Passover and Good Friday
(Leviticus 23:4-8, I Corinthians 5: 7, 15:3)
1. Today I would like to talk about one of the seven original Jewish Feasts God gave to the nation of Israel: the Passover. The Passover, as we shall see, bears directly upon Good Friday.
2. The Jewish people consider Passover, the first of the seven feasts and Yom Kippur, especially important. If you have Jewish friends, you probably know how important this feast is to them.
3.So here is a Jewish joke about this.
An elderly couple in New York were disappointed that their children were not go to return home to celebrate Passover.
The man calls his son in California the day before Passover.
"I hate to tell you this," the father says, "but your mother and I are getting a divorce. Forty-five years of misery is enough."
"Dad, what are you talking about?!" the son screams.
"We can't stand the sight of each other anymore," the father says. "I’m sick of talking about it, so call your sister in Chicago and tell her."
Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "We can’t let them get a divorce!" she shouts. "I’ll take care of this."
She calls her father immediately and screams, "You are NOT getting a divorce! Don't do a single thing until I get there. I’m calling my brother back, and we’ll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't move!"
The father hangs up the phone and turns to his wife. "Okay, they’re coming for Passover this year," he says. "Now, what are we going to tell them for next year?"
4. Summarize the 7 feasts of Lev. 23
MAIN IDEA: Passover is about redemption and foreshadows how Christ died for our sins and how God’s wrath passes over us when we turn to Christ.
We can understand this best by making 3 connections.
I. Passover Connects the TORAH to the New Testament. (Leviticus 23:4-5, Exodus 12:3-14).
A. Based on the Hebrew’s DELIVERANCE from Egyptian bondage (Ex. 12:3-14).
“3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.”
B. The concept: a PURE lamb sacrificed so that God’s wrath “passes over.”
• When we are saved, forgiven, we are passed over when it comes to God’s wrath.
Modern Jews do not typically eat Lamb anymore for Passover to grieve that the Jerusalem Temple is gone; they typically eat chicken (lamb shank bone in their ritual to remind them).
Non-Messianic Jews (the vast majority) view Passover merely as a celebration of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Messianic Jews enter into the richness of its two fold meaning….looking back to Egypt and forward (from Moses’ time) to the Messiah and beyond to Jesus return...
II. Jewish Passover TRADITIONS Can Connect Us to the Person of Jesus and the Lord’s Supper.
A. The 3 MATZOS
1.The matzos probably represent the 3 PERSONS of the Godhead
They are typically placed together in a pouch
half of the middle matzoh, the Afikomen (Greek, “He came”), was hidden and the children search for it and are given a reward if they find it.
Communion is an edited version of the Passover meal; this is the Matzoh that Christ said, “Is my BODY.”
2. The second matzo is HIDDEN, but there is a reward for those who find Him.
3. Notice the matzo is pierced and UNLEAVENED; leaven is used in Scripture to represent SIN (see I Corinthians 5:6-8, Matthew 6:11).
B. The third CUP of wine, the cup of REDEMPTION.
There are 4 cups of wine, the THIRD being the cup of REDEMPTION.
When Jesus drank this third cup, He said, “This is my blood.” New Covenant
The fourth cup he will not drink until He returns (Matt. 26:27-29)
C. These two elements of the Passover became the Lord’s Supper (COMMUNION).
When Jesus said, “This is my body” or “This is my blood,” He was saying,
“You have been doing this for 1500 years, but this ritual predicts my work on the cross. You have been hiding, finding, and breaking the center Matzoh, but that Matzoh represents ME, the sinless, unleavened, 2nd Person of the Godhead whose body would be broken for you. The cup of Redemption anticipated Me shedding my blood for your sins so that you could be redeemed.”
• The Passover Seder (meal), like the Lord’s Supper, memorializes what has already happened.
Hebrews 10:10, And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
III. The New Testament Directly Connects JESUS to the Passover (I Cor. 15:7).
A. Jesus (Yeshua) was the PURE Lamb sacrificed for us.
I Peter 1:8-9, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Romans 5:9, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!”
John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29b)
B. His bones were not BROKEN (Exodus 12:46 with John 19:32-27).
C. We apply Jesus’ blood to the DOORPOSTS of our hearts by faith.
D. Paul directly calls Christ our PASSOVER (I Cor. 5:7).
“Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
E. The cross was planned from eternity past; there is no other way for us to be SAVED.
Have you received the forgiveness that comes through repentant faith in our Lord Jesus Christ? (Acts 20:21)
I believe He celebrated Passover with His disciples and died on Passover, both true. It is likely that in the first century, Passover was held on two days because the Pharisees calculated the date by starting the day in the evening while the Sadducees at sunrise. Thus the Pharisees would have celebrated their meal on Thursday at twilight while the Sadducees on Friday. I understand that Christ died on Friday and rose ON the third day as Paul states to a gentile readers in I Cor. 15:4, the way we westerners calculate. After three days and nights is a Hebrew idiom for on the third day. To prove this idiom with your Bible, note the following passages: Gen. 42:17-18, I Kings 20:29, 2 Chronicles 10:5 with vs. 12, Esther 4:16 and 5:1, I Samuel 20:11-13.
