Celebrating Where You Are

Acts 20:6

Verse 6  But we sailed from Philippi after the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

    We have another pretty decent time leap in our reading today.  Over 20 years had gone by since the Passover where Jesus had been put to death and risen from the dead.  Through the years things had changed.  Not every tradition continued as it always had been for the believers.  One of those things which had changed for the Apostle Paul was the need to be in Jerusalem for the Passover.  While that had been commanded by God in the Old Testament, Paul had no urgency to make the journey for the celebration.

    Paul not heading to Jerusalem didn’t mean he was ignoring the holiday.  Over the years he had learned the importance of the new covenant.  He knew what Jesus had tried to help His disciples understand, Passover was for a time.  It had been what the Israelites in Egypt needed to break them from their bondage of slavery.  It had been a way the Lord could call His people back to their relationship with God when they were in the Promised Land and it had reestablished His people in the land after their sinful ways led them into exile.

    The Apostle Paul wasn’t there for the first Passover of the New Covenant which Jesus had celebrated with His disciples.  The missionary wasn’t a follower of Jesus until a while after the resurrection and so his understanding of what happened that night came from talking with the disciples during his multiple visits to Jerusalem and possibly given as a special revelation from the Lord when He was training Paul in the wilderness after his conversion in Damascus.

    One thing Paul did know was how important it was to celebrate Christ’s new covenant with fellow believers and not just on Passover but every time they met together.  The Lord’s Supper had become a regular part of the believers’ gatherings.  In at least one case Paul felt the believers were taking it as a way of getting a free meal and were taking more than their share making it so others couldn’t partake.  But when celebrated as Jesus had instructed, it was a way they could keep His death and resurrection in the forefront of their minds after all those years.  It wasn’t about celebrating a holiday, it was about celebrating Jesus, the Christ.

Making It Personal

    What does Good Friday mean to you?  What does Easter mean to you?  How have those holidays changed your life?

Making It Personal Kids

    Why is Good Friday special?  What is special about Easter?  Has knowing Jesus changed your life?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for taking death for us.  We would be lost in our sins forever had You not paid the price we owed.  Help us see the importance of keeping You at the forefront of our thinking, on these holy days and forever beyond.  In Jesus’ name, amen.