If you have been unclear about the significance and relatedness of the Passover; good Friday; Calvary; the resurrection; Easter…then the brief sermon of this post will help you understand how these are related, and their significance to Christians.
R C Sproul’s 23 minute message follows sermon highlights:
- The very heart of early Christian life and worship was the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, LS
- The LS was known by several names then: agape feast; love feast (celebrating love for God and each other); the Lord’s Supper (referring to the last supper the disciples had with Christ); sacrament of holy communion (referring to the reality that occurred therein, the mystical UNION with Christ and other believers); the Eucharist, deriving from a GK word meaning ‘to thank’
- Even though the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the LS at the very end of His life, this was not its beginning
- The LS is part of a drama rooted in the upper room supper, Christ’s last supper with His disciples, and in the Passover of the OT
- The Lord Jesus Christ said, when He was about to partake of the Passover, “I deeply desire to celebrate the Passover meal with you one last time;” that is, the LS was instituted at the celebration of the Passover feast with His disciples
- Paul said to the Corinthians, “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us…”
- Therefore, the Bible links the LS and the Old Testament Passover celebration
- The people of Israel experienced suffering in Egypt; Moses was sent by God to deliver them; deliverance occurred via the 10 plagues sent by God via Moses (R C elaborated)
- God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so Israel would clearly see that the deliverance came from God, not Pharaoh
- God had Moses teach the people how to carry out the Passover celebration just prior to the 10th plague, the killing of all the first-born of Egypt
- God specified that NO Israelite would experience harm by the angel of Death, as long as they had applied the blood of the sacrificial lamb on their doorposts (R C elaborated)
- (R C explained the significance of the biblical term salvation: deliverance from death in war; illness; harm; and ultimately, from the wrath of God – when one is ‘saved,’ he / she is saved from the wrath of God the Father with which He judges those who are guilty of sinning against His commandments)
- When Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples, He added to it by saying, “This is MY BODY which is broken for you” (not the paschal lamb’s body); when He took the wine, He said, “This is MY BLOOD…” (not the paschal lamb) [He also stated that His blood was inaugurating the New Covenant that was promised in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36; as the blood of animal sacrifices inaugurated the old covenant with Abraham]
- Therefore, the Passover celebration is a dramatic picture of salvation from the wrath God has against sin, by the blood of His Lamb, God the Son [if you doubt, read the New Testament for clarification; do not rely on the words of a preacher, teacher or friend; discover by going to the source of truth about God, His word]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmoii0hpfWw