Why Are the Holy Days Special?

We're going to be celebrating here in the next week or two. They're called the Passover season. It's called the Days of Unleavened Bread, obviously. You could call it the Spring Holy Days. These days are days that some of you have been observing for close to 50 years or more. And so, that's very familiar. That's very common to you, and it's common to me for that part. But all of us have observed the Holy Days as opposed to the Holidays that we know come around every year. And actually, you can tell what holiday is coming up just by looking at the candy aisle in the store. As soon as they get rid of the Halloween candy, they have the Christmas candy. And as soon as they get rid of the Christmas candy, they've got the Valentine's candy. As soon as they get rid of the Valentine's candy, they've got the Easter candy. As soon as they get rid of that, they've got some other candy in there. And so, it's a perpetual cycle. Now, all through the year, people are inundated with the celebration of holidays that are really totally, totally different than our celebration of Holy Days. And so, I want us to think about the upcoming Holy Day season. I want us to be thankful that God has allowed us to understand something about these Holy Days. But I'd like for us to think about the significance. It's really sad that, for the most part, people in this world don't know anything about the Holy Days. You try to describe the days of Unleavened Bread, they've never heard of it. Now, Pentecost, you know, that's one that at least people who are church-related might have a little more awareness of. But you talk about the Feast of Tabernacles. That's unheard of. The Day of Atonement or the Feast of Trumpets. That sounds very Jewish to most people. You know, if they know anything about it at all, they assume it's some Jewish festival. And yet, all of us are very familiar with the Holy Days, and we look forward to observing them. And yet, we want to always remember why. Why? You know, those days are so special. Why they are so different. And it's not a matter of, oh well, the next Sabbath is coming, or the next Holy Day specifically is coming. You know, there's a special understanding, a special benefit that we have by acknowledging these days. Now, there's one Holy Day designated here or identified in John chapter 19.

One that actually would help many, many people if they acknowledged it at all. But they don't. They don't acknowledge that what John is identifying in John 19 verse 31 to be a Holy Day of God. This is, of course, talking about Jesus' death. It's talking about in verse 30, Jesus received the wine, He said it is finished, He bowed His head, gave up His Spirit. This is right at the time when Jesus had been crucified, and He was dying. He was dead at this point. Now, John makes a statement in verse 13. Now, since it was the Day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the Sabbath, especially because that Sabbath was a day of great solemnity. That's what my translation says. Yours, if you've got the King James or New King James, it says that Sabbath was a high day. Any other translation that any of you have with you? Does it say anything else about that particular day?

A special day? That's one of them that I have read. Anybody else have anything? I think most of you probably have the New King James. I think that says it was a high day. So, they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken, and the bodies removed. See, now, what's revealed there in that particular verse is virtually unknown. It's almost completely unknown to most people on earth that what John recorded and what he wrote about here was the fact that as Jesus died, as he was then allowed to be prepared and then placed in the tomb, that this was on a day of preparation before a high Sabbath day. A high holy day. And, of course, what this tells us and what it reveals is the fact that Jesus was actually able to be in the tomb for three days and for three nights exactly as he said. See, most people think that they observe anything religiously. They think somehow through Friday evening and through the Sabbath, and then sometimes Sunday morning that three days and three nights occur. I think you just cannot put that in that time frame. There has got to be a larger time frame that Jesus was speaking about that he was going to be in the grave. And I think I mentioned to you, I know we do have in the good news this past time a very good little chart, a nice little chart that shows exactly how it was that Jesus was in the grave for three days and three nights. And maybe we should go back to Matthew 12 because this is a statement.

This is actually a statement that Jesus makes, and he's the only one.

He's the only one who says, how long I will stay in the grave. You don't read this in the Old Testament. You don't read it. You do read that how he's going to die. You do read how he's going to suffer. You do read that he's going to be buried.

You do read he's going to be resurrected. But it doesn't tell us in the Old Testament how long is he going to be in the grave. We do have the example of Jonah, of course. And then this is the statement that Jesus makes here in chapter 12 of Matthew.

Matthew 12. In verse 38 he says, some of the scribes and Pharisees said, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. And he answered to them and said, An evil and adulterous generation ask for a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.

So for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth.

And so here he was giving a direction. He was giving an instruction. He was giving an explanation of a sign of who he was, a sign of his messiahship, a sign of the worship that he deserves. Because clearly they didn't appreciate what he had to say. They didn't appreciate how it was that he talked to them. You know, they wanted to try to put him down and wanted to try to ignore him. But what you find Jesus doing is that he was saying that I'm going to be in the grave for a period that would end up being 72 hours. And so if we can determine when it was that he was put into the grave and then we can count three days beyond that, three days and three nights, then we'll know when it was that he when he was he was resurrected. And of course, I know, you know, all of you know when that is. But I'd like for us to just, you know, be thinking about. See, in many ways, John 19 31 is so misunderstood. It's so misunderstood so that people in some way conclude that, well, that must be meaning a regular Sabbath. And yet it's not at all. As I mentioned, and as Paul mentioned, that there are different translations that translate, you know, this day was a high day. That's what we find in the King James. I've seen it translated a special Sabbath, a day of solemnity. It is in a Jewish publication. It's an especially important Shabbat, especially important one of special solemnity. A great one is another translation. A great Sabbath day, an important day, a holy high day. A lot of different translations translate that particular section in John 31 or 19 verse 31 in different ways. But what you find when you look at, well, what are they looking at as far as when they translate that Greek into whatever it is, you know, that they put down in English, what it's indicating, you know, it is a day that is, you know, it's predicated of rank, things that are esteemed highly for their importance. You know, it was a great day. It was a high day. It was a holy day. Now, it doesn't directly say holy day. And yet, that's what it was because it was the first day of the days of Unleavened Bread. You know, all of us are familiar with what we read in the Old Testament. We're familiar with when the Passover would be observed, and then the day following that would be a high holy day. And again, you know, I was wondering now, holy day, do you read that anywhere in the Bible? Do you read that statement? Holy day. And I couldn't really even think of this, so they had to help me up in Fulton to tell me where that says, it says that. I know there are other instructions that we're going to read through here, some of these, but I was wondering now, where does it say? Who can tell me where it says, holy day?

Some of you surely know. It is. There are a few places that I think you find the reference, you know, to a holy day. Certainly, you've got illustrations of the fact that a day is a special day, is a special Sabbath, it is a day that is commemorated by God to have a holy convocation. I mean, those are the words of Leviticus 23, which we'll read here in a little bit. Actually, you might want to go back. This again was told to me this morning, so I will give full credit to the people up in Fulton. But in Nehemiah chapter 10, Nehemiah chapter 10, it's interesting.

As Nehemiah was assisting and helping in the restoration that was occurring, they were talking here in Nehemiah 10 about how it was that they needed to set things back up so that we can be restored, so the Sabbath will be respected, so people will be able to do what they're supposed to do. And it says in verse 30, we will not give our daughters to the people of the land to take their daughters for our sons. In verse 31, Nehemiah 10, 31 says, and if the people of the land bring in merchandise or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, we will not buy it from them on the Sabbath or on a holy day. And we will forego the crops of the seventh year and the extraction of every death. So here it's mentioned, even in conjunction with it, it mentions the Sabbath specifically as a day that, you know, would be a day of the week, but then it also mentions any holy day. We'll also respect those. And also you find in Isaiah 58, this is at least the way my translation, the one I generally use, translates this. In Isaiah 58, it says, if you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, this is in verse 13, Isaiah 58 verse 13, if you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interest on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and you call the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not giving your own way or serving your interest, your own affairs, then you shall take delight in the Lord. And so there you see a reference to the Sabbath being described as a holy day. And yet, you know, it's not the only holy day, as we're going to clearly see. You know, the Sabbath is a weekly reminder. The Sabbath is a weekly holy day, in a sense. But we also have annual holy days that God describes. So I hope we can keep that in mind as we think about the days that are going to be coming up. We might just go through, you know, because during the week when Jesus died, during the week whenever He was crucified, He was placed in the tomb, during that latter part of that week, there were two Sabbath days. One, a annual Sabbath day on Thursday, and then, of course, the weekly Sabbath that was on Saturday. And I'd like for us to be able to just correlate that here in a couple of verses in Luke and in Mark, just to remind you again about what the sequence is whenever, you know, you read through this. Sometimes it can be a little confusing. People get confused. Actually, again, we've got very good articles in the Good News right now that describe this, go through that in great detail more than what I can do today. But here in Luke chapter 23, starting in verse 52, it's talking about Joseph who came.

It says, this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. In verse 53, he took it down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth, and he laid it in a rock-cune tomb where no one had been laid. In verse 54, it was the day of preparation. It was a day of preparation. Now, normally, you might think of that as being a Friday before Sabbath, but because of the unique situation that you see John describing in John 19, we know that, you know, the day, you know, right following Jesus' death was a hot day. It was a holy day. It was actually the first day of the days of unleavened bread, which would be an annual Sabbath.

And so, at this point, verse 54, when Jesus was being prepared to be put in the grave, it says it was a day of preparation. So, this was a time when they were getting ready before the high holy day, and the Sabbath was dawning, or it was beginning. See, again, this Sabbath was the first day of the days of unleavened bread. It was the high holy day that John talks about in John 19. And it says in verse 53, the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed. They saw the tomb. They saw how the body was laid.

They watched what was taking place. They watched how it was that Joseph and actually Nicodemus had been together, preparing the body of Jesus, putting it in the tomb, getting it ready, putting it in the tomb, apparently hurriedly, right at the time, you know, when the Sabbath would be beginning. And so, you know, it doesn't directly or specifically pinpoint the time. It just says, you know, that it was at that time as this first holy day, you know, was about to begin.

So, if we go back to Luke, we see what it says here. And, of course, you have to put these accounts together to be able to get the whole effect here. But here, it mentions in Mark 15, it talks in verse 42 or 43 about Joseph coming, you know, being given the body. And he was preparing it. Of course, it doesn't mention, you know, what we read in Luke about the women.

But it says here in verse 46 that he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. So, that was what, you know, Joseph and Nicodemus were actually doing. And in verse 47, it says, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus saw where the Bali was laying. And that's what we read also in Luke. But it says in verse 1 of chapter 16, and, of course, this may be a bad place to have a chapter break.

And, of course, those chapter breaks were put in there later. But it says, When the Sabbath was over. And so, this is referring to the fact that when this first Holy Day, this high day that John mentions, when this Sabbath, this annual Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices.

So, after the first Holy Day, which would have been on a Thursday, you know, either later that night or during the day on Friday, they were buying spices so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And so, you know, in order to have the time to do this, you know, they celebrated this high Holy Day. They then bought spices on Friday.

And then, back in Luke again, if we take a look at verse 56 there, Luke 23 verse 56, whenever you put these together, Luke 23, 56, it says, of course, verse 56, Then they returned and repaired the spices and the ointments. Of course, in the Lord Mark, it says they had to go buy them. They had to go prepare them. They wouldn't have been available on that high Holy Day anyway, and they wouldn't have been seeking them anyway. But on Friday of that week, they did go and get them. It says they prepared the spices. And then the last part of verse 56 on the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment. So, you actually have, as Jesus had predicted, that as He was put in the heart of the earth, that He would be there for three nights and for three days.

Again, there's no way to get that between Friday to Sunday, but between Wednesday evening, throughout the day, through Wednesday night, throughout Thursday, through Thursday night, throughout Friday, through Friday night, throughout the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, until in the evening when Jesus was resurrected. We're not told directly, except that it was 72 hours or three days and three nights after He was put into the grave, that He was resurrected from the dead. And of course, when we start reading in any of the accounts about the women coming to the tomb on the first day of the week, even here in Mark, you can read. Well, let's go back to Mark, I think.

Mark 16, verse 2, very early on the first day of the week when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb and they said to one another, who's going to roll away the stone? And they got there in verse 4. They looked up and saw the stone. It was large. It was already rolled back. It wasn't rolling right then. It wasn't rolling. One of the other accounts says the women were coming there while it was still dark. It was still dark, and yet as they could see it here, it was being rolled back. And as they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in white.

And it says, they said to Him in verse 6, or He said to them, Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified. He has been risen, or He has been raised, and He is not here. And so it wasn't a matter that He was being raised right then. He had been resurrected the Sabbath evening before. He had been resurrected Saturday night. And then as they came to check on Him Sunday morning after they had rested the Sabbath, as it says there in Luke, they were finding that He was no longer there. So, the way that Jesus describes the fact that He was in the grave during that time, and how that can be understood, and how I believe all of you certainly understand that, all of that has to be understood with a recognition of the Holy Day. It has to do with recognizing that during that week when Jesus was put to death, there was a high Holy Day that occurred, and that the period of time from that Thursday and Friday and Sabbath was the time frame that Jesus was in the grave. So, as we think about our upcoming celebration of the Holy Day season, just how special are the Holy Days to us? What do they convey to us? What makes these upcoming Holy Days so special? We'll be observing the Passover. We'll be celebrating the days of Unleavened Bread, beginning with the first Holy Day, and then seven days, and then the last Holy Day. Those are all very special time to God. And in a sense, they need to be a very special time to us. So, I'd like for us to just look at a couple of points regarding these Holy Days. How is it that a Holy Day is even defined? What is it that makes a Holy Day special? Back in Genesis 2, you see some information about the Sabbath that, of course, is in a sense kind of the beginning of what God shows about what makes a Holy Day special. What makes a Holy Day holy? Here in Genesis 2, verse 1, it says, "...as us the heavens and the earth were finished in all the multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that He had done. He rested on the seventh day from all the work that He had done. And so God blessed the seventh day. He blessed and He hallowed it, because on it God rested from the work that He had done in creation." So, here you see a designation of the Sabbath. You see, the Days of Creation in Genesis 1, and here as we get in the first part of Genesis 2, it simply notes that God rested during the Sabbath. He rested on that day as an example. He rested that on that day as an important example for man to follow. And, of course, He talks about how that, and we read this throughout other parts of the Bible, how that the Sabbath was made for man. It wasn't that God needed to rest, just like, you know, did Jesus need to be baptized? Well, you know, not to be forgiven, because He didn't ever sin. He never did need that, but He did that as an example. He did that as a service to mankind for us to know that, well, baptism is a requirement. It's a part of what we need to go through. But observing the Sabbath, understanding how the Sabbath is uniquely designed, and, of course, even in the Ten Commandments, we're told to remember the Sabbath day and to keep them holy. That's what Exodus 20 verse 8 tells us. But I want to go to Leviticus 23, because this is most specifically where we find what makes the Holy Day special. Here in Leviticus 23, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel. And say to them, these are the appointed festivals of the Lord, that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. These are my appointed festivals.

So here He starts enumerating specific days that He is going to define. And, of course, we know they're defined as days on the Hebrew calendar, and that has to be calculated to know when those are on our Roman calendar today. But here He's pointing out that these are appointed festivals that God is setting up for you. And, of course, He starts in verse 3 to say, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of complete rest. It is a holy convocation, and you shall do no work. It is the Sabbath of the Lord throughout your settlements. And so He starts off saying, well, there's a weekly holy day. There's a weekly Sabbath day that's a day that is set aside as being blessed, as being hallowed, as being special. You know, what's special about Tuesday? What's special about Thursday or Friday or Sunday?

As far as God is concerned, you know, those are all days of the week, but they're not special to God like the Sabbath is, like He says, you know, the Sabbath is to be. And then we read in verse 4, These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. And so here God goes beyond just the Sabbath as a special day, a day that was blessed and hallowed by God. He goes into describing in verse 5 in the first month on the 14th day of the month at twilight. There will be a Passover offering of the Lord, and on the 15th day is the festival of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day in verse 7, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not work at your occupation, but seven days you shall present offerings to the Lord by fire. And on the seventh day you are to have a holy convocation as well. So here he outlines what we know of very much as the Passover season. You know, the Passover day, the seven days of unleavened bread with the first day and the seventh of those days being days specifically designated by God to be holy convocations. See, that's actually what makes these days different. That's what makes them special. It doesn't make it special just because I observe it. Just because you observe it. We're told to observe it. But what made it special? What made it holy was that God defined that the Sabbath day would be hallowed and blessed. He defines that the holy days, as we think of them as the days of unleavened bread, the first and last day, these are days that God has specifically designated for mankind to recognize. And see, specifically, whenever people, you'll miss the point of John 19 verse 31, whenever they don't see and they can't even comprehend that this is talking about a holy day, this is talking about a high holy day. Can they also miss the understanding of how it was Jesus did exactly what he said? How it was that he was fulfilling everything that he was to fulfill, and he was going to fulfill even what he said about his own being in the heart of the earth? So, the thing that makes the holy day special is simply the fact that God is the one who designates them. He's the one who tells us that we should cause them to be a convocation that is holy because he's the one who has set that up. I'd like for us also to look in Exodus 3, because here in Exodus 3, we also learn another example regarding a holy situation here, and this involves Moses.

Moses in verse 1 was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the prince of Midian, and he laid his flock beyond the wilderness and came into Horeb, the mountain of God. And so, exactly where this is, I'm not sure. Some of you may be more specific about where this location was where Jesus through the... actually, we see it being the Lord of the Old Testament. We see the reference in verse 2 to the angel of the Lord, and that also appears to be referring to the one who would later become Jesus Christ in this case. He was the Lord of the Old Testament.

But somewhere, I would guess in, what, Saudi Arabia? I'm not as familiar with the geography over there. Somewhere, you know, there's a particular spot on earth that is spoken of here. Now, I would say that if anyone knew where it was, they'd probably try to venerate that. They'd probably try to honor that, but, you know, we don't really have that type of a location identified. But what we see is that Moses came here, and in verse 2, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush. And he looked, and the bush was blazing, and yet it was not consumed. You know, the bush was just on fire, and it was on fire, and it was on fire, and it was on fire, and it never did burn up. You know, any of you have done any kind of firewood burning, you know, it doesn't take too long for firewood to start burning up. You know, if you have to keep throwing things on for it to keep, you know, the intense heat or the flaming heat that you might have. And so, as he saw this, and it doesn't say how long Moses looked at this, he might have studied this for an hour or two and began to wonder, well, how come, you know, that flame just seems to be, you know, intense? It continues to be intense. It's not burning up the bush. It's not going away. Verse 3, Moses said, I must turn aside and look at this great sight. I need to go and see why this bush is not burned up.

In verse 4, when the Lord saw, and so this really tells us, you know, more so about who the angel of the Lord is, but when the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, then God called to him out of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here I am. And then God said to Moses, come no closer, remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you were standing is holy ground.

And he said further, I'm the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Moses had been intrigued initially, and yet, when he got over there, he realized, whoa, you know, I'm in a very serious situation here. I'm, you know, I'm being addressed by the God of the Old Testament. I'm being addressed by the one who I look to as the Lord. And, of course, what we see revealed here is that Moses was told to remove his sandals because the place in which he was standing was holy ground. Now, did Moses make it holy? Did his feet make it holy? Did his sandals make it holy? I know Moses didn't have anything to do with making it holy. What we find in this type of illustration and an explanation of that is that holy things, and in this case we see a description of holy ground, holy things have God's active presence in them. See, what caused this particular spot? See, and I don't know where it is, and again, if anybody did, they'd be making a big to-do about it, but holy things have God's active presence in them, and this was what Moses was encountering. See, he told him, you know, remove your feet because you're standing on holy ground. What caused that ground to be holy was the presence of God. What caused that ground to be holy was God's involvement in his, then his, discussion with Moses and with what he wanted Moses to do and how he wanted Moses to go. And, of course, if you read through chapter 3 and 4 and 5, you'll see how it was, you know, that Moses talked with him. He learned some things and he resisted a few things. God told him, you know, well, we can overcome all of that because I've got a bigger plan. It doesn't matter that you don't speak well. You might think you don't speak well, but you speak well enough, and even if that is a bother, then I'll have Aaron help you anyway. He can talk well. I'll include him in this deal as well. But what we find with this encounter as Moses came to, you know, the burning bush, was that God was the one who caused that ground to be holy. He was the one. His presence, his active presence caused that ground to be holy. And Moses was just drawn to it. He was attracted, and then he realized, I'm in the presence of God. And of course, you have numerous other illustrations where you read about Israel and you read about the tabernacle. You read about the Holy of Holies and the Holy Area outside the Holy of Holies. Why were those things holy? Well, because God designated them. He described what it was they were to do or how it was they were to make things. And just like we saw with the Sabbath or directly with the holy days as we went through those, God was the one who designated them. He's the one who tells us, we want to respect them and observe them. And so you find that there was a reason why this ground where Moses stood was holy. And the reason was that the active presence of God was there. And of course, God, as he was not only working with Moses, but as he was going to work with the people of Israel. He was going to work with the people that Moses was going to help deliver. See, what we actually find, maybe we should turn on over here to chapter 6.

Here in Exodus 6, he says in verse 5, I've heard the groaning of the Israelites and the Egyptians that are holding as slaves. I've remembered my covenant and I want you to say to the Israelites, I'm the Lord. I am the Lord and I... See, here's a detailed description of what he said he was going to do for the Israelites. He was going to do this through Moses. He was going to send Moses as his servant. But he said, I'm the Lord. I'm going to free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and I'm going to deliver you from slavery to them. And I'm going to redeem you with an outstretched arm and with the mighty acts of judgment. And then I'm going to take you as my people and I will be your God. You shall know that I'm the Lord your God who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. See, now this was part of what God told Moses in essence this kind of encounter where he told him that you're standing on holy ground. You are in the presence of the divine God. You're in the presence of the one who is able to make things holy. The one who designates holy days. The one who tells you what it is I want you to do. And actually, if you look at Deuteronomy 7, Deuteronomy 7 verse 6, he's here talking about Israel. Deuteronomy 7 verse 6, he says, You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the people on earth to be His people, to be His treasure possession. See, Israel was in a sense in many ways somewhat of a miserable lot. You know, they weren't really any better than anybody else. They weren't really that much more impressive. They weren't that much more powerful. They weren't larger. They weren't able to be victorious in some kind of battle without the help of God. And what he tells them here is that I want you to be my people. I want you to be holy. And of course, we see the translation from that over into the New Testament. Whenever he starts talking to us as the people of God today, he tells us that, well, you know, as I am holy, then I want you to be holy. How is it that we can do that? How is it we can achieve that? Well, he describes that here in 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. And we want to keep in mind what it was that he said and what he taught about Moses standing on holy ground. You know, it was holy because of the active presence of God. We want to remember that. We want to remember that in our own lives. We want to remember that as we go about doing our preparation and then our celebration of this spring holy day season. We want to do that because the active presence of God is needed. It's needed in each of us. It's needed in us as a group. It's needed in us as a church to be able to do the work that God has called us to do. But here in 1 Peter 1, he says in verse 13, therefore prepare your minds for action. Discipline yourself. Set your hope on the grace that Jesus will bring when He's revealed.

Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. But instead, as He who calls you as holy, be holy yourself in all your conduct. See, here we find that God's the one who makes something holy and directly in verse 6.15 here. He says, as the one who called us as holy. See, we receive or we see in different places how that you know God truly is holy. Holy is one of His names. God is the one who is continually praised by the angels as being holy. He's the one who has holiness to give. And His active presence in our lives is what causes us to be able to live up to what He's going to tell us here in verse 15 and 16. He said, as He called you or He who called you as holy, be holy yourself in all of your conduct. For it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. See, this is quoting out of the Old Testament. I didn't read that particular verse. I believe it's in Leviticus because, you know, as I am holy, I want you to be holy. I want you to respect what I tell you, and that I want you to thrive. To thrive with the Holy Spirit. See, He offers us the Holy Spirit. He offers us the Spirit of God. In verse 17, He says, If you invoke as Father, the one who judges all people impartially according to their deeds, live in reverent fear during the time of your exile. He talks about us being redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

And then down in chapter 2, He says in verse 1, Rid yourselves therefore of all malice, of all guile, of insincerity, of envy, of all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation, and if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. See, that's ultimately what Moses was going to find out. He's ultimately going to find out that the Lord was very good. The Lord was able to do what He told Him He was going to do as far as helping deliver the Israelites. But here He's talking to the people of God today. He's talking to the church, and He says in verse 4, Come to Him, who has a living stone, though rejected by mortals, yet chosen and precious in God's sight. And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And then as we drop down to verse 9, He says, But you are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. You are God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. So here He talks about us having been brought into the church of God, having been brought into a relationship with God where we respect holiness. We respect God's designation of holy days, of holy Sabbath, of even the fact that He can transform our lives. He can help us get rid of these problems that are described here in verse 1 of chapter 2. And He can live His life in us and cause us to be able to exemplify the type of holiness that He has. We can actually represent Him as we take on His divine nature, as we take on. See, that's ultimately the description of what we're all doing. We are able to do that through Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb. But we are in the process of doing that as we grow in the divine nature and through the power of the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit makes it possible in verse 10 where it says, Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God. See, the Holy Spirit is what causes us to be the people of God. It causes us to yield to Jesus Christ, and it causes us to be molded into a special possession that God is able to work through. And of course, what He tells us that we'll be doing is in verse 9 where He says, we're going to be proclaiming the mighty acts of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That's what we're doing is we proclaim the Kingdom of God. That's what we're doing is we have our seminars as we participate in our support of the Church as we're involved in the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. We are living lives that are growing in holiness. Now, being human, we have failures. We have failings. We have difficulties, and sometimes it's hard for us to recognize that, well, God wants us to live holy lives. He has given us the power to do that through the power of His Holy Spirit. You hear in 1 Timothy 1 Timothy 1, He tells us...

Or 2 Timothy, excuse me. Here in 2 Timothy 1, Timothy was needing to be reassured by Paul. He needed to be encouraged.

And he said, I'm mindful in verse 5 of your sincere faith, of faith that is live first in your grandmother, Mo, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and now I'm sure lives in you. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is in you. Rekindle the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit. He's not given us a spirit of fear. He's not given us a spirit of defeat. He's not given us a spirit of desolation. You know, the apprehension, the fear, the anxiety that we often suffer from. You know, those are things that, you know, God is able to overcome. He goes ahead to say, you know, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He's given us a spirit of power and a spirit of love and a spirit of a sound mind. See, that's the type of a power that God makes available to us. And yet, He initially starts that process by helping us recognize who is holy, what is holy, and how He wants us to become holy. See, and that's a part of what we're doing as we celebrate these upcoming holy days. And as, of course, you know, most people completely miss the point of the time of Jesus' death, of how it was He was in the grave, just simply because they don't acknowledge a holy day from God. And the holy day was very clearly a part of the week when Jesus gave His life for us. So I hope that in going through some of this, that it can be helpful to you to realize that holy things have God's active presence in them.

And if I'm going to be a holy thing, if you're going to be a holy thing, if you're going to be a holy son or daughter of God, then God's active presence has got to be there, just as it was in the days of Moses, and as it is as we read about the holy days directly themselves. So, you know, God is the one who sanctifies holy time, and thankfully He shares that with His people. You know, He tells us these are my appointed festivals, and we appear before them because it's an appointment with God. It's an appointment with God, an appointment that we celebrate, an appointment that we appreciate. Of course, His active presence then is not only just available, it is something that we utilize in being able to truly celebrate the holy day season. And so I truly wish, you know, that we can look to this holy day season, even though there is a a certain amount of seriousness, a certain amount of a solemn and somber tone to the Passover. It's also a time of great joy. It's a time of great victory. It's a time of great triumph. And as we go into even beyond that, the days of Unleavened Bread, you know, let us do that with joy, with zeal, excitement, and be thankful, you know, for how God is the holy God is revealed to us. You know, how we, through the power of His Holy Spirit, can also be holy.