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We’re taking things out of order today, and here’s why: instead of preaching about the Passover and all its regulations and prescriptions and then doing it again in a couple of weeks when we come to these verses, we’re going to do it all at once.
Like last week, the sermon is going to lead right into observing communion. I thought the connection was pretty obvious last week, but apparently didn’t do my job very well. I had a few people ask why we took communion at the end of the service, even though I’d been preaching for 25 minutes about the connections between Passover and Communion.
So, this week, let me make it very, very clear: there’s a major connection between Passover and the Lord’s Supper; communion (which we celebrate today) parallels Passover in several significant ways.
We’re not looking at Passover just for the sake of learning about Passover and its regulations. We’re looking to see what it has in common with communion, what it has for us.
I’m going to pause throughout the sermon and draw our attention to the connections and parallels. You’re intelligent, bible-reading, Jesus-people; you’ll pick up on several parallels, several connections, no doubt.
Last week, we studied Exodus 12:14-28 (“A Lasting Ordinance”) and saw the need for the Israelites to celebrate, commemorate, and observe the Lord’s Passover every year. They were to do this in some specific ways; the Lord gave to them detailed instructions.
And, now, a little later in Exodus 12 and still more in Exodus 13, the Lord gives to Moses more regulations. If you’re anything like me, you’re thinking, “More regulations? You’ve got to be kidding me!”
>We know, though, that what the Lord does, the instructions He gives, the regulations—these are for a purpose; they are not for nothing; they are important and instructive.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to Exodus 12. If you are able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word.
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:
“No foreigner may eat it. 44 Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. 49 The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”
50 All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. 5 When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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As I was reading through Exodus in preparation for this series through Exodus, these verses struck me; they hit me kind of funny. I get the point, I think, but these verses rubbed me the wrong way.
It all seems to be a bit much, a little exclusive. “No foreigner, no temporary resident, no hired worker, no uncircumcised male” may eat the Passover meal.
Feels a little country club-ish, to me.
It’s exclusive. This—Passover—was a meal to share with God’s people and only God’s people. The Lord said to Moses:
47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
The Israelites needed to hold a festival to the Lord; the entire community was to gather together for worship. If anyone refused to participate, he/she was cut off from Israel.
It was important—vitally important—for all God’s people to celebrate Passover, and to celebrate it together; together, because they were all rescued together.
Since salvation was something they shared, it was only right for them to join together for the feast that praised God for the grace they had all received.
*This should trigger something in us; this is an obvious parallel to communion. We (as people who belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ) share a common salvation. It’s only right for us to gather together for the feast that praises God for the grace that we’ve received.
Together. That’s a crucial idea. Togetherness explains why it is absolutely vital for Christians to be faithful in attending and being part of public worship.
It’s good to worship God in private. I would encourage you to have some regular routine of personal prayer, worship, and Bible study.
But we cannot be Christians on our own. It’s the very essence of Christianity that we worship God together, praising Him for the salvation we share in Christ.
A Christian who decides it’s not necessary to attend church is in grave spiritual danger.
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Together, as the people of God, the Israelites were to partake in the Passover meal.
Passover was a meal for all God’s people to share. Everyone was included—every man, woman, and child and Israel.
However, some people were excluded. This is the part that gets to me a little.
43 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:
“No foreigner may eat it.
45 but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.
To be blunt, when it came to the Passover, God discriminated. Passover was for His people and for His people only.
As I was studying this, I thought to myself: “Who else would want to eat this meal with the Israelites? Who else was even with them?”
This was an actual issue they had to deal with, because the Israelites were not the only ones who left Egypt.
The Bible says:
38 Many other people went up with them, and also large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.
The good ol’ King James Version calls the group who left Egypt a “mixed multitude,” meaning that they came from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
Some of them might have been Egyptians who feared the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. Others in the “mixed multitude” likely came from other tribes—fellow slaves who seized their opportunity to escape when they saw the Israelites walking into the desert.
Begs the question: were the non-Israelites allowed to take part in the Passover?
The basic answer was “No, sir.”
Passover was exclusive. It was only for the people of God, not for outsiders.
Foreigners and migrant workers were not allowed to keep the feast. The reason? They were not members of the covenant community.
They were not believers.
These outsiders had not yet put their faith in the God of Israel, so they had no right to the Passover meal. It was inappropriate for them to receive the sign of salvation because they had not trusted, and were not trusting in the blood of the lamb.
Passover was exclusive—by nature and by intention.
The same is true with the Lord’s Supper (communion).
The Lord’s Supper is not for everyone. It’s only for those who have come to faith in Jesus.
This is what the Bible teaches:
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
At the very least, these verses mean that Communion is not for those who do not know Christ. Communion is for Christians. It is inappropriate and even dangerous to participate in Communion without having received Jesus Christ as Lord.
It’s necessary, then, for me as elder and preacher to warn people not to participate in communion if they don’t know Jesus.
I’ve probably been too lax in this over the years. I make a point to tell people that communion is for all those who belong to God through faith in Jesus; that this is for Jesus-people. But I’m probably not direct enough in telling people not to partake if they haven’t trusted in Jesus for themselves.
P.G. Ryken: “This is for the people of God. This is for those, and only those, who have confessed their sins, who have publically professed their faith in Jesus alone for their salvation, and who remain members in good standing of a gospel-preaching church.”
Old Scottish Presbyterians called the practice of keeping communion to the Lord’s people “fencing the table” (to put a metaphorical fence around the table, not the fencing with swords and facemasks, though that sounds more interesting).
The purpose of giving such a warning is not to keep people away from Christ, but to make it clear that the only way to receive salvation is by coming to Him in faith.
We cannot have communion with Christ unless we have faith in His blood.
By drawing a line between those who are inside and those who are outside the church, it helps people who have not yet made a commitment to Christ to recognize that they are not yet saved.
The exclusivity of communion is something we have to take seriously.
Right there in our bulletin each week it says we observe “open communion” and that “whether you partake is a matter between you and the Lord.”
Some churches allow only their members to partake. Others limit it to their own denomination (i.e. “If you’re a Baptist, you can take our communion.” “If you’re an Independent Christian Church Christian, you’re welcome).
We’re not going to do that; I don’t see any Biblical basis for that. Anyone who trusts in Jesus alone for their salvation is welcome to partake here; those who don’t know or trust Jesus should refrain.
There is one way to be saved—to come to God in faith.
In the time of Moses, one joined the covenant community by faith and followed their profession of faith by receiving the sign of circumcision.
Once they were circumcised, whether Israelite or not, they were eligible to share in the Passover meal.
44 Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him,
>It’s not mentioned explicitly in the text, but the first of the Passover regulations is, very clearly, that this is a meal exclusively for those who have faith.
Regulation #1: Faith in the Lord
Regulation #1: Faith in the Lord
God provided a way for outsiders to come into His family and receive His saving grace.
God has always offered salvation to every kind of person, no matter the race or ethnicity.
As such, He provides a way for the non-Israelites who were part of the exodus from Egypt to be part of His people.
This is by faith. And circumcision was the public way of trusting in His promise of salvation.
All the talk about circumcision in verses 44-49 is there to make a point: only those who have put their faith in the Lord and have acted in faith are part of the people of God.
To participate in the Passover meal, no matter who they were, all those who participated had to have faith in the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel—regulation #1.
Here again, the Passover helps explain what the Lord’s Supper means for the Church.
Communion is an international feast, a meal to be shared by all nations. Absolutely everyone is welcome to the table, as long as they come by faith in Jesus Christ.
It doesn’t matter where they are from, it doesn’t matter what they look like, it doesn’t matter what language they speak, it doesn’t matter what’s in their past or anything else. If they come by faith in Jesus Christ, they are welcome at the Lord’s table and at our table.
And, even if they don’t have faith in Jesus, every single person will be welcome to attend church here. Absolutely everyone is welcome. Everyone. We will love them, we will welcome them with open arms, we will model the gospel to them, and pray that the Lord brings them to saving faith.
Regulation #2: Obedience to the Lord
Regulation #2: Obedience to the Lord
Faith naturally leads to obedience. It’s the proper progression. The person who has faith in the Lord will, by nature, seek to obey the Lord.
Where the Passover is concerned, there is a lot to obey. A lot of rules and regulations. I thought about detailing all of them, but thought I’d just list them all under obedience.
The Lord gives very specific instructions:
9 Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.
46 “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. 5 When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.
The reasoning behind these instructions is not always necessarily clear to us. It’s hard to understand why the Lord said not to eat any of the meat outside the house. We can probably come up with some okay reasons behind the command to eat all of the lamb, to not leave any left over until morning. Why they weren’t to break any of the lamb’s bones is a real head-scratcher (though it does make us think about the crucifixion of Jesus and the prophecies surrounding that).
We may not get the why, the reasoning behind all of these regulations. And maybe the Israelites had trouble understanding the reasoning behind all of these things, too. Or maybe they understood completely, perfectly. Understanding is not the most important part.
Obedience is what matters. The people of the Lord were obedient.
28 The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
50 All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
There’s a lot in the Christian life that doesn’t make a lot of sense. We could question quite a bit, really. Why does the Lord want 10% of my income? Why does the Lord want me to come to church? Why am I supposed to read my Bible? You want me to share my faith with them? I should give up my life to share the Good News with them?
We don’t have all the answers to why; we will probably not find sufficient reasoning to satisfy our curiosities.
But ours is to be obedient. To do what the Lord has said, whether or not we see the point.
Faith leads to obedience.
Our obedience isn’t what saves; it’s faith that saves. It’s obedience that makes clear to whom we belong; it’s obedience that clarifies and validates our faith.
Regulation #3: Testimony about the Lord
Regulation #3: Testimony about the Lord
Faith. Obedience. Testimony.
Passover was not simply a meal they were to eat. It was a meal to share and explain. Whenever God’s people celebrated Passover, they were supposed to talk about what it meant.
8 On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year.
The Passover festival, the meal, the annual celebration was what kept the message of salvation in front of God’s people. But it had to be explained, lest it become another meaningless ritual.
The ones who did the explaining were the parents. It was their responsibility to speak to their children about spiritual things.
As a father prepared the lamb for the sacrifice, he would say to his son, “Do you remember why we do this every year?”
And then he would give his testimony of faith in the God of Israel; he would witness of the Lord’s work and power.
“I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.”
It was a wonderful testimony, a wonderful witness.
It was personal. It was given in the first person—what the Lord did for me.
It was God-centered. It was all about what God had done in history to save His people.
Every Christian should be ready to give the same kind of testimony; one that is personal and Christ-centered.
We should be ready to say, “I want to tell you what Jesus has done for me. He died on the cross for my sins and gave me a whole new life. And this is the Good News available to you by faith.”
By testifying to the meaning of Passover, God’s people made sure they never forgot their salvation.
What God did in rescuing them from slavery was so wonderful, so miraculous, that it needed to be remembered year after year, generation after generation. Forever.
God’s people remembered what He had done in a very simple way. They celebrated Passover the way their parents celebrated it, including the explanation.
Each son learned the meaning of salvation from his father, who learned it from his father, who had learned it from his father, and son on, all the way back to Moses.
4 We will not hide them from their descendants;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
8 They would not be like their ancestors—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.
Israel’s history is jammed-packed with testimony about the exodus. Parents were always talking about it with their children.
This task has now been entrusted to Christian parents, and to every adult in God’s family, the Church. It is our responsibility to teach children the Bible and its theology, to speak with them about spiritual things, to share with them our personal testimonies of faith in jesus, to explain to them the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.
Our testimony about the Lord is a huge part of the Lord’s Supper. By eating and drinking, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
So we take the bread, and we drink from the cup as a proclamation of our faith, we do so in obedience to Him, and do so as part of our witness.
When the plates are passed, I want everyone to hold onto their bread and their cup.
We’re going to eat and drink together.
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As the people of God, we who have placed our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we thank the Lord for saving us.
What does this say about our faith? That our faith is in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
What does this have to do with obedience? Obedience follows faith, doing all our Lord Jesus commands of us.
What part of this is testimony? Every part of this is a testimony to the goodness and graciousness of Christ, testifying to those around us all that Jesus has done for us.
May our faith be fixed on Jesus, may we ever be obedient to Jesus, may our testimony be all about Jesus and what He’s done for us.