Moses: A Journey from Bondage to Freedom: Passover and the Grace of God

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

It's our hope that these sermons will draw you

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Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Great God, we come before

your word and we pray that you would hide it

in our hearts, that it would be our delight and

our joy, that it would be our confession that

the grass withers and the flower fades, but the

word of our Lord stands forever. And God, that

we would take joy in this truth that you communicate

your truths to us from your holy word. God, now

may the words in my mouth and the meditations

of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord,

our rock and our Redeemer. Amen. All right, we

just heard part of Exodus chapter 12. And if

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

you've been around Second City Church for a little

while, a year, two, three, 10 or more, I hope

that you've had the opportunity to gather together

on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday,

as we remember the death of our Lord on the cross.

It's a service where we recount some of the events

that we just heard. We actually take some bitter

herbs and unleavened bread and things like that.

But it's an account that sort of bleeds seamlessly

as we remember how our Lord Himself celebrated

the Passover with His disciples, but He also

instituted for us the Great Supper, which we

celebrate week in and week out. I've heard from

many of you that it's one of the highlights of

our church sort of life together, gathering together,

recounting. the events here of Exodus 12 and

the events there of the cross. The great redemption

stories of both the Old Testament faith and the

New Testament faith. And it's because in the

Old Testament these events, the Exodus events

and the New Testament event of Calvary are the

great acts of redemption in the Bible. This was

the thing that marked the people of God. The

cross is understood through the lens of this

text. Behold, the lamb of God, as we heard, takes

away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist

declares as Jesus comes for baptism. Or in his

vision, right, in Revelation chapter five, then

I saw a lamb who had been slain. And likely John

the Baptist in the image of Revelation had in

mind both the cross that is so central to our

faith and also this text, Exodus chapter 12,

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

the blood of the Lamb. Of course, all of these

texts focus on that reality, blood, blood that

was shed. The blood here, though, is to convey

protection, right? But the odd thing is that

this is what many commentaries say, well, who

is the protection from? We know that they were

oppressed by Pharaoh. You remember back just

not long ago, all of the words, the affliction

and the ruthless oppression and all the words

that are used to describe Pharaoh, how he treated

the Israelites. And yet that's not what the blood

of the Passover lamb was for. The blood of the

Passover lamb was to protect against the judgment

of God. Blood is mentioned quite a bit in this

passage. Specifically, it's mentioned four times,

but... It's all throughout. But I want you to

say with this idea that this is the story of

redemption in the Old Testament that we're reading.

It marks the beginning of their life together.

It sort of defines their life together. It's

the beginning of their year. It's the first thing

that God says, this is what sort of marks you

as you go out. And of course we would say the

cross is the thing that marks Christians. A bloody

cross. Jesus' blood being shed, His body being

given up for us. Now a lot of people, you might

know this, but a lot of people love the Exodus

story, Exodus chapter 12, because it really is

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

one of the great models in history of an oppressed

people being set free, liberty for captives,

freedom from slavery. It's the story that has

enabled so many people to take on the cause of

liberation, the care for the needy, the relief

of the poor, the abolition of slavery, freedom

from oppression. Yet, I think as you sit in this

passage, it's by no means an easy passage. And

again, I think it's because there's so much blood.

I mentioned that blood is mentioned four times,

and those four times are all mentioned in relation

to the lamb, what they're supposed to do with

this blood. But there is so much death. So much

life and so much death in Exodus chapter 12 in

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

this, these story that marked God's people. It

is the story of liberation and it has been used

to enable so many to take on the cause of those

who are in need of freedom. But this is not an

easy passage, an easy story. So let me in some

ways maybe illustrate this. I was talking with

a friend who's a pastor out in California this

week. And I told him I was preaching this passage

and I was wrestling with just how hard this passage

can be. And he said, you know what? I actually

had dinner recently with this woman and she was

the first woman who worked on the London Stock

Exchange, on the floor of the London Stock Exchange.

And she actually afterwards became the first

woman to work on the New York Stock Exchange.

And she actually recently became a Christian.

and I got to have dinner with her, some friends,

and I just asked her, like, so you've been reading

through the Bible, what have you found challenging

about the Bible? And she said, all the violence.

It reminded me of when I was leading a campus

ministry, a former university fellowship down

in Virginia in Richmond, and I had become friends

with a guy there on the campus of VCU who wasn't

a Christian. We became good enough friends. I

was like, hey, I would love it if you came to

our large group meeting. Just come, just come

observe, come listen. You don't have to sing

along. I just want you to kind of take it in

and then how about you and I get together afterwards?

Because I would love to hear your thoughts. Is

it a place where a non -Christian can come and

kind of feel welcome and kind of understand what's

happening? I just want to hear all your thoughts.

And so he did that. He came and he heard and

he listened to our singing and he heard my sermon

and these kinds of things. And then we got together

the next week and I said, well, tell me what

you think. You know what he said? Y 'all talk

about blood a lot. And that's a little weird.

And I said, fair enough. We do, we sing nothing

but the blood. I think we sang that that week.

I was preaching about the reality of the atonement

of God, the sins of the world. Most of us are

far from violence, at least violence that we

see blood. We don't have animals that we kill

like they did, right? We get them packaged up

for a lot of people, ideally boneless even. to

forget that they were once living beings. So

it's far from us. But this morning I want us

to see that with all this blood, this passage

marks out the people of God and it speaks of

judgment and it speaks of grace. Okay. First

judgment. And I wonder if when I first say, hey,

we're gonna talk about judgment, if maybe you

start to squirm a little bit. We gotta talk about

that. And because it's true, it's one of the

great objections to Christian faith is just how

judgy religious people can be. Judgmental Christians

can be fair enough. It can be a true indictment

at times. But even to long for somebody's liberation,

to long, to desire, to work against, to cry against

the death of children in war, as we rightly do.

or to make a judgment on just work practices.

All of these things, they are to make a judgment

of something being right and something being

wrong. You cannot get away from the idea of a

degree of judgment. And if there isn't a God,

if there isn't really moral absolutes, well,

then it's hard to say what's so bad about oppression.

What's so bad about the collateral civilian casualties

of war or harsh unpaid working environments.

Instead, like I said, this text, which is a text

of judgment, has been used as one of the great

texts to ennoble, to invigorate people to work

towards just causes in the world, a text of judgment.

If you know there's a God and he's given us a

way to live in the world and he is going to judge

us, then you might have a high view of working

for the good of his world against oppression.

Maybe some of you have read Chesterton's famous

book, Orthodoxy. There is a short season where

I sought to read it every year. I haven't done

that recently. But he talks in the third chapter

about how the infinite skeptic, the one who can't

actually land on a judgment, makes for a poor

rebel. Because if you doubt everything, you actually

lose the foundation from which you have to protest.

And so in some ways I'm saying you must judge.

in order to protest, you must become a judge

in order to work towards the goodness and wholeness

of this world. But here's the thing, okay, I

think a lot of times we rightly are criticized

for judgment because so often the way that we

judge is not actually a just judgment. So this

text actually gets at, I think some of the ways

that we sort of judge wrongly. And first, I want

you to see that the judgment in this passage

isn't allowing us to say, ah, these good people

there. these bad people there, okay? What do

I mean? Well, one of the first things is that

I want you to see is that this is not about sort

of ethno -nationalism. This is not what this

text is about. We can't just say, ah, it's the

Israelites who are spared, the Egyptians who

are not spared. If we kept reading, we might

be tempted to think that. Verse 29 says, the

Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land

of Egypt from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat

on the throne to the firstborn of the captive

who was in the in the dungeon. It even says all

the firstborn livestock. But I want you to see

this is not sort of ethno -nationalist, meaning

our people and those people, right? This isn't

that the Lord is some kind of nationalistic God

who's supposed to just bless these kinds of people.

I mean, I think we rightly say God bless America.

but the subtext sometimes can be, and not all

those other people. It's not that kind of thing.

Now, if we looked at the end of the chapter,

it's actually kind of interesting. I mentioned

this earlier a little bit, but it speaks about

who can celebrate the meal that commemorates

this judgment and this grace of God. And interesting,

it says, no foreigner can eat of it. But Sonic

kind of gets at this idea. But then it gives

qualifications for the sojourner who can, meaning

you can actually go through and you can become

part of the people of God. You can be somebody

who is not ethnically part of it and you can

totally enter into it. To the fact that you're

no longer called a foreigner, but you're truly

part of the people of God. You could be born

outside of Israel and become part of Israel.

This is actually partly why this is an interesting

little detail. In verse 38 of this passage, what

it says is a mixed multitude left Egypt. There's

all kinds of different people who have come under

this reality that they are worshiping the true

God and they've been spared. Leviticus 43, or

sorry, not 43. There's not a Leviticus 43. Leviticus

24. We could read of a woman whose son's father

was an Egyptian. There was intermarriage taking

place. So you can't say, oh, people that look

like me, good. Those people, bad. There's no

place for that. We could read in Exodus 9 20,

which was during the plague where the hail came

down, that there were those who feared the Lord

among the servants of Pharaoh. And what they

did is they actually heeded Moses's words and

they went inside and they brought their livestock

inside and they were fine. And there were the

servants of Pharaoh who didn't do that. So you

could be really part of Pharaoh's community and

worship the true God. Give yourself over to the

true Lord. God just wanted to pass over the Israelite

houses and not the Egyptian houses One of things

that we learned earlier is he knew where they

all were the frogs didn't go in these houses

in those houses, right? So it's not this kind

of ethnic thing nationalistic thing It can't

be that this judgment is based on a thing that

we so often judge others by The other thing is

that the judgment here that happens in this text

can't be because Israel's more righteous It doesn't

really work. In Deuteronomy, we read this can't

be the case. It's not just the fact that Pharaoh

killed all the, you know, he desired to kill

the little baby boys of the Israelites. Remember

Moses being put in the basket. And so God is

just bringing judgment on those people like Pharaoh.

Can't be that. Because actually in chapter nine

of Deuteronomy, God says, don't say in your heart,

It's because of my righteousness that the Lord

has brought me in to possess the land." He says,

you can't say that. You can't say that. You can't

just look out and say, oh, judge the Pharaohs

because I'm upstanding. Judgment in Egypt cannot

be because of the goodness or righteousness of

Israel. I also don't think that you can come

to this passage and think that judgment is just

for the non -religious. meaning that if you just

kind of do the religious stuff, you're going

to be fine. If you read through, if you look

at the plagues, the 10 plagues, you know, last

week I kind of considered the first nine. The

first nine keep this sort of format that I talked

about last week. Then the Lord said to Moses,

right? So I said, these are the words of the

Lord. And then there's this action, there's the

hardening of heart. There's this kind of rhythm

that happens in those plagues. You get to this

10th plague and it's like, it's totally different.

There's all this detail. And a lot of the detail

is detail about what the people are supposed

to do. They were supposed to take a spotless

lamb that was at least a year old. They were

supposed to have it. They were supposed to do

it on the 10th day. It wasn't until the 14th

day that they're supposed to kill it. There's

all these details. You're supposed to take the

blood and put it in the basin and dab it. There's

all these ritual acts that are happening. I want

you to think about some of these ritual acts,

right? Not everybody had a bunch of Sheep, just

around. Maybe some people had just a few. One

sheep, that could have been a huge part of their

net worth. You're asking me to give, I don't

know, 25 % of my sheep for this act, God, you

know, maybe they're protesting, but they kind

of go along with it. Like, you want me to tithe?

I don't know. Then you want me to follow these

instructions? You want me to set aside this whole

week, cleansing from leaven and all this? You

know, there's all these kinds of details that

they kind of go through. They're not supposed

to boil the lamb. Did you notice that detail?

And if there's bones left over, they're supposed

to burn them up. I mean, it's just like detail

after detail. It's totally different than the

other plagues. And it's a lot of kind of religious

sort of, you know, specificity, which in some

ways was to say that these were the kinds of

people, I don't know, that showed up for worship

instead of sleeping in and just doing whatever

they wanted, you know? They lifted up their voices

and sang, they tithed. They were good religious

folk in a way, if they got to this point. You

could say maybe, ah, the judgment just happens

on those who don't follow religion properly,

that don't do the things, go through the right

steps. But I don't think you can get there either.

Now, I think there's actually a detail here that

almost seems to say you can go through all of

the right steps and miss it all. Verse 22 says,

None of you shall go out of the door of his house

until morning." Why give that detail? If they

went through all of these steps, look at all

the good things I did, look at how I followed

this and that that you told me to do, why would

he give this instruction? Why would they have

to stay inside? I mean, okay, think, is this

just a passage about freeing the oppressed? I

don't think it is. If it is, why does it matter

where the slave is? If the main point is doing

away with an oppressor and freeing the oppressed,

why does it matter where he is? If this is just

a passage about ethno -nationalism, why does

it matter where they are? These kinds of people

are good, those kinds of people are bad, then

who cares where they're staying at night? If

this is about freeing the good people, keeping

the good people alive, why does it matter where

they are? Yeah, if this is about just following

all of these steps and they followed them all

and they've eaten the The lamb why did I have

to stay inside? But what seems so clear is who?

Who is covered the only people are those who

stay under the blood of the lamb and that's the

only thing You can be an Egyptian, right? You

could you can go through the all these things,

but you have to stay under the blood of the lamb.

You can be a foreigner. You can be a sojourner.

You've got to stay under the blood of the lamb.

He isn't just coming to free the oppressed, though

he is doing that. He isn't trying to just make

a righteous people, though he is doing that,

right? I mean, he goes to Sinai and gives them

a law and desires that they be holy as he is

holy. He isn't just making a nation, though he

is doing that, though it's not an ethno nation.

He isn't just making a special people, though

he is doing that also. isn't just trying to get

them to follow certain religious practices, though

of course we have lots of that in the Bible too.

All of this is whether or not you are under the

blood of the lamb. That's the main thing here,

which is to say that you cannot take shelter

in your Jewishness or who your parents were or

look at all the good things I've done in life,

God. Or look at how I gave to your work and how

I showed up and I sang. There's just like no

place for it. I mean, here's the truth is that

most times these are the ways that we kind of

judge people. We judge people by how they look

like us. Maybe you don't do that. How they vote

like you. Maybe how they educate their children

like you. How well do you resonate with their

values, their goodness? How much does it resonate

with yours? Don't we do this? Yes, we do. I mean,

in some ways it's warning us against the judgments

that we so often give towards others. But the

big thing here is are you under the lamb that

is slain? And countless spoke throughout history

have judged the world by their race and by their

ethnicity. Countless religious folk have judged

others by this and that and the other. And maybe

we're inclined to come to a passage like this

because it does talk a lot about the Egyptians

and the Israelites. That's true. And maybe we're

inclined to come to this and say, ah, this stamps

my ethno -nationalism or whatever it is, my view

on Israel or not. I'm saying you can't do that

because you've got to stay under the land that

was slain. So this judgment, it's hard judgment,

difficult judgment. I think there's some answers

to the question of what this judgment is about.

But I also do think the answer to the judgment

of the question of what this judgment is about

is in Probably the two hardest parts about this

story Okay, and I will say this I've said this

before but the hard parts the parts that make

you scratch your head are normally the parts

where there's some answers We got to sit with

them. Okay Don't brush them off too quickly.

And the first thing that's really hard about

this passage is that so many firstborn are killed

I mean God look God made the world and he declared

it good. God does not delight in the death Death

and yet so many firstborn are killed and they're

killed by the angel of the Lord who comes to

bring judgment So why do I start? Why do I think

this begins to answer a question about judgment?

The Bible says unequivocally That the wages of

sin are death the wages of sin is death I mean

that is just a clear teaching of the Bible That's

what we read in Romans 6 and maybe some people

were attempting to go. Well, that's Paul I don't

know about that guy. Maybe that's what you think.

But it isn't just Paul. It's actually right from

the very get -go of the Bible. Genesis chapter

three, Adam and Eve try to downplay sin. We're

gonna hide from each other. Let's just make this

easy. Let's grab some leaves, cover ourselves

up. Let's downplay it. And when God says right

from the very beginning, in fact, what he does

as he comes, right, is he covers them with skin,

which right from the very beginning says, The

wages of sin is death. Something has to die.

You downplay sin. I'm going to show you just

how severe it is. The wages of sin is death.

All over the Bible. I mean, I can show you this

again and again. We can walk through the sacrificial

system. But it's all throughout the Bible that

the wages of sin is death. Something has to die.

Maybe you can remember back with me actually

the first time that a lamb or it's actually a

ram the word here You actually heard that it

was sort of interchangeable here in this text

because that word this first uses lamb actually

can mean either animal But you can think about

the first time that a lamb or a ram has to die

Abraham is Told by the Lord in Genesis 22 to

take his son. And if you know the story Abraham

had waited Long long into life to finally have

a son and God had promised to give him a son

And not only he promised to give him a son, but

to multiply his offspring to be as many as the

stars in the heavens. And yet God told to bring

that son up to the mountain and to offer him

as a sacrifice, not to slay him, not just to

stab him, but to offer him up to the Lord. And

of course we go, what is going on here? Maybe

when we think of the woman that I mentioned at

the beginning, who's given herself to follow

Jesus, but she looks like she says this is so

violent. What's happening? Well, Abraham knew

that the firstborn, was forfeit to the Lord,

was to be given over to God. That's what Exodus

22 tells us too, actually. Exodus 22, just 10

chapters later says, the firstborn of your sons,

you shall give to me. Talks about how they can

be redeemed. Number three says the life of your

firstborn sons are forfeit, they belong to me.

You can redeem them and keep them alive, but

they belong to me. What's going on with all this?

I think the symbolism is sort of lost on us,

but in the ancient Near East, the firstborn son

got all of the wealth. They got the family name.

Largely this was so that they could keep the

family farm and they can keep the family alive

and keep the family going. It was sort of a certain

way of preserving the family. And the Bible doesn't

enshrine this idea, but it sort of honors it

and understands it. It was the cultural context

in which this was written. But what it's saying

is that the firstborn family represents the whole.

So the death of the firstborn son or the offering

them up to God or the consecrating them for the

Lord was to say all of my life, all of my being

is yours. The firstborn son was a way of talking

about your whole life, all that you are, all

that you hope to be, all of your being. And the

Bible again and again says the wages of sin is

death. We all deserve. Death. The weight of cosmic

treason is death. Abraham knew this. When God

comes to him, he doesn't really protest. He knows

this. The wages of sin is death. He knows that

what God was calling to him was the reality of

his sin. Now, I think this gets us to the second

hard thing, okay? So the first one is a really

hard thing in this passage. And I think the next

hard thing is just this reality that I've been

saying, the wage of sin is death. Because my

guess is that for most of you, you hear the judgment

that takes place in this text and you go, yeah,

Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Pharaoh, give it to

them, judge them. But the Abrahams and the Moses

and the people that stayed inside their house,

under the blood of the lamb. They knew that the

real issue, they knew that the real issue is

that they were alive at all, that that was God's

grace. They knew that they deserved what the

lamb got. I mean, Abraham offering up Isaac,

he knows that this is the way to have sin is

death. Abraham and Moses and all these people

under the blood of a lamb know that their life

is more than they ever deserve. that all the

life that they have is simply the mercy of God.

And we tend to think it is our, it's God's duty

to give it to us. They would not have that position.

It's all grace. You see, why could the Israelites

not leave their houses? It's because this isn't

about the things that we judge others on. It's

not some ethno -nationalism. It's not these people

are righteous and those people are not righteous

in their deeds. It's these people do the religiosity

and those people don't do the religiosity. Why

did the Ram have to die in Isaac's place there

in the story in Genesis chapter 22? Because something

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

has to die for sin. I mean, that is the story

of Scripture. This is the moment. Did you notice

at the very beginning of our passage, verse two,

God says, this is gonna be the first month for

you. This is gonna be the first day for you.

This is gonna be what defines your life is what

happens here. And that's exactly what Christians

say. The thing that defines our life is the reality

of the death of another in our place, because

we deserve death. Which is to say that while

this is a story of judgment, it's a story of

grace. I mean, how could a mixed multitude leave

Egypt? It was probably because the Israelites

were telling their neighbors, their Egyptian

neighbors, here. Hear the good news. There is

a way out from the wages of sin being death.

There's a way to freedom. You don't have to live

this way. In some ways, actually, it's a great

test for you. How much do you believe in the

reality that Christ's death atones for our sin

and gives us life? Do you want to tell your neighbors

there is a way to live? But this whole story

of judgment, while it's a story of judgment,

is a story of God's grace. God gives a way out.

The wages of sin is death. Our sin is heinous.

We live in rebellion against God and it demands

death. And something has to die and something

does die. And all of this points forward to the

Lamb of God who is slain. The Lamb of God who

is slain upon the cross. I mean, that is why

there at the very beginning of the Gospels, John

can say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world. That's why in Revelation,

We have the lamb who was slain and everyone is

falling down and worshiping from every tribe

and tongue and nation. Everyone is worshiping

the lamb who was slain. That's why Paul says

in first Corinthians chapter five, which we've

been saying, if you notice, as I invite you to

the table, Christ our Passover lamb is sacrificed.

Therefore, let us keep the feast because at the

center of Christian faith is the judgment that

we rightly deserve goes on to Jesus and his blood.

His body broken is our life. Without it, we rightly

deserve the judgment of God, but with it, we

have life and freedom. I'm gonna end by not actually

saying what I have here. I heard this story.

Some of you know who Charles Spurgeon was. He

was one of the great Baptist preachers in London

in the mid late 19th century. He preached to

so many that they had to build a new church building,

right? and they were building it and he went

in and the acoustics in this were supposed to

be amazing. He had a loud voice anyway, but the

acoustics were supposed to be amazing that he

could preach and people all in the back could

hear. And he got up and he thought there was

nobody there. He went in and he thought all the

construction workers were gone. He got into the

pulpit and he tested out the pulpit. He said,

behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin

of the world. You hear it reverberate throughout.

He says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world. And maybe he's just like,

oh, this works pretty well. But supposedly back

in the balcony, there was one construction worker

and he dropped his tools and he began to cry.

And he went home and weeks later he went to that

church and he actually told Spurgeon, I was in

the back and I knew my sin. And all I heard was

you yelling. Behold the Lamb of God who takes

away the sin of the world. And I went home and

gave my life to Jesus, and I'm a changed man."

What I'm telling you is this. Hear this. Jesus

himself is the Lamb of God who takes away the

sin of the world. All the judgment that we rightly

deserve, the scriptures say, are placed upon

him. And his righteousness, his good deeds are

now given to us. All of our sin is taken away

by the shed blood of Jesus. And the only way

to be outside the just judgment of God is to

be under the lamb and his blood that was shed

for us. Let me end with that. Lord God, stories

that we know too well, stories that we want to

dismiss as old, and yet this is the heart of

the Christian message that you died that we might

live. God. We want to look at this in a way and

think, how strange, but God, I pray that you

would give us, not like Adam and Eve, a small

view of our sin, but a great view, how heinous

it is, how much it deserves death. And yet, Lord,

in that, Lord, humble us, but lift us up because

you're the God who gave of your life for us.

Jesus, shedding your blood for us. Would we glory

in the cross of Christ, the place where your

blood was shed. Where you gave up your life that

we would have life. We pray in your name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to Second City Sermons

podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged you

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Thanks again for listening. God bless.