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November 24, 2019

Reading: Exodus 12:1-13, 21-23

“Pharoah’s Sin And Ours”

The Passover Event: a really really significant event for the story of Exodus, for the Jewish people, the Bible’s Story and our understanding Jesus

Exodus 12:2—happy new year!; a new beginning, a new creation

The Passover And Jesus:

i. This is my body, this is my blood”

ii. "Jesus, our Passover lamb has been cruficed"

iii. "And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll     and to open its seals, because you were slain,     and with your blood you purchased for God     persons from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Revelation 5:9).

This morning's question: “Why did these people have to put blood on their door frames?” §  “Why did these people do that?”

Yes, God told them to this and they were obeying God’s instructions.

And yes, if they wanted their firstborn to be saved they had to do this.

And yes, this was a sign that they could not save themselves  But why did these people put blood on their doors? Why did these people in slavery have to put blood on their doorframes?   Isn’t Pharoah the bad guy, the abuser, the slave master???

And the basic answer (so uncomfortable for us in the 21st century!): there something wrong with every human heart.

"All have sinned and far short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) 

There is not really “good guys” and the “bad guys," the “healthy” and the “sick," “the righteous” and the “unrighteous." All of us have sinned, broken, flawed   

What is this sin?

Hearts that are disoriented

Having anything in our lives that is more important than God Himself

When the self becomes the absolute centre

An over-indulgent focus on the self, on “me”

When we focus on the sins of the "other" we tend to:

i. condemn that sin and person(s)

ii. we feel better about our sins

iii. we forget about our sin(s)

iv. we explain our sins away

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive [wicked] way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24).

"You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye" (Matthew 7:5) 

The Role Of The Church: Confessing Sin

Prayer Of Confession