While I know that I’m a week late, I figure I would go ahead and post these notes about the Passover. They were originally written for a sermon on Palm Sunday, before the Passover festival. However, Jesus changed the church’s plan that day and we simply worship Him all morning, skipping the sermon in lue of enjoying His presence.
I did, however, use the notes this past Sunday on Easter – granted I shifted things a bit to focus on the high cost of sin. Namely, that sin leads to death and should not be taken lightly. Sadly we don’t have a sound recording of this sermon as the computer decided to reboot during the sermon stopping the recording… =(
Passover
• So what is Passover?
o It is a festival held each year to remember how the Lord God delivered His people out of slavery
o The term can also refer to the Seder dinner held during the festival
* This dinner is full of symbolism reminding people of God’s deliverance while also pointing toward Jesus
• Background (Exodus 12:1-30)
o The people of Israel had been living in Egypt for 400 years
o At first they were free citizens, but somewhere along the line their entire people were enslaved
o 80-years prior to the Passover, the Pharaoh or ruler of Egypt got scared and set about killing all male toddlers and babies.
* Very few boys survived this time
* Moses was one of them
• Moses
o Moses grow in Pharaoh’s house due to an act of God
o At 40-years old he goes into exile, becoming a shepherd on the edge of the Egyptian empire
o Another 40 years pass until Moses, now 80 years old, finds himself standing before a burning bush
o God tells him to go back to Egypt as He was going to bring freedom to His people
o When Moses first returned to Egypt, the people of Israel were happy to hear about God’s plan
o However they soon got tired of Moses and God’s plan for freedom
* It was tough
* Yes, they say some amazing miracles – plagues of frogs, flies, hail and the like
* Some of these plagues only touched the Egyptians!!!
o Yet in the middle of everything, Pharaoh had them working harder and harder
* The plagues happened over a period of time – a year or so