Pastor George Pearsons

Sunday Outline – April 2, 2023

This past weekend, Pastor George spoke about how we come into the Holy of Holies in a greater degree during this resurrection week, and continuing on.

Just over 2000 years ago, during this week, Jesus made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. He came in as the final Passover lamb.  The devil didn’t know exactly what Jesus was doing (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). The Final Passover Lamb will follow the exact steps of the First Covenant Passover Lamb.

What Jesus did forever changed our relationship to God.

Matthew 27:19-25 (NKJV)

“While he (Pilate) was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that just Man [ she saw who Jesus was], for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.” But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!” When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”

Matthew 27:26-34 (NLT)

“Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified. [some of you have seen the Movie, The Passion of Christ, say this after each statement: “He did that for me”] Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then, they knelt before him in mockery and taunted Him shouting, ‘Hail! King of the Jews!’”

“They spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. They led him away to be crucified. Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene. The soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.”

“They went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). The soldiers gave him wine mixed with bitter gall. When he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.”

Matthew 27:35-44 (NLT)

“After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. They sat around and kept guard as He hung there. A sign was fastened above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Two thieves were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”

The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ Even the thieves who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.”

Matthew 27:45-50 (NLT)

“At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.” Then Jesus shouted out, “IT IS FINISHED!” He released his spirit.”

Matthew 27:51-54 (NLT)

“At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook. Rocks split apart. Tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.

The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, ‘This man truly was the Son of God!’”

In the Beginning . . .

• What a dark day this was.
• What a sight to behold.
• For just a moment, let’s go back in time to another place, to the place where it all began.

Genesis 2 (The Garden of Eden.)

Life was good in the Garden.

 Verse 1 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.”

1. The heavens were created for the earth.
2. The earth was created for man.
3. Man was created to be loved by His Father.  (The Father loves me!)

Verse 7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

He spoke the BLESSING into him.

God created him to be a speaking spirit just like Himself — one with whom He could communicate and fellowship.

Psalm 4:4-6 (Pastor George Translation) What is “this man” that You are so mindful of him— that you think about him so much? And the son of man, that You would visit him and care for him? For you have created him just a shade lower than Yourself and You have crowned him with glory, majesty, splendor, excellence, and royalty. You made him have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet.

1. Adam abdicated his authority and turned it over to satan.
2. Adam gave up his precious relationship with the Father.
3. How would God reclaim that relationship with his man? (God was now on the outside looking in.)
4. What would it take for the door to be opened once again?

Hebrews 9 — The Levitical Priesthood

1. The Levitical priesthood was assigned the task of covering the sins of the people with animal sacrifices up to the time of Jesus.
2. This series of intricate, detailed ordinances which kept man from being obliterated by his own sin.
3. God had to maintain an arm’s length distance for man’s safety. He couldn’t even touch his precious creation.
4. Instead, a representative called the High Priest entered yearly into a sacred place called the Holy of Holies on behalf of the people. No other individual than the appointed person could enter in. [Exposure for anyone else would mean certain death.]

Hebrews 9:1-8 (NLT) [Describes the High Priest’s protocol.]

“That first covenant between God and Israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth. There were two rooms in that Tabernacle. In the first room were a lamp stand, a table, and sacred loaves of bread on the table. This room was called the Holy Place. Then, there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides.”

Pastor George shared about the ‘life size tabernacle’ that is displayed at Timnah in southern Israel. https://www.holylandsite.com/timna-tabernacle

Inside the Ark, was a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves, and the two stone tablets of the covenant. Above the Ark were the cherubim of divine glory, whose wings stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement.

When these things were all in place, the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties. But only the high priest ever entered the Most Holy Place, and only once a year. The Priest always offered blood for his own sins, and for the sins of the people which were committed in ignorance. By these regulations, Holy Spirit revealed that the entrance to the Most Holy Place was not freely open as long as the Tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use.

The Plan to Our Redemption

If one man was the key to the fall, then one man had to be the key to redemption.

Romans 5:12, 17, 19, 21 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

• Jesus, The final Passover Lamb was obedient to His Father.
• Jesus came to us and demonstrated the love of the Father.
• The Word (Jesus) was made flesh and dwelt among us.
• The Word (Jesus) chose to go to the cross on our behalf.
• By doing so, Jesus reinstated our fellowship with the Father (called righteousness).

Hebrews 9:11-15 (NLT) “Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time, and secured our redemption forever.”

Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. That is why He is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

The Power of the Cross

1. The relationship that was lost in the Garden of Eden was restored at the cross.
2. God was on the outside desiring to fellowship with the love of His life.
3. The door was about to be opened once again.
4. The plan for man’s redemption is unfolding as Jesus is hanging on the cross.
5. Something very strange begins to happen . . .

Matthew 27:45 “Now, from the sixth hour there was darkness all over the land unto the ninth hour.”

1. Clouds began to roll in.
2. It got darker and darker until a thick, ominous gloom filled the entire sky.
3. It cover the immediate vicinity, and also covered the entire earth.
4. Historians of that day wrote about, “The Darkness” that covered the earth at the time of Jesus crucifixion.

Matthew tells us that the darkening of the sky began at noon.

1. Why was, “the noon hour” so significant? It was to be the very moment that Caiaphas, the High Priest, arrayed in his full priestly garments, would begin the procession.
2. He entered the temple to slaughter a pure, spotless Passover Lamb.
3. This darkness lasted three hours — the exact moment the High Priest would be making his entrance into the Holy of Holies.
4. His purpose was to offer the blood of the Passover Lamb to cover the sins of the nation. At that very moment Jesus heaved upward on the cross to take His last breath and cried out “IT IS FINISHED!”

Matthew 27:51 “And, behold, the veil of the temple was split in half from the top to the bottom.”

There were two curtains inside the temple.

One was at the entrance to the Holy Place.

A second, at the entrance to the Holy of Holies.

Only the Hight Priest was allowed to pass through the second curtain once a year.

The Second Curtain

1. It was a sixty feet high, thirty feet wide and four inches thick.
2. The veil was so heavy, it took three hundred priests to move it.
3. It would have been humanly impossible to tear such a thick curtain.
4. At the exact moment Jesus was breathing His last breath, Caiaphas was preparing to step through the second veil of the temple to enter the Holy of Holies.
5. There, he would offer the blood of a spotless lamb.
6. At the very instant Jesus cried out “It is finished,” Caiaphas stepped up to pass through the veil.

This massive, fortified curtain that stood before the Holy of Holies was suddenly split in half from the top all the way to the bottom!

God’s divine hands reached down from Heaven. He tore the curtain of separation in half.

1. Ciaiaphas was shocked as he watched the two sides of the massive curtain collapse to his left and right.
2. God’s presence was no longer confined.
3. Anyone and everyone could enter the Holy of Holies.
4. When Jesus was lifted on the cross, the cross became an eternal mercy seat on which the blood of the final sacrifice was sprinkled.
5. Once that sacrifice was made, it was no longer necessary for a High Priest to continually make sacrifices year after year.

John 1 

1. Jesus’ blood became the final payment for man’s sin.
2. John 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”
3. The need to habitually offer sacrifices year after year was over.
4. One Jewish sage wrote, “A total of nighty-eight lambs were offered during Succoth to ward off the nighty-eight curses listed in Deuteronomy 28. [Succoth is a autumn Jewish festival to commemorate the sheltering of the Israelites in the wilderness.]

A new temple system had begun.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT) “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

1 Peter 1:18-19 “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1. The First Covenant had its Priesthood, sacrifices, and the Holy of Holies.
2. The Second Covenant now has its own Priesthood, sacrifices, and Holy of Holies.
   1. Jesus is our Eternal High Priest. We are kings and priests before the Lord.
   2. We offer our bodies as a living sacrifice.
   3. We now have direct access to the presence of God.

Hebrews 10:19-23 (KJV) “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).”

Hebrews 4:16 (KJV) “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”