Hallelujah – our Master has RISEN!

(No, I don’t mean Easter!)

Messiah said He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and then be resurrected  (Matthew 12:40).  In the year He died, his death and resurrection schedule matched perfectly the Passover week this year 2013 – IF you’re keeping the non-changed dates. (The Rabbinic Calendar changed God’s holyday dates this year to two days earlier, as they often do many years.) He was placed in the tomb just before sunset on Wednesday night (Luke 23:54) just before the 1st holyday of the days of Unleavened Bread, a “High day” (John 19:31).  You can read about this in Leviticus 23:4-14.  Thursday was the annual holyday High Day this year, also referred to as a sabbath.  So He had to be resurrected just before sunset as well, three days later. That places His resurrection to Saturday just before sunset. So the tomb would be already empty when the women went there before sunrise Sunday morning.  I apologize for using the pagan names of the week, but I want to be clear to all my readers. As I write this, the sun is going down “Saturday” night and my Master has been resurrected as a spirit Son of God!  I’m pretty excited about that.

Of course if you decided to keep the rabbi-changed dates, you will have missed this glorious realization – that 2013 perfectly matches with the year Messiah died and was resurrected.  Sunday March 31, the first of the weeks, is Wavesheaf Day when Christ ascended to His Father and our father, His God and our God (John 20:17) at the precise instant the High Priest was raising the first of the fine barley flour. Don’t miss Wavesheaf Day. THIS year, the pagan Easter holiday coincides perfectly with Wavesheaf Sunday.

Those of you who have come to this website for many years know we don’t keep the pagan holidays but the God-ordained holy days.  Easter is named after Ishtar, the goddess of sex and fertility ---hence the Easter eggs and bunny rabbits. What do eggs and rabbits have to do with the resurrection of Messiah?  Besides, remember that no human witnessed the actual resurrection of Messiah as it happened, and certainly not at dawn. The tomb was already empty by dawn, or as John 20:1 says, it was empty even “while it was yet dark”.

For more about the correct holyday dates, and how this year matches the year Yeshua died – IF you don’t follow the changed dates of the rabbinic calendar, just continue reading. Click “Read more” ….

The correct unchanged dates, based on the sighting of the moon in Jerusalem on March 13, are two days later than the changed rabbinic calendar dates.  Even the full moon was officially March 27, so clearly having Passover day be March 25 was too early.  The first holyday is March 28, not March 26. One can try to reason til the cows come home how man has the right to change His dates, but unless you show me that in scripture, I’m not buying that dangerous argument. Man has changed his holy days, changed His name, and changed the story of how and when our Messiah was really resurrected.

Yehowah told us to meet in a holy convocation on the 15th day after the sighting of the moon, which starts the new month each month.  The 15th day, a holyday in the first Hebrew month, was March 28 in 2013.  April 3 is the last holyday of Unleavened Bread. Those are the dates HE said to meet on.  NO man, no rabbi and no pastor has any business changing HIS appointment times. These are days He is calling us to assemble and meet with Him.  If you missed the first appointment with YHVH, join the growing number of believers who are deciding to obey and keep the holydays on the days Yehowah stipulated. The NEXT HOLYDAY IS APRIL 3, Wednesday – not April 1.  All holydays begin at sundown the night before. Don’t fear any man.  Fear to disobey God. And then pray your pastor comes to see the truth on this and has the courage to preach the truth.

Sunday March 31 will be Wavesheaf Sunday.  Oh how I hate using the pagan names like SUN-day and month of Mars, the war god of the pagans, but I want to be sure you all understand the right date.  Wavesheaf Day is not a holyday, but we should recognize it.  My wife and I usually have a special prayer together before doing our other work on Wavesheaf Day.

Anyway, I just wanted to make the point that if we don’t move His dates, this year is exciting because it copies the timing of the days the year Christ died.

So Yeshua was put into the tomb just before sunset, so He would be resurrected just before sunset three days later! He was resurrected at sundown Saturday night… hence my title: “Hallelujah , Our Master has RISEN!”  The tomb was already empty by Sunday morning, before sunrise. So He was resurrected many hours BEFORE sunrise.  John 20:1 says they found the tomb empty “while it was still dark”.  Luke says “very early in the morning”. Matthew says the day “had began to dawn”.  In any case, the tomb was empty by sunrise.

The important point is that He was RESURRECTED and LIVES TODAY in each of His brothers and sisters who are led by His Spirit. The important thing is that my life must now be HIS life in me.  You and I carnally should have crucified the self and the life we now live is the life of Christ, by faith in Him and using His faith (Gal. 2:20). Our lives are now “hidden in Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3), so Father no longer sees you or me, but His perfect Son. This is the only way – in Christ – that we can come boldly before the throne of grace.

The resurrected Jesus should now be living in you and me.  If He is, we will think and act more and more like Him. If He is not, well – we’re in trouble.  These days are days to remember that after accepting Yeshua as our Savior, we now show that appreciation by fighting sin with everything we’ve got, and mostly we do that by abiding in Yeshua. HE won.  He never sinned. HE wants to win again in you by living HIS life. It’s up to us, however, to LET His mind be in us, to offer ourselves a living sacrifice, to seek Him first and constantly each day.

“Abide in me, and I in you, and you shall bear MUCH fruit”, He promises us in John 15:5. That’s the secret.  When I do that, He in me defeats sin.  When I don’t abide in Him, I’m in trouble. For without Him we can do nothing. Nothing. Our overcoming must be because HE is living in us, and not just our own human efforts.  Even Yeshua said even HE could do nothing of His own power, but He did EVERYTHING by the Father.  If HE says He was spiritually powerless apart from the power of the Father, how can we imagine we can start any day without HIS power.  The rest of John 15:5 says, “…for without Me you can do NOTHING.”  Let’s see what Yeshua said even about his own power if not empowered by the Father.

John 5:19, 30
Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son CAN DO NOTHING of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. 
30 I can of Myself DO NOTHING. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

John 8:28-29
28 Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I DO NOTHING OF MYSELF;  but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. 
29 And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."

This is what the resurrection is ultimately about.  We are forgiven by His death – but saved by His LIFE (Romans 5:10), being lived anew in each of us.

Romans 5:10
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His LIFE.

IF YESHUA could do NOTHING spiritually on His own, why would we EVER think that WE can do spiritual things without a heavy dose of prayer first each day? We can’t!  We can’t! But if we abide in Christ, cling to Him in prayer and constant walks with Him, we will grow and grow and grow.  Maybe after almost 60 years of futility, maybe I might even finally learn this.

What else did Yeshua say?  “What I see Father do—that I do.  I don’t do what I want to do, but what HE wants me to do (I seek the will of the Father who sent me).  I speak His words, not mine.”

Wow, if we could only follow that example more closely, we WILL be putting sin out of our lives and we’ll be happy about doing so! We will be growing, we will be changing.

You see, it’s one thing to SAY that the Christ is resurrected.  It’s far more powerful if people could SEE He still walks the earth, every single day, in the lives of believers like YOU.    So yes, Hallelujah – our Master has risen and is alive.  Come back soon, Master.  We can’t wait to toast you at the great Wedding Supper where you  will once again drink of the fruit of the vine with us, your cleansed brothers and sisters, in the Kingdom of God.