Passover

Narrator: This book, have you ever stopped to wonder what's really hidden inside it? Now, many of us have heard stories from it's pages one way or the other, but what secrets lie waiting in the Bible and what has kept it around for so long? Is it a narrative of history, a list of rules to follow, an ancient poetic fairy tale? How much of it has to do with our lives today, and how much is just random and outdated? The truth is, between these pages lies a wealth of stories waiting to be uncovered, stories of adventure, of love and costly rescue.

But the real mystery is this, each story can be traced back to one larger storyline, and it's all true. In this Bible is the single story of how God loves His children and comes to redeem them. It is an ancient story spanning generations and the rise and fall of dynasties, but if you look closely your story is in here too. It takes the whole Bible to tell this story and at the center of it all, there's a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers His name. Here's how that story begins.

Jonathan: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, that through him all might believe. He himself was not that light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world and though the world was made through Him it did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own and His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to all who believed in His name He gave the right, privilege to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, not born of a husband's will nor of human decision, but born of God.

So the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us and we have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son who came from the Father full of grace, full of truth.

John testified concerning Him. He cried out saying this is the one I spoke of when I said He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me. Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the One and only Son who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known.

One day John saw Jesus coming toward him and he said "Look, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one I meant when I said a man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me. I myself did not know Him but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel."

Then John gave this testimony. "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on Him. I myself did not know Him but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me 'the man on whom you see the Spirit come and remain on is the One I will send to baptize with water, with the Holy Spirit.' I, John have seen and I testify that this is God's Chosen One."

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, when he saw Jesus passing by he said "Behold, the Lamb of God!"

John's gospel begins with the Greek equivalent of the phrase that begins the book of Genesis, the very first book in the Bible. "In the beginning", and he begins that same way, in the beginning not because he is about to replace the story that is already there, but because he is going to fill out or fill in the picture that has already been given. He's not giving a new story, he's completing the story. And as we read in Genesis 1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth".

Essentially what John does in the beginning of his gospel is he says let me introduce you to who that God is. But to do that he doesn't pull up the Wikipedia page and spout off the facts, no instead he gives pictures, word pictures. Word, light, one and only Son, Messiah or Christ, and then John the gospel writer lets us know that there was another John, John the Baptizer who used another word-picture to describe who that God is, Lamb.

Now we've called this series "Behold the Lamb" because we're going to introduce you to who that Lamb is, why He can, as John the baptizer said, take away the sin of the world, and how that was His destiny from Bethlehem. But in order for me to do that, in order for me to tell you that story, we have to back up. We actually have to go to Exodus, so if you have copy of Scripture with you, I ask you to turn to Exodus chapter 1. It's really close to the beginning. If you go to Genesis, you're really close. Exodus chapter 1.

Now when I say that in this series we're going to introduce you to who that Lamb is, maybe you've grown up in church your whole life, or maybe church was a huge part of your childhood, and you've just kind of started coming back around, and you're familiar with the story. So for me to say to you we're going to introduce you to this Lamb makes about as much sense to you as me saying I'm going to introduce you to your own parents. And you might think I don't really need that. But here's what I would challenge you with. That if you will press in and lean in just a little bit more than you are used to, that I am used to at the Christmas season this year, that you will find that there is much more going on to this story than we typically see. That we often have missed some pretty important details as to what takes place in the coming of Jesus. Or maybe this is all really, really brand new to you and so when I say something like we're going to talk about the Lamb you may be feeling a little under-whelmed at the prospect of listening to me talk about a lamb for the next little bit. Like wow, this is what I got up early to do today? But let me just challenge you with this, that if you will just listen to this Lamb's story, you will find that it actually gives meaning and significance to your story that you did not even know was possible, indeed to life itself.

And so what we find is, as we turn to the pages to Exodus, we're going to see the beginning of the story as it starts in Egypt. Look with me in Exodus chapter 1 beginning in verse 6. "Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; and they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, they'll join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country." So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they build Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly."

So the back story, if you're not familiar, Joseph who is mentioned in verse 6 is himself a transplanted Jew not from Egypt but finds himself there and what ends up happening is he gets catapulted through the ranks to become ultimately second-in-command behind Pharaoh, the most powerful man arguably in the world at that time. And he's actually instrumental, Joseph is actually instrumental in rescuing Egypt during a time of great famine, so he is this powerful, well-respected, well-loved man in Egypt who is not even a native son of Egypt, but here he is and he's second-in-command.

But time passes, years go by, the story of Joseph becomes a distant memory and almost starts to evolve into what appears to be more of a legend and cultural memory rather than this life-altering moment in their history as a nation. And as the Scripture says, a new king, a new pharaoh comes into power who doesn't know Joseph, know his story or care much about it. And he puts the Israelite people, the Jewish descendants of Joseph, in slavery. That's where we find them. In bondage, working hard labor.

Then turn the page to Exodus chapter 2 and see what it says in verse 23 as the story goes on: "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them."

I like how the ESV translates this, it says "God looked on the Israelites and He knew." God knew exactly what He was going to do. You see, when it says that God remembered His covenant, it doesn't mean that He had forgotten, but rather oftentimes the Scripture is written from the posture of course, of human beings and so they see nothing happening with regard to the covenant but God has not forgotten any bit. But when the Scripture says that He remembers His covenant, here's what that looks like. His remembrance looks like Him initiating a rescue plan for His people. And He intervenes into human history to do that.

So what happens? Well, He knows that He's going to confront the most powerful man, God is going to confront the most powerful man in the world, the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And who is He going to select to confront the most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh, king of Egypt? He's going to choose the run-away who is guilty of murder, who has a wicked stuttering problem, has been a shepherd for four decades. That's who! Because you'd pick the most qualified man for that job. He picks Moses, who was all of those things to confront the most powerful man in the world.

Here's the story in front of the burning bush that's maybe somewhat familiar in Exodus chapter 3 beginning in verse 7: "The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. SO I HAVE COME DOWN TO RESCUE THEM." That's bold because I want you to see that. "I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go Moses. I AM SENDING YOU to Pharaoh, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" We were thinking the same thing. "And God said "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."

So did you catch that? God says I have come down to rescue them, I am personally intervening in human history. God is not the distant, remote, disinterested God that is sometimes portrayed in caricature, that He is uninterested in human affairs and He sits back, winds up the clock of this world and throws it into existence and says "go" and doesn't care a whim about anything else within. But that's not the God that we meet in the Bible, that's the God that's a fabrication. And so the God that we meet in the Bible is the God who says "I have come down to rescue them". He personally intervenes.

But what's amazing about this, and this is critical to not only this story but to the larger story, so I don't want you to miss it, in addition to saying "I have come down to rescue them, I'm about to do something", God says to Moses, so I am sending you. So here's what's critical to our story and indeed the larger story. God himself initiates the plan of rescue. God himself comes down to carry that out. Yet it is through a human instrument that He accomplishes that rescue, that's interesting. So He tells Moses to go.

Now if you've ever seen, you know, Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments or maybe, I should probably update that analogy, if you've ever seen the Prince of Egypt, the cartoon, with Val Kilmer, because who better than Iceman to rescue God's chosen people, right? But if you're familiar, you know that what happens next in the story is that Moses and Pharaoh, they square off for this head-to-head battle that ultimately involves ten plagues. And there's a lot of back and forth. Pharaoh says, yeah, you can leave and then he says no you can't. And then he says oh no you can, and then no you can't. And every plague it follows this rhythm. And really it goes that way until after the ninth plague when things really, really come to a head. I mean it's really hot in there, and it's not because it's in you know, Africa and it's the center of the equator. It's not that, it's really, it's boiling. The tension, you can cut it with a knife.

And what happens after the ninth plague is Moses comes into Pharaoh's presence one more time. And this is what we read in Exodus chapter 10 beginning in verse 28. It says this: "Pharaoh said to Moses, "Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die." "Just as you say," Moses replied. "I will never appear before you again." And then verse 1 of chapter 11: "Now the Lord had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh." This isn't going to go on indefinitely, my wrath isn't going to burn forever in this way. "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that he will let you go from here, he will let you go, and when he does, he will drive you out completely."

So he says leave, don't come back. Moses says okay, and the Lord tells him it's one more plague and this is it and this is going to be the final one. And arguably, it's going to be the most severe. God says that every first-born son, every first-born male in Egypt, whether Egyptian or Israelite or anything else will be subject to this plague. They will die. On one night they will be wiped out, the first-born male from every household. Unless, there's an unless. God is so merciful that He gives that "unless". God is so good that He offers this "but" and here's what happens. He says I want you to do something and I want you to, I want you to demonstrate your confidence in me by putting some blood from a lamb on the doorposts of your house.

God explains that in detail in Exodus chapter 12 beginning in verse 1, look what it says: "The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first of your year." I want you to reset your calendar around this event. "Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roaster over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire--with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning, if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover. "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and I will strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord - a lasting ordinance."

I mean, God gives some very specific instruction for what He wants His people to do. He says I want you to get a lamb, but it's not one lamb for each person, it's one lamb for each household, or maybe you could say one lamb for many. It's one lamb for many. And I want you to bring that lamb into your house on the tenth day of the month, the month of Aviv, but I don't want you to kill the lamb on the tenth day. I want you to keep the lamb until the fourteenth day. Why is that significant? You can imagine that that lamb became pretty precious to the family - that the kids named it, loved it, played with it. That this became not just something disposable or transactional, but this lamb was precious to them.

He says I want you to take the lamb, keep it for four days in your house. He gives specific requirements for what kind of lamb it needs to be. And this is not just details that we're getting just to fill our minds. These are significant to the story. He says I want the lamb to be young - one year old. I want it to be a male. And I want it to be without blemish. He gives those specific instructions.

In addition to that, God even goes so far as to say when He wants this Passover lamb to be sacrificed. He says take that one year old male without blemish, keep it in your house for four days and then on the fourteenth day, He says I want you to slaughter them at twilight. That phrase is actually a Hebrew phrase that literally means between the two evenings.

Now for us to understand what that means, we have to remind ourselves that the Jewish reckoning of time is different from how we typically measure and keep track of time. You know we say things like the day leads into the night, right? But for the Jewish mind, evening precedes morning. So the day begins in the evening prior. Think back to Genesis 1 - And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. That's intentional. So we think of the day leading into the night. They think of the night preceding the day. And that's how they measure time.

And in fact, there's a Jewish historian from around the time of Jesus - really not far at all removed from the time of Jesus in the first century - Josephus. Josephus had his own issues, but he was a historian and he was commenting on the observance of Passover in his time, but he's filling in some pretty important details about the legacy of Passover from time past. Listen to what Josephus tells us. Again - writing from around the time of Jesus, look what he says in his book Wars of the Jews. "So these high priests, upon the coming to their feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices," - here it is - "from the ninth hour to the eleventh, but so that a company of not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves,) and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was 256,500."

He's recording some details about how this celebration was observed, but he tells us about the timing, almost parenthetically. And he says from the ninth hour to the eleventh hour, which is just another way of saying from 3PM to 5PM - that on the fourteenth day in the month of Aviv, from 3PM to 5PM, whenever Passover was celebrated the Passover lamb was sacrificed during that time.

Then once the lamb was sacrificed - going back to Exodus - once that lamb was sacrificed, God tells them to apply the blood on the doorframe. So the vertical posts and the horizontal lintel in their home of each household. And He says, and when I see the blood I will pass over you. And that's exactly what happened. You will be spared from this plague. That's exactly what God did.

It was a huge - it was a night of turmoil in Egypt. A great cry went out. Many people died. But those that demonstrated their confidence in God who was their rescuer and the initiator of their rescue plan - those that demonstrated their confidence in God by applying the blood to the doorposts of their home were spared. They were given a new day. And that's exactly what happened that first Passover.

And the remembrance of that Passover took the form of a celebration of a meal - the Passover meal which then was celebrated each subsequent year. That God was very specific that He wanted them to remind themselves of his faithfulness in rescuing them out of Egypt. And that's what proceeded every year. Every Passover, they would gather together to celebrate that meal with a lamb to remind themselves of what God had done in passing over them in Egypt.

And so that continued for many, many years. In fact many, many centuries. For about fifteen hundred years, it proceeded. It's still celebrated to this day but for, at that fifteen hundred or so mark, something happened. There was - it was almost like there was an interruption in the normally scheduled programming. Although at first it did not seem that way. Because in the year thirty or so AD, Jesus, a Jewish man, gathered together with his closest band of twelve disciples who are also Jewish, and they gathered to celebrate Passover.

Luke tells us about that in Luke 22. I would encourage you to turn there, but while you're getting there it will be on the screens so you can catch up. Luke 22 beginning in verse 7 and going to 23. Then came the day of Unleavened Bread - this is like the start of the Passover celebration, o.k. - then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover." "Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked. He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there." They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God." After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed. But woe to that man who betrays him!" They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

So Jesus gathers with his disciples to celebrate Passover, and I need to inform you or remind you that this is not accidental. This is not context. This is not filling in the story to give us a richer description, but rather that Passover is going to explain the significance for Jesus' sacrifice. It's actually going to explain the meaning of his death for us. Because - listen - there is nothing spectacular, on a human level, about a Jewish man being executed by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. That was common place in their day. Specifically Jewish men who were accused of inciting revolts against Rome. That was not an extraordinary thing. In fact, it was probably all too common.

But what we know about Jesus' death is informed actually, indeed taught to us through the connection that is made that this took place at the Passover. You see, because at the Passover everything about that story is pointing forward to Jesus' own death. It's pointing forward. It's pointing forward because it's telling us that what was promised and what was celebrated and what was embraced and what was explained - that just as this happened, just as God initiated this rescue plan in Egypt, that God is doing something afresh and anew right now in human history intervening at this moment in time.

And that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem at this time is not accidental. He's entering Jerusalem knowing that he's a wanted man. He could have stayed in Galilee. He could have stayed in Galilee where the people who were plotting to kill him were not. They were all in Jerusalem. But as a good Jewish man he comes to the city for this high feast to celebrate Passover, and he comes intentionally at this time. Because what he is about to do - we are going to understand what he does through the lens of Passover.

So Jesus is taken and he's taken through the mockery of a trial at night - trumped up charges, false witnesses - the whole thing. He's brought before Pilate - no charge can really be made, but Pilate's fearful of the people and so he washes his hands, saying I'm innocent of this man's blood, sends him to be beaten and whipped, where Jesus is ultimately taken to the cross and crucified.

And it's on the cross that we are given insight into something significant that is taking place while Jesus is there. Look what Luke 23 says, beginning in verse 44. It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this, he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, "Certainly this man was innocent!" He says it was now the sixth hour, darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. Or maybe your Bible says it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. Three pm.

That this was the precise time on the exact day that the Passover lamb would be sacrificed is not accidental. You see, we actually skipped right over it because it's so easy to do in Luke 22 when in verse seven it says then came the day of Unleavened Bread - listen - on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. What is Luke telling us here? Luke is telling us that just as we said, there is nothing - it's not just like every other crucifixion. This isn't like every other Jewish man that was killed at the hands of the Romans. But that when we look at the cross, we are actually seeing Passover replayed in front of us. Because on the day that the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed, that's actually the day that began with the evening - the evening before the cross when Jesus was with his disciples. It was that evening that lead into that morning, because the passover lamb we were told in Exodus must be slaughtered at twilight - between the two evenings, that Josephus told us everyone knew was between 3PM and at 5PM. And that this would be the exact day and the exact time for this to occur cannot be accidental.

In fact, at that very time in the temple, in the courts, the high priest was raising his knife to slaughter the first Passover lamb for that season. At 3PM he raises his knife, and as he goes through the motion of what he's done for as long as he's been a priest, suddenly just from over the other side of the Eastern wall in Jerusalem, a cry goes out from Golgotha - the place of the skull where Jesus is crucified - literally just on the other side of the wall. A cry that could be heard from where the high priest was standing and Jesus cries out "Father into your hands I commit my spirit." John's gospel tells us of this very scene that he said, "It is finished." I wonder if that made that high priest pause as he tried to discern the words he just heard. Because as that high priest was preparing to slaughter the Passover lamb, we see at the cross the high priest, the great high priest who is also the Passover Lamb providing a sacrifice for the world at the cross. It's astounding to me when you consider these parallels. They can't be accidental.

In fact, the by standing centurion, he says certainly this man was innocent, without blemish, without defect, flawless, spotless. And so, when we look at the cross and we see this young, male, without blemish, hanging on the cross at Passover on the very day that the Passover Lamb, Luke told us, had to be sacrificed, we see that he was.

But then something interesting happens that John, the gospel writer gives us insight to, because he was standing there. He saw this with his own eyes and he tells us this amazing thing in John 19 beginning in verse thirty-one. Look at what John tells us. Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Again - this was Passover, this was like a high festival, a high holy day. It was a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. Why? To expedite the asphyxiation process that they were being crucified, right? So they couldn't pull up for air if their legs were broken. So the immediately died. Then they came to Jesus but when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead (he had given up his spirit, he'd breathed his last, he placed his life in the hands of the Father) they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. (He's talking about himself, John.) He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. Listen to this - these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," and, as another Scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

So that the words of the Scripture could be fulfilled. But what Scripture? What Scripture clues us into that? I think we go back to the Exodus narrative, because look what chapter twelve tells us - more instructions about how they were to celebrate. Chapter 12 in Exodus. It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Listen - do not break any of the bones. The Roman guards have no idea what they're doing other than carrying out their orders. But they are unwittingly participating in the fulfillment of Scripture as God enacts his plan of redemption through his Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ - the Son of God.

So when we see the young male, without blemish whose bones are not broken, hanging on the cross, we see something profound and it's this: The Lamb of God became the Final and Ultimate Passover Lamb. The Lamb of God that John identified many thousands of years ago - the Lamb of God that he said takes away the sins of the world - he became the final and the ultimate Passover Lamb.

Watch this: In Egypt, the lamb's blood protected the first born son. But at the cross, God took the script of Passover and He breathes into it new life. The script that He wrote, by the way, and He breathes new life into it so that as in Egypt the blood of the lamb protected the first born son, but at the cross - listen - the Lamb's blood belonged to the firstborn Son because Jesus himself, God's own Son, he was that Passover Lamb. You start to think about in Egypt the lamb's blood provided a covering for the household - the one for the many. At the cross, Jesus blood has provided a covering over your life, over mine. He is the one who laid down his life for the many. As Mark records, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life, to lay His life down, as a ransom for many. This is Jesus. And He does this.

He provides a covering over us - listen - so that just as in Egypt, when God saw the blood that was applied to the doorposts of their houses, His judgment passed by so that they could see a new day. At the cross, God took the blood of His Son and for all that are in Christ, He has taken the blood of His Son and He has applied it to the doorposts of your house so that His judgment passes by. Scripture says that He does not count our sins against us. He does not hold those things over us when we are in Christ. This is incredible to me. God did this. God did this.

But listen - it gets even better. Watch this. Here's the thing. There's one more detail that's not in the Exodus narrative, but that's in the gospel account. Luke tells us that the veil of the temple, the curtain really, this heavy, heavy curtain, was torn in two. The temple had a curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from everything else. And the high priest himself could only enter into the Holy of Holies once per year. But as Jesus was crying out from the cross at 3PM, while all of the normal Passover festivities were taking place in the courts, something ruptured inside the temple when - not metaphorically, but literally - the curtain was torn in two. Not from bottom to top, but from top to bottom. Luke makes no mistake in including that, because it was God himself who ripped it open, providing unlimited access.

You see, no longer would people have to depend on one high priest - one man - to intercede for them on their behalf, entering into God's presence vicariously. But watch this - instead God, intervening in human history, yet electing to do that through the human being known as Jesus the God-man - God with skin on - He enacts the rescue plan for humanity, ultimately providing unlimited access straight to the Father, that as 1 Timothy two says, there is one mediator between God and man - the man Christ Jesus. He has done this. And that leads me to this main big idea and it's this: God passed over so that we could pass through. God passed over so that we could pass through.

Now you think about Exodus, right? I've got to hurry. You think about Exodus. I don't know if anybody got any sleep the night of that first Passover. You're up. You're sweating. Even if you did the blood on the door you're sweating. But maybe they got a few winks and when they woke up in the morning, everyone who walked outside of their house that day felt like they had been given new life, that they'd been given a second chance. You might even say that they'd been born a second time.

But when God delivered them out of Egypt, He didn't just leave them there but He delivered them into something better. And what did God do? After having passed over the houses when He saw the blood, He ripped open the Red Sea allowing His people to pass through on dry ground leading them into the Promised Land. God passed over so that they could pass through.

Then at the cross, what does God do? He sees the blood of His Son - that perfect Passover Lamb - and after passing over his judgment, He opens up the temple so that we could pass through to be in His presence, to dwell with Him.

Listen to the writer of Hebrews explain this. Watch this. Hebrews 10, verse 11. Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Where have we heard that phrase before? But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for his enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." The he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter - what? - the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

I began by giving you John chapter one, and so in light of what John 1:14 says, I want to make this statement that ties everything up altogether: The Word became flesh and dwelt with us so that through His flesh we could dwell with Him. The Word became flesh and dwelt with us so that through His flesh - through His sacrifice, through His Passover Lamb identity - that we could dwell with Him, to know Him and be known by Him.

So how then could we stay at an arm's length from a God who does these kinds of things? How can we keep God at a safe distance when He does this for us? For His glory, but for us. How could we not push into His presence daily to know this God? To push past the distractions of life daily, to come back to this great story of redemption of which we are placed into this larger great story that God is telling. How could we not do that? How is it possible for us to not be awestruck by the love of God enacted at the cross? It's a God who acts to save and bring us to Himself, not a God who stands at a distance with arms folded, saying I want to see if you can impress me. I want to see you turn up your religious fervor. I want to see what you can do for Me. That's not who this God is. He's the God that steps in, that comes down and that saves. That's who He is. So how could we not want to know Him? How could we not pursue that? How could we be content with a transactional relationship with the One who intervened personally to rescue us?

How could we be satisfied to treat God with what I can only call professional courtesy that I've seen too many times both in my own life and the lives of others - this professional courtesy that I have some sort of regard for this God and so I will show up occasionally and I'll throw a few bucks in and I'll "amen" a few phrases, but it makes no difference in how I live each day. That's professional courtesy. That's not faith - unwavering trust and confidence in the God who does this to save you, to rescue you from slavery, to rescue me from slavery to sin where we could not rescue ourselves. And the reason that the wages of sin is death is because we are speeding around an icy corner going 80 miles an hour wondering why our car is spinning out of control, when God is saying, I don't want you to continue down that path of self destruction. In fact, I will intervene repeatedly to get your attention and draw you to myself. And so the necessary response can only be "Yes. Yes, Christ, I trust you with my everything."

Because to see, to behold the Lamb of God for who He is means we know we can't come to Him any other way. There's no other way out of Egypt. There's no other way out of slavery to sin into God's presence except through the first born's blood on the doorpost. He's the only way out. He's the only way in. He's the One that laid down His life for the many. And that ought to radiate into every crevice and corner of your life and mine. That changes everything about who we are because we've been given a new day. We've been given a second life. We've been delivered out of Egypt and into His presence. So why would we have any residual Egypt in our hearts when He's gone to great lengths to pull us out? This is who God is. This is who Jesus is. He is the final, the ultimate Passover Lamb. Behold, the Lamb of God.

Narrator: This is only the beginning of the greater story. Like an unresolved melody, a puzzle missing its final piece or a poem needing its final couplet. We hear this story and we long for something we can't quite put our finger on. See, the Hebrew Scriptures leave us feeling like there's a word right on the tip of our tongue, a word that finishes the poem, resolves the melody, and completes the puzzle. And that word it turns out is actually the Word, God in the flesh. The baby at the center of this story doesn't stay in His makeshift crib, but He becomes the best answer to every painful question. He is the Living One - God in the flesh and seeing Him makes us see everything else clearly. This Word is strong like a lion. This Word is authoritative like a king. But the longer we look at the Word, we see something more. Behold, the Lamb of God.