Tomorrow is Passover. This holy day, along with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), ranks among the top three holydays in Jewish faith. Unfortunately, Passover does NOT rank very high in the Christian calendar – probably because it gets lost in Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
But remember, the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. That means, without knowing about the Passover, it would be impossible to fully understand Good Friday OR Resurrection Sunday.
St Paul and all the
writers of the New Testament understood the importance of the Old Testament. It
surprises many Christians to know that the New Testament quotes or alludes to
the Old Testament nearly 900 times.
Nine hundred times.
St Paul, in his letters,
quotes or alludes to the Old Testament nearly 150 times. Not surprisingly then
that Paul wrote to the church at Rome: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our
instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the
Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)
I hope it is clear to
us that God intends His people to be familiar with the ENTIRE Bible, not just
the New Testament. And to that end, I still plan to preach a short series of
messages on why the Bible matters. I will also begin a series of Bible studies
after we finish Psalm 136, focusing on how the Bible came to be.
Now, regarding
Passover, because of time constraints, I cannot now read the entire chapters in
Exodus that speak of the Passover, though I’d like to do that for the sake of
context. The best I can do now is simply recommend that you read Exodus
chapters one through thirteen on your own as homework. So, now I will read only
portions of those chapters to give us context for my message today. Here is a
portion from chapter 11:
“Moses said
(to Pharaoh), “Thus says the Lord, “About midnight I am going
out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt
shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to
the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones; all the firstborn
of the cattle as well . . . But against any of the sons of Israel a dog will
not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you
may understand how the Lord makes a distinction
between Egypt and Israel. . . . [and] the Lord hardened
Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.
Now to chapter 12: “Now the Lord said
to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt . . . Speak to all the
congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one
to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households,
a lamb for each household . . . .Then Moses called for all the
elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs
according to your families and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is
in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel
[top of the door] and the
two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house
until morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians;
and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts,
the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to
come in to your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and
your children forever.
As
many Christians who are literate with Scripture know, Jesus was crucified
during Passover. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:7 “For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”
And Jesus told His
disciples: (Matthew 26:2) “You know that after two days the Passover is
coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
In point of fact, it
was with His crucifixion that God placed His last brush strokes on the painting
– so to speak – that He began some 1500 years earlier in Egypt. I like to call
that canvas, ‘Redemption.’
In your mind’s eye, can
you not see how our bruised and bloodied Lamb of God ‘painted,’ as it were, the
‘lintel’ of the cross with blood from His scalp wounds? He painted to two side
posts with blood dripping from His hands. The blood from His feet finished the
painting which should have reminded those there on Calvary’s hill of the
Passover lamb’s blood that painted their ancestors’ doors – blood that held
back the hand of the angel of death from their homes as he swept across Egypt.
How did those on
Calvary’s hill not recognize that Passover link? I don’t know, but I hope YOU
do not miss that link because the picture that God painted on those Israelite
doors and on Calvary’s cross frame the eternal plan God set in motion before
the creation of the world.
Israel had been a very
long time in Egyptian bondage. So severe was that bondage that Pharaoh even forced
parents to kill their own newborn sons so he could reduce the male population
among the Israelites. And don’t think for a moment that Pharaoh didn’t have his
‘spies’ among the Israelite’s neighbors who’d report noncompliant Jewish
parents to Pharaoh’s police.
It was a long time
they’d been in bondage, but God knew of their groans and desperate heartbreak.
And when He sent them a deliverer, He did so in the person of Moses. Many of
you know the story of the plagues God inflicted on Pharaoh and his people, but
– and again for the sake of time – we must limit this message to only the last
plague – the death of the firstborn throughout Egypt. Here again is that text
from chapter 11:
“Thus says the Lord, “About midnight I am going
out into the midst of Egypt, and all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh
who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind
the millstones; all the firstborn of the cattle as well . . . But against any
of the sons of Israel a dog will not even bark, whether against man
or beast, that you may understand how the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
Blood on the top of the door and the two side-posts, forming a cross
in blood. God ‘concealed’ in that event what He would eventually reveal 1500
years later on Calvary’s cross. But here we are yet another 2,000 years after
Calvary. Does God's painting at the Passover and on Calvary’s hill really have
any relevance to us in 2024?
Of course, it does, because God is eternal, His word is eternal,
and His plan for humanity’s redemption is eternal. As the psalmist reminds us
(Psalm 119:89-90) “Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Your
faithfulness continues throughout all generations.”
God through Moses told the Israelites to paint their doors with
the blood of the sacrificial lamb and the Angel of Death would ‘pass over’
their homes. And by FAITH they obeyed what Moses told them – and they were
saved.
Let’s pause a moment and make some application: Are YOU covered
with the blood of the Lamb of God who takes away your sins? (see John 1:29).
While we do not today sacrifice a lamb and paint our door lintels
and side posts with its blood to deliver us from the power of our oppressors,
we CAN and MUST – if we hope to be delivered from the power of sin and of death
– we must by faith apply the blood provided us by God's Son Himself who, as the
Scripture tells us, ‘loves us and released us from our sins by His blood.”
(Revelation 1:5).
I love the hymn which includes these lyrics: “Would you be free
from the burden of sin? There's power in the blood, power in the blood. Would
you over evil a victory win? There's wonderful power in the blood.
By faith – faith in
the commandment of God to paint their doors with Lamb’s blood – by faith they
were saved during the Passover. And it is also by faith in God's commandments
that we ‘paint our hearts’ – so to speak – that we today are saved from God's
wrath and the oppressive power of sin over our lives.
Listen: It was by
God's grace that Israel was saved. And it is STILL by God's grace that all who
come by faith and humble obedience to His Throne that anyone today is saved
from the angel of death who will bring all who have rejected the Blood of the
Lamb to eternal death.
How do we come to
God's Throne? I’ll say it again for emphasis. I don’t want anyone to miss this:
Jesus is the absolutely critical key. All who desire forgiveness and eternal
life must come through the only door God provided – Jesus the Christ. Jesus the
Anointed One. Jesus the Messiah.
He alone is the direct
link between the angel of death’s Passover of 3500 years ago, and the same
angel’s passing over of your soul and mine. That is why Jesus said – and you
and I must believe this by faith – Jesus said of Himself: “I am the way, the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6). It
was Jesus who said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live
even if he dies, 26 and
everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
And notice how Martha responded to His follow-on
question: “Do you believe this?” She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the
Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”
Jesus asked essentially the same question of the disciples:
“Who do you say that
I am?” Simon
Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)
Which circles us back to the Passover and the question Jesus still asks
people today – men and women even here at Ashwood Meadows: Who do YOU say that
I am?
Let’s pause again for a moment. What do you think happened in those
Jewish families who did NOT believe Moses and did NOT paint their doors with
the sacrificial blood?
We can extrapolate
from what happened to the Egyptians who, for example, did not believe Moses’
warning about the plague of the hailstorm. God spoke to Pharaoh and his
servants through Moses saying: (Exodus 9:18-21) “Behold, about this time tomorrow, I
will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt
from the day it was founded until now. Now therefore send, bring your livestock and
whatever you have in the field to safety. Every man and beast that is
found in the field and is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them,
will die.”’” The one among
the servants of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord made his servants and his livestock flee into the houses; but he who paid no regard to the word of the Lord left his servants and his livestock in the field.”
What happened to the Jews who did not believe
Moses and paint their doors with blood? I think it is safe to say, the
firstborn in their home died. But please notice again here the mercy of God . .
. even to the Egyptians who had enslaved His people for generations. Mercy – to
warn them and to protect even them. Why? Because God is a God of MERCY and is
not wanting ANYONE to perish.
Mercy. And it STILL doesn’t matter today what we’ve
done to others in the past. It STILL doesn’t matter whom we have hurt in the
past. God will STILL accept the penitent AND will forgive the penitent, wiping
each of those past sins as far as east is from the west.
Consider David and his egregious sins of
coveting, adultery, and murder in the affair with Bathsheba and her husband
Uriah. And consider God's willingness to forgive Saul the Pharisee – better
known as St Paul – for his murders of Christians. And I won’t even begin to
tell you of the horrible sins in my own past.
But all of this circles back again to the
Passover and God's mercy toward the Egyptians, and His mercy today as He
continues to warn humanity – even those in church pews and church pulpits: “Believe
My warnings” He pleads. “Believe My threats. These are not idle warnings or
threats. Repent. Believe the gospel. OBEY the gospel.”
Please hear this: All who will NOT bow in
faithful obedience to Christ, they will experience God's eternal retribution
when – and I now quote from St Paul’s letter to the CHRISTIANS at
Thessalonica – “the Lord Jesus will be revealed from
heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not
know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”
Let me bring this message now to a close: Jesus the
Passover Lamb takes away all of the sins of the penitent. Please, all of us –
and I include myself here as well – we must pay attention to this warning of
the Holy Spirit to Christians:
(Hebrews 3:1-7)
“Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,
consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of
our confession; He was faithful to Him who appointed Him,
as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of
more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more
honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder
of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a
servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken
later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His
house—whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast
of our hope firm until the end. Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit
says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts . . . .”
Do
not harden your hearts as Pharaoh did and as people all around us still do day
after day. It is vital that we remind ourselves that when Pharaoh persisted in
hardening his heart against the Lord, God furthered the hardening. You
can look up these texts on your own: Exodus 3:19; 5:2; 8:15; 8:32; 9:34 along
with 4:21; 7:3; 14:4; 14:17.
The
point of all that is this: God is not One to be trifled with. There is only one
way to avoid Pharaoh’s fate of a hardened heart – and that is to walk HUMBLY
with God, obediently following His commandments – not the least of which is, by
faith trusting God to be telling us the truth about sin, righteousness, eternal
life, and eternal judgment.
If
you have never done so – AND even if you HAVE done so in the past – then today,
while it is still called today – by faith, make Jesus lord of your life, your
time, your talent, your treasure. His blood alone can cover our sins – just as
the Passover lamb on Israel’s doors protected them from the wrath of God.
When
the penitent tax collector prayed: “God, be merciful to me, the sinner,”
Jesus told His disciples, “This
man went to his house justified.” (Luke 18:14). And so, sinners – all of us here wear that label before
God – remember that word of Christ about the penitent sinner.
Salvation is available even to the worst sinners –
all because and only because of what Jesus did for us on Passover’s cross 2,000
years ago.
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