Passover

– Feast of Unleavened Bread –

 

 WELCOME

 

Welcome to our Last Supper/Passover celebration! It is our hope that through this Feast your love for the Lord will increase making you more aware of His great love and sacrifice for you.

 

This night, unlike a traditional Seder will illuminate the fulfillment of God’s promise to rescue His people from sin and darkness, to be with Him in eternal glory as it was planned in the very beginning!

 

In Luke 22:15 we read that – Jesus eagerly desired to celebrate this Passover with His disciples. Still excited about His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey fulfilling Zech. 9:9 (Palm Sunday), they didn’t realize He was going to the cross! It was His last time to share with and impart to them a life changing revelation of what this night truly meant, a celebration of redemption and freedom.

 

THE PASSOVER SEDER IS FOR FOLLOWERS OF JESUS

 

This day shall be to you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD: throughout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Exodus 12: 14

 

He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you.

 

Do this (celebrate the Passover) in memory of me.” Luke 22: 19

 

INTRODUCTION

 

It’s exciting to be here at this appointed time.

 

Passover is not something we just decided to do; it is something the Creator of the universe has asked us to do!

 

During Passover, you are going to be part of history. We are going to be forging one more link in a chain that goes back for 3,500 years.

 

The word Seder means “order.” For over 2,000 years there has been a specific order to the story of redemption.

 

The Story of Passover begins with God giving a people a promise, He calls them into the world through Abraham (Gen. 22:11-18).

 

They are taken into bondage into Mizraim (land of bondage, darkness and emptiness) where they are separated from God.

 

He sends a child who will become their redeemer, Moshe-drawn from the water will draw God’s people out of Egypt (Ex. 2:1-10)

 

We will travel from the original Passover, in Egypt, to Messiah’s Passover, which was known as the Last Supper, to our Passover right now.

 

We are going to see that Passover is a festival of God about life, death, redemption and resurrection.

 

*Every one of us have this story written into our lives as followers of the Messiah.

 

God tells us to do this and teach our children so we never forget-

 

Exodus 12:24-27

 

KADESH: BENEDICTION/ SANCTIFYING

 

We start by setting the time apart with prayer. Each of us is to regard ourselves as though we were personally being redeemed out of Egypt from Egyptian slavery.

 

Regard it tonight as if you have just escaped Egypt yourself.

 

LIGHTING OF THE CANDLES

Gen. 3:15 – Isa 9:6 for unto us a child is born –

 

Light of the world comes through a woman

 

The woman of the house lights the menorah

 

Woman: Ba-ruch At-ah Adonai E-Lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olam, A-sher Kid-sha-nu B’mitz-vo-tav v’tzi-va-nu Le-had-lik Ner Shel Yom Tov. |

 

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has set us apart by Your Word and in whose Name, we light the festival lights.

 

Shehecheyanu:

“He Supports Us”

 

We say this prayer to set the time apart.

 

Ba-ruch At-ah Adonai E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olam, She-he-che-yanu Ve-kee-ya-manu ve-hi-gee-ya-nu Laz-aman ha-zeh. |

 

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has supported us, protected us, and brought us to this season.

 

Shofar is blown signaling the beginning –

 

– this is the time, now everything we do is sacred before God. We come into His presence, allow Him to speak to you.

 

Explanation of the 4 Cups of Passover

 

Promises: Ex.6:6 Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment.

 

7 I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

 

Four “I Will” Cups

 

1*Sanctify –

 

2*Judgment-Deliverance–

 

3*Redemption –

 

4*Return for you (Hope & Blessing)

 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First “Cup of Sanctification”

 

Ex. 6:6-8 – 1st cup – Sanctification – Separation –

 

John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. 18 As You sent Me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify Myself, so that they too may be sanctified by the truth.
20 I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

 

Urkhatz – Ceremonial Cleansing

Moses ministry begins at 80 yrs old!

 

3 periods of his life –

 

1st 40 yrs he’s a prince,

 

2nd 40 yrs he’s a shepherd and

 

3rd he’s the redeemer.

 

 

1st part he learned how to be somebody –

 

2nd part he learned how to be nobody –

 

3rd part he learned how to be a redeemer

by placing himself into God’s hands.

God can do this with anyone.

 

Jesus takes the role of a Servant during the Urkhatz – John. 13:4-16

 

*Items on the Seder Plate and their symbolic meaning*

*Karpas – Parsley & Salt Water-*Hagigah
Represents new Life/Hyssop and Tears –

 

Luke 19:41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

 

Ps. 56:8 You have kept count of my tossings
put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

 *Lamb Shank – Bone – (represents the sacrificial Passover Lamb)

– Matzah Tash (linen pouch containing 3 pockets) –

 

Isa. 53:5
Breaking the middle matzos –

Wrapping – Hiding the middle matzah-Afikomen

 

The bread of affliction was striped and pierced before

 

His sacrificial death on the cross

 

1 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. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 

Dipping of *Bitter Herbs

 

*Horseradish represents the bitterness of slavery and sin –

 

Eph. 5:8 for at one time you were darkness,

 

but now you are light in the Lord. 

 

Num. 9:11 They shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs-

 

asher kidshanu bidevaro vetzivanu al akhilat maror

 

*Charoset-Building of the Pyramids (Judas)

 

Symbol of the sin and bondage of our old life – Judas dips with Jesus – Charoset, sweetness mixed with the bitter –

 

John 13:21-27

 

– Story of the Exodus and the Plagues –

 

Second Cup-Judgment

 

Story of how God kept His promise! Deliverance from Egyptian slavery foretold to Abram

 

Gen. 15:13-14 – Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions–

 

Ex. 6:5…I have remembered my covenant.

 

 

Ex. 12:12-I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

 

 

Dam-Blood! – Tsephardea-Frogs! – Kenim-Lice! –

 

Arob-Flies – Deber-Cattle Disease! – Shechin-Boils! –

 

Barad-Hail! – Arbeh-Locusts! – Choshek-Darkness! –
–Maveth bechorot – Death of the First Born! –

 

Blessing over the cup –

 

Luke 22: 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

 

Dayenu Song

 

Dinner

 

The Passover Lamb explanation

 

Ex. 12:13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

 

John 1:29 Identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God

 

The Afikomen (Dessert-He who comes!)

 

It is here that Jesus identifies Himself as the Broken Bread taken from the middle matzah!

 

(Isa. 53:8 for the transgression of my people was he stricken)

 

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you;

 

do this in remembrance of me.” –

 

Zech. 12:10 He still remains hidden to Israel-The Seder cannot conclude until He comes back!

 

3rd Cup-The Cup of Redemption

 

Jesus identifies Himself with the 3rd Cup –

 

Matt. 26:27-28 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

 

(2nd cup is Judgment – Jesus doesn’t mention it because He is going to take it alone! (The First Born and the Lamb) –

 

Luke 4:17-19 -Jesus stops half way through!)

 

Star of David-2 triangles – one points up to God, one points down to man

 

wherever you are you’re not alone, not hopeless

 

4th Cup – The Cup of His Return – Praise & Hope

 

Elijah’s cup represents the future, what is yet to come

 

(Mal. 4:5-Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes)

 

Ex.3:8-The Lord says “I have come down to rescue my people from the hand of the Egyptians”-

 

Ex. 6:7 I will take you as my own people- (Ezek 36:24-27) ..

 

I will gather you from all countries and bring you back into your own land – Isa 10:12)

 

Deut 4:20… the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance…

 

Rom. 11:25– Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob” 27 “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” –

 

2 Cor. 3:14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.……….16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. – All Israel will be saved

 

Wedding Cup of betrothal- In a Jewish wedding the Bridegroom always makes a journey to the Bride. The Bride never has to come to the Bridegroom, the Bridegroom always comes to the Bride!

John 14:2-3 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many mansions; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. –

 

Matt. 26: 29 I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” –

 

1Thess 4:16-17 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

 

1 Thess. 5:1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 4 But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

 

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

Eph. 2:19 Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens of the saints and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. 21 In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

 

Realities Nailed to the Cross

 

It was at this time that they had sung the Hallel

(Ps. 113-118:14-29)

as they went out to the Mount of Olives expecting to continue the celebration Mark 14:26

 

They did not realize they were about to be scattered in fearful confusion as Jesus went with agony to fulfill His destiny.

 

(Luke 22:39-53) And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. 40 And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” 41 And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. 44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

 

We celebrate the anniversary of the most important Day in history three days after Passover when Jesus resurrected from the grave and defeated sin and death by His finished work on the Cross!

 

He calls you to be transformed by His Spirit and Life, to live with Him in glory forever! 

 

Hebrews 10:19-22-

 

I invite you to come now and surrender yourself to Jesus.

 

Record your “Reality”

 

(confess your need for a Savior) on a heavenly notepad.

 

Nail it to the cross in faith that God has done all this for you and believe that He has kept His promise and will be with you right now until He returns again to take you to Himself visibly and in Person.

 

Amen!

 

Y’ va-re-che-cha Adonai – v’yish-mire-cha Ya-er Adonai panav – elei-cha vihu-nechaYi-sah Adonai – panav – elei-cha V’ya-sem – l’cha shalom

 

The Lord bless you and keep you May the Lord shine His Face upon you

And be gracious unto you; may the Lord look upon you and give you peace

 

 

Mashiach = Anointed One – 1 Cor. 5:7-8 – Luke 22:7-15 – 1 Pet. 1:19-

 

Isa.46: 9 Remember what happened long ago,for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. 10 I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come, saying: ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’–

 

 

 

Some of the sages say that the Passover was meant to be a prelude to the revelation given at Sinai, though it really had to do with the deliverance (i.e., yeshuah: יְשׁוּעָה) of those who had faith in God’s remedy given through the blood of the lamb. The Passover anticipates God’s victory over the powers of darkness — recall that the final plague was delivered at midnight — and the people then left Egypt for the promised land the following day — a vivid testimony of God’s power of redemption (Exod. 12:29; Exod. 12:41).

We observe the Passover seder in the evening before the Exodus event because we share in the experience of salvation – trusting in God’s deliverance from death by the agency of the sacrificial lamb – *before* we celebrate our freedom. Likewise we first go to the cross of Messiah, the Great “Lamb of God” – receiving God’s provision for our healing and deliverance – *before* we begin our journey into the promise of newness of life (1 Cor. 5:7).

Observing Passover is an act of faith. *While still within the darkness* of bondage in Egypt, the Israelites had to believe in the freedom God promised to them. By taking hold of the lamb on the 10th of Nisan, waiting four days and then slaughtering the lamb, placing its blood upon their doorway, and later eating its flesh, the people expressed faith in God’s deliverance by means of his compassionate gift of vicarious atonement (Exod. 12:3-12).

Again, celebrating Passover expresses faith that we are set free from the powers of darkness and oppression, even during the struggle against the darkness. The victory of Passover is a divinely given freedom, a rebirth produced by the Spirit of God (2 Cor. 5:17).

AN OVERVIEW OF PASSOVER

Passover was a very simple memorial. It was an intimate meal—no less than ten and no more than twenty people could celebrate it together. It was a divinely designed memorial that served as an annual reminder of how God protected the Israelites and delivered them from bondage in Egypt.
The Lord used ten plagues to break the Egyptians’ grip on the Israelites.  The final plague was the mass slaying of the firstborn in every family. It was an incredible slaughter—Exodus 12:30 says “there was no home where there was not someone dead.”
But the Lord made a provision to spare the Israelites. They were able to avoid the angel of death by sacrificing a spotless lamb and spreading the blood of the lamb on the frame of their door (Exodus 12:1-13). And when the angel saw the blood, he would pass over that house.
Every part of the Passover meal was symbolic of some aspect of the deliverance from Egypt. Just as lambs had been slaughtered that night in Egypt and their blood sprinkled on the door posts, so to the Passover lambs were slaughtered and their blood sprinkled on the altar. Likewise, the lamb was cooked and fully eaten the same evening, just as in Egypt (Exodus 12:8-10).
The four cups of wine served during the meal symbolized God’s four promises to His ancient people just before their deliverance from Egypt:
I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God. (Exodus6:6-7)
The bowl into which the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs, and sometimes the bare hands (cf.
Matthew 26:23) were dipped contained a paste called charoseth, composed of finely ground apples, dates, pomegranates, and nuts. That thick, brownish mixture was perhaps symbolic of the mud and clay used in the making of bricks for the Egyptians. Sticks of cinnamon, representing the straw used for the brick making, were also sometimes added to the charoseth. Into this mixture the bitter herbs would be dipped and eaten, as reminiscent of the bitterness of bondage coupled with the sweetness of deliverance.
The Passover lamb was to be slain at twilight (Exodus 12:6), which translates a Hebrew term literally meaning “between the two evenings.” The ancient historian Josephus explains that time as being between the ninth and eleventh hours of the Jewish day, which would be between three and five o’clock in the afternoon. After being slaughtered by the priest in the Temple court and having had some of its blood sprinkled on the altar, the lamb would then be taken home, roasted whole, and eaten in the special evening meal with the unleavened bread, bitter herbs, charoseth, and wine. Any of it that was not eaten before morning was to be burned.
The lesson of the Passover was that deliverance from the judgment of God requires the death of an innocent substitute. That’s what the entire sacrificial system of Israel communicated—deliverance was available, but it came at a price.

From the perspective of the law, the lamb was pure.
But it wasn’t the sacrifice of a spotless lamb that ultimately satisfied God’s wrath. Those sacrifices could not accomplish anything on their own. Instead, they pointed ahead to God’s ultimate provision, when He would supply the true Passover Lamb in the sacrifice of His Son.
For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews10:1-4)
More than fifteen hundred years after the Lord delivered the Israelites from Egypt, Jesus Christ
prepared to celebrate the final Passover with His disciples. In Luke 22:15, Jesus says “I earnestly
desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” He was eager because it was a pivotal moment in His ministry, and He still had much to teach His disciples before He was handed over to the Sanhedrin.
In an interesting example of God’s sovereignty, Christ and His disciples were celebrating the
Passover a night before most of the rest of Jerusalem. Galilean Jews observed Passover on
Thursday night, since they marked their day from sunrise to sunrise. The Judean Jews marked their day from sunset to sunset, so their Passover would follow on Friday evening. It’s important to recognize the two authorized and legitimate celebrations, since they allowed for our Lord to celebrate the Passover one night and be the Passover Lamb the next.
As He sat in that secluded room with His disciples, Christ knew what was going to happen. He was preparing Himself and His closest friends for the moment He would be handed over for execution.
Over the centuries millions of Passover lambs had been slaughtered—each of them foreshadowing the sacrifice Jesus was about to make to free God’s people from the bondage of their sins. The symbols and shadows of the Passover were about to be fulfilled—the true Lamb had arrived. And at exactly the hour of slaughter on the appointed afternoon, He would die, the veil in the temple would be ripped from top to bottom, and the system of blood sacrifice would come to an end.
It was in those final moments with His disciples that Christ transformed the elements of the Passover celebration, creating the reality of a new covenant to God’s gracious deliverance of His people.