The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Our gracious Savior, how we thank you that you are our shepherd. How we thank you that you nourish us, you guide us, you protect us, you refresh us. We pray that we might understand with greater love and devotion the wonders of your love for us, of your loving kindness and your goodness. As we open your word, as we sit at this table, draw our hearts to you and the hope and certain promise of dwelling in your house forever. Hear us. Tend and meet us in these means of grace. For the praise of Christ we pray. Amen. In the afternoon times together, I'm attempting to do something of a series related to the Lord's Supper. Last year, I counted up, we did 25 meditations on Philippians 4, 4 to 9. And since then, we've looked at what it means to remember, do this in remembrance of me. We looked at some perspectives on meals eaten with God, drawn from lessons in the Old Testament, considering the old covenant cultists, all of that sacrifice and that sacrificial system surrounding the temple services. We saw Jesus, our Messiah, is our manna in John chapter six. And we came to the end of the year and along with the challenge of prioritizing and planning and practicing, we were also encouraged to have personal communion with Christ. We saw something earlier of the central place that the Passover has in our understanding of the new covenant Lord's Supper. When Jesus instituted the Lord's table, he did so in the context of eating a Passover meal. So we would do well to remind ourselves and to refresh our appreciation for that particular Old Covenant ordinance so that as we eat of the Lord's Supper, we remember that we're eating a New Covenant meal that is to be set in the context of the Last Supper, that meal that Jesus had with his apostles on the eve of his crucifixion. And they were observing the Passover, which is set in the larger context of God's saving redemptive dealings with his old covenant people. So we're going to look this afternoon at the Passover and deliverance from death as we turn in our Bibles to Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12. And the heading at this point in the message is the blood of the Passover and the wrath of God, the blood of the Passover and the wrath of God. Read along with me from Exodus 12, starting at verse one. Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be the beginning of months for you. It is to be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying, on the 10th of this month, they are each one to take a lamb for themselves according to their father's household, a lamb for each household. Now, if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them. According to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. and you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner, with your loins girded, 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 go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against 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 live. 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. Now this day will be a memorial to you and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall have a holy assembly and another holy assembly on the seventh day. No work at all shall be done on them except what must be eaten by every person. That alone may be prepared by you. "'You shall also observe the feast of unleavened bread, "'for on this very day I brought your host "'out of the land of Egypt. "'Therefore you shall observe this day "'throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. "'In the first month on the 14th day of the month at evening, "'you shall eat unleavened bread "'until the 21st day of the month at evening. "'Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. You shall not eat anything leavened. In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread. Now the word exodus means the going out. It is the beginning of a journey, the journey that God is taking his people to lead them to the promised land. And this is in keeping with the promises that God gave to Abraham. When we read in Genesis 15, God said to Abraham, verse 13, know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not yours, where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. but I will also judge the nation whom they will serve and afterward they will come out with many possessions." So the people descended from Abraham were given a promise that was given to Abraham that the Lord himself would be their deliverer and bring them out the Exodus. Now the name that the Lord reveals of himself in this occasion is the name Yahweh. We see it in the letters Y-H-W-H in your English Bibles. That's the word behind the capitalized L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That's the Lord. In Exodus 3.15, when the Lord comes to Moses and draws his attention with the burning bush, you remember the bush that was on fire but was not consumed. And he introduces himself with this name, I am, the Lord, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And this is the God that we saw in our previous meditation in that message, the genesis of eating with God. And when we saw that eating In the presence of God, the provisions of God was something that characterized the worship of God even before Moses. We're looking at the revelation of the creator God. And this is the God who sent Moses to get Abraham's descendants out of slavery. So we rightly associate Passover in relation to deliverance from bondage, rescue from Pharaoh's cruel abuse. More accurately, the Passover is a celebration of deliverance from God's judgment of death, enacted by the angel of death, which is the action of God himself when he says, I will pass over you. God gives the Passover of a means of salvation from God's wrath that is being visited upon the Egyptians and the gods of the Egyptians. And the blood of the lamb averts the wrath of God. And it's in this context of God's judgment that the sons of Abraham are saved and they're redeemed and they're delivered and they're emancipated to become the people of Yahweh, the people of the Lord. And they are the heirs of the land promised to Abraham, a land associated with Sabbath blessings for they are coming to live with God in the land of God's provision. I could point you to Exodus 9, verse 20, and verse 21, where we read on the occasion of the plague of hail, that there were some servants of Pharaoh who, quote, feared the word of the Lord, and they sheltered their livestock from the hail, and they lived. And that there were others, we were told, who had no regard for the word of the Lord. So they left their cattle in the field and they were killed by the plague of hail. I think it's possible that even believing Egyptians escaped the angel of death. I say that because in Exodus 12, verse 47 to verse 49, where we continue reading this chapter, provision is made for non-Israelites, strangers, aliens, to attend upon the Passover celebration, which is to bring them into the experience of Israel's Exodus deliverance. And in fact, in chapter 12 and verse 38, we read of a mixed multitude who went out from Egypt, a mixed multitude who left with the sons of Israel. And that seems to indicate that there are those with the sons of Israel who are not native Israelites. Now that's not to say that everyone who left with the exodus were believers. In fact, we know that there are only two out of that entire generation that actually make the journey all the way into the promised land and those two being Caleb and Joshua. So we are right to think of the exodus from slavery when we think of the Passover But we need to be focused more accurately, if you will, to realize that it's the 10th plague that is being brought into view here. It's the angel of death, the Lord himself in the angel of death, visiting judgment upon Egypt and the gods of Egypt. And those who, believed and received the word of the Lord, even like those servants of Pharaoh, when the hail came, those who received the word of the Lord, they demonstrated their reception of that word by their deeds. You will know them by their deeds, not by their ethnicity so much as by their deeds. And they would take the blood and put it on the doorpost as they were told. So we consider the blood of Passover specifically in relation to the wrath of God. Secondly, this afternoon, the Passover meal invites participation in divine deliverance. The Passover meal invites participation in the divine deliverance. The Passover, is instituted as an annual meal to be eaten on the first day of a week festival called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This year, that week's feast will end on April the 20th. It coincides with Easter this year, the first day on the 8th, April the 8th is our Easter. I'm sorry, April the 20th is Easter this year. And that coincides with the arrival of Easter in this calendar year. And we celebrate Easter, as it's known, in conjunction with the observance of Passover. As we know, Jesus institutes his supper in conjunction with the Passover. So this has a historical point of reference, it has a calendar point of reference. Now those who observed the Passover as an Old Covenant people did so as a participant in this redemptive event. Remember we looked at the significance of the Bible's definition of remembering, do this in remembrance of me. So someone who eats at this meal is participating, not just in an event of eating, but in a historical act of redemption, which now is their defining point of reference for themselves and for their relationship to the Lord. They are identifying with this dominant act of salvation for the old covenant people, given to the seed of Abraham in fulfillment to that initial gospel promise in Genesis 3.15, where the Lord promised that there would be a seed who had crushed the head of the serpent. So this particular people were very privileged. They were given revelation. They were given revelation by the activity of God, and they were given revelation through Moses, the great prophet, of the words of God. In Romans 3, we read of their privileges in verse 2, speaking of the Jews according to the flesh, what then, if some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? They were given great privileges, even though there was extensive unbelief. In verse two, great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. They were given the word of God. They were given privileges of revelation of the true and living God. that other nations and other peoples did not receive other nations and other peoples devoted to other gods. But here is the people of the Lord, the people of Yahweh. Later in Romans chapter nine, the privileges once again are mentioned in chapter nine, verses three and verse five. For I could wish that I myself were a curse, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption of son, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is overall God-blessed forever. Interesting reference to the deity of Christ, yet from the fleshly line of Abraham. We see privileges of revealed truth. Do not guarantee faith in the God who is the savior himself. Their privileges in Romans chapter three had to do with circumcision. But Paul has just previously said in chapter two of Romans, verse 28 to 29, that the true Jew is the one whose circumcision is of heart, who is a regenerate, believing, true member of the Israel of God. So it was possible for someone to sit at the Passover meal and have no heart for God. It's also possible It certainly isn't prescribed, but it's possible, like Simeon, to be thought of as a Christian, be brought into the church and come to the Lord's Supper, and yet in reality have no faith in Christ. So regardless of a man's belief or unbelief, the table is what it is. The exodus is what it is. The Passover is what it is. It's not dependent upon the one eating. It's dependent upon the one who's giving the supper. And he defines the terms. This is my body, which is for you. This is the blood of the new covenant. This is the definition. The issue in being given privileges of revealed truth is to receive that revelation appropriately by faith. And of course, that's what we learned the eating and drinking of the table indicates when we consider that the Messiah is our manna. that it's eating and drinking that is emblematic of our faith. So the Passover was a ritual meal reenacting deliverance from the 10th plague. It's the 10th plague that is in view in the Passover. The lamb, a male lamb, unblemished, a year old, the blood smeared on the doorpost signaling to the angel that there is obedience of faith in this house, obedience to the word of God. The flesh of the lamb would be roasted intact without breaking any bones, totally consumed, eaten along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, eaten hastily with sandals on, staff in hand, because we're booking it, we're out of here, we're leaving. And that is as was promised to Abraham in Genesis 15. This departure from Egypt, it was an eschatological event for those people. It was something that was promised. It was something that they were to hope for. And the time has come and the exodus has arrived. During the old covenant era, Passover was a family event. The significance of the meal was to be explained to the family by the head of the family, by the father, who then enforced this identity of this tribal nation to the coming generation. We are the people of the Lord. Our identity is rooted in the deliverance God has given to our fathers from bondage in Egypt. And every Israelite was obligated to eat the Passover. And if he did not or was not able to eat at the time of its appointment, he was obligated to do so a month later. And we read of that in Numbers 9, verse 9 to 13. If he didn't, he would be cut off. That means he would come under covenant curses. Some of those curses end up with death. The death penalty, was prescribed for violations of the first commandment, second commandment, third commandment, fourth commandment. Violate the person of Yahweh and you deserve the death penalty. Death penalty was also prescribed for violations of the fifth commandment, sixth commandment, seventh commandment, not the eighth, ninth commandment, not the tenth. Violate the person of the Lord, violate the person of your neighbor, but not property and not covetousness. In this system, it's the violation of person. The fulfillment of the law is love, love to God and love to neighbor. In the new covenant, we do not have the prerogative of executing a death sentence. And we do not agree with those manifestations of Christianity in the history of the church that so united the power of the state with the power of the church so as to have the state execute punishments upon religious violations. But there is a very serious discipline that is given to the church in the new covenant, and that is the discipline of excommunication. And in excommunication, the church is essentially recognizing, not executing, but recognizing a state of spiritual death. And here is one whose spiritual death is undeniable. And so this whole matter of being cut off from the people of God still pertains to us. Now since AD 70 and the destruction of the temple, the old covenant people, the Israel according to the flesh has not had a sacrificial lamb for their Passover observed in the spring or for Yom Kippur observed in the fall. So the Jews according to the flesh who observed Passover have no sacrifice, but believe that atonement for sin is obtained through their repentance and prayer and the doing of good deeds. The Exodus was a foundational event by which the old covenant Israel defined itself. Therefore, it had to be remembered because it invites participation in divine deliverance. If you are a member of the community delivered by the Lord in the Exodus, Passover is obligated upon you. The Exodus now becomes the pivotal event by which old covenant religion is understood. The Mosaic Covenant is a covenant that is overreaching all other arrangements and dealings with God. The Davidic Covenant is under the Mosaic Covenant. When the prophets speak to the nation of Israel. They're calling them back to fidelity to the Mosaic Covenant. And the Mosaic Covenant is all predicated upon the Exodus and the Passover in particular is a recognition of the deliverance from the wrath of God and the sentence of death. And the name of the Lord, Yahweh, is particularly associated with this redemptive event. In prior redemptive history, he made his name known as El Shaddai, Lord Almighty, but here he is known as the I Am, the living, the true God who is present with his people. And of course, that all informs our understanding of the Lord's Supper, because this supper is a remembrance of the living Jesus, who is present in the gathering of his people, who walks in the midst of his lampstand, and who provides for his people with his own body and blood as the Passover lamb. He instituted this ordinance in the context of the Passover, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. So what the exodus was to the old covenant Israelite, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension is to us in the new covenant. As the Passover was important, for the Old Covenant member. So the Lord's Supper is important for New Covenant worship and churchmanship. As an individual Israelite by eating of the Passover assumes a personal identity defined by the redemptive event of the Exodus and the Passover, so too the individual Christian by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit assumes an identity which is summarized in the familiar words in Christ. union with Christ in the full spectrum of his person and at his work. So as we come to the Lord's Supper, we set the context of the supper in the historical dealings of God with his people throughout redemptive history, and in particular, that event of the Exodus narrowing into the 10th plague, where we see that the wrath of God is averted by the blood of the lamb. That's what the table reminds us of. That's the continuity of it. And it's not based upon whether we're sincere enough. And it's not based upon whether we feel or not feel. That's the definition of the table. And it's given to us as an object of faith. And that faith is demonstrated through a very basic human activity. Put it in your mouth, chew it, and swallow it, and live. Amen.