Communion — Don McClure

Actually Exodus chapter 12 is a tremendous study to me one of the greatest I suppose in all the Bible on communion. And I wanted to look at that tonight as it was communion and to study it and just as a study to prepare our hearts for communion.

So let me read to you out of it communion I mean communion chapter 12 see it's Exodus chapter 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying this month shall be unto you the beginning of months.

It should be the first month of the year to you speaking unto all the congregation of Israel saying in the tenth day of this month they shall take to every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers a lamb for an house and if the house will be too little for the lamb let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of souls every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb your lamb shall be without blemish a male of the first year ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats and he shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening and they shall take the blood and they shall strike it on the two posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses wherein they shall eat it.

And they shall eat the flesh that night roast with fire of unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it eat not of it raw nor soddened at all with water but roast with fire its head and its legs with the pertinence thereof and he shall let nothing remain till the morning.

And that which remaineth of it in the morning he shall burn with fire. And thus he shall eat it with your loins your loins girted your shoes on your feet your staff in your hand and he shall eat it and aced for it is the Lord's Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite the firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment I am the Lord and the blood shall be into you a token on the houses wherein you are.

And when I see the blood I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for memorial and you shall keep it a feast and the Lord throughout your generations and you shall keep it a feast and ordinance forever.

Let's pray and we'll study it. Father we thank you for your word and Lord we thank you that it's so much just about you. Obviously how simple can we be. But yet Lord it's all about you. And we ask that as we look at it tonight and we see this wonderful story of the Lamb ultimately speaking of the Lamb of God Lord we pray that we would see you in it.

And that message Lord that you have for us that message of love the forgiveness of cleansing of newness Lord that it would be to each one of us each one of our hearts each one of our lives whatever we need of you tonight that we would receive it for father we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. Well the Bible is of course a book primarily about Jesus Christ. I think that's a very fair statement to make. Obviously Jesus once told the Pharisees in John 5 he said you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.

But they are they that speak of me and the Old Testament. It's all about Jesus Christ. That was the scriptures. Obviously with that he was referring to. It's all about Jesus and it all points to him in one way or another he is the fulfillment of all of it.

It's where it all centers in and around him. He of course is none other as John the Baptist when he saw Jesus and he realized there who he was. What of course did he say. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

And now for centuries they had been slain many lambs millions and millions of them no doubt had been slaughtered. The blood of lambs had been flowing out of Jerusalem for many years there at the Passover feast every year as the children of Israel would gather from all over the world to come to be there for that.

And there of course all that pointed to Jesus Christ. And so the wonderful thing is we are looking here at Exodus chapter 12 there's no question of whom we speak. It's all about Jesus. And it's a beautiful and a graphic and a wonderful explanation of the Passover lamb and what Jesus has done for us.

And so as we look at it and prepare our own hearts for communion may we be able to understand the fresh and maybe deeper and richer the wonderful message of the atonement and of the power of it for our own lives.

And here is Paul also himself said in 1st Corinthians 5 he says Jesus Christ he's our Passover. So when we are looking at this wonderful story the Passover we're looking at the work that Jesus Christ has accomplished for us.

So here as we look at it I want just to notice the wonderful things as we look at it. Here is the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. And he said this month should be into you the beginning of months.

It should be the first month of the year for you. Here we have the children of Israel actually be given or be being given a whole new calendar one that they have kept ever since unlike all the rest of the world they have their own.

But here is it's being instituted. It's interesting. It's a wonderful thing here they're actually told there it's going to be a beginning as he says there this month should be into you the beginning of months.

Now that word beginning is one that's worth stopping and looking at just a little bit because it isn't just beginning as you and I would think of it in the Hebrew that word beginning it's used a number of times but it's used 500.

The root word is used 598 times translated to shake of all things. It's translated 91 times chief 349 times head 73 times top 14 times beginning 10 times captain twice it's translated ruler here it's translated for us beginning.

But the suggestion here is God is telling the children of Israel he says this month should be into you the beginning of months. And essentially what he is telling them is something so awesome something so powerful something so wonderful is about to happen.

It's going to absolutely shake your life. It's not going to be going to simply shake. It is going to be as if you've never lived before. We're going to start a brand new calendar. Over this everything previous is entirely gone.

You're going to have a new head a new chief a new ruler a new captain. In here it's as if God is. He's looking there at the children of Israel he says life is going to be absolutely transformed for you.

Imagine again here you are the children of Israel. You've been in bondage now up to maybe not well not 400 years. They've been there for 400 years exactly. How long of that they've been actually as slaves.

But for some time. But here basically I'm sure this generation they had entirely all they'd ever known was the whip of the the Egyptian taskmaster one that they were being used to build their Egyptian treasure cities.

And here they'd only known a life of bondage a life of slavery a life of weakness. They had other rulers they had other captains they had other chiefs cruel controlling manipulative. What they did every day was dictated by another force another power.

They told them how they live where they live what they'll do when they'll do it. Their entire life was governed by another power another life outside of themselves. And then one day something happens that is about to absolutely shake their life.

Here God tells him he says Moses go tell him to get ready for us shaking. A brand new shaking is going to happen and it is going to set up an entire new personal government within their life. A new ruler a new king a new chief a new captain.

The past is going to be totally obliterated. It's going to be absolutely gone wiped out everything you've done in the past. It's going to be annihilated. It's going to be gone so much so it's the beginning of months.

Who you were what you did when you did it why you did it how you did it. Don't worry about it. This shaking up is going to be so complete it's going to be as if you never existed before. We're starting a whole new calendar a new world a new life all for you.

Here is God as he's looking at them. I don't and I don't think you can overstate the force of this the magnitude of it the the the wonder of it. Because when we're talking about communion I chose one of the greatest texts and all the world of a communion is it ought to be a great time where God comes to us and invites us to a shaking a time there he says here's a new here's your captain here's your chief here's your king.

Here's the one that's to be installed afresh within your own heart in your own life. Now wonderful it is again if you could just imagine a person who's been a slave their entire life. Maybe there's some here that that you feel like your own life.

It's just been in slavery much of what you do you look at it and it's as if another force something there almost wicked it overtakes you in a sense some power there that seems to dictate your life. And the hateful thoughts the misery of life the behavior the thought life the the struggle in relationships the moral failures the relational failures the life there to where the thing like Paul said the good that I would I don't but the very thing I hate I continuously do it again and again and again.

We've lost friends lost relationships paid a price. And you look there and realize why does this happen. And here there's something that all of a sudden to that person God comes along and he offers them communion.

He offers them something where he wants to say. I don't really care your spout your story. I don't care about where you've been. I don't care about who did it when they did it and how you did it. No he did it with now often you did it.

You know we live in a day and age I've never understood it so much. But there's so much psychology in the Christian world these days so much of this stuff oftentimes where people have got to go back and try to figure out what happened to him and why it happened.

And you know and why did their mother do what they did you know or didn't do what she didn't do or or should have done more or something there that happened to them. And and you know why they're they're fan for their friends or their family.

Or why did this happen to me. And they're going back searching through trying to figure out some taskmaster back there that messed up their life so they can put the blame on it. And I'll tell you though there's one thing to me that is so powerful I'm not saying are terrible things that happen in life to do.

Their devastating things are sometimes overwhelming things the things of which humanly they look absolutely the most terrible things in all the world have happened to people and continuously sometimes.

But here the wonderful thing that the Bible wants us to know about the cross of Jesus Christ and about communion is it is powerful of all the things that have ever happened to human life in all of its life.

There is one thing that is more powerful and it overcomes all of it. And it's the cross of Christ. It's something there where a person can come and he can shake up everything and he can say you're new.

I'll lead you out of that. I don't care where you've been. I want to know if you want to know where you're going and you want a new life and you want to go on. That's what's happening here. He looks there and don't worry about where you've been.

I'll blot it out. You bring your calendar if you want to. And where you've been and what you've done and who you've done it with and all your excuses. All we're gonna do is destroy it. And we're starting a brand new calendar everybody.

And it'd be a wonderful thing if every one of us realized that's what communion is. It's the Lord coming saying let me shake you let me blot it away let me be done with it. That's what it's all about.

It's a new beginning. I believe when Jesus turned and told the disciples he says you do this often in remembrance of me. I don't think it was because he had this sentimental thing about his pain he said I want you to remember how terrible it was for me.

I want to remember how painful what I went through for you. He gave Jesus never did anything for himself or had much to say for his own self. When he said do something in remembrance of me it's because I need it not.

He didn't. I need his power. I need his work often I just once just twice. But I need it often to have a fresh shaking a fresh new calendar a fresh new work of him within my heart and within my life. And you want to know how is this to happen.

He says to you I mean what a what a phenomenal thing to come to somebody and say we're gonna give you a brand new calendar a brand new life. Well he goes on in verse 3. And he says speaking into the congregation of Israel saying in the tenth day of this month they shall take to every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers a lamb for an house.

And if the household be too little for the lamb let he and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

Your lamb should be without blemish. Your male of the first year you should take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And he should keep it until the 14th day of the same month. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

Notice there. By the way it's just one and one. God says he shall kill it. There's there's thousands of lambs and goats being offered. But God just sees one they from his perspective in heaven he's seen the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.

That's that's in the midst of all this wonderful thing. But here's the Lord looks at them. Notice there. He tells him he says in verse 4 if the household it be too little for the lamb he says you're gonna take a lamb.

And he I suppose one of the first thing that kind of comes out to me though as he says there that if the household is too little for the lamb what a wonderful thing. Think about that for a moment. The lamb first of all it's for the whole.

It's there. I mean it's a home there where there's you know a husband and a wife or there's children. And like all homes all the things the selfishness to come in and anger and hostility and confusion and bitterness and you're trying to run all your lives and trying to establish who you think you are.

And all of our little struggles and selfishness is that can creep in so much. But here there he looks there and he says I this isn't just for an individual this is for your entire home. This is something there that you're to share together in not just even individually.

Oftentimes there we see people that maybe a husband I he knows he's a Christian she knows she's a Christian. But in the sense of where they together know what it is to let the lamb be something there that penetrates their entire heart and their entire home together.

Something there that's to cleanse their life to cleanse their home. And it's absolutely notice it's sufficient there for the house it's never an issue. Never says by the way if the lambs too little for the house go get a backup lamb you know.

Or something. He says no. If the households too little for the lamb they'll always be enough forgiveness for any home whatever the problem is whatever the difficulty is however long it's gone it's like God is just looking if I could just get the family if I could just get the home if I could just get the people to the cross if I can just get them to take their eyes off of who they were and who the other one is and what they did and what was done under them and all of this stuff that can pile up over the years.

All of these things in a home of a family of slaves have all been slaves to something else for years. God knows it and he cares and he loves him. And he says. The answer here is just I want you all to set your eyes not on each other not in your past.

I want you to set your eyes upon the lamb the power of the lamb the sufficiency of the lamb. And there is he looks at the power of the lamb to cleanse to forgive. And here as he looks at it there it's obviously there as it says in verse 5 your lamb should be without blemish.

A male of the first year he shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. But here's it's something there as he looks obviously a picture of the Lamb of God without blemish without any sin without any failure.

But looking there just the sight of staring in a sense in Jesus. How many homes how many families. Maybe even here just need to know what it is to come and to truly sit before the lamb and say shake us up shake us up.

Help us to throw away the calendar and throw away the past and throw away the record books and throw away our file cabinets that we've got on each other. I don't know how often it is. I'll sit down with people and you know and you start near when there's a marriage that's in trouble there's a home that's in trouble.

And the love is and doesn't flow. And it isn't free. And it's gotten clogged up. It's usually got clogged up with record-keeping. It's usually got all these files that people have that just clog everything up to where you what.

So-and-so did. And when they did it and and I remember that boy and I'm not gonna have that done to me again. How stupid do you think I am. You know. And then something to where you learn to protect yourself.

And here is a place where God just comes and he says gaze upon the lamb see him in his love. How many homes. How many families. How many marriages. I think in many times I even see Christians they themselves personally know the cross.

They know the and but but in but it's separate it isn't together. We're in their home and then with the family with the children where they know what it is to say God cleanse us all shake us all up be right here in the midst of all of us.

We want this. You know it's interesting in 1st Corinthians Paul makes a reference there in 1st Corinthians of there many sick among you not discerning the Lord's body. And while he is specifically speaking there of physical illness I believe he's also speaking not just a physical illness.

I think there's a lot of illnesses and homes and illnesses and families and illnesses between husband and wife in difficulties and you know and in weaknesses that have crept in just because we don't discern also the power of the cross the magnitude of the cross to where we can come and look there did it ought to be that I'll tell you whatever sins anybody ever did to me.

And and I'd like to think they did a lot you know it's. Don't we everybody likes to think you've been sinned against a lot. That's why I'm so messed up. We want somebody to blame for that I suppose. But when we also realize no one will ever ever sin against me as much as I have been forgiven as much as I no one could possibly even do it.

I've broken every commandment. There is when Jesus makes it clear in the New Testament what it is to steal or what it is to lust or what it is to covet or what it is to have any failure at all. I realized there as a man thinketh as a man is in his heart so is he.

I realized look at the unfaithfulness of my heart towards God. And that he still loves me. God told the children of Israel back in the book of Hosea when he sent Hosea to go out to be you know a prophet to them he says take thee a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry.

For the land has committed great harlotry departing from the Lord. Now it wasn't physical harlotry it was spiritual. God looked there and he says they are mine. They are to have a fidelity to me. And they've gone off and they've loved others.

And God looked at it. He was as offended as anybody that had ever had anybody commit an adulterous relationship against them. It broke his heart. And when I realized I've done all this haven't I. And when I stopped to think well you try to find somebody that's done one thing or another to me but the Mount I have been forgiven.

And thus there if I am to forgive as I have been forgiven there's not a person in the world I can't forgive. They're not a person in all the world. And when we realize Lord help me I need to see the lamb again.

I need to realize what has been done for me. Maybe some of you here tonight and you're angry. You're a you're bitter in your marriage. You're angry with each other. You've been you've been angry for years.

In fact you you've nearly nursed it. You fed it. You're being comforted in it. You've got friends that pray for you about it. You know. And you got all these got all this stuff. And yet you continue to be angry or hostile or hurt or bitter instead of just Jesus.

Let me see the cross. Let me see the magnitude of the cross. Could you imagine a home in Egypt there and what the slave master did. And all their struggles and all that. But all of a sudden there's a knock on the door and there is an entirely king new king there a king of the ultimate eternal lottery.

And he says you what you win in all the little debts that everybody's got against you. That guy owes me 50 bucks and you took 20. You took this. And all the family said now wait a minute. And he says hey I got a billion for you.

I think we got enough to go around. And the wonderful thing is what I realized his love for me. His love covers a multitude of sins. Now maybe you're here tonight and your marriage is perfect. You're wondering what in the world is he talking about.

You know you woke up this morning singing love songs to each other and made a movie about it or something. I don't know. Your neighbors came over knocked on the door and said would you please teach us those songs.

We want to sing to each other too you know. Or whatever else. You know your book on marriage is just coming out and it's 10th printing. I don't know. Maybe so I'm happy for you. I just don't want to live by you.

But the I don't have a marriage like that. The my wife is coming along. Don't get me wrong. But the I just realized she's in San Jose. She might be listening tonight. I love you honey. You're the sweetest one in all the anyway I got a hunch.

There's gonna be some voicemails on my cell phone when I'm done here. But here this is what. But God looks here and he says love forgive. And he turns there and and then he adds to it. In verse 4 he goes on.

He says. And if the household be too little for the lamb let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it in according to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating shall make your how your your account for the lamb here.

He says. Now once you've got enough love enough cleansing enough of this absolute shaking power now go share it with your neighbor. I love them. Let this power begin to be known there not total strangers you go off.

Sometimes we're more bold with you know total strangers than we are with the people next door. You know the guy next door the one with the stereo you know they're the that when the one who parks his oil dripping car in front of your house you know the guy with the yellow house is the blue trim and and the pink flamingos he sticks in the garden there and there.

You know that he's got there going there and he says go go next door go there to your neighbor and here and tell him about the shaking that's happening in your life and in your marriage in your home the cleansing the newness the power the chief the ruler the king the captain it has come into your life.

Don't ever worry. If Jesus is not for you it will be. And there ought to be enough to share of his love and of his power. Notice also the familiarity that they were to have with us with the lamb tells us there in verse 3 that you that in the tenth day of the month you shall take every man a lamb according to their house their fathers.

In other words here out of their sheep there to go out of the sheepfold and bring in one of the lamb on the tenth day there to separate them from the rest of the flock. And here they're. Actually they bring it into their home.

Now as you may be aware in those times sheep business wasn't so much a business as sheep were almost part of the family. You know shepherding called the sheep by name they knew the shepherds voice and they answered it's the way they were.

They weren't herded like cattle but they were let out here a shepherd wouldn't hear a voice of a harling of a hireling that knew his did knew its owner and knew its shepherd. But here now the shepherd was to go out and call out of his flock the you know the youngest and most beautiful without spot call that the beautiful young lamb out of the flock and essentially now to bring it into the home.

And then in verse 6 it says. And you shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Now could you imagine this. How many of you have ever came to your family and said I'm gonna bring home a puppy for four days.

Good luck. You bring all you let a puppy in the house you're stuck for till it's dead basically or you or your children or somebody unless you're like we were growing up we got this wonderful German shepherd and then we all got married left with my parents.

But the 105 pounds Prince and boy drug them everywhere. But they brought us into the world they deserve everything they had for it. But anyway but the thing is is that here there for four days they've got this lamb in the house hanging around kids falling you know in love with it.

What an attachment. And here as you brought it home and for four days it's been separated and singled out and Garrett God wants there are no question about it to me the familiarity the attachment he wants to have happen.

He wants there something when it comes down to the 14th day by the time they take that lamb and they kill it that there is something that is literally gut-wrenching. There is something about them there that they that they find there it takes everything out of them to do such a thing.

This is one of the most awesome events ever. My dad's uncle uncle Bill when they're growing up he had a ranch and I used to get to go up there to hang out with him now and then in the summers. And I remember one time I was up there and the way some of the ranchers were when they came down where they would you know have the some of the sheep killed.

Sometimes even one rancher would go do it for another and they would trade places in a sense here we got to get some killed you know I'll come over and take care of it for you. So you didn't even have to be involved with the death of your own sheep because the sheep I can remember watching this.

We're there. The guy comes to butcher the sheep and hear these lambs they just line up and as they would just be standing there so trusting so innocent so precious about them. And here the guy come up with this gun put it right in their forehead.

The lamb would just sit there like is that a gun. I'm up for it you know or whatever. Just look right at it and boom. All of a sudden the lamb just drops dead as a doornail. Obviously all the other like the cattle they go crazy.

They're either trying to jump out of their pens and going except for the rest of the sheep they're just stand there. What happened to Wally you know or something there they didn't move. They would just there and and just stand there until Wally you're laying down in the job you know or whatever it is.

And then they drag him away next they come right up until they whatever number were to be slaughtered. But there it's that's probably the hardest that when you find this is one you've known answered your voice you loved it.

The children of Israel's Leviticus chapter 1 tells us that ever been on whenever they came to offer a burnt offering they were still to come and bring in a lamb without blemish the first year without spot.

And there it tells them they could bring it in and they were doing the offering. But the priest put the knife in their hand. I'm at a priest didn't kill it for him. There that man came and he was to make an offering and he with his own hand was to fully realize this lamb is dying not for the priest.

Sins my sins my sins. They love the lamb. And here it is something that that when you look at this what a picture tells us verse 7. And they shall take the blood and they shall strike it on the two side posts where in the upper door poses the house and they shall eat.

It goes on down in verse 13 and it says. And the blood shall be into you a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I spite the land of Egypt here the Lord he looks there and he tells my aunt you take the blood and I want you to put on the door.

And the lintel is at the side post of the house where in you are. And he said. And when I see the blood what a picture put it on the door post. How ugly how distasteful. You imagine somebody inviting you over to their home.

Oh you come you gotta see this home. We're so excited about it. You come walking up to the house. And here's you're walking up. There's blood on the door in the door post all around the house just tripping down.

Nice house it leaks you know. Or something. You got a problem here. There was something that anybody that was to come into the house anybody in essentially the entryway into their home the entryway into fellowship the entryway into that person their doorway of their very life was something there with a blood atone the blood covered there was to be the prominent factor in coming into somebody's life that ought to be the most prominent factor of every child of God's heart and life constantly not just now and then not just periodically but the story of their personal redemption the most glorious part of their whole being.

In a sense they're the one that has brought them out of slavery out of Egypt out of bondage out of sorrow out of night out of agony. The one that brought them out and gave them every blessing they've ever known by the shedding of his blood in the most prominent factor that there ought to be in every child of God's heart every child of God's life is the blood.

Here God looks and he says when I see the blood. And it's a wonderful question I suppose when does he see the blood. And does he see the blood so often. You know we're you know we we've got our you know our symbols and we got our fish and we got our crosses and we got our doves and we've got our bumper stickers and we've got all of the other sorts of things around.

But here God looks at them he says when I see the blood when heaven looks there. And the most precious thing that the heaven has ever done the most expensive thing the heaven has ever invested in the most awesome project it has ever done.

The sending of the Son of God into the world to die for all the sins of all the world of all time. And he who knew no sin to become sin for us to shed his blood for the remission of our sins. To have the world the Bible says God just spoke it into existence.

To have the planet that you and I walk around to have every blessing of life. All the other stuff that there is in all the world it just is God just said let it be. But to redeem us he had to climb down from his throne take on human flesh.

And there is he without as a lamb dumb before the slaughter silent not uttered not a word going there and pouring out his blood for us. The most precious thing that there is heaven has. And it ought to be the most precious thing that you and I have.

It ought to be the most precious thing that a marriage has. It ought to be the most precious thing that a family has. And ought to be the most precious thing that there is in all the world. I wonder how many people again I believe our preciousness of each other is directly related to the preciousness of the blood.

Preciousness of a husband to a wife or wife to a husband or children to parents if you're having a struggle and they're not precious to you. If your parents aren't precious to you. If relatives and friends are not precious to you.

You look at the blood. You look at the cross. I believe it melts the heart of anybody that ought to see it. And they're nothing more precious as Peter tells us there he says. For as much as you know you're not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by the traditions of your fathers.

But with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. I tell you you and I we have nothing more precious than what's right in front of us tonight the most powerful sermon ever preached in its two elements.

But as we realize if we didn't understand it thought to shake us up. It ought to be something that can revolutionize any life any home any marriage any family. It's sufficient for the entirety of it. Nothing more powerful would you be free from the burden of sin.