Passover is the FIRST STEP in our walk with God entailing:

JUSTIFICATION (being made righteous in the sight of God by the death of the LAMB OF GOD, His Son Jesus Christ on the cross for our sin)

The Lord’s Passover takes place each year on the Hebrew/ Biblical Calendar on 14 Nisan (falling on end March begin April on the Western Calendar).

Historical background

God first gave instructions on the celebration of the Passover in Leviticus 23:5. The Passover was God’s first encounter with His covenant people (Exodus 12:1-14 and Exodus 43-48). He chose Moses to lead the Hebrews out of bondage and He sent ten terrible plaques against Egypt to convince the Pharaoh to let His people go. With the tenth plaque, the death of the first-born God gave specific instructions to the Hebrews on how to be SAVED FROM this DEATH. We read in Exodus 12:12 “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and strike down every first born, both men and animals, and I will execute judgements against all the gods of Egypt.”

Every man had to select a year-old male lamb without spot or blemish for his household on the 10^th of Nisan. Then he had to observe the lamb for five days to make sure there was nothing wrong with him. On the evening of the 14^th Nisan the lamb had to be killed on the doorstep of the house and the blood had to be caught in a basin and sprinkled on both sides of the doorpost to COVER the entire entrance into the house by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB. They had to roast the whole lamb (without breaking any bone) on a spit over a fire, and eat it along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. No meat could be left over for the next day. They had to eat in haste, fully dressed with their sandals on and their staffs in their hands. The same night God passed through Egypt and struck down every first born of both people and animals and execute judgment on all the gods of Egypt. The Hebrew’s houses were COVERED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB ant their first born were SAVED FROM DEATH, BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. The BLOOD OF THE LAMB was their COVERING and PROTECTION. They therefore entered into a BLOOD COVENANT WITH GOD. This is the Lord’s Passover and it is a lasting ordinance to be celebrated by all generations as a festival to the Lord (Exodus 12:11 & 14).

Fulfilled by Jesus

For 1500 years the Jewish people celebrated the FEAST OF PASSOVER by killing a lamb and offering it as a sacrifice to God. But the blood of an animal could only COVER their sins, not take it away. God sent prophets to explain to the people that, one day in the future, a human lamb would come who would deal with the problem of SIN and DEATH once and for all. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the suffering this human lamb would experience in Isaiah 53. God crossed over time and space and became one of us in the person on Jesus of Nazareth to be sacrificed as the human Lamb who gave His life for the sins of the world. The last prophet, John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus that introduced Him as “ the Lamb of God.” (John 1:36). Jesus therefore fulfilled the Feast of Passover in His crucifixion, the purpose for which He was born (Acts 2:22-23). This is the reason why Jesus deliberately arranged His itinerary and personal activities around the events associated with the SELECTION, TESTING and DEATH of Himself, the Passover Lamb of God. Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10^th day of Nisan to be set aside as the human Lamb (John 12:12-13). He was observed for five days from 10-14 Nissan to ensure that He was without spot or blemish, as the Lamb of God (Matt 21:23-27). They asked Him trick questions as apart of pointing accusing fingers at Him to try to discredit Him as the perfect sacrifice but Jesus responded perfectly to them. They could not find anything wrong with Him. In desperation they took Jesus to Pilate but after interrogating and beating Jesus Pilate declared: “I find no fault in Him.” On the 14^th of Nissan in the afternoon at 9:00 Jesus was crucified and at 15:00 Jesus died (Mark 15:25,33-38) for our sins (John 3:16).

Personal significance

All of us have sinned and the judgement for sin is death (Romans 3:23 & Rom 6:23). The great hold Satan has on humanity is the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15). Our sin separates us from God. Even though we deserve death, God has made a way for us to be saved through the blood of Jesus, which cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). When we apply His blood to the doorposts of our heart, death cannot hold us. We therefore no longer need to fear death because the resurrection of Jesus has taken away its sting (1 Corinthians 15:51-57). We no longer have to be afraid of God and run from Him because He accepts Jesus’ death in our place. We are reconciled to God when we acknowledge Jesus as the One who died on our behalf (Rom 8:1). The result of our coming to Jesus as our Passover sacrifice is PEACE with God (Rom 5:1, 8 & 9). God then enters our lives as our PROTECTOR and PROVIDER. We have crossed over from:

• Natural people to covenant people
• Darkness to light
• Sin to righteousness
• Bondage to liberty
• Defeat to victory
• Fear to faith
• Sickness to health
• Poverty to plenty
• Death to life

Accepting Jesus as our Messiah, Lord and Savior is the first major encounter we have with God and how we find PEACE with God. The Feast of Passover is therefore s picture of the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus. The FIRST of the SEVEN STEPS to know God and to walk with Him is to ACCEPT Jesus as our personal Messiah, Lord and Savior and thereby experiencing SPIRITUAL NEW BIRTH. Our HEART’s are then circumcised as proof that we are in covenant with God (Rom 2:29). The Holy Spirit come and live IN us, CHANGING OUR HEART and making us a NEW CREATION in SPIRITUAL UNION with JESUS. (Phil 3:3, Rom 2:28-29 and 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Prophetic aspect

The Lord told His people to keep the Feasts in their SEASONS (Lev 23:4). God also has PROPHETIC SEASONS – periods of time in world history when God moves to establish and restore the spiritual meanings of these feasts in the lives of His covenant people. In AD 312 the Roman Emperor Constantine DECREED Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity however CANNOT be decreed, since it is a matter of the heart. The people had to OUTWARDLY OBEY though INWARDLY most NEVER actually accepted Jesus personally and therefore never experienced new birth. Rome embraced Christianity, but the Romans themselves did NOT become TRUE BELIEVERS. To survive, they joined the new religion BUT they never had a change on the inside. The result was, that many UNBIBLICAL practices were taught by the institutional Church during the next 1,200 years. As a result, they did not clearly teach that SALVATION came about through a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with Jesus and a SPIRITUAL new birth into the Kingdom of God. In the 1500’s God raised up a man named Martin Luther to RESTORE the meaning of the Feast of Passover to the Christian world. In 1515 Luther studied Paul’s letter to the Romans and he realized that salvation was not based on religious acts or outward works but it was a free gift from God, available through faith in Jesus (Rom 1:17). Luther became a CHANGED MAN. He put his personal faith in Jesus as his PASSOVER LAMB who had died for his sins. Unfortunately, Martin Luther hated the Jews. He was a man of his times and lived in an anti-Semitic world. Yet God used him to restore the spiritual reality of the Feast of Passover as it was fulfilled in Jesus.

Information based on: CELEBRATING JESUS IN THE BIBLICAL FEASTS – Dr. Richard Booker

Animated Story Board: Created by Danelle Harmse for HeBrews Coffee Roastery

Animated Story Board: Created by Danelle Harmse for HeBrews Coffee Roastery