We are still in the Feast of Israel and at the start of the series it was my intention to present to you one feast per message. I wanted to keep each individual feast in one Sunday morning so that each feast would not be broken up over the span of my preaching of only once per month. I timed the previous messages to fit the Sunday morning time but But this time the message and information to be presented came to a point that it could not all be contained in one message. By the time I had ended sub-point C, I had already surpassed the usual limit for a Sunday morning. So with apologies, this Sunday I will only cover points A, B, and C, and next time we will cover point D, which is the application for the Christian from this feast. So as this message is at maximum length and time-wise, we'll jump right in. And this is the third feast that is called the Feast of Firstfruits. To Israel, it was to be a feast that would represent the blessings from the Lord. It was a feast that was commanded to the Jews before entering the Promised Land. It was a feast that would be fulfilled once they entered the new land a land that was flowing with milk and honey. It would be a feast in which the Jews would bring in the first fruits of the harvest to the Lord. If you have your Bible still open to Leviticus chapter 23, and the verses that were read for us, verses 9 through 10, it says, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. At that time, while still in the wilderness, it was to be a feast that was going to be future to Israel. It was a feast that was going to be performed once they enter the promised land and reap the bounty of its harvests. when you come into the land which I give you was yet 40 years away, until that generation would first pass away in the wilderness because of their stubbornness, unbelief, and their testing of God. So we start off with point A, the time of year. Now the timing of this feast can become a little confusing if you read on in verse 11 of Leviticus 23. It says of the priest that, he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. This wave offering of the sheaf was to be on the day after the Sabbath. And we, as well as the Jews, had to ask ourselves, Which Sabbath did the Lord imply here when he said, the day after the Sabbath? Was it to be the day after the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, which are mentioned in the previous verses? Or was it to be held after the regular Saturday Sabbath, after the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread? Quoting promisedtoisrael.org in their article, The Feast of Firstfruits, it says, there was a disagreement between the Pharisees and the Sadducees on this feast. The Pharisees and their rabbinic teachings considered the Passover as a Sabbath, meaning that this feast was to be observed the day after Passover. The Sadducees had the biblical approach, which was the first day of the week after the day of Passover. So according to the Pharisees, this feast would always be on the 16th of Nisan. It would immediately follow the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed the Feast of Passover, both of which are a Sabbath. And so the feast would then always fall on the 16th of Nisan. But according to the Sadducees, they interpreted this verse to mean that the day after the Sabbath was to mean the day after the regular weekly Sabbath. To them, this was the correct timing of this feast. With this thinking, first fruits could fall on any day from the 16th to the 22nd. depending on which day the regular Sabbath would be. If the regular Sabbath was on the 16th, then firstfruits would be on the 17th. If the regular Sabbath was on the 17th, then firstfruits would be on the 18th. If the regular Sabbath was on the 18th, then firstfruits would be on the 19th, and so on and so on. In short, the argument for the Pharisees was that the Passover and Unleavened Bread are Sabbaths, which is correct, and the Feast of Firstfruits is to come after them. The argument for the Sadducees would be that if it was always to follow the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then Scripture and God would have said that it should always be on the 16th of Nisan. Even Josephus writes of this day, saying, and I quote him, but on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the 16th day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth. For before that day, they do not touch them. End of quote. Therefore, depending on which view you held to, the one of the Pharisees or the one of the Sadducees, the Feast of Firstfruits could fall on any day from the 16th to the 22nd of Nisan. This would have been somewhere between March 29th to April 4th in our year of 2021. But along another note, this is not the only time that this feast was to be celebrated. Some note that this feast was to be held twice in the year. once at the time of Passover and on leavened bread during the barley harvest, and secondly at the Feast of Weeks during the wheat harvest. Again, continuing in Leviticus 23, verses 12 to 14 in your Bibles, it says, and you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheave a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah, a fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma. And its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hen. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. This is in reference to the Feast of Firstfruits following the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover. However, in the next two verses, verses 15 and 16, they read, and you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought in the sheave of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. Verses 9 through 14 indicate that this was a feast, that this feast was to occur once at the time of the Shiv wave offering after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And in verse 15 and 16, indicate that 50 days later, there was to be a new grain offering. Also in Numbers chapter 28, where the Lord spoke to Moses in regards to the regular and special offerings to the Lord, Moses says in verse 26, Also, on the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. In the annual feast table in my study Bible, it notes first fruits as being on the 16th of the first month of Ebib, or Nisan, And again, 50 days later, on the sixth day of the third month of Shaivan, it says this about the feast, and I quote, first fruits was an expression of gratitude to God for his provisions in the harvest. As described here, the celebration included two parts. The first occurred on the day following the Sabbath at the time of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, sometime between the 16th and the 22nd day of Abib, that's following the Sadducee view. The second occurred 50 days later during the Feast of Weeks. The first would fall during the barley harvest, the second at the wheat harvest. In connection with the wheat harvest, this one-day celebration also involved the firstfruits observation as well as other sacrifices." So according to God's Word, this Feast of Firstfruits was held after the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, but also was observed and celebrated at the Feast of Weeks, which is also called Harvest or Pentecost. Now the time of this feast in point A overlaps a little with the command to Israel of point B. For the first mention of this feast as read earlier in Leviticus 23, 19-11, it is also observed at the Feast of Weeks in verses 15-21 as well, a feast which we will look at next time, the Feast of Weeks. As I noted, the Jews were to start keeping this feast once they entered the Promised Land. For once they entered the land, their food supply would change from the provisions of manna that the Lord provided in the wilderness to the fruit of the land that the God had intended for them to inherit. As it says in Joshua 5, 10 through 12, now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. and they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. They held the Passover on the 14th, They ate of the produce of the land on the 15th, and on the day after, the manna ceased. Never again was manna to be found for the children of Israel. They were to eat the produce of the land, the blessing that the Lord had for them. It was to be for them a new beginning. But you see, long before the children of Israel were to keep this feast as a new beginning, in the land of Canaan, they knew the significance of this date as this date of a new beginning that happened to the children 40 years ago. You see, the Israelites, who would have been children and teenagers in the time of the Exodus, were now the ones entering the Promised Land in their 40s and in their 50s. As parents and grandparents now, they would remember the time when their parents were in hard bondage and slavery in the land of Egypt. They would remember a time when the man Moses came to them and spoke to them the words of deliverance to their parents. They would remember a time of great turmoil in the land, a time of great plagues that were happening to the Egyptians, and the miracles that God was doing in their sight. You see, they would remember the first Passover, the day that the lamb was taken into their home and treated as a pet, only to be slain and eaten in haste and its blood painted on the doorposts and lentils. They would remember the night that the death angel came through the land and killed all of the firstborn in every house of the Egyptians, and the great cry that arose in the entire nation. They would remember packing all their things in the middle of the night and leaving with the clothes and bread on their shoulders and silver and gold from the Egyptians who were begging them to leave. You have to remember, these were just children and young teenagers at the time. They would remember the feeling of being free for the first time in their lives and the lives of their parents and their grandparents. They would remember that as that feeling of freedom began to sink in, it was only dashed to pieces by the sight of Pharaoh's army after them to destroy them. And I'm sure none of them ever forgot the fear they must have felt in being trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh's advancing army, and that death was coming to all of them. But they would remember how the Lord became a wall of fire between the children of Israel and Pharaoh, and of how the sea parted and became a wall to their right and their left as they walked across on dry ground. And of how once on the other side, the Egyptians followed, but with no avail. The water would close over them and they would perish. They would remember the dead bodies of the Egyptian army on the shore, drowned in the same path that the Lord had provided for them. And as young children and young teenagers, this must have been a strange and bewildering time. It was a time of death and yet a time of life for them. It was a time of wrath and yet for them a time of redemption. It was a time of hope and promises being fulfilled. A time of walking into the midst of the Red Sea only to come up on the other side. Because God was going to redeem for himself his people from bondage from oppression, from the slavery that they had known all these years. And they would remember this command to their parents, that when you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvests, then you shall bring a sheave of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest, and he shall wave the sheave before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. They would remember all of these things. And now as parents and grandparents, it was going to be their duty to pass on to the next generation, as the Lord said, it shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout all your generations. They were to do this because one day the illustration of this journey, of this feast, would illustrate Christ the Messiah, and he would be portrayed so well in this feast. The Messianic illustration of this feast, or the significance of this feast, is Jesus' resurrection from the dead. In the Passover, he is depicted as the sacrificial lamb that was slain. the one who was sacrificed in our place and died for our sins. In the Feast of Unleavened Bread, he is depicted as the sinless lamb of God, as the bread of heaven, as the bread of life. It depicts his burial. And now, in the Feast of Firstfruits, it depicts his ascension, his raising up from the dead. But it's not just a resurrection from the dead, because many people were raised from the dead, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, before Jesus was resurrected from the tomb. But Christ's resurrection is a resurrection leading to eternal life forever. While others were restored back to life in the Bible before Jesus' resurrection, it was only back to natural life, back to mortal life, and that they would all one day again die another death. In the New Testament, this would be in the case of Lazarus, the daughter of Jairus, Eutychus, and Dorcas. And in the Old Testament, we have people like Zephareth's son, who was raised by Elijah, and the Shunammite woman's son by Elisha, as well as the dead Israelite man who was buried in the same tomb as Elisha. And when the dead man was lowered into the tomb and touched the body of Elisha, he received life and stood on his feet. But all of these were only restored to natural life, the same mortal life they had before. They were restored to life only to die again someday in the future. But Christ was raised in a resurrection that leads to eternal life. A resurrection in which there is no more death. A resurrection where there is no more mortality and there is no more dying. Paul says in Romans 6 verses 9 and 10, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. As Israel came up out of the Red Sea to a new life from death, so Jesus Christ was raised from the grave from death to life. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 20, but now Christ is raised from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. And now we ask What is this first fruit? Well, turn to Colossians chapter 1. In Colossians chapter 1 we have the verse that is very misinterpreted by the Jehovah's Witnesses and yet is the very key to the point that we're looking at. In the beginning, starting in verse 15 of chapter 1, Paul says, he is the image of the invisible God. Many times Jesus said to himself, or said to his disciples, that if you see me, you have seen the Father. He says, if you know me, you know the Father. He is the image of the invisible God, because he is God. And on the latter part of the verse, Paul says that he is the firstborn over all creation. Now this does not mean that God created Jesus before anything else was created and then simply used Jesus to carry out the rest of creation. This is what the Jehovah Witnesses believe, that Jesus is a created being. This is wrong. This is not what the verse means. Paul tells us that he is the firstborn over all creation, meaning that he is the first one who is resurrected to this eternal life from the mortal body. Paul explains this thought further in verse 18 where he says, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he may have the preeminence. What does it say? He is the head of what? The body. What body? The church. The church body. Which is the body of Christ. And what statement does Paul give of the church? That the church is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead. Starting with his resurrection. the first resurrection onto this eternal life, He is the first fruits. He is the first one of the resurrection onto life. And if there is a firstborn of the dead, then there must be those that come after. He's not the only born, He is the firstborn. If the church is the beginning of the firstborn, then there must be later ones as well. And the illustration that Pastor Phil has put into the Basic Bible Doctrine book, the Catechism, shows us this very well. In the Catechism, we have this question and answer, and I quote, when will the dead rise? Answer? on the last day, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall rise incorruptibly." Now in his notes he writes, in the all-millennial scheme, there is one general resurrection at the end of the world in which both the just and the unjust are raised. In the premillennial scheme, the resurrection of the just takes place first. And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, 22 through 24 that there is an order in which these resurrections take place. In the resurrection of the just, we have the following resurrections, end of quote. And I'll present these in the next following slides. If Brent will get the slideshow up, ready? And we'll really hope this all works. If it doesn't, I have a lot of explaining to do. First, we have a timeline starting on the left of this slide. And on the left we have the Church Age, the time in which we are living right now. After the Church Age, this world will enter what is called the Tribulation. It is time of God's wrath poured out on this world, and it will be the most horrible time this earth has ever seen. After the tribulation, we have the thousand-year reign of Christ, known as the millennium. After the millennium, we have the new heavens and the new earth, which are not shown on these slides. This will be the age to come, when the Bible talks about an age to come. But going back to the church age, we have the first resurrection, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first fruits. After his crucifixion and burial, he was resurrected with a new and immortal body. Sometime after the resurrection of Christ, there were saints who were also resurrected shortly after, according to Matthew 27, verse 52. After the ascension of Jesus, we have the rest of the Church Age, a time which has now spanned over 2,000 years. And the next resurrection we're going to see is the one we're all waiting for, called the, anyone? The Rapture. The catching up of all the Church Age saints, all of those who are alive and all those who have died during the time of Christ. After the rapture, the church will enter the tribulation, as I said. It will be the most horrible time this world has ever seen. And in the middle of the tribulation, there is another resurrection. Does anyone know who they are? The two witnesses. The witnesses who are to prophesy for 1,260 days, or three and a half years during the first half of the tribulation. Some think that these may be Moses and Elijah. Some think it may be Elijah and Enoch. And some think it may also be Elijah and the Apostle John. We are not told who they are, but once their ministry has ended and they are killed, the ungodly world has a form of a holiday when they see that they are finally dead. And then for three days their bodies are left in the streets, and after that they are resurrected and taken up to heaven. And this all happens in the middle of the Tribulation. Then in only three and a half years later, at the end of the Tribulation, all those still alive at the end of the Tribulation enter what is called the Sheep and Goat Judgment. the believers who survived the tribulation now enter, or sorry, after this judgment, it is the believers who survived the tribulation now enter the thousand-year reign of Christ along with all the Old Testament saints to enter the kingdom of God that they have been so long waiting for. For a thousand years, Satan is bound, and Christ Jesus will rule this world with a rod of iron. We, the church-age believers, and all the former saints of the Old Testament will rule with Him. And once the thousand years are up, there is one final judgment in which all the dead are raised and receive new bodies, including all those who died in the Tribulation. Their bodies are resurrected as well, and they also receive new bodies to enter that eternal age with Jesus Christ. The first five are called the first resurrection. The sixth is called the last resurrection. It will be the last resurrection to enter eternal life. Of all these resurrections, Christ is the first fruit. He is the first one. Just as the Jews were to bring in the first fruits of the harvest once they entered the promised land, even so Jesus Christ is the first fruits in this harvest of the church age. This is why Jesus said in Matthew chapter 9, verses 37 and 38, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into this harvest, his harvest. You see, he's speaking about the world, the world out there right now. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 20, but Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He is the resurrection of the firstfruits. He is illustrated as the body of Israel coming up out of the Red Sea. He is illustrated in the offering of the firstfruits after Israel entered the Promised Land. And he is illustrated in this entire plan of God throughout his word. And it's fascinating to see how perfectly the feasts of Israel fit the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. As I said in the last message, the previous message, I was going to show you the last days of Christ as they appear in scripture, not only in the New Testament account of his death, but also in the combination of feasts when Israel fled Egypt. And I'll try and do this briefly and hopefully in a way that will make sense. We'll go back and turn on the slideshow again. To start us off, we'll go back to the first chapter of the Bible. And in verses one through four it says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And now, in Genesis 1, verse 5, it says that God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. This is what we call the Jewish day, or a lunar day. Now our solar day is very different. Our solar day starts in the night as well, but not at sundown. Our solar day begins at midnight, not at sundown or evening. From there on, the rest of the night and the rest of the day, and until midnight, the next night, is one solar day. Now keep this in mind. It gets very interesting explaining the timing of scripture for the last days of Christ. We know that from the Old Testament that the Passover lamb was to be taken into the home on the 10th day of Nisan. And it lived with the family for four days. And then, on the 14th, the Passover lamb was slain. Exodus 12, 6 says, now you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. That is between the rising and setting of the sun. Then at evening on the 15th, the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. They were to eat it in haste, for at midnight judgment would fall on all Egypt. At midnight, The Lord killed all the firstborn, which began the Exodus. Exodus 12, 29 says, and it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive, who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. And in verse 37, it says, The children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Saqqoth. Here the exodus begins. In chapter 13, verses 20 through 22, it says, so they took their journey from Sukkoth and camped at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from the people. In chapter 14, starting in Starting in verse 1, it says, Now the Lord spoke, saying, Speak to the children of Israel that they turn and camp before Pi-hethron, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Beth-zephon. You shall camp before it by the sea. For Pharaoh will say to the children of Israel, They are bewildered by the land in the wilderness, and the wilderness has closed them in. Verse 11. And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Verse 13. And Moses said to the people, do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians who you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you. You shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward, but lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots and his horsemen. And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them. And the pillar of God went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to one, and gave light by night to the other, so that one did not come near the other all that night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right and onto their left." Now think of it. Imagine little children. What a time this must have been. What a time this must have been for them. And the Egyptians pursued them and went into the midst of the sea, and all Pharaoh's horses and his chariots and his horsemen. Now it came to pass in the morning, watch, that the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians. And He took off their chariot wheels, so that He drove them with difficulty. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them. against the Egyptians. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians on their chariots and on their horsemen. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And when morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. Then the waters returned and covered the chariots the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on the left. So the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Thus Israel saw the great work which the Lord had done in Egypt. So the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. Now the last arrow is coming up out of the sea. Now for the illustration of Christ. We start off with with noting that in our holidays of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, we commemorate the crucifixion, the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But you cannot fit three days and three nights into the Friday-Sunday weekend. It is not possible. And it's sad to see that many theologians still continue to squish this weekend into their commentaries and timelines of the last days of Christ, when we can clearly see from Scripture and the Feast how it was to be. So to start us off, Jesus says in Matthew 12, verses 39 and 40, but he answered them, sorry, he answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign shall be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. This prophecy should have been the first clue Here Jesus speaks of himself, illustrated from the prophet Jonah. Three days and three nights was the time Jonah spent in the belly of the fish. And Jesus says that the Son of Man would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So we begin with Jesus eating the Passover with his disciples. Now, yes, if this was Sunday school, Someone would raise their hand and say, Pastor Daryl, your arrow is in the wrong spot. It's pointing to the 13th. You were right. Yes, it is. And this is the dilemma that many people face when reading the Gospels. How could Jesus eat the Passover with his disciples, be all night in the Garden of Gethsemane, and be crucified on the Passover on the following day, as there was a night separating the two days? Well, it has to do with the solar day and the lunar day, or as I said earlier, the Jewish day. And I'll try to explain this in the next few slides. First, I will add the day of the week up on the screen, as it would be according to the lunar calendar or the Jewish day. As you see, each day begins with night and ends with day. You can see that. Then I'll move them over in order to create what the solar day would have looked like. And it would have looked like this. And now I'll add the solar calendar dates to the week. And now we have what a solar week would have looked like. We have the lunar calendar and days on the top. and the solar days running across the middle. And now to quote Pastor Phil in his Harmony of the Gospels, he writes regarding this difference. Jesus followed this calendar since he ate the Passover meal with his disciples on Nisan the 14th. Speaking of the solar calendar. He ate with his disciples on Nisan the 14th with them. See the lunar calendar below for which the majority of the Jews practice. That is the top half. I'm speculating that the Jews were split into two views as to the correct calendar to use and that they had come to an agreement to allow both groups to use the calendar they believed was correct, end of quote. And thus, we have Jesus eating the Passover on the 14th day of Nisan using the solar calendar. Now we'll revert back to the Jewish day. Pastor Phil goes on to say, from the Gospels, I would gather that the majority of the Jews followed this calendar, the lunar calendar, because they commemorated the Passover on the 14th of the lunar calendar. So the life of Christ, it seems to me that he used the solar calendar, but when it comes to the crucifixion, it follows the lunar calendar. Thus, Jesus had the Passover meal on the 14th of Nisan and was also crucified on the 14th of Nisan. On the 14th day of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar, after the Passover supper, Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane and is there arrested And after the mock trial before the high priest, before the high priest and pilot, Jesus is led to be crucified on the 14th day of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar. Almost lost my spot there. Before they start the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Jesus is buried, for the Jewish leaders asked that the legs of the cronels were to be broken so that they would not remain on the cross during the following holy day, as it was a high day for the Jews. Now by the end of Thursday, the 15th, this would have been one day and one night in the tomb. By the end of Friday, this would have been the second night and the second day. And a question that comes to my mind is, why didn't anyone come on Friday during the daytime to take care of the body? The Feast of Unleavened Bread was passed and it was not yet Saturday. But if you remember from earlier, the Pharisees believed that the Feast of Firstfruits was to fall on this day. the 16th of Nisan. If it did, then this would have been a Sabbath for the Jews as well, as Josephus wrote. But on the second day of Unleavened Bread, which is the 16th day of the month, they partake of the fruits of the earth, and it was also a Sabbath. By the time Saturday ends, we have three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, just as Jesus said he would be. At the end of Saturday, Christ separates himself from death. As scripture says, you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. Because by the time it is Sunday, very early in the morning, the tomb is already empty. Luke 24, verses 1 through 3 read, Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they and certain other women with them came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared, but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can transition back to the pulpit camera there, Brent. Because by this time, it is Sunday morning. the days after the Sabbath. And according to the Sadducees, was to be the day of firstfruits, but not for the Pharisees. But either way, the tomb is empty. By morning, he has already risen. He has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep and of those who are going to be raised up to eternal life after him. You see, by morning, the Jews were out of the Red Sea. By morning, Christ is resurrected and the tomb is empty. Now, I do not want to state that the top portion of the chart is exactly 100% accurate in date, but day-wise, it gives us a very good picture of what God is showing us in regards to his plan for Christ. And later, his plan for all mankind and for the world. Because next time, I want to show us how all of this, all of this, applies to the Christian life. Of how all of this is in vital application for the Christian.