I AM…Passing Over
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Announcements:
We are collecting water bottles for the outreach on Saturday, May 11th at the Community Yard Sale. Our goal is to have 500 bottles of water collected to hand out. Des will be storing the water bottles at her house.
2. We will be ministering at Chatuge Nursing Home next Sunday at 3PM. Please let us know if you are interested in joining us. We will be meeting at the nursing home parking lot at 2:50PM.
3.
Worship:
Blessed be Your Name
2. Lead Me to the Cross
3. Lord I Need You
Introduction:
Growing up, and even now from time to time, I sometimes hoped to get “passed over.” Then there were other times, I had hoped I wouldn’t get passed over.
For instance, I remember at recess or gym we would be playing a game that I really loved like basketball or kickball and I would hope not to get passed over. I wanted to get picked! I didn’t want to be the last person who had to go to a team by default.
Then, I remember some other times when we were working on a project for school (especially public speaking) or a difficult task at work (normally something we didn’t know where to start or how to do and we were told to figure it out) which I was hoping to get passed over. You know, not making eye contact with the person making the request, shrinking in your chair to make yourself harder to see, etc.
Either way, we all can probably think of times when we wanted to be passed over and times when we didn’t want to be passed over.
This morning we are continuing our series through the book of Exodus and building upon what Pastor Jordan shared with us last week. If you missed it, please go to our FB page or YouTube channel to watch it. He did fantastic!
So this morning we will be in Exodus 12 to talk about the tenth plague. The reason we are talking about it is the important relevance it is not only to the people of Israel who were hoping to be passed over, but also to us and how Jesus Christ made a way for us to be passed over from God’s wrath!
Up until now, it seems the plagues God sent to Pharaoh and the Egyptians were just for them and God shielded the Israelites in the land of Goshen. (The first three plagues may have affected them as it was not specifically stated the Israelites weren’t going to be affected but it specifically addressed affecting the Egyptians for sure.)
But this plague was different. This plague would affect all the people (Egyptian and Jew alike).
The Jews needed to know they were just as guilty for God’s wrath as the Egyptians were. They rejected God’s messenger (Moses), God’s Word (when work got harder) and God Himself (Joshua 24:14 they brought their own gods out of Egypt). They weren’t exempt because of their race or religion!
For the Egyptians, this was a once and for all attack on all the gods of Egypt (112 different gods of Egypt; over 2,000 gods and goddesses as Pastor Jordan told us last week many of the gods and goddesses overlapped) and according to Exodus 12:12
12 “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.
Transition: So, what was so important with this plague than all the others? Let’s take a look through Exodus 12 and see:
The first observation right off the bat that I see before we get into our message this morning is in:
2 “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year.
This is the beginning of a new year! A new season! God is going to be starting something new! And God wanted them to be a part of it!
In order for this to take place, the Israelites would have to follow God’s instructions though regarding:
Body:
I. The Lamb
3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family.
4 If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat.
5 You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
6 You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
animal = translated as small livestock mainly sheep or goats
v. 3 pick out the lamb on the 10th day
v. 4 a lamb per 10 individuals were the common measuring standard
v. 5 (cute) perfect, unblemished according to Lev 22 (have the kids help pick it out!)
v. 6 “to keep it” meant the family brings the lamb in and takes care of it like a pet. They get attached. Then 4 days later it is slaughtered at twilight
Historian Josephus estimates that as many as 265,000 lambs could be sacrificed in the Temple for Passover
Transition: The lamb was only the first part of the instructions God gave them. Next they had to:
II. Apply the Blood
They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them.
It is to be caught in a basin but catching the precious blood of the lamb in the basin doesn’t save them. They have to do something with it!
Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning.
They must apply the blood as God instructed to the door using hyssop.
Hyssop was a common plant that grew all over the place in that region and was very easy to get. Everyone had access to it.
They also needed to stay under the blood and not leave the house until morning or else they would not be protected from the tenth plague.
Transition: So, they had to pick out a lamb and make sure it met the specific qualifications, then slaughter it. Afterwards, they had to take the blood of the lamb that was shed and apply it to the door and not leave the house until morning. There was one more final instruction God gave them:
III. The Unleavened Bread
17 “You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your military divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. 18 You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”
Leaven in the Bible is first mentioned here and from here on out it is a symbol of evil/sin.
In the New Testament, leaven stands for:
1. Hypocrisy in Luke 12:1:
Meanwhile, a crowd of many thousands came together, so that they were trampling on one another. He began to say to his disciples first, “Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2. Philosophical materialism in Matthew 16:6,12:
Then Jesus told them, “Watch out and beware of the leavenF of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the leaven in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
3. Worldliness in Mark 8:15:
15 Then he gave them strict orders: “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
4. Evil conduct in 1 Cor 5:6:
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leavenE, leavens the whole batch of dough?
5. False doctrine in Galatians 5:9:
9 A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough.
Transition: As I stated before, the Passover is a foreshadow of Jesus Christ and what He did for all mankind on the cross. I want to make a few connections for us so we can see Jesus as our Passover Lamb:
God is inviting us to be a new person and a new creation just as He told the Israelites that day was going to be the new year/new season. But how?
Let’s take a look at:
IV. Our Lamb
Just as the Israelites had to choose a lamb, we have to choose Jesus Christ as our Lamb!
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
He was sinless and without blemish!
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.
He wants to be part of your and my life!
He died once and for all for everyone as our Passover Lamb!
1 Corinthians 5:7b (CSB)
For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
V. Apply Christ’s Blood
Jesus shed His blood but it must be applied to our hearts!
Just as the Israelites used a common plant (hyssop) that was available to everyone to apply the lamb’s blood, we can apply the blood of Christ to our hearts with what God has given all of us: God’s grace.
7 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.
8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ,
We can’t look for salvation anywhere else! We have to stay under the blood of Christ (in the house) and not wander to look elsewhere!
VI. Clean out the Leaven
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
As God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, Christ’s death and shed blood can bring us out of sin!
The Israelites had to walk this out with not eating bread with leaven. We need to do the same!
Just as we talked about earlier, leaven stood for sin in the Bible and some of those include:
Hypocrisy
Philosophical materialism
Worldliness
Evil conduct
False doctrine
And the list can go on and on.
Just as the Israelites weren’t exempt from this last plague even though they were God’s chosen people and they had faith from time to time, we aren’t exempt from God’s wrath either no matter our race, religion, morality, etc.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
If we want God’s wrath to pass over us, we need to choose Jesus and the death He paid for us on the cross. And we need to apply His blood to our heart by doing what the Word tells us in:
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
Conclusion:
1 Corinthians 11:27-32: examine before taking communion
*Communion*
1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (CSB)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.