Good Friday; Passover

PastorRodney’s Weblog

03/29 Good Friday; Passover; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20240329_good-friday.mp3

2024 Good Friday Service

Welcome:

Welcome! I’m glad you’ve joined us for our Passover celebration! Jesus said about his final meal with his disciples:

Luke 22:15 And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

The Last Supper, the Lord’s Supper, was a Passover meal. Jesus sent Peter and John into Jerusalem to prepare for this meal, and shortly after sunset (in Jewish reckoning, the day begins with sunset) the disciples gathered for this meal. The dialogues recorded in the Gospel according to John chapters 13-17 took place around that meal. It was late that night when Jesus went across the Kidron valley to the Gethsemane garden to pray, where he was betrayed with a kiss and gave himself over to the mob. The mock trials before Annas and Caiaphas the high priest took place under cover of darkness, the verdict being given at daybreak to give the appearance of legitimacy. Then he was brought to Pilate to procure the Roman death sentence. It was the third hour (about 9am) of Passover day when Jesus was crucified. Darkness covered the land from the 6^th to the 9^th hour (from noon to about 3pm), when Jesus cried out ‘It is finished!’, and the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom. Jesus’ body was laid in the borrowed tomb, just before nightfall as the Sabbath was beginning.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 5 says:

1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

Jesus Christ, in offering up himself on the cross, is our Passover lamb.

As we sing, as we hear from the Scriptures, I invite you to reflect on Jesus, who he is, what he came to accomplish. Remember, he came for you.

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Reading 1; [Cole] (Deuteronomy 16:3)

“Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night. And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the LORD your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place that the LORD will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

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Reading 2; [Jessalyn] (John 1:29-36)

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

Reading 3; [Audrey] (1 Peter 1:18-19; 2:24)

…you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

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Message; [RZ]

The Passover was instituted at the Exodus from Egypt. God’s people had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. God instructed Moses:

Exodus 4:22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”

God sent the 10 plagues, decimating Egypt and demonstrating YHWH’s superiority over all the Egyptian gods. Before the final plague, he instructed his people to take a lamb.

Exodus 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. 7 “Then 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 flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and 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 are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

It was the blood of the lamb that caused the Lord’s wrath to pass over those who were covered by it.

If we jump ahead to Jesus, in Luke chapter 9, Jesus

Luke 9:28 … took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

In a glimpse of the glory of the kingdom of God, Jesus was conversing with Moses and Elijah. What were they talking about? Luke tells us that they spoke of his departure. The Greek word translated ‘departure’ is [ἔξοδον], exodus; it can refer to a departure or death. They spoke of Jesus’ exodus, that he would accomplish (literally fulfill) in Jerusalem. Where Moses was used by God to deliver the people out of slavery in Egypt through the Passover event, Jesus is the greater deliverer who accomplished a greater exodus from a darker slavery. The children of Israel were set free from their bondage under Egypt, but they were not set free from the darkness of their own hearts. Jesus, in applying his own blood to his followers, breaks the power of sin in our lives. He took the guilt and shame and punishment for our sins on himself and paid the price in full. He gives us a new heart, new desires, new life; he makes us part of his new creation. Jesus leads his followers out into real freedom.

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Christ our Passover lamb was sacrificed for us. Jesus gave his own body to be torn, his own blood poured out, so that when his blood is applied to my life, to my sin, the wrath of God passes over me; I am covered, I am clean. I am made new, the new covenant, new life, his Holy Spirit now lives in me, making me new from the inside out.

The blood of the Lamb must be applied. An Israelite could hear what God was about to do, believe it, believe that God would do what he said he would do. Would that faith save him? No, a lamb must give its life, and the blood must be applied, for ‘when I see the blood, I will pass over you’. It was not enough just to look out the window and see a lamb being sacrificed, and say ‘praise God!’ It is not enough just to believe that Jesus lived and Jesus died. It is not enough to believe the historical facts. The blood must be applied. I need to acknowledge that apart from the blood of Jesus, I am under God’s wrath. Jesus died for me, because I am a sinner and rightly under God’s wrath. Jesus, the only innocent one, died in the place of sinners. May this be your prayer tonight: ‘Jesus, I am a sinner deserving your wrath. Would you apply your blood to me, would you cover me and give me your Holy Spirit to make me new inside?’

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Reading 4; [Petra] (Revelation 5:5-6, 9-14)

…behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, …

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org