"The Passover" Sermon: Exodus 12:1-28

"The Passover"
[Exodus 12:1-28]
April 5, 2007 Second Reformed Church

"Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and prepare the Passover meal for us that we may eat it.' They asked him, 'Where do you want us to make preparations for it?' 'Listen.' he said to them, 'when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house he enters and say to the owner of the house, "The Teacher asks you, 'Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'" He will show you a large room upstairs, already furnished. Make preparations for us there." So they went and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal" (Luke 22:7-13).

After four hundred years, God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let God's people free. But, as God had predestined, Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let Israel go free. So God sent plagues: First, the mighty Nile River was turned to blood. Then the land was covered with frogs, then gnats, then flies, and then the livestock became ill and died. Then God sent boils on the Egyptian people. Locus covered the land. And then there was darkness. But, each time, Pharaoh refused to let Israel free.

And then, the tenth plague: the death of the firstborn son. God was going to come during the night and kill every first-born son in the land of Egypt. Unless. Unless God makes a Way of Salvation -- and He did.

God told them to institute the Passover meal -- a celebration that Israel would celebrate every year to commemorate God's "passing over" them and not killing their firstborn. This would be the beginning of the year. They would begin their year remembering what God had done for them in saving them. And God told them that, in this is salvation:

They were to take a lamb, one for each family, and if a family could not afford a lamb, their neighbor was to share with them. Salvation, we understand, is first for a people. Just as they were saved from their slavery and death as a people, so we are saved, first and foremost as a people. Peter wrote that we are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a people for God's own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once [we] were not a people, but now [we] are God’s people; once [we] had not received mercy, but now [we] have received mercy" (I Peter 2:9-10).

Salvation is for a people.

They were to take a lamb without blemish and offer it up for sacrifice. Salvation, we understand, must come through a Perfect and Sinless One. God expected and would only receive the best possible sacrifice that could be offered up. God would not receive a sacrifice that was tainted or malformed. God is a holy God, and the only appropriate sacrifice, the sacrifice that will save, must be a perfect sacrifice. Again, Peter wrote, "Know[] that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that lamb without blemish or spot" (I Peter 1:18-19).

Salvation comes through a Perfect and Sinless One.

The lamb was to be killed; his blood was to be shed, and then the blood was to be placed on the lintel and the doorposts. The lintel is the horizontal beam; the doorposts are the vertical. What symbol were they making? What image were they symbolizing as necessary? Salvation, we see, only comes through the shedding of blood and by being covered with it. The writer of Hebrews wrote, "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." Israel deserved God’s Wrath, just as much as Egypt, but there is salvation through and in blood sacrifice.

Salvation only comes through the shedding of blood and being covered by it.

God told them that they were to roast the lamb over a fire and eat all of it, every part of it, until it was gone, and anything left, was to be burnt up in the fire. The lamb, the sacrifice, was to be totally consumed in its entirety. Nothing was to be left. Salvation only comes through total devotion -- total sacrifice -- and such a salvation effects the whole self. This should not surprise us -- what did Jesus say was the royal law? What is the most important, the most foundational law, but that law calling for every single part, every facet of our being, to be given to God in love? "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30).

Salvation only comes through total sacrifice and such a salvation effects the whole self.

God told them that He would pass-over all those homes with the blood , but all those who did not have the sign of the lamb's blood on their door, all those who had not sacrificed and eaten the lamb, those families would have the first-born die. For the cost of unbelief is everything. "Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his officials and all the Egyptians; and there was a loud cry in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead" (Exodus 12:30).

We're told that "by faith [Moses] kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them" (Hebrews 11:28). The cost of unbelief is everything. It is the one sin God will never forgive (Matthew 12:31).

God also said to bake unleavened bread for the journey -- bake bread without yeast. Why? Because when it was time for them to leave Egypt, they would have to leave -- at a moment's notice. They would not have time to let bread rise, and punch it down and then let it rise again before baking it. It was to be made and baked immediately, so they would be ready to go at a moment's notice. And so we understand that salvation is now -- there is no time to wait. Paul wrote, "Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2b). We don't know what tomorrow will bring; only God knows tomorrow.

So, now is the time of salvation -- there is no time to wait.

God told Israel to end the Passover week in worship. After they had recounted the salvation of the people by God, they were to join together in worship. And the angel told John to "keep the words of this book. Worship God" (Revelation 22:9b).

On Maundy Thursday, Jesus fulfilled the Passover: what thousands upon thousands of sheep could not do for all eternity, Jesus the Lamb of God did. He did for the people He came to save. He is without spot or blemish. He was killed and His Blood was spilt. He was completely consumed. And He calls us to believe -- and to believe now -- for tomorrow it may be too late. Tonight we remember the institution of the Lord's Supper, the fulfillment of the Passover, a place where we meet our God and Savior now, in a meal that we celebrate until His Soon Return.

"When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. He said to them, 'I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.' Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, 'Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I will not drink the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God comes.' Then he took a loaf of bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But see the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table. For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!' Then they began to ask one another, which one of them it could be who would do this" (Luke 22:14-23).

The time is gone. The bread and the cup are on the table. And Jesus calls us to come. If we have believed, Jesus invites us to come. To meet with Him and receive His Grace.

Let us worship with prayer:

Almighty Savior, we thank You for providing Salvation for us, even as You fulfilled the Passover. Thank You for making us a people for You. Thank You for Your One Sacrifice. As we receive the bread and the cup, give us Your Grace, and may we know anew what You have done, and may it cause us to worship, again and again. For it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.