Well, good morning.
It's good to have you with us.
We are going to continue in our series this morning in the book of Exodus.
And if you haven't been here, we've been waiting breathlessly for chapters 11 and 12.
Because the whole book of Exodus we know is leading up to or is going to tell this story of deliverance.
The story of God intervening on behalf of his people to do a great work to save them from slavery.
And we've been waiting for 10 long chapters.
10 long chapters of detours and 10 long chapters of disappointments.
And 10 long chapters of hardened hearts and nine plagues.
Plagues and over and over again.
And we've finally gotten there.
We finally, as we come to chapters 11 and 12 this morning, we finally get to see what will it take for God to deliver his people.
This is the question that our passage reminds us of this morning.
And if you haven't been here for the last couple of weeks, I want to recommend you go to our website and listen to the last two sermons.
Because Pastor Nick preached two weeks ago on the nature of the nine plagues.
The nature of the way that God was preparing both Egypt and Israel for this work of deliverance that he was going to do.
And that God was in the process of doing that.
Demonstrating his greatness, his sovereignty, his majesty over all things.
And then the week after, Pastor Greg tackled the challenging question of the hardness of Pharaoh's heart.
And called us to examine how easily we harden our hearts.
And helped us to see how much we need a sovereign God to intervene in our lives.
To help us to respond to him in ways that we cannot do on our own.
This is where we've come to in the story of Exodus.
And it leads us to this great question.
How will God actually deliver his people?
What will it take to do that?
Now, it's early.
So I'm going to take a risk here and read more than I thought this morning.
I want you all to stand up.
We're going to stand for the word of God.
And we're going to read most of 11 and 12.
I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a break.
Because chapter 12, verses 14 through 20, is all about not the work of deliverance, but the memorialization of it.
Which is what Pastor Nick is going to preach on next week.
So come back next week.
You'll get that.
But I'm going to read chapters 11 and 12 for us.
So let's look at God's word together this morning.
The Lord said to Moses,
And moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt,
in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.
And so Moses said,
Thus says the Lord,
About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt,
and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die.
From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne,
even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the hand mill,
and all the firstborn of the cattle.
There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt,
such as there has never been nor ever will be again.
But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel,
either man or beast,
that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.
And all these servants shall come down to me and bow down to me,
saying,
Get out, you and all the people who follow you.
And after that I will go out.
And he went out from Pharaoh in hot anger.
And then the Lord said to Moses,
Pharaoh will not listen to you,
that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.
And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh,
and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart,
and he did not let the people of Israel go out of his land.
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
this month shall be for you the beginning of months.
It shall be the first month of the year for you.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month,
every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses,
a lamb for a household.
And if the household is too small for a lamb,
then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons,
according to what each can eat.
You shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old.
You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the month.
Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill their lambs at twilight.
Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts
and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
They shall eat the flesh that night,
roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
They shall eat it.
Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water,
but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts,
and you shall let none of it remain until the morning.
Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
In this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened
and sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand,
and you shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night,
and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast.
And on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.
I am the Lord.
The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
And no plague will befall you to destroy you
when I strike the land of Egypt.
And then skipping down to verse 21.
And then Moses called the elders of Israel and said to them,
Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans
and kill the Passover lamb.
Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin
and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin.
None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning,
for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians.
And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts,
the Lord will pass over the door
and will not allow the destroyer to enter your house,
to strike your houses, to strike you.
And you shall observe this right as a statute for you
and for your sons forever.
And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you as he promised,
you shall keep this service.
And when your children say to you,
What do you mean by this service?
You shall say,
It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover.
For he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt
when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.
And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.
Then the people of Israel went out and did so,
as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
So they did.
Just as a note,
all of this is now preparation.
We've heard it over and over again.
The Lord is telling Moses.
Now Moses is telling the people.
And now finally we get to, in verse 29,
the action that happens.
At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn of the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne,
to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon,
and all of the firstborn of the livestock.
And Pharaoh rose up in the night,
he and all of his servants and all the Egyptians.
And there was a great cry in Egypt,
for there was not a house where someone was not dead.
Then he summoned Moses and Aaron by night and said,
Up, up, go out from among my people,
both you and the people of Israel,
and go serve the Lord as you have said.
Take your flocks and your herds,
as you have said, and be gone.
And bless me also.
And the Egyptians were urgent with the people
to send them out of the land in haste,
for they said, We shall all be dead.
So the people took their dough before it was leavened,
their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.
The people of Israel had also done,
as Moses told them.
For they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing,
and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,
so that they let them have what they asked.
Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
And the people of Israel journeyed from Ramses to Succoth,
about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children.
A mixed multitude also went up with them,
with very much livestock, both flocks and herds.
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough
that they had brought out of Egypt,
for it was not leavened,
because they were thrust out of Egypt
and could not wait,
nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
And the time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.
And this is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Go ahead and take a seat.
Friends,
the question I proposed at the beginning this morning is,
what will it take?
What will it take for God to deliver His people?
And what we see as we read this story
is that God's deliverance
displays both a terrifying judgment
and a gracious provision
to save a people for Himself.
That's what we're going to look at.
Basically, those two ideas,
a terrifying judgment and a gracious provision
as the dynamics by which God saves His people.
So let us first consider
the nature of this terrible judgment.
Friends,
we maybe know this story too well
and are easily numbed to the horror of it.
This night would have been a more terrifying night
in the nation of Egypt
than we probably could imagine.
Let's look at it for a minute
to remember the nature of this judgment.
First of all,
we want to see that it was predicted
way back in chapter 4.
Turn with me for a second.
Turn back a few chapters to Exodus chapter 4
verses 22 and 23.
Moses has returned to Egypt
and the Lord is telling him
what is going to happen.
He's saying,
you will go
and you will do all these miracles
but Pharaoh will not let you go.
And then in verse 22,
then you shall say to Pharaoh,
thus says the Lord,
Israel is my firstborn son
and I say to you,
let my son go
that he may serve me.
And if you refuse to let him go,
behold,
I will kill your firstborn son.
So when we begin to explore
the nature of this,
this death of the firstborn sons
throughout the history
or throughout the nation of Egypt,
what we see is that
it is happening
because Egypt
has withheld God's firstborn son.
That is,
his people
from actually worshiping him.
There is a judgment on Egypt
because they have not responded
to God's call to respond.
This judgment is
as horrific as it is
with the death of all of these children.
It is also,
as we've seen before,
in a deeper and more severe pattern,
like the plagues that have come before,
it is the undoing of creation.
Just as the creation story in Genesis
reaches its pinnacle
in the creation of human life,
now as God shows his power
over all of creation
and as he shows how
the dissolution of creation
creates chaos and destruction,
so here he brings death
to show his power over death and life.
not only does it do that,
but it also strikes
at the very nature
of the gods of Egypt.
For Osiris and Anubis
were the gods
that ruled over the underworld
and ruled over the afterlife.
And in fact,
they viewed the son of the Pharaoh
as the son of God,
the son of light,
who was immortal
and could not die.
And God says,
you have refused me
again and again and again,
and I will show you
that your gods are false
and they do not have the power
that they promise.
Friends,
the nature of this judgment,
the death of the firstborn,
was universal in the nation.
Every household,
without distinction,
that's what verse 12
and verse 29 says.
Every household
will be struck by this.
From the throne room
in Pharaoh's palace
to the prisons
to the most menial of workers,
from the ivory towers
to the homeless shelters,
this judgment
would have gone
throughout the nation.
Even the livestock
were subjected to this.
And friends,
I want you to recognize
that even the Hebrew households
that were not covered
with the blood of the Lamb
would be subject
to this judgment.
God was bringing
one final,
great judgment
to show that He is God.
God also says
that this judgment
will come swiftly.
His instructions
to the people of Egypt
is to basically
have the Passover meal
with their jackets on
and their car keys
in their pocket
and their wallets
ready to go.
That's what it means
by keeping your sandals on
and tightening your belt.
It will come swiftly
and when it comes,
you must be ready to go.
It is also
an extremely personal judgment.
Turn with me
to chapter 12,
verses 12 and 13.
I want you to look
at this with me again.
The other judgments,
God said He was going
to do it,
but inanimate objects
were changed
or transformed
or controlled.
The weather was,
the sunlight
was manipulated.
The gnats
or the bugs
were moved.
But here,
God Himself
is the agent
of this plague
and of this sign
and of this judgment.
Verses 12 and 13
of chapter 12,
I want you to hear it again
just to hear
the number of
personal pronouns.
For I will pass
through the land of Egypt
that night
and I will strike
all the firstborn
in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast,
and on all the gods
of Egypt,
I will execute judgments.
I am the Lord.
The blood shall be
assigned for you
on the houses
where you are
and when I see the blood,
I will pass over you
and no plague
will befall you
to destroy you
when I strike
the land of Egypt.
God is not using
means anymore.
God is coming Himself
to execute
this judgment.
And friends,
we need to sit
and to see
how horrific it was.
The narrator
tells us this.
And a cry arose
in Egypt
so great
that it has never
been heard before
or since.
I wonder how many
of you all
are firstborn children,
firstborn males.
I wonder how many
of you have
firstborn males
in your family.
Stop and think.
how terrible
would it be
in one night
for death
to come
that fully.
Friends,
if we don't
understand the horror
of it,
we won't understand
the greatness
of the deliverance.
That's why we're
spending all this time
thinking about this
incredibly
uncomfortable subject.
we recognize
the effect
that it had
on Pharaoh
and on the people
of Egypt.
Finally,
Pharaoh,
who had wavered
and hardened
his heart
and then
who had professed
maybe he'd let them
go and then
changed his mind,
he finally did not
change his mind
and his heart,
though hardened,
was now broken
by the death
of his son.
And he said,
go,
serve your God.
And the people
saw that,
the Egyptian people
saw that the presence
of the Hebrews
and the God
of the Hebrews
in their midst
was such a dangerous
thing
that they said,
go,
lest we all die.
Friends,
it's hard to imagine
how to combine
the destructive
power of a hurricane,
the sudden fear
of a terrorist attack,
and the overwhelming
threat of a nuclear war.
But if you can wrap
all of those
into one event,
maybe you will begin
to see how terrible
this judgment
was on Egypt.
God had warned them.
God had said
it was going to come.
He prepared them
for it.
But when it came,
it was just as terrible,
probably more terrible
than they imagined.
And of course,
we're sitting there,
you're sitting here
this morning,
and we struggle
with this,
don't we?
How can God
do this?
Is God fair?
Is God right
to do this?
We recoil against it.
Is the God
of the Bible
not a God of mercy
and a God of love?
Why would God
do this?
Friends,
there's a
long,
long answer
to that question
that I can't fully
give you
this morning.
There are many
aspects to it,
but I'm going to
take one tack
at it this morning
that I hope
will be helpful
for you.
As I was reading,
one commentator,
a woman wrote
a great study
on the book
of Exodus,
said this,
if you want
a God
who would never
hurt a fly,
that will have
to be a God
you manufacture
in your own
imagination.
That is not
the God
of the Bible.
Nor will
He allow you,
nor will it
allow you
to define Him
on your
preferred terms.
The God
of the Bible
is,
in fact,
dangerous.
He's not
capricious
or impulsive
about expressing
His anger.
In fact,
it is obvious
from this story
that He is,
in fact,
slow to anger.
But there is
always an end
to God's patience.
We can be sure
that His patience
with those
who continue
to reject Him
will come to an end,
just as His patience
with Pharaoh
came to an end.
We may want
God to be kind
and to let
everyone get a pass,
but what she is
saying is,
that is not
the God
of the Bible.
Why is this?
Why do we
understand this?
Well,
here's what I want
to propose to you
as your thought
for this morning.
The terrifying
nature of this
judgment
reflects the
terrifying nature
of rebellion
against God.
God.
Remember,
Pharaoh arrogantly
set himself up
and said,
I,
have you ever seen
the Steven Spielberg
Prince of Egypt
animated version?
I am the morning
and the evening.
I am the sun
and the moon.
He,
I rule the world.
I am God
to you.
And if I declare it,
so it is.
I have the power
to define reality.
Pharaoh set himself
up against God
like this.
And in fact,
what the Bible
says
is that
we are not
so different,
are we?
If you want
to read
the full argument
in Romans 1-3,
I recommend it
to you.
The Apostle Paul
gives you a lot
to think about there.
God is not
but what he says
fundamentally
is that we are
all born
with an intuitive
sense
of the divine,
that there is
something greater
than us in the world.
And in fact,
that God has made
himself known
and yet,
to the degree
that we know him,
we have rejected him
and instead
worshipped
something else.
Worshipped ourselves,
worshipped the creation
rather than the creator,
as he says
in Romans 1,
we have set up
something else
in God's place,
just like Pharaoh
set himself up
in God's place.
And we need
to recognize
that this is
a great
offense
against the creator
God.
It is like
a petulant
17-year-old
looking at
a Supreme Court
justice
and saying,
you aren't
the boss over me.
You can't tell me
what's right and wrong.
The offense
against the office
and against the role
of a Supreme Court
justice
is unimaginable.
And yet,
this is greater
than that.
And the Bible
says that that is
true for all of us.
We have this
God aspiration
in our hearts.
We long
to be our own
gods.
And this rebellion
and this rejection
of God
is what fundamentally
the Bible calls
sin.
Sin isn't doing
something wrong.
I mean,
it is,
but it's much
greater than that.
Sin isn't merely
doing something wrong.
It's not simply
antisocial behavior
or destructive
tendencies,
but sin
is this fundamental
rejection of God
saying to God,
God,
I don't want you
to be God
in my life.
I want to be
the God in my life.
Is this not,
in fact,
what Adam and Eve
said in the Garden
of Eden
when they rejected
God and said,
no,
I would like to be
God myself
rather than
submitting to
and receiving
from a good
God.
The Bible says
that we all
have this
spiritual infection,
this heart
bent
away from
God.
And so we're
like the Egyptians.
We make our
own idols.
We don't
worship snakes
and frogs
and gnats,
do we?
But we worship
other things.
Our needs
become the driving
force in our
marriages.
Our independence
shapes our
relationships
and our
friendships.
Our lust
controls our
bodily appetites.
Our reason
becomes the
final arbiter
of what is
right and wrong.
Our self-righteousness
becomes
the bulwark
by which we
protect ourselves
from admitting
that we're
wrong
or that we
failed
or that we
are weak.
Our
self-sufficiency
allows us
to reject
our need
for others.
And our
desire for
control,
control over
all of our
lives,
is the very
spirit that
looks at God
and says,
God,
why can you
do this?
this is wrong.
We put God
as the object
of our
judgment
as we try
to replace
him in our
own hearts
and lives.
And friends,
if we believe
the Bible,
we know that
this is a
terrible thing.
And if we
believe that
God is the
expression of
all that is
good and right
and lovely
in the world
and our
rejection of
that is to
move away
from it
and that a
good God
must judge
evil for
otherwise,
evil will
triumph in
this world
and in our
own lives.
We are
faced with
the reality
that it is
a fearful
thing to
fall into
the hands
of the
living God.
As we
read the
story of
the tenth
plague and
the judgment
on the
firstborn
and the
terrifying
nature of
it,
we ought
to be
terrified
that God's
judgment is
worse than
we imagined
on sin
and that
we ourselves
deserve it.
But friends,
this is not
the end of
the passage.
And isn't
that good
news?
This is not
the end of
the story.
And this
is in fact
is not the
pinnacle for
what we
see here
is that
the judgment
is a part
of God's
delivering
act.
But it is
not the
final.
God has
intervened and
in this
judgment he
has provided,
he has given
a gracious
provision to
his people
so that they
might be
delivered,
not only from
slavery to
Egypt,
but from the
very judgment
that he is
raining down
upon them.
And this
is what I
want to spend
the rest of
our time
thinking about
this morning.
How is God
delivering his
people?
Well, he's
breaking Egypt's
God-exalted,
self-exalting
power.
But he is
then now
providing for
his people so
that they might
be covered.
Let's look
again.
The fundamental
thing that God
provides is the
blood of a
lamb.
which seems so
small and yet
is so sweet
and so precious.
Let's look at it
for a little bit
together.
Look with me at
the beginning of
chapter 12.
We'll see some
of the things
about the nature
of this lamb
that is provided.
Right?
This lamb must
be a perfect
lamb without
blemish,
without flaw,
because he must
reflect the
perfection that
God himself is
and that he
demands from us.
this lamb
that is,
that the people
are called to
gather,
right,
is a lamb
that is dedicated
for this one
purpose.
You might wonder,
why did he talk
about the not
boiling and not,
like, and then the
burning up and all
that, like, what is
all that about?
It's because,
it's because God
wants this lamb
to have one
single purpose.
The single purpose
is to die so that
the blood may go
on the doorframe
and so that the
people may feast
on it.
It has a single
purpose.
It is also,
this lamb is
sufficient.
Did you notice the
little piece about,
like, oh, and if
your household is too
small to have a lamb
all by yourself,
you go get your
neighbors and you
bring them in,
and you think,
what in the world
is all that about?
It's because this
lamb was meant to
be eaten fully and
so this lamb was
meant to be sufficient
for the gathering
of the people.
And so if your
household was too
small, you'd bind
together with your
neighbors so that
the meal would be,
so the lamb would
be the right,
the proper,
the sufficient
offering for the
number of people
who were there.
This lamb, of
course, is a
substitute.
For the very
nature of this
judgment is that
death would come
to every household.
And recognize,
friends, this is
exactly what happens.
There is no
household to which
death does not
come.
It is either the
death of the
firstborn, of the
families that reject
God and His
instruction, or it
is the death of
the lamb, those who
receive God's
instruction.
salvation.
This lamb is a
substitute for the
firstborn, and it is
a sacrifice.
The lamb is killed, and
before it's cooked, the
blood is taken, and it's
painted on the doorposts
to say, here we have
obeyed the Lord.
Here we have submitted to
His instruction.
Here we have done what
God has asked us to so
that death might come to
this house in this way,
rather than in the way
that it will come in
judgment.
Friends, not only the
provision of the lamb, the
nature of the lamb, a
beautiful thing, but it is
also a call for all to
turn to God and trust
Him.
Think about the
Egyptians.
They've watched over the
last, we don't even know
how long, a couple of
weeks, a couple of months,
just the destruction of the
society in Egypt, the ways
that these plagues have
systematically unraveled the
beauty and the glory of
this place.
And now God is saying, do
this, and it will finally
happen.
They've longed for the
deliverance, but maybe,
like some of us, they were
skeptical.
Really, God?
Are you really going to do
it this time?
Do I really have to obey
you this time?
Are you really going to do
it?
They've waited a long time
for it.
But the call to act, to do
this exactly the way God
did it.
Not only kill the lamb, put
the blood on the doorpost,
but also pack your bags.
Pack your bags, because when
this comes, you have to be
ready to go.
Have you ever thought for a
moment, if your house
started to burn down, what
would you go and grab and
take?
God is saying, pack those
things.
Have your go bag ready, because
when it comes, it's going to
come quickly.
Do you believe this?
If you do, prepare for it and
be ready.
And friends, just as the
judgment that would fall on
every household without the
blood on the doorframe would
come to the Egyptians and the
Israelites, I want you to see
that so too the provision is
offered to the Israelites and
the Egyptians.
It is true that God says, I
will make a distinction between
the Egyptians and the
Israelites, between the people
who stand up against me and
those who submit to me.
But God always invites those
outside of national Israel to
submit and to believe and to
come.
And so you saw at the very end
in verse 38 of chapter 12, it
wasn't just Israelites who
were saved.
That's what that phrase, a
mixed multitude, means.
That there were Egyptians who
believed and Egyptians who were
saved.
And God's saving work is not
ethnic.
It's not national.
It's universal.
And it has been always.
And it always will be.
And the call to faith is no
respecter of persons.
Just as the judgment of God
falls on everyone from the
throne room to the prison cell,
so the delivering act of God,
the delivering offer of God,
the delivering call of God,
comes to all.
And friends, the most beautiful
thing about it,
the response to the people who
listen to God and obey, to
those who take hold of the lamb
and do what God has said with it,
those who sit under the covering
of the blood of the lamb,
God passes over.
This is why it's called
Passover.
If you haven't ever put that
together, now is the time to do
it.
He passed over the households
that had blood because they had
obeyed God and were covered by the
blood of a lamb.
Verse 23, the Lord will pass through
to strike the Egyptians.
And when he sees the blood on the
lintel and on the two doorposts,
the Lord will pass over the door
and will not allow the destroyer
to enter your houses
or strike you.
Friends, can you imagine what it
would be like that night?
At midnight, in the dark,
waiting, wondering.
You've done what God has asked you
to.
There's blood on the door.
You're trying to fall asleep,
but it's uncomfortable because
you have your belt on and your
sandals on.
And you're using your bag as your
pillow.
And then a loud cry rises up
throughout the nation,
wailing,
weeping,
mourning,
but for you,
joy.
There is no death in this household
for the death has already happened
because of the blood of the lamb.
God has spared us
and God has freed us
and God has delivered us.
God has set us free
to go and serve him.
And not only has God set us free
to go and serve him,
but he's provided everything we need.
We don't have to fight Pharaoh
to leave because he's telling us,
get out.
We don't have to fight our neighbors
because they've given us
stuff
that we didn't have as slaves
so that we could go
and worship him.
They've given us
golden jewelry
that in Exodus 35
will be offered
to the Lord
for the adorning
of the tabernacle
and for his worship.
God has set us free
and this is the beginning
of the rest of our lives.
And we start a new year
and a new day
and a new calendar
at this time
because God has done
the most amazing thing
in delivering his people.
God did not simply
judge,
but he provided
graciously
a deliverance
from that terrible judgment
to save a people
for himself.
Well, friends,
we're not Egyptians
or Israelites.
We don't,
we're not living
4,000 years ago.
We're living today.
How are we to respond?
Well,
we're to respond
knowing that the same God
who did that
for his people in Egypt
has done that
for his people
throughout the world.
God did not simply
judge the world
in its sin,
but in fact,
God sent his very own son,
his firstborn son,
to be the Lamb
of God.
By his blood shed,
we are covered
and rescued
and delivered
and redeemed
to be his people.
Friends,
consider with me
for just a minute
this Jesus.
Jesus who was
a greater Lamb,
the one who
John the Baptist
called the Lamb of God
who comes to take away
the sins of the people
of the world.
Jesus,
who is perfect
in his sinlessness
like the Lamb.
Jesus,
who is dedicated
to one purpose,
to glorify God
by coming
to be the ransom
for many,
not by exalting himself,
but by laying himself down
as a sacrifice
that he might be
poured out
to save sinners.
Jesus,
who took on
human flesh
and blood
so that he might
be a perfect identifier
with us.
The Lamb
was never quite sufficient
and as you look
through the book
of Leviticus
and then as you read
the book of Hebrews,
you know
all of this was saying
this isn't enough,
this isn't the final act
of God's deliverance,
but this is pointing
to an even greater
deliverance
because Jesus
in his incarnation
identifies with us
fully
so that he can be
the perfect one
to die in our place.
He who is our substitute,
who hung on the cross
bearing the terrifying
judgment
against the firstborn,
the terrifying judgment
against us
in our sin.
He bore
the full wrath
of it.
He endured
the beating.
He endured
the scorn.
He endured
the shame.
He endured
God's anger
against sin.
He endured
being forsaken
by his Father.
He endured
death itself
for us.
the author
of life
put to death
for us.
But friends,
this Jesus
is not only
the perfect
Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world,
but he is also
the firstborn
Son of God,
firstborn
from before
the foundations
of the earth,
but also
the firstborn
from the dead.
for this Jesus
did not stay
in the grave.
This Jesus
did not,
having submitted
to all of that
judgment,
did not then
leave,
but instead
showing his
perfection
and showing
his sinless
power over
sin and death,
he rose from
the dead
to be the firstborn
among many
sisters and
brothers.
others.
This Jesus
is alive
today that
he might be
the firstborn
of a whole
people who
by faith
in him,
by trusting
in his blood
shed
on our
behalf,
this Jesus
now is
making for
God a
people from
every tribe
and tongue
and nation
that we
might worship
him,
that we
might leave
the land
of slavery
to sin,
that we
might forsake
the idols
and the worship
of other
gods,
that we
might abandon
our self-exalting
nature and
live instead
for him.
This is the
great salvation
that God has
worked for us.
He calls you
to respond
this morning.
Will you
believe in this?
Will you
believe that
this Jesus
is enough
for you?
Will you
entrust
yourself
to him
as God's
provision
for the
forgiveness
of your
sins,
for the
breaking
of your
idolatrous
heart,
for the
new life
that he
now offers
you in
Christ?
Friends,
will you
paint the
doorposts
of your
life
with the
blood of
Jesus?
Will you
put on
your sandals
and tighten
your belts
and set
your sights
not on
the things
of this
earth,
but on
the kingdom
that is
to come
with God
when he
comes in
his glory
and his
righteousness?
Will you
live your
life now
worshipping
him,
worshipping
this God
who is not
only a
terrifying God
who will
judge sin,
but a
loving God
who has
borne that
terrifying
judgment for
you,
that you
might be
his people?
Friends,
this is the
good news
of the
gospel.
This is
what we're
going to
celebrate
for the
next two
weeks as
we come
into the
Easter season
and Palm
Sunday and
Easter,
Good Friday
and Easter,
we're going
to remember
these events
more fully.
God calls
you today.
Will you
believe?
And will
you
worship?
Let's
pray.
Lord,
we have
touched on
mighty and
weighty things
this morning.
And Lord,
we are
humbled before
your righteous
wrath against
sin.
We are,
we tremble,
Lord.
before your
judgment seat.
Lord,
if we stood
in our own,
on our own
before you,
what a fearsome
place it would
be.
But God,
you have
provided for
us one who
would intercede,
a lamb whose
blood was shed
for us so that
we might stand
before you,
forgiven,
accepted,
called to be
yours because
we're covered
by Jesus.
Lord,
I pray this
morning for
those here who
might be
exploring Christianity
and wondering,
what kind of God
are you and
what does it look
like for you to
be a God who
saves people from
their sin?
Lord,
I pray that they
might know,
Lord,
the glorious
provision that you
have made in
Jesus,
that they would
come to faith
in you.
I pray for
those here this
morning who
have known of
Jesus' death on
the cross for
their sins.
Lord,
I pray that it
might be precious
and sweet.
And Lord,
that it might not
be simply a
peripheral part of
our lives,
but that it might
be central,
central in our
heart,
central in our
worship,
central in our
everyday lives.
Lord,
that we would
believe and
trust and
worship as you
have called us
to.
We pray these
things in Jesus'
name.
Amen.