PASSOVER PREPARATION # 1

Fred R. Coulter – February 22, 2003

Now in this study of the words of the New Covenant which we have agreed to live by, you can go ahead and open to the section where it begins in John 14. Now the words of the New Covenant which we have agreed to live by are contained in John 14, 15, 16, and 17. And these are the words that Jesus spoke to His apostles on the night of the Passover. And this becomes very important and also quite profound, because as we have seen, the night of the 14^th is what you would call the covenant night for the New Covenant, but also it was the night that God began His covenant with Abraham.

And so let’s go back to Genesis 15 and let’s review that. Now if you have The Christian Passover book you can go through in great detail that I have there showing that this occasion in Genesis 15 is very important in relationship to the Passover; that this actually took place on the 14^th day of the first month, on the night of the 14^th day of the first month. Now I won’t go through all of the proof of that, I will leave that up to you to read in The Christian Passover book. And I also have a chart there that shows the timing of it. But let’s begin here in Genesis 15:4: “And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And He brought him [that is, God brought Abraham] forth abroad [that is, took him out at night], and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them…” So this had to be at night. You can’t see the stars unless it’s night.

“…And He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.” Now what we have here, we have two promises: number one, the promise of physical seed, which would then be Isaac, and from which then later came the children of Israel. And we have the promise of spiritual seed, a foretelling then of not only the covenant that Abraham entered into, which God proposed to him; and this was a unilateral covenant. God is the one Who gave all the information here. And it is also a foretelling of the spiritual sons and daughters of God, who when they enter into the kingdom of God will shine as the sun. And this was given on the night of the 14^th. So He told him, finishing verse 5: “…So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD…” Now I want you to circle that, “believed,” because that’s very important when we come to the section there in John 14, 15, 16, in 17.

“…And He counted it to him for righteousness.” Now you might want to circle that, because that’s important too. This kind of righteousness means that you are put into right standing with God because you believe Him. And that’s the righteousness that Paul is talking about when we come to the book of Romans. Now you can’t have any greater righteousness than this, where then God counts it to you, or imputes it to you so that you are in right standing with God. And as we will see, this has nothing to do with relieving people from the obligation to keep the commandments of God.

The days begin in the Bible at sunset. So sunset came, God talked with Abraham, and God said, “All right, Eleazar of Damascus is not going to be your heir, but one that shall come forth from your own bowels shall be your heir.” And so He took him out and showed him the stars at night. Now then on the day portion of that day, here’s what took place, verse 8: “And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” Because He said, “You’re going to have all this land.”

Now verse 9: “And He said unto him, Take Me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then was performed a very unusual sacrifice. This sacrifice and this offering was not an ordinary sacrifice. There was no altar built, there was nothing burned upon it, but this was rather done upon the ground. And this was most unusual because what he had to do was to kill the animals and cut them down the middle. In other words, take an ax, literally a sharp ax – and if you’ve done any butchering you know what I mean. You just cut down the middle of the spine. And of course that would be a very bloody, sordid affair. And of course all the intestines would be there and everything. So what he did, he laid them back to back with a path coming down between the animals. And the reason he did that was because God was going to perform an oath to Him and a pledge of His death. This is actually a foretelling of the crucifixion of Christ on the 14^th day of the first month.

So verse 10: “And he took unto Him all these, and divided them in the midst [that is, cut them down the middle], and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.” He put one on one side and one on the other side. Now how long this took to do it, we don’t know. But notice verse 12: “And when the sun was going down…”, which then ends that day, does it not? If it begins at sunset the day before, then this begins to end the day with this. “And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an [horrible] horror of great darkness fell upon him.” This would have to be God showing Abraham the death that God Himself was going to experience as symbolized by this sacrifice. Now in the Passover book I have it laid out that this probably took place at the same time that Jesus died, at the ninth hour at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. And then with the great darkness coming upon him, that shows the literal death of Christ.

So then, verse 13: “And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down…” Now notice, we have the going down of the sun. Then we have the sun “went down.” And it was dark, so we begin the 15^th day of the first month. That’s why the Passover and the Night To Be Remembered and the day portion of the 15^th day of the first month are all tied together and lead together in the events that we have laid out, or that God has laid out; that we understand the 14^th is the Passover, and it’s the Passover night – the day portion of the 14^th – Christ was crucified, died at 3 in the afternoon, and was put into the tomb. So now when it says the “sun went down and it was dark,” now we are dealing with the time that Christ was in the tomb.

This also has significance for the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt, because they came out on the 15^th day. So here God completes the covenant that He began on the night of the 14^th. He completes that covenant on the night of the 15^th and He guarantees this: “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates…” (Genesis 15:4-6, 8-10, 12-18, KJV). And then He lists all of the Canaanite tribes.

Now let’s go to Exodus 12 and see the literal fulfillment of the children of Israel coming out of Egypt on the 15^th day of the first month. Now that’s how we established that the first one was on the 14^th day of the first month because of what we find here in Exodus 12 on the 15^th day. It’s easy to count one day backwards, isn’t it? Now notice, let’s pick it up here in verse 40: “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass…” (Ex. 12:40-41, KJV). Well what do you mean the “selfsame day”? This is the selfsame day that God passed through those parts, as Abraham was able to see, with the smoking furnace and the burning lamp, and He passed between the parts. That was the day that He said that the children of Israel would be brought out from Egypt. So the “selfsame day,” being the 15^th day of the first month, goes back 430 years before, and you are at the time of Abraham when this occurred. Then you go back one more day and you find the proposition of the covenant given to Abraham on the night of the 14^th.

So we will find the same thing for the New Testament. The words of the New Covenant that Christ gave to His apostles – and by the way, please understand this: the apostles were the only ones who kept the New Covenant Passover on that Passover because only the apostles were with Him. They had to teach the rest of the disciples for the next Passover what they should do. So likewise, the words of the New Covenant that Christ spoke to His apostles now to fulfill the promise given to Abraham we find given on the same night, the night of the 14^th.

Now let’s look a little bit concerning the New Covenant. The New Covenant is a covenant of love and grace, which is very important for us to understand. Let’s come to Romans 5. God pledged His death back there to Abraham. Then when Christ died on the cross, was put in the tomb, was there three days and three nights, that fulfilled the promise that God gave to Abraham. And it was for us. Now this is why when we come back here to… Let’s come back to Romans 5, but let’s go back into Romans 4 just a little bit, and let’s pick it up here in verse 17, because this ties it all together here.

“(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) [now, that’s physically and spiritually] before Him whom he believed, even God, Who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope…” Now I want you to circle “believed,” because Abraham believed God. We are to believe. And the very first thing that Jesus tells His disciples on the night of the 14^th is to believe. “…Believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be [and we just read that]. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God…” That’s why it was counted as righteousness. And as we will see, if you believe God you will believe what He says and you will do what He commands. It’s that simple.

“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded…” Now I gave a sermon on that one time – “Are you fully persuaded?” Like Festus or Felix, after Paul was talking to him he said, “Paul, you almost persuade me to be a Christian.” And there are a lot of people who are almost persuaded. We need to be like Abraham, wholly, fully persuaded: “…that, what He had promised, He was also able to perform.” Now that’s profound, because we’re dealing with God Who cannot lie – the God of truth, God of love, God of faith, God of hope, that cannot lie. And here is a very basic, profound thing to understand: you cannot worship the God of truth with lies. You cannot worship the God of truth with lies! And that one statement alone answers everything concerning Sunday, and Christmas, and Easter, and anything else, doesn’t it? Yes, it does. That’s why he was fully persuaded.

“And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” We just read that, didn’t we? Yes. “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed…” So we are here because of the blessing of Abraham. And we’re here because of the calling of God. Now notice, “…if…”. I like to circle every “if” I can find because the world has it backwards. The world has it, “Well, God, I’m going to do this if You do so and so.” It’s the other way around. God says, “I am here. I love you. I’m constant. I don’t lie. If you will love Me and keep My commandments...” We’ll see that all little later on. The “if” never applies to God, it always applies to us. “…If we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:17-25, KJV). And this justification means to be put in right standing with God the Father in heaven above. And that means on an individual, one-to-one basis.

Now as we have been going through the series in the book of Hebrews, this will dovetail with this quite a bit because it talks about how we have access directly to God the Father in heaven above. Now then, let’s continue on in Romans 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith [not by offering, not by sacrifice, but belief in the sacrifice of Christ], we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” We’re no longer fighting God. We are no longer telling God what to do. We’re no longer telling God, “Yeah, but…” We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: “…by Whom also we have access by faith into this grace…” Now I’ll explain a little bit more about grace, but I’ll just briefly summarize it here: Grace is the first extension of God’s love toward His people. Grace covers all lot of things. Because you are standing in this grace, it gives you access to God the Father; you receive the Holy Spirit of God; you can trust God; you can believe God; you are in right standing with God, and all of that is grace. Now it even goes further than that. By the fact that you have the Holy Spirit of God in you and Christ is dwelling in you by faith, and with the Holy Spirit in you, then God is dwelling in you and you are a temple of God. Now that summarizes quite a few other Scriptures in the New Testament.

So that’s why we don’t “go to church,” though we assemble together. We are the church, the body of Christ. And there’s a distinct difference. There are a lot of people who “go to church.” But as I gave in the sermon, “Christianity Without Christ,” they don’t find Christ there because they’re “going to church.” Christ goes where there are those who are His, that He has called, that He has chosen, that He has selected. God is not going to make any mistakes in saving the world. He’s got a time plan, which most of the world doesn’t know. But right now we stand in this grace. We have the Spirit of God as a begettal in us. That’s a tremendous thing, brethren. And with that God puts us in this right standing with Him, the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith.

Now let’s go on. “…We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Now what is this “hope of the glory of God”? Now notice, this is the hope of the resurrection, isn’t it? Because we are going to share in the glory of Jesus Christ at the resurrection, aren’t we? That’s why God told Abraham, “Look at the stars, number them if you are able. So shall your seed be.” The glory of God. With this hope, then, though we have difficulties and troubles and trials, which he speaks of next; and I haven’t come to the point that the apostle Paul did, because obviously he was taught directly of Christ. But hopefully we are inching closer toward this position, which is this, verse 3: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations…” Now I don’t know anyone of us that glory in tribulation today. But he understood it. So what we need to do is understand the purpose of trials and difficulties that come and to realize that there are things that only God can work out. And God will work them out, provided we have faith, provided we hold to that hope.

“…Knowing that tribulation worketh patience [or endurance]; and patience [endurance], experience [or you could also say character]; and experience [character], hope…” So hope comes full circle then, doesn’t it? This shows the whole process of hope. “…And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy [Spirit] Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:1-5, KJV).

Now let’s come back here to the study translation of John 14. And with this background let’s go ahead and begin to study the words of the New Covenant and see how they apply to us and see what we agree to. Now let’s read the very first verse: “ ‘Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me.’ ” There are two “believes” there, right? Yes. Now let me explain a little something about belief. In Greek the verb for “to believe” is pisteo, and the noun is pistos. And the noun really means to “faith-ize.” Now to show you how important this is, just in the book of John alone, the Gospel of John, he uses the word “believe” 77 times; and “believe” with “believe not” 24 times.

Now in this very first verse of the words of the New Covenant, it starts out with belief, or faith, doesn’t it? Now what we’re going to do as we go through this study, we are going to see the progression of John 14, 15, 16, and 17. The first part of John 14 you could write it out this way, “faith and love.” Later we will see that we’ll get to “hope and love”; and then later when we come to John 17 you could have that “love and love.” Put it all together so you have faith and love, hope and love, love and love. So you have to start out with belief. That’s why the Word of God is so profound. That’s why God did not leave the canonization of the Bible to other people 400 years later that never knew Christ.

Now then, He begins telling you some very important things. He said, “ ‘In My Father’s house are many dwelling places...’ ” There is a reward for you. There is a place for you. So you need to understand that God’s plan is so profound and important that He is making a place for you. When you have all of these things together it really makes the plan of God and the purpose of God, and our covenant with God all that much more greater. Then He says: “ ‘...If it were otherwise, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.’ ” Isn’t that something? Christ is preparing a place for you. What is that going to be like? I don’t know, but I want to make it to the first resurrection so I’ll be able to see what it’s like. And He says: “ ‘And if I go and prepare place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself [so Christ is coming again]; so that where I am, you may be also’ ” (John 14:1-3, FV). And of course, we know that’s going to be on the earth. So this is quite a way to open the covenant, isn’t it? This is quite a thing.

Now let’s look at some other things concerning the belief of God, how important that is. Let’s look at some things in the Gospel of John. Let’s look at a few of those verses we discussed. Let’s come to the Gospel of John, and let’s come to John 5:39. Now when you read the words of Christ, it’s quite interesting what He says here to the Pharisees. Just like it is today, you remember Jesus said many times, “Have you never read?” And they were the ones who had the Bible. Those who have the Bible don’t read it. So He says here to them here in verse 39: “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” You’ve got to come to God. He said: “I receive not honour from men…” Now we could also put that another way: you never worship God by men’s devices, because that’s man’s honor to God. You worship God with His devices in spirit and in truth, you see.

“But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.” And let’s understand something, brethren: the New Covenant is based upon the love of God. The New Covenant shows the verse that is often quoted there in John 3:16 (paraphrased), “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him may have everlasting life.” This shows it. And the whole covenant that we are dealing with in the New Covenant is based upon the love of God.

Now let me ask you some questions. Did the Pharisees understand about law? Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, and made thousands more. If you don’t have love then all the law in the world will do no good because it will be used for destructive purposes. But you must have the love of God in such a way that it is, as Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and being, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” You have to see the love of God through those laws. Now if you have law without love you end up with the dictatorial, letter of the law, killing society. That’s what it does. That’s why it says the letter of the law kills, because it does. We are under grace, but we will show you how we are to keep the commandments a little later on.

He says: “But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” Now what is that honor that comes only from God? And how do you receive that honor? You receive that through repentance and baptism and the Holy Spirit. That’s the honor that comes from God. It doesn’t come any other way.

“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses [there’s that word again], ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me.” Now here’s a key. This is Jesus’ own teaching. This adds to the other Scripture which Jesus said, “Think not that I’ve come to destroy the law…” This adds right to it. So you can put in your margin there John 5:17-18. Speaking of Moses: “But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” (John 5:39-47, KJV). Very interesting. And there’s a key to understanding the New Testament. You can’t understand the New Testament unless you believe Moses, and unless you believe the prophets as we find a little bit later on. So that’s quite a thing there, isn’t it?

Since we’re here, let’s come to John 6:26. And again, this becomes a very profound thing. The covenant that God has called us to is a covenant of eternal life based upon love, and faith, and hope. People always like to do things though, don’t they? Now let’s see right here beginning in verse 26: “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” Now I tell you one thing, if you want to get a real good following today, you go somewhere and you feed 5,000 people from that little bit of fish and little bit of bread. And of course, they saw that every time the disciples broke the bread it grew. Every time they broke a fish, it grew. They kept taking from these little fish and these little loaves and they fed 5,000. So they said, “This is what we really want.” So Jesus said, “That’s why you’re seeking Me.” And they did all this chasing around to try and find Him.

So He said in verse 27: “Labour not for the meat [food] which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for Him hath God the Father sealed.” So they heard these words and they said: “Then said they unto Him…” Now notice very carefully. And maybe you can let these words kind of ring in your ear a little bit here: “…What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Have you ever heard “The Work of God?” The Work, the Work, the Work? Everyone wants to do a work. But let me tell you something, you can’t do anything unless you believe in Christ.

Now hold your place here, and let’s just show you an example in Matthew 7. There are people who did work, and they did a lot of work. This is the result of even using the name of Christ and doing a work, but not believing in Christ. Now you can never say that you believe in Christ if you don’t obey Him. You can profess belief, but that is not belief in truth and in deed, but that is a profession. There are a lot of people, you walk up to them and say, “You believe in Christ?” “Yes, I believe.” I’ll show you what Jesus did to some people who believed in Him here in just a minute. “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth…” That’s a very interesting word in the King James, because the “–eth” means this: this means that it is a present tense participle. Now you don’t need the parts of speech to understand it, it means, “the one who is doing.” So every time you read in your King James Bible and you see the “–eth,” just let your mind translate that into “–ing,” the one who is doing; the one who is believing; the one who is hoping, and so forth.

What is the will of the Father in heaven? Number one, to believe in Christ; and number two, to keep His commandments, as we will see. That’s the will. Now you can do a lot of things. “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils [demons]? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity [or lawlessness]” (Matthew 7:21-23, KJV). So there are a lot of people that have “work,” but they don’t believe.

Let’s come back to John 6:29: “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him Whom He hath sent.” Very interesting. See the little word “on”? The Greek word there is in three letters: eis. That means “into.” Your belief goes out from you and toward God, and God’s Spirit and faith comes back into you. So it is a continuous exchange, from you to God, and God to you. That’s the kind of faith and belief that He wants. You are to believe on Him. Then He explains about the bread that came down from heaven.

Now let’s come back here to John 14 again in the study translation. Now let’s continue on where we were here. Our whole – how shall we say – our whole commitment and faith and trust to God is that we believe on Jesus Christ and everything about Him. Now let’s look at a belief that is superficial and not “conversional.” There is a belief unto conversion; there is a belief in seeing something happen, that you saw it happen, but you don’t believe in the way that is unto salvation, or “conversional.” John 2:23: “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did.” But now notice verse 24: “But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them…” It’s very interesting, because the root of this verb is “believe,” which really means that Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, “…because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for He knew what was in man” (John 2:23-25, KJV).

Now there is even a belief – let’s come to James 2 – but it is a belief without obedience. And this is the kind of belief that many, many people have. I was talking to a man one time and we were talking about Sabbath/Sunday, and he was a Sunday-keeper. And I said, “Well, I go to church on the Sabbath.” He says, “Oh, I know that the Sabbath is the seventh day. I go to church on Sunday, and the Lord knows my heart.” Let’s understand, as I told him, I said, “Sincerity does not necessarily equal truth.”

Now let’s pick it up here in James 2:17: “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” Because faith – now remember, faith is to what? Faith is the word which means “faith-ize,” or believe. “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” And what it really means in the Greek is this: “You show me your faith with your works, and I will show…”