The Purpose of Passover
Movement Live Notes
I believe that Exodus chapter 12 will enrich our view of the meal that Jesus gave us. Passover, friends and family, was established when God rescued His people from Egyptian slavery. After none of the plagues moved Pharaoh, the almighty God sent in one final plague that provoked the King of Egypt to relent temporarily. He relented, and he said, I'm going to let the Israelites go. This plague, the death of all Egypt’s firstborn, was the context behind the Passover. Because of this plague, the Israelites took the Passover lamb's blood and spread it across their doors. In doing so, the Israelites marked themselves as God's people and are “passed over” by the angel of death and saved from God's wrath. The blood is what saved the people from God's wrath. It was the blood. You’ve got to see the gospel in all of this; it all points to the redemptive work of Christ Jesus. The Passover lamb is the blood that marks us off as God's people.
In this passage, the Lord provided a way for the Israelites to escape. I'm going to suggest to you all this morning that the Lord has also provided us a way of escape. Now the question is, what is, or what has been your Egypt? As you just processed that this morning, I want you to truly understand that there is potentially a significant problem with Palm Sunday. If all you want is salvation, if all you want to do is cry out, “Lord, save me, Lord, save me, Lord, save me," and not realize that through the saving lamb, the work has already been done, that is part of the problem. Many times, on Palm Sunday, all we want to do is continue to cry out. As believers, we know that we've already been saved, but we do not appreciate what has already been done. His work is a finished and a completed work. Too many followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who we believe is the Most High, don't understand what the redemptive work of Jesus actually means. He is the Passover lamb. The Lord is for you and has provided a way for our escape. It is through the redemptive work of Christ Jesus that we can escape the wrath of God.
We escape it through the blood of Jesus Christ. The Israelites escaped it because of the blood that was sprinkled on the doorposts. We are saved from God's wrath by God himself. And so, friends and family, we should never forget the righteous character of Jesus. We can never forget the righteous character of our creator. We can never forget the righteous character of the Most High, who, despite our sin, despite our foolish behavior, despite our sinful nature, He mercifully chose us, and He elected to redeem us to be His people. What we should remember, what we should celebrate is precisely what the Israelites celebrated. They remembered. Each and every generation. They remembered by participating in the meal. They participated in Passover, and they talked about what it meant to be saved from over 400 years of oppression and slavery. We have been covered by the blood of the Passover lamb. We've got to realize that we need to understand the Passover because it's through the Passover that we truly begin to understand what it means to be redeemed. Passover, brothers and sisters, is crucial for our understanding. It is crucial. It is not our goal to criticize or ridicule; we are here to inform, educate, and encourage.
Take some time over this next week and consider the question, "What is your Egypt." Consider the true, deeper meaning of what Passover is and why it is necessary as believers to not only learn this but to see the redemptive work of Jesus Christ in it.
