Passover Observance

I don't know how many of you over the years have seen, well, I guess it's getting to be an older movie now, The Ten Commandments. I think they show it almost every year on one of the major networks over the years around, oh, what we call Passover time and what others may call Easter time.

But it's quite a powerful movie with the various lessons of God beginning to work with the people, of God beginning to work with what he calls his firstborn.

He says, Israel is my firstborn, therefore let my people go. Do you remember Charlton Heston? And I know there's other more modern movies. I think The Prince of Egypt is one that's out there as well.

I think a lot of us have heard the stories, even when we were young, even when we were children. We'd hear about what happened in Egypt when God's people began to come out of slavery, when they began to come out of a very difficult lifestyle.

And as we were taught either by our parents, I suppose, or maybe some Bible teacher that were teaching us as children, this story about the Israelites and about them leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea and all of the plagues and all of the miracles.

We heard about all these things. We heard about the Lamb that was being killed and the blood being put on the doorposts and on the lentils, in a sense, so that the firstborn would survive.

Now God passed over those households that had the blood on the doors and the lentils, the lentils being the top of the door and the doorposts being along the side.

And so the story goes on. But, you know, as young children, I wonder how much we really understood about those stories and about those things and about what they really pictured all along, what was to come in the future.

You know, you and I probably thought it was a pretty good story. And we thought of it as an amazing story, but maybe we didn't get the full impact of the story.

You know Passover is only less than six weeks away now. And of course we're going to begin to start rehearsing those various Holy Days, those various festival days that talk about how God gets us from point A to point B.

And point B, of course, being in His family, in His kingdom, in a spiritual family.

And so we're going to begin to start focusing a little bit more on those coming Spring Holy Days, the Passover, of course, being the very first part of His plan.

And then getting into the days of 11 bread, of course, and moving on to Pentecost and so forth.

So in less than six weeks, I think it's five weeks from this Thursday, will be Passover service.

For them today, what I'd like to do today is I'd like to spend some time looking at the event of Passover.

Looking at the event of Passover, of what happened back in Egypt and how it pointed to some of the things that we're going to be talking about in the New Testament as well.

We're going to be specifically talking about the events of Passover, of the killing of the lands of the blood on the doorposts and on the lentil, and how important that is for us today.

Now is what we're going to talk about and how we need to prepare for it, both physically and spiritually, brethren. More importantly, spiritually, because indeed, brethren, it does affect our future eternal life.

So let's begin. Let's go to God's Word. Let's go back to Exodus 12. Exodus 12 is where we're going to begin. Today we're going to go to the Scriptures, and I'm going to be spending some time, brethren. I'm going to be spending some time going through some very specific instructions here. And the reason that I want to go through this is I want to make sure that we understand it.

Why do we do the things that we do? You know, why is the timing, why in the sense to the church, why do we keep the Passover? Why do we keep it on the 14th day of the first month? Because not everybody does. You know, whether you call it Passover, whether you call it Communion, you know, what have you. I mean, some of us have come from different church environments, and some keep it weekly. You know, the Catholics will take the bread once a week, and some keep it every three months, you know. So, it depends. But we want, and some keep it once a year, but some keep it on the 15th and not the 14th day of the first month of the calendar of God. So why do we keep it on the 14th? What would we say? How would we explain it? Why do we do that? Well, we need to be grounded. We need to be grounded in the Scriptures so that we know why we do what we do and when we do it.

So we want to have a solid biblical background why we do these things at specific times.

Exodus 12, I think, will begin in verse number one as we go through here. Verse number one.

And if you will remember in this context here that he addresses the Passover.

It says in verse number one, it says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, so they are still in slavery. This is the context. And saying, this month is going to be the beginning of months. This month shall be your beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you.

So God makes it plain to his people that, you know, the month, this month is going to be the first month.

And then in verse two, excuse me, verse number three, I want you to speak to the congregation of Israel and say, On the tenth day of this month, so we're talking about the first month of the year, then on the tenth day of this month, every man is going to take for himself a lamb. And so there was going to be a lamb that specifically applied to your household, to you, in the dwelling that you were in.

You shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And verse number five, and notice, and it shall be without blemish. So this lamb was going to be different, maybe, from some of the other lambs. There was no noticeable defects at all that would be without blemish. And what do we do with this lamb? Verse number six, now you shall keep it.

So he's talking about keeping this lamb. You shall keep that lamb, notice, until the fourteenth day of the same month. So we're talking about the first month of the year on the fourteenth day of that month. And you're to keep it carefully. You set it aside until the fourteenth day arrives.

So the lamb is there. You don't do anything with it, in a sense, until the fourteenth day arrives. So you're waiting until the fourteenth day comes. So it says until the fourteenth day of that same month. So it's that month, not some other month, that same month. It says, then the whole congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

Okay, when's twilight? Because that's important to understand. If you're going to kill this lamb at twilight, when is twilight? Well, I think most of us have been taught over the years the way God's days begin and when they end. You know, a day ends at sunset and then the next new day begins when the sun sets. But when the sun sets, it goes down below the horizon where you can no longer see it.

There's still a little bit of light for a while, isn't there? There's a little bit of light that's still in the sky. There's a soft light that's there. And so finally, sometimes it can take an hour. Sometimes it can take longer than that. Eventually comes total darkness. So twilight, it's the beginning of a new day, in a sense. The sun has said it's gone below the horizon and yet there's still a little bit of light for a while. And that time is called twilight. And so, brother, that is when something was supposed to happen. That's when this lamb was supposed to be killed. So there's a period of time when it's still not completely dark. That's twilight. So they were to keep the lamb until twilight on the 14th day. So the day was just starting. In a sense, the sun had set. The 14th had arrived and now it's twilight. And that's when the lamb is supposed to be killed. Then the instruction goes on in verse number 7. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel. We've talked about that already, but here it is in the scriptures. It's put on the two door posts alongside the door and over the lintel atop the door. The entrance, in a sense, to your home where you are. That's where the blood goes. And of course, they weren't supposed to eat the blood, so they would drain the blood. When they killed the lamb and slit its throat, they would drain the blood. And they were to save some of this blood and put it on the door posts in the lintel. And there's a symbol here. Very important symbol. In a sense that the blood, in a sense, was a covering or a protection. In a sense, or the entrance to that house. So the blood, it's something that's very important. Very important. So let's review for a moment. The sun has set, the thirteenth day has ended of the first month, and the fourteenth day has just arrived. It's during twilight. They're to kill the lamb, to drain the blood, and then, as we'll read here, they're to roast it with fire and then to eat it.

They were given, by God, very specific constructions. Verse number eight. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night. So we're probably into the dark part of the day now. In a sense, twilight's over. They killed the lamb, they prepared it, they're getting it ready. You know, that probably takes a little bit of time. You know, to go from, you know, this takes some, there's a lot of work to be done. You've got to kill the lamb, you've got to get it ready.

You have to, you know, get the blood and get it, you know, on the doorpost in the lentil. Then you've got to roast it, and then you've got to eat it. And it says you shall eat the flesh on that night. And again, we are talking about the fourteenth day of the first month. So we're still pretty early in the fourteenth, aren't we? Because twilight is the very beginning, and that's when the lamb is killed, and then you're eating it that same night, on that night, not some other night, not the fifteenth. On that night, you're eating the Passover.

All right. So a lot of things are happening a very short period of time. They shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire. And again, specific instructions, it's not to be fried, it's not to be boiled, in a sense, it's to be roasted. And it's to be eaten with unleavened bread. Why unleavened bread? I mean, the days of unleavened bread don't start until the fifteenth, and we'll read about that in a moment. But it's because it's not yet the days of unleavened bread. We're on the fourteenth. Why do we, are they to eat the lamb with unleavened bread?

I think we'll understand as we cover that a little bit later. But brethren, because this lamb represents Christ, and Christ and unleavened bread, both picture the same thing. No sin. Without blemish, without sin. And so, Christ and unleavened bread picture no sin. And that's why they were to eat this Passover night, they were to eat the unleavened bread.

That's the reason. Not because it was the days of unleavened bread. And we'll see later that, again, that falls in the fifteenth. But they were to eat the Passover lamb on the fourteenth with unleavened bread, because it represents Christ. And so, it says they eat it with bitter herbs, shall they eat it. Verse 9, do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire.

So, again, God is very specific with the instructions here. Roasted in fire with its head, and with its legs, and with its entrails. We don't use that word entrails very much, so what does that mean? We're talking about the things inside of the body. You know, you weren't to dismember the head. You weren't to take off the arms and the legs. Okay, you didn't, you know, normally you would do some of those things before you prepared something to eat.

But not in this case. And, of course, that ties into Scriptures that talk about how Christ, not one of His bones, would be broken. And so, there's a reason, of course, why God had all of these things to help us to understand. Maybe not necessarily when we, they went through this, and when we read the story here. But later on, He'd open up our understanding. And so the instruction is clear, roasted in fire with its head and with its legs and with its entrails.

And then it goes on to verse number 10. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it, until the morning you shall burn with fire. So eventually, you know, you had to dispose of it by burning it at the end. Verse 11, and thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, with sandals on your feet, with your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. So it has to be eaten in haste, and there's a lot that's going on. The sun has set, the twilight has come, you've got to kill this animal, then you have to eat it.

A lot to be going on. You drain the blood and all of that, and you put the blood on the doorpost and the lentil. So it's in haste. The things were done in haste. Elsewhere it says in the scripture, in verse number 22, it says, Don't leave the house until morning. So these are very clear instructions, and I think it's important for us to rehearse it from time to time and to study it.

And I'm not going to go through every single verse that it has to talk about here, but we've covered a lot, and there's some very specific instructions. And then at the end of verse number 11, it says, you shall eat it at haste. It is the Lord's Passover. This is something that came from God. It's the Lord's Passover. Jehovah, referring to the Word, the one who came and dwelt in the flesh. We're talking about Jehovah, the Lord. So we know the Lord is Christ. We know that Christ is our Lord, and it is the Lord's Passover.

Today, at the time, it was a day that the Lord came to that area, and he passed over certain houses that had the blood. So the mean of the blood is important, very important, because he would pass over the houses that had the blood, but he would not pass over the houses that did not have the blood. When would be the Lord's Passover?

When? Let's take a look at Exodus 12, verse 29. It came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all of the firstborn in the land of Egypt. So, brethren, it's still the fourteenth. You know what happened? At midnight. It's still in the fourteenth, the Lord's Passover. So it has to be on the fourteenth, not the thirteenth, not the fifteenth. It's the fourteenth. It's the Passover.

It's the Lord's Passover. And it's happening here on the fourteenth at midnight. So all the things we've talked about so far, this whole period is all happening on the same day. It's happening on the fourteenth day of the first month. The beginning of the month, not to be redundant, it's twilight. They kill the land.

Then they eat it that same night. Then at midnight, it says the Lord passed over those houses that had the blood. So we can see it's clear from Scripture. It's very clear. Now, let's go back up to verse number 12. Verse number 12. It says, For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night. So again, we're talking about the fourteenth. And verse 13, now the blood shall be a sign.

Now, that is so important. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I am going to pass over your house. When I see that sign, I'm not going to come into that entrance. There won't be anyone that will die.

I will pass over you. Brethren, that's such an important meaning. Such a symbolic meaning. And perhaps maybe you've already begun to tie this in with the blood of a Savior. With the blood of an older brother, Jesus Christ. Maybe thinking ahead about how that blood washes us.

And therefore God and Christ pass over our sins because we all have them. It doesn't matter who we are. There's not one of us that is sinless. Brethren, what a wonderful and hopeful meaning. That a passover is there. You know, that meaning wasn't necessarily understood by them at this time. And maybe even when we were young people and we were being taught, you know, this message about a lamb dying and about blood, please put on a doorpost.

And so there wasn't the loss of the firstborn in the homes that had that blood on the doorposts and lintel. But it's a wonderful meaning. A couple of points here, brethren, in review here. The passover takes place on the 14th. It takes place on the 14th. It's clear that it's the 14th. They were to kill the lamb and twilight on the 14th. They ate the lamb on the 14th. The Lord's Passover, when he came through, was on at midnight on the 14th.

All of these things happened on the 14th. As it says in verse 29, the firstborn were killed in the houses of those that did not have the blood. As he says in verse 13, when I see the blood, I will pass over. Verse 14. And so notice, And so this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast.

Boy, there's a lot here in verse 14. More than what we might think. There's a couple of very important things here in verse 14. And this day, the 14th, shall be to you a memorial. And we're talking about the 14th day of the first month of God's calendar.

We're not talking about the 15th. We're not talking about the 13th. We're not talking about once a week. We're not talking about it every quarter or three months. And we're not talking about annually on the 15th being a memorial. We're talking about this day, the 14th of the first month. And then there's a second important information that God shares with us. I mean, we've already talked about the first point here. It's a memorial.

The 14th day of the first month is the memorial. And notice, it's also a feast day. You shall keep it as a feast. Now we know that. Leviticus chapter 23, where God's festivals are mentioned. What's the first one? It's Passover, isn't it? We may not think of the Passover being a feast day, but that's exactly what God refers to it as. It's a feast day.

But interestingly, and sometimes we may overlook this, it's not a Holy Day. It's a feast day, but not a Holy Day. What do I mean by that? Because it's important for us to understand the difference between a feast day and a Holy Day. Now God's Holy Days are feast days. We know that from Scripture. We'll also look at that in a moment, Leviticus 23. But not all feast days are Holy Days. For example, the Passover. It's a feast day, but it's not a Holy Day. A Holy Day meaning an annual Sabbath. An annual Sabbath. We have a weekly Sabbath, which is a Holy Day.

The Sabbath. We have annual Sabbaths, where God says, you don't work, you come out of the world, you assemble together before me. So God's Holy Days are feast days, but not all feast days are Holy Days. Another example besides the Passover is that the third day of the Feast of Tabernacles is not a Holy Day. But it's part of the Feast of Tabernacles. Now there are Holy Days within the Feast of Tabernacles. There are Holy Days within the Feast of the Days of Eleven Bread.

So we know that. So there are many days that are festivals, but they're not all Holy Days. The Passover is a festival, but it's not an annual Sabbath. It's not a Holy Day. Now, we're here in verse number 12. Now after the 14th, in other words, the end of the 14th. So we want to think about that. At the end of the 14th, when is the end of the 14th? Oh, when the sun sets. And of course, not only is that the end of the 14th, but that will be the beginning of the 15th.

So the end of the 14th then begins what? Well, the 15th. As the sun sets at the end of the day on the 14th, that's then the beginning of the 15th. So at the end of the 14th then begins the 15th. And let's read along with me here in verse number 18. In the first month, so again we know this is happening during the first month of the year, on the 14th day of the month at evening. So we're at the end now of the 14th as it comes towards sunset at evening. You shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening.

So at the end of the 14th, from the end of the 14th, which begins by the way the 15th, until the end of the 21st, which means it includes the 21st, you shall eat unleavened bread. If you subtract 14 from 21, we know what comes up. We've got seven days. And it goes on in verse 19, for seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or whether he's a native of the land.

So God's instructions are very clear during the seven days from the end of the 14th day at sunset, which begins the 15th day of the first month, through the end of the 21st day of the first month for seven days. So we're talking about from the 15th through the 21st, we are not to have leaven in our homes. That's what the Scriptures say. Obviously, not to have leaven in our homes means that we have to get it out.

We have to de-leaven. That's not a scriptural term, but it's something that we use. And I think it explains it pretty much. As far as getting the leaven out of our dwellings, we de-leaven our homes.

So what we've seen here is a record of the very first Passover celebration, which happened in Exodus 12. It's a feast. It is a feast. God calls it that. Now let's go to another reference. I think we'll find it all fits together in Leviticus 23. So let's go over there. Leviticus 23. And this is a section of Scripture that many of us will recognize. It's a beautiful section of Scripture because it summarizes all in one place. All of the festivals, all of the Holy Days, begin to help us to understand God's plan of salvation.

And highlighting which one of the festivals are festivals only. And highlighting those that are festivals and Holy Days. So it's all here in this particular chapter. Let's begin with verse number five of Leviticus chapter 23.

Leviticus chapter 23 and verse number five. It says, in the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight, so again the very first part of the fourteenth, as the day has just begun, is the Lord's Passover. It says exactly the same thing as it said in Exodus chapter 12. The fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover when that lamb was killed. And of course, later on in that day, of course, they ate the lamb and also the death angel came through. So it's clear. It's the fourteenth. It's not the fifteenth. I'm sorry. It's not the fifteenth. Now I know there are some people that observe the fifteenth. So we have to basically rely on the scripture. We have to go by what God has to say.

So it's the fourteenth at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And Christ, it's Christ's Passover since He is the Lord. You know, we have one God the Father and we have one Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, it is His Passover. It's the Lord's Passover. Notice verse number six. Now on the fifteenth day of that same month, so we're talking about the first month of the year, is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. The fifteenth is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It's not the Passover. It's not what it says. The fifteenth day of that same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It's a separate feast from the Passover. And it's the fifteenth, not the fourteenth when it comes to the days of Unleavened Bread. And Passover is the fourteenth, not the fifteenth when it comes to the Feast of the Passover. So that feast, the days of Unleavened Bread, continues for seven days. But there are only two holy days during that feast. Two annual Sabbaths during that feast. Verse seven talks about the first one. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. So that first day is an annual Sabbath. And it goes on in verse eight. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, so you shall do no customary work on it. So again, that is a holy day, the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So we see two actual holy days here during this festival, the fifteenth and the twenty-first. And again, God's instruction is clear. We can see the Passover here and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So again, to summarize, what have we gotten from God's Word so far? And if there's really only one thing that we get, it would be that the Passover is on the fourteenth day. Hope we all understand that. And it is an annual memorial. We do it once a year. That is the day. And what about the New Testament? What about that? Did Christ abolish the Passover and the New Testament? Has it been done away? And another question, did Christ really observe the Passover at the right time and on the right day? Did He? Okay. Because it's really Him that we need to follow. His example that we need to follow, you know, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 11. We'll go to verse number 1. If we're going to follow His example, what did He do? After all, it is the Lord's Passover. Christ is the Lord. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that's found in Hebrews 13, verse 8. So, He hasn't changed. So surely He's not doing something different. So let's go over to 1 Corinthians 11. And we'll pick it up and write in verse number 1. 1 Corinthians 11. And verse number 1. And this is Paul speaking here. He's writing this to church brethren and Corinth. And what does he write? What does God inspire him to write? 1 Corinthians 11. Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. So Paul is saying, follow me the way that I follow Christ. Now, the reverse is also true, which means don't follow me if I'm not following Christ. So Paul said that, and what did he do? You know, we covered in the last time I was doing a Bible study here, we talked about the author of the book of Romans, was Paul, and we covered the fact that he learned things in a very unique way. He said, I did not confer with men. I learned things directly from Jesus Christ. Remember when we covered that in the Bible study? And that there was a period of possibly up to three years when he was in the desert of Arabia that he was being instructed by Jesus Christ Himself.

So I think he would know what Christ thinks about this topic here. So let's jump to verse number 23. We're still in the same chapter, chapter 11, verse 23. He says this, or he writes this, he said, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.

Paul is saying, the information I'm sharing with you right now came directly from the Messiah, came directly from Jesus Christ. Verse 23, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. I'm giving to you what I got from Him. I'm just the conduit here. I got it from Christ Himself.

And he goes on, and what does he say? Here. That the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. Okay, so we can establish the day. We'll establish that here in a moment. But we know that on the same night that He was betrayed, He took bread. He was changing the Passover symbols at that time. He was partaking of the Passover on that same night that He was betrayed with His disciples. We'll read about that in Luke here in just a moment. So we'll see in just a moment, this was happening on the 14th, that He observed the Passover on the 14th. And we'll show that from Scripture here shortly. But the point is, Paul said, Imitate me, as I imitate Christ. He goes on to explain the bread, verse 24, When He had given thanks, He broke it. And He said, Take eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. It's clearly talking about symbolism of the Passover. And he clearly says it's on the same night that He was betrayed, not some other night, but that night that He was betrayed. Not two nights earlier, two nights later. So the question is, did Christ really observe and keep the Passover, partake of the Passover when He did this? When He broke the bread, when He took the wine. When He said in verse 24, This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Was this on the Passover night? Some people say it was just a meal. He was just getting together to have a meal with His disciples. It was just any meal. Some argue that the Passover was the next day, which would have been the fifteenth day of the first month. And that's when the vast majority of the Jewish people at that time, they were keeping the Passover. They were killing the lamb in the afternoon of the fourteenth, around three o'clock. And then they were eating the Passover that night, which would have been the fifteenth. That's what most now, there were a few Jews that were keeping at the time that Jesus and His disciples kept it, but they were the minority. So some people say it was just a meal. And then He only, or if He did take the Passover, He only did it because He wouldn't have been able to take it the next night because He would have been dead.

I've heard people say that, maybe you have too. So the question is, was Jesus really keeping the Passover, or was He just doing it the night before because He couldn't do it the night when everyone else was doing it, when Scripture said you should do it? Because He would have been dead by that time, and He couldn't partake it. Well, let's turn over to Luke 22.

Luke 22. Verse 8.

Luke 22.

Verse 8.

And He, referring to Jesus, He sent Peter and John, and He said, Go prepare the Passover that we may eat, we may eat, the Passover. Was He telling them to go and prepare any meal? I don't think so. I think He was telling them to go prepare the Passover. And I think the Lord Christ was very specific, don't you? Referring to the Passover. I think He knew what He was talking about. Now, let's drop down to verse number 13.

So again, not any meal. They prepared the Passover. They knew that they were doing the Passover. And they probably knew that they were doing it one day before many of the Jewish people were keeping the Passover, because the Jewish people in general were only killing the Lamb on that day, in the afternoon, on the 14th, around 3 o'clock. And then, if we get the foretook of it, at the beginning of the 15th, they ate it. So the disciples knew that they were observing the Passover one night earlier than many of their contemporaries. And they didn't seem to question it. Why? Well, because at that time, there were some people that were observing the Passover correctly on the twilight of the 14th day of the first month. So the mere fact that some people say, well, the Jews keep it on the 15th. Well, some Messianic Jews keep it on the 15th. Well, we have it in Scripture here of when Jesus kept it with His disciples. And when it was instructed to be kept in Scripture, when it was first introduced, that that was the day. That was the memorial. And it says it's the 14th, not the 15th. Verse number 14 in Luke 22. When the hour had come. Brethren, Jesus Christ not only kept the Passover on the right day, He kept it at the right hour, at the right time. He was keeping it at twilight with His disciples. You know, God does everything on time. He has appointed times. And that's what these festivals are. They're at appointed times. That He had appointed really even before the foundation of the earth. He was keeping it even at the right hour. The right hour had come. And it wasn't at three o'clock in the afternoon, or the next morning, or whatever. It was the right hour. Which means they kept the Passover. They killed a lamb at twilight. And they ate the Passover at twilight on the 14th day of the first month.

Verse number 15. Then Jesus said to them, With fervent desire, I desire to eat this Passover. This is Christ talking. With fervent desire, I have desire to eat this Passover. Brethren, Christ was eating the Passover. So we see He told them to prepare it, and they prepared it. And then we see that He ate it with them. He desired to eat it with them. So it wasn't just any meal. It was the Passover.

Brethren, this is something that's not well understood. They knew what they were doing. They weren't doing what necessarily the bulk of the Jewish nation was doing. Because the Jewish nation was killing the lambs at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Now that was happening on the 14th. It's 3 o'clock in the afternoon. But I think God allowed that for a greater purpose. Because remember, Christ died at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the 14th. You know, it seems God allowed that for His own purposes. Amazing how God can do things even with our own stubbornness or misguidedness. God works things out beautifully sometimes, doesn't He?

Beautifully. So God allowed it for His great purpose. And someday they'll understand that. And their eyes will be open to it. So this is very important. Christ kept it on the right day. And when He said this, He said, Do this in remembrance of Me.

And He said, With fervent desire, I've desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So again, it's not just any meal. He's eating the Passover with His disciples before He suffers. Before He was beaten and crucified. And so that is the evening, brethren, that He was betrayed. He's taken. He's, after He's had the Passover, He's taken. He's beaten. He goes before the high priest.

Eventually He goes before Pilate. Remember the story. And then eventually He is hung on a stake. He is crucified. He dies that same day on the 14th in the afternoon, about three o'clock. And it's very, very important, brethren. The timing is very important. The appointed day is very important. You know, you think about that. If the Jewish people or the Israelites in Egypt had decided to kill the Lamb on the afternoon of the 14th and only put the blood on the door and the lentils on the 15th, it would have been one night too late, wouldn't it?

The 15th would have been one night too late. In fact, they would have been dead. They wouldn't have been able to put the blood on. So it's that important. It's that serious. And God does everything on time. And the blood was a sign. It was a sign that He would not enter the entrance of those homes and the first form would survive.

So it's that important. Sign of importance, so it points, of course, to the true blood of Jesus Christ. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse number 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse number 7. It says, therefore, purge out the old leaven, remove it, in other words, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover. So there it is, that Jesus Christ is the Passover Lamb. De-Christ is our Passover. He's my Passover. He's your Passover. He's our Passover Lamb. Do you remember the time when John the Baptist was standing with some of his disciples, and this is in the book of John, and he saw Jesus Christ from a distance, and he said to his disciples, John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

And of course, they knew what a Lamb meant. The Lamb was sacrificed. And they knew, or at least began to understand what John the Baptist was referring to when they said, that man over there, he's a Lamb that's going to take away the sins of the world. And of course, all of the various sacrifices under the Old Covenant that were done for sins, an animal was killed.

And so they knew that John the Baptist was saying something about this when it came not to an animal, but to a human being. Brethren, it is a lesson here for us. You know, in a sense, the Israelites weren't any better than the Egyptians in a way. You know, they still disobeyed. They still, in a sense, began to fall away from the truth when God began to reveal it to them. They followed Baal later on, and God eventually had to deal with them, and he had to punish them and try to...

He actually sent them to a captivity before he brought them back later. They weren't necessarily better than the Egyptians. Then why? Because it was a lesson. It's a lesson, actually, for the Israel of God and the New Testament that can come from any nation. God's calling human beings now from any nation of the earth. The Israel of God under the New Covenant can come from any creed, from any tribe, from any nation. But the blood is important, in a sense. It's a lesson of blood. What is a lesson of blood? Well, it's a sign. It's a sign. If you don't have the blood over the door of your house, you will die.

It's a big lesson. The blood is a sign. So the Israelites were required to kill the lamb, and they placed the blood on the doorposts, and they were required to believe in that instruction, and to act on it. You know, some may have reasoned, ah, this makes no sense to me.

I kill a lamb, and I drain the blood, and I put it on my doorpost and my lentil. It's foolish. I don't see why we're doing this. It's messy. It's horrible. I'm not going to do it. Well, I don't think too many thought of it that way, because on the other hand, they'd already seen the other plagues, and they saw that God was pretty serious about certain things, and now God's telling them to do this. I think they jumped on board and said, yeah, I think I'm going to do this, too. It's probably one of the few times when they really, really paid attention.

They believed, and they acted on what they believed.

And the Lord's blood would be a sign for the Lord to pass over their households. So just like you and I, brethren, we are to believe in the blood of Christ.

Christ is the ultimate sacrifice. That is what it says. It speaks of offering sacrifices, and all those sacrifices in the Old Covenant were actually pointing to Jesus Christ all along.

An ultimate sacrifice of the Son of God. It's a symbol. It's a sign. And it's a sign of their love for us, for the forgiveness. They were going to make available to us so that we could be in the family.

It's an ultimate price. It's a very loving thing to do.

You know the moment that the Father and the Word, the moment that they decided that they were going to have, somehow, create human beings, that they were going to have a family, they knew right from the beginning that one of them was going to have to pay, be a sacrifice.

And so they had to work all that out. When they decided to create man, they knew that a death sentence was going to be on one of them.

They knew it. They knew what would happen. You know, it talks about the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, so that was part of the plan.

That one of them was going to have to suffer painfully, on a stake, and be the curse of sin.

For all of the sons and daughters that they were going to create.

How do we know that? Well, it's prophesied. Of course, there's Isaiah chapter 53 about how those things would take place.

That there would be a sacrifice of an innocent person. It would be very difficult. It'd be very painful. And you know what's amazing? That this was about 800 years before the Romans even invented crucifixion.

God foretold some of these things beforehand.

So the blood had already been decreed. It had to happen. It had to be shed. There had to be a sacrifice.

I'll refer you to John chapter 1 and verse 29. John chapter 1 and verse 29, you can turn there if you like.

And also verse 36, where it talks about John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's talking about of all humanity.

In verse 36, as Jesus walked by, John said to his disciples, Behold the Lamb of God, which is a way of saying in that time frame, Look at this. This is the Lamb of God. And I imagine that got their attention. They're going to keep their eyes on this guy for a while. What's he going to do? What's he going to say? And what future awaits him if he is the Lamb of God that's going to take away the sin of all humanity? How is that going to play out?

I'll just refer you to Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8.

Well, let's turn over there. Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8.

Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8.

This is all who dwell on the earth will worship him. Now, it's not referring to Christ. That's referring to this beast power or this dragon that wants false worship.

Whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

So again, talking about Jesus Christ being the Lamb that is going to have to be slain from before the foundation of this earth.

So this was a part of the plan. Amazing how God can think all of this through ahead of time.

So this is a love that he has for you and I.

The Father's love to that he give his only begotten Son for you and I with all of our shortcomings, with all of our failures, with all of our sins.

And brethren, the blood of Christ is very important.

And of course, then what must we do? What must we do? Well, he tells us to believe, to believe in that sacrifice of that Savior, to believe and imitate that Savior.

I'll just refer you to Acts 2 and verse 38 of steps that he tells us to take to repent of the way that we have been living.

And to be baptized and to receive a gift from God, the Holy Spirit, baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

So we begin to believe. We begin to follow the example of our Savior, the one who died. We believe it's an act of belief.

The Israelites had to believe they had to actually put the blood on the doorposts.

So in a sense, our belief means that we follow the example of Jesus Christ. We believe what he says. We follow his example.

We partake of the Passover when he says it is. It's his Passover. We follow the laws. We follow the commandments as best as we can.

We begin to live a new life in Christ.

Let's go over to Hebrews 9 and verse 13. Hebrews 9 and verse 13.

The real Passover is Christ. The real Passover blood is his blood, which is the toning blood for you and I.

It's a blood that washes us.

Hebrews 9 and verse 13.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh.

Brother doesn't forgive. It doesn't wash away sins. It doesn't do that.

That's why they had to keep doing it in a sense every year, in that sense because it really didn't forgive them.

It didn't really purify them. It did sanctify them. It made them a little bit different for the purifying of the flesh.

It was a shadow of what was coming. It was a shadow of the real sacrifice.

Verse 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself?

Brother, he offered himself. No man killed Christ. Well, of course, we killed him because we sinned and that necessitated him having to die so that we could live.

But he volunteered. He offered himself, is what it says. He volunteered.

And had he not wanted to volunteer, then the plan wouldn't have been able to come to fruition.

He had to die. And they knew that from the beginning before they even created Adam, he had to die. And, you know, when he came before the high priest, when he came before Pilate, he could have gotten out of it.

He maybe even was tempted to try to get out of it. But Pilate said, you know, say something. They've got all these accusations against you. Say something. He was quiet.

Why was he quiet? When they asked him, why don't you speak? He was quiet. Why?

Because if he would have spoken, he could have gotten out of it. And that's not according to the plan.

He could have gotten out of the situation. They wouldn't have killed him. Pilate could have spared him.

I mean, there were other times when Christ did speak out. He got pretty harsh with the Pharisees and the Sadducees at certain times.

But if he would have spoken up then, when he was in front of Pilate, he could have not died.

So he did what he needed to do to force the issue so that he would have been killed. He offered himself.

Yes, we killed him. We all did. But he volunteered. He offered himself, and he made sure that he got to a situation where they would kill him.

Even though he could have gotten out of it. So he offered himself without spot to God. Just like that lamb in the Old Covenant with a head no blemish.

He offered himself without spot to God. It's his blood that cleanses your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Other than his sacrifice and the shedding of his blood is big enough to cover everything that's been any human being that's been created.

Sometimes we think, but my sins, my sins, they're so bad that God can't forgive.

God says that it is enough. If we repent, it doesn't matter what we have done. If we truly repent, his blood will cover those sins and they will wash us.

It's his blood that washes us. So the blood of Christ is very, very important. The sacrifice was very important. Let's notice Revelation 7, verse 14. Revelation 7, verse 14.

Talking about being washed by blood, by the blood of a Savior. Verse 14, and I said to him, sir, you know, so he said to me, these are the ones who come out of great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

These are people that had changed lives. They came out of a tribulation and they washed their robes. Their robes were dirty. Our garments, referring to a way of life that we have, and they were washed in and made them white, which is, of course, meaning clean and white in the blood of the Lamb.

That blood is very important. Let's notice also Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5. Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5.

Picking up in the context here, the thought.

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. Boy, that church tells us who Jesus Christ is. First born from the dead, ruler over all the earth. It's not going to be Muhammad or anyone else.

It's going to be Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, the ruler over kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us, brethren.

It's such an awesome thing to even try to wrap our minds around. Washed us from what? From our sins, how? With his own blood.

It's pretty important stuff. It's the blood of Christ that washes you and me. It's what we're going to be rehearsing as we get closer to the Passover.

Brethren, let's turn over to 1 Peter 1, verse 16. 1 Peter 1, verse 16. So what do we do? We understand what someone has done for us. We believe in it, and we live a life according to our belief in the one that did it for us.

1 Peter 1, verse 16. Let's pick it up in verse 15 for the context.

But as he who called you was holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct.

Well, that says a lot there in a short few words, doesn't it? Because, verse 16, it's written that be holy for I am holy.

So God calls us to live a life of holiness.

Verse 17. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, then conduct yourselves through the time of your stay here in fear.

It's amazing how Peter put that there. You know, we're only here for this day for a little while.

And so if we understand some of these concepts of what God is doing with us and the sacrifice he was willing to make so we could live, that we be very careful of how we live our lives during our stay here, that we conduct ourselves, in a sense, as it says here, throughout the time of your and my stay here in fear.

Very careful of how we live our lives.

Verse 18. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. No, we were agreeing with something that was totally pure, not something that was corruptible.

You weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. We think those things are so valuable, don't we? God calls them corruptible. That's a corruptible thing. Silver and gold. That's not how we were redeemed. We weren't bought back with precious metal.

That's not how we were redeemed, which that's what redeemed means. We bought back to God from your and my aimless conduct.

Bought back from our aimless conduct.

Received by the tradition of those that went before us, we learned some of the things from the previous generation.

The God has told us that that old man needs to die and a new man needs to live.

But what were we redeemed with and bought back with? Verse 19. But with the precious blood of a Savior, Christ, a Messiah, as of a Lamb, a Lamb of God, which we read about, without blemish and without any spot at all.

Indeed, he indeed was foreordained, there it is again, isn't it, before the foundation of the world.

But now he's been manifest in these last times for you. That's talking about you and me.

Verse 21. Who through him believe in God. Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So that your faith and hope are in God.

So there, we have our faith and hope in him. And notice, and since you have purified your souls, verse 22, and obeying the truth. So now that we believe in this sacrifice, we believe in the Savior, we believe in the Father, that we begin to live a different type of life.

Purifying, as it says, our life or our soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, where we really care for each other as a family.

Since it's sincere, not a feigned love, but sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.

And so we have some things to do, don't we?

Brethren, it's the blood of Christ that washes. Blood of Christ is extremely important. It's a symbol, maybe in the story, back in the book of Exodus, maybe we hadn't thought about so much before, when we were young people, and it was probably read to us over the years, about the blood that was put on the doors and the lentils of an entrance to a home.

For the meaning of that blood, which basically covers the entrance to our house, because spiritually speaking, God's Spirit dwells in our house, these bodies that we have.

And that blood, the Lord's Passover, His blood covers our sins.

Not so that the firstborn can survive a physical death, but so the firstborn can live forever. His blood saves us from an eternal death.

And we'll be rehearsing all of that in just a few short weeks.