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GOOD NEWS FROM THE REDEEMER
October 7, 2000 RADIO MESSAGE #340
Christ in Exodus #35
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(Continued from preceding message.)God's people are told in 1 Corinthians 5:7f, "Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast ...." We here note that in Christ is found the antitype of the Old Testament Passover with regard to the entire festival celebration itself (Exodus 12:48), and the lamb which was sacrificed (Exodus 12:21) and eaten (Exodus 12:11). With regard to the particulars of this type:
I. The Passover was associated with a beginning (v.2): "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you."
1. The first Passover-month marked a change in the calendar. Heretofore the Israelites had observed the beginning of the year after the harvest of crops (Exodus 23:16), in the month Ethanim, later known as Tisri, corresponding with our September-October. But henceforth there was to be a change in the calendar. The older calendar continued to reckon the civil year. But the sacred year commenced with Passover-month, Abib (Exodus 13:4), later known as Nisan, corresponding with our March-April.
2. The first Passover-month also marked the beginning of Israel's existence as a nation. Heretofore they had been but a family. But henceforth they were to be a nation (as in Exodus 19:6), and this first Passover was to be its birthday.
Christ our Passover is also associated with a beginning.
1. The coming of Christ has resulted in a change in the calendar. God divides time into two eras separated by the incarnation of His Son: "time past" and "these last days" (Hebrews 1:1f). We therefore speak of these two divisions as Anno Mundi, "the year of the world," and Anno Domini, "the year of our Lord." It should also be here noted that it was not the Passover event itself which resulted in the change of the calendar, but rather the first day of its month. The typology here applies as well. It was not the sacrifice of Christ our Passover itself which resulted in the change of our calendar, but rather the beginning of His incarnation.
2. The coming of Christ has resulted in the beginning of a nation. This nation is His church (1 Peter 2:9), which He promised He would build (Matthew 16:18), and which He through His Passover sacrifice redeemed (Acts 20:28).
3. There is also a beginning associated with our own personal appropriation of His Passover work through faith in Him. At that moment, we acknowledge ourselves as "born again" (John 3:3; cp. John 5:24) and a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
II. The Passover involved a "sacrifice" (v.27): "It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD." What is a sacrifice?
1. A sacrifice for atonement is an offering of blood which appeases the wrath of God against sinners (as in Numbers 16:41-48; Job 42:7f). Israel needed such a sacrifice because of their sinfulness (Romans 3:23).
2. A sacrifice of praise is an expression of gratitude to God for mercies received (as in Psalm 27:6). Israel incorporated this aspect in the Passover by observing it as a "feast" (12:14).
The sacrifice associated with Passover typified Christ (1 Corinthians 5:7f).
1. For our sacrifice for atonement, "Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us" (v.7), thereby appeasing the wrath of God against His elect (Hebrews 9:26; 10:12; Ephesians 5:2; John 1:29).
2. For our sacrifice of praise, "Therefore let us keep the feast" (v.8), as a "sacrifice of praise to God" (Hebrews 13:15) for the blessings which result from the atoning sacrifice of His Son. To "keep the feast" is not to observe the Jewish Passover, because that was but a "shadow" fulfilled in Christ (Colossians 2:16f). Neither is it to observe the Lord's Supper, because that is an entirely different ritual (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Rather, to "keep the feast" is to let our lives be a sacred festival - "a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1f) - to God for the blessings we have received through the sacrifice of His Son. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."