Let's come before the Lord in prayer as we look to his word. Father, thank you that we have the Word of God. Thank you that it centers on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is able to save completely. We ask, Lord God, that as we look at your Word, we would see Christ more fully in all of Scripture, so that we might learn to love him and trust him and follow him all our days. So, Father, strengthen us as we look at this theme today from Exodus. We pray that you would teach us more about Jesus. For his name's sake. Amen. Jewish leaders once challenged the Lord Jesus, claiming that they were the true interpreters of Moses. Jesus replied, Moses wrote about me at the end of John 5. He underlined the same point in the Great Commission as recorded by Luke, where repeatedly he underlines that beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Or in verse 44 of Luke 24, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. All of scripture focusing on the Lord Jesus. As he put it in Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus came to fulfill, to complete, to fill up the purpose of the law. Some elements of this are challenging perhaps for us to understand and apply, but it really does flavor the whole of the New Testament that the only way to read the Old Testament correctly is to see Christ. By this we don't mean all kinds of license to speculate on types and shadows where there is not any clear New Testament direction, But it does mean that it is proper to read the Old Testament both looking to Christ and looking for Christ. Recently in our studies, we've been looking at the first 20 chapters of Exodus as the Lord sends Moses as a redeemer for his people and leads them out through the Passover to the promised land. At least, Exodus 20 takes them as far as Mount Sinai. And so it's important to think of these chapters particularly as they lead us to Christ. And so in this message, we want to recap some of the things that we've already talked about on this particular theme, and that is how it leads us to find Christ. The first thing I wanted to underline is Christ as the Lamb of God. That was brought to the fore in terms of the Passover, and so we come to know something of Him. There are two big themes that I want to explore under this heading, The Lamb of God, that we have seen. The theme of revelation, that of knowing God, and of redemption, of setting His people free. Exodus is very much about revelation, about knowing God. We are to confess His name. Moses is introduced to God in Exodus 3 at the burning bush as the I am that I am. a vitally important description of God. And then, interestingly enough, in John's gospel, in chapter 8, we read these terms. John 8, first of all, verse 24, I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins, for if ye believe not that I am Ye shall die in your sins." And then verse 58, Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. If you've read the Gospel of John, you know that Jesus using the words, I am, is fairly common. There are the great I am sayings. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the true vine. But in John 8, we have a couple of examples where he simply says, I am. Given that John began this gospel saying that the Word was with God and the Word was God, and that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, we see that John is very much in tune with this theme of revelation that we find in Exodus. He will refer to Moses and the serpent that was lifted up in the wilderness in John 3. In John 5, that I alluded to already, he speaks of Moses writing about Christ. And now in John 8, believe that I am. We are called to believe on his name. God's glory that is so prominent in the book of Exodus is now refilled in Christ, and it is definitive. Unless we believe that Jesus is the I Am, we will die in our sins. This ties in with John 5 and verse 23. where Jesus had said, all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that hath sent him. So this matter of revelation is about confessing his name, that he is the I AM. But we came across another expression in Exodus chapter 4. One of the ways that God phrases his relationship to Israel is found in this text, verses 22 and 23. God is still commissioning Moses here to go back to Pharaoh. And this is what he is to say, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. Israel, the firstborn son of God. Even though this is not particularly a common expression in the Old Testament, it is used here in Exodus 4, and Hosea, the prophet, picks it up in Hosea 11. The final plague in Exodus is on the firstborn, and that's what's being anticipated here. God's firstborn needs to be delivered, or Egypt's firstborn will suffer. Hosea is very much concerned, many, many centuries later, near the end of the Northern Kingdom, about Israel's unfaithfulness to God. God is casting them off. They will be called, not my people, and not having mercy as the judgment falls. But, Hosea tells us, God is gracious, and through the astonishing mercy and love of God, they will once again be my people and be those receiving mercy. They are sent away, but they will be called back. And he uses this language in Hosea 11, out of Egypt have I called my son. So he borrows from that picture in Exodus 4 and applies it to God's redemption of the nation. But of course, we know that Hosea's prophecy, as with all prophecies of the Scripture, ultimately lead us to Jesus Christ. And so Matthew quotes that text in Hosea and applies it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that after he was born, he and his parents fled into Egypt, but then God sent them back to Nazareth. And Matthew explains, this fulfilled the scripture that says, out of Egypt have I called my son. It reminds us that Jesus is the true son, where all other sons failed and fell short. In the Lord Jesus Christ, it is declared that we who believe are the children of God, joint heirs with Christ. We are sons of God. in the Lord Jesus, the true firstborn son. And then a third aspect of this revelation, not only is it confessing his name and being called out of Egypt, but he is presented to us as the prophet. This is something that came up in Acts chapter 3, a second sermon recorded in the book of Acts after the day of Pentecost. And in this context, Peter is speaking, and he refers to a text from Deuteronomy 18. He says, And he explains this prophet, of course, as being the Lord Jesus. Ye are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. And so in the Lord Jesus Christ, the prophet has come. In Hebrews chapter 3, we are told about Moses who was a servant in the house, but Christ is the son over the house. In many ways, the Lord Jesus Christ was like Moses. The end of Deuteronomy tells us that Moses was unique. There was no other prophet like him, at least. Not yet. But Jesus is unique in similar ways, the prophetic and law-giving ministry, fulfilling the promise, and so on. But Hebrews 3 tells us he is greater than Moses because he is, ultimately, the Son. Like Moses, only better. And so the Lamb of God is the revelation of God. When John can say, we saw his glory, he can be referring to the fulfillment of these pictures from the book of Exodus. But of course, in addition to the revelation of God, that we might know that he is God, Exodus 1 through 20 is very much about the redemption of God's people. Moses was sent as the Redeemer, the Savior of the people. And these terms are, of course, applied to the Lord Jesus. Ultimately, Exodus teaches us it was, of course, God who was their Redeemer. And so in Galatians chapter 3, Paul writes about the curse of the law. And he says of Jesus in verse 13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The Son of Man was sent, according to Mark 10.45, to ransom His people, to give His life a ransom for many. In Galatians 4, we are told that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son to redeem those under the law. All of this language about the law, about the curse of the law, about the Son redeeming from the law, these are all terms rooted in the Old Testament, in Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers. And now they are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. What they were all pointing to is the ultimate redemption accomplished and applied through the Lord Jesus. He is sent as our Redeemer. Just as Moses was sent to lead the people out of Egypt, Jesus is sent to lead us from the bondage and curse of the law. But how does he redeem? Well, Exodus illustrates this also. This redemption comes by means of a sacrifice, the Lamb. Christ is not only the Redeemer, He's the Lamb by which that redemption is accomplished. Explicitly in 1 Corinthians 5, He is called Christ our Passover. But there are many other references simply calling Him the Lamb. John 129, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In 1 Peter 1, there's an expression of this as well. In verse 18, he says, For as much as ye know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold received from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. All of those instructions that Exodus 11 and 12 and 13 give concerning the Passover are found in the Lord Jesus Christ to be fulfilled. That spotless lamb that they had to use, that lamb that was brought and the blood shed and the blood applied, that's what was happening at Calvary. These things provide us a framework for understanding Christ, our Passover. Again, Old Testament prophets help with the transition from Exodus to the New Testament. Isaiah 53, for example, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ being led as a lamb to the slaughter, and that he sees the travail of his soul and is satisfied. He justifies many. All those things that are such precious, precious gifts for the Christian come because Jesus is our Redeemer, and Jesus is the Lamb. There's another way that Exodus shows us the power of God to deliver and save his people, and that is these pictures of how to sustain them. Even though God comes and with mighty power redeems his people from the land of Egypt, they are brought out into the wilderness. Almost immediately, they begin complaining. Things are not working out as they expected. They don't seem to have enough food to eat. They're being led to places where there's no good drinking water, especially when you consider a multitude like those that God had delivered. And so repeatedly, the Lord steps in, usually in response to their complaints. For example, they complain about the lack of water, and Moses is told to strike the rock. We learn in 1 Corinthians 10 that that rock was Christ. Do you remember when Jesus meets with the woman at the well in John chapter 4? He asks her for a drink of water, that she would draw it out of the well so that he could be satisfied. Immediately, however, she's puzzled by this and wonders why he's talking to her. This was not common between Jews and Samaritans, or for that matter, between men and women. Jesus answered and said, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest has asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. And then later, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. God provided them with water in the wilderness that was able to sustain them at least for a time. But Jesus is promising living water, even better water, that if we drink it, we never thirst again. Something similar is drawn from a lesson about the manna, the bread that God sent down from heaven in Exodus 16. John chapter 6 makes use of that. We are urged to eat and live. Jesus calls himself the true bread that came down from heaven. In other words, true. Not, in this case, the opposite of false, so much as meaning the full reality as opposed to the picture. When a new residence is being built, maybe a condominium or apartment building, there might be an artist's rendering that shows what the building will look like on its block, that shows a sample unit and so on. But once the building is built, you don't need the artist's rendering. You can look at the reality. And that's what Jesus is saying here. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. The manna at the end of the day that you think was such a great provision, and of course for its time it was, was only a picture of an even greater provision. They're praising Moses for providing manna for life, but they're wrong on two counts, Jesus says. It wasn't Moses who gave them the bread from heaven, it was God. And as a matter of fact, those who ate the manna did not have life in the sense Jesus means, because they died ultimately in the wilderness. The true bread comes down from heaven, and the one who eats it shall live, shall never hunger, shall never die. You see how the New Testament picks up these pictures that we draw from Exodus and teaches us about Jesus. There's another picture as well, although it's a little more indirect, and that is the picture of John 10 of the Lord Jesus as the Good Shepherd. In Psalm 77, the psalm concludes that God shepherded his people by Moses and Aaron. The Lord was the one leading them out of Egypt and leading them through the wilderness, but he used Moses and Aaron as shepherds to guide his flock. Now, Ezekiel 34 talks about a good shepherd, one who cares for the sheep as opposed to destroying them. And of course, the well-known Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. John 10 picks up on all of these themes. Jesus declares, I am the good shepherd of the sheep. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. The good shepherd calls his sheep and they hear his voice and they follow him. Just as God led his people, so Jesus leads his people. He is able to save his sheep completely. He declares he will lose none of them. He holds them in his hand and no one can pluck them out. Through the Passover lamb, God delivered his people and brought them to Mount Sinai, where the covenant was confirmed. Now they were a nation, his people. The Lord would be their God, and they were designed to live for him, to be like him, and ultimately, to be with him. This, of course, is what we learn in the New Testament as well, about the life of faith. When we trust the Lamb of God, we are redeemed, but we are redeemed in order to be God's people, to belong to Him, and to live for Him. Exodus helps us with these pictures, too, of the life of faith that follows redemption through Christ. The first thing we learn about this faith is that it will be a tested faith. Perhaps you recall the opening couple of chapters of Exodus that describes the hard times that prevailed about the time that Moses was born. And even though Moses was born under God's special provision and care, there were some early attempts to snuff out his life, the life of God's Redeemer, that was sent in response to the cries of God's people. And so Exodus reminds us right at the beginning that the world opposes the people of God. And of course, it helps us understand that that opposition is most seen when the people of God become strong and pose a threat. It's also seen in the life of the Lord Jesus. Read Exodus 1 and 2, and then read the birth narratives in Matthew 1 and 2, and Luke 1 and 2. You find that same attempt on Jesus' life by another somewhat deranged ruler who imagines himself a God. Exodus can help us understand that the path of redemption is unfailing, but it's not obvious to us and it's not easy to follow. This is why we are called to trust God. Faith is put to the test. Exodus 5 and 6 is an interesting picture of that when you read them together. In Exodus 5, the people are crying out to God and crying against Moses, declaring that God doesn't know, doesn't care, or isn't near. Again in Exodus 17, they reiterate the same question, is God among us or not? But then, when we read Exodus 6, God is not fazed by this. He calmly reiterates his covenant. Everything is on track. We need not be afraid. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they were led to doubt God because of the hardships that they endured. The Lord Jesus is driven out into the wilderness after his baptism. Again, both Matthew and Luke record this in the fourth chapter of their respective Gospels. And he makes use of Deuteronomy 6 and 8, but that in turn reflects Exodus. They are brought to the test, and they question God, doubt Him, and murmur against Him. Jesus is brought into the wilderness and put to the test, but He passes. He triumphs. He is the Son of God who knows that you don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. He knows that you don't worship any idol or any other god. You worship the Lord and Him only. And of course, what Jesus is teaching us is that his followers will also be tested. If the world hated me, he tells his disciples, you know that they will hate you also. But we learn from Jesus. We learn that he endured the cross, and therefore we run with patience the race that is set before us. Exodus teaches us that that faith will be tested, but it points us to Jesus Christ, who passes the test. In Him, we are safe. Exodus also teaches us, in connection with the life of faith, about the tools that God gives so that we might run that race. Israel often presents a negative example. We learn from them many things that we should not do. But it still underlines for us the value of two primary things. First of all, the Word of God. Repeatedly through those first 20 chapters of Exodus, we read, thus saith the Lord. God is keeping his covenant. He's keeping his promise. He sends Moses and Aaron as his spokesmen who represent the word of God to Pharaoh and the people. The Lord is always giving Moses and Aaron words to say. Trusting that word gives comfort and safety. Perhaps you recall during one of the plagues that the people of Egypt heard it. And when they heard God promising hail, they hurried out to bring their cattle to safety. They believed the word of God and received its benefits. We are being urged through this to listen to what the Lord says. Make that our guide, our strength, our comfort. And then the second tool of faith that is revealed in Exodus is that of prayer. Even though they often do it with a bad heart, the people are right to cry out to God. Perhaps one of the clearest examples of this is when the Amalekites attack in Exodus 17, and Aaron and Hur hold up Moses' hands, and it's the rod of God in Moses' hand that comes to their aid, this evidence of the power of God, the authority of God. And as long as these hands are held up, as long as they are depending on God and His power, they win the battle. Even Moses is personally unable to save. Here, of course, is what we see again, that Christ is greater, not a mere servant, but the very Son, as Hebrews underlines. And so we are saved, not in our own strength, not even in our ability to pray, But in looking unto Jesus, we cry out to God in our times of struggle, and the Lord hears, the Lord strengthens. And then the final lesson about the life of faith that I wanted you to notice in these opening chapters of Exodus is the triumph of faith. Exodus 15 is very much a climactic text in those chapters because it describes the ultimate deliverance. And Moses gathers the people together and they burst out into songs of praise because of what God has done. As rocky as the path may be, God delivers His people according to His promise. Not just the immediate promise, but the long-standing word given to Abraham. For this brief moment, the people recognize it. Although the complaining returns far too soon, for this moment they praise God for His mighty act of deliverance. This indeed is to be our pattern. The letter to the Colossians calls us to give thanks to the Father through the Son, abounding in praise to the God who has abounded to us in grace. We learn from Exodus 1-20 that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. We learn that everything we need is provided through Jesus, the living water, the true bread, the good shepherd. And we learn that our life of faith is going to be that of following Jesus. And that will include following through the struggles and the trials. But we live by the word of God. We pray without ceasing. We run the race with patience. And ultimately, we rejoice and sing praise to the God who redeemed us. O Lord, we thank you for every blessing from your hand. May he enable us to learn of Christ and put our trust in Him. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.