Last week we used Exodus 23:15 as a jumping-off
point for part 1 of what will be a 3-part study of the Passover. So if you have
your Bible let’s go ahead and turn to Exodus
12:43-49—43 And the LORD said to Moses and
Aaron, "This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it.
44 But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised
him, then he may eat it. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it.
46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside
the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall
keep it. 48 And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover
to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and
keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person
shall eat it. 49 One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who
dwells among you." Before we start, I want to mention something.
Right in the middle of this paragraph, we see God command the people, at the
end of Exodus 12:46—“…nor shall you break one of its bones.” We’re
gonna skip that for now, come back to it later
Under the Old Covenant, God split
the world up into two groups of people: Jew and Gentile. It was easy. If you
were born to a Jewish family, you were a Jew. If you belonged to any other
ethnic group, you were a Gentile. The lines were drawn and they were very
distinct. And one sign that one was a Jew was circumcision. Today parents have
their children circumcised for any number of reasons. But under the old
covenant, circumcision was a sacred rite, one by which one was permitted into
the nation of Israel.
Another sign that separated Jew from Gentile was the feasts. If you were a Jew,
you took part in the feasts. If you were not a Jew, you could take part in the
feasts—if and only if you had been circumcised. These commands were given
because of what we see in Exodus
12:37-38—37 Then the children of Israel
journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot,
besides children. 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and
herds—a great deal of livestock. The “mixed multitude” was made up of
Egyptians who feared the LORD and who saw His mighty hand and wanted to worship
this One who could do such mighty works and topple the gods of Egypt. Now, if we fast-forward to the NT,
we find the question of circumcision being one of the most hotly-debated issues
in the early church. We, who are living today, tend to think that many of the
errors we see today are ones that have taken 2000 years to develop. That is not
quite true. There were, I dare say, just as many heresies trying to creep into
the church in its infancy as there are now. And in fact, many of the NT
epistles were written to correct those heresies. Colossians and 1st
John were written to denounce the heresy called “Gnosticism”, which was a
heresy that taught that to attain salvation one had to gain this mystical,
secret knowledge. They also taught that material things are evil; therefore
Christ could not have had an actual body of flesh and bone. Which is why 1st John 4:3 says Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is not of God.
Probably the most common heresy in
the early church was the issue of circumcision, and whether a Gentile had to be
circumcised in order to be saved. The reason this was an issue was many Jews
brought up the fact that for one to take part in the Passover, one had to be
circumcised. They then applied that to Christ—He being our Passover. So they
said, “If you have to be circumcised to
eat the Passover, then it’s obvious you must be circumcised to partake of
Christ’s life.” And time after time the apostle Paul—a Jew among
Jews—soundly rejected that thinking. We could spend weeks going through all the
verses that pertain to circumcision, but we’ll just hit on a few. Galatians 6:6—For
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but
faith working through love. Romans
2:28-29—28 For he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is
a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Ephesians 2:11-13—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the
flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in
the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who
once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Under
the old covenant one could not be joined to the nation of God except through
circumcision of the flesh—that is, by becoming a Jew. But now, under the new
covenant, one is joined to the family of God through circumcision of the
heart—being adopted as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.
Now, many years after the Passover
was instituted, another question arose about if certain people were to keep the
Passover. We find these questions in Numbers 9:6-13—6 Now there were certain men who were defiled by a human
corpse, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day; and they came
before Moses and Aaron that day. 7 And those men said to him, "We became
defiled by a human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the
LORD at its appointed time among the children of Israel?" 8 And Moses said to
them, "Stand still, that I may hear what the LORD will command concerning
you." 9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “10 Speak to the children of
Israel, saying: ‘If anyone of you or your posterity is unclean because of a
corpse, or is far away on a journey, he may still keep the LORD's Passover. 11
On the fourteenth day of the second month, at twilight, they may keep it. They
shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 12 They shall leave none
of it until morning, nor break one of its bones. According to all the
ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. 13 But the man who is clean and
is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be
cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the LORD
at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin.’” Question: The command in verse 10, about men who have been
defiled because they touched a corpse right before Passover—we read about two
men in the gospels that command applies to. Who would those two men be? What
two men handled a corpse at the time of Passover in the gospels? Joseph of
Arimathea and Nicodemus. John 19:38-40—38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea…came and took the body
of Jesus. 39 And Nicodemus…also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes,
about a hundred pounds. 40 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in
strips of linen with the spices. These men
would not be allowed to keep the Passover the next day, because they would be considered
unclean. And I think it might have shocked even Pontius Pilate that these two
devout Jewish men—Joseph of Arimathea being a member of the Sanhedrin—would
handle a dead body the day before the Passover. But, because they did, they
would have had to wait until the 14th of the next month, which would
be the month Ijar to observe it. But I think Joseph and Nicodemus knew
something that even the Pharisees, the guardians of the Law of Moses, didn’t
know. That the Passover has come, has been slain, and never needs to be slain
again. They knew that when they lay Christ, our Passover, in the tomb, He
wouldn’t be there very long.
In this section of
Numbers, we also see the provision for those who are away from home to keep the
Passover. Numbers 9:10—“If
anyone of you or your posterity is far away on a journey, he may still keep the
LORD's Passover.” These were the only two reasons a person may be
excused from keeping the Passover on the 14th of the month Abib
(Nisan). However, if they just didn’t feel like going through all the hassle of
finding a perfect lamb or goat, and wanted to put it off until next month, and
observe the “little Passover” as it was called. Well, we find God saying this in
Numbers 9:13—“13
But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and declines to keep the
Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he
did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall
bear his sin.” Sorry! Unless you are unclean or on a journey,
you MUST keep the Passover on the 14th of Abib (Nisan). If you delay
without reason, you are cut off from the nation of Israel. Period, paragraph, end of story. God had set up some very
distinct regulations concerning how He was to be worshipped. If someone wanted
to say, “Well, I know what it says, but I
worship God in my own way.” Well, you go ahead and do that—and then, when
you stand before Him, you can explain to Him why you thought you knew better
than He did. And He can then explain to you why He did not accept that kind of
worship. And you can have a chat with Nadab and Abihu, whom we will talk about
further down the road.
Now, there
is one last aspect of this feast that we’re going to look at today. In the
middle of all the regulations concerning the Passover, God says in Numbers 9:14—“And
if a stranger dwells among you, and would keep the LORD's Passover, he must do
so according to the rite of the Passover and according to its ceremony; you
shall have one ordinance, both for the stranger and the native of the land.’”
Real simple—there was but one Law for both Jew and
for Gentile. There was not one Law for the Jew and another, separate Law for
Gentile. One Law covered them both. Four times, God repeats this command. Once
in Leviticus, three times in Numbers. God makes it very clear that He does not
set one standard for one group of people, and another standard for others. Romans 3:19—Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may
become guilty before God. The ONE Law of God shuts EVERY mouth, and
declares ALL THE WORLD—Jew and Gentile—to be guilty before God. Romans 3:28-30—28
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of
the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the
Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify
the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. See, one thing we need to understand about the OT Law is that it
was not simply God’s standard for a specific group of people for a specific period
of time. While the Law was indeed given only to Israel, and it was only the Israelites who suffered the temporal punishments for violating its various commandments (for example, the Hivites were not stoned with stones for working on the seventh day of the week), it’s not as though God ignored murder before that moment when the
people of Israel got to Mt. Sinai.
Listen to what He said to Cain after he killed his brother Abel, Genesis 4:10-11—“10 What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood
cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which
has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.”
And of course we know why God sent the flood to wipe out all but the family of
Noah. Genesis 6:5-7—5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually…7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created
from the face of the earth." And after the flood was over, Genesis 9:6—“Whoever
sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He
made man.”
When
God gave the Ten Commandments in the hearing of all the people, and when He
spoke the entire Law to Moses up on Sinai, God was not really introducing any
new commandments; He was not all of a sudden prohibiting things that He had
previously condoned. When God gave the Law, He was simply telling Moses to put
in writing those things that had been understood by all mankind even from the
time of the Fall, when sin and death entered the world. Listen to Romans 5:12-14—12
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through
sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—13 (For until the law
sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not
sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam). Over the
1500 or so years before the giving of the Law, men died. The reason we die is
because of sin. Sin entered the world, and death
through sin. So when Paul says in Romans 5:13 that sin is not imputed when there is no law, he’s
saying that there must have been some kind of Law in existence before Sinai,
because men died. And men died because of sin. So that one Law covered every
single man—except Enoch, who was taken out of the world before he died.
Now, just as there was one Law for both Jew
and Gentile, there is also one gospel for both Jew and Gentile. There is not
one gospel for Jew and another, separate gospel for Gentile. There’s a real
popular preacher on TV who says that Jews don’t need to accept Christ as their
Savior, since they are Jews and the Jews are God’s chosen people—therefore Jews
are saved because they're Jews. And I'll tell you his name, it’s John Hagee.
That teaching is heresy—that was the very same error that the Pharisees were
guilty of. Matthew 3:7-10—7 But when [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned
you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of
repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our
father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from
these stones.10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore
every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire.” John the Baptist was saying, “Yep,
you guys are sons of Abraham. Whoopty-doo! That and a dollar will get you a cup
of coffee, but it ain't gonna get you into the kingdom of God!”
That’s just a loose translation from the Greek. There is ONE GOSPEL for the Jew
and for the Gentile. Listen to what Peter says in Acts 15—and keep in mind, if
there were ever a devout Jew, it was Simon Peter. Acts 15:7-11 (NASB)—7 After there had
been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know
that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the
Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows
the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did
to us; 9 and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts
by faith. 10 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the
neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to
bear? 11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,
in the same way as they also are." Jew and Gentile are both saved
in the same way—by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to
the Scriptures alone for the glory of God alone.
Paul tells us the following,
in Ephesians 2:14-18—14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and
has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh
the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to
create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He
might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross…18 For through
Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Colossians 3:11—There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free—and to expand that thought, there is
neither white nor black, American nor Canadian, Latino nor Japanese, African
nor Asian, French or English, Russian or Mexican—but
Christ is all and in all. Galatians
3:28—There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. Albert Barnes—“Every
man, on whom is the image and the blood of Christ, is a brother to every other
one who bears that image, and should be treated accordingly. What an influence
would be excited in the breaking up of the distinctions of rank and class among
people; what an effect in abolishing the prejudice on account of color and
country, if this were universally believed and felt!” There was one Law for
both Jew and Gentile—there is one gospel for both Jew and Gentile.
Jesus Christ
is Lord.
Amen.
