Christ in the Passover: Presented by David Brickner

I you know juice for Jesus for some of you sounds like a contradiction perhaps like vegetarians for meat think about it Jesus was Jewish right and the disciples Peter John James they were the first Jews for Jesus all the writers of the New Testament with the possible exception of Luke we know that Luke was a doctor so who knows but the amazing thing is that when God sent Jesus the Messiah it wasn't just for the Jewish people he is the savior of the world and because of him we all are children of Abraham by faith God has broken down that middle wall of partition and extended the blessing of Abraham arms open wide to all who will come and receive him and that's a great thing and part of that blessing that you have entered into is this story Passover this festival of redemption this feast of God's deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage and slavery in Egypt we're going to look at that together you know for most of my Jewish people the festivals are like this they tried to kill us we won let's eat but the biblical feasts are rich with meaning where God wove into the very fabric of this story a picture of a far greater redemption of all the world from the Egypt of sin through our Passover lamb who is Jesus the Messiah so if you have a Bible I invite you to turn with me to this first Passover story you'll find in the book of Exodus Exodus chapter 12 and we're going to read verses 5 through 8 and 11 through 15 now if you remember at this time Israel was in bondage we were in slavery in Egypt and God promised he was going to redeem us and so he raised up Moses and sent him to the Pharaoh of Egypt to say Pharaoh let my people go well Pharaoh wasn't exactly willing to listen and so God had to persuade Pharaoh and God can be very persuasive when he wants to be and he persuaded Pharaoh to listen by sending series of plagues on the land of Egypt remember the story there were ten plagues and all and the Jewish people were living in a section of Egypt called Goshen and they were automatically exempt from the first nine of those ten plagues so for example the Bible tells us when darkness fell across the land of Egypt as a plague from the Lord there was still light in Goshen where the Israelites were living or when God smote the cattle of the Egyptians with a plague the cattle of the Israelites were spared and yet this was not the case with the tenth play which was the worst plague the death of the firstborn in order that that plague should not also fall on the Jewish people God commanded each of them to take a lamb so that's where we pick up the story Exodus 12 verse 5 the animals you choose must be year old males without defect and you may take them from the sheep or the goats take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the meat that where they eat the Lambs that same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast now verse 11 this is how you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover on that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn both men and animals and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt I am the Lord 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 play will touch you when I strike a gypped this is a day you are to commemorate for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord a lasting ordinance for seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast on the first day remove the yeast from your houses for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel so that is the historical instead tuition of the Passover we know then that the first Passover was celebrated on the night of the tenth plague way back in Egypt but as God commanded in the passage we just read Israel was to continue to celebrate this as a lasting ordinance and so throughout our history as we observe the Passover there were various symbols and traditions added to the celebration in order to remind us of that first Passover back in the land of Egypt so that by the time Jesus and the disciples were celebrating Passover all but two of the items on the table before you this morning were already incorporated into their Passover and of course Jesus had the most significant Passover to be celebrated when he was in the upper room in Jerusalem so you see the Last Supper was a Passover and how much more significant does this festival come to be for us who follow Jesus in light of all the things that he said and did on that night he was betrayed and of course we're still celebrating Passover every year in Jewish homes and this year the first night of Passover is the Monday night after Palm Sunday and there's a tremendous amount of preparation that goes into the celebration of Passover you might remember from the Gospel accounts that Jesus even sent Peter and John ahead of him into the city of Jerusalem saying go prepare the Passover that we may eat now this preparation involves many different things but most significantly doing exactly what verse 15 told the children of Israel to do back in the land of Egypt which was what to cleanse our houses of all leaven anything with yeast in it has to go so of course today that means all your Wonder bread all your host is Twinkie is all that leavened stuff has to go but because Passover comes in the springtime this has now become a time for a general housecleaning and in the Orthodox Jewish home mom actually begins weeks in advance of the Passover cleaning floor-to-ceiling everything there's even a whole different set of dishes put out for use at Passover but we have a problem and the problem is that although it is the mother who does the cleaning of the house the rabbi's tell us only the man can certify that the house has been properly cleaned you can see what kind of a problem we have well the rabbi's knew the men would be hard pressed to get the job done right by themselves and they also wanted to ensure peace and harmony in the home of Passover so they got together and they thought about this problem and they came up with a solution which in Hebrew we call Betty caught comets or the searching out of the leaven here's how it works night before Passover mom's already cleaned the house of all leaven but she takes a little bit that's left over maybe crumbs from the toast they had for breakfast that morning something with yeast in it and she takes it and hides it somewhere in the house so the father coming home that evening will take in his hand a feather and a wooden spoon and a napkin and he'll go on a GI inspection to search out that leaven looking high and low for those crumbs now if his wife has been good enough to him she's hid it in the same place she ate it last year and the year before that so that when he finally finds those crumbs he takes the feather and with a steady hand he scrapes them into the spoon heavy housecleaning and then he wraps the whole thing up in the napkin and what they still do today in religious communities like Jerusalem you can see this the men will then march off to the local synagogue there's a bonfire burning in the courtyard he takes this package tosses it into the bonfire recites a prayer and so declares the house properly cleaned an ingenious way for the men to get out of the house cleaning right but you know the Apostle Paul actually makes a very specific analogy to this custom Betty caught comets in first Corinthians chapter 5 beginning with verse 6 your boasting is not good don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast as you really are for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed therefore let us keep the festival not with the old yeast the yeast of malice and wickedness but with bread without yeast the bread of sincerity and truth and so we see from this passage Paul points out that leaven something with yeast in it is not just what it is it's a symbol it's a symbol for sin and if you think about it when yeast enters into a lump of dough it permeates that lump causes it to become completely leavened and rise and that's the way sin works in our lives it causes us to become utterly sinful if you will to become puffed up in our own estimation before God and Paul points out that just as leaven yeast is a symbol for sin so then this unleavened bread the matzah that we eat at the Passover this then is a symbol of purity of righteousness before God now ladies I know you must be thinking it's entirely unfair that you have to do all the hard work cleaning house and the man gets all the ceremonial glory declaring it clean well ladies you have your own very very own bit of ceremonial glory which is called the brachot honey or the lighting of the festival candles which actually ushers in the celebration of the Passover and at this time mom takes this book which we call Hagaddah Hagaddah is a Hebrew word it means the story or the telling and within this beautifully bound and beautifully illustrated book is all of the ceremonies story and prayers that are associated with the Passover and as Joel mentioned we do have a brochure I don't have a Haggadah for each of you but if you open this brochure you'll notice that there are some of the blessings that we say including the blessing over the candles on the second panel there and I'm going to say this blessing in Hebrew and then I'm going to ask the ladies to join me in saying it in English baruch ATA adonai eloheynu melech ha-olam asher kitchen Ubbe Mitzvahed soffits Ivana the hot leak ner shel euro mein ladies blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe who sanctifies us by his Commandments and commands us to Kindle the festival lights now I think it's appropriate that it is the woman rather than the man who likes the candles and so brings light to the festival table because in the same way it was not through a man it was through a woman and the will of God that the light of the world came into the world as the prophet Isaiah declared behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you will call his name Immanuel a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of my people Israel so then I think it's appropriate for all of us to recite the Messianic blessing over the candles together blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe who sanctifies us through Yeshua the Messiah the light of the world amen and of course Yeshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus Passover now begins and Passover is celebrated not primarily in the synagogue but in the home around the family dinner table your family dinner table looks just like this doesn't it what a beautiful table and a beautiful flower arrangement but you'll notice there are pillows on the chairs in Exodus 12 we read God commanded the children of Israel to eat the first Passover standing up we had to have our loins Girt at our shoes on our feet and our staffs and our hands ready to take off at a moment's notice in ancient Near Eastern culture only free people could recline at the meal slaves had to stand once we were slaves now we're free the pillows are symbol of our freedom one other thing is that Passover can sometimes take four to six hours to go through so having a pillow is not a bad thing don't worry we'll go through quite a bit quicker this morning but now the father has a special role to play and so during the Passover he puts on in the religious home this garment which is called the Kittel now the Kittel as you can see is a white linen robe white being a symbol of purity but also a symbol of priesthood because this Kittel is the actual same garment worn by the priests as they would minister in the temple on behalf of the nation of israel so the father being the priest of his family puts on this Kittel and then he puts on a mitre which symbolizes a crown in the ancient Near East he's also king of his castle right and you think I look like a contestant on Top Chef now right well the father leads the family in worship but he also encourages the children to participate and there's a number of different points at which that occurs the most significant being the four questions four questions asked usually by the youngest child then serve as the basis for the father's retelling the story of the Passover here's what the first one sounds like mana stone aha Lila has ME coal hollowed Shabak whole hallelu Donnell clink omitsu matzah halala huzzah cool o matzah which means why is this night different from all other nights on all other nights we eat leavened or unleavened bread why on this night to eat only unleavened bread and after chanting all four questions the father answers and explains the meaning of the Passover and just as there are four questions at Passover so there are right here four cups that you can see now each of us only has one cup as we sit at the table but we drink from that cup four different times during the Passover and each time we drink from it there's a different name and meaning given to the cup and the first time we drink it is called kiddush kiddush means sanctification and there's a special Hebrew prayer that we say this blessing over the cup and certainly Jesus himself said that blessing and then he said something directly related to this tax this blessing Boru haataja deny eloheynu melech ha-olam boray Parihaka fan romain together blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe creator of the fruit of the vine and then Jesus said it is with great desire that I have desired to eat this Passover with you but I tell you truly I will not partake of the fruit of the vine again until I drink it anew in the kingdom you see Jesus spoke of a new Passover that was coming everything that he spoke of in this Passover in that upper room pointed to that new Passover in the kingdom and everything is now blessed and sanctified and everything has a particular order to it as well now seder is the Hebrew word for order Passover is referred to as a Seder meal and this is a seder plate and despite its appearance it's not for deviled eggs the compartments that you see on the seder plate will they correspond actually to these symbolic food items down through here so a little bit of each of these food items is now placed on the seder plate and the first that we have is Karpis which is the Hebrew word for greens in this case parsley now the rabbi's tell us that the greens represent life and we will take some salt water which represents the tears of life and we dip the greens into the salt water and so we are reminded that during our slavery in Egypt our lives were immersed in tears a life without redemption is a life immersed in tears but we also remember that God redeemed us with a mighty outstretched arm he brought us out of bondage through that salty Red Sea and into freedom and so by His mercy and grace our lives have been drawn from the tears of slavery and we eat the greens now to remind us that we partake of life redeemed from the tears of bondage through the mercy and grace of Almighty God the next item on the Seder Plate horseradish we call it Jewish Dristan here guaranteed to unclog the sinus passages in the back of your head now the horseradish or more or as it's called in Hebrew is the bitter herb that we read about in Exodus 12 verse 8 the very same bitter herb that was eaten all the way back in the land of Egypt and so what we do is we take some of the unleavened bread the matzah and we say the blessing over it baruch ATA adonai eloheynu melech ha'olam mote c let them in ha rats o mane together blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth then we take this and we dip it into the horseradish and get about this much of it on there and then I'm not going to do it but do you know what happens when you eat this much horseradish you begin to cry you have little choice in the matter but the tears that we shed they are a graphic reminder of the tears that our forefathers shed during their slavery in Egypt and so you see we're entering into this experience together now remember when Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples he had said to them one of you is going to betray me and the disciples got all upset they said Lord is it me is it that guy who is it and Jesus said he who dips in the SOB with me this night that one will betray me remember that well this is that sob and here's the thing every one of the disciples dipped with Jesus that night and if you think about it did they not also in their own way all of them betray him and we all know something about that don't we but later on we find Jesus himself taking the bread dipping it into the bitter herb he handed it to Judas Iscariot and said to him what you must do go and do quickly now the Bible tells us that when Judas took the bread with the SAAP Satan entered into him and he went out into the night more or bitterness and tears the next item on the Seder Plate is called ah row Seth can you all say that ah row Seth not bad but you got to get that on there you know just don't look at your neighbor when you say it all right now Carosa there's a sweet mixture of chopped apples and nuts and honey and raisins and cinnamon it's absolutely delicious but it represents the mortar that we use to make bricks for Pharaoh during our slavery in Egypt kind of looks like mortar and so you might ask the rabbi well now wait a minute Robin Carosa threw presents' mortar for bricks which was bitterness toil to our people why is this stuff so sweet ah the rabbi will say because you see even the bitterest of our toils grew sweet when we knew that our Redemption drew near and once again we take some of the unleavened bread and dip it into the corrosive maybe we get a double portion of it on theirs at this time and what we find is that as we eat this mixture you know that bitter taste that was left in our mouths from the horseradish it just disappears in the sweetness of the her osek which teaches us and reminds us that even the bitterest things that we must face in this world while they can be sweetened by the hope and the promise of God's redemption this is hazare it the bitter root which is a horseradish root but if you don't have one of those you can use an onion because it's just there on the table as a symbol to remind us that the very root of life itself is bitter as certainly the children of Israel understood in the land of Egypt but the last two items on the Seder Plate are the only two not present when Jesus celebrated the Passover in the upper room and you'll understand why in just a bit this is hagigah as you can see hug EAGA is an egg that has been roasted or hard-boiled it's brown because the sacrifice of the temple at Passover is also called hagigah so then this is a memorial that represents that sacrifice the egg is brown because the sacrifice had to be burnt but it's a memorial because the sacrifice which was occurring during Jesus celebration in the temple can no longer take place Jesus even predicted this he said this temple is going to be destroyed not one stone will be kept on another and not a generation after Jesus uttered those words Titus and his Roman legions marched into Jerusalem destroying the city and the temple you can go and see the arch of Titus outside the Coliseum in Rome and see an historic piece of art that gives evidence to the fulfillment of Jesus exact prediction but because the temple has been destroyed there is no anointed holy place where that sacrifice could occur and so all over the world today Jewish people mourn that sacrifice what we do is we peel the egg and we slice it and then we dip the slice in the salt water which represents tears tears of mourning in fact because of that the rabbi's tell us we can't even eat lamb at Passover we have some other meat as a main course in this last item also on the table is zarua the shank bone of a lamb in fact Zorua is the same Hebrew word used in Isaiah chapter 53 to whom has the arm of the Lord the 0ax of the Lord been revealed this reminds Jewish people at Passover of those lambs that were taken back in Egypt that were so important so significant but now we're so sadly absent we read about them when we read Exodus 12 God commanded that we take a yearling male lamb without spot without blemish without any broken bone we were to take that lamb and to sacrifice it and this reminds me of another perfect Passover lamb who contrary to Roman custom did not have his legs broken when he hung on the cross and so did Jesus fulfill messianic prophecy we come now to the second cup which is called the cup of plagues and we don't drink from this cup right away but rather we dip our finger into the cup and drop a drop on the plate in front of us you see a full cup is a symbol of fullness of joy and we don't want to take joy even in the suffering of our enemies so now we are symbolically lessening our joy as we remember those terrible plagues the blood the frogs lice wild beasts blight boils hail locusts darkness slaying of the firstborn 9 times Pharaoh hardened his heart and each time God sent a plague on the land of Egypt but the tenth plague was the worst of all the death of the firstborn now God told the children of Israel to take the blood of that sacrifice lamb in a basin to go outside of their homes and apply that blood to their doorposts of their houses putting it on the top lentil and the two side posts the blood of the lamb on the top lentil and the two side posts and some of remarked that this may have indeed made the sign of a cross with the blood of the Lamb on that doorpost that night death flew through the land of Egypt there was weeping and wailing as never before till Pharaoh cried out let them go let them go or I'll die but everywhere that the blood of the Lamb was on the top lentil and the two side posts death passed over that house and so Redemption came that night to the children of Israel in the land of Egypt because I believe in Jesus is my Messiah because I have my faith applied the blood of his sacrifice to the doorpost of my heart when death comes to visit me death is going to pass over me also because I have eternal life praise God for that now this is called the matzo Tosh a matzo toss you know that matzah is the unleavened bread that we eat Passover and Tosh simply means a bag or a pouch and that's what this is it's a bag for unleavened bread and there are actually three pieces of bread in this bag in its own section so the rabbi's tell us that the matzo Tosh actually represents a unity three pieces of bread one bag three and one and yet there's a great deal of disagreement along the rabbis as to which unity it is this matzo Tosh represents writing in the Hagaddah one rabbi tells us the matzo Tosh represents the unity of the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob another rabbi says no the matzo Tosh represents the unity of worship in Israel representing the priests the Levites and the people and so on goes several more explanations well I believe the matzo Tosh represents the unity also but I believe that the matzo toss represents the unity of our triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit and here's why during a particular time of the Passover we will reach into the second or middle compartment of the matzah Tosh now you can ask the rabbi why do we take the second piece and leave the first and third pieces alone and the answer is we don't know it's tradition this is the bread of affliction which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt let all who are hungry come in and eat is what we pronounce over this bread but notice this is a whole loaf of bread and yet it's a cracker it's flat because there's no yeast in it and when we make the bread we poke holes in the bread to ensure there's no rising and we bake it on a rack these brown stripes you see it's unleavened it's striped it's pierced even as our sin ly sinless Messiah was striped by the Roman whips pierced by the nails in his hands and feet the spear in his side as predicted by the prophet Isaiah 700 years before he ever came he was wounded for our transgressions he was pierced through for our diseases and by His stripes we are healed we take the second piece from the middle compartment of the matzah Tosh and we break it and we take this broken piece and we wrap it in a linen cloth or in a linen bag which we call afikomen a word meaning he who is to come we take this broken piece wrapped in the linen cloth and carry it outside of the of celebration to be hid for a time buried if you will and this is such an important part of the Passover that the entire celebration cannot be completed without that second piece and we'll get back to that in just a bit but I'm curious how many of you have never been to a Passover before Wow well if you should have the occasion to go whether a Jewish friend invites you to their home where there's a banquet somewhere in the area I really encourage you to go you'll really enjoy yourself but let me warn you if you're going to a Passover eat lightly that day or not at all because you're really in for a feast I want to assure you Passover is much more than parsley and horseradish we eat and we eat unfortunately that's the part I forgot to bring with me today and in lieu of that sumptuous feast I'm going to lead you through a ceremony which is in a Passover ceremony but if you'll unfold these brochures all the way you'll notice the fourth panel separated from the others by a perforation this ancient Jews for Jesus ceremony begins by folding along the perforation a few times we're going to rip it together on the count of three but just to show you how much Jewish culture you've absorbed I'm counting in Hebrew and amazingly you'll know when to rip okay here comes the count Ahad staying shallow SHhhh well hopefully you only have two pieces and we do want you to keep this larger section to take home with you to remember our time together but if you look at this involvement section there's a place for your name and address and boxes to check on the front and back I won't mind it if you fill this out even as I'm speaking because what I'd like you to do is to give this back to us at the close of the service you can either use the offering plate or you can go back to our Jews for Jesus literature table out in that area outside the back doors and we would be happy to send you first of all our Jews for Jesus newsletter some of you may already get it but it tells you more number one about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith in a way that I think will really enrich your understanding of God's Word and you've already begun to see how that can happen I also want to send you a pamphlet that will show you more about not just the passo and what we've been talking about here but all seven of the festivals and they're significant so we want to send that to you also to let you know more about how you can share your faith with Jewish people that God brings into your life you can do that and we can help you to know how to do that and of course the newsletter will tell you more about what God is doing in the Ministry of Jews for Jesus all around the world I just got back from Israel last week and I'm excited to tell you that it is now the largest branch of Jews for Jesus there are more Jewish people in Israel now than in the United States of America and the greatest openness to the gospel of any Jewish community in the world in which we're working is in the Land of Israel now that's pretty exciting so we want to tell you more and keep you up-to-date go back to the literature table afterwards you'll meet Dan Tasman who's a volunteer with juice for Jesus here with me today and you'll see some of the free stuff and some of the not so free that's back there we really encourage you to become a partner with us in the Ministry of Jews for Jesus we've come through the meal I hope you've all had enough to eat because the last part of the Passover is by far the most important for we as followers of Jesus to understand towards the end of the meal the head of the house will say to the children go and search for the afikomen so we've been eating all this food it's a good thing for the kids to get up and move around and they go running around the house looking for the afikomen they didn't see where it was hidden and so that the child who actually runs and finds it eventually gets to bring it back to the head of the house and receive a reward for finding that second piece and then the head of the house stands and continues this ancient ceremony of the matzo Tosh and the afikomen by unwrapping the bread from the linen cloth he takes it now and begins to break off small pieces for everyone at the table this is the last morsel of food that's eaten every Passover everyone receives a piece of this bread does this remind you of anything see if the matzo toss represents the unity of the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob why is the middle portion broken buried and brought back if montage represents the unity of worship the priests the Levites and the people of Israel why is that middle portion broken buried and brought back but if the matzo Tosh represents the unity of our triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit then we know why it's because Jesus the second person of the Trinity was broken and death wrapped the linen cloth buried in the tomb and then brought back resurrected by the power of God conquering sin and death so that it is no wonder that Jesus took this bread and broke it engaged to his disciples saying take it this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me hallelujah what a picture what a great God and then he took the cup well now you know we take the cup four times during Passover so which time was this thankfully the New Testament tells us that Jesus took the cup after they had supped after the meal of the Passover so we have the first two cups then comes the meal and the cup that comes directly after the meal with the afikomen is the third cup which is the cup of redemption looking back to the redemption God brought our forefathers from Egypt but also looking forward to that Redemption when the Messiah comes and now Jesus coming to the very high point of his Passover there in the upper room taking the bread takes this cup after supper raises it up and says this cup is the New Covenant in my blood ha Bri ha ha - ah new covenant when the disciples heard that their minds certainly would have gone to the only place in the older Testament where those Hebrew words are used Jeremiah chapter 31 beginning with verse 31 says behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make ha breathe ha ha - ah a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they break although I was a husband to them that was the Mosaic Covenant that he made when he took them out of Egypt the Mosaic Covenant became a broken covenant but this shall be the Covenant will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts will I write it the Mosaic Covenant was written on tablets of stone and the new covenant was to be written on the tablet of our hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people declares the Lord for I will forgive their sin and remember their iniquity no war oh this was the ultimate condition upon which that new covenant rested for no longer would sin be atoned for through daily offerings of animals in the temple but once and for all would God deal with this most difficult of human problems and now we find Jesus coming to the very climax of that Passover there in the upper room taking the bread taking the cup and saying that which you've been waiting for that which has been promised that New Covenant has now come in my blood imagine how the disciples must have felt after having celebrated that Passover year after year after year and then one day in that upper room in Jerusalem seeing it's very fulfillment to imagine that God and delivering ancient Israel from bondage in Egypt woven to the very fabric of that story this picture of the greatest Redemption of all and of that Redemption you and I partake today if we know Christ as our Savior if we have by faith applied the blood of his sacrifice to the doorpost of our hearts yes Jesus is our Passover lamb hallelujah we have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and the Bible says let the redeemed of the Lord say so how else can we respond to what we sow undeservedly have received the blessing of God throw him open his arms to welcome us to pour into our lives a blessing that bubbles up and flows over to the rest of the nations we have to say so and that's how we conclude the Passover with a big say-so celebration we sing hymns of praise from the jewish national hymnal y'all have copies right will you do you know because the Psalms were Israel's hymnal and Psalms 113 through 118 are sung at this point and the climax is the great Hallel the hymn psalm 118 a key messianic psalm let's read it responsibly imagine Jesus singing these words at the conclusion of his Passover in the Upper Room Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good the Lord is my strength and song and he has become my salvation the right hand of the Lord is exalted the right hand of the Lord does valiantly the Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death this is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone together this is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it amen imagine Jesus singing these words the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief I shall not die but live and the Gospels record that Jesus sang the hymn with his disciples and then he went out to the Mount of Olives but before he left that evening he would have taken the cup one more time the cup of praise taken together with hymns of praise is the conclusion of our say-so celebration and all over the world Monday be after Palm Sunday Jewish people will conclude their Passover raising this cup up and saying Lashon aha Bob a Russia lying next year in Jerusalem because you see this Passover not only is a reminder of a Redemption from the past but it bears with it all the hope and promise of a Redemption still awaited and therein lies the burden of my heart and of Jews for Jesus so many take the bread and the cup anticipating but not knowing of its fulfillment and there's a hope a desperate hope if you will at Passover in fact there's a whole part connected to Elijah and his coming before the Messiah's coming we have this Cup which is Elijah's cup and it's filled nobody drinks from it but at a particular time the head of the house tells the youngest child go open the door for Elijah and as the doors open we stand - we greet him if he will come we say baruch haba b'shem adonai 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord and then we sing together what is the oldest Hebrew melody known today Haley uh who Hanavi Haley aah whoo ha HB Haley uh hue Leah whoo Haley aah whoo hog you Adi Elijah the prophet Elijah the Tishbite Elijah the gileadite come even in our days and bring with you Messiah son of David and every year Jewish people sing they stand and wonder is he going to come is he ever going to come they don't know of that one named Yochanan you know him as John the Baptist who one day saw a Jewish man coming up over the hill and declared behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and of him jesus said if you care to receive it John is Elijah they don't know they don't know of that one named Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the Messiah and it's the burden of my heart and of Jews for Jesus to see this message communicated around the world and the power of God's Spirit it's my hope and prayer that in our being together today you might not only be enriched in the blessing that is yours as a child of Abraham but that you might share this burden as well for you see we are not like those of my Jewish people who do not know and so wait but because we do know him we can wait with great hope and expectation the Bible says as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you show forth the Lord's death until he come again even so come quickly Lord Jesus let's pray almighty and everlasting God you who declared the end from the beginning how grateful we are that you are a saving God that you have beautifully painted on the pages of Scripture throughout history this truth about yourself and that in saving Israel from Egypt you foreshadowed the salvation which you offer still today to whoever will come and receive it and Lord we do pray for and you might be here today right now who have yet to experience your loving embrace the blessing of faith in the Messiah we ask Lord that they would by your grace be enabled to welcome you as you welcome them to say yes to you as you say yes to them to experience that passing over from death to life eternal through faith in Jesus and for those of us who know who are walking with you even now Lord renew our hearts with hope and faith and encouragement so that indeed the blessing of Abraham that we have received in Jesus would bubble up and flow over to all the nations for it's in Jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Jews for Jesus

Views: 105,678

Rating: 4.7621622 out of 5

Keywords: Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews, Messiah, Christian, Jesus, Yeshua, Ministry, God, Spiritual, Jew, Jewish, Judaism, Jews for Judaism, Aish, JCC, jdate, heeb, hebrew, Israel, Isaiah 53, Israeli, Jerusalem

Id: bVolBDlWloQ

Length: 44min 36sec (2676 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 19 2011