The Passover Lamb
Ex 12:1-13
I. Introduction
In this passage God instituted the Passover. The children of Israel had been in bondage to Egypt for four hundred years. God had promised to give them their own land for a possession. God had sent Moses their deliverer to bring them out of bondage.
Because of the hardness of Pharoah’s heart, God was sending plagues upon Egypt. Pharaoh had hardened his heart at all the other plagues so God brought about the tenth and the worst plague of all. It was during this time that God ordered a special of celebration for the children of Israel, the Passover.
Today we are going to see: What the Passover Lamb did for the children of Israel and the fact that we have our own Passover Lamb!
Remember the conversation of Abraham and Isaac as Abraham was taking his son up the mountain to offer him as a sacrifice!
Gen 22:7-8
Then he said, "Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
8 And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went together.
Remember that God always provides the sacrificial lamb!
II. The Lamb had to be Spotless
God was very specific about the lamb that was to be chosen for the Passover. There were three conditions:
A. It had to be male
B. It had to be in it’s first year-both of these things speak of the great value of the lamb.
C. It had to be without blemish
1. John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the spotless Lamb!
John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
2. The thief recognized Jesus as the spotless Lamb!
Luke 23:39-43
39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."
40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." 42 Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."
43 And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."
There was a man in a church who had just started attending this particular church. He was asked on the spur of the moment to portray the thief on the cross in the church’s Easter drama. After the drama he told the Pastor, “Pastor you know I had not accepted Christ as my Savior. But as I hung on that Cross and saw what Jesus did for me, I asked Christ into my heart!” He received Christ hanging on the cross just as the man he was portraying did two thousand years ago!
3. Paul recognized Jesus as the spotless Lamb!
2 Cor 5:21
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
A Savior who had committed sin, could not pay for the sins of the world. Only a sinless Savior could truly make atonement for us!
III. The Lamb Had to be Stricken
God commanded the children of Israel to kill the lamb. They couldn’t keep it for a pet. They had to slaughter it.
In the same way the lamb of God was killed for our sakes.
John 11:49-52
49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." 51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
Caiaphas prophesied of the death of Christ without even knowing what he was saying!
Why was death necessary? Why did Jesus have to die such a cruel death? Because God always judges sin!
If God is a God of love, why can’t he just overlook it. He cannot overlook sin because he is a righteous judge!
In Christ God carried out sentence against his own rather than strike us! He made a way for us to enter into His great love!
IV. The Lamb had to be a Shelter
Now the children of Israel had to do something with the Lamb’s blood. They didn’t just pour it out because it was precious!
They were commanded to take that blood and apply it over the doorposts of their homes.
God said that when He saw the blood, He would pass over them. Not one home with the blood applied was touched by the plague. Every home in Egypt without the blood lost their firstborn!
The blood of Christ is my shelter today. It’s my shelter from the judgment of God!
Eph 1:7
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood , the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
A boy was sitting in his mother’s lap in the car many years ago. A driver swerved into their lane and hit them head on. He remembers looking down at himself covered with blood and being sure he was dying. But it was not his blood. His mother had, just before impact, curled him up into her arms, and she had taken the impact! She survived after extensive surgery. He never forget his mother’s blood that saved him!
V. Conclusion
Many years ago there were a group of settlers who were trapped in a prairie fire. They all said, “We are going to die.” One man said no we won’t die, I know how to save us. He lit a section of brush and burned it until it was burned black. Then he said, “Step in here and be safe for the fire cannot come where the fire has already been.” God’s judgment fell on the cross and it cannot come on us if we are under that blood that was shed on that cross!
