The Passover: Remembering the Blood of Christ

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to

the Bible Guys. Here we are today is Friday, TG. I f

there you go. I wonder if everybody is working Friday? There are people

getting ready to work? Are they are? They? Are they going into

work and listening to us in the morning when they're getting ready? Well,

thanks for ruining the morning, Chris. Why what do you mean everybody had

a moment where they were going to just spend time with the Bible guys and

not think about work. Oh? I see, I say, Well,

guess what. We have a segment today because it's Friday, and it's the

most important one is this is backed by popular demand. Our fans keep demanding

that we want. Yeah, we had so many card and letter sent and

email and text overwhelming pressure to have you explain to us once again your benevolent

feelings for us. Yes, with regard to what made Chris mad this week,

Yes, because you always are angry. Not for yourself, no,

but for the on behalf of us, the world, for the world.

Yes, So you're kind of an expert on humanity. Yeah, so I

have that's funny. No, not freud me. Oh yeah yeah, yeah,

yeah, so I would say that the thing they got me mad this

week is have you ever been either in a school with a white board or

maybe in the olden days a school with a chalkboard. Yes, and they

actually had something written on the white I'll just say white board today. Right,

it's something written on the white board and they want to write something else.

But instead of erasing everything on the white board, they only erase the

middle. Yes, they just smear it a little bit. And yeah,

they smeared a little bit and then write something new. Okay, let me

tell you something that those people deserve a special punishment. Wow somewhere and now

I've seen you react about this before, so yes, yeah, no,

you you have to erase if you're going to erase the board and start over,

erase the board, the whole board, the whole board, every bit

of the board. How could you possibly like like only erase the middle part

and then have information around the sides, and especially if it's a chalkboard,

then it's all that like it's just that smear. You know back in the

day that you used to drive me nuts. But uh And by the way,

do you ever clean chalkboard with a sponge and water? Yes? Yeah,

I used to clean chalkboard all the time. I bet I'm solicited too,

right, right, it's just what you did, I bet that's yeah.

No, no, no, it's just what you did. You didn't

even have to do it. You did it because it drove you nuts.

Oh I thought you were meeting as a punishment clean the chalkboard. No,

but this happened the other day at church. So somebody is, as you

know, is a whiteboard filled with writing. They get up and they want

to write something, and they erase like, yeah, ninety percent of it,

and then they just continue as if that's acceptable. Yes, right,

I saw this. I was in that meeting, wasn't I wasn't it the

one that was well? I think because I saw you jump up and erase

the rest of the boord. So, but the thing is, the world

doesn't like this, the world, at least at least all of your OCD

friends. No, the majority of the world, even those who aren't.

My wife's on OCD, and she would say, what is he doing?

Erase the whole board? Right, because that's just crazy. It's it's madness,

I say, mad well, thank you, thank you for pointing this

out. If you're a boss, if you're going to be writing on a

whiteboard today, yeah, be curtious, erased the whole thing. Be courteous.

There's going to be a Chris Star bond there that can't hear another word

you say while there's a little red line over in the corner, and there's

more of me than there is of you. I'm not sure about the teacher

that that is. That's an obsessive thing. So there are people, there

are people who are not OCD. That's still that drives them those Okay are

you a little do you lean a little that way? Just a little,

just a little, Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure I do.

It was bad in college, was it really? You get really bad?

Somebody had to actually point out that this is unhealthy and really bad.

And then I had to learn to not be OCD. And I had all

my labels up front. I used to hang my shirts in the closet,

I take out a ruler and make sure that they were oh wow, yeah,

I'm not kidding. Yeah, that's a lot. My brother when he

used my hair dryer, he'd have to have it wrap a certain way,

and I'd say, put it perpendicular on the dresser. And then if he

didn't put a perpendicular, I'm like, I'm like, what does the matter

with you? Put a perpendicular and he's like, what does the matter with

you? And then uh. And then finally somebody mentioned it to me and

I was like, oh, I wasn't familiar with this, and you know

what cured me? And actually I'm not cured. I just tolerated, right,

Like, what's what's his name? A beautiful mind? He just learned

to deal with his schizophrenia things. But I do every day. I deal

with OCD every single day. I just ignore it. But what cured me

was being a youth pastor. His life is messy, Yeah, very messy,

very messy, especially when you're a youth pastor. Yes, yes,

and so I had to learn to deal with it. And I used to

I used to have eye twitches every single day being a youth pastor. But

I just learned to go with it. And so you've overcome all of it.

Except an honey race, a thoroughly honey race. Well that's just that's

just laziness. There's no excuse for you not to erase everything. Yeah,

that's not OCD. It's just driving me nuts, right, It's just it's

lazy. Hey. Uh, you know, there's there's nothing wrong with liking

things done. One more comment. If you're out there and you're a person

that decides to race only the middle part and then write something, I don't

think I want to work for you. Wow. In fact, I would

venture to say, I think you've told me everything I needed to know about

you, forever, forever. I dismissed you from my life. Well,

I just don't think I want to be friends really yeah yeah, okay,

yeah, Well note to self. I have a whole list of things I'm

always like, Okay, I'm in Chris's presence. I don't want to do

that. I don't want to because I don't want to. I don't.

I am. I am terrified to get canceled by you. I am.

I spend most of my time obsessing about maintaining maintaining our friendship and afraid that

I'm going to cross the line at some point. I'm always thinking, you

know, I was just a home depot and I almost didn't return my cart,

and I'm thinking what if zar bas here right. Hey, I'm getting

dressed in the morning. I wonder if Crystal like this shirt. Yep,

that's it. And then when it comes to now I've discovered I have to

erase the entire board before Okay, well, thank you, Chris, thank

you, and I'm sure on behalf of a whole segment of our of our

listeners, yes, both of them. They are thrilled that you that you

brought this up, and uh, the rest of us will seek to there.

It is not be a distraction to you, all right. So we're

moving on to Moses's last plague. So there have been nine plagues, Yeah,

nine plagues up to this point, and Pharaoh just wants more. His

heart keeps getting hardened. Finally, the god of the sun is darkened,

and they're like shocked by that, but it doesn't matter. Then finally Pharaoh

says, I'm not gonna you know, I don't ever want to see you

again. Moses says, don't worry, You're never going to see me again.

And now I remember this is very likely either his stepdad or his stepbrother,

very likely one of them. Then the Lord said to Moses, I

will strike Pharaoh and the land of Egypt with one more blow. After that,

Pharaoh will let you leave this country. In fact, he will be

so eager to get rid of you that he will force you all to leave.

Tell all of the Israelite men and women to ask your Egyptian neighbors for

articles of silver and gold. Now the Lord had caused the Egyptians to look

favorably upon the people of Israel. Moses was considered a very great man in

the land of Egypt, respected by Pharaoh's officials and the Egyptian people alike.

Moses had announced to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says. At midnight

tonight, I will pass through the heart of Egypt. All the firstborn sons

will die in every family in Egypt, from the oldest son of Pharaoh who

sits on his throne, to the oldest son of his lowliest servant girl who

grinds a flower. Even the firstborn of all the livestock will die. And

then a loud whale will rise throughout the land of Egypt, a whale like

no one has heard before, and no one will ever hear again. But

among the Israelites it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark,

and then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between the Egyptians

and the Israelites. All the officials of Egypt will run to me and fall

to the ground before me. Please leave. They will beg hurry and take

all your followers with you. Only then will I go. Then, burning

with anger, Moses left Pharaoh. Now the Lord had told Moses earlier,

Pharaoh will not listen to you. But then I will do even more mighty

miracles in the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron performed these miracles in Pharaoh's

presence, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. He wouldn't let the Israelites lie

leave the country. So then God begins to unpack for them. How He's

going to pass over the firstborn of Israel, and this becomes the most important

national holiday, the most important religious ceremony, the greatest celebration within all of

the Hebrew religious system is the Passover. Yeah, and so we're going to

skip over the first twenty verses of chapter twelve where he basically instructs the children

of Israel to have a Passover feast. Well, it's a feast of unloved

bread, and they're going to basically he gives a great instruction on to sit

down and to have this sort of a meal. And then while they're meeting,

they have to do something in order for them to be passed over.

Right, So then Moses called all the elders of Israel together this is verse

twenty one, and said to them, go pick up a pick out a

lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the passover animal.

Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hissop branches

and dip it into the blood. Brush the hissop across the top and the

sides of the doorframes of your houses, and no one may go out through

the door until morning, for the Lord will pass through the land to strike

down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and the

sides of the doorframe, the Lord will pass over your home. He will

not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down. Remember

these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever.

When you enter the land the Lord has promised to give you, you will

continue to observe this ceremony. Then your children ask what does this ceremony mean?

And you will reply, it is the passover sacrifice to the Lord.

For he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, and though he

struck the Egyptians, he spared our families. When Moses had finished speaking,

all the people bowed down to the ground and worshiped. So the people of

Israel did just as the Lord had commanded through Moses and Aaron. And that

night, at midnight, the Lord struck down all the first born sons in

the land of Egypt, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sat on his

throne, to the firstborn son of the prisoner in the dungeon. Even the

firstborn of their livestock were killed. Pharaoh and all of his officials and all

the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard

throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had

not died. A single house. Yeah, that is amazing. And you

know, this becomes so significant for us because, as mentioned before, it

seems to be like, you know, the things that Moses did physically,

you know, represent things for us spiritually, right, and so this being

the most important of them all right, because you know, the blood that

is commanded to be spread on the door frames represents the blood of Jesus.

So the Book of Hebrews tells us that without the shedding of blood, there's

no forgiveness of sense. And so so just imagine if you were there.

You know, you had to take a you know, sacrifice, you know,

the firstborn, you know, without a blemish, without a spot,

a perfect sacrifice. And this lamb has to be killed, and it's a

pretty gruesome sight or goat. And then and then when he said lamb or

goat, he said, take a young lamb or a goat. And and

he said, and then and then go ahead and spread it on your doorposts.

Well, the doorposts would be representative of the cross. Right, so

Jesus is carrying his cross, and you know there's the there's the posts,

and there's there's the crossbeam and and you know the blood that was you know,

dripping off of Jesus' back and face and beard and head would have would

have covered those timbers and and so and so you know, because the blood

was sacrificed, the animal sacrifice, the blubble shed and then the blood represented

uh, you know, uh, a passing over of judgment of sorts,

right, not a physical death, or actually it was a physical death,

but for us it's a spiritual death. Yeah. So God says, when

I see the blood, I'll pass over you, right that, and he

said my death angel will not kill the firstborn. And that's a really significant

issue. It's the same for us. Right, We're still sinners, we're

still the same humans, but we're covered in the blood of Jesus. There's

Jesus blood that paid the price for us, that ransom that had to be

paid in Romans chapter six was the blood of Christ. And so now the

Bible says that when God sees us we are, even though our sins are

as scarlet, that they'll be as white as snow. Right, So when

God's looking through the blood of Jesus, he only sees us as clean,

not covered in sin. And that's the idea. So I think it's really

interesting the part we skipped over. God unpacks this entire meal. There's these

bitter herbs, and there's roasted lamb, and there's you know, unleavened bread

and all these things in every one of those is symbolic in the whole sacrifice.

Of who Jesus was. This is all symbolic, but it's interesting because

he tells them, first of all, get dressed for a journey, and

they do. And so this sitting there ready for this journey, they had

not yet been set free. As a matter of fact, nine other times

Pharaoh went ah, changed my mind, right, But this time he says,

I want you to get dressed, get all your stuff, get your

walking stick, get everything, and then sit down for the meal. And

this moment of preparing for the thing that God said was going to happen was

an act of faith because it had not yet happened, and then they didn't

know how God was going to deliver them. But in this moment when the

death Angel comes through Egypt and just wipes out the firstborn of every family,

finally Pharaoh's heart's broken to the point where he sends them away. But what's

really interesting is before that, God tells through Moses, tells the people,

hey, go and talk to all your Egyptian friends and borrow some gold and

silver. Right. They literally, when they finally are freed, because we'll

read in the next episode, we'll read about how Pharaoh sends them away,

they literally plundered the land of Egypt, and God had prepared everything. He's

sending them off with all the resources they need. Hey, you work for

free for four hundred years. Here comes your resources. And so they had

the resources. They get dressed, they're ready to go. They have this

special meal, and then he says, I want you to keep doing this.

Celebrate it year after year after year after year after year. And this

celebration is so you can teach your children. And so I think of it

in our world, what is that like? That's Easter, right, It's

Thanksgiving, right, remembering that God gave us what God gave us. It's

Christmas. And we need to keep rehearsing, re rehearsing the stories with our

children. Not just make it about the cute elements or the fun elements,

or the nice elements. Hey pass the mass potatoes, or hey here's Santa

Claus. But we need to also be thinking, how do we tell the

story that God came and invaded this planet, He rescued us from our sins,

and then we are thankful for what He's done for us, right,

the resurrection, the Cross. We need to be rehearsing them. And that's

the whole purpose behind the Passover Meal for the Hebrews was so that they would

never generation after generation after generatoration would never forget. And here we are thirty

five hundred years later and they still do it. Yeah, they still do

it. And it's by no accident that when Jesus was actually killed that he

intentionally waited, remember, outside of Jerusalem, and he was in Bethany.

He was hanging out and he would go into Jerusalem every day he would teach,

he'd come back out. But then he finally entered in Jerusalem on what

the first day of the Passover, and Passover is actually a term that is

used to describe the week, Passover week, and it was a Passover festival

that lasted a week. But then the Passover meal took place on Thursday night,

and so there was a there was a there was a marching in,

which is why we have Palm Sunday because that's when Jesus marched into the city.

And it was by no accident that it was passover because during the Passover

meal, that is when Jesus says, hey, remember this meal. I

mean, I'm adding words, but he looks at his disciples and says,

remember this meal. That you've observed years since you were a child. And

he says, well, guess what this this bread that you that you realize

that everything here symbolizes something. Those bitter herbs symbolizes four hundred years of slavery

and you know, and in bitterness. Well, guess what this bread?

This is my body right which is broken for you. You've wondered what this

bread symbolizes and the tearing of this bread. Well, guess what this is

me? And he takes the wine and he pours it out. Yeah,

remember ceremoniously how you poured up this wine for the every year, for the

you know, your whole life. Well, guess what this is my blood?

This is me? And what are you're saying is I'm the fulfillment of

this prophecy. God sets into motion and Exodus chapter number twelve a tradition that

carried over you know what is it. It's it's fifteen hundred years until Jesus,

Jesus. That's up to Jesus. And then Jesus finally comes and says,

you know, I'm the fulfillment of this meal r you know this word

picture And so he's going to die on the cross. He's going to die

that week, in fact, the next day. Right, he's going to

die the next day, and it's going to be just exactly like the blood

that was spread on the lamb of the goat spread on the timbers. So

that the judgment of God passes over our sin, passes over our death.

We no longer have to die spiritually because Jesus died for us in our place.

God says in that part, we didn't read about the bread, for

instance, the unleavened bread. He goes, hey, for these seven days,

I don't even want any leaven in your home. Right, if you

eat any leavened bread, you know, bread that has been able to rise

because of the leaven, you're going to be kicked out of the nation of

Israel. This is don't mess around with this. And it represents so leaven

in Jesus and his teaching. We'll talk about it too. Leven would represent

sin, right, right, Not that leven is sin, but it represented

a little bit makes that all you have to do is a little bit of

yeast in a lump of dough and the whole lump rise, right, And

so it's the picture, just a little bit of sin, a little bit

of deviating over to the Egyptian way instead of God's way. It's going to

ruin everything. And so the idea then is when when Jesus has that Last

Supper with his disciples and institutes communion for the first time, what we would

call communion. Now there's this unleavened bread, and Jesus said, he picks

up this untainted bread, it would be a cracker essentially, and he says,

this is my body. He's he's indicating it's sinless, right, my

body has nothing to taint it. It's sinless and pure. And I'm going

to give this as a sacrifice. And he holds up the wine and he

said, this wine represents that blood because it's kind of grewsome the blood thing,

he said, represents the blood. And then he goes and he pays

the price on the cross. As as John said, behold the Lamb of

God, who takes away the sin of the world. That's what That's what

John announced three years before, was that this is the lamb. The lamb

we've been looking for is that guy, and he's going to take away the

sins of the world. And so this is why when God says, when

I see the blood I'll pass over as when he sees the blood of Jesus.

Nothing in all of human history has been more important than the shed blood

of Christ. Right. Equally important would be the resurrection, because lots of

people have shed their blood, but not everybody who shed their blood to pay

for sins also resurrected. So those two elements. But there's nothing more important

for your salvation than the fact that Jesus shed his blood for you. That's

right. And this is why communion is so important. When we receive and

we're remembering those things, it's not just a religious ritual. It literally represents

thirty five hundred years of this illustration of the fact that an innocent one died

to protect the guilty ones, and that the guilty ones choose to remember by

the unleaven bread the wine. And then he says, get ready, prepare

to go. And a lot of us we consume all the stuff, the

religious stuff, but we're not ready to go do the work right and go

on the mission that God has us for. Yeah, and I always because

our culture is so indoctrinated with confusing things about you know, the communion today

you know frequency? And then is it you know, is it just bread.

Is it grape juice? Is it wine? Is does it represent you

know, the body or the blood? And is it physically the body or

the blood. Well, listen, when you think about it in terms of

everything we just said, when you think about it, because you know,

a lot of times a lot of us don't understand that when we understand the

context and he says, this is my body and he's referring to the Hey,

this this ritual that you've been doing, this represents me. You know,

Jesus wasn't literally saying that it was his physical flesh. He wasn't saying

this is my body. And the example I always like to use this Jesus

said, I am the gate, but he wasn't a gate. He said,

I'm the door. He wasn't a door. He said, I am

the rock. He wasn't a rock. Right, I'm the shepherd. He

wasn't technically a shepherd. Jesus said all sorts of things, uh, you

know, like like the salt metaphors. I I am the light. He

wasn't light. Although actually trans transfiguration, he became light. But the point

is is that it is a metaphor. It was it was It was a

in so many different ways. He says, I this is my this is

my body. Why would we take it to be that it's the physical body

of Christ when stacked up against everything else we know about Jesus's teachings, right,

And it's because we ask ourselves who has the authority of the Bible or

the Church? Right? And you know, and somewhere along the way the

Church has declared that. But if you look at the Bible, who we

consider the final authority, we understand that that's not the case. And so

and so the wine then he said, this is my blood. It just

it means, hey, this this symbolically is is uh, you know who

I am? Just just like it, just like Jesus is the cornerstone.

He's not a little cornerstone of a building. Right. So so yeah,

so the wine represented the blood of the sheep of the lamb, that's right.

And they sat there and clearly understood that was not Lamb's blood. It

was actual grape juice wine, that's right, right, right, So wine

from a from a grape. So they knew already it was symbolic. But

then since then we've changed it back into an actual thing. Some some religious

people, but in the moment, they knew that this was not the blood

of a lamb. It represented the blood of a lamb, right, And

now he's saying, it represents my blood. I am the lamb. Right,

He's the lamb. So it's a figurative thing, right, right,

Yeah, and so and so that's that's what it is. And so just

like Jeff said, we have to remember, and this is probably the good

closing thought, right, that that this passover feast in Exodus twelve. If

you go to church on a regular basis and you receive communion, just know

that you are connected. I mean, you're very salvation is connected to the

passover. That's great, I mean, you know our salvation. But but

the observance of it, the the the appreciation of it, the gratitude for

the understanding of all of that is represented in the ritual of one of the

only two ordinances that God gives to the church. He gives baptism, which

is a command, right, and then he gives communion. In communion is

something that we observe. And he says as often as you do it,

which means it doesn't matter how often you do it. And most scholars would

say that he probably meant every year, once a year, because he says

as often as you do this, he's referring to the Passover feast, as

often as you do this, So if you really want to argue frequency,

you could you could lean toward months annually, right, So it doesn't matter

the frequency, because I'm sure there's no sin against doing it once a week

or once every you know, two months, as often as you do it,

that's right, that's right. So big picture, you were enslaved in

sin, that's right. The lamb of God shed his blood. Yep,

the sinless Lamb of God, undefiled, shed his blood. When God sees

the blood, he passes over you and you pass from death to life,

and then freedom is on the other side of that, which is exactly the

story of the people of Israel. That's great. Well, that's a pretty

massive milestone in the Old Testament. Huge, And that's what we're doing.

We're covering the milestones of the Old Testament in this series. So we will

pick up next time on Monday on the Bible guys, mhm hm