CHOOSING THE LAMB

With Easter now upon us, there will no doubt be the usual discussions/debates about what day was the crucifixion.  Some want to make it on the Wednesday to accommodate the ‘sign of Jonah’ Matthew 12:30; therefore they insist that ‘three days and three nights’ mean exactly 72 hours in the tomb. However the majority of Scripture references to the Resurrection say it was on ‘the third day.’

There is one date that everyone overlooks but when you place this date correctly then all the other days of Easter fall naturally into place. That is the day of the choosing of the Lamb. To do that we need to go back to the very first Passover keeping in mind that it was God Himself who gave the instructions, knowing exactly what was going to happen all those hundreds of years later.

Most Christians understand that the Jewish Feast of Passover was fulfilled in Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. He fulfilled all the requirements down to the last detail. The instructions are found in Exodus 12.

“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ’On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.’” Exodus 12:3

On what day did Israel choose the Lamb? It was the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem riding a donkey to be acclaimed by the crowds as a king. When the Pharisees saw it they said “Master, rebuke your disciples.” Jesus told them that if the crowds were silent the stones would cry out. This was the day of the choosing of the Lamb, and nothing would stop it.

This is the day we celebrate as Palm Sunday. So since that day was the 10^th   (Nisan) as decreed by God, then we can place the events of that week accurately.

The Lamb was to be slain on the 14^th (Exodus 12:6) which, counting from Sunday the 10^th, would have been on Thursday. There were two Sabbaths that week – The day of Unleavened Bread which was kept as a Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath. Leaven is a type of sin. Jesus’ body bearing our sins went into the grave as this day began. The only thing that prevented the women going to the tomb earlier was the Sabbath restrictions. They rested on the next two days which would have been Friday and Saturday which brings us to Sunday ‘the third day.’ This was the Feast of Firstfruits when the first sheaf was reaped from the harvest.  (Leviticus 23:10,14) Jesus rose on that day and became ‘the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep; ( 1 Corinthians 15:20) This was the beginning of a great harvest which has yet to be completed.

The lamb had to be a perfect lamb without any defect. Accordingly, Jesus presented Himself in the temple on the days preceding the crucifixion. There He was questioned by Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees and finally by the High Priest, King Herod and Pilate – every authority in the Land, and no one could fault Him. Finally Pilate declared “I find no fault in Him.” The Lamb was declared perfect.

“knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold…but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1Peter 1:18,19)

While every household had their Passover Lamb, there was also a lamb at the Temple. The lamb was tied to the altar at 9am and killed at 3pm – the hours Jesus was on the Cross. Before Jesus and His disciples left the Last Supper, they sang a hymn, very likely Ps 118 which was sung at Passover. It contains the words ‘Bind the sacrifice with cords to the altar” Jesus went out knowing that He was going to be bound to the altar of the Cross. When all was accomplished He cried “It is finished.” The veil in the temple was rent in two from top to bottom opening the way into the Presence of God.

Though the enemy thought he had put an end to Jesus, it was all according to plan. The blood of the Passover Lamb had secured the deliverance of God’s people from bondage in Egypt; the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, brings deliverance from bondage to sin and death in the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan. From the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, flows ultimately the redemption of the world – surely something to celebrate.

While Christians may differ as to the day and date etc. it is what happened that we all celebrate. We all need to make a personal decision to choose the Lamb of God and we need to apply His blood over our lives 

10^th Nisan Sunday – the Lamb chosen (Palm Sunday)

14^th Thursday – the Lamb slain.  Passover

15^th Friday - Jesus body committed to the tomb. Unleavened Bread

17^th Sunday – Jesus rose from the grave. The Feast of Firstfruits.

 

 

PASSOVER AND THE EASTER EVENTS

It's Easter again and usually Facebook posts reflect this. Some don't think we should celebrate Easter at all because, they say, it has pagan connotations , e.g. it originated in a pagan celebration of spring and the spring goddess. Others want to debate about the day Christ actually died; some wanting exactly three days and nights in the tomb though the Scriptures don't call for this exactness, stating mostly 'the third day.' Even the quote about the sign of Jonah being 'three days and three nights' in the fish, doesn't need exactly 72 hours.

 My own thoughts on Easter are as follows:- Easter is the Christian Passover. Though the Jews and the Christians calculate the dates differently, they are both celebrating a great event - the time God delivered them from bondage to slavery under a merciless tyrant and given a whole new identity and a new life. The Last Supper was a Passover meal; the Communion cup at the institution of the Lord's supper being one of the four cups of wine consumed at the celebration.

Jesus was in Jerusalem to be the fulfilment of the sacrifice of all the little lambs which the Jews sacrificed at Passover for centuries.  The time had come for all that Passover prophesied to become a reality. A lot of Christians don't really understand the close connection between Passover and Easter. God gave the instructions for the first and subsequent Passovers knowing exactly what was going to happen all those years after, when the Lamb of God would be sacrificed for the whole world. Israel was the Priestly nation and God worked in that nation to set the stage for the Easter events which would change the destiny of multitudes. Moreover Jerusalem was the only place where sacrifices could be made and the Feasts celebrated. At the River Jordan, John announced Jesus "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

At the first Passover God instructed:-
The Lamb had to be chosen on the 10th of Abib.  Exodus 12: 3. On the Sunday beginning Passover week, Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed by the crowds who were there to celebrate the Feast. They waved palm branches and spread their cloaks on the ground before Him, hailing Him as a king. Though they were not aware of it, they were choosing the Passover Lamb for the world. Although the Bible doesn't say it was the 10th, we know it must be. God was very meticulous in fulfilling every requirement, and the Lamb was to be chosen on the 10th. That month was to be 'the beginning of months' for Israel - a new beginning for the nation.
The Lamb had to be without blemish - a perfect Lamb. Exodus 12:5.  In the days leading up to the sacrifice the lamb was examined to ensure it's perfection.  In the days preceding the crucifixion, Jesus presented Himself in the Temple and was questioned by the Scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees all who tried to 'trap Him in His words' to no avail. Finally He was questioned by the High Priest, King Herod and by Pilate- every authority in the Land. Lastly Pilate declared "I find no fault in Him" John 19: 4. The Lamb was declared to be perfect.
"Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,......but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Peter 1:18,19
The Lamb had to be slain on 14th. Exodus 12:6 This would have been Thursday.  [Sorry about that!. Hope I didn't shock you] The Temple lamb was slain at 3pm: This is the time that the Lamb of God died. I heard lately that the Temple lamb was tied to the altar at 9am, the time Jesus was nailed to the Cross.
No bone was to be broken: Exodus 12:46 The soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus to speed up their death before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When they came to Jesus He was already dead. This was in fulfilment of the Scriptures. John 19:36.
The Lamb had to be roast with fire: Exodus 12:8 Fire speaks of the wrath of God. "Our God is a consuming fire" Hebrews 12:29.  Jesus took our sins on Himself and suffered the righteous wrath of God against sin. He suffered separation from God that we might be forgiven and joined to God. That's why He cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me"
 Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I thirst'. A cup of sour wine was given to Him. [John19:28-30] Then He died. The cup was significant. It was the cup of the Lord's wrath "For in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup, And its wine is red; It is fully mixed and He pours it out; Surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain and drink down." Psalm 75:8
"For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me; 'Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you, to drink it." Jeremiah 25:15.  Jesus took that cup and drank it Himself,  drinking the cup of sour wine symbolically to show that the wrath of God was now satisfied and we can now be reconciled to God. 

There is much more we could say about fulfilled prophecy at the Cross, e.g. the gambling for His clothes. All of it pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. One more thing!
The blood of the Passover lamb had to be applied. Exodus 12:7,13, 22,23 The lamb had been slain but its death was of no avail unless the blood was applied. Only then would the death angel Passover and not destroy. Jesus' blood has been slain. Have you applied the Blood over your heart and your life. Everything has been done to save us and reconcile us to God and make us His heirs and joint-heirs with Christ. All we have to do is, by faith, place ourselves under the cover of the Blood of the Lamb. Then all that God is and has, is ours. 

"Under the blood of Jesus, safe in the Shepherd's fold,
Under the blood of Jesus, safe though the ages roll,
Safe though the earth may crumble, safe though the stars grow dim,
Under the blood of Jesus, I am secure in Him."

THE TRUE SABBATH

Are we still under the command to keep the Sabbath, and what is the Sabbath? Is it Saturday or is it Sunday or is there more to it than just a day?

 Sabbath is about rest and holds a principle much deeper than just physical rest. A ‘rest’ in Scripture denotes a finished work. God finished His work of Creation then rested and Man was commanded to rest also.

Whenever you see a rest in Scripture this is God saying ‘This is My work. There is nothing you can do about it so don’t even presume to try.’ On the Day of Atonement, everyone had to rest in their tents while the High Priest [God’s representative] made Atonement. This of course pointed to the fact that only Jesus, God’s appointed High Priest, could make Atonement. We can’t add to it by our good works any more than Adam and Eve could improve on Creation; we can only rest by faith in His finished work.

 Jesus angered the Jews when He healed a crippled man on the Sabbath. [John 5]. Jesus answered the by saying that His Father was still working and so was He. The work of Creation had been completed but there was still a work to be done. That was the work of Redemption. In Jesus Christ, God began a New Creation. That work was completed with the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. The old Creation was put to death in Jesus, the ‘last Adam’ and the New Creation began on Resurrection Day. The Old Creation is ‘passing away’ but the New Creation is eternal.  We are part of that New Creation if, by faith, we rest in Jesus’ finished work on our behalf. When Jesus has finished His work He ‘sat down’ that is He rested, in contrast to the Old Testament Priests who were ‘standing’ continually offering up sacrifices . [Hebrews 10:11 – 14]

Jesus is the Sabbath of the New Creation. The Sabbath rest finds its fulfilment in Him who said “Come unto Me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”[Matthew 11:28 – 30] The rest that Jesus gives is a rest of soul, when we cease from struggling and striving in our own strength and rest in His finished work. This is the rest that is spoken of in Hebrews 3:7 – 4:11 which we are to be ‘diligent to enter into.’ As Colossians 2:16,17 says, the Old Testament Holy Days are ‘shadows’ but Jesus is the ‘substance’ or fulfilment of them all. He is our Passover, our Unleavened Bread, our Atonement [propitiation] our Sabbath and all that the Old Testament types portrayed.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:7, 8; concerning Passover and Unleavened Bread, [my paraphrase] Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, therefore this is how we keep the Feast [of Unleavened Bread] now. We put the leaven [symbolic of sin] out of our lives.” Likewise concerning the Sabbath  – By one sacrifice, Christ has perfected us forever [Hebrews 10:14] and this is how we keep Sabbath now. By faith we rest in His finished work. With Jesus in our heart, we can have Sabbath every day.

 Christians met together on a Sunday very early in Church history. It was not a new Sabbath, but a celebration of the Resurrection.   Ignatius 30-107 AD, Bishop of Antioch wrote, “And after the observance of the Sabbath [that the Jews kept,] let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s day as a festival, the resurrection day,  the queen and chief of all days of the week…..on which our life sprang up again, and victory over death was obtained in Christ….” Ignatius would have been contemporary to at least some of the disciples and would surely have known which day was considered to be ‘The Lord’s Day.’

Justin Martyr born about 100 AD wrote. “And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read… but Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.”

 [These two quotes are taken from vol 1 of “The Ante Nicene Fathers”]

To summarise:-

Saturday was the Sabbath of the Old Creation. It was a day of physical rest. It was a shadow or sign, pointing to the soul rest we have in Christ.

Sunday is a day of celebration of the New Creation in Christ. It is the day of the Resurrection. Also the Spirit was given on a Sunday.

The true Sabbath is a Person not a day. Jesus is our Sabbath Rest just as He is the fulfilment of Passover, Atonement and all the shadows of the Old Testament.

Setting one day a week aside for worship and rest is still an important principle to observe.

God is to be honoured every day of the week in all of our living. [Romans 12:1 ‘service’ means ‘worship’]

Christians who gather to worship on Sunday or any other day aren’t worshipping the day, they’re worshipping the Lord and that is a good thing to do any day.

The Romans 14 principle is that these things ought not to separate or cause contention among Christians, but everyone should be ‘fully persuaded in their own mind’ and not judge one another. Whatever day you choose to rest and worship on, you will only know true rest in Jesus; that is by not trusting in your own good works, but by faith resting in the perfect finished work of the perfect One.

 

For a longer version of this, click on the booklet on this page titled "The True Sabbath"

 

 

GOD'S ROAD MAP OF RESTORATION

map used with permission, courtesy of Google Earth
A PHYSICAL MAP OF A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

The Journey to the Promised Land is a map showing how to recover our Inheritance which was lost in Adam but regained in Christ.  What is that inheritance?

“For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.”  Romans 4:13 [emphasis added]

“And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:29

In the nation of Israel, God set the pattern of Restoration.  Israel is the Demonstration Nation. 

God’s purposes are :-

Demonstrated in Israel

Fulfilled in Christ

Manifested through the Church.

The Feasts of Israel commemorated the great events of the Journey and the recovery of Israel’s inheritance promised to them through Abraham.

PASSOVER [Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits]  is about  coming out of Egypt

PENTECOST  Is about equipping the people of God to fulfil their Commission

TABERNACLES  [Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles] is about that Commission being accomplished

PASSOVER     The Nation comes out of Egypt in infancy

“When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” Hosea 11:1

Redeemed by the blood of a lamb   Exodus 12    Passover

Sanctified [declared to be holy]    Exodus 13       Unleavened Bread

Baptised “in the cloud and in the sea” [1 Corinthians 10:2]     Exodus 14   Firstfruits

Their Commission  Possess their inheritance and establish “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”

PENTECOST   The Nation equipped to fulfil their Commission

At Mt Sinai God came down in fire and gave the Law and the Tabernacle.   Exodus 19..........

After 40 years the nation came out of the wilderness, crossed Jordan and began to destroy the strongholds of the enemy.

TABERNACLES     The Nation completes their Commission

The great climax of Israel’s history was the dedication of the Temple by King Solomon, son of David.  The enemy had been subdued and the Land possessed.  The Kingdom had been established and the son of David sat on the throne.  The Glory of God filled the Temple.  The final harvest was in and the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated.  The Golden Age had begun. 

2 Chronicles 7

After this great time of peace and prosperity, the nation went into decline, and here the Type breaks down as all types do.  They are only “shadows” of the reality which is in Christ. But a pattern had been established which God Himself followed in the preparation of Jesus for ministry and in restoring the Church.

JESUS’ PREPARATION FOR MINISTRY

True to the type, Jesus was brought out of Egypt in infancy. 

“When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt.  And was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Hosea 11:1

Like all Jewish firstborn males, Jesus was sanctified [dedicated to the Lord as an infant] according to Exodus 13:2.  As He was about to begin His ministry, He was set apart in baptism  at the Jordan

Jesus was  equipped to fulfil His Commission  by the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him. This was His Pentecost.

His Commission:-

“For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” [1John 3:8].

And ultimately:-

“To restore the earth.”  [Isaiah 49:8]

Restoration comes as the works of the devil are destroyed.

After forty days in the wilderness  overcoming the temptations of satan,  Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit and began to  destroy the works of the devil.  After ministering for three and a half years Jesus then went to the Cross to make a way for us to begin the Journey  into Restoration when the whole Earth will be filled with the Glory of the Lord according to God’s promise long ago.

“But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord.”  Numbers 14:21

TABERNACLES   will be celebrated when Jesus sits on the throne of the Earth, then Jesus, Israel,  and the Church will celebrate the Feast together.

NEXT 
JESUS FULFILLS THE FEASTS AND
THE CHURCH BEGINS THE JOURNEY INTO RESTORATION