April 15, 2011
And when the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near which is called Passover (Season) . . . and when the hour had come, He sat down and the 12 apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With FERVENT DESIRE I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” . . . And as they were eating, Jesus took BREAD, blessed it and broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the CUP, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My BLOOD of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Luke 22:14-15; Matthew 26:26-28).
D
ear
Brethren,
The
PASSOVER observance will take place this coming Sunday early evening
(4-17-2011)., at dusk of the 14th of Abib, later
called
Nisan, in the first month of God’s Sacred Calendar (Exodus
12:1-6).
It should be realized by all of God’s people that this is the most serious and sobering time of the year for it pictures the beating and death by crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that took place in 31 A. D. during the daytime of the 14th following the Passover observance of the previous evening.
This is a vital service for God’s people.
To further get this in mind we need to consider and meditate on the awesome greatness, goodness, and love of God our Father and His beloved Son Jesus Christ!
To
realize as much as we can with our limited minds Their Greatness
should be enough to stagger our most imaginative thoughts!
"To whom will your liken God . . . It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain . . . To whom will you liken Me, or to whom shall I be equal?" says the Holy One. "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their hosts (stars) by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing" (Isaiah 40:18, 22-26).
"Praise the LORD! . . . Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD" (Psalm 150:1, 6)
God's
Master Plan for the ultimate salvation of all of mankind would of
necessity require the horrible and extremely painful death of the
Spokesman or Word for this to become possible (Genesis 1:1; John
1:1-3).
He, the, I AM (Exodus 3:14), was the very One who became the Messiah; the One who spoke— bringing into physical existence the universe from the invisible world (Hebrews 11:3; Psalm 33:6; 148:5). And by His Word, His invisible laws are upholding all of it and in Him all things consist (exist, held together (Hebrews 1:2-3; Colossians 1:16-17).
This awesome Almighty Deity came to this earth by human birth and lived primarily among the Tribe of Judah for 33 and ˝ years. And except for a very few select people, they knew him not (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-35; 2:1-7).
And this is also yet true— though the Christian world professes Jesus Christ in name they do not know Him anymore than did the world of that time. They know Him not! Mark 4:10-12.
It is only the select few among the almost seven billions of people living today who really and truly know Him.
Though many in the Christian world observe the Passover in one form or another on an annual occasion or every week, it will be only these very few select men and women who will have Him in true thought and mind while observing the correct Passover service in the beginning of the 14th day of the first month after dusk as commanded by God (Exodus 12:1-7, 11-13).
Always and always our hearts should be filled with praise giving honor and glory to our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ for not only what He has done for you and me but for all of mankind.
“Bless the LORD O my soul and all that is within me. Bless the LORD O my soul and forget NOT His benefits. He who forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases.” (Psalm 103:1-3).
There are many Scriptures that speak of this most adequately.
Consider
what the apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi to help us to
think more fully about what we should have in our minds and hearts as
we approach this most Holy Season:
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He HUMBLED Himself and became OBEDIENT to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly EXALTED HIM and given HIM the name which is ABOVE every name, that at the NAME OF JESUS every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD (Master), to the GLORY OF GOD the Father”(Philippians 2:5-11).
At the same time we should always remember where we were prior to God drawing us to Him through Jesus Christ, and HOW we have come to be where we now are – to be among the true people of God – and as such filled with praise to our Father and Jesus Christ for our calling and selection by Them:
“. . . And you, being dead in your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, . . . And He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:1-10)
Brethren,
please think on these Scriptures and the related ones having to do
with the Passover WHEN we enter the room for the observance of it.
A
ll
of us should be humbled as we kneel to wash each other’s feet
before partaking of those precious symbols while meditating on our
awesome and wonderful calling and selection to be among the true
people of God.
In addition meditate prayerfully about the awesome love of our GREAT GOD and the terrible price Jesus Christ paid to make the Passover possible with its full meaning known to us (John 3:16-17). It is as John the baptizer said to those around him:
“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the world! John 1:29.
“Then the children journeyed from Rameses (the land of Goshen) to Succuth . . . and they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt . . . it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is A NIGHT of solemn observance to the LORD for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that NIGHT of the LORD, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations (Exodus 12:37-42).
“Observe the month of Abib (the original name for the first month – changed after the Babylonian captivity. The Babylonian name of Nisan pretty much replaced it), and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt BY NIGHT” (Deuteronomy 16:1).
These are the journeys of the children of Israel, who went out of the land of Egypt by their armies under the hand of Moses and Aaron. . . . They departed from Rameses (land of Goshen) in the first month, on the 15th day of the first month; on the day AFTER the Passover the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians (Numbers 33:1, 3).
The
Exodus began at Night on the 15th
of the 1st
Month
These Scriptures make abundantly clear, contrary to what some leading ministers came to believe, the Passover is to be observed after dusk in the beginning of the 14th day of the first month, not the 15th – which was when Israel began their exodus, their departure, from Egypt which God labels as A TYPE OF SIN!.
With their departure from Egypt the night of the 15th is to be MUCH REMEMBERED – for all time for it MARKS God’s selection of His true people— bringing them unto Himself by leading them out of SIN in-route to the Promised Land.
Leavening is used by God as a type of sin during the Days of Unleavened Bread. With this in mind it is of the utmost importance to keep in mind the following Scriptures:
“Sin is lawlessness (transgression of the Law)” (I John 3:4).
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
“This
day shall be to you one of remembrance (Soncino
Commentary:
The whole season – meaning the Days of Unleavened Bread):
you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD throughout the ages;
you shall celebrate as an institution for all time. Seven days you
shall EAT unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall (have)
remove[d] leaven from your houses, for whoever eats
leavened
bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut
off from Israel. You shall celebrate a sacred occasion (commanded
convocation) on the FIRST DAY, and a sacred occasion
on the
SEVENTH DAY; no work at all shall be done on them (the
first
and seventh days), only what every person is to eat,
that
alone may be prepared for you to eat . . . In the first month,
from the 14th
day of the month AT EVENING
(beginning of the 15th
day),
you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st
day of the month at evening (end of the 7th
day). No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days.
. . . You
shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat
unleavened bread “(Exodus 12:14-20, New Jewish Publication
Bible).
God intends the Passover season to be kept very seriously in mind by His true people, it is vital, meaningful, and also encouraging and strengthening as we continue on our journey across the spiritual desert on our way to the true Promised Land.
"Therefore PURGE OUT the old leaven, that you may be A NEW LUMP, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore LET US KEEP THE FEAST, not with old leaven (type of former sins), BUT with the unleavened bread of sincerity and TRUTH" (I Corinthians 5:7-8).
Your servant and friend,
Don Billingsley
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