Life of Moses: Salvation Through the Passover Lamb

Peter Barnes: Exodus 12

(10 February 2019)

SERMON NOTES: SALVATION THROUGH THE PASSOVER LAMB (Exodus 12)

  • 1 Cor.5:7; John 1:29. Calvin: ‘For what could be more childish than to offer the blood of an animal as a protection against the hand of God, or to seek from thence a ground of safety?’ Exodus 12 is shadow which points to the gospel.

1. Saved by the blood of the Lamb.

  • this chapter describes the first Passover, and also the command to remember it annually.
  • Matt.26:17-19. See Ex.12:1-13, elaborated in 12:21-28, 29-32.
  • John 19:36. Christ is the Shepherd who is also the Lamb. The message to the Israelites in Egypt is: ‘I will bring death to every household which is not protected by the blood of the Passover lamb. I will strike down the Egyptian gods, including the god-Pharaoh and his animals, but My wrath will be satisfied by the blood of the lamb.’

The difference between me and the unbeliever next door is the blood of the Lamb.

2. How to receive that salvation.

  • 12:37. Allan Harman and John Currid both point out that the text does not actually say ‘besides women’, only children. In any case, something like two million slaves left Egypt.
  • 12:11. Christians are pilgrims – Luke 12:35; 1 Peter 1:13.

3. The command to remember it.

  • to be remembered each year – 12:14, 24. ‘Forever’? See Gen.17:9, 13 and Galatians 5:2. It is the fulfilment that we keep.
  • 12:26-27. There is evangelism in the home; to others in 12:38; recall 9:20-21. Gentile males had to be circumcised – 12:44, 48; as only the baptized should take part in the Lord’s Supper. 1 Peter 1:18-19.