Taking Steps Towards Your Resurrection

I'm going to take individual resurrections. A couple of those go back to the prophetic ministry of Elisha. With Elisha, there was the Sunamite son, the widow's son. Three during the ministry of Christ. Of course, we think of Lazarus, a little more written about that.

But there was the daughter of Gerius, ruler of the synagogue. And there also was a son of a widow. And then with Peter, there was the raising of Dorcas, or Tabitha. And then with Paul, Eudecus, who fell out of the third level there. How marvelous those would have been! Most of those you have young people involved. And they had a family just devastated. Their son, their daughter is dead.

And then they were brought back to life. We also know of the story when Christ actually died. The earth shook. The temple veil was torn. And then it says that the graves of some of the saints were opened and they came walking back into town. But we aren't told how many. But those are physical resurrections. And marvelous as they were, and as exciting as they would have been to the families, they pale into insignificance with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And I want to spend some time talking with you about the resurrection today, because we do need to remember that it was during the days of Unleavened Bread that Jesus Christ was brought back, in His case, back to spirit existence with His Father. I remember once upon a time long ago, there were those who criticized our church saying that, you know, we never talk about the resurrection because we don't keep Easter.

If you don't keep Easter, then you don't talk about the resurrection. And yet I could go back and find and pull out old notes where, yes, and I had notes where I'd heard others cover that. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ took place during the days of Unleavened Bread. And I want to focus on that because that event was the fulfillment of something that was a part of the keeping of these days from long ago.

What you're familiar with, you remember hearing of the wave sheaf. Let's turn back to Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23, kind of an unusual and certainly a unique ceremony that took place. And it was on a particular day within the days of Unleavened Bread, I think we rightly understand that it was the Sunday as we use man's names for days today, the Sunday within Unleavened Bread. God speed the day when we'll get away from calling days after the sun god and the moon god and four and all of that. But for now, nothing wrong with using those names. And the wave sheaf was a ceremony, yes.

And the beautiful thing about God's ceremony is that it always teaches. Man has a lot of ceremonies and it's senseless. But every detail as we would go to through Leviticus, the sacrificial ritualistic law that was added, every detail was instructive. Everything they did, burnt offerings, peace offerings, every detail pointed toward the coming of Christ and the sacrifice that He would offer. And the same is true with the wave sheaf. And again, His resurrection was a resurrection to glory.

And He became the first of the first fruits. And you and I are part of the body called the first fruits. And we look forward to tens of billions following along later on. Leviticus 23, we begin, let's just go to verse 9. The earlier verses speak of seven days. You put the leaven out of your home. Seven days of eating un-leavened bread. First day, seventh day, holy convocations. We gather here today on the seventh day. So the final day is an annual Sabbath. Verse 9, and the Lord. And when you see that in your Bible, I believe it's true in all translations, when it's all capital.

You have a larger capital L and then a smaller capital ORD. That's the code used by translators. This is the Tetragrammaton, the YHVH, the YHWH, Yahweh, the eternal, ever living one. So this is the God of the Old Testament, and we know Him better today as Jesus Christ. And the God of the Old Testament spoke to Moses, and He gave these instructions. 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 sheath of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

Now, it helps us to have a basic working knowledge of how the grain harvest cycle worked in ancient Israel. The barley ripens a little earlier than the wheat. And on that day, inside of unleavened bread, they would go out, they would have scouted, and they would have found a place, they would mark off, and they would be prepared when it's time for the cutting of the wave sheath to go and harvest it. They would beat it out. There was a procedure they would go through. But then the wave sheath was actually waving it before God, that it symbolically went up to God, received, was accepted, received His blessing, and then sent back down, which then gave the green light to continue with the rest of the harvest.

And so they started with the barley harvest. If you go back to the little book of Ruth, little book of Ruth, they lived around Bethlehem, a Hebrew word meaning the house of bread, but reached a point where they had no bread, the house of bread.

So they left and went to Midian. And you know what happened there? And then came back when they heard that there was once again bread in Bethlehem. But it speaks about, there's a phrase, this was the beginning of the barley harvest.

And then later in the book there was a conclusion of the harvest. So it helps us to have a basic understanding. So they would go and beat out a certain amount from the barley, and then that was received by God and that triggered the beginning of the early harvest. And they had 50 days. You count seven weeks, you count seven sabbaths, the morrow after. On the 50th day, that's where we get our term penti cost from the Greek.

Feast of weeks, feast of first fruits, feast of the harvest. But that's the next holy day. That's not today. And so here in verse 11, He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, you shall wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year without blemish, as a burnt offering.

So there is a burnt offering that accompanies that. Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma. And its drink offering shall be a wine, one fourth of a hen. So there is a grain offering and a drink offering combined with this as well.

Verse 14, you shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. So they were not to eat of any of that year's harvest until after this wave sheaf was given. And then it goes on with counting of fifty days. And then at that point you have two loaves baked with leaven. But that, again, gets to the next holy day.

I have a book. This is just The Temple by Alfred Eatersheim. Eatersheim has a number of books. They're well done, well researched. This one covers the temple, its ministry and services as they were in the time of Christ. And if you are interested in reading, this was the ceremony at the time of Christ, the first century. He has a section where it lays out their practice, how they already marked, tied off, they actually would take the grain and tie it in a sheath without cutting it.

And they had it ready to go when it was time for the wave sheath. Sunday, as we might say today, he goes on explaining how much they would glean about three pecs. We don't tend to use pecs as much anymore as a number of decades ago, but four pecs equal a bushel. So three pecs. Just think of a, you know, we have a bushel basket.

You get a bushel basket of apples, and about three quarters of that is how much grain they would actually harvest. He explains they would actually parch it and what they would do with it and preparing it to wave before God. Now, as I said a while ago, all of God's ceremony is instructive. There are so many parallels here. Christ certainly, who was to fulfill all of this ceremony, Christ was very carefully set aside in advance.

And, of course, he was taken captive. He was bound, as it were, as he was led off, and he suffered greatly. He was beaten like the grain was actually beaten into a fine flower. And the time came when his life ended. And that cut his dependence for his life as a flesh and blood human being to anything of this earth, just like the grain at a certain point was cut free. And he was then resurrected three days and three nights.

And, death Wednesday afternoon, they hurried to get him into the grave because the high day was coming. And three days and three nights later, he would be laid on this weekly Sabbath when he comes back to life. And then they came. The women went with the spices. The next morning, you could check, well, Luke 24 and other parallel accounts. One account said that they went while it was still dark. But they went that early morning, wee hours, while it's still dark on the first day of the week.

And lo and behold, that massive stone was moved, and the tomb was empty. So the women went and told the disciples, the disciples came. Peter didn't move apparently as fast as some of them like John. And yet, when he got there, he barged right on in. And lo and behold, it was an empty tomb. And here were the grave clothes folded lying there where the body had been.

What happened that day is important for us to focus on. Let's notice John 20, because when this account takes place, he instructed them, don't touch me. Don't touch me yet. John 20, and you could just make a note of verses 11 through 17. And we'll just notice bits of it. Verse 11, Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. She saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

Why are you weeping? Well, let's continue on. The one speaking to her, she turned and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Verse 15, 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 you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.

And Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to Him, Rabboni, which is a say teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to Me, 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 My God and Your God.

So, at this point early on, He told them, Don't touch Me. Don't cling to Me. I have to ascend to My Father and Your Father. Now, let's go to Matthew 28. Notice Matthew's account, because later that day He did allow them to touch Him. And so, as we fill in the blanks, He ascended to His Father, was received of the Father, accepted, and came back down to continue His ministry.

Matthew 28, verse 9, As they went to meet His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice! So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

And so, this tells us that something remarkable had happened that day. He had fulfilled the wave sheaf. He had become the firstborn from the dead.

He had, again, in His case, become a part of the very God family once again. He had received the glory that He had had with His Father for eternity.

The spring festival, the spring spiritual harvest, I should say, began with Christ's harvest.

And He came back. He spent 40 days with the disciples, further preparing them for the work that they were going to have.

Let's go to John 2. It is interesting to me that a number of times during Christ's ministry, especially in the book of John, we find teachings of Jesus at the Passover Unleavened Bread season.

And at the end of John 2, let's just pick up the time setting for the conversation, the dialogue between Christ and Nicodemus in the next chapter.

John 2, verse 23, Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, now again, remember, a lot of times in the New Testament, they're going to use Passover as a generic term for the whole spring feast.

They might refer to Unleavened Bread as one account does, and they're referring to the whole spring feast season.

So here it refers to the Passover. During the feast, which would seem to then imply during Unleavened Bread, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

So this is still early on. The changing of the water to wine at Cana, John says that was His first miracle.

So we're early on in His ministry, and here we have that next Passover, and then we have no time break that is noted here.

And in chapter 3, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

He came and called him rabbi and said, we know you're a teacher sent from God. And he had some questions for him.

Verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now what he was saying just totally flabbergasted Nicodemus. He could not relate. He could not get his brain wrapped around what he was being told. And you know, you and I have enough trouble dealing with that.

But you have to be born again, born from above, depending on the translation you have, or you won't experience the kingdom of God.

Well, he goes on. Nicodemus wonders, Do I have to go back to my mother's womb again?

He obviously didn't get the point at all.

Verse 5, Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

So we're talking about two different existences. One is flesh and blood, tied to dependent on this earth, dependent upon air and water and food to continue living.

But the other is a different existence.

And during the days of Unleavened Bread, long ago, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, and He was the first of the first.

And that began a process, and a spring harvest is taking place, and you're a part of it, and I'm a part of it.

And the plan of God, the intent of God, the purpose of God is to bring many children to glory, to bring us into His eternal family.

And that's what He's talking about here. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

But there is a process, and it's that process I want to talk with you about today.

I call this... what do I call this sermon? I have to go back to the previous page.

Taking steps toward your resurrection.

Taking steps toward your resurrection.

Because during this feast, nearly 2,000 years ago, that's where it all began.

That's where it began. And the process continues.

And you and I put the 11 out of our homes, and we've been called to live the unleavened life.

And it won't be that long, another 4 1⁄2 hours, and we can bring the 11 back in.

We can wait, we can have a sunset service over at the local restaurant, and then, say, pile it on.

Or you can wait a little more a night, or Sunday morning.

But we can bring the 11 back, and we can bring the ding-dongs and the Twinkies.

Not that I've ever eaten any of those. Well, it's been quite a while.

We can bring them back. Days of unleavening bread will be behind us for this year.

But we're still to walk the unleavened life.

We are still taking steps every day of our lives toward the point when God is going to then, like Jesus, raise us.

And we'll be born, literally, of the very substance of God, which is spirit.

Their dialogue continues, and Nicodemus was obviously very puzzled, and so are we.

Verse 13, No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

You see, here he is during the Passover season, during the feast, it said, and he's preaching to Nicodemus about not perishing and having eternal life.

And that's the context where we have the next verse that so many churches will have plastered out on the marquee, out on the sign in front of their church.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Christ was the first of the first.

And then there's this early group, the first fruits.

But there had to be a number one resurrection back, in His case, back into the family of God, before there can be a second, a third, a one hundred thousandth, or an eight billionth birth into the family of God.

And it started during these days, nearly two thousand years ago.

Let's go to John 11.

And let's notice verses 25 and 26. And this is actually a chapter where it discusses that resurrection of Lazarus.

And as Jesus came, and Lazarus had been dead, and He tells Martha, your brother will rise again.

Verse 25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in Me.

Now, make a mental note of that word, believes.

We're going to come back to that as one of our stepping stones toward the resurrection.

Believes in Me though he may die.

He shall live.

And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Do you believe this?

Well, she professed she did.

And she certainly wanted to, but the story goes on, where He commanded Lazarus to come forth out of the grave, and He was released from the clothing that they bound Him in.

This is a season of miracles.

Think back across various stories that we have referred to, that you have studied on your own in preparing for this spring season.

So many miracles.

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, not just one plague after another and bringing Egypt to its knees.

But also then feeding them, giving them drink.

They came to the Red Sea, you had mountains, you had the sea, you had Pharaoh's army coming up.

And it's a matter that the people panicked.

You carefully read that story back in Exodus 14.

It says, they lifted up their eyes. They lifted up their eyes. They panicked.

And Moses essentially stood there and said, stand still and see the salvation of God.

The Apostle Paul in the New Testament said, we need to walk by faith, not by sight.

Because when we use human eyesight, we often look in the wrong places.

We lose track of the things that are really most important.

But if we walk by faith and keep our eyes on God, on Christ, on where they're leading us, then all is well.

Yes, one miracle after another and even leading them up to the area of Sinai.

And then many miracles, as a year later, they end up across from the Promised Land.

That's where the spies were sent in. They were miraculously saved and preserved and brought back.

But you know the story, then, that led to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

Paying the price for not believing. 40 years, paying the price of sin.

And anyhow, time came, though, 40 years later, that God was going to lead them into the Promised Land.

It was a different Israel. It was the Joshua generation.

They were willing to follow Joshua. And the waters of the Jordan River were held up and they were told, Keep your eyes on the ark. When the ark moves, you follow it. And the ark was a type of Jesus Christ. And that's a lesson for us as well. Keep your eyes on Christ.

Sometimes we let our eyes drift off in the wrong places. We lose sight of where God may be leading us. But follow the ark. And of course, during the 40 years, they had the manna.

They had the manna. All those years, the bread from heaven, the weekly cycle.

Think of that. 40 years of an average of over 50 weekly cycles each year.

Over 2,000 Sabbath cycles that they walk through.

Every time. They keep twice as much on day 6 and it would last over through day 7.

Marvelous miracle. No wonder God told Moses later, take a pot of that manna and put it there with the ark of the covenant. This never-ending, ongoing miracle of God's presence and God's sustenance.

But we'll see a little later when Jesus walked the earth.

And that came up, Moses and the manna. And he told them, I am the bread of life.

And if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you're going to have eternal life.

Well, we could even go further back. Abraham. It is Jewish tradition and it is just that. But it is written, or their tradition says, the events where Abraham and Sarah were told about this set time next year, you're going to have that son of promise when they were well past the age of bearing children.

And Sarah laughed. And then it says that that set time next year, Isaac was born. And that certainly was a miracle as well. But there's a miracle in our life. It has been said that God's greatest miracle today is that of conversion. Because as Christ said, no one can come to Me except the Father in Heaven draws Him.

So the Father determines to begin drawing someone and extending an invitation, which is another way of referring to a calling.

But the individual has a responsibility as well. You have to take that invitation, tear it open, pull it out, read it, and begin responding to it to then become a part of that group called the chosen or the elect.

And through the process, God penetrates a very self-willed, self-centered carnal mind.

I mean, by nature, we hate the law of God.

And God brings us to a point of conviction and commitment.

And we begin taking steps that will ultimately lead to our own resurrection.

Not like Lazarus and the others, but a resurrection will be sown as that earthly body, as the resurrection chapter talks about, and will be raised up as spiritual body.

Steps, I want to give you five of these stepping stones toward your resurrection.

Number one is repentance. We have to start there.

After all, when Jesus began His earthly ministry, Mark 1, verses 14 and 15, He said, Repent and believe in the Gospel. And those are going to be our first two points, first two stepping stones.

We start with repentance. And repentance is one of those churchy sounding religious words, and it just means the change.

It's laid out so beautifully in the story there in John chapter 8 with a woman caught in the act of adultery, and with everything that happened as the others went on, He asked, Where are your accusers? But it led to Him telling her, Neither do I condemn you. And He said, What? Go and sin no more.

And that's in a nutshell is repentance. Stop where you are. Stop what you're doing.

You're headed the wrong way. Stop and do a 180 and start going the way God wants you to go. That in a nutshell is repentance. And this season of the year, Passover, Unleavened Bread, so many examples tie in here. But you know, repentance is not a once in a lifetime event.

There are Scriptures that say, like when Peter was explaining to the other church leaders what had happened with the household of Cornelius. And the apostles said, Then God has granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life.

Repentance is something God gives. Before God's calling, you, me, we were going down the road doing our own thing, perhaps oblivious. Maybe we believed there was God. Maybe we didn't even think about God. But the calling of God was to get our attention and to tell us stop, turn around, and go the right way.

And that is a process that takes place from that point until our last breath goes forth, or Christ returns.

And as Paul said, we shall be changed. Abraham's family back in Genesis, they were given a sign of being in the covenant with God.

That sign was circumcision. Because for whatever reason, God decided to use a male.

A male, as he's born into this world, will not enter this covenant with God until he has that foreskin removed and cast aside, and it represents the fact that he's changed, and he enters a relationship, a covenant with God.

Circumcision was the sign of the old covenant. Circumcision was brought back in the days of Moses.

During the 40 years of paying the price of sin, there was no circumcision. They were paying the price of sin.

And so as we get the story of Joshua, they crossed the Jordan River Valley.

They set up camp around Gilgal, and the first order of the day is circumcision.

And that's where we get the term Gilgal.

As they circumcise with the knives of Flint, and they cast the foreskin into a hill, good as name as any, I guess, Gilgal, which means rolling, that as the blade went around, it rolled that piece off, and they chunked it, as we say here in the south, they chunked it into a hill of foreskin.

I won't go far in that direction, but I've always wondered how painful would it have been to walk around Jericho in short order after that. But it does say they waited until they were healed, so maybe God speeded the process.

But the natural man, as he's born into this life, as he lives his life, until he repents, he won't enter the kingdom of God.

He won't have that resurrection to spirit.

And of course, in the New Testament, we still have circumcision, but it's spiritual circumcision.

And in Paul's writings, it is identified with the process we go through with baptism.

It is circumcision of the heart.

Where the sinful parts of our past and our nature and our mind, our sins, they're all rolled off and cast aside, and we're forgiven, given a clean slate, and God pours out His Spirit on us.

And He makes us a different person, changes us into different men and women.

And it begins a process, again, that continues throughout the rest of our lives.

John 12.

John 12.

And you can make a note of verses 23 through 26.

Verse 23, But Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified.

Now, this chapter started by saying it six days before the Passover, and this is going to be the Passover that involves His death.

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain.

Now, pardon me if I go back to my roots once again, but in the fall, October, November, December, when it was time to drill the wheat, or whatever grain, but I use wheat as an example, the seed into the ground, it may have changed, and I know they've improved our wheat, haven't they?

They get a lot more per acre out of them, but what has been done does make you wonder if we ought to eat it at all.

But at that time, the rule of thumb was about a bushel and a quarter of seed per every acre.

Now, you can try to go cheap and only put three-quarters of the bushel, and you're not going to get as much return.

And you can put more seed than that, and it reaches a certain point where you're just wasting extra seed.

But the seed lies there in that seed bed that has been prepared, and you have to have a right combination of the soil, the nutrients, the moisture level, and if all is right, that seed rots, and it, as it were, dies.

But then, through that deterioration process, you have these two shoots that break forth.

One goes up and reaches toward breaking through the crust and reaches toward the light.

And the other one turns and goes down. Geopropism, I believe, is the term for it. It goes down into the earth and forms the root.

And, anyhow, verse... it produces much grain. Verse 25, He who loves his life will lose it. And he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life, because that's a part of our calling. The first stepping zone we have to turn from the way we have been. And that is a process that will continue. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

Now, remember follow, because that's going to be one of our stepping stones a little later.

Follow me, and where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him, my father, well honored.

The resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15. It is in verse 12 where Paul begins addressing a heresy.

Corinth was a troubled church in many regards.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 12.

Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also empty.

Yes, and we have found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up, given fact the dead do not rise.

If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins.

Well, it goes on eloquently making the argument that everything about our faith goes right back to the fact that Jesus Christ came from the grave.

He lives again. He inherited the spirit life he had had with his Father.

And he goes on. He talks about an order.

Verse 23, each in his own order as far as a resurrection, Christ the firstfruits.

And there's a word for that. And I don't remember it, but at any rate.

The first of this early first group.

Afterward those who are Christ's, that is coming.

Because with the seventh trumpet, that's when the dead end Christ will rise. He says later in the chapter that those of us still living, we shall be changed.

Then comes the end. And it goes on to other phases further on down.

There comes a time when death itself is destroyed.

Death itself is defeated because either everyone has come into the very eternal family of God, or sadly, some will have been destroyed in a lake of fire.

Repentance.

We all deal with sin differently.

And the only thing that works is repentance.

We can't ignore it and hope it will go away.

It doesn't help you get angry about it.

If somebody points out, or you miss the mark, the only thing that works is just stop, turn around, go the way God would have you go.

When Denise and I were first married, first four years, we lived in Oklahoma City.

In my old Bible, I have a place where I wrote a statement that the pastor made during Unleavened Bread.

He said, in essence, that you'll find it's a truism, that either you are overcoming sin, or sin will be overcoming you.

And I think there's a lot of truth to that.

We're called to a process of repentance.

And if we get tired and we go and we sit down on the bench out here, and we disengage from the battle, we're going to start losing ground.

Our human nature wants to reason around all. I just need a break.

It doesn't work that way.

Unleavened Bread, attaining the resurrection follows a lifetime of repentance.

The second stepping stone is that of belief.

Jesus preached, repent and believe in the Gospel.

Belief, or call it faith, if you will.

We are called to believe in Christ. We are called to believe God exists.

We are called to believe their word is inspired. We're called to pattern our life after what is written.

Let's go back to John 6.

Interestingly, another story that takes place at the time of the Passover season.

John 6, just get the setting here, the time setting in verse 4.

Now the Passover, the Feast of the Jews, was near.

So it's a spring feast, spring season.

And John calls it, John's writing many decades later, it's a different world, and the writings are going to non-Israelite people by and large.

And so he explained, kind of as a parenthetical thought, the Passover was near.

It was a feast of the Jews that would tell the Gentile world, the non-Israelite world, basically what he was talking about.

Well, let's skip on over to verse 29.

Verse 29, Jesus answered and said to him, this is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He sent.

They bring up the fact, verse 31, that our fathers ate the man in the desert.

And they wrote from the Scriptures about that.

Verse 32, then Jesus said to them most assuredly, I said, you, Moses, did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

So it makes the point that, you know, that manna that your fathers had, Moses didn't send that.

That was by the agency of God.

But then he begins taking it, raising the bar a lot on what he's teaching them.

And he's leading to the point of saying, I am the bread of life.

And if you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you can inherit eternal life.

The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

Well, a little earlier in this chapter, there was a feeding of 5,000.

And a tremendous miracle.

The blessing of the food, and it fed so many.

But all, we can be fed of that food all of our life, and that's not going to get us into the kingdom of God.

It is drinking in of Christ, eating His body, drinking His blood.

And if we read those Scriptures, we'll pass overnight.

Verse 40, and this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.

So our second stepping stone is that of faith, or that of belief.

Think back again to some many examples, biblically.

I always marvel at the one historian, Genesis, about Abraham.

He's told, Isaac, we don't know how many years old, but he's told, take that Son of promise, and you go to the place in the mountains of Moriah, and there you will sacrifice Him to me.

This son that they waited so long for.

You know, they were told when Abraham was 75, I'm going to give you a son.

And he waited, and he waited.

And he must have been human because he reached the point about, what, 12, 13 years down the line where he decided, you know, I'm going to have to help God out.

And that led to the story of Hagar and Ishmael.

And God made it clear, no, no, it's through you and Sarah.

And God waited until he was 99, and I'm going to give you a son.

And then they had that son, and God says, you take him, and you go to this place, and there you sacrifice Him to me.

And read carefully those words of Abraham.

He's saying goodbye to those back of the home.

We're going to go.

And then he says, we will come back to you.

No wonder this man is called in Romans, the Father of all them that believe.

Hebrews 11 adds a little bit more where it says that Abraham was accounting that God would have to raise him from the dead.

Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac.

And as we know the story, God stopped him at the last minute, but he was ready to do it.

And the ram was provided there, caught in the bushes.

Remarkable man. That's belief. And that's faith.

And God asks us to have the same. John 12.

John 12. Notice verse 1, which again tells us the time setting.

Verse 1, then six days before the Passover.

And of course, this is the last Passover. This is the Passover that's going to end in the death of Christ.

Let's go over to verse 44.

Verse 44.

Then Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in Me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me.

And He who sees Me, sees Him who sent Me. He told them that night at the Passover service. He was asked, Show us the Father.

And He said, Have I been here with you that long? And you don't know that if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. He was the perfect representation of the Father, the perfect image of the Father.

I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge Him. For I do not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My words, has that which judges Him. The word that I have spoken will judge Him at the last day. But He speaks about belief, faith.

And of course, after His resurrection, you remember the story there late in John 20, where Christ appeared. It turned out it was to a group of the disciples, but Thomas wasn't there. We tend to call Him doubting Thomas. And Thomas wasn't there, and so He said, unless I see and I feel and I inspect, I won't believe.

And then the next time, here Jesus appears, and He says, Thomas, come here. Touch, feel, inspect all you want. And then He said, you know, you've seen so you believe. Blessed are those who do not see and yet believe. And it's a long time ago when all this happened. No one we can go, we can't even go find eyewitnesses and get first-hand accounts. We've got a lot of old accounts that God has called us to believe.

And again, so many times, so many times, God gives us these little blessings, these little reassurances that He's still here. And somehow within us as humans, we tend to have things go the wrong way, and we begin wondering if God's still around, if He still loves us, if He's still working in our lives. And God, kind of like with ancient Israel, you know, they'd be panicked, and then water would come from a rock, and they'd be complaining, and then here'd come the coil flying in, and they'd coil till they got sick, and some of them died. And God works with us to give us encouragement and hope and vision.

And He gives us seven days to just focus on putting the leaven, the yeast, the baking powder and all that out of our life for a week. And we probably, a lot of us have stories about, well, guess what happened to me this week? I had a lady in Gadsden who came first thing.

She said, well, let me tell you my story. And yesterday, she went to the store and bought what she needed to make a strawberry cake for potluck today at the church hall. And she made that cake. And then, it dawned on her, what have I done? So she made her neighbor very, very happy. Very happy. So we all have our own stories, and we know by now, don't cast stones.

There's leaven in every one of our cars out there. There's leaven in our homes. And that's a part of the lesson. By our own effort, we're not going to put it all out of our life. There's a lot of the power that God has to give. The forgiveness comes from God. The belief, the level of faith. It's a faith, a level that is a gift of the Spirit of God working within us over the years.

Those are things that God gives. Well, the third stepping stone is follow. Follow. I think with the word follow, it breaks out into other words like obedience. That's certainly involved. I mentioned a while ago when they were actually going into the Promised Land, they were told, you watch the ark of the covenant and when it moves, you follow. And it represented Christ. We're told the same thing. Keep your eyes here. Keep your nose in this Word.

And find the written Word, the very embodiment of Jesus Christ. And from what we find here, we have guidance on where we should place our steps in life. Along with that would be love. Let's go to John 14. John 14. Verse 15. If you love Me, keep My commandments. Seems to be pretty clear, doesn't it? But there are people who want to debate what commandments does He mean? Verse 21.

He who has My commandments and keeps them, which would imply following and obeying Him. And hopefully the motive is love. It is He who loves Me and He who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love Him and manifest Myself to Him.

Verse 23. Jesus answered, this is from Judas or Levius, Thaddeus. He asked the question. Verse 23. Jesus answered and said to Him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word. And My Father will love Him and we will come to Him and make our home with Him. If he does not love Me, and he who does not love Me does not keep My words.

And the Word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father who sent Me.

There is law and grace. We live in the midst of a... we still have a large percentage of people who profess Christianity. And a large percentage will believe in law or grace. That there's law or there's grace and we're under grace because they want to sweep that law aside. They do not like that fourth one. But as we understand the Word of God, it seems so abundantly clear there is law and grace. They work together. You and I, every one of us, we are the undeserving recipients of the forgiveness of God. And because we were not given what we deserved, but we were given a clean slate that inspires us even more so to want to follow by the intention behind every word written in that law. Because that takes the word love and breaks it down. Love is love to God, love to fellow man, two great commandments. That's further broken down into ten commandments. And then each of those is broken down. And you have statutes and you have judgments, decisions rendered based upon applying the law in different situations. And Christ told them back when He was feeding them menna. And He quoted that very statement to Satan when He was being tempted, The man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word to proceed from the mouth of God. We follow. Again, ancient Israel. There are so many examples. They had to love God so much that they willingly followed and obeyed by doing what He said. Fourth stepping stone is the work. Because woven into the fabric of Christ's message of attaining eternal life is that you've got a work to do. You were not called just to be given your own forgiveness and salvation now. You're a part of an early crew. You're a part of those who are commissioned to go and teach and make disciples of all nations. You are the ones who were told like Peter and others there in John 21. Christ repeated that to Peter, Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. We're the ones called the sow seeds. And when the time comes when God determines, selects, calls, chooses someone, then we have our role. Not only in helping that seed go far and wide, but then also to nurture those whom God calls. From all backgrounds, all kinds of stories, all nations, and take care of them, teach them, love them, accept them, support them, because we're a part of a team. And if we lose one person from the team, we lose a part of ourselves. And we're less able to do the work that God has given to us to do. But you see, that Sunday within Unleavened Bread, they went out and they cut loose the sheaves that they had bound and marked.

They cut them free. They offered that wave sheaf to God, and it began the ticking of a clock. And they had seven weeks to bring in a harvest. I don't mean they worked on the Sabbath or the annual Sabbath, but they had that period of time to bring in the early harvest.

Because at the end of that, the morrow after that seventh Sabbath, you gather and have a great day to thank God for the harvest. They were given a work. I referred to the book of Ruth. Look at that story. Boaz and the workers, and like Ruth as a widow, they're out there working. They're out there long hours. Boaz and the men were staying there at the Threshing Floor.

It was a time, or maybe it was 24-6. They're out there all the time bringing in the harvest because their life that year depended on it. Well, it won't be long. We'll be observing the Day of Pentecost. And we'll read that story in Acts 2 of the beginning of the church by God pouring out His Spirit on about 120 people. And 3,000 were added. And then in the book of Acts, it says the numbers of the disciples were multiplied. And they began doing a work. John 4. And let's read beginning in verse 34. They've been talking about food again.

In verse 34, Jesus said to him, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work. From age 12, when He was left behind, and the family came back, and as a parent, I can only imagine being really worked up, ready to chew Him out. And He said, Don't you know I have to be about my Father's business?

From the earlier ages, He was concerned that I am here. My life is the work of God. And God help us to identify with that. We are here every time we open the Bible. Every time we cry out to God in prayer.

Every time we come in fellowship together. Every time we serve someone, it is for the purpose of sowing seeds of the kingdom of God, and of caring for those whom God calls. Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. And he who reaps, receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

For this the saying is true, one sows another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored, others have labored, and you have entered into their labors. And for two thousand years, God adds labors for the field. You can just make a note of Matthew 9, verses 37 and 38. Matthew 9, verses 37 and 38, that's where He said, pray the Lord of the harvest to give us more laborers. We need more laborers. We need more bodies filling our congregations.

We need help in the ministry. Louis and Lena can't hear me, they're in Israel, so. I'll tell you, we appreciate them so much. We are thoroughly blessed to have them. And yes, I do tell them that a lot. I do try to give them a lot of encouragement because we want couples who really have a love to serve God and serve God's people. We need to replace. And here I am, 63, and there are a lot of guys pastoring churches, and they're 12 and 15 years older than I am. And on occasion, I get a little tired. It used to be easier, but I'm told it'll get worse. That's really encouraging. Anyhow, we're called to do the work.

John 17, verse 4, I have glorified You on the earth. This is Jesus' prayer that night. I have finished the work which You have given me to do. His life was to do the work of God, His Father. Let's go down to verse 2. We'll skip over that. I've got something written down that's not quite right. Earlier in this book, that Passover night, it was, I think chapter 14, He told them, greater works than these you will do.

Christ was only one man. And even though He might speak to thousands at a time, the twelve, as they would become twelve again with Matthias, the twelve would fan out, and where they went, they would teach others like Paul told Timothy, or told Timet Titus rather, I have left You there in Crete. You ordain elders in every city. You go and teach others to go and do likewise. And in the process, the work is accomplished. And we were called to do the work.

Fifth stepping of stone is endure. Endure, or you could say remain. Because if we don't remain, then what good was it to call us? John 6. John 6, let's go toward the end of the chapter, because He dropped some heavy concepts on them. This chapter, we were here before, but He tells them, I am the bread of life. And He tells them, unless you... Well, John 6, whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the last day.

You see, there's a part of God, there's the essence of God given to us. A begettle of the Spirit. But there is a time of a complete total birth of Spirit into the family. Verse 56, He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in Him. End of verse 58, He who eats this bread will live forever. So many times, He's talking about bread, He's talking about manna, He ties it in with living forever. But this, as one said in verse 60, this is a hard saying for who can understand it. And that leads to the fact that, verse 66, from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

And so He asks the Twelve, are you going to go back also? And that's where Peter had the right answer. He said, Lord, verse 68, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. You are the One to show us the way. Let's go to John 15. John 14 ended with Christ's statement, Arise, let us go from here.

And so they leave the upper room. And they go out onto the Mount of Olives. Herod's Temple sits across the Kedron Valley over in the Temple Mount. And what probably was that season of the year, it's generally clear sky. The rainy seasons were at other times of the year. And the next night would be a full moon. And so you had a lot of light out there. And they look across and they see Herod's Temple.

And going up either side, you have the grapevine going over with the bunches of grapes. And in that setting, Jesus says, I am the true vine. My Father is the vine dresser. He's telling them what you see over there is not the real thing. It is a representation of what is really true. And I'm the vine. The Father is the vine dresser, meaning He's the one who prunes. God allows us to go through all kinds of things.

And sometimes we complain about the path down which God leads us. But there are times when He leads us in different ways. And it's a part of the pruning process because sometimes only by hurting, sometimes only by great loss do we have our eyes open. We can see what we could not see before. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. You see, a grapevine that is unpruned is putting out all of these runners and all of these leaves and there's less and less growth.

But if they're properly pruned back, it stimulates greater production of fruit. Notice here, He says, verse 4, abide in me. In the middle of verse 4, unless it abides in the vine, you can trim off a branch later in the season when it leaves out, you can trim that off. And it looks good for a little while, but it doesn't take long. You realize it's not tied in to the source of its life. And unless we stay attached to the very body of Christ, of this vine, we're going to die.

We're going to die. And we all know people who somehow come to the conclusion that, well, I can sit at home or I can do this or I can do that. Well, I don't want to be around them. Verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in me, and I am Him.

Now, when I said I don't want to be around them, I'd like to see them come back. I hope you understand what I mean. That attitude can be very contagious, is what I mean. I don't want to catch that. We need to stay in the body. He abides in me, and I am Him bears much fruit.

Verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. Verse 7, if you abide in me, in my words, abide in you. Verse 9, as the Father loves me, I also have loved you, abide in my love. So over and over in this passage, He's telling them you've got to remain, you've got to abide, you've got to continue. You have to endure, come what may. And we don't know what may be out there in front of us, but whatever it is, let us resolve to continue taking steps on toward what ultimately will be our sharing of eternity with God. Endure. The book of Hebrews, of course, chapter 11, I won't take the time to go there. It's a faith chapter. It lists so many of those great men and women of faith. There are so many that are mentioned that had great things happen to them at this very spring season of the year. Whether it was Abraham nearly sacrificing Isaac, whether it was the calling of Moses who would be the deliverer whom God would use to lead Israel out, or it was the story of Israel encircling Jericho those seven days. And then it mentions Rahab, that Canaanites woman who was spared that day because of her mercy on the spies. A sinner, yes, a spiritual Gentile, just like you and I were before we were called. One from outside the stock of Israel, and God brought her and put her into the stock of Israel, and not only that, into the very lineage of Jesus Christ. Rahab is an ancestor of Christ, just like Ruth. But then you go through that story and you get to chapter 12. And it says, seeing we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight in the sin that does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race set before us. And a little later it says, you have not yet resisted under blood striving against sin. So all of that speaks of endearing. Let's close in Philippians 3. Philippians 3, he goes to the topic of circumcision. Circumcision in the flesh. And you know, a number of times the Apostle Paul had people shooting at him. I don't mean literally, but they called him all kinds of names. And they said his bodily presence is contemptible, his speech is just awful.

And once in a while he had to kind of list a little bit of his credentials to be able to stand there and to teach them. And so in Philippians 3, verse 5, circumcised the eighth day. So it's like you want to chalk up your credentials against mine. You hear mine. Of the stock of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee.

He questioned my zeal while I used to kill Christians, is what he says, concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless. Well, let's skip down to verse 10. All of this he went through. And in verse 8 he had said, I counted as just rubbish. Because verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. And you and I look to the resurrection today, and hopefully every day of our lives. Over 2,000 years ago, the first of the first fruits was harvested during Unleavened Bread. And he set a harvest in emotion. And let us walk the unleavened life of repentance every day of the year. And let us believe the promises that God holds out to us. And let us follow, come what will, wherever he leads. And in the process, let us obey. Let us do the work of God from our hearts. And let us remain and endure to the very end. Because, as Jesus himself said, he that endures to the end the same shall be saved. And by that he's referring to eternal salvation. So, by these stepping stones, we move toward the point, ultimately, of our own resurrection. Enjoy the last three and a half hours of no unleavened, no leavened. Enjoy the leavened whenever it comes back into your life. And we'll see you tomorrow on the Sabbath.