A NEW HEART, coming alive – by DAY 18

Its significance to Passover, Wavesheaf and the resurrection

As you all know, I’m pro-life. So are our God and Father and our Savior.  Yeshua came that we might have LIFE.  There’s a culture of death in much of the world today, and that is not of God.  This sermon is designed for THOUGHT – whether you keep Passover in March as some are doing, or in April, as most will do this year (2016).  Your decision is between you and your Maker and the most important thing of all is that we know we have a Savior who died on Passover day – and then had an empty tomb by the “first of the weeks” as it should be, and it was also the first of the week (what society calls Sunday, unfortunately).

I’ve noticed billboards here in FL that are targeted at young pregnant moms-to-be by having a picture of a fetus and the billboard that kindly says: “by day 18 I have a beating heart”.  SO this new life in the mom’s womb is a new life with its own heartbeat by day 18.

That got me thinking.  Could this day 18 have any significance to the Passover death and then the resurrection of our Savior?  As I drove along the interstate, I started counting the days when Christ died and was resurrected and it was astonishing. I think it’s worth repeating to you.

I’ve written a blog before about how the holydays seem to coincide with the development of a pregnancy, a new life, if you will.  As we come to Passover season, I hope this gives some pause for thought.  I admit I’m not sure if there is a strong correlation, but I couldn’t help but wonder when I saw the bill board.  Let me know what you think! Or am I all wet in this blog? 

Day 14 of the Hebrew first month Abib (or Aviv) is Passover day.  ON this day, at 3 pm, the Lamb of God -- Yeshua – shed his life blood for you and me.  He was buried at the end of that day. He was put into the tomb (or “heart of the earth”) at the very end of Passover day as the sun was setting.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were rushing to have the burial/entombment done before the sun set and before the holyday of Passover week would begin. The Preparation Day for the “HIGH day”, an “annual sabbath” or holyday (not the regular weekly sabbath) was about to start (John 19:31, 42). 

Remember Hebrew days begin at sundown.  

Yeshua himself said that the one proof or sign that he was whom he said he was: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”  (Matthew 12:40).

Click on “Continue Reading” to discover how the thought-provoking billboard in Florida has a connection or similarity with Christ’s resurrection! 

Yeshua didn’t mean he’d be interred for parts of three days. He meant 72 hours – 3 full days and 3 full nights.  Most of Christianity tries to fit 72 hours somehow into a Friday night burial and a Sunday morning resurrection. It can’t be done.  Nor does it say anywhere in scripture that Christ was resurrected on Sunday morning.  The tomb was empty by Sunday morning. By very early morning, while it was still dark on the first day of the week (or first of the weeks, as it is properly in the Greek), the tomb was already empty (John 20:1-2).   So God the Father had resurrected His Son some time BEFORE early on the first day of the week.  No human actually witnessed the exact moment Yeshua came back to life – but the Roman soldiers might have gotten close!

So from the end of day 14 of the first month of the Hebrew calendar (usually Mar-April), when Christ was placed in the tomb to the end of day 15 = day 1 after his death

** End of day 15 to end of day 16 of Hebrew calendar = day 2 in the tomb

** End of Day 16- to end of day 17 of Hebrew calendar = Day 3 in the tomb

If he was in the “heart of the earth” starting just before sundown end of day 14, then he would be resurrected at the end of Day 3 of burial – Which was Day 17, just seconds before Day 18 began.   Remember again, Hebrew days begin at sundown.  And as Day 18 began, at sundown – Yeshua’s “heart” began to beat again, or more accurately, he came to LIFE again – BY day 18, just seconds or minutes before. BY day 18, like the billboard says, there’s a beating heart in the fetus.  Yeshua was resurrected to a new spirit body so I hope you get my point.  I’m not referring to a fleshly heart but to the fact of new life.   

We believe in the year Christ took the wrath for all our sins and died for each and every one of us who will accept him, that Passover day was a Wednesday afternoon as he hung on the cross. Thursday – day 1 after he died, was a “High Day” –as it was the first day of Unleavened Bread, a holyday.  Friday would be day 2 after died.  Sabbath would be day 3. For Yeshua to fulfill his promise, he would be in the tomb until the last split second of Sabbath. 

At the end of the 17^th of Aviv, and beginning of the 18^th, at sundown – he was resurrected.  The very next second, at the end of the 17^th and beginning of the 18^th of the first month, as the sun dipped below the horizon – Yeshua was alive again!  He had a “beating heart”, if you will!  ON DAY 18!!! 

I couldn’t help but think of that billboard in Florida stating than an embryo’s heart starts to beat on day 18.  New life.  Was this just coincidence, or is there something here? You tell me. I realize some can criticize this and say the fetus is “alive” already days 1-17, but the beating heart removes all question.  

BY that early morning of the first of the weeks, or even first of the week (Sunday), the tomb was already empty,  as the women who went to the tomb discovered.  They went early in the morning, while it was still dark – before sunrise according to John 20 --  so that means he had been resurrected at some point before that.  Read John 20:1.  Matthew 28:1 says the day had begun to dawn.  Luke 24:1 says it was “very early in the morning”.  Only Mark 16:2 says they came when the sun had risen.  So putting these all together, we know it was early. And we know by the time the women got there, the tomb was empty.  The resurrection had already taken place. Christ was already risen! 

NOW… isn’t it interesting that a human embryo has a heart that begins to beat, showing it is truly alive, a NEW LIFE – on the 18^th day of its existence.  Jesus Christ, our Master and Savior, brought new life to all who accept him, on the 18^th day of the first Hebrew month. 

Also on this 18^th day was when He was raised to heaven to be accepted by our Father as the first of the barley harvest – the Wavesheaf offering – to be accepted “for the rest of the harvest”.  God Almighty the Father in Heaven had accepted his life in exchange for all of ours, and now all who would believe on the Lord Yeshua/Jesus could be offered eternal life IN HIM.  BY HIM.  Because of Him.  It’s all about HIM. 

God is in the business of reclaiming His sons and daughters who have all been kidnapped by the evil prince of darkness and death – Satan.  For now, Satan is the “god of this age”. But his days are numbered now. It won’t be long now, when we will see the Son of God returning in glory to take over the kingdoms of this world.  It begins with Yeshua taking the wrath we incurred for our sins, being crucified for us, and then being resurrected to glory and power and new life three days and 3 nights later. 

By Day 18, the human heart starts beating.  God knew this all along – that that was His plan. The physical was once again pointing to the spiritual. Amen.  

Yeshua the Messiah.  Jesus the anointed – the Christ.   He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, of all who will accept Him.  We are forgiven in Him.  He is our Life. He, Yeshua,  is our everything!

To YOU, Your majesty, the Son of God, Yeshua our King, our Savior and our Lord and Master – we give total honor, glory, our submission, our obedience, our loyalty and our complete gratitude.  Amen. 

And to you our dearest Abba, our Heavenly Father and Daddy in heaven, we thank you so much that you made a way possible by giving up your eternal companion and Son to live and die and be resurrected for us, that we might have life in Him.  You are the best, Abba. You are our God Most High.  You are the best!  Hallelu YAH!