Remembering Good Friday

The crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, dramatically and clearly, sets Christianity apart from every other religion in the world. No other prophet or founder of any religion ever gave his life purely for the sake of sinners - not Buddha, not Confucius, not Muhammad, not any of the 230,000 gods of Hinduism. No one else has ever risen from the grave, demonstrating for all time that HE, Jesus, has Power, even over death.

"It is Finished." John 19:30
"Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit." Luke 23:46

On that 1st Palm Sunday, as Christ made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowds had started gathering, even in Bethany, for a glimpse of this Rabbi from Galilee, as well as to gaze on the man, Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They shouted and sang as they lined the roadsides. They threw down their garments on the roadway to cushion his ride (an Oriental custom that is still observed on some occasions today) as well as palm fronds, the symbol of triumph.

The crowd hailed Him like a prince about to become a King, or a politician promising them the world. They hadn't understood what Jesus was talking about when He told them, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself."

But perhaps these words may have still been fresh in their minds on Friday, when they saw Him lifted up - nailed to a Cross like the worst of criminals. Jesus Christ became a public spectacle, complete with a mocking sign that proclaimed Him "King of the Jews" in three languages: Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

And so, as we reach this Good Friday, we hear the last of Christ's 7 cries from the cross: "It is finished" and "Father, into Your Hands I commit My Spirit."

Luke's Gospel tells us a little of the context of those 2 final cries of our Savior from the Cross. Luke tells us that, "It was now about the 6th hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the 9th hour (12PM - 3:00PM), because the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father, into Your Hands I commit My Spirit.' Having said this, He breathed His last."

When we compare the Gospel accounts, it brings us to the conclusion that these words, "It is finished," were said "with a loud voice". The 'voice' was the "Shout of a Conqueror", of One who has fought through a long and terrible day, but greets Victory as evening is drawing nigh.

"It is finished": the Death of Jesus Christ on Calvary's Cross Redeemed us from the curse of the law and cancelled out our debt to God with sin by nailing it to the Cross. The Word of God tells us in Galatians: "Christ Redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us - for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'".

The Love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over all sinful humanity. God is not content to show Wrath, no matter how Holy He is. Therefore, God Sends His Own Son to absorb His Wrath and Bear the curse for all who trust Him. "In this is Love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and Sent His Son to be the Propitiation for our sins." "Propitiation" refers to the removal of God's Wrath by providing a substitute. The "substitute" is provided by God Himself. And, our substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the Wrath; He absorbs it, and diverts it from us to Himself. God's Wrath is just, and it was Poured Out on His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, after the great darkness had fallen over the whole land until the 9th hour, the sun being darkened, and the veil of the temple torn in two from top to bottom, Jesus cried out with a lour voice, "Father, into Your Hands I commit my Spirit."

"It was Finished!" for Christ Jesus had purchased our salvation by His willing sacrifice. Through the shedding of His Blood He had purchased a World's Redemption. He had, in the words of F.B. Meyer, "wrought out and brought in a perfect salvation. Sin was put away. It is Finished!"

Jesus said to His Disciples at the instituting of the Lord's Supper, "This is My Blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many." God's Word speaks of an Old Covenant" and a "New Covenant." In the bible the Covenants God makes with man are initiated by God Himself. He sets the terms. (His Obligations are determined by His Own Purposes).

The "Old Covenant" was the arrangement God established with Israel in the Mosaic Law (ca. 1400 B.C.), and we know its weakness was that it was not accompanied by Spiritual Transformation. It was written with letters on stone, not with the Spirit on the heart. Then, the prophets began to write, (especially Jeremiah) promising a "New Covenant" that would be different. It would be "not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." When Jesus Christ said from the Cross, "It is finished," the "New Covenant" came into effect: The blood of Jesus purchased the Power and the Promises of the "New Covenant." This "New Covenant" is radically more effective than the "Old one", for it is enacted on the foundation of Jesus' Suffering and Death. The Word of God in Hebrews says, "He, (Jesus), is the Mediator of a "New Covenant." And so, the "New Covenant" is supremely effective, because Christ died to make it so.

The prophet, Jeremiah, describes some of the terms of the "New Covenant" which Christ secured for us by His Blood: "I will make a new Covenant…this is the Covenant that I will make…I will put my Law within them, and I will write it on their hearts….For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. 31: 31-34)

Jesus' Suffering and His Death guarantees the inner change of His people (the law written on their/your hearts), and the forgiveness of their sins. God's Word in Ephesians tells us, "When we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ." (Eph. 2:5) This is the Spiritual Life that enables us to see, and to believe, in the Glory of Christ, and it is sure and certain because Christ bought it with His Own Blood.

And, what is also guaranteed is not just the inner change of Christ's People, but the securing of our Faithfulness. Jeremiah tells us in the very next chapter, "I will make with them an everlasting Covenant…I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me." (Jer. 32:40) When Christ said "It is finished" and "Father, into Your Hands I commit My Spirit" and died, He secured for His People, for us, not only new hearts, but new security. He will not let you (me) turn from Him. He will keep us, for He Promises that "no one will snatch them out of My Hand. My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's Hand. I and the Father are One." (John 10: 28-30) We will persevere, for the Blood of the New Covenant guarantees it.

"It is Finished": Christ had completed the perfect Obedience. He alone, of all born of woman, was able to say that there was nothing which the Father had asked that He had not Given; nothing that the Father had Imposed that He had not gladly borne. Christ, in obedience, had Finished the Work Given Him to Do.

For we who are Christians, Saved by His Blood alone, there is application: The same Spirit which Lived and Ruled in Christ's life lives and must rule in our lives, also. The chief priests, the scribes, and elders were mocking Him: "Come down from the Cross and save Yourself," they said to Jesus. But Jesus had no place in His Mission, His Program, for the saving of Himself. You remember, one of the last things He said as He was going up to Jerusalem to die, was, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life Eternal." (John 12: 24,25) Jesus used this illustration to show the necessity of His Death, and it explains why He calmly breathed out His Life on the Cross in the face of the taunting "rabble" below. And so, I think that this same principle must control our lives if we are to meet the Divine Standard as to what life is really meant to be for we who call ourselves Christians, Followers of Christ, indeed, "Christ's People".

Christ's whole existence, all the way from Heaven to earth and back again by way of Calvary was a continual Outpouring of Himself for the sake of others. And, He says, "If any man wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Mark 8:34).

Illustration: (Wm. Henry Biederwolf) It was about 100 years ago in Liverpool, England. A great building was on fire. Flames were leaping from every quarter, from floor to floor, and dense smoke was blackening the sky above. Then suddenly, two men appeared in the top story of the building at one of the windows. Ladder after ladder was brought, but they all fell short, and the longest ladder was too short by almost a full story. The crowd below waited in breathless suspense, while the men high above stared down with pale and ghastly faces into what seemed their certain death.

Then a man past 50, but brave and strong, stepped out from the crowd. Taking one of the shorter ladders in his hand, he climbed to the top of the tallest ladder leaning against the building, and raising the short ladder above him on his shoulders, he steadied it with his hands and securing his place as best he could, he cried out from his strained position: "Men, come down over me, come down over me." And as the crowd below sent up cheer after cheer, down over the first ladder the two men came and over the body of the man who held it, and on in safety to the ground….Then, their Savior sank backwards, exhausted from his dizzy height and work, and fell - crushed and bleeding and broken, and dying - at their feet.

This is the meaning, the significance of the Cross….."It is finished"…for you, and for me. We are freed to love like Christ, even the stranger, even our "enemies", even at the cost of our lives. "It is finished": the devil may kill our body, but he can no longer kill our soul. It is safe in Christ - and our mortal body will be raised some day. "He Who Raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11) Because Jesus could say on the Cross, "It is finished" this Completion of the Perfect Obedience, we are the freest of all people. And the Bible is unmistakable in what this freedom is for: "You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, but instead, through love serve one another." (Gal. 5:13)

Prayer: Our Heavenly Father, we pray that our lives would be more like Thy Son Jesus' Life, that our lives would even be an interpretation of the Cross. Help us to see ever more clearly that we "have been crucified with Christ and that we no longer live, but that Thy Son, Jesus Christ, lives in us, and that the life we live in the body, we live by Faith in the Son of God, Who Loves us, and Gave Himself for us." Help us to die forever unto self, and to live forever unto Jesus, Thy Son. We pray this in Christ's Name, the Name above all other names. Amen.

First let me give you a little crutch you can use so you won’t get all the calendars confused. The year zero really doesn’t exist. It’s just used to make calculations. The zero concept comes from the Gregorian calendar of 1752AD. This fictitious year 0 Gregorian, corresponds to -1 Julian which corresponds to 3760 Hebrew. If you are reading material that is dated before 1752, then it is most probably a Julian date. If you want to convert it to Gregorian, just add 1. Best to use a calendar converter, however, because before zero Gregorian, the calendars don’t track the same. I use Fourmilab converter and it’s a free download.

I am very positive it was the year 30 AD. I will give you many Biblical reasons why I believe that to be so. You must promise me however, that you will forget, at least for the duration of this study, anything you have ever been taught about this subject. If not, you will be very confused because traditional teachings don’t agree with the Bible and instead twist it’s meaning. Let’s proceed.

First, Easter is not the original name. the original biblcal name is Passover. I’m not going to go into where the name Easter comes from. Let’s call it by it’s proper name Passover. Passover can in turn have several connotations. It can mean the day the lamb was killed, or it can mean the passover meal, or maybe even Passover week. The passover lamb was sacrificed on a date, which does not always fall on a Friday. The Hebrew date is the 14th of Nisan.

Exo 12:6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

Now if you go to a calendar converter and convert 14 Nisan to 26AD Julian, 27 Ad, etc. to 33AD Julian, you will find that the only year that falls on a Friday is 14 Nisan 3793 (3 April 33 AD). For several Biblical reasons that I will present, it is not possible that the actual day was a Friday. First reason is that Herod died before the year zero (which is equivilant to -1 Julian). The year zero does not exist since there was not a calendar for that year. The year zero ia a by-product of the current

Gregorian calendar which originated much later around 1759 AD. The point is that Yeshua had to be born before Herod’s death. My studies place Herod’s death in -4 Julian. Most historians always place his death before zero or -1 Julian. Now we have one major point that makes a Friday crucifixion doubtful. Let’s continue to the next point.

If we look at:

Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

If Yeshua died on a Friday, then he would have told a lie in the above verse. And we know Yeshua can not lie. The maximum is 2 days and 2 nights with a Friday Crucifixion. Let’s continue.

If you go to Matt 28:1; Mark 16:1,2; and many others, you will see the phrase “first day of the week”. The first day of the week is Sunday. Everyone agrees with this concept. I don’t. Before the Authorized version of the 1611 King James was
written, the two original sources were the Casiodoro de Reina version (of 1569) and
another called the Ciprano de Valera (1602). Those two original versions, which now form the King James, both say “first of the Sabbaths” and not “first day of the week” as was changed and now appears in the King James and all other current day translations. The “first sabbath” means the first weekly 7th day sabbath during the count of the Omer. There are 7 weekly sabbaths before Pentecost. Some King James versions say in Luke 6:1 “… second sabbath after
the first ….” which correlates perfectly with all other ancient texts concerning the counting of these weekly sabbaths until Pentecost. The original Greek says the same. The Latin Vulgate (400 AD) says “primam Sabati” which means the same, first of the Sabbaths.. The original (not the translation) and most ancient (200 AD) Aramaic Pashita says the same. Check all these out for yourself on the Internet or a local Bible store. With this in mind, if we go back 3 days and 3 nights from Saturday (Sabbath) we get to a Wednesday Crucifixion. Now we go back to our calendar converter and find a Wednesday crucifixion is possible on 14 Nisan 3790 (5 Apr 30 AD Julian). Now if we go back 33 years, his age, from 30 AD, we arrive at his birth in -5 Julian. This is in accord with the later death of Herod in -4 Julian. Let’s continue.

Assuming that 30 AD was the year of his death, then three and one half years prior to his death, in 26 AD was his annointment. This was also the 15th year of Tiberius (Luk 3:1) Y’hshua was 30 years of age. This annointing of Messiah fulfilled the end of the “seven and sixty two” weeks or 69 weeks (literal 483 years) of the 70 weeks in the 490 year prophecy (Dan 9 :24-27). Note in verse 27 “in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,”. Not only was it the year 30AD in the middle (26 to 33) of the last and final 70th week. But it was also a Wednesday which falls in the middle of a literal week. Let’s continue.

All Jews currently celebrate Pentecost on 6 Sivan. It is a date. Not a day of the week. The first Pentecost was when Moses received the 10 commandments on Mt. Sinai. If you go back 50 days from 6 Sivan in 30 AD you arrive at the first day of the 50 day count which was 16 Nisan 30 AD. That day was a Friday. The day before the 15th a Thursday. It was a High Sabbath, the Feast of Unleavened Bread when they ate the Passover meal after sunset (keep in mind that a 24 hour day begins at sunset) . Yeshua died 3 or 4 hours before on Wednesday, 14 Nisan and was buried (Lk 23:54) just before sunset at which time begins the 15th High Sabbath feast day, a day of rest.

Joh 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their…

Let’s continue.

The second temple was destroyed in 70 AD. We read: the Talmud records the following in Yoma 39b:

“During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-coloured strap become white; nor did the westernmost light [of the Menorah] shine; and the doors of the Hekal [Sanctuary] would open by themselves, until R. Johanan b. Zakkai rebuked them, saying: Hekal, Hekal, why wilt thou be the alarmer thyself? [meaning: predict thy own destruction] I know about thee that thou wilt be destroyed, for Zechariah ben Ido has already prophesied concerning thee: Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.”
Yeshua was crucified on the Passover before this began to happen. The Encyclopedia Judaica states that Yeshua was crucified in 30 AD.

http://www.yashanet.com/library/temple/temples.htm

Let’s continue:

As mentioned earlier, the 6th of Sivan is Pentecost on the Hebrew calendar. In the year of Yeshua’s crucifixion, 30 AD, Pentecost was on a Friday. The Holy Spirit appeared early that morning just before 9 AM

Act 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

Yeshua had been with the apostles the previous 40 days.

Act 1:3
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Regressing from the day before Pentecost, that being the day he ascended (5th Sivan), we count back 5 days, plus 29 days for Iyar, plus another 6 days back inclusive from the 30th of Nisan, brings us to 25th Nisan as the 1st day, of the 40 days, when he arrived. The question arises “Where was he prior to the 25th of Nisan”? The answer is for 8 days he was in the heavenly sanctuary preparing for his priesthood.

Lev 8:33 And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you.
Lev 9:1 And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel;
Lev 9:4 Also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD; and a meat offering mingled with oil: for to day the LORD will appear unto you.
Heb 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Still regressing, we count 8 days back from the 25th (inclusive, since that is the day he appeared), and that brings us to the Sunday (18th ), just after sundown of the First Sabbath (7th day weekly Sabbath). That Sunday was the 1st day of the 8 days of his absence on earth.

John 20:26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

Regressing still 2 more days from the 18th and we arrive to the 16th. The is the day of the wave sheaf offering which is the 1st day of the counting of the Omer until the 50th day of Pentecost.

Fits like socks on a rooster.

Most people believe Yeshua died on a Friday in 33AD. That Friday was on 3 Apr and corresponds perfectly with the Hebrew date 14 Nisan 3793 which is the killing of the passover lamb. At first glance, all seems to fit. However, we come across a big stumblingblock if we go back 50 days from the 6th of Sivan, the actual Hebrew date of Pentecost.

Let’s continue.

(16June -6 Julian) (30Sivan3755) Elizabeth conceives John the Baptist

See:
http://www.hebroots.org/hebrootsarchive/9710/7Feasts.html http://www.yourarmstoisrael.org/Articles_new/articles/index.php?page=born_on_sukkot&type=10)

(6Dec. -6) (25 Kislev 3756 (Chanukah - Festival of Lights)) Mary conceives
Luke 1:26 “...sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent...” Note: This means
the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. John 8:12 “...I am the light of
the world...” John 12:46 “ I am come a light into the world....”

Blessings in your search for TRUTH

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Remembering Good Friday

By Stephen Alexander