Rev. David Holwick W Exodus series, #5
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
July 19, 2009
Exodus 12:3-14
PASSING OVER
I. The night like no other.
A. I have attended one Passover in a Jewish home.
1) Exodus 12:43 says no foreigner (=Gentile) should eat it,
but the rabbi invited me so I went.
2) It was a pretty fancy affair.
a) Lots of weird food.
b) Lots of ritual. (and this was an abridged version)
c) A huge amount of preparation, including scouring their
home from top to bottom to get rid of yeast.
d) You women should thank God you are not Jewish!
B. Passover is one of the most significant events in the Bible.
1) It is as important for Christians as it is for Jews.
2) It should have a special meaning for you.
II. The special meal.
A. Passover was different from other Jewish festivals.
1) It centered on the family.
2) No priest or temple was involved (at this point).
3) The father would act as a priest.
B. Each family had a lamb. 12:3
1) Without defect: it represented the best. 12:5
2) It was well-taken care of.
3) Slaughtered at twilight. 12:6
a) Its blood was sprinkled on the doorposts as a sign.
C. Roast over fire with bitter herbs and unleavened bread.
1) The bitter herbs represented their cruel lives in Egypt.
2) The unleavened bread represented haste.
a) They would leave so quickly, it didn't have time to rise.
b) They were also instructed to eat in haste, with their
robes tucked into their belts.
3) It was a sacred meal: what was not eaten had to be burned.
a) And those who did not follow it properly (eating
yeast) were executed (or banished). 12:15
4) It was also educational. 12:26
a) Children were to be told what it meant.
b) Today, these questions play a large part of the ritual.
III. The final plague.
A. The tenth plague is different from the others.
1) God himself brings the plague.
a) (The angel is the personification of God)
2) There are no naturalistic elements, just divine action.
3) It is the one plague that finally broke Pharaoh.
B. It is at the same time a judgment, and salvation.
1) For the Egyptians, it was a devastating judgment.
a) Every first-born male died among the Egyptians.
1> Animals as well as humans.
b) Some scholars note that the Pharaoh who is most often
identified as the Pharaoh of the Exodus, Ramses II,
did not have his oldest son take over his throne.
c) Also, Egyptian pyramid texts have been found which
refer to "that day of slaying the firstborn." [1]
2) God made a distinction with the Jews.
a) More properly, he made a distinction with those who
obeyed his requirements.
b) Only those who were protected by blood were saved.
1> None of them perished.
2> Their area was so calm not even dogs stirred. 11:7
IV. Passover became a lasting holiday.
A. Exodus says it should always be practiced.
1) The prophet Ezekiel has Passover celebrated in the temple
of the Millennium kingdom of the Messiah.
2) Jews have modified it, however - they no longer eat it in
haste. It takes up the whole day.
B. The family of Jesus practiced it religiously.
1) Every Passover, they trekked to Jerusalem.
a) By this period, the lamb had to be slaughtered at the
temple. (see Deut. 16:5-7)
2) In the gospel of John, the brothers of Jesus are shocked
that he was still hanging around instead of at the
Passover in Jerusalem. John 7
a) He secretly went a little later.
C. The most significant Passover was the Last Supper of Jesus.
1) It has a sense of foreboding, like the first Passover.
2) Jesus was not just leaving Egypt, but Earth.
a) He shifted the focus from the lamb to himself.
b) Jesus recognized that his death would be a ransom
for us. Mark 10:45
3) This is why the early Christians called Jesus our
Passover lamb. 2 Cor 5:7
V. We must be covered by the blood.
A. Many take offense at this image.
1) Splattering blood on your doorway is rather uncouth.
a) Remember the controversy over Mel Gibson's movie,
"The Passion of the Christ"?
Author Jennifer Dean says one of the mistaken ideas
that people have when they are repelled by the
bloodiness of the crucifixion is that blood is
a symbol of death.
But the truth is that blood is a symbol of life.
Jesus poured out His life for us
so that He can pour out His life in us
so that He can pour out His life through us."
#27246
2) Blood it is at the heart of the Bible.
a) Hebrews 9:22 - without blood there is no forgiveness.
B. A life for a life.
1) Interestingly, the Passover lamb is not called a sacrifice.
a) It has many of the attributes of a sin sacrifice but
there is no emphasis here on sins or forgiveness.
b) Nevertheless, the animal acts as a substitute for the
firstborn males.
c) In effect, he dies for them.
d) When God sees the blood, he passes over the family.
2) Passover, and Christianity, is really about substitution.
a) We deserve to die, but something takes our place.
b) Only Jesus can do this perfectly.
c) To escape God's judgment, which we deserve, we must be
covered by the blood of Jesus.
1> No other substitute will do.
2> Psalm 49:7-9 shows how extraordinary this is:
"No man can redeem the life of another or give to
God a ransom for him--
the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is
ever enough--
that he should live on forever and not see decay."
VI. A new beginning.
A. The month of Passover became the beginning of the new year.
1) Previously, the year started in a different month.
2) Passover was so important, it became Day One.
B. When Christ is your Passover lamb, you have a new beginning too.
Author Maxie Dunnam heard a dramatic example of this from a
friend named Tom, who was a preacher.
One night Tom was called by a church member to come to a serious
accident on a major road near his house.
When Tom got there, one young man was in the ditch near his
smashed car.
His face was so muddy and bloody that Tom didn't recognize him.
In the other ditch was a member of Tom's church, not seriously
injured.
Tom asked him who the other guy was.
When told that his name was Jim Bob, Tom remembered him.
His mother was a member of Tom's church, and occasionally
Jim Bob had attended.
Tom had visited him in jail on a couple of occasions, because he
had lived the kind of life that often got him into trouble
with the law.
Tom knelt down beside Jim Bob in the ditch and stayed with him
as they awaited the ambulance.
"Would you like to pray?" Tom asked.
"Preacher, I don't know how to pray."
The ambulance was coming, but Tom prayed with Jim Bob before he
was put in the ambulance.
During the following time of hospitalization, Tom visited often
with Jim Bob.
He shared his concern over his injuries, but he also shared
about the new life that Christ could give him.
Then the medical verdict came: Jim Bob was permanently paralyzed
from his waist down.
Tom moved away from that city about a month after the accident.
But his successor in that church told him the rest of the story.
About three months later, a wheelchair came down the aisle one
Sunday morning at the close of the worship service.
It was Jim Bob, and he made a public profession of faith in
Jesus Christ and asked to be baptized.
After the service, the preacher asked him, "Jim Bob, how do you
feel?
How are you handling being paralyzed for the rest of your life?"
"Preacher, I'd rather be paralyzed and in this wheelchair for
the rest of my life, than to be walking around without
Jesus Christ."
#35919
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 2, "Exodus," Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.,
pp. 369-70.
#27246 "The Significance of the Shedding of Christ's Blood," by Sondra
Washington, Baptist Press, http://www.baptistpress.org,
March 22, 2004.
#35919 "He Preferred Jesus To Walking," by Maxie Dunnam, “Mastering The
Old Testament: Exodus” (Word Publishing), 1987, pp. 146-147.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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