The 7 Celebrations of Israel, The Feasts, Fast & Festivals

Dr. Terry talks discusses how Palm Sunday is related to the Jewish calendar and the seven celebrations of Israel. He explains the history of different calendars and how they relate to the Jewish calendar. He mentions that yesterday was Passover and today is Palm Sunday. He explains the significance of Palm Sunday and Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Good morning, y'all, doing okay? Good. Good. I'm doing okay, too. God is good. Maybe in another four weeks, I'll be out of this boot. I'm praying, hoping, and thinking that maybe the boot will go away. I'm working now with a wound that's in my heel, on my ankle. And as soon as we can get the wound healed, I'm working with a wound physician, and we get it healed and maybe I can get out of the boot. So you all pray for us okay. We thank you for your prayers and what you have done for Barbara and me. We appreciate it very much. Thank you. Today you don't have a traditional Sunday School lesson, so don't expect to look at it as a traditional Sunday School lesson. What I gave you is the first three pages are information for your edification and growth, and that's these pages that begin like that. Today, the lesson is going to come from this page, which is the last page, so this will be the page we use to look at the lesson, but actually the others are a composite of what's on this one page, so the other three gives you more information for your own growth about what's on this one page that has the outline on it, so not a traditional type lesson that we generally give out to you all. Did you know that today is Palm Sunday, and I'm sure all of you are aware of that, but Did you know that Palm Sunday was introduced in the 12th chapter of the book of Exodus? Did you know that? Actually, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all actively involved in what is called the Seven Celebrations of Israel, which later on became the Seven Celebrations of the New Testament Church, each of them relating to the other, and as you look at the outline page that you have in front of you, you'll see on the left side the Old Testament, and what happens is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit determined a seven festival activity for the Jewish people every year in order to remember a lot of activities that were going to happen to the Jewish people after they got out of captivity, out of the land of Egypt, and into the land of promise. But he started in Egypt, and it's kind of interesting how this all works out. God the Father was very much involved in the beginning and creation. God created the heavens and the earth in seven days, and he, on the first day, second day, third day, on the seventh day, he rested, and it's kind of interesting. He was in the beginning, creating, and so the first celebration of the people of Israel is the Shabbat, it's Saturday. They celebrate it every week on Saturday, and it is the first celebration that God gave to the children of Israel. Beyond that, he gave seven others. The others are basically during the year, not during our year, but during the calendar year of the Jews. So, let me tell you something that's very interesting. God made the first calendar, and God gave us the first calendar. He gave us seven days of creation, and from the seven days of creation, there was created a calendar, and the oldest calendar that we can trace back to is the Hebrew calendar. That was developed, basically, sometime around the date 3761 B.C. Now, if you do a study of the scholars, of Biblical scholars, they all date back to the fact that the earth is probably 6,000 years old, and they go back to that 6,000 year, and then they date back to when, perhaps, we begin to hear things about the Israeli people. Somewhere around 444, 440, 450, we begin to see things happening in the life of the Israeli people, and that's when their calendar began. Their calendar began sometime around 3761 B.C. Now, there were other ancient cultural calendars. For instance, the Sumerians had a calendar as early as 350, 3500 B.C. The Babylonians had a calendar as early as 3600 B.C. The Israelis had a calendar as far back as 3700 B.C. The Egyptians had a calendar as early as 3000, and all of the earth was working on a 365-66 day calendar with 12 months, and had four months of 30 days each, and seven months of 31 days, and then you had February, which was 28-29 leap year, and all of these calendars were basically based on the same criteria. Now, the calendar that we are using presently is called the Gregorian calendar. It was developed from the old Roman calendar that Julius Caesar organized and developed when he became Caesar in 64 B.C., and Julius Caesar wanted a calendar for the Roman Empire, and he developed a calendar that was called the Julian calendar, and he did it after him, and Julius Caesar called it the Julian calendar. It was a 12-month calendar, it was a moon calendar, which meant that it didn't have the 31 days, it only had the 30 days, and the Israeli calendar, all of these calendars were moon calendars, and they were only on a 30-day period. The Israeli calendar is a moon calendar, it's on a 30-day activity. Now we have 31 days in 7 months, 30 days in 4 months, and 28 days in 1 month, and so we kind of adjusted to call it leap year. So Julius Caesar, in 64, organized what was called the Julian calendar, and it was the calendar that was used by the entire earth, all of the people of the earth, until 1564. In 1564, a pope by the name of Gregory, Gregory the Great, developed a new calendar, and he developed what we call the Gregorian calendar, and it put in all of the Catholic activities into the calendar, which included Palm Sunday. As he developed this calendar, he also developed it to such a state that there was time for the leap year, and you could adjust the days, and so the days were 365, 366, depending on whether it was a leap year. So calendars have been with us forever. The interesting thing about a calendar is, God works expressly on his calendar. God will never deviate from his calendar. And God has established a calendar with the Hebrew people, and that calendar was also established through the coming of the Son, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and the coming of eternal God in the final analysis of this world when we go into all of creative eternity. This calendar is still being actively engaged, and we are just beyond number four. Now let me help you understand what I just said. When God met the Israeli people in Egypt, after he had brought them into Egypt and now trying to get them out of slavery, and they were in the process after having been there for 400 years after they were brought there by their father, and they were brought into the land of Egypt, put in Goshen, and now it's time for them to leave, and God met with them, and he established this seven-celebration calendar, and the seven-celebration calendar begins in their first month of the Jewish year. The first month of the Jewish year begins sometime in February, March, and it is called the month of Nisan, N-I-S-A-N, you'll see that on your list, and that month is the month of basically Passover. It is the month that the children of Israel were extricated from the land of Egypt, they were given their freedom, they were delivered from the hand of Pharaoh, and they were delivered out of the sinfulness of Egypt, and they were sent into the wilderness where they were going to establish themselves as a nation. And so God's calendar has seven parts. The first part is Passover, the second part is unleavened bread, and interestingly how God intricately relates these dates together, and how he uses them, and how it is still functioning on that date. By the way, Saturday was Passover. In fact, if you didn't know it, yesterday was Passover, and the Jewish people celebrated Passover. Now, the reason for that is, the Gregorian calendar and the Israeli calendar are not in sync. You would understand that. The Israeli calendar is a 30-day calendar, a moon calendar, and the Gregorian is a longer calendar, so the days don't hit exactly. But yesterday was Passover. Now in the Christian calendar, in the Gregorian calendar, today is called Palm Sunday. Now if we were in the Israeli calendar, and we were looking at today, we would find out that today was the 10th day of Nisan. The 10th day of the month of Nisan. Why is that important? It's important because Jesus Christ, when he came into the city of Jerusalem on the day of what we call Palm Sunday, because the people met him with palms, and they spread their clothing, and they put the palms in front of him, and he rode triumphantly as the King of God into the city of Jerusalem, however, he came in peace because he came on the back of a donkey. Had he come in power, he would have come riding a white stallion. But on this particular day, you recall, he told his disciples, go into the city, you will see a man who has a little donkey with a foal, another little donkey with it, ask the man if you can use the donkey, and bring him to me. And Jesus, as the Prince of Peace, rode the donkey into the city of Jerusalem, to which they gave him a triumphant entry with all of the psalms saying, Hosanna, blessed is him who comes in the name of peace, blessed be the Lord God who comes in the name of peace. And so this date is very important. Now, we're going to do some traveling through the Old and New Testaments, and you don't have to turn to it because you do have it on the paper, but I want to read a passage to you that's kind of interesting. It's found in the twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus, and it reads this way, it's the third verse, speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, on the tenth day of this month, and this month was Nisan, which we are in right now in the Jewish faith, in fact yesterday on the Jewish calendar was the fifteenth day of Nisan. The day before was the preparation for Passover, the fourteenth day of Nisan. Now, it's going to be kind of interesting, because before we finish looking at the celebration, you're going to get all of these dates, you're going to see the tenth, you're going to see the fourteenth, you're going to see the fifteenth, you're going to see first fruits, which comes after the Sabbath, after Passover, you're going to see how God established all of these calendars and God was very much interested and very much involved in the creation of the earth and the Shabbat, but he allowed Jesus Christ to be the center of Passover, unleavened bread, and first fruits. Now if you look at your list, those are the first three feasts, Passover, unleavened bread, first fruits. Now it's interesting how God, the Father, allowed God, the Son, to be the center person of three major feasts, Passover, unleavened bread, and first fruits. And then the fourth feast is Shavuot, Pentecost, and at Pentecost we know what happened. God the Holy Spirit came on that day of Pentecost, and God the Holy Spirit was in charge of Pentecost, and the third party of the Trinity was the one who was involved in the fourth feast of Pentecost. So God the Son was involved in Passover, and in unleavened bread, and in first fruits, and God the Holy Spirit was involved in Pentecost, and then after Pentecost we have Yashashana, New Year's. God the Father is taking over again, and God the Father will give us a new year. It is called, are you ready for this, the rapture. It is called the going to heaven. It is called the catching up in Thessalonians, and it is called going into the kingdom of God, and God the Father is going to be in charge of that. God the Father is in charge of New Year's. It's going to be a new year in heaven, and after the new year there's going to be the sixth celebration, Yom Kippur, the day of cleansing. What in the world do you think the white throne judgment is going to be? After God the Father again says, come on children, it's new year, then he's going to cleanse the earth. What was wrong with Yom Kippur? What did they do on Yom Kippur? They went to the temple, they confessed their sins, they had a lamb that was slain, his blood was put on the great bench that was in there, the Ark of the Covenant, the other little lamb, the one that was going to be the sacrificed lamb, he had blood put all over his head, they took him out of the wilderness, and he watched him fall over a precipice and crushed on the stones below, and when he died, all the sins of the Israeli people died with him, and they were born again. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, we have eternal born-again-ness. God only has to born us again one time, on the day that you were saved, but the Hebrew people had to be born again every year, and every year when that little lamb died, in the sixth celebration on their calendar, when that little lamb died, they were born again. Now, if they had not confessed their sins, they didn't get that new birth. Wow! If we don't confess our sins, guess what we don't get? We don't get that new birth. And so God, the Holy Spirit, God the Father is in charge of New Year, He was in charge of the Great White Throne Judgment, and He is also in charge of the seventh feast, which was called Tabernacles. And in Tabernacles, God takes us all to a new heaven and a new earth. Now, interestingly, it all began in this verse. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month, every man shall take unto himself a lamb, according to the house of the Father, a lamb for the house. Now, hang on. I said, God is a very strong calendar person. God never moves outside His calendar. So He says here, on the tenth day of this month, you're going to pick a lamb, you're going to set him aside, that lamb is going to be, as far as the eye can tell, what? Perfect. No broken bones, no sores, no broken teeth, no ear missing. Everything, as far as the human eye can tell, the lamb is as good as can be. And you're going to set that lamb, and that lamb is going to be set aside. And that lamb is going to become the Lamb of Passover. And that lamb is going to be set aside. Now, look at verse six, it says, Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly will kill it at twilight, and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two posts of the lintel of their houses, and they shall eat it. Now, ten, fourteen, fifteen. Month of Nisan. Now, it's kind of interesting. When Jesus Christ came into the city of Jerusalem on that day, and He had been in Bethany, and He had been resting with His friends, Mary, Martha, and the resurrected Lazarus, and they had been together, and it was time now, because it was one week before Passover. Now, the book of Matthew, beginning in chapter 21, and I've put it on your paper, so now you can begin to look over from one side to the other, and I'll go back and show you how this operates. What happened is, Matthew begins to pick up on this, and he says in here, On the twenty-first, when they drew near the city of Jerusalem, they came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, and Jesus said to His two disciples, He said, Go and get me the donkey. And so it was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of by the prophets, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you lowly, and sitting on a donkey, and the coat of the fold of a donkey. Guess what day this is? It's the tenth day of Nisan. Sunday, Monday, eleven, Tuesday, twelve, Wednesday, thirteen, Thursday, fourteen. What did God tell them back in Exodus to do on the fourteenth day? Get the lamb ready to kill it. Get the lamb ready so that when twilight comes and fourteen becomes Friday fifteen, you can sit down and celebrate the Passover. Ten, Jesus comes into the city of Jerusalem. Guess what He is coming as? The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. God's calendar is setting Him up on this tenth day as that lamb that was set up in Exodus on the tenth day to become the lamb that would shed His blood that might be painted all over the house of the individual, and if you go into that house, God that night will pass over you. And so, we have our houses painted with the blood of Jesus Christ, and inside, God passes over us. So it's the tenth. Now, this particular activity in Matthew is a very strong reader's digest of the last week of Jesus' life. Now, if you really want to see what Jesus did after He came into the city of Jerusalem on the tenth day of Nisan, if you want to see what He did on the eleventh day, keep reading this chapter, and on the eleventh day, you'll find out that He came into the city from Bethany with His disciples and He saw a fig tree. And He said, you know, I'm hungry, so I'm going to go, because this tree was demonstrating that it had fruit. It had leaves all over it. It was demonstrating that there was fruit under the leaves, that there was figs under the leaves. And Jesus said, I'm hungry, I'm going to get some figs off this tree. And He went to the fig tree, and what was it, ladies and gentlemen? It was bare. Now, the fig tree has always been a symbol of Israel, and the fig tree has always been an identity of Israel. In fact, on their flag, you see a fig tree. And Jesus cursed the fig tree on Monday, and it died. And that same Monday, the eleventh, He went into the temple, and He had some discussions with some of the priests and the high priests, and He had a cleansing of the temple. Here were all of the money changers. Here were all of the money changers who were cheating the people of their money. They had to bring the temple coins and change their Roman coins for temple coins because they couldn't use any currency in the temple except Jewish currency. And they didn't carry Jewish currency, they carried Roman currency. And so they had all this Roman money, and they had all these tables of changers, money changers, and you had to change your Roman money for Israeli money. And they were cheating the daylights out of them. And Jesus began to turn the tables over, and He said, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer, but you've made it a what? A den of thieves. And the high priests came, and they accosted Him, and they talked with Him. So on Monday, the eleventh, He cursed the fig tree, and as they came out of the city that night, you read Matthew, the tree was dead. It was totally withered. They went back to Bethany. Monday is called the day of cursing. Tuesday is called the busy day. Twelve. On the busy day, Jesus accosted several different groups of people. In fact, it went on almost for about four chapters. About chapter 22, 23, 24, and 25. It's Tuesday. The first group He ran into were some Pharisees. And the Pharisees asked Him a question. And the question was kind of a stupid question that the Pharisees asked Him. So when He came in and they asked Him, they said, Now the chief priests and Pharisees heard the parable, now they sought to lay hands on Him, but they couldn't get Him. Verse 22, on Tuesday, Jesus began to talk with them about the kingdom of heaven. And He began to talk with all of these religious leaders. And then comes the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, and the Herodians, and all day Tuesday He is in conflict in chapter 22, 23, 24, and 25 with all of these groups. Do you remember what the Sadducees asked Him? They said, Master, now number one, the Sadducees did not believe in heaven. Now the Pharisees did. The Pharisees believed in heaven. The Pharisees believed in angelology. The Pharisees believed in life after death. The Sadducees did not believe in heaven. They did not believe in angels. They did not believe in the eternal life after death. So the Sadducees were a little bit different from the Pharisees. And so the Sadducees come to Him and they say, Master, if a man marries a woman and he dies, and she marries his next brother, which was common, because if a person died and he had a brother and he left a widow, the widow was supposed to marry the next brother. And do you remember the story of the seven brothers who married this woman? And finally the seventh one died? Well, number one, the Pharisees said, okay, all of these seven men died. She is still alive. In heaven, who's going to be her husband? Ladies and gentlemen, the Sadducees didn't believe in heaven. So why are they asking Him about heaven? And why are they asking Him about whose husband is she going to be? They don't even believe in heaven. And so the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the Herodians all attacked Jesus on Tuesday the 12th. And then on Wednesday, which we get to about chapter 25, 26, Jesus goes back to Bethany and that evening they have a big party. And that evening they have a party at the house of Simon the leper. And Wednesday is called the quiet day. So Monday is called the day of cursing. Tuesday the 12th is called the quiet day, the busy day. Wednesday the 13th is called the quiet day. Read Matthew, folks. Read Matthew 21 through 27. And all of this comes out like Reader's Digest. And on the quiet day, they go to the house of Simon the leper who'd been cleansed from leprosy. And that night they had a big party, had a big dinner. And while they were eating, Mary Magdalene comes in and she anoints Jesus' feet and wipes it with the hairs of her head. And you remember what Judas said? Why did she waste this much money on you? Of course, he kept the bag, you know that. But it's kind of interesting, Jesus gave him a kind of condemnation. He said, she has done what she can do and she did it for my good. Now that night he said, guys, remember, now remember this is the 13th. Monday is the 11th. Tuesday is the 12th. Wednesday is the 13th. Calendar, go back to Exodus. On the 14th day, you're going to do what? You're going to take that lamb that you put aside on the what day? On the 10th? Hey, God is all up in his calendar. God works his calendar. And so as they're there, Jesus says to his disciples after the dinner in the house of Simon the leper, guys, in two days, it's Passover. It doesn't take a genius long to figure that one out. If this is Wednesday, tomorrow is Thursday, the 14th. And what do they do on the 14th? They prepare the lamb. And on the 14th, Jesus sends his disciples into the sea. You remember? So the next day after the feast of Simon the leper, Jesus sends his disciples into the city and he says to them, go into the city and find us a place where we may be able to celebrate the Passover. Because tonight when the sun goes down, Passover begins. 15. And so on the 14th, Peter and John go into the city. They find a place, the house of John Mark's family, John Mark's mother and John Mark. Yes, the John Mark who wrote the book of Mark. And they go to the house. It's called the upper room. You know all about it. And they get there and they set up time to get the cooking, the lamb and preparing for Passover. And on the afternoon of the 14th, Jesus takes his disciples into the city and he says, now let us go to the city and celebrate the Passover. And now in Matthew, you have it when Jesus was in Bethany, the house of Simon, the quiet day in chapter 26, chapter 27. You have them in Jerusalem for the Passover on the 15th. Now, Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples after sundown. So Passover is on the 15th. God's setting up. And if you go back and read all of these, it says back in the book of Exodus and the book of Leviticus, it will tell you the exact date that these are supposed to be happening. I'm saying all of this to say that Jesus Christ in his ministry with us here on earth never, ever outworked outside the calendar of his father. He did everything that his father determined that he should do in the calendar. And so that night they had the Passover and Judas left to go betray him. And after Judas left, Jesus introduced the new covenant. That's kind of interesting. At the first Passover, the old covenant was introduced in the blood of lambs and goats. In the New Testament, the new covenant is introduced on the night of Passover in Jerusalem after they had the meal. But by the way, you all have only seen a Seder. A Seder is little or nothing in relationship to Passover. That's just something they do because in the Seder, they remember the body, they remember the unleavened bread, and they remember the wine. So they remember the body and the blood. And so in the Seder, they remember unleavened. The feast of unleavened bread begins on the 15th. When they sit down for the Passover meal in Jerusalem on the night of the 15th, that is the week beginning seven days of unleavened bread. Now, on that Thursday, when these guys were working in the city of Jerusalem getting ready for the Passover, guess what the Jewish women were doing? Oh, by the way, ladies, it's their fault that you have spring cleaning. Did you know that? Did you know that it's the Jews' fault that you have spring cleaning? Because on the day of the 14th, it was required that every piece of leaven in the house was to be cleaned. That was the cleaning of leaven. Leaven is considered two ways in the Word of God. Sometimes it's considered as good because one day Jesus said, the kingdom of God is like a loaf of bread, and you put into it a loaf of leaven, and that loaf of bread grows to be a big loaf. So on one occasion, Jesus said leaven was really good. But on more occasions, Jesus said leaven was evil, and he said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of their leaven. They're very evil. And so leaven was evil most of the time. And on this day, the 14th, the Jewish woman had to clean her house and get all the leaven out. Any little crumb, any little piece of bread, any little piece of anything that had yeast in it had to be cleaned up, put into a pile, taken outside, and the father and the children burned it out in the yard. And they cleansed the house of leaven. Leaven also in Scripture is considered to be sin. In relationship to sin, it is identical. Sin and leaven were identical. They were evil. And so we call this beginning at that Passover meal in the city of Jerusalem on the night of the 15th, when they sit down, they are beginning the feast of unleavened bread. And it's going to be for seven days. And it's going to be all leaven will be out of the house. None of the bread will have any yeast in it. They will eat flat cracker, matzah, haggamatzah, and the feast is called the haggamatzah. It's called the feast of unleavened bread. Unleavened means that you have gotten all of the sin out of you. Jesus said, I am the sinless bread of life. Then he said to his disciples, there, Judas is gone. And he says to his disciples, gentlemen, I'm going to introduce to you not the Lord's supper. He said, I'm going to introduce to you a memorial feast. And this feast will be done often. And as many times as you do it, you will do it in remembrance of me. And it will be a remembrance memorial feast. We call it in our church, the Lord's supper. It's okay. It's fine. It is a memorial feast. And Jesus said, I am the bread of life. And he took this matzah cracker that had no sin in it, had no leaven in it. It was perfectly clean. And he said, gentlemen, look at this cracker and understand that I am just like this cracker. I am without sin. And I want you to eat this cracker. Because when you eat this cracker, you will be eating my flesh. And by eating my flesh and taking me into yourself, you too will be extrapolated of sin. And so the unleavened bread that we eat, which is Jesus Christ, we take him into our life. We take him, we ingest him into our body. We bring him into our heart. And he cleanses us of all of our leaven. And we become unleavened bread with him. And so Jesus said, this is my body. Oh, gentlemen, it's going to be broken for you. And each of you eat some of it. Now, it's interesting, at the feast at Exodus, chapter 12, in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23, the same thing is done. Today at the Seder, guess what they do? They do the same thing. They have the matzah, they have the wine, they have their body and the blood, and they remember the exodus out of sin of Egypt. And we, at the memorial feast in our church, remember the exodus of sin out of our body at the redemption of Jesus Christ in our heart. Now, see, up to this point, we're just at Passover and unleavened bread. God's calendar is moving. God started it. Jesus is working in it. Jesus is saying to it that it's getting done. And we're moving toward Sunday, first fruits. Now, God did Shabbat, Shabbat, Sabbath. Jesus participated actively in Passover and instituted the memorial feast in which we eat his body and his blood, and he's going to sacrifice for us. Friday in the morning, he is arrested Friday night in the garden. He's taken. He is crucified on Friday afternoon, and at three o'clock on Friday afternoon, after seven words from the cross, Jesus speaking from the cross seven times. The last one, he's saying, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. And then he says, it is finished. Seventh word from the cross. Isn't it interesting how the number seven keeps popping up? I find that to be extremely interesting, how the number seven keeps popping up. People say that seven is the most holy number of God. There's seven days, seven words from the cross, seven activities. So Jesus says, it is finished, and he dies, and they take him, and they bury him, and he stays in the tomb Friday, three o'clock. Oh, do you know what was happening at the temple at three o'clock? Do you know what was happening at the temple at three o'clock on the day that Jesus died? They weren't all out looking at the cross. It was required during Passover, that on Shabbat of Passover, the Shabbat following Passover. Now, Passover was on Friday. Guess what Saturday is? Saturday is Sabbath, and it was required on Shabbat following Passover, that every Jewish male was to take a lamb to the temple. If he was within 26 miles of the temple, radius 26 miles of the temple, on that afternoon at three o'clock, he was to take a lamb to the temple, and at three o'clock, he was to kill that lamb. Did you know that? No, you didn't know that. And when Jesus was being killed on the cross, all the Israeli men were killing their lambs at the temple. And Jesus died at three o'clock, and he was taken, and he was buried. And Unleavened Bread continued on now for five more days. But, as my good friend H.M. Lockridge says, it's Friday, but Sunday's coming. Oh, as H.M. used to say, gentlemen, it's Friday, it sure looks bad, but Sunday's coming. Okay, and so Jesus is put in the tomb, and he lays in the tomb the rest of Friday, day one, all of Saturday, day two. And what happens on Saturday at even time? What begins? Sunday. Jesus is put in the tomb before dark on Friday, day number one. He stays in the tomb all day Saturday, day number two. He's resurrected after sundown on Friday, and that's the third day in the tomb. He's in the tomb after sundown on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday morning, he's resurrected. How many days in the tomb? Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And on the resurrection day, Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. Now, it's kind of interesting. This day is called Bericha Karim. It's called Firstfruits. It's not celebrated anymore by the Jewish people, because they don't have a temple. And in order to celebrate Firstfruits, you have to have a temple. And so the Jewish people now, all of the Jewish folk that you know, and all the Jewish synagogues that you are aware of, do not celebrate Firstfruits. And will not celebrate Firstfruits again until the third temple is built. But this was a very important day for the people of Israel, because Firstfruits, the Sunday following Passover, was called Firstfruits. And Jesus, ladies and gentlemen, was resurrected on Firstfruits. Now, there was a recommendation that had to be met. On the day of Firstfruits, every Jewish male within 26 miles of Jerusalem was required to take a portion of their product, whatever they were, if they were growing green, or if they were growing groceries, or if they had lambs, or if they had cattle. Every Jewish male was required to take one of their smallest little animals to the temple on Firstfruits. And that little animal, or those produce, or products, were to be taken by the priest and waved in the presence of Almighty God. Now, there was a reason for doing that. Because this is the beginning of spring harvest. It is the beginning of the new birth of all of these little lambs and all of the cattle. Do you know when most cattle and lambs are born? They're born in the spring. Spring's big time for cattle and lambs and herd birth. And they were to bring this little and wave it before the priest, before God at the temple. Which, if they did it correctly, 50 days later, they would be given a great harvest. Pentecost. Pentecost, 50 days. Now, Jesus is resurrected. He's in the garden. Mary Magdalene has been there with some of her friends. She's already sent Peter and John back to tell the disciples, Stone's gone. And in the book of Luke and in the book of Matthew, there's a beautiful story about Mary Magdalene. In the book of John, there's a beautiful story about Mary Magdalene. She's in the garden. It's kind of darkish and foggy. And she sees this man. And she says, Sir, do you know where he is? Do you know where they've taken him, Sir? Not recognizing it was Jesus? She said, If you know where they took him, I love him so much. I'll go get him and bring him back. And Jesus turns to her and says, Mary. She recognized him. She fell at his feet and grabbed his legs. They didn't hold him and hug him, which tells us he wasn't a vapor. He had real life bones and fresh. She was holding on to his feet, crying, praising God. He was alive. She'd already told the disciples that the gate was open. The door was open. The stone was rolled away. They'd already gone back home. She's holding him. Jesus says, Mary, don't continue clinging to me. Don't you know? Today, first fruits, I must go to my father and to your father, my God and your God. And I have to waive what I have done in the presence of eternal God in order that 50 days from now, we will have a great harvest. Would you like to tell me what happened at Pentecost? Would you call that a great harvest? 2,000, 5,000, so many coming that they couldn't count them on Pentecost. Would you call that a great harvest? 50 days later, Jesus is going to heaven. Go to the book of Hebrews. It talks about him coming into the kingdom of heaven and presenting himself to eternal God and God blessing him and blessing the kingdom. This is all during first fruits. Now you see why they don't celebrate it anymore. Because it's not important to them. Now, Jesus went back to heaven, but he came back and he was with the disciples for 40 days. They saw him. They touched him. They ate with him. And on the 40th day, he took them to the city of Jerusalem on the west on the eastern side on the Hill of Olives. And as he was there, he said to them, now, gentlemen, I want you to know I'm going to go back to the father and you will in 10 days go into the city of Jerusalem. Now, remember, this is the 40th day, 50 days of Pentecost, 40th day. And he said, you will go into the city of Jerusalem on the 10 days from now. And on that day, I am going to demonstrate my great harvest. And while they were watching him, he was taken up into the clouds and they were caulking and two angels in white garments stood by them. And they said, you men of Jerusalem, why are you caulking into heaven? Don't you know that the same Jesus who you see taken away will come again in like manner in the clouds? What are we waiting for, folks? We're waiting for the clouds, aren't we? And they said, now you go into Jerusalem and you tell the people what he's told you to tell them. And they go back for 10 days. They pray for 10 days. On the 10th day, they go into the city of Jerusalem. Pentecost. Now, the third person of the Trinity takes over his responsibility. God the Father created it. God the Son provided redemption. Now God the Holy Spirit is going to be the in filler of the Spirit of God in the hearts and lives of the people who are saved. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one place. And all of a sudden, there was not a mighty rushing wind. There was a sound as of a mighty rushing wind. It filled the entire area where they were. And all of a sudden, they looked at each other. And on top of their heads was the Shekinah flame of God burning. And all of a sudden, that flame came down in them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And all of them began to proclaim. Peter stood up and preached from the book of Joel. Oh, you know, old timid Peter who ran away, who cut the ear off, who would fight. But with the Shekinah, old chicken Peter stood up and he said, Ye men of Jerusalem, do you know that this man Jesus Christ that you crucified, he is the one who's done this today. Two thousand. Three thousand. So many they couldn't even count them. Would you call that a great Pentecost harvest? Now, you see, God's calendar did that every year with them. They're still doing it. They don't know why, but they're still doing it. And so then at Pentecost, the church. Now, the interesting thing is from Passover to Unleavened Bread to First fruits is four days. Put that down in your mind. Fourteen, fifteen, Passover, sixteen, seventeen, Sunday. Four days. From Passover to Pentecost is 50 days. From Pentecost to Rosh Hashanah is six months. It's from April, May, June, July and into August. Rosh Hashanah. New Year's. The New Year. Now, you see, the Jewish people had two calendars. They had a religious calendar and they had a civil calendar. The religious calendar began in the month of Nisan at Passover. The civil calendar began in the month of July, August at New Year's. And it was called Rosh Hashanah. It's called New Year's. And on New Year's, everything changed. That was their civil calendar. So their year actually began in the middle of sometime July, August. And it was called Rosh Hashanah or New Year's. But it was very important that you understand what was in relation to New Year's. Ten days after New Year's was Yom Kippur. For on the tenth day of Shavuot, Shavuot was New Year's. But on the tenth day was Yom Kippur. And on that day was cleansing. The day of cleansing. Here was the day of the New Year's. Here's the day of cleansing. And they are ten days apart. Now, there's a long period of time. By the way, we are in that long period of time. We've come through Pentecost, ladies and gentlemen. What are we waiting for? New Year's. We're waiting for Rosh Hashanah. We're waiting for the New Year to come. We're waiting for God to come. We're waiting for God to cleanse the earth. We're waiting for the great white throne judgment. We're waiting. We are beyond Pentecost. We're waiting for number six. We're waiting for Yom Kippur. We're waiting for New Year's. Five. Yom Kippur. Six. And the new heaven and the new earth. Seven. And so, we are in that period of time. A long period. The longest period of time of any of the feasts in the year. We're here. And we're waiting. And we say, how long, Lord Jesus? How long? How long do we have to wait? When is the day? When does God expect to step out into eternity and say, that's enough. My kingdom's come. We are, ladies and gentlemen, right now on God's calendar in the New Testament. And as a part to the Old Testament, we are waiting for Rosh Hashanah. We're waiting for New Year's. And after Rosh Hashanah, there will be the Great White Throne Judgment. Won't be many weeks. And at the Great White Throne Judgment, God is going to disperse everyone. Those who are in the kingdom will be coming into the kingdom. Those who are outside the kingdom, standing before the Great White Throne of Judgment. And the books, plural, will be opened. Which means that each one of us has a book. And the things of what we've done in life are written in our book. And the books will be opened. And everybody in those books are going to be in trouble. And then the book, singular, will be opened. And that book will be the Book of Life. And all whose names are written in the Book of Life will be saved and redeemed and taken to God in Heaven at Tabernacles. Feast number seven. For you see, following Yom Kippur is Tabernacles. Feast number seven is called Shavuot, or Tabernacles. And it's kind of interesting, in the 21st chapter of the Book of Revelations, it says, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard the voice of God say, Watch, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. We, ladies and gentlemen, are on our way to Tabernacles. We are on our way to be with God in His eternal tabernacle. We are on our way for the seventh feast. We have passed Pentecost. We are waiting for the Great Statement. And we are waiting for the Great White Throne Judgment. And then comes Tabernacles. Now, the interesting thing about that is, all of it is in the calendar of Almighty God. God was at the first. He created Shavuot. God is at the last. He takes care of New Years. He takes care of Judgment. And He takes care of eternal life. Do you remember what God told the people? We say it kind of blithely. I don't think we really understand it. I hope because of this you will understand it better. God said, I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. Right in your hands. I am the Beginning, Shavuot. I am the End, Shavuot, Tabernacle. I am the Alpha. I am the Omega. I am the Beginning. I am the End. Ladies and gentlemen, that's why Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on the 10th day of Nisan. The day in the Book of Exodus when God told the Israeli people, pick the Lamb, set Him aside on the 10th day. And on the 14th day, kill Him. Paint your houses with His blood. Go inside and that night I will pass over you. Jesus Christ in the upper room said, this is unleavened bread. It has no sin. My body is this bread. All of you eat. See this grape juice? This wine? This is my blood which will be shed for you for the remission of your sins. All of you drink. And ladies and gentlemen, in our pilgrimage to heaven, we're on the other side somewhere in that long period of time between Pentecost and Rosh Hashanah. New Year's, we're somewhere in between. Isn't that wonderful to know? Isn't it wonderful to know that God's not going to get out of His calendar? That He's going to be the Beginning and He's going to be the End. And He's taking care of it. And we are going to be raptured. And we are going to go with Him and live with Him for all eternity. Ladies and gentlemen, this particular page spans the entire Bible from Exodus to Revelations, even including Genesis, of all of God's calendar. How He trained His people to be knowledgeable of Him as they live their daily lives and as He took His Son and His Holy Spirit and Himself and entered into all of our redemptive process, God's calendar. He's still very active. And we are here somewhere between Pentecost and Rosh Hashanah. And so we say, even so, Lord Jesus, what? Come quickly. Amen? I'm sorry I had to do this this way, but you had to understand this. And I hope you'll take it down. If you will read these three pages, they will give you more information about this page. And that's why I gave you both of them. Because this is an explanation of each of the seven feast-fasted festivals, not only as the Hebrew people celebrate them, ladies and gentlemen, but as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ celebrates them. We celebrate them, too. We celebrate Passover. Amen? So we're going to celebrate Rosh Hashanah when Jesus comes to take us, when the Lord Himself shall send from heaven with the shout of the archangels and the trumpets. Oh, by the way, did you ever figure out why Rosh Hashanah was called trumpets? Why New Year's? Listen to 1 Thessalonians 4.13. And the Lord Himself shall descend from God with the shout and with the trumpets of God. What is Rosh Hashanah called? Trumpets! We're waiting for trumpets right now. When? Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen? God bless you. Let's pray. God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit, as you entered into all of the calendar of the Father. And as we, your children, enter into this calendar as well, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ at Passover, having been given that life that He gives us by first fruits, in first fruits, and having been understanding that we are now unleavened bread without sin. We are perfect in your sight and in your kingdom. We've been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We were brought together at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came into our lives and filled us with the Shekinah glory of God. And now, Father, as pilgrims, we wait. We wait for trumpets. We're waiting to hear the blast. We're waiting to go with you. And, Father, we pray that trumpets come soon, followed by the great cleansing of the earth and Jew Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven as a bride adored for her husband. God, thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your calendar. Thank you for keeping us in it carefully. Father, we praise you and we thank you in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.