Sermon Guide: Exodus 12:13, 21-28, "The Blood of the Lamb"

Key Passage

Exodus 12:13 ESV

The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:21–28 ESV

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you. You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

Sermon Overview

God’s holy presence is a danger to people stained by sin and death, and no sincerity, effort, or moral improvement can make us fit to stand before Him. In the Passover, God teaches that only the blood of a substitute life can cleanse what death has defiled, so that judgment passes over and God can dwell without destroying. This same logic is fulfilled in Christ, whose blood both saves us once for all and continues to cleanse us as we walk in the light.

Sermon Structure

#1 Stained

• Everything is stained by sin & death

• We cannot clean ourselves

• We are unfit for God’s presence

#2 Washed

• How can blood clean anything?

• The life is in the blood

• Purified by the blood of Christ

#3 Saved

• Propitiation, justification, redemption

• Your judgment day is in the past

• A sign for you, a sign for God

#4 Sanctified

• God is not tricked

• Hebrews 10: you are being sanctified

• 1 John 1: walk in the light for cleansing

Questions for Discussion & Reflection

1. Exodus 12:13 tells us what God is looking for when he passes through the land. But it’s worth saying it out loud: what ISN’T God looking for?

   
   

2. The Bible talks a lot about blood. The Old Testament faith was a particularly bloody one. What stories from the Bible stick out to you that involve blood as representative of life, or substitution?

   
   

3. 1 John says the blood of Jesus “cleanses us from all sin” as we walk in the light. What does it look like, practically, to walk in the light instead of hiding stains?

   
   

4. If you’re honest, do you tend more toward despair (“I’m too stained”) or self-reliance (“I can clean myself up”)? How does the Passover—and the cross—answer both?