Main Street Church Sermon (17.12 - )

Well, we are still in the feasts of Israel. In fact, we're coming near the end of them. I timed this so that we would come to the end of them when actually the biggest feasts of Israel start this calendar year, which is going to be in April.

So we're getting pretty close to that. You know, last week I said there wasn't a food that was really represented with the festival we looked at last week. This time there is.

However, there's a caveat with this particular food. This was the universal food of this feast. but not any more. Not anymore. Why?

Let's find out.

Okay, so what are we doing? Here's our big complicated calendar of the year. Last time when we were doing the last feast, we were way up in this crammed part at the top up here. In the first month of the calendar year, Nisan, right? Not the car, but the month, Nisan.

So we looked up there, so we have to kind of expand that to be able to see what that's all about.

So let me expand that.

So here's the entire month of Nisan now, and we're actually focusing on just about a week and a day. There's three very important festivals that are clustered right here in this particular week. And so we saw one of them last week, and we're going to look at the next two.

So, and at that, it kind of rounds out our looking at it.

So we got a sneak preview last week about some of the feasts in this particular week that we didn't look at last week, but they're clustered, so you have to talk about them together.

So here's the ones we showed, we previewed last week. On the far left, on the 14th of the first month, has to be the 14th of the first month. Has to be. Has to be. You have Passover or Pesach, which this year happens on.

April 12th. What we looked at last week, we looked at here on the 16th, is the Feast of First Fruits or Rashid. And it turns out that as we did some math, we found some amazing things about that. And then there is right after that, after the 14th, on the 15th, those seven days is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

So we previewed those last week, but we only looked at the middle one, the Feast of First Fruits. And the Feast of First Fruits is interesting because it is not tied to a calendar day in the month. Like Passover has to, has to be on the 14th. Has to, has to. And the Feast of Unleavened Bread has to start on the 15th.

Has to, has to, has to. But this one in the middle of this first fruits. Kind of interesting. It has to be after the Sabbath in the Unleavened. bread weak.

So wherever the Sabbath falls, and you know, the Sabbath, which is a Saturday on the calendars, it moves around in the month, right? Just like the Fourth of July. What day of the week is the Fourth of July on this year? I don't know, 'cause it moves. Same thing with the Feast of First Fruits.

It's going to move based on where the Sabbath falls, where Saturday falls in the week. But we did some detective work and found out something very interesting about that. But here's what we had to remember. First fruits is connected to that particular feast, the Feast of Weeks, which happens seven weeks. After This event, first fruits.

They're tied together like an umbilical cord.

So, first fruits is not tied to a day, it's just got to be the day after the Sabbath. And the Feast of Weeks has to be seven weeks plus. Plus one. fifty. Pentecost.

Pentecost means 50 in Greek.

So that's what Feast of Weeks is. But they're tied together in a funny kind of way. They're the only two of the festivals in the entire calendar that have such a weird kind of flaky, floaty relationship. But we notice the fact that when we looked at the Feast of First Fruits last week and we wound back the calendar back to the crucifixion week, we found out that the crucifixion yielded the resurrection and the resurrection happened on the day of the first fruits. And Paul tells us very clearly right here in 1 Corinthians 15: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits.

or the aparchae in Greek, which just means beginning. It just means beginning.

So every time we saw first fruits in this section about the feast of first fruits, the first fruits word in Hebrew or in Greek does not mean first fruits agriculturally. It just means beginning.

It's the beginning.

So, what we saw was that Christ being raised from the dead is the beginning. of a complete harvest, He's the beginning of the harvest, and the harvest completes over there in the Feast of Weeks with those two loaves of bread. Remember the two loaves representing the Jews and the Gentiles? That's kind of a completion of a harvest. It's seven times seven days.

And whenever you have a seven in Scripture, it means complete.

So what God is trying to tell us in this right here is that the resurrection of Jesus, he is the first fruit in the beginning of a harvest that goes over a long period of time. How long? Until it's complete. Seven times seven. We're talking about kind of cosmic symbolism and all this stuff because what I've said at the very beginning was the feasts of Israel were instituted by God at the very beginning of the life of Israel as they left Egypt and they established their community there in the promised land.

And God said, whoa, wait, as we're leaving Egypt and as you're going in the promised land, you need to put on your calendar seven feasts.

Well, God does this in order to teach them and us something.

So that's what we're doing. We're standing back and we're realizing that these feasts are meant to communicate something in an interesting, what I call an integrated message system. That is, it has import to what happened, and we will see that today. But it also has import on a cosmic scale, trying to tell us something. Every year it's trying to tell us something.

For instance, I mean, we talk about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is something we put on the calendar. We do it on one day, Canadians do it on another day. No big deal. But Thanksgiving is meant to remind us of something, which is how much food can you eat in one sitting?

No, that's not what it's meant to teach us. It's meant to bring our thinking back to something much more important, right? To bring us back to a time when we had almost nothing and yet God provided and we're thankful that he provided for us. That's what it's supposed to bring you to, but now we're just about, you know, trying not to fall asleep with too much turkey while you're trying to watch a football game. And that's...

We've lost the import.

So God establishes these feasts in order to remind us and to teach us something much bigger, much broader, much more heavenly than just the day on the calendar.

So that's what we've been doing all through these things is looking at that. The feast of first fruits actually is the first thing that comes out of the ground like Jesus came out of the ground Ah, and we looked at that last week. That he is, this resurrection is the beginning of a complete harvest that includes not only Jews, but Gentiles, a harvest.

Now, these other things on here we need to look at, and we brought them up because you have to place them in the week.

So we're going to take a look at these today. Passover, Pesach, and I have a qualifier. Remember I said that the names of the months on the Jewish calendar were Babylonian? And they are. Nisan is the Babylonian name for the first month.

But there is a Hebrew name for the first month, and it's Abib, right here. Abe. There's only two other months actually in the Jewish scriptures, in the Hebrew scriptures, that talk about a name for a month. But largely when you see a month designated in the Old Testament, it's just designated by its number. Which is why on the first month you do this, on the second month you do this, on the seventh month you do this.

But just to let you know, the first month does have a name, Abhi.

Okay, let's take a look at this week because these are deliberately by God crammed together to be almost one. one celebration rather than two.

Okay.

So let's take a look at Passover. Let's do Passover. Probably the most famous one on the seven appointed feasts for Christians as well as for Jews. It's the first one of the year. It's in the first month, the first one of the year.

And it's super important.

So let's take a look at it.

So we always go to Leviticus 23. This is where we find this stuff.

So Leviticus 23, 4. These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. This is his prologue into the seven feasts. And here's the first feast he mentions. The first feast he mentions here in verse 5 is the one we're going to look at today, this Passover.

In the first month, On the 14th day of that month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And that's all Leviticus 23 says about Passover. What? That's it. That's it.

Everybody, everybody, Jews included, know what Passover is all about. Why? Because it commemorates an actual event that at the time God told them to do this, they all knew about and experienced.

So we can actually, for us, since we weren't there, We can go back and figure out what Passover is about because he doesn't instruct us at all here. That's it. That's it. That's all you got there. But there's so much other places you can go.

For instance, you can go to the historical account. It's in Exodus 12. We'll do a lot of stuff in Exodus. We'll see the actual event that happened. See that in Exodus 12.

Also, there's a whole bunch of instructions and numbers and Deuteronomy about how you go about celebrating Passover. There's other accompanying sacrifices that are going to go on. You know, there's all that that's there. Also, there's a lot of historical narratives documenting how it was participated in with the nation of Israel.

So you can go to all those places and you can get a really visible. Very complete idea about what passive is all about. What we're going to do is just we're going to stick on this one right here. We're going to stay on the historical stuff.

So we'll be in Exodus between chapter 4, mostly in chapter 12. And we'll take a look. What's Passover about? You probably know the whole story, so don't go to sleep. Say, I know the story.

I've heard this before.

Okay, you probably have, and so have I.

So here we go. I'm going back to Exodus 6. And this is God telling Moses what's going to happen. Before the actual Passover happens.

So Exodus 6:6, so this is God speaking to Moses.

So say, therefore, to the people of Israel, I am the Lord. and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great acts of judgment. Whew.

So, if you recall in the history, Israel, which started with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob's 12 sons, they're in Canaan, they're in the promised land, but then there's a famine, and so they go to Egypt. They find one of their youngest brothers is there who they thought they'd killed. Joseph? And then they go to Egypt and they find food, as well as much of the world does at the time. And then they're there.

For four centuries Oh my gosh. I mean, they're there a long time, four centuries. And they get completely interwoven into Egyptian culture. They're still Jews, but they're Egyptians in a way, too. And what was originally a really good situation because there was food there, and after all, their brother Joseph was in charge of Egypt.

just short of Pharaoh. It was a good place to be. But then it says in the narrative that, well, you know, Pharaoh's come and go and Pharaoh's come and go and Joseph dies and Pharaoh's come and go and Pharaoh's come and go and all of a sudden the the table's turned and it's a bad place to be and they're enslaved. Four centuries. And so that's where we're at when we start looking at the Passover.

They're enslaved in Egypt. What started out as a good deal has turned really sour.

So they need to get out of there.

Now there's a bigger standback cosmic reason for why God had them be in Egypt for four centuries. And we'll look at that in a couple weeks. But it was necessary for a couple of reasons. But today, God is going to get them out.

So that's what the story is about. God's telling Moses, This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. That's the slavery. I'll deliver you from that slavery.

I will redeem you. By the way, the word redeem always means a price. Cost. I'll redeem you. With an outstretched arm, that's a metaphor for This, check out those guns.

That's an outstretched arm.

So outstretched arm in Hebrew means power.

Okay.

Not like my outstretched arm.

Okay, I'll redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. Hmm. This is cool. And then he goes on in verse 7. I'll take you to be my people.

Wow. Not Egyptians, God's people. I'll take you to be my people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. Yeah.

So this is like the synopsis of what's going to happen. before it happens.

Okay.

Now, there's something that's really important in this I want to point out, and I have to do it by. Messing with the text. By Showing those. Bring you out, redeem, to be my people. There is in the process of salvation.

There is the process of salvation. a starting place of from And an ending place, a two. and a cost in between. That's always important.

So, salvation both for the Israelites as they leave Egypt and for us. means being rescued from something. being delivered to something and in the interim at a cost.

So that's something, keep that in your head, because that's super important. I mean, it's an obvious thing. The other obvious thing that's in here is What do the Israelites do? Nothing because who does all this stuff?

Well, I will bring you out. I will redeem you. I will take you to my people. to be my people. I will, I will, I will.

This is God doing this.

So, God's the one who is the author and the funder of salvation, both for the Jews coming out of Egypt and for us coming out of the slavery of sin. And we'll see that in a second.

So, there's always a from, there's always a to, there's always a cost. By the way, in years past, there used to be evangelists who would go around. And as they would evangelize different parts of the world, even in our country, they would emphasize the first thing so much that they would forget the other parts. They would say, you know, basically the fire of hell is licking at your toes. And if you don't do something about that, it's going to consume you.

You need to be delivered from. that wrath of God through the cost of Christ. But never really emphasize what you're going to.

So it's a balanced approach when you talk about salvation.

Okay.

Let's move on from this because this is just a great statement of how that works.

Okay, and then if I go backwards actually to Exodus 4. God gives Moses a sneak preview of what's going to happen. He says... Then you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me.

If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. Most of us have never thought about this.

So let's talk about firstborn son for a second. There's a lot of complications on firstborn son, but firstborn sons out of many sons has a distinction from the other sons. Always has a distinction in ancient culture. The easiest way to think about it is the firstborn one is the one who is compelled to continue serving the father in his life as an adult. What?

So the father said the father has a business, okay? The father has a business, he's a farmer, he's a carpenter, he's something. The firstborn son who's born is just implicitly the one who takes over the father's business as he grows up and becomes an adult. And as the father dies, the business becomes his and the resources of that business largely go to him. And so he's the one that continues to serve the father even after the father's not on the scene.

Now the rest of the sons can do whatever the heck they want to. They can start a business, they can become YouTubers making money that way, they can do anything they want to. But the firstborn, the firstborn is tied to serving the will and the interests of the Father and actually representing the Father. And so much so that when the Father has not passed away yet and the older son, the oldest son is engaged doing the work with the Father one-to-one, their wills are identical. What the father wants to happen is what the firstborn son makes happen.

Their wills are indistinguishable, so much so that legally in ancient Israel, before the father dies, the eldest firstborn son can actually make binding contracts in the name of the father because he carries the full authority. and the full permission of the father to son on his behalf.

So the firstborn son, is indistinguishable from the Father both in will and intent and goal and purpose. They are, for all, for legal, all intents and purposes, exactly the same person.

Now, does that sound like anything you've heard? That's why when we talk about Jesus being the Son of God and the firstborn, which we'll see in a second, that's because his will and the Father's will are identical. I mean, Jesus even said, look, what I do, I only do what I see the Father do. What I say, I only say what the Father says. I mean, they're indistinguishable in that particular sense.

Are they two different persons? Yes, but they're indistinguishable in terms of who they are and what they're accomplishing.

So, in this particular case, the easiest way to think of firstborn son, the firstborn son is the one that serves. The father. He's the one that serves the Father and continues to serve the Father after the Father is gone.

So, God says, Israel is my firstborn son, meaning. Israel is my son that serves my will. in all of the world.

So, God has an intention for Israel, like a firstborn son, continues the will of the Father. Israel is the firstborn son who continues. to serve the Father in the Father's purposes.

So, we've talked about this a little bit before, and we'll continue to talk about it. Israel was kind of a flagship. Community for the world, to tell the world what community and society with God at its center is like. Israel was meant to be that representation on a smaller scale. It's like when you're in elementary school, did you ever make a diorama?

No one made diarrhema? Oh, okay. I just don't want to admit it because they look so bad. You know, you take a shoebox and you turn it on its side, you know, and you cut out little people and you stick them on the floor inside there and all that kind of stuff.

So so these dioramas, they're not reality. But they represent a larger reality. Are you with me? They represent a larger reality that's meant to, which is true, but this reality is a smaller one. Israel is like that.

Israel is a nation in a world of nations. is meant to be a diorama, but a living real diorama on a small scale of what God's intentions for all mankind are supposed to be.

So, even though God started his narrative in the Bible with Israel, that narrative is meant to be an invitation to the entire world to be part of this kind of community.

Now Israel wasn't a great diorama. I mean, they had a lot of failings, right? God didn't choose them to be the diorama to tell the world about what's going on from God's perspective because they happened to be really righteous people. They weren't. In fact, that was part of their advantage.

They were ordinary people. They were full of failings.

So even in that message about what God intended for the perfect society with God, he chose people who were failures. as part of the message, which means you can be part of the larger reality of society and community with God, even if you're deeply flawed.

So that's intentional. We're going to make some big, some big observations as we go on in the next couple weeks about all this. But this is what he's saying: God is saying to Moses, you tell Pharaoh. You tell Pharaoh that my firstborn son are the people you have enslaved. They don't serve you, Pharaoh.

They serve me. Because they're my first point. See it? And by the way, Let my son go that he may serve. Me, that's the implicit role of the firstborn son.

And if you refuse to let him go, I'll kill your firstborn son.

Now He's speaking in a general context because a lot of firstborns will die. But he's actually pointing his bony finger right at Pharaoh and personally saying, I don't care that you're Pharaoh, your firstborn son will die too. Wow. Wow. So this is God speaking to Moses before he's even told Moses what the 10 plague plan is.

I mean this is this is just a mind blower. It's a total mind blower. This is a statement from God about his sovereign power and might over the most powerful man in the world. He's going to lose everything that he thinks is his that serves him. It's going to lose it.

unless you let go of the people who are intended by God's design to serve God. They don't serve you as slaves. They serve me, God says. Whoa, and then if we skip out to 11, this is after the nine plagues, okay, and now we're on the verge of the tenth plague right here.

So the Lord said to Moses, Well, yet one plague more I'll bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Of course, we've read this story. One plague more.

So Moses said, verse 4. Thus says the LORD. About midnight. I will go out in the midst of Egypt. And every firstborn in the land of Egypt.

Shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne. Which is God saying, I don't care what throne you sit on, you're going to lose your son too. On the throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill and all the firstborn of all the cattle. Everything, everything.

Now, what you have to understand here is, God did not say, I'm going to take just the firstborn of Pharaoh or the Egyptians. He said, I'm going to take the firstborn of everything that lives in the land of Egypt everything. Uh excuse me, I have a question. I'm a son of Abraham? Does that mean me too?

Everything in the land of Egypt, firstborns will die. Everything. everything in the land of Egypt. And you say, well, wait, I've read this story. The Jews don't.

But you have to understand that that the plague that comes on them is a plague that's on everyone who lives in that land. which strongly implies That Israel, although Israel is the firstborn son of God, they are under that same curse. They are under that same judgment.

Now the reason I bring that up, because you say, but wait, you're talking funny stuff, because we know that the Jews firstborn don't die. But you have to understand, God could have structured this.

So he said to Moses, Moses, tell your people. Everything's cool. None of your families are going to die, especially your firstborn, but I'm going to afflict just Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He doesn't say that. He says, the wrath of God is coming down on anything that lives in the land of Egypt.

Now, there's great theology in this. Because God's condemnation of sin Is not selective based on your ethnic background or your race. It's on all mankind. And why? Peace.

There's no one good, not one. The Is the Israelites do not Aren't in a favored position when it comes to the wrath of God. They're under the same problem. You're in the same problem. And that's that's universal.

By the way, too, I said that Israel is kind of like a diorama nation for the other nations to be invited into. You know, Israel is under the same condemnation for sin as the rest of us. He'd use a sinful people. And if it weren't for the fact of what God does above and beyond that, then none would survive. all of mankind would be gone because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

That's just, we know that theologically. That's just true.

So, here when God structures this event in Egypt, The wrath of God is on everyone, including the Israelites. If something doesn't happen. That's an important theological point. There is a solution. Yeah.

And the solution to this mighty plague is a tiny animal. Oh what? Oh wait, didn't you just read back there that the solution is um Outstretched arm. And that outstretched arm is a tiny animal. Uh yes.

Uh stay tuned. We'll figure that out in a second here. Because what I would expect if I was writing the Bible as a fictional writer, and the Bible is not fictional, but if I was going to write it, I would write something more like Sodom and Gomorrah. Right? I would say Israel is enslaved to these people.

They came here under the good will of their brother Joseph, and everything's working fine, and then everything turned, and now they're enslaved, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And oh, God comes to Moses and says, Moses, you're not going to believe what's going to happen tonight. Tonight, Moses, this is Jim's fiction. Tonight, Moses, we're going to have fire and brimstone coming out of heaven. It's going to be a spectacle.

And the amazing thing about the miracle is those firestones coming down to heaven, not a single one is going to touch Israel. It's just going to afflict the people in the country, and especially Pharaoh, maybe many times.

So come out and see the fireworks tonight. You'll be safe. And watch all the Egyptians die. And then they all go out in the middle of the night and they watch a fire come out of heaven. And all these Egyptians are running around with their hair on fire, literally.

And they're going, hey, yeah. No. That is not what happened. But that's what I would have written. Right?

Israel, stand forth and watch your enemies die. God says, everyone who lives in this land is under this wrath. Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Mighty stretched out.

Okay, uh something's gonna happen to intercede, yeah. And that mighty outstretched arm is A lamb. Not a bull? I would pick bull, not a lamb. Wouldn't you pick ball?

Who's all for bulls? I'm a big bull with big long horns. rampaging through the Egyptian communities. goring people. Yeah.

I'm a bad I'm a bad fictional writer. But not a lamb. Come on, a lamb.

Okay, this is God's deliberate design to say something extremely important. God's mighty outstretched arm Mighty, like implicitly mightier than Pharaoh, the king of the world. Mightier than Pharaoh himself is something that looks to us like it's powerless. And what God's trying to say is the mighty power of Pharaoh. Is nothing compared to the power of God.

The power of God is a lamb. And that lame is more powerful than uppity Pharaoh who thinks he's hot stuff. God's Lamb is more powerful than the most important man on the earth. Yeah, he's trying to bring a contrast here, right?

Okay, so the lamb.

So how are the Israelites saved because of this lamb? The instruction goes on, Exodus 12. On the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

So you have a household, right? Probably an extended household, maybe grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, kids, aunts and uncles. I don't know. A lot of people in this household. You need to get one lamb for that whole household.

We won't read it, but it says basically, you want to have enough people in that household that you can eat the entire lamb because we're going to kill it and roast it. And you can't have anything left over.

So don't fill the house with barbecued lambs, only as much as you can eat. Everyone has, there can't be a speck left. You have to consume this.

So families would get together in a house. They would do one or two lambs, depending on how many people were in there, whatever it took for everyone to be able to eat the entire thing clean. Nothing worth it.

Okay, so you take it by the household, you measure it by the household. I'm going to jump over four, you can read it later. But five goes on and says Your lamb shall be without blemish, and a male a year old.

So no blemishes. It's got to be perfect. It's gotta be p Perfect. Has to be a year old, so very innocent and young. But mature?

in a way. but younger and it has to be a male. Meanw Shit. Girl lambs don't count? Not in this case.

There's a lot of symbolism here.

So take them, and here's what you do. You'll keep it until the 14th day of the month. 14th day of the first month. Passover. Fourteenth day of the month.

when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Yikes.

Now What I passed reading for us is the fact that actually the beginning of this process starts on the 10th. of Abib, the 10th of Nisan, not the 14th, the 10th. is when you go out to your flocks and you go looking for the right animal. And on the 10th, four days before, three to four days before, you've got this animal chosen. And everyone in your family knows what's going to happen to this animal.

including all the kids. Who love little lemma? Woo! We had two or three stuffed limb toys in our house as our kids were growing up. I mean, they're lambs are just way too cute.

These way too cute animals are going to be picked out of the herd, and they're going to be looked at. for three or four days before we know they're going to be killed.

Something that you fall so in love with the innocence of.

So at their death You'll be crushed.

Now, if I was writing the Bible. in order to minimize the pain to the children and the family. I would say, mom, dad. Don't tell your kids what's going to happen. But you know, we're going to kill this lamb on the 14th.

And just to spare them the pain and the suffering and the emotional damage from this. Don't pick out the lamb until the morning of the 14th. and then just march the sing off and kill it. That way they're gonna go, whoa, whoa, whoa! but it'll be better than them dwelling on it for three or four days.

Would wouldn't you do that? But but God doesn't do that. He he wants you. to make a personal connection with this land. He wants you.

to understand its innocence. It's lovability. It's absence of sin. He wants you to fall in love with this lamina. And then kill it.

I I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine the conversation in those households for those three days. With that lamb. You're gonna think this is stupid, but the only thing I can compare to this. You know when a goldfish dies and you have a ceremony at the toilet when you send them off to the big I can sure wreck a moment, can I?

You know, it's a it's a solemn it's a solemn it's a solemn moment. you know. There's a moment of silence and The the chosen mature child. flushes the toilet and Okay, I'm being a little silly. But this is that times a million.

This is a somber anticipation of a death. And not only that, not only is the animal going to be killed. You're gonna eat it. Such innocence? Such lovability.

Such purity? And then I'm gonna eat it. Why can't we just Bury it in the back yard like we did with the cat. See, I'm good at wrecking stuff, I know. You have to eat it.

What does that mean? It means that you're actually participating in something about his death. You're gaining something from its death. You're never going to think about Passover organic until you think about the toilet scene and burying the cat in the backyard. I'm sorry, I've just completely contaminated it for you.

Okay, and we're all going to do this sacrifice of these lambs at twilight, everyone together.

Now, you know, at Passover Passover was the first day, it was the day before the week of unleavened bread. And remember I said a while ago that there were three of the seven appointed feasts that you had to go back? To Jerusalem for? Had to. Had to travel back to Jerusalem.

Passover's not one of them. But unleavened bread is.

So you would be there anyway for an almond bread.

So now what you're talking about, especially during the time of Jesus, is that Jerusalem would be just clogged with people. Everyone, everyone in the nation has to come back and do this. And so here on this one day, on this one day on the 14th at twilight. As twilight comes, All these lambs will die. We are talking about millions.

Hundreds of thousands or millions. I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot. It's a spectacle of bloodshed that is unequalled in all the rest of the Bible. Because it's all simultaneous.

You can't do it a couple days before. And then you'll take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it, and you'll eat the flesh that night. roast it in the fire with unleavened bread, bitter herbs, that they shall eat it.

Well, so this picture is really interesting.

So I found a picture of the oldest door I could find. That's my oldest door right there.

So what he says, you take the blood from this lamb and you sacrifice it. And you paint it on the two door posts, that's the left and right sides. And then you also paint on the lintel, which is on the top up there. It basically just marks the door.

Now there's some popular Christian lore that loves to say, well, you know, it's acting like a splash left and a splash right and on top and it looks like a cross. That's kind of an interesting idea. But I mean, in reality, it's much, much more likely that they painted the entire door. They painted the both the entirety of the the left side, the entirety of the lintel, the entirety of the right side. I mean, it's like.

Yeah.

Why not? What does that mean? You know, you got to think of yourself as being an Israelite who's hearing this for the first time. Why can't we just sacrifice this animal? We're already in shock because of that, and then roast it on the fire.

We're in shock because of that. And then we tell the whole family we have to eat the whole thing until there's nothing left. We're in shock from that. And now you want us to take its blood and you want to paint the door of your house? Shouldn't that blood instead be used somewhere in the temple or in the tabernacle outside?

I mean, there was blood used for that. I seem to remember that the priests were sprinkling blood on people all the time. That seems like a better place than coming to our house and painting the front door with it. Why would I paint the The perimeter of the door. The blood.

We'll find out. He goes on, chapter 12, verse 11. This is the Lord's Passover. This is the Lord's Passover. And by the way, Passover in Hebrew is Pesach.

So if you talk to a Jew these days, they'll talk about. Pesach is what they call it. And Pesach means... to pass over.

So it's a good translation. This is the Lord's Pesach. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night. and I'll strike all the first born in the land of Egypt. Both man and beast And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

Because I'm the Lord. I'm the one. I'm in charge of everything.

Now see, he says it again. The wrath of God It's not selective. It's on anything that lives in the land of Egypt. The wrath of God is poured out. But, but 13.

Yea, 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you. when I strike the whole land of Egypt. See that? But what does that mean in verse 13? This will be a sign for you.

No, no, no, no. We need to correct our Bibles. Isn't this a sign for God not to kill us? No, this is a sign for you. What?

What? The fact that the wrath of God is not coming through the door of your house. Oh. Do you think God needs to have the doorposts of your door painted so so he won't make any mistakes? It's like at home you put up a door, a sign at your door that says, no solicitors.

I'm sorry, don't want to buy anything today. I'm sorry, we don't want any wrath in our household. God doesn't need that. He knows what he's talking about. Right?

It's assigned to you. It's not assigned to God. It's a sign to you, to remind you that what is presently going on this night outside of your house, the death and destruction that's being visited on this community. will not be visited on you. because you're safe behind the blood of this lamb.

Any symbolism there?

Well, massively so. Massively so. Massively so. There's another way that he puts it here when Moses is actually instructing Israel in 12 of what to do.

Okay, this is him telling him. Chapter 11 and 12 says this several times, but this is when he tells them: listen to the difference, because this is fascinating. Chapter 12, verse 23, the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, let's put that back over there. When he sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door, will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you, and you shall observe this right as a statute for you and your sons forever.

So what's different? The destroyer. The destroyer. We're talking about Satan right here, the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The destroyer.

So the destruction is actually happening by Satan. who God allows to enter some households and God does not allow to enter other households. Ah, interesting. That's interesting. Because, you know, when we look at the painted lintels and the doorposts and stuff like that.

Yeah.

We need to think of it we need to think of it as a protective mark.

Now there was protective marks that were given to people in the Old Testament. Came? to keep them from being killed.

So there's a mark that's right here, and that mark is something to remind you about what God has done on your behalf. It's a reminder to you. But look at this. When you see this red-edged door like this, you need to think of this. More as something like this.

Remember you put a seal on a document? Right? And what did that seal say? by the authority of the king. Don't open this or I'll kill you.

It's a sign of authority that cannot be broached. You don't do this without huge consequences. Huge consequences. It's a sign of visible authority in a matter.

So when you see the red on the door like that, think of it as the sign of a visible Authority of God that Satan, you cannot come into this house and destroy it. Who says? God says. By the blood of the wax seal? No.

by the blood of the lamb. You can add. I'm getting all tingly inside. But that's really more of what this looks like. This is an authoritative statement by God.

And so when you look at that doorpost that's painted, you'll look and you'll see. that this indeed is the authority of God engaged on my behalf. for me to bring me life. in the face. of the wrath of God.

on all society. See any symbolism there? It's very clear. This is not just metaphorical. These symbols, we look at it from our vantage point from the New Testament and go, psh.

No-brainer. I see this all over. Did the Jews see this? Yeah, I think they did. I think they did.

With time, some of them lost it. But again, I mentioned this before when the resurrected Jesus is walking back to Emmaus and he joins these two guys who are bummed out because their Saviors died and they didn't expect that to happen. And so they're going home talking about it, and they're just making each other more and more depressed. And then Jesus shows up with them. And then it says that in that account, what he does is he teaches them from the Bible.

That he that that the Messiah had to die.

Well, it says he taught him from Moses and the writings. And the profits. Mo for Mo where where did Moses talk about it? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, right here. Right here.

I am convinced that as Jesus walked with those two guys back to Emmaus. Uh He said, You know Pesach? You know the sacrificed lamb? You know his blood that was shed on behalf of God's people so that the wrath of God would not visit them? You know about that, right?

Right. This is what Jesus just did for you. And I think Bells went off in their head because they know this ritual, they know this symbol so clearly, but they haven't attached it to Jesus yet. And now when they attach it to Jesus, they smack their foreheads and go, man, I never even thought about that. Not only that, Jesus would say, let me read you some Psalms.

And not only that, let me read you some stuff from Isaiah. Let's say Isaiah 53. And it's like light bulbs going off in their head. And they just can't digest this fast enough. And the sun's going down, so they have to get to their house.

They get to their house, and Jesus comes in with them. Jesus says, no, I'm going to keep walking. They go, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't keep walking. Come in and tell us more. Because this is starting something in our heads that we never thought about before.

So they sit down at the table and they break the bread. And as Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, they recognize who he is because they didn't before that. And they run back to Jerusalem, about seven miles, and they go back to the other apostles who are holed up in a room, and they say, We've seen him and he's walked with us. And they went, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know. They appear Jesus appeared to some women this morning too, so uh He hasn't appeared to us yet.

Well, he will that night. I think this is a gigantic piece of what Jesus was telling me because this is a symbol that's unmistakable. It's just unmistakable. It's beautifully designed by God.

So let's finish this. Is Jesus the Lamb of God? Yes. Yeah.

He's perfect. He's unblemished. I just made a quick list. You can make a large list, but I made a quick list right here. About some things that show that Jesus is indeed the Lamb of God, just like at Passover.

For instance, No bone to be broken. In Exodus 12, it says in verse 46, It shall be eaten in one house, this lamb. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house. You got to eat it all right there. No doggy bags.

All of it right there. And you shall not break any of its bones. And yet when Jesus is on the cross and they want to speed up his death, what do they do?

Well, since it's the death on the cross is an asphyxiation thing that needs your legs to push up to be able to breathe. Right? If you break the legs, you can't breathe anymore. It's just the mechanical support of the cross.

So they went to break legs, but they didn't do it in Jesus' case. And John tells us these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones would be broken. And to a June you're thinking, wait, where have I heard that before? Passover land. What a coincidence.

No, by design. Has to be spotless. That is, this little lamb has to be spotless. Yeah.

perfect in every respect. Like when you go to dog shows and they judge dogs and they have to have a perfect dog, you know, to win the prize. I I've never understood that 'cause I don't know what a perfect dog looks like, but But this lamb had to be perfect, spotless, spotless. Was Jesus spotless? That is, was he sinless?

Peter says: look, he committed no sin. And neither was deceit found in his mouth. No sin. Spotless. Unblemished.

Perfect. Jesus even challenged some of his detractors, real time. Said See any sin here? You're whoa. Doop, we'll get back to you.

So no, no sin. It is general knowledge. Slain for our sins, just like the Lamb, Paul says to the Corinthian church, I delivered to you as a first importance, first importance, what I also received. that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. in accordance with Scriptures.

Exodus? Isaiah, Psalms, Yeah, I mean that's ex That was, Paul said, that was my first thing I did. I want you to understand that. That's the first importance. I'll start there.

Get that straight. Christ died for our sins. And then the Revelation 1.5 passage about this is fascinating.

So this is in the header of the Revelation telling who wrote this letter. Who wrote the letter of Revelations? Jesus did, actually, through the pen of John, but Jesus did. And he says it in the front end. This letter is from Jesus Christ.

The faithful witness The firstborn from the dead. Mm. Yeah.

And the ruler of kings on earth. Hmm. Yeah, see it? to him who loves us and has freed us. from our sins by his blood.

Wow. Freedoms. From captivity. But not the captivity to Egypt freed us from. Our sins.

Could you actually say that metaphorically the enslavement in Egypt was like our enslavement to sin? Bing. Exactly right. There it is. Does sin enslave?

Oh, buddy, does it does it enslave? No, no, you know when I was growing up, you know the hippies were all around and they were saying, you know what we need to do? Uh we need to cast off all rules and restraints because they're so Old school, and our parents are so square. No one uses that word anymore. And so we'll cast off all those rules, and then we'll do whatever we want to do, and it'll be just great.

And the the earth will align with the sun and um and uh Aquarius and everything. be happy and Okay, you know what I'm talking about. But that that era of Uh of freedom from the restraints. brought slavery in a way no one would ever anticipate. I knew friends that did a little bit of this stuff.

And they were enslaved to it. I had friends who did a lot of the free sex and they were enslaved to it. The amazing thing is that when we're left to our own devices, Sin enslaves us. If you sin, you're a slave to sin. That's what Jesus said.

So indeed the picture of Egypt And God's firstborn being there. is a picture of enslavement. Enslavement of People that God loves tremendously. He loves us. And he can't endure seeing this happen.

And so he engages in the entire act of freeing us from the enslavement of sin because he loves us. And he frees us at the cost. And what is the cost? His blood. Revelation 1, 5, wow.

Wow, there's just way too much gospel in there. And bringing up the idea of blood, it was a blood ransom. Look what Peter says right here. Um Says you were ransomed. The payment.

The payment. the cost. You were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, that's the sin of Adam that you do today all the time that enslaves you. You've been freed from those feudal ways inherited from your forefathers and not with perishable things like silver or gold. Those are very valuable, right?

Did someone pay for gold to get you out from enslavement of sin? No. But you were paid for with the precious blood of Christ. Oh, look at this. like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Peter got this. Paul got this. The apostles got this. And as Jews came to Jesus, they started getting this. This picture at Pesach at Passover was a power.

Powerful. literal picture of God saving the people that He loves. Saving the people that he loves. Against all likelihood of the might and power of the most powerful people in the world, Pharaoh, king of the superpower of the world. Doesn't matter, God says, I've got this.

I've got a lamb. that's more powerful than the power of Pharaoh. And that lame is Jesus. And of course, I'll just conclude with this because it's so obvious. John the Baptist sees Jesus the next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him.

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And in that phrase, he actually mixes two pictures. From Yom Kippur. He mixes the idea that this lamb not only pays with its blood to free you. Right?

But he also with that blood takes away the sin altogether. It's gone. Because at Yom Kippur we have the two goats. And on the head of one of them is placed all the sins of Israel. And it's sent off into the wilderness and takes away the sin.

So the metaphors are stated many times, many ways, to talk about the literal truth about the nature of sin in a mankind that has sinned and is universally under the wrath of God. Because of that sin.

However, There is good news in the face of that bad news. The good news is a lamb has been given whose blood has been shed.

So that we can avoid the wrath of God because the wrath of God has been visited on Jesus rather than us. the wrath of God didn't change its mind. The wrath of God was visited on Jesus. In our place. And because of that.

We have life. And the doorposts of our doors are painted with the blood of Jesus. And God says, no death comes through this door. And we find life. Wow.

Whoa. We're done with Passover.

Sorry I did the toilet and cat in the backyard stuff. But Doug, you're going to say. You know, I've always thought the firstborn was a child and it's at all the firstborn. Marshan had that. He took on all of the firstborn adults and people were born.

Yeah, you could. I I wouldn't I wouldn't argue with that. I I think the uh the important thing to remember is that The wrath of God comes over the entirety of mankind. And it did there too. I mean, it it was if they didn't if they didn't paint their doors.

They would have gone, firstborn would have gone. Takes on all the authority of yours, the greatest and the small. And he says that, all the way from Pharaoh's household down to the servant girl who's grinding your flour. Yeah, that's about as low as you can get. Yeah.

And even the animals in the courtyard. I mean firstborn for I mean so it's a g it's it's a wonderful metaphorical picture that the wrath of God on sin is on all mankind and on everything. I mean that's that's just there. There's no favoritism. Whether you're Pharaoh or whether you're the servant girl, it doesn't matter.

There's no favoritism. But there is an answer for those.

Now this is important. There is an answer for those. who will believe that a payment has been made on their behalf, And they follow through at that belief by painting their doors. And if you don't believe that this is an actionable, real solution to the problem of the wrath of God, and you say, I don't need to paint my doors. God and me, we're like this.

Yeah.

You have to understand. You have to understand the payment. You have to understand the cost. Like Peter says, it wasn't with silver with gold, it was with the precious blood of the Lamb. You have to understand the cost.

You have to accept that cost. And then in eating the lamb, you have to incorporate it into your life. That's what the eating part is about.

Now we started off with a picture. of lamb being roasted. Which I got to tell you, I love roasted lamb. I mean, it's like, mmm, there was a time that a good friend of ours was l raising lambs. And we used to sign up every year for one of his lambs and have the butcher wrap it up in little pieces in the freezer and white paper.

and then pull it out all through the year and oh man I gosh, I gotta tell you, roasted lamb is the greatest thing. Do you know that that was the last meat that the Israelites ate? Until they whined for meat and got Bird. That was the last meet they had when they left. And and you know, as good as the roasted lamb tastes, The memory of it as they left Egypt and went out and started eating man and stuff like that, they're thinking, you know, I can still taste it.

It was just a wonderful thing.

Well, that was delivered on God's part. For them to remember through their taste buds that they have incorporated into their life by eating this lamb the solution that was paid on your behalf. And it's a wonderfully sweet experience as well, even though something tragic had to happen. This innocent lamb that we love so much had to die, but there's still. Mixed emotions.

I'm sad about the death. But I am excited about what it's done for me. I mean, it's all oh gosh, we could go on for days talking about this.

Okay.

Let's look at the unleavened bread. Never mind. We're not going to do it. We're going to do it in two weeks. What?

Why do you do this to us? Because. Because here's the deal. We just talked about the eternal significance of the Passover lamb and how that is a reason to do Pesach, to do Passover every year, to remember it.

Well, they're remembering an actual historical event that got them out of Egypt and out from under the wrath of God. They're a real event. But then we looked about the fact that it's not just about that real event. It's about the fact that that figures for us a larger, more real truth about the death of Jesus on our behalf. Right?

We make that connection instantly. That's the cosmic eternal significance of the Lamb.

So you have two weeks to answer this question before we come back. What is the eternal significance of the next seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread? That's of the same scale as the significance of the Passover Lamb. If the Passover lamb is Jesus. What is the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread?

And they're tied together. And you'd say, well, historically, you know, they had to leave Egypt so fast that they couldn't let the bread rise. In fact, in one place, it says, and all of our bowls that we would need the bread in were packed already because we were going so fast. And so that's what we celebrate: the fact that we got out of Egypt and we couldn't raise the bread.

Well, that's true, but that's just the historical interpretation of it. If Jesus is the Passover lamb from an eternal significance, what is the Feast of Unleavened Bread from an eternal significance? And it's gigantic. And we we often Overlook it. It's more important, which is why the Feast of Unleavened Bread is one of the three you had to come back to Jerusalem for.

Had to, had to, had to, had to come back to Jerusalem.

So I'll give you two weeks to think about that and mull about that. If the Passover lamb is Jesus, what is the unleavened bread?

Okay, oh we're not gonna we're not gonna we're not gonna plot spoil here Well two weeks, yeah, two weeks. Because it is something we'll underplay, but I want you to ruminate on it before we get to it.

Okay.

So two weeks, why not next week?

Well, because next week we are going to look at Uh The hidden celebration in Leviticus 23. What? Ah, see? Ah, he missed it. There's a hidden celebration in Leviticus 23.

So we're going to look at that. before we put you out of your misery on the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I'm trying to motivate you to read Leviticus twenty-three. That's what I'm trying to get you to do. Yeah.

So this, like I said before, the seven appointed feasts from God are meant to be kind of a message system. They're supposed to get across a point to you. And the point of the Passover lamb is an easy one to get. We get that because from our perspective so far later with the death and resurrection of Jesus, we get that. This is just very clear.

God did not make any mistakes in making the dualism work. But the rest of it, you have to as well.

So when we finish the feast of unleavened bread, when we finish the hidden feast. Then right after that, we're going to take two steps back. and we're going to look at the entire thing. And see if, as a spectrum of feasts throughout the calendar year, whether it in its totality tells us something that we've missed all these years. and see if the integrated message system of God Something says something much larger than we ever thought.

So that's what we're going to do. And you already have pieces of it. You already have pieces of it.

So we'll put it together then.

Okay, let's sing this out and I just want to point out that these Words right here lost are saved. They find their way like they found their way out of Egypt. at the sound of your great name. All condemned feel no shame. No one's perfect.

But God still loves us. And he saved us. from his wrath. Every fear has no place at the sound of your great name. The enemy has to leave.

Pf. Huh? The enemy has to leave at the sound of your great name.

So we'll sing this. with new understanding. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for... how you so creatively and enduringly bring to us This gigantic truth. This gigantic truth that those of us, all mankind, who are enslaved to sin.

who don't measure up to the righteousness of God. that you, the righteous and holy God, have provided a path through the blood of the Lamb through your Son Jesus, your firstborn. And that as a result of that, He is the beginning. He is the first fruits. He is the beginning.

of a great harvest and we find ourselves in the fortunate position to be included that argus.

So Lord, this is something that you did, not that we did. We saw you say it over and over. I will. I will. I will, and you have.

And so our hearts leap in in celebration.

Now the one who loves us so. who ransomed us and brought our release.

So that we might be your people and you might be our God.

So thank you for all this now. Your word washes over us and informs us. humbles us. delights us. Thanks.

Amen.