The Passover (Part 2)

[0:00] We're again in chapter 12, God giving Moses instructions concerning the Passover and the things that are going to transpire after the Passover.

[0:24] ! It will be called the month of Abib, which corresponds to our month of April. That will be a brand new beginning of a brand new year for them.

[0:39] Everything changes now. This is going to be a starting point for them because God's going to take them and deliver them out of Egypt. But also, he's going to make of them his covenant nation.

[0:52] He's going to bring them into a brand new relationship with him. And so that's the beginning then. This is to be the beginning of the year.

[1:03] And so he said in the tenth day of that first month, they're to take a lamb and set it aside. That lamb is going to be a sacrifice, which will be sacrificed for what he says is the Passover.

[1:21] That animal will be slain on the 14th day of the month. And then they will then have a meal with that Passover lamb.

[1:38] They are remembered to take some of the blood of that slain lamb and apply it to the doorposts and the lintel of the doorway. So that will be a signification, if you will, of the fact that God then will not enter that house with death, but will pass by them when he sees the blood applied to the doorposts and the lintel.

[2:09] Beautiful picture there, of course, the blood being applied. Remember, in the Old Testament economy, when God then gives Moses the instruction to construct the tabernacle, and he does so, he is to take, they are to take, or the high priest is to take, the blood of the atoning sacrifice into the Holy of Holies, and he is to take some of the blood of that slain atonement sacrifice with him and sprinkle the blood of that sacrifice upon the four posts of the mercy seat.

[2:49] And that's another good picture there. And the idea there of that blood being applied to the posts of the mercy seat is that when he sees that blood, he will realize that the sins for the people have been atoned for for one year.

[3:05] So, you see then the beginning of the idea here of the atoning sacrifice that begins with this Passover lamb and the blood that's slain from that Passover lamb.

[3:17] That that blood is the atoning sacrifice, and he carries that on into the tabernacle, later to the temple, and then, of course, in the new day of grace, that's picture of the Lord Jesus as the true atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

[3:38] So, there's the picture that begins here on this atoning Passover. All right. Now, we pick up in verses 8 and 9 tonight, is where we're at.

[3:49] And these verses say, And they shall eat the flesh in that night. That is, the Passover lamb that has now been slain. They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, with unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

[4:09] Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs, and with the pertinence thereof.

[4:20] So, in that night, all right, the night following the 14th, if you will. Remember the divisions of the nights, the two evenings, and so forth. Now, none of it was to be undone.

[4:32] It's not to be raw. None of it raw, nor was it to be boiled, of course. The ordinary custom of the Jews of the day was to boil their meat. But here he says, Do not boil that meat.

[4:45] Some think the opposition there to this, to that not being raw, was that the Egyptians, a lot of times, ate raw flesh, ate raw meat, all right, in order to pay honor to their god Osiris, who was considered the judge of the dead and lord of the underworld.

[5:07] So he said, Don't eat of it raw, but roast it. Roast it with fire, even its head, along with its thighs, and entrails. All right? A couple of things here.

[5:19] What's the picture for you when you think of the idea that it's going to be roasted with fire? Why is this lamb to be roasted? What is fire a picture of, a symbol of in the Bible, in the Old Testament in particular?

[5:36] Judgment. Yeah. And purification that comes with it. All right? The purging, if you will. Can it not speak of the judgment of God upon the Lord Jesus as he bears the sin or becomes the sin sacrifice for the world?

[5:56] There's another picture here that we can paint. That lamb, that slain, being roasted with fire. Notice he speaks of the idea of roasted with fire.

[6:09] The idea here of the penalty that Jesus pays as the true sacrifice for the sins of the world upon himself. So, they were to eat it, then, as it is roasted, undivided, or completely whole.

[6:26] All right? is the idea here. And in verse 46, later on, we see there's not a bone to be broken of that lamb.

[6:38] The internal organs were roasted in the stomach along with it, the entrails, which, of course, have first been cleansed or washed. Now, roasted whole.

[6:53] Nothing separated. They didn't cut the head off, didn't cut the thighs off. Nothing is taken off of that lamb. It's completely whole as it's roasted.

[7:05] Then, what do they do with it? Think about this just a moment. All right? Well, I don't know if it's true or not.

[7:15] I'm not going to speculate, John. They take that lamb, roast it, however they roast it, and then they set it on the table completely whole.

[7:33] Now, think about this just a moment. They've had that little critter in their house for four days. Furry little thing, cute little thing, all that lamb's wool on it.

[7:45] Now, it's sitting on the table roasted completely whole, staring them in the face. All right? But think about it. What is the idea?

[7:56] What is the idea here of it being completely whole? Nothing cut off. What do you think of as something that's completely whole? What about unity?

[8:10] Unity. It's unified. All right? Thinking about the reality that here, Israel, the people of Israel, all right, the Israelites, they're about to enter into a brand new relationship with God the Father, with their God.

[8:29] Never had this particular type of relationship before. All right? It's going to picture here that whole lamb sitting on the table about to be carved up and eaten speaks of the unity that they're going to have in the new fellowship, if you will, that they will have with the Father.

[8:55] Think about it just a moment. Once they get out of Egypt and through the wilderness and get into the tabernacle, in particular, the major way or manner in which God dwells with them is in the Holy of Holies.

[9:21] All right? The place where the blood of the sacrifice is placed or sprinkled. All right? Fellowship, intimacy of relationship with the God that's now about to deliver them, who is the one that is providing this meal for them.

[9:42] All right? Now, good fellowship with the Father. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 17 through 18.

[9:57] Paul speaks of this thing. 1 Corinthians 10, 17 and 18. This is out of the Amplified. For we, no matter how numerous we are, are one body, because we all partake of one bread, the one whom the communion bread represents, consider those people of Israel.

[10:19] Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners of the altar, that is, united in their worship of the same God? What Paul's relating this to is the communion, the taking of communion together as God's people, and talks about that one unity of the one body with the one God and Father?

[10:44] Alright? That is who we are. We have that fellowship, that joy. Well, that's what, when we every month take communion, observe the Lord's Supper, in essence, you're looking at what the Passover foreshadowed.

[11:08] Alright? It's like Israel observing the Passover, we're observing the communion time. Alright? And it all represents the idea of our oneness with God, in this case, the oneness with Christ, in that koinonia of fellowship that we are to have, not just with Him, but with each other.

[11:31] Alright? 1 John chapter 1, verse 3, that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also might have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

[11:49] Now, John says, I want you to be able to have fellowship with us, because our fellowship is with Christ. So we have fellowship once with another, and fellowship with Christ.

[12:01] what is the definition, the Greek definition, if you will, of the term translated fellowship? Who remembers? The literal translation of fellowship, remember?

[12:18] The swatting of the flies off each other's back with their tails? Remember? Yeah. Well, you may not have been here when I told this story.

[12:31] We had a pastor friend of ours, well, that's the one that performed our wedding ceremony, country guy, and we had him come to preach a revival when I was at New Harmony and used to be on the way down Highway 60, no water road, before you got to the turnoff to go to the church, there was a pasture and right at the corner of the pasture, fenced off, right at this particular corner, highway goes here, right at this particular corner there were two horses, usually always standing there, opposite sides, head and tail, opposite ends, and Clayton asked us one night, we were talking about fellowship, he said, he said, what are those horses doing?

[13:18] You know, swatting flies off each other. That's the definition of fellowship. Literally, fellowship is co-participation in a common endeavor.

[13:31] All right, that's the literal translation of the word fellowship. in the Greek, co-participation in a common endeavor between two or more people.

[13:42] All right, swatting flies off each other. That's common, common, you know, endeavor. All right, so, we have fellowship then, John says, with each other and our fellowship together is with Christ.

[13:59] So when we come together, you know, even when we come together in times like this Bible study, worship time in particular in the sanctuary, we are there to have fellowship, co-participation in our worship and that co-participation in our worship is with God and His Son, Christ Jesus.

[14:25] All right? So think about that next time you go to church and next time we have communion. Now, so, notice again in verse 8, they were to eat, they were to eat that Passover lamb, that roasted Passover lamb with, in verse 8, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.

[14:55] Now, interesting thing here, they were to eat pure loaves, unleavened, all right? Not sweet, not parched, not fermented with leaven, all right?

[15:07] Of course, leaven causes the fermentation process, which is impurity, a symbol of corruption. Now, unleavened bread, literally, in the Hebrew here, is matzahot, all right?

[15:22] You remember that. And from the word matzah, literally means to squeeze or compress, all right? So, the bread prepared without leaven, without yeast, if you will, is a compressed bread, all right?

[15:38] In our terminology, it would be a very heavy dough, all right? It's not something that you would particularly fix for dinner if you had people coming over, amen? Not on purpose, anyway.

[15:50] I remember when we were at Copan, pastoring there, you know, I got some really cool ideas, John.

[16:01] I really did. Be as precise as we could with some of this. We were going to be observing the Lord's Supper. So, I said to my wife at that time, I'm going to make some matzah, just like they did in the Old Testament times.

[16:22] Yeah. So, I found a recipe, very detailed recipe, flour and water, made up some dough, rolled it out, put it in the pan, stuck her in the oven, let her cook for as long as it's supposed to cook and it wasn't done.

[16:47] Just kept cooking and just kept cooking it and couldn't figure out why in the world it's not done like it's supposed to. Came out and it was a mess, but I used it. Amen. I went ahead and used it that next day for our communion.

[17:01] And, you know, I can endure the scorn. But, but anyway, I found out later that our stove was not working right. Yeah. It wouldn't cook at the temperature it's supposed to cook at.

[17:14] So, anyway. it's a flat loaf, if you will, of bread. Don't know if it was square. So, later on what I did, I still wanted to be as correct as I could.

[17:27] Didn't like the little square, pillowy looking things. So, I went to what was food pyramid at the time and found some matzo already made.

[17:40] Amen. for the Jews for Passover. We started using that. So, anyway. Anyway. So, it's unleavened cakes, if you will.

[17:52] The word that signifies unleavened cakes in the Hebrew signifies the idea of it being fermented. All right. So, it was not to be fermented.

[18:05] Fermentation or leaven, if you will, was forbidden. It was outlawed in their house. During this period of Passover. All right. It's a picture that we give here.

[18:17] Again, Apostle Paul considers some of this. 1 Corinthians 5 verses 6 and 8. Or 6 through 8. He said, Your glorying is not good.

[18:28] Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened.

[18:40] For even Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[18:56] So, you get the picture there of the spiritual picture that he paints for us. Now, another interesting thing here. you are to eat the lamb roasted with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.

[19:13] That word with, or it's translated with, literally means upon. And here's what it speaks of. The bitter herbs in particular represented not as something that was to accompany meat.

[19:29] I know a lot of times, how many of you have ever sat in on or had somebody come to a church you were part of and present the Passover feast? Okay, a couple of you, a few of you.

[19:42] Okay, and you knew what they did, they had all the elements sitting out there, and he's probably this, but the idea here is, that word with, means, gives to us the idea that it's not the Passover lamb that is the central figure here.

[20:03] You would think it is, but, that Passover lamb is to be eaten upon the bread and the bitter herbs.

[20:18] Now, think, think carefully just a moment. When you think about the instructions that God gives to Israel through Moses, concerning the Passover, really, what is the Passover all about for them, that first Passover?

[20:48] Oh, Elsa, where do you get such wisdom? Yeah. See me again Sunday, I'll give you another piece of candy.

[20:59] I gave her a piece of candy Sunday for the great answer she gave last week. Now, it's freedom from that bondage and slavery in Egypt.

[21:11] So, in order for that to really sink in for them, that unleavened bread and those bitter herbs, whatever they were, were to begin with the main focus of that meal.

[21:33] To keep them in mind of that bondage and that slavery. All right? Now, put yourself in that situation just a moment.

[21:46] You're a Jew, you've been in bondage for over 400 years, so you're pretty old. You're now sitting down to eat that first Passover meal.

[21:59] And you take of the bread, and you begin to eat it. Tastes terrible. No flavor at all. You eat that along with the bitter herbs.

[22:14] All right? Oh. It reminds me of what I've just been through.

[22:26] Bondage, slavery, hardness. But then, here comes the meat from the Passover lamb.

[22:40] Sweet, savory, moist, delicious. To cover over the taste of the bread and the bitter herbs.

[22:57] Yeah. Oh. That shows them what they have to look forward to. Not reversed. If they were, if the bread and the bitter herbs are the last things they were to eat, that's the only thing they would remember.

[23:15] But now they're remembering the sweetness and the goodness of that Passover lamb meat that they just ate. And they rejoiced in that.

[23:28] All right? Think of the Lord Jesus. When they had completed the formalistic Passover meal, and by the way, you realize with me that through the generations, the priesthood of Israel, if you will, continued to add to the Passover meal, much more than what the original actually was given.

[23:57] Still continue today. All right? But when Jesus offered that Passover, or ate that Passover feast with his apostle, remember what he said, Lyon's translation here, with great desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you.

[24:25] First time and the only time, Jesus was able to eat that Passover feast with his apostles. All right? He said, I have greatly desired, that's a strong term there in the Greek, greatly desired to eat this Passover meal with you.

[24:45] And the reason being, he knew what it symbolized, and that he was now to be, about to be the fulfillment of that symbol. He's going to die as the Lamb of God sacrificed from the foundation of the world.

[25:02] Now, now, so what did Jesus do? Interesting. What did he do? Somebody tell me, what was the process after they had finished the meal?

[25:13] What did he do? He took bread and blessed it and broke it.

[25:26] Again, that which symbolized and represented the bitterness of their bondage and servitude.

[25:38] All right? now, that's what he did. And he said, when you eat this, you do this in remembrance of me, however often you do it.

[25:54] All right? And then what did he do? Took the cup, blessed it, and gave it to him and said, drink it, drink you all of it. All right? it washed away the bitterness of the bread.

[26:14] All right? And it symbolized, of course, his blood that was about to be shed. That blood that was to be shed by the perfect, complete, pure Lamb of God that would then take away the sins of the world.

[26:34] Now, think about that next time we have communion. All right? That that's what it speaks of. Now, let's look at something else here just a moment.

[26:46] What a picture that is for us. What a picture that is. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. Great picture of the bitterness of the bondage of sin.

[27:01] Hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 through 18. And I'm going to read this out of the Amplified. The writer, notice I said the writer, says this, since therefore, these his children share in flesh and blood, that is in the physical nature of human beings, he himself in a similar manner partook of the same nature, that by going through death, catch this, he might bring to naught and make of no effect him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and also that he might deliver and completely set free all those who through the haunting fear of death were held in bondage throughout the whole course of their lives, for as we all know, he, that's

[28:05] Christ, did not take hold of angels, that's the fallen angels, to give them a helping and delivering hand, but he did take hold of the falling descendants of Abraham, to reach out to them a helping and delivering hand, so it is evident that it was essential that he be made like unto his brethren in every respect, in order that he might become a merciful, sympathetic, and faithful high priest in things related to God, to make atonement and propitiation for the people's sin, for because he himself in his humanity has suffered in being tempted, that's tested and tried, he is able immediately to run to the cry, to assist and relieve those who are being tempted and tested and tried, and who therefore are being exposed to suffering, alright, the bondage, the bondage that men and women were in was the bondage of death, and that death came as a result of sin, alright, sin brings bondage, and that bondage is death, alright, story goes that in the old city of

[29:28] Thessalonica, many of the believers there, those that have placed faith and trust in Christ, were confused, because their loved ones were dying, they felt that, that, they shouldn't be dying, because they placed faith and trust in Christ, so the story is that, that archaeologists had gone through that area, and found some headstones, and engraved on some of those headstones was a word, or words that they could not decipher, they tried for years and years and years to decipher that, that writing, and finally somebody determined what it was, it was the words no hope, no hope, engraved on the headstones of those that had died, as if they had no hope, so Paul goes and straightens that out, there is hope for those that have placed faith and trust in

[30:39] Christ, alright, that's the bondage, and the picture here is that Paul writes, or excuse me, the writer of the Hebrews writes, that because of Christ taking on that body of flesh, just as we are flesh, died to free us completely and immediately from that bondage that sin brings, death, so Paul said, we don't have to fear death, amen, we don't have to fear, that's what he wrote to the Thessalonians, we don't have to fear death, because Jesus is going to come and rapture up those that have died, in Galatians chapter 4, turn there just a moment, Galatians chapter 4, verses 22 through 31, again, in the

[31:41] Amplified, Paul talking here about the two covenants, for it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondmaid, one by the free woman, but whereas the child of the slave woman was born according to the flesh, and had an ordinary birth, the son of the free woman was born in fulfillment of the promise, okay, and of course you realize he's referring here to Sarah and Hagar, all right, now, and Isaac and Ishmael, now, now he said this is an allegory, these two women represent two covenants, one covenant originated from Mount Sinai, that's where the law was given, and bears children destined for slavery, the law is always predicated by bondage, all right, now Hagar is or stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she corresponds and belongs in the same category with the present

[32:52] Jerusalem, she is in bondage together with her children, under the old covenant of the law, but the Jerusalem above, that's the messianic kingdom of Christ, is free, and she is our mother, for it is written in the scriptures, now, when he says she is her mother, he's talking about the new Jerusalem above, all right, for it is written in the scripture, rejoice, oh barren woman, who has not given birth to children, break forth into a joyful shout, you who are not feeling birth pangs, for the desolate woman has many more children than she who has a husband, but we, brethren, are children, like Isaac, born in virtue of the promise, yet just as at that time the children of the ordinary birth were born according to the flesh, despised and persecuted him who was born remarkably, according to the promise of the working of the Holy

[33:55] Spirit, so it is now also, but what does the scripture say, cast out and send away the slave woman and her son, for never shall the son of the slave woman be heir and share the inheritance with the son of the free woman, so brethren, we who are born again are not children of the slave woman, but of the free, okay, we are children of the free, freedom from the guilt and penalty of sin, and made righteous through the blood of Christ, Christ.

[34:41] We'll pick up there in verse 10 and 11 next week, and it's getting close because now he's telling them to get ready to go, amen, get ready to go, and realize with me, if you will, that when he says get ready to go, they're going to go, and they're going to go quickly, so we're just about there, amen, all right, let's pray, Father again, thank you for your loving kindness today, and we thank you for, again, the privilege of being together tonight to study your word, and I do pray, Father, that you'll enable us to rejoice as we consider the Passover, the things that it represents for us as well, in the freedom from the bondage of sin as Israel was bondaged in Egypt, so Father, I pray God that you'll enable us to rejoice in that, and that you will enable then our time in our worship times when we celebrate communion, to make it even more precious to us, because we've seen what that represents tonight, so Father, thank you for that, now bless the remainder of this week, and bring us back safely

[35:57] Sunday, to enjoy a time of study, and of worship together with you, and we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name, for his sake we pray, amen.

[36:07] Amen.