The Banquet of Victory

Salvation Army Maundy Thursday Community Service

Exodus 12:1-14 March 26, 1997

By God’s grace we have been enabled to come together tonight as the larger body of Christ, through the ministry of the Salvation Army for us all, to celebrate the fellowship of our communion with Christ. We remember the Last Supper he had with his disciples on the night before he went to the cross and the cost of that communion he carried out for us on Good Friday when he became what he enacted on Maundy Thursday. We remember his loving act of service to his disciples in washing their feet; not only to show them how they must live and serve one another, but as a picture of his own supreme act of service to all mankind in dying for sin, and that in his forgiving us we must also forgive one another, in loving us we must also love one another.

The communion we celebrate with Christ is the new covenant in his blood. It is for us a Christian Passover. But what we receive in Christ is not because we were born into the church, that our parents were Christian, or that we were baptized without a personal decision on our part. It is by personal faith in the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, the King of Israel, that atonement has been made on our behalf by a supreme sacrifice. He died that we might live, but you must believe this message in order to receive it. There is a beautiful picture of this in the Old Testament in Ex. 12:1-14 as God was bringing the Egyptian dynasty to its knees in agreeing to let his people go from their slavery. This slavery pictures the hopeless plight of us all under the bondage of sin. And God chose to do for us what no man could do for himself. A miracle was about to happen. A victory over Pharaoh; a victory over Satan, a victory over sin and death. A victory celebration before the fact (Luke 22:14-18). You see, the Israelites also ate a last meal. What does this banquet of faith and obedience have to tell us?

I. We have a future in the Lamb. (vv. 1-2)

Passover marked the beginning of the Jewish calendar.

This calendar would be unnecessary w/o a future.

Jesus gives us a future with God.

II. We have a family in the Lamb. (vv. 3-4)

The lamb was enough for your family.

It may even be enough for your neighbor.

Jesus brings us together as the family of God.

III. We have perfection in the Lamb. (v. 5)

The lamb represented youth, vitality, perfection.

It could come from any flock.

Jesus meets our need for perfection before God, no matter what flock we come from.

IV. We have community in the Lamb. (v. 6)

The lamb and the family had a vested interest in one another.

The lamb brought all families together.

Jesus brings all nations and peoples together under God through his sacrifice as one of us.

V. We have life in the Lamb. (v. 7)

The blood of the lamb covers the family where faith lives.

There is life in the blood of the lamb.

Jesus brings life to all those who believe in his blood.

VI. We have remembrance in the Lamb. (vv. 8-9)

The sacrifice of the lamb brings remembrance of sin that causes death.

The remembrance of sin is a bitter and burning remembrance.

Jesus gives all of himself for us and takes all the penalty of our sin for us.

VII. We have deliverance in the Lamb. (vv. 10-11)

This deliverance from sin is nourishing and complete.

It must be completely taken in the time of the Lord’s favor.

Jesus enables our escape from sin in the nick of time.

VIII. We have justification in the Lamb. (vv. 12-13)

The blood of the lamb protects us from God’s judgment.

God’s judgment for sin is death.

Jesus gave his own blood to make us right with God by faith.

IX. We have joy in the Lamb. (v. 14)

The day that God made Jesus, the Lamb of God for all mankind, to be sin for us (2Cor. 5:21), in order that we might have forgiveness of sin and eternal life by faith, is a day to remember and celebrate (Jn. 11:50).

It is a day we are to pass on from generation to generation until Jesus returns.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, came that we might have life, and have it to the full. This banquet of victory over sin and death is a day to remember and celebrate.