Examining Christ Our Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:1-6)

According to Exodus 12:1-6, families were to get a lamb on the tenth day of the month of Nisan, examine it, and sacrifice it on the fourteenth. The five days between the tenth and fourteenth look forward to the days between the triumphal entry and crucifixion when Christ, our Passover Lamb, was examined. https://youtu.be/3SbLjawBeKU The days between Nisan 10th and 14th (Exodus 12:1-6) look forward to the days when Christ, our Passover Lamb, was examined in Jerusalem. Table of contentsJesus Is Our Passover LambWholehearted Service to GodLooking to Christ in JerusalemChrist Our Passover Lamb Was Examined Before Being SacrificedJesus' Six TrialsChrist Our Passover Lamb Was Without BlemishChrist Our Passover Lamb Passed God the Father’s Examination During ROTC, after we fired live rounds, we had to clean our M-16s and then have them examined before they could be turned back in. My freshman year was the first time I went through this tedious process. I would guess I cleaned my gun for about 30 or 45 minutes, and then stood up to go have it examined. The cadet I was sitting across from was a junior who had done this numerous times, and he said, “What are you doing?” I responded, “I’m going to have my gun examined to see if it’s clean enough to turn in.” He said, “Don’t bother. There’s no way your gun is clean enough yet. Nobody gets to turn their gun in until they have been cleaning for at least three hours.” I can’t remember if I brought my gun up at that moment or not, but I do remember that when I did bring it up, it was rejected numerous times before finally being accepted. Sure enough, it took about three hours, which seemed average for almost everyone. So, I was only off by about two hours and 15 minutes. The cadre examining the M-16s would search every spot. They sent you back to continue cleaning if they could pull out their finger or a cotton swab with the tiniest black speck on it. I had never seen anything in my life examined like those guns, until I studied this week. I think Jesus faced greater examination than those M-16s did. During the last five days of his earthly life there seemed to be no part of his life they didn’t inspect. I assume many of you already know this, but it's worth mentioning even if a few of you don’t. We use the title “Last Supper” so often we can almost forget that the Last Supper was when Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples. Then after the meal Jesus went out to be crucified. So, Jesus celebrated Passover, and then became our Passover Lamb. Jesus Is Our Passover Lamb 1 Corinthians 5:7 Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Every Passover lamb that was ever sacrificed – and there were millions of them – were shadows and types of Christ. Or another way to say it is, every Passover, beginning with the first one back in Exodus, looked forward to, or prefigured, Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Because Passover – like so much else in the Old Testament – looks forward to Christ, let me be clear about what is happening in this chapter: Egypt is a picture or type of the world. When the Israelites, God’s people, were delivered from Egypt, it looked forward to us, God’s people, being delivered from the world. When the Israelites were delivered from their bondage to the Egyptians, it looked forward to us being delivered from our bondage to sin and death. When the Passover lamb was sacrificed and its blood covered the door so the firstborn sons would not experience physical death, it looked forward to Christ, our Passover Lamb being sacrificed and his blood covering our sin so we would not experience eternal death. Consider these verses: Colossians 2:17 These [things in the Old Testament – including Passover] are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Hebrews 10:1 [The Old Testament is] a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities. Passover was a shadow of the good things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. He is the true form of these realities. And here’s why it’s so important to see Jesus in the Passover: If we read every passage in the Old Testament related to Passover, if we memorize every detail that’s recorded, but we fail to see Christ, then we have made the same mistake the religious leaders made in Jesus’s day, which Jesus condemned them for: John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me. The religious leaders thought they would obtain eternal life simply by learning the Scriptures. But Jesus said they were missing eternal life because they didn’t see Jesus in the Scriptures they were learning! Eternal life doesn’t come from knowing Scripture: eternal life comes from knowing the Christ of the Scriptures! Let’s keep this in mind as we look at these verses in Exodus 12 so we can see Jesus in them. Exodus 12:1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, This refers to the month of Nisan, which is the first month on the Jewish calendar. On the 10th day of the month, or on Nisan 10, families would get a lamb for Passover. This tenth dy corresponds to the triumphal entry. Wholehearted Service to God The lamb must be “without blemish.” We can read this and find application for ourselves. God didn’t want animals that had defects or were injured. Similarly, God wants our best. He doesn’t want us bringing halfhearted or indifferent spiritual sacrifices to him. Amaziah, King of Judah, came to mind: 2 Chronicles 25:2 [Amaziah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart. Amaziah is a fitting picture of half-hearted devotion to God. The problem is that it leaves half of your heart for something else. God wants all our hearts. He wants us to bring him our best. We want to provide service that is without blemish. Looking to Christ in Jerusalem The words “A male a year old” might not look like they apply to Christ, but they do. The idea is God wanted lambs sacrificed when they were in the prime of their lives, and Jesus was sacrificed when he was in the prime of his life at 33 years of age. Exodus 12:6 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. Picture what this looked like: the family would take the lamb into their home on the tenth day, and they would keep it with them until it was sacrificed on the fourteenth day. What would happen between the family and that lamb during those five days? My understanding is lambs are calm and gentle animals. This is another reason Jesus is compared with a lamb: his gentleness. During those days the lamb would become like a pet. Why? God wanted people having affection for the lamb before it was killed. He wanted people knowing the lamb died for them. He wanted people grieving when the lamb was sacrificed. And all this looked forward to Christ. Jesus spent most of his ministry around Galilee, but during the last week of his earthly life leading up to the crucifixion he entered Jerusalem. The five days, from Nisan 10 to Nisan 14, looked forward to the days between Jesus’ triumphal entry and crucifixion. When Jesus was in Jerusalem, he was like that lamb living with that Hebrew family. The Jews were supposed to develop affection for Christ, the Passover Lamb. They were supposed to grieve when he died. They were supposed to know the Lamb was sacrificed for their sin. Christ Our Passover Lamb Was Examined Before Being Sacrificed There has never been any other Passover like the first one. If Jews skipped Passovers in the future, which they did for years, it was sinful, but their firstborn son wasn’t killed because of it. I’m sure if they did lose their firstborn sons, you can be sure they wouldn’t have missed any Passovers. But at that first Passover the consequence was the death of your oldest son. If you were alive at that first Passover and you knew that the only thing standing between you and the Destroyer passing over your home was that lamb that had to be without blemish: How well do you think you would examine it between the 10th and 14th day? How many times would you look for any blemish? Would you do anything that last day before sacrificing the animal BESIDES searching it from top to bottom to make sure there was no blemish whatsoever? I mention this, because the way these lambs were examined before being sacrificed, looked forward to the way Jesus was examined between the 10th and 14th day, or between his triumphal entry and crucifixion. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was watched and tested by his enemies during that final week. Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament volume 1: Matthew-Galatians, page 255 First, the religious leaders questioned Jesus’ authority in Luke 20:1-8… Luke 20:1 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” Next, the religious leaders questioned Jesus about paying taxes in Luke 20:20-26… Luke 20:21 So they asked him, “Teacher,