Our Exodus In Yeshua

Introduction

Recap of The Exodus Story

Every year we look forward to celebrating Passover.

God tells us that this is a memorial for us and that we are to keep it as a feast to Adonai.

It is a memorial because our ancestors were slaves in Egypt and God devliered us from that oppression, redeemed us and took us back as His own special people.

The deliverance was so powerful that the enemy didn’t just let us leave, they pushed us out so fast that our bread didn’t have time to rise.

We eat the Passover lamb to remind us that God delivered us from the death angel, and we eat matzah to remind us that God not only delievered us by did so with extraordinary power.

The Lord went with Israel in a pillar of cloud by day to guide and protect them, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light so that they could travel at all times while the pursuing egyptians couldn’t.

Pharoah and the egyptians persued Israel, but were ultimately drowned in the sea under the hand of Adonai. Adonai had conquered the enemy.

And so they sang the song of salvation as they watched the enemy drown at the bottom of the sea:

Exodus 15:1–2 TLV

1 Then Moses and Bnei-Yisrael sang this song to Adonai: I will sing to Adonai, for He is highly exalted! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea. 2 Adonai is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will glorify Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

From this moment on, the Exodus story becomes the model of salvation in the story of God and His people.

The Exodus in Yeshua

What I want us to really understand this year is that although we read about the exodus every passover, the apsotolic writers saw us as living inside of our own story.

Indeed, this is exactly what Adonai wants us to see and understand - that we are part of an ongoing exodus story.

The Scriptures have in them events and people that serve as types and shadows of a greater reality playing out around us.

The events were real, but they pointed to an ultimate fulfillment in future events and people.

As the title suggests “The Exodus in Yeshua”, we need to understand that while we can appreciate the events of Moses and the children of Israel, the ultimate picture is found in Yeshua and the people he delivered - the people of the ekklesia.

This message is about ensuring that we, particularly in the messianic movement who have absorbed and inherited the richness of the Tanach and the traditions, fully appreciate that the stories we read about pointed to the story we are currently living in ourselves = Our Exodus In Yeshua.

Dying to Egypt

The first thing in our exodus story is dying to Egpyt. Or what we might call, dying to the world.

We have to come to the realization that in egypt is bondage and oppression.

We cannot be fooled into thinking it is the land of chalav v’davash - Milk & Honey.

The children of Israel called Egypt the land of Milk and Honey - they didn’t die to Egypt in their heart even though they had come out.

And when a person dies to the world in their heart, one important thing happens - they declare Yeshua is the one that secures their redemption.

Luke 9:18–20 TLV

18 Once when Yeshua was praying alone and His disciples were near, He put a question to them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 They replied, “John the Immerser, but others Elijah, and others that some prophet from among the ancients has arisen.” 20 Then He said to them, “But who do you that say I am?” Then Peter answered and said, “The Messiah of God.”

At this point Peter didn’t fully understand how Yeshua would redeem, for Peter, it meant something different.

But what he did understand is that Yeshua was the means to redemption.

We also have to understand that allegience to Yeshua is the only way to be redeemed from the Pharoah in our exodus story.

This is why Yeshua says in the verses that follow:

Luke 9:23 TLV

23 Then Yeshua was saying to everyone, “If anyone wants to follow Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross every day, and follow Me.

If we want to experience Pharoah’s defeat in our lives, we must be willing to turn our back on Egypt.

Taking up our cross means to turn our spiritual back on Egypt. It is a spiritual decision and death with real world implications.

And a person that doesn’t leave Eygpt doesn’t see the salvation of God.

Yeshua As The Lamb

The Children of Israel wanted out of Egypt. Pharaoh’s oppression was too much.

But wanting out is insufficient.

Many people are spirtually and emontionally suffering in the world and want it to stop. But wanting it to stop isn’t enough.

Israel required the lamb in order to be redeemed from Pharoah.

Exodus 12:21 TLV

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select lambs for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

We see here that the lamb was not a random lamb. It was a selected lamb.

Not only was the lamb selected, it was slaughtered. And not only was the lamb slaughtered, it was slaughtered by the family that selected the lamb.

The children of Israel slaughtered the lamb.

The Jewish people in Yeshua’s day slaugthered him as the lamb.

And all people today, when they reject Yeshua, are like Pilate attempting to wash their hands but are still guilty for the innocent.

But in all these cases I’ve mentioned - that very lamb can become the means to redemption if believed to be effective and if effecitvely applied to one’s life.

You see, you’re only redeemed from Egypt if after you kill a perfect lamb you acknowlege that the lamb is your redemption.

This is what we have done as believers. When each of us put our trust in Yeshua as the way to escape death, we were redeemed from the enemy.

Victory Over Pharaoh

Who is the Pharoah in our story?

Just like with the children of Israel, when we put our faith in Yeshua the enemy had to let us go.

Colossians 2:15 TLV

15 After disarming the principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.

Hebrews 2:14 TLV

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared the same humanity—so that through death He might break the power of the one who had the power of death (that is, the devil)

The Devil, like Pharaoh, was humiliated and God received the glory through his defeat.

You see the evil one doesn’t have power over us like he does those still in the world.

But more than that, the Scriptures hint at the speed at which this took place.

When Yeshua died the ground shook, the tombs were cracked and unsealed, and after Yeshua’s resurrection believers were resurrected and came out of their graves.

Matthew 27:52–53 TLV

52 And the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the kedoshim who were sleeping were raised to life. 53 And coming forth out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

This happened in the Physical but also in the spiritual.

And this immediate redemption came to us when we first put our trust in Yeshua.

Our Exodus In Yeshua

So, in our story, which we are in right now, we are the group of people that God visited.

I really want to emphasize this because it’s important.

God had a plan for a people and He purposed to bring it about.

Most of us descend from the nations, not Israel. But that doesn’t mean you are not the people of God.

God’s nation has always been a nation built on spiritual promises and His word, not simply physical descent.

You are living as the fulfillment of prophecy. We as a community right now are the people group prophesied about.

Acts 15:13–17 TLV

13 After they finished speaking, Jacob answered, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simon has described how God first showed His concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for His Name. 15 The words of the Prophets agree, as it is written: 16 ‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David. I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it, 17 so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord— namely all the Gentiles who are called by My name— says Adonai, who makes these things

What is Jacob (James) saying here? He is saying that God has taken a group of people from the nations just like the prophets said, and have added this group to David’s rebuilt house.

How was David’s house restored? Through Yeshua’s death and resurrection. We are the group of people who are David’s decendants through Yeshua.

Why am I emphasizing this? Because it is importnat that you understand KMC is literally the group of people that God has redeemed and rescued from the world.

The people in this room have turned their back on the world, have accepted Yeshua as our Lord and lamb, and have joined David’s people.

This is our Exodus In Yeshua.

A People In The Wilderness

The Yeshua community in the fist century saw themselves as the redeemed people of God.

The Exodus from Egypt became the pradigm for how they saw themselves as the redeemed in Yeshua - this spiritual group of people comprised of Jews and non Jews.

They didn’t consider themselves as Jews first, or as Gentiles first, they considered themselves as the redeemed of Yeshua first.

John 1:11–13 TLV

11 He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. 12 But whoever did receive Him, those trusting in His name, to these He gave the right to become children of God. 13 They were born not of a bloodline, nor of human desire, nor of man’s will, but of God.

So if you were to close your eyes and picture yourself in the Yeshua community of the first century, next to Peter and Paul. You would be looking at the followers of Yeshua as those brought out of Egypt, out of bondage.

Three parts to the Exodus story:

There is going out from Egypt.

There is the wilderness.

There is going into the promised Land.

Which phase you’re in will determine how you think and how you live.

We like to think about the redemption from egypt during this season, and that is good. But we are a redeemed community and so the memorial of our redemption is supposed to have an impact on how we live.

Which phase are we in?

When we believed in Yeshua, we spiritually left Egypt and entered into our wilderness journey.

The apostles and the communities saw themselves as redeemed from Egypt and on the wilderness journey.

Jude

Jude 5 CSB

5 Now I want to remind you, although you came to know all these things once and for all, that Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;

Jude is intentionally drawing the parallel between the children of Israel and the children of God through Yeshua.

Just as the people were initially redeemed, they nevertheless were destoryed when they disobeyed in the wilderness.

It’s not those who start the journey that make it, it is those who finish the journey that make it.

Some translations say that Yeshua saved a people and some say the Lord.

I like the translations Yeshua.

Jude wants to make it very clear to the redeemed community that not everyone who joins the people group - calls on Yeshua, is immersed, and counted as redeemed from sin will maintain the obedience they started with.

First Corinthians

We see Paul taking the same approach when speaking to the Corinthians.

In 1 Cor 10 Paul speaks about Israel as an example of a people that came out of Egypt but fell in the wilderness, all this being an example for us as believers in Yeshua.

1 Corinthians 10:1–6 TLV

1 For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea. 2 They all were immersed into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 And all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink—for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the Rock was Messiah. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert. 6 Now these things happened as examples for us, so we wouldn’t crave evil things, just as they did.

Paul says the spiritual rock that they all drank from is the messiah.

Paul’s point is that the provision of God didn’t do the people of Israel any good. They had living water from the rock but they still disobeyed.

Moses struck that rock to produce water for their life just like Yeshua was struck. You can’t strike messiah twice.

The point is just like them, you have been allowed to drink from the living water from the rock of our salvation that was struck, Yeshua, and so you should be careful to obey during the wilderness journey you are now in.

What happened to Israel is the example as to how the Yeshua redeemed community should be careful not to forget the power of the passover.

Hebrews

Herbews is a book about comparisons to point to the supremacy of Yeshua.

Everything is compared to our messiah Yeshua.

The Angels are compared, the priests are compared, the sacrifices are compared, and Moses is compared.

In chapter 3 we read that Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, but even greater was Yeshua who was a faithful son over God’s house.

And what is a house? He’s not talking about a building. A house is a household. A family, a people who are destined to inherit what the Father has stored up for them. Remember David’s fallen tent.

And who is the house of Yeshua? Believers in Yeshua are God’s house.

Hebrews 3:6 TLV

6 But Messiah, as Son, is over God’s house—and we are His house, if we hold firm to our boldness and what we are proud to hope.

But the comparison that we read about is not only between Yeshua and Moses, but between the people.

Let’s cotinue to in read chapter three:

Hebrews 3:12–19 TLV

12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil heart of unbelief that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day by day—as long as it is called “Today”—so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partners of Messiah, if we hold our original conviction firm until the end. 15 As it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 Now which ones heard and rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt with Moses? 17 And with whom was He provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest? Was it not to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter in because of lack of trust.

What’s the picture and pattern we’re seeing?

The ekklesia is the redeemed of God through Yeshua. Those outside of Yeshua are still in Egypt. This includes unbelieving Jews and non Jews. They are all in Egypt under the Devil and death if they have not beleived.

But, as we are seeing, there are many who have come out of sin by accepting Yeshua, but they will fall in the wilderness journey if they don’t continue in faithful obeident trust.

When we think of the Exodus and when we celebrate Passover, we should be remebering that power precisely because we are currently in the wilderness journey. That is the time to remember it.

And since God says in the word “Today do not harden your hearts” - not yesterday, or back then, but “Today do not harden your hearts” - we are supposed to remember that we are on the wilderness journey to the promised land, that ultimate Shabbat rest when messiah will reward us in his land flowing with milk and honey.

Hebrews 4:11–13 TLV

11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through the same pattern of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword—piercing right through to a separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 No creature is hidden from Him, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

WHat does this mean?

It means The word of the Lord is sharp and ready to judge redeemed believers on the wilderness journey if their hearts should turn back to Egypt.

What’s in Our Wilderness?

If we are the people of God, redeemd by Yeshua and moving through the wilderness just like the children of Israel were, and I believe we are, what are the things in our wilderness to avoid?

There is a long list and so won’t go through them all. Each of us should be praying and working on the areas in our lives where there is sin.

But we also need to think as a Yeshua community, what is the sin that can trip up our community?

Divisions, strife, factions.

This what the Corinthian community faced.

1 Corinthians 3:1–4 NLT

1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

Divisions, strife and factions are something that plagues the messianic communities.

Eveyrone wants to be right more than they want to be pure.

“The command says. You’re not following it right. You’re not following the truth. You’re wrong. The word I only follow the word” etc etc.

Be very careful that your zeal doesn’t turn into sin.

Tolerating Serious Sin

In addition to divisions, the Corinthian community was also guilty of tolerating serious sins - such as sexual sins:

1 Corinthians 5:7–8 TLV

7 Get rid of the old hametz, so you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened—for Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast not with old hametz, the hametz of malice and wickedness, but with unleavened bread—the matzah of sincerity and truth.

In this passage we learn that this community in Corinth was prideful, boastful, and yet they had the chametz of jealousy and divisions in their midst. They thought they were spiritual adults but they needed milk.

And to prove the state of their community, a person who was known to be living in serious sexual sin was allowed to remain in their midst as a brother!

Paul is here telling the believing community that they are to celebrate the feast as a community without that sin - their own jealousy and division, as well as those who claim to follow Yeshua but live in sin.

We as the community of Yeshua must keep the feast while in the wilderness journey in such a way that we don’t compromise and tolerate serious sin.

Grumbling:

The last area I want to mention is that of murmring and complaining.

It is too easy to complain and grumble, especially at KMC where the community has taken an open, family based and scriptural model of eldership.

The more you complain the more you sound like those that fell in the wilderness.

The Promised Land

We have our exodus from sin through faith in Yeshua.

We have our wilderness journey we are in.

And our exodus in Yeshua must also be thought of in terms of our promised land. The inheritance of eternal life and rewards of the kingdom.

Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

In other words, faith is what comes out in our lives when we say we hope for something.

When we say we believe in that unseen promised land, only when we live in a way consistent with it, can we point to it as faith.

We experienced salvation when we left the world, but although the enemy was defeated, we have trials and tests in this wilderness, and so our final salvation is still to come.

Paul says the last enemy to be conquered is death. Death is an enemy too.

But faith means that we keep moving forward toward the promised land.

Hebrews 11:24–29 TLV

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 Instead he chose to suffer mistreatment along with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the disgrace of Messiah as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt—because he was looking ahead to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger—for he persevered as if seeing the One who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the smearing of the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch them. 29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as if on dry ground. When the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up.

Faith is living like this. Walking through the exodus we have in Yeshua in a way that confirms we believe him.

Just like Moses here, We take actions that prove we truly beleive there is a promised land even though we haven’t seen it yet.

In closing, as we celerbate the week of matzah, and count the omer toward Shavuot, I pray we would truly see ourselves as a people of God walking toward our Promised Land.