we're looking at the Events of the Exodus in the Old Testament.
God, people delivered God, delivered.
His people out of Egypt, eventually brought them to the
promised land. We are now still in Egypt,
haven't left yet, but getting awful close, our story picks up
today in chapter 12 of Exodus and it's the story of the
beginning of the Passover and it's a lengthy text.
So I will try to be moving along with it, pay attention to a lot
of detail because will refer to a lot of that detail in a
moment. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron
in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning
of months, it shall be the first month of the year for you tell
all the congregation of Israel, that on the tenth day of this
month, every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers
houses, a lamb for a household and if the household is too
small for a lamb, then he His nearest neighbor shall take,
according to the number of persons, according to what each
can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish.
A male a year old. You may take it from the sheep
or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of
the month. When the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at Twilight.
Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two-door
post and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
They shall eat it. Do not eat it any of it, raw, or
boiling water, but roasted its head with its legs and its inner
parts and you shall let none of it.
Remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the
morning you shall burn. In this manner, you shall eat it
with your belt, fastened your sandals on your feet and your
staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste, it is the
Lord's Passover for. I will pass through the land of
Egypt that night. And I will strike all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt. Both man and Beast, and all the
gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment.
I am the Lord, the blood shall be a sign for you on the house.
Just where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. This day shall be for you and
Memorial Day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord
throughout your Generations as a statute forever.
You shall keep it as a feast and now moving over towards the end
of the chapter or really the middle of the chapter.
Then the Lord Moses called all the Elders of Israel and said to
them, go and select Lambs for Yourselves according to your
Clans and kill the Passover Lamb.
Take the bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the
basin. And the lentil and the two-door
post with the blood that is in the Basin.
None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the
morning. For the Lord will pass through
to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on
the lintel, and on the two-door post, the Lord shall pass over
the door, and will not allow the Destroyer to enter the house to
strike you, you shall observe this as a statute for you, and
for your sons forever. And when you come to the land
that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you, you shall
keep this service. And when your children say to
you, what do you mean by this service?
You shall say? It is the sacrifice of the
Lord's Passover for. He passed over the houses of the
people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but he
spared our houses and the people bowed their heads and worshiped,
the word of the Lord, you may be seated.
I think this is a very familiar story to most of you.
This is the institution of the Passover.
The word Passover Pasha means in the original Hebrew Passover.
It means to pass over, and that's exactly what happened
when the death angel came to wreak judgment upon the house of
the Egyptians. If he saw Blood on the post of
the doors and the lentils, he would pass over that house and
go to the next one. And if he saw blood on that door
post, he would pass over that house and go to the next one and
all throughout the land, and where there was blood On the
doorpost, there was no death in the household. but where there
was no blood on the doorposts of the entrance of the houses, the
death angel came and took the firstborn of every household in
Egypt. This is the beginning in the
life of Israel of their sacrificial system.
Now, we know that sacrifice had been since the beginning.
The Lord himself had sacrificed animals in order to get their
skins in order to make a covering for Adam and Eve.
The Lord himself was the first priest performing this service
of covering cough are atoning for Adam and Eve.
We That Abel offered sacrifice, Seth offered sacrifice Enoch
offered sacrifice. Most, I mean, Noah offered
sacrifice coming all the way down to the days of the
Patriarchs Abraham. Offered sacrifices to the Lord.
So did Isaac and Jacob. So, this is not the beginning of
sacrifice in the Bible, the notion of sacrifice goes back to
the garden. It is ancient.
It is absolutely vital to understanding Redemptive
history. That is the story of how God
redeems his people. But now, God is going to be even
more specific. He's going to Institute for them
and constitute for them. A particular sacrificial
ceremony. That's going to have the
elements that he needs for all of the sacrifices that he'll
bring them out later. And finally the sacrifice of his
own son. One upon the cross.
So if we get it right on Passover will understand it
right. Concerning Christ, will
understand the gospel. Remember Paul said I delivered
unto you that which I also received how that Christ died
for our sins, according to the scriptures.
What? Scriptures starting with
Passover. We understand the death of
Christ, the cross. That Bloody ordeal that Christ.
Underwent as our representative and in our place, our substitute
dying for us. Taking that penalty that we
deserved. We understand that in terms of
the things we're going to learn from the Passover and the
sacrificial system in the Old Testament and the Passover is
the basic beginning of all that. In fact, they're still in Egypt,
they haven't left yet. Pharaoh hasn't let them go.
They're getting ready to go. This is the Night of their
departure and the Lord tells them the process that he wants
them to go through that evening there in the night of the
Passover. Now, a few things in the Bible
need to be followed through from the Passover once they get into
the Wilderness and the Lord gives his entire incomplete law,
he will expand the sacrificial in the blood rituals to a vast
array of different kinds of sacrifices, offerings, guilt
offerings, trespass offerings, offerings of grain, and all
sorts of things, it'll be very elaborate and very meaningful
because he's going to teach them the whole cow.
Sort of God through the expanded sacrificial system.
We're going to learn about the, the wave offering, which is the
first fruits, which is resurrection in addition to
death. We're going to learn about the
offering of the praise in the burning of the incent, which is
the incense, which is the prayers of the Saints.
Many many, many things will learn from the sacrificial
system as we go along climaxing, in one great day of sacrifice.
And that is the great day of a Atonement deal with that today,
but it is also a very thorough picture of the death.
That Christ died. Christ, died for our sins.
According to the scriptures. You need to understand three or
four slogans, I would recommend that these be on the tip of your
tongue for the rest of your life.
There are few things you need to know that set the stage for what
we understand in the sacrificial system of the Bible.
Otherwise, if you're not careful, you'll be adopted a
pagan view, or a secular. You may be just a cynical
postmodern view of the sacrifice that Christ made and you'll just
critique it around the edges. You'll talk about how primitive
it is, how Bloody it is. You'll talk about how
disgraceful it is. You'll even look at it carefully
and say, oh, this is terrible, that God would do this to his
own son. What kind of religion do you
have as one Episcopal, Bishop wrote a book and called it.
Cosmic child abuse, that God would sacrifice his own son and
give him up. Up for us, this poor Bishop
didn't understand the love of God.
God did not spare his son but gave him up for us because how
else would he redeem Lost Sinner's?
And this is the gospel of redemption, the gospel of
Ransom, the gospel of freedom and rescue, the gospel of God,
taking his people in a horrible place and putting them into a
kingdom of light. And this is a the flow of
Biblical, history, learn these slogans, let me just recite a
few of them, the soul that sins. It shall die.
You will die for your own sins. The wages of sin is death.
This is the prophet, Ezekiel summing up, the gospel message
on its side of our need. Our need is for a savior because
we have offended. God, we have violated his word,
we have trespassed against him and his law.
We have done that which is perverse that which is
iniquitous that which is crooked that which is out of bounds
that's which misses the mark. I just gave you a brief
definitions of a half, a dozen words for sin in both the Old
and the New Testament, we have committed acts of treachery and
Rebellion against our King and Creator and we all deserve to
die. I don't know what that does to
your self-esteem this morning and if that's all I had to tell
you, I would really be a preacher of hate.
I'm here to tell you that there's a remedy, there's a
Redemption. There's a ransom, there's a
restoration, there's a resurrection.
And that's the gospel message, and so, is the Lord lays this
Foundation. Historically taking his time,
taking many generations, many centuries to lay out this Gospel
of redemption. And the first thing we need to
know going back to Genesis 3 is the soul that sins.
It shall die. There's no exceptions to that.
Have you sinned? You will die and your death is a
punishment for your sins. It's not the end of the story
but that is the foundational beginning of the story.
If you don't think you're a sinner, then you don't need the
gospel. If you don't think you've
violated God, you don't need the gospel.
Or if you think God is going to, just let it slide.
And just sort of, ignore your sins.
You don't need the gospel, maybe you need a little gospel.
I can do pretty much on my own, what I need to do, but I'm not
perfect. I just need about that much more
and I'll make it and the Lord in his Wonderful Grace makes up
that little difference. And now I can make it to Heaven,
if that's your understanding. You won't listen to The Gospel.
But if you see yourself as you are before, God, not before your
neighbor yours goodies, your neighbor probably better than
your neighbor. I mean, honestly, most of us in
here better than our neighbors. That's self-righteousness will
also blind us to our need for the gospel, we're all at the
foot of the cross needy broken sinful, what do we have to do to
be condemned by God nothing, we were born in sin, we are shaped
in Antiquity. The Bible says, we come forth
from the from the womb speaking lies, there's no righteousness
in us. There's no goodness in us.
We're not even getting credit for our efforts.
There is none that seeketh after God.
I don't know why we have Seeker sensitive worship Services
there, nobody's seeking. After God, the only worship
Services. Those that worship Him in spirit
and Truth. The father seeketh, those To
worship him. And so, The soul that sins.
It shall die. The second slogan that you need
to remember is the life of the flesh is in the blood.
That's just a pretty obvious fact to us now in the scientific
age but it's been true. All along you drain out the
blood and the carcass doesn't live very long.
The life of the flesh is in the blood, it is, the shedding of
blood, is the taking of the blood out of the carcass out of
the body. That elicits, the death causes
the death, we do what we call now, soft bleed out, the life of
the flesh is in the blood. So when blood is shed on life is
forfeit in life is given a life is forsaken.
Third slogan, you need to remember is without the shedding
of blood. There is no remission of sin.
In other words, blood has to be shed.
A life has to be taken, something has to die in order
for sin to be remitted sin, to be canceled, the penalty of sin,
the Judgment of sin, the sentence of Sindh condemnation
of Sindh sting of sin and death. Something has to happen and that
is there has to be the shedding of blood and then the one
principle will see this morning very Quickly is the notion of
when I see the blood. I will pass over you.
God's looking for the blood, it's the blood.
That is the covering, it's the blood, that's the agent that
purges. And so, that's what we have in
this story. I asked you to pay attention to
some of the details and I'm going to review them for you.
Let's look just very quickly at a few of the details of this
Passover. On the first of the month on the
tenth day, they were to select a sacrificial lamb.
The selection of the sacrificial lamb was important, not just any
lamb would work it. Had to be a lamb.
That could be a lamb of the sheep or a lamb of the goats.
It could be a lamb or a kid but it was still the lamb a year old
a yearling. By the time they got to be two
years old, they were grown and they wanted a lamb that was a
year old about It had to be a lamb, a yearling.
It had to be the first sling of the flock because remember, we
talked last week about the first born, in the importance of the
first born, the first born is the one that receives the
blessing and dispenses the blessing all throughout
scripture. It was the attack upon the
firstborn that was a judgment on Egypt and it was also the
representation had to be the firstlings of the flock and it
had to be a male a male Well of the flock and it not only had to
be a whole who Ellie a whole lamb, but it had to be a Holy
Lamb. That is a lamb without spot and
without blemish it couldn't have any spots or blemishes upon its
exterior. It cannot have any shortcomings
missing a limb because the Temptation is to take a poor
little lamb that you look Ox. Not going to make it anyway or
one that's sick or That has a malady or month, may have been
maimed at Birth or recently been fighting off an attack from a
wolf, from his dead. Who knows what's been going on
in this? It'd be a perfect little lamb.
No, it had to be a perfect lamb a lamb without spot and a lamb
without blemish had to be pure and it had to be consecrated set
apart. He was not only should this lamb
be qualified as whole and holy but he had to be Ugh.
Nated to be the one. He had to be a designated one.
Are you hearing anything about Jesus Christ in this?
Let me go on talk a little bit more about the particular
Passover ceremony. You not only word, is it had to
be a select type of lamb who would meet all of this criteria,
who met the criteria to be our Lamb of God that takes away the
sin of the world. Holy undefiled separate from
Sinners. Pure righteous in every way.
Only the perfect Son of God, could be the Lamb of God that
takes away the sin of the world. And so, this is teaching us some
things about Christ when they took this little lamb.
Also, the ritual continued The you must kill it at Twilight.
When did Jesus die and said, it is finished and was taken down
off the cross. It was in that late late
afternoon before the sun began to set and it moved into the
darkness of the Sabbath. This particular Slaughter had to
take place, then you would in order to prepare it for
roasting, you would pierce it through with a Stave in order to
have some rotisserie to put over the fire.
Do you remember what happened to Christ just before they took him
off the cross the spear in his side.
Then also this particular lamb you had to had to have it cooked
in certain way he was to be roasted over the fire.
You were not to boil him or broil him or eat him raw.
He was to face the full Fury of the Like a fire.
Is this not our Christ, Our Savior, Who Bore the full brunt
of the wrath of God in his atoning, sacrifice for us on the
cross. The full Fury, and the anger and
the rage that the writer to Hebrew sums up our God is a
consuming fire. So the the lamb had to be
prepared in this way, but before they ate the lamb, they would
take the blood blood when they kill the lamb and draw it into a
basin into a bowl and they had to do something with that blood,
here's what they did with the blood they took The blood in the
Basin and they took a hyssop branch.
Which by the way if we talked about baptism, today, I would
talk to you about biblical baptism, we will know a little
bit about the hyssop branch. We're take a hyssop branch and
douse it into it. It's a ratchet was thick bushy
and spongy and what whole things that was what they used to put
the vinegar on with Christ when they pushed it to his lips.
When he said I thirst they take the hyssop branch and put it in
that Basin of the Lambs blood and then they would Splash it
upon The doorpost in two directions.
Vertically. Down the post of the doors.
Horizontally across the litten of their ceiling.
Across. Would make that pattern of blood
when I see the blood I will pass over you.
It's not just any old blood any old place.
It's the blood of the precious lamb of god without spot and
without blemish that's been strategically and deliberately
paste. Placed upon that pattern, that
is the sign of God's Redemptive work of all ages.
That is The Old Rugged Cross. And so this is a little bit
about what they should do. They were to now take all of the
the food and eat it, and they would eat it with unleavened
bread. And bitter vegetables, bitter
herbs and they were made better by being literally cooked and
doused in dipped in in vinegar. And there are a lot of detail
from this that we could extrapolate forward as we read
the Lord's Supper, in which he kept the Passover with his
disciples. That's what they were doing the
night before. Jesus was betrayed and then
crucified, the next day, they were eating together this
Passover meal, which the scriptures said in verse 14 of
our text, that it was a statute that was going to remain forever
and ever. And it still does Jesus ate it
with his disciples, Jesus executed in accordance.
Published it and everything that they didn't eat was to be burned
up, be the sacrifice was to be a one and done, they were no
leftovers. There was nothing else that was
to follow through. There was no residuals of this.
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Christ hung
on that cross. Once for all and finish the
entire work for the entirety of his people subbing in their
place. In this ritual.
There was profound, meaning, especially having to do with
Christ. The Apostle, Paul, says, when we
come to the table, he said, let us keep the feast, but Feast the
Lord said, keep the feast forever.
We're going to keep the feast forever.
Jesus kept it with his disciples after he'd been kept for
hundreds and hundreds of years, historically, and Israel.
Immediately, his disciples gathered.
And kept the feast following Jesus death and Resurrection.
The church kept the feast all through the years.
We've not stopped keeping the feast.
And the feast is going to be consummated when all of us
gather at that Celestial table at what is known as the great
feast, the great celebration of the great ceremony in the sky
that wraps up redemptions work, it's called the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Now this is Ascension Sunday and
we haven't said anything about Ascension.
Let me just say one thing about a cinch and what Ascension is is
the the exaltation and the going back to Heaven of Our Lord in
his Earthly days, and him being Seated on the right hand of the
father. Read the book of Revelation,
there's a scene in there several seeds, actually that depict
this, but one is very graphic. When you look up there, what do
you see in heaven? He's ascended.
There's a lamb upon the throne. There's a lamb upon the throne.