Freedom from Sin: Our Spiritual Exodus

Deuteronomy chapter 16. Moses has started talking to the people of Israel. They're getting ready to enter the land of promise. He started talking to them, first of all, about the reality of their need to always make sure that they place God in the position of supreme authority. And so he's talking about that in the beginning. You must worship me just exactly the way I tell you to and not worship any other gods. Not let any other god attract your attention away from me. So he starts by emphasizing that first commandment, to have no other gods before me. And he's talking about then not having anything else in place of me. The idols that would normally come because they're living in a land where people worship pagan gods and idols. He talked then about how you take care of people that are around you. How you manage the money that God gives you. How you take care of people who are your slaves. How you're to operate the economic structure of the people of Israel. Different than the pagan world. And all of this is a way of showing that you're a witness. That you're showing the world what it's like to follow God. Chapter 16, he begins with three different festivals that he assigns to the people of Israel that they're to keep. These festivals are times of remembrance of the important events that God has brought to their lives. These events are to be characteristic of them. Identifying who they are and what they're like. The first one is the Passover. Now, the Passover here is described in a different way than it is earlier in the Bible. If you would turn to Exodus chapter 23 for just a moment. And also chapter 23, verse 15, and chapter 34, verse 18. You see here, the giving of the law at Mount Sinai is the first record we have of God ordering these festivals. And here in chapter 23, verse 15, he says, Celebrate the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib. For in that month you came out of Egypt. You'll notice in this record, he's requiring them to hold a feast of unleavened bread. Bread cooked with no yeast in it would be hard, sort of like, I don't know what it would be. Cooked crackers, kind of like crackers, but it's different than that. He's asked them to be able to do this for seven days. And the reason they're to do it, it's the time to recognize that they came out of Egypt. Their salvation experience. The experience of God redeeming them is to be used of this seven days of eating bread with no leaven in it. They had to cook the bread fast when they were leaving, because they were leaving immediately, there was no time for the bread to rise. So it was to remind them of the haste with which they left, and of God's deliverance of them from this bondage of slavery that they were in. Then in chapter 34 in the book of Exodus, verse 18, again, Moses is giving them these instructions after he brought down the new tablets of stone. Celebrate the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib. And that month you came out of Egypt, almost the same kind of thing. But you'll notice that there is no mention whatsoever of a Passover meal. So in the beginning, when this was ordered, the Passover itself was not connected with the seven days of the unleavened bread. So that the Passover was not ordered to be commemorated here. And whenever the Passover was given in the book of Exodus, they were told that when they got into the promised land, they were to have this commemoration from then forever. But the time between they left Egypt and they settled in the land of promise, the Passover feast was not a part, apparently, of what they were doing. Now Moses is giving his last feast before they enter the land of promise. And now he says in chapter 16, verse 1, Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Now the word that's translated here, Passover, is also the word that is used for the Passover meal or the Passover lamb. It is one word, the Passover lamb. And in one instance it's used to describe the event, and the other identical word is used to describe the sacrifice. Now we don't use words that way very often, where one of them represents an ongoing event, and the other would recognize a single event. But that's the way it's used here. It just means the animal that is sacrificed, the sacrifice of that animal. In the books earlier in Exodus, it is described that they are to offer an animal of the flock or herd, which would allow for a goat or would allow for a lamb. Later on, they could only offer a lamb. So there's kind of a transition in the description of what is to take place, because when they get to the land of promise and they start there, this is the rule and instruction Moses gave them. Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God. You'll notice that it is the Passover that is God's, that belongs to God, that is His. It's not theirs. They're celebrating an event that God has the authority over. What they're celebrating is the power of God to deliver them from slavery. The freedom that God gave them from the land of Egypt. Now, and they're to remember it in the month that it took place. So it's to remember this slavery and the freedom that they had as God brought them out of Egypt in the night that He did it. Verse 2, sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God, an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for His name. Now, the identification of what is to be sacrificed, in the beginning it was this lamb that they were to sacrifice. Now it's a lamb or a goat from the herd. So there's some variance in how they're to do it. But this sacrifice is to be offered to God from their flock. And it's to be offered in the place that He gives them. Now, previously, whenever they had the Passover in Egypt, they had the meal at their house, killed the animal there, cooked the animal, and ate it at their home. Now God has redirected them that they're to go to the central location where He locates the temple to begin to offer their sacrifices. Now, you'll know when reading the New Testament that even though they went to Jerusalem, they would offer the sacrifice, it would be killed at the temple, but they would bring it back, people would, and eat it together with their family and friends. That's what Jesus did with His own disciples. The animal was slain at the temple, but it was cooked and eaten with the disciples in the circle of friends that Jesus had. So what He's done is He's pointed to the idea that this is to be a corporate event in which all of the people of Israel together would remember the deliverance that God had given them from the power of Egypt to set them free. Do not eat it with bread made from yeast, but for the seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste. Now, He combines the Passover here with the seven days of feasting of the unleavened bread. So in Deuteronomy, Moses connects these two great events. So they become one week of festival. Now, these three festivals that He's going to mention here are required of all the men in the nation of Israel. They were to go to the temple, Jerusalem, on these three occasions, and they were to participate in the festivals that are here. This first festival is the memory of God setting them free. Now, what does this have to do with us? We don't anymore go to Jerusalem to celebrate these Old Testament festivals. But instead, we do have the festivals of our own that celebrate our freedom. What is the freedom that the believer has comparable to what was true in the Old Testament? When Paul talks about this, he says that we have been set free as slaves from the power of sin. The book of Romans that we're doing on Sunday night, Paul spends a lot of time talking about the fact that when we accept Jesus Christ, He becomes the Lord of our lives. We die to sin, and that's what the event of baptism represents. You're buried in the water to show that your old life has passed away, and you're raised up to show that now you live a different life under the power of God. And then Paul talks about in chapter 7 and on in Romans, this means that you have died to sin. It no longer controls your future. So that the event of receiving Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life means that now you have the power inside of you, the presence of God's Spirit, so that sin no longer controls your future. You are dead to the power and control of sin. The illustration Paul uses is saying, you know, when a person is dead, the law doesn't have any impact on you. You can't get a speeding ticket when you're dead. You can't get charged with the failure to pay your taxes when you're dead. Everything changes once you're dead, because no longer does any law have hold over you. Then he transfers this idea to the spiritual arena. So whenever you die to sin, and you're alive to Christ, no longer is the power of sin able to control your future. Does it mean that all sin leaves you? No. But it means that you now have the guarantee that sin will not control your future. Now, what do we do to celebrate this? Well, the celebration we have is baptism. And you celebrate this by acknowledging that you have moved from death to life by the imagery of burying in the water and being raised. But more than that, we also have our own meeting at the church weekly. See, the baptism event is a corporate event, in the sense that other people come to share that with you. I've had some people who say, I'd like to be baptized, but I'd like to be baptized when no one's there. And I said to people that have said that, I've had a couple that have said that, well, you know, it's like saying, I'd like to get married, but I don't want anybody to know about it. Now, if your boyfriend says that to you, be a little suspicious. And if someone says, I'd like to really be baptized, but I want to make sure that no one really knows that this has happened to me, I think that's not acceptable to what God wants. It's a corporate event. It's all the church, all the family of God participates in it. But the death, dying, putting into the water, being raised up, symbolizes something else. Paul talks about the fact that our baptism means that we are dead in Christ. He means that as Christ died on the cross, so we have died. In some way, we have connected to that. When he was buried, in some way, our baptism represents him being buried and us being buried with him. When he raises from the dead, it symbolizes our new life that we start. And the church found such a powerful thing of this resurrection deal that it changed its entire worship pattern. No longer did the followers of Jesus gather together on the seventh day. Instead, they began to gather on the first day. Why? To remember their own exodus. The time in which God delivered them from the power of sin and death by his own resurrection. We know that the power of God to give us freedom from sin is given to us because Jesus Christ himself broke the hold that sin has on people. No longer does death have a sting for us. It no longer is a deadly punishment. It is the door by which it is opened up for us to be with God forever. So the early church started worshiping God on Sunday. Now, some people like to call Sunday the Sabbath day. When I was a kid growing up, almost all the churches, they called it the Sabbath day. But the Sabbath day was to remember the creation. The first day of the week is to remember the resurrection. That's what our focus is on. In the Old Testament, they were to remember the Sabbath day because it was the day God rested from all the work that he had done, and it was to focus on his creative power. They had these festivals to focus on the freedom God gave them from sin. In the Christian community, we gather together every Sunday to celebrate the fact that we have been set free from the power of sin and death because Jesus Christ rose on the first day of the week. Now, we can focus on that on Easter Sunday morning, but it's really the meaning of all Sunday morning services. So the family of God gathers, as was commanded here to the people of Israel, to celebrate the exodus, our exodus from the slavery of sin. That's what this is for. And it's a community event. Well, I can worship this as well at my house or out on the lake or anywhere else, but that's not true. It's like the people of Israel saying, well, I can kill a lamb and do this just as well as I go to my house. But he said, you do it the place that I tell you. And what does the book of Hebrews say? Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together. Some people do. Why? Because it is the celebration of this great day of exodus for the people of God from the power of sin and death. So you see what Jesus did for us is the great act of leading us out of the power of sin just as God delivered his people from the power of Egypt. So in the New Testament, Jesus has delivered us from the power of the slavery of sin. That's the words that Paul uses. We are slaves to sin. And then we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and we become slaves of righteousness. And this transformation from one to the other is the issue of our celebration so that when we come together, as commanded by the New Testament, we're not to quit doing this. It's commanded of us. We're to come together to remember and to celebrate the freedom we have from the power and grip of sin and even of death. What God wants us to do is to remember our own delivery. Now, something different from us that is true and that's not true in the Old Testament is they all escaped Egypt on the same night. The people of us around this room did not all escape the power and grip of sin at the same time. All different times. You came into the kingdom of God at a different time than I did. None of us have probably the same day that we can say is the point of our deliverance from the slavery of sin and into the freedom of God's kingdom. But what is common to all of us is that all of us at whatever place we entered the kingdom, we entered by one single reason. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. So it's not the day of our entry into the kingdom of God that's important to us, but the cause of it. The means of it. And of course, when you look at the New Testament, it's often seen that Jesus was indeed the Lamb of God slain for us. Does that ring a little bit about this Passover deal? The Lamb of God slain for us. And so when we come to celebrate our Sunday morning service, we are remembering that Jesus Christ gave His life for us. And had He not done that, none of us would ever be able to enter the kingdom or be free from the grip and power of sin and its ultimate goal to kill us. So that our sacrifice is once and for all. The book of Hebrews says, you know, in the Old Testament, they had to offer a sacrifice all the time because it wasn't enough. But for us, there was only one sacrifice necessary. Because Jesus was that final sacrifice for all of us. This Passover death was enough to make sure that for all of us, life free of sin will be possible. And what God demanded in the Old Testament was that the people of Israel never forget why they're free and how they got free and what God did to make them free. I think that's what God demands of all of us. Don't ever forget why you're able to be free from the power of sin. Don't ever forget what happened that caused you to be able to believe that you'll be forever with God, free of the power and grip of sin. It was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. So he said, you're to do this in the place that God tells you and in his name. Now, we have another great symbol that God has given us for recognition of this. Whenever he sat down with his disciples and he passed out the wine and they drank it, he said, this is to represent my blood given for you. Then he took the bread and broke it and passed it around and said, this is my body given for you. And then he said, as often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me and what I've done. The combination of the Passover meal, which looks back to your delivery in the past, and the seven days of eating the unleavened bread looked forward to what was going to happen in the land of promise. When they went into the land of promise, then they would have enough crops and food to be able to have the week-long celebration. Sitting on the edge of the Jordan, looking into the river, across the river, they are now thinking, we will now be able to have this Passover meal because traveling through the desert, we haven't had the crops, we haven't had the way to do it. And so they were remembering the past and looking forward to the future. And when Jesus took the meal, he passed it around to them and he said, take and eat. This is my body given for you. And they were remembering Jesus' death. And then he passed the drink around and he said to them, drink this. Often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. And I will not drink and eat this meal with you again till I eat it with you in heaven. The Lord's Supper has two pictures, one the past, what Jesus did for us like Israel's Egypt and the other the future, what are we going to do when we get in the promised land. The Lord's Supper, what Jesus did for us in the past and what we are going to do in the future when we sit around the table with him and eat it together. This great event of the Passover celebration was one eye on the past and one eye on the future, just like our Sunday morning services ought to be and just like the Lord's Supper is when we take it. So that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt or sin. Let me just add that in, it's not written here. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat of your sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the morning. There was to be nothing unclean about this. And that's what Paul warned about. Be careful how you take this supper because if you take it in an unworthy fashion it will be deadly to you. The Lord's Supper has a warning that it can kill you. Paul said some of the people have already died because they didn't do it right. What does he mean? I think he means there are people who took this supper celebrating their delivery from slavery when they never have been delivered. They were faking it. Now, I've been delivered from sin because Jesus Christ is in my life and He's the Lord of my life and I'm living in obedience to Him when they're really not. They just went through the motions. And they're taking it as if they're remembering their delivery from Egypt when they never have been delivered. They're saying something by taking the supper that's a lie. Paul's warning falls on deaf ears today. We have the Lord's Supper on Sunday morning, we have it on Christmas, and I think many people are deceived into participating in something that's very deadly and dangerous for them. Because the celebration of this great event was to be done exactly the way God told them to do it. Be careful that you do not celebrate your own Passover in an unworthy way. But for those who have entered the kingdom of heaven, every Sunday should be a day to celebrate and certainly the taking of the Lord's Supper should be a time in which we exhilarate in remembering the tremendous thing that God has done for us. Let's pray. I'd like to ask you, Cindy, when you come to worship, if you would sometime in that service remember how you've been changed from death to life. When we have the Lord's Supper the next time, I want to ask you to promise God you're going to think of two things. What He's done for you on the cross and in the grave and what He's going to do for you at death or in heaven with Him. We still live with the hand of sin on us. We're not completely free from its influence and even its power, but we are free from its control for no longer does sin rule our lives and our bodies. You've set us free from that. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to recognize the importance of celebrating our exodus from sin and our entrance into the promised land with you. In the name of Jesus, I ask this, amen.