Exodus 12:1-30 | The Blood Saves: Celebrating the Passover

On the way to the cross to later have a first Lord's Supper with

disciples on the Thursday Friday die for us on the cross and the

Sunday be raised from the dead victoriously.

Thank you for encouraging us to to read up maybe this week,

Matthew starting chapter 21 one chapter day.

And then if you have time in there, I want to suggest Isaiah

53. It's just 1212 verses.

I always like to read it during Holy Week just to get our, our

minds and our hearts right to what God wants to tell us this

week. So I want to ask you open your

Bibles in Exodus chapter 12 verses one through 30.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

We're not going to read it all, but but go ahead, open your

Bibles. Exodus chapter 12 verses one

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

through 30. We're going to talk about how

blood saves, how blood saves. For some of us, those two words

together don't make any sense. Blood saves, right?

Because when we think about blood, especially when it's

coming out of someone, right, we think of someone that is hurt,

someone that is sick or maybe even dying.

But blood saves the average adult human body.

I don't know if you care about this fact or not.

I thought it was interesting. Average adult human body, we

have about 1.3 gallons of blood, which is about 8% of our total

body weight. Now you know, of course this

varies depending on the person's high weight and other factors,

which means I probably have like 10 gallons of blood in my body.

So, you know, if you lose up to 15% of your blood, you know it's

considered generally saved. Now if you lose over 40% of your

blood, then that's considered life threatening.

So show of hands, how many of you have donated blood before?

Good, good, good. I think if you can, you should

do it as often as as you can. I know that some faint just by

seeing blood or, or seeing needles.

There was this time, this time where we're at an event in

Abilene and it was time to wake up.

My alarm rang. We're in a hotel.

So I was trying to get out of the bed and I fell from the bed

and I hit my head on the night stand and I started bleeding

like crazy. So at the same time we had to

clear the room 'cause we were not coming back to the hotel.

And we ran to the emergency room and they're there.

They are, you know, trying to, yeah, about to stitch my head.

But before so they could do that, they had to kind of put

the anesthesia in right, big needle going in.

So I'm ready, they're closing my eyes, ready to take it.

All of a sudden I hear this commotion and it was that Maria

had fainted and they had to picture they had to thankfully

she didn't hit the floor right. But they they kind of picked her

up and took her out of the room and gave her first aid.

Every Am I thinking I'm the one with the head open bleeding?

Yeah. Anyways, I don't know if you

knew, but one pint of blood can save like 3 lives.

One pint of blood can save three people.

Now, donated blood has a short shelf life.

That means they can't keep it for too long.

And only about 8% or 3% of the people that are eligible to

donate do so annually. But I found this fact very

interesting. In the USA, there's a person

that needs blood every two seconds, every two seconds, and

that's from the Red Cross, right?

It's not some dude that don't know what they're saying.

Every two seconds. Now, not just any person can

donate blood, right? You must be at least 1617 years

years old. You had to weigh around 110 lbs.

You have to be in good health, right?

They just, they'll check your blood pressure, they'll check

your balls, your hemoglobin levels, your temperature.

Why? Because the idea is to make

someone better with your blood, right?

To heal them, to save them, not to make him feel even worse.

So today we want to talk. How about the blood of many

lambs? Save the first born of many

homes. But how?

So? How would the blood of 1 lamb,

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has the power to save every

person in the whole world? Last few weeks we've been

studying the book of Exodus. 2 weeks ago Pastor Ricky talked

about the nine, the first nine plagues that the Egyptians had

to go through because they were refusing to let the Israelites,

the people of God, go free. Now came the time for that 10th

and final plague which was the death of every first born in

Egypt. Exodus Chapter 11 verse one says

Exodus 11 · chapter mention

now the Lord has said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on

Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that he will let you go

from here. So Pharaoh was warned one last

time to let the people go, and he still refused to do that.

So what was about to happen to his people was his fault.

He had many chances, but he still refused to submit to the

God of the Israelites, to the one true God.

And I don't really hope that that is not you this morning,

the God's not speaking to you over and over again and you

refuse to submit and surrender to him because the consequences

of doing that are pretty serious, not just for yourself,

but also those that are in your lives.

So let's go to Exodus chapter 12.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

We're going to read verse one through 8.

Verses 11 through 13 says the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in

Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the first

month of your year. Tell the whole community of

Israel that on the 10th 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 land, they must

share one with their nearest neighbor.

Having taken into account the number of people they are, you

are to choose. 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 14th 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, put it on the sides, on tops of the door frames of

the houses where they eat the lamps.

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

with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.

And this is how you are to eat it, with your cloak tucked into

your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your

hand. Eat in any in haste, or eat it

fast. It is the Lord's Passover.

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

every first born of both people and animals, and I will bring

judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

We've talked about that this month.

And he says I am the Lord. The blood will be assigned 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, but this is what is called Passover

when when God the the Angel of the Lord or the destroyer like

it says in verse 23, goes through right and passes over

the houses that were eating lambs that have placed blood on

their door frames. Now everything needed to be done

fast right? Because the idea is that they

had to be ready to leave Egypt and go to the prominced land as

soon as God told them to. So roasting meat over a fire was

the fastest, was the simplest way to cook, cook anything

bitter herbs or to reminded them of the the years of slavery in

Egypt and their suffering. And those were the easiest herbs

to find and to harvest. The bread made without yeast

could be rapidly mixed and heated so they could eat it out.

It was even interesting that they had to dress accordingly,

right? And they had to dress ready to

just leave. They used to where people used

to talk in, they had to talk in their clothes on their belts

when they travel. Normally they would take that at

home, off at home, but now they had to have it on right and keep

it on while they eat the Passover meal.

The Passover that trip was imminent, so no one carried

their staff at home. They used it for to protect

themselves, to hurt animals, but now they needed to have it with

them, be ready to move, be ready to leave home the entire meal.

It's manner imposter to eat it even how they were to eat.

It indicated that that there had to be a readiness, right?

It had to be ready to leave quickly.

It was a meal to eat fast, fast food, not a typical meal.

So the Israelites still needed their freedom.

So God provided the final way to secure their freedom.

But they needed to follow His instructions.

They needed to act in faith. They needed to be ready to leave

everything behind and move forward to the new land.

Now let's talk a little bit about the blind lamb and the

blood for Passover. The lamb had to be a year old

male, without blemish, without defect, had to be perfect.

And why was that important? Because the blood of that lamb

was going to be used to protect them from God's judgment and to

deliver them from evil. Does that remind you of

something right? I love Ephesians chapter one

verse 7. See Passover was a

foreshadowing. It was a a prophecy.

It was a picture of the eventual death of Jesus.

What else? The forgiveness of our sins with

him, Jesus, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

I absolutely love the words of the John the Baptist when he

sees Jesus coming down to, for John to baptize him and John

says to the people, behold, that's the Lamb of God that

takes away the sin of the world. It was funny just that I was

reading a little bit more a couple of days ago.

Even a few verses later, he's walking around John and he sees

Jesus and he's they say again, he says, behold, that's the Lamb

of God. Those were powerful words,

especially for people that depended on human sacrifice to

have their sins forgiven. After Jesus death, animal

sacrifice was no longer needed, no longer needed.

Even today, according to Hebrews 922, the requirement for the

forgiveness of sins is the shedding of blood, right?

And that's what Jesus did for you and me in the cross.

He shed his blood for us once and for all.

So there's no more sacrifice needed.

All they needed to do was to repent of their sins, put their

faith only in Jesus. See, for they realized in Egypt,

sacrificing the lamb and putting the lamb's blood on their door

frame by itself wouldn't save them from death.

They still needed to believe. They still needed to trust.

They still needed to trust that that blood that was under door

frames will be enough, that there was no other way to be

saved. You know, the same is true

today. I love Acts 4/12.

He says that salvation is found in no one else.

In no one else, For there is no other name under heaven, given

to mankind, given to you and me, by which we must be saved.

Whose name? Who is it talking about?

Jesus. Jesus, the only one through whom

we can be saved, Him who was tempted in every way.

Just that we are, but the Bible says without sin.

Now God's perfect sacrifice shed his blood on the cross for you

and me, so that if I believe in him, if you believe in him with

all your heart, I may be forgiven and I can be cleansed

and born again. See that's the power of Jesus

sacrifice. That is the power of his blood.

Jesus blood saves first Peter chapter 1 verses 18 and 19.

1 Peter 1:18

For you know that it is not with perishable things such as silver

or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life

handed down to you from your accept ancestors, but you were

redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without

blemish, a lamb lamb without defect.

Going back to Exodus 12, at the end of verse 12, God clearly

establishes I am the Lord again, right?

We've talked about that this week, God making it clear that

he is the Lord, that he is the one truth and living God.

It's, it is as if he was saying to his people, I'm showing you

whom you must pay sole attention to and who alone can save you

and grant you blessing. I'm making sure that you cannot

miss the fact that I alone am life and truth for you.

Pay attention to know the gods. I have powerfully demonstrated

to you that they don't exist. I've also demonstrated to you

what happens to people who think they do Trust me alone and you

will have made the choice from which everything else important

follows God clearly establishing who he is.

Then at the end of verse 13, he says, when I see blood, I just

love those words. When I see blood I will Passover

you. In other words, I will spare all

those who show that they have placed their faith in me.

What a promise, what an assurance.

But they had to believe it. Do you believe that today?

So you need to be ready to leave everything behind and follow

Jesus to the new life He has for you.

Verses 14 through 20, we're not going to read they, they're

describing the Feast of the Unleavened bread.

It was one of these festivals that the Jews has celebrated.

It's a seven day festival that starts right after Passover,

also commemorating the Israel, Israel's delivery and exit from

Egypt. Now let's read verses 21 and

through 23. Verses 29 to 30 and see what

happened. Then Moses summoned all the

Israel's of the elders of Israel, the leaders and said to

them, go at once and select the animals for your families and

slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop which was

a branch, a type of branch. Dip it into the blood in 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 of your house until morning.

When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the

Egyptians, He will see blood on top and sides of the door frame

and will Passover that doorway. He will not permit the

destroyer, the Angel of the Lord, to enter your houses and

strike you down at midnight. The Lord struck down all the

first born in Egypt, from the first born of Pharaoh who sat on

the throne to the first born of the prisoner who was in the

dungeon, first born of all the livestock as well, symbolizing

that victory over the gods of Egypt.

Fire and all his officials and all the Egyptians got out during

the night and there was a loud wailing in Egypt.

Can you imagine that? For there was not a house or a

family without someone. That was that God's intention.

Now that tent plague was achieved only to the Lord, to

Yahweh as He went through Egypt, and death touched every home,

every family that had not put the blood of that perfect lamb

over their door frame. It's interesting that word

that's used there for wailing. It is the same word used in

chapter 3 of Exodus when it speaks about the outcry of the

Israelis to God. Now the Egyptians turn.

So right after Pharaoh lets the people go and after 430 years of

slavery, Can you imagine that 430 years of slavery they are

finally read the same as possible for you today?

I want to finish this morning by saying 3 basic things about the

blood of Jesus. Right.

So first of all, just like blood donation, the blood of Jesus was

given voluntarily. John's 10 verses 17 and 18.

This Jesus says the reason my Father loves me is that I lay

down my life only to take it up again.

No one takes it for me, Jesus says, but I lay it down on my

own accord. Jesus voluntarily lay down, gave

his life for you and for me in that cross, to give His life so

that you may have life. Will you give your life to Him

today? Life as you know it, your heart,

your soul, your spirit, Would you give that to Him today?

Secondly, the blood of Jesus is pure, has power to save, and

it's already been tested. Speaking about the victory that

Christians has have over Satan, John Rice in Revelation checked

by the what? By the blood of the Lamb and by

the power of their testimony. Because of my response to what

Jesus did, I have overcome evil. I have victory over evil.

You can't have victory over evil.

I am saved. You are saved now.

Safe from what? From an eternity separated from

God in hell. And believe me, hell is as real

as everything you can see and touch right here, right now.

It's not a fairy tale and you can prevent going there Today.

I was reading yesterday, I found this quote from Charles

Spurgeon, a famous old school preacher from England.

And he said this. He said a morality may keep you

out of jail, but it takes the blood of Jesus to keep you out

of hell. Morality, being a good person,

can keep you out of jail, but only the blood of Jesus, His

sacrifice for you, for me, believing it, accepting it can

keep you away from. Third, the blood of Jesus is

enough for everyone and for every sin.

It says the blood of Jesus. What?

His Son, Son of God, purifies us, cleanses us from all sin,

from all sin. It doesn't say some sin, right?

It doesn't say most sin. What does it say?

All sin? When God says all, he means all

sin. Yes, even that sin that you're

thinking of right now, that you're not sure that it can be

forgiven. Yes, that one too.

But just the fact alone that Jesus died on the cross doesn't

cleanse you, doesn't forgive you, doesn't purify you, doesn't

make you clean. You have to respond to Jesus.

The blood bank may have a limited supply of blood, but not

Jesus, His blood, his sacrifice. It's enough for every person and

every sin in the whole wide world.

I absolutely love what God says and I say I chapter one verse

18. I don't like an OG kind of you

know, let us settle the matter. Come here, let us settle the

matter. Let let me make this clear.

God says though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be

white as snow. Though they are red as Crimson,

they shall be like wool. So if you have a lot of sin, a

lot of darkness in your life, hey listen, you are in the right

place. You are here for a purpose.

Jesus can make your heart white as snow, clean, pure, and give

you a new life, at least on the inside.

Apostle Paul says in Second Corinthians, all things have

passed away. Behold, he says the new is here.

You can leave today here saying that I'm now in Christ.

All things passed away. Everything is made new.

It doesn't mean that he's going to wipe out your memory, right?

But any shame, any guilt that you feel in your heart can go

away. You can be made clean to that.

There's something called the doctrine of justification.

This could be a whole sermon in itself, or even more.

We're not going to go in detail, but it basically says that if I

put my faith in Jesus, I am declared righteous, right?

God covers my sin with the righteousness of Jesus, with

everything that Jesus is and everything that Jesus has done,

and then he sees me through Jesus as if I have never sinned.

I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty awesome that

if I've come to Jesus, I've repented on my sin and asked him

to clean me, to purify me. It's like Jesus stands in the

middle and when God looks at you, he sees Jesus and he sees

you as if you've never sinned. If you made that decision

already, that's already true. I will be true for the rest of

eternity for you. If not, make it happen today.

Again, when I think about justification, I think of these

words. When I see blood, I will

Passover you. No condemnation for you, because

God sees you through Jesus. Praise the Lord for that, right?

Hallelujah to the Lord for that. And then just as we wrap it up,

in celebration of what God did at the Passover, the people,

Jews, Israelites were to do the following, right?

Verses 24 through 27. So obey these instructions as a

lasting ordinance for you and your descendants when you enter

the land that the Lord will give you as a promise of serve this

Passover ceremony. And when your children ask you,

what does this ceremony mean to you, then you tell them it is

the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses

of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck

down the Egyptians. And he says that the people

heard that and they bought them, they worshiped God.

That's the commandment, right from God to, to the Israelites

to Jews, celebrate the Passover. Now the Last Supper of Jesus

with his disciples, right? That we cannot remember in a

special way. This week on, especially on

Thursday, was a celebration of the Passover, but it was also

the establishment of what we know as the Lord Supper.

Just celebrate the Passover remembrance of that night that

they were delivered from Egypt. And we, the disciples of Jesus

will celebrate the Lord's Supper as a remembrance celebration

what Christ did on the cross for you and for me.

So besides our words, besides our lies, there's no better way

to tell others, including our children, our family, the people

that we know, telling them what Jesus did for me, than by

celebrating the lost Supper that we're about to celebrate here in

a little bit. My dad was a pastor and when he

will lead people in the Lord's Supper, I would always look

forward. My highlight was when he quoted

the apostle Paul in First Corinthians.

Whenever the Lord said, for whenever you eat this bread and

you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes,

because Jesus is coming again. What a great hope.

I don't know about you, but I cannot wait till that day.

Do you have that hope that you will live eternally with Jesus?

That when you die you'll be with him forever, Or that if he comes

while you're still alive, you're going to be with him, be here

there with him eternally? A while back, Consumer Reports,

some of you may know what this is, they published A booklet

that was titled How to Clean Practically Anything, right?

And I you can probably find that pretty handy.

The book offered advice and what which solvents, you know, work

best for removing all kinds of stains.

I'm going to have to look it up because every time I eat, I get

dirty, you know, and I'm sure the guys have noticed that in

Bible study. I know my family notices all the

time that the time I knew that Crystal had fully, fully come

into our family. One time I got dirty.

And then when I raised my eyes, she was looking at me.

It's like she was waiting, you know, I know he's going to get

there. Let me see how long it takes you

to get there. But when you don't find that

book, however, is how to deal with the worst stain of all,

right, which is the stains in your life that are caused by

sin. Those are deep, ugly marks that

you may have in your life. The tears cannot wash those

away. Determination cannot erase them.

Sometimes we can, you know, convince ourselves that as life

goes on and time passes by, our sins would simply fade away and

just go away like nothing. Yet those things, somehow they

see back into our lives. But just as everything requires

the right solvent, everything requires the only effective

remedy, which is the blood of Jesus image tried to scrub

things out of our lives with good work, good works with

willpower and time. None of those can remove the

guilt and the same that sin leaves behind.

Only Jesus can wash us clean. So when we feel kind of way down

by past mistakes or struggles that don't seem to go away,

bring your stains to Jesus. Bring your stains to Jesus

because I we read His blood can cleanse you from all sin.

Confess your sin to Him, repent of it, ask for His forgiveness

and believe me, He will forgive you.

For John, He is just to forgive us of all sin and to cleanse us

from all kinds of unrighteousness.

I was thinking this week about this.

O Him some of you may and know it.

It's hard for me not to think about some of these hymns and

you know when I preach, but it was one of them.

I encourage you to look for it. I'll Google it sometime.

I can wash away my sin. For the chorus says, what can

wash away my sin? Only blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again? Only for the blood of Jesus, Oh

precious is the floor that makes me why that's no oh what a

fount. I know only I'm going to ask the

team to come up. We're going to open time for

prayer If there's you need to pray with one of us there any

you've never asked Jesus forgive the sins of your life and of

your heart. This would be a good time to do

it. Of course, you can do it on your

own, but we'll we'll love to talk to you, pray with you and

if you have already, you know, come to know Jesus.

But there's stuff in your life that you haven't confessed that

you haven't dealt with with God and Jesus.

There's no better time to do that that now because we can

only be washed. We can only be clean through his

blood, through his sacrifice, and I believe in it.

Let's break.