The Feast of the Lamb

The post-it note is a simple and brilliant creation, an idea. It lets us stick little reminders all over our homes, on the refrigerator, reminding us to go pick up the children, to fix dinner, to put on our desk, the computers we need to call or talk to that week. The other option is to do a to-do list. I'm more of a to-do list myself. I like to see everything there that I need to do. More so, I like to see all the things I've crossed off so I feel better about myself. We like these reminders. We like to do this and we like post-it notes because they remind us. We recognize we have a hard time remembering where we're forgetful and there's a it's an intellectual problem. It's a it's a memory problem. We all forget. So we need reminders. Our forgetfulness isn't just a mental problem, though, it's not just an intellectual capacity issue. There's a sin element to forgetfulness. This morning, we're going to talk about the sinful forgetfulness that we all are burdened with. All of us who are born into sin are forgetful. We're forgetful in our sin, and what that means is that we are easily strayed and distracted by the things of this world. Our hearts are not steadfast in focus on the Lord because they're so easily swayed and distracted by the world. We're going to discuss how God has established certain ways for us to remember. This morning, the message is simple, we must remember God's deliverance, we must remember God's deliverance. If we are not remembering God's deliverance, we will not remain hopeful. If we are not remembering God's deliverance, we will not remain faithful. If we're not remembering God's deliverance, we're not going to remain expectant upon God. God has established ways for us to remember, knowing that we are forgetful, not just with our minds, but with our hearts. He has established ways for us to remember. You're exercising one of those right now. Every Sunday, the first day of the month, the church gathers because this is the day the Lord rose from the grave. We gather every Sunday to remind one another, to be reminded that Christ is risen. That we have new life in Him. Reading our Bibles is another way to remember. We are blessed to live in a culture, a society, in a prominent way that we all have Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there's Bibles at the end of the pews. Please take one. We can remind ourselves of God's goodness, of His deliverance, by reading our Bibles regularly. God has also established ordinances. We have the ordinance of baptism, but this morning we're going to be thinking about the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Now, typically we observe the Lord's Supper on the first Sunday and a lot of children have been confused. But, you know, are we having lunch afterwards? No, we're not having lunch afterwards. This is a special Lord's Supper. We're doing it because to meditate upon the feast and to go into the Lord's Supper and the wedding feast of the Lamb, it would it would fill empty afterwards to not actually observe and partake of the Lord's Supper. So we're going to end our service with the Lord's Supper, even though it is not first Sunday. This morning, we're looking at the feast of the unleavened bread and we're looking at the feast of the Passover lamb. Last week, we looked at the Passover itself. We're in the book of Exodus, so you can turn there. We're in chapters 12 and 13. So let me give some background to folks who have not been with us thus far, a reminder For those of you who have been with us, God has sent Israel into Egypt. God's people are in exile there. They're away from their promised land. And Egypt has begun enslaving them, attempting to kill them off. They've been punished and has been going on for 400 years. And God, according to his plan, as always, He begins to make steps towards delivering. We finished the first nine plagues and we saw there the primary point is that Yahweh alone is God. Yahweh alone is worthy of worship. He's the one creator. He's sovereign over all these other so-called gods of Egypt. He is in absolute control. It's the tenth plague. It's the climax of the plague. It's a major plague. It's a plague that brings deliverance. It's a plague that brings the greatest destruction. It's a plague that causes Egypt to cry out, get out of here, Israel. God passes through all of Egypt, killing the first born of every home, killing the first born human and the first born beast in every home. And while God is passing through Egypt, exercising his wrath against the sin of Egypt, killing the firstborn, he passes over Israel. A distinction is made. We see that over and over again in the place. A distinction is made between Egypt and Israel. God's wrath is not poured out on Israel because God gave them a sign. He told Israel, kill a lamb. Take the blood, put it over your doorpost, put it over your lintel, hide in that home. Do not come out. Because when I'm passing through Egypt, I will pass over your homes and not exercise my wrath. Because I will see the blood and I will see that as a substitute for the blood of my firstborn, the nation of Israel. We saw How this lamb last week is Jesus Christ. John the Baptist declares, Behold the Lamb of God, who doesn't just cover the sins. He takes them away. The blood in Egypt, the blood on the doorpost, it was just a shield of protection. It covered the sin. It didn't take the sin away. Every year they had to do this because of the blood of the lamb in Israel. They couldn't take away, they just couldn't take away the sin. But Jesus comes as the Lamb of God who takes away the wrath of God. Today we're going to be looking at the two feasts that calls Israel to remember that great deliverance. The deliverance of God's wrath as he passed over their homes, remembrance of God's deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. We're looking at the two feasts, unleavened bread, The Feast of the Passover Lamb. And it's interesting, these two are necessarily tied together. The Unleavened Bread is a seven day feast that leads up to the Passover Feast. They're tied together and they both have the same purpose. To remind Israel every year, God delivered you. Yahweh alone is God. You are his people. He delivered you from the land of Egypt. He gives them reminders and we have to realize from the very beginning to really appreciate this. The reason he gives them this annual reminder and then other reminders throughout the year, because Israel's forgetful. We've already seen Israel reject God once. We're going to see him reject God over and over and over again. They continue to forget how good God has been. They continue to forget that God has exercised his right arm and proven that he is the only God worthy of their worship. They continue to forget. They continue to reject God. They're forgetful. They're swayed by other gods. For us to appreciate this message this morning, we have to remember that we're very much like Israel. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, all these things happen to Israel for us to be a warning, to be an example. We have to realize that the sin that exists in our hearts is always pulling us away from being steadfast and faithful. We lack faith and God is faithful. The first thing we're going to look at this morning is God's unleavened, the feast of the unleavened bread. We remember God's faithfulness to provide bread from above. We remember God's faithfulness to provide bread from above. Let me read the two passages in our text that deal with this. And I'm not going to go back and read the lamb, the Passover context, the Passover text with the deliverance. But I want to remind you. that the feast instructions are intricately and necessarily tied into the different promises that he's going to deliver Israel. And they're tied in afterwards because the deliverance must be remembered. Read with me chapter 12, beginning in verse 14. For context, I'll go back to verse 13, the blood shall be assigned for you on the house 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. We've just discussed God passing through Egypt, passing over Israel, and there he launched it straight into a memorial. This day shall be for you a memorial day and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses. For if anyone eats what is leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly. On the seventh day, a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For on this very day I brought your host out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a statute forever. In the first month, from the 14th day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening. For seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel. Whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land, you shall eat nothing leaven in all your dwelling places. You shall eat unleavened bread. Now flip with me over to chapter 13, where he again repeats the instruction for this feast. The Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever is first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast is mine. Then Moses said to the people, Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand, the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten today in the month of Aviv. You are going out. And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep the service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. No leavened bread shall be seen with you. No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. You shall tell your son on that day, it is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt. And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes. The law of the Lord may be in your mouth for the strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep the statute at its appointed time from year to year. God establishes this feast and the main point I think is you heard the repetition is to remind them the Lord has delivered you. The Lord has drawn you out You hear it there, you shall tell your son, we're doing this because the Lord delivered us. Now this would be an abrupt change, this would be a different way of living for a week. There's no leaven, there's no work. It's intentional to make sure that life changes in such a way that the children would ask, why is our bread different? Why are we living this way? Why is there no leaven throughout all of Israel? And so the parents can then say, because it's a way of reminding us that God delivered us. There's a clear, hard change in lifestyle to bring this about. So the first meaning of the feast is clear. It's a reminder. It represents the deliverance of God. Now, how does unleavened bread represent the deliverance of God? If all we had was our Exodus text. It would have to be that God led them out in haste. Right? They didn't have leaven in their bread because they were leaving in such a haste. They had to leave so quickly. There was an expedience about it. God said, be ready. Kill the lamb, cover your door, have your sandals on, have your belt on, have your staff in your hand. There is a quickness, an absoluteness about God's deliverance. And so, if all we had was the Exodus text, we could see that it's the hastiness that reminds them God quickly delivered them. And therefore, they have unleavened bread to remind them of how quickly God delivered them. Paul actually gives another meaning. I think that is a main point there, the hastiness. But Paul actually interprets the leaven for us in 1 Corinthians 5. In 1 Corinthians 5, we're going to be looking throughout all of Scripture today, so you may want to just have your Bible in hand. We'll be looking at these feasts and we're going to show how they are related to many others. 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says this, Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump. as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Paul interprets the leaven to be the sin of the old way of life. You have been purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, as we talked about last week. You are to be holy for your God, the one who delivered you, he is holy. Do not continue to practice sin. Represented by leaven here. No, you have a new life, a life of sincerity and truth. Our second meeting, our first meeting is that the unleavened bread represents the deliverance of God. Secondly, Paul says that the unleavened bread represents the new life. That is to be without sin. How do we reconcile these two things together? How is it about God's deliverance and it being hasty and also being about God calling us out to be sinless, calling us out to be a people of righteousness, of sincerity and truth? Well, there's one other place we need to look. John 6. Jesus declares. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate bread that came down from heaven and they died. But I am the bread of life that comes down from heaven that gives eternal life. He quenches our appetite. We're no longer hungry. And there he said that difficult teaching. You must eat my body. You must drink my blood and the apostles rightly declare that is a hard saying. Jesus is not speaking directly and literally of his body and blood, but what he is saying there is, you must abide in me. Jesus says that he is the bread of life. This is really our third meaning to the unleavened bread. Jesus is the bread of life. He is the unleavened bread. The bread is pointing to Jesus. Now we have three things. The bread represents God's power to deliver. It represents sinlessness and represents Jesus Christ. So how do we reconcile these three things? Well, it's really about focusing on the last one. Jesus is the deliverer. Jesus is a sinless man who died to deliver us. He is God Almighty who took upon himself a human nature just like ours, except for one very important difference. It was without sin. He is the unleavened bread. He is the bread of life that is without sin. He died in our place. We are full of sin. He is the bread of life. He is full of truth and sincerity. He is sinless and he is God's power to deliver us. So there's the dots are connecting here, I hope. He declares, I'm the bread of life. And it's very clear he is sinless. That is how he is the unleavened bread most proper. But now we who are delivered, we are to commit ourselves to living a life of holiness. As we look at the unleavened bread and we look at the Passover lamb, these two feasts necessarily go together. In this bread of life, we have to look back. We have to look back to the bread of life. We have to look back to Jesus and see that he is the sinless one who died on our behalf, as our substitute. But we also have to recognize that it's pointing us forward. That because Jesus, the sinless one, died for us, we are now called to repent. We are now called to put away sin. We are called to put away sexual immorality. We're called to put away malice and slander. Because the sinless one died for us, we are now called to be committed to sinlessness. We are called to be committed to living lives worthy of the Lamb. This means we must be watchful lest we be taken over by the world. So the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, it points us to Jesus, the one who was without sin, the one who dies for us, the one who delivers us. and points us to living lives that are worthy of him. Let's move now to the Passover lamb. We remember God's faithfulness to provide the lamb who dies for our sins. We remember God's faithfulness to provide the lamb who dies for our sins. There's a particular text here that we need to look at before we get into the details of the Passover lamb itself. and that is chapter 12 verses 43 through 49 and this is where Moses or rather the Lord saying to Moses sets apart who can participate in this piece. Read with me chapter 12 verse 43 and the Lord said to Moses and Aaron this is a statue of the Passover no foreigner shall eat of it. But every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him. No foreigner or hard worker may eat of it. It shall be in one house. You shall not take any of the flesh outside of the house, and you shall not break any of its bones. All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover of the Lord, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it. He shall be the native of the land, but no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourn among us. And the people of Israel did just the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day, the Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their house. Here, God is saying who can participate in it, and if we look, it's very clear it's the Only the circumcised could participate in the Passover feast, and there's a good reason for that. The Passover feast is a celebration of God keeping his covenant and delivering his people who are under his covenant. Circumcision is a sign that is first introduced to define who those people are. Circumcision is a sign that marks off the covenant people. The Passover is a celebration for God's covenant people. One cannot celebrate what they are not properly in. Here we see that circumcision must go before the Lord's Supper, because you cannot properly celebrate what you are not properly under. We can remember Moses. He is going to go be the leader of Israel out of Egypt, and he has not yet circumcised his own sons. And so God almost killed him to make sure that he and his family have the sign of the covenant. So why does God limit who can participate in the Lord's Supper? Because it's a sacred meal. It's a meal set apart for worship of him. It's a meal set apart for the people who have been delivered by him. It's a meal set apart for those who are God's people. Now, this has an important application for us because we can see there's some similarities in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant as circumcision related to the Passover meal. So baptism relates to the Lord's Supper. Circumcision and baptism are not exactly alike, but the sign of circumcision is no longer recognized in the New Covenant as the sign of the covenant. It has been replaced by baptism. The Passover meal is no longer recognized in the New Covenant on Jesus' blood as the meal. No, it's the Lord's Supper. Just as one had to be circumcised, one had to be identified with the covenant, people to participate in the celebration, one must be baptized to celebrate the Lord's Supper. Because the Lord's Supper is a foretaste. The Lord's Supper is a looking forward as much as a looking back of what God has done and that God is good to us. Now, I say baptism and I say circumcision and the Passover are similar to baptism and Lord's Supper. We, of course, believe that one is a believer as well. Circumcision was applied to everyone in the house of Moses or Abraham. But we believe baptism is applied and effective only for those who are of the faith. Let's move on. And think about how we as God's faithful, we as those who have our faith in Christ are to celebrate the Passover feast in Jesus Christ. The Passover feast looks back. First, it is a reminder of what God has done. God said in chapter four, Israel is my firstborn son. Israel, the nation, I'm adopting them to be my firstborn son. In order to deliver them, I'm going to kill all the firstborn of Egypt. He removes the wrath of God. God Himself removes His wrath from the people of Israel. At the same time, He removes them from the slavery of Egypt. The Passover meal is looking back to when God was gracious in passing over their sin and when God was gracious in removing them out of slavery. Secondly, the Lamb isn't just looking back. The Lamb's looking forward. We've already mentioned these lambs are not perfect. These lambs are not sufficient for what we really need, and that is evidenced by the fact that every year another lamb had to die for every family, which meant hundreds of lambs had to die over and over and over again, pointing to how insufficient they are. All they did was cover the sin. No, these lambs were pointing forward to the Lamb of God who wouldn't just cover sin. He would take it away. We now look forward. Jesus came and John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Why is this man being called the Lamb of God? Why is this 30 something year old man being called the Lamb of God? Because he's not just any man. He's God himself who set aside his crown who set aside his glory and took upon himself the humble state of a servant. He himself was led to the slaughter to be killed for the transgressions of many. He is the Passover lamb who is sufficient to take away the sins of the people, not just cover them. This was God's plan all along. After we had sinned, it wasn't that these lambs would be slaughtered year after year. No, these lambs are pointing us to the one who would be slain. And it was a once and for all sacrifice. He came to die for sinners. He came to take away our sin. He came to be our substitute. He came to wash us white as snow. This is where the firstborn of God, Jesus Christ, he becomes the lamb. He's not the lamb by nature. He's a he's almighty God who then takes upon another nature apart from himself human. And then he submits himself to being the lamb. Not only is he declared to be the Lamb by John the Baptist, he makes himself the Lamb. He commits to being humble to the point of death to be the Lamb of God. In John 12, six days before the Passover, he goes into Jerusalem. The same day that the Lambs are being set aside for slaughter, he goes into Jerusalem, setting himself apart to be the Lamb. When he arrives, He gives instructions that we've already read, but I want to read again to his disciples. Chapter 26 of Matthew, verse 17, you can read it in your bulletin or in your Bible. Now, on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, where will you have us prepare you to eat the Passover? He said, Go into the city of a certain to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house and my disciples and the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and they prepared the Passover. When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve and as they were eating, he said, Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, Is it I, Lord? He answered, He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him. But woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for the man if he had not been born. Judas, who would betray him, answered, Is it I, Rabbi? He said to him, You have said so. Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread. Took the unleavened bread and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take. Eat. This is my body. And he took a cup and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. I tell you, I will not drink again this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new with you in my father's home. Christ has just instituted a new feast, a new meal. He has actually said, I have now fulfilled that old covenant meal, the two meals, the unleavened bread, the Passover lamb. I have fulfilled them. This is my body. I fulfilled this. This is my blood. I am the lamb, but I'm not just a lamb that covers a sin. I am the lamb that forgives the sin. Take the bread and eat it. The bread of heaven that gives true life. Take the cup and drink it. The blood of the covenant that unites us with Christ. Christ ended the Passover meals. And he connected them both to the one Lord's Supper, and he's made an ordinance for us to remember forever. I want you to notice something. There's the last line of Matthew 26, 29. I tell you, I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom. He's not going to have this meal again until he has with us in heaven. That takes us to our call to worship this morning. Go look in your bulletin, Revelation 19. Hallelujah for the Lord, our God, the almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. The fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. The supper is an honor of the lamb and Spurgeon made the observation he really would expect it to be the marriage supper of the lion. Because here we see Christ and all of his victory and his splendor. But no, it's got to be the lamb. It has to be the lamb because it's the lamb who laid down his life for us. That is the metaphor, the picture that we must always remember, even throughout all of eternity, because it's the lamb that died for us. He rose victorious, but it's the lamb and his blood that was shed that washes us white as snow. It's the lamb that died and his blood that forgives us of our sins. Christ died for us, as Paul says in Ephesians 5, to remove every blemish, to remove every wrinkle, to remove every spot. See, we're gross in our sin. We need washed. And Christ here is presented as the bridegroom who becomes the lamb who washes us in his own blood. So we've got all these metaphors. The Lamb washes us in His blood and then He adds to it. It's the Bridegroom who becomes the Lamb. The Bridegroom who loves His Church. The Bridegroom who loves His Bride. The Bridegroom who is holy and righteous and pursues His Bride. Who loves Her. Who lays down His life for Her. It's so intimate, it's so powerful, this is the greatest love anyone has ever known. In order to really appreciate it, there's one other metaphor we need to realize or recognize in Scripture. Scripture likens us to a prostitute. Scripture likens us to a whore. Because our hearts always forget who we were created for. Our hearts constantly go astray and worship everything other than God. While we're going out and seeking everything we possibly can worship under the sun, God is saying, I'm going to pursue you with my love and my son, and I'm going to die for you. So I can call you out of your impurity. I can call you out of your idolatry. I'm going to call you out of your whoredom and wash you. White as snow. Friends, this is love, as we sang earlier, here is love, the Prince of life, he poured out his precious blood, grace and love like a mighty river, kisses. A guilty world in love. The love of the land, the love of the bridegroom, who his love will not remember, That's us. That's what we need to gather to remember. We need to be reading God's words we remember. We need to be fellowshipping to remember. We need to constantly recognize that our hearts are always searching something else and God is always searching us. We are faithless. He is faithful. We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper this morning to remind ourselves of what Christ accomplished for us. He died, the sinless man, the bread of life, the sinless man, he died in our place. He rose again to give us new life. He poured out his blood for us that washes us white as snow. He rose again to give us hope. The Lord's Supper reminds us of what Christ has done, but it also reminds us that his work is not done. There's actually more. This is what's amazing about God's word. He doesn't just forgive us. He doesn't just declare us righteous. He's going to make us righteous. He's going to remove the blemish. Friends, the Lord's Supper doesn't just remind us what Christ has done, it should point us forward. It should point us forward, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus said, do this until I come again. See, we need to be an expectant, watchful people. We need to be a people who recognizes constantly we've been saved from our sin. We will be delivered completely from our sin in a day to come. But right now, our hearts are always entangled. Our hearts are always tempted. Our hearts are always going astray. Our hearts are always forgetful. We have to learn to hate that part of us. That sin that is within, that's constantly making us love something other than God. We have to long for the day. We have to long for the day where that is no longer there. When we sing to God and to the Lamb, we sing to God and to the Lamb wholeheartedly, single focus. Without temptation, without the confusion, without the distraction, without the forgetfulness. That's why we take the Lord's Supper. I want to introduce a new tradition here to remind us to look forward. When the after the cup has been passed and the prayers been made. The presenter will say, come, Lord Jesus. And we'll say, come quickly. Let's practice that, come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. The reason we say that is because we cannot be satisfied with this world. Come quickly. I'm sick of the sin that hinders me from worshiping you. That's what you're declaring there. Come Lord Jesus. We have to be an expected people. We need to be expecting Jesus to come, we need to be watching for Jesus to come. We need to be living a life where we're worshiping. Looking forward to the day when we will no longer be worshiping with the hindrance of sin. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, how rich is your word, how rich is your mercy and grace. How we have only begun to even think about one part of your plan of salvation. One or two metaphors that declare how great you are, our minds cannot comprehend your love. But Laura, we ask that you would continue to give us a deeper knowledge of it. As we meditate upon your word today and how you have prepared all these feasts to remind us. To meditate upon the sinless life of Christ, that was that who died in our place. It's a matter of fact that he rose again so that we are looking forward to him coming back. Help us, Lord, to be a watchful and expectant people. Help us, Lord, to constantly be thankful for who you are. What you have done and that you are not done yet. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.