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Mission Statement
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PASSOVER & EUCHARIST Exodus 12:1-20 NKJ 1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. This is the first month of Neisson. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: `On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. The lamb is a symbol, or type, of Jesus. The fact that there was to be a lamb for each home shows a strong indication that God desires to save by households. In Acts 16:31 Paul told the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” God is a God of families. He invented the concept and He prefers to work by families. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Notice that the lamb was to be watched for three days to see if it had a blemish and on the fourth day, it was killed.. Likewise, Jesus was watched for three years. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey four days before Passover and the people examined Him for three days and killed Him on the fourth day, which was also the 14th day. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. Jesus also died at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Likewise, today, we each must place the Blood of the Lamb on ourselves, the temple of the Lord. Only the Blood of the Lamb saves. If they failed to put the blood on their houses, the avenging angel stopped at their house and they were not saved. This is a prophetic act showing the truth that there is only one way to salvation, one way to God: through Jesus, the Lamb of God, The Way, The Truth, The Life. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. John 6:53-57 “Then Jesus said to them, `Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.’” “Unleavened bread” - Take a look at the Jewish unleavened bread Matzoh. It is flat because it is pure with no leaven (sin) in it. It has stripes. “By His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5 It has little holes. “They will look on Me whom they pierced.” Zechariah 12:10 The meaning of the unleavened bread is such that God requested it to be on constant display within the tabernacle. Exodus 25:30. So too, must we carry within us, at all times displayed by our very lives, the healing of the stripes of Jesus and the sacrifice He made when “He was wounded (pierced through) for our transgressions.” Isaiah 53:5. Bitter herbs, of course, equals the bitterness of slavery, the bitterness of our lives before salvation. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire - its head with i6ts legs and its entrails. Those who just imitate Jesus’ love and humility are “raw.” Those who stress works and self-righteousness are “boiled.” The sacrifice (us) must come in direct contact with the fire of God. Jesus the Lamb, did the whole thing for us. We just have to eat. “its head with its legs and its entrails”…Jesus went to the cross with His head - i.e. completely knowledgeable as to what He was about to do. But He set His feet toward Jerusalem and the cross. And, of course, because His feet followed the leading of His head, his legs and entrails followed too. All of Him was sacrificed for all of us and all of us is to eat all of Him for He is “the bread of life.” John 6:48. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. God never allows Christ’s sacrifice to become stale or undesirable. He is jealous of His Son and what we do with Him. 11 And thus you shall eat it; with a belt on your waist, Ephesians 6:14a “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth…” your sandals on your feet, Ephesians 6:15 “and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace:” and your staff in your hand. Ephesians 6:16 “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. In other words, they are to eat as those who are to hurry off on their journey. Get busy NOW ! Ephesians 6:18 “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-“ 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I AM THE LORD. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. This shows not only God’s provision of grace but of Divine Ultimatum. Both the Jew and the Christian can say, “I was delivered from slavery by the blood of the Lamb.” (Zola Levitt) Something even John the Baptist recognized when he declared Jesus the Lamb of God twice in two days. John 1:29, 35 “ The first time, John said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The second time, John simply declared Him The Lamb of God and two of his disciples left John and began to follow Jesus. Before this point in time, the blood of the lamb had only taken away the sins of the Jews. Now, John says it’s for the world. The surrounding Jews knew the meaning of “the lamb.” The lamb was to be sacrificed, had to be sacrificed for the blood to be used to keep the death angel away, save the people and bring them out of bondage. 14 So this day (Passover) shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat - that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. Leavened bread represents helping God out. In reference to a believer caught up in gross immorality, St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out (clean out) the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’” Jesus said He was the Bread of Life and such He is. He was born in Bethlehem which, in Hebrew means House of Bread. He used the images of growing grain and bread in His teachings. As a child, He was raised as a Branch. Nazareth in Hebrew means branch and so He is called The Branch Zechariah 3:8. He was baked in the fire of the judgment of God on our behalf, wrapped in white linen and buried in the ground as a dead seed even as His parables prophesied. The Jewish prayer that was and is always prayed over the bread at all Jewish Passover Feasts is: Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Who bringest forth bread from the earth. So, in accordance with this prayer, He was buried on the feast day called Unleavened Bread which is always at sundown following the Passover. Leviticus 12:5,6. Then He was “brought forth from the earth” as the first fruit from the dead three days later on the Feast of First Fruits. Jesus was a good Jew who always kept the seven feast dictated by God in scripture. Even when his brothers, who didn’t believe in Him, maliciously encouraged Him to attend the Feast of Tabernacles knowing that the Jews were seeking to kill Him, He let them think He wasn’t going, sent them on, then went incognito. John 7:1-10 He never omitted God’s feasts! He didn’t participate out of legalism to the Law. He participated because they were prophetic - about Him! And His job was to fulfill them. So…the Bread of His body was without sin, accepted stripes, piercing and death on the appropriate, holy, feast day. “It was a case of a dead man dictating the time of His own burial! Some were surprised that He died on the cross in only six hours, but after all, He had a Feast to keep and the Messiah never omitted God’s Feasts." The Miracle of Passover, p. 21 by Zola Levitt. When Jesus celebrated His last Passover with His disciples, Mark 14:22,23 says, “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, `Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.” I’ve already told you what the blessing was that He gave. Over the wine, the prayer of blessing was and still is: Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine. Jesus said He was the true vine in John 15:1. Now, He blesses “the fruit of the vine.” That’s us! After they’d all drunk from the cup as the firstfruits of Him who was the fulfillment of the Firstfruits Feast, Jesus went on to say, “This is My blood of the NEW covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” Mark 14:24,25. He had already prophesied about His death if the first prayer. But now, He is blessing God for the fruit we will produce until He drinks the “fruit of the vine”, our fruit, with us “in the kingdom of God.” In other words, Jesus is blessing God for answering what we call His “High Priestly Prayer” found in John 17. WOW ! You talk about faith! Jesus sent the Holy Spirit on the Feast of Pentecost and we, the church, are now waiting for the Feast of Trumpets when He will catch up His bride according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the TRUMPET of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” We are also waiting for the Day of Atonement to be fulfilled when Romans 11:26 will take place and “…all Israel will be saved…” All of this, the first Passover, happened in the seventh month of the civil calendar year. Genesis 8:4. Noah’s ark rested on Ararat after God’s judgment on the 17th day. “Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.” I am told that they crossed over the Red Sea from bondage to liberty on the 17th day though I couldn’t find the scripture. Jesus rose from the dead on the 17th day. GOD FULFILLS ALL THAT HE SAYS, EVEN TO EVERY LITTLE DETAIL OF EVERY BIT OF SYMBOLISM AND MYSTERY. When we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the Divine Communion, the Lord’s Supper, we are participating in the Passover. Doing so brings us into the reality of the death of the Lamb that was slain, coming into contact with the fire of God’s presence, being saved from bondage into freedom, from death into life, and released into the land of blessing We also participate in His Faith and Trust in God that good, remaining fruit will spring forth from our lives. BELIEVE IT !!!
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