Passover 101

Fred R. Coulter—August 28, 2010

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services! This is two Sabbaths before Trumpets. The Jews say that this is the beginning of their new year with Rosh Hashanah.

We discussed with one man who started attending, and it was like jumping into thirty fathoms of water without a lifejacket and treading has been kind of tough. So, he asked me to give a quick Passover 101. That's what we are going to do.

It is having to do with God and Cain. Isn't it amazing, as I mentioned in the first 'IF' sermon—If Statements in the Bible sermon series.

Gen. 4:7 tells us the whole foundation of the Bible, because Cain's offering was not accepted, God told him,

Genesis 4:7 "IF... [the condition is upon us; there are some conditions upon God] ...you do well, shall you not be accepted?...." Obviously, doing what God has instructed! That's why Abel's sacrifice was accepted, because it was according to the commands of God.

"...But IFyou do not do well, sin lies at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it!" (v 7).

Here is the basic sum of the whole motivation of man coming to God when they find out about God. 'If my heart is right, God, You must accept what I do. If I feel that I'm right, then You must accept what I do.' No! God accepts what we do if we love Him and keep His commandments! That's what it means to do well.

So, with all of that said, if we follow what we have here that we have learned in Gen. 4:7, 'if we do well we'll be accepted,' same way with the Passover of the children of Israel in Egypt if they put the blood up on the lintels and the side-posts, God would spare them and not kill their firstborn. If they felt they didn't want to do it, then they would have died.

• Why do we have the whole Bible?
• If the whole Bible were not important, why would we have it?

Remember the sermon I did on the 'evangelical' Bible, two verses? Now that was very cynical and very sarcastic to do, but it proved a point.

• If you only need two verses, why the whole Bible?
• If what Jesus taught was only for the Jews, why do we have it?

Well, the truth is, 'all Scripture—each and every one—is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine—that's teaching—for reproof, for conviction that we can be thoroughly equipped and furnished; doing what God wants to do.

There are many arguments, 'Well, God did not command this in the New Testament, so we don't have to do it,' and that's one of the basis' that they have for not keeping the Sabbath. Jesus did not say keep the Sabbath (Matt. 19). Well, what do you think they were doing in Judea, the Muslim Friday, or the Catholic Sunday?

So again, when you get into an emotional box, and you're very shallow, you don't know how to think or how to ask the questions. Yet, I've seen some ministers give some very good sermons from the Bible, but when they come smack to the Sabbath or the Holy Days, it's like doing a pole vault right over it and they go on. You can hear different sermons given: How do you handle stress in your life? How can you love your neighbor? They can give some very good sermons, follow along in the Scriptures; you think, 'Oh, well, that's right, that's good.'

Like I had a discussion with a man. We went over to the New Leaf where we buy a lot of our organic food and things like that. A man came in and he was very happy and smiling, he sat down right at a table next to me and was facing me. And he was just all excited, he got back from feeding the homeless, and taking care of the widows, and hearing a good sermon from his minister, and he was really happy that he was doing that.

I said, 'Boy, that's nice. That's really loving your neighbor as yourself and that's something you ought to do. Now isn't it true that you can love your neighbor more if you love God first?' Oh, yes, yes! I said, 'Do you consider all of these commandments important that you don't murder, you don't lie, you don't steal, you don't bear false witness, covet?' Oh, yes, those are important! I said, 'Okay. What about the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before Me. Don't you think that's important?' And he kind of agreed with it.

Well, what about the second, no idols?' Well, he didn't have a cross or anything, so he didn't have a hang up with that. Then I said, 'The third one, don't take the name of the Lord in vain, and the fourth one, Remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy.' He said, 'I'm not getting into that argument!' That's precisely how they do things, because they don't understand that every Word of God is inspired. God breathed!

There have been troubles in translations. That's why we've done the translation we have. Not that we think we're superior to anybody, or have greater knowledge than anybody, that's not the question. It is what you do with the knowledge that you have!. So if you have all these doctorate degrees and everything, but you never really are honest because you must be politically correct in order to order to maintain your job and status.

So let's approach the things that we're going to do with the Passover this way. 1-Cor. 7 where the Apostle Paul supposedly did away with the commandments of God. This is why it's essential that you go back and go over and over those sermons that I have done on God's Grace and Commandment-Keeping, because we are required in the New Covenant to keep things in the spirit and that requires the Spirit of God in order that the true righteousness of the Law may be fulfilled in us. And it can't be done any other way.

That's why when you read in Matt. 5, 'If you lust after a woman, you'd better take out your eye, because it's better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than to go into Gehenna fire.' But He said that not to gouge out your eye, but to show the impossibility of keeping the commandment of God without the Spirit of God, and He ended up with the last verse saying, 'Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.' That's the goal!

1-Corinthians 7:19: "For circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; rather, the keeping of God's commandments is essential." That's from Paul!

The reason I'm doing this is because keeping of God's commandments is a broad statement! Is that not all inclusive? If there is going to be any change or modification to the commandments of God, who should do it? A man like Cain? or God? That's why Christ came, God manifested in the flesh, to give us the spiritual understanding concerning the commandments of God.

1-Corinthians 9:21: "To those who are without law, as without law..."

You start where you are. That's why I thank you for asking for Passover 101. Now notice the parenthetical statement:

"...(not being without law to God, but withinlaw to Christ)..."

If you have a King James Version, here is where the Protestants have got to get hung up in their own reasoning. The Greek here for within is 'en.' But the King James Version says 'under,' which is 'hupokato'; totally different word.

Now what do they do with everyone who says that they want to keep the laws and commandments of God. 'You're not to be under the law.' Well, right there in their King James Version it says, 'but under law to Christ.' Now how are they going to answer that? That's why one of the reasons for this translation to go to the Greek and what the Greek says, that's what we reflect in the English. "…but within law to Christ."

Is that a broad application? Yes! No limit! This becomes essential. Since one of the major arguments of Protestantism vs the Old Testament is that the Holy Days were given to the Jews. If you ask a Jew, he'll say, 'That's right, you Gentiles are not to keep them. Ask any rabbi, he'll tell you that.' Unless you know what Judaism is, you're thinking that he agrees with you, but that's not true.

The Passover—the New Covenant Christian Passover—is so important that Satan has literally taken the greatest amount of 'skubalon'—dung! If you work on a dairy ranch, it's that big truck that takes the manure out and dumps it. Think of it this way. You take a Bible, you put it down on the ground and you take this big truck of 'skubalon' and you dump all over it! That's what Satan does to the true New Covenant Passover! Why? Because if there's anything that's more dangerous and threatening to Satan, it is those:

• who abide by the New Covenant
• are part of the New Covenant
• take the New Covenant Passover
• and will qualify through God the Father for the first resurrection

He is out of business!

So we have to get our manure shovels and we have to clean everything out. Now you might not like manure, that's kind of messy, but you can be glad it wasn't elephant dung, that would be a huge pile. But we have to be like dung beetles. You know what a dung beetle is? You've seen what a dung beetle does? Takes dung and makes something good out of it! So we have to be like dung beetles and get rid of all the dung and get there to the Bible and find out what it says.

The Corinthians were these nasty Gentiles. There were some Jews there, too, because he started preaching in the synagogue of the Jews in Corinth. So, here they had an exceedingly difficult problem.

1-Corinthians 5:1: "It is commonly reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles..."

'If it's for the Gentiles, we should do it,' the Protestants reason that way. 'But if it's for the Jews, we shouldn't do it,' rather than reasoning: Since God made us in His image and His likeness, He's concerned with all human beings and it applies, as Paul said, to Jews andGentiles!'

"...allowing one to have his own father's wife.... [his stepmother] ...You are puffed up... [comes from leaven] ...and did not grieve instead, so that he who did this deed might be taken out of your midst. For I indeed, being absent in body but present in the spirit, have already judged concerning him who has so shamelessly committed this evil deed as if I were present" (vs 1-3).

Is sexual immorality and incest a sin? Absolutely! Sin is  the transgression of the Law! And further, it is lawlessness.

Verse 4: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (vs 4-5)—disfellowshipment!

The most authority that a church has in handling difficult problems with people is disfellowshipment. In the covenant with Israel, since it was a physical nation, they were also given the administration of death! We're not a physical nation. We are physical people gathered together as the assembly or the Church of God through all countries.

We can learn a lesson now that they're trying to push Sharia law down our throats, which is this: You cannot have two sovereign laws within one geographical territory that is carried out physically among the nation. That's why the administration of death was removed from the Church. You know the big thing they have with honor killings now. So, the greatest power that the Church has is disfellowshipment.

Then he comes back to their problem of accepting this. Imagine what it was like at church service. Here they're all gathered together to church and here's this fellow going around letting it known, 'Hey, I've been having this affair with my stepmother.' Really? 'Yes, may the grace of God abound.'

Verse 6: "Your glorying is not good. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?"

Where do we get unleavened bread? Begins in the Old Testament, and it carries through to the New Testament. So, during Unleavened Bread, leaven is a type of sin. Just like we go right back to Gen. 4:7, we—through living our lives and repenting—are to put sin out of our lives that we become unleavened in Christ. That's why the Passover and Unleavened Bread follow.

• Passover for the forgiveness of sin
• Unleavened Bread to go and sin no more

What does Paul say?

Verse 7: "Therefore, purge out the old leaven, so that you may become a new lump, even as you are unleavened."

That means that they've had their sins forgiven. That also means that they were taking the leaven out of their houses for the Days of Unleavened Bread, but they weren't learning the lesson that leaven was a type of sin. Why put the leaven out of your house when you're not actively putting sin out of your life? That's the whole question there!

Here's the reason: "…For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us" (v 7)—Jews and Gentiles!

When was Jesus crucified? That's why you need the book, The Day Jesus the Christ Died. Go through that first before you tackle the Passover book.

• When was that day determined by God?
• When was Christ slain? It was on the Passover Day!
• When was it set for that particular day? Before the foundation of the world!

You can change when you meet, but you can't change the Sabbath Day, because it's built into the creation; likewise with the Passover and Holy Days. It's built into the creation!

So, you can have your own way of doing things, like Cain did, but that doesn't bring you close to God. You can take the name of Jesus, but that doesn't guarantee you are a Christian. You can follow certain Christian principles, but that doesn't make you a disciple of Christ.

Verse 8: "For this reason, let us keep the Feast..."

Is that a command from Paul to Gentiles? Yes, it is! He doesn't say, 'Let us ignore the Feast because it was for the Jews.' He says, "...For this reason, let us keep the Feast..." Why? Because Christ died!

 "...not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth" (v 8). That's the whole purpose of the Passover, forgive our sins! That's when Jesus started.

• When He was first up on that cross, what did He say? 'Father, forgive them for they don't what they are doing!'
• What did He say about laying down His life? 'I lay down My life, no one takes it from Me, and I have commandment to receive it back!'

All of those things were built into the very creation!

Mark 14 is why, you can follow along with this in either A Harmony of the Gospels or in The Day Jesus the Christ Died, either one. We will see some of the things concerning the Passover. We will also see some of the problems one of the great problems in the King James Version of the Bible.

Since people don't keep the Feast, it doesn't mean anything to them, especially the Protestants. It also leads to a problem with those who do keep the Passover, because it gives the impression it's on a different day.

Having no knowledge of Greek or Hebrew years ago, when I first read this (in the KJV) I couldn't understand it. The reason is this: What does it say in Lev. 23? The 14th day of the 1st month is the Passover unto the Lord! That's according to the Calculated Hebrew Calendar, not the Roman calendar. The more you start getting into the Truth, the more you realize that everything you've learned is crazy and upside down and wrong. And you haven't realized it but you've been in this pile of manure and it's been so warm and cozy for so long, that you haven't realized how bad it is. You've gotten used to the stink and the stench and it smells like perfume. So when you hear some of these things the first time, it's a, 'What is that!'

Mark 14:12 (KJV): "And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover..." What a statement!

In Luke they add the phrase, 'The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,' so that doesn't help you. You read Lev. 23, and it says Passover comes first. But here it looks like they were killing the Passover on the first day of Unleavened Bread, a day late.

• Did Jesus keep the Passover a day late?

If He did, then the scribes and Pharisees who kept a 15th Passover actually kept a 16th Passover!

• How do you solve the problem?

That's part why The Christian Passover book: When should it be observed 14th or 15th? They called—to confuse everything—the Passover Day was called the 'first of unleaveneds.' Why? Because you have to get leaven out of your home before you take the Passover! It's called the first day of the year that is unleavened, though it's not the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

How do you solve that problem? Here's the correct translation!

Mark 14:12: "And on the first day of the unleaveneds... [read the footnote; tie in Matt. 26:17] ...when they were killing the Passover lambs..."

When were they to kill them? Right as the sun set! Not before, not in the middle of the afternoon, not at the temple. The Jews have changed it.

The Jews are confused on the Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, and those are the days that define true Christianity from beginning of conversion to resurrection! They don't have any problem with Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles, etc. They keep those on the right day.

They also have another problem, which you can read in the Passover book, the Passover of the exiled, which is this: For the Old Covenant Passover they could only keep the Passover 'in the land.' If they were on a journey and could not get back in time to keep the Passover, but got back before the 14th day of the 2nd month, they could keep a second Passover and that's all in Num. 9. However in exile, the Jews never kept a fourteenth Passover because they were not 'in the land.'

That's how come they began to call Unleavened Bread: Passover. Do you think a Jew's going to admit, 'Oh, well, we're out here and we can't keep the Passover, because we're dirty nasty sinners and have rejected the Law of God.' No! Only one rabbi, a Karaite, I think it was in the 11th or 14th century, I've got it in the Passover book, said, 'The reason we don't keep the fourteenth Passover is because of our sins and the sins of our forefathers in whose footsteps we are walking and this is why we are in exile.' Go to a Jew and say:

• When's the Passover? The 15th, always has been!

You go to the Bible and you read it, and it says the 14th!

• When is the first day of Unleavened Bread? The 15th!

So, all those problems are wrapped up in this one verse!

This brings up another justification. Some people say, 'Okay, then Jesus didn't keep the Passover, He kept a pre-Passover Passover.' Is that what Jesus said? 'Come on, everyone, we're going to have a pre-Passover Passover. Isn't that wonderful? I'm going to die on the 14th, so therefore I can't keep the Passover on the 14th. So, we'll have a pre-Passover Passover.' No! That's why the Passover book is 500-pages! We need Passover 101. We need Passover 201, 301, 401, 501 to get through it.

Mark 14:12: "...when they were killing the Passover lambs..." That is present tense passive!

The disciples were seeing them actively cut the throat of the lamb:

• Where?
• What were they doing?

They were coming into Jerusalem and Jesus hadn't told them where they were going to keep the Passover. So, they look out there, and here for the domestic Passover, not the temple, they weren't any near the temple, they see the head of the house cutting the throat of the Passover lamb. They say to Jesus:

"…His disciples said to Him, 'Where do You desire that we go and prepare, so that You may eat the... [pre-Passover; where do You desire so that we go that You may keep the Lord's Supper? Where do You desire that we go to keep the sacrifice of the mass? Not there!

"...'Where do You desire that we go and prepare, so that You may eat the Passover?'" (v 12).

If Jesus didn't do it on the day it was supposed to be done, in the manner that it was supposed to be done, He would have what? Sinned! And if He sinned He would have disqualified Himself from being our Savior, and He would have to die for His sin.

Don't you think that the day built into creation from the foundation of the world—and He Himself is the One Who created the heavens and the earth—that He would keep it right, that He would keep it on the proper day, at the proper time, and in the proper manner?

He was going to institute the most magnificent thing that was going to be done—the New Covenant Passover, at this particular Passover on the Passover Day, 30A.D. Remember, Biblical days start from sundown, sundown to sundown. What we're reading here in v 12 is what happened the evening before He died on the cross. It was one day, that Passover Day, that everything took place.

Verse 13: "And He sent two of His disciples, and said to them, 'Go into the city, and you shall meet a man carrying a pitcher of water; follow him…. [I wonder why he was carrying the water? To wash feet!] ...And whatever house..." (vs 13-14).

He didn't say, 'Go to the temple and get us a lamb and come to a house.' The temple lambs were sacrificed the next afternoon.

Verse 14: "And whatever house he shall enter, say to the master of the house that the Teacher says, 'Where is the guest chamber, where I may eat the... [pre-Passover, the Lord's supper, the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Mass] ...with My disciples?'.... [Huh? You see all of the manure layer of traditions of men?] ...where I may eat the Passover... [What did Jesus eat? The Passover!] ...with My disciples?" (v 13-14).

Verse 15: "'And he shall show you a large upper room, furnished and ready. There prepare for us.' And His disciples went away: and when they came into the city, they found it exactly as He has said to them; and they prepared the Passover. Now after evening had come..." (vs 15-17).

What do we have? The instructions concerning the timing of the Passover in Lev. 23 and in Exo. 12! Between the two evenings—'ben ha arbayim'—between sunset and dark. As soon as the sun went down, the lamb was killed. The lamb for them was probably killed by the head of the household right in the house where they went, so when they got there it lamb was all ready to go. You'll find in the Passover book we actually did an experiment. How long does it take to kill and prepare a lamb for a full-body roast? All of twenty minutes, killed, gutted, skinned, and on the spigot!

Verse 17: "Now, after evening had come..." What does this tell us? Jesus came about the time as it was getting dark, between the two evenings!

• the first part the lamb was killed
• the second part He got there

Why did Jesus do it with a lamb, and we today don't do it with a lamb? Jesus had to finish and complete the Old Covenant Passover first, and institute the New Covenant Passover afterwards.

(go to the next track)

Let me just mention this: There is no trust-worthy scholar in the world that you can go to to find the Truth of the Passover, that I know of. You can get bits and pieces from them. The reason is scholars must perpetuate their craft. The way they do that is they quote this scholar, and quote this scholar—one against the other, and suppose, and probably, and because—if you read what scholars write. In order for them to remain in good status and to get paid—because they're professors and theologians and they have to live, and they're with a university or with a church, a foundation, or whatever—they must by all means honor all other scholars. Whether you agree with them or not, you still have to honor them. That's why you will never find the Truth of the Passover with them, whether Jewish or 'Christian!'

Likewise with the Holy Spirit, rarely will you find someone telling you the truth. I know of one man, Daniel B. Wallace, and a few others, where he goes into the Greek syntax and says, 'There's no cause in the Greek whatsoever to give personality to the Holy Spirit.' I've got two books of his on Greek syntax. Now here's the irony of it: He was on the translation committee for the English Standard Version that came out and he could not get them to put the Holy Spirit in the neuter case—though that's what it is in the Greek—because of tradition.

When you read the exegesis of John 14, 15, 16, in the appendix here in the Bible, you will see I quote a footnote where he laments that the only basis for personality of the Holy Spirit is a theological interpretation. I didn't know it at the time, but I think that's when he was with the committee on doing the translation for the English Standard Version, where they retain every place it should be 'it,' or 'itself,' it is 'he,' or 'himself,' which is totally contrary to the Greek! That's why on those two subjects—and those two subjects are the most important—there is no trustworthy scholar in the world. The only one I know of for the Holy Spirit is Daniel B. Wallace. They have to by all means:

• uphold their craft
• stroke all the other scholars
• give them credit
• cannot come out with dogmatic conclusions

Because 'we would be out of a job'!

That may sound strong and that may sound very self-serving for someone listening to me to say that, but in researching this out, that is the truth. The only way you can come to the true knowledge of it is by going to the Scriptures and going to the original text with the proper understanding of that in order to understand about the Passover and the Holy Spirit, the two key important things to keep you in contact with God.

John 13:1 "Now before the Feast of the Passover..."

So someone says, 'Oh, yes, there it is, it was a pre-Passover.' And as I mentioned in the Passover book, it doesn't say how long before.

"...knowing that His time had come to depart from this world to the Father, Jesus, having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end" (v 1).

That was His thought coming into the Passover. It didn't mean it was the day before, because He knew what He was going to do.

Verse 2: "And after supper (the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, that he should betray Him), Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God. Rose from supper and laid aside His garments; and after taking a towel, He secured it around Himself…." (vs 2-4). Then He went around and washed the disciples' feet!

Verse 6: Then He came to Simon Peter; and he said to Him, 'Lord, are You going to wash my feet?…. [v 8]: …Peter said to Him, 'You shall not wash my feet, not ever.' Jesus answered him, 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.'"

That becomes a critical thing to understand. That's why we do foot-washing first and we have foot-washing on the Passover night.

Verse 9: "Simon Peter said to Him, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head'"—because foot-washing is a renewal of baptism!

Let's understand about foot-washing, v 12: "Therefore, when He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and had sat down again..." For the New Covenant Passover!

"...He said to them, 'Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me the Teacher and the Lord, and you speak rightly, because I am. Therefore, if I, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also are duty-bound to wash one another's feet" (vs 12-14) Very clear instructions!

The King James says, 'you ought,' to wash one another's feet. That's not as strong as the Greek. The Greek means obligatory or duty-bound.

Verse 15: "For I have given you an example, to show that you also should do exactly as I have done to you."

• What's one of the first things that most Sunday-keeping churches do away with? Foot-washing! So, you don't have any part with Christ!
• Why are you pretending to be a Christian?
• How can you claim part with Christ if you don't wash feet?
• How can you claim part with Christ if you don't do it when He said to do it?
• What is one of the last things He said on the Sermon on the Mount? Why call you Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I tell you?

There are going to be many who say 'Lord, Lord.' Jesus is going to say, 'I never knew you. You are workers of lawlessness.' We have a better idea. We don't need to wash feet today, because that was back then, but today...' Really? Duty-bound to wash one another's feet!

Verse 15: "For I have given you an example, to show that you also should do exactly as I have done to you."

This is to keep the apostles, the teachers and the ministers at a proper level of service and humility for the brethren and not get lifted up in power and hierarchy and all that sort of thing, to rule over the people of God.

So He makes this point, this is the whole point of it, v 16: "Truly, truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, nor a messenger greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (vs 15-17).

Where did we start? The keeping of the commandments is essential! I am within law to Christ! All of those things apply with what we're reading here.

All right, so they had the foot-washing. We know that Judas left after receiving the sop. And someone will say, 'Well, how can you have a sop with unleavened bread?' There's an argument:

• Was it leavened? or Unleavened bread?
• What did the Old Testament tell them to have it with? Unleavened bread!

So, Jesus did not have a loaf of French bread, break it off, give him a sop.

• How do you give a sop with unleavened bread?
• Have you ever had corn chips and dip? That's unleavened!
• Have you ever gotten some cheese, a little piece of meat, and some jalapeno's on it, put it in your mouth? Yes!

When people have religious arguments and they've already made up their mind, they're not going to listen to anything. That is a good thing to understand from this point of view: That's where the sword cuts through and separates.

Mark 14:18: "And as they sat and were eating, Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, one of you shall betray Me, even he who is eating with Me'.... [you can read where he went out in John 13] ...And they began to be extremely sad, and said to Him one by one, 'Is it I?' And another, 'Is it I?' But He answered and said to them, 'The one who is dipping a morsel into the dish with me, he is the one of you twelve. The Son of man indeed goes, just as it has been written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would be better for that man if he had not been born'" (vs 18-21).

So then Judas left. That's why in The Harmony of the Gospels and also The Day Jesus the Christ Died, have all the Scriptures broken down in the sequence of the events as they as happened. So, be sure and get that and go through it.

Verse 22: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread; and after blessing it, He broke it and gave it to them, and said, 'Take eat' this is My body'.... [the morsel that He dipped to give to Judas was not blessed; this is the special ceremony of the meaning of the New Covenant] ...and said, 'Take eat; this is My body'" (v 22). Symbolic!

Here's another one to think on: The Catholics say that there is transubstantiation of the bread and the wine that it is actually Jesus' flesh and Jesus' blood. How could that be? Well, even the Protestants figured out it was symbolic, but they still didn't answer the question. The answer is this:

• Does a spirit being have flesh and blood?
• Was not His body transformed from flesh to spirit?

He can appear in the flesh that looks like flesh, but it's not really flesh as we have flesh. Jesus said, 'No spirit has flesh and bone as you see Me.' He didn't say flesh and blood. But then when He appeared to them in glory,

• Did He have flesh and blood? No!
• Is Christ now glorified? Yes!
• Does He have flesh and blood to send down to put in the bread and the wine? No!

It's an impossibility!

Verse 23: "And He took the cup and after giving thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank of it. And He said to them, 'This is My blood, the blood of the New Covenant...'" (vs 23-24).

That's why you need to understand about covenants in the Bible. And until you understand about covenants, you're going to be arguing back and forth all the time. Covenant is made and this covenant was sealed with Jesus' death.

Everyone who wants to fiddle around with the Passover, change it to the Lord's Supper, communion, you know, and no one can agree when to have it. The Catholics have it multiple times on Sunday; they have it ever day. Some Protestants have it every Sunday. Some Protestants have it every first Sunday. The Seventh Day Adventists have it the first Sunday of every quarter. Where do you read that in the Bible? Who is going to do what Jesus said? That's the dividing line of the whole thing. And there can be all of these arguments all around, and all sides of it, but what did Jesus say?

"…'This is My blood, the blood of the New Covenant, which is poured out for many'" (v 24).

The next verse gets tricky, too, grape juice fans. If you're in the Mormon Church you have bread and water. You're in jail. 'Oh, well, we can't drink wine, that's evil.' Jesus made what? 180 gallons of wine, (John 2). Finest wine in the world and He was called a winebibber! That's what happens when you pick and choose and have your own ideas and you follow the way of Cain and bring it into the Bible to do what you want to do.

Verse 25: "Truly I say to you, I will not drink again at all of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God."

• When are the grapes juiced? In the fall, right after the harvest!
• Did they have vacuum-pack back then?
• Did they have pasteurization back then?
• Did they have rubber sealed caps on the bottles of grape juice so it could keep until the Passover? No!

'Brother Welch' was not born, yet. But everybody has all these ideas.

So you get out the book, The Day Jesus the Christ Died, and you go through that and follow the parallel columns going through it. Now Jesus gave this as a way of separation. Isn't it interesting that it is the Passover that is the sword of separation. Remember what Jesus said. He said, 'Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword to set at variance against his father, and the father against the son, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law,' etc.

The Passover is what is the sword that does it! If you don't keep the Passover correctly, the way Jesus said, at the time that He commanded, in the manner that He said, and as the Apostle Paul said, 'You're glorying is not good. Don't you know a little leaven leavens the whole lump.' The reason that we keep the Feast is because Jesus was sacrificed for us.

• Are we going to mock the sacrifice of Christ?
• Are we going to bring our own ideas in and tell God that our ideas are better than 'Your plan' before the foundation of the world? No! They don't ask themselves that question.

Then they come up and say, 'All these people cannot be wrong.' Well, if they don't do what God says, how can they be right?

This is a separating point and we'll see it. People saw the miracle of feeding the 5,000 with the bread and the fish. They wanted the free handout. They wanted the manna.

John 6:32: "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.'" He's speaking in a simile to make a point very clear, all the way through!

Verse 33: "For the Bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' Therefore, they said to Him, 'Lord, give this bread to us always.' 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'" (vs 33-35).

• Isn't that what the world is?
• How many people go around, they don't know anything about life?
• How many people go around and they have this gnawing, haunting feeling in their lives?
• Why am I here?
• Where am I going?
• What is life?

They try this and try that, and try the other thing!

Just like the book of Ecclesiastes, make your life an experiment in everything, all the way from austerity to drug addiction to try and find out why you're here. The Bible tells you why you're here and the purpose of life. The Proverb says, 'The fool has delight in finding himself.' What do people say when they're all frustrated? I've got to get away and find myself. Why don't you get away and find God, then you can find yourself. That's the truth of the whole thing. So, He spoke to them in this simile or parable, however you want to call it.

Verse 36: "But as I said to you, you also have seen Me, yet, you do not believe. All whom the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I did not come down from heaven to do My own will, but the will of Him Who sent Me" (vs 36-38).

What are we to do? 'Not everyone who calls Me Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who practices the will of My Father, Who is in heaven.' Are we not required to do the same thing? Yes, indeed!

Verse 39: "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…. [which tells us that there are a lot of false Christians around] …And this is the will of Him Who sent Me: that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in Him…" (vs 39-40).

It has the force of believing in Him, but actually the force of believing into. In other words, your belief goes right into the person of Christ and back to you! That is the substance of God's Spirit that causes that to be.

Verse 40: "'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, 'I AM the Bread that came down from heaven'" (vs 40-41). They were standing there waiting for the manna!

Verse 42: "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'" (vs 42-44).

That's why the Passover is the sword that cuts and separates! You have to answer the call of God. Then what happens? The whole process of being a true Christian then is a relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. Now, when we learn, we're all reading here… I know how it is when I read and study and I learn, BING! Something happens in my mind, and I learn something new.

• How does that happen?
• Why did that happen?

I remember when I was on this Mark 14:12 and I'd been writing about it and praying about it and studying about it, and going over it, going over it, and getting into the Greek and then all of sudden, BING! a light went on! That's God's Spirit teaching you. We're all taught of God! Then I understood exactly when they were slaying the Passover lambs, present tense passive. That's it! That was the key that unlocked an awful lot; likewise here.

Verse 45: "It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught by God.'…." God is the One with His Spirit Who does the teaching!

That's how we learn of God! Not because we have great brains, not because we're scholars, not because we have letters and numbers after our names, or we have the PhDs piled higher and deeper on top of PhDs and all this sort of thing. No! God the Father! Now this also tells us all as ministers and elders:

• What are we to teach? The Word of God!
• How are we to teach it? With the inspiration and Spirit of God so that everyone can learn from the Father!

That's why God gives His Spirit in us, direct connection with God.

"...Therefore, everyone who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes to Me" (v 45).

We can also put it this way, too: You go back before you ever heard anything concerning the Bible, or the Truth of God, or any radio program, or TV program, and think about the one signal event in your life, something happened. BING! You knew that you needed God, whatever that was. I can look back and I know when it happened to me, and all of you can in your life, too. That's what it means right here. You have heard from the Father, He's answered you and shown you that you need God! What do you do? You come to Christ!

Verse 46: "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" (vs 46-47).

You have to take that 'believes in Me,' and put all of the other Scriptures concerning 'believing in Me' and 'obeying Me' and 'doing My word,' and line that all up together, because if you don't do what Jesus says you don't believe in Him. It's that simple.

Verse 48: "I AM the Bread of Life. 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" (vs 48-50).

It's the covenant of eternal life, but it has to be through the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His resurrection in order to receive eternal life.

Verse 51: "I AM the living Bread, which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread, he shall live forever..."

Understand what Jesus is doing here. He is deliberately provoking those Jews to separate them. That's what He's doing. 'Do you really believe?' Someone would say,

Well, I could believe this, but I don't know about that Passover and I don't know about this, what's this Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement. Pentecost, I've got an idea about, but Feast of Tabernacles, Last Great Day? Besides, the church I go to, they don't give anybody a second chance. You either join that church or you're going to hell and burn forever.

Yet, they say God is love. Is that loving? That's why the second resurrection, shall 'live forever!'

"...and the bread that I will give is even My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (v 51).

As He explained in the parable about the grain. The grain does not produce unless it dies first, same thing here. Now notice what happened, did exactly what Jesus wanted to happen. Were they willing to believe in Him or not? Same thing that comes down in our lives: Are we willing to believe Jesus or not?

Verse 52: "Because of this, the Jews were arguing with one another, saying, 'How is He able to give us His flesh to eat?'"

'Let's have a little flesh jerky here.' Is that what it is? No! This is spiritually understood! Then Jesus came back and rubbed it in even more.

Verse 53: "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...'" 

Cannibalism and blood drinking, which God says you shall not do! 'How can this Man be from God if He says that?' Powerful argument! Good way to separate them.

"...you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day" (vs 53-54).

• How do we know that's not the Last Great Day? Because these are converted people who He's talking about if they do eat His flesh and drink His blood, so this has to be the firstfruits!
• When does the resurrection take place?
• What Feast day is that pictured by? Pentecost!
• Is that not the last day of the 50-day count? Yes, it is!

Verse 55: "For My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink…. [He's really digging it in] …The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood is dwelling in Me, and I in him.... [How's that possible? Only through the Holy Spirit of God (John 17)] ...As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so also... [exactly in the same way] …the one who eats Me shall live by Me" (vs 55-57)—by Christ!

That is the New Covenant sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ, sealed with our baptism conjoined into His death. That is our symbolic death connected with His literal death.

Verse 58: "This is the Bread, which came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate manna, and died. The one who eats this bread shall live forever."

Verse 59: "These things He said in the synagogue as He was teaching in Capernaum. Therefore, after hearing these words, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard saying. who is able to hear it?'" (vs 59-60).

He meant it to be hard. He meant it to only be understood and discerned by those that have the Spirit of God.

Verse 61: "But Jesus, knowing that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, 'Does this offend you? What if you shall see the Son of man ascending up where He was before?.... [Did He not do that? Yes, He did!] ...It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life" (vs 61-63).

That's the whole sum of what He's teaching here. This is why the New Covenant. There are many other things that we can add to this as we have in the Passover book and I know for new people the Passover book's pretty heavy reading. It's awfully difficult to understand, 'How did you end up with so many problems that you had to explain?' The reason is, is because of the 'skubalon'truck. Had to get rid of all of that.

The Day Jesus the Christ Died really is the best one to start with first; it'll go through and show. That's the best book to read first. And all of this goes clear back to Abraham. Isn't that amazing?

I think it's good that we talk about the Passover here at this point and get prepared for next spring with it. I know that new people coming along, and we have many new people beginning to come along now. Coming out of the simplicity of Protestantism that they have today, some of the things that we cover are pretty heavy things for them to handle.

I need feedback also so I that I know how to approach some of these things and help answer the questions. But that's the whole key. Remember John 6:57; that's the whole sum total of it, and it goes right back to Gen. 4:7.

John 6:4: "Now the Passover, a Feast of the Jews, was near."

At that time the Passover by the Jews was the 14th and the 15th. Those who kept the domestic Passover kept it on the 14th. Those who kept a temple sacrifice Passover kept it on the 15th. But also, John was letting everyone know—and he talks about the Feast of the Jews, when they're really the Feasts of God—telling us that the Jews weren't doing it right. We need to keep the Christian Passover, absolutely not the Jewish Passover, so in that one statement they are correct, but they don't finish the rest of it finding out what is that Jesus said we should do.

Likewise he says the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles. When Jesus got up to the Feast of Tabernacles He said, 'None of you keep the Law of Moses.' Even though they were keeping the days, were they keeping it the way God wanted? When you go back, you find out the Passover is the Lord's Passover, not the Jews. This tells us a couple of very interesting things right here. But yes, I'm glad you reminded me of that, that's what they do. They say, 'Oh, well, you don't have to do that, it's the Jews.' Of course, not getting into the Bible, or really getting into these things, they never go beyond that.

That's why we have the teaching here concerning the Passover and has to do with Christ. The Passover then is a beginning and what do we do after that? Well, the truth is, especially in this age, God is going to hold us all responsible, because we have the whole Bible! We did not have the whole Bible available to the average common man until the beginning of the Reformation, and only because of William Tyndale. Luther started out, but he turned out to be a Jeroboam, and never finished what he should have done correctly.

William Tyndale was cut short as he was beginning to understand and finish. In his later writings you can see that he was definitely leaning to the Sabbath and the Holy Days. But being alone and translating all of the time the Old Testament, that's what he was doing before he was betrayed by Henry Phillips and then put into Valvarde Prison and he was there eighteen months before he was martyred. He was there busy translating in the prison. Then finally, because of Henry VIII and it was his wife who gave him the book, The Obedience of the Christian Man. That was Ann Boleyn and it was her daughter Elizabeth who eventually became queen.

Henry VIII read The Obedience of the Christian Man and God put it in his mind, 'We're going to cut this thing off with the pope. I'm tired of serving the pope.' And only he could do it. And then he said, 'I want a Bible in every church.' It was the Thomas Matthew Bible, which was William Tyndale's finished work put in every church in England. He said, 'If you don't know how to read, you will provide a reader so that anyone who comes in the church at any time can hear the Word of God.' Isn't that amazing? Now think of what we have today. We've got the whole Bible here, all of it.

• What do we do?
• What happens in the Christian world?
• Are they thankful and grateful?

No! They say,

Oh well, we don't have to read the Old Testament. All of that is done away. The Gospels were just for the Jews, not for us. We'll take Paul, but just the things of grace that Paul has that we like and we believe in Jesus, accept Him. Now we're born again and saved and we're ready for the Kingdom of God.

God's going to have some words to say to those people. Yes! But also reflecting on what it means for us. What are we going to do?

• Once you know the Truth, you can't go back on it.
• Once you understand what is right, you can't throw it away.

It's just like the funeral I had down south. It's amazing that out of suffering God creates character. Jesus suffered. Remember, it said 'He learned obedience by the things that He suffered.' So as I explained, it's like a gold coin, two sides to it. Build the character in physical life and at the resurrection you become the son or daughter of God! Just like as you've heard me say, take a pen, put a pinpoint on a piece of paper and that's what you were when you were conceived. Now look at you. Sometimes we don't like to look at ourselves, because of what we've done to ourselves, but that's the way it goes. That's all a part of repentance and coming to God and that's all of the flesh.

But who would expect if you had a fleck of dust on your Bible and you flipped it off, you just got rid of a human being, let's put it that way. Like a little girl, her mother told her, 'Well, the Bible says dust you are and to dust you shall return.' Really? So the little girl goes upstairs and she looks under her bed, comes down to mommy and says, 'Mommy, come quick and see, there's someone under my bed!' Went up there and there was the dust.

But compare that speck of dust to what you are today and take that same comparison and project that forward to becoming a spirit being, with glory. That will give you a measure of the contrast. {note book: A Speck of Dust, the Son of God, Why Were You Born?

Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 4:7
• 1-Corinthians 7:19
• 1-Corinthians 9:21
• 1-Corinthians 5:1-8
• Mark 14:12-17
• John 13:1-4, 6, 8-9, 12-17
• Mark 14:18-25
• John 6:32-63, 4

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 19; 5
• Leviticus 23
• Matthew 26:17
• Numbers 9
• Exodus 12
• John 14-16; 2; 17

Also referenced:

Sermon Series:

• If Statements in the Bible
• God's Grace and Commandment Keeping

Books: (all found at truthofGod.org)

• The Day Jesus the Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• The Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
• A Speck of Dust, the Son of God, Why Were You Born?
• The Obedience of the Christian Man by William Tyndale

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 9-5-10
Reformatted/Corrected: bo—6/2020