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Welcome to studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us even as we see the day approaching. And now, here's Gary. Psalm 118 talks about and prophesies Jesus riding into Jerusalem. Psalm 118:22. The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And of course, the day being referred to there is the day when Jesus actually comes and accepts the throne of David. And then verse 25 says, Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee. Send now prosperity. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. God is the Lord, which hath showed us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, I will praise thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt thee, O God. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And those words are the words that the people all shouted when Jesus came into town riding a donkey. They all said, as recorded in the New Testament. They said hosanna, which is written in the old Testament, verse 25 of Psalm 1:18, as save now, I beseech thee, O Lord, save now yashama, which we in English call hosanna, which means save us right now. And they also said, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Baruch haba b' shem o', donoi, which is the Messianic greeting. So there were a lot of people who accepted Jesus as Messiah when he rode into town. As Jesus spoke to his disciples before his crucifixion, he said, I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth until you shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Baruch haba b' shem oronoi, the messianic greeting. And so that was Palm Sunday. He rode into town and prepared for that which was to come, which was Passover and his crucifixion. When we think of this season, we always review the Passover, because Christ is our Passover. First Corinthians 5:7. Purge out, therefore, the old leaven that you may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. And this is a fascinating statement made by Paul he says, purge out the old leaven. Of course, in Passover, or the days leading up to Passover, houses are cleaned. In fact, I think that's where spring house cleaning came from, really. The search for chomets, or the search for leaven in the Jewish home in the days prior to Passover is commanded. Basically, it is a command. So Paul takes that idea of cleaning a house up prior to celebrating the Passover, and he applies it to the individual life, the individual body. He says, purge out, therefore, the old leaven. We're going to be reading that complete passage from Paul. He's saying that just as a housewife might search for her house and purge her house of dirt and grime before Passover, so we are to search ourselves and purge out the leavening, that is, purge out anything unclean before we contemplate the fact that Christ is risen. You know, it's interesting. Let's Turn to Matthew 27 and begin a study on Passover, which will begin this week and conclude next week. Next week we're going to talk about the articles of the Passover, the Seder, of course, we'll have an Easter Communion next week. Jesus was crucified. And there's something that's interesting in the book of Matthew, chapter 27, where at the burial of Jesus, there was a transaction that took place that we don't commonly think about. Matthew 27:62. This is the little brief narrative of Jesus burial. And it says now, the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, sir, we remember that the deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Guess who's talking here? There's a confab between the Pharisees and Pontius Pilate. By the way, we call him Pilate, which in English sounds like somebody that drives an airplane. His real name was Pontius Pilate. In Latin, Pilate. It kind of sounds like an evil man's name to me. I don't know why. But we call him Pilate because in English you pronounce it that way. But here we have Roman authority meeting with Jewish authority about the burial of Jesus. And they clearly know that there's no doubt in their mind what Jesus said about his resurrection. Here we have totally ungodly people saying, while he was yet alive, he said, after three days, I'll rise again. So it was not a secret. My point is that the resurrection of Jesus was not then, nor has it ever been a secret. It's the world's biggest unkept secret. There are a lot of people who try to conceal the idea. And particularly in our age. The resurrection of Jesus is thought of as a kind of mythology or fractured history. And it didn't really happen. Intellectuals don't believe that Jesus really rose from the dead. That was just kind of a story made up by people. But everybody knew about it. Everybody believed it. Everybody knew it happened. And everybody tried to cover it up. I say everybody, most of the people in Jerusalem tried to cover it up. Certainly the authorities did. And here they are seen planting for the eventuality. Verse 64. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure. In other words, we want a guard placed there. So here the Pharisees are coming to Mr. Pilate, and they are saying to him, we want a Roman guard on that tomb. This is a covenant between the leaders of Israel and the leaders of Rome. Make no mistake. This is a covenant between apostate Jews and Rome right here at headquarters in the office of the Roman procurator, who, by the way, reports directly to Caesar. And the reason I'm making this point is because Jesus, death, burial and resurrection was not a secret. It didn't take place off in some far corner where nobody would notice. There was no attempt to hide what happened. There was every attempt made to publicize it, even to the point that the enemies knew about it and they were afraid that it might happen here. The Pharisees certainly didn't think that Jesus would rise from the dead. But they thought, well, maybe his body will be stolen. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away. And say unto the people, he's risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, you have a watch. In other words, go your way, I'll do it. You have a watch, go your way. Make it as sure as you can. So they went, made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Now, the Romans knew how to guard things. The Romans were a military culture. Centurions took their duties seriously. And as you might imagine, a centurion had a hundred people under his authority. And each of these hundred people under the authority of a centurion would be quite capable of fending off anyone who might come with any mischief in mind, like rolling away the stone and stealing the body of Jesus. So here we have in the Bible proof positive from the mouth of Pilate himself that the tomb couldn't have been Opened on the third day by man. And I think, this is wonderful. It's in the book. People didn't come and open the tomb. I mean, you don't go up against Roman authority and a bunch of soldiers carrying spears and swords, who know how to use them, by the way. So command that the sepulcher be made. Sure. Well, just a few verses later, in the end of the Sabbath, Starting in chapter 28, verse 1, in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. These big rolling stones in front of those tomb doors would be maybe 6, 8, maybe even 10ft. A large tomb. And here's an angel sitting on top of the rolling stone. I just think that's amazing. What a picture. Great earthquake. The angel of the Lord descended from heaven. Usually when we think of the angel of the Lord, we think of the Old Testament. How many times does the angel of the Lord appear to people in the Old Testament? And why does the angel of the Lord appear? Usually it's because an important event has happened or is about to happen. Well, here he is again. The angel of the Lord descended from heaven, came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him did the keepers shake and became his dead men. These are Roman soldiers, by the way. And the angel answered and said to the women, fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He's not here, for he is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay. He's risen as he predicted that he would be risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he's risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee, and there ye shall see him. Lo. I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring the disciples word. The greatest event in the history of the world. It is the singular event, the resurrection of Christ. There is no other event. On a scale of 1 to 10, the resurrection is about a thousand and everything else is about a 2 or a 3. It's the greatest thing that ever happened before or since. It is why God created this whole thing that we call humanity. God created this, that we think of as our planet, our world, our life. He created it for the purpose of redemption. And the focal point of redemption is right here. A few people, a tomb, a tombstone, an angel rising from the dead. And by the way, appearing to women first. And I like that idea. Jesus didn't have this hierarchy of powerful men all dressed in fabulous costumes and carrying great big purses of gold. That was not the way he organized things. Jesus came as the Redeemer, and he came as the seed of the woman. Remember back in Genesis 3:15, the oldest prophecy in the Bible, where God said there would be a great battle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman? Well, the seed of the woman came, and he became the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He came through the virgin Mary. And then when he was killed and when he was resurrected, he appeared first to women. There were three women at the foot of a cross, all named Mary. By the way, you know what Mary means in Hebrew? Mariam means rebellious. And I've always wondered why you would name a woman Mariam. Rebellious. I mean, that's a terrible name to give a little girl. And yet that was the girl. That was the woman who ate the fruit in the garden so many thousand years ago and cast sin upon mankind. And now, through the woman, to the women, all named Mary. And here, look at this. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary again. A couple of Marys, a couple of rebellious women by their name. And thus the rebellion that was commenced in the garden was brought to full closure by the death burial. And now the resurrection of Christ. Women are more than fully included in redemption. Women are one of the chief elements of the redemption. He is not here, for he is risen, as he predicted that he would be risen. Go quickly. Tell his disciples that he's risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. And you shall see him there. Lo. I have told you. Mark 16:6. The angel is recorded as having said, don't be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He's risen. He's not here. Behold, look at the place where they have laid him. The shed blood of Jesus Christ and his resurrection provide the only ground for salvation. Period. And I hate to tell you this, but we live in a world which now says that there are many, many, many ways to get to heaven. There are many, many, many ways to get to God, no matter what you call him. You know, God has a lot of Names, Vishnu, Allah. Got a lot of names. No, he doesn't. He is the name. He is Hashem. He is the Lord our God. Yahweh, Tzid, Kenu. He is Jehovah. And he said on numerous occasions, my name's Jehovah. My name, the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection provide the only ground for salvation that is available to man. I know that. I know that. You know that. Do you realize how valuable a piece of knowledge that is? That's like knowing the formula to a machine that makes gold. I have invented a machine that will turn out gold. All you have to do is plug it in the wall and you have to know the combination. And then you turn it on and just put your hat under the slot and gold just comes out. As long as you leave it turned on. You want one of those? Yeah, you'd like to have one of those, wouldn't you? Well, you got to know the combination. I can give you the combination. That's the kind of thing we have in the knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection provide the only ground for salvation. That's gold. That's better than gold. That's like knowing the combination to the machine that makes gold. It is the greatest piece of knowledge that you can possess and it's being kept a secret. People don't want other people to know that the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Christ, which we are going to be celebrating for the next week or so. Of course, we celebrate it 365 days a year. But this time of the year, as we go into the Passover season, we begin to think more seriously of it. His body was broken for us. His blood was shed for us. And of course, the body and the blood are the symbols of eternal life. You know, one of the things that was given to Moses by God, one of the observances is that on all other days of the year you can eat bread, just bake bread and eat it. But on Passover, you want to eat unleavened bread, pure bread. We know why he is that bread that came down from heaven. Let's turn to the Gospel of John. And when we begin to think of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I think it's fitting that we turn to one of his greatest sermons. John, chapter six. Christ had fed 5,000 people. He had then sailed across the Galilee. He had walked on water. The next day, the people who were standing on the other side of the Sea of Galilee located Jesus and by this time, one thing had become perfectly clear to Jesus and his disciples. One thing had become very clearly demonstrated, and that is the people were coming to hear Jesus speak because they thought that he was an endless supply of sandwiches, fish sandwiches, bread and fish. Just pass them out one after another. They just thought he had the endless supply. And this whole demonstration of feeding the 5,000 was to prove that point. You're not coming to me because I am the spiritual bread that came down from heaven. You're coming to me because you want me to pass out bread to you so you'll never be hungry again. Verse 35 of John chapter 6. Right after the people had said to him, lord, evermore give us of this bread. Wow, a slot machine gives bread. Verse 35, Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me and believe not, all the Father hath given me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will nowise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but but the will of him that sent me. This is the kind of preaching that Jesus did when he talked to people. You realize how rare it is to get a personalized sermon, to hear a transcription of what he actually said. I think this is as close as you'll ever get to it right here. This is like having been there with a recorder by the side of the sea and recording his words. Notice the way he talks. He just freely speaks of his Father in heaven. And verse 38, he freely speaks of having come down from heaven, just like it was no big deal. For I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which he hath sent me. That of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day, Resurrection day. He's speaking to people who understand. He's speaking to Jews. And they all know about the resurrection. And they have prayed for Messiah, and they have prayed for kingdom, and they have prayed for the day of Resurrection. And they all believe it. Jesus is speaking to them very, very matter of factly, saying, well, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. And I'm the one that will raise the righteous at the last day. And he speaks these words as though it's no big deal. This is just the truth. But the Jews began to be disturbed. And by the way, they are just the first in a long, long, long, long, long line of people who get. When you start talking about the deity of Jesus Christ, you want to get into a fight, just go talk to somebody about the deity of Christ. Christ was not an ordinary mortal man. He was the Son of God, born of a virgin who was made to conceive by an act of God. And already you're in trouble with a lot of people. They just don't want to believe that I believe it. The Jews, verse 41, then murmured at him, because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven. Now he's the unleavened bread of Passover. Jesus is the unleavened bread of Passover. We know that. And at Passover, when the Jews break the bread, the they take the three matzo portions and they break one of them and hide half of it and find it again at the end of Passover. And that is called the afikoman. When the Jews throughout the centuries have taken the bread and broken it, they are simply doing what was done once for all time, a long time ago. And you see how it happens right here. The Jews murmured at him because he said, I'm that bread which came down from heaven. In their hearts, they were willing to break the bread. And by that I mean they're already saying, this guy's a phony. We need to get rid of him, even to the point we need to kill him. And they will arrive at that point before long. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said to them, murmur not among yourselves. No man come to me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up again at the last day. Jesus says this over and over again. I will raise him up at the last day. This is before Jesus crucifixion, and he's already talking about resurrection. He says, I personally, I, Jesus, will resurrect a believer at the last day. This really disturbed people very much so. Verse 45. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh to me not that any man hath seen the Father Save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. And then he says it again, I am that bread of life. Christ is our passover. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Christ is our passover. He is the bread that was broken for us, and he came to be broken. Don't you think that as he's speaking these words to these people on the Sea of Galilee, that he knew very well that he was the bread of life which came to be broken? He knew very well what the assignment was, and it was a horrific assignment. Only the Son of God could have done it. No other human who has ever lived could have done this. Verse 49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is a direct insult at the thinking of the Jewish individual of the first century, because the miracle of the manna, the bread of life in the desert, was the highest miracle a Jew could think of concerning bread. It was the bread that saved the life of the Israelites. And Jesus says, you think manna is something? They're dead. They ate manna and they're dead. I'm the bread of life. This he says, verse 50, is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh. And there he just comes right out and says it, I am the Passover matzo flat out says it, and I'm going to be broken. The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves. They got into an increasingly vile argument, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Now, here is the passage that we've always referred to as an act of God. Because all through the Bible we find one truth about God, and that is, he will speak to his people. And if they resist what he says, he will not make it easier for them to hear. He will make it harder for them to hear. And if they resist further, he will not make it easier for them to hear. He will make it harder, and if they resist further, he'll totally deafen them and blind them so they can't hear at all. This is called the principle of judicial blindness. And we see it over and over and over again. One of the best known examples, 734 BC, Israel sinned against God. And God said, I'm going to send an affliction against you, and I'm going to send prophets to warn you that if you do it again, the next affliction will be even worse. They sinned against him again. They killed his prophets. And in 722 B.C. the Assyrians came and destroyed them all, carried the 10 northern tribes to the four corners of the world because they would not hear the words of God and change their ways. Here is a microcosm the infliction of that kind of judicial blindness. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus says to them, verily, verily, I say unto you, omin ome. When he says verily, verily in Hebrew and in Greek, it's omen, omen. And it means, I swear by myself, because there is no other greater than myself. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of God and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. He says it again and again and again in this sermon. I'll raise him up at the last day. I, Jesus, will raise him up. Jesus is the resurrection. There's no other way to have eternal life than through Jesus. And that's what this season of the year brings us to. When we think about the unleavened bread and when we think about the cup, and we haven't talked about the cups yet, but we will when we think about these things, we return always to a very simple principle, that there is no life outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. That sounds harsh and dogmatic, but hey, I believe the Bible. What can I say? Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. I'll raise him up the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. And don't you know that as he spoke these words to this crowd who are not at all prepared to hear these words, that they're shocked to their very tippy toes. They're flabbergasted. He's suggesting we eat his flesh and drink his blood, and they have no idea what he means. They have no idea that he would become part of us and we would become part of him by faith. It's called baptism. It is called communion. It is called koinonia. It's the central principle of our belief in the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did, eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. And by the way, that synagogue is still there. It's a ruin, but it's there. I think it stands as a tribute to the works of man. Essentially, it's just rocks. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. This is difficult. Who can understand it? When Jesus knew it himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said to them, does this offend you? What if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. Well, this is the very foundation stone of the season that we are now moving into. The season of Passover, the Gentile Easter. The bread of God is he which has come down from heaven. Wow. Turn to 1 Corinthians 5. First Corinthians 5. 5. Paul says, there's sin in the camp. There is sin among you believers. And he talks about an individual who has sinned. And then he says in verse 5 of 1 Corinthians 5, to deliver such one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. And Paul here is speaking of Jesus as the unleavened bread of Passover. Therefore he says, let us keep the feast not with the old leaven, but with neither the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And by the way, when we take communion, we speak of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have accepted him spiritually by faith. Not literally eating his flesh and drinking his blood, but yes, literally in a metaphoric and spiritual way, eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Because we are a part of Him. He's a part of us. It's an astounding truth as we read in John. And I wanted to go from the idea of the unleavened bread to John 17:20, where Jesus is praying for believers on the night of his crucifixion. I don't have time to read the whole prayer. In fact, I need four hours today. I'm just getting warmed up. I may need five hours, but I'm going to try to keep it down somewhere near an hour. This is an exciting topic for me. I could go. Just bring me a glass of water and I'll go until 6 o' clock this evening. John 17:20. Neither pray I for these alone. Jesus is praying his high priestly prayer on the night before his crucifixion, but for them also, which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe Thou hast sent me. He's praying here. An interesting prayer. He says, father, I pray that there can be the same kind of unity between those who believe in me as there is between me and you. Well, what kind of unity is there between Jesus and the Father? It's tri unity. It is absolute unity. The Spirit, the Son and the Father are one. We can't understand that. Human beings can't grasp this. It's way beyond us. But metaphysically we understand that Jesus wanted us to be as close to God as He is part of God. How does that work? I don't know. I'm not smart enough. One of these days we'll see it and we'll say, oh, so that's how it works. I didn't understand that. So Jesus is praying and he says, and the glory which Thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. And then verse 23, the first seven words of verse 23 are maybe the most important seven words in the Book Bible. All monosyllabic words. And by the way, if you read the Greek language, there are seven monosyllables in Greek as well. Seven monosyllabic words. I in them and thou in me. Very simple language, just kindergarten language. And yet it's beyond our wildest imagining to understand what it means. I in them and Thou in me. How does that work? By faith I believe it, and I accept it. Intellectually, I can't understand it. One of these days I will. When I get resurrected. And by the way, I will be resurrected. I can tell you that with 100% certainty. I can't say the same for all of you. If you're going to be resurrected. You know it. You already know it, right? I don't have to tell you. That's between you and the Lord. I in them and Thou in me. That they may be made perfect in one. And that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. I've never beheld the glory of Christ, never beheld his glory at all. Which, by the way, I can't wait to see. I mean, that's going to be a big day when I first get to see the glory of Christ. Overwhelming. It almost stops me cold to even talk about it. Which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. And these have known that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Absolutely, totally amazing. Passover is redemption from bondage and is celebrated with four cups of wine. The first cup is called the cup of sanctification. The second cup is called the cup of thanksgiving. The third cup is called the cup of redemption. And the fourth cup is called the cup of completion. And those four cups are named after four statements made by God to Moses. Exodus 6, 6, 6, 7. Wherefore, say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. That's the cup number one. I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. That's called the cup of sanctification. And I will rid you of their bondage. That's the second cup. It's called the cup of thanksgiving. And I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. That's the third cup, the cup of redemption. And I will take you to me for a people. And I will be to you a God. And ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Egypt is a type of the world, symbolically in the Old Testament, Egypt represented the world. And when Israel was enslaved there for 400 plus years, it was symbolic of that which would later take place on a larger scale with the Diaspora. The miracles, the 10 plagues with which God freed the Israelites from Pharaoh are archetypes of the great plagues yet to come in the tribulation time, at which point Israel will be rescued, brought back together again the second time and raised up as a nation after a number of plagues have taken place, this time on a world scale, not just an Egyptian scale, but the cup of redemption has already been consumed. There's only one cup left, and that's the cup of completion. And completion is when the Jews are brought into the kingdom. Jesus. Luke 22:17 he took the cup, he gave thanks, and he said, take this. Divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink this fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks and broke it. And he gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Well, as you put all these things together, you see that the body and the blood of Jesus is written all the way through the Bible. The unleavened bread, the lamb eaten quickly, the blood on the doorposts, all of that looks forward to ultimate redemption. The Passover Seder, when the first cup of wine is taken at passover. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who distinguishes between the sacred and the secular, between light and darkness, between Israel and the nations, between the seventh day and the six days of activity. You have distinguished between the holiness of the Sabbath and the holiness of a fe festival, and have sanctified the seventh day above the six days of activity. And so the Jews take the first cup, called sanctification. They take the second cup, the cup of redemption. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors from Egypt and enabled us to reach this night, so that we may eat matzah. And it goes on from there. Matzah being unleavened bread. The third cup, the cup of redemption. Fear the Lord, you his holy ones, for there is no deprivation for his reverent ones. Young lions may want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good. Give thanks to God, for he is good. His kindness endures forever. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Then the Lord will be his security. This is the cup of Redemption, which Jesus took with the disciples. And it's the cup that's mentioned that he took in the upper room, that third cup, the cup of redemption, which led to his completion of everything required for the next stage of salvation. The next stage is called completion, the fourth cup. At the taking of the fourth cup, may your name be praised forever our King, great and holy King in heaven and on earth. Because for your is fitting, O Lord our God and for the God of our forefathers. Song and praise and lauding and hymns and power and dominion and triumph and greatness and strength and praise and splendor and holiness and sovereignty and blessings and thanksgiving from this time and forever Blessed are youe, O Lord our God, King exalted through praises, God of thanksgiving, Master of wonders who chooses the songs of praise King, God and life Giver of the world. So the Jews, when they take that fourth cup, are looking forward to God as king when he comes and sets them up in their kingdom. We as Christians are celebrating the third cup, the third cup of redemption. But we're all looking forward to the last word in the Passover seder at the taking of that fourth cup. Lashanahaba ba Yerushalayim next year in Jerusalem. This is the cry of the Jew, but it's also the cry of the Christian. We want the Holy City to be set up. We are looking forward to God's rule and reign. Why? Because we've been promised to rule and reign with him. Because of our faith in his shed blood and his broken body. He is the four cups personified. The first three have been accomplished. The fourth one is yet to come, and we're going to be a part of that one, because we're going to be a part of the armies of Jesus that return at the end of the tribulation period to help him to set up the kingdom for the Jews. Around the second century, the celebration of Christ's resurrection took place at Passover. So really, for almost 250 years, people were celebrating the resurrection of Christ on Passover. But in the second century, there was a growing hatred of all things Jewish, and the church officially decided to separate itself from Judaism. Easter is now connected not with the Paschal New Moon, but with the Paschal Full moon. Easter Sunday is officially calculated as the Sunday after the first Pascal Paschal full moon, usually coinciding with March 21st and the equinox. Having said all that, the importance of this day to me has very little to do with dates anyway, except as the Jewish calendar lays out God's Prophetic pattern. He rose on the first day of the week. John, chapter 20. First first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark. Unto the sepulchre seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. And then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciples whom Jesus loved. And saith unto them, they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they've laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together, and the other disciple did outrun Peter came first to the sepulchre. And he, stooping down, looking in, saw the linen clothes lying. Yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre. And he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. You know, we read these words every resurrection day, every year. And yet the meaning hidden in these words is an incredible thought that I wanted to talk about for a moment. We have Peter and John running to the tomb. And of course, there have been all kinds of depictions of this event. It's got to be, as I said, the greatest event in the history of not just humanity, but in the history of the universe. And when Peter and John went into that stone tomb, they saw the grave clothes arranged in a certain way, as though Jesus had penetrated right through the cloth and left it lying just as it was. And furthermore, the sudarion, or head clothing that was wrapped around his head was stolen. It was not unwrapped, as though there was a head still in it. And it was in a place by itself. It was not rumpled up with all the other grave clothes. And here's what I want to mention. This is written by John, verse 8 of chapter 20. Then went in also that other disciple. That's John. He calls himself that other disciple, very humble. When he writes, he. He doesn't mention his own name which came first to the sepulcher. And he saw and believed. Here's John, who had walked with Jesus for over three years. At this moment, he becomes a believer. Did you ever stop and think about that? That's amazing to me. He wasn't A believer until that moment. What does that mean? That means, among other things, John wasn't anybody special. He was a human being like the rest of us. Seeing is believing. He walked with Jesus, saw the miracles. He knew that Jesus talked with God. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God. He knew things about Jesus that none of us know, I'm sure. And yet it was not until this moment when he looked down and saw those clothes. And I think that Jesus body was in some way dimensionally converted when it arose, that allowed it to pass through those garments and through, even through the stone of the tomb into the kingdom of heaven, so that nothing physical was disturbed. And John and Peter looked down and they saw that and they had an instant recognition. Wow. Nobody, no human did this because the clothes weren't unwrapped, the sudarion, the head cloth was still wrapped up in a place by itself. And he believed. Now, just hours before, just hours before, they had all celebrated Passover, the Passover supper, commonly called in Christendom the Last Supper. And when we look at Passover seders, that supper has a title, and it has had a title for literally thousands of years. It's called Feasting for Freedom. It's called From Bondage to Freedom. When Jews keep a record of what they're required to do, it's always associated. Passover is always associated with being prisoners and having been freed. That's the theme of Passover. When Jesus first appeared, he came as the Lamb of God. You remember, John announced him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb of God is the centerpiece, or was the centerpiece of Passover until the Diaspora, at which point the Jews quit sacrificing lambs because the destruction of their temple meant that they could no longer sacrifice lambs in the appropriate way. And so they stopped sacrificing lambs. Looking at the Passover Haggadah, a Passover story, or the Passover Seder, you find that on the night of Jesus Passover. And by the way, think about how little time elapsed between the Passover evening meal and Peter and John discovering Jesus body in the tomb. Just a few hours, three days, a very, very little time that changed the whole world. Now, when you have Passover, it is required that you have four cups. And I have here a Passover symbolic Seder that is laid out. Four cups are required that every son of Israel must consume every Passover. And without the taking of the four cups, there is no Passover. So when you lay out the Passover Seder, you lay out four cups, you lay out the cup of Elijah, and you lay out the seder plate. And to me, the dominant item on the seder plate is the shank bone of the lamb, the lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. And to this day, Jews still keep the shank bone of the lamb on their seder plate as a reminder of the lamb of sacrifice. But they do not associate that lamb with Christ at this point point in time. The other items on the seder plate represent bondage in Egypt. The charoset, which is a mixture of apples, raisins, nuts, honey, and is used to make a sandwich, or a sop, as it's called in the Bible, along with lettuce. And lettuce is called hazeret. And it's associated with bitterness, as is parsley karpas, which is dipped in salt water, which is also a part of the seder. And among the items of today's traditional seder is a roasted egg petzah, which symbolizes the burned out temple, and horseradish, the bitter herbs, which symbolizes the bitterness of Egyptian bondage. But all of that is symbolic of the world at large. That is, the Egyptian experience is simply a microcosm of what has become a global experience for the house of David, who still live in bitterness. Of course, I think that in addition to the four cups, the main item on the table at the seder would be the matzah. And the matzah is baked without leavening. It is striped, and it reminds us that by his stripes we were healed. Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. He gave a whole lecture on himself as the bread that came down from heaven. And so you have the shank bone of the lamb you have, which is the lamb of sacrifice, you have the striped and pierced unleavened bread, which is his body, and you have the four cups which are his blood. The whole of Passover is an incredible picture of Christ's suffering. Now the matzah is putting broken and is used to make a sandwich. And this sandwich might have a little lettuce in it, might have a little parsley, might have a little charoset. And this is dipped and eaten at certain points during the Passover seder. And in scripture it's called the sop. Let's begin with the four cups, because the four cups are mandatory. It is ordained that every child of Israel must drink four cups at Passover. Now, why four cups? Four cups have to do with the number four. In scripture, four is called the kingdom Number or the world number. It's the number of elements as reckoned by the ancient Greeks. Earth, air, fire and water. It's the number of points of the compass, north, south, southeast, west. It's the number of the seasons of the year. It's the number of the phases of the moon. And you can just go on and on and on about the number four. And so as we begin to look now at the Passover which Jesus celebrated before his crucifixion, we can see how all those elements came through into his resurrection. Number one. The host of the Passover feast will recite a blessing. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, who has created the fruit of the vine. Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, who has sustained us and enabled us to reach this season. Then the host will drink a cup at the same time after kedush, which is the drinking of the first cup, the host will take a massa tash. And this is a very simple one, a three pocketed holder for matzah. It has been consecrated. It is the bread of Passover, which by the way is called the bread of affliction because the bread was eaten with lamb quickly. On the night of Passover, while standing up, preparing to escape from Egypt, the host will recite kiddush, drink the first cup, and then take the Masotas, which has three pieces of matzo in it in three pockets which are folded up like so. And I've always thought, can you imagine a better picture of the Trinity? If you tried all day long, you couldn't come up with a better picture of the Trinity. It's three things in one. And the host will then take out the center matzo and, and break it. He will put the smaller portion back and he will ask usually one of the children at Passover to take the other piece of the matzo and hide it so it can't be found. So it stays hidden all during the Passover. Next comes the ceremonial washing of hands at, at the Passover, the night of Passover, that final Passover in which Jesus celebrated Passover with the disciples. You remember what happened at the washing of hands. Jesus said, hands are not enough, we're going to do foot washing. And so he instituted a brand new way of washing hands. With Jews. Virtually everything that is done ritually is accompanied by hand washing first so that it will be done with clean hands. And there's a blessing for clean hands. Jesus took clean hands and said, no, let's make a clean feet. And furthermore, let's have somebody else wash your feet. He took Hand washing to a whole new level. And so the ceremonial washing of hands became a foot washing, which was a lesson. The idea of humbly serving others. Then after that would come the dipping of bitter herbs and the pouring of the second cup of wine. So you would take a piece of parsley and you would dip it in salt water. And here's the parsley and the salt water. You would dip that and then eat. And parsley is kind of bitter. And again, there are historical recitations in the seder that tell the people gathered around the table. When you do this, remember the bitterness of bondage contrasted with the sweetness of freedom. Then, of course, there is the questioning, why is this night different from all other nights? And by the way, this was traditional even in Jesus Day, the asking of questions in ancient times, why is this night different from all other nights? On all other nights, we eat leavened or unleavened bread, but on this night, only unleavened. On all other nights, we eat all other kinds of herbs, but on this night only bitter herbs. And there's a discussion of that. On all other nights we eat meat roasted, stewed or boiled, but on this night only roasted meat. Why? And so they discuss the Passover, the history of the Passover. And essentially what they're doing is discussing the way God freed them from bondage, the same way God freed us from bondage through the death, burial and resurrection of his Son. So when we discuss the resurrection, we're discussing being freed from bondage really, not just figuratively, but we are discussing a real and present freedom that we have in Christ. The second cup of the four cups is then drunk. And by the way, this is the Passover as it would have been experienced on Passover night in A.D. 30. Then the host hands out pieces of broken matzo like this, and the host would break up the pieces of matzo and pass those out to all members present. And they would dip in a combination of bitter herbs, sweet charoset, and they would then pray and begin to eat. They eat the ceremonial bread. Again, I'm reading all of this out of a Haggadah that would be a first century Haggadah, not the Passover Haggadah as it is celebrated today. After the bitter herbs and bread, then they would eat the roasted lamb, and they had to eat it all, every last bit of it, so that only the bones were left. Also, if the lamb was too small for everyone to have enough, they had what was called hagigah, the holiday peace offering, which is sort of extra food. So Everybody will have enough. But the point is, at least, as Passover was celebrated in the first century, they consumed all the food that was on the table in haste while reciting Bible verses and historical remembrances of the Passover. They then ate the lamb. They were considered to have finished supper, and the host would have poured the third cup of wine and recited the blessing after meals. All those present at the table would then recite the blessing after meals along with the host. By the way, the Jews to this day say the blessing after they've eaten and not before. Tradition. Not a bad idea. You're full, you're satiated. Thank you, Lord, for all this wonderful food that I've just had. So after supper, the host pours the third cup of wine. They recite the blessing after meals, they drink the third cup. Then they recite the Hallel after drinking the third cup. The Hallel is Psalms 115, 118, having to do with life in the kingdom. Jesus coming to set up his kingdom. They are called Hallel because they. The Hebrew word hallel means praise in English. So they are now beginning to praise God for what he's going to do in the kingdom. Mind you, Jesus and the disciples, the night that they broke bread, went through all of this ceremony, Judas was there too. They read the Hallel. By the way, we think Hallelujah, which means praise ye the Lord. The word Hallel just means praise, but we never use that word by itself. After the Hallel, they drank the fourth cup and the seder would have come to a close with the chanting of a song or a hymn. And the one traditional in Jesus Day was, all thy works shall praise thee, Jehovah, our God, from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God, and beside thee we have no no King, no Redeemer, no Savior. And those would be the last words of the Passover Seder. Today, the Jews end the Seder in a different way. And if you look at a Jewish Passover Seder, and we've done this before, many times, there is a beautiful poetic recitation that begins. The Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. He who rouses the sleepers and awakens the slumberers, who makes the mute to speak and releases the bound, who supports the fallen and straightens the bent. To you alone we give thanks. And then this particular seder names all of the things that the Lord has done for Israel. And it takes quite a while. It goes a couple of pages. But the last words of the Seder, may your name be praised forever. Our King, our God, our great and holy King in heaven and on earth. The last words are lashana haba by Yerushalayim next year in Jerusalem. And so every Passover seder reminds the Jew that a time is coming when the kingdom will be set up. And that kingdom will be set up around, if you will, a Passover seder motif. As we read about this passover in the Bible, this passover that took place just a few short hours before Jesus rose from the dead. We read about the Kiddush, Luke 22:17 18. He took the cup, he gave thanks, and he said, take this and divide it over among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. Then there was the first washing of hands, John 13:4 5. He riseth from supper, laid aside his garments, took a towel, girded himself, began to wash the disciples feet. The second cup was then taken. Then Jesus broke the bread and passed out pieces of the bread to all present. They dipped the bread in bitter herbs and charoset. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. John 13:26 Then Jesus said unto him, that thou doest do quickly. He then, having received a sop, went immediately out. And again the sop would be made of a piece of bread, a little lettuce, a little charoset, a little bitter herb, carpas dipped in salt water, all put together and ceremonially consumed in remembrance of the Jews in their imprisonment before they were freed from bondage by Moses who led them out of Egypt. So you have to remember that every Passover is is a memorial of bondage and a looking forward to freedom. Which is why we don't celebrate Passover anymore. We're already free, he's already risen. We are freed from bondage through the risen Christ. And so we don't commemorate the bondage, we don't have to. We observe, as we're doing right now, Passover in remembrance of what Jesus did for us. And I think it's useful to note what he did after Jesus passed out. The sop, as it's called in the King James Bible. The paschal meal is eaten, including the lamb. Then there's the blessing after meals given in 1st Corinthians 11, 23 and 24. Jesus, that same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he had gone, he broke it. He said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Now you're sitting at the table with Jesus. He breaks the bread and he says, take, eat this bread. This is my body which is broken for you. And you're John. And he passes a piece of that bread to you and you eat it. Wow. This is my body which is broken for you. You would think that John would have become a believer at that moment, but no, he says he wasn't a believer until the morning he peeked into the tomb and saw the grave clothes lying as though they were still around a body. He said, then I became a believer. He didn't become a believer at the Lord's Supper. This is all very interesting to me because what it does is focus on the resurrection of Christ as the event. Don't let anybody steer you away from the physical resurrection of Christ. The greatest event in human history, the Passover, the commemoration of the freeing from bondage, is like old news. The new news is he has risen. So then there is the blessing of the third cup, which is called the cup of redemption. And that's recorded in 1 Corinthians 11:25. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. At that point they would have consumed the third cup and the host. And I assume this was Jesus acting as host. But I don't know. We're not told who acted as host, would at that point have poured the fourth cup of wine. The fourth cup of wine would then be consumed and they would sing a traditional hymn. And we've read a couple of versions of that. We have that in Matthew 26:30. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And you remember that's where they went the night before the crucifixion. They went to the Mount of Olives and there Jesus prayed, the disciples slept. That's where he was arrested and taken to trial. All of this so that we could be free, because that's the theme of Passover, freedom from bondage. The first hand washing by the host as performed by Jesus, set him apart from the rest of the company. He was the most important person at the table in washing the disciples feet. Jesus used this part of the regular ritual to teach the lesson of humility and love. So the most important man at the table became the least important man at the table symbolically, which is just remarkable by the way. He took upon himself the most humiliating task and he loved all of his disciples to the end. Remember this he even washed Judah's feet. It was during the ceremony of dipping the second sop into the bitter herbs that Jesus said, one of you shall betray me. Matthew 26:21. Peter motioned to John, who was reclining so that he leaned on Jesus bosom to ask who the betrayer was. Jesus whispered his answer. He it is to whom I shall give the sop. He not only washed Judah's feet, he gave him the sandwich made of unleavened bread. One may wonder why John did nothing to stop Judas. I mean, wait a minute, betrayal. But remember, they all partook of that passed out sandwich or sop. Judas probably received it first. And after the sop, Judas went out in the night to finish his work, inspired by Satan to do that. And because he left before eating the Passover, he had in effect excommunicated himself from the congregation. So Judas did not experience the entire Passover. The bread that Jesus broke for the bitter sop was not the bread of which he said, this is my body. That came later. And so we have the story in a very abbreviated story it is. To tell the full story would take several hours. We have the story of the way Jesus inserted himself into what I think of as the last Passover, interestingly, and it is very interesting by the way, Jesus is the bread of life. And if you recall, we took the matzotash, this tri compartmental bread holder, early on before the second cup, and we took the center matzo out and we broke it in two at this point. Then in the contemporary passover, the host will say to the children, or to a child, see if you can find the broken matzo. And they go and they find the broken matzo and it's brought back. And then special prayers and blessings are read with the division of the lost matzo, if you will, that's brought back at the end of Passover. This is referred to as the afikoman. Traditionally, the Jews say we call it the afikomen because afikomen in Greek means dessert or after dish, that which is consumed after the regular meal. And so it came to be that the Jews referred to this as the afikoman, or the after dish, because it was discovered, brought back to the table, and then broken up and shared. And by the way, pieces of the afikomen are considered to carry a blessing, so that if it's brought back and a little corner is broken off, and I put this in my pocket and keep it there, I'll have blessing for the rest of the year. And a lot of Jews carry A piece of this. From one Passover to the next piece of the afikoman. Afikomen does not mean dessert dish. I was studying a Greek table of irregular verbs. And by the way, the irregular verbs in Greek will curl your hair. They are bad. I noticed that the verb to come in Greek is kamen or komen come, and it has an irregular prefix, aphig. And if you put together, it means he comes. And I have the Greek textual manual to prove it. If you have any questions about this, I'll show you the Greek text. And so, in my opinion, afikoman means he comes. And by the breaking of this afikoman, we do sure the Lord's death till he comes. It says in the Bible, Paul knew all about this. The afikoman then is brought back, broken up, and distributed among the group. He was bruised for our iniquities. Isaiah 53, 5. By his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53, 5 stripes, bruises, it's pure, it's unleavened. They shall look upon him whom they have pierced. It's pierced. This is called in Hebrew, the bread of affliction. Isaiah 53, 4, 5 says that Jesus was smitten by God and he was afflicted. It's unleavened bread. Remember the four questions, the first of which is, why on all other nights do we eat either leavened or unleavened bread, but on this night we eat only unleavened bread? Because Jesus was without sin. Isaiah 55, 9. He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. He was without sin, and he is the aphekoman. Why do the Jews, to this very day, on their Passover seder plate, keep the shank bone of the lamb? Well, even that's a fulfillment of prophecy. John 19:33, Not a bone of him shall be broken. First written back in Psalm 34, that though he will be pierced for us and afflicted, not a bone of him shall be broken. And so to this day, this Passover seder plate, as kept by the Jews, is a very clever way of keeping alive all of the elements performed by Christ as he went to the grave. But three days later, on first fruits, he arose. Mary stood without at the sepulcher, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. And she sees two angels in white sitting one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. You know who those angels were? They're called two witnesses. In Scripture, every act of God is Always validated by two witnesses. And in this case, God sent two angels. They say to her, woman, why weepest thou? She says, because they've taken away my Lord. I don't know where they laid him. At this point, she wasn't a believer, if you will, as John was, because John looked down on this whole thing and he believed. But she's still thinking somebody stole his body. They've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they've laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast taken him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, mary. And there was something in the tone of his voice that revealed who he was. She turned herself. She says to him, rabboni, Master, Jesus says to her, touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and to your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things unto her. That same day, in the evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut and the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you, Sholem aleichem. And they were probably too stupefied to say, aleichem, Sholom. They just were stupefied. That was on the first day when they were gathered. You know, that's the first first day of the week when there was a gathering. It was from this point on that the first day of the week was remembered by all who were disciples of Jesus and who would become disciples, disciples of Jesus to assemble. That's why the first day of the week was chosen as a time of assembly by the early church. He came again on the first day of the week. After eight days. His disciples were within. Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus. The doors being shut, stood in the midst and says, peace be unto you. Shalom Alichem. Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger. Behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side. And be not faithless, but believing. Most important word in the Gospel of John, believe. Remember what John said. Until I looked down into that tomb and saw those clothes lying on that slab. I hadn't been a believer. But then I believed. Here, eight days later, Christ appears to the disciples. And the famous incident of doubting Thomas touch my wounds. And Thomas said, my Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, thomas, because Thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, seen, and yet have believed. And that's us. We have not seen, but we do believe. Very special day as the Jews take Passover. They always end next year in Jerusalem for us. You know what I mean? Next year, year in heaven. That's what we're looking for. But it's the same thing. It is liberation. He came that we might be free.