Title: The LORD's Passover (Part 1)
Text: Exodus 12: 1-14
Date: September 11, 2016
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Before Joseph died, he said to the children of Israel, “God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” (Gen 50: 24) In Exodus 12, we find God visiting Israel and bringing them out of Egypt into the land God promised.
The reason it was necessary for the children of Israel to be redeemed is because after Joseph died, “there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph…they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens…And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage.” (Ex 1: 8, 11, 14) Their slavery is a type of the slavery which God’s elect came under when we fell in Adam. We had no way to free ourselves just as they had no way to free themselves. We were under the power of the devil just as they were under the power of that evil pharaoh. (Eph 2:2)
Proposition: The one way God’s elect are freed from the bondage of sin, death and hell is by God visiting us, providing himself a Lamb in his Son.
Hebrews 2: 14: Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb 2:14-15)
ALL THINGS NEW
Exodus 12: 1: And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3: Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:…
The time of their deliverance typified God making all things new for his people in Christ our Passover Lamb. They were delivered in the month Abib which is our March and April.
Deuteronomy 16: 1: Observe the month of Abib, and keep the ullness unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.
Our Passover Lamb is Christ Jesus the Son of God.
Revelation 13: 8:…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Genesis 22:8: Abraham said,…God will provide himself a lamb…
John 1:29: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
1 Corinthians 5: 7:…Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.
It was in the same month, the month Abib, that Christ our Passover Lamb made all things new. After observing that last passover supper, Christ instituted a new feast, the Lord’s Table, which we are observing today. After he was crucified and rose again the third day, Christ made all things new for God’s elect who were in him. When we are brought to believe on Christ, he makes us to experience how he has made all things new.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
THE LAMB FOR EACH ELECT CHILD
Exodus 12: 3: Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 4: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.
God has provided Christ the Lamb to save each and every elect member of his house. In our text, a lamb was provided so that each person got a portion. If the house was too small to eat a whole lamb, they could unite with their neighbor’s house. The point is three fold:
One, Christ gave his body to be broken and his blood to be shed for each individual elect child of God—each elect child partakes of the Lamb. Christ says to each one personally “this is my body which is broken for you; this cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.” (1 Cor 11: 24; Lu 22: 20)
Two, the members of two houses could share one lamb because every chosen child of God is a member of the same household of God. Scripture says “ye are…fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Eph 2: 19) We bow our knees “unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15: Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” (Eph 3: 14)
Three, all God’s elect are delivered the same way, we “all eat the same spiritual meat” which is Christ the Lamb of God. (1 Cor 10: 3) Christ said, “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” (Jn 6: 55)
I overheard two women talking at a parade, once. One was Jewish, the other Catholic. They spoke of how they were saved. At the end of their conversation they concluded, “You have your way, I have my way!” No! Christ is THE Way. (Jn 14: 6) “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4: 12)
CHRIST OUR PASSOVER
Exodus 12: 5: Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats.
God said the lamb had to be “without blemish.” It is because the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb, had to be the holy, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. The first reason is because Christ was the Head of his house representing those chosen of God in him. In the history of the world, only two men began their life without sin. Each was a federal head representing his own house. Adam was the first; Christ is the last. Adam sinned and all his house died in him; Christ obeyed and all his house shall live in him. As the apostle says “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor 15: 22) Secondly, Christ had to be holy and without sin in order to have the sins of his people laid on him. Christ the Lamb had to have no sin of his own. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Pet 1: 18-19)
Then notice the lamb had to be “male.” Christ Jesus is Male for two reasons. God ordained that the Man is Head of the woman. One, it is because according to God as the head over his own house, the male’s legal standing is the legal standing of the children in his house. Christ’s legal standing is the legal standing of all in his house. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (Rom 5: 19) Two, it is by the male’s seed that his children are conceived. All Christ children must and shall be born of his incorruptible seed through his bride the church through the word of the gospel.
1 Peter 1:23: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1 John 3:9: Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Brethren, we must never diminish either branch of this work of Christ in an attempt to glorify the other. Christ is the Head AND Christ is the Everlasting Father of his house. God’s elect must be made righteous by Christ AND we must be born-again by Christ. “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, AND in whose spirit there is no guile.” (Ps 32: 2) This is why Christ had to be a Male.
Next, we see the lamb was a “male of the first year.” Christ Jesus was slain in the prime of his life, when he was of full strength. This shows Christ’s willingness to give himself for us. He said,
John 10: 17: Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.
Lastly, we see the sacrifice could be taken “from the sheep, or from the goats.” Both the sheep and the goat were used on the day of atonement to represent Christ who made atonement and removed our sins forever.
2 Corinthians 5: 21: For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Psalm 103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
THE CRUCIFIXITION OF CHRIST
Exodus 12: 6: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
Just as everything was appointed by God and took place at God’s appointed time for God’s appointed people so the crucifixion of Christ was according to God’s eternal purpose and sovereign hand of grace.
God promised Abraham that he would visit his people after 430 years of captivity. God did it in his time, even to the day. (Ex 12: 40-41) So it was that Christ came and died at the time appointed by God.
Galatians 4: 4:…when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
Christ died at the time appointed—the month of Abib for example—fulfilling even the exact time of the old testament pictures and not before. Throughout his earthy ministry, his enemies “sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.” (Jn 7: 30) But then at the appointed time “Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” (Jn 12: 23) When they came to arrest Christ, he told them they were only doing it because he was allowing it to happen, saying, “When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” (Lu 22: 53)
Then as we see “The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening” we are reminded that wicked hands crucified our Redeemer. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel had blood on their hands for doing so as “all the people, said, His blood be on us, and on our children.” (Mt 27: 25) But this too was according to God’s appointment.
Acts 2: 23: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
Acts 4: 27: For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28: For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Here is the good news in this. Just as they killed the sacrifice by their own hands, it was the sins of all God’s elect—our wicked hands—for which Christ was crucified. And this too was by God’s eternal council to save us from our sins.
Brethren, pause a moment and look to that cursed cross. Behold Christ’s body broken because of our sins—wounded, bruised, forsaken of God for you who are his. Behold, Christ’s blood shed because of our sins—without shedding of blood is no remission of sins—this is my blood shed for you. There, behold, God’s eternal purpose of grace fulfilled as Christ cried, “It is finished!” And know it was all exactly according to God’s sovereign, unchangeable, eternal purpose to save us from our sins.
Ephesians 1: 11: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Amen!