Jesus Is Our Passover Lamb Series

VISITATION #14: JESUS IS THE PASSOVER LAMB

INTRO TO TOPIC:

• For the past four months, we have been studying the life of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke.

• We saw Him as Saviour, Healer, Baptizer in the Holy Spirit, and Soon Coming King.

• We have also seen Him as the Dayspring who brings hope, the Friend of Sinners, the Good Teacher, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty Deliverer, the Lord our Provider, and the God Who Answers Prayer.

• Now we turn from the life and teachings of Jesus, to His death and resurrection…

OPENING TEXT:

“The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which begins with the Passover celebration, was drawing near.” (Luke 22:1).

“Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7b).

THE BIG IDEA: Jesus is our Passover Lamb, and as we study the original Passover, we learn how we can experience Jesus more deeply and personally in our lives today.

THE PASSOVER: Background to the story from Exodus 1-11:

• The children of Israel were slaves in Egypt and they cried out to the Lord for deliverance. God raised up Moses to be their deliverer, and went to Pharaoah and performed ten mighty signs (plagues) – the tenth being the death of the firstborn.

• The Old Testament is full of shadows and types that point to the Person of Jesus Christ.

1. THE PASSOVER REPRESENTS THE BEGINNING OF NEW LIFE:

“Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you..” (Exodus 12:1-2).

• When you become a Christian, you begin a new life in Christ.

• PERSONAL STORY: My new life began on August 14, 1989 when I met Jesus!

2. THE DEATH OF THE LAMB SECURES SALVATION:

“Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ’On the tenth day of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.” (Exodus 12:3-7).

• Why did God tell them to sacrifice a lamb?

“For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” (v.12-13).

• The Lord was coming through the land to execute judgment, but those who killed a lamb and put the blood on their doorposts would be saved.

• “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

• “And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22).

• This Bible truth is so important for us to understand! Because of our sins, we deserve to die, but Jesus died in our place as our substitute so our sins could be forgiven!

• Charles Spurgeon said in one of his sermons: “We must preach Christ crucified whatever else we do not preach… Substitution seems to me to be the soul of the gospel, the life of the gospel, the essence of the gospel, therefore must it ever be in the front. Jesus, as the Lamb of God, is the Alpha, and we must keep him first and before all others. I charge you, Christian people, do not make this a secondary doctrine… The centre of Christianity is the cross, and the meaning of the Cross is substitution.” (The Blood of Sprinkling and the Children).

• I love the songs we used to sing about the blood:

o There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood, of the lamb!