Easter 2026 - Forgiven and Free

Exodus 13:1-22

Intro:

Good morning, Church, and Happy Easter!

You’ve just heard the Easter story read aloud by Alison, and this morning, I want us to see that story in light of another… long before an empty tomb.

On Good Friday, we started a new series in Exodus called From Passover to Promise.

And in Exodus 12, we stood in the shadow of that first Passover night.

A night filled with both judgment and mercy. A night where God declared that death was coming… but also made a way for His people to be spared.

Every Israelite household faced mankind’s ultimate question on that night: Will judgment fall on you?… or on a substitute in your place?

And the difference came down to one thing….the blood of a lamb.

If the blood was on the doorposts, judgment passed over. If it wasn’t, judgment was coming in.

For on that night, God’s power was coming to expose and condemn:

every demonic false god,

the false power of Pharaoh,

and to make it clear: salvation belongs to Him alone.

But as we saw Friday night, Exodus 12 wasn’t the end of the Passover story.

Because that lamb, that blood, that rescue, was all pointing forward:

Pointing to a greater deliverance from greater exodus still to come.

And a greater, more perfect Lamb.

And that’s who we celebrate today.

Because on Easter, God’s promise was fulfilled, but not in the way anyone expected.

The Perfect Lamb had been slain. The judgment had been poured out. And for a moment, it looked like death had won.

But on the third day… everything changed.

The Lamb who was slain… lives!

And so now, as we turn to Exodus 13, we’re stepping into what comes after the Passover, what life looks like on the other side of deliverance.

Because God didn’t just save His people from something… He saved them for something.

And that was true for the people delivered at the Passover, and it’s even more true for us as a post-Easter people delivered through the Promise!

So this morning we start in Exodus 13. The tenth and final plague has just brought Pharoah to his knees and he relents and releases the Israelites from bondage.

They have left Egypt, but are still very much at the begenning of their journey, and Moses stops to address what life post-redemption would be like, and this morning, I want to consider 5 takeaways that continue to pertain to us as a post-resurrection people today.

But first, let’s pray.

Moses begins this journey, by making it clear, that as one redeemed by God:

1. You’re Not Your Own Anymore (v. 2)

Exodus 13:1–2 ESV

The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

When God’s judgment came to Egypt, it was a judgment of death, the just penalty for those who reject the very source of life.

This wasn’t arbitrary. This was justice.

For generations, Egypt had hardened its heart against God, oppressed His people, and trusted in false gods that could not give life. And so, God’s judgment fell, not just as punishment, but as a revelation: when you turn from the Author of life, death is what remains.

And yet, even here, we see mercy.

Because this judgment was contained, it fell only on the firstborn of every household. And that was not random. It was intentional.

For in that culture, the firstborn son represented the future. He carried the family name, the inheritance, the burden of legacy.

So when God strikes the firstborn, He is doing more than bringing judgment, He is bringing an end to legacies built on false worship of false gods.

He is saying, in effect: everything you have built apart from Me… will not last.

But at the very same time, in His grace, God is creating a new kind of legacy.

Because for His people, He provides a lamb.

A substitute.

And when the blood of that lamb is placed on the doorposts, that household is marked, not by their goodness, not by their effort, but by their dependence on God’s mercy.

They are saying, “We belong to God. Our hope is not in ourselves, but in the blood.”

And that night, the difference between life and death… was not who they were, but what they trusted.

Now, step into Exodus 13.

On the other side of deliverance, God comes back to the very thing He spared, the firstborn, and He says:

“Consecrate them to Me.”

In other words: “They are Mine.”

The ones redeemed by the blood now belong to God.

And this is the pattern of redemption:

God rescues… and He claims.

He delivers… and He defines.

Because salvation is not just about being spared from judgment, it’s about being set apart for God’s glory by living in submission to the One who created you.

And the same is true for us.

Because on a greater Passover, the blood of a greater Lamb was shed, not just to spare us for a moment, but to secure us forever.

Which means if you have been redeemed by Christ… you are not your own anymore, for your freedom was bought with a price.

Your life, your future, your legacy, it all belongs to Him.

Not as a burden… but as a grace, for His banner is a place of freedom, and His presence a place of refuge.

And so Moses tells the people, tells us, to live in light of this divine legacy:

2. Don’t Forget Where You Came From (v. 3)

Exodus 13:3 ESV

Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.

Being owned by another man or his fraudulent god is the most wicked reality a man can know,

but being owned by God, is not a burden, it’s the greatest joy a human being can ever experience,

because it’s a return to where we come from.

But… it requires clarity. It requires that we see rightly, and that we remember honestly, what the alternative is.

Because the road ahead is not easy.

And that’s not a flaw in God’s plan… it’s part of it.

Human beings don’t grow in the midst of easy, we corrode in the easy. We drift. We get soft. We forget.

A couple months from now, school’s going to be out, and I’ll get the football boys back in the weight room. And we’ll find out real quick who spent the spring doing hard things… and who spent it on the couch playing Xbox.

Because growth requires resistance.

If you want strong lungs, you’ve got to move. If you want strength, you’ve got to put weight on the bar, tear the muscle down so it can be built back stronger.

That’s how we’re designed.

And it’s not just true physically, it’s true of your soul.

Spiritual growth doesn’t happen in the midst of comfort. It happens in the midst of pressure… in the midst of testing… even in the midst of pain.

And Israel is about to learn that.

So before they even begin the journey, God tells them:

“Remember this day.”

Remember when the Lord, by a strong hand, brought you out of slavery!

Because God knows something about His people:

There will come a day when Egypt doesn’t seem so bad. A day when slavery starts to look easier than freedom. A day when obedience feels costly, and the past feels comfortable.

And on that day, you must remember.

Christian, you were not just drifting… you were enslaved before Christ showed up. Dead in your trespasses and sins.

But when Christ walked out of that tomb, He made you alive together with Him, that you might now walk in freedom, seated with Him in the heavenly places.

But don’t be deceived, there will be days when your old life calls to you. When sin looks appealing again. When compromise feels easier than faithfulness.

And in that moment, you must remember what God has done!

Remember the weight of your sin. Remember the grace that rescued you. Remember what it cost.

And notice this, this is not just a personal command.

Moses doesn’t say, “each of you remember.” He says to remember, as a people…

Because this wasn’t just an individual experience… it was a shared deliverance.

God even built it into their life together through the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a regular, corporate rhythm where the people would come together and remember what God had done.

Because we are prone to forget… and we need each other to remember.

And this pushes against how we often think.

In America, we talk a lot about a “personal relationship” with Jesus, as if salvation is just an individual experience.

But in the New Testament, salvation is almost always spoken of in the plural.

Titus 3:4–7 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God didn’t just save you… He saved a people.

A people who belong to Him. A people who remember together. A people who help each other keep going when the road gets hard.

Because the journey of freedom was never meant to be walked alone.

To belong to God, is to belong to a family, and to belong to this family is to walk with it, sacrifice for it, and grow in it!

Corporate worship is an essential part of God’s saving plan, it not just a bonus, this is why Paul warns the church in Corinth - DO NOT neglect to meet together as is the habit of some.

You are not a christian on an island…and if you live as if you were, then you are not living as a Christian (Affects)!

Worship is not a suggestion…it’s a command (sing!).

Church is not an option…it’s an imperative (show up!).

And to live otherwise, is to reject the reality that you belong to God.

For it’s together, that we spur one another on to daily:

3. Trust God’s Direction, Not Your Shortcut (vv. 5, 17–18) 

Th

Exodus 13:5 ESV

And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.

Moses tells the people, God’s gonna do what He promised, He will get you to the land of Milk and Honey, a place of abundance, but there are gonna be obstacles, there will be enemies that stand in your way. The people of God are literally gonna come up against Giants on their way to the promised land.

And the thing is, when you carry the trauma of slavery…and you come against a real enemy, it’s real easy to cower down and slip back into that slave mindset. And the Israelites can’t argue that, because they survived in Egypt in by cowering down and embracing false gods.

So God tells the people through Moses, keep this service in this month. In the midst of those who don’t know your God, hold fast corporately, to what He has instructed you, don’t find solace in their practices, but trust in what God has instructed you to do alongside His people.

In the moment, that part of this plan likely seemed easy…because he bigger question that hung in the air, and still does today…is why are you taking us through those lands at all!

Exodus 13:17–18 ESV

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.

There was a clear route to the promised land, a coastal highway called the Via Maris, or, the way of the sea).

This was the OBVIOUS shortest route to where they were going. And when I say “obvious” I am talking about the difference between a few weeks and 40 years!

I want you to feel the weight of that for a moment…(elaborate, envision)

God intentionally does not lead them the easy way.

Because that path would have brought them face to face with war they weren’t ready for.

And God says, “I know my own, if they face war, they’ll change their minds and return to Egypt.”

Don’t miss that. God knows His people.

You ever find yourself asking the question…why God did you lead me this way?

Why is my marriage so difficult.

Why has building a family been so hard.

Why didn’t that job I wanted work out.

Why can’t I serve in the way I desire to.

Whatever it may be, we question why we can’t just go the way we want to go!

But God sees what’s down that road:

He sees the battle we are not ready for

The enemy that’ll overcome us

The failure that’ll wreck us

The temptation that will derail us

And so often, He calls us down the long road, for He is not in a hurry.

A few weeks or forty years, it’s of no consequence to the eternal God, but what is of consequence, is us learning to rely on Him.

He knows that when you’ve lived under slavery long enough, it shapes you. It forms how you think, how you react, how you see the world.

So when pressure comes… when opposition shows up… it’s very easy to default back to what’s familiar.

To shrink back. To retreat. To think like a slave again.

Because in Egypt, survival meant keeping your head down. Don’t resist. Don’t push back. Just get through the day.

And now God is calling them into freedom, but they don’t yet know how to live free.

So what does He do?

He doesn’t just promise the destination… He carefully shepherds the journey.

He leads them the long way.

Not because He’s holding out on them, but because He’s forming them.

And in that context, Moses says: “Keep this service in this month.”

In other words, don’t forget what God has done, especially when the road gets hard.

Because when the journey gets difficult, you’ll be tempted to go back. When obedience costs you something, you’ll start to question if it’s worth it.

And in that moment, what will anchor you is not your strength, it’s your remembrance.

Remember the God who delivered you. Remember the God who is leading you.

And trust that even when His way is longer… it is better, and it’s essential in order to:

4. Live a Faith Worth Passing Down (vv. 8–10, 19)

Exodus 13:8–10 ESV

You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.

The redemptive work of remembering, isn’t merely for your benefit, but for the story that you’re merely a chapter in.

We are tempted by the shortcut, because the enemies message to us is that this life is all there is, and if that’s true, then what matters is that I get mine!

But the gospel tells a completely different story.

This life is not the whole, it’s a moment. A breath. A sliver in the span of eternity.

And if we actually believed that. if we really saw it clearly, then the long road wouldn’t scare us.

Even forty years in the wilderness… would feel short in light of the glory that is coming.

Which means God is doing more than just getting you somewhere, He’s doing something through you.

Far beyond what you will personally accomplish.

He is shaping a real legacy, not a counterfeit.

Think about it, how many of us are here today because of the faith of someone whose name we don’t even know?

A great, great, great-grandparent. Or the faithful pastor in the little church house that shared the good news with them. Or a quiet saint who prayed for you before you were born.

They never saw the full fruit of their faithfulness… but God used it to pave the way for yours.

That’s what’s happening in Exodus.

The Israelites had no idea they were living at the beginning of the bible. They didn’t know their deliverance would be written down, remembered, and still shaping people thousands of years later.

But God did.

And that’s why He tells them…tell your sons! Mark your lives. Build rhythms of remembrance.

Because what God is doing in you… He intends to pass through you.

And then you get to verse 19.

Exodus 13:19 ESV

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”

Moses takes the bones of Joseph with him.

Don’t skip past that.

When Joseph died he was never buried. His coffin laid above ground for the 400 or so years until it was taken back to Canaan. This was intentional, his bones served for all those years to remind Israel that they were going back to the Promised Land, just as God had said. Joseph wouldn’t live to see this promise fulfilled, but he died believing it, and his life testified of it long after he was gone.

(Story of church of senior adults…probably fun, but who are their bones speaking too! Pictures in the west hall!)

Joseph believed the promise of God, even when he couldn’t see it fulfilled in his lifetime.

And now, generations later, his bones are being carried out of Egypt declaring the truth that: God keeps His promises.

That’s legacy.

A faith that outlives you. A trust in God that speaks even after you’re gone.

So the question for us is this:

What are you passing down? What will your bones say of you?

Not just what are you building… but what are you leaving behind?

Because resurrection life doesn’t just change your future, it reshapes your priorities in the present.

You are not just living for today. You are not just living for yourself.

You are living a story that others will step into after you.

So live in such a way that when your life is remembered… it points beyond you.

To a God who saves. To a God who leads. To a God who keeps every promise He makes.

Every time a young child asked their dad about the strange coffin that wasn’t buried…they got to hear that Joseph didn’t want to be buried in Egypt, he wanted to wait and be buried in the promised land, and he got to tell his son that one day God would lead them to that promised land just as He promised…

(pause)

Lastly, a people living on the other side of redemption, are a people called to:

5. Follow Him Daily (vv. 21–22)

Exodus 13:21–22 ESV

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Listen again to what God does for His people:

“The Lord went before them… by day in a pillar of cloud… and by night in a pillar of fire… that they might travel by day and by night.”

Don’t miss this.

God doesn’t just give them a destination, He gives them His presence.

He doesn’t hand them a map and say, “Figure it out.” He goes before them.

Step by step. Day by day. Moment by moment.

When it’s bright, He leads. When it’s dark, He gives light.

And notice this: “The pillar… did not depart.”

God’s presence was not occasional. It was constant.

That’s how His people were meant to live, not just delivered… but led.

Not just rescued from Egypt… but guided all the way to the promise.

And that same reality is true for us, but even more so on this side of the resurrection.

Because Jesus didn’t just die and rise again to forgive your sin, He rose again to restore you to the presence of God.

In fact, on the night before the cross, Jesus told His disciples that it was better for Him to go away…

Because He would send another.

Another Helper. Another Guide. The Holy Spirit.

So that the presence of God would no longer be beside His people in a pillar… but within His people by His Spirit.

Think about that.

Israel had a cloud they could see… we have a Spirit who lives inside of us.

Because of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, the barrier has been removed.

God doesn’t just go before you— He dwells within you.

He leads you. He convicts you. He comforts you. He guides you into truth.

Which means the call of the Christian life is not just to try harder… it’s to follow closely.

To wake up each day and say, “Lord, lead me.”

To depend on Him in your decisions. To listen to His Word. To respond when He prompts. To trust Him when the path is unclear.

Because just like Israel…

We don’t always know where we’re going. We don’t always understand the path. We don’t always see what’s ahead.

But we don’t need to, because we are led by the presence of God.

And here’s the hope:

The same God who led His people out of Egypt… is the God who will lead you all the way home.

He does not leave. He does not abandon. He does not fail.

So don’t just believe in Him— follow Him.

Daily. Closely. Dependently.

Because resurrection life is not just about where you’re going… it’s about who is leading you there.

Closing:

As we close this Easter morning, we celebrate the good plan of our God, to defeat death and give us abundant life.

Through the gospel, your life is no longer bound by the fear of death. For us, to live is Christ… and to die is gain.

But Easter is not just something to celebrate, it’s something to step into.

Because when God delivered His people in Exodus, He didn’t just bring them out of Egypt… He began to shape how they would live on the other side of that deliverance.

And in Exodus 13, we see it clearly:

“You are not your own anymore.”

“Remember what I’ve done.”

“Walk in faithfulness.”

“Tell your children.”

“Trust My leading.”

“Carry forward a legacy.”

“Follow Me daily.”

That’s what life looked like after Passover.

And now, because of the resurrection, that’s what life looks like for us after the cross.

Because Jesus didn’t just die as our Passover Lamb, He rose again to lead us into a new life.

A life where we belong to Him. A life where we remember His grace. A life where we walk by faith, not fear. A life where we tell the story. A life where we trust His leading, even when it’s not easy. A life that leaves behind a legacy of faith. A life of daily dependence on His presence.

This is what resurrection life looks like.

And this is not wishful thinking. This is not imagination.

History itself bears witness.

Everything changed after that first Easter.

The disciples went from cowards to men that no longer feared death and died as martyrs. The disciples stayed loyal to their Messiah in the face of great suffering and persecution.

Chuck Colson, Nixon’s special counsel on Watergate, once said, ‘I know the resurrection is a fact. And Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead and then proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned, eventually killed, put in prison- they would have not endured it if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in Washington DC, and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks.”

The day of worship changed from Saturday to Sunday in honor of Jesus resurrection and in contrast to thousands of years of observance in accordance with one of the 10 Commandments.

The object of worship became Jesus as God...and the resurrection continued to be preached.

The growth of the church, our presence here today, can only be explained by the fact of the resurrection of Jesus as its cause.

Because the tomb was empty. Because Jesus is alive. Because His work cannot be undone.

Genesis ends with a grave. Deuteronomy ends with a grave. Joshua ends with a grave.

But the Gospels end with resurrection.

And that changes everything.

So now the question isn’t just, Do you believe it? The question is, Will you live like you do?

Because Jesus didn’t rise merely to give you hope for someday, but to give you a mission today.

To live as people who belong to Him. To walk in His ways. To tell His story. To follow His leading. To bring the life of heaven into the places He has sent you.

This is resurrection life.

So Church, let’s not just celebrate this truth, let’s live it!

Will you join me in praying to that end

Communion - A better passover feast

The people of God were instructed to hold a feast each year during the passover, to remember what God had done for them that night.

And before the Lamb was slain, He instructed us to do the same…but His better sacrifice required a better meal, for it’s a meal of the free.

(connection to Christ, and one another)