Passover: Concerning Jesus Blood

Passover: Concerning Jesus Blood          April 04, 2020

We are close to the Passover Services in a few days as we are looking into our personal lives at this time in order to be better prepared for the Passover.

We know there are certain preparations we are to do for the various Feast Holy Days throughout the year and the Passover has the most important preparation of all for each of us.  Interesting, Passover is not even a Holy Day.  It is a feast day.

In the 23^rd chapter of Leviticus, we find a summary of God’s annual festivals.  The first three festivals, beginning with the Passover are primarily memorials of the first part of God’s plan.  

Leviticus 23:4-5 These are the LORD's appointed feasts, sacred assemblies that you are to declare at their appointed time. (5) "The LORD's Passover is to begin on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight.

·      The Passover, the first of God’s commanded annual festivals, pictures the beginning, the very first step, in God’s great Master Plan for the salvation of mankind. 

·      It pictures in advance, the sacrifice, the crucifixion and death, of Jesus Christ (our Passover lamb) for the sins of mankind. 

·      After His death, the Passover became a memorial of Christ’s suffering and sacrifice.

Numbers 9:2-3 "The Israelis are to observe the Passover at its appointed time (3) on the fourteenth day of this month. You are to observe it at this appointed time between the evenings. You are to observe it according to all its decrees and laws."

1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast so that you may be a new batch of dough, since you are to be free from yeast. For the Messiah, our Passover, has been sacrificed.   {sin}

1 Peter 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors, (19) but with the precious blood of the Messiah, like that of a lamb without blemish or defect.

·      The Passover prepares us for the remainder of God’s plan since it begins the annual rehearsal of the plan of God.

·      We have to prepare ourselves to draw closer to God. 

·      What are we to do and understand our responsibility is as we lead into the Passover Season.

After Jesus’ death, the Passover, celebrated with the new symbols of unleavened bread and wine, became a yearly memorial of His sacrifice for our sins, for Jesus became the reality that the Passover lamb had foreshadowed.  

1 Peter 2:24 "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the tree, so that we might die to those sins and live righteously. "By his wounds you have been healed."

The Passover for us is a memorial of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, which He wants Christians to especially remember every year.

1 Corinthians 11:26-32 For as often as you eat this bread and drink from this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (27) Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks from the cup in an unworthy manner will be held responsible for the Lord's body and blood. 

(28) A person must examine himself and then eat the bread and drink from the cup, (29) because whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself. (30) That's why so many of you are weak and sick and a considerable number are dying.

(31) But if we judged ourselves correctly, we would not be judged. (32) Now, while we are being judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so we won't be condemned along with the world.

This is a time, during the Passover season, to remember what Jesus has done for each of us by His sacrifice, with a deep sense of appreciation and understanding.

·      This cup of wine when we take of it, is Jesus agreement for our salvation through His blood. 

·      Jesus is telling us, in so many words, that the cup we take is the New Covenant

·      He had to give up His blood for each of us.

Matthew 26:28 because this is my blood of the new covenant that is being poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 22:20 He did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant sealed by my blood, which is being poured out for you.

·      Remember, Jesus did not abolish the Passover; He merely changed the symbols used. 

·      Instead of annually shedding the blood of a lamb and eating its roasted body,

·      we are now to use unleavened bread to represent the lamb body and wine represent His Blood.

The Old Covenant was sealed by Moses when he took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled in on the people.

Exodus 24:8 Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, "This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD made with you based on all these words."

·      But today, as part of the Body of Christ, the New Covenant is sealed, not by the offering of an animal, but by the offering of a person, Jesus. 

·      Instead of sprinkling the blood on the Body, we drink its symbol, wine for the blood and it comes inside of us, the Temple of the Holy God as the blood is sprinkled inside the Temple.

·      The purpose of taking of the wine, we are silently proclaiming Jesus death and return. 

·      We are proclaiming that we are a partner in the New Covenant of which Jesus is our Mediator to the Father and

·      We are proclaiming that we are in unity of all of those who are also in the body. 

·      What about the words “whoever eats the bread or drinks from the cup in an unworthy manner”.

·      Unworthy manner means to treat in an irreverent, profane, careless manner.   {they trampled on the Blood of Jesus}

1 Timothy 4:1-2 Now the Spirit says clearly that in the last times some people will abandon the faith by following deceitful spirits, the teachings of demons, (2) and the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences have been burned by a hot iron.

Hebrews 10:25-27 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another even more as you see the day of the Lord coming nearer. (26) For if we choose to go on sinning after we have learned the full truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, (27) but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.   {person will not repent or feel guilty}

We know, we all sins and if we feel guilty and repent, we will be forgiven.

What we are talking about, their conscience is now seared, they will not repent and sinning means nothing to them.

Hebrews 10:28-30 Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony of two or three witnesses." (29) How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God's Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace?

(30) For we know the one who said, "Vengeance belongs to me; I will pay them back," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."

·      Are we unworthy, of course we are, but if we fail to take of the Passover, it shows a lack of faith in God’s Word that He will forgive us.

·      Treats as common the blood of the covenant 

·      We need to renew and review our life with self-examination each year publicly and all the time in private. 

·      We are in a life time of overcoming.  Think about how we were 5 years ago.  God has begun working with each of us sometime in the past. 

·      We were baptize and received the Holy Spirit.  We are part of the Body of Christ.

·      This year Passover is different, we will not be meeting as a small group, but in our own homes, tied together by electronics. 

·      We will have some preparation in study and meditation before we take of the Passover.

·      How can we have faith in someone that we do not know.  What is our relationship with God. 

·      He reveals Himself to us over a period of time.

John 17:3 And this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent: Jesus the Messiah.

·      Do you see Jesus working in our lives. 

·      Interesting, Other people see that you are growing in the faith. 

·      Do we trust Him, because to know Him is to love Him and to love Him is to submit to Him. 

1 John 5:1-5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born from God, and everyone who loves the parent also loves the child. (2) This is how we know that we love God's children: we love God and keep his commandments. (3) For this demonstrates our love for God: We keep his commandments, and his commandments are not difficult,

(4) because everyone who is born from God has overcome the world. Our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. (5) Who overcomes the world? Is it not the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

·      God has called us and opened our minds to understand what Jesus has done being on the cross, about His blood to cover our sins. 

·      We do not understand God completely, and so do not feel that we are the only one in the world who really does not see God well. 

·      We have a promise to see Him as He really is someday.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, we are now God's children, but what we will be like has not been revealed yet. We know that when the Messiah is revealed, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is.

1 Corinthians 13:12 In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.

I believe faith is very important to Passover because all this is anchored to our faith in God and the depth of our relationship with Him. 

There is a direct connection between knowing God and submitting to Him, because to know Him is to love Him, and we submit to those we love.

Galatians 4:8-9 However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all. (9) But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

·      The faith we have is not our own faith but the faith that the Holy Spirit gives us. 

·      If people start rejecting the faith that brought us to God, then they will go back to what they were before. 

This is something that we do not want to discount in any way, shape, or form.

Galatians 3:27-29 Indeed, all of you who were baptized into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah. (28) Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female. (29) And if you belong to the Messiah, then you are Abraham's descendants indeed, and heirs according to the promise.

We must remember this:

Hebrews 2:1-4 For this reason we must pay closer attention to the things we have heard, or we may drift away, (2) because if the message spoken by angels was reliable, and every violation and act of disobedience received its just punishment, (3) how will we escape if we neglect a salvation as great as this? It was first proclaimed by the Lord himself, and then it was confirmed to us by those who heard him, (4) while God added his testimony through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

We were called to do the work of the Lord and will be rewarded with promised that we will be heirs of the world, because the earth is our inheritance for a 1000 years after we are changed to Spirit Being.

Hebrews 2:5-10 For he did not put the coming world we are talking about under the control of angels. (6) Instead, someone has declared somewhere, "What is man that you should remember him, or the son of man that you should care for him? (7) You made him a little lower than the angels, yet you crowned him with glory and honor

(8) and put everything under his feet." Now when God put everything under him, he left nothing outside his control. However, at the present time we do not yet see everything put under him. (9) But we do see someone who was made a little lower than the angels. He is Jesus, who is crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might experience death for everyone. (10) It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering as part of his plan to glorify many children,

·      With the Passover in a few days, do not undervalue in your mind and heart what we are to God. 

·      The Passover is for us to observe and take so we will be washed again {like baptism} and will be in position to inherit everything when we are change at the twinkling of the eye.

We are blessed beyond our wildest imaginations to be part of the Body of Jesus and called to take part of the Passover.  See you at Passover Services.