Newsletter #14 Passover - Christian Haggadah Seder demonstration
Sons To Glory Newsletter #14
Firstfruits - April 8, 2012

 

Christians Celebrating Passover

by Paul Jablonowski

April 8, 2012

Happy Passover week!

Today is Resurrection Sunday, or as the Bible terms it, "The Feast of Firstfruits" because this ancient feast of Moses was prophetic of the very day Jesus would rise from the dead on the first Sunday after Passover. Most Christians call today Easter, but the correct biblical prophetic term is Firstfruits, because Jesus was the "firstfruit" to rise from the dead, making the way for us to follow in resurrection life and power. Two days ago, (on 14th of Abib of the Hebrew calendar) we were able to celebrate the Passover day on Good Friday. This coinciding of Passover day on Good Friday does not happen very often due to the differences in the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars. So it was a good time to introduce Christians to celebrate the Passover.

Passover day is always on the 14th of Abib regardless of the day of the week. Then the Feast of Unleavened bread goes seven more days from the 15th of Abib to the 21st of Abib (April 7-13 this year in 2012). This whole week is often called "Passover" in the general sense, but it really includes three major biblical holidays of Moses: Passover, Unleavened Bread & Firstfruits. So how can Christians start celebrating the Passover? That is the purpose of this newsletter.

The first thing Christians can do to celebrate Passover is to simply REMEMBER it! These are times of memorial to remember what God has done for us in the past. Exactly HOW you celebrate it can be as diverse as the different personalities that God has given to man. Since we now have Christ IN us, we can walk in the Spirit and be led by His Holy Spirit in the many different ways to honor this special day.

This year, I celebrated the Passover day in Cullman Alabama with about 55 other brothers and sisters, many of whom had never been to a Passover before. We ate a meal together, discussed the ancient Hebrew seder/betrothal meal, and then shared communion with the body and blood of Jesus just like He did with His disciples on that fateful day almost 2,000 years ago. I was able to talk about the prophetic symbolism of the four cups of wine used in the Hebrew seder/betrothal meal. Seder simply means "order," and Jesus used these four cups of wine in His "last supper" because these same four cups of wine were also shared during the ancient Hebrew wedding betrothal. Jesus was telling His disciples that although He was going away, He would come back for His bride!

The third cup was known as the "Cup of Redemption" and was shared only between the bride and groom in the Betrothal meal. This was the cup that Jesus said was the "New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you." (Luke 22:20) Jesus then said, "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine again until the Kingdom of God comes." This was in reference to the fourth cup of the seder/betrothal meal which was known as the cup of the Kingdom, or the cup of Acceptance where He is promising to return for his bride! This final cup will also only be shared between bride and groom during the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

So all of the four cups of the seder meal represent covenants of deeper relationship with the LORD. Life is about relationships. If we have good deep level relationships, then life is good. If our relationships are broken with unforgiveness, then life is not as good. These cups show the process of deeper covenant relationship with the LORD. The first cup of Sanctification is a covenant of Servanthood. The second cup of Deliverance is a covenant of Friendship. The third cup of Redemption is a covenant of Sonship, and the fourth cup of Acceptance represents the highest covenant of Marriage. But we don't just jump from a servant to a bride. We must walk with the Lord Jesus, take up our cross to follow wherever He leads us, then He develops our level of maturity with Him.

Passover was the chosen day of the year for the Son of God to die for the sins of the world. It is the grand daddy of all feast days being mentioned 77 times in the Bible, which is more than any other feast day or date in the Scriptures. It is so important for us to celebrate this day and set it apart as a special holy day (holiday). Modern day Jews use a written order of service for the Passover seder called a "Haggadah," which varies from tradition to tradition. I have written a short haggidah for Christians to celebrate Jesus (Yeshua) in the Passover. I pray that it can be used as a starting point for other Christian families to begin celebrating Jesus in the Passover. --- Christian Passover Seder Haggadah in Adobe PDF format -- Christian Passover Seder Haggadah in Word format
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