Worship Spotlight: Christian Seder Meal by Theresa Zuber

The Scott Avenue Worship Ministry is preparing a Seder service for Thursday evening, April 1st at 6:30pm. The Seder meal is a Jewish tradition that not only ties in the Passover Feast from the Old Testament that celebrates and remembers God’s liberation of Israel from Egypt but it also foreshadow’s Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. This service will show the parallels between the Passover in the Old Testament and the work of Jesus Christ as the perfect Passover lamb in the New Testament. We often forget that our Christian faith has Jewish roots. This gives insights into the symbolism in the Lord's Supper and the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples. Our hope is that this will make communion even more meaningful to each person that participates.

The Seder service is "family friendly" as Jewish traditional Passover Feasts are celebrated as a family. Ex. 12:26And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' 27 then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' " We hope you will join us as we experience this evening together.

Thank you! Thank you! By Susan Shull

More often than I want to admit-I feel like a spiritual simpleton. Have you ever been in a Bible study and all of a sudden, a light bulb flips on and a verse or concept becomes amazingly clear? I get all excited to share what seems to be a unique idea and when I do, I feel as if everyone looks at me like, “Isn’t she funny? Does she just now understand that simple concept?” It is a little embarrassing, but I’m still grateful that God is revealing and opening his word to me….so I keep plugging away. If you already “get” what I am going to share, please humor me and pat me on the head when I am finished!

Sometimes I forget that Jesus was a Jew. So much of the New Testament can’t be fully comprehended without understanding what occurred in the Old Testament, and this concept was pointed out to me again this week in our study of Jesus, the One and Only. We were learning about the Last Supper, which was really the celebration of the Passover from Exodus. The Israelites were instructed to remember each year the time when God brought them out of bondage in Egypt. At that time, Moses instructed each Jewish family to sacrifice a perfect lamb and put the blood over the door of their homes so that the death angel would “pass over” them, thereby saving the lives of their firstborn sons. After that horrific night for the Egyptians, Pharaoh released God’s people from bondage.

It is almost too much to imagine that Jesus sat with the apostles celebrating this feast, knowing that in a few hours he was going to become the perfect lamb, sacrificed once and for all, for the sins of each of us-you and me. We would be offered a way to escape forever the punishment we deserve. I cannot understand such perfect love, but I am so grateful that Christ was willing to do it. Otherwise, we would be damned to an eternity separated from God’s goodness. My heart bursts with praise and thanksgiving!

The Jewish nation celebrated the “preview-Passover” once a year. We have the opportunity to celebrate the real, genuine, saving Passover every Sunday when we partake of communion. Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t restrict his love and salvation to only one nation?

As we partake of the Lord’s Supper this Sunday, I pray we never forget the unblemished Lamb who bore the shame of our sins and was separated from God for a time so that we wouldn’t have to be.

“For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise!” Psalm 96:4a