Matthew 26:17
. . . Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?
1. The Time. The 14th of the first month (Lev. 23:5).
2. Where. First in the house or home. Exo. 12:46 and later, "in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose" (Deu. 16:7; Exo. 12:46).
3. Who Observed It. The circumcision only. It never applied to Gentiles except those circumcised, according to Exo. 12:40-51.
4. The Blood. When the Lord observed the Passover, He spoke of the blood of the New Covenant. The New Covenant applies only to Israel and Judah, never to Gentiles (Jer. 31:31).
5. Till He Come Again. The Church is not looking for Him to come again to earth but to be Manifested with Him in Glory (Col. 3:1-4).
6. Jerusalem Council. Their decision, which was according to the leading of The Holy Spirit, did not require Gentiles to partake of any feasts of the Jews. Read Acts 15:23-29.
7. Directions. The directions for keeping it after The Lord's death are found in 1 Cor. chapters 10 & 11. These chapters are written for Jewish believers, not for Gentiles. See 1 Cor. 10:1.
8. Penalty. During Acts, the Jews still had the law, and its penalties were still in force (1 Cor. 11:29-30). Gentile believers were under grace, so such things could not happen to them.
9. The Church. All the above relate to Jews and their Passover. Gentiles were not to have anything to do with Jewish festivals and the like when grafted into their blessings during Acts. But in The Church, which is The Body of Christ, neither Jew nor Gentile is to observe holidays, Sabbaths, eating and drinking, and the like (Col. 2:16).
10. True Worship. The one place God set aside for worship was destroyed about 2,000 years ago. Its man-made rival, Gerizim, also has disappeared. Man today is to worship in Spirit and in Truth. This has nothing to do with a place, a priesthood, or a ritual. See John 4:23.
The supper The Lord shared with His disciples and where He instructed them on His Memorial to be done until His Return was the Passover and was the last supper He would share with them (Matt. 26:17-29). Nowhere does the Bible give anybody the right to substitute Baal's Supper (The ritual so-called "The Lord's Supper") for the Passover. In this, there was a sip of wine and a round wafer to represent the round sun (not broken bread to represent His body). The Passover had 4 cups of wine during the meal.
The Lord's Supper is mentioned once in the Bible (1 Cor. 11:20), where Paul rebuked the people for being selfish and drunken and then corrected them on the purpose and manner of the Lord's memorial (1 Cor. 11:20-34).
Israel observed the Passover and still does on the yearly 15th of Nissan according to the prescribed manner and in memory of their deliverance from Egypt, which was and is recited and heard by all. The Lord made no change in the Passover whatsoever except to add that they now do it in remembrance of Him till He comes, for He is The Deliverer. Israel's Messiah will come again. He promised the disciples that He would again drink of the vine with them in The Kingdom. But that has nothing to do with The Church of His Body, whose calling and citizenship is in Heaven and not on earth.
In Galatia, the Jews, zealous for the Law, tried to get the Gentile Christians to be circumcised so they could observe these things. But Paul, strongly rebuking them, was so angry that he said such should be cut off apokoptō a Greek word meaning to amputate the whole member (Gal. 5:12). The Passover and the like belong to law, not Grace and the Liberty that is in Christ Jesus.
