God's Plan For A New Year's Celebration

God’s Plan For a New Year’s Celebration

Audio Link to this sermon as preached Lord's Cove Church Of Christ December 29, 2013

http://chirb.it/1r9KB6

Exodus 12:1-14

INTRODUCTION:

1.) After a few weeks of storms, and church being cancelled, it is certainly a blessing to be able to join today with God’s people in a time of worship and Praise to Him.

2.) As we come here today, certainly the ending of one year, and the commencement of a New Year is a time for each one of us to

have some personal reflection, on our lives, and on who we are.

3.) This morning, I want us to look at Exodus 12 to the time when God made the Jewish people into a distinct nation for Himself, and

at a time in which He also gave some guidelines for celebrating New Year’s Day.

I. FOR BOTH JEWS AND THE CHRISTIANS, THE NEW YEAR IS A REMINDER OF THE POWER AND WORK OF GOD.

1.) The Jewish calendar is based on the power and work of God.

A.) Certainly anyone familiar with the Jewish calendar would immediately notice it is different from the Gregorian calendar which most

of the world would follow today.

B.) Our New Year is January 1, 2014.

ba.) In the Jewish calendar the date is not January 1, 2014, but rather be the 29th. day of Tevet in the year 5,774.

C.) The question that comes to our mind is what is the significance of the year 5,774?

ca.) The answer to that question is that the Jewish world would see this as the date of the power and work of God’s Word bringing

about the creation of this world or at least the creation of man on this earth..

cb.) The calculation of that date has been derived from the ages of the Patriarchs in Genesis, the years in captivity, the date of building

of the temple of God, and the years it had stood, as well as a few other significant dates calculated into that equation.

cc.) To the Jewish people their very calendar was an occasion for rejoicing as it reflected God’s powerful work in creation.

D.) Though the Jewish calendar reflects the power and Work of God, there is also a specific displaying of God's power that marked the official day for the Jewish people to celebrate the New Year.

2..) The Jewish Passover was to be a new enactment of the Power and Work of God.

A.) After 430 years in Egypt, God’s time had come for him to do great things through the Israelites, while bringing judgment on the nation and the gods of Egypt.

B.) 430 years earlier, God had brought the Israelites into Egypt as invited guests.

ba.) Now they were no longer welcomed guests, but rather slaves in a foreign land.

baa.) But now the time had come for God to deliver them, and to make them his own special or chosen people.

bb.) Under the direction of God, Moses had repeatedly, ordered Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.

C.) We are familiar with the account of the ten plagues that God had put on Egypt, and on the gods of Egypt.

ca.) But the thing we have to see is that this was a turning point in the history of the world.

cb.) Earlier in Noah’s day, God had destroyed the world because of the wickedness on this earth.

cc.) Even after the flood, the wickedness continued to persist in the families after the flood.

cd.) Now God’s plan was not to again purge the world from the presence of sinful people, but to select one group of people to represent

Him on this earth, and through them to bring the Messiah into the world.

ce.) God had a plan for the world, and that plan was going to be through his own son the Messiah.

cea.) From the foundations of the world, even before man or sin were here in this world, God's plan was that His Messiah would come to save the world that would fall into sin.

D.) The deliverance from Egypt was part of God’s plan in preparing the world for his Messiah.

da.) When God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, he was working to make a distinct people on this earth to bring about his salvation

through the Messiah.

db.) According to Exod. 10:2 part of God’s work was to make God’s own people to know the Lord their God.

dba.) To this end, the miraculous power of god delivering them from Egypt would help to accomplish this.

dc.) God’s plan was also to set apart a people as a distinct people to give glory to God. (Exod. 8:23)

dca.) That was a large part of God with the Jewish people.

dcb.) It was not that the Jewish people were any more special than others, but that God had chosen to work through them to bless the world.