S - The Lord's Table Pt. (Exodus 12)
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21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.
23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
Imagine you were sitting at a table, and you had the opportunity to sit with Jesus, would you do it? Imagine that for a second. We have this old painting that Leonardo Da Vinci painted. This is it:
This painting is sitting in Italy and I am sure many of you have seen it. It’s called the Last Supper and it’s supposed to show the moment right after Jesus announces that He’s about to be betrayed. Every single time I hear the words: The Lord’s supper or the word: Communion, this is what I think about. I think about Jesus, sitting at a table, and is eating one more meal with all of His disciples right before he is about to hung on the cross.
have you ever heard of: The Lord’s Supper, or the Last Supper or Communion? whether you have or you haven’t, over the next 3 weeks we are going to learn some things about communion. More than anything, communion is a Christian practice that, if you are a Christian, you should participate in.
But, when you get told to do something, my hope is that you have some questions. When people get baptized, sometimes that makes you want to get baptized. But before you practice that you should ask yourselves: What does it mean to be baptized. When you see people get married, it may encourage you to get married but before you do that you should ask: What does it mean to be married? When you see people practice communion, you should want to participate, but before you do you should ask: What does it mean to practice communion or the Lord’s Supper?
I can’t promise you that I am going to answer all of your questions today, but I can promise you that today, you and I are going to spend some time looking at some history in the Old Testament, that is going to reveal to us what Jesus and the Disciples were doing in this painting that you have in front of you. Let’s read God’s Word this morning, and then we’ll pray:
21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.
22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.
23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’
27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ ” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
So what in the world is going on in these verses? Moses tells the people of Israel to take a lamb, sacrifice it, take the blood and paint their doorways with it. What would that look like? I have a drawing of what that looked like:
But why? What’s the point?
I want to give you some context: The people of Israel are enslaved by the Egyptian king or Pharoah at the time. And God has sent 9 different plagues to get Pharaoh's attention. God has been asking Pharoah: Let my people go.
And what does Pharoah do? He refuses to listen to God. Well, God has tried on multiple occasions to get Pharaoh's attention and Pharoah refuses to listen to God. Well, God has had enough and He tells moses:
1 Now the Lord had said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.
4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.
5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.
7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
God looks at Moses and says: there’s going to be one more plague coming. Just one more. And this one is so devastating, that Pharoah will let you go. God says: At midnight, I will go through all of Egypt, and I will visit each house, and every firstborn will die. What, that’s kind of crazy isn’t it?
Let me just say that: God was trying really hard to avoid this reality for Pharoah. God, gave Pharoah 9 other opportunities to give up and stop being so hard headed. God said: Let my people go, and Pharoah said no and this happened 9 times.
But Pharaoh refused to listen to God and to Moses, so the actions of his consequences caught up to him.
You may telling yourself: I don’t believe in a God that purposely sends people to hell.
I am here to tell you this morning that I don’t believe in that God. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it says that God Himself sends people to Hell. Well pastor Luis, if I don’t accept Jesus as my Lord and savior before I die, won’t I go to hell?
Yep, but not because He sent you there.
All people who have sinned are already in their way to hell Jesus comes along and wants to take you away from that. He wants to save you from it. He’s not sending people anywhere. He is trying to save people from dying.
But I want you to notice this specific verse in Exodus:
4 So Moses said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘About midnight I will go throughout Egypt.
God says: I will go through ALL of Egypt. Who lives in Egypt? The Egyptians, and the Israelites. Verse 5:
5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.
Every firstborn will die. You know who that includes? The first born of of every person and animal in Egypt will die at midnight. So what do we do? We don’t have enough time to leave Egypt. We don’t what time God told Moses all of this, but they only had until the middle of the night to do something. But what can we do against God’s judgment?
Let me ask you: What can you and I do against God’s judgement? Absolutely nothing.
So, from this perspective, the people of Israel and the people of Egypt are in a bind. what do we do know?
You know what I love about God? I’ve said before. have you ever seen those toy cars you need to crank before they run? You have to spin the crank like 10 time and then let it go? Some poeple believe that God works the same way but He doesn’t. God is intentional, and His hand is in our lives today. God does the same thing back then. God says: My judgment is coming but, you aren’t alone.
3 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.
5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.
6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.
7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
13 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.
God says: Take a lamb, a perfect one, you’re going to have to kill it, and I know it’s tough, but after you kill it, take its blood and paint the doorpost of your house with the blood. And when I come by with judgement, if your doorway is painted in the blood of the perfect lamb, you will not be harmed.
And I want you to remember this verse right here:
7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any person or animal.’ Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
If your door frame is painted in the blood of a lamb, that is how God will be able to tell the difference between Egypt and Israel.
How in the world does that apply to us? This happened in the Old Testament right? How do I fit in all of this?
I think it is vitally important for us to recognize that one day Jesus is coming back for His people. He tell us that in the Bible, one day He will return. How will Jesus tell the difference between those who are His people and those who are not?
How does Jesus know the difference? Some people will tell that it is by the way that you act. Let me tell you something, good behavior does not mean you belong to God. So many people will tell you that you must behave like Jesus in order to belong to Him. And they’ll even use this verse right here:
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
If you love people, then OTHERS will know. If you pray, OTHERS will know. If you do a good job in the things you set out to do and worship God as you do those things that’s how OTHERS will know that you belong to God. But God doesn’t distinguish you from the rest of the world by your actions. God doesn’t separate you by your actions. God wants you to do good, He wants you love others, He wants you to pray, He wants you to stop cursing, stealing, lying, and hurting the people around you. But good behavior does not make you holy.
Well then, if my life isn’t what makes me holy, if my good deeds aren’t what separates me, then what does?
The same thing that separated Israel from the rest of the world: the blood of the lamb.
Except in the Old Testament, the word lamb was lowercase. And in the New Testament, the word Lamb is capitalized why? Because the lamb in the old testament was an animal. A cute and perfect animal nonetheless, but in the New Testament, the Lamb is Jesus.
Why a lamb? Because sin requires payment. Romans says this:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What is a wage? Imagine that you are Savannah and you have this sweet new job at food lion. And if you work for 6 hours a day, what are you gonna collect from your boss at the end of the week?
A wage, a payment. Because you worked, your boss owes you.
When we sin, we owe God. We owe God our lives. And Sin demands we pay Him. We must pay Him with our lives But Because God loves us, HE DOES NOT WANT YOU TO PAY FOR YOUR SINS WITH YOUR LIFE.
But, a price still must be payed. So what does God do?
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God sends His one and ONLY son to pay for that price. In the Old Testament people would take a perfect sacrifice to pay for their sins. That’s why they sacrificed animals in the old testament. Because if they sacrificed a perfect lamb, then their sin was payed for by that perfect sacrifice.
Let me ask you a question, does our sin require a sacrifice? It sure does. But you and I are not perfect, so if I were to sacrifice myself for you it would be absolutely worth less because I am not perfect.
But Jesus lived a perfect life. And He allowed Himself to be hung on the cross to be that perfect sacrifice for you and I. So: Does our sin require a sacrifice? It sure does! But Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God, is that sacrifice for you and I. And because Jesus is greater than any animal here on earth, Because Jesus Himself is God, we don’t have to go out and make a sacrifice multiple times a year.
We don’t have to sit around worrying about my sins anymore, I don’t have to be defeated by the effects of sin either. What does that mean? The effects of sin are abandonment, depression, anxiety, lust, fear of failure, the desire to seek other things other than God, frustration, and paralyzing fear. There are so many more. But now, thanks to Jesus, who is the perfect sacrifice, we don’t have to live a life full of sin anymore, and when we do fail Jesus, who is faithful enough to die on the cross for our sins, is also faithful enough to raise from the dead three days after His death.
So if death can’t defeat God WHO IS ON OUR SIDE, then sin can’t keep us down.
I want to ask you the same question again: How does God separate His people from the rest of the world?
In the same way that God did in the Old Testament.
If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then the blood of the Lamb, Capital L, has drenched the door post of your heart. And nothing can wipe that away, nothing can take that away, and every you go, you can walk with the confidence that you belong to God because God has claimed you as His son or daughter.
The blood if the Lamb is strong enough to save you and wash you from your sins.
After all of this stuff happens with Moses and Pharaoh God tells Moses this:
24 “Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.
25 When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.
What does this mean? God tells His people to celebrate this day every single year. To constantly remember that the blood of a lamb saved them.
God wants everyone present, and the future generations to remember this day as much as they can. Why?
for a couple of reasons:
God is the only one who can save.
13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
And this celebration is a reminder of that. Another reason why God wants His people to remember this is because people are so forgetful. We forget all the good things in our life as soon as something bad happens. And God does not want us to loose sight of what He has done for us. If we can remember what God has done for us, all the difficulties you go through will become easier. Why is that? Because when you walk with Jesus you are physically walking with hope.
I want to recognize that to me, a Christian, this story means so much because it represent what Jesus has done for me. For the people in the Old Testament it represented what the Messiah would come and do some day.
I want you to look at the door frame to my right and to my left. As we approach the practice of the Lord’s supper, I want us to recognize that the red fabric over these door post represent something very important.
Every single time we practice communion here at church, we will hang this red fabric and we will leave it hanging up for the next few weeks as a reminder of what they represent.
It represents that in the same way that a lamb was sacrifice so that the people of Israel could live, Jesus sacrificed His own life so that you and I could have eternal life and a right relationship with God.
If you are a Christian, I hope that you are encouraged by that fact. That Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, has payed for your sins with His life, but He now lives and will come back for you some day.
And for those of you in this room that are not Christians, will you allow Jesus to be your sacrifice? Will allow Jesus to come into your life and change you?
Remember this verse?:
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
God knows you belong to Him by the sacrifice Jesus has made on your behalf. And when Jesus comes into your life and into your heart, He begins to shape your life in such a beautiful way. He begins to change you so that you begin to look and behave like Him. See, our actions don’t save us, only Jesus can. But when we devote our life to Jesus, Jesus will help us be better, and love others. So when we walk with Him, others around us can tell we belong to God.
Will you allow Jesus to be your sacrifice?
