Victory of the Resurrection (03/27/2005)

The Victory of the Resurrection and the Meaning of Passover

I want to speak to you this morning about the victory of the resurrection. Let me review just a little bit because we've been talking about this or building up to this for the last couple of Sundays. We talked a little bit a couple of Sundays ago.

You can check any encyclopedia in the world and look up the word Easter, you'll find out that Easter is not really what we ought to be talking about. What we ought to be talking about is the resurrection and the Passover.

Those are the biblical holidays that we're really involved in. The word Easter actually is from the goddess Astarte. You don't really pronounce the te, so it's Aster, which came to be Easter, a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility.

That's where the bunny comes from, that's where the eggs come from, that's not Christian. So we don't talk about that here. What we do talk about is the Passover. The one place where you do find the word Easter in the King James Version is a mistranslation.

In the Greek, it's the word Passover. You can look that up easily with the Strong's Concordance, the word Easter is not found in the Bible. It is, in fact, a pagan holiday. So we don't want to talk about that.

What we do want to talk about is the Passover as given by God in the Old Testament as a type and beautiful picture of what would happen when Jesus Christ came and became our true Passover. I want to give you a couple of verses in the New Testament that tell us what the Old Testament is all about for us.

First Corinthians 10 -11, now all these things happen unto them for end samples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. The word end sample means like a type or a physical example of a spiritual truth.

So as we study the Old Testament, we can find the details and the colors of the magnificent doctrines of the New Testament. So when you find a doctrine in the New Testament, you can usually go to the Old Testament and find the colors and the details found in the stories that are told in the Old Testament.

The historical examples were examples in real history with real people, physical examples that teach us the spiritual truths. Romans 15 -4 says the same thing, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

The Passover Lamb as a Type of Christ

So as we went into the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 11 and chapter 12, last time we talked about the Passover, and I'm not going to go into those again this morning, I'm just reviewing. I'm going to tell you what we learned, let me just give you the points that we discovered in those scriptures.

You can be turning to Exodus chapter 12, I may read a couple of verses from there, but I'm not going to reread the ones we did last time. But first, we noted that the lamb stayed in the house of the family from the 10th day of April, of our April, until the 14th day.

So the children began to consider the lamb as a pet, and I'm sure the adults did as well. And so the little lamb became part of the family. It was a pet. It was many times actually brought into the home, into the house, and everyone observed his innocence, his joy of life, and his special love for the children, etc.

And then we learned from that passage that this lamb had to be without blemish, he had to be a male. This picture is that this would be a male who would have no sin, have a pure, innocent, holy life. It is obviously a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect lamb.

And then we talked about the fact that as the men of the household killed the lamb, they realized some things. They realized first of all, as their own hand cut the throat of this lamb, that it was their sin which caused the lamb to die.

It was their hand by which the lamb dies. It pictured to them that it is our sins that caused Jesus Christ to go to the cross. Secondly, it died at their hands by the command of the Father. They realized that it was God the Father who ordered this to be done in the homes, which gave this grand picture.

And then they watched its blood pour from the veins of its neck, and the life that was so precious slowly and surely passed from the innocent lamb. They noticed that the lamb did not resist death, by the way, it's probably the, well, I would say it is the only animal in the animal kingdom that God created that will not resist death.

It will just lie down, you can cut its throat, it won't even kick. They captured the blood in a bowl as they hung the lamb, perhaps on a tree, to bleed it properly, and they captured all of the blood in a bowl.

This picture is the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to move into some area that we didn't cover yet. The next thing in this passage, and this would be in Exodus chapter 12, around verses seven and eight, if you're following along.

We're actually going to start this morning's message with verse 13. But the blood was applied to the lentil in the doorpost of the home with a hyssop weed. A hyssop weed, which was a common weed in that area, was dipped into this blood and then placed, the blood was then sprinkled upon the door with this hyssop weed, and I believe the hyssop weed is a symbol of faith.

The blood of Jesus was given, but it must be applied to the individual life with the hyssop weed of faith. Each person must receive the Lord Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior in order to apply the work of that blood to that individual life, the wealth of that blood, the completed work of that blood.

It can only be applied by faith. Then they went on and they ate the flesh along with unleavened bread, and the unleavened bread pictures it as without sin. Leaven in the Bible is a picture of sin. We see in Luke 22, 19, in John 6, 35, the passages of the Lord's Supper where the bread pictured his body, which was broken for us and given for us, and the wine pictured his blood, which was shed for us.

Then in verses 9 and 10 of Exodus chapter 12, it shows that they took the head and the legs of this animal and the rest of the material that was not used, and any of it that was left remaining in the morning should be burned with fire.

Nothing of it was left by the time they were done. This picture is the fact that Jesus was wholly given for us. His whole body, soul, and spirit was given as a sacrifice for our sins. Matthew 13, 46, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

That's what the Father did for us. He gave his only son. Well, I want you to look at Exodus chapter 12, verse 13. That brings us to the place, well, I'll tell you what, let's go up to verse 11. I don't want to skip that.

Go up to verse 11 and look at it, Exodus 12, 11. And thus shall you eat it, and I was talking about the Passover after they killed the little animal and they placed the blood in the appropriate place.

They then consumed it, but it says, thus shall you eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. Do you know what this picture is?

This picture is that the people of God were ready to leave Egypt, which is a picture of the world system in the evil sense of that. They were ready to leave the world system and to sojourn through the wilderness, which is a picture of the trials that we go through in this life, and to end up in the promised land.

The Christian life is a life of movement and growth, not stagnation and complacency. Now let's go to verse 12. Verse 12 says, for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both men and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment.

I am the Lord, and the blood shall be to you for 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 smite the land of Egypt.

And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by ordinance forever and ever. We find that all who do not come under the blood are destroyed.

This is the picture that is given. Now, we see some things which must be remembered about this passage. I'd like to go into chapter 13 now in verse 1, and there are some things that present us with some beautiful pictures and important points that we ought to learn for our own families.

And if there's anything we should accomplish at Easter time, it is these things. And a lot of this is for the children. So let's take a look at this. Let's pick it up at Exodus chapter 13, verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctifying to me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast, it is mine.

And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. There shall no leavened bread be eaten.

Leaven, a picture of sin again. But we see that the first aspect of this is it is a memorial that should remind us of the freedom from bondage that we have. Freedom from bondage to whom? To the world system in the evil sense of that, to the flesh in the evil sense of that, and to the devil himself.

Freedom from this bondage. You know, Egypt was a picture of the world. Pharaoh was a picture of Satan himself. And so as they took this Passover, they had their shoes, their sandals on their feet, their staff in their hand, and they were ready to move.

They were moving out away from the world. God was sanctifying them out of the world and separating them from the world unto himself as a special and peculiar people. That is a picture of you and of me.

As a Christian, God has already brought us out of the world and set us before himself. That is the act of sanctification. That's positional. You can't change it. But there is a sanctification that's taught in the Bible and many other scriptures that we call experiential.

And that's what the Holy Spirit does in our lives day by day. It's as if we are sanctified in the Father's view. But in space and time, it's an ongoing process where we're being set apart from the world unto God, and the Holy Spirit is the agent of that in our lives.

It's a very important work, and much of the church has missed that in these last days because we're part of the Laodicean church age, the lukewarm church age. Most churches today are more interested in Easter eggs and bunnies than they are in the precious blood of Jesus Christ and the biblical Passover that it's all about.

Most churches today are more interested in preaching about success in business, success in the home, than about God Almighty. I say if you teach your people to know God Almighty, the rest will fall in place, for it's all about relationship.

It's not about religion, it's about relationship. How much time did you spend with the Savior last week in reality, walking with Him, speaking with Him? That's the question. So this is a memorial of the bondage that we were in before our salvation.

We're not supposed to dwell on it, but we're supposed to think about it enough to be grateful and thankful that God has set us apart from that. So notice in Exodus 13, verse 1, that it is by the strong hand of the Lord that we were brought forth from this place.

It was not of ourselves. It was not of our own character building. It was by God's strong arm, and it is the only way that it would have ever been set free from this particular enemy, which pictures the spiritual enemies that we have.

It is a memorial, and they are to do it with unleavened bread, and they are to remember this day in which they came out from Egypt. This time of year, that's what we ought to be thinking about more than anything else.

Romans chapter 6, verse 4, this victory is spoken of. If you'd flip over to that just a minute, Romans chapter 6, verse 4, a memorial of the freedom that we have from this bondage. I want you to see the New Testament freedom that we have from this bondage, and it could only come by the death of the Savior and the fact that you were baptized into him.

So in God's mind, you were in him, and your sins were in his body while he was on the tree. Thus he died for your sins and for mine. Therefore we, this is Romans 6, verse 4, therefore we are buried with him in baptism unto death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

This is like walking right out of Egypt. We should be walking in a new way, walking in a new life, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, if we have died in him, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

That's what this day is all about. We're celebrating the power of the resurrection. The Bible says that the same power of God that raised him from the dead quickened you the day you got saved. You have resurrection power in your lives today, ladies and gentlemen, and so woe be unto us if we live a mundane, dead life.

Woe be unto us if we forget the setting free from the bondage that God has already taken us through if we're saved today. We need to remember it. This is a memorial, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed.

Listen, there's no better picture of the destruction of this body of sin than that Egyptian army as it goes through on dry ground behind, chasing after God's people, and God goes like this and the waters crash in upon them and destroy the entire mightiest army of the world.

It would be like if the United States Army were entirely destroyed in one hand of God at one moment. What would that be like to the rest of the world? That's what God did when he freed the children of Israel.

In one movement of his hand, he drowned the Egyptian army. This is a picture of what the truth is in our lives. Satan has no grasp on you. He can only lie to you and make you think he does. You are dead to him.

It's as if he and the world and the flesh were drowned and destroyed at the same moment God took you through and saved you. The same thing that saved you destroyed that. Now, I won't say destroyed in the sense that the enemy is not real and alive today, but I'm saying positionally, spiritually, you can be dead to that.

And that's what the scripture means when it says, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Have you been crucified in Christ? If you're saved today, the answer is yes. If you are crucified, if you're standing, is crucified, you're dead to the lusts of this world.

How do we apply that? By being filled with the spirit. And that's something that goes on and off many times during the day. The whole thing is for the mature Christian as he matures and knows God and loves God more and more every day that he stay filled with the spirit for more, a greater part of the day, because as we are filled with the spirit, our spirit and the Holy Spirit become one within us and we will not sin during those times.

We have complete freedom from sin, knowing this, that our old man is crucified. All we do is we count that to be true. It is true. How's our belief level at a certain given point in the day? It is true.

The body of sin is destroyed that henceforth we would not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin. All of this is pictured. It is the memorial Easter. And I don't like to use the word Easter, but you know what I mean.

We're used to it. This Passover time of the year is a time of year to think about and remember the freedom from sin that we have because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Now, back to Exodus chapter 13, verse four.

This day came out in the month of Abib, which is approximately our April. And by the way, the true resurrection Sunday is some five days after April the 24th. It's not today. It's it's got to be after the Passover.

You can look on your calendar. It'll tell you when the Jewish Passover is. I think it's the 24th. Is that right? We looked it up, but I didn't jot it down. So I might be off. But it's somewhere around that time.

So if you go out to April 24th and you give another day for the trial to take place and the crucifixion to take place and then three nights and three days, you will arrive at when the real resurrection day was.

It probably won't hit on a Sunday now, but it was Sunday when it happened. And therefore, Sunday being the first day of the week is now called the Lord's Day, the resurrection Sunday. So it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which he swear unto thy fathers to give thee a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shall keep this service in this month.

They were told to keep the Passover every year in the same month as a what memorial of the being set free from the world, the flesh and the devil. This memorial is extremely important when you're in the land of milk and honey.

That picture is prosperity. When things are going great for us is where we need to really remember that God has brought us out of bondage. When we're in suffering, it's easier to remember and to be close to the Lord.

But when things are going great, like things seem to be in the United States of America today, that's the very time we need this memorial the most to remind us there is an enemy and that enemy still roams to and fro, seeking whom he may devour.

But we have been set free from him by the cross. Verse six, seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Now, after the Passover was the feast of the unleavened bread, it lasted seven days.

They would take the mothers would take yeast, which is leaven, which is a picture of sin, and they would hide it in the house and they'd make it big enough where it was kind of obvious, depending on how young the children were.

And then the father would tell the Jewish children to go throughout the house and find all of the yeast or the leaven and to get it out of the house. So the children would go around. It was a little fun thing.

It's better than an Easter egg hunt. If you want to replace that, replace it with a leaven hunt. And moms, you can put that all through the house and hide it and the children go around and find it and they take it outside, sweep out the house.

It's a picture of removing sin from the home. And so the leaven shall be eaten seven days, there shall be I mean, sorry, the unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. There should be no leavened bread be seen within thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee and all thy quarters and thou shalt show thy son in that day.

Now, listen to this part. You'll show your children in that day saying this is done because of that which the Lord did to me, the adult, when I came forth out of Egypt. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand and for a memorial between thine eyes.

Now, look at the pictures here that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. Therefore, thou shalt keep his ordinance in his season from year to year.

And it shall be when thy son asketh thee, I'm in verse 14 now, I'm skipping down to verse 14, and it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come in the future saying, what is this? What is this Passover all about?

What is this Easter time of year all about that you should say to him? Well, the Easter bunny brings eggs. No, that's pagan. Here's what you should say to him. By strength, the hand of the Lord brought us out of the world, saved us from the devil and removed the power of the flesh from the house of bondage.

And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, the children now on the frontlets between your eyes that they might remember these things and for the fact that the strength of the hand of the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt, the world system in the evil sense of that word.

So the third point about this is that it is a memorial for the children, for the next generation to cause the children to have between the frontlets in the front of their mind, right between their eyes, the remembrance of why mom and dad are different than they used to be before they were saved.

Why this home is a Christian home, a wholesome Christian home with Jesus Christ at the center of it with love and kindness, not the siblings fighting one another, hollering at each other. That should be struck down with a strong arm by the parents whenever it happens.

Because there should be peace in a true Christian home and kindness between the siblings and they ask, well, why has it got to be this way? Bring them back to the Passover, explain to them because mom and dad had been brought through out of bondage to Satan and the world and the flesh and the devil, and we've been set free and we're different now.

We have a different Lord and Jesus Christ is our Lord and he has freed us from every lower Lord that ever existed in our lives, whether it be booze, whether it be cigarettes, whether it was cussing, whether it was eating too much, whether it was this, that or the other.

He has set us free from every other Lord. And we're now free to serve the Lord and the children need to be taught this, that's what it's all about, one of the great things it's all about. Now, let's go back to verse 11.

And we'll see the next thing that it's about, and it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to thee and the fathers and so forth, that thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the matrix and every firstling that comes from the beast and the males of the human beings will belong to the Lord.

So the firstborn are going to be set apart, are sanctified, the firstborn of your children and even of the animals. If it was an agricultural world, the very firstborn, those are going to be set aside as a sacrifice unto the Lord and the firstborn of your own children will be set aside and sanctified.

And it says every firstling of the ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and if thou will not redeem it, then you break its neck. If you're not willing to give it to the Lord, you kill it. And all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

And that would be with with an offering of an innocent lamb and so forth. And it came to pass when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast.

Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males, but all the firstborn of my children I redeem. And all of this is taught to the little children. How the death angel came through and destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians because they weren't covered by the blood, the precious blood of the lamb that pictured the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is only efficient if it's applied by the hyssop weed of faith. All of those upon whom that blood does not come by faith shall be destroyed. And all of this is taught to the children. Isn't this a wonderful time of the year to go over the salvation plan with our children and to show it in the context of the Jewish Passover and the setting free from Egypt?

And they can picture this in a physical way. These Egyptians holding them bondage, making them slaves and God with his strong right arm, setting them free a great memorial for the next generation. But this also pictures the redemption of the firstborn.

God gave his firstborn so that ours might be saved. Isn't that beautiful? Hebrews chapter two, verse nine. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man, for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings for both he that sanctified and they that are sanctified are all one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

The Wilderness, Suffering, and God’s Guidance

So we have the redemption of the firstborn pictured here, which is picturing the application of the blood of Jesus by faith to our homes, specifically to the individuals in that home. Now, let's go to verse 17.

And it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. In other words, that was the easy way. For God said, lest peradventure the people repent or change their mind when they see war and they run back to Egypt.

Now, think of how Jehovah God now, you may not know this, but Jehovah God in the Old Testament is the eternal son, which is the same one who was incarnate in the manger and became Jesus Christ. And Jehovah God is saying here, I am not going to send them the easy way because if I do the first time they face war, they're going to run back into bondage.

Isn't that interesting? Not going to send them the easy way. But God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up, harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

You know what that teaches us? Wilderness is necessary. The wilderness pictures suffering. Suffering in our lives is a key part of the sanctification process. It is that which as we go away from God, it brings us back to him.

It's sad that we're that way, but that is our nature. And as things get prosperous and everything's wonderful, we get out here and we're kind of flying on our own. And all of a sudden, we are not thinking of our Lord, we're not talking with him as much as we usually do.

And the suffering comes, the tribulation, and it brings us right back to him. This is the hard way. This is the way that he took them through into the promised land. Philippians 129 says, For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

Many verses in the New Testament deal with the fact that we come to the kingdom of God through suffering. First Peter 314, First Peter 419, Revelation 210, Second Timothy 312, on and on, many passages.

Now let's go to verse 19. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For he had straightly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you. Ye shall carry up my bones away from here.

Joseph, some 400 years earlier, had prophesied that this event would take place. And he said, When it does take my bones with you, I don't want to be left in the world. I don't even want my body to be left in Egypt.

Take it with you. And they did. So this becomes fulfilled prophecy. Now let's pick it up in verse 20. And they took their journey from Sukkoth and encamped in Etham in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night.

He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of the fire by night from before the people. This shows that there is promised protection and direction for God's people. This pillar of cloud by day and fire by night served two purposes.

One was it kept back the Egyptian army until the Red Sea would be open. It kept them back. The fear of God kept them away from God's people until the Red Sea would be open before them. They were trapped between the mightiest army in the world and an ocean or a sea.

They couldn't go anywhere. All they could do is stand by faith and their faith was wavering as ours might be. But even in that state, God, as a pillar of fire by night, kept the Egyptian army away from them that night.

But also as a pillar of cloud by day, God led in front of the people of Israel and showed them where to go. He showed them all the way through the wilderness where to go next. When that pillar of cloud would come up from the wilderness tabernacle and move, the people of Israel would take their tents up and follow God.

When it would stop, they would pitch their tents and stay for a while. And so this picture is the protection of God and the direction into the will of God. That is a promise that we have that. Now, I'll tell you what, the pillar of cloud did not move a week ahead of time so they could see where they're going to go next week.

It stayed right there and when it got up and moved, they got their tents and they moved that day. You know one step at a time, but you do know God's will for your lives. Because you have the same Lord that set you free is the one that you follow.

Perilous Times, Sound Doctrine, and the Need for Faithful Teaching

Second Timothy three tells us about the last days. It says in these last days, perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents.

Have you ever seen a generation that fit that more than today's? Now they're giving diagnostic names to the children's disobedience. That's never happened before. Who in here that's over 50 years old remembers them diagnosing disobedience, giving it a clinical name?

You know what they call it? A whooping, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents is a sign of the end times. Can you believe that? Unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, you mean the rise of homosexuality is a sign of the end times.

Truce breakers, you mean in business nowadays, a handshake is not enough. Now, if Mr. Brown could hear me clearly back there, I bet he could remember a day when you could shake a hand and do a deal. My great grandfather went to the First National Bank of Dallas, shook the president's hand and was given money to start an oil company in Mahea with no paper signed.

But you know what? That's not going to happen now because we're truce breakers. We have that mindset in the world. False accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. The people that would follow Clinton would hate, would hate you because you're good and wholesome.

They hate that. You know why they hate Bush? Because he's been in the Bible a little bit, just a little. He's not a scholar. You can see that by the things he does. He's not a scholar of the Bible, but he's been in it a little bit and they hate it.

Hater, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God. Where is everybody today on Easter Sunday? How did they would be at the lake? But God brought winter, didn't he?

Having a form of godliness. But denying the power thereof from such turn away. Verse 12 says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.