Passover

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 

• New Beginning – this event will reset the entire Jewish calendar. 
• Parallel – We reset our calendars according to the life and death of Jesus. 
  •  2020 AD “Anno Domini” “year of the Lord. 
  • Jewish year 5780

3 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. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and 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. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

• 10th day – 4 days before the passover 
• LAMB = 1 year old 
• Only take what is required for the amount of people in the house. (NO WASTE)
• Choose one without BLEMISH 
  • Bring Home a lamb to stay with you to inspect to ensure it is pure in every way. 
  • It will be treated as a person of the family in every way. You are to love and nurture it.
• Kill the lamb at dusk

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 

• APPLICATION IS EVERYTHING! 
• THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB MUST BE APPLIED
• DEATH WITHOUT APPLICATION IS MEANINGLESS 
  • Nationality – Meaningless 
  • Genealogy – Meaningless
  • Wealth – Meaningless 
  • Kindness – Meaningless 
• APPLICATION IS EVERYTHING! 

8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 

• Roasted on the fire 
• Unleavened bread 
  • Yeast = sin – Passover is to be a season of repentance 
• Bitter Herbs – serves as a reminder of the bitterness of slavery and bondage
• No waste

11 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. 

• Eat in Expectation
• Eat in belief God is going to deliver you any moment 
• Don’t beat around the bush about it.  

12 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 on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 

• God’s vengeance and wrath will be on full display 
• Egypt will pay for their sins against God’s children 
  • payment of sin = death (Romans 6:23)
• The final blow on the little (g)ods of Egypt 
  • God displays their are fake and powerless to his authority and dominion 
  • The humanity of the Pharaoh is on full display for all of his kingdom to see

13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

• Blood is required 
  • “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” Hebrews 9:22 
• APPLICATION IS EVERYTHING!
• The Blood was a sign – 
  • Sign for Humans  
    • Sign of Expiation – The removal of guilt 
  • Sign for God 
    • Sign of Propitiation – That the penalty has been paid 
• They are to rest/ shelter under the blood of the lamb – 
  • Verse 22 of this chapter  – Do not leave the house or you leave the protection

14 “This day shall be for you a 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. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 

• Always remember this act of mercy

16 On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. 7 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 18 In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 

19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

• This season shall be a time of repentance.

24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

• When your children ask why……TELL THEM
• The same is true for us, when our lives are changing and we are becoming more like Christ and they ask why things are changing. Don’t hide it from them, tell the why. Tell your kids about JESUS!

28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.29 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 

• The Judgement of the Lord comes 

31 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as you have said. 32 Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

• Just as God had said to him in verse 1 of chapter 11. They were driven out!

The Passover tells us four things: 

• About Our Sin
• About Our Substitute 
• About Our Salvation 
• About Ourselves 

ONE: It Tells Us About Our Sin

Do you really know how expensive sin is?

• Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
  
  • Sin costs life, takes life, and ends life

God sent the plagues as:

• Judgment on the Egyptian gods
• Judgment on Pharaoh (considered by the Egyptians to be the embodiment of the Egyptian god Horus); he hardened his heart against the Lord
• Judgment on the Israelites; only blood could save them
  • They were judged because of their obstinacy—they rejected God’s messenger, Moses
  • They were judged for their idolatry—some of the Israelites were worshiping Egyptian gods (see Joshua 24:14)
  • They were judged because they had rejected God and His word
  • The Israelites were not protected by their race, nationality, or lineage

These judgments depict the plight of all humanity

• Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
• If you don’t believe you’re a sinner, you’re misinformed of your true condition and of God’s solution to that condition
• Because of our sinful condition, we can expect to die

TWO: It Tells Us about Our Substitute

In His mercy, God provided a substitute

• Each family took a perfect yearling lamb as their substitute
• Leviticus 22:19-22

A lamb has always been what God required

• Garden: Genesis 3:21: God covered Adam and Eve with animal skins, most likely lambskin; one lamb was killed for each of them
• Passover: Exodus 12: one lamb was killed for each family
• Day of Atonement: Yom Kippur: one lamb was killed for the nation; the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat as atonement (see Leviticus 16:18-19)
• Jesus: One lamb was killed for the world (John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”)
• The consistent message of the Bible is this: if you want to meet God, you must meet Him on the basis of a lamb
  • NOTHING MATTERS WITHOUT THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!
  • Genesis 22:7 “And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?””
  • Jesus is often referred to as a lamb
    • Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”
    • 1 Corinthians 5:7 “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

THREE: It Tells Us about Our Salvation

God didn’t just require a lamb—He required a dead lamb

• The story of Passover indicates the importance of blood being shed
• Blood represents life (see Leviticus 17:11)
• Shed blood was a sign that a life ended as substitute for their life

When Israel saw the blood on their doorways, it was a reminder that their sin took a life

• Someone had died in their place—expiation
• They knew that they were covered and their guilt had been removed

When God saw the blood, it was a sign to Him that a death had occurred in that house

• The payment for sin had already been made—propitiation
• The wrath of God was turned away from them

When we look up at the cross, we see that our payment has been made for sin; when God looks down at the cross, He sees that judgment has been made for sin

• This is the doctrine of substitutionary atonement
• A substitute allows God to pass over you and for you to pass from death into life
  • Romans 5:9 “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
  • Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
  • Hebrews 13:12 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
  • 1 Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
  • 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Why is it Jesus’ blood? It must be the blood of the only sinless person

• Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
• God will not arbitrarily forgive people—He forgives only based on the shed blood of His Son as the substitute
• Only God can erase the stains of sin
• “An extreme condition demands an extreme remedy. Until you see that you are doomed…apart from Jesus Christ, you will never truly count His blood precious in your sight” —Joseph Parker

FOUR: It Tells Us about Ourselves

• Our entire self-identity must change
• For Israel, their future changed after applying the blood. Their whole future was reoriented in light of the past—being redeemed and becoming the people of God
• We too must apply the blood of the lamb, Jesus the lamb to our lives and become a new creation. 
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 ” Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”