Are We Observing Passover Correctly?

Beautiful job. Appreciate the talent of our young adults and what they add. They add so much to the church, and we really, really do appreciate you. A lot. Quite a lot. You know, brethren, one of the greatest blessings I think we have as God's people is the understanding of the Holy Days. We can't underestimate the value of our understanding of God's Holy Days. And, of course, the Holy Days are a primary teaching of the church.

Many years ago, now, going back about 1995 and before that time, we remember had to battle against those who wanted to do away with the Holy Days. And so we were challenged to preserve this important and precious truth of God's annual Holy Days that are found, of course, in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23. And, brethren, there will always be a need, always be a need, to make sure that we teach, meet, and do season when these Holy Days roll around so that we can reaffirm our beliefs year by year as God's people, that we never forget these important things that reveal, in fact, the plan of salvation.

It gives us a framework to understand, in fact, the whole Bible. One cannot understand the Bible, in fact, without God's Holy Days. And it gives us also a broader perspective of what the Sabbath is about, what this day is about that we're gathered here. That we understand that the Sabbath itself pictures a major epoch in time that is going to come ahead, and that is the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. You know, I think we all understand that God's people, I'm talking about God's true people, will not likely be tricked by the holidays of this world, such as Easter and Christmas, because they are so blatantly pagan.

I mean, all you've got to do is do a little research, you know, go into an encyclopedia, even go to Wikipedia and find out the origins of some of these holidays of man, and they are blatantly pagan. And I don't believe that, for the most part, those who are the true people of God are going to stumble over these kinds of things. But, you know, we look back to the book of Genesis, and it does say back there that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.

You know, Satan's a lot more subtle than that. He's not going to entice us by, you know, something that is subtle, or that is something that is blatant, that is really pagan. He's not going to do that, but he will come at us in a way that is subtle. You know, we can be confused by some who proclaim their own ideas about what we should believe, from what the Bible says.

For example, let me give you an example of what I'm talking about, how Satan sometimes can make inroads into the church that we have to always be on our guard to be careful about. And that is, you look in the Bible and you see the term Lord's Supper. Whether we should observe the Lord's Supper, or whether we should observe the Passover. Well, these are the things that people are confused about.

And there are many churches today that observe what they call the Lord's Supper. Of course, there are many churches that also observe that Lord's Supper every Sunday. There are respective churches. Some do it on a quarterly basis. Some, I'm sure, do it on a yearly or annual basis. So, people will be confused about whether we should observe the Lord's Supper or the Passover. They'll be confused about how often we should do these things as well. People will be confused about whether we should observe it on the 14th or whether we should observe it on the 15th.

These things, over the years, have confused a lot of people. And as a result of it, some people's very spiritual life has been shipwrecked because they have been confused. And remember that God is not the author of confusion, but Satan is. He is the one that wants to confuse us, like he wanted to confuse the first two parents, Adam and Eve. He introduced confusion into mankind from the very beginning.

That's how he got it. Adam and Eve. He confused them. Of course, the Bible says that Adam was not deceived, but Eve was deceived in that case. But he used other means to deceive Adam, by the way. And he got to Adam for a woman. In this particular case, the only woman who was on the face of the earth. And that was Eve. But you see how Satan works? He's subtle. Very subtle. So, brother, I want to talk about with you today, discuss with you today, is are we observing the Passover correctly in the Church? And we're going to prove when we are to observe the Passover.

We're going to talk about why we are to observe the Passover, and how we are to observe the Passover in the course of this message today. Well, brother, when is the Passover to be kept? Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 11 over here and answer some of these questions for us. But in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 19, notice what Paul says here. If you ever wonder why it is that in the Church sometimes we do have things that happen where people become confused, and even in some cases deceive by those that rise up and lead others astray.

But notice here, verse 19, this is for there must also be factions among you, apparently there were in the early Church that those who are approved may be recognized among you. In other words, those that are solid, spiritually speaking, you recognize who they are. Who are the people of God, and who are not the people of God. So sometimes we do see sometimes where God allows these things to happen to find out really who is with the program, and who is not.

Who is approved of God, and who is not. Verse 20, it says, Now, brethren, I want you to note that right now. It's good to underline that in your Bible. For any Church that then comes along and says, It is to eat the Lord's Supper. That should be a big red flag to you and me. So it says, the opposite. And by the way, they will say the opposite. I promise you that they will say the opposite.

The Lord's Supper, by the way, was a meal, an actual meal that took place the evening in which Jesus Christ was taken and arrested. You know, like, in fact, was practiced in ancient Israel. And notice it was certainly a meal, because going on here, let's notice, For in eating, here the brethren in Corinth, each one takes his own Supper, ahead of others. And one is hungry, and the other is drunk. This was going on back in the first century of the Church. Amazing! And it says, What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. And so here Paul clearly says, I don't praise you in this, because it's wrong what you're doing. Because we don't come together to eat a meal. We do not come to eat a Supper, the Lord's Supper. You know, you can stay home and do that. Paul could have just as well told him, and he did really here. Tell him that. But notice, going on here, he says, For I receive from the Lord, Paul received this directly from Jesus Christ. You know, probably when he was in Arabia. Remember, he'd been taught there probably for three years by Jesus Christ Himself. I received this from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take heed, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So we are to do what Christ commanded us in remembrance of him. In the same manner, he took the cup after supper. So he says, after supper here, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. So the timing of this particular Passover that Christ instituted for the church was the same night in which Jesus Christ was betrayed here.

And of course, how often it should occur is once a year. How many times did Jesus Christ die? One time, right? A memorial is one time, right? You don't memorialize somebody's death, you know, 50 times in a year. You do it on the day of their death. Isn't that correct? Correct? You don't memorialize it. So only in America, by the way, do we immortalize presidents on the long day. Not the day when they die. They choose another day for that. But the day that Jesus Christ died, we are to remember or memorialize it. And that we do within the church. And that's once a year, by the way, at a given time. But again, the timing of the Passover is a night in which Jesus Christ was betrayed. Let's go to Luke 22. Luke 22, verse 14.

Here, in this Gospel account, Luke the physician writes this in chapter 22 here, where we enter in talking about the Passover and so forth. But here, in verse 14, it says, So Christ waited to a specific time. Here, clearly. When the hour had come, He sat down in the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. So Christ is not participating in this until the kingdom of God. Then He took the cup and He gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. He took the bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you. And it says, But behold, the hand of my betrayer is with me on the table. And it says that truly the Son of man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed. And so clearly, Christ Himself, brethren, set the time of the Passover, the New Testament Passover, I think we would call it. And what was the timing of this? What particular day was this, by the way? It was the 14th of Nicin. This is the time that Christ set it, the 14th of Nicin. And He said, I desire to eat this also before I suffer. So Passover, brethren, is not just about the death of the Lamb of God, but is also about the suffering that He experienced. And by the way, that evening, the suffering for Jesus Christ was going to begin. And we are remembering His suffering and His sacrifice through what He suffered and His death, brethren. And all of it occurred, by the way, on the 14th of Nicin, or the 14th of Abib, as it's called also. And, brethren, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever. But this one issue of when the Passover should be observed, the New Testament times, brethren, has confused many people through the years. But again, let's get that clearly in our mind. Jesus Christ set the time, and it was the night, the same night, in which He was betrayed. That is the 14th of Nicin. Now, Jesus Christ Himself, the Lamb of God, is our Passover. He is our Passover. And all that occurred in Egypt, by the way, to ancient Israel, was a type, and it led up to the Passover, and that is Jesus Christ. It all pictured Jesus Christ. So, brethren, when we take the bread and the wine that represents Jesus Christ, His entire sacrifices that He made that evening, the suffering that went through, and the death, of course, that He came to as well, that we are to remember and that we are to commemorate. Let's go to Matthew 26. Matthew 26 over here. In Matthew chapter 26 over here, Matthew, in his Gospel account, of course, giving his point of reference, logistically, He saw things differently than Luke would have, but it's all the same story, different aspects of the same story, and it all coincides, it all fits together into one cohesive story. Matthew 26, verse 36 over here.

Now, by the way, they went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and this is where they prayed. I've been there, by the way, to this place in Jerusalem. My wife and I were there in 1973. But He came to this garden, and He said, you know, Christ felt He needed to pray. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. And then He said to them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me. And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will. If it's possible, Father. And then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and He said to Peter, What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray. Lest You enter into temptation, the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So here they were seeing Jesus Christ with their own eyeballs, brethren. He was right there. And, you know, watching what was going on, the most momentous things in the entire world on this planet earth going on right there, and they fell asleep. No wonder Christ said, Those that endure the end, the same are going to be saved. How hard is it for people to endure to the end? Well, they couldn't even stay awake, could they? And again, the second time, He went away and prayed, saying, Oh, my Father, if this cup cannot pass from Me, unless I drink it, You will be done.

And, of course, He always found them sleeping when He came back. And basically, the third time when He came back, He said, Are you still sleeping? Verse 45 here, Behold, the hour is at hand. It's time now. And the Son of Man is being betrayed in the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. So Christ had that resolved. He knew it was going to happen. In His prayer, He came to realize, Well, yeah, this is going to have to happen.

It's going to have to occur. And these were agonizing. Can you imagine, brethren, how much anxiety Christ was going through here? How difficult it was for Him? No, Scriptures, of course, talk about how He swept. And the Catholicaries in His head burst. You know, it doesn't say that specifically that way, but the blood came down and He swept as it were. In another account, great drops of blood.

That's how much anxiety Jesus Christ was going through. And by the way, this is the 14th, the night of the 14th. This is after the emblems have been instituted. This is when these things have occurred. And that night, the Romans and the Jews were going to increase His anguish and His anxiety even more than any of us can really imagine.

What did you think about this fact, brethren? In the Old Testament times, there really wasn't a symbol which specifically pictured the sufferings of Jesus Christ. You know, the Lamb, of course, we know, was a gentle lamb showing that Christ would be like a lamb to the slaughter. It would be slaughtered, you know, this innocent lamb. But there was nothing specifically that pictured the suffering that Jesus Christ would go through. The anxiety, almost the torment that Jesus Christ would go through and the other things that He would experience before He died. But Christ Himself, brethren, set as symbols the unleavened bread which was to be broken as a type of the suffering that Jesus Christ was going to go through.

And the breaking of the bread, brethren, pictured His bones and His flesh being stricken by the metal and the bone shards of that cat of nine tails that flailed against His body that night, against His physical frame. And you could imagine, brethren, these bone and metal fragments, and they were very sharp, would tear into Christ. And the strands, the leather strands, would wrap around His body, and the metal shards would dig in and go clear to the bone.

His bones were exposed. Imagine the sound of that, of flesh being torn, of bones being jarred, as each time He was lashed by that cat of nine tails, brethren, it tore in His body. So Christ set that unleavened bread as a symbol of that and all the suffering He would go through that night. And so, brethren, when you hear the ministry stand up here during the Passover, and you hear us break the bread, the breaking of the bread, not just breaking bread, brethren, but symbolically, it is like the body of Christ being broken in many places for us.

Of course, not a bone of His was broken, but, nonetheless, He was beaten unmercibly and went through in terrible, terrible circumstance. In Isaiah 53, let's go over to Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53 and down in verse 4, we'll just read a couple of verses here. But it says, Why did He go through that? Did He deserve to go through what He went through?

Absolutely not. No, He carried our sorrows, brethren, our sins. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, spintened by God, and afflicted. You know, God was punishing Him. Many of the viewers probably would have thought in that day as they watched what was happening to Jesus Christ. But, no, He was suffering this affliction for them, even. And for those who were repented, their sins could be remitted through the strikes of Christ. It could be healed spiritually and physically. But in verse 5, it says, But He was wounded for our transgressions, our sins.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. So He was chastened so that we could have peace in our lives, brethren, relative peace compared to what He went through. I'm not going to read it, but in Isaiah 52, verse 14, it says, It says, Apparently, more than anyone in history, Jesus Christ suffered. He was treated inhumanely, no question. Worse than any man had ever been treated before. And He was the creator of all mankind. And this happened on when? When did this happen? The 14th. All of it happened on the 14th. Can we see how important the 14th is?

All of this was happening beginning on the 14th. And so we've been correct, brethren, by observing the Passover, the beginning of the 14th when Jesus Christ instituted it. And we've been correct about observing the days of Unleavened Bread from the 15th to the 21st, you know, as we do in the Church, the 15th being a holy day, and the 21st of Nisan being a holy day. You know, we're correct at that. There's no question about it. There's no debate about it. A number of years ago, by the way, down in Phoenix, there were a few people that believed you should observe the Passover at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, by the way. They took it upon themselves to change the Passover. They started keeping it at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. So I know this is an important thing for us to get clearly here in our minds. All of what we're talking about, brethren, happened on the 14th. Christ was in the tomb, by the way, by the 15th, because the Jews measured days from sunset to sunset. So before sunset, Jesus Christ was already in the tomb. Everything happened on the 14th of Nisan, or the 14th of Abib, as it's called, also. You know, think about this, brethren. Also, over here, let's go to Exodus 12, in the Old Testament.

Though the Jews, by the way, got confused about this, and they started killing the lambs at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. In the afternoon, they considered that the evening of the 15th.

This is why the Jews, to this day, they observed the Passover on the 15th, not the 14th. But notice here, it says down here, not against, go through more scriptures than we have to. But in chapter 12, in verse 3, I don't know if I said 14, but chapter 12, in verse 3 here, is to speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month, every man shall take to himself a lamb, according to the house of his father a lamb for a household, and if the household is too small for the lamb, let him, he and his neighbor, next to his house, take it according to the number of people. According to each man's need, you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, because it symbolized Jesus Christ, a male of first year. In verse 6, it says, And you shall keep it up until the 14th. Like I said, the Jews measured days from sunset to sunset. So the 14th began in the evening. As we observe the Passover, by the way, on the 13th, but on the Hebrew calendar, or a sacred calendar, I should say, it is on the 14th. And you observe it the evening before, because sunset, the evening before, is when the day begins. Now you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will kill it at twilight.

And so just after the sun goes down, there's enough light, in other words, there to kill the lamb. So definitely, brethren, the lamb was to be killed the evening of the 14th. And this is when Jesus Christ himself began to suffer, go through the sacrifice that he was to go through as we read about. And this lamb again, and all that occurred, foreshadowed this for Israel, ancient Israel. It foreshadowed Israel's deliverance from bondage of slavery, that they were going to escape out of the grips of the Egyptian bondage, and they would be free. And, of course, that applies to us today. Because for us, when we take of the emblems of the bread, the pictures of the broken body of Christ, and the blood, which is the shed blood of Jesus Christ, unless we do that, we cannot be free from the bondage and the slavery of sin. We cannot be free unless we take those emblems. If we don't take of the emblems of the bread and the wine, brethren, we do not belong to Christ, actually. So that, again, behooves us to belong to Christ. And, obviously, as I mentioned, we need to be baptized. In fact, that's a whole new subject. But one needs to be baptized in order to participate in the Passover. But John 13, let's go over to John 13. We see other events that occurred on the 14th of Nicene, or the Passover. The whole day, by the way, from sunset the evening before to sunset, you know, that evening was the Passover.

And so, even though we only observe the Passover in the evening, actually, the Passover's all day. It's all day long. But here in John 13, let's notice here, down in verse 4, notice it says that Jesus, speaking of Jesus here, Jesus rose from the supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. And after that he poured water in the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel with which he was girded. And then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? And Jesus answered and said to him, Why? He said, What I am doing, you do not understand, but you will know after this. They didn't understand that because, you know, the lowliest servant in the house was the one that washed feet in that time. But Christ was instituting something for his disciples.

And Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Of course, this picture is baptism here, by the way. And it says, And Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Peter was an all-away kind of guy. He may have had the cleanest feet in the house, but he was an all-away kind of guy. And, you know, there's something good in Addison there. And it was good about Peter. And Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you.

For he knew who would betray him. Therefore, he said, You are not all clean. But Christ knew who was going to betray him. Now, in verse 18, He says, I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me. You know, he who has laid his hands on the table, as we read earlier, is going to betray me.

Now, I tell you before it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am he. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I receive receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. And so here, Christ talks about the succession of responsibility to others that he sends, and receiving them. And when Jesus had said these things, he was troubled and spirit-intestified, and said, Most assuredly, I say to one of you, one of you will betray me. Maybe he was reading Judas's body language. I don't know how things can sometimes, you know, can spark. He could certainly read his mind, too. But maybe Judas was even more outward than that Christ was troubled very much by it. And it says, Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke of. And there was, leaned on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. And Simon Peter therefore motioned to him, and asked who it was of whom he spoke. Then, leaning back on Jesus' breast, he said to him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped. Remember, they were at the supper. And what did they do? They dipped it into a sauce of herbs. This was something, of course, the Jews did, you know, in keeping the Passover. And so he dipped the bread, and he gave it to Judas Ascarid. And after this, Satan enters into him, and then Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly. Of course, nobody knew, in fact, what was going on. Of course, Judas was the treasurer, as we understand. But it says, in verse 30, and having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately, and it was night. Again, it was night here, the night, you know, of the 14th.

Again, the topic we're covering and showing that it was the 14th. So here we see Christ on the 14th Institute of the Footwash. And of course, we do that every year in conjunction with a Passover, you know, each year as God's people. Now, after Judas departed, then was when Jesus Christ gave the emblems of the Passover. No, Christ did not stop the bread and the wine, by the way. He stopped it in the sauce, it was on the table. And he gave it to Judas, and Judas left immediately. I won't go to Luke 22 and verse 19-20, but Christ gave then the symbols of the bread and the wine.

So Judas wasn't there to participate in eating the bread and the wine. Christ, on the other hand, did wash Judas's feet in this particular case. Didn't happen vice versa. Of course, it didn't happen for any of the apostles for that matter. They didn't wash one another's feet that night. Christ washed their feet.

And he's been washing, brethren, our feet ever since, hasn't he? He's been washing after us. Chapter 14. Again, we're talking about the 14th. The foot washing's given. Then we have the emblems that are given on the 14th.

Chapter 14 over here, in verse 5, And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. Christ talked about departing. How can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Here, and of course, we'll go through this during the evening of the Passover and discuss it. But Christ in this chapter reveals what our relationship can be with the Father in Heaven, which he came to reveal, by the way.

Christ came to reveal the Father to this world. And he was introducing the disciples to the Father and telling them how to have a relationship with the Father. And how was that to be? It would be through Jesus Christ that they would have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Christ would be the mediator, and he's yet the mediator, sitting at the right hand of the Father up in Heaven.

And he was there to hear our prayers, to intervene on our behalf as our... He intervenes to convey to the Father those things that he has knowledge of since he experienced his physical life. And the Father has not gone through what he went through. And so he taught his disciples not only the relationship that they could have with the Father and with Christ himself, but with one another.

That they were to love one another. In fact, teaching them to wash feet was to show them how they were willing, how much they should be willing to go to what extent they should be willing to love one another, and to show that love for each other. Now, over in chapter 17, we notice over here that Jesus Christ shows the importance again of the relationship that we have with not only him, but the Father in Heaven.

In verse 3 of John chapter 17, it says, And this is eternal life, that we may know you, the only true God, that is the Father in Heaven, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And Christ says, I glorified you on the earth. I finished the work which you've given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

Christ was going to ascend once again to the right hand of his Father. Now, in verse 20, it says, I do not pray for these alone, for these disciples. Oh, no, it's more than that, Christ said, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one as you, Father, and are you, you, Father, are in me.

And I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you have sent me, and the glory which you gave me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one. To be one with God, to be one with the Father. And, of course, ultimately it means, brethren, that one day we're going to be a part of God's family. We'll be one with God's family.

The Church is, of course, to marry Christ. So, you know, where does the wife sit, by the way? Usually next to her husband. You know, and, of course, that will be the Church of God. We'll have responsibilities, you know, as a collective group, sitting, you know, at Christ's right hand, as he sits at his Father's right hand.

However God wants us to be used. And, of course, I'm sure there'll be a symbolic thing of that. But that is something, of course, we don't have revelation of. But, you know, after Christ, remember, had gone through all the things that he experienced. He faced, you know, there in the Garden of Eden.

He prayed in the Garden very intensively. Then after that, Judas comes along. Let's go back to Matthew 26. Matthew 26, over here. In Matthew 26, in this account, Matthew, down here in verse 46, he says, "'Rise, let us be goings, he my betrayer is at hand.' And while he was speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, with a great multitude of swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

And now his betrayer had given them a signal, "'Whoever I kiss, he is the one, sees him, or arrests him.' And immediately went up to Jesus and said, "'Greetings, Rabbi,' and kissed him." And so then, of course, Christ is arrested. You know, the time came, too, where Peter lopped off the ear of the servant, the high priest, and all of that occurred that evening, and Christ set to put up the sword, that was to live by the sword, or to die by the sword. Christ was ferried off, and he was arrested that evening.

And then he goes, and he faces the high priest, and he faces the Sanhedrin, which was a body of seven, seventy of the leading Jewish rabbis of Judah, of Israel. And in the occasion, by the way, where he's brought before the Sanhedrin, over here in verse 57 of chapter 26, and it says, "'And those who had laid hands, laid hold on him, led him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and elders were stoned.' This is the Sanhedrin, by the way.

And they asked Christ a question, and down here in verse 64, the question was, tell us if you are Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said, it is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. And the high priest tore his clothes, and everybody was so angry, they rushed at Christ, and they were slapping him with the palms of their hands, and they were spitting in his face that evening, on the 14th. Is when that occurred, rather than when that occurred and happened." The Bible, again, makes it very clear. Chapter 27. Then he faces Pilate.

And Christ, by the way, when he was before Pilate, he was accused, and so forth, he didn't say a solitary word. Didn't say anything. He knew that it didn't matter what he said. It really didn't matter what he had to say. It was going to happen, no matter what, anyway. Christ was led away, we know as the Lamb of the Slaughter. Is it Revelation 13.8?

He was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It was a fate of complete from the very beginning. In John 19 and verse 1, it says he was scourged. We have no idea what that means to be scourged, do we? It was not being spanked by your parents. But as I mentioned earlier, the Cat of Nine Tales, which was a vicious machine in the hand of a tormentor, in the hand of a Roman tormentor trained to inflict pain and suffering.

Remember again, the glass and the bone and the metal on the end of that, each of the strands, those nine strands, it was built again to wrap around and to then be pulled by the tormentor. In Matthew, Mark, I'm sorry, Mark chapter 15. Let's go to Mark chapter 15. You can read all the corollary accounts and show what I mentioned is true.

But Mark 15, I think we should cover a few of them. But in chapter 15 verse 16, It says, Then the soldiers led him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison, and they clothed him with purple, and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and began to salute him, Hail, king of the Jews! And then they struck him on the head with a reed and spat on it, and bowing the knee, they worshipped him.

And when they had mocked him, they took the purple off of him, put his own clothes on, and led him out to crucify him. And so they took him out to crucify him. And so he was beaten, he was mocked. In John 19-18, it records that Jesus Christ was hung on a stake. He was crucified between two criminals. And these men were really criminals. Christ, of course, committed no crime whatsoever. In fact, nobody could even be found that could accuse him, except the false witness.

And it was after this, after Christ had hung on the stake for a while, and his energy began to ebb out of him more and more. Remember, it lost a lot of blood through the scourging. It'd been up all night, hadn't slept all night long. No doubt it was very, very exhausted. And that prophecy would not go unfulfilled. A Roman soldier rammed a spear into the sight of Jesus Christ, and the blood and the fluid gushed out of him, and he bled to death. It all again happened on the 14th of Dyson.

And by three o'clock is when it occurred. He was dead by three o'clock. Matthew 27. Let's go to Matthew 27 and go back over here to the account we were reading. Matthew 27. Down to verse 45. Let's notice here. Matthew 27, verse 45. It says, Now for the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness all over the land. So there was a pitch blackness over the land.

It was unmistakable. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? As we said before, brethren, Christ was all alone on that stake. It's like the Father Himself had to turn His back on His own Son because He could not bear to see what was going on. And some of those that stood by when they heard that said, The man is calling for Elijah. Amelia, one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed and offered it to Him to drink.

The rest said, let Him alone. Let's see if Elijah will come to save Him. He was like a sideshow, wasn't he, for some people there. Just like sometimes the healings were. Now do a healing for us to show us your magic. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two. From top to bottom, the earthquake, so here there was an earthquake that took place.

The rocks were split and the graves were opened. So it was such a powerful earthquake. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the Holy City. And it appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that happened, they feared greatly, saying, truly, this was the Son of God. This was the Son of God.

And so this has all occurred, again, rather than when? On the 14th, brethren. Again, think of all the things that happened. The darkness, the earthquake, the temple curtain being split. Top to bottom, the resurrection of the saints. You know, all these things that happened on the 14th of Nicene. And so, again, very, very clear, isn't it? In verse 57, and this is now, When even it had come, there came a rich man from Aramothia, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

And this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. He had to move very fast, by the way. But I want you to think about the fact, brethren, that three o'clock in the afternoon, how much sunlight do we have, brethren? How much sunlight will we have here in the Bay Area, before the sun goes down, you know, that evening? Well, this year, I think it would be about 742 or 3, somewhere in there.

So you see how much time there was, and he was rushing, and he went and he begged for the body of Christ, and Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in a new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock, and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed.

And so, you know, this is what happened, brethren. And he was placed in the tomb before the sun went down, which would have been, again, the beginning of the 15th. So all of these things, again, happen on the 14th. But let's again be reminded, brethren, that Christ is our Passover. He was sacrificed on the 14th, and it means much more to us, quite frankly, than it could have ever meant to the ancient Israelites, or even to the Jews of Jesus Christ's day.

The 14th means more to us. But what happened? What occurred on that moment this day, nearly 2,000 years ago? He was sacrificed, brethren, and he gave his body and his entire life to take away the sins of the world. He is our sin-bearer, and he puts our sins away from us so that we can live lives of relative peace. And we can't do that for ourselves. We need Christ. Now, one thing I want to mention here, brethren, is each year we tend to emphasize the sins we are to put out during the days of the leavened bread. You ought to put sins out because we put the leavening out.

This is not, of course, entirely incorrect because that's what the days of the leavened bread do picture. But there's something more to that, brethren, that we need to add every year as well. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 5 over here. 1 Corinthians 5. In verse 7, He says, Therefore purge out the old leaven.

And we ought to do that. We ought to be, again, purging out the old leaven, getting the sins out of us as we are to do the physical leavening from our houses as well. That you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. In other words, we've gone through the practice of cleaning the physical leavening out. And we ought to also purge out the old leaven, and that is the repent of sins, and put sins out of our lives.

In other words, when we learn what is right and wrong, we ought to start doing the right and stop doing the wrong. For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Then, verse 8, notice here, it says, Therefore, let us keep the feast. He's talking about here, after the Passover, let us keep the feast of unleavened bread here. Not with old leaven, because we're going to be eating unleavened bread during the feast of unleavened bread.

Nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness. But notice here, brethren, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So, brethren, let's also understand that when we're putting sin out, we need to bring something else in. When we eat the unleavened bread, we are bringing Christ into our lives. And that, brethren, means that we ought to bring in the truth of God into our lives.

We don't live the way Christ lived. Strive to live the way He did, and He lived a flawless life. Not compare each other to one another, because the Bible says that's not wise. You want to compare, compare yourself to Christ. We always come back short, don't we? We're pretty short-handed when we compare ourselves to Christ. So, it's a time of remembering, brethren, that we've been set free from sin, but we are to bring sincerity and truth into our lives.

The correct focus of the days of unleavened bread should be much more on what we put into our lives, and that is we ought to be putting Christ into our lives. That's why we eat unleavened bread all through the days of unleavened bread. So, let's put Christ in. Let's overcome sin, certainly. But let's make sure we put Christ in.

Now, the Word of God, brethren, is very clear for modern 21st-century Christians. Paul said the night in which Jesus Christ was betrayed, he instituted the Passover. And Christ told his disciples, with fervent desire, I desire to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the King of God.

And, of course, he instituted the Passover emblems. So, brethren, everything hinges on the New Testament Passover, because it is clearly associated and revolves around Christ's death and Christ's suffering. And all of what Christ suffered and his death, all of it occurred on the 14th day of Nicene or Abib, and not at any other time. It didn't happen any other time. And so, brethren, we can go with confidence to observe the memorial of Christ's death, which we do once a year, again, knowing that we are associating our observance with what he taught, what he instructed, and our understanding, also, brethren, that we're taking in the symbols of his death and his suffering, which he himself established within the Church of God, the Church of Jesus Christ.

So, again, we can have confidence in what we know. We can have confidence in these things, and we can walk in those things and live by them.