Season + Purpose Part 2

Elder Ho Kien Keong
23-04-2017

Ecclesiastes 3:1
To everything there is a Season, and a time to very Purpose under heaven.

We need to understand the season that we are living in so that we can respond.

Acts 13:36
"For David... served the purpose of God in his generation"

David grew up in a season where it wanted a king. So there was King Saul but he did not do according to God's purpose. God through Samuel saw David.

What did God see in David's life?

In 1 Samuel 17, we see this young shepherd boy scolded by his brothers. He said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine who defied..." to Goliath.

We are living in a season of religious intolerance and terror attacks.

Things have changed in this season that we are in.

How are we responding as Christians in this season?

Give up? Pack our bags and leave the country?

Remain uncommitted and waiting for the right conditions?

We have become numb. 

Surely as children as God, we deserve better, right?

We cry to God: "God, why?"

John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Genesis 47:11
11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land,the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed.

Exodus 1:14
14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

The situation that we are facing in this season demands that we cry out to God. 

Exodus 2:23-25New King James Version (NKJV)

23 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

Exodus 3:7-10New King James Version (NKJV)

7 And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people whoare in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Moses came out with a burden. For 40 years, God remembered this man. God called Moses to fulfill His plans and purposes.

God gives to each of us a burden and a passion.

1) God hears the cries of His people.

Exodus 3:7-9
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.

When there is passion, there is  burden.

This is a season for us to rise up.

"Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point--a great crossroads in our life."

"From that point we will either go towards a more and more slow, lazy and useless Christian life... or..."

"We become more and more on fire, giving our upmost for His highest - our best for His glory."
- Oswald Chambers

2) God chooses the right season and the right person to carry out His purposes.

Example of Moses. God saw in him a heart that was not ready. Perhaps for 40 years he was an arrogant and self-righteous young man. 

The character must match the burden and the passion.

Character is important to a leader, to a father, to a member of a church.

2 Chronicles 7:14
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

We need to turn from our wicked ways. It is not okay to live in sin. It is not okay to compromise.

Christians in Malaysia are God's people--spiritual Israel.

Statement of the American Church:
"When the church become the church, we will see things change in our nation. I believe we have no one to blame except ourselves when it comes to our current state as a nation."

"We have failed to live out God's Word in our world. We have become a nation of whimpy "Sunday" Christians who look no different than those who are lost in their sin."

3) Burden and Passion placed in our hearts by God often give birth to Purpose.

Example of the prophet Elijah. (1 Kings 17-19) Elijah heard that Jezebel was after his life so he ran from Mount Carmel to Mount Horeb. He wanted to hear from God again. The Lord didn't speak to him in the powerful or earthquake or fire. Then came a gentle whisper. Elijah heard God speaking to him in a gentle, quiet voice. "Elijah, I have a purpose for you. Find Elisha for double anointing."

"Without silence and solitude, our lives are in danger."
- Henri Nouwen

In the example of Elijah, it was a gentle whisper.

For Moses, he had to have a personal encounter with God before he could lead the people out of Egypt. He had to grapple with God. God dealt with him. "Look at the staff. Throw it down and it becomes a snake. Pick it up and it becomes a staff." After he surrendered his staff to God in Exodus 4:28, he took his wife and sons on a donkey and took the staff of God in his hands. He gave up his career and God used him to fulfill God's purpose.

From Exodus 6-14 each chapter starts with "Then the Lord said to Moses..."

Moses had an obedient heart.

A gentle whisper

A personal encounter

An obedient heart

The first 39 chapters of Isaiah were all about bad news. 

In Isaiah 40:1:
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

God is soverign. He does not make mistake. He does not grow weary.

Isaiah 40:27-31
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Passover – A Sign of Israel; Preparation of Jesus for the Cross

Rev Colin Chow

11-04-2017

It has always been about Jesus. It’s still all about Jesus. And it will be about the second coming of Christ.

Mark 14:12-16New International Version (NIV)

The Last Supper

¹² On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?”

¹³ So he sent two of his disciples, telling them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. ¹⁴ Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ ¹⁵ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

¹⁶ The disciples left, went into the city and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

Mark and Luke described the location where Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples as a large upper room (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12) which seems similar to Luke’s description of the upper room (Acts 1:13) where the disciples gathered after Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after His resurrection.

Isaiah 53New International Version (NIV)

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb that gave His life for His people.

Cleaning the leaven from the homes

Exodus 12:14-24New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ¹⁸ In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

²¹ Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.²² Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe.

 None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. ²³ When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

²⁴ “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 

In Jesus’ burial, He fulfilled the unleavened bread.

In Jesus’ resurrection, He fulfilled the first fruits.

Why Celebrate the Passover or Pesach (Hebrew: פֶּסַח Pesah or Pesakh)?

Exodus 12:25-27New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. ²⁶ And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ ²⁷ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

Seder (Hebrew: סֵדֶר‎ sedeʁ) means “Order” or “Arrangement”

Haggadah (Hebrew: הַגָּדָה) means “Telling”

The Passover Seder involves a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. (Exodus 12) Seder customs include telling the story, discussing the story, drinking four cups of wine, eating unleavened bread (matzah), partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate, and reclining in celebration of freedom.

God told the people of Israel to celebrate this day as a festival of the LORD – and He intended it as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.

Lighting the Candle

Exodus 13:21-22New International Version (NIV)

²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

Hebrews 12:29New International Version (NIV)

²⁹ for our “God is a consuming fire.”

The Ten (10) Plagues (Hebrew: מכות מצרים, Makot Mitzrayim)

One of the most dramatic moments of the Passover seder comes with the recitation of the 10 plagues that, the Bible says, God brought on the Egyptians to persuade Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. 

The Plagues:

1. Blood (Hebrew: דָם dam) (Exodus 7:14-24)
2. Frogs (Hebrew: צְּפַרְדֵּעַ tzefardea) (Exodus 7:25-8:15)
3. Gnats or Lice (Hebrew: כִּנִּים kinnim) (Exodus 8:16-19)
4. Flies (Hebrew: עָרוֹב arov) (Exodus 8:20-32)
5. Livestock (Hebrew: דֶּבֶר dever) (Exodus 9:1-7)
6. Boils (Hebrew: שְׁחִין shechin) (Exodus 9:8-12)
7. Hail (Hebrew: בָּרָד barad) (Exodus 9:13-35)
8. Locusts (Hebrew: אַרְבֶּה arbeh) (Exodus 10:1-20)
9. Darkness (Hebrew: חוֹשֶך chosekh) (Exodus 10:21-29)
10. Slaying of the firstborn (Hebrew: מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת makat bechorot) (Exodus 11:1-12:36)

The Passover Seder Plate (Hebrew: קערה ke'ara)

Maror (Hebrew: מָרוֹר‎‎ mārôr) or Marror, also known as Chazeret:

Bitter herbs (horseradish root, watercress or some other strong radish or vegetable) bring tears to the eyes to remember the tears and bitterness of slavery that the people of Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל Yisraʾel) endured before their escape from Egypt. It is also symbolic of the worldly system ruled by the Adversary.

Zeroah or z'roa (Hebrew: זרוֹע zrōā):

The shank bone of the Passover/Pesach brings to mind deliverance which the Lord God wrought for us by the blood of this sacrifice. It represents the roasted lamb which could no longer be sacrificed as the Temple had been destroyed in 70 C.E. So we no longer eat roast lamb at Passover/Pesach because Jesus/Yeshua (ישוע) was the perfect sacrificial lamb at Passover/Pesach offered one time for all times. Hence the zeroah represents the Arm of YHWH who would redeem the world.

Charoset (Hebrew: חרס cheres, meaning "clay"):

Mixed fruit salad made from finely chopped apples, chopped nuts, dates, cinnamon and wine reminds us of the mortar which the Israelites (Hebrew: בני ישראל‎‎ Bnei Yisra'el) were forced to use to make bricks without straws in Egypt, enhancing the bitterness of slavery, yet were tempted with the sweetness of hope of redemptions promised to Abraham (Avraham), originally Abram, years ago. The sweetness of the apples in contrasting from the bitterness of slavery is a symbol of hope.

Beitza (Hebrew: ביצה‎‎):

The egg symbolises new growth as fresh vegetation springs forth after winter, giving fresh hope as Israel was/is agricultural based. It could represent sorrow at the destruction of the Second Temple. It also impresses upon the desire for freedom to which hard labour gave birth, i.e. new life after Egypt.

Karpas (Hebrew: כַּרְפַּס‎‎):

Parsley is a spring vegetable and sign of new life. It symbolises life that YHWH created and sustained as:

(a) the Israelites came out alive after crossing Yam Suph (Hebrew: יַם-סוּף) or the Sea of Reeds whilst Elohim drowned their enemies;

(b) resurrection because Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead;

(c) spiritually, believers accepting Jesus/Yeshua experience newness of life.

The parsley is dipped in salt water twice to represent the hyssop dipped for sprinkling on the door posts. It is a sign of tears that need to shed and groaning caused by oppression and enslavement in Egypt before joy can be experienced.

Salt water:

Not part of the Seder plate but kept on the table to represent the sweat and tears shed by the Hebrews.

Matzah or unleavened bread:

The unleavened bread is a reminder that the Israelites left Israel in such a haste that there was no time to wait for the bread dough to rise or puff up. So it became bread of affliction. When roasted, it was striped and pierced and looked like bruised marks on the surface. Isaiah 53:5 says He was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities and by His stripes we are healed.

Kiddush (/ˈkɪdɪʃ/; Hebrew: קידוש‎‎ [ki'duʃ]) wine/grape juice:

This is the first cup of sanctification, praising Elohim for sanctifying us with His commandments, giving us the season of freedom and memorial of the Israelites departing Egypt, from this worldly system.

Four Cups

According to the four promises of God to Moses:

Exodus 6:6-7New International Version (NIV)

⁶ “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. ⁷ I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

1) I will bring you out (Cup of Sanctification)

2) I will free you (Cup of Deliverance)

3) I will redeem you (Cup of Redemption)

4) I will take you as my own people (Cup of Acceptance/Restoration)

Note that Jesus did not drink the fourth cup.

Matthew 26:27-29New International Version (NIV)

²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹ I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Elijah Cup

Open up the door for Elijah to enter with us. Elijah prophesied the coming Messiah.

Order of the Passover Seder

1	Kadeish קדש	Recital of Kiddush blessing and drinking of the first cup of wine (Kos Rishon)
2	Urchatz ורחץ	The washing of the hands
3	Karpas כרפס	Dipping of the parsley in salt water
4	Yachatz יחץ	Breaking the middle unleavened bread; the larger piece becomes the afikoman
5	Maggid מגיד	Retelling the Passover story, including the recital of “the four questions”: Q1: Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzah, but on this night we eat only matzah? A1: Matzah reminds us that when the Jews left Egypt, they had no time to bake their bread, but took raw dough and baked it into crackers. Q2: Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this night we eat only bitter herbs? A2: Maror reminds us of the bitter and cruel way the Pharaoh treated the Jewish people as slaves in Egypt. Q3: Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip our herbs even once, but on this night we dip them twice? A3: We dip bitter herbs into Charoset to remind us of the bitterness of our slavery. The chopped apples and nuts look like clay used to make bricks for Pharaoh’s buildings. We dip parsley in salt water to remember the tears of our captivity. Q4: Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position? A4: We lean on our pillows to remind us that we are now free and no longer live as slaves. Drinking of the second cup of wine (Kos Sheni)
6	Rachtzah רחצה	Second washing of the hands
7	Motzi מוציא, Matzo מצה	Blessing before eating matzah
8	Maror מרור	Eating of the bitter herbs
9	Koreich כורך	Eating of a sandwich made of matzo and maror
10	Shulchan oreich שלחן עורך	The serving of the holiday meal
11	Tzafun צפון	Eating of the afikoman
12	Bareich ברך	Blessing after the meal and drinking of the third cup of wine (Kos Sh'lishi)
13	Hallel הלל	Recital of the Hallel, traditionally recited on festivals; drinking of the fourth cup of wine (Kos Revi'i)
14	Nirtzah נירצה	Say “Next Year in Jerusalem!”

Related:
Hebraic Root - Cultural Insights into words, action and saying of Jesus

Hebraic Perspective in Understanding the FATHER'S HEART in HIS WORD for HIS Children

Jesus the Jewish Messiah

The Threefold Calling

Pentecost