The goal of any Bible teacher should always be to teach the Bible unadulterated; but more than that, to present it in such a way that it challenges the students to study and learn the Word of God for themselves.  Many studies have been compiled on how much people know about God and His Word.  Many come to the conclusion that a very high percentage of people only know what someone told them about God and His Word.  One who studies the Word knows that it is a dangerous thing to allow the tradition of men to hinder the truth of God’s Word.  Paul wrote “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8 NKJ)

Many times we are told in the Scripture that Jesus was raised after three days.  Mark 8:3l; Matt. 27:63; I Cor. 15:4; just to name a few.  Jesus said “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will The Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:40 NKJ). 

April 18, 2014 is known as “Good Friday” and it is suppose to be the day Jesus was crucified.  Matthew 27 tells us that Jesus died about the ninth hour, which would be three pm our time.  Remember the Jewish day began at sundown.  John chapter 20 tells us that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, hurriedly took the body of Jesus, prepared it and buried it because it was the Preparation Day.  Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; and Luke 23:54 tells us it was the Preparation Day.  Herein lies the problem:  understanding what the Day of Preparation was.

The quality of an occasion and the success of it is often determined by the amount of preparation that goes into it.  Many Sunday church services do not accomplish what they should because of lack of preparation.  There is no revival most of the time for the last of preparation.  Many expect just to show up and God will do great things without preparation.  Not so.

God taught the Israelites to prepare for all the Sabbath days.  Even the weekly Sabbath, the Jews set apart from 3pm on, on Friday, to wind down from the week affairs and prepare their hearts and minds in preparation for the Sabbath.  The Sabbath began at dusk.

The Passover was and is the holiest of all the Jewish Sabbath Days.  John 19:31 tells us that this Preparation Day “was a high day”.  It was the Preparation Day for the most Holy of all Sabbath Days, The Passover.  Leviticus 23 tells us about seven of the Sabbath days in their order.  The Passover Sabbath was on the fourteenth day of the first month (Nisan).  The Unleaven Bread Sabbath on the next day, the fifteenth of the month.  (The Weekly Sabbath was the sixteenth day.)  The Feast of Firstfruits on the seventeenth day.  Feast of Pentecost fifty days later.

No where in Scripture is the weekly Sabbath ever implied as being the day after the crucifixion; however, all four Gospels record it as The Passover Sabbath.  Jesus could not have been crucified on Friday.  The Friday crucifixion came from the Roman church; using the Talmud. 

My prayer is that each will look at this with an open mind.  Jesus said three days and three nights.  The Friday crucifixion would be one day and two nights. 

 

Hugh G. Sherrill

ems-hugh43@comcast.net

 

Pastor Philippi Baptist Church

1444 SE County Road 18 Lake City, FLBy Hugh G. Sherrill

ems-hugh43@comcast.net