새 설교 (3)

the scripture reading for today is taken from Exodus 12 verses 1 through 13.

the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt this month is to be for you the first

month first month of your year tell the whole community of Israel that

on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family one for

each household if any household is too small for a whole lamb they must share one with their nearest neighbor

having taken into account the number of people there are you are to determine the amount of lamb

needed in accordance with what each person will eat the animals you choose must be year-old

males without defect and you may take them from the sheep or the goats

take care of them until the 14th day of the month when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them

at Twilight then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the

door frames of the houses where they eat the Lambs that same night they are to eat the meat

roasted over the fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast do

not eat the meat raw or cooked in water but roasted over the fire

head legs and inner parts do not leave any of it till morning if some is left

till morning you must burn it this is how you are to eat it

with your cloak tucked into your belt your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand eat it in haste

it is the Lord's Passover on that same night I will pass through

Egypt and strike down every firstborn both men and animals and I will bring

judgment on all the gods of Egypt I am the Lord

the blood will be a sign for you on the houses Where You Are

and when I see the blood I will pass over you

no destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt

is the word of the Lord now we're looking at the life of Moses

in the book of Exodus and we saw last week that at one point Pharaoh the king of Egypt asks

uh the question who is the Lord that I should obey him and what he's

asking is this he's saying look everybody has their own religion everyone has their own Gods everyone has

their own faith who is your god uh what is so unique about your God he's asking what is so

unique about your faith that I should embrace it that's what he's saying to Moses

and there's probably no better answer to that question what is so unique about this God what is so unique about his

ways and his faith then this passage this famous passage the Passover

because those faiths that accept the biblical

vision of ultimate spiritual reality Judaism and Christianity

this is the center of it for Jews the Passover meal is the

central thing that makes them who they are and for Christians a revised Passover

meal the Lord's Supper is the central Act of Christian worship

in other words when pharah asks the questions what is so what makes this Faith so unique what makes this God so

unique here it is but look at what is at the center of it look at what this is at the center of

this thing the bloody death of a helpless victim there's no other religion like that

at the very center of the center of biblical faith of the biblical vision

of ultimate spiritual spiritual reality is the bloody death

of a helpless victim now why what why and what does it mean and now

here's the answer we need to look at this passage which tells us about the offering up of the

Lamb but in order to understand the passage the account we have to put it into the

context of the story of the Lamb which is a Bible long story that goes from the very beginning to the very end it was

matter of fact as I want to show you the story of the Bible actually the narrative plotline of the Bible essentially is the narrative the story

of the Lamb so we want to understand the account of the offering of the Lamb first then we need to put it in the

context of the story the whole story of the Lamb and then lastly we need to take

some time to do which on the Baptist said which is Behold the Lamb so let's look at the offering of the

Lamb the story of the Lamb and the beholding of the Lamb now first of all the offering of the

Lamb what do we see in the passage and here's what we see first of all God has called

Pharaoh the king of Egypt over and over again to release the Hebrews from their

grinding poverty and slavery into which the Egyptians had put them and he and he

calls pharaoh to let them go and Pharaoh refuses and a series of plagues have come which we looked at last week

finally the final stroke and what is the final stroke it's right here in verse 12

on that night God says I will pass through Egypt and strike down every

firstborn now what's interesting is there's

another reference it's not in this passage that we printed for you it's over in verse 23 and in 20 verse 23 it's

Moses speaking to the Israelites about the Passover night and he says this but Moses said the Lord will not let the

Destroyer enter your house and strike you down the Destroyer

last week we at Great length and therefore I cannot recapitulate

at Great length we talked about a simple uh you might say fact or even law of the

universe and that is that when you violate God's design for creation or a design for your body or designed for

relationships when you when you violate God's design you unleash forces of disintegration and chaos

we said this is this is always true and it even happens now even at even at this

level if you overwork if you make your career an idol

there's breakdown right there's eventually there'll be physical breakdown and emotional breakdown and

spiritual breakdown and relational family breakdown and all that sort of thing if you just hold a grudge if you

just refuse to forgive somebody and you hold a grudge doctors and counselors and Common Sense

tells you those breakdown there's disintegration you know social and spiritual and emotional and physical and

so on but when God says that night

the Destroyer will come what he is saying is I have as it were

scrolled ahead in time and for one night in one on one night in

one place Eternal Divine Judgment Day Justice is

coming down there's going to be a temporal temporary preliminary

but devastating Judgment Day not just the forces of Destruction disintegration

and Chaos that are out there in general that whenever you disobey that the design leads to disintegration and chaos

but for that one night down will come the Destroyer

wow a preliminary temporary Judgment Day and the second thing that God says is he

speaks to the Israelites and he says this now think about this he says I'm about to unleash the most inexorable

irresistible Unstoppable Force in the universe the Destroyer

it is going to go through the greatest military and political power that the world has ever seen Egypt

it's going to go right through it like a knife through hot butter

and there's only one thing that will protect you there's only one way you can face this the ultimate force of the

universe a lamb a lamb

I'm going to be protected by the Ultimate Force in the universe by fluffy and Muffy the weakest meekest mildest kind of

creature possible and God says yes the only way you're going to be able to face this Ultimate Force in the universe is I

want you to kill a lamb eat it with your family and put the blood on the doorposts

and that's the Passover now obviously

this is at very best confounding and at very worst deeply offensive to the

average modern person and the only way that it will become less confounding hopefully uh certainly

and less offensive hopefully is if you put it in the context of what

I already referred to as the Bible long story of the lamb in other words this particular passage that we read as

famous as it is will make no sense unless you put it into the context because the story of the Lamb is a is an

enormously long and astounding story with many chapters now what do I mean by

that well let's let's let me go back and show you what the chapters are at least some of them first of all the very first chapter in the story of the lamb in the

Bible is the story of Abraham and Isaac Genesis 22. I Abraham has a son he loves Isaac and

in Genesis 22 God he hears God speak to him and God says offer up

your only son as a sacrifice to me and modern people believe that Abraham

must have felt obviously anguish and it's clear from the story he feels anguished but modern people say oh I

know why he's so anguished modern people say he must have thought that was a monstrous command

he must have thought that was an insane command and the answer is no if you believe that

it's because you don't understand the historical and cultural context of Abraham there's a man named John

Levinson who's a Jewish scholar teaches at Harvard has written a book called the death and resurrection of the Beloved

son that does a wonderful job in a very scholarly way of putting it into context and so we actually have a pretty good

idea of what Abraham was thinking and it's not that see here's the context ancient people

in ancient cultures you did not have aspirations for individual

prominence individual Prosperity individual success that's not what you hope for that's not what you aspire to

you aspired for the success and the prominence and the prosperity of your

family you didn't think in such individualistic terms

in ancient cultures you wanted your family to succeed and secondly in

ancient cultures if some member of the family failed or act in a very shameful way the entire family was responsible

if one person acted shamefully that shame belonged to everyone now see modern Americans and espec

Western people and especially Americans probably even more than Europeans we are the most radically individualistic

people this is the most radically individualistic culture ever what we feel like is if some member of

my family acts in a shameful way that's them that's not me I'm my own person I'm setting my own course for life and I

don't want to be held responsible for what they have done I'm not responsible for what they have done I am my own person I am deciding

what who I want to be now now I think it's going to become clear and

I'm sure a lot of you already have recognized this that this is an unbalanced position

our radically individualistic American Western culture is unbalanced about this

uh as you get older one of the most disconcerting sort of things is you come

to realize you are much much much more inescapably much more of a product of your family

than you thought what you are both good and bad

is not as attributable completely to you much of it is attributable good and bad

to your family to what they did and what they didn't do in you with you beside

you you know uh after the Columbine atrocity

even in the most radically individualistic culture in history it was virtually un impossible not

to look at the families of the two guys who did all the atrocities and say there's responsibility there either

active or what they did with the kids or at least passive for their neglect I mean it was Universal was unavoidable

they felt it everybody else felt it in other words the idea that you're an individual and there's no relationship

between you and the rest of your family is probably unbalanced most cultures most centuries have had a more balanced understanding of individual and

Collective responsibility having said that

let's go back in ancient cultures who didn't think of themselves as

individuals but as families and at a time in which the firstborn got

the whole estate God sent a message that was unmistakably clear to

them but it's opaque to us in the book of Exodus verse 20 chapter 22 in the Book of Numbers Chapter 3 and

8 there was a message that God sent which was opaque to us and here's what it is he said over and over again in the

Mosaic legislation the life of every firstborn is mine

the life of every firstborn is mine unless you redeem so every year they had to put up so many

shekels there was a Redemption price on the head of the firstborn of every family

now their lives are forfeit unless they're redeemed that's what that's what the law

of Moses said now to us that's completely opaque but it was an unmistakable message to ancient

people who immediately understood because see the fir in the firstborn all their hopes were embodied all their

hopes for themselves for their family was embodied in the firstborn and so God was sending an unmistakable message and

that is that there is a debt over every family on the face of the

Earth there is a debt of sin there's a debt that is owed God on every

family on the face of the Earth your firstborn are liable for the way in which you're living and their lives are

forfeit unless they're redeemed no that doesn't make any sense to individuals like Americans when you begin to

understand and what that means and it's very very important to understand is that when God said to Abram offer up

your firstborn as an offering to me if God has said Abraham if Abram had heard the words go into the tent and

kill Sarah Abraham rightly so would have said I'm having a hallucination or that's a demon

because God would not call me to do something absolutely at variance with

his righteousness and with his word and his will but when God said offer up your

firstborn Abraham did not say what a monster Abraham realized that God

was calling in the Dead the guy was doing something like I had a right to do

that Isaac was about to die for Abram's sins oh Abram struggled of course but he

didn't say how can you be so unjust what Abraham was saying in his heart was how can you be both just which you have

a right to be you're a just God but I can be both just and still a god of Grace because you've promised great

things to happen through me and my son in you in the world how can you be both just and justifier of those who believe

how can you be both just and a gracious God how can you be a god of both of justice and of the god of the promise

how can you do it and you see as he was walking up the mountain the emotional

hot peak of the account of Abram and Isaac

in Genesis 22 comes at verse 7 and 8 where Isaac looks down and says father

the wood the fire the knife

but where's the lamb where's the lamb for the sacrifice and

Abram looks at his son and says God will provide a lamb my son and what

Abraham is saying is I hope with all my being that you will not have to die for my

sins though there's though that is just

I with all my being hope that God will provide a lamb so my little lamb won't have to die

now a lot of people say I really object to this

I don't believe this now by the way that's primitive and obscene I've had people tell me

and uh pardon me but calling an idea name doesn't disprove it

what are the objections to it and I think there's two objections this whole idea that there's a debt of sin and that

we all deserve judgment there's two objections let me give you the two of them the first objection goes

like this they say well I don't really believe I think you're extreme when you say that every single family everybody

on the face of the Earth is cannot pass judgment

that that every single person on the face of the Earth has this debt and and is not living right I don't believe that

and a lot of people say I believe that I'm supposed to find my own standards and that I have the right to determine

what's right or wrong for me okay let's be post-modern for a moment okay let's say there are no Transcendent

moral absolutes that everybody else that everybody has to be judged according to whether you believe them or not let's

just let's not say anything about that let's be post-modern and let's just say that around your neck

there's an invisible tape recorder and the only thing that tape recorder

ever picks up are things you say other people ought to do

it only picks up standards that you call people

to ascribe to in other words it only picks up your moral standards

if at the end of your life we were to take that tape recorder off and say let's evaluate your life there's not a

person on the face of the earth that could live up even to that let's not go to the Ten Commandments let's not go to the Golden Rule let's just go to your

own standards that you have chosen there is no one on the face of the Earth

that can face an evaluation of how they've lived their lives

no one has lived properly no one no one can pass any kind of moral evaluation of

any sort okay well some people say all right all right okay but here's the thing I don't understand this idea of a debt

a debt that has to be paid for surely if there is a God

goes the objection God can just forgive it surely if there is a God God can forgive he can just forgive candy

listen carefully the answer is no what I mean is no he can't just forgive

without payment and I beg you to think about this with me for a minute this is very important understanding this whole

thing first of all let me ask you psychologically if someone really really wrongs you really wrongs you

what happens I would suggest and I think you unavoidably there's a debt there's

something between you and the person who is seriously wronged you and it can't be wished away it can't be

ignored it's I'm gonna it's a debt and I'll show you what I mean there's only two things

you can do with the debt the only way to get rid of the barrier on the one hand you can make them pay it down

in other words you can hurt them you can berate them you can find ways of making them suffer you can exclude them there's

all sorts of things and as you see them paying it you sense the debt being paid down at a certain point it's gone

now by the way the Bible says if you do it that way if that's how you do it you make people pay

for what they have done it'll turn you into a hard person it'll dehumanize you but that's not our subject today

nevertheless if you you can make them pay it or the other thing to do is you say well why don't you just forgive okay that's

that's the right thing to do but let me tell you what forgiveness is made of to forgive them means that when I want

to hurt them I don't when I want to slice up their reputation

and talking to other people I don't when I want to just think hateful

thoughts and about how they have done these awful things and what awful people they are I don't

and if I do that if I refuse to do that if I do

that you'll find as time goes on your anger slowly subsides why because you're paying the debt down yourself

you are paying it down it's costly it's difficult but the fact of the matter it doesn't go away there is no way

emotionally psychologically when a real wrong is done they can just be forgiven somebody has to pay the debt they have

to pay it you have to pay it somebody must pay it or the barrier is there okay let's think about it sociologically

instead of psychologically let's just say we find a man definitely he has done it and he's guilty of some

horrible crime rape murder serial rape and murder

and what if a judge says well he's sorry for it I don't let's let him go free

right away the reason there would be outrage is this if he doesn't pay

Society will pay right so to let him go free means number one the victim's lives are devalued in

other words there's no payment it means that their lives the things they've lost are worthless number two Society if he

goes free Society will pay because this will just go on it'll just go on there's no deterrence that's personal go on

perhaps doing it or other people go on doing it because it wasn't punished in other words either he pays or we pay

ah psychologically sociologically there's no such thing as a real serious

wrong that can be forgiven without payment somebody has to pay it somebody has to

experience the pain somebody has to Bear the price somebody and if it's true that

even we in spite of our rhetoric we cannot avoid that there's never there's no such thing as a wrong that

can just be forgiven without somebody paying if even we with our imperfect and fuzzy

moral senses if we sense that how much more would God sense that at the cosmic level

and therefore what this means is Abraham knows this

Abraham is not a modern American individualist he knows this he's not naive about these things he knows that

God created us God sustained us and therefore number one we owe it to him to live

for him completely but we don't secondly we owe it to our neighbor to treat them the way we want to be treated ourselves

but we know we don't even come close and as a result none of us have lived the way we should these are serious wrongs we've done against God and our neighbor

and as a result there's a debt and God has the right to call for it but at the last minute God says Abraham

don't do it and yet the lamb never shows up

the chapter Abraham's chapter ends and we say well this is makes us feel good but wait a minute there's a there's a

few unanswered questions there's a debt but the land never shows up there's a ram who gets caught in the thicket

and the ram is sacrificed but more as a thank offering because the fact of the matter is

there's a debt God has the right to the payment but it doesn't get made

so where's the lamb chapter 2 Moses

again God claims the life of the firstborn now you begin to understand it

can you get out of your own culture and historical moment enough to understand it he claims the right of the first board

again and again he says the only hope is a lamb but now in the Passover chapter

of this story we see two extremely interesting principles played out and the two principles are I'll call it the

spiritual the principle of spiritual egalitarianism and the principle of spiritual substitutionism

egalitarianism and substitution and they're astounding number one egalitarianism not in this passage but

over a little later in chapter 12 verse 22 God says to the Israelites after you've

put the blood on your door not one of you shall go out of your house until the

morning do you know what that means it you know if you're reading this chapter it goes right by and you and you don't even

think about it you know what this means it's astounding thing what he is trying to say is the Destroyer is not coming

just for Egyptians the Destroyer is no respecter of persons and this is what's amazing he says look

Israelites you are the oppressed they are the oppressor

you worship the true God they worship idols and yet in yourself

if you were to meet judgment tonight you would find whether it's on the Ten

Commandments whether it's by the Golden Rule whether it's by the tape recorder standard you would be lost tonight in yourself you are absolutely no better

than the Egyptians in the final spiritual analysis

the the the the most the morally ethical the biblically righteous the uh you know

the doctrinally proper he says if you go out tonight and you try to meet judgment

on your own and you do not sit under the blood if you go out there on your own your race your pedigree your ethnicity

your your religion your beliefs your Doctrine your ethical Behavior none of

that will help you you will be as lost as the people in the world that you

disdain the most the Egyptians and that is an amazing statement so there's the principle of spiritual

egalitarianism secondly there's a principle of spiritual substitutionism what is the Hope listen in every single house in Egypt

that night I hate to say it this way but I've got to do it just to be Vivid here

there was either a dead son or a dead lamb was one or the other

in other words the lamb got what the son deserved

the lamb was a substitute the lamb paid the debt so this the

firstborn did not have to pay the debt for the for the family and every firstborn son

in every Hebrew Home looked at the table and saw the lamb and said the only

reason I'm not dead is because that is now

there are people today that don't say that the whole principle of substitution

is not credible to them but I would just beg you hopefully I've done this well enough I've created the context for this

this urge this appeal I would appeal to you to consider whether it is not your

your ethnocentrism your cultural narrowness you're feeling like the American

understanding of legal responsibility is the only one the radical individualism of the culture

in which I live is obviously the right one I would like you to try to get out of

yourself for a moment we've already talked about the fact that our culture is actually kind of uh you know unbalanced in this way

the simple fact is we know there's a debt emotionally psychologically socially

there's a debt we have not been living as we should

and just as the guilt of some you know can be

transferred to one in a family that one can pay the price for the family the

principal substitution is not credible to us largely because our American individualism kind of blinds us to it

but would you recognize ins would you would you for a moment say maybe what

most cultures and most centuries have understood and what the Bible says maybe it's true

that it is possible that rather than me paying my debt someone in solidarity with me pays it

for me I mean it makes sense it's a beautiful thing and most people most places can

understand it Americans have a lot of trouble doing it would you just try to get out of your culture for a moment and recognize the fact

that this is what the claim is when you put the spiritual of when you

put egalitarianism and substitutionarism together you have an amazing statement and that's what this is you know what the statement is this passage is saying

this is not the last chapter you know why yes the Israelites are politically

and uh economically the victims and yet When God says but if you go out from

underneath the blood of the lamb and face judgment on your own you will be smitten tonight when God says that what

he's actually trying what is actually saying to them is even though I'm delivering you tonight it's not the

ultimate Deliverance you need you are still in a debt of sin you need a deeper Deliverance than the one tonight as important as the one is tonight

as incredible as this one is you need another one as important as this lamb is you need

another lamb as important as this Deliverance is you need a deeper one a more radical salvation because you have

a bigger debt you have a bigger problem you have a different a bigger and deeper

kind of spiritual bondage scroll forward to chapter three

Jesus Christ on the night in which he was betrayed

celebrates the Passover meal he asks his disciples to come together and say let's celebrate the Passover

tonight so they all get together the Passover and when Jesus Christ stands up there are two enormous shocks

shock number one when Jesus Christ stands up to begin to speak everybody said okay he is in the place of the father and the Passover meal there's a

presider and the presider's job is to stand up and explain the meal

if you go through the rest of chapter 12 and 13 it actually gives the presider uh Exodus 12 and 13 it gives the presider

some ideas on this he's supposed to get up and he's supposed to uh explain the meal so Jesus Christ gets up and what did we

expect to hear him say what did the disciples expect they expect to hear him say this is the bread of our affliction

this is the bread of affliction our ancestors suffered in the wilderness

so that we could be free but instead he gets up and says this is

my body this bread is my body and what he's saying is this is the bread of my

affliction that I am going to suffer to give you the ultimate freedom

Freedom not just from physical and political and economic bondage but from sin and death itself and that's the

first shock because when he says this is my body in the place of the presider at the Passover meal he is saying now it's my

suffering that's going to be the ultimate Liberation for you and here's the second

shock when he stood up disciples looked down there's three things you have at a passive meal you have the unleavened

bread and there's Jesus breaking the bread and you have the four cups of wine and there's Jesus Christ pouring out the cup

obviously and then there's the lamb

there's no reference to a lamb there's no lamb what kind of Passover

meal is this says the disciples there's no Lamb on the table there's no Lamb on the table you know why because the lamb

was at the table the lamb was deliberately removed from

the Passover meal because Jesus Christ is saying tonight I am the lamb my death he's saying is

the central event to which all of the history of God's relationship to the world has been moving

tonight I'm giving you that ultimate salvation that even Moses understood

that that Passover was pointing to when God said I'll take you out politically but if you

get out from under the blood of the Lamb you still have a debt of sin on you I'm removing it tonight

in other words he says this night is really

a night unlike all other nights and this is the reason why John the

Baptist looked at Jesus one day and by the inspiration holy spirit says Behold the

Lamb of God who take away the sin of the world in other words John the Baptist was saying I get it I get it our

firstborn Sons were not saved because of the death of some woolly little quadrupeds no matter how cute

our firstborn were saved because God has given up his firstborn

see that's the answer to Abram God was saying Abram

I'm going to walk up my a mountain with my son and I'm going to lay the wood on him

and nobody will be able to say stop and I have a Abram the reason that you're

only beloved Son won't have to die is because mine did

and one commentator puts it this way when the ultimate beloved child cried my God my God why has Thou forsaken me the

father paid the price in his silence

behold the perfect lamb John 19 33 pointed out that Jesus bones were not

broken why because it had to be a lamb without spot and blemish Matthew 27 pointed out that Jesus died

just at Twilight why because the lamb was to be slain of Twilight

the chapter of the Lamb Abraham's first chapter of the Lamb said there's a debt

Moses chapter the lamb said but a subsequent pay for it and Jesus chapter said it's me it's God's only son

and of course there's one more chapter you know go to the Book of Revelation where the land is on the throne now

let's close like this remember when John the Baptist says Behold the Lamb of God do you know what

that means behold in the Lamb of God means don't he doesn't just mean there's the Lamb of God you know Behold the Lamb

of God means think realize it take it in look look look look see no he's not just

saying oh there's the Lamb of God he says think about it realize it grasp it do you

if you are exploring Christianity if you're one if you're somebody who's sort of looking into Christianity the one

question I get over the years in New Yorkers and it's an absolutely natural question for people who are explaining I do not understand why Jesus had to die

I do not understand why Jesus it doesn't make any sense to me Behold the Lamb of God in three ways

here's the answers number one do not let your American individualism

obscure what the Bible says and what most cultures believe and that is because you have wronged God and your

neighbor there is a debt that must be paid

don't let any don't let that be obscured there's a debt that must be paid and

when the ultimate beloved Son cried my God my God why I saw forsaken me

the father paid the debt in his silence

that's the first reason just had this secondly if G Jesus had to die if you don't see that Jesus had to die it makes

no sense of the accounts of his life look at the gospels and you'll see in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus crying

out almost losing it look at Jesus look at the gospel accounts Jesus Christ on the cross crying at my God my God why

has Thou forsaken me and you know what you see here's what you see if you were making up a faith if you were making up a religion and you were

just fabricating stories about the founder of your religion about his life you would never in a million years put

those things in never you'd never have him crying out never saying oh Lord can I get off the hook in the gardening Gethsemane never you'd never make that

up thousands of people men and women have faced executions better than that

so since you would never make those up they must have happened and since they must have happened or

they never would have been written there's no other way to account for them he must have been forsaken

God must have forsaken him but since he was Forsaken and he was by all accounts the most wonderful man who

ever lived his life was so wonderful why would have been forsaken he must have been in our place you get that he he

must have suffered and cried out

and therefore he must have been forsaken and therefore he must have been your substitute and if you don't believe

that Jesus Christ had to die for you if you say like a lot of people in New York say I believe in a God who just loves us

I don't believe in a god of wrath who Jesus Christ had to assuage through his propitiatory death I don't believe I

just believe in a God who loves ironically with all due respect a god of more wrath than yours is

necessarily a god of more love than yours it's one thing to have somebody say I love you it's another thing to really show it

I have never felt more loved in my life a lot of people said they love me I got sick

and now all kinds of people my family you church I've never

been more loved in my life you know why because I never had more people doing things for me a God who says I love you but you don't

have Jesus you don't have the cross who just says I love you it's not never going to Electrify you it's never going to change you you're never going to be

transformed by that you have to have a God who shows and therefore ironically the god of the

Bible the god of more wrath than your generic God is a god of more love

why did Jesus have to die it's the only way to make sense of the historical accounts the only way buy

only number two the only way to be transformed and the only way to deal with the debt and some of you say well I

am a Christian and if you are a Christian then here's what it means to Behold the Lamb of God real quickly Behold the Lamb of God if

you look at what he's done it'll transform your attitude toward other people Hebrew is no better than Egyptian if you

buy this understanding of the Passover God the god of the Cross you realize that

you are no better than anyone else it totally transforms your view of others I've had people say well if you think

you have the truth that's going to make you an oppressive religion it all depends on what you think the truth is

what is the truth the truth is the cross the lamb the truth is Jesus Christ dying

for people who didn't believe in him and if you see that it makes you it makes you know that you

are no better than the people that you disdain only in him are you loved you think about that so if

you take the cross in and the Passover in you'll radically transform your way of looking at others it'll radically transform your way of looking at glory

and achievement huh in New York glory and achievement is a is acquiring

the cross says glory and achievement is serving is giving is giving away radically changes your whole

understanding of life thirdly it radically changes the view of suffering because the the most undeserved

suffering in the history of the world the most apparently senseless suffering in the history of the world worked out

to the most good and that's going to completely change your attitude toward your own suffering it's not some of you say

okay if I really beheld the Lamb of God my attitude toward others would be

totally different my attitude toward my life would be totally different my suffering be totally different and you say but it's not well just remember one

more thing you should eat the Lamb with others Fellowship groups

you eat the Lamb with others Christianity is an eternal Passover meal in which you get together with other

Christians other people who have had the same experience and you say why did this happen what does it mean

and you Behold the Lamb of God together until it sinks in and you're transformed do you know if you'd stopped an

Israelite in the desert of Sinai and you said what are you guys and who what are you doing and you know what they would

have said I said well I was an alien in a foreign land under penalty of death but I took shelter under the blood of

the Lamb and even though uh uh morally

and racially and ethically I could not save myself I was saved

and now I've been brought out and God is in our midst and even though I know looking

around here this is a desert in the wilderness he's on he's taking me to the promised land and do you realize that that's exactly

what a Christian says exactly because everything in the history of the world everything in the history of the Bible

all climaxed on the day that Jesus Christ became the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world let's pray father we ask that you would

help us to understand why Jesus died to understand why Jesus had to die and we

thank you that because we Behold Him as a lamb we are new people utterly new

our attitude toward others our attitude toward ourselves our attitude and our

relationship to the world our suffering the circumstances of our life everything is radically transformed but

we have to admit as Christian friends and brothers and sisters here this morning we have to admit that we don't

live in accordance with that because we don't behold it deeply enough and we pray that he would teach us how to eat

the meal as it were together in community telling each other what this means until we are transformed into the

likeness of your son in whose name we pray amen for more of this series and other

resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church please visit www.gospelinlife.com

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