Sermon Tone Analysis

On 17 November 2012, Jose Alvarenga set out from the fishing village of Costa Azul, off the coast of Mexico.

An experienced sailor and fisherman, he was intent on a 30-hour shift of deep-sea fishing, during which he hoped to catch sharks, marlins, and sailfish.

His usual fishing mate was unable to join him, so he arranged instead to bring along an inexperienced 23-year-old whom he didn't know.

Shortly after embarking, their boat, equipped with a single outboard motor and a refrigerator-sized icebox for storing fish, was blown off course by a storm that lasted five days, during which the motor and most of the portable electronics were damaged.

Though they had caught nearly 1,100 lb of fresh fish, the pair were forced to dump it overboard to make the boat maneuverable in the bad weather.

Alvarenga managed to call his boss on a two-way radio and request help before the radio's battery died.

Having neither sails, nor oars, no anchor, no running lights, and no other way to contact shore, the boat began to drift across the open ocean.

The search party organized by Alvarenga's employer failed to find any trace of the missing men and gave up after two days because visibility was poor.

As days turned to weeks, they learned to scavenge their food from whatever sources presented themselves.

Alvarenga managed to catch fish, turtles, jellyfish, and seabirds with his bare hands.

They collected drinking water from rainfall when possible, but more frequently were forced to drink turtle blood or their own urine.

Alvarenga’s 23-year-old shipmate became sick from the raw food, and eventually died from starvation by refusing to eat. 13 months after setting off on his journey, Alvarenga spotted land off the Marshall Islands, over 6,000 miles away from where he began.

He abandoned his boat, swam to shore and was rescued.

Drifting is one of the biggest potential dangers to nautical jobs.

Stories like Alvarenga’s is the exception to the rule.

Most would not have survived this type of drift.

I wonder… have you ever found yourself drifting spiritually?

I was speaking to someone this week that referred to their church attendance… but as we talked, it was like he realized… you know… I haven’t been to church in like 4 years.

But even apart from church attendance, there have been people that would once describe themselves as followers of Christ, through neglect and other circumstances, wake up one morning and realize that they are far from God.

How did I get to this place?

Many people just get caught up in life… their kids’ schedules… their work schedules… and they become so busy, and so caught up with other things… they don’t intend to drift away from God… but after time and neglect… they find themselves off course… they find themselves 6,000 miles from where they began spiritually.

As we look at Exodus this morning, our passage is an anchor of sorts.

We’re reminded that drift happens… but this passage helps anchor ourselves in truth.

If you’ve been tracking with our Exodus series, you know that we have stepped up to the biggest, most important section of the book.

This is the section that the book is named after… the Exodus.

This is the moment when the plagues happen… and boom.

It’s the delivery moment of Exodus chapter 6.

In fact, turn there with me real quickly.

Exodus chapter 6.

Our passage this morning is the climax, the high point, the culmination of God’s promise here in Exodus chapter 6. Look at verse 6 with me…

This is it!

This is the high point of the Exodus story.

So, we come to the plagues.

You’ve probably read, or heard about the plagues before.

There are gnats, and frogs, and flies, and the livestock dies, there’s blood in the water… all these plagues.

And there’s a pattern to the plagues.

Here’s the pattern… Moses talks to Pharaoh… Let my people go… Pharaoh says nope… there’s a plague… Pharaoh tells them to leave… then, nevermind… you can’t leave… Moses says but you need to let my people go… nope… plague… over and over and over.

This pattern happens 9 times over… and then we come to the tenth plague.

And the tenth plague really is the climax of the story.

And so, we’re going to go ahead and skip the first 9 plagues, and fast forward all the way to Exodus chapter 12… for the tenth and final plague.

Look at verse 1 of chapter 12…

Right before the tenth plague, God has a conversation with Moses… and He tells them that He’s giving them a new beginning… a new start to their year… a new calendar.

It would be like God saying to Moses, take out your smart phone… open up Google calendar… and January isn’t the first of the year anymore… Now, it’s April.

It’s a new beginning… A whole new beginning for the Jews.

Let’s keep reading… Verse 3…

We don’t want too much lamb.

We don’t want leftovers.

One lamb per household, and if you can’t eat it all, share it with a neighbor.

Keep reading… Verse 5…

So, there’s a mass moment when everybody has a lamb and everybody slaughters their lamb.

Verse 7…

There’s no time to boil the meat… and the pots are already packed… we’re getting ready to go.

No time to make lamb chops… just put that thing on a spit and roast it.

The bitter herbs point us to the bitterness of Egypt… we learn that later as the Passover celebration takes more form.

Keep reading… middle of verse 8…

Shoes on… Staff in hand… shirt tucked in… running shoes on… ready to leave at the drop of a hat… eat it quickly… we’re getting out tonight… we’re going somewhere in haste.

Verse 12…

Beginning in verse 14, God explains the feast of the unleavened bread… and what that’s to look like.

Jump down to verse 24.

There’s one more section here that’s interesting for our purpose this morning.

Verse 24…

So there are 3 themes of rescue here in this liturgy of Exodus chapter 12.

The first one is that God rescued the Jews to a whole new way of life.

We already talked about this briefly with the calendar.

God says… I am rescuing you out of Egypt to a whole new way of life… I’m giving you a whole new identity.

And so… year after year… on this certain month… on this certain day… slaughter a lamb and remember that I have given you a new identity and a whole new way of life.

The second thing that we see is that God rescues them to a whole new land.

I love the imagery here.

Ya know… I think most of our parents taught us that we’re supposed to slow down when you eat… chew your food 30 times before you swallow.

No… This was the original fast food… Just spit roast it… eat it… burn any leftovers… and be ready to move fast!

Why?

Because they’re going somewhere.

God is taking them from where they are… to a whole new place… a whole new land.

They’re not going to be punching the clock for Pharaoh any longer… no more making bricks… They’re headed somewhere new.

And then the third thing… God rescued them by his grace.

On that night… as God moved through Egypt, the firstborn of every family would die.

But God said through Moses… if you Jews take the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorpost of your home… it will be a sign to you… that God will pass over your home… and your firstborn will not die.

God gave them a way of escape.

He gave them grace.

The Jews still practice this to this day.

It’s changed its form little… but year after year, Jewish people will sit down to a meal… right about the same time we’re celebrating Easter… they will sit down to a meal of lamb and they will go through this ritual.

Year after year… for thousands of years they’ve been doing this.

Why?

Because God told them to do it to remember.

God gave them the Passover celebration as an anchor against drift.

To remind them of their identity.

I love the connections from the Old to the New Testament.

You can’t miss them.

There’s a reason that John the Baptist proclaims of Jesus… Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

There’s a reason why Paul says in Corinthians…

The connection is found in Luke 22. It’s the night before Jesus will be crucified… He’s celebrating Passover with His disciples… and in that moment, Jesus introduces a new covenant to them… one that we practice to this day… and we’ll practice it this morning.

We take some unleavened bread… and we take the cup… and we allow that past moment to define our present moment.

Just as the Jews will go through the steps of Passover, and allow that past moment to define their present moment… to remember their identity… to remember where their land came from… to remember that God has rescued them… we take the bread and the cup as a stark reminder…

I’m not who I used to be… My identity is different than it was before… I am a child of God.

And I have a new land that awaits me… a land where there is no more death, no mourning, no crying, no pain anymore… there’s no more worrying about the craziness of the world… no more worried about raising your children in a godless culture.

And it’s all because of the grace of God.

It's all because of Jesus… because He gave His life as a ransom for many… because his body was broken… whipped and beaten and nailed to a tree.

It’s because his blood was shed as he hung on that cross… and that life energy slowly poured out of him.

His love was steadfast enough to take the punishment that I deserve for my sin… and his grace was big enough to pay for my sin.

That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross.