Let's have a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we come to You this morning. We ask You to guide us in Your Word. Help us to glorify You. Watch over our class. And during this week as we go out, help us to glorify You with our lives. Help us to go out and do something eternal every week that people may see the Lord through us. Guide us as we deal with each person. Help us be a blessing to other people's lives and help us do something eternal every week as we go out. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Luke, the 23rd chapter. What caused Masada? We're going to find out what caused Masada. How many of you have seen specials on TV about Masada? All the terrible things that happened to Masada. In Luke 23, Pontius Pilate, in verse number 13, Pontius Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers of the people, and he said to them, You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined him before you, I have found no fault or no guilt in this man regarding the charges you have against him. And here is the governor of this whole Judean area, which is Pontius Pilate. Many, many years, the biblical critics said that Pontius Pilate was a fictitional character. But we have so much evidence now. Of course, you know, some of these people that are what we call biblical critics don't study much history. If they go back in the history, they find out there's a lot of evidence about Pontius Pilate. The letter that he wrote that I read to you here just a few weeks ago to Caesar asking him to make a petition to the Roman Senate that Jesus was literally God. Now here we have him If you put all of the Gospels together, how many Gospels are there? Four. How many Synoptic Gospels are there? Three. All right. How can you name the Synoptics? Huh? Who can name the Synoptics? Joanne? Synoptics. Bill? Synoptics. The Synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means Greek, which means to see together. Which of the three Gospels were the Synoptics? Brother Rex? That's absolutely a plus. Do you see that man there? Now he's been listening. All right. Matthew, Mark and Luke, they see things together. John looked at Jesus completely different, but it has quite a bit of evidence of what happened here in the 19th chapter of the Gospel of John. Also, we're going to look at some of these things. There's quite a lot of quite a little bit of evidence here in the verses that we have today about history. Now he said, I find no guilt in him, no fault in him, he's innocent. Pontius Pilate declared Jesus innocent five times. whipped and whipped terribly. How many of you saw the movie The Passion? That guy in the movie that was playing Jesus actually got hit by one of the cat and lion tails and just ripped him up. He didn't have to pretend like he was screaming when that happened. That was a mistake. But one of them actually hit him and ripped him up. That was a pretty good depiction. I'm not saying it's accurate. First of all, the language was wrong. It should have been in Greek instead of Aramaic. But how many people could speak Koine Greek today? A little bit harder to do than Aramaic, wasn't it? He said, I'll therefore punish him. Pontius Pilate thought if he had him whipped that they'd have a little mercy upon him because he saw him bleeding and everything that maybe they would turn him loose. Now, let's look a little further. I will therefore punish him and release him." Now he was obliged to release to them at least one prisoner. So he picks the worst prisoner in the world, we find in other places, and he asked them, would you like for me to release this murderer or Jesus? This murderer or Jesus? This murderer was part of Masada, the murderer. that we're going to see. What was his name? Barabbas, which means son of the Father. And what language is that, Brother Roger? Aramaic. Okay, Barabbas means son of the Father. It would be Ben Abba in Hebrew, wouldn't it? But they cried out all together, away with this man! Release for us Barabbas! The Saqqari. All right, the Saqqari. The Sicarii, that's where you get the nation of Sicily, is from the Sicarii. I have known two or three people that were, Sicily was originally occupied, not by Italians, but by Jewish refugees that were Sicarii. And they were so abused in the dark ages that they began the mafia, the Jewish mafia, which we have. Remember, who was the man that started Las Vegas? What was his name? Bugsy Siegel, Jewish Mafia. Many of the Jewish Mafia go back to this time. I've known several people personally that were related to the Jews in Sicily. The word Sicily, it comes from the word Sicari. The word Sicari means dagger men, literally dagger men, all right? Barabas was a dagger man, okay? Now, we have We're going to run on to one other dagger man a little bit later on here in the show, and it's maybe surprise you. All right. Dagger men. Let me tell you a little bit about these dagger men. The man that they're going to turn loose. Okay. This is the man. This is one of the leaders. All right. Sicari, Latin means the carious dagger men. In modern Hebrew, it is sicari chima. It's a term applied to decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, literally and before. They were extreme splinter groups of the Jewish zealots who attempted to expel the Romans and their partitions from the Roman province of Judea. The saccari, called staccator, are small daggers concealed in their cloaks, hence they came to name. At public gatherings and meetings and in the markets, they pulled out these daggers And they walked up to the Roman soldiers and would stick it in the pit of their stomach and turk it up and twist it into their heart and walk off and slip out. That sound like a little mafia situation there, just a little bit? This is the father of it or the mother of it, whatever you want to call it. Blending into the crowd and escaping without detection. The Latin word. Sicari means dagger wielders. In Latin, it means the slice of the cut. Roman legal Latin, a standard plural form of the term for murderer, was sicari. For putting a murderer on trial, lex cornelia de sicarius et venifictus, during the Roman legal period of time. The victims of the Sicarii included Jonathan, the high priest. Okay. Some of you, I know I've talked about this a few years ago, but we need a little review on this because this is what caused Masada now. What caused Masada. The Jews glorify Masada as a patriotic thing. But what caused Masada was a murder of Jesus. the murder of Jesus and the release of Barabbas. The victims of the Sicarii included Jonathan, the high priest, although it is possible that this murder was orchestrated by the Roman governor, Antonius Felix, some murders were met with severe retaliation by the Romans and the entire Jewish population of the country suffered because of it, because of the Sicarii. On some occasions, a Sicarii could be bribed to spare their intended victims. Once Josephus relates after kidnapping the secretary of Eleazar, governor of the temple precincts, now they're attacking the high priests, okay? This is the ones they wanted to turn loose instead of Jesus? They hated Jesus so bad that they wanted their archenemy turned loose on them again? When Jesus talked about the Good Samaritan, that probably was a real story where we had a person, when he was going down to Jericho, he was attacked and left for dead. They attacked women, children, caravans, everything. The Sicarii got any means they could get to support their groups. After kidnapping the secretary of the governor of the temple precincts, they agreed to release him in exchange for a release of ten of their captured assassins. At the beginning of the Jewish revolt in 66 B.C., the Saqqari, possibly Zealot helpers, Josephus, differentiated between the different groups of Zealots and the Saqqari. gained access to Jerusalem and committed a series of atrocities in order to force the population into war. The Jerusalem Talmud tells about this. They destroyed the city's food supply so that the people would be forced to fight against the Romans. This is why Jerusalem was destroyed. This is why the 10th Roman legion came against Masada. They would be forced to fight against the Roman siege instead of negotiating peace. Their leaders, including Manahem ben Yehuda and Eliezer ben Yair, the heroes of Masada, okay, and the one that they released, the one that they released, were important figures in the war. Eleazar Ben-Yahar eventually succeeded escaping the Roman onslaught. Together with a small group of followers, he made his way to the abandoned fortress of Masada, where he continued his resistance to the Romans until 73 B.C. when the Romans took the, the 10th Roman Legion took the fortress, according to Josephus, and found most of the defenders had committed suicide rather than surrender. The Saqqari became a dominant revolutionary Jewish party scattered abroad. Josephus particularly associated with them with a mass suicide at Masada in 73. And to the subsequent refusal to submit to the taxation of the census that Sarnias was sent to Judea to make. Some of the faction of the Sicarii, not content with having saved themselves again, embarked on a new revelationary scheme, persuading those that received them there to assert their freedom and to esteem the Romans no better than any other pagan gods. According to Josephus, the Sicarii were so antagonistic to a larger group of Jews, referring to as Zealots, who carried the main burden of the rebellion, Josephus emphasized that the Saqqari were considered more extreme than the Zealots. Josephus said that the Saqqari raided nearby Jewish villages after this. In one village they killed 700 women and children. This is what the Jews asked to be turned loose on them, the leaders. Two of the Saqqari were crucified with Jesus. Now, in Jesus' group of disciples and his apostles, how many were there that were former members of the Sakkari? We have Judas Isikari, Simon the Zealot, or Simon the Sakkari. We have the Apostle Paul, which was called Saul. And we have one more, maybe. Let's go find him. Okay? Let's go find one more. All right, let's go find one more Sakkari. And this Sakkari became a good man. Judas Isikari was always an assassin. The last thing he did was assassinate basically Jesus. Let's go a little bit further now. Away with this man and give us, release to us, Barabbas the Sakkari. He was the one who had been thrown into prison for certain insurrection made in the city and for murder. Multiple murders. The Saqqari were murderers. They were slicers. They were cutthroats. They were assassins. And Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, kept on trying to release Jesus. But they kept on calling out, saying, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! And he said to them the third time, Why? What evil has this man done? I have found in him no guilt demanding death. I will therefore punish him and release him." Again, he's crying to release Jesus. But they were insistent with loud voices asking that he be crucified. And their voices kept on prevailing. If you read the letter there, Pontius Pilate's letter, he said the whole praetorium was shaking and roaring with their voices as if all the demons of hell had been released upon me. Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand should be granted. And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder. But he delivered Jesus to their will. Now, Barabbas is a type of us, did you know that? We are guilty. And Jesus suffered for our guilt. He suffered for our guilt. He paid for our sins. And he was none other than Jehovah God of the Old Testament. The creator of the universe suffered for our sins. Now, let's go on down to verse number 26, and we're going to find maybe one more Sakkari. OK. One more Sicari in this group. And when they were led away, they laid hold of one man, Simon of Cyrene. Simon of Cyrene. Coming in from the country and placed him, on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. Now I'll let you know also that the people that John the Apostle Rants and raves against so much. In 2nd and 3rd John and 1st John. There was a man there that was a. What we call a Gnostic. The modern Gnostics basically are the Jehovah's Witnesses. You know that Jesus was not God. The Gnostics said that he was raised only as a spirit. As a matter of fact, some of them believe that he was only a spirit, that he was never flesh, okay? And John just goes after them, and he even names the ones in 2 and 3 John. He talks about the rats, the reprobates. Well, the Gnostics back then said that Simon the Cyrene was crucified instead of Jesus mistakenly, that Jesus was never crucified. Many people, many groups in history along the Gnostic line said that Jesus died on the cross of Calvary but was never raised. We have all kinds of historical evidence proving from every type of historical source including Pontius Pilate, all right, and Tiberius Caesar. Tiberius believed that Jesus was God. Did you know that? Tiberius believed. These people were leaders of the country, all types of historical reverts and writings and letters about the miracles of Jesus. It was he actually lived. He was born. He was he was born of a virgin. The Jews said they write letters also, and of course, they said the woman was a harlot. Mary was a harlot and a Roman soldier, and they even named the Roman soldier, you know, who the Roman soldier was because he had blonde hair and blue eyes. All the historical data says that Jesus had blonde hair and blue eyes. Did you know that? He was a little taller than normal. Sin describes him. He really lived. He really did all the miracles that he did. He raised the dead. He healed all sorts of diseases. His enemy said that. Pontius Pilate said that. Tiberius Caesar said that. And many other Roman historians said that. including Philistines. Now, Simon the suffering, let's look at him. Simon means what? One who hears. Now, if you just left this out. And just now he's a. If you go to Mark. The 15th chapter in verse 21. If you go to. John 19, verse 17. And you go to Matthew 27, verse 32. You're all going to see that Simon and Cyrene. Let's go to Mark 15, 21 real quick. Mark 15, 21. Let's look and see what this says about him. Verse 27. After they had mocked him, they took the purple off him and put his garments on him, and they led him out to be crucified. And they pressed into service A pastor by coming from the country, Simon Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. Now, let me read you just a little bit of history about Simon of Cyrene. What? That was Mark 15, 21. Mark 15, 21. It names two boys, Alexander and Rufus. You know that they became missionaries? These boys were missionaries. We find that in the Book of Acts and in the Book of Romans. Simon, hometown of Cyrene in Libya, was located in northern Africa. Cyrene, a Greek colony, also had a Jewish community. Therefore, there were 100,000 Judean Jews had been forced to settle during the reign of Ptolemy Soter. Ptolemy means what? Ptolemy. Ptolemy Soter. the savior of the river, hippopotamus, hippo, horse, potamus, river horse. That's what hippopotamus means. And Soter means savior. Ptolemy Soter, 323 to 285 BC, and was an earlier center of Christianity later. Why? Because of Simon of Cyrene and Rufus and Alexandrus. Cyrene was also the destination of the Sicarii. It was a hotbed of the Sicari. So maybe, maybe Simon of Cyrene was a Sicari also. Okay? He would have been a Jewish zealot, a Jewish fanatic. But we have another Jewish fanatic by the name of Saul of Tarsus that God stopped. and saved his soul, didn't he? And he was a murderer of churches. He was going out and slipping in and murdering church members. Cyrene was the destination of many Sicarii dagger men who fled the Roman legions at the time of the Jewish revolt. This was later to precipitate a further Jewish insurrection in the area of the reign of Hadrian and Trajan. The Cyrenian Jews had a synagogue in Jerusalem. The Cyrenian Jews had a synagogue in Jerusalem. where many went for annual feast. Tradition states that his sons Rufus and Alexander became missionaries and included their names in Mark 15 and 21 and in Acts 11, 19-22. Let's go there. Acts 11, 19-22. Acts 11. Is this interesting? And so there were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen. All right. Now, the Sicarii also killed Stephen, didn't they? The Zealots. The Sanhedrin. The rebel. Who was the one that was responsible for delivering the death sentence to Stephen in Acts the seventh chapter? Who was the one responsible? The Apostle Paul. He was the sergeant of arms or the one that threw the first stone to kill, and he held the cloaks, and he pronounced the sentence against Stephen. Made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. Excuse my pneumonia. Made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks, also preaching the word of the Lord, And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed and turned to the Lord. And the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch." Now, this is talking about the same group, the Cyrenian Jews. Some of these became converts. Do you think the Apostle Paul might have had a little bit of influence among these Sicarii? How about the other Simon? Yeah. So, we may have had four Sakari in Jesus' elite group. And one of them carried his cross. Now, let's go to Romans 16, verse 13. That's right after Acts, Romans 16. And verse number 13. Romans 16 and 13. Paul, the apostle, is writing a letter to Rome, the church at Rome. And he's in the 16th chapter, he greets and expresses his love to different special Christian people that are missionaries and outstanding people. He goes on, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church, which is in Chinchiria. And then he goes on down further and further. Also greet the church that is in the house of Epinathus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ in Asia. Then he goes on down and verse number 11. Greet Herodian, my kinsmen. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphania Trifosoph, workers in the Lord. Greet Perses and Beloved who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus. This is one of the sons, all right, of the man that carried the cross of Christ. Rufus, a choice man, an elect man, a picked out man in the Lord. Also his mother and mine. Look at that. Here you have these people. Now let's go back to look at the 23rd chapter. You know, sometimes you can just make one little statement is made that you can go off and you can study and find so much information. Now, when it says, And they led him away, and laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. By the way, they might have found this man's grave in the Kidron Valley. It's written in two different inscriptions in Greek, saying this was Simon Cyrene. Maybe he was buried there later. Maybe he was murdered. Go back to Mark 15, 21. And there were following him a great multitude of people, women, who were mourning and lamenting him. But Jesus turning to them said, daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. You know why? Because they turn loose the Saqqari on you. The Saqqari is going to bring down your ruin. Jerusalem is going to be completely destroyed by the Saqqari, the zealots, the extremists. And He looked upon Jerusalem, He said, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, how many times I would have called you like a mother hen with her little chickens, but you would not come. There will not be one stone left upon another. And Jesus is prophesying what the Saqqari, Barabbas, and these other leaders, Ben Yair, are going to do to them. For behold, the days are coming when they say, Blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, until the hills cover us. For if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry? And two others also were criminals. Now, who were they? Who were the other two criminals? They were murderers. They were Sicarii. They were the dagger men. Jesus was numbered with them. They were being led away to be cut to death with him. Now we have the crucifixion. We have one more man, one more Saqqara that's going to be saved. Did you know that? One out of these two was going to be saved. They came to the place called the Skull, and there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. Now, I will say this, that some theologians believe that there were two on each side, and there were five altogether that were crucified. They were all Saqqara except for Jesus. But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. And they cast lots, dividing his garments among them. And the people stood by looking on, and even the rulers sneering at him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself. Now, remember when I read that one historical letter, what that guy said? He said the very same thing. The Jewish Historians said that Jesus did all these miracles. It didn't say that He didn't do the miracles. He did the miracles. He raised the dead, but they said He raised the dead by the power of Satan. Let Him save Himself, if this be the Christ of God and His chosen one. And the soldiers who mocked Him coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine. This wine had opium in it, didn't it? Yeah, it did. It had opium in it. It was a painkiller. Opium was something used. How many of you ever had cough medicine? Did you ever have cough medicine with codeine in it? Codeine is opium. Did you know that? Codeine is an opium derivative. They used, only the rich people back then could afford opium. Now, the Roman soldiers, they'd take this sour wine and they'd mix it with opium. Now, remember Doc Holliday, the man Doc Holliday, the wild gunslinger with wide herb and everything? Doc Holliday's prescription was alcohol and opium for his cough, for tuberculosis. For gastrointestinal discomfort, for diarrhea, dysentery and everything else, they used opium with alcohol. That's what they used back then. One of the gifts that Jacob sent to Joseph in Egypt was opium. One of those precious gifts that the wise men or the magi took to Jesus was opium. All right? That was rich man's medicine. Very important back then. It relieved a lot of discomfort. The soldiers mocked him coming up and offering him opium with wine. In other words, alcohol and opium as a painkiller. They wanted him to last longer. They wanted these people that were being crucified to last as long up there as they could, to suffer as long as they could suffer. And saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. Now there was an inscription above him, this is the king of the Jews. Who wrote that? Who wrote this inscription? This is the king of the Jews. Who wrote it? Pontius Pilate wrote it with his own hands. And one of the criminals who were hanging there was hurling abuse at him, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But only other answered, rebuking, said, Do you not know? Even fear God? Do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of Dachamn? Hey, boy, you're dying. That's what he said. You're dying. We're going to die. We're at the end of our lives right here. We are going to meet eternity. Now, we're not going to get off this cross alive. That's what the man said. And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. This is a confession of a dying man. But this man has done nothing wrong. He knew he had done nothing wrong. And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That man was repented and asked the Lord to save his soul right then, the last minute. This is what you call a deathbed profession. And here we have one in the Bible. And he said to him, truly, I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. In other words, he's going to get to go to heaven. Now, paradise was a different place at this time than what it is when you die today. When you die today, where do you go? Heaven. Hashemayim, Uranus. You go to the heaven of heavens. It's a desert heaven. When you die today, you go there. But back during this period of time before the cross and the resurrection of Christ, down someplace, down under the earth, there was a pit. And in that pit was paradise and was Hades or Sheol. Sheol or Hades It's this whole area. OK. Hades means what? Hades. The place not seen. That's what it literally means. A place not seen. Hades. How about Sheol? What does Sheol mean? The place asked about. That's what it means. Now. There's a gulf between the paradise side and the place of torment. OK. Now, there's a word in Hebrew. That's the word right there. Do you know what that word means there, Brother Roger? Not pointed, see? Quiver. Quiver is a tomb or a grave. You can dig a quiver, but you can't dig Sheol. They put Jesus in a carved quiver. And a lot of people try to make these cults and isms, they try to make Quiver and Sheol the same. It is not. Quiver is a grave. Sheol is a place of departed spirits. When you die, you don't go to sleep. When you die, you go either to Sheol or Hades or to Paradise today, which is in heaven. When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, His soul and spirit went down here into the paradise side of Hades. Luke, the 16th chapter, we have a historical element. We have a man by the name of Dives, or Nineveh there, and a man by the name of what? Lazarus. Okay, Lazarus got to go to heaven. The rich man went to hell. And it talks about this place. When Jesus died, he went here. When he rose, he took this place with him, and it says hell was enlarged. He took this to the third heaven. These people, all these on the side. Now, before the cross of Calvary, salvation was only a promise. Just a promise, that's all. What's a promise? How many of you ever bought a car on credit? Anybody? You sign with your name a promissory note that you'd pay for it. It's a promise. You got the car right then, but it wasn't yours until you paid for it. You buy a house, you sign a promissory note. You can live in the house and all this kind of stuff, but the house is not yours until you pay it off, is it? They can come and get it any time you don't make the next payment. It can happen. All the way from Adam all the way to the cross, every one of those, they had a lease on heaven or paradise, that's all. It was not procured until Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary. God had to be born into this world. Genesis 3.15 talks about the first promise of the Messiah and the first promise of the Antichrist. The Messiah would overcome the Antichrist and overcome all of the evil things in the world. God, Jehovah. In the book of Genesis, the fourth chapter in verse 1, when Eve gave birth to her first child, she thought He was that Messiah. And she said, look, I have gotten a man, et Jehovah. Eve and Jehovah. I have gotten Jehovah. She had gotten a murderer. A dagger man. Cain. Cain means gotten. She said, I've gotten Jehovah. I have Him. I have the Savior right here. All that man did was show them how bad they were, because he brought out the fruits of all their evil, and the first murder that was ever committed on this earth was committed by Cain, the man they thought was going to be the Messiah. Jesus, when He died on the cross of Calvary, He went down into that place called Sheol. Paradise and the place of torment, but it was separated by a great gulf, it said. And they can look over here. And evidently Abraham could look over there at least. One of the torments in hell is that they're going to see water. I think in eternity that people in hell can look all the way in the heaven and see all the beautiful glorifications of it. A far off place that they can never touch, never have part in. And they're always thirsty, and they're always hungry. And they'll not have anything that they had on earth. Nothing of the fine pleasures on earth. Not one day of rest. Never, never, never. When Jesus was crucified, His body literally died. They put Him in a grave. He was dead for three days. He rose out of that grave. He raised Himself. The Father raised Him. The Eternal Spirit raised Him. The triune God raised him. Don't ever get the idea of three gods. It's only one God, the triune God. Here, oh Israel, the Lord our God is a hot one, not three or four or five or six. They led him away to put him to death, and when he came to the place called the Skull. Now, one of these two guys down here in verse 22, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He said, this day you'll be with me in paradise. Right here. That bad guy, that Saqqari got to go to paradise. Never did one good thing in his life, did he? Not a good thing, not one good deed ever. Only a murderer. Only a killer. He got to go to heaven. Why? Because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because he believed in the Messiah. Now about the sixth hour. What's the sixth hour according to Jewish time? What time is that? When Jesus was put on the cross at Calvary, what time was it? Nine o'clock. Yep. The third hour. Here's a Jewish clock. This is ours. It begins right here. One, three, six. Different. Okay. 3rd hour, 6th hour, 9th hour. Okay, and the 12th hour. Let's go and look a little bit more. Now it's the 6th hour and darkness fell over the whole land until the 9th hour. From 12 noon, 12 noon is usually when the sun is up the highest part of the sky in it. Even in the winter time, you know in the winter time it's more down that way than it is here. But still, on a sundial, it would still be 12 o'clock. That's the highest point in the heavens. And it became dark. At the time when the light should have been shining, the earth became dark. It fell over the whole hour until the ninth hour. And the sun being totally obscured, and the veil of the temple was torn completely in two. That veil in the temple was a curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies. Here you have the holy place and the holy of holies. And the temple was something like this. Here was the holy place and the holy of holies. This curtain right here that you see here was ripped from the top to the bottom. Ripped from the top to the bottom. Verse number 46. And by the way, there's a lot of historical evidence that this happened. Josephus writes about it. Different people, different writers. Pontius Pilate writes about it. And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed out his last. Jesus decided when he would die. Not them. If they would have killed him by stoning, they would have had the upper hand. They would have decided when he died, when they dropped that rock on his head, it would have killed him. You know, they would beat him down and then go over there and put one great big rock and smash their skull with it or else smash him in the heart. But Jesus was crucified. Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 talks about the crucifixion of Jesus before crucifixion was ever even invented. That's what we call prophecy. Verse number 47. Now, when the centurion saw what had happened, they kept on praising God, saying, certainly this man was innocent. This is a Roman centurion. And all the multitudes who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return and beating their breasts And all his acquaintances and the woman who accompanied him from Galilee were standing at a distance seeing these things. Verse number 50. And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council. What council? What's the council? The Sanhedrin court. This is Joseph of Arimathea. Okay. Probably the uncle of Jesus, by the way. A good and a righteous man. For he had not consented to their plan and action." Who else did not consent to their plan? What other man that was on the Sanhedrin did not submit to their plan? Nicodemus. Nicodemus. We have two of the people on the Sanhedrin were saved. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. And we find that both of them come and ask for the body of Jesus. And a man from Arimathea a city of the Jews who was waiting for the kingdom of God. Now, he believed. And this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and they took it down and wrapped it in linen cloth and laid it in a tomb and cut into the rock where no one had ever been laid. This is Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. This is a quiver, say quiver, quiver. That's that little word right here. You can carve or cut or dig a quiver. You cannot dig Sheol or Hades. And it was the preparation of the Sabbath. Now, there were several Sabbaths that week, weren't there? Sabbath isn't just Saturday or Friday night to Saturday. There are several, several Sabbaths that the Jews were not supposed to work on. They were feasts, high feast days and the high Sabbath. Now, the woman who had come with him out of Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment. Verse number 24, But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone and rolled away from the tomb. And when they had entered in, they found they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood by them in dazzling white apparel. Shining apparel. Who do you think these two guys were? Angels. Alright, angels always look like men, don't they? They always look like men. Sometimes you can't tell them from anybody else. Cotty, are you an angel? See there? Rex, he's not an angel? There's two brothers, you know. And as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living one among the dead, the living one? He is not here, but he has risen. He has risen for himself, by the way. And remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee, saying that son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again. And they remembered his word. and returned from the tomb and reported all things to the eleven and to the rest." The whole church was assembled here. Did you know that? A lot of the members of the church were assembled here and the apostles. Now there were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and also other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. All these words appeared to them as nonsense. And they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, and saw the linen wrappings only. He went away to his home and marveled at what had happened. This is Peter now. We know that Peter and John ran there both. Now we have another evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. And behold, two of them were going on their very day to the village named Emmaus, which is about seven miles from Jerusalem. I've been to this very place. And they were conversing with one another about all the things which had taken place. And it came about that while they were conversing and discussing, Jesus himself approached and began or kept on traveling with them literally, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. And he said to them, what are these words that you are exchanging with one another? as you were walking. And they stood still, looking, and said. And one of them, named Cleophas, answered and said to him, Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem, and unaware of the things which have happened here these days? And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, The things that Jesus the Nazarene, who was the prophet, mighty indeed in word, in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be sentenced of death and crucified him. But we are hoping that it is he who is going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. But also some women among us amazed us when they were at the tomb early in the morning. and did not find his body, and they came saying that they had also seen visions of angels who said that he was alive. And some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him. And he said to them, O foolish men, slow of heart to believe in all the prophets that have spoken. Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer these things? and to enter into His glory. Jesus Christ, for a short time, 33 years, Jehovah of the Old Testament, came down and subjected Himself to the whims of mankind to redeem His people and the whole universe back to Himself. Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures, and they approached the village where they were going, and he acted as though he was going to go further. And they urged him, saying, Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over. And he went on to stay with them. And it came about that when he had reclined at the table with them, that he took bread, and blessed it, and breaking it, he began giving it to them. And their eyes were immediately opened, and they recognized him. and he vanished from their sight. And they said one to another, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was yet speaking to us on the road while he was explaining the Scriptures to us? And they arose that very hour in church of Jerusalem and gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon, And they began to relate their experiences on the road and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. And while they were telling these things, he himself stood in the midst of them. But they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit. And he said to them, Why do you not troubled? Why do doubts arise in your heart? See my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see the For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they stood, they could not believe. For joy were marveling that he said to them, have you anything to hear to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. Now he said to them, those are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. All these things are written about being the law and the prophets of the law, the Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And they opened their minds and he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, thus, it is written that Christ should suffer and rise from the dead the third day and the repentance for forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name for all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. You are my witnesses. Of these things. And behold, I'm sending you forth the promise of my father upon you. You are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power on high.' And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came about that while he was blessing them, he parted from them. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God. And there's where we're going to start with John, the Gospel of John next week. Do you have any questions? How many Saqqari were involved in this? What caused Masada? What caused the destruction of Israel? Their own decisions to crucify the Messiah. Thank you for your attention today. God bless you.