple.

So again here, just throwing that one in, that verse there because, again, a little bit here, a little bit there and it all comes together.

Matthew 28. Sorry to keep jumping around like this, but that's the only way to have the story flow. You have to jump around and you have to know where to jump, where the story continues on because it can be a little confusing, especially when you don't know diddly anyway. So people listening for the first time don't know diddly; that's just a reality. You should understand that. If you don't know about an annual high day, if you don't know about the 1st day of Unleavened Bread, you need to think about it and go back and see what it says about it. And Passover, if you don't know what Passover is, a person really needs to understand what that is. It has great meaning in what Christ fulfilled.

Matthew 28. This next verse reveals much and has been mistranslated either by sheer ignorance or on purpose only. It can only be one of the two – sheer ignorance or has been mistranslated on purpose.

Matthew 28:1—In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward/into the first of the week, Mary Magdalene and Mary, it says, came to see the sepulchre. Well, I'll say in ignorance or just stupidity. Again, there's only two choices there. "In the end of" is just a word that means "after." "In the end of," it means "after." Again, people put their own spin into things for a reason, to confuse. Again, there are other reasons why some of these things are that way.

But anyway, After the Sabbaths. Plural. Very clear. The word is not a singular Sabbath. It actually speaks of Sabbaths when you go back and you look at the original words that are there. So why did they translate it like this? Like I said, either on purpose or just sheer ignorance because of the story and they might have been confused about the preparation day and so they think that, "Well, Matthew must have screwed up here. He wrote 'Sabbaths' so we better correct this and make it singular because we know it happened on Saturday, the seventh day. That's when the Jews have the Sabbath." There was no mistake made.

After the Sabbaths, because there was an annual holy day that was on Thursday during the daytime portion, Wednesday night, Thursday during the daytime portion. Then Friday was a preparation day and then the weekly Sabbath, the seventh day Sabbath. So after those two Sabbaths (plural). After, and this is a proper translation in every way even of the language itself, the Greek language. After the Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward (into) the first of the week… So when does that happen? Well, we know if the Sabbaths are over we're going to be starting a new rotation here, the first day, the first day of the week, Sunday. It starts at sundown after the weekly Sabbath. It goes all night then into the daytime portion and you have your first day of the week, called by most as Sunday, the day of the sun.

So it says, the first of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the sepulchre.

Now, you don't need to turn back here but I just want to read again here, I'm going to read John 20:1, just for your notes as a matter of story flow. In the first of the week Mary Magdalene came early, when it was yet dark, so again, a little bit here and a little bit there. It's making it very clear here that she started back, they started back, they started to the tomb before the sun was up, before the sun was rising. It was dark out. So they started their journey. We don't know how far away it was, whether it was a couple miles or what, or where they were staying, but a lot of the travel back and forth, as we read before in the story here, was a couple of miles away where a lot of them were living. You know the story of Lazarus and so forth and how far that was outside of Jerusalem so they had this distance that they had to travel, and most likely in that particular area, as it talks about here, because of who they are. So it talks about when it was still dark they started their journey because they wanted to put the spices with Christ and do more than what Joseph and Nicodemus had done.

It says they came early, when it was yet dark, making it very clear here it was dark out. The sun hasn't risen yet; it wasn't rising. It was dark, and they like to talk about a sunrise service, a sunrise resurrection. He wasn't resurrected anywhere close to sunrise, but that's what they want to believe because of all this stuff with Easter and looking to the sun, not even knowing where all that came from: Ishtar, Astarte, and worship of Baal and all the sun worship that took place. They don't know that that trickled its way into what's called Judaism and Christianity because it trickled its way into both.

So it says, they came early while it was yet dark unto the sepulchre, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre, so just a quick summary. We're going to read some things as we go along here that are summed up quickly. I think of Mark and one other one at one point here, they just sum up a whole period of time in just a few verses and you've got to put all the rest of it together to know what was taking place, but they still had something unique in what they had to say. It all fits together, a complete story.

Matthew 28:2—And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the LORD descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. So this is something that had taken place. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers were shaking, you know, the ones that were sitting guard, the ones that they wanted to make keep guard so that no one would come and steal the body away in that three day period. They were there, and they became as dead. They were scared spitless, so to speak, as the expression goes. They were a little bit scared more than that, really. They were very afraid of what just took place and what they were seeing and what they experienced.

But notice here what it says, And the angel answered and said unto the women, Do not fear, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was hung on a pole. He is not here. So this earthquake takes place, the stone is rolled away, here they are and they start talking to the women. Incredible! They tell them, "He's not in here." The stone is rolled away, but he's gone. So this is the first time it's opened up. It scares the tar out of the guards there that were guarding the sepulchre and now he's talking to the women telling them this. For he has risen! It didn't say he is rising right now, or he just rose, he just rose a minute ago, you see, because they came when it was yet dark and so people in traditional Christianity like to say, "Well, the sun was rising and it was just as the rising of the sun." Because this has to go into their beliefs connected with Easter, this sunrise morning thing: "And it was just rising."

He has risen. He had already risen. He's not here. He's gone! …as he said. Come; see the place where the Lord was lying. So they rolled back the stone, they said he's not here; he's risen, just like he said he was. "Come in here and look, he's gone. Come look for yourself." Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead; and, behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there shall you see him. Now I have told you. He did his job. That's what he was sent to do. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and ran to bring his disciples word. They were shaken up. It says they were afraid for what they saw, for what they experienced. He's not there. Things were running through their mind: “Who stole his body; what happened?” That's some of the accounts of what they discussed here because Matthew doesn't cover everything.

Mark 16:2—And very early in the morning, the first of the week, they, and it's speaking of Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, came to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. "Oh, here we have it. Yep. That's when they arrived." So here they are back to what they want to believe. I'm just saying because that's how they function. They hear this story and say, "Oh, see, it was at the rising of the sun." But he was already risen so there goes your story. So here they arrive right at the rising of the sun. He's gone; he's not here. He has already risen. It's very clear the timing of when he did rise, but even the scattered Church doesn't believe that one. Do you realize that? Even the Church that was scattered hasn't thought that one through. You think, "Why not? Why don't you know this?"

Verse 3—And they said among themselves, Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the sepulchre? So this is what they're thinking as they're approaching. Here they are, “Who's going to do this for us?” And so it just adds a little bit more to the story because as they're going they can't do it. They know they can't do it. You think the guards are going to help them, the ones that are there to protect it? And when they looked, they saw the stone was rolled away—for it was very great. So again here, it was already rolled away.

So again here, a little more to the story because you have to go back up then, look at the other and say, okay, here the angels rolled it back. It gives us that account. So, yes, we've got to take a look at that and say, "Yep, that's exactly how it happened then." They came on the scene right as this event had taken place. Here it's already rolled back and there the angels are and that is the timing. See, it isn't hard to do. You just put it together in one story that may not be clear. It gets a little clearer, doesn't it? But you've got to go to all these stories and put them all together.

And upon entering the sepulchre, they saw a young person sitting on the right side clothed in a long white garment. And they were afraid. So again, it talks about two. It talks about different things that they saw, different things that are witnessed here, one that was there before at the stone, one that was inside, because they did go in and look. That's what they were told to do.

And he said to them, Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was hung on a pole. He has risen! He is not here. It goes on to say, He is not here. Behold the place where they laid him. But go your way and tell his disciples—and Peter—that he goes before you into Galilee. So again here, even within some of this it's from their perspective of what they have heard. Even in this as people will tell a story you have to put it all together and the truth becomes clearer as you go through it because it's not perfect. It's not perfect, as human beings, but it's the truth. So it may be something someone heard just a little bit different than what he heard. He writes it in a certain way because they weren't there. All this is hearsay, as a whole, of things they wrote down, of things they recorded from what they remember when they started writing. Again, being human beings we write, and there has never been a servant of God who has written everything perfectly – never, because we tend to think that way as human beings, "Well, everything is perfect," even in the Bible. So what is there is very minor and the truth is there when all put together, all witnesses are there.

But go your way and tell his disciples—and Peter—that he goes before you into Galilee. There shall you see him, as he said to you. And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulchre, for they were trembling and they were bewildered. We can't imagine something like that and how that would strike you. Neither did they say anything to anyone, because they were afraid.

Let's go on a little bit more.

Luke 24:1—Now upon the first of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. So it makes it clear here there were others that came along as well and they brought the spices. So he adds a little bit more that others didn't add. And they found the stone had been rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. So again, just a summary of what took place.

And it came to pass, as they were very perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. And as they were afraid and bowed their faces down to the earth, they said unto them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? So again, these things were all stated, but one records part of what one said, another records another of what they heard, of what they said, and so forth. He is not here, but has risen! Remember how he spoke to you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be hung on a pole, and the third day rise again. And they remembered the words.

Now, I'll tell you right now, it doesn't mean they remembered right then. So many things we can read into stories if we're not careful. They didn't remember right then. Other accounts make it very clear and the story makes it very clear, but in time they remembered.

"And they remembered his words." So again, it's amazing how human beings, we can read things into a story flow, into things that are being said, and we have to be very careful doing that because that's not always healthy. It's good to get the entire story and put it together, just like we're doing here and showing how things are done, how things are said. Again, hearsay and things that are written, and yet different stories that come together, all together, to make a very clear picture when it's all said and done.

We're going to stop there and continue on in Part 6 next time.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1