The Exodus | It’s All About Jesus

Turn in your Bibles to Exodus 12.

Alright y’all, tonight we’re gonna continue our series called It’s All About Jesus where we take a look at where we see Jesus in these passages throughout the Bible.

A couple weeks ago Trevor led us through the promise God gave to Abraham and we saw Jesus seal that covenant, and the week before we took a look at creation and we saw Jesus as the one to crush the head of Satan.

And this week we’re gonna take a look at the Exodus.

What is the Exodus? When God freed Israel from Egypt, the ten plagues, Moses led them out, parting of the Red Sea

So God told Abraham, as Trevor talked about a couple weeks ago, that he would have all these descendants, and it happened. Many generations later, Abraham eventually became the nation of Israel; and there were a ton of them. And they found themselves enslaved by the nation of Egypt.

And God chooses this guy named Moses to free the Israelites from the land of Egypt. And God uses Moses to bring about all these plagues upon Egypt. God turned the Red Sea from water to blood, sent a plague of frogs, a plague of gnats, a plague of flies, killed all of Egypts livestock, sent a plague of boils on the Egyptians, a plague of hail, locusts, a plague of literal complete darkness (so much so where they couldn’t see anything at all), and finally the last plague where God says He’s going to kill all of the firstborn sons in Egypt unless they do one thing, and we’re gonna read about that tonight.

And that brings us all the way up to Exodus chapter 12.

And before we get into it I want y’all to think for a moment about a beautiful sight that you’ve seen pictures of that you really want to see. Maybe its the Grand Canyon, the Eiffel Tower, a really nice beach with beautiful water, a mountain range. Y’all spit some out. What are some sights that you’d really like to see before you die?

I want you to imagine that someone paints a picture of this beautiful sight you have in mind, and they give you that painting. Now is that painting gonna bring out the same emotion that you would have if you actually went to see that sight for the first time? No. If someone painted a picture of Nassau in the Bahamas and gave it to me, that would just make me want to go to Nassau more.

That’s what our passage is tonight. It’s a picture of something really awesome. But it doesn’t even come close to capturing the beauty of what its a picture of.

Exodus 12:1–8 NLT

1 While the Israelites were still in the land of Egypt, the Lord gave the following instructions to Moses and Aaron: 2 “From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. 3 Announce to the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each family must choose a lamb or a young goat for a sacrifice, one animal for each household. 4 If a family is too small to eat a whole animal, let them share with another family in the neighborhood. Divide the animal according to the size of each family and how much they can eat. 5 The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects. 6 “Take special care of this chosen animal until the evening of the fourteenth day of this first month. Then the whole assembly of the community of Israel must slaughter their lamb or young goat at twilight. 7 They are to take some of the blood and smear it on the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the animal. 8 That same night they must roast the meat over a fire and eat it along with bitter salad greens and bread made without yeast.

So Israel was told by God that the only way they could avoid their firstborn son being killed is if they killed a lamb and smeared the blood of the lamb on their doorpost.

And in the past few weeks of us taking a look at these passages and looking for where Jesus is in them, we’ve waited until the end of the sermon to reveal where Jesus is in the passage. But I’m actually gonna start our sermon off tonight by showing you two different ways we see Jesus in this passage.

1. The Passover Lamb.

We see the introduction of something called the Passover in our passage tonight. You can see right there in the title of the passage “The First Passover”.

So I just want to ask y’all, what’s the Passover? A celebration of God delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt.

And we see the introduction of it here in our passage tonight. And Israel celebrated this feast annually after God rescued them from Egypt. But what Israel didn’t know is that this feast was actually simply a picture of their future Messiah that would come.

So let’s just walk through these verses here and see how just these 8 verses point to Jesus.

1. Lamb Sacrifice (v. 3)

If you look at verse 3, Moses instructs Israel in celebrating Passover that each family should find a lamb or a goat to sacrifice.

How does this point to Jesus?

There was a prophet in Israel many years after the Passover named Isaiah. He lived about 750 years before Jesus would be born. And this is what He writes to the nation of Israel.

Isaiah 53:7 NLT

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.

And this was 750 YEARS before Jesus would come to be the fulfillment of this. We also see this imagery of Jesus as the Lamb many years after He would rise from the grave in Revelation.

Revelation 5:8–9 NLT

8 And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song with these words: “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.

So here’s a reference from both a prophet 750 years before Jesus would be born to the literal end of time when Jesus comes back; and in both of these He is described as the lamb that was sacrificed for our sins.

So just as a lamb is sacrificed in celebration of Israel being freed from slavery in the Passover, Jesus was sacrificed so that we could be freed from the power of sin and death.

2. Male Sheep With No Defects (v. 5)

This lamb that was to be sacrificed at Passover was to be a male sheep with no defects. That means it would have no spots or blemishes on it.

And, if you didn’t know, Jesus was a dude. And He was also without defect.

Now you might be wondering, “What you talking about? Jesus was beaten, stabbed, and hung on a cross. That sounds like a pretty rough blemish to me.” What I mean is, Jesus was without sin. That’s why Israel was commanded to sacrifice a lamb with no defect; because it was meant to be the perfect sacrifice. And, in the same way, Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for us because He was without sin.

And we also see the same picture down in Exodus 12 verse 8. They were also instructed to eat bread that didn’t have leaven or yeast in it. Leaven in this day was a picture of sin. If just a little leaven got in some bread, it would cause the bread to rise. In the same way, if even just a little sin exists in a person, it grows and becomes worse. That’s why Jesus had to be without sin, or without leaven.

Jesus even later uses unleavened bread in the last Passover He has with His disciples.

How does He use unleavened bread? He says it’s His body, broken for them

Meaning Jesus, the man without sin, would be broken as a sacrifice for us.

3. The Whole Assembly Must Slaughter Their Lamb At Twilight (v. 6)

Even this points to Jesus. Let’s look forward to the crucifixion of Jesus.

Luke 23:26–27 NLT

26 As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women.

Here we see Jesus led away in front of a huge assembly of people. Exactly how the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. And it also says the lamb was to be sacrificed at twilight.

When is twilight? As sun is going away leaving darkness.

And when was Jesus crucified? It was actually noon and He finally died at 3 o clock so it was in the middle of the day. But look at what happens at His crucifixion. Back in Luke 23 down to verse 44…

Luke 23:44–46 NLT

44 By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 45 The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. 46 Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.

There wasn’t a specific time Israel had to sacrifice the animal; it was just as the sun was setting to become dark out. And as Jesus was being crucified darkness fell over the land until Jesus finally passed away.

And y’all there’s probably so many more ways these 8 verses and a whole lot more of this passage is a representation of Jesus, but we’re actually gonna move on and skip down to Exodus 12:13.

Exodus 12:13 NLT

13 But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.

2. The Sign of the Blood.

How do y’all think this points to Jesus? What is this plague of death intending to do? Kill the firstborn sons. How do they avoid it? Marking their doors with blood. Who’s blood was shed for us? Jesus’

The blood of the lamb was to be smeared on the doorposts of the Israelites so the plague of death wouldn’t kill their firstborn son. In the same way, those who are saved by the blood of Jesus will not experience the consequences of their sin; which is eternal death. God’s judgment passes over them.

Y’all isn’t this awesome?! Not only have we been rescued from the consequences of our sin, but we can see from our passage tonight that this was God’s plan all along. In this picture of salvation. Remember earlier? The painting of the beautiful sight? This is the picture, but we get the real thing. We don’t experience the wrath for our sin because Jesus paid the price for it.

And y’all I’m not gonna lie to you, this ritual the Israelites did was pretty weird. They had to slaughter a spotless lamb in the presence of everyone else and then smear the blood of the lamb on their doorpost. That’s weird. But Israel had to trust it. Even if they didn’t understand it.

In the same way, you may not understand the gospel. You may not understand why God would send His Son to die so that you could be saved from your sin, but it’s our role to simply trust Him. Just as Israel trusted God in the first Passover.

God doesn’t force us to spend eternity with Him. He gives us a choice. You can either choose to not have a relationship with God, live life only for yourself, and when you pass away you’ll experience eternity in hell, or you can place your faith in what Jesus has done for you and God’s judgment passes over you. Even if you don’t understand it, trust Him.

And this applies to everyone here that is already saved as well. You may be walking through life right now not reading your Bible, not praying, not serving, not making church a priority. And you’re not trusting God when you don’t do those things.

Not that you’ll lose your salvation or anything, but God knew we needed Jesus, so He sent Him to die for us. He knows we need more of Him. And we experience more of Him by diving into His Word, praying to Him, going to church, serving on Sunday mornings. We need these things. If you’re not doing them, you’re just trying to walk through life on your own and you’re not trusting God. God sees the full picture and He knows what we need. We don’t. It’s our role to trust Him that we need Him.

Because, and this brings us to our last point…

3. Jesus has set us free from sin.

Exodus 13:3–4 NLT

3 So Moses said to the people, “This is a day to remember forever—the day you left Egypt, the place of your slavery. Today the Lord has brought you out by the power of his mighty hand. (Remember, eat no food containing yeast.) 4 On this day in early spring, in the month of Abib, you have been set free.

What would happen next would be nothing short of miraculous. Moses would lead the Israelites out of Egypt and God would part the Red Sea so that Israel would walk on dry ground across it. And once they crossed, the Egyptians that were chasing them, seeking to bring them back to slavery, would have the waters of the Red Sea collapse around them, wiping them out.

This is the Exodus. An incredible story of God delivering His chosen nation Israel from slavery and setting them free. But even though the Exodus is incredible, what’s more incredible is what the Exodus was a picture of, when God would do more than simply rescue His people from the slavery of Egypt, but rescue His people from the slavery of sin and death by paying the price for their sins. Just as a picture of the Bahamas can’t come close to experiencing its beauty in person, the picture of God’s salvation in the Exodus can’t come close to experiencing the salvation we’ve been given in Jesus from our sin. Jesus says in John 8…

John 8:34 NASB95

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

John 8:36 NASB95

36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

It’s only through Jesus that we can be set free from our sin. We’re sinful, we can’t work our way back to God , and no other way is going to get us to Him. Atheism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, none of it is gonna make us right with God except through placing our faith in Jesus.

But we shouldn’t use this freedom as our fire insurance. Just living our life in sin without fear of hell because Jesus gave us a get out of hell free card.

The gospel reveals to us how great and loving God is. And it stirs in us a desire to know more about Him, to bring glory to Him, to bring others to know Him. Knowing about this rescue mission from our sin leads us to praise the One who led the rescue mission. So I challenge you to live your life in awe of the gospel, constantly seeking to know more about God, and living to bring others to know Him. And you’ll live a life full of joy and thanksgiving because you’ll constantly be reminded that Jesus has rescued you from your sin.