The Celebration of Passover is the retelling of the great story of how God redeemed the Jewish nation from enslavement in Egypt. The celebration itself was given to the Jews while they were still in Egypt. The original celebration centered around the Passover lamb, which was sacrificed and its blood put over the doorposts as a sign of faith, so that the Lord passed over the houses of the Jews during the last plague poured out on the Egyptians - the killing of every firstborn. The New Testament says that Jesus is our sacrificial Lamb. The Passover lamb was to be a "male without defect," which is the same description given to Jesus. Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem five days before the lamb was killed in the temple as the Passover sacrifice for the sins of the people of Israel. Five days before the lamb was to be sacrificed, it was chosen. Therefore, Jesus entered Jerusalem on lamb selection day as the lamb of God. The people did not understand the significance of this, since they greeted Him with palm branches and hailed Him as King, shouting "Hosanna," which means "save us." Palm branches were a symbol of freedom and defiance, since Simon Maccabeus had entered Jerusalem with that symbolism.
The day Jesus was crucified was the day of the Passover celebration and the day that the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. For the previous years, the priest would blow the shophar (ram's horn) at 3:00 p.m. - the moment the lamb was sacrificed, and all the people would pause to contemplate the sacrifice for sins on behalf of the people of Israel. At 3:00, when Jesus was being crucified, He said, "It is finished" at the moment that the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the shophar was blown from the Temple. The sacrifice of the lamb of God was fulfilled at the hour that the symbolic animal sacrifice usually took place. At the same time, the veil of the Temple tore from top to bottom - representing a removal of the separation between God and man. The festival of unleavened bread began Friday evening (at sunset). As part of the festival, the Jews would take some of the grain - the "first fruits" of their harvest - to the Temple to offer as a sacrifice. In so doing, they were offering God all they had and trusting Him to provide the rest of the harvest. It was at this point that Jesus was buried - planted in the ground - as He said right before His death. Paul refers to Jesus as the first fruits of those raised from the dead in 1 Corinthians.
It was during a Passover seder that Jesus proclaimed that the meal represented Himself and that He was instituting the New Covenant, which was foretold by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The celebration of this covenant has become the ordinance of communion in the Christian Church. At the end of the meal, Jesus took the unleavened bread, broke it, and said that it represented His body. Then He took the cup of wine, which would have been the third cup of the Seder - the cup of redemption. He said that it was the new covenant in His blood "poured out for you." It is through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are declared clean before God, allowing those of us who choose to accept the pardon, to commune with Him - both now and forevermore through the eternal life He offers.
In Christ,Brown
http://youtu.be/nemuZ9N9ntA
Brown.
Holy Week Events in the Life of our Lord
as they are recorded in the Gospel according Mark:
Sunday Mark 11:1-11 Palm
Sunday
Monday Cleansing of the Temple Mark 11:
12-19
Tuesday Discourses Mark 11:
20--13:37
Wednesday Anointing in Bethany Mark 14:
1-11
Thursday Passover, Last Supper, Arrest.
Trial Mark 14:12-72
Good Friday Trial before Pilate,
Crucifixion, Burial Mark 15: 1-47
Saturday Jesus our Lord in the Tomb Mark
15: 42-47
Glorious Easter Sunday Resurrection Mark
16: 1-8
Ministry Events
during this Holy Week:
Wednesday
6 PM Dinner
6:30 PM Bible
Study
7:30 Prayer
Meeting
7:30 A special Choir
Practice
Thursday 5:30 PM
Seder Service to be held at First Presbyterian Church,
Endicott
Good Friday 6:30 PM
Combined Good Friday Service at the Union Center Christian Church,
Boswell
Hill Road
7 PM Good Friday
Television outreach, Time Warner Cable Television Channel
4
Easter
Sunday
6:30 AM Sunrise
Service under the Pavilion at Union Center Christian Church. Pastor Marshall
Sorber will be Preaching.
7:30 AM Family
Breakfast at the Union Center United Methodist Church.
Resurrection Sunday
Celebration and worship
8:30 AM and 11:00 AM at Union Center UMC, 128 Maple
Drive, with Pastor Brown preaching. The Choir will be singing during both services.
9:30 AM Easter
Celebration at the Wesley United Methodist Church, 1000 Day Hollow Road. Pastor
Brown will be preaching.
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