PASSOVER, UNLEAVENED BREAD & FIRST FRUITS

Passover-2024.pdf

PASSOVER, UNLEAVENED BREAD & FIRST FRUITS

The Feast of Passover (April 22nd -April 30th, 2024) commemorates a great event in history that is significant not only for the Jewish people worldwide but also for believers in Yeshua. Passover, Unleavened Bread & First Fruits commemorate the great delivering work that brought the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt to their destiny in the Promised Land.
It is unfortunate that many believers regard the Passover, and the other Biblical feasts as being only "Jewish feasts." However, the scriptures call them "The Feasts of the Lord." - not only for the Jewish people but for all the Lord’s people.(Lev. 23.3) It is tragic that the Christian and Jewish calendars are out of sync with each other. This separation goes back to anti-Semitic traditions that embedded themselves in Christianity from the earliest centuries and were enshrined in the Christian calendar by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century.
By separating the celebration of Yeshua's death and resurrection from the Feasts of Passover and First Fruits we lost the full understanding of Jesus' work which was prefigured by these feasts. In Israel each Feast was kept at its 'appointed time.’ (Lev. 23:4) Likewise each Feast was fulfilled by the Messiah, Jesus at God’s appointed time. He kept the timetable of these feasts which foreshadow His work.
"Let no one judge you ... regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance (reality) is of Messiah." (Col 2.16-17)
Sadly the connection with the Jewish Feasts has been replaced by a false connection with ridiculous customs, coming from pagan fertility rituals and represented by Easter bunnies and eggs. Even the name of the greatest day in history has been obscured and changed from Resurrection Sunday to Easter Sunday after Ishtar, a Babylonian fertility God! These pagan festivals are not harmless practices - they obscure the truth of the Lord's great Passover. Jesus, our perfect Passover Lamb, came to bring us OUT of the darkness of paganism not to leave us in it!
Yeshua is the eternal Passover, not only for the people of Israel, but for ALL who put their faith in Him. All who apply His Blood to their lives, sincerely seeking to be restored to favor with God and liberated from the guilt and power of sin and believe that He has borne this guilt and sin, are reconciled with God. and believe that He has borne this guilt and sin are reconciled with God.
On the night of the first Passover the Children of Israel were saved from the angel of destruction when they applied the blood of the Passover Lamb to the doorposts and lintels of their houses. On the night of the first Passover the Children of Israel were saved from the angel of destruction when they applied the blood of the Passover Lamb to the doorposts and lintels of their houses. In exactly the same way, believers who put their faith in the blood of Jesus and apply by faith the benefits of His Cross to their lives, receive emancipation and forgiveness. 'Through Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin according to the riches of His grace’ (Ephesians 1:7)
The children of Israel were delivered from destruction, not through their moral conduct but through faith in the blood of the Passover Lamb, so too, all who put their faith in Yeshua's Work on the Cross, receive complete forgiveness and reconciliation.

Passover Is The Beginning Of A Journey
The Passover Season, as we have seen includes the Feasts of "Unleavened Bread" and "First Fruits". It is the beginning of a journey. On the night of the first Passover, the children of Israel not only applied the blood of the slain lambs to the door posts to survive destruction but immediately embarked on a journey out of slavery, in Egypt, into the plans and purposes of God. They moved in such haste that they left no time for their bread to be baked with leaven. Similarly the Lord Yeshua not only provides covering for us by His death, but He also calls us to make the journey out of slavery sin, selfishness and the values and goals of this world to serve and follow Him into the life He has prepared for us. "(He) called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Peter 2.9)
This year let us not only celebrate the TRADITIONS of Passover and resurrection as mere holidays. Let us ENTER INTO THE REALITIES they recall. Followers of Yeshua, leave the Egypt of worldliness, sin, selfishness and sin to serve the Lord and those around. us. This Passover, let us take time to come before the Lord, thank Him for what He has done, receive the full acceptance He has provided and to receive the life of the resurrected Jesus - the Holy Spirit- who empowers us for His new way of living.