The Passover and gospel

(Exo. 12:21-28)

Introduction: Last Sunday, I finished preaching on Genesis with the sermon title, Jacob and Joseph. Jacob and Joseph stood in front of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Although Jacob and Joseph had different life styles, we saw the faithfulness of God in keeping His promise and protecting them from all the hardships they experienced. Today’s passage is Exodus 12:21-28. The event of Passover is described in today’s passage. Joseph died at his age of 110. After Joseph’s death, a new king of Egypt had a hostile attitude against the Israelites. In the midst of the hardship, Moses was born and raised in the palace. When Moses was 40 years old, he tried to save his people, but failed. Moses fled to Midian and stayed there for 40 years. Then God appeared to Moses and asked him to go to Egypt in order save the Israelites from the slavery. Of course, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh ignored Moses’ request. God punished Egypt and Pharaoh with 9 different plagues. The 10th plague is to kill all the first-borns in Egyptian families. This is the background of today’s passage. The Passover occurred 1,500 years before Jesus, but it showed a clear illustration about the death of Jesus and its impact to us. We would like to see the relationship between the Passover and the gospel.

1) See the blood (21-23): Following God’s command, Moses told the elders of Israel to select a Passover lamb and slaughter it for each family. Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood, and put the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Then, no one should come out from the house. When the angel of God will go through each house to kill all the first-born of Egyptians, the angel will pass over the house with blood. That was the first Passover. The Israelites will not be killed because of the blood of the lamb as long as they are inside the house with blood. It did not matter how enthusiastic they were inside the house. As long as they were inside the house, they were saved. The same thing will happen when God judges this world and human beings. We were all sinners and were subject to God’s punishment for our sins. The wages of sin is death, and all humans were subject to eternal condemnation. When God judges us, He will pass over us if we have the blood of Jesus. It is not because that we are all righteous or we have some merit to be saved; it is all because of the blood of Jesus. When we accept Jesus in our heart, the blood of Jesus will wash away our sins and inequities. He will give us eternal redemption and eternal life.

2) Eternal Ordinance (24-28): God gave Israelites the Passover ceremony as an eternal ordinance which the Israelites should obey. God gave Israel eternal promise which would last forever. God gave us eternal redemption, eternal life, and eternal salvation. Once He gave us eternal life, no one will snatch us out of God’s hand and the hand of Jesus (John 10:27-29). That is the promise of faithful God, who will never change. That is the lesson we can learn from today’s passage. Thank you and God bless you.