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When we celebrate our holiday of Easter, we are really celebrating Jesus Christ's fulfillment of the Jewish holiday called Passover. The Passover was a celebration that began the last night that Israel spent in Egypt when the Lord commanded them to kill a spotless Lamb and to place it's blood upon the doorposts of the house and then eat it with bitter herbs. While they were eating, the Lord moved through the land of Egypt and, in every house that did not have the blood of the Lamb properly applied to it, He killed every firstborn male, including children and animals. It was the tenth plague against the sins of Egypt and it was the decisive blow that caused the Egyptian Pharaoh to loose the children of Israel from their bondage! That night sin brought death and blood was shed, but in the houses that had applied the blood of the Lamb properly, God did not bring death and pain but instead "passed over" their house and spared them! After Moses led them out of Egypt, that night, God decreed to His people that every year at the same time of the year, they were to keep this solemn feast as a reminder of what God had done in Egypt. They had to follow the exact details of the feast such as separating a spotless lamb from the flock on the tenth of the month, and then killing it on the fourteenth. It had to be male and it could not have one bone broken. They were to roast it complete with it's innards intact and were not to allow any of it to remain until the next morning, for it was the Lord's Passover: a reminder of what God had done for the children of Israel that night in Egypt!

But it was to be more than just a reminder of a historic event, it was also to be a foreshadowing of the greatest event of all of time: Calvary! Little did those Jewish people realize as they solemnly memorized the rules of the feast that they were committing to memory the pattern that God was going to use to free all of His people from the bondage of sin! That deliverance from the land of Egypt that night was just a type of the reality that was to come. It was just a hint of the work that God was going to provide for the entire world that was enslaved to sin!

You see, exactly 1,490 years after God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, the most precious lamb ever born came into this world. This time it was not an ordinary animal, but God revealed in flesh in the form of a little baby boy! This newborn son was delivered by Mary after being conceived by the Holy Ghost in a little town of Bethlehem! He would grow up as the perfect man and his short three and a half year ministry would forever change the world. His name was Jesus Christ and He was God in flesh walking among His creation! But I want you to realize today that Jesus Christ did not come just to do miracles and cast out demons. His primary purpose for coming to this earth was not to wow the crowds with His great teaching and mighty power! Those things were great and I love to read His parables and allow them to speak truth to me, but I must also truthfully admit that telling powerful stories and calming raging storms were not His primary reasons in coming. Jesus Christ was born with one destiny in mind: to pay the price and penalty of sin by giving His life! He was born to be the precious Lamb of God; to shed His blood so that millions of human beings that were enslaved by the power of sin in their lives, could be set free by properly applying His blood to their lives! He was not born in a hospital delivery room with great fanfare and a party! He was born in a lowly stable among the sacrificial animals! His only visitors were the local shepherds who made their living by raising sacrificial lambs to sell to worshippers! That is why that it should be no surprise that the first words out of John the Baptist's lips when he saw Jesus Christ was "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world!" Everything from Jesus' birth in a stable to His death upon the cross pointed to one thing: this was a man unlike no other who was willing to show love like no other by giving His very life!

And so it was at the age of 30 years old, exactly 1,520 years after the first Passover celebration, we find that as the Israelites were choosing their Passover lambs and setting them aside as they had always done, Judas Iscariot was meeting with the enemies of Jesus agreeing to betray Him! Four days later on the same day that Israel was preparing their Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, the perfect man, was being treated like an animal by the Roman soldiers. He was mocked and spat upon. A crown of thorns was tauntingly pressed into His skull and then He was repeatedly slapped until the blood ran down His face. As they cursed Him to His face, Jesus never responded or even raised a hand to defend Himself, for He had a people in mind, that He knew were in slavery to the effects of sin, and that He was determined for once and for all to give them a true opportunity of freedom! I want you to realize today sitting in your comfortable seats, in your air conditioned church, that He suffered and died not for the sake of dying or being a martyr but because He wanted you to have an opportunity to be truly free! He wanted you to truly have the opportunity to have life and that much more abundantly than you could even imagine!

And so it was for your healing that He allowed them to take Him and strip the robes off of Him and tie His hands to a whipping posts and then viciously beat His back until the skin was lacerated and the back bone and inner organs were exposed. For your sake, He was treated like a common sacrificial animal and tortured like no human being or animal deserves to be tortured!

Upon His bleeding back, they placed a heavy cross, a rough cross beam that is always referred to in scripture as "a tree." It was not lightweight and it did not have a wheel. It was not convenient to carry and it was not sanded smooth like so many of our Easter plays show. On crucifixion days, the Romans would kill hundreds of people in this horrible manner, and there were more than just three people being killed that day. They did not take the time to create the perfectly aligned crucifixes that people wear around their necks today, but were little more than rough trees cut down and stripped of their smaller branches, and crudely fashioned together. They were heavy trunks of trees that would be placed in the ground upon hills that had few trees so that the victims would die in open sight of all that passed by as a reminder to what happened when they broke the law! Carpenters were not hired to smooth out beautiful work-of-art crosses, but soldiers working quickly felled trees and either left or attached branches in such a way to ensure that the victim would be spread out upon the tree and so that their nakedness would bring even further humiliation.

Weakened by His loss of blood, Jesus Christ could not bear the burden of the tree, and the soldiers grabbed a man out of the crowd to help carry it up the hill. First binding His wrists and ankles to the tree with ropes, the Roman soldiers then drove long spikes into Jesus' hands and feet. He was stripped of all clothing and then the tree was roughly placed upright in a pre-dug hole. The bark and splinters of the crudely fashioned "cross" bit into His exposed back. Breathing only came by pushing at the nails painfully located in His feet and pulling at the nails piercing His hands. He then had to heave His chest up scraping His bare back against the wood gasp to get air enough to live another few minutes. It was only a matter of time until either His body would weaken so that He could not breathe and would die of asphyxiation, or His heart would burst from the great stress being placed upon it. We know that Jesus died from the latter, because after His death, a soldier pierced His side and out flowed blood and water: the medical result of His heart finally giving way to the stress. And so it was, shamed by His enemies and with forgiveness upon His lips, Jesus literally died of a broken heart.

His death occurred in the evening of the fourteenth day of the month at the exact moment that the rest of Israel was killing their sacrificial lambs for Passover. He was male and spotless--He had never sinned. Jesus Christ was killed without a bone being broken. It was a bitter death! He was taken down from the cross that evening and placed in a tomb hurriedly without any embalming and with His innards left intact! Jesus Christ had become the perfect Passover Lamb! But His death was providing more than just the freedom of a few million Jews in Egypt, it was the ultimate sacrifice that made a way of escape from the Pharaoh of this sinful world, Satan! It was purchasing a way of salvation and deliverance from the slavery of sin! And it is still available today -- this freedom from the bondage and effects of sin -- but you must have the blood of that perfect Passover lamb correctly applied to your life! You've got to identify with His death, burial, and resurrection, by Repenting of your sins, and being baptized in Jesus' name, and receiving the precious Holy Ghost! When you do so you are properly applying the blood of Jesus to your life, and you are reaping the benefits of His sacrifice! Without someone properly applying the blood of the Lamb, the death would have been in vain! I'm glad that I know that Jesus' suffering and crucifixion was not in vain, because I can look around at people who have obeyed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have repented of their sins, and been baptized in Jesus' name, and received this precious Holy Ghost! You've had the blood of Jesus Christ properly applied to your life! Somebody said that "it doesn't matter how you believe as long as you believe." But that's not what scripture teaches: how the blood is applied matters! You better make sure that His precious blood has been applied the right way! It does matter! It is the difference between judgment and forgiveness: freedom and bondage! I'm glad that I have obeyed the scriptures and had the blood of Jesus properly applied to my life! By understanding the story of the Passover and how that Jesus fulfilled it, we can better understand the importance of the work of Calvary!

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Another practical example that helps us understand the work of the cross is the almond tree. I know that most people do not associate almond trees with Easter and the story of Jesus' death, but if you had ever taken the time, you could not have studied the almond tree without seeing it's link to the story of Calvary. Let me show you what I mean:

The first mention of almonds is in Genesis 43 when Jacob sent almonds as a gift of Joseph. They are referred to as some of the "best fruits of the land." The next time that almonds are mentioned is when Moses was being given the tabernacle plans from God and he was instructed to make what is known as the "Golden Candlestick." It was made from pure gold and it was to have seven parts: one main branch and six other branches, upon which were placed small gold lamps for burning oil. This was the only light in God's temple. I have been raised in church all of my life and I never realized until several months ago that the parts of the candlestick were fashioned after the natural process of the almond tree. The almond tree has a three part process that it undertakes: first a tight new bud appears upon it's branches, then a beautiful flower blossoms, and then the flower withers to form into the fruit of the tree -- the most familiar part to you and I -- the almond nut.

And so in our text, we found that Moses and his workers exactly followed God's instructions given in Exodus 25:31-36. The main stem and all branches of the Golden Candlestick were formed out of pure gold and shaped like the process of an almond tree. There was a bud, flower, and almond fruit, over and over again going up the main shaft of the candlestick. Branching out of the main shaft, there were six similar branches with the familiar pattern of bud, flower, and almond fruit. On the main shaft, the pattern was repeated four times giving 12 separate portions of the main shaft. On the branches, the pattern was repeated three times giving 9 separate portions of the branches. And it was upon these that an oil lamp was placed to give light. For some reason, God chose the almond tree as the basis to form the Golden Candlestick which was to give light for the priests to do the work of God!

The next time we find the almond tree mentioned in scripture, the circumstances are most remarkable. It is found in Numbers chapters 16 and 17 when a man named Korah was trying to stir up a rebellion against God's leadership. He went among the people saying "why should we have to listen to Moses and Aaron? Who gave them the authority to tell us what to do and how to live our lives?" God caused the ground to open up and swallow the entire rebellious family which is exactly what happens when people rebel against the man of God today: God allows the world to consume that person and that person's family! I want to submit to Godly leadership and not murmur and complain because I do not want this sinful world swallowing my family!

After Korah and his family were gone, the people of Israel still doubted and murmured among themselves so God decided to prove once and for all who He had chosen to be the spiritual leader of Israel:

All of the tribes were to bring their leaders walking sticks and write the name of the leader upon the stick. The High Priest Aaron was from the tribe of Levi and he was to do likewise. Moses took all of the walking sticks into the Holy Place of the tabernacle and left them over night. God said "the walking stick that blossoms" is the one that I have chosen to lead my people!" The next morning when everyone gathered in front of the tabernacle and Moses brought the sticks out from the presence of the Lord, listen to what had happened:

Aaron's old dead, dried-up walking stick had budded, "bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds!" He had cut His walking stick from an almond tree! And God allowed the process of the almond tree to be the proof of His divine choice. God showed that Aaron was the true Spiritual ruler of His people by bringing back to life what had been dead! No one could argue when God produced the three fold process on an old, piece of almond tree!

Let me quickly tell you what else I discovered by studying Almond trees. Almond trees now grow all over the world, but that is because man has carried them there. The almond tree's native habitats were originally the northern mountains of Palestine and southern mountains of Syria. During Jesus' time those areas were called the area of "Galilee!" It is from the mountains of Galilee that the world gets the almond tree! It is not a small bush but a rather large and sturdy tree that finds it roots on the mountainsides of the area! And the almond tree has another remarkable feature: it's flower is a pure white flower that is tinged with pink throughout and the flower doesn't bloom long because it has to wither for the almonds to form!

Maybe by now, you are starting to see why God chose the almond tree in scripture as the Golden Candlestick! Jesus Christ is the light of the world! He is the light that shines forth through the darkness of this sinful place! He is the fulfillment in everyway of the Golden Candlestick. Can I also tell you this? Jesus Christ is the only one worthy to be the supreme spiritual leader in your life! The world will try to give you a choice between spiritual leaders: Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, Confucius, and many other so called spiritual "gods." How do you know which one is real? By the lesson of the almond tree! Jesus Christ is only one that was dead and became alive again! He is the only one that like Aaron's almond rod, blossomed and brought forth fruit after He had been dead! He was the first one to bloom that way! His resurrection proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is the one worthy to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords! The almond tree is thus the symbol of resurrection!

Jesus Christ's ministry and life budded and opened up to the world revealing a beautiful flower of holiness! White is the symbol of purity and holiness, and Jesus Christ was holy and never sinned! But like the almond tree, Jesus Christ's purity became tinged with pink as the flower was crushed upon the tree! The pink symbolized His precious blood that He shed! You see just as the blossom of the almond tree has to die for the fruit to come forth, so Jesus Christ' precious, sinless life was taken upon a tree so that the fruit of His resurrection could take place! And it any coincidence, that -- like the almond tree -- Jesus Christ grew up in Galilee but the fruit of His resurrection can now be experienced all over the world because man has taken the message around the globe!?! It is clear that God created the almond tree to foreshadow the work of Christ! It was the three fold process of the almond tree that proved without a shadow of a doubt God's selection of Aaron! It was the three fold process of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that proved without a shadow of a doubt that He was God in flesh and King of Kings!

So what is the lesson of the almond tree? It is this, and learn it well: the death of the flower is only to bring forth the fruit of the resurrection! I know that I described the horrible death of Jesus Christ in vivid detail a while ago, but you cannot stop there in the story: He died, but He rose again! He still lives! Our redeemer has fulfilled the lesson of the almond tree! The point of His death was for new life to come forth! God wants someone to get a revelation today, the revelation of the almond tree: the death comes only to bring forth the life!

That is why you should not get offended when a preacher tells you like Peter and Paul to Repent, and be baptized in Jesus' name! Our flesh does not like to hear a sermon on repentance! But what you are doing when you repent and ask God to forgive your sins and help you to change your sinful ways, is dying to the desire and will of your flesh! It is a process of death! The scriptures talk about being "buried with Him" in baptism because when you are baptized in Jesus' name, you are putting your sinful past in a watery grave, where it will never be counted against you again! But Peter said that when you repent, and are baptized in Jesus' name, that you would then receive the Holy Ghost! The reason that there has to be the death of repentance, is so that your spiritual man can be resurrected through the infilling of the Holy Ghost! It is the lesson of the almond tree: the death must happen so that the fruit can come! The resurrection of the Holy Ghost will only come after you have died to your fleshly will in repentance, and your sinful past in water baptism!

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There is more to the lesson of the almond tree than just a one time experience, however: In Matthew, Jesus said that:

If you are to truly be a Christian and a follower of Christ, then you too must take up your cross! Let me tell you something: living for God is not convenient! If your religion and spiritual walk allows you plenty of free time and does not require you to give up something that your flesh desires, then you are not truly following Jesus Christ! If you whine about being faithful to church, and try to avoid sacrifice, then you are not following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ! A cross is not convenient! It gets heavy sometimes. Even Jesus couldn't carry it by Himself! If you are going to serve God, you are going to have to serve Him despite some heartaches! You are going to have to sacrifice some of your fleshly desires in order to obey God's Word! You are a product of sin, and when you come to God, you have to kill some fleshly desires! To really follow Jesus and take up your cross, you are going to have to be faithful even on the bad days! To really follow in the footsteps of Jesus, you are going to have to push yourself beyond what your flesh fills like doing. To really follow Jesus, you are going to have to be willing to put up with some humiliation and shame and persecution and enemies jeering at you! You are going to have to be willing to forgive those who drive the thorns into your head and mock you for your lifestyle! You are going to have to pray and fight your flesh until your will is submitted to God's perfect will in your life!

Coming to church once a week and paying your tithes is not what makes you a Christian! It makes you religious, but not Christian. "Christian" means "Christ like." You are only truly a Christian if you follow Christ and do what Christ did, and that involves taking up your tree and dying out to your own lifestyle and your own dreams and your own agendas and allowing the sinfulness of your life to be buried! Paul said "I die daily." Paul understood that to truly follow Jesus Christ, there had to be a tearing down of sinful strengths in his life and a complete yielding to the will of God! Being saved is not a one time experience, but a lifelong commitment! Jesus Christ came to show us the correct path to true deliverance, but you must take up your cross and follow Him! Everyone of us has something in our lives that is a valid excuse to quit when you think in terms of human logic! Everyone of us has something that has happened in the past that is too heavy for us to carry by ourselves! Everyone of us has wounds and hurts and excuses. Everyone of us has fleshly desires that need to be killed! That is your cross! But don't use it as an excuse to not sell out to Jesus Christ! His is the way of the cross! His is the way of enduring to the end! To follow Jesus Christ is to be completely committed to God's Will despite whatever excuses and hurts that life might bring! There is nothing exciting about a cross, but you have to take it up and follow Jesus!

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There is nothing exciting about a cross, but too many people focus on the cross and the dying that they forget why Jesus died! He died to show us that death is painful but it is the only way to have a resurrection! If He had never died, then He would have never had a resurrection! I'm here today to remind you why God demanded that you take up your cross and follow Him! It's not because He is sadistic and likes to see you suffer, but it's because He wants you to have a resurrection! There cannot be a resurrection into a new life without first a cross! It's the way it works! So when God's Word identifies areas in your life that need to die, it is for your good! If you will die out to your own will and obey the Word of God, then God will bring a resurrection in your life! Do not forget the lesson of the almond tree: the death must come so that a new life can come through resurrection! Don't get so depressed about taking up your cross that you forget the point of it all: the resurrection!

There is one more point that you should know about the almond tree. It is the first plant to bloom in Palestine! The buds and blossoms begin to appear at the end of January and the beginning of February! Scientists will tell you that there is not another plant in the world that naturally blooms as early as the almond tree! And this is why in Hebrew, the name of the plant is "shaqed" which comes from "shaqad" which means "to awaken!" It's name is a reference to the fact that it is the first blossom to "awaken" out of the winter and bloom!

Jesus was only the first person to resurrect into a new life and a new body! He is not the last! The almond tree is a signal that other blossoms are about to break through the dead of winter! And we too have a promise of a resurrection to come! He is the "firstfruits of them that sleep" but one day, if you have taken up your cross and had the blood applied to your life correctly, and have followed Him, you will also "awaken" at the last trumpet, and you will be like Him! You too will have a glorified and resurrected body! Jesus is the almond tree! Jesus is the just the first blossoms, but many more are to come! There is a great resurrection to come! Taking up your cross may seem hard, but it will be worth it in light of the resurrection! Heaven will make any hardships that you have had to endure on earth worth it! Don't stop following Jesus Christ, and learn the lesson of the almond tree: the death comes so that the new life can appear! There is not a resurrection without a calvary! There is not a crown without a cross!

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I close with this thought. In our text, we read about the ladies going to the tomb of Jesus and their discovery that He had "awakened!" Jesus twice told them and His disciples to "go to Galilee and meet Him there." There they would "see Him." I want you to realize that the ladies physically saw Jesus in Jerusalem that day, so why did they need to travel the 100 miles to Galilee to "see Him?" The 11 disciples were met by Jesus behind closed doors that night in Jerusalem in Judea, so why did Jesus command them to go to Galilee to "see Him?" We know from other scriptures that Jesus had commanded them to meet in a certain place upon a mountain side, and there He appeared to hundreds of followers. He then led them all the way back to Judea and from right outside of Jerusalem, He ascended into heaven. Why take them all the way up to Galilee? Why did He not meet with them in Judea. The easiest and most obvious answer is that He wanted to meet with them and teach them privately, and the secluded mountains of Galilee was the perfect place to do so. But when He ascended from the Mt Olivet outside of Jerusalem, He did so in privacy! Why then did Jesus command them to go way out of their way to travel to the mountain of Galilee?

I can only find one major difference between the mountains of southern Judea and the mountains of Galilee: The mountains of Galilee are covered with trees, and in particular, the almond tree grows abundantly! By this time, in the end of March, the almond trees are covered with fruit! Jesus wanted His disciples to see Him among the almond trees! He wanted them desperately to learn the lesson of the almond tree!

We miss preach this verse of scripture. It doesn't say "as Jesus was" we are to be in this world. It says "as He is!" He IS the resurrected Christ and was when this verse was written! It is the will of God for us to have resurrections in our life! Not just the great resurrection of the Rapture of the church, but we are to live from resurrection to resurrection! That is why God tries through His word and a preacher to bring death to the ways of your life that are not like Him: He is trying to produce a resurrection in that area of your life! We need some new life resurrected in our families! We need that resurrection power in our marriages! We need some new resurrected power in every area of our life! What do you need a resurrection in? God can perform it and bring life to areas that you did not even know could live!

God gave Jeremiah a vision of an almond tree and once He was sure that Jeremiah had seen the vision, He said: "thou has well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it." There is a play on words here. God showed him the rod of an almond "shaqed" tree and said I will hasten "shaqad" my word to perform it! In other words, once you get the vision of the almond tree, Jeremiah, I will awaken my word and make sure that what my word has promised will come to pass! Today I have preached unto you the lesson of the almond tree: the death has to come so that new life can spring forth! Don't struggle with the will of God and living for Him and the changes that God is trying to make in your life, but get the vision that Jesus Christ wanted His disciples to get, the vision of the almond tree: If you will stay faithful through taking up the cross, there can't help but come a resurrection and fruit! I challenge you: live out the lesson of the almond tree!