I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 12. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 28 of this chapter together tonight. Before reading of God's Word, let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Our great God, faithful and true One who is unchanging in all of Your ways, we give You thanks for this wondrous, the positive truth. As we consider this passage from Exodus 12 this night and how it is a text that really presses the people of God to be forward-looking To the Great One who will deliver from sin and captivity, may you be pleased to take this truth and write it upon our own hearts, enabling us as your children to look with great anticipation and hope and zeal for the return of our Savior at the end of this age. May your Holy Spirit give us eyes to see and ears to hear that which is eternal in nature and to look even at a familiar passage such as this with renewed eyes that long for the glory of Christ to be more and more evident in our own lives as we pursue him with a longing for holiness of life. In the name of Christ, our risen Lord, we pray. Amen. Let's stand together for the reading of God's word. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron 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. To all the congregation of Israel, that on the 10th day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household. And 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. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats and 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. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning, you shall burn. In this manner, you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign 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. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. As a statute forever, 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, for if anyone eats what is leaven from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days, but what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month, from the 14th day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening. For seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwelling places, you shall eat unleavened bread. Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and touch the lintel in the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. 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 two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? You shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses. And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. And the people of Israel went and did so, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. So they did." The word of our God. You may be seated. It's been a number of weeks since we've looked together at the book of Exodus. You might recall that we left the children of Israel still in the land of Egypt, in the land of slavery, in captivity. The Lord so far has poured out nine plagues upon the Egyptians. The Israelites have been free from the effects of those plagues, but the enemies of God have received blow after blow from the living God. You've heard me say that this is a battle of cosmic proportions, and the pantheon of Egyptian gods are defeated over and again. They are shown to be powerless. They are shown to be foolish. They are shown to have no substance, to not exist at all. And so, of course, it would be foolish to worship and give them adoration. And it's clear from verse 12 of our chapter tonight that this act, not only the tenth plague, but every one of them, is a judgment from the hand of the Lord upon the false gods of Egypt. But in spite of the power of God being displayed within the land of Egypt, the Pharaoh remains hard. His heart remains unrepentant. He is dead in his sin. He has no fear of God, but becomes only further entrenched in his anger, rebellion, and wickedness against the Lord. And so as the narrative unfolds in these chapters of Exodus, these nine plagues come in the text with rapid succession, one after the other. But as the tenth and climactic plague approaches, the narrative slows down as we saw last time in chapter 11. And the author, Moses, under divine inspiration as we get now to chapter 12, gives instruction to the Israelites about the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. And there is detailed guidance on how these two events are to be celebrated, not only here in Egypt as they prepare to leave, but how the Passover and this Feast of Unleavened Bread are to be celebrated for the generations to come. And so as we move along in the narrative, let's consider what we learn not just about these celebrations, what we learn not just about these calendar events, but what theological truths are behind these events. captured for us in the text. And so first this evening, this is our first point, a new beginning, a new beginning. And we see this in verses 1 and in particular verse 2. Notice there again, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. You see, as the Lord prepares to bring his chosen people out of slavery, they are being birthed, as it were, as a new nation, a new people group. And so this Exodus event marks the establishment of a new covenant community. Now it's not a new covenant, it was a covenant that was made with Abraham, ratified over and again. But the promises of God are now for the entire nation of Israel as they mark this new stage as a nation, a people devoted to the Lord. This is such a monumental event in redemptive history that the way in which time itself is marked shifts upon God's deliverance. An entirely new calendar is established. This is now the beginning. This is the first month of the year. And this shift in calendar dating really points ahead to the climactic work of the Lord Jesus. Of course, the way in which time is kept even in our present age hinges upon the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And while there are many efforts in our own time to use a different dating system or to relabel our present dating system, it will never change the fact that human history pivots upon the person and work of Jesus. And it's not just calendar time as it were, but it is the very existence, our own time as God's people that hinges upon the work of the Lord Jesus. Think of John chapter three in which Jesus is talking with Nicodemus and he likens regeneration to a new birth. He tells Nicodemus that he must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. As believers in the Lord Jesus, you see our entire identity revolves around our redemption, our new birth in Christ. We are a new people, a new nation, a people who are to be devoted to our King, Jesus. And by marking time around this event, we learn a great deal about the centrality of redemption for the Christian life. Think of what the Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2 verse 9. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And so even in your own life, you might work at reminding yourself that as we gather on this first day of the week to worship the triune God because of the resurrection of our Savior on that first day, that his resurrection life is our resurrection life. All that we are, all that we do should revolve around the reality of our redemption, the newness of life that is ours in Christ Jesus. And so this Passover event, which is really just a celebration of God's work of redemption, is so significant that God reorients time itself, just as the work of Christ in your life is so significant that it should change everything. And then we see next in the text this evening, the selection of the lamb. And that's the second thing that we see tonight, the selection of the substitute. As we move along in the narrative, we'll see more clearly that, of course, the purpose of selecting this young male lamb or goat is for the purpose of substitutionary sacrifice. But for now, notice a few things in verses three through five about the selection of this animal that will become the substitute. First, notice that there is a gap between selection and sacrifice. Notice in verse three that the lamb is to be taken on the 10th day of the month, but then we read later in verse six that it is not to be sacrificed until day 14. And so we might ask, well, why is there this gap between day 10, in which the lamb is selected, and day 14, when it is then slaughtered as the Passover lamb? Why bring this young lamb into your household, just long enough for your children to get attached to it, before you slit its throat, put its blood upon the doorframes of your houses, roast it, and then eat it? Now, there are different thoughts on this and perhaps elements of truth in each one of them. It could be that there is this span of time so that the father as the head of the household can ensure that there is no defect in the lamb before sacrificing it. And of course, four days would give him plenty of time to ensure that there is no blemish within the lamb. It could be that the lamb is already inspected, has no defect, and is brought into the household and watched carefully over the next several days to ensure that it remains that way. I read somewhere that the lamb is brought into the home, he is loved, and he is cared for so that when it is sacrificed, there is pain and sorrow for what my sin has done. And whatever the reason, we might think of how this gap is typological in nature. In other words, how this gap is a picture of what Christ fulfills in His earthly ministry. As He is appointed the Lamb of God and then proven to be the Holy and Righteous One, sacrificed as the All-Sufficient One for our sins. As the women here in the church begin working their way through the book of Hebrews on Tuesday, they will talk extensively about the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus and his spotless and all sufficient sacrifice upon the cross. Jesus, you see, was appointed and then he was tested and tried and proven to be the holy and righteous one. Not just during those 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, but throughout his earthly ministry. Tested, tried, shown to be the spotless lamb of God and has redeemed us by becoming a curse for us. And the second thing to note about the selection of this animal, there in verse 4, is that every household is to participate. Now, this is made explicit later in the text, but the lamb is to be consumed in its entirety. Just as you plan ahead on how much food to prepare for company coming over, each household, prior to the celebration of Passover, is to determine whether they are large enough to consume the lamb in its entirety or if they need to combine with another household. And there might be various reasons for this instruction. This is, of course, a sacred meal in which the elements are set apart for this special use. And so it would be sort of a flippant response to take leftover lamb in your lunch the next day. And we'll see later that the entire lamb is to be either eaten or burned in the fire. Old Testament scholar John Currid comments, full consumption of the sacrifice points to its completeness and efficacy. Full scale redemption. And so this notion of consumption is fulfilled in Christ Jesus as well. Think of what Jesus says in John chapter six. Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. to feast upon Christ is to receive Him by faith and all of the benefits of His sacrifice for you. And so as the Lamb of God, He is the all-sufficient Savior. And the third thing to notice about the selection of this animal is that it is to be a lamb without blemish. And we can think of the role that this lamb plays as a substitute. The lamb points to both the need for removal of sin which theologians called expiation and also the need for purification or cleansing of sin. And so to select a substitute without blemish is to point the need for a righteous and all sufficient sacrifice before the holy God. We read in Hebrews 9 verse 14 that it is the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God and purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And so no other substitute will do except one which is without blemish. And so after this lamb is selected, we see thirdly in the narrative, preparation of the Passover lamb. We see this in verses 6 through 13. Preparation of the Passover lamb. And so the lamb is to be killed, as we read in verse 6, at twilight, or a more literal translation would be between the two evenings, which may be an idiom, a way to just refer to dusk before the very darkness of night. And although we can't be certain of the exact hour, clearly this is a sacrifice that is to happen not previously in the morning or the day before, but this very evening. And it is to be sacrificed before the Lord executes judgment upon the land by sending the destroyer. And then we read that the blood of the lamb is to be captured in a basin. We see there in verse 22 that a bunch of hyssop is to be dipped in the blood of the lamb in that basin. And it is to be smeared upon both the support beams and the lintel or the cross beam that goes above the doorway. And so it is a covering of blood upon the entire entryway that leads into the house. And then the lamb is to be roasted in preparation for consuming. It's not to be boiled. It's not to be eaten raw, which might seem like an obvious thing because who's going to want to eat a raw lamb? But this is to set their worship apart from the pagan rituals of the surrounding nations in which sacrifices would be boiled or even consumed raw. And so by roasting the lamb, they're differentiating their worship from the worship of those false nations around them. And while it is roasted, all the remaining blood would be removed. And then notice that none of it shall remain until morning. Again, this gets back to the importance of planning ahead to make sure that there are enough members present to eat the whole lamb, that the sacrificial meal is to be either ingested by the worshiper or consumed in the fire on the night of Passover. This is a sacred meal to be consumed in sacred time, in sacred space, under the covering of blood of a substitute. Now later, when you go through the book of Leviticus, you will see instructions on a number of different sacrifices, some of which the entire animal is to be consumed upon the altar and burned unto the Lord. But for the lamb to be eaten at Passover indicates several things. It indicates at the very least the Lord's goodness to provide the needed energy that the people of Israel would need upon their departure from the land of Egypt. His kindness to provide for the journey ahead. It also points to the possibility of fellowship with the Lord because of the shed blood of a substitute. And then notice also that there are even instructions on how the people of Israel are to dress. You might think ahead about your attire before you go out to eat or before you go to someone's house. You look at what your wife is wearing and you try not to look like a slob. But the attire here, notice, is very unique. Fasten your belt, put sandals on your feet, and a staff in your hand, all things of which you would do the opposite of if you were going to stay and have a fellowship meal with someone. Now, we'll get back to some of this instruction later, but notice that all of these indicators point to the fact that something else is in view beyond the meal itself. As a covenant sign, we are to look beyond the sign to that which is being signified. And then along with the lamb, they are to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs. There's more on this later on the reason for unleavened bread, but for now, notice that it is a meal that is to be eaten in haste. Because again, the focus is to be upon God's deliverance. As a sacramental meal, it does not point to itself, but to something much greater beyond itself. Now, celebrating meals together are wonderful things. There's oftentimes conversation and fellowship that goes late into the night. But the elements consumed, the attire worn, are to keep the focus forward looking on what God is going to do to bring redemption for his people. One commentator that I read put it helpfully like this, the use of such foods, including the herbs, which by the way we have no idea of knowing what type of herbs are used here, but the use of such foods does not stress the quality or delight of the food to be enjoyed, but instead causes the participants to focus upon the purpose of the meal, directing attention to the actions of God and the unpleasant conditions of escaping from Egypt. You see, it is the Lord's Passover. It is a meal that belongs to Him because it is a deliverance that He is accomplishing. And all of this is pointing to judgment and to deliverance. Judgment for some, Deliverance for others. Deliverance, of course, for God's chosen people. Judgment for those who have rejected the Word of God. One event with differing outcomes. The false gods and death upon the Egyptians. The firstborn, regardless of age, even death upon the firstborn of livestock, if there are any that remain alive from all the previous plagues. But life, preservation, freedom from death upon the households who take shelter under the blood of a sacrifice, the blood of atonement, the blood of a substitute. Judgment or deliverance, rejoicing or weeping, all surrounding the same event, just as we look ahead for that day of final deliverance, A day of rejoicing for those of us who are in Christ, but a day of weeping for those who have rejected his grace. You see, every household deserves to die. Israel has been exempt from all of the previous plagues while they were living in the land of Goshen. But notice that they are not immune to the devastation of this plague. God will not pass them over from deserved judgment unless they obey his word by applying the shed blood of another. They are guilty along with all of the rest of the Egyptians. They are guilty along with the rest of humanity. They have rejected the word of God, and they have questioned his prophet Moses. They have engaged in the idolatrous worship of the land of Egypt, and they are guilty sinners in Adam, deserving of death, just as every other Egyptian. And we are deserving of death. And yet God has provided a lamb. In his mercy, there is a way to be saved. by grace, through faith in the death of another. But here's the condition. They must believe in the word of God. They must trust by faith that this substitute is sufficient. They must seek shelter under the shed blood, under the refuge of another. You see, the firstborn represents the entire family. And if the firstborn dies, that is indication that the entire family should die. And so the animal is in place of the firstborn. And therefore, he is in place of the entire household. And the death of this animal is nothing less than substitutionary in nature. Now, this is so important for us to see here. that the household is redeemed by the blood of the lamb. Listen to what we read in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22. Under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Michael Barrett points out the Passover illustrates the necessary linking of death and blood for salvation. Death without blood shedding was no atonement and neither was blood shedding if there were no death. Death was necessary to satisfy justice. The blood shed in that death was necessary to appease God's wrath. And so you see, if the blood of shed, the shed blood of bulls and goats is not sufficient to remove the wrath of God, nothing less than the shed blood of Christ, nothing less than the death of Christ could save us from our sins. And so on that first Passover night, there was death everywhere. Death of the firstborn or death of a substitute. And the blood upon the lintel, blood upon that beam, provides covering from judgment, just as the blood upon the cross removes the wrath of God upon the recipient who falls by faith under the cross of Christ, sheltered under his work. Again, bear it. The blood of Christ is the difference between heaven and hell. And then notice as we get to verse 14, that there is instruction for another festival, a memorial day. And this is our fourth point from the text, the Feast of Unleavened Bread that we read about in verses 14 through 20. And notice the timeline here. Again, this is the first month of the year, a new month for God's people. On the 10th day of that month, they are to set aside a lamb to be sacrificed. And then on the 14th day of that month, they are to celebrate Passover. And on that same day, the 14th, they are to begin a week-long celebration of unleavened bread, which lasts until the 21st day. Now, as a memorial, it is, of course, a day of remembrance. And when we think about remembering in biblical categories, we are talking about living in light of some particular event, some particular truth. Back in Exodus chapter 2, you'll recall that it was the Lord who remembered His covenant promises, and that remembrance moved Him to act to this climactic event in redeeming His people from slavery. And in response, the people of Israel are to remember. They're to remember the Lord's power, to remember his faithfulness, and to remember his love to save them from slavery. And so each year, as a memorial, they remember, reflecting back upon the Lord's great acts. And they are to respond in thanksgiving and worship by bringing into the present that which happened in the past. creating continuity throughout the generations. And so this event defines their very existence and again shapes everything about their lives. Now this Feast of Unleavened Bread is to last seven days. There again we have reference to the creation days, giving further indication that this is a new creation of God's people. And as that week-long feast begins, on the first day of this week, they are to remove any leaven that might be within the house. To fail to do so is a violation and an offense so significant that they are to be cut off from the covenant community. Now the way that we understand the severity of such judgment is to think here broadly about the general categories of our salvation. You see, as God's people, we are justified that we would be sanctified. We are saved that we would then live for him. And so Passover is all about salvation. A perfect substitute is needed whose blood is shed. A substitute whose life is sacrificed and forfeited in my place. And so looking with eyes of faith to the Lord's substitute is what makes one justified. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us what God calls us to do once we have been saved, namely to live a sanctified life. You see, the properties of yeast are a picture of the infecting and corrupting nature of sin. The way in which yeast grows and spreads and ferments through the entire batch of dough is a picture of what sin does, even in the life of the believer. It is always at work, always seeking to corrupt and spread and fill every part of our lives. but instead, as God's people, our call is to holiness of life. And so the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to help Israel see that they must leave behind the idolatry of the land of Egypt, just as we are to leave behind the corruption of our own flesh. Philip Rikin states that God wanted to do something more than get His people out of Egypt. He wanted to get Egypt out of His people. And this is what the Feast of Unleavened Bread teaches us. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. As you're turning there, another text from the Apostle Paul along these same lines is from 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9, which reads very simply, he saved us and called us to a holy life. He saved us and called us to holiness of life. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 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. And so we are saved, you see, in order to live for Him. And part of what it means to pursue holiness of life means that we sweep through the heart, that we ask the Holy Spirit to help us scour our conscience and remove such things before they grow and spread in our life, even a small Seemingly innocuous sin can work tremendous corruption because just like yeast, it wants to grow and it wants to spread. There have been a lot of wise pastors over the ages who have preached and who have written about the importance of watchfulness and attentiveness to the corrupting power of sin. And maybe there are things in your own life that you have tolerated that you have perhaps relabeled as respectable sins, sowing seeds of discord and division, perhaps holding on to a grudge and failing to forgive from the heart, entertaining a secret lust, a pride and arrogance as though if others just thought and reasoned like you, things would be so much better. may be something that you see in the life of another that you readily condemn, but you tell yourself it's okay to worry and fear and be filled with anxiety. But He died that you may no longer live for yourself, but that you would live for Him who died for you and was raised to life. And then our last point from our text this evening is implementing Passover. implementing the Passover in verses 21 through 28. And so after all of this instruction, you see, is given from the Lord to Moses and to Aaron, Moses calls the elders of Israel and undoubtedly disseminates that word to the people, and they obey God's word, and they put into practice all of the things that the Lord has told them. If you follow God's word, If you walk in obedience by trusting in His means of provision, you will be safe. You will be spared from that day of judgment. But if you disregard His word, there will be death. The consequences are eternal in nature, for we are talking about your very soul. Same events, different results. weeping and heartache for some who are under the wrath of God and disregard his word, rejoicing in worship and deliverance from evil and sin and captivity and slavery for those who have been recipients of his mercy. And this is an event that is to be remembered, practiced from one generation to the next, and taught from parents to child. And when those inquisitive children ask, why do we celebrate this Passover meal and this feast of unleavened bread? Why must I scour my room looking for a little piece of bread? When they ask you, why do we gather in that place every single week, morning and evening, to worship the Lord? And why do we think that that little bit of bread and that little cup is going to satisfy our hunger? We are to tell them it is because we deserve death. We deserved hell, but God in his mercy provided another. A substitute in Jesus who shed his own blood, who laid down his life, and who took it up again that we might be spared. Don't you want to live for him? Doesn't your heart long to respond in joyful obedience to such a loving God and such a tender Savior? There's so much rich theology here in this passage of Scripture, so much that points us to the wonder of Christ and the calling that is before us as his children. I think a wonderful devotional exercise might be to read Exodus chapter 12 and then read through John's gospel. And then go back and read Exodus chapter 12 and read through the book of Hebrews. And you cannot help but be struck with your sin and misery in the comfort of Christ Jesus. Michael Morales has a wonderful book on this Exodus motif as it flows throughout the entirety of scripture. In one chapter of that book, he hones in upon the way in which we see such things, these shadow forms fulfilled in Christ Jesus in the book of John. You'll remember John's gospel begins with those words as Jesus comes onto the scene beginning his public ministry. Behold, the Lamb of God who has come into the world. And it is this lamb who is then sacrificed at Passover in John chapter 19. Jesus was crucified at the same time that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered. His body was not to stay on the cross until the next day, just as the Passover meal was not to remain to the next day. There was the sponge of sour wine that was offered to him on a hyssop branch. This hyssop was used to smear the blood upon the doorframes. The cross on which Jesus shed his blood has become the doorpost of the world and not one of his bones was broken. just as the blood of the Passover lamb, substituted for Israel as God's firstborn son, had stayed the death threat of God's judgment, redeeming Israel from bondage and ransoming them from the grave, so the crucifixion of Jesus, the perfect paschal sacrifice, delivers God's people from death and bondage to sin, fully and finally, And you see, not just Egypt, but Israel was under the just condemnation of death, and they are in need of the blood of another for shelter. Do you recognize the just sentence of death that you are under? Are you prepared to meet the living God? I had an opportunity to speak on the phone with our brother Larry Buckman just a couple of days before he went into ICU. And the wonderful witness that he left for us is that he was ready. He was prepared to meet the living God. And not just prepared, but joyful. And not just joyful, but expectant, even longing to see the face of his beloved Savior. And he worships now, unhindered. unfettered by sin and by the cares of this world. And so live joyfully, people of God. Live with hope. Live boldly under the covering of the shed blood of Christ and live expectantly.