Dear friends and readers,
Peace and grace to all of you in Jesus name!
PASSOVER, the story of Moses leading Israel out of bondage in Egypt is memorialized each and every year by Biblical command. This year Passover begins just 2 days from now on March 30th.
WHY SHOULD FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST CARE?
Believe it or not this Biblical feast is one of the most significant set of days in all of Christian history. Unfortunately very many believers worldwide know nothing about its relevance to their own walk in faith.
It also amazes me how many believers I have run into who have either lost track or have never been taught that Jesus, the Christ of God is a Jewish man who is also God in human form, born in Israel and also the Messiah. It is impossible to separate Jesus from either Israel or His natural brothers and sisters, the Jews! In fact Revelation chapter 5 verses 5-13 is the only place in scripture that identifies Jesus as both "the Lion of the tribe of Judah---and also the Lamb of God slain for our redemption".
He is also the head of the church which was originally made up almost entirely of Jewish people until both the Apostles Peter and later Paul to a much greater extent began reaching out to the gentile world with the gospel of peace.
Roots are important to understand. Having said that Jesus fulfilled about 100 Biblical prophecies at His first coming (some say many more than that), and none are more important than His fulfilling the entirety of the Passover feast which includes Passover itself (Exodus chapter 12), Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:17) and finally First Fruits (Exodus 23:16--among many other scriptures).
What many Christians consider to be an antiquated Old Testament story (Passover) is in reality a bases for their entire faith in that without the Resurrection of Christ from the grave, Christianity would be just another empty religion without hope. Does that statement surprise you?
You see, the Resurrection occurred during Passover and I will explain why this is so utterly and completely important to our faith. Passover begins each year at sundown on NISAN 14 on the Jewish religious calendar. Nisan is the first month of the year and normally coincides with our Gregorian calendar sometime in the month of March. I say "sometime" because the original Jewish calendar was based on a lunar 360 day cycle whereas our current calendar is based upon a 365 day solar cycle. This is important to understand so lets use an illustration as follows: Picture in your mind an old fashioned wooden wheel. The inside wooden spokes represent the months of the Jewish religious calendar beginning with the month of Nisan (sometimes also called "Aviv") and progressing through "Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul, Tishri, Heshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, and finally Adar".
By the way, there is (was) also a Jewish civil year calendar that was entirely different but that has been replaced in modern times by the Gregorian calendar which is used worldwide today.
But back to our wooden wheel; The outer ring or rim of the wheel represents our Gregorian calendar beginning with January which roughly corresponds to "TEVET". Both calendars run in a clockwise direction from left to right but because of the differences between a lunar and solar cycle, what we are left with is a wheel within a wheel that shifts slightly back and forth so each year there is a small variation of alignment in dates. For example, this year of 2018 (5778 on the Jewish calendar---from creation of man) is significant in that both the 7 days of Passover and Resurrection Sunday fall within the same time period.
Passover is a 7 day feast that includes 3 extremely important Biblical days. 1). Passover 2). Unleavened Bread 3). First Fruits. Once again why is this important to followers of Christ?
Jesus death on the cross of Calvary was an event He CHOSE to do, rather than being forced to do it. And yes the Romans obviously thought they were in charge and the physical circumstances that Jesus endured were terrible in the uttermost degree! However this was a Divine plan in that the shed blood of Jesus was the covering for all the sins of mankind who would eventually repent and place their faith in Him as their redeemer. Jesus as stated in Revelation chapter 5 is the true Lamb of God, slain for our sins.
Just as an innocent lamb was slain in the original Passover story (the shed blood of which protected the Jewish first born from death), so Jesus shed blood protects His followers from eternal spiritual death. Do you remember when Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill".
Jesus fulfilled prophecy during the Passover season in several different ways; 1). He CHOSE to give His life on the cross of Calvary PRECISELY on Passover. 2). He was buried the next day PRECISELY on Unleavened Bread. He was raised from the dead (resurrected) PRECISELY on First fruits. But that's not all.
50 days after Jesus was resurrected came another extremely important Biblically appointed day. PENTECOST! The day the Holy Spirit filled each of the believers in the new church in Acts chapter 2 verses 1-6.
Somehow many believers think that Pentecost was some kind of new revelation or experience begun for or by the church. NOT SO!
Pentecost goes back to Moses and His experience with God on MOUNT SINAI in Exodus chapter 19. It was precisely on Pentecost that Moses received the 10 Commandments (the Law) from God. Now here we are over 1400 years later and Jesus is about to fulfill yet another prophecy. Remember that He came to fulfill the LAW! He did so exactly on Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 when "THE LAW" was replaced by the dispensation of GRACE.
No follower of Christ, Jew or gentile should celebrate the Passover feast as a legal requirement. But I can tell you that a close study of Passover will reveal Jesus Christ to you in ways you may not have thought possible. I recommend that each of you read through the Passover story this coming weekend and simply ask God to reveal His eternal truths to you and your family.
My family will be doing so as well as enjoying each other, some special foods and most importantly what our Lord has done for us. It is a time of special celebration, not to mention a time of learning.
Everything that the Lord has done for us as His followers began during the 7 days of Passover about 2000 years ago. That is why Passover should be important to Christians.
God bless you all,
Pastor Rance.
PASSOVER STORY: Exodus 12:1-36 ENJOY!
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