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Passover is one of the greatest events in history. However, as great as it was, it’s more than just the deliverance of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery 3500 years ago. It’s a type, a shadow, a divine pattern that points to a greater deliverance through the Lord Yeshua, the Son of God, our Messiah and our Passover Lamb.
As we consider various Passover themes this morning, we’ll see how through the Passover, God was painting a prophetic picture of Messiah and His greater salvation and what that means for us today.
Removing Leaven From Our Homes
Before the first Passover, the Lord commanded the Israelis to remove any leaven, any yeast, from our homes. This wasn’t just a dietary command – it was deeply symbolic. Yeast represents sin. Just as a small amount of leaven can spread throughout an entire batch of dough, unchecked sin spreads through our lives and corrupts us.
Paul picked up this symbolism, calling followers of Messiah to live like a new lump of dough, without leaven, without yeast, without sin, because Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. We’re not only saved by Yeshua’s death, we’re also called to live a life of holiness, sincerity and truth.
The Father and the Son live in us by means of their Spirit making their home in us. We want a well-organized, clean and holy home for the Holy Spirit to live in. Passover is a time for spiritual housecleaning. Just as the Jewish people search our homes and remove any yeast in them, we are to examine our hearts and with the Lord’s help, remove anything that doesn’t belong – hidden sin, pride, bitterness, anger, lust, false religion.
God is calling us to purity because when sin is removed, a close personal, wonderful relationship with the living God is restored. And that’s the kind of relationship He wants with each one of us.
The Blood Of The Lamb Saves
Exodus records the Lord’s instruction to place the blood of a spotless, male lamb on the doorposts of our houses so that the destroyer, an angel that causes death, would pass over and spare the lives of our firstborn sons. The blood of the lamb was not just a religious symbol – it was the difference between life and death. Without the blood, judgment and death came. With the blood, redemption, freedom and life came.
Fast forward to the time when John the Baptist saw Yeshua and said: “Behold. Look. Pay attention. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Yeshua is not just a teacher or prophet – He is the Lamb. His blood, applied not to wooden doorposts, but to a wooden cross, saves us from condemnation on the Day of Judgment followed by the Second Death.
Just as the Jewish people had to put the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of our houses – salvation today is not automatic. It requires personal faith in Yeshua. It requires serious commitment to Him. It requires loyalty to Him. It requires obedience to Him.
The Jewish people in the time of the Exodus had a choice: put the blood of a spotless lamb on the doorposts of the house – or not. For us today, we have a choice: will we trust in God’s provision of Yeshua, our Passover Lamb, for salvation – or face God’s judgment on our own?
Freedom From Slavery
Passover was the night that Israel was delivered from 400 years of slavery. We too were slaves – not to Egypt, but to sin and the corrupt nature we’re born with. Just like Pharaoh, sin was an evil and cruel master. But Yeshua, our Deliverer, conquered sin’s power and enabled us to be born again and have a new, godly nature! Through Messiah, we’re able to be set free from sin and our old, sinful nature.
But, real freedom doesn’t mean we get to do whatever we want to do. Real freedom means we’re free to not give into sin, free to live for God. We’re free to do the things we know are good and right. Ironically, it’s in becoming a slave to God that we find true freedom.
Just as Israel was set free from Egypt to receive the Lord’s laws and worship Him in the wilderness, and accomplish His purposes in the land He promised to us, we are set free to say no to sin, free to live for God, free to serve God and accomplish His purposes.
Are you a slave to sin and your old sinful nature? Or have you been set free and in your freedom, are loving, obeying and serving the Lord your God who has done so much to save you?
Another Passover Theme: God’s Faithfulness To His Covenant And To His Promises
In Exodus 2, Moses told us that the Lord was aware of our suffering, heard our groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham. The Exodus happened because God was faithful to the covenant and the promises He made with Abraham.
And if we are Christians and Messianic Jews, we too have a covenant with God, a new covenant that includes wonderful promises like:
There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, will live in you and defend you and guide you into all truth.
Whoever believes in Me will never be hungry. Whoever believes in Me with never be thirsty.
I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart.
I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.
Because Passover proves that God kept His covenant with Abraham, we can be sure that God will keep His new covenant with us, and all of its wonderful promises.
A Call To Remember And Tell The Story
In Exodus, God instructed the Jewish people to remember Passover every year and teach its meaning to our children.
At His last Passover Seder, Yeshua said to His disciples: “Do this in remembrance of Me” and “testify – tell others, about Me.”
Remembering is essential to faith. Our spiritual memory shapes our faith, and how we see God and how we live. When we forget who God is and what He has done, our faith starts dying.
Like Israel, we are called to remember and tell the story. Our children, our friends and family, and the world, need to hear how Yeshua delivers, saves, and keeps His promises.
Are you remembering and telling others the Greater Passover story?
A Meal Of Fellowship And Covenant
The Passover meal was more than just a meal. It was an expression of a covenantal relationship between God and His people. It was a meal full of great meaning. We ate the sacrificed lamb that made redemption possible. We ate the unleavened bread – a symbol of provision and purity and spiritual preparedness. We ate bitter herbs, teaching us that the life of the people of God will be accompanied by suffering.
Yeshua transformed this meal, taking the Passover bread and wine and declaring they represented the new covenant made possible by His body and His blood. What began as a remembrance of deliverance from Egypt, became a celebration of a greater deliverance from sin and slavery and death.
The Lord’s Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, is not just a celebration of deliverance from sin and slavery and death – it’s a deeply relational meal. It teaches us that God doesn’t want to just save us. He wants to be with us. He wants to have fellowship with us. He wants to commune with us, in a loving intimate relationship – now, constantly, continually, and forever.
The Lord’s Supper, Communion, the Eucharist, help us understand that the Lamb, who gave His body and blood to save us, is now alive, resurrected, victorious, and has ascended to the right hand of God, and will give us all the grace and life and strength and love we need – as we live in Him, abide in Him, remain in Him; as we are filled with His life and His Spirit.
I love participating in the Lord’s Supper with the Father and with the Son and with all of you – more and more as the years go by. I hope you do too.
Urgency And Readiness For God’s Deliverance
In Exodus 12, the Jewish people were told to eat the Passover meal with our belts fastened, our sandals on, and our staffs in our hands. Why? Because God was going to lead us out of Egypt very soon, and we had to be ready to move with Him.
This sense of urgency carries over into our walk with God. Yeshua said, “You must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.” Passover reminds us to live with spiritual awareness, spiritual alertness, spiritual readiness. God is still leading His people, and we must be ready – not just for Messiah’s return, but for the daily opportunities to follow Him in obedience.
Are you spiritually dressed for action? Aware? Alert? Or have you become complacent and sleepy?
God Makes A Distinction Between His People And The World
In Exodus, Moses emphasized that God made a distinction between Israel and Egypt.
When the water turned to blood, it seems that the Jewish people were affected too. The next two plagues of frogs and lice? No mention that we were exempted.
The fourth plague is the first explicit mention of a distinction made between Israel and the Egyptians. On that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people live, so that no swarms (of insects) will be there.
We were also exempted from the plague on the livestock. The Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt.
Boils? We were likely exempted.
Hail. We were definitely exempted. Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelis were, was there no hail.
Locusts: Moses didn’t specify, but it seems we were exempted based on the ongoing distinction God was making between us and the Egyptians.
Darkness: there was a clear distinction between the Egyptians and the Jewish people. There was darkness throughout Egypt yet all the Israelis had light in the places where they lived.
The Death Of The Firstborn Sons: we were conditionally exempted. Those who obeyed God’s instructions by putting lamb’s blood on their doorposts were spared. Those who disobeyed were not spared.
This distinction between Israel and Egypt teaches us that in a world filled with sin and confusion, God’s set apart people must be different. When we love the Lord, and love His Word, and love each other – the world will see the difference Yeshua makes in people.
Does your life show that you are different from the world because you belong to Yeshua?
The Superiority Of The One True God
The ten plagues weren’t random acts of power – they were direct confrontations against the false gods of Egypt. Exodus 12: I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The Nile river was connected to Egyptians gods, so when the Nile turned to blood, the God of Israel was shown to be superior. The plague of darkness showed the superiority of the God of Israel to the sun god, Ra. Heket was the frog goddess, so the plague of frogs revealed the Lord’s superiority. By the time we get to the tenth plague, God had fully demonstrated that He is the Lord. Passover wasn’t just a political liberation – it was a spiritual revelation: the God of Israel is supreme, and no other god can be compared to Him.
This truth echoes into the New Testament. Yeshua doesn’t claim to be a way, a truth, or a life. He declare: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
In a world that advocates many ways to God, the message of Passover and the message of Yeshua are crystal clear: there is one true God and one way of salvation.
Do you live and speak with confidence in the one true God and the exclusive power of the Three-In-One God to save?
Conclusion
Passover is the oldest continually celebrated holiday – but it’s so much more than a holiday. It’s a divine revelation that is meant to transform us through faith, loyalty, trust, union with the one true and living God, and His Son, Yeshua. He is our Lamb. He is our Deliverer. He brings us into a new and better covenant with God. Let us cleanse our minds and hearts, live in freedom, remember His faithfulness, tell His story, eat His bread and drink His wine, have continual communion and sharing of life with Him, live in readiness, live as a distinct people.
May this Passover season renew our love for God and give us a deeper understanding of the salvation story that began in Egypt and found its fulfillment in Yeshua’s death on the cross. Amen.