Passover

Mark 15:42 “42 It was Preparation Day (that is, the day before the Sabbath).” (NIV)

Preparing for Unleavened Bread and First Fruits during Passover or preparation day is the same as preparing for a wedding, a party, or a graduation. It involves time and work. Some people plan weddings one year in advance, others plan graduations months in advance, and there are those that prepare for retirement years in advance, With all of this in mind, why should we take God’s appointed times with any less seriousness?

There are seven Appointed times of Elohim:

1. Passover
2. Unleavened Bread
3. First Fruits
4. Shavuot
5. Yom Teruah
6. Yom Kippur
7. Sukkot

In the Spring:

• Passover = 14th of Aviv or known also as Nisan
• Unleavened Bread = 15th of Aviv (A Shabbat or Shabbaton)
• First Fruits = Is always on a Sunday, the first Sunday after the weekly Shabbat that falls within the unleavened week.

These Appointed Times are usually combined into one known as Passover.

Passover is a day of preparation on which God passed over the children of Israel when the blood was on their door post. Today, if you trust in Yeshua, his blood will provide protection and mercy over you.

Numbers 28:16-17 “16 On the fourteenth day of the first month the Lord’s Passover is to be held. 17 On the fifteenth day of this month there is to be a festival; for seven days eat bread made without yeast.” (NIV)
Exodus 12:17 “17 Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” (NIV)
Leviticus 23:6-8 “6 On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. 7 On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. 8 For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.” (NIV)

The yeast, or chametz in Hebrew, signifies sin and Yeshua is asking us to remove ourselves from the old habits, our old nature, and to live righteous lives.

Yeshua wants us to physically do the Passover celebration and the Unleavened Bread celebration to remember that He is our Passover lamb and He was our unleavened sacrifice.

You cannot partake of the meal of the lamb unless you know Yeshua as your salvation. You need a Kingdom membership for this because the meal signifies that we are doing this to remember what he did for us.

How does one get this membership?

1. Repent from sin
2. Trust in Yeshua
3. Change your ways

Passover Restrictions

Exodus 12:43-51

“43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:
“No foreigner may eat it. 44 Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. 49 The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.
50 “All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.” (NIV)

What do we do to prepare?

1: We must prepare months in advance.

Why? Some of us have more food or items than others. Depending on the amount of food that you have you must prepare. It is good to start looking at your inventory of things starting in January/February. Because we must eat what we have before the day arrives.
Exodus 13:7 “7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.” (NIV)
Leaven represents sin; we must get rid of it. Some people take the leaven and put it in their garage or in their car or take it to the office, but scripture tells us that we must not have any of it within anything we own. If you take the leaven to the garage, it is like taking some dirty magazines and putting them away for a week and then bringing them back out. This is not what the Lord wants.

2: Clean

We must clean out our houses, cars, cabinets, and even office space as much as we can.

3: Shop for food without leaven.

Making sure to look at the labels to make sure that the item does not contain yeast.

4: Cleansing of our spiritual body.

Yeshua wants us to look at ourselves and remove any sin that may be lurking around. He cleansed us once and for all, but we must be on alert of the schemes of the enemy and we must constantly be on alert with our behavior.
There is a purpose for doing this. No matter how hard we clean, no matter how hard we try to cleanse ourselves, the bottom line is that we need the blood of Yeshua to completely remove sin from our lives. This is why he wants us to remove all leaven from our houses. Take the toaster for example: It is full of crumbs and it is very hard to get rid of those crumbs; yet, we do our best but we need Yeshua’s help to clean all the crumbs out of it.

5: Eat “unleavened” for seven days.

There are many recipes online. Please do not get caught up with rules and traditions (e.g., most pastas do not have leaven, but some people insist on not eating it).

Items that do not have leaven:

• some chips
• pasta
• tacos
• rice
• some ice creams
• M&M’s
• Corn flakes

Items that may have leaven:

• cakes, cookies, etc.
• some flours
• baking powder
• some meats, turkey bacon
• most can soups
• Grape-Nuts and some other cereals
• breads (of course)

This is a festive celebration! We are celebrating our Freedom through Yeshua, our Passover unleavened Lamb. He is not dead, He is alive!

Many people invite each other to their homes to share an Unleavened Bread meal or snack.
First Fruits is the Resurrection of Yeshua. He did it once and for all and He was the first. We who trust follow Him.