Exodus 12

The Passover

The scripture of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt has been read.

We see here the pattern of our redemption.

Behold, beloved, how it is old-yet new.

We cannot hear these words without thinking of our Savior, Jesus Christ,

Because He is what they are all about.

When you build a house,

how do you begin?

Do you just take boards and nails and just start hammering?

Of course not!

You start with a plan.

And as long as the plan is all that you have,

The blueprint is a beautiful thing.

But no one would ever confuse the plan with the house.

When the house is finally finished,

the plan becomes obsolete.

It is in this way that we should look at the Passover.

In its own day it was glorious-

but now it is fading because of the surpassing glory of Jesus Christ.

And yet that faded glory of the Passover still witnesses to the surpassing glory of Christ.

What is the Passover about?

The Passover is the feast of redemption.

And redemption consists of a new creation.

We saw last week from Colossians that only the Creator could be the redeemer.

And here in Exodus we see the glory of the new creation revealed in a picture.

When God delivered the holy seed through the Flood in Noah's day,

he demonstrated that only the Creator could be the redeemer,

by showing the redemption of Noah as a recreation.

And in the call of Abraham,

God called Abraham to be his firstborn-to receive HIS inheritance.

This is brought together in the calling of Israel.

Israel is called the firstborn (Ex 4), and is also brought out of the land of death,

into the land of life-the new creation.

The beginning of this new creation is found in Exodus 12.

God restarts time.

He declares that this month shall be the first month (12:2).

Israel is my son-my firstborn-and this is his birthday.

This is Year One of the calendar of the Son of God.

(Which is connected to the image of the Son of God as king-

the king's "birthday" was often reckoned as his accession day)

The new year is oriented around God's mighty act of redemption.

The deliverance from bondage in Egypt is the marker of time for Israel.

Every year will now begin with the remembrance of this deliverance.

The manner of celebrating this Passover is instructive:

v3-5--the lamb (Unblemished lamb-whether sheep or goat)

v6-killed at twilight (All killed at once-unity of action)

v7-blood on the doorposts (The blood of the lamb as a sign)

v8-9-eat the flesh (roasted) (The death of the lamb becomes my death)

with unleavened bread (Sign of haste-v34-see Gen 19:3)

and bitter herbs (Sign of bitter years of slavery)

v10-let none remain until morning (Sign of haste)

v11-eat it in haste

The whole ritual is designed for Israel to remember what God did.

Remembering is a central theme in the Pentateuch (especially Deuteronomy).

Do not forget what God has done for you!

The rituals and ceremonies of the Law were given for this very reason.

The Passover is one of the three central feasts that God gave Israel.

It was to be repeated every year

and used as a teaching tool to train the next generation (v26-7).

I'd like to look at four aspects of the Passover

that connect to our observance of the Lord's Supper today.

Participation, anticipation, pilgrimage, and communion.

The Lord's Supper draws on many images and rituals from the Old Testament.

But since it was instituted on a Passover,

The parallels are quite strong.

1) The Passover was a feast of participation.

As we have seen-if Israel did not partake of the Lamb,

then they would be counted among the Egyptians-and their firstborn would die.

Participation in the sacrifice was necessary to escape the wrath and judgment of God.

Because the feast of Passover is also a feast of judgment.

(V27)

The whole point of what you are to teach your children,

is that the feast of Passover reminds us of the judgment of God.

Salvation itself has no meaning unless it is salvation from something!

And in the Passover God strikes the Egyptians and delivers the children of Israel.

The death of the lamb is reckoned as the death of Israel,

so that you will not die when the angel of the LORD passes over.

And we, who celebrate the Lord's Supper today,

are called to remember his death.

And in remembering his death,

we participate in it.

His death becomes ours, so that we might be reckoned with the firstborn Son of God,

and not with the firstborn son of Pharaoh-of the devil

Therefore the Supper is a means of grace,

By which the death of Christ becomes our death.

By partaking of the body and blood of Christ,

we recognize that we will die if we do not partake of him!

If we do not partake of the sacrifice-then we and our children will perish.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10,

the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?

And the cup that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

The Lord's Supper, like Passover, is a feast of participation.

But Passover is also a feast of anticipation.

At the time of the original Passover,

Israel was still a slave!

Passover is a feast that remembers bondage-and celebrates the release from that bondage

BEFORE that release is realized.

Passover looks forward to entry into the Promised Land.

13:3-6

Passover is incomplete in itself.

After all, at the end of the Passover feast, where are you?

In Egypt.

In slavery.

Passover looks forward to the consummation of the Exodus in the Promised Land.

Embedded in the very hastiness of the ritual is a impulse toward the future.

After all, Passover is a preparation for pilgrimage.

This is why it was fitting that our Lord utilized a Passover meal to institute the Lord's Supper.

Because the Lord's Supper was instituted-like the Passover-

BEFORE the release from bondage to sin and death was realized.

And in the annual slaughter of the Passover lamb,

there is an eschatological aspect.

In other words, Passover points forward to the final redemption.

And even so, the Lord's Supper, while focused on the death of Christ,

also has an eschatological aspect.

We who partake of the death of the Lamb of God,

are proclaiming his death-UNTIL he comes!

As we participate in the death of Christ,

partaking of the powers of the age to come,

we are also anticipating the consummation of all things,

In the wedding supper of the Lamb.

So the Passover is a feast both of participation and anticipation.

Therefore the Lord's Supper is also a preparation for pilgrimage

-in other words, a means of grace.

When we eat of this bread and drink of this cup,

we are declaring that we need grace to endure in the wilderness of this world.

We will go forth from this place into the wilderness.

In worship we have been called into the very presence of God,

and yet we live in two worlds.

This week you will be tempted by the world, the flesh and the devil.

You will face trials of many kinds.

Where will you find the grace to endure?

The Israelites in Egypt thought that bondage to Pharaoh was as bad as it got.

They had no idea what God had in store for them.

They were going to face temptation in the wilderness.

Within a matter of weeks they would face being trapped by the Red Sea,

They would run out of food,

The would run out of water,

They would be tempted to idolatry at Mt Sinai.

Where would they find grace to endure in the midst of temptation?

The Passover was offered as that means of grace.

Yet they failed to receive it.

1 Cor 10 says: (read)

In the midst of the temptation, God will provide a way to stand up under it.

And then Paul calls us to the Supper-flee from idolatry-how?

Come to the Table.

Our Confession rightly says that the sacraments of the NT

have greater power and efficacy than those of the OT.

This is just what Paul says.

He says that Israel had received all these benefits,

But it did them little good, because of their rebellion.

But YOU have received far more than they did.

Therefore, since you partake, not merely of the picture,

but of the reality himself,

The Lord's Supper calls you to pilgrimage.

Passover was not just about the night in which the firstborn died in Egypt.

There must be something beyond this night.

Passover itself is a call to faith and obedience.

After all, the Israelites are still in bondage.

Partaking of the Passover is both a means of grace

(God delivers us from slavery)

AND a declaration of whole-souled faith and obedience to God.

And in the Supper,

We are called to faith and obedience.

And by partaking, we declare that we have no other comfort,

But that we belong -both in body and soul,

Both in life and in death,

to our faithful savior, Jesus Christ.

And that in the Supper he makes us willing and ready,

From now on, to live for him.

And finally, the feast of Passover is a feast that binds the people of God together.

It is a communion.

Only the circumcised may eat of it.

Israel is my son-my firstborn.

God gave the sign of circumcision to Abraham and to his descendants.

But God makes it clear that being physically descended from Abraham

is relatively meaningless.

In Genesis 17, God told Abraham himself that

those physical descendants of Abraham who are not circumcised

are cut off from Israel.

Those who have not received the covenant sign,

Are not members of the covenant.

And so they may not partake of the covenant meal.

But in Exodus 12, those strangers who are circumcised

are reckoned children of Abraham (v48).

And indeed, in v38 we are told that a mixed multitude went up out of Egypt with Israel.

It would appear that many Egyptians (and other Gentiles)

joined themselves to the people of God.

The regulation of v48 is based upon this mixed multitude.

Anyone could become an Israelite through circumcision.

It is not physical descent from Abraham,

But spiritual descent that matters.

This is taught in the very narrative that constitutes Israel's founding history.

In the Exodus itself we learn that Spiritual identity-not ethnic identity-is what matters.

And in Christ we see this ever more clearly.

The Lord's Supper is the feast of God for the people of God.

The Supper binds us together as one body.

Likewise, only those who are baptized may partake of the Lord's Supper.

Only those who are members of the covenant may partake of the covenant meal.

And the elders must ensure that the wicked are excluded from the covenant meal.

When we partake of the Supper,

we are not partaking as individuals isolated from each other.

We are the one loaf (1 Cor 10)-which has two implications:

1) negatively, the scandalous and profane must be excluded.

The apostle Paul uses the language of Passover

to show why we must excommunicate the evildoer: (1 Cor 5:4-8,13)

Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us

Notice that Paul does not say that only the elect may partake.

The Corinthian congregation was rife with petty bickering and quarreling,

yet Paul only excommunicates the one man

who had openly and conclusively betrayed his profession

by his scandalous behavior.

2) but positively, all those who profess faith in Jesus Christ are united together here at the Table.

It is because we come to one Table that we must be reconciled with one another.

It is because we partake of the one Jesus Christ.

If you and I both partake of the same body and blood of the Lord,

Then you and I are also one body with him and with each other.

As you partake today,

look around you.

Discerning the Lord's body has two aspects

-the body of the Lord that we share in the Supper

-and the body of the Lord around us.

When we come to the Table we declare that we are one.

Or better yet, when we come to the Table, Christ constitutes us as one.

You see, you don't have a choice in the matter.

This is Christ's Table.

And he calls all of you to repent of your sins,

To forgive one another as he has forgiven you,

And to BE the one body that he has made you to be.