Heavenly Origins of the Passover Memorial

Transcript from the presention Heavenly Origins of the Passover Memorial

2025 Passover April 12, 2025

Pr Adrian: Welcome back, everyone. Happy Sabbath. And to those that are online, thank you for joining us.

It really, really is a pleasure for Lorelle and I to have you all here. I hope you feel part of the family and that you feel a big hug in the Spirit. We're just really, really thankful for this very special time.

I was just thinking this morning of the throne room in heaven with the Father and the Son and all the angels and how … the Spirit is going to be poured out and falling down upon us. And soon we're going to be around the throne with God and the land. Isn't that beautiful?

And we're going to taste of that. This is our Father's feast, and we have been called. And this is a feast today, [Sabbath] isn't it? It's a shock to many Sabbath keepers. But if you're a Sabbath keeper, you're a feast keeper, it's the first of the feasts. And wonderful that we can have what I call a pre-dinner mint, the feast before the feast. We get to have an extra day, nine days of celebration. So we hope that you'll all be blessed.

Let's, for those who can or are able, let's kneel.

Opening Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, we thank you for the promise of eternal life. You've called us on this, your Sabbath day. And as we think on this day, you embrace your Son, you kiss him and you tell him that you love him. And Lord Jesus, your heart overflows with immeasurable joy and we drink of that cup that overflows.

And we know that we are your beloved children. Thank you, Father, for the forgiveness of sins. Thank you for the assurance of eternal life. Guide us as we spend this season together here and all those online in Jesus' name. Amen.

Pr Adrian: So tomorrow is the day of the Passover. And I wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about why do we celebrate this time? What's the reason for this celebration? I don't know about you, but if you tell them that you keep feasts, you get some interesting reactions, don't you?

Why do you keep those Jewish feasts? And immediately my mind goes to Leviticus 23. Even these are my feasts. Whose feasts? The Lord's feasts. They're His feasts. And these are a statute for ever, throughout your generations. These are our Father's feasts. And when our Father says, come to a feast, is it a feast or a famine? It's a feast. Father has promised a feast. And what is the greatest blessing of the feast? It is to drink of the wine of His Spirit, isn't it? Isn't that what makes it most festive? To drink that wine, that joy, that effervescent love and joy and peace that we have in the Spirit.

So, I want to talk a little bit about what is so precious to me about the day of the Passover. And I've entitled this presentation “The Heavenly Origins of the Passover Memorial.”

If we look in Scripture, and I'll pull up the Bible here on the screen. Exodus chapter 12 talks to us about the Passover…. Exodus chapter 12. And I'll make it a bit bigger. And this is where most people understand that the Passover originates. And for those of us that have studied the word Passover, what does that word actually mean? Protection. It means to stand guard.

And, of course, the blood on the lintel. Craig spoke about that the other week. That God stands guard at the home. He doesn't pass over in His carpet-bombing run, destroying, wiping out. You like those one-liners, Zane. Carpet-bombing run over Egypt, wiping everything out, and then, you know, “I won't bomb that one.” “I won't wipe them out.” No, He stands guard, lest who? The destroyer should enter your home.

And they were to take a lamb on the 10th day, to bring it into the home, care for that lamb. And then on the 14th day, they were to sacrifice the lamb.

Now, I've talked about this in the book Mirror Principle. What is actually the sacrifice of the lamb represented by? I would like to suggest to you some thoughts. If you haven't read Mirror Principle, Exodus chapter 6, when Moses first came to the Israelites, and God promises seven things to the children of Israel. Seven times He says, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. I will, I will. I'm going to bring you out of bondage.

I'm going to give you your own real estate. I'm going to give you a land filled with milk and honey, and you are going to be My people, and I'm going to be your God. I mean, what kind of promise is that? Isn't that wonderful? Wouldn't you go “sign me up?” “I want in.”

And verse 9, what does it say in verse 9? “And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel, but” There’s that word but again. But what? “They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit and for cruel bondage.” Why did they not hearken? Because of what? They didn't believe. They couldn't believe. They could only feel the pain and the suffering.

But if God's saying, I'm going to take you out of all your suffering. And they say, no, we're not going to listen because we're suffering. Who are they blaming?

“You are responsible for all of our suffering.” That's projection, isn't it? Who caused the suffering for them? The enemy and themselves. They did it to themselves. But you can't blame yourself. You got to blame somebody else. So, we'll blame God. I think in English we call that “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Is that right? Yes. And so, they didn't listen.

So, when God is saying, I'm going to take you unto myself and you're going to be My people and I'm going to be your God and I'm going to shower gifts upon you. Now, when a man says this to a woman that he wishes to marry and she listens not because of anguish of spirit. What does that do to the groom? What happens to the groom when she says, no, I'm not interested. He's being crushed. He's being pierced through.

So, I would suggest to you that the slaying of the lamb in Exodus 12 is because of what's happened here in Exodus 6. They crushed Him. They rejected Him. They resisted Him. And this is why the lamb is being brought forth from God's perspective, from their perspective. They are offering the lamb because they believe that this is what God demands that God demands blood.

Audience: I just want to comment on verse three? “But my name or character Jehovah was not known to them. I was not known to them. His name was not known to them.

Pr Adrian: They didn't know His character. They didn't know His name. And so, as God condescended to enter into a covenant with Abraham, as it says in Patriarchs and Prophets [page] One thirty-seven.

So, God condescended to renew this covenant with the children of Abraham by the offering of the lamb and to them, as it says. And again, in [the book] Cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, we have the quote where it says that the Israelites mixed; they were confused by the worship of the Egyptians, that their concepts of sacrifice were influenced by Egypt.

Is that true? And so, God had to speak to them through their preconceived opinions. And so, there is this concept of sacrifice of blood… God meeting Israel where they are. He gives to us His Son through the representation of the lamb. And when the people see the blood, they feel they are protected; they are safe. Someone else has been battered for them in their place. And this is what most of us were raised with in our Christian experience.

But there is something deeper than this. And I'd like to come back to Exodus chapter 12. And we go to verse 41. “And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years.”

What's the 430 years? Of Abraham and Ishmael. When Ishmael began to persecute Isaac, the clock started ticking. Of the persecution of God's people. So, Israel was not slaves to the Egyptians for 430 years. It was about 215 years. About half that time period. But 200 years is a long time to be a slave. But the clock started ticking from the time of Abraham.

And it says “even the self-same day.” So, 430 years to the day. “Even the self-same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt.” Self-same day is something that happened 430 years earlier. What happened 430 years earlier?

Well, we don't need to be in doubt because the Spirit of Prophecy enlightens us. And I prepared this before. Desire of Ages page 32. It says this:

“But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay. Through the symbols of the great darkness and the smoking furnace.” What's that talking about? The Covenant. The dividing of the animals. Okay. And there was a smoking furnace and a burning lamp.

And my observation has been that the smoking furnace: A furnace is a fire contained within something else. A burning lamp is the brightness of the smoking furnace's glory. It's the Father and the Son which pass between these divided animals. And a covenant was made with Abraham at that particular time. Which we understand from Scripture to be the everlasting covenant. Not that it was made with Abraham only at that time. It was made before this with Adam, with Noah, and renewed with Abraham after there was a great falling away.

And Abraham came out of Babylon. Ur of the Chaldees. And God made a covenant with him. And again, He says, “I will bless you and you will be a blessing. And then in you, all these children of the earth, all the families of the earth, will be blessed. So, on the self-same day that this covenant was made with Abraham, exactly 430 years later, the Passover occurs.

So, the Passover is not only a memorial of the slaying of the lamb. It's a memorial of the covenant that God had made with Abraham. Or as we have often studied, this goes back even further to the covenant that God made with His Son, of which Abraham was a beneficiary. As Colin has presented a number of times. Abraham was the beneficiary of the covenant. He was the one receiving everything.

But the covenant was made between God and His Son. The question is, when did that take place? And Gavin alluded to this, the Council of Peace. So, let's keep reading. Notice the words here very carefully. It says the symbols of the great darkness, the smoking furnace. God revealed to Abraham the bondage of Israel in Egypt and had declared that the time of their sojourning should be 400 years. Afterward, He said, shall they come out with great substance. Genesis 15.

So, there it is in Genesis 15. Against that word, all the power of Pharaoh's proud empire battled in vain. On the self-same day appointed in the divine promise, it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:41.

Notice the next word. What's the next word?

Audience: So

So, what does that suggest? So therefore, or so in heaven; also in heaven's what? Council. “The hour for the coming of Christ had been determined.” Do you see the connection? That this self-same day, which connects the Passover to the covenant made with Abraham, to the covenant that was made originally in the council of heaven.

And what? And that was the Council of peace, wasn't it? So, do you see here in this statement? The Spirit of prophecy is giving us a clue that God's timing, which knows no haste and no delay, that in exactly the same time that God and His Son made a covenant to save the human race at exactly the same time of the year, God entered into a covenant with Abraham and exactly the same time of the year, God brought Israel out of Egypt. And exactly the same time of the year, Jesus died upon the cross in Israel. See all those things lining up? Amazing.

So we see now a connection between the Council of Peace and the covenant made with Abraham and the leaving of Israel from Egypt and Christ dying on the cross. So, let's pull back the curtain a little bit on this council that took place in heaven.

And we come to Early Writings, page 127. And it says, “said the angel, think ye that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved Son.”

What does that mean? Yielded up to what? What did He yield him up to? To us. To somebody's demand for death. God didn't demand the death. Someone else demanded the death.

Desire of Ages 761, paragraph four. Every sin must meet its punishment, urged Satan. Satan was the one that demanded death. God had to yield up His Son to the human race because man embraced Satan's justice system. We note this point that the Father yielded up His dearly beloved, not just Son, not just beloved Son, dearly beloved Son without a struggle. No, no. Says it twice, not once. No, emphatic. No, no.

We have this in plenty of languages. Like down the road, we have a place called Kin Kin. You know what that means? Ants, ants. What does that mean? Lots of ants.

No, no. It was even a struggle for the God of heaven whether to let guilty man perish or to give His darling Son to die for them. Why was it a struggle for the God of heaven?

Isn't He the omniscient one that knows all things and knew that all would be well? He's a Father.

Audience: Risk.

Pr Adrian: There was a risk, wasn't there? This is right before the beginning as God, and His Son are looking down the annals of time and they're seeing the future. There is a risk. And this is the thing that really speaks to me about why I love the Passover and why I will forever celebrate this day, because it's on this day that the Father took the decision to accept the appeal of His Son to come and save us at absolute risk to Himself. God placed Himself in a position where He could have lost His Son forever to save us. That is something that is unfathomable to me.

It also tells me that I am just as valuable, you are just as valuable to God as His only begotten Son, because He was willing to lose His Son forever to save us. Therefore, if you ever doubt that God loves you, then simply ask yourself, does God not love His Son?

The answer is always yes. And therefore, the answer is always yes for you, that He always loves you and He loves you as much as He loves His Son. This is a thought that it fills me with a sense of awe. “You would do that for me!” That's what Passover means to me. You were willing to lose your Son forever.

And of course, Desire of Ages. We won't turn there now. Page forty-nine:

“Christ came to this world at risk of failure and eternal loss.”

On our salvation, it says in another place, “Christ staked His eternal existence.” He was willing. And this is the amazing thing about Jesus. He was willing to be lost forever to save us. And this is where in this time of great suffering, as Jesus is watching all of the evil that is taking place in this world. And when I say watching, He is there feeling it all. He is seeing it all. He is experiencing all the agony. He was there last night when that beautiful girl was hit by that motorbike. He felt; He feels now the anguish of the parents and the sorrow that they are going through. He feels it all.

And that is one event of billions of events of lives that are being lost, that Christ feels all of this. So, in the cross that Christ is carrying today and the suffering of all of His children. When you think about the divine risk that the Father and the Son took in your mind, is your hand reaching up and take hold of the hand of Jesus and saying, Jesus, I love you. I love you. I love you. And I love you, Father, for being willing to risk your only begotten Son to save me.

Do you think He needs to hear those words? When two people love each other, do they need to tell each other? We need to tell Him. We need to take Him by the hand and say, I love you. Some people say, well, it's a bit mushy. Love makes the world go around, doesn't it? Need to have love. And this is the thought. This is the thought that I think about at the time of the Passover.

This is what I think about at Passover. And do you think when there's an anniversary, you know, anniversaries are important, aren't they? Because what do you do on an anniversary? You celebrate. You remember the commitment that was made at the beginning, like a wedding anniversary. You remember the commitment that was made, and your heart hopefully goes warm and joyous.

As you remember, the Father and the Son remember this day in eternity in the Council of Peace when God promised to give His only begotten Son for us. Tomorrow is the day, which is the anniversary, the memorial of that event. Should we ever stop celebrating that event, the event that determined our destiny as to whether we would have access to eternal life or not?

It is something that I must celebrate. I must give thanks to my Father. And this leads us to an important question, because how we understand the Council of Peace is how we understand our Father's Character. Because as I was taught, raised in a Christian Protestant home, that in the Council of Peace that this was the day that God and His Son and the third party got together, the three in one, and they decided that their justice system required that Jesus be killed. So that the Passover to most people is a memorial of God's decision that Jesus must die in order for His justice, God's justice to be satisfied. Can you understand why that kind of a memorial maybe is a little bit more uncomfortable?

To remember that God decided you have to die, I need to see your blood in order for my wrath to be satisfied, for the sinfulness of the human race. Who wants to remember that kind of memorial? Well, if you believe in it, that God's justice demands death, there is some kind of thankfulness and appreciation that, as many say, God killed Jesus rather than killing me. But as I can immediately feel the vibration in the room is like, really? But it's because we have a better picture of God than this. And so, the Passover for most of Christianity is a memorial of God's determination to be revenged of the sinfulness of the human race and to extract a payment of blood and to prove to us that God's mercy is never free. God's mercy comes at a price.

Death instead of life. And that Jesus was required to die and that God demanded this death and that He and His Son and the third party decided this is what was going to happen. And so, this is what we've been taught.

But this creates a picture of what our Father is like. Craig.

Audience: Yes, I agree. A lot of people just really focused on, and myself even in the past, just focused on the event that happened in Egypt. And the picture is left that this is what God will do to you if you don't obey my voice. I'm going to kill you. And this is why the word Passover is understood that when I see blood, I'll let you escape.

Unless there was blood on the post. The sacrificial system.

Pr Adrian: Yes, the sacrificial system. And again, we've been studying with great joy, sacrifice and offering. You have not desired burnt offering and sin offering. You have not required.

Notice the difference between the desired and the required. God didn't desire sacrifice and offering, but He was forced to provide it because man required it….God never desired the sacrifice. And in that sacrifice, God was meeting the people where they are. He spoke to them through their preconceived opinions that their only way to believe that God would forgive them was by seeing blood. And so that is why they had to put the blood on the doorpost.

God gave this to them to satisfy them that He wouldn't kill them because they thought that He would kill them. Because when we get to Exodus 20, let Moses speak to us. Don't let God speak to us or we will die. They're all part of a death cult. We all must be. And I was going to say the entire Christian world is a death cult, isn't it? It's a one-liner. It's a death cult. The churches are built on grave sites.

Yes, cemeteries at the churches built on grave sites. And I've even had some friends tell me that churches are built on grave sites because with their copper roofs and the piezo electricity that's in the bones that they can create some kind of communication device for the spirit world. Maybe there's truth in this.

The bones, the bones that God [apparently] builds His churches on, dead men's bones. What God is this that makes Dracula look very facile, very boring in comparison. And this is the point that I want you to think about.

This is the main point. Your understanding of Passover, your understanding of what took place in the Council of Peace, that was it that God reluctantly yielded up His Son, taking an immense risk that He could lose His Son forever because we demanded, as Waggoner so beautifully expressed it, it was we that demanded the sacrifice and not God. I'm going to, in my next presentation, take an article from E.J. Waggoner in 1897 and we'll just read it together. It's beautiful. It's beautiful what he wrote. It's evidence once again that the church has rejected the 1888 message.

I'm thinking, how can this man come up with this information? This man was inspired to write these beautiful words. And every time we take a step forward, God says, we've already been here 120 years ago, 125, 130 years ago. We've already done this. But now it's coming back to us, this beautiful truth. So, do you understand why maybe people are not interested in Passover?

When you say to people, oh, I keep the Passover. And the quote they go to in Desire of Ages is, Jesus was standing at the [point of transition] of two great festivals. And it says what? “The national festival of the Jews was to pass away” what? Forever.

And as I point out to them. So, yes, Jesus is standing. He instituted in its place what? The everlasting festival, another festival, two festivals. And He replaced the national festival of the Jews with the international festival of the Father and the Son. Is that what we see?

So, at this particular time, what is the blood that we drink? Jesus says, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you. Because what is the blood of Christ? It's the Spirit. It's the blood of grapes. It is that wine that we drink from the cup that overflows from Jesus that says, you are my beloved Son and whom I am well pleased.

We see in the communion service that the lamb no longer is dead. The lamb is alive. The lamb is dispensing. And as our theme is, in the Melchizedek priesthood, when Melchizedek came to Abraham, he didn't come with a dead lamb. He didn't sprinkle blood on Abraham's forehead or his shoulders or all over him. He simply gave him the blood of grapes. He gave him wine and bread, and he blessed him, and Abraham gave him tithes of all. There's a Melchizedek priesthood. It's clearly laid out there for us.

And so the difference in my understanding, the replacing of the national festival, the Jews with the international festival of the Father and the Son, reframes the view of my Father, not as a God of domestic violence who would kill His own Son and splat His blood everywhere, but tell him you are my beloved Son and I'm willing to risk my Son to save all of His children. I never want to forget the day of the Passover, the day of protection, shall we call it, the day of standing guard for my children, to protect them from their own wrong understanding of who I am. That's what Passover.

And so tomorrow the Father and the Son will remember. Remember the Passover day to keep it Holy. Yes, for six millennia you will do all your work, but in the seventh millennium you will have rest. The Passover will be complete. And I would like to take you to 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 25. And this is called the foolishness of God.

How many of you would risk your children to save another family? Place yourself in a position where your child could die and be lost forever, that you may save somebody else, another family member. Could you do it?

And this is what I believe Paul is referring to in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 25. It's called the foolishness of God. The extravagance of God as manifested in the life of Mary, when she spilled all of that spikenard all over Jesus' feet, a whole year's salary, which just convulsed Judas. His face went up like a prune. That extravagance, that foolishness to pour all of that out. He allowed His Son. He was willing. And I think and I remember when I wrote this, when I wrote this book, Divine Risk, I had tremendous joy writing this book. And it's chapter 22, the weakness of God.

And as I wrote this chapter, I got halfway down one page, and I just started to shake. Father, why would you do this? Why would you do this for me? Why would you give your Son and risk Him forever for me? Truly, this is foolish what you're doing. Praise God for His foolishness.

Wonderful Father, tender Father. That is my Father, not a domestic violent person, but someone that loved His children so much that He was willing to yield up His only begotten Son. We are going to stand around the throne and, you know, we will sing with the angels, and we'll probably stay there for 8, 10, 12 hours and we will never get tired. We will just keep singing and singing and singing His praises. And with the thunder and the harps, the people harping on with that. We'll be harping on then, I tell you.

We'll be harping on about our Father and how wonderful He is and how beautiful He is. As it says, the foolishness of God is wiser than men. This is what has affected reconciliation of my heart to my Father. It's not that He demanded blood that reconciled my heart to God. That actually alienates me from God. When I really think about it, you needed to kill your Son in order for me to have eternal life.

Christianity creates a mechanism that claims to be remembering God. It is actually a mechanism for forgetting Him, making Him a murderer. And of course, people view [that] “God's not a murderer. God's justice” [demands…], you know, all those things that people say. No, my Father never wanted sacrifice and offering. He didn't want to yield up His Son.

And when I read those words in Early Writings, “do you not think it was a struggle?” When there's a struggle, can you see the Father shaking, saying, “can I do this? Can I give my children?” Can I give my only begotten Son, the One that's come from my very bosom, my very side, the only one who knows who I really am? Can I give Him and risk losing Him for my created children? And Agape always says, yes. Yes, yes, yes. And that is what we are worth. We are worth the gift of the only begotten Son and to the world, to the Greeks, this is foolishness, foolishness. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. His weakness is that He loved us. He loved us so much. He gave, He emptied all of heaven to redeem us. And this is the theme that I pray that we will contemplate.

And Satan, I know he tells you, he tells me, you're not worthy of eternal life. You don't deserve a place in heaven. As Brent and I were discussing, we're all prodigals. We're in the pig pen. And we sometimes feel the stench of the garbage we've got ourselves into. God, how can you love me? How can you love me with the garbage that I sin and the things that come out of my mouth? The things that I say and the things that I think.

And yet, if we focus on this, we are His beloved children. Let us drink the wine of the new covenant. You are my beloved child in whom I delight. This truth, the gates of hell cannot prevail against the Sonship of Jesus is everything to us because His Sonship is our sonship. The love of the Father for His Son is the love of the Father for us. John 17 26 tells us that thou has loved them as you have loved me.

And this is why I want to celebrate the Passover and extol God. Instead of foolishness, I would put extravagance. An overabundance of joy, love for His children.

So tomorrow the Father and the Son, they will think upon us. Was it worth it for them to do all that they had done? Will they, will Christ look upon the travail of His soul and be satisfied?

When the hundred and forty-four thousand are gathered together and the great multitude around the throne purchased at such an infinite price. What will happen in heaven when we come to the time of the Passover? We will eat with Him. We will drink with Him. We will sup with Him, and our hearts will overflow with joy. I'm thankful that I will have a divine body to withstand the intensity of feeling when I get intensity of feeling for a long period of time. I get wiped out. I can't handle it. All the circuits [are] fried. Everything burns out. I'm collapsed. Can't handle it.

But in heaven, I'll be able to withstand and handle that joy and just flow through and reverberate throughout the arches of heaven. We are God's beloved children. So, for all of you here and for those online, I pray that you will think about this and reframe. We reframe our understanding of our Father. He's not a domestic violent maniac. And people are offended when I say these things, but I'm sorry, it's true. If God demanded the death of His Son, that's tyrannical. If God demanded the physical blood battered on a cross as depicted in the movie, the Passion, if this is what God demanded, then what kind of a God are you? Is this what you're really like?

That's not our Father. By the name Jehovah, He is not being known by the nations, but He's called us and you all have been called. We have been called. We have been called out of the nations, out of Babylon to proclaim His name. And use words if you have to. That the joy is seen in your face.

The joy that you are beloved of the Father through His only begotten Son. I pray that that we will think on these things, that we will talk about these things, that we will rejoice in our Father. And as we enter this next 24-hour period, we will think of the divine counsel in which God was extravagant towards the human race.

Shall we sing a hymn together? I'd like to sing. I'm a child of the king. 468. I'm a child of the king. The gates of hell will not prevail against this beautiful truth.

I wake up many mornings just in that place. I think of the story of Pilgrim's Progress when Pilgrim woke up after he ascended the hill of difficulty. And it is difficult to ascend this hill, isn't it, to come into this truth? It costs you to come into this truth. You lose friends, family, those of you love to come up that hill difficulty. But when you get to the house and this property, we have named Pilgrim's Rest.

So, I hope that when you wake up in the morning, you're in the arms of the Father and His Son, in His love, that you will feel that love here at Pilgrim's Rest. A little stop on the way to the heavenly city.

I'm a child of the king. I know the author of this song wrote a lot about a palace and having a home. But what God said to Abraham, “I am your exceeding great reward.” The home that I want is the Character of God. I want to be clothed in the Character of my Father. So, shall we kneel and close in prayer?

Closing Prayer: Father, what a privilege it is to call you, our Father. Not a Father that demanded blood physical blood, but a Father that gave spiritual blood, life. You breathe light and life upon your Son.

And Lord Jesus, as our high priest, you have breathed upon us your Spirit. The Spirit that knows that it is beloved of the Father. Thank you, Father, that you risked your only begotten Son. We can never repay you. And we are overwhelmed by this sense of your love. May we think on this theme and as we all tomorrow remember this day, the day in which God yielded up.

He risked His only begotten Son that we might have eternal life. Let heaven's arches ring. May the angels sing a psalm of praise and honour to God that will reverberate all of heaven and shake the earth. And we thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.