The Story - Chapter 4

The bulletin says that we're going to have an update from the mission team and I don't have an update. Does anyone else have one? I didn't see anything on the news that any of them had been arrested or in a disaster. Do you have anything you hear from? So they've been eating and sleeping, that's the report for our mission team. Well you couldn't expect much more out of that group so we're glad that they're up to normal over there. I want to read a passage today from, in your story, the story, it's hard to call this the story book, it makes it sound a little childish, but this book that has the story, page 51 is what I want to use today. I'm also going to be using, out of the scripture, I think it's in your bulletin, if you'll see if you have a, if you'll see that, Matthew, Exodus 12, 21-30 and then Matthew 26, 26-29. I've got too many things here in my hand, I'll have to, need a bigger desk or table or something, more active maybe. The story that we're going to use today is a story that starts from the beginning of the Bible all the way through the end of the Bible, a powerful story of what God has done. He made a promise to Abraham, he said to Abraham, I'm going to make your nation great, I'm going to give you a land where you can live, I'll provide your needs, I'll protect you and you will have a powerful impact on all the world. The Bible is really the story of that promise and how God fulfilled it. This promise that God was fulfilling meant that he had made a promise to do what he said he was going to do and that nothing would stand in the way of what God was trying to accomplish. That's important for us to understand and believe. When God says he will do something, he does it. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how much opposition he gets, you can always trust that. Doing this, Abraham heard God say, the people of your descendants will not be able to enter the land of promise immediately, for they will go to Egypt and spend 400 years there and then I will bring them back to the land of promise. This is the story of that difference between the time that the promise was made and they had to go to Egypt and wait. They lived in Egypt for a while and it was a wonderful time. They became prosperous, things went well with them, and then Joseph died, and then the Pharaoh died, and then the people forgot who the Israelites were and how they had rescued them. In that period of time, the Israelites became slaves, ordinary workers. There were a lot of them. Our scriptures don't tell us exactly how many here, but we know there are close to a million of them. This was a powerful part of the nation of Egypt, but the people of Israel started asking God for help because the burden of their slavery was so horrendous for them, and God heard their cry. In the story we're going to look at today, he keeps his promise and he comes to deliver the people of Israel and bring them to the land that he promised to give them. Now when you look at this story, there are several things that I think are important to see as a part of the context of the story. Whenever the Bible talks about them being in slavery, it's talking about a powerful force to hold them in suppression, it's talking about a rough life. They even had a time in which all of the male children were killed. It was a difficult time for the people of Israel. They were going through hard days. God's promise to them would be fulfilled, but it wasn't going to be easy. The Israelite people provided a powerful part of the economy of Egypt. To simply let them go would have been a tremendous hardship financially and economically for them. But this was the promise that God made and he intended to keep it. He first had to get someone to work with him in this. He called Moses. Moses was to be a spokesman. Moses and Aaron, his brother, were the ones through whom God spoke to all the people who were there that they had to address. And in the middle of all of this, God was dealing with a very, very difficult man. He had all power and authority in the nation of Egypt and considered himself to be a god. He thought he had all power and authority, but God saw him as his creation. And he realized that he had the authority to tell the greatest, most powerful king exactly what he should do and expected obedience. So there was a great battle between God in heaven and the God who thought he was a god in Egypt. This powerful battle is the focus of this story. Now whenever you look at the Bible, you see this great plan that God has in this story. It talks about it being the upper story, God's great plan about what's going to happen. And then you see the lower story. That is, what happens day to day as God works out this plan. We don't know all the details about how God works this, how he makes it happen for us. There are a lot of theories about it. Some people think from the very beginning everything is all planned out, that day by day and step by step, everything that happens, God has already planned it and it's set in stone. Some people think that these ten plagues that came to the people of Egypt, God wanted to have each one of them step by step. I'm not sure that the Bible says that God did that plan. I kind of had the feeling that God never likes to punish people. I think he would have been satisfied when the first plague came, Pharaoh had said, okay, I'll let them go. I think he was interested in getting his people free. What comes as a difficult spot for many of us in this story is the passage that Paul quotes in Romans chapter 9 where he's talking about God hardening Pharaoh's heart and that God came and purposely caused Pharaoh to resist his plan for his life. It sounds as if in this story that God is really working on two sides. He's saying to Pharaoh, this is what I want you to do, and then coming on the other side and saying to Pharaoh, don't do it. It doesn't provide a picture of God that I find very appealing, nor does it fit what I see God doing anywhere else in the scriptures. God never says, this is what I want you to do, and then tells us not to do it, and then punishes for not doing it. I think there is a way by which we can look at what takes place here and understand something about what's going on. God indeed has this great plan about what he wants to have happen, but in the middle of that plan he allows all of us who are working with the plan to make choices about how we fulfill it. It's true that when Paul quotes this passage in Exodus about God controlling Pharaoh's mind and causing him to be resistant, that is one of the scriptures that he uses. But as I looked at this story, I found that there are a number of times in this story where the Bible tells us that Pharaoh was resistant or hardened his heart, or his heart was hardened. It starts in chapter 7 of Exodus where the first story, the first one of these events that took place, the first disaster, the NIV says, and Pharaoh's heart became hard. The King James Version says, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now those two ideas are found throughout this story. For example, in the first part of this, chapter 7-9, when it talks about Pharaoh's resistance, in chapter 7 verse 14, both the King James and the NIV agree that Pharaoh's heart was hardened. And then in chapter 7 verse 22, the same thing is said. Chapter 8 verse 15, chapter 8 verse 19, chapter 8 verse 32, chapter 9 verse 7, chapter 9 verse 12, chapter 9 verses 34 and 35. Each of those say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. That is, he was resistant to what God wanted him to do. Then suddenly in chapter 10, the language changes. Both the King James and the NIV agree that starting with verse 10, the scripture says, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. In chapter 10 verse 1, chapter 10 verse 20, chapter 10 verse 27, chapter 11 verse 10, and chapter 14 verse 8. What's going on in this story? There's a great puzzle about what's taking place. Was God doing all of this without Pharaoh's will or consent or choice? I think when the Bible talks about God hardening someone's heart, it's a little bit like whenever people say, the Bible talks about God hardening someone's heart. It's a little bit like whenever people say, I had a friend or my mate or my spouse and they did something that made me so mad that I can't stand it. You ever heard anybody tell you that someone made them mad? Actually no one can make you mad. You choose to be angry if you want to be angry. The worst things in the world can happen to you and you can just say, I don't care, whatever goes on, it doesn't matter, and let it go. You don't have to get mad. What happens whenever somebody says something or does something that we don't want them to say or want them to do or ask us to do something we don't want? Inside of us we say, I don't want to do that. But there is someone who is asking us or telling us. And so we have to resist them. We have to push them. We have to say no to them. And we don't like that. The dilemma is, I want to do it, but I don't want to do it. And so we get angry being put in that situation. And we choose then to be angry. It's the same way with God's dealing with us. When he says, this is something I want you to do, and we don't want to do it, we resist God. That's what hardening your heart is. Resist God. Saying, I don't want to do that. It's a choice that we make. But sometimes if you walk with God very long, you find yourself in the same situation Pharaoh was in. I don't want to do that, God. And so we say no to him. And then the next day we open the Bible and read it or go to church and God says, this is what I want you to do. And we say no to him again. And then he brings it back to us. And you've heard people tell stories like this. I just said no to God, but over and over again he kept telling me this is what I ought to do until finally I just gave up and did it. He keeps pushing and pushing and pushing. And sometimes the more God pushes is like someone who tries to get you to do something and the more they try to get you to do it, the more you begin to get resentful and angry about it. And you know, the people that you know well, you know exactly how to make them angry. We call it pushing their buttons. You know, there's one little thing we can do and as soon as we do it, they're going to get mad. And so you come along and you push the button knowing that you're going to get that reaction. Do you make them mad or do you know already what things they're going to get mad about? And you use that. I think that's what happened here in this story. I don't believe God decided in the beginning I'm not going to let Pharaoh say yes to any of these requests. I think if you'd been able to interview Pharaoh, he'd have said, well, I know they said they should do this and I thought about it for a while and even a couple of times I said, yeah, I'll go along with it, but then I got to thinking nobody's going to tell me what to do and I changed my mind. I think it's the way to tell you. So what was happening on God's side was he was pushing and pushing and pushing until he finally came to the place where there was nothing more to push. Every one of these things, disasters that came to Pharaoh in Egypt built on the next one. They were more severe and more severe and more severe until finally the time came when God said, my people must be let go and no matter what the cost to Pharaoh or to Egypt, they will be released. Nothing could be worse than to lose your family members and in the culture of that world, the oldest child was a very special child and so God's plan was, you're going to let my people go no matter what I have to do and his plan was to make sure that the oldest child in every family and the oldest animal in an animal family would all in one single night die. You can imagine what a tragedy that would bring to a country, to a home, to a city, to a village, a disaster beyond belief or understanding. How could it be that so many would die in one single night? And so God's plan was to push so hard that there was no way that the people of Egypt could ever imagine saying no to God again. He was delivering his people with the most powerful blow that he could ever deliver. And this is what God was talking about. Chapter 12 of the book of Exodus, beginning at verse 1. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. The animal you choose must be a year old male without defect and you are to take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and top of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over fire along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast. This is how you are to eat it. With your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. And whenever it uses that word Lord and it's capitalized in the scripture, the Hebrews felt it was an embarrassing thing for a human being to say the name of God. When God said who he was, he said he was Yahweh, which is in Hebrew, I am, or I am existence. I am the foundation of everything that is. The Hebrew people had such respect for God they couldn't say or write his name. So whenever they found it written in the scriptures, they would put the word Lord in capital letters, all caps, to let us know that it is the personal name for God. So what he is saying in this instance, he is saying to them, I am Yahweh. It's sort of like when Zorro came in and robbed the people and put the Z on there, everybody knew exactly who it was. I am existence. I am the foundation of everything that was made. The word I am simply means I am what exists. I am the bottom of everything. Everything is built on me. So the authority of the creator of everything is giving this message to you. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. What God did was to set a means whereby he could deliver a blow of punishment to everyone who would not obey him. It was not that the blood had any redeeming value. That is, it wasn't a magic potion that simply meant that no evil spirit could enter the house. It was a sign to God. When I come by your house and I see the blood over the door, around the door, I know that you heard this message. And I know you believe the message to be true. And I know that you are willing to do whatever I ask of you. The door, the blood on the door, was a statement of trust and faith. God was going to save and redeem every one of his children who trusted him. And their obedience in this small act was a sign that they believed God had the authority to do what he said, they believed that he would do what he said, and they trusted him to rescue them from the danger that they face and to deliver them from the country. This signpost was a powerful event for the nation of Israel. For 4,000 years, the Jewish people on the set day still celebrate the Passover. The time when in the middle of all of the disasters of their lives, they were slaves and no one cared. In the middle of all the things that were going on when they were helpless and hopeless, God intervened. He took his hand and he destroyed their enemy, and he took his hand and he covered them. They were rescued. This event, the Passover, was the signal thing for all the Jewish people from the beginning to the end. They still look back on that day and say, this is the greatest thing that ever happened to our people. Now in the New Testament, we're not challenged to keep the Passover time. There's no way in the New Testament does it describe that we as followers of Christ keep the Passover. But it is a significant event for us. For when Jesus was in the last days of his life on earth, he gathered his disciples around to eat the Passover feast together. Part of the Passover story was they would sit there and tell the story about what happened in Egypt and how God had delivered his people and how they were dependent on his strength, how he protected them and his power destroyed their enemies. They remembered this deliverance. For 2,000 years they'd been remembering it. And he said to them, remember when God kept his covenant promise to Egypt, to the people of Israel, what he did in Egypt to rescue them just as he promised he would do. What Jesus was reminding them of and what every Jewish family reminded themselves of when they took the Passover was this one great fact. When God tells you he will do something, he will do it. And the Passover, his deliverance from this most powerful military force in the world that day when they never had anybody who was a soldier, they had no way to defend themselves, no way to fight the enemy, God did all of it himself. That's the most important thing you'll ever think of in your life. Nothing in the world can keep God from keeping his promise to you. And whenever you see the great difficulties that you face, you think back at this story and say he overwhelmingly destroyed their enemies. The greatest power in the world and there's not anything that can stand against me. So you can trust him with your life, you can trust him with your family, you can trust him with your children, you can trust him with your money, you can trust him with everything because he's reliable, he keeps his promise, he does what he said he would do. It's a great story. And so Jesus, with his disciples, last day on earth with them, he sat around the table and he spread before them the meal of the Passover. After it was over, he took the drink and the bread and he changed this Passover meal into something different. He was saying in essence, people in history, the Jewish people, the people of God have looked back and said, that is the greatest event we've ever seen. And we stand today in awe of what God did. Something greater than that is going to take place. You will see me beaten, nailed to a cross, buried in the ground, and then you will see me come to life. Even Pharaoh never saw such miraculous and powerful things. Not only will you know that I can defeat anybody in all the world, God says, but I want you to know I can even defeat death. Death was the great power that caused the whole Egyptian nation to say, we turn loose of you. Death is that great power that says, when I get hold of you, you will be no more. Jesus said, you will learn that when you place your life in my hands, you will never, ever die permanently. And so he spread before them the table, the table that we're going to take today. It's not a magic potion that if you eat this bread and drink it, you're suddenly going to have the medicine of immortality in you so that you can live forever. That's not what it's about. It's about the same thing that happened that night with the Israelites. It is a sign to God of who we are. I believe that you are the Lord Jesus Christ, the ruler of all mankind. I believe that you have told us the way of life. I believe that your death on the cross has paid the price for my sins, and I have placed my life in your hands. I will do whatever you tell me to do because you are the ruler of my life. That's what this supper indicates. It's not for everybody. We don't go out on the corner and have people drive up and get the Lord's Supper from us. It's only for certain kinds of people. Like that night of the Passover, those who put the blood on the door, who believed what God said, that Passover was for them. This meal is for people who've said, I believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God. I believe that he gave his life for me. I believe that on the cross, his blood was shed for the forgiveness of my sins, and that any time I come to God and say, I am guilty of this sin, I ask for your forgiveness, God will forgive me because of what Jesus did for me. Anybody can drink juice, and anybody can eat bread. It doesn't have any effect on you, but what will make a difference for you is if when you see this bread, you think of the body of Christ given for you. His life on this earth, coming from heaven to live here as a human, that was for you. When you see the red of the juice, and you think of the blood of Jesus Christ, his blood shed for you, and you say, I believe that if I trust my life to you, you will forgive me, and when I'm gone, I will be with you. That's what this meal means. It is a sign of our great deliverance. It doesn't deliver us, it is a sign of our great deliverance. Now to make this meaningful, sometime in your life, you should have said to God, I accept you as the Lord and ruler of my life. I believe that Jesus came and lived on this earth, and what he did and what he taught should be the model for my life. So the bread in his body represents what I'm trying to live, like Jesus lived. I believe this drink represents the blood of Christ, shed for the forgiveness of sin, so that now I can come to God and be cleansed of anything that I've done contrary to his will, because I've already received him as my Savior and Lord. If you've never done that, this meal is really not for you. But today, if you want to take the meal, right where you sit, you can say to God, today I want to say to you for the first time, you are my Lord. I will pledge my life to live as you lived. You are my Savior. I will trust you with my life, believing that because of your death, my sins can be forgiven. All you have to do is to say, I receive you, Jesus Christ, as the Lord of my life, and I promise you today to live in obedience to you. And then the bread will mean something to you, and then the juice will mean something to you. It is indeed our great sign of the deliverance of God. And those who are going to serve, come please, as we prepare to remember the great rescue and redemption that God has provided for his children. What I want you to do when the bread is passed to you, I want you to take a piece of the bread and hold it in your hand. I want you to look at the bread, and I want you to think of the life of Jesus. I want you to think of what he did, and maybe you can think of a single event in your life, in the life of Jesus that you remember. And I want you to give thanks for the life of Christ, his body given for us. Give thanks for that event. I want you to think of something in the life of Jesus that has shaped you, that's helped you to become the person that you are. Some quality about the life of Jesus, maybe his kindness, his love, his compassion, which because you've given your life to him, you see God reproducing that inside you. And I want you to give thanks for the life of Jesus, his body on earth, and how it has shaped your life. Lord Jesus, as I thought of your life, I thought of how many times you faced people who didn't like you, who said bad things about you, nasty things about you, you never hated them. I think in my life you've helped me to get some of that quality. So I remember your life, a life of forgiveness and patience, and I ask, Lord, that my life would become like yours. We eat this bread to remember your life and to pledge our lives to you, amen. You take the drink and distribute it, please. You hold in your hand a little vial of juice that's red. It's red to remind us of the blood of Jesus Christ, something different. The Bible tells us that every human being who lives on the face of the earth has rejected the authority of God. I want you to think about how in your life you knew what the right things were to do, but you didn't do them. You knew what God wanted for your life, but you didn't always do it. I want you to remember how the time came for you whenever God said, I want you to change. I want you to admit that you've lived in rebellion to me. I want you to ask for forgiveness for that. And I want you to accept my forgiveness for you. Remember what it was like when you said to Christ, come into my life and take control Lord Jesus, when I was thinking about this, I thought about times when I didn't have to do things knowing that they were wrong. And when you confronted me with that, I felt so ashamed of myself. I felt so unworthy of you. And even though I asked for forgiveness for my sins, it was hard for me to even forgive myself. I kept telling myself, you have forgiven me because your blood has covered my sin. I don't know how you can forgive us for all the things we've done, but the death of Jesus Christ on the cross promises us complete, free forgiveness. No matter how dark the stain, it will be washed white. No matter how terrible the sin, it will be put away. How can we ever thank you for your forgiveness? So we remember the cost of it, the life of Jesus Christ. And we ask that our lives might reflect that we've been forgiven. In the name of Jesus, we ask it. We drink this juice to pledge ourselves to be forgiven as we have been forgiven, amen. Would you stand please for a moment to pray? I'm going to ask for just a moment of silent prayer. And what I want you to do is to remind yourself of whatever promises you've made to God today. What is it God's asked of you? And say, as you have given your life for me, so I give mine for you. Father, we're so thankful for the power you have to free us from the most powerful forces in this world. In the story today, it was from the military power of the Egyptian government. For us, it may be the power of habits that we have, language that we use, things that we put in our bodies, addictions to things that we see, like pornography. It can be greed and money. It can be selfishness. So many things infect our souls, but you have promised to deliver us from these. And so today, we give thanks for the deliverance you've already given us. And we give thanks in advance for the continued deliverance that you're going to bring. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Remember what we've all taught you, closing hymn together. Oh God, you are my God, and I will ever praise you. I will seek you in the morning, and I will learn to walk in your way. And step by step, you'll lead me, and I will follow you all of my life.