The “Passover” - Deuteronomy 16:1-3

The “Passover” - Deuteronomy 16:1-3 ESV

INTRO

Good Evening,

What a joy it truly is to be with you guys this evening. To be able to get to spend time with you all and to get to know you guys better is something that I truly cherish. But what I love most is opening up God’s Word with you all and seeing what the LORD is trying to teach and show us…

We serve a God who is not silent… we serve a God who speaks to us… who wants us to know who he is, all that he has done, and the plans that he has for us…

We serve a God who saves us and desires a relationship with us for our entire lifetime… and for an eternity after…

PHYSICAL COPY OF BIBLE…

I hope you brought a physical copy of your Bible with you this evening… because we are going to use it…

PRAYER

Please pray with me as we attempt to open up God’s Word and understand what it is he has for us this evening in Deuteronomy 16:1-3…

Father… thank you for another night where we get to learn more about you… where we get to sing praises to you… where we get to worship you through song, the reading of your word, and the application of your teachings…

God I pray that leaders, students, and I would be able to understand your Word through your Spirit… I pray that your Word would be real to us, change us, and actually impact our lives… for your glory and for our good.

We pray these requests in Jesus name… AMEN.

Please turn to Psalm 37:5…

SCRIPTURE REGARDING GOD’S WORD - PSALM 37:5 ESV

Psalm 37:5 (ESV)

COMMIT your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

COMMIT = “To Dedicate or Trust ENTIRELY to a specific person or activity or cause”

In other words, Psalm 37:5 is saying, Dedicate and trust the Lord entirely and commit your ways to Him… and he will act…

Why do I get excited about reading God’s Word?

Because I helps me trust, commit, and dedicate my life to the LORD where I then get to witness and the see the LORD move and act…

How can you commit yourself to someone you do not know… how can you dedicate your life to someone who have not even heard speak…

In an effort to continue to dedicate your lives to the Lord entirely and to get to know our Lord and savior even more… please following with me as I read Deuteronomy 16:1-3… for it says,

Deuteronomy 16:1–3 (ESV)

“Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover SACRIFICE to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may REMEMBER the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

CONTEXT:

Before we dive in and unpack what Deuteronomy 16:1-3 means, we have to know and understand the context…

WHY?

Because the CONTEXT gives us a CLEAR picture of the CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING the STORY…

WHAT IS THE PASSOVER?

The “Passover” was a sacred observance that was intended to honor, pay tribute to, and remember the 10th plague that ultimately lead to the Israelites being set free from Egyptian Captivity and slavery…

The 10th took place in Exodus… when God punishes Egypt by killing all of the firstborn… but “passes over” the 1st Born of Israel…

In fact, the 10th Plague when killed the firstborn of humans and of animals…

The only way that the firstborn would not be killed was if the blood a lamb was spread across the doorpost of the home… if the blood of the lamb was not spread across the doorposts… then the firstborn would die…

Look back at Exodus 21:5-14

Exodus 12:5–14 (ESV)

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 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.

“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. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 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. 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.

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.

So what is happening in Deuteronomy 16:1-3?

Moses is declaring to the Israelites to remember, observe, and keep the Passover celebration and tradition…

Why? Because God wants us to remember that our salvation required the shedded blood of our Savior - JESUS CHRIST…

POINT #1: The PASSOVER POINTS us to JESUS CHRIST…

A.) The Passover shows us that Jesus PAID the ultimate price

One thing that I love about the Bible is that it always points to Jesus Christ… That there are not multiple main characters throughout the Bible… Rather the Bible revolves around one person… The Bible revolves around one Character… and that Character is the Son of the Living God… Jesus Christ…

The PASSOVER POINTS us to JESUS CHRIST…

The Passover was meant to magnify, Highlight, and put on full display how Jesus Christ was going to be the sacrifice for God’s people… and that those who put their faith in Christ… who are covered in the blood of Christ… who sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ… through faith in Christ… will not experience the death and wrath of God…

Just how the Israelites would not experience the wrath of God if there door posts were covered with the blood of the lamb…

Friends… we can not overlook the reality of what the punishment of sin is… we can not over look the reality of what it cost God andJesus Christ to save us…

We have to know and understand… that our sin deserves death… and that death was fully paid for by the blood of Christ…

When the passover occured…

A slaughtered… innocent lamb was slain… so that a guilty sinister sinner could experience salvation…

The wretched exchanged for the righteous…

FRIENDS… the Passover points us to Jesus Christ…

POINT #2: The SIN DEBT could only be SATISFIED by a SPOTLESS SACRIFICE

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That word WAGES means = “The Compensation of Work or Services”…

In other words… Romans 6:23 is saying… your payment, your compensation, what you earn for working and partaking in sin is death… what you earn and what you rightfully deserve is death…

TRANSITION - THE LAMB HAD TO BE SPOTLESS

I want to draw your attention to Exodus 12:5

Exodus 12:5 (ESV)

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,

BLEMISH = “Free from physical or moral defects”…

In other words, God is telling the Israelites… that if you were to sacrifice a lamb that even a slight physical spot or defect… it would not meet the standard or requirement…

I bring this up because Jesus is the only one who has ever been spotless… He is the spotless lamb… he is the one without defect or sin… he is perfect… without fault…

That is why it had to be Jesus… that is why Jesus’s blood is so important… because it was spotless, pure, without sin or fault or defect… and when it was poured out through his death… it fully covers our sin…

so that when God looks upon you and me he does not see our sin… he sees the shedded perfect blood of the lamb… and your sins are no more…

STORY #1: MY SALVATION

This was huge for me… when I was 17 years old I never realized all that my sin cost my savior and my God…

I never truly realized the weight, debt, and height of my sin…

I will never forget the death of Jesus being specifically for me and my sin…

I will never forget the weight of my guilt and shame… being placed on Jesus…

I will never forget truly seeing for the first time the love that God has for me… that he would pay my sin that I owed in him in full by the shedding of his sons blood…

I will never forget how wicked and gross my sin was and still is… but more than that… I will never forget and I hold on to this day the reality that my sins have been paid for by my savior…

God gave up what was most precious to him… in order to save a sinner like me…

STORY #2 - THE LAMB - 1 YEAR OLD

The lambs that were sacrificed at Passover were a year old…

On average… a 1 year lamb weighed about 120 pounds…

I tell you this because the owners of the lamb would have taken care of the lambs….

They would have feed them…

Raised them…

Nurtured them…

Cared for them…

Traveled with them…

The owner and the lamb would have spent time together…

The owner of the lamb knew that this lamb it was raising… taking care of… would ultimately be the lamb that was killed…

The lamb was innocent… spotless… obedient to the owner… not deserving of the a sacrificial death… and yet was lead to a slaughter…

Jesus was innocent… obedient to his Father… Jesus and God had spent time together… God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit had never been apart from one another… Since the beginning of time… when God made the World Jesus was there… In fact, God made the world through Jesus and it is by Jesus that the world holds together…

They have always been together… and the fact that God would give up his Son… the one who was spotless… the one who was perfect… and without sin for someone like me is a love that ought to overwhelm you… over take you… and cause to live a life for Lord and savior…

QUESTION: Do you realize that the debt of your sin can only be SATISFIED and paid for by the Blood of the Spotless Sacrifice - Jesus Christ? Has the reality of that hit you? Does it move you? does it impact you?

RECAP:

The PASSOVER POINTS us to JESUS CHRIST - the MAIN CHARACTER of the ENTIRE BIBLE

The SIN DEBT can only be SATISFIED by the SPOTLESS SACRIFICE

HOW DO I APPLY THE TEACHINGS TO MY LIFE TODAY?

APPLICATION #1: REMEMBER… that your SALVATION came at a PRICE…

The Word Remember is used over 250 times in the Bible…

QUOTE - AN OLDER BELIEVER