Jesus as Our Passover Lamb

Hello, welcome to Chi Alpha, We are starting a series tonight diving into the 7 feasts of Israel, how Jesus either fulfilled them or will fulfill them and what they mean for us today.

This is going to an incredibly fascinating series and I am super excited to learn a whole bunch during this.

Passover

Why is it important?

First of the 7 feasts, incredibly important to jewish people.

You would be cut off from Israel if you didn’t celebrate passover

Jesus chose this week to be the week he died on

Jesus saw passover as important.

This has HUGE significance for us Christians. Jesus celebrated passover for 33 years of his life and chose it to be the week in which he died

This is one of the most certain facts of history.

A little bit of apologetics,

Even atheists historians say that Jesus died during the week of passover.

Did you know that? Even atheist historians recognize that Jesus was a human who walked on the earth, was killed by romans via crucifiction and it was during passover week. This is widely attested as factual

Tell the story of Israel leading up to passover (Write it out here)

STORY OF PASSOVER

Who here has seen the prince of egypt movie?

So first a little history. Many of you will know some or all of this but I just want to make sure we have the context right. If you have seen prince of egypt then you will know most of this.

It’s always interesting choosing where to start to tell these stories because they all build so much upon each other.

The story of passover starts in Egypt.

The israelites were in Egypt because of the story of Joseph.

Do you guys remember that? Duncan preached on Joseph last semester, you can find the video on our youtube page if you want a refresher!

So the Israelites were in Egypt when a new pharaoh came to power. A pharaoh that hadn’t heard of Joseph and the great things he had done for Egypt.

He realized that this Israelite people group was growing out of control so he enslaved them and had a bunch of their baby boys executed.

Well one survived and was sent down a river. Pharaoh’s daughter found the boy and graciously took him in.

This boy was named Moses. Well Moses grew up in the household of pharaoh and eventually killed an egyptian who was oppressing an Israelite slave and had to run for his life.

He travels into the sinai region and eventually becomes a herdsmen and marries a woman.

He hears the voice of God coming from a burning bush and has a crazy God encounter.

God commands him to go and free his people, the israelite people, by doing miracles, shows of power.

So he unleashes 10 plagues

MEME

He says “Ramses I am sorry I have to diagnose you with Letma”

“Whats letma”

“LETMA PEOPLE GO”

and each time pharaoh either hardens his own heart or God continues to harden his heart. There is a really interesting theological thing going on with that, that i don’t have time to get into today.

And so he brings one final plague against the people of Egypt, the worst plague yet.

So we are going to pick up the story and read all of Exodus 12. If you have your bible pull it out and lets read together. It will be long, just enjoy the story.

Exodus 12 CSB

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month they must each select an animal of the flock according to their fathers’ families, one animal per family. If the household is too small for a whole animal, that person and the neighbor nearest his house are to select one based on the combined number of people; you should apportion the animal according to what each will eat. You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight. They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. They are to eat the meat that night; they should eat it, roasted over the fire along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over fire—its head as well as its legs and inner organs. You must not leave any of it until morning; any part of it left until morning you must burn. Here is how you must eat it: You must be dressed for travel, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You are to eat it in a hurry; it is the Lord’s Passover. “I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. “This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel. You are to hold a sacred assembly on the first day and another sacred assembly on the seventh day. No work may be done on those days except for preparing what people need to eat—you may do only that. “You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your military divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute. You are to eat unleavened bread in the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day. Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.” Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and brush the lintel and the two doorposts with some of the blood in the basin. None of you may go out the door of his house until morning. When the Lord passes through to strike Egypt and sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, he will pass over the door and not let the destroyer enter your houses to strike you. “Keep this command permanently as a statute for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, you are to observe this ceremony. When your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he spared our homes.’ ” So the people knelt low and worshiped. Then the Israelites went and did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock. During the night Pharaoh got up, he along with all his officials and all the Egyptians, and there was a loud wailing throughout Egypt because there wasn’t a house without someone dead. He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get out immediately from among my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship the Lord as you have said. Take even your flocks and your herds as you asked and leave, and also bless me.” Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders. The Israelites acted on Moses’s word and asked the Egyptians for silver and gold items and for clothing. And the Lord gave the people such favor with the Egyptians that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians. The Israelites traveled from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand able-bodied men on foot, besides their families. A mixed crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds. The people baked the dough they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves, since it had no yeast; for when they were driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared provisions for themselves. The time that the Israelites lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years, on that same day, all the Lord’s military divisions went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of vigil in honor of the Lord, because he would bring them out of the land of Egypt. This same night is in honor of the Lord, a night vigil for all the Israelites throughout their generations. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it. But any slave a man has purchased may eat it, after you have circumcised him. A temporary resident or hired worker may not eat the Passover. It is to be eaten in one house. You may not take any of the meat outside the house, and you may not break any of its bones. The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. If an alien resides among you and wants to observe the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it. The same law will apply to both the native and the alien who resides among you.” Then all the Israelites did this; they did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. On that same day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt according to their military divisions.

Alright that was a lot I know.

So some points about passover itself

I want to make a distinction between the first passover and subsequent passovers. Subsequent passovers were to commemorate the first passover and while they would do many of the same things, some of the things, like actually leaving Egypt, were only done the first time. Obvious thing to point out but it is a distinction.

Passover commemorates that final plague before pharaoh let God’s people go.

God commanded them to get a one-year old lamb without blemish and keep it for a week. Then it would get examined to confirm that it was without spot or blemish. Then on the 14th day of the first month of the Jewish year they would slaughter the lamb for passover.

They would slaughter this lamb at the threshold of their house, they would collect the blood and sprinkle it on the doorposts. Then they would take the lamb and roast it over a fire without breaking any of the bones. Eat the entire thing, none of it could remain til morning. If any of it did remain they would have to burn the rest.

This final plague was on the Egyptians AS WELL AS the Israelites. If you read about the other plagues, God spared the israelites. God brought disease against the Egyptians but spared the Israelites, God brought hail on the Egyptians but spared the Israelites, God brought darkness upon the land but spared the Israelites.

This last plague was a plague against all in Egypt, Israelites included. The angel of death went through the land and killed EVERY first born son…….. Unless they had sacrificed a lamb and sprinkled the door posts with the blood.

It is only by the blood of the lamb that the angel of death passed over the israelites.

This blood of the lamb was a sacrifice for the sins of the israelites, they had acquiesced, they had accepted the eqyptian gods and started worshipping them. Moses later has to tell them to throw out their idols. Israel was far from a *Clean* people. But the blood of the lamb was enough to save them from the wrath of God, if not only temporarily.

God had purchased the Israelites, He had redeemed them on this night. He had accepted the death of the lamb INSTEAD of the death of the firstborn of Israel.

God now, in a sense, owned the Israelites.

Do you some of the connections to Jesus here? More on that later.

CAN I JUST SAY,

If it hurts your heart that a lamb would be sacrificed THAT IS A GOOD THING!

That is the POINT.

Your SINS are SO EGREGIOUS that a lamb would have to die so that you don’t have to.

2.Passover is God’s Judgement on the gods of Egypt.

Verse 12.b

I am the Lord; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt.

Each of the plagues, interestingly enough, directly attacked one of the egyptian gods and showed how Yahweh was more powerful. That Yahweh was the true God, over these egyptian gods.

SLIDE

Interestingly one of the egyptian gods, Khnum, was the god of fertility and was the god that , according to egyptian religion, was worshipped as the creator of humans who he made out of clay on a potter’s wheel.

This god is often depicted as a ram or a human, with the head of a ram.

Sacrificing a male lamb, a ram, to Yahweh would have been an incredible offense to Egyptians.

AND the fact that God used this sacrifice as a way to show his power further judges and disproves the gods of egypt.

How does passover connect to Jesus?

This is an almost 4000 year old tradition, why does it matter to Christians today?

Maybe you have already picked up on some of the themes and ways that passover connects to Jesus, here I will lay some of them out for you.

Connect Passover to Jesus

Jesus is our passover lamb. John the baptist announced Jesus as the passover lamb.

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Jn 1:29). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Paul says Jesus is our passover lamb. He didn’t just die, he was sacrificed.

For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (1 Co 5:7). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Jesus died on passover, did you know that?

There are a BUNCH of really cool connections between Jesus’s life and death and passover, really the ENTIRE book of exodus has a BUNCH of correlations to Jesus’s life but here are just a few of them

Jesus walked into Jerusalem on Sunday before passover, the day that a passover lamb would be selected.

The Lamb had to be one year old, in the prime of its life, when you could finally get wool from it, Jesus was 30, the prime of his life. You had to be 30 to serve as a priest in the temple.

The lamb would be selected and examined for 5 days leading up to passover to make sure it was without spot or blemish. Jesus was then observed and tested for five days by the religious leaders and was found to be without fault.

He was without spot, he went under multiple “examinations” Both by pilate, by herod, and by the sanhedrin. He wasn’t found guilty in ANY of these but they killed him anyway. They finally claimed he was blaspheming by claiming to be God and the messiah, problem is, he IS God and the messiah so it isn’t blasphemy.

He celebrated passover dinner the night he was betrayed and instituted communion. Communion is the fulfillment of passover. He took one of the four cups of passover and instituted it as the blood of the new covenant in HIS blood instead of a lamb’s blood.

26 As they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take and eat it; this is my body.” 27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 But I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” 30 After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Mt 26:26–30). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

Jesus then was crucified at 9am and died at 3pm, the same time the jews would be slaughtering the lambs to cook for the passover meal.

none of the passover lamb’s bones were to be broken.

None of Jesus’s bones were broken

Crucifixion is one of the most brutal ways to kill people. They actually usually end up dying of suffocation because in order to breath they have to push up on the spike in their feet. Romans, especially in Judea, would break the legs of the crucifixion victims to make them suffocate faster.

The roman guards broke the legs of the two thieves next to Jesus but when they came to Jesus, he had already died, likely because of the brutal beating he received beforehand. And so, none of his bones were broken.

The lamb needed to be consumed!

Back to communion, we “eat” Jesus's symbolic body in the bread!

Jesus is our passover lamb

We are passed over! Because Jesus died we are freed from slavery,

THAT IS WHY UNDERSTANDING PASSOVER IS IMPORTANT TO CHRISTIANS.

If we understand passover, it helps us to understand what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

Just as the jews were freed from slavery in egypt because God bought them with the blood of the lamb,

so we have been purchased and freed from slavery!

This time not to human masters in Egypt but to sin, death and the devil. We are no longer under their control!

And this time not a short freedom that might be taken away, but an eternal freedom in Christ.

We have freedom because Jesus bought us with his blood!

Worship team come up!!

SO:

If you trust in Jesus, if your life is surrendered to him, you have freedom from sin, death and the devil.

What are you dealing with? In what ways are you still enslaved to your sinful habits? Pray tonight for God to free you from those!

Ask for freedom! Plead the blood of the lamb over your life and you will be free.

Maybe you don’t know God at all, maybe you have never trusted in Jesus’s sacrifice for your salvation.

Now is your opportunity, if you have never trusted Jesus as your savior, if you have never repented of your sins and recognized Jesus as the Lord of your life. Tonight is the night!

If that is you I urge you to pray now. Recognize the sin in your life, pray and ask God for forgiveness, that GOd would free you from your bondage.

Let’s take communion.

Modern day jewish people have added a lot onto the practice of passover. If you do a modern day passover seder meal you will notice a lot of things that have been changed and added, a lot of things that aren’t in exodus. In fact, many Jews do not offer a lamb. There were a number of rabbinical debates after the temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Most Jews, I am told, do not offer a lamb anymore in their passover meal.