Lesson 87- Matthew 25 & 26

[Music] so [Music] [Music] well last week the ending portion of our study was essentially a word picture of the final judgment that goes by the name of judgment day and this is one of those things that isn't particularly pleasant for a pastor or bible teacher to talk about because it concerns billions of people being permanently separated from god sent off to an eternal state of torment destruction or both who can imagine a billion what's a billion look like how about several you know what's also challenging is to rush wrestle with yeshua's words that many who thought they were safe will not be deemed so by god an individual's eternal safety or lack of it will be judged not solely on what he or she claims to believe that jesus savior but it will also include the requirement of obedience to do the will of the father yeshua has used a couple of parables to make this point that is much too often played down within our churches that is doing producing working as one of the duties of a redeemed person is in some denominations said to be a bad thing means we're trying to work our way to heaven so the concept is that we say the sinner's prayer we show up for church go on living as we had before until we die well perhaps the most memorable of yeshua's illustrations and parables concerning this matter uses the metaphor of a fruit tree a good tree can't produce bad fruit a bad tree can't produce good fruit in the case of the fig tree example he cursed it because it produced no fruit at all bottom line a person's claim of being a good fruit tree a saved follower of christ must be outwardly validated by exposing their inward state through producing fruit good fruit no fruit bad fruit well this exposes that person's inward state is not what they claim it to be but more importantly god doesn't accept their claim of salvation because he does not see it as sincere well verses 31 through 34 of matthew chapter 25 employ a new new metaphors of sheep and goats to illustrate the judgment day process essentially the great judge who is the son of man assembles all the people of the world to stand before him as he issues his verdict upon each individual he divides people into two groups those he judges is righteous are called the sheep those he judges as the wicked are called the goats the sheep are told to stand at his right hand where he formally tells them that the moment has come when they receive their inheritance which is to be permanent members of the kingdom of heaven in verse 41 the goats are told to stand at his left hand whereby he formerly tells them the moment has come when they lose their inheritance and instead are cursed to go into the same fire prepared for satan and his demons now especially in the west when we go on trial we are used to a judicial process that has many nuances exceptions to the rule suspended sentences that is our civil justice system operates within many shades of gray yeshua has told us unequivocally that when judgment day comes there will be no shades of gray there will be only black or white eternal life or eternal damnation now what i've just told you to this point ought to be sobering what comes next from jesus also must be taken seriously and as more than merely nice thoughts or warm wishes for others starting in verse 35 yeshua speaks about the visible tangible characteristics to good fruit that define a sheep a righteous person in his eyes what he describes isn't exhaustive it's actually more poetic than it is a detailed list of tasks let's reread this section to kind of refresh our memories open your bibles to matthew chapter 25 open your bibles matthew chapter 25 we're going to start at verse 31 and read to the end matthew chapter 25 starting at verse 31. when the son of man comes in his glory accompanied by all the angels he will sit on his glorious throne all the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats the sheep he will place at his right hand the goats at his left then the king will say to those on his right come you whom my father has blessed take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the founding of the world for i was hungry and you gave me food i was thirsty and you gave me something to drink i was a stranger and you made me your guest i needed clothes and you provided them i was sick you took care of me i was in prison you visited me then the people who have done what god wants will reply lord when did we see you hungry feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink when did we see you as a stranger and make you our guest or needing clothes and providing them when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you and the king will say to them yes i tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine you did them for me then he will also speak to those on his left saying get away from me you were cursed go off into the fire prepared for the adversary and his angels for i was hungry and you gave me no food thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink a stranger knew you did not welcome me needing clothes you did not give them to me sick and in prison and you did not visit me then they too will reply lord when did we see you hungry thirsty a stranger needing clothes sick or in prison and not take care of you and he will answer them yes i tell you that whenever you you refuse to do it for the least important of these people you refuse to do it for me they will go off to eternal punishment but those who have done what god wants will go to eternal life now for the sake of continuity we're going to do a lot of bible reading in this slightly longer than usual lesson so please stay focused interestingly the first of the characteristics of these sheep those deemed as righteous are something that every middle easterner jew or arab would recognize they are the characteristics of the highest virtue there is in middle eastern cultures hospitality hospitality trumps nearly everything else for these folks hospitality is not an issue of legality it's an issue of social obligation social status a status of shame or of honor social status matters so much that hosts will put their lives on the line for guests even strangers show up at their homes they will give respite food drink at times even to enemies who ask for hospitality for a person to turn down offered hospitality brings shame upon both guest and host to not offer hospitality to the person needing it brings shame on the entire household now this can be kind of hard for westerners to to understand because these values aren't super high on our to-do list but the jews hearing yeshua and the later ones reading matthew's gospel would have immediately grasped that verse 35 is all about the traits a proper hospitality that he expects of his disciples as a demonstration of their allegiance to him the requirement to provide safe and secure shelter food and water even to strangers is not being used as a metaphor it is to be taken literally now how such elements of hospitality as it was done in that era versus how we might accomplish this in the 21st century it will be dependent upon which of the many of the world's cultures one lives in it's it's something we must think through but we have to deal with it it just can't simply be swept under the carpet by allegorizing jesus's message away well verse 36 heads in a little different direction and deals with mercy both hospitality and mercy were traits that expressed not only good but also wise behavior of the righteous clothing the naked is not fully it's meant it means giving clothing to someone that doesn't have sufficient clothing maybe a person has no sandals or or no cloak to protect from the cold that they can use as a blanket visiting the sick or those in prison is a little odd and that it doesn't really fit this customary list of jewish virtuous conduct now might yeshua have been remembering and wanting this been remembering his martyred cousin john the baptist as he languished in herod's prison awaiting his fate nonetheless it helps us to better understand christ's view of what loving your neighbor as yourself can entail it entails showing mercy to strangers that need our help in the first century jailed people were visited by their family members not merely for the sake of conversation but mainly to bring food see typically the jailers provided no food so if someone did not bring a prisoner his meals either he suffered horribly from malnutrition or he eventually died of starvation as he waited for trial you know it's a bit different story today those who do visit the ill in their homes or in hospitals or in institutions and also those involved in prison ministries which is a very special calling bring mainly compassion and caring and hopefully believers also bring a message of god's love and the availability of divine forgiveness and peace you know it's truly breathtaking how yeshua uses the term i i each time he calls out one of the virtues and mercies placing himself in the role of that needy person a stranger you know perhaps it might help us when we deal especially with the unlovely unkept the anti-social the illiterate and the outcasts if we use this mental image jesus just created as being he we are comforting he we are caring for when we tend to them yeshua goes on to create a sort of straw man that responds to his instruction to provide hospitality to everyone as though it were for he with the strawman asking when did he ever provide hospitality to christ and christ responds with the king will say to them yes i tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the least important of these brothers of mine you did them for me you know it's a little startling the way that jesus suddenly just inserts the word king into the mix without doubt he's referring to himself and the disciples would have taken it that way but what would that have meant to them now those of us who study his words so many centuries later and and have the benefit of time and the written record of his many words at our fingertips also have the luxury of seeing it all in a deeper meaning but i doubt very much that his disciples did as they were hearing it directly from his mouth when christ said king they knew he was applying it to himself but no doubt as that hope for jewish king that would sit on the throne in a holy land that was rid of the romans however just as if someone in our day says president or prime minister or some such thing in a conversation we all subconsciously know the characteristics of those office holders it was the same with the mention of the word king in first century jewish conversation at that time a king was usually thought of as somewhat of a tyrant even a good king had nearly unlimited power over his subjects a king was above all others in the kingdom he associated only with his top officials and aristocrats he'd lived a life of luxury yeshua redefines the office of king as it pertains to himself as a king he identifies himself with the downtrodden with the underprivileged not with the elite he doesn't see people as his loyal subjects only there to serve him but rather his brothers in fact he identifies with common folks so strongly that he can say that whatever hospitality and care given to the poorest and the most afflicted of them is the same as giving it to him the king so how are we to take the term brothers now in this context christ's brothers who are they in christendom calling fellow believers brothers and sisters is common we see all believers in yeshua's having a common spiritual family bond with us so is yeshua is speaking only about brothers meaning believers his followers and only in a spiritual sense or does it include others as well is he meaning the jewish people in general or does this include gentiles there continues to be some pretty healthy debates about this but here's my conclusion we must remember that this is part of the narrative wherein yeshua is defining the notable characteristics of the sheep the righteous who are standing at his right hand on judgment day using those valued characteristics of the middle eastern culture middle eastern hospitality plus adding the instruction to visit the sick and those in prison i think there's at least two levels of interpretation to his words that are present here maybe three even four at the most literal level the shot brothers means his fellow jewish countrymen and more specifically the common and the afflicted jews that make up the bulk of the holy land jewish population of that era there's not a doubt in my mind that this is how the listening disciples would have taken it therefore yeshua was not only validating encouraging the continuation of the social custom of hospitality but also he is adding in an instruction to visit the ill and those in prison by doing so he is changing the motive for doing those things from societal obligation in order to avoid shame to compassion to please god it is such a similar message that he offered in the sermon on the mount there he told people that it was their motive and their intent for obeying the law of moses that mattered more than merely doing any particular law in some rigid or mechanical way and yet he reminded them that by this he did not mean that any person's spirit-driven internal motive and intent was a replacement of the torah and the prophets of the law of moses and the prophets now on the hint level the remains the term brothers narrows the group from all jewish people to only those jews who put their eternal trust in christ on the other hand it expands the group by including people of all nations gentiles who have made themselves part of an ideal israel on a spiritual level by putting their trust in israel's messiah the jewish son of man therefore in the remez interpretation the sheet mean all those all who trust in yeshua and yet there has also always been this mysterious thread in the holy scriptures of those who haven't heard of the god of abraham isaac and jacob nevertheless they seem to do what the father wants i believe we can view this from what's called the sowed level the mysterious level that is the ancients before noah even for a long time after lived a righteous life based on what some call the natural law or the noahide law natural law does not mean natural as in the term nature as we think of it today mother nature or environmentalism it means natural in the sense that from the garden of eden onward in various ways god made his fundamental commandments known to humanity although it would be a very long time before those commandments were codified and then written down in more concrete ways at mount sinai in a sense we can legitimately say that god's most fundamental laws are built in to our human essence our invisible human nature they're there they're also written in to the cosmos as well as into the many ecosystems of the earth that operate in harmony and usually to the benefit of mankind everything all near far known unknown energy matter physical spiritual it's all made by the same creator cut from the same cloth there was a natural torah from the beginning long before there was a written torah however the fundamental principles are the same they've always remained the same and they will be the same until there is a new heavens and earth it's for this reason that the lord created abraham's bosom to house those souls of the righteous dead before the son of man was born and then crucified to atone for their sins to make them pure enough to enter heaven that population consisted of those who lived long before there was a written torah yet they obeyed god's natural law his fundamental principles and later it included those who obeyed the written torah once it was given in spirit and truth all of these over the ages deemed righteous by god every one of these ancient residents of the now empty abraham's bosom are part of the sheep who will be directed to stand at jesus's right hand at judgment day so that they too will receive their inheritance so verses 35 to 40 pertain to the sheep the sheep the righteous now verses 41 to 46 pertain to the goats the wicked using the same code of hospitality jesus reverses the situation the righteous obeyed the hospitality code the wicked did not the wicked did not offer respite food and water to the needy or to strangers they didn't offer shelter in clothing and so using the same logic that these needy and strangers are representative of him not the literal sense but rather as christ identifying with this group since the goats did not offer care for these people it amounts to them not offering care to him not caring for that group therefore not caring for him is willful disobedience in their actions it's without compassion it's without mercy therefore it reveals a hidden wicked nature it disobeys the most fundamental principle of loving your neighbor as it pertains to jesus it amounts to a form of rejection rejecting the king and the son of man brings with it an eternal death sentence we can use the same structure of interpreting these verses on three or four levels as we did in understanding the verses about the righteous the sheep so we don't need to go through all those levels again just reverse what we discussed a couple minutes ago see here's the terrifying point you can't get away with claiming you're a believer that you're saved that you're safe but then turn your back on the needy or bear bad fruit or no fruit at all at various points in our lives and boy good points coming up in a couple of days we all have to pause take a long pragmatic look in that mirror with some deep and honest introspection do we really know what we believe and why we believe it do we live out what we claim to others to ourselves things that we say we believe if we don't then according to jesus's reckoning we're deceiving ourselves into thinking we are saved we're not saved in his eyes only here on our own salvation has always and will always be directly linked with good works good works is defined by god not by our own sensibilities see it's not doing good works to attain salvation but rather good works ought to just flow naturally from our salvation let's move on to chapter 26 get those bibles back out again a lot more reading to go open your bibles to matthew chapter 26. when yeshua had finished speaking he said to us tell me his disciples as you know pesach passover is two days away and the son of man will be handed over to be nailed to the execution stake then the head kohanim the head priest and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of caiapha caiaphas the cohen hagadol the high priest and they made plans to arrest yeshua surreptitiously and have him put to death but they said not during the festival for the people will riot now yeshua was in beit anya bethany the home of shimon simon the man who had sarat a woman who had an alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume approached yeshua while he was eating he began she began pouring it on his head and when the disciples saw it they became very angry why this waste they asked this could have been sold for a lot of money given to the poor but yeshua aware of what was going on said to them why are you bothering this woman she's done a beautiful thing for me the poor you'll always have with you but you will not always have me she poured this perfume on me to perfume to prepare my body for burial yes i tell you that throughout the whole world wherever this good news is proclaimed what she has done will be told in her memory then one of the twelve the one called judah from creole judah iscariot went to the head priest and said what are you willing to give me if i turn yeshua over to you they counted out 30 silver coins and gave them to judas and from then on he looked for a good opportunity to betray him on the first day for matzah the disciples came to yeshua and asked where do you want us to prepare your seder go into the city to so and so and he replied and tell him that the rabbi says my time is near my disciples and i are celebrating passover at your house the disciples did as yeshua directed and prepared the seder and when evening came yeshua reclined with the 12 disciples and as they were eating he said yes i tell you that one of you is going to betray me well they became terribly upset they began asking him one after the other lord you don't mean me do you and he answered the one who dips his mots in the dish with me is the one who will betray me the son of man will die just as the tanakh says he will but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed it would have been better for him had he never been born how judah judas the one who had been betraying him then asked now surely rabbi you don't mean me. and he answered the words are yours we'll stop right there in reading this is a very long chapter this begins what is widely called the passion narrative that is everything now focuses on yeshua's march to the cross and it's his final 48 hours before he's executed now as i'm fond of reminding you just sort of mentally scratch out those chapter numbers in your bibles because they give us the sense of one thing ending in another thing starting the first words of chapter 26 are still jesus talking with his disciples on the mount of olives that is this is a continuing conversation from chapter 25. christ delivers a bombshell he's going to be crucified almost immediately one can only imagine what race through his disciples minds was he serious was he being literal i mean how could he predict such a thing that depended on the actions and decisions of several others all happening in a sequence unless he fully intended to try to cause it to happen as intriguing as these questions are there's another issue hiding in plain sight that we must deal with as it is another one of those matters that is deeply controversial and rightly so the controversy is when we read that jesus said as you know pesach passover is two days away other bible versions phrase it slightly differently but all with the identical meaning we need to explore a couple of other things to begin to set the stage not only for the controversy itself but to understand the nuances that causes it to exist see the same thought is spoken in mark luke and john let's look at them all in mark 14 1 it was now two days before pesach that is the festival of matzah and the head kohanim and the tour teachers were trying to find some way to arrest yeshua surreptitiously and have him put to death luke 22 1. the festival of matzah known as passover was approaching john 13 1 it was just before the festival of pesach and yeshua knew the time had come for him to pass from this world to the father having loved his own people in the world he loved them to the end so i hope you caught this according to matthew and mark this scene was taking place on the mount of olives two days before passover but there is no mention of a specified time frame from either luke or john other than jesus was speaking shortly before passover or matzo was to begin we have the additional twist that mark says passover is the festival of matzah and so does luke say the same thing matthew and john only refer to it as passover with no mention of the festival of matzah the feast of unleavened bread any student of the torah knows that passover and the festival of matzah are not synonyms right they are two different god-appointed times two different festivals each to be celebrated differently now these details ought to eventually lead us to exactly what day it was that yeshua was executed on the cross but was it nissan 14th passover day or nissan 15th on the feast of matzah now these are not trivial points okay they have much to do with whether or not jesus fulfilled the sign of jonah as being in the grave for three days and three nights so we have a great deal to unpack here and i'll tell you at the outset the answer will not be straightforward in fact we're going to address this in several times and upcoming lessons it's that important okay here we go in the modern era of the western world we speak of occasions like christmas and the christmas season and christmas day and christmas eve and christmas vacation and then new year's day in new year's eve and sometimes we just kind of all roll these things together call them the holiday season now no westerner has much trouble understanding when what someone is speaking about when they use any of these terms because the context of the conversation will establish it for sure these days all happen in the last half of december plus maybe the first two or three days of january and depending on what western nation or even some eastern nations you're in how this period of time is spoken of is about the same although how this is all observed varies substantially we all understand this we don't stress over it see there are specifics and there are generalities and we're quite capable of sorting them out it worked exactly that way about that time of year and the celebration of the festivals which is being narrated to begin matthew chapter matthew chapter 26. see the principle is this when speaking of holidays and festivals in the bible especially in the new testament sometimes they are spoken of in their most technical sense other times within common conversation as we are reading in matthew they are spoken of in a more casual general sense sort of a street language if you would as opposed to a scholar's language there were three biblical feast celebrations that yeshua and thousands of other jews had come to jerusalem to celebrate three these holidays not only happened in rapid succession but in some ways they overlapped okay they they always occurred in the springtime and the series of festivals always began on nissan the 14th the first feast was passover pesach in hebrew the second was the feast of unleavened bread matzah in hebrew the final was first fruits in hebrew about 50 days later another festival known in christendom as pentecost which is actually just a greek word loanword meaning 50. in hebrew it's shavuot which means weeks now i think the best way to get a handle on how this works is to go to the source leviticus 23. i want you all to open your bibles to this chapter and read along with me we're going to turn to leviticus chapter 23 please turn there leviticus chapter 23 we're going to read the first 21 verses adonai said to moshe tell the people of israel the designated times of adonai which you are to proclaim as holy complications are my designated times work is to be done on six days but the seventh day is a shabbat of complete rest a holy convocation you are not to do any kind of work it is a shabbat for adonai even in your homes these are the designated times of adonai the holy convocations you are to proclaim at their designated times in the first month on the 14th day of the month between sundown and complete darkness comes passover for adonai on the 15th day of the same month is a festival of matzah for seven days you are to eat matzah on the first day you were to have a holy convocation don't do any kind of ordinary work bring an offering made by fire to adonai for seven days on the seventh day is a holy convocation do not do any kind of ordinary work adonai said to moses tell the people of israel you are to enter the land i am giving you and harvest its right crops you are to bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest he is to wave the sheaf before adonai so that you will be accepted the cohen the priest is to wave it on the day after the shabbat on the day that you waved the sheaf you were to offer a male lamb without defect in its first year as a burnt offering for adonai its grain offering is to be one gallon of fine flour mixed with olive oil an offering made by fire to adonai as a fragrant aroma its drink offering is to be of wine a quart you are not to eat bread dried grain or fresh grain until the day you bring the offering before your god this is a permanent regulation throughout all your generations no matter where you live from the day after the day of rest that is from the day you bring the sheath for waving you are to count seven full weeks until the day after the seventh week you are to count 50 days and then you are to present a new grain offering to adonai you must bring bread from your homes for waving two loaves made with a gallon of fine flour baked with leaven as first fruits for adonai along with the bread present seven lambs without defect one year old one young bull two rams these will be a burnt offering for adonai with their grain and drink offerings an offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma frag and i offer one male goat as a sin offering two male lambs one year old is a sacrifice of peace offerings the priest will wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before adonai with the two lambs these will be holy for adonai for the priest on the same day you are you are to call a holy convocation do not do any kind of ordinary work this is a permanent regulation throughout all your generations no matter where you live okay for now the salient points are these passover starts on the 14th of nissan and is a it's a one-day event the feast of unleavened bread begins the instant passover ends which means it starts on nissan 15th and then it goes for seven days the next festival is first fruits and exactly when it is to be celebrated is a little bit more complicated the biblical instruction in leviticus 23 is that the first fruits is to be observed on the day after the next sabbath day that happens after the feast of matzah so just like in the julian calendar we all use the particular name of the day monday tuesday wednesday so on does not stay the same as the date that is august the 25th for example it could be a monday one year tuesday another year so on so forth so while passover on the first day of the festival of masa matsa starts on different named days of the week they always start on the same monthly calendar date nissan 14th then this on 15th first fruits is observed differently it is instructed to be observed on the day after the sabbath the sabbath in modern terms is a saturday which means first fruits always falls on a sunday but the monthly calendar date will differ from year to year now the book of deuteronomy well it's got a bit different take on this so now turn your bibles to deuteronomy chapter 16. deuteronomy chapter 16 and we're going to read the first 12 verses deuteronomy chapter 16 starting at verse 1. observe the month of aviv which is also known as nissan and keep pass over to adonai your god for in the month of aviv adonai your god brought you out of egypt at night you are to sacrifice the passover offering from flock and herd to adonai your god in the place where adam and i will choose to have his name live you are not to eat any comments in 11 with it for seven days you are to eat you already uh you are to eat with it matzah unleavened bread the day of affliction for you came out of the land of egypt in haste thus you will remember the day you left the land of egypt as long as you live no leaven is to be seen with you anywhere in your territory for seven days none of the meat from your sacrifice on the first day in the evening is to remain all night until morning you may not sacrifice the passover offering in just any of the towns that an eye your god is giving you but at the place where adonai your god will choose to have his name live this is where you are to sacrifice the passover offering in the evening when the sun sets at the time of year that you came out of egypt you are to roast it eat it in the place adonai your god will choose in the morning you will return and go to your tents and for six days you were to eat matzah and on the seventh day there is to be a festive assembly for adonai your god do not do any kind of work you are to count seven weeks you are to begin counting seven weeks from the time you first put your sickle to the standing grain you are to observe the festival of shavuot pentecost for i deny your god with a voluntary offering which you are to give in accordance with the degree to which ad and i your god has prospered you you are to rejoice in the presence of adonai your god you your sons and daughters your male and female slaves the levites living in your towns foreigners orphans and widows living among you in the place where adonai your god will choose to have his name live remember you were a slave in egypt then you will keep and obey these laws okay so instructions get a little more specific about paso in the in that the passover meal is to be eaten after the sun sets well biblical days are always counted as beginning and ending at sunset totally unlike the world today that uses a clock to determine the beginning ending of days we count 12 midnight as the ending of one day in the beginning of the next okay thus according to deuteronomy the passover meal is to be prepared and cooked on passover but it's not to be eaten the sun goes down meaning the day changes it changes now to nissan 15th from the 14th the first day of the feast of matza of unleavened bread so the passover meal or seder occurs just after dark in the first hour or so on nissan 15th it is not eaten on the festival day of passover on the festival day of passover what happens is the passover lamb is slaughtered it's prepared and it's roasted in an oven but i say again it's not eaten until after sunset which is the start of a new day also notice that no mention is made in deuteronomy of the feast of first fruits why i do not know but it gets even better in leviticus 23 11 it was not clear to the ancient torah scholars whether the verse that speaks of a sabbath is referring to the weekly sabbath or to the special sabbath that is ordained for the first day of the feast of unleavened bread see this on the 15th which is the first day there are actually two special or great sabbaths during the feast of unleavened bread one to begin it one to on the final day of it in yeshua's time the meaning of this verse was hotly debated between the pharisees and the sect of the sadducees the sadducees interpreted leviticus 23 concerning the day after the sabbath as being sunday we call sunday the first day of the week therefore never having a fixed date on the hebrew calendar however the pharisees interpreted this verse to mean the sabbath refers to the first day of the feast of unleavened bread which is nissan the 15th bible tells us it's a great sabbath therefore first fruits being the day after it would always fall on this on 16th not on a fixed day of the week so it seems likely that in joshua 5 10-12 that the israelites celebrated first fruits on the 16th of nissan let's take a moment to read it joshua 5 10-12 the people of israel camped in gilgal they observed passover on the 14th day of the month there on the plains of jericho the day after passover they ate what the land produced matzah and roasted ears of grain that day the following day after they had eaten food produced in the land the manna ended but then on the p but then on the people of israel no longer ate manna instead they ate the produce of the land of canaan flavius josephus who was at one time actually a member of the priesthood wrote that on the second day of unleavened bread which is the 16th day of the month they first partake of the fruits of the earth another first century jewish eyewitness reported there is also a festival during unleavened bread which succeeds the first day and this is named the sheaf the sheaf is just another name for the day the sheaf is waved which is for fruits both witnesses agree that first fruits was observed in accordance with the reckoning of the pharisees in the first century that is the pharisees seem to have prevailed in their disagreement with the sadducees and as a result most of modern judaism celebrates first fruits on nissan 16. so in modern jewish tradition and it seems it was this way in yeshua's era passover was always nissan 14 the first day of unleavened bread was always the 15th and firstfruits was always the 16th however you ready no however it seems that even though that's how the jewish residents of judea observed it it wasn't the same for the galileans getting pretty complicated didn't it well indeed it was complicated and like every other large religion judaism had much earlier broken into different factions each deciding on their own doctrines which even went so far as to involve different observances of different holy days about the only day that never seemed to be in dispute was the weekly seventh day shabbat that is our equivalent of sundown friday to sundown saturday now although it's complex and it's confusing for us it is nearly exactly that way in christianity with our religion fractured under literally thousands of factions each having their own doctrines and ways of celebrating holy days so such a circumstance ought not to be very hard for us to mentally picture even though the details of it could be pretty challenging so in the first century just as it is today various jewish traditions from various jewish groups ruled not only about how to do passover unleavened bread and first fruits but exactly when then we get into the matter of the galileans it's kind of important jesus was a galilean all of his disciples were galileans and a large portion of the people who came to jerusalem for the festivals were galileans and they didn't find it necessary to do much of anything that the judean pharisees or the sadducees decided upon the reality was that the galileans and the judeans didn't much like each other and so they celebrated festivals and holy days a little differently at times now while we we're going to revisit this again because it's not just complicated it's important let's fast forward now and leap to the day after the last supper and then the crucifixion things get really dicey here in the book of john we read the following in john 19 31 it was preparation day and the judeans did not want the bodies to remain on the stake on shabbat since it was an especially important shabbat so they asked pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed john calls the day that christ died preparation day and that the next day that we begin when does the day begin sunset right this was an especially important sabbath okay time for a little more understanding of the feast days three of the biblical feasts are called hog or pilgrimage feasts these are the feasts that the law of moses says all israelites are to make a journey to the temple to have a holy assembly and to make sacrifices since in the new testament we read that everyone seems to show up for passover then it is regularly assumed that passover is one of those three pilgrimage feasts of the year but that's not so the first pilgrimage feast is actually the feast of unleavened bread however customarily jews who did not live in judea such as the jews living in galilee would travel to jerusalem and they would arrive in time to celebrate passover there since they needed to be there for the feast of unleavened bread that began the following day just as many christians think it's somehow better and more effective to go to a church to pray than to pray at home so it was that many jews felt it was better to kill and cook their lambs in the holy city of jerusalem slaughtered by official levite priests at the temple than to do it at home so they would travel and arrive a day or two early before the pilgrimage feast of matzah to be able to do that however since the first day of unleavened bread was a special sabbath not the weekly sabbath totally different one then whatever preparations including the meal preparations had to be completed the day before that and the day before that was passover so passover was quite literally in jesus day also known as preparation day preparation day for the first day of unleavened bread and that is what john was talking about one more thing and we'll end for today since the lambs were killed on passover day and by most accounts jesus was killed on passover day and since the cooked lamb is the centerpiece of the passover meal then what was the lord's supper that took place the night before the lambs were killed see christ seems to have died about the same time that the lambs were being slaughtered if this wasn't the case this means he died on the first day of unleavened bread not on passover and the first day of unleavened bread was a great sabbath the problem is we read that the jews were in this big hurry to get his body down and buried before the great sabbath began so he had to have died on preparation day also technically called passover and because that's the case his famous last supper could not possibly have been the passover meal the passover seder as christianity traditionally said this because the lambs hadn't even been killed and cooked yet you following me on this good because we'll reopen this can of worms when we meet again after you've had a little chance to digest this information and i'm gonna try to offer a few solutions okay help support god's people by purchasing items made by them merchandise with a meaning products with a purpose holy land marketplace.com for more teachings visit support or donate at torahclass.com join with us in worship and enjoy god's word at seat of abraham fellowship

Channel: Torah Class

Views: 1,631

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Beatitudes, Hebrew Heritage, Parables, Torah Class, Bible, Bible Study, Christ, Christian, Christianity, God, Hebrew Roots, Jesus, Jews, Matthew, New Testament, Seed of Abraham, Sermon on the Mount, Son of God, Tom Bradford, Yeshua

Id: ILsjaNq9YgY

Length: 65min 5sec (3905 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 21 2021