The Real Truth About Christ's Death, Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

May 20, 2017

Today will be Part 3 of the series entitled, The Real Truth About Christ's Death.

To me this is an exciting series to be able to go through, and we've started out with the day of the 13th before the 14th of the first month on God's calendar, because the 14th then is the Passover day itself. We've been going into some things having to do with the beginning of that day, which is always after a sunset. The beginning of every day, as it was in times of old, especially through Biblical times in the Old Testament and the New Testament, begins at sunset. So into the night time portion is the beginning of the day. Our day changes at 12:00 midnight; it wasn't so a long time ago. It started at sundown.

So we have been talking about some of those things that Jesus Christ did when he instituted the new Passover, and with the institution of the new Passover on that particular night there were things that he gave as far as the washing of feet, the partaking of the little small amount of wine and a small portion of broken bread, unleavened bread. So we've been going through a part of that.

So here in Part 3 we're going to begin covering events that later go farther into the night portion, in the latter part of the night portion of Passover, once Jesus Christ and his disciples leave the place where he has been talking to them. After he instituted these new symbols he began to reveal what we went through in Part 2, the last part, concerning things in John and those things that were covered in the book of John in John 14. That was right after those matters of the symbols of Passover were instituted, but as soon as he finished with some of those things that you read about there in John, they move from that location to another location. We're about to go into some of that.

Again, as we covered back in Part 1 of Leviticus 23 God made it very clear that the observance of Passover is in the 14th day. There is no portion of it to be observed in the 13th, and there is no portion of it to be observed in the 15th. A lot of people, even in God's Church in times past, have become confused about some of those things, yet God is very specific that everything was to take place in the 14th of God's calendar, things beginning in that night time portion and then in the daytime portion. So we need to know the timing of those events. People can follow along in some of these things; it isn't that hard to get some of these things straight, but it's amazing what you find in scripture in the New Testament because people who translated did not understand God's purpose and God's plan. They had been taught and received things totally different in the world of Traditional Christianity, primarily from the Catholic Church if you go back in time, and those same things then were passed along whether it be the Church of England or whether it be the Lutheran Church or whether it be some others that started back in that period of time.

Anyway, it just has become totally confusing for people because they were confused and didn't understand the simplest of things of what Jesus Christ was observing during this period of time and because of that they don't know the truth about his death. They don't know the truth about the timing of his death and the very fact that they believe something different reveals that they really don't believe in the truth about Jesus Christ, or the true Jesus Christ, because the bottom line is they believe in a false one. They believe in one that was born on December 25th. They believe in one that died on a Good Friday and was resurrected Sunday morning. Neither of those things is true. It's very simple here as you go through, if you understand Leviticus 23 and the timing that God gave of when the Passover was to be observed and when the Holy Day of Unleavened Bread was to be observed. So, it’s incredible here, some of these things that aren't really that difficult, yet to the world, especially the world of traditional Christianity, it's confusing.

So let's pick up here in John 14. Remember again that after the Passover dinner and the institution of the new Passover symbols Christ went on to teach some of the greatest truths that have ever been revealed to mankind. Those things in John 14 are absolutely incredible! They truly are! They're incredible. They're the most important things, as a whole, that has ever been given to mankind as far as knowledge about God's purpose and about why Jesus Christ was to fulfill what he did on Passover, to die for mankind as our Passover, our Passover sacrifice. Awesome! Because on that night he went on to show that the most awesome thing ever given to human beings is that he and his Father area able to dwell in human beings. No one knew that before. They didn't understand those things. Through the power of God's holy spirit, God communicates with mankind through the spirit, through His holy spirit to the spirit. There is a spirit essence in our minds in the way God created us that makes us different from the animal kingdom. They are set programmed by God Almighty to respond to various things, and it's done by a spirit essence as well, but it's not like what was given to mankind.

Mankind has been given that which we're able to think. We're able to do things as far as memory is concerned; we're able to have ideas and creativity. It's an awesome thing He's given to us. So when God communicates to human beings (as a whole), unless it's a few examples through the Old Testament where He did it through some other manifestation, of someone that was speaking to the person, as an example, Abraham, or one who wrestled with Jacob, when God manifested Himself in human form and they were able to talk then because that human form that God manifested before them was able to physically communicate to them, but that isn't the way that God deals with most of mankind. It isn't the way that God communicated with David, as an example, King David, who was a prophet. All those things you read about in the Psalms that are matters of prophecy that Christ fulfilled in his life, they were communicated to David by the holy spirit. God just put it into his mind and he knew. There were things just given to him, as with the prophets as a whole. It's just placed in the mind and they know.

The life of Jesus Christ is even far beyond that because there are things he just knew. He knew because it was God in him. Awesome scriptures that you can read about there in John 14. So let's review just a little bit of that and then we'll continue on.

John 14:15, Jesus Christ said, If you love me, keep my commandments. I love that! Because whose commandments are they? They're God's! He says they're mine. He tells them other things as well. He makes it very clear that what he is saying, what he teaches is not his, it's from God! It's from God the Father. So he makes it very clear what he's referring to. Those commandments have to do with what God has commanded mankind, how mankind should live, which includes the 10 Commandments. Yet traditional Christianity pretty much teaches that he died and when he died he nailed the law to the cross. You no longer are bound to keeping the law, yet if you start going through so much of the law, they say, "Oh, that's a good law. That's a good law." The one they hate is the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, and the annual Sabbaths, but most people are totally ignorant that there are annual Sabbaths.

So he says, "If you love me," and so people say they love Jesus Christ, they've accepted Christ, they love Jesus Christ, but they don't do what he says! That's sick! It really is sick when you think about it. They don't do what he said, what he commanded.

If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another comforter, that it may abide, "dwell in," as this word in the Greek language can be translated, "to continue in; to dwell in; to live in; to remain in" as it's translated into English so often, those words that are all used, and they all apply. …that it, the holy spirit, may abide with you forever; even the spirit of truth, so that spirit that comes from God Almighty is a matter of what is true! It's the truth. What it conveys to the mind of a human being is the truth. So we're going through some things here where people have to make choices in life. What's true? What is true? Did he die on a Friday? Was he resurrected Sunday morning just as the sun was starting to come over the horizon? Is that when he was resurrected? Not even close by many hours! Yet that's what the world believes because they don't understand the scriptures. They don't understand things that are plainly stated.

It says here, "even the spirit of truth." So whatever that spirit conveys, it'll always be the truth. There's only one truth. If you look at all the Protestant churches in the world and the Catholic Church, they believe a lot of different things. They are not together in one church; they're in many kinds of organizations because they don't believe the same things. So who is true? What is true? Amazing!

It says the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive. So the world as a whole, mankind is not able to receive that holy spirit yet. God has a plan whereby in time they can, but not yet. Jesus Christ went on to say, because it sees it not, and spiritually it doesn't see it. It can't receive it. It's not their time. There is a process that people have to go through to receive this. …neither knows it. They don’t even know what it is; they have never experienced it. But you know it. So he's speaking to the disciples, and truly to the Church, because Jesus Christ was dying, going to give his life. He was going to die as our sacrifice so that now there could be a Church, a new covenant and now a Church. Before that, 4,000 years before that, there was never a Church. There were individuals who were called by God, and because they  believed in the Messiah – they didn't understand everything about it—and that God was going to give salvation through a Messiah, there were things they believed in and thereby because of the faith they lived by when God communicated and worked with them, they too were able to go through a process like those in the Church do as far as receiving the holy spirit and that which is able to grow within them though they didn't understand the process. They didn't understand the things that were later revealed to the Church of how that works. They just had the holy spirit. They had a relationship with God, a unique relationship, because God was working with them individually and not very many in 4,000 years either. Then there was the Church beginning on the day of Pentecost after the death of Jesus Christ. When the day of Pentecost came then God began to give His holy spirit to mankind, the very things that Jesus Christ was revealing here to the disciples that you can read about in John 14, which we're reading now.

The world cannot receive it because it sees it not, neither knows it. But you know it. How? It's a spiritual thing. One is either given of that spirit or they're not. If they're given of that spirit there are things they can see spiritually, not physically! There are things they can see on a spiritual plane with understanding that before that they could not see, they couldn't grasp, they couldn't understand. Now they're able to.

But you know it, for it dwells, that same word again, "to abide; to dwell in; to live in; to remain in; to continue in" as it's translated into English, and all of them correct because that's what they all mean, for it dwells with you. So that holy spirit can dwell with human beings, and shall be in you. Awesome! No one ever understood that before this. No one understood this process before that. Now Jesus Christ is revealing something to them that is absolutely incredible.

He went on to say then in verse 18—I will not leave you comfortless. So to his disciples he was going to leave them and he was not going to leave them without comfort, that comfort that they were able to receive. They hadn't yet received the impregnation of the holy spirit, but it was coming to them and there were things that they could grasp to a certain level. They knew he was the Messiah. They were convicted of that. There are things he taught that stuck in their minds but they didn't really see everything yet, not in a clear picture, but it was like one being called and drawn to God, but not yet baptized, not yet receiving the impregnation of the holy spirit. So he's telling them, in essence, that he's getting ready to leave, and that's when he told them, "You know the way." It's like, "You haven't even told us where you're going yet." They didn't know what he was getting ready to go through. So it's all spiritual. "I will not leave you comfortless" because he was going to leave them and not be with them, but they wouldn't be without him. Awesome!

I will come… that word again that is not a future tense word in the Greek language. It's like in the English present progressive. It means when it starts coming, whenever it happens it starts coming, it continues to come. It's referring to the holy spirit that will come into our life and when it begins it will continue coming into our life. The only thing that can interfere with that is an individual's sins because that will cut off the flow of that holy spirit that comes into them. Then one, again, has to repent and be forgiven through our Passover, because of our Passover, and then that spirit can continue again coming into our life.

So he says, "I will come." It's better translated, "I am coming." So when he starts coming, because he's been in heaven for 2,000 years with God the Father and he hasn't come back. It's not talking about a literal coming back to this earth; it's talking about the holy spirit that can come into our lives then. I am coming to you. Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me. They didn't understand a word of what he was saying. "The world can't see you but we can? What does that mean?"

Because I live, spiritually, he will be spirit, and that which comes to us in the power of the holy spirit from him and the Father that comes to us, that's what he's talking about. …you will live also, on a spiritual plane, not talking about physical life. They already had physical life. At that day… For them that day would be on the day of Pentecost. Then finally it would all come to them. It would start coming into their mind the things that he had taught, the things that he had said, and that this process would begin on the day of Pentecost, that Jesus Christ, through the power off the holy spirit, and God the Father through the power of the holy spirit would begin dwelling in human beings. "In my Father's house are many places to dwell." That's what was going to begin to take place when the Church was established on Pentecost of 31 A.D, all those who were brought along, and on that particular day even individuals who were moved by and then baptized as time went along here and who began to receive of the holy spirit, those things began to happen to them – God the Father and Jesus Christ dwelling within them on a spiritual plane. Awesome things revealed!

I look forward to the time that people can begin to understand this reality. For as a whole, for 2,000 years, not many have understood it, not even in the Church, not fully, only to a point.

Because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know… When this begins to happen in your life you're going to understand and see something on a spiritual plane. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. It's a spiritual thing, that God the Father and Jesus Christ through the power of the holy spirit can dwell with human beings on a spiritual plane to teach, to lead, to guide, to direct. Through the power of the holy spirit, as even Paul referred to it in Romans 12, this transition that can take place in the mind whereby our very mind can begin to be changed. The way we think is to be turned away from the selfish kind of spirit that we have to one that is more like God, in agreement with God, in unity with God, Godlike.

Verse 21—He who has my commandments, and keeps them… So for this to happen one must indeed keep God's commandments. No one can keep them perfectly, that's why we need God, that's why we need this help, this spirit in our lives. The whole history of Israel is that they could not keep God's laws. They were given it, but they couldn't keep it. Only those who were begotten of God's spirit, only those who receive of God's spirit can live this way of life, because it has to be lived on a spiritual plane. We can't by our own physical human nature apart from God live this and do this. He who has my commandments, and keeps them he it is who loves me. So to obey these things, to do these things reveals one’s love toward God and one’s love toward Jesus Christ. And he who loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest (reveal, show) myself to him. "The world can't see me, but you can," because it's spiritual. So, "I'll reveal myself, show myself to you." It's on a spiritual plane. Awesome!

So again, by this teaching and what Jesus Christ was giving at this particular time he was revealing the very purpose of why he was going to die on the afternoon of the 14th. He was revealing to them why it wasn't just to pay for sin. That's only the beginning! The world doesn't understand that!

I was reading something here the other day that someone wrote to my wife (not in the Church, though at one time they were supposed to be), but they were writing about their love for Jesus Christ and so forth, basically, and how that they are forgiven of their sins past, present, and future. You think, why even do anything? If you're forgiven of all your sins past, present, and future you can just go on. That's why churches say, "Just come as you are." "Just come as you are." No, you can't come as you are before God. You have to have a conviction in your life that you want to live His way of life and not your own, and not to go right out then, as they do on Sunday, and go right back in the world and probably Sunday night on many occasions commit adultery or fornication or other sins! Because, well, they can be forgiven; they just go back to church on Sunday, if they even bother. Maybe they just go once or twice in the year because after all, "I'm forgiven of all my sins by Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ." That's not true. There has to be repentance. There has to be a desire to change, a desire to become something different as Paul and others talk about in scripture.

So some of those get me a little aggravated when I start reading through some of that and think of the deception that's in the world, but they can't see yet. It hasn't been given to them to see, but you'd think that some would be able to see some of the hypocrisy that's involved there, but they don't.

Anyway, he was revealing here why he was going to die. It wasn't just to be forgiven of sin and everything in God's plan stops there. The reason for being forgiven of sin is that so that God Almighty and Jesus Christ can live in us because when we sin we cut off the flow of the spirit because God will not dwell in or with sin. So we have to be cleansed through Jesus Christ our Passover. That's why we repent on a daily basis of sin and go before God and say, "Father, forgive me," whatever it might be, a wrong thought, wrong thoughts, a wrong action, wrong speech of something that was said to someone that wasn't the way it should have been because there's a constant desire to change and become something new, a new creation as it speaks about in scripture.

Again here, awesome things that were revealed, truly, to this point in time the most awesome thing ever revealed to mankind, that God Almighty and Jesus Christ can dwell in us. How much do we embrace that, appreciate that, and understand what was given for that? Those are things we have to ask ourselves.

So let's move forward in the timing of events in that night of Passover after Jesus had finished teaching these new things to them. This Passover story and what actually happened in timing, the timing of Christ's death and the resurrection has been so incredibly twisted, as I've already mentioned, so distorted by religious teachers because they're ignorant of things that are true. They want to believe something that's different, especially beginning in 325 A.D., as I've mentioned over and over again, when the real establishment of the Catholic Church began because the Lutheran church wasn't around for several hundred years later. The Pentecostal churches, the other Churches of God that meet on Sunday, but they call themselves the Church of God and they're not, they meet on Sunday, different groups and organizations, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, on and on it goes, that came out of the Catholic Church as a whole. Well, the Catholic Church is the oldest and the others didn't start for many hundreds of years later. So they didn't even start until a long time later. They don't even know their own history and when they began.

You think, "Wouldn't you want to be a part of the Church that began on 31 A.D.? Because that Church has always existed, the Church that began on 31 A.D., because that Church has always existed. The Church that began on 31 A.D., long before the Catholic Church was ever established. Awesome! But people don't think that way, but they're about to. It's about to begin to take place.

So, in 325 the Catholic Church, basically, it was at least the beginnings of it, no matter what they called themselves, they received the support of Constantine and the backing of the Roman Empire. That's why some have referred to it as the Roman Catholic Church. That's where it started. It got its start back then. That is when everything began to be distorted and twisted, the most basic of things. That's when they began to forbid the observance of Passover. Go into an encyclopaedia and read it. They forbid the observance of Passover. Awesome! It's when they began to teach a trinity, this great mystery, the three spiritual musketeer thing. Somehow one in three and three in one, but it's a mystery, so you can't understand it, just accept it, because the Pope said it that's what you're supposed to accept. Amazing! And so all the world of traditional Christianity accepts all that, what the Pope declared. They even say you can't find it anywhere in scripture. So none of the Protestant churches have any grounding for it except for what the Pope has said. The Pope is their authority, in essence, when it comes to the trinity.

It was also at this time in 325 that they instituted the beginning of a keeping of the first day of the week, Sunday, as day of worship for their church. They began to outlaw the seventh day Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath. They actually began to kill people who observed that particular day. Incredible!

Let's begin looking at the timing of events on that Passover night that followed this. After Jesus revealed these new teachings and truths that night they then went out to another location. We're going to look at Mark 14 that begins to record what happened in order. Now, this jumps around a lot as far as a sequence and the actual things that are inserted in the story, because Mark reports one thing, John reports another, and Luke, and sometimes the stories coincide, and they speak of the same thing, and Matthew. So in the first four of those books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the story flow. People have a difficult time with that, most of them, because they don't understand the timing and they don't understand the days of what Christ was doing and what he was fulfilling.

Mark 14:26—And when they had sung a hymn, a song of praise, they went out into the Mount of Olives. So after Jesus Christ had taught these things in John 14 and on, they ended then by having this song, singing this song of praise to God Almighty. When they were finished with that they left from where they were, where they'd kept the Passover on that particular night. This was beginning to be quite late. They went to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus said unto them, All of you shall be, the word translated here in the King James says "offended," but it's not a word that means offended. It's a word that means "a cause to stumble; or made to stumble." Because of what was getting ready to happen to him it would be a stumbling for them, because they had no idea the severity of what was getting ready to take place. They were going to be tried in a way they'd never been tried yet. So he said, All of you shall be made to stumble because of me this night. That's basically what he was telling them.

So again, All of you shall be, in essence, be made to stumble because of me this night; for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. So he's quoting a scripture here in the Old Testament and saying, "This is going to be fulfilled this night. Because of what happens to me they're going to be scattered." But after I have risen, and they still didn't know what he was talking about. They still didn't know that he was going to die! They had no idea. Their minds were closed off. They just couldn't see it even though he'd been telling them different things, and at some points there right to the point.

So now he says, But after I have risen I will go before you into Galilee. But Peter said unto him, Although all shall be made to stumble, yet I will not. "I’m not going to be made to stumble because of you or anything you do. I'm not going to be that way," Peter said in essence. And Jesus said to him, Truly I say unto you, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crows twice, it says, you shalt deny me three times. "Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times." So before this happens he will have already done this three times; deny Jesus Christ. He didn't think he would. He didn't believe that he would. He most certainly did and he had to live with that the rest of his life. It gave him a motivation and a direction. He was the chief apostle to the Jewish people then, to Judah, and the other apostles in essence, were under him in government and authority within the Church. Then Paul came along and he was the apostle of the gentiles. There was that unique relationship that they all had together, but there was an order of things that God gave in the Church even then.

Verse 31—But he spoke the more insistently. You know, when Christ told him this he was more insistent in what he had to say. Even if I should die with you, I will not deny you in any way. He had no idea what was coming though, the reality of it when it finally hit. They all likewise said the same thing. "Yeah!" "Yeah!" Human nature. Human nature's kind of funny. Sometime you have to laugh at our human nature. That's the way we are. And oh, yeah, the rest, "I'm the same way. I'm going to do what Peter said." "Ditto!"

And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane. Now, this was a garden area at the foot of the Mount of Olives, so it's a unique area. They were coming down on the side of the hill there (they call it a Mount) and by the time they got to the bottom there, then there was this garden where it's able to be watered easier and so forth and taken care of. So there's a garden down toward the bottom of that. We saw that particular area many years ago. It's amazing when you think about what they lived, where they were, what they did, and the traveling they did all by foot, basically, as a whole, in those times. It's very moving.

And he said to his disciples, Sit here while I pray. Now, this is getting very late in the night. Awesome, when you understand the timing. And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed, as it says here, and deeply troubled. So very distressed and deeply troubled, and said to them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful. In other words, basically what he's saying is, "I am," that's the way we would say it, "exceedingly sorrowful." Or, "My heart is exceedingly sorrowful." Or, "My inner being," that's more what the "soul" is about then. It's an expression to express these things, "My inner being; I feel exceedingly sorrowful." That's what he was telling them. "I'm feeling this deep inside of me," deeply grieved, if you will, even unto death. So again, incredible here what he was saying and they didn't grasp what was getting ready to take place. But he knew. Wait here and watch. Now, he's still teaching here, in essence, is what he's doing because this example is going to be left for all time, and basically, over and over again in scripture he tells people to watch, to be on guard, to be spiritually alert in their life. Always be on guard. Always be watchful, which is a spiritual thing. So he's going to use a physical example here to drive home a point about watching and being on guard because it has to do with that which is spiritual, But they weren't yet there. They had not observed yet Pentecost when the holy spirit began to be poured out.

Verse 35—And he went forward a little ways, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. We cannot grasp what he was going through. We can only strive to appreciate and understand it, But to know it, to feel what he felt? No human being ever has. He had a knowing in his mind that was so powerful and so real because of everything that God had given to him, because of who he was, the Word of God made flesh, that it was as though he were living it. He knew the kind of beating, as though he could feel it, exactly what he was going to go through, and then to finally die as he did. And he said, Father… He said, "If there is any other way… any other way…" I don't know how many of you have ever prayed about certain things in your life, if there is any other way of fulfilling a certain thing, but follow this example.

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto You. See, we know that. We understand that. So there are times in our lives when we may pray similar prayers, "If there is another way," He said, take away this cup from me. "You can do anything." Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. He knew God's will. He knew what he was to fulfill, but he also knew the reality of it as a physical human being, about what he was getting ready to go through. So this is what he was feeling deep down inside. There is an example there that he prayed so intently that perspiration came out and droplets, bits of blood, came out with it because it was so real. No human being has ever done that, had that kind of experience because of what they knew in the mind. Awesome! Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. That's what life always comes down to, what is God's will. We belong to God.

That's why the verses in Hebrews about this are so profound. And although this was covered in Part 8 of the previous series about Jesus Christ's real life story, because some who come along in time are going to see this series or listen to this series first about the death of Jesus Christ, they will not have heard some of these things and it's important that it be repeated again, and for us so that we deeply understand this in a deeper way than ever before, because even within the Church we are to grow in things that we are given. And we can. We can grow in understanding. So we're going to spend some time and interrupt the story flow right here, going back here to Hebrews 10 and discussing some of this, of what was happening in his life, that which he knew was about to take place in his life, because this is all a part of the story.

So in Hebrews 10:1. We won't go back as far, but we're going to go through this portion because it's so profound and so powerful what was taught. So in verse 1 it says, For the law, again here, it speaks of the sacrificial law. It has nothing to do with the 10 Commandments, though there are those in the world that try to say it does. It's about the sacrificial law. It's just like what Jesus Christ did on Passover night, in the beginning of that night when he instituted a new way to keep the Passover because from that point on there was no need to ever kill a Passover lamb again and eat it. That portion of the observance of Passover was being done away with because that is closely related with the sacrificial system, the Levitical system, the offering of bulls and goats and so forth that never could take away sin. That's what it talks about here in Hebrews.

So this is another portion. It's talking about the sacrificial system, the sacrificial law. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not by the very image of those things, can never with those sacrifices… See, it's about the sacrifices. It's not about the 10 Commandments. You know, sometimes people just flat outright lie about what they're saying, about what they teach. Some know better. …can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. So the sacrificial system never did away with sin. It never forgave sin. It never could, never could. For then they would not have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged, means "purified, cleansed," should have had no more conscience of sins. So it didn't take away sins. It didn't have anything to do with the healing of the mind and what takes place in the human mind, the forgiveness of sin and a relationship with God.

But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, so especially around the Day of Atonement and that period of time there, but at any time when sacrifices were offered up, and those things that took place around the temple, whether it be during the period of Unleavened Bread or Pentecost or the fall Holy Days, and especially on the Day of Atonement, at that particular time, they're just reminded year by year by year. Again here, people who really understand what it's saying here, they're reminded year by year that this has to do with the Day of Atonement in a very powerful way. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins made ever year. For it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. It's impossible. We have to have a Passover. The only way that sins can be taken away.

Therefore, when he came into the world he said… I love these verses here because this is about Christ and what is being said, of something that this is quoting, an Old Testament prophecy of something that would be revealed in Christ's life and something that he would say. When he came into the world he said, in other words, Jesus Christ, when he came into the world as an adult later on toward the end of his life, he said, Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. So this is the very mind, if you will, the very thinking of Jesus Christ in his relationship to God the Father and his thinking toward Him and his prayer toward Him. "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure." It isn't what it was all about, the sacrificial system, the Levitical system, because in time God was going to do away with it because it only pictured things that were to be fulfilled later on in a greater way, primarily in Christ Jesus as the High Priest and as all these Passovers. He fulfilled it all, especially the Passover lamb that God gave to mankind.

In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I come (for in the volume of the book it is written of me), these very words, to do Your will. That's what he said in that prayer, basically. That's what he was saying, "Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done," when he asked that this cup, what he was getting ready to go through, might be taken from him. "Not my will but Yours be done."

…(in the volume of the book it is written of me), to do Your will O God. Above when he said, so now he's going to add something else to this in what's said here. Paul is going to add something else that's stated. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin You would not, neither had pleasure therein; which are offered by the law, the sacrificial law, the Levitical law, if you will, Levitical system, then he said, Behold, I come to do Your will, O God. He took away the first that he might establish the second. That's exactly what he did in his life; even with the Passover he took away the first, the first partial observance here of the lamb, because he fulfilled that lamb. He was the Lamb of God who had to give his life for all mankind once and for all. Otherwise, they'd have to keep doing it year by year, cutting the throat of the lamb, spilling out the blood on the earth, and then roasting it on fire and eating it. He did away with that as well as the rest of the Levitical system. All the sacrificial law, the first that had been instituted from the beginning with Israel, was being done away with.

He took away the first, so that he could establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, which means set apart for holy use, a relationship with God Almighty, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Awesome! So he took away the first, the sacrificial system, the sacrificial law, because it couldn't do away with sin, to establish the second, which was what? "To do your will, O God," to enable human beings, those who are called into a relationship with God, primarily in the Church, once the Church was established, to have the ability to begin doing the very will of God. Not to go to a temple on Holy Days and offer up animals to be sacrificed to God, because Jesus Christ fulfilled the entire thing, the entire system, if you will, in his life by what he was doing. That's why he became "a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek," as it talks about in Hebrews here, not one that died every so often and another one had to come along as a High Priest that never did anything. Incredible. Beautiful story.

Hebrews 10:11—And every high priest stands daily ministering and frequently offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; that this man, Jesus Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from that time forward waiting until his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, one offering, himself, he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. So that's the relationship that mankind can now have that he was talking about in John 14, this power of the holy spirit that can live in human beings to make us a new creation, a new person, something different than what we were before, not to come before God the same old way, just as we are. Its like, "Oh, he has a great heart," and you can just continue in your sin, "and your past, present, and future sins are all forgiven." "Just give your heart to 'me.'" You can just go out and live as you want to because, I mean, after all, if you know that your future sins are forgiven you're not going to try to change. Why change? This is pretty easy! Yeah, this is a little too easy, isn't it? Amazing. No change. Awesome what the world believes and what Satan has led them to believe. Sad.

For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. Notice: The holy spirit also witness to us, for after he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them in those days, said the LORD, I will put My laws into their hearts, a word that means, as a whole, as it talks about here, they're like expressions we use, it's in our most inner being, our most inner being, if you will, in the mind. I will put My laws in their hearts, as to how we respond and think about God and how we think about His way of life, and in their minds will I write them, not on stone, but in the mind, God's laws, God's way of life. So far from doing away with the law, He said He's going to write it in the mind. Awesome! Also then adds, Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. So it's what the word "and" really means in the Greek language here. It means "also" or "then adds," because it's added to this of what was being said in the Old Testament as well, of what it states there. But it's being stated here that "their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." What a beautiful thing. He's going to write His laws, His way of life in our minds, in our being, and their sins and iniquities are going to be able to be forgiven and God won't remember them nor hold them against us because we're forgiven through Jesus Christ, who is our Passover. Now where remission, or in other words, release or forgiveness of these is, there is no more offering for sin. It's sad what the world has done to all this. They have so distorted it, so distorted what it actually teaches here, of something that is revealed in a very powerful way that's given in understanding that we can have.

Verse 19—Having, therefore, brethren, boldness, a word that means "freedom; liberty; confidence," as well, that goes with that. There's a thinking there. It's a word that conveys, it means freedom and liberty, but also conveys with that thought, that thinking, a boldness, if you will, yes, but a confidence in what you do, an absolute surety in your own mind. Having, therefore, brethren, boldness, liberty, knowing that you have this liberty before God. Sometimes as human beings, you know what we do, especially in the beginning of our calling? We tend to beat ourselves up. It's hard for us to think this way, to understand what's really been given to us because we look to ourselves as though we have to do it and we don't realize we can't do it anyway. You have to have God's help to live it. You should strive to do that, yes, but knowing all the time you can't do it on your own; you have to have a relationship, a closeness with God, and you continue to cry out to God, "I failed again. Help me, please, to conquer this, to overcome this." You keep fighting and that's a beautiful thing because with that you're actually acknowledging every time you sin in your life and ask for forgiveness of your sins, you're growing, you're growing in faith, you're growing in a relationship with God, because every time you're growing in character because every time you do that you're acknowledging that God is right, that God is true and we are not, and that the only way we can come through all this is through/by His help.

That's why I think of people in times past, where I've heard it so often throughout the Church and over the years, of people who finally begin to let down and finally go by the wayside and some speak of how that they're tired of hearing what they're like. They're tired. "All I hear about is how bad I am." I really drive it home because I not only talk about how bad we are, how bad human nature is, but we're just selfish by nature. The Church hasn't pushed that as much in times past as what God has given to us in recent times. Our nature is just flat selfish. That's the way we are! It's far better to just admit that! "I'm a selfish human being by nature. The only thing that makes me different is God's spirit as I yield to God's spirit. The more I grow, the less selfishness that's in life." But it's still there. It's still the number one thing that pops up especially when things aren't going well. That's just the way we are. We like things to go smooth. The computer system and everything else, I like it to go smooth, and when it isn't – ugh! That's just the way we are. So often then with that is a selfishness that can exist in how we react to others. That's when it's really bad, when we react to people in a wrong way because we're not getting our way. We're tried in those things.

So when we realize we've said something to somebody in a wrong way  out of impatience, anger, whatever it is, a wrong kind of judgment, whatever it is, then we have to evaluate that and go before God and ask for forgiveness of wrong thinking. So it's better to acknowledge, indeed, what we are, but with human nature it's hard. It's hard. I think of what I've seen over the years in God's Church in so many people's lives. Sometimes the hardest thing for a human being to come to is to acknowledge their guilt, especially in a relationship with someone else, and say, "I was wrong." "I was wrong. I'm sorry." It's like, "Hmmm. It's what you did. It's what you said. That's what stirred that up. There's a cause for why I reacted that way. And if you hadn't said that, if you hadn't of done that," and it's like we're okay. We justify ourselves. It's hard for us to just say, "I could have done that so much better. I was wrong in how I handled it." Or, "I'm just flat wrong. I'm sorry."

My wife is laughing back there because I know what she's thinking. She's thinking about her dad before he died, and what he would say, "Give me another chance." That was his way of saying, "I'm sorry." It's the same thing. We knew exactly what he was saying, "Give me another chance." He was saying, "I was wrong in what I said or what I did, or whatever, give me another chance." Yet it's hard so often for humans.

I find it really hard for individuals to admit to their own children sometimes, "I'm sorry. I was wrong." That's just a matter of wisdom. That's just a matter of maturity. That's a matter of being able to teach a child in soundness of mind so that they can grow up more balanced and to realize, "Yeah, mom and dad, sometimes they're wrong. Sometimes they react wrong and they acknowledge that." What a great example! What a great thing to do rather than trying to cover it up and leaving with them the impression that you are not to apologize or to say that you are wrong, that they don't experience that. They should be able to experience that so they learn the same thing. That's how they learn. They see what we do and then they begin to realize this is the way it should be. What a beautiful thing when it's done right, but so often, even within the beginnings in life within the Church it doesn't happen that way because human beings just can't bring themselves to admit, "I am wrong!"

It's a big thing, but that's what God calls us to. He calls us to come to realize, to come to acknowledge in our own life that we don't do things perfectly by any measure. Now, we can grow in perfection, and we should over the years in God's Church, but so often we're still going to have responses and reactions in things and things we say because we do it out of impatience or whatever it might be that just aren't right. As soon as we catch ourselves doing that you know what we should say? "I'm sorry." "Give me another chance," whatever it might be. That's the way we should be, but a lot of relationships aren't like that and a lot of people don't do that, not even to each other within the Church sometimes, and that's sad, because of all people we should be able to do that toward one another in spirit and in truth because of God's spirit, let alone to others in the world.

I tell you, sometimes I've heard of people doing this on their job or whatever and going to an employer even and saying, "Hey, I'm sorry. I was wrong." And they're taken aback sometimes. They're so taken back by that they are just a little dumbfounded because that doesn't happen to people in the world. People don't acknowledge that, not even toward the boss; employees to an employer. And yet if people can do that they're going to build a relationship there. They're going to have a respect towards you and it goes a long, long way in being a good employee. It truly does. I've heard all kinds of stories where people have been taken aback by some of those kinds of things, and even an employer telling an employee (That's a bigger one!), "Hey, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I did that in a wrong way," and they're taken aback. They don't want to leave that job. "I want you as my boss always," because they've experienced all kinds in the world and they realize, “Hey, if somebody is willing to come to me and tell me they made a mistake, they're wrong, I respect that. I really respect that.” That's the way it should be around the environs of God's Church. So a beautiful thing when it's done right, but so often human beings just don't do it.

So getting back to some of the story here about having a boldness, a freedom, a liberty, as it says here, Having, therefore, brethren, boldness (a freedom, a liberty, a confidence) because you're doing the right thing, to enter into the Holiest. It's a word that has to do with the Holiest of Holies, that last third that was in the old temple there behind the veil. Now we have the way into the Holiest of Holies, God's very throne, awesome things that have been revealed after the time of Christ and during just shortly after that then in the life of the apostles and given to the Church, of something that people never heard before this. They didn't understand those things written in the Old Testament that are recorded here in places, that are spoken of. You know, "He came to do away with the first that he might establish the second." They had no idea what that was about. Amazing!

Having, therefore, liberty (freedom), a knowing that whenever you pray, that if you're seeking forgiveness of sin, you're seeking to be right with God, oftentimes in the beginning of prayer you're addressing the things you're repenting of, and that doesn't just stop there sometimes, because sometimes along with that goes with the need of going to someone else and saying, "I'm sorry. I was wrong." It isn't enough just to go before God and say, "Father, forgive me for acting that way or saying a certain thing,” because that's what we are sometimes as human beings. We shouldn't act that way. We shouldn't do those things.

So sometimes people think by just going to God that somehow we can ask for forgiveness of our sins when we've been wrong toward a brother or someone else in the world, or whatever it might be, and yet we haven't gone to make that right. Oh, no, no, no. You are not forgiven until you do that. It isn't enough just to say, "Father, forgive me.” You have a responsibility then of following through and making sure that you say to someone else, "I'm sorry. I was wrong," or whatever it is you need to make it right, or to go to a brother alone, or whatever it might be in life that people have to do. And then again go before God and say, "Father, I've gone to them. I've talked to them. Please forgive me of my wrong actions and my wrong thinking here," whatever it might be in life that you have to have to seek forgiveness of. There are things sometimes we just have to ask God, yes, indeed, for forgiveness, but we've got a responsibility to strive to make things right when we can. Sometimes there is nothing you can do about certain things in your mind or your being or how you responded and it's too late. You just ask God to forgive you. But where you can make it right? Boy, we're held accountable to do that.

So again, a boldness by the blood of Christ, knowing we're forgiven. That's what it means because we know we're forgiven of our sins so we have this confidence. I mean what an awesome thing to know whatever time of day, wherever you are, whatever's taking place you can cry out to God and He hears you. You can go into the Holiest of Holies on a spiritual plane before God Almighty. Awesome! The Church is the only one that's ever known this. Truly! Yet God wants us to understand that as human beings, that we have that ability. This is what Paul was telling here.

…to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus by, or as the word means here, through a new and a living way, "Because I live you will live also." That's what he told them. This is what he's talking about. There's something alive and working in you through the power of God Almighty and Jesus Christ, through the power of their spirit that is making change in your thinking, in your life. That's why I love the word "repent" in the Greek language. We just use the word "repent" but don't know what it means. It literally means in the Greek language "to think differently." Think differently! Don't think the same way as you do as a human being. Don't think the same selfish way as you do, as a whole, but think differently. Strive to be in oneness with God, unity with God, alignment, order with God, if you will, on a spiritual plane. So this is a new and a living way for human beings, something new that human beings never understood, that God Almighty and Jesus Christ can dwell and live in us. Awesome! Amazing, really!

…by a new and a living way which he has consecrated for us, made it possible for us because of what he did so that we can have this kind of a life and a relationship with God, so that God the Father and Jesus Christ can dwell in us and we in them. All that means is it's a process that only works. There's a unity and a bond and a oneness there when God's spirit dwells in us. It means then if He's dwelling in us then we're dwelling in Him. It's a spiritual thing. See? If that flow of the spirit is cut off then He obviously is no longer dwelling in us, Jesus Christ is no longer dwelling in us, and we're unable then to dwell in them. It's a spiritual connection, is what it's talking about, a two way street. It's a flow of God's spirit. It's what's given to us and how we then respond to God Almighty on a continuing basis in the spirit, in the mind, how we think toward God, how we react and respond to God, how we pray to God.

"…by a new and a living way." It's alive, not a physical thing; it's a spiritual life, a spiritual experience in life that is hard to give to anyone. You can't. It's just a personal thing between you and God, of how you think, of how you live and what you're able to share with God. That's why God wants us to have our prayers, as a whole, in privacy with God, not out in the open as so many in the world think you do, you know, to be seen by others or whatever it is, to put on a show or whatever it is. It's about, as Jesus Christ said, "When you pray, go into your closet." In other words, go into a place, be alone with God, and pray to Him. That's the kind of prayers we should have because there's that unique relationship that we're able to build with God. It's not about anyone else being around to hear it or to see it or anything else. It's private. It's between us and God as God molds and fashions us, as we share the deepest most inner things of our life.

Nothing is hidden from God. He knows everything that's going on up here, so we might as well understand from the get go that we're not able to hide out here in the garden, like Adam and Eve did; they're going to hide from God. No, you're not, and not only that, you not only cannot hide from God physically where you are in life, you can go down the deepest hole there is, it doesn't matter, He's always going to be able to know where you are and what you're thinking and what's going on in your mind. So that's what we have, and just acknowledge that, "You know what's in my mind. Nothing is hidden from You." He knows your every thought. Every thought that goes on in your mind, God's knows that. So you know what? We might as well be truthful with God. Don't try to hide anything from God because you can't. You can't hide anything from God and Jesus Christ. They know all. They see all. They understand all with each one of us in life. Now, we can have that by knowledge, but it doesn't seem to sink in, because it's a spiritual thing, but we grow in that and the more we grow in that the more open we are able to be with God. In time we're able to be more open in our own lives because we don't tend to be that way as human beings.

So again here, by the blood of Jesus Christ, a new and a living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil. It's that veil that when he died that was ripped from top to bottom, that separated the first portion of the tabernacle from the last portion where the ark was and all those things that were in it. So that revealed then through Jesus Christ now the way into the Holiest of Holies is now there on a spiritual plane. Human beings can have a relationship with God Almighty – the Holiest of Holies, the true tabernacle of God where God dwells.

…which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. He gave his life. …and having an High Priest over the house of God, the house, the dwelling, the household as in a family. All these things, it's what it means. It's what it's talking about. …having a High Priest over the family of God, the temple of God, the household of God, they all say the same thing. And having an High Priest over the house of God let us draw near, near to God Almighty and Jesus Christ, but our prayers are to God Almighty, and we know through Jesus Christ. That's why we end our prayers that way, in the name of Jesus Christ. We're reminded and we tell it to God because, "We're acknowledging, we understand how we're able to have this access to You, this relationship to You, Holy Righteous Father."

So, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, in what we've been given to believe, a confidence and a boldness even in what we believe, a liberty and freedom. We've been given to believe awesome things. I can't help it but I get so excited when I realize what we've been given. There are so many things, truths that we've been given at the end here to prepare us, because we're blessed to be a part of preparing for the time when God's Kingdom is actually going to be made manifest and come to this earth. We're almost there. You think of all the things that we have been given because God is preparing us for that occasion, of things that are changing to prepare us and so more understanding and insight is being given to us in preparation for that time so that there is not a giant transition for the Church as it continues on. It's already there, what we need, and we just continue to move forward. It just gets much larger, into the millions and billions, if possible. It depends on human beings.

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. So this can be taken care of, that which is in the mind and that wrong thinking, an evil conscience, wrong thinking as human beings, to come to understand that we're selfish by nature and that's our fight. We have to fight it day in and day out. You can't give up that fight. You keep at it till the end because so many quit fighting. So many quit fighting.

…and our bodies washed with pure water. This is the way we're cleansed, it's through the acknowledgement of our sins, a desire to be different, a desire to think different, a desire to be at-one with God. Then He blesses us with that.

Well, let's go back here to Mark and we'll just go through a little bit more here. Mark 14; we’ll return to where we were and read that again. So they, again, had departed from where they'd actually observed the keeping of the Passover service itself, the old eating of the lamb, and the new because of what Jesus Christ instituted in the footwashing, the taking of the bread and the wine, and then he taught them the things he did. Then they sang that song of praise to God Almighty and departed from there and went to the Mount of Olives and then to the area of Gethsemane, which is the garden area at the bottom of the Mount of Olives.

So it says here then he had the three who went with him, apart from even the rest there, and he told them all to wait and to watch and he went forward a little bit father. It says,  [Mark 14:35] He went forward a little ways and fell on the ground and prayed, that if it were possible the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto You; take away this cup from me. Nevertheless not what I will, but what You will. He came to do away with the first so that he could establish the second, the doing of God's will, not just in himself; he's revealing here then a relationship that all within the Church are going to be able to have with God from then on, to learn to do, to have the ability to do God's will and no longer go through any sacrificial things at all, because they don't mean anything and they can't take away sins. It's about a relationship with God and how we're able to do, begin doing God's will.

Then continuing, verse 37—And he came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, Simon, Do you sleep? Couldn't you watch for one hour? Just one hour. So this is really getting later and later into the night. I hope we understand that because by the time Passover was over and Jesus Christ went through all these teachings and stuff, it doesn't say the exact time but we're talking very possibly here a time past midnight already or somewhere in that vicinity. I think it brings up some time here in a little bit, but it's getting close in that period of time. It's deep into the night, in other words. So, "Couldn't you watch for one hour?"

Watch and pray let you enter into temptation. So he's giving them a teaching of something that they don't yet understand, "Watch and pray." Over and over again he made these kinds of comments, "Watch and pray." And this word, "watch," means, in essence, to be spiritually alert, to be on guard. He's using a word here for night watch, to teach something spiritual to all, and primarily to the Church, that we live in the night as far as this world is concerned and we're to be alert. It even talks about if a person had known what time the thief would have broken through and entered into the house they would have watched, they would have been alert and on guard, those examples that are used throughout scripture to teach something on a spiritual plane, that this is how we must live our lives, "Watch and pray."

One scripture talks about, "Watch and pray, that you may be accounted worthy to escape these things." Now, some have misused that in a wrong way and saying to watch and pray about the fact that you be able to escape. That's not what it's talking about. It's not what its saying. It's saying, "Watch and pray." This is how you live your life. You stay alert spiritually. You cry out to God on a spiritual plane. You realize how much you need God's spirit. To have that you need to continue to repent and fight against your own human nature so you pray, you watch, as a part of the watching process to be alert before God, to strive to live this way of life, to work at it. That's a part of watching and praying spiritually. Then indeed, if we're doing those things, then when something comes in our life we're more prepared, we're ready to go through it, whatever it might be; we're better equipped to go through whatever it is that's in front of us.

Again here he says, Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation, to go off course, to do the wrong thing. When something comes along, you're tried, tested in life by whatever it might be that just comes your way as a part of your own human nature and you just can't address it, can't do it because you're too weak. That's why I cry out so often to not become lethargic, Laodicean in spirit, not to become lukewarm in spirit because the example to that era of the Church was that you can't be in a position of just kind of coasting along level. It doesn't work that way because there is no such thing as coasting along level. You're either going down in growth spiritually or you're going up, as a whole. We're starting to let down and because of that we're becoming weaker spiritually and we're not as on fire, we're not stirred up, we're not really striving to do the things as perhaps some other periods of time in our life. That fire needs to be stirred up in us on a regular basis. We need to cry out to God. That's why we fast at different times in our life, to ask God to stir up His spirit in our life and to help us to be better focused. So God blesses us in going through different things in our lives oftentimes that help us to become better focused. Look how many who have gone by the wayside because they let down. They began to coast. They began to just level off, into the thousands and thousands.

Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, God's spirit is ready. He wants to give it. He's there. He wants us to look to Him. Jesus Christ died so that they could dwell in us fully and richly in life – not to level off and begin letting down but to be stirred up in spirit, to be stirred up in spiritual life. That's God's desire, to live in us fully and mightily in life, not just kind of barely there off and on and like a dimming light and it gets dimmer and dimmer and our life to the world begins to be dimmer and dimmer and people in the world can't tell us apart from anybody else because of how we talk and what we do and what our behavior is like, and sometimes even with the Church with one another.

The spirit is ready but the flesh is weak. We are weak as human beings. All the more reason why we should cry out to God Almighty, "I need help daily. I need Your spirit. I want Your spirit! Forgive me," of wherever we need to be forgiven, brethren. That's what we need to pray to God about.

And again he went away and prayed, and spoke the same words, repeating this because he knew what was coming in a very profound way. So as he was waiting, knowing that he was getting closer, he's getting closer to being taken away, to being beaten so severely. He knew the scriptures. He knew exactly what was written. He knew what he was going to fulfill, what's written about in Isaiah, that his body is going to be so marred that they're not even going to be able to recognize who he is. That means his face is so beaten up, skin ripped off of his body with cat o'nine tails, skin ripped off in his face and his body that people couldn't see who he was by appearance. Amazing! And that was so real to him and so he prayed again. He talked to them and then went away again, because why? Because it wasn't yet time, but he's almost there and he's crying out for strength. He's crying out for help from God to go through what he knows he must fulfill. He felt this deeply, but was convicted, was committed to finish it, to do it. After 4,000 years the one who was to become the Messiah, the King of kings first knew that he had to fulfill the role of the Passover lamb, to be killed, to have his blood spilled to the earth for all mankind. It was bigger than he was. He knew that. He knew that and he wanted to give himself fully to it in order to fulfill it because it's about all mankind. He who was to be the chief cornerstone, awesome what he knew, what he understood. So he went and spoke, prayed the same things, the same words again.

Verse 40—And when he returned, he found them asleep again (for their eyes were heavy). Have you ever been in a situation like that where you're having a hard time staying awake and you're trying to stay awake for something, and yet it's so late into the night, and yet for whatever it might be, for whatever purpose you're trying to stay awake and you just can't do it and your eyes are getting heavy? We have a friend that happens to. My wife is smiling. She knows who I'm talking about. We can be talking and it can be 9:30 at night or whatever and the eyes are getting sleepy, heavier, and heavier. We understand what that means.

… (and their eyes were heavy), and they did not know what to answer him. How do you respond to that? How? They knew they could see something, that they weren't able to stay awake. Their eyes were heavy and they were so tired, but they weren't stirred up like he was. They didn't see what he saw. They were just normal human beings who were sleepy and tired and didn't understand the imminent danger, the horrifying thing that was about to take place.

And he came the third time, three times, a long period of time, as it talks about, likely over three hours here crying out to God until finally he was taken. And he came the third time and said, Sleep on now, but they didn't sleep on. But he said this to them, "Sleep on now," because there is a lesson in this. Let me just read the rest: Sleep on now and take your rest. It is enough, the hour has come. The time has come. Behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Then notice what he said. So it wasn't a matter of sleeping on. He said, Rise up! The lesson was about something spiritual. "You can't help it so just sleep on. You're going to be asleep through this whole process spiritually because you're not there yet. You don't have the impregnation of God's spirit." He wasn't yet dwelling in them. He's still with them. They're going to go through a little bit of a rough time here and then after a certain period of time he would be with them for a little while longer, about 40 days worth, and then the last 10 days before Pentecost and finally the Church begins. But anyway, a story that comes on and follows this.

So he said to do this, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us be going, for he who betrays me is at hand. It happened just like that after that period of time, whether it was three hours or whatever it was, because it said he went through and spoke about the same things, prayed the same things three different times. All this time had passed and finally late, late, late into the night they were coming to take him, Judas Iscariot with them and the different soldiers and so forth. They were coming to take Jesus Christ and that's why he then said to them to sleep on. But again here, a lesson in this about the spiritual, that which is spiritual. But then he told them to Rise up, and let us be going, for he who betrays me is at hand. And immediately, while he was yet speaking, while these words were coming out of his mouth, Judas came, who is one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude having swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the Scribes and the elders.

So they had sent them out. They had looked for a time that he could be betrayed. Judas knew what Christ's customs were and how he did various things that he did and where he would be with them on Passover—because they've had Passover's with him before—and how long it would be and certain things taking place here and where he normally would go on an occasion like this. So he was the one to betray him, to take them to him. That's exactly what happened.

Verse 44—And he who betrayed him had given them a signal, saying, Whomever I kiss, he is the one; take him, and lead him away safely. He still had concern in a sick sort of way, "Take him away safely back to the priest, high priest." He had no real understanding of fully of what was going to take place but he knew they were out to stone him. They'd even talked about this amongst themselves earlier, if you remember, in a few weeks leading up to this period of time here. Yet he was willing to give it all in for something in return. Awesome. Sick. So it went on to say here then, Then as soon as he had come, he went right to him, and said, Master, master; and kissed him. Sick. It's a betrayal.

I think of an occasion at one time when we just began as an organization, as the Church of God. PKG was in its infancy, if you will, and in a particular area up there in Toledo, Ohio, and we were going to have a board meeting one night. I've mentioned this in times past that there was an occasion where I was giving a particular sermon and it was about spiritual idolatry. Through that sermon I knew there was a pressure, a force that was not right, because I only experienced it once before. The first time I experienced it was many years before when I knew something was wrong in the Church and there were things going on in a spirit plane in a spirit world that’s hard to describe.

Anyway, I knew something was happening at that particular time and as soon as we got to our house that night we were having a meeting. It was a meeting of those who were a part of the organization at that time who were in various positions on the board as far as the church was concerned and how we started at that time. One of the leaders of the group, as soon as we sat down, came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek and it was that night they tried to take away the church, the organization of the church. They expected to have the church, the name of the Church, the organization of the Church, me out as part of leading and guiding and directing the Church. They wanted the church websites and everything else. You think, you don't even have anything to do with it. I'm writing everything that's there. What's wrong with you? But anyway, it was a failed attempt to basically take over the Church. They didn't want me to continue on visiting other areas and to see the Church grow. They said I'm their pastor, their minister, and I should stay right there and I shouldn't be going anywhere else. God had another purpose.

But anyway, this thing of betrayal is something that all of us as a whole at one time or another should experience. It's a good thing to experience. It truly is, not necessarily in that particular way in that particular likeness, but just betrayal by other human beings. Many of you in the Church have. You know betrayal on a spiritual plane, of people that you've walked to God's house with side-by-side and counsel, as it says, blended sweet. You know, it's talking about a fellowship that God's Church is able to have, but God's Church from the very beginning of time has gone through hard times. It hasn't been easy. It never has been for God's Church because of the kind of world we live in. So many people in the Church have experienced those things by a lot of people, especially after the Apostasy. It's not a pleasant thing. People that you thought were at-one with God and with you and then all of a sudden they change and they go in a different direction, think different things. You wonder, "How can that happen?" Well, it's all a matter of being watchful, alert, and on guard, and whether people truly do that or not and yield themselves to God.

So the story goes on here that he was betrayed. Awesome! Betrayal. It was just the beginning of betrayal, for what Jesus Christ was about to establish. He was about to establish the Church that would happen, begin happening on the day of Pentecost not too long after this.

Verse 46—And then, as it says here, after he kissed Jesus Christ, it says, and they laid their hands on him, and took him. And one of them who stood by drew a sword. Well, that was Peter. He drew a sword and struck a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. It's recorded in different ways in different spots here but he was ready to fight. So the things that he had heard, that Jesus Christ had to say, "Some of you this night," or, "All of you this night," he said, "are going to have an occasion to be offended by me," or as it really means here, "to stumble because of me." So he was saying, "Not me, even if it means death!" Here he was ready to fight and he took the sword and took off the ear of this individual.

So I'll read another section here. You don't need to turn there, but I'll just interject this in part of the story. In John 18:10-12. This is what I'll be reading to you,  Then Simon Peter, same thing, having a sword drew it and struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which my Father has given me? He was ready. He said, "Shouldn't I drink the cup that the Father has given me to drink? So you're not going to stop this. You're not going to prevent this. Put your sword away. It has no place." Then the detachment of troops and the captain and the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and bound him. So it tells what took place there.

And going back here then to Mark 14 and continuing on as it's recorded here. Verse 48—Jesus answered and said unto them, Have you come out as against a thief, with swords and clubs to take me? I was with you daily in the temple teaching and you did not take me. But so the scripture might be fulfilled. They all forsook him, and fled. That's why it happened in exactly this manner. This was going to be the stumbling, when he was taken by force as he was and the things they began to know, all that was taking place here. They were scared to death in a way that they didn't realize they could be. They were scared because they realized their life was in jeopardy. Peter said, "Even if I die," but when it really came right down to it sometimes we think we know what we would do and things come out and we don't realize what's inside of us until certain things sometimes happen to reveal what we're really like and what we really lack in life, the help we lack as human beings, things we can't do though we might want to or intend to. We aren't able to fulfill it.

And there followed him a certain young man, as he was being taken away. And there followed him a certain young man, one of the disciples, having a linen cloth wrapped around his naked body. So he just had this linen cloth around him and he was following, and the young men laid hold on him. So he was following a little too close and so they grabbed him and they were going to take him. And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked. We don't know that kind of fear as a whole as human beings. When you're put in a situation like that and your life is at stake in essence, your life is on the line and you realize they're going to take you too? You’re not so anxious to go. It’s understandable. We’re just human beings. So he took off. He didn't care that he was running naked at night. He didn't care if it was in the daytime, candidly, he'd have done the same thing.

So, anyway, we can kind of laugh at something like this that happens and realize that the young man is very likely the one that's writing here. That's how they sometimes spoke when they speak in certain terms. It's almost like the person that Jesus loved that was in a race and beat the other person. It's like, “I don't want to say my name and put it out there,” but there was a certain young man and there was this one that Jesus loved that did so and so, but they don't say, "It was me." So it's just human nature in kind of the humorous way in which things are done.

Verse 53—And they led Jesus away to the high priest. And with him were assembled all the chief priests and elders and the Scribes. So again, there is so much that went on this particular night, so much that took place once the sun set on the 13th day.

I think I'll just go through a little bit of that as far as timing is concerned. I've mentioned to people out there it's good to write some of this down as we go through some of this, about the timing of events. Even for those of us who have known it for so long and we know, it's in the mind, but sometimes it's easy to get tripped up when we talk about certain moments, and yet it's all right here. It's good to write this down.

Passover was in the 14th day. In the 14th day means after the daytime on the 13th. The 13th in that particular case was the third day of the week. So sometimes what I do normally is I just make a graph of seven days, what they are. Here are seven days in a row and here are the events taking place. I actually have one more day because the eighth day, or the first day of the week that follows that seven day period, is a critical one as well. That's the Sunday they think Jesus Christ was resurrected in the morning, and he wasn't. So that's why it's so important to understand the timing of this as we go through it. So I think it's good to talk about a little bit of that now.

The night time of the 13th was when Jesus Christ told the two disciples to go prepare the Passover. So the next morning they did so. They went to that place, followed that individual who was carrying the water, the pitcher, who went to gather water. Something my wife brought up that has been brought out in times past, that that was an unusual thing. So it wasn't going to be hard to pick him out, as a whole, as to whom it was because it was a custom that women did that. So for a man to come to the well to get the water was a unique situation. So I didn't even think about bringing that portion of the story into it. So they followed him to that place and Jesus said to ask then "Where is the guest chamber that we can prepare the Passover for our master?"

Anyway, that was all happening on the daytime portion of the 13th, which is what we would call, in the daytime portion, a Tuesday, the 3rd day of the week. So the days begin with Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and so in the daytime portion of Tuesday, the 3rd day of the week, that's the daytime portion of the 13th. Now, at the end of Tuesday as soon as the sun starts going down on that day, on Tuesday, a new day begins. It's the 14th. It's the Passover on that particular evening.

So on Tuesday after sunset the Passover began; the 4th day of the week began. The daytime portion would be what we refer to as Wednesday, the 4th day of the week. So again here, Tuesday after sunset all the way through Wednesday the daytime portion is the Passover. It's the day of the Passover. It starts at night but it's the day of the Passover. So it goes through the night time portion and then the daytime portion when Jesus Christ was actually killed.

We'll continue on and build on some of this as we go along, but I'm going to give you one more day here, the next day. After the Passover was complete, when the sun was down on the Passover a unique day began. This is a particular time that the world so messes up. The world of traditional Christianity doesn't even understand it. They don't even know it because they don't know what's written back in Leviticus 23. They didn't know. They don't understand that the day after Passover is a High Day. It's the first annual Holy Day on God's sacred calendar. So on God's calendar in God's time what we call the 15th of Nisan (Abib), that first month, begins a Holy Day, an annual Sabbath. There are seven annual Sabbaths God gave back in Leviticus 23 and the world doesn't understand that. It's because of that Holy Day that they so mess up scriptures that we're going to get into.

So if this is planted a little bit in your mind now, that's good, because we're going to go into those periods of time soon as we go into this particular series. So just understand that as soon as the Passover was over, a holy day began, an annual Sabbath. This becomes so critically important in understanding what happens at the end of the Passover day because it's all there in scripture. And once you see it, it'll be like a light bulb, "I've never seen that before. This is so simple!"

So again, at the end of the 14th, as soon as it's sundown, is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It starts that night. As soon as the sun is down on Passover day a new day begins. It's the 5th day of the week. So anyway, to understand it's a High Day, the day that follows it, is so important because it's only a Thursday at this point. The daytime portion of this 5th day of the week, if you will, is again the daytime portion of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That period of time, all the way through it, it is so incredibly important to understand that it's an annual High Day and because of the timing of it being in the daytime portion of the Thursday when people read certain scriptures later on and they read about a certain Sabbath, certain Sabbaths they think it's talking about the weekly Sabbath. They have no idea that there's a Sabbath on this Thursday. It's a critical thing to grasp and understand that there are two Sabbaths in that week: one on Thursday and one on the 7th day. So if you will, one on the 5th day of the week and the weekly Sabbath then on the 7th day.

So we'll come back to that as we continue to go through the story, but I did want to mention that here so that people can make up their own little chart, their own little graph, to put the night time portion then the daytime portion as a single day for the 14th. Then the day that follows that on the 15th, the night time portion of the 15th and the daytime portion is a High Day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So we'll continue with the series next time, Part 4.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1