Passover – What Is the Last Supper?

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Passover and the Greater Redemption

We good in the back? All right. So, guys, Passover's coming up. My son was apparently playing some Minecraft with some music on it, and it startled me. So, Passover's coming up, and I know we all know about that and we're excited about that. But I wanted to take time to review it again. And not simply that, but sometimes we forget about the Passover elements today—the new Passover elements, if you will, the greater Passover elements, the greater Exodus elements that Jeremiah speaks about coming one day. Jeremiah 23 and 16, he says there's a Passover coming that will eclipse the Passover in Egypt. You won't even remember the Passover in Egypt because this Passover that's coming is going to be so magnificent.

And it's not just going to impact this one little, it's going to impact the entire world because a king is coming to set up his reign. And the people of Israel that are scattered all over the world, they're not going to say this is the Lord who brought us out of the land of Egypt anymore. They're going to say this is the Lord that brought us back from everywhere we were and gathered us back together with him. That's the greater Passover. And as audacious as it may sound, I believe that's been fulfilled in Yeshua the king. We are living in the greater redemption where we're rescued not from slavery in Egypt, but from slavery to sin and death.

The Last Supper and the Gospel Accounts

And so we come to the Last Supper. The Last Supper is the pinnacle of all of the gospel accounts. That's the climactic moment right before—hours before—the passion takes place when Yeshua dies. And that's something very interesting. So here are the Gospels. And this is just maybe my only nerd out moment in the message, so bear with me. On the left are the chapters that speak about Yeshua's journey, his ministry, even his birth narrative going up. And then the column on the right is when all four Gospels shift to the last week of Yeshua's life. In Matthew, that's like one-third of the book is one week. Same thing with Mark and Luke. In John, it's half. Do you think there's something significant about the last week of Yeshua's life? Of course there is.

The Entry to Jerusalem and the Temple

So Yeshua's rolling up to Jerusalem for his final stand, I guess you could say. And he rides into Jerusalem like a king. And he's already upsetting the elites, right? The powerhouses. The religious elite. But everybody's cheering for him because they're like, yeah, this is the guy. Whatever messianic hopes they had, this is the guy. And he starts his week for coming to Passover, if you will, by going to the temple and flipping over tables right before the biggest event of the year. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? If you've ever been in event management before, you just got anxiety, didn't you? Who's this guy coming in here? So he's flipping tables over. He's exposing the corruption of the religious elite, which hasn't changed from the time of the exile—the corruption of what the house of God has become, what we made it into. And the religious elite, they're already like, no, we've got to kill him. We've got to find a way. We can justify it. We'll find something in Torah. This guy is too much.

The Secret Arrangement of the Upper Room

And we find ourselves moving up to the Last Supper. And right before the Last Supper—where he gathers his disciples and shares the last meal, which three out of four Gospel accounts say is a Passover meal—the tone changes because, as the reader, you're not sure what's happening in the narrative when you're reading all the way through for the first time. You can see the tensions building. He's talked about dying, but his disciples don't get it. And it becomes kind of like a spy movie, one teacher said. Because think about it. He's like, listen, guys, come here. I want you to go in the city. There's going to be a colt there.

Get it for me. How does he know there's going to be a? Listen, just go. Okay, go in this colt and bring it back. And then what's he telling me? He says, hey, guys, I want you to go into the city. And there's going to be a certain man carrying a water barrel. And tell him, the teacher says, my appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house. And the man will take you to his house, and there will be a room prepared. You don't get this little cold war. There's a code word. You go find the guy. And say, the master says it's time. Come with me. So did Yeshua pre-manage this?

Did he set it up and not tell his disciples? It was like, yeah, this is it. I already got a guy. It's set up. Or was it divine? Did the guy set it up, not knowing, waiting for the disciples to come? And that's actually a big discussion among Bible nerds because it's kind of neat. But I love the tension there. Like, it's a mystery. What's going on?

The Banquet in the Upper Room

And we have this upper room that's filled. It's a banquet. It's a wealthy type of event to feed all these people in a private room. Wow, Yeshua. Like, this is why Judas was upset. I don't know. Right? And you walk in. And wow, we belong in here. Look at this place. You walk into the disciples. This is amazing. Passover—100,000 extra people come in to Jerusalem during the first century for Passover. It's a big one. There's three pilgrimage feasts where people would come, but that's the big one. And what do people bring with them to Passover? Usually on a leash, animals. There's going to be lots of new animals in Jerusalem, right?

And as you're walking down all these, who's been to Jerusalem? You know the roads and stuff. Not the same roads as today, but still, it's small, narrow, modest roads. 100,000 more people, 100-something thousand more little furry four-legged things. Pretty cool. What do those four-legged things do? 100,000 more. Multiply it however many. So what do your shoes and feet look like after walking through Jerusalem when this is happening? But the master has rented this amazing place and we walk in. It's a triclinium table and it's all set up and he has all the food and this is amazing. You just walk in, this is great, right? Tracking all that poop everywhere because you're so excited.

The Washing of Feet and the New Covenant

And Yeshua says, guys, you didn't stop to wash your feet, to wash each other's feet, to do anything. This is the covenant meal of God. So he begins to scrub the junk away off of his followers' feet. And there would have been junk all over it. And as the reader, you're like so overwhelmed with where the story's going at this point. It's amazing. And so Yeshua shares his last meal with his disciples. And at this meal, Yeshua does not tell any parables. He doesn't give any deep technical theological lessons. No, he wants to spend time with his disciples. And he wants to give them a new meaning to the symbols of the Passover to help explain what's about to happen in just a few hours.

And at one point, he takes the bread and he gives it to his disciples and he says, this is my body, which is scandalous to begin with. And then he takes the cup of wine and he says, here, drink my blood. What? And in Luke , here's the verse: And he took bread, he gave thanks, and he broke it and he gave it to them. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

This is the moment where the origins of what we call the Eucharist ceremony or the communion come from. And we have any Catholic Orthodox folks in here, or anyone previous, or anyone who knows about it? Yeah, the Eucharist, right? The Eucharist. Do you know what the Eucharist means? Do you know what that word means in Greek? To give thanks. Thanks. So when Yeshua, every single time—like at the feeding of the multitude—when he gave thanks to God with the bread, it was Eucharist, giving thanks. And so that's what that ceremony is called when you take communion in the Orthodox community. It's to remind them that yes, it's the giving of thanks to God.

The Symbolism of Bread and Wine

In Judaism, though, there is also a custom of sanctification or Kiddush. And it's a tradition that arose based on the commandment to set Sabbath apart. It's supposed to be a set-apart day. Well, how do you set it apart? Well, you say, okay, we're going to do things differently throughout the day. And this approach was like, no, you need to set it apart. You need to define when it starts and when it ends so that it's blocked out of the rest of the week. And so Kiddush takes place. We start the Sabbath. We welcome it in with the bread and the wine. And we say a blessing as a part of it. And then at the end, we kind of do the same thing with Havdalah.

Bread and wine. Symbols. In modern Judaism as well as modern Christianity. Dating back all the way to the first century. Bread and wine. And it's interesting because these symbols have an earlier origin that is referenced in the Old Testament, specifically in the temple. So during the Exodus journey out of Egypt after the Passover, Israel's journeying through the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. And in great detail across 13 chapters, instructions are given to Moses and the Israelites to build the tabernacle. On the outside, we have the altar and what takes place there. All the sacrifices are given to God.

They're outside and they go up. The priests get to eat certain parts of the sacrifices depending on the sacrifice. But on the inside, there is a menorah that represents the tree of life, right? Right there in the living room of God, lights on it, illuminating the holy place of God. And then, of course, you have another altar in this holy place inside the house of God. It's the altar of incense. And then, of course, there's a veil inside the tabernacle or temple. And what's beyond the veil? The ark. It's the holiest of holies. It's the mercy seat of God. It's the star gate to heaven, connecting heaven to earth.

The Table and Bread of Presence

But in the holy place with the menorah and the altar of incense, there's something else. There's a gold table. And on this table is bread—the bread of the presence, or the bread that's placed in the presence of God. And it's freshly baked every morning and brought in as an offering, as a sacrifice to the Lord. I would say this is the only sacrifice that takes place inside. It's an actual offering to God. And then at the end of the day, or whenever the bread's replaced, the bread gets taken out, and then the priests are allowed to—it's given to the priests. It's made holy by being dedicated to God, and then that bread of the presence is given back to the priests.

But something else that is also there that we miss is the wine. There's wine there. Exodus through 24 speaks of pitchers and bowls being there, beside the table for the drink offerings. Drink offerings—we don't hear about those too much, but Numbers chapter 15, like every sacrifice, you had to pour some wine in with it. It was an offering to God: sacrifice and the wine. But this wine was not poured out. The wine that's in the holy place with the table, at least from what we see from Exodus, it's not poured out. It sits in the presence alongside the bread. So you not only have the bread of the presence, but you also have the wine of the presence.

A Covenant Meal

And some conclude that this is a covenant meal that's offered to God, made holy, and then given to the priests after, which is a neat discussion. It has some nuances, but it's a neat discussion. But that's the idea: you have bread and wine in the presence of God in the temple. And it was a covenant meal offered that connected the people with God, the meal of the presence of God. God is with us. And this also finds itself in the traditions of Passover, where we find bread, although unleavened, and we have wine as the core symbol, specifically in the Seder: bread and wine. And this was the meal, the covenant meal that was also made holy in the temple.

It was a meal to remind them of their time in Egypt when the presence of God was with them, protecting them from death. It was a covenant meal that connected the people with God, the meal of the presence of God, the meal that proclaims God is with us. Passover. And here we have the Last Supper, where Yeshua is calling his disciples to now see these symbols as more than reminders of the past. He's inviting them to take on a new or fresh or more powerful meaning when they look at them. "This is my blood spilled for the new covenant. This is my body broken for you." In this moment, Yeshua brings all of these elements together to form a new type of Passover meal, a new type of covenant meal, one that focuses not on the lamb, but the fulfillment of the lamb.

Yeshua offered the bread and the cup. It was a covenant meal that connected the people with God, the meal of the presence of God. God is with us. That's why the Last Supper is so significant. That's why Passover is so significant. That's why it's such a big deal.

Walking Through the Passover Seder

And so what I wanted to do today, if you can't already tell, is I kind of wanted to have just a basic overview. I know there's a lot of us who may have never kept Passover before or haven't kept it too many times. And what I wanted to do is kind of walk through the basic Passover Seder that would have been very similar to what took place in the first century during the time of Yeshua. And I didn't want to be alone, so I went ahead and got some volunteers. So I'd like to ask them to come up. And what we're going to do is the moment that the goat died and he went to Egypt, Joseph went to Egypt, is the moment the Passover story starts.

And it's kind of neat because we always make a big deal about the lamb because the lamb is a preferred thing for Passover. But when we go into the actual commandment in Exodus, even though it says lamb—you shall take a lamb— the word there is just young; it's a goat or a lamb. It's either or. And the next verse specifies that. And so it can be a Passover goat, just as legitimately as a Passover lamb. And so the story of Passover starts off with shedding the blood of a goat, and then it ends with shedding the blood of a goat or a lamb out of Egypt, going in and out. And so I love the end caps there.

It's pretty cool. And so the salt water reminds us of what? The bitterness of Joseph and the tears that he shed going into slavery in Egypt, just like his ancestors would become in Egypt. And we move on to the first cup of wine. Now, it says cup of wine in all the traditional stuff because I believe they drank four cups of wine. And so it was a mighty celebration by the end of the Seder. You can imagine you would end the Seder singing, which is perfect, because it's a celebration, because we're not slaves, because we're celebrating our freedom.

The First Cup

And so we're going to pour a little bit of—we're going to say juice. Yeah, that's good. And we're going to say a blessing. And it's going to say, "Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth the fruit of the vine." And we will partake. Is it good? Did I do well on the flavor? Good.

And then we turned to Matthew through 23. And in this setting, we revisit what Yeshua's, what's happening there and what he says. He says, "When the evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the 12. And while they were eating, he said, 'Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.' And they were very sad and began to say to him one after another, 'He doesn't mean me. You don't mean me, do you? It's not me. It's like, I'm not me, right?' Jesus replied, 'The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me—he is the one that will betray me. The son of man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man who betrays the son of man.

It would be better for him if he had not been born.' And then verse 25: 'Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, "Surely you don't mean me, rabbi."' The story doesn't hold you in suspense anymore. It's like, yeah, and Judas is the one who did it. And Yeshua says, 'You have said so. And while they were eating, Jesus took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, "Eat, this is my body." And he took the cup.'" Pretty neat.

The Irony of Betrayal

So what I love about this scene is we take the story for granted because we've grown up with it in Sunday school, right? One of you will betray me. It's the guy who dips with me. And we already know who that is. That is Judas. I guess he was the only one dipping. No, everybody dips at the Passover meal. That's the irony here. Everyone's like, "Is it me?" It's certainly not me. It's not me. It's got to be someone else. And by the end of the night, all of them betrayed him. All of them. Wasn't it just Judas? Peter did it three times. All of them ran away and abandoned him. Just as it says, "I will strike the shepherd and the flea." So I love the irony there, the twist, right? We're thinking, "Oh, the betrayal's already happened. We're good." And then, no, everyone else does as well.

The Four Questions of Passover

And so another part that has developed and was a part of the tradition of Passover is, again, it's mainly for the kids, right? It's so that they remember the heritage and the story of their people. And so one part of the Seder, traditionally, you would have the kids or the youngest person in the room that could read or whatnot to ask four questions. And which one of you is older? Who's younger? Yeah, so here are the four questions. So just read those four questions there. Keep going. Yeah, yeah. Why do we recline or lean? Very good. Thank you, Brian. Good job. Pull that down. Appreciate that, man. Thank you.

And so the reclining and leaning—second nerd moment. Traditionally, you will read about the reason why you recline on your left during Passover is because you are now free to relax, right? You're no longer—and that's, I love that. But that's not why the tradition's there. The tradition's there because in Greco-Roman societies, they would always lean on the left when they had like symposia or dinners or feasts. And that's when this tradition was formed. Underwhelming, but still kind of neat. And so what do we do? We lean to the left. Because why not? Because it gets our kids asking the question, "Why is tonight different? Why is there a bone and an egg that you roasted in fire on this plate? Why is that spicy stuff out here again?"

The Passover Story Recount

Is it time again this year? And the answer to the story—when you answer the questions to the kids—you tell the story of Passover. You tell it to them. This is why we do this. This is the whole point of the Passover Seder: telling the redemption story of God to the next generation. Specifically, that's what it is. And so I'm not going to tell the entire story, but I'm going to invite you to respond to the questions with me from a summary of the story that is in Deuteronomy. And we're going to put it up on the screen, and I'd like to invite everybody to read along with me out loud this section of Scripture: Deuteronomy 26, verses 5 through 10.

Is everybody ready? All right, ready? One, two, three. A wandering Aramean was my father. He went down to Egypt and sojourned there. He and just a handful of his brothers at first, soon they became a nation, mighty in many. The Egyptians abused and battered us in a cruel and savage slavery. We cried out to God and the God of our fathers. He listened to our voice. He saw our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight, and God took us out of Egypt. So this would be said when you offered your firstfruits offering to the priest and to the Lord. Good job, everybody. You just told the story of Passover. It's right there.

It's just a good summary. And the entire meal builds up to the last plague in the story, if you will. And of course, the last plague is the Passover evening where the destroyer comes through Egypt and God protects the people so that the destroyer will not pass over the threshold of their own, or he will pass over them. He will keep going. And then you would read Psalms—generally 113 through 118 and Psalm 136. Don't worry. We're not going to read those today, just to save time. But if you were doing a traditional Seder, it would be a lengthy thing. It would be a very lengthy thing. And you would read through those Psalms, and then you would come to the second cup of wine.

Just a little bit this time. I think we did this two years ago. Zach was up here, and he filled that cup up. It was great. Partake of the second cup of the meal. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu, melech ha'olam, borei prih ha'gafen. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth the fruit of the vine. Amen.

Gamaliel's Three Requirements

Now, around in the first century, there was a great rabbi, Rabbi Gamaliel. And you know of a pretty significant student of Gamaliel, whether you know it or not. That would be Paul. Yeah, Paul or Saul. Saul, Paul. My tradition growing up, I don't even know what to call him anymore. It's Paul, right? So Paul was a student of Gamaliel, which is kind of neat. But Gamaliel said something that became a standard. You need three things. There are three things required for a Passover meal to be a Passover meal. You can add whatever else. It's fine. Add stuff—nuts and grapes, whatever. These are the three things.

You've got to have the lamb, the Pesach offering, the Shalemim offering. You have to have the matzah, which is unleavened bread, no leavening in it. And you have to have the moror, which are the bitter herbs. And of course, the Passover, we represent with the bone. And it reminds us that God passed over or God protected us as the destroyer passed over us in Egypt. The matzah, because we are now redeemed from God, and the bitter herbs because the Egyptians made the lives of our ancestors bitter. Those are the three things.

The Body of Messiah

And during the Last Supper in Matthew 26, verse 26, it says that while they were eating, Yeshua took the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples just like this. And he said, take and eat. This is my body. This is my body. The bread has been beaten. The bread has been kneaded. The bread has been baked. It has been torn apart and put back together. It is the source of life, and it's to be shared. It's to be shared among all of you. To live by this bread is to live by the broken body of Yeshua. And so in the Seder, we would partake of the matzah at this point. Let's take a bite of matzah. How is it? Need some seasoning or something. And the next thing you would go on to... What did Gamaliel say or declare based on scripture? M'rur, the bitter herbs. And we're about to partake in these bitter herbs. It's going to be good, I promise.

Remembering Through Bitter Herbs

But the most commendable thing, they say, to do while you're eating the bitter herbs is to bring a tear to your eye, because it reminds us of the bitterness of slavery. And so we have here horseradish. And so I encourage you both to truly fulfill... Yeah, just take a really healthy bite.

I'll just let you guys. Here, you go first. There you go. Just take a good helping. It's not like extremely spicy. It didn't have a red label or anything. It was horseradish. I'd take a little bit. Yeah, just take it on the matzah. All right, I'm going to take a little bit of... Oh, that's good chunks. I'm just going to lightly dip my own. There we go. And then we partake of the bitter herbs and remember the bitterness of slavery. I'm good? I went that crazy? I'm going to take some more. Y'all know this: if you get just the right amount, the needles go up your nose. There we go. Okay, y'all still good? Still good? We've gotten most of it done. Next we have the lamb, the third aspect.

The Lamb and Salvation

And what's neat is no lamb was ever mentioned in Matthew. It's not mentioned on the table. We talked about that last week. Because Yeshua's transforming the elements of the Passover. And the lamb represents the salvation from the destroyer, right? In the story. But also the escape from Egypt, right? Anyone that has a house that has the blood of the Pesach on it—the blood of the Pesach, the blood of the Passover—enacts justice on evil, and it is the vessel of salvation to the people of God. Now we drink the third cup, and if, again, traditional Seder, we'll be drinking this much. And we say, No. That's the bread. Thank you. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who gives us the fruit of the vine. Amen?

The Final Cup and Future Promise

Now, around the third cup is typically today when you would break to eat your actual meal. But again, it would normally go pretty slow. This is just the basics going through it. And in Matthew , it says that Yeshua took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. Drink of it. The next few hours... In the next few hours, his blood will be shed. He will be killed. And he's claiming this is why, to his disciples, as they drink the ohso-familiar cups of the Passover with him. In verse 29 of Matthew 26, Yeshua says something, and it's interesting. He says, this isn't the last time this is going to happen.

What do you mean? He says, I'm not going to partake of this. I'm not going to do this again. I'm not going to partake of the wine blessing until I do it in the fullness of my Father's kingdom. Which is interesting, because we're about to be freed from slavery, but we're not just going to instantly show up in the promised land. We still have to go through the wilderness with the hope of the coming promised land and with the testimony of Egypt with us. And that's where we find ourselves now: with the hope of the promised land and the testimony of what happened in Egypt. And these are the symbols that Yeshua gave to his disciples and to us to make sense of his death and what it's actually for and what it's actually going to produce.

And that's significant. Okay, you guys can sit down. Thank you, everybody, for going over the first few. Was that kind of neat? So, if you guys would like to do Passover at home or would like a booklet, a Haggadah —a booklet that walks you through how to do a Passover in light of Yeshua—we have one that we put together on our website. It's free for download as a PDF file, and you can go to foundinatruth.com and then click on resources. And there's also a walkthrough video, so hopefully that's helpful.

Yeshua's Reimagined Passover

But when Yeshua sits down with his disciples, instead of giving a logically well-thought-out articulation, he gives a meal explaining the meaning of his death. And he takes this event that is already woven into the life of his people, so familiar to his disciples, and he takes the Passover and he re-images the entire thing. This ancient story is now reframed to focus on him. And Yeshua, I don't believe, wants us to just remember, though. We can remember the Passover, but Yeshua's calling us to participate in it. And the thing about the greater Passover and the greater Exodus is that it's journeying through the wilderness, participating in the Passover meal as your life—as your life—participating in that sacrifice alongside Yeshua, that you would be a living sacrifice. You do it by giving allegiance to Yeshua, by giving your loyalty to Jesus, and committing to taking on his teachings as a means of manifesting the kingdom of God to the world. You do it as a way to come close to the presence of God.

Bread and Wine in Scripture

And the bread and the cup are actually found in an earlier story in the scriptures, before the temple, in the story of Melchizedek in Genesis . Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God most high, and he blessed Abram, saying, Blessed be Abraham by the God most high, creator of heaven and earth, and praised be the God most high, whose enemies are delivered into your hand. And then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. So you have this king priest that comes out, he's a priest of God Most High, and he brings forth bread and wine to offer to Abraham. It was a covenant meal.

Once again, we have a covenant meal. And when you partake of the bread and the cup, that's what you're committing to entering into. And it reminds us of the very real and very powerful and very holy presence of God. God is with us. That's why it's called communion, because we're in communion with God, right? And we give thanks. The story of Passover is about a lamb. And through that lamb, Yahweh rescues the Israelites from slavery to Pharaoh. And here, in the scene of the Last Supper, the story is through Yeshua, of Yahweh rescuing his people from slavery, from sin and death. And the thing about this Passover is everyone's invited.

That's what's so special about the Yeshua Passover. Everybody's invited. In this Passover, it's not just the religious people. It's not just the pretty people. It's not just the very—they got a strong spiritual life. Look at them. It's not just them that get to come sit at the table. It's for the people that don't have that privilege to be able to act like that and to be able to look that nice spiritually and to be able to carry themselves in such a way that they're so heavenly minded, but no earthly good. It's for the people that don't have that privilege.

Everyone Is Invited

There's a seat at the table at the Passover for those who are poor in spirit. There's a seat at the table at the Passover with Yeshua for those who mourn. It's for those who are parched for justice in the world. It's for those who are persecuted and oppressed. It's for everyone. That's the significance of this table and this cup and the bread are waiting for everyone that would come. It's for the world because it gives freedom and it brings shalom and it brings God's goodness and reality to the world and everyone. We have a tendency when we go into times of covenant meals or feasts and festivals to reflect and audit our lives, and we focus on our sins, right? The sins that we still deal with or struggle with, and we've got to get rid of these. And have you ever noticed that we tend to only focus on the sin that affects us?

Examining Our Hearts

I'm going in and I need to repent. I need to self-audit of the sin in my life. I got that thing that brings harm to my life or that addiction in my life or those violent, hateful thoughts toward other individuals in my mind or thoughts of lust or these sins that affect me. I need to get rid of these. And they need to be addressed. And you need to get rid of them. And you need to fall before a holy God and say, God, take these from me because these don't belong in the kingdom. But sometimes we forget about the sins we commit towards others every day because it doesn't really affect us. That thing you said to that person that ripped their heart open or that malicious act that you did in secret to try to hurt someone else.

How about gossiping, stealing? How about misrepresenting Yeshua, misrepresenting Yahweh to the world? That's called taking the Lord's name in vain because his name is on you as the revolution has begun. And it involves more than just you. So let's root out the personal sins in our lives that impact us. Let's get rid of them. Let's make a commitment to be better and to be holy for God. And let's root out the sins that are slowly destroying the world around us at our hands. It's so easy to wear the clothes of an oppressed Israelite while just being an Egyptian slave driver playing dress up. And so here, Yeshua confronts us with a choice.

Freedom or Bondage

Do you want to remain in Egypt? Do you want to remain in chaos, in chains, in bondage, or do you want freedom? Do you want peace? Do you want to attach yourself to another kingdom that doesn't exploit you, that is not of this world? Do you want to live out the embodiment of God's grace and love in the face of a world that rejects it? Because if that's you today, if you're tired, if you're weak, if you just want rest and if you just want the things that hold you back from the intimacy of God's presence to be gone, if you want God to continue molding you into an image of Yeshua to the world, this is the table for you.

This is the table for you. And so remember there's four cups traditionally with Passover and we only went over three because I wanted to save the fourth one for last. And I wanted to give us an opportunity today to come together in light of the significance of the bread and the wine from Genesis through Revelation and what it means to come together and partake in the body and the blood of the Pesach named Yeshua. And so we're going to conclude in worship here shortly. And during this time, when the music's playing and you're worshiping or you're in prayer or meditating on the grace of God, I want to give the opportunity to come up and partake of the bread and the cup.

And it's not forced. You don't have to. It's here if you want it. And during this time of worship, if you find yourself maybe being reminded of one of those personal sins or one of those sins that we don't want to acknowledge that we've done to others, I encourage you to deal with that. And I encourage you, before you come up and partake of the bread and the cup, to seriously consider where do you want to be and where are you at? And where are you going with your relationship with Yeshua? We do have gluten-free on the right, but this is a sacred moment because this is a covenant meal that you're about to partake in that goes back thousands of years.

And today we do it in the name of Yeshua. And we do it in remembrance of Him, just like we remember the Passover.

The Blessing

Alvina Malkinu, our Father, our King Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come together to not just celebrate and give thanks, but to stand in awe of your mercy and your grace, to stand in awe of what you've done in Egypt, to stand in awe of your mighty and powerful works, to stand in awe of how you destroyed Leviathan and freed us, to stand in awe of how the chains that have fallen off of our hands and feet is because of you. And we thank you, Father, as we partake once again in the covenant meal that you are so familiar with, that this would be the place of your presence. That we would be in your presence and your presence would be in us. We thank you, Father, in the name of Yeshua, our King, the great Passover. We pray.

Amen. Sing the Shema with me. Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his peace. In the name of our Sar Shalom, Yeshua. Amen. Shabbat Shalom, family.