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Amen. Amen. Luke 22, verse number 1, the Bible reads, Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared the people. Now the first thing I want to point out here is about the Passover, and the Bible says the Feast of Unleavened Bread is called the Passover. Now if we go back to where this started, you don't have to turn there, but in Exodus, Chapter 12, this is where God was plaguing the land of Egypt, where the children of Israel had been captives, and the final plague was where he sent the death angel that would go through and kill the firstborn of all the Egyptians, both of man and beast. And in order for that death angel to pass over the children of Israel, they had to go through a process where they killed a lamb, and took of the blood of that lamb, and put it upon the doorpost, and on the side lentils of the doorpost, and if they put the blood on the doorpost, as long as they were inside the house, where the blood was applied, then the death angel would pass over them, and would not kill anyone that was in that house. So everyone who was in that house would be safe. Obviously it's a picture of spiritual salvation, because we have the blood of Jesus Christ that will cause us to be spared wrath, to be spared death, to be saved through his blood. And so that's pictured by the Passover in the Old Testament. Now during that time, they not only would kill the lamb and put the blood on the doorpost, but they would also eat unleavened bread for seven days. So have you ever heard of that Amish type sourdough bread, where you keep making the bread, and it just keeps multiplying, and you just keep feeding it, or those that bake your own bread, like my wife, she bakes bread, and she has this stuff that's called the starter. And the starter is the thing that has the bacteria or the leaven living inside of it, and she constantly has to feed the starter to keep it alive, and then she'll take some of that, and then take some fresh flour and water. Now there are certain bakeries that will say, hey, we've been using the same leaven, we've been using the same starter for 100 years, or 150 years, or whatever, but actually that's not the way the children of Israel were told to do it, because what they had to do was every year get rid of all the old leaven. So everything that was leavened in their house, they had to get rid of it, because for seven days during the Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they weren't supposed to eat any leaven, but not only that, he said they couldn't even have leaven in their house. So it's not like they would just put it away somewhere and not eat it, they had to discard it and get rid of it completely to where no leaven would be found in any of their dwellings, and then what would they have to do? They would have to start with a new leaven, okay, after the seven days were over, the 14th to the 21st of the first month was that period. So it was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they ate unleavened bread, and then after that they would start a new leaven. And the way that you start it is, and people still do this today, but most people they just buy one that's already started, but what you do is you take a jar and you put flour and water and you put like a cloth over it or something and you put it outside in plants and let bacteria come in. It's pretty interesting, actually. You know, we're so far removed from that because we just buy it at the store, but I actually watched a video about how to make your own starter for baking your own sourdough bread, and it just showed them just putting this jar like out in the bushes, and then every day they would come in and feed it and everything, and after like a week they had the starter. And the people that you buy it from, the people that we bought ours from, that's what they did, because they were the ones who made the video. So it's pretty interesting when you think about that. So the leaven pictures sin, okay, and the unleavened bread pictures Christ because Christ was totally without sin, and he said, I'm the bread of life. And so when he broke the bread on the Passover, he said, this is my body which is broken for you. So the unleavened bread pictured the body of Jesus Christ. And then they would also drink, the Bible says, of the fruit of the vine, and that pictured the blood of Christ. He said, this cup is a New Testament in my blood, and this do you as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And so if you think about it, the fruit of the vine, and it mentions it here in this passage that he's not going to drink of the fruit of the vine until he drinks it new in the kingdom of God. If you would jump down, I'm getting a little bit out of order here, but if you jump down to verse number 20, it says, likewise also the cup after supper, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. And just a few verses before that, it says in verse 18, for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. Now what's funny is that people make a big deal about this when it comes to the subject of alcohol, whether or not we should drink alcohol, what they say is, well you know Jesus drank wine, and I've even heard people say, so you know, do you baptist, do you do communion with real wine, you know the real stuff, or you do it with grape juice, you know, and they mock when you say, hey, the wine in the Bible is just fruit juice, it's not even always grape juice, it's often other fruits, okay, but people are ignorant of that, they're ignorant of the older language, but right here, it doesn't even use the word wine. In fact, if you look up all of the passages that have to do with the Last Supper, because they're like, you think that he drank fruit juice at the Last Supper, well the answer is yes, he did, and the proof is that he doesn't even call it wine, what does he call it? The fruit of the vine. So the emphasis is on the fact that it's what? Fruit juice. It's the fruit of the vine that they're drinking. I heard somebody say recently, well, you know, we know that all the wine in the Bible is alcoholic because back then they didn't have the technology for fresh fruit juice. That's what people say. I mean, look, I've heard that at least 20 times, where they say, well back then they couldn't preserve it, so it was all alcoholic. Well, here's my question, what about when they first juiced it? Was it alcoholic then? Why would you have to preserve it before you drink it? What about when it was squeezed right into Pharaoh's cup? He squeezed it into his cup, and he, wait, wait, wait, gotta ferment this, no. They drank of the fruit of the vine, it's fruit juice. Now often the Bible, when it talks about wine, is referring to that which is fermented, and that's why the Bible tells us that there's a specific type of wine that we should not look upon, that we should not indulge in. Don't look on the wine when it's red, when it's given its color in the cup. But here's what's so ridiculous, the thing that makes wine alcoholic is yeast. On the outside of the grape there's all that white film, and that white film is yeast on the outside of the grape, on the skin, and so if God is saying, no leaven in all of your dwellings, get out all the leaven, then why would they drink a drink during that time fermented with yeast, what's leaven? Yeast. So if you're not supposed to have any yeast in the bread, why would you have yeast in the drink? It doesn't make any sense, okay. And not only that, but if the yeast pictures sin, if the leaven is a picture of sin, well, if we know the body of Christ was sinless, wouldn't the blood of Christ need to be sinless as well? So it's really a ridiculous doctrine that would drink an alcoholic beverage as communion of the blood of Christ and as a way to celebrate the Lord's Supper. That seems like something that would be served at the table of devils, not of the Lord, because the Bible talks about wine that is the poison of dragons in Deuteronomy chapter 32. So anyway, that's what they would do here at the Passover, and that's what this passage is talking about. Now let me just clear up a few things about this. First of all, keep your finger here and go to Acts chapter 12, Acts chapter number 12. In Acts chapter 12, and you know, we're going to get into Luke 22, but first I just want to sort of lay a foundation about what the Passover is and point out some things that are there in Luke 22. Now in Acts chapter 12, there's a verse that's sort of a controversial verse with a lot of people because of the fact that the King James translates this verse differently than all of the modern versions do. All of the modern versions say Passover, and the King James is the only modern version that says Easter. And so a lot of people, they freak out about this. Look if you would at Acts chapter 12 verse 1, it says, Now about the time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, and he killed James the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. So the King James only crowd will normally tell you, oh, well, this is supposed to be Easter not Passover because it's this other holiday called Easter, some pagan holiday called Easter. That's what the King James crowd will normally tell you. And then the anti-King James crowd will say, hey, the King James is just dead wrong because it's supposed to say Passover because if you look it up in a Greek New Testament, it's the same word that everywhere else in the Bible is translated Passover, Passover, Passover, Passover. This one time, the King James translates it as Easter, and they say it's a translation error on the part of the King James. So those are the two sides that you hear. Well, here's the deal. Both sides are wrong. Now let me say this. I don't think I'm right about this. I know for a fact that I'm right about this, and I have concrete proof that I'm right about this, but the sad thing is you can show people just concrete proof of something, and sometimes they just refuse to acknowledge it. Now, and I'm not just saying that to be puffed up, like I know everything. The point is, though, there are certain things that are gray areas. There's certain things that are matters of opinion. There are certain things where you can kind of see both sides, but then there are other things where it's just black and white, rights right and wrongs right. And this is one of those things where the reason why both sides are wrong on this is just they have ignorance of the history and of the English language here. Now, we as King James Bible-believing Christians, we already know the King James is right, because that's already what we believe going in. And you say, well, you know, you just start with that? Yeah, that's where we start. Because this is the Bible where we got saved. This is what we believed in when we called upon Jesus Christ as our Savior. This is the book that God's been using to turn the world upside down for the last 400 years. So we don't join the Bible of the Month Club, and we are not interested in what the new versions have. So that viewpoint that this is an error, that's not even an option to us. But the problem is the King James crowd has got this goofy explanation that they got from Sam Gipp, who's an imbecile, okay, who's like a functioning moron, okay. And so, because he's so, so then he got everybody on this thing of, oh, yeah, Easter is this other pagan holiday. And then the Judaizers come in and start telling you how Easter is pagan, and we got to celebrate the Passover and all this stuff, okay. But look, here's the proof right here. I've got hard evidence here. And if you'll pay attention carefully and just think for the next few moments, you'll see that there's really no doubt about this. And you say, well, what is it? Is it Easter or Passover? It's both because Easter means Passover. It's that simple. Because the King James crowd says, well, the King James is right to say Easter, and all these other versions are wrong because it's a different holiday. It's not the Passover. Here's the problem with that mentality, is that the Greek New Testament, from which the King James is translated, uses the word for the Passover. Not only that, every language in the world says Passover in Acts chapter 12, verse 4. So you're going to tell me that every Bible in every language in the whole world, including Greek, is all wrong, Germans got it wrong, Spanish got it. Every Bible in the whole world is wrong, it's just this other pagan holiday. That's a pretty dumb argument. That's pretty dumb logic. But here's the proof. This right here is William Tyndale's New Testament, the 1534 edition. So this is a Bible that comes before the King James, right? Now look, this book is not a perfect book because it was translated by one guy, and he was on the run for his life. But this was the rough draft for the King James. William Tyndale was the first guy to translate the New Testament into modern English, and then over the next hundred years, a little less than a hundred years, it was perfected. You know, other men came in and worked it over. And then finally the King James translators, 54 of these brilliant scholars, spent seven years just going over it with a fine-tooth comb, and they perfected it, what we know today as the King James Bible. But this was the rough draft. But what I want to show you is that the word Easter used to mean Passover, which is why this book uses the word Easter tons of times. Tons of times. In fact, let me just read this for you. You flip over, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. First Corinthians chapter 5 is the famous Passover where it talks about how Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. Let me read for you from the Tyndale New Testament, the rough draft of the King James. No one would argue with that, okay? Listen to this. We're going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, about halfway down the chapter. Your rejoicing is not good. You're reading the King James. Everybody there in your King James Bible? Okay, I'm going to read for you from William Tyndale's 1534 New Testament. Your rejoicing is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven soureth the lump of dough? Purge therefore the old leaven that ye may be new dough, as ye are sweet bread. For Christ our Easter lamb is offered up for us. Did you hear that? Christ our Easter lamb is offered up for us. So right here, where your Bible says Passover, this says Easter lamb. Now, did you know that William Tyndale is the one who invented the word Passover? There was no word Passover in the English language. So when William Tyndale came along, the word for Passover in English was Easter. That was the only word for Passover. There was no such word as Passover. There was just Easter. So William Tyndale invented the word Passover, and he used it back in Exodus, when he was translating Exodus. But because most people didn't know that word, most people knew the word Easter, he didn't want to just fill it with a word that people didn't know. So in most places, he kept the word that people knew, Easter. That's what they used back in the 1400s, the 1500s. That was their word for Passover. But when he came out with his New Testament, and he came out with Moses' books, that word Passover that he invented started to catch on. And so as you look at the Bibles that came out before the King James, Bibles like the Matthew Bible, the Great Bible, the Bishop's Bible, they use Easter less and less, and they use Passover more and more as we get close to the King James. And the Bible that came right before the King James was called the Bishop's Bible. It uses the word Easter twice. So Tyndale used it like 22 times, and then it keeps getting less and less until the Bishop's Bible uses it twice. The King James Bible only uses it once. So how can you deny that the word Easter means Passover, when in this book it's used like 20-some times as the Passover? That's concrete evidence right there that that's what that word means. It's pretty clear. Now when you point this out to people, go back to Acts 12 if you would, when you point this out to people, they'll say to you, well no, it can't be the Passover. So what they're saying is Greek New Testament's wrong, every Bible in the whole world and every other language is all wrong, it's a pagan holiday. And here's what they say. They claim the Days of Unleavened Bread come after the Passover, so that's why this can't be the Passover. Because they claim that there's the Passover, then there's the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and since Acts 12 takes place during the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Passover already happened, so the new versions are wrong. But look if you would at Acts 12-3, it says, and because he saw it please the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the Days of Unleavened Bread, and when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. So they're saying, well if Easter comes after Unleavened Bread, it can't be the Passover. Wrong. Because Easter and the Days of Unleavened Bread are the same thing. Now people who have this mixed up, they'll tell you that the Bible never calls the Passover the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or it never calls the Feast of Unleavened Bread the Passover, it never mixes up those two things. Okay, well what did we start with in Luke 22 verse 1? Because the first verse of the chapter says this, because you're like, where are you going with this? Are we in Luke 22? Look at Luke 22 verse 1. Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a seven day period, the whole thing is called the Passover, because it's a seven day feast to commemorate the Lord passing over, it starts on the 14th, it ends on the 21st, and that Feast of Unleavened Bread is collectively known as the Passover, okay? Now that makes Acts 12 make perfect sense because it says that Herod the King killed James the brother of John, and when he did that he saw that it pleased the Jews. So he decides, you know what, I want to do something else that pleases the Jews, I like making Jews happy, so I'm not just going to kill James, I'm going to kill Peter too, right? That's what he's thinking. Because a lot of people said, well why would Herod, you know, celebrate the Passover, he's a pagan. No, Herod's trying to please the Jews, of course he's going to follow their holiday. Look what it says, then were the days of unleavened bread, and when he had apprehended him he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. If we let the Bible define itself here, Easter is referring to the days of unleavened bread. He's saying, look, it's the days of unleavened bread, and so after Easter he's going to bring him forth to the people and kill them. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Pretty easy to understand if we just read it unbiased that Easter and days of unleavened bread are the same thing. Okay, so that's why you could either call it Passover or Easter, because those two words mean the exact same thing. One is the old word, and one is the new word. Now why did the King James keep Easter in this one place? You know, why didn't they just change it all to Passover? Well who cares, if they both mean the same thing, they both mean the same thing, number one. But number two, I think part of the reason is because this verse is clearly referring to the whole week, and so because by saying Passover maybe it would have confused people like Sam Gipp, he got confused anyway, but it could have confused them into coming up with, well how could that be if Passover is the 14th and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the 15th? No, no, no, it's the whole week. So I think he's using Easter because we tend to associate the word Easter with the whole feast, the whole week, the whole thing. But either way, it's vain jangling is what it is. The new versions are out to lunch to criticize the King James just for using an older word, but they do that all the time because they think all the language in the King James is archaic, right? And then the King James crowd is out to lunch trying to say it's a pagan holiday. The Bible's not referencing a pagan holiday, it's referencing the Days of Unleavened Bread because there's a guy trying to please Jews. So he doesn't want to kill their enemy during their precious holiday, so he decides to wait until after their holiday is complete. I mean, if you have a question about that, come see me after the service, but it's pretty clear, okay? And actually don't see me after the service if you have a question about it because this is probably just over your head and you should just move on and just not let it bother you. Because if you don't explain, if you don't understand what I just explained, you're probably not going to understand it after the service either. So back to Luke chapter 22 verse 1, it says the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew nigh which is called the Passover. Now you say that's a rabbit trail you went on. It kind of comes into play though for understanding this chapter when we understand that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is not a single day event. It's a big event that takes a whole week from the 14th to the 21st of the first month. Why does that matter? Well, because there's another discrepancy that people get hung up on in this chapter which is the question of did Jesus Christ die on the Passover or did he die on the day before the Passover? Now I've even had atheists throw this at me and say, hey, this is a big contradiction in the Bible because part of the Bible says it was on the Passover and part of it says he was before the Passover. Who's ever had that brought up to you or you've heard about that discrepancy there? Yeah, people will bring that up and try to confuse you and so forth. Well, let's dig into this and see if we can figure out the truth about it with all that in mind. It says the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him for they feared the people. So they want to kill Jesus, but they can't just grab him in the middle of daylight and arrest him because they think a big crowd will kind of jump in and stop him from being apprehended. Verse 3, then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve selves. This is what we know as demon possession when a demon or a devil enters into someone and controls them, but this is Satan himself actually possessing Judas, which is unique in the Bible, by the way. You know, I believe that probably just Judas and the Antichrist would be the only people that we know of being personally possessed by Satan himself. And he went his way and communed with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him unto them. And they were glad and covenanted to give him money, and he promised and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. Verse 7, then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat. And they said unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where he entered in. And ye shall say unto the good men of the house, the master saith unto thee, where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he shall show you a large upper room furnished there may great. So this is a miracle where Jesus tells the disciples to prepare for the Passover, and he just tells them, look, when you go into the city, a man's going to meet you that's carrying a pitcher of water. How does he know that? This guy's just going to be walking by with a pitcher. He just said, follow that guy. Follow the guy with the pitcher of water. And when you follow him, he's going to lead you to a house, and you just walk into that house and just say, all right, where's the room where we can eat the Passover? And it's just going to be the right house. And the guy's going to have a room furnished and ready to go, and that's where you're going to prepare. Of course, this is a miracle where Jesus knows the future, and he's already foreordained a special place where he's going to eat that Last Supper with the disciples. So they get there, and they find everything. Verse 13, they went and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down in the 12 apostles with them. And he said unto them, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So if we just read this passage alone, this is where the confusion comes in. People will read this, and they'll get the idea that Jesus is celebrating the Passover the day before he's crucified. Right? Why? Because it says in verse number 7, then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. And then in verse 13, it says, they went and found as he said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down in the 12 apostles with them and said, hey, I really wanted to eat this Passover with you. So basically, this is where if you just read this chapter alone, you'd walk away thinking, okay, he's crucified the day after the Passover. But the problem is when we study the rest of the Bible, we see that that is not the case. Okay? Go if you would to the book of John. And this is why we need to compare scripture with scripture to make sure that we understand things properly. We don't want to ever just take one scripture and just form a conclusion without comparing it with the rest of scripture. Make sure that it all lines up and that it all makes sense. Because certain things in the Bible are unclear. And so we should always use the most clear scripture to interpret the unclear, right? So if we have a couple of scriptures that appear to be in conflict, the first thing we should always do when there's a supposed contradiction is to figure out, okay, which of these is the most clear? Which is the one that there's no way I'm misunderstanding it? That there's no other way to interpret it? Start there and then figure out, okay, so how can the other one make sense in light of the one that we know is right? Okay? So you go into it with that attitude, then it starts to make sense. So John is actually the clearest scripture on this. Go to John chapter 19, verse 14. John chapter 19, verse 14 says this, and it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour and he saith unto the Jews, behold your king. But they cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. So Jesus is being crucified according to this on the preparation of the Passover. So not on the Passover itself, but on the preparation of the Passover, right? According to John 19, 14. Flip over if you would to verse 31. The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, watch this, for that Sabbath day was a high day, meaning a holiday, meaning it's the Passover day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So we see here that when it says Sabbath day, it's not talking about Saturday or the seventh day, it's talking about the high day, the holiday, because Sabbath means rest. And on the Passover, they're supposed to rest. In fact, the whole seven day feast of unleavened bread, they're not supposed to do any work. They're supposed to be resting during that time. Look at verse 42, there laid they, Jesus therefore, because of the Jews preparation day for the sepulcher was nigh at hand. So we have three times here in the book of John where it says it's the preparation before the Passover. And then it says, hey, we got to get these bodies off the cross before the Passover feast. So we want to make sure that that's taken care of so that we can rest and follow the protocol for the Passover. And then at the end, it says again that it was the Jews preparation day. So it's pretty crystal clear in John chapter 19 that Jesus Christ died on the day before, where he's being whipped and scourged on that preparation day before. So he died right as it's becoming the Passover, right, because he is the Passover. Okay, now go back if you would to Mark chapter number 14, Mark chapter number 14. And in Mark chapter 14, it says in verse 12, and the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him, where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? So again, this is like Luke where it makes it sound like the day of preparations the day before. So did Jesus eat the Passover with his disciples before he's crucified? Or is he crucified right as the Passover is about to start? So it's like a one-day discrepancy here that people are not understanding. But look if you would at Mark chapter 15, verse 42. Mark 15, 42 says this, and now when the even was come, because it was the preparation that is the day before the Sabbath, and then it talks about them taking Jesus off the cross and putting him in the tomb. So it uses that term preparation. Go back to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27 says this in verse 60. Matthew 27, this is when Jesus' body is taken off the cross, it says, and laid it in his own tomb, verse 60, which he had hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulcher. Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate. The next day, after Jesus died on the cross, it says the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate. So the day after Jesus was crucified is the day after the preparation. Got that? I know this is a lot to take in, but just think about it this way. Matthew says the day after Jesus crucified is the day after the preparation. Mark says that Jesus crucified on the preparation day. John says Jesus crucified on the preparation of the Passover, the day before the Passover. So consistently, actually in all four Gospels, there's mention made that Jesus crucified on the day before or the preparation day of the Passover. So why is this other verse in Luke, go back to Luke 22 now with that in mind, why is this other verse there saying in verse 7 of Matthew 22, then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed. Okay, that makes it sound like Jesus is feasting the important. Now here's my theory on this and I don't think that this is really that important because the bottom line is we know the Bible is true. We know it doesn't contradict. We know that Christ is our Passover. John 19 made it crystal clear that he was crucified the day before the Passover which makes sense because if he's the Passover, it makes sense he would die at that moment that God ordained on the 14th day of the first month because he's our Passover that died for us. My theory about why this preparation day seems to go even earlier here and why it says that that's the day that the Passover lamb should be killed is that if you think about the Jews' history, did they ever follow God's law the way he told them to ever? So I think the reason why there's a contradiction and why there's confusion is because I don't think the Jews were following what God told them to do. That's the simplest and easiest explanation because you'd expect it all to be clean and all to line up. You got the preparation, you got the Passover, you expect it to all follow and then there wouldn't be any confusion but I think the confusion's coming from man, not God. God's not the author of confusion. So I think when God is saying, hey, this is the Passover, this is the preparation day, you know, he knows his calendar, he knows when they're supposed to be doing what they're supposed to be doing and he's getting it right and I think man is getting it wrong. Now why would it surprise us that the Jews get it wrong? When they do everything wrong, if we study our Bibles, we find that they never followed God's law the way it was meant to be written and not only that, how did they normally get it wrong? They usually went too overboard or too strict with things, okay? Let me give you some examples. They went overboard on the Sabbath. You know, they didn't even want the disciples to even pluck an ear of corn and eat it when Christ said that they were not violating the Sabbath by doing that so they were too strict on the Sabbath. Okay, how about this? God said they could only give someone 40 stripes, so what did they do? Let's make it 39, okay? They went overboard with it, right? How about this? God said not to take the Lord's name in vain. So then they took it a step further and said, we're just never even going to say his name. And even today, Jews will put a hyphen, have you seen this, where they put G hyphen D? Mark it down. Every time you see someone write G-D or L-R-D, that is a Jew that's doing that because they have this warped understanding where they take everything too far. God said don't take it in vain. They're like, well, just to be safe, we're just never going to speak it. And that's why they call God Hashem, which means the name. So they don't even say the name. They just say the name, right? Who's heard that term before, Hashem? Yeah. That's what they say. It doesn't make any sense, right? They do everything overboard, too strict, okay, instead of just following what God told them to do. So if God told them, hey, don't have any leaven in your house from the 14th to the 21st, you know what? I'll bet you they're probably getting that leaven out on the 20th. I'm sorry, not the 20th. Good night. The 13th. I'm still getting over my cold, so I'm a little cloudy tonight. Bear with me. If He told them, hey, you better not have any leaven in your dwelling from the 14th to the 21st, don't you think knowing what we know about how they make up their own rules and how they do things different than the way God told them, would it really surprise you if they got rid of the leaven on the 13th just to be safe? Let's just get it out on the 12th just to be safe. Let's just get rid of it on the 10th. I mean, who knows what they're doing? Not only that, but if you study the Bible on the Passover, they were supposed to all come together to kill the Passover, right? He said the whole congregation of the children of Israel come together, and everybody brings their lamb, and you kill all the lambs. You kill all of them. Now, that'd be a pretty big deal. Can you imagine millions of people coming together, right, and just, I mean, how many lambs would they bring? Millions of thousands of lambs, over 100,000 lambs, because one per household or sometimes a few households would combine to have one lamb to eat that. So what they were supposed to do, though, was everybody comes together, and we slaughter all the lambs together as a nation. Okay, now, where do you ever see them doing it that way in the New Testament? You know, when you see the New Testament, we see them following a guy with a water pot and going here and there. We see the Jews preparing this and preparing that. But where is there any record of the Jews coming together and slaughtering 100,000 lambs? I guarantee you they weren't doing it, because I'm telling you, they didn't obey anything that God told them to do in the law. I guarantee you they're probably slaughtering the lambs by themselves and not doing it as a group, okay? And would it shock you if they're slaughtering them on the 13th instead of the 14th just to get ready? Because we don't want to work on this. I mean, how can we bring all these lambs together and slaughter them at even if there's 10,000 of them, if there's 100,000 of them? We're not going to get done in time. We're not going to be able to rest. So they use their own understanding instead of just doing what God told them to do. They're going to use their own understanding and say, hey, if we're going to get all these lambs killed, we better start that on the 13th. We better start that on the 12th. Hey, if we're going to make sure we have no leaven in the house, let's get it out on the 12th. Let's get it out on the 13th. That wouldn't surprise me at all. So probably when the Bible says here, the day came of unleavened bread, verse 7, when the Passover must be killed, that could have been a different day for them. That might have been the 13th. That could have been the 12th itself, okay? And again, I don't want to keep going on about it. But that makes more sense to just think that they're not following the tradition properly since we have evidence of them perverting about 10 other traditions than to say that the Bible has a contradiction in it, especially since all four gospels are consistently saying that he died on the preparation day. It's not like they forgot what they just wrote one chapter ago, and then one chapter later they're saying it different. Obviously they're trying to reconcile what man in his sinful condition is doing with the Jews' traditions versus what God had actually ordained in his word. But I think God turned that around and used it for good because they were mixed up on the timing. That allowed Christ to be able to die at the exact right hour, in the exact place, and for the whole congregation to be there like they were supposed to, shouting, crucify Him, and so forth. So let's jump back into the chapter here. It says in verse number 15, with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, Luke 22, verse 16, for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Again, there's no mention of them eating any lamb or anything like that. All they're eating is just the unleavened bread and drinking of the fruit of the vine because He Himself will be the lamb. He's the Lamb of God. He's the sacrifice. Verse 17, He took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And He took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you, this due in remembrance of Me, likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in My blood which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of Him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed. Now, that's a pretty interesting verse because what he's saying there in verse number 22 is, yes, it's God's plan that Christ be crucified. It's God's plan that He die for the sins of the whole world, but woe unto the guy who fulfills that plan by killing him. I've heard some people try to make this weird argument when you tell them that the Jews killed Jesus. Oh, well, yeah, but that's what they were supposed to be doing. In fact, John Hagee wrote a book about this called In Defense of Israel. And his book, In Defense of Israel, he said, will shake Christian theology because it shows that Jesus did not even come to be the Messiah. And of course, that's blasphemy and that makes him an antichrist for saying that. But if you actually look at what he says in the book, he says, well, the Jews did the right thing by killing Jesus because they're supposed to kill the Passover. Jesus is the Passover. They killed him. Why are we mad at them? Woe unto them is what the Bible says. See, we get into weird doctrine when we start using our own logic and our own rationale instead of just going with what the Bible says. So we have to just by faith believe the Bible. The Bible tells us right here that the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, it says at the beginning of verse 22. So let me ask you this. Is this a foreordained plan that Christ is going to die? Yeah, it was planned by whom? God himself made this plan. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. So Christ has a plan where he's going to go and lay down his life for the sins of mankind. Okay. But it says, woe unto that man by whom he's betrayed. So even though Judas is fulfilling scripture by betraying him, even though the Jews are fulfilling scripture by yelling, crucify him, by rejecting him, and Jesus said, hey, it's already determined that he must be rejected of this generation, just because of that, we don't want to make some logical leap and say, oh, well, that's what they were supposed to be doing because it was all part of God's plan. Wrong. We need to be able to balance these two ideas. Yeah, the Son of Man goeth as it was determined, but woe unto him that betrayed him, woe unto them that crucified him, woe unto them. He said, look, Jesus Christ, it says in the Book of Acts, was delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God. But then it says, you took him with wicked hands and crucified him. So they're still held accountable for their wickedness in killing the Lord Jesus. Just because it was God's plan does not exonerate them. Okay. They're guilty of that. And you know, this is where Calvinism gets stupid is where they just, they start using all this logic instead of following what the Bible said, what the Bible says, not to lean on your own understanding, just trust in the Lord with all your heart. The whole cornerstone of Calvinism is a thing called limited atonement, where the Calvinist teaches that Jesus did not die for everybody. And here's what they say, well, if Jesus died for everybody's sins, and that would mean everybody's saved, wrong. The Bible tells us that Jesus died for everybody's sins. And the Bible tells us that everybody's not saved. End of story. The Bible says Jesus died for everybody. The Bible says that everybody's not going to heaven. That's all I need. I'm done. I'm done here. Limited atonement is wrong. But the Calvinist, he's like, well, but, you know, can, can, can two people pay for the same sin? If Jesus paid for it, can you pay for it yourself? So therefore he didn't die for us. Look, just shut up, no. He died. He tasted death for every man. He died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He's the savior of all men, especially of those that believe, meaning he's even the savior of those who don't believe. Well, wouldn't that make them saved? No. No, it doesn't. Well, why not? Because the Bible said it doesn't. These people, they think they're so smart, but professing themselves to be wise, they end up becoming fools. You know, when you think you're smarter than God, you know, well, you know, I figured it out how Jesus didn't really die for everybody if you actually use logic. No, actually, God decides what logic is, and God said he died for everybody, but he said that if you don't believe, you're going to hell. So if that's two people paying for the same sin, well, call it whatever you want. Double jeopardy. You know, the Bill of Rights wasn't written back then, so double jeopardy doesn't matter. But this man's logic gives us Calvinism. Just turn scripture upside down that says he died for everybody because it doesn't fit their logic. And then John Hagee turns the Bible upside down and says, hey, killing Jesus was a good thing to do. When the Bible said they were betrayers and murderers that killed Jesus, right? So don't get sucked into using man's logic. You got to just read the Bible and believe it. The same thing goes for this supposed contradiction of, hey, did he die on the past? I mean, I had somebody say, well, I don't believe the Bible in a college classroom because the Bible is filled with contradictions. And the only contradiction they could think of was, well, one gospel said it's on the preparation day and the other one said he died on the Passover. You know, here's the thing. That's why you're not going to believe the Bible, huh? That one thing. But I guarantee you that if you were to just have the perfect answer to clear that up for the atheist, he'll just have another reason why he doesn't believe the Bible. Because at the end of the day, if the Bible says right here, hey, he died on the preparation of the Passover, we just believe it. And then if we find another scripture that says, hey, this was a first day of a feast of unleavened bread where they're going to kill the Passover, we just say, okay, that's what the Jews did. You know, I'm not, I'm not going to worry too much about it. I'm not going to try to use logic and feel like, I have to reconcile all this or I'm just, I don't know, my head's going to explode. You know, it doesn't really affect the price of tea in China, right? So we need to get it in the habit of just reading the Bible and believing it. You say, well, that's blind faith. Well, call it whatever you want. It's the way I live my life, walking by faith, not by sight, right? Believing the Bible. So he says the son of man go with as it was determined, but woe unto that man by whom he's betrayed verse 23, they began to inquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing. And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. So they're like, well, you know, while we're talking about who's the worst, you know, while we're on that subject, who's the greatest, who's the best one. And he said unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. And they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors, but ye shall not be so, but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. And he that is chief as he that does serve for weather is greater. He that sit at that meet or he that serveth is not he that sit at that meet, but I am among you as he that serveth year. They would have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom as my father appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the 12 tribes of Israel. You know, the Bible says here in verse 25 that the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. And they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. What's a benefactor? Someone who does good unto you, someone who benefits you, right? Somebody who helps you. Isn't that the world we live in today where the, the Lords of our nation, the governors and the presidents are, are thought of as benefactors, right? Of what, what, what wonderful things they've done for us and how much Trump has done for us and how much Barack Obama did for us and how much George Bush did for us, right? So the people who exercise lordship, the people who are in authority over us are seen as benefactors. And we're talking about a government context, right? Because they're the ones who gave us all the welfare and the food stamps and the Obama phone and they gave us healthcare and they gave us unemployment benefits and they gave it, you know, they're seen as benefactors. But the Bible is saying it shouldn't be so among you, okay? Don't lift up those people as your heroes. The people that are great among you should be people who actually serve, not the people who rule over you, okay? The people who rule over us are not godly people. They're not benefactors unto us. They're benefactors to themselves. They're benefactors to their own million dollar bank accounts and their own egos and their own pride. But the Bible says that among us, we should not be authoritarian like that, exercising lordship or exercising dominion over one another, but rather we should seek to serve one another and to defer unto one another. So obviously as a pastor, as the leader, this is an important scripture to me because it tells me that I should not lead like the world leads. I shouldn't lead like Donald Trump or Barack Obama or George Bush would lead, you know, where I'm basically just lining my own pockets and I've got a mansion over the hilltop and I've got five houses and I own a ranch over here and I own a couple summer homes over here and I own the jet back here and the limousine over here, right? And that's what a lot of pastors do. They fleece the flock. They exercise lordship over the flock and then they're called a great benefactor, you know, the Kenneth Copeland, who's a multimillionaire, maybe even a billionaire, it's possible if you see the evidence on that. Guys like Joel Osteen and all these people, you know, they just, they're just in it for themselves, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, money hungry, right? And God's saying, look, the call to be a preacher, because he's talking to the apostles who are preachers, he's saying it's about being a servant. It's about service. It's about doing what's best for the flock, not being like a fat cat government politician. So as preachers, we need to make sure that we don't get too prideful or puffed up or arrogant and a lot of preachers get this way where they think that they're better than everybody else. They think that they need to live in luxury all the time. And they, you know, they start sending on notes ahead and like, let's say they're going to go preach somewhere. It's like, all right, you better have the limo there to pick me up. You better put me up in the four-star, five-star hotel. You know, you better be feeding me a filet mignon. I better get a fat love offering. I want a fruit basket in the hotel room. And you know what? Those who literally, I'm talking independent fundamental Baptists who literally send a list on ahead of, you must prepare all these things for me. This is the lodging that you'll prepare. This is the food that you'll prepare. This is the, you know, I don't want a church member to pick me up. I want, you know, you to pick me up as the pastor or a limousine, but I will not be picked up by Joe church member. You know, I'm not going to sit in the back seat or whatever. So you know, this is an attitude that a lot of preachers get where they get too big for their britches. Prideful, arrogant, puffed up, self-serving, and you want to know what the ultimate manifestation of this is. The ultimate manifestation of this is where they think that they're too good for their wife. So they divorce their wife and marry someone else because now they're a big shot pastor now, right? And this happens all the time. And you know, I did, I preached against a guy, Greg Locke, who's a big guy on Facebook and everything with, with, and the guy is just so puffed up and arrogant and prideful and full of himself. He's the most narcissistic possible preacher. And he says, you know, how, uh, I've got this great platform, I've got this great audience. And so, you know, the curse of that is my visibility. Now everybody's holding me accountable for divorcing my wife and dating the secretary. You know, most people, they think that a great, a great platform or great opportunity comes with great responsibility. Isn't that normally how that sentence would end? Yeah, it comes with the curse of visibility. Well, why are you trying to be invisible, buddy? I'm not trying to be invisible. I'm not trying to hide my family or something because you know what? My wife and I are going to stay married until death. And if my wife leaves me for any reason, or if I get divorced for any reason, I will immediately step down as pastor, mark my words. And if I can, if my wife divorces me or I divorce my wife, either one, it doesn't matter. Cause either way I have failed to lead my home. And if I can't rule my home, I can't rule the house of God. You have permission to kill me if I continue to pastor after my wife and I are divorced. You have my permission to kill me, okay? Because I will never do that. Hell would freeze over before I would do that, okay? Because it's wrong, period. And it's not a little wrong, it's a lot wrong, okay? If my wife leaves me, I will step down as pastor. Now my wife's not going to leave me. My wife loves me. I love her. We have a great marriage. Everything's great. But these pastors now, it's, it's happening. It's not one guy. It's not just Greg Locke. I hear about it all the time now. I hear about it all the time. Yeah, I visited a church and the pastor's going through a divorce right now and he's dating the next person and he just keeps pastoring. Like nothing else. I'll tell you why. It's exactly what the movie stars do. When the movie stars are young, they get married, right? Then they become a big star and all of a sudden their wife's not good enough for them anymore. And now all of a sudden what do they do? Oh, I'm hanging around with supermodels and actresses now, right? And then they trade up for that and then they realize that that's not what it was cracked up to be. And then they're onto the third spouse and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. The point is that that's what these pastors do. You know, look at Greg Locke back when he got married, he was a total dweeb, right? He looks like a complete dweeb. He's still a dweeb, but in his mind he's just so cool now because he's wearing all his fancy like game show host suits and he wears all his like televangelist suits now. He's got all his tailored little suits so we can, you know, see his little faggoty form fitting clothing. And so now all of a sudden he's all hip and cool. You think it's a coincidence that he just got big on Facebook within the last two years and within the last two years all of a sudden he's divorcing his wife now? That's just a coincidence, right? Funny how when he wasn't the big star on Facebook, funny how he wasn't divorcing his wife or being divorced by his wife because of whatever the sordid reason. But the bottom line is that as leaders, and I'm not just talking about myself here because there are a lot of men here that are training to be pastors. There are a lot of men who are going to be pastors. Look, you better stay humble and not get puffed up. What does that look like? You know what that means? It means, number one, you dress in a humble way. You don't put on a bunch of fancy Italian suits. Made in America is fine. Made in Cambodia is fine for you, buddy. Made in Thailand is just fine. You need some Armani Italian suit. Why are pastors looking like game show hosts? They that wear soft clothing are in king's houses. Put on a rough garment like John the Baptist. Put on durable clothes. Those Italian suits, if you did a day of soul-willing, you might ruin the suit. It's too thin. It's too fragile. Right? It's too soft. The silky ties and the silky handkerchief. Look, dress like men in durable, humble clothing. Modest apparel. Cheap clothing. Cheap, durable clothing is what a pastor should dress like. What does that look like? It means you stay with the woman who married you when you were a little dweeb. If she was good enough for you back then, she's good enough for you now, Mr. Hot Shot Big Shot. And the guy, he's so puffed up in his own mind, he's like a legend in his own mind. He literally said, he's like, man, there's been a firestorm in the media about my divorce. I couldn't even find one media outlet covering his divorce. There were three blogs. Three blogs. No CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN. There was not a single channel. Not even one TV station, radio station, or newspaper that was covering it. And he's like, oh, man, the media has just picked this up and run with it. And the media is just, I'm in a firestorm. I mean, do you know what a firestorm is? A firestorm is back when they would bomb cities. In World War II, they would bomb cities like when they firebombed like Hamburg and Dresden and everything. And when they would bomb these cities, the fire would be sucking so much air, because the fire uses air, that it would start creating this wind and tornado from just the raging flames and inferno from just thousands of tons of bombs being dropped on a city. And it just turned it into a firestorm. Okay. But three blogs, three blogs said, hey, it looks like Greg Locke divorced his wife and is dating the secretary. And he's just like, oh, man, the media. He's just like, you don't know what it's like to have a camera in your face all the time. I'm thinking like, the only camera in your face is the one that you turned on and you're talking to right now. That's the only camera in your face. What TV station has interviewed you? What newspaper? Now, they did in the past when he, you know, when he stood up to Target, you know, they came and interviewed him for that. Big bold stance there. But it's just funny. He literally said, the media is lying about me. Boy, the media is out to destroy me. It's a firestorm. Look, does he really believe that? Probably because he's delusional and he literally just thinks that he's just this, I mean, all eyes are on him right now. But this is what pastors often do when their ministry starts growing or maybe they start getting an online presence, maybe they start getting a big YouTube channel or a big Facebook channel or just big physical church, you know, following, it could go to their head where they start thinking, you know, that they're too good for their wife, I'm too good for my clothing, right? Too good for normal food and drink, too good to just be a normal person, to drive a normal car or to walk or to ride a bike. These guys get too puffed up and too full of themselves. We need to stay as a servant all the time. And so you guys that want to be a pastor someday, be humble, wear normal clothes, stay with your wife till death do us part and don't let any kind of prestige or fame go to your head. Because look, when you're a pastor, people are gonna lift you up because you're a leader and that's normal. And you gotta make sure that you better realize that you're a sinful man and that you're a human being and that you are not something special, okay? And you know, you gotta keep your feet on the ground because a lot of people are gonna compliment you and tell you how great you are. You have to remember, I'm not that great, right? What did Jesus teach us here? And I'm gonna close on this point, but what did Jesus teach us here? He said, look, don't let it be so among you, these that exercise lordship that are the benefactors. He said, I don't want you to serve like the president serves, like the governor serves, like the mayor serves. No, I want you to serve like I've served, he says. You know, here I am serving you. I'm serving you food. I'm washing your feet. Let him, he said, be as the younger. He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. That means, you know, be willing to sit in the back seat. Be willing to go to the back of the line. Be willing to let other people go first. Be willing to submit to other people and not be just always demanding to be, all right, I'm here now, I'm the center of attention now. Now, obviously, the pastor has to lead and rule and lay down the law and make sure that the church goes the right direction, you know, and he has to make decisions and so forth, but he needs to do it in a humble, down to earth way and do it as a servant, do it for other people's benefit, not do it just for his own benefit, right? And it says, weather is greater, he that sitteth at mead or he that serveth is not he that sitteth at mead. That's what the world will tell you, right? But I am among you as he that serveth and he says, I'm the greatest that there is. I'm the son of God. I'm the example and I'm a servant. So we believe in servant leadership, right? The pastor is a minister or servant and should not be dressing like royalty, right? Robes and a crown on his head, like the Pope or something, should not be dressing and acting like a prima donna or royalty, right? Just be a normal person. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and Lord, we thank you for setting us the example of being the ultimate servant and for washing the disciples feet and serving the food and being a perfect leader in every way, Lord, help me as a pastor to stay humble, help me never to become like the servant of Satan, Greg Locke, who teaches people wickedness and haughtiness and arrogance in his clothing, in his lack of fidelity to his spouse, Lord, help us to be lovers of good men and help us to follow pastors who show us how to be a servant, Lord. Help us to listen to humble men of God teach us, Lord, and I pray that out of our church many young men who want to pastor some day, Lord, I pray that if any of them have a desire to become a pastor for their own glory, that Lord, you would just stop them from becoming a pastor. You would just hinder them and cause them to fail, Lord, and I just pray that only those who are doing it for the right reason would ever be sent out of Faithful Word Baptist Church that would want to have a servant's heart and want to actually serve people and serve you, Lord, and, Lord, there are things in the Bible that are hard for us to understand that sometimes we get confused about dates and times and places, Lord, help us to just accept those things by faith and try to understand them the best we can, Lord, but never to doubt you because of what man confuses us with, Lord, and we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.