Sermon Tone Analysis

Communion

Observance of redemption

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!!! Announcements

!!! Doxology Hymn no 53:            /“All people that on earth do dwell”/

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Call to worship

!!!!!! Bible Verse

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

(2 Corinthians 4:5)

!!!!!! Blessing

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2 Corinthians 1:2)

!!! Hymn No 321:                            /“Bring to the Lord a glad new song”/

!!! Invocation and the Lord’s Prayer

!!!!!! Invocation and prayer

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be the glory forever!

Amen.

(Romans 11:33-36)

!!! Children’s Address

!!! Hymn No 361:                            /“Gathered, Lord, around your table”/

!!! Scripture Reading:                    /1 Corinthians 10:14-22       /               

!!! Prayer of Adoration and Confession

!!! Declaration of pardoning

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1)

!!! Hymn No 424

!!! Offering and Dedication /(while offering is taken up, all (remaining seated) sing:/

!!! Hymn No 364:                            /“Almighty Lord of all created things” (verses 1, 2, 5, 6)/

!!! Prayer for others

!!! Scripture Reading                     /Exodus 12:31-51/

!!! Sermon:  Communion – observance of redemption

!!!!!! Introduction

Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

We know the story of the drought and consequent famine in Israel in the time of Jacob.

Even before this time, God provided that Joseph would go to Egypt to prepare the sojourn of his covenant people who carried his promises.

Jacob eventually settled in Egypt and initially they enjoyed the goodwill of the pharaoh.

But 400 years passed, and the fortune of children of Israel changed.

They became oppressed as slaves.

God saw the suffering of his people and He knew their sorrows.

According to his covenant He then called Moses to be their deliverer.

We know the account of the plagues and the hardened heart of the Pharaoh.

He exalted himself against the Lord of hosts to defend his own position of god to his people.

One plague after the other hit Egypt and ruined its people.

But deliverance belongs to our God.

Nothing can ever frustrate his plans and promises to his people.

!!!!!! Deliverance

Then on the crucial night, the Lord God of Israel showed Himself mighty over all gods on the face of the earth.

God said:

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

I am the LORD.

(Exodus 12:12)

The sign of deliverance

He revealed to Moses how He would strike down the firstborn of the Egyptians and how He would rescue his elect.

Israel would be saved by following the instructions of God given to his servant Moses.

With twilight on the day God appointed, they had to gather as families in their homes and kill a lamb without blemish.

The blood they had to paint across the doorposts of the houses they were gathered in.

The Lord said:

The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

(Exodus 12:13)

After God had revealed his plan of redemption to Moses, Moses called the elders of Israel together and gave them the instructions.

They had to be careful to do as God commanded.

He repeated:

When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

(Exodus 12:23)

Preparation for deliverance

All this happened very quickly.

The Israelites had been preparing the dough for their bread and had not even been in the position to add the yeast to it when the news through the elders was announced.

It was probably with much apprehension and uneasiness that they did what Moses had told them.

Families got together and the lamb was slaughtered.

Hyssop was used to dip into the blood of the lamb to spread on the door posts.

The source of deliverance

The sun disappeared on the horizon.

Twilight set in and what followed then is described in verse 42 of chapter 12:

Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honour the LORD for the generations to come.

(Exodus 12:42)

 This verse is translated in more than one way.

The New Kings James Version translates:

It is a night of solemn observance *to* the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

(Exodus 12:42)

The English Standard version translates:

It was a night of watching *by* the Lord, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; so this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations.

(Exodus 12:42)

Indeed, both these translations are possible.

The first says the /Israel/ observed this night solemnly because God brought them out of the land of slavery.

The latter puts the keeping watch primarily as an act of deliverance on the part of /God/, the result was that the Israelites remembered this as the night of the Lord in which He delivered his people.

It seems from the context that we have to favour the last reading.

It was God in the first and the last instance that brought deliverance and freedom to his people.

That night, as the sun set on the horizon, seen by most heathen and godless people as the onset of the period of the forces of darkness, God kept watch for his people.

He kept watch over his people.

Something terrible was about to happen:  all firstborn, both of people and livestock, would be struck by God with death.

Indeed, protection without God was not protection at all.

The Pharaoh who posed as a god to his people, would now lose  his own firstborn, who was the sign of the so-called immortal deity of the pharaoh, would now be shown as nothing more or more elevated that the captive in his dungeon or the firstborn of the livestock.

That night God kept guard over his people for their protection; his promises to made Abraham more than 400 before this day, and the salvation of his people would occur during the time of this act.

The reality of deliverance

And then, on midnight on the very day of their 430th year of sojourn in Egypt, God struck his enemy with death.

And as they lost their firstborn in order for Israel to be free, God made true his promises made to Abraham.