The Declaration

Matthew 26:2 "Ye know that after (TWO) days is the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.

Introduction:

Jesus said: "In two days is the Passover." I do not think it is exaggerating to read into this all the force of the definite article. This was not to be just "Passover." This was the Passover that would give full and complete significance to the ceremony that had been observed ever since the Passover deliverance from Egypt, and still is observed as Passover among the Jews of the world today. This was to be THE Passover!

How so?

1. The IMPORTANCE of the Passover to Jesus: it was not just an empty ritual, it was something He regularly did as a Jew. But this was to be something new.
2. The PASSOVER was a living reminder that God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. The covenant was IMPLICIT from the beginning: with our first parents: and in these early years of history God made covenant with devout men, especially with Abraham, on a personal basis, with revelation that satisfied them.

   The covenant was made EXPLICIT at Sinai, when Moses brought back from the mountain the Ten Commandments that have never been repealed. The Jewish nation was to be a testimony to all the nations of the world. They were NOT God's favorites, chosen to the exclusion of all others. They were highly favored, and were to be the channels of God's revelation.

   The covenant was INTERNALIZED at Pentecost: Jeremiah and others had predicted this (Jer. 31:33 "But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord. "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.") Jesus had said as much in his Sermon on the Mount ("But I say unto you . . . ")

   The covenant will be CONSUMMATED in the Parousia. Sixteen times in the scriptures we read not only of a covenant with God, but of an everlasting covenant. While the Jews of Christ's time focused no doubt on the deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, and their identity as a people because of and in the light of that deliverance, Jesus had all these depths of meanings in view as He established the Christian Passover.

3. The youngest child in the household asks, at the beginning of the meal: (see Exodus 12:26) "What mean ye by this service?"
   1. The Exodus deliverance/ remembered to all time the very identity of the Jews and , indeed, of Christian faith is bound up in this miracle of God's deliverance.
      • IT WAS A TIME OF JUDGMENT: the judgment of God on people who had been cruel and unjust. God had heard the cries of the sufferers. Through Moses, God gave the Egyptians opportunity to change. I know the scriptures imply that "God hardened Pharaoh's heart." But there is NOT one God of the Old Testament, and another of the New. God hardened Pharaoh's heart because Pharaoh would not respond to God's word. The same sun hardens the clay that softens the wax.

        By the same token, God may be said to harden the heart of the unbeliever today: in his sermon before he was martyred Stephen said to the religious leaders: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart you are always resisting the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did..."

      • AND IT WAS A TIME OF SEPARATION

        Those who obeyed, and prepared, and who sprinkled the blood of the Lamb on their doorposts were saved. And those who hardened their hearts, and ignored the clear judgment of God were bereft and lost. God had striven with Pharaoh . . . there had been great warning.

        NOW THERE WAS DELIVERANCE AND LIFE ON THE ONE HAND AND JUDGMENT AND DEATH ON THE OTHER

   2. Jesus gives notice: the Passover takes place in two days! We need to "get ready" — to "prepare."

      Like children, let us ask in faith, in wonder, in expectancy: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WHY IS THIS NIGHT DIFFERENT FROM ALL OTHER NIGHTS?

      We "know" the answer.

      But during the next six weeks may the Lord Himself prepare our hearts and attune our lives FOR THE EXODUS! AND, INDEED, FOR THE PAROUSIA! Remember: It will be a time of JUDGMENT! It will be a time of SEPARATION; put the 'leaven' out of our houses!

Practical ways to prepare:

1. A TIME OF WEEKLY FASTING
2. SOME EXTRA EMPHASIS ON OPENNESS BEFORE THE WORD
3. REGULAR PRAYER WITH A LOVED ONE; WITH FAMILY IF POSSIBLE; perhaps just continuing in the prayer group you are already in. 4. Pastor Nielson is starting a second "Spiritual Gifts" course during the month of March. If this appeals to you we will find "room" for you. See him.

DIRECTLY TO COMMUNION