Habakkuk 1:5 Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. -LORD God
The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration. —Edwin Louis Cole
God’s grand plan for all of creation boils down to one thing: reconciliation. From the moment of mankind’s “fall,” we as humans have been on a journey carrying us further and further away from truth as we continue to indulge in the idol worship of self. At the same time, God’s love, though sometimes seemingly nonexistent, has pursued the human heart for generations, culminating in the most incredible act of grace we call the Crucifixion.
It was on a cross that the most innocent of men bore the punishment that should have belonged to all of us. There has never been any act more unfair or more unjust than Jesus becoming a sacrifice for every amount of evil we could conceive. If God never did another thing for humanity, we would still have to recognize this deeply passionate gift of love. Yet His acts of love didn’t end on the cross.
God’s deep desire to be reconciled to His children motivates all He does. Second Corinthians 5:20 (NLT) says, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.” We are Christ’s ambassadors. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” Our expressions of love and kindness help reconcile a lost, hurting world to a loving Father who is eager to heal broken hearts.
As I share my own story of reconciliation, have hope. God can reconcile relationships. Where it is impossible to reconcile the relationship, He can reconcile our emotions and give us peace and contentment.
Jesus had just found out His friend Lazarus was sick and purposely waited 2 more days before responding to the call by Lazarus’s sisters to come and heal him. He waited so that Lazarus would surely die before He got there and the glory of God could be revealed in Him, proving that God sent Him and that He was the resurrection and the life. People would place their trust in Jesus, and the Father would receive glory through Him.
Jesus said He was going to wake Lazarus up because he was
asleep. Waking from sleep for a believer is a metaphor for rising from the dead
to a new life. That is for someone who goes to sleep having put their faith in
Christ. Only those who die “in Christ” get to participate in this new creation
life.
Those who have this new life also have a light residing within them that the rest of the world doesn’t have. It’s a transforming and informing light. This light is the glory of Father for anyone who is positioned “in Christ”. This “in Christ” position gives us the power of the throne of glory. Because we are sons of glory.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” (John 1:12)
“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-7)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Faith in God is everything! Maybe because we lose faith in others, it makes us question our faith in God. We must have faith that He’s hearing our prayers. We must have faith that He will guide us. We must have faith in His timing. All God truly wants is complete faith from us. That faith will change your life.
2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
We all know what happened to Jesus’s body after He died on the cross. He was taken off of the cross. The body was prepared and buried in a rich man’s tomb. What about the soul and spirit? Where did the Spirit of Christ go? Luke 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last. See also Matthew 27:50, John 19:30.
The Greek word for “commit” is paratithemi. Per Strong’s Concordance: to place beside or near or set before; to deposit; to entrust or commit to one’s charge.
Jesus trusted the Father to place His Spirit near Him. The Father is in Heaven per the Lord’s Prayer.
One of the men on his cross next to Jesus believed He was the Messiah. Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross next to him verify His destination. Luke 23:43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
The Greek for “Paradise” is paradeisos. Per Strong’s Concordance paradeisos means: a garden, pleasure ground; Heaven; the part of Hades which was thought by the later Jews to be the abode of the souls of pious until the resurrection; the upper regions of the heavens. According to the early church Fathers, the paradise in which our first parents dwelt before the fall still exists, either on the earth or in the heavens, but above and beyond the world.
1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
Note, Jesus’ Spirit remains alive and does not see death at the cross.
The Apostle Peter notes Christ visited “spirits” or “pneuma” in the Greek after His physical death. The “spirits” could refer to fallen angels and/or dead humanity. Peter discusses both parties in his epistles. These “spirits” are in prison (phulake in the Greek: of the place where captives are kept, a prison, a guarding).
With the resurrection of Christ, Psalm 16:10 was fulfilled. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. Jesus did not stay in Sheol/Hades (see Ephesians 8-10). He was resurrected on the third day. Acts 2:31 he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.
Currently He is alive in a resurrected body at the right hand of the God the Father in Heaven. Hebrews 10:12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD…
Romans 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Ephesians 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…
For other references of Jesus at the right hand of the Father: Acts 7:55-56; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 3:21; Matthew 22:44; Acts 2:33.
Today, with Jesus at the right hand of the Father, what happens to believers in Christ when they experience bodily death? Where do the soul and spirit go? 2 Corinthians 5:8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
Home is in Heaven with the Father and Son.
Revelation 1:18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. –Jesus
The second of God’s holidays is Unleavened Bread or Chag haMatazt in the Hebrew. The holiday begins on the 15th of Nisan and runs for seven days.
The directions for Unleavened Bread are noted in Exodus 12:15-20. The focus of the week is to live a life without leaven, the symbol for sin. Leaven is not to be in the house. Leaven products are not to be consumed. Bread without yeast, matzah, is to be eaten.
Scripture is clear God’s appointed Unleavened Bread took place on the Sabbath. Luke 23:56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Matthew 27:62-66 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.
The religious leaders’ actions indicate the days of the week these events took place. Now on the next day, the day after the preparation… “The next day” is the day after the crucifixion. We know Jesus died on Friday, the day before the current day of the verse. That next day is Saturday or the Sabbath. The Pharisees were concerned with the apostles or followers of Jesus stealing His body. The Pharisees understood Jesus was talking about a resurrection of His dead body. They knew Jesus was calling for a resurrection on the third day, Sunday. The Pharisees wanted a guard at the tomb to stop any hoax. In the end, they provided eyewitnesses and verification of Jesus’ resurrection.
Because Unleavened Bread took place on the Sabbath or Saturday, Passover was on Friday. First Fruits was on Sunday.
Leaven is a symbol of sin. Jesus lived a life without sin (leaven). 2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus is the unleavened bread.
He is the bread of life. John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
Jesus was buried and in the grave on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a Sabbath or Saturday.
There are seven God appointed holidays communicated through the Old Testament Law. The first four were fulfilled to the day by Jesus Himself. If the first four spring holidays were fulfilled on the God appointed holiday, why would the fall holidays be any different?
Jesus is the Passover Lamb. 1 Peter 1:19-21 …but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Jesus was crucified on the Feast of Passover.
Jesus is the unleavened bread. He is the bread of life. John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. Leaven is a symbol of sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Jesus was buried on the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Jesus is the first fruits, the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Jesus was resurrected on the Feast of First Fruits.
Jesus promised and delivered the Holy Spirit. John 14:16-17 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. That promise was kept on the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 2).
The God appointed fall holidays are the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Above is a brief 10 minute video found on YouTube that provides a framework of the fall God appointed holidays.
