Tomorrow is Passover, but some churches “performed” the Passover meal/dinner last month, as part of the Easter celebrations (some churches don’t even know when the Passover is!). The rationale was to do it in the context of Easter, as otherwise people wouldn’t get its meaning!? Like, if it’s done after Easter, nobody would know why we celebrate it… But, is that ok?
In the past I wrote about God’s appointed times and how these are the feast of the Lord and not of the Jews. These aren’t feasts that man has figured out and set up, but are the appointed times that we have with God. So, if your boss sets up a meeting with you on Friday, why would you show up on Monday and argue that such time suits you better?
Aren’t we (by “celebrating” feasts of the Lord out of their due time) declaring that these appointed times are not important or relevant? The article mentioned above shows how Jesus fulfilled the first four feasts like clockwork, with the very precise timing (check the video below as well). So, ignoring these appointment times with God means that we don’t have a proper understanding of their importance and their prophetic meaning as they relate to the end times.
No big deal you say? Yeah, I agree that nobody should judge us “in regard to food, or in regard to drink, or in regard to a feast, or a New Moon, or Sabbaths,”(Colossians 2:16, Berean Literal Bible, underlining mine).
We are indeed excused if we don’t celebrate the feasts, but are we innocent if we try to set up our own timetable to the same (them being God’s appointed times, and not ours)? Do we know better than God?
The source of this error is explained by Sid Roth in his article Why Passover?—Satan hates Passover and wants to “give us a bloodless religion, because a bloodless religion has no power. The power is in the Blood!”
He continues to outline how throughout church history decisions were made to disassociate Jesus’ resurrection from Passover.
“At the council of Nicea, Constantine outlawed Passover and directed that Christ’s death and resurrection be celebrated on “the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox,” which is a time associated with the spring festival of the pagan fertility goddess Ishtar also known as Eastre. (That’s why in the Church today we celebrate the resurrection at Easter instead of Passover.) Constantine’s goal was to remove Jesus from the context of Passover.”
“…The New Testament tells us that Jesus IS the Passover Lamb. When John introduced Jesus He said, “Behold the LAMB!” Paul said: Christ, our PASSOVER LAMB has been slain! Celebrating Passover IS celebrating Jesus! As the Passover Lamb, He shed His Blood to redeem us from the enemy. When His Blood is “on the doorpost” of your life, God delivers you from the destroyer. So if you understand Passover, you automatically understand what Jesus did.
On the original Passover night, everything pointed to Jesus. Every father in Israel was told to stand at the door of his house with a basin containing the blood of the lamb. He was to dip a branch of hissop into the blood and smear the blood on the two doorposts of the house. Then he was to repeat the action and put the blood on the lintel over the door. If you can picture the motion he made with that blood-soaked branch of hissop, you’ll see he was making the sign of the Cross!
On Passover night, every father in Israel made the sign of the cross in the blood of the lamb. And as result, the family experienced redemption from the power of the enemy! God’s deliverance always comes by His Cross and by His Blood. That’s what Passover celebrates. You see, it was not by accident that Jesus died on Passover. God could have had Jesus die any time of year. But it was God’s will for Him to die at Passover, so we would recognize that He is the Passover Lamb!
Passover is so important to God that He chose to have the most important event in history (the death and resurrection of Jesus) take place at Passover. God went to great lengths to CONNECT the sacrifice of Jesus to Passover. (This is interesting: Constantine’s goal was to separate the work of Jesus from Passover, while God’s goal was to connect Jesus’ work to Passover.) God wants us to think of Jesus in the context of the Passover celebration!”
So, we are excused if we don’t celebrate Passover, but are we paying a price if we are ignorant of it’s significance? The Bible says that God’s people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6,Isaiah 5:13). The Passover is a beautiful picture of the gospel, where Jesus shed his blood to redeem us out of the enemy’s kingdom and translate us into His Kingdom of light. It is good to be reminded of that on a day that the Lord Himself appointed for that exact purpose.
Friend, if you want to submit to Jesus, serve Him and be translated into His Kingdom of light, say the following words and mean them with all sincerity of your heart:
Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins. I believe that you died on the cross to take my punishment. I believe that you rose from the dead and will come again to rule the world. Come into my heart, I make you my Lord and Saviour.
Afterwards find a good Bible-based, Holy Spirit-filled church in order to connect with other believers, grow spiritually and fulfil God’s will for your life.
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