Death Passes Over

*** NOTE - Both a brief Children's Sermon and a full Adult sermon are included ***

CHILDREN’S SERMON

Who have we been studying the last three Sundays? Yes… MOSES... Last week, Moses asked Pharaoh (or the leader of the Egyptians) NINE TIMES to let the people of Israel go… and all 9 times, Pharaoh said “NO!”… Pharaoh refused to obey God, so God sent a different plague (or disaster) each of those 9 times proving to everyone that He alone is God… Proving that He is more powerful than any other god.

But even after 9 different disasters, Pharaoh still refused to let God’s people go… So God sent one final disaster… and it was the worst one of all. Moses tells Pharaoh that this last disaster would be so terrible that it would make him change his mind and finally let the people go. Moses tells him that the oldest son of every family and even the firstborn of their animals would all die.

How sad! Since Pharaoh and the people in Egypt refused to do what God told them to do, they suffered terribly! That may be hard to understand, but remember – God gave them many chances to do what he told them to do, but they refused… 9 different times, they refused to obey God.

So God gave Moses instructions on how his own people (the people of Israel) were to prepare for this last disaster. He said that every family was to take a one-year-old lamb… but not just any lamb… it had to be perfect in every way… and they were to prepare a meal. When they killed the lamb so they could cook it, they were to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and top of the doorway of their houses. [have someone put red paper on the sides and top of a doorway as illustration]

God said, "I will go through the land of Egypt tonight… and every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die… this is My judgment on all the gods of Egypt… The blood will be a sign on the houses where you live... When I see the blood I will pass over you—no harm will touch you.”

So the people did as God instructed them… and they were safe… But it was a very sad night for the Egyptians! Because it was so terrible, Pharaoh tells Moses to GET OUT! And so the people of Israel were set free.

God cares for us just like he cared for his children in Egypt long ago. We are also slaves… but we are not slaves in Egypt… we are slaves to sin… But God wants us to be free, so He sent Jesus… Jesus is the perfect lamb that was killed to save us from death, and to set us free. When we believe in Jesus and put our faith in Him, then God sees the blood of Jesus on the doors of our hearts, and His judgment (death) passes over us… and we are set free from sin!

Let’s PRAY… [Dismiss children]

SCRIPTURE READING

Please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 12:1-14… and stand as we honor the reading of God's word...

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 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. 4 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. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 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. 7 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. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 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. 12 “On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. 13 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. 14 “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.