Christ in the Passover

more than three thousand years ago God commanded the Jewish people to celebrate the Passover Jesus himself celebrated this holiday every year and today millions of Jewish people around the world gather each spring for a Passover meal now we Jews for Jesus want to invite you to experience this ancient feast through this presentation of Christ in the Passover it's the next best thing to having you at our home for the holiday this video features David Brickner executive director of Jews for Jesus to enhance your understanding and enjoyment of this program we've also included scenes of some of our family during Passover informational graphics music and artwork and now let's join the audience as David Brickner explains the Christian significance of the ancient Jewish festival of Passover was all part of God's plan from the beginning to break down that middle wall of partition dividing Jews and Gentiles and to make us one together in the body of Christ so we're one this morning in him amen praise the Lord but you know you know because of that you share with me in a rich heritage the heritage of the people of Israel and all that God did to reveal himself through the father's and through the prophets and through the festivals of Israel this now becomes your heritage in Messiah and this morning we're going to look more closely at one aspect of that in the story of the Passover the Passover is the account of God's redemption of the nation of Israel from bondage from slavery in Egypt thousands of years ago but this morning as we look more closely at that ancient festival of redemption you're going to see that God and bringing Israel out of bondage wove into the very fabric of that 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 I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles if you have them to that first Passover story which you'll find in the book of Exodus Exodus chapter 12 and we'll be reading verses 5 through 8 and 11 through 15 now if you remember at this time Israel was in bondage we were enslaved in Egypt and God promised he was going to redeem us so he raised up Moses to go to the Pharaoh of Egypt and say Pharaoh let my people go well Pharaoh wasn't exactly willing to listen to Moses and so God had to convince Pharaoh to listen and God can be very convincing about these things and he convinced Pharaoh by sending a series of plagues upon the land of Egypt you remember the story there were 10 plagues and all now the Bible tells us that the Jewish people at this time we're living in a section of Egypt called Goshen and they were exempt from the first nine of those 10 plagues for example the Bible tells us when darkness fell across the land of Egypt as a plague from the Lord there was nevertheless light in Goshen where the Israelites were dwelling or when God smote the cattle of the Egyptians with plague the cattle of the Israelites were spared and yet Israel was not automatically exempt from the tenth plague the worst plague the death of the firstborn but in order that that plague should not fall upon them God commanded the children of Israel to take a yearling lamb for each family and that's where we pick up the story Exodus 12 and verse 5 your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year and you shall take it out from the Sheep or from the goats and keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole Assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat it and they shall eat the flesh and that night roast with fire and unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it verse 11 and thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded your shoes on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste it is the Lord's Passover for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment I am the Lord and the blood shall beat you for a sign upon the houses where you are and when I see the Blood I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt and this day shall be unto you for a memorial and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations by an ordinance for ever seven days shall you eat unleavened bread even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day that soul shall be cut off from Israel that then is the historical institution of the Passover we know that the first Passover then was celebrated on the night of the tenth plague way back in the land of Egypt but as God commanded here in Exodus 12 Israel was to continue to celebrate the Passover as a lasting ordinance and so throughout our history as we observe this great festival there were various symbols and traditions that were added to the observance to remind us of that first Passover back in the land of Egypt so that by the time Jesus and the disciples were celebrating the Passover most of the items that you see on the table before you today were already incorporated into that Passover observance and there's a tremendous amount of preparation that goes into the celebration of the Passover you might remember in the Gospels that Jesus even sent Peter and John ahead of him into the city of Jerusalem saying go prepare the Passover that we may eat and this preparation involves many things but specifically what God commanded the children of Israel to do back in the land of Egypt we were to cleanse our houses of all leaven anything with yeast in it which of course means that today all your Wonder Bread all your hostess Twinkies have to go but because Passover comes during the springtime this has become a time for a general housecleaning and in the Orthodox Jewish home mom begins weeks in advance of Passover cleaning everything from floor to ceiling is cleaned and there's even a whole different set of dishes put out for the 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 it is only the man who can certify that the house has been properly cleaned you can see what kind of a problem we have the rabbi's knew that the men would never get the job done right by themselves but they also wanted to ensure peace and harmony in the home at the Passover so they got together and they thought about this problem and they thought about it and they came up with a solution which in Hebrew we call Betty caught comets or the searching out of 11 and here's how it works the night before Passover mom already having cleaned the house of all leaven we'll take a little bit bets left over maybe crumbs from the toast that they had for breakfast that morning something with East in it and she'll take it and hide it somewhere in the house now the father coming home from work that evening will take in his hand a feather a wooden spoon and a napkin and he'll go on a GI inspection to search out the leaven looking high and and looking low for those crumbs now if his wife has been good enough to him she's hid it in the same place she hid 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 him into the spoon wraps them up in the napkin and then in ancient times and still in Israel the father marches off to the local synagogue where there's a bonfire burning in the court he takes the package tosses into the bonfire and so declares his house now properly cleaned and it's an ingenious way for the men to get out of the house cleaning right but you know something the Apostle Paul makes a very specific analogy to this custom of Betty cot comments the searching out of the leaven in first Corinthians chapter 5 in beginning with verse 6 paul says your glorying is not good know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and so we see from that passage that leaven is not just something with yeast in it in the Bible leaven is a symbol for sin and Paul points out that just as leaven is a symbol for sin so then this unleavened bread the matzah which we eat at the Passover this then is a symbol of purity and righteousness before God now ladies I I know you must be thinking that it doesn't seem quite fair that you are the ones that have to do all the hard work cleaning house and the man gets all the ceremonial glory by declaring it clean well ladies you have your very own bit of ceremonial glory which is called the bra hood Henare the lighting of the festival candles and this actually ushers in the celebration of the Passover at this time the mom will take this book which we call Haggadah Haggadah is a Hebrew word it means the story or the telling and within this beautifully bound and and beautifully illustrated book you have all of the story and the ceremony and the prayers associated with the observance of Passover so mom takes the Hagaddah and she reads a special prayer from it as she likes the Passover candles baruch adonai eloheynu melech ha-olam asher Kadosh honorable Mitzvah Tov it's a vanilla Harlequin heirship essa blessed art Thou O Lord our God King of the universe who sanctified us by the commandments and commanded us to light the lights of Passover now I think it's appropriate that it is the woman rather than the man who lights the candles and so brings light to the festival table because in the same way it was not through a man but rather 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 and at this time our Passover celebration can begin Passover is observed largely in the home around the family dinner table and you'll notice pillows on the chairs at the dinner table and this is simply because in the first story of Passover as we read in Exodus 12 God commanded the children of Israel to eat standing long skirted shoes on our feet and stabs in our hands we had to be ready to take off at a moment's notice and in ancient Near Eastern culture only free people could recline at the meal slaves always had to stand once we were slaves now we are free and so to symbolize that freedom we recline on pillows the father is especially appointed to lead his family in worship and so he wears this special ceremonial garment called a Kittel which is the same garment worn by the priests in the temple when he ministered there of course the father is high priest of his home and he also wears this mitre which symbolizes a crown from the ancient Near East he is priests of his family and king of his castle appropriately attired he leads his family in worship and the Passover is not only time for mothers and for fathers it's especially a time for the children and the kids are invited to participate in a number of different ways but most significantly through the chanting of the Mohnish Tana or four questions which are asked of the father and the father answers the child and then explains through that the meaning of the Passover for his family now being the boy the youngest boy in my family growing up in Boston Massachusetts it was always my honor to pronounce these questions and here's what the first couple sound like Mohnish to Naha Lila has Emmie called hallelu Shabak all hallelu tonu all clean Komatsu matzah halala Hosea culo matzah which means why is this night different from all other nights on all other nights who eat leavened bread but tonight we eat only unleavened bread and after chanting all four questions the father then answers the child and so leads his family in worship at the Passover now not only are there four questions for Passover there are also four cups actually each of us has one cup as we sit at the table but you see we drink from that cup four different times throughout the Passover it kind of serves as an outline for the celebration and each time we drink from the cup it has a different name and symbolism given to it and the first cup is called kiddush which means sanctification because with this cup we sanctify all that follows in our Passover observance now there's a traditional Hebrew prayer we say over this cup and certainly our Lord Jesus said that prayer and then he said something afterward which directly relates to that Hebrew prayer or aha' tadaa i eloheynu melech ha'olam Borei pre haha 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 and new in the kingdom of God you see Jesus spoke of a new or perhaps a fulfilled Passover in the kingdom and with this cup he sanctified all that was to follow in his own special Passover there in the upper room everything in Passover is now blessed and sanctified and everything has a particular order to it as well seder is the Hebrew word for order the Passover is referred to as a Seder meal and this is a seder plate and despite its appearance it's not for deviled eggs you notice the six compartments on the Seder Plate will they correspond to the six different items displayed down through here and a little bit of each of these items is placed on the seder plate and the first that we have is Karpis which is Hebrew for greens and 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 for truly a life without redemption is a life immersed in tears but we also remember that God redeemed us with a mighty and outstretched arm he brought us out of bondage through the Red Sea and into freedom and so by His mercy and grace our lives have been drawn from tears we the greens together now to remind us that we can now partake of life redeemed from tears by the mercy and grace of Almighty God the next item on the Seder Plate horseradish we call it Jewish Dristan guaranteed to unclog the sinus passages in the back of your head now the horseradish or more or as we say in Hebrew is the bitter herb that we read about in Exodus 12 and what we do is we take some of this bitter herb the unleavened bread with it and we take the bread dipping it into the more we get about a teaspoon of it on there like this and then I'm not going to do it but you know what happens when you eat this much horseradish you begin to cry you have very little choice in the matter it's a battle between the horseradish and your sinuses and the horseradish always wins but to see the tears that we then shed they become a graphic reminder to us of the tears our forefathers shed during their slavery in Egypt and you might remember when Jesus celebrated the 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 I Lord is I and Jesus said he who dips in the sock with me that night everyone will betray me well the interesting thing is that every one of the disciples would have dipped in the sup with Jesus that night no wonder they were so upset but then later we find our Lord Himself taking the bread and dipping it himself into the SAAP and handing it to Judas Iscariot he said to him what you must do go and do quickly and the Bible tells us that when Judas took the bread with the SOB Satan entered into him and he went out into the night more or is bitterness and tears the next item on the Seder Plate is called ha rose Seth can you all say that ah rose Seth not bad but you got to get that there you know that's right that's right just don't look at your neighbor when you say it now Carosa is a sweet mixture of chopped apples it has nuts and honey raisins and cinnamon it's delicious but it represents the mortar that we used to make bricks for Pharaoh during our slavery in Egypt so you might ask the rabbi will now wait a minute rabbi if if hérault sethe represents mortar for bricks which was bitterness and oil to our people why then is it so sweets ah the rabbi will say because you see even the bitterest of our toils grew sweets when we knew that our Redemption drew near and what we do is we take someone with the unleavened bread the matzah we dip it in this time maybe getting a double portion of the corrosive and what we find is that as we eat this mixture that bitter taste that was left in our mouths from the horseradish just disappears in the sweetness of the corrosive and this teaches us that even the bitterest things that we have to face in this world can be sweetened by the promise of God's Redemption now this item is called hazaras and it is the bitter root itself the horseradish root which of course we use to grind up to make them a roar and this sits on the seder plate to remind us of the fact that the very root of life itself can often be bitter as certainly our ancestors experienced during their slavery in Egypt and this is called hagigah now as you can see hagigah is a brown egg that has been hard-boiled but hagigah was also the name given to the sacrifice made in the temple at the Passover so then this egg represents that sacrifice and we peel the egg and we slice it but before we eat that slice we dip it into the salt water which represents tears why because we are mourning the fact that this is a memorial to a sacrifice face that is no longer the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb which was central to the Passover observance but which only could occur in the appointed place the tabernacle and then later the Temple in Jerusalem but you see in 70 AD Titus and his Roman legions marched into Jerusalem they destroyed the city they destroyed the temple and from that day until this present there has no longer been sacrifice in Judaism and because of that my people at the Passover mourn the loss in fact because of this the rabbi's tell us we can no longer even eat lamb as the main course of the Passover meal and so this last item the 0ax the shank bone of the lamb rests on the seder plate to remind us of those lambs that were so central to that first Passover back in the land of Egypt but now our sadly absent and we read about those lambs in Exodus 12 God commanded the children of Israel to take a yearling male lamb without spot without blemish without any broken bone we were to take that lamb and to sacrifice it now this reminds me of another perfect Paschal Lamb who contrary to Roman custom did not have his legs broken when he hung on the cross and so did Christ fulfil Messianic prophecy now we come to the second cup which is called the cup of plagues we don't drink from this cup right away but rather we dip our finger in the cup and drop a drop on the plate in front of us for one for each of the plagues God visited on the land of Egypt a full cup as a symbol of fullness of joy so we want to symbolically lessen our joy as we remember the suffering of the Egyptians the blood hail locusts broad light fly pestilence oil darkness slaying of the firstborn nine times Pharaoh hardened his heart and each time God sent a plague upon 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 to put it in a basin and to go outside of their homes and apply that blood to the doorpost of their houses putting it first on the top lintel and then on the two side posts the blood of the Lamb on the top lentil and the two side posts and some have 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 now because I believe in Jesus is my lamb and my Messiah and because I have by 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 hallelujah now this is called a matzo Tosh a matzo Tosh you already know that matzah is the unleavened bread we eat at the Passover and Tosh just means bag so this is a bag for unleavened bread in fact there are three pieces of unleavened bread inside this matzo Tosh and each piece is in its own section or its own compartment and the rabbi's tell us that the matzo Tosh represents a unity three pieces of bread one bag three-in-one and yet there is a great deal of disagreement among the rabbi's as to which unity this matzo Tosh represents one rabbi says that the matzo Tosh represents the unity of the patriarchs you know Abraham Isaac and Jacob another rabbi says no the matzo Tosh represents the unity of worship in Israel represented by the priests the Levites and the people of Israel and so on go the explanations well I believe the matzo Tosh represents a unity also but I believe that the matzo toss 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 rabbi why do we take the second piece and leave the first and third pieces untouched and the answer is we don't know we take this matzah out which we call the bread of affliction and there are three things you need to notice about this first of all this is a whole loaf of bread yet look at it it's flat like a cracker and that's because it's completely unleavened there's no yeast in it whatsoever in fact we're so concerned this bread be unleavened that we roll it out and before we bake it we quickly Pierce the bread and then we bake it on a high and a high temperature on a rack in that oven and you see those brown stripes that are baked onto the bread so all matzah is unleavened striped and pierced are you with me we take this second piece from the middle compartment of the matzo Tosh and we break it in half and we take this broken piece and we wrap it in a linen cloth or in a linen bag and it is now called the afikomen afikomen is a word meaning it comes later and that's exactly what happens with this bread we carry it outside of the room of celebration to be hid for a time buried if you will and this is such an important part of the celebration that the entire meal cannot be completed without that second piece and we'll get back to that in just a minute but I'm curious how many of you have been to a Passover before good many of you and for those of you who've never been let me encourage you if you have the opportunity go but let me also warn you if you're going to a Passover eat lightly that day or not at all because you are really in for a meal I want to assure you Passover is much more than parsley and horseradish we eats and we eat but unfortunately that's the part of the Passover I forgot to bring with me here this morning towards the end of the meal the head of the house will say to all the children go and search for the afikomen and the kids didn't necessarily see where it was hidden so they have a great time looking for that piece and the child who finds it brings it back to the head of the house and receives a reward for finding that second piece the head of the house then stands and continues this ancient ceremony of the matzo Tosh and the afikomen by unwrapping this special bread from the linen cloth he takes it out and begins to break off small pieces for everyone seated at the table everyone now receives a piece of this bread does this remind you of anything see brothers and sisters if the matzo Tosh represents the unity of the patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Jacob why then as the middle portion broken buried and brought back if the matzo Tosh represents the unity of worship the priests the Levites and the people why is the 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 in a 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 hallelujah if there is no wonder that Jesus took this bread and broke it and gave to his disciples saying take eight this is my body broken for you do this in remembrance of me do you see the picture God knew it in advance and then our Lord took the cup now you know we take the cup four times during the Passover but you see 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 is the third cup and the third cup is called the cup of blessing and redemption the cup of blessing which we bless the cup of redemption looking back to the redemption God brought our forefathers from Egypt and looking forward to that Redemption when Messiah comes and Jesus there in that Upper Room with his disciples raised the third cup the cup after supper and said this cup is the New Covenant in my blood poured out for you for the remission of sins now what new covenant was he speaking of the one that was promised by Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 31 the Prophet said behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make 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 saith the Lord you see that was the problem with that first covenant it became a broken covenant but this shall be the Covenant that I 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 I will write it that first covenant was written on tablets of stone 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 more o this then was the ultimate condition upon which the 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 predicaments and now we find Jesus there in that Upper Room with his disciples taking the cup taking the bread taking the cup after supper and saying that which you've been waiting for that which was promised that new covenant has now come in my blood imagine how the disciples must have felt after having celebrated this 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 redeeming ancient Israel from bondage in Egypt wove into that very fabric of the story a great picture the greatest picture of all of the redemption of the world from the Egypt of sin through the Passover lamb who is Jesus the Messiah and of that redemption you and I partake today if we know Christ as our Savior if we have my faith applied the blood of his sacrifice to the doorpost of our hearts Jesus is our Passover lamb hallelujah we've been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb of God and you know the Bible says let the redeemed of the Lord say so what other response is fitting but for us to give thanks and praise to say so hallelujah and that's exactly how Passover concludes after having the climax of the bread and the cup after supper we have a say so celebration where we sing hymns of praise from the Jewish national hymn book you all have copies right well you do you know the songs and psalms 113 through 118 are sung at this time they're called the Jaleo Psalms you know the Hebrew word hallelujah means praise the Lord Hallel is simply praise the Psalms of praise are taken together with the cup of praise the fourth cup which is raised up and praise to God and we conclude the Passover every year by saying lashonna haba Bayrou shall i you next year in Jerusalem because you see brothers and sisters this Passover is not only a commemoration of a Redemption in the past but it bears with it the hope of a Redemption yet to come and therein lies the burden of my heart for my people are waiting they're still waiting and they don't know of that Redemption which has already come and there is a tradition that at the Passover Elijah himself the forerunner of the Messiah will come to tell us he's on his way and so at each passover table there's a special place setting and a special cup nobody sits at this place and nobody drinks from this cup it's Elijah's cup and at a particular time the head of the house will say to the youngest child go and open the door for Elijah and as the door is open we all stand together and say baruch haba b'shem adonai 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord and then together we sing what is the oldest Hebrew melody known today he lied to the prophet Elijah the Tishbite Elijah the giling and I'd come even in our days and bring with you Messiah son of David and every year my people stand and every year they sing and every year they wonder is he ever gonna come it's still waiting they don't know of that one named Johann none you know him as John the Baptizer who did come in the spirit of Elijah and who one day saw Jewish man coming up over the hill and declared behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world and they don't know of that one named Yeshua HaMashiach Jesus the Messiah who did come the lamb and it is the burden of my heart and that of Jews for Jesus to see this message communicated in the power of God's Holy Spirit and it's my prayer that in our being together you might not only be enriched in your understanding of God's Word and of the Lord's Supper but that you might share this burden with us won't you join with us as we pray for our Jewish people around the world that as they celebrate the Feast each year many will see Christ in the Passover too you

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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, Jewish who believe in Yeshua as the messiah, Jewish Christianity, Jewish Christian, Kosher Jesus, Jesus for Jews, Christian Jews, Jewish Messiah, hebrew-christian, jewish jesus, what is messiah, jewish christians, christian jew, messianic jews, the real messiah

Id: gBGz3k37kDE

Length: 38min 10sec (2290 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 14 2010