Babb wrote: I have read about the Passover some and some verses in Exodus suggest that the Passover should be observed for all time, or at least until Jesus’s return. Are we observing Passover today? Jesus seems to have changed the Passover, but at the same time he has kept it. He becomes the lamb, the blood we are saved by. He talked about these changes in three of the Gospels. While He does mention the changing of an actual lamb into Himself, He never talks about changing the frequency. In that light, we do have a precedent of once a year. Do you feel this is a valid precedent? And if we are observing the Passover today, why would Jesus change the frequency?

Passover was indeed given as a perpetual observance -- to the tribes of Israel who came out of Egypt, both the evening meal of lamb with bitter herbs, and the weeklong feast of unleavened bread that followed it.

Ex 12:14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD — a lasting ordinance." NIV

Ex 12:17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come." NIV

There was only one place to celebrate the Passover, and that was "the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name."

Deut 16:1-3 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. 3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste — so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. NIV

That place, where the dwelling for the Lord's name was, first was the place where the tabernacle was erected (a moveable tent), and then was the place where the permanent temple was built (Jerusalem). From the days of David until the days of Jesus the one authorized place Israelites (Jews) went to celebrate the Passover was Jerusalem (see 2 Chronicles 35:1-14). Adult males who lived any reasonable distance from Jerusalem (that is, within the land of Israel), were required to journey there for the annual Jewish feasts, including Passover (Deuteronomy 16:16). Forty years after Jesus' death Jerusalem, including the temple, was destroyed by the Romans. Since that time, the Jews have only observed the Passover in a symbolic way. No longer is a lamb slaughtered, for they cannot go to the temple to do so. Instead, a symbolic bone is often used to portray the presence of the lamb at the Passover table. Since the lamb itself was a symbol, the ritual observance now utilizes a symbol of a symbol. In the sense of the old covenant law, only the tiny sect of the Samaritans, who rejected the temple in Jerusalem, observe a lamb sacrifice at Passover today. But of course they do not do so at the place where God caused his name to dwell.

Notice in the above passages that the Passover was for the generations of the people that God brought out of Egypt. So that "you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt."

The observance of the Passover was for the generations of Israel -- not until Jesus' second coming, but rather until his final sacrifice of himself as the Lamb of God, fulfilling the law. Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 discuss the finality of Jesus' sacrifice, that he fulfilled those requirements for sacrifice once and for all. Paul several times wrote about the new covenant in Christ freeing his followers from the ritual requirements of the law, as in Col 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. NIV The religious festivals, including Passover, and all else associated with God's covenant with Israel looked forward to a reality in Christ, who established a new covenant in his blood for all who come to him in faith.

Thus also, when Paul mentions the Passover as something fulfilled in Christ, he doesn't make application to an annual feast, but to daily life free from sin -- not freedom from Egypt, that God gave Israel, but freedom from sin that Jesus gave his followers, not to be compromised.

1 Cor 5:6-8 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. NIV The frequency of the Passover was part of the Israelite covenant in which it was included. The lamb was sacrificed and consumed year by year. Jesus as the lamb isn't sacrificed again and again, year after year. He's been sacrificed once for all. The lamb and hasty departure from Egypt were, according to Paul, symbols of the work God would do once and for all in Christ. Jesus is our lamb, and the unleavened bread that accompanied Passover is fulfilled in a holy life without sin. Passover here is a symbol, not a precedent. Passover was part of the old covenant given to those who came out of Egypt. Jesus sets us free, not from Egypt but from sin, and also, for those formerly under the old covenant, freedom from that law and its ritual requirements.

I will soon post additonal comments on other questions, specifically looking at the setting of Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 11:17ff. This post isn't meant to address all of those, rather merely to focus briefly and particularly on the Jewish Passover festival. From the context of Acts 20:7 though, we can conclude that the church did not meet to break bread (more on that later) particularly at Passover, because Paul and company left Philippi "after the Feast of Unleavened Bread", which is to say, more than a week after Passover, and then five days later arrived at Troas (Acts 20:6) where he remained seven days, to be with the believers who assembled "to break bread" on the first day of the week.