This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:00] I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the Book of Exodus 12, if you got a Bible, if you got one of ours. It's on page 53. And just like Christmas is a story that gets passed on from generation to generation, parents teaching their children. God once commanded a story that he wanted his people here in Israel to teach from generation to generation. And this is the story of the Passover that we want to look at together tonight in Exodus Chapter twelve. So our church is reading through the law. We just started the Book of Exodus this last week. And the number one comment that I heard this week at our churches. You know, this is really different than the prince of Egypt. That's the number one comment that I heard this week.

[00:00:54] If you don't know what that is, the prince of Egypt is an animated movie about Moses and the Exodus from 1998.

[00:01:02] Maybe you've even seen the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston. If you know that classic and people were very disappointed reading through Exodus this week, like, why doesn't he have a chariot race with his brother Pharaoh at some point in air? Like it was like people were like, I think Exodus has it wrong because that's not how I saw it in the prince of Egypt, you know?

[00:01:24] So I don't know how familiar you are with the story of Exodus, but you could read it very simply from the original source material. It's basically 15 chapters about how God takes his people who are slaves in Egypt and how he sends more Moses to tell Pharaoh, let my people go and God does deliver his people.

[00:01:44] But within that story, God writes a story like God sets up a holiday which which used to really mean a holy day, like he sets up a day that he wants his people to remember and he wants them to remember it forever to all generations.

[00:02:05] And so it's like God, even while he's delivering his people, says, here's a holiday. In fact, it's going to start your year. And I want us to look at this together in Exodus Chapter twelve. And we're gonna fill out here the Passover checklist. If you're taking notes, if you got a pen there, what are the things that God commands them to do as a part of this Passover, which is really going to become this holy day in their calendar and is going to kick off a week long feast that the nation of Israel is going to have forever, basically after God commands it to be here in Exodus 12. So we're gonna see three things. A lot of details here that you need to happen. I don't know if you've celebrated the Passover before, if you come from a Jewish background, if you've just heard about it. But we're gonna get into the source because this is something that God wanted his people to do in Israel from generation to generation. In fact, he says one of the reasons he establishes this tradition is so that they would be able to tell the story to their kids. So start with me here in Exodus, chapter twelve, verse one, the Lord said to Moses in air and in the land of Egypt this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you till all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb, according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household. So God clearly is establishing a new beginning.

[00:03:42] He says right now, this time it's going to be the first month of the year. And on the tenth day of the first month, everybody, point number one here, everybody needs a lamb. That's gonna be a key part of the Passover celebration. So everybody's getting a pet, basically, is what he's saying here. Every household on the tenth day, you're gonna go get a lamb. And he's got some specifics here about the lamb. He says in verse, for 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. You shall make your count for the lamb. So if you need to go in with your neighbors to get the lamb, there's an accommodation for that verse five. We're not just talking about any lamb here. Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or the goat or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month.

[00:04:42] So. So let's just get that part down there. This lamb is gonna be without blemish key feature of the lamb, a male, a year old. But you can't be you can't be given your your lame lamb or your blind lamb or or any kind of lamb with any kind of defect. It's got a. Be a lamb without blemish.

[00:05:02] Now, I want you to recall to mind right now, let's do some word association with the idea of lamb. All right. I'm thick in white, soft, cuddly, kind of a looking animal here. Cute looking animal. So if if this animal lives in your house from the 10th of the month to the 14th of the month, what's happening over those four days? Right. There's some emotional attachment that's taking place. Right. I'm sure in their culture, they were a lot more used to lambs being around than we are today. But what you can see is happening here is there would be a bond between this animal and the family there, especially who would really get attached to the lamb would be the kid.

[00:05:48] So here's God commanding a celebration. And you can tell that he's got the kids in mind. He and kids love animals. So what he's doing here is genius. Let's get these kids attached to the land from the tent day to the 14th day.

[00:06:05] And then it says in verse six, you 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. All right. So that it gets killed at twilight on the 14th day of the first month. That's what happens to the lamb. So the story takes a dark turn there. So far, it seems like a nice holiday. Everybody gets a pet. How nice. Wonderful. Well, then there comes a moment when all together the nation of Israel slaughter these lambs. That that was what it was building towards. Now, the second key thing we're going to need here is in verse seven, it says then they shall take some of the blood. That's what's going to happen when they kill their lambs at twilight. There's going to be blood that we're going to put on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. So we will first thing we're going to need is a lamb. It's got to be without blemish. And we're going to kill it at this certain time. Everybody all together on the 14th day of the first month, number two. Now all we have to do something with the blood of the lamb can. Now we're going to get some specific instructions of what we're supposed to do with this blood. So so think about how this is playing out. Now, the kids, they've they've gotten cuddly with the lamb. They've named the lamb. They've loved the lamb. And they've cleaned up after the lamb or maybe dead ends up doing some of that. Right. And then now we see the lamb killed. And we see the blood of the lamb being spilled. And it's clear they had a base in to collect this blood as it was being spilled when they killed the lamb and they were supposed to take this blood and they're supposed to put it on the door that they they're supposed to put it on the two sides of the door. And then the top of the doorway, the door frame. So there were now actually where I mean, that's a lot of blood. When you think about it, if you think about, you know, kind of putting blood over the doorframe of your house. This has become a very graphic experience now for or for everybody in the family to behold this. And it's because we're in the midst of an intense time.

[00:08:19] If you read through Exodus this week, you know that where we're at right now is we're going through the plagues. God sends Moses to Pharaoh to say, hey, you've got to let my people go on a three days journey to go and worship me and Pharaoh. He says no.

[00:08:35] And he hardens his heart.

[00:08:37] And so Moses begins to do these miracles, these signs that show the wonders and the power of God. And they start small and there's ten of them. And over the course of these plagues, they get bigger and bigger and more impressive. And they're affecting everything there in Egypt.

[00:08:54] But Pharaoh continues to remain hard hearted and eventually look at first 12. Here this is Exodus twelve, verse twelve. Here's what God's saying he's going to do now as the 10th plague. And now we've actually reached an act of judgment upon Egypt. It says four, I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.

[00:09:25] And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. And 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 will befall you to destroy you. When I strike the land of Egypt. So God is promising. And he had Moses already go and deliver this news to Pharaoh. But Pharaoh rejected him, God is saying there is going to be a judgment that's going to sweep across the entire land of Egypt, both to the Egyptians and the Israelites. Someone in every household is going to die.

[00:10:09] And it's either going to be the firstborn son or it's going to be this lamb and you're going to put the blood of the lamb over the door. And if the angel of the Lord who goes through in this act of judgment and death, if the angel of the Lord sees the blood, then your house will be passed over, because the lamb has already died as a sacrifice for the firstborn son in that house.

[00:10:35] OK, now we know if you've been reading through Genesis and Exodus with us, the first born son, I mean, that was a big deal at this time, like the first born son, received the blessing, received the inheritance. Like, that's pretty much what a big part of life was at this time on planet Earth. Was you passing on life to your first born son who will carry it on to the next generation like that basically was the purpose of life. So to go after the first born son in every household is to strike right at the heart of that family, right at their identity.

[00:11:11] Now, my dad, he did pass this story of the Passover on down to me, and he would read this how he would read that that reading grow picture Bible. He would read that to us over and over. And this story really bothered me because I was the first born son. All right. And so I felt this one and any other first born sons out there, anybody else with me on this one? Like I was looking at Bill and my brother. Right. And my other brother, Ben. And I was like, what's up with these guys? Why can't we kill one of these guys? Right. I mean, why does it have to be me here? Right. The first born son like that, always like this is a dark story. We just went from cute kids sing in here to now talking about a God, in his judgment, murdering the first born sons out of an act of judgment on all the families of the land. But then God is also providing a sacrifice of the lamb. Where that lamb, if that blood is shed, then that judgment will not be experienced. And it can be passed over like this is an intense story. What's happening in.

[00:12:14] And it's a story meant to engage everyone. The parents are now engaged because of their love for their firstborn. The children are now engaged because of the death of this lamp. Like everyone in Egypt is feeling the judgment of God. And see, they didn't believe it. They didn't believe the judgment was coming until it was too late. And those who did take God at his word and they killed the lamb and they put the blood on the door, the angel of the Lord passed over their house. And that's what they did, go down to verse 21. Look what it says here in Exodus twelve 21 that the people of Egypt, led by Pharaoh, did not listen to Moses. They harden their hearts against what God said he was going to do. But the people of Israel did listen to Moses. Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, Go and select lamps for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.

[00:13:12] And then he said, Let's take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel, the top there and the two doorposts on the sides with the blood that is in the basin.

[00:13:25] 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. And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the doorpost, the two doorposts the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses or strike you.

[00:13:50] And then it says, you shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever and ever. So this is a story that God wanted to impress upon the minds of his people, not just at one time, but for all time.

[00:14:06] That there is a judgment of God that is going to come and you need a sacrificial lamb so that the judgment will pass you over and you will be spared.

[00:14:18] And so the other detail it says about the blood is you you put it on the door with a hyssop branch. It says here it gets very specific. You take this certain kind of plant, you've got this certain animal, you spread this certain kind of.

[00:14:31] It's giving detailed instructions that God wants his people to live by, to know.

[00:14:39] And he's saying, you got to kill this animal and spread the blood on the door. So the angel of the Lord will pass you over. And what a night that must have been.

[00:14:51] Everybody staying up all night. It says The Angel of the Lord came through at midnight and hearing the cries and the whales of the people who find their first born has been killed. And then the Israelites huddled together, trusting that the blood on the doorframe will will deliver them from this angel of the Lord bringing judgment.

[00:15:15] I mean, this was meant to be Re-created every year on the 14th day of the first month, so that what God did there in Egypt would never be forgotten by his people.

[00:15:27] So you had to get a lamb. There had to be blood. Go back to chapter 12, verse eight, and there's one more feature that God built into this holiday, this holy day. It says here in verse eight, they shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall eat it.

[00:15:52] OK, so there's also a feast. That's number three here. There's a feast that this is then meant to kick off. And it's a certain kind of feast the way they eat it. That night was like they were expecting that after God brought that judgment on the land. And this is how God works. God, through the warning of judgment. He always brings salvation. And here comes judgment on all the firstborn sons. But really, all of Israel will be freed, will be delivered, ransomed, redeemed, like a lot of the words that we use to describe God saving us come from the Exodus story that he ransomed his people out of Egypt because of the death of the first born and the blood of the lamb. And so they were supposed to have this feast, but like they were ready to travel, like they were leaving in a hurry. That was the idea of this feast. In fact, there's one really interesting detail. They're supposed to eat the lamb. They're supposed to eat all of the lamb that night. They can't leave any for later.

[00:16:58] And then even go down to the end of the chapter, verse forty three, because even after the story happens, even after they leave in Egypt here, still God is going back to the fact that he wants this to be a feast and they're going to do this forever. And verse 43, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, this is the statute of the Passover. No foreigner shall eat of it.

[00:17:22] So even now that it's already done, he's saying, here's how you're going to do it. Even in the promised land, even in the future. And then he says this. Look at verse 46, it shall be eaten in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside the house and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. It's specifically for the Jewish people, it says here. So let's get that down under the feast. You're supposed to eat the lamb. You're supposed to eat the whole thing without breaking bones.

[00:17:58] Hey, that's a key detail that gets revealed even later here, that there's got to be a certain way you're gonna eat this lamb where none of the bones of the lamb are broken. That's a specific detail that God includes there in this passage. Now, if your earlier, it also made it clear if you go back to verse 14 now, let's look at verse 14 here. He said, this day shall be for you a Memorial Day. So this Passover, where we're gonna kill a lamb every year on this day for the rest of Israel. And this shall be a Memorial Day. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statue forever.

[00:18:41] You shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day, you shall remove leaven out of your houses.

[00:18:52] For if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. So these are specific instructions and they serious gods like you have to do it and you have to do it like this. This is exactly how it must be done. So this day of the Passover really became one of the big feast for the nation of Israel, and it was sometimes referred to as the feast of unleavened bread. That's what it was sometimes called, if you want a job that down. So along with the lamb, the slaughter of the lamb, the spreading of the blood of the lamb, the eating of the lamb without breaking its bones, there was also seven days of eating unleavened bread like we were in a hurry. Like we're like we're ready to travel. That's the idea. Like we're waiting. We're expecting because we're trusting in the blood of the lamb over the door that the Lord will pass over our house. We think that the judgment God's going to bring on the land will bring salvation for us and we're ready to go. And so we're eating unleavened bread. And so forever they would do this feast and it would kick off with Passover on the 14th day of the first month, and then there would be seven days of eating unleavened bread. And this became one of the real holidays. One of the real special times. In the nation of Israel ongoing, we're gonna see how they celebrate it in numbers. You could write down at the bottom there of your Passover checklist, Deuteronomy 16. And it gets put into law once again how they're supposed to celebrate the Passover. And it's clear that God's going to eventually give them a place where they're going to celebrate this, not just in everybody's homes, but no, there's going to be a place that God's going to make clear where he sets his name. And that place is ultimately gonna be Jerusalem. So the nation of Israel and they would all go up to Jerusalem for the Passover and then they would be there seven days of feasting on unleavened bread together. So this was something that God didn't just do when he was delivering them out of Egypt. This is something he did to be passed on from generation to generation, to always remember the blood sacrifice of the lamb that saved them and the judgment that came upon the Egyptians. Now you're thinking, well, why are we going through every detail of this if we're here celebrating Christmas and we're not in Israel or in Jerusalem and we're not doing Passover? Why did we just go through every detail? See? This is a great example of the kind of chapter of Exodus that you might read through. And you might think yet I'm not really celebrating Passover.

[00:21:41] I'm not sacrificing any lambs or putting any blood over the doorpost or eating any unleavened bread. So I don't really need to pay attention to this chapter.

[00:21:50] What happens next?

[00:21:52] I don't remember that chapter from the prince of Egypt. And you just keep moving right along. Right. So this is what we're trying to say here at our church as we read through the word of God together. You've got to stop and pay attention to every detail because it's about more than you might think.

[00:22:07] It's about more than just meets the eye. What when God gives this attention to detail?

[00:22:14] He's probably not just talking about what's happening with Israel in Exodus. He might actually be riding a much bigger story. And I want you to see who the Passover is really about, and I need you to turn with me to the Gospel of John.

[00:22:32] Later on in your Bible, the gospel of John, written by the apostle who is an eye witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And John, chapter one, verse one, how he begins his gospel.

[00:22:50] And we're going to continue to see if you read through Exodus with us this December. You're going to see a lot of crossover to the gospel of John John, clearly new Genesis and Exodus. And he was writing to show us how a lot of what we're reading in Genesis Exodus is really about Jesus Christ.

[00:23:11] That's really who the Passover is all about.

[00:23:14] And it says here in John, chapter one, verse one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. That's clearly a reference to Genesis one one and the creation of the world, except it's putting the word into the story and the word is the one who's going to reveal God to us. Who's going to show us who who God is the one who came from God to save us. The word of God is Jesus Christ.

[00:23:42] Now, John got introduced the apostle John, it's going to get confusing because we're going to have to John's in one story here. OK. We've got two characters, one, and we're gonna call John the Baptist. And the other we're gonna say is the apostle John. The apostle John is the one who writes this book. He's the one who becomes one of the 12 disciples of Jesus.

[00:24:01] And he gets introduced to Jesus by John the Baptist and John the Baptist. You've got to look at this with me, John. Chapter one, verse twenty nine. This is John the Baptist, now publicly introducing Jesus Christ. John one twenty nine. The next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Now, John the Baptist, he's known Jesus. They're related. He knows who he is. He also knows he baptized him. And he and he knows that a dove descended on him, which was the Holy Spirit and a voice said from heaven. This is my son with whom I'm. Well, please. John the Baptist. He knows who Jesus is.

[00:24:43] And he says, behold. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist wants to introduce Jesus as the lamb and the lamb.

[00:24:57] These sacrifices as we keep reading through the law. This is kind of the first time we kind of we kind of see this. We saw it a little bit with Abraham and his son, Isaac, how they were supposed to be a sacrifice. Now we're seeing it here with the Israelites and the Passover lamb sacrifice. There's going to be more and more sacrifices that we're going to read about. So clearly, they would have identified a lamb. They would have been familiar with every year having that pet lamb come in, kill in that lamb, spread in the blood of the lamb. That would have been on fresh on all of their minds. And now John the Baptist says, here finally is the lamb.

[00:25:33] The Lamb of God who's taken away the sin of the world.

[00:25:38] That's how John the Baptist introduces Jesus Christ, that we are supposed to see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. That's Exodus twelve is not a story for the people of Israel to have a holiday for the rest of their lives. It's a prophecy of Jesus Christ. So what we want to do is go back through our Passover checklist and we want to see if Jesus Christ fulfills all that's involved in the Passover feast. So go with me to John, Chapter 19, and let's get here to the end of the life of Jesus Christ. He has now. He has now had the last supper with his disciples. He's been betrayed, arrested, falsely accused and tried.

[00:26:27] And now the Jewish leaders are bringing him to Pilet here in John, Chapter 19. And pilot is flogging Jesus. He's beating Jesus.

[00:26:42] And is it really the story's been going it's been building up here. And the Jews, when they bring him before a pilot, they stay outside of where a pilot is because the Jews don't want to go in the pilot because then they'll be unclean for going into his presence.

[00:26:58] So pilot has to keep coming out to talk to the Jews and look at the kinds of things that pilot says to the Jewish leaders here. Look at this is chapter 19, verse for chapter 19.

[00:27:13] Verse four pilot went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in him.

[00:27:26] So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe pilot said, Behold the man. They've already made a mockery of him beating a crown of thorns into his head, putting a purple robe over him like he is the king of the Jews. And he says, Hey, behold the man. And what will we want to see as we want to behold the lamb as John the Baptist introduced him?

[00:27:50] But look what they say here. They say, crucify him, crucify him. They cried out, haven't killed pilots, said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him. For I find no war, no guilt in him.

[00:28:07] Pilot who is the leader of the Romans who are over the Jews at this time.

[00:28:13] They don't have the authority to kill anyone without the Roman official consent that they need from pilot and pilot is going to let them kill him.

[00:28:24] But he makes it very clear that I've investigated this man and he is without guilt. He is without blemish. So if you want to put that down for John Ninety-Six, we see that our lamb is not guilty of anything. There's no there's no defect. There's no stumbling block. There's no sin.

[00:28:44] There's no problem here, really. That Jesus is on trial for he is innocent.

[00:28:52] That's what pilot says.

[00:28:54] And yet he is going. They are shouting here, crucify him, crucify him.

[00:29:00] And and pilot. He clearly has a crisis of conscience because he doesn't want this man to be killed because he knows he's innocent and he feels uncomfortable about the morality of this situation, even though a pilot is kind of this pompous guy and he says, what is truth? And he acts like he's very self-important. You can see he's uncomfortable with an innocent man being killed. So look what happens here in verse 14. This is John 19, verse 14. I want you to see this. It says It was the day of preparation. Of the what?

[00:29:40] Did you know that?

[00:29:42] Did you know that Jesus Christ died on Passover? It's the day that everybody's getting. Do you realize what's happening here in Jerusalem?

[00:29:52] All the Jewish leaders are bringing Jesus up.

[00:29:56] To crucify him in trying to get pilot's consent to kill him. Throughout Jerusalem right now, in every household there is a lamb and everybody's thinking. Are we ready to slaughter the lamb? Do we have the knife? Do we have the bassin? Do we have the hyssop ranch?

[00:30:14] Do we have I mean, Jesus. They're preparing to slaughter him at the same time that everybody's preparing to celebrate the Passover. So if it wasn't a clear enough picture from it is twelve, God actually has Jesus Christ die during the Passover day during during that time.

[00:30:38] Just if it wasn't clear enough.

[00:30:41] Verse 15, they cried out so because there was tradition, according to the feast here. He says, behold your king. And they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilot said to them, Shall I crucify your king? And the cheat chief priest answered. We have no king but Caesar. So he delivered over to them to be crucified. So we're supposed to kill him at twilight on the 14th day of the first month? Well, yeah. It's the day of the Passover preparation. That is the day that he is being killed.

[00:31:12] So check that off the Passover checklist. He is a he is a lamb. He's been introduced to us by John the Baptist. There is no sin. He is found to be innocent, even even in pilot is acknowledging that there is nothing wrong with this man. And it is the day of preparation of the Passover, the very day that the lambs are slain. So it says there and at the universe 16. So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place, the place called the place of a school, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. Maybe you've heard it in Latin. It's referred to as Calvary.

[00:31:50] And there they crucified him with two others, one on either side and Jesus between them.

[00:31:59] So let's let's just think this through.

[00:32:02] They are crucifying him. We've got to now get in our mind. It doesn't really describe it here in vivid detail, but crucifixion is a piece of wood across there, a vertical and horizontal piece of wood.

[00:32:17] And we know what they did is they nailed the hands of Jesus to the side beams there and they nailed his feet to the vertical beam. And so there he is up there on the cross, kind of hanging there by the nails in his hands and his feet. We know from the part we didn't read that we skipped over, that they've already beaten a crown of thorns into his skull. So he's already bleeding from the top down. Jesus already has that that feeling you have when you've been hit in the head and you're bleeding from the head and you're getting a little woozy. He's already feeling that and now he's feeling this tremendous pain in his arms, in his feet as he's nailed up there. And he's having to use this little piece of wood on the cross to lift himself up so he can keep breathing there so he doesn't die of as fixation there on the cross. Just picture the man his his face beaten up by the soldiers, bloodied from the punches, from the crown of thorns. And so you're looking at a man attached to wood. And where is the blood? The blood is above him and the blood is on two sides.

[00:33:32] That's what you're seeing.

[00:33:34] You're seeing the lamb being sacrificed. And you're seeing the blood right there in the three places that it's supposed to be. You were supposed to take the blood. We're supposed to put it on the door. Yeah. That's what crucifixion was. It's blood. Especially with Jesus. Maybe a lot of people when they got crucified. There wasn't blood. Where which would have been above the doorframe. But because he got beaten up in the face and the crown of thorns beaten down into his skull. He would have been bleeding from the head. And now we know he's bleeding from both of his arms on the side beams there because of the now.

[00:34:11] In both of his hands.

[00:34:14] And so, yeah, we've got the lamb. Well, he said without blemish, it's actually the day that he should be killed. And now we've even got the blood on the right place of these pieces of wood and these Roman soldiers. There are so many prophecies that are fulfilled here in the crucifixion of Jesus. And it's not just Jesus manipulating the events to fulfill the prophecies. A lot of these prophecies are fulfilled by Roman soldiers who have no idea of the tradition. They have no idea what the people of Israel would have been doing.

[00:34:46] Every year they don't know all the stories, and yet they're walking right into the story themself and fulfilling it.

[00:34:55] Well, something happens down here in verse 28 and it says here, after some agony and some conversation, they're casting lots for his clothes.

[00:35:05] He looks at John. So John the apostle who writes this as an eyewitness. He was close enough to this happening that he could hear Jesus speaking from the cross and Jesus told John to Kate, take care of his mother, Mary. And he looked at Mary and he said that John was now her son to take care of her at this time. And we don't think any of the physical brothers of Jesus believed in him before his crucifixion and his resurrection. So he wanted the apostle John. That's how close he was to this guy. He wanted John to look out for his mom.

[00:35:43] So here it is, Mary. The one who gave birth to him. Now watching her son die. And she's close enough to hear her son say to her, hey, this guy, John. He's now going to take care of you. And then it comes to this in verse 28 after this Jesus knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture.

[00:36:05] So here is something that Jesus does do intentionally.

[00:36:09] He says, I first.

[00:36:12] And a jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine onto his sub branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said to tell stye, it is finished. It is done. It's paid in full. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Now, there, because of our Passover checklist. There might be a detail that jumped off the page to you there when they brought him some sour wine because he said, I thirst. What kind of a branch did they bring the wine up?

[00:36:49] Well, let's check that one off the list. We brought a hyssop rancher. And if we're trying to give him some wine from the his sub branch.

[00:36:59] Well, you can just imagine that as Jesus tries to somehow lean forward to take this drink.

[00:37:06] The blood from his head must be flowing right on to the hisa branch.

[00:37:11] The very blood of the lamb, the hyssop branch. We meet it there in Exodus Twelve. It's going to show up and it's going to be this symbol of cleansing throughout the law, even into the prophets and the writings. This his subbranches, a kind of branch they're going to use for a lot of kinds of cleansings. And here it is now right there.

[00:37:31] Touching the lips of Jesus Christ, the Passover lamb while the blood is flowing down.

[00:37:40] And so he gave up his spirit. And that's the moment that Jesus Christ sacrificed himself and willingly died.

[00:37:48] Even though he was innocent without blemish, he died at the right time, on the right day as a sacrifice.

[00:37:57] Now, look what it says in verse 31. It goes right back to the fact that, hey, it's Passover time. Hey, it's the day everybody is getting ready here. It's the day of preparation.

[00:38:08] And also, hey, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath for that Sabbath was a high day, was it was a holy day here. We're getting into the feast of unleavened bread. We're we're getting into the Passover here. Hey, it's all happening.

[00:38:21] And so because of this, because of the day it is there on the calendar, the Jews asked Pilet that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

[00:38:34] You know what? This is a Amen crucifixion was meant to prolong the agony of death. That's what the point of crucifixion was. How much can a human being suffer before they die? And so what you would be doing is you'd be using your legs to lift you up and remember Jesus, he got where he got his back, just whipped right open, just the flesh ripped off of his back. And so here he is now using his legs to lift him up because otherwise he just kind of sink there when you're hanging by the nails in your hands. And so you've got to push yourself up to keep breathing. And every time you ask to push himself up to keep breathing, he's Expo's flash on his back where there's no skin. Now it's just rubbing up against the wood here of the cross. And so the idea is, hey, we can't prolong this. We can't just let these guys keep suffering and then die. Let's go break their legs, because if we break their legs, then they can't lift themselves up to keep breathing. And then they'll just as fixie and they'll they'll basically run out of air and die. So breaking their legs is the way that you speed up crucifixion. So they're like, hey, we got a. Passover is common. Sabbath's come in, we got to wrap this thing up. Let's go break their legs. Now, if you're reading this account in the Gospel of John.

[00:39:57] From the exit is 12 perspective from somebody who knows every detail that needs to make the pass over. I mean, you can start to feel like you thought the death of Jesus was the end.

[00:40:08] Well, wait a minute. If we break the bones of the lamb, then it can't be the lamb that that we're talking about in the Passover. That's the next one. We got here in the in the feast. If we're gonna eat the lamb, we can't break the bones of the lamb. So if Jesus is going to fulfill the picture of the Passover lamb, his bones can't be broken. And now they're saying, hey, let's go break their bones.

[00:40:32] And look what happens here.

[00:40:34] The soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him, but when they came to Jesus.

[00:40:43] And saw that he was already dead.

[00:40:45] They did not break his legs.

[00:40:49] But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and at once there came out blood and water, which is some kind of miracle. And John wants you to know he saw it. He saw it as borne witness. His testimony is true. He knows what he is telling the truth. That you also may believe for these things took place, that the scripture might be fulfilled. Now one of his bones will be broken.

[00:41:17] John says, I'm an eyewitness and I watched it all the way to the end and I even watched it after the end and they came to break his legs and they did not break his legs.

[00:41:31] And I saw the scripture of the Passover lamb fulfilled right in front of my eyes.

[00:41:41] That's what John wants you to know.

[00:41:43] John is trying to tell you the story, John the apostle. He is trying to write to you this story. So you would believe in Jesus Christ that John the Baptist introduced to him. He heard John the Baptist tell him. Behold the lamb. Look at this one. This is guy. He's from God. He's gonna take away all of our sins. And John is riding here. He's trying to make sure that his details match the details in Exodus so that you can really see he is the Passover lamb. Sacrificed so that everybody who trusts in this lamb and his blood.

[00:42:20] Everyone who believes in him will be passed over on the day of judge.

[00:42:26] And their sins will be covered by the perfect, spotless sacrifice of God's lamb that he offered.

[00:42:35] So this is the amazing plot twist of all time for people like me who grew up thinking, well, that's especially harsh, that they would go and kill the first born sons for then God to kill his first born, his one and only son on the cross as a sacrifice so that you don't have to experience judgment for sin.

[00:43:00] And John's not the only one trying to tell us, hey, the Passover is all about Jesus.

[00:43:05] Throw me in First Corinthians, Chapter five. You got to see this passage here in first Corinthians five. They're talking about how a sin has swept into their church. A sin that's very prevalent in our day. The sin here they're concerned about is sexual immorality.

[00:43:23] Sex outside of marriage, and it's being allowed and tolerated, people know about it and they're not doing anything about it in the church.

[00:43:33] And there's this reference in the middle of this intense passage about dealing with this sin in the church. You need to see first Corinthians five versus six to eight. First Corinthians five versus six to eight. These people are acting like they were so loving or were so tolerant or were so compassionate that we know about this sin and we're still loving this person. They're like boasting in their tolerance or their acceptance. And Paul, he's having nothing to do with it. He's saying you're boasting is not good. That's not OK. That you're OK with that sin in the church.

[00:44:04] He says, do you not know that a little lhevinne Levin's the whole lump? Oh.

[00:44:11] What's this about, Levon, cleanse out the old lhevinne that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened for Christ. Are Passover lamb has been sacrificed.

[00:44:26] Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[00:44:41] Wow.

[00:44:43] So he's saying this whole idea.

[00:44:46] I mean, it works on multiple levels. You got to see the the mastery of the story that God is writing, that God wants to have a hold it a holy day, that his people are going to remember forever, that they're going to teach their kids from generation to generation.

[00:45:00] And the reason in their minds, in Israel, we didn't have leavened bread, but unleavened bread is because we're getting ready to travel and God's going to deliver us out of Egypt. But now he's saying that really the Passover is all about the Lamb of Christ and we're cleansed by his blood. And this lhevinne and unleavened is a picture of how there's an old you and a new you. And after you know, the sacrifice of Jesus, you put away the leaven of Malus and evil and you put on the unleavened bread of sincerity and true.

[00:45:33] This is this bread is really just a symbol here, it's saying of how your life changes when you know the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

[00:45:43] And you got to be done with that old where we can't be tolerate in sexual morality in the Church of Jesus Christ. That's of the old Levit and just a little bit of that leaven. It affects all the other bread, just a little bit of that in there. The whole bread is to be leavened if you just get a little bit of that levit in there. So we got to become and the God as unleavened bread, there can be no compromise. And the reason you and I can have the faith of living a new life is we believe.

[00:46:12] That the blood of the lamb paid for all of our sins. Do you believe that here tonight?

[00:46:21] And saying, hey, this this is now written to a church and it's saying, hey, church, you should know the story of the parcel.

[00:46:29] You should know who the lamb is. You should know what his blood is done. And you got to put away that old love and you got to be walking in your faith in Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth.

[00:46:44] You can't be live in this life where Jesus sacrificed himself. He shed his blood. He covers your sin. So on the day of judgment, you will be passed over. You can be delivered, ransomed, redeemed by the blood of the lamb.

[00:46:59] And then you're going to keep a little bit of that sin hanging on in your life after Jesus shed his pure blood for it. God's right in this story over thousands of years of the sacrifice that Jesus is going to make for your soul and you're OK with still living in the sin that Jesus died for. Hey, that's not acceptable.

[00:47:20] Not for people who know the sacrifice. Not for people who know the lamb.

[00:47:25] The blood, it changes the way we view about sin or sin cost Jesus his blood. Therefore, I can't take sin lightly if I take the blood of Jesus seriously.

[00:47:41] And if Jesus really sacrificed himself when he was innocent. And he really suffered and died up on that tree and he said it is finished because he had paid for all of my sin, for all of my judgment. He died death in my place.

[00:47:56] What kind of way should I be live and if I should believe in Jesus Christ here, it's like sincerity and truth. I don't want you to worship Jesus because it's Christmas time. I don't want you to adore him because it's December. I want you to worship Jesus because he died for you.

[00:48:15] That he would sacrifice himself when he came to Earth.

[00:48:18] There was one thing that Jesus came to do and it was to be the Passover lamb that God gave all the details about in the original salvations story in the law. All those details Jesus came to fulfill, every single one of them. And John's like even after Jesus died, they still didn't break his bones that you could see he's the Passover lamb.

[00:48:44] I mean, you got to realize God's doing something that's bigger and better than we sometimes think. And sometimes we act like the good news of Jesus being a sacrifice. It's old news and yeah, it's a tradition and it's something we do every year. And we remember that Jesus would leave heaven to come to earth, to die as a sacrifice for me. And it starts to become cliche. And we're used to it like a we need to really adore Jesus this Christmas.

[00:49:17] I guess time for you and I to get stirred up and maybe if we've become too familiar with the Christmas story, maybe the Passover story can shake us out of our complacency and we can see that this has always been the story God is writing.

[00:49:31] There's always been a holiday pointing to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Way before there was ever a Christmas. Don't the first Peter, chapter one. And look what Peter writes here about the lamb. About the blood, this.

[00:49:48] This image of the Passover that God gives during the exodus to his people, Israel. It is clear from the way that John writes, from the way we just read Paul writing now here. And first, Peter, from the way that Peter writes, it is clear that they expected every Christian to be familiar with the Passover story and to know that Jesus was the lamb and to know that it's by his blood.

[00:50:15] That's what covers us in our CNN.

[00:50:19] Here and first, Peter, chapter one, verse 18, let's pick it up there, it's going to use kind of a key exodus word here that there was a cost. It cost the firstborn sons of the land for the people to go free. And for the Egyptians, their first born sons died because they didn't listen to the word of the Lord. For the people of Israel, they were able to sacrifice a lamb instead of their firstborn sons because of the way that God provided for them there in the Passover.

[00:50:50] But here it says, knowing that you were ransomed. What did it cost for your soul to be saved? How was your soul purchased? That's the idea. You were redeemed. You were paid for. You were ransom from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers. Not with perishable things such as silver or gold. No, it's not because of a price tag that you got saved. It's not a certain amount of money. No. Here's what it cost.

[00:51:17] The precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. There is only one thing pure enough.

[00:51:30] To redeem you from your sin. And it has to be this lamb without blemish killed on a certain day at a certain time.

[00:51:40] And the blood has to be over the doorposts. There has to be a heads up branch. And you have to Foley, you have to fully take this lamb in and believe in him. And not one of his bones can be broken.

[00:51:54] Now, this was precious. This is a story that God was riding for over a thousand years. This is a story that we're supposed to know two thousand years later. See, the big question I got to ask you, as we come to Christmas celebration 2019 here at Compas H.B.

[00:52:10] Let's talk about the blood of the lamb. Is it on the door or is it on the floor? That's the question you got to ask yourself.

[00:52:18] Do you see the blood of Jesus right now? Are you trusting that on the day of judgment, the day of death that is coming for every man and after death comes judgment to you? No, because this is your hope. This is what you believe, that the blood of Jesus there on the cross, the perfect lamb that was sacrifice to, you know, with 100 percent confidence that you are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[00:52:42] Or.

[00:52:45] Is the blood of Jesus of such insignificance to you that you're actually stepping over the blood of Jesus on the door to more say.

[00:52:56] So that's why there's a key word here, it says Precious. Precious is the blood of Jesus Christ. Is it precious to you? If your firstborn son was killed. On the day of judgment, you watched your first born son. Die in your arms. How would you feel? What would that mean to you? If it cost your first born son.

[00:53:28] So that's what God gave. To save your soul.

[00:53:33] So once again, you might think what an intense judgment, all these First-born sons in Egypt being killed once again, the gods judging people in a way that he's going to judge his first born son, his one and only son.

[00:53:46] He's going to take all of your sin. And he's going to pour it out on Jesus Christ. And Jesus is going to cry. My God. My God, why have you forsaken me? Because God is treating Jesus as if Jesus is you. And he's taking the judgment of the sin that you have, and he's giving it to his one and only son. He's not just allowing his son to die. He is crushing his son to save you. Is that blood? You have a high view of that blood. Is it precious to you? Is it the covering? Is it your hope of being passed over on the day of judgment? Or is a vote of Jesus so insignificant to you that you can just keep on sinning without even thinking about the sacrifice of the Passover lamb?

[00:54:33] Where you at this Christmas?

[00:54:36] When it comes to really adoring Jesus Christ, it says that his bride is precious.

[00:54:45] It says here in verse 20, he was four known. He got had this plan from the very beginning. That's why he's dropping hints in Genesis and that's why he's dropping all these specific details in Exodus. This was always Plan A was the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[00:55:00] He was four, known before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

[00:55:09] This story that God's been riding from Exodus then to Jerusalem 2000 years ago and what we think of as Christmas now, so that you and I could study it together here tonight. The reason, God, for new this massive plan of salvation through the Passover lamb and the blood of Jesus was for you. God's riding this whole story so that you could be saved.

[00:55:32] This Christmas.

[00:55:35] Who through him are believers in God? When we see that Jesus is the lamb, when we see his blood was shed, when we trust that that's how our sin can be forgiven.

[00:55:44] We believe in him who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God.

[00:55:55] We want to give you a moment now to think about the fact.

[00:56:00] That Jesus Christ.

[00:56:04] Was born as a baby and he lived for. 33 years.

[00:56:08] But then even on that last week, he came in and, wow, did you realize that it was very close to the time that everybody in Jerusalem was coming to the city? Everybody was finding a lamb for their household.

[00:56:19] That's the time that Jesus came into the city.

[00:56:23] And while everybody had that lamb for four days from the 10th of the first day of the month to the 14th of the first day of the month when they were going to kill the lamb at twilight during those four days is when we have the most content about Jesus clearing out the temple, preaching. He over here doing a parable over here, being challenged by the religious leaders.

[00:56:43] Now we know it gives us the details of four days with the lamb.

[00:56:49] And then he and his disciples break a meal together. And it's on the day of the preparation of the Passover. The lamb without blemish. Is crucified. And not one of his bones is broke.

[00:57:06] And the whole story is so that you would believe that you would have faith, that you would have hope in God, that you would come and worship Jesus Christ.

[00:57:16] So we want to give you a chance to do that right now, and I really want to ask you, hey, don't just celebrate Christmas because it's December. How are you going to worship Jesus this Christmas? How are you going to remember him?

[00:57:28] What does the blood of Jesus mean to you? This December is the blood of Jesus on the door? Or is it on the floor right now, just honestly in your life?

[00:57:38] What are you gonna do to calm and adore the pass overlay? Let's pray.

[00:57:44] Father, we come to you. A guy we just have to say that this story. It's more than we give it credit for it. It goes deeper. Then we can even understand and we thank you for this glimpse that you give us through the Passover holiday that happened at the exodus with the people of Israel and how we can see clearly. It's a preview of the death of your son, Jesus Christ. A perfect lamb. Precious blood.

[00:58:15] And not one of his bones was broken, and now, God, I pray that we would believe in Jesus with all of our hearts, that we would trust that his blood is the only way we can be forgiven for our sins, that we won't be judged on the day that we die. The only way that judgment will pass over us.

[00:58:31] Is through faith in Jesus. So, God, please.

[00:58:36] Don't let us celebrate Christmas for the kids or because it's December or because it's our tradition.

[00:58:42] Let us celebrate Christmas because we love the precious blood of the lamb. God, I pray that we could see how much you must love us to give up your firstborn, your one and only son.

[00:58:58] And how much Jesus Christ must love us.

[00:59:02] To leave his home in heaven and come all the way down here and be born as a baby and laid in an animal feeding trough where there's no room for him in the end.

[00:59:13] And he would do that just because he wanted to be the sacrifice for us.

[00:59:21] Got to pray that you would stir us up, that you would remind us that this is a love story. But there is someone who loved us enough that he would die in our place. That he would pay for our sin, that he would suffer our wrath.

[00:59:38] That we deserve to suffer because of judgment. But you judge Jesus instead of us. Father. Oh, how he loves us. So let us love Jesus Christ in the same way that he loved us as the Passover land. Who shed his precious blood? We pray this in the name, the holy name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. A man.