Well, turn with me, if you will, to the New Testament. Our New Testament reading is Matthew 26, beginning at verse 17. Always want to sing. Matthew 26, beginning at verse 17. Just following Judas' agreement to betray Jesus, We read, now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying to him, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover. When the evening had come, he sat down with the twelve, and as they were eating, he said, Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. They were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to him, Lord, is it I? He answered and said, He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I? He said to him, You have said it. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Our text is primarily going to be based on Exodus chapter 12, our Old Testament reading. Particularly the institution of the Passover, the first Passover and the Last Supper. This first Passover has as its background, of course, the ten plagues. Each plague demonstrated God's sovereignty over the gods of the Egyptians. This was a contest. This was a war in heaven between God and his armies and Satan and his armies represented by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And each of these plagues demonstrated God's sovereignty over all of the false gods of Egypt. It began with the plague against the Nile. The Nile was turned to blood. And here, represented in this satire almost, is a sword driven through the god of Hopi, the Egyptian god of the Nile, turning the Nile to blood as if God had destroyed the god of Egypt. Frogs had been a sign of fertility. And every spring, the Egyptians looked forward to the frogs because they were a happy sign, sort of like bunnies. Easter, a sign of fertility. And so God says, you like frogs? Here's some frogs. The whole land was creeping with frogs. Again, God was sarcastically showing his sovereignty over the gods of Egypt, as he did in the third plague, the plague of the gnats. Failing to produce gnats themselves, the magicians appeal to Pharaoh. They say, this indeed is the finger of God, but Pharaoh's heart hardens. And with each successive plague, Pharaoh's heart hardens even more. There's the plague of the flies and only the land of Goshen where the Israelites are living is preserved. God even now shows that his people belong to him and are separate from Egypt. There's the plague against the livestock where the livestock die, but once Again, none of the livestock of the Israelites. There's the plague of the boils, covering even the magicians. The plague of hail, the plague of locusts, followed by the plague of darkness. And now, just before the institution of Passover, it is announced that God will send one final plague, the tenth plague, death of Egypt's firstborn of man and beast. This is the seed of the woman promised in the proto-gospel in Genesis chapter 3. The seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent. The city of God versus the city of man. The armies of heaven and the armies of the earth in contest through their earthly representatives. Before the Exodus and before that terrible night when that avenging angel will make his way to all the houses in Egypt, God institutes and Israel follows the institution of this sacred sign. First of all, we see in Exodus chapter 12 a sacred time. There is a sacred time. Marking great events in redemptive history, Memorials of time as well as stone are raised in the sight of the people. And this is a memorial of time. This month is singled out of all of the months. The exodus of God's people from bondage establishes Abib March as the new year of the Jewish calendar. So significant would this event be. A new creation it will represent so that just as we in the Christian calendar start our years with after Christ. So here the Jewish calendar began with God's march against Egypt and his deliverance through the Red Sea. The Exodus in fact is all about firsts and here it begins with time. It's the beginning of time, God's new creation. God claims the first fruits of the year as a representative of the whole calendar, just as he will claim the first fruits of the Israelites as representative of the whole nation. It's sacred because God is doing it. There's nothing particularly special about March. There's nothing particularly sacred about this day on the calendar, except it is the day on which God will do something. And because of that, it will be remembered. So this shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. And it's repeated again in verses 24 through 28. God is making an emphatic point here. Eventually, the Jewish Passover developed a series of catechetical questions for children to ask during the feast based on these very verses. And the sacrament will not cease when Israel arrives in the Holy Land for not even Canaan will really be that ultimate promised land. Remember in Hebrews, Abraham was looking for a better city. If Joshua had led them into the real promised land, there would have been no further need of God's plan of redemption, says the writer to the Hebrews. And you shall tell your son in that day when you enter the land, this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. It shall be a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand, the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. And it's called Passover, the Lord's Passover. Passover from an Akkadian verb meaning to appease, to propitiate. Although they too deserve that avenging angel's strong arm of wrath, the people will be spared the judgment coming upon Egypt, not because of their righteousness, but because of the lamb's blood sprinkled on the doorpost. It's the only reason the avenging angel would pass by. On the first and last days of the Passover feast, there will be a sacred assembly, a Sabbath rest. As seven is the number of rest, so the weeks, alpha and omega, beginning and end, will be marked by Sabbath time rather than normal time. This is really amazing. What God is saying here is on those days, heaven will come down just as it did in the ark, just as it did in the tabernacle and then finally in the temple. Heaven will come down even as they are strangers in Egypt. And on these days, the alpha and the omega will descend to be present in power with his people. We will be taken off of Pacific Standard Time and put into, inserted into Sabbath time, heavenly time, the clock that God himself is on. The Sabbath will then be a holy intrusion of the age to come into this present age. Sabbath time. Sacred time. Special time. Secondly, we see in these passages that there is a sacred people. A people set apart from Egypt for God. We see it in the fact that God spares them from the plagues that he sends upon Egypt. Even though they all live in Egypt, they are set apart from the plagues. As God says in Deuteronomy, it's not because of their righteousness, but because of his unconditional oath to Abraham that God has chosen Israel. Despite Israel's own sinfulness. And so like the day that is chosen for this celebration. The people who are chosen for this celebration have no intrinsic worth. There's no reason this people should have been chosen rather than another people. Except God and his sovereign pleasure. God acted on that day and God acted toward this people. And that's what makes the day and the people sacred. he has chosen them and he will in due time redeem them from the hand of Pharaoh and set them in his own land. And already he has shown that they are separated out of the world. In verse 3 here, this is the first time Israel is called a congregation. Kahal. It's the first time Israel is described in religious terms. It is now a church. It is now called out. Passover is that significant, that this is the first time Israel really is called a church. Sacred time, sacred people, and sacred matter. That sounds strange, sacred matter. Now, it doesn't mean we're earth worshipers. You see, earth worshipers think that things are intrinsically sacred. A mountain is intrinsically sacred. A lake or a stream is intrinsically sacred. But no, here as with the others, the matter that is sacred is sacred because God has separated it unto himself to be used for sacred purposes. In this case, it's a slain lamb, sprinkled blood, and unleavened bread. It says, every man shall take a lamb according to the house of his father. A lamb for his household. Notice the covenantal implication here. It didn't have just everybody, every individual taking a lamb for himself, but it was a lamb for a household. It says the blood was put on the doorpost of the household. As the promise comes through the male seed of Abraham, so even the lamb must be a male of the first year without blemish. See, even the lamb must be a firstborn male. And like the sacrifices, it must be a perfect lamb without defect. It will be this spotless firstborn male lamb that will be slaughtered so that Israel can live. And the flesh was to be eaten in haste that night. Not only was the lamb to be sacrificed, but Israel was to eat the flesh of this lamb, to participate somehow in the passing over that this lamb will bring. They were to eat it in haste with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. Bitter herbs representing the suffering and bondage that they experienced in Egypt. And to further underscore the hasty character of this sacrament, they were to eat it dressed for the road. All dressed and ready to go. In other words, in anticipation of God's deliverance. They weren't just to sit there at Passover. They were to be ready to go in the Exodus. And none of the bones of the lamb were to be broken. So closely did this match the true lamb whose bones all remained intact. The Gospel writers are all careful to note. Just as the time isn't sacred in itself, When the people aren't sacred in themselves, the lamb isn't sacred in itself. But God has used the lamb to be the sign that is attached to the things signified, the life that he will give through his son. Sprinkled with blood, the blood on the doorposts, you and your house. Again, the covenantal terminology here. Here's a wonderful representation of what happens in salvation, isn't it? Why did the avenging angel pass over the houses of the Israelites and leave their homes undisturbed? Was it because they were more devoted? Was it because they were more committed to the law and the ways of God? Though they certainly were. Was it because they had surrendered all? Was it because they had given up so much and suffered so greatly at the hands of the Egyptians. Now there was only one reason the avenging angel passed by and that was because there was blood. The kind of blood that you have in your veins. Blood on the doorposts. That alone kept the avenging angel at bay. It's nothing in us. It's nothing that we could do. Could my zeal, no respite, no. Though my tears forever flow, not for sin could these atone. Thou must save and thou alone. It's what God does outside of us that is our ultimate security, not that which he does in us, which is nevertheless a great comfort. What you also notice here is it's the same God who is both the avenging angel angel for those outside of the covenant and the redeeming angel for those inside of it. You don't have two gods, a bad God who's all about hell and wrath and judgment, and a good God who's all about peace and love and kindness. The same avenging angel here is wrath for one and redemption for the other. And he is, as the angel throughout the Old Testament is none other than the pre-incarnate Christ himself. Unleavened bread. On the first of seven days, every bit of leaven is to be removed from the house. And everywhere in scripture, leaven, yeast, symbolizes sin. By not only sacrificing the lamb, but feeding on its flesh, God's covenant people, though sinful in themselves, were incorporated into the Lamb of God and clothed themselves in his righteousness just as God had clothed Adam and Eve in the sacrificial skins so long prior to this. We talk in theology about the relationship of the sign to the thing signified in a sacrament. The sign in baptism is water, the thing signified is regeneration. In the Lord's Supper, we have the signs of bread and wine. And the thing signified forgiveness and everlasting life. And so too here in the Passover, the sign is a little bit different. The Passover feast is a little bit like the Lord's Supper, but slightly different. But the thing signified is exactly the same. The Israelites, this is what's so amazing, the Israelites in that first Passover were feeding on the same matter. ultimately as what we'll be feeding on tonight. As they were eating that lamb and as we will be eating the bread and the wine, we're feasting on our heavenly Savior. They were looking forward to him. Not all of the lambs and sheep and goats that this world can afford, but the final lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That was the matter. It was he on whom they were feeding, which meant death for Egypt without the blood on the doorpost and without a sacrifice on the table. And yet life for the Israelites. By sprinkling the blood on the doorpost, the Israelites were trusting in the promise of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The sign, the Passover feast, was so closely linked to the thing signified, everlasting life, that it's actually called the Lord's Passover. It's actually called the Lord's Passover, just as Jesus calls it, the new covenant in my blood. That's how closely the sacrament is linked, the sign and the thing signified. In other words, the feast itself is in a real sense the passing over. To be sure, the avenging angel would come at midnight. He was not coming as they were feasting. And yet they were in that feast already experiencing in anticipation the passing over that would come later that night. And when the Israelites in future times celebrate this feast, It will not only be in memory of God's great saving act in the past, but will be each new generation's way of receiving precisely the same benefits as their fathers had received. Pharaoh tells Moses and the Israelites to leave. After that tenth plague, he concedes victory, and the Egyptians begged them to leave quickly before God further judged the nation. They went loaded down with gifts. Here, take this. Take my furniture, take my car, take everything. They just wanted the Israelites out of the land. And after four centuries in Egypt, the Israelites, numbering as many as one million adults, move out in companies toward the Red Sea. And in addition, many Egyptian converts leave with them, showing by anticipation that God was already then creating a missionary people. Not only does Israel, the suffering servant, leave his bondage. He leaves in a triumphant procession, so much so that the scene reminds one of a conquering general returning from a campaign with the spoils of war. And it was 430 years, just as promised to Joseph, 430 years to the day. Our New Testament text, therefore, makes a lot more sense in this context of the first Passover. The plot to kill Jesus coincides, in God's timing, with the Passover feast, and for good reason. During this time, the streets of Jerusalem would be filled with bleeding sheep everywhere you would go. Sheep, sheep, everywhere. Sheep that had been brought there to be sacrificed for Passover and eaten. doubtless as Jesus heard the cacophony of the bleeding sheep all around him he recalled his cousin's early announcement behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world imagine that walking around Jerusalem during Passover knowing that you were the reality and these were the signs that as of this day had now become obsolete Here the avenging angel of the first Passover Is incarnate Both the judge and the judge That avenging angel who brought God's wrath down On all of the Egyptians But saved the Israelites because of the blood When he looked down at the blood He was anticipating his own blood Being poured out for his people For the blood of lambs and goats cannot take away sin with that whole history of redemption swirling in his mind and in his heart the Lamb of God institutes this Passover of the New Covenant having already declared for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall never come into judgment but will have life everlasting like the first fruits of the harvest and the first fruits of the womb the first fruits of the flock Jesus is the firstborn and the first fruit of the new world just as the Passover anticipated the exodus through the Red Sea and the arrival into Canaan Jesus tells his disciples that this sacrament now anticipates his resurrection and second coming as long as you do this you proclaim his death until he comes. But it's not only a memorial. We're not just remembering here. We're not just closing our eyes and thinking about what it must have been like for Jesus to hang on the cross. Sometimes we sing the song, Were you there when they crucified my Lord? No, I wasn't. I don't know how to remember events I was not present at. But I do know this, to remember what God has done to save me by pointing to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and to feed on Christ in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving as we receive the bread and the wine is a marvelous gift of God. The Passover feast was just a shadow of this new covenant sacrament. Hebrews tells us that through this sacrament, we taste of the heavenly gift. Peter addresses his first epistle to scattered pilgrims. Elect according to the foreordination of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Because when the time had fully come, God sent his firstborn male lamb without blemish into the highways of Jerusalem to be the final sacrifice for the sins of all who call upon his name. And Jesus knew, think about this for a moment, Jesus knew all of this as he was reclining with his disciples that night, even if they didn't. Even though their minds were on the shadows and earthly Passover that they thought they were celebrating. We know better than they did what our Lord was doing that night. Because we see with a fuller picture of the New Testament revelation. We know what was going on that night. And Jesus knew that even though the disciples didn't, he was doing this for them. He was instituting this supper as he would be laying down his life for them. And he did this just before he would surrender to his tears in the Garden of Gethsemane where he would be arrested. The sign and the thing signified are inextricably joined by the Holy Spirit in the Lord's Supper. So the Apostle Paul could say, this bread that we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? this cup which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? Although our crucified and risen lamb is not enclosed in the elements, we are assured by his promise that whenever we eat this food and drink this drink in faith, we are mysteriously feeding on the very body born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, raised, and is at the right hand of God for us. This is the true food and drink for everlasting life. It is the Lord's Passover. Therefore, says the Apostle Paul, purge out all the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly already unleavened. For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. Let's pray. our dear heavenly father we thank you for sending our savior in the fullness of times in which your purposes have been finally realized and like that first passover night this sacrament is both life and death death to those who eat and drink without faith and repentance and life for those who do for those who participate in the sign without embracing the thing signified it can only bring divine judgment but for those of us who receive not only the bread and the juice but together with it the saving body and blood of the Messiah by faith you have assured us that when that suffering servant returns once more as the victorious Savior you will be with him in his triumph and we will eat and drink with him at the marriage supper of the Lamb in his Canaan land where the festival never ends help us now Father by your spirit to go now to taste of the powers of the age to come that age which has even now dawned in our Savior Jesus Christ in whose name we pray Amen