Text: Exodus 12:1-14; I Corinthians 5:7
Subject: The Feast of Passover
Introduction:
The chosen and elect nation of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for over four hundred years, just as God had told Abraham in Genesis 15:13. But the Lord responded to the cries of His people for freedom by raising up and sending Moses to be the vessel through whom He would work to deliver them from their bondage.
So, according to Gods Word, Moses went down to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and to set the nation of Israel free. But as scripture makes it clear, Pharaoh was full of pride and refused to let Israel go.
Consequently, the Lord brought a series of plagues against Pharaoh to help change his mind. The first nine plagues were as follows: 1.) Turning the Nile River into blood 2.) frogs, 3.) gnats, 4.) flies, 5.) disease, 6.) boils, 7.) hail, 8.) locusts and 9.) darkness.
Although the first nine plagues did not change Pharaoh’s mind, the tenth plague would be a different story! In this final plague God would send the death angel to kill all the first born in Egypt—both animals and people.
And this is where we come to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. God instructed the Israelites to take a lamb into their homes on the tenth day of the month of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar and March or April on the Gregorian calendar. Then on the fourteenth day of this month they were to kill the lamb at twilight. They were to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the top and sides of their door frames.
The Lord said to them that when He sent the death angel to execute the tenth plague by killing the first born of Egypt, the angel would “Passover” them when he saw the blood of the lamb applied to their dwellings! They would be spared and would not die.
And so it was. At midnight the death angel entered into Egypt, and every house that had the blood of the lamb applied to its doorpost and lintel was spared. But every home without the blood of the Passover lamb experienced the death of their first born.
The result of this tenth and final plague on Egypt forced the Pharaoh to let Israel go!
What a powerful truth is here! A nation of over two million people were set free from the most powerful empire on earth at that time by the power of the blood of the Lamb.
This was the first Passover, and it was the foundational salvation event in the Old Testament that was to be remembered by the chosen people of God from generation to generation.
Therefore, it was the first of the annual Spring Feasts in Israel that was to be celebrated each year. And it was to be a constant reminder of how the people were set free, not by what they had done, but by the power of God expressed through the shed blood of the Passover Lamb.
Also by keeping this annual Passover Feast, as the Hebrew words “mo’ed” and “mikraw” suggests, this would be an historical rehearsal by the elect nation for the set time when Messiah would ultimately fulfill this Passover Feast. And so for hundreds of years the chosen people of God were to rehearse the Passover Feast each spring. What an amazing, prophetic picture of what was to come!
And it did come on the day that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the tenth day of Nisan, on the back of a donkey, in fulfillment of hundreds of years of rehearsal by the chosen people and according to the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Jesus the Messiah rides into Jerusalem on the tenth day of Nisan, the very same day that thousands of Jewish people were bringing their lambs to by examined by the Jewish Priests to make sure that the animals had no blemishes and were suitable to be a Passover Lamb. In the same way, Jesus the Lamb of God was examined by the Jewish religious leaders for four days as they questioned Him over and over and found no defect or fault in Him. Even the political system and Pontius Pilate found “no fault in Him.”
It is now the fourteenth day of Nisan, and the four days of inspecting the Passover Lamb is completed. At nine in the morning, the third hour of the day, the High Priest goes to the Temple and ties the Passover Lamb to the altar—the lamb which is to be sacrificed for the nation. The lamb will remain there throughout the day.
Close by, at the very same hour of the day, Jesus Christ is nailed to the cross. As Mark 15:25 says, “It was the third hour (9am) when they crucified Him.”
I find it very interesting that the Jews, on this fourteenth day of Nisan, without really knowing what they were doing, before the Gentile or Roman authorities, cried out for their Passover Lamb to be slain when they said, “And all the people answered, ‘let His blood be on us and on our children.’”
Little did they know that by the time that they had set down for their traditional Passover meal, on that same evening at 6pm, they would have acted out the very fulfillment of God’s Passover Feast!
In Jesus, they chose their Passover Lamb, and in Jesus they slaughtered their Passover Lamb!
And for every Israelite who would put themselves under His blood, by faith, they would be saved from eternal judgment.
It is now three in the afternoon, the ninth hour of the day. The High Priest makes his way to the lamb which had been bound to the altar at 9 that morning. And he says what had been said for hundreds of years, “It is finished.” He then cut the lamb’s throat.
Also, at this very same hour, from the altar of the cross, Jesus says, “It is finished.” Jesus literally fulfilled the Passover Feast to the very day and the very hour! The Lamb of God had been slain.
At 3pm on the fourteenth day of Nisan, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He was declaring that the last and final lamb had been slain. The eternal sacrifice had been made.
As we bring this message on the Feast of Passover to a conclusion, I ask you to wonder with me at our amazing God as we look together at two other related scriptures on this powerful truth.
First is Revelation 13:8 where we are told that the Lamb was slain from the creation of the world! God planned the death of His only-begotten Son “as our Passover Lamb” before He created the worlds!
Secondly in Genesis 3:15, God promised that “the Seed of woman would crush the serpent’s head, and he would bruise His heel.” The entire Old Testament is the story of the chosen nation, Israel, through whom God would bring the Seed of woman who would crush the serpent’s head—beginning with the death of the Lamb of God on the Feast of Passover. Although at the cross His heel was bruised, that bruise was the beginning of the end for Satan when his head will be crushed! I will share more about this in my next message.
And as we have already stated, this grand event was pre-figured through God’s elect nation on that very first Passover night in Egypt when the Lord delivered His people through the power of the blood of the lamb—the blood that they applied to the door of their homes!
This foundational, salvation revelation was then rehearsed each spring by the chosen people of God for hundreds of years!
Then two thousand years ago the Son of God, Jesus Christ, fulfilled this Feast down to the very day and the very hour as Father-God’s Passover Lamb.
Friend, you can trust God and His infallible Word, the Bible.
The way of salvation is secure, and all who put their trust in the shed blood of the Lamb of God will be saved, will be delivered from judgment, will be set free from the penalty and power of sin, and will spend eternity in the glory of God!
I ask you dear friend, are you trusting in the blood of Christ alone to save you? If so, then rejoice, but if not, why not make that decision right now.
As the old song says, “what can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus; what can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
For more information on how to begin your new life in Christ, please visit our website at warriorassemblyofgod.com.
Subject: The Feast of Passover
Introduction:
The chosen and elect nation of Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for over four hundred years, just as God had told Abraham in Genesis 15:13. But the Lord responded to the cries of His people for freedom by raising up and sending Moses to be the vessel through whom He would work to deliver them from their bondage.
So, according to Gods Word, Moses went down to Egypt to confront Pharaoh and to set the nation of Israel free. But as scripture makes it clear, Pharaoh was full of pride and refused to let Israel go.
Consequently, the Lord brought a series of plagues against Pharaoh to help change his mind. The first nine plagues were as follows: 1.) Turning the Nile River into blood 2.) frogs, 3.) gnats, 4.) flies, 5.) disease, 6.) boils, 7.) hail, 8.) locusts and 9.) darkness.
Although the first nine plagues did not change Pharaoh’s mind, the tenth plague would be a different story! In this final plague God would send the death angel to kill all the first born in Egypt—both animals and people.
And this is where we come to the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. God instructed the Israelites to take a lamb into their homes on the tenth day of the month of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar and March or April on the Gregorian calendar. Then on the fourteenth day of this month they were to kill the lamb at twilight. They were to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the top and sides of their door frames.
The Lord said to them that when He sent the death angel to execute the tenth plague by killing the first born of Egypt, the angel would “Passover” them when he saw the blood of the lamb applied to their dwellings! They would be spared and would not die.
And so it was. At midnight the death angel entered into Egypt, and every house that had the blood of the lamb applied to its doorpost and lintel was spared. But every home without the blood of the Passover lamb experienced the death of their first born.
The result of this tenth and final plague on Egypt forced the Pharaoh to let Israel go!
What a powerful truth is here! A nation of over two million people were set free from the most powerful empire on earth at that time by the power of the blood of the Lamb.
This was the first Passover, and it was the foundational salvation event in the Old Testament that was to be remembered by the chosen people of God from generation to generation.
Therefore, it was the first of the annual Spring Feasts in Israel that was to be celebrated each year. And it was to be a constant reminder of how the people were set free, not by what they had done, but by the power of God expressed through the shed blood of the Passover Lamb.
Also by keeping this annual Passover Feast, as the Hebrew words “mo’ed” and “mikraw” suggests, this would be an historical rehearsal by the elect nation for the set time when Messiah would ultimately fulfill this Passover Feast. And so for hundreds of years the chosen people of God were to rehearse the Passover Feast each spring. What an amazing, prophetic picture of what was to come!
And it did come on the day that Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the tenth day of Nisan, on the back of a donkey, in fulfillment of hundreds of years of rehearsal by the chosen people and according to the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Jesus the Messiah rides into Jerusalem on the tenth day of Nisan, the very same day that thousands of Jewish people were bringing their lambs to by examined by the Jewish Priests to make sure that the animals had no blemishes and were suitable to be a Passover Lamb. In the same way, Jesus the Lamb of God was examined by the Jewish religious leaders for four days as they questioned Him over and over and found no defect or fault in Him. Even the political system and Pontius Pilate found “no fault in Him.”
It is now the fourteenth day of Nisan, and the four days of inspecting the Passover Lamb is completed. At nine in the morning, the third hour of the day, the High Priest goes to the Temple and ties the Passover Lamb to the altar—the lamb which is to be sacrificed for the nation. The lamb will remain there throughout the day.
Close by, at the very same hour of the day, Jesus Christ is nailed to the cross. As Mark 15:25 says, “It was the third hour (9am) when they crucified Him.”
I find it very interesting that the Jews, on this fourteenth day of Nisan, without really knowing what they were doing, before the Gentile or Roman authorities, cried out for their Passover Lamb to be slain when they said, “And all the people answered, ‘let His blood be on us and on our children.’”
Little did they know that by the time that they had set down for their traditional Passover meal, on that same evening at 6pm, they would have acted out the very fulfillment of God’s Passover Feast!
In Jesus, they chose their Passover Lamb, and in Jesus they slaughtered their Passover Lamb!
And for every Israelite who would put themselves under His blood, by faith, they would be saved from eternal judgment.
It is now three in the afternoon, the ninth hour of the day. The High Priest makes his way to the lamb which had been bound to the altar at 9 that morning. And he says what had been said for hundreds of years, “It is finished.” He then cut the lamb’s throat.
Also, at this very same hour, from the altar of the cross, Jesus says, “It is finished.” Jesus literally fulfilled the Passover Feast to the very day and the very hour! The Lamb of God had been slain.
At 3pm on the fourteenth day of Nisan, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” He was declaring that the last and final lamb had been slain. The eternal sacrifice had been made.
As we bring this message on the Feast of Passover to a conclusion, I ask you to wonder with me at our amazing God as we look together at two other related scriptures on this powerful truth.
First is Revelation 13:8 where we are told that the Lamb was slain from the creation of the world! God planned the death of His only-begotten Son “as our Passover Lamb” before He created the worlds!
Secondly in Genesis 3:15, God promised that “the Seed of woman would crush the serpent’s head, and he would bruise His heel.” The entire Old Testament is the story of the chosen nation, Israel, through whom God would bring the Seed of woman who would crush the serpent’s head—beginning with the death of the Lamb of God on the Feast of Passover. Although at the cross His heel was bruised, that bruise was the beginning of the end for Satan when his head will be crushed! I will share more about this in my next message.
And as we have already stated, this grand event was pre-figured through God’s elect nation on that very first Passover night in Egypt when the Lord delivered His people through the power of the blood of the lamb—the blood that they applied to the door of their homes!
This foundational, salvation revelation was then rehearsed each spring by the chosen people of God for hundreds of years!
Then two thousand years ago the Son of God, Jesus Christ, fulfilled this Feast down to the very day and the very hour as Father-God’s Passover Lamb.
Friend, you can trust God and His infallible Word, the Bible.
The way of salvation is secure, and all who put their trust in the shed blood of the Lamb of God will be saved, will be delivered from judgment, will be set free from the penalty and power of sin, and will spend eternity in the glory of God!
I ask you dear friend, are you trusting in the blood of Christ alone to save you? If so, then rejoice, but if not, why not make that decision right now.
As the old song says, “what can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus; what can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
For more information on how to begin your new life in Christ, please visit our website at warriorassemblyofgod.com.
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