Exodus 11, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterward, he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will drive you away completely. Speak now in the hearing of the people that they ask every man of his neighbor, every woman of her neighbor for silver and gold jewelry. And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. 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. 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 your 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. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. 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 10th 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 this month, when 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. 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 roast it, its head with its legs and inner parts. 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, your 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. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a fast 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. And 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 hosts 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 leavened. In all your dwelling places, you shall eat unleavened bread. Then Moses called all 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 houses to strike you. 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 has 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 a 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 worshiped. and the people of Israel went and did so, as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in 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 the firstborn of the livestock. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all 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 summons Moses and Aaron by night and said, 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. 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 and 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 Sukkot, about 600,000 men on foot besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with them and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 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. The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It was a night of watching by the Lord to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So this same night is a night of watching kept to the Lord by all the people of Israel throughout their generations. Amen. Let's pray. Gracious God and Father, we come to your word once more and we ask that you speak to us, for we are listening and hearing. And Father, we would see not only what occurred on this night thousands of years ago, but Father, what occurred on the same Passover night 2,000 years ago with Christ And that, Father, we would not only look back, but look forward. And, Lord, live in light of the death of the great Passover lamb, Jesus Christ, slain for our sins. That, Father, now we would leave Egypt in haste and walk, nourished by Christ, into Christ, in union with Christ. Help us, Father, we pray. Give me strength. For we ask all these things in his name, amen. This is the middle of three scenes that we're looking at from the book of Exodus. We began by setting up the scene, the story with what happened in the first opening chapters of Exodus when there was a Pharaoh that did not know Joseph. And he, because he did not know Joseph, did not know Joseph's God. And as a result of not knowing Joseph's God, did not know who he was. And this is, of course, always the case. That when we don't know God, we don't know who we are. And he believed himself to be a God, to be a deity of some sort who could enslave this foreign people. And so we see that next in the plagues of Egypt, which we considered last week, in that first scene, God is beginning to weaken the grip of Satan upon his people. And now we get to the middle of the divine drama, the Passover and the firstborn plague. And here we see that after this 10th plague, Israel will be released from Egypt. And this, of course, is the great significance of this plague that not only are the firstborn of Egypt killed, but the people of God celebrate that God has passed over them. God has revealed his salvation. They are saved because of the blood of this Passover lamb. Not something that they would have invented, but it's a Passover lamb that God himself has appointed for their salvation. And so as we consider what this means for us this night to remember, we do so in three points. We look back at what God has done and what God did in Egypt. We look back at how God saved his people at the time of the Exodus. But secondly, we look back at Jesus Christ and how here in this passage, we look forward to Jesus Christ and his cross And then finally and thirdly, what are the consequences for our lives? How then are we to live? First of all then, looking back at what God did to Egypt. God is going to pour out his judgment upon the entire land of Egypt in this tenth and final plague. God says all of Egypt's firstborn will be slaughtered by God, both men and beasts, from the greatest to the lowest. Why the firstborn? Why not just decimate all of Egypt? Well, God doesn't have to kill, and he need not kill all Egyptians, just the firstborn, because the firstborn symbolizes the continuation of life. They symbolize, the firstborns do, prosperity and stability for generations to come, the ones who will receive the inheritance of the family. And so by killing all of Egypt's firstborn, God, you see, is saying that He is going to dispossess all of Egypt. He is going to sack their inheritance. He is going to snuff out their future, their life, their society. And God Himself will do it. God here doesn't use intermediaries. The destroyer that He mentions in verse 23 of chapter 12 of Exodus, and I will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. That's Him. God is both savior and destroyer. God himself will carry out this plague. Repeatedly we're told as we read through the text, I will go out in the midst of Egypt. I will strike all the firstborn. I will execute judgments upon all the gods of Egypt. I, I, I. This is the works. This is the Lord's work. This is the work of God himself. There's such divine precision here, right? In case the Egyptians thought, oh, there were natural causes to these plagues, to the locusts and the gnats, and you know, usually at that time, the river turns blood red. Here, there is no such basis for a natural cause, not that there ever was. The firstborn, the firstborn with such divine surgical precision will be slaughtered by God and both Egypt confesses it and Israel confesses it. It's a mighty and supernatural work of God. What would the scene have been like for Egypt? There may have been some in Egypt who had escaped plagues one through nine but not one Egyptian firstborn escapes God's judgment here. There may have been some throughout the span of six months when God was pouring forth plague after plague, right? We're told that when the hail came from above, that the livestock could have been ushered away and kept safe and spared that plague. And yet here, no one is spared. God, you see, is taking each firstborn from Egypt one by one, one by one, all of Egypt, having been told, God is going to do this. The God of the Hebrews is going to kill each of the firstborn children, each of the firstborn offspring of the beasts. And perhaps some of them thought nothing of it. Whatever. Perhaps some thought, well, maybe others, but not ours, not our household. But one by one, one by one, one by one, every firstborn dies. The child that at one moment was crying The firstborn infant, eerily silence. The Egyptian goes to the crib. There's no breath. There's no movement. There's no cry. There is no life. The older firstborn who had been mucking it up perhaps at midnight, stilled by the death. that has come upon Egypt by the destroyer who is visiting every household in Egypt. And then Pharaoh, what are we told about Pharaoh? He cradles his own dead firstborn son in his arms. You see, from the greatest to the lowest, from the most powerful to the least powerful, God has reduced Egypt's gods to nothing. And he shows this by killing even Pharaoh's firstborn, the next in line to be Egypt's God. And the way this narrative reads, often we're told what God will do, and then we're told what God does in fact do, and it's all the same. The one corresponds to the other. In verse 11 of chapter 6, we're told, there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt. And then in chapter 12, verse 30, God fulfills this to a T. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all 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. Egypt, you see, is filled with the cries of agony. of every household discovering that their firstborn has been killed by the God of the Hebrews. And piercing streams fill the air as God, cloaked as the destroyer, as death itself, descends upon Egypt. God is visiting Egypt. God is judging Egypt. And each Egyptian home is a tomb that is marked by death. And you see all of Egypt is this mass grave where God is burying the people. and they're false gods. God is judging Egypt. But what's the scene for Israel? The scene for Israel is the complete opposite. It's the complete opposite. Psalm 91 written hundreds of years later is true for Israel, and it's true for us today. The psalmist there says, you will not fear the terror of the night, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness. A thousand may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. This is true of God's people then and there. It's true of God's people here and now, that when we are found covered by the blood of the Passover lamb, we need not fear the terror of night. We need not fear the terror of God's condemnation. Perhaps Israel heard the screams of the Egyptians in the distance, and yet we're told in each Israel, an Israelite household, there is great hustle and bustle. In chapter 12, verse 11, in this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste. They are eating it, ready, prepared to leave Egypt, rejoicing in God's deliverance, that they are the generation that will see, that will enjoy and experience God saving them from Egypt's slavery. And they're singing his praises. They are leaving Egypt tonight. We're leaving Egypt tonight. And yet, beloved, what is the only thing that saves Israel from God's terrible judgments that has come upon all in Egypt? In chapter 12, verse 13 and verse 23, as well, 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. What's the only thing that can save Israel? What's the only thing that can save these Jewish households? It's the blood of the Passover lamb that God has appointed. for their covering, for their shelter and protection, that blood of the Passover lamb that must be sprinkled on the two doorposts and on the lintel, the doorways that framed the entrance to every house in antiquity. When God sees the blood, God will pass over in mercy. And not only does the Lord pass over, but the connotation, the meaning in verse 23 and 24, I will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. Is that not only does the Lord pass over, but the Lord himself stands guard. He is at the doorpost hovering over Israel, hovering over every household, preserving his people as Israel's protector, as her keeper, as her guardian, as her Lord. Israel's homes, Israelite homes are also marked by death, but it's the death not of their firstborn. It's the death of the Passover lamb. There is still death in each home and each home, as it were, is also a tomb, but each home will become an empty resurrection tomb in the morning because Israel is leaving Egypt tonight. In one and the same act, God is saving his people and judging Egypt. And of course, what does this all mean? What does this all mean except that it's Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, who is our only salvation. who is our only covering, who is our only keeper and guardian. What alone can save you from God's wrath? God himself, Jesus Christ, the Passover lamb whose blood was shed for your sins. The Passover lamb, you see, is a type The type just means a symbol that's instituted by God, whose meaning is given by the work of Christ many years later. Passover lamb is a type of Christ, is a shadow of Christ, right? Old Testament has many shadows that are created by the substance that casts the shadow. If you see your shadow, your shadow does not exist independent of you, right? Your shadow exists because you're there and there's light and it's casting a shadow over you and on the floor. And that's what a shadow is in the Old Testament. The substance of redemption is Jesus Christ, but we see shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament and you see them even here as the Passover lamb is prepared and the instructions given for the Passover lamb's preparation. In verse five of chapter 12, we're told that it must be a year old in the prime of its life. And Jesus Christ, of course, was in the prime of his life, 33 and a half years old, when he is killed and slaughtered by his father. He is without blemish, as the Passover lamb was to be without blemish, without defects, pure and perfect. We're told that the Passover lamb in verse 3 and in verse 6 was to be consecrated, set apart for four days. They were to pick out the lamb on the 10th day of the month, and on the 14th day of the month, they would slaughter the lamb, showing us that Jesus Christ is brought from within the family of Israel. He's one of us. The lamb is roasted in the fire, showing us that Jesus Christ will endure the burning wrath of God. The Passover lamb is killed in front of all Israel, in front of the congregation of the people of God, showing us that Jesus Christ will be publicly put to death as the Son of God, charged with the crime and the sin of being a traitor to Rome and a blasphemer of God. John begins his gospel account telling us that John the Baptist declares, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And here you see what we're being told is that we are being prepared to see the slaughter, the sacrifice of this Passover Lamb. And indeed, in John 19, we're told that it's happening, Jesus Christ on the cross, and yet no bone is broken to fulfill scripture. And the blood is not put on some wooden doorposts and on a lintel, but here many thousands of years after the Passover celebration is instituted in Jerusalem, there arrives finally the Passover lamb, the true lamb of God on the altar of Calvary on a wooden cross. God has appointed Jesus Christ. as the Lamb to be slain. Here is the Lamb upon whom the Father will pour out His wrath. Here is the Lamb that in order for us to receive God's mercy, in order for us to be passed over by God in mercy, must be slain for us. What Israel would have understood was very basic, very primitive, very, very plain. I am well. I am preserved this evening because this lamb's blood has been shed and sprinkled on the doorposts and on the doorframe. And here today, we must say the same very basically, very simply, very plainly. That we are well, we are saved, we are protected, we are sheltered from God's wrath. Why? Because Jesus, the Passover lamb, represents me. Because Jesus died for me. Because His death is my death. Because His blood is shed for me. Because what I could never do, God did. God accomplishes for me my very salvation. And at the risk of offending you, can I make this point obvious and plain? You have no salvation outside of Jesus Christ. You cannot take refuge in anything outside of the blood of Christ. He was appointed for you. He was sacrificed for you, for your household. You must place him over your life and place your life under him. You must take refuge in that sacrifice alone. Because it's that sacrifice alone, beloved. that can take away your sins and take away God's wrath from upon your life. But another point needs to be pointed out and drawn attention to. That what makes the church different from the world is not something that lies within us. Exodus 11, 7 says that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. The Lord makes a distinction. Beloved, what business do we have as God's people? Is there anything in us that merits salvation? We're all deserving of God's wrath. We are, like the rest of mankind, conceived and born in sin. We are all in Egypt. We will all suffer God's divine judgment. And before we are saved, we lie, Ephesians 2 says, under God's wrath, like the rest of mankind. So if we are to be freed from Egypt, if we are to be freed from our sins, if we are to be freed from God's wrath, what must happen but Christ shed his blood for us? It's God, you see, in making the distinction between Israel and Egypt. It's God who saves us. What can we do to pay for our own sins? Nothing. What work do we have? What obedience can we present to God? Jesus paid it all, as the hymn says, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. This is a night to remember because Israel knows that they would suffer the same fate as Egypt, except for the blood of the lamb on the doorposts that covers them. But there's something else that we're told that is taught us here. Again, making it very plain for us, Not only is Jesus Christ your only salvation, but the converse is true as well. Those who trust in false gods will be destroyed. Those who refuse the blood of the Lamb are condemned. We see this in Jeremiah 51. Who is Bel? Bel was one of the false gods of Babylon. Who is Bel? What can Bel do? What are the false gods of this world? Where are they? Let them present themselves. Can they stop God's judgment? Can they do what God has done? No, because they are dead. They are false. They are powerless. They are nothing. And those who worship them become like them. Nothing and dead. And what we're told repeatedly, beloved, is Jesus Christ, here's your salvation. Here it is. But who has received it? Who has believed the good news of Jesus Christ? Who wants the blood of the lamb? And beloved, this is something our world doesn't understand. And yet the church must continue to proclaim to neighbor, to friend, to family, to whoever. that we cannot ever get around. We cannot ever get behind or under the death of Jesus. He is him. He is it. He is salvation alone. You need not die if you but take refuge in him. He's been appointed as your savior. Egypt need not die. And we're told, in fact, that many of them found refuge in the homes of Israelite families. There was a mixed multitude that came out of Egypt. Egyptians who said, I understand this God of the Hebrews. He is almighty. He's powerful. He is a destroyer and he will continue to vanquish us. I do not want to fight against this God of the Hebrews. I must take refuge in him. The world need not die if it would but take refuge in Christ alone. It's either Christ and life and peace and salvation or it's anything else or anyone else and death. The Passover celebration looks back at what Jesus did in Egypt. It looks back at what Jesus did on the cross, but then it calls us to look forward to how we are now to live. There's so many elements here in the Passover celebration that we can't look at with great detail, but we are to celebrate. Christ's mercies and we are to live with bitter herbs, which was an element of the Passover celebration. Bitter herbs symbolize the bitterness of bondage in Egypt. We are to celebrate God's mercies with contrition and repentance. How burdened we would be in Egypt, but how glorious is Christ's rescue of us from Egypt. We are to celebrate Christ's mercies with unleavened bread. Unleavened bread. It's bread that is not mixed with fermented dough or yeast, and in Scripture, it's oftentimes a symbol of impurity and of sin. And in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6, 7, and 8, Paul there says that because Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us, we are to celebrate His mercies with sincerity and in truth, and not with malice or evil. In other words, our lives are to be consecrated to God without leaven. We are now made by God ready to serve Him. Not lives mixed with sin, not with lives still enslaved in Egypt. We are to leave, rather, all of Egypt behind. all of your sins, all of your previous life. If you had a time when you weren't in Christ, all of the life, if you've been born and raised in the church, right? You're not conscious of a time where you were in darkness. You're not conscious of a time when you were living actively in sin, but you have to leave behind all of the life that would have been yours in Adam. It doesn't belong to you anymore. It's not who you are. You are now to live a life without loving, living for Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, that now you would live for Him. And you are to live for Christ, celebrating Christ's mercies continually, continually thanking God. We're told repeatedly in chapter 12, verse 14, 17, 24, that this celebration stands as a memorial forever. We are, in other words, to be eternally grateful to God. And we celebrate God's salvation now transposed in Jesus Christ, not looking only at the Exodus, but looking more importantly at the cross of Christ. But how can we thank God? How can we thank God if we don't remember God? And how are we to remember God except in one of many ways? Through that meal he has established. In his last meal, in the last Passover he celebrated, on the night in which he was betrayed, a meal which signs and seals his love for us, which points to and reassures us of his salvation. What is Christ telling us? What do we see here illustrated for us in this bread and wine, which we will partake of shortly? This is Christ's love for you. This is Christ's body broken and pierced for you. This is Christ's blood shed for you. That your sins would be forgiven, that you would never be forsaken by God. But now, after having been rescued by Christ, God invites us to eat with him, to drink with him, to commune with him forever. But not only, you see, are we redeemed by the lamb of God, as the Israelite families ate that lamb, that lamb would have fortified them for the journey that was yet to come out of Egypt and through the Red Sea to Canaan. And the same is true as we celebrate this New Testament Passover meal, which is the Lord's Supper. Not only are we assured of our salvation, but we are strengthened and nourished to live for God. God tells us, go out of Egypt in haste. Do not now stay in Egypt. Do not now be settled in Egypt. This land has been sacrificed for you that you would partake of it. It is your salvation, but it's also your strength. Be nourished by Christ's body and blood and do not settle in Egypt. You must leave. You must go, go, go out in haste. Christ was sacrificed for your departure from Egypt to strengthen you now in your walk. with him to strengthen and to nourish you now to live for him in this pilgrimage that we call the Christian life. Amen, let's pray. Our Father and our God, we do thank you and praise you for how good you are to us. We thank you for the salvation You revealed to your people long ago in the Exodus, in that 10th plague, Father, where you judged Egypt, but you saved your people. And we thank you, Father, for how it points to Christ, that now, Lord, we could see more clearly the work of Christ, that in, Father, his broken body and shed blood for us, we have redemption. Your judgment and wrath has been taken by him. And Father, not only would we be spared, but we would be forgiven and now given, Father, the very righteousness of Christ. Father, as we now transition to this holy meal, as we celebrate the body and blood of Christ, we pray, Lord. that you would strengthen us to remember you, to thank you, and to live for you now and forever. We pray in his name. Amen.