Sermon series: FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM
Subject: CHRIST OUR PASSOVER

Exodus 12:1-14
"Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you.
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire--its head with its legs and its entrails.
You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
And thus you shall eat it; with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the Lord.
Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations.

You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance."
1 Corinthians 5:7-8
"Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are

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unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

The story of Israel's bondage begins with the story of Joseph. Sold into Egypt as a slave, he rose to the position of Prime Minister. After being positioned in charge of all the food supplies of Egypt, he is confronted with the challenge of selling grains to his brothers who have been sent to buy food in Egypt. These were the brothers who sold him into slavery!
But in kindness, he receives them and then sends them back to Canaan to bring the entire family back to live with him in Egypt. They remain in that land for four hundred and thirty years!
"And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.
But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;
come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land."
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithan and Raamses." (Exodus 1:6-11)
"Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage. And they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage (Exodus 2:23)
Chapter two of Exodus records the birth of Moses, who God will later use to deliver His people from this bondage.
The mother of Moses protected the life of her son from the extermination plan of the Pharaoh by placing him in a little basket specifically prepared to float in the water. Found by the daughter of Pharaoh, nursed by his mother for the first few years of his life, Moses is eventually sent to live in the palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

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"Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren.
So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to one who did the wrong, "Why are you striking your companion?"
Then he said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" So Moses feared and said, "Surely this thing is known!"
When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well." (Exodus 2:ll-15).
He was forty years of age when he fled from the Pharaoh and he spent the next forty years tending sheep for his father-in-law.
At eighty years of age, God called Moses at the burning bush and gave him the assignment to go back to Egypt and deliver the Israelites from their slavery and bondage.
When confronted with the request to release the children of Israel, Pharaoh refuses. God sent nine plagues upon the land of Egypt, and finally Pharaoh let them go.
This now brings us to the last plague which was the slaying of all the first-born, both man and beast.
In preparation for this terrible night, God gives special instructions to the Israelites for protection for their houses and families from the death angel.
The means by which God would provide protection for His people was the slaying of a lamb.
According to the instructions in this passage before us, a lamb was to be taken in the tenth day of the first month.
The lamb was to be without blemish or spot. Its age--one year old. The lamb was kept for a period of four days, from the tenth of the month to the fourteenth. Some Bible scholars have suggested that the four days referred to four generations spent by the Israelites in Egypt.
After the animal was retained for four days, it was to be slain in the evening. There are various interpretations as to the exact time of the day the slaying was to take place, but Josephus states that it was the custom in his day to offer the lamb about three o'clock in the afternoon. The custom during the time of Christ agreed with this hour of the sacrifice. Even as the Lamb of God

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was slain approximately at the same hour of the day for the guilt of the world!
After the lamb was slain the Israelites were to take the blood of that lamb and to strike it on the two doorposts and lintel of their house.
The act of slaying the lamb and sprinkling the blood on the doorposts and lintel which represented the entry and the protection of the house, had great significance!
It immediately pointed out the great price of redemption and symbolically it pointed toward the death of Jesus Christ. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:1-2).
"But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." (Hebrews 9:11-15).
The door of the house symbolized not only the place of entrance, but the place of security. The sprinkling of blood also eloquently speaks of a substitutionary atonement. Just as the lamb was substituted for the firstborn, thus protecting him from death, so the Lamb of God would some day die in the place of all sinners, thus providing escape from the judgment of God.
After the blood had been sprinkled on the doorposts and the lintel, they were to eat the animal after it had been completely roasted with fire. The eating of bitter herbs was also part of the meal and a very vivid reminder of the bondage of Egypt. The command to prepare for the journey by eating the meal with the loins girded and shoes on the feet and staff in hand adds to this whole event a great air of anticipation and excitement.
With this Old Testament event before us, we turn to the New Testament for the wonderful spiritual truth that has its foundation in this event.

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Paul writes to the Christians at Corinth and says:
"For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed..." As pictured in the Passover in Egypt, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s perfect Passover Lamb, and the placing of His blood over us, completely separates us from the dominion of sin and the penalty of judgment.
Our preaching must deal with blood because we preach Christ crucified--with His own blood dripping from His bleeding hands, running from His scourge-cut and bleeding back, creeping from His bleeding brow, flowing from His bleeding heart, teaching us that "neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12).
In my study and preparation for this lesson; my heart was saddened as I read the following statement from the commentary on this passage from Exodus that we have been studying: "To Paul and Augustine, both men with cruel pasts, both men living among scenes of sacrificial cruelty, the slaying of the lamb could become the central picture of their faith. We are not as heroic figures as they, but we are more able to distinguish between the more and less noble elements in their imagery. We begin to see that the idea of suffering as the price for all good is only a splendid half-truth; that it is even nobler and often harder to live one's faith than to die for it; that a satisfactory theory of atonement for murder by murder can be reached only by sophisticated and theological ruses unacceptable to fair minds today. We need a new statement of Christian doctrine which will discard outworn imagery and concentrate upon the fact that religious truth cannot be expressed in even the most deftly chosen words, but only in the lives of humble folk. The time has come when we can discard some of the imagery of blood which was entirely satisfactory to Paul and Augustine, as it was to Moses. For in the "fountain filled with blood" idea, there is undoubtedly much of the mistakenly mystical justification and glorification of war."
Ladies and gentlemen! The foregoing statement is absolutely nonsense and filled with human pride and lies. Sadly, this kind of preaching has diminished the preaching of cross and salvation by the precious and blessed blood of Christ.
I agree with Paul when he writes: "Let God be true but every man a liar."
Let us hear what God’s Word has to say on

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this very important and eternal truth:

Mark 14:22-25
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat, this is My body."
Then he took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
And he said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.
Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."

Romans 3:21-26 (Amplified Bible)
"But now the righteousness of God has been revealed independently and altogether apart from the Law, although actually it is attested by the Law and the Prophets.
Namely, the righteousness of God which comes by believing with personal trust and confident reliance on Jesus Christ (the Messiah). And it is meant for all who believe. For there is no distinction.
Since all have sinned and are falling short of the honor and glory which God bestows and receives.
[All] are justified and made upright, and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy), through the redemption which is [provided] in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward [before the eyes of all] as a mercy seat and propitiation by His blood [the cleansing and life-giving sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation, to be received] through faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over and ignored former sins without punishment."
Romans 5:6-11 (Amplified Bible)
"While we were yet in weakness (powerless to help ourselves), at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.
Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die.
But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.
Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that]

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we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.
For if while we were sinners we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, now that we’re reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.
Not only so, but we also rejoice and exultingly glory in God [in His love and perfection] through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received and enjoy [our] reconciliation."
Ephesians 1:7
"In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor."
Ephesians 2:12-17
[Remember] that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ [excluded from all part in Him], utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise [with no knowledge of or right in God’s agreements, His covenant]. And you had no hope (no promise); you were in the world without God.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were [so] far away, through (by, in) the blood of Christ have been brought near.
For He is [Himself] our peace, (or bond of unity and harmony), He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us.
By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace.
And He designed to reconcile to God both [Jew and Gentile, united] in a single body by means of His cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end.
And He came and preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off and [peace] to those who were near."
Colossians 1:12-l4
"Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints

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(God’s holy people) in the Light.
[The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means the forgiveness of sins]."
In my unsaved state the curse of the law was hanging over me. Sinai's thunders were rolling over my head, but my Blessed Substitute, Jesus Christ, went to the Cross--and the storm broke over Him. The lightnings of wrath burned themselves out in His soul. He drank the cup of eternal judgment for me! He exhausted the curse of the law, and there is now no curse for me. I'm set free from the bondage of sin and now I enjoy glorious freedom in Christ!
In an old book I read of how, when midnight's moonlit veil hung low on the sea's heaving bosom, July 31, 1838, William Knibb gathered together ten thousand slaves on the island of Jamaica, for a praise meeting--and for the putting into effect of the Emancipation Act. An immense coffin was prepared. They filled that huge coffin with whips, branding irons, handcuffs, fetters, slave garments and all other memorials belonging to the horrid enslavement system when human beings were properties in human flesh--having no will but the will of their masters.
At the first stroke of the midnight bell, Knibb shouted: "The monster is dying!" at the twelfth stroke, he shouted: "The monster is dead! Let us bury him!"
Then they screwed the coffin lid down, lowered it into a twelve-foot grave, and covered it up--thus burying things which had made human lives a hard and bitterly painful bondage. That night when the beating of every pulse was quickened, every throat of those ten thousand liberated slaves shouted itself hoarse with the joy of freedom.
Now humanity's great Emancipator, Jesus Christ, by the price of His blood has obtained for all believers their freedom from Satan’s bondage, and has buried their enthralling and galling and enslaving sins in His own grave. Man's part is to believe the gospel proclamation, claim His blood-liberty, and walk triumphantly through life--one of the Lord's freed men!
This is the act which changes darkness into light, death into life, condemnation into justification!
Have you trusted in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ for your sins?
Do it today!