Well, good evening. I invite you to turn with me in your copy of the Old Testament Scripture to the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter number 12 this evening. Exodus chapter number 12. There are events in our lives that are worth remembering. Positively, we remember one's birth with an annual celebration we call a birthday. My birthday is June 8th. We remember a wedding ceremony with a yearly celebration we call an anniversary. My anniversary is June 26. Positively, we mark these special occasions to remember them. Negatively, we also remember, negatively, we remember when terrorists flew airplanes into the Twin Towers in New York City. Everyone remembers that that event happened on 9-11. We remember when the Japanese attacked our naval fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. Each year we mark that day as Pearl Harbor Day, and so negatively we mark events to remember them. President Roosevelt, in fact, declared that the attack on Pearl Harbor was a day which shall live in infamy. And we remember that day, such is the case with what took place in Exodus 12. God brought judgment upon the Egyptians to deliver the Jews. And then he established a memorial. He marked that event with an annual feast for his people to remember. And this evening, from Exodus 12, I've prepared a study titled A Night to Remember in Infamy. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, and then we'll look at the scripture together. God in heaven, it's once again our privilege this evening to open your holy word and to read what you have preserved for us. God, the things that were written before were written for our learning. And we know that all scripture is profitable. And so we would ask this evening that your spirit might teach us, that we might learn. We pray, Lord, that this scripture account would be profitable for us in some way as we remember the fateful nights of the 10th plague in the land of Egypt and all that you accomplished because of it. We commit our study to you now in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. The night to remember was the night of the 10th plague, in which God brought death to every household in the land of Egypt. I asked you to turn to Exodus chapter 12, but let's really go back and begin in Exodus chapter 11, just to catch ourselves up to speed. Exodus 11, verse number one, and the Lord Yahweh said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. Jump to verse number four. Then Moses said, thus says the Lord, Yahweh, about midnight, I will go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. From the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant, who is behind the hand mill, and all the firstborn of the animals. Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again. Folks, there are no words to describe the horror and the devastation of that night. There are no words to describe the consequences of this judgment, never mind the nuisance of the previous plagues. Take a moment and think upon the horror and the devastation of every Egyptian home finding their firstborn dead, both man and beast. This would be a night to remember. And the fact of the matter is, here we are remembering this event as it's been preserved for us in the pages of scripture. A night to remember. Chapter 12 now, verse number one, now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be your beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. So the events that would occur here in this occasion were so significant that God wanted to mark them by reassigning the beginning of their annual calendar going forward. Israel was to mark the month of Abib, or later it came to be known as Nisan, as the first month of their religious calendar. Now, of course, today contemporary Jews celebrate their new year as Rosh Hashanah on the first day of the seventh month, which corresponds to our October or November. But Nisan is the first month of the appointed feasts of the Lord. Leviticus 23 says this, These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month, that's Nisan at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. And this is the event, the occasion that we're reading of here this evening. We know that the first month of Nisan, as it came to be named in the Babylonian captivity times, Nisan literally means their flight. and it was also a time when the barley was to be harvested, and it corresponds to our March, or April. Look at verse number three. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, on the 10th of this month, Nisan, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons. According to each man's need, you shall make your account for the lamb. Now, twilight sounds like a bit of an imprecise time for us. We might understand the term dusk. It's sometime after the sun has set, but before the sky is entirely dark. But Israel understood this designation. Look at verse number seven. and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roast it in fire, its head and its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. and thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, so you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover, for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am Yahweh. Now 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 the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Now there's some symbolic significance to many of these details. For example, in verse number 8, if you're looking there, the unleavened bread was a consequence of not using yeast, not giving the bread time to rise, the yeast or the leaven being a symbol of sin. Also there in verse eight, the bitter herbs symbolize the bitter lives that the children of Israel had in Egypt. In today's Passover observance, sometimes horseradish will be used in place of bitter herbs, and strong horseradish brings tears to the eyes, and it aids in the reflection of the bitterness of the slavery that Israel endured. Verse number 10, if you look there, the leftovers were to be burned, indicating that they would be long gone before another meal would be eaten. Even you see there, they were eating. This is the first fast food, if you will. They were eating quickly, ready to go, to escape, to leave Egypt. And then, of course, the most significant picture is in verse five. the lamb without blemish. And in verse seven, the shed blood of a lamb. And in Egyptian society, the lamb or the ram, a male sheep, represented the pagan god of the Egyptians named Ammon. And this Ammon god was considered the king of gods and was the very source of life. And in the Egyptian zodiac, Nisan, can you believe it, was the chief month of this god. And the 15th day of the month was believed to be the apex of Ammon's powers. The lamb was so sacred in Egyptian cult practices that they would not even touch a ram, let alone bring it into their home, slaughter it, roast it, and eat it as God had commanded the Israelites to do. You remember the reason that Israel was in the land of Goshen is because Egyptians despised shepherds. and the lamb. And so to the Egyptians, the killing of the lamb was really a desecration to their religion. But remember, each of the ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt, I believe, was a direct affront to an Egyptian god. And so to the Jewish people, this sacrifice fulfilled a promise of Almighty God in Exodus 12, verse 12. It's right there, we read it, but we read it quickly. Look at the end of verse number 12. Against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am Yahweh. And so on the celebrated day of Ammon, the true God, Jehovah, overcame the Pharaoh, and desecrated the worship of Ammon and gave the people, both the Egyptians and the Jews, reason to believe in the true God. Of course, now as we live on this side of the cross, we can look back and we can see the typology very clear as applied to Jesus, the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. In verses 15 through 28, there are more details given about the Passover feast and the subsequent seven-day feast called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But I want you to jump to chapter 12, verse 29 now. Verse 29, and it came to pass at midnight that Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. This is verse 29. From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the Folks, a night to remember in infamy. Now, There are a couple ways to approach our study of this account. We could examine every detail of the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it's a fascinating study that is rich in symbolic meaning. Perhaps you've been part of a Passover Seder meal demonstration. and perhaps you've witnessed that and learned of all of the rich symbolic meaning. There's a lot of insight to gain from the details. However, lest we miss the forest for the trees, I've structured our study this evening a bit different, and I'd like us to ask what this meant at a high level for the Egyptians. What did this mean at a high level for Israel? And what does this mean for us at a high level as New Testament Christians? And that's the notes that I've prepared and provided for you. What did the Passover plague mean, first, for the Egyptians? What did the Passover plague mean for the Egyptians? Number one, the Passover plague was a final defeat of Egypt's gods. a final defeat of Egypt's gods. And I would point you again to chapter 12, verse number 12, as I read it just a moment ago. God says, against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am Yahweh. And this was really the case that I made last week in our last study. Each plague was a direct defeat of at least one Egyptian deity. And there were countless Egyptian deities that you could pick from. But after this 10th plague, is there any doubt that Yahweh is God of all gods. That's what this meant to the Egyptians. Number two, the Passover plague forced Egypt to let Israel go. Forced Israel to let Egypt go at long last, for God had told Moses back in chapter three, verse number 20, and I've given you the reference there, chapter three, well, I guess I haven't given you the reference there, but you can add it, perhaps, to what I have given you. In chapter three, verse 20, so I will stretch my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in its midst, and after that, he will let you go. That was God's promise to force Egypt to let Israel go. In chapter 11, verse one, we already read it this evening, and the Lord said to Moses, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether. And that's what God was intending to do all along. That's what Moses had been asking for. And finally, after 10 plagues, This plague, the death of the firstborn, forced Egypt to let Israel go. Number three, the Passover plague was just judgment for Egypt. It was just judgment for Egypt. If we went all the way back to Genesis 15, God told Abram this, and listen to this. This is Genesis 15, verses 13, 14, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them for hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge." Now of course now we know this to be Egypt. Abraham had no idea at the time, back in Genesis 15, verses 13 and 14, what nation that would be. We know it to be Egypt. We know God's judgment to be the 10 plagues. And here's what God tells Abraham. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions, which is also there in chapter 12. We didn't read all the verses there. The gold and the jewelry and such that really financed their their exodus, their wilderness wandering, and their entrance into the promised land. You say, okay, but just judgments would seem to simply be a reversal of roles. What would be just in this case? What might be just in this case is if Egypt enslaved Israel for 400 years, what seems to be just to me is that Israel would enslave Egypt for 400 years. Why kill all the firstborn? Isn't that a little over the top? How is that justice? Well, remember what happened earlier in Exodus. The Pharaoh ordered all of the Hebrew baby boys to be murdered. That makes us feel better now. We could argue that this judgment is just because it's in kind retribution. But let me caution us regarding our human sense of justice. Know that God's judgment is always just because God is God. And if we try to impose our sense of rightness or fairness or justice on the divine, we will err because we are not God. That was the dilemma for Job and his counselors in the book of Job. That's the dilemma, the question in Romans chapter nine. But God is the potter and we are the clay. And what God purposes to do in judging His enemies is just. Whether or not it seems to be fair to us, and so I would submit for the Egyptians this was just judgment for Egypt. Number four, the Passover plague was a demonstration of God's power. It was a demonstration of God's power and I would go back to chapter nine, chapter nine, verse number 16, but indeed, for this purpose I have raised you up. God is speaking here to Moses and to Pharaoh that I may show my power in you and that my name may be declared in all the earth, chapter nine, verse 16. God put on a display of his power like the world has never seen before. And there was even more of that to come. We know, in the parting of the Red Sea, we're eager to get there, the chapters to come. But this final 10th plague, this Passover plague, was a demonstration of God's power. If you're an Egyptian, an ancient Egyptian at this time, and you have witnessed, you've experienced these plagues, and you are now devastated with this final plague, what does this mean to you? It's the final defeat of Egypt's gods. It's forcing Egypt to let Israel go. It was just judgment. It was a demonstration of Yahweh's power. Okay, but never mind the Egyptians. We know they all drown in the Red Sea. What about the Israelites? What about the children of Israel, the Hebrew people? What did the Passover plague and this event mean to them. Number one, it was a final defeat of Egypt's gods. Number one, a final defeat of Egypt's gods. You say, but wait a minute, that was number one just above, right? That's what the Egyptians understood. So why, Pastor Matt, are you repeating the very same point as for the Israelites? And I would say this, because for Israel, they also worshiped the gods of the Egyptians. And they sought to worship those same gods when they left Egypt in the wilderness. Here's what I want you to do. Go with me to a place you seldom ever go in your Bibles, the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 20. Can you go there with me, if you can find it? Ezekiel 20, and follow as I read all the way through. I'll read maybe beginning in verse number six. But Ezekiel lived among the Jewish exiles in Babylon. His prophetic ministry to them was a message calling Israel to repent of their sinfulness and turn back to the Lord. Ezekiel 20, verse number six, look there. Ezekiel 20, verse six, on that day I raised my hand in an oath to them, that's to Israel. to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands. Then I said to them, each of you throw away the abominations which are before his eyes and do not defile yourself with the idols of Egypt. I am Yahweh, your Elohim, the Lord your God. But they rebelled against me and would not obey me. They did not cast away the abominations which were before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said, I will pour out my fury on them and fulfill my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt, but I acted for my name's sake that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them in to the wilderness. And of course, then what happened in the wilderness? Israel fashioned a golden calf at one point, remember that? At the very time that God was giving his law to Moses on Mount Sinai, the law that says you shall have no other gods before me. The same time they were worshiping this golden calf, God gave the law to Moses, the same law that says you shall not make any graven image. And alas, the children of Israel continued to worship the idols, the man-made false deities of the Egyptians. But what did the Passover plague teach Israel? That the gods of the Egyptians were defeated by Yahweh. Number two, what did the Passover plague mean to the Israelites? Number two, or should have meant, The Passover plague fulfilled God's promise. Number two, fulfilled God's promise to deliver Israel. You see, God had repeatedly promised Israel that he would deliver them from Egypt beginning with Abraham in Genesis 15, 13 to 15, I read that just a moment ago. And then again at the burning bush, Exodus 3, 17 to 22, I read that just a moment ago. And then repeatedly at the execution of each of these 10 plagues. But what if those promises to Israel had gone unfulfilled? It's important for us to be able to look back at the word of God and know that God fulfilled his word because he's done so in the past and so we have confidence that he will do so again in the future. That's really the message of Psalm 78. We review and we rehearse and we remember the works of God, the fulfilled promises of God to teach the next generation that they might set their hope in God. In fact, we have the time, go with me to Psalm 78. A familiar psalm, a favorite psalm of mine, Psalm 78. Go with me there. Allow me to read. Let's begin in verse number one. Give ear, O my people, to my law, incline your ears to the words of my mouth. Psalm 78, this is a This is Asaph, the psalmist Asaph speaking. Verse two, I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children telling to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Jump to verse number 12. Marvelous things he did in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zohan. What is Zohan? Zohan was the capital city of Goshen where the Hebrews lived in Egypt. And so what Asaph is recounting for every generation to recount again and remember again and rehearse again and review again is that the plagues that God brought in judgment upon Egypt were the fulfillment of God's promise to deliver Israel from Egypt. And Israel needed to know that and we need to know that. What credibility do the promises of God have for us today if they went unfulfilled to God's people over the course of human history. Number three, the Passover plague for Israel, I'm gonna suggest number three was an evidence of God's grace, an evidence of God's grace. of God's grace. And I'm back in the book of Exodus here now. And I'd like to maybe read verses 17 and 18. I could read these. I could also read from Deuteronomy 7. Let me just, let me say this. Why did God deliver Israel in such dramatic fashion? Why 10 plagues, why not one plague? Why the necessary parting of the Red Sea, which is yet to come, but we're aware of that. Why did God do this in this way? Was there something special about Israel? Was there something that Israel did for God? We know the answer, Deuteronomy 7, which is a scripture reference that I've given you there, the Lord did not set his love on Israel, nor choose Israel, because they were more in number than any other people. They were the least of the peoples. Deuteronomy 7 says, but because the Lord loves you, and because he would keep his oath which he swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of bondage from the hand of the pharaoh of the king of Egypt. Why did God deliver Israel? Because of his grace. It was unmerited. It was his determined purpose to love them and deliver them and to redeem them. It was a demonstration of, an evidence of God's grace. And then number four, for Israel, it was a demonstration of God's power. A demonstration of God's power, if you were to read through these chapters, and it's a number of chapters, it's an extended narrative, and we know it well, even from childhood, you'd find a recurring phrase that is used in conjunction with the Passover, and it's the phrase, a mighty hand. You might jot that in your margin there. A demonstration of God's power, it's with a mighty hand, a mighty hand. And the plagues God brought upon Egypt inform us about the power of God. Folks, I'm mindful that sometimes we live in fear that our problems are too big for God, that he can't handle them, that he can't meet our need, he can't deliver us from bondage. that, I mean, I know God created all that is with his spoken word, and I know that God worked miracles throughout human history, but I'm a special case, you see. My situation is so difficult, it's so complex, it's so hard, there's nothing that can be done. Well, as we look back and remember this night, we remind ourselves of God's power, his omnipotence, over even life. I think those are some lessons that Israel should take away from this event. And so we have the Egyptians. They lived through these chapters. They lived through these plagues. We have Israel. They witnessed these plagues. But then there's us. Here we are, all these millennia later. What does the Passover plague mean to New Testament Christians? They're on the back of your notes. And I try to be original and creative and restating some of these same points, but number one, how about this, for us? The Passover plague, all of the plagues, but the Passover specifically, proves, it proves, that God is above every god. Folks, it doesn't matter if you're an ancient Egyptian or if you're a modern American or if you're a Hebrew, a Jew, you must recognize that there's only one true living God. God is above every God. And we need to know that because idolatry isn't just an ancient problem, it's not just a Hebrew problem, it is a human problem. And so as we read through the pages of the Old Testament and we come to some of our favorite Bible stories, as it were, sometimes we moralize these Bible stories in some way, but know that they are teaching us about God. This is the revelation of God himself to us, and here's what he's saying, New Testament Christian, I am Yahweh. I am God of gods, Lord of lords, king of kings, and there is no deity that I am not above. The Passover plague proves that Yahweh is above every God. Number two, it points us, and you know where we're going with this. I know I'm speaking to the choir here this evening. The Passover plague points us to Jesus as the Passover lamb. To Jesus as the Passover lamb. How so? Of course, we can't go to the pages of the Old Testament and take every image in the Old Testament as a picture of Christ. I think some err in trying to do that, but when the New Testament identifies the Old Testament type and declares Jesus to be the anti-type, makes that connection, we know that it's a picture of Christ. And so I've given you a string of references there. John 1 verse 29, it was John the Baptist who first identified and introduced Jesus as the Messiah, declaring him to be the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. First Peter 1 verse 19, the Apostle Peter called Jesus a lamb without blemish or without spots. clearly a reference to this occasion. Paul called him the Passover lamb. John in his revelation described Jesus as a lamb who had been slain. And then when Jesus met with his disciples on the month of Nisan, there that date of the 14th, and he explained his pending death, Jesus explained that he would shed his blood, purchase their redemption, and then Jesus reassigned the yearly Passover feast as a memorial for his own death on the cross. And he reassigned the meaning of that. And so for us, as New Testament Christians, this Passover event points us to Jesus Christ. Of course, the shed blood of the lamb, and the blood being applied to the door there in Egypt. All right, let me stretch this a bit further. And it's not a stretch, for I'll make the case from the scripture, but number three, the Passover plague, and what we just read in Exodus chapter 12, I submit teaches us to live pure and holy lives. To live pure and holy lives. How so? Go with me now in your New Testament to 1 Corinthians chapter number five. 1 Corinthians chapter number five. In this context, Paul's been confronting the immorality that existed in the church of Corinth. It not only existed, it was tolerated, and they needed to purge out the sinfulness that was among them in the church in Corinth and live pure and holy lives. 1 Corinthians 5, look at verse six, your glurrying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Verse seven, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened for indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." And Paul here is leveraging with a reference to the to the Passover, since Christ has already been sacrificed as our Passover lamb, the Corinthians should look for any sign of leaven, a symbol of sin, beginning back in the book of Exodus, all through the pages of the scripture, and sweep out that leaven, sweep out that sin as Israel was commanded to do in Exodus. And so for us as New Testament Christians, as we look back to these Old Testament Bible stories that have been reproduced in dramatic fashion on the cinema and such, we know that we ought to live pure and holy lives. That's what Paul's saying in 1 Corinthians 6. And then, number four. I suggest it proves that God is above every God. Number two, it points us to Jesus as the Passover lamb. Three, it teaches us to live pure and holy lives. Number four, the Passover memorial teaches us the value of remembering what God has done. It teaches us the value of remembering what God has done. As Gentiles, we don't observe the Passover feast. We don't observe the feast of unleavened bread, those memorials that were birthed out of this very event. It's a memorial now to Jesus' redemption of us as we observe the Lord's table or the Lord's supper. We don't have a table of bitter herbs. We don't have a table of salt water and some of these other pieces that are described there in chapter 12 and 13. We set our table with juice or wine and the bread representing the blood and the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And why do we do that? We do that in remembrance. Because the night in which Jesus was betrayed, and then he was falsely accused, sentenced to death, and he went to the cross as the Lamb of God, that's a date to remember. A night to remember, I'm calling it, in infamy. But here's what I want us to do here as we conclude. I want you to scratch the words in infamy. I've titled this A Night to Remember in Infamy, of course, borrowing from FDR and the Pearl Harbor Day. But infamy has a negative connotation, right? It describes something as being known for how terrible it is. A date to remember in infamy. What took place in Exodus 12 is actually a night to remember, why don't you change my title, with gratitude, a night to remember with gratitude. Because God delivered his chosen people, Israel. And as we now, as New Testament Christians, observe the Lord's table, the Lord's supper, that communion observance, and the new meaning assigned to it, we remember with gratitude, thank you, Lord, for the shed blood of the lamb. Because it's only because of the shed blood of that lamb that you have passed over our sin. Let's pray. God in heaven, thank you for these precious accounts that you have preserved for us so that we might know you so that we might learn about your worth and your works your ways Lord your will. And God, as New Testament Christians on this side of the cross, we remember that night, those nights with gratitude because of the precious lamb of God who purchased our redemption. Well, thank you for this in Jesus' name, amen.