The “Feasts”
Series #7
"FEAST OF PASSOVER"
TEXT: Ex.
12:1-51; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; Heb.
11:28
INTRO: Symbols are
important to our understanding of truth. For example: The United States flag is not actually
the United States, just a symbol of it; the stars represent the states, the flag
therefore our union, it is a symbol of our power, resolve, reverence and ideas,
etc. It elicits from us pride,
praise, and courage just at its sight because it points us to the reality of our
union and the huge price tag paid by many to make it
so.
Because of this truth symbols
should not be overlooked as to their importance for teaching us great
realities.
God has often worked through
symbols to help us grasp who He is and about His love for us ... Jesus
frequently employed the use of parables, symbols in words to teach great truths.
The danger is only seeing the symbol and missing the truths, the Pharisees were
masters at this!
Within the Feast of Passover we
have the Gospel presented, gloriously clear and so prophetically accurate
concerning Jesus' work on Calvary. What a miracle! Here nearly 1,300 years before Christ's
birth it is prophesied in detail the Messiah's coming and His death and
resurrection and the story of salvation for us!
PROP.
SENT: The Word of God clearly
shows us that Jesus' shed blood on Calvary won't save us unless we apply it to
the doorposts of our hearts! Belief
is not enough by itself, application must follow
belief!
I. SUBSTITUTION Ex. 12:1-7
A. Need
Deliverance! Ex.
12:1-4
1. Slavery all their
lives!
a. As a nation they had spent about
430 years in Egypt!
b. Most of this time was
slavery!
c. Those living at this time had never
known anything else but slavery!
2. And so we before coming to Christ
... we only knew slavery to sin!
a. Only the Christian understands true
freedom from slavery ... slavery to sin and selfishness until Christ's freedom
came!
b. God has an exodus for every sinner
from Egypt to the Promise Land!
3.
a. Many sinners tell themselves their
ok, based on their good deeds.
b. If good works would free us from
sin and its penalty then Christ would not have had to come and
die!
4. We need someone to free us, to take
our place on the cross ... JESUS DID THIS FOR US!
ILLUS: Dr.
H.A. Ironside saw a lamb once while visiting a western sheepherder; it appeared
to have 6 legs, the last 2 just dangling behind it. On a closer look however it was
discovered the lamb had the skin of another lamb draped over it! WHY? The lamb had been orphaned and all
attempts to have another sheep adopt it had failed until one day another lamb
was found dead because of a serpent's bite. This dead lamb's mother was obviously
upset, yet she would not except the orphaned one ... until the shepherd skinned
her dead baby and took that skin and stretched it over the orphaned lamb! Immediately the mother sheep accepted
this orphan ... it was to her now her own! How like this was Christ, the Lamb of God
who on the cross took that old serpent Satan's bite! If we will accept His covering of
righteousness and not our own our heavenly Father will adopt us as one of His
own! No wonder THAT John the
Baptist said in John
1:29: "Behold the lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world!"
Don't trust your own skin ... like Adam
and Eve; their own attempts to cover their nakedness with fig leaves were
unacceptable! God came and clothed
them with skins, the first show of the shedding of blood for
forgiveness!
– Source Unknown
5. The same Pharaoh who earlier had
ordered the death of all Hebrew sons at birth was about to discover the same
consequences for that sin ... God was going to strike down all first born sons
if there was no blood applied to the door of the home.
a. Sin often reaps its own
consequences forced on others!
b. In Christ's sacrifice there is
forgiveness and cleansing however, otherwise be sure your sins will find you
out!
6. The plagues before this last one
had automatically been kept from striking Israel; this last one however was not
automatic protection! Each Jew as
well as Egyptian had to choose to be delivered by applying the
blood!
a. Just because you know a Christian
doesn't mean you are one!
b. Being a good person or going to
church doesn't mean you're saved necessarily!
c. You must apply the blood of Jesus
to your own heart's door to be saved!
d. It isn't automatic salvation just
because you're an American or a churchgoer, or because you know
one!
c. Israel here had already been
circumcised ... yet this wouldn't save them now, it would have to be the blood
applied and only the blood applied that would exempt the firstborn from
death!
B. No
Defects! Ex.
12:5-7
1. The lamb was to be watched for
about 3˝ days to be sure it had no defect!
a. Christ ministered for about 3˝
years, watched by all and declared to be without sin ... even by His
executioners!
b. Pilot declared: "I find no fault
in Him!"
2. When the Iamb was slain it's blood
had to be applied to every house, not just some!
ILLUS: Under
the Old Testament system, every worshiper had to bring his own lamb. If he had no lamb, he had to buy a
lamb. He could not borrow a
lamb. No one could give him a
lamb. He had to provide his own
lamb. In the New Testament
everything is reversed. God
provides the Lamb! -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio:
Standard Publishing Company, 1997).
3. After slain the lamb was roasted
whole ... no bones broken, as with Christ, not a bone broken but
slain!
4. The lamb was impaled on 2 stakes at
right angles to each other, thus forming a cross to hold the lamb while it
roasted!
5. The blood was sprinkled on the
lintel and doorposts on both sides of the door, thus making the shape of the
cross!
6. No freedom would come if the lambs
they used was flawed, only Christ has lived a sinless perfect life ... He is the
only Lamb of God, through Him freedom comes from sin and there is no other
means!
7. Even the time of the lamb's death
was prophetic, it was to die at twilight, the same hour when Jesus gave up His
Spirit in the Gospels!
II. SUSTENANCE Ex. 12:8-20; 1 Cor.
5:7-8
A. Necessary
Dinner Ex.
12:8-11; 1 Cor. 5:7-8
1. It wouldn't be enough just to leave
Egypt ... strength would be needed to go through the
wilderness!
a. The lamb would not only help save
them but it would feed them or sustain them!
b. This is the picture of
communion!
c. Jesus while celebrating the Feast
of Passover with His disciples "Took bread and said, this is my body which is broken for
you, take eat."
ILLUS: In
his book Written in Blood, Robert Coleman tells the story of a little boy whose
sister needed a blood transfusion. The doctor had explained that she had the
same disease the boy had recovered from two years earlier. Her only chance for recovery was a
transfusion from someone who had previously conquered the disease. Since the two children had the same rare
blood type, the boy was the ideal donor.
"Would you give your blood to
Mary?" the doctor asked.
Johnny hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. Then he smiled and said, "Sure, for my
sister."
Soon the two children were wheeled
into the hospital room -- Mary, pale and thin; Johnny, robust and healthy. Neither spoke, but when their met, Johnny
grinned. As the nurse inserted the
needle into his arm, Johnny's smile faded. He watched the blood flow through the
tube.
With the ordeal almost over, his
voice slightly shaky, broke the silence. "Doctor, when do I die?" Only then did the doctor realize why
Johnny had hesitated, why his lip had trembled when he'd agreed to donate his
blood. He'd thought giving his
blood to his sister meant giving up his life. In that brief moment, he'd made
his great decision.
Johnny, fortunately, didn't have
to die to save his sister. Each of
us however, has a condition more serious than Mary's, and it required Jesus to
give not just his blood, but his life. -- Thomas Lindberg, Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Leadership,
Vol. 5, no. 1.
2. The unleavened bread had 2 truths
to it:
a. The hurried way in which they left
Egypt ... let us be in a hurry to flee from this world and its
ways!
b. The purity of the bread ... to be
without Leaven: "Beware the
leaven of the Pharisees" -- leaven was not even to be found in their
homes on this occasion!
c. "Get rid of the
old yeast that you might be a new batch without yeast ... as you really are.
For Christ, our Passover lamb has
been sacrificed. Therefore let
us keep the festival (of Passover or communion), not with the old yeast, the
yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of
sincerity and truth." 1 Cor.
5:7-8
3. They were to share the lamb with
family and neighbors!
a. So must
we!
b. Let us seek out the lost and invite
them to share the Lamb of God with us!
c. There was to be no
leftovers!
B. Near
Death Ex.
12:12-13
1. without the blood applied, death
would strike the Jews as well ... circumcision was not enough to save them, they
had already been circumcised, they must yet apply the blood; circumcision
identified them with Israel (like us with the church) but salvation was
necessary by each one through the blood of the lamb ... or death was
near!
2. The blood and its application was
the only hope for life ... this is still so!
C. Needed
Details Ex. 12:14-20
1. While Egypt slept, Israel
feasted! (Still true ... while the
world is sleeping the church is feasting!)
2. No yeast! ... Not even around the
house!
ILLUS:
If
Christ is an example, nobody needs him; but if he's a sacrifice, everyone
does. -- Fred Smith, Leadership, Vol. 4,
no.3.
3. Passover would not only be an
atonement, but also a communion!
4. They were to follow all the details
to the letter, their lives depended on it!
a. So might yours ... only by
accepting Christ can you be saved!
b. Your life depends on it, there is
no other way!
5. They had to stay behind the limits
of the blood covered door during the time they waited to leave ... to go beyond
its borders would expose them to death!
a. When we leave the borders of
Christ's blood we are exposed to the death of this spiritually dark
world!
b. They were safe only by being under
the blood!
c. These were all important
details! And they still
are!
d. Heb.
11:28 "by faith he (Moses) kept the
Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn
would not touch the firstborn of Israel."
III. SALVATION! Ex. 12:21-51
A. Not
Destroyed! Ex.
12:21-23
1. Imagine how crazy this must have
seemed to
a. Slaves for 430
years!
b. How would they be victorious over
powerful Egypt, with an army, with swords, with overwhelming numerical strength,
with strategy?
c. NO! They would win with a lamb and its blood
sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of their homes ... and unleavened
bread!
d. The people had to trust the words
of Moses' no matter how strange this sounded, we too much trust the Words of
Jesus no matter what the world thinks of salvation and how foolish it
seems!
e. Deliverance then and now did not
come by intellect, or skill, or power of human might, or social programs, etc.,
but by His Spirit and the blood applied!
2. It worked! They were not destroyed! ... In fact not
only could they go but the Egyptians loaded them down with gold, silver,
precious stones, clothing, tremendous wealth,
a. Without lifting a sword!
b. Without tactics,
etc.
c. It wasn't what seemed reasonable
that saved them ... it was what was righteous!
ILLUS: In
Man in the Mirror, Patrick Morley tells of a group of fishermen who
landed in a secluded bay in Alaska and had a great day fishing for salmon. But
when they returned to their sea plane, they found it aground because of the
fluctuating tides. They waited
until the next morning for the tides to comes in, but when they took off, they
only got a few feet into the air before crashing back into the sea. Being aground the day before had
punctured one of the pontoons, and it had filled up with
water.
The sea plane slowly began to
sink. The passengers, three men and
a 12-year-old son of one of the men, prayed and then jumped into the icy cold
waters to swim to shore. The
riptide was strong, but two of the men reached the shore exhausted. They looked back, and saw the father with
his arms around his son being swept out to sea.
The boy had not been strong enough
to make it. The father was a strong
swimmer, but he had chosen to die with his son rather than to live without
him. -- Robert Russell, pastor and author. Men of Integrity,
Vol. 1, no. 2.
B. News of
Deliverance Ex.
12:24-28
1. We must instruct each generation
about this God given solution for deliverance from
sin!
a. Our children need to hear first and
understand.
b. We must put an emphasis on
educating our children in the ways of the Lord!
2. We also need to tell the stranger
and alien among us, the slave, etc.
ILLUS: Those
who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have
died to win them.
-- Franklin D. Roosevelt in a proclamation designating Bill of Rights Day. Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no.
8.
a. It is only good news if they hear
it!
b. No news is bad
news!
c. God's news is good
news!
3. Israel was free ... by God, not
military might!
C. News of
Death Ex. 12:29-36
1.
a. From the lowest to the
king!
b. It now for them was too late! Pharaoh wanted a blessing after it was
too late! *[READ Ex. 12:32]
2. On the last day the Bible says
there “will be
wailing and gnashing of teeth...” sinners will one day be sorry for
their sins ... but it will be too late!
a. God does have a
deadline!
b. It may differ from one to another
based on their death date.
c. Why put salvation off, "TODAY IF YOU
HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS." Heb. 3:7,15;
4:7b
3. Egypt not only lost many lives, it
also lost its goods and its power and pride!
a. In the end sin will strip its
victims naked ... without giving life!
b. God humbles the
proud!
D. New
Day! Ex. 12:37-51
1. A new day dawned for Israel; it was
one of wonder and joy!
a. No longer
slaves!
b. No longer
poor!
c. No longer an exiled people and a
weak nation, now a powerful nation!
d. No longer hopeless ... the Promise
Land was just ahead!
e. No longer
hungry!
f. No longer
fearful!
ILLUS: It
was February 1941, Auschwitz, Poland. Maxmillan Kolba was a Franciscan priest
put in the infamous death camp for helping Jews escape Nazi terrorism. Months went by and in desperation an
escape took place. The camp rule
was enforced. Ten people would be
rounded up randomly and herded into a cell where they would die of starvation
and exposure as a lesson against future escape attempts. Names were called. A Polish Jew Frandishek Gasovnachek was
called. He cried, "Wait, I have a
wife and children!" Kolba stepped
forward and said, "I will take his place."
Kolba was marched into the cell with nine others where he managed to live
until August 14. This story was
chronicled on an NBC news special several years ago. Gasovnachek, by this time 82, was shown
telling this story while tears streamed down his cheeks. A mobile camera followed him around his
little white house to a marble monument carefully tended with flowers. The inscription read: IN MEMORY OF MAXIMILLAN KOLBA. HE DIED IN MY
PLACE.
Every day Gasovnachek lived since
1941, he lived with the knowledge, "I live because someone died for me." Every year on August 14 he travels to
Auschwitz in memory of Kolba.
"Greater
love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his
friends"
(John 15:13)
--
Source: Victor Knowles, Peace on
Earth Ministries. Adapted from Crossroads Family Circle.
2. They had passed from death unto
life ... how great a day it must have been marching out of Egypt, fully loaded
with the gold and silver of Egypt, without lifting a single
sword!
a. God still promises
deliverance!
b. His blood was shed for you ... BUT
you must take a hyssop branch (faith) and apply the blood to the doorposts and
lintel of your heart, believing isn't enough, application is
necessary!
c. Then you too will pass from death
to life, eternal life!
CONCLUSION: Jesus is the Passover lamb ... if
you apply the blood to the doorposts of your heart salvation and deliverance
will come! The shed blood didn't
deliver unless it was applied! Have
you done that yet? Don't wait too
late!