Sermon Brief
Date Written: May 18, 2009
Date Preached: May 24, 2008
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Are We Ready to Love – Remembering Back?
Sermon Title: Do We TRULY Remember?
Sermon Text: Exodus 12:1-14
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.
4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
6 and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.
9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.
10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.
11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD.
13 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
14 This day shall be for you A MEMORIAL DAY, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
Introduction:
When we read this passage we can see that God is giving instructions the Jews… for their deliverance from Egypt, but this is not just instructions for that night… but it was to become the Feast of Passover… a feast to be remembered and celebrated every year to remember His deliverance and salvation of His people from Egypt.
In our passage God has already brought 9 plagues on the land of Egypt in an effort to deliver the nation of Israel, but the Pharaoh’s heart is hard and he will not let them go. So Moses has told the Pharaoh that another plague is coming…
And as the 10th plague is about to fall on the land, a plague where the firstborn of every household will die, God provides a way of protection for His people from this terrible plague.
God instructs them to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood of the lamb on the top and side posts of the door and His promise is found in v. 13 where He says, “...when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”
There was one essential distinction that fateful night between the Israelites and the Egyptians. The blood applied by faith in obedience to God’s instruction made all the difference.
I want you to see something here in this act by God, I want you to see and understand that God didn’t say, “Sacrifice the lamb and put the blood over your door and then I am going to look at your works and then decide whether or NOT you deserve My protection!”
If God HAD done that, all of Israel would have been in big trouble. This act of God was an awesome portrayal and demonstration of God’s wonderful grace. Because it was God Himself who provided the instruction and means… and also provided the way for their salvation.
All the nation of Israel had to do was to take God at His word and do exactly what He told them to do. The blood applied (in faith) to the door posts was the essential difference.
Of course, we know that the blood of those lambs was only a foreshadowing of the blood that would provide the eternal protection we all need. This event was a to be remembered and to this day is STILL remembered by those in the Jewish community…it is remembered as their day of deliverance!
Tomorrow we celebrate Memorial Day in which many people will have the day off from work and all the schools will be let out and they will go to the lake, play golf, go camping… it is a day where families take off for the weekend!
Now we know that Memorial Day is a public holiday, but do you know how Memorial Day came to be… do you know WHY we set aside this day here in America?
Well this day was not set aside by Congress as a legal holiday so that families could go to the woods or to the lake or so that Fred and Jim could play golf… but it was set aside so that we could offer honor and remember all U.S. citizens who have died in war fighting for the freedom that we now enjoy.
Originally this day was set aside to specifically honor those brave men who fought and died in our nation’s Civil War, but it was soon realized that it should be expanded to include all those serving our country in the military who have died in any war defending our great country.
Tomorrow our President shall officially observe this day on a national level by placing a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
So just so that you fully understand the purpose of this holiday… it is…
It is a holiday for us to simply remember the price that was paid for our freedom.
But then again that is why it is called “Memorial Day” because Memorial means - “Anything meant to help people remember some person or event such as a monument, a holiday etc.”
Memorial Day - A legal holiday set aside out of the respect and honor for ALL the U.S. servicemen and women who have died in all of our wars.
What does it mean to show respect and honor… well to ‘respect’ someone or show ‘respect’ it means - To feel or show honor or esteem for; to consider or treat with deference or dutiful regard.”
Now while there is no way for us to memorialize each fallen hero personally, we CAN “show honor or esteem for - hold in high regard; and consider or treat with deference or dutiful regard”. And as a civilized and thankful nation…we must!
In March of this past year a ship was christened “The USS New York” however, before it ever touched the water, this Navy’s amphibious assault ship had already made history. You see, this ship was constructed with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.
The ship’s construction was started in 2003, and continued until Katrina disrupted construction, but the ship escaped serious damage, and workers were back at work within weeks after the storm.
Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, La., to cast the ship’s bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence, recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.
Junior Chavers, the foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning to it for all of us, he said. “They knocked us down, but they can’t keep us down. We’re going to be back.”
The USS New York will be commissioned in New York harbor in November of this year. Beginning shortly after the attack of 9/11 the concept of using the scrap metal as a memorial in building a ship was put forth.
The USS New York is the 5th in a new class of warship designed for missions that include special ops against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.
Glenn Clement, a paint foreman in the shipyard said, “I believe that it would be fitting if it’s first official mission after it is commissioned would be to go in and make sure that bin Laden and Al Qaeda is taken out! He came in through the back door and knocked our towers down and (the New York) is coming right through the front door, and we want them to know that!”
Do you know what the ship’s motto is? – “Never Forget!”
Now many today may take this motto and say that America is holding a grudge, but here is something I want us to focus in on… something I believe that our society today simply chooses NOT to believe!
The fact of the matter is that if we forget our past and what has happened then we are doomed for history to repeat itself. We must always remember those who have shed their blood for our country so that we can enjoy the freedom of gathering together to worship… enjoy the freedom to go to the lake… to go camping… to play golf…
I for one never want to forget the blood that has been shed so I can enjoy the freedoms which I enjoy now. I never want to forget those who have lost sons, daughters, husbands, mothers, and fathers for the freedom in which we enjoy this morning.
There are some who are cynical and say “what freedom?” well let’s take a look, we have freedom of religion, freedom to worship how we want, and to worship whatever God we feel we need to worship. Our flag stands for the freedom that we each enjoy today.
Our flag stands for those who have given their lives to sacrifice so you can stand to say, you disagree. Not only does the American flag stand for the freedom as a country, but here on the other side of our podium we have the Christian flag and it stands for the great freedom we enjoy as believers… as Christians!
The Christian flag represents those who are ‘in Christ’ all over the world and it represents not only the freedom we have IN Christ but it represents the sacrifice made for those freedoms…
Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary and paid a price that none of us could ever pay. He was the sacrifice that atoned for our sin! Because of His sacrifice we can know salvation and we can know forgiveness of sin!
Because of what Christ has done, and the freedom from sin He can bring into our lives we should remember how He has delivered us…
This morning I want us to look at the sacrifice of Christ and I want us to understand why we should always remember it…
The Provision of His Sacrifice v.1-6
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
2 This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.
3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household.
4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
The lamb was supposed to be without blemish and within the first year of birth.
Heb 9:14 tells us, “…how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God…”
1Pe 1:19 “…but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot…”
This sacrifice by Christ… This provision for our sin was been made for all. The blood of Jesus Christ was shed for all; Jesus Christ was without blemish, or spot and how much better it is than the Old Testament Sacrifice.
Scripture tells us that the sacrifice of Jesus is a ONE time for ALL sacrifice… because He was perfect… the perfect sacrifice… His blood provides forgiveness of sin and deliverance to salvation to all who accept Him… We can truly find a hope of true life in Christ.
6 and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
This lamb was to be taken from the flock on the tenth day, and kept up and fed by itself till the fourteenth day, when it was to be sacrificed.
The Sacrifice that Jesus made provides for any and all who come to Him with a spiritual freedom! Just as the sacrifice and shed blood of the patriots of this nation have bought us our freedoms today, our freedoms are a provision of the sacrifice that men and women have made and we should always remember their sacrifice for our country!
But we also have the provision of eternal salvation and forgiveness of sin because of the sacrifice of One man… God wrapped in Flesh whom we called Jesus… because of His sacrifice we have provision for freedom from sin and deliverance to eternal salvation!
But we not only can see that we have benefited from the PROVISION of this sacrifice, but we can also see where we have benefited from the promise of protection of the Sacrifice.
The Promise of His Sacrifice v.7, 13
7 Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
This verse speaks of the door posts along side of the door and the lintel… the lintel is the beam that connects the doorposts above the door itself…
13 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 no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
What this passage is telling us is that those houses on which the Angel sees this blood sprinkled is going to be under the protection of God and the Angel will ‘pass over’ that household. The blood was protection from God’s wrath that night.
The blood on the door post was evidence that the people in that household had been obedient to the Lord’s instructions… and the promise from God was that because of their faith in acting on His instructions… in other words because of their faith reveal thru their obedience, they were going to be saved… they would be protected on a night where death was plentiful.
This is a great picture of the promise of Scripture today! Today anyone who accepts Jesus and His sacrifice… and accepts Him as Lord… Scripture promises that because of the blood of Jesus… we receive the provision of PROTECTION from Christ!
When we are covered by the sacrificial blood of Christ in our lives we [like the Israelites in Egypt that night] can then rest assured that we don’t have to fear eternal death and we can look forward to an eternal home in heaven with our Savior!
Let me ask a very important question this morning!
Do you have the blood of Christ applied to the doorway of your heart today?
The needed sacrifice to cleanse your sin has been provided! Jesus on the Cross brings forgiveness and salvation. Today, as believers, we have the promise of what that sacrifice has done for us… just as the Israelites had the promise of God of what the sacrifice of that Lamb would do for them… This morning if you don’t have Jesus in your life, you stand outside the eternal protection and provision of God…
But for those who have accepted Christ, we are saved from death to life and delivered to everlasting peace and life with God in Heaven. So this morning I want to stress the need for ALL believers to have a memorial for what Christ has done… Let us never forget the saving of the sacrifice!
Let me stress to all who do NOT know Christ as Savior, turn to Him today and allow Him to bring you under His provision of protection… under the Promise of His deliverance!
But not only should we remember God’s provision and promise that came about through Jesus Christ… we are all called to remember the Sacrifice itself. We reap the benefits of what Christ was willing to suffer on our behalf…we must always REMEMBER what He has done!
Properly Remembering the Sacrifice – v.14
14 This day shall be for you A MEMORIAL DAY, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
In v.14 we find God telling His people to establish a memorial so that they would always remember this day and they would always remember God’s deliverance of their nation… the Jews celebrate this to this day!
In Ex 13:3 Moses spoke to the people and told them, “…Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place...”
Moses reminds the people just one chapter later to remember what God has done… remember and hold it sacred in their hearts! And just like Moses wanted the nation of Israel to always remember their deliverance from their days of bondage, I believe that all Christians must always remember where God has delivered us from…
We were all lost and going to hell… then God’s sacrifice provided salvation and forgiveness and promises to keep us safe. Before God saved us, we were all in spiritual bondage and a slave to our sinful state! Before we were saved we had ZERO spiritual freedom, but because of Jesus Christ, we have been delivered!
So with that in mind I want us as a fellowship to celebrate today… celebrate in a way that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has established to remember what He has done for us!
We celebrate so that we will never forget where we have come from and what God has brought us from and what Jesus Christ has done!
Paul Harvey - It was gratitude that prompted an old man to visit an old broken pier on the eastern seacoast of Florida. Every Friday night, until his death in 1973, he would return, walking slowly and slightly stooped with a large bucket of shrimp.
The sea gulls would flock to this old man, and he would feed them from his bucket. Many years before, in October 1942, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker was on a mission in a B-17 to deliver an important message to General Douglas MacArthur in New Guinea.
Somewhere over the South Pacific the Flying Fortress became lost beyond the reach of radio. Fuel ran dangerously low, so the men ditched their plane in the ocean. For nearly a month Captain Eddie and his companions would fight the water, weather, and the scorching sun. They spent many sleepless nights recoiling as giant sharks rammed their rafts.
But out of all these dangers, the ONE most dangerous enemy of all was starvation. After only 8 days their rations were gone or destroyed by the salt water. It was going to take a miracle to save them.
And a miracle was just what happened. Eddie recalled later in life that, “Something landed on my head. I knew that it was a sea gull. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew. Everyone else knew too. No one said a word, but peering out from under my hat brim without moving my head, I could see the expression on their faces. They were staring at that gull. The gull meant food . . . if I could catch it.”
And the rest, as they say, is history. Eddie caught the gull and they ate what they could and used its intestines as bait to catch fish. The survivors were sustained and their hopes renewed because one sea gull that uncharacteristically offered itself as a sacrifice.
Eddie never forgot that sacrifice and for the rest of his life every Friday evening, about sunset, on a lonely stretch along the eastern Florida seacoast, you could see an old man walking with his bucket filled with shrimp to feed the sea gulls! He did this in remembrance of that one seagull, which, on a day long past, gave itself without a struggle.
And just as Eddie never forgot the gull that gave its life, we should never forget the soldiers of our country who have given their lives for our freedom and safety!
Because of that seagull Eddie got a 2nd chance at life, and because many brave men and women have died in our nation’s armed forces fighting for our freedom, we too have a chance at life – a life of freedom.
But so many people never stop to realize that FREEDOM never comes without a price. The blood of millions of many fine soldiers has paid for the freedoms we enjoy today! Just like the blood of the tiny lamb was the price for freedom of those bound in slavery in Egypt.
Freedom comes at a high cost, and that cost has to be paid for freedom and life to be real and true, that cost is the death of another. Someone, or something, has to die in order that we might live.
Our country’s soldiers died that we might have a life of freedom, and Jesus died that we might have life eternal. In the story of the Passover, the blood of a lamb was marked on the doorposts and this caused the destroyer to pass over the households that were marked, thus granting them life. This represented the cross of Jesus Christ upon which the very Lamb of God would give his own life that we might live forever in God’s kingdom.
Our soldiers died for our country’s freedom, and Jesus died for our spiritual freedom for he said in John 8:36, “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed,” and then in John 10:10 Jesus told us, “I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Jesus paid for our spiritual freedom and gave us a crown in heaven when he died on the cross. There is no freedom without the shedding of blood.
We should never forget our many soldiers who died for our freedom here in America, and most importantly we must never forget our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave his own life on a cross that we might have eternal life.
Jesus died so that you may have forgiveness of sin and eternal life, I call on all here this morning who do not have a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus to come forward and allow Him to change your life forever!
He died so that you may be free, won’t you step out and give your heart to Him! As Bro Parker comes, I call on all of us to stand and if you have a decision to make before the Lord… I urge you to come to this altar and make things right between you and God…come as we begin to sing our hymn of invitation…
