When and Why We Keep the Passover

Back in the 1930s, Mr. Herbert Armstrong was called to understand the truth through his wife Loma. As he began to obey the Bible, he was revealed that the Holy Days are to be kept. And he kept those for about seven years, I believe he says, in his autobiography, without understanding what they were about. But he knew he had to keep them, so he kept them. And after about seven years, he began to reveal the meaning of the Holy Days that you and I understand today. It seems so clear, doesn't it? But you know, these things, unless they're revealed by God, they're secrets. Years later, God would reveal more to him. In 1974, for instance, the correct day for one of those days, the Feast of Pentecost, to be observed on a Sunday instead of a Monday.

And the Church has looked at these Holy Days as a very, very important gift that God has given to us. Something that ties us into the plan of God, the coming Kingdom of God, and our relationship with that coming Kingdom of God and the plan that God has for man. So they're very, very important days. An age-old question comes up at this time of the year by some who look in the Bible and put a few verses together.

And come up with a conclusion that, hey, we keep Passover on the wrong day! It's inevitable. Because the way the Bible is written about when the Passover was kept, especially back in Exodus 12, with the original Israelites, can lead a person to conclude that the Passover might be kept on one day different than what we keep it on today.

In fact, this was a question that came to Mr. Armstrong's mind in 1939, and was such a big question that he called a conference of the church leaders up in Eugene, Oregon, and they discussed it.

Today, I think it's important that we understand as the Passover approaches and we prepare to keep it what day the Passover is to be kept on and why the Passover is to be kept. Kind of what and why. We know where and when. It's seven o'clock here. But what is the Passover and why do we keep the Passover? This is a very good time for us to get into this, and I certainly do not want to put down or any way minimize the thought and the concern that goes into the question of, do we, as the church of God, keep the Passover on the right day? Because this question is perhaps the most often asked question of any that comes to the church. In fact, in recent years, over 50 doctrinal papers were sent into the church, and many people collaborated with other ideas to test, as it were, to discuss, to make sure that this was the case. And all those were considered, along with many others, besides. So today we're going to examine both when and why as we prepare to observe this special evening service. The timing of the Passover of Exodus 12, like I said, is one of the oldest controversies in the Bible. It dates back, way, way, way back. Would you believe, back to the time of Christ and before? It's a very age-old controversy that is raged within the Jewish community, back into ancient times. Was the Passover lamb talked about in Exodus? Was the Passover lamb slain at the beginning of the 14th of Abib, or Nisan, depending on which name you use for the first month of the year? Was it slaughtered right at sunset or right after sunset as the day began?

Or did you go all the way through that night and the next day and then slaughter the lamb that following afternoon on Passover day at some time, and then eat Passover on what we call the night to be much observed? And did Israel eat the Passover on the night to be much observed as they went out of Egypt eating the Passover or whatever? And this is where the controversy rages. And depending on how you read the Scriptures, you could come up with either conclusion. I tell you, you can. And both ideas are fueled with Scriptures to support them.

The Church has looked at this, as I said, continuously since 1939, and has always come up with the same conclusion. And all the conferences and all those who study the Bible and know the depth and do the research, they always come back to the same conclusion that keeping it at the beginning of the 14th day of the first month at sunset is what took place in Exodus, and it's what took place in the New Testament.

Others take a different view and find themselves in a minority, sort of on a sideline, in a rather inconvenient place, having to do something apart from the Church, apart from the ministry, apart from what the Church is teaching and understanding, but they are resolute and convicted that their understanding is correct, and before God they need to do this the right way. So this is an important issue, and I certainly don't want to minimize the conviction and the thought that anyone has on this topic. But let's remember this. No Scripture is of any private interpretation.

Your interpretation, my interpretation, no private interpretation. That's not the way Jesus Christ works with the Church. Ephesians 4 tells us that Christ gave the ministry and the Church so that private interpretations would not take hold in the Church.

Remember there in verse 11, 12, 13 of Ephesians 4 where he says, so that no wind of doctrine would go back and forth, you see. So Christ puts His doctrine into the Church through the ministry, and He told that ministry, Whatever you bind in heaven, or whatever you bind on earth, I bind in heaven.

So I used to keep Pentecost on Monday, and you know what? God was fine with that. We didn't do anything wrong. We didn't keep it on the wrong day. That was the day that Jesus, that was as much inspiration as Jesus gave the Church at that time, and we had the heart right, and what was bound on earth was bound in heaven.

Now, that doesn't happen for the individual. Anybody in the Bible who decides to do something different, that will be bound too. I didn't say that, did I? So it's important to understand that the Church is led by Jesus Christ. It's His Church. It's supported by Jesus Christ. And when one decides to do something other than what Christ is doing, what Christ is supporting, I think we all should beware and maybe ask, why would we come up with that type of a mentality, that type of a concept? Let's take a look at some of the facts. I think it's good to go through the facts. I think you'll find this study a little bit intriguing and interesting. If you're yawning and getting really sleepy, well, shake off the old dust cells, because this is going to get thrilling. Exodus 12, verse 3. Here we find the facts about the killing of the Lamb. And here's where some of the unclarity also comes in.

This is God talking, who would later be Jesus Christ. Exodus 12, verse 3.

So get ready a little early. Four days in advance, you go get the Lamb. Get this perfect, white, spotless, unblemished little Lamb that's going to be sacrificed. Verse 6. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day. Notice He didn't say, you will keep it through the fourteenth day of the month. You will keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. Uh-oh, here is the big one. This is where the big controversy comes in. What is twilight? What is twilight? Well, if you look it up in Strong's, it won't do you any help because Strong's didn't necessarily want to fiddle with all those letters. So it just put in the wrong word, the one that meant sunset. And wherever this particular term is used, He just threw in sunset and it makes the book a little shorter. But it's not the word for sunset. It is Beinhar ar Barim. Beinhar ar Barim. Beinhar ar Barim is contested in its meaning by the Jewish community. Even they do not agree on what this means. So you're going to kill it at a certain time, but when do you kill it? Beinhar ar Barim. Sorry about that. Beinhar ar Barim really means between sunset and dark. And that's the start of a day. But we're going to take a look at this. Verse 7, and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the doorpost.

Verse 8, they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire. But what night is this? Is this the night of the Passover as we would observe it? Did they kill it at sunset or did they kill it earlier in the day? See, on the 14th, did they kill it sometime in that afternoon? And now we've actually moved into the night to be much observed, the first holy day of unleavened bread. This is where the unclarity is in some minds. Now it will be roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Shall they eat it? Don't eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire with its head, legs, and entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Now I'd just like to pause here because we're in the Scripture and give you a little view here. Let's just assume this is the night to be much observed, and they're conducting the Passover on the night to be much observed, and the death angel's coming at midnight and is killing the firstborn, and they're all packing up, and they're getting out by dawn because they're leaving at night, so they're on the road. Now notice the next phrase. And what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire? Wait a minute. You're not there in the morning because you went out by night. But what is being said here, what remains in the morning is still there, and you're still there, and you've got to build a fire, and you've got to burn it. So just one little point. Sounds like nobody's left town if they're going to be around to burn that stuff in the morning. And thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hands. You shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. So it almost sounds like giddy-up-go, we're ready to zip out of here, you know, on the night to be much observed, ready to leave Egypt, except we can't go till the morning when we burn that Passover lamb. And sure, a busy night with Passover and all these other things going on. But what is the truth here? See, what's the accuracy? Killing of the lamb on the 14th makes us aware that deliverance from bondage is possible. This is the key to the killing of the lamb. This is what Passover is all about. Passover does not release us. Well, I'm sorry. Passover does not remove us from sin. Passover provides us with release from slavery to sin. When the Passover happened, it did not cause Israel to leave Egypt. It provided the opportunity for them to leave Egypt. Two distinctly separate events. And as we will see, with two distinctly different days and two distinctly different symbols, not to be intertwined or intermixed. The same applies with the New Testament Passover. The symbols of the broken body of Jesus Christ being the bread and His blood and the foot washing. These do not transport us out of our sins. They free us from slavery to that sinful nature. The transporting, the moving away, the journey, the coming out of sin is a separate event than that act that Jesus Christ went through.

In the United Church of God doctrinal paper Passover of Exodus 12, it says this. Modern Jewish practice supports their belief that the Israelites ate the Passover lamb and departed from Egypt all on the same night on the 15th. Now that's the modern Jewish practice. So their Passover and what we would call the night to be much, or the first day of unleavened bread, they're all done on the 15th. But we know that the Jews were pagans and went into captivity in Babylon, didn't they? Because they weren't obeying God, they were worshipping other gods. And while they were in Babylon, they had to relearn and renew their conviction to the truth. And it was at that point that they developed other aspects of religion that 630 years later or so, when they finally got to where Jesus Christ was, and when He was born, what did He say? You're missing the boat! You're wrong! You're sinners! He did not support them. So we can't look to them in their modern practices for any definition or proof of what happened in Exodus 12, or for that matter, what happened back in the time of Christ. Jesus condemned the Jewish leaders of His day, along with many of their traditions. Now, they disagreed among themselves at that time, and still do, about the meaning of Beyin Ha-Arbarim. Now, there are three different possible periods that they've come up with. Some say, well, it means in the evening, right? Now, what is an evening? Well, one group says, when the sun hits its zenith at about 12 o'clock and starts descending towards the horizon, that's the evening.

So, on the 14th day of the first month at twilight can mean noon on, in the afternoon towards the end of the 14th, you see? Because they'll say that phrase, that term, can mean that. Another group says, oh, no, no, no, no, that's very much too liberal. You have to wait until the sun is halfway down in the sky, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

And then from then until dark, see? Then until past sunset, into the next, and then until dark, that is what it means.

And then there is the third group that says, no, this phrase, this term, can only mean from sunset, the time the sun goes under the horizon, until the sky is dark.

That's what it means. Sunset begins another day, you see? And so it is this ben, beyin ha arbarim, means from sunset, the start of a day, until it gets dark. It's called the evening. Therefore, since you can't trust these, they're in disagreement, and we can't be left to our own understanding, what are we going to have to do?

We're going to have to look in the Bible, aren't we? That's what we'll do today. We'll take a look in the Bible. Find some evidence as what this evening means. Critical examination of numerous papers has been gone through, espousing many different views, looking at all the ideas. And the Church has come to this conclusion, according to the doctrinal paper.

In Leviticus 23, verses 4-8, we see a definitive statement about the feast days. This is God Himself saying, these are my feast days. Let's see what He says. Leviticus 23, beginning in verse 4. These are the feasts of the Lord. These are not feasts of Moses, or Israel, or the Jews.

Holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. It's not up to us to appoint them. God appointed them. Notice verse 5. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Passover. The Lord's Passover. When is twilight? Now, here's this argument again.

Some say, well, this is on the fourteenth, kind of like the Jews do today, maybe about three o'clock, or noon, or late in the afternoon. They'll kill the Lamb and then they'll save it until after sunset and then the night to be much observed. First Holy Day, see, you've got the double deal. On the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, Hebrew word, Bein Ha'arberim.

That actually means, and will keep you in suspense, between sunset and darkness. That is the start of the day. That is the beginning of the fourteenth. That is why we assemble here at sunset, seven o'clock, and we hold the Passover service here at the start of the fourteenth of Abib, or the fourteenth of Nisan. Now let's note a scripture in the Bible that helps us define when this twilight, or Bein Ha'arberim occurs. Are you just going to take my word for it? I told you. So we're good, right? You might want just a little more proof than that. And that proof actually doesn't come from some dusty book or some notable group of people. It comes from the living Word of God. We find it just thirty days later. Right after this Passover took place, you go thirty days in time, and there's a definitive thing that took place where this term is used, and it tells us what that phrase means.

What do you think it means? Noon? Three? Or sunset to dark? Let's go to Exodus 16, verse 11 through 13. Exodus 16, verse 11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Remember, they were grumbling about the manna. They wanted some meat.

I can hear some of you hunters' stomachs growling, saying, Where's the meat? Got the manna. Where's the meat? Okay. Well, speak to them, God said, saying, At twilight, at Bein Haar Arboreem, you shall eat meat. All right. So, the hungry hunters are waiting, and they want to know, when's this meat coming?

Is it coming at noon? Is it coming at three? Or is it coming at sunset? Because God said, it's coming at Bein Haar Arboreem, and you will eat meat then. And in the morning, you will be filled with bread, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. Now, when are the quail going to arrive? Drumroll. Because, the next sentence tells us. Verse 13. And so it was that the quails came up at evening. The Hebrew word, ba-arev, or sunset. That's the Hebrew word everybody accepts as being sunset.

So, sunset was the beginning of Bein Haar Arboreem, and darkness was the end. Sunset began the day, and the time of Ba-Haar Arboreem was that short period between the time the sun hit the horizon, or went under the horizon, and the time it was totally dark. Let's see a time sequence that causes some more of this confusion. In Exodus 12 and verse 29, we find that on Passover night, a great event happened. Exodus 12, 29.

Here now, in the time sequence, Israel had already eaten the Passover. They'd sprinkled the blood on the doorposts. They had eaten a big meal, and they went to bed. I assume they went to bed. If I ate a big meal like that, I probably would have gone to bed. I went to bed this afternoon on the way here. Ed Dowd drove. I was tired, driving in the car. So, how about it in the middle of the night? Well, anyway, I can't tell you whether they were up or down or what was going on.

But it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive, who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. How do you know? How do you know? If they ran out of Israel that very night, within the next hour or two, and were gone, how would they have known what happened in the whole country?

There wasn't CNN. They didn't have Reuters. And nobody was going to run after them with the report. Yeah, you got us! Except for Pharaoh and his soldiers, but they didn't really yell across the sea. They got drowned in it for the word... You know, you wonder what happened back there. It all happened so quick.

But anyway... So, Pharaoh rose in the night. What time did he rise? The firstborn were killed at midnight. What time did Pharaoh rise? Well, I don't know. I have no idea. But sometime in the night he rose. Let me ask you this. He and all his servants and all the Egyptians, how do they know what time they got up? When you've got a whole country and these villages are scattered across, communication is done by word of mouth, and a lot of that is on foot. Or maybe you send a chariot and one of your people, but you have to go find those people and get the horses all fixed up and tied to the chariot and then go rushing off and then find whom you're after once you get where you're going and talk to people and other people talk to people.

This stuff takes a while. But anyway, we know here that all the Egyptians... And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. How long did it take to figure that out? Pick up the phone? No? Everybody dial 911? Or just, you know, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9? 1? 1? You know, start tapping out messages across the land? Some of us have been over to Egypt, and those places where the pharaohs lived and where the people lived were vast.

They were huge. Just to get out of your house to go somewhere would take a while. I'm sure the slaves weren't staying in the guest house, you know, all 2 million of the Israelites with their livestock.

And your slaves, typically, if there was a single community, and most of them were spread around the country at times, you know, some of these things took a while. But here we find out that some definitive things, that there was not a house where there was not one dead, including the livestock. These reports tend to take a while. Something that happened as quickly as 9-11, the plane slamming into, you know, the towers. How long after that happened did you find out? Was it a minute? Was it 30 minutes? Was it an hour?

Until somebody called you and told you to look on the TV? You know, even in this day of amazing instant technology, things take time. Natural catastrophes take time. Ed was mentioning on the way here that the response to Hurricane Katrina by people who were trained, by people who were equipped and already in their barracks, took about a week.

Things take time. It's a big country, a lot of confusion, a lot of grief, a lot of manual communication. Verse 31, Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night. Which night? Which night? Doesn't say which night, does it? Maybe we could assume it was Passover night. He got up at midnight. Fumbled around. He found his son dead. Not an event by itself, perhaps, even though he might have been the next Pharaoh.

But what about the rest of the country? How did that word reach him and how long did it take? And if he even could get to Moses and Aaron that night, that first night, what time would somebody have been able to get there and been able to wake them up?

3 a.m.? You know? A couple hours? Could they have gotten back? If they were just two miles away, it takes an hour to walk a mile. Yeah, two miles an hour. It takes, I'm sorry, an hour to walk two miles at two miles an hour. An hour there, an hour back, an hour back again. You know, you can waste a lot of time there. Like I said, did people go in chariots? Did they find these people right away? Were they two miles, ten miles, twenty miles? Were they in the next city? But let's say 3 a.m. and they called for them, and they got up, and they got dressed.

What time did they get back there? Wherever he was. And was he waiting for them? Or was he away grieving, and somebody had to go get them? You know how it is? When you go for an appointment with somebody, when do you actually get to see the individual, especially if he's the Pharaoh? Rise, he says, and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said, and take your flocks and your herds, and all you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.

Whew! Wow! Now the order is to start moving out and finding and collecting and assembling 600,000 men, probably 600,000 women, if they had 3 kids each, 4 kids each, you know, you're up to a couple million at least, then get all the animals together and all your possessions together. I guarantee you, if I gave Monty that moving assignment, how long would it take him to get that in place for this group, let alone millions of people? Would we have that by 5 a.m., do you think?

Could we get out of there before the sun rose? Could you even talk to 2 million people in the next 2 hours? Let alone find them, or wake them. Remember, they've got to go out by night. What time did they get back to the Israelites? 5? How long did they gather the leaders for the discussion? How long did they discuss and talk about it? 6 a.m., 7 a.m., too late. It's already day. We've got some problems here.

In verse 33, the Egyptians urged the people, well, now you've got to involve the local population. They've got to get up, they've got to get around, they've got to go and find the Israelites, they've got to interact with the Israelites, they've got to urge the Israelites. They have to dress, they have to travel, they have to discuss with 600,000 men. Maybe it's mid-morning, they talk fast. I know how my meetings go.

We don't get things done quite that quickly, but maybe they could really go fast. That they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, we all be dead. Verse 34, so the people took the dough before it was leavened, took the dough, okay, you had to have dough, having your kneading bowls bound up in their clothes, shoulders, you got to get your possessions together.

You ever try to pack in a hurry, by the way? If I told you, we're leaving for Africa, as soon as you get ready, when would you be ready? All you need is a suitcase. If you told a soldier who only has a backpack and he knows what's in his backpack that you're ready to ship out, how long do you think that guy in his barracks with all his stuff in his backpack, how long do you think it'd take him to be ready to jump on the plane?

Man, you know, look at this realistically and get the kids and get somebody maybe fed and get the animals together and maybe figure out how to put a collar on an animal. You know, you're going to trek all the way across someplace and maybe find the bell that goes on the... I don't know what goes on. But if you think you got it all figured out, now here comes the locals back again. Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold and clothing. And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of Egyptians so that they granted them what they requested.

So now here comes the people with gold and silver and clothing. How do you like this? Oh, I think this will look nice. How long is that going to take? Will this fit you? Oh, no, but you know, it might fit Sarah across the street. And hey, that would look good. And, you know, how long does it take you to find a dress, lady?

One that'll work, you know? And then a pair of shoes or whatever. Can we do just... is anything going to fit? Is anything going to work? Just whatever it is? I don't know. But let's just assume you could get all that done and settled and packed and, you know, maybe by... I don't know... Between 11 and 4, you could be all saddled up and ready to go. How long does it take to assemble the people in an organized fashion and get 2 to 4 million people, 3 million people, and the animals in a staging area?

Then the children of Israel, verse 37, journeyed. When? Maybe about 7 p.m. on the night to be much observed. And the moon popped up. Jesus was the pillar of fire for them. And they journeyed some time in that night from Ramesses to Succoth, 600,000 men on foot besides children. Plus, a mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds a great deal of livestock.

And they baked on leaven cakes of dough which they had brought out of Egypt. Verse 42, it is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for what? For the Passover? Or for bringing them out of the land of Egypt? Notice this is in contrast to the solemn night of the Passover. This is a night of rejoicing, of observance for God, bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. So the United Church of God teaches the observance of the New Testament Passover at sunset on the beginning of the 14th of Nissen. This follows also the example of Jesus Christ, who conducted the very first New Covenant Passover on that very night, the beginning of the 14th.

It didn't matter that the Jews also might be killing their lambs the next afternoon, as is a current custom today, the belief that you would kill the lambs on the afternoon of the 14th. The disciples came to Jesus and said, What should we keep the Passover? And they kept it at the beginning of the 14th, the night before. And that's really all we need in order to understand when to keep the New Testament Passover. The fact that both the Old Testament and New Testament Passover were both at the beginning of Nissen 14 is not coincidental.

In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, Paul confirms the timing of the New Testament Passover. It says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. Same night. The New Testament Passover was at night, at the beginning of the 14th. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take ye, this is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same manner, he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. They killed the Passover lamb at sunset. They ate the Passover meal. Some call it the Lord's supper, because they ate that Passover meal. And then as we read there, After supper, after supper, he took the cup. After supper, he took the bread. After the supper, he took his outer garment off and washed their feet. He institutes New Testament, New Covenant symbols for the Passover that superseded the old eating of the Passover meal.

Now it took on much greater significance than just eating a lamb, a physical lamb. We are now going to eat the symbols of the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ set us an example. We are to keep it the same time He did, and that's what we do. In Luke 22, verse 14, we find further information.

When the hour had come, He sat down with the twelve apostles with Him, and then He said to them, The fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Now, when did Jesus suffer? Well, He was nailed to the cross in about nine o'clock in the morning, and He died about three o'clock in the afternoon. But those who would conclude that the Exodus 12 Passover actually started, you know, they killed the lamb in the afternoon on the fourteenth, but they started eating it on the night to be much observed, have a little problem here.

So, believe it or not, they would say, well, this is the first holy day of unleavened bread. See, Jesus is having the Passover meal and then the Passover at the start of unleavened bread, the night to be much observed, the same night, you see. So, before He suffers, He's going to suffer the next day. That means He was crucified on the first holy day of unleavened bread. Now you run into all kinds of problems, as we're going to see, trying to make that a holy day. But it's quite clear, brethren, that before He suffered, He took the Passover, and He suffered on Passover day.

He is our Passover. That is why it's called the Passover. It took place on the fourteenth, which is Passover. Verse 20, likewise, He took the cup after supper. He institutes this New Covenant Passover, differing from the Passover meal, the Lord's Supper, and saying, This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. So Jesus Christ here sets the time of the New Testament Passover service Himself, the beginning of the fourteenth, before He suffered later in that day. So the Church's understanding of Passover and the first day of Unleavened Bread stands correct, and remains correct. We keep the Passover observance as Christ kept it at the beginning of the fourteenth of Nisan.

And we celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Nisan each year. Now, I'll just interject something here. I don't want to confuse you, but you may have heard that some people have a problem with postponements. The adding of days or a month once in a while to the Hebrew calendar, which shift things around. And you may note some other church group may keep the Feast of Tabernacles at an earlier month than we do, or this or that feast on a different time, because, Oh, we don't do postponements.

We don't believe in those postponements or whatever. Well, here's a simple thing. In 31 A.D., which is the only possible year Jesus Christ could have died on a Wednesday, which He did, the only way You could have the Passover on that day and the Feast of Unleavened Bread on those days was to have postponements.

The Jews who did the calendar that year added postponements, and Jesus Christ was the Passover, our Passover, on a day in a year that had postponements, and He was fine with that. And the apostles were fine with keeping the Holy Days and the other feast days. So if you want to get into the calendar issues, you can read the doctrinal paper on the calendar, but there is nothing at all that indicates that the calendar that we use, even though it was developed by the Pharisees, Sadducees, through the Sanhedrin, it was the Sanhedrin's calendar, and they were imperfect, Jesus Christ made no issue about that.

And to them we're given the oracles, and oracles are things that are not in the Bible. And what other oracles there were, I don't know, but I'm sure the calendar was one of them. And it continues to be accurate down to this day. It's a calculated mathematical calendar, a formula.

There was a lot that happened on the 14th when Jesus Christ was crucified. After that Passover supper, He instituted the foot washing in John 13, gave the new Passover symbols of bread and wine in Luke 22.

Satan entered Judas, entered Judas, and Judas went out to betray Jesus, and find that in John 13. Christ revealed a new relationship that we have through the Father. Through the Spirit, we would receive that agape love, and that love would bind us to God in a unified way.

Christ prayed for His disciples to grow in unity in John 17, and be one with He and the Father in that unified form.

Matthew 26, after the meal they ate, Christ agonized after what He faced. He took the disciples with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed. Judas came later on and betrayed Him.

Then He was brought before the Sanhedrin. The next morning, as the daylight portion was beginning to start out, He faces the Sanhedrin.

Some at this point again say, this is the first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread.

The Jews didn't like Jesus or anybody hanging on a cross on the Holy Day, so they got Him down.

You'll see this a little bit later. They got Him down off the cross. They didn't like anybody hanging. They did. They didn't like Him on the Sabbath or on a Holy Day, so they wanted to get Him down early.

I'd like to read something from the book, Manners and Customs of the Bible. Topic 718. The Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrim with an M is the proper spelling of it. It means the sitting together. That's what Sanhedrin means. The sitting together. It was comprised of the chief priests and elders of both the Pharisees and the Sadducees, along with the scribes.

It took 71 members to form the Sanhedrin, and in order for them to have a meeting and make any decisions, they had to have a quorum of 23 members present.

This council met daily. They met every morning as soon as the morning sacrifice ended. They met all day long, making judgments and decisions until the beginning of the evening sacrifice. Every day except Sabbath and Holy Days.

On the Sabbath and Feast days, they held no sessions.

Yet, Jesus was brought to them on the morning of His crucifixion, and they were in session.

But they didn't meet on Sabbath or Holy Days, so this could not have been the first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread. In fact, this was the preparation day for the first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread. It was the Passover daytime after the previous night's Passover.

They were the judging body and issued sentences of corporal and capital punishment.

Those capital punishments were limited to four types. Stoning, burning, beheading, and strangling. That's all the Jews could do. They couldn't do crucifixion. Crucifixion was not a Jewish punishment. Rather, it was something said to have been devised by Semiramis. It was used by the Persians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Carthaginians, the Scythians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the ancient Germans, according to this book.

Going on in the day, Matthew 27, verse 11, he faces Pilate. He's found guiltless. In John 19.1, he is scourged. In Mark 15, he is beaten and mocked. In John 19, he is crucified. From the book Manners and Customs of the Bible, regarding crucifixion, it was a most shameful and degrading punishment used by Romans for robbers, assassins, rebels, and especially criminal slaves. The sufferer was nailed and left to linger for two to three days until death slowly overtook him, after which he was left to the birds and the animals. However, for the Jews, they were permitted to remove their dead on account of the law.

Deuteronomy 21, verse 22, says, if a man is committed a certain sin, you can hang him on a tree, but his body shall not remain overnight on the tree. So once he died in crucifixion, the Jews had a thing with the Roman procurator to remove that body before evening. Now let's go to John 19, verse 31.

We come to the time when Jesus Christ died. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon.

And we get a whole lot of clarity now about what day this is.

John 19, verse 31, Therefore, because it was the preparation day, does this sound like the first holy day of unleavened bread? No. He's dead. It's the preparation day that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. Now, we can explain away preparation day. This really was the holy day. It's got to be the holy day, right? Okay. Let me ask you this. Because it says, should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. Ah! It's the Sabbath, and he's on the cross, and he shouldn't remain there. We've got to get him off. See the logic?

Well, if you use that logic, how do you figure the Sanhedrin was in session that morning, and the intent of the Jews was to get him on the cross? They went to great lengths to get him on the cross. And if it was their custom not to have someone on a cross on a Sabbath day, why did they work so hard to get him on the cross by 9 a.m., only to turn around at noon or 2 or 3 and try to get him off?

Because he shouldn't be there on the Sabbath. Kind of stupid, isn't it? Unless the Sabbath was about to come on. Unless it was nearing, you see. Indeed, for the Sabbath, starting at sunset, was a high day. It was the night to be much observed. It was the first day of unleavened bread, the first holy day of unleavened bread. That's what it says right here in verse 31.

The body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day. And the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Verse 41. Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.

And in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus. Why? Because of the Jews' preparation day, because the tomb was nearby. It was getting late. He died about 3. Joseph of Arimathea had to go find Pilate, get a release, allowing him to go get the body. The sun's now getting laid. It's probably 5. Getting close to 6 o'clock. They get the body. Another individual brings some spices. They just barely have enough time. They've got an empty grave. Somebody's got it. We put them in there.

We roll the stone clothes. And the sun sets. It's a holy day. You can't do anything with it. The next day is Friday, the preparation for the weekly Sabbath. Then you have the Sabbath. The next time anybody has a chance to come out and work with the body, it's Mary Magdalene before sunrise on the first day of the week. She shows up probably with some various things to anoint, wrap, re-wrap the body, treat the body the way you normally would when you aren't in such haste.

So we see he was buried at the end of the day. He was crucified at the end of that particular day, or during that day, but died by the end of that day. It all took place neatly on Passover. It's all about Jesus Christ, all the way right to the Son. It was all about Him. At about three o'clock there was darkness, there was death, there was a veil split in two, there was an earthquake, there was a resurrection.

It was all about Jesus Christ, all day long. And we're to take those symbols in remembrance of Me, He said. Jesus Christ was sacrificed on the 14th, and He was sacrificed to take away our sins. And He said, do this in remembrance of Me. It would be almost blasphemy to commingle Christ's sacrifice with our own meaning. Take the bread that was about His sinless body broken, but be eating unleavened bread on that first day, the same day that represents ourselves. That's what unleavened bread represents. It represents you. To be commingling the meanings and the importance, the weightier things of those two days.

That's not what God did at all. In 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 6, we find the purpose and meaning of the holy day of unleavened bread that followed Passover, described by the Apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6-8, your glorying is not good. It's not about you. You need to get the self out of the way now. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the leaven that you may be a new lump.

The bread, you see, the unleavened bread is now you. Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. When we eat unleavened bread during the days of unleavened bread, that's you, that's me. It's actually three different things. It's the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. It is the unleavened bread that represents the sinless individual that we're trying to become, humble. And as Paul talks about it, it's a communion that we take with each other.

It represents the body of Christ as the members of the body. We're not in this alone, you see. We're in this together to love each other. And it's a symbol of all of us trying to help each other go this way of life, come out of sin.

So the unleavened bread, the very following day from Passover, has a totally different picture, totally different meaning. Passover, it pictures Jesus Christ, and the next day it pictures you, me, and the church. Therefore, verse 8, let us keep the days of unleavened bread, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of our sincerity and truth, not a symbol of Passover.

Note that also eating leavened bread is okay on Passover day. Why? Because it's not about us. That's not until the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On Passover day, that whole 24-hour period, unleavened bread only represents Jesus Christ during the Passover service. It has no other meaning. That's why we don't eat it. That's why it's not part of Passover day. It says for seven days we're to put leavening out of our home. Not for eight, just seven. So we begin to find then that unleavened bread is given to us as a realization that we have been set free from slavery to sin. What are we going to do with it? We need to walk. We need to move. We need to go out with a high hand and rejoice and appreciate the liberation, but do something with it. Faith without works is dead. We've got to move. And our journey out of sin begins with the night to be much observed. The evening at the beginning of the first day of unleavened bread is a very special evening in the Church of God. On this evening, most members invite other members to their homes to enjoy a meal and fellowship. Others may choose to gather in a restaurant or similar location to celebrate the evening. Currently, most members gather in small groups, in homes, or other locations. We find mention of this evening in Exodus 1242. It is a night to be observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. Totally different meaning than the Passover. That's the night they traveled. It was about them. It was about their journey. It was taking off with unleavened bread.

Other translations render this expression a night of watching or to keep vigil. We celebrate the evening in commemoration of these events from long ago, as described in the pages of the Bible. We also recognize the symbolism for a Christian today. As the Israelites departed from Egypt, so we must repent of sin. As we remove leavening from our homes, we symbolize our repentance of sin and our acceptance of Christ's sacrifice as our Passover. It is only through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ that our sins may be removed from us. The night to be much observed is the first holy day of the spring. It begins the first holy day of the spring. It is a joyous occasion that we celebrate in worship of the great God.

The Days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover are harmonious. One leads into the other, and that leads into the Feast of Pentecost, and that leads into God's timetable into the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and what we call the Last Great Day, that eighth day of the Feast. It's an individual meaning for each of those celebrations.

The Days of Unleavened Bread picture God leading us away from Egypt, out of our bondage to sin, after baptism.

In conclusion, in Luke 22, verse 14, when the hour had come, Jesus sat down on the twelve apostles with Him, and then He said to them, With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. The New Testament Passover is a memorial of Christ's death and of His suffering.

All of this is described in great detail as taking place across the day of the 14th of Nisan, not at any other time. We can observe this memorial of Christ's death in confidence, knowing that we are doing just what He taught. So, brethren, as the Passover comes to us in about a week and a half, let us deeply appreciate the symbols of His death and of His suffering, which allow us to move from sin, to have freedom from slavery to our old nature, and pursue God's righteousness and His kingdom ahead.