Cross in 4 Words: Freedom

Series Introduction

Video: Because of the Cross 2:00

Good Morning Church…we are beginning a new series today as we walk up to Resurrection Sunday at the end of this Month and it’s aim is to help us better understand the role of the cross in what we believe as Christians.

Because stronger than any other “brand recognition” that we have willingly or unwillingly stored in our minds… Is the reality that the cross is the primary symbol of Christianity.

For this series we have placed one obtrusively in the center of the room but even when that one is not there we have it up on the wall behind me, we have one placed on the podium in front of me, we have one on the banner inside of the east wall we have a big one plastered on the outside of that wall and a matching one one outside of the opposite wall.

And of course, we have one high above us on a white steeple. Because as every child with a crayon knows, all you have to do to make your little building into a Church is to put a cross on top.

But as you hopefully saw from the montage of passages in that video, the role of the cross for the Church goes much deeper than just good “brand recognition” and... it hopefully you know that it takes more than just putting a cross on top of a building to truly make it a Church.

Tension

And when those verses were penned, no one would have associated the image of cross with anything that they would call “good”. Today we see the cross as a clean, white and decorative symbol but it was anything but that in Jesus Day.

In Jesus’ day the cross was a frightening symbol of certain condemnation and gruesome death. The cross was something that people did not even want to think about let alone consider that they themselves would ever start down that tortured road carrying such an object of scorn... and yet... before Jesus even started down that road himself,

Luke 9:23 (ESV)

23 ... he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Maybe you have heard that verse before, but I bet it doesn’t disturb you as much as it did the people who first heard it. Because the cross has been “rebranded” in our day to something pretty, clean and welcoming… but it was not that when Jesus said these words.

And Jesus didn’t back down from this idea as later on, he actually doubled down even stronger...

Luke 14:27 (ESV) 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

So getting this cross thing right is essential to being a follower of Jesus, one of his disciples. Being one of Jesus’ disciples is much more than just walking into a building with a cross on top.

There is something timeless about the cross. Something that reaches forward into our relationship with Jesus today and something that reaches backwards to satisfy the requirements of a relationship with our holy God that is not easy to wrap our minds around. So to understand the gravity of the symbol of the cross for God’s people today, we are going to look back to see how it satisfies three other symbols that God used in communicating to His people back in the Old Testament.

The first thing that we will look at is how the Cross has purchased our “FREEDOM”, so open up your Bibles with me all the way to Exodus chapter 12, it is the second book in our Bibles. I’ll pray and we will dive in together.

Truth

So our series is entitled “The Cross in Four Words” and I wanted to start out by giving some credit to this little book from the Good Book Company for the basic idea but we are going to look at the cross through these 4 words: Freedom, Forgiveness, Justice and Mission

So this morning we are going to tackle how the cross works to give us Freedom.

Today, People love the idea of freedom, but they often mean something different than the way that the Bible talks about freedom. Typically our talk of freedom is about wanting freedom “from” something:

Freedom from social or financial pressures,

Freedom from personal addictions or damaging life choices

or in more of a national sense...

Freedom from the harm of political oppression and the threat of war

And these are all valid ways of speaking about freedom, but the Bible talks about Freedom in a little different way. Instead of just being freed “from” something, Biblical freedom is about being freed “for” something. Let me say that again...

The Freedom purchased for us by the cross is not just about being freed from something, but it is about being freed for something.

And what we are being freed for is not something new, it is actually a recovery of something very old. It is that which we were originally designed to do and be.

The Bible has a very specific term for this, it is the word “Redeemed”. To be redeemed is to be “bought back” like redeeming points on a credit card or returning to a pawn shop with your ticket to redeem or buy back what you left there before.

Galatians 3:13 (ESV)

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

The reference to a “tree” here is a euphemism for the cross and we might have a hard time seeing it with out clean crossed today but curse and cross fit together perfectly in Jesus’ day!

It was through this curse of the cross that God “redeemed” us or “bought us back” to Himself and His purposes for us. This is a key difference between the “freedom” that the world often seeks and the one that God offers. Jesus went to the cross to free us- “from” -something, and to free us- “for” -something. This is what it means to be “redeemed”.

So with that in mind, we will shift gears here from the cross of the New Testament a different symbol of freedom or redemption that God gave his people all the way back in the days of Moses in the Old Testament.

Exodus 12:1–6 (ESV)

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. 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.

The symbol from the Old Testament that we are going to look at today is the Passover lamb.

And to understand the significance of this symbol, we have to know where we are in the Big story of the BIble. This is way before the glory days of Kings and Kingdoms that we where in last week. At this point in the history of God’s people they had been slaves in the land of Egypt for around 400 years.

And how did they get there? Well it is a long story but the short version is that God promised to give a man named Abraham a great name, a great land and a great big family in order for he and his family to become a shining example to the whole world of what it looks like to live in a right relationship with God.

It started slow, as Abraham didn’t even have one son at the time but eventually God gave Abraham a son named Isaac, and Isaac grew up to have a son named Jacob. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and he had 12 sons who eventually became the 12 tribes of Israel… but not before a famine hit and drove Israel’s family out of the great land that God had promised Abraham. This is what first brought them to the land of Egypt.

Which was a blessing at first, but it became a problem because now God’s people are not in God’s place and worse than that… they were not following God’s ways.

They were growing in number, but they were also absorbing the pagan ways of the Egyptians around them. And after a few generations, a new Pharoah came to power and he saw their great number as a threat to Egyptian sovereignty so he enslaved them... or to say it another way, to take away their “freedom”.

As the slavery became more and more oppressive, the people cried out to God and God raised up the prophet Moses who came into the throne room of Pharoah to deliver the Word of God to Pharoah.

And remember what Moses said? “Let my people go”…(Charlton Heston voice..)

But Pharaoh would not listen to the Word of God. So God sent plague after plague upon the Egyptians and still Pharoah would not listen to the Word of God.

At this point in the story, 9 plagues have ravaged the Egyptians and brought their daily lives to a miserable and screaming halt… and here in chapter 12 God is preparing His people for the 10th and final plague.

Through Moses, God gives his people these instructions to gather together in households and each one acquire that very particular lamb...

Exodus 12:5–6 (ESV)

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.

Exodus 12:7 (ESV)

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.

Notice how exacting these instructions are. There was no guessing as to the who, how, what or when in any of this process. It was all laid out in pain staking detail, even how they should eat it...

Exodus 12:11 (ESV)

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.

Why all the rush? Why all the rules?

Remember that these people have become slaves of Pharoah for generations so their time has not been their own for a long time. Their time had been stolen by Pharoah… but God is redeeming it.

Beginning with this month, God is doing something new and marking out a new time for them starting with a new calendar. They will again be God’s people and their year will begin with these days in this month and most importantly with this great event.

Through this 10th and final plague, Pharaoh will let God’s people go… but in such a way that they will have to move quickly and faithfully.

That is the first blank on the notes page...

God frees his people from slavery and _________

For the second blank we have to keep reading...

Exodus 12:12–13 (ESV)

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.

Each one of the plagues corresponded to something that the Egyptians had made into a “god”. They had idols to please the god of the sun, the Nile river, frogs, flies, gnats, livestock and on and on. So these plagues were not just God beating up on His enemies… it was a strategic demonstration to the entire world that the “gods” that Egypt boasted in were actually powerless.

More than that, it showed the whole world that trusting in anything but the one true God for you hope and happiness, significance and security brings judgement.

God is about to execute that judgement on all Egypt by taking the life of the firstborn son of every family, but for His people he gave them those instructions of what to do with the blood of the lamb and in them God’s people will find their freedom from this judgement…

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.

That is why this is called “Passover” because the Angel of death passed over the houses that were covered with the blood of the lamb. So the second theme on the notes page reads in full that...

God frees his people from slavery and death

An important question for us to ask at this point is: Why did they need to mark their houses with the blood of the lamb?

I mean, do God’s angels somehow not have access to good housing records? Can’t they figure out who lives in which house. I mean if Amazon can do it then… Why would they need this symbol to mark their house for the angel to find it? Wouldn’t they already know if a particular house belonged to an Israelite or an Egyptian family?

Because the symbol was not there to point the angel to the right place, it was there to point the people to right faith. The blood was not there as sign for the angel, what did God say? The blood shall be a sign for you,

Why would the Israelites need a sign? Didn’t they know that they were God’s people? ...Well if they did, it was becoming pretty hard to tell.

Because the people of God were caught up in the same sins that God was judging the Egyptians for. Their houses contained the same idols that the Egyptians had in their own homes and they were worshipping them just like the Egyptians. In this way, there was little difference between an Israelite home and an Egyptian one.

Since God’s people were guilty of the same sins, they deserved the same judgement… and yet in his grace God provided a way for His people to be saved by faith. No Israelite was spared because they were an Israelite by birth, but only if.. by faith... they were covered by the blood of the lamb.

The freedom that the Israelites needed was not just from the oppression of a new Pharoah, but from the slavery to their own sins.

This is where this ancient story shows itself to be timeless because our greatest need for freedom is not just to be free from some earthly powers or social pressures. Our greatest need is to be freed from our slavery to sin. Jesus said...

John 8:34–36 (ESV)

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Because…

God frees His people from slavery and death

But as we have said, Biblical freedom includes being freed “from” something and being freed “for” something. God doesn’t free people so they can do what they want, God frees people so that they can do what they ought.

To understand this, let’s return to that iconic scene where the rugged Moses stands before Pharoah in all his splendor and he says,

“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel “Let my people go...”

Yes, that is the part that we remember but that is not the only thing that Moses said to Pharoah and it was not the only time he said it.

Seven different times the Bible records God telling Moses to go back to Pharaoh and say again...

‘Thus says the Lord, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.

God frees His people from slavery and death and

God frees His people for Worship and Service

The word that we have seen translated over and over again as “service” in the ESV translation is also rendered as “worship” in many other popular translations, but it is the Hebrew word עבד (baa - vaad) and it literally means “to work, toil, till, cultivate, or serve... as a slave”

This is why Pharoah was being so stubborn in this. Pharoah knew that this was not just about giving his slave force the day off to go have a worship service and potluck out in the wilderness! In fact, at one point he tries to negotiate things in that direction (Ex 10:7-11).

This wasn’t about letting God’s people go for a holiday… it was about letting them go to a holy God. They would be God’s people again.

That is why even with his kingdom falling apart around him, Pharoah was not going to give up what he said was his. He thought he could go toe to toe with God… until… plague number 10.

Exodus 12:29–32 (ESV)

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. 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!”

In the middle of the night, the Judgement of God had been delivered on all Egypt, and only those covered by the blood of the lamb were free from the devastation of it. And God’s people left Egypt to return to God’s place again.

Gospel Application

Of course at this point you are probably asking, “Uh, wasn’t this message supposed to be about that big cross in the middle of the room? Well, yes believe or not it is.

You see the faith that God’s people demonstrated by placing the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorposts of their homes was only a temporary display. They may have fully left the slavery of Egypt, but they did not fully leave the slavery of their sin.

Decades later, after Moses and most of these people had died the people were finally going to enter into God’s promised place for them. Their new leader Joshua admonished them with these words...

Joshua 24:14 (ESV)

14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

They were still slaves to the same sin. They were still worshipping those same gods. The Passover Lamb was a powerful symbol for the people, but it was only a temporary one, one that served the purpose to point us to the Freedom found in the perfect symbol of Freedom.

The cross of Jesus Christ.

For when John the Baptist saw Jesus he said, “

... “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!John 1:29 (ESV)

And the Apostle Paul said, 7... For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.1 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)

And the Apostle Peter said...

1 Peter 1:18–19 (NIV) 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

And the book of Revelations unfolds for us this scene from heaven...

Revelation 5:11–14 (ESV)

11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Landing

So one of the words that we should think of when we look at the cross is “FREEDOM” for it was on the cross that Jesus the spotless Lamb of God gave his life to

Free us - from - slavery to sin that leads to death and to Redeem us - for - worship and service to our great, gracious and powerful God!

Let’s stop and pray together in preparation to go back into an attitude of worship through song......