Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Wow, clapping.
Yeah, it is an honor to be able to serve with with chosen people ministries and
Let's see if the soul work right here
Let me let me just share this and I know this is you know going public, but so my wife is also
a messianic Jew a born-again Jewish believer
And I have three girls, but but in terms of the family I grew up in
Parents brothers aunts uncles cousins the whole the whole got some mishpocha the whole bigger broader family
I am still so far the only one in my family who saved and
My dad actually even recently
Said that he wants to come he's actually taking care of my mom right now on something, but he wants to come
I've shared the gospel and everything with him for many many years
but but he soon wants to actually even come one time when I'm when I'm teaching but I
It's important to know I grew up in a just a really loving Jewish family
I grew up what's called reform Jewish which really in Jewish denominational circles is is is
Like liberal Jewish if you want to think of it that way and so so my rabbi growing up a wonderful sweet man
But he didn't fully really believe that the scriptures were the word of God
But we had reverence for the scriptures and so this is how that played out
so
You know if we look at that the scriptures, you know, there's
morals values ethics
Right principles that have stood the test of time and societies have been built on and and so the congregation community
I grew up in was more or less kind of looking at at the writings of our
Relatives from a long time ago and almost kind of giving credit in a sense to like the wisdom of the ancestors
Right or the wisdom of the sages that way and and and you know with a hope that there might be some inspiration
You know with God and but not really fully believing that that God was real, you know
And so I'm gonna be sharing this in some more depth pretty soon
But I want you to know for me and for many Jewish people when it comes to considering the truth claims about Jesus
What we really do is we kind of put like a like a wall or a line in the sand
It will keep the Jesus thing over there and we'll stay over here and we'll make decisions as to
whether
Anything, you know related to him and those claims are true not really based off of what scripture might say or what?
he said, but we'll look at history and we'll look at different parts of persecution history and
Kind of keep that Jesus thing like I said on the other side and we'll decide that that he's not for us
By looking at different, you know levels of persecution and we see ourselves as survivors as a people and not just survivors of
Pharaoh, you know when we think about this holiday and we're gonna be going into the pants over and we're gonna look at the gospel
in like 18 different ways and look at the Last Supper and but you know if we think about a holiday that just happened which
Was Purim or with the book of Esther and you have Haman the bad guy there and we're survivors of that
But we see ourselves unfortunately as survivors of Christian persecution
And so for me personally, I honestly really did think that the New Testament was going to be anti-semitic
And I thought it was going to say something like let's go to Canaan to get the Jews
I literally thought that which sounds wild and a friend of mine
Who kind of came to believe about five months or so before me
He ended up giving me this book called more than a carpenter
How many people just have ever heard of more than a carpenter? So a lot of people it's wonderful
So CS Lewis had put together a way to present who is Yeshua?
Who is Jesus and this guy Josh McDowell created like an evangelistic book with it and it's basically they
Jesus really is who he says he is. He is the Lord
Or he's a liar or a lunatic
Because one of the verses that's referenced in this and by the way, I kid you not I read this while I was driving on
I 95
Okay, so
But one of the verses is John 14 sex where he says
I'm the way the truth and the life and no one comes on to the father except by me
By the way some fun trivia
John chapters 13 14 15 16 and 17 are all this meal
Someone read from John 12 right beforehand
But 13 to 17 is actually all this meal now if someone were to say to me beforehand who did I think Jesus was?
I probably would have said something like
Well, maybe he was a good guy and maybe he had some good teaching
I wouldn't have thought he was God at that point and then
I would have said and unfortunately things went into these anti-Semitic directions afterwards with the followers and but when I read
I'm the way the truth of life. For example, I
realized that it would be
It would be intellectually dishonest of me to keep Jesus in that definition or box that I had him in
He couldn't just be maybe some nice stuff. Yeah, there really was who he said he was or it was just Michigan
It was just nonsense and
Reading this book. I didn't get saved from it. But what it did is it made me for the first time go
I got to dip my toe into
into this who is Jesus question and
and
I never read the New Testament. I didn't want to and I ended up going to a Bible study
That my my friend kept inviting me. I kept saying no, no, no, I finally decided to go
And I meet a guy there named Ananta hejibu and Ananta was Hindu and he got saved and I'm asking him all these questions
And he's the one that told me if I've never read any of the New Testament to start in the book of Luke
Now it's very interesting. You don't really kind of hear that often and
After the service, we're gonna have like a little bit of an open Q&A time
Optionally for people there if you want to ask me about other parts of my testimony or why I'd be happy to share that
with you, but
But it's important to know I got saved the first day that I ever read the New Testament
And it was reading the book of Luke
That we can clap for it after what the Lord did
And
So it's important to know at the beginning of Luke you you actually get
I'm a priest in the temple and then an angel comes to tell him about a child that he's gonna have and this child ends
Up being John or John the Baptist now for me personally the name or the phrase John the Baptist couldn't have been like
more
Christian ease and less Jewish, but here he is. He's of the lineage of
You know of Levi's and priests and it was surprising and then you get to chapter 2 and that's what I expect
I'm probably going to be reading in the New Testament
You get kind of the birth story and the shepherds in the field and I'm thinking okay
This is the Christmas story I've heard of but then in Luke chapter 2
It actually says that Jesus was
Circumcised on the eighth day
Right, and then it actually talks about something called pitya haben, which is the redeeming of the firstborn where it talks about how
Mary and Joseph they went up to the temple and it says in Luke that they offered sacrifices according to the law of Moses
This was basically about the redeeming of the firstborn, but then you get into Luke 2
I want to go ahead and get this verse 41
It says his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover
And at this point, I just couldn't believe like, you know, I'm reading this Jewish story
And then at the end of chapter 3 you get one of the lineages the genealogies that actually takes Yeshua all the way back to Adam
And at that point
I finally put my guard down
because I still had a guard up thinking I'm going to go ahead and
counteract whatever, you know, I might be able to see or hear and at that point
Just read the rest of the book of Luke and God, you know
God just opened up my eyes
that night and I'm crying out and I kid you not I
There were four of us. Well, I was the only one that wasn't saved at that point, right?
Then I get saved, but I asked if we could kneel back down and this is not to sound spiritual
Because I had to confess something, right?
So so I asked the fact we could kneel back down
And my first sentence is I say God, I'm sorry because I hated your name
And
And it wasn't just thinking about God the Father that you know understanding that Jesus is God, right? He is God the Son
And I remember the first church I went to the next week
Open up a phone book and I go I think Baptist is supposed to be healthy
This is this is what I was thinking. I didn't really and
Hokus in Baptist Church, it was this little Norman Rockwell place in a school down in Delaware and
And um, and they were they were great. They were great. And then they said this to me
They said don't believe anything that you hear unless you check it with the word of God
And they also said and don't even believe what this church is teaching
Unless you check what's being taught here with what the word of God says
All right, and there really can't be anything better, you know for a brand spanking new believer
And I want you to know that yes
We're going to be going through a lot of the fun parts of looking at how the the modern Jewish traditional
Passover fader is expressed and we're going to be looking at what's biblical versus what's traditional
We're going to be really diving into what we see biblically and i'm going to steal this phrase that people use at Christmas, right?
Right that that he is the reason for the season right that Jesus is right
He's the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, right?
First Corinthians 5 for for messiah Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed
He's the he's the reason for the season and we're going to look at the Last Supper, but I want you to know
that
Not just here in this service
But I personally or our ministry we're we're here to just be a resource and of service to you
Okay, so I just want you to know that what was handed out earlier
Um, and people got this in the bulletin. You you actually have a brochure and in this brochure
If you open it up, it's got a little bit of a picture of me and a testimony and there's a tan section
This has information about our ministry
And there's one kind of panel and that panel right there can be torn off
If people want to just be a part of our prayer newsletter once a month, they send out a prayer newsletter
You can fill this out. You can put it in the back table. It's a way that we can be able to be in touch
Honestly, please to be able I mean listen I got prayed into the kingdom
I mean right so so I just so thank so you can want to get some more connection
But also there's a lot of free materials
There's tracks for example
Like why did messiah have to die and we're going to talk about, you know
The reason for the season here right or how would you know the messiah?
There's different tracks and other materials of what we do. One is called. I found shalom
It's a website of over a hundred actually we're doing like 40 more videos right now
So this summer there'll be about 150 videos all jewish born again salvation testimonies
And so mine is on there. It's like four and a half minutes. I can talk in four and a half minutes
Actually, no because they have to edit it and cut it
Right, right. That's how that works. Okay, so please
Gather but you also have a picture right here
This is my family on the back is my contact information my phone number my email in whatever way that we can just be
A resource or of service and I have one example right here
This is actually just a calendar. We have free calendars. There's books
There's a lot of free stuff there if you want to go ahead and you know
Be a part of our just just receiving the prayer newsletter
You can go ahead and get, you know free materials and things that are there. So please know that
We want to exist to be to be a resource now. This is my favorite verse period
And it's not just because it's such a great
Biblical truth right that we're saved, you know by grace through faith is not of ourselves
Right. It's a gift of God. This is Ephesians 2 8 and 9 right not by works
Meaning not by our works right so that no man may boast
But this is also really like medicine for me
Because i'm unfortunately the kind of person that you know, I might think about
Oh, how well was I doing an hour ago versus how well am I going to do an hour from now and and uh
So this verse helps me to put my eyes back on him and off of me
And my hope is at this time that we even have here together where we're going to look at the gospel
This also can just be another tool to help us to just trust in the faithfulness the redemption story
Um of the Lord so that way when we're struggling when we're dealing with shame or guilt
um
Whatever it might be that in the midst of that we can just turn and just trust in the character
and nature
Right promise keeping faithful nature of the Lord
And so that's that's really my hope so i'm going to go through a couple of things here real quick
But this is my family and my three girls
um, and um
I'll just kind of go through yay, Philadelphia
Okay, um, but just please know the Jewish community says if you do an hour radius of Philadelphia, there's about 300,000 Jewish people
So bucks county, Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware county, Chester, Cherry Hill, etc
This is who we kind of you know reach out to right, you know the life of a of a missionary here
This is the congregation. I go to congregation bethi shoah
Jew and gentile one a messiah i'm going to go through these right, you know
It's great to partner with different Christian ministries. This is me doing college campus work
I used to work at a university for 10 years actually i'm gonna stop right here
If anyone is interested, this will be the fifth year in a row myself and another person
We run mission strips in new york city
So if you're interested in that or you want to know more about that. Um, I actually had meetings yesterday
uh two days ago i'm sorry about this and
We had about 60 people last year and we're just you know
On the streets and there's salvation and stories and so, you know pictures kind of share a lot vacation bible school a camp that we run
I don't know how close honeybrook is to here, but tell hi camp. We do we do a messianic camp there
This is inviting people over to our house as a real picture
There's believers and non-believers here for a passover meal
It's a great opportunity to be able to bring people over in a nice setting sharing the gospel in in context
other holidays
This is a good rabbi friend of mine in brooklyn
I share with him that yeshua Jesus the messiah. He tells me i'm wrong. We go back and forth. All right
All right, but you get the gist right all the pictures this helps, you know, kind of give a give a sense
But like I had said before he's a promise keeper
There is a redemption story from the beginning. He is faithful. And so let's dig into the Passover
Okay. Now I do want to just go ahead and say
Um, I appreciate where someone said that, you know, we're going to go into a lot of you know death here
Yeah, i'm going to highlight a variety of the different pieces that happened during the traditional jewish satyr
But really if you were to walk out of these doors thinking well, that was an interesting jewish experience
If that's your main takeaway, that is a failure on my part
Right because we're going to really be digging into how we see this at the at the last supper and uh, you know
Prophecy and scripture like I said, we're going to hit the gospel in like 18 different different directions. Okay
Um, but let me just start here
Okay
so
And actually actually i'm not going to start i'm going to go back one i'm going to read
I want to read from the book of luke. This is luke 22
This is one of the sections where where we see Jesus getting together with the disciples to get to
Gather the past to gather together for the Passover and it talks about for the feast of unleavened bread
But it says in verse seven
It says then came the day of unleavened bread and we'll talk about
About unleavened bread and what this means really soon when the Passover must be killed
And he sent peter and John saying go prepare the Passover
Basically, he says you're going to go into town. You're going to meet a man. They find everything the way Jesus said
Let me go down to verse 14
When the hour had come he meaning yeshua
sat down
And the 12 apostles with him
And he said to them with fervent desire some versions might say earnest desire
I've desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer
Right for I say to you i'll no longer eat of it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God
And then he takes a cup
We have some cups right here
He takes a cup and he gives thanks and he says take this and divide it amongst yourselves for I say to you
I will not drink of the fruit of divine until the kingdom of God comes
And then he takes some bread and he gave thanks and he breaks it
And he gives it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me
And then he also takes another cup the cup after supper
Saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you
And so these are verses that we're kind of familiar hearing
And we're going to really look at the context context context of how this plays out
so that way when we get kind of to the
End in a sense of what the Passover remembrance and celebration would be we're going to be hitting these verses
And then looking at some context by the way, how often do you guys do communion here at once a month? Okay, wonderful
So what we're going to talk about
Next time you do communion. Hopefully this is going to be
a tool
to
As we examine ourselves and and and thank God right for the for the miracle forgiveness of sense
Okay, so now let's go ahead and do this. This is kind of interesting
So
Leviticus chapter 23 is like a snapshot of all the biblical feast days
It has a little piece of the different holidays and why am I kind of going to be focusing on this?
Because a lot of times we love to look at Passover, right? He's the Passover lamb
Here's a lamb shank bone, right? And we know he is the fulfillment of this right? He didn't die on any random day
He died on Passover at this point to be the fulfillment of this holiday
But this is not just some one-off
kind of fulfillment
This is part of a broader redemption story
And so there are holidays that happen in the springtime, which we're you know entering into there's ones that happen in the fall
And Leviticus kind of gives a snapshot. Let's just look at the ones coming up here in the spring and so you have here
Passover and then something called feast of first fruits and then you have something called shavuot or pentacost
Let me let me actually just go ahead and say here in Leviticus 23
God says that he has these appointed
Festivals these appointed times and so we're going to look at some of the meaning it starts off talking about the Sabbath
But then has the Passover there is the Lord's Passover now
We're going to go into that in some real good richness soon
but the Passover itself is really just the evening or the moment where there was the sacrifice
And the substitute of the lamb instead
so we know that
um, when we look at the different plagues and we have the last plague the the plague of
Of the firstborn and we're going to look at the story and the and the plagues but
Theologically, this is really critical. There was going to be death in every house
Egyptian and Israelite
God wasn't coming to save us as Israelites just because we're Israelites
It was only whoever was going to put their trust in the method that God was providing for there to be a substitute
A sacrifice of you know an atonement something in place that would take the punishment and then for there to be life and freedom
for the person
So he was just God was coming just to see if there was blood right?
They took some of the sacrifice from the lamb
They took the blood and they put it over the door
They put it on the top and the lintels and on the sides and if God came and he saw the blood
He would pass over the house
If there was a Jewish family that did not do that
Then actually their firstborn would take the consequence
If there was a family of the of the Egyptians right and of the nations that were there and they were like
You know what after all these plagues and things like i'm going to put my trust in this God of
The Hebrews right or this God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob if they were to go ahead and do that their firstborn saved
Right really critical because it was just who was going to put their trust in the method that God was providing
so the Passover
Technically is that event that evening and it kicks off a week-long holiday called the feast of unleavened bread
Sometimes when we say the Passover we're kind of like
Modern day thinking about the whole week
Like really you have the sacrifice and it kicks off this feast of unleavened bread
Now why unleavened we're going to read soon and talk about how when this is unleavened it is without
Sin actually i'm going to read it right now. So in first Corinthians 5
This is one of the classic verses that people like to to quote
Um, and we i've said it before for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. That's part of verse seven
This is what it says right before it. This is the context
It says don't you know Paul's teaching them that a little leaven leavens the whole
Lump
Now why am I bringing this up because if there was leaven or something, right?
It would then turn into more or less like like a roll
And what Paul's going to do here is he's going to talk about how leaven
Spiritually is like a symbol of sin
And something that would be unleavened would be without sin
And so when we think about him taking his body and his body broken for us even though this was called the you know
The bread made in haste this unleavened bread for his body broken is symbolically
about
sinless
But and so this is what it says
Therefore purge out the old leaven that you might be a new lump since you truly are unleavened meaning for those that are saved
Would then be able to have you know be considered sinless because of what Jesus did for us for indeed
Let me just read scripture for indeed Christ our passover was sacrificed for us and then it continues therefore
Let us keep the feast
Not with the old leaven, you know, nor the leaven of malice and wickedness
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth
and so that's really where we are spiritually as to kind of the the meaning and so
You kick off this week of unleavened bread. Now. There is another holiday that happens in the midst of that week
It's called the feast of first fruits and so you see right here offering a first fruits when does it happen?
Well during the week it happens on the day after the sabbath the sabbath that's being talked about here
Is the friday night the saturday night sabbath?
I'm biblically here the first day of the week or the day after the sabbath is this holiday first fruits
So here's the key thing
Jesus didn't die on any random day
But on this day to be the fulfillment of the passover
He also didn't rise from the dead on any random day
But on this day to be the fulfillment of being the first fruit
This is just a couple verses from the new testament. There's others that tease this out. Here's first corinthians first corinthians 15
Right, but messiah or Christ. He's been raised from the dead
He's the first fruits of those who fallen asleep talking about the resurrection of first fruits now a few verses later talking about resurrection
It says each in turn. There's messiah. He's the first fruits
And then when he comes
Meaning the second coming those of us who belong to him will be able to have resurrection
So he didn't die in any random day. He also didn't rise from the dead on any random day
This is part of a broader redemption story now real quickly here. It's okay if people know this or don't know this
but how many people have heard that there are 50 days between the day that Jesus rose from the dead
And the day that the Holy Spirit came in at chapter two what we call pentecost
And tongues of fire over the people and peter goes out and about three thousand gets saved
How many people have heard that there's 50 days between these two events?
Okay, it's actually where we get the word penta for 50 or pentecost
Here's where the 50 days comes from from leviticus
Because from that day after the sabbath the day that you did this first fruits offering you're gonna count 50 days to get to
Another holiday it's called the feast of weeks. It's another harvest holiday. It's actually a pilgrimage holiday
It's why even in the book of x why did it say there that there's jewish people from like 15 different areas?
Roman mesopotamia and cypress like why were they all there because they're here for this day for this holiday
So he didn't die in any random day didn't rise from the dead on any random day. The Holy Spirit didn't come on any random day
I know i'm spending a lot of time on this before getting into the nitty gritty of the passover because this really helps to give
us this broader context
And
And so that way we I know a month from now
Some people right here. It's going to be the not on any random day. That's going to stick with them when they're doing communion
Right, and if that's what if that's then that's awesome. Isn't this amazing?
All right
So with that almost kind of like how Jesus was like, you know with with fervent desire or earnest desire to celebrate the passover
Maybe even seeing in the context
It'll give us a little bit of you know
Earnest desire and what we're going to do and talk about next
Okay
Now God over and over and over again tells us to remember remember lots of things in scripture
But tells us a lot to remember
When we were slaves in egypt to remember the exodus to remember the passover now
Jewish people on purpose will want to kind of put ourselves almost in the story
Not in and try to think about as if we were slaves and as if we were free made free
Not in some victim mentality of thinking about
slavery, but really in the sense of the verse
those
Those who are forgiven much love much
Right that when we can focus on
What it was like to be in slavery, then it actually helps us be that much more
Grateful and thankful for for for freedom. And so we're to remember this now. I personally love romans 5 8
Right, it's how God describes himself how he demonstrates his own love towards us
It's in this that while we were yet sinners
That messiah died for us
In a sense that he became the fulfillment of the passover lamb and sacrifice and substitute in our place that he became the method
God was providing to be the sacrifice the atonement the substitute in our place
Right, and I know a lot of times people love on the sermon and a mouth, right?
God has not come to abolish the law or anybody's come to fulfill but let's
Get it to some fun nitty-gritty here. Okay
Do you see how there's a plate and so here we have a seder plate you it's this way. Okay, um
The word seder just means order
So you're you're kind of going through an order of different elements an order of different parts of the story as part of the remembrance
Now what's important to know is that passover was never given
As a holiday to do something to try to get closer to God or to try to do something to impact our
Standing or our righteousness with the Lord the whole heart and spirit and purpose is actually just to thank him
For what he's already done
To thank him for being the deliverer. So back in exodus
When moses is even given the instructions from God and he tells to gather all the people and we could you know
There's great details there about on a certain day of the week
You're to take a lamb and examine it for a certain amount of days and on the 14th day of
of the first month you go ahead and you would sacrifice it and and
There are three elements or items that God actually gives as part of the remembrance
That he tells moses that this will be a part of the future
And so he says to eat the flesh that night meaning you have of the of the sacrifice
so you have the lamb itself
and then unleavened bread
And then bitter herbs which today we just have as horseradish representing that here
Technically, there were just three items or three elements as part of the remembrance that God gave
sometime
Between the time of moses and the time of Jesus other traditions got added in the celebration
including cups
So Jesus took a tradition
When he actually was even showing the spiritual meaning and talking about communion now
He then gave it to us now as something biblical to do
But what he did is he even initially took a tradition and then made it as now a a spiritual biblical, you know
Task for us. So what's very interesting is you have these different kinds of items and elements and then it says
It shall be when your children say to you
What do you mean by this service meaning in the future when you're celebrating it?
That you should say it's the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of egypt
And this is a very child oriented holiday. This was always my favorite holiday growing up
And so you have here a plate and it has a number of the different items and elements and we'll talk about what's biblical versus
what's traditional
But do you see how there's also like a scroll?
so I um
All jewish homes will have something called a haggadah a haggadah just means the story or the telling
And so there's different books or booklets and you go through and you're going through the seder or the order
Of this part of the story and the meaning of that item and songs and if you're at my house, it's like a three four hour
Affair really is this is actually the one I grew up with the Passover haggadah
Brought to you by the coffees of maxwell house. That's that's the one that I grew up with
This is one from um shop, right?
Okay, right and I I like showing this thing they put coupons
Side right? Okay. Um, here's a here's a children's one, you know with uh pictures and
And you know songs and and so it's very much a you're going through the order
Now what I also use in my house today is I do a combination of what I grew up with and something called the messianic
Passover haggadah or story or telling where we're also showing Jesus the fulfillment of
Of the day, but let's look at this real quick, right? Some nice pictures. Look, here's a here's a square one
They could be made out of construction paper. That's okay. Here's the table of a jewish family. You see them gathering reading getting ready
This is the image ari halvin. I this is what I think of when I think of the last supper
Maybe because i'm touchy feely
And you know, but more intimate a lot of times in scripture
We'll see that it says Jesus reclined at the table and I have right here a pillow as a little representation
It's actually in the modern jewish tradition to recline
And so interesting enough we happen to see that Jesus also reclined someone can recline
It's almost like a symbol of being a free man
Now this is the classic picture, right?
Oh, it's a little blurry. Sorry
There's something biblically wrong though
Now who am I to say? Oh da Vinci, right? But there actually is something biblically wrong
And that is if you were to look at the table
You would see there are bread rolls
Right
Not unleavened when the whole point is it's the feast of unleavened bread
And this is what paul is teasing out
so
I don't know from what aspect but but if we don't see
Not just the jewish bit but like like the biblical context there's things that can be missing
And actually that's part of the point
Of his body unleavened and broken for us
Right. So hopefully what we're doing here will help also give us some good context
Okay
All right. So let's go ahead and i'm going to mention some of the different items in some of the order
But we're going to get into some good scripture
But what does happen is you have candles and we'll light the candles
It's traditional but it's a way to kind of make this a sacra a sanctified time a special
It's like having a service in the house
And so the woman in the house will light the candles and it's kind of to sanctify the time
I have four cups right here
In the traditional jewish satyr
There will be two cups that happen before the meal
And two that happen after
At the last supper we see two cups interesting enough as how that played out
We see one before and one after
The tradition today is that we would drink the first cup and um, and actually, uh, it would be a burukhatat and I love
Blessed are you Lord our God king of the universe who brings forth fruit from the vine
And then we would drink
And this is called the cup of sanctification kind of like with the same heart
Let's make this a sanctified special time
The second cup
We have it's called the cup of plagues is when we get to that part of the story
The third cup after the meal is called the cup of redemption
This is a traditional name
Um, and you know interesting enough
We know that at least you know, Jesus takes the cup after supper to institute communion
And then the fourth cup is called the cup of praise
It's actually when we're singing songs and different sums and hymns and things like that
It's interesting we see in scripture
It says that at the end of their time that they they left out and ventured out with different hymns
You know and and songs
So this is just like a little bit of the um of what the cups, you know would kind of be there for it
now I have here a a um
Uh like a pitcher and
There are two different times in the traditional jewish service where we'll do like a ceremonial hand washing
Um, and you're you're kind of doing it over over a basin and actually nice tradition to even serve the person next to you
They put their hands and you're kind of washing then they take it and they serve the person next to them and kind of going around
Now we can't say this is a direct biblical, you know connection, but it reminds us
Of something that's beautiful from the last supper
And that is what did Jesus do towards the beginning?
Is he went around right and washed the feet of the disciples
Now we have to be careful not to say oh we see something
It's similar and we make it as if it's a solid bible connection
We have to be very careful. I heard someone use the word
Evangelistic let's not you know, we we don't want to stretch things
But we can be able to say it reminds us
Of this other really great truth
right
Where Jesus himself
Right the son of God not the son our savior our messiah our rabbi
he
actually
Models for us this example of real servanthood right and to go around and and to serve it's just it's just absolutely
It's absolutely beautiful
Now i'm gonna ask for a volunteer
I don't nobody really kind of knew that but can I get one volunteer that might come up? Yeah, you come on up, sir. That's right
And what's your name? Ben. Okay, excellent ben. All right
Now ben, I didn't tell you that you're gonna have horseradish
Okay
He's good with that okay, so here's here's the scoop
um
We're gonna look at some of the different items and elements
And I want to just kind of show here, right? This is the classic picture
Of what we would see when we talk about the blood
Over the door and what we're going to be doing is leading up to this part of of the story
but there's a tradition that's added
and
Um, here is some parsley for you
Sometimes I joke that you know, i'm sorry. This is not chocolate bunnies
Right now some people like to think this is like the hyssop branch
Do you see how he's holding a branch that way he would dip in for the blood and put it on the top and the side
some people like to say oh this reminds us of springtime a new list of life and
And um it this is just a traditional item that's added. So if people want to have their own traditional meetings
That's fine versus what's biblical. The point is we take this as just a reminder practically for us
We dip it into salt water
Oh, no, that's regular water
No, no, you got to try the really terrible salt water
But here's the deal you can have that regular water afterwards
Okay
All right
Because do you see these pictures of slavery?
Here's another one
Salt water
Our tears are salty. It's just to try to remind us of the tears of those in slavery
It's a traditional touch point to try to remind ourselves and put ourselves into the story
And so there's normally songs and blessings that go with it. But go ahead and and eat a little bit
And then that water's for you by the way
He's good
All right
So that's kind of one of the items or traditions now
I have here
What's called a matzah tash
It's just a pouch and it has different
pieces of matzah in it
And the tradition is to go ahead and to take the middle piece out the middle piece of matzah
And why the middle piece?
Lots of traditions right again. So, you know, some people think about well, there's
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or there's God the priesthood and and people we could think of father son spirit
Let's not worry about the you know, the tradition but you're to take it and you're to break it
And half of it
Gets wrapped in like a white like linen cloth
And
It is called the afikoman
It becomes like a dessert after the meal and that's a greek word about you know, then he comes but it gets hidden
And then there's a fun kids game where at the end of the meal
They go and try to find it and if they find it
they can bring it back for like a reward in our house, we like break it into a ton of pieces and
The kids ransacked the house, right?
And you know, they might get a dollar for this one or if it was a chocolate kind
They get like a few dollars for that, you know, whatever it might be
Now some people like to say wow when we think about this it reminds us
Of how his body or his sinless body
broken for us
Dies wrapped, you know in like put a put away
Those that
Find him or let's just say are found by him get reward and and that's great
We can't say that's a direct biblical connection as to that, but it can remind us of that great story
But I want to share something here. Do you guys see how the matzah is striped and pierced?
Now there are some amazing prophecies we're going to read a couple really soon
One of them about pierced is about a future time of jewish recognition
It's in zechariah chapter 12 verse 10 a time of jewish recognition in the future of Jesus as the messiah it says
I'll pour out
On the city of david the inhabitants of jerusalem
A spirit of grace and supplication prayer and they'll look upon me whom they've pierced
And mourn for him as one mourns for an only son
Or we could think about a great verse in in isaiah chapter 53, which we're going to read
Which is that by his stripe right or by stripes people have you know, we are healed
And these are great
Now most all matzah around the world is made pierced as just another way to make sure that you know, something won't rise
Not all matzah around the world is made striped
So we have to be careful
Not to make oh, this is an automatic, but what does this do? It reminds us
I know I keep bringing that up because remember this is what is true
and
But isn't this incredible?
It reminds us of these great spiritual truths. And so what we're going to do is this
Can you take a couple pieces of matzah right here?
Okay
and i'm going to take a couple pieces
and
We're going to have some of the horseradish
And then there's another yummy mixture. It's a brown mixture. It's apples honey nuts
Yeah, yeah horosets
It this other mixture is to make us think about like the
The consistency of like mortar when making bricks, but it's a very yummy mixture
What I want you to do. You don't have to put a lot on it's up to you as to how much you want to put on
But you want to follow your lead. Okay, that's fine. So take some
of the horseradish and then you'll take some of the
Of the apple mixture and then normally like I said, there's songs and things but go ahead and just eat
you know eat them any particular world well do the so here's the deal some people believe that the
the
Yummy mixture the apple
Horoset mixture may have been around at the time of the first century. Um, I don't think so
I think it comes here because but we know the bitter mixture would have been this is this is
This is the sop or the bitter herbs because this is the biblical one. So do this one first and then that one after
That's okay, that's not a question
Um
A fun tradition is to take so much horseradish that you start to cry
To associate with the tears of those in slavery
Okay
Not water is for you forever. Okay
Now
I need this so I can talk okay
What you just did
We see happening at the last supper
At least the bitter herb mixture. So let's read right here in mark
chapter 14
It's one of the examples here. So here we go mark 14
It says in the evening. This is verse 17
In the evening he Jesus came with the 12
And now as they sat and ate yeshua said assuredly I say to you one of you who eats with me will be training
And they began to be sorrowful and to say to him one by one is that I
Right and another one saying is that I
And the answer is and says to them
It is one of the 12 who dips right dips the bread dips with me in the dish
That's what this version says some will say the sop. This is the bitter herb mixture
And then he says the son of man indeed goes just as it's written of him
But woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed
This is literally the part of the last supper what you just participated in here
Where judas is called on the carpet as the betrayer?
This particular, you know item and tradition that you just did
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You can go ahead and sit down. Appreciate it. Thanks. I'm pretty yeah
Now
Um
Let me kind of keep going with the story here
I heard someone make this joke and i'm going to go ahead and use and steal it but um
So you see here, right, you know moses or charlton heston, you know
He's there at the at the bernie bush and he's you know now to go to
Pharaoh, you know, let my people go and
Someone said that, you know, if we when we're in heaven if we ever get the chance to somehow
meet moses or see moses
If he ends up looking like pastor
Or me like if he doesn't look like charlton heston, that's going to be very it's going to be awkward
I'm going to say how that plays out
But here's the deal when it comes to the plagues the key thing is God showing he's the true God
Over the so-called Gods of egypt. Does that make sense?
like number nine
darkness over ra the sun God
Okay
And so to show he's he's the true God
Oopsie daisy. Did I just knock something over?
Okay, so
if we get right here to the
Kind of the reason for the season
There's another item on on the the plated. It's it's an egg. It would be a roasted egg
This is to remind us that the sacrifices that had to happen
They had to be roasted and it's a reminder of sacrifices and the sacrificial system
But I gotta tell you we already have the greater
You know item and element and symbol of sacrifice
So that's a traditional item that got added, you know, but we have the lamb, you know itself and so I love little cartoon pictures
That help, you know the reason for the season right, you know for he is
You know the one who takes away our sin and takes our place
Now what I want to do is remember how we have here
Right and we have the picture here and there's the blood
And it was whoever was going to put their trust in whatever in the method God was providing
now when Jesus comes on the scene right or when God the sun comes and takes on
Human nature, you know alongside his divine nature
That wasn't something brand new
As like like the new covenant or or the the plan wasn't somehow launched at that point
This is in fulfillment of what God's redemption story and plan was even from the beginning
By the way, a lot of people love it's an easy way to remember jeremiah chapter 31 verse 31
31 31 that's where it talks about behold. The days are coming declares the Lord i'll make a new covenant
Right with the house of judah house of visitor. This is where the new covenant promise comes
But what I want to do with us is read together
The granddaddy i'm gonna say of all the messianic prophecies
This is written over 700 years before the birth of Jesus
This is basically the sacrificial servant this is about the the
It's called the arm of the Lord
isaiah talks about how the arm of the Lord is not too short to save and about how he's going to go ahead and
Provide this arm and and we get a description of this arm
And by the way the couple verses right before what we're going to read in in isaiah 53 talks about a servant
And actually it's the word for like slave and you get this servant
But the servant is going to be high and lifted up
A a phrase in hebrew that's only used three other times in isaiah for God almighty himself
So you get this servant or slave that's going to be high and exalted
But then says that he'll be marred more than any man
And then it talks about in verse um, uh 52 13
Um, actually i'm going to go ahead and and read it. Let me just do it that way
Let me go here
Thank you for your patience
And i'm reading I think out of under king james, so
Um, oh the verse 15. I'm sorry. I know I was like, right
So he'll be marred more than any man and then it says so shall he sprinkle many nations that word sprinkle
In the hebrew every time it's used in exus lividicus. It's for two reasons
It's either
the sprinkling of blood for atonement purposes
Or for like an anointing sprinkling purpose
So this one that is a servant then is high and exalted but is also more marred more than any man
will have
Atonement an anointing impact on even the nations
And so with that context we're going to get a description of this arm this arm of the Lord and so here we have
Who has the arm who's believed our report and who is the arm of the Lord revealed?
We're going to get a revealing now. I'm going to read only a few of these different parts, but like
Verse two there was no beauty in him that we should desire him right. He didn't look like pastor
You know beauty right now
No, but like that wasn't what was going to attract us verse three. He though was despised
and rejected of men
Verse four, but he bore our griefs
Right and our sorrows, but we we esteemed him stricken
Right. He was wounded
for our transgressions
bruised for our iniquities
Right the chastisement or the punishment that brought us peace that was on him by his
Stripe or stripes. We are healed all we like sheep have gone astray
Everyone has turned to his own way, but the Lord laid on him the sin of us all
This is the substitute on our behalf. This is the method God is providing by the way
To be able to take care of all
categories of our sin
Not just pet which is a word for sin to miss the mark or a word called avone
Which is willful sinning but something called peshah, which is not just willful but rebelliousness
sin
There's only two times in scripture two things that can take that actual most rebelliousness
Sin and can atone for it one is the day of atonement sacrifice and one is this
This is what Jesus himself quotes that he fulfills
And he is the sacrifice once for all
It's the forever perfected forever the eternal. So let's just keep reading here verse seven
He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter verse eight is amazing the second half of verse eight
Talks about how he'll be cut off out of the land of the living will die
Later in the psalm it talks about how
He's going to live again and he's going to prolong his days
But the arm of the Lord actually goes ahead and dies
Isaiah cries out for the transgression of my people. He was stricken
His his grave with the wicked but he had done no deceit
You know no deceit in his mouth. Look at the next verse
But it pleased the Lord God to bruise him
This is critical because there's been something called deicide which is a claim of the death of God
And in Christian history where it'll be a blame
You know like like who to blame?
right, like um
You know, was it there was it the jewish people or was it the romans or was it the jewish leadership?
right
Well, who's the blame this pastor?
And me
Right our sin
So when people get into the blame game, it's really missing the whole point of the actual gospel message is that it's actually that
God demonstrated his own love for us that while we were he had sinners that messiah died for us
And not only that it's God is pleased
It also says in new testament right that Jesus he laid down his life willingly nobody took it
Um, uh pass can someone help me? Um for the joy set before him. He endured the cross. I can't remember where that verse is from
Um, is it hebrews hebrews 12 or hebrews? Okay, so all right
God the father pleased
God the son joyful
What's your name dear brother?
Bree
Why would God the father be pleased?
But his son
And why would why would Jesus himself even be joyful?
To go through all that
because breen
That is the way for you to be able to be forgiven
Right
It's a miracle now check this out it says that he'll see the um
He'll prolong his days, but I want to go to verse 12
Do you see how it says?
He poured out his soul into death. He was numbered with the transgressors
He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors
I started earlier by reading in the book of luke luke chapter 22 when I was um
You know talking about them gathering together for the Passover later in that chapter
This is what Jesus says verse 37. He's talking to the disciples
He says for I say to you that this which is written
Must still be accomplished in me
Jesus is going to quote something from the hebrew scriptures and say that's actually accomplished in me
Now when John or paul or others when they come up with messianic prophecies
Like those are as equally true as when we see Jesus doing it
But you know listen when when our Lord himself is actually quoting one
And what does he quote?
right here
Quote and he was numbered with the transgressors
For the things concerning me have an end
He's the reason for the season
This this is this is unbelievable
It's it's just absolutely awesome. Now. I don't know if we have kids here. We might and i'll go on to the next slide
But we saw that picture of him
agony and and
He's actually also joyful
in the midst of that
Maybe the next time someone here is doing communion
They're just going to actually be thinking about his blood poured out and his body broken
And they're going to think about how he was joyful also
in the midst of the agony
It's a miracle. It's an absolute miracle
And so a couple verses from the new testament the old testament about blood
Without the shedding of blood. There's no forgiveness of sins
In leviticus right here talking about how it's the blood
Right that makes atonement for the soul
These kinds of
Of reasons in a sense or connections
So let me just kind of go here. Um, i'll skip that picture in a moment
The season we're coming upon
Remember this is a
Story that has this redemption thing. There's the death and the resurrection and so forth. Listen in his death
He took on sin on our behalf and in his resurrection he defeats death
So that not only would we be able
To have the miracle of him taking away in that exchange at the cross. Actually, can I get two volunteers?
Can I can I get the two of you to come on up? Is that right? Um, not only are we getting the miracle
of
Of you know this exchange at the cross
Right he who knew no sin became sin for us
That we then might become the righteousness of God
This exchange it's a miracle
But not only that for those of us by grace who belong to him
Then can get the power of his resurrection to get applied to our life, you know in the future
Can you come on over here, sir? Is that right? And can you guys put your arms out like this?
Okay, they're the two thieves on the cross
Now here's the deal
Um
We don't know anything about their background except they were both thieves
They were actually also both hurling curses at Jesus on the cross
Let's say
First time this one ever stolen got caught
Let's say this one got to put your arm up
Let's say this one stole many times hurts children steals keyboards, I don't know right? Okay, right
Okay
One of them though
had a faith
Repentance experience one of them actually put their trust that Jesus would be the method right that God was providing
You know turns and but here's my question for you
Which one was it that you don't have to raise your hand, but I want you to think let me let me show you in scripture
What it says?
Um, think about it while I go look up in scripture
Which one
Nothing
Scripture doesn't say anything about that
This is beautiful for us
Because it doesn't matter what is the level or the depth of whatever muck or junk or sin we're coming from
Right, but the whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
Right, thank you guys you guys can go sit down
So so I just want to say I know there's a lot of different songs and items and elements and
There's a fun thing that we do when we get to the the cup and we're talking about the plagues
But but I want us to really get into the right the reason and the meaning for the season. So now
Believe it or not in a normal satyr
We're not even to the meal yet
Okay, and we're doing but then we would have the meal so now let's pretend we're having the meal and we're at the very end right here
And i'm gonna I want to finish with communion in just a moment
But there are a couple things in the traditional satyr that happen after the meal that are really beautiful to highlight
That we even see some new testament connection to
Um, I already mentioned that at the very end we're singing songs and and and hymns and so forth
But I have a cup here
This is called the cup of elijah
Now this is traditionally added and this is a part of every
satyr every jewish
You know across the you know across the world
It's to it was a tradition added to help us think about the messiah and be hopeful for the messiah
And what it is is that elijah?
Elijah never died
He actually was taken up to heaven in the chariot of fire and at the end of the hebrew scriptures
Malachi the last prophet before like a 400 year kind of gap in time before the new testament writings
It finishes
talking about elijah returning
And that he's going to come before what's called the great and terrible day of the Lord the idea is that he's going to come
Before the time of the messiah he's a forerunner. He's an announcer before the messiah would come and we would get excited
A child would go and open up the door and we would come in and look to see if like the juice went down
You know or not and why would we get excited? Maybe hoping the spirit of elijah might come in
It's just because if elijah was really there or the spirit of elijah
We would get pumped because it means the messiah is right on his heels. Does that make sense?
No, I kid you not I kid you not about a dozen years ago. We're at this part of doing the home satyr
And there was a knock at the door
There was a pizza guy
Like someone from a pizza restaurant handing out menus and yeah, my kids love that all right, so
But here's the deal
We add that
Do you know that scripture actually already tells us in the new testament?
An angel and yeshua himself
That someone came as elijah in the spirit of elijah
It's John John the baptist. What's interesting is this in luke chapter one that angel that comes to
What would be John the baptist father who was a priest in the temple when he's telling him about this child
This is one of the things that the angel says in luke one verse 17 talking about John says he will go out
Ahead of the Lord in the spirit and power of elijah to make ready for the Lord of people prepared
And
then in matthew
One i'm sorry matthew 11 verse 14
Jesus is teaching about to the disciples about John and one of the things he says about him is
Indeed if you are willing to accept it. He meaning John is elijah whose coming was predicted
So here's this extra traditional piece. That's a part of all of our satyrs
There actually is a new covenant connection
and fulfillment of it
It's it's it's it's stunning. It's awesome. It's amazing. Now what I want to do is
As like a representation for us
Kind of talk about communion
So we have here. So let's pretend we're you know getting the afikoman right after us, but we have here the bread
right the unleavened bread
And then we're going to take the cup
after
After the meal and let me read right here because this is interesting. I know I read it earlier. I want to read from first corinthians 11
This is another time where paul is talking about this
Um, that's first corinthians 15 here's 11
This is actually historically written before the book of luke was written, but this is what paul says
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you
That the Lord yeshua on the same night in which he was betrayed
He took bread
When he had given thanks
And actually i'll just go actually i'll do the blessing afterwards. He broke it
And said take eat. This is my body which is broken for you
And do this in remembrance
Of me
In the same manner. He also took the cup
after
Supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood
This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes
Right. He's the reason for the season, but let me continue here
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner
Will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Thankfully this next verse says but let a man or a woman right
examine himself and so let him eat of the bread
and drink of the cup
So i'm going to do the blessing as a representation here and um
Whether it's even right now in your own heart and at another point in the future just to be thinking
Whatever aspect it is that God would draw to help us to be that much more grateful for
Um right for the miracle or forgiveness of sin
and so
Baruch atad and I alo heinu melach ha'olam
hamotse lecha min ha'aretz
Amen
Blessed are you Lord our God king of the universe who brings forth bread from the earth and thank you father God that we can take this
We can do this in remembrance
Thank you that by your grace
that um
You said that that you you would be numbered with the transgressors
That you would do this on our behalf
It's a miracle father God
And I pray that I would give you uh
Glory and thanksgiving and we do for that in remembrance of you. Amen
And then um
I'll just say it because I sang it before but baruch atad and I alo heinu melach ha'olam baray parihah gathan
Besham yeshua hamashiach in the name of yeshua. Jesus the messiah
But uh father God, thank you for your blood poured out for us
Amen
Thank you for these truths
Thank you that you became the fulfillment of it
And that you would even by your grace open up our eyes and our hearts to this
God I pray you would please have mercy on other people and the way you've had mercy on us on those of us here
that are saved
And anyone who's not here that saved God that you would even take this kind of communion time and
And show yourself to be true
You know what I am gonna read
Romans this will be our last verse. Let's go to
Do romans 10
Right the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart
That is the word of faith which we preach that if you confess with your mouth
The Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved
For with the heart one believes under righteousness
And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says
Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame
For there is no distinction between jew and greek
For the same Lord
Overall is rich to all who call upon him
For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved
We do this in remembrance of you
Amen
Um
I'm just going to finish
With this one thing right here, and I know that we're running late. I'm sorry. Thank you pastor. I know with the kids but
um, you can also then think about how you
Want to um potentially adjust doing q and a or not q and a right?
Um, but I love I love this this book right here. It just says why yeshua died
Right why Jesus died and um, and it's a really quick read
and um, it's because
it's just
It's just a mirror
It's just a mirror. Yeah, I love this one. Okay. Who sorry if I blinded someone in the eye with the reflection of
That's all right, that's right Jesus can heal that
Right, I believe in healings for today. Okay, so
Um, yeah
Yeah, so i'll just i'll just pray and finish and end right here and and and please remember that um
I am here personally our ministry as a whole to just
You know come alongside and and um, I know I I talk about this but it's like call me or email me
Um, and you know, you could say, you know joe from landsdale or whatever
but uh, remember i'm just right here in the backyard, but um
It's it's an honor to be able to just be here with you
To just you know declare, you know these truths about God
and um and hope that this is what you know will
Will help, you know inspire you
You know to just trust in him
And his faithfulness and his promise keeping nature and especially as we even get into the season so
Father God once again, thank you father that you are good
And you are real
Thank you that you are also savior
And that you are compassionate and merciful slow to anger and full of loving kindness and truth
You
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his word
Don't forget to join us for worship lives Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern on YouTube
Be blessed and have a great day