Exodus: Jesus in Exodus

Welcome to the sermon! We're continuing our study of Exodus, seeing it as the key pattern for our lives and all of Scripture: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Renewal. Today’s point is simple: you can't truly understand Jesus without understanding Exodus. It's the backdrop for His entire life and ministry.

Scripture References

• 1 Corinthians 10:1-11: The Exodus story was written as an example and warning for us.
• Luke 24:27: Jesus explained how all Scriptures, starting with Moses, pointed to Him.
• John 5:39: The Scriptures testify about Jesus.
• Jude 5: It was Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt.
• Hebrews 3:1-6: Jesus is the greater Moses, a son over God’s house.
• Matthew 17:1-8: Jesus discusses His "exodus" (departure) at the Transfiguration.

Key Points

1. Jesus' "Cameos" in the Old Testament

Like a director making a cameo in their own film, Jesus appears throughout the Old Testament. We should read it looking for Him through:

• Prophecies: Predictions of His coming.
• Progenies: Genealogies that point to His arrival.
• Prefiguring: Types and symbols, like the Passover lamb or the manna from heaven.
• Personal Appearances: Pre-incarnate appearances like the "angel of the Lord" who accepts worship.

2. Jesus is the Greater Moses

Jesus’s life recapitulates and fulfills the Exodus story.

• His Birth: Like Moses, born under a tyrannical king slaughtering infants.
• His Baptism: Passed through water (baptism) and was tested in the wilderness, succeeding where Israel failed.
• His Teaching: Delivered the New Covenant ethics (Sermon on the Mount) from a mountain, just as Moses delivered the Law from a mountain.
• His Death: Crucified during Passover week as the ultimate, perfect Lamb of God.

Conclusion

Jesus is leading a new, cosmic Exodus right now. This is a present-tense reality. He is making a way out of our bondage to the cosmic pharaohs of Satan, sin, and death. The way out is not a plan, but a Person. Jesus declared, "I am the Way," and He is leading His people into freedom and new life.

Calls to Action

1. Follow the Leader: Recognize Jesus as the one leading you out of bondage.
2. Join the Migration: Choose to leave the kingdom of darkness for the kingdom of light.
3. Come to the Table: Participate in communion to celebrate your part in this new Exodus.
4. Receive Prayer: If you feel stuck, humbly ask for prayer.

Transcript

We began a study of the book of Exodus last week, and we ended our sermon last week by inviting you to see yourself in the story of Exodus. So the Exodus has become a pattern or a paradigm or like a shape or like a lens through which we see our lives, but also a lens that we see all of scripture. And you may have heard it this way, but the kind of Exodus shape appears Genesis to Revelation.

And you may have heard a preacher or someone refer to it this way, creation, fall, redemption, renewal.

Creation, fall, redemption, renewal. And you can probably see the whole story of scripture in that, but you can probably see your own life in that as well. I mean, that is exactly what Diana described as she was standing up here testifying. Creation, fall, or a sort of bondage, a liberation, and a recreation, a renewal in life.

So in our packs this week, which are small groups, we asked this question, what's in Egypt in your life that you're wanting to leave behind? What's something you feel bound to, that you feel like Jesus wants to liberate you from? And then we asked the question, what's a wilderness you're in? A place of waiting, a place of learning to trust God. And then what's a promised land in front of you? What's a hope that has you putting one foot in front of the other? And I trust that your pack was probably like mine. Those are deep questions to ask and that some good conversations were had. So we did this, we read ourselves into the Exodus story because we believe that the apostle Paul invites the church to do this. We didn't come up with seeing ourselves in the story. Paul tells the church to see themselves in the story. In 1 Corinthians, writing to a church, Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses

in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. That rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. When you skip down to verse 11, Paul says these things happen to them as examples

and were written down as warnings for who?

Us.

On whom the culmination of the ages has come. So the scriptures, they're not about us. You shouldn't be reading them looking for yourself. But they are for us. They've been recorded for us so that, Paul makes it really clear, so that we aren't destined to repeat history by forgetting it.

This is not about us, but this is for us. So even Jesus saw himself in the Exodus story. The Exodus story was the backdrop of his life and ministry. Jesus is called the greater Moses and he's leading a new Exodus. And this is the language used in the New Testament. So obviously the backdrop of that is knowing Moses and knowing what the Exodus was. Because Jesus is greater than Moses and he's leading a cosmic Exodus. So it requires us to understand Exodus. Last week I said to you that you won't be able to understand your Bible unless you understand this book of the Bible, Exodus. And this week the point of the preach is simple. You can't understand Jesus without understanding the book of Exodus. So this is why we're studying it for almost a year is because you can't get the Bible without getting Exodus and you can't really understand Jesus without understanding the Exodus.

So Exodus as a book points us to Jesus and then it sets the stage for the gospel of Jesus Christ that we've received and celebrate here today. But before we talk about Exodus in the life of Jesus, I wanna talk about Jesus in the story of Exodus.

Does that make sense? I know some of you are like, how's that work? Because you know that the Exodus is 1500 BC.

That is before Christ.

So how is it that Jesus appears in the book of Exodus?

How's that work?

And I think the best way to describe what happens in the book of Exodus when it comes to Jesus and his appearance is to talk about what directors of films often do.

Alfred Hitchcock made this famous,

but he would appear in what we would call a cameo in I think all of his films because he's so influential to so many directors. Quentin Tarantino would do the same and Steven Spielberg would do the same and M. Night Shyamalan would do the same and Mel Brooks would do the same. They would take some obscure cameo and put some sort of Easter egg in the film where you're kinda like, is that, did I just?

And again, it's not a main role, but they appear in the film in some unsuspecting place so that you kinda lean in and wonder who that was. For the movie Frozen, I know we released All the Kids, but I know you've seen it 500 times as well.

(Audience Laughing) The director Jennifer Lee is the voice of the actress Elsa and Anna's mom, Anna, sorry.

Heresy.

Peter Jackson, he appears momentarily in Return of the King as the first guy on the ship to get shot by an arrow

from the orcs. John Favreau, he's the director of Elf. He appears as the doctor.

When Buddy's in there, I think there's a paternity test taking place.

Stan Lee, who created most of our kinda beloved comic book characters, has made 37 cameos in Marvel films. That's before his death. He's actually been in 39 Marvel films because there's so much CGI and special effects in those movies. Even dead Stan Lee appears in the new films, even after his death. So the Bible is a book primarily about God.

It's not necessarily about us. We read the Bible to get to know God, and God himself shows up in the storyline, and God himself plays a significant role, right?

But what about Jesus in the Old Testament?

There's some cameos, there's some Easter eggs, there's some appearances that happen and go, wait a second, run that back. Did I just see who I thought I saw?

Colossians 1.15 says this of Christ, for in him and by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth. That means that Jesus was there at Genesis. He was there at creation, speaking the world into existence. So when we see Jesus in the Old Testament, we're not being clever, we're actually not being tricky. This isn't just for people with advanced degrees. This sort of Jesus hermeneutic is a way that all of us are supposed to read the Old Testament. We're supposed to be reading the Old Testament, looking for Jesus, looking for things that would point us to him. Jesus is talking to a few dejected disciples. They just watched him get crucified along with all their hopes and dreams. And they're walking away from Jerusalem, which is the center of religious devotion. Their head are hung, they had been hung. It's a crazy story, no.

So their heads are down, they're dejected, and Jesus meets them and it says this, that Jesus leads them on a Bible study and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So he took them at that time from Genesis to Malachi and that would be including the book of Exodus going, there I am, there I am, that's me, that points to me, when you see this, you're seeing me. And that's how he led them through a Bible study. So this is the kind of Bible study we intend to lead here. As we move through the Old Testament, it's not just moral stories. We're reading the Old Testament as an opportunity to know Christ and to go, that points to him, that points to him, there he is. That's what he's all about. Oh, that's such a setup for what's next. Oh, we know what Jesus will do with that. That's how we intend to read the Bible and we think Jesus gives us a permission to do this. Jesus, when he's speaking to his adversaries about the Old Testament, he says this to them in John 539, you study the scriptures diligently

because you think that in them you have eternal life.

These are the very scriptures that testify about me

and you refuse to come to me to have life. These scriptures bear witness to him and he's our hope and he's our joy and he's our salvation. And this is not just the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, it's not just a story about things we ought to do better or we should be brave like Daniel or we should take down Goliath like David. These things just don't just point to moral lessons for us. They allow us to know Christ better. To help us with this Jesus kind of hermeneutic, there's really four specific ways that we find these Easter eggs in the Old Testament

and they all start with the letter P, you're welcome.

The first is prophecies about his coming. So those will appear in the Old Testament. Like in Deuteronomy 18, it's Moses himself who says, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me "from among you, from your brothers. "It is to him you shall listen." We believe this to be a prophecy again about the greater Moses, the prophet, the one sent from God.

Progenies and genealogies are another way that you'll see this. So as dull and confusing as the genealogies are, as embarrassing as it is to try to read those names and pronounce them correctly, they're sign markers on the way to Jesus. They're pointing to him saying the long awaited son from the family of Abraham has arrived and that's why they're there. Number three is prefigured by types, shadows and symbols. So in Exodus, we're gonna see Jesus prefigured by signs and symbols.

More obvious ones are that he's the unblemished lamb of God. He's the unblemished lamb that is slain for Passover. There's other ones as well that we'll get to talk about, right? And then there's even characters in the story who will show us something about Jesus.

Moses himself will do that. Aaron will do that. Joshua will do that. But these characters point beyond themselves to the main character in our story. And number four is personal appearances. Like he will show up. And the New Testament makes it clear that Jesus shows up in the Old Testament. He's popping up in the text, okay? So rather than it being just an everyday angel,

there's these divine kind of Easter eggs.

One of them might be the three men that appear to Abraham in Genesis 18, who are simultaneously identified with the Lord. Is that Jesus and two angels? Is that the trinity making a human appearance? What's going on there? Or what about the angel that appears to Samson's parents in the book of Judges?

Suspiciously, this angel is worshiped. And if you know anything about angels, they always refuse worship. But this angel accepts worship. And God says his name is wonderful.

And you might recognize that, because that's something we say at Christmas, that Jesus was a wonderful counselor. So is that him? I don't know, stop the tape, run it back. Am I seeing this right? There's all kinds of these in the story of Exodus that we'll get to uncover. So here's Jesus in Exodus. Some would suggest that it's Jesus who appears to Moses in the burning bush. We'll discuss that when we get to Exodus three.

Jesus, it says, is the Passover lamb in 1 Corinthians five. Jesus, we just read in 1 Corinthians 10, is the rock that gives the water of life. Jesus is the mediator on our behalf. And Jesus, it says in Jude five, get this, saved the people from Egypt. Listen to what Jude says. This is near the end of your Bible. It says this, now I wanna remind you, although you once fully knew it, that it was Jesus who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, and then afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

I love how flippant Jude is about this, you know? Well, you already knew this. Jesus led the Exodus. You're like, wait a second, what?

He was there at creation.

And then in one of the last books of the Bible, we're told he was leading this Exodus procession. So as we read the book of Exodus, we're looking for Jesus.

And now, as we read the accounts of Jesus's life, let's look for the Exodus.

Now, as we read the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, let's look for the Exodus account in the life of Jesus.

"After many cameos, after many appearances, "Jesus is finally incarnated in human flesh "to walk among us." And even the language describing that in John 1 is that he tabernacled with us.

He camped with us, which is a direct parallel to the Exodus story where the presence of God was set up in the tabernacle at the very center of their camp. Jesus is tabernacling with us. Jesus is described in Hebrews 3, I'll read it to you at the end of this, as the greater Moses.

We know that Moses was esteemed as a mediator. Between God and man, he was brokering the deal. And now Jesus is the mediator who's made a way for us to come into the presence of God and to come boldly to run into his presence. He's the mediator. We know that Moses was a prophet. He spoke for God. And when he spoke for God, he would say, God says,

Jesus is a prophet. And when he speaks for God, he says, truly I tell you.

He's a greater Moses.

Moses made a way for 600,000 men with their families to cross from death to life.

Right now, 2.7 billion people, one third of the earth's population right now are being led by Jesus from death to life.

He's greater than Moses.

Moses defeated a Pharaoh in the Egyptian dynasty,

which is a superpower at the time. Jesus comes for Satan, sin, and death, the ultimate Pharaoh, and defeats them. He's greater than Moses.

Moses brought the people into a promised land that eventually they would be exiled from.

Jesus brings us into an eternity that'll never be taken from us. Not one will be snatched from his hand. His work is finished and final in our lives. Moses brought the terms of the old covenant, which was temporary and pointed beyond itself. And Jesus brought the terms of the new covenant, which are ultimate, the thing that the Old Testament covenant, Old Covenant Testament pointed to.

Moses brought us the law, and it was Jesus who fulfilled the law. Moses, it says, is a servant in God's house, and Jesus is a son and owns the house. Jesus is the greater Moses. Moses is no slouch. That's not the point I'm trying to make. He was a faithful servant in all of the things that we described, but he is not our savior, Jesus is. Hebrews three says it this way, therefore holy brothers and sisters who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and our high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all of God's house.

Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future, but Christ is faithful as the son over God's house. And we are his house if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Almost every major moment in Jesus's life takes an Exodus shape.

It makes sense only up against the backdrop, the historical context of the Exodus. Think about his name, the name Jesus.

It means Yahweh saves.

Yahweh is the name of God that's revealed to us in the book of Exodus.

Actually, Jesus is the Greek for a Hebrew name, Yeshua or Joshua. And the first time that the name Joshua appears in the Bible is to describe Moses's right hand man.

Joshua was a name given by Moses, and he would later take over for Moses. Let's think about his birth.

The story of Moses begins with Israel being oppressed by a foreign power and faithful women who are also brave.

Sound familiar? The Jesus story starts the same way. Israel is occupied by a foreign power and there's faithful and brave women involved. Moses was born during the reign of an evil king who slaughtered infants. Jesus born during the reign of an evil king who is slaughtering infants.

Jesus, parents, they flee for safety and they find refuge in Egypt, and then Jesus is called out of it.

How wild is that? Moses initially finds safety in Egypt, but eventually he's called out of it and he leads the people out of Egypt.

Jesus's cousin, John the Baptist, he's a voice, he's a messenger who went ahead of Jesus. He's described as a forerunner, and his message was this, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. A direct connection to the Passover.

John's message is not his message. John's message is to share the message of Isaiah. And when John comes, he comes quoting Isaiah 40, which is to say God is making a way in the wilderness.

There's another exodus going on. There's a new exodus. God is opening up a way, and that's what this forerunner did, is say make way, there's road construction happening now, and we're all gonna parade down the way that's opened up by the Messiah.

Christopher Wright says this in his commentary,

the unmissable proclamation heard in the opening of all four gospels then is simply this. God's doing it again.

The God of Abraham is keeping his promise. The God of Moses is confronting the world's pharaohs. The God of the exodus is on the way to save his people. That's how every one of the gospels starts. What about Jesus's baptism? It was John the Baptist who baptized him, and Jesus was baptized in the Jordan waters,

and then he was tested in the wilderness for 40 days. And when Satan comes to test him, he doesn't speak freely, he quotes Deuteronomy.

He's quoting the Exodus story when Satan comes to tempt him. Direct quotes because he's succeeding in all the ways that Israel failed along the way, right?

He was baptized then in the water, so he comes out of Egypt, and he comes through the waters of baptism and into the wilderness for a time of testing. Sound familiar?

The Israelites come out of Egypt. They come through the waters of the Red Sea, and they're delivered into the wilderness for a time of testing.

The first four chapters of Matthew in particular are just a recapitulation of the Exodus story. What about his teaching on the Mount?

We read Jesus, and we read the Sermon on the Mount and think he just needed volume. So he went up the mountain because there were no sound systems. Well, maybe, except for it was Moses who went up the mountain to get the old covenant and came down with the tablets and delivered to the people God's kingdom ethics. And now Jesus shows up, and he goes up the mountain to give us the Sermon on the Mount and to talk about our kingdom ethics.

It's not a coincidence. What about his miracles? One of his most famous miracles would be him feeding the 5,000, right? So here's the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. Jesus goes into the wilderness, and he's being followed by a group of Israelites who have nothing to eat.

So Jesus delegates his authority to his disciples.

That's something that Moses did in order to manage the load. And Jesus breaks them up into groups of 50, which is something Jesus, which is something Moses did as well.

And then Jesus provides for them heavenly bread, manna,

something Moses did as well. And then after this miracle of feeding the 5,000, Jesus bolts, and the crowd comes to find him. And this is what we read.

This group, this crowd tracks him down, and Jesus says to them, "Very truly, I tell you, "it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, "but it's my father who gives you the true bread "from heaven, for the bread of God is the bread "that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. "Sir," they replied, "could we always have this bread?" And Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. "Whoever comes to me will never grow hungry, "and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

What about his claims?

He claims in John 8 to be the I am.

This is the name, again, revealed for God in the book of Exodus. He claims to be the light of the world. We sang about that in the bread of life, recalling the light and the show bread in the tabernacle. He claims to be God. And then lastly, I just wanna pull your attention to this one because I think it's incredible. It's his transfiguration.

I'll read it to you first from Matthew 17. After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and he led them up a high mountain by themselves.

There he was transfigured before them, his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. And just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you wish, I'll put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah." While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.

Listen to him."

When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said, "don't be afraid." When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

So here we have Jesus going up the mountain of transfiguration, and he's gonna talk about his departure. Do you know what the word is for his departure?

His exodus.

He's talking about his way out, his road out.

And then he's talking about this with Moses and Elijah. How amazing is that?

It's like Moses is there to be like, Jesus, you can do it.

Maybe Moses is saying to him like, yeah, well, I've done this before and back in my day. You know?

Maybe Moses is saying like, I wish I had Roman roads. And Jesus is saying to him, but you don't wish you had Roman crucifixion. I don't know. I don't know what the exchange is. But I think it's absolutely insane that Jesus is processing his new exodus in the presence of Moses and Elijah.

And I think it's really incredible that Peter has the audacity to like speak. I got an idea.

(Audience Laughing)

It's unreal.

And he says essentially, let's build three shelters.

One for Moses, who we know represents the law. One for Elijah, which represents the prophets.

And one for Jesus.

Then a cloud comes and says, Peter, don't you get it.

The law and the prophets point to my son.

They point beyond themselves.

There'll be no sleepover tonight, Peter.

I love that. You ever been at something that you don't want to end and you're like, maybe we should just have a sleepover.

This is the vibe of Peter. We'll just sleep here, guys. This is the best day of my life. This is the greatest day of my life. We stay here forever.

Jesus was crucified during the Passover week and that in itself is a statement.

The people would have understand what's going on here.

When someone gets married on Valentine's Day, there's an implied meaning to that, right? We would all get that.

And when somebody cuts the sleeves off their shirt on the 4th of July, there's an implied meaning to that, right? It's like, no one's gonna tell me what to do.

When Jesus dies the week of Passover, there's implied meaning in that. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

This is a festival. The Passover was a festival. Set aside. You can't make this stuff up. It's a festival set aside to celebrate God's deliverance of His people through blood that was shed by an innocent lamb without spot or blemish.

That's the week that our Savior comes to die.

Jesus is leading a new exodus.

Worship team, would you guys come?

And church, would you stand with me?

The greater Moses is leading a new exodus.

And this is present tense.

This is happening right now as we speak. The greater Moses is leading a new exodus.

And that means a way out.

A path out.

An exit from the things that we're stuck in and bound to.

Creation's been subjected to bondage and the new exodus promises liberation and recreation. A renewal of who we were meant to be and what this planet was meant to be.

So what is the way out?

The better question is who?

Who is the way out?

And it's Jesus who said He was the way

and He was the truth and He was the life and He promised to show us the way. He promised as a good shepherd to lead us. And if you feel scattered and you feel afraid and you're wondering about your future,

I would invite you to migrate with us from this kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

To receive Jesus as a good shepherd and also to receive the people of God as a flock and fold in.

Jesus is leading a mass exodus.

Free.

We can be free. Not from an earthly pharaoh but a cosmic one, death and decay. We can be free from Satan, sin and death because of Jesus.

We can through the blood of Christ be brought into connection with God and with others. We can be brought into the family of God.

There's a way that Jesus is opening up for us to live as the chosen people of God. There's a way that He has opened up for us to come boldly despite our sin and shame. There's a way for us to be washed.

There's a way for us to escape just punishment for our sin and that is receiving Him.

There's a way for us to become citizens

of a new kingdom.

A way for us to inherit a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

That is trending in a certain direction and no one will stop it.

And that way is through the broken body of Christ and His blood shed for us as a sacrifice. And so as we worship we're gonna open the table and for those of you who are here and you're believers in Jesus or maybe right now you're saying I want in Travis. I want in, I want this way out. I want to follow Jesus out of bondage. I want to be liberated. I wanna be freed from death. I wanna be brought into the family of God.

I wanna fold into this flock.

I'm gonna pray with you for you and then we're gonna come to the table. If you're a believer in Jesus

you wanna be a part of this mass exodus.

Come to the table.

Jesus we exalt you.

We exalt you from making a way where there was no way.

It wasn't even like we were trying to get out. We were dead in our sin.

Completely stuck. This wasn't a movement of the people. This was you stepping down to rescue.

I pray right now that you would rescue every person who's saying here I am.

Would you pick me up? Would you set my feet upon a rock? Here I am, I'm floundering. Would you set me into a secure place and into a secure family? Come, rescue your people again. We thank you for your blood and your sacrifice and just for having a plan.

Like we're down here scrambling, confused

and you see a way forward and we're thankful for your leadership.

I'd like to ask the women who went up to the mountain to come be a ministry team for me up here. And if you're here and you're stuck,

these women, these faithful brave women have something to proclaim over you.

And you should humble yourself and receive prayer this morning.

This is the way that Jesus opened up for us. It's in weakness and in humility that we receive as kingdom, so come to the table, take the cup, take the bread, worship your brains out and receive prayer if you need it this morning. Don't miss it.