Easter 1

Easter Series

Part 1

"Worthy"

Exodus 12:3;5-7;12-13 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household...5 Your lamb shall be without blemish...6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight...7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses...12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 Now 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 the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."

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As we make our way toward Easter, I want to lay the groundwork for what Easter is all about.

And so I'll begin with why Jesus had to die on a cross of shame and pain in the first place.

We find the answer all the way back in Egypt where the children of Israel had languished in slavery for hundreds of years.

Finally, God moved by sending Moses to deliver them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.

God sent 10 plagues against Egypt, the last one being the plague of the death of the first born of both animals and people.

It is in this last plague that God introduces in vivid technicolor the power of the blood of a slain lamb.

He promises His people what we must never forget, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you..."

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Now, Egypt in the Bible is always a picture of the world...

And the lambs that were slain in the OT sacrifices for atonement and forgiveness always pointed to the day when the ultimate Lamb, Jesus Christ, would be slain on the Cross.

This is why, when John the Baptist first saw Jesus, he cried, "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

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The Bible records the awful moment when God's final judgment fell upon Egypt...

29 "And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck 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 livestock. 30 So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead."

But while Egypt wept, God's people rested safely in their homes, untouched by it all!

Now, in light of this OT event, let me share some simple facts we need to remember during this season...

I. Judgment is coming

In our text, Egypt is about to experience the fiercest of the ten judgments from God.

And God tells Israel that the only way of escape from this awesome judgment is by the blood of a lamb...

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And our world, a picture of Egypt, is also on the verge of judgment!

One day soon enough a great judgment will take place where every man and woman that ever lived must answer for their sin...

Let me read a few verses on this:

"So then each of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12).

"And just as it is appointed for [all] men once to die,

and after that the [certain] judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

"But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury" (Ro. 2:5-8).

"He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained" (Acts 17:31).

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So it is undeniable that judgment is coming upon the human race for its sin and rebellion against God!

Are you ready for that day?

You may have your 401k retirement plan in place, but are you ready to meet God?

Because you ARE going to meet your Maker!

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Notice secondly...

II. What DIDN'T save Israel on that dark night...

They weren't saved from judgment because they were Abraham's descendants...so they couldn't claim PEDIGREE.

They weren't saved because they were SPECIAL, because they were somehow God's favorites, or because they had some inside track on God's mercy by virtue of who they were.

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Now were they saved from judgment by any personal good works of their own...so they couldn't claim SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.

We hear no mention from God about how good they'd been, how they were model citizens of Egypt, how they'd kept the law, or how they'd been a good religious people.

And I also notice they weren't saved from judgment because Moses was there, so they couldn't claim SALVATION BY ASSOCIATION!

No...God did not say to them, "Because you're in thick with Moses I'm going to deliver you!"

You see, there is no salvation by genetics---because mama's saved, or daddy's saved, or you're in a church-going family, or you had a praying grandma won't save you any more than Israel was saved by being associated with Moses!

The bottom line is that Israel was not delivered from judgment by one solitary thing associated with themselves!

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And this brings us to the reason why Jesus had to die on the Cross...

III. Israel relied that night only on the blood!

The good news is that, here in this story, God reveals the one and only way to avoid judgment and experience eternal life...

"When I see the BLOOD, I will pass over you."

There's an old hymn that says:

Christ our Redeemer died on the cross,

Died for the sinner, paid all his due.

All who receive Him need never fear,

Yes, He will pass, will pass over you.

When I see the blood, when I see the blood,

When I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you.

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There are at least 43 references to the blood of Christ in the New Testament, all testifying to its necessity in our salvation.

Judas the betrayer spoke of it as "innocent blood" (Matthew 27:4).

Peter called it "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (I Peter l:9).

It is the cleansing blood in I John 1:7 and the washing blood in Rev. 1:5, declaring that it removes the guilt of our sins.

Paul calls it the purchasing blood in Acts 20:28 and the redeeming blood twice (Eph. 1:7); Col. 1:14).

It is also the justifying blood (Rom. 5:9)

And the peacemaking blood (Col. 1:20).

And its power doesn't end with our salvation, for it is also the sanctifying blood (Heb. 13:12).

And it is the blood of the New Covenant and the everlasting covenant in Heb. 13:20.

I thank God for the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son!

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ILLUS: Some time ago, a candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness for Jesus, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane.

He used several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy: WHITE to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and HARD to symbolize the solid rock, the Foundation of the Church and the firmness of the promises of God.

The candy maker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior.

It also represented the staff of the Good Shepherd with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like sheep, have gone astray.

Then finally the candy maker stained it with red stripes.

He used three small stripes for the blood shed by Christ on the cross, so that we could have the promise of eternal life!

WHITE--for purity

HARD--like Jesus, the solid Rock

"J"--for the name of Jesus

RED STRIPES--for the blood He shed

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The great hymn we so often sing tells the truth:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but blood of Jesus!

What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh precious is the flow, that makes me white as snow.

No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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The blood alone makes us worthy of deliverance from judgment, and to enter heaven's gates...

And this is the reason for which Jesus came!

LET'S PRAY