The Importance of the Christian Passover

Fred R. Coulter—March 27, 2010

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When you really think about it, the Passover has been so buried under so many false teachings, pagan practices, Jewish tradition, that it is a strange thing for people to hear the term Christian Passover. So many things are missed because the Protestants and evangelicals go through and they pick out what they want—a little here, a little there—and reject all the rest. But the Passover is the key. It is the key for the covenant with God. People can keep the Sabbath, which they do, the Jews do, and it's also interesting with the Jews, so everybody who believes that sacred names are required, I want you to please listen up. Do the Jews know how to pronounce all the names in the Old Testament? Yes, they do! They don't pronounce them because they think they're so Holy. But let's ask another question: In using sacred names—and of course there aren't any in the New Testament at all and Paul could put in the sacred names—does Judaism understand about salvation? No!

So what can we conclude? That the use of sacred names does not bring salvation! Salvation can come only through Christ; can't come any other way. And as the Apostle John wrote, 'The one who has the Father, has the Son, and the one who does not have the Son, does not have the Father.' So when men pick and choose and say, 'I'll take this, I'll take that, I like this, I agree with that,' then they lose the full meaning of what's in the Scripture.

Now to give you an example, I went down got a haircut, and the fellow who was in the barber chair before me, the barber wasn't quite done, and I've gone to this barber for 25 years. So I sat down, and read a paper, and they were talking about politics, talking about different things, and so forth, how to solve the current political situation, and so forth. He got up, got out of his chair, and was standing there talking with the barber, and I came and sat down. I said, 'Well, the truth of the matter is this. You can't solve spiritual problems by political means. I said, 'Until they stop all their crime, stop the abortion, stop these things, you're not going to change anything in the government.' This one guy said, 'Well, I don't believe in God.' That was the fellow who was there before me. And I said, 'Why, don't you believe in God? All you have to do is just look at a human being and know the complexity of that, could not just happen. If you really want to know some information about that, go online.' I asked him, 'Are you online?' He said, 'Yeah, I'm online.' I said, 'Go online and look up creationists' website. There are a lot of them that tell you about that.

Just like before services today, we saw beautiful pictures of the galaxies in the universe, and the music to go with it. I couldn't help but thinking as I was sitting there, 'The heavens declare the glory of God.' I mentioned that to him. 'You go out on a cloudless night and you look up into the sky and you see all the stars, and there are so many out there that a human being cannot comprehend what the universe is really all about.' And he said, 'Well, I don't know about that.' I said, 'God has put it in His Word.' And he said, 'Well, I've had 17-years of Catholic education.' I said to him, 'That's your problem.' I told him, I said, 'If you want to know some things about the Bible, go online Church at Home. That's easy to remember. If you have any other questions, you can call my office.' I gave him the phone number. So imagine that's going to stick in his head. 'That's your problem, 17-years.' The barber said, 'Well, you sure told him straight.'

So the number one most confused doctrine is not Sabbath, not Holy Days, it's the Christian Passover. You have the Jews' Passover on the fifteenth. Other organizations that are supposed to be Christian that keep it on the fifteenth. You have people who supposedly believe in keeping the Passover, but they combine the Passover and the first day of Unleavened Bread and only have the seven-day feast, because they don't know how to count. Then you have the Christians that have rejected anything to do with anything Jewish. That's why they have Easter and they have the Lord's Supper and the sacrifice of the mass.

Now the sacrifice of the mass, let's come here to Hebrews 6, is a very unusual thing. So we'll talk a little bit about that and then we'll talk about the true Christian Passover. But in Heb. 6 we find something very interesting. If they would just read their Bibles, they would know that you can't have anything called the sacrifice of the mass, which is also called the Eucharist. The book of Hebrews tells us. The first part has to do with some of the basic doctrines. Hebrews 6:5: "And who have tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they have fallen away... [If they fall away, does not necessarily mean they give up religion. Chances are they are like Cain. They go start their own or they take part of what God has and invent their own.] ...to renew them again unto repentance; seeing that they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves, and are publicly holding Him in contempt" (vs 5-6).

In relationship to the Eucharist or the sacrifice of the mass, the priest prays a prayer. This prayer is supposed to cause Christ to come down out of heaven and put His presence, literal body and blood, in the bread and in the wine. After they've gotten done, tasted it, someone goes up to the priest and says, 'Padre, still tastes like bread.' The one who's administering it is a single male who probably has sex problems, when it [the Bible] says that the elders are to be married. You've got all these idols and statues around there, and when they take the bread it's not like Jesus said. Jesus did what to the bread? He broke it and gave it to them. When they take the wafer, it is round. It is called 'the host' and it's got a cross stamped right on it when they make it. It has to be perfect and round. Now that's a symbol of the sun really. So how can they say that they are taking what Jesus instituted when He broke the bread and gave the wine? As I covered last Sabbath, that 'as often as you do it' has to do as often annually as you partake of the Passover, not as often as you want to.

Let's come to Hebrews 9. Let's see if, from the Scriptures, you can derive anything concerning the sacrifice of the mass. Let's go on right here. Hebrews 9:24: "For Christ has not entered into the holy places made by human hands, whichare mere copies of the true; rather, He has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us….. [So there is direct representative right in the presence of God.] …Not that he should offer Himself many times..." (vs 24-25). Now what happens with the sacrifice of the mass? Every mass He is offered; every mass He is crucified! Is that not true? They don't read the Bible. They don't think it through, but that's quite a thing to really understand.

"For then it would have been necessary for Him to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now, once and for all... ['all' can mean all time and all sin.] ...in the consummation of the ages, He has been manifested for the purpose of removing sin through His sacrifice of Himself" (v 26). Not many sacrifices. Not over and over and over and over. Now the Catholics, because they have a shortage of priests, have some masses on Saturday night and then Sunday they go to another church. There's even one Catholic priest in New York that he has four different masses on Sunday. It's like nine, eleven, one, and three. Every time he goes through the same thing. Where the Catholic cathedral is, the way it's built, when you look toward the east, because you enter in from the east coming to the altar and then the priest is conducting everything looking to the east. Whereas at the temple, the priest would come to the temple and he would be looking to the west.

And you will see on the Catholic churches they have a round sun window right on the east. That is set so that at the time of the high mass—which is the mass where they have the incense, and they have the choir singing and all of that—everybody genuflecting and getting up and down off their knees. I know I went to one of those and couldn't figure out what was going on. Then when it came time for the collection they had deacons who had baskets on long 12-foot poles. They would shove that down and I thought, 'Oh, what am I going to do?' So there was an envelope there, so I picked it up, licked it, and put it in. But I didn't get on my knees. That was when I was a student at A.C.

Let's continue on and see why you can have no such thing as a sacrifice of a mass. It is blasphemous to God, it is nigh unto unpardonable sin in doing so, because they are crucifying Him every single mass. They are saying, 'We are crucifying Him.' The priest is commanding God to come down out of heaven, Christ to come down out of heaven and put His presence, His flesh and His blood in the host. Now even if He could, that's impossible. Why? Because He's no longer flesh and blood, He's spirit. So when they leave God and completely do away with the Scriptures—the Catholics say even though you can read some of their catechisms, they quote a lot of Scripture in there, but what they practice has nothing to do with Scripture. Those who have written catechisms, and I have the book, My Catholic Faith—it's not my Catholic faith, that's the title of the book—the priest who wrote that said that the Catholic Church could preach the Gospel without the Bible. Is that not what they do? They preach their own gospel and they don't use the Bible. This becomes very important, central thing concerning keeping the Christian Passover and doing it the right way.

Verse 27: "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die... [As in Adam we all die.] ...and after this, the judgment; so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear the second time without sin unto salvation to those who are eagerly awaiting Him" (vs 27-28).

(Now between now and Pentecost I'm going to do a couple of sermons on the return of Christ, because I think we can define things a little better now exactly how that's going to happen. So we'll save that for then.)

Let's come over here to Hebrews 10:4: "Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. For this reason, when He comes into the world, He says, 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but You have prepared a body for Me.... [A special body, as we have described in the sermon What Kind of Flesh Did Jesus Have?, so that He could bear the sin of the whole world.] ...You did not delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then said I, "Lo, I come (as it is written of Me in the scroll of the book)... [So this is the one which has the covenant between the Father and the Son.] ...to do Your will, O God"'" (vs 4-7). Now we're going to see on that everything that happened concerning the crucifixion was the will of God. We've covered a lot of that already, but we'll cover some of it again today here.

"In the saying above, He said, 'Sacrifice and offering and burnt offering and sacrifices for sin (which are offered according to the law) You did not desire nor delight in'; Then He said, 'Lo, I come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first covenant in order that He may establish the second covenant; by Whose will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…. [Again, all time, for all who repent. Includes both of that.] …Now every high priest stands ministering day by day, offering the same sacrifices repeatedly, which are never able to remove sins... [read that in Lev. 1-7 and in Num. 28-29] ...But He, after offering one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down at the right hand of God" (vs 8-12).

And He's not going to come down and put His presence in what a pagan priest would command Him to do. Actually if that would happen, then the priest would actually be performing a function of God, rather than a function of man, because he would be telling Christ, Who is God, what to do and because of what he said, Christ would have to obey him and do it. So this is very important that we understand it's once for all.

Verse 13: "Since that time, He is waiting until His enemies are placed as a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has obtained eternal perfection for those who are sanctified….

• We're sanctified by the blood of Christ.
• We are sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God.
• We are sanctified by the Word of God.

…And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after He had previously said, '"This is the covenant that I will establish with them after those days," says the Lord: "I will give My laws into their hearts, and I will inscribe them in their minds; And their sins and lawlessness I will not remember ever again."' Now where remission of these is, it is no longer necessary to offer sacrifices for sin" (vs 13-18)—be it animal sacrifices or be it a sacrifice of the mass.

Now let's come back to Matthew 26, and let's see some of the instruction that we're given here by Jesus Christ for the Christian Passover. Now the Protestants have rejected some of the things that the Catholics have. They don't believe in the transubstantiation of the wine and the bread into the body and blood of Christ, and they call it the Lord's Supper. Some of them take it every Sunday; some of them take it every quarter; some of them take it whenever they get together and that also is a perversion of what the Scriptures tell us.

After they prepared the Passover. In the Passover book [The Christian Passover] I go through and show that when you combine the accounts of the three Gospels, you find recorded eleven times that it was the Passover to be kept. Yet some people say, 'Well, it was a pre-Passover meal, because He kept the fifteenth Passover like the Jews.' He did not! Others say, 'There's a supper with it.' We find in 1-Cor. 11, as we discussed, you don't need a supper with taking the Christian Passover. So others say, 'It's the Lord's Supper,' and they don't eat a supper. So you've got all of these ideas and all of this confusion. It doesn't dawn on them: Why don't you just please take the Scriptures and follow what it says? Try that for a change. See how that works.

Matthew 26:20: "And after evening had come..." So people want to know: Should we keep the Passover immediately after sundown? No, because immediately after sundown, that's when the Passover lamb was killed. So they couldn't possibly start eating the Passover with a raw lamb. How could that be? I believe [speculation] I believe that for this last Passover, since God delights in the least, that this lamb must have been eight days old. Just a little old lamb about fifteen pounds, not too much meat on it. And that means that that could be cooked—since it's not taken out of a refrigerator or anything like that—roasted in about an hour to an hour and a half. When are the lamb slain? Right after sunset—which begins what? Between the two evenings! So this is the second evening of between the two evenings, right when it's getting dark, about an hour, an hour and fifteen minutes later. As long as we keep the Passover and we start it when it's starting to get dark, that's when we should start the reading and things like this. By the time we get into the footwashing, and by time we get into the taking of the unleavened bread and the wine, it's dark. So that puts us at approximately the same time here as this.

"And as they were eating, He said, 'Truly I say to you, one of you shall betray Me'" (v 21). Now in order to go through all the human circumstances and everything that there is, and since the devil is still around here, God had Judas Iscariot, who was possessed of the devil, come to that Passover. The reason is this: There are people who come in the midst to take the Passover who later turn their back on God, who later betray him, not to the priest, but betray the covenant with them. And Satan loves to be around where he can cause confusion. So this is why Judas was given the task. He was chosen for it. Jesus said, 'I've lost none, except the son of perdition, as the Scripture has said.'

"And being sorely grieved, each of them began to say to Him, 'Am I the one, Lord?'" (v 22). Now they didn't know what was going on. They didn't know that Jesus was going to be arrested that night and crucified beginning in the morning with the trial and be hanging on the cross starting at about nine o'clock in the morning. They had no idea. To them, this was just another Passover.

"But He answered and said, 'He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish, he shall betray Me. The Son of man indeed goes, as it has been written concerning Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would be better for him if that man had not been born.' Then Judas, who was betraying Him... [He knew it, because he'd already gone to the priests, already received thirty pieces of silver. Thirty pieces of silver is the redemption of a dead slave. You find that in the book of Exo. If you caused someone's slave to be killed, you had to give the owner of it 30 pieces of silver, which is fitting; this ties in with that's the least, the most unworthy; that ties in with the small lamb for the Passover.] ...Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, 'Am I the one, Master?' He said to him, 'You have said it.' And as they were eating... [Judas got up and left (John 13)] ...Jesus took the bread and blessed it; thenHe broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body'" (vs 23-26).

The orthodox take a leavened loaf of bread and break that off and give it to them for their mass, or whatever they call it. We've had a booklet for years, we just reconfigured it, What Kind of Bread Was Used at Jesus' Last Passover, was it leavened or unleavened? Here it doesn't say, 'And He took unleavened bread.' Some people say, 'Oh, that must be leavened bread.' How do you know what kind of bread that it was? What was the command in Exo. 12 for eating the Passover? 'You shall take unleavened bread'—that's correct. What kind of bread did Jesus use? If it were leavened, then He would have broken the commandment of God—is that not correct? But people don't know how to think, because they're not grounded in the Scriptures. They have their own ideas and what it is, it's kind of like it's almost like a wavelength to Cain. Cain wanted to improve upon God's offering, so he brought what he wanted to. God said that was sin, but he had to rule over it. In other words, he could control what he was doing, so same way here. If you say, 'Oh, well, it doesn't say what kind of bread is here,' and we go exactly by the Scriptures. How do we go by the Scriptures? Put it together, 'a line here, a line there; precept here, precept there; Scripture here, Scripture there,' and you put it all together. So this had to be unleavened bread.

"...then He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take eat; this is My body.'.... [unleavened bread symbolizes the flesh of Christ that was sinless] ...And He took the cup; and after giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying, 'All of you drink of it; for this is My blood, the blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins'" (vs 26-28).

Someone said, 'Well, I read through the Gospel account and I didn't read where it said, 'This do in the remembrance of Me.' We have it over in Luke 22. So if you just read Matthew and Mark, you don't find, 'This do in the remembrance of Me.' Luke 22:19: "And He took bread; and after giving thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body, which is given for you. This do in the remembrance of Me…. [That's after He had already poured out the wine and passed it around to them. So the same applies for the wine.] ...In like manner also, He took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you'" (vs 19-20). Then we have already covered 1-Cor.11, so we won't go there again.

Let's come back here to Matthew 26:29: "'But I say to you, from this time forward I will not drink at all of this fruit of the vine, until the day when I drink it anew with you in the kingdom of My Father.'" Now we have another with this—don't we? Some people say, 'Fruit of the vine wasn't wine.' They couldn't preserve grape juice back then, no refrigerators. 'They could put sulfur in it.' Are you going to pollute it? It was wine. If someone is an alcoholic, they should not drink the wine, because you have to make a covenant with God that you will not drink of the wine. But they now have a de-alcoholed wine. I'll have to find out where to get it, but they do make it. So it's wine without the alcohol. Otherwise in that case, grape juice would be allowable for that individual.

But the truth of the wine is this: When the wine is fermenting, that's the leaven working. What happens when the wine is fully fermented, all the leaven, because there are leaven spores on the skin of the wine. We tried making wine up in Salt Lake City and we had this five gallon jug and we thought, boy, we're going to have some wine and everything. We had the best vinegar around, I tell you. If you're going to make wine, you got to know what you're doing. We didn't use our feet to crush the grapes, but you've got to know what you're doing.

"And after singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (v 30). Now this begins a section, which becomes very interesting. There are actually two sections here. The first one is about everyone being offended. So let's read it here.

Verse 31: "Then Jesus said to them, 'All of you shall be offended in Me during this night; for it is written, "I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." But after I have been raised, I will go before you into Galilee'.... [He didn't say from the dead. They didn't believe Him when He told them that He would be raised from the dead before. 'How are you going to do that, Lord?' They didn't even ask the question, didn't even dawn on them.] ...I will go before you into Galilee.' Then Peter answered and said to Him, 'Even if all shall be offended in You, I will never be offended'" (vs 31-33). 'No, I'm strong enough, Lord. I'm not going to be offended.'

Now this is not the first time he tried to persuade Jesus. Matthew 16:21: "From this time Jesus began to explain to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised the third day.... [They didn't believe it. Now notice here's Peter again. So Peter, being the big hotshot here]: ...But after taking Him [Jesus] aside, Peter personally began to rebuke Him, saying, 'God will be favorable to you, Lord. In no way shall this happen to You.'…. [This shows that people can get well intended. This is intended to be good, but notice Jesus answer]: …Then He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, because your thoughts are not in accord with the things of God, but the things of men'" (vs 21-23). Very important! No one is going to accomplish any work of God on their own. They're going to have to yield to God, have the Spirit of God, do the things the way that God wants done, not the way that you think.

Notice His answer: "Then He turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, because your thoughts are not in accord with the things of God, but the things of men'.... [then He made it clear]: ...And Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself... [Very important to grasp, because Jesus said in John 5:19, 32, 'I can do nothing of Myself.' Not from His own initiative. 'But what I see the Father do, that's what I do. What He taught Me to do, that's what I do. What He told Me to say, that's what I say.'] (So likewise): ...'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and let him take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it; but whoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life?'" (vs 23-26).

Now let's come back to Matthew 26:34 and see the account with Peter again here. This becomes very instructive. "Jesus said to him, 'Truly I say to you, during this very night, before the cock crows, you yourself shall deny Me three times.' Peter said to Him, 'Even if I were required to die with You, in no way would I ever deny You.' All the disciples also spoke in like manner" (vs 34-35). But did it happen? Yes, it did happen!

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Now let's solve another little problem; let's go to Mark 14. Let's solve another problem, because one of the problems is, people don't know how to count days. Some of them say it begins at sunrise, some of them say slaying the lambs begin between three and sunset. Mark 14:30: "And Jesus said to him... [That's when Peter said he wouldn't be offended.] ...'Truly I say to you, today, in this very night... [What does this tell us? The day begins at sunset.] ...today, in this very night, before the cock crows twice, you shall deny Me three times.'"

Okay, now back to Matthew 26. I'm sure you have read this over and over again, but let's look at it a little differently and I think we'll understand it. Matthew 26:36: "Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, 'Sit here, while I go onward and pray.' And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be very melancholy and deeply depressed. Then He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.' And after going forward a little, He fell on His face, praying, and saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will'" (vs 36-39). We've often thought, Why did He pray that prayer, that particular way? I think we'll come to understand here in a minute.

"Then He came to His disciples and found them sleeping. And He said to Peter, 'What! Were you not able to watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, so that you do not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.... [Was He just talking about His disciples alone? Could this not also apply to Him? He was in the flesh, and the flesh was weak. It says that He was crucified in weakness—doesn't it? He is reiterating something that has to do with His will, that just as human fleshly will is weak.] ...The second time He went again and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if this cup cannot pass from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.' Now when He came to them, He found them asleep again, because their eyes were heavy. And leaving them, He went again and prayed the third time, saying the same thing" (vs 40-44). Then He told them after that, 'Go ahead and sleep on. The time of betrayal has come.'

So the flesh being weak, He was not referring to the disciples, although it could apply to them, but He was referring to Himself. 2-Corinthians 13:3: "Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking through me (Who is not weak toward you, but is powerful in you; for although He was crucified in weakness... [because the flesh is weak] ...yet He lives by God's power; and we are indeed weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by God's power toward you)" (vs 3-4). So it is through the Spirit of God that these things are accomplished.

Let's understand something concerning the flesh and blood of Christ. Let's come to John 6. This gives us the full explanation of Christ, of His blood, of His flesh, and why it's important to keep the Christian Passover the way that we find it in the New Testament. Not adding to or taking away from, not trying to embellish and make it better.

I just learned on my trip that the Church of God Seventh Day have praise singing and all of this going along, when they keep the Passover, but they call it the Lord's Supper. I was shocked! I didn't know that they did. Paul says that we solemnly proclaim the Lord's death until He come. That's why the Passover ceremony itself is to be solemn, because God came in the flesh and gave His life for us. And through weakness He was crucified. When He said, 'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,' that answers the question: Why did He pray this prayer that way to the Father? Because the pull of the flesh toward weakness to want to back out of this was probably there.

Let's come to John 6 and this is where they wanted to make Him king, because He fed the 5,000, and so forth. They wanted that bread always. John 6:26: "Jesus answered them and said, 'Truly, truly I say to you, you do not seek Me because you saw the miracles, but because you ate the bread and were satisfied.... [They wanted the freebies.] ...Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give to you; for Him has God the Father sealed.' Therefore, they said to Him, 'What shall we do, in order that we ourselves may do the works of God?'" (vs 26-28).

Again, human effort! Just like Peter, 'Oh, Lord, that won't happen to you. What must we do to do the works of God? Because people want to say, 'I want to do the works of God.' The truth is, God wants to do a work in us. What we do in mailing out the things, and so forth, that is the work of the ministry. That's not a work of God. The work of God is in us to develop the character within us.

"Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God: that you believe in Him Whom He has sent'" (v 29). In other words, this is a spiritual work and it's based on faith, based on belief. Yes, we have action that we need to follow up on and do with this faith and belief. Absolutely true, but it's not a set pattern of things that we do. I didn't realize, the other day I saw a Book of Mormon, it's twice as thick as the Bible! So they're just like the Jews and Catholics. They have all their own traditions. I know Mormons will say, 'Well, we believe the Bible in so far as it's correctly translated.' One of these days I'm going to give one to a Mormon and I'm going to say, 'You say you believe the Bible only insofar as it's correctly translated—is that correct?' Yes! Well, I would like to give you one that correctly translated. Now you have no excuse for your Mormonism.

"'...you believe in Him Whom He has sent.' Therefore, they said to Him, What sign will You perform, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?'" (vs 29-30). He's just fed them, the five thousand. What more do you want? If you see twelve disciples going around, breaking bread off, and it grows. Break it off and it grows, break it off and it grows. That's a miracle. What else do you need to see that that's from God? Same way with the fish, and then they gathered up twelve baskets of fragments. They wanted to have that, don't have to work anymore, don't have to make bread anymore. And all the women would say, 'Boy, it's a lot of work to make the bread. This would be great. Just have a loaf, break it off, break if off, break if off. Wonderful!' I bet you could elected with 90-percent approval if you could that—right? Yes!

"'Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written... [So they knew some of the Scriptures.] ..."He gave them bread to eat that came down from heaven"'…. [the implication is, Now what are you going to do? So Jesus didn't answer them in the answer that they expected.] …Then Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven; but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world'.... [He's talking about Himself.] ...Therefore, they said to Him, 'Lord, give this bread to us always'.... [So here's His answer. You're to believe in the one Whom He has sent. He's standing in front of you.] ...Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me shall never hunger; and the one who believes in Me shall never thirst at any time. But as I said to you, you also have seen Me, yet you do not believe'" (vs 31-36).

Then tying in with the sermon that I have on God's calling, v 37: "'All whom the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out…. [So this shows we are to seek God, we'll find Him. We are to knock and be opened. We are to ask and receive. But it is the Father Who does the initial calling.] …For I did not come down from heaven to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me.... [Now then He states the whole overall goal]: ...And this is the will of the Father, Who sent Me: that of all whom He has given Me, I should not lose any, but should raise them up in the last day'" (vs 37-39). Someone will read that and say, 'Oh, that's the Last Great Day.' No, that's not the Last Great Day. This also adds to the proof that the first resurrection is on Pentecost. What is the fiftieth day? The last day of the count—right? Yes, indeed! What are we called? The firstfruits of God. What is Pentecost? The celebration of the firstfruits! Yet some people are horribly angry at me because I teach that the first resurrection is on Pentecost. Read your Bible!

"'And this is the will of Him Who sent Me: that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.' Then the Jews were complaining against Him, because He said... [They were getting angry because He didn't answer the way that they wanted; like human nature.] ...because He said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.' And they were saying, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? Why then does He say, "I came down from heaven"?' For this reason, Jesus answered them and said, 'Do not be complaining among one another. No one can come to Me unless the Father, Who sent Me, draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught by God." Therefore, everyone who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes to Me.... [Again showing that the Father and the Son are directly involved in our calling.] ...No one has seen the Father except He Who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me has eternal life. I am the bread of life.... [we're going to see what He's getting to and how this ties in with the New Covenant.] ...Your fathers ate manna in the desert, but they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I give is even My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world'" (vs 40-51).

Now He also said something else that's very important here. John 12:23: "But Jesus answered them, saying, 'The time has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit…. [He was talking about Himself] …The one who loves his life shall lose it, and the one who hates his life in this world shall keep it unto eternal life. If anyone will serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant be also.... [Now when will that happen? The resurrection!] ...And if anyone serves Me, him shall the Father honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this very purpose I have come to this hour'" (vs 23-27).

John 6:51: "'...which I will give for the life of the world.' Because of this, the Jews were arguing with one another, saying, 'How is He able to give us His flesh to eat?'.... [Decidedly unclean as far as edible flesh is concerned.] ...Therefore, Jesus said to them.... [So here Jesus is really making the point. He is really digging in to them to provoke them.] ...Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves'" (vs 51-53).

Now stop and think for a minute. All of the different kind of so-called celebrations of the Eucharist, the sacrifice of the mass, the communion, the Lord's Supper, the Passover on the fifteenth, etc., Jesus is the way. There are not many ways. We have to do it exactly as He said. So He's saying here, 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.'

• So if you don't do it correctly—what do you think that means?
• If you do it on the wrong day—what do you think that means?
• If you do it with the wrong symbols—what do you think that means?
• You don't have life in yourself.

"'The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood is dwelling in Me, and I in him.... [Now notice the whole purpose of what we've covered in all of these verses, to show the real meaning of the true Christian Passover, is this right here]: ...As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so also the one who eats Me shall live by Me'" (vs 54-57).

For all of you evangelicals out there who are all mad at me for the eight[transcriber's correction] sermons I've done so far on Bible Answers to Evangelicals—since you say that you don't have to follow the Gospels, because this was Jesus' ministry to the Jews and not to the Gentiles and you consider yourselves Gentiles—how are you going to have eternal life? because

• you're not doing what He's saying!
• you're not living by His Word
• you're not living by Him
• you don't even accept His ministry

Where does that put you in relationship to God? He said it very clear here, 'Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.'

• you have a false gospel
• you have a false Jesus
• you have another way of doing things.

God will not accept that, because, you see, the covenant is the most important thing. You are in covenant with God, those who truly have the Spirit of God, and you are going to live by Jesus Christ.

Now let's come to John 14:6; let's see something else that Jesus said. We've repeated this how many times, but let's look at it again. "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way...'" That's the way to eternal life. In Greek the word way is 'hodos.' The book in the Old Testament where the Passover was initiated with the children of Israel was called Exodus or 'ex hodos,' which is the way out of sin and the way to God. He is the way! So what the gospels are telling us and what Jesus is teaching, is that you've got to come to the Father and you have got to come to Christ and there is no other way it's going to be done.

• It's not going to be done by human effort.
• It's not going to be done by adding to it or taking away from it.
• It's not going to be done because you are righteous.
• It's going to be done because you are a sinner, and only Christ can forgive your sins and He is the only way.

"'...and the Truth...'" You can add many things in there.

• We are sanctified by His Word, which is the Truth.
• The commandments are Truth.
• Christ is Truth.
• We receive the Spirit of Truth.

And that's the only way. The way and the Truth and then that leads to:] ...the life... [or eternal life. So then He expresses it just a little bit differently.] ...no one comes to the Father except through Me.'"

No one is going to climb up another way. You're not going to get eternal life in the Catholic Church, in the Presbyterian Church, in the Methodist Church, and the Mormon Church, and the Pentecostal Church, and the evangelical churches. You're not going to come to God through any of the religions of this world. You come to God through Christ. It has to be with the Word of God.

The Passover becomes very, very, very important because unless we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood—as symbolized by the bread and the wine—and renew that covenant of eternal life, we can risk losing that eternal life. Yes, now there are some people who temporarily go astray, that is true. I know I talked to a man recently who because of all the trouble in the Church, he left. But God's Spirit hadn't left him yet, because he said it kept bothering him all the time, all the time until he picked up the Bible again, and until he started searching on the Internet. Then he found our website and he called the office. He said, 'I've got to keep the Passover this year. I'm like the prodigal son, I'm coming home.' I said, 'Okay. You've really got to repent.' Now he can re-establish that covenant again with Christ.

There are many who have gone through that. So there it is, 'the way, the truth, and the life.' So that's why the Passover is so very, very, very important.

Scriptural References:

• Hebrews 6:5-6
• Hebrews 9:24-28
• Hebrews 10:4-18
• Matthew 26:20-28
• Luke 22:19-20
• Matthew 26:29-33
• Matthew 16:21-26
• Matthew 26:34-35
• Mark 14:30
• Matthew 26:36-44
• 2-Corinthians 13:3-4
• John 6:26-51
• John 12:23-27
• John 6:51-57
• John 14:6

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Leviticus 1-7
• Numbers 28-29
• 1-Corinthians 11
• John 13
• John 5:19, 32

Also referenced:

Books:

• My Catholic Faith by Louis LaRavoire
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter

Booklet: What Kind of Bread Was Used at Jesus' Last Passover?

Sermon Series: Bible Answers to Evangelicals

Sermons:

• What Kind of Flesh Did Jesus Have?
• From God's Calling to Eternal Life

FRC:lp
Transcribed 4-11-10
Formatted: bo—4-12-10