What Does This Ceremony Mean To You? (Exodus 12:26)

Introduction

As I’ve said to you before, I am always at an advantage when we’re singing the songs, especially when I know that they have been selected in relation to what I’m about to preach and how much meaningful they are, how much more meaningful they are to me because I know that. And so hopefully the thoughts that we have sung will resonate in your minds as we begin this morning. This builds on some thoughts that we began last week. You know I don’t like to do series, and I really didn’t know there was a part two to this, but it actually is growing out of some thoughts that I shared with you last week about what living by faith really means. There’ll be some allusions to that as we go along this morning.

But if there is a part two to this, I want to talk to you this morning about what assemblies mean. What are we doing here today? What do our children think about what we are doing here today? And I want to take you to an old testament story, and I must thank Ed for this. Three weeks ago, his Lord Supper talk alluded to this verse that I want to share with you from Exodus chapter 12 again today. Many in our audience are familiar with this era in the history of Israel, the time of their deliverance from Egypt. Nine plagues have already gone down. He has Israel’s attention, and he has Egypt’s attention as well. There has been storms, hail. There have been boils, frogs, not just a few.

Tons and tons and tons of frogs. And there have been insects. And I don’t know what that involved, but my friend Mickey Taylor is here, and we played golf Friday in Baytown. That sounded like a good idea. And after all, it didn’t rain. We were supposed to do this last weekend and rain. I was sick, all kinds of things transpired, so we postponed it a weekend. And then I said, hey, Mickey, we’ve got free golf over in Baytown Friday if you come over Thursday night. And so we did. And so we’re going to Baytown to play in a scramble on Friday. And this all sounded good. And we got there and it was a swamp at the golf course. But there was free lunch. And so that was good.

And so we launched. And hey, the sun was shining. We go out to play golf. It’s cart path only. So we do a lot of walking. And it’s very slow. It takes forever. And there were a trillion mosquitoes at least. And so after about a five-hour round or so, which is way too long to play golf, even though I enjoy the sport.

We’re fighting cancer, various maladies. And so I went up to the lady who was running the whole thing when we got in, and I said, Well, I didn’t know we were going to have to give blood too today. Because we gave blood out on the golf course. And so I don’t know what these insects were that the Israelites and the Egyptians were seeing and dealing with. Maybe it’s the first ever occasion of mosquitoes in the Bible. That would have been bad. Imagine mosquitoes so thick. And I’ve actually played golf in that once before, too, where you could actually see them swarming in the fairway. Don’t do that. So he has Israel’s attention. And then he says in chapter 11, one more. One more plague. And then you’re going to be done with this place.

And I want to tell you something about this plague. It’s something you’ve never seen before and will never see again. The death of every firstborn male. But your firstborns do not have to die. A memorial is going to result from this event. A memorial that is going to be commemorated annually. This is going to be the beginning of the year for you. That great time in history where God did not allow the firstborn of Israel to die. This is going to be the Passover. And you’re to take the blood of a one-male-old, unblemished lamb, and you’re to take it and put it on the lentils of your doorway and the doorposts of your house. And when I smite the Egyptians, it will pass over you. Your firstborns, firstborn ones will not die.

And it says in Exodus chapter 12, and it will come about when you enter the land which the Lord will give you as he has promised. What living by faith really means. Trust in the promises of God and all that he has said. When the Lord gives you the land as he has promised, then you shall observe this right. This ceremony. And when your children ask, what does this ceremony mean to you? You shall say, It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians but spared our own homes. And the people bowed low and worshiped. I like that. This was humbling to the people. They were grateful for what God was doing to preserve them from this plague that was coming upon Egypt.

The people bowed low and worshiped, and that’s the right response. It is the logical and rational and reasonable and deserved response.

And at about midnight, the cry started ringing out over all of Egypt. As each firstborn male of the Egyptians died, and there was not a house that was overlooked, except for those who had responded in faith to the instruction, and stayed in their homes and observed the meal and put the blood on the doorposts and lentils of their house. And there was a great cry in Egypt, but not among the faithful, not among Israel. And thus in chapter 13, every firstborn son was then said to belong to the Lord. And rightfully so. They had all been preserved by the Lord when the tenth plague had come upon Egypt. And so now each firstborn son was to be dedicated to the Lord and then to be redeemed with a price as a result.

So when your children ask you about this ceremony, because when you do something year after year, over and over again, it can become habit and ritual and lose some of its luster and significance and meaning to you.

And in regard to the firstborn, the same thing is said in chapter 13 and verse 14, it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, what is this? Then you shall say to him with a powerful hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery. And so I want to talk to you for a few moments this morning about this thing that we’re doing. Maybe not a ceremony or a rite in the sense that the Passover observance was. The Lord’s Supper, as a part of this assembly, is certainly similar, but signifying, as Sean pointed out, something far beyond.

What we’re doing here today can be best summarized with these thoughts. As the people of God, those who have been redeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, we have come into fellowship with a perfect, though imperfect ourselves. We have come into fellowship with a perfect and holy God. Holy in the sense that he is separate from all that is less than ideal and perfect in our world. He is perfectly holy and good. And fellowship with him has only been made possible through the extreme sacrifice of the perfect son, who is deserving of the worship of his majesty because of the precious price that is paid for us. We ought to be here today without complaint, with interest and enthusiasm, with a view toward participation and supplying whatever part God wants me to supply in this.

We ought to do this with eagerness, with joy, with gratitude for this reason alone.

1. A God Who Has Given Us Life

That’s what this assembly means to me. And I want to share with you some thoughts that might help you even further to understand, young people, why we do this. What every Sunday means, what every assembly means. And the first point is one that I make a lot. And I’m not going to belabor it. But I simply want to observe that we are here. And this assembly means what it does. And I can already see I’ve got a font issue that happened this morning. Because that’s all supposed to be on one line. I’m not going to call you out for this, Scott. Wait a minute, I just did. So the slides are going to be less than ideal. I can already tell you that right now because Judge is not supposed to be there.

But at least you get this first significant point all on the slides.

A God who has given us life. We owe our very lives to him. He is our creator. And furthermore, he sustains our lives. In him we live and move and have our very being in Acts chapter 17. And ultimately, we will give an answer to him. I want to take you quickly to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. There’s not going to be a lot of other passages than these this morning. I’ll allude to some, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 9, therefore we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. That’s the right response. The reason why we ought always to want to please our God. One of the major reasons for that is that we’re all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

That each one will be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether those things be good or bad. Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord or the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. And so, my poorly placed now staring that for this one reason alone, we should be here today. If this was the only reason that I had. The only thing. And you can see by the emptiness of the slide that there are more things. But if this was the only thing that we had, it’s legitimate. It’s enough for us to invest in every way that God has prescribed for us to do this today to honor Him. To worship His Majesty. See, I told you this was coming.

2. Needed Communion With God and Others

Needed communion with God and others. This is where walking by faith comes in again. I don’t know what all the ramifications of this are in my life. I don’t know all the help God intends for assemblies of his people to provide. Why doesn’t he just allow me to respond to him in my own way, to go out and to commune with him in nature? Probably because we would have to drive hundreds and thousands of miles out of here to find a very beautiful place that inspires us. Let’s go to the mountains of Colorado or something every Sunday. For our own personal place of worship to exalt God. Okay, maybe the pines do it for you. And so you can find a pine somewhere around here, a lofty pine, and it would inspire you.

And we could appreciate God’s handiwork in that. I’m not saying you could.

And I don’t know all the wisdom. I would like to think sometimes, I know all the wisdom. Why baptism for the remission of sins? I can see some wisdom in this. I know what it pictures and represents. But why washing by water? Why didn’t he choose some other means to save us? What is all of the significance of this event? God’s wisdom is so high. Who am I to question it? There could be things resulting from what God has instructed us to do that are beyond my ability to see and appreciate. I just know this is what we need. This memorial is obviously what we need. According to 1 Corinthians 11 and other passages. And because not only do I need it in my relationship with God, there’s all these other passages that talk about worship in relation to others, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

There’s something about our participation together that contributes beyond me to the needs of others. You are assisting me. You are helping me. And so when people say, Yeah, I really don’t need to be there. I don’t need it. This isn’t about what we might think we need, though I’m sure we do, point number two. But this is about you. About me participating with you and you participating with me. And I don’t know. Singing seems to do a lot more for me when I’m not singing all by me lonesome. When I actually have other people singing with me and to me. We need this mutual interaction. We are contributing. And if you want a reason, number one is enough. Remember, it has the star. But number three is another.

3. Focus of My Mind on the Highest Things

I’ve given you three reasons why we need these assemblies together. Oh, this is driving me crazy. All right. Believe me, it didn’t look like this when I brought it here. Focus of my mind. And see, this is causing you to focus, so this is good. To even read it. Focus on my mind on the highest things that are. There’s not anything more important than what we’re thinking about and doing today. Our minds have been elevated away from the rancor of politics. Though there might be some spiritual overtones involved in some of that, but the rancor of politics, the sports disappointments that some of us experience.

Not yet. These are the highest things that are.

4. A Reminder of the Lord's Suffering for Us

A reminder of the Lord’s suffering for us. This is what this ceremony means to us. Great reminders that keep us anchored, heading in the right direction and focusing on the right things as we live our lives, knowing why we’re here and where all of this is headed. Great reminders. And guess what? Every time we come together, we are one step closer to the reward. Last week, well, here we come. Here’s another assembly. I know this, we’re one step closer than we were the week before. We are also preparing future generations of the Lord’s people. I think about this a lot. When I see how quickly our kids grow up. Man, when I first moved here, some of you were like toddlers. Or not even born yet.

5. Preparing Future Generations of the Lord's People

Talking about holding the prime kids in the hospital when they were born. Now they’re little babies are all growing up. It happens so quickly. Generations are going to follow us. And it’s not just about doing the things the way we’ve always done it. I know there are expediencies that we can do some things differently. We don’t have to do it always the same way all the time. Two songs and a prayer and another song. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about showing our people how to worship according to the biblical pattern. And not innovating in relation to our own whims. We’re having to spice it up to make it entertaining to people. This is about doing the Lord’s things, the Lord’s ways, and teaching them about submission to God and finding and deriving benefit from just doing things the way God said to do them.

Conclusion

And encouraging them to invest with their whole heart in these things that bring honor to God. And so, remember, number one was all we needed. We have sufficient compelling reasons for dedication, for zeal, and for joy in these things. What does your obedience to the Lord mean? It means salvation. It means a great hope, great, exalted purpose and rejoicing in heaven. The Lord is your Passover. He paid the price for your escape from death. Spiritual, irrevocable, eternal separation from God. And as awesome as the Passover was in relation to the tenth plague upon Egypt, Jesus as our Passover is exceedingly greater. Will you respond by faith to him? And as a result to have an even greater blessing than Israel experienced in their deliverance from Egyptian oppression, your deliverance will be from the rain and tyranny of sin unto the hope of everlasting life in the presence of a perfect and holy God made possible for the likes of us.

If there’s somebody in this audience who needs to respond to the saving and redeeming Lord, come now while we stand inside.