Sermon Tone Analysis

This sermon is prepared to preach on Easter Sunday, 2022.

Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, will you give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to receive, believe and obey Your Word?

We ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

I.

The Reading

A reading from Exodus 12:21-27, reading from the English Standard Version translation of the Bible.

This is God’s Word:

Say Amen!

If you receive this word by faith as the word of God, not the word of men, would you say Amen? — Amen.

II.

The Exhortation

I have read in our hearing verses 21-27.

This is Moses’ speech to the elders of Israel concerning something that is about to take place called “the LORD’s Passover.”

“The LORD’s Passover” (12:11; 27)

Moses’ speech is preserved for us as a summary of instructions the LORD had given to him beforehand in greater detail for all the congregation of Israel.

Verses 1-20 preserve that detail.

Verses 21-27 preserve the summary.

This chapter prepares the people for “The LORD’s Passover.”

“The Lord’s Passover” is connected with this last strike of the ten plagues that have been brought against Pharaoh and Egypt, as the LORD dhows that He alone is God — the only God — while Pharoah and all the deities of Egypt are not.

God makes His name known and shows forth His power as He works to save His people.

We’ve been warned through these plagues, that if we reject God’s prior witnesses, word, and worship in favor of knowing God only by His works, then we risk knowing God only as Pharoah did — as judge.

God will be known through His works, but through His works of judgment against us.

But for a people of faith, who receive God’s witnesses, God’s word and God’s worship, we also experience God’s working unto salvation, to save His people, as He saved His covenant people Israel out of harsh slavery and oppression from Pharoah and Egypt, just as He promised He would.

There have been nine plagues already, but this tenth plague will be the last.

Exodus 11:1 —

“Yet one plague more” (11:1)

I think about how we say “one more time” but we don’t mean it.

I remember many band rehearsals when the director would have us rehearse a section of music: Do it again…Do it again…Do it again…One more time.

But it was never one more time.

“One more time” meant “three more times”...five more times…ten more times...” but it never meant just one more time.

So, we learned to write that phrase off as meaningless.

Parents say to their children “one more hour” but it becomes many more hours.

“One more show” becomes two, or “one more dollar” becomes ten, or “one more day” becomes “one more year.”

We say this to ourselves — one more look.

One more purchase.

One more snooze of the alarm.

The point is, we develop this mindset of “more.”

There’s always more — There’s always another day.

There’s always another opportunity.

There’s always a second chance.

We don’t prepare.

We procrastinate.

But God is not like us: God means what He says and God does what He says.

God says “yet one plague more” and God means it.

There will be a tenth, but there will not be an eleventh.

There will be one more, and then no more.

And we need to understand, that for every one of us the time will come when our limited selves will encounter the limitless God, and God will allow us to experience only “one more.”

One more breathe, one more heartbeat, one more opportunity to hear the Gospel and respond and then it’s done.

One more opportunity to repent, one more warning, one more chance to love, to forgive, to reconcile, to obey — and then done.

Whether we are ready or not.

God may not let us know ahead of time, as he did with Israel, when that “one more” will be.

So we are compelled to live with faith that prepares.

We are to be a people who are always ready.

I bring this out in the text to highlight the need for God’s people to prepare — and to prepare by faith according to the Word of the Lord.

Are you prepared to meet the Lord?

Are you eagerly waiting for him to appear a second time — not to deal with sin, but to save? (Heb 9:28).

Are you ready for that glorious day?

Let’s prepare and be ready as we consider the LORD’s Passover.

III.

The Teaching

The people of Israel have remained in the background throughout the nine plagues.

We don’t read much about them at all.

But that changes here with this tenth and final plague.

The LORD said to Moses —

“Tell all the congregation” (12:3)

All the congregation of Israel is to actively participate in preparing for the LORD’s Passover by obeying the LORD’s Word.

This will be a test of the people’s faith.

Genuine faith obeys God’s Word.

Faith says —

“I believe God is who He says He is, so I will obey what He says to do.”

Failing to obey even one instruction of the LORD in this preparation, completely and exactly, would result in Israel suffering the same fate as the Egyptians.

So Israel was to pay attention, carefully to God’s Word.

The first Word of instruction for the LORD’s Passover was about —

SELECTION | 12:21 (1-6)

The selection of a lamb.

Look with me again at Exodus 12:21 —

Notice who this instruction is for —

It is not for Pharoah or the Egyptians.

Pharoah was to let Israel go to worship the LORD.

That was Pharaoh’s instruction for obedience.

Pharoah needed first to repent, to turn and go the opposite direction from where he was heading with Israel, making himself god, and let them go to worship the LORD, the only true God.

But Pharoah refused.

Pharoah rebelled.

Pharaoh did not receive instructions for the LORD’s Passover.

Understand this —

As long as a person is running away from God, living for themselves, living for today, living by what they can see in the flesh and touch and understand in the natural realm — such a person cannot receive the Gospel message of salvation.

It is not for them because it is not for those who live by the flesh.

The Gospel message of salvation is for all who first repent, who turn from self and turn to God for salvation by faith and live by faith in God’s Word.

It is to Israel that God gave His command for selection —

“Go and select lambs for yourselves” (12:21)

And why “select lambs for yourselves”?

God told them to “select lambs for yourselves” because the lamb would serve a purpose.

Here’s the word —

Substitution

The lamb would be substituted in the place of another — The life of the lamb in exchange for the life of Israel’s firstborn.

The lamb would die and the firstborn would live.

Substitution.

For this purpose, not just any lamb could be selected.

This wasn’t a “throw-away” lamb.