Don’t Pass Over the Passover

Exodus 12:1-36 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, This month is to

Exodus 12:1–36

be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month,

each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their

nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are.

You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each

person will eat. The animals you choose must be year -old males without defect,

and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members

of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of

the door frames of the houses where they will eat the lambs.

That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire,

along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw

or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire, with the head,

legs, and internal organs.

Do not leave any of it until morning.

If some is left until morning, you must burn it.

This is how you are to eat it, with your cloak tucked into your belt,

and your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.

Eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn

of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.

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.

This is a day you are to commemorate. For the generations to come,

you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance.

For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day,

remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it

from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.

On the first day, hold a sacred assembly, then another one on the seventh day.

Do not work at all on these days except to prepare food for everyone to eat. That is all you may do.

Celebrate the festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day

that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.

Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.

In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast from the evening

of the 14th day until the evening of the 21st day.

For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses.

And anyone, whether foreigner or native born, who eats anything with yeast in

it must be cut off from the community of Israel.

Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.

Then Moses summoned all of the elders of Israel and said to them,

Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of

the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame.

None of you shall go out of the door to your house until morning.

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.

Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants.

When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony.

And when your children ask you, What does this ceremony mean to you?

Then tell them, It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passes over the

houses of the Israelites in Egypt it, and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.

Then the people bowed down and worshipped, and the Israelites did just what

the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.

At midnight, the Lord struck down all firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn

of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner who was

in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night,

and there was a loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

During the night, Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said,

Up, leave my people, you and the Israelites.

Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go.

And also bless me.

The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country.

For otherwise, they said, we will all die.

So the people took their dough before the yeast was added and carried it on

their shoulders and kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.

The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles

of silver and gold for clothing.

The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people,

and he gave them what they asked for.

So they plundered the Egyptians." Thank you for reading that. A long passage.

But looking at that, you think of all the instructions that God had given them

and how they were to do that.

In a few moments, we're going to be partaking in the elements of the Lord's

Supper, the communion, which signifies the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Oftentimes, we just take this as a ritual and don't really think about it,

but this was in observance of the Passover time.

Jesus had been in Jerusalem for that week, a week of preparation for the Passover meal.

And so it was while they were participating in that Passover meal in the upper

room that Jesus gave them the body and blood, or the representation of the body and blood.

He said, this is my body which is broken for you. When he broke the,

it would have been the fourth loaf of the unleavened bread.

And when he poured, gave them the cup, which would have been the last cup that

they drank for that night, it was to represent his blood.

It is Christ's blood, the body that was broken, and his blood that was shed,

just like the lambs were slaughtered on that night when they observed the Passover meal.

Jesus laid down his life for the sins of the whole world.

He laid down his life as a covering over the doorposts of your house,

doorposts and lintels, so that of our temple, our bodies,

so that he would represent for us that the angel of death would pass over us as well.

So this morning the message is titled, Don't Pass Over the Passover.

Oftentimes we overlook these things and we don't look at these Old Testament lessons.

We recognize the communion because of the significance of the crucifixion of

the Christ, but so often we lose the significance of the meaning in the Old

Testament of what was going on.

All of this in the Old Testament was leading up to Christ's fulfillment of all

of those prophecies and all of those things.

As I've said before, this very exodus, the idea of the exodus from Egypt was

the fact that they left this land of sin, this land of slavery,

and came out to freedom in their deliverer.

And you remember the last plague was what? Death of the firstborn.

And so we've looked at this, that this is that representation of this whole

time when God was delivering these plagues upon the Egyptian peoples.

They were complete and direct conflict and fight against their gods of that age.

And the last one, the death of the firstborn, as we've said,

was a direct hit against the pharaoh.

Pharaoh was considered the son of God as we see, son of Ra.

And so when the firstborn male of his household, as we've said before,

firstborn male of his household was killed, died that night, it was in direct...

God was striking that so that Pharaoh would say, look, look,

I have no one to follow now as the son of God in our religion.

He struck down the firstborn.

And so we recognize that what God has done is he's declared that I am the Lord in all of these things.

And as I've told you that before, as we read through scriptures,

so many times you'll hear a phrase similar to this, that the world may know

that I am God, or that they may know that I am God.

So that the Israelites will know that I am God, so the Egyptians will know that

I am the Lord, so that you will know that I am the Lord." And that phrase,

I am, who I am, I am that I am, that we get the word Yahweh from,

Yahweh, Vahdheh, is the, are the consonants of that, that they would recognize.

So we come to a time where the Jews begin to observe Passover,

a story that we just read, that was just read, that the Lord commanded them to do.

It wasn't for just this one night when the angel of death would pass over them,

but each year on this date, they were to observe the same thing,

the same ritual, the Passover.

Of leading up to the seven days, leading up to the Passover,

where they were to get all of the yeast out of their houses,

completely clean their houses, get rid of all of the yeast, and have only unleavened bread.

And then they were to slaughter a lamb and observe the Passover Supper.

This was done repeatedly year after year after year, and it's still being done

by the true Jewish worshipers.

We look at that and we think, why would somebody do that year after year and all that?

But it was a remembrance to do, they were doing this as a remembrance of what had been done for them.

So there we are, we see some very relevant and meaningful truths from this passage.

And I want to explore some of this with you this morning as we prepare for the Lord's Supper.

The first one is this. This was an example and a representation of redemption.

People were purchased by the blood. They were purchased from slavery.

They were removed from slavery.

Their ransom had been paid by the blood of the lamb that was put on the doorposts

of the lintel of the house.

The lamb was to be killed, and this was a foreshadowing of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

He was an adult male without blemish or defect, the firstborn son of God.

And so Jesus' death and his shed blood is enough for you and me to be forgiven this morning.

It's interesting to me that there's always enough blood to cover over every

doorpost and lintel of every heart that would repent.

It's kind of interesting, you know, sometimes we have the Lord's Supper and

we wonder are we gonna have enough of the element there.

There have been several times in my time as pastor that we've come to this situation

and we've either completely used up the elements that are there with the last

person that's come forward, or we'll have one left.

And, you know, so it's kind of representation. I mean, God just kind of does

those things, but it's kind of a representation that there's always enough blood

of Christ to cover all of our sin and all of our lives.

And so we give thanks to God for that. In Ephesians 1, verse 7,

Ephesians 1:7

it says, in him, meaning Christ, we have redemption through his blood,

the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

And Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22 says this, in fact, the law requires that nearly

Hebrews 9:22

everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

And so if you need forgiveness, if you need redemption, it is already purchased

for us by the blood of Christ and we have been redeemed for.

How many of you, boy, this is really aging me. How many of you remember S &H Green Stamps?

Okay, so you used to collect these S &H Green Stamps, Mike and Sarah,

you don't remember these things, you're just way too young.

But we used to, every store, seems like every store you went to when you purchased

stuff, you would get so many S &H Green Stamps depending on how much your purchase is.

And you'd have these little books, remember those?

Where you'd lick the stamps and you put them in your books and when you had

enough of those to fill a book, you take them in and you redeem that for some

product or money back off of your purchase or whatever.

So this is what Christ has done for us.

He has redeemed us, paid the price for us, has purchased us back with his own blood.

And so that's what we see when we look at the idea of this lamb that was slain

being the redemption, the covering for us, and removing that.

It's slavery from us, slavery from sin. The second thing we note in verses 7,

12, 13, and 23, which I won't read those again, but there is repentance from sin on this time.

We understand that during this time, they are to repent of all that they have

done there, to remove the yeast from their houses, which represents sin.

What does yeast do to bread?

Makes it rise. How does it make it rise? How does it make bread rise?

It activates, but what does the yeast do? It makes gas, so you could be eating gassy bread at home.

Anyway, but it's the bacteria and the mold and all that that's in that yeast

activates and makes the bread interact with it and the yeast and the flour,

and it causes that bread to rise.

And so, it later came to be representation of sin.

The yeast became representation of sin, and even in this time,

God told them to remove that yeast from their houses so none of it would even

happen to fall on their bread as they are needing it.

So this is how we receive our forgiveness. We repent from our sins.

We remove all of those things in our lives that are contradictory to God's Spirit.

The word repent really means to turn around or turn the other way.

It means to go another way. And so it's not just asking forgiveness,

that's not really what repentance is.

Repentance is acknowledging that the direction we're going is wrong,

and we repent and turn and go the other way.

Which way should we be going? Toward Christ.

We repent and we turn toward Christ, just as the blood was on the door frames

and of the houses, and the blood of Christ is made for us and put for us over

the doorposts of our houses.

We understand that we turn and walk a different direction. We walk toward Christ.

I've been asked this before. How do we know when we're saved and all of this?

And we can go to the altar. Sometimes people do. Sometimes people pray in their own homes.

Sometimes I've heard of people, and I've had people testify to this,

that they will be going along in their life working toward Christ,

walking toward Christ, and they don't realize when they've actually accepted

Him, but they'll look back and look,

you know, there was a point back there in my life that apparently I turned my

direction toward Jesus.

And we walk toward Christ and Jesus talks to us about following Him.

It's an idea of representing and working toward Christ in everything we do.

If we look at this, there's a song, turn your eyes upon Jesus.

In his wonderful grace, and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim

in the light of his glory and grace when we point our eyes toward Jesus and we walk toward him.

When we turn away from our sinful lives and we walk toward Christ,

we begin to see a new day in our lives.

Charles, or George Gallup is a well -known researcher and he's known for his Gallup polls.

And after doing some surveys and research, she made this statement about American Christianity.

And the first sentence is what's on the overhead here. It says,

there is little difference in ethical behavior between the churched and the unchurched.

There's as much pilferage and dishonesty among the churched as the unchurched.

And I'm afraid, he goes on to say, and I'm afraid that applies pretty much across

the board, religion, per se, is not really life -changing.

People cite it as important, for instance, in overcoming depression,

but it doesn't have primacy in determining behavior.

Think on that a minute. I would think probably that George Gallup is probably

significantly talking about the church in the Western world, of which we're a part.

But it seems as if when people get religious or get faith or whatever,

so often we want the forgiveness, we want the get -out -of -jail -free card,

we want the fire insurance of salvation,

but we don't want the transformation.

And what George Galb is saying is there's little difference in ethical behavior

between the church and the unchurched.

I've heard it said before, if you were on trial for being a Christian,

would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Repentance is not just saying we're sorry. It means turning around from the

behavior that took us down the road to lead us to the mess that we're in.

And it's like say, let's stop saying I'm sorry, but let's go on to begin to

see some real changes in our lives.

Wabash, a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada, was completely isolated for some time.

But then a road was cut through the wilderness to reach it.

Wabash now has one road leading into it and therefore only one road leading out.

If someone would travel the unpaid roads for six to eight hours to get to Wabash,

there is only one way he or she could leave, and that is by turning around and

undoing what they did to get there.

Each of us by birth arrives in a town called sin.

Our nature is given to sinfulness.

If you don't believe me, to put two children in a small room with one toy and

you will find that there is great moaning and gnashing of teeth.

We're all born with this nature of selfishness. And we've said this more often

than not, the root of all sin is self.

And so for us, by birth, we arrive in a town called Sin and as in Wabash,

there is only one way out and that is a road that is built by God himself.

But in order to take that road, one must first turn around.

One must acknowledge what God has done in bringing us to that point of calling

upon his name and turning around,

and we need to turn around and we need to come complete about face to what the

Bible now calls repentance.

And without it, there's no way out of town.

So the third thing we see in this passage is they were to remain in shelter.

The Israelites, when they did this, when they put the blood over the doorpost

and the lintel of the houses, they were to go in the houses and remain in that

house until morning. They were not to go out.

The Israelites remained there until it was safe to go out.

And now this past week at the high school, we had an inadvertent fire alarm.

And Gavin remembers that, I'm sure.

We had an inadvertent fire alarm. We all had to go outside and stand there and

wait until they gave us the all clear and said it was okay to go back in,

go back into the building.

If any of the Israelites were to venture outside the safety of their home that

was covered by the blood of the Lamb, they would be subject to the angel of death.

Sometimes during violent storms, it's enticing to go outside and watch the storm brewing.

And if you're a man from the Midwest, You know what that's like.

We love to go watch those storms and see them coming. It's really beautiful sometimes.

A little close. I particularly love to go watch the formations of the clouds

and the development of the storms.

But if we don't know enough to get into shelter when the raging storm is upon

us, then we'll be swept up by that violent wind.

That's the way it is sometimes with those who receive forgiveness.

Thinking the worst is over, they venture outside the safety of the flock and

the safety of God's presence and begin venturing into the ways of sin again.

In a sense, they returned to Egypt.

The Egyptians longed for that when they were in the wilderness,

didn't they? You remember that over and over.

It's amazing, it's interesting to me how anybody could have all of the deliverance

that God had given to them and go out into the wilderness and have manna provided

in the morning. It was like frosted flakes.

And then quail provided at night. Everything they needed, water came out of

a rock. Can you figure that? and yet they grumbled.

They grumbled the whole time. I wish we were back in Egypt. At least we had

pots of food that we could sit around at night.

I don't know if it was Chinese buffet or what it was, but they had pots of food

that they sat around, but it was leeks, onions, garlics, stuff like that.

But the instruction of the Lord is when you go in, when you sacrifice this lamb.

And very clear instructions on how much they were to do and all of that.

When you sacrifice this lamb, when you make your unleavened bread,

or bread without yeast, you go in your houses, you and your family,

and you close the door and you do not leave until morning.

You remain in the shelter of your house behind that blood on the door.

And it is for us the same thing when we come to Christ and we accept the forgiveness

that God has given to us and the redemption that comes through his blood and

we accept that transformation that comes into our life.

If we remain in the shelter of the love of God, we will be followers and we will be safe.

But when we walk back out of that shelter, we walk away from the God who loved us from the beginning.

And so we are to remain in shelter. Third thing is the instructions were to repeat the supper.

Verses 10, 14, and 17, it says, celebrate the festival of unloved bread because

it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.

Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.

Now, some churches observe the Lord's Supper once a year on Passover.

In our free Methodist tradition, we're supposed to do it at least once a quarter.

We choose to do it once a month, just to remember. Some churches actually do it once a week.

But we choose to do it once a month as a remembrance to us on a regular basis

of what Christ has done for us.

And what God was telling the Israelites, do this, repeat this every year.

Why did he ask them to repeat that every year?

So they wouldn't forget. So they would not forget what God had done.

If you repeat things over and over and over, you will not forget them.

In fact, if you take the scriptures, I'm telling you, if you take any book in the Bible,

and you begin reading that over and over and over, and then you begin writing

that out over and over and over, at some point in time, you will have that memorized

in your brain, and you won't even know you did the practice of memorizing it.

So if you wanna memorize scripture, here's what you do. You take that particular passage, you,

over and over out loud. You write it down over and over, just like,

well, I never had this happen, but you know, some kids, in school,

the teacher would make them go up on the board and write over and over and over,

I will not disobey my teacher, I will not do this. I never had to do that.

I mean, oh, wait a minute, no, pastors aren't supposed to lie.

But we are to celebrate this over and over and remind ourselves of what Christ has done for us.

The Israelites were to do it over and over or to remind them of what God had

done for them through all of this time.

It's not enough to have the blood over the doorpost. We need to continue to

partake, participate in the body and blood of the Lamb.

We make a terrible mistake if we allow what God has done for us in the past to go to waste.

Oftentimes we'll have testimonies in church, ask people to give testimonies,

and it's messages of what Christ has done for us in the past.

Why do we do that? because by faith we understand what Christ has done for us

in the past is doing for us now so we can have the faith that Christ will continue

to do it in the future for us and with us and in us.

There's a problem in today's church and we think that God has touched us just

to make us feel good on Sunday.

He has touched us not just to make us feel good on Sunday but empower us to

live holy lives Monday through Saturday.

In fact, Sunday,

should really be a celebration of what we've experienced in God through the week before.

Here's what God has done for me. Let's sing the praises of God and celebrate His goodness.

It's not a pep rally for the following week. It's a celebration.

It's a victory celebration for what Christ has done.

And we need to be consumed with the things of the Lord on a daily basis.

Philippians 4, verse eight says this, finally, brothers and sisters,

whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy,

think about such things.

Now, if you want to be following Christ, and if you're worried about temptations

going on in your life, if you're worried about you straying from the things

of God, memorize that passage, that verse.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble,

whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever's admirable,

if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things.

So when you're going through the day and Joe Blow cuts you off on Highway 14.

Boy, Lord, you are righteous and you are powerful.

You are noble and trustworthy in all you do. Thank you, Lord,

for all of that. It's easy to say.

It's not easy to do. But think about those things. We don't need to be simply

forgiven. We need to be transformed.

Romans 12, verses one and two. write this down in your notes, Romans 12, 1 and 2.

Here's another passage to memorize, which probably many of you have.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy,

to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this

world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able

to test and approve what God's will is, his good, perfect, and pleasing will.

To be transformed by the renewing of your minds. Repeat the supper,

repeat what you have learned over and over.

Paul said this, whatsoever you've learned from me, do these things.

And then finally, we look at, this is a revelation to sinners.

It says, if any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one

with their nearest neighbors, having taken into account the number of people there are.

You are to determine the number of, the amount of lamb needed in accordance

with what each person will eat.

If the lamb was too much for one household, they were to call their neighbors and share it with them.

The Israelites were charged with the task of making sure that there was plenty for everyone.

They were tasked with the responsibility of sharing the blessing of the Passover with others.

When Jesus blessed the bread and the fish on the Mount of Sermon on the Mount

during that time, when he blessed that and it was passed around,

there was enough for everybody to eat and be satisfied.

So friends, do you think there's enough Jesus for everyone?

Do you think there's enough blood of Christ for everyone?

If there's a foreigner among you or one who doesn't know about the blood of

Christ, wouldn't it be great if we shared with them the Lamb of God that takes

away the sin of the world?

The blood of Lamb is there to cover anyone who would accept.

Jesus is so incredible and his blessings are so vast that we are called to share

it with all of those around us.

We are to use it and observe it for ourselves.

Remember it's what God has done for us, but we are to share it with those around

us as we remember the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ that has caused

the angel of death to pass over us.

And even more than that has caused you to turn your face toward us and call us your kids.

We want to give you thanks. We want you to turn us toward you,

transform us by the renewing of our minds.

Father, we pray as we observe this time of the remembrance of the Lord's Supper

that you indeed would visit us. In Jesus' name, amen.