Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship – BLCF Church Message for Sunday:
‘Good Friday – Jesus: God’s Final Passover Lamb’
© April 3, 2015, by Steve Mickelson
Based on a Message Shared with BLCF Church on February 1, 2015
Reading #612 (The Lamb of GOD – Isaiah 53); Prayer
Opening Hymn #126: Amen, Amen!; Choruses
Prayer and Tithing: Hymn #572: Praise God from Whom All Blessings
Scriptures: Exodus 12:1-14, John 1:29-34, Hebrews 10:5-18, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
Let us pray…
Welcome to Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship and Toronto Vineyard’s combined Good Friday Worship Service, which is also a Communion Service.
Our lesson today is entitled: ‘Good Friday – Jesus: God’s Final Passover Lamb’, where, with the help of the Scriptures and our Wikibits, we will both explore and connect the dots between the first Passover in Egypt, the Festival of Passover or Pesach, and Jesus as the final Passover lamb.
It is hoped that our journey today will give us a better understanding and appreciation for the communion, by which we remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
We begin our journey today with the first Passover, where Jewish People celebrate not only their liberation from enslavement under Pharaoh in Egypt and by the blood of a sacrificed lamb, avoided the judgment of death, which was the Tenth Plague rendered by God.
Passover – from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Passover or Pesach (/ˈpɛsɑːx, ˈpeɪsɑːx/;[4] from: פֶּסַח in Hebrew, Yiddish; Tiberian: [pɛsaħ] ( listen), Modern Hebrew: [ˈpesaχ] Pesah, Pesakh; Yiddish: Peysekh, Paysakh, Paysokh), is an important biblically derived Jewish festival. The Jewish people celebrate Passover as a commemoration of their liberation over 3,300 years ago by God from slavery in ancient Egypt that was ruled by the Pharaohs, and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the Exodus as described in the Hebrew Bible especially in the Book of Exodus, in which the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover
While Passover celebrates the liberation of the Jewish people, from life as Hebrew slaves under the rule of Pharaoh, but how did GOD effect their release from bondage?
The Tenth Plague of Egypt
The Plagues of Egypt (Hebrew: מכות מצרים, Makot Mitzrayim), also called the ten plagues (Hebrew: עשר המכות, Eser HaMakot) or the biblical plagues, were ten calamities that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel’s God inflicted upon Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. Pharaoh capitulated after the tenth plague, triggering the Exodus of the Hebrew people. The plagues were designed to contrast the power of Yahweh with the impotence of Egypt’s various gods.
Let us now review our first Scripture Passage, which gives us the account of the first Passover, from Exodus 12:1-14 (ESV):
The Passover
12 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 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.[a]
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.
Footnotes: a. Exodus 12:6 Hebrew between the two evenings
GOD instructed the people of Israel to celebrate Passover throughout generations. It is interesting that the Passover Feast begins the day before as a fast, for some people, as we see in this posting from chabad.org:
The Fast of the First Born (chabad.org) – by Eliyahu Kitov
It is an ancient and widespread custom for the firstborn to fast on the day before Passover. This commemorates the miracle which spared the firstborn Jewish sons from the plague which struck down the firstborn sons of the Egyptians.
By right, this fast should be held on the anniversary of the day on which the miracle occurred: on the night of the fifteenth of Nissan. However, since the fifteenth is already Passover, and we do not fast on Festival days the fast is pushed back to the fourteenth.
There is an additional reason why we fast specifically on the fourteenth. The firstborn of the Jews were saved in Egypt because they humbled themselves before GOD, admitting and declaring that all greatness, power, and sovereignty are His alone.
This stood in contradistinction to the Egyptians who, filled with foolish pride and egotism, declared: “I am, and besides me there is none other.”
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1678/jewish/The-Fast-of-the-First-Born.htm
If GOD instructed the people to celebrate Passover as a statute forever, are Christians obliged to observe Passover? Let us go back to our Wikibits:
Passover (Christian holiday)
The Epistle to the Hebrews states that the sacrificial killing of animals could not finally take away sin, but awaited the atonement of Christ. (Hebrews 10). It proceeds to explain that Jesus Christ offered the one sacrifice that was acceptable to God, and that he lives forever as the believers’ intercessory high priest, replacing the Jewish sacrificial system and its sacerdotal priesthood. Most Christians consider the external ritual of sacrifice instituted in the Old Testament by God to be a precursor of the self-sacrifice offered by Jesus. For this reason, Jesus is called the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
The main Christian view is that the Passover, as observed by ancient Israel as well as Jews today, was a type of the true Passover Sacrifice of God that was to be made by Jesus.[3] The Israelites’ Passover observance was the commemoration of their physical deliverance from bondage in Egypt, whereas Passover represents for most Christians a spiritual deliverance from the slavery of sin (John 8:34) and, since Jesus’ death, a memorial of the sacrifice that Jesus has made for mankind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover_(Christian_holiday)
As Jesus died on the cross, as a final sacrifice for all of our sins, as Christians we celebrate not only GOD’s passing over our judgment from sin through Christ; we are given the assurance of our salvation and resurrection from death, as well as the gifting of the Holy Spirit, until the day the Lord returns. For that reason we see the celebration of an annual Passover Feast, replaced by Communion, as instructed by Jesus, at the last Passover.
Where Passover gives celebrants pause to reflect upon the liberation of the Israel Nation from the bondage of enslavement and the judgment of death to all first-born in Egypt, Communion observance gives Christians an opportunity to celebrate the freedom of all of humanity from bondage and judgment for sin through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, which is a gift to all from GOD.
Let us look at the Scriptures’ account of the Lamb of GOD, from John 1:29-34 (ESV):
Behold, the Lamb of GOD
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
Although John, also known as John the Baptist, does identify Jesus as Lamb of God, the Apostle Paul gives us a more complete understanding of the significance of this final sacrifice, in Hebrews 10:5-18 (ESV):
5 Consequently, when Christ[a] came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ[b] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Footnotes: a. Hebrews 10:5 Greek he b. Hebrews 10:12 Greek this one
Looking closer at this Scripture passage, we see that the sacrifice of Christ does away with all other sacrifices, including that performed at Passover, Hebrews 10:8-10 (ESV):
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
In final portion of this Scripture passage, not only do we need to stop following the traditional observances of the Mosaic Law of Feasts, we now come under GOD’s New Covenant, through our Lord, Christ Jesus, Hebrews 10:15-18:
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
There is no need to observe the old laws under the OLD Covenant, as Christians, are freed from the judgment for all sin by our Passover lamb, who is Jesus. The Lord instructed all apostles, to continue as messengers of his Gospel and remember his sacrifice by way of partaking in the elements of Communion, until the time that he returns. We must continue to worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth, as we read in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (ESV):
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.
Let us pray…
At this point in our worship service, we will observe Communion, which we reflect and remember the final sacrifice made by our Lord, Jesus, which saved not just the people of Israel from a single threat and judgment, as had happened in Egypt, but the Passover of all believers in the Resurrected Christ, potentially of humanity, from the death judgment of all sin, for all time, until the day Christ returns.
Communion differs from Passover, which celebrates a single miracle, at a single point in time. We have Communion celebrate a miracle that is more global in scale, for everyone who believes, not just at one time, but for all time.
Passover is an observation for all generations, under the Mosaic Law and Old Covenant; where Communion is an ongoing observation celebrated more frequently, as salvation after Jesus’ sacrifice and New Covenant comes at any time a believer makes a faith decision to accept Christ’s gift of salvation and agrees to accept his Lordship. Salvation and the New Covenant may occur for anyone, at any time, and in that regard is not limited to a single day or time. That is why Christian Churches celebrate the “New Passover” more frequently, in the spirit and truth the Lord intended.
We have the following description of the Words of Institution or Consecration spoken while we observer Communion:
Communion: Words of Institution
The Words of Institution (also called the Words of Consecration) are words echoing those of Jesus himself at his Last Supper that, when consecrating bread and wine, Christian Eucharistic liturgies include in a narrative of that event. Eucharistic scholars sometimes refer to them simply as the verba (Latin for “words”).
Protestant denominations
Protestant denominations generally, with the exception of the Anglican Communion and Lutheranism, rely exclusively on the words of St. Paul as recorded in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
Protestantism has typically utilized the words of institution as a central part of its Communion service, though precise traditions vary by denomination. The debate over the force and literalness of the words of institution underlies the arguments between consubstantiation and transubstantiation. Most of the established churches in the Protestant tradition employ a mirroring of Paul’s words surrounding the words of institution, while Congregationalist and Baptist churches use the words themselves without the full citation of Paul’s wording.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_of_Institution
Blessing and serving of the elements of Communion.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
Let us pray…
Closing Hymn #248: And Can It Be That I Should Gain
Benediction – (Hebrews 13:20-21):
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen
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