Wash One Another’s Feet. The Bread of Life.

 

Thursday, 21st. April 2016,  Start of Passover.

Jesus and the New Testament Passover. For the kids to learn.

“Every year baptized members of the Church of God meet together to observe the Passover in a particular way. Here is why and the Bible story behind it.

At first Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet.

PDF to print for family reading with coloring page

Jesus and His family had always kept the Passover, as well as all of God’s annual festivals. But the last Passover Jesus kept was quite different.

First, He shocked His disciples by performing an act of humble service. Then He introduced symbols to remind them of the meaning behind His coming sacrifice.

Three new things

Here are three new things that He did:  He washed their feet. Jesus and the disciples gathered together in a special room at the beginning of the 14th of Abib at twilight. Jesus knew that He would soon be killed, and He said to them, “I have really wanted to eat this Passover with you before I die. I won’t eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.””

Questions

Here are some questions to think about or talk about as a family:

1. Why did Jesus wash the disciples’ feet?
2. What do the unleavened bread and wine mean at the New Testament Passover service?

More at: http://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/bible-study/bible-stories/jesus-and-the-new-testament-passover/

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Upcoming Holy Days

Passover
April 22, 2016 - Observed evening before
Feast of Unleavened Bread
April 23-29, 2016

You Also Ought to Wash One Another’s Feet

John 13:14

“If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”

“Washing feet was a sign of kind hospitality, generally assigned to the lowest slave. It was dirty work considering the dusty roads of the Holy Land. Yet our Creator and Savior was willing to lower Himself yet again as a powerful lesson we are to copy.

Washing feet as part of the New Testament Passover reminds us to always look for ways to serve, whether menial or major. The Christian life is a life of service, with a foot-washing attitude.”

Study more about Passover in our article “Passover and Forgiveness” and our booklet From Holidays to Holy Days: God’s Plan for You.

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The Bread of Life

“Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread hold a powerful and meaningful metaphor for Jesus Christ's life in us.

The real reason for a Christian to keep the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread is to learn that we can’t really put out sin without the help of Jesus Christ, the true bread of life.

“I thought that sounded like an idea for a college hazing prank,” said the older gentleman. He had just heard me give a sermon explaining why and how to keep the biblical festival of the Days of Unleavened Bread. “Put out the leavened bread,” I had said. “Look in all the places of your home where crumbs and particles of bread and crackers may have fallen during the year. Make sure you get out every last crumb, and don’t forget to empty your vacuum cleaner.”

Looking back on that sermon I think I spent too much time telling people how to physically clean their home and not enough time on the deeper spiritual meaning behind the commanded ritual of putting out leaven—leaven being a symbol of spiritual sin. Now, years later, when I give sermons explaining to people how to keep this festival I teach them to remove leavened products, like bread, cakes and crackers and leavening agents like yeast and baking soda, from their homes. But I do not dwell at length on this.

I have learned it is far more important—in fact the real spiritual lesson behind putting out the physical leaven—is to focus on putting out spiritual sin from my life. The real reason for a Christian to keep this festival is to learn that we can’t really put out sin without the help of Jesus Christ, the true bread of life.

The Days of Unleavened Bread give us a seven-day period to focus on our need to work against sin with the help of Christ’s life within us.

God’s teaching is to eat unleavened bread during this festival. Why? The answer lies in understanding two passages of Scripture from the New Testament. In the first, the apostle Paul is writing to a Gentile church in Corinth which never had the knowledge of this festival prior to responding to hearing the gospel. In his first letter to the church Paul tells them to keep this festival with a deeper spiritual understanding.

They had a false pride because of sin, and he told them to remove the sinner from their fellowship so they could face spiritual reality. “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).”

More at: http://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/blogs/the-bread-of-life

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As far as I know, all the leavening is now out of the church’s dining hall and my house.

Tonight, we will meet at the church and have the foot washing just as Jesus (Yeshua) did all those years ago.

The Passover starts at dusk today.