The 2nd Passover / Lord's Supper Mandate & The Cloud of Glory (The Book of Numbers Chapter 9)

So tonight we are picking up where we left off from last week. So, Numbers chapter 9, and this section is titled, if you have a

New King James Bible, you'll notice that this is titled what? The second

Passover. Right, the second Passover. Of course, the children of Israel celebrated the first Passover back when they were in Egypt.

Now, they're celebrating the second Passover in the wilderness of Sinai. Numbers chapter 9, verses 1 through 5.

Now, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt saying, let the children of Israel keep the

Passover at its appointed time. On the 14th day of this month at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time.

According to all its rites and ceremonies, you shall keep it. So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the

Passover. Was this optional or mandatory? Yeah, it's a commandment.

It's mandatory. Verse 5, and they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month at twilight in the wilderness of Sinai, according to all that the

Lord commanded Moses. So the children of Israel did.

Now, if it wasn't for their disobedience, they probably would have celebrated the

Passover in the promised land, but because of their disobedience, they have another 39 years of wanderings to go through.

But on this subject of the Passover, if you remember, we covered it back in the book of Exodus.

So it was Exodus chapter 12 that the Lord gave all the instructions. Part of that was to take a lamb without blemish, kill it at twilight, and take the blood and basically paint it on your doorpost.

So above on the top and then on the sides. And I pointed out that if you think about it, it almost made the picture of the cross where the blood would have been on Jesus's hand on either side and then on top with his head.

So the Lord would pass through the land that night and kill the firstborn of the land.

But those homes that were under the blood, they were spared.

Right? So this is one of the most clear pictures of the gospel anywhere in the

Old Testament. In the gospel of John chapter 1 verse 29, you remember how

John the Baptist first identified Jesus as the Christ. When did he say, behold, the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

So Jesus is that Passover lamb and Jesus like the lamb, the lamb is without blemish.

Jesus is without sin. When Jesus was crucified, you remember there was darkness throughout the land.

So that ties in with the twilight. Jesus, of course, is the firstborn.

And on the cross, he took the plague or he took the curse of sin upon himself so that all those who are under the blood are spared from God's judgment.

So the Passover, I mean, can anyone deny that the Passover is just a crystal clear picture of the gospel?

And we know that Jews, religious Jews still celebrate

Passover to this day, don't they? And we believe the Bible.

Do we celebrate Passover? Why is that? Yeah, we're under a different covenant.

So Jews, because they don't believe in Jesus, religious Jews, they don't believe in Christ.

So they're still celebrating the Passover. But as Christians, we celebrate what? Good Friday.

Well, I'm thinking of the Lord's Supper, right? Right. So it was on that final

Passover before Jesus died on the cross that he changed the

Passover into communion. So we celebrate, Jews celebrate Passover, Christians, obviously, we celebrate communion.

More on that in just a moment. But now in Numbers chapter 9, verse 6, we see that there were some

Israelites who were not able to celebrate the Passover. Why was that? Right.

They had been defiled by a corpse. Do they want to celebrate the

Passover? Yes. So there's this predicament now on their hands, and they want to know what should we do?

So this is a commandment to celebrate the Passover. But it's also a commandment that you can't do it if you've been defiled.

So now they have this problem. The past couple weeks, what did we say? Chapters, was it 5 through 9, 5 through 10, was all about the purification of the camp.

Right. So to celebrate the Passover, you had to be pure. So now there's a problem and it needs to be solved because otherwise, if they don't celebrate the

Passover, you're to be cut off from the people. So that's the problem.

The Lord gives a solution. Look at verses 9 through 13. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel saying, if any one of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse or as far away on a journey, he may still keep the

Lord's Passover on the 14th day of what? Right.

The second month. So Passover is on the first, but if you can't do it 14th day of the second month at twilight, they may keep it and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs and they shall leave none of it until morning nor break one of its bones according to all the ordinances of the

Passover. They shall keep it. You can read through the Old Testament. There's all these details and you feel, you know, why do all the details matter?

Well, first of all, this idea of not breaking any of its bones, this passage of numbers is referenced in John chapter 19, verse 36, which says, speaking of Jesus dying on the cross for these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, that not one of his bones shall be broken.

If you remember when Jesus and the two thieves on the cross were hanging there, the

Roman soldiers to kind of speed it along, they went through and broke the legs of the two thieves and they were going to break

Jesus's legs, but he had already given up the ghost. So that fulfills the scripture that none of his bones would be broken.

So again, the lamb is Christ. Christ is the Passover lamb. You had a hand up.

Well, you mentioned that I was going to mention it too, but they saw he was dead, but they thrust the spear into his side and blood and water came out, which is what happens at death is that the blood and water separate.

Yep. So that's the first thing. The second thing, as far as these men who, because of their defilement, could not keep the

Passover, we see that the Lord makes accommodations for them.

So if somebody is hindered from fulfilling their duty to God, God makes accommodations.

So if somebody wants to obey God, they legitimately cannot. I think God understands that.

What about someone who just doesn't fulfill their duty? Just just because they just don't.

Well, God doesn't understand that that's a little different. Look at verse 13 says, but the man who is clean and is not on a journey and ceases to keep the

Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people because he did not bring the offering of the

Lord at its appointed time. That man shall bear his sin.

So that's a very serious thing. Now, we know as I've already said, but you know, this there is a connection between the

Passover and the Lord's supper. So if an Israelite were to just disregard the

Passover or treat it like a common thing, they'd be cut off.

Okay. Is there any spiritual application? Well, you know the answer to this.

Yes, there is spiritual application. But what would be the spiritual application for us today?

I think I think it's safe to say that a lot of modern evangelicals view the

Lord's supper as something that's well, I've heard somebody say this with well, you know, it's just symbolic as if it's not that important.

Well, if you think about it, the Passover was symbolic to that doesn't mean it's not important.

So I know of one church that in order to be a member of in good standing, you have to celebrate or observe the

Lord's supper at least once a year. So if you want to be a member in good standing, you have to do it at least once a year, you know, my thought on that was well, it's kind of sad that you have to make rules like that.

The Christians should want to celebrate the Lord's supper. On the other hand, I think

I understand their reasoning because Jesus said do this in remembrance of me and you cannot interpret do this as do not do this or you can't interpret do this as well do this if you feel like it.

So the Passover was a commandment. It was taken very seriously. Does the

New Testament speak about the Lord's Supper seriously? What's the primary passage that goes in depth right on the

Lord's Supper? It's 1st Corinthians chapter 11 every time we do or observe the

Lord's Supper. I always turn to 1st Corinthians 11. And if you read that most of you know it we see that the

Apostle Paul treats the Lord's Supper very seriously, doesn't he?

And he goes on to talk about how that there were some in the Church of Corinth that were not taking it seriously.

He says they're not discerning the Lord's body. And do you remember what what happened as the result of that Paul said many of you are sick because of that in some sleep that is some have died.

You might even say some have been cut off and the sermon

I did back in December titled the communion of the body of Christ.

I said that the word communion in Greek koinonia, it can be translated as fellowship.

So communion is fellowship. It's a time we're gathered together and it's fellowship with God and fellowship with the people of God.

So when we observe the Lord's Supper, we all gather together. I believe that's the way it is to be done.

We all gather together as a church in unity and we partake that.

Did you have you had something? Yeah, it's sort of a cup or we want you to burn. No, a couple of things.

I noticed it looked like the first Passover was two years after the second one was two years after the first one.

You mentioned that, you know, it should be it should be observed and and like baptism.

I mean, it has also been said that, you know, these are the two sort of Protestant sacraments baptism by immersion and communion.

But baptism by immersion is a once in a lifetime. And you've already said once a year and different churches.

I know a church that does it every week, right? We do it every month every other month.

Every other month. Yeah, and we prefer the term ordinance, right? Because that's something that Christ ordained the term sacrament has the idea that grace is communicated or imparted through the eating of the bread.

So we we typically use the term ordinance. But Barb, did you have your hand up? Yeah. Okay. My notes here say that cut off can mean one of three things.

It could mean dying suddenly as a divine judgment. In other words,

God just killed you or being executed or being separated from the rest of the community.

Reference back to the same word is used in Exodus. Well, 15 about 11 bread on the seventh day.

That person shall be cut off from Israel. Right? And again, that cut off can mean one of two things, right?

So you don't want to be cut off. It's either God striking you dead or being put to death or excommunicated or shunned essentially.

So yeah, I believe that the Lord's Supper is a time where we all gather together and partake as as an assembly.

So this is a privilege and a duty and I think to neglect the

Lord's Supper speaks volumes to be fair. I think there are a lot of modern churchgoers who were never really taught properly or instructed properly that yes, this really is very very important.

That's why weekly instruction of the word of God is important that you get the sermon on Sunday and then

Wednesday night. If you only get maybe one sermon a month, you know, you miss things like this.

So we need to be taught. I know when I was younger. I kind of had that more Cavalier attitude about the

Lord's Supper. It just didn't really seem like I knew kind of Catholics. This was my impression is that Catholics took it very seriously

Protestants and Baptists and evangelicals. Not as much.

Well, it should be taken. It should be taken seriously. So that's why we need that instruction any yes.

I think to the radio this afternoon and Dennis was giving reference about I think with Dennis about Jesus had said to the leaders in Israel.

So you don't believe in me then Moses and I'm kind of paraphrasing all this

Moses spoke with me all the time and I raised a question in my mind. What did most when did

Moses talk about Jesus and it just occurred to me that it may be when

Moses was given what to do about all these sacrifices and everything and if we understand those sacrifices to be related to Jesus Christ, is that what

Jesus was referring to when he said Moses spoke of me?

Why don't we ask him? He's sitting right here and I was him because I heard that part of the program. It was

I was quoting John chapter 5 and it's in it's near the conclusion of that chapter that Jesus in his rebuking of the

Pharisees referred to Moses and speaking of himself.

I what comes to my mind is the prophecy of the prophet, right?

Is it 13 and 18 of Deuteronomy? I think it's 18 where it says when that prophet comes greater than him than Moses.

That's always what comes to mind. If I think about Moses speaking directly about Christ when when he referred to that one day a prophet greater than him was going to come.

So there may not have been a time when he realized that all these sacrifices and all the things they were doing even for Passover had a future

Redeemer that he wasn't speaking about Christ until that Deuteronomy reference or was it?

I mean, it's just a question that came into my mind because I couldn't pinpoint. Well all of this speaks of Christ, right?

So but he did specifically give a statement about a specific prophet who will rise up amongst your brethren.

Yeah, so the Passover is to be celebrated how often once a year, right?

That's the command celebrate Passover once a year. So some churches as you know celebrate the

Lord's Supper once a week once a month for Sunday of the month is very common.

We do it every other month. Some churches. Yeah, they do it quarterly.

There are some churches. I suppose I'm not aware of any but I'm sure there are that do it once once a year.

I would say that once a year would be the bear the bare minimum. So speaking to those who come out on a

Wednesday night, I realized to some extent. I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

But to somebody who's maybe watching online after after tonight, the

Lord's Supper is very very important. We want to stress that. So if in Israelite willfully, here's my point.

If Israelite willfully neglected the Passover, they would be cut off. If there was some legitimate reason why a person could not fulfill their duty

God again made provisions. One last comment on this in the church.

I believe we should celebrate the Lord's Supper. How often again?

There's no I mean at least once a year, but we should do it all together as as an assembly, but if somebody legitimately cannot let's say somebody sick their bedridden there in the hospital.

I think that's a good time where you know me and one of the deacons can go and you know, we're two or three are gathered together.

Amen. Sure. So these are important subjects in the scripture

Passover in the Old Testament Lord's Supper in the New Testament. Yes.

How about baptism? Also, can there be other?

Somebody that's very elderly or excuses or sure.

I where a person wanted to observe it or but was really unable to get into the water or be submerged or whatever.

Of course, we believe in baptism by immersion. That's what the term baptized means to dip or to submerge.

So if it's at all possible, it should be done by, you know, a church leader.

It should be done by immersion and if somebody legitimately cannot do like that's just not possible then accommodations.

I think could be made in that case. But if it's possible, then it's it's immersion for sure.

Yes. They had their

Lord's Supper four times a year. And they would have it on Wednesday night because the idea was that those that are going to come on Wednesday night for that Lord's Supper are very interested in a realize the importance of it because if you just have it in General Assembly on Sundays, some people will do it just because right.

I don't want to stand out. Yeah, I understand that any final comments about Passover Lord's Supper connection.

Dennis. Yeah, just again a comment with the baptism Tracy reminded me of a woman over in Ireland who had

MS and to bring her out into the ocean like I did with most was impossible right because her body simply would not accept that we were fortunate that a local hotel with a pool was willing to let us use it.

So the water was warm and and you know, we have to battle the elements or whatever.

So it was still challenging to her. Yeah, but it was great for God to just work out a way to make it possible.

Yeah, it's great memory. Great. Yeah, Marcus. I could be accused of splitting the end is about someone on their death bed that said, well,

I trusted in the Lord and really before I go to meet him, I really would like to be baptized. What would you do?

Just use as much water on as possible. Well, I don't know. I don't know what

I would do. I guess it would depend on the circumstances, but maybe I'm not sure.

I would try to immerse them if possible. If not again accommodations can be made but God sees the intention of the heart like I believe any saved person needs to be baptized not to be saved, but you know it

I believe in Christ. I'm a follower of Christ. Well, the first thing Jesus says to do is to be baptized.

You do have made that clear, right? Right, but it's the scenario. If somebody gets saved and they're driving, you know on their way to their baptism and something happens like even the

Catholic Church that does believe you need to be baptized to be saved like even they recognize well,

God sees your intention of going so okay, any final comments on this?

All right. Now we're moving on to the pillar of cloud. This is discussed in verses 15 through 23.

Look at Exodus 9 15. It says now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up the cloud covered the tabernacle and the tent of the testimony from evening until morning.

It was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always the or so it was always the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle after that the children of Israel would

Journey and in the place where the cloud settled there the children of Israel would pitch their tents as I always do.

It seems every Wednesday a quote from Matthew Henry. He says this about this section.

The cloud was appointed to be the visible sign and symbol of God's presence with Israel.

Thus we are taught to see God always near us both night and day as long as the cloud rested on the tabernacle.

They continued in the same place and I like this. There is no time lost while we are waiting on God's time.

So for us, what does the cloud represent? So we talked about this the lamb represents

Christ all these things represent Christ the cloud though represents the

Holy Spirit right the Okay, let's let's prove that Second Chronicles.

You can just make a note of this Second Chronicles 5 13 and 14. It says the house of the

Lord was filled with the cloud so that the priest could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the

Lord build the house of God. We've already established that in the

New Testament. The church is the house of God. That's first Timothy 3 15.

And of course the church is not a building. The church is what the people therefore it is your body.

That is the temple of the Holy Spirit first Corinthians 3 16 lot of great verses that are 316.

Have you ever noticed that one of these days? I want to preach a sermon about all the 316 verses.

Yeah, well in that case then just just just just kidding sort of not really first Corinthians 3 16.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you?

So the Holy Ghost fills the New Testament Temple just like the cloud filled the

Old Testament Temple and tabernacle. So the Israelites were camped in the wilderness and as long as the cloud stayed put they stayed put right as soon as the cloud went up and moved then they would journey.

So what's the application for us? I think it's that today the church we are guided by the

Holy Spirit. So we have two things two things basically the word of God and the spirit of God, right?

The Israelites had an early form of this as well. They have the word of God. They didn't have a leather bound book obviously, but they have the word of God because God spoke through Moses.

So they have the word of God and they have the leading of the Holy Spirit so to speak with the cloud.

So for them it was pretty straightforward whatever Moses said or whatever God said through him and they have this cloud pillar of cloud by day pillar of fire by night that they could see they could see it.

So when it moved they moved it was all very very simple, right? What about us?

We have the word of God everyone has their own copy. We can read it.

Hopefully we're understanding it but the Holy Spirit we don't have a visible cloud to follow.

So how do we follow the leading of the spirit? That's what I want to talk about next

Marcus. I'm not sure if this speaks to that or not except that the seems like the New Testament one where it says do you not know that your body is a temple of the

Holy Spirit whom you have from God and you are not your own for you were bought at a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are

God's it gives us a little more instruction on the meaning of his indwelling.

Okay, Jim. Jesus was ready to go to the cross.

He told his disciples to say well, why do you have to leave us? Why do you have to go? He said well if I don't go then the

Holy Spirit the Comforter won't come and the Comforter will teach you in all things.

So that's what Scripture does. It teaches us through the Holy Spirit what

God has to say. Okay. All right. So we want to talk about the leading of the Holy Spirit.

How do we follow and how do we know about how do we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit? A few things if you go online and listen to sermons about the leading of the

Holy Spirit, if you listen to 10 sermons, you're probably going to get 11 different explanations of what that means and how to do it.

I was listening to one Pentecostal preacher on the radio and she said that the leading of the

Holy Spirit in the New Testament the way the spirit works is you just follow your heart.

Being led by the spirit means you follow your heart. Well, this might surprise you.

Well, well, hold on. Hold on. Leading of the spirit follow your heart.

It might surprise you actually think there is some legitimacy to that advice in that believers have been given a new heart.

Psalm 37 verse 4 says delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart.

It is God who puts the desires in there. However, on the other hand, the

Bible does say the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it Jeremiah 17 verse 9.

So you have both both statements. So we have the new nature the new heart that can follow your heart, but then that old nature.

This is why going back a month or so the two natures of the believer. That's why we need to know that so there's still that old nature that's there.

We're following your heart can get you into a lot of trouble. So the first thing might surprise you.

This isn't going to surprise you when I say we always have to go back to the word of God. We always have to test it through the word.

So the the cloud above the tabernacle. Yes, the Israelites could see it. It was either stationary and they remained there or it would move and they would move but they really didn't know that unless they had the word of God to instruct them.

Okay, we can see this cloud. It's staying here or there's the cloud we can see it. It's moving.

They didn't know what that meant except that the word of God instructed them. Here's what you do, right?

So they still had to go back to the word of God. So follow your heart have a new heart and I can be led by test it against the

Bible and make sure so we always have to go back to God's word. I mean, this is kind of basic if you don't know that any any comments so far the leading of the

Holy Spirit. This is a kind of a difficult subject in some ways Marcus. Well, just that first delight yourself in the

Lord. That's that's where you start. If you're delighting yourself in the

Lord. Well, then your heart is going to be in the right place. So let me just give you my thoughts on the leading of the

Holy Spirit Christians might wonder should I take this job or should

I take this job? Should I marry this person or should

I marry that person? Should I move to this city or you know, what should I do? God is not going to give you specifics.

God is not going to speak from heaven and say Mary Jamie, you know, that's not what he's going to do.

There's no Bible verse thou shalt move to Baltimore speaking directly to you. That's not going to happen.

So, how do you know? Well, you look to principles in God's word first. We already said that and then like the

Israelites we act or move when we see

God moving. What do I mean by that? This is my understanding of it.

I believe God leads us in his will when we are confronted with situations that are beyond our control.

If they were situations within our control, we wouldn't know if it's God opening the door or me opening the door.

So we need to follow what God is doing and we need to watch and we need to do a lot of waiting, right?

How what's the longest period of time that the Israelites stayed camped? I don't know but there were some times where they were there a long time.

They had to wait on God. Sometimes you always think well, I need to be doing some I need to be doing something.

Well sure, but sometimes you need to wait on the Lord. So we have to be active and faithful with what

God has entrusted to us, but we need to be patiently waiting for God to open up that door.

If that seems too subjective, I would say this as long as there is no clear command in Scripture.

If you're delighting yourself in the Lord, you can do what you want. I might not sound spiritual to you, but if there's no clear command in the

Scripture one way or the other you can do what you want to do what you feel is best what seems wise and God seems to be doing this.

And yes, that's what that's what I'm going to do. Obviously pray about it. Consider what is wise what is best.

Ultimately the Lord has to give us peace in our spirit about it that one other thing that I have learned in my life is to seek spiritual counsel from fellow believers, right?

People that you know that are have a right relationship with God when I took the pastorship in Heath.

I didn't know if I wanted to be a pastor. I'm not sure. I was certainly not sure I wanted to be one in Heath.

That's out in the boondocks. Pastor Riddle encouraged me.

James Lake from the Gideons encouraged me. Yep, and a few other born -again

Christians who are in fellowship encouraged me and I went so I make sure that you you talk to fellow

Christians. Yes. Yes. Thank you.

That is very good advice. Seek godly counsel. Okay in conclusion, the Israelites were to follow

God's leading and so are we the chapter ends in verse 23. It says in the command of the

Lord or at the command of the Lord. They remained in camp and at the command of the

Lord. They journeyed they kept the charge of the Lord the command of the Lord by the hand of Moses.