Expanding Our Appreciation for Passover

I was listening to this special music and thinking it was very appropriate for where I am going. Day before yesterday, we finished observing the most sober day of our entire year. We only have two sobering events in the year, Atonement and Passover, but the most sober of those is Passover itself. Now we've entered a time of reflection. The days of Unleavened Bread really are a reflective period. I expect, like every other congregation in the United States and around the world, that you have probably been prepped for the days of Unleavened Bread well in advance of their arrival, whether through sermonettes or through sermons.

You have been given a refresher on the Old and New Testament writers and their admonitions and exhortations regarding the days of Unleavened Bread. So, where to from here? I was thinking before coming down that this area, and we're of course on the north end of it, but this area represents the oldest church area in our modern Church of God history, going back to the 1930s. We're moving toward a hundred years since the beginning and the founding of things here in the, we'll just call it the Greater Willamette Valley area.

Every aspect of these days, you have known, speaking now to the older ones, we have a delightful number of newer ones that are in the process of learning now as children and teens. But for those of you who are seasoned, as Mr. Light was saying before, ordaining Mr. Kensula the 40 years, and in this room are probably people who have been celebrating these days of Unleavened Bread for more than 70 years. I fully expect that if we did the old show of hands, that there would be hands raised within this building right now, of people who have kept the days of Unleavened Bread for longer than 70 years.

You know every single one of the Exodus stories and lessons backward and forward. You know what leaven is inside and outside most of the time.

My wife and I, because Garbage Day didn't conveniently fall this year in alignment with the start of the days of Unleavened Bread, basically got all of the heavy stuff out a week early so that we could just have a little waste bag to take care of the remainder. Both very satisfied that everything was done. And I was online looking at something related to the Spring Holy Days and got a blog site.

And I'm looking at the blog site and the person was making the point that we look at the great grand things, but it's a whole lot more difficult to get the cheerio out of the sofa cushion. And I stopped a minute and I said, cheerio. I have gluten intolerant grandchild. Only person in the family that eats cheerios. Lives in Texas, so we only see them once every year or so.

And so there's a two or three year old box of cheerios in the cupboard that I've never eaten any of it. And I thought, you know, I better go look at that box. And a big bold print baking soda on the ingredients. Hence my comment, you know what leavening is most of the time. I looked at my wife and I said, Houston, we have a problem. We got a box of cheerios to jettison.

And she said, really? And I said, read the box. You understand all the spiritual applications. The sermonette did the physical spiritual comparisons this morning. I fully expect, though I don't know what's on your agenda day after tomorrow when the weekly Sabbath takes place, but I fully expect that they will be meet and do season messages. You've all removed leavening from your homes. You've examined your lives for spiritual leaven. You know the scriptures that a minister is going to turn to this time of year before he ever gets there.

I was listening to the sermonette and I said, okay, 1 Corinthians coming up. Chapter 5, we're going to end up in verse 6, sooner or later. You have seen it, heard it, lived it all for decades. Where to now? You know, as many years as I have kept these days, my hope each year is that God will expand my understanding and thereby deepen my appreciation for the meaning of this whole period of time.

Everything from Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, night to be much observed in between. When you stop and reflect as you move into the Holy Day season, this being the first this year, our appreciation for anything God does is expanded to the degree that our understanding grows. Otherwise, it's same old, same old. I've heard it before. I already know it.

I can recite it and recite it before the minister ever says, would you please turn there? You know, there's a famous citation in Job 42, verse 5, and you don't need to turn there. This is something that most of you know. Where Job, after he had been grilled by God, where God said to him, Job, sit down, shut up, and listen. And God then spoke without taking a breath for about three chapters, saying, where were you?

Who are you? What have you done? What do you know? And when he got through in Job 42.5, Job said, quote, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.

At that point in time, Job had an appreciation for things about God at a level that he had never had prior to that point in time.

And so my intent on this first Holy Day is to see if we can expand our appreciation for this season by surveying a journey. This is the journey that God, and we understand in Old Testament times, that we speak of Christ in an Old Testament setting, whether he was known as the Word, or I would use Christ throughout, even though we don't see that appear until his appearance on earth. But God and Christ were part of a journey, a journey that they had to take to bring us to this place in our lives, to this place where we're here, we're committed, we're involved. Annually, we examine, and we have a destination in mind, and it is unwavering. They took a journey to get us to this place where we are. You know, journeys have something in common. You take a family vacation, you plan for the Feast of Tabernacles if you're going to do a distance. First thing you do, if it's a road trip, is you want to sit down and look at a map of the whole thing. You want laid out in front of you everything from where you start to where you end up, so that you can see the whole of the journey. You'll fill in the motels to stay in, the eateries to eat in, the gas stations to fuel up, and the sights that you want to see along the way. You'll do that later. But first of all, you want to see, I'm here, I'm going there, I want to look at the whole picture. If it's a major trip, something that you have planned as a huge event, a major event, you'll probably be involved in all of this for weeks, months, sometimes maybe even years in advance. My wife was born in Los Angeles, grew up in Texas, and had never been anywhere until we married, except in a line between the two. We extended the line from Michigan to Alabama. And I told her as we were spending those years together, I said, one day I want to take you on a vacation so that you can see the most beautiful individual peaks in the United States. I said, there are beautiful mountains in multiple places in the U.S., but individual peaks, those volcanic peaks that stand out singularly, they're only in one place. And I'd repeat that to her during the seven or eight years we were in Alabama, during the ten years in Ohio, during the six years in Indiana. And we laugh at each other once in a while because we've been on that vacation now for 32 years, where I've taken her to see the peaks. Get up in the morning, leave the house, and there's St. Helens. Drive a little further, there's Hood. And we remind each other that we plan that long, long, long in advance.

God shares with us His planning for the journey to Passover. You know, the days of Unleavened Bread are nothing more than an extension of Passover, where, as I said to begin, we have the opportunity for self-reflection. It keys off the Passover. Without the Passover, the days of Unleavened Bread are meaningless and useless. So they key off of Passover. God has shared with us His planning for the journey to Passover in a number of places. In fact, if you remember, if a verse comes to mind and you think about it, and then you stop, and if you do a little searching, you can reach that place where you say, I didn't realize how many times that was repeated. So the question, first of all, let's focus on time. How long have God and Christ been planning for the Passover and the following events? Turn with me to begin with 1 Peter 1. So the focus for right now is simply on how long? In 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 17, Peter says, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by traditions from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. He, indeed, that is, He for a certainty, without variation, without...what's another option? He, indeed, was foreordained before the foundation of the world.

God has been planning for you to be sitting here today from before the foundation of the world.

How long ago is that? I thought out of curiosity I'd take a look and see what science's latest guess is on the age of the universe, and it was in the 13-billion-year range. Francis Christ and I have been sitting and planning. We've been mapping out. We have been charting. What we intend to do, how we intend to do it, who's going to be involved in taking...being the sacrifice, what the destination is. We've been working on this before the foundation of the world.

Paul understood the same thing. Back in 1 Timothy, the Apostle Paul speaking to a younger minister in 1 Timothy 1.

I said 1 Timothy, and I think we need to turn to 2 Timothy.

2 Timothy 1. Chapter 1. And verse 8, You know you stop at places like this, and you try to wrap your mind around the impossible. We are time-bound creatures. Everything we do, everything we know, everything we think is time-bound. And God says, okay, to you time-bound creatures that don't have the capacity to think outside of that box, Christ and I were looking at a plan that would require Him to come and die for your sins so that we could reach the ultimate goal that we were planning, and that is, we want a family. We want an extended family. And we've been doing this before there was anything to measure time with. Well, that obviously means there's nothing galactic, there's nothing universal. There are none of the bodies that have a pattern and a cycle by which you can measure time. He says, we've been doing this before time began. Titus 1. Interesting books we've been in for a different reason earlier today, but now in them for another reason. Titus 1. This is Paul's introduction. He said, Paul a servant, verse 1, Titus 1, Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which is according to godliness. In hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before time began. He said, you know what, as they talk to one another, probably in the same spirit as we see in Genesis where it talks about them carrying on a conversation, let us make man in our image. After the sun in the garden, we need to have a conversation and change things about their eligibility to stay in the garden. Oh, here was an earlier, way, way, way earlier conversation. We want family members who are like us, eternal, never die, go on forever. When did they start planning that? Before time began. Romans 16. All of us are phenomenally curious. And God has been around for so long, he probably smiles, an understanding smile that says, I know how you are, but wait your turn. Wait your turn. So in Romans 16, and in verse 25, it says, Now to him who was able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began. He said, you know what? With this Passover, with the events that we commemorated two nights ago, the blinders started coming off. It's always a delightful read of the Passover week and the disciples having that gradual loss of blindness, their incredulity. Christ is dead, back to where we were before. The women saying, the tomb is empty, and they say, oh, come on, quit pulling our leg. No, no, for real. Well, we'll go take a look. Well, it took a week or so. In fact, it took over a week. Last one in line was Thomas. If I can stick my finger in your side, I can see it. You know what? You are the living Son of God. Christ said, you know, Thomas, I'm glad you're there. I wish you could have gotten there without having to stick your finger in a wound.

But I'm glad you're there. The blinders started coming off the week following Passover. God said, I don't need to tell Adam. I don't need to tell Noah. I don't need to tell Abraham. I don't really need to tell Moses, or Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel. I'll talk to them about some things. They will be aware of some things. But I'm not obliged to have to fill them in on what you know. Back to 1 Peter once more. Just a little earlier than where we were reading previously.

1 Peter 1 and verse 10. Speaking of what we celebrate as a result of taking the bread and the wine. What we celebrate now as we, you know, what are we doing now? All we're doing is saying what you did two nights ago obliges me in terms of my passion, my desire, and my commitment to now reflect upon how I'm supposed to live as a result. As a result of what you did that evening. And that puts us on a road to salvation. Now, of this salvation, verse 10, the prophets have inquired, and they searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of God who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories it would follow. You know, you have that famous place in the book of Daniel where the angel says, Daniel, go your way. Early, it said, Daniel, God has a great love for you. One of the angels said, He sent me personally to you to let you know how much you are loved. But at this point in time, He simply said, Daniel, shut the book. I've revealed to you things that are phenomenal. I have boggled the minds of kings at what I have revealed to you. But of this, it's not your time. Shut the book. Leave it be. It's for somebody else later on. Now, what was revealed to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the 12 was to them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us. They were ministering. The things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into.

You ever had a five-yard bucket full of clear water in a farmyard, something in the bottom, and you couldn't figure out what it was? What's your posture? I have to step away from the microphone. Here's your posture. That was the word that we just read. Things which angels desired to look into. It is a stooping down and a staring into something, trying to figure it out. And God said to the angels, I don't have to explain to you either. You wait. You're going to really enjoy the end result, but you're going to have to bide your time. Brethren, these scriptures give a sense of where Christ's mind was Passover evening. That evening had been planned ages ago. If it was before time began, if it was before the creation of material things and science is in the ballpark, we're talking, you know, we make Carl Sagan look weak. Billions and billions of years ago, Christ and the Father were sitting down, mapping out this trip.

That evening was the completion of the most important leg of the entire journey. Now, the destination is eternal life for all of us, but the destination is absolutely worthless without the completion of that leg. And so everything hinged. Everything hinged on that day.

So they planned the whole scenario. They planned the destination. They planned the routing. They planned what would take place along the route.

But that night and the following day until three in the afternoon, that made it a reality or nothing but a dream. This is why Christ prayed to the Father, Passover evening, the way He did. Every year at Passover service, we read from the book of John, and the reading portion, which ends the service, begins in chapter 13, and it ends with chapter 17. And from 13 through 16, Jesus Christ is dialoguing with His disciples. In chapter 17, He is allowing them the privilege to listen to Him talk to His Father. He's not talking to them. And so as He transitions from talking to them to talking to His Father, this is what He says. Chapter 17, verse 1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may glorify You. As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. Father, the glorifying of me will be when You can say, My Son has given eternal life to a countless number of people who desire it with all their hearts, all their might, and all their soul.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given me to do. You know, that last phrase is a powerful, powerful phrase because it speaks of what's going on in here. When Christ said that, had He finished the work? He didn't finish the work until He said, It is done. And breathed His last breath on the cross. But you know what? This speaks of a commitment. There are times and places that are delight to read from God because He speaks of things that are as if they were. He speaks of things not yet as if they were because it is a commitment that is inviolate. It is a commitment that will not be altered. It is a destination that is not optional. And so Jesus Christ simply said, I have finished the work. He knew when He left that room what was ahead. Arrest, multiple beatings, and crucifixion. This speaks of a state of mind.

There's something important to know about God in Christ, which Christ explained elsewhere, not specifically related to these particular days. But it helps us understand as we sit here doing our part to show our respect to God by having physically done a ritual that He commanded us to do, and then transcending that ritual by saying, okay, all of these things were symbolic. The bread. The donut. The cheerio. Though whatever it happens to be, it's all symbolic. It's symbolic of things inside of me that I don't want there, and He doesn't want there, and we need to purge it. I need to pray to Him to help me purge those things out.

All of this is a part of a plan. In carrying out that particular plan, as I said, I think there's something fundamental that we need to understand about God. Turn with me back to John 5. Now, this is in a completely different context, but it's a statement that needs no context. All of us read the Bible, and there are places in the Bible we realize that a verse is freestanding. It is a part of a context, yes. Does it need the context to give it its strength and its truth? No, it needs no context. It's proverbial. It can stand on its own feet. This is one of those. But I want you to look at it through the lens of what I've given you so far, that Christ and the Father were planning for Him to come to this earth and pay a debt that would open a door so that they could reach the destination by giving to us life eternal. Jesus Christ said to His audience in verse 17 of John 5, But Jesus answered them, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working. The Cambridge Bible for schools and colleges commented on this verse, or, My Father is working even until now, I also am working. From the creation up to this moment, God had been ceaselessly working for man's salvation.

There was only one flaw I see in the Cambridge Bible for schools and college definition, and that is we've already read that He's been ceaselessly working on this since before creation. That's way too limiting. He's been working on this before creation.

God has been working with all His passion and all His might to see us one day look like Him. I love the Scripture that says that we don't know how we're going to look following the blast of the seventh trumpet. But what we do know is we will look like Him. What a beautiful, beautiful statement. If you're asking me to describe what we're going to look like, the author is saying, I can't do it, but I can tell you one thing. We will look just like Christ looks.

Because He understood, as it said in Hebrews, that Christ was not ashamed to call us brothers. That He went through this process so that one day He could look at every single solitary one of you and say, this is one of my younger siblings. And say that with all the heart, with all the pleasure, and all the delight. That's imaginable.

God took great joy in creating an environment. You know, we get to see a little window. The timelessness of all of that, it's beyond our capacity. But God gives us a little window, just a tiny window that we can relish. You ever sit down and read the first chapter of Genesis from the standpoint of God works and Christ works, and how they feel about their work? Every day at the end of the day, God looked at what had been accomplished that day and He says, that's great. I'll use the human analogy because we think as humans. So we could say, well, God got up the next day, say, okay, what's on the docket for the second day? And He got that done. At the end of the day, He sat down and He looked at what He had done. He says, well, that's great. Every single day of the physical recreation of the earth so that man could live here in that environment ended with, this is good.

Now, why would God have to say at the end of each day, it was good? Because He was enjoying His work. And He wanted you to be able to see that He was enjoying His work and enjoy it with Him. At the end of six days, He looked at the whole package before He said, now I'm going to rest from all my work and I'm going to make this a memorial for all of you. Then He didn't say, this is good. He looked at the whole package and He said, this is very good. I can't help but wonder at times when I sit in times of meditation how long God and Christ sat at the drawing boards to map out all the things that make up the physical creation around us. I'm not one of those that lives with the fairy tale philosophy. The fairy princess that waves a wand and Cinderella now has whatever it is. The wizard that does this and waves that and bingo. When it says, I work continuously. In other words, I don't stop working. I don't just say, well, I want that to happen. There it is. He said, I work. I work continuously. I never stop working. And my father, he has been working the whole time since we determined this is where we wanted to go.

I can't even wrap my mind around, but I delight. I enjoy planning. In fact, if I have a project, I enjoy the planning more than the project. I was talking to a neighbor, and he's my age. We were grinning at each other. And I made a comment. He looked at me with that look that says, I know exactly where you are because I'm at the same place. I said, you know, at night when I have a project, I don't lay down, put my head on the pillow and count sheep. I plan. I redraw. I remeasure. I scale it differently. I ask, what ifs? How would this fit? How would that fit? What if I change this? What if I did that? And I said, it's absolutely sheer delight to put my head on the pillow and do that until I drift off and I'm gone. When I look at the creation of God, everything that's out there to be planned, and there's a thousand plus of everything. How many different species of trees? How many flowers? How many? And it's everything is hundreds and thousands.

Did he just say, well, I want, I want, I want 500 varieties of potatoes. Boom. We got 500 varieties of potatoes. He ended that creation week where he made an environment so that those who were destined for salvation would have a proving ground. You know, by the implications of Genesis 1, certain things. I have made a temporary place for you to be. I have made you temporary to be in this place. And I have a mission for you. And all of it's temporary. As the scripture says, there will come a day when it will all fold up like a cloth. The entirety of this universe will simply fold up like an old cloth that's worn out and disappear. Because even science is aware, regardless of how many billions of years they assign to something, that this is all on a ticking clock. And it all will one day wear out. But not God. I want to go back to two of the scriptures that I cited to you as we were focusing purely on time. Because they had an awful lot to say in such a very small space. So I want to go back to 2 Timothy, chapter 1. And since we were focusing at the time, on time, I want to go back to 2 Timothy, chapter 1 and focus on what he was saying about how that time was going to be put to use. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, beginning in verse 8. He said, He said, Now I'm looking at a room full of people who do not doctrinally believe that we are saved. We're not a part of the, I am saved. I'm also a part of a group speaking to a body that says, Every one of us has as our destination, our hope and our goal, the day when we will be saved. But remember earlier when I read to you Christ's statement to his father, I have done the work. And I said to you that God at times speaks of things that are not yet as if they were. He has a destination that nobody's going to stop. Now there may be people who will lose their salvation, and there may be people who, like the workers in the field, sign on and work the last hour of the day and are saved. We'll have all sorts of variations, but God says, I will have children. I will have a family.

And so he says, of what is yet to come, as if it were, who has saved us. Now what is past is, and he called us with a holy calling. What does that mean? Called us with a holy calling? What it means, brethren, is he took every single one of our minds and rewired it through the reading of the Bible with the help of his spirit to see that the way that we were living is not the way we're supposed to be living. And he gave us the ability to see that there was a way of life that we were all to commit to. And that's the calling. One of the consistencies in the book of Acts when the Church of God began is they referred to how we live, and many of us have been living it so long we live it on autopilot, but it was referred to in the book of Acts as, quote, the way. That all of them were like us. They were so committed to the package that they could shorthand describe it. Well, how do you live? I live the way. To an outsider, I say, what do you mean? I live the way. Well, if you tell me you live the way, I know what you're saying. I know that you're here on a holy day when people wonder, what in the world are you doing? Going to church on Thursday.

You're removing your donuts when they say, hand it to me. I'll be glad to have it. You're going off halfway around the world, in some cases, every fall, to go to someplace for eight days, to go to church, of all things. And on and on it goes. What is all of that? It's the way. Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. The way you have chosen to live is a godly way. It's godly because God says, that's the way I want you to live. That makes it a holy calling. And that calling had nothing to do with our qualifications. It's not according to our works. We sing the song, Not Many Wisemen Now Are Called, Not Many Noble Brethren, Not Many Mighty Ones. It's very true. Not according to our works. We're called because of His purpose. So it's not about me, and it's not about you. It's about Him. He called us for His purpose. And He extended to us a forgiveness according to His purpose and grace. Now He extended us forgiveness because it was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. He said, let's discuss how this is going to be possible. If we are giving Him a chance to build character, character allows for mistakes. Sinlessness allows for no mistakes. How do we deal with it? We have to have a sinless sacrifice that is greater in value than the composite value of all of them and all their sins. In order for this to move forward, they mapped out every single solitary aspect of where they were going.

Gave us a clean slate by means of Christ's sacrifice. Built into the plan. Had to build into the plan if He was going to give man free choice.

They'd already seen Satan and a third of the angels, what they did with choice. They knew the options. If they are going to give us the same option, there's got to be a parachute. Got to be a safety door. That door was Jesus Christ. When He said to Psalm, I am the door, He meant I am the door. You don't get in except through me. I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. As we saw, it was all veiled in Old Testament times. The coming of Passover and the period of time. The period of time between Jesus Christ's resurrection and His being the wave sheaf to go to heaven and Pentecost. The disciples learned more in that 40-day period than they had learned in 3.5 years of walking with Christ day in and day out. They were ready for Pentecost.

1 Peter 1 is the other place that I mentioned to you. But I don't know that we necessarily need to go that particular location because Peter is going to say to us essentially the same things that Paul said to us. If we went back to 1 Peter 1 verses 17-20, he's repeating. You can note it and you can look at it. He's repeating Paul's sentiment. His sentiment that this calling has to be treated with the deepest of respect. He added one component and that was the value of the gift that Christ gave us. That it was worth more than gold and silver. How do you compare all the gold and silver in the world to the one who created all the gold and silver in the world?

If you gave me a billion dollars, if you gave me a billion dollars, and you said here, this is yours. And on the other hand, I have the printing plate for $100 bills and I've checked with the US Treasury and they will allow you to print all you want. Which hand are you going to take something from? You can keep your crummy billion dollars. I've got the printing plate and permission to use it.

Peter said we weren't redeemed with silver and gold. What's silver and gold compared to the life of the one who created all the silver and gold?

Every aspect of all this was extremely important to Christ and the Father. Christ co-opted the plan. He agreed to be the sacrifice despite the cost. Christ's Passover evening and the next day was as conflicted as a human could possibly be.

I don't think there's any of us that can even come close to feeling the level of conflictedness that Jesus Christ experienced in that last 24-hour period. If you turn with me to Matthew chapter 26.

The Passover is over. Judas has left. The hymn has been sung. And the group depart to the Garden of Gethsemane. The twelve are tired. They're all ready to go to sleep. Christ picks Peter and John, and asks of them that they would come along and be within earshot of him. Just the fact that he knew that they were just over there was a comfort at a time where he was contemplating what was ahead. And they were as useless as the rest. And that moment in time is described beginning in Matthew 26 verse 36. Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray over there. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, so he had three, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Brethren, those words can't even come close to describing where he was, as we will see. 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, O my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Don't make me go through tonight and tomorrow.

And without pausing, he said, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.

And he came to the disciples and found them asleep and 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. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done. You know, he didn't say it the same way, but the message was the same. I don't want to be here. I know what's ahead. I fully expect because it was the mode and it was common, I expect that Jesus Christ had witnessed multiple crucifixions. They were public. They were done to miscreants. They were done in a public place. People could walk by them. They could see the days of suffering that they suffered. He was not a stranger to it. It wasn't like, Oh, I've never seen this before. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And so he left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Jesus Christ wanted with all his might not to go through what he went through. I said to you, this was the most conflicted possible position he could be in. That day he could see the worst. But you know what was interesting? He could see both the worst and the best coming down exactly the same road toward him. And realized that he had to go through the worst in order to get to the best. There is an absolutely beautiful scripture in Hebrews 12.

And I think it captures the other side of the coin. But it also allows us to still see and feel this side of the coin. The side where he said, Father, if there is any way in the world that you can take this away from me, please don't make me go through it.

The other side of that coin is described in the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews. Where it says in verse 1, He could put his name to the plan. I am the author of what I'm experiencing.

And I'm also the one that will finish it. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. He looked through that evening. He looked through the next day. He looked at what before time began, he and his father had mapped out, that I will have brethren. I will have those that I will not be ashamed to call my brothers. I have those who they don't know what they're going to look like, but I have let them know that when they do change, they will look like me. And I can see that. And though there's absolutely none of what I'm going to have to live through, I want to live through. I can see the destination. And, Father, I will submit. I will endure this for the joy that I can see beyond it. Brethren, this is the whole picture. You know, it didn't start with Adam and Eve. We look at that place as a start for human sin. The focus of these days didn't begin with Moses and the burning bush, and the eventual departure from Egypt after it had been decimated. This has been God's prime desire and goal since before time began. It was Passover Day that Christ's submission to this plan, that plan of adding sons to the family of God, it was that day that it moved from a dream to a reality. It moved from a plan to a concrete event yet ahead. These seven days, which began last night, are simply our part in recognizing the payment Christ made for our sins by spending these seven days observing the rituals that God has set in place and telling God, by our conduct, by our actions, and by observance, God, I get it, and I'm committed all the way.