The Gospel Message (video)

short video promoting the book

The Gospel Message

The original Gospel Message has been greatly misunderstood by members of the Church. Christ’s Gospel Message has always been one of hope, filling a person with joy.

Yet there are those in the Church, whose hope has been tainted with doubt, fear and anxiety, leaving many in confusion.

Michael Burman's new book, The Gospel Message to the Seven Churches, has been likened to an open door leading the reader to an understanding of Christ’s original Message that has been corrupted for centuries. This compelling book contains other related material that makes for an inspiring and worthwhile read that does not disappoint.

About The Author

Michael Burman is a former member of The Worldwide Church of God. His detailed research into the Gospel Message has continued for over a decade, leading to the writing of his book, The Gospel Message to the Seven Churches.

Book Purchase

You can purchase the book through the Amazon online bookstore.

Click here to get the book from Amazon in the US

Click here to get the book from Amazon in the UK

The book is published by Trafford Publishing, and you can order the book from their website as well.

Unlocking the Book of Revelation

The book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The Apostle John witnessed visions relating to the end-time. Today, those devastating events will soon be upon us!

The book of Revelation portrays within its pages mysterious visions and imagery. The book itself was written by the Apostle John, who was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day (Revelation 1:10), and who was shown things that were to take place at the end of the age; a time just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. The book has been written in such a way that many view its contents as fictitious. But nothing could be further from the truth.

War, famine, pestilence, civil unrest, racial tension, hatred, fear and turmoil are prophesied to increase at an alarming rate, at a time the Bible refers to as the End-Time.

There are signs given within the pages of the Bible that point to modern times as being the prophesied End-Time period! Humanity’s woes are to increase at an unprecedented rate. These devastating times will touch the lives of everyone, and shall lead into a third and final World War.

The Christian Bible predicts that a sequence of events will unfold and lead directly to the end of this present age and into the Wonderful World Tomorrow, ruled by Jesus Christ.

“Unlocking the Book of Revelation to the Seven Churches” unveils that sequence of events and provides the reader with a clear understanding of the End-Time, and the effect that it will have upon the Earth. If you are a mature Bible student this book will not disappoint. Read it and find out for yourself!

Book Purchase

You can purchase the book through the Amazon online bookstore.

Click here to get the book from Amazon in the US

Click here to get the book from Amazon in the UK

The book is published by Trafford Publishing, and you can order the book from their website as well.

What Will You Invest In?

We are only days away from the Feast of Trumpets, which pictures the return of Christ. Trumpets were often sounded in ancient Israel — either warning of an enemy approaching or some danger, or to designate something important, e.g. a Feast day.

As we near the end of this world, and the return of Christ, we see the world breaking down, financial problems, strife, war, depression, recession, liars, immorality, crime, etc. These signs are showing us that the end times are near.

Matthew 24:3–14 states:
“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’
And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.’ ” (NKJV throughout except where otherwise stated)

Continuing from verse 42,
“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

We can see things in this world getting worse, changing, and we might wonder when will Christ return? We should not be worried about when, nor to become drunk, or a hypocrite as some do.

The trumpets should wake us up to what is happening, and what to expect in the time ahead. We might have financial worries, but we can trust in God to keep us safe from the serious problems that will afflict some.

Looking at 1 Timothy 3:2-4, we read:
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.”

The current financial meltdown that has seen banks go bankrupt, debts that cannot be repaid and great worry and concern about money, has its roots in greed.

And in 1 Timothy 6:10,
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

The greediness of banks, people and society has led us to this difficult situation. Originally, of course, it was Adam and Eve who chose for themselves the right to decide right and wrong. Since then, mankind has been swayed by the Devil to make mistakes and get closer to self-destruction. There is nothing more that Satan wants than to see us all dead and destroyed, with no one entering God’s Kingdom and God’s great plan thwarted.

People are greedy to borrow money to buy things they cannot afford and do not need, such as big plasma screen TVs, new and more comfortable furniture, lots of holidays, lots of booze, partying and entertainment. In the past people would save up their money before making a large purchase, buying only what they needed with the occasional luxury item. Today credit has been too easy to get, thanks to the greed of the banks in wanting to earn more money from lending it out to people, charging usury and high interest rates.

Quoting from an article on the UCG website:

“Earlier this year USA Today writer Dennis Cauchon wrote: ‘Taxpayers are on the hook for a record $57.3 trillion in federal liabilities to cover the lifetime benefits of everyone eligible for Medicare, Social Security and other government programs, a USA Today analysis found. That’s nearly $500,000 per household. When obligations of state and local governments are added, the total rises to $61.7 trillion, or $531,472 per household. That is more than four times what Americans owe in personal debt such as mortgages.’

Interestingly, the European Central Bank’s purpose differs from that of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy in recent times. The role of the ECB is to control inflation, which means currency must be kept strong, thereby limiting borrowing.

America’s Federal Reserve since 1978 has had the responsibility of ensuring continuing growth and full employment, a recipe for over spending and higher rates of inflation. The United States is now paying the price for continuous overspending.”
(http://www.ucg.org/commentary/america-debt-crisis.htm)

The greediness of Americans has led to a massive overspending, and a huge rise in debts. They have lacked the wisdom to plan sensibly for the future and keep their finances in order. They have been lazy when it comes to financial planning and selfish in their investing.



I want to look at a parable which you all know, but to modernise it and see what it means for us today.

It is in Matthew 25:14-30.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man who owned a large corporation, and he decided to open up branches in another country. So he called his top staff and told them to invest some money to bring in a good return, to make it all worthwhile. And to one he gave £500,000, to another £200,000, and to another £100,000, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
Then he who had received the £500,000 went and invested his money wisely, in things like hedge funds, bonds, and large stable corporations, and made another £500,000. And likewise he who had received £200,000 to invest gained £200,000 profit from his investments. But he who had received just the £100,000 was lazy and invested in shares in an overstretched investment bank without even bothering to do a due diligence and see whether it was a good investment or not.
After a long time the boss of those investors came and settled accounts with them.
So he who had received £500,000 came and brought the £500,000 profits, saying, ‘Boss, you gave me £500,000 to invest; look, I have gained £500,000 extra.’ His boss said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful employee; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you manager over many things. Enjoy your new promotion.’
He who had received £200,000 came and said, ‘Boss, you gave me £200,000 to invest ; look, I have gained £200,000 more.’
The boss said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful employee; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you manager over many things. Enjoy your new promotion.’
Then he who had received £100,000 came and said, ‘Boss, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and put the money into shares of an investment bank. Look, here is the report of what I did.’
But his boss answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy fool, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. According to this report, you did not bother to do any due diligence or research, and you put the money into Lehman Brothers. Now they have gone bust and the shares are worthless. You ought to have deposited my money in a bank account if you were too lazy to look for a good investment, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
So I am taking whatever money you still have, your job responsibilities and salary, and giving it to him who has £1 million. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
And give this unprofitable employee the sack and get him out of here, and he will very annoyed when he has to go to the Job Centre and look for a new job.’ ”

In this parable, each of the three men were given something to invest. But only two of them made the effort to invest wisely. The third man was a risky investor, who was too lazy to find out what he had to do to make money. He was even too lazy to just put the money into a bank account where he might have earned 4% interest.

God gives each of us some gifts, and invests his Spirit in us. We must use what God has given us, with wisdom, to make good investments in our lives. I am not talking about finance, but about spiritual matters. We can invest our time in prayer, Bible study, keeping the Sabbath, working hard at whatever we do, and spending time with God and with His people. We can do a proper due diligence. In the world of business and investing, due diligence is where you get all the relevant information about a company before investing in it. We have to be diligent to study God’s Word to ensure that we are investing our time and efforts in the right things. For example, is it wise to invest time in going to the pub to drink lots of beer? Or to fight with people? The Bible tells us not to get drunk nor have strife, in Romans 13:13, “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.”

In a modern Bible version called The Message, let us look at Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

“Be generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.
Don’t hoard your goods; spread them around.
Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night.
When the clouds are full of water, it rains.
When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls.
Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.
Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.
Just as you’ll never understand the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,
So you'll never understand the mystery at work in all that God does.
Go to work in the morning and stick to it until evening without watching the clock.
You never know from moment to moment how your work will turn out in the end.”

This speaks of investing in acts of charity, i.e. acts of love and doing good, doing what God wants us to do. We should invest in something that will give us a good return, a good spiritual return. This week Warren Buffet, the world’s richest man, invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs, because he always knows a good investment when he sees one. He knows he is going to get a good return, getting millions of dollars every week from his investment.

When we invest in what God wants us to do, our time, efforts, prayers, etc., God will bless us with a great return. The greatest return on our spiritual investment will be eternal life in the Kingdom of God, which we will receive when Christ returns to set up the Kingdom, as pictured by the soon-coming Feast of Trumpets next week.

So think about what investments you can make in your spiritual life, and what you can do to give to others, and what you can give to God. What will you invest in?

Passover 2008

It is almost time for the Passover service on Friday 18 April 2008, when we remember the great sacrifice that Christ made for us by allowing Himself to be killed, to pay the penalty for all the sins of mankind. We can come before God at this time, to remember that event, and recall the events that happened on the night before Christ died, at the time of Passover. And also remember that the Passover was instituted back in ancient times, when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, and God decided it was time to let the Israelites be freed. But to do so, they had to sacrifice a lamb on the night of what we now call Passover, and God sent a death angel over Egypt to kill the firstborn of all those who did not sacrifice a lamb to God.

If you are a follower of Melchizedek (Christ) then you should be keeping the Passover, just as Christ instructed His followers to do (see Luke 22:19, 1 Corinthians 11:23-25) and participate in this annual reminder of Christ's saving sacrifice and resurrection, and eat the unleavened bread (symbolic of His broken body), drink the red wine (symbolic of His shed blood), and wash each others' feet in the footwashing ceremony that He instituted so that we may remember to be humble and to serve others.

If you are keeping the Passover this year, I hope it goes well for you, and please remember to take it in a worthy manner.

Death and the Proud Man

Revelation 6:8 is a prophetic verse of the Bible that shows us what will happen in the future. The setting is in the Great Tribulation, which lasts for 3.5 years, and precedes the return of Jesus Christ.
It reads: "So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth."
The rider of this horse is called Death. Death is a figure in mythology pictured as a skeletal man wearing a black hooded robe, the original "hoodie", carrying a scythe; he comes for people whose turn it is to die and takes them away. The reality is that Death is an enemy (see 1 Corinthians 15:26) rather than a figure of fun or fiction.
But the Bible might also use the word death to picture other people.
I noticed this in the book of Habakkuk, a minor prophet in the Old Testament.
"I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the LORD answered me and said: 'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith. Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, and he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, he gathers to himself all nations and heaps up for himself all peoples.' " (Habakkuk 2:1-5).
Here God is comparing a proud man to death. This proud man gathers all nations and peoples to himself, like a great dictator or world ruler.
He says it is a vision, i.e. something yet to happen. I compared this to Revelation 6:8 and saw Death being mentioned in both these scriptural passages, as well as Hell. In Revelation 6:8 the word "Hades" is Greek for hell, but this is not a place of eternal torment for sinners, but refers to the grave (hell is an old Saxon word for hole in the ground).
Note also that the proud man does not stay at home.
This could well be a prophecy of something that is going to come to pass soon, I do not know for sure. It could be that a man who is proud, well-known, and power-hungry, will come on the world scene as a man who wants to gather lots of people to himself, such as building large armies that are from many nations, to go to war and kill 25% of their enemy, or even 25% of mankind, although the reference in Revelation 6:8 to killing "one fourth" (i.e. one quarter, 25%) is of mankind as a whole, to happen in the Great Tribulation at the end time. And note this proud man does not stay at home, i.e. not doing these things in his home country, but going abroad or around the world to do it.
So could there be someone today who fits this description?
Habakkuk 2 started with "I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart"; elsewhere the Bible tells us to watch and keep an eye on things that are happening in this world.
The best we can do is to keep reading the written Word of God, keep in mind the things God says, and watch the world scene and see what fits with what, as well as being just and to "live by his faith", i.e. put your faith in God and His Word and trust in Him. One day Jesus Christ the Messiah will return to this Earth to put an end to humanity's abuse and misrule of the planet, to bound Satan so that he can no longer deceive the nations and set up the wonderful Kingdom of God on Earth, which will bring true peace and justice to us all.

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All Bible quotes taken from the New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Are the recent floods a warning from God?

For the past few weeks there has been terrible flooding in parts of England. This seems to have coincided with Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister of the UK, and not an easy situation for a new PM to deal with.

Here is a map of areas affected so far:

Hopefully the floods will soon come to an end, but I wonder if maybe this is a warning to the people of this country to change their ways before it is too late. The USA suffered terrible flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina paid a visit. These floods have not happened before in recent history, so something must be different that is causing this to happen.

Could it be that God is sending a warning to the people of the USA and UK (the descendants of ancient Israel, in part) to wake them up to their sins? Although it might remind us of Noah's Flood, a great worldwide flood like that will not happen again, but local floods may well continue.

Will the people of the USA and UK realise their sins and repent before it is too late? The Bible reveals that there will be a great tribulation at the end of this age before Christ returns to set up the Kingdom of God on earth.

For more on prophecy visit this site.

Passover 2006

In AD 31, Christ and His disciples gathered together in the Spring, to celebrate the Passover. They had a meal together, and Christ gave them unleavened bread and wine, along with specific meanings to what they represented. He also washed their feet, something unusual for anyone other than a servant to do.

This year many Christians around the world shall celebrate the Passover, by meeting together, eating unleavened bread and drinking red wine, and washing each other’s feet.

But where did it all start, and what does it all mean?

We can go back to the book of Exodus to find out when the Passover was instituted. It was against a backdrop of a race of slaves living in Egypt, who earnestly desired freedom and prayed often to God for deliverance. One man, called Moses, grew up in the palaces of the Pharaoh, being brought up by Pharaoh’s daughter. She knew he was a Hebrew baby (Exodus 2:5–6), but brought him up as an Egyptian, but with Moses’ own mother nursing him when he was a baby. He undoubtedly gained much insight into Egyptian culture, learnt a great deal and was no doubt a very well-educated man. But, he was Hebrew, born an Israelite, the same as the slaves of the country.

When Moses was 40 years old, he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite slave, and took pity on the slave. He struck the Egyptian, and killed him (Exodus 2:11–12). He thought that no one had seen it or knew about it, but after 2 days he started to speak to some Israelites, who objected to his interference, and they said “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (verse 14).

This frightened Moses, as he realised that people did know about his murderous act. Pharaoh sought to kill Moses, so Moses fled from Egypt into the land of Midian. It was there that he met some women, the daughters of Jethro. He married one of them and lived with them for another 40 years, before he was visited by God, probably on Mount Sinai.

In Exodus 3, we see what happened, starting in verse 1. Moses saw a burning bush, and wondered why it kept burning without burning up. And God spoke to Moses from the bush and told him who He was, and that Moses had to return to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery.

Moses was a bit fearful about this, and asked that he could get his brother Aaron to speak for him, when he visited the Pharaoh. So he returned to Egypt. Probably by this time, 40 years after he had fled, there was a different Pharaoh in charge of Egypt, but we don’t know for certain. But Moses was probably still a bit scared that the Pharaoh was going to have him executed for the murder he committed 40 years previously. But God was sending Moses on a special mission, and Moses should have realised that God was backing him up and would not allow him to come to any harm. So Moses and Aaron went before the Pharaoh to tell him to let the people go. Pharaoh refused, and God started sending plagues on Egypt, 10 in all. After the 9th plague, Pharaoh was still reluctant to let the Israelites go. But by this time Pharaoh and the Egyptians were starting to fear Moses (Exodus 11:3). But after each plague, when it looked like Pharaoh was going to let the people go, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, so that he would not let the Israelites go (Exodus 10:27).

If God had not hardened the heart of Pharaoh, it is possible that Pharaoh would have given in after just a few plagues, or maybe even the first (turning rivers into blood). But God had a plan in mind, and wanted to institute the Passover at that time. He also wanted the people to see the great significance of Passover, as a means of releasing them from bondage in Egypt. It would have been easy for God to have let the people go, by not hardening Pharaoh’s heart, so that they could have left much sooner. Or God could have performed just the one plague, that which was the death of the firstborn, to institute the Passover. But instead, God chose to use 10 plagues on Egypt before the people could leave.

The number 10 is also the number of Commandments that God was going to give to Moses at Mount Sinai, after the Israelites had left Egypt. And when the Israelites had left and began to have their own society, instead of being in Egypt, He told the people to pay tithes, which is 10% of their increase. Tithing had already existed though, as Abraham had paid tithes to Melchizedek, who later became Christ. So we see that the number 10 is important to God, which may be why he sent 10 plagues on Egypt.

So when Egypt had suffered 9 plagues, they were almost ready to let the people go. Before the 10th plague, God told Moses to tell the people what to do. In Exodus 11 we read that God was going to kill the firstborns of the Egyptians, but allow the Israelites to live.

God gave these instructions in Exodus 12:1, “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.’ ”

In Egypt, the Israelites had only know the Egyptian calendar and did not know God’s calendar. So God told them that it was now the first month of the year. The first day of the new year on God’s calendar is the 1st of Abib, and it was on 30th March, this year, 2006.

And on the tenth day of Abib, which this year is 8th April, the Israelites were told to take a lamb. It had to be a 1-year old male lamb, and it could be either from the sheep or goats. They had to keep that lamb until the 14th of Abib (Exodus 12:5–6). They had to kill the lamb at twilight. Twilight is the period between sunset and darkness. The Bible elsewhere tells us that the day begins at sunset, rather than at midnight. So at the start of the 14th Abib, the lamb had to be slaughtered, and the Passover meal eaten on that night of the 14th, which was roast lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and was to be eaten quickly. The people had to be dressed ready to leave. This was to be their last night in Egypt!

The Israelites were told to stay indoors that night, while the death angel passed over. If they had followed God’s instructions carefully, they would have used the blood from the lamb they sacrificed to smear onto the doorposts of their homes, as a sign to the death angel that the people in that house were obeying God. Of course, the Egyptians did not smear blood on their doorposts, so when the death angel passed over their homes, it killed the firstborn people in houses without blood on the doorposts. The death angel also killed the firstborn son of Pharaoh.

In verse 24 we read: “And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever.” God commanded the people to keep the Passover, and not just for that night when they left Egypt, but to be kept forever.

So the Israelites kept the Passover and the firstborn of the Egyptians died, and during the hours of daylight the Israelites plundered the Egyptians, according to God’s command, taking all their jewellery and gold. They gathered together, being led by Moses, and left Egypt to head for the Promised Land.

So in the days of Jesus, the Jewish people who lived in Israel, the Promised Land, were still keeping the Passover. Although they did not all keep it on the right day, as today they keep the Passover one night later and call the whole Feast of Unleavened Bread by the name of Passover, combining the two into one. But Christ knew when the Passover was, He was the One who had told Moses what to do and when. So Christ was keeping the Passover at the start of the 14th Abib, in Jerusalem, with His disciples.

In the Old Testament, we saw that the Israelites ate lamb at Passover, but when Christ came in the flesh, He was the fulfilment of the Passover lamb. At the Passover meal that Christ had with the disciples, they probably ate a lamb, as Christ had not yet been sacrificed. But Christ ate unleavened bread with the disciples, and gave a new meaning to it, to symbolise His body which would be broken, just as they broke the bread they ate. He also added to that the drinking of red wine to symbolise His blood, and also the footwashing.

Matthew 26:26–28 reads: “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’ ”

Christ gave a new focus to the Passover. Christ told the disciples before the Passover, that He was going to be killed on that day. Matthew 26:1 reads: “Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, that He said to His disciples, ‘You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.’ ”

Instead of focusing on the lamb, which was what was sacrificed in Egypt and in ancient Israel, He pointed out the bread that was traditionally eaten with this meal. He said that it was His body. He could have said that the lamb was His body. Christ had already been referred to as a lamb, in John 1:29–30, “The next day John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of whom I said, “After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.” ’ ”

Also in Revelation 5:6 and 7:10 we see Christ referred to as the Lamb.

So why did Christ not say that the lamb of the Passover meal was His body?

Up to that time, the Israelites were still sacrificing animals at the temple. And killing a lamb for the Passover meal. The animal sacrifices were instituted for sin, as special offerings to God to ask for forgiveness for sin. The meat of the sacrificed animals was food for the priests who served in the temple. But when Christ died, He became the ultimate sacrifice, and His blood was worth far more than that of any animal.

Look at Hebrews 9:11–15, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”

Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant, which we also read about in Matthew 26, in which Christ stated that the wine represented the blood of the new covenant, His blood. By His blood, we have remission of sins, as Christ also said in the same verse (Matthew 26:28).

But looking again at this point about the lamb, Christ told the disciples that the bread represented His body, and that they should eat the bread every year at Passover, drink the wine and do the footwashing. The ancient Israelites were commanded to keep the Passover forever, and just before Christ died, He changed the symbols and practice of what we do at Passover, but nevertheless, the Passover still remains every year for us to keep.

But the lamb was no longer to be continued as being necessary at Passover, because Christ was the lamb who was going to be sacrificed within a few hours. Once Christ had been sacrificed, there was no longer a need to have animal sacrifices, and no longer a need eat the lamb at the Passover. Christ is our lamb, and we must take Christ into us, by listening to His words in the Bible, by keeping the Passover and doing as He commanded. Now the unleavened bread, which Paul referred to as “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” in 1 Corinthians 5:8, is a symbol of Christ’s body, which was crucified to pay the penalty for our sins.

So we have the bread, which is representing Christ’s body, and the red wine, which is symbolic of His shed blood, to pay for our sins, and to bring us into a new relationship with God, a new covenant. The new covenant contains the promise of eternal life. Just as the Israelites took the Passover prior to leaving Egypt and heading to the Promised Land, we take the Passover and look forward to the Promised Land of the Kingdom of God, which is a spiritual land, and the place where our hearts and citizenship should be.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” We are to be a living sacrifice, unlike the Old Testament sacrifices of killing animals, as Christ wants us to live. He was our ultimate sacrifice, and we must be willing to sacrifice something for Him, i.e. our lives, as a living sacrifice, which means that we die to the flesh but live for Christ and the Father.

Instead of a sacrifice that takes away life (from a lamb), Christ went first as a real sacrifice, giving up His life, and receiving eternal life in His resurrection, so that we can become living sacrifices to God, and receive eternal life when Christ returns.

Christ also referred to Himself as bread some time earlier, before He died. In John 6, He called Himself “the Bread of Life” more than once (verses 33, 35, 48). He came down from heaven to give life to all (verse 33). At the Passover, when we eat the bread, remember that it represents Christ, not just the crucifixion of His body, but also that He came to give us eternal life, because He was the bread of life.

We should also note that taking the Passover, in ancient Israel, was for everyone. Most of the animal sacrifices involved a person taking an animal to the priests at the temple. But when the Passover was instituted, there were no priests; the Levites were just like the others. The Passover was something for everyone, as Israel was to be a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6).

Today, we as a part of God’s Church, should take the Passover, as we are the new priesthood. Christ, as Melchizedek, is our High Priest (Hebrews 7) and we are a royal priesthood. Look at 1 Peter 2:5, 9, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ… you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

We have been called out of darkness, out of a spiritual Egypt (note as well that the 9th plague in Egypt was one of darkness, although the Israelites had light, the Egyptians were plunged into total darkness). We have been chosen to be a royal priesthood, to proclaim the praises of God, who calls us into His marvellous light, which is the truth that God reveals to us. Remember, the unleavened bread is about sincerity and truth.

Christ is our high priest, and is Melchizedek (Hebrews 7), to whom Abraham had paid tithes. We are the priests of Melchizedek, and our priesthood is ministering to God, to proclaim the praises of God. Passover gives us this relationship. Without Passover and the sacrifice of Christ, we are condemned to die in the flesh and not live forever.

But let us look now at the other thing that Christ instituted at His last Passover on Earth. He washed His disciples’ feet, as we read in John 13:4–5, Christ “rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”

Footwashing was done in ancient times as a necessary courtesy to visitors to a person’s home, as they wore sandals, and walked on dusty roads making their feet very dusty and dirty. Today we wear socks, shoes and travel on buses, in cars, or walk on pavements. Our feet don’t get covered in dust, so the symbolism might not be so clear in our modern world. But, consider this, the footwashing was to remove dust and dirt. And what else is connected with dust in the Bible? What came from dust? Adam was created from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). In washing a person’s feet, consider that you are washing away the dust, washing away the physical carnality, looking forward to a future spirit life, cleansed from all sin. The dust on their feet represented sin because the flesh always sins. Our sins must be washed away.

So when we wash someone’s feet, we might not find any dust or dirt there, but remember that when Christ did it to His disciples, He would have been washing away a day or more worth of dust. We have to have our carnality washed away. Water is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and of cleansing. Isaiah 44:3 reads: “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” And in Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” The water of life in Revelation refers to eternal life.

Also remember that when a person is called by God, and granted repentance, that the person is then baptised in water. Water is a natural cleansing agent. It washes away dirt, and symbolically, at baptism washes away sins (spiritual dirt). God wants us to be clean. But not just our feet. We wash the feet, because of the meaning it had in the time of Jesus, when servants washed the dirty feet of honoured guests and visitors. But the feet can also refer to what we do with them, i.e. walk. We must walk the Christian life, not just talk about it. And washing the feet makes them clean, so that we can walk a clean life with Christ.

Also, Jesus cleansed the temple at Passover, see John 2:11–17. He had to cleanse the physical temple in Jerusalem, as people were abusing it and using it for things that were just to make money rather than worship God. This is like the footwashing, a cleaning away of bad things. He wanted to remove the filth from the temple, the filth of human sin and disregard for things holy. He wants to cleanse us from sin, from all unholy things. At Passover we can be cleansed from the unholy. Footwashing for us symbolises this.

These are the things that God commands us to perform at Passover each year now. Not so important now is the eating of a lamb, because the Lamb of God was slaughtered in 31AD, i.e. Christ. Now that Christ has been sacrificed, and been resurrected, we have Christ the living Lamb with us.

So keep the Passover this year, and every year, remembering that Christ is with us, He wants to cleanse us, and to give us eternal life.