THE GRAVE IS EMPTY
Monday – April 2, 2018, Nisan 17, 5778
Some nineteen hundred and eighty-five years ago our risen Savior waked out of His tomb near Golgotha, the place of the skull. Seventeen is the number of victory. Christ Jesus won not only a victory for Himself being restored as God but for all mankind who would receive Him as Lord and Savior. Three days earlier on the fourteenth of Nisan He was flogged and sentenced to die upon the Cross. He was nailed to that cross at nine in the morning. The third hour in the day (daylight) would be 9 a.m.
Mark 15:25 (KJV)
25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him.
The Hebrew twenty-four-hour day starts at six in the evening until six in the evening the next evening. In the west we count the day from midnight to midnight. Our midnight is the sixth hour of the Hebrew evening (night). This method of measuring and describing time started right in the beginning.
Genesis 1:3-5 (KJV)
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
The Hebrews (Bible) divide the night up into watches, first, second, third, and fourth. The fourth watch for example would start at 3 a.m. and end at 6 a.m.
Matthew 14:25 (KJV)
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
Enough with the lesson on telling time. Jesus had told His disciples that He would spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40 (KJV)
40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Jesus gave up the ghost (physically died) on the Cross at the ninth hour which is 3 p.m.
Luke 23:44-46 (KJV)
44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.
46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
On the Hebrew Calendar the day of rest or Sabbath is the seventh day of the week just like with God in the creation. The Jewish (Hebrew) Sabbath is from 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Saturday. The first day of the week (our Sabbath or Sunday) starts at 6 p.m. Saturday until 6 p.m. Sunday. They consider what we call Sunday as the first day of the week.
John 20:1 (KJV)
1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
In the preceding verse the noting that “it was yet dark” is vital. Let us do some counting of the three days and nights. Jesus died spirit and body but not soul (mind) at 3 p.m. during the day on Thursday. Day one. He spent that night and the next day in the earth (Friday). Night one and day two. He spent the next night and day (Saturday) in the ground. The second night and the third day. He spends the next night (Sunday) in the earth arising just before dawn, the third night. Had He arisen after daylight on the first day of the week (our Sunday) it would have broken Scripture and Scripture is never broken, cannot be broken. Jesus was not killed by Calvary, He chose to surrender His life, He gave His life a ransom for ours.
John 10:17-18 (KJV)
17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
John 2:18-22 (KJV)
18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
22 When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
At the giving up of the ghost Jesus assisted by the Eternal Spirit (Gods’ Hands – Luke 23:46, Hebrews 9:14) descended into Hell paying the price of our sin having never sinned. He was found innocent by His Innocent Blood and the Words of His testimony (mind completely renewed to Word of God and not swayed by His circumstances) by Justice. He went into the bosom of Abraham, preached the gospel, and led the captives free into Heaven at His own ascension. It seems that these Old Testament saints were resurrected with Jesus in that we have a record of them walking about Jerusalem but not persisting in Jerusalem as might a person simply raised from the dead. They were the first wave of the First Resurrection. At the Catching Away (Rapture) we are the second wave of the First Resurrection. There is a third wave at the end of the Tribulation. Contemplate the following passages and never cease giving thanks, praise, and worship to God.
Ephesians 4:8-10 (KJV)
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV)
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Hebrews 1:3 (KJV)
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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