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"5:7 CHRIST OUR PASSOVER"
I. THE PASSOVER.
EXO 12:1 And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
EXO 12:2 This month [shall be] unto you the beginning of months: it [shall be] the first month of the year to you.
EXO 12:3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth [day] of this month every man shall take a lamb, according to the house of your fathers, a lamb for each house:
EXO 12:4 And if the household is too little for the lamb, then join with his neighbor next door and take [it] according to the number of the people that will be eating. This shall determine the number the number of lambs.
EXO 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take [it] out from the sheep, or from the goats:
EXO 12:6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month: and everyone in Israel shall kill their lamb in the evening.
EXO 12:7 Then they are to take the blood, and put it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, where they shall be eating it.
EXO 12:8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire, with unleavened bread; they shall also eat bitter herbs.
EXO 12:9 They shall not eat it raw, or boiled in water, but roast it on the fire; the whole lamb.
EXO 12:10 You are to eat it all so that nothing remains in the morning; if anything remains you shall burn it in the fire.
EXO 12:11 Thus shall you eat it; [with] your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it [is] the LORD'S passover.
EXO 12:12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will kill all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt: I [am] the LORD.
EXO 12:13 The blood shall be a sign for you upon the houses where you [are]: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy [you], when I smite the land of Egypt.
EXO 12:14 This day shall be memorial day; and you shall keep the feast to the LORD throughout your generations; you shall keep the the feast by an ordinance for ever.
EXO 12:15 For seven days shall you shall eat unleavened bread; on the first day you shall get rid of all the leaven in your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, shall be cut off from Israel.
EXO 12:16 And on the first day [there shall be] a holy gathering and on the seventh day there shall be a holy gathering; no manner of work shall be done in them, except that which every man must do to eat.
EXO 12:17 And you shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread; for in this very day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore you shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
B. This deliverance from Egypt was one of the most important events in the history of Israel.
1. When God would identify Himself to the people it would be the God who brought you out of Egypt.
2. God wanted them to be in continual remembrance of this event.
3. Thus it was to be celebrated annually in what was to be known as the feast of the Passover and Unleavened Bread.
4. At these feasts they would be reminded of how by the sacrifice of the lamb without spot and blemish, and the blood being placed on the sides and top of the door, the firstborn of the house was spared from death.
5. The lamb became, as it were, a substitute for the firstborn son and died in his place.
6. The blood on the door of the house spoke of their faith in the promise that the Lord that when He saw the sacrificial blood of the lamb would pass over that house, and the firstborn would be spared death.
7. The Unleavened bread however spoke of the haste with which they fled Egypt, they did not have time for the bread to rise, thus it was to be made without leaven.
a. Leaven later became a type for sin, which spreads until the whole loaf is leavened.
b. Incidently the process by which it spreads and causes the the bread to rise, is the releasing of gasses as the starter dough rots.
c. The spreading by rotting became a excellent type for sin.
8. A little leaven leavens the whole loaf. All it takes is a small bit of starter, and the whole pan of dough will soon be leavened. Hence, a little leaven leavens the whole loaf.
C. Paul is here rebuking the Corinthians because they were allowing into the fellowship a couple who were engaged in an incestuous relationship. A boy was having an affair with his own mother.
D. The softness toward evil, and the tolerance of evil has become a great curse to the church. All it takes is toleration of a little sin in the church, and soon the whole church is affected by it.
1. We have a modern proverb that expresses the same truth.
2. All it takes is one rotten apple to spoil the whole barrel.
II. CHRIST OUR PASSOVER.
A. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said to his disciples, "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world."
B. Only through the sacrifice of Jesus can our sins be purged from our lives.
C. Jesus Christ was our substitute Lamb. He shed His blood for us, that we might be spared the death that the righteous justice of the law demanded.
1. The book of Hebrews tells us that it was impossible for the blood of bulls or goats to take away our sins.
2. Peter said that we have been redeemed not with corruptible things such as silver or gold from our vain manner of living, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ who was slain as a lamb without spot or blemish.
3. Thus Christ is our passover lamb.
D. In Egypt when God passed through the land in every household that was not covered with the blood of the lamb on the door, the firstborn in that household was slain. We read in Exodus,
EXO 12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that [was] in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.
EXO 12:30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for [there was] not a house where [there was] not one dead.
E. Not a single family was spared from the grief for their dead who did not have the blood on the door.
1. Even as God had made only one provision to spare the first born from death, so He has made only one provision today by which we can be spared death for our sins and that is Christ our passover.
2. As in Egypt, the position of wealth of a family could not spare them. Even the Pharaoh's house was affected.
3. There was only one provision to spare them from death, the blood of the sacrificial lamb.
III. THEREFORE LET US KEEP THE FEAST.
A. When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he told them that these memorial feasts with their Sabbath days were all a shadow of things to come the substance is in Christ.
1. These feasts were twofold, they looked back and they looked ahead to their fulfillment in the Messiah.
2. It was no accident that Jesus was crucified on the day of the feast of the Passover. It was designed by God.
B. Therefore we keep the feast with the bread and the cup. Not remembering the lamb in Egypt, but the Lamb of God Jesus Christ who died to save us from the death we deserved for our sins.
1. Even as the Jews were to celebrate the feast of the passover and unleavened bread each year, so we Christians celebrate as we partake of the Lord's supper. Usually once a month. Jesus did not tell us how often, He just said as often as we do it, we show His death until He comes.
C. As we celebrate the Lord's supper we are not to do it with the leaven of malice or wickedness.
1. Paul warned the Corinthians in chapter 11 that when they kept this ordinance of the Lord's supper that they were to examine themselves and then eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he that ate of the bread or drank of the cup unworthily ate and drank damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's body.
2. That is we are to purge out the leaven of sin.
a. This is done through the confession of sin.
b. John tells us that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
3. He can do that because He is our Passover lamb, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from all sin.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
