Christ has placed unparalleled love and fellowship bound up in the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. Often referred to in the New Testament as the Passover Season or Days of Unleavened Bread. Note Jesus' enthusiasm for using the Passover to show us His love.
John 13:1 NIV It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world. It was time for him to go to the Father. Jesus loved his disciples who were in the world. So he now showed them how much he really loved them.
Jesus really pushed this new special Passover meal to demonstrate his love for his followers. We will explore the depth and richness of the love inculcated in the New Covenant Passover which is vital to our spiritual growth.
Luke 22:14-15 NKJV 14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. 15 Then He said to them, "Withfervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
This remembrance is very important to Christ, therefore it must also be to all of his true believers!
PASSOVER TIMING AND FLOW OF EVENTS
Days begin at sunset in the Hebrew calendar. Each day has a night portion first then a daylight portion. The Passover lamb was sacrificed on the 14th of Nisan. Needless to say they did not do this sort of butchering at night. They did it in the late afternoon. The evening sacrifices in Israel are at 3:00P.M. See the flowchart attached to this article. The official lamb for the nation of Israel would have been sacrificed around three in the afternoon. Simultaneously, outside the city gates Jesus would also be sacrificed. It would then take a few hours to dress and cook the lambs and the people ate the meal a few hours after butchering later that night,with Unleavened Bread.
Exodus 12:6-8 MKJV 6 And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month. And... the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. 7 And they shall take of the blood and strike on the two side posts and upon the upper door post of the houses in which they shall eat it. 8 And theyshall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread. They shall eat it with bitter herbs.
The night following the daytime portion of the 14th is the 15th when Israel ate the Unleavened Lamb Meal. They ate the lamb, prepared to leave at any moment that evening.
Exodus 12:11-12 MKJV 11 And you shall eat of it this way, with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in a hurry. It is the LORD's Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt...will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt...
Israel started leaving Egypt that night, that is when they ate the Passover and celebrated Unleavened Bread. So why did Jesus eat it the night before the rest of His nation?
- He had to because as the real meaningful Passover Lamb, He would be in the grave dead.
- Christ was creating something wonderful and additional just for true believers.The authorities forced the crucifixion to end before the Holy Day began at sunset and rushed to get the bodies off the stakes and in the ground before DARKNESS.
John 19:31 MKJV 31 Then the Jews, ...begged Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath. Forthat sabbath was a high day.
Matthew 12:39-40 NKJV 39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Therefore Jesus would have been raised seventy two hours after burial. If placed in the tomb near the end of the fourteenth Jesus would rise near the end of the seventeenth of the month. Therefore Christ rose at 5 or 5:30 or twilight prior to Saturday night. He did not rise on Sunday mourning at sunrise.
John 20:1 NKJV 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still DARK,and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple,...said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."
Jesus was already gone from the tomb and people were not allowed to visit tombs on the Sabbath so the women came as soon as they could. This is the day after the first of the Sabbaths used in the count down to Pentecost and Jesus was the wave-sheaf offering on the 18th.
John 20:17 NKJV 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'"
Jesus Christ became the real first-born or first fruits to God and He presented himself to God the Father in the real Holy Place in heaven. He fulfilled Lev. 23:9-12.
NEW COVENANT PASSOVER IS A REMEMBRANCE OF CHRIST'S LAST DAY
What are the things that make Jesus's sacrifice for all mankind so meaningful? We will look at some of the major components of the final day in part two, next week. All believers will be spiritually enriched as we learn, every year to appreciate all that Jesus endured for us.
John 13:12-17 NKJV 12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? 13 "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 "For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 "Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 "If you know these things,blessed are you if you do them.
His disciples learned the value of servant-leadership and love and serving others at the Last Supper. Further Jesus prepares our minds to be positive about our awesome future as Sons of God.
John 14:1-3 NKJV 1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Christ told them of the high offices they would have in His Kingdom leaving them more encouraged. In part two we will cover seven things experienced by the true Lamb of God during Jesus's last day. His final sacrifice was greater than most know unless they have learned to keep New Covenant Passover correctly!
Even for the many who do really appreciate the enormity of the sacrifice more can and should be understood.
