[Modified transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], April 2020]
The story of Passover, and the meaning of Easter
Jews all over the world this weekend will be celebrating the festival of Passover. Passover remembers a time when the nation of Israel was living in slavery in Egypt. They cried out to God and God heard their cries and he sent a man to speak on their behalf to Pharaoh. His name was Moses. Moses went and he pleaded with Pharaoh to let the Israelites go but Pharaoh said “No” so God sent plagues. Each plague was a way of punishing the Egyptians and encouraging them to let the Israelites go.
00:46 When it came to 10th plague, well that certainly changed Egyptians’ minds because that final plague was a plague that caused the firstborn in every household to die. God had warned the Israelites through Moses that they needed to self isolate, they had to lock themselves up in their houses, they were to sit with their families but they were going to have a meal. They were told to sacrifice a lamb and to eat it but they would take the blood of the lamb and put it over the doorway of their houses. The idea being that when the Angel of Death came over the nation of Egypt to kill all those firstborns that actually he would pass over the houses where this blood was daubed over the doorposts and the lintel and that’s exactly what happened. The nation of Egypt was in complete anguish, the nation of Israel was safe from this plague and the Pharaoh finally let the Israelites leave. Finally they were no longer slaves but they were free.
01:56 Now this weekend is also Easter and in the story of the first Easter we find Jesus and His disciples celebrating the Passover meal. They were remembering what God had done all those years back when he’d heard Israel’s cries; he’d rescued them, he’d freed them from slavery. They’re sharing a meal in an upper room and they’re having the various bits and pieces you would have for the Passover meal. There’s a point when Jesus goes off-script; this is when he has got the bread and he tears it and he said “this is my body broken for you” and it must have puzzled the disciples somewhat. Then he picked up the cup of wine (sometimes in the Passover meal it’s called the cup of blessing or the cup of redemption). This wine is supposed to symbolise that blood of the lamb that was put on the doorpost and instead of saying “this is the blood of the Lamb” he says “This is my blood shed for you”. What Jesus was trying to tell his disciples was that somehow his body being broken and his blood being spilled would rescue not just Israel but a whole world a whole of humanity from slavery; that somehow his death, and his resurrection that was just around the corner, would be this momentous point in history that will bring about freedom.
03:34 In his Gospel John writes that “for God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have eternal life”. It also tells us in the Bible that the consequences of sin is death and through Jesus’s death on the cross he has freed us from the curse of sin and by doing so he has also freed us from the curse of death. If we give our lives to Jesus, if we make him Lord of our lives, then because of his death, because of his resurrection, we can live forever now.
04:20 This time of the coronavirus has really woken us up to the reality of death because suddenly it’s closer than it’s ever been before, You may dodge the bullets of COVID or you may catch it and survive but the reality is death will come to us all. For followers of Jesus Christ that need not be the end; through Jesus’s death and resurrection we are safe from sin, our relationship with God is restored and we can spend eternity with him.
I would encourage you in the same way that you are trying everything to save your lives from COVID so you should also do everything you can to find about Jesus so you can save your life for eternity.
YouTube link: Can I escape Death?
Bible references: Mark 14 v22-24, John 3 v16
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
