Jesus Is Our Passover!

[Jennifer] Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast.

[Aaron] We’re your hosts. I’m Aaron

[Jennifer] And I’m Jennifer.

[Aaron] We’ve been married for 14 years.

[Jennifer] And we have five young children.

[Aaron] We started blogging over 10 years ago sharing our marriage story in hopes of encouraging other husbands and wives to draw closer to God and closer to each other.

[Jennifer] We have authored over 10 books together including our newest book “Marriage After God,” the book that inspired us to start this podcast.

[Aaron] “Marriage After God” has a message to remind all of us that God designed marriage with a purpose.

[Jennifer] to reflect his love.

[Aaron] To be a light in this world.

[Jennifer] To work together as a team.

[Aaron] Using what he has given us.

[Jennifer] To build his kingdom.

[Aaron] Our hope is to encourage you along your marriage journey.

[Jennifer] As you boldly chase after God together.

[Aaron] This is Marriage After God.

[Aaron] Hey, welcome back to the final episode of season five. We’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith.

[Jennifer] Your host of Marriage After God.

[Aaron] And we’re glad to have you. I hope you’ve enjoyed this season. All the various episodes we’ve had. It’s been awesome. And I know that even though this is the last episode of the season, we wanna let you know that we will be back. So this isn’t the end. We’ve been trying to do, I mean, we have five kids now we’re doing a lot of things on the other side of this microphone and we’re just trying to give ourselves breaks between seasons so that yeah we can bring you the best content and we don’t get burned out ourselves because it’s a lot of work being parents and doing this podcast.

[Jennifer] So you guys can expect us to begin seasons six in the fall, early fall, unless for some reason we’re able to do it sooner. And if you wanna know when it will launch be sure to sign up for our daily prayer emails because we use those every once in a while to share information like when a new season’s launched and you can sign up for that at https://marriageafterGod.com or you can follow us on social media.

[Aaron] Not or and. And follow us. Yeah. We like to post when we’re gonna be doing new episodes. So follow us there. Speaking of seasons, we’re just about in spring.

[Jennifer] We’re in one of my favorite. Yeah, this is one of my favorite seasons. I love springtime. I love the change of crisp, warm. It’s like crisp, cold warm weather.

[Aaron] Well, today when the clouds covered the sun it was cool and then when the sun came out, it was warm. It was awesome.

[Jennifer] Yeah it was awesome. And just the signs of life coming back. My passion for gardening comes back. ‘Cause I take a break in the winter.

[Aaron] It begins to bloom.

[Jennifer] Yeah. Super fun. Hopefully you guys are gardening. Get your hands in the dirt a little bit. If you aren’t, I just wanna encourage you to do that. It’s a great learning tool for your children. Me and the kids like to get out there and we’ll just look at stuff, growing and talk about it and pull weeds.

[Aaron] There’s nothing better, I think than eating something that you grew.

[Jennifer] Yeah, it is pretty awesome.

[Aaron] When we get the tomatoes, it’s like my favorite.

[Jennifer] Pretty cool. So anyway, spring I love it.

[Aaron] We’re here.

[Jennifer] I was just thinking for some reason, I don’t usually wrap up in a blanket to podcast with you, Aaron but I’m wrapped up in what we call the cuddle blanket. And I was just thinking that we’ve had this blanket for a really long time. I remember buying it right before we had Elliot and none of our kids have been attached to a blanket, a blankie or whatever. And which is fine. It doesn’t matter if they did or not. But I was just thinking how they aren’t but I am because this cuddle blanket has been everything to me. And the longer I have it, the more connected I feel like what would happen if I lost this? I dunno.

[Aaron] All the kids like it too. They play with it. This is the blanket they want when they’re on the couch with everyone.

[Jennifer] Sometimes every once in a while.

[Aaron] So Jennifer has a blankie.

[Jennifer] Sometimes when I’m tucking the kids one of the kids to bed, they will ask me will you go get it and put it on top of me.

[Aaron] Do they call it the cuddle blanket too?

[Jennifer] Well just started calling it the cuddle blanket go get me the cuddle blanket. True, he likes to sit on the couch with me, but he is always chilly. And so he’ll bring me the blanket. Yeah like mom come cuddle me anyway.

[Aaron] It’s like their cue or cue like, okay.

[Jennifer] I have it right now. And I was just thinking if anything happened to it I don’t know what I would do. It’s like not replaceable. Now I feel for all those little kids who had a blanky and in it got tattered and washed to many times. Anyway that was a side tangent.

[Aaron] Yeah. Hey, I just wanted to thank everyone that if you’ve been one of our share warriors sharing on your social media or with a friend or an email or a text message about our podcast, we just.

[Jennifer] Thank you.

[Aaron] You guys are awesome. We’ve been seeing so many people posting about it and just sharing their favorite episodes. And if that’s one of you and if you’re listening right now we just wanna say, thank you. You’ve really blessed us this season.

[Jennifer] Also at the end of this episode would you guys please take a moment to leave us a star rating review or even a written review. Maybe if you’ve been following along this whole season, you can mention, what this season has meant to you. The reason that we ask that you guys do this is is just because when it comes to algorithms and people finding the Marriage After God podcast these ratings and reviews helps so much and they also bless us. So I just wanted to also give one final thank you to those of you who have posted a review or send out those rankings. So thank you to those of you who have and to those of you who have yet to do it please do that at the end of this episode. Thank you.

[Aaron] Yeah. Also with the thing, the free thing that we always talk about, we’ve been promoting it quite a bit this last season is the marriage prayer challenge. Since we’re gonna be taking a break and if you haven’t done this yet, this is the perfect opportunity for you to do it. It’s completely free. And it’s an email that we send you every day for 31 days, just reminding you to pray for your spouse. And we also give you a specific topic to pray for and some scripture to go with it. So we wanna bless you with that. It’s completely free. We love making these kinda resources that you can access and that just encourage you on a daily basis. It’s https://marriageprayerchallenge.com. And also while I’m at it I’ll just tell you about parentingprayerchallenge.com for you, moms and dads, to take a challenge to pray for your sons or daughters or both.

[Jennifer] Cool and lastly, just in this beginning part, before we jump into today’s topic.

[Aaron] Lastly, lastly, lastly lastly.

[Jennifer] Every once in a while, we’ll share a resource, something that’s encouraged us or inspired us on our, for so many different things. I was gonna say journey but it’s really just life. Specifically for today’s topic of Jesus being our Passover. There’s two books that I wanna recommend. “A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays,” which at the end also includes some homeschool unit studies, which is pretty cool. So if you homeschool that could be something you guys are interested in and then another one called “Messiah “and the Feasts of Israel.” So I know there’s a ton more out there and it’s good just to share resources. So there you go.

[Aaron] So as we start this topic, which was, this topics coming up because what’s coming up.

[Jennifer] I was gonna say, we like Jesus. We like to talk about him.

[Aaron] Yeah we like talking about Jesus. But what’s coming up soon?

[Jennifer] Well, we grew up celebrating Easter–

[Aaron] Or resurrection Sunday.

[Jennifer] Resurrection Sunday and I think a lot of people listening go yeah yeah. And it was a pivotal time in the year that we celebrated specifically Jesus’ death and resurrection. And for a lot of other people they would celebrate Passover.

[Aaron] Yeah. Specifically Jewish people. But there’s a lot of people also that celebrate that aren’t Jewish, but that and what we celebrate on resurrection Sunday have a lot to do with each other. And there’s amazing symbolism and imagery in the Passover feast that point to Jesus in so many powerful ways. And so much of the Bible is that way. So much of the old Testament specifically is pointing to Jesus. And so much in the new Testament is pointing back to Jesus this idea of Christ centric that Christ is the substance. And we’ll talk about that but that’s why I wanna talk about this because that day that holiday’s coming up soon and it’s so important to know what the Bible says about Jesus and all these different pictures in the Bible.

[Jennifer] Yeah. There’s actually seven biblical feasts that are split up in the spring months and the fall months. And each one is not only does it foreshadow Christ and symbolize his testimony in special ways but the first four, he has already fulfilled in their timeline, which I think is amazing and incredible. And I’m just gonna leave that right there for you listeners, go research that if you haven’t done that, go research that. So it’ll be interesting to see how God and Jesus fulfill the fall ones.

[Aaron] Yeah. And just to give a little insight of what you’re talking about. So they have these feasts throughout the old Testament that God gave to the Israelites to commemorate certain things that he did for them. But when Jesus came, he actually fulfilled the purpose of those feasts in his life, death and resurrection. And so that’s what you’re talking about but fulfilling them. And so, yeah, although keeping the feasts, by the way and the ceremonial laws are not something that Christians are supposed to observe. It’s not a part of our salvation. The are things that we could totally choose to do. There’s no prohibition of it, but it’s not necessary for our salvation. It’s not necessary for our walk, but there’s definitely something that we can and should look into and understand about these feasts because they tell us and help us understand that the mystery of the gospel

[Jennifer] And also the heritage of our savior.

[Aaron] Oh yeah, ’cause our savior is a Jew. He’s Jewish. I think as Christians, we forget that. That Jesus was himself, a Jew celebrated all of these feasts and festivals, adhered to the law of God himself. And that’s awesome. And so I just wanna read real quick, Colossians 2:17. It tells us “These are shadows of the things to come “but the substance belongs to Christ.” So all of these things that God gave to the Israelites, the feast, the ceremonies, the things that they were to do were shadows. And so the shadow, isn’t the thing. So if there’s a tree casting, a shadow the shadow is not the tree. The tree is the tree. And so we have these shadows that they point to the substance, the substance is Christ. The thing that cast the shadow is the savior. And so when we see these feasts, we see the shape of the savior and that’s what we’re gonna see in the Passover.

[Jennifer] Okay. Okay. But this is a marriage podcast, Aaron. So I mean, why are we talking about this?

[Aaron] Well, first of all, we it’s called marriage after God. So we like to talk about God and I like to look at it as we’re not necessarily a marriage podcast. We are a gospel podcast and we’d like to use our marriage to present the gospel.

[Jennifer] I like that.

[Aaron] I don’t know that that’s how I look at it. Marriage is something that God’s given us and we use it as a tool for him. And what a powerful thing that he’s given us, is our marriage that we can grow and learn and be used for each other in our growth. I know that’s so, yeah, it’s our marriage. Also. I think about how we talk so much in our marriage about God, about things we learned in the Bible about things that we’re reading things that we’re thinking about, things that we see in the news, things that we hear we’re like, Hey, what do you think of this? And we have, so it’s actually the most important part of our marriage. It’s the largest part of our marriage. And it also helps our marriage be strengthened and grow and we learn each other. So talking about God, talking about these things in your marriage is super important.

[Jennifer] Good, we, okay. So that’s really good, really great. I like throwing those questions at you and see what you have to say. You’re encouraging. We just wanna let you guys know we hope that this episode encourages you. We hope that it teaches you something maybe you didn’t know before stimulate the conversation with your spouse like Aaron said, and just get your heart focused on what God has done and what he’s doing. Because like you already mentioned, we’re going into this season very soon of Passover and Easter and remembering what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. It was death and resurrection.

[Aaron] So the name of this episode is Jesus is the Passover. And so the question is, is did we just come up with that? Or does the Bible say that?

[Jennifer] Well, first Corinthians 5:7 says “For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”

[Aaron] So Paul tells us and shows us that Christ is the Passover lamb. So our savior is our Passover. He’s saved us from the wrath of God. That’s what this is essentially talking about.

[Jennifer] So today we’re gonna just talk about we’re using this scripture to kind of set us up but we’re gonna be talking about the correlations that we see in this Jewish feast and what Jesus has done. So let’s start by taking a little history lesson the Passover, what was it? And why did it happen?

[Aaron] Well, if your note on this timeline is correct. It was about 3,400 years ago, which is a long time.

[Jennifer] A really long time if you think about it in light of family tradition. So I think about things in my childhood or things that I’ve seen other people do that are family ingrained family tradition. And they’ve been through the decades.

[Aaron] Have they lasted 3,400 years?

[Jennifer] That’s what I’m saying is that’s a crazy long time to continue to do something

[Aaron] One it just shows you that this feast this tradition that the Jews today still celebrate pretty much the same way. It’s always been celebrated since it happened. And what we’re gonna read about in Exodus chapter 12, it shows that it’s not founded in anything earthly. It’s something that God gave them. And so they still have it, which is a pretty amazing thing. So let’s read it. It takes us back to the book of Exodus. I’m starting in chapter 12, verse one. And this is where the Passover feast began. And this is actually where a lot of things began actually.

[Jennifer] I was just gonna set up. So God’s people had been in Egypt for like 400 years and became slaves. So, okay now go.

[Aaron] Yeah. And so God comes to Moses and says I want my people to be free. And so he commissions Moses to go talk to Pharaoh and God gives them 10 plagues to help convince Pharaoh to let the people go and to show his glory and his might and his power. And we’re about to read about the 10th plague. And so leading up to this, the first nine plagues didn’t really as you would say, touch the Hebrews. So everything was affecting the Egyptians but not necessarily them, but this plague, the 10th plague had the ability to touch anyone who didn’t follow the ritual that God gives them, the command that God gives them to be saved from this plague. So let’s start in verse one of chapter 12. “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt “this month shall be for you the beginning of months. “It shall be the first month of the year for you. “Tell all the congregation of Israel that “on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb “according to their father’s houses, a lamb for a household. “And if the household is too small for a lamb “then he and his nearest neighbors shall take according “to the number of persons, according to what each can eat “you shall make your count of the lamb. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. “You may take it from the sheep or from the goats “and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month. “When the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel “shall kill their lambs at Twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood “and put it on the two door posts “and on the lintel of the house, in which they eat it. “They shall eat the flesh that night “roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. “They shall eat it. “Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water “but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts. “And you shall let, none of it remain until morning. “Anything that remains until morning you shall burn. “In this manner you shall eat it with your belts, “fastened your sandals on your feet “and your staff in your hand “And you shall eat it in haste. “It is the Lord’s Passover for, I will pass through the land “of Egypt that night, and it will strike all the firstborn “in the land of Egypt, both man and beast “and on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. “I am the Lord. “The blood shall be a sign for you. “on the houses where you are. “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you “and no plague will be fall you to destroy you “when I strike the land of Egypt.” So we have Passover being instituted, right now to save the Hebrews from their firstborn being destroyed. God’s gonna go destroy the first born of everyone in Egypt, unless there’s blood over their doors. This is the beginning of Passover. And so we see pretty closely or pretty quickly the symbolism and what’s happening. Salvation

[Jennifer] Yeah. I mean, overall, there’s this picture of people in bondage and a miraculous rescue by God. And we can say there is the same picture in the gospel that we’re all familiar with. People in bondage to sin and God providing a miraculous rescue. This is just like the overall big picture theme.

[Aaron] Yeah and there’s–

[Jennifer] Wait there’s so more.

[Aaron] There’s so much more. A cool note here. God used the first Passover to be a moment that he started the calendar over. He says, this will be the first month for you of years. So he literally gives them a fresh start. Not just that, but it’s more than a fresh start. It’s a new life. None of us can just go back and be like, Hey I’m just gonna start my life over today. The calendar starts now.

[Jennifer] How many of us have thought let’s just start over. Let’s just have that time back.

[Aaron] God did that for them. He said, you know what? You’ve been for bondage for 400 years, but let’s just your year starts right now today, new year, new you. You’re gonna be, but this is what God does with us when he saves us through Jesus. Behold the old is passed away and all things have become new. There is no more old man. He is dead. There’s only the new man, the new creation. This is what we are in Christ. Born again, as Nicodemus would ask Jesus how am I crawl back up into my mom’s womb. Yeah. But like, that’s what happens. He’s like, well, unless you become born again we have this new calendar with Christ. And I just, that was a really cool thing that I noticed is your day start today.

[Jennifer] That’s so cool. Okay so the first detail that we’re gonna explore here from the Passover is blood, because that was the main thing that God was commanding them to do. And the thing that he gave them to be saved.

[Aaron] Yeah the blood was the thing. It wasn’t all of the other things. Of course they had to obey but it was the blood that he would see. That was the sign was the blood over the door.

[Jennifer] I was gonna say, just as a reminder, Exodus, 12:13 says “The blood shall be assigned for you “on the houses where you are. “And when I see the blood, I will pass over you “and no plague will be for you to destroy you “when I strike the land of Egypt.”

[Aaron] Yeah. So I wanna give a question that everyone listening has probably never thought of. And it’s just boggles my mind, but it is what it is. Why is blood necessary for saving us? Well, Hebrews 9:22 says, “Indeed, under the law “almost everything is purified with blood. “And without the shedding of blood “there is no forgiveness of sins.” And I just asked myself, why is blood the thing, okay? But it is. So we see Adam and Eve when they sinned, God said surely in the day that you ate that tree you’re going to die, but what happened? Instead of them dying, God sacrificed an animal and covered them with skins of an animal. So there was this substitutionary atonement. That’s the theological term for this. Instead of them dying, something else died. In Egypt, it was the Lamb’s blood on the door, in the temple it was the blood of the sacrifices that atoned for the sins of the people. And ultimately all of this points to the fact that although blood is required for the forgiveness of sins, we have the will of God that he says it’s not God’s will that any should perish but that all would come to the knowledge of Christ. So he doesn’t want our blood, but the blood is necessary. And in reality, what’s the truth about our blood versus Christ blood?

[Jennifer] Well, his was perfect. His was the only one capable of doing this miraculous thing.

[Aaron] Yeah. So no animals, blood, no other human beings blood could cover any one sin let alone the whole sin of the world. But Christ’s could the blood that he shed, makes white as snow, the blood that he shed, covers everything, covers every sin. And that’s just amazing. I just wanted to point that out that Christ blood is more powerful even than Lamb’s blood over the doorpost.

[Jennifer] Yeah. That’s awesome. One thing that I did when I was looking into this a while ago is I looked at what’s lentil ’cause you hear that word and you’re like you assume what it is but just to make sure everyone’s listening right now it’s so he says to put the blood on the doorposts the two doorposts and the lintel that’s just the horizontal beam above the door. And so you get this picture of the two sides and the top covered with blood and Aaron I don’t know if you remember this but we did a family Bible time like a year ago or two years ago. And you were teaching the kids and you jumped up and ran to the door to show them where the blood would have been placed. And as you’re doing it, you’re making the motion and you do it over and over and over again. And the kids finally see, Oh, it’s a cross. And I just think that that was so cool that that was all tied together like that visibly. How beautiful, God is so cool that he shows those pictures like that.

[Aaron] It’s beautiful. And there’s more, there’s so many more elements to this that we’re gonna see that God’s using. Again these are shadows. This is what Hebrews tells us that these are shadows pointing to the substance.

[Jennifer] So let’s look at something that we won’t find at Passover is that weird to just go there.

[Aaron] Well, we’re gonna talk about a bunch of things that you will find but we’re starting with something that you won’t find.

[Jennifer] Okay. In Exodus 12:8 God tells the people what they must do to save their firstborn from the destroyer. It says “They shall eat the flesh that night “roasted on the fire with unleavened bread.”

[Aaron] That’s interesting, right? Why unleavened bread? And if you don’t know what unleavened bread is, leaven is yeast. You put it in bread and it rises. That’s all yeast does. It’s the sugars and it makes.

[Jennifer] It makes it all puffy and good. Why we like bread.

[Aaron] We love leavened bread. But God told them to eat unleavened bread. And so leavened here shows us something. So just first and foremost, they need to be ready to go right after eating the Passover which is an amazing thing to think about. God’s like, I want you to eat this, but you better eat it in haste ’cause you’re getting out of here quickly. So don’t linger. Don’t take your time. He even tells him to throw the goat or the lamb whole on the fire. Don’t take the entrails out. Don’t take nothing. He’s like cook it. And he’s like, then don’t take it with you throw it on the fire and let it burn up. It shows you this urgency which is another cool picture. That word urgency. We always bring it up for salvation. But yeast, if you don’t have looked back then they didn’t have a little packets of yeast. What they would do is they’d put the bread in a bowl cover it in a towel and they’d set out on and the yeast is in the air and it takes time to rise. God’s like, no, take it, flatten it out, cook it.

[Jennifer] You’ll be fine.

[Aaron] Yeah. But he actually tells them, for seven days.

[Jennifer] To be cleaning it out.

[Aaron] To clean it out of the house, that there’d be no leaven. So on the first day, cleaned it out and then no leaven and they’re supposed to eat unleavened bread for seven days. But this is this idea of of urgency quickly that they don’t take time. But what other things does leaven represent in the Bible.

[Jennifer] Well it represents sin, pride, unbelief, impurity.

[Aaron] And so God’s showing he’s like, get it out get all of this out ’cause I’m taking you somewhere new. And I think it also represents this idea of lingering and waiting. Like I was saying, it takes time for bread to rise. And if they would have not done that, they’re like, well it’s God really, it’s almost like an unbelief. It’s a waiting rather than doing. I’m not gonna do I’m gonna wait. So I don’t know. That was just a little thought I had about leaven ’cause it takes time to get that yeast in the dough.

[Jennifer] So Exodus 12:15 is where it talks about getting the leaven out of your houses. It says “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. “On the first day, you shall remove leaven “out of your houses for if anyone eats, “what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day “that person shall be cut off from Israel.” So people clean up their homes like Aaron had already mentioned.

[Aaron] They remove everything they sweep it. But this shows us a picture of what Paul tells us in first Corinthians that we too, as believers must clean out the leaven. We gotta let the Lord sweep every corner of our hearts to cleanse us and transform us to remove that leaven from us. I want you to read first Corinthians five seven through eight.

[Jennifer] It says “Cleanse out the old leaven “that you may be a new lump “as you really are unleavened. “For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. “Let us therefore celebrate the festival “not with the old Leaven, the leaven of malice and evil “but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

[Aaron] So he shows us right here, the substance of this thing that God gave the Israelites. He’s telling them about bread. We’re seeing what he means by it. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Jesus tells us that one day he tells the woman at the well he’s like one day my people will worship me in spirit and in truth. And so he’s showing us like, hey cleanse out the old leaven that you may be new lump. There’s that word new again. But he says, as you really are unleavened. So the reality is is we are unleavened therefore get rid of the leaven. It’s like this. And you see this throughout the new Testament a lot. Put the old man to death, continue to kill the old man. You’re a new man you’ve died. So there’s this dichotomy of I’m a new creation and I still have an old nature and we’re working towards sanctification. But this is something that we get to look at as believers is like, is there any leaven that we’re holding on to? That we’re not letting the Lord clean out. We’re fighting it and saying, well, no I wanna keep that. Paul warns us that a little bit of leaven leaven the whole lump.

[Jennifer] That’s so good. We’re gonna take this a little bit further. The Hebrew word for what we’re talking about, this unleavened bread is called Matzo and it’s like a flat bread. I’ve seen it and used it. It’s got holes in it. And it also has like these burned stripes in it which I think is really interesting. It’s just from the baking process but Matza is a picture of Christ’s body. And so I just wanted to read Isaiah 53:5 It says, “But he was pierced for our transgressions. “He was crushed for our iniquities “upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. “And with his wounds, we are healed.

[Aaron] And then which, by the way is it–

[Jennifer] How beautiful.

[Aaron] Is a perfect picture of the gospel right there in Isaiah, thousands thousand years before Jesus give or take I don’t know exactly how long it is, but in first Corinthians 11:24, it calls him the bread of life. It says and when he given thanks speaking of Jesus, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you do, this in remembrance of me. And when he’s doing this he’s referencing the Passover feast, the last supper. This is referencing him taking the Matza and breaking it. And we’re actually gonna learn about the second about what he broke. Why don’t you read John 6:35.

[Jennifer] “Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. “And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.”

[Aaron] This verse is gonna be interesting in a minute about what we’re gonna learn next. But this is all pointing to the fact that Jesus is our Matza. He’s our bread. He is the bread that they ate on that night was an image of them consuming the bread of life, the savior, which is what we’re told to do so

[Jennifer] Real quick. I just, I love you were talking about how, Jesus was at the Passover explaining to his disciples, what it meant. So he is the substance telling them, holding the shadow in his hand, telling them this is me. I just think that’s so cool.

[Aaron] Well and the Jews have been doing it for years, decades, generations. And he just told them he was like, this mystery is me.

[Jennifer] The other thing to think about just really quick on it little silly tangent is Jesus grew up doing Passover with his family. And I wonder, I’m not gonna say I wonder how long he knew ’cause he knew, but participating in that way a Passover, knowing what he knew of who he was but not saying anything to anyone until this moment, I don’t know.

[Aaron] That’s amazing. Who knows if, it blows my mind. So moving on from the Matza, one of the traditions with the Matza during the Passover is a thing called the is it afikoman?

[Jennifer] Afikoman.

[Aaron] Yeah. Why don’t you explain what that is ’cause it’s a really beautiful thing.

[Jennifer] Yeah. The afikoman is three pieces of Matza that they placed in a special bag. And afikoman is common is actually a Greek word that means that which comes after or people know it as dessert. And in the beginning of the Passover meal they remove the second piece, the middle piece of matza, they break it, they wrap it in white linen, they hide it until the very end and then a child finds it and is rewarded.

[Aaron] If you don’t see all the symbols in this, I don’t know wat to say.

[Jennifer] I love that it’s a child that goes looking for it.

[Aaron] So that was the first thing. When I read about this the first thing I thought of is Matthew 18:3. And Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you “unless you turn and become like children “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And up until this point the Jews have been celebrating Passover ever since they left Egypt and the children would find the Matza. The children would look for the bread of life, the broken bread. Think about that. So we just talked about his body being broken and also that three number, God the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit. And then you have this picture of them taking the one and breaking it and hiding it for till the end of the meal. And it just makes me think of Jesus being taken from the Godhead because it says he was, separated from the father that he, there was a moment when he the wrath of God was on Jesus for us. And he was broken for our inequities. Okay. And then he was wrapped in linen and hidden for three days. I just.

[Jennifer] I know, I know. And then, so when in my notes when I had put in there that it was a Greek word, Aaron this made you go on a little hunt and this is what you found about the afikomen.

[Aaron] So on Wikipedia, it explains the afikomen this way. It says the Afikomen is a substitute for the Passover sacrifice, which was the last thing eaten at the Passover Seder during the eras of the first and second temples and during the periods of the tabernacle.

[Jennifer] So the last thing during Passover, the last thing that they would eat and consume is.

[Aaron] The Passover sacrifice.

[Jennifer] The sacrifice yeah.

[Aaron] Which ended after the second temple was destroyed of course. So the Talmud States that it is forbidden to have any other food after the Afikomen so that the taste of the Matza that was eaten after the meal remains in the participant’s mouth. Since the destruction of the temple and the discontinuation of the Corbin Pesach which is, these are words for the Passover meal Jews eat a piece of Matza now known as the afikomen to finish the Passover Seder meal. So.

[Jennifer] Even in this substitute.

[Aaron] You see this picture yeah.

[Jennifer] Of Jesus being the last thing consumed.

[Aaron] Yeah. And this actually makes me realize I’m wrong. So for generations they weren’t doing the Afikomen but they had the Passover lamb that they would eat last which is awesome for a reason. I’m gonna read in a second, but I love this picture of this, the Matza being broken. I love this idea of it being the last thing that they taste ’cause Jesus says about himself in revelation 22:13 He says, I’m the alpha and the Omega the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So they eat the Matza that they’re in the meal and then they eat that matza last. And so he’s the first and the last he’s the beginning and the end. And also once you taste Christ, there is nothing else. There is no more. It’s like it is finished as he said on the cross. He said, you’ll never hunger again. You’ll never thirst again.

[Jennifer] That’s a really cool time. You just said, he said it has finished so eating whether it was eating the sacrifice last or eating the Afikomen last it’s consuming Christ. And he is blessed. That’s wonderful.

[Aaron] It’s done essentially. So we talked about the leaven, we talked about the Matza the afikomen. Why don’t we move on to the next element that we see in scripture about this?

[Jennifer] So it talks about bitter herbs. Okay. So think like a horseradish. And there’s this thing that they do where they dip the matza or the unleavened bread into the bitter herbs to remember, the pain and sorrow and bondage that they once were in. I’ll just read Exodus 1:14 “And made their lives bitter “with hard service and mortar and brick. “And in all kinds of work in the field, in all their work “they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.”

[Aaron] So this was their life under the Egyptians.

[Jennifer] Yeah. So the bitter herbs serve to remind the Jews that they once were this and their life was bitter.

[Aaron] And this is the picture of the life of a person without Christ. The bitter and hard service and the mortar and brick is building a life in your own building it in your own strength, trying to save yourself and being a slave to sin and death. This is what we are without Christ and it’s bitter. And the end of it is bitter as well. The Bible tells us and that our enemy and our flesh and that’s this being slave to that sin is as their work was ruthlessly made. It says in all their work, they ruthlessly made them work as slaves. This is what our sin and our flesh and our bondage to it does, which is why Jesus says, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. He gives reference to him being so much better than the slavery that we have without him.

[Jennifer] So in light of this, I wanna remind all of us about a scripture in John and something interesting that I read about. So John 13:22 through 26 says this, “The disciples looked at one, another “uncertain of whom he spoke.” So this is them at the Passover meal. “One of his disciples whom Jesus loved “was reclining at the table at Jesus’s side. “So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus “of whom he was speaking. “So that disciple leaning back against Jesus said to him “Lord, who is it? “And Jesus answered it is he to whom “I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. “So when he had dipped the morsel “he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.”

[Aaron] They were wondering who was gonna betray him ’cause you said one of you is going to betray me and they were like, who? Who’s gonna betray you. What are you talking about?

[Jennifer] Yeah. But this little part here, about Jesus taking the bread and dipping it.

[Aaron] Into the bitter.

[Jennifer] Yeah this is into the bitterness and that’s exactly what Judas was. That was the picture of Judas. Was this bitter betrayal of friendship and intimacy and camaraderie to what he chose instead.

[Aaron] Yeah ’cause he chose the wrong path. And so Jesus, this is I just thought this was when you told me this. I was like, that is amazing that he dipped it into the bitter herbs. ‘Cause that’s what they did.

[Jennifer] And to take it one step further, Jesus says to take, two believers break this bread in remembrance of him and this is my body and drink the wine which we’re about to dive into the cups of wine. But he doesn’t say anything about the bitter herbs. And so I feel like him conquering death on the cross was put an end to that.

[Aaron] I think that’s awesome because he takes the bitterness away. He’s cleansed it now it’s sweet. Another verse, Romans 6:17-18, it says “But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves “of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard “of teaching, to which you were committed and having been “set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness.” So this idea of the bitter herbs to remind of being once slaves, we know, get the reminder at in communion, which is a picture of this and it’s in a sense of, wow, Christ has saved me from all that. He’s removed me from that life and put me in this new one. He’s taken me from that land and he’s putting me in the free land. I’m no longer a slave to sin and death. That is the truth. And so there is no more bitterness. There’s joy and peace in the savior

[Jennifer] And hope, lots of hope. I love that. Okay. So I kind of mentioned this already but we’re gonna jump into another element of Passover which are four cups of wine that they take in regard to this scripture in Exodus 6:6-7 and I’ll read that first and then we’ll kind of break it down. “Say therefore to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. “And I will bring you out “from under the burdens of the Egyptians “and I will deliver you from slavery to them. “And I will redeem you “with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. “I will take you to be my people and I will be your God. “And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God “who has brought you out “from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”

[Aaron] So we have four cups and the four cups represent the various parts of this verse, these two verses. And so you have the first cup representing the statement I am the Lord, and I will bring you out of, out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and the second cup, I will deliver you from slavery. And the third cup that represents, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. And then the fourth cup that represents, I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord, your God. And so you have these cups that represent these statements.

[Jennifer] Really quick just others may have heard these cups named differently or defined differently just in one word, really simple ways and so I just wanna run through those really quick. The cup of sanctification, the cup of plagues, the cup of redemption and then the fourth cup is I will take you as my people.

[Aaron] Yeah. That’s like a longer one, but that’s a good one. But what’s cool about these cups is we learned some I looked up some scriptures to tie in the imagery that we have as believers in this ceremony of these, four drinks, these four cups. And so the first cup, that represents this statement I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. So in Colossians 1:13, Paul says, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness “and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.” So this is what the Lord has done through Jesus. He will bring us out from under the burdens and he’s done this through Jesus. And then, so just like God transferred them, he’s transferred us. And so we’re no longer in that world of darkness. We’re no longer in Egypt. We’re no longer a part of that system. We’re a part of his own kingdom of light. And I just, that’s a beautiful picture that you have in that cup.

[Jennifer] I love it.

[Aaron] When we get to drink that cup it’s like a one-time we have it in Christ.

[Jennifer] That’s good. The second one is I will deliver you from slavery. So Romans 6:22 says, “But now that you have been set free “from sin and have become slaves of God, “the fruit you get leads to sanctification “and it’s an eternal life.”

[Aaron] We’ve been set free from sin and death. So again, I wanna just tell everyone I try and reiterate this, realizing this truth in the Bible has been the biggest transformative thing for me. Jennifer, could you attest me. This truth never changed. I changed because of it.

[Jennifer] You believed it.

[Aaron] I believed it finally yeah. That I have been delivered from slavery. I am no longer slave to sin and death. I am now a slave of God. And so I’m not owned by that anymore. I don’t have to obey those urges and temptations. And that’s the same for every believer in Christ that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God. So the third cup and by the way, this cup which is represents, I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. This third cup is actually the cup that we take as Christians. This is the cup that Jesus says, take this cup and it remember me when he gives that statement and I’ll read it in a second. So in Ephesians 1:7 it says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, “the forgiveness of our trespasses, “according to the riches of his grace.” So the cup that we take is this cup of redemption in Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So Christ pours out his blood. We learn this in Luke 22:19, when Jesus says, it says “And he took the bread. “And when he had given thanks he broke it “and gave it to them saying, this is my body “which has given for you do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise, the cup after they had eaten saying this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. And I actually think this cup, I might be wrong on this. I think there’s a feature of this cup where they actually poured and overflow it on purpose. And it shows that this redemption is over flowing from God. And that’s what it’s saying. This cup has poured out. It’s overflowing like my blood is gonna overflow and it’s gonna cover all your sins and make you white as snow. And he says, it’s the new covenant. So when we take communion, we’re actually participating in this third cup that the Jewish people would partake in. But it’s the only part of this ceremony that Jesus has asked us to do is eat the bread, take this cup and remember his body and his blood, because it’s what redeems us.

[Jennifer] Yep. The last one says I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God. Titus 2:11-14 says “For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation “for all people training us to renounce ungodliness “and worldly passions and to live self-controlled upright “and godly lives in the present age. “Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing “of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ “who gave himself for us to redeem us “from all lawlessness and to purify for himself, a people “for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

[Aaron] So this last cup, this is what God is doing through Jesus. He’s purifying for himself, a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So this cup, this what they would be drinking is this is being brought into the promised land. This is what we wait for our blessed hope. And there’s actually a statement Jesus says, it’s not quite in the right order but I think it has something to do with this. He says for, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until I drink it with you in my kingdom.

[Jennifer] Which makes sense in light of the marriage feast and like.

[Aaron] Waiting for that.

[Jennifer] Yeah. For his people.

[Aaron] That there’s gonna come a time that our blessed hope is gonna appear in glory and he’s gonna receive us to himself. And so we wait to drink that with him. I’m excited to sit down at a table. It’s probably gonna be the best tasting wine. I don’t know if it’s gonna be actually wining up but sitting with our Lord in his kingdom and his ruling. I’m just so stoked for that.

[Jennifer] So cool. What an emotional thing to have spent, speaking of Jesus like I had already mentioned before, but spending year after year, celebrating the Passover.

[Aaron] And knowing what it means.

[Jennifer] And then getting to this point where it’s your last Passover, like with his disciples.

[Aaron] That’s a big deal. And he loved them. And so he shared with them who he was and what he was doing and what it means. Not for their sake only but for ours also. That we can know Christ and him crucified which is the gospel. So looking at the pictures in Passover and the symbolism overlay with Christ and what he’s done is just incredible. But this is just one of the feasts. So a little side note is like you should dig into some of these, go read them in the Bible and look with the eyes of where is Christ in this? What is he showing me? How is this a shadow of the substance?

[Jennifer] Yeah. Okay. So we’ve talked about parts of the Passover. Now we’re gonna look at that Holy week and the events that took place especially that last week of Christ’s life.

[Aaron] Yeah some of these are gonna blow your mind by the way.

[Jennifer] Well, let’s see.

[Aaron] Yeah. And we didn’t come up with all these like we’ve done research and we’ve looked into them. And some of the things that we’ve read about were like, Oh, when we see the pictures. We don’t wanna take credit for everything. We’re just gonna present it to you and hopefully you get blessed by it.

[Jennifer] Here we go. Okay. So we’ve talked about Passover and it being like a family tradition, but what would happen is Aaron when we first started this episode you read Exodus and it said that they should take a lamb for every household. So as a family tradition every household would select a lamb.

[Aaron] Perfect and a year old a male.

[Jennifer] And they would do it at a specific time at the beginning of this week and.

[Aaron] They would live with it.

[Jennifer] Yeah we’re gonna get there. I just wanted to point this out. So on that day that they would select the one-year-old lamb was the same time that Jesus entered Jerusalem, greeted with Palm branches and other branches saying Hosanna signifying their desire to make him King.

[Aaron] They wanted to make him King. So what you’re saying is they chose their lamb.

[Jennifer] Yes. And this is what we know as Palm Sunday.

[Aaron] Okay so Jesus rides on a donkey. Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.

[Jennifer] They’re cheering for him.

[Aaron] Yep. It’s amazing. It’s like this big thing, his disciples are like, Oh it’s gonna happen. And he’s going to be King. They’re all thinking this.

[Jennifer] So collectively they’ve selected their lamb.

[Aaron] And by the way I remember how on was it last episode or two episodes ago about prophecy.

[Jennifer] The last episode yeah.

[Aaron] We were talking about how up to this time they had that they knew that all Jews for the most part had this feeling like, Oh we’re in that timeframe.

[Jennifer] Yeah like it made sense.

[Aaron] That the Messiah is coming. So they actually believed that he was the Messiah that was about to be an earthly King for them.

[Jennifer] Which is just crazy how much changed over the course of a few days.

[Aaron] He’s coming in and they’ve selected their lamb.

[Jennifer] Okay. So do you wanna share the next one?

[Aaron] Yeah. So if we’re what we’re doing is we’re doing this parallel of Jesus and the Passover feast. So Jesus comes in and they select him. The Jewish family would select their lamb and bring it into the house, okay? Immediately after he comes into the city which is a really funny thing actually he’s like, they’re like praising him and their Palm branches and excited and he heads straight to the temple.

[Jennifer] His father’s house.

[Aaron] His father’s house.

[Jennifer] So the lamb in his father’s house yeah.

[Aaron] And what does he do? In one of the gospels that says that he fashions a whip and he goes in and he starts whipping the money collectors, flipping tables. Money’s going everywhere. Chickens everywhere, animals everywhere.

[Jennifer] He’s cleaning out the leaven.

[Aaron] He’s cleaning out the house, right? So he’s going in getting rid of the impurities, getting rid of he’s cleaning it out, which is I thought you pointed that out to me. And I was like, that’s awesome.

[Jennifer] Okay so these little lambs are kept in the homes and they’re examined over several days because they can’t have any impurities no blemishes, nothing, nothing. And because they are only a year old it just takes that little bit more time to see, I guess I don’t know, but it’s during this time that, okay, Jesus was selected. He goes into the temple, he clears it out and then he’s teaching, but he’s also being interrogated.

[Aaron] They’re testing him.

[Jennifer] Who?

[Aaron] The Sadducees and the Pharisees, the religious leaders. They’re testing Jesus. Seeing if he is who he says he is, if he is perfect.

[Jennifer] Because the lambs must be determined, pure, and perfect in order to continue on with their sacrifice for Passover.

[Aaron] Which leads to the next amazing thing. Thinking about these parallels is that not only does Jesus standing for the religious leaders when they capture him to crucify him he gets grilled by them. But he also gets grilled by the ruling leader. Pontius Pilate.

[Jennifer] Well, he’s put on trial and he’s scrutinized.

[Aaron] So John 19:4 it says “Pilate went out again and said to them, “see, I am bringing him out to you “that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”

[Jennifer] What a declaration.

[Aaron] So yeah, not a decoration of like, I dunno what you guys are talking about. I’m not having nothing to do with this. No. He says I find no guilt in him. And even in Matthew, 26:59, it says now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death but they found none. Though many false witnesses came forward. So the religious leaders and the political leaders both found no guilt in him. So if you think about it in the house, the lamb was tested. Was he perfect? Yup. So then Jesus celebrates the Passover meal with his disciples, which I’m not going in order by the way of all these events.

[Jennifer] No, but this does happen where he goes to celebrate the Passover meal together with them. And I just, I can’t imagine being one of the disciples experiencing this amazing intimate dinner with my Lord and hearing him talking strangely about breaking the bread and that’s his body. And then the wine is somehow his blood, like, okay I’m trying to wrap my head around this, right? But then it actually happening and hearing or seeing and being a part of that whole situation where what Jesus had just said actually happens. Just being one of the disciples, that’s crazy.

[Aaron] It didn’t, but it almost did. Yeah. I don’t even know. We see, we get to look it backwards and see it all in linear but they were experiencing it as it was happening. I couldn’t imagine. And so on the fifth day, they would kill the lamb without breaking its bones. This is, what God said kill the lamb without breaking it’s bones. Which is by the way exactly how Jesus died. No bone was broken. And the reason that’s important is because one of the ways that the Roman soldiers would if they wanted to get through the crucifixions quicker, and you see this, they broke the legs of the thieves on the cross next to Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, he had already died. It says that he gave up the ghost, he gave up his spirit. And so instead of breaking his legs, so that he would suffocate, they just stabbed him in the side with a spear which went through his heart, but he was already dead. So no bone was broken in Jesus’s body when he died. Which fulfills again, when we are talking about Jesus fulfilled these feasts.

[Jennifer] This is what we mean.

[Aaron] In his death, he couldn’t have controlled necessarily the Romans not breaking his legs other than dying first. So he dies. No bone is broken. He fulfills that ordinance by God in his own body. And so then another note on this, by the way, eating the whole lamb, not leaving anything leftover in John 6:53, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you,” by the way this is one of the craziest things that Jesus says in the Bible. I think he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you “unless you eat the flesh of the son of man “and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

[Jennifer] Yeah that’s kinda weird.

[Aaron] But he says this on purpose and hundreds of his disciples leave him in this moment because of this word. And this is when he looks over at Peter and says are you also not gonna leave? And Peter says, where are we gonna go? You have the words of life, right? But he literally says, unless you eat me and drink my blood and we get it now as Christians, we’re like, Oh yeah, communion. We understand it. It’s his body and his blood. But he’s showing this idea of eating the lamb.

[Jennifer] Which it did the whole lamb and–

[Aaron] And leave nothing left over.

[Jennifer] Well, what I see is the scripture talks about Jesus is the word. And so we as we believers get to consume God’s word and not just parts of it. We get to consume the whole word of God

[Aaron] A side note for everyone listening you should go research the show bread in the temple.

[Jennifer] Yeah talk about pictures.

[Aaron] And learn about the showbread and how it remained fresh and how the priests were supposed to consume all of it and not leave any left. Just a beautiful thing.

[Jennifer] Okay. So that, it’s really, really good.

[Aaron] Bring up this part ’cause this part’s awesome too. All these parallels they’re perfect.

[Jennifer] Okay. So you talked about Jesus being up on the cross. And at that moment, when he was suffering, before he died they reached up, I’ll just read it. John 19:29, “A jar full of sour wine stood there. “So they put a sponge full of the sour wine “on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.” So this was just to try and ease the pain of what he was going through and help them along. But

[Aaron] What’s the significance of hyssop.

[Jennifer] The hyssop was used to put the blood over the doorpost in Egypt. That’s what they used. And so there’s this correlation, this overlap, this picture we see of the hyssop branch being used during Passover.

[Aaron] Interesting. I like all this. So another thing that’s amazing. It just blows my mind. Jesus is dying on the cross at the same time as Passover happening. So at 3:00 PM the same time they would have slain the Passover lamb, Jesus was taking his last breath. So they were literally slaying the Passover lamb, Jesus.

[Jennifer] Well, remember they were a busy people that week, because they were there for him when he entered Jerusalem but then they had to select their lambs for Passover. And then there was the whole trial of condemning Jesus. And then he’s dying on the cross and they need to get busy preparing for Passover. And so where are they? They’re about to go sacrifice their Passover because they don’t wanna neglect what God has commanded them to do.

[Aaron] Yeah. If you remember, is it Joseph wanted to take the body of Jesus and they wanted to do it quickly because Passover was about to begin. And they can’t bury bodies on Passover. So they had to take him down and they put them in the tomb and you just see all these things happening. You don’t realize that what they’re doing is they’re literally fulfilling the Passover feast in real time with the actual passive relay on the Messiah.

[Jennifer] It’s just crazy. I was reading about the Shofar last year and I just came.

[Aaron] Which is the shofar again? What is that? What is a shofar?

[Jennifer] It’s the horn that’s they blow Yep. For special occasions. And I stumbled upon someone talking about how they blow the shofar during Passover.

[Aaron] Is it to announce it beginning?

[Jennifer] And I remember just sitting there thinking, like if Jesus was on the cross and they were getting ready to start the sacrifice of the Passover lamb and they were blowing the shofar, could he hear it? Or it happening right as he was going, like, there’s, it’s just, wow.

[Aaron] So Jesus is our Passover lamb. His blood, his sacrifice and resurrection sets us free from bondage of sin. Just like you said, the Jews free from bonds of slavery in Egypt, but better. ‘Cause our land that we look forward to is forever. Their land went away. Now they have it again, but it’s not permanent. Our land is permanent. We have an imperishable inheritance the Bible tells us.

[Jennifer] John 1:29 says “The next day he saw Jesus coming “toward him and said, behold, the lamb “of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I just love that.

[Aaron] Yeah. So John proclaimed him the lamb of God. And he is the lamb. The Bible says who was slain from the foundations of the world. His death is eternal and his resurrection is eternal and his blood is eternal. And the salvation that we received through it is eternal, which is, I don’t understand it. So he calls it a mystery but that mystery has been revealed to us. We have the Messiah. His name is Jesus. Yeah. I don’t know what else to say about that.

[Jennifer] I wanna say that I recently found a really cool resource at Bible gateway, which shows the Holy week timeline and it uses colored lines running horizontally but then goes up and down in relationship to space and time during that week and each color represents a different person or people group. So like, Jesus will be one line. And then Peter’s another line Brown Jesus, Peter’s Brown.

[Aaron] Kinda what they were all doing at the time.

[Jennifer] What they were doing and how they intersected at different moments, Judas was black. And it just was a really cool picture. So go to Bible gateway type in Holy week, timeline, visit visualization and you should be able to find it. But it’s really cool.

[Aaron] Well, that’s what we had to share with you guys about Jesus being our Passover.

[Jennifer] He is our miraculous rescuer and Redeemer. He is he’s our savior.

[Aaron] So as we go into this season of Easter or resurrection Sunday, whatever you wanna call it it’s to celebrate his death, his resurrection and that he’s fulfilled for us the thing that we could not fulfill for ourselves, reconciling us to the father. So to end our last episode of the season would you like to share what you’re grateful for?

[Jennifer] I am grateful for you, Aaron You have loved me with the love that I’ve never doubted. You’re steadfast. You’re faithful. You’re a rock. You have pushed me to great accomplishments to you’ve cheered me on. You’ve helped me reach goals that I’ve had since childhood like big time goals. And you’ve given me a really beautiful family. And so I’m super grateful.

[Aaron] I’m not, I’m not crying at all. You’re crying. I’m not crying. Thank you.

[Jennifer] I’ll say this too, every yes with you has been my best. And I look forward to many more.

[Aaron] I love you, babe.

[Jennifer] I love you.

[Aaron] Well, now I’m bummed ’cause.

[Jennifer] I know you can’t top that.

[Aaron] I know also I didn’t say I’m grateful for you. I am grateful for you, but I’m grateful for, it’s funny. You just said all these like awesome things but I’m grateful for the hard things that we’ve been through as a couple.

[Jennifer] That’s really sweet.

[Aaron] I know it’s like a little different than yours, but well it just shows that with Christ, we can not only survive through many hard trials, but we can thrive as well. You brought up all these things that we’ve accomplished or that this thing you accomplishing dreams, but there was so many hard things that we’ve been through as well but it feels like we’ve invested a lot into our marriage and we get to see the fruit as we grow older. So I don’t regret the hard things. I don’t wish they didn’t happen. I’m grateful for those things ’cause they’ve made us God made us who we are today through those things. And so now we’re not gonna have any more hard things moving forward. ‘Cause today’s the first day of the year. The calendar starts now. No more. I’m just kidding. I’m grateful for you though and the things that we’ve been through

[Jennifer] Well we just wanted to do that this season share things that we’re grateful for in hopes of spreading more gratefulness.

[Aaron] Be grateful.

[Jennifer] And so if you guys wanted to take time this week to consider what you’re grateful for and share it with someone else, share it with the Lord, share it, your spouse And just have a moment where you just praise God in that thankfulness and gratefulness.

[Aaron] And also just reminder, go dig into the all the feasts and festivals and learn about them. We’re not saying you have to do them all but maybe we want to maybe on an try mountain see how they work, but learn who Christ is and all of them. ‘Cause there’s so much. There’s an infinite number of things that we don’t even haven’t even pulled out of any of this stuff, but you can find it. So as usual, we’re gonna end this episode in prayer. Jennifer, would you pray for us?

[Jennifer] Dear Lord, thank you for your son and his sacrifice that we may have eternal life. One incredible gift you have given to us. Thank you for the gospel and the way it has transformed our lives. We pray we would boldly proclaim your gospel, so that others may know your truth and be saved. Thank you for loving us and for forgiving us. We pray for more understanding of your word and more wisdom. Please help us to be a light in this world Lord. May your will be done in us, in our marriages and in this world, we are patiently waiting to be with you and to spend eternity with you. Until then we submit our lives to you and ask that you would move through us to bring about your will on earth. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen.

[Aaron] Amen. We love you all. And we look forward to being with you next season of this podcast. Please take some time over our break to go listen to old episodes. And also as always would you be our share warriors and share this episode with someone who would be encouraged by it? We love you all and we’ll see you soon.