Christ, Our Passover

Our message today is going to
be taken from the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse
7. Now, I'd like very much, very
much for you to turn to this scripture. I want you to see
it. I want you to read it. I want you to mark it in your
Bible. I had a little trouble deciding what title to give to
this message. I thought about calling it the
heart of the gospel, the very heart of the gospel, for that's
exactly what it is, the very heart and essence of the gospel.
But let's call the message Christ our Passover, for that's what
the text declares, Christ our Passover. Let's read it together,
1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. Paul said, "...purge out therefore
the old leaven." that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us." Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for
us. Now if you'll listen, if you'll
listen, you'll learn something today. Now nearly all of you
are somewhat familiar with what is called the Lord's Table. We
call it the Lord's Table, we call it sometimes the Lord's
Supper, and some people call it communion. In other words,
the pastor and the people gather together at a certain time to
observe what they call communion, or the Lord's Table, or the Lord's
Supper. And the deacons and elders are
there in their proper places, and the people are in their proper
places, And the table is prepared with bread and wine, which is
served to the people. The preacher breaks the bread,
prays over it, gives it to the people, then distributes the
wine after prayer, and they take the bread and the wine, and then
a hymn is sung, and they go home. Now the question arises. Here's
the question. What mean ye by this service? What's the reason for this? Why
are you doing this? Why the bread? Why the wine?
Why the solemn assembly? Why the Lord's table? Why communion?
Why the Lord's supper? What do you mean by this? What's
the reason for it? Over the book of Exodus, chapter
12, verse 26 and 27, Moses posed this very question, this very
problem. He, after serving the Passover,
he commanded the people of Israel to eat the Passover lamb once
a year. And he said, now it shall come
to pass that when your children shall say unto you, what do you
mean by this service? Why are you doing this? Why do
you observe the Passover? Why do you slay the lamb? Why
do you eat the unleavened bread? Why do you eat the lamb? Then
you are to say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover who passed
over us in Egypt when he smoked the Egyptians and delivered our
houses. In other words, when you're observing
the Passover and your children ask you, what do you mean by
this service? Why are you doing this? Then you're to be ready
immediately to respond and tell them what it's all about. This
is the Lord's Passover. who passed over us in the land
of Egypt when he smote the firstborn and delivered our houses." Now,
when we gather to observe the Lord's table and our children
or others ask us, what do you mean by this service? Why are
you doing this? Why are you keeping the Lord's
table? Why are you keeping this Lord's Supper, this communion?
What mean ye by this service? Then what shall we reply? What
shall we say? Well, I'll tell the story in
four parts. Now, like I said a moment ago,
if you'll listen, if you'll listen, be still and listen, you'll learn
something. Now, the story is told in four
parts. First of all, it begins in Egypt. It begins in Egypt. And if you wish to follow, you
can turn your Bibles to Exodus 12, verse 3 and 4. Now, the people
of God, the people of Israel, had been in Egyptian slavery
for 400 years. And God sent Moses down to deliver
the people from bondage and to take them to Canaan. Moses was
sent down into Egypt to deliver the people out of bondage and
take them to Canaan. But you know the story. Pharaoh
refused to let them go. And even after several plagues,
and many of you can name these plagues, the river was turned
to blood Lice came from heaven and the flies and frogs and different
plagues like that. After all the plagues were brought
upon Egypt, Pharaoh refused to let them go. And finally God
spoke to Moses and said to him that the final plague, the final
plague would be visited upon Egypt. And that is the death
of the firstborn son. God said, I will pass through
the land of Egypt at midnight. And I will slay the firstborn
in every home, even the cattle on the hillside." And Moses was
to tell the children of Israel to take a lamb. Now listen to
this. This is where the story begins. This is where the Lord's
table, the Lord's supper, communion, this is where it all began. Moses
was to tell the Israelites to take a lamb and slay that lamb
and roast it with fire and put his blood on the door. And God
said, when I pass through the land of Egypt and I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. There'll be death in every home,
every home where there's no blood. But when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you, the Passover, the Passover. Now, they were
to observe this Passover feast every year at this particular
time, every year. They kept the Passover. kept
the Passover. They slew the lamb, roasted it
with fire, ate its body, so forth, offered the blood, the Passover.
And you see, this lamb in Egypt is a type or picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. John, in John 1.29, pointed to
Christ, when John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Christ,
pointed to Christ, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And in Revelation
5, verse 6, even enthroned, John on the Isle of Patmos said, I
saw a lamb as it had been slain in the midst of a throne. So
this lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Lamb of God. And this
lamb in Egypt is a type, a shadow, a picture. of our lamb, Jesus
Christ. He's the lamb. He's the substitute.
Now watch this. If you have your Bible there,
look back at Exodus 12 and look between verse 5 and 10. And let's
see something about this lamb. How it's a picture of Christ.
First of all, there's a lamb. That's a substitute. That's the
innocent dying for the guilty. Secondly, Moses said very carefully,
he said, get a lamb without spot or blemish. It's not to be sickly. It's not to have a spot on it
or a blemish. That means our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, is without sin, totally without sin. He had no spot or
blemish. In him there was no sin. And
then Moses told the children of Israel to take a lamb, a male,
of the first year. It was to be in the prime of
life. It wasn't to be an old lamb or a baby lamb. It was to
be in the prime of life. And our Lord Jesus Christ died
on the cross, not from old age. He was slain in the prime of
life. And then he said, Moses said to the people of Israel,
keep the lamb up for four days, that it might be tested and tried,
and be sure that there was no spot or blemish. Our Lord, in
the flesh, lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. He was tried by heaven, and tried
by men, and tried by Satan, and tried in every way, tempted in
all points as we are, yet without sin. And then the lamb was to
be slain, had to be killed, even as Christ is sacrificed for us. He died that we might live. By
his death we live. And then the lamb was to be eaten.
It was to be roasted with fire, and they had exact orders. Each
home was to have a lamb. If the home was too small to
consume an entire lamb, then two families were to go together.
But the lamb was to be eaten, even as Christ is received within.
He said, you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have life.
Do you see what a beautiful picture this is? Even further, read on.
The lamb was to be roasted with fire. There's the suffering of
Christ hanging on that cross. bearing the sins of his people
in his body on the tree. The very fire of God's judgment
fell upon him. That's the sufferings of Christ.
The lamb was roasted. And then the lamb was to be eaten
with bitter herbs. That's repentance, sorrow over
sin, the bitter herbs. And then Moses specifically said,
don't eat it raw. It must be roasted. Christ had
to die. And he had to endure the fire
of our sin. And he said, Moses said, don't
mix it with anything. Don't put any water, gravy, or
anything like that with. Eat the lamb roasted. Nothing
but the lamb. And I'll tell you, when we receive
Christ as our representative, as our substitute, savior and
sacrifice, there are no works mixed with Christ. No human effort,
decisions, professions, religion, deeds. And then he said, eat
all of it. Don't leave any. Eat it all. You see, you can't have half
of Christ. You've got to have received the Lord Jesus Christ
in all his offices, prophet, priest, and king. You can't have
half a Savior. You can't say, well, I'll take
him as Savior, but I won't bow to him as king or lord. No, you
take him as prophet, priest, and king. Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us. You see where the story began?
Back in Egypt. Back in the land. All right,
part two. Now, the Jews observed this feast
every year. Are you with me? Every year,
the Passover was observed. Now, part two of this story takes
place in Jerusalem. If you have your Bible, turn
to Luke 22. Luke chapter 22, verse 14 through
20. Now, watch this. Our Lord Jesus
Christ was born a Jew. He was of the tribe of Judah.
And he was circumcised the eighth day, like every Jewish boy. He
went to the temple, to the synagogue, and so forth. And he observed
the Passover. And here in Luke 22, just before
he went to the cross, just before our Lord died on the cross, he
gathered his disciples together to observe the Passover, as their
fathers had done for many, many years. They would observe the
Passover. He kept the Passover. He said, you go and prepare the
upper room that I may eat the Passover with my disciples. So
when the master and the disciples gathered about, people have the
picture called the last supper. This is the last Passover. Certainly
wasn't his last supper, the last Passover. And when they were
sat down, he took bread and he gave thanks. And when he had
broken it, He said, he didn't take a leg of lamb, he took bread. And when he'd broken it, he blessed
it and he gave it to his disciples and he said, this is my body
broken for you. Take and eat it. And this do
in remembrance of me. And after supper he took the
cup of wine and he held it up and when he had prayed he said,
this is the new covenant. New Testament, in my blood, which
is shed for you. Drink it, drink ye all of it,
and this do in remembrance of me." Now this is the last Passover. No more types, no more pictures,
no more patterns, no more Passover, no more Lamb slain. For here
sits the Lamb of God. Here sits the ultimate, the supreme,
the great sacrifice. Here sits the sacrifice of which
all the others were but pictures. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. And he takes the bread. No longer
do we slay an animal or slay a lamb. This is the reason. The
lamb has been slain. But he takes the bread and he
says, this bread represents my body, my broken body. It's broken
bread. Now you eat it in remembrance
of me. And this wine, represents his pure blood shed for our sins. And this is what he said, you
eat the bread and drink the wine and do it in remembrance of me. Now watch this statement. Our
Lord said, and this is why he said it twice, this do in remembrance
of me. This do. Why do we change it? It's so simple. This dude, not
something else, simple bread and wine, that's all. Believers
gathered together. No processional, no uniforms,
no candles, no fancy dress. None of the ritualism, just here's
bread. And he'd break it. And he said,
this is my body. And here's wine, drink it. This
is my blood, represents it. Now this dude, not something
else, do this. Very simple. And do this, he
said, in remembrance of me. He didn't say do it as a sacrament
in order to be saved. He didn't say this bread and
this wine will forgive your sins and cleanse you and make you
whole. He didn't say that at all. He didn't say this do in
order to be forgiven, this do in order to be saved. He didn't
say this do as a church fellowship supper as evidence of your unity. He didn't say, wait till everybody's
walking the straight and narrow and observe this supper. He didn't
say, this do to show your worthiness. He said, listen, this do in remembrance
of me, of me. And that's what we do. Jesus
Christ is our appointed Lamb. In Egypt, there was an appointed
Lamb described definitely by God. And we have a Lamb, appointed
Lamb, the surety of the covenant, the Lamb of God. And then he's
our incarnate Redeemer. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon
himself a body. He couldn't have died had he
not been made flesh. He said, a body thou hast prepared
me. Then he is our righteousness. We remember him as our appointed
Lamb, our surety, our incarnate Redeemer. We remember him as
our sin offering. We have an atonement. That atonement
is Christ, and he is our risen justifier, and he is our ascended
Lord and mediator. Now do you see why I say this
is the very heart of the gospel? Scripture says, Behold the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world. The scripture says,
he's led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. By his stripes we're healed.
The scripture says, I've given you the blood upon the altar
to make an atonement for your sins. It's the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. I wish I could get across to
you this one point. There are two words to be learned
if we would learn the gospel. And one is the word substitution.
He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. The other word is satisfaction.
Jesus Christ, because of who he is, He's the son of God, he's
God incarnate, he's God in human flesh, was able to bear all the
sins of all believers of all generations and satisfy a holy
God. He died in order that God may
be just, holy and righteous, and yet the justifier of all
who believe. He fully satisfied the law. The
law is satisfied. The law has no charge against
us. That's what Paul said in Romans
8. Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Christ
has justified us. Who can condemn us? There's no
condemnation to them who are in Christ. Fully paid. The law is fully satisfied. Justice
demands are fully met. The debt is fully paid. That's
the gospel. And that's what Christ said,
this is my body broken for you, this is my blood shed for you.
Now this do, this do in remembrance of me. Part three. The Apostle Paul, now this last
Passover was observed between Christ and his apostles. And
then he instituted the Lord's table. Now then, part three. The Apostle Paul, who was the
apostle to the Gentiles, Delivered the supper to the early church
if you take your Bible and open to first Corinthians 11 verse
23 through 29 you'll see this Paul said to the church at Corinth
I received of the Lord I Received from the Lord that which also
I delivered unto you I'm what I'm delivering to you. I got
from the Lord straight from God the Lord gave me this to give
to you That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed,
took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body broken for you.
This do in remembrance of me. You see, what I'm doing today
is the same thing Paul did then. He emphasized the bread, the
wine, and the reason. This do in remembrance of me.
Afterward he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant
in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread,"
and he didn't say once a month or every quarter or every Lord's
Day, as often or whenever you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you show the Lord's Now that's important, to show his
death till he comes. I can't think of but two ordinances,
I can't find but two ordinances, given to the Church in the New
Testament, and both are pictures of his death. Baptism and the
Lord's Saving, both his death. Now, there's several key words
in this 1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 29, And let me give you two or three
of them. First of all, the bread. The bread. Now bread's very common. Why did the Lord use bread to
represent his body? He took the bread and he broke
it and he said, this is my body. Bread's very common. And bread's
very important. And Jesus Christ was made flesh. Common, ordinary, everyday flesh. Bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. He became a man. Yes, he's God, very God of very
God, but he became a man, was clothed in human flesh. And the
bread is very common in revealing the very common, ordinary flesh
in which Christ was clothed. And then secondly, the bread
is unleavened. That's right, unleavened bread.
Leaven is a type of evil. And there was no evil in Christ.
He's perfect. And that's why we use unleavened
bread, because it properly typifies Our Lord Jesus Christ properly
shows forth his perfection, his holiness, unleavened bread. And
then the bread is broken. It's not served whole, it's broken.
That means his body was literally broken, brewed for us. And then the bread is eaten,
taken within. You see, salvation is not giving
mental assent to some facts. It's literally to receive, by
faith, Christ in your heart. And then the wine. Wine is used.
Now, unleavened bread. It is bread, common flesh. It
is broken. Christ's body was broken. It
is unleavened. It does not spoil. It'll last
for weeks and months and months and months. Christ is pure. He has no sin. And it's eaten.
Now, the wine. You see, wine represents his
blood. First of all, it's separated
from the grapes. The grape is crushed, and the
wine comes from the grape. The juice comes from the crushed
grape. And our Lord was battered and
bruised and suffered, and his blood was shed. It came from
his body like the juice from the grape. And then wine is pure. And it needs to be pure to represent
the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood is holy. His blood
is pure. Pure. He is without sin, and
then the wine is received within, as Christ is received within.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath life. It's to receive
Christ literally within me. It's not just to walk an aisle,
or shake a preacher's hand, or say a few words, or go to the
pool. It's by faith in sincerity with
the heart. to believe the gospel and to
receive Christ. And then he said, do it in remembrance
of me. This tells us who's to take the
table. You know, who's to come to the
table? Who's to come to the supper,
the communion? Well, you can't remember what
you haven't learned. He kept saying, this dude in
remembrance of me. You can only remember what you
know. You see that? You only remember what you know.
The person who comes to the table of the Lord is the person who
knows the Lord. He knows Christ died for him.
He knows Christ. offered his body and his blood
for our sins. He discerns, he judges, he understands
the sacrifice of Calvary. He has believed it. It's in his
heart. And every time he comes to the
table of the Lord, he remembers it. He likes to remember it. He rejoices to remember it, because
he lives by that thing. Now, that's part four. Part 1
starts in Egypt, the Pacto era. Part 2 in Jerusalem, the institution
of the Lord's Table. Part 3, Paul delivers it to the
Church, the early Church, 2,000 years ago almost. And Part 4
is when you die. Assemble together to observe
the Lord's Table. And we follow our Lord's commandment.
I try to, at the church where I'm pastor, this do. This do. The bread, the unleavened bread,
this do. Don't add anything to it, don't
do anything fancy, just do this. And do it in remembrance of me. We come to the table of the Lord
with solemnity. Solemnity. It's a sacred, precious,
wonderful time. But we come with joy, not a funeral,
it's a peace. We have a high priest so that
we can come bold into the presence of God. We have an atonement.
We have a mediator. We come to the table conscious
of our sins, and we say, bread of heaven on thee I feed thee,
for thy flesh is meat indeed. Ever may my soul be fed with
that food and living breath.

Christ, Our Passover

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Christ, Our Passover

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

More from Henry Mahan

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Henry Mahan

Books by Henry Mahan

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book