"Jesus Christ is the True Passover Lamb"

Good morning. Part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is being a student of His Holy Word.

And here at Dillingham Moravian Church, that is our goal, to help us all learn

the Word of God so that we can grow as disciples of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ together.

My name is Pastor Simon and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

Just recently, one of my good friends told me to go get my subsistence license

and get my sign up on the beach to claim my set net site.

Yet, as I've experienced in years past, putting a sign out is not enough to

properly mark my site as belonging to me and my family.

Some years, I've had my signs taken down and thrown aside and replaced with someone else's.

Or even worse, someone used my own sign, wrote over my information,

then hung my sign out as their own.

In order to truly mark our subsistence sites, we have to put our stakes and our running lines out.

My point with the story is that's

similar to marking our fishing sites to declare that they belong to us.

So also Jesus marked us as His people.

Jesus' shed blood on the cross marks all believers in Christ as belonging to

him so that the wrath of God passed us by. Let's pray.

Father God, we are so incredibly thankful that you have chosen to send your son, Jesus Christ,

to be sacrificed for us as the blood offering in our stead.

Thank you. Thank you that in Christ now we have been passed over by your wrath,

your righteous and good, just wrath.

And now we can be called your sons, and we can be called your family in Jesus Christ.

Lord, we pray, Lord, as we go to your word, speak to us, open up our hearts

and minds to be able to know you, to know your word, and to be able to follow it.

In your precious son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us read together in John 19:28-30.

John 19:28–30

"After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished to

fulfill the Scripture, said, I am thirsty.

A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of sour

wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it to his mouth.

Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up His spirit."

There are three foundational biblical truths I want to point out to you tonight.

The first timeless truth that I want you to see is that Jesus fulfills scripture.

Due to the flu that is still going around, my family missed the entire Beaver

Roundup Festival this year.

However, I noted on Facebook that one of my eight-year-old son's friends who

were in one of the shooting competitions placed very high and received the prize.

In that particular target shoot competition for my son's age group,

the competitors aimed their rifles at miniature silhouette targets and then

fired straight at the targets as well as their skill allowed.

My point is that the bullets flew straight to where they were aimed.

They didn't go around in circles or go off in multiple directions and that back

towards the target, they went where they were aimed.

The life and death and resurrection of Jesus was like a bullet heading straight for its target.

Jesus' target was fulfilling the will of the Father and His aim was perfect.

Jesus was dying on the cross.

Previously, He'd been beaten, tortured until His body was almost unrecognizable as a human being.

He had a crown of thorns that were as long as iron nails driven into his head.

The Romans forced Jesus to carry a heavy cross through much of the city of Jerusalem,

except where a bystander, Simon of Cyrene, was drafted to help him.

When the Romans and Jesus reached Golgotha, the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross.

The crucifixion caused Jesus to be constantly lifting up on His feet,

which were nailed, by the way, in order to get air to His lungs.

Normal crucifixion did not involve nailing. In fact, the two criminals on either

side of Jesus were only tied to the cross.

And as a result of the beatings, torture, carrying the cross,

and crucifixion, Jesus must have lost much of the blood and water out of his body.

So when Jesus said he was thirsty, we can only totally understand that.

Of course he was thirsty.

Yet John recorded that Jesus didn't say he was thirsty because he thirsted for

refreshment or to be hydrated.

No, Jesus said he was thirsty because he was fulfilling Scripture's prophecies.

What I find so incredible about Jesus is that even when he was pushed beyond

normal human endurance and at

the point of death and spiritually hurting beyond what we can understand,

due to our sins temporarily separating the relationship between Jesus and the Father.

Jesus still was focused on doing the Father's will right down to the last detail,

just like a bullet aimed at the target, everything in Jesus' life.

And I mean everything, was allowed, used, orchestrated, and directed to accomplish the will of God.

And that's a question we need to ask ourselves today. Are our lives focused on God's will?

As Christians, we are to be focused on accomplishing the will of God in all

aspects of our lives, even in suffering.

Psalm 119 verse 9 stated, "How can a young man, or frankly anyone,

Psalms 119:9

keep his way pure or straight to the Lord?

By keeping it according to your word.

With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments.

Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you."

If we desire to keep our lives straight to the Lord, we are to keep or order

our lives around God's Word by seeking God and treasuring His Word.

What does this mean? That we start and end our days with reading,

studying, and praying on God's Word. We pray and meditate or think deeply on

God's Word throughout the day.

We trust that Christ is in control and He's living and operating us.

We order our activities and families' activities in the home and outside the

home around the ideals and principles of God's Word.

You know, I find with two parents working in our household with multiple church

activities and community and school events a week,

it is a big challenge to keep our focus on faith-filled obedience to the Lord's will.

It's so easy to let the activities and events order our lives rather than the Lord's word.

However, in all times, as we rely on the Holy Spirit, we are to live out the

principles and truths of Scripture as we interact with our family,

our friends, our co-workers, and community.

The more we'll beg on by faith in Christ and order our lives and thoughts according

to Scripture out of affectionate love for God, the more we will treasure God's Word,

the more God will be active in our lives, and the more God answers our prayers. and the less we sin.

Our lives will be focused on God as our target.

So far, we've learned that even amidst the ultimate physical suffering while

dying on the cross, Jesus obeyed

the Father and fulfilled Scripture's prophecy pertaining to Himself.

And this leads us to the second essential truth that I want to bring your attention

to, which is that Jesus is the true Passover Lamb of God.

In John 19, verse 29, John continued on in his recording of Jesus' crucifixion.

John 19:29

A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of sour

wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it to his mouth.

In the previous verse, Jesus called out that he was thirsty.

Jesus was alluding to Psalm 69 verse 21 where David prayed to God in the midst

Psalms 69:21

of a time when he was surrounded by his enemies and being cruelly treated.

David cried out in Psalm 69 verse 22, "and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

Psalms 69:22

The question is why did Jesus quote this psalm?

The sour wine that the Romans gave Jesus was different than the sedative that

was given to Jesus earlier and then refused by Jesus.

This wine was a very cheap wine the soldiers drank, which is little better than vinegar.

The vinegar would have been very hard to swallow in his cracked and broken mouth.

Still, Jesus cried out that he was thirsty so that the Romans would give him

vinegar to drink and thus fulfill Scripture.

Was this the full extent of Jesus' purpose in saying He was thirsty?

Please pay attention to this.

In order for the wine vinegar to be drunk by Jesus, the Romans raised a sponge

up to Jesus using hyssop stalks.

The interesting thing about hyssop plants were that hyssop was used in the Passover ceremonies.

Let's look at Exodus 12, verse 21 to 30.

Exodus 12:21–30

Exodus 12, verse 21 to 30, "Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and

Exodus 12:21–30

said to them, Go and take for yourself lambs according to your families and slay the Passover lamb.

You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin.

And apply some of that blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two-door post.

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

for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he sees the

blood on the lintel and on the two-door post,

the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into

your houses to smite you.

And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.

When you enter the land which the Lord will give you, as he has promised,

you shall observe this rite.

And when your children say to you, what does this rite mean to you?

You shall say, it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses

of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians but spared our homes.

And the people bowed low and worshiped. And then the sons of Israel went and

did so, just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

It came about at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land

of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn

of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle.

Pharaoh rose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians,

and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead."

At the first Passover in Exodus chapter 12, God had been executing judgment

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

upon the Egyptians through the plagues.

The last plague to happen was God's promise that because Pharaoh did not let

Israel go from slavery, the Lord would strike down the firstborn child from every family in Egypt.

And in order to protect Israel from his wrath, God commanded Moses to tell all

of Israel to take hyssop that had been doused in the blood of a sacrificed lamb

and wiped the blood on the lintel

and the doorposts so that when the Lord came to smite the Egyptians,

the Lord would see the blood of the lamb and pass over the houses of the Israelites.

Israel was saved by the sacrificed lamb and its blood.

Back in John 19, God the Father and the Holy Spirit orchestrated events to fulfill

Scripture, allowing Jesus, the Messiah, to be killed during the Passover.

Jesus said he was thirsty, so the Romans would bring the vinegar held up on

stalks of hyssop, symbolizing the Passover.

Jesus was declaring that he was the true Passover lamb, and it was by his blood

that the Lord would pass over his people, allowing them to live and more importantly

to live life eternally with God forever.

The third point I want you to see from this passage is that Jesus paid our debt in full.

So far Abigail and I have not had a house loan yet nor have we had a huge loan but I've had some debt.

I've had credit card debt when I was much younger, school debts,

multiple hospital debts for surgeries for my wife and I and kids.

However, Abigail and I work hard to either pay off debts right away or snowball

those debt payments as quickly as possible because, frankly, we just don't like debt.

And when you have finished with paying off a major debt, the bank or the debt

collection agency sends you a letter with the words, paid in full, printed on it.

What a good feeling it is to know that you are no longer in debt.

And this is what Jesus did on the cross for us. Jesus paid our blood debt in full.

Let's continue on with John 19, verse 30.

John 19:30

Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In verse 30, when Jesus spoke from the cross, the single Greek word tetelestai,

which means it is finished.

Papri receipts for taxes have been recovered with the word tetelestai written

across them, meaning paid in full.

And this word on Jesus' lips was significant.

Jesus didn't say, I am finished, but it is finished, meaning paid in full.

That's what this word was, that he cried out, paid in full.

The task for which Jesus was sent by the Father was accomplished.

Due to the reality of sin, every human being owed God the sacrifice of their

lifeblood as atonement for sins.

Hebrews 9 stated that the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with

blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.

Forgiveness was not possible without the shedding of all of our lifeblood.

This was a debt that we as human beings, we could not pay ourselves.

And out of His love, God allowed in the law of Moses the blood sacrifice of

animals for the forgiveness of His people.

And yet the people of God continued to sin, and the blood sacrifice had to be

offered every day by a priest who also was a sinner.

There is no true repentance. There is no restoration of relationship between humanity and God.

And this is why the sacrifice of Jesus was so essentially important.

Jesus was the only one innocent enough to be the pure and spotless sacrificial lamb shed for our sins.

Jesus, our God and Lord, paid our debt in full.

In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, Paul stated, "He who knew no sin to be sin on our

2 Corinthians 5:21

behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

What then can we learn from this truth?

Christ Jesus took our place. It should have been you and I that sacrificed our

lifeblood to cancel our debt with God.

It should have been me on that cross. It should have been you on that cross.

But God loved us so much in His rich mercy that He sent His only begotten Son,

the only one who is like Him, to die in my place and to die in your place.

We are forgiven by God because Christ paid our debt in full.

Paul in Ephesians 2, verse 8 proclaimed, for by grace you have been saved through faith.

Ephesians 2:8

And if you're listening today and you've responded to the grace of Christ on

the cross by believing in Him as your God and Savior, then the truth is that

you are saved, you are forgiven, and your debt has been wiped clean.

What you and I owe God has already been paid for in full.

We, you and I, must trust in the love of God for us, in Christ Jesus,

because seriously, our lives depend upon it.

Jesus, in John 15, 9-10 commanded, "Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,

just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love."

To abide or live in the love of God, in order to abide in Christ our vine,

we, you and I, must do as Christ Jesus exemplified.

We must believe and trust in love of Christ for us.

Believe what He has done, believe in Him, and believe that He loves us so much

to go to that cross for us.

And as we trust in Christ's love, we obey the commands of God,

and the promise is that we will abide or remain in the love of Christ Jesus.

Jesus fulfilled Scripture's prophecy throughout His life, even at the very point of death.

Jesus proclaimed Himself as the true new Passover lamb, by which the wrath of

God passes by those who believe in Jesus as God.

We also learn that due to our sin, each one of us has accumulated a blood debt

that we owed to God with our lives.

In the great mercy of God, Jesus Christ sacrificed His life on the cross for

us, and our debt has now been paid in full.

For those who are in Christ, the wrath of God has passed you by.

Your sin debt has been paid in full.

Now, We are to live our lives by faith in Christ, focused on accomplishing the

will of God found in His Word.

Let's pray. Father God, we thank You for the privilege to hear Your Word.

Thank You for what Your Son has done on the cross for us.

He has paid the blood debt that we owed, that I owed. Thank You.

Thank You that we are now pleasing in Your sight because we are now free from

that debt. Help us to believe that truth.

Lord, we praise you. And Lord, I pray, Lord, that we will go out and share the

wondrous mercy that God has done through his son, Jesus Christ.

We love you. Help us to love you more. In your precious son's name,

Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.