I invite you to turn in the Scriptures tonight to Exodus chapter 12. This is our morning series, as this morning we looked at briefly a few sermons we'll be considering on the ordination and the calling of office bearers. Tonight we return to our study, the second book of the Bible, Exodus 12, and the Passover. We read together the first 28 verses. This is the Word of the Lord. the lord said to moses and aaron in the land of egypt this month shall be for you the beginning of months it shall be the first month of the year for you tell all the congregation of israel that on the 10th day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses a lamb for a household and if the household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of israel shall kill their lambs at twilight then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lentil of the houses in which they eat it they shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts and you shall let none of it remain until morning anything that remains until the morning you shall burn in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste it is the lord's passover for i will pass through the land of egypt that night and i will strike all the firstborn in the land of egypt both man and beast and on all the gods of egypt i will execute judgments i am the lord the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are and when i see the blood i will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when i strike the land of egypt this day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the lord throughout your generations as a statute forever you shall keep it as a feast seven days you shall eat unleavened bread on the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses for if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening for seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses if anyone eats what is leavened that person will be cut off from the congregation of israel whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land you shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread then moses called all the elders of israel and said to them go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the passover lamb take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning for the lord will pass through to strike the egyptians and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the door two door posts the lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you you shall observe this right as a statute for you and or your sons forever and when you come to the land that the lord will give you as he has promised you shall keep this service and when your children say to you what do you mean by this service you shall say it is the sacrifice of the lord's passover for he passed over the houses of the people of israel and egypt when he struck the egyptians but spared our houses and the people bowed their heads and worshiped then the people of israel went and did so as the lord had commanded moses and aaron so they did and may the lord bless the hearing of his word god has unleashed his plagues on egypt the whole thing has been by this point systematically destroyed the next thing uh that he has told us that he is going to do now is strike and kill it has already been announced it has already been announced to pharaoh what has been so moving by this whole study what has been so moving throughout the whole time is that israel has been untouched by these plagues when these things were destroying egypt you remember there sat israel and goshen in light when darkness had hit egypt they were untouched by the hail they were constantly being preserved by God's mercy and love and being provided for. It was remarkable and exciting and encouraging. I'm afraid in all this that we have not appreciated, however, how surprising God's actions have been to them. It's easy to think by this point, well, Egypt's deserving what they're getting. Now death is upon Egypt and boy, do they deserve it. Look at 430 years of intense persecution. The Lord was concerned that Israel would miss something here. In fact, later on he would tell them, do not say in your heart after the Lord has thrust them out before you. It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land, whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you, not because of your righteousness. or the uprightness of your own hearts are you going in why does god do all this for you do we think about that that's a crucial question in our study of exodus at this moment why is god doing all of this for them i remark all the time we're living now in an entitlement generation and it's a tough generation to preach the gospel it's a tough time to preach the gospel. We have a generation of young people that have been told they're great their whole life. They've all gotten A's. Every parent under the sun thinks their child is just perfect. This is our generation and the entitlement generation. Why do you deserve anything? What do you really deserve? That is what is so moving at this point about our study in Exodus. All the more, nothing made them, we can say, worthy of God's treatment this way. I find it an overwhelmingly comforting truth that when God sets His love upon a people, it was never determined or based upon anything that He saw or that He thought was good in them. In fact, His love was determined, as we've seen, and we've seen this running through, by his election in Christ. In Christ, these benefits come. His election has shined in all of this. He chose these people. He chose to love these people. And that was emphasized last week when the Lord said he makes a difference between Israel and Egypt. He's the one making the difference. His choice. What do you think could happen to Israel at this moment? After 400 years, these infidels are finally getting what they deserve, right? Why do I raise all of this? God just said that about midnight, the angel of death is coming, the destroyer, and he's coming throughout all the land of Egypt to kill all of the firstborn. He's not sparing anyone. How shocking it must have been for Israel to learn that the destroyer was coming for them too. that the destroyer was coming for them too you say wait a minute that doesn't make sense yes it makes sense because in the whole next instructions that we have he's telling them how to escape it they were under the same condemnation they were just as much in trouble at this moment god was now making that clear like never before all of a sudden israel is now told if they don't have a covering with blood, the angel destroyer is going to take out their firstborn. And that must have been a real moment for Israel that if God does not provide atonement, if God does not cover for them, the worst of all judgments is coming on them too. The Israelites were not a bit more deserving. What do you have before us then? Romans 3. What then? Are we any better than they? Are we any better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged, both Jews and Greeks, all are under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. And that now helps us as we hear that the angel destroyer is coming at midnight and is about to bring a great slaughter. The only way to escape, we're learning here, is the shedding of blood. And that leads us tonight to understanding and looking at this glorious gospel that we find all over the pages of scripture. God makes a provision tonight as we're studying this for them to escape. And he always wanted Israel to understand this. It's a fairly simple message tonight. He always wanted Israel to understand this, to keep this with the goal of did you notice the end of this teaching it to their children that they would be so thankful in the course of their generations that god kept them preserved them saved them covered them and delivered them out of the land of egypt and gave them the good land of promise all by grace we're looking tonight at the institution of the passover this meaning of the passover and the fulfillment the institution the meaning and the fulfillment and tonight you'll see how this connects us to the whole story the central story of scripture that the lord already from genesis 3 was telling us in the last scene moses has left pharaoh's presence final judgment has just been proclaimed the lord summarized everything for us at the end of chapter 11 telling us we now have a clean break of the moment that pharaoh won't listen my signs and my wonders they're going to be multiplied as we come to chapter 12 we now have a sort of startling and crucial institution of something just before right before the final act of judgment the lord does something remarkable in verse 1 there you'll notice in verse 1 the lord said to moses and aaron in the land of egypt this month shall be for you the beginning of months it shall be the first month of the year for you that is a remarkable statement here's your new beginning this is your brand new beginning i want you always to remember right now in fact it's so important that you remember what i'm doing right now this is to be your new year he didn't really create an entirely new religious calendar as he did is right then make this now their first month of the year he made this every time they came to this that they would come to this time of year and say this was our beginning this was our beginning all throughout history of israel when they came to this time of year they would think about that this was our new beginning this was the month of abib or nissan that was now to be the first month of the year to you and he goes on and he begins to give instructions about what this all means and why he is doing this and i just want to look at for a moment here the institution of it all he says on the 10th of this month of nisan here's what i want you to do every man shall take a lamb on the 10th every month shall take a lamb according to their father's houses a lamb for a household and he goes on to say if it's too small let him and his neighbor take it verse 5 is is so important here your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of israel shall kill their lambs at twilight it wasn't unclear what they were supposed to do they were supposed to go among their flocks and they were to choose in families a spotless lamb and then the family would take this lamb and they would bring it into their family and so the lamb would be kept in the house for four days from the 10th until the 14th of this new beginning of this new month they would care for this beautiful lamb the children would care for the lamb the children would feed the lamb there was a sense of real bond that happened with the lamb and they were to teach You remember the end of this. They were to teach their children about this. Children, this is our family's Passover lamb. Well, after four days of care of this gentle, spotless, without blemish, male lamb, they would bring it out and the father would take it and they would hold it, hold back its neck and at twilight or dusk as it's there becoming that, the throat would be split and the family would all watch a very probably disturbing ceremony as blood would pour out all over the white fur, the fur of the lamb. It was messy. And then they were to take hyssop and they were to Moses says you you take that you dip the hyssop uh in the blood hyssop was a small plant uh with stalk so that it kind of functioned like a brush and it it prevented the blood from coagulating so they then they were to to paint the whole door frame of their house all the way around the door frame of the house the experience wasn't so pleasant there were other things associated with this they were to eat it all and then they were as they ate you notice in verse 8 that they were to take bitter herbs this was to be bitter this this uh the bitter herbs really provided a sense of of of feeling the tasting the bitterness of the whole thing and then anything that wasn't eaten was taken outside and consumed by fire closely tied and woven into this, you'll notice, is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread went together. They ran together in this week-long celebration. You'll notice that emphasis there on the time. On the 14th day of the month, they would celebrate the Passover, but all the leaven had to be taken. All the leaven had to be removed out of their houses. And before they would do that, and it says in verse 15 very clearly, if anyone has any leaven or eats any leaven, they are cut off so from the 14th day to the 21st day they would celebrate what was known as the feast of unleavened bread leaven was associated with the previous year's harvest so it became a symbol of of corruption you notice in verse 17 verse 17 of chapter 12 that and you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread for on this very day 14th i brought your hosts out of the land of egypt therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever and everlasting ordinance imagery you have is they were eating the passover and unleavened bread you'll notice they're with a belt on their waist with sandals on their feet with staff in their hand and they're up they're standing doesn't sound like the most uh comfortable meal does it what does all this mean let's get to the meaning this is to be says the lord new beginning. This is your new beginning with the intention that at the end, when the children would come and they would ask mom and dad, what are you doing with our family lamb? What are you doing, mom and dad? Why are you guys killing our pet lamb? Verse 27, they were to be taught, this is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord. And they were to explain what it means. And here it is. On the day of our deliverance, the Lord instructed us to do this. To take this blood of the Lamb and put it on the doorposts of our houses on all the sides. And children, here's what happened that night. The angel destroyer, he came through the camp. And anyone who did not have the blood on their doorposts, he entered their houses and he killed the firstborn. But when the Lord saw the blood, He passed over us. It was a propitiation. This satisfied God's justice. It turned away His anger. It was a covering for us, children. The Lord wanted this to be practiced every single year to teach them that the only way anyone escaped was the blood of a lamb without spot without blemish year after year after year now this wasn't the first time the bible taught us this you remember in genesis chapter 3 when adam and eve had sinned the first thing that adam tried to do was to cover his shame with his own fig leaves sewing together his own garments and god had nothing to do with that remember what god did god taught us the clear principle there god covered him with skins god had shed the blood of an animal to do that without blood there is no remission when god had had cut the covenant with abraham you remember there were the two rows and and the animals were split apart and there was a bloody nasty mess and the lord passed through that abraham understood this the cutting of the covenant the covenant of grace came in blood later abraham saw this visually when god said you take your son your only son whom you love and you go up mount moriah which was later the temple spot you go up mount moriah you go up there and you sacrifice your son and so abraham takes his son and he puts wood on his back and they walk up the mountain fire is in his hand and a knife and he lays his only son on the altar raises the knife and then god says no abraham here's a ram god had been teaching this god had been showing this what did god intend verse 13 he wanted israel to know that this blood was a sign for you on the houses this blood was a sign of assurance for you that death will pass over you that this judgment will not fall on you and you'll be brought out god was assuring them as they partook in faith they had a covering they had a substitute death was looming over them but the blood covered the lord wanted them never to forget this and so what did he do he didn't make the experience so sweet he wanted it bitter so he instructed them to add bitter herbs in the meal that they would have understood why exodus one had been using that word exodus one had been telling us about that that all of their time in egypt was made bitter it was bitter bondage in egypt in brick and mortar and all kinds of work and the feast reminded them of God's deliverance from the bitterness that wasn't it what doesn't get as much attention is the feast of eleven bread coinciding with the Passover this week-long feast was to be observed and God said I want you standing up they're standing up ready to go you put it together they were delivered from the physical bondage but notice what the Lord was teaching them the bread without yeast was teaching them of this this nature of the flight he tells them that why unleavened bread god was telling them i'm pulling you out once and for all so quickly you don't even have time to let the bread rise in other words they didn't have time to let the dough rise with the leaven you leave it behind you're done with it once their deliverance came with the shedding of blood, they were immediately to go out of Egypt. They were not to touch the old leaven. Anything associated, leaven was always associated with the previous year's harvest. Anything that associated with the past, they were done. Are you getting the whole story? Every time they celebrated the Passover and feast of unleavened bread, coinciding on the 14th day, they were taught that as the blood was shed, death had passed over them the curse of Genesis had been reversed and they were covered with a brand new beginning. And the old leaven of their old life was done. That was the message. They weren't to touch Egyptian life again. They were free from Egyptian life. What is this about? The gospel? The Passover always taught them that on the night that God delivered them, the reason they were delivered is because a perfect lamb substituted in their place. The bitter herbs told them your past was awful. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, a number of perfection was celebrated to remind them that what God expected because of the sacrificial offering of the lamb that he provided since they've been saved, they were to come out of Egypt with haste. Moving, up, ready to go. You're done with the old life. It's a new beginning. He expected them to be holy to him, set apart to him, freed from the power and dominion of the slavery that had dominated them for 400 years. Dominion in that. Every year I want that celebrated. I want you to teach your children about this. I want you to tell them about this. That they needed a perfect lamb to escape. Teach them how bitter the bondage was. When they eat those herbs in the future, you tell them when they go, ooh, that tastes terrible. That was what our bondage, our bondage was awful. And when they celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they would tell their children, we were caught up in darkness and idolatry in that land. We worshiped those gods on the other side of the river. Joshua would later say that. They were involved in this. And when we were brought out, we were called to leave all that behind. We were called to be done with the past. Be done with the things to which we're now ashamed. And come out. Don't handle, don't touch those things. I want these, says the Lord, to be memorials and lasting ordinances for you. What does all this really tell us tonight? The story of the cross. You come to the New Testament. And how was Christ presented? Right out of the gates. John's Gospel was so clear that He was the Lamb without spot. Remember what happened in John 1? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Peter would describe Him, no deceit was found in His mouth. He committed no sin. Who, when He was reviled, did not revile. Committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Who bore our sins in His body on the wood on the cross that having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. You're out. By whose stripes you were healed. The Lamb came and the Lamb dwelt among us and He tabernacled among us. The very word tempted in every way that we were yet without sin. Hebrews says offering Himself unblemished to God. When was the Passover celebrated? It's on about the 14th of the month. Come to the Gospels. And what was going on as Jesus was heading to the cross? The Passover. About that time, at that time, the week, about the 10th of the day, there came the sacrificial lamb right on into Jerusalem. Jesus makes His triumphal entry into the city. Josephus records at that time 256,000 lambs were being brought into the temple courts. 256,000. Blood was everywhere. On the 14th day of the month, fathers everywhere in Israel were grabbing their lambs in front of their children and holding back the necks and slitting the throats and offering them that blood could never forgive. It was a sign of the reality of the greater blood that could forgive. So what happened? Matthew 26, verse 17, Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying to them, Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? There's the Lamb of God. He says, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says my time is at hand. I'll keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So the disciples did as Jesus directed them and they prepared the Passover when evening had come. He sat down with the twelve at 14th of Nisan, twilight. Sits down to celebrate this. That time Judas is betraying. Verse 26, as they were eating of Matthew 26, Jesus took bread. blessed and broke it, gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. He then took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying, drink of it all of you. For this is the 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 the 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. In the midst of the celebration of the Passover, he holds up bread and wine and says, this is me as he institutes the supper. In the heart of all of this. And he holds it up, the bread and the wine. This is my body. This is my blood. Every Passover had wine and unleavened bread. Jesus held up the bread and the wine and declared, I am the Lamb. I'm the Lamb. I take away the sins. Christ's body and blood here now had Him shedding it, fulfilled everything of the old and brought in the new. And the supper would become the sign of the blood of Him shedding His blood on the wood for us. It means that not only is Christ's blood the blood that pacifies and satisfies, propitiates the wrath of God. That's the sign of the bread and wine, what it tells us every time we partake. It's for you. It's for you. As the Passover that day was being celebrated, on the 14th day, they laid their hands on Him. that perfect, innocent, pure lamb without spot, beaten, split open, tormented, all because of our sins. And as that blood was shed on that wood, all of that was an announcement that Christ has forgiven us and that we escaped the angel of death. what an amazing message that puts it all together he knows we need the supper i say by the way that's what we're doing we're in communion with him and declaring that this has been accomplished now we're not in types and shadows you enjoy the fulfillment he's come and this is why the apostles throughout wanted to tell the new testament church christ is your passover the original passover was to be the brand new beginning in their lives enjoying forgiveness and peace with god and the feast of leavened bread coinciding was to always remind them that they had been brought out of the land of egypt their old life of leaven and idolatry was over. How does Paul apply that in 1 Corinthians? Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened. Who's unleavened? You. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with the old leaven nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. don't look back is his message this is what he's done for you lead the life that he's set you free now in you're no longer tied and bound up with the leaven of malice and wickedness of of doing things against god's law living against them being brought under bondage of the elements and corruption of the sinful nature living in idolatry and darkness you've been brought out in haste the lord had you standing up when the cross and he said it's finished and you trusted in christ as your righteousness you're free no more to go back no more to continue that and now the feast you celebrate is the feast of unleavened bread in what sincerity and truth as you live leave behind your gods that's the message uh tonight as we see the whole story beginning to come together as the lord delivered them and this is why jesus always gave that solemn call come today come today to me believe in me let this be the day of new beginning you will be freed from the bondage of corruption and sin come out and be separate this day says the Lord is the new beginning for you that's Exodus chapter 12 as they are going to watch this terrible judgment fall on the land of Egypt not one of Israel's children will be cast down that's the gospel that's what we celebrate that's what the Lord has done for us and believing these promises this is what god desires that we come out to him they're going out into the wilderness to worship we should come out to him our whole lives should be separate as we become worshipers in spirit and in truth let's thank him together tonight gracious heavenly father thank you for teaching us and instructing us in these things and for showing us the whole story we look at what they celebrated and what they were taught to look forward to as all of this taught them the blood of the son you would send in the fullness of time. And they looked forward to these gospel promises believing your gospel promises and all the prophets long to see what we see. And tonight we get to enjoy these blessings and understanding your word in fulfillment. knowing that Christ has come. Christ is forgiven. Christ is our Passover. We will escape death through faith in Him. I pray if there are none who believe in Him tonight, they would come this night. That it would be a day of new beginning for them. That they would leave behind the past leaven of sin, malice and wickedness and idolatry and come out to You and be a separate people worshiping and enjoying our God. We praise you tonight and today for instructing us in your wonderful word. Guide us now as we go out into another week and let us live as those who have been saved from death and belong to our God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.