EXODUS 12:1-11 JESUS GAVE PASSOVER NEW MEANING2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Exodus 12:1-11 Jesus Gave Passover New Meaning

This morning as we look at Exodus chapter 12, we're looking at the passage where God instituted one of the primary feasts of the

of the nation of Israel, the Passover feast. And as we work our way through this passage this morning, I'd like to look at the Passover feast, but then also look at how Jesus gives Passover new meaning. So not just what it meant for Israel at that time, but also what we have as a result of these things, what we have in Christ as

as a result of what he has accomplished for us. And there's great symbolism in the Passover feast that God instituted and some important things that he wants to speak to us this morning. Now, as we get started looking at this passage,

here in Exodus chapter 12 and the Passover, we're of course jumping kind of right in the middle of the story where the children of Israel have been in bondage in Egypt for some time, about 400 years. They've been slaves to the Egyptians and then God sent Moses to deliver his people. And so Moses went to Pharaoh, but if you know the account, you know that Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to

to let God's people go. And so God began a process of convincing Pharaoh to let his people go. And he brought 10 plagues against the land of Egypt.

As we're looking here at the Passover feast, we're looking at the final plague where God has said, okay, here's a judgment. Here's an opportunity for you to let my people go. And Pharaoh said, no, all the way through each of the plagues. Now we're at the final plague. And after this plague, Pharaoh is going to say, okay, you can go get out of Egypt.

This final plague God had pronounced was the death of the firstborn. That is the firstborn of every household. The firstborn, even amongst their flocks and herds, would be killed by an angel of the Lord. And so there was going to be death of the firstborn throughout all the land of Egypt.

Now, Israel was also living in the land of Egypt, and so they would be subjected to this as well, unless they followed God's instruction regarding the Passover. And as they followed God's instruction, then, well, they would be passed over. They would not be included in this judgment, but they would be preserved in this judgment if they were obedient to God.

And so that's what the Passover is really about. It's the idea of being exempted or immune or spared from some penalty or calamity where God is protecting the houses of the Israelites because of the blood of the lamb and the blood that they applied to the doorposts as he instructed them.

And so God is going to use this to deliver his people from Egypt. And it's a great work of deliverance. You and I today as Christians, we look back to the cross and we continue to remember the cross. And we'll even do that today at the end of service as we partake of communion together to remember the cross.

That's our great act of redemption that we look back to. For the Israelites, they looked back to Passover. They looked back to the deliverance that God accomplished in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. And so Dave Guzik puts it this way. He says, Passover was the greatest work of redemption performed ever.

on the Old Testament side of the cross. We look at the cross as a great act of redemption where God redeemed us by purchasing us with his blood. There in the Old Testament, it was this account here in Exodus chapter 12 where God brings his people out of Egypt and delivers them from the bondage that they were experiencing.

Now, as God gives them this Passover instructions and this feast that they're to partake of, it was not a one-time event, but it was something that he instructed them to repeat every year. And so it was an annual feast for them.

And on the night that Jesus was betrayed, so thousands of years later now, Jesus is on the scene. He's been ministering. He's at the end of his ministry. He's about to be crucified. The night before, when he is about to be betrayed by Judas Iscariot, Jesus sits down and has a meal with his disciples. And that meal was the Passover meal.

And at that Passover meal, his final dinner with the disciples, he gives this feast, which had great significance to them. He gives it new meaning, which extends to us today. You can read about it in Luke chapter 22. In verse 19, it says, he took the bread, he gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And then verse 20, And so as we partake of communion at the end of the service, we have these two elements that Jesus gave special meaning to.

The bread, he said, this is my body, which is broken for you. And then the cup, he said, this is my blood, which is shed for you. He took the elements of that meal that had great significance for them. And he said, here's new meaning to this feast. Here's new meaning to this thing that you've been practicing your whole life.

There's this new meaning that is about me. Jesus gives the Passover new meaning, and it's revolving around him and his work for us upon the cross. Jesus says, this meal is about me. It's about what I'm about to accomplish for you by dying on the cross for the sins of all humanity. And so he instructs them, continue to keep this feast and

And as you do, he says, do this in remembrance of me. Continue to practice this and remember me and remember what I have done for you. And so as we consider the Passover this morning, we'll look at the Passover and what took place then. But also I want to factor in and consider what does Jesus have for us in light of his fulfillment of these things.

And so there's five points that we'll walk through in this passage here in Exodus chapter 12. Five things to look at to learn what it means for us that Jesus has fulfilled this Passover feast and what we can gain from it. And so the first point we'll find in verses one and two, and that is that we get to restart with Jesus. We get a fresh start with Jesus because of what he has accomplished for us.

for us. Let me read to you once again, verse one and two. It says, 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. Jesus, well, not Jesus, God now begins to speak to Moses and Aaron and he gives them some instruction about their calendar. He says, okay, you have

This calendar, and I want you to rearrange it a bit. I want you to kind of throw out the old, and I'm instituting something new. Now, the Jews at that time had a calendar, and it was a calendar that was based on the cycles of the moon.

It was a lunar calendar. Now, today we go typically by a solar calendar, our normal calendar, January through December. It's based on the sun and the rotation of the earth.

But their calendar was based upon the moon. And so it was similar in that it was, you know, the same amount of days for the year and such. But it was, you know, slightly different as far as when the month began and when the month end based on when the full moon was and so on and so forth. And so their previous calendar was based on the lunar calendar. And God says, that's going to continue in this new calendar. But your new calendar is going to begin instead of this being...

I'm trying to do the math in my head, which isn't very good. Let me put it this way. Their first month of the year would correspond with our September. And so God says, that's your, you know, first month of the year. That's your new year's there in September. No more. Now the month that we're in currently, he tells them, that's your first month of the year. And

And that month corresponds with our March. It's the month of Nisan for the Hebrews. And it begins this year on March 21st. And so that will be the beginning of this first month of the year on the Jewish calendar, according to what God instructed them here in Exodus chapter 12. And so they have this month that's now the first month of the year. It's

Something they had already. It was something that they practiced already, the lunar calendar they had. But God said, I'm going to change it up. There's this old thing and God says, scratch that. And we're going to start over right now. We're going to start things new right now. This month, right now, it's the beginning.

I decree, I declare, this is the beginning. And so it's from here on out. The past is the past. You used to do things that way, but from now on, this is something new. And I think that speaks to us about what we have in Christ in a couple ways. First off, we could consider

The way that God had established for us to approach God before the cross, before Jesus died for us, the way that God had prescribed was the old covenant, the sacrificial system. That was the way that we would have to approach God and come to him and have relationship with God by keeping the law.

And as Christ has come and been crucified, he's made a new covenant. God says, okay, that's the old thing. Scratch that. There's going to be some elements that remain, but we're going to start something new right now. And ever since the cross, access to God has been entirely different based upon what Christ has done for us upon the cross and not based upon our keeping of the law.

But there's another aspect to this restart with Jesus that we have that I think is really important. And that is for us individually, for us personally, you have this old thing, which is you. But in Christ, as a believer in Jesus Christ, as you turn your life to Jesus Christ and receive him as Savior and Lord, God says, okay, you have this old self, this old you, we're going to scratch that.

There's going to be elements that remain, but we're going to start something brand new right now from here on out. That's what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. Paul says, He says, He says,

Well, then you are a new creation. The old things have passed away. The old things, the old life, the way that you used to be, those things are no more. Now you're a new creation. All things have become new. Now, how does that actually work? And what does that look like? Well, I was thinking about it in my mind. Maybe it'll relate to some of you and maybe it won't. But

I was thinking about restarting a video game. Have you ever had those kinds of games where you're working hard on a video game and you get to a point that's really difficult and you can't make it? You die in the video game. And then...

The way the video game is set up, you have to go all the way back to the beginning, start from ground zero, start from the very beginning, and work your way back. Now, I hate those kinds of games. There was one that I played when I was young. It was called Prince of Persia. And it recently was re-released for iPads. And so I got all excited when I saw that. And it was free one day. So I was like, all right, I want that. So I downloaded it. And I began to play it. And I immediately remembered, I hate this game. Because...

You get a couple steps, and it's like you got to time things just right and then jump, and there's these, you know, blades that come down. You got to jump through. You got to dodge these spikes and all these difficult puzzle things, and you get, you know, so far, and then you die, right?

And then you've got to go back to the beginning and go through all those things again. And you get like two steps further, and then you die. And then you go back to the beginning, and you start over again. And you go, and you get like two steps further, and then you die. And about three or four times of that, and I'm like, I'm tired of this already. I hate this. My favorite type of game is when you die, then you get a restart right there where you were. And just pick up where you left off. And you know, that's cheating, and it's easier. But that's much more enjoyable than having to start all the way over from the beginning.

Well, that's kind of what it's like for us as believers. Listen, as a believer, you mess up. You fall short. And so you get to the end of the week. You come to church on Sunday. You look back at the week and you go, I died. I messed up. I fell on the spikes. I got chopped up by the blades. And here I am. I just barely made it to church on Sunday morning. But you get to restart with Jesus.

And that doesn't mean you have to go back to brand new believer. You don't know anything. You get to build on what you've learned this past week. You get to build on what you've learned this past month or these past years and what the Lord has been teaching you. And so you get to try it again this week. You get to go forward from this week with a fresh start, clean slate, full health, you know, full number of lives, all the ammo, all the support you need, everything that you need. You get a fresh start and

to do it again this week. And you get to go forward and move forward. And you're still gonna die. But then you get to start over. You get this fresh start. And the old things have passed away. The past is the past. And I would encourage you this morning to consider a restart with Jesus. You know, sometimes...

We hold on to things in the past and we let those things keep us from experiencing all that God has for us and moving forward with the Lord. Another way that I would think about this is a reboot, like rebooting your computer. Now, I was a tech guy for many years. And so I would get the calls that would come in to troubleshoot people's systems and problems that they were having. And so they would call in and I would say,

Thanks for calling Paychex. This is Jerry. How can I help you? They say, well, I'm having this problem. Okay, reboot your computer. And then the next call. This is Jerry. How can I help you? I'm having this problem. Okay, reboot your computer. And that's what I did all day. Reboot your computer, reboot your computer, reboot your computer. Why? Well, because I would say 80% of the time, rebooting the computer fixes the problem.

That's not all problems. It's not everything. But many times, a simple reboot fixes it. Even to this day, when my wife comes to me and says, my phone's doing this, and I say, reboot your phone. Turn it off. Turn it back on.

Usually, that fixes it because there's things that just kind of get cluttered. The memory gets messed up. There's things in the cache. There's settings. There's drivers that crash. And all these things are just kind of hindering it. And when you reboot, it just kind of wipes the memory. It wipes all that away. And it gives it this fresh start. In a similar way, sometimes we kind of get all cluttered. We get things that crash. We get things that are messed up. And we hold on to those things.

And we don't go forward in our relationship with God. We let those things trip us up. We let those things hold us back. And what we have in Christ, God says, okay, that was the old. I'm going to start a new calendar.

So stop worrying about the past. Stop worrying about the old system. Stop worrying about your old schedule and the way that things used to be and the way that you used to mess up or the way that you used to do good. Stop worrying about all those things. And let's just start here. This is day one. Let's call this day one of the rest of your life. And just look forward now at what I have for you. And just start from here and go forward. Start from here and grow and learn and develop.

I like what Jeremiah shares in Lamentations chapter 3. As he was reflecting on the mistakes that Israel and Judah had made, he said, you know, through the Lord's mercies, we are not consumed.

We've made mistakes. We've messed up. We've experienced judgment, but God's merciful. And he says, because his compassions fail not. And then he says, Lamentations chapter 3, verse 23, he says, they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The reason why we have not been consumed, even though we mess up, even though we make great mistakes, is because God's mercies and his faithfulness.

And he says his mercies are new every morning. You get a new batch of mercy every day where God withholds judgment, where God withholds what we deserve. And he's faithful to do that every day. You get to restart with Jesus. You get a clean slate. No matter what you did yesterday, no matter what you did this last week, you get a clean slate. You have the opportunity to

to experience great things with God going forward. He says, let's forget about all that. Let's call this day one, month one, day one. Let's start from here. And you get a fresh start from here on out. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And so that's first here. As we look at Exodus chapter 12, we get a restart with Jesus and

because of what Christ has done for us. Fresh mercies, new grace, he's faithful to deliver it to us every day. Well, secondly, as we go on in verses three through six, we get to remember Jesus as a result of his fulfillment of the Passover.

In verse 3, it says, And so as God is giving this instruction, he says, okay, so here's what you need to do. Right now, this is month number one. On the 10th day of this month, it would be the 10th of Nisan this year, that is March 30th.

He says, everyone is to select a lamb. That is, everyone as, well, it's talking about the man. Each man responsible for his home is to select a lamb. And so he tells them, take a lamb for your household. And then in verse 4, he goes on to say, and if your house is too small, you only have a couple of people in your home, well, then team up with some neighbors around you,

according to the need so that you may count for the lamb. And then verse five, he says, your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And so God gives the specific instruction here about this lamb that they are to select. It needs to be without blemish, pristine condition.

No broken bones, no messed up eyes or some type of deformities. It needs to be the best of the best as far as your lambs are concerned. It also needs to be a year old.

Now, a year old puts it into the realm of somewhat mature, not full maturity yet, still young, but also would be old enough to be considered mature, kind of the prime of its youth. And he says you're to take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now, we typically always think of it in the realm, in the idea of it's a sheep, it's a, you know, a lamb is a sheep, but it could be a one-year-old goat as well to participate or to use in the Passover. Right?

Verse 6, he says, So he says, on the 10th day of the month, select a lamb. And then he says, you're to keep it, that is, take care of it, maintain it, keep it with you, until the 14th day of the month. So for these four days, you're to...

Pay special attention to this lamb and take care of it. Become familiar with it. Spend some time with the lamb. You select it and you keep it. And God is making this a very personal thing. He's making it clear as they select this lamb and then hold on to it for a couple days that

God's making it clear, this is your substitute. This lamb is going to take your place. And if you would kind of rewind and kind of put yourself back in those times, you know, you as a parent, perhaps you bring in this lamb, you explain to the kids, okay, kids, we're going to hold on to this lamb. This lamb is going to be with us for a few days, and then we're going to sacrifice it

to protect us because God has instructed us to do these things. And so it was this very clear picture of this lamb is taking our place. This lamb is for our protection. And notice the progression. You see in verse three, he says to take for himself a lamb, just any lamb, pick a lamb,

in good condition. And then in verse four, he says, if the household is too small for the lamb. And then in verse five, he says, your lamb. And so there's this progression of any lamb to the lamb to your lamb. It's a very personal thing now. This is your lamb. This is your substitute. This is the one that is going to provide rescue and deliverance for you.

And so God made it a personal thing. And he says at the end of verse six, the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. This lamb is going to be put to death, be sacrificed on your behalf, in your place to preserve your household.

Now, this instruction that God is giving to the children of Israel here, this was not a one-time event or something they were just to practice this occasion just to get out of Egypt. He goes on later in the chapter in verse 14. He says,

He says, you're to do this every year on this day. Remember this day. And so now God's making it an annual feast that they are to have. The feast of Passover combined with the feast of unleavened bread. And so this was to be an ongoing thing for them to remember. It was meant to be a memorial. And that's why I made the point here in verses three through six for us to remember Jesus.

Because as they would do this every year, they would remember the deliverance that God had accomplished for them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt and the deliverance that God had accomplished for each household in preserving them from the death of the firstborn. And as they continued to practice this feast every year, when Jesus was there on that final night with his disciples before he was about to be betrayed,

He was engaging in this memorial. They were reflecting back on that deliverance. And then Jesus gave new meaning to this feast and these elements that they were consuming. I mentioned already from Luke chapter 22, but Paul also recounts this in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And he tells us there in verse 24 that when he had given thanks...

So before it was remember what God did in bringing the people out of Egypt, but now he says here's new meaning, do this in remembrance of me. Remember me. Remember what I have done. It's now a memorial for what Jesus was about to accomplish at the cross. In

In verse 25, it says, And so we have this Passover continuing to Jesus's day. And Jesus gives new meaning to it. The lamb that was to be sacrificed, well, Jesus is that perfect lamb.

He is the one who is without sin. He is the one who is offered as a substitute in our place. And so Jesus is that perfect lamb. And then he says, well, these elements that go along with it, you have the bread, the

He says, this is my body, which is broken for you. Keep on doing this and remember me. Remember my body being broken for you. And the cup, he said, this is a new covenant in my blood. This is a new access to God, a new way to approach God and receive forgiveness that I'm accomplishing for you by shedding my blood. And so do this often and remember what I've done for you.

He establishes this now as a memorial for us to remember Jesus. We need to remember Jesus. How could we forget Jesus, right? And yet, at the same time, we know how it is. As life goes on and we get busy and we get caught up in things, it's easy for us to forget really what it means that Christ died upon the cross for us. We forget to recognize. We forget to be grateful. We forget.

And so he established this as a reminder and we continue this today. That's why at the end of service, we'll partake of communion together to remember Jesus, to help us stay focused on what he has done for us. It was a personal thing for them back in Moses' day and it's a personal thing for us today as well. You can acknowledge that Jesus is a lamb, he is a savior, but that's not sufficient for

for you to experience his salvation. You can even acknowledge that Jesus is the Savior. He is the Lamb of God. You can acknowledge that and still miss out, but we need to make it more personal and recognize Jesus is my Lamb. He is the one who died upon the cross for my sins. He's my substitute who received my penalty for us to accept him as our Savior, as our Lord.

and make it personal. He is my savior. He is my Lord. He says, this is my body, which is broken for you. It's a personal thing. He wants you to remember that he is your savior. He's not just a good man.

He's not just a great teacher. He's not just a savior. He's not just the savior. He needs to be your savior. Where you come to the point where you accept, just as the family selected the lamb and accepted it and took care of it and then sacrificed it, that you come to the point where you say, I select Jesus. I choose. I decide Jesus.

to follow Jesus, to receive his forgiveness, to receive his offer of eternal life, and to walk with him. And as we partake of communion at the end of service, remember that. If you've done that, remember that. Remember what that means. Remember what he has done for you. And if you've never done that, it's an opportunity to

for you to do that, to make that choice and to partake and say, I receive Jesus as my savior, as my substitute. He took my place upon the cross. Well, as we go on into verse seven, we have point number three, and that is to remain in Jesus. Remain in Jesus. Check out verse seven. It says, and they shall take some of the blood and

So now God says, okay, when you kill this lamb at twilight, you need to collect some of the blood in this basin. And then what you're going to do is you're going to take some of this blood and you're going to put it on the doorposts of your home and on the lintel as well. He gives a little bit more detail later on in the chapter in verse 22. Here's what it says.

He says, So as God gives him this instruction about applying the blood to the door, he says, here's what I want you to do. Take a bunch of hyssop. And so this isn't hyssop. It's a branch from our olive tree out there. But hyssop.

Hopefully it gets the point across, right? Collect the blood in the basin. So I've got some blood here and I'll just kind of, I'm just kidding, there's no blood. But he says, okay, so dip it in there. And then he's not talking about painting it on. He says, strike the lintel. Now the lintel was the piece across the top of the doorway. And so to strike the lintel, they dip it in the blood and then they strike it.

And then he says, strike the doorpost. So you dip it in the blood and you strike the doorpost. You dip it in the blood, you strike the other doorpost. And what that would cause as a result of them dipping it in the blood is it would cause a kind of a spray pattern of the blood

in the shape of a cross because it would go this way as they hit the top and then this way as they hit the side and this way as they hit the other side. Now, this is assuming that the door is closed when they do this. Otherwise, then there's a shape of a cross on whoever's standing in the doorway when they're hitting the lintel this way. Have you ever done that? I've done that before. You have your door open, but your screen door is closed. You're washing down your house or whatever, spraying it down, and then, you know, water is going all over the living room.

Keep the door closed is the moral. But so it'd be pointing, you know, painting out this shape of the cross. And so it's applying blood to the door, which has, you know, the significance of the blood of Jesus Christ. But here, you know, a little bit even more clear as it points us to the cross of Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for us.

And so he says, apply the blood in this way. But then notice the end of verse 22. He says, and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. None of you. So once you kill the lamb and apply this blood to the door, go inside and stay there. Don't go outside after that. Because while he goes on in verse 23, he says, the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians and

And so here we get this picture. God says, okay, the destroyer is going to come and all of Egypt is going to lose their firstborn.

From Pharaoh's house to the rest of Egypt, even the animals, the firstborn is going to die. This destroyer is coming upon the whole land, and Israel is in this land. But he says, if you apply this blood to the door the way that I'm telling you, then stay inside. And when I see the blood on the door, the picture here is God standing at the door as a guard. And he says...

When I see that, wherever I see that blood, I'm going to stand at the door as a guard, and I'm going to protect you from the destroyer. As long as you stay inside, you're safe, because I'm standing at the door protecting the house from the destroyer. If you go outside, then you're outside of that protection. But if you stay inside, God says, I will protect you. And I think this has great significance for us as believers.

As we look to Jesus as our Passover lamb, as the one who is our substitute, and we apply his blood to us, his new covenant that he accomplished for us, we have access to God, we have forgiveness, we have the promise of eternity. But here the exhortation is for us to then stay there, remain in Jesus. Stay there as you believe in Jesus and trust in him and remember him, then stay there. Don't move from that.

Jesus taught something very similar along these lines in John chapter 15, verse 5 and 6. He says, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. And so he says, I'm the vine. You're the branches. He says, abide in me. That means live in me. Stay connected to me like a branch stays connected to the vine. Stay there.

He tells the Israelites, apply the blood to your abode and then abide there. Stay there all night. And he says to us, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Now stay there. That is, keep trusting in me. Keep relying on me. Keep looking to me for strength. Keep looking to me for all your needs, for nourishment, for everything. He says, without me, you can do nothing. So look to me for everything.

and depend on me, rely upon me. Jesus needs to have that kind of place in our life where we remain in him. But as the implication in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 12, is if you go outside of those doors, you'll be outside of the protection that God has promised us

Well, Jesus goes on in verse six of John chapter 15 to say, if anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. And so it's a similar type of exhortation and warning. Hey, in me, you have what you need and without me, you can't do anything. You need to abide in me. You need to stay in my protection. Stay faithful to me. Rest in me and trust in me.

We need to remain in Jesus. The commentator Thomas Constable says, many Christians have no peace because the blood of the lamb does not satisfy them. He says they think they need something more to supplement his work like their own good works. But God says the blood of the sacrifice he provided is enough. Sometimes we don't have peace because we think,

We've got to add on to what Christ has done for us. We apply the blood to the door, and then we think, okay, now what else can I do so that God will protect me? What else can I do so that God will bless me? What else can I do so that God will take care of me? And God says, that's what I want you to do. Nothing more is needed. Nothing additional is required. For us today, believing in Jesus Christ is what's required.

And turning to him, we receive his blood. He is our substitute. And we stand before God protected, cleansed, washed. And we don't have to do more things in order to be accepted by God. Believing in Jesus is what is required. There's nothing more that's required. And so sometimes we start building up these systems of legalism in our lives.

where we feel like we have to do this and this and this and this or God won't protect us or God won't be with us or God won't be pleased with us. The blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient. Have peace, rest in that, remain in that. Don't let yourself get caught up in trusting in other things for protection, resting in other things for what you need. We can easily get caught up into, it's very subtle, idolatry of trusting in other things and we'll be unsettled quickly.

as we trust in things besides the blood of the lamb. Of course, we can also stop remaining in Jesus, stop remaining in the house by just turning away and running from Jesus, you know, doing whatever we want to do, living the life that we want to live. But again, the protection that is promised is to those who abide in the vine, those who remain in Jesus, those who trust in him and rely upon him.

And so as they practiced this Passover and stayed in the house all morning, Jesus now gives us new meaning to this, encouraging us to make sure we remain trusting in Jesus, resting in his finished work for us upon the cross. Point number four, as we go on now, verses eight through 10 says,

is that we need to receive all of Jesus. As we consider Jesus as our Passover, and we continue to prepare our hearts for communion to conclude the service, it's a great reminder, a great exhortation for us to receive all of Jesus, not just part of Jesus, but to receive him completely. Verse 8.

It says, So they select the lamb on the 10th. On the 14th, they kill the lamb. They apply the blood to the doorposts. Then they go inside and they eat the lamb. The lamb is now the main dish for this feast that they are having.

He goes on in verse 9. He says, He says,

raw. Now there was a practice of the Egyptians to consume raw meat as part of a worship of one of their gods. And so God's making a distinction here. This isn't, you know, some foreign worship practice. Don't eat it raw. No lamb sushi for you, he says. Instead, roast it in the fire. Don't boil it. Roast it in the fire. And roast the whole thing from head to tail.

its head, its legs, even its entrails, complete. Roast the whole lamb on the fire. Now, I've never actually seen this, but I've seen something similar with a roasted pig. And I'm sure many of you have seen that too, right? The whole pig is roasted on the fire and then put on the platter. And then as you're going down the buffet line, there's the pig, head and all with the apple, you know, in its mouth and

I remember in Samoa, we have some Samoan friends here, right? In Samoa, we had the, I think it's Umu, right? Is that right? Yeah, yeah. So it's the big feast that they would have. And then at the end, they would give the head of the pig to, you know, the honored guests. And so they gave it to Pastor Tom and Pastor Tom's like, I don't want this. And he gave it to somebody else and they gave it to somebody else and not part of our customs for sure. And so they gave it to Pastor Tom and Pastor Tom's like, I don't want this.

But that idea of the whole thing being roasted and they're being presented as the main dish of the feast, that's what this lamb was to be. The whole thing to be roasted. And then now it's the main dish of this feast. And then notice what he says in verse 10. He says, I think this is really interesting.

God's idea, God's intent for this Passover was for it to really be a feast. It's not the Passover fast. It's the Passover feast. And so essentially what you have right here is all you can eat barbecue. It's all you can eat because this whole lamb was to be cooked. And then he says, let none of it remain until morning. Do your best. Finish it that night.

If there's anything left over, you got to burn that. So like we have Thanksgiving, right? And then for a couple of days, we have turkey sandwiches. Don't do that. No lamb sandwiches for a couple of days. No, just burn whatever's left. So it's all you can eat, whatever you can consume. Now, a lamb, when it's born, will weigh roughly five to eight pounds. But at one year old, a lamb will usually weigh around 40 to 45 pounds, right?

So this is a big hunk of meat. I mean, if you go down to the store and get 40 pounds of carne asada, you're going to have a lot of, I mean, that's a lot of meat, right? That's a big feast. But remember, this is one lamb per household. And so the rabbis defined that a little bit later on in Israel's history. And they said, that means a minimum of 10 people and a maximum of 20 people.

So picture that, 20 people with 40 pounds of meat. That's a good amount of meat for every person. Obviously, not everybody's gonna eat their full quota, right? But the idea is, it's a feast. Eat it, consume it. He says, let none of it remain. And if there's anything left, it needs to be burned on the fire. And this is why I made the point here to receive all of Jesus. Just as that lamb,

was to be entirely consumed. As we talk about Jesus as the lamb of God, our Passover lamb, he needs to be received completely and totally. So they weren't just to like pick out the choice cuts of meat. All right, let's just pull out the lamb chops. I don't know what other parts of the lamb there are, but let's just pull out the parts that we like and just cook those and eat those. God says, no, you got to cook the whole thing.

and let none of it remain till morning. Try to eat the whole thing or burn the rest. It needs to be completely, entirely consumed. And when it comes to Jesus Christ, it's the same thing. We can't just pick and choose the best cuts, our favorite points, our favorite things, our favorite aspects of Jesus. We need to receive all of Jesus. In John chapter six, John records the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

And after he does this, the people are amazed, of course, and there's great multitudes. They want to crown him as king. They want to, you know, set him as the authority over them. But he knows what's really going on. He's like, hey, you guys are just after me because I fed you, and you thought that was really cool. But he goes on to say, there's a deeper meaning here. I'm the bread of life, Jesus says, and you need to eat of me. And it caused some grumbling amongst them. He's, what does he mean? He's going to give of himself for us to eat.

In verse 60 of John chapter 6, it says, therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? What is he talking about? This is hard. And then a few verses later in John 6 verse 66, it says, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. That's a hard saying. It's a hard piece of meat. I'm chewing on it. I can't swallow it.

And it says that his disciples, many of them, not just random people in a crowd, but many of the people who had said, I'm going to follow Jesus. And they were walking with Jesus and following Jesus. They were his disciples. At this point, they got this piece of meat. They choked on it. They said, I can't eat this. And they walked away. I liked what he said a couple moments ago. I don't really like what he's saying right now. It's a hard saying. And Jesus looked at his own disciples, the 12, and he said, do you also want to go away?

And you remember Peter's words, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Some of them are really nice and lovely and pleasant. And we love them. And we quote them. And we put them on our t-shirts and on our doors and our refrigerators. And we have them all over the place. But there's also hard sayings of Jesus. There's also the difficult things. You've got the liver and the kidneys and the parts that are like, I don't really want to eat that part.

But we don't get to pick and choose. We need to receive all of Jesus. You can think of it like, you know, you go through the drive-thru at KFC, you get a bucket of chicken. That's amazing how much choice you get, right? You can have all legs, you can have all white meat, or all dark meat, or some of each, and then you bring it home and

Everybody gets to pick and choose. I want this and I want that and I want this. I only like that piece. I don't want to eat that piece. I don't like that kind of piece. We get to pick and choose. But when it comes to the lamb, the whole thing needs to be consumed. We can't pick and choose the things that we prefer, the things that we like only when it comes to Jesus. In Luke chapter 14, it tells us in verse 25 that great multitudes were following Jesus and

And Jesus decided, you know, I need to thin out this crowd. There's a lot of people following me. And so he turns around and he says to them in verse 26 of Luke 14, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus says, there's a bunch of you following me. Let me give you some criteria here. You need to understand you cannot be my disciple unless you're willing to hate your mom and dad.

Now, he's not saying be evil to your mom and dad and do bad things to them. He's saying, you need to love me first and foremost and put me at a higher priority than your own family. And if you can't do that, you cannot be my disciple. He goes on in verse 28 to say, for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it. He says to the people, the multitude following him, he says, okay,

Here's what I want you to do. Count the cost. There's going to be some tough things too. It's not just I do miracles and you get bread and fish, but there's also going to be some difficult things and you need to count the cost. Are you able to finish? Are you able to really follow me? Are you able? He goes on in verse 33. He says, likewise, whichever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

And so there's these requirements you must do. And if you don't meet these requirements, you cannot be his disciple. You can't pick and choose. It's only the light and fluffy things. But there's real hard things too that God is going to call you to. And you need to receive all of Jesus. I would ask you to consider, are there things that God has been speaking to you that you've been fighting against or let's say dragging your feet against?

You know it's what God wants, but you don't want it, and so you've been reluctant. You've been holding back. Yeah, it's real easy for us when it's things that we like and things we agree with God about, but God requires us to be his followers. We have to be submitted to him. We have to put him first. We have to receive all of Jesus, not just the parts that we like, and so this morning as we

remember the Passover, as we remember the cross and partake of communion, I would challenge you to let this be a time where whatever challenges there are in your heart, where you've been challenging God and not wanting to let go of certain things or not wanting to go forward in certain areas, let this be a time where you receive all of Jesus, where you consume the whole lamb, except the whole thing, and not just pick and choose your favorite parts.

Well, for the final point, we'll go to verse 11 here in Exodus chapter 12. Point number five is to be ready to meet Jesus. In verse 11, it says, and thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. You shall eat it in haste. And he says, make sure you have your belt on

Make sure you got your shoes on and make sure you got your staff in your hand. Now, this wasn't normal eating practices for them. For us, it's pretty normal for us to eat with our shoes on, right? We sit around a table, no big deal. You have your belts on. Maybe at Thanksgiving, you loosen a little bit or whatever, but it's not a big deal. It's normal for us. But for them, it wasn't normal. They would...

be relaxed. So their shoes would be off inside, their staff would be against the wall, they'd be comfortable, they would lounge at a table instead of sitting at a table, and they would enjoy a meal together in that way. But God says, for this meal, don't do it like that. Put your shoes on, put your belt on, get your staff in your hand, and you be ready to go, because I'm going to deliver you from Egypt. In a similar way,

As we receive Jesus and partake of Jesus and trust in Jesus, we need to do so in a manner where we are ready to go. We don't have outstanding things, things that we know that God wants us to do, but we haven't got around to them yet. Also, that we don't have things in our life that would hold us back, sin that would hinder us, but that we would be ready to meet with the Lord.

immediately following the Passover feast was the feast of unleavened bread. They would have the Passover that evening, and then for the next seven days, they would feast, but it would only be with bread that was unleavened, that it didn't have the leaven. It wouldn't be given opportunity to rise. And it's a picture for us of sin. It reminds us to turn from sin, to get it out of our lives.

Paul makes reference to this in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. He says, Paul's speaking this into the context of the church because there was sin in the church. And he says you need to deal with the sin in the church, but it also speaks to sin in our own lives. And we need to purge out that old leaven.

Because we're unleavened. For Christ is our Passover. He is our substitute. He's our deliverer. And notice the order. It's important. There was the Passover. There was God's deliverance. And then there was the cleansing of the unleavened bread. So it wasn't that, or it's not that. You got to clean up your life and then God will deliver you. But it's that God delivers you. And because God has delivered you, you clean up your life. You turn away from sin.

As we partake of communion in just a few moments, it's a reminder of what Christ has done for us, but also it's a memorial for his return. Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 11, 26, he says, for as often as you eat the bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. And a big part for us getting ready to meet Jesus is to have that expectation, looking for his return. It's incredibly helpful for you

to be looking for the return of Jesus Christ, to be ready to meet him, it's helpful to you in cleansing your life of sin. John tells us in 1 John 3, he's talking about the future hope we have of the return of Christ and us being with him. And he says, everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he, that is Jesus, is pure.

When we have this hope, when we're looking, expecting to meet with Jesus, it helps us to purify ourselves. For the feast of unleavened bread, God gave them instruction to go through the house and clean out all the leaven, sweep it all out, get it all out from there. Make sure there's no leaven in your home and don't partake of it for those seven days. As we get ready to meet Jesus, as we have this hope, this expectation, we partake proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.

As we get excited about being with Jesus and his return, it helps us to clean out the house, to sweep out the old leaven, to turn from those areas of sin that we might follow Jesus and be ready for his return. At this time, I'd like to invite the worship team to come back up and they're gonna get us ready and the ushers are gonna make ready for us to partake of communion. Communion comes from the Passover feast.

It was what God instructed them there in Exodus chapter 12. But then Jesus gave it new meaning. And as you prepare yourself to partake of communion this morning, I would ask you to walk yourself through these different points. Do you need a restart, a reboot, kind of clear out those old settings, clear out those old things that have been holding you back and tripping you up? And as you partake of communion today,

receive the restart, the fresh mercies that God has for you. Receive the brand new clean slate that he provides for you. As you prepare to partake of communion, remember Jesus. Consider what he did upon the cross. Think about his sacrifice. Think about him, not just as a savior, not just as the savior, but make sure that you receive him as your savior.

that you accept his work upon the cross for you and paying the penalty for your sin. As you prepare for communion, make sure you're remaining in Jesus, that you haven't begun to trust in other things, that you haven't begun to pursue and chase things that are not of the Lord, but that you continue to abide in the vine, that you rest in him and trust in him. Also make sure that you're receiving all of Jesus. And if there's anything in your life that you know God's speaking to you about,

but you're reluctant, you're holding on, you're holding back, you're picking and choosing what you like and what you don't like, this is an opportunity for you to stop that and to submit to God and surrender to God and say, Lord, I receive all of you. I know it's for my best. I know it's because you love me. It's gonna hurt, but Lord, I wanna receive everything that you have and not just pick and choose. And finally, as you partake, be ready to meet Jesus. If there's sin in your life that you know about,

Now's the time, repent of it. Ask God for forgiveness. Ask God to help you turn from that, to walk in the newness of life that he provides. The ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup during this song. And at any time, as they're leading us in worship, at any time, you partake between you and the Lord. You receive your Passover lamb, your deliverance.

and respond to these things that God is speaking to your heart. And if you have never responded to Jesus Christ, or maybe you did and you want to come back to the Lord, this is a great opportunity for you and I would encourage you to partake. You can receive Jesus for the first time by partaking and saying, this is his body broken for me. This is his blood shed for me. And Jesus, I receive your forgiveness and your offer of salvation. And so let's worship the Lord today.

And embrace and enjoy the new meaning that Jesus has given to the Passover feast. Let's worship Him. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.