The Feast of Passover - Yeshua's Fulfillment of Yah's Divine Appointment - The Crucifixion

Shalom, friends. my name is Chadwick Harvey. You've reached Faithful Performance. Thank you so much for joining us tonight as we celebrate the Feast of Passover — the night the Lord delivered the Jewish people out of Egypt, and the night Yeshua fulfilled that divine appointment through his crucifixion for the sin of all mankind. We have many scriptures to show you tonight as confirmation. This feast opens up a season of great significance; it is the first of seven feast days in the biblical calendar, the last of which falls in the autumn. These feasts are found in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, and they are fully confirmed in the gospel accounts through what Yeshua fulfilled. It was essential that he fulfill these things as the Jewish Messiah — they were among the prerequisites of his mission.

All of this goes back to God's calendar and the way he has orchestrated divine appointments. The calendar is grounded in Genesis 1:14, which says the lights in the heavens are for signs and seasons. The Hebrew word for seasons there is *moadim* — divine appointments. These appointments include signs such as blood moons and solar eclipses, as well as the feast days of the Lord, which Yeshua was appointed to fulfill at both his first and second comings. He fulfilled the first four feasts to the exact day, hour, and detail of the ceremony, as we will show tonight.

Revelation 19:10 says, "The testimony of Yeshua is the spirit of prophecy." The feast days are the greatest prophecies in the Holy Bible because they are his divine appointments on this earth. Remarkably, in Leviticus 23, the Hebrew word used for "feast" is the same word used for "seasons" in Genesis 1:14 — *moed*, meaning a divine appointment. So when we look at the calendar, we can see the feast days arranged across it, because both the calendar and the feasts exist for divine appointments. Yahweh was telling us: he has a calendar and appointed times that his Son was going to fulfill — for salvation and everlasting life at his first coming, and for the second coming events in the fall. The spring feasts correspond to first coming events; the fall feasts correspond to second coming events.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. King David speaks of the crucifixion of the Messiah in Psalm 118, and that psalm contains the hymns appointed for the feast days. There was no Plan B. It was always Plan A: Yeshua would come as the intercessor spoken of in Isaiah 59 and 60. Mankind needed an intercessor, and Yeshua was that intercessor — sent to save us from all of our sins at the Feast of Passover. Without Passover, without Yeshua fulfilling that appointed day, there is no hope for mankind. It is the foundation for everlasting life and for all the feast days that follow.

We also observe the redemption from Egypt and the Exodus of the children of Israel, but the deepest understanding is the New Covenant — Yeshua the Messiah fulfilling this feast day so that we can walk forward in everlasting life. We are in what can be called the season of liberation. Whatever you are praying for, whatever you need, now is a powerful time to bring that before the Lord during this season.

Looking at the calendar: the biblical new year begins with the new month of Nissan, the first month of the biblical calendar. Four days ago was Nissan 10, Shabbat HaGadol — the Great Sabbath — which Yeshua fulfilled when he entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Then, after four days of the inspection of the Messiah, we arrive at the Feast of Passover on Nissan 14, the fourteenth day of the month. Passover itself lasts roughly an hour or two and then transitions into the Feast of Unleavened Bread beginning on Nissan 15. At sundown tonight, we enter Nissan 15 on the Hebrew calendar.

Counting from tonight, three days and three nights brings us to Saturday night, with the resurrection occurring early Sunday morning. Yeshua was crucified on a Wednesday — 2,000 years ago — and this year the calendar aligns perfectly with that. Wednesday night he enters the tomb. Thursday night at sundown is 24 hours. Friday night is 48 hours. Saturday night after Shabbat is 72 hours — three days and three nights, the Sign of Jonah. Matthew 28 says that after the Sabbath, at the dawning of the first day of the week, he rose. That is Sunday morning. It works out perfectly when we follow the alignment of the biblical calendar and walk in the footsteps of the Messiah from Nissan 10 to Nissan 14.

Before sundown on the evening of his crucifixion, Yeshua had to be placed in the tomb because the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins that night and carries the designation of an annual Sabbath — a day of rest, just as the weekly Sabbath, but appointed annually. The first day of Unleavened Bread is a Sabbath, and the seventh day of Unleavened Bread — next Wednesday, the day Israel crossed the Red Sea — is also a Sabbath. These annual Sabbaths work together with the weekly Sabbaths; they do not override each other.

Beginning on Sunday, we start the counting of the Omer. This is commanded in Leviticus 23: after the Feast of First Fruits — the resurrection on Sunday — we count fifty days to Shavuot, which is Pentecost. It is a fifty-day divine appointment from the Feast of First Fruits to Pentecost. This is not like the forty days of Lent counted before Easter; that counting is out of alignment with Scripture. The Bible instructs us to count fifty days after the resurrection, not forty days before it.

With that overview in place, let us turn to the scriptures that tie all of these things together. Revelation 13:8–9 says: "Everyone living on earth will worship the beast, except those whose names are written in the Book of Life belonging to the Lamb slaughtered before the foundation of the world. Those who have ears, let them hear." And 1 Peter 1:20 says: "God knew him before the founding of the universe, but revealed him in the *acharit hayamim* — the last days, the end of the age — for your sakes." He was known before the foundation of the world, and now we walk it out and will be reunited with him in unity.

Together, Revelation 13:8–9 and 1 Peter 1:20 confirm that Yeshua was the Lamb slaughtered before the foundation of the earth. It was always Plan A — Yahweh was always going to send his Son Yeshua to die for all of our sins at the appointed time, which was orchestrated through his first coming events.