A special
celebration!
Have you had some special celebration recently? - some event
you were happy to do something special to remember. Here is the
story of a special celebration that
Jesus had with His disciples, and it is one He would want
you to be able and eager to keep!
Jesus' life was in great danger. His enemies had even one of Jesus'
twelve disciples, Judas Iscariot, as their spy "watching for an
opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present."
1*.
Many years earlier the whole nation of Israel had been slaves in
Egypt. God had told Pharaoh to set them free, but time and again he
had refused, in spite of the awful plagues God had sent upon Egypt.
Finally God had sent the angel of death to every home. On that one
day a death had come into every home in Egypt - yet in the homes of
the Israeli slaves not one person had died!
You see, in obedience to God's instructions, the Israeli slaves
had killed a lamb earlier that day in each of
their homes. The angel of death had to PASS OVER any home where the
blood of the lamb had been sprinkled outside the door.
The death of the lamb had saved everyone in those homes
from death and from continued slavery! 2*.
The Jews were to celebrate this special day by having a Passover
meal every year.
It was now time for the Passover feast. Judas may have thought that
during the meal would be a good time to arrange to have Jesus
arrested because no crowds would be around Him then. But Jesus
didn't let Judas find out where the meal was going to be! He sent
Peter and John to make the preparations. He told them, "As you
enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow
him to the house that he enters… make preparations there."
3*.
When the meal time came Jesus led His disciples to the prepared
room and said, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with
you before I suffer." 4*.Jesus knew that later that very same day He
was going to be killed. Jesus, "the Lamb of God", was about to
be put to death in order to be able to take away the sin of the
world! 5*.
From then on all Jesus' true followers have had a more wonderful
"Passover" to celebrate! The death of the Lamb of God once and
for all 6*.on the
cross assures us that God's judgment of death for sin will PASS
OVER every sinner who trusts in Jesus. 7*. Saved by the death of the
Lamb! 5*.
True and simple faith in Jesus will save you from the certain
destruction that your sins deserve from God, 8*. and it will rescue you from the
awful slavery to sin and Satan that all mankind is in.
9*.
All this is what the true believer is thinking of as often as he or
she has that special celebration - taking both the bread and the
wine of the Last Supper in memory of Jesus' death. 10*.
Read about a special celebration in
Luke chapter 22, verses 3-16.
Bye for now,
John Nixon, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland. P31HD98. Contact: jnixonj@gmail.com
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Footnotes. Bible quotations from
N.I.V.
1 Luke 22:3-6.
2 Exodus 12:1-14.
3 Luke 22:8-12.
4 Luke 22:15.
5 John 1:29. 1st Peter
2:24.
6 Hebrews 7:27. 9:26.
10:10.
7 Romans 6:23. John
5:24.
8 John 3:16-18, 36. Romans
3:21-26.
9 Titus 2:11-14.
10 1st Corinthians
11:23-26.
