Are you an undercover Christian? Would it be hard for people around you to know that you are a follower of Jesus? Well, Josiah wasn’t hiding his faith from anyone. Yesterday, we saw how he personally decided to follow the Lord when he was 16 years old, and when he was twenty, he began to put his faith into practice. Because he was the king, he was able to destroy the idols that so many of his people were worshipping, and by the time he was 26, he had made sure that the Temple was repaired and ready to be used once again for the worship of God alone.

But Josiah wanted other people to join him in his faith. And so he decided to hold a great Passover feast, not only for his own family, but for the whole nation of Israel. He encouraged the priests and Levites to make all the necessarily preparations, and he made a large personal contribution of sacrificial animals so that everyone in his kingdom could come to the feast (II Chronicles 35:7). And because the people of God assembled both from Judah and from the northern kingdom of Israel, it was the greatest Passover feast that had been held since the days of Samuel the prophet (II Chronicles 35:18).

Now, very few of us have the money or the authority to host such a massive festival. But are we doing everything we can to encourage others to worship God? Are we trying to set a good example through the way we live from Monday through Saturday? Are we regularly participating in divine worship and inviting others to come with us? Are we telling our friends about the comfort and assurance we have in Christ and calling them trust Him as Lord and Savior? Are we giving of our time, our talent and our treasure to further the work of the Kingdom of God within our own congregations? Are we doing what we can to support missionaries and evangelists who are carrying the gospel to places it is not yet widely proclaimed?

Josiah was completely sold out for God, and as a result his whole kingdom “did not turn from following the Lord God of their fathers” during his lifetime (II Chronicles 34:33). Will we have that kind of an impact on our own communities? Or will people have to go on wondering what we really believe?

II Chronicles 35:1-19 (NASB)

Then Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover animals on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the LORD.
3 He also said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the LORD, “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built; it will be a burden on your shoulders no longer. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel.
4 “And prepare yourselves by your fathers’ households in your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel and according to the writing of his son Solomon.
5 “Moreover, stand in the holy place according to the sections of the fathers’ households of your brethren the lay people, and according to the Levites, by division of a father’s household.
6 “Now slaughter the Passover animals, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brethren to do according to the word of the LORD by Moses.”
7 And Josiah contributed to the lay people, to all who were present, flocks of lambs and kids, all for the Passover offerings, numbering 30,000 plus 3,000 bulls; these were from the king’s possessions.
8 His officers also contributed a freewill offering to the people, the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the officials of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 from the flocks and 300 bulls.
9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the officers of the Levites, contributed to the Levites for the Passover offerings 5,000 from the flocks and 500 bulls.
10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood at their stations and the Levites by their divisions according to the king’s command.
11 And they slaughtered the Passover animals, and while the priests sprinkled the blood received from their hand, the Levites skinned them.
12 Then they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the sections of the fathers’ households of the lay people to present to the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did this also with the bulls.
13 So they roasted the Passover animals on the fire according to the ordinance, and they boiled the holy things in pots, in kettles, in pans, and carried them speedily to all the lay people.
14 And afterwards they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
15 The singers, the sons of Asaph, were also at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the gatekeepers at each gate did not have to depart from their service, because the Levites their brethren prepared for them.
16 So all the service of the LORD was prepared on that day to celebrate the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD according to the command of King Josiah.
17 Thus the sons of Israel who were present celebrated the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days.
18 And there had not been celebrated a Passover like it in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet; nor had any of the kings of Israel celebrated such a Passover as Josiah did with the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign this Passover was celebrated.