It All Hinges on the Resurrection
If there was no resurrection of Yeshua, there is no blessed hope for us and evangelism is useless.
1 Corinthians 15:12-19 LSV And if Christ is preached, that He has risen out of the dead, how do certain among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (13) And if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ risen; (14) and if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is void, and your faith is also void, (15) and we are also found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified of God that He raised up the Christ, whom He did not raise if then dead persons do not rise; (16) for if dead persons do not rise, neither has Christ risen, (17) and if Christ has not risen, your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins; (18) then, also, those having fallen asleep in Christ perished; (19) if we only have hope in Christ in this life, we are to be most pitied of all men.
Yeshua, the Messiah was the Passover Lamb of humanity as foretold in the Exodus of the Hebrew Nation from Egyptian captivity. The first miracle of Moses was to turn the river into blood, and the first miracle of Yeshua in the Gospel of John was to turn the water into wine at the wedding banquet. These two events of history are inextricably linked. To save their firstborn sons from being killed, YHWH ordered that every Jewish household in Egypt put the blood of the slain Passover Lamb, their first and best lamb, on the doorposts and lintel across the doorposts. This formed a cross on each doorpost, prophesying the form of death the Messiah will suffer.
We celebrate Easter as the time of death and rising from the death of Christ. The early Roman Catholic Church adopted this timing to separate Christianity from Jewish religious traditions and was the primary reason for Christ losing His Jewishness in our Western churches. Yeshua was murdered in Passover week, and what we call The Last Supper was a Passover meal Yeshua was celebrating with His disciples knowing that it would be His last meal. The Roman Catholic Church adopted a pagan fertility festival worshipping the Moon Goddess, hence the Easter Eggs. They slipped Christ's death and resurrection into it, and bingo, you have a new festival separate from the true Jewish event. They even altered history to make us believe that the crucifixion was on a Friday so that Sunday (the manufactured resurrection day) could be the day of gathering believers rather than Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath Day.
The lies of Religion cannot fool this born-again believer. We are grafted into the true vine, a mystery Paul disclosed in Romans 11:
Romans 11:17-18 LSV And if certain of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and became a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree— (18) do not boast against the branches; and if you boast, you do not bear the root, but the root you!
On the third day, Yeshua rose from the grave, and I present to you the conversation of the resurrected Christ with the disciples on the Road to Emmaus:
Luke 24:13-35 LSV And behold, two of them were going on during that day to a village, being sixty stadia distant from Jerusalem, the name of which is Emmaus, (14) and they were conversing with one another about all these things that have happened. (15) And it came to pass in their conversing and reasoning together, that Jesus Himself, having come near, was going on with them, (16) and their eyes were restrained so as not to know Him, (17) and He said to them, “What are these words that you exchange with one another, walking, and you are sad?” (18) And one, whose name was Cleopas, answering, said to Him, “Are You alone visiting Jerusalem and have not known the things having come to pass in it in these days?” (19) And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who became a man—a prophet—powerful in deed and word, before God and all the people, (20) how also the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him up to a judgment of death, and crucified Him; (21) and we were hoping that it is He who is about to redeem Israel, and also with all these things, this third day is passing today since these things happened. (22) And certain of our women also astonished us, coming early to the tomb, (23) and having not found His body, they came, saying to have also seen an apparition of messengers who say He is alive, (24) and certain of those with us went away to the tomb, and found it so, even as the women said, and they did not see Him.” (25) And He said to them, “O inconsiderate and slow in heart to believe on all that the prophets spoke! (26) Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory?” (27) And having begun from Moses, and from all the Prophets, He was expounding to them in all the Writings the things about Himself. (28) And they came near to the village to where they were going, and He made an appearance of going on further, (29) and they constrained Him, saying, “Remain with us, for it is toward evening,” and the day declined, and He went in to remain with them. (30) And it came to pass, in His reclining with them, having taken the bread, He blessed, and having broken, He was giving to them, (31) and their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He became unseen by them. (32) And they said to one another, “Was our heart not burning within us as He was speaking to us in the way, and as He was opening the Writings up to us?” (33) And they, having risen up the same hour, turned back to Jerusalem, and found the Eleven gathered together, and those with them, (34) saying, “The Lord was indeed raised, and was seen by Simon”; (35) and they were expounding the things in the way, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread,
Yeshua informed them of all the prophecies within the Old Testament speaking of Him and His sufferings, death, and resurrection, including the greatest of all prophecies of Yeshua in detail, Isaiah 53. How could they have missed this? I do not know, but our enemy is the master of deception. The Jews were expecting a warrior Messiah to defeat Rome and bring them out of captivity, just like Moses did to Egypt and Joshua did to Jericho.
The first chapter of Acts discloses the time of closure of the appearances of the living resurrected Christ and His attainment of His resurrection body described in Revelation 1:
Revelation 1:10-18 LSV I was in the Spirit on the LORD’s Day, and I heard a great voice behind me, as of a trumpet, saying, (11) “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “Write what you see in a scroll, and send it to the seven assemblies that are in Asia: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.” (12) And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, (13) and in the midst of the seven lampstands, One like a Son of Man, clothed to the foot, and having been girded around at the breasts with a golden girdle, (14) and His head and hairs were white, as if white wool—as snow, and His eyes as a flame of fire; (15) and His feet like to frankincense-colored brass, as having been fired in a furnace, and His voice as a sound of many waters; (16) and having seven stars in His right hand, and out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword is proceeding, and His countenance—as the sun shining in its might. (17) And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He placed His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last, (18) and He who is living, and I became dead, and behold, I am living through the ages of the ages. Amen! And I have the keys of Hades and of death.
In this prophecy given to the Apostle John, Yeshua says “And I have the keys of Hades and death”. If there is no resurrection of Christ there is no defeat of Satan.
The resurrection of Christ is the single most important event in human history. So far!
We see in the Garden of Eden the infiltration into YHWH’s paradise of Satan. Satan attacked the woman with the deception “Did God really say….?” The rest is biblical history in that from that day 6,000 years ago, forward to today, Satan has influenced humanity by deception. Satan engineered the reality of Christ’s death on the cross, under the Supremacy of YHWH.
There are many today who doubt that Christ ever existed, let alone died for them and was resurrected. We have lost along the way of life by deception the historicity of the events depicted in the Word of God. We have subjected the exposition of the Word of God to an entertainment event of seeker sensitivity, reducing YHWH to a God of love without justice. We have lost what the word obedience means concerning our reverence of YHWH. We have found the meaning of justification in our churches but lost the sanctifying indwelling of the Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ. We provide baptisms without the understanding that this momentous occasion signifies which side of the spiritual battle you are on because we do not even inform our congregations of the nature of the spiritual battle.
We are rich and lazy, wanting our ears tickled rather than our spirits challenged to sanctification through obedience to the will of YHWH.
That will is that we die to our selfish attachments, and take on the spirit of Christ, our Messiah. We live from this day in awe of YHWH and His accomplishments on Earth, in blessed hope of attaining our resurrected body on Christ's coming for His sanctified ones. We become salt and light in a world of darkness.
Christ without cost is not Christ, but a counterfeit. Who is the master of counterfeiting?
Satan!
Revelation 22:20 LSV The One testifying to these things says, “Yes, I come quickly!” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
When Yeshua returns on the Day of the Lord on the first day of His Millenium Reign, He will not come to be beaten and whipped, but to restore believers to Himself and destroy unbelievers and every idolatrous attachment.
Be ready! Time is short.
Your indwelt spiritual salve to Yeshua (Gal 2:20 KJV)
Cherre, thanks for reading and commenting. I can answer only by what is known. We know Yeshua died in Passover week, but the exact day is not known. Some say 14 Nissan, the first month of the Jewish calendar year and in 30AD, that was a Wednesday. But the day we celebrate a pagan holiday is irrelevant. Passover is what we should observe, not Easter. There is no sin in celebrating the death and resurrection of Yeshua, whenever you celebrate it. I celebrate it every day. Religion dictates a day, but religion has no hold on us. We are not of this world.
Interesting read. Thanks!