Preparing For Passover
Or
Being Personally Prepared
Sunday Dec. 25, 2022
Scripture To Consider:
“Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.’ So they said to Him, ‘Where do You want us to prepare?’”
“And Jesus said to them, ‘Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, “The Teacher says to you, ‘Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’” Then he will show you a large furnished upper room, there make ready.’”
“So they went and found it just as Jesus had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.” Luke 22.7-13
Something To Consider:
The Passover as mentioned in earlier lessons was instituted in the book of Exodus chapter 12. The children of Israel had been living in bondage to the Egyptians for four hundred and thirty years, and the cruel servitude had come to an end according to God.
Moses, who had been sent by God to deliver the Jewish people, had faced down the Pharaoh of Egypt time and time again while demonstrating the miraculous power of God. But it took one final demonstration of God’s ultimate power to bring Pharaoh to a decision of letting God’s people leave Egypt as a free nation under God.
And now America has become as Egypt, a symbol of sin and of slavery to sin! What final demonstration of God’s ultimate power will it take to bring America back to being one nation under God? Or has that time both come and gone?
The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53.6; “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one, to his [or her] own way; and the LORD [Jehovah] has laid on Him [Jesus] the iniquity of us all.” But if we choose rather to remain enslaved to our sin, then we have chosen eternal death and separation from God. What will be our decision this Christmas 2022 morning?
Something Else To Consider:
Therefore, because of Pharaoh’s refusal to obey God and let His people go in order that they might worship Him, God gave the death edict. At midnight the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt from Pharaoh to the lowest of servants, every first-born male, both man and beast in all of Egypt.
But God in His mercy made a way of escape for the people of Israel. Each household was commanded to sacrifice a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year. They were commanded to apply some of the blood of the lamb upon the side posts and overhead lintel of the entrance into each home. And by their preparing for Passover and obeying the Word of God, death would pass over that home.
As always, those who did not believe, those who did not obey, reaped the horrible consequences for not preparing for Passover. Have we made the proper preparations for our personal Passover? Will we be among the many of America who will suffer eternal death for our rejection of Jesus, the Passover Lamb prepared from the foundation of the earth to be the God approved atonement for our sin and our going our own way?
In Isaiah 59, we are warned, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you [and me] from Your God; and your sins have hidden God’s face from you, so that He will not hear [your in vain prayers].”
Our unconfessed sins have caused God to not hear our prayers, unless they are prayers of repentance! And if that is the case, then we are being prepared, personally prepared for one final Passover. Will we be properly prepared? Or will we be taken totally by surprise? Will we if waiting for a pre-tribulation rapture theory escape plan, be utterly surprised by our witnessing the Antichrist come to power? Are we prepared for the actual biblically revealed end time events?
Something More To Consider:
In our text today, Jesus made lodging preparations for the Passover with His disciples in advance. And yet, He left the final preparations of obtaining a lamb to Peter and John. And although the upper room was furnished, Peter and John would be personally responsible for searching the entire room for any trace of leftover leavened bread, a spiritual symbol of sin.
In our personal preparations for our Passover from this life to the next, we too must search our own hearts and our own homes diligently for any trace or appearance of sin. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5.7, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
Paul also declared in 2 Corinthians 5.17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” By being personally prepared for Passover through our believing in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, we have escaped spiritual death and have gained eternal life. Amen! Have we made ourselves ready? Have we seen fit to ready our families?
And if not, then we can be biblically assured that our sin, our iniquities, have separated us from our God! Daniel, the end time event exposing prophet, revealed in Daniel 9.5; “We have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even from departing from Your [God’s] precepts [Scripture] and Your judgments.” This nation of America, as a whole, is in great need of repentance!
A Few Final Words:
Preparing for the final Passover by being personally prepared requires the forgiveness of our sin which so easily ensnares us and separates us from our God. Jesus, in a model prayer in Luke 11.4, commanded that we pray; “And forgive us our sins.” Let us not allow all of the glitter and gusto of Christmas and a new year distract us from that which is most eternally important!
The forgiveness of God is not automatic as taught by so many false prophets and end time so-called teachers of God’s Word. If so, why the requirement to pray for God’s forgiveness as taught us by Jesus and others? Yes, sin separates us from our God as believers and as unbelievers!
Have we made our final Passover preparations? In Luke 21.36 Jesus cautioned end time occupants of earth by stating; “Watch therefore, and pray always that you [and me] may be counted worthy to escape all these things [end time judgments of God discussed in Matthew 24 and Luke 21] that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man [at the final Passover].”
Jesus Christ, the Passover Lamb of God, was slain from the foundation of the world. Therefore, eternal spiritual death can be avoided by choosing new life in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. For according to Luke 22.13; “So they [the disciples] went and found it just as Jesus had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.”
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, thank You for providing Your Son as our Passover Lamb required in the law. Now prepare us this Christmas season by the washing of Your Word and Christ Jesus’ blood. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 