The Passover – Exodus 12:1-13 & 21-23

Kenneth Clark lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience. "My whole being," Clark wrote, "was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before." But it created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So, he concluded, "I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course." (Our Daily Bread, February 15, 1994)

Those are tragic words. He thought he was too deeply embedded in the world to change course. It would have taken a miracle for Clark to see that he was, in fact, not too deeply embedded in the world. But a miracle was not the problem. The problem was that he couldn’t see or admit that a miracle had already happened that provided him a way out of the world. All he had to do was accept it. That was the problem.

The miracle was that God had provided a way, not just out of this world but also into Heaven by His Son Jesus who died on a cross to provide that way. That’s the miracle and it is still the way. Jesus said, “I am the way and nobody gets to Heaven without Me.” (John 14:6) Maybe today you are sitting hear listening to this or reading this and you think you need a miracle. Well, I have Good News! God knew you would need a miracle and so He provided it a couple thousand years ago and that miracle is just waiting for you to accept it.

Do it right now. I’m not kidding. Right now! Don’t wait until the end of the service. This is the most important decision you will ever make and nothing is more important. You think you need a miracle to get you out of what you have gotten yourself into. Well, one miracle coming up! Here it is and His name is Jesus. His name is not religion. His name is not sacrifice. His name is not good works. Those things without Jesus get you to Hell.

God is the miracle-worker, the way-maker, the chain-breaker and the pain-taker. John the Baptist saw Jesus and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) He is the only One you need and I can prove it by showing you in scripture even way back in the Old Testament that even way back then and all the way to today, it is all about the Lamb.

Turn to Exodus chapter 12 and let’s read about the nation of Israel needing a miracle. If anybody needed a miracle it was them. You think your life is bad. They had been in slavery for hundreds of years and were ruled by a Pharoah who had the hardest of hearts. They had already seen nine miracles but Pharoah wasn’t budging. He wasn’t giving in. He was not going to let the Israelites out of Egypt no matter what.

So God performed a huge miracle! It was incredible! It was amazing! It was deadly and it was unforgettable and it worked. And do you know what He used to perform this incredible miracle? A young lamb. You would think He would use a lion or a snake or at least a big mean white dog like Bo! But God used a small, defenseless, year-old lamb and this story, like the rest of the entire Bible…is all about the Lamb.

Preaching through this part of Exodus is somewhat difficult because there are so many things going on in these chapters. There is the 10^th plague that we talked about last week. But there is also the Passover, the instructions for celebrating the Passover for the years to come. There is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the consecration of the first-born and there is – don’t forget – the crossing over the Red Sea miracle (which is kind of a big deal too). So, there is a lot going on.

But this morning, let’s focus on the Passover. It has enough importance and symbolism to last us for a while. So, let’s turn to Exodus 12 and let’s read verses 1-13 and then we will skip over and read 21-23. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. Go to verse 21:

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning. 23 When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.

If you could, how many of you would like to have a fresh, new start? When I was in my twenties, I decided I was going to move to Australia and start my life anew. I had made so many mistakes that I thought I just needed to start over. That seemed like the answer. Unfortunately for me, Australia didn’t agree.

That didn’t happen for me but it did happen for the Israelites. In verse 2, God tells them they are to start a new month and a new year. Their lives are about to become all new and God wants them to remember every aspect of what He is about to do, starting with making a new year.

Then verse 3 sounds like something that would be popular today. Have you noticed that all the cool people online have baby goats and sheep now? They dress the little goats up in pajamas and they run around and jump around and you can’t help but say, “Aww! Look at the little baby goats in pajamas! They’re so cute!” Right? Then there are the fainting goats. Have you seen those? That’s hilarious!

Well, unfortunately for the goats and the sheep, our story today doesn’t end that way. Did you see what they were supposed to do with the little one year old lambs? They bring them inside, into their homes and they make them a part of their family. Don’t you know the kids would want to name their lamb? For four days, the lamb would be part of the family and taken great care of.

These lambs were physically perfect. They could have no defect. Nothing more, nothing less than perfection; not a scab, scar, wound or discoloration. And for four days, these little perfect lambs would be given everything they wanted and needed and more. But then on the fifth day they were to sacrifice that little lamb and drain his blood into a basin or bowl of some kind.

I know. I know. That’s horrible. That had to traumatize some of those poor kids to see their dad do that to a perfect little lamb that had basically become a pet. Then they would take that blood from that little lamb and with a handful of hyssop (which is basically just wild-growing weeds available everywhere over there) they would put the blood over the top and sides of the outside of the door of their house. That was the sign for God to see and He would pass over that house and not kill the first-born.

Anybody else have any questions about this procedure or is it just me? I’m thinking instead of killing an animal, why not just use paint? I think some candy apple red Krylon from a rattle can would look real nice, don’t you? Or even better, why not some precious jewels or some gold and silver? Here’s an idea. Why not just put the live little critter out there? Tie him up to the door post over night and go back for him in the morning and take him with you out of Egypt. That’s the ticket right there.

There’s only one problem. As we learned last week, scripture says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) and I want you to see this week that Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Why? Because in the blood is the life and the wages of sin is death and so there must be an atonement for sin; a reparation for sin and that is the taking of innocent life. (Adrian Rogers, LET’S CELEBRATE PASSOVER)

For family devotions, Martin Luther once read the account of Abraham offering Isaac on the altar in Genesis 22. His wife, Katie, said, "I do not believe it. God would not have treated his son like that!" "But, Katie," Luther replied, "He did." (W. Wiersbe, The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers,  p. 191.)

You would have to be blind to not see the correlation between the Passover lamb and Jesus. There are so many similarities and that is no accident, of course. God the Father wanted us to know something of the sacrifice that He made and that Jesus made when He died on the cross.

We sing a lot around here about the blood of Jesus. There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Just as I am - without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
-O Lamb of God, I come!

That’s just gross, right? A “fountain filled with blood”? That’s a lot of blood! Maybe we should sing songs about a happy Jesus. Maybe we should sing more about His life and His miracles and how good He was instead of His bloody death. But, again, there is a problem. We aren’t saved by the life of Jesus. We aren’t saved by His goodness or His miracles. We are saved by His death. Remember? “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

I have an idea that those Israelites that truly understood what was going on were sickened and saddened by the death of their little lamb but were so grateful to be passed over that they drained that little lamb of every last drop of blood and then used every drop to drench that door frame! Get another bunch of hyssop if you need and slather that red salvation from top to bottom. Don’t miss an inch. Paint the whole door frame exactly as God said but do it liberally. Drain the bucket with coat after coat of bloody paint.

Just like John Hancock didn’t want the King of England to have to put on his glasses to read his signature. They didn’t want God to miss seeing the blood. They didn’t just put a little bit. They didn’t just dab a little here and there. For those that understood, they had sloppy red bloody paint all over the front of the house. They were thankful for the blood and it showed, not just to God but to their neighbors and to the Egyptians and to the world!

If blood is what it takes to make me right with God, yes it’s a tragedy, my sin is a tragedy, but if that’s what it takes then I want to sing about it. I want to tell the world about the blood that gave me forgiveness and righteousness. I want the world to know that it is the blood of Jesus that allows me to have peace and joy in this world but, even better, to have everlasting life with the Lamb Himself!

It is all about the Lamb. The Passover is all about the Lamb. The whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, are all about the Lamb and my life should be all about the Lamb. Does the world know what you believe about the blood of the Lamb? If they don’t know then it’s not all about the Lamb for you.

Go back to verses 8-10. They were to eat all the lamb, not to leave anything. Why? Because when we receive Jesus, we don’t receive Him partially, do we? We don’t take Him as Savior now and maybe later we go back for a little bit of Lord. This isn’t a buffet where we can pick and choose. “Ooh, that peace looks good today but I’m not really in the mood for obedience. I’m trying to cut down on my obedience. That’s too hard to eat, if you know what I mean. I’m really just here for the dessert of Heaven but I guess I’ll try just a dab of holiness. Can you give me just a little slice of holiness but hold the self-control, please?”

Honey, it doesn’t work that way. You are all in or you are all out. There is no in between. God said in Revelation 3, “I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! 16So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth!”

Jesus said in Matthew 12, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” You don’t get to have just a little bit of Jesus. And the thing is, when you truly feast on Him, you want more and more. That’s why Paul said in Philippians so many times that he wanted to know Christ. He wanted more Jesus. He wanted all of Jesus even to death. I think that’s at least partly what David meant when He said in Psalm 34 to taste and see that the Lord is good! Yes, it is a tragedy that Jesus had to die. It’s a tragedy because we chose to sin but it is a wonderful gift that the Lamb was killed so we don’t have to die. It is all about the Lamb.

Let me close with a quick look at verse 11. This is how they were to eat the lamb. Do you see it? “Eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.” This took faith on the part of the Israelites. At this point, Pharoah was still hard-hearted and didn’t plan on the Jews going anywhere except back to work. But God said to be ready.

Some of you today need an exodus of your own. You need to be delivered from a habit, a person, a thing, an idol or a way of thinking. I don’t know what it is but God is ready for you to be delivered from it and so He is making a way where there is no way. It won’t be easy. There will be some specific steps for you to take and you have to be full of Him. Scripture calls that to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing weird about that or “charismatic” about that. I’m not talking about anything that scripture doesn’t talk about. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you. He will always be there but sometimes you can grieve Him with your sins and bad decisions. But when you are filled up with Him and drained of all your fleshly wants and desires, God will do a mighty thing in your life and He is ready to do that. All you have to do is be ready for Him to show you the first step.

Maybe that first step is repentance for you. Maybe you aren’t living like a believer should. If you are a true believer then you know it when you are out of His will. That’s the most miserable place in the world. Give all that up and give in to Him. Ask Him for forgiveness right now.

If you have never done that then today is the day of salvation. The price has been paid. The Lamb has been slain and all you have to do is accept it. It is a free gift of God but it’s not cheap. Your salvation was bought and paid for with the precious blood of Jesus so you wouldn’t have to pay that price. I don’t understand that kind of love but I accept it. Do you? Call on the name of the Lord today and you can be saved. Do it right now as the music plays.

Lord’s Supper