Passover to Pentecost, Pt. 2

Ron Weinland

April 21, 2018

Today this is the continuation of the new series entitled Passover to Pentecost, with this being Part 2.

We do understand more significantly than at any other time that we’re being made ready for our Passover’s coming in the Kingdom of God and we have our eyes focused upon Pentecost of 2019. As I think about some of these things I think about what it says in Ezekiel about being a watchman, by watching those things, if we are aware, that we’re supposed to warn. That is a part of our job. So we have done that before looking at 2012, not knowing what happened then, looking at 2013, and now warning about 2019. Those are primarily because of specific timings and so forth that we’re able to see that I mentioned during the Days of Unleavened Bread that are so incredible, that the probability of those kinds of things happening mathematically with dates and the timing of those things is so incredible; it truly is, if you understand things about mathematics and probabilities.

We continue to move forward and indeed if 2019 does prove to be the case, which we are all focused upon that it is, then we’ll be in the final throes of this world beginning to be transitioned from man’s rule to that of God’s rule over this earth at this time next year. We can’t even begin to grasp that and imagine that when God begins to do that, because it talks about a period of time then where we have gone through the various trumpets, those things associate with the various trumpets, but the seventh one, which is the Seven Last Plagues is something that God Himself does. As I mentioned last week it’s very much like what God did on Passover, in that respect, except a lot more powerful, what He’s going to do in this world, but what He did on Passover is something that God did.

Some people read certain things into scripture, stories that are told. I think maybe even the movie Exodus may have that in there, about the Exodus, 10 Commandments, of things that aren’t true, where they have Pharaoh on one side and his army being destroyed. Pharaoh was destroyed too. Pharaoh was in the midst of that water; he was destroyed. His armies were destroyed and when they did stay there that night on Passover it wasn’t a death angel that went through and destroyed the firstborn of all of Egypt, including all the livestock and everything else and the families. It was God Almighty. He said, “I did this.” “I did this.” So it’s something that God’s going to do again at the end here except far more powerfully to the degree He sees necessary in order to usher in His government.

I mentioned last week how that so many prophesies in the Old Testament about judgment and about things that are coming are not about things that we comprehend about the Great White Throne Judgment when there’s going to be an incredibly great resurrection of people and they have that opportunity to live up to 100 years in order to receive God’s way of life and God’s truth, to live a second physical life, something that people don’t grasp when it speaks about it in Revelation 20 about a second death. You can’t have a second death unless you live twice. That’s what that’s about. We’re blessed to understand those things. It gives us peace, peace of mind. We understand what takes place after death in an incredible way. No one goes up. No one goes down. Well, they go down if it’s a matter of being put into a grave and that’s it. They go into a grave or are cremated and are dust upon the earth. We return to dust again and we await a resurrection in God’s time.

So things that we grasp and we comprehend are so incredible. They truly are. The things we grasp of what’s going to take place when God intervenes on this world in order to usher in His Kingdom, His government is not a small thing. There’s a period of time there where He’s going to work with various peoples on the earth and various governments of the earth.

I look at the world today. I look at what’s happening in this country. People are beginning to be shown that we cannot govern ourselves. Mankind cannot govern himself righteously in any fashion or form. People take sides. People have prejudices. They govern by those things or they’re moved by those things, and though this may be the best system that man can come up with it is not God’s by any measure. It isn’t right. It isn’t just. God is bringing those things to the surface to show mankind so that when He begins to do what He does, to show them, “You have been incapable of governing yourself.” Europe can’t govern itself. I wish I could remember how many – if they even have a government now – I think they have, like, five different governing bodies in Belgium right now they told me. I don’t understand that. I don’t think they do, but it’s basically not a government, but it continues to go on.

Anyway, sick, sick world, the things that are taking place here. I think it’s interesting what’s happening right now. North Korea, something that no one’s been able to do for a long time, if they do it, if they make certain agreements, and then people think, “Well, if they back away from those things and things are ratcheted down a great deal then things are going to be so much better. How can 2019 be it?” Remember what God said, when they say, “Peace, peace, then sudden destruction comes”? That kind of sends chills up and down my spine because there’s going to come a time when people are going to actually say that, “Peace, peace,” in a way they haven’t said it in a long, long time.

Who is that talking about? It’s primarily this nation because this is the primary nation that God begins to work with to begin to humble this earth because it’s the primary nation that God raised to the power He did, gave them what He’s given to us to experience on this earth, and those things are all going to be taken away. So everything’s happening now at a very fast pace, things that have never been talked about before, things you don’t even begin to receive in the news here unless you’re digging deep.

Things are happening over in Pakistan, India, even with Iran, things that are still taking place over there with China. They are rattling sabres over there, powerfully so, and there’s coming a time when all these nations all of a sudden just like dominoes. We have never seen a time like this. People in the world are beginning to take a little bit of note – not a lot. That’s what’s sad because it’s going to take so much to humble people before they’ll begin to listen. Mankind hasn’t listened for 6,000 years.

So as I mentioned earlier, throughout the scriptures when it talks about a time of judgment and things that are going to come upon this earth it’s talking about this time, not the Great White Throne, not what happens later on, not what happens through the Millennium. That’s going to be an awesomely beautiful, awesome time for mankind to learn God’s way of life, to have one government, one truth, one religion on the earth. All false religions are going to be done away with once and for all because when the truth is there and the light is there it illuminates what is false, what is wrong. Mankind is going to be blessed to be able to see. They’re going to be taught what is true and what is right under a righteous government.

So that judgment that God’s bringing to the earth is a judgment about mankind and how he’s been for 6,000 years. It just happens to be that it couldn’t be executed upon mankind until this time. So His judgment is for this period of time. We just happen to live in it.

So what God does in those Seven Last Plagues the world can’t even begin to comprehend because He says He’s going to destroy those who are destroying the earth, and we already know the magnitude of what’s going to take place, because God is very specific about how far He lets it go. He’s very specific about how far He lets it go as far as nuclear confrontation is concerned. It says if He didn’t intervene and stop it mankind would destroy himself. This is the only time that mankind has had that ability to annihilate himself, to fully destroy himself from off the face of the earth. God says He’s not going to allow that and so He stops that and He starts destroying those who are destroying the earth. But how much He destroys can be far more than what took place during a nuclear war.

God is not playing games with mankind. Mankind can no longer thumb his nose at God and refuse to listen. Either people will begin to listen or they will not, and if they will not, so be it, they’ll be resurrected in another time. They will die.

So let’s turn over to John 19 where we were last week. We are to be preparing ourselves for the potential of those events that are going to take place here in a short time and be preparing for them more than ever before. That is supposed to be our focus more than ever. Although we covered this timing very thoroughly last year we’re going through it again, some things, and we’re not addressing it in the length we did last year concerning the death of Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ because there’s a particular area we are focusing upon having to do with the wave sheaf. It’s important that people understand this timing.

I had some conversations with different ones over there in Europe about some of the things stated in here that we talked about even last week. And because mankind, especially in the western world, and I think about Europe, England in particular, when they broke away from the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church or the Church of England began to rise up, that was the great first movement in that sense away from the Catholic Church with great power. Though the Pope, the Catholic Church tried to bring it down at different times, tried to destroy that government, it still rose in time because it was God’s purpose that it emerge around the 1500’s. Although before that there was Martin Luther and some others as well there in Europe that began to preach other things away from the Catholic Church, but it really had its rise there then in Great Britain.

But when people translated some of the scriptures by that time so long after—and nothing to do with Judaism because they don’t understand Judaism—they so misconstrue things that are said in scripture and they don’t understand that John, Mark, Luke, different ones, they spoke in terms that people would commonly understand in their day. So when they spoke about Unleavened Bread or Passover, much like we do, we use it very loosely; we don’t mean to be exceedingly explicit about certain things when we talk about Passover season or the Passover or Unleavened Bread. I can talk about Unleavened Bread and be referring to Passover in the next sentence and what we’re going to do in partaking of the Passover. People know when that is. If you understand God’s law you know. It’s not confusing, but it is to a world of traditional Christianity because they don’t have any understanding of things in the Old Testament whatsoever as a whole.

So this is some of the things that come up here then as we go through the book of John, especially as we’re going through this in Chapter 19 about the death of Jesus Christ. So we have specific days here, specific periods of time.

We understand on the fourteenth day of the month the Passover was to be observed and so at sundown on that particular day Christ had told the disciples where to prepare the Passover and they went there to eat it. So they killed the lamb after sundown on the fourteenth, they roasted the lamb as they were instructed to do, and they started eating later on that evening, late into the evening.

Then after it was over we understand the process of where Christ took a towel, he washed the disciples feet, he instituted the new Passover, he gave the bread and the wine to them, and after that he began to teach more in John 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18, and other things that he began to teach very powerfully so. Then he went out to pray by himself for a period of time and then Judas betrayed him. We know the story. By morning then about 6:00, this is the period of time we’re getting to now on Passover day, this is where we come in on the scene.

John 19:13—When Pilate, therefore, had heard that saying, he brought forth Jesus and sat him down in the judgment seat in a place that is called The Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover. So again here, terms that everyone at that time would understand. We understand it. But the world when they read some of these things they get confused. They don’t understand what’s happening as far as timing is concerned and why this is so important in what it means.

It was the preparation of the Passover and this is speaking of the preparation of the Passover sacrifices. What they did on a preparation day, just like on a Friday during a normal week, it’s a preparation day for the Sabbath. Work is to be done; various things are to be done. But now for Unleavened Bread that’s unique because the first day of Unleavened Bread is a high day. It’s the first annual Sabbath. What they did is they offered up sacrifices before God after sunset and they began to feast in the night. That’s what they did on Feast days.

So the preparation of many of the animals began to take place, and some of the killing of some of the animals actually began to take place ahead of time as long as they were prepared and ready to be sacrificed after sunset. They couldn’t partake of those things until after sunset, but there were things of preparation that went on through the afternoon.

That’s why it’s so important to understand the timing of when Christ died because it was the preparation of the sacrifices, of things that have meaning to it, and things that were going to take place that he was going to fulfill. Everything has so much meaning to it.

So when it says, “This is the preparation of the Passover,” it was a matter of timing here. The Jews were pushing certain things because they wanted Christ dead – not only dead but they wanted him buried before sundown because sundown’s a high day and no work can be done. They couldn’t leave him up there and take him off the next day, or the two thieves that were beside him, but people don’t understand this.

So when it talks about “the preparation of the Passover,” as far as the Jews are concerned, it’s just stating a period of time here that John understood and all the rest of the disciples and anyone in God’s Church would understand.

…and it was about the sixth hour. I mentioned last week that this was right at 6:00 AM because they were using Roman time. John, if my memory serves me right, John always speaks of things in Roman time, as a whole. Some of the others then speak of things, as they did in Judaism and that timing is different. So we’ll mark that down as we go along here.

But here when he speaks of this being about the sixth hour they were pressing this so much. He probably wasn’t all that happy, but Pilate had to get up early in the morning to help take care of some of this stuff, to resolve some of the things that were taking place because it was like a mob. They wanted to kill Jesus Christ and they demanded, in essence, a trial, and they wanted to put him to death immediately on this particular day.

So this was the fourteenth, which was on Wednesday this year. So if you look at the daytime period here, this is awesome to me. I mean, God does everything so meticulously, perfectly so. It had to be on a Wednesday! It couldn’t have happened in some other year where the Passover maybe fell on a Monday or a Thursday or whatever, or Friday or whenever. It had to take place on Wednesday, once we understand that, because this has everything to do with what’s going to be revealed about the wave sheaf and about his resurrection and what Jesus Christ said when he said he’s going to be dead for three days and three nights.

So all these things are exceedingly important to understand because God is meticulous and to the point when it comes to timing. So it speaks here of this timing here on the fourteenth.

So it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your King! They weren’t very happy about that. “Behold your King,” because he knew what was being said. Even before the period of time here, because him coming into Jerusalem like he did those days before and the thousands that were there crying out about the Messiah, the Son of David who’s come into Jerusalem. Thousands of people! Pilate knew these things were taking place and what was being said about him, that he is the Messiah. If he’s the Messiah then this has to do with prophecy about the Jews, that they have a Messiah, because the anointing of a Messiah is about being a king, not a Passover. It’s about a king! They didn’t understand the Passover. The disciples didn’t understand he was going to fulfill Passover. But he had to come first as a Passover before he would be King of kings, and so he said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He told Pilate these things.

Incredible story, it truly is. I’m moved by it every time I read it, every time I go through it. It ought to move us that we see and understand things so clearly, what he fulfilled.

Verse 15—But they cried out, Away with him! So we’re backing up and reading a little bit of the last part of the sermon from last week. And they said, Away with him! It’s similar when they said here, basically, to nail him to a pole. Basically, that’s what they were saying. It’s not the word “crucify.” There is no such word like this. There is absolutely no such word like this in the Greek language where someone is put with their arms out to their side on a pole and crucified. There are words that have to do with a pole or there are words that have to do with putting poles together, but not this. Yet this is what the world believes. They believe that he had his hands nailed out to the side. He didn’t die that way at all! What an incredible thing when people have to come to admit he was nailed with one nail. They didn’t waste nails! They didn’t waste time. They didn’t waste time building something like that. They had a pole they put people on and they put him up there with one nail through the hands and one through the feet; one on the top and one on the bottom. It’s so basic to understand.

This kind of riles me up because people don’t even think very far; they just listen to these stories and fables about Jesus Christ and about whether it be his birth or his death and they don’t understand because they don’t read things for what they’re saying. Yet they’re so clear. They’re so clear. If they just understood why they came around and broke the thieves’ legs later on they would grasp and understand how he died. But they don’t care to know the truth because the world is blind because it can’t help it, because there is a being out there who has blinded the world of what’s true. God’s made it really clear only those whom He calls, only those with whom He works, can grasp and comprehend what truly happened and what is the truth, period, about holy days, about Sabbaths, about everything else having to do with His plan and purpose.

So this saying, “Away with him,” and “Nail him to a pole,” was very much like I mentioned last week, when in the old west people would get riled up about what somebody did and say, “Hang him! Hang Him!” and they’d go out and hang somebody. This was the same sort of thing. They had a crowd there, a large crowd of people and they were of the same mindset, “Nail him to a pole!

And Pilate said to them, Shall I nail your king on a pole? Because that’s what the word “stauros” is in the Greek. It’s a pole. The way they fastened them to it was with nails. So should he hang him on a pole? That’s basically what’s being said, whatever term you want to use.

Shall I place your king? And the chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar! Now this was cutting and this was powerful, because, you see, this is the only way they got Pilate to agree to kill Christ, to have him put to death, because basically they told him as time went along here that we have no king, and basically if someone has some other king they’re to be put to death. So if he’s a king in Caesars kingdom that insurrection; he should be put to death. So he, this man is worthy of being put to death. That’s the only reason Pilate agreed to have him put to death, because otherwise the story could go back to Caesar that Pilate wouldn’t execute someone who was claiming to be king and had all these followers. Incredible!

Verse 16—Then he, therefore, delivered him to them to be nailed to the pole and they took Jesus and led him away. And he, bearing his pole… It wasn’t a cross like some of the pictures show or movies where he’s carrying this great, big, humongous thing with this pole crossing over and he’s carrying it. It’s not what happened. He had a pole on his shoulder. When he couldn’t do it anymore they got someone else to carry it, drag it the rest of the way.

So he, bearing his pole, went forth into the place called the Skull, which in the Hebrew is Golgotha, where they nailed him to a pole, not a word “crucify” at all in any language. It’s stauros. …and two others with him, one on one side, and Jesus in the center.  So they had the two thieves, one on each side, and Jesus Christ in the middle.

Mark 15. Now, here Mark uses a different period of timing. Mark 15:25—And it was the third hour. So again here, John spoke of different terms here when he was speaking of the time that Pilate was doing this when it said in verse 14 that it was the preparation for the Passover, it was in the morning, it was about the sixth hour. So this was 6:00 am. So the third hour was not 3:00 AM. This third hour is the time the Hebrews used which started at six in the morning. So this was actually 9:00 AM. So their third hour is 9:00 AM. So it’s a different timing that Mark used, and Luke I believe, and Matthew when they spoke of any specific hour or whatever, whereas John used Roman time.

So again here, it was about the third hour, it says, and they nailed him to a pole. So this was about three hours later then when he first came before Pilate. They nailed him to the pole and it says here, And the writing of the accusation was inscribed as: THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Now, Pilate was not a happy man with those leaders of the Jewish people there because they pressed him into doing something he did not want to do and they basically threatened him. They would talk about Caesar, and anyone, basically, who would go against him. So basically they were telling him in no uncertain terms you don’t have any choice. So he just rubbed it in their nose, “He is the King of the Jews,” see.

And so the writing of the accusation was inscribed as: THE KING OF THE JEWS. And with him they nailed to the pole two thieves, the one on the right hand and the other on the left. So it says here, The scripture was fulfilled which says that he was numbered with the transgressors. So, again here, he had no sin but he was numbered with those who did sin. That’s the point of what’s being stated here.

It says, And they that passed by railed on him, in other words, they criticized, complained against, condemned, different kinds of things that people do sometimes, as it says here, they were shaking their heads as they went by and saying, Oh you who can destroy the temple and build it again in three days, mocking and making fun, because now it was very obvious he wasn’t the Messiah, to them. It was very obvious to most people who were a part of maybe having a hope and a belief that he might be the Messiah, now to see him up there on a pole hung like that they criticized or they looked down upon him. They condemned him and mocked him and made fun of him.

So, you who said you could do something within three days, destroy the temple and build it again in three days, save yourself, and come down from the pole! Likewise also the chief priests mocked him and said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others but he cannot save himself. They were so perverted, so sick in the comments they made. It was like making fun of him and saying, “We’ve heard all these stories, how he saved others and healed different ones and he can’t even help himself.” They mocked, made fun of it.

Verse 32—Let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the pole, that we may see and believe. So, “If he will do that then we’ll believe.” It’s amazing what human beings are like. And those who were on poles with him, in other words, on both sides there, the thieves, spoke against or criticized, found fault with him as well, as it says, reviled him.  And when the sixth hour, so again here, the Hebrew time, Jewish time, twelve noon. Here it was twelve noon now, three hours nailed to the pole. It says here, by noon, when that had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.

Now, that had to be a little eerie, actually, a lot eerie because here all of a sudden it was dark, started getting dark. There were no clouds, but it was starting to get dark. I don’t know if you saw the effects of some of the eclipse, but it’s kind of an eerie thing. The sun was there – some people saw some of the full parts of it, but if you looked up at it, it wasn’t dark outside, but there was just a lack of light and it was just different. It was weird, but this here was a lot weirder. So we’re talking about a darkness it says, for three hours, from twelve noon to about three o’clock over the land, not totally dark, but there was a darkness there that was something that’s never happened before.

When the sixth hour came, noon, it says there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, until three pm.

Then verse 34—And at the ninth hour, this now being 3:00 PM on that Wednesday afternoon. Again, Wednesday afternoon when this is taking place, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is  to say, or being interpreted, My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Now, he said this for us. He knew what was taking place. He knew the things that were happening. He knew what had to take place, yet there’s still that human part of things there that are left there as a question. Why? What does this mean?

Again here, God did something that Jesus Christ felt that was unique because He didn’t intervene for him, He didn’t give him help. He had to suffer through this. He had to suffer through and experience everything about dying for that three hours, actually, before that but now we’re talking about that last three hours from noon on. You think about some of the things when you begin to understand what he was fulfilling. He was fulfilling the role of Passover, taking upon himself the sins of all mankind, and God will not be around sin. So symbolically here there are some things that are to be learned from this, that God could not, would not intervene for him, and Jesus Christ understood these things. But in that period of time in that sense he was by himself in a way that he hadn’t been before. It’s unique to understand.

And some of them who stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calls Elijah! Now, he didn’t call for Elijah the prophet, but people translate things because they don’t understand what’s being said. So this is a horrible word to use here. It’s not what it’s talking about at all. It’s basically a word that says, “My God is Yahweh.” So, “He calls on his God, Yahweh.” That’s all it was talking about. This is who he was calling on, his God, Yahweh. It wasn’t their God. So the ones who were talking about some of this, it was like, “Is he going to answer?”

And one ran and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, not the Jews but talking about Romans and the soldiers who were there. So it wasn’t their God; it was His God. “What’s his God going to do now? What’s he going to do?” And they gave him drink, saying, Leave him alone, others talk about here, let’s see if Elijah will come down to take him down. Again, it’s not about Elijah the prophet, but people read through stuff like this and it’s just confusing. Why is he talking about Elijah? It’s because they don’t understand what the words mean. They don’t understand what the right translation is, “His God Yahweh.” “Let’s see if his God Yahweh will come down and save him and take him down.”

And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up… and it’s not a “ghost.” These things are so sick, what human beings have translated and what has transpired over hundreds of years now as far as the English language is concerned, this idea of three beings. They call it Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. There’s this mysterious part of the trinity. So they refer, because there is no explanation for it, Catholics says it’s a mystery, and no one can explain it, you just have to accept it on faith. So it’s this “three musketeer” thing, one for all and, you know, whatever. They’re one God, but yet they’re three different Gods. You think, “What a bunch of bull!”

It’s this kind of stuff that Satan has done that’s confused people, just confused people. So they talk about a ghost and they think that there is this that is in mankind that’s like something that’s alive and lives on and we all have this in us. No, not at all. This here is just talking about life itself. It’s a word for life itself, the breath of life. He gave it up. He quit breathing. Life ended for him. He died! That’s what it’s talking about. “And so when he cried with a loud voice he died.” It’s just another way of saying something very simple, very plain.

So anyway, much of the reason we’ve been going through this is because we need to understand some of the timing of these things very deeply so and that which took place on Passover day, why he had to die on a Wednesday afternoon, why around 3:00 some of these things took place that happened in the afternoon there, and how he died, all the things that took place there at that particular period of time. They didn’t have much time then by that time and sundown, but up until 3:00 very specific about what happened.

Again here, so many people in God’s Church have become confused. That’s what’s appalling! People who have understood things about the fourteenth, people who have understood about what takes place on the first high day from the fifteenth on. You know, I speak on these things over and over again and people may get tired of it from time to time, but there are numbers of ministers, and if they had been around for as long as they were and taught some of the same things you have been about Leviticus 23, about the Passover and the high days, and they can become confused and not understand the timing of these events, don’t believe it can’t happen to you. Someone can come along and deceive you. Because they can!

Because I’m talking about not hundreds but thousands in God’s Church who have been deceived by this very thing, who have become confused about something that is so simple, but it only remains simple as long as you remain close to God. See, that’s what’s scary because if you begin to wander off and do your own thing and stray away from the truth and God’s spirit begins to be quenched you begin to lose something that only God can not only give to you but has to maintain in you. That’s why it talks about the spirit must be continually coming in us, living in us, dwelling in us, because when it begins to be quenched or cut off, just like the umbilical cord to a baby, it’s going to die; it’s going to die in time. If we start quenching God’s spirit we’re going to lose that life and not have the ability to see things on a spiritual plane anymore. I’ve seen it happen to hundreds and hundreds of people that I’ve personally known, and it can happen to you.

So we should never get tired of things that we have put into here, repeated to us. That’s why God has us go through things year to year on the high days. He wants us to go through the meaning of every high day every year. He wants us to grasp and understand the meaning of Unleavened Bread. He wants us to grasp and understand the meaning of Pentecost. He wants us to understand the things about Trumpets, Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. He wants us to understand how this is about His plan and His purpose for mankind. So He has us repeat these things and go through these things year after year after year.

When I go through them I am inspired by them, I’m moved by them, I’m excited by them, because they’re exciting! Every time we go through them and if they ever become dull to us, woe be to us, in essence, truly. They should always be moving and exciting to us, what God gives to us. They better be exciting for the next thousand years as well. Well, they will be in the God Family. But what about those who have opportunity to live partially into that?

So we’ve covered so far what’s taken place here up to 3:00 PM on that Wednesday afternoon of the Passover day. There are things that had to take place at the beginning of Passover, where Jesus Christ kept the last physical Passover, because basically after that it was done away with. That’s what was done away. The sacrificial system at this point for mankind – basically the Jews – was done away with (because they were the only ones that were keeping it at this point), because of what he was fulfilling on that day. This law wasn’t done away with, but as Hebrews talks about it’s a law of sacrifices that was done away with because Jesus Christ fulfilled everything! He instituted then the new Passover after that. That’s the Passover we observe. We don’t observe eating a lamb, you know, roasting a lamb. Jesus Christ fulfilled it.

So this fourteenth day of the first month, this is the point where Jesus Christ died. Even the cause of his death isn’t even known by most people. Most people don’t even understand how he actually died.

John 19:33—But when they, speaking of some soldiers, came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Now, here was a point in time after 3:00 in the afternoon (we don’t know how much later exactly at this point in time), they came around to break the legs of everyone that was on a pole. Why? The world doesn’t ask this. Traditional Christianity doesn’t ask this. The Catholic Church doesn’t want anybody to know about it, never has. It’s because when you’re up there with your arms above your head and they want to put you in a grave you have to be off the pole before the holy day arrives, which is going to happen at sunset on Wednesday. So they had to have by their laws, by their traditions, of the Jews, they had to have everyone off those poles and taken care of.

So they wanted to make sure that these were dead and so that they could take them down and have them buried before the high day began because they can’t do this kind of work on an annual Sabbath. So they came around to break the legs of everyone, because when they break the legs they can’t push themselves up to breathe any longer and when you’re hanging with your hands over your head and nothing to support yourself you will choke to death. You will die in a very short time. That’s why they came around and broke the legs. It’s such a simple thing to understand. If you’re arms out to the side, it’s not going to happen. It’ll happen in time, you’re going to die eventually up there because you’re not having food and water, but not as quickly. It’s going to be very quick when they come around and break your legs. So that’s why they did that. They came up there and they broke their legs so they couldn’t support themselves. It was a horrible, hideous thing.

But when they came to Jesus Christ he was dead already. Amazing! This is what the story is bringing out. He was already dead and they didn’t break his legs. Basically, one of the things too God makes very clear in the scriptures quoted here, it says in scripture not one bone was to be broken in his body. He wasn’t going to experience that.

Verse 34—But one of the soldiers, so it explains why he was already dead. It’s very simple but people are ignorant of it. But one of the soldiers with a spear, in other words they’re telling why he was already dead, pierced his side and immediately there came out blood and water. That’s how he died because he had to spill his blood to the earth, a Passover Lamb. He couldn’t choke to death.

I think of when the Apostasy occurred. We had people in the Church, ministers and people who were deceived, some speculating of some things. I think an evangelist had said this at one time. An evangelist in God’s Church had said at one time, a teacher at headquarters who was taught by Mr. Armstrong, one of the first of many teachers at Ambassador College, taught that perhaps he suffocated. How stupid! Because in order for that to happen, in order to fulfill the Passover lamb, like my wife told a minister’s wife, basically, God didn’t say to choke the lamb until it couldn’t breathe anymore. They took a knife and bled it to death. That’s how they killed the lamb because its blood had to spill to the earth.

So it was with Jesus Christ. He couldn’t suffocate to fulfill the role of Passover; his blood had to be spilled to the earth. So a soldier came up and speared him with a long spear in his side and out came water and blood. They’re simple stories, but the world has made it so confusing. I’m sorry; it just blows my mind sometimes how simple some of these things are.

Yet there are teachers who know it. There are scholars who know it, but they won’t teach it. There are reasons why they won’t teach certain thing. There are Jews who understand this but won’t address it because, well, they actually even changed later on. They had to change the Passover from the 14th to the 15th. They began to teach certain things that had to take place late in the afternoon of the 14th into the 15th because that became their Passover time, the time they ate the lamb because if the 14th was fulfilled then they have to admit some things about Jesus Christ and they won’t do that. Incredible.

It says here, And he who saw it bear record and his record is true. You know who he’s talking about? Himself, John, who wrote this, he says his record is true, what he is writing is true. He didn’t say “I,” “me,” “I,” “me”; he wasn’t lifting himself up as I was the one who saw this. This is the way he wrote things. Remember when they ran to the tomb and one outran Peter in part of the distance there and he didn’t give credit to himself? It’s just the way he was. It wasn’t “I,” “me,” “I,” “me”; it wasn’t about himself. He was a humble individual and he wanted to keep that out there as a matter of humility. …and he who saw it bear record, gave testimony; and his record is true. He didn’t say, “My record is true,” but this is what he’s saying. …and he knows what he has said is true, so that you might believe. He saw it. He witnessed it and wrote about it as others did, about some of these things that took place. Each one wrote some different things about what they saw.

Verse 36—For these things were done so that the scriptures might be fulfilled, Not a bone of his shall be broken. And again another scripture says, They shall look upon him whom they pierced. It fulfilled Old Testament scriptures about the Messiah and nobody understood what these things meant until it was given to John to write, when God gave it to him to write. Then it was understood by those who followed of how he died and what took place and the significance of it all.

John 19:31, let’s back up here a little bit. You know, John reveals important reasons why all these events were taking place as they were and he does so in these previous verses. Verse 31—The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the pole on the Sabbath day… Now, the world reads this and you know what traditional Christianity thinks? It’s talking about the seventh day Sabbath. That’s why they have what they call “Good Friday” because they don’t understand the high day. They don’t understand the day that follows Passover is an annual Sabbath, the first Sabbath of God in the Old Testament, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and that that was a preparation day for the first high day, the Days of Unleavened Bread. The only thing they understand is, well, this was the Jews preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. No, it was not. There was nothing good about that Friday, even if he had died then. You know, it’s sick, sick minds that have foisted these things upon mankind, speaking of those who have come up with these ideas and doctrines that have been passed down, candidly, from the Catholic Church.

…the Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation, so that the bodies would not remain upon the pole, they had to take them down before the Sabbath, on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath was a High Day). Isn’t that amazing? People read right over it in the world because they don’t understand, “It’s the weekly Sabbath.” No, it wasn’t. So they sought Pilate, they went to Pilate, urgently requesting of Pilate, “making an appeal” is what the word means, “with urgency,” so that their legs might be broken, and so that they could take them down, taken away.

Verse 32—Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who were hung on a pole with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. So incredible story here as it goes through and explains some of these things.

So again, the first holy day of the year was going to begin at sundown on the fourteenth. See, the 14th is a Passover, and when the sun goes down on that day the first high day begins, what we just observed here recently, the first day of Unleavened Bread, the first annual Sabbath of God. It was on that Wednesday afternoon. So at sundown on that Wednesday a new day began. There was a push by the Jews to make certain that all three were dead and were removed and were taken care of, buried before sunset. Incredible! So they had to hurry.

Verse 38—And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, urgently requested of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. Now, there is more to the story here, but again here, he went to Pilate to request the body so that he could take care of him properly, not as the Jews were going to. Therefore, he went and took the body of Jesus. Nicodemus also came. So going back to John 3 when it talks about Nicodemus came to him by night because he had fear of being seen, of being in contact with Jesus, but he came and helped as well. …who at first, it says, came to Jesus by night, brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes of about a hundred pounds.

Now, why they did some of this, they had certain things prepared already, but the women, it talks about later on, the story is about the women who went and prepared various things as well to put around the body and with the body, because that’s how they did things at that time of someone of such great prominence, especially in their sight. Yet these two here, they really did everything to that point in time. But they were going to do more, the women were. So whether they understood fully what had taken place with Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, we don’t know, because that’s a lot, hundred pounds of what they brought there to be around Christ.

Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound him in linen clothes and with spices, as is the manner of the Jews is for burial. Now, in the place where he was hung on a pole there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre where no one had ever yet been placed. Therefore, they placed Jesus there, because of the Jews’ preparation, for the sepulchre was nearby. So in other words it was right here. It was Joseph’s. It was already hewn out and ready and he gave this for Christ’s burial. So they did this quickly before sunset. It’s the way it had to be done because of their beliefs too. That’s what their beliefs were. They wanted this done before sunset.

Now let’s look at the account of Mark 15:42— And now when the even was come… Well, it wasn’t there yet, it was coming, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, so again here, before that first high day, not the preparation day of Friday. It’s not about Friday whatsoever. ...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 that he was already dead. So he knew ahead of time. He knew when that spear had been rammed into Christ’s side. He went quickly to request the body before these other things were taking place. So Pilate here, it says, in calling the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for a while. And when he knew of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.

So he saw these things taking place. I don’t know how they got the centurion as quickly as they did, but they called on the centurion and the centurion agreed, said yes, indeed, he was one that was there. So they had to send for him; they had to wait. When he came and said yes, indeed, he’s dead. So again here, some incredible things that took place very quickly here.

So Jesus was placed in the tomb before sunset on that Wednesday while it was still the 14th— that was their law, of the Jews, to have the work done—as well as the two thieves. Others took them away and buried the two of them. So to understand this holy day or this high day that was going to come, Wednesday at sunset, timing isn’t hard to understand.

Let’s turn over to Luke 11. So from this period of time here on through Thursday during the daytime, after Thursday (now this is the high day, the first annual holy day) then at sunset we come to the sixth day of the week, Friday, the preparation day. So that’s in the evening, and then all the next day. So different events were taking place still. So from Thursday after sundown and on through the daytime portion of Friday it was the second day. So now we’ve gone through one entire day here, the high day, the first day on Thursday during the night time portion and then the daytime portion of Thursday and then when the sun set a new day begins, the second day of Christ’s death, which is the Jews preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. So we go through this period of time.

Luke 11:29—And when the people had assembled together, he began to say, This is an evil generation and they seek a sign. So again here, we’re going back here a little bit in time to understand fully again, being reminded again of what Jesus Christ said and what he taught them, because they always wanted a sign. They wanted to see different miracles so they would believe and this was the ultimate in essence that they wanted from him, whether or not he was the Messiah.

So all the other things that had taken place, Lazarus being raised from the dead, all the things that ever took place were never enough. They always wanted more, more to prove that he was the Messiah. Incredible!

And so he told them but there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.  For as Jonah was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of Man be to this generation, and to all generations.

Let’s turn over to Matthew 12 where this is spoken of as well. So he basically told them you’re not going to have any sign but the sign of Jonah and we know what happened with Jonah. He was in this great fish for exactly 72 hours because in the Hebrew it’s very specific when it says three days and three nights. He was in there for 72 hours, three days and three nights. He said that’s the sign that’s going to be given that he is the Messiah. That’s what he was leaving them. They didn’t understand these things. They didn’t understand yet that he was going to die, that he was going to be put on a pole and he was going to be buried and resurrected. They didn’t get any of these things.

Matthew 12:38—Then some of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish’s stomach, so shall the Son of Man… It doesn’t say whale, see, but that’s how it’s translated. Whatever it was, whatever big fish it was, it was big, possibly a big whale, just being specific here. …so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights, he was very specific, in the heart of the earth. That’s how long he said he would be in the heart of the earth from the time the stone is rolled over before sunset on that Wednesday before Thursday started. I’ll tell you what, you’ve got to think about timing of things here because they’re all different because we go by night, we go by sunset, and anyway, so here we’re talking about three days and three nights.

So at this point in time here he said very specifically he’d be in the heart of the earth that long. To me this is an awesome story because you look at things that are taught by the Catholic Church and things that then the Protestant world picked up later on and basically it’s the idea that he died on Friday. They actually said he died in a different year because you know why? Because it’s the year Passover happened to fall on a Friday because they understood it had to be on a Passover that he died, so we have to pick a year that it happened on a Friday, see. So now if you have Friday and before sunset he had to be buried, whatever, or put in the heart of the earth, in his tomb, then that stone has to be rolled over before Friday is over, just before the Sabbath begins. He’s there. The sun sets and we have Friday evening all through Saturday – 1 day. Then at sunset on Saturday what do we have? A new day, the second day is beginning. So at sunset Saturday all the way through the daytime portion of Sunday is 2 days. See? You’ve got to go a little farther to get the three days because at sunset then on Sunday through all day Monday is 3 days. Pretty sick. Three days and three nights. Sad, what the world teaches.

So they have a desire that he died on Friday, put in a grave or put in the tomb before the weekly Sabbath, just before the weekly Sabbath, and they actually have means and a way of saying that the first night and the day time portion the next day and that next night (because they say he was resurrected Sunday morning), so you have two night time portions and one daytime portion, and they actually have arguments of how that can be three days and three nights.

Basically, this is the story: If you can have a portion of daylight still on Friday that’s one day. All day Saturday and a little bit of sunlight in the morning on Sunday, that’s three days. Let’s stretch this out as far as we can. Then the night time portion, let’s see… Friday night, Saturday night… They’re in trouble on that one and I really don’t know how they argue that one but they do. Somehow they get three nights in there, three days and three nights. Sick. Sick. Sick. Not even a good day and a half because they don’t understand when he was actually resurrected.

Matthew 27 on down in verse 57. Good to notice what was stated by some of the scribes and the Pharisees after Christ’s death and burial because this is unique, of what took place here. The only way they could have had this kind of thinking in their mind is because of a spirit being because he didn’t know what was going to take place either. Satan didn’t know what was going on. Satan doesn’t understand everything. He doesn’t understand anything until God gives it, until God reveals it, yet there were some things he knew enough of to have suspicion of to figure out what might try to be taking place here, in some respects, and so, anyway, giving it to physical human beings and broadcasting those ideas and thoughts into their mind just like he did to Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ because he was a greedy individual, to betray Christ like he did like we spoke about last Sabbath. Different ones that he has worked with through time, which he has, which he broadcasts to their mind and they give in. They have no power, no willpower, and no ability to resist such power.

Matthew 27:57 it says, When… It’s not the word “when” in the Greek language. It’s the word “now.” It’s not used as a factor of time. So when people read this they think “when”; they think this is a factor of time and it’s not talking about a specific factor of time, but it’s an expression like “whereas, or therefore, or as a result.” That’s all it’s saying. Now (therefore), the even was coming, the evening was coming. It wasn’t there yet. This isn’t even translated properly. It was coming. The evening was coming. …there was a rich man of Arimathæa, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: and 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 linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. So all this had to be done before just at the end of that daytime portion of Passover and then the Sabbath day, the high day was to begin. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sitting over against/before the sepulchre.

Verse 62—Now, it’s the same as in verse 57, again, where it’s like “whereas or as a result”. Therefore (as a result), the next day, which followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate. So this is on the first day of Unleavened Bread. That’s the next day because they put him in the tomb, the next day. This is the high day, so this is during Thursday, the first day of Unleavened Bread and they’re saying, Sir, we remember that this deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. So this was something in their minds that began to bug them. They didn’t understand about building the temple, “Destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up,” but they understood some expression that was stated that he said that he would rise again on the third day.

Therefore, command that the sepulchre be made secure until the third day. So make sure there are guards there watching this. Well, it goes along and explains that: lest his disciples come by night, steal him away, and say to the people, He is risen from the dead: so that the last error shall be worse than the first. And Pilate said to them, You have a watch: go your way, make it as secure as you can. So you have the authority to set this watch with the soldiers. So they went, and made the sepulchre secure, sealing the stone… There’s a way to put blocking stones there so it can’t be rolled back in the way of the stone there, and they set a watch to make sure that no one came along and was going to come along and remove any of it.

You can turn over to Mark 16 if you want. We’re going to be going there next. But I want to make sure I covered some of these things.

So again, we’ve covered this timing. The second day, again, was from Thursday after sundown all the way through the daytime portion of Friday. That was the second day of Christ’s burial, his being in the tomb, in the heart of the earth, as it’s described as. Again, this was the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. So that second day was night time portion of Thursday on into the daytime portion of Friday, which is the sixth day of the week, and that was the preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. Then at sunset on the second day, that Friday at sunset, again, the weekly Sabbath began and the beginning of the third day for Christ’s count. Beginning at sunset was the third night and day of the count.

So again, it’s an awesome thing here to understand, you know, when he was resurrected. I’ll tell you, I don’t think a lot of people in God’s Church really zeroed in on this to understand exactly when he was resurrected. It wasn’t during any night time portion after the Sabbath. It wasn’t on a Sunday because that would be the first day of the week. He was actually resurrected on the seventh day of that week, on that Sabbath at the end of the Sabbath. So he was put in a tomb at a specific time – through Thursday, through Friday, and at the end of Saturday he’d been there for three days and three nights. So, incredible to understand some of these things when you talk about Wednesday sunset and that night time portion, Thursday night and Friday night, and then you have all day Thursday, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Then at the end of three days he was resurrected. Again, understanding some of the things that happened with the women is a good part of the story here and that’s where we’re going to be going next.

So again, it’s not a hard thing to grasp and comprehend, but these things are important because it had to happen with this specific timing because of him fulfilling the role of the wave sheaf. He had to die on a Wednesday. He had to be put in the heart of the earth just at the end of that day in order to later fulfill the role of when the wave sheaf is offered up before God to be accepted because he was going to fulfill the wave sheaf and that had to be on the first day of the week. It had to be on Sunday morning because this is when the Levites took that cutting of the harvest, as we read about last Sabbath and waved it before God during the Days of Unleavened Bread. This is awesome to understand. These are simple things, but even in the Church many ministers didn’t understand these things. They got confused about when these things took place. It’s not confusing.

That’s why I keep going over these things, so that they’re deeply embedded in your mind, so that you can speak to anyone about these things and know them absolutely and never be confused as so many in God’s Church have been.

Mark 16:1—And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene… It’s not talking about the weekly Sabbath. This is talking about the high day, the annual Sabbath. So Wednesday sunset, all the way that night, all the way through Thursday, they couldn’t go and do what they’re getting ready to do here, but they could do it on Friday, the actual preparation day for the weekly Sabbath. That’s what it’s talking about. So when the Sabbath was past, speaking of the annual holy day, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought (purchased) sweet spices. So they didn’t sell that night. It was during the daytime on Friday that they were doing this. So this is when normal things were being sold again that they could go out and purchase something, and this is what they were doing during the daytime portion. So it says here, they bought sweet spices so that they might come and anoint him. So they wanted to put these things around the tomb or inside the tomb around Christ’s body. Again here, this was the weekly preparation for the weekly Sabbath.

Then Matthew 28, jumping around here a little bit, but you have to take different parts of the story to have a complete story of what each one of them witnessed and how they wrote about it. Matthew 28:1—In the end of, or a word in the Greek that just means “after,” notice this, the Sabbath… See, the world, traditional Christianity, they want this word translated as the Sabbath because they only notice one Sabbath in that week and that’s the weekly Sabbath. They didn’t recognize the annual Sabbath, but this is a word in the Greek language that’s plural. It means, it says “Sabbaths,” plural, because there were two Sabbaths in that period of time, the high day, the first day of Unleavened Bread, and the weekly Sabbath.

So it says, After, the word means “in the end of” or After the Sabbaths (plural), as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week… So again here, when is the dawn of a day? When does that happen? Well, it’s not after sunset on any particular day. It’s going to get darker and it’s not any time during the night time portion, so the dawn or the light that you’re going to see on any particular day is going to be in the morning. Judaism, God gave a timing of counting things from sunset to sunset, after sunset. So the dawning of a new day of the week, talking about Sunday morning, is a simple thing to, again, grasp.

So this is what it’s talking about here as it began to dawn toward, or “into” as the word means, into the first of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre.

So I’m just going to read here. Again here, you don’t have to turn there. Just hold your place here and I’ll come back to it but in John 20:1 it says, The first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early, when it was yet dark. So I went through this in great detail last year showing that when she actually started it was still dark out in the morning, the light wasn’t there yet. So she started out when it was yet dark unto the sepulchre and then when she got there she saw that the stone was taken away. By this time it was getting lighter in the sky, but it just makes a statement here, or John makes a statement that it started while it was yet dark that Sunday morning.

Now, Matthew 28:2—And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Eternal descended (or the LORD) from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. So again here, it states something that happened as far as Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when they came to the sepulchre, but it also states something else that took place here, and it’s just showing here certain events that took place and he’s just explaining this. He’s going back and he’s explaining what had taken place because he’s leading up to a point in time of what they saw when they came to the sepulchre because it just makes a statement here in verse 1 this started, they came to see the sepulchre, but then it shows why certain events transpired as they did, what they saw when they got there, because something else had taken place.

This is what verse 2 is doing. It says, in essence, that there had been a great earthquake. That’s what its saying. There was a great earthquake: for the angel of the LORD descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone of the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. When did he do this? Sabbath day, still during the daytime portion of the weekly Sabbath before night time, the evening came, before sunset came, and for fear of him the keepers, it says here, were shaking, and became as dead. I mean, they were scared spitless to see something like this take place, an earthquake and then this being, an angel of God that was there and the brightness of what was taking place, and this stone is rolled back. You’d be scared spitless too. You know, your legs would probably  be shaking if you’re standing up, and maybe even a little bit more, because the Bible talks about some of those things taking place sometimes where the bowels are loosened and things that take place in people’s lives when they’re so scared spitless like this.

So anyway, verse 5, going on, And the angel answered and said unto the women, Do not fear. So now it’s taking us all the way up. You know, each one wrote differently about what they saw. Matthew’s account, he’s talking about when they were going to come to the sepulchre and then what happened before that. What they’re going to find is Jesus had already been resurrected. He’d been resurrected at the end of the Sabbath. So all he is doing is going back and telling some events that took place, that the stone was rolled away, an angel had been there, and they didn’t learn this right away. They were given this information later on, most likely by Jesus Christ himself, about what had taken place and the timing of some of these things. Because this was written much, much later and they’re going back and writing their witness accounts of things that they saw and things that they heard, whether it be from Christ or from others, in their own way of thinking. You know people can see something, experience something at different times, or even see the same thing and write about it from their viewpoint, and that’s what these four gospels are all about. They’re a witness of all the things of Christ’s life and death and the things that he did. So it’s going through this account.

So when they came to the sepulchre and 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. “This is why you are here.” He is not here. The world of traditional Christianity likes to think he was resurrected just a little bit before she got there. It just happened a little bit before. As a matter of fact they go out and have these early sunrise services on Easter.

Well, I don’t need to go into the history of some of that, but that goes back into things that happened hundreds and thousands of years before Christ was even on this earth, things having to do with Ashtoreth and Astarte and where the word comes from in the first place, Easter, you know, the goddess. Pagan ideas and beliefs, that’s where the word Easter comes from in the first place, and people don’t even understand it. It has to do with Astarte and different languages they pronounce it and spell it in different ways.

Here it is the same kind of observance, the eggs and the fertility. That’s where these things come from. They don’t come from anything else. They come from something that happened hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years in paganism long before this. You think that’s easy to research. That’s not that hard to find some of these things out, but people don’t want to know. They’d rather have the stories, the nice stories that can be passed along to others. Sad. One day they’ll be able to see what’s true and be excited about what is true and what Jesus Christ actually fulfilled.

So it says here, He is not here, for he, not “is right now,” it’s a word just means “has.” He has risen. He has risen; he’s not around anymore. It wasn’t giving a specific moment that it happened, he’s just making a statement here, “He’s risen. He’s not dead any longer. He’s not here.” And he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was laying. Then go quickly, and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. Awesome! They were so shaken by all these things. When they ran back they reported certain things, but they still didn’t believe. When the disciples heard this stuff they thought they were nuts, when they came back and talking about some of these events. We’re going to read some of those things next week.

But, incredible what they went through, what they experienced. I mean, here you go back and you have this individual telling you these things. They were moved. They were shaken. They thought somebody had stolen Christ’s body. That’s what she thought even after this happened. Even after she’s spoken to by this she didn’t grasp what was taking place. She didn’t realize, in essence, that she was being told this basically from God Almighty, a message from God Almighty through one of His angels.

So, He is not here, he has risen as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was laying. Then go quickly and tell the 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. So he did his job. He did what he was supposed to say and now she’s supposed to do what she was told to do. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre… Now, there are other parts of the story here we’re going to read and fill in more next week, but I’m going to stop after this. They departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word.

I want to stop there because of some of the timing of certain events because it’s about the wave sheaf and about the importance of understanding that – which I know we do. But again, it’s good that we review it and I want to do that next week. But we know the story here of some things that began to take place as they began to leave and before they left Christ appeared and spoke to Mary and said certain things to her after she had already heard this from the angel. Anyway, we’ll go through some of those next week and pick up some of the story here of some of the actual things that took place and the timing of it.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1