Easter Series – Week Two: The Lamb in the Shadows

Week 2 – The Lamb in the Shadows

Exodus 12:1–13

Exodus 12:1–13 ESV

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 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. 7 “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. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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.

Opening Illustration – The Courtroom

Imagine standing in a courtroom.

The trial is over. The evidence has been presented. The verdict is about to be read.

The judge looks down and says,

“Based on the evidence before this court… you are guilty.”

Not partially guilty. Not misunderstood.

Guilty.

Then the judge begins reading the sentence.

A punishment you cannot escape. A penalty you cannot pay.

You stand there realizing your future has just collapsed.

Then something unexpected happens.

Someone in the courtroom stands up.

They walk forward and say to the judge,

“I will take their punishment.”

The judge asks,

“You understand the cost?”

They reply,

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Then the judge turns to you and says,

“They will take your place. They will bear the penalty. You are free.”

That moment is called substitution.

Someone else takes the punishment you deserved.

Someone else pays the price you could not pay.

Someone else suffers so you can walk free.

Church, that is the heart of the Gospel.

Introduction

But long before Jesus died on the cross… long before the nails pierced His hands…

God was already teaching His people about substitution.

He did it through a lamb.

Last week we began our Easter series in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3 showed us how sin entered the world.

But it also gave us a promise.

God declared that one day the seed of the woman would crush the serpent.

From that moment forward, the Bible tells the story of how God would rescue His people.

Today we move forward in that story.

Hundreds of years have passed.

The people of Israel are now living as slaves in Egypt.

For four hundred years they have lived under oppression.

Their backs scarred by the whip. Their children born into bondage.

But God has heard their cries.

He sends a deliverer named Moses.

Through Moses God sends plagues upon Egypt.

The Nile turns to blood. Locusts devour the crops. Darkness covers the land.

Yet Pharaoh refuses to let Israel go.

Then God announces the final plague.

A plague of judgment.

Death will sweep across the land.

And it is here we encounter one of the clearest pictures of the cross in the entire Old Testament.

The Passover lamb.

I. Judgment Is Coming

Exodus 12:1–6

God tells Moses that one final plague is coming.

Death will pass through Egypt.

Every firstborn son will die.

From Pharaoh’s palace to the smallest home in the land.

This is not random.

This is judgment.

And this truth is uncomfortable for many people today.

But the Bible is clear.

God is holy.

And sin demands justice.

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death.”

Sin always carries a penalty.

But in the middle of this coming judgment, God provides a way of escape.

A substitute.

A lamb.

II. The Lamb Must Be Perfect

Exodus 12:5

God gives specific instructions.

“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.”

Not just any lamb would do.

It had to be perfect.

No defect. No disease. No blemish.

Why?

Because the lamb would become a substitute.

The lamb would die so the firstborn son could live.

And immediately we begin to see the shadow of the cross.

Because centuries later another Lamb would come.

And John the Baptist would look at Jesus and declare,

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29

Jesus was the perfect Lamb.

Sinless.

Spotless.

Prepared for sacrifice.

Transition to the Song

Church, that is exactly what God was teaching His people in the Passover.

Someone else would die so they could live.

That is the truth of the Gospel.

Every one of us stood guilty before a holy God.

We had no defense.

We had no righteousness of our own.

The sentence of sin was already written.

But something happened that changed everything.

Mercy stepped forward.

Some of you know this song, and the words tell the story of the Gospel better than I ever could.

Song Moment

Scott sings “Mercy Walked In” – Gordon Mote

Suggested portion:

Verse 1 Chorus Verse 2 Final Chorus

Pause afterward.

Let the room sit quietly for a moment.

Transition Back to the Sermon

That is the Gospel.

Someone else took our place.

Someone else bore our punishment.

And long before Jesus ever walked to the cross…

God was already showing His people what mercy would look like.

He showed them through a lamb.

III. The Lamb Must Die

Exodus 12:6

“The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.”

The lamb was not simply admired.

The lamb was not simply observed.

The lamb had to die.

Blood had to be shed.

Hebrews 9:22

“Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Sin always demands a sacrifice.

And the lamb became the substitute.

The lamb died so the family inside the house could live.

IV. The Blood Must Be Applied

Exodus 12:7, 13

But here is the most important part of the story.

God commanded them to take the blood of the lamb and place it on the doorposts of their homes.

Verse 13

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

Notice what God did not say.

He did not say,

“When you see the blood.”

He said,

“When I see the blood.”

God was not inspecting their goodness.

He was looking for the blood.

The blood made the difference between life and death.

The Night of Passover

Now imagine that night in Egypt.

Inside the homes of Israel, families waited.

Waiting for God to do exactly what He said He would do.

And what happened next changed Egypt forever.

Listen to what the Bible says happened that night.

Exodus 12:30

“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.”

Pause.

Then say slowly:

Imagine the sound that filled Egypt that night.

In palace rooms mothers were weeping.

In servant quarters fathers were crying out.

Across villages and cities grief filled the air.

All across Egypt the same sound echoed through the darkness.

Crying.

Wailing.

Screaming.

Because in every house where there was no lamb…

someone had died.

But at the very same moment…

in the homes of Israel…

there was silence.

Not because they were better.

Not because they were more righteous.

But because a lamb had already died.

The judgment had already fallen.

The blood had already been applied.

And death passed over them.

The Shadow of the Cross

The Passover lamb was never meant to be the final solution.

It was a shadow.

A preview of something greater.

Because one day another Lamb would come.

Not in Egypt.

But in Jerusalem.

And that Lamb would hang on a cross.

And His blood would not cover just one household.

His blood would be offered for the whole world.

Jesus Christ became the ultimate Passover Lamb.

The Lamb who died so sinners could live.

Application

But here is the question.

What if someone in Israel had said that night,

“I believe in the lamb… but I’m not putting the blood on my door.”

Judgment would still come.

Because believing in the lamb was not enough.

The blood had to be applied.

And the same is true today.

It is not enough to know about Jesus.

It is not enough to admire His teaching.

The blood must be applied to your life.

And that happens when you trust Him as Savior.

Closing

In the Garden of Eden, God made a promise.

A Savior would come.

In Exodus, God gives us a picture.

A lamb would die.

But the story is still unfolding.

Next week we will move forward again.

And we will discover a prophecy written seven hundred years before Jesus was born that describes exactly how this Lamb would suffer.

Because from the Garden…

to Egypt…

to the cross…

God’s plan was always moving toward one moment.

The sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

If you'd like, I can also show you something that will make the congregation suddenly realize how precise God's plan was:

There is a stunning connection between the Passover lamb and the exact hour Jesus died on the cross that fits perfectly into this sermon series.

What’s the connection?

Scott, the connection is one of the most precise and powerful details in the entire Bible, and it fits your Passover sermon perfectly.

It is the timing of the Passover lamb and the death of Jesus.

The Passover Lamb Was Slain at Twilight

Exodus 12:6 says:

“The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.”

In Hebrew the phrase is “between the evenings.”

Jewish historians and rabbinical writings explain this meant roughly 3:00 PM in the afternoon.

That is when the Passover lambs began to be slaughtered in Jerusalem.

Thousands of lambs were being killed in preparation for Passover.

Jesus Died at the Exact Same Time

Now look at the crucifixion.

Matthew 27:46–50

“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice… And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit.”

The ninth hour is 3:00 PM.

The exact time the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the temple.

What Was Happening in Jerusalem

At the exact moment priests were killing Passover lambs…

Outside the city walls…

The true Lamb of God was dying.

Thousands of lambs were shedding blood in the temple.

But the final Lamb was shedding His blood on the cross.

Why This Is So Powerful

It means the crucifixion was not random.

It was divinely timed.

From Exodus to the cross, God was orchestrating redemption.

The Passover lambs were never the solution.

They were a rehearsal for the moment when Jesus would die.

A Powerful Line You Could Add to the Sermon

Right before the section “The Shadow of the Cross”, you could say:

“At the very hour the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple… outside the city walls the Lamb of God was dying for the sins of the world.”

That line often makes people lean forward, because suddenly the entire Bible connects.

Even More Remarkable

Jesus was also crucified on Passover week.

So the timeline becomes:

• The lamb selected • The lamb inspected • The lamb slain • The blood applied

All fulfilled in Jesus.