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[0:00] Exodus 11.4 from God's Word. Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

[0:37] All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, Go, you and all the people who follow you. After that I will leave. Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. The Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.

[0:55] Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. He would not let the Israelites go out of his country. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

[1:11] Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are.

[1:26] You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

[1:38] Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood, and put it on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs.

[1:54] That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roasted over the fire, head, legs, and inner parts.

[2:07] Do not leave any of it till morning. If some of it is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it. With your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand, eat it in haste.

[2:20] It is the Lord's Passover. On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both men and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

[2:32] I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

[2:45] And then skip down with me to verse 28. The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron. At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.

[3:04] Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. There's not a lot of good news out there, is there?

[3:19] Do you watch the evening news? You don't get a lot that's good. Terrorism spreading. Threats of the war in Afghanistan, which we're told that it will be bloodier and more costly in terms of human life than even Iraq was.

[3:39] The economy is in serious trouble. Slumping stock market. Jobs laid off. Businesses closing. And yet, some top executives receiving huge bonuses for themselves.

[3:54] Our neighbor to the south, Mexico, on the brink of collapse. And an unstable border all along that connection between our country and theirs.

[4:08] Crime at all levels. Moral, spiritual decline. A governor of our neighboring state impeached for corruption in his office. And one thing after another, with little good news to report.

[4:21] Now, to some extent, we should be expecting this. We need to remember where we live. We do not live in the Garden of Eden anymore. We once did. But then, man fell and turned his back on God, and we were driven out of that garden.

[4:40] And the whole earth has been cursed because of our sin. So I say, when rebels against God, who are ignoring his commandments and going their own way, find life full of bad news, we should not be surprised.

[5:03] It's a world under God's wrath. Now, when we turn to our Bibles, we find a whole lot of bad news here as well, don't we? If you're one that just likes to read the good news, you're going to have a lot of your Bible that you don't read.

[5:17] And we heard in the Sunday school hour, we need the whole Bible for the whole Christian. But in the midst of the bad news, we also find good news. And it is amazingly gracious of God that he has anything good to say to us sinners who are in rebellion against him.

[5:35] We should expect to find the bad news. We should be surprised all over again when we find the good news.

[5:46] Now, the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news. That's what the word gospel means. Good news. How hell-deserving sinners who've rebelled against God can find peace with God and eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:02] Now, there's both bad news and good news in our Bible passage that was read for us this morning in Exodus. We'll look first at the bad news.

[6:14] The bad news is that about midnight, God is coming to judge. And he's serious. He's going to kill the firstborn in every family in Egypt.

[6:28] The firstborn son. It's a destructive plague as we read through Exodus. We find it's not the first plague. It's the last of ten plagues.

[6:41] The wicked Pharaoh of Egypt has been holding the Israelites in bondage. And they've been oppressing them and treating them as slaves.

[6:51] And Pharaoh has been using them as his labor force to build monuments to his own greatness. Well, these are God's people that he is misusing.

[7:02] The covenant people of God. And so God sends Moses and Aaron to announce to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord, this is what Jehovah, the God of Israel, says.

[7:16] Let my people go so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert. And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah that I should obey him and let Israel go?

[7:28] I do not know Jehovah and I will not let Israel go. And so Pharaoh is willing to rebel against Jehovah in order to keep his labor force.

[7:41] And so God sends plague after plague with the intention of teaching Pharaoh just who he is and why he should obey him. First, the water is turned to blood.

[7:52] Then the whole land is covered with frogs. Then gnats. Then fleas. Then locusts. The cattle are destroyed with a disease. Boils break out on people's bodies.

[8:06] The deadly hail that falls from heaven and kills men and beasts. And then darkness for three days. And under the pain of the plague, Pharaoh's heart softens.

[8:18] And he says, Okay, I give. I'll let you go. But only for a while. And then as soon as the pain was relieved and the plague was gone, his heart was hardened.

[8:29] And he once again changes his mind and refuses to let Israel go. As a result, the whole land of Egypt was destroyed. Well, now at last, after so much patience, God pulls out of his arsenal.

[8:47] The tenth plague. The last plague. He knows that this plague will be effectual. That at the end of this plague, Pharaoh will be begging the Israelites to leave.

[9:00] But it will take a visit from God himself in judgment. Listen as I read. And I want you to notice that God is not sending an angel to do this work.

[9:13] He says, I am coming and I will strike. Around midnight, I will pass through Egypt and I will strike down every firstborn son in Egypt from the firstborn son of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn son of the slave girl who works at her hand mill and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

[9:40] There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. And we say that is horrifying to even think about.

[9:52] But we must remember that Pharaoh had refused to respond to God's lesser judgments, hadn't he? And it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

[10:04] So God's judgment is announced to Pharaoh and then Moses leaves. Did you ever wonder why the firstborn sons? Why are they targeted out for slaughter?

[10:18] Well, it's because God called Israel his firstborn son. The firstborn son was the son that was most dear to the father.

[10:31] And God is saying that Israel is my firstborn son. It's saying, Israel, out of all the people of the world, they are the apple of my eye. They are the people of my favor.

[10:42] And God had instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh, this is what Jehovah says, Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go so he may worship me.

[10:53] But you refuse to let him go so I will kill your firstborn son. That's why it's the firstborn that's targeted. So, we're in Pharaoh's palace later that same night when he's been told of the tenth plague.

[11:11] And I wonder, don't you, if at bedtime he felt the forehead of his firstborn son before he sent him off to bed? And, looked him over, there he was.

[11:21] He was the proof of the strength of Pharaoh, his firstborn, the dearest of all to him. And he rejoices to feel no fever, to see that he's in health, as he sends him off to bed.

[11:37] And in thousands of homes throughout Egypt, good nights are said and the lights are turned off. But at midnight, out of the darkness, comes piercing screams of parents who have awakened to find their firstborn sons dead as stone.

[11:52] Pharaoh himself is awakened and finds his firstborn, his firstborn son dead. And so, the whole land of Egypt is awake at midnight and they join together in this death cry of loud wailing.

[12:11] For we are told there was not a house without someone dead. Oh, the power of God's wrath. With one pass over the whole of Egypt, the sickle of his death has destroyed all the firstborn sons.

[12:30] In every home, one pass. this is the God with whom we have to do. Who knows the power of your anger for your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you, Moses said.

[12:46] Even the Egyptians could see that this was no natural event. The selectivity was too precise, wasn't it? Death is no respecter of persons. It hits one as well as another. But this plague strikes only the firstborn sons in every house.

[13:03] it is Jehovah fulfilling his word. Now, something that perhaps we don't think about as often is that there were Israelites living in the land of Egypt that night as well.

[13:17] And they had firstborn sons as well. But where they lived, the situation was altogether different. We're told there was not a death of the firstborn there.

[13:31] In fact, there was not even a dog barking that night. It's a way to speak of the unbelievable peace and quiet that was resting here among the Israelite homes when all destruction is breaking out among the Egyptian homes.

[13:52] It's like a line was drawn in Egypt. and on that side death visits every single house and on this side there is absolutely no death at all.

[14:05] What is to account for this? That's the question we ask of a passage like this. Why is this? Death here, none here. And it's important that we understand the answer to that.

[14:20] Now, here's where we encounter the good news. We said there's bad news and there's good news. Here's the good news. There is good news. God sent a message to his people telling them how to escape the death of their firstborn sons.

[14:36] A message. A gospel message. A good news message. Each household is to select a year old male lamb without defect. They're to slaughter it at twilight.

[14:48] They're to not break a bone. They're to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the door frames of their house. And then they're to roast the lamb over fire and eat it in their houses.

[15:00] And no one is to go outside of the blood stained doors of the house until morning. And about midnight I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn.

[15:14] The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

[15:27] Do you see this is breathtakingly good news and the Israelites know it. The Bible says when they heard it they bowed down and worshipped and then they did exactly what God had told them to do.

[15:42] And it all happened just as God said it would. Not one of the firstborn among the Israelites are touched while a firstborn in every house was killed in the Egyptian homes.

[15:58] And they came to the Israelites in the middle of the night and said please leave here take this and go. And so after 430 years in Egypt they all left set free from bondage.

[16:15] Now what happened this night was so important that God wanted the Israelites to never forget it. This is the Old Testament event more than any others that was to be kept in their memory.

[16:30] So on that day every year they were to reenact the events of this night. And so children would ask in succeeding years what does it mean daddy?

[16:42] Why do we have to kill the lamb? And fathers would explain it is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over our houses in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.

[17:01] Son you would have been killed that night had it not been for the death of that lamb. God was so good to us that night setting us free from death and delivering us from bondage and we do this to remember his goodness and grace.

[17:21] Now we need to see that this is more than just a fascinating piece of Jewish history. It's a picture of the gospel isn't it? It's the good news of how God saves sinners through the death of our Lord Jesus.

[17:35] And so the Passover event or the not the event but the Passover festival that God instituted that night that was to happen every year on that day that has arrows pointing two directions.

[17:50] It would forever point Israelites back to what God had done for them on that midnight. How God had brought them out of Egypt out of bondage redeemed them from the slave holder of Pharaoh in Egypt.

[18:02] But it also has an arrow pointing forward to the greatest deliverance ever. When the sinners that deserve hell and death and destruction would be set free through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.

[18:18] So I wonder if you've seen yourself in this story. You're in here you know. I'm in here. Jesus Christ is in this story. Have we seen him? Have we seen ourselves?

[18:30] First of all Jesus Christ is the true Passover lamb. Indeed that's exactly what Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 7. For Christ our Passover lamb has been slain.

[18:46] And so these lambs they all point to the lamb. The lamb of God. Remember when John the Baptist saw him he said behold stop what you're doing and look the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[19:03] He's the true Passover lamb of which all of these were the symbols. Notice how they point to Christ. They had to be year old males without defect.

[19:16] They were male lambs. The savior of the world was to be a man. He was to be the male seed of the woman. She will give birth to a son.

[19:29] The lamb must be a male. The young age of the male points to how Christ would be cut down in the midst of his strength in the prime of his life. 33 years young.

[19:40] The lamb had to be without defect. No imperfections. No flaws. And so the lamb of God Christ had to be without sin. So Peter says we've been redeemed not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ.

[19:58] A lamb without defect or blemish. The lamb is precious. Excuse me. The blood is precious because the lamb is perfect.

[20:13] He must be without defect. If he had just one sin he can't be our savior. One leak will sink a ship kids. And one sin would immediately disqualify Jesus Christ from being our savior.

[20:28] if his blood is to do us any saving good he must have no sin at all without defect. So look him over friend. Look him over from top to bottom from birth to death.

[20:43] There are none like him even Pilate says I find no fault with this man. And the father searching eye looks him over he who knows everything about everyone.

[20:55] And the father says this is my beloved son. With him I am well pleased. He's never done anything but pleased me all of his life. And so the scriptures tell us oh he was tempted in every way like we are.

[21:09] How were you tempted last week? You know Jesus went through that before you got here and yet was without sin. he's the only one qualified to be the Passover lamb because he's the only one without a defect of sin.

[21:29] There's other ways that the lambs pointed to Jesus. They had to be eaten didn't they? And did Jesus not say that we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood if we are to be saved? In other words we must feed our faith upon this savior.

[21:45] he's the one who is food and meat and drink to us and gives us life. It comes through partaking of him. And one other way that this these Passover lambs pointed to the savior that we'll mention is that God told them when they ate the lambs do not break any of the bones.

[22:08] Chapter 12 verse 46. And so we're at Calvary. And because the next day is a special Sabbath the Jews don't want to leave the bodies of cursed men on the crosses during their holy Sabbath.

[22:24] And so they petitioned Pilate to take action and not leave these bodies up. And so the soldiers come around to hasten the deaths of their three criminals and they come to the first thief on the side of Jesus and they they break his legs so that he cannot push up any longer to get a breath but will slump down with broken legs and suffocate ending his life much sooner that they might get his body down.

[22:51] They come over to the other thief they do the same and then they come to do the same to Jesus. But when they saw him they saw that he was already dead. He had dismissed his spirit.

[23:03] And so one of the soldiers just gave a jab with his spear. And water. water. And blood. Streamed forth.

[23:16] And John the apostle says I saw it with my own two eyes. I'm not lying. And these things happened in this way that the scriptures might be fulfilled.

[23:31] Not a bone in his body will be broken. You know what scriptures that came from? That was from Exodus chapter 12. These Passover lambs as you eat them don't you break a bone.

[23:44] Because they're picturing the son of God. The perfect lamb of God. The New Testament is saying that the one on the middle cross is the Passover lamb of God who saves from sin and death.

[24:01] But how? We must ask questions of the Bible. We heard it in the Sunday school hour. How is this? You're telling me that this Jesus, this lamb of God, the one dying on the middle cross saves people from hell and destruction.

[24:15] How does he do that? Well, the lamb is slain as a substitute for the guilty. That's our second point. Jesus is the true Passover lamb.

[24:26] Now we see the lamb is slain as a substitute for the guilty. And this is where we must not make a mistake. The Egyptians were not the only guilty sinners in Egypt that night, folks.

[24:42] The Israelites were guilty sinners, equally deserving of the wrath of God that night in Egypt. Just follow them.

[24:55] Just follow them. Just a few days after this, you'll find them making a golden calf and bowing down to it. Follow them on through the wilderness and you'll see what kind of people they are.

[25:08] A stiff-necked people all through their journey. And you'll find graves all throughout the desert where God visited in judgment and killed them because of their sins.

[25:25] Yes, these Israelites, they too deserve to have God come in death and destruction and to take their firstborn. children. They had sinned against an even greater light than what the Egyptians had.

[25:39] What did the Egyptians know about Jehovah? Just what Moses had told them and then what God had shown them in the plague. But what did the Israelites know about Jehovah?

[25:53] Far more. They had sinned against greater light. They knew far more about him and yet they still rebelled against him. So when God came to Egypt in judgment that night to cut down the firstborn sons, don't think that Israel was spared because of their righteousness.

[26:10] As if they deserved to be treated with kindness, they were just as deserving of having their firstborns killed. And the only reason they were spared is that lambs died that night in their place.

[26:27] the knife came to the lamb rather than the firstborn. Now that's the message of the Passover lambs. They must die if Israel's firstborn are to live.

[26:42] So as the Israelite sticks the knife into the throat of that lamb, he says to himself, this, this is what I deserve, a violent, bloody death because of my sin.

[26:56] And this poor creature that did nothing to deserve this is getting treated this way because of my sin. It's substitution. The lamb for me, the lamb in place of me.

[27:12] Now, are you beginning to see yourself in this story then? How you fit in. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all like sheep gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way and God says, no, not that way.

[27:26] This way. Thou shalt not do this. Thou shalt do this. This is the way. Walk in it. And we've turned to our own way. We live on God's estate.

[27:37] Every day we breathe his air. Every day we receive his food and we eat it and we enjoy the health and the sunshine that he sends. And every day we live for ourselves and we dishonor him.

[27:50] And we said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? You see, in the heart of heart, every man has said what Pharaoh said. And this exposes us to the wrath of God.

[28:04] We too are under his curse, deserving of death, for the wages of sin is death. The word has already gone out of his mouth, the soul that sins it shall die. And that second death is the worst of all, to be shut out from the presence of God in everlasting punishment.

[28:22] Yes, left to ourselves, it's everlasting torments forever under God's wrath when he comes to judge the world in righteousness. That's the bad news.

[28:33] And do you see yourself there? You must. If you would appreciate now, what I want to tell you is that the good news is that Jesus Christ is the Passover lamb who dies in the place of hell-deserving sinners.

[28:46] He steps in as a substitute. He takes the knife of justice. His blood is shed in violent death that the sinner might go free.

[28:58] For Christ died for sin once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. And because the knife of God's judgment has pierced him and punished him, we are set free.

[29:18] He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And the punishment that was upon him and that brought us peace was upon him.

[29:30] And by his wounds, we are healed. He gets death that we might get life. Blessed Passover lamb, slain as a substitute for the guilty.

[29:42] By his blood, we are saved. But I want you to know that it's by the blood of one who is killed we are saved. Some of you give blood. And you go into that place and they draw out some blood.

[29:57] And then you walk out alive, don't you? And you go home and you go back to work and you do whatever you're doing. That's not the kind of blood that saves. The Passover lambs didn't just have a transfusion or have a bit of blood drawn.

[30:11] No, it was the blood of the life that was taken in death. That is the blood that saves. And the last point is this, that the blood had to be applied.

[30:26] Yes, the lamb's blood had to be shed in death, but then it had to be applied to the door frames, the sides and top over the doors. Have you thought about the faith that would be required to be going through these actions?

[30:44] To kill perfectly fine one-year-old lamb? Hundreds of thousands of them were killed that night, you know. And to take its blood and smear it all over the door frames?

[30:57] Who knows if this blood will have such a drastic effect as to make the difference between life and death? God says it would, but who really knows? Well, it would take faith, wouldn't it?

[31:12] Faith in what God had said, faith in the message. To believe that what God has said will happen and to act upon it.

[31:22] And that's what Moses did. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 28. By faith, he, Moses, kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

[31:36] By faith. by faith. Moses is out there killing his lamb. By faith, he's sprinkling it over his door. This is not some mere religious ritual.

[31:50] It's an act of faith. He believed God and so he does what he is told to do, trusting that God will keep his promise and will spare all of our firstborn who are under the blood.

[32:05] And so the gospel comes and says the same to you. That through the blood of Christ, you who deserve everlasting damnation will be spared forever and ever.

[32:18] Now, you either believe him or you don't. You either say he is the veritable true God and I believe him and I'll act according to his instructions. Or you say, I don't believe it and so I'll keep going my way and forget the blood.

[32:36] God presented him as a sacrifice to turn away wrath through faith in his blood. Romans 3 25. Faith is required. It's not enough that the blood just lies there on the ground or in the basin.

[32:52] No, it must be taken up and applied to the door frames and it must be applied to the door frames of your heart. Sinner friend.

[33:03] You see, the good news is that 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ, the Passover lamb, was slain. He shed his pure and innocent blood so that every believing sinner might be saved.

[33:17] There's enough merit in his blood to deliver you from the second death of God's wrath. Indeed, there's enough value to save all who come to God through him.

[33:29] But the blood of Jesus doesn't just automatically save everyone in the world. What is the picture telling us here? The picture is telling us that it is whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

[33:45] And how sad to perish when the blood of the perfect substitute has suffered, has been shed, and this precious blood is available and is offered to all.

[34:00] Get under the blood. have you personally applied that sacrificial blood to the door frames of your heart?

[34:11] Have you come as a hell-deserving sinner who knows that destruction is coming if you're found as you are, and have you trusted in Christ's blood and death to atone for your sins?

[34:22] Have you taken shelter under the blood of Jesus? You come to Jesus and you say, cover me with your blood. Nothing else can cover my sins.

[34:35] Hide me under your blood. It makes all the difference. If you're under the blood, you're safe. You couldn't be more safe even though God is coming by in judgment.

[34:48] You're the safest place in the world if you're under the blood. But one step out the door and you are as obnoxious to the wrath of God as any Egyptian.

[35:01] So stay inside the house until morning. Keep under the blood and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

[35:12] That's the one thing that God was looking for that night. The blood of the sacrificial lamb. Is it applied to their door? isn't it? When I see the blood, I will pass over you.

[35:28] The gospel is not when I see you promising to try harder next time, I will pass over you. That's not good news because I fall again and I didn't try harder the next time.

[35:46] The gospel is not when I see you being baptized and joining a church, then I will pass over you. When I see your good deeds outnumbering your bad deeds, then I will pass over you.

[36:00] When I see you crying enough tears of repentance and feeling sorry enough for your sins, when I see you reading your Bible more and praying more, then I will pass over you.

[36:13] The good news is that God says when I see the blood of Jesus applied to the door of your heart, I will pass over you.

[36:24] It's his blood that causes God to pass over nothing in yourself. You see, the blood of Jesus shows that the wrath has already fallen here.

[36:36] Death has no more business here. Look at the blood. The precious blood of Jesus, God's own son, has been shed here to cover this one.

[36:47] So wrath has no more business and moves on, passes over where the blood of Jesus is found. The plague of death has fallen on the substitute Lamb of God, God's firstborn son, in order that we might live.

[37:04] So where the payment has already been collected, there's nothing more to collect, is there? Jesus paid it all. Justice does not collect twice for the same debt, once from my dear substitute's hand, and then again from mine.

[37:20] No, when I see his blood, I will pass over you. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, hidden in the Savior's side, covered by his blood.

[37:33] There's no more damnation for me. Why not? Because he was damned in my place on Calvary. That's the gospel of the Passover Lamb. Oh, the blood of Jesus.

[37:48] It takes away sin. It causes God's wrath to pass over. It shelters us from deserved damnation. Have you thought recently of the value of Christ's blood?

[38:01] How valuable it is. There's enough merit in Christ's blood to cover all my sins, past, present, future, and all your sins, past, present, future, and all the sins of any who come to him by faith, past, present, future.

[38:20] What is this blood? As I said, there were hundreds of thousands of lambs slain that night that the firstborn in the house might live. That's just a picture.

[38:33] And all those Passover lambs pointed to the one lamb who could actually take away sin. It's just one. but oh what a lamb. And oh what blood.

[38:43] There's no blood like this blood because there's no perfect sacrifice without defect. No other blood. No other lamb. But this lamb, this blood, has the power to save from wrath.

[39:00] No wonder Peter can't speak of it without saying we've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Oh precious blood.

[39:12] What are you trusting in to save you from the coming wrath? It's coming my friend as much as you're sitting here. You're going to one day stand under the judgment of God. What are you trusting in to save you from that day?

[39:27] Are you under the blood of Jesus? So 1500 years pass from the time of the first Passover.

[39:40] And we're outside of Jerusalem and there's three crosses here this day. And the Lamb of God is on the middle cross. Why are so many people in Jerusalem today?

[39:55] Why is the city teeming with people? Why are there so many that pass by and see this scene? Well, it's the feast, you know. everybody's come from all over the world for the feast.

[40:10] Well, what feast? Well, the Passover feast. And children ask their daddies, well, what does it mean, daddy?

[40:25] Why do we kill the lamb, daddy? God will be because, son, 1500 years ago, we were slaves in Egypt. And God had mercy on us.

[40:38] And on the night that he came to destroy the firstborn in Egypt, he gave us a message telling us how to escape. If we would kill the lamb and apply the blood, he'd pass over when he saw the blood.

[40:51] blood. And now the Passover lamb is there at Calvary. And the blood is pouring from his veins, streaking his face from the thorns pounded into his skull and then flowing from his pierced side.

[41:12] blood. Precious blood. Let it cover me. And I'm ready to face the judgment today. Why does Jesus die on Passover?

[41:26] You know, his enemies didn't want to kill him on Passover. Matthew 26, Jesus said to his disciples, as you know, the Passover is two days away and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.

[41:41] Then the chief priests and elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest whose name was Caiaphas and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him, but not during the feast, they said, or there may be a riot among the people with all of these people, the common people who are often sympathetic to Jesus.

[42:04] Don't want to riot. Can't kill him during the feast. Wait till the people have all gone home and we can do it in a corner. There will no one will know. But things fall out, not according to man's plan, but according to the timetable of our sovereign God.

[42:24] And so in John 13, 1, it was just before the Passover feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

[42:34] And so he goes into the upper room to eat for the last time, the Passover meal. with his disciples before he dies.

[42:46] And while he's there, he says to them, one of you will betray me. And moments later, he says to Judas, you go and what you do, do quickly, quickly.

[43:00] We've got a timetable here. You go do it quickly. He goes and gets the arresting mob. They arrest him and that very night, they take him into this kangaroo court of the Jewish leaders.

[43:11] And in the wee hours of the morning, they're up and conducting court and accusing him of blasphemy, worthy of death. And so they drag him before the Roman courts and hurry him through the process.

[43:23] He deserves to be crucified. Why? What does he crucify and crucify? They finally get Pilate to cave in so that at nine o'clock Friday morning, the Passover lamb is hanging on a cross, shedding precious, precious blood for all who will come by faith and trust in him and take refuge under his blood.

[43:55] And God is sending a message to the world in the timing of Jesus' death. This is the Passover. lamb. This is the blood. This is the only blood that will do the work of saving you from your sins.

[44:08] Get under the blood. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. The bad news is that God himself is coming to judge the whole world in righteousness.

[44:23] The good news is that there is one way of escape. I leave you with a question. salvation. How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

[44:37] Let's pray. O Father, what a plan to save the worst of sinners by the best of sons, to give up your own son, and to put him to damnation, that rebellious sons and daughters might be forgiven.

[45:04] God, open up our eyes to see the wonder of the message all over again, to see the wonder of your sovereign grace, that you controlled the very events of Israel's history, that they might tell a story of the coming Savior, and then you control the events of his death and day of death, that you might make plain to us and to the world that this is the blood that we need to be saved.

[45:36] So work in our hearts what you see that we need, love for our Savior, faith in his blood, we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.