The Passover Lamb
Aim: To expound on the Passover and show how Christ is our Passover
Text: Leviticus 23:5; Exodus 11:4-7 & 12:1-14
Introduction: Last Sunday morning we began a series on the feasts of Israel, and i showed you, from Leviticus 23, how God has set out a plan of the ages, a great prophetic calendar whereby the history of the Jewish people from the time of Christ to the end has been predicted. The first four feasts, are the spring time feasts and these have been fulfilled in Christ’s first coming, the last three feasts the autumn feasts are yet to be fulfilled, but will be fulfilled as perfectly as the first four when Jesus Christ comes to earth a second time.
Now the first in order of the seven solemn feasts is the Feast of Passover. Symbolically it typifies the foundation of the full accomplishment of God’s plan for the salvation of sinners. And that plan centres around a lamb.
That lamb is pictorial. It pictures Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says “For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” In Leviticus Moses simpy lists the Passover as the first among God’s appointed feasts, but in Exodus chapter 12 we are given a more comprehensive picture of the feast leading us to one of the most dramatic and complete types of Christ in the Old Testament.
I. The Selection of the Lamb - vss 1- 3
A. Now the Passover was necessitated by the tenth plague that was to befall ancient Egypt.
1. For four hundred years the Hebrew people have been in Egypt as slaves and they have been crying out to God.
a. In response God has provided a deliverer - Moses.
b. But Pharaoh wouldn’t hear Moses so the land of Egypt was subject to a series of plagues, awful judgments each one a challenge to the gods of Egypt.
(i) Water has been turned into blood, there was frogs, lice and flies, hail and fire, disease and darkness and yet Pharaoh remained intransigent, unwilling to move, unwilling to bow to the God of Israel - sso in the 10th plague he is about to experience - the death of the firstborn.
(ii) God’s angel of death was to pass through the land and every firstborn son was to die in one night.
B. From the moment God forewarned of this plague He made known His intent to “put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” (Exodus 11:7b).
1. We shall say more about this difference in a bit, but let me say to you from the first, that the difference between Egypt and Israel hinged upon a lamb.
2. You see the death of the firstborn was upon all that were in the land of Egypt.
3. The Israelites were in Egypt - failure to accept God’s prescription meant death would come to their homes just as readily as it would visit any Egyptian home.
4. Whether an Israelite lived or died depended upon what he did with the lamb.
B. Now notice in verse 3 “In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house.” (Exodus 12:3).
1. Every home was required to set apart and single out a lamb.
2. In the generations to come the Passover lamb was to be chosen for four days prior to the slaughter.
3. For four days the lamb was appointed unto death.
4. Now this speaks to us of Christ.
5. Not for four days, but for the better part of four years the Lord Jesus ministered upon this earth.
6. At the very outset of his ministry He wound his way to the banks of Jordan to be baptised of John, and as he approached that prophet John the Baptist took one look at Him and cried out “ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
7. In that moment John singled Jesus out. In that moment Christ was set apart for death.
8. Before he uttered the first words of His ministry, before He had called a single disciple, before He had performed His first miracle, Jesus was appointed unto death. He was singled out from the flock of Israel.
C. Jesus was marked out for death before He was actually slain.
1. The death of Christ was no surprise.
2. It was not a surprise to God the father, nor was it a surprise to God the Son.
3. All along the intention of God was have Jesus put to death.
a. The apostle Peter records that we are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20).
b. Revelation 13:8 describes Him as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
D. The world views the death of Christ as an act of fate, a tragic miscarriage of justice, but the Bible portrays it as an appointment set in eternity past - there Jesus was set apart as a lamb, appointed unto death.
II. The Superiority of the Lamb - vss 4-5a
A. Not a word of Scripture is wasted look at this fifth verse “Your lamb shall be without blemish.”
1. They were not to look for any lamb, but to look for a spotless lamb.
2. The slightest bruise, the slightest scratch, a limp leg, a blinded eye disqualified this creature from sacrifice.
3. The sacrifice had to be perfect. Why? Because the Lord Jesus is perfect.
B. Now I want you to understand something about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus was impeccable.
1. He was and is the only perfect Man.
2. As Peter put it He is “without blemish and without spot.”
3. You might say “Adam was the perfect Man.”
4. In terms of his creation that is true, but not in terms of His character.
5. You see the difference between Adam and Jesus is this Adam was able to sin, Jesus was not.
6. Adam was entirely human, whereas Jesus was both human and Divine, He is God’s man, and man’s God - 100% human 100% divine - that is the mystery of the incarnation, and because He possessed Divinity it was impossible for him to sin.
7. Jesus could not sin - it was impossible.
a. John 14:30 “For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”
b. There was nothing in Jesus that would respond to temptation, there were no hidden sins, no skeletons in His closet, He was absolutely flawless, completely without blemish, so much so that Judas who betrayed him confessed “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood”, and even Pilate who searched for a reason to execute Him was forced to declare “I find no fault in Him.”
c. Hebrews 5:9 “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.”
d. “He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:9b).
e. He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15).
f. “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22).
8. The superiority of the lamb is essential to Passover.
III. The Significance of the Lamb - vss 5b -11
A. We come to a passage like this and we read down through these details and think they are just a peculiar list of regulations and requirements.
1. But there are reasons why these details are given.
2. Some are practical, others pictorial, but either way they all have a purpose.
3. Our interest this morning is in those that are pictorial.
4. You see this passage of Scripture is significant in respect to Christ.
B. Notice the lamb was to be “a male of the first year.”
1. Why is the age of the sacrifice prescribed.
2. The Hebrew is very specific here, it reads “a male, the son of a year.” That means it was to be one year old.
a. The lamb was not to be too young, nor too old.
b. It was to die in the fullness of its strength.
3. How does that apply to Jesus.
a. Think about WHEN Jesus died.
b. Not in old age, nor in childhood, not in boyhood, nor in youth, he died at the age of thirty three and a half.
c. As the Psalmist He was taken away in “the midst of my days” (Psalms 102:24). In the peak of life, in the fullness of His strength
C. Then the lamb was to be killed “in the evening” (vs 6)
1. Literally “between the two evenings” meaning late afternoon, between the time the sun is declining and sunset
2. That is exactly when Jesus died.
a. When we read the gospels we understand Jesus died at the ninth hour - on our clock that reads at 3 pm.
b. In Judaism a new day dawns at 6 pm - evening begins.
c. Jesus died between the two evenings.
d. By the way, although the Passover involved every household having a representative lamb, notice as we read this that never once does God refer to lambs (plural) but always to lamb (singular) for whilst the eyes of the Israelites in Egypt was upon their flocks, God was casting His eye further down the Lamb of Calvary.
D. The Lamb was to be completely burnt. (vs 8-10)
1. Why had it to be roasted? Why not boiled. Why not eaten raw?
2. Because fire is always associated with judgment.
3. See Lamentations 1:12-13a
4. In Psalm 102. the Messiah cries out “For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. Because of thine indignation and thy wrath.” (psalm 102:3 7 10a)
5. Again in Psalm 32:4 “My moisture is turned into the drought of summer.”
6. His cry from the cross was “I thirst.” Understand the cross is not an accident but an altar, a place of judgment where God pours out His wrath, His anger, His hatred of our sin.
7. Nothing of this sacrifice was to “remain until the morning.”
a. When the next day dawned there was to be no trace of it - it was gone.
b. Well you remember that Jesus was crucified at Passover and the next day was a Sabbath, and the Jews were keen that the crucifixion should not continue into the Sabbath day and that the bodies be removed.
(i) “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” (John 19:31).
8. The morning after the crucifixion Jesus’ body was gone, requested by Joseph and buried out of sight.
IV. The Salvation In The Lamb - vss 12-14
A. Israel was told that on the night of the last plague the death angel would sweep through the land, and that the first born in every home would die.
1. This was as true for the Hebrews as it was for the Egyptians.
2. Yet God’s intent was to put a difference between the two.
3. The question then arises how is this difference marked
4. It is marked by the application of the blood - vs 7
a. As the Jew set the basin of lamb’s blood at the threshold of his door, and began sprinkling it upon the door posts & lintel he was marking out the cross.
b. The difference between the Egyptian and Jew was not in their behaviour or in their nature - both were sinners - the difference was in the blood.
c. The blood made a difference. The cross made a difference.
d. You see if it wasn’t for the blood of the lamb, if it wasn’t for the blood of Christ none of us could be saved.
e. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22).
Conclusion: In Jesus Christ God has provided for our salvation a sacrificial Lamb. A perfect Lamb, a Lamb without blemish or spot. That the lamb has been provided and his blood spilt does not in itself make you saved. You see the lamb must be received and the blood must be applied. An ancient Israelite might have selected a proper lamb, he might well have slain it and eaten its flesh, but unless he applied its blood to the doorposts and lintel of his home the Angel of Death would have entered his house and taken his firstborn.
So too with Jesus. It is not enough for me to know that Jesus shed His blood for the remission of my sins. The fact that the Saviour is provided is not enough. He must be received. There must be an exercise of “faith in his blood,” and faith is a personal thing. I must exercise faith. I must by faith apply the blood of Christ to me and shelter beneath it. I must place it between my sins and a Holy God.
The story is told of a young soldier in Cromwell’s army who had been court martialed and sentenced to death. He was to be shot at the "ringing of the curfew bell." His fiancée- climbed up into the bell tower several hours before curfew time and tied herself to the bell’s huge clapper. At curfew time, when only muted sounds came out of the bell tower, Cromwell demanded to know why the bell was not ringing. His soldiers went to investigate and found the young woman cut and bleeding from being knocked back and forth against the great bell. They brought her down and Cromwell was so impressed with her willingness to suffer in this way on behalf of someone she loved that he let the soldier go saying, "Curfew shall not ring tonight."
My friend that is something like what Jesus did for us. He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. He is God’s passover Lamb, and we do well to heed the words of John concerning Him: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
