THE STORY #4: DELIVERANCE (MOSES AND EXODUS)
INTRO TO TOPIC: Going through the whole Bible in The Story. Review first three weeks: Covered Genesis (creation, the fall, the flood, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph’s story).
BACKGROUND: THE ISRAELITES BECOME SLAVES IN EGYPT:
“8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we; 10 come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens…” (Exodus 1:8-11, NKJV).
• The Israelites had now become slaves!
• “And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage--in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field…” (Exodus 1:14).
• Then they started killing the male babies (v.16) and even threw them in the river (v.22).
1. MOSES’ EARLY YEARS IN EGYPT:
“And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. So the woman conceived and bore a son. And when she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months.” (Exodus 2:1-2).
• Moses’ mom put him in a basket in the river and he sailed down to Pharaoh’s daughter.
• “Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Exodus 2:11-12).
• v.13-15: However, his crime was discovered, and he became a fugitive and fled Egypt.
• v.16-22: Moses ended up in Midian where he married Zipporah and had two sons.
2. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL CRY OUT FOR HELP:
“Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.” (Exodus 2:23-25).
• Many people today feel like they are trapped in bondage to bad habits. Do you?
• KEY VERSE: “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17). PREACH: Call on the name of the Lord in your day of trouble!
3. GOD CALLS MOSES TO DELIVER HIS PEOPLE:
“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush…” (Exodus 3:1-2).
• God calls Moses to serve him, but he makes excuses and says he can’t.
• First question Moses asks: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (v.11).
• God’s response: “I will certainly be with you.” (v.12).
• Second question Moses asks: “Who are you?” (v.13). God says, “I AM!” (v.14).
• If you want to do great things for God, you need to know who you are, and who God is!
• PREACH: Jesus is the Saviour, Healer, Deliverer, Provider, Friend, Almighty God!
• But Moses still had doubts: “Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'" So the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod."” (Ex. 4:1-2).
• PREACH: What’s in YOUR hand? What’s in your HEART? Your gifts and passions!
SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS 4-11: (You will love reading through this section this week!)
Ch. 4: Moses goes to Egypt and the people believed him and worshipped.
Ch. 5-6: Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, “Let my people go!” Pharaoh says no.
“And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:3).
Ch.7-11: God uses Moses to bring about a mighty deliverance with 10 PLAGUES:
Waters turn to blood, Frogs, Lice, Flies, Livestock Diseased, Boils,
Hail and lightning, Locusts, Darkness, the Death of the Firstborn of the Egyptians.
4. THE PASSOVER LAMB:
“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… 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 12:3,5-7).
• Why did they have to kill 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).
• 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).
• 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!
• QUOTE: “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, Christians, do not make this a secondary doctrine… The centre of Christianity is the cross, and the meaning of the Cross is substitution.” (Charles Spurgeon, The Blood of Sprinkling and the Children).
• The death of the lamb provided a mighty deliverance from them: In the morning, they would begin their exodus out of slavery in Egypt, and into the Promised Land!
THE BIG IDEA: In the story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, we see a beautiful picture of Jesus as our Passover lamb, who shed his blood so that we could be saved and delivered.
APPLICATION:
Just as the Israelites had to personally apply the blood to their doors, so to must we apply the blood of Jesus to our lives. How do we do that? By trusting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
• All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, and the penalty for our sin is death.
• However, Jesus shed His blood and took our punishment so we could be forgiven!
• We must repent (turn from our sins) and believe (put our faith in Jesus).
• ALTAR CALL
Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor’s Blog: http://pastorchrisjordan.wordpress.com/
