A Study in the message “The Easter Seal”
MATTHEW 28:1-10
1 ¶ In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. (Notice - At the birth of Jesus there was an angelic announcement by an angel to shepherds, but now at his resurrection there is an angel giving the message of his resurrection to women)
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. (Notice again that the angel is not telling Jesus 11 disciples directly, he is telling these women directly and then commissioning them to tell his disciples, – but did the disciples they believe them? No they didn’t believe them – no body telling you will make you truly believe, if you believe then that is because the Lord himself has given it to you to be able to believe)
8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.
9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. (First the angel, then Jesus himself – watch the pattern of these events)
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
A Study in the message “The Easter Seal”
On the 2nd of April 1961, Brother Branham preaches a message called “THE TRUE EASTER SEAL” , then on the 10th of April 1965, he preaches this message that we want to look at called “The Easter Seal”.
We know that the resurrection of Christ was such a great thing, and it was such a contrast to his death just a few days before this event.
**Death is such a horrible and devastating thing because it is the opposite to life, and life is the greatest thing (Quality life), but death came by sin, so be raised up from the dead and to be alive forever more is worth everything that you could ever hope for, there is no price you could put on eternal life – it is the greatest thing of all, to know that you have passed from death unto life.
Life and death are two opposing extremes like two opposing arrows pointing in the opposite direction.
ROMANS 8:11
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
*Over the years, this message called “The Easter Seal” has been one of my favourite messages because there are some key statements that unlock our understanding of what it is to receive the spirit of Christ and the evidence of that in this age.
And that is a very important thing for us to know because we need to be sure that the same spirit that dwelt in Christ and that raised him from the dead is the same spirit that dwells in us also and will also raise us up.
*We know that the message teaches us that this spirit that was in Christ has begun to raise us up already in this age by the revelation of the message of this hour of those who can receive it.
THE.EASTER.SEAL_ PHOENIX.AZ V-2 N-6 SATURDAY_ 65-0410
60 Look at the millions on earth that didn't receive It when Jesus was here. But how thankful that we should be this morning, to know that we have the direct evidence and the Bible proofs, that we are included in that great resurrection morning coming, that great Easter. (Notice how he is talking about a great resurrection morning that is coming in the future, another great Easter that is soon to come – so we are going to see a parallel between the resurrection of Jesus at the first Easter and also the resurrection of the bride of Christ of seven church ages at this great Easter that is soon to come which is also known as the first resurrection. There are many scriptures that speak of this resurrection in this day.
And we know that this great resurrection of this last great Easter has already started the process of it by the opening of the seven seals and the revealing of the names in the Lambs section of the book of life – this great Easter has already begun within a people that are on the earth now – and we have the evidence of that spirit within us now by the spirit of the revelation of the truth of this hour) We have the earnest of it, right now in our mortal bodies. The predestinated ones are the first, of course, to be quickened, when the Holy Spirit comes to claim Its own.
He claims you by revealing himself to you so that you will see Him in this day.
That is what he is doing right now; he is claiming you and I by revealing his word to us, and the word of God is a seed.
**How did Adam claim Eve at that time of judgement when God would have killed Eve because of what she had done? He claimed her and protected her against the judgement of God by placing his seed within her because Adam knew that God could not bring destruction upon his own seed.
**And so we are also in a time of pending judgement when the last Adam (Christ) has placed his seed within us also, and that is why God will have to take us off the earth before he can bring destruction upon this generation.
MATTHEW 28:1-2
1 ¶ In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
Notice how much information is put into these two small verses.
Let’s observe the pattern of this as it plays out.
There are two women at the dawn of the eight day (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary), and there is also a great earthquake and a descending angel that breaks a seal and rolls back a stone to reveal to them the resurrection of Christ. This was a mighty revelation to these women at that time, and it came by an angel and the braking of a seal – “The Easter Seal”, that is what brother Branham is preaching this message about. The seal was broken first.
**And there is no resurrection unless the seal is broken by the angel in your life also, so the breaking of the seal is a very important process in order for the resurrection to take place in you, and we know that the breaking of the seal revealed Christ to these two women – and Christ is the word. So the breaking of the seal is to reveal the word to you. So when the word of this age is revealed to you by the angel’s message, then that is the evidence in your life that the seal has been broken and the resurrection is on.
This other Mary that was with Mary Magdalene was Mary the mother of James and Joses.
We know that there were 6 Mary’s spoken of in the New Testament – so we want to look at them briefly because we find that women played such a great role in the events and life of Christ and the New Testament.
1. Firstly there was Mary the mother of Jesus, she had a sister named Mary (John 19:25). There were not two Mary’s in the one family. Mary the mother of Jesus, her name should have actually been translated Miriam, but because (as time went on) it would have been very unpopular to have corrected the Bible translations to reflect this, they kept to Mary, so we are stuck with the “Virgin Mary” instead of the correct translation of the “Virgin Miriam”.
It was this “Mary” that brought forth the saviour of the world – Jesus Christ.
**Notice that this great task was given to a woman to perform, and we know that that task of bringing forth the word for her day began by her receiving an angel’s message, and by her response to that message of “let it be unto me according to your word” – and so that is also the end time brides task and attitude and confession toward the message of this hour that has also been brought to us by an angel. So this history of Mary bringing forth the word into flesh in her day is also repeating itself again in this hour. The Virgin Mary and the bride of this hour are the two halves of the Chinese torn laundry paper. That is the evidence of this hour, is that your life matches the other half of the torn paper, and you can’t fake or impersonate that.
2. Our second Mary was Mary Magdalene of whom seven devils were cast out, she came from the town of Magdala and appears before us for the first time in Luke 8:2 among the women who "ministered unto him of their substance". Much of Jesus financial support for his ministry came from woman of financial substance.
This Mary Magdalene was also present during the closing hours of Christ’s agony on the cross (John 19:25). She remained by the cross until all was over, also waiting until the body was taken down and placed in the garden sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, Mat. 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55, when she, with Salome and Mary the mother of James, "brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint" the body. Mark 16:1. Then in the earliest dawn on Sunday morning in Matthew 28:1 she came with Mary the mother of James to the sepulchre – and that is when the angel gave them the message of Christ’s resurrection.
3. Then there is Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus. She is the one who sat at Jesus feet that Jesus said that that was needful and that she had chosen the good part.
4. And then our forth Mary is this “other Mary” which was Mary the mother of James and Joses also known as Mary of Cleophas, or more accurately "of Clopas", the wife of Clopas.
She had four sons and at least three daughters, and while the names of the daughters are unknown to us; her sons names were James, Joses, Jude and Simon, of whom James and Simon became two of Jesus disciples. This Mary is the one considered by many to have been the natural sister to the Virgin Mary.
5. Mary number five was the mother of John Mark, she was a sister of Barnabas of Acts 4:36 and 12:12 and lived at Jerusalem; she was a believer and a follower of Christ right from the beginning of his ministry.
Her house was situated on the upper slope of Zion. It was this Mary that gave up her house to be used as one of the chief meeting places for the disciples, and it was also here that the Holy Ghost came upon the disciples and the other believers with tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost
6. Then lastly there was Mary of Rome who was a Roman Christian greeted by Paul in his Epistle to the Romans in chapter 16 verse 6. She bestowed much toil and labour of love upon them.
Look at all these women and how they served in their purpose and roles in the events of the scriptures. That is why in this day we also have woman who serve among the believers of this hour and who are also great woman that are a part of the programme of God for this time.
***So why was it woman that this resurrection was first revealed to?
Because women represents churches, and in this hour it is the message churches that Christ has first revealed himself to in this day – and that is why different churches provide different needs to the rest of the body of Christ just like we see that different woman in the new Testament provided different services throughout the ministry of Christ for that time, so we see the pattern being shown to us here because at this resurrection we notice that the first thing that happens is that these women meet with an angel, then they meet Jesus himself, then they were required by the angel to tell his disciples that he has risen. That is why some churches in this day received the revelation of the resurrection of this hour before others did.
**And so the scriptures are showing us the pattern associated with the resurrection of the word in this day, because we have also met an angel in this age – the seventh angel, and then we have also met Christ himself (the revealing of the son of man), and we are also told to tell his disciples of this age that he has risen in this age also.
So we want to read the next two scriptures that brother Branham reads at the beginning of this message of the Easter Seal.
REVELATION 1:17-18
17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
ROMANS 8:11
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
This word “quicken” = to cause to live that which was dead, to make alive, to give life; of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing
So to quicken a seed is to germitize it to life by water and sun. So this speaks of a process that takes place to cause something to live.
***So the spirit that will quicken your mortal body begins by the process of God shining the light of the word of this hour onto the seed of what he placed within you by predestination, and that is the only way that you can recognize the word for your day, if you don’t have the seed within you, the sun shining will do nothing because there is nothing there to quicken. That is why the evidence is to do with being able to recognize the word for your day.
To Be Continued...