Our Religion of Christianity is the only one in the world that has a leader who was raised from the dead and for all eternity sits at the right hand of the Father in a position of power as King of the universe. The Bible and all that is in it centers on the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of the Lord's feasts are listed in Leviticus 23 as given to Moses. Each of the feasts has their highest fulfillment in Jesus, even though there have been great events that have happened on those days or will happen on those days.
In my last blog on Christmas the Bible Story, it was shown how the fall Feasts: Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles all surrounded the birth of Jesus and represented the birth of Jesus, the consecration of Jesus, and the flight to Egypt of the Holy Family.
We are going to discuss the spring Feasts and how Jesus is represented in each. These are: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost.
Passover April 5, 30 AD
Also known as Pesach the 14th day of Abib on the Jewish calendar, usually around Easter. This Feast originated at the time of the 10th plague upon Egypt which was the death of the first born, Exodus 12. Each house was to take a lamb without blemish into their house on the 10 day of the month Abib, which is the 1st month of the sacred calendar as told to Moses by Jehovah. On the 14th day they killed the lamb and took the blood and put it on the door posts and lintel.
Then they roasted the lamb and ate its flesh, without breaking any bones. They would eat this with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and it became known as the Seder meal. They were to be ready to leave with their things in haste for that night the destroyer would come and kill the first born of every family, including animals. But, every house with the Blood of the Lamb on it, the destroyer would pass over that house. That night the Pharaoh let the people Israel go after his son died.
This represented the very body and blood of Jesus the Christ that would come as God in the flesh some 1400 years later.
Jesus affirmed this with at the "last supper" which was the Passover meal. He took the 3 pieces of unleavened bread which the Jews at the time referred to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He held up the middle piece (the Son) and said, "This is My Body which is broken for you, take this and eat it in remembrance of Me." Luke 22, 1 Cor 11. He then took the empty cup placed on the table for the coming of Elijah as prophesied in Malachi and filled it and held it up and said, "This is cup of the New Covenant in My Blood (for the forgiveness of sin), take and drink it in remembrance of Me." John 6.
Jesus was taken later that night in the Garden of Gethsemane, betrayed by Judas, and arrested by the High Priest and Temple Guards. He was tried by the Sanhedrin without a quorum and at night (both illegal) given 39 stripes for blasphemy and sentenced to death.
Morning came and He was taken before Governor Pilate by the Jews as they could not legally execute Jesus. After a brutal scourging Pilate had Jesus crucified. It was still Passover, because the Jewish day starts and ends at sunset.
When the Romans tied and pieced Jesus' hands and feet the High Priest was tying the sacrificial lamb to the altar in the Temple. This is a picture of the Tabernacle, but you get the idea, both Jesus and the lamb were bound to the altar.
The one who brought the lamb without blemish would lay hands on it and at the direction of the High Priest, the transfer of sin went from the man into the innocent lamb.
After being on the cross for 6 hours, Jesus cried with a loud voice "It is finished". At the very moment that Jesus knew He had paid for the sins of the human race and cried out, the High Priest in the Temple took a sharp knife and severed the carotid artery of the lamb, and also cried out, "It is finished."
The Priests were well trained to kill an animal fast and relatively painless. Kosher means that the animals were killed in this way, with no fear. With Jesus the lamb of God, it was not so for He was brutalized and tortured. This was so that by His stripes you were healed. That is why Paul's revelation in 1 Cor 11 states that His Body was broken when we have communion.
Then on the cross, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father into thy hands I commend My Spirit." He then breathed his last and laid His head on His chest. There was a great earthquake and darkness on the earth from Noon to 3:PM
Because of the sunset coming and the Sabbath, The High Priest asked that they would break the legs of the 3 men being crucified below Golgotha which means the place of the skull. So the legs of the men on either side were broken to hasten death, but when they came to Jesus, He was already dead. So that the prophecy "not a bone would be broken" would come to pass, Ps 34:20. A soldier then took a spear and stabbed Jesus in the side and out came blood and water. The water is a symbol of the Holy Ghost, which Jesus would send. Jesus said at an earlier Feast of Tabernacles, come unto me all who thirst and drink. Those who believe on me out of your belly will flow rivers of living water, Jn 7:37-38. For those of you who do not understand how water would come out; clear plasma fluid surrounds the heart in injuries like the scourging and crucifixion and that is called tamponade.
Unleavened Bread April 6 to 12, 30 AD
Also known as Hag Ha Matza which is from the 15th to 21st of Abib on the Jewish calendar which they eat unleavened bread for a week of the Passover celebration. This represents the preparation and burial of Jesus. Let me explain; the afikoman is the piece of unleavened bread that is the middle piece of the 3 pieces representing Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is wrapped in a linen cloth and hidden. The children at the Seder or Passover celebration and meal look for the hidden bread and take it leaving only the linen cloth. They hold it for a ransom because the final part of the meal requires the afikoman be eaten. The roasted lamb is also eaten at this meal.
Remember that Jesus called this piece of unleavened bread his body. When Jesus had died on the cross, Joseph of Arimathaea came to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus so he could bury Him in his own new tomb.
Jesus' Body was cleaned and prepared for burial by both Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus who were secretly believers in Jesus. They wrapped Jesus body in a shroud and carried Him near the tomb of Joseph.
Then they wrapped him in linen strips soaked in myrrh and aloes about a 100 pounds weight which would have cost a year's salary at that time. And they put him in Joseph's tomb.
The Jews went to Pilate and said that Jesus said He would rise from the dead after 3 days. They asked that the tomb be made secure and guarded in case His disciples would come and steal the body and claim that Jesus rose from the dead. So Pilate sent enough soldiers to guard the tomb in shifts for 3 days and sealed the stone.
First Fruits April 9, 30 AD
Also called bikkurim, this is the celebration of an offering of the spring harvest of oats or wheat on the first Sunday following the 15th of Abib.
This was the day that our Lord Jesus rose from the dead. Mary Magdalene saw two angels at the tomb and the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was gone. They said why do you weep? Jesus revealed Himself to her a short time later. in His resurrected immortal body.
Pentecost May 28, 30 AD
Also called Feast of Weeks or Shavuot and was the time that God spoke the 10 Commandments from Mt. Sinai. Jewish tradition says that the whole world heard God.
Jesus fulfilled this by sending the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said of Jesus that He would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire, Mt 3:11.
Jesus spoke to his disciples just prior to His ascension and said to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Ghost would come and give them power to preach His Gospel to the ends of the earth, for John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence, Acts 1.
Jesus gave His Spirit of Salvation when He breathed on His disciples and said, "receive the Holy Spirit", Jn 20:22. This is when they were born again and received the Spirit of Salvation which is the Spirit of Jesus. Christ in you the hope of Glory, Col 1:27
Evidence
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is located in the Old City of Jerusalem in the Northwest quarter. It was dedicated in 336 AD by Constantine the Great. He was the last total Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity.
Constantine's mother Helena was a spiritual cleric who practiced psychic abilities. She went to Jerusalem in search of the tomb of Christ and His cross in the 4th century. Legend has it that she found several crosses in a cave and brought the recently dead body of a young girl and laid her on the crosses and she came to life on one of them. This is the Legend of the miracle of the cross and the resurrection of Drusuana. There are many relics in the Roman Catholic church that are from this cross.
Helena also by her abilities pointed out Mt. Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and Chapel was built there in her honor in 330 AD, and later a Monastery of St. Catherine with the Helena Chapel there in 565 AD. However there was no evidence of 2,500,000 people of Israel camping there. Ron Wyatt in the 70's and 80's found many archeological sites of Bible history: Mt. Sinai in Saudi Arabia, Red Sea Crossing at Nuweiba on the Gulf of Aqaba, Noah's Ark in Turkey, Sodom and Gomorrah in Israel, and the Ark of the Covenant beneath the crucifixion site in Jerusalem.
http://arkdiscovery.com/
Since Helena's discoveries, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been recognized as the traditional place of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Here is the Edicule that encloses the tomb.
And here is the place of the crucifixion in the Church.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been destroyed and rebuilt over the centuries many times, the current Church is from 1810. Even though the Church is in the Old City Jerusalem now, at the time of Jesus it was outside the wall. The Bible does say that Jesus was crucified and buried outside the city.
All of the Gospels tell us the details of the Passion week of Jesus and His resurrection and ascension back to Heaven.
Gordon's Calvary was discovered by Charles Gordon in 1882-83. It includes Golgotha, and the Garden Tomb. These sites are accepted by many Protestants as the actual historical sites of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.
Golgotha, which means the place of the skull was first proposed by a German scholar, Otto Thenius in 1842.
Charles Gordon also saw the skull on the hill. And with the other things he found, thought it was the actual Golgotha mentioned in the Gospels.
In 1 Samuel 17 we read the story about David and Goliath. Goliath was a Philistine who was a giant about 12 feet tall whom David being about 17, knocked down with a sling by knowing that God was with him. He cut off Goliath's head with his own sword and took it to Jerusalem to bury it.
Research of the "place of the skull" and Golgotha, will reveal that it was Goliath's skull that was buried here nearly 800 year before Christ's crucifixion.
As David defeated the evil Philistine champion symbolized at Golgotha, Jesus the descendent of David defeated Satan Himself here at Golgotha.
An ancient road ran beneath Golgotha and into the City Jerusalem. Here Ron Wyatt excavated 3 cross holes that were next to the road. This is where the Romans would display their executions.
Garden crucifixion site below Golgotha.
Pilate placed 3 signs that stated "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Even though tradition has them on a plaque nailed to the cross, there were 3 cutouts in the cliff face that would have been perfect to have held the signs. One cutout for each language.
The Hebrew sign would have read:
Jesus Yeshua
of Nazareth Hanazarei
the King Vemelekh
of the Jews Hayhudim
Placed like this the first letter of each word would spell YHVH or the sacred Name of God, Jehovah. That is why the Jews complained to Pilate and said "write that He said He was King of the Jews" and Pilate answered what I have written I have written. Priests did not want the sign up that this was Jehovah.
During the Wyatt excavations there was also a 1st century building found that covered the cross holes it was the correct size for the great tombstone to be used for a table for worship and have communion at the crucifixion site.
Centuries ago the great grave stone was moved to Mt. Nebo in Jordan where the Brazen Serpent statue is also located.
The width of the great stone is exactly the size of the trough at the Garden Tomb.
The diameter of the stone is exactly where the iron rods were driven into the cliff face wall of the tomb to secure and seal the stone as commanded by Pilate.
When the Angels came and rolled the stone away, the soldiers were knocked down and the rods were melted off.
The great stone is 41 cubic feet of rock and it weighs over 3 tons.
The tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea was said to be in a garden in the Gospels and so at the Garden Tomb site there is a wine press and a large cistern for water storage.
The Garden Tomb has a window which explains how Mary, Peter, and John could see inside.
The bricks were added after an earthquake to repair the wall.
Here is how it would look with the great stone over the door.
Inside there is two body troughs for Joseph and his wife.
