Sundown March 25, 2013 marks the beginning of Passover. Friday, March 29, 2013 marks Good Friday. I am grateful when the celebration of Passover and Good Friday are close. They are significant and so very related to each other.
In the early church, Passover was the most important celebration of the year. Passover is a celebration of God’s love and power in delivering His people out of the hand of their enemy. It is a time to praise God for His work of deliverance, to seek him for a fresh release of deliverance and to gain faith to see His working in our future. If you have never celebrated the feast of Passover I would encourage you to do so. As told in the book of Exodus, the Jewish people were told to put the blood of an unblemished lamb on the doorposts and lintels so that the angel of death would pass over their household. They did so in obedience and just as God told them, the Egyptians finally let them go. The Hebrews left slavery in Egypt and headed toward the Promise Land. Life in the wilderness was not easy, but God was always faithful to be with them, provide for them and guide them. (Read book of Exodus and Deuteronomy.) So much about the Passover celebration points to the One who would become the once for all time Deliverer, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Did you know that at the VERY same time the Hebrew rabbi was killing an unblemished lamb without spot or wrinkle in celebration of Passover, Jesus, the Lamb of God, gave up His Spirit willingly on the cross for you and I? His blood was poured out for our transgressions that we might be redeemed!! In fact 1 Cor. 5:7 says Jesus is our Passover Lamb. God could have chosen Jesus to die at any time of the year but He chose to have Him die at Passover. Perhaps God chose Passover because Passover was given to teach us about Jesus. Through Passover, we come to understand what His death accomplished. Passover is all about Jesus!!
1. Jesus came as the Lamb of God. 1 Cor. 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. (NKJ)
2. The blood of Jesus redeems us. Eph. 1:7
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. (NKJ)
3. By His death, judgment was turned away and the power of the enemy was broken. (Ex. 15:6)
Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. (NASB)
4. We were released from bondage and oppression. Rom. (8:1-2) With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. (The Message)
5. We were set free to enter into God’s promise of eternal life. (1 Cor. 1:20; John 3:16)
Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge-a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete. (The Message)
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (NKJ)
As you consider celebrating Passover and Good Friday this year, I invite you to consider the following prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father,
I submit to you a desire to be blessed with a deeper revelation of the sacrifice of Your Son Jesus Christ. I ask for the ears to hear and the heart to receive that revelation as I celebrate the gift of Passover and Good Friday. Come, Lord Jesus, fill me up to the glory of Your name. Amen.
Blessings,
Patricia L. Wenzel
WOC Graduate
Some information above taken from The Messianic Church Arising by Dr. Robert D. Heidler, Glory of Zion International Ministries
To find a copy of A Passover Sedar by Dr. Robert Heidler for your Passover and Jesus celebration go to: http://www.nlcf.org/library/documents/PassoverSeder.pdf
Victory Call 
Dear Patricia,
As a Ministry graduate and as a Messianic Jewish woman, I was thrilled and privileged to read your submission
today on Passover. How lovely for you to write and tell others your research on this very important part of our
holy season. YES! Passover is to be recognized and celebrated and has been, in fact, considered a covenant time
by our L-rd G-d. More and more gentile congregations across America and the world are beginning to do just that!
Thank you, again, for your wise counsel and sensitivity to this important time of Pesach “Passover”.
Stephanie Dickinson from Lancaster, Pa.