Category Archives: Passover to Pentecost

Passover to Pentecost – Jesus’ Four

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The time period of Passover to Pentecost (Counting the Omer) is, was, and will be an important event in the history of the Jews but also for Christians!  It defined the start of the Jewish calendar and propelled them as a group to gain the “Promised Land.”  Jesus’ life and ministry were to fulfill the “type and shadow” of Passover and the meeting of God in the desert.  The work of salvation had to be finished at Passover!  Jesus, however, had other tasks to accomplish: send the Holy Spirit and birth His Church!

In Jesus’ life, there are four recorded Passovers in the Gospels.  John, in his Gospel, used the term “Passover” the most and records three of the four Feast.  Luke talks about two of them and Mark and Matthew cover the last one where He was offered up as our sacrifice. The four recorded Passovers and Counting of the Omers are:

  • Luke 2:11; He also writes the story of the Ascension to Pentecost.
  • John 2:13 to 4:43 (this ending story is a guess)
  • John 6:4 to 7:1
  • John 12 to 21 and continues into the Book of Acts. (See After the Cloud)

One thing that all four of these Passovers have in common is that Jesus returns to Galilee.

  1. In Luke 2 Jesus was twelve when He gave His parents a prelude to His ministry. A fun thought here is Nicodemus may have been present for that question and answer session.
  2. The second recorded Passover was the start of Jesus’ public ministry. Nicodemus was definitely part of this story and he was in a question and answer session with Jesus.  The time frame of John 2 to 4, I chose for the “Counting of the Omer” because of what happened in these chapters.  Jesus and the disciples were baptizing (in the Jordan) and going to Jacob’s Well in Samaria, this is where Joshua went during his “first fifty” days, and the “blessings and curses” were read on the two mountains.
  3. Jesus’ “second Passover” in His ministry period is not well defined. In John 6 and 7 more “shadowing and mirroring” is done: Jesus feeds the 5000, talks about manna and the true Bread of Life, and foretells Judas’ betrayal.  The group ends back up in Galilee and the next reference in the chapter is to the Feast of Tabernacles (7thmonth of the year).
  4. The third and final Passover is what Christians now associate with Easter. (See the Day of Preparation.)

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Passover to Pentecost – Week 5

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This week there are “second” chances that we are looking at.

  1. Passover to Pentecost – The Book of Ruth
  2. Passover to Pentecost – The Second Passover
  3. Passover to Pentecost – Hezekiah’s Passover
  4. Passover to Pentecost – John 21
  5. Passover to Pentecost – Moses and His Second Chance
  6. Passover to Pentecost – Ephesians 4:22
  7. Passover to Pentecost – The Great Commission   

Passover to Pentecost – Lord of the Sabbath

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Lord of the Sabbath

In Matthew 12:8, Mark 2: 28, and Luke 6:5 is the story of the disciples harvesting and eating grain on the Sabbath.  Jesus’ replied to those complaining, “The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.”  Then not much more is said about this passage/idea. In John’s story of the crucifixion that statement is made very clear!

John’s Gospel has the most references to Passover, especially the three that Jesus spent with His disciples, but the last one, John 12 -20, will be our focus for this blog.

  • John 12: 1 timestamps the action as “six days before Passover.” This is when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet.
  • John 13: 1 is “just before Passover” and it would have been the Thursday of that week.Jesus sends Peter and John off to prepare for the eating of the Passover meal.  But Thursday is before what the Jews would call the “Day of Preparation”, when they would kill the Lamb and paint the doorframe.
  • John 18: 28 is early on Friday morning the “Day of Preparation” and the Jews are trying to stay “Clean” so they can eat the Passover.
  • John 19: 14, 31, and 42 again mentions the “Day of Preparation.” Christians now call this Good Friday.  This is when the Jews would have killed the lambs and is when Jesus died.
  • John 20: 1 is “early on the first day of the week.” Christians call this Easter!

So why does this make Jesus Lord of the Sabbath?  Is our communion really the same as the Passover sharing of wine and bread?  Is Easter and Passover the same thing?

I will answer these questions this way: Jesus and the disciples broke tradition and ate the “Passover Meal” and shared communion twenty-four hours to soon. So even though these things happen around Passover they did not happen ON Passover!  Jesus did something new but He had to so that He could fulfill the requirementsof Passover.  It is probable that He died just as the lambs were being killed in the Temple for the Passover meal.

I see this as Jesus doing what had to be done to fulfill all things of the Law!  I am not sure that for us it should cause a major change in traditions, but it does show that Jesus is Lord over the Sabbath and all of our holidays.

SECOND THOUGHT – Did the disciples understand what was happening when they ate early?  If they did were they questioning Jesus as to why?

pic : http://clipart.christiansunite.com/1395312061/Communion Clipart/Communion005.jpg

Passover to Pentecost – Week 4

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The reflections in this fourth week of Counting the Omer is focused on what I think Jesus was doing during His last forty days before the Ascension.  Jesus was finishing the ground work for the Church.

Jesus opened and closed His earthly ministry with forty day periods; the first was to ready Him for ministry, the second was to ready His disciples.

  1. Passover to Pentecost – Class in Session
  2. Passover to Pentecost – The Basic Package
  3. Passover to Pentecost – The Beta Program
  4. Passover to Pentecost – Leaders
  5. Passover to Pentecost – Miracles, Signs, and Wonders
  6. Passover to Pentecost – Divisions
  7. Passover to Pentecost – The Churches of Revelation

Passover to Pentecost – Nicodemus

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John records the story of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3.  Jesus teaches us a truth starting in verse three about how to enter the Kingdom of God – be born of the water and the Spirit.  In this time period of the Counting of the Omer (Passover to Pentecost) Jesus ties the Old Testament shadows to the New Testament fulfillments. This maybe the second example of New Testament Passovers, the first one is in Luke when Jesus stayed behind to talk to the priest in the Temple.

In the first three chapters of John there are two different pictures of the Passover and the Counting of the Omer.  The first is Jesus’ baptism and His forty day trip into the wilderness and the second is John 3:5 + 6.  But we need to include chapter one and two in this second picture of Passover.

John 2:23 is one reference to a New Testament Passover.  Jesus after His baptism picked some disciples (due to the testimony of John the Baptist), told Mary, His mother, that His “time had not yet come” and still preformed a miracle, and cleared the Temple of commercial activity. How do these reflect the Passover to the Jew of Jesus’ day and to us?

  • We will start with the picking of some of His disciples – There is a pre-Passover fast where the firstborn males are recognized. When Jesus picked those disciples, He was doing a form of the Fast of the Firstborn.
  • The miracle of the wine at the wedding is a complex, in my thinking. It could represent the miracles that led up to the first Passover.  The fact that it was wine, a “yeast” made drink, is interesting because one of the “gods” that was humiliated was the Egyptian beer goddess.
  • Jesus clearing the Temple is a picture of cleaning your home of yeast before Passover.It is interesting that the Jews were more concerned about the authority to upset the selling tables than the “right or wrong” of Jesus doing it.  He did this again just before His last Passover.
  • Jesus’ command to be born of water and Spirit reflect the “baptism” at the Red Sea and meeting God at Mount Sinai. And what would happen on the Birthday of the Church, Pentecost.

Jesus’ response to Mary in John 2: 4 about the wine finally has been settled for me.  His “time” or start of His ministry was Passover! So, it was before His time!