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.
E.) The calendar was based on their deliverance from Egypt.
3.) The Jewish Passover was to mark a new division of time.
A.) It was God himself, who told the Israelites that the Passover was to be their New Year.
B.) Exodus 12:1-2
C.) The Power and Work of God in delivering them from Egypt, was also part of God’s plan in making them a distinct people to bless
the entire world.
4.) Today we can rejoice because like the Jewish calendar, our calendar reflects the incredible working of God’s hand.
Our calendar is based on the Work of God in this world through the Messiah.
A.) Though that is the truth, it is a truth rejected by the world.
aa.) Today, we live in a corrupt and wicked world that is trying it’s best to reduce and remove the influence of God and of Jesus Christ from this world, and also the calendar which reflects the coming of Jesus Christ into this world.
B.) The terms we have always known of “B.C.” and “A.D.” are terms that the world is trying to replace with the letters “C.E.” or “B.C.E.”
with the abbreviations referring to Common Era instead of Jesus Christ.
C.) Yet the reality is that for the past several centuries, almost the entire world have used the calendar system we use which acknowledges the coming of God’s Son, Jesus the Christ into this world.
ca.) Whenever you see the year 2014, or more properly A.D. 2014, it should always serve as a reminder of the coming of Jesus Christ
into this world.
caa.) The term "A.D." is an abbreviation for the Latin term "Anno Domini" meaning, "In the year of our Lord."
cab.) Originally this would have been "Anno Domini Nostri Iesu Christi" which would be translated: "In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anno_Domini)
cb.) The date of every cheque or letter you write, every headline in the newspaper, and every doctor’s appointment or oil change you
schedule on your calendar stands as conscious reminders to us of God’s beloved Son coming into this world to redeem us from sin.
cc.) As we come into the New Year, we can rejoice that the calendar reflects powerfully the work and the Glory of God Himself into this
world.
II. THE NEW YEAR HAS BEEN PURCHASED WITH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB.
1.) The Israelites were to put some of the blood from the Passover lamb on their doorframes.
A.) Exodus 12:3-8
B.) When we think of New Year traditions or customs this is one that certainly would have seemed very peculiar, even to the Israelites who were asked to do it.
ba.) Yet those were the instructions God had given to the Jewish people when they celebrated that Passover feast in Egypt on what would become their New Year’s Day.
C.) Certainly, this is not something we will want to add to our New Year celebrations and traditions, but it was something that God had
directed for the Jewish people in that first New Year’s celebration identifying them as a distinct people of God.
ca.) What a powerful reminder it would be to them as they entered into the New Year, with the reminder they had been purchased by
the blood of the lamb.
2.) The blood of the lamb meant the angel of death would pass over them, instead of passing through them.
A.) as the Jewish people prepared to celebrate the New Year, Egypt would have been filled with the cries and wails from the people of
Egypt as they mourned over the death of their firstborn sons.
aa.) The people of Egypt were not under the blood of the Lamb.
ab.) The nation of Egypt learned that night what it meant to not be under the blood of the Lamb, when the angel of death passed through the Egyptians, but passed over the Jews.
aba.) Exodus 12:29-30
ac.) For the Jewish people it was a great day of rejoicing on the first day of their New Year, knowing that God had passed over them,
instead of passing through them.
ad.) You can be sure that not only that year, but each year after that the celebration of New Year’s was a very special time for the
Jewish people.
ada.) Even today. the Jews celebrate Passover or their New Year faithfully.
ac.) Ultimately, the blood of that sacrificial lamb was a symbol looking forward to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
3.) 1,300 years after this first New Year’s/Passover celebration, John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God that takes away
the sins of the world.
A.) John 1:29;35-36
B.) The Jewish people of old rejoiced in the Passover Lamb in the land of Egypt.
ba.) Ultimately that Passover Lamb was a type of the True Lamb of God that would come into this world thirteen centuries
later.
C.) The proclamation of John the Baptist, told the world that one far greater than the Passover Lamb or the daily sacrificial lambs
would be offered as the ultimate sacrifice for man.
ca.) The ancient Passover lamb freed only the Jewish people from physical bondage to Egypt.
cb.)The true Lamb of God frees all mankind that will accept Him from the bondage of sin, and of Satan.
cba.) As great as the offer of God is to the human race, many of every generation have refused to accept the Gift and the Lamb of God.
cbb.) John 1:10-13
D.) As we think on Jesus as the Lamb of God, I want us to focus on the scene of the cross.
da.) One of the details of the cross and Jesus death was that he died at 3:00 p.m.
db.) Have you ever wondered at that detail, or why it would be included in the Scriptures? Have you ever wondered why the Gospel
writers even bothered to mention the time of death?
dc.) You see to us that detail is not that important, but to those at the cross from a Jewish background that detail was an important part
of the account.
dca.) There was a reason the people knew it was 3:00p.m. when Jesus died.
dca-1.) That was a day before wrist watches, or town clocks, but the all the people would still have known when it was 3:00 p.m.
dcb.) You see at exactly 3:00 p.m. a priest would loudly blow the Shofar ( a Ram's horn) trumpet at the temple of God.
dcc.) The reason for that blast on the horn was that was the exact time when a priest would slit the throat of a lamb, and offer that lamb
as a sacrifice to God.
dcd.) Just as the lamb was dying at the temple, the true Lamb of God said “It is finished”, and died on the cross as the true Lamb of
God.
dcd-1.) Because of what Jesus did on this earth, and while hanging on a cross, we have a calendar based on Jesus Christ.
III. THE NEW YEAR IS TO BE A TIME OF CELEBRATION.
1.) Certainly most everyone would look at the New Year as a time of celebration.
A.) There are many views for the celebration of New Year’s
aa.) There are parties, and get-togethers, The New Year's Kiss, watching in the new year, and many other activitees we associate with the New Year.
B.) When I prepare the church bulletin at New Year's, I often will look for clip art to go with New Year’s Day.
ba.) Most of what you will find is promoting the world’s view of celebration, and what constitutes a good time.
2.) For the Jewish people the New Year Celebration was to be a festival to the lord.
A.) Exodus 12:14
aa.) I wonder what a difference there would be in our New Year's celebrations if we also looked at it as a festival to glorify god, not merely recognizing the event for ourselves.
B.) One of the things we often do each year is to make New Year’s Resolutions.
ba.) There will be resolutions to lose weight, to stop smoking, to save more money, to exercise, or to do any one of a hundred other
activities to make us into better people.
bb.) There is nothing wrong with this, and in fact we will each one be better if we do try to set realistic goals for the New Year
to improve our lives.
C.) In the midst of all of this, one of the greatest things we can do for a wonderful New Year is to make it a day, and also a year of
celebrating what God has done for us.
3.) For the Christian, New Year’s should be a far greater celebration than what it was for the Jewish people.
A.) For the Christian every time we look at our calendar, it is a reminder that apx. 2014 years ago that God chose to prove His love us enough to send His son to die for us.
CONCLUSION:
1.) As I close today, I want to challenge you on your relationship with God.
A.) If you are a Christian, New Year’s should be a time of great celebration as a festival to God for His ove for you.
aa.) It should be a time when your heart is so filled with celebration that you are overflowing with praise for the Love of God for you.
B.) If you are not a Christian the ending of one year and he beginning of a New Year is just a date on the calendar, and maybe a one night party.
ba.) If you have never come to Christ I want you to look at New Year’s as a reminder that God so loved you personally that that he sent
his son to die for you.
bb.) I want you to also be challenged to look at your own relationship with God.
bba.) I want to do this because the Love of God is such that if you had been the only person on this planet who had ever sinned, that
God would still have sent His Son to die for you.
bc.) If Christ is speaking to your heart today, I challenge you to come and at the dawn of the New Year, confess your faith in Jesus
Christ and pledge your Life to Him in the waters of baptism.
