Passover to Pentecost, Pt 3

Ron Weinland

April 28, 2018

This will be Part 3 of the current series Passover to Pentecost, and if everything goes right today this will be the final portion of this series.

We’ve been going through the events of the things about the timing that’s around Christ’s death and resurrection, which lead to deeper understanding and the significance of the importance of Christ fulfilling the meaning of the wave sheaf. We’re focusing on this at this time because that happened during the days of Unleavened Bread. We’re not passed that, obviously, but we’re headed toward the period of Pentecost and we’ll focus in more upon the meaning of that during that time period. But this is a matter of a focus we need to have, especially with those things that we grasp and understand, to be moved by, to be inspired by those things that God has revealed to us especially over the past several years about the wave sheaf, about the timing of those events that surround Christ’s death and his resurrection, and the incredible meaning that’s hidden in there as far as the world is concerned because they don’t grasp the importance of what God is fulfilling that’s written back in Leviticus.

When you see everything fit together in the Bible like it does, to me it’s always been so deeply inspiring because it’s like a glove. You know, everything just fits perfectly. You put it on. It’s made for you. It fits perfectly. It’s a beautiful thing; it truly is, when things fit right, when they come together like they do. With God’s truth and God’s way of life, the more He reveals to us the more we’re given.

As a part of that sometimes I become concerned because I know how we as human beings are when it comes to understanding, or being given knowledge and understanding. I think of the period of Philadelphia in all that God gave to Mr. Armstrong, because during the period of Sardis there was only a little bit left. There wasn’t much left.

Yet through a period of time there God began to reveal things to Mr. Armstrong to set the Church on a right track, to set the Church on a right foundation once again so that we could have the kind of growth that was needed for the end of an age, and during the 60’s and 70’s and early 80’s there, until his death, it is quite a thing to understand, some of the things we’ve gone through and what people have lived through, because we were given a great deal of knowledge and understanding.

People felt that they agreed with the 18 Truths that God had revealed, given through Mr. Armstrong, but as time went along it became obvious that a lot of people didn’t really understand those, didn’t really grasp them. They didn’t even grasp number one. They didn’t understand government. There were certain things that maybe people, certain ones did latch on to, but to really, deeply understand government, it wasn’t understood as it should have been, and especially by the ministry because of what happened later on. If we’d all understood government and how God works in our lives there are things that would never have happened in the way that they did.

But it’s easy to forget those things. It’s easy to lose the memory of those things that God has given to us and begin to take them for granted. And I guess that’s one of my fears, if you will, if you want to talk about a type of fear for God’s people, is that we become accustomed to certain things – especially when so many did come along in 2008, 2009 that were added to what God had already given before as far as being a part of the Church in Philadelphia or Laodicea and Philadelphia, depending on how long some had been in the Church. But it’s easy to come to a point where we begin to take it for granted if we know all the things that we do. You think all those truths, 21 Truths and then all the extra that God added to the Church and gave to us, and yet so many of us came along and that’s what was given to us from the very beginning, and that became our norm. That norm can be dangerous and we can cease to grow in some of those things to the degree we should.

That’s why there’s so much that’s been given and there’s so much still there to glean from what God gave, because there is no way on earth that all those who have been called since that period of time of 2008, 2009 and on can grasp and comprehend all that God has given in all the truths He’s given to us. It takes a lot of time to receive those things. Knowledge is one thing, understanding is another, and then wisdom above and beyond that is the greatest of all. That’s a sermon in itself.

So it’s good to go back and review things just as God has us do. He has us do that every holy day. He has us zero in on the meaning of holy days for a great reason because we tend to forget. We tend to lose a little bit here and there and we need to be reminded. It’s just like some of the timing of some of these events. I don’t know it perfectly. I have to go back and think about and be reminded of some of this timing, because you read one thing in one area and you’ve got to remember, now, wait a minute, it explains it further over here, and to not only piece it together but to keep it together. God will help us and bless us in doing that. There’s great knowledge in that and understanding that comes from that.

Let’s continue on here. Let’s pick up in Mark 16 where we left off, always asking God to help us to receive what He gives and to grow, and to ever be more thankful for those things He reveals to us because there’s more and more that’s always here. That’s why I’m amazed sometimes when people talk about sermons they’ve gone back and listened to, maybe 5, 10, a year ago, but ever how many years they’ve gone back and listened to things and picked up some things that they didn’t pick up at that time. That’s what growth is about. There’s always the ability to grow. The reality is you can’t receive everything all at once. That in itself, that people have experienced that, is proof of that. It’s a growing thing on a spiritual plane in our lives.

Mark 16:1—And when the Sabbath was past... Again, to understand what this is. We read these things and we can grasp what is being spoken of by these different individuals who witnessed these events or gave witness of these events. Some things that they wrote they didn’t themselves witness but knew others who had witnessed them and wrote them. So here it is in Mark, he’s saying, “And when the Sabbath was past.” This is the annual holy day, the first of Unleavened Bread that’s being spoken of. ...Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought (purchased) sweet spices so that they might come and anoint him.

Now, we already read where Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea when they took Christ they put a hundred pounds of spices in there with him. Now, whether the women didn’t know all this, or what, I don’t know, but they felt compelled themselves to prepare these things and to bring them and to put more there, if it was a matter of putting more there. I don’t know. That doesn’t tell that part of the story, but they were compelled in their own minds to bring these things to this burial. So we know when they purchased these. They didn’t purchase them on the high day, on that Thursday; they did it on Friday, on the preparation for the weekly Sabbath.

So these things are easy for us to understand but the world is so ignorant of them. People who have translated these things don’t grasp such simple things. You think, there are scholars out there who don’t know, and some do know, but they don’t choose to give those truths either. So some have made those kinds of choices in life because they have to teach a certain thing that they have believed all their life, and those who they preach to want to hear that. They don’t want to hear something different.

So, “they bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him.”

Matthew 28. I’m just going to read through these quickly and get us back up to where we were. Matthew 28:1, it says, In the end of, or as the word truly is, it’s After the Sabbath... Again, they knew in the Greek language this was a plural word, but they didn’t translate it that way. If you know anything about Greek whatsoever and if you’re translating this you know, but they didn’t understand. And if they did, they did it willingly to keep people in the dark or to fit into their scenario of what took place because in their minds it can only be one Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, or otherwise that Friday thing, Good Friday to Sunday morning doesn’t work for them. It doesn’t work anyway, but...

Anyway, this is a plural word for Sabbath. It’s Sabbaths, plural. There are two Sabbaths, the annual Sabbath, we know, and the weekly Sabbath. Now, you can take that for granted or you can thank God Almighty that you see this, because very few on the earth see this. Sometimes we lose or forget what God has given to us. We can’t do that as God’s people! That’s a danger, to begin to take something for granted.

So how often do we thank God for things like this, “That I’m able to see something here that gives me clarity that others in traditional Christianity don’t see.” They don’t grasp that this is speaking of Sabbaths, and if it’s speaking of Sabbaths how can there be two Sabbaths in one week? They should want to know, but they don’t. So how blessed are you that you have such knowledge? Because the only way you have it is that the Great God of this universe has given it to you and He helps you to keep it because you can lose it! We’ve had a lot of people leave this Body over the last 20, 30 years, who have gone right back to Sunday, gone right back to Easter and the ignorance, willing ignorance of those things of the past because they haven’t held on to these truths like they should have, not being grateful to the Great God who opened up their minds to give it to them. Incredible, what we have been given.

And so, After the Sabbaths, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre. Well, when it says “dawn to the first day of the week,” it is not speaking of coming when that day began. They didn’t come at night time. They didn’t come after the Sabbath day was over. “As it began to dawn,” if you will, “into the first day of the week,” into the daylight portions of the first day of the week, “in the morning,” in other words, “they came to the sepulchre.”

Then John 20:1 says, The first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early, when it was yet dark. So they began to go to the tomb when it was still dark, but it was beginning to be a little lighter in the sky. So by the time they got there it was light. It doesn’t say at what position the sun was yet, whether it was even up in the horizon there, but it was light compared to when they started.

So every one of these adds a little bit different, something different, and you have to put them all together to see the story flow of the actual events. To me that’s inspiring and exciting because the world can’t see it. The Harmony of the Gospels doesn’t even get it right, you know, and you think of all things surely they studied this enough to have enough wisdom to know the timing of these things to put it together right. But they don’t.

The first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early, when it was still dark, unto the sepulchre and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Now back to Matthew 28:2—And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Eternal, or of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. Now, it doesn’t say the timing of all this. It starts to reveal a little bit more here. It does tell some more things, but all this timing is sometimes very hard to take in.

Going on: His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. See, most people put this in a context, and people in the Church in times past have done this, where they think all these things happened early that morning. No, they didn’t. Not everything happened early that morning. It wasn’t a sunrise thing when Jesus Christ was resurrected as the sun was coming up. But even some – not some, a lot of people – in the past in God’s Church have gotten confused, because of traditional Christianity, thinking that all these events fit into a scenario of the early morning hours. That’s how deeply embedded those things have been in our past, in our lives, in the world. Then we come into the Church and it’s hard to get rid of some of that sometimes, but it’s affected our thinking if we’re not careful.

His countenance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers were shaking and became as dead. I can’t imagine that exactly, that kind of fear, to where you see something that so scares you that you can’t move? I don’t think anyone here’s ever been in that position, to be so scared in life that, petrified, as it were, like you are dead. When you’re dead you don’t move. That’s what it’s talking about. You’re like you’re a dead person because you cannot move! Your body is still! So this is the way they were, just like being petrified because you’re so fearful.

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. So it’s jumping here. These didn’t happen just instantly at this point in time. So it jumps up to the point in time of the story here, of when they came to the tomb. That’s what it started with, about them coming to the tomb. They prepared the spices. They were told, He is not here: for he has risen, as he said. So they didn’t know what was being said. They didn’t remember what he said about this. They didn’t know it applied to this, that he was resurrected from the dead. They still didn’t grasp what was being told to them.

Come, see the place where the Lord was lying. Then go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him. Now I have told you. He fulfilled his role that he’d been given, to tell them what he was to say. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and ran to bring his disciples word. They couldn’t put it altogether yet. This was a matter of timing as things went along here.

Mark 16:2—And very early in the morning the first of the week, they, here it’s speaking of, again, of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, came to the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. So we know they started before and now this is when they were there. And they said among themselves, Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the sepulchre? Because they had the spices they wanted to go in there. It was blocked up, if you remember the story here, and they didn’t know how they were going to get that stone back, and so they were talking about some of this. They didn’t know what had been done before, that the guards were put out there to watch it and everything and how they’d secured it as they did in those times so that the stone couldn’t be rolled back easily anyway without removing some of those things, the two things at each side, one on each side of the stone.

So here they knew they couldn’t take care of something like this themselves, just the stone by itself, and so how are we going to do this? And when they looked they saw the stone was rolled away. It was already rolled away, for it was very great. And upon entering the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were afraid.

Now Luke 24. The story is not just in one place. We have to go to other locations here, of these who witnessed these things, these events. Luke 24:1— Now upon the first of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 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. See, they all say this in a little bit different way in their story and the way they would tell the story. Just like you have witnesses of something or you’ve heard something from someone or different ones and your story is a little bit different in the way you perceive it or what is important to you. And so that’s how they wrote. And they entered in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

Verse 4—And it came to pass, as they were very perplexed about all 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 to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Incredible here, some of the things that they heard and they didn’t understand what was taking place. It’s hard to put ourselves in such a position and to even thinking about what was taking place.

Remember how he spoke unto 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 his words... Now, see, we read this and think right then they got it. No, they didn’t. They still didn’t grasp what was being told to them. They couldn’t wrap their minds around this at all! He wasn’t there – that was the most important thing in their mind. Where did he go? To know that he had been resurrected from the dead and here they’re being told some of this. It just didn’t click yet. And they remembered his words.

Now going back to John 20. We’re going to return to the verse that was read at the beginning and then continue on in what John recorded. His is a little bit longer in this particular area and what is covered. John 20:1 it says, The first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she ran, and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciples, whom Jesus loved, and said to them... Now, see, he just jumps ahead. He just tells of this event, but these other accounts of Mark, Luke, and Matthew that you have to put together in all this, of what took place, they’re a part of the story that fit in between here. But John, he just jumps ahead to this point here.

So it says that they went and did this early in the morning and then they ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we do not know where they have laid him. They didn’t grasp that he was alive! They didn’t grasp this, what it meant that he would rise again the third day. They didn’t grasp that

And, therefore, Peter went forth, and the other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. Where did he go? Who took him? Who took his body? They wanted to go find out what was happening.

And so they both ran together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. I love this. I love this because it reflects something so deep in John that is very obvious when you go to the 1st and 2nd and 3rd books of John. He was an incredibly humble human being. He wanted no focus upon himself. Even when he knew this role of serving God, he was a man who had an attitude that he didn’t want to take these things to himself. He knew that everything came from God and God was to receive the glory. It was never “I,” “me,” “I,” “me.” I have lived through that so long in God’s Church where I’ve seen so many go by the wayside and so many of the ministry go by the wayside because too often it’s about “I” and “me” and what “I’m” doing.

Think, what a shame! I’ve given the story many a time, after the Apostasy, of an individual who was with one of the larger organizations for a time until he wanted to go off and start his own. That was his motivation. Because he told me, he wanted me to come along. On the contrary – I thought he was there to find out how to help people, how to help people that were hurting after the Apostasy, but that wasn’t his motivation. He talked about “all these churches I’ve raise up for this organization. I’ve raised up ‘this’ area and ‘that’ area,” and he named all these different areas. At that time there I just wanted to vomit. I’m sorry, but that kind of spirit, I’ve seen for so long in God’s Church. “I.” “Me.” None of the honor went to God Almighty. If anything was raised up it was God Almighty who did it!

We need to understand that about ourselves. If we’re able to serve God in any capacity, if we’re able to know the things we do thank God because it’s God who gives it, and not only gives it but sustains it in your mind. Who are we? We’re absolutely nothing. Nothing. All, and I mean all the honor and glory goes to God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ. Because I’ve seen hundreds of people and hundreds of ministers that I’ve known – Hundreds! – not five or ten or twenty or forty-eight, hundreds that I’ve known personally who have left this way of life because they did not remember this and did not hold this close to them. This is our task, this is our goal, this is our desire, this is everything that we should want in life to understand, that the only way you can hold on to what is true is that God be in you and that you be in God, because otherwise you can’t hold on to this, you can’t keep it.

Again, it is awesome to understand this, and awesome to keep that always in your mind. Then if that’s always in your mind then you have nothing to be raised up in haughtiness about, you know, of how great we are. We don’t have to prove anything to anyone like that. We have to be ourselves! Be ourselves! Be free! You know, there’s a lot said into what I’ve just commented on there. Be free! Be yourself! Be who you are! Now, that doesn’t mean you can just be what is weak in you, you know, and use any kind of language or any kind of things. On the contrary! That means with a converted mind that we’re striving to say the right things and have the right thoughts, but we want to be ourselves and not put on airs, not put on something different that we want people to see us in a certain light. On the contrary, but to thank God for what we have.

So John was that kind of a man. Basically he was telling everyone that he outran Peter without saying, “I did it.” John’s writing the story. “And this other disciple whom Jesus loved beat Peter.” That takes a unique mind to live that throughout your life.

Verse 3—Therefore, Peter went forth, and the other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. And they ran together and the other disciple outran Peter and came first to the sepulchre. And stooping down, he saw the linen clothes lying there; yet he did not go in. Then came Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and saw the linen clothes lying there, and the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen clothes but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also the other disciple... John speaking about himself again, “this other disciple.” Why didn’t he just say, “I went in”? Because he thought in a certain way.

I’m going to add to that because its part of the story and it just is what it is. That’s one thing that I’m very thankful that God gave to me early on in going to Ambassador College, in speeches, in clubs, and so forth, to detest the thing where people talked about “I,” “me.” That’s why it was very difficult to give an “ice breaker.” I wrote about that in the book, to talk about myself, because what is there to say? Blah. But then I wrote in there and talked about how if I were to give it later on I could talk about God’s great calling and what He did and the changes that began to take place, but that was a blessing and a gift from God; it wasn’t what was naturally in me, but it was something that God gave.

That’s why later on – and I’m just saying this so you understand – in that book when I began to have to say that I was a prophet, that was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do as a minister because I didn’t want to do it. I was even asked by an evangelist, “Why do you feel like you have to do this? Why are you doing this?” Then I began to understand that when different ones had jobs that was what they were told to do, “Tell the people who you are! This is your job and there is authority that goes with that that God has given and if they listen, so be it, and if they don’t then that’s upon them.” So it’s a different way that God’s working now toward the end because of a job that’s to be done.

So just want to pass that along, that that should be the hardest thing that you have to ever do if you have to tell someone else something about yourself. Okay? Its better not to, in so many ways, unless there’s a purpose, unless there’s a reason.

...and the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen clothes but wrapped...by itself. Then went in also the other disciple into the sepulchre, and saw, and believed. For as of yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. I’m going to add something else again here. It says, “he believed.” He didn’t believe right then and there. You know, you have to know the rest of the story. But John wrote in a positive light about himself, in the sense of things that they went through, and about Peter, okay? But he’s just writing a story about himself right now, but going through time. He’s not saying that he believed right then and there, because the reality is he didn’t. We know the rest of the story because as yet it said, “He did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.” Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. So they went back.

Now verse 11—But Mary, speaking of Mary Magdalene, stood outside the sepulchre crying, and as she cried, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre. Now, this is the second time that they’ve come back, okay? Because they went and told them they were there, and then they came back; they followed the disciples. Because they ran; Peter and John ran to the sepulchre, saw that Christ was gone, then they went back to be with the other disciples. And so now Mary is there again and this is the story. ...and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, Woman, why are you crying? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. She didn’t grasp it yet, that he’d been resurrected, that he was alive! She didn’t see it! Awesome to understand that! She thought someone had taken him away.

And when she had said this, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you crying? Whom do you seek? And she thought he must be the gardener and said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away from here, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. They still didn’t get it. After the disciples had been there, they still didn’t know he was resurrected and alive even though they’d been told that by the angel through what had been told, first of all, to Mary when she went and told the disciples that he’s gone, he’s not there. Where is he? Maybe the gardener took him. That’s what she came up with here.

And Jesus said unto her, Mary. It’s very moving to think about what was being experienced at this time. Mary. She turned herself, and said, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. And Jesus said to her, Do not touch me... Awesome! It is written for us, written for those whom God would give understanding of in time, not quickly but much later toward the end, of why he said this. Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, so we’ve understood this for a long time, that there was a reason for this, and it has to do with Jesus Christ fulfilling the wave sheaf that God gave to the Church some time ago, to grasp and comprehend why this was so important. The only thing is that it was believed that it was Thomas later on who was the first to touch him, and that’s not true.

He said, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. That must happen first. “You can’t touch me right now.” Something had to be fulfilled. Now, this is beautiful! It fits together perfectly with what God revealed back in Leviticus about the wave sheaf and what it means, what these things mean for God’s people and the particular timing of it all and why Jesus Christ had to die at a specific time so that this event could take place on that Sunday morning because this had to take place Sunday morning at the same time the Levites would wave that sheaf before God, that sheaf of the first fruits. Awesome!

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. Now, there is more to the story. He just jumps ahead now, but what about the rest of the story in between here from the moment that Christ said, “Don’t touch me,” to the moment she got to the disciples? See, there’s more to the story. Beautiful! You have to put these things together.

Matthew 28:9. Now again here speaking of Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James—And as they were on their way to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, Greetings. Amazing! Here it is at a point in time when they were going back, back toward the disciples now a second time. They had been at the tomb, and now they were heading back. Mary had heard from Christ there, what he had said, and now here is another moment. Jesus met them as they were going back. Greetings. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. That word “to hold” here or “held” is the word in the Greek that means “to seize or to hold fast.” Jesus didn’t put them away now. He didn’t say, “No, don’t touch me.” Before, he did. Just a little bit before, just minutes, whatever it was before this he told them, “Don’t touch me,” and now they seized hold of him and it says, “and worshipped him.” So again, first occasion when he was touched was soon.

Because, you see, it didn’t take long to wave the sheaf before God, and he hadn’t yet fulfilled that. That’s why these things are written – moving to understand that it doesn’t take long for the Great God of the universe to receive that wave sheaf just as they waved it. It was a quick thing. We don’t know all that was entailed in there, but it was just a quick thing that God did and Christ understood he fulfilled.

Then Jesus said unto them, Do not be afraid. Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. So, beautiful story here. Mary Magdalene was the first on that Sunday morning to whom Jesus Christ appeared, and spoke to her twice; early on and then just a few minutes later, not very long. This time they were able to grab him around the feet and ankles and worship him. It had to be incredibly moving.

Let’s turn over and read some of that in Leviticus 23 just as a follow up to this and what God specifically said there. Again, knowledge and understanding of things if we’re not careful we can begin to take for granted. We know that. I’ve heard that. I know that, but you can always build upon it and grow in it more and more just in a deeper gratitude and thankfulness that we’re able to see it and still hold on to it and continue to hold on to it. That’s why I like to cry out to God regularly to help us to hold on to what is true and what is right because there are thousands and tens of thousands before you of recent time who weren’t able to do that, who had a lot more experience in fellowship in God’s Church than you ever had, unless you be one of those who lived up to the time of the Apostasy and lived through those things, which some of you have. Then you understand even more deeply because you have lived it.

Leviticus 23:9—And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf... Even here, even in this verse alone is incredible knowledge that many don’t begin to grasp. Many in God’s Church in times past never grasped what was being revealed here. You have to go to the rest of the story to see why this was so important and so intricate as to what God revealed, because actually in this God reveals the exact precise way to count for Pentecost. A lot of people have never understood it. It is exceedingly important to know and to understand and God gave that. It’s what God does. God gives understanding. God gives insight. God gives knowledge. He’s the one that reveals what is true and what is right.

“When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof...” I can’t help in reading this and thinking about when we left Egypt what did we come into? What land did we come into? What fellowship did God give to us? What opportunities did God give to us in this world, in this age? It’s awesome, if we understand and see those things. God gave us these things to be able to walk in His way of life, to walk in the truth amongst all others around us in the world who don’t see it. Amongst employers and so forth one of the first things you have to do is address the Sabbath, “Not going to work Friday sundown. I can’t do it. I hope you understand. I can’t be here anymore on Saturdays,” whatever it is you have to address or when it comes around to time for the holy days and the Feast of Tabernacles and you go and ask for time off. And if they don’t give it to? You say, “I’m sorry, but I’m going. I love this job but this is something I have to do because of my beliefs.”

A different land, a different way to live life, a different focus, different vision, riches of life to live in, to be around, to have. They didn’t grasp what they had when they came into the promised land. They really didn’t grasp what they’d been given by God Almighty on a very physical plane. Sometimes it’s hard for us to grasp the magnitude of what we’ve been given on a spiritual plane and to hold on to that and ever be so deeply thankful to God Almighty for it.

So it says, the land I give you and you shall reap the harvest thereof, then shall you bring a sheaf, of... again, it’s not the word for firstfruits, but we understand what’s being spoken of and why it’s even being translated this way with the understanding that was received from Judaism to be even able to translate it this way, because in reality it is of the first fruits, the first of the harvest, in other words, that was being cut. They just cut a sheaf and saved that, but they continued on with the harvest, of all the harvest that was taking place. It just says bring a sheaf of the first fruit or of the first, the beginning. That’s all it was talking about, of the beginning of the harvest.

So when you begin to cut a sheaf, take it to the priests. This is what they had to do. Again, I’ve read this before, but a literal translation in an Interlinear Bible says, “When you come into the land which I am giving you, and have reaped it’s harvest and have brought in the sheaf of the beginning of your harvest to the priest.” So again, understanding here it’s just the beginning of the harvest. We understand that. We understand there are different harvests. There was a spring harvest and there’s a late fall harvest that’s far greater, as a whole, than the spring harvest.

Verse 11—And he shall wave the sheaf, speaking of the high priest, what they would do then, before the Eternal, to be accepted for you. Beautiful! “To be accepted for you.” There’s great purpose in this in what God is showing here. Jesus Christ was put to death. He died. He was resurrected. So God adds more. He gives more meaning to all this. He drives the point home.

He shall wave the sheaf before the Eternal...After the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. Again to understand here this was always done during the Days of Unleavened Bread. People in the Church have gotten into arguments over these things, people who left and formed different groups and they don’t understand some of these things. It has to be in the Days of Unleavened Bread when this wave sheaf is offered. This Sabbath that it’s speaking of, we understand, is the weekly Sabbath. The next day is the day of the wave sheaf, but it always has to take place within the Days of Unleavened Bread or it has no meaning because it’s about Jesus Christ, the unleavened bread of life. He fulfills that. He is the unleavened bread of life. There was no sin in his life.

Verse 12—And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb without blemish. Again, this is all tied together so beautiful because this is what it’s about. This wave sheaf is about this – he spilled his blood to the earth and now at this time is when God will formally accept that for all of us. See, there’s more to the story. There was more to the ritual of what they went through so they could learn that there is great significance then in the wave sheaf offering and what Christ had fulfilled. Now he’s fulfilled it. He was our Passover and then he is our wave sheaf because now God Almighty has accepted that. It gives the authority of the Great God of the universe, “This was My Son. He spilled his blood for you and I have received that now for you.” Awesome what this means for us and what it means to the Great God of the universe; it has such deep meaning to it, it truly does. We should be so moved by it, truly.

And you shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb without blemish, of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Eternal. It’s about Jesus Christ and what he fulfilled. It’s what it’s showing here, that that’s what’s so deeply important here about the wave sheaf itself.

Let’s turn over to Hebrews 9:11—But Christ being come a High Priest of good things to come... See, you remember the example there that’s been spoken of here in this series here early on when we talked about how that Jesus Christ on the night of the Passover, he still kept that last physical observance of eating of the lamb, and they had the Passover supper, dinner. Then after that he instituted a new Passover, and that’s what Paul speaks of later then in Corinthians that we repeat every year at Passover. So here it is, all this is being fulfilled, all this is being revealed, and God showing the importance then of Christ being Passover and what was fulfilled on that particular night, that no longer was there to be an Old Testament Passover observed anymore because Jesus Christ fulfilled it. He instituted that which was new. So Paul made that very clear then in the book of Corinthians. So we don’t observe it anymore.

Christ at this moment, the wave sheaf, the high priest that would offer that, it’s Jesus Christ. See, the high priest throughout scripture, the Old Testament, was symbolically about the role of Jesus Christ. So just like in Leviticus 16 when you go through and read some of those things, of other types of scriptures, it doesn’t matter where it is when there are various types of roles being fulfilled, but especially that one there, and when you talk about some of the things that happen on the Day of Atonement and some of the things the high priest did it was about Jesus Christ, what he was doing, about when he went into the tabernacle, if you remember the story there, on Atonement he went into the tabernacle and didn’t come back out until all had been sanctified, his family or the things he went through as it talks about there, but it’s about the Church over 2,000 years. There were certain things that people weren’t to do and then it talks about him then coming back. It’s about Jesus Christ returning a second time to establish God’s Kingdom. All these things have such incredible meaning step by step of things that God has given to us, as an example, during the Day of Atonement that we observe.

So it is here, that from this moment on there was no purpose of a high priest anymore, a physical high priest. So there was no purpose of an Old Testament Passover any longer and there was no purpose of the Old Testament priest any longer because Jesus Christ was the wave sheaf. He became the High Priest.

So this is what it’s talking about here in Hebrews in part, if you will, making it very clear. But Christ being come a High Priest of good things to come... When did that happen? When he was accepted as the wave sheaf by God Almighty. He became our High Priest at that moment. He’d been resurrected from the dead, the first of the first fruits, if you will.

It says here, and by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. Incredible, that which God created and made, His own Son, gave life to and what he fulfilled in this life and what it pictures. It’s not a physical tabernacle, but a spiritual one that had its beginning right here.

...neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once; the wave sheaf, that’s when he entered in. That’s when this was fulfilled in God’s eyes, to teach us those things that have spiritual meaning in life and true meaning in life. So it says, “He entered in once into the holy place by his own blood.” So he died as a Passover, he was resurrected, but there was more to fulfill, the wave sheaf portion and revealing then what God had received for the sins of mankind – Jesus Christ, who was now our High Priest. Incredible here!

And you’ve never known that before. Okay? God continues to build upon things He gives. You’ve never known that the wave sheaf that it’s talking about here was the very timing that God did away with the Old Testament high priest, and now we have a High Priest. That’s when God received that. Awesome to understand such things that God just continues to build upon. I hope we understand that and are moved by that.

Neither by the blood of goats and of calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, in other words, there are physical rituals they went through in order to be able to be a part of the nation, if you will, to be able to be part of some of the activities they had as far as holy days and everything else, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God? So that’s why on that same day that the wave sheaf is there there was a lamb; again because it pictured Jesus Christ and what he was fulfilling. So there is that which was eaten on Passover that reflects that. So every step of the way God has those things that show the importance of His plan and His purpose, of what He fulfilled in and through His Son, Jesus Christ. Incredible! To become our High Priest.

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, the unleavened bread of life, no sin, no blemish, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? What an awesome thing to understand through forgiveness of sins now that’s offered to mankind, to all of mankind because of what he went through, that God just gives us that gift and blessing. Because of what Christ did and fulfilled for us, it’s over, it’s gone; He can dwell in you and you can dwell in Him.

So God does work with us in an awesome way to purge our conscience from dead works as we begin to learn how to live right before God, to have works that are alive and have meaning and purpose as we live His way of life. The more we live His way of life and learn to love one another the way He says the more we’re actually living what He desires we live because that’s about His Family. So it all goes back to how we live and how we live toward one another and how we think about one another and how we think toward one another. Awesome to understand these things. So much of it is just how we are amongst ourselves toward one another.

And we’re so different. The reality is that in this world so many of you would, if you’d been in the same job together, whatever it might be, same maybe neighbors next door, you would have never desired to get to know each other. The reality is in a lot of cases you would have been annoyed. That’s what God has called. He’s called so many different kinds of people for that purpose, so that we can learn the more meaningful thing of life, that we’re God’s, that we belong to God. We all have this baggage. We all have this dysfunction that we’re conquering and working to overcome. As long as you’re alive, if you see it, you will be fighting things that were embedded in your mind when you were a teenager, and before, but especially in your teen years because those are the years that formulate your thinking, your patterns and the way you are. It may go into the early twenties, but it’s there. From then on you are who you are and it really isn’t good. When it comes right down to it, we’re just selfish. We’ve grown up, we’ve learned selfishness, we’ve learned how to be selfish, and only because of God’s Church and God’s way of life do we learn how to combat that and learn to love one another and learn to forgive one another and learn to appreciate the differences. Vive la difference! I’ve said that a little wrong there, but it’s the spice of life that God has given. Thank God for all the variety in this world of things that are there.

We just had an opportunity when we were in the Netherlands to go to a place, Keukenhof, but it’s a place where the tulips have come in, I’m certain, in about a month period of time there, and this whole area you can go through where they have hundreds and hundreds if not a few thousand varieties of tulips. Everything imaginable under the sun, things that you don’t even know exist out there that are over there that you never see here. Then there was one whole house building filled with orchids, another one filled with other kinds. I can’t even remember all the names of all the flowers.

Anyway, but these are outside. They made a river. They make what looks like a river of these blue type of flowers. They look like blue bonnets almost and then tulips and other flowers or whatever on the sides and it just looks like a winding river going up, coming down a hill. It’s amazing some of the beauty of the things that are there. There are such differences in God’s creation that are beautiful.

Why can’t we, those whom God has called, do that with that which is far more important in human life? But we don’t tend to think that way because we get personalities involved and people who think differently and we tend to judge. You don’t judge flowers except, “Hey, that’s beautiful.” “I love it. It’s beautiful. Wish I had some of these in my yard,” whatever it might be. We see others sometimes and we think, “I don’t want them in my yard.” No, I’m just kidding, but we’re that way as human beings sometimes, how we think about each other as human beings and people can be so different from what we are. I’m glad God has done that.

God didn’t call a lot of people who are alike. What would we learn from that? We’d probably really be at war with one another then, have battles to fight because if you’re too much alike you can see yourself more clearly in someone else and say, “I hate that!” We can laugh about those things because it’s what human nature is like. We see human nature. But truly, it’s always been that way in God’s Church. There have been so many kinds of people whom God has called. There have been some sometimes, especially in the beginning early on, I think, “Is God really calling them?” Or I think of when I was first called and some I knew came along and I thought, “How could God be calling them?”

But you know, with time God changes us if we yield to that. We’re not the same. We all have hang ups. We ought to be able to see ourselves in the mirror and understand what we are, that we still have a lot to overcome at no matter what stage of life we are, because the more you grow the more you will see, the more you will grasp your human nature and that of others. Sometimes you can see that so plainly in others that you have to be careful how you use it, because if you’re not careful you can be harsh in judgment and criticize and judge others, but we’re always to judge this first and make sure that our judgment is right and righteous before God. And that’s why we learn to give time to others.

That’s why in the ministry one of the big things I’ve taught over the last many years is sometimes you just need to back away. Don’t insert yourselves into people’s lives. If something comes to a point where it’s harmful to others or whatever we may have to insert ourselves into a situation and maybe speak to someone about a particular thing because we don’t want others to be hurt in the Body, but as a whole if we look around and really know one another you’re going to see imperfections. You’re going to see imperfections in me.

If you were driving with me in the Netherlands you would see some imperfections. My daughter doesn’t like driving with me in the Netherlands. I found that out. I don’t think my wife does either. I’m older now. I’m maybe not as quick in some things but their laws are different over there. I’ve seen things over here now and I’ve noticed that most people don’t even know what they are. They call them sharks teeth over there but these little white diamond things that are in front of certain areas you come to it means you better stop for others because they have the right of way in front of you, especially if it’s a cross walk where somebody is walking. But they do this with cars too; they have these shark’s teeth. If you have the shark’s teeth on your side you better give the right of way to someone else that’s coming along, if you don’t know.

There are just a lot of different laws and from year to year I forget what they are and have to be reminded of them again. Sometimes you get yourself in situations, especially when you get on one way streets and then they block off a particular street and then you’ve got to go back. I’m sorry, but this is a lot of drama. I don’t take stress as well as I used to. I don’t. I understand that. See, I’ve changed physically, or maybe I’m just seeing things more clearly. Hopefully a little bit of both.

But I’m saying this because we all have problems; we all have weaknesses. People probably think I’m the worst driver in the world, but I’ll place any one of you in Europe to drive and to go through some of the same things I did and let’s see if you don’t get a little tense at times because it can cause you to be tense because you don’t know what to do, and if someone is coming along on bicycles they have the right of way in certain areas. If you’re going to make a right hand – just to tell you the differences – they use bicycles a lot over there, especially in all the cities, and they have trails on the right of you, and if you’re going to make a right hand turn you better be looking in your mirror because they have the right of way to come right through there. If you pull in front of them or were to hurt someone? They think they have the right of way and you hit them? You’re in some big, big trouble. These are not small things and you don’t want to be responsible for harming someone.

Now, we don’t have that in the states like that. Anyone riding a bike over here has got enough brains to realize if anybody is turning they’re going to be making sure they watch out for the other person because our laws aren’t the same here and they’re not enforced in the same way. Over there they are. Now, you add that to everything else, the shark’s teeth and a few other things, I felt like I was in shark land. It’s stressful.

I have learned something about myself. I cannot take stress in the way that I used to. I understand that that’s why I have less tolerance for drama in God’s Church. I think that one’s good, okay? That one can be used for a good purpose because the reality is I’m not going to take much drama. Don’t start giving me a bunch of drama or I’m going to tell you what the source is of your drama. Most often it’s just right there. We make our own drama. You don’t have to live with drama. You don’t have to thrive on drama. In this world today people thrive on drama and that causes all kinds of human relationship problems.

So we’re all different. Isn’t that a beautiful thing? To understand that within God’s Church we have so many differences so we can learn to love each other God’s way, so we can learn to value one another, not just to learn to get along, not just to learn to be glad to see from week to week, or whenever it might be, holy day to holy day, but to really learn what God wants us to learn, to value one another, to respect one another and to understand we are different and we all have baggage, we all have problems, we all have weaknesses. Who are we? Well, we’re human beings who have weaknesses and problems and things to fight against.

If you don’t fight against things every week you’re living in a different world than I am, in a different age, in a different time or something, I don’t know. But the reality is every one of us has things we’re battling and I often speak of the one, two, and three and we better know what they are. If this isn’t real to you then you’re going to be stumbling quite often in your life spiritually. So we learn to value one another, you know, and to get rid of all the prejudices.

That’s why God has blessed us in the last many years to understand things about a proper balance even between the sexes, male and female, and to understand how oppressive mankind has been toward women. That has had an effect upon people in God’s Church. So there are people still working on this. This is maybe their number one in some cases, or their number two, or maybe they don’t know it yet; it may be four or five for them because they don’t realize it’s really number two or number one or three. I know there are some out there like that; there have to be. That’s just the way it is.

So God is blessing us to learn to get rid of all prejudices. This world is full of them! It doesn’t matter where you are. Sometimes it’s a matter of color. Then sometimes where that’s the same in certain parts of the world then it’s other things that make people different and they clash with each other, whether it be in Africa or whether it be in Asia or whether it be right here in this country or wherever it is, even amongst people who are supposedly the same. Look at the battling and the warring that’s going on. Sick, sick world we live in. Anyway, what a blessing to be in God’s Church and to learn to value one another.

We have to get beyond holding things against one another and bringing up the past. You know, that’s a part of forgiveness. Burying the past and realize I hope that everything in my past is buried and forgotten, the bad things, the things that I made mistakes in or whatever it might be. Wouldn’t that be your desire? We all have those things in our lives.

That’s why I think of people like King David at times. He had a microscope on him and God wrote it all down. How much would you like that? Everything you’ve ever done wrong, every sin, hideous sin you’ve ever committed, thought you’ve had toward others, evil you’ve had in your own mind, whatever it might be, and that’s written down about you. I wouldn’t want that and I don’t think anyone else does. That’s why it’s so important the past is the past. What’s been repented of is gone and no one is to drag it back up. We’re to give each other ample opportunity to grow and be enriched in God’s way of life. It doesn’t matter how recent something has been, as soon as it’s repented of its gone. Now, sometimes we pay a certain price for certain things in our lives, but if we keep desiring this way and keep fighting for this way what an awesome life we have in God’s Church.

Ephesians 1:3, pick it back up here, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heaven in Christ, is what it’s saying. That’s where it’s coming from. He is in heaven. It’s making it clear. All the blessings of life we receive now through him, our High Priest, as it talks about in Leviticus 16, as Atonement teaches us, he is there and he is going to be there until he returns and establishes God’s Kingdom on this earth. As long as that’s taking place this is what we have as far as God’s people in God’s Church. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in other words, it’s showing the source, in heaven in Christ, according as He (God Almighty), has chosen us in him (in Christ). Beautiful words, beautiful things to understand, that we’ve been called, that we have an opportunity. Not because of how good we are. Not because of how great we are. Not because of how talented we are. No, what we have that’s good and right comes from God Almighty.

He has chosen us in him, and as it talks about in 1 Corinthians, not many wise, not many great in this world are called; it makes it very clear why. So God’s going to confound that which considers itself wise and good and by what He does in us, the changes that are made, so that in time God’s going to reveal us to the world and to those who knew us in times past, whether it be in the great resurrection later on or to those who live on into the Millennium. What an awesome thing.

...according as He has chosen us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world... So some go off half-cocked on this thing about predestination and God knows everybody that’s ever going to be born. He knows their names and it’s like it doesn’t matter what you do you’re going to end up the same way so why try. Anyway, it’s a futile thing that is taught by Presbyterians and others, about predestination. Sick, sick, sick, sick. No, God determined something a long time ago about His family. He’s going to have Elohim. That’s all it’s talking about. He has those He’s going to draw through time and call, especially in the first 6,000 years, and out of that He’s going to choose 144,000. Then at the end there are those who are going to be so blessed. Other than the other 6,000 years before,  now, this is a unique group, because if they’re in the Church they‘re going to be those who have opportunity to live on into a new age, the Millennium, who are in the Church, to make that transition in time. Awesome!

...according as He has chosen us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. See, in God’s love. So God had a purpose for us becoming different, being able to begin a process of transformation, of our minds being made different than what they are by nature because by nature they’re just selfish. The world revolves around us.

More and more I get so irritated when you’re walking somewhere and you have people coming toward you. I don’t care where it is, but especially if there are a lot of people, you get four or five people and if there’s only four or five that can fit across in a particular area and you’re coming toward them and it’s like you’ve got to get up against the wall so they can all get by because the world revolves around them, and you don’t want to get in their way. They’re just going to keep moving forward and they don’t even think about you. It’s like they don’t even see you. It’s like, “Who’s that?” you know, if you bump into them, and they get upset. It’s a sick world we live in. That’s just the kind of world we live in now-a-days.

People are walking around with cell phones. I’ll tell you we saw so much of – “Oh, here, get in this picture with me.” So in love with themselves! Get a life! Now, if any of you have a stick and you want to take a picture that way don’t feel bad, but be careful with that too. You can go too far with it to where people, you know, they make all these expressions and they get in these poses. I’ll tell you what at this Keukenhof I saw so many of those kinds of things it just made me want to say, “Get, me out of here!” in one part of my mind. In the other part, “I love this place. I love the flowers and everything else, but these people are driving me nuts.” But people, they get in these poses and you think this is for some glamour magazine or something and they’ve got to put themselves in there and they want to send this off, “Look where I’m at. Look how I look.” Give me a break! But that’s the world we live in. Sad, human beings.

Yet God has shown us how we’re to become, and this is why He says this, that we may be holy and without blame before Him in love. I love that last part because how do we become holy and without blame? By how we live – especially in how we think toward one another. This is our arena of life, first and foremost. God’s Church is, because He’s called us all together. And how do we get along? How well do we get along? Because this is where we’re judged. This is where we’re judged by God Almighty. We’re judged outside too, because if we’re living wrong out there it’s going to manifest itself in here. You can’t hide it. That can’t be changed, but it’s to be in God’s love and His spirit.

...having predestinated us. That conjures up different things for different people but it’s a word that just means predetermined. God predetermined these things. It was determined by God that this is the way it should be for His family. Then if we yield to that process we will change, we will be made different. So having predetermined, made this decision before the foundation of the earth, what we in time could become as He calls us in order to grow and be transformed to eventually be born into His family, that’s what it’s all about. ...having predetermined us...unto the adoption of children by or through Jesus Christ to Himself. That’s how we’re brought to God Almighty – through Jesus Christ. That’s how we’re made at one with God, is through Jesus Christ, and it starts with him being Passover and our High Priest, these things we’ve just focused upon.

So in all this this is the process whereby God is bringing him to Himself, Elohim, to eventually become a part of His family. Beautiful! ...according to the good pleasure of His will, that which God determined before the angelic realm was created! Awesome! ...to the praise of the glory of His grace, of His grace, of His giving, of His favor, because it’s all a matter of God’s favor and God’s grace and what God has given to us because we can’t earn a bit of it. Now, we’re to respond and yield to it if we want it, but God is the one who has to accomplish these things in us. He’s the one that has to change this mind, to transform it because it’s a spiritual operation, if you will, as it talks about in other scriptures.

...wherein He has made us, God Almighty has made us accepted... “...to be accepted for you.” The wave sheaf—that’s what it’s about—and how God has made him, through him, through Christ, to be accepted in the beloved.

...wherein He has made us accepted in the beloved. So this is how God then is able to receive us, through him who was accepted by God Almighty, and he was accepted for us. That’s what this context is all about. It’s what it’s talking about. It’s the process whereby all of our sins are forgiven and God can dwell in us.

... in whom, speaking of Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. If we really see that we will ever be so thankful to God Almighty, ever be so thankful to God Almighty, continually be so thankful to God Almighty that He forgives us of our sins. For if we are truly growing we see our sins, we know who we are, we understand our weaknesses, we understand the patience, the mercy of Almighty God and His kind of love. It’s because we live this and recognize that as long as we continue to fight, desire repentance, desire to change, want His way of life, love Him for all this and His Son, God blesses us. God blesses us.

Revelation 1:1—The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him... See, it all comes from God, and this is now through Jesus Christ, from Jesus Christ, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass. That’s how this is written. This was nearly 1900 years ago, and so it’s talking about those whom God has been working with especially as a Body, as a Church through time here in the last 1900 years since this was written. It’s going on and talking about some of this process, things that must shortly come to pass. You know, we have no concept of time. I look at almost 69 and thinking where did it go? Where did it go? You know, when you’re younger you don’t think in those terms. You just can’t see it until you’re there. Then when you’re there you wonder, where did it go?

Anyway, and there’s a lot more to that story. It’s not a picnic getting older. Your body running down, getting shorter, all the things that go with getting older because it happens and the experience of life that you go through.

So in God’s eyes, in God’s mind and how things are given, where we are now, even of 1900 years, there’s just a short time. The time that went before that, all the people who have ever lived, but especially now look where we are in time now even so much more so. There’s not much time left.

...and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony, the witness, if you will, of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. So everything that John has seen, everything that he wrote about all through time and now up to the book of Revelation, all the incredible things that God gave to him in 1st John, 2nd John, and 3rd John, those things that have to do with the most foundational part of one’s life in God’s Church because everything boils down to what God gave there. It really does. It’s how you think and live toward others. Beautiful stories there that John wrote about.

Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy. Now, this is talking about how can you do that. If you read and see certain things, if you hear and understand certain things, God’s the one who gives it. So you’re blessed. You’re blessed if you’re able to see it because there have been hundreds of thousands and millions of people read this and read that last book and all kinds of things come into their mind of things they don’t understand. They read whatever they see and whatever they’ve been taught in that context and they can’t see and understand what you have been given and the context of what is true.

Blessed are they that read, and those who hear the words of this prophecy; and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Again here, especially if you look at what God gave early on to the different Church eras and the admonitions given that all people of all time should apply to their lives, not just for that which was toward the end of Laodicea, but Philadelphia, all the rest of them as well, and things God said and warned about, about what would happen to people, because all those have existed through time in people’s lives, but some were more pronounced in certain periods.

Going on in verse 4—John to the seven Churches which are in Asia: Grace unto you, and peace, from Him who is, who was, and who is to come, or the word literally means “who is coming.” This is about God Almighty because the focus here is about God Almighty who gave this to Jesus Christ who gave it to John and then it’s talking about that which is going to be given to the seven Churches here. There are different eras through time and “grace unto you,” that which God was going to pour out upon them. They are what they are and they have grace, they have God’s favor because they’ve been called into the Church to receive a way of life. “And peace,” what God desires for us to have and to learn is to embrace peace, what it means to have true peace in fellowship, in lives and how we get along and how we think towards each other. Not friction. Not contention. Not jealousy. Not envy. Not all the other things that are so much a part of human nature and selfishness.

...and peace, from Him who is, who was, and who is coming; and from the seven spirits which are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ. So it’s talking about God Almighty first and then Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten, the word literally means “born from” or “out of” the dead, the first, the first of the first fruits.

We focus on those things. We talk about those things as a part of God’s plan, the first human being to be resurrected from death and given life to be in Elohim, God’s Family. Beautiful!

...and the prince of the kings of the earth. You know, we really don’t grasp sometimes, because we don’t think that way as human beings, the treasure that we have up here just to understand this, just to understand this alone. Think of the world of traditional Christianity and the rest of the world doesn’t even know about God and Christ in that respect, in those things. But just in the world of traditional Christianity let alone so many who have been scattered and things that have taken place in time here, to understand he’s the first one. God has a plan and we’re getting so close to many more who are going to be a part of God’s family, a part of Elohim. Just to grasp and understand who he is and that he’s coming again.

Unto him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and so again here, speaking of Jesus Christ, what is pictured in Passover, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father. So showing the purpose of what God has been doing in the first 6,000 years of those who are going to be resurrected as a part of God’s government that comes to this earth because it talks about here, in that respect, being kings and priests to serve on the earth for 1,100 years in a very unique way. ...to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

So again here, this focusing on Jesus Christ who was the first and we know those things, but we can begin to take them for granted and not think about them as often as we should, not pray to God about it as often as we should. How often do you pray or mention some of those things in prayer? You don’t have to mention it every day. You don’t have to mention it every prayer – it becomes repetitive then. But from time to time do we mention about our High Priest, about our Passover, how grateful we are that we can be forgiven of our sin so that we can have a relationship with God, that we can have Him dwell in us through the power of His holy spirit? That which so very few on the earth have right now and you can experience that and have that in your life? Who am I to have such things? How blessed are we then?

1 Corinthians 15:20. Again, here those things in Revelation are very much about Jesus Christ, the first to be resurrected from the dead to be in Elohim, and then speaking of those who are to come later at the end of this time once the 6,000 years is fulfilled, whatever that is to God in God’s time to fulfill these events and He resurrects the rest of the family. Exactly, an exact number: 12 x 12,000, 144,000—Awesome!—to come with Jesus Christ, the rest of the first fruits. Passover to Pentecost; we’re almost there. Awesome!

1 Corinthians 15:20—But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first. It’s really all it is, but we understand it is first fruits and so as far as context and meaning is concerned because there isn’t a word there for fruit. But we understand it’s the beginning, it’s the first, and we understand what that means because it is about a harvest and it is about first fruits, if you will, the first harvest, if you will. That might be better spoken of. ...has become the first of those who slept, or are asleep (who have died). For since by man came death, by man (through man) came also the resurrection of the dead. That’s God’s purpose and God’s plan. Beautiful how He’s planned everything out, how He reveals everything.

For as in Adam all die, because we’re all the same. We’re selfish as human beings. We all die. The reality is we would have no more life except for God’s plan and God’s purpose and God’s love for Elohim, for the controversy. ...even so in Christ shall all be made alive. In other words, all who receive it, all who love it. It doesn’t mean that everyone who’s ever lived is going to be made alive in Christ. It just means it’s in a proper context here of what that entails as far as the rest of the story – those who receive it, those who want it, those who hear it, those who love it, those who thank God for it and continue to be transformed.

But everyone in their own order: Christ the first... That’s all it is, the beginning. But it is the first of the first fruits, we understand that. ...and afterward they who are Christ’s at his coming. Passover to Pentecost. Beautiful! Beautiful what God is giving, to think that we’re so close to that period of time, the rest of the first fruits because then it goes on to a later harvest, the Millennium and the Great White Throne. But the scriptures are very clear about two incredible harvests; three in actual reality, but the thousand years goes on into the hundred.

Verse 24—Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father. Again here, we read earlier about in Revelation there about God coming, and so much of this is about that process there about what He is fulfilling and what He is accomplishing. I think that was in Revelation. We just read it. My eye doesn’t see it right now because it probably wasn’t there. Anyway, you heard it. I don’t remember where it was.

But going on here it’s about God Almighty and the fulfillment of His entire plan of Elohim and then finally being in the presence with God Almighty because we don’t understand all that. We just understand certain phases of things that will take place. No one is going off to heaven. No one is going there. God’s purpose starts here on this planet, on this earth. What God molds and fashions begins here, and He does it in a physical universe, but it’s here. Everything that goes out beyond that we can’t grasp and comprehend, but it talks about a relationship with God Almighty that in time He’ll reveal more. When He reveals that, I have no idea, but I’m certain it’s not during the Millennium or the Great White Throne. I don’t even know if those who are resurrected as Elohim will be given that understanding until it’s God’s time because everything is in His time of what He reveals. We’ll just have God dwelling in us and know that of a surety forever.

...so then comes the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, speaking of Jesus Christ because that’s what God has given to him to fulfill and to accomplish, and it begins with this process that we just read about in Revelation, Passover to Pentecost, Jesus Christ, the first of the first fruits leading us up to Pentecost, 144,000. ...even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power, because we’re at a time of life where we’re getting ready to focus on a new world. I can’t even begin to comprehend that one.

That’s going to be so exciting when we don’t have to be bogged down by this sick, demented, backward, evil world, because it is today. No one wants God in their knowledge. There are places now like Europe, as an example, and it’s happening more in the United States, where people don’t even like to say the word “God.” You know, the Catholic Church isn’t as strong as it used to be by any measure, and there are people and places like Australia, you just don’t speak of God. To believe certain things, it’s just not there any longer. The world is changing fast, it truly is.

“...and he shall put down all rule and all authority and power,” everything that works against God. So we’re at a time when we’re going to begin to be able to focus on something so different, of people having what we have on a magnified scale, of people learning to live together in peace, of people learning how to have happy marriages. To be able to be taught that, from what people are coming out of? When there’s such confusion out there about marriage, families, sex. What are they? They don’t even know in many cases. That’s becoming more and more a problem because of our degeneration of our bodies and our minds, and so people don’t even know what body they’re in, what they should be, male or female (or something that’s neither). We live in a weird time, sad time.

All the confusion and all this evil, and the causes of all this evil in this world is about to be put down – most of it, obviously, coming from a being that hates mankind.

And he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. In other words, everything that is not yielded to him, and nothing is except that which is called and brought into unity with God. Then by choice do they want it?

Verse 25—For he must reign, until he has put all enemies under his feet. Jesus Christ. All enemies, everything that works against God has to be destroyed. So by the time we get through the hundred years we’ll come to that point in time. Everyone that will not listen to God, everyone who does not want God’s way of life, everyone who has chosen through whatever time they have lived in that they don’t want anything to do with any right kind of living in the first place, their minds are so distorted and demented that they don’t desire God in any fashion or form, it’ll all be dead. It’ll all be gone, finally.

For he must reign, until has put all enemies under his feet. Everything that’s not able to be brought into unity and oneness with God Almighty. For the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Beautiful! It hurts. Everybody has had to experience that in times past. People are going to continue to experience it through the Millennium because there are important things to learn from that process of human beings in human life and what God is offering us beyond human life. Because it’s not owed to us, eternal life, and so if we choose it and we want it and we see the kind of life it’s to be, if it’s to be that way, then we’ll embrace it by choice. If not, well, so be it.

So death hurts. People you know, people you love, people you become attached to, as time goes along they all die. So we have God’s plan. Awesome! And it hurts because God has something so much greater and He wants us to understand that with all of our being.

Verse 27—For he has put all things, God has put all things, under his feet, under Christ’s feet, but when He says all things are put under him it is manifest that He is excepted, in other words, not included (excluded). In other words, God Almighty, He’s put everything under Christ’s feet, all things – obviously not Himself. Everything comes from God first. That’s what it’s saying here, “Who did put all things under him.” It’s God Almighty who has done it.

And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him who put all things under him that God may be all in all. Well, He’s that way anyway. That’s His mind, that’s His being, and it just shows that’s the completion of God’s plan.

Anyway, we went a little farther than Passover to Pentecost, but it’s the beauty of God’s plan all the way through.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1