The Clarion, Mar. 2021
Welcome
March is such a great month because it brings new life. The ground begins to thaw, and the spring flowers start poking their heads above the ground, and everything that was dead comes alive. This year Passover, the day that Yeshua died, which is the 14th day of Nisan on the Jewish calendar is on March 27th. It was the day that the Passover lambs were slaughtered. Unless you work at a slaughtering plant, most people cannot realize the amount of blood that is shed.
It was no different on the day of Passover, thousands of lambs were slaughtered. It was on this day at the very time that this was going on that our Messiah Yeshua was also slaughtered. Yeshua shed His precious blood so that we may have life. So that we may have eternal life. Should we forget this? Can we forget this? You may say “NO!” But when we say, “We are saved by grace,” and not by the shed blood of Yeshua, we have lost the meaning of the power that is in the shed blood of Messiah. For it is by the power of the blood that we have been washed clean and saved. The devil knows it and we should say it. Yes, we have been saved by God’s mercy (grace), but the power is in the blood. Death came, but by the 16 th day of Nisan once again we had life; the Resurrection, for in that shed blood was the power to rise from the dead. We too, will rise from death to life, because Yeshua, whose very name means salvation, made the way for us to have Eternal Life.
Happy Resurrection Day!
Try to Remember
There was a song out back in 1960 called “Try to Remember”
I want to focus on the last line.
It says, “Try to remember, and if you remember, Then follow.”
How important it is to remember. We remember birthdays and anniversaries. We remember so many memories of very important times in our lives. Even bad memories of people’s passing. Every year we pause and remember 911 and we also commemorate the Holocaust Rememberance day. So why is it that we remember certain things and forget other things? I guess it’s just human nature. The song above asks us to remember, and when we do, to follow. But follow what? Follow the memory. Sit back and remember all that took place during that time that you are remembering. It’s kind of like the saying, “Stop and smell the roses.” Well Yeshua knew that we needed to remember, and not just remember, but to stop and think about the whole memory. What was it that we were to remember? Let’s look at Luke 22:14-20, People call this passage the Last Supper, but it was actually the Lord’s Seder.
“When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.”
Why would our Messiah tell us to remember Him at the Seder? Paul tells us in
1 Corinthians 5:7 this,
“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”
It is the custom to go throughout your home and remove all that is leaven. Paul is telling the people that they not only needed to clean out their homes, but their hearts. Let’s take a closer look at this.
When God told Moses to slaughter a lamb and put the blood on the doorposts, this was actually a picture of the coming Messiah who would one day be the Passover Lamb. Remember John spoke it first, John 1:29, “The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Yeshua coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
We also see Abraham, when asked to offer his son Issac.
Genesis 22:7-8, gives us a window into that conversation.
“ Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.”
Again we see in John 8:56 which tells us, like John’s revelation, Abraham also saw the Lamb of God. “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”
We know that God did provide for Abraham that day, but this too was a picture of the future when God the Father would offer up His Son as the Lamb.
So let’s get back to the Seder.
The matzah, the unleavened bread is a big part of the Seder along with four cups of wine or juice. The matzah is unleavened, because leaven represents sin, and Yeshua is the blameless, perfect Lamb of God who was sinless. But the matzah also looks like a picture of the suffering servant, striped and pierced, as the prophet describes the Messiah in Isaiah 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
Yeshua is the Passover Lamb and He Himself tells us so. At the Seder when Yeshua lifts up the matzah and breaks it, that piece of matzah is called the afikomen (hidden). Prior to the actual food meal, this matzah is broken, wrapped in linen, and hidden away. Following the dinner, the matzah reappears. Yeshuas’ body was broken, wrapped in linen, buried, and raised on the third day. This is why He says at this point, “This is My body, which is being given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” Yeshua wants us to remember that He is the Passover Lamb, and we as believers in Yeshua, must follow in doing this exact thing. Yeshua died on the cross at the same time that the lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover. This is no coincidence. It is important to remember this. Why? Because Yeshua knew that over the ages people would forget that He is the Passover Lamb. By the fourth century the Emperor Constantine changed God’s Appointed Times. He made new times with new names and the church has been following these man made times since. He called it Good Friday instead of Passover. He called it
Easter instead of Resurrection. He called it Christmas, instead of Sukkot. He changed the dates and the meanings. When we think of Passover, we think of Moses and the people leaving Egypt, and we say. “Well, we never experienced this so why do we need to observe it?” But we have experienced it, for all of us, when we accept the sacrifice of Messiah, we then have crossed over from death to life as John 5:24 tells us, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life”.
The death angel passed over the homes with the blood on the door and we too, crossed over from death to life when we put the blood of Messiah on our hearts. Egypt represents sin and when we accept the Messiah we leave behind our sins. But as the song says, when you remember, follow. Yeshua was also telling His disciples that we too, must pick up our cross, crucify our flesh and die to ourselves. So you see when you remember, you must remember the whole memory, the whole story, not just bits and pieces. We have reduced the Seder to what we have come to call, “Communion” but with communion we are not remembering the whole memory, because it is not in the setting of the Passover Seder. The Scriptures tell us about that whole night, and the long day that came afterwards. Read John chapters 13-19, this is remembering the whole memory, because Yeshua speaks to His disciples about many things, things that we too must be doing.
Yeshua specifically told us to remember, and to do that it can not be on any given day, but only at the Seder, for it is here that all of this has it’s meaning. Our spiritual journey begins at the Seder, just like back in the day for the Jewish people. We are Judeo-Chrisitans and we have our roots in Judaism, if we like it or not. Yeshua is the fulfilment of all things, but with the fulfilment that does not end all things. That is only the beginning of all things. Now in no way am I saying that we should become Jews. Actually Christianity is the fulfilment of Judaism. When the two are put together it makes a whole. Let me show you what I mean. Paul tells us this in Romans 11:13-16, “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.”
Paul is speaking to us and we have a job to do, and that job is to be light, not only to the world, but to the Jewish people. We do not show them the true Messiah. “NO,” because we have made Him a Messiah that does not keep Judaism. They will never come to the truth knowing that the Messiah does not keep Torah, because according to the Torah, He would be a false prophet.
Paul goes on in Romans 11:17-24
“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.”
So now is it us who has the unbelief? This is probably the least taught Scripture in the Bible. Paul is telling us that we were grafted into Judaism. Judaism is not just law. In fact since the destruction of the temple about a third of the laws no longer pertain and since we do not live in Israel, another third of the laws do not pertain. But what does pertain is the Ten Commandments and the expansion of those Commandments, many of which Yeshua Himself expanded, like in Matthew Chapters 6-7, and of course, the keeping of the Biblical Appointed Times of God, which man changed, not God. That is why we are Judeo-Chrisitans, a term that the church has gotten away from using. Why? Because we no longer remember. Yeshua knew that the day would come when we would no longer remember our roots. But we can not separate what God has joined together. The Seder reminds us of this. After the meal the regular Seder continues with the Cup of Salvation. It was this cup that Yeshua held up and blessed, saying “This cup that is poured out for you.” Yeshua is our food and drink. He is the Bread of Life and the well of Salvation. Paul also wrote this in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26,“For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Yeshua, on the night He was betrayed, took matzah, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
We like to say that we are under the new covenant and not the old, but let’s look at Jeremiah 31:31-34 and in Hebrews 8:8-12, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
What we call old says the same in what we call new.
Hebrews 9:15 goes on to tell us, “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” So one, we now have a new mediator of the covenant, it is no longer Moses, but Yeshua and two, now we have the promise of eternal life. The rest has to do with the house of Israel and the house of Judah and those promises have not yet been put into place. So let us remember what Yeshua wanted us to remember and that was that He shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins as Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “ Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
This Passover I ask you “Remember all that you need to remember and follow.”
Excerpts from the Book, “King Of the Jews” by D. Thomas Lancaster
“The Trumpets, The Gates, and the Curtain, (3:00 P.M.) Mark 15:33-37
At half past the eighth hour (2:30 p.m.) the priesthood blew shofar-trumpets in the Temple. A tekiah, shevarim, tekiah blast was the signal to open the gates. A short distance away, just outside the city wall, the sound of the shoar-trumpets blowing reached the ears of the three men hanging on the execution stakes. The heavy gates of the Temple courts swung open and the first wave of Israelites with lambs ready for slaughter poured into the courtyard. Row upon row of priests stood attention in lines, ready to receive the virtual flood of blood.”
“Within moments, the white-plastered and polish, two-story altar of the Temple was running red with the blood of lambs. Channels and gutters cut into the stones of the floor carried away rivers of blood. At the same moment, just outside the city walls, the last drops of life bled out of the Master’s body. The Master cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” (Mark 15:34)
With a loud cry, Yeshua breathed His last. The sun burst through the darkness and the curtain of the Temple was rent.”
The Women Stand Vigil, 3:00-5:00 P.M. (Mark 15:40-41)
“A group of women from Galilee and Jerusalem had followed the execution party from the city that morning. Six hours later, they were still waiting at the cross when He died. Even then they did not leave Him, but fulfilled the Jewish custom of keeping a watcher (shomer) with a corpse until burial. They stayed at the cross for several more hours. As they mounted in silent vigil before His body, the sacrifice of the Passover lambs continued in the Temple. The dead lambs were hung on hooks and on wooden poles, their forearms spread in a crucifixion pose as they were skinned and prepared for roasting”…. “All the while the Levites led the people in chanting out the melodies of the Psalms of the Hillel (Psalms 113-118). The sound of their voices provided the background music for the death of the King”…. “Yeshua and the twelve had sung those same Psalms just the night before, at the Last Seder.”
I would like to draw your attention to our brochure on our website called “Where Did The Blood Go?”
Passover Unleavened Brownies
Ingredients: 3/4 cup cake meal… (many stores carry cake meal for Passover, otherwise it may have to be ordered online.)
1 cup butter or margarine
4oz of bitter chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 eggs well beaten
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (maybe excluded)
Mix: Melt chocolate, butter in a saucepan, low heat. Add sugar gradually, add beaten eggs and vanilla and stir in the cake meal. Remove from heat, and add nuts.
Bake: Bake in a greased 9×9 pan at 400 degrees for 20-40 minutes or until done.
Check with a toothpick.
Frost or powder sugar or leave plain, according to your preference.
Sandiegram/Hail the King
Copyright 2010
You Redeemed Us
On the cross they nailed You, Lord. On the cross, You died for us.
On the cross, You saved us. On the cross, You proved Your love
On the cross, You forgave us our sins. On the cross, You justified us.
On the cross, a crown of thorns You wore. On the cross, You gave us hope.
On the cross, You redeemed us.
Hebrew Corner
Yodי
Yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, with the numerical value of ten. It has the sound of a y. Yod is the smallest of the letters, the atom, the letter that all other letters begin and end. Jewish tradition, yod is a dot, a divine point of energy. Yod indicates God’s omnipresence. Yod depicts the geometry of creation. It begins with Yod, (the dot), then moves downward, from the divine to the created order to form Vav,( the hook) of creation. Then it moves outward in the horizontal realm of Dalet (the doorway of creation). Since Yeshua upholds the world by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) and Yod is part of every Hebrew letter, Yod is considered the starting point of the presence of God in all things– the “spark” of the Spirit in everything.
Because the letter Yod is the smallest letter it represents humility. Because of its humility Yod is adorned with a small ascending prong that points to God.
The word Yod means arm or hand. Being that it has the numerical value of ten we see many things in God’s word that have ten, like the Ten commandments, ten generations from Adam to Noah and Noah to Abraham. Ten plagues in Egypt and many more. Yod is the first letter of the divine name YHVH and His son Yeshua. Just a few other names that start with Yod, Jacob– Ya’ akov, Israel– Yisrael and Jews–Yehudim.
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