Imagine being born a slave. Your people, those that share your ethnic heritage, are slaves throughout the country you live in. Everyday you and your family wake up and go work and serve doing backbreaking labor that is forced upon you. The heat is intense and the work is torturous. Your captors are cruel and hate you. Your captors fear you therefore they separate family from family and begin killing the male babies that are born. This cruelty has been in existence for your people for far longer than you have been alive.
One day a man comes and demands the freedom of your people. The ruler of the land laughs and mocks him and says fine their work has been doubled. How would you react? How would you react to this man who has come to free you but has only increased your workload? The work was hard enough but now more is required!
God chose the Hebrews for his people. They were His people chosen by His grace. Through Moses God worked wonders in order to break the cruel and totalitarian grip of the Egyptian rule. The workload was to punish and subdue the Hebrews in order that they may run this Moses out of town and they would stay.
The Hebrews would be used of God to demonstrate His greatness and mighty power throughout the world. As God began the process of breaking the bondage of the Egyptians He brought plagues upon the land. Nine plagues had plundered the land, and the tenth was about to come. The Lord commanded the Hebrews what must be done in order to spare the people. This is the only plague that the Hebrews were required to perform a certain ritual, ceremony, observance in order to be spared its effects. What they were required to do was to demonstrate a spiritual significance that would be seen in the sacrifice of Christ.
As we look at the Passover Lamb this morning in Exodus 12:1-13 we will see three references to Christ’s work that apply to our lives.
First we see that God brings new life through Christ.
In verse 1 we see the Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron. He is directing them as to what should be done. The Lord has just poured out nine plagues upon
A new school year always brings a new opportunity a new start. You have had about three months to rethink what you want out of the next school year and forget about the bad of the last. It is a new opportunity as you face new classes and a clean start for grades. We today are looking at a new year for the church. For the most part, we face a clean slate, a clean calendar. We have the opportunity to allow this church year to be completely dedicated to the Lord. Will we allow God’s will to direct our planning? Will we commit to finding ways to making our activities conformed to the mission and the purpose God has for us as His church, His body of believers?
We are told in 2 Cor. 5:17- that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has past away and behold the new has come. If you are in Christ you are a new creation. A new beginning. A fresh start. The old is gone now live a new life for Christ. All sin has been paid for.
The second reference to Christ’s work is we shall be marked with Christ’s blood.
On the tenth day they were to find a lamb or goat that they would sacrifice. They were to keep it in their house until the fourteenth day. Imagine what would happen in a house with a lamb or goat in it for four days. The children would begin to treat it as a pet. The parents would begin to adapt to the routine of caring for it. The people would identify with it. It would be a part of the family. Then on the fourth day as darkness would begin to fall, they were to sacrifice the animal in a prescribed manner. Then they would mark their door posts with the blood of the sacrifice. The angel would know that house belongs to the people of God. The blood of the sacrifice would protect them from the death that would come otherwise.
It used to be in war that if you were medic or chaplain you were exempt from being targeted in war. If an enemy soldier spotted the chaplain’s cross or the medic’s red cross they were to be excused from target. These were rules of war that would allow the humane treatment of all people. If you possessed these symbols on your uniform then you were passed over for killing or inhumane treatment. So much so that in prison camps, often times the medics were allowed to treat the wounded.
Verse 13 tells us that the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you and no plague will befall to destroy you. John 13:8 Jesus tells His disciples that if I do not wash you then you have no part with me. We are cleansed by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the seal of our salvation. It is through the blood of Christ that we are sealed unto salvation and cleansed.
The third reference to Christ’s work is identifying with Christ rescues us from our sin.
In the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, the high priest must identify with the people in order to sacrifice on their behalf. Here at the first Passover, the people must identify with their sacrifice. The one who will provide the means for their redemption. For Christ he came and identified with the people that He would be sacrificing on the behalf of, and now we must identify with our Savior.
In order for salvation to be evident we must be like Christ. So many times people say, I don’t need church they don’t look any different. They don’t have anything that I want. That is because those particular believers have not identified with Christ. Do you display the humility and gentleness of Christ? Have we truly identified with our sacrifice? I imagine the children had memorized each spot or unique feature their sacrifice by the time it died for them. Do we in our lives recognize the areas of our lives that Christ now rules? How have you changed since the day of your salvation? What is different about you? What personality traits or qualities have changed? What rules and leads your life now?
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