Accepted by God

Well, you know, as I was contemplating everything that's going on this week, and I guess I could say everything that's going on in the last three or four weeks since we've been able to be together, we've been through a lot. We've been through a lot. And, you know, as we came, as the night to be much observed came about this past Wednesday evening, I found myself really, really, really tired, just exhausted.

And I thought, well, what is wrong? I'm not having to drive anywhere. I'm just kind of even on Sabbath. I mean, all of us are just kind of at home. We're not those who are working at home. We're going very few places. We're told to stay at home unless we absolutely need to be out. Not having to put all those hours in on the road.

I should be feeling like not tired. But, you know, when you look at the last week and what we've been through as we've begun the Holy Day season, we've been together quite a bit. You know, if this was a normal year, by the time we got to today, we would have been together in person with each other four times in the last five days.

We would have been together at Passover. We would have been together on the night to be much observed, the first Holy Day. We had the Preparation Day for the Sabbath of yesterday and then today. That's a lot, four times in five days. But this year, even though we haven't had the driving, maybe we won't have to do that, it seems like there's been a lot more physical things that have had to happen. And maybe you've experienced the same thing. So, as I begin here this morning, one of the words we say about the Days of Unleavened Bread is, remember. And I'd like to take just a little bit of time to think about what we've learned, what we've done, and what we've been through together and individually here over the last, just this past week.

You know, as we approach Passover, we always have the spiritual examination that we do. We're beginning to do 11 of our homes as well in preparation for the Days of Unleavened Bread. But this year, the preparation for Passover was on every single one of us in a different way, wasn't it? This year, not only were we spiritually examining ourselves, but we were having to do physical preparations for Passover. You know, back in Christ's time and all in times of ancient Israel, when they prepared for the Passover, they weren't just going to a hall and everything was set up for them.

They had to be making preparations. You remember when Jesus Christ said, you know, go there and make ready the Passover for us to eat on that final Passover He would be. This year, each one of us had to do that. We not only had to be ready for the Passover, we had to make sure we had our washbasins, we had them set up with water, we had to make sure we had bread in the house, we made to make sure we had wine, the proper servings out there.

We had to make sure that we knew how to get on Zoom if we were going to connect by Zoom for the Passover service or ucg.org, or a backup that we would know what the Scriptures were if we couldn't get on either one of those.

There was some work and some other things that we had to do this year that maybe most of us have never thought of before, but now we know there is a preparation for the Passover, even just physically speaking, when we keep it and observe it the way that God said. As we got into the daytime of the 14th of Abib, Wednesday during the day, we were completing the leavening of our homes as we normally do. But as we approached that evening at the beginning of the days of Unleavened Bread and the night to be much observed, it was different.

For many of us, we come to a hall and there's a dinner prepared for us, and we have tables set up, and we sit down and we talk to each other, and it's a social occasion. Some go to restaurants, some have it in their homes. This year, more than ever before, more people kept it at homes. And very small groups are just with their family. It was upon us to see that the dinner was ready and prepared by the time.

It was upon us, individually in our homes, to see what is this night to be much reserved? What is the proper conversation we should have? Is it just a social occasion for 20, 30, 50 people to get together? Is that what God had in mind? And so it was upon us to direct that night and to think, why did God single out this one Sabbath, the beginning of a Sabbath evening, the one in the year that He said, Remember this night?

We have Sabbath evenings every Friday evening and every holy day, but that one, He said, Remember it. And so maybe we spent some time thinking about that, and in our families, we thought about, how do we keep this day? What is God? What did He want us to learn? What do we talk about on that day? And that took time, time that we haven't spent in that arena, perhaps before.

And then we had the first Holy Day. We were hooking here locally. We tuned into the Cincinnati service. But you had your leavening out of your home by the time that Thursday rolled around in the first Holy Day. But then you had a service that was there, but Holy Day offerings. Well, they're so easy, what we do to prepare for a Holy Day offering, we get our checkbook out, we have our little green envelope, we drop it in the envelope, we drop it in a basket, and away it goes, but not this year.

This year, we had to think about, oh, it's up to us to take that offering and get it to where it needs to be. We've got to take the extra step. Someone's not doing it for us. There's that discipline. There's that physical process that we have to take that added something new to the Holy Day that perhaps we've just never thought of before. You know, the ancient Israelites, when they brought their offerings, they brought them individually. They brought their animals, and they brought their things to Jerusalem to offer to the temple. So this year, we had to learn that.

Yesterday was the preparation day for the Sabbath. And probably, and hopefully, we thought about it's a true preparation day. We have a Sabbath coming up, the Sabbath that we're in here today, but it was a preparation day. You know, there was not going to be any potluck at Sabbath, no gathering together.

All the restaurants are closed, so after dinner, after Sabbath service, if you guys just go to a restaurant and eat, we had to think about what are we going to eat on the Sabbath. And we know we're not supposed to prepare the food on the Sabbath. We're supposed to have it ready. So on Friday yesterday, perhaps you found yourself thinking, this is the preparation day.

I need to make ready what I need to have ready on the Sabbath day. The food is there so that I am following the commands exactly the way God said to do. And then here we are today, on the third day of Unleavened Bread. And look how much we've done, look how much we've learned, look how much we've experienced in this day of Unleavened Bread. We're not even halfway through it than we did certainly in my lifetime, any time before. We've got a different vision, a different view of what these mean.

And I talked all about the physical, but I hope along with all the physical preparations and all the physical things we've been doing, we've been thinking about the spiritual aspects of the days of Unleavened Bread. So here we are, as I mentioned, the Sabbath that's within the days of Unleavened Bread. It's the 17th of Abib, the 17th of Abib today. Now, nowhere in the Bible does it even mention the 17th of Abib, but it's a significant day. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, keep the 17th of Abib, it's not a holy day, but we're here on the Sabbath day, a holy day.

And the 17th, 17 can be an interesting number because there are other 17th of months that are notable in the Bible. Not that they're kept as holy days, but they're mentioned in the Bible. Let's look at a few of them here. If we go back to Genesis. Genesis here in the pre-Flood era, we see a couple of 17ths showing up in the Bible.

Let's look at Genesis 7. Genesis 7. In verse 11, we have Noah, who's been preparing by himself with his family the Ark for 100 years to be ready for when the floods came. And in Genesis 7 and verse 11, it says, In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

Now God took the time to say that happened. The rain began. His judgment on that society before the flood began on the seventeenth. Judgment had already been made on them, but the end of that society really came on the seventeenth day of that second month in Noah's six hundredth year of life. Now, let's go forward just a bit to chapter 8. It rained for forty days and forty nights. We know that there was the time that water covered the earth, but in chapter 8 and in verse 3, it says, The waters receded continually from the earth, and at the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.

And in verse 4, then the ark rested in the seventeenth month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. Now, if you're aware, the seventeenth day of the seventh month, that's right in the Feast of Tabernacles, the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles, right? The Feast of Tabernacles is the fifteenth of the seventh month, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth. The ark landed on dry land. It was complete. There was still a little bit of time before Noah and his family could come out of the ark, but it was done by the seventeenth day of that seventh month.

Now, some Bible scholars, you know, that look at numerology and what are the meanings of these numbers, they say that 17, 17 represents overcoming the enemy, God's judgment, and complete victory. Now, we can see some other 17s in the Old Testament. You know, Joseph, for instance, was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery. His different life, there's a chapter in his life, one closed and another opened when he was 17. Jacob, who came to Israel after he was reconnected with Jacob, or Jacob when he was reconnected with Joseph, he lived in Egypt for 17 years before he died.

So we can kind of see this number popping up, and certainly the seventeenth of Abib would fall into that category because it was on the seventeenth of Abib that something significant happened in the days of Unleavened Bread in that year that Jesus Christ was crucified and died. There had already been quite a bit going on in that year. A crucifixion that the apostles didn't expect, a very hasty crucifixion, a very hasty trial, and a conviction, crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, a very hasty burial, the beginning of the Holy Days, the days of Unleavened Bread.

And then something happened here on the third day of Unleavened Bread that goes down in history. Let's go to the book of Leviticus, chapter 23, and let's look what God says about this day that we're on today. It happened to be the seventeenth of Abib, that Sabbath, when Christ was crucified that week. It happens to be the Sabbath day today, the seventeenth of Abib, as we're gathered together here.

But let's look at Leviticus 23. Let's begin in verse 2 because we haven't, this Holy Day season yet, taken the opportunity, had the opportunity to read these verses so that everyone knows why we're here keeping the Holy Days that we do. Chapter 23, verse 2 says, Well, we know the feasts are appointed times. The Moed, you know, goes back to Genesis 1, verse 14, when God put the lights in the sky for the signs, the appointed times.

In verse 3, he mentions the Sabbath day first, the weekly Sabbath.

We're here today on the weekly Sabbath day. Verse 4, In addition to the weekly Sabbath, here's where I want you to keep these and observe these days as well. On the fourteenth day of the first month, that twilight is the Lord's Passover. That was last Tuesday evening. We observed that. Twilight, remember, means between the two evenings, exactly when we met, exactly when ancient Israel would kill the Passover lamb, exactly when Jesus Christ met with His disciples for Passover that night on the fourteenth. And on the fifteenth day of the same month as the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord, seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. We did that virtually this year, this past Thursday. You shall do no customary work on it. I had to learn, you know, keep that day holy. Didn't have to get up, didn't have to drive an hour or whatever to church. It was a day that we kept holy and didn't know customary work on it. And He says in verse 8, for them back then that where the temple was, you shall offer an offering made by fire for seven days. And then He says, the seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. And so this coming Wednesday will be the seventh day of unleavened bread. We will do no customary work on it. We will keep that Sabbath holy like we do this Sabbath day, the weekly Sabbath day. And God gives us the frame time, the time frame for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And then in verse 9, He singles out. He singles out one day during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Verse 9, the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. So this wasn't for them for the forty years they were wandering in the wilderness, but this was going to be when they entered the Promised Land, when they began to live off of the land and have crops and reap them and live off of them. This is what God commands them to do each year. He says, You will bring a sheaf, just a little part, of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. Now, a little education, just a reminder for most. The first fruits in Jerusalem were usually barley and harvest, and barley was usually the thing that was ripening the first. And so God was saying, you know, what you do to that, when the first fruits, the spring crops, are ready to be harvested, bring something to me and wave it or offer it before me. And in his verse 11 he says, He shall wave the sheaf before the eternal to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. He shall wave the sheaf before the eternal to be accepted. So you bring the sheaf of the first fruits, the barley in this case, the first of the first fruits, wave it before God to be accepted by Him. Let Him put His blessing on it, and then the rest of the spring harvest can begin. Nothing was to be done, and as we see down in verse 14, nothing was even to be eaten of that crop before it was waved before God and accepted by Him. And He makes this to be the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Now we know the 14th of Abib can fall on any day of the week, right? This year it happened to fall beginning on Tuesday evening when we observed Passover, but it can fall on any day of the week. And God says always the Passover is on the 14th. No matter what day of the week that falls on, the 14th you keep it.

Whether it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, whatever it is, you keep it. We know the first day of Unleavened Bread is the 15th. He says no matter what day of the week that falls on, you keep that day holy. Doesn't say anything about the 17th, but He says, you know that Sabbath, my weekly Sabbath, my holy time that's within that days of Unleavened Bread, between that first holy day and seventh holy day, you're keeping that holy, and that's a special time for you.

That Sabbath, out of 52 Sabbaths a year, you pay attention to that one. There's something that's happening, or something you need to be aware of on that Sabbath day in the days of Unleavened Bread to pay attention to. And He says on that Sabbath, the day after it is when you're going to do this offering of the first fruits.

Okay? First 12. You shall offer on that day, the day after that Sabbath, so you had to know the Sabbath, it was always going to be a Saturday. If we use our modern days of the week here, it's always going to be the seventh day Sabbath, regardless of what day of the week the 14th fell on or the 15th fell on. It was always going to be the seventh day Sabbath that this happened. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.

Wave the first fruits, but you know what? Also, wave or offer this male lamb without blemish as a burnt offering. Down at verse 13, He gives some of the things that go along with the offering. But down at 14, then He says, You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain, nor fresh grain, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. That Sabbath, the next day, do this.

This is a notable Sabbath. One out of 52 is something you pay attention to because you're just going to trigger something that you do throughout your generations. And then it has even more meaning than what they're going to do on that first day of the week following that Sabbath. And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the wave offering, seventh Sabbath shall be completed.

Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and you will offer a new grain offering to the Lord. So you use this day to figure when the day of Pentecost is going to be. That's the next holy day of God. It gets figured from that Sabbath. So Pentecost, the Sabbath is always a Saturday, and Pentecost is always the day after a Saturday when you count it. All the other holy days can start on any other day of the week. Not Pentecost.

It gets counted from the Sabbath, which is always the same within the days of unleavened bread. God said, you mark that one, and you pay attention to it. And so Israel would have done that. As they had the temple, they would have paid attention to those things. As you read through some of the Jewish history, where they began to be doing some of those things individually by themselves, it eventually became a temple, a temple rite. And at the time of the Second Temple, when Christ was there, it was a temple offering that they did. The priests would be the one waving the sheaf offering on behalf of all of Israel.

Let me read from some Jewish history on what went on, what would have gone on at the time that Christ was there during the time of the Second Temple. It says, The Scripture specifies the day the wave sheaf was to be waved. It gives no specific time of day to cut it. So to offer this wave sheaf offering, at some point the priest had to go out, he had to go out in the field, cut a sheaf of the barley to be able to wave it on the first day of the week.

Those scriptures specifies the day the wave sheaf was to be waved, that was the day after the Sabbath and the days of unleavened bread, it gives no specific time of day to cut it. Jewish history from the Second Temple period gives an interesting insight. The second century Mishnah affirms that, when the Sadducees controlled the temple, which they did when Christ was alive, the sickle was put to the grain just as the sun was going down on the weekly Sabbath.

And he gives the references from the Jewish writings and everything there. The book, he says, Biblical calendars states, The temple priests reaped the first fruit sheaf at the going out of the Sabbath. So they had to wave the sheaf on Sunday, but as the Sabbath that we're now in, as it was about to end, they would go out and cut it at that time. They wanted to be ready to wave it in the morning.

And you can see they had some other things to do, too. They had a lamb that had to be offered, they had to offer some other things to it. So it took some preparation, like we've learned this week, to take some time to put these things together to offer to God. And so they began as the Sabbath was ending to go out and cut the sheaf, and then they spent the time getting it ready so that that morning they were ready to actually go through the ceremony that they did to have their harvest accepted by God.

So they did that, and again he gives the references here, many of them. Says, The priests began to make the first cutting right at the end of the Sabbath, continuing over into the first day of the week, remembering, of course, that the first day of the week begins at sunset, as the Sabbath ends. The priests began to make the first cutting right at the end of the Sabbath, continuing over into the first day of the week when the bulk of the work would be done.

The ritual, however, was not complete until the sheaf was offered or waved before God the following morning, or more precisely, between 9 a.m. and noon. So keep some of those things in mind, what the physical rituals were.

As the Sabbath would end, they would go out and they would cut the wave sheaf, and then they would prepare all the rest of the things we read here in Leviticus 23 that needed to be waved before God. Then when the morning came, they were ready. They were ready to wave it before God on that first day, between 9 a.m. and noon.

The first fruits that would be offered to God, that would be accepted by Him before they could eat of the crop, or before they could even begin the harvest. Then that harvest continued for the next seven weeks through the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost, of course, pictures the harvest of the first fruits. We'll talk more about that when we get to the day of Pentecost. But you can see what God was doing here with the agricultural cycle that was in Jerusalem at the time using a physical harvest.

But we know the spiritual end of it as well. Well, we know, and I think most people that are listening know, Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled that wave-sheaf offering. It's a notable offering that many might read through the Bible and say, that was an ancient thing, don't need to do that anymore. But it is so important, so important to mankind's salvation, to know what Jesus Christ did, and to glorify Him even more than we do, just knowing that He died for us, to see the Bible and the confirmation of what God did.

This is His Word. So let's look at it, because in the New Testament, we see this concept of first fruits as well. It's there as a physical harvest in the Old Testament. But Paul and the other New Testament writers use first fruits and harvest as well for the spiritual harvest. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15. In the first few verses there, Paul says, he talks about the resurrected Jesus Christ. Verse 1, he says, Moreover, brethren, I declared you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, by which you are saved. If you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, who is Peter, and then by the twelve, after that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

After that He was seen by James, then all the apostles. So he begins this chapter that we commonly refer to as the resurrection chapter, with these things that he's received that we all know. But let's drop down now to verse 20, in the succeeding verses here, the intervening verses between what I read, and we drop down to verse 20. We've Paul talking about those who don't believe in the resurrection, and yet there is a resurrected Christ. And he says this, but now Christ is risen from the dead, and He has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. He's the first fruits. He's the first one who was resurrected. He was dead. He laid in a tomb.

He didn't ascend into heaven when He was dead in that tomb. He laid there, asleep, until He was resurrected by God the Father, on that third day, after three days and three nights. But now Christ is risen from the dead, as He has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, and he's talking about Adam, Adam and Eve, who sinned and brought death to the earth.

For since by man came death, by man with a capital M, you notice, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

But each one, in his own order, Christ first. Christ the first fruits afterward those who are Christ at His coming. He had to be offered first. He had to be resurrected first. He had to set the pattern for us of what it would be. Christ was the first to be resurrected. Some might say there were resurrections before that, right? Lazarus. We talked about Lazarus not too long ago. He was resurrected, but Christ was resurrected to eternal life. Not back to physical life. He was resurrected to eternal life. Let's drop down to 42 and just complete this thought, you know, for right now.

In verse 42 it says, so is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption. It's raised in incorruption. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised in power. He's talking about our physical body. It's sown a natural body. The one that you and I inhabit today, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

And so it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust. The second man, Christ, is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, as you and I are today, so also are those who are made of dust, all of us. As is the heavenly one, Christ so also are those who are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

And so we live, just as Christ did, in flesh and blood. We die. And at the appointed time, God will resurrect to eternal life those who are in Christ.

And he's talking primarily the first resurrection here in 1 Corinthians 15. The second resurrection for the vast majority of mankind, every man, woman, and child who ever lived, is spoken of back in Revelation 20. Again, that's a sermon for another time. But I want you to see that there is Jesus Christ, who is called the firstfruits. He was the first one resurrected to eternal life, and today he sits at the right hand of God at his throne. Let's just establish a few facts here as we go through and look at how did that get accomplished? What can we do? Let's go back to Matthew 12. Matthew 12 and verse 38.

Matthew 12, 38. There's one sign that Jesus Christ gave, just one sign that he was the Messiah. Now, the people wanted him to do miracles, so he did miracles, and they didn't really believe he was the Messiah. In verse 38, Matthew 12, some of the scribes and Pharisees came to him, saying, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. But Christ answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, And no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The only sign. Something that they couldn't see right then, something they would have to look at later, because it was going to happen later. But he said, Just the sign you'll have that I'm the Messiah, just like Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, I'll be in the three nights in the heart of the earth.

Now notice it doesn't say three days and three nights from the time he died. We know he died at 3 p.m. or thereabouts. But at the time that he was laid into the tomb, three days and three nights from that time, he would be there. So if we're going to look for the Messiah, he has to have, and we have to be able to document, that he was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth in that tomb. So let's just spend a few minutes looking at this.

Let's go back to John 19. Every Gospel account, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, has something to say about this, you know, world-changing, the world, you know, world-changing event of Jesus Christ's life and death. But there's some, there's many who are confused. You know, we're here on a weekend that many who would say they believe in Christ, they thought he died yesterday on a Friday, and then he'll be resurrected tomorrow, just a day and a half later, and somehow think that that's proof that he died because if that was the case, that's absolute proof that he's not the Messiah.

Because he said, I only give you one sign, that I'm the Messiah three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. If it's more than that or less than that, I'm not who I say I am.

So let's go to John 19. John 19, let's just rehearse some facts here that many of us know, but it's always good to go through these things, and I always find, you know, these things in the Bible where it's absolute proof of what God is, and it's a proof of the Bible to me when we are able to see these things written in the Bible, and how it perfectly played out that who we are following, who we worship is truly the God, and this Bible is the book of truth that we live by.

John 19, verse 31. Okay, you can see in verse 30, Jesus Christ is dying. He makes the comment, it is finished. You know, that's a line that we might even contemplate. It is finished. You know, we think about Jesus Christ living a perfect life, and we think about Him dying and fulfilling His mission that way. But think about how many things He did accomplish in His life. When He said, it is finished, He accomplished an awfully lot in His life.

Not just living a perfect life, that's enough, right? We know how it is even to live a perfect day if any of us do that. He lived His life without sin, and He was willing to give His life for all of us, because He didn't deserve death. We do, and He paid the price. But He accomplished so many other things, you know, including starting His church, educating people, introducing people, revealing God the Father to His people. The very many things that He did in His life, and you could go down in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, He accomplished an awfully lot in His life that we might just take for granted today.

But anyway, we see that He died in verse 30. So verse 31, it says, Well, that tells us a couple things. It tells us that that Sabbath was not Saturday. Because if it was Saturday, it wouldn't say for that Sabbath was a Saturday, for that Sabbath was a high day. So we're put on notice, it's a different day of the week than Saturday that this was happening, you know, or, well, Friday, I guess, because here they were in a preparation day. Many people look at preparation day and say, oh, it's Friday. But we know it wasn't Friday because it was preparation day for a high day.

It wasn't preparation day for Sabbath. It was preparation day for a high Sabbath. Because of it with this day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they may be taken away, and the soldiers came and broke their legs. Christ didn't need to be broken. He was already dead. He was already dead. So we have this, as the 14th of ABib is ending in that year, we know it's not Friday because the 15th was not Saturday.

It was a high day, and it was specifically noted that it was a high day, not the regular Sabbath. We notice then down in verse 38, Christ dies. It says, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of mir, myrrh, and allos, about a hundred pounds.

Can you imagine? About a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus and bounded in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus because of the Jews' preparation day, for the tomb was nearby.

So to take him down from the cross, or stake, whatever you feel he was crucified on, to take him down from the stake, to dress him with this hundred pounds of mixture of myrrh and allos, to wrap him up in the strips of linen, as was the custom of the Jews, and then they take him to the nearby tomb. It wasn't something that we would just march from here to there and it would be done. That took some time. That took some time. Now he died around the ninth hour, the Bible says, at three o'clock. I don't know what time sunset in Jerusalem is.

It's probably around seven o'clock, seven thirty, like it is here at this time of year. But they had just a few hours to get all this done. Take him down. Well, get permission from Pilate to take him down. Take him down. Get him prepared for burial in all the ways that they did, and get him into the tomb all before sunset.

So you can imagine they're on a timetable. They're watching because they're not going to do any of this when the sunset occurs. They're not going to violate that holy time. And so right before sunset, there goes Christ buried into the tomb. Now Mark's account says, then the stone was rolled in front of it.

So right before sunset, Jesus is put into the tomb. Right before sunset, on the fourteenth of the abib, as the fifteenth is beginning to dawn. Fifteenth being the first day of the days of unleavened bread. Okay, let's go back to Luke 23.

And see what it says there. Luke 23, verse 54.

Luke 23, 54. We can see where the same thing. That day was the preparation, and we know it was the preparation day for a high day. John tells us that. That day was the preparation and the Sabbath. The high day drew near. So they take Jesus, lay him in the tomb, and the women who had come with him from Galilee followed after. And they observed the tomb and how his body was laid. So they actually were witnesses.

They saw. Okay? They put him in there. They dressed him properly. We know what we need to do. We've seen it. We've seen it. And then we're going to go back. Right? Just as sunset is occurring, they're going to keep the high day. Verse 56. Then they returned. Okay? Then they returned. Now what did they do the next day? Knowing it was a high day, were they preparing spices and fragrant oils on that high day?

Would the Jews, would any of the Jews done that? Absolutely not. They returned as sunset was in the 15th of Abib was about to dawn. The days of Unleavened Bread were beginning. They returned and they kept that Sabbath day. But then, the day after that, they had work to do. It wasn't just a matter of hopping in the car, driving out to the tomb, and look peeking in there and see what it was.

They had work to do. There were things they were going to do for Christ. And it wasn't like they could drive the Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and purchase these things. They didn't even expect Jesus Christ to be dead by the end of the 14th.

That didn't enter any of their minds. It was a Passover coming up. And here He is at the end of the 14th. Our Savior, our Messiah, who we believe is the Son of God, He's dead.

He's buried. We have to give Him a proper burial. So they returned. They returned. They kept the Sabbath. And then the day after that Sabbath is over, they prepared spices and fragrant oils. I have no idea what it takes to prepare a spice or a fragrant oil. I have a feeling it's not as easy as going to the cabinet, taking out my little bottle and pouring it on. There's something that women did, just like making bread in Old Testament times and up until modern history.

It took a lot of time for women to do. So this isn't something they just kind of did and threw together. They returned. They prepared spices and fragrant oils. And then they rested on the Sabbath. They weren't preparing those fragrant oils and spices on the Holy Day. But they did prepare them, and then they rested on the Sabbath. So what does that tell us if we put the timeline together here? And I think you can look at Mark 16, and it gives some insight into that as well. You have Jesus Christ dying as the 14th of Abib drew near, put into a tomb right before the end of the 14th of Abib.

Then you have a Holy Day. The Jews would all keep that holy. No work would be done. He would be laying in that tomb that night that began the 15th, and then all that day, one night, one day, right? Then you had a day that the women were okay to work. They could go out and they could find the spices. They could prepare all the things that they needed to do. But at the end of that day, they had another Sabbath. There was another Sabbath, and they were going to rest on the Sabbath day according to the commandment. So we have one day, one night, and one day during the Holy Day that the Jews were observing.

Then we have the time that they prepared. There was a preparation day, apparently, that they were doing this on because they rested on the Sabbath. And so they prepared the oils, and you know, Christ was in the tomb during that time. And on that evening, and on that Sabbath day.

And then we find in chapter 24, it tells us what happens. Now, on the first day of the week, after they rest on the Sabbath, right? After they rest on the Sabbath, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. So now they're taking. They've got everything ready to go. Now they're going to go out and do what they need to do with the dead body of Christ. Let me pause here for a bit, because in the original Greek, the commentaries say, where it says on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, and I think it's, let's go back to, let's go back to John 20. Go back to John 20. John 20, we see the same incident we were just talking about here back in Luke 24. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark.

Barnes' commentary and others say that while it was still dark comes from the Greek that means deep twilight. Deep twilight. And here's what he says about it. He says, deep twilight is when there is scarcely any light.

John 20, verse 1, says it was very early while it was yet dark. That is, it was not yet full daylight, or the sun had not yet risen. The time when they came, therefore, was at the break of day, when the sun was about to rise, but while it was yet so dark as to render objects obscure or not distinctly visible. So, they go to the tomb before sunrise, in the deep twilight, in the time where the light was beginning, and we've been awake at that time, before the sun.

As you see some light, just like in between the evenings on the 14th, there's a between, I guess, between the dark and the sunlight. There's some sun, but here's Mary and the other women, we read in Luke 24, that come to the tomb. And they're ready to dress Christ in the way that they had done. And they see, and she sees, let's go back to Luke 24. I just wanted you to see while it was still dark there, because just as we learned that there couldn't have been a Friday crucifixion by John 19.31, we learned there really wasn't an Easter sunrise resurrection from the Bible as well, because when they came there before the sun rose on that Sunday morning, the first of the week, Christ was already risen.

There was no sunrise resurrection. He was already risen. Luke 24, we're in verse 1, On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they insert another woman with them, came to the tomb, bringing the spices, which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. And they went in, and they didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. He was gone. It was early in the morning, before sunrise, He's gone. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.

Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here, but is risen. Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered His words. Light bulbs began to go off. That's exactly what He said. Here we are on Sunday morning. He's already risen.

When was He resurrected? Now, we've talked about before, and if anyone wants to get together and talk about this or anything by phone, we know that days of the week in that crucifixion week correspond exactly to the days of the week that we're in this year. Passover, and this is documented by the naval calendar that goes back to 31 A.D. that shows the weeks of that 31 A.D. perfectly aligned with what we are today. Passover, the 14th of Ava, would have began on a Tuesday evening. By the end of that Wednesday, as the 14th was ending, Jesus Christ was laid into the tomb.

So, Wednesday night, Thursday night, or Wednesday night, Thursday day, I'll do two fingers, the Holy Day, He was laying in the tomb one day and one night. Thursday night, and Friday the preparation day, when the women were preparing all those spices to bring to Him, to take care of Him on Sunday, He was laying in the tomb. Friday night, the Sabbath, He was in the tomb.

No one was visiting the tomb at that time. Saturday day, He was laying in the tomb all during the Sabbath. Three days and three nights from the time that He was first laid in that tomb. Now, think about, from what we've already learned, what were the priests doing near the end of sunset on that Sabbath that Jesus Christ was in the tomb?

They were cutting the wave sheaf, weren't they? They were out, and they were focused on what they needed to do the next morning. They were out cutting the wave sheaf, and then that night, they were going to be focused on preparing everything they needed to do, so that on Sunday morning, the first day of the week, they could go out and do the wave sheaf offering before God.

Isn't it interesting that exactly the time as the Sabbath was ending, on that Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, the three days and three nights expired in Christ, who was clearly risen before Sunday morning, and clearly before He was in the tomb on Saturday night, because if He had stayed there Saturday night, that would be three days and four nights, and if He spent three days and four nights in the grave, He's not our Messiah. Three days and three nights. While they were engaged in the wave sheaf offering, Jesus Christ was being resurrected just as the Bible said, and the sign He gave, three days and three nights.

And so, no one knew until Sunday morning He had been risen. No one knew that until Mary Magdalene and the ladies came out, and they saw He's gone before the Son even risen. He's gone. There's nothing in this tomb. And so, they go about their... well, actually they run back, and they tell Peter, right? So, verse 9 and chapter 24 here of Luke says, You can imagine the excitement, right? Can we imagine the excitement? This is a story we hear every year, and even before we were in the church, we heard the story. Can we imagine the excitement that your Messiah, the one who you believe is the Son of God, He died. It kind of shocked you. You didn't even know what to do as the days of Unleavened Bread began. You're kind of like, what does all that mean? And then look, on the third day of Unleavened Bread, or actually the fourth day when they get to the first day of the week, the fourth day in the middle of the days of Unleavened Bread, Sire was turned to joy. Unbelievable joy. Something that they never experienced in their lives before or expected. He's alive. Everything He said to us, now we get. We begin to understand. It was a tremendous time. Let's go back to John 20 and read John's account here.

So Mary Magdalene, she runs back and the ladies run back and they tell Peter these things. And in John's account here, in verse 13, pick it up, we'll read down to verse 17 here. Verse 13 says, these angels said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid Him. At that point, she just thought they've taken His body. Now when she had said this, she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there and didn't know that it was Him. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where He has laid Him, and I will take Him away. And Jesus said to her, Mary, just like we read in John 10, the sheep know the shepherd's voice, right? When He said, Mary, she knew His voice. She turned and said to Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Teacher. And Christ said to her, because you can imagine Mary, what she wanted to do was what? She wanted to run up and give Him a hug, right? Just like all of us would want to. And Christ said to her, Don't cling to me, Mary, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. Well, He'd been resurrected for some time. Why did He not go up to the Father? Immediately. Why did He wait until Sunday morning and even after He saw Mary? Don't touch me, Mary. I have not yet ascended to God. But I am. I am going up to Him.

Later on that day, when you get down to verse 20, you see Jesus Christ revealing Himself to the other apostles. He doesn't tell them, Don't touch me. He's been up to God the Father. He's been up. Sometime after He saw Mary and sometime before that afternoon, He ascended up into Heaven. What did God do when He saw this first fruit that we read about in 1 Corinthians 15, 23? The first flesh and blood man resurrected to eternal life appear before God at exactly the same time or in the same time frame that the high priests in Jerusalem would be waving that first fruit, that wave sheaf of the first fruit before God to be accepted by Him. At that same time, Jesus Christ was presenting Himself to the Father in Heaven to be accepted by God as the first of the first fruits.

It's awesome when you put it all together. It's awesome when you think about it. You realize God's plan. You realize His majesty. You realize the truth of the Bible. You realize, and you just want to praise God even more than you ever had before, when you put all this together. And as you even rehearsed this year after year on this Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, what it means. Now pause for a moment when Jesus Christ was resurrected and He ascended into Heaven to be accepted by God as the first fruits. Can you imagine what it was like, that reunion in Heaven? Can you imagine the joy and the celebration in Heaven when the perfect Jesus Christ, who had lived His life perfectly, who had given up so much for mankind, who had made the continuation of the plan of God possible. He took everyone's sins for a sinful man and paid the price for all of us. And look at the faith He had. He was the God, the Logos of the Old Testament. He prayed in John 17, as we read the other night, glorify Me with the glory I had with you.

And He was willing to die. And He laid there asleep. Think of the faith that Jesus Christ had. Complete faith in God that God the Father would resurrect Him. And God the Father did. And Jesus Christ was up in Heaven with God the Father and the angels, and you know there was a celebration and there was joy up there that was unparalleled, probably, even in the history of God. Now what had been done and what had been accomplished, and Jesus Christ who had left mankind a flawless example of who we need to be, if we're going to be accepted by God as first fruits. All the things that He did, He perfectly obeyed God. He even was baptized. He didn't have any sins to wash away, but He set the standard, you must be baptized, and He did it at age 30, not as a child, but as an adult, because it is a necessary step to salvation. He lived a perfect life. He resisted self. He was tempted in all points, we're told, like as we are, yet without sin. He didn't revile. He didn't hate people. He lived His life perfectly, an example that we can look at and say, we have to be like Him. The Apostle John, who was there with Jesus Christ during that time, he says in 1 John 3, if we have this hope of resurrection, anyone who has this hope purifies himself as He is pure. He's our standard. He's our example. That's who we adhere to. In everything, He started His church, His church that He gave a commission to, that still carries it out today. Prepare a people. Preach the gospel to all the world. Do it without thought of self. Do it because God said to do it. And look at the faith that He had. You know, Christ, we read last week, lowly in spirit, humble. He says, I don't speak the words that I want to speak. I speak what the Father gives me. I don't do the things that I want to do. I do what the Father tells me. I of my own self can do nothing only if the Father gives me the strength. I do what He says. He was completely yielded to God. And He put His complete faith in Him. As He was being laid, as He was entering into the Fourteenth of Aibob, He didn't have any backup plan. What happens if it was completely on God? I'm relying on Him, the same reliance that God wants you and I to have today. And He ascended to heaven. And He was accepted by God. You know, at some point, God is going to want to accept us. Jesus Christ, when God accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as the Savior, as the Son of Man, and crowned Him and put Him at His right hand, then the harvest could begin. Then the harvest could begin. The harvest of the first fruits first, just as in the spring. And after Jesus Christ, then you see the disciples going out and people being called. You know, you have all the images of the veil of the temple being torn, you know, split down the middle. And people having access to God's throne, Jesus Christ said you would have the Holy Spirit. All these things that are possible as God would go out and He would call and give to Jesus and have them develop Him in His church, His true church.

The first fruits that have a special place in God's plan as well. Let's go to Revelation 14.

We started in Genesis. Let's conclude in Revelation. Revelation 14, verse 1. At the end of the age, we see the first fruits. We see the first fruits, those who have been in this harvest time that we're in now between the time of Jesus Christ's acceptance by God and the time of His return. Verse 1, it says, See where they were singing it before? They were singing it before the throne, before the four living creatures, before the elders, and no one could learn that song. Except those God had called. Except God, those God opened the minds to. Just like you and I, we can't really understand. The Bible, 1 Corinthians 2, tells us we just can't understand it unless God's Spirit opens that for us. So it is a blessing never to be discounted. Anyone listening, that if God's opened your mind to the truth, don't take it for granted. Use it. Use it and get closer to God and yield yourself to Him and learn what He wants you to learn and become who He wants you to become. These are the ones, verse 4, who were not defiled with women. They weren't defiled. They weren't polluted with women. Often in the Bible, women means other religions, right? They became pure in their religion. They weren't holding on to this idea and this idea. It was all behind them, the true, the truth, as Christ said. Separate my people by truth. Your Word is truth. Believe what's in the Bible, not what you hear on all the airwaves around the world. Believe the Bible and do what the Bible says. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. They are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Sometimes where He leads is very pleasant. Sometimes it can be very difficult in our lives. But we know the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23, He will lead us. He will lead us. And no matter if it's good times where He leads us by quiet, by green pasture or still waters, or whether it's in the valley or the shadow of death, we have faith in Him. And we're comforted and we're still because we know He's there. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They don't get frightened. They don't leave the path. They don't go off their own way. They are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. Christ was the first of the firstfruits. Then the harvest began. And here at the end of this age, before Christ's return, here's the firstfruits who, down through the ages, have followed. Who God has called, who have followed and have given His life to Him, and become who God wants them to become. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God. Drop down to verse 12. Here's the patience of, we might say, these saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith and the faith of Jesus. Never discount the faith that Jesus had. All the miracles He did, He had faith in God that God would do it. And at the end, He had faith in God that He would resurrect Him from the dead. We go to Revelation 15. You see a beautiful image. 15, verse 1. I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous. Seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over His image, and over His mark, and over the number of His name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. Well, we know who these people are. They're the ones who, through their lives, became first fruits, the first fruits we read about in Revelation 14. The people who ate that bread of Christ, not only during the days of unles Live life the way Jesus Christ did, and have him develop his personality, develop his attitudes, his obedience. All the things that Jesus Christ had, we could enumerate him here for the next hour to develop those in our lives as we are led by his Holy Spirit, which puts Christ's mind in us if we let it. Then we begin to think like him. Then we begin to react like him. Then we begin to like the things that he likes, and we begin to not be so happy with some of the things that we really used to like doing, but now we just don't find them at all pleasing, but rather revolting. Here's this group of people on something like a sea of glass who have had the victory over the beast. They have overcome the world not by their own power, but by the Spirit of God and by yielding to him. And they're standing there on the sea of glass having harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the Saints, who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. That will be a wonderful time too. That'll be a time when God looks at you and me and all the firstfruits and accepts us as the first fruit. He will have resurrected those of us who die between now and then or who have died in the past, who have the faith in God that, yes, he certainly is going to resurrect us, or who will be changed if we happen to still be alive at this time. Those who keep the commandments of God, those who follow the example of Jesus Christ, who live by his Holy Spirit, and who have the faith of Jesus, they're the firstfruits. God will accept us for whatever role he has in mind for the firstfruits for the rest of eternity. We have faith in him of whatever it is that he has to do. As we continue through the days of unleavened bread, let's glorify Christ as we talked about. Let's be mindful of what our calling is. Let's be mindful of how important it is to eat that bread of life. Let's be very grateful that Jesus Christ lived his life the way he did and on this Sabbath, in the days of unleavened bread, this notable Sabbath, he was resurrected at the end of it and accepted by God the next day. And let's look forward to the time and live our lives that we may be accepted by God as firstfruits.