The Sacrifice of the LORD's Passover

Good morning, my name is Sean. For those of you who don't know me, I'm one of the pastors of Trinity

Cambridge Church, and it is my absolute joy and privilege to preach God's Word to you this morning.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 11. If you're not familiar with your

Exodus 11 · chapter mention

Bibles, or if you don't have one, if you raise your hand, we have some ushers in the back who

can bring you a copy of a Bible you could use. Exodus is the second book in the Bible.

Chapter numbers are marked with large numbers. Chapter 11, we're going all the way through to

Numbers 11 · chapter mention

chapter 12, verse 28. Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.

Father, we thank you that you have given us your Word, that we might know you, that we might know

your will, that we might know your salvation. And we thank you that in your Word, you give us not only

instructions, but also pictures, stories, that deeply impress upon us your love displayed for us in Jesus Christ.

we pray that you would

awe us again.

Strike us with a sense of wonder

again.

And your love

at your saving grace this morning.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Exodus 11, verse 1, going through chapter 12, verse 28.

Exodus 11:1

The Lord said to Moses,

Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt.

Afterward, he will let you go from here.

When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely.

Speak now in the hearing of the people that they ask every man of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor for silver and gold jewelry.

And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.

Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people.

So Moses said,

Thus says the Lord,

About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt,

and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.

From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne,

even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill,

and all the firstborn of the cattle.

There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt,

such as there has never been,

nor ever will be again.

But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel,

either man or beast,

that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me,

saying,

Get out, you and all the people who follow you,

and after that I will go out.

And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger,

Then the Lord said to Moses,

Pharaoh will not listen to you,

that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh,

and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart,

and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,

This month shall be for you the beginning of months.

It shall be the first month of the year for you.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month,

every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses,

a lamb for a household.

And if the household is too small for a lamb,

then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons,

according to what each can eat,

you shall make your account for the lamb.

Your lamb shall be without blemish,

a male,

a year old.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,

and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,

when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel

shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Then they shall take some of the blood

and put it on the two doorposts

and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

They shall eat the flesh that night,

roasted on the fire,

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs,

they shall eat it.

Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water,

but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts.

And you shall let none of it remain until the morning.

Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

In this manner you shall eat it,

with your belt fastened,

your sandals on your feet,

and your staff in your hand.

And you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night,

and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,

both man and beast,

and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

I am the Lord.

The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

And no plague will befall you to destroy you

when I strike the land of Egypt.

This day shall be for you a memorial day,

and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord.

Throughout your generations, as a statute forever,

you shall keep it as a feast.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

And on the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses.

For if anyone eats what is leavened,

from the first day until the seventh day,

that person shall be cut off from Israel.

On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly,

and on the seventh day a holy assembly.

No work shall be done on those days.

But what everyone needs to eat,

that alone may be prepared by you.

And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread.

For on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.

Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations

as a statute forever.

In the first month,

from the fourteenth day of the month at evening,

you shall eat unleavened bread

until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

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

If anyone eats what is leavened,

that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel,

whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land.

You shall eat nothing leavened.

In all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.

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

Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans

and kill the Passover lamb.

Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin

and touch the lintel and the two doorposts

with the blood that is in the basin.

None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning,

for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians.

And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts,

the Lord will pass over the door

and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

You shall observe this rite as a statute for you

and for your sons forever.

And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you,

as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

And when your children say to you,

What do you mean by this service?

You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.

For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt

when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.

And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

Then the people of Israel went and did so,

as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

So they did.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

In this passage, we're going to see how the Lord sets apart his people

by the sacrifice of the Passover.

And we're going to focus first on their identity as God's firstborn son,

and then the Passover lamb,

and then on the unleavened bread in turn.

In the preceding passage, if you weren't with us last week,

Pharaoh refused to let Israel go along with their children and livestock.

And he said to Moses in 10, 28,

Get away from me.

Take care never to see my face again.

For on the day you see my face, you shall die.

And Moses essentially said to him,

As you wish.

But Moses hasn't yet left Pharaoh's presence.

That will happen a little later in chapter 11.

And before he leaves Pharaoh's court,

he has one more thing that he wants to share from the Lord.

And he says in 11 verse 1,

The Lord said to Moses,

Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt.

Afterward, he will let you go from here.

When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely.

Chapter 11 verses 1 to 10 are structured chiastically.

The first half is mirrored by the matching elements in the second half of the passage

with the middle of the passage in this case,

verse 6, standing out alone by itself to bring attention to it.

So it says in verse 1, chapter 11,

The Lord speaks and the Pharaoh,

The Lord says that Pharaoh will let Israel go after the final plague.

And then that's matched by verses 9 to 10,

where the Lord speaks again.

And he says Pharaoh will not let Israel go unless the final plague comes.

And then in chapter 11 verses 2 to 3,

Israel and Moses enjoy the favor of the Egyptians.

And then likewise in verse 8,

Israel and Moses enjoy the favor of the Egyptians.

And then in verses 4 to 5,

Moses speaks.

And then he says the firstborn males of both man and beast of Egypt will die.

And then in verse 8,

Moses speaks again.

But the firstborn males of neither man nor beast of Israel will die.

And that leaves verse 6 by self,

where he says there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt.

And this is significant because this cry will not be the cry of the Israelites.

Previously, because of the harsh Egyptian taskmasters,

they said in Exodus 3, verses 7 and 9,

Exodus 3:7

that the cry of the people of Israel came up to the Lord.

But now, after the final plague,

after the Lord's intervention,

it will be the cry of the Egyptians that fills all the land of Egypt.

So the structure of this passage is highlighting the great reversal that's happening.

Previously, Pharaoh and his servants arrogantly defied Moses and dismissed his demands.

But it says in verse 3 now that the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt,

in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.

And then in verse 8,

Moses predicts that after the final plague,

all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me,

saying,

Get out,

you and all the people who follow you.

So previously,

in Exodus 1, 15,

Pharaoh decreed that every son that is born to the Hebrews

must be cast into the Nile.

But now, in the final disaster that God brings,

every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die,

both man and beast.

But no harm will come at all to the Israelites.

When Pharaoh killed Israel's sons,

he was not merely acting against Israel,

but he was ultimately acting against God.

Because as God says in Exodus 4, 22,

Israel is my firstborn son.

And I say to you,

to Pharaoh,

let my son go that he may serve me.

If you refuse to let him go,

behold,

I will kill your firstborn son.

So this is the retribution that God has threatened to Pharaoh

and to his stubborn Egyptians.

But the tables have now turned.

There's a great reversal happening.

This, by the way,

is the reason why we,

as God's followers,

never should avenge ourselves upon our enemies.

Romans 12, 19 says,

Beloved,

never avenge yourselves,

but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written,

vengeance is mine.

I will repay,

says the Lord.

The reason why Christians can endure suffering and persecution without retaliating

is not because we don't care about justice,

even justice for ourselves.

It's not because it doesn't hurt us,

and we don't mind the suffering,

but it's because the Lord has said,

the vengeance is mine.

The Israelites suffered under the cruel slavery of the Egyptians.

They watched helplessly as their infant sons were exposed to the Nile,

as they drowned or were consumed by wild beasts.

They had no power,

but the Lord is powerful,

and he will not stand idly by when his firstborn son, Israel,

is battered and abused.

So here, Israel's identity as God's firstborn son points to the fact that they are a nation

that is specially set apart for God.

There are many children in this world.

All over the world, there are children,

but only three of them are my daughters.

I have a special relationship with them because they belong to me,

and I to them.

I am their father and no one else's.

Father, no one else calls me father.

That's similar to what God is saying here about Israel.

Israel has been, my people, God is saying,

have been set apart for me among the nations.

They belong to me,

and we as Christians also belong to God's people Israel.

In Romans 9, Paul writes that the Christians are,

by faith in Christ, spiritual descendants of Abraham,

the children of promise.

And so we are all members of God's holy people,

so then we can rightly apply this passage to ourselves as well.

So God says of us then,

Israel is my firstborn son,

and I say to you,

let my son go that they may serve me.

That's in fact what God has done here.

He has freed us from our slavery to sin.

He has delivered us from the bondage of the enemy,

so that we might serve him.

The spirit of God within you,

by whom we cry to God,

Abba, Father,

is God's stamp and seal upon our very souls,

declaring,

mine,

my people,

my son.

And that's why we as God's holy people,

consecrated to him,

for his special purposes,

ought to live holy lives.

You shall be holy,

for I am holy.

We see further evidence of Israel being set apart

as God's people

in the institution of the Passover in chapter 12,

verses 1 to 13.

The Lord says to Moses and Aaron in verse 2,

this month shall be for you the beginning of months.

It shall be the first month of the year for you.

The expression this month is literally this new moon,

because they used the lunar calendar.

And their exodus from Egypt

is such a life-changing and nation-shaping event

that God literally changes their calendar,

gives them a new calendar system.

From now on, he says,

the month of exodus from Egypt,

the month of your exiting Egypt,

which typically falls on March or April in our reckoning,

that shall be the first month of the year

to signal the reality

that this is a new beginning for the people of God.

Then in the following verses,

God gives the Israelites instructions

for how to observe the Passover.

On the 10th day of the first month of the year,

each household is to pick out a lamb

to slaughter and eat.

The lamb is to be carefully chosen.

It has to be a lamb that is without blemish,

a male, a year old.

A year old suggests that the lamb is fully grown,

it's mature, but it's in its prime.

The lamb is not senile, it's not old.

It's in good health.

And the carefully selected lamb then is to be sacrificed,

killed on the 14th day of the month at twilight.

Everyone is supposed to kill the lamb at the same time.

And then according to verses 7 to 10,

they are to take some of the blood of the lamb

and then put it on the top and the sides of the door.

And they are to roast the lamb on the fire.

It was required that the lamb be roasted by fire,

not consumed raw or boiled in water.

It was also supposed to be consumed

with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

The significance of the unleavened bread,

I will explain a little later,

but the bitter herbs serves as a reminder

of the harsh slavery that Israel was under in Egypt.

The only other time that the word bitter

is used in the book of Exodus

is in Exodus 1, 13 to 14,

where it says the Egyptians ruthlessly made

the people of Israel work as slaves

and made their lives bitter with hard service.

So as they consumed the bitter herbs,

they are to be reminded of the bitter slavery

that they were suffering under in Egypt.

And the lamb was supposed to be consumed in its entirety.

Nothing was to remain until the morning.

And anything that did remain until the morning

was to be burned,

lest people found to be eating leftovers

and throwing out some of the leftovers to the trash,

and lest the Passover meal seem like a common, ordinary meal.

They are to burn it, all the remainders.

So these detailed instructions

for both the preparation and the consumption of the lamb

show that this is no ordinary feast.

It's a sacrifice.

This is not Taco Tuesday

where you just happen to eat tacos.

It's not a day in the year

when the Israelites just happen to eat lamb.

It's also not even like Thanksgiving turkey.

That's a little more similar

because you're commemorating something there,

but it's still not an adequate comparison

because the turkey itself

has no sacrificial significance.

The Passover is not just a celebration.

It's not just a meal.

It's, as verse 27 clearly says,

the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.

And if it's a sacrifice,

it serves two main functions.

It atones for sin,

and it consecrates the people

on whose behalf the lamb is sacrificed.

That's why the offered lamb must be without blemish.

Later in Exodus 29 and 1

and throughout the book of Leviticus,

instructions for sacrificial offerings

specifically require that the animals be without blemish.

A sacrifice offered to God as worship to him

cannot be blemished.

Likewise, putting the blood of the lamb around the door

also suggests that this is a sacrifice

intended to set Israel apart

from the nation of Egypt,

from other people.

Later in Exodus 29,

when the Aaronic priests are being set apart,

consecrated for God to serve in the tabernacle,

a ram is sacrificed,

and some of its blood is sprinkled on Aaron and his sons

as a way of marking them,

consecrating them for God's service.

And it says in 29, 33,

that the ram was used to make atonement

at the Aaronic priests' ordination and consecration.

So then here in the Passover also,

the lamb without blemish is sacrificed

to make atonement for our sins,

and then so that the firstborn males of Egypt,

or of Israel rather,

might be spared from the death that is coming upon them.

And the blood of the lamb,

smeared around the lamb,

consecrates or sets apart

those who are within the house,

marking them as God's own special possession

and therefore protected from the plague.

Verses 12 to 13 confirm this.

God says,

for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night,

and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,

both man and beast.

And on all the gods of Egypt,

I will execute judgments.

I am the Lord.

The blood shall be assigned for you

on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood,

I will pass over you,

and no plague will befall you to destroy you

when I strike the land of Egypt.

I don't know if you caught the interesting reference there

to the gods of Egypt.

This is the first time that the false gods of Egypt,

apart from Pharaoh,

are explicitly referenced.

God says,

I will execute judgments on all the gods of Egypt.

So all the plagues that God has been inflicting upon Egypt

to this point,

and especially this pending final plague,

the 10th plague,

are ways in which Yahweh, the Lord,

is executing judgments on all the gods of Egypt.

So some people have tried ingeniously

to connect each of the 10 plagues

to a specific Egyptian deity,

but the identification is not so easy

or neat with some of them.

And sometimes the comparison is also anachronistic.

It doesn't fit because those gods that we know of now,

Egyptian gods,

were not necessarily worshipped at the time of Moses.

But because it says that God is executing judgments

to all the gods of Egypt,

you can make a general connection,

and some of the identifications are pretty easy.

So this, for example,

the plague,

the first plague,

the blood,

turning the Nile into blood,

neither the Egyptian god of the Nile,

Hapi,

nor the Egyptian guardian of the Nile,

Khunum,

could stop Yahweh from turning the Nile into blood.

The Egyptian goddess of fertility,

Heket,

who takes the form of a frog,

could not control the Lord

from bringing a swarm of frogs

overwhelming the land of Egypt.

The Egyptian god of the earth,

Geb,

could not stop Yahweh

from striking the dust of the earth

and turning it into gnats

to torment the Egyptians.

The Egyptian goddess Hathor,

who is often depicted as cattle,

a cow,

could not stop the livestock

from being killed

by disease of the Lord.

The Egyptian god of the sky,

Horus,

or the goddess of the sky,

Nut,

and the god of the storm,

Seth,

could not stop the Lord

from bringing the destructive hail thunderstorm

upon Egypt.

And the Egyptian god of fertility

and agriculture,

Osiris,

could do nothing to stop Yahweh

from destroying the remaining crop

with the locusts.

The Egyptian sun god,

Ra,

could not bring even a ray of sunlight

to shine on Egypt

when Yahweh blanketed with utter darkness.

And even Pharaoh,

who claimed to be God,

the son of Ra,

in fact,

could do nothing to protect

even his own firstborn son,

who's supposed to be divine,

who's supposed to be the next Pharaoh,

to rule over Egypt

from the final plague

that the Lord is about to bring.

It's a powerful statement

that the Lord is making

over and over again

with these plagues.

The Lord is setting himself

apart from these false gods of Egypt

and when he brings judgments upon them

and he's declaring to them,

I am the Lord.

And as he said in Exodus 9, 14,

there is none like me

in all the earth.

None in all the earth.

What are the quote-unquote gods

that you rely on

to provide for you

and protect you?

Buddha?

Allah?

Shiva?

Maybe your ancestral spirits?

Maybe it's no religious deed at all.

Maybe it's your savings account.

Your good looks.

Your intellect.

Your spouse.

When you make any of these things

your God

and you put your trust in them

rather than in the living God,

when you love and cherish them

more than you do

the God who loves you,

they will inevitably disappoint you

and fail you.

Because God will prove

over and over again.

Because God admits no rivals.

He will demonstrate in your life

again and again,

I am the Lord.

There is none like me

in all the earth.

And in setting himself apart

in this way,

the Lord God is also

setting his people apart,

Israel apart.

The blood shall be assigned

for you on the houses

where you are

and when I see the blood

I will pass over you

and no plague will befall you.

Egypt will be stricken

but Israelites will be spared

because they are atoned for

and covered by the Passover sacrifice.

Egypt is not God's people

but Israel is God's people.

God makes a distinction

and sets his people apart

for himself as a special possession.

And by God's grace,

now because of what Christ

has done on the cross,

all those who put their faith in Christ

from every nation

now belong to God.

And in this way,

God's people are set apart

by the Passover lamb.

And God's people are also set apart

by the unleavened bread.

After observing the Passover,

the Israelites are instructed

to observe a seven-day feast

of unleavened bread.

This is on the heel of the Passover.

They're all part of the big,

one big feast of Passover

or a five-feast of unleavened bread.

And then in verses 14 and 20,

they tell them during the feast,

they are to remove leaven

out of their homes.

For if anyone eats what is leavened

from the first day

until the seventh day,

that person shall be cut off

from Israel.

And they are to observe

a holy assembly on the first day

and the seventh day

of the feast of unleavened bread.

They are to not work,

observe a rest.

They have rest.

And you might wonder,

what's the deal with leaven?

I mean, it's just good fermented

sourdough bread, right?

I mean, what's wrong with leaven?

And there's a reason for this.

You find out later in verse 34

why God commands this feast

of unleavened bread.

And it's because the Egyptians

were so urgent

to make the Israelites leave

in a haste because of the plagues

that the Israelites, it says,

took their dough

before it was leavened.

When they were leaving

in their initial exodus

from Egypt,

they did not have time to wait

to let the bread rise.

And so they took unleavened bread

as provisions for themselves

in their journey.

This is similar to the command

earlier in verse 11

that we saw of how Israelites

are to eat the Passover lamb.

It says they were to eat

with their belt fastened,

their sandals on their feet,

and their staff in their hand

in haste.

Why do the Israelis

have to eat that way?

They needed to be ready

to leave at a moment's notice.

They had to have their shoes on.

They had to have their loins

girdled up, their belt.

They had to have their staff

in place already

so that in the moment's notice

when there is the release,

you may go,

you may leave Egypt.

They can leave right away.

And so by eating unleavened bread

each year during the Feast

of Unleavened Bread,

the Israelites were to remember

the same truth.

So this exhortation

of how to eat the bread,

like I mean how to eat

the Passover lamb

with girdled loins

or with your belts fastened,

that phrase is often used

actually throughout

the New Testament as well

in a figurative sense.

And it's used to tell Christians

that we ought to have

our belts fastened

when we live,

figuratively,

meaning we ought to be alert.

We ought to be sober-minded.

We ought to be prepared

for action

because this world

is not our home.

We should have

an eternal perspective

rather than thinking

and living like this world

is all there is,

like this life

is all there is.

We can't settle

and be comfortable.

Rather,

we ought to always have

the mindset of a pilgrim,

someone journeying

with their girdles fastened.

That's what

the unleavened bread serves

to remind us of.

Cleansing out the leaven

also has a symbolic significance

because leaven,

as we might assume

that leaven is yeast,

but yeast and leaven

are actually two different things.

In the ancient world,

yeast was very rare.

And so what they did

was use leaven

to ferment their dough.

Fermented dough

from an existing,

like an old batch,

some piece of it,

they would set it apart

to use as leaven

and they would mix it

with the new dough

and then that would then

ferment the new bread.

So that's leaven.

And so the more you do that,

of course,

there is a risk,

there's a danger

of with each subsequent bread

an increased risk

of mold growing

and harmful bacteria

growing on it

because it's literally

like you're taking

the same piece of bread

and using it

over and over again.

And so in the same way,

then the month

of their exodus

from Egypt

on the first month

of the year,

because it indicates

a new beginning

for God's people,

they are to cleanse

the leaven

from their pantries

and begin again

with the fresh batch.

And in this way,

because of how

only just a little bit

of leaven

leavens the entire

lump of bread,

this became a symbol

to represent

how sin and evil,

just a little bit of it

can so quickly spread

and infect

an entire community.

And so in 1 Corinthians

5, 6-8,

Paul references

the feast

of unleavened bread

and when telling

the Corinthians

to purge their church

of sexual immorality,

which was rampant there,

he says this,

Do you not know

that a little leaven

leavens the whole lump?

Cleanse out the old leaven

that you may be

a new lump

as you really are unleavened.

For Christ,

our Passover lamb,

has been sacrificed.

Let us therefore

celebrate the festival,

not with the old leaven,

the leaven of malice

and evil,

but with the unleavened

bread of sincerity

and truth.

So brothers and sisters,

this is why

we as a church

must take holiness seriously,

why we must be

a holy people.

Unrepentant sin

is like leaven

that leavens

the whole lump

of bread.

It's like cancer

that spreads

and destroys

the entire body.

You can't afford

to leave

even a cell of it.

But we as God's people

have been joined

to Christ

and are therefore

God's firstborn son.

We have been atoned for

and marked out

by the blood of the lamb.

We have been set apart

as God's chosen possession

by the unleavened bread.

And as people

who have been set apart,

our lives

ought to reflect that

to show that

we belong to God

because the Passover lamb

has been sacrificed.

Paul is here

making,

in 1 Corinthians,

an explicit biblical

theological connection

between the Passover lamb

and Jesus.

He's telling us

that the Passover lamb

pointed to

and was fulfilled

by Jesus Christ.

That's why we read

in our Assurance of Pardon

today

from 1 Peter 1,

18-19,

it says that

Christ is

the lamb

without blemish

or spot

by whose blood

we have been ransomed

from the futile,

sinful ways.

Jesus was without sin

and therefore

he was fit

to be the unblemished

Passover lamb

that is sacrificed

for our atonement

and consecration.

So imagine

with me for a second

the original night

of the Passover

for the Israelites.

The Israelites

are to kill their lambs

at twilight.

The whole process

that then is carried out

in the dark,

it's at night.

And you could imagine

the fear and trembling

among the Israelites

as they take meticulous care

to slay the lamb,

they drain the blood,

they roast the lamb,

they are careful

to eat it

without breaking

any bones

and they're doing

all of this

and they take

some of the blood

and then they

daub it

around the doorposts

and since

it doesn't specify

how much blood

you're supposed

to put on it,

you can imagine

there are probably

some very overzealous

and fearful Israelites

who are just

you know

lathering the blood.

Make sure you cover it all.

I don't want

the destroyer coming in.

There's fear.

There's anticipation.

The Israelite families

probably don't sleep

a wink that night

and in the middle

of the night

they hear

shrill cries

in their neighboring

Egyptian homes

indicating that

there's some death

in the house

and then

the Israelite families

are gripped with fear.

Are we next?

Maybe some

older firstborn sons

who realize

what's going on

ask their parents

am I next?

Are we gonna be okay?

And the parents

reassure them

we're gonna be okay.

But why?

Because the blood

of the lamb

is on our door.

the Lord

passes over

the houses

of Israel.

The sun rises.

There's not a single

death in Israelite homes.

In fact

not even a dog

growled

against

the Israelite

families

or their animals.

Why not?

It's not because

the Israelites

are a superior race

or an ethnic group.

And it's not because

the Israelites

are more ethical

or more righteous

than the Egyptians.

The reason

the only reason

is because

they were chosen

and marked

by the blood

of the lamb.

The same is true

for all Christians.

Do you live in fear

of God's punishment?

Do you harbor

lingering doubt

in your heart

that your sins

can ever be pardoned?

Do you doubt

that God

can ever love you?

If God really knew me

if God really knew my heart

if God really knew my past

he would not love me.

He would not want

anything good for me.

Do you see

the blood

that Christ

the Passover lamb

shed

on the cross

for you?

You are covered

by his blood.

There can be

no condemnation

for you.

There can be

no punishment

for you.

There on the cross

is the indelible message

from the Lord God

saying

I have chosen you.

I have marked you

as mine.

There

is the blood

of the lamb.

And that's

what we remember

when we gather

in his name

week after week

to hear

the same

good news

of Jesus

proclaimed

over

and over again

to break

the same bread

and to drink

the same juice

proclaiming

the death

of Christ

over

and over again

because we need

to be reminded

of this

every single

day.

So let's

remember

1 Corinthians

11 26

for as often

as you remember

as you eat

this bread

and drink

the cup

you proclaim

the Lord's

death

until

he comes.

So let us

remember his

death

let's proclaim

his resurrection

and await

his coming

in glory.

Let's pray.

Father

thank you

for your

love.

Thank you

that you

do not

call us

to be a

holy people

so that

we might

qualify

to be your

people

but you

call us

to be

holy

because

you

have

already

chosen

us

because

you

have

already

marked

us

with the

blood

of the

lamb

because

you

have

already

called

us

your

own

so Lord

let us

pursue

holiness

let us

live

holy lives

not out of

fear and

insecurity

but out of

great love

for you

with great

security

assurance

and

gratefulness

knowing that

we are

your own

in Jesus

name we

pray

amen

to

we

have

all