Our Sacrificial Passover Lamb

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message.

I greet you in the name of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we honor and celebrate him on this Passover resurrection weekend. One of my fondest memories as a kid of the Easter holiday was watching my all-time favorite movie, The Ten Commandments. It would air on ABC every Easter and with commercial breaks would run from 7 p.m. to midnight.

I would get permission from my parents to stay up late and would watch it intently from beginning to end. But one year, though, something began to nag at me. I asked myself the question, why would a movie about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage be shown every year on Easter, which I prefer to call Resurrection Day? What did that have to do with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is why we have Resurrection Sunday? I had never heard this discussed in church up to that point, so I sought out the answer.

So if you've had the same question, we will talk about it today. Let's begin with Passover. In Leviticus chapter 23 verses 4 through 5, we find written, these are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Passover is the first of the seven feasts of the Lord.

There are three feasts in the spring, one in the summer, and three in the fall. Understanding the history of the Jewish people's Passover is very important in understanding the first coming of Jesus Christ and the story of salvation. I strongly believe that many Gentile churches lack understanding of the faith due to dismissing the Jewish roots of our faith. The value as Christians is to understand such great depth and background when we realize what Jesus has done for us, what he died for, when we understand how this has been God's plan from the beginning. And if you go all the way back to Genesis 3.15, when Adam and Eve sinned, God spoke to them and said he would send the Savior, the Deliverer, from the seed of the woman. And that was the first promise in the Bible, right in the very beginning of the Bible. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, that the Messiah would come.

There would be this Messiah, this one who would save his people from their sins. So it was God's plan from the beginning that he was going to send his son to save us. So as history progresses, God sort of unfolds it in progressive steps. So in Passover, when we start examining Passover itself as something scheduled in God's calendar, he first introduced the concept at the time of the exodus out of Egypt when the Hebrew slaves were freed by the Lord under the leadership of Moses. Moses went to Pharaoh time and again and said, let my people go. Pharaoh repeatedly refused. And as a result, there was this succession of plagues, 10 plagues culminating in the 10th plague being the judgment of God. Because Pharaoh was so stubborn and refused to release the Israelites, also known as Hebrews.

So God kept increasing the judgments. In fact, when you analyze the study of Pharaoh, you will notice as it goes through the plagues, Moses would come and say, let my people go. And what happens is scripture records that Pharaoh hardened his heart against the word of the Lord. It says Pharaoh hardened his heart. But when you get along about halfway through the plagues, the terminology changes and says God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

Now, this is very serious. So by the time you get to the 10th plague, Pharaoh was so stubborn and so set in his rebellion that I don't think he could have repented then, even if he wanted to. And the judgment at that time as the 10th plague was that God was going to judge by killing the firstborn of every person and animal in Egypt, which would apply not only to the Egyptians, but also to the Hebrew slaves. Exodus chapter 12, verse 12, 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. So he said the death angel will pass through and kill the firstborn of every family unless they do one particular thing. And you can find this in Exodus chapter 12, verses one through 28.

But for the sake of time, I will paraphrase. That one thing was the interpretation he gave, which theoretically at least would apply just as much to the Egyptians as it would to the Hebrews. He said, kill a lamb. And it had to be a spotless lamb, the best lamb that they had in their flock. Kill a lamb and put the blood of that lamb actually literally painted on the doorpost on the front door of your home or dwelling. So when the death angel passes through, he sees that blood on the doorway. He will pass over your house and not kill the firstborn in this judgment. But if there is not blood on the doorway, then the firstborn in that household will die. And so the very word Passover comes from the literal fact of the angel passing over the homes that had the blood on the doorpost.

So that is very critical. That initial definition to understand why Passover even has that name. This led to Pharaoh finally conceding and letting the Hebrews go. And when God delivered them from Egyptian slavery through the parting of the Red Sea, they went out into the desert and began their 40 years of wandering around in the desert. It was during this wandering in the desert when God actually instituted or commanded that they observed that event, that great deliverance out of Egypt by having a Passover meal, a Passover observance where they would soberly remember how God had delivered them and spared their firstborn in their households. So that is part of what was instituted there in Leviticus 23, that they would actually do this every year, once a year permanently. So it became a regular non-negotiable observance every year known as the Passover Feast. So to the original question, what does this Passover have to do with Jesus and his crucifixion and resurrection?

When we come into the time of Jesus and he was meeting with what the Bible calls the Last Supper, meeting with his disciples, the Last Supper is an appropriate word or description because it was the last meal he had before he was killed. And yet the actual occasion was the regular Passover Feast. This time of Jesus on earth was approximately 1400 years after the Hebrew exodus from Egypt. So the Jews have been observing this Passover Feast for well over a thousand years at this point. Jesus and the disciples were all Jewish. And so they were observing the Passover and having their Passover meal, which is now known as the Last Supper. But then it was actually Passover that particular year. We find in Matthew Chapter 26, verses 17 through 18, the disciples came to Jesus saying to him, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. Highlight there.

My time is at hand. In the original instruction given through Moses, the Hebrews were told to pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. So every year the Jews would celebrate Passover by killing a lamb and offering that lamb as a sacrifice to God. In fact, over in Hebrews, it talks about how this act was only able to cover Israel's sins for another year, but did not actually take away their sins.

But it kept them in close relationship with God and kind of on sort of a short leash, you might say. So as Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, the Israelites were preparing the lambs that they kill every year as a sacrifice to God during the Passover feast. When Jesus died, it was right at the actual time of Passover. In Matthew 26 to we find, you know that after two days is the Passover and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. But you see, the difference in Jesus blood versus the lamb's blood, his blood forgives our sins, takes them away.

They're gone. We're cleanse. We're clean before God and made righteous through his blood. This is why the apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians five seven. Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened for indeed Christ.

Our Passover was sacrificed for us. The Bible tells us the wages of seeing is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. In Romans, it also says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And in another place, it says it is appointed unto man wants to die. So all of these things reveal that because of the sin of Adam and Eve and the fact that we are all born into sin, we all have sin in us and we do sin. And therefore the judgment, the righteous judgment of God on every person is that they must die because they have sinned.

Now, that sounds pretty radical, but that's the way it is. And if someone has a problem with that, they have to take it up with with God in the Bible. So if Jesus had sinned, he could not die for anybody else. He could only die for himself and we could only die for our sins, ourselves, and we die because we sin.

And dying for ourselves would leave us with eternal damnation. But since Jesus was not sinful, he never sinned. He then was able to be that spotless lamb like they had back in the days of Exodus with Moses and the children of Israel.

Jesus was the spotless lamb without spot or blemish. And therefore, having no sin, he could then die once and for all for the rest of us. And his death being perfect and sinless actually qualifies and satisfies the justice nature of God. God adjudicates that the death of his son is worthy and enough to pay for the penalty that all of us owe because of our sins. That is the miracle of salvation.

And it is just glorious. So Passover was just a wonderful beginning when God started laying out his plan way back at the time of Exodus. From God's perspective, that is when Jesus had to die because the original Passover out of Egypt, the deliverance from Egypt was actually the picture of what was to come with the Messiah. So it had to be in the same time and in order to actually fulfill that prophetic picture that God gave originally. And here is what makes God's plan for salvation even more glorious. Jesus died for us so that we could have eternal life. And he then proved that death cannot hold God's power when he rose from the grave on the third day.

Matthew 28, verses one through six. Now, after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel. The Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.

His countenance was like lightning in his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here for he is risen. As he said, come see the place where the Lord lay. And I love how the angel sat on this throne.

It's like if you have a sibling rivalry and you're you're wrestling with your sibling and and you will sometimes you'll get on top of that sibling. You'll hold them down and you will sit on them as an indication that they are conquered. They are defeated. So the angel sat on this stone as a show of victory that Jesus Christ had conquered death. He conquered sin. And this stone could not hold him.

This stone that was too heavy for a human being to move was rolled away and could not hold our Lord. So the connection between Passover and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled the feast by being the perfect, spotless, sinless lamb that was sacrificed at Passover. But he would take away our sins, not just cover them, allowing us to be worthy to dwell in the presence of Almighty God for eternity. It is known as the great exchange when he took our sins, paying a sin debt that we cannot pay by dying the death that we deserve and exchanged it for the gift of eternal life.

There is no greater love that exists than what is found in our Lord's sacrifice. If you have never received him as your Lord and savior, please do so today. And I tell you, I feel like praising him right now for the great sacrifice that our Lord made as we celebrate this weekend.

The fact that not only did he die, but he rose from the dead, he conquered death, and he's now at the right hand of the father. And that is a glorious, glorious occasion that we just honor our Lord. We we praise him. We magnify the holy name of the mighty God that we serve. And I'm just in awe of the great love, the great compassion and the great power of our almighty God. We are going to take a short break, but please don't go away on the other side. I'm going to be joined by a great warrior in the faith. He has a special message for student athletes that you'll want to stick around in here.

Don't go away. You are tuned into the God first program. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God first. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit God first dot org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of Lesson Israel.

Just to name a few. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our Web store. So please visit us at God first dot org. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's message. Welcome back to the God first program as we honor, as we celebrate, as we commemorate and worship our great and holy Lord. As he died on the cross, he died at Calvary for our sins.

But he rose from the dead on the third day. We celebrate our majestic Lord on this Passover resurrection weekend. Today, we have a special guest that is joining us. James Fason, who is the elder at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina. He heads the God first campus ministries, and he's here today to talk about his book, which is titled Tackled by Faith.

When sports and the cross collide, a student athletes guide to success as you were a member of the football team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during your playing days. And folks, this is a bold warrior for the faith, a man that I just admire so much. And I just want to thank you, James, for for coming on to talk with us on the program today. Ron, it's good to be here, man. Thank you again for this invite. Just looking forward to the discussion, my brother. Absolutely. It is an honor. Truly an honor to have you. Well, so this book that you wrote, you yourself, you are a student athlete or maybe you could say a former student athlete. I don't know.

Maybe once one you always want. But you wrote this book that is targeted towards student athletes. But but there I think is something in this for everyone that everybody can glean from this. So I want to start by asking you the question, what was your motivation for for writing this book, Tackled by Faith When Sports and the Cross Collide?

Yes, sir. Thank you again, Brian. And man, I'm excited just to talk about this book. And the Lord, he definitely has a way to bring things back around and bringing everything into perspective. The reason why I wrote Tackled by Faith and for all the writers that are out there, you don't write a book to sell a million copies. The Lord had given me an assignment. He said, look, I want you to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what better way to do it than than through a book. And so what I did, I combined my student athlete experiences as a when I was a college college student over at UNC Chapel Hill. And I combined that with also with my campus ministry experience whenever I was in campus ministry as a student and then also just taking on a more of a leadership role in campus ministry. And so just combining the two of those and just have an opportunity just to talk about it and and share the good news of Christ.

Man, it really it made all the difference in my life and continually it's making a difference as well in my life and my family as well. And so I'm just glad I could share it with someone else through this book. And as we said, folks, there is something in this book for everyone. So if you're not a student athlete or not a former student athlete, don't tune out because there's so much great information that that James has laid out here in this book for us. So I love the way you spoke about character and you define in the book the difference between character reputation. So speak with us about the difference between those two character and reputation.

Yes, sir. And Brian, just to reiterate just what you said, man, this book is definitely for more than just student athletes. It's good for anyone who wants to grow in their personal walk with Christ and really wants to build upon their their Christ like character. I'll talk about character and reputation whenever the Lord had me to write about it. It was more, you know, character is it's actually who you are, but your reputation is pretty much what people perceive you to be. But your character is who you really are behind closed doors.

And and that was one of the biggest things. I tell you, this is actually one of the central themes of the book, because my personal testimony was that somebody had really called me out and said, James, the Lord is not just pleased with how well you can play sports. God has given you that that ability. But he's more pleased and concerned with your character and who you actually are and who people know you as. And I was like, man, you know what?

That makes a lot of sense. And I was like, Lord, that's something that I want to work on. I want people not to know me because I was a student athlete or not to know me for anything else like that for corner wise. But I want people to know me because I'm a believer in Christ. And so, man, I tell you, I want people to know your character and who you actually are, your Christ like character. And, you know, and I talk about it in the book as well, too, because Jesus, he had so many different names. They called him Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, according to Matthew one and twenty three, and then the only way to God, according to John fourteen and six, and then Christ, the son of the living God. And I mean, there were so many different characteristics of him, but we know that Jesus Christ himself was hey, he was he was God in the flesh.

And I mean, I thank God for for Jesus Christ showing his character throughout his life and even after his death and resurrection. Well, hey, man, well said. And I love again the way you define that, because there are people out there when we talk about, well, how do people perceive us? What do we what do they think about our reputation? But then there is what is going on behind closed doors?

What are you doing when nobody is watching? And what came to mind for me as I was reading is the unfortunate situation with Ravi Zacharias, where he had this great reputation for so many years. And then we find out, unfortunately, after the man's death, that he was doing all kinds of wicked things behind closed doors. Now, you know, was it was it one of those things to where he had a struggle? I mean, people debate about that. But but what we're finding out is that there were things going on behind closed doors that are not the characteristics of a person that is born again.

And so we don't want to be one of those people that, well, out in society, people think of us as one way, but then behind closed doors, we're doing other things. And I was listening to a sermon just a few days ago and the preacher was saying, he said, if I if I come to your home, let me look through your refrigerator. Let me look through your magazines.

Let me look through your your TV package. And I can and I can tell very quickly if you are truly born again. And I thought that really hit home because that touches right on as you were talking about character versus reputation. Yes, sir.

You hit the nail on the head, man. I mean, that's and that's what we want to be known by. And I mean, and definitely praying for Robbie Zacharias.

I know he passed away and praying for his legacy and everything as well, too, and and praying for the people that experienced what had happened and everything. But the thing is, we want to make sure that our fruit have been on display. We want people to know what's by our fruit.

And the Bible says that the tree is known by its fruit. And so, man, I tell you what we do in life and what people are looking at. They're just fruit inspecting us. I remember my father in law saying that, look, people are going to be inspecting you, man.

And it's not a judgment or anything like that, but they're just fruit inspecting. And so I want somebody to whenever they're reading this book, it's almost like you're doing a self reflection on just where you're at in your personal walk with Christ. And you're just saying, Lord, this is where I need to improve that. I always I always ask the Lord where I need to improve myself. But this book will definitely help you in those areas as well, too. Yeah. Yeah.

It definitely makes you check yourself and take a hard look in the mirror. And so as we continue on, you had a chapter that was titled The Power Behind the Purpose. What is purpose? You know, when I was writing this as well and I was talking about purpose, man, what came to my mind was just how a lot of people go throughout life and they keep asking, Lord, what is my purpose? What have you called me to do?

What is my assignment? And they're literally walking by people and they're walking by people every day and they're saying this to themselves and or and then the Lord, he just he opened up my eyes and said, James, your purpose is to be a disciple. He has given us all that assignment to make disciples. And that is the whole purpose of our life. And if we center our life around that, then everything else will fall into place. And so that was the whole reasoning behind the purpose.

But we miss out on it. Some people, they go and they purchase books. I'll say purpose driven life. They're searching out for purpose. And they they just look all over Matthew 28, 19, where the Lord talked. Jesus Christ talked about the great commission. So we've been commissioned.

We have an assignment. And I want to encourage everyone, if you're still searching for your purpose, you're still searching for what the Lord has called you to do. Hey, evangelize. That's your purpose. But you got to live first. You got to you got to live right first before you can evangelize.

So you can share the goodness of God. You got to make sure that you live. That's right.

That's right. And, you know, so so we will talk about a little more as we go further. But so purpose, the purpose is not to make it to the NFL is not to make it to the NBA. It's not to do this or that. And I was listening, James, to a radio show a few days ago and they were revealing that this interview, they surveyed parents and they asked them, what is the goal for your child or your children? And less than five percent of them said to spend eternity with Jesus Christ. They said they gave all kinds of answers, like, you know, being a professional athlete or being some prominent lawyer, you know, things of that nature. Very few of them talked about the fact that their children, you know, wanting their child to have salvation, eternal life. And it's just to the point that you're speaking on, not just us wanting that for our children, but we should want that for everybody. We should be always looking to evangelize and making disciples for Jesus Christ.

So I just love that so much. What you are saying, you also you had a chapter on sacrifice and you mentioned the sacrifice that athletes make. Now, I played sports in school. The best that I could do was intramural basketball in college. I was not a real athlete like you are.

You play college sports. But just from the taste that I had, though, from from playing in middle school and high school level, that was a sacrifice, though. But I don't think it compares to what the friends of mine that I saw that played on a collegiate level to the sacrifice that they made. And so it is definitely a great sacrifice. But I want you to talk to us about what the sacrifice mean and then speak to what you define in the book as the ultimate sacrifice. Yes, sir.

Definitely. And while being a student athlete and that was a long time ago, I want the audience to know, look, I was student athlete years and years ago. But I can remember it vividly. Being a student athlete was literally a full time job. And thankfully, I had my head on straight whenever I went into college.

And my parents also, hey, they stayed on me a lot as well, too. But there was a lot of times. I mean, we just couldn't two days. Oh, my goodness. We you literally would eat, sleep and drink football all day long.

And this is just it took out a lot out of you. I mean, these are the times during. Matter of fact, it's right in the spring right now.

A lot of college students, student athletes that are playing football, they're going through spring training and they're getting ready for their spring game. And and it's two days. And this was my first time getting introduced to two days.

I've never experienced it before. Didn't think I would get tired of football, but I certainly did during those times. There was times when you hated it because they were the coaches would take your keys away from you.

Couldn't go anywhere. You had to just go to practice, study game to go back and study your material. It was lifting weights. I mean, it was a regimen. They literally gave you they literally made sure that you were going to be prepared for that spring game. And so I'm telling you, just the amount of effort that they put into it just to get you prepared and ready. I was just like, man, that was a big sacrifice because then there's a lot of a lot of kids. And I try to encourage these student athletes and I encourage everyone as well.

I'm just like, look, man, that's only going to be temporary for a short point of time in your life. And you've got to really make sure that not only are you making a sacrifice for four athletes, but you need to make a sacrifice where it really matters. And in the book, I talk about the ultimate sacrifice was John three, 16. Well, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And whosoever believe in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. And I'm going to tell you, that's the ultimate sacrifice. And even as we're getting ready to celebrate Easter and we realize what Jesus Christ, he did on the cross for us, but he demonstrated his love towards us while we were yet in our sins. Christ died for us. I'm telling you, that is the ultimate sacrifice.

I don't care what we do in life. Nothing will ever compare to what Jesus Christ has done for us. And we owe it to him to serve him as a result of what he's done for us. Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice.

What a fitting point to press the pause button. But please come back and join me next week as we will continue with part two in the conclusion of my interview with Elder James Fason. Folks, Jesus Christ is alive and well. He is risen. Let's celebrate our Lord on this resurrection weekend as he deserves our worship. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.