passover

God at the beginning created a perfect world, with a perfect couple to enjoy endless eternal fellowship with a holy God. But the couple made a dreadful choice resulting in the entrance of death for them and all their progeny, and a curse upon all god’s creation. Yet God promised things would not continue this way. That a deliverer would come to restore things.

Here is that promise

Gen. 3:15

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

What could Adam and eve take from this promise?

1. Warfare between families

2. An individual from the woman’s seed will bring deliverance

3. This individual will crush the enemy yet be wounded himself

Other than that, further details are not revealed here but it gave hope at the moment that God had a plan. By the naming of their children, it was obvious that Adam and eve thought their children were that promised one.

Who could have predicted that even though some of this promise has been fulfilled the ultimate restoration of all things remains yet unfulfilled after thousands of years.

We must understand that God’s plan to restore all things was established and planned even before the foundation of creation. And once underway there has never been an emergency that required modification of his plan. It has always to this day been on course as he intends. It does not require constant correction or course changes

God chose to reveal the details of his plan of restoration to us gradually over time. And so today we have a clearer picture than the patriarchs yet we still do not have a complete picture. There is more to know that will yet be revealed.

Eph. 2:4-7

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

There is so much more yet to come

I want to take some time today to look at just a few of the many times God has chosen in his word to reveal a bit more of his ongoing redemptive plan. We will be looking at the Fall, the Passover, and the Lord’s supper. All part of the ongoing revelation of God’s redemptive plan and all significant events in God’s redemptive plan

But as I start, I want to ask this question. Why is it that every human religion as far back into antiquity you may go, includes the themes of sacrifice, death, blood, and atonement somewhere in there religion?

How and when did it enter the human mind that a God would require or even be pleased with these. Is it because we are preoccupied with these things as humans that we simply create a natural connection because of that human preoccupation?

And where do we go to answer this question?

Secular historians will say well you need to study as many religions as possible and maybe get some clue about where and when the association happened. This is what you would be encouraged to do at all the religion depts. at our secular institutions and also many seminaries today. Maybe this could be your doctorate dissertation.

Here is an example of what someone from these places said; I got this from a very scholarly article written in the interpreter’s dictionary of the bible.

The ideas and practice of sacrifice, death, blood, and atonement cannot be derived from any one single principle, and, in respect of them, all monogenetic theories of the origin of them may be safely discountenanced from the start.

My reinterp. With my dictionary

The ideas and practice of sacrifice, death, blood, and atonement cannot be derived from any one single source, all theories that propose a single source of origin for these may be safely discredited as an embarrassment from the start

He is Saying religious truth was not revealed, it evolved solely in the mind of man, and if you don’t accept that you are anti-intellectual and unintelligent.

You would assume that if intelligent professors at our universities say this that there would be significant evidence for it. The evidence is simply that of course there is no god so there can be no point source from that God. It all arose out of the human imagination over years of time. And this is more a presupposition than evidence.

But we do not accept that, we believe the evidence supports the existence of God who has spoken in the scriptures.

What do we find there

A. The Fall, and see what we find there

Gen. 3 the fall of man – many things happened but like all events we are not told every detail. We are told a summary. But we are told those things we need to know.

Gen. 3:21

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Why do we need to know this? Why should we even care about it? Yet here it is, apparently important enough that God would include it in the inspired scriptures.

How did they get these garments? Do you think God went poof, garments, here put them on.

If you have never gone trapping maybe you do not realize that animals do not willingly give up their skins. You must kill the animal, there is death, a new first for Adam and eve

And then it is messy, there is blood.

This was what it took to cover their sin and shame and nakedness

We do not know if God gave them any further instruction about this or what information they were to pass on to their children but in only a few years we see another significant event.

4:2b-5

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So, Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

Ask some questions?

How did they know to bring an offering?

Did God tell them he was hungry or were they instructed that this was some type of a necessary act of worship for atonement.

Why the displeasure with Cain?

Maybe Cain was grumpy that day, of perhaps maybe he was disobeying instructions that had been given to him on how to bring an offering.

Why was he pleased with Abel?

Perhaps maybe he obeyed some instructions about offerings that he was given.

Notice what Abel brought, He did not bring a lamb, he brought fat portions, now how do you get fat from a lamb?

How about a little fat?

The lamb must be sacrificed, and the lamb dies, and there is blood in the process very similar to what happened with Dad and Mom

But let us go on

4:6-7a

The LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?

Why did God tell him to do right? What was right? How did he know what was right? Apparently, he still had the opportunity to do right. Somebody it seems had given him instructions of what was required

We know one thing from God’s question, Cain knew what was right but he disobeyed it. He was not confused about what was required

But how do we understand the second half of verse 7

Look at 7b

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is to have you, but you must master it.

Usually taken to mean sin, and the concept is true

But that does not answer the question of what Cain should have done.

There is another acceptable interpretation of this that makes much more sense in the context.

This is the other possible translation:

A sin offering is lying at the door, it is available, you must take hold of it.

Apparently, this was the right thing to do, Aoran did it, Cain should do it too, the solution is a lamb, right at his feet, lying at the door, within his reach, he only needs to take it

We must understand this one point, the concepts of sacrifice, death, blood, atonement were not concepts thought up as religion evolved in the mind of man. it was introduced by God at the point of the Fall and told to us through special revelation.

A single point of origin.

Quite different than you will be told by unbelieving scholars, but not because of evidence but presuppositions about God and revelation from God

Other cultures took these ideas from this point source of Adam and Eve and perverted then. Added sexual perversions and child sacrifice to it, but the origin of redemption through sacrifice began with Adam and Eve in its first simple form

See it again practiced by Noah

8:18-20

So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

How did Noah know to do this. That it was important

The need for sacrifice, death, blood, atonement were apparently passed down through the Godly line of Seth,

But now we see an alter for the first time, probably by necessity, an easier place to put the animal

From Noah to Moses, we have ten occasions when alters were built

Even after all these years the core features of redemption, sacrifice, death, blood, atonement as a covering introduced in Eden have not been lost

B. The Passover

The next great moment in the theology of redemption is the Passover

It is so important because the idea of sacrifice, death, blood, and atonement are evidently displayed by both a historical event and an ongoing yearly celebration

The Passover is a worldwide event because Israel in the land figures into all Gods future plans as part of his second coming. The worldwide focus today on Israel and its right to exist are simply preparatory events for the return of Jesus

The Passover is a national event because Israel became a separate nation

most importantly The Passover is a religious event because the lamb, which was sacrificed, and killed, and whose blood was shed and placed on the doors, will become a type of Christ as the theology of redemption continues to be revealed

So How does the Passover event picture the work of Christ. Remember Passover contains all four elements of sacrifice, death, blood, and atonement.

Five key pictures from the Passover will become the redemptive core of the future ministry of Jesus

Exod. 12:12-13

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. 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.

Judgment is coming, and coming to everyone, all are guilty, only the blood satisfies God, if no blood only judgment, Israelites not exempt. Only the blood of the innocent lamb satisfies God

1. Propitiation

Exod. 12:22-23

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

They were to remain under the blood, not to leave the house, a place of safety and shelter

2. Security

29-30

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. 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.

God’s judgment was death, not a house where there was not one dead, for the Egyptians it was the firstborn, for the Israelites it was the lamb, every house had a corpse

3. Substitution

31-32

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. Take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone, and bless me also!”

Before the lamb died, they could not go, after the lamb died they could not stay. It sealed the deliverance from captivity

4. Deliverance

37-39

And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

A new walk of faith has begun, filled with both blessings and trials

5. Pilgrimage

C. The Lords supper

Luke 22:15-16

And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

This meal with the disciples was the last legitimate Passover ever celebrated and also the first lords supper ever celebrated. One was transformed into the other. Redemption was anticipated in the Passover and now commemorated in the lords supper. All the pictures of redemption seen in the Passover were now fulfilled by Christ. The Lords supper as an event was a crucial step in the history of redemption

I Cor. 5:7

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

He is our Passover lamb, yet he has done away with the old and has initiated a new covenant, and a new age or dispensation where Jesus has fulfilled all the pictures in the Passover.

Read some passages that find the ministry of Jesus associated with sacrifice, death, blood, and atonement. As I read these you can almost hear the voices of Adam and Eve as they discuss about what these animal skins could possibly picture, given their small glimpses they had. I want you to just listen to these they speak for themselves

Heb. 9:13-14

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

9:26b-28

But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

10:11-14

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Sacrifice, death, blood, atonement – these are not ideas man thought up. Although some people might find these things repulsive, they are absolutely essential for salvation. The idea originated from God at the Fall of man

It was necessary for the innocent lamb to be sacrificed, killed, blood shed to make a temporary covering.

So, in the same way it was necessary for Christ to be sacrificed, killed, blood shed, for any of us to get a permanent covering for our sin and nakedness

Remember these five things

Because of God’s redemptive plan:

God’s wrath is permanently satisfied

We are permanently secure in Jesus

He took our guilt, we are acquitted – a permanent substitution

A permanent rescue or deliverance

A permanent pilgrimage - to a better country