Jesus is Our Passover Lamb
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:1-20). Passover is one of
the Feast of the LORD. The Passover was the first of the three great festivals of
God. It referred to the sacrifice of a lamb in Egypt when the people of Israel were
slaves. They smeared the blood of the lamb on their door posts as a signal to God,
that He should “pass over” their houses when He destroyed all the firstborn of Egypt.
Passover was observed on the 14th day of the first month, Abib, with the service
beginning in the evening (Leviticus 23:6). It was on the evening of this day that Israel
left Egypt. Passover commemorated this departure from Egypt in haste. Unleavened
bread was used in the celebration because this showed that the people had no time to
put leaven in their bread as they ate their final meal as slaves in Egypt. Joshua 5:10-
12 refers to the observing of Passover in the plains of Jericho near Gilgal. In the
New Testament times, large numbers gathered in Jerusalem to observe the annual
Passover. Jesus was crucified in the city during one of these Passover celebrations.
He and His disciples ate a Passover meal together on the eve of His death. Like the
blood of the lamb that saved the Hebrew people from destruction in Egypt, His blood
as the ultimate Passover sacrifice, redeems us from the power of sin and death (I
Corinthians 5:7-8).
Jesus is our sacrificial Lamb slain to purge away our sin. He died on Passover.
Passover was a foreshadow of the coming of Jesus, who would take away the sins of
the world. John the Baptist proclaimed this (John 1:29, 36). When we celebrate
Passover, we see the joy of Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins, Isaiah 53 shows us
all Jesus did for us; not just paid for our sin, also took stripes for our healing, and
brought us peace.
Passover is not just a Jewish celebration, remembering when God brought the
Israelites out of bondage from Egypt, it is also for us to remember that Jesus death
brought us out of sin bondage (Romans 5:15-19).
The Holy week is indeed a reason to celebrate. It starts with Jesus’ ride into
Jerusalem on a donkey being selected by the people (Luke 19:35-40, John 12:15),
Zechariah 9:9 proclaimed this “rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter
of Jerusalem behold, your King comes to you, He is just, and having salvation, lowly
and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foul of an ass”. This was four days
before the Passover, the church marks it as Palm Sunday.
Then the slaying of the Passover lamb and applying the blood to the door posts of
their houses, our blood is applied to our heart. The burial of Jesus was on the feast of
Unleavened bread. Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights as He
proclaimed. He arose as the first fruits offering,( I Corinthians 15:23, resurrection
celebration, you see was actually celebrating the same things, but because the Jewish
roots was cut off from the church, they are doing different things. The church thought
that Jesus was killed on Friday, because the Bible says it was the day before the
Sabbath, however this Sabbath was a high Sabbath (Passover) and not the weekly
sabbath. Tradition still hold celebrating Good Friday, even though Jesus actually died
on Passover. He is the Lamb that was slain (Revelation 5:6,12). This confuses some,
thinking the Bible is not true, because if you count three days and three nights from
Friday, you don’t get Sunday as His resurrection. He was raised on Sunday (Luke 24:
1-9).
By parting from the truth, the church allowed satan to come in and mix pagan
celebrations with the resurrection of Jesus, and in doing so some are not aware that
they are really worshiping other gods.
Sermon by: Harriet Bond
Date: April 7, 2006