Sunday Worship Service April 21, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship 1 Corinthians 5:7
Hymn JBC # We have come into His house
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 4 Come, Christians, join to sing
Offering
Scripture Exodus 12:1~13
Prayer
Sermon “The Passover of the Lord”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 102 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction
Postlude


Today the passage we have been given for our worship service is from the beginning of Exodus chapter 12 in the Old Testament.
This passage describes the origin of a feast called the “Passover”. Christianity historically was born from Judaism.
Even today the Passover Feast is an especially important festival for Judaism. Christians do not celebrate the Passover, but it is important for Christians too to understand about it.
This is because later, Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for our sins, which has an important connection to Passover.

Let us listen together to God's message from today's scriptures, in which the Lord God communicated to the people of Israel His commandment about the Passover.
In today’s passage we see both Moses and Aaron. Moses was chosen by God for the role of leading (saving) the people of Israel (the Jews) out of Egypt after about 400 years of living in slavery.
As we have seen several times in messages up until now, when Moses was chosen, he first hesitated many times, saying he could not do it and asking God to choose someone else.
Despite this, God continued to speak patiently with Moses. God also showed Moses several miracles (signs) to let him know that God was indeed with Moses and that is God who would send him.　

Then God sent Moses’ brother, Aaron, to speak God’s word for him, because Moses claimed he was not eloquent, and “slow of speech and tongue.”
Moses and Aaron together went to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. In Exodus 5 Moses and Aaron’s conversation with Pharaoh begins.
Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’” (Exodus 5:1)
However, Pharaoh did not listen to what they said. And God had already explained to Moses and Aaron beforehand that Pharaoh would harden his heart to not listen to what Moses and Aaron were saying.
Then Moses and Aaron, obeying God’s orders, brought several plagues upon Egypt. The first plague is written about in Exodus 7, where the River Nile turned to blood.
After this (as Pharaoh still did not want to let the people of Israel go), a plague of frogs was brought up on Egypt, as well as a plague of gnats (small biting flies) and flies.

Next plagues of disease, then hail, then locusts, then the plague of darkness were all brought upon Egypt.
In the midst of this, Pharaoh would appear to want to listen to Moses and Aaron when a plague happened, but once the plague left, he would once again harden his heart and refuse to let the people of Israel leave Egypt.
Isn’t this Pharaoh’s attitude the same as our own? As we experience God’s forgiveness, grace and salvation over and over again, are there not times when we just forget about God’s grace after some time has passed?
Then without acknowledging the grace we are being given, we even go so far as to take God’s gracious gifts for granted, thinking them as our own legitimate rights and losing any thankfulness we had toward God.
I hope that we can constantly remind ourselves of, take joy in, and offer up our thanksgiving for the fact that through God’s grace our sins are forgiven, and we are able to live our daily lives.

Finally, the Lord God brought about a final plague upon Egypt. Passover is related to this final plague.
The final plague was the death of all the firstborn in Egypt (both people and livestock). And the Lord prevented this plague from coming upon the people of Israel.
　Because the plague did not come upon Israel, in other words it passed over them, this event became known as the “Passover”.
God explains about the order of the Passover to Moses and Aaron in great detail in today’s passage.
The first thing that God told Moses and Aaron about the Passover was, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.” (verse 2)
Until that point, the Jews marked the start of a new year in around the autumn (September). However, God ordered that their salvation out of Egypt mark the start of a new year in faith.

God ordered the people of Israel to, in memory of His saving works, start their new calendar year from that month (which is said to be March).
For us today, being saved by Jesus Christ and born again is the start of a new life. Christ’s salvation is the starting point of our new life.
We always want to remember the work of salvation by Jesus as the starting point of our faith (New Year) and wish to walk the calendar of faith (day by day).
The next thing God ordered people to do regarding the Passover was for each family to prepare a lamb (verse 3).

The Passover grace of the Lord was not directed toward individuals to enjoy it, but toward as a “family”.
It may be good to understand that family here refers to more than just blood relatives, but rather those who worshipped the same God as a family of faith.
Faith in the Bible is not something that individuals receive and do separately, but it is a faith that receive and share God’s grace amongst family.
Also, if the family was not able to eat the whole lamb, they were to share it with their nearest neighbor (verse 4).
I hope that we are able to receive faith and grace together as a family of faith, and joyfully share that abounding faith with other people.

I also hope that we are able to bring even one more person into our family of faith. That is how God has ordained that our faith is to be.
In this way the lamb was slaughtered and its blood was to be painted on the two side pillars and top of the home’s entrance doorframe.

Then in verse 13 God promised that when the final plague comes and nears a home where the lamb’s blood is painted on the entrance, the plague would pass over that home.
This is the origin of the Passover Feast. God ordered the people of Israel to continue this Passover to memorialize for generations that the Lord saved them from destruction in Egypt.
The Israelites continued to observe (celebrate) the Passover ever after Exodus, and even in Jesus’ time the Passover Feast was celebrated. (Even today, Jewish people observe the Passover Feast as one of their most important holidays.)
Now, those who believe in Jesus Christ do not observe the Passover. That is because Jesus completely changed the meaning of Passover.
That means Jesus himself became the Passover Lamb for the forgiveness of all our sins.
In the New Testament in the gospel of John chapter 1, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and says the following:

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Before Jesus was caught and crucified, the last supper that He had with His disciples was also the Passover Feast.
In Matthew 26, Jesus shares the final meal, the Passover Feast, with His disciples. This is also where Jesus commands His disciples to share “the Lord’s Supper (communion) in remembrance of Him (Matthew 26:26-30).
Today we continue to observe the Lord’s Supper. At our church we do so once per month, and observe it as Jesus ordered.
We eat bread and drink (grape wine) as symbols of Jesus’ body and blood to remind us of His body and blood that were offered in order to forgive our sins.
Here we can understand that the origin of the Passover in Exodus (said to have happened around 1400 BC) and Jesus’ ordained Lord’s Supper (about 2000 years ago) are deeply related in faith.
Now Christians have been observing the Lord’s Supper as an important ordinance or ritual after Jesus died, resurrected, and ascended into Heaven.
Now, the Lord’s Supper is chance for us to remember anew the sacrifice that Jesus paid to forgive our sins and give thanks.

It is good for us to understand that Jesus, as the sacrificial lamb for our sins, caused the Lord’s plague (punishment) to pass over us.
The reason that the Lord ordered the Israelites to continue to observe the Passover, and the reason why Jesus orders us to continue to observe the Lord’s Supper is so that we do not forget God’s saving grace.
And we prepare bread and grape wine (or juice) to eat and drink for the Lord’s Supper.

In doing so, we use our living bodies senses (not just our hearts) in order to partake in the supper that God ordered.
Through physically partaking of the Lord's Supper too, we are reaffirmed that we are, indeed, living in this world with our bodies and are forgiven to live.
In the Lord’s Supper, the bread and grape wine serve a symbolic role. However, the Passover, which serves as its foundation, and Jesus Christ’s death on the cross are events that certainly happened. It is a historical fact and a true thing for our faith.
Let us continue to hear the story of God's salvation as told through the Bible, the event of the Lord's Passover that saved the houses of the Israelites without any plagues falling on them, as our own salvation story.
Let us also renew our determination and thanks in faith in our daily lives whenever we take of the Lord’s Supper repeatedly, remembering that Jesus Christ took our sins upon Himself.