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“Passover – Part 2”“
EliYah’s message:
We are ready to begin our next study portion. We are talking about the importance of Passover and how to keep it, the blessings of it and the spiritual meanings behind it, how we apply it today as believers of Yahushua Messiah, and how that fits in perfectly with what Yahweh is expecting us to participate in. And it is part of keeping Yahweh’s Torah.
So, once again, the study portion is: Passover – Part 2. This is our second part of the Passover study. We shared part one last week and went over some of the basics.
We went over Exodus chapter 12, and discussed a lot of the discussion there in Exodus chapter 1. We talked about the dates of the Passover, the dates of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the different kinds of leavening involved, what we want to get rid of. We talked a little bit also about the calendar.
Those areas we have already covered. And so, we are going to move on and talk on some other areas.
But before we do that, I want to go ahead and mention these are the dates for this year’s Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. The month called April and the traditional Roman calendar that we all follow, that is Passover day (the 4th of ‘April’). Passover day here is on the 4th, and this is going to start the evening before.
And so, if you are following the Roman Calendar, the sun goes down– it is going to match up with the Sabbath– and Passover day will begin with the Sabbath. And then that night (the 4th) is when we are going to actually partake of Yahushua the Messiah. After the Sabbath, two weeks from now, we are going to partake of Yahushua the Messiah at that time.
He is our Passover Lamb. And so, that is when we do that. That is also the beginning of the First Day of Unleavened Bread, which will last until the following Shabbat. And the next Shabbat, when the sun goes down, then the Feast will end (on the 11th).
So these are the seven days in which no leavening is to be eaten (the 5th – the 11th). And no leavening is to be found in our dwelling places. And so, it is important for us to start working toward getting rid of the leaven now, and then we will be able to more easily have not so much to throw away. Let’s put it that way.
So it is a good idea to put all your leavened products… you know, go through, look at the ingredients. We talked about this last week. If you missed that, make sure you tune in to last week’s broadcast. But, you know, we want to get rid of all the leavening.
And then, these seven days our houses, our dwelling places, are going to be completely without leavening.
And then, you are looking at it in a little more easier list of dates here:
4/4 – Passover
4/5 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (holy day)
4/6 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (2)
4/7 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (3)
4/8 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (4)
4/9 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (5)
4/10 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (6)
4/11 – Feast of Unleavened Bread (holy day)
And I want you to notice this right here: http://www.EliYah.com/printedcalendar.html. I now have the printed calendar available for anyone who is interested in acquiring a copy.
This is the hangable printed calendar. It is something you can hang on a hook. It is spiral bound. It is professionally printed. And we thought we were going to do 500 copies, but because of the high demand, that we already seem to be getting a high level of interest, we went ahead and printed out 800 copies.
And, hopefully, that will be enough for everybody who wants a printed copy to be able to get one. And we do give these away. We do like it when people donate. It helps us with expenses, which it was pretty expensive to print all these copies. But if for some reason you cannot afford to donate, we give them away at no charge.
And these calendars are designed to make it easy for us to follow Yahweh’s calendar, His timetable. And following His timetable is something that we want to do more and more especially as the end times come. We know that is what Yahweh is going to establish– one new moon to another, one Sabbath to another, and all flesh will worship Him.
It is just a matter of time before that happens, so might as well get used to it because the whole world is going to follow His calendar. And so, this is His will for us. When His will is done on the earth as it is done in heaven, this is what He wants.
And here is a close-up look of the first month, what it looks like. You will notice here that this is Yahweh’s date right here (upper left hand corner). And then that is starting tonight, going into tomorrow, first day of the week. And then next to it is the Roman date. And so, you do not need to have two separate calendars hanging on your wall.
You can just look at this one and you will be able to determine what the day is on Yahweh’s calendar and what the day is on man’s calendar. And you probably can’t read the writing here unless you have a really good connection, but, basically, this is giving you the different events that occurred on this particular month.
And there are a lot of events that took place on the 1st day of the first month. For instance, here (the 10th day of the first month) is when they crossed the Jordan (in Joshua 4:19), the lamb was taken (as commanded in Exodus 12:3), and also, the temple was sanctified (in 2 Chronicles). So different scriptural events.
You know, these are Yahweh’s anniversaries, different things that happened in Scripture that it said happened on this day at this time. And so, we have, I think, a fairly exhaustive list of things that are happening.
And also, you can count the omer. You will notice here we have the omer day (number 8) on the 22nd day of the month of Aviv– Nisan/Aviv.
So, we are really excited about this. And, to me, just to have something that I can look to, and say, “Wow! That is exactly what I needed to be able to adequately follow His calendar as I really want to and easily keep track of when His days are.”
And also, these include the moon charts. And so, we are happy about this.
And if you want a copy, again: http://EliYah.com/printedcalendar.html. If you see the link there at the top of the broadcast page, hold down your control button before you click that link. Otherwise, it will interrupt the broadcast. Just hold down the control button before you click the link and it will open up in a new tab.
And, of course, you can request this through the mail, also, at our normal address. You can just ask for a calendar. If you cannot afford a donation, that is fine. We will send you one out. And our address, as always: EliYah.com, PO Box 1255, Ava, MO 65608.
Just make it out to EliYah.com, and we will send you a printed, spiral bound, hangable calendar. You can put it on your wall. You can, also, download it yourself and print it out yourself. So you can do it either way. But that is what we have going on right now. And so, we are real happy about what Yahweh is doing. HalleluYah!
So back to our study here, as we are discussing the Passover and how many times Yahweh says in Scripture, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt,” how many times He identifies Himself with that amazing act.
And so, likewise, we can identify Him as the One who brought us out of our Egypt– our spiritual Egypt– the world, the slavery that we were in to Pharaoh (or Satan) and his taskmasters (or demons) that afflicted us and brought us under slavery.
And so, this act that Yahweh did in the book of Exodus is a mirror of our own walk. And, to me, this is one of the most amazing things in Scripture, that Yahweh literally wrote His plan of salvation in the history of a nation and His deliverance of them.
There are so many amazing things like that. Just, when you look at it, you just stand in awe. Even the time of Yahushua’s appearance on the earth. He appeared about 4000 years from the creation of Adam, and we are now about somewhere around 6000 years. I don’t know exactly where we are. And so, I really believe that we are at the end times.
And then, the last 1000 year reign will be our time of rest from our enemy, Satan the devil, because he will be in the bottomless pit.
Behind me I have this menorah, and you will notice with the menorah, there are seven candles in a biblical menorah. And if you were to look at this and count it out, there are seven. And Yahweh often deals in sevens. There are seven days of Unleavened Bread. There are seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and then the Last Great Day to follow.
And so, this seven days of the feast of Unleavened Bread would represent the seven thousand years in which Messiah Yahushua would actually make us unleavened.
And so, if you are looking at a 7000 year time frame, which is what I believe Yahweh is working with, here is the first thousand, second thousand, third thousand, and fourth thousand here. In the center would be the one that is Yahushua the Messiah at the time He arrived.
Here is where Abraham arrived (second thousand). Here is where Yahushua arrived (fourth thousand). And so, when He was born and He lived and He died for us. Even in Jewish tradition, this is called the servant candle– the center one that lights all the others. And so, that is kind of an interesting parallel.
And so, we are here now at this sixth thousand. We are real close to the end of the six thousand years. And then, the last thousand will be where we will reign with Messiah. And so, this is one of the many reasons I believe we are close to that last generation when Yahushua will return.
But a lot of people, they look at a menorah, and think, “Oh, that is Jewish stuff. What is that all about?” But, to me, when I look at a menorah, I think about Yahweh’s plan– the plan of salvation– and how Yahushua is at the center of it and how He is the light that lights all the other candles.
He is the One that makes us unleavened by His sacrifice. And that is why we partake of Him at Passover. And then, after that, is the Feast of Unleavened Bread in which we are unleavened. And He is the One that makes us all unleavened. And, to me, that is exciting!
That is one of the many things that you look at Scripture, and you say, “You know, this Book, the way it is all put together and everything, there can’t be any doubt that it is a miracle. It is a divinely inspired Book.” And so, I am amazed.
So, anyway, that is one way of looking at a menorah. And it is different than the Chanukah menorah, which has nine candles or nine branches, which is not in Scripture anywhere.
Well, anyway, we looked over Exodus chapter 12 last week. And so, this week I really want to look at the many ways in which our Savior Yahushua is depicted and seen and revealed in these Passover events.
And I love this! I look at this every year. I don’t care how many times I go over this topic, I look at it, and I just say, “Wow!”
Maybe it would be easy to take it for granted. “Oh, yeah, that is just how it all lines up.” But every year I look at it, and I just go, “Yahweh, You’re amazing! You just are amazing!” And He is.
So, anyway, Exodus chapter 12, verse 4. Here we are. It says:
Exodus 12:4 - `And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take [it] according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 – `Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take [it] from the sheep or from the goats.
6 – `Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
Now some translations have “twilight” here. But that is not what is in the Hebrew. What is in the Hebrew is “between the evenings.” “Beyn ha’arbayim” is how it reads in the Hebrew.
So, if you were to study this out, when is this time period “between the evenings”? And I have. I definitely believe it is about the ninth hour of the day. This was the hour of prayer mentioned in the book of Acts, which was also the time of the evening sacrifice. This is just when it was done.
So we look into the Scriptures, in Luke chapter 23, verse 44:
Luke 23:44 - Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
Until when? Until the ninth hour.
Luke 23:45 - Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two.
46 – And when Yahushua had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, `into Your hands I commit My spirit.'” Having said this, He breathed His last.
And so, He died at this ninth hour. And so, about the ninth hour of the day next week I will be here, and I will be doing a broadcast. Probably close to it, maybe just after the broadcast. It will be about the ninth hour.
And so, I would encourage you, (not next week but two weeks from now) at that time, at the ninth hour of the day– which is if you were to take your daylight and divide it into twelve equal segments, most of us are going to arrive somewhere between four and five o’clock in the afternoon, depending on where you live, and so on.
But that is the anniversary of His death. And that is also the time when the Passover lambs were offered.
Luke 23:47 - So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified Elohim, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!”
48 – And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned.
Have you ever felt like this? I mean, after you realize what you had done wrong, you just despise yourself. And that is what happened. They realized at that moment that was an innocent man.
And Yahushua, even though He died, he glorified Elohim. Why? Because they said, “This was a righteous Man. We shouldn’t have done this. This was wrong.”
And so, you look at this historically. According to the book of Josephus, it says: (Josephus) Wars of the Jews 6:423-425 – “So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour til the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten {c} belong to every sacrifice…
“… (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves) and many of us are twenty in a company, 424 found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; [that is a lot of lambs!] 425 which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together…
“… amounts to two million seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy.”
So there are two million people descending on this tiny village, this tiny town in Jerusalem. An incredible sight it must have been. And here is Yahushua at Golgotha hanging there as these people are filing in to offer their Passover lambs. What a sight that must have been! Now assuming he is not exaggerating numbers here.
But we know this was important and we know when this took place– this ninth hour. It is the exact hour that Yahushua the Messiah, at this ninth hour, died for the sins of Yisrael and all the people. And so, to me, that is amazing. That is incredible.
We know, also, by reading this, that they brought the lambs to the temple. They did not do this elsewhere. And this is how it was done:
2Chronicles 35:10 - So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their places, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the king’s command.
11 – And they slaughtered the Passover [offerings]; and the priests sprinkled [the blood] with their hands, while the Levites skinned [the animals].
And so, they actually took the blood from the Passover and sprinkled the blood with their hands– the blood of the Passover lamb. And that is different than the Passover mentioned in Exodus chapter 12 where it is talking about each individual household would take the blood and sprinkle it on the doorposts of their homes.
In this case, it is sprinkled on the altar. And so, the reason why it is different is because of the commandments in Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 5. It says:
Deuteronomy 16:5 - “You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which YAHWEH your Elohim gives you;
6 – “but at the place where YAHWEH your Elohim chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt.
So this “going down of the sun”– the sun starts to go on its downward trek at noon. And that is considered to be the first evening. And then the second evening is at sunset. That is how I understand it. Some people understand it differently. So they were not allowed to do it anywhere else but in Yerushalayim.
And this is also seen in Leviticus 17, verses 1 through 3, where Yahweh spoke to Moshe:
Leviticus 17:1 - And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying,
2 – “Speak to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, `This [is] the thing which YAHWEH has commanded, saying:
3 – “Whatever man of the house of Israel who kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or who kills [it] outside the camp,
This word translated “kills” means “sacrifices.”
Leviticus 17:4 - “and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to offer an offering to YAHWEH before the tabernacle of YAHWEH, the guilt of bloodshed shall be imputed to that man. He has shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people,
5 – “to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field, that they may bring them to YAHWEH at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, to the priest, and offer them [as] peace offerings to YAHWEH.
The priest is the one supposed to do it.
So He is saying that you just don’t do it any old time and do it in your own place. You have to bring it to the priest. And that is a new instruction, different than with the Passover in Exodus chapter 12 where each family did their offerings in their own dwelling place.
And I know there are some brothers out there who take it upon themselves to go ahead and get themselves a lamb and slit its throat and sprinkle the blood on the doorposts of their home.
Yes, that is the way it was done in Exodus 12, but we see here in Leviticus 17, and 2 Chronicles– and even historically in first century Judaism– it was not done that way after that time. It was different.
So it had to be done and brought to a priest. And that is the point He is making here. That is a commandment.
So back to Exodus 12, looking at verse 10, it says:
Exodus 12:10 - `You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
11 – `And thus you shall eat it: [with] a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It [is] YAHWEH’S Passover.
So Yahweh told them they are going to leave and they need to be ready. Leave none of that offering until morning. The same instruction He gave to the priests that they were not to let it remain. I think it was three days. In some cases, not even until morning.
But He says don’t let it remain until morning, and this is exactly what happened with Yahushua.
John 19:30 - So when Yahushua had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
31 – Therefore, because it was the Preparation [Day], that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and [that] they might be taken away.
So Yahushua, also, was not left on the tree overnight.
John 19:32 - Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him.
33 – But when they came to Yahushua and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
34 – But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
John 19:35 - And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe.
36 – For these things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, “Not [one] of His bones shall be broken.”
Where do we find a prophecy about the Messiah not having His bones broken?
Exodus 12:46 - “In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
You are looking at a document here that in the Torah it was commanded and then it was fulfilled in the first century.
And so, another scripture is Psalm 22, verses 15 through 17, which is commonly called “The Psalm of the Cross.” But this Psalm talks about, it says:
Psalms 22:15 - My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death.
This is Yahushua speaking.
Psalms 22:16 - For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;
“Dogs” are Gentiles.
Psalms 22:17 - I can count all My bones. They look [and] stare at Me.
They are not broken.
Wow! HalleluYah! Amazing!
So, to me, there is no doubt. I mean, it is obvious. Yahushua is our Passover. And everything that Yahweh commanded Israel in Exodus chapter 12 and Leviticus 23, and so on, when He is talking about the Passover– everything He told them to do– was looking toward the future and what Yahushua was going to do for man.
And so, this is where the amazing power and the amazing object lesson that Passover truly is, it is just… you look at it, and say, “It is a miracle. Our scriptures are a miracle.”
And so, that is why we read:
1Corinthians 5:7 - Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
And that is when we talked about the seven days of Unleavened Bread. We do not partake of leavening for those seven days. Why? Because now we are unleavened. Why are we unleavened? “For indeed Messiah, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
We are now cleansed of our sin. And sin is being represented as leavening.
And so, in the same way the Passover lamb saves the children of Israel from death, Yahushua the Messiah, our Savior, saves us from death and enables us to be seen as being without sin, and therefore not deserving of death.
And so, just as the Passover lamb was eaten by the children of Israel, we, likewise, partake of our Lamb, Yahushua the Messiah.
It is commonly called “the Communion” or “the Master’s Supper” or “the Eucharist.” But this is not any of those things necessarily. It is Passover because He is our Passover.
And so, that is how I see Yahushua. When we are partaking of the Passover, when we are partaking of the unleavened bread representing His body and the fruit of the vine representing His blood– then this is the Passover that I am partaking of because He is my Passover.
And so, we do partake of Him, and we actually do it like this:
Exodus 12:11 - `And thus you shall eat it: [with] a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It [is] YAHWEH’S Passover.
So when we partake of Him, we have a belt on our waist, we have sandals on our feet, and we have a staff in our hand. We actually go out in the woods, make ourselves a staff. I even got sandals. I went out and bought sandals just for this.
I normally do not wear sandals, but I went and bought sandals for this special event and a belt. I wear a belt on my waist. Not to be legalistic, but to be… what does this all represent?
This represents the haste with which I want to leave the world. I do not want any part of it. I want to be free of it. And I do not want to be around Pharaoh. I do not want to be around those taskmasters. I want out of here.
And so, this is a spiritual representation of the readiness with which we want to be ready for our departure from the world and the worldly things.
He says:
Exodus 12:12 - `For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike 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] YAHWEH.
So it is all symbolic for our desire to have our hearts turned away from the world and have our heart receiving the Messiah to be delivered from our sin, which formerly had enslaved us. And so, it represents a repentant heart. That is what it is representing.
This is a repentant heart: Belt on my waist, staff in my hand, sandals on my feet. Repentance. Faith in Messiah. Partaking of the Passover.
And so, they were literally practicing repentance by doing these things– “I am ready to leave” and faith in Messiah– which are the two pillars of salvation. We need both of those in order to receive salvation. And here they are literally, physically, practicing this, rehearsing this, in Egypt.
Another thing connected to repentance is the reverence that we show when we are partaking of these things. In 1 Corinthians 11:18, Paul writes to them, and says:
1Corinthians 11:18 - For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it.
This is one of the things I want to mention– if you can find other brothers and sisters in your area to meet with to partake of Passover. It does seem like here, in the first century, it was done together as a congregation. Certainly that is what was done when Yahushua was with His twelve disciples.
There are some who believe, “Oh, you need to just do it with you and your family alone, nobody else.” But what I see, assuming, is that when they come together as a congregation to partake of the Passover Lamb.
He says, “I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it…”
1Corinthians 11:19 - For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.
20 – Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Master’s Supper.
“That is not why you are together.” He is being sarcastic here.
1Corinthians 11:21 - For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of [others]; and one is hungry and another is drunk.
So, in other words, they are not there to partake of Messiah. They are there to eat and drink.
1Corinthians 11:22 - What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of Elohim and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise [you].
1Corinthians 11:23 - For I received from the Master that which I also delivered to you: that the Master Yahushua on the [same] night in which He was betrayed took bread;
24 – and when He had given thanks, He broke [it] and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
25 – In the same manner [He] also [took] the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink [it], in remembrance of Me.”
1Corinthians 11:26 - For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Master’s death till He comes.
When did He die? He died on Passover. So we are proclaiming His death.
Some people do this every Sunday or every month or every six months. But when did He actually die for our sins? When was the Passover killed?
This is another reason why I don’t do it the night before. I do it after He died. So it is a memorial of His death.
1Corinthians 11:27 - Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks [this] cup of the Master in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Master.
28 – But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Now this word translated “examine,” in the Greek, comes from: 1381 “dokimazo” {dok-im-ad’-zo} Meaning: 1) to test, examine, prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals 2) to recognise as genuine after examination, to approve, deem worthy.
Origin: from 1384; TDNT – 2:255,181; v Usage: AV – prove 10, try 4, approve 3, discern 2, allow 2, like 1, examine 1; 23.
You have to test yourself, examine yourself, check yourself out. Do not partake of this in an unworthy manner. It is a time we give additional weight and value to what is happening here. It is a little different than like the Feast of Tabernacles, which is more like a festive and rejoicing kind of occasion.
This is a solemn occasion. This is a serious occasion. And so, he says:
1Corinthians 11:29 - For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Master’s body.
30 – For this reason many [are] weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
31 – For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
So take some time to judge yourself, examine yourself, scrutinize yourself. Is there something in your life that you really need to take care of? Because look what he says: “… many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.” That means they are dead. It is a serious matter.
I wonder how many people today might be, quite possibly, sick and full of decease because of this very thing. Yahushua is not to be taken lightly. You take a hard look at where we are spiritually.
So in preparation for Passover, in the next two weeks, do a self-inventory here. Mark the areas of your life that you want to improve. Write it down. Make a note of it. I have even made a covenant before this time of year. I just want this area of my life dealt with.
So make a note of it. And this is more than a new year’s resolution. This is committing yourself to overcoming a particular area of your life that you know has been a recurring thing. So I encourage you to do that because the scripture says to examine yourself and take it with appropriate reverence.
Now we do not want to be recipients of judgment, right? So, look out!
1Corinthians 11:32 - But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Master, that we may not be condemned with the world.
33 – Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
34 – But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest I will set in order when I come.
So that is the directive he gives here. The early disciples– we see a snapshot here– were told not to partake of the Messiah in an unworthy manner. Do not treat it just like a normal meal. It is separate. It is different from a regular meal. He instructed them, if they are hungry, go eat at home.
So if you are going to partake of the Passover, Yahushua’s body and blood, then eat a meal beforehand. Then you will know you are not hungry.
So we do not do it to satisfy, you know, like it is a normal meal– “We’re hungry. Let’s go have some unleavened bread and fruit of the vine,” and just treat it like a normal meal. We have to take it seriously with due reverence.
“For,” he says, “I received from the Master that which I also delivered to you… the same night He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks… said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you.’ ” And then, the cup… “This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood.” Do this in remembrance of what Yahushua has done for you.
Now in partaking of His body and His blood, it almost seems a little strange or unusual. We know Scripture itself actually says not to drink blood. But this not literal blood. It is just grape juice. Whether it is alcoholic or not, I am not going to get into that.
But look at what He says here in verse 16:
1Corinthians 10:16 - The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Messiah? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Messiah?
17 – For we, [though] many, are one bread [and] one body; for we all partake of that one bread.
It is symbolizing that we are all from this one body of the Messiah. This word “communion” means “fellowship.” It is our partaking of His body that is bringing us all together into fellowship as a body of Messiah– one Head, one Body. And we partake of that one bread. It is very important because we are the body of Messiah.
If we are the body of Messiah, what are we partaking of? We are not just partaking of Messiah. but we are actually partaking of one another, right? Because we are the body of Messiah.
1Corinthians 12:27 - Now you are the body of Messiah, and members individually.
We have been talking about Galatians 2:20 quite a lot lately.
Galatians 2:20 - “I have been crucified with Messiah; it is no longer I who live, but Messiah lives in me; and the [life] which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of Elohim, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Colossians 3:3 - For you died, and your life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim.
So these are all scriptures confirming that we have become a part of the Messiah’s body. And we regard our own bodies as being dead.
Romans 8:10 - And if Messiah [is] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin, but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.
And it is for this reason Peter’s vision, in the book of Acts, chapter 10, makes so much sense.
Look what happened here. In Acts 10:9, it says:
Acts 10:9 - The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour.
10 – Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance
11 – and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth.
Acts 10:12 - In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.
13 – And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”
14 – But Peter said, “Not so, Master! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”
Acts 10:15 - And a voice [spoke] to him again the second time, “What Elohim has cleansed you must not call common.”
Acts 10:16 - This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.
17 – Now while Peter wondered within himself what this vision which he had seen meant, behold, the men who had been sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate.
So this was done three times. Peter did not know what the vision meant. He did not immediately go cook up a pork roast. He did not do that. He wasn’t sure what the vision meant.
And so, what did the vision mean? What did he actually conclude that the vision meant? In Acts chapter 10, verse 28, he says:
Acts 10:28 - Then he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But Elohim has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
Now it never was against anything in Scripture to go to one of another nation or to keep company with a person of another nation. In fact, Yahweh said in the Torah that you shall treat the stranger as you do one who was born among you.
And so, this word translated “unlawful,” if you look it up in the Greek Lexicon, has to do with things that were traditionally considered to be improper, not anything based on Scripture.
So this “Rise, Peter; kill and eat”: Don’t call men common or unclean. The men were being represented by clean and unclean animals. And He is saying He cleansed them. He cleansed the men. He didn’t say He cleansed the animals. The animals were a representation of men.
Now we know Yahushua called Peter to be a fisher of men. Well, what do you do after you fish the men? They are dead, right? What do you do? You eat them, right?
So what is it that happens to a believer when we receive the Messiah? Well, we just read what happens.
Who are We?
We are the Body of Messiah.
We are crucified with Messiah, we no longer live.
We died and our life is hidden with Messiah in Elohim.
The body is dead because of sin.
These things we have been talking about the last several weeks.
So as we are going around proclaiming the Master Yahushua to everyone, we are calling them to live this crucified life, this life where we are impaled with Him, a life that entails the death of the carnal body and being joined to the Messiah’s body, which is a sinless body, an unleavened body.
And we partake of that unleavened body, that sinless body, when we partake of the unleavened bread at Passover. And so, as we partake of the Messiah’s body, because it is a body that WE are joined to, we are also partaking of one another.
And so, when it says, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat,” it had nothing to do with eating pork roasts… and bats, rats, cats and snakes. It was a vision. It was an object lesson, and Peter had to learn that Yahweh was not partial.
We are all unclean and we have all sinned against Yahweh. But Yahweh has cleansed us by the body of the Messiah. And so, when we partake of the body of the Messiah, we are partaking of each other.
And so, Peter had to learn all that Yahweh was doing here. And Peter needed to take his fishing expedition, not just to the Jewish people, but to the Gentiles, also, rather than ignoring them, because they had been ignoring them up to that point. He said, in Matthew 28:19, “Go into ALL nations.”
And so, “rise, kill and eat” had a symbolic meaning to it. And I know killing and eating each other sounds kind of bizarre to our minds, but it is not cannibalism. It is never to be taken in the literal sense. It is a powerful representation of bringing Yahushua into us, just as He says, “I will dwell in you and you will dwell in Me.”
And so, the partaking is how you take something from the outside world and you put it into your body. When you eat, that is what you are doing. You are taking something from the outside world. You are bringing it into your body. And that is one reason why they ate the meat from the sacrifices.
That was sacrificed. They put it into their body, representing that when we receive the sacrifice of Yahushua the Messiah, He is going to dwell in us. And so, that is the point of the entire object lesson.
And that is why He said in John 6:48:
John 6:48 - “I am the bread of life.
49 – “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 – “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
John 6:51 - “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
52 – The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this [Man] give us [His] flesh to eat?”
John 6:53 - Then Yahushua said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 – “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 – “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
John 6:56 - “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
Just what I was talking about. He abides in us. We abide in Him. That is what this is representing. And He says:
John 6:57 - “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 – “This is the bread which came down from heaven — not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
Powerful, powerful representation here. And they did not get it. They did not understand where He was coming from.
I think, actually, when you look at the context here, they were all following Him because He did this miracle. And so, He just kind of let them get offended, I think, on purpose, because He didn’t like their attitude and their motives.
Because they were after the physical bread. That is what they wanted. So He started to point to them the spiritual bread.
Continuing…
John 6:59 - These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
60 – Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard [this], said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
61 – When Yahushua knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?
John 6:62 - “[What] then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?
63 – “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and [they] are life.
So the bread is representing the Word. The words, the Spirit, the bread are all one. The flesh doesn’t profit anything.
He wasn’t talking about His flesh, literally, except that His flesh represented His body. His body is the part of Him who was obedient to the Torah, the part of Him that walked in righteousness, and therefore, it was all a symbol of the Word, because He was the living Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us.
He says:
John 6:64 - “But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Yahushua knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.
John 6:65 - And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
66 – From that [time] many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
67 – Then Yahushua said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
But Shimon Kepha (Peter) answered Him:
John 6:68 - But Simon Peter answered Him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Peter understood it. He knew it was spiritually speaking when He said “eat My flesh,” and all these things, the manna that came down. He knew this was spiritually speaking.
Also, he said:
John 6:69 - “Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Messiah, the Son of the living Elohim.”
So there are two things we need. We need Messiah and His offering for us, and we need His Word.
Now Peter understood. Peter was the one who had the vision in Acts 10. I think that is one reason why he picked up on it so quickly… “Oh, okay. I understand this.” Because he understood the spiritual representation that was happening here.
And John speaks again.
John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
He is the Word because He is the agent through whom we receive Yahweh’s Word, and when we see Him, we see the Word of Yahweh being lived out completely and fully. And He never strayed one time. He was sinless and completely without fault. And so, He could be a representation of the Word of Yahweh.
Now He is not just the Word of Yahweh in the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. He is the Word of Yahweh in Deuteronomy. He is the Word of Yahweh in Leviticus. He is the Word of Yahweh in Isaiah, the Psalms, the Proverbs. He is the Living Word of Yahweh.
He kept every commandment. Every expression of Yahweh’s will He was obedient to. And so, He is a representation of Yahweh’s Word to us. And we need Yahweh’s Word right here, right? “Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
He says, “I have placed My Word in your heart so that you may do it.” And so, we need that Word. We partake of the food. When this food goes into our body, it goes into our blood and through the heart muscle and it nourishes the whole body.
And so, when we are joined to the Messiah, Yahweh’s Word, which is written within us– with the focal point being our hearts and minds– it is going to enable us, as that Word gets spread throughout our whole body, to walk in righteousness and to be seen as a righteous person. That is a New Covenant promise.
Jeremiah 31:31 - “Behold, the days are coming, says YAHWEH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah —
32 – “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them , says YAHWEH.
Jeremiah 31:33 - “But this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YAHWEH: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people.
“My Law” (“My Word,” the Unleavened Bread– Messiah Yahushua).
Jeremiah 31:34 - “No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, `Know YAHWEH,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says YAHWEH. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
We are still waiting for this fulfillment.
Two elements of this New Covenant– Number 1: The Law is in our heart. Number 2: Forgiveness of sin. Two important elements.
And so, when the Law is written in our hearts, how is it done? It is done by Yahweh’s Spirit.
Yahushua said:
John 16:12 - “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear [them] now.
13 – “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own [authority], but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
So He will guide you into all truth and tell you things to come.
So Yahweh’s Spirit can guide us, give us the things that we need to know at a pace that we can bear. We know even Yahushua was holding back. He says, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear it right now.”
There is a time and place for us to hear it. That is something we all have to be careful about. When it comes to leadership, we might assume that we have to tell everybody everything. But we have to be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading in that person’s life.
And even the ministry here I am doing. I mean, I don’t get upset if someone doesn’t tune into my broadcast. It is not for them to know right now or not for them to learn this right now. And that is okay. Other people have been coming and listening to the broadcast for ten, even fifteen years. That is all right.
Whatever it was, I respect Yahweh’s leading in their life. And Yahweh may not have them listen to this week and maybe have them listen to next week. And that is okay.
I really hope that there isn’t anybody who watches this broadcast and this is all they ever get as far as instruction in the Word. I mean, you have to have your own relationship with the Father– you, with an open book and open heart, and let Him speak to you.
I am just one man with one gift in the body of Messiah, and there are other people with other gifts. And it is for that reason I encourage local fellowship.
Our families, our children, can really benefit from other people who have different gifts– gifts that maybe Mom and Dad don’t have, gifts that I don’t have, gifts that somebody else on some other broadcast or some other teaching may not have. But we all can benefit from that fellowship with each other.
But getting back to this– the Word of Yahweh dwelling in us. That is the Spirit of Yahweh dwelling in us, leading us to all righteousness, because Yahushua said, “My words are Spirit and they are truth.”
Now the second element of Yahushua and the partaking of Messiah is this cup of the New Covenant in His blood. So we don’t just learn the way of righteousness and understand it. We don’t just need to have the Law written in our hearts and in our minds.
We need the other element of the New Covenant, which was, “I will forgive their sins and remember their inequity no more.”
So the forgiveness of sin. Without the blood of the Messiah being shed for us, we don’t have that.
The Law could be written in our hearts, but all it would do is overwhelm us with guilt and condemnation. Because the truth is, this cup of the New Covenant in Yahushua’s blood, we need that in order to be righteous.
Romans 7, says:
Romans 7:10 - And the commandment, which [was] to [bring] life, I found to [bring] death.
11 – For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed [me].
12 – Therefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
And so, the Law is spiritual, as it says in Romans 7:14. We need that. The Laws shows its purpose in showing us what right and wrong are. And it demonstrates pretty clearly that we deserve death.
And the commandments, which were to bring life, taught people how to live right. They looked at the commandments, and said, “I haven’t been living right. Therefore I deserve death.” That is one part of it.
When we partake of the bread, that is one part of what Messiah is doing for us– giving us the Word. Because He is the living Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us.
So we need to let Yahweh’s Spirit write the Law on our hearts. And that is all well and good, but at the same time, don’t feel condemned. Do not feel condemned, because one or the other elements of this New Covenant is: “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
And it is through Yahushua the Messiah that we receive that cup of the New Covenant in His blood so that that other part of this New Covenant can be fulfilled, which was forgiveness of sin by His shed blood.
And so, when you partake of the bread, it is unleavened bread. It is unleavened. It is without sin.
I have heard some people that say, “Oh, no, that was leavened bread.” But it is unleavened bread. And one reason we can know it is unleavened bread is this Greek word translated “artos,” which is translated “bread,” in Luke 24, verse 30.
Here He is on the road to Emmaus with His disciples:
Luke 24:28 - Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther.
29 – But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them.
30 – Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke [it], and gave it to them.
He took “artos.”
Luke 24:31 - Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.
This was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that this took place. Now He would not have given them leavened bread. So “artos” does not necessarily mean leavened bread exclusively in case you ever run into that.
Now you will notice when you actually partake of unleavened bread, it is real dry. It is just very dry. And so, I think there is an element of that that we can learn from– that, okay, we partake of the bread, we partake of the Messiah, we partake of the Word of Yahweh, but after that, you know, it soaks all the saliva up in your mouth.
And you just feel like you need to drink something after that.
It is interesting because if the body is a representation of the Word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us, that is how we feel when we partake and we read the Word. We realize we need something else. We need liquid, right?
And we want something to wash it down with, because it convicts me of my wrongs, it convicts me of my sins.
And so, when you partake of the body of Messiah on Passover, you are going to notice it is kind of dry and you are glad to have that fruit of the vine there for restoring your body to where you are not thirsty anymore.
And so, we have this natural thirst for redemption. And Yahushua, He is the One that quenches that thirst. He is the One providing that cup– that New Covenant in His blood. And so, this New Covenant was dedicated with blood just as the Old Covenant was.
In Hebrews 9:18, it says:
Hebrews 9:18 - Therefore not even the first [covenant] was dedicated without blood.
19 – For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
After he gave them the Law.
Hebrews 9:20 - saying, “This [is] the blood of the covenant which Elohim has commanded you.”
So, likewise, the New Covenant was also put into effect dedicated with blood, the Messiah’s blood. And that is a little different than the covenant there in Exodus where it was calves and goats, and so on. This is the Messiah’s blood that enables us to have this covenant ratified for us. And so, to me, that is exciting.
Now a covenant is simply an agreement. That is all it is. It is an agreement between two parties. And some would think, “Well, since we have a new agreement, therefore we have a new set of laws.”
Not so! What did He say? He said, “I will put My law in your minds, and write it on your hearts.” This is Jeremiah talking here to the people of his day. This is what he is telling them He is going to do. And the Law he is talking about is the Law that was given through Moshe.
There was only one Law that existed when Jeremiah spoke these words. That is the Law given through Moshe. And so, he is letting them know there is this New Covenant coming, and He will forgive your sin, and your lawless deeds, He says, “I will remember no more.”
So Deuteronomy 30, verse 11:
Deuteronomy 30:11 - “For this commandment which I command you today [is] not [too] mysterious for you, nor [is] it far off.
12 – “It [is] not in heaven, that you should say, `Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’
13 – “Nor [is] it beyond the sea, that you should say, `Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’
Deuteronomy 30:14 - “But the word [is] very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
That is what the Word is supposed to do when it is in your heart. And so, having Yahweh’s Law, having Messiah, placed in our hearts is key.
You see this. He understands that when the Word is placed in his heart, that is going to give him the power to be an overcomer. That is what the scripture says. That is what’s going to happen.
And so, having Yahweh’s Law in our heart is not just some New Testament idea. The whole goal, the whole point of this New Covenant is to place this Law in our hearts that we may do it.
In fact, Paul actually quotes this Deuteronomy chapter 30. If you go forward to Romans 10, he says, verse 6:
Romans 10:6 - But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, `Who will ascend into heaven?'” (that is, to bring Messiah down [from above])
7 – or, “`Who will descend into the abyss?'” (that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead).
8 – But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach:
What is this word of faith which they preach? It has to be the Torah. That is what he is talking about in Deuteronomy. He is talking about the Law of Yahweh. He is quoting from Deuteronomy, but he equates the Word with what? Messiah. And so, once again, the connection between the Word of Yahweh and the Messiah.
And so, since the Word of Yahweh and Messiah are in our hearts, we will live as Messiah did and we will keep Yahweh’s Law. And that is the point. The Word of Yahweh, the Law of Yahweh, the Messiah of Yahweh– it is all one and the same.
Romans 10:9 - that if you confess with your mouth the Master Yahushua and believe in your heart that Elohim has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 – For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
So we confess with our mouth the Master Yahushua, believe in our hearts Elohim raised Him from the dead, and we receive salvation.
Why? Because Messiah, the living Word, will come down, dwell in your heart, cleanse you, cause you to be righteous by the blood of the Messiah and enable you to walk in righteousness by HIS power and HIS strength and HIS deeds. A beautiful thing. A beautiful picture. We are holy, sanctified, completely one hundred percent cleansed.
So, to me, there is no question. The Law of the New Covenant is the Law of Yahweh. In my mind, the Law of Yahweh is not just Genesis to Deuteronomy. It is Genesis to Revelation. It is all His Law. It is all His teaching. It is all ONE.
And when His Word is hidden in our hearts, we will not sin against Him.
Psalms 119:11 - Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
And what does the King James say? (KJV) 1 John 3:4 – “Whosoever committeth sin tansgresseth also the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law.”
It is all one Word. It is not New Testament vs. Old Testament. It is all together. It is one Word. We don’t say, “Oh, I don’t need the old law. I have His law in my heart.”
If that is true, the Law is in your heart, then obedience will reflect in the outer layer to that Law.
So with partaking of the body of Messiah being a representation of His Law being placed in our hearts by His Spirit, and the fruits of the Spirit that come out of that, are all Law/Torah obedient actions. And so, that is the sign that the Messiah was planted in our hearts– that wheat seed that causes us to bear fruit.
Because it says:
Romans 8:5 - For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those [who live] according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
“The words,” He said, “that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” Right? “The flesh profits nothing.” Right?
Romans 8:6 - For to be carnally minded [is] death, but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.
7 – Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the law of Elohim, nor indeed can be.
Why is it enmity? “For it is not subject to the Law of Elohim nor indeed can be.” Do we see a connection between the Spirit and the Law of Elohim and the spiritual mind? It is all connected together.
The Messiah, His Word, He says, “The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” And He is the Word from Genesis to Revelation. And that is the beauty of it.
And so, this forgiveness of sin that is promised us here in the New Covenant– forgiving their iniquity, remembering their sin no more– this is His partaking of the cup, giving it to them. They all drank from it. He said, “This is My blood of the New Covenant.” It is all interconnected together.
Mark 14:23 - Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave [it] to them, and they all drank from it.
24 – And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.
So Passover is not just a part of the New Covenant. Passover is the representation of the New Covenant.
Now Israel didn’t understand all the details of how that was going to happen. In Jeremiah’s day, a lot of people did not understand how Yahweh was going to bring this to pass. They just knew they needed a lamb.
In ancient Israel, the first Passover of which everything else is a memorial of, they just knew they had to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their dwelling place. But we also need the blood of the Lamb in our dwelling place.
Our body is our dwelling place, our tent, our temporary dwelling place. It is the Messiah, His righteousness, that makes us righteous.
Leviticus 17:11 - `For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it [is] the blood [that] makes atonement for the soul.’
So the life is in the blood. Yahushua’s life needs to be within us if we want to be cleansed of our sins. He is the only righteous man to ever live on the earth. It is His life that He gave to us so that we might have life.
We read in the Torah, the thirst for cleansing and forgiveness. Yahushua provides us with a living example of Torah observance and also offers us life, that we might no longer be the ones living, but that the Messiah would be living in us by the blood He shed for us.
So when we partake of the body and blood of Messiah– when we partake of the Messiah, our Passover Lamb– we are entering into two important elements of our faith: The Law to teach us and guide us to righteousness, and the Messiah to cleanse us from all transgressions of that Law.
But you don’t partake of that in an unworthy or lighthearted manner. It is serious. The representation of us joining together with the body and being cleansed of our sins, if we do not give it the weight needed, we will find ourselves in a sick bed.
But you can’t say, “Oh, well, I guess I better not take it because I don’t think I am ready, yet.” Well, you are in rough shape then.
John 6:53 - Then Yahushua said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
You cannot sit on the fence. It won’t work. You can’t sit on the fence. You have to make a decision– a decision for righteousness, a decision to follow Messiah Yahushua… or not. You cannot say, “Well, I don’t know if I am ready for this.”
Okay, if you are not ready for it, don’t expect to have life. Don’t expect to have salvation. Just don’t expect it, because He says you have no life in you unless you partake of the body and blood of Yahushua the Messiah. You have to. There is no sitting on the fence permitted.
That is why He said:
Revelation 3:16 - “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
“Separate you from My body.” And He will want no part of us.
So we have to understand something. Our decision to follow Yahushua isn’t just some light thing that you just, “Oh, I’ll just check one little checkbox,” of the many things you want to do before you die. It is not, you know… okay, you have your car, your house, your family, you dog, your religion. It is not just another checkbox.
Yahweh says, “Love Me with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind– every bit of you.” He wants it all. He made you. All the freedoms that you have, all the autonomy that you have, are because of Him. And you owe Him all of yourself. We all owe Him everything.
We are, we live, we breathe, we live in the creation we live in– everything we see– is because of Him. You don’t just checkbox your faith. It is a serious, serious decision. He has to be the number one thought in your life. He has to be first in every decision you make. He is not a part-time Elohim.
If you are a part-time believer serving a part-time elohim, that elohim is not Yahweh, because He is not partly on the throne and partly not. He is always on the throne. And so, you have to make your decision. And I don’t know who I am talking to, but whether you are with Him or you are against Him, there is no middle ground.
And the way the disciples lived their life, He was everything to them. He wasn’t just another part of their life. He was their life.
And that is what He needs to be, a major priority– the number one priority above all our plans, all of our thoughts, all the things we think we are going to do before we die, whatever. He has to be in the number one position. Because He already is.
He is already there. It is just up to you to recognize it. And so, you have to make your decision of what you are going to do, whether you are with Him or whether you are against Him.
Luke 11:23 - “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
I think that is pretty interesting.
There are two components to this. Number one: All you have to do to be against Him is just not be with Him. If you are not with Him, you are against Him. The only thing you have to do is just not be with Him, and automatically you are against Him. You are His enemy. Whether you think that you are or you’re not, you are.
And the second thing I see here is: “He who does not gather with Me scatters.” We need to be about our Father’s business. We need to be in the fields laboring.
I think there is a connection between “few there are who find it” (this narrow path). Many are called. FEW are chosen. Few are willing to gather with Him. And so, there is a scattering that takes place. And if you are scattered, guess what? You are not with Him. You are scattered everywhere. And if you are not with Him, you are against Him.
So there is a call here to not only join with Messiah, but to live and do the things that He did. And He was always in the fields. He was always about His Fathers business. And so, we have to make our decision. Are we going to join Him in the war? Or are we going to act like we are on the sidelines cheerleading? That is our decision.
And when the children of Israel were in Egypt, the fence sitters, if they didn’t partake of the Passover, guess what happened to their households? They were judged.
And so, we need to take these matters seriously. And I encourage you, there is no better decision a person can make than to really, really put everything behind them.
Say, “The world is behind me. The Word is before me. I am going to follow Yahushua wherever He goes. Whether I am in the valley of the shadow of death or in the mountains of Israel partaking of the green pastures, I want to follow Him, because the food He gives me, His Word He gives me.”
That is why sheep follow the shepherd, because of the food he gives them. I gave an analogy a while back about the shepherd. “Oh, they will follow me through the woods as long as I am shaking the grain.”
Likewise, we follow Yahushua, because He is always shaking that grain in front of us, and we are partaking of that good food– His Word.
So, how do we keep Passover? First of all, with these right attitudes. But here are some principles to look at.
Number one: We understand, as we shared last week, that we are Israel (Eph. 2, Romans 11, Gal. 3). And we don’t think of ourselves as being a different people. We don’t think of ourselves as being a Gentile. We are adopted sons and daughters of Yahweh, adopted seeds of Abraham.
We were at one time in bondage to Pharaoh, which is represented as Satan.
Yahweh demonstrated His superiority over the idols of this world/Egypt. And we found out that we had been fed a lie, right?
We were offered grace and deliverance. Just as Israel was offered grace and deliverance, we, likewise, are offered grace and deliverance, but we have to not want to go back to Egypt. We have to not want Egypt anymore for us to actually leave it.
You cannot be of the world and of Him at the same time. It doesn’t work that way. You cannot be an Egyptian. You have to be an Israelite.
They set aside an unblemished lamb on Aviv 10, and our Lamb (Messiah) was also set aside at that time. It says the woman anointed Him for burial.
Their Lamb was offered on Passover day. The first lamb in Exodus. Likewise, our Lamb, Messiah Yahushua, was also offered on Passover day.
They placed the lamb on a pole, and that is how they cooked it, down in these pits. And I actually saw how the people did this in ancient times because I was in Israel back in 2009. And they had these pits dug and they would cook these lambs and tie it to a stick. And they would roast them in these pits. Amazing. It actually was in the city of Samaria.
The Messiah was also hanged on a pole.
Bones were not broken, was not left out overnight. Yahushua was not left out overnight and His bones were not broken just as Yahweh instructed the Passover lamb.
It says they ate with belt on their waist, sandals on their feet and staff in their hand. Likewise, I think we ought to eat (partake of Messiah) with our waist girded with truth, our feet shod with the good news and also bearing our stake, ready to follow the Spirit wherever He leads us– whether by fire or by cloud.
Sometimes we have to go through the fire. Sometimes we just get lead by the Spirit.
The Passover lamb was the door to a covenant. That is what enabled them to go and be a part of this Old Covenant. Likewise, Yahushua is the Passover Lamb for us, and He is the way in which we join to a New Covenant.
We are called to “examine” ourselves before we partake of Him. This is a serious decision.
Eat a regular meal before partaking of Messiah (1 Cor. 11:34). We don’t want to go there having already been hungry.
The bread does need to be unleavened bread. We have recipes on the web site. We will be talking about that probably next week.
The bread represents the Word. The fruit of the vine represents the Messiah’s sacrifice, His blood. We need both ministries. We need the ministry of the Word, and we also need the ministry and the promises of the New Covenant, which enables us to be cleansed for our disobedience to that Word. We need both ministries.
And so, this is Passover. This is what it is all about. And it is a beautiful time of the year. It is a solemn occasion. It is a time for self-examination. But it is also a very beautiful time of the year. If you have never kept a Passover like this, you just don’t know what you are missing. You really don’t know what you are missing. It is amazing.
And so, I encourage you to participate. I encourage you, if you can, to find other brothers and sisters to do this with. And we will be talking again next week about this. But I encourage you to join in with some brothers and some sisters.
And I also do have on the web site a Passover Service. If you go to EliYah.com/passoverservice.html, you will see a sample of a Passover service, not based on traditions, but based on the Scriptures.
Anyway, brothers and sisters, until next week, may Yahweh bless you and may Yahweh have mercy on us all.