death and resurrection that I
was going to come back and look at some seemingly contradictions
in the scriptures as it pertains to this. And last week I mentioned
that there were some things that I really wanted to continue to
pursue in my studies because I had come across some things
while I was studying that kind of got my mind to thinking. wondering
if I was correct in what I was, what I was going to be teaching.
So I wanted to look into it a little bit further. And so I've done
that this week, and I continue to do that. And I'll just be
honest with you. I just pray that the Spirit give
me the ability to speak on this this morning, because as I dove
into this, and I know it seems to be kind of cut and dry. And
I'll be honest, I've always taken, I don't say always, I've taken
the stand on the Wednesday death of Christ because of Christ's
own words, three days and three nights. And that can't be worked
out in any other way except for a Wednesday crucifixion. And then also, as what we'll
be talking about today, the two Sabbaths that appeared that week,
whether they were on the same day or were they the same Sabbath
or what was the Sabbath that we see in these passages. But
as I begin to study these things, and I'll be honest, I still don't
have all this stuff learned. I don't have it down. I'm still
learning all these things and studying. There was a lot of
things in here overwhelming, especially whenever you go back
and try to tie these into, because as I mentioned, the importance
of these days, we're not trying to argue for argument's sake,
okay? I'm not here to try to debate
people on which day is which just to have a debate. The reason
we take these stands and the reason we teach these things,
and again, you know, am I going to break fellowship with somebody
who says, you know, Christ died on Thursday? No, I'm not going
to do that. But the Bible is given to us and all Scripture
is given to us and is profitable for what? Doctrine, for teaching. And it's for correction and for
rebuke. It's there to correct us in our
thinking about what the Bible says about these things. And
so, is it a gospel issue? Well, some might say that it
is, some might say that it isn't. That's, you know, whatever comes
to you guys. But to me it's an important thing
because it's Christ fulfilling the law. Christ fulfilling all
the prophecies about himself all the types, the foreshadows,
the feasts, the festivals, all the things that God had given
for Israel to celebrate and to worship and to do, all those
things was to point to this one event, which was Christ, death,
burial, and resurrection. And there was meaning behind
those things. And so Christ, in coming to fulfill
all the law, and the law being keeping these feasts and festivals
and all these things, In keeping those things, in fulfilling those
things on our behalf, He has to keep them to the very teen,
right? Which we know He can because
He's God. So there were days that was allotted for certain
festivals and feasts. And so the reason that we go
back and look at these things is because the importance is
not so much in whether we're right and someone else is wrong
on what day it is, it's whether or not it's what we're teaching
lining up with Scripture because Jesus' death was at an appointed
time. Jesus made mention, and I meant
to go back this week and look and find all the places that
Jesus said it, and I know he said it in multiple places, but
he said, you know, my time does not yet come. One of the times
he was supposed to go up, they were having a feast, and he was
gonna go up to the feast, but the leaders were gonna try to
kill him, but it wasn't his time to die. And so he told his disciples,
you go on up to the feast, and then I'll come later, because
my time has not yet come. Well, it wasn't his time. There
was an appointed time for Jesus to die, and it had to be in keeping
with all the tithes and foreshadows and the feasts and festivals
that was in the Old Testament. And so that was one of the reasons
why I place so much importance in this. Well, in digging through
all this and looking in all the tithes and foreshadows, which
there is a ton of tithes and foreshadows, it was overwhelming. I was just overwhelmed by that.
That's part of the reason why last week I wasn't prepared to
do this study. And even this week, I don't think
I'm still fully prepared to do this, but I at least want to
get into some of the parts that I think that the Lord has given
for me to see and understand. And I pray that it is the truth,
not my own understanding. But the importance of this is
because Jesus' death fulfills the Passover. Jesus' death fulfills
the wave offering, the sheaf offering on the day that he rose
from the dead. And those days fell on certain
days in the day of Pentecost, when the day of Pentecost happened.
That's also part of that Feast of Weeks, or the wave, the sheaf
offering. Whenever that begins, it's a
countdown of 50 days. And Christ, on that day, that's
whenever the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, was
at the end of that. And so these times have to line
up in accordance to the festivals and the feasts and the times
that God had allotted for them to celebrate these days for it
to be that very fulfillment. And so that's why we place this
in court. That's why we're doing this. I know some people may
watch and listen and say, you know, you just, you're harping
at things you don't need to harp about. Preach the gospel, just
preach, preaching. But the Bible says that he's
given pastors and teachers. Sometimes we pastor and we, and
we do our pastoring thing, sometimes we have to do our teaching thing,
you know? We preach, but we also teach when we preach. Preaching
is the proclamation of the gospel. Teaching is the disseminating
of that preaching. Sometimes we have to, we preach
the message, but sometimes we go back and we have to teach
what all we're talking about. We're having to teach these little
things. We could take a passage of scripture and preach on this
passage of scripture, but sometimes we need to take a topic and teach
upon this topic because it's to get that doctrine we have
to go in several places throughout the scripture. And so there's
an importance, I think, on both these things. And sometimes we
do this, we'll stop and we'll break things down and we'll go
back and look at this thing so that we might have a right understanding,
a correct understanding of things. And again, correction is always
there for me if I'm wrong, as long as it's with the scripture.
Okay, so with that being said, The thing I'd like to look at
is this morning, and if you'll turn to Matthew chapter 12, that's
kind of where we want to begin. The contradiction that I want
to talk about this morning, the seemingly contradiction that
seems to be there, okay, is this issue about the Sabbaths. We hold that there was two Sabbaths
that week that Christ died. And it wasn't on the same day,
okay? It wasn't on the same day. There
were two different days that this Sabbath took place. And
we hold that Jesus died on a Wednesday, that the High Sabbath that John
talks about was on Thursday, and then the Friday in between,
and then Saturday, which was the weekly Sabbath, and then
Sunday, which was the first day of the week, which also was the
first day of the Wave Shiv offerings, the beginning of the Feast of
Weeks, okay? Which is also in the time period
of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began on Thursday, which
was the reason for the High Day, the Sabbath, the annual Sabbath.
So on Thursday was an annual Sabbath, on Saturday was a weekly
Sabbath, okay? Every Saturday was a Sabbath,
right, for them. But yet they had an annual Sabbath
that had to do with the Passover, and that began with the first
day of unleavened bread, okay? So the day before unleavened
bread was the day of preparation. That's whenever the lamb was
to be killed, it was to have the Passover meal, was to be
at, beginning at the evening, and as we'll see, that was to
be between the evenings, and we'll talk about that here in
a minute. But anyway, all this points to things as it pertains
to Christ, right? So, we seem to have a contradiction
because there seems to be a Sabbath. Now, I just kind of put out a
little, wrote down a little thing, typed out a thing here on what
the contradiction might be. What the naysayers might say.
And this is what the naysayers might say. We are clearly told
that Jesus rose from the dead on the day after the Sabbath,
on the first day of the week. Okay, so it's the day after the
Sabbath on the first day of the week. We're also told that Jesus
had to be taken from the cross and buried before the Sabbath
began. So, with that being said, and
we of course know those to be true, many people will say, therefore,
Jesus had to have died on Friday, because that's the day before
the Sabbath, and then He rose on Sunday, the day after the
Sabbath. Just as the Bible says, He died
before the Sabbath, He rose after the Sabbath. Okay? And so that's
what people say. And traditionally, that's what's
being celebrated in these Easter celebrations. around the world
is that Jesus died on a Friday and that he rose on Sunday morning,
okay? At the crack of dawn. We always
had sunrise services, you know? We'd
always get up and wait for the sun to come up, and there we
go, that's the time that Jesus rose from the grave, is at the
sun up. But actually, that's not what the Bible teaches, and
we'll see that, hopefully. The contradiction seems to be,
how can Jesus have died on Friday, rose on Sunday, the first day
of the week, and that fit with what the Bible says about, number
one, Jesus declaring that he would be in the grave three days
and three nights? That's a contradiction. A Friday
death and a Sunday rising, and even a Thursday death and a Sunday
rising, doesn't fit three days and three nights. This doesn't
take into account there were two Sabbaths that week, which
we hopefully are going to see by Scripture today, that there
were two Sabbaths that week. And the reason that we find that
is three, it doesn't fit the account of the women gathering
spices. The Bible has two passages particularly
that talk about the women gathering spices, preparing spices, and
they seem to be in direct contradiction of each other. And the fact that
they seem to be in direct contradiction to each other is the very foundation
for why we know and understand that there was two Sabbaths. Now, to some this may be, who
cares? But the reason we are so interested
in this is because is our Bible true? Can we believe our Bible? Is our Bible man-written and
therefore full of errors? Is this the Word of God? If this
is the Word of God, it cannot be wrong. And every word, the
Bible says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
If all of this Scripture is given by inspiration of God, then that
means that every part of it has to coincide with each other.
It has to line up with each other and it cannot contradict. It's
the truth. So if we have a scripture that
says this, and it seems to contradict this, if we think that that's
contradictory, that's not true. Because the Bible does not contradict
itself. What's contradictory is the understanding
in our mind we are contradicting the Bible. The Bible's true.
We are the ones who do not have truth, right? The only way we
have truth is whenever we have what the Word of God says. That's
the truth, okay? So our thinking has to be, what
does God's word say? And so if we see two passages
of scripture that seems to be contradictory, we need to study
to find out why do those things say what they say? Because we
know God's word isn't wrong. We know it doesn't contradict.
So it's now we begin to pray for the spirit to give us understanding. We pray for the Holy Spirit to
teach us what does this mean? How could that be that these
two things exist being in complete and total opposition to each
other. Okay? We'll see that as well. And then, fourthly, it
doesn't fit. The Friday death, the Sunday
rising doesn't fit the prophetic fulfillment of Jesus fulfilling
the law legally and symbolically. It just doesn't fit. Now, first
let's look at the three days and the three nights. In Matthew
chapter 12 and verse 38, It says this, it says, Then certain
of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we
would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto
them, 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. The men of
Nineveh shall..." Oh, excuse me. That's where I want to go.
So here we see Jesus giving a comparison between Him being in the grave
for three days and three nights to Jonah being in the belly of
the whale three days and three nights. Now, we've already talked
about, back on a couple weeks ago, when we first started talking
on these things, We already seen that the scriptures has already
laid down the principle in Genesis that biblical time, God's time
period, not America's, not Western civilizations, not even modern
day civilizations. Time period is what counts. It's
what God's time period is. And God said up in the beginning,
the evening and the morning were the first day. So the evening
and the morning, nighttime, daytime, that counts as one day. Okay? So if you say three days and
three nights, that would literally be evening, morning, evening,
morning, evening, morning. That's three days and three nights.
Now you can't get that from Friday. If Jesus died at three o'clock
on Friday, around three o'clock on Friday afternoon, almost to
dusk, almost time, that six o'clock sunset, around six o'clock sunset,
whenever the new day begins and the Sabbath begins, which would
be Saturday, if you're going by their time, going by their
thoughts, Jesus sat on Friday, he was in the grave Friday night,
he was in the grave Friday day, or Saturday day, or excuse me,
he's in there Saturday evening, Saturday morning, Sunday, and
then supposed to be risen between that time period. Well, that
doesn't work. It's not three days and three
nights. That's barely two days and two nights. OK. Thursday
doesn't work as well. So the three days and three nights
that Jesus says here, did Jesus lie? Did Jesus misspeak? Was Jesus just given an example?
But yet it isn't going to be literal. Now, I know it's going
to be nice saying, well, Mike, you're one of the biggest spiritualizers
of the scripture. How come now all of a sudden
you want to be literal? Well, the reason that I say it's
literal here is because he uses the term three days and three
nights. If Jesus would have just said
three days at that point, yeah, I probably could have took a
non-literal translation of this, a non-literal thinking of this.
But Jesus specifically said three days and three nights. He made
it very pointed. He didn't just say three days,
which could have been partial days, but it is actual days and
nights. There was three days involved,
there was three nights involved. And so what Jesus says to me
trumps what any kind of tradition says. What Jesus says is important. Okay? Now, look at Matthew chapter
26. We see Jesus Basically says this
again, Matthew 26. Look down if you would at verse
60. Sorry, this wasn't Jesus speaking, this was
the chief priest. It says, but first, I think I
typed down the wrong verse. Verse 15, starting at verse 59.
Now the chief priest and elders and all the council saw a false
witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none.
Yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At
the last came two false witnesses and said, this fellow said, I
am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three
So here's another reference to three days. Now, it doesn't say
three days and three nights, but remember, these are false
witnesses coming and giving a false testimony of what Jesus said. Okay? And so, they just said
three days. Now, Jesus said the same thing.
Look with me, Matthew, well, let's look at Matthew 27 while
we're here. Matthew 27, and look at verse 62. Now the next day that followed
the day of the preparation, the chief priests, now pay note of
that, the day after the preparation, the day of preparation, Jesus
died on the day of preparation. So this is the day after the
day of preparation, or should I say it was the next morning
after this day, right? Now, the next day that followed,
the day of preparation, the chief priest and Pharisees came together
under Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said,
while he was yet alive, after three days, after three days,
I will rise again. So at the conclusion of three
days, he would rise again. Now again, these seem to be contradictory. They just say three days. This
other group said three days. When Jesus talked about taking
down the temple, he said, you know, tear down this temple in
three days, I will build it back again, okay? But yet, we got
to take the seemingly obscured verses in light of the clear
verses. And Jesus clearly said, three
days and three nights. So that now takes us to these
verses, where just three days is used, and we have to understand
that, that obviously that means three days and three nights,
not just three partial days. Because Jesus made it very clear,
three days and three nights. So that clears up any clouded
verse that seems to make it sound like it could be a partial day
or not a partial day. Jesus said three days and three
nights. That trumps all these other verses that just says three
days. So those that want to say three days meant a full 24-hour
period. Three full days. Morning, night. Morning, night. Morning, night.
Night, morning. Night, morning. Night, morning.
Okay? Those three. So the Friday death, the Thursday
death doesn't fulfill the three days and the three nights. So
if the scriptures to be true, if Jesus is not a liar, then
the crucifixion has to be on Wednesday. That's the only way
we can get three days and three nights. He died on Wednesday
at the, at the, right before the Thursday morning Sabbath,
right? So he died on Wednesday, he was
in the grave Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and on Saturday,
as it was dawning to the first day of the week between that
time period, twilight, whatever, that period as it was coming
out of Sabbath onto the first day of the week, Jesus rose there.
Now that was at nighttime though. That was at nighttime. Because
the Sabbath ended at 6 p.m. at sunset. And the next day, which was the
first day of the week, began at 6 or 1 or whatever time, as
soon as that sunset hit. That's whenever the new week
started. Jesus rose at that time. As it
was dawning from the day of the Sabbath, so about three days
and three nights had passed, the dawning of the first day
of the week. So that's important. Why is that important? Number
one, it fulfills the three days and the three nights. Now, the
second reason and the second seemingly contradiction that
we see is the Sabbaths. Some people say, well, what about
the Sabbath? You know, it says that Jesus
rose after the Sabbath and that he died right before the Sabbath,
so it has to be Friday. Well, is that the only thing
that could happen? Well, no. No, no. Turn with me,
if you would, to John chapter 19. And look with me at verse 31.
It says, The Jews therefore, because
it was the preparation, that is the day of the preparation.
So here again, There's another passage of Scripture that's saying
that Jesus died on the day of preparation. This is the day
before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Okay? This is the day before, excuse
me, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So, the Feast of Unleavened Bread
is the beginning of that, the first day of that. Remember there
was seven days. The first day of that is a holy
convocation. We'll read that, but look what
it says here. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation
that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath
day, for that Sabbath day was a high day, beside Pilate, that
the legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
So we see here that the day that Jesus died was the day before
the Sabbath, but it wasn't the regular sabbath it was a high
sabbath or a holy sabbath it was a different sabbath than
the weekly sabbath it was a high sabbath, a special sabbath now
we see that back in Leviticus chapter 23 so if you want to
look in Leviticus with me Leviticus 23 and in verse 5 Actually, let's start at verse 4. These are the feasts
of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their
seasons. In the fourteenth day of the
first month at Even is the Lord's Passover. Okay, so they were
to celebrate the Passover at the evening time on the 14th
day of the first month. That's the month of Nisan, 14th
of Nisan or Abib. Some people go by that calendar
and call it Abib, but the 14th of Nisan. All right. And so that
is the day of the Passover. That's also the day, that day
is the day of preparation because that evening the Passover lamb
is to be killed, and it's to be killed, according to the law,
it was to be killed after midday, and it had to be killed before
sunset. And it had to be cooked and ate
according to God's preparation, right? But the thing is, it died
after midday and before sunset. So it had to be after midday,
before sunset. Now, we also learned through
scripture that there were two Passover meals. There was the
individual Passover meal that was ate in the family house,
as each family did, just like in the Exodus, the night of the
Passover, every household had to do what God had done, told
them to do, eat the lamb the way it did, take the blood, put
it on the doorpost, all that stuff. They continued to do that
in their homes. But from that evening, that was
the first evening, on the next evening, they were to take that
Passover meal, and they did that in the house of God. And so there
was two Passover meals. Now the Bible says that the lamb
has to be slain between, or that the lamb is to die between the
evenings. And that word, this is why I
say this is so complex and there's a lot to study and I still have
a whole lot to learn on this and I'll just be honest with
you and I may not even be able to convey this very good even
this morning. But do a study. Go back and take
that phrase between the evenings and look and see there's a lot
of places in scripture where that term between the evenings
is used. The Passover lamb, we see that
there's several places in the Old Testament where between the
evenings is used. God uses that between the evenings.
So it was a specific time period and so we see that that basically
means around sunset, around dusk, okay? right before, between the
evenings. Because as we take the day, it
starts in the evening time, right? And it comes up, and then you
hit midday. Well, as you go from evening
to midday, that is going into the morning, but as soon as you
hit midday, what happens now? Now we're going towards the evening.
Even though it may be daylight, we're still going into the evening
time. Now in our time period, it's midnight to noon, right?
Whenever we hit noon, now we're afternoon. And so now we're working
our way to nighttime. We're working our way to midnight.
The next day begins at midnight, but it's dark, right? But that's
the beginning of the next day. It's the beginning of the next
day, but it's still not bright time out. It's still dark. So
if we could just kind of shift our understanding from midnight
to midnight to sunset to sunset, we kind of see now from sunset
to sunset is one day. a night and a day. However, at
midday, from there on to sunset is the evening time. It's beginning to go into the
evening time. And so the lamb had to be slain
between midday and between evening, or the sunset. But it says here,
on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Unto the Lord seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the
first day ye shall have a holy convocation, ye shall do no servile
work therein." So here we see that the day of the Passover
is the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins. Jesus
had to die before the Feast of Unleavened Bread because the
Bible says that the Passover lamb was to be killed the day
before that. and the Passover lamb was to
be killed between midday and between evening time. Now Jesus, we know the Bible
says in Mark chapter 15, Mark chapter 15, we see that he It's Mark chapter 15, verse 25.
It says, and it was the third hour
and they crucified him. Now if we figure out the third
hour, that's around 9 o'clock in the morning. Okay? So Jesus
was crucified at 9 o'clock in the morning. However, he died. He died. at around three o'clock in the
afternoon, which is found in Matthew chapter 27. This is why it's so hard to understand
these guys, because you have to survey the whole Bible to
get these timelines. Matthew chapter 27 and then verse
46. It says, about the ninth hour,
Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there,
when they heard that said, this man called for Elias. And straightway,
one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and
put it on a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let
be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the
ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain,
from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the
rocks rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the
saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after
his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto
many." Now, we see here that it was about the ninth hour that
Jesus died. So his death was between midday
and Even time, or sunset, according to the Word of God. He had to
die according to the Word of God. Now, again, this may be
come across as completely jumbled up to everybody. I pray that
it's not. But it may come across as jumbled. But here's the thing.
What an amazing thing to see how intricately God has decreed
all things to take place in its exact time. The Bible says in
Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything. God has appointed
everything a certain time. And even down to the very time
of death, everybody is appointed. It's appointed unto man who wants
to die, and after that, the judgment. His time is appointed. He knows
when we are going to die. He knows exactly the point because
he has declared it. And Jesus, the Bible says that
by the determinate counsel of God, that means God determined
within the Godhead. God made the decision. of when
and how exactly that Christ would die. And if that did not happen,
then God's determinate counsel means nothing. If Christ didn't
die according to the determinate counsel of God, then God is not
sovereign. God is a liar. Christ did not
do all that God had given him to do. And therefore we have
no hope because we have a Savior that is not God, that is not,
that is tainted, that has not kept the law for us. We have
no righteousness of our own. You see why these things are
important? Oh, it don't matter what day is important. Well,
there is some importance to it because Jesus had to fulfill
all the things of the law. And one of the things was that
the Passover lamb, if he is our Passover lamb, had to be slain
according to the law, which was on the day of preparation. between
midday and sunset, which he was. And he died exactly on that day. But yet he also had to rise on
a certain day because the Bible says after a certain period of
time, there is the beginning of the Feast of Weeks. The wave sheep offering was given.
What was that? The first of the harvest. First
of the harvest. The wave sheaf offering was to
be given. Jesus was the first fruit from
the dead, right? But then we also see that the
fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks ended at Pentecost, which is
also the completion of the New Harvest. And that was the day
that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all those in Jerusalem
that day, whenever Peter got up and preached. And there were
people from all over the world that was there that heard. And
what happened? How many people were saved that
day? We use the term saved. How many people were converted
that day? That was the first fruit. That was the first of
the harvest. And it coincided with the feast
that God had set up. Jesus had fulfilled by His death,
by His burial, and by His resurrection, his ascension into heaven and
his sending of the Holy Spirit. Remember, he said, I have to
go. If I don't go away, the comforter will not come. And the comforter
has to come because there's certain things that the comforter is
going to be doing. There's certain things that the Holy Spirit,
my spirit is coming to accomplish. The rest of what we are talking
about in this eternal covenant of God, there's something that's
going to take place. And part of that was whenever
the Holy Spirit came, was poured out upon the church and the church,
uh, that day was the first harvest. And it coincided with the Feast
of Weeks during the time of unleavened bread. So that is one of the
reasons why it's so important. And so Jesus died on a high Sabbath. A holy convocation was to be
said. So we see that he died the day before the Sabbath. But
then the question is, well, wait a minute, he said that he rose
after the Sabbath, so are you saying that he rose on Friday?
Well, no, because he said he'd be in the grave three nights
and three days. So that leads us to, so here
we see that Jesus could have died, that he didn't have to
die on Friday to fulfill the dying before the Sabbath, because
Thursday was the Sabbath. So he could have died before
Thursday and still fulfilled what was being said about him
dying and being taken down before the Sabbath. So that fits, right? So let's move into the contradiction
that really kind of solidifies every bit of this in my opinion.
And that is the women and the spices. Look with me if you would
at Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, and in verse
50 we find this account. Luke 23, 50. And behold, there
was a man named Joseph, a counselor, and he was a good man and a just.
The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them.
He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself waited
for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate, and
begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped
it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein
never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation,
and the Sabbath drew on." So here we see, here's another confirmation
that Jesus died on the day of preparation, and that the Sabbath,
the Holy Convocation, or the High Sabbath, was the next day. So they were trying to get Jesus
down, buried, before that Sabbath began, but that Sabbath was before
the day of Convocation. Well, it couldn't have been because
that day was on the 14th of Nisan. It couldn't have been the weekly
Sabbath. So here we see that, look at
verse 55, and the women also which came with him from Galilee
followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how his body was
lain. And they returned and prepared
spices and ointments and rested on the Sabbath day according
to the commandment. So they returned and prepared
spices and rested on the Sabbath day. Now, this can sound like,
you know, Wait a minute, they went and prepared spices, and
then they rested on the Sabbath, so that could have been Friday,
that could have been Thursday, Wednesday, what day was that?
So we gotta search the scriptures because there seems to be another
contradictory passage. Now keep your finger there on
Luke, but look, if you would, in Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. It says, and when the Sabbath
was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and
Salome had bought spices that they might come and anoint him.
So here we see that it was after the Sabbath that they bought
spices and prepared them. Now the verse that we just read
said that they prepared the spices and then rested on the Sabbath.
Right? They prepared the spices and
rested on the Sabbath. How can you have preparing spices
and resting on the Sabbath but going and purchasing the spices
after the Sabbath? That seems to be contradictory,
right? Well, how can that take place?
Well, if you remember in that video that we watched at the
beginning of our study of this, we've seen exactly what took
place. The only way that this can take
place and not contradict each other is for there to be two
Sabbaths. There is one Sabbath where they
gathered the spices and prepared them and then rested on the Sabbath.
And then there is a time whenever they bought the spices after
the Sabbath. So there was a gap between a
Sabbath and a Sabbath. They bought the spices and prepared
them after the Sabbath, as we've just seen in Mark 16. That would
be the High Day Sabbath, which is Thursday. So Friday, that
day, they bought the spices, prepared them, which was the
day before the weekly Sabbath. And so they prepared the spices,
and then they rested on the Sabbath, which was the weekly Sabbath.
So you have the Sabbath as the high day. After that, they bought
and prepared the spices, and then they rested on the Saturday,
which was the weekly Sabbath. And then on the dawning of the
first day of the week, is whenever they went to the tomb, to see
whether or not, or to anoint and put it on Jesus. Now, that
fits the time frame. That fits the three days and
the three nights. It fits the two Sabbaths of the week. It
fits these gathering of the spices. It fits what the Bible says.
Now there's no contradiction in those things. Now, but here's
the question that people always raise up about these women. Well,
why did the women, if they bought the spices and prepared them
on Friday, why didn't they just go and anoint Jesus on Friday? Why did they wait until Sunday? Why didn't they just go on that
same day and anoint him? Why didn't they wait and then
rest on the Sabbath? Well, of course, on the Sabbath, they
couldn't do that. The Sabbath before, they couldn't do that.
That's why they didn't do that. And so why didn't they just go
ahead and do it on Friday? Well, if you will, Remember,
there was the chief priest. The chief priest had went and
said, hey, listen, these disciples are going to come and steal Christ's
body. And so what did Pilate do? Pilate
gave them orders to go and to seal the tomb where Jesus was
laid. Now, that wasn't them going and
rolling a stone in front of the door. That was Joseph of Arimathea. And Nicodemus, they're the ones
who rolled that stone in front of the tomb. But what did Pilate
do? He said, send some guards to
guard the thing and seal the tomb. What does that mean? That
meant that they were to put the seal of Pilate on there. And
so there was a warning there. Nobody messes with this thing.
And so they said, do that because he said after three days that,
that was back in Matthew 27. Let me get back there so I don't
misquote it. Remember he said, verse 64, command
therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third
day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away.
And say unto the people, he is risen from the dead, so the last
error shall be worse than the first. And Pilate said unto them,
ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can, so
that they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting
a watch. So the reason that the women
didn't go on Friday to anoint the body of Jesus is because
Pilate had sent guards to keep watch over the grave, and that
he said he sealed upon there that nobody could open and get
into that thing. So the women couldn't, by law, open that tomb,
otherwise they would be breaking the law that Pilate had set for
them. So that's why they didn't go on Friday. But the tomb and the mandate
to not go in there was only for after three days. Remember? Right
there in verse 64? To make it sure until the third
day. So Pilate's seal was no longer effective after the third
day. So the women was able to go and
open up the tomb and go in there if they could have done this.
But it was already open when they got there, remember? But here's
another thing, brethren, about this women and the spices and
the two Sabbaths. Does the Bible teach that there
was two Sabbaths? Yes. Do we know that this week
had two Sabbaths? Well, I think the Bible is clear.
Look with me, if you would, at Matthew 28. This was one of the
things that I found this week and that caused me to pause and
I wanted to wait until this week because I had never seen this
before. Now that I've seen this, it made sense and I wanted to
make sure that this was true. Matthew 28 in verse 1. Everybody's there. I want everybody
to read this and follow along with me on this. It says, in
the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first
day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came, Mary Magdalene and the
other Mary, to see the sepulcher. And behold, there was a great
earthquake from the angel. I mainly wanted to pause here and look
at in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the
first day, and that word day, inserted there in the King James
Version for clarity that's not in the Greek. It actually reads,
As it began to dawn towards the first of the week. That word Sabbath there in the
Greek is Sabaton and it's plural. So that is actually saying that
in the end of the Sabbaths plural, more than one Sabbath So it's
not just talking about the weekly sabbath, but that whenever they
came to the tomb, it was after both those sabbaths were over.
The high convocation or the high day sabbath and the weekly sabbath. After those days were completed
or over with, then they came to the tomb. But also notice, if you would,
that word week there, it is also the same word Sabaton, which
means weeks. It's plural. The first day of
the week was the first day of the Feast of Weeks. Those 50
days leading up to Pentecost. It was the beginning of the first
day. Sunday, yes, that was the first
day of the week. But that word day is supplied
there and it could mean that and it does mean that. Jesus
did die and raised again and came back to life and came out
of the tomb right as the first day of the week was started because
he came out after three days and three nights, which was,
the Sabbath was the ending of that. But he also came at the
beginning of the first of the Feast of Weeks. That word there,
meaning week, is plural. He came out as it began to dawn
towards the first of the first of the weeks. the weeks to come,
the celebrations that's going to take place, the Feast of Weeks
for these 50 days that's going to be from that day till the
end. And if you remember, Jesus for
40 days was seen by his disciples. And then it was towards the end
of that that he rose from the, that he ascended back to heaven.
And then the disciples, they went back to Jerusalem and they
sit there and waited. And then the Holy Spirit came
on that 50th day. after Jesus had resurrected from
the dead. It all lines up with the feast. It all lines up with
the law. It all lines up with the days
of the week. It all lines up and keeps no
contradictions. And so that's why we gotta dig
sometimes in the scripture and try to find out what does this
mean, you know? Why does this seem to be contradicting
itself? and praying, like I said, that
the Lord give us that. Now, there are scriptures, the
last thing that I mentioned, by the way, is the symbolism. You know, the land was slain
between the evenings on the day of preparation. This is symbolic
of, that Passover land is symbolic of what Christ was going to do.
There's a couple places in scripture, if you look at Matthew 26 again,
and verse 17, we're just about done. Matthew 26 and verse 17. It says, Now the first day of
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying
unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the
Passover? And he said, Go into the city
to such a man and say unto him, The master saith, My time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples." And the disciples did as Jesus had
appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now, this
here shows that Jesus ate the Passover before he died. Okay? But now let's look at Luke 22.
Luke 22. And he said to them, with desire,
I desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So
again we see that Jesus ate the Passover before he died with
them. Some people say it wasn't the
Passover meal that he ate, he ate something else. But Jesus
here said, I desire to eat the Passover with you. It was the
Passover meal. But there seems to be a contradiction
whenever we see John 18, 28, because it shows that the Passover
was after Jesus died. At least it seems that way. Look
at John 18 and verse 28. So we just read two verses that
said Jesus ate the Passover before he died. But in John 18 and verse
28, we see this, Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the
hall of judgment. And it was early, and they themselves
went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled,
but that they might eat the Passover. This is after Jesus was arrested.
Okay? This was after Jesus was arrested. So they seem to be contradictory,
that Jesus ate the Passover before he was arrested, before he died.
But here we see that the chief priests, the Caiaphas and all
of them, they didn't go in because they didn't want to be defiled,
but that they might eat the Passover. After all this was done, they
were going to go eat the Passover. Well here, this is what I was
talking to you a while ago, that the scripture corrects what people
might say is a contradiction. It corrects them to show that
there was two Passover observances. These observances take place
on successive nights. On the first night of the Passover,
that's when they do it in private homes. And the second night of
the Passover, it was observed at the house of God. And so these
men are talking about the Passover that was to be done at the house
of God, which was after Jesus was taken into custody and died. But yet, the one that Jesus took
was before that time, whenever they did it in the individual
houses, which they did, by the way. They ate in an individual's
house. They met together and ate the
Passover together. So the lamb was to be killed
between the evenings, and that was the two evenings. Leviticus
tells us that it was to be between the evenings. And so Jesus fulfilled
everything as far as the law was concerned, the symbolism
was concerned as a sacrificial lamb. There is no contradiction
with the time with the day that he died and resurrected. It's
all in conjunction with the Feast of Weeks and leading up to the
day of Pentecost. You remember in Acts chapter
one, or maybe, I'm sorry, Acts chapter two, verse one, it says,
when the day of Pentecost was fully come, That was that day,
that 50th day of the day of the Feast of Weeks, led up to that
50th day. That's why it said when the day
of Pentecost was fully come. Well, why does it mean fully
come? Well, because this whole time, for 49 days, they have
been celebrating this Feast of Weeks, and on the 50th day was
this celebration, and that's why everybody was in Jerusalem
during that time, by the way. There was all these people that
was in Jerusalem, for the Passover, it was in Jerusalem
for the Feast of Weeks, for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And
so 50 days, how long is that? Well, that's a little over a
month, right? About a month and a half that they was there. By
the way, this also fulfills some of the, depending on how people
view things in Scripture, I believe in Daniel chapter nine, there
is a literal and a spiritual application to Daniel chapter
nine whenever it says that in the middle of the week, Messiah
would be cut off. Right? I believe that that means
that in the middle of that period of time, that week here, that
Jesus would be cut off. That would have been Wednesday.
That's the middle of the week that he'd be cut off. Now, I
also believe that that means something else spiritually, but
not to get into that today. But you can take that as a literal
interpretation of that Jesus fulfilled that as well. If you
want to take that as a little thing, well, if so, there it
is. It's there. It's hard to not look at that
that way. I mean, whenever it says that
in the middle of the week Messiah would be cut off, and He actually
was dying in the middle of the week. Wednesday. So, anyway,
this contradiction of Jesus dying on Friday or Thursday And what
the Bible teaches about Jesus' death and burial and resurrection
is easily cleared up, well I say easily, is cleared up by the
Scripture and all contradictions are answered by the Word of God.
Now we might not be able to see them right away. It may take
a while for the Spirit to teach us these things, for us to dig
through the Scriptures and find all these things, but they're
there, brethren. Your Bible is not incorrect. Your Bible is
not false. It doesn't have errors in it.
There's no contradictions in there. If there's any issues
with understanding these scriptures and a seemingly contradiction,
it's always going to be in our understanding of it, not in God's
writing of it or telling of it. And so that's why we hold to
a Wednesday crucifixion and a Saturday into Sunday resurrection. All right, does anybody have
any questions? We'll go ahead and stop there. There's a lot
that's there. And again, I pray that it was
in a way that was understandable. It boggles my mind. I told my
family this morning, I don't know if I'm up for this, because
there was just so much there. I struggled with this all week
long, because there's more to it than even this. You know,
there's the guys walking to the road to Emmaus and the phrases
that they used on the third day, after the third day, the third
day, all those All those phrases seem to be contradictory, but
as we dig into those things, we find that they're really not. So, you know, there's a lot more
there than what we're seeing, but I mainly wanted to deal with
these verses because I think that the women doing the spices
shows that there's two Sabbaths, and the two Sabbaths show that
Jesus couldn't have been crucified on Friday, or wouldn't have been
able to fulfill the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
which was the Holy Convocation, being crucified between the evenings
as the Passover lamb. So there would have been a lot
of things that wouldn't be fulfilled if Jesus had died on a different
day than Wednesday. And again, I'm open for correction. If these things are wrong, I'm
glad to hear it through the Scriptures. I don't want to hear it through
Josephus and John Gill and John Calvin or anything like that.
biblical interpretation of these things, and not the man's interpretation
of these things. Because like I said, I don't
care what calendar you use, I don't care what tradition you follow,
I don't care how many quote-unquote divines have said in the past
this or that, if it doesn't accord with God's Word, then I don't
care what the seemingly proof is, the proof is in God's Word.
That's where we go, right? All right, anybody have a question,
comment, anything to add? Does that seem to be according
to scripture? Does everybody? Yeah, there's
a lot to take in, but going back and forth, that's why I say I
couldn't even do it. I'm glad that I found a few of
these It looks like the little sheet that I handed you guys
out that had some of those verses already pulled out that spoke
of these things because some of these things are very, and
I mention this to our church all the time, that whenever you're
studying God's Word, every word counts. And whenever you're looking
at these things, just, you know, after the Sabbath, before the
Sabbath, I mean, when you're reading those in their separate,
you know, letters, you don't really pay attention to some
of that stuff sometimes. But then you think, wait a minute,
the Bible said that they did it after the Sabbath, but then
it said it was before the Sabbath. That don't seem right. See, just
a couple of little words throws the whole thing off. And so that's
why we kind of have to scour. So like I said, I'm glad there's
been, you know, others that's kind of studied these things
out and has, you know, brought attention to some of these contradictions
and some of these words that throws a little bit of light
on what actually happened. and everything, so yeah, it's
good to see that. One of these days, I pray the
Lord will give me understanding and give me light on all that
Old Testament, because I'll be honest with you, I struggle in
the Old Testament. I struggle with all the laws
and all the types and foreshadows and how to look at some of those
things, and I just have to take them one at a time as I study
them, Look for Christ in it. Always look for Christ in those
things. Don't be looking for something else. Look for Christ
in it. But sometimes whenever I'm looking at it, I get overwhelmed.
What does this mean? What is this talking about? How
does it tie into Christ? But I tell you what, the Holy
Spirit's job is to take this Word and to make Christ known
to us and to show us Christ in all these scriptures. And so
if we pray to the Spirit or pray to God, pray to Christ, He'll
give His Spirit and He'll give us light in His time and give
us the understanding of those things. But don't seek those,
don't seek the understanding and rest on it because it's something
a man said. And all this stuff that I said
today, don't take it because I said it. Take it to see, you
know, whether these things be true or not, you know, and see
whether or not it aligns with the Scripture. All right, well,
if nobody has anything, what's bound to be the Spirit. Father, once again, we thank
you for the day, and we thank you for the Word of God. We thank
you for the light that is given, as it's given by the Holy Spirit,
and we pray, Lord, that these things have been in accordance
to your Word. And again, we pray, Lord, that
if it's not, that you would correct us, and that you would show us
the truth, and that we would do all things to the honoring
of Christ Jesus. I pray for those that have been
listening or watching Lord, I pray that the Spirit has made clear
the things that have been said, given understanding, teaching.
Lord, although my ability to speak and my ability to outline
and to make things coherent, it seems to falter many times,
Lord. But yet it's not I who teaches,
it is the Spirit, and we're thankful for that. We're thankful it doesn't
depend upon the oratory skills of the preacher. but upon the
Holy Spirit who gives understanding." So, Lord, we pray that today
that Christ was magnified in all these things. And that's
truly what we wanted to do with this study, is to magnify the
fact that our Savior, Christ Jesus, has done all things on
our behalf and has fulfilled all the Old Testament law, has
done all things for our benefit, for our obedience before you. And Lord, that he was our perfect
substitute sacrifice, who was sacrificed according to the law
of God. And so, Father, we just thank you today for all that
Christ has done for us. Even in these seemingly contradictory
things, Lord, we know that they're not. But Lord, they are very
intricate, down to the very minute, the very items that was there
whenever they cast lots was according to your purpose and plan, whenever
they said the things that they said, whenever Jesus said the
words that he said. was according to your uh... decree
and your purpose and that all things were fulfilled so that
as christ our perfect substitute could go to heaven saying that
i have done the will of my father and lord we are so thankful for
that because through that we have been saved and lord we are
so grateful for that today be with these brethren as they leave
today that you might keep them safe and father i pray that you
just might help them this week uh... in the times of struggle
in the times of encouragement, Lord, that you might be with
them in the ups and downs of this life, but more than anything,
Father, I pray that you'd be with them, that as you give opportunity
to speak the gospel, that they might speak the truth of Christ
and share that with those that they are around. We thank you
again. We pray for Brother Ed this morning.
I don't know where he's at this morning, but I pray that you'd
be with him, that you'd minister to him, that you might keep him
safe, Lord, and that he might be back with us again the next
Lord's Day. Again, we're so grateful for
all that you have done for us. And it's in your son's name that
we pray. Amen.