The Exodus of The Church Sermon (Part 1)

Israel was Chosen by God

Genesis 15:13–15 God had already determined where Israel belongs and therefore anywhere they would stay until then (the promised land) are only temporary.

Israel grew up in Egypt

-Egypt was only a temporary place

-Israel found safety in Egypt

-They became servants of the world and they feared pharaoh more than they feared God.

-God then reveals himself as more

-They were a threat to the Egyptian’s way of life.

Israel Does not belong in Egypt

-The plagues came to deliver Israel from the world

-Pharaoh was the God of the Ancient world. He had usurped the place of Christ and the Lord brought him to shame. (Moses vs Pharaoh)

-The Israelites loved the safety and provisions of Egypt, after all Egypt was fertile, wealthy and powerful. In Egypt Israel didn’t need to battle. They were comfortable.

-Now, God brings them into the desert where they are totally exposed.

-Now imagine their fear.

-When we are in the situation, thinking that the circumstances are unbearable, trust and know that God is moving you to another better place. He is yanking you out of the hands of the Devil, out of Slavery. But the problem is that you like being there. You flesh desires it but because of his love for you, he insists in pursuing you and in delivering you. in our arrogance, however, we think, Lord, why do I need to go through this? Why have you allowed this in my life, I’ve done nothing wrong. Little do you realize that that very attitude is what God is trying to steer you away from. Notice Jeremiah and how he dealt with the worst of his circumstances: Lamentations 3:16-26

God has called us to rest on him. He wants us to rely on him for deliverance but we insist in fighting for ourselves. We desire to be self sufficient. We like Egypt where we work for what we have and we decide our own fate. However, God insists that we live by obedience to him and to trust in Him. He wants total dependence, because in total dependence we acknowledge that all things comes from him.

Exodus 14:10-18 When Pharaoh pursued Israel out into the wilderness to destroy them the Bible says that they looked up and they feared pharaoh. But what did Moses tell them? He said, “The Lord will fight for you, you only have to be silent”.

Psalm 46:1-11 Don’t fear, but be still and know that “I am the Lord”

God made a covenant with Abraham to which he sworn with his own life, that he would make of Abraham a great nation that will be

Comment on the bread of life which is provided in the desert and the water that never ends.

God delivers Israel

-God sent his plagues

-To shame the Gods of Egypt and thus reveal himself to the world.

-Because he promised himself that he would.

Israel was not considered to be part of Egypt, even thought many of them worshipped the Egyptian Gods.

When the plagues came to deliver them they were even further separated from the Egypt.

We must ask though why did God not bring judgment upon the Israelites also? Were they righteous? We know they weren’t.

Jeremiah 31:2 This is what the LORD says: “The people who survived the sword found favor in the wilderness when Israel went to find rest.” 3The LORD appeared to himfrom afar: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.

Deuteronomy 7:8 But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Hosea 11:4

3It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them in My arms, but they never realized that it was I who healed them. 4I led with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. 5Will they not return to the land of Egypt and be ruled by Assyria because they refused to repent?…

Jeremiah 2:13

12Be stunned by this, O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled,” declares the LORD. 13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Isaiah 43:3

…2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3For I amthe LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.4Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.

Jeremiah 2:19

19Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.…

Exodus 33:12

We often want to get to the better place and skip the fire that purifies us. When Israel sinned and Moses pleaded with God not to send them without his presence God Conceded. Moses would rather stay in the desert than to go to the promised land without God’s presence. The promise land is only worthwhile with the presence of God in it. The reason why Israel was not consumed was because God chose to have mercy on them.

English Standard Version Chapter 6

4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 “And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build,

11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full,

12 then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

13 It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.

14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—

15 for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

When God asks us to keep his commandments as in the frontlets between our eyes, is a similar expression as when he tells Israel that they are the apple of his eyes.

Deuteronomy 32:9–11 ESV

But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions,

We are the object of his mercy for the sake of his name and for the salvation of the world

Ephesians 2:1–8 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

We need to repent!

But repent of what?

-Of our lack of fairth.

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encountertrials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.…

Berean Study Bible · Download

Cross References

Matthew 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

Romans 5:3 Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.

English Standard Version Chapter 14

Jesus Walks on the Water

22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.

23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,

24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.

25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.

27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”

29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.”

31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

John 15:9–25 ESV

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’