The Wavesheaf and the Church of the First Born

Well, we're here on the days of Unleavened Bread. Now, for those of you who have been in Orlando, we've had a series of home Bible studies, and we've talked about a number of different things pertaining to the spring holy days, from Passover to the days of Unleavened Bread, the night to be much observed. In Jacksonville, we've done the same thing. We've had the sermon here on the first holy day to talk to you about some of the things of Unleavened Bread.

And with all that we've talked about, there's some things in the Bible that we haven't covered yet, and some things that we don't maybe cover enough or cover often. And so today I want to keep in the spirit of remembering what God has done for us and reminding us of some of the things that have happened, because the days of Unleavened Bread, we go through Passover, the night to be much observed, first holy day, the last holy day. If when you read in the Old Testament, you see when Leviticus 23, when it talks about the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread, there's a series of verses there that contain a lot. And certainly in New Testament times when Jesus Christ kept that last Passover, and when He was arrested and then crucified, that week of the days of Unleavened Bread was a momentous week. Certainly Christ is the focus of the times of these days. The Passover, He lived and died for us. And when He was on the cross at that last one, the last statements He said was, it is finished. He had accomplished everything that He had come to earth to do. And so we remember Him as the focus through all of these days, and His death that we commemorated on the Passover, and His death it should always be something we are thankful for, that He was willing to do that for us. And of course His death was foreshadowed back in Exodus when we talk about the Passover there. Let's go back to Exodus 13. Not to rehash what we have rehashed already, but to look at some other verses that are here in these days of Unleavened Bread, verses that we haven't talked about, unless you happen to be at a service on the first Holy Day that talked about these. Back in Exodus 13, verse 1, we come out of chapter 12, and it's talking about the Passover service, and that the children of Israel participate in it. And it's talking about the Passover instructions. And even in chapter 12, it talks about eating unleavened bread seven days, because we put the leavening out, but during these days we put the unleavened in. And in chapter 13, verse 1, it says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Consecrate to me, all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast, it is mine. And then he goes in and he talks about bringing the children of Israel out of bondage. Down, and he focuses here, whatever is first, that belongs to me. Let's go down to verse 11. God repeats it. He says, And it shall be, when the eternal brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that opened the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the lords. The first belongs to God. We remember what He has done for us.

We are very grateful. We are ready to offer to Him. And through the Bible, we see a lot of firsts, and the firsts are always very good. We give God the first of our animals.

We give God a first tide, recognizing it's Him that provides everything for us. We have the first fruits. We have the first resurrection. We have some firsts, and God says here, as He's speaking to Israel in the context of keeping the days of Unleavened Bread as their beginning at that time, these animals, the firstborn, belong to me. In verse 13, it says, But every firstborn of a donkey, and the donkey back in the time of ancient Israel was a service call. It would be hard to get by without a donkey back then. Yes, it almost sounds like a donkey, doesn't it? So, it's like just right on cue. But every firstborn of a donkey, every firstborn of a donkey, you shall dream, redeem with a lamb. You know, they had to use donkeys. We need cars. It's hard to get around in society today without a car, right?

Without having it to take us where we need to go, get to work, do the shopping and everything.

Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. So, God said you don't have to offer the firstborn of the donkeys to him, but you shall pay back or buy back from God that donkey, that firstborn, with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, break its neck.

If you don't want to buy it back, kill it. Don't use it for your own service. Give it to God. That's what the concept is here. And then in verse 13, And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. All your sons, all your firstborn sons, you will redeem. Redeem means just simply to buy back. Buy them back from God. They belong to Him, but He allows us to redeem them with the sacrifice of a lamb, a perfect lamb. Now, we know when we speak of redeem, we think of Jesus Christ because He was the perfect sacrificial lamb.

He paid for all of us. He bought us all back to God. His death brought about the reconciliation that we have. And without Him paying back or buying us back to God by His life, by His death, we would all be lost. And so God looks at us and He looks at us as persts as well. Later on in the sermon, we'll come back to this.

But as Moses is saying this, as God is instructing Moses to say these words to the children of Israel, He gives him a reason down in verse 14. So it shall be, he says, when your son asks you in time to come saying, What is this? That you shall say to him, By strength of hand, the Eternal brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

The same verse that he said, when you're eating unleavened bread and your son says, Why are we eating this unleavened bread? Well, because God brought us out of Egypt. We eat unleavened bread because when He passed over us and we were left alive, then we were taken out and we ate unleavened cakes. We remember what God has done for us. And He says, When you redeem your donkeys, when you redeem your first sons, remember it was God who gave you your life.

It's God who blesses. And we owe Him everything. All He asks is for some of it to be redeemed to Him. Verse 15, It came to pass when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the eternal killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of the beast.

Therefore, I sacrificed to the Lord all males that opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeemed. I vie Him back. I offer God the thanks for what He has done for me. Verse 16, It shall be as a sign on your hand, and it's frontless between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt. And He gave that command along with eating unleavened bread and along with the other things that we read in those chapters. Well, Jesus Christ, as I said, was the perfect sacrificial lamb.

He bought us back. He paid the price for us. It's because of Him that we are here. It's because of Him that we have a future. And the focus of the Holy Days in the New Testament is that sacrificial lamb, what He has done for us and what we owe to Him, which is literally everything.

Because without Him, we are all meaningless, futile people with no future, going nowhere, resigned to an existence that has just changed in the short time that we have on this earth, a very empty existence. Let's turn back to Romans, Romans 5. Romans 5 and verse 10 should be a memory verse for all of us. As I'm turning there, you're already thinking in your mind what this verse says. Romans 5 verse 10 says, For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

And in that verse, in that verse, we kind of have a capsule of the days of unleavened bread. We were reconciled to God by His, by Christ's death. That occurred on that Passover in 31 A.D. and we are saved by His life. And it was during the days of unleavened bread that Jesus Christ was brought back to life after He died. But we'll get back to that in a few minutes. You know, when Jesus Christ was on earth, He accomplished a lot. When He said it is finished, once He was hanging on that cross or stake or whatever you want to call it, it was done.

He had accomplished what He had come to earth to do. He had lived the perfect life. He had resisted Satan. He had used God's Holy Spirit and allowed it to flow through Him. He, as He says in John 16.33, He had overcome the world. And He had reconciled by His death or the opportunity for our sins to be forgiven to be reconciled to God. That's what it says in Romans 5.10.

That's an overwhelming and an overriding thing that Jesus Christ accomplished. But there are many more things that He accomplished during His lifetime as well. When He lived and the way He lived and what He taught changed the world forever. The world has never been the same since Jesus Christ's death. Even if people have some misinformation on what Jesus Christ did, His life changed the world. The apostles later who followed His steps also turned the world upside down. It tells us in Acts 17. He had a lot to do. Let's remember for a moment some of the things that Jesus Christ accomplished while He was on earth.

One is He died for our sins so that they could be forgiven. We see that in Romans 5.10. You could recount to me several other places in the Bible that it talks about our sins being forgiven as a result of Christ's sacrifice. Another thing, and just so for those of you who like to count and list, I've got seven of them and an eighth one that I'll add as well. Seven of them. Another thing that He did was He came to earth and He preached a gospel of repentance and the kingdom of God. He came to a people that they thought they were doing God's will. They thought that they were living their lives exactly the way that God wanted them to. But He told them, repent. Repent of your ways, because what He had seen was that they were living a life that was not in concert with God's Word. It was in concert with what the religious leaders of their day were teaching them. They were, as He said, teaching for His doctrine, the commandments of men. He told them, repent.

And it's a word that He tells all of the people all over the world today, repent. No matter what you think about Jesus Christ, no matter what it is that you have been taught in the past by Him, learn about Him from Him, from the words of the Bible. He was there in the flesh. He was speaking the words of God. He said He lived by every word of God, and He expects His people to live by every word of God. If what you've been taught about Jesus Christ doesn't square with the Bible, it's something that we put out and we put the new in. We renew our minds with the truth that is Jesus Christ. But He preached the gospel of repentance. That isn't a gospel that was preached before, because the Jews of His time thought they were doing God's will. And He preached about the Kingdom of God. And they didn't understand the Kingdom of God. They thought that when the Messiah came, He would restore the Kingdom to Israel at that time. Even in Acts 1, after He died, after He was resurrected, after He spent time with the apostles, and we were sending up to heaven the apostles said, will you restore the Kingdom of this time to Israel? They still didn't understand. And for centuries, they thought the Messiah would come and He would be the King that would restore Israel, the Kingdom to Israel. They didn't understand that He would live His life. He would accomplish everything He came to do. But the Kingdom would come at a later time, the Kingdom of God on earth, when Jesus would return to earth.

So He came and He preached the gospel of repentance and the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The people of His day, well, some, received the message of repentance. We here today should have certainly received the message of repentance, and we understand the Kingdom of God and what Jesus Christ is working out here below and when He returns that He will set up His Kingdom, a Kingdom of peace that will last forever and ever and ever. Another thing that Jesus Christ did, and I'll give you a scriptural reference on that, Mark 1, 14, and 15. Another thing that Jesus Christ did in His life that hadn't been done before, He set an example for all of us to follow. 1 Peter 2, 21 says that's exactly what He did. There had not been a perfect man who lived before. He couldn't point to any man. You can look at some of the leaders of Israel, Moses, David, some of the men, the great men that we've talked about in the Bible, and they lived their lives in concert with God. But Jesus Christ was perfect in every single way, the only perfect man who had ever lived. His attitudes were right, His compliance was right, His obedience was right, His relationship to God was right, He was led by God's Holy Spirit. Everything about Him was right. We could look to Him and we have a standard that we can't take any, pokes at Him and say, you didn't do this right, you didn't do that right, or He said here or there. He did it right. And He did it by yielding to God, submitting to God, being led by God, and having His Holy Spirit in Him. He set a perfect example for us so we don't ever have to worry and wonder what is the standard God expects from us. He's given it to us. We look at His life. None of us have attained to that yet, but if we have the hope, if we have the hope of life within us, that is, says in 1 John, we will be becoming more and more like Him.

Another one, another thing that He accomplished when He was on earth was He revealed God the Father to people. They didn't know who God the Father was before. They knew who YHWH was, Yahweh, the I AM. They didn't know God the Father. He revealed God the Father to them. Let's look at a couple verses back here in John.

John 14 and verse 6. Christ speaking to His disciples at last, after that Passover supper, Christ said to Him, I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. And Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and there will be enough for us. And Jesus said to Him, Have I been with you so long, and yet you haven't known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I don't speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Jesus Christ in many places said, It's God who gives Me the words, I do His will. He's directing Me, and I follow Him explicitly. We read in the Scripture that it's God who gives us the Holy Spirit. It's God the Father who calls people to the truth.

He's the one who called us. And when we listen to that call, and when we repent, and when we're baptized, and when we repent, then we truly turn from our old way of life to Him.

And our baptized and have lands laid on us, God will give us His Holy Spirit. We should be different people at that time. We should be different people at that time. The old is gone, the new is there, and God gives us His Spirit so that we grow in that way. But Jesus Christ, when He came to earth, He revealed God the Father to people. Fifth thing He did is He displaced Satan as the ruler of this world. Satan still has the sway over this world, we're told in 1 John. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4 says, Satan is still the God of this world, but Jesus Christ won the victory over Him. No one else had. He's the one. When He said, I have overcome the world, and He had overcome Satan, His kingdom was set. The potential that He created when He created mankind was now going to happen. Moses was a man who was very loyal to God. David was a man after God's own heart. They didn't displace Satan. They didn't overcome the world. They overcame, and they were people who will be in the kingdom. But it was Jesus Christ who made sure that Satan would be displaced and the kingdom of God would be on earth forever and ever and ever.

The sixth thing He did, He began His church. Back in Matthew 16, verse 18, He said He's going to build His church. Colossians 1.18 tells us that His body is the church, and Jesus Christ is the head of that body. When He calls people, He places them in His body.

And there's a reason He places people in the body. It's in the body of Christ that we learn and that we grow, that He can develop us individually as well as collectively. We are a family, and God is a family. I often say He's not calling lone wolves. He's not calling someone who can just sit out there by themselves and say, I'm doing this and I'm doing that. He expects that we are going to learn to get along with one another. As you heard in the sermon, fellowship is an important part of living God's way of life.

Yes, we have to individually work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Yes, we need to obey God. Yes, we need to resist temptations. Yes, we need to learn to say no to ourselves. We also need to learn how to work together and be led by God. When Jesus Christ said in John 13.35, By this will all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. If we're not part of the body, how would anyone know that we love one another? Right? In Acts 2, when Mr. Permar was talking about that, when people looked at that church, that group of people, they saw the love. They saw the example. And it was a powerful, powerful message to them. So Jesus Christ came to begin His church, a church that still exists today, the church that should still be doing His mission that He left them with today, a church that will exist until the time that He returns.

Number seven. He was resurrected. He was resurrected so that we would have the hope of eternal life, just as we read in Romans 5.10. Saved are sins forgiven by His death, we have hope of life by His resurrection. That God the Father resurrected Him.

You know, in Christ, in Christ is life. You know, we talk about the days of unloving bread.

God uses bread throughout the Bible as a staple item, maybe an item that we don't really understand as much as the ancient peoples did. But He called Jesus Christ the bread of life in John 6. I am the bread of life. We already read in John 14 where He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. In John 14.19, He said to the disciples who didn't understand, they would understand later, because I live, you will live also. Over and over we find that life is in Jesus Christ.

He was resurrected and life is in Him. Now, when He was resurrected, if we can add in 8th verse 1, He became the first of the first fruits, the first of the first fruits, and all that that means. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 20. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man, notice capital M, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive, each one in his own order, Christ the first fruits afterward, those who are Christ that is coming.

Of all the things that occurred during that week of 31 A.D., Jesus Christ being, well, instituting the Passover, Jesus Christ being arrested, Jesus Christ being scourged, Jesus Christ being crucified, Jesus Christ dying and being laid in the tomb.

And when all that happened, the apostles on that 14th of Nicene, they were confused as that night ended. They never saw, even though Christ warned them that he would die, they never saw it coming. They didn't understand it. And he told them, you're going to be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.

And during that days of unloving bread, their sorrow was turned to joy. Because three days and three nights after he was crucified and died, he lived again. God resurrected him, and he came to life. And it happened during the days of unloving bread during that time. Now, the world's religions tomorrow will celebrate that resurrection. They didn't celebrate the Passover, but they do celebrate the resurrection. And from time to time, I get the question, why don't we just recognize more the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Why don't we talk about it more? Well, there is an inherent danger in it because the world so plays off the concept of Easter. We don't want to displace the days of unloving bread and what the truth of the Bible is. By confusing it and doing something the Bible doesn't tell us to do, the Bible is clear. You observe Passover. You commemorate Christ's death. Christ said when he said it is finished, it was finished. He had done what he had done to do, what he had come to earth to do.

It was an absolute surety that God was going to resurrect him. Jesus Christ accomplished his mission on earth, and he redeemed all of us. The resurrection in his mind was sure God the Father would certainly do that. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, celebrate his resurrection. It happened. It's the fact of the Bible. Because it happened, we have the hope of life, but we don't celebrate it. If we did, we would be disregarding the Bible.

Because the Bible says don't add to and don't take away. You can't find anywhere in the Bible that says celebrate or even gather together on the day of his resurrection. It just happened. It was the fact of life.

And any church that teaches they know Jesus Christ and says celebrate his resurrection, they're telling you wrong. But it did happen, and it's a notable event. And it's an important event in human history. And the apostles would come to understand that it was all foretold. Everything that Jesus Christ told them that they didn't understand when he told them, the Son of Man will be killed and he'll be raised the third day.

It went right over their heads. But they saw that what he said was true and later they did understand. Just like the prophecies in the Bible, some of them we won't know ahead of time, but we'll understand later what they mean after the event had happened.

But all that happened during the days of Unleavened Bread in 31 A.D. And I want to take a little bit of time to go over that, just as a reminder of what happened during those days of Unleavened Bread. Because Jesus Christ, the Jews of his day, they had the Old Testament. They had all the prophecies of what the coming of the Messiah would be like, in painful detail when you read through Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. They knew where he was going to be born. They knew what suffering he was going to do. They knew he was going to be a Nazarene. All the prophecies that are in the Bible, Christ fulfilled every single one of them. And had they been paying attention, had they been asking questions, they might have recognized that he was a Messiah, but they were too caught up in how does what he's doing affect me, what happens to my position if he is being followed. And they weren't ready to sacrifice their will or their glory, that Jesus Christ might be glorified. And so all they could see was, he's a threat, put him to death. And that's what they did. But Jesus Christ, when he was asked, give us a sign. Give us a sign that you are the Messiah. He gave him one sign only. And that's back in Matthew 12.

Matthew 12, verse 38.

Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, teacher, we want to see a sign from you. But Christ answered and said to them, The book of Jonah, they knew exactly what went on with Jonah. And there was one sign he gave them.

So if the Messiah, and anyone who claimed to be the Messiah, was going to be it, this had to be fulfilled. If it was two days and three nights, if it was three days and four nights, not the Messiah.

Has to be exact. And so Jesus Christ said, here's your sign. He will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, did Jesus Christ, once he in the heart of the earth, three days and three nights? Through some of the Bible studies we've gone through, some of those verses, so that you, in some of the Bible studies, I guess not every single one of them, so that you understand what those three days and three nights are and how that week fell. But let's go back just for a moment and look at the facts of the Bible one more time. John 19. And see what the scriptures tell us about that week that Jesus Christ died. We know that He was with His disciples on the 14th of Abib, the 14th of Nicin, whichever you want to call that month. He was with them at the end of that day or during that day. He was arrested. He was crucified by the evening, by the sunset on the 14th. He was dead and He was in the grave. We know that. Now, when was that day of Abib or the 14th of Abib? John 19, verse 31. Therefore, because it was the preparation day, preparation days always come before Sabbath, that the body shouldn't remain on the cross on the Sabbath. For that Sabbath was a high day. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away. Fact. The preparation day that Jesus Christ was crucified on was not the weekly Sabbath. It was not Friday. If it was Friday, it would simply say, the Sabbath of the Bible would just leave it at that. This is in here for a reason.

It was an annual high day. It was not the weekly Sabbath.

So, we know that. And we know that the Jews were celebrating the beginning of Unleavened Bread on the 15th of that evening. That's why they wanted Christ to be killed before the feast began, as it says back in Mark 14. So, fact. The preparation day that He was killed on was the day of an annual Sabbath. Let's go over to Luke. Luke 23.

Luke 23 and verse 50.

Jesus Christ died. He needed to be laid in the earth before sunset that day, and He keeping with the Sabbath preparations. Luke 23.50. If you hold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man. He had not consented to there the Pharisees' decision indeed.

He was from Arimathea, the city of the Jews, who himself was also waiting for the Kingdom of God.

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock where no one had ever lain before.

That day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. Killed, laid in the tomb before the beginning of the annual Sabbath day. That was happening at that time. So we know those things for a fact. Later on in the verses, we find out there was our weekly Sabbath involved in here as well. Verse 55. The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. So they, when He was laid into the tomb, watched to seeing how it was, because the custom back in that time was you would come back. You would have known the body with oil and spices, and they wanted to do that. I mean, this was their Savior. They believed He was the Son of God. They weren't going to just let Him lay there, but they had this Holy Day. They couldn't do it on the Holy Day, but they were observing what went on. And then they returned.

Not on the Holy Day. They observed the Holy Day. They returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. They didn't do that on the Holy Day. That would have been breaking the Holy Day doing that work. They did that on a preparation day or another day, but the day after at the Sabbath. They returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, and then they rested on the Sabbath, according to the Commandments. Killed on Nice and Fourteen. A preparation day for an annual Holy Day.

Laid in the tomb before sunset. Women came and observed. Women kept the Sabbath. The women came back. They went and they prepared the oils and spices, and then they observed the Sabbath. And then in chapter 24, they come to the tomb ready to do what they had wanted to do with Jesus Christ.

Chapter 24, verse 1, now on the first day of the week, and I'm just going to call that Sunday. Of course, they didn't call it Sunday back then. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, another gospel says, before the sun was even risen. Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb, bringing the spices, which they had prepared. But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb and they went in and didn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them and shining garments. And as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you and he was still in Galilee, saying, the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words.

So on Sunday morning, very early, they went to the tomb. They wanted to get there early because he had been laying in that tomb for three days and three nights, given the Sabbaths that were involved in that week. And they wanted to anoint him with oil and spices. They went very early.

They didn't see Christ rise. He had already risen.

So anyone that tells you Jesus Christ was resurrected on Sunday morning, the Bible doesn't back it up. It doesn't say that. When they went there, he was already risen.

Jesus Christ said, three days and three nights I'll be in the tomb.

So we know that we know there's a combination of days that incorporates all of these facts that we have here. And there's really only one combination of days that works.

If the 14th of Nicene was a Wednesday of that week, and Jesus Christ was laid into the tomb at the end or before sunset on the 14th of Nicene, which would have been a Wednesday, he would have been in the tomb Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. Three nights. He would have been in the tomb Thursday, Friday, and Saturday day. So if he's going to fulfill what he said, the one sign he gave that he was a Messiah, three days and three nights, then he has to rise somewhere around sunset on Sabbath, on Saturday. Because if he wasn't resurrected until Sunday morning, he's not the Messiah we're looking for. Because he would have been in the tomb three days and four nights.

And there's one sign he gave he was a Messiah. So Sunday morning resurrection, absolutely false.

Didn't happen. Can't happen. He was resurrected near the end of the third day after he had been in the tomb three days and three nights, as he said. Now if you go back and you look, I don't know how, well I know how they do this, the modern part of modern technology, you can go on the internet, you can find the calendars for 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 A.D. You can kind of see what days of the week the 14th of Niceon fell on. And in 31 A.D., when the scholars, comparing with what Herod had done and what he had died and when Jesus Christ would die after his ministry began, on the 14th of Niceon, in 31 A.D., was a Wednesday. Three days and three nights later, there would have been a holy day on the 15th of Niceon, the first day of Unleavened Bread.

There would have been the Sabbath on the 17th, 15, 16, 17th. And at the end of that day, he would have been resurrected. You have all the facts of the Bible in there.

Preparation day for a Sabbath, three days and three nights, an annual holy day, and a Sabbath. And early on Sunday morning, the women went and found him already resurrected.

The U.S. Naval Academy researched this, and unless this was a hoax or some false thing on the Internet, I always say it with tongue in cheek. They confirmed to those dates the 14th of Niceon, in 31 A.D., was a Wednesday, April 25th, they say, by our calendar today.

So when you look at what Jesus Christ did, when you look at the facts of the Bible, he was there three days and three nights. Any other combination doesn't work. Any other combination and the Bible that we have is either wrong, or Jesus Christ wasn't the Messiah.

He is the Messiah. Now, there's something else about that week, because it was a momentous week when the disciples went through. Sarafel turned to joy when they heard that he was resurrected.

Of course, they didn't really believe it the first time. Remember, we talked about that last year. When the disciples first heard that Jesus was resurrected, they doubted.

They didn't believe Mary when she came back. Like, what? What do you mean, resurrected? Who's heard of such a thing, right? But indeed, he was, and their sorrow was turned to joy when they saw him.

Back in John 20, it's another tidbit of information of that week.

John 20, let's pick it up in verse 11. You can see here, verse 20 talks about the first day of the week. It went to the tomb early. Verse 1, it even says right there, while it was still dark.

In verse 11, Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had laid. And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

She said to them, Because they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him.

And once she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and didn't know that it was Jesus. And he 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 carry him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away. And Jesus said to her, Mary. She immediately recognized his voice and turned around and said to him, We're a boney, which is to say, Teacher.

And then Christ said an interesting thing to her. She thought he was dead. The most natural thing to do when someone you thought was dead is alive, is to run over and hug them, right?

That's all she wanted to do. And Christ said to her, Don't cling to me. Don't touch me, Mary.

For I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.

I haven't ascended to Him, Mary. He'd been alive for several hours by that time, resurrected around the 72-hour period that he was in the grave. But he hadn't ascended to God.

And there it was on the morning. And he sees Mary and he says, Don't touch me.

Don't touch me. I haven't ascended to God yet. Later on the same day, when he comes back and he sees the disciple, he allows them to touch him. So sometimes between John 20, whatever verse we're in here, John 20, 17, and the next time that the apostles of the disciples see him, he's ascended to God. A notable thing, especially when we turn back and read what some of the instructions back in Leviticus 23 were regarding these days of Unleavened Bread. Let's go back to Leviticus 23.

We have the timetable. We have the events of that week. We have what the Bible clearly has told us has happened. Back in Leviticus 23, as God talks about the days of Unleavened Bread, he tells them in verses 7 and 8 there, the first day you'll have a holy convocation. On the eighth day, you'll have a holy convocation. And then in verse 9, there's more that goes on during those days of Unleavened Bread. The eternal spoke to Moses, Leviticus 23, verse 9, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, you will bring a sheath of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

He will wave the sheath before the eternal to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath. The priest shall wave it. So on the first day of the week. We know that because down here in verse 16, when it's telling us how to count to the day of Pentecost, it says, Count 50 days to the day after the Southern Sabbath. So seven weeks, seven Sabbaths pass the 50th day is the Feast of Pentecost of Sunday. So he's saying the day after the Sabbath that falls during the Feast of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the priest shall wave the sheath offering before the Lord.

And she shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheath, a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the eternal. And then in verse 13, he talks about an offering of bread and an offering of wine. In verse 14, you will eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor fresh grain, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God.

It'll be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwellings.

So the Israelites, when they were in the Promised Land, they went through this ritual every year.

The first fruits, the first harvest, the grain harvest would begin to bloom. And they would offer, go through this process, because they weren't allowed to any of the harvest to be reaped until the wave sheep offering was offered to God and He accepted it. Once God accepted that wave sheath offering, the harvest could begin, but not before. Now let me read to you from a Jewish historian by the name of Peter Septime, S-E-P-T-I-M-E. And he's got all of his references in here. I'm not going to read the references. They're all here if you want to look at where he has his information.

This is what he writes about the wave sheath offering and tying it to Jesus Christ and the events that we saw clearly in the New Testament. He says, those scriptures specify the day the wave sheath was to be waved. That was the Sunday, right? First day of the week, the day after the Sabbath. It gives no specific time of day to cut it. Jewish history from the Second Temple period gives an interesting insight. The second century mission affirms that. When the Sadducees of the second century mission affirms that, it gives them information. The sickle was put to the grain just as the sun was going down on the weekly Sabbath. The book Biblical Calendar states that the Temple priests reaped the first fruit sheath at the going out of the Sabbath. So as the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Sabbath we're on today, was about to end, the priests would go out and they would cut the first, the sheath of the first fruits. They began that process right at the end of the Sabbath. It continued over into the evening because the evening began the first day. The Temple priests reaped the first fruit sheath at the going out of the Sabbath.

And let me make some other comments here. The priests began to make the first cutting right at the end of the Sabbath, continuing over into the first day of the week when the bulk of the work would be done. The ritual, however, was not complete until the sheath was offered, or waved before God, the following morning, or more precisely between 9 a.m. and noon. Nothing could happen until God accepted the wave sheath. So as the Sabbath was ending, they would go out and they would cut the wave sheath offering to God. They would prepare it, keep it overnight, and then sometime between 9 a.m. and noon on Sunday, they would go through the ritual of waving it before God. Now, Jesus Christ, who was the wave sheath offering, who perfectly filled it, He was resurrected sometime around the end of that Sabbath, otherwise He's not the Messiah. Three days and three nights.

He was resurrected. He spent the night without ascending to God. And sometime after He encountered Mary Magdal in that Sunday morning, He was accepted by God. He ascended into heaven.

And accepted by God because later in the day, the disciples were okay, and it was okay for them to touch Him. So we have there, as I say often, when we look at the Old Testament rituals of the temple priests, there's no reason to believe that they had any idea what they were picturing. It was a harvest. It was a harvest, and they knew they had to go through this ritual before God could begin the harvest. And it was perfectly fulfilled by Jesus Christ. He is that wave-sheaf offering. He was the perfect wave-sheaf offering. They couldn't begin their harvest of firstfruits, the early harvest, until God accepted that wave-sheaf offering. When Jesus Christ was accepted by God, the Father, when He ascended into heaven, and when He came back down to earth, the harvest of the firstfruits could begin. Some of the disciples had already been there, but now the harvest could begin. The Church of God, which had already begun. The Spirit of God, which was now going to be available to men as we get into Pentecost, and God gave the Holy Spirit to people. God would call people. The Church would grow. The firstfruits could be called, all perfectly symbolized by what went on back there, the Old Testament Days of Unleavened Bread, perfectly fulfilled by Jesus Christ. He is the first of the first born, or the first of the firstfruits. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians one more time. 1 Corinthians 15. Now you know what? Yeah, let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 17.

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

Momentous thing that happened during that time, momentous thing when we accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our sins, when we are baptized and we put away the old and we put on the new, God gives us new life and sees us as a new creation, when we put the old out and the new in.

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

And those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have opened Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. If all we have is this life, what is that?

It's Christ who gives us the future and gives us the hope that we need. Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 29.

The Holy Spirit chapter, the end of it here, Romans 8 verse 29.

For whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his fun.

And that's what it tells us in 1 John 3, right? Those who have this hope in him, those who have the hope of the kingdom, those who believe in Jesus Christ, what do they do? They purify themselves.

They let God mold them and create them and cleanse them and purify them through the rest of their lives. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

To become like him, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Firstborn. Jesus Christ was the firstborn among many brethren, many who he would like to have follow him as first-fruits and first-born. Those who have been redeemed, those who have been bought back. Of course, the rest of humanity will have its opportunity at another time.

Back in verse 11 of the same chapter.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, if that same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, and it should dwell in us, if we've truly repented, if we've been baptized, if we've had our hands laid on us, if we are following God, if we have yielded our lives to him, if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, to his Spirit which dwells in you. Isn't that a beautiful verse? Isn't there a lot of hope involved in that verse? Isn't that what we believe? And that's what we should cling to.

Isn't that show just how important it is what God's calling to us is? Doesn't that show just how valuable God's Spirit is in words that no one can express, no matter what words we use to describe how important the Passover was, how important these days of Unleavened Bread is, how important and valuable God's Spirit is. No words could ever justify. It would always be an understatement of how important it is. We should never, ever, ever discount it, take it for granted, or forget it. We should never forget it. It should be with us every day, and it should drive us, and it should motivate us, and it should stir us to action, actions to keep putting away the old, and putting in the new, and becoming like him. He was the firstborn among many brethren.

He sees us as firstborn as well. Let's go back to Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2, and we'll conclude in Hebrews 2. I'm sorry, Hebrews 12.

Hebrews 12, let's begin here in verse 2, the middle of the sentence.

Verse 2, Hebrews 12, look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Without him, no hope. He began it. He's the author of it, and he's the finisher of it.

If we look to him, if we follow his example, if we let God's Spirit live in us, direct us, correct us, motivate us the way that it did Jesus Christ, look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame that had sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Look at what he went through, and he said it was joy to do that. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Just because you run into a rough spot, just because someone may persecute you, and very few of us have been persecuted in the way, not even in the same breath could we say, the way Jesus Christ was, but there'll be times coming where we're persecuted for what we believe. For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your soul. Just because things don't go the way you want. Just because a family member says, what? You keep those days, you don't keep those days, don't become discouraged, you know the truth. You live by the words of the Bible, and you're following Jesus Christ, and hopefully we all continue to do that. You have resisted the bloodshed, striving against sin, verse 4, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons. My son, don't despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him, for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and he discourages every son whom he receives.

As I say, God never promised us the better roses. He never said life was going to be so easy, you're never going to have any tests, you're never going to have any trials. Yeah, we're going to have trials.

They may be health trials, they may be relationship trials, they may be financial trials, they may be any kind of trial that comes up. God knows exactly what's going on in our lives. Sometimes he does it to chastise us and to get us back on track, and to look to him and not look to ourselves. Other times he perfects our faith through those trials and the sufferings that we have. We may not understand the things that are going on in our lives, but we learn over time to look to God and look to him first and look to him only, not looking for other ways around it and thinking about him, well, I need to check this box off for God, too. We learn to trust in him because if we don't learn to trust in him first, we won't stand through the time. We won't stand through the things that are going to come upon this earth between now and the time that Jesus Christ returns. We're in this life to be learned and to be corrected and knowing that God loves us just as sons, and he sees us as sons, and he wants us to be in his kingdom. So we don't complain. We don't look for ways around. We do what we can, but we look to God. We look to God to strengthen us. We look to God to motivate us.

We look to God to correct us. We look to God to purify us and make us who he wants us to be.

Let's drop down to verse 12. After all these verses, he talks about these things, therefore, he says, Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.

Are the hands hanging down? Are we tired? Are the knees feeling feeble?

He says, strengthen them. Stir up their gift of the Holy Spirit. Get your eyes back in the Bible.

Get your eyes back on your... or get your knees back on the floor and pray to God.

Fast if you need to. Get it stirred up again. Get yourself back where God wants us to be.

Get your hands strengthened and your knees strong again.

Verse 13, and make straight paths for your feet. Not paths that divert off in this direction.

And you know what? If I could just dabble over here for a little bit, it really is something I really like to do, even though God doesn't want me to. It's not what he's looking for people, who most of the time are on straight paths. He wants us to learn how to be on the straight path all the time and not have little detours. Little detours for our self-interests.

Make straight paths. Straight and narrow is the path that God has put us on. Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Verse 14, pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

Not for says a lot, doesn't it? Pursue peace with all people. Don't let little problems crop up between people that we don't talk to each other, that we think this or that or whatever.

God isn't looking for a bunch of people who are individuals. He's looking for a body that is one.

And He says that His will for us is to be one as Jesus Christ and God the Father are one.

Pursue peace with all people and holiness. Because if we don't, we won't see God.

We're fooling ourselves. We're wasting our time. Time. We have to do what He says.

Looking carefully, verse 15, lest anyone fall short to the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble. And by this many become defiled.

Many. Because they little little comment or they little little something come between them and their brethren. They hear something and then all of a sudden they're mad at someone else.

And they're mad at the minister. And they're mad at the church. And all of a sudden they're no longer there. They forfeited. Forfeited the greatest thing that could ever happen to someone.

Because they just wouldn't let it go. Just wouldn't let it go. Soon as the sad thing, God in verse 16 compares it to what Esau did. Lest there be any foreignicator or profane person like Esau who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. What would you sell your birthright for? What would you sell your calling for? What is it? Esau did it for one morsel of food. Gave up!

Something that was so valuable. Would we do the same thing? Sometimes when we're tempted or sometimes when we want to do things, we have to stop and think, would I forfeit the kingdom of God for this? What's more important? What God has offered or what I want?

It better be that we're willing to do or we want to do what God does and use the strength of His Holy Spirit to keep us from doing that. Let's go down to verse 22. You haven't come to Mount Zion into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Let's go back to verse 18. Sorry.

You have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. The Israelites at the base of Mount Zionite, where they could not endure what was commanded. Verse 7, verse 22.

But you, you and I, you have come to Mount Zion into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. That's what God has brought us to, as Mr. Permar would say. It's awesome, isn't it? Defies the imagination, doesn't it? It makes us wonder, what did God see in us that He would offer all of this? You have come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. You can never forget what God has done, what He has called us to, what He has offered us. And a warning, because all of us are on the track, but we have to continue until the end. In verse 25, He says, See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.

Listen to the words of the Bible. As God the Father said to the apostles who were there at the transfiguration, Hear Him, listen to Him, see that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. So in these days of Unleavened Bread, and as we're here in the middle of the days of Unleavened Bread, there's a lot of things that we remember. And we have two more days after today that we eat Unleavened Bread, and to focus on Jesus Christ, His death, what God has called us to. May we all remember what God has called us to. May we all follow Him, may we all hear Him, and never forget the lessons of the days of Unleavened Bread.