In the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian ecclesias he wrote, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). This points back to the Hebrew Scriptures.

That reality is presented to us in Exodus 12:1-32, our text for today.

¹ Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, ² “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. ³ Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household. ⁴ Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. ⁵ Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. ⁷ Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. ¹⁰ And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. ¹¹ Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the Lord’s Passover. ¹² For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord. ¹³ The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

 

Feast of Unleavened Bread

 

¹⁴ ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. ¹⁵ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you. ¹⁷ You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. ¹⁸ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ¹⁹ Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. ²⁰ You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb. ²² You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

 

A Memorial of Redemption

 

²³ For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come in to your houses to smite you. ²⁴ And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. ²⁵ When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. ²⁶ And when your children say to you, ‘What does this rite mean to you?’ ²⁷ you shall say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.’” And the people bowed low and worshiped.

²⁸ Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

²⁹ Now it came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. ³⁰ Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead. ³¹ Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up, get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; and go, worship the Lord, as you have said. ³² Take both your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and go, and bless me also.”

Pastor Larry Huch reminds us that:

Passover isn’t just a Jewish tradition. It’s a spiritual celebration of Jesus’ redemptive power and a call for believers today to walk in resurrection life, freedom from bondage, and God’s miraculous provision.[1]

The celebration of Passover is one of the most biblical things Christians can do today. That statement may surprise some. The reason some are surprised is because they have lost sight of at least two things.

First, Christianity arose out of Judaism. Christianity was thoroughly Jewish at its inception. Jesus said that He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. It doesn’t get more Jewish than that. The first disciples and apostles were all Jewish. Christianity was seen for decades as being a sect of Judaism. Even after Jewish hostility toward Christ’s disciples arose, the ecclesias scattered throughout the Roman world still observed the Jewish calendar and the designated feasts and holy days even though the reasons they did so were different. In Acts 18:21 Paul left Ephesus in order to travel to Jerusalem to observe the Passover of that year. It is incorrect to think or state that there was a clean and immediate severing of the faith of Jesus and the apostles and first disciples. Dr. Marvin R. Wilson is correct in stating that:

A return to the Hebraic soil of early Christian thought will reveal various foreign teachings that the Church has picked up over the years…the Church must take a new look at its foundation and give greater priority to a study of the Old Testament and other early Jewish sources…Many Christians only study the Old Testament through the eyes of the New Testament…Sound biblical exegesis insists that a text first be heard in its original setting.[2]

Did you know that Christians in the first three centuries of the Church celebrated Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan? In the early second century AD, Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, defended the Church’s celebration of Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish religious calendar, in debates he had with Anicetus, Bishop of Rome. “Polycarp strongly denounced any departure from what he knew from personal experience and from the theological tradition that he had received from his mentor, the Apostle John.”[3]

In 170 AD, Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis said, “The fourteenth of Nisan is the true Passover of the Lord, the great Sacrifice; instead of the lamb we have the Son of God…who was buried on the day of Passover.”[4]

A second reason that celebrating Passover and the resurrection of Jesus at this time is one of the most biblical things Christians can do today, is because it corrects a grave error made 1,700 years ago. it was the Roman Catholic church that forced the ecclesias to change the timing of the celebration of Passover from the Jewish calendar to the Julian (Roman) calendar. This fact is a matter of historical record.

In the third century AD a schism arose in the Western Church (that area increasingly under the sway of the Bishop of Rome) between those who stood upon the history of the Church and its celebration of Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan, and those who wanted to sever all association with the Jews and the Jewish calendar. Those who insisted the Church remain faithful to what the apostles passed down were labeled “Quartodecimans” and the debates became known as the “Fourteener Controversy” referring to the fourteenth of Nisan when Passover was celebrated.

I find it more than unfortunate that those Christians who insisted that the Church stand upon what was passed down to them from the apostles concerning the celebration of Passover, a matter of clear historical record, were overcome by those who wanted to begin a new tradition by disconnecting Passover from its Jewish roots.

Dr. John Garr reflects on this woeful occurrence.

As the church became increasingly Gentile in leadership and demographics, the shift away from what by then was considered “Jewish” practices was accelerated. For the Western Church, this replacement of the Jewish foundations of the Christian faith reached a point of culmination in the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine. During the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Constantine demanded that the church no longer have anything in common with the Jews. With his insistence, church leaders changed the time of celebration of Passover from Nisan 14 on the Jewish calendar to the first Sunday after the full moon after the vernal equinox on the Julian calendar – provided that Sunday did not fall on Passover (in which case it was moved a week away) …

 

As the fourth century dawned, the growing Antisemitism of official Christianity further fanned the flame of the passionate debate that condemned connecting the pivotal events of Christianity with the Jews. Finally, the issue was taken in hand by Constantine himself who, after the Nicene Council of 325 AD had concluded, wrote a missive to those leaders who were not present for the council in which he insisted that the church should “have nothing more in common (with) the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way” (Eusebius, Life of Constantine, vol. III, chap. XVIII. Also “Life of Constantine,” Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 523).[5]

It would take another eight centuries until the Eastern Church would succumb to the same error. So, after the eleventh century, Passover observance largely passed from Christian practice and experience. The focus then became on Christ’s resurrection and not His death. This change began around the ninth century AD when the word Easter was adopted by the Western Church to connect Christ’s resurrection with the new life of Spring. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, says that the word Easter is derived from the Old English Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring and light.[6]

This then, is the reason we as an ecclesia celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus on the Sunday of Passover and not when the Western Christian Church celebrates it. Easter is simply a church tradition without foundation from the text or history.

Now, let’s discuss the significance of Passover. I mentioned yesterday during our men’s fellowship that the Passover event marks a change in how Yahweh spoke of Himself to His people Israel. Prior to the sacrifice of Jesus during Passover in 30 AD (I’ll discuss this in a moment), God referred to Himself when speaking to His people as, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” After the first Passover God began to speak to His people as, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”

We know that the Bible contains pictures that are called types. For example, Joseph was a type of Jesus who delivered his people from certain death during the famine in the land. We also know that Egypt represents a biblical picture of the world, and the world system.

The Passover story tells us about many things in types and pictures. For example:

• The Passover lamb is a picture of Jesus. It is His blood that causes death to pass over us. “The blood shall be a sign for you… and when I see the blood, I will pass over you…” Exodus 12:13
• Just as Yahweh brought freedom to His people Israel through the exodus from Egypt, so God brings freedom to everyone who believes in Jesus for everlasting life.
• Exodus is a picture of liberation and redemption by Yahweh’s mighty hand.
• The Exodus brought freedom from slavery in Egypt for the Jewish people. Christians are freed from the slavery of sin.
• Overall, Passover is a picture for Christians today of the might and mercy, of the strong arm and the tender heart of God toward His people Israel and those born again through faith in Christ.

In addition, the Passover meal with the tradition of setting a place for the prophet Elijah, pictures the widespread belief that Messiah will bring redemption to the Jewish people at Passover. For this to happen, the prophet Elijah must return before the official Passover meal begins. The Jewish sages point to Malachi 4:5-6 as the announcement of his return.

⁵ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. ⁶ He will restore[7] the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

Beyond this, consider the fact that each household among the Jews in Egypt was covered by the blood. Those households in Egypt belonging to the Egyptians were not covered by the blood and thus they suffered death and heartache. But it must be pointed out that what was saved under the blood was the first-born son, or eldest child of each household. What was lost to death was the first-born son or eldest child of the Egyptians.

What can we learn from this? We can learn that it is the blood of Jesus that washes away our sins. Acts 4:12 reminds us that, “… there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” We also learn that salvation is on an individual basis. Each person must by faith trust in Jesus for everlasting life.

The Passover is symbolized in the Lord’s Table, what we call Communion. The bread represents His body. The cup represents His blood. We are instructed to observe this until His return.

I have one last subject I would like to address in this teaching. This concerns the date of Jesus’ death. I believe Jesus died Thursday, April 6, 30 A.D. and rose from the dead just before dawn on Sunday, April 9, 30 A.D.

John Valade offers this explanation for a Thursday crucifixion.

A further advantage to this theory is that it meshes quite well with another Old Testament type: setting apart the Passover lamb for special treatment on the 10^th day of the first month, 4 days before the sacrifice, as per Exodus 12:1-6, 14. The Passover lamb was killed on the 14^th of Nisan, after the lamb had been set apart on the 10^th. They were to do this every year. If Jesus died on a Thursday, the Passover lambs would have been set apart on the previous Sunday.

 

We are told quite explicitly that Jesus arrived in Bethany from Galilee 6 days before Passover. Counting back from a Friday Passover, Jesus would have completed the long journey from Galilee with his disciples on the previous Sabbath (John 12:1). If Jesus’ disciples would not so much as prepare spices on the Sabbath, what is the likelihood is that he would have walked most of the day with his disciples on the Sabbath?

 

Counting back from Thursday, however, allows Jesus to arrive before the Sabbath, rest on the rest day (during the evening of which Mary anointed his feet), and be proclaimed Messiah on the Sunday we now refer to as Palm Sunday. In this scenario Palm Sunday also happens to occur on the 10^th of the month – the very day the Passover lambs are set apart in preparation for the sacrifice.[8]

Jack Langford adds this insight to the significance of the 10^th of Nisan, the day the Passover lambs were chosen and set aside.

On this 10th day of Nisan, according to the original Law of Moses (Exo. 12:3), the Passover Lambs were to be selected. Every family head was to choose out a particular unblemished lamb for its Passover meal (or the lamb could be shared by several families). These lambs were to be selected and tagged, as it were, for death. The lambs would then be kept until the afternoon of the 14th day. Though it is doubtful that this day was still being observed in this manner in later Jewish history, yet this is why the action of the crowds in proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth as their choice is so significant. While in the background the original Law had stipulated the selection of the lambs on this day, so it is in the foreground that vast crowds of people have literally become frenzied with enthusiasm in selecting Jesus of Nazareth as their choice. Christ’s fame and popularity with the common people had increased through the few years He had ministered and now, at this particular point in time, it reached an overwhelming crescendo.

 

Of particular significance were the words that the crowds began to shout— “HOSANNA…blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord.” (See the variations of this as recorded in each of the Gospel records—Matt. 21:9,15; Mark 11:9,10 & John 12:13). This phraseology is a quote from Psalm 118:25, 26. Hosanna means “save, we pray” and the rest, “Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord,” has reference to Jesus. In verse 21 of this Psalm it is stated, “I will praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation.” There is little doubt that the crowds were looking to Jesus as the prophesied Messiah Who would save them primarily, at this time, from the Roman oppression. So frenzied and jubilant were the crowds that it made the envious and fearful religious rulers beside themselves with frustration. “Stop it! Stop it!” they were probably saying to the people. Finally they even approached Jesus and appealed to Him to stop what they thought was the blasphemous enthusiasm of the multitudes. Jesus told them that if the people should stop “the very stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).

 

In frustration those clerics of old looked at each other and said, “You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him” (John 12:19). And true enough, 16 the world had selected Him! John goes on to tell us of the Greeks who had come to the Feast and requested—”WE WISH TO SEE JESUS!” (verse 21). What a beautiful reminder of how John the Baptist first introduced Christ with the words, “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36). And furthermore, what a sober reminder of the most popular verse in the Bible—”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

 

And truly, this is the real significance of this day—that Christ should actually be selected as the antitypical Passover Lamb. Consequently, there is a sudden and drastic change in Christ’s demeanor. And no doubt the crowd was startled by it. They now listen to the words of the Man of their choice, but it will not at all be what they expected.

Suddenly, as if having been selected for death, Christ responds (John 12:23-33),

 

“The hour has come, that the Son of Man should be glorified… NOW MY SOUL IS TROUBLED, and what shall I say? [No longer speaking to man He cries out] Father, save Me from this hour: but for this purpose came I to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”

 

Almighty God, Himself, responded like “thunder” or “the voice of an Angel” some would say (verses 28 & 29).

“I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

 

The crowd stood in stunned amazement as Christ went on to explain the Devil’s defeat and also exactly how He would die (verses 31 &32).

 

“‘And I, If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.’ This he said, signifying what death He would die.”[9]

The Passover is much more important than many Christians understand. The story this feast tells us is a powerful and glorious testimony to our great God and Savior. I pray Christians will return to this understanding of Passover and begin again to celebrate it with joy.

[1] Larry Huch, “Passover First Fruits: Your Season For Blessings, April 12, 2025. https://larryhuchministries.com/blog/passover-first-fruits-your-season-for-blessing/?vgo_ee=GzuQVnwZKNyRCUzgBsM92Oer3%2BNLGmaYAOmBl3EkxMyCBODTvkA6%2Fl5Yrac%3D%3AXA8tl9BvGZI7X8YHgQa1PJrNOETfXv5O

[2] Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company and Dayton, OH: Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), pp. 329-330.

[3] John D. Garr, Passover: The Festival of Redemption, (Atlanta, GA: Golden Key Press, 2012), p. 36.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid., 38.

[6] Ibid., 40.

[7] The word “restore” is a translation of the Hebrew word for return and repent. Elijah’s mission will be one of turning hearts to repentance.

[8] John Valade, “When Did Jesus Die? Part 1. April 2, 2014. https://wascanafellowship.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/when-did-jesus-die-part-one/

[9] Jack W. Langford, “Christ Our Passover: A Harmony of Events at the Death of Christ With the Annual Jewish Passover.” Pages 15-16. From author’s electronic library.