Exodus 12:1-14

The children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years. So God heard their cry and called Moses to lead them out of slavery. Moses went to Pharaoh and said "Let my people go." When Pharaoh refused God sent a series of plagues against Egypt. Each plague was worse than the last, yet Pharaoh refused to let the people go. The last plague would be the worst and would be the one that would break Pharaoh's will so that he would release the Israelites.

This was to be a plague upon the firstborn of all Egypt. God would take the first born of all of the Egyptian families but would not touch the Israelites. This was the pattern God had followed with the other plagues. When darkness came on Egypt there was light in the land of Goshen where the Israelites were. When hail had fallen on Egypt there was none in Goshen where the Israelites were.

The difference this time was that God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb. They would place the blood of that lamb on the doorposts and they would feast on that lamb roasted. The blood would be a sign that they were God's people. And God would pass over their houses and spare their firstborn.

But why did they need to give a sign? I mean God knew where they were. It's not like God needed something to tell him who were Israelites and who were Egyptians. God had already numbered the hairs on their heads. So why the sacrifice?

One reason could be that the people needed to demonstrate their dedication to God. It was more a sign and a reminder to the Israelites that they were God's people. It was also a sign and a reminder of what God had done for them.

God had made great sacrifices for them. After all God loved the Egyptians. God had created them and allowed Pharaoh to rise to power. Of course the Egyptians had made bad choices when they chose to enslave their brother and sister Israelites. So it hurt God to have to send the plagues on them.

So God called the Israelites to make a sacrifice. To take the best and most valuable of their lambs and sacrifice it. Then to display its blood to remember the sacrifice that God made.

Why did God tell the Israelites to sacrifice the lambs and place the blood on their doorposts? As a reminder that they had been redeemed, bought out of slavery. God was setting them free. Their blood had been shed by centuries of slavery. The crushing of their spirits and the burn of the slave driver's whip had bled them.

The blood was there to remind them of what they were being delivered from. God was passing over them to save them from slavery. All who were under the blood of the Passover lamb would be delivered.

The blood on the doorposts and lintel was a sign of their worship of God. They placed their faith that God would protect them from the plague. But also that God would deliver them from slavery.

But that was over 3,000 years ago. We live in a different age now. Or do we? People in our age are still slaves. Maybe not to Pharaoh, but they are slaves to sin. We have all sinned and the wages of sin is death. So we are all slaves to death.

But God has heard the human race's cry for help. But this was a bigger problem than just one nation of people in economic and political slavery. This time it is a whole world in spiritual slavery to sin and death. So God had to find someone bigger than Moses to lead the people out. That person was his own Son, Jesus the Christ. Jesus said to the Devil "Let my people go!"

But just as the last time, there had to be a sacrifice. But it had to be a perfect sacrifice. So Jesus gave himself to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He was sacrificed and his blood shed. And his blood was not spread on the doorposts of our houses but on the doorposts of our hearts; thus showing that our hearts have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb out of slavery to sin and death.

God has made a great sacrifice for us! He gave his only begotten Son. He offered himself as a means of saving us. Holy Communion, like the Passover meal still celebrated by Jews today, reminds us of how God redeemed us and freed us. The bread represents his body broken to pay for our sins. The grape juice represents his blood shed to cover us. And when we accept Jesus we are under the blood of the Lamb of God.

Ask Jesus to put his blood on the lintel and doorposts of your heart. Let his love be sign for all that you are a child of God. Let his grace and mercy cover you and set you free.

When you come forward to eat this bread and drink from this cup, remember that you are under the blood of the lamb.

Exodus 12:1-14

The children of Israel had endured centuries of slavery to the Egyptians. Then God heard their cry and sent them Moses. Through Moses God said, "Let my People go." But even then it took plague after plague from God to make the Egyptians let them go. The Israelites witness the Nile tuning to blood. They saw the flies and gnats and boils attaching the Egyptians and not touching them. They witnessed the darkness that covered Egypt while the sun shined in Goshen where God's people were.

Then came the last plague, the plague on the firstborn. God would repay the Egyptians for all the Hebrew babies they had thrown into the Nile. God would break the will of Pharaoh and make him let the children of Israel go. God would send a destroying angel to take the first born of Egypt and leave the Israelites untouched.

But before that, God would give Israel a ritual to remember this night by: a series of symbolic activities that the entire community could participate in. And they were to observe these rituals and hand them down from generation to generation. That way the descendants of those Israelites would be able to remember in a tangible way how they were redeemed from slavery by the mighty hand of God. How God brought judgment and redemption in the same night and bought their freedom from slavery.

There are a number of elements to this ritual of remembrance. The ritual is a meal. It's eaten in a hurry to remind them of the haste with which they left Egypt. It included bitter herbs to remind them of the bitterness of slavery. It also include unleavened bread to remind them of the fact that they did not have time to let their bread rise before leaving. They are also told to eat dressed for travel to remind them of the Exodus that followed.

But central to all of this was a lamb. It was not just the main dish - it was the main symbol. The lamb was to be without blemish because it was to be a sacrifice to God and you don't give God second-rate merchandise. You give God only your best because God deserves no less. It was to be sacrificed and roasted then eaten.

But perhaps the most important thing is what the Israelites were to do with its blood. It was to be painted on the doorposts and lintel of the Israelite's houses to mark the people of God. When the destroying angel came, it would pass over the houses that were marked. So the slaughter or sacrifice of this lamb bought back the firstborn of Israel. And the blood of that sacrifice was placed where all could see it!

Can you imagine the impact this had on the people, especially the children? With each bite the people who had gone through that event, would relive it. They would be reminded of that night on the eve of freedom. The smells, the textures the tastes, would bring back every memory of that night of death and deliverance. And they would instill that memory in the following generations. Then those generations would do the same down through the centuries.

Imagine the impact on the children. It's natural for children to ask about other children and identify with them. The children would have naturally thought of those firstborn in slavery in Egypt. The lamb that was sacrificed bought or redeemed the first born from death. In essence the experience of being redeemed was passed on to many generations as each successive generation of children identified with those first ones.

When God decides to remind people of something He does a good job. The last verse I read this morning says, "This shall be a perpetual remembrance." And it has been. For generations the Jewish people have celebrated the Passover. For more than three Millennia they have eaten bitter herbs and unleavened bread and lamb. For over 3,000 years they have relived their redemption from slavery to the Egyptians!

The children of God had endured millennia of slavery to sin and death. And God heard their cry but this job was too big for Moses. So God sent his son to say to the powers of evil, �Let my people go!� And Jesus performed many wonders before the children of God. He healed the sick, cast out demons, raised the dead, walked on water and fed the masses. He also spoke the word of God.

Then came the time for a sacrifice. But a mere farm animal was not enough for this act of redemption. So Jesus gave himself to be the sacrifice. He was nailed to a cross. Blood poured from his hands and feet and from the wounds in his head and side.

And that blood was not just poured out it was applied. Through the Holy Spirit the Father applied that blood to the lintels and doorposts of the hearts of all who believed. And when God sends judgment all who are marked will be passed over because they are under the blood of the Lamb.

Have you ever heard the expression "under the blood of the lamb?" We Christians speak about being under the blood of the Lamb but now you know the Old Testament roots of that image. The Israelites at the Passover were under the blood of the lamb. The lamb's blood was painted on the lintel of the house they entered so all who went in had to go under the blood of the lamb. It was that lamb's blood that bought their redemption from death. It was also an instrument of God to buy them out of slavery.

Of course when we Christians speak of being under the blood of the Lamb we're not talking about the sacrifice of a domesticated farm animal. We are speaking of Jesus the Lamb of God. But the ideas are the same only written on a larger scale. The Lamb we speak of is the Son of God. And His blood did not merely redeem us from physical death or earthly slavery. This Lamb's blood redeemed us from eternal death and slavery to sin.

And of course we Christians have ways of remembering this too. One way is through a ritual meal: communion. Remember last Sunday when the bread was broken and the juice poured and the repeated words �This is my Body� and �this is my blood.� Through that we remembered that it was Jesus� death on the cross that saves us. But we also remember it through other acts of praise and worship. We sing of being washed in the blood. We tell the story of Jesus� death and resurrection. And we use symbols like the cross the remind us of that truth.

God gave the children of Israel a way to remember their salvation and pass that memory on. At the center of that remembrance was a lamb and it's blood. God has given us a Lamb too. Through the blood of that lamb we are redeemed out of slavery to sin and death. When each of us gave our lives to Jesus he painted the blood of that sacrifice on the doorposts and lintel of our hearts. And we are under the blood of Jesus: the Lamb of God!

Romans 13:8-14

It's getting late! If you are at all like me you never seem to have enough time. There is so much to do and so little time to do it. And many of the things I need to do are important. I have responsibilities to my work, responsibilities to my family, responsibilities to my community, and of course responsibilities to my God. And no matter how hard I work I can never seem to get it all done.

Sometimes I find its getting late and I can't do all the things I feel I need to. It is at those times that I start prioritizing. I decided which things need to be done and I do them first. I also begin to judge what are the things that, as good and important as they are, can wait until later. And I usually end up making a list of these things with the most important things first so that I can efficiently get them done.

Our spiritual lives are like that. There is so much to be done and it's getting late! There are people in our own neighborhoods or even our own families that do not know Jesus. There are people who are lonely or in need of comfort, there are people who are sick or in prison, and there is so much we can do for them. And then there is our personal devotion. Do you read the Bible daily? How much time to we spend in prayer? All these things are important but Jesus is coming soon and people are dying or moving beyond our reach. Now I'm not one of those who spends all my time worrying about people who die in sin and go to hell. But I believe in hell and that unforgiven sinners go there. It concerns me that people are in sin and their time is running out. Where do we begin to reach them.

Paul the Apostle felt that it was getting late. In my Bible verses 11-14 are labeled "An Urgent Appeal." Paul knew that it was getting late for the Romans. He was right of course. Oh, Jesus didn't return right away but their time was short. The book of Romans was written around 58 AD only a decade later in 64 AD Nero threw all the Christians and Jews out of Rome.

Many Christians and Jews died in the persecution and the rest went underground literally. Some Scholars believe that both Peter and Paul were killed as part of this persecution. The opportunity for the Roman church to freely spread the Gospel in that city was short. And so Paul gave them some advice. He warned them that the time was near and that they should lay aside the works of darkness. In other words they needed to straighten out their own lives. They should set their hearts and minds on Jesus Christ and not the things of this world.

But first and foremost he tells them to love. He tells that the love should be their first priority. He tells them that if they do that they are fulfilling all the laws God has given them. If you truly love in a Godly way you will not hurt or steal. In Paul's inspired words, "love is the fulfillment of the law.

It sounds so simple: just love. But that is easier said than done. No matter how hard we try sometimes we seem to get sidetracked. Sometimes in our personal lives we get so busy with activities that we forget people. I'm sure you have met the Christian who was so busy going to Bible studies or volunteering that they failed to pay attention to the people around them. Or the Christian who was so involved in political activism who failed to consider the people they were active against. Not that Bible study or volunteer work or activism are unimportant. These are very valuable ministries and activities for a Christian and they can be vehicles for expressing the love of God. But they shouldn't keep one from loving another. We have all seen the Christian who is so busy correcting the wrongs of others that they fail to offer forgiveness. Sometimes we are called to give a prophetic word to tell someone that they are living wrong. But it should always be done in as loving and caring a way as possible because after all that is how the Lord dealt with us.

Sometimes churches get sidetracked by programs. I grew up in a large church. We had a Sunday School class for each grade in school and a separate nursery for each age of preschooler. We had ministries and programs left and right. And that church did a good job of paying attention to individual in that crowd of members. But in some churches, even some smaller ones, so much attention is focused on the programs that the people get lost. Not that programs are bad mind you. It is important to have education programs and fellowship programs and support groups etc. Ideally they should be a means to help people connect so that they can share God's love. They are a means to an end not an end in themselves.

Sometimes churches get sidetracked from love by material concerns. They are so busy taking care of the facilities that they fail to take care of people. There are churches who have heaps of money in their building funds who don't pay their apportionments or support missions. They maintain and endow their buildings but they don't reach out to the community around them. At Grace we have the material concern of needing more space. It would be so easy to forget why we need more space. We need more space to better serve God and his people. We could easily get so caught up in the building program and stewardship program to forget that in the end it should all be about serving people. We haven't fallen into that trap yet, but we should be careful that we don't.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Romans chapter 13. Paul wrote, "Owe no one anything except to love one another." When I first read this the word "owe" jumped out at me and I thought of owing money. But I don't think that is what it means. Rather than a financial debt it's a personal debt. We should feel no deeper obligation to another person than to love them.

Put in other words: I may have a duty to witness or correct or educate or do justice, but my highest duty should be to love. To love is the only thing I truly owe. In fact to love is to fulfill the law and after all the law is an expression of God's will. So if we truly want to serve God, then love should be at the top of our list of priorities.

We are looking at Romans Chapter 13, but I can't help but think of another famous chapter 13: 1 Corinthians 13. "Though I may speak with the tongues of mortals and angels but have not love I am a noisy gong and a tinkling symbol."(1 Cor. 13:1) Yes, it's getting late and time is running out and we can't do all that we feel we owe our family and church and community. But God says, "That's OK, just remember that what you really owe them is your love." When you make a list of the things you need to do in your life, be sure to put LOVE at the top!

Exodus 12:1-14

In Exodus 12 God instructs Moses and Aaron on how Israel is to celebrate the feast of the Passover. For the Jews the Passover is a celebration of God's salvation. The name "Passover" came from a description of the events of that fateful night. A destroying angel literally passed over the Hebrews but brought judgment upon the Egyptians. God had sent nine plagues on Egypt to convince Pharaoh to let Israel go.

The tenth and last plague was on all the firstborn in the land. But before the plague, God instructed each of the Israelite families to sacrifice a lamb and place it's blood on the door posts as a sign on their faith in God. They were instructed to roast the lamb and eat it all by morning and also to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And that night an angel came and slew the firstborn of the Egyptians but it passed over the houses of the Hebrews.

Each part of this holy meal had a special meaning. The bitter herbs were to remind them of the bitterness of slavery. The unleavened bread was to remind them that they had to leave Egypt so quickly that they didn't have time to leaven their bread. They were to eat this meal in their traveling clothes to remind them of the journey out of slavery. The lamb reminded them of the sacrifice that protected the people from the destroying angel.

Each year afterwards the Hebrews were to celebrate this meal. It became a major celebration of God's salvation. God had spared those who were under the blood of the Passover lamb. God had defeated the mighty Egyptian masters and proven that the Egyptian god's were powerless. And God had brought the Children of Israel out of slavery.

It's no accident that the Lord's Supper took place during the Passover festival. After all Passover was celebrated to remember that God had saved in the past and to affirm the belief that God continues to save in the present. When the disciples gathered for that Last Supper with their Lord before his death, the Passover was in their minds. It was in this context that Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and said, "This is my body." And the disciples had in mind the blood of Passover lamb when he took the cup and said, "This is my blood." And it was during the slaughter of the Passover lambs the next day that Jesus was sacrificed on the cross.

Like Passover, the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion is a celebration of God's salvation. It reminds us how God has saved us through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Each part of this meal reminds us of that salvation. The bread that is broken reminds us that Christ's body was broken for our sins. The cup reminds of Jesus' blood shed for our salvation.

This celebration and remembrance of God's saving act is not that different from the Passover. The Passover reminds us how God saved Israel from slavery to the Egyptians. The Lord's Supper reminds us how God has saved us from slavery to sin and death. At Passover those who put their faith in God were under the blood of the Passover lamb sprinkled on their door posts. Today those who believe in the Lord are under the blood of the lamb of God that washes away our sins.

But the Lord's Supper is more than a remembrance of what God did in the past. It is a reminder that God still saves and that God will continue to save. When we celebrate this meal it is more than a reminder of the past. In this meal Christ is present feeding us spiritually. Different churches have different ways of expressing that, but we Methodists call it real presence. Christ is present and blesses those who celebrate this meal in faith.

And God is saving people today. God is still leading people out of slavery. The blood of Christ is still washing the stain of sins from people's lives. Today God is leading people out of slavery to sin and out of slavery to addictions. God is leading people out of slavery to abusive relationships.

And God will continue to deliver people from slavery. In fact the promise that God gives us is that Christ will come again. And when Christ comes again he will do away with every form of evil that oppresses the human being. And there will be a feast. A feast of victory that celebrated God's victory over evil.

Come! Celebrate the victory of our Lord. Remember how God led the children of Israel out of Egypt. Remember the bitterness of their slavery and the suddenness of their freedom. Remember how God protected those who in faith put the blood of the lamb on their door posts. And remember that God continues to free people from slavery to wicked masters.

Come! Celebrate how God gave his only Son to die for our sins. Remember how Jesus handed over his body to be broken. Remember how his blood was shed. And remember that God continues to save and protect those who in faith have accepted the blood of the lamb to cleans their hearts.

Come! Celebrate the promise of the victory feast to come. Christ the Lamb of God will come again. And by the authority of his blood he will cleans creation of all wickedness and evil. Christ will destroy all wickedness but he will Passover those who have put themselves under his blood. And the faithful will sit at a table and share in the ultimate feat of victory.

This is the Feast of Victory for our God.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Worthy is Christ the Lamb who was slain,
whose Blood set us free to be people of God.
This is the Feast of Victory for our God.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Matthew 18:15-20

It was before my time, but I have been told that there was a time when they did not have intercoms in schools. A story is told of an incident that took place when intercoms were first introduced into this one school. The story goes that there was this one little boy that was disrupting his class. For the sake of the story we will give him the name Tommy. Tommy had disobeyed the teacher quite often and had been sent to the principal's office. The principal had a long talk with Tommy after which Tommy promised to do what the teacher said.

Well the very next day the principal decided to use the intercom to listen in on Tommy's class to see if he was keeping his promise. And guess what? Tommy was giving his teacher a hard time. The teacher would tell him to sit down and he would make an excuse. When he did sit down he would get up again in a few seconds. Finally the principal decided to remind Tommy of the promise he had made to do what the teacher said. So the principal used the intercom and said, "Tommy, do as your teacher tells you." At that Tommy sat down in his chair, broke out in a cold sweat, looked around and said "Yes God, I will."

The point of the story is that when the cat's away the mice will play. It is human nature to be good when you know you are being watched, but it is when there is no one watching that's when misbehavior breaks out.

Just as children sometimes act out in class, God's children sometimes act out in church. Now by acting out in church I am not speaking primarily about making noise and disrupting the worship service. Although with the Corinthians that was the case. People were prophesying and speaking in tongues in such a way that it disrupted the service and created chaos. What I am talking about is people who are part of the church acting un-Christian. People in the church acting as if they were out of it hence "acting out, in church."

Jesus knew that this would be problem for the church so he gave us some guidelines on how to deal with it. Jesus said to his disciples, "If your brother sins against you..."(Matthew 18:15) The New RSV says, "If another member of the church sins..." Jesus is talking here about those who are in the church not those who are outside of it. These guidelines are for use among those who have confessed Christ but are not following his teachings in an overt way.

What Jesus lays out can be characterized as policy guidelines for dealing with insubordination in church. It is a step by step process for dealing with sin in the community of faith. It is the biblical basis for excommunication, churching, shunning and church trials.

So lets take a look at this process that Jesus lays down. The first step is to go to the offender personally. This is a private meeting. The purpose is not to embarrass or humiliate the person it is to help them to live right. They may not realize that what they are doing is wrong or they may be ignoring that fact. This is a sensitive way of calling them to their moral senses and saving them from the pain that the sin will cause if it continues.

The next step is, if the person does not turn from that sin, then you go with one of two friends. The purpose of the extra people is not to embarrass or humiliate the person. Perhaps it is to engage a little positive peer pressure. Maybe it is also to enable the offender to realize that the one who came to him before is not alone in their belief that their actions are sinful. Despite the other obvious advantages of this small group the biggest advantage is that it provides witnesses. That way if the offender refuses to repent then there is more then one witness who can testify to it.

If it gets to this point then Jesus says that is when the whole church should get involved. At that point the whole church confronts the person. If then they refuse to turn from their sin they are to be treated as an outsider. You have heard of three strikes and you are out laws. Here is the original three strikes and you are out. If an offender refuses to repent when an individual comes to them that is strike one. If they further refuse after a small group confront them then strike two. Finally if they refuse to repent when the whole church confronts them then strike three and they are out.

But Jesus doesn't stop there. If he had this sermon would have been a lot shorter and maybe easier to write. After laying out a rather simple plan Jesus lays some serious theology on us. He says, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."(Matthew 18:18) Then he follows it with "Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven."(Matthew 18:19)

This concerns me. If God gives a rubber stamp to what we decide, then we are all in trouble. The church here on earth is notorious for making bad decisions. If we take these verses literally then where had Galileo been between the time of his death and the recent proclamation by the church that they were mistaken in excommunicating him? And what about people who have been churched for square dancing or some other trivial offense.

Certainly God does not enforce the decisions that we humans make out of prejudice or ignorance. I believe that what these passages are talking about is our responsibility. If we fail to live out the righteousness of God then those who fail to see it are the ones that pay for our mistake. Our decision not to live righteously is ratified in heaven by those who remain unsaved because we did not proclaim the truth to them in our community life. Likewise if we go around excommunicating people from the church without sufficient cause, then we cut them off from the influence of godly people and give them up to the world. Then our decision is realized in heaven by those who suffer eternally for our legalistic zeal.

But Jesus puts all this into context in his final verse. He says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them."(Matthew 18:20) We often refer to this passage as a way of affirming God presence in our gathers no matter how humble. But here it has a quite different meaning. It is saying that God is always watching.

We often get careless in our conduct when others are not watching. It is easy for even the most devote Christian to become frustrated with a backslider who refuses to repent. Sometimes we act rashly with those who are hurting themselves and others through their sinful conduct. But Jesus reminds us that God is in our midst.

Even if it is just you talking to a friend about his or her sinful actions God is there. And we can call on God to work on that person's heart to bring them to repentance. Like Tommy we need to be reminded that God is watching us in church. And we should be careful how we deal with those who act out. After all we are God's ambassadors in this world.