WEBVTT 00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:00.803 Good morning everyone. 00:00:00.803 --> 00:00:01.786 You all this morning. 00:00:01.786 --> 00:00:03.785 Just wanna say welcome to all the visitors. 00:00:03.785 --> 00:00:06.086 It's good to see you all here. 00:00:06.086 --> 00:00:11.144 It's good to see my brother-in-law here with his girlfriend. 00:00:11.144 --> 00:00:12.387 Welcome Michael and Shreena. 00:00:12.387 --> 00:00:16.986 Yeah, I hope this morning can be a blessing to you all. 00:00:16.986 --> 00:00:24.202 So I invite you all to actually invite you all to open your Bibles to Exodus, chapter 12. 00:00:45.420 --> 00:01:05.283 So in about five months actually a little less than five months most of us here are going to celebrate one of the most well-known or significant holidays if you're an American citizen, and that's Independence Day, and for many of you, for most of us, that includes. 00:01:05.283 --> 00:01:13.225 When I think of Independence Day or July 4, I think of things like sort of backyard family picnics or barbecues. 00:01:13.225 --> 00:01:17.343 I think of burgers and hot dogs, you know, grilling on the grill. 00:01:17.343 --> 00:01:43.465 I think of things like little kids running around with glow sticks or like four somewhat overweight brother-in-laws or uncles tossing beanbags in a vicious game of cornhole, and think of probably the most significant part of that day is just towards the evening. 00:01:43.465 --> 00:01:52.409 You see families, maybe in town carrying lawn chairs or pulling wagons, going to set up to watch the Evening Fireworks show. 00:01:52.409 --> 00:02:00.352 What's for the American citizen, july 4 is an exciting day. 00:02:00.352 --> 00:02:12.187 It's a day where we commemorate our independence as a nation and our birth as a nation, and it's our origin. 00:02:12.187 --> 00:02:46.933 I guess our day of celebrating our origin as a nation A few months earlier, on April 22nd, will be another significant holiday, maybe not for most of us, but for Jews all around the world, april 22 is going to be the Feast of the Passover, and the Feast of the Passover is the most significant feast in the Jewish calendar and celebrated by thousands of Jews all around the world. 00:02:48.281 --> 00:03:00.710 And as part of that meal, the Passover meal, one of the rituals, one of the traditional rituals, is for the youngest child at the table to ask four questions. 00:03:00.710 --> 00:03:09.171 And the first question that he'll ask, or he or she will ask, is why is this night different from all other nights? 00:03:09.171 --> 00:03:12.770 Why is this night different than all other nights? 00:03:12.770 --> 00:03:28.973 And the rest of the Passover meal will be an unfolding of the story and the origin story of Israel as a people of the Jewish nation. 00:03:28.973 --> 00:03:49.652 So the Passover Feast is a time of remembering for the Jewish people, of remembering God's deliverance from slavery out of Egypt, from the Exodus out of Egypt and from their birth as a nation. 00:03:49.652 --> 00:03:57.959 Today we're going to be looking at that event, that very first Passover event, and the Exodus After 400 years of slavery. 00:03:57.959 --> 00:04:22.670 So we're going to look at that and then we're going to move on into the New Testament and look at how Jesus transforms the meaning of Passover to point to himself as the ultimate one who frees humanity from sin and the devil through his own shed blood, much like the lamb in the Holy Spirit. 00:04:22.670 --> 00:04:47.019 So I hope the sermon is for each and every one of you and I think for the believer, this is a sermon full of joyful remembering of what God has done in your lives through Jesus' blood, through our own Exodus from the Holy Spirit. 00:04:47.019 --> 00:05:26.040 For the nonbeliever, if you're here this morning and maybe you have not made Jesus the Lord of your life, this is a sermon that I trust the Holy Spirit can speak to you through the story in Exodus and through Jesus, I guess, transformation of that so that you can see the Holy Spirit in your life, the transformation of that so that you can see that you too can find freedom from bondage to sin and Satan. 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:31.391 And it's through the blood of Jesus, through the blood of his shed on the cross. 00:05:31.391 --> 00:05:36.851 So just a little bit of review for those of us here. 00:05:36.851 --> 00:05:38.004 We've been going through. 00:05:38.146 --> 00:05:41.019 I've been preaching through the book of Exodus for the past several months. 00:05:41.019 --> 00:05:49.019 We looked at in chapter one we saw the children of Israel as foreigners in the land of Egypt. 00:05:49.019 --> 00:05:54.040 They multiplied, they grew great, they grew exceedingly great in number and strength. 00:05:54.040 --> 00:06:01.533 And then we saw Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, take them and enslave them and kill a bunch of their baby boys. 00:06:01.533 --> 00:06:13.555 We saw God call and we saw the birth of the future deliverer of the Israelite people in Moses. 00:06:13.555 --> 00:06:26.033 And God calls, moses reveals himself at the burning, bush calls him to go back to Egypt and to help God, to be the mouthpiece for God, to deliver his people out of bondage. 00:06:26.033 --> 00:06:32.129 So Moses went back, confronted Pharaoh and it did not go as we had hoped. 00:06:32.129 --> 00:06:50.572 We ended up watching the struggle between the king of Egypt and the God of the Hebrews and we saw last time we looked at, the nine different plagues that would ultimately bring Pharaoh to his knees. 00:06:50.572 --> 00:07:07.831 So we ended in chapter 11 with Pharaoh hardening his heart once again, after time, after time of being given a second chance continues to harden his heart and Moses confronts Pharaoh and gives him one final warning. 00:07:07.831 --> 00:07:22.894 He says if you do not, let my people go, every firstborn person and cattle in Egypt will die, and this is sort of the ultimate warning for Egypt, for the king of Egypt, for Pharaoh. 00:07:22.894 --> 00:07:29.831 So that's where we're going to be picking up in verse one of chapter 12. 00:07:29.831 --> 00:07:44.483 We're going to do a lot of reading today and I'll be stopping periodically to make some comments and to draw some attention to certain passages, so I invite you to follow along. 00:07:44.504 --> 00:07:45.105 In chapter 12. 00:07:45.105 --> 00:07:57.750 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt this month shall be for you the beginning of months. 00:07:57.750 --> 00:08:00.708 It shall be the first month of the year for you. 00:08:00.708 --> 00:08:13.040 This event that's about to take place is going to be such a big part of what God is doing. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:19.040 In essence, it's going to change the calendar for them. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:21.990 It's going to be the start of a new year for them. 00:08:21.990 --> 00:08:25.646 This is going to be where everything comes back to for them. 00:08:25.646 --> 00:08:34.245 So that's where the their whole year is going to stem from, out of this event. 00:08:34.245 --> 00:08:38.019 This is sort of their starting point in their calendar. 00:08:39.429 --> 00:09:00.640 He says until all of the congregation of Israel, on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household, and if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take, according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat. 00:09:00.640 --> 00:09:03.418 He shall make your account for the lamb. 00:09:03.418 --> 00:09:07.779 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. 00:09:07.779 --> 00:09:19.398 You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and ye shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 00:09:19.398 --> 00:09:30.527 So in those previous verses we saw God give a description of what this lamb should look like. 00:09:30.527 --> 00:09:39.020 So he tells them on the 10th day, go pick a lamb, and this lamb is supposed to be a male. 00:09:39.020 --> 00:09:48.558 And I invite you actually, if you have your bulletins, pull that out once and just look at the picture on the front there. 00:09:48.558 --> 00:09:54.994 I did not actually choose this, I think Rosie had drawn this up, but I thought it was perfect. 00:09:54.994 --> 00:10:06.941 This lamb illustrates, I think, what so well, like what he's going to ask the Israelites to sacrifice or to prepare. 00:10:06.941 --> 00:10:18.976 So the 10th day of the month, they choose a lamb, a year old, supposed to be a male, without blemish, meaning there shouldn't be any. 00:10:18.976 --> 00:10:24.833 There was to be no imperfections, no diseases, no illnesses. 00:10:24.833 --> 00:10:33.909 It was supposed to be a healthy and a thriving animal. 00:10:33.909 --> 00:10:45.118 He says no broken bones, no illnesses, and each household was to have a lamb. 00:10:45.118 --> 00:10:51.744 So he says they shall kill their lambs at twilight. 00:10:51.744 --> 00:10:55.453 So on the 14th day, three days later, they would take this lamb. 00:10:55.453 --> 00:11:01.476 They were to kill this lamb and to collect the blood in a bowl. 00:11:03.149 --> 00:11:04.094 Verse seven goes on. 00:11:04.094 --> 00:11:14.817 He says then they shall take some of the blood of this lamb and put it on the two door posts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 00:11:14.817 --> 00:11:20.993 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 00:11:20.993 --> 00:11:21.956 They shall eat it. 00:11:21.956 --> 00:11:30.580 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted it's head, with its legs and it's inner parts. 00:11:30.580 --> 00:11:36.740 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, until anything that remains, until the morning. 00:11:36.740 --> 00:11:38.653 You shall burn In this manner. 00:11:38.653 --> 00:11:47.714 You shall eat it With your belt fastened, with your sandals on your feet, with your staff in your hand. 00:11:47.714 --> 00:11:50.201 You shall eat it in haste. 00:11:50.590 --> 00:11:51.995 It is the Lord's Passover. 00:11:51.995 --> 00:11:59.174 So he tells them this is how you should eat this Passover meal. 00:11:59.174 --> 00:12:02.611 Right after this we'll go into why they're supposed to be doing this. 00:12:02.611 --> 00:12:13.975 They're supposed to have their belt fastened, their sandals on their feet, their staff in their hand, almost like they're anticipating what God's deliverance. 00:12:13.975 --> 00:12:25.456 What he's gonna be doing this is they're anticipating their acting and faith that God is going to actually move and deliver them now, and so they're preparing in that way. 00:12:25.456 --> 00:12:29.693 So then he goes on in verse 12,. 00:12:29.693 --> 00:12:42.421 God tells Moses for I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt. 00:12:42.421 --> 00:12:43.714 I will execute judgments. 00:12:43.714 --> 00:12:59.975 I am the Lord, the blood shall be assigned for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague shall befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 00:12:59.975 --> 00:13:15.972 What God was gonna do this night, the night of the Passover, was going to be an ultimate judgment on the land of Egypt. 00:13:15.972 --> 00:13:21.573 One of the questions I've been looking at is why? 00:13:21.573 --> 00:13:23.840 What's the significance of the firstborn? 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:27.700 Why does God say I will kill the firstborn? 00:13:30.070 --> 00:13:39.653 In throughout the scriptures, the firstborn can mean usually means the first or the first that is born in a family. 00:13:39.653 --> 00:13:55.543 It's the first in a birth order, but it can also mean the first, the most important in order of importance, the most important rank. 00:13:55.543 --> 00:14:11.799 And when, earlier, when Moses, when Pharaoh killed the baby boys in the Nile, he was in essence taking away God's firstborn. 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:38.462 When, in throughout the scriptures, the firstborn belong to God, they exclusively belong to God, and later we're gonna see that God actually requires the firstborn of every animal and every child born to be consecrated to him. 00:14:38.462 --> 00:14:40.013 They belong to him. 00:14:40.013 --> 00:14:50.910 And so when Pharaoh went and killed the first, the children, the baby boys, in earlier, he was in essence taking what belonged to God and he was. 00:14:50.910 --> 00:14:59.791 He was taking, he was killing God's, god's firstborn God says. 00:15:00.913 --> 00:15:14.496 He says Israel is my firstborn son, and so the punishment for for is for Egypt and for the king of Egypt seems to us. 00:15:14.496 --> 00:15:25.615 Today we hear that it seems so harsh and it seems like I guess when I read this it's uncomfortable for me. 00:15:25.615 --> 00:15:27.350 I don't know what to do with the fact that. 00:15:27.350 --> 00:15:29.557 That, how, how will God kill? 00:15:29.557 --> 00:15:37.480 Kill all the newborn or the firstborn, even Egyptians and even their cattle? 00:15:37.480 --> 00:15:38.163 I don't know what to do. 00:15:38.163 --> 00:15:38.672 It. 00:15:38.672 --> 00:15:40.809 Just I'm not sure what to do with that. 00:15:40.809 --> 00:15:47.274 In our modern sort of, our modern reading, our modern understanding, it's hard for us to to understand that. 00:15:47.274 --> 00:15:52.736 But the fact is that, god, there is a time when God says enough is enough. 00:15:52.736 --> 00:16:14.775 And he has been time after time promising to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, and Pharaoh has hardened himself so, so much that, finally, god says this is what it's going to take, and he says this is what it will take to deliver you from Egypt. 00:16:14.775 --> 00:16:36.812 So, as they're preparing, as as Moses tells them to prepare, he says he, god tells Moses, put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost of your, of the entrance of your house, and when, the, when the destroyer, or when, the when the angel of the Lord comes through to kill the firstborn Egyptians. 00:16:36.812 --> 00:17:02.115 When I see the blood on the doorposts, I will know that, that you are in faith, acting on what I've, what I've told you and you're, you are identifying yourself with, with me, you are my you're, you're identifying yourself with me, and it's the blood on the doorposts of your house that identifies you as my, as my, people. 00:17:02.115 --> 00:17:05.703 So let's keep going. 00:17:05.723 --> 00:17:06.606 In verse 14. 00:17:06.606 --> 00:17:16.308 The next several verses, he talks about the unleavened bread, and this is gonna be a significant part of this meal. 00:17:16.308 --> 00:17:26.368 This day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statute forever. 00:17:26.368 --> 00:17:30.481 You shall keep it as a feast Seven days. 00:17:30.481 --> 00:17:31.767 You shall eat unleavened bread. 00:17:31.767 --> 00:17:35.844 On the first day you shall remove leaven from out of your houses. 00:17:35.844 --> 00:17:43.067 For if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:45.724 So what is this leaven? 00:17:45.724 --> 00:17:51.069 Leaven is yeast or anything that's sort of fermented. 00:17:51.069 --> 00:17:58.109 And so God commanded the Israelites to take out all of the yeast from their houses. 00:17:58.109 --> 00:18:22.968 And today, actually, jewish families will make a whole, almost an event out of this, where they'll spend, like, the weeks leading up to Passover like searching throughout all of their houses, taking out all of the anything with yeast and any bread, cookies, cake, taking it out of their houses and disposing of it. 00:18:22.968 --> 00:18:55.105 And Jewish moms will actually will often like they'll take a piece of bread and break it up into 10 pieces and spread it out throughout the house in different hiding places, and then the kids will go and like search for these 10 pieces of bread throughout the house and they'll scoop it up with a feather on a plate and then they'll keep it on Passover morning, whatever yeast or items, food that have yeast in it, they'll make a fire and they'll burn it to get rid of all the yeast. 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:19.740 There was two different reasons that they were supposed to eat unleavened bread in the Passover the first night, but also in the next, in the next, the years after that, and one of them was because God was gonna deliver them that night. 00:19:19.740 --> 00:19:25.648 They didn't have the time for their bread to rise, so they were supposed to eat their meal in haste. 00:19:25.648 --> 00:19:46.281 And the second reason was that yeast in the Bible is a picture or a symbol of sin, and when they would remove the yeast from their houses it was a symbol of the sin that was being cleansed from their lives. 00:19:46.281 --> 00:20:01.346 Let's move down to verse 21. 00:20:01.346 --> 00:20:06.066 God has just finished telling Moses. 00:20:06.066 --> 00:20:08.346 This is what you're supposed to tell the people. 00:20:08.500 --> 00:20:09.665 And then Moses goes to the people. 00:20:09.665 --> 00:20:25.968 He calls all the elders of Israel together and he said to them go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb, take a bunch of his up and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lentil and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin. 00:20:25.968 --> 00:20:32.884 None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. 00:20:32.884 --> 00:20:43.507 And when he sees the blood on the lentil and on the two door posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your house to strike you. 00:20:43.507 --> 00:20:55.589 You shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever, and when you come to the land that the Lord will give you and as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 00:20:55.589 --> 00:21:09.263 When your children say to you what do you mean by this service, he shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses. 00:21:11.505 --> 00:21:13.250 This was supposed to be a recurring feast. 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:16.650 This was one of the most important feasts. 00:21:16.650 --> 00:21:25.047 It wasn't just a one time thing, but it was something that the Jewish people continued to do year after year to remember what God was about to do. 00:21:25.047 --> 00:21:30.768 And then it says and the people bowed their heads and worshiped, and I love that line. 00:21:30.768 --> 00:21:43.426 That line is only stated one other time in Exodus, and it's when Moses comes back from the desert, comes to Egypt, and he talks to the congregation and he says this is what God's gonna do. 00:21:43.426 --> 00:21:48.048 He's going to deliver his people, and it says they bowed their heads and worshiped. 00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:54.368 In verse 29, we see this plague take place. 00:21:54.368 --> 00:22:06.707 At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the livestock. 00:22:06.707 --> 00:22:16.907 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead. 00:22:16.907 --> 00:22:34.090 Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said go up from among my people, both you and the people of Israel, and go, serve the Lord, as you have said, take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone and bless me. 00:22:34.090 --> 00:22:34.471 Also. 00:22:34.471 --> 00:22:37.226 What happened here was tragic. 00:22:37.226 --> 00:23:09.248 In the land of Egypt, all the firstborn died, from the cattle, from the king's children to the slaves' children, and Pharaoh finally came to the end of himself and he said just go, just leave. 00:23:09.248 --> 00:23:19.166 It says the Egyptians were urgent with the people, for they said we shall all be dead. 00:23:19.166 --> 00:23:29.188 God had shown his power to Pharaoh, to the gods of Egypt, to the people of Egypt and they had had enough. 00:23:29.188 --> 00:23:33.590 So we see the people of Israel leave. 00:23:34.380 --> 00:23:35.082 In verse 37,. 00:23:35.082 --> 00:23:39.326 They journey from Ramses to Sucath about 600,000 men on foot. 00:23:39.326 --> 00:23:46.968 Besides men, besides women and children, a mixed multitude also went up with them and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 00:23:46.968 --> 00:23:58.848 They baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves. 00:23:58.848 --> 00:24:06.528 That was the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. 00:24:06.528 --> 00:24:15.409 At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 00:24:15.409 --> 00:24:19.767 It was a night of watching by the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt. 00:24:19.767 --> 00:24:26.865 So that this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. 00:24:26.865 --> 00:24:28.980 God had finally done it. 00:24:28.980 --> 00:24:33.228 He had finally rescued his people and brought them, delivered them, from out of the land of slavery. 00:24:33.228 --> 00:24:35.483 And it's been a long like. 00:24:35.503 --> 00:24:47.191 We've been in Exodus for a while now and we've kept looking, seeing God promise deliverance time and time again, and we're like okay, when is this gonna happen and it's finally happened. 00:24:47.191 --> 00:24:48.519 And it came at a cost. 00:24:48.519 --> 00:25:08.365 It came at a price, it came at a steep cost, and it was the death of the Egyptian firstborns, the death of the lambs, the blood of the lambs that purchased the freedom of the Israelites, the life of Israel. 00:25:08.365 --> 00:25:11.464 That came at a cost, and it came through death. 00:25:11.464 --> 00:25:25.148 Their freedom from slavery cost many lives, but God had made a way of escape for Israel through the blood of the lambs. 00:25:25.148 --> 00:25:40.948 And later we'll see, when Israel's sacrificial system was established, that lambs would be sacrificed to atone for the sins of the nation of Israel and to purify, to cleanse and to pardon sin. 00:25:44.461 --> 00:25:53.970 The last part of chapter 12 is just God giving more instructions for the institution of Passover, for the recurring feast that they're supposed to hold every year. 00:25:53.970 --> 00:26:04.015 And what we're gonna do now actually is we're gonna jump way forward to Luke, chapter 22. 00:26:04.015 --> 00:26:07.567 I might you to turn to Luke, chapter 22. 00:26:07.567 --> 00:26:22.190 So this Passover feast would be kept year after year, remembering the deliverance from the land of Egypt All the way up to the time of Jesus. 00:26:22.190 --> 00:26:39.048 Luke, chapter 22, verse 14. 00:26:42.601 --> 00:26:49.183 This is where Jesus and the disciples have a Passover meal together, and they are. 00:26:49.183 --> 00:27:04.826 Jesus wants to point his disciples and his followers, point them to himself and draw their attention to himself through this Passover meal. 00:27:04.826 --> 00:27:17.444 He says in verse 14, when the hour had come, he reclined at table and the apostles with him, and he said to them I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 00:27:17.444 --> 00:27:19.545 I've earnestly desired. 00:27:19.545 --> 00:27:35.222 There's only one other time that Jesus says that he earnestly wants something, and that word earnestly is just like a word that describes, I don't know, a deep desire, a deep longing. 00:27:35.222 --> 00:27:37.846 He really, really wanted to. 00:27:37.846 --> 00:27:49.528 He was excited and longing to spend this meal with his followers and it was something that was special for him and his followers as Jews. 00:27:49.528 --> 00:27:59.807 They were Jews and this Passover meal was something they had probably grown up with every year that they would do and it was a very intimate time together. 00:27:59.807 --> 00:28:07.568 But I believe he was earnestly desiring to eat this because he wanted to point them to. 00:28:09.240 --> 00:28:19.482 He wanted to show his disciples what the Passover was ultimately about Verse 17,. 00:28:19.482 --> 00:28:31.664 He said and he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he said Take this and divide it among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. 00:28:31.664 --> 00:28:42.107 Then he took the bread, he broke it and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying this is my body, which is given for you. 00:28:42.107 --> 00:28:44.266 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:28:44.266 --> 00:28:53.188 And likewise the cup, after he had eaten, saying this cup that is poured out for you is a new covenant in my blood. 00:28:53.188 --> 00:28:59.688 It's a new covenant in my blood. 00:28:59.688 --> 00:29:13.099 What Jesus was doing here was pointing his followers to his blood that was going to be shed on the cross, and it was going to be. 00:29:13.099 --> 00:29:15.199 He said Do this in remembrance of me. 00:29:16.584 --> 00:29:22.240 Up until now, they had been celebrating the Passover meal. 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:34.659 Previously, they would remember the blood of the lamb on the doorposts, but now they would remember the blood of Jesus on the cross that was shed. 00:29:34.659 --> 00:29:49.779 Previously, they would celebrate the salvation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, but now they would celebrate salvation from sin and the devil. 00:29:49.779 --> 00:30:05.788 Previously, they would remember the death of the lambs and of the firstborn that purchased their freedom, but now they would remember the death of the firstborn of God, jesus, that purchased freedom for all of humanity. 00:30:05.788 --> 00:30:12.321 Several days later, jesus went on to suffer a horrible death on the cross. 00:30:12.321 --> 00:30:32.400 He suffered abuse, mockery and torture at the hands of the Romans, he took upon himself all the sins of the world and then he died on the cross and three days later he was raised and later he ascended into heaven. 00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:39.938 It was his blood that had bought the freedom for all of mankind. 00:30:43.710 --> 00:30:44.792 Hebrews 2.14,. 00:30:44.792 --> 00:30:48.340 Actually, please turn to there. 00:30:48.340 --> 00:30:50.051 Hebrews 2.13. 00:30:50.051 --> 00:30:59.891 Hebrews 2.14,. 00:30:59.891 --> 00:31:25.523 Actually, after the Gospels, the different apostles would talk about Jesus as the lamb, the lamb who was slain and whose death bought freedom for all of mankind. 00:31:25.523 --> 00:31:36.163 Hebrews 2.14 says since, therefore, the children talking about the children of Israel share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. 00:31:36.163 --> 00:31:49.380 That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who, through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. 00:31:49.380 --> 00:31:56.757 Here's that picture he talks about of the children of Israel being in slavery. 00:31:56.757 --> 00:32:13.221 That through death the power of Pharaoh was broken, the power of tyranny was broken, but spiritually, for us, the power of death is broken through the death of Jesus. 00:32:14.750 --> 00:32:34.000 1 Peter 1, verse 18 and 19 says knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of lamb, without blemish or spot. 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:38.920 Pull out the illustration on the front of your bulletin. 00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:40.573 Just look at that image. 00:32:40.573 --> 00:32:49.951 And this is the image that Peter uses of Jesus without blemish or spot. 00:32:49.951 --> 00:33:00.414 John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming for the first time, he said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 00:33:00.414 --> 00:33:07.679 And Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5.7,. 00:33:07.679 --> 00:33:11.992 He says for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 00:33:11.992 --> 00:33:17.077 For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 00:33:17.077 --> 00:33:29.519 Jesus became the one whose blood purchased our freedom from death and from Satan. 00:33:29.519 --> 00:33:44.432 As the blood of the lamb purchased your freedom, is the blood of Jesus on the doorpost of your heart. 00:33:44.432 --> 00:33:49.421 Have you applied the blood of Jesus on your life? 00:33:49.421 --> 00:33:53.199 Have you been cleansed and found freedom from bondage? 00:33:53.199 --> 00:34:05.395 Or are you like Pharaoh, who's hardened your heart, and maybe you're living in bondage, in sin, in Satan's grip? 00:34:05.395 --> 00:34:14.838 It will come a day when God will pour out his judgment on the earth again. 00:34:14.838 --> 00:34:44.898 While that brings fear, and for the one who does not have Jesus in their life, he has provided a way of escape and, like the Israelites, the blood of Jesus is our way of escape and it's through the blood of Jesus that we can have hope for that great day. 00:34:44.898 --> 00:34:52.094 Revelations, chapter 5,. 00:34:52.094 --> 00:34:54.798 I invite you to turn to Revelations, chapter 5, in closing. 00:34:54.798 --> 00:35:01.077 This image of the lamb is so vivid. 00:35:01.197 --> 00:35:17.460 In Revelation, john sees this vision of of the angel proclaiming with a loud voice. 00:35:17.460 --> 00:35:22.239 In verse two of chapter five he says who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals? 00:35:22.239 --> 00:35:34.213 And John says, almost with sort of a sadness or an anguish, he says and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. 00:35:34.213 --> 00:35:39.994 And he says I began to weep loudly, for no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 00:35:39.994 --> 00:35:43.911 And then one of the elders said to me weep no more. 00:35:43.911 --> 00:35:51.856 Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. 00:35:52.969 --> 00:36:23.313 And he goes on to describe this great vision of the throne of God and what's happening there with the elders, with the angels, he says, and between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders I saw a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 00:36:23.313 --> 00:36:28.396 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him, who was seated on the throne. 00:36:28.396 --> 00:37:04.677 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and the golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth. 00:37:04.677 --> 00:37:19.637 This lamb who was slain, whose blood had purchased salvation for people, was no longer just for the people of Israel, but it was for every tribe, every tongue, every people group all around the world. 00:37:19.637 --> 00:37:42.514 Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and a blessing. 00:37:42.514 --> 00:37:56.215 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory forever and ever. 00:37:56.215 --> 00:38:14.619 And all the four living creatures said amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped this powerful, powerful picture of Jesus, the lamb that was slain, being worshiped by all of creation, by the whole world. 00:38:14.619 --> 00:38:23.918 That's a hope that you and I have as people who have been ransom from sin. 00:38:23.918 --> 00:38:37.137 That Sunday we can be at that scene, we can experience that with people all around the world who have applied the blood of Jesus on their hearts, this worship experience. 00:38:39.849 --> 00:38:55.016 So, coming back to 4th of July, as Americans that's sort of our origin story, and for the Jewish people the Passover is sort of their origin story. 00:38:55.016 --> 00:39:15.976 I would argue that for us, that the Passover points forward to our origin story, which is the birth and the life, the death of Jesus, and all of that comes down to the Lord's Supper, which is a picture of Passover. 00:39:15.976 --> 00:39:37.338 As part of that, we celebrated that two weeks ago, and that is our origin story as a kingdom, as a new kingdom, and so I hope that this has been a blessing to you all and I guess to me that image of the lamb is so potent and is such a blessing throughout scripture. 00:39:37.338 --> 00:39:46.318 I've asked Dan to lead a song that I don't actually know the song and I think he knows the song but I'm not entirely sure. 00:39:46.318 --> 00:39:48.396 Most of you maybe don't know it. 00:39:48.396 --> 00:39:50.998 It's in our song books but he's gonna teach it to us. 00:39:50.998 --> 00:40:01.476 But it has this imagery of the lamb of God that I think is so beautiful, the words are so beautiful, so I'm gonna ask him to come forward and lead the song and then you can turn the time over to Sean then. 00:40:02.039 --> 00:40:02.320 Thank you. 00:40:02.320 --> 00:40:10.833 Thanks for sharing that, randy. 00:40:10.833 --> 00:40:13.315 That was really interesting. 00:40:13.315 --> 00:40:14.775 I appreciate it. 00:40:14.775 --> 00:40:16.054 Number 181. 00:40:16.054 --> 00:40:18.500 And.