you It's just like you get to know your best friend or your spouse or somebody like that, and the more you get to know them, it means something. It adds to your relationship. And that's the way it is with Jesus. You see these things like this in chapter 3 of the book of Acts, verse 12 says, And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? He says, The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son, Jesus, whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. Read 14 and 15 with me. But ye denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. You know, you love that? Jesus being called the Prince of Life. I think it's, might be Psalm 12, I love where it calls him the King of Glory. Just some of those, descriptive names and phrases about Jesus. In yesterday's BBF Bible reading, if you're reading along with our Bible reading calendar, John 1, 4, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. That's Jesus being spoken of there. And in Jesus' own words, he says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and The life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Also in Jesus' own words, testimony is established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. I don't know if you noticed that as we're reading, but let's look at it. In Matthew 18, 16, take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. In the Old Testament, you weren't allowed to put someone to death unless there were two or three eyewitnesses. My only criticism of capital punishment in this country has been how the, level of evidence should be higher. That if you want to put somebody to death, there should be a threshold you have to meet. And I don't think they've met that in a number of cases, and they found out later they killed the wrong person. But the Bible set up two or three, at least, eyewitnesses. Otherwise, you'd punish them, but you wouldn't put them to death. But look at this. We see a three-fold witness to the righteous death of Jesus for sinners. Look at verse 47. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. So there's witness number one, his killers. His killers testify. Number two, in verse 48, and all the people that came together to that site, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts and returned. That's the general population of Israel there. So you have his Roman killers, you have the general population of Israel, and then look at verse 49, and all his acquaintance. And the women that followed him from Galilee stood afar off, beholding these things." These aren't just three witnesses. These are three groups of witnesses. And the third group is his friends, family, and followers. Eyewitnesses to his righteous death. Those people would have told anybody who asked, did he deserve that? He did not deserve that. Was he a sinner who deserved that? He had never sinned. No one could ever pin a sin on him. Took false witnesses. to even pin any accusation to him. So Jesus is dead, now we're given the details about his burial, and that's where we'll pick up the second half of our reading. Beginning in verse 50, read the, I'll have you read the even with me. Just start there in verse 50 with me. And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor, and he was a good man and a just. The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also killed himself. I'm sorry, that's always killed himself. And also himself, I was reading about Jeffrey Epstein there, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God, this man went unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how his body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Amen. And I got a little distracted because I was remembering as I was reading about Joseph of Arimathea, no one knows really what happened to him. And it's one of those things where there are some reports that some of these people, like him and Nicodemus and others, might have been hit, so to speak. They tried to do that to Paul, remember? When the apostle Paul became a Christian, they tried to kill him. And so that's what I was thinking of. I apologize for interjecting my trying to do two things at once in my brain. But verse 50 says this about Joseph. He's a counselor, and he was a good man and a just. So this was one leader in Israel who had not supported the murder of Jesus, and there were a bunch of them. Just keep that in mind. It's just like what we see going on in our nation today. There's still a lot of decent people who don't support this stuff. And it's really a tiny minority that is causing the problem. They say that it's less than 3% of the population who is sexually perverted in the terms of Sodom and Gomorrah, less than 3%. And yet, they have a lot of money, and they are loud, and they use their influence, and the same thing was happening at the time of Jesus. And if you don't think it involves sex perverts, you don't know anything about human beings. The sexual perversion, the criminality, there was a lot of the mafioso type of financial crime going on. It's just a mess. Verse 451 then says, the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them, as I said, but it says he was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews who also himself waited for the kingdom of God. Now, the exact location of Arimathea is unknown. But we can ask Joseph of Arimathea where it was when we see him very soon. I believe he's a believer. That's why he's doing what he's doing. I believe we're gonna see him. We're gonna see Joseph of Arimathea. We're gonna see Simon of Cyrene. We're gonna see that thief on the cross that was in paradise at the end of the day with Jesus. Verse 52 and 53 goes on and says, this man, Joseph of Arimathea, went unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and he took it down and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. This Joseph of Arimathea was quite a special man. He's the one man that handled the body of Jesus Christ when it was dead, the dead body. and then wrapped it in the linen. The idea that Jesus wasn't really dead is called the swoon theory. You heard of that? I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but it's absurd. This is a statement from the Where's the second, there it is. Journal of American Medical, JAMA, JAMA, JAMA they call it, Journal of the American Medical Association. Quote, clearly the weight of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to his side was inflicted and supports the traditional view that the spear thrust between his right rib probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and heart, and thereby ensured his death." You don't survive that. Continuing, accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appeared to be at odds with modern medical knowledge, end quote. That comes from the American, our Journal of the American Medical Association back in March 21st of 1986. And they've never rescinded that comment, by the way. And I'll not address the Shroud of Turin, but some of you might have thought of that when you see that he wrapped him in the linen cloth. I mean, you heard of the Shroud of Turin. But some respected Christians believe it to be credible. Noah Hutchings was one of them, Gary Habermas, some others. There's a snapshot of it. Some of you probably see it on the History Channel or something like that. But it's a linen burial cloth that dates close to the time of Christ. the body, when you decay, your body puts out gases and such, and it leaves an impression on cloth. And this was a white cloth. So with that, we don't know whose face that is, but that is the face of a real man who was crucified. And you can see in the hands, there was an area where you could see the wound. Yes? Well, that's the point that I made, and they have an explanation for that, that it wouldn't actually have to be dead, because if you wrapped anybody in a linen cloth, your body still puts off that kind of thing. But that's the first question I had. Well, the Bible says he did not let his Holy One see corruption. Johnny? We saw something where their claim on this was that that imprint was not from a dead body, but was from light coming up from when he resurrected. Oh, who said that? The alien one. Yeah, that was their explanation. So you're using real credible sources there, Johnny. Well, it's about as credible as anyone else who played it. And, you know, you're not going to get... I'm not going to criticize you wherever you land on that. I'm just saying that, personally, it's not something I would go to people and present as evidence for Jesus, you know. It's interesting, though. But here's the point. And this is not just about the shroud of turn, this is about anything. There are Catholics who are real believers in Jesus Christ. They really are. But they believe all this crazy stuff about the bones of the saints and pieces of wood from the cross. And I've quoted where people have said they saw so much wood from pieces of the cross that they could have built a bridge over the Rhine with it. There's no way. There's way too much wood for that to be true. But it doesn't matter what it is. If your Aunt Gertrude tells you she had a vision, it doesn't matter what it is. 2nd Peter 1 19 says we have also a more sure word of prophecy, and that's this book right here That's why I constantly tell you that if I tell you my opinion. That's my opinion Whole different ballgame than when I simply am telling you what this book says If you reject something I tell you, and I say, well, I believe this. Well, I don't. Well, OK. You can live and die and be wrong. Amen? But no, seriously, it's your opinion. It's fine. But when we're just quoting the Bible, and you tell me, well, I don't believe that, now there's trouble. That's when there's trouble. And Peter goes on to say, where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. Boy, that's the word of God in our generation. Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. So look at verse 54 through 56. And that day was the preparation and the Sabbath drew on. I want you to watch this. Verse 55, and the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how his body was laid. Verse 56, and they returned and prepared Spice's anointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now, not necessarily because it's mentioned here twice, but it's a fact that there were two Sabbaths that took place prior to the resurrection. Good Friday is Nonsense. Now, if everybody gets together in a Good Friday service and they sing about Jesus dying for our sins and all that, there's no harm in that. The harm is that it makes a mockery of what the Bible actually says. So if you don't think about it too much, that's fine. But Jesus said, as Jonah was in the belly of the well for three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth in a tomb. and after three days and three nights would rise again. Good Friday is barely more than 24 hours between the time that he was buried and his resurrection. And then they want to tell you, well, that's how Jews count. That's not how Jews count. It's ridiculous. Now, there are some Jews I've heard who, like Zola Levitt, I think was one of them, who I heard, it might not be, I better not. Check me on that. But it was a Messianic Jewish teacher one time who said, well, because it was before sundown, that counted as a day. And then because it was after sunset on what we would call Saturday, that would be the third day. But it says after three days and three nights. Well, that all plays into this. But I just made a basic chart for your visual learners. Nisan 14, you can see their days don't match up exactly to ours, because ours, we start at midnight. Theirs starts around what we'd call 6 p.m.-ish, sunset. So on Nisan 14 was the day that Jesus died on the cross. That was Passover day. And again, well, the Jews this and the Jews that. The Jews celebrate Passover on the 15th. The Bible says it's the 14th. Don't follow the Jews, follow the Bible, amen? Come on. Don't follow the Catholics, don't follow the Protestants, don't follow Greg. Follow the Bible. And the Bible says Passover is Nisan 14. He died, but then the next day was a high Sabbath, not the regular weekly Sabbath. Then the following day is when they went and get the spices and ointments prepared, and then the next day is the weekly Saturday Sabbath, and then sometime after sunset, on a Sunday morning, is when he rose again. Go over to John 19.31 and mark your Bible. The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high day. It wasn't just the regular weekly Sabbath. And so you can ignore all that, just go along with everything, and I'm not even going to condemn you. You may even understand what we're talking about and go to a Good Friday service somewhere. If what you're doing, you're doing because you love the Lord, and you take part because you love what He did for you on the cross, there's nothing wrong with that. This was the first day of Unleavened Bread, so it would have been the High Holy Day. And then you have the Saturday Sabbath, go back to the chart, so you have the High Day, Passover, first day of Unleavened Bread. That's the High Day. Then you have the regular weekly Sabbath in addition to that. There were times where they'd be back to back. And that's how it worked out. In this case, Wednesday, what we would call Wednesday, the cross, Thursday, high Sabbath day, Friday, spices, ointment, Saturday, there was the weekly Sabbath, and then after sunset that day, Jesus rises. And that's, it's just so simple. And I was gonna say, why is this important? Why? Because this is real. God's not gonna send people to hell for celebrating Resurrection Day as Easter, which is Ishtar. He's not gonna send people to hell because they celebrate it on a Sunday every year, which is impossible. He's not gonna send people to hell for that, but is that how low we're set in the bar? We're gonna go along with anything. As long as they don't send you to hell, well, let's get a keg, man. Let's just have a party. God's not gonna send you to hell. Let's just party on, yeah, man. Bible Believers Party Fellowship. I mean, if you're gonna set the bar that long, that's how Christians are when you talk to them. Like, it's no big deal unless it's gonna send you to hell. I think it's a big deal anytime God tells us something, we should know it, amen? God tells us we should know it. Our study in Numbers this week, Numbers chapter seven, and it was like a repetition over and over of all the tribes offering the same offerings and the spoon full of incense and a charger and this and that. And it was the same for all 12. We went over every verse. There are a lot of preachers who will skip that stuff. And I'm just like, I just can't do it. Jesus said, man shall live by every word. But if God tells us something, I think it's important. And the main point when you're talking to people, though, is that it's real and it doesn't end there. It's not gonna end here with Jesus being dead in a tomb. That's why all your new Bible versions are of the devil. Mark 16, in your new versions, ends with Jesus in the tomb. That is satanic. God did not give you a gospel of Mark with Jesus still in the tomb. Why are you seeing all the churches out here going to hell? Why do you see Christians so pathetic in their profession? They don't live it. They don't live what they claim to believe because they're walking around with corrupt perversions in their hands and reading corrupt Bibles and having their minds and their souls rotted by that stuff. Back when people had a book and they believed it, there was something different about Christianity. There was something different about Christians. It's just amazing to watch. And all you can do, you tell them and you just watch them go off the cliff. That's why this is important. And it's also important because it doesn't end here. In closing, I want to mention this, the veil. Go back to where we read that. Jesus removed the barrier between man and God. Verse 45. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. Do you know how big that thing was? Now there's some people who say it was four inches thick. The Bible doesn't say that, but the eyewitnesses say it was four inches thick of animal skins. You think it's hard to tear up a phone book? Some of you kids don't know what that is, but it's a real thick book. How many of you have seen that? It used to be a thing, the strong man, yeah, and he'd rip it. Bionic woman, I bet that was real. But you take goat skins four inches thick. How big is that? About four inches, you think? Maybe a little bit bigger? Would you say the ceiling's about 20 feet? The veil was three times this, that high. 60 feet tall, four inches thick, right down the middle. Just from top to bottom, yeah. I mean, that's 60 feet up all the way down, four inches of animal skins. That's a super. How did I? God. That's your explanation. Anybody asks. If we're not careful, we miss that point. That's why I wanted to emphasize at the end. Hebrews 10, 19, 20 describes it saying, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. When we pray, we don't have to have anyone or anything other than Jesus and his shed blood. And we have access to the Father. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, That is to say, his flesh. He was pierced, shedding his blood for our sins, and when he gave up the ghost, as it says, into thy hands I commend my spirit, right down the middle, 60 feet of probably four inches of animal skin ripped right down the middle. I want to mention, we were talking about, even the Bible can be taken out. Matthew, it mentions an earthquake. Read it closely. The earthquake, if you read it as it's stated, came after that. People would try to say, oh, an earthquake caused that. No, it didn't. You may not have seen it, but there were two big hands on that thing going, just like that. It says, and then there was an earthquake. How did it happen? God. You can't do anything to add to it, by the way, yourself. You can't be saved as long as you think. That's why it's so important that I emphasize not trying to find natural explanations when God does something, because the same thing comes true, it's applicable to your salvation. The most dangerous thing you can ever hear someone say is, they say, yes, I believe and fill in the blank. What? Well, I believe the gospel and got baptized. I believe the gospel and joined the church. I believe the gospel and, no, none of that has to do with salvation. Salvation is all God, God our Savior dying on the cross, God our Savior paying for sin. Add anything to it, you destroy it. You take a miracle, add a natural explanation, you destroy it, it's no longer a miracle. It's just a natural event that you needed an explanation. Not true. And it comes to your salvation, it's all Jesus and what Jesus did to save you. And not of works, lest any man should boast. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this amazing scene We're so thankful to have described to us several different times, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and we can't really even fathom what happened. We can't really even, it just doesn't even sink in, really. At the same time, we're so thankful for what you have told us, and we just ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, to gain a deeper, clearer, understanding of what it was that our wonderful Savior did for us to save us from our sins by His shed blood and to remove that barrier and open the way to our wonderful God by faith in that gospel. And we give you the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. ♪ Glory be ♪ ♪ Lest I forget Thine own crowned brow ♪ ♪ Lead me to Calvary ♪ ♪ Lest I forget Thine assembly ♪ ♪ Lest I forget Thine agony ♪ ♪ Lest I forget Thy love for me ♪ Lead me to Calvary Show me the tomb where Thou wast laid Tenderly worn and wed Angels in robes of white array Guarded me whilst I slept Lest I forget Thine agony, Lest I forget Thy love for me, Lead me to Calvary. Let me like Mary through the good, Show to me now the empty tomb, The ancient Calvary. daily Even that cup of grief to share, Thou hast put all for me. Lest I forget Thine agony, Lest I forget Thy love for me, Oh God's people say Amen!