Just a little bit of trivia before I get started tonight. Mary Ann Van Gelderen was a member of our church in the United States that sent us here, and she married John Van Gelderen, who was an intern in the church while we were there. His older brother was my dorm supervisor my freshman year, and his other brother bought me a suit when we were on deputation because he thought I was dressed inappropriately for a preacher. Because he has a very high standard of what a pastor ought to look like. And so I'm very familiar with that family. And actually, their father was a pastor as well. But tonight, I asked pastor if I could do this because I preached this last week in Mount Beauty since it was Australia Day. And he said that would be fine. And so that's what I'm going to do. And what we're going to do is take a historical look at Australia Day. Not that you don't understand what Australia Day is because you probably learned that in school. Yeah. Hmm. Probably not, huh? Okay, well, you'll learn some things tonight. What I want to do is take Australia Day and the historical aspects of it, and I want to use that as an outline and not a parallel or a comparison, but similarities of the beginning of the church. So if you find your place in the scriptures in Acts chapter 2, that's where we'll be ultimately. But we'll get started with Australia Day. The title of the message is Foundation Day, and you'll discover why that is as we go through. The founding of Australia in 1788 was due to the need for a new penal colony for the British to send their criminals to. after the Revolutionary War in America, because they refused to accept any more criminals in the U.S. Whether you knew that or not, I don't know, but there was definitely a penal colony in the state of Georgia. And they just decided, we don't want any more, and so you have to send them somewhere else. And so having founded the land of Australia, they sent them here instead. It's America's fault, that's right. Everything's America's fault, so we accept that. And these days, everything is Trump's fault. Everything is wrong. But anyways, according to Wikipedia, we find that the meaning and significance of Australia Day has evolved since the first records of celebration in 1808. So that's 20 years after the founding that there was any regard for Australia Day. And it started with contested views on the day, and that existed since at least 1888. The contention that was over the discovery of Australia, which is ongoing today, yes? Although there was no official recognition of the colonies anniversary with the New South Wales Almanacs in 1806 and 1808, placing no significance, special significance on the 26th of January. By 1808, the date was being used by the colony's immigrants, especially the emancipated convicts to celebrate their love of the land they lived in with drinking and merriment. And that continues on today. When people talk about Australia Day, those are some of the things they think about, OK, the drinking and merriment. And so this became a day of celebration of the founding of the country, and it started with the grassroots, not with the hierarchy. All right? And so the people led the way in this day of celebration. Not only was it a day of celebration, but it was with diversity all along the way. Previously, the states celebrated different days that acknowledged their own founding. the state founding, because it all started in New South Wales, and then it spread from there. And so each one had their different day of celebration. For instance, in Tasmania, it was known as Regatta Day. Maybe that's where this race from Sydney to Hobart got started, because they call it a regatta. All right? Queensland, oddly enough, named theirs Queensland Day. And Western Australia called it Foundation Day, from which I derived the title of the message. And the celebration of the first anniversary day or Foundation Day, as the day was called in New South Wales in 1818, was seen in a similar light and became connected with sporting events. The other thing you think of when you think of Australia Day is there's always some sort of sport that's being played on Australia Day. In 1818, the 30th anniversary of the founding of the colony, Governor Lachlan Macquarie chose to acknowledge the day with the first official celebration. So that's 30 years after the founding of the nation, they had an official celebration. And so the diversity that was there all throughout this day. Not only that, but it was a day of recognition. In 1838, which was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the colony, and as part of the celebrations, Australia's first public holiday was declared. So it wasn't a public holiday till the 50th anniversary of the founding of the colony. In 1888, all colonial capitals, except Adelaide, that figures, celebrated either Anniversary Day or some other name for it. In 1910, South Australia adopted the 26th of January as Foundation Day. So they were late to the party, but they did come along eventually, and now Adelaide's known as what? The Church of Cities, the City of Churches, rather. And following the Federation in 1901, which is where we separated into our own entity here in Australia, moves for a national holiday gained pace prompted by lobbying by the Australian Natives Association, which celebrated ANA Day, which stands for Australian Natives Association, with the name Australia Day. So that didn't come into being until after the federation of this country, that it was actually called Australia Day. And the date of the 26th of January finally was selected in 1935. So we're way down the track before this actually became into being with a public holiday at or around that date in all of the states in 1940. And so we have celebration, we have diversity on the day, we have recognition of what the day is all about. But as always happens, there's opposition. And there's opposition to Australia Day as well, has been for quite some time. In fact, the first prominent protest occurred in 1938 with the first day of mourning, as it was called, held by the Australian Aborigines League. Since at least 1938, the date of Australia Day has also been a day of protest and of mourning the start of the British colonization of Australia, characterized as an invasion by them, by the protesters, in which the indigenous Australians had the land that they had occupied for millennia forcibly taken from them. That's their idea of Australia Day. the aboriginal population. And quite frankly, when we went out on the Outback trips with Mike Coughlin, the true blue aboriginals didn't hold that position. It's only the ones that intermarried and so forth, they're the ones spurring this protest on in our day. Some observed the 26th of January as invasion day or survival day. or, as we mentioned, a day of mourning as a counter-observance to the National Day. Some counter-observers and others have called for the date of Australia Day to be changed or the holiday to be abolished altogether. Support for changing the date has been a minority position. However, polls from 2021 have indicated that Australians under the age of 30 are much more supportive of the change than older generations. Why is that? Because they're being indoctrinated with propaganda in the school systems. That's why. Okay? That was never a problem and an issue until that started happening. And that happens often and in many countries with various things. Not only did we see opposition, but Australia Day is actually known as a permanent holiday, a permanent day that we celebrate. And so the permanence aspect is there. So hopefully you've got the outline. celebration, diversity, recognition, opposition, permanence. Those are the five that we're going to go with when we get to the church. In 1994, the date was fixed in all jurisdictions on the 26th of January when the practice by some of the states of holding the holiday on a Friday in late January for a long weekend was dropped. That's Australia, is it not? Got to have a long holiday, and the more long holidays you have, or long weekends, the better off you are. And in fact, there's a push here in the States and other countries for a four-day work week. Why? So they can have a long period of time where they can party. All right, so let's look at the foundation of the church. which we could also say is foundation day, yes, because the church did not exist in the Old Testament. There was no church. There was an assembly of people, but they were assembled as a nation, not as a church body, which is the Greek term, ekklesia, which means church. We have to keep that straight, okay? Because if you think there's a church in the Old Testament, you will lean toward Calvinism, okay? Because that's what they teach, all right? But there was no church in the Old Testament. There was a body called a nation, Israel, that worshiped God, and they were the ones who propagated God among people, at least they were supposed to. Okay, so verse number one, chapter two of Acts. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And the they was 120 people that were assembled together in that one room. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, the word other Tongues means languages that were unknown to the speaker. Those languages were known to the hearers, but not to the speakers. That was the special thing that took place on that day as the Holy Spirit filled those 120 believers, which the filling of the Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus who said, I have to go back to heaven so I can send the Holy Spirit. That happened on this day. That's something to celebrate, okay? That's how we are guided into the truths of the word of God. All right, drop down to verse 41 with me, and we'll see further this celebration that took place. We don't have the cloven tongues sitting on our heads these days. because we have the Holy Spirit in our heart. All right, so there's been a change throughout the church history, and that's the way it happens now. But verse 41 tells us more details about this celebration. It says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. What's the requirement of baptism? Receiving the word of God. Receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay, that's the only way, that's the only reason for us being baptized. And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Now that's something to celebrate. Every soul that's saved is something to celebrate, is it not? Rescued from hell. And so that is what happens within the body called the church of Jesus Christ. Verse 42, and they continued steadfastly in six things, at least six things, from here to the end of the chapter. Firstly, they continued steadfastly in the Apostle's Doctrine. That is the teachings of the Bible. They continued every time they met in the Apostle's Doctrine. It's called the Apostle's Doctrine, it's actually God's doctrine, not the apostles doctrine, but it was the apostles that initiated the teaching of the doctrines of the word of God. And in fellowship, fellowship literally means participation. They participated in one another's lives, encouraging one another, challenging one another, helping one another grow, edifying the body of Christ, and so forth, and that is what we ought to be doing in our celebration as we meet on the Lord's day. We ought to be participating in one another's lives. Fellowship is not just having a chin wave with people, it's helping them spiritually to grow in the Lord. And we all need to be involved in that work, which is a work of grace, really. Thirdly, in breaking of bread. They partook of the Lord's table in order to remember, recall to mind, what Jesus has done for them. So as we assemble, we partake in the Lord's table. Now, it doesn't say anywhere in scripture how often you're to do it. It just says, as often as you do do it, you remember him and what he did for us. All right? And so every local church does it a little bit differently. how many times you do it in a month or whatever, or in a year. Some only do it once a year. That's that local body's decision that that's when they're gonna celebrate with having the Lord's table. And there's nothing unscriptural about that. And so we can't attack people because they don't do it the way we do it. All right, that's free information, that wasn't in my sermon last Sunday. So I'd better move on. In prayers, in prayers, they prayed together as a body, as a church. All right, and we're good at praying alone, by ourselves, but there is nothing that strengthens you more than praying with another believer. And yet, Prayer meeting is the most neglected service time that we have. Why is that? It's because we are not continuing steadfastly in prayers. The biblical way of praying, we pray together. And that way we can grow and we can be challenged. I'll just give an illustration briefly. I used to enjoy so much hearing Damien's grandfather, Mr. Whitehead, pray. That man walked with God. And just hearing his prayer encouraged me, challenged me in my life. Prayer can do that, folks. We can be a tremendous blessing to one another as we pray, as we pour out our hearts, with one another over the needs of the church. Then drop down to verse 47, praising God. Praising God is part of this celebration of the church. How often do we praise God? And by the way, praising God, you praise God in several ways. We sing hymns and songs and spiritual songs. That's praising God. Another way we can praise God is testifying of what he's doing in our lives. When was the last time that we had collectively as a body testimony time? And why don't we? We don't because usually what happens is everyone sits there and looks at one another like, I don't have anything to say. Does that mean God's not working in their lives? Well, if God's not working in their lives, why is that? It's not God's fault. All right. And so they're fearful to give a testimony because many times they don't actually have one to share. And that's a shame. All right. And then a sixth one. And having favor with all the people. Being gracious one toward another. Let me ask you, you have a beef with anyone in the church? That's not meeting this. Finding favor one with another. You can't have a beef with one another. You can't have grievances. You can't have resentment and bitterness. And follow that. There's no way it's possible. And so those are all things that took place in this time of celebration together. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved and the words should be, we don't take them that way, to us should be is future, only future. But it should be translated we're being saved. So as people were being saved, whether it's present or in the future, all of them, as they were being saved, were joined with the church. They became part of the church body. And there's diversity in the church, if you haven't looked around and noticed. There's even differences sometimes in doctrine, which is, Not the best thing, but oft times there is. In verse five of chapter two, it says, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven at that time. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. Word language literally is the word we get our English word dialect from. So in their own special dialect, they heard them speaking and thinking, what's going on here? It was very strange. They had never heard this before. And especially in verse seven, it says, and they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? Those 120 that were assembled together in that room that day were Jews from Judea. Galilee was where Jesus came from, all right? And they didn't think very well of the Galileans. And so that was a strike against them, plus the fact that they considered them to be ignorant. All right, and we'll find that out later in our reading. Verse eight says, and how here we, every man, in our own tongue wherein we were born. And then it lists several groups of people, and I'm gonna group them together for a reason. First of all, there were Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia. That was all from one portion of the land in the Middle East. Where were they from? The Elamites and the Medes, both of them, were from modern day Iran. The Parthians were further north, so part of Iraq, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia from that area of, where was Mesopotamia? Tigris and Euphrates rivers, all right? So the regions of Iran and Iraq were where these people came from on that day, and many of them came to trust the Lord. And in Judea, there were many there from Judea. The 120 were there. but that's not speaking of them. There were others from Judea that were there, and they heard in their own dialects, which leads us to believe that in Judea they didn't speak all the same dialect. There were different dialects that were in that region. It's a pretty big area. And then we have Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia. All of those are in modern-day Turkey. In Egypt and in parts of Libya about Cyrene, those are Northern Africa nations, Egypt, Libya. Strangers of Rome, modern-day Israel, Israel, I mean Italy, I get it, spelled out, modern day Italy. In fact, Rome was in charge at that time and people thought very ill about them because they weren't very kind to them many times. And so there was a dislike of the Romans and yet the word of God reached those that were disliked. Why? Because God has no respect for persons. There were Jews and proselytes. Proselytes were proselytes to Judaism. There were actually Gentiles that became Jewish in their beliefs and practices. And then there were those from Crete. That's an island in the Mediterranean Sea associated with the Greeks. Arabians, that is modern day Saudi Arabia. even down to Yemen and Oman, those countries, they were from there. And all of these different places, God reached into their hearts and touched them with his word. And we as a church ought to be reaching everyone. We should be no respecter of persons either. just like the early church experienced on its foundation day. Though there's diversity, there can be unity within that. They said, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. What's the message that we have to deliver to the diverse? It's the same message. It's the love of God for them through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, the son of God, that they might have eternal life. That's the wonderful works of God that we deliver. Don't waste your time trying to settle their questions, which are mostly argumentative. They're just trying to get you off track. Stick to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God will do a work in their heart. Well, then the church also was a place of recognition. Verse 16, we're gonna drop down to. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. So these were all saying different things, okay, which oftentimes happens. A lot of conspiracies happen when you don't understand what's going on. And Peter points to the Old Testament scriptures prophecies that this is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. God told us this would happen and this is happening. That's what you're seeing happen here. This is what you're hearing. And he went to Joel and he says, and it came, And it shall come to pass in the last days, which this is not the last days here, okay, in Acts chapter two, that's not the last days, but Peter acquainted with what was going on with the fulfillment of at least part of Joel's prophecy. Saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. That happened on this day. All those that were there, the Holy Spirit was poured out on to give them understanding of the wonderful works of God. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, which obviously those 120 prophesied on that day. And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Mainly that's talking about later on in the last days that these things will actually happen in a large degree. Verse 18, and on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. Down in verse 21, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so he delivers all of that information from Joel's prophecy. And then he turns to David. and what David had to say in his prophetic scriptures. We'll look down in verse 32, though it starts way up in verse 22, but we'll look from verse 32. This Jesus, which David spoke about, this Jesus hath God raised up whereof we all are witnesses. Those of us who are speaking in these other tongues and you're hearing in your own language is a display that we've experienced and we are now witnesses of that. What is a witness? It's someone who testifies of what he's seen and heard. That's what a witness is. We're to be witnessing for Jesus Christ. That's all part and parcel of this celebration on this day, the Lord's day. Verse 33, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear. And so he's saying, this is what David talked about and we're seeing it happen in our presence. And like in Australia Day, there was opposition, and still is opposition. Acts chapter 2 and verse 12. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? What is this all about? Others, mocking, said, these men are full of new wine. These guys are drunk, like on Australia Day happens. And so they were opposing this. This can't be real. This can't be something that we should follow. And so there was opposition, even on that day there was opposition. But there was opposition a little bit later too, chapter four. Turn there with me, beginning in verse 5. And it came to pass on the morrow that the rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, who was his son who became high priest, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. This is all the religious leadership of the day. The ones who should have been propagating the Lord Jesus Christ in their message but were not. They were antagonistic toward it and opposed it vehemently. Verse seven, when they had set them in the midst, they set John and Peter in their midst because they were preaching the gospel, they were doing what these guys were supposed to be doing. And whenever someone shows you up, there's a tendency to oppose what they're doing. Why? Because you're embarrassed you should be doing that. And so it says, they set him in their midst and they asked, by what power or by what name have you done this? In chapter two, they said, what's this all about? Here they say, who gave you the power and the authority to do this? Were the head honchos around here, spiritually speaking, nothing goes on around here except through us. That's what they were saying. Drop down to verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Why, they were Galileans. And so they acquainted Galileans with being dumb. What do they know about all this stuff? We're the ones who've studied. We're the head spiritual leaders. And they marveled. And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Okay? If we're living right, people will notice that we've been with Jesus. And they ought to see that. And so from this verse, verse 13, we find out that it's not what we know, it's who we know. That's the important thing. Because if we know him, he will share who he is with us and we'll know. So we'll know the what because we know the who. That make sense? We won't know the what if we don't know the who. And these guys knew nothing about the who because they knew nothing, even though they claimed to be intelligent. But John and Peter were seen as having been with Jesus. It showed. Showed in their demeanor, showed in their courage, showed in their message. Verse 14, and beholding the man which was healed standing with them. So they had healed this man of his malady, and they could say nothing against that. Why? Because it was right there in front of them. This guy who was standing there, who was healed, how do you argue against that? He was real. He wouldn't make believe he wasn't a ghost. And so they had no argument against that. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves. They didn't want them to hear this private secret discussion on what they were gonna do. Whenever someone does things in secrecy, you know it's probably not gonna be good. saying, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them, is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. And we cannot deny it. It's like, we can't speak against it. It's real. When the church does right in this world, The world will recognize it and they cannot deny it. It's real. Verse 16, verse 17. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them Commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. Intimidation. People will try and intimidate us to keep us quiet. Don't listen to the intimidation. We have boldness through Christ. Nothing can happen to us. They can't beat us up or anything else unless God gives them permission to do so. Okay, and in doing that, God has his own purposes in all of that. Even if they kill us, if we become a martyr, God, the Holy Spirit will take that and he will work on their mind and heart and they won't be able to escape it, so. go forth with courage and boldness. And so we see their answer to this threat, this intimidation. Verse 19, but Peter and John answered and said unto them, whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. You be the judge of that. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." We can't shut up. It doesn't matter how much you threaten us or try and intimidate us, we can't be quiet about the Lord Jesus Christ who has done so much for us. So if you've got a problem with that, you've got a problem. But we're going to keep doing what we're doing. because that's what our God wants us to do. Verse 21, so when they had further threatened them, like that was gonna do any good, they didn't listen to the threat the first time, why are they gonna listen the second time? They let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because they weren't, they hadn't done anything wrong. How can they punish them? Because of the people for all men glorified God for that which was done in the healing of this man. When people see God act, they will glorify Him. The lame man sitting at the gate, beautiful. Chapter 5, it continues on. Verse 17, chapter 5 of Acts. Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, which is of the sect of the Sadducees, which didn't believe in the resurrection, so they didn't believe in a risen Christ anyways, and were filled with indignation. When they don't have an argument, when they can't intimidate you, what do they do? They get mad. They get mad. Let them get mad. Who cares? Verse 18, chapter 5, ìAnd they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.î Drop down to verse 28, ìThey brought him back before them, before the council, saying, ìDid we not straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name?î How dare you, the audacity of you going against what we said! And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, with your teaching about Jesus, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." Well, they didn't intend to do that. That was already done. Anyone who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ is already guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, what was their answer? Verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. When men go against God, we still follow God. We always follow God, no matter what. No matter what men say, we follow God. I'm not going to cover this, but in chapter 6 again, verses 9 through 13, if you want to write those down, Acts 6, verses 9 through 13, We see again the attacks of the enemy, the opposition. Chapter 7, verses 58 through 60, talking about Stephen and the stoning of Stephen. Chapter 9, verses 1 through 6, Saul of Tarsus wanted permission to go to Damascus and haul in all of these Jesus speakers, okay? And he got converted on the road to Damascus. Then chapter 12 and verses 1 through 5, Peter's thrown in prison after James was beheaded by Herod and Peter was to lose his life and God delivered him from the hand of Herod. Okay. Opposition, opposition. There's opposition today. Don't be intimidated. Don't be fearful. Just preach the gospel to people. That's what they need to hear. The reason they're so mad at you is because they're mad at Jesus. Why? Because Jesus demands to have the authority over their lives and they don't want to give it up. So just preach Jesus to them. And then there's a permanence. there's a permanence. The word Pentecost is a Greek word signifying the 50th part of a thing or the 50th in order. Among the Jews, it was applied to one of their three great feasts, one of which was Passover. And this day of Pentecost happened 50 days after Passover. If you'll remember Australia Day, the celebration, the official celebration of a public holiday of Australia Day was not until the 50th year of the founding of this country by the British. And here we have 50 days after the start of the church, after the resurrection, rather, of the Lord Jesus Christ that we have the beginning of the church. So this feast was reckoned from the, and this is confusing, so hang with me here. This feast, the Feast of Pentecost, was reckoned from the 16th day of the month Abib, or April, or the second day of the Passover. So Passover wasn't just one day, it was three days. And Pentecost is dated from the middle of those three days. which happened to be the day he was what? In the tomb. Okay, so 50 days after he was in the tomb, so we had the Paschal Lamb was slain on the 14th day of the month, the day before he was in the tomb, he died on the cross. Then he was in the tomb, and 50 days after that, we have the day of Pentecost. So the 15th day when he was in the tomb was considered a holy convocation, the proper beginning of the feast. On the 16th day was the offering of the first fruits of the harvest. Who was the first fruits of the harvest? Jesus, our Lord. He was the first fruits of the harvest. And from that day, which was Sunday, he rose from the grave, and there were reckoned seven weeks, that is 49 days, to the feast called the Feast of Pentecost so that it occurred 50 days after the first day of the Feast of Passover. or the day in which he was in the tomb. This feast was also called the Feast of Weeks. Makes sense, seven weeks of seven days. From the circumstance that it followed is succession of weeks. It was also a harvest festival and was accordingly called the Feast of Harvest. So we have three names for the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of the Harvest are all the same event. And it was for this reason that two loaves made of new meal were offered on this occasion as first fruits. All that information is from Albert Barnes. So Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday. Satan thought he had defeated him on the other two days, but little did he know. And Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday, hence the Lord's day is on Sunday, the first day of the week. How do we know it's the first day of the week? I'm just gonna read some scriptures, and I'm not gonna talk about them very much. Matthew 28, verse one. In the end of the Sabbath, the end of the Sabbath was, the days in Jewish culture start at 6 p.m. and they run through the 6 p.m. of the next day. So the evening is the beginning of the day. Hope I'm not gonna confuse you on this, okay? From six in the evening to six in the morning is the evening. And then the day starts at 6 a.m., runs to 6 p.m. How do I know that? Because on the days of creation it says, and the evening and the morning were the first day. The evening and the morning were the second day. That's the way God calculates time. He doesn't go from midnight like we do. Anyways, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, were seen coming to the sepulcher at dawn that day, the Sabbath day. Mark 16, verse 2, and very early in the morning, first day of the week, They came to the sepulcher at the rising of the sun. Sun rose normally at 6 a.m. They came, verse 9 of that chapter. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. Luke chapter 24 and verse 1. Now upon the first day of the week, Very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them. Why did they prepare spices? Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus already had wrapped him in his grave clothes. Why were they gonna bring these spices? It was for a sweet-smelling savor for the body of Jesus Christ. That's why they did it. And when we meet on the first day of the week, as we fellowship with one another, as we listen to the word of God, as we rejoice together, it's a sweet smelling savor that's lifted up to the Lord in celebration for what he's done for us. I better quit preaching. All right, John chapter 20 in verse one. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher. And seeing the stone taken away from the sepulcher, then drop down to verse 19. Then the same day at evening, which is 6 p.m., being the first day of the week, when the doors were open, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be with you. So he'd risen from the dead, six o'clock in the evening, he appears unto the disciples who were closed up in the room. Why? Because they thought they were next to die. And Jesus comes in to this turmoil, this turbulence in their lives, fearfulness. And what does he do? He offers his peace to them. When we assemble together on the first day of the week, all of the troubles, all the trials, all the nightmares that we've experienced throughout the week, we come into an assembly where God offers us peace as we celebrate him. Acts chapter 20 and verse 7. Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. I'm not going to do that. So you can relax. You can have peace. One more scripture. First Corinthians 16 and verse 2. something else that took place and takes place on the first day of the week and is yet to take place in our day. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay up by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. There was a collection of money for the ministry of the gospel through the local church. And as we assemble together, God blesses us. And out of that blessing, we are to give unto his work a portion of what he's given to us. That's all part of the celebration that we celebrate as his church. We're involved in his work. So both Australia Day and the Lord's Day are days of celebration with diverse participants recognizing something great has happened, not, however, being without opposition and our permanent occasions that we continue to celebrate unto this day and into the future. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that we can see these parallels of historical events, even that take place in our country, And Lord, help us that we may have benefited from that study tonight. Pray that you might help us where we are weak, where we need to change in our behavior and the way we do things. Help us to follow you wholeheartedly and to rely on the Holy Spirit who indwells us. May our hearts be right so he can actually fill us with your goodness that we may glorify you. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.