Christ Our Passover- Communion Sunday the Lord’s Day February 18, 2007
Preached by Brother Dennis Daniel at Saint Paul Community Church Atmore, Alabama
Text- Exodus 12:1-14 and 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
The last time we were in Exodus chapter 12, it was in recognition of the beginning of this New Year. We saw that for the nation of Israel their deliverance from bondage in Egypt was a season of new beginning. A beginning of months: the first month of the year. It was for the nation, a New Year and truly a reason to celebrate.
· The nation Israel had been in Egypt four hundred and thirty years. They were experiencing a life of bitter bondage at the hand of the Egyptians taskmasters and were about to enter a life of liberty.
· They had gone into Egypt the seed of Abraham, but were going to exodus life of bondage as a peculiar people, the people of God. God became a Father unto them and they became His sons and daughters.
New Creature in Christ 2 Corinthians 5:17
This is analogous of the New Testament believer. When an individual enters into a saving relationship with Christ, he/she becomes a new creature. The Word of God says the he is a new creation, old things are passed away and all things are become new. He has been delivered from the bondage of sin and out from under the strong arm of its taskmaster.
But as many as received Him, to them gave he the power to become the son’s of God.
As the nation above the believer enters into a walk with God as His child. For as many as received Him (that is Christ) to them gave he the power to be the sons of God. (John 1:12)
God must honor His Word, for He cannot tell a lie.
The Lord set His love upon this people because they were more in number, for they were the fewest of all people, but because of the promise of His word. (Deuteronomy 7:7) God has made a promise to all of humanity, that all who call upon the Lord, shall be saved. He in His mercy has set His love upon us, redeeming us out of the hand of Satan.
Now there are three elements concerning the Passover that we will consider today.
· The Lamb
· The Blood
· The Meal
The Lamb
God told the people to take of a lamb from among the flock. It was to be a male, of the first year, without spot and blemish. It was to be chosen on the 10th day of the month of Nisan (Abib) and was to be killed on the 14th day of the same month.
This lamb was a picture of Jesus Christ. As the lamb was chosen from among the flock, He (Christ) was taken from the tribe of humanity. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, which is the devil. (Hebrews 2:14) Jesus told the sisters of Lazarus, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26)
The Pascal Lamb was the essential object to Israel’s deliverance from their bondage in Egypt. It was the death of this lamb and his blood upon the doorpost that wrought deliverance. So was the coming of Christ in the flesh. For John the Baptizer affirmed through the Spirit of God, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world”. (John 1:29)
It was mandated that the Pascal lamb was spotless and without blemish, so was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Though He took upon Himself flesh and blood and was in all points tempted like as we are, He was yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) Yet God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
The Blood
It seems we are living in a day in which the blood of Christ offends. It leaves a rancid taste in the palate of many today; even some whom camp comfortably under the shadow of Christendom.
· Bishop John S. Spong- Bishop in Newark, NJ
The Bishops Voice-The Twelve Theses: A
Call for a New Reformation
by Bishop John S. Spong, Newark, NJ
"The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbaric idea based on a primitive concept of God that must be dismissed."
“Sometimes this sacred phrase is expanded to include what surely can only be described as a
fetish about the blood that Jesus shed on the cross. To that "sacred" blood incredible power has been attributed. Christians have gone so far as to
talk about the cleansing effect of being washed in this blood. One hymn that I endured twice during Holy Week proclaims that "God on Thee Has Bled."
The death of Jesus is said to have been something God required: a ransom, a sacrifice offered to God, a payment demanded by God for the sins of the
world, the price required to achieve atonement, which is the experience of being at one with God.
In my studies I have come to the conclusion that this language, "Jesus died for my sins," is a violent distortion of the meaning of Jesus. It offers
me a God who is sadistic and bloodthirsty. A God whose will is served by a human sacrifice is not a God I would ever be drawn to worship. It is rather
a grotesque idea. Yet this concept has become so normative in the way that our faith story is told that many people seem to feel that if this
understanding of the saving work of Jesus is not accepted, then there is nothing of substance left to Christianity.”
Excerpts from the Bishop’s Voice, the 12 Theses “A Call for a New Reformation”
In my studies, I have found that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. (Hebrews 9:22)
Read Hebrews 9:15-28
Clearly Bishop Spong has either never studied this portion of God’s holy word, or he lacks the spiritual understanding of seeing the importance of Christ blood. For flesh and blood does not reveal it to us, but when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide us into all truth for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak and he will shew us things to come. For he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto thee. (John 16:13-14)
The Cost of Redemption
Our redemption was not without a price; it cost Christ everything. For we know that we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from our vain conversation received by the tradition of our fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot; who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory that our faith and hope might be in God. (1 Peter 1:18-21)
It is important for us to understand that the shedding of the blood was not where the power rested, but that something had to be done with the blood. The Lord instructed them to take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the house wherein they shall eat the meal.
It is not enough that God has sent His son to die on Calvary for your sin and my sin. We must do something with this Christ. The important question my friend is what have you done with this Jesus? His blood cannot atone for your sin until you realize that you are a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins and the purpose of His death was to pay that sin penalty. For all have sinned and come short of God’s glory, and that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23 & 6:23) Christ died for your sin and mine.
The Blood was a Token
The blood was to be a token upon the house for where they were, and when the Lord saw the blood He would Passover and the plague (death of the firstborn) would not be upon the occupants of the house to destroy them, when He smote the land of Egypt.
If you were to stand before God today my friend, would He find the precious blood of the Lamb of God upon you, or would you stand in the most certain condemnation that awaits those that have trodden under foot the precious Son of God? Today, is the day of salvation.
The Meal
The third element we will consider is the meal. God instructed them to eat the flesh in that night; they were to roast it with fire, and to eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The meal was to be eaten with their loins girded, shoes on their feet and staves in their hand. It was to be eaten in haste for it is the Lord’s Passover. (Exodus 12:11)
· The roasting of the flesh with fire is a picture of the tribulation that the Lamb of God would undergo in bringing many sons’ to glory.
· The bitter herbs were to call to mind the bitter experiences that they had suffered under the awful oppression of Egypt.
· And the unleavened bread symbolized the spiritual purity after which the people of God in covenant with the Lord are to strive for.
Merrill F. Unger says “The deliverance of Israel from Egypt was accompanied by their adoption as the nation of Jehovah. For this a divine consecration was necessary that their outward severance form Egypt might be accompanied by an inward severance from everything of an Egyptian or heathen nature. This consecration was imparted by the Passover, a festival which was to lay the foundation of Israel’s birth into a new life of grace and fellowship with God and to perpetuate it in time to come.”
Being it is communion Sunday, it is the unleavened bread that we would like to give our attention to. The scriptures teach us that the New Testament believer has been washed; we have been sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God. God says that we have not been born again of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the word of God that abideth forever. Therefore we are to glorify God in our bodies. In order to do such the man or woman of God must purge out the old leaven that we may become a new lump. It is a dangerous event for the believer to kneel around the altar of God’s salvation with unrepentant sin in his/her heart. God does not count the sacrifice for our sin a light thing.
· Please turn in your bibles to 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
· Communion around the Lord’s Table