Saved By the Blood of the Lamb

So we're going to study Exodus 11-13 today and here comes the main event of this series, the divine deliverance of God's people out of Egypt. And we said when we started this that the main event of the New Testament was Jesus's death and resurrection. And we said that this is the parallel event in the Old Testament. And you know, John quoted Jesus saying to Nicodemus, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. And this lesson about the Passover puts wheels to that. It helps us have a picture that goes with that. Now you already studied these three chapters verse by verse in your lesson, so I don't want to approach it that way. You've already done it. And so I'm going to just put this sort of in categories. So here's how we're going to approach the lesson today. The preparation of Passover, the plague of Passover, the purpose of Passover, the people of Passover, the principles from Passover, and the path after Passover because there were no more words in the P section of the dictionary after I got done. So we have to stop right there, but I'll just leave that up most of the way so you can tell how we're progressing. So all along the way in this study, God has been saying to Moses, Pharaoh isn't going to let you guys go. I'll tell you this is going to happen, but Pharaoh won't let you go until we get, look at to Exodus 11 one, yet one more plague I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt afterward he will let you go from here. And when he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. So it's time for them to get packing. So we'll start with the preparation for Passover. Verse two says, speak now in the hearing of the people that they ask every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor for silver and for gold jewelry. Now this is something that God had foretold generations ago. He said to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 15, I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. This stuff that they're gathering from the people of Egypt is not only going to prove to be useful stuff as they head into a wilderness without Walmart and Home Depot, but it's also represents back wages. They were enslaved. They worked, their time card is long and now God is letting them have their back wages for all that time that they were in Egypt. And the Lord gave them favor with the people of Egypt. It's just Pharaoh that is still hard hearted. And part of the preparation is giving Pharaoh this one last warning, even though he won't do anything about it. Verse four says about midnight, Moses tells him, I will go to the midst of Egypt and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who's behind the hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle. From the beginning, this divine deliverance was a contest of the firstborn. We heard about that back in chapter four, but now this final act is going to be completely of God after Moses and Aaron leave Pharaoh's presence. They are going to be spectators along with everyone else. This plague is coming without Moses, without Aaron, without the hands lifted out, without the staff. It is completely of God. And what will Pharaoh's response be? Verse nine says, Pharaoh will not listen to you. That my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. All right. So as we move into chapter 12 of our study, God told them that this event that was going to happen would be so monumental that even their calendar should change. They should even set, hit the reset button on their calendar. Verse two says, this month shall be for you the first month of the year. And then God begins to tell them something they'd never heard before because he begins talking about a lamb and preparations of a lamb. This is different than any of the other plagues. This is new. And we're going to talk about things that God is telling him about the timing, the body and the blood of the lamb. And first in the timing, verse three, tell all the congregation of Israel that on the 10th day of every month, or excuse me, the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's house, a lamb for a household. Verse five says, your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old, verse six, and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month. And then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. All right, hold on to that. The 10th is the selection day, the day they select the lamb. The 14th is the day that it'll be killed at twilight. And then God laid out preparations for the blood and the body of this lamb. And verse, I'm going to jump down to verse 22 and come back up. But verse 22 says, take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, wash the lintel in the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And what about the body? Verse eight says, eat the flesh that night, roast it on the fire with unleavened bread, bitter herbs, let none of it remain until morning. Anything that remains until morning, you shall burn. Okay. In all of the previous plagues, the distinction, anytime that there was a distinction between Egypt and Israel, it was made by God himself. The distinctions in the plagues, remember the last one we talked about, Egypt was in darkness, Israel did not experience the darkness. But now, even though there wasn't any preparation or cooperation before on Israel's part, now they are required to apply faith as they apply the blood to their doorpost and as they consume the flesh inside of their homes. Without this cooperation on their part, there would be no distinction between those who experienced the plague and those who don't. They had to believe that this was necessary. All right. Before we get to the actual plague, let's ask some questions to remind ourselves. Who is the judgment for here? Verse 12 says, on all the gods of Egypt, I execute judgments. That's who it's for. What kingdom is affected? Well, it's Egypt. Verse 12 says, as I pass through the land of Egypt, it represents the kingdom of the world. Who is living in the kingdom of the world? Both the Egyptians and the Israelites are living in that environment, right? They are in that kingdom. How will God make a distinction between Israel and Egypt? Only by the sight of the blood of the Lamb. Verse 13 says, the blood shall be assigned to you. That blood is assigned to you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, see, it's assigned to both of us. When I see the blood, I'll pass over and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Everyone is subject to the judgment in this plague. Only those who cooperate with the instructions experience the distinction. Once Moses talked about all those preparations with the people, in verse 27, it says that they bowed their heads and worshiped. Does that sound familiar to you? Can you remember back a few lessons to the end of chapter 4, when Moses first comes from Midian and he tells them, hey, God's taken note of this. He's going to deliver you. They listened to him and they bowed their heads and worshiped. Now at that time, they probably thought that God was going to do it right away because we do that. It's like God's going to deliver you, oh, tomorrow morning, it's going to be good. But there was quite a path ahead of them. In our lives, sometimes God has the short version for things, but very often we experience the long version of something. Now the young people are buying records again, and so I can use an illustration from my generation that everybody understands. But when we bought vinyl back in the day, it's not called records now, it's called vinyl because that's cool, but you'd hear a song on the radio and you think, I love that song, I want to get that. You buy the 45 and you get the radio, you get the short version of the song, the one you heard on the radio. But if you really liked it and you bought the LP, did you know LP stands for long play? Has much more space. So you buy the LP and all of a sudden you're like, no way, that song is 12 minutes long. I had no idea there was a long version. Sometimes God has a long version in certain areas of our lives. And certainly this is what Israel had just experienced, something much longer than what they had expected. All right, we get to the main event, the plague of Passover, and I'll start reading in verse 29.

Hold on to that phrase, okay? And then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said, "'Go up, go out from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go serve the Lord, as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also.'" So after the long version of preparation, this Passover happens just like that. That's God's way sometimes, isn't it? The actual night of Passover is told to us in a very few verses, but let's not overlook something in these verses, okay? The Lord brought judgment on all flesh, man, animals, not just the Egyptians, on the entire kingdom. There was someone dead in every house, just like it said, not a house where someone was not dead. It's just that those in Israel who listened to Moses' instructions had pre-selected a substitute to die first. That lamb was dead in the house. The blood was on the doorpost to prove it. Someone already died in this house, so the angel went right past it, because someone was already dead in the house. The blood was the proof. It was the sign for the destroying angel, and so he passed over the houses where someone had already died. Now, what is the purpose of Passover? This is the fun part. This is where we get to talk about this passage being full of types and shadows that affect our life, because in history, God often gave symbols ahead of time that would make sense in a context later. When you got to that later time, you could look back at the symbol and say, oh, I get it. It makes so much sense. God went to great lengths to preserve what was happening here and told them to do it over and over. Keep the statue at its appointed time, year after year. Keep doing these. Keep these symbols alive, so that when you get to the real-life situation, it will make sense, and you'll be able to connect the dots. He wanted them to know the symbolic, to know the shadows. Shadows don't have any substance. They're outlines, right? They are imprints. They're impressions, okay? And the Apostle Paul recorded a sentence in Colossians, when he was talking about Sabbaths and New Moon festivals and things like that, that I want to really hold on to. In fact, here, I'll put it up on the screen for you. Colossians 2.17. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, the substance, is found in Christ. These are a shadow of the things to come. The reality is found in Christ. So let's talk about shadows and realities. Again, what were the important symbols during Passover? Well, it was the lamb itself, one year old, male, no blemish, no spots. The timing was important. Select it on the 10th. Slaughter it on the 14th. And the instructions of what to do with the blood and the body. Okay, now you can turn to John chapter 12. And since our Bible tells us that this is a shadow and the reality is found in Christ, let's fast forward, shall we, 1,200 years to get to the time of Christ, to get to that Passover that is the most important. That is the purpose for Passover. And in the first verse of John chapter 12, it gives us a timing marker. It says six days before the Passover. And what it goes on to explain is there was a dinner at the home of Martha and Mary with Jesus and Lazarus. We won't read about that. Drop down to verse 12. It says the next day. Okay, so now this is five days before Passover, right? Okay, because it said six days, the next day. So if Passover is the 14th, that is the day that the lamb is to be slaughtered. So we go 14, 13, 12, 11, 10. Oh, we're on the 10th here. We're on the 10th. Does that ring a bell? What happens on the 10th? The large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him crying, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Why was there a large crowd? Because it was Passover week. They were coming together to celebrate the Passover. What did Jesus do on that day? He came into Jerusalem. What else is happening on that day in Jerusalem? It is a lamb selection day. For anyone who traveled into Jerusalem and could not bring their lamb, they were at that moment selecting a lamb. Look what I found. Jewish historians tell us that at this point in history, the lambs used for Passover celebration all came from Bethlehem. They were raised especially for the purpose of Passover. They were brought into Jerusalem through the sheep gate so that those who had come from a distance could select the Passover lamb. Thus the large crowd in Jerusalem days ahead of the Passover. So let's go from shadow to reality. What we see happening in this moment is on lamb selection day, the 10th, here comes Jesus riding into Jerusalem. And he knows he's the Passover lamb. But look what the people do. They select him. They shout, Hosanna! Save now! Save us now! They are affirming him. They are selecting him on that day. The shadow makes so much sense when we get to the reality. And we think about what Abraham said to his son Isaac. God himself will provide a lamb. It's one of the reasons we study the Old Testament along with the New Testament. It gives us wheels under what we know. And there's so many breadcrumbs that God has left for us. Now remember that the lamb was to be kept during Passover from the 10th until the 14th. And look at some of the things Jesus said while he stayed in Jerusalem. He was kept in Jerusalem during that time. Verse 23, we're still in John chapter 12, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Verse 27, for this purpose I have come to this hour. That's what he was saying during that time. Now what about the two other symbols that God said, keep doing this, keep doing this, the blood and the body? Well, on when we get to Passover day, the disciples said to Jesus, shall we go and prepare the Passover somewhere? And Jesus says, yeah. And he gave him instructions and they went and did that. And we get to the Passover meal. We're in the upper room, right? And during that meal that was to remind them of God's divine deliverance out of the kingdom of darkness from Egypt, Jesus switches things up a little bit and he takes the bread and he thanked the Lord and he gave it to his disciples. And he said, take this, eat it. This is my body. Now they were accustomed to thinking in terms of eating the flesh of the lamb. That was the shadow that was looking forward to a reality. And now Jesus says, this bread will now represent my broken body. Now you do this not as a shadow of something that is to come, but now you will do this always to look back and to remember that your Passover lamb, his body was broken. And so the bread becomes a symbol at this moment and for us when we take communion of the broken body of our Passover lamb. And then Jesus took the cup and he gave thanks and he said, drink of it all of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins. The shadow was the basin of blood of the lamb that they took the hyssop branch and painted over their doorposts. It was a shadow so that when they saw the reality they would understand. But now Jesus says, I want you to take this because you will remember that it is my blood. I am this Passover lamb. And you as you take this you will remember. And it's given me so much inspiration as I've taken communion to not only remember but to say, I still believe. I still believe that these symbols are what is necessary. And we can believe and thank God that we belong and express our trust that Jesus did what needed to be done so that we can rest in judgment because there is a judgment. There is a judgment coming and is appointed for all men once to die and then the judgment. All right, back in Exodus the judgment was coming against the kingdom of Egypt. But look at John in here in John 30 verse 31, now the judgment, now is the judgment of this world and now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And do you remember that the most recent, I'm paralleling now, I'm going back and forth between my what's happening in Egypt and what is happening at this moment. The most recent plague in Egypt was the plague of darkness. That is the most recent thing they had experienced. But I want you to look at Jesus' words here in verse 46, John 12, 46. I've come into the world as a light, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. In Exodus, the Passover lamb was not the judge. He was the one, he was the method to be saved. The only way to escape the coming judgment was to personally engage with the Passover lamb. And in our world, Jesus is not our judge. He said, I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. He is rather the only way to escape the judgment by personally engaging with Jesus, with our Passover lamb, because this world is under judgment, along with everyone in it. So the way of escape is, whoever believes in me, mercy in judgment. So when we see the shadow and the reality side by side like this, it helps us to understand our need, everyone's need for a personal decision, for a personal application of Jesus' death, his broken body, and his spilled blood. And we can clearly see now that it's not enough to just say, I believe in God. There needs to be a personal engagement, a personal understanding to say, it's because Jesus died as my substitute that I can rest under that. It also communicates to us our need to be able to express this to the next generation. To be able to communicate this throughout chapters 12 and 13 in Exodus, three times the instructions sounded like this. When your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? When you tell your son on that day, when your son asks you, what does it mean? Heavy emphasis on, hold on to this so that you can communicate it clearly. It's another reason for our Women of the Word Bible studies, so that we can learn how to communicate the truth of God's word. All right, we gotta move on. The people of Passover, how many? Tells us there are about 600,000 men on foot besides the women and children. And when did they leave? Verse 41 says, at the end of 430 years on that very day, because God works in his time and his way. And who was involved? God made room for individuals, even those that did not have the DNA of Abraham. Look at, a mixed multitude also went up with them. Whoever believes, we take Jesus' word from John chapter 12, whoever believes in me, a mixed multitude, there's mercy and judgment. There were people in Egypt, maybe Egyptians, maybe those of different descents that observed what was happening. They saw what God did. They believed that he was God. They no longer fit in the kingdom of Egypt and they had to get out. And so they left their families, their homes, their businesses in order to identify with God's people. And God honored their determination and he made a way for them to be included and protected. I suppose in some vague way like we have a path in our country to become a US citizen, there is a path for naturalization. God created a path for them to become a part of the community of God's people. And this path, you read through it, it was participating in the sign of the covenant community. But I wanna move on to the principles from Passover because God established some additional principles that are relevant for you and me too. Do you remember last week I asked you the question, what is the point of your Christian life? You get saved, is it just so that you can do what you want, go where you want, end up in heaven when you die? God did not deliver his people from the kingdom of darkness so that they could do what they want, go where they wanted, and somehow miraculously end up in the promised land. There's two festivals associated with this deliverance that he asked him to keep. And they speak to two things that are important after deliverance, and that is sin and ownership. Sin because they were to leave the ways of evil that flourished in darkness behind them, and ownership because he wanted them to remember who they belong to. So I wanna look at these two festivals, the festival of unleavened bread. And remember, leaven is a symbol of sin or decay. So God told them, no leavened bread shall be eaten. Verse 7, we're in chapter 13, verse 7. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days in your festival, and no unleavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all of your territory. All right, let's take just a minute to talk about this. To leaven bread, to make it rise, so that you don't have a dense little clump of bread, to leaven bread can be accomplished in two ways, okay? First, you need enough time for just the exposure, the dough has to be exposed over time. If you have enough time, you can get some leavening going on, or you can add a piece of active cultured dough, okay? And transmit that culture that already has a leavening going on in it, transmit that into your dough, the sourdough principle, right? Amish friendship bread, whatever. Those are the two ways you can leaven bread. So eating their bread flat, unleavened, in that moment, and then year after year after year in this feast of unleavened bread, should have reminded them about two things. First, they left in haste, they didn't have time to expose their dough, so they couldn't allow their dough to rise that way. Second of all, God had asked them to leave the active leavened cultures that originated from Egypt behind. I asked one of my friends that I know has sourdough starter from like 100 years ago, that was cultured in Jordan Valley, like it's a family thing. And I asked her a little bit about that, but that is the origination of that sourdough starter that she has. It can go on indefinitely. But the leaven that they had access to originated in Egypt. And God was giving them a symbol saying, leave it behind, don't take it with you. What belongs to Egypt, leave in Egypt. And in this case, the culture that I'm talking about when I say active leavened culture, in this case, the culture I'm talking about has to do with the dough culture, but I love that that word has two faces to it, right? And let's just say that they were to leave the Egyptian culture behind as they're starting their new life. God wanted to get his people out of Egypt, and he wanted to get Egypt out of his people. For them, it was a great way to begin their new journey. They reset with the new calendar year. They're resetting even with their food supply. But for us, on our journey, when we get saved, can we not see this symbol apply to our lives? We have a new life in Christ. He has transmitted us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life. And he would say, leave behind what belongs to the old life. Doesn't the Apostle Paul say this over and over, put to death what belongs to your sinful nature, right? This is the message of much of the New Testament. Leave it behind. Don't bring those things that belong to the kingdom of darkness along with you. Okay, the second festival, second principle of the Passover, is this consecration of the firstborn. In Exodus 13, 12, it says, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb, for when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. That should have been both. Therefore, tell your son, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. And the law of Moses will go on to explain more later about the redeeming of the firstborn, but the point is redemption. The point is new ownership. Everyone that left Egypt is now under new ownership. They no longer belong to their selves. And the principle that relates to us is once we shelter under the blood of the lamb, believe that Jesus is our savior, we are not our own. We have transferred ownership. God has redeemed us. We should maybe have a festival that reminds us of that once a year, that you are now under new ownership. So we don't commemorate. these things because they were a shadow but the principles yet remain. We got one more section and that is the path from Passover and the chapter 13 ends this way starting in verse 17. When Pharaoh let the people go God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines although that was near that would have been shorter but oh look God decided that the LP version was the best way. The long version was best for them and we even find out how was it best for them for God said lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. They didn't know that that was a possibility for them but God knew and he gave them the long version for their benefit. That will preach right? Verse 18 but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea and the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. Remember Genesis ended up Joseph was laid in a coffin in Egypt. For Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear saying God will surely visit you and you shall carry my bones with you from here. I love the faith of that man certain of the things that God would do past his lifetime. How many things are you praying for that you have a willingness to hold with an open hand and say Lord if you do this past my lifetime that's okay with me but surely you will do this. We need to have that attitude that life is going on past us it's not just our little time frame and looking at Joseph's faith here reminds me of that. Keep praying, keep trusting in the Lord. Our lovely friend Billy Graham just went home to be with the Lord. There are things that he set in motion, things that he personally was praying about, scripture that he was teaching that will happen will flourish well after his lifetime and that was the heart of Joseph and Moses honored it and they moved from Sakoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light and that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people. I love the symbols of those pillars because God had always told Moses I will be with you it's all gonna be okay as long as I am with you and now they leave and God has this flamboyant way of telling the whole congregation I am with you by day and by night. What part of the day isn't what represented no part of the day I am with you always and continually and he guided them that way. We become born again and what does God give us? The Holy Spirit to be with us by day by night to be our guide to show us the way to be our comforter to be our teacher and this reminds us oh yeah we have the presence of the Lord he is with us it would there's not enough space for that flamboyance to have all these pillars running around but the Holy Spirit is in us he is in me and he is my guide as I head out on this journey. So father thank you for the symbols that you give us in your word Lord sometimes we study your word and we think to ourselves how can someone not believe this how can they not embrace this you made things so beautiful so clear so understandable we thank you Lord God that we have your scripture and we pray that your word would go out we pray that people would come to know Jesus Christ engage personally with him and believe that it is through his broken body and his spilled blood that we are safe from the judgment that we are saved from condemnation your word says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who are sheltering thank you Lord God for that thank you for these symbols Lord thank you that it puts wheels help us to know how to communicate these things not technically but just the heart of it to the next generation to the people that need to know salvation Lord help us use your Holy Spirit within us to help us to have the words that we need at the time and Lord for those of us who are on a long version in something I pray you give us grace give us patience Lord stir up in us the patience we need to know for certainty that you have a plan and it will unfold in your way and in your time we thank you in Jesus name amen you