DATE: –2ND MAY, 2021
TOPIC: – THE PASSOVER (Part 2)
BIBLE PASSAGE: – Exodus 12:15 – 28
MEMORY VERSE: – “Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened; for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (Corinthians 5:7).
INTRODUCTION: –The Israelites over the years have been celebrating the Passover feast as commanded by God yearly, Jews today still celebrate the feast, though the ritual has changed over the years. Since there is no longer a temple in Jerusalem, where God told them they must make the Passover sacrifice (Deut.16:1-6), the contemporary Jewish feast (called seder) no longer includes lamb sacrifice. But families still get together, ritually remove all yeast from the home and have a meal similar to the Passover. The father of the household then retells the story of the exodus of Israelites from Egypt.
LESSON OUTLINES
1) The Passover Church
For the Christians, the Passover contains rich prophetic symbolism that points to Christ Jesus “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
The New Testament teaches that all the Jewish’s feasts are “a shadow of things to come” (Col.2:16-17; Heb.10:1). Most of them were in some way symbolic of how Jesus would restore mankind back to God in fellowship by becoming the sacrifice for sins. The event in Exodus 12, reminds us of Jesus and His plans for us in the following ways:
i) The main focus of the Passover feast was to reveal God’s grace; God led the Israelites out of Egypt not because they deserve His special favour; but because He loved them.
In a similar way our salvation is by God’s amazing grace (Eph.2:8-10; Titus 3:4-5).
ii) The purpose of the blood on the door frames was to save the firstborn of each household from death. This for us was the way Christ’s blood was shed on the cross to save us from eternal death (Rom.6:23; Ex.12:13; 23:27; Heb.9:22).
iii) The Passover Lamb was a “sacrifice” that served as a substitute for the firstborn. This for us was how Christ sacrificed Himself as a substitute for us. We deserved death because of our sins against God. But Christ took our place in God’s wrathful judgment. He took our place of rejection and punishment bearing our sin and reproach on the cross (1Cornt.5:7).
iv) The lamb had to be “a male without blemish” (Exd.12:5). The lamb represents Christ the perfect, sinless Son of the Most High God (Jh.8:46; Heb.4:15).
v) The eating of the Lamb represented the Israelites identifying with and receiving the Lamb’s death, which saved them from death. In a similar way, partaking in the Holy Communion represents our identification and participation in Christ’s death, which saves us from spiritual death (1Corint.10:16-17; 11:24-26). His was the only sacrifice needed to save us, and the only sacrifice that could save us. We now observe the Lord’s Supper as a memorial “in remembrance of” Him (Matt.26:26-27; 1Corint.11:24).
vi) The unleavened bread eaten along with the Passover lamb was made without yeast (Exd.12:8) – sin and corruption. This unleavened bread represented the Israelites separation from Egypt, which symbolized worldliness and sin (Exd.12:15; 13; 7; Matt.16:6; Mk.8:15).
This shows how every one of us as Christians must separate ourselves from the sinful world and be dedicated to God alone (2Corint.5:17; 6:14 – 17:2).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
As Christians, we must, just as the Israelites separated themselves from the Egyptians by sacrifice, make a clean break from every form of ungodly behavior and compromise and we must continually resist every allurement and sinful desires of our own bodies. We must mortify our sinful nature, refusing to satisfy the ungodly desires by avoiding every situation that might tempt us to offend God (Gal.5:16). We must instead feed constantly and continually on the Word of God, spending time with god in prayers and worship.
QUESTIONS
- How does the Passover apply to us Christians?
- What does the unleavened bread symbolizes?