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Have you ever wondered…

What was going on at the Last Supper?

What Passover has to do with Communion?

Where the bread and the cup came from

in the Lord’s Supper?

Then you ought to come

to our annual Passover

fellowship dinner to find out!

Christ In the Passover

Annually on Maundy Thursday
(The evening before Good Friday)

Passover Fellowship at Berry

The purpose of this annual event is not to try to "be Jewish" or to "observe" the Passover as a sacrament (as it was in the Old Testament era). Rather, the point of it is to help us understand the Lord's Supper - because the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is the New Testament fulfillment of the Old Testament promise of the Passover. Everything that Jesus did on the night of the Last Supper was part of the traditional Passover liturgy, but at each point He did something new - something wholly unexpected - that turned the Passover on it's head and demonstrated what He came to accomplish. In so doing, Jesus transformed the Old Testament sacrament into our New Testament sacrament. Walking through Jesus' Last Supper helps us understand both the promise and the fulfillment.

Questions? Here are some answers!

What's Maundy Thursday?

It's the day before Good Friday.

"Maundy" is an old English word that comes from the Latin word mandamus, which means "command," because of what Jesus says in John 13:34-35 at the Last Supper:

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What's Passover?

The Passover was an annual meal celebrated by the Old Testament people of God to commemorate the day when God caused Moses to lead His people out of slavery to Pharoah in Egypt so that they could be free to follow Him in the Promised Land.

Jesus' Last Supper with His disciples the night before He was betrayed and crucified was a Passover meal. During that meal, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by transforming the Passover into our New Testament Sacrament.

What's Good Friday?

Good Friday is the day we remember Jesus' death on the cross.

It's called "Good" because God turned this evil execution of the sinless, innocent Son of God into the greatest miracle and blessing in all of history.

As Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, what the world and Satan meant for evil (to murder Jesus and shut Him up), God meant for good (to redeem sinful people through the death of Jesus for us).

What is The Lord's Supper?

The Lord’s Supper (also known as Communion) is a sacrament - a sacred sign and seal of God’s covenant promises. It proclaims Christ’s death on the cross, serving as a visual and spiritual reminder of His sacrifice. Faith is required: believers are spiritually united with Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is a means of grace, strengthening believers’ spiritual life, nourishing their faith, and deepening their union with Christ and the church. It is not a mere memorial - while it remembers the past, it also signifies present communion with Christ and anticipates His future return.

How Is Jesus the Fulfillment of the Passover?

The Lord instituted two Sacraments in the Old Testament Church, Passover and Circumcision. The first is the Sacrament of redemption, which testifies to the fact that the Lord delivered His people from bondage and sin to freedom and holiness. The second is the Sacrament of Covenant inclusion, which testifies to the fact that the Lord has called us out from among the nations and has set us apart to be His own chosen nation.

Through His atoning Sacrifice, Jesus brought us from the Old Testament era to the New, from a time of looking forward to the cross to looking back to it. As a part of this, He did away with the bloody sacrifices and Sacraments, and instituted New Testament versions of the same two Sacraments. These are The Lord’s Supper and Baptism, which point to the same things that their Old Testament versions did.

With this in mind, we see on Maundy Thursday how Jesus fulfilled the Passover, and instituted the Lord’s Supper.

The feast of the Passover was given by the Lord to be a type (a foreshadowing) of the first coming and atonement of Jesus the Messiah. It was observed in remembrance of the past and in preparation for the future. Thousands of years after the Lord delivered His people from Pharaoh, He sent a man named John the Baptist, who came in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord (Isa. 40:1-11, Malachi 3:1, 4:5-6, John 1:23, Matt. 11:7-15). One day as he was baptizing in the Jordan, John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

After this, Jesus ministered for three and a half years. At the end of that time, as was the tradition of the Jews, the High Priest marched out from Jerusalem to Bethany where a lamb was selected to be slain for the Passover. As he led the lamb into Jerusalem and to the Temple, the people thronged the streets and sang the Hallel (Psalms 113-118), in which they sang, “Hallelujah!” “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

That same day, Jesus came down from Bethany and made His triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, and was greeted by the crowds with joy, because they believed Him to be the promised Messiah, though they misunderstood how (Luke 19:28ff.). The Jewish tradition said that Messiah would come down from the Mount of Olives into the Jerusalem and that He would weep over the city on His way. We see in Luke 19:37 & 41 that this is exactly what Jesus did as He came down in His Entry. And, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah (9:9), Jesus entered on a donkey as the people sang, rejoiced, and waved palm branches.

The lamb that was to be slain by the High Priest was led into the Temple and put in a prominent place of display to show that He was without spot or blemish as Moses had written (Ex. 12:5). In the same manner, Jesus went into the Temple and Cleansed it by driving out those who bought and sold Luke 19:45-48). He went into the Temple, putting Himself on display as He taught for four days in the Temple as the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes asked Him their most difficult questions.

On the 14th of Nisan, the Passover, at the third hour of the day (9:00 am), the High Priest took the lamb and ascended the altar so that he could tie the lamb in place on the altar. At the same time on that day, Jesus was tied to the tree on Mount Moriah (Mark 15:25, cf. Gen. 22—Abraham and Isaac, also Jn. 1:18). At the time that the Passover lamb was to be slain, (3:00 pm), the High Priest ascended the altar again, cut the throat of the lamb with a knife, and said the words, “It is finished.” These were the exact words that Jesus spoke when He died on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for His people (Jn. 19:28-30). Jesus died at exactly 3:00 pm (Mt. 27:45-46, 50).

The words “It is finished,” showed the people that the Sacrifice for the people was complete. When Jesus said these words, we see demonstrated to us that God Himself became our sacrifice, our atonement, to take away our sin and guilt before the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. And, just as the people were delivered from physical slavery in Egypt by the blood of the Passover lamb, so Jesus, the Lamb of God, has delivered Israel, His Church, from slavery to sin, death, and hell. And, what’s more, He has clothed us in His own righteousness, and has presented us to His Father blameless and without spot before Him in love (Eph. 5:22-33). Thus He perfectly fulfilled the promise of the Passover.

As we come year by year to Resurrection Sunday (“Easter”), and month by month to the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded time and again that Jesus has accomplished all the Old Testament hopes. Indeed, it is finished. We are free from the Law and its condemnation, free from sin, and free in Christ. We now stand before the Father blameless and wholly acceptable. That is the Gospel of the Passover. That is Good News.

Sunday School 10:00-10:45 Worship 11:00