040607 Good Friday

Good Friday

Christ, the Firstborn, Is Sacrificed

Exodus 12:21–32

          3.      God killed the firstborn Egyptians to free his firstborn Israel from Egypt.

          2.      God killed his firstborn Son to free you from death.

          1.      God killed death to free his firstborn Son and we his brothers to life.

(God Killed the Firstborn to Free the Firstborn.)

3.

What emotions might be stirred in us if this very night at the stroke of midnight, every first-born child and animal suddenly, unexplainedly, died? What kind of darkness would it be? For me personally, I don’t even want to have to think about it. But, I must! In order to understand God’s Love, I must think about death, and why it comes upon every living thing.

Just imagine how great the cry was in Egypt the night when every household of Egypt was visited by death. Even Pharaoh who claimed divine sonship was moved to action when his firstborn lay dead. Imagine how it was for the mothers who had just given birth to their firstborn. Imagine the tears that streamed from their eyes of Egypt that awful night.

Just listen to the Lord speak of this to Moses: Exodus 4:22-23 (ESV)

22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

Wow! I guess the Lord wasn’t bluffing when He said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son. Actually, we don’t have to imagine what it was like for the Egyptians as Israel left Egypt. Numbers 33:3-4 (ESV) paints the picture clearly:

3 They set out from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians, 4 while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom the Lord had struck down among them. On their gods also the Lord executed judgments.

After that night, God claimed every Israelite firstborn as his own special child. They belonged to him in a way different from all others. These are the Levites who represented these firstborn according to Numbers 3. These sons labored in and around the tabernacle. They cared for the holy things. They witnessed events as doves and pigeons, goats and sheep, bulls and cows shed their blood and were burned on the altar. These Levites were the firstborn of Israel, the special sons of God.

2.

But where were they and what were they doing on the day that is known to us as Good Friday? Did they not know that their own vocation was being fulfilled? As representatives of the firstborn of Israel, what were they doing when the firstborn of earth and heaven, the only-begotten Son of God, shed his blood upon an upright altar? Were they then tending to the things of God? They were. But not in the way they might have been thinking.

They were probably thinking that everything religious depended on what they did in the temple.

1They were probably thinking that they were serving God faithfully as they act out God’s plan in utter blindness to the truth.

2They were probably thinking that there is none greater than Moses and the Law he mediated from God to God’s people.

3But they did not know they were presiding over the ultimate sacrifice to God for their own sins.

What a ridiculous thought that would have been for people who thought they could do no wrong before the Almighty and all-knowing God! Had they known, they would not have crucified the Son of Glory. But He had to be crucified! That’s the irony of Good Friday. The Firstborn Son of God had to die in order that the firstborn may be freed to live. And He was crucified not only for the firstborn Israelites, but for all who are born of man. The sentence of death has been paid in full!

Now, it is safe for you, O sinner, to go! Now it is safe for you to enter into the presence of the Holy God! Now it is prudent that you rejoice in the knowledge that God killed His firstborn to free you!

1.

But in order for us to be truly free from death, death itself must die.

1So how GOOD is it that Jesus is raised bodily from the grave?

2How GOOD is it that even He lives forever to pray for you?

3How GOOD is it that He has taken His flesh and blood into heavenly glory?

4How GOOD is it that you are counted as His firstborn?

5How GOOD is it that you are not the only one freed from death’s grip?  

6How GOOD is it that you are no longer in your sins?

7How GOOD is it to you that …

(God Killed the Firstborn to Free the Firstborn.)