Revelation 22:1 + 3 “…the throne of God and of the Lamb” – One Throne, One Person on it. The Holy Spirit uses this language to emphasise that the Lord Jesus is both the One who died for us and the Eternal God. (vs3 – 4 “… His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.”)
The Lamb is and always was God; equal with the Person of God who in the Book of Revelation is described as “Him that liveth for ever and ever” [Revelation 5:14, 10:6]. And equal, of course, with God the Holy Spirit.
Only as One equal with God could He function as The Lamb.
It required the sinless Blood of God to achieve man’s Salvation. We are told that “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins” [Hebrews 10:4] – that is permanently. But take all the righteous men in the world according to God’s Word – Job, Noah, Daniel – could their blood have atoned for anyone’s soul? Not at all. So how could any other human being do that?
Let us consider the Principles of God’s Dealing with Man in his now fallen state –
Jesus Christ is “the Lord from Heaven” [1 Corinthians 15:47]. He came as God; “Emmanuel – God with us” [Matthew 1:23]. He remained God in whatever growing up stage He was in. Men saw Him as a Man, who was God in human form. His behaviour all the way through was that of God. The way He walked, the way He talked, His mannerisms, the way He looked at and reacted with people, were all in the way God did those things.
He was God upon the Cross. He was God in Hell. He was God raised from the dead – “My Lord and my God” exclaimed the believing Thomas! [John 20:28] !
Paul put it like this : “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…” [1 Timothy 3:16]
Taking on human flesh did not change Him. He didn’t become anything else other than what He always was – God!
It was His own Authority as God that He put aside in order to be The Lamb. He was sent by God in Heaven and the Holy Spirit, as a Servant, to be totally obedient to the Will and the Word of God
Isaiah 48:16b “… and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, hath sent Me.”
Also, Christ repeated many times : “He that sent Me…” [John’s Gospel ].
John 18:37 “… To this end was I born…” This terrible end of being bound and dragged from one High Priest to another High Priest, of being beaten all night with rods and spat upon and reviled and pushed and shoved around, of being bound again and dragged away to Pilate the Governor, before whom He stands to tell him this. He still faced His audience with Herod in which He suffered terrible indignity, and the scourging and the crown of thorns and the nailing to the cross, and the suffocating agony of crucifixion… - and the horrible pit of Hell, as well…
And how did He react to all this :
“Let My sentence come forth from Thy Presence; let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” [Psalm 17:2].
Can you see that, this prophetic statement from Christ on the Cross? He waited for God’s Judgments upon Him on behalf of all Mankind to be completed. “Let My sentence come forth from Thy Presence”
“let Thine eyes behold the things that are equal.” He proclaimed to God in Heaven that He was willing for His terrible and violent sufferings and the pouring out of His Blood to be the equal Price to be paid for the terrible evil and wickedness of Man’s sin… The violence of His sufferings and Death had to be equal to the violent rebellion in Man against God…
The Lord Jesus Christ alone in the Godhead experienced death… The very Title “The Lamb” speaks of death. The Old Testament was by the death of a clean and innocent animal – the lamb being amongst those whose blood was poured out.
The New Testament is by the Blood of Jesus poured out – the perfect atonement for the sins of the world. The sin of unbelief in men’s hearts is corrupting and stifling; it bars man’s contact with his Creator. Atonement, cleansing for transgressions and our sinful nature is vital if we are to be saved from God’s wrath!
Only by the real Presence of the Holy Ghost within a soul [you], will that soul [you] fully understand the enormity of our sinfulness as a human being !!
He came to be our Lamb for a burnt offering – as Abraham foretold, “My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” [Genesis 22:7]. He submitted Himself to the Will of God in Heaven. “Lo”, He said, “I come … I delight to do Thy will, O My God…” [Psalm 40:7 – 8].
He came giving Himself as a Perfect and Complete Sacrifice. The very reason for all those Old Testament laws of shedding blood was to teach us that “without shedding of blood is no re-mission” [Hebrews 9:22] – no sending away of sin; no forgiveness, no pardon from a Holy God. Please dismiss this teaching that says Christ's Death was not in Sacrifice! It is false teaching; false doctrine!
A perfect life, innocent from the crime committed must pay the price if the condemned is to go free. It is the Meeting of Justice and Mercy; the desire for Righteousness to have its Laws satisfied and at the same time for Love to have the sinner restored. Psalm 85:10 expresses all that…
Psalm 85:10 “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
Hebrews 9:25-28 “…but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
Ephesians 5:2 “Christ … hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” – If God punished us all as we deserve, He would never have the Family His heart yearns for, would He?!
So we should understand that as The Lamb, the Lord Jesus did NOT come of Himself. He came as One with no power over His own Life or Will.
A lamb is a creature that does not resist at the point of slaughter. It is entirely submissive and compliant. It remains silent; it does not scream or bellow as other animals do. It does not draw back, but gives itself to the inevitable death.
He willingly set Himself to fulfil that Will. He had a body prepared for Him [Hebrews 10:5]. And He gave Himself to God in that Body…
The Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb means :
He Fulfilled the Scriptures
Mark 14:49 “I was daily with you in the [outer] temple teaching, and ye took Me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.”
Through His Death as the Lamb of God, He fulfilled God’s Eternal Plan for both Salvation and Judgment. From Genesis to Revelation God’s Word proclaims Salvation and Eternal Blessing for Obedience to God, and Damnation and Eternal Curses/Punishment for Disobedience to God. In this He revealed the Truth, for God’s Word IS Truth, and Christ is the physical expression of the Truth.
John 18:37 “… and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth… (Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice” – a statement worthy of notice!)
John 17:17 “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.”
Christ as The Lamb, giving Himself in total Willing, Loving Obedience has revealed in Himself the Way to achieve Salvation and avoid Eternal Damnation. Salvation is having Christ as your Lamb; Damnation is not having Christ as your Lamb…
He Came For Everyone
Exodus 12:3 “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.” – Translate that into New Testament times, our Church Age : “take every man a Lamb; a Lamb for an house”…
Revelation 13:8b “… the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Every one of us should have Him as our Life. Jesus Christ is absolutely right for every single human being.
Then the lamb which each household took was to be eaten – “roast with fire” [Exodus 12:8]. It provided a good meal to sustain them for the journey ahead.
Does He keep you going and growing daily, through His Word? Didn’t He say, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you” [John 6:53] He is able to fill every life with the Joy, the Peace, the Love, the overflowing Blessings of Heaven…
He Has Broken The Finger of Accusation from Satan
Luke 22:31–32 “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you [plural – ie. all of them, all of us], that he may sift you as wheat:”
Revelation 12:10–11 “… the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
The understanding that Satan’s finger of accusation is broken because of the Blood of The Lamb takes us a step further from the Balance between the Righteousness and the Mercy of God – the need to punish the crime while showing love to the criminal…
It is the Legality of the Substitute Death that has to shut the mouth of the Accuser. His accusing finger is broken! If we believe that God has put away our sin forever by the Blood of The Lamb, then we have the Victory over all the accusations. We overcome Satan by the Blood of the Lamb! The overcomer knows that the Justice of God demands punishment for sin, but he has faith in the Mercy of God which has placed it all upon Christ who gave Himself to that end.
The Lamb delivers us all from the same things as the Israelites were delivered from : the bondage of Satan, the pull of the world, the lusts of the flesh… Egypt represents the world, a Kingdom run by Satan. Egypt is the first “head” of the seven heads on the beast, the man we call the Antichrist, and Satan. None of this is insignificant…
Leviticus 20:26 is just as appropriate for us today in this very slack and fleshly Age...
“And ye shall be holy unto Me: for I have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine.”
The Book of Revelation shows the Final End of the only Two Choices each one of us must make. We either serve the flesh, or we serve a Holy God by the Holy Spirit through the Poured Out Blood of The Lamb… And The Church of Jesus Christ has been called out exactly as that ancient Nation was called out.
God is Love, but He is Love and Just and True because He is Holy. There is no wrong in Him; no defect in His reason; no malice in His heart against any created being. All His Judgments are Right; no Punishment or Plague poured out will be unjust. In God’s New Order, every human soul and every created spirit will be in their rightful Eternal Place.
Revelation 22:1 + 3 “…the throne of God and of the Lamb”. So when all has been completed and settled, He will be admired and worshipped as both the Eternal God, and the eternally wounded Lamb.
There is a wonderful Future ahead of you. Make your Right Choice daily and you will be There!!
Thursday, 1 March 2012
Monday, 23 January 2012
THE THINGS WHICH MUST COME TO PASS BEFORE
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST RETURNS PHYSICALLY TO THIS EARTH
Fifty years ago, when I first came to Christ, His Second Coming was commonly preached. He was expected to come as a thief, to come for His own, and that the world would wake up to the fact that many people had “disappeared”. This event was called “The Rapture” – the catching away of those who were watching and waiting for Him to come. Not a lot was taught of what would happen after the Rapture – but it was definitely this that was meant by the “Second Coming of Christ”.
Today, there are more and more high profile Christian teachers and denominations proclaiming that they are waiting for Christ to come back to the earth, completely ignoring the Rapture – the Day of Resurrection for the Church…
I would like to put to these who hold a non-Rapture doctrine certain Scriptural points that reveal clearly that if they are alive when Jesus Christ returns to earth, this is what they must expect :
The formation of a World Government with one Commerce and Financial System, one currency, one religion, under one world ruler.
After a series of world rulers, one man, an Assyrian – Iraqi – will emerge and be elected world ruler through his flatteries. He will behave as a man of peace. The Temple will be rebuilt and he will re-establish the Levitical Sacrifices under a Covenant with the Jews.
After three and a half years, this world ruler will break the Covenant. He will stop the sacrifices in the Temple, and enter it to proclaim himself God. As those Jews who realise he is not their Messiah back away from him, he seeks to destroy them.
The holders of this non-Rapture doctrine may witness or hear about the miraculous removal of these people – 144 thousand Israeli households to a safe place…
They may also be made aware of a ferocious battle between Michael and Satan, resulting in Satan being forced out of his dominion around the earth to the limits of this earth alone.
This will be the time when Satan, finding a “vile person” in the form of the then present world ruler, will occupy his body, giving the former man of peace the authority to proclaim himself God of the world. He is then officially the man of sin, called “the beast” in Revelation …
Having authority from the Lamb Himself, the man of sin, “the beast” – the lawless one – will force the inhabitants of the entire world to receive a mark upon them in order to buy and sell.
These holding this non-Rapture doctrine will have to comply with that.
They will also, as inhabitants of the world at that time, be made to worship this man of sin and the image of the man of sin which will be created (cloned).
Over the next three and a half years, they will also experience the fulfillment of the long-prophesied Plagues of the Sword, the Famine and the Pestilence with Wild Beasts.
Moreover, throughout this time, a series of Seven Plagues will trouble the earth, among which plagues the waters will be turned to blood.
In addition to these Plagues, the Two Witnesses will also prevent rain and administer Plagues as they will.
The lack of rain and the burning up of grasslands and trees, and cargo ships traversing the seas will all contribute to the Famine.
Will these people be able to cope with this?
Above all these catastrophes, millions of devils will be released over the earth. And this is a significant point – they are commanded (by the Lamb Himself) to hurt those adults who do not have the seal which those 144 thousand Jewish households received earlier!!! That is everyone else! Apart from the Two Witnesses and the Remnant of Israel in their safe place, of course.
My sincere question is, Are these people prepared for this? Do they really understand that this is the Program of God for this world, BEFORE the Lord Jesus Christ takes over this world as KING and GOD?
Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed before He returns with His Church and saints from the Old Testament. The Battle of Armageddon will ensue and the Great Slaughter, 200 miles of blood-shed, destroying all those who come to confront the Lamb.
All these above points are based on Scripture. The Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, etc, the Psalms, the Gospels – Christ’s own teaching of events before His Return to earth – Paul’s teachings to the Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation contain all these truths…
It will be no fun to be left behind when Christ comes to snatch His faithful ones away from what is to come upon the earth ! There is only ONE Resurrection unto Life. Please make sure you understand God’s Plan for the Future.
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST RETURNS PHYSICALLY TO THIS EARTH
Fifty years ago, when I first came to Christ, His Second Coming was commonly preached. He was expected to come as a thief, to come for His own, and that the world would wake up to the fact that many people had “disappeared”. This event was called “The Rapture” – the catching away of those who were watching and waiting for Him to come. Not a lot was taught of what would happen after the Rapture – but it was definitely this that was meant by the “Second Coming of Christ”.
Today, there are more and more high profile Christian teachers and denominations proclaiming that they are waiting for Christ to come back to the earth, completely ignoring the Rapture – the Day of Resurrection for the Church…
I would like to put to these who hold a non-Rapture doctrine certain Scriptural points that reveal clearly that if they are alive when Jesus Christ returns to earth, this is what they must expect :
The formation of a World Government with one Commerce and Financial System, one currency, one religion, under one world ruler.
After a series of world rulers, one man, an Assyrian – Iraqi – will emerge and be elected world ruler through his flatteries. He will behave as a man of peace. The Temple will be rebuilt and he will re-establish the Levitical Sacrifices under a Covenant with the Jews.
After three and a half years, this world ruler will break the Covenant. He will stop the sacrifices in the Temple, and enter it to proclaim himself God. As those Jews who realise he is not their Messiah back away from him, he seeks to destroy them.
The holders of this non-Rapture doctrine may witness or hear about the miraculous removal of these people – 144 thousand Israeli households to a safe place…
They may also be made aware of a ferocious battle between Michael and Satan, resulting in Satan being forced out of his dominion around the earth to the limits of this earth alone.
This will be the time when Satan, finding a “vile person” in the form of the then present world ruler, will occupy his body, giving the former man of peace the authority to proclaim himself God of the world. He is then officially the man of sin, called “the beast” in Revelation …
Having authority from the Lamb Himself, the man of sin, “the beast” – the lawless one – will force the inhabitants of the entire world to receive a mark upon them in order to buy and sell.
These holding this non-Rapture doctrine will have to comply with that.
They will also, as inhabitants of the world at that time, be made to worship this man of sin and the image of the man of sin which will be created (cloned).
Over the next three and a half years, they will also experience the fulfillment of the long-prophesied Plagues of the Sword, the Famine and the Pestilence with Wild Beasts.
Moreover, throughout this time, a series of Seven Plagues will trouble the earth, among which plagues the waters will be turned to blood.
In addition to these Plagues, the Two Witnesses will also prevent rain and administer Plagues as they will.
The lack of rain and the burning up of grasslands and trees, and cargo ships traversing the seas will all contribute to the Famine.
Will these people be able to cope with this?
Above all these catastrophes, millions of devils will be released over the earth. And this is a significant point – they are commanded (by the Lamb Himself) to hurt those adults who do not have the seal which those 144 thousand Jewish households received earlier!!! That is everyone else! Apart from the Two Witnesses and the Remnant of Israel in their safe place, of course.
My sincere question is, Are these people prepared for this? Do they really understand that this is the Program of God for this world, BEFORE the Lord Jesus Christ takes over this world as KING and GOD?
Jerusalem will be utterly destroyed before He returns with His Church and saints from the Old Testament. The Battle of Armageddon will ensue and the Great Slaughter, 200 miles of blood-shed, destroying all those who come to confront the Lamb.
All these above points are based on Scripture. The Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, etc, the Psalms, the Gospels – Christ’s own teaching of events before His Return to earth – Paul’s teachings to the Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation contain all these truths…
It will be no fun to be left behind when Christ comes to snatch His faithful ones away from what is to come upon the earth ! There is only ONE Resurrection unto Life. Please make sure you understand God’s Plan for the Future.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
THE SIGN OF THE PROPHET JONAS
Matthew 12:39 – 40
“But He answered and said unto them [the scribes and Pharisees, v28], An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
We have long been persuaded that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on a day we call ‘Friday’. Certainly we believe that He rose again on the first day of the week, which we call ‘Sunday’, but how does that make “three days and three nights” from Friday ??
In every day life we are able to mark the passing of days very simply ! Take the Chilean miners trapped underground recently, for example :
The tunnel collapsed on Thursday 5th August, 2010. On Sunday 22nd August news was received that all 33 miners were alive and well. The men were said to have been underground for 17 days. That Sunday was the 17th day! 22 minus 5 = 17. Obviously!
Who or what has blinded our understanding and corrupted our reasoning concerning these important Scriptures ??
The hold that Roman Catholicism held over the world was never totally destroyed by the Reformation. Its corrupting influence pervades into every Protestant denomination, including the Pentecostals. The G.S. of Elim, John Glass, recently referred to Peter as “the rock”, misinterpreting as usual Matthew 16:18. And the incessant habit of addressing the Lord Jesus Christ personally simply as ‘Jesus’ is strongest in all charismatic and Pentecostal groups. This is all Papist infiltration; an anti-Christ spirit to denigrate the Lord of Glory to an inferior status.
BASIC FACTS
In providing an answer according to the Scriptures on this issue of “three days and three nights”, we must start with what we do know; what is immovable.
The Lord Jesus was raised from Hell and the tomb on the first day of the week [Matthew 28:1 – 6; Mark 16:2 – 6; Luke 24:1 – 8 (note v7); John 20:1 – 9]
The Sabbath before which the bodies had to be removed from the crosses was the seventh day of the week [Genesis 2:1 – 3; Exodus 16:25, 20:8]
The Passover lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the month [Exodus 12:6; (1 Corinthians 5:7)]
THE PASSOVER FEAST
1 Corinthians 5:7 “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
Matthew 26:2 “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.”
So we are assured that whatever the Jews’ arrangements were in those days for the Passover Feast, Christ had to die on the fourteenth day to fulfil the Law of the Feast of Passover…
We read in Matthew that the disciples enquired about their personal arrangements for the Feast on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They were given specific instructions which they followed and would then have prepared the necessary dishes for the ‘seder’ – the order of service [Matthew 26:17 – 19].
v20 “Now when even was come, He sat down with the twelve.” This is when the fourteenth day begins ! [Genesis 1:3, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 – the marking of Hebrew days was from one evening until the next evening].
We can only presume, not being historians or theologians !, that by that time, in order to cater for the many thousands of Jews resident in Palestine and Jerusalem, and the Diaspora, pouring into the city and the temple where the lambs were kept, inspected and killed under the authority of the religious leaders, participants of the Feast were able to collect their lamb on the thirteenth day. Then from that evening until the following evening, marking the fourteenth day, the Passover Feast would be actually celebrated in accordance with the Law in Exodus 12.
Mark 14:12 – 17 gives the same account as Matthew : “And in the evening He cometh with the twelve.”
Luke 22:7 “Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed.” … 14. And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.”
Slightly different words, but the same order of things, and a very poignant emphasis of the importance of keeping that Fourteenth Day.
John gives specific details which took place during the seder. His is quite a different account, found from John 13:3 – 38.
THE CRUCIFIXION
However, John also gives us some very pointed phrases to help us form our conclusion :
John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the passover and about the sixth hour [about 9 o’clock] : and he [Pilate] saith unto the Jews, Behold your King.”
John says “the preparation of the passover”, not “the preparation of the sabbath” which Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak of; an entirely different day !
John 19:42 though also says, “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.” This is the preparation of the Sabbath.
The preparation of the Passover which John first speaks of, would appear to mean that the Passover Feast was under way, being celebrated by those thousands of Jews. The chief priests had not yet partaken of theirs, as John 18:28 reveals. They would have partaken after the thick darkness had passed, and as Christ, the True Passover, died at the time of the evening sacrifice.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Matthew 27:57 – 58 “When the even was come, there came a rich man … Joseph … went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.”
Mark 15:42 – 43 “And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph … went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.”
Luke 23:54 “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.”
John 19:42 “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”
All these speak of the next day. The next evening had come; the Passover Feast was over ! The day of preparation had begun – a day after the Passover to prepare for the weekly Sabbath.
Now we have to think sensibly, and put right out of our minds all the pre-conceived deceptions we have been fed for so long !!
If this next day was the Sabbath, how could the thieves have died in that short time after Christ had died as the Passover Lamb, and, even more importantly, their bodies removed from their crosses before that next evening came ? How could Joseph have gone to Pilate to ask for the Lord’s Body on the Sabbath ??
How could he have had the opportunity to buy the linen for the shroud, or the ointments on the Sabbath ? What time was there for him to have waited for the two thieves to die, after their legs were broken, before he could claim the Lord’s Body, and prepare Him for burial, before resting on the Sabbath ? Nothing adds up !
THE FIFTEENTH DAY
This is the day after the Passover; the Passover itself was a Sabbath [Exodus 12:14 – 16]. This fifteenth day is called “the Jews’ preparation day” – the day before the normal Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. Except that in this case it was called “an high day” [John 19:31], because it was within the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.
John 19:30 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.” – on the Passover Feast Day, the fourteenth day of the month…
v31 “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away…” They came to Pilate on this fifteenth day, as Joseph did.
Luke 23:52 – 54 “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. … And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.”
During this day, from the evening after the Passover Feast until the next evening before the Sabbath, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves and found that the Lord was already dead. Later that day the thieves died and the bodies were able to be removed. Joseph had at some point claimed the Lord’s Body, receiving Pilate’s permission, prepared it with the ointments and linen he and Nicodemus had bought, and closed up the tomb in the sight of the women.
THE SIXTEENTH DAY
Matthew 27:62 “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying … Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day…”
So this is now the Sabbath – the day following the day of the preparation for the Sabbath. Knowing what the Lord said about rising again on the third day (although the poor disciples still did not know !), the priests and Pharisees thought they would make sure there was a watch on the tomb until the seventeenth day !
They could count ! 14 plus 3 = 17.
Luke 23:55 – 56 “And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
So Luke shows the obedience of the women. Again, if the Sabbath was the day following the Passover Feast Day, what time would they have had to prepare these spices and ointments before that evening ? And it would have meant two Sabbaths one after the other… Besides, they were in shock over their Master’s sudden trial and execution; only the sight of His actual burial prompted them to prepare the spices, realising that it was all over… (as they thought !)
THE SEVENTEENTH DAY
Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week…”
Mark 16:1 “And when the sabbath was past…”
Luke 24:1 “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning…”
John 20:1 “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark…”
Psalm 119:62 “At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judgments.” Hallelujah ! Christ is risen from the dead !
CONCLUSION
In order then to see the fulfilment of the Scripture, we must realise that the day when Peter and John prepared the seder for the last Passover before Christ died was what we call ‘Wednesday’. When the evening came, that marked the beginning of the fourteenth day, the Passover Feast; to us ‘Thursday’. Christ died before that evening. The thieves were not yet dead, so their deaths were hastened the next day, the “day of the preparation”; a day to prepare for the “high” Sabbath, the sixteenth day. By the time the Lord rose again on the first day of the week, He had been dead, His body in the tomb, His soul in Hell, for three nights – Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. And the days :17 minus 14 = 3 days. Glory to God !!
There is yet another revelation to this. Genesis 8:4 says that the ark rested on the seventeenth day – it was a foreshadowing of resurrection; a new beginning for God and His people !!
Matthew 12:39 – 40
“But He answered and said unto them [the scribes and Pharisees, v28], An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
We have long been persuaded that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on a day we call ‘Friday’. Certainly we believe that He rose again on the first day of the week, which we call ‘Sunday’, but how does that make “three days and three nights” from Friday ??
In every day life we are able to mark the passing of days very simply ! Take the Chilean miners trapped underground recently, for example :
The tunnel collapsed on Thursday 5th August, 2010. On Sunday 22nd August news was received that all 33 miners were alive and well. The men were said to have been underground for 17 days. That Sunday was the 17th day! 22 minus 5 = 17. Obviously!
Who or what has blinded our understanding and corrupted our reasoning concerning these important Scriptures ??
The hold that Roman Catholicism held over the world was never totally destroyed by the Reformation. Its corrupting influence pervades into every Protestant denomination, including the Pentecostals. The G.S. of Elim, John Glass, recently referred to Peter as “the rock”, misinterpreting as usual Matthew 16:18. And the incessant habit of addressing the Lord Jesus Christ personally simply as ‘Jesus’ is strongest in all charismatic and Pentecostal groups. This is all Papist infiltration; an anti-Christ spirit to denigrate the Lord of Glory to an inferior status.
BASIC FACTS
In providing an answer according to the Scriptures on this issue of “three days and three nights”, we must start with what we do know; what is immovable.
The Lord Jesus was raised from Hell and the tomb on the first day of the week [Matthew 28:1 – 6; Mark 16:2 – 6; Luke 24:1 – 8 (note v7); John 20:1 – 9]
The Sabbath before which the bodies had to be removed from the crosses was the seventh day of the week [Genesis 2:1 – 3; Exodus 16:25, 20:8]
The Passover lamb was killed on the fourteenth day of the month [Exodus 12:6; (1 Corinthians 5:7)]
THE PASSOVER FEAST
1 Corinthians 5:7 “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
Matthew 26:2 “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.”
So we are assured that whatever the Jews’ arrangements were in those days for the Passover Feast, Christ had to die on the fourteenth day to fulfil the Law of the Feast of Passover…
We read in Matthew that the disciples enquired about their personal arrangements for the Feast on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They were given specific instructions which they followed and would then have prepared the necessary dishes for the ‘seder’ – the order of service [Matthew 26:17 – 19].
v20 “Now when even was come, He sat down with the twelve.” This is when the fourteenth day begins ! [Genesis 1:3, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 – the marking of Hebrew days was from one evening until the next evening].
We can only presume, not being historians or theologians !, that by that time, in order to cater for the many thousands of Jews resident in Palestine and Jerusalem, and the Diaspora, pouring into the city and the temple where the lambs were kept, inspected and killed under the authority of the religious leaders, participants of the Feast were able to collect their lamb on the thirteenth day. Then from that evening until the following evening, marking the fourteenth day, the Passover Feast would be actually celebrated in accordance with the Law in Exodus 12.
Mark 14:12 – 17 gives the same account as Matthew : “And in the evening He cometh with the twelve.”
Luke 22:7 “Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed.” … 14. And when the hour was come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.”
Slightly different words, but the same order of things, and a very poignant emphasis of the importance of keeping that Fourteenth Day.
John gives specific details which took place during the seder. His is quite a different account, found from John 13:3 – 38.
THE CRUCIFIXION
However, John also gives us some very pointed phrases to help us form our conclusion :
John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the passover and about the sixth hour [about 9 o’clock] : and he [Pilate] saith unto the Jews, Behold your King.”
John says “the preparation of the passover”, not “the preparation of the sabbath” which Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak of; an entirely different day !
John 19:42 though also says, “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.” This is the preparation of the Sabbath.
The preparation of the Passover which John first speaks of, would appear to mean that the Passover Feast was under way, being celebrated by those thousands of Jews. The chief priests had not yet partaken of theirs, as John 18:28 reveals. They would have partaken after the thick darkness had passed, and as Christ, the True Passover, died at the time of the evening sacrifice.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Matthew 27:57 – 58 “When the even was come, there came a rich man … Joseph … went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.”
Mark 15:42 – 43 “And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph … went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus.”
Luke 23:54 “And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.”
John 19:42 “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.”
All these speak of the next day. The next evening had come; the Passover Feast was over ! The day of preparation had begun – a day after the Passover to prepare for the weekly Sabbath.
Now we have to think sensibly, and put right out of our minds all the pre-conceived deceptions we have been fed for so long !!
If this next day was the Sabbath, how could the thieves have died in that short time after Christ had died as the Passover Lamb, and, even more importantly, their bodies removed from their crosses before that next evening came ? How could Joseph have gone to Pilate to ask for the Lord’s Body on the Sabbath ??
How could he have had the opportunity to buy the linen for the shroud, or the ointments on the Sabbath ? What time was there for him to have waited for the two thieves to die, after their legs were broken, before he could claim the Lord’s Body, and prepare Him for burial, before resting on the Sabbath ? Nothing adds up !
THE FIFTEENTH DAY
This is the day after the Passover; the Passover itself was a Sabbath [Exodus 12:14 – 16]. This fifteenth day is called “the Jews’ preparation day” – the day before the normal Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. Except that in this case it was called “an high day” [John 19:31], because it was within the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover.
John 19:30 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.” – on the Passover Feast Day, the fourteenth day of the month…
v31 “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away…” They came to Pilate on this fifteenth day, as Joseph did.
Luke 23:52 – 54 “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. … And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.”
During this day, from the evening after the Passover Feast until the next evening before the Sabbath, the soldiers broke the legs of the thieves and found that the Lord was already dead. Later that day the thieves died and the bodies were able to be removed. Joseph had at some point claimed the Lord’s Body, receiving Pilate’s permission, prepared it with the ointments and linen he and Nicodemus had bought, and closed up the tomb in the sight of the women.
THE SIXTEENTH DAY
Matthew 27:62 “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, Saying … Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day…”
So this is now the Sabbath – the day following the day of the preparation for the Sabbath. Knowing what the Lord said about rising again on the third day (although the poor disciples still did not know !), the priests and Pharisees thought they would make sure there was a watch on the tomb until the seventeenth day !
They could count ! 14 plus 3 = 17.
Luke 23:55 – 56 “And the women also, which came with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
So Luke shows the obedience of the women. Again, if the Sabbath was the day following the Passover Feast Day, what time would they have had to prepare these spices and ointments before that evening ? And it would have meant two Sabbaths one after the other… Besides, they were in shock over their Master’s sudden trial and execution; only the sight of His actual burial prompted them to prepare the spices, realising that it was all over… (as they thought !)
THE SEVENTEENTH DAY
Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week…”
Mark 16:1 “And when the sabbath was past…”
Luke 24:1 “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning…”
John 20:1 “The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark…”
Psalm 119:62 “At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto Thee because of Thy righteous judgments.” Hallelujah ! Christ is risen from the dead !
CONCLUSION
In order then to see the fulfilment of the Scripture, we must realise that the day when Peter and John prepared the seder for the last Passover before Christ died was what we call ‘Wednesday’. When the evening came, that marked the beginning of the fourteenth day, the Passover Feast; to us ‘Thursday’. Christ died before that evening. The thieves were not yet dead, so their deaths were hastened the next day, the “day of the preparation”; a day to prepare for the “high” Sabbath, the sixteenth day. By the time the Lord rose again on the first day of the week, He had been dead, His body in the tomb, His soul in Hell, for three nights – Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night. And the days :17 minus 14 = 3 days. Glory to God !!
There is yet another revelation to this. Genesis 8:4 says that the ark rested on the seventeenth day – it was a foreshadowing of resurrection; a new beginning for God and His people !!
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