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September 07, 2008
Our Passover Meal
Exodus 12: 1-14 Revelation 5: 6-10
preached on September 7th, 2008
To begin our sermon this morning we need to go back to our first reading and we need to go back in history about 3,400 years. Moses was about to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God had already smitten Egypt with 9 plagues and the 10th and final plague would take place in about two weeks.
To prepare for this grand and much awaited event, God instructed Israel through Moses and Aaron to prepare a big meal. Each family was to slaughter, cook, and eat a lamb accompanied with some interesting side dishes. The lamb was not only to be a meal, but also a sort of sacrifice. The blood of the lamb was to be smeared on each side of and above the doorway to each of their homes.
The final plague on Egypt was to be the death of the firstborn male of each family, except for those families of the Israelites who had the blood of the lamb around their doors. This meal was to be called Passover because God would pass over the houses where the blood of the lamb was displayed and would not kill the firstborn males in that family.
That was the purpose of the blood of the lamb. The purposes of the meal might be a little more obscure. The next morning the Israelites would be forced out of Egypt into the wilderness. The big meal was a way of nourishing them, fattening them up for the first part of their journey.
It was also an opportunity for family fellowship in their homes. During the next few days, their lives would be rather chaotic. Families might not be eating together for a while.
But I want you to notice that in this passage the Jews were also instructed to reenact this meal every year on the anniversary of the first meal and their being freed from Egypt.
Passover meals were celebrated in the Promised Land for many years until some of the kings of Israel led the Jews to worship other Gods. Then Israel was punished by being captured and spending 70 years of captivity in Babylon. They returned to Palestine and celebrated the Passover every year after their return.
Then Jesus came, and was killed at almost the same time that the Passover lambs were being killed that year. He rose from the dead 3 days later and there was some talk among the first generation of Christians that Jesus served as a new Passover lamb; that He was the new sacrifice that would cause God to Pass Over his people when he judged others.
As the first generation of Christians was passing away, the Apostle John received a vision from God on the island of Patmos. In that vision he saw a scroll that had secrets written inside it, but no one in heaven was worthy to open the scroll. Finally a lamb came forward. This lamb had obviously been killed yet it was alive. That lamb was worthy to open the scroll containing some of God’s secrets. That lamb is later identified as Jesus.
Jesus is our Passover lamb. On the night before he died, Jesus had celebrated the old Passover meal with his apostles. He took two elements from the old Passover meal and did something special with them. He took the bread and said it represented his body which would soon be broken for them. He also took the wine and said it represented his blood that would soon be spilled for them. Then he told them to eat and drink the bread and wine together as often they wanted and that he would rejoin them in eating and drinking it when his final kingdom was established.
So here we are, celebrating this meal about 1980 years after Jesus first celebrated it with the apostles and about 3,400 years after the first Passover.
This is our Passover meal. Since it is so small, it is good to ask the question, what does partaking of this meal do for us?
It makes us obedient. Jesus commanded his followers to eat this meal together.
It provides and identifies for us our family. The OT Passover meal was to be eaten by families. The NT Passover or Lord’s Supper is to be eaten with other Christians, by congregations. We are a family of God.
It provides nourishment for us. The Jews ate the first Passover meal to get ready for several days of scant and haphazard meals as they marched to the Red Sea and into the wilderness. This meal provides us with spiritual nourishment as we prepare to be in the world apart from each other for a few days. God’s Holy Spirit somehow mysteriously supplies us with Spiritual Strength and nutrition as we eat this meal in obedience to Christ and in dependence on his great sacrifice for us.
It is our Pass Over meal. In it we celebrate the death of Christ. The death of Jesus is the sacrifice by which God Passes Over our sins. We will escape the final judgment of God because Jesus died for our sins
Let us now eagerly and earnestly partake of this Holy meal.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at September 7, 2008 06:34 PM