Sunday
09/06/20 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “The Blood Of The Lamb”
(“Exodus: The People of the Covenant” Series:
Part 1 of 7)
Old Testament
Scripture: Exodus 12:1-14
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 13:8-14
Gospel Lesson: Matthew 18:15-20
Welcome again my friends, on this the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Fourteen Sundays after the Holy Spirit moved in a powerful way, nearly
two-thousand years ago on the day of Pentecost. On this day, the Christian
Church was born. We here today are part of that great legacy in Jesus Christ.
With this said, this morning I am
starting a 7-week sermon series that focuses on our Sunday lectionary readings
from the Old Testament Book of Exodus. This sermon series is called, “Exodus: The
People of the Covenant”. One meaning of the word Exodus, is to leave, to depart,
or to “exit,” Exodus. In these scripture readings from the Book of Exodus, we
pick up this morning as the struggle for the Israelites or Jew’s push for
freedom in Egypt hits its climax. The Egyptian ruler, the Pharaoh has refused
to allow Moses to lead the Israelite or the Jewish people to freedom. The Jews are
slaves in Egypt under the Egyptian Pharaoh and have been for some time.
Last week in our Book of Exodus
reading, God spoke to Moses through a burning bush, and told Moses that he
would lead God’s people to freedom. Since the Egyptian Pharaoh refused to let the
Jewish people go however, a series of plagues began in Egypt. Things such as
the water turning to blood, people getting boils on their skin, and locusts
devouring crops. This all led to the tenth and final plague of every family’s first-born
child dying in Egypt. This tenth and final plague finally broke the Egyptian Pharaoh,
as his own first born died. Moses then leads the Israelites through the Red Sea
towards the land of milk and honey, or the promised land (Ex. 12:1-14, NRSV).
So,
I am going to talk about the Exodus scripture this morning, but I am also going
to connect it to our New Testament readings, and to Jesus.
As I was thinking and praying about
making these connections between the Old and the New Testament, for some reason
I thought of one of my favorite childhood tv shows, “The A-Team”. Any of you
remember the “The A-Team”? You might remember the character “Mr. T” who used to
say, “I pity the fool”! The one character that I really liked however, was “Hannibal”.
“Hannibal” often had a big cigar hanging out of his mouth, and no matter what “The
A-Team” was involved with, once thing were going well, “Hannibal” would always
say, “I love it when a plan comes together”!
My intention with this new 7-week
sermon series is to show all of us, how the Old Testament fully connects to the
New Testament, and Jesus Christ. Or to say it like “Hannibal,” “I love it when
a plan comes together!”
Once again, this sermon series is
called “Exodus: the people of the covenant”. If any of you have ever opened
your bible and looked at the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew, you will
notice that Matthew immediately starts the gospel with a lineage (Mt. 1:1-17, NRSV).
Specifically, Matthew wants to establish that Jesus is descendent of the great
King David, and that Jesus’ lineage goes all the way back to Abraham. Abraham
was the first person who God made a covenant with after Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden. That covenant was then passed down through the generations, all
the way to Jesus. The covenant that God made through Moses, gave us the
10-commandments, and all the laws of the first five books of the Old Testament
that devout Jews follow even to this day. God made a covenant through Moses
with the Israelites or Jews. God promised that he would deliver the Israelites
or Jews from slavery in Egypt, and that he would lead them to the promised land.
The land of milk and honey.
When God made a covenant in the Old
Testament with the great King David, God promised that David’s line or lineage
would rule forever. Further God told King David that one day he would send a
ruler of David’s lineage that would save God’s people and rule forever. This
future ruler would die for all people and would rule for eternity. This ruler
was and is Jesus Christ. Boy, “I love it when a plan comes together!”
While there are many prophecies and foreshadowing’s
of the coming of Christ, the Messiah, in the Old Testament, we have one strong
one this morning. As you notice in the picture on the screen, we have a pure
white spotless lamb.
In the tenth and final plague to free
God’s chosen or “covenant people,” this morning God tells Moses and Aaron in
our Book of Exodus reading, to instruct their people to kill a pure white and
spotless lamb. They were to take some of the blood of the lamb and smear it on
their doorposts and lintels of their homes. In doing this, the tenth and final
plague of there firstborn being killed would “Passover” the Israelites or the
Jews. This is in part where the Jewish holiday of the “Passover” comes from.
Anyone here every been to a Passover Seder?
Anyone here ever eat Lamb on Easter? Friends, this is not an accident. Further,
“a covenant,” as my sermon series is called “people of the covenant,” in
Biblical terms, is an agreement with God. We agree to serve God, follow his
teachings, and honor him. The Ten-Commandments that Moses carried down from Mount
Sinai, and the rest of the Old Testament Law is the Jewish covenant or
agreement with God.
As a United Methodist pastor, I am
under a clergy covenant. I have agreed to and have taken vows to teach the doctrines
or beliefs of the church, to live and conduct myself in a Christian manner, and
many other things. Covenants are binding, like a marriage covenant for example.
With this all said, lets look once
again at our scripture reading from the Book of Exodus for this morning. It
says:
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: 2 This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. 4 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. 7 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. 10 You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the passover of the Lord. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance” (Ex. 12:1-14, NRSV).
So, this event, is what finally broke
the Egyptian Pharaoh, and very reluctantly he allowed the Jews to flee slavery
in Egypt. In this event, God used the blood of a pure and spotless lambs to
save the firstborn of all in Egypt whose doorpost and lintels were covered with
the blood of the lamb.
In the gospel of John, as our picture
for this morning says, Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist announces as he sees
Jesus:
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29, NRSV).
In the Book of Exodus reading for this
morning, the Israelites or the Jews, God’s chosen and covenant people, are able
to keep there first born alive, because of the blood of the sacrificed lamb.
Yet, in the gospel of John 1:29, Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist says when he
sees Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn. 1:29, NRSV).
On the first Passover, which is a
major Jewish holiday, the Jews sacrificed and ate pure spotless white lambs.
They then used that lamb’s blood on there doorways and lintels, and it saved their
first-born child.
Jesus’ Last Supper years later was also
during the Jewish Passover holiday. At this Last Supper, Jesus took the bread
and wine, and said that this is my body and my blood broken and shed for you.
Jesus was saying that his blood and broken body would save his disciples and
all of humanity.
While the blood of the pure and
spotless lamb on that first Passover in the Book of Exodus saved the firstborn
of the Israelites or the Jews for a night, Jesus’ blood covers our hearts and
our souls for eternity. Jesus Christ is the new Passover Lamb, and his shed blood
covers all our sin and transgressions. Since this is true, if we repent of our
sin and come to Christ, while we will die here on this earth, our souls will
live on eternally with Christ. For eternal death will not pass us over, because
the blood of lamb, Jesus Christ. So when Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist said “Here is the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world!” he was saying that this
Jesus’ shed blood on the cross is similar to pure and spotless lamb’s shed on
that first Passover in the Book of Exodus. This Jesus and his shed blood will cover
the doorways of our hearts and our souls, not just for a night, but for
eternity.
In
further connecting the Old Testament to the New Testament for this morning, the
Apostle Paul once again in Romans 13:8-14 references some of the
10-Commandments (Rom. 13:8-14, NRSV). I will be talking about the 10-Commandments
one Sunday as part of this sermon series. We are still called to follow the
10-Commandments as they are part of the moral law of God, not Jewish dietary laws.
In
briefly mentioning our gospel of Matthew reading for this morning Jesus says
once again:
“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Mt. 18:15-20, NRSV).
In this gospel lesson, Jesus tells us how to be reconciled
to each other, and how to better forgive each other. He also tells us that when
two or three of us are gathered in his name, that he is with us.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, God called Moses
to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. God used plagues to convince
the Egyptian leader Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go. The tenth and final plague
was the death of all first-born children in Egypt. The Jew’s firstborn children
were saved however, through the blood of a pure white and spotless lamb.
Friends, we are all saved through the blood of Jesus Christ, who is new Passover Lamb. Jesus is among us when we gather, and through him and him alone, we have forgiveness, newness of life, and eternal death with not visit us. For as we die our earthly deaths, we will continue on with Christ for eternity. For as Jesus’ cousin John the Baptist said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Amen.
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