Chag haMatzah sameach and Yom haBikkurim kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah - blessings on this the second day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread and also on this special Day of Firstfruits or Resurrection Day. This is the third day of the Passover Season. And today also coincides with orthodox Christianity's Resurrection Day named after the pagan goddess, Easter. We both have the same message but without the easter bunnies, eggs, witches and all the pagan paraphernalia. Here in Sweden Easter, which is called Påsk, is more overtly associated with the witchcraft that undergirds all the pagan rituals. Indeed my wife got a shock the other day to find the bus driver was a lady dressed up as a witch in order, one supposes, to get into the 'spirit' of the occasion...at leased for secular, New Age Sweden.

But let's not spend any more time on the pagan version of this Day of the Firstfruits of the Resurrection. One of the brethren who arrived here two days ago brought along a newly acquired copy of the Eastern Orthodox Bible which I have had on my wish list for sometime for as you may know it's Tanakh or Old Testament is based on the much older Greek Septuagint (LXX) - older, that is, than the corrupted Hebrew Masoretic text that is used by nearly all Protestant and Catholic translations of the Bible.

Seeing this reminded me of a true story from the days of the Soviet Union for as you know Russia has been Eastern Orthodox for a very long time indeed, since AD 988 when Prince Vladimir made Byzantine Christianity the Russian State Religion. As there was never any serious Reformation Movement in Russia, eastern orthodoxy has totally shaped that nation's history. You cannot therefore understand Russia without understanding Eastern Orthodoxy whose priests even Stalin recruited to boost morale in the early dark days of the 'Great Patriotic War' of 1941-5 when the USSR was being overrun. The scene is a Soviet Russian community hall on Easter Day and the communist lecturer pauses before giving his summing up. The captive audience in the large lecture hall listened fearfully. "Therefore," he said, "there is no God. Jesus Christ never existed; and there is no such thing as a 'Holy Spirit'. The Church is an oppressive institution, and anyway it's out-of-date. The future belongs to the State; and the State is in the hands of the [Communist] Party."

There was silence in the room as no one dared to oppose him. You just don't contradict the officials of a totalitarian state. And Bolsheviks were always keen to arrest, imprison, torture, and murder dissidents, and in large numbers. Only the Chinese Communists under Mao have systematically killed more human beings than anyone else. And they sadistically enjoyed doing that. The Bolshevik lecturer, satisfied there was no opposition to his speech, was about to sit down when an old Orthodox priest near the front stood up, and asked: "May I say two words?", though it's three words in English and only two in Russian. The lecturer, disdainfully, gave him permision. The priest turned, looked over the crowd, and shouted: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" Back came the roar of the people, "He is risen indeed!". You see, the people had been saying this at Easter for 1,000 years, so why should they stop now?

What a beautiful, simple yet immensely deep profession of faith if said with all your heart! Millions of Eastern Orthodox Christians have been repeating this simple two-line liturgy now for over a millennium. So as the minister here today, I say, CHRIST IS RISEN! {Congregation responds: He is risen indeed!} Hallelu-Yah! This is wonderful news! For the first time a human being has risen from the dead and is permanently immortal. This is the hope of every living human being in every generation.

Now those Russians living under communust tyranny weren't just whistling in the dark when they responded, He is risen indeed! The Gospel message at Yom haBikkurim, even when it is falsely labelled 'Easter', is the complete answer to every and any kind of tyranny. And the place in Scripture where that is clearest is that worrying (for the tyrant) old book at the end of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, the book that so many find hard to understand. For as I have mentioned to you before, even satanists read the Book of Revelation but with Satan's spin on it.

We have covered three chapters of the Book of Revelation in our in-depth study so far and it's taken us 15 weeks! Even if you're reading that book for the first time and barely understand any of it, it remains very readable and explosive. It flows in a very special way - in a beautiful, overpowering way. Within it is hidden a thunderstorm - a thunderstorm that I want to talk about today, and that thunderstorm is Resurrection Day - Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits.

For those of you unfamiliar with, or a little rusty in, the seven annual biblical festivals, Yom haBikkurim is the day when in Israel's agricultural cycle the first of the barley harvest was brought as an offering to the cohen (priest) in the Tabernacle/Temple. The cohen (priest) would present the first of the harvest to Yahweh by waving the sheaves back and forth. This reminded the Hebrews that Yahweh had given them the land, and that the harvest belonged to Him. This festival represents spiritual rebirth or regeneration - being born again - in the Messiah and is symbolised in the New Covenant in baptism. As you are submerged under the water you are symbolically laid in the grave, and as you arise you symbolically arise as a completely new man or woman in Christ.

Yah'shua (Jesus) is the bikkurim or Firstfruits of the resurrection, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead (that's why Eastern Orthodox Christians respond, 'He is risen indeed' or 'in truth', 'in actuality'), the bikkurim (firstfruits) of those who have fallen asleep (died). For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the bikkurim (firstfruits); then, when He comes (at the Second Coming), those who belong to Him" (1 Cor.15:20-24, NIV).

If you belong to Him, you will be in that first group of humanity from the past and the present, who are physically raised from the dead. That is the first resurrection (Rev.20:5-6). If you do not belong to Him fully, whether as a disobedient believer or as one who did not believe and remained in your sins, untransformed, unregenerated, then you will remain as a disembodied spirit in the holding station that is the spirit world (Sheol), until after the Millennium whence you will then be physically raised to be judged and assigned a lesser reward and glory or to effectively no glory at all. As Paul explained, also to the Corinthians:

"There are also celestial (heavenly) bodies and terrestrial (earthly) bodies; but the glory of the celestial (heavenly) is one, and the glory of the terrestrial (earthly) is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor.15:40-42, NKJV).

So do not be deceived by the lie of the vast majority of contemporary denominations which teach that there is only one glory - heaven - and one place of ignominity - hell. Paul very clearly teaches there are three, and that the choices you make to believe or not believe, to obey or not to obey, determines which you will inherit, flying in the face of the Calvinist lie that 'once saved, always saved'. It doesn't matter what you think heaven and hell should, or should not, be. It doesn't matter how you or I in our flesh think divine justice in the resurrection should look like, or what ten thousand preachers say to the contrary, but there are three overall categories of resurrection, and the last category contains thousands of sub-categories, as varied as the brightness of the stars which you can see with the naked eye in the night sky. This is the illustration Paul uses, so simple that a child can understand it. Your daily responsiveness matters as I spoke about at length yesterday in my mammoth Chag haMatzah sermon. Do you see why it is important to understand these things? It means you have to daily work our your salvation with fear and trembling - in deep seriousness and sobriety and to stop assuming your initial choice was all there was to be done and that how you continue to respond will affect the final outcome of where you're going. Don't gamble away the greatest offer that has ever been made to mankind!

At Yom haBikkurim, then, Yah'shua's (Jesus) own resurrection as the bikkurim or firstfruits marked the beginning of the harvest of souls. Yah'shua (Jesus) said:

"'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds...But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself'" (John 12:23-24,32, NIV).

So we see that Yah'shua (Jesus) was likened to a grain of wheat falling to the ground and dying to produce a great harvest, two to be exact - one at the beginning of the Millennium, as represented by the festival called Shemini Atseret at the end of the cycle of annual festivals, and one at the end of the Millennium. The first resurrection consists of the spotless Bride of Christ wearing white garments denoting purity and will be with Him for ever on the glorified earth. The second does not, and will not be with Him, but will live elsewhere on worlds whose glory and brightness resembles the light emanating from the moon and the stars, respectively, as viewed on earth. Yah'shua (Jesus) arose on the Day of Firstfruits, Yom haBikkurim, and that is why we celebrate His resurrection today. And every once in a while the day corresponds with what orthodox Christians call 'Easter'.

Your response to the biblical teaching on the resurrection will determine how you live your Christian/Messianic life, whether you live it casually and indifferently to sinning or whether you take the call to be a pure Bride seriously. Remember, remember, there is a difference between jurisdictional or legal purity which enables us to approach the Father in the Holy of Holies through Messiah (in order to keep on working out our salvation in fear and trembling) and actual purification of the soul which comes through daily application of the mitzvot (commandments). Any of you who may think you need not be concerned about your actual purity (as opposed to the purity which He sees through Messiah-in-you) is exceedngly unwise becayse we must be absolutely pure in our souls through overcoming to enable us to approach Him one day as only the Cohen Gadol or High Priest was able to do so anciently in entering the Holy of Holies once a year at Yom har Kippurim (Yom Kippur) in the autumn/fall. Those who do not understand this distinction will likely wander away from this work eventuallly and may never really have been a part of it from the start. Jurisdictional salvation and purity through Messiah is wht enables us to take the resurrection on board to remain daily purified and grow in sanctification.

Two-resurrections theology, which is true biblical theology, separates out the casual and careless from the serious and it tells in their daily living - the way they conduct themselves - for the casual resemble the world in so many ways whereas the serious absolutely do not and stick out like a sore thumb, much to the embarrassment of the casuals who want to naturally blend in with the world so as not to rock the boat of Babylon on which they have made themselves dependent. That is why Yahweh said:

"Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people" (Ex.19:5, KJV).

The Hebrew word kegullah, translated in the King James Version (KJV) as "peculiar treasure", does not mean 'weird' or 'strange' but special. Other versions render "peculiar treasure" as "treasured possession" (NIV), separated or set-apart from all other peoples. It's similar in meaning to the word qadosh or qodesh which we render as 'holy'. Yahweh says this many times in the Tanakh (Old Testament) (Dt.14.2; 26:18; Ps.135:4) and twice in the New Testament as you would expect since the New Covenant People are the continuation of Israel or Messianic Israel, both of whom are Torah-obedient:

"For the grace of Elohim (God) that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great Elohim (God) and our Deliverer Yah'shua the Messiah (Saviour Jesus Christ); who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar (special) people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee" (Titus 2:11-15, KJV).

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a qadosh (holy, set-apart) [Messianic Israelite] nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 Peter 2:9, KJV).

Here you will observe, in the second quotation, that the phrases "a chosen generation", "a royal priesthood", "a holy nation", "a peculiar people" are just four different ways of saying the same thing, as if to make the point crystal clear. There is no wriggle-room here for lawlessness, OSAS, or any of the other heresies that abound in the Body of Christ. Those who trust in Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) for salvation and believe in His resurrection for eventual glorification and eternal life in a restored but immortal body, are the Nation of Israel in continuation; and the Constitution of the Nation of Israel is the Torah which makes Yahweh's people, when lived, 'peculiar', 'separate', 'different' or 'distinct' from all the other peoples of the world, and that includes both the unbelievers and the disobedient believers who just want to blend in with the world and be like the world. Where these disobedient believers draw the line between the world and holiness will differentiate between them on an individual basis, but wherever they draw that line, if it isn't the one that Yahweh has drawn for us, will separate them from the children of the first resurrection, who are after the glory of the sun, to become the children of the second, who after the glory of the moon. And if this doctrine offends anyone, it is because they have chosen the second already and they will inherit that resurrection unless they repent and conform themselves to being 'peculiar' or different.

Frankly, if anyone is offended, i couldn't care less other than it might perhaps awaken you, for that is better than being lukewarm or indifferent, nonchalant, unexcited or unmoved altogether. I would rather stir you up to be irritated with me or hate me than for you to walk away not caring because clearly we are supposed to care when the Creator is offering us something so much better than what we have, for whatever reason, settled for. And consider this: if your mind is that of the second resurrection, then you have not only not entered the spirit of Yom haBikkurim but you haven't entered the spirit of Chag haMatzah either, or only in part, which is again why Yahweh has given us a whole seven days to think seriously about these things. So don't be distracted from this important issue from your daily business, be it lawful or unlawful. These festivals are given so that we might face head-on the issues that are separating us from the Beloved so that we can turn around and get onboard again. That's what all these festivals are for, including the weekly Sabbath and monthly Rosh Chodesh. They aren't merely things we 'do' because that's what we have been commanded to 'do'. If you're assembling just to get the observance out of the way so you can get on with your regular life, you have entirely missed its point...and your blessings.

Jews think that Yom haKippurim (or Yom Kippur as they call it) is the most important divine moed (appointment) of all which they cheat during, and think they can get the Almighty to annull all their vows so that they can be vow-breakers for another year. But I believe there is a good case for making Yom haBikkurim into that most important of days. (They are, of course, all important). Surely it is the most thunderous moment of the whole year: He is risen indeed! And like most things, the human mind - including the regenerated mind - cannot cope with the scale of the resurrection and as a result we tend to scale it down to our own size, to fit our little minds.

Paganised Christians turn this cosmic event into fluffy rabbits and chocolate eggs. I know, I ate one in the bank the other day. And though there is a very, very weak case for saying that bunnies and eggs point vaguely in the right direction, they don't really get off the starting blocks, do they? I mean, here in Sweden people are buying boxes shaped like eggs filled with sweets/candy but they're also dressing up as, or erecting life-size witch dummies and putting the two together; so the eggs are here, at any rate, pointing entirely in the wrong direction. And, I know, the eggs and bunnies have all survived from pagan fertility religion - I'm just giving orthodox Christianity an opportunity to defend itself since we're both celebrating the resurrection on the same day this year.

If Easter is the source of evangelicals' spiritual life, and if a mechanical observation of Yom haBikkurim and the Old Covenant symbols for ancient Israel is the source of messianics', then there's a problem. For, you see, Yah'shua (Jesus) is both alive and the King of the Nation of Messianic Israel, the Royal Melchizedek Priesthood, the Author and Defender of Torah and the Redeemer of a Peculiar People, and a lot more. He is alive, I can have a personal relationship with Him and I can enter into a relationship with His plural Bride, Messianic Israel! Yes, the allegorical Bride is cosmically polygamous, the redeemed, the 'peculiar', the 'oddities' in the world. His Bride isn't one person but many-in-one - lots of allegorical 'bridelets', male and female, who together make up one Bride.

But there's more to Yom haBikkurim than even this. It is the ground of our future tiqveh or hope. Yah'shua's (Jesus') resurrection proves that there is life beyond the grave. This is true, it's vital. But once you've scaled that little hill you haven't even got to base camp on Mt.Everest, the foot of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, or even to the bottom of Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain on Mars and the tallest mountain on any planet in our Solar System. That mountain is called Yom haBikkurim. Resurrection Day isn't just about you and me and our present spiritual experience, or our hope beyond the grave. Yom haBikkurim is the beginning of Yahweh's New World - Pesach (Passover) and the first day of Chag haMatzah which we celebrated yesterday is just the introduction!

Yes, that's how much the Once Saved, Always Saved and the 'One Heaven' doctrines stunt the spiritual growth of believers! Even the so-called 'New Age' is a feeble pagan parody of the reality, which is this: that when Yah'shua (Jesus) burst out of the tomb on the Day of Firstfruits, the history of the entire Cosmos changed its course, from earth to the remotest galaxies that even now the new James Webb telescope is starting to photograph. That's when the real 'New Age' began, not the 'Day of Aquarius'; and it's perhaps because Christendom has lost sight of that fact that the New Age Movement, with all its mumbo-jumbo and its half-baked pseudo-philosophy, has come in to fill the vacuum and seize the imagination of a lost generation.

The Day of Firstfuits is the Victory Day of the Creator, Yahweh-Elohim, the Elohim (God) of Ahavah-, Chesed- or Agapé Love, over all tyranny - victory over the tyranny of the right, the tyranny of the left and now the tyranny of the muddled 'centre' that sprouts its ugly head from time-to-time. Yom haBikkurim declares that, after all, Elohim is Elohim, God is God, and that His Kingdom shall come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt.6:10). Resurrection Day speaks of a world reborn.

What language can we borrow to do justice to an idea so enormous? How about thunder and lightening - Donner und Blitzen - earthquakes and tornadoes, devastating terror and joy so rich and full you could swim in it? That's where we need the picture language of the Book of Revelation, a book we're never going to be far away from since we started plunging into it. Now I know there are those who treat the Book of Revelation as a theological crossword puzzle. But who needs crossword puzzles when you're faced with tryanny and love side by side? The language is strange to us partly because it's from a different culture. But it's also strange because we in the modern West have made ourselves strangers to thunder and earthquake, to terror and joy, because we have fallen for the postmodernist lie that we're just too sensitive to handle them. That's B/S (pardon my 'language'). The closest most of us get to them is the sanitised little world of the TV or computer screen, which we can turn off at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse if it becomes too upsetting.

If something happens to allow terror or joy to break through and hit us in the face, we can't cope. (Don't confuse here positive godly fear or terror with ungodly slavish fear or terror). Many go off and have a drink and try to pretend it didn't really happen. Many of the postmodernist generation volunteering to go and fight in the Ukraine are getting 'traumatised' even before they reach the battle front because reality isn't at all like the artificial souped-up one they have imagined in their cyber world or in their 'safe spaces'. Most turn tail and come straight back once they've taken a 'selfie' of themselves at the border to prove to their friends how brave they were in even getting there, or are sent to the slaughter where they never stood a chance. But Yom haBikkurim - the Day of Firstfruits, Resurrection Day - is the time for revolution. If we are in danger of scaling down and domesticating the gospel stories, the Apocalypse of John (Book of Revelation) will shake us out of all that, and expose some of our raw nerves to the terror and the joy lof the living Elohim (God).

So welcome outside the sanitised bubble that is the new Metaverse being created by the big tech companies to bottle us away into insensitivty and mediocrity. As we have already seen, the Book of Revelation begins with the risen Yah'shua (Jesus) (Rev.1:12-16). Snow-white hair, eyes of fire, feet like polished bronze, a voice like a waterfall, and His face like the sun itself...yes, the first resurrection's Glory like the Sun...no wonder John fell at His feet as though he was dead! This, brethren and sisters, is where chittah and simcha - terror and joy - meet: this, my friends, is the resurrected Yah'shua (Jesus)! Is that what you are expecting when you die and finally meet Him? Are you prepared for that? Or were you expecting some mortal human version of Him? Were you expecting Him to conform to your expectations because there are usually no surprises in the unreal world we create in our imaginations and are expecting to inhabit after death, whether it be the godly or the wicked doing the imagining. Hence the importance of Scripture to adequately prepare us while we're still here and for when we get there.

"Don't be afraid," He says, "I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I died, and look, I am alive for evermore". "And" - and this sounds almost conspiratorial - "I've got the keys - the keys of Death and Hades" (Rev.1:17-18). Whatever you've lost, whoever you've lost, whatever bits of your life are locked away for sorrow or shame, He says, 'I've got the keys'. Tyrants base their ability to kill. Whether it's the invisible tyrant of sin or the visible tyrants that stalk our world still...and there are lots of them...politicians, bankers, false religionists, coporation giants, street gangs, child abusers, psychopaths in national and local government, Social Services, you name it...their power lies in the implied or actual threat of death. They claim to have the keys of death and hell, but they're lying. As strongman Vladimir Putin famously said of terrorists, with a strong element of truth, paraphrasing, 'only God can judge them - my job is to send them to Him'. Where the tyrant's power runs out, Elohim's (God's) power begins. He raises the dead.

So this Book of Revelation we have begun studying begins with a vision of the risen Yah'shua (Jesus) a bit like a magnificent, gilded portico or entrance way into the book. Then it has a second introduction, as it were, in chapters 2 & 3, in the form of seven short letters to the seven leading congregations in Asia Minor, which you are now all experts in since we devoted a week to studying each one. Throughout we are made aware by John of the tyranny of sin within the human soul, and the tyranny without in the form of Imperial Rome, both of which the believers were battling then as now, only today we call 'Rome' or 'Babylon' the 'Deep State', the 'Élites, the 'Swamp', the 'Illuminati', the 'Frankist Sabbateans', 'globalists', or any other number of designations that describe the ruling imperial global satanic cult. In dealing with both the sin within and the imperial cult without, the believers were basically given one simple instruction: hold on to the resurrected Christ, with the key word being 'resurrected'. The Resurrection is always the key to everything that we believe and do, which is why I keep saying that the little Yom haBikkurim festival, tucked away in Day #2 of Chag haMatzah that isn't a set-apart sabbath day, is, in some ways, the most important moed (appointment) of all. This is where we get our empowerment from, our strength, our abilility to hold out and survive in the face of impossible, terrible odds.

Accordingly, and very importantly, as we move into chapter 4, what is it that confronts us as we leave the seven congregations of Anatolia behind? A door. John saw a door standing open in Heaven and he went through it, in the Ruach (Spirit), and what happened next? He saw the Living Elohim (God), with all creation paying Him homage arraigned around Him in a circle.

Now every day, for months and months, whenever I close my eyes now, I see concentric circles of light coming from an invisible central which represents the Throne of Elohim (God) - every day, many times a day. I saw several this morning. These are circles of resurrection power pouring forth from the resurrected Messiah throughout the whole universe. It's what makes stars, planets and galaxies turn and regulates the order in the universe - the birthing, dying and reprocessing of giant heavenly bodies. I have watched it in vision, massive amounts of energy, and all resurrection energy. It's also located in the human heart. We are called to walk in this power. Sometimes the circles distort, as if passing through a gravitational or magnetic field, and sometimes in these distortions the lines branch as in a genealogy tree, but they never cease. They can never be extinguished, like a never-ending radio broadcast! They pass through time and space, through prison cells, satanic covens, churches, governments, your homes, shops - everywhere - and you have only to call upon the Name of the Saviour and you are riding those waves of life instantly. And I mean literally, I saw how it is done.

When we speak and sing of 'power in the blood of the lamb' - the atonement made for us on the cross - this is what is meant, and it's no fanciful, imaginative 'religious' notion. You may not be able to read it with a voltmeter or regulate it with a potentiometer, or consciously pass it through an electronic circuit, because, whilst it imacts the physical, it isn't itself physical. This is the divine life of the Son of Elohim (God) moving through all creation. The blood contains it in the body, a reason we have life, which is why the devil loves spilling it, but it is far more than blood. It's why satanic cults obsess over blood, why they vampirise it, and why the Êlites glory in war.

As John's vision in the Throne Room develops in chapter 5, something very strange occurs. The One on the Throne has a scroll in His hand, and it is sealed. This 'scroll' is a symbol for the Plan of Yahweh, the Plan of Salvation, the divine purpose for revitalising the whole cosmos. In the vision, somebody has to open the scroll, but nobody can. John was devastated and records:

"And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. Then one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals" (Rev.5:4-5, NRSV).

Some of you may have noticed over the years that some of the logos and banners of this work, like the Pesach (Passover), Chag haMatzah and Yom hyaBikkurim flags contain a lamb lying down on a book with seven seals on it which is a more modern version of a scroll.

John continues:

"Then I saw between the Throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered..." (v.6, NRSV).

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honou and glory and blessing!" (Rev.5:12, NRSV).

Now think back to Händel's Messiah that we listened to last sabbath. Now imagine that whole oratorio as just one of many lines of music, with hundreds of other lines being sung alongside, and all blending together into a huge swelling harmony. And imagine every creature in heaven and on earth - cats, dogs, whales, penguines, peacocks, guinea-pigs, rabbits, monkeys, as well as men, women and children - all singing this extraordinary song. That is how Yom haBikkurim is celebrated in Yahweh's higher dimension of reality. And what we Christians and Messianics do on earth today, when both Yom haBikkurim and 'Easter' are celebrated, is to add our line to that total harmony. So as we sang at the beginning of this assembly, and as we shall sing at the end of it, and as we proclaim His praises in our hearts listening to this message together, or in the privacy of our rooms in prayer and scripture study, or as we witness to others, so we add our line to that total harmony everywhere in the cosmos. When next you gaze into the heavens with your naked eye or through a telescope, remember that your praises impact all of that too. We celebrate together the fact of a world reborn.

So what is the classical effect of the Yom haBikkurim message? Let's take a look in John chapter 20, verses 11 to 16:

"But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two malakim (angels) in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Yah'shua (Jesus) had lain. Then they said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' She said to them, 'Because they have taken away my Master, and I do not know where they have laid Him.' Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Yah'shua (Jesus) standing there, and did not know that it was Yah'shua (Jesus). Yah'shua (Jesus) said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?' She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, 'Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.' Yah'shua (Jesus) said to her, 'Mary!' She turned and said to Him, 'Rabboni!' (which is to say, Teacher)" (John 20:11-16, NKJV).

Mary Magdalene, standing outside the tomb, stands for all of us when everything seems hopeless and lost. She is weeping bitterly; weeping for herself, weeping for her Master, but also in her tears weeping for the hope of Israel, cruelly crushed by tryanny; and, in that, for the hope of the world, snuffed out by the power of the rotten world system. Many of you, including some, if not most in this assembly, think that this work has been snuffed out too. You think it was a waste of time, of your life, that this little 'remnant of a remnant' is but the legacy of failure, of sincere, perhaps, but mistaken dreams. But I have a surprise for you. Indeed, Yah'shua (Jesus) has many surprises for all of us assembled today, including some of you listening in from abroad. And I know one of you has already received a revelation that Yahweh is doing something very special here this week.

You may think attaining purity is impossible, after hearing yesterday's sermon, but is it? And what about the calling of this work - do you think what's written in the Olive Branch is a failed fantasy? No, no, no, no. We don't judge by sight, we don't judge work by the failures of people, we judge a work by Yahweh's Davar (Word) and you can only do that by looking deep into the future, as the Book of Revelation does, and then look back in wonderment. We have spent the last 20 or so years working on the inner man and woman, and those who have done something about it, can begin to look outwards again, however few we may be, because with one soul Yahweh can turn the world upside down. He did it with Yah'shua (Jesus) first and foremost, and then with His 12 apostles, and He will do so again with His 12 end-time Patriarch-Apostle heads of the Twelve Tribes when they've been called.

On the first Messianic Yom haBikkurim Yah'shua (Jesus) calls a woman, Mary, by name, and asks, "Why are you weeping?" He calls us all by name, calls with a voice like the sound of many waters, a voice which goes through the defences that we put up to keep the terror and joy at bay, calls with a voice which we recognise, calls with a love which is strongher than death. And as He has called me to do my work, so I am calling you to do yours. And He says to us, too, saying:

"I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death" (Rev.1:17-18, NKJV).

And as the weeping Mary met the living, resurrected Yah'shua (Jesus) on the first Messianic Yom haBikkurim - Resurrection Day (wrongly and blasphemously called 'Easter', which is a demon's name), so the weeping John discovers that the Lion, who is the Lamb, has conquered: He can open the scroll. And as the scroll is opened, so the Book of Revelation proceeds, in its own amazing picture-language, to work out the Cosmic victory of the Lamb over all that is evil, tyrannous and deathly, a sentiment captured by the poet T.S.Eliot:

After the tears come the silence:
The slow night, the still sad time,
Rinsed, empty, scoured and sore with salt,
Spent, waiting without hope.
After the night comes the Lamb:
Bright morning star, with living water free
And fresh, the fruit of [the cross'] [1] toil.

Yom haBikkurim is all about the wiping away of tears. N.T.Wright reminds us that in our fear of terror and joy, we have forgotten the purpose of tears. We have become embarrassed by them - and with good reason, since they are a God-given reminder of the truth which our culture, as much as any communist propaganda, has done its best to make us forget - that we are neither naked apes nor trainee angels, but humans, made in the image of Yahweh-Elohim. The Elohim (God) who stood and wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus; the Elohim (God) who fell down and sobbed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Modern society has deemed tears to be childish, whereas in fact they are childlike - and Yah'shua (Jesus) taught told us to be childlike (Mt.18:3; Jn.13:33). We have allowed our proper dislike of emotionalism to deceive us into trying to ignore our emotions or go to the opposite extreme, as the woke culture does, by turning them into god. But if the crucifixion and the first Messianic Yom haBikkurim don't stir our emotions, then the tyrant has indeed enslaved us. We have become like a garden paved over with concrete. Many people live like that. Yah have mercy, for many of us even choose it, rather than face the terror and the joy of our own hearts, let alone of Calvary and the first Messianic Yom haBikkurim.

What, then, is the full hope which Yom haBikkurim unveils? The tumult and battle of the middle chapters of the Book of Revelation lead up to the great victory of the Lamb over Babylon, the tyrannous city that has opposed Elohim (God) and His loving purposes. Even the United States' military computers predict that the satanic cabal will be defeated eventually and that there is no way that they can escape that, or the truth be suppressed for long, a conclusion which has sent them into panic. They've lost, and whilst the demons have known their cause was lost 2,000 years ago at Calvary, now their human puppets at the top are beginning to wake up to the fact too. Yahweh told me that in this Penultinmate Judgment that was executed last year that the élites would be defeated. The madness in Ukraine and in Western society, with its gender dysphoria and its racist madness, is all symptomatic of this defeat. It will take a while longer to play out, some years yet, and in spite of a brief comeback in a new form at the very end, they're finished, and they are starting to know it.

And then, in the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation we find a vision of the new city, the New Jerusalem, which takes the place of the wicked, tyrannous city, the old Jerusalem, the City of Hagar and of the slavery which the deceived Zionists love so much. It's a vision which makes most ideas of future hope look pretty tame by comparison. It is the Yom haBiklkurim vision of a world reborn:

"Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the qadosh (holy, set-apart) city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from Elohim (God), prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of Elohim (God) is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. Elohim (God) Himself will be with them and be their Elohim (God). And Elohim (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.' Then He who sat on the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.' And He said to me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful'" (Rev.21:1-5, NKJV).

And that is where we shall end today so I don't break my promise that I would make today's sermon shorter than yesterday's since I know how low the attention span of Westerners is! (In the Ukraine where I preached many years ago sermons were typically 3 hours long, at least where I ministered in a local Baptist Church there). On the seventh and last day of Chag haMatzah on Friday I will share some concluding thoughts unless Yahweh gives me something specific to tell you in the interim. I myself need a rest. So may His richest blessings be upon you all as you digest these things and as you contemplate how this work is to now move forward. In Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Elliot uses the orthodox Christian 'Good Friday' motif and here inserts "Friday"

Acknowledgements

[1] N.T.Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (SPCK, London: 1994)

Further Reading

[1] The NCAY Resurrection website
[2] Resurrection Sets Us Free