Pathway to Salvation

The Exodus Series, Part 2 of 4

September 8, 1996

Exodus 12:1-14

Matthew 18:15-20

The Exodus Begins

A CHALLENGE TO BELIEVE

As the story of Exodus began, the descendants of Jacob were living by their wits as best they could, surviving as virtual slaves in an alien culture. From time to time they cried out to God, "Is this all there is?" Then one day word went around the Hebrew quarters that a Bedouin shepherd had appeared claiming to be Moses, one of their own, a descendent of the patriarch Levi. This sunburned shepherd said that he had a message from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Deep in their hearts a spark of hope kindled. They wanted to believe, but believing is always a challenge. That spark of hope, when it is genuine, is beyond words of merely human persuasion. Revelation and faith never explain the mystery of God. Over the next days and weeks they became convinced that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom they now began to know as Yahweh, really had heard their prayers of despair. They decided to follow Moses as he followed God.

God's directions then became more specific. The word came that they were to begin to prepare to leave Egypt forever. They would be leaving in a time of crisis. They would be leaving in a hurry, probably in the early morning hours just about dawn, on a day sometime in the near future. They were told to pack up, and be ready at a moment's notice. In preparation for their final meal they were to get a supply of unleavened bread. They were to bring a yearling lamb into the houses. They would be told the night before that this was the night.

Four days after these preparations had been made the word went out: this is the night! Kill the lambs, and roast them. Cook the first batch of unleavened bread. Families— eat together and don't go out until morning— this is it! Passover was under way. Exodus had begun.

The path of salvation begins with OBEDIENCE BEFORE THE MYSTERY OF GOD'S WORD - "when I see the blood I will pass over you"

It took courage for them to come together and decide that they would believe the God of their great fathers. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It took faith for them to obey orders even when they could not grasp the significance of what they were doing. That faith was expressed in simple obedience.

God's directions given through Moses and Aaron went beyond what they could understand. The idea of eating meat for strength, and unleavened bread that would not spoil along the way would seem to make sense. But they were to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the sides and top of the door to their homes. It would be a sign and symbol of obedience. That did not "make sense." They simply obeyed!

The significance of the blood was different from all other blood sacrifices of pagan religions, even though blood sacrifice is common; this was somehow very different. The Passover represented great respect for life itself; blood, representing life, became very sacred to God's people. The Passover demanded obedience in this mystery of respect for life. That obedience was the sprinkling of the blood on the lintels and doorposts of those who believed. It may not "make sense." But 4,000 years later our Jewish neighbors remember the Passover with reverence.

I think I hear echoes of this incredulity at times, 4,000 years later, when people trying to simplify the mystery of the Cross of Christ. We can understand the need for the good and kind things Jesus taught, but why do we need to speak of the Body and Blood of Jesus? We have managed to find fault with all the old theories of atonement, (ransom, substitution, redemption, etc.) even though each of them probably has some facet of truth from the scriptures. Some evangelical Christians have pretty much ended up where the liberals were nearly 100 years ago. Jesus is to them an example and a martyr.

A Holy Mystery is exactly what we are challenged to embrace when we come seeking the freedom from sin we call the God-life. Paul writes "While we were still dead in our sin, Christ died for us!" Peter tells us that as a lamb without blemish, Jesus shed his precious blood so that we might have eternal life. And Jesus Himself said (John 6) unless we eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, we have no part in Him. It is in Christ's DEATH that our life begins! That was exactly when multitudes left him. (see John 6:66.)

Sophisticates tell us they have gone beyond the message of the cross. But the mystery we celebrate is Jesus Christ has died! Jesus Christ is risen! Jesus Christ is coming again! The CROSS, the Lamb of God, is at the very HEART of our salvation! Thank God if you can believe! If you can and will, you are SAVED!!

The path to salvation continues with

THE DISCIPLINE OF A COMMUNITY OF HOPE

- "having loins girded; your shoes on— eat it in haste.."

The slaves were on their way— but they had not yet arrived. They had a long, hard journey ahead of them. They were not a nation, a people— but God was bringing them together. In the same way when we have come to the Cross and our sins are forgiven and we are baptized we have eternal life, and we have also begun a long journey. To believe God is to begin the discipline of the community of hope.

It is God's plan that every born again Christian have a place in the community of hope. Another word for Christian is "disciple." And that sounds like discipline. Paul says, "Lay aside every hindrance— and the sin that does so easily best— and run with discipline the race that is set before US— looking unto Jesus!"

The first major stop on the Exodus journey as the slaves began to become God's own holy nation was at the mountain where God had first met Moses. There they received holy commandments for living— Ten Commandments that have never been repealed. I will not go into detail in this sermon about the commandments. The epistle lesson reminds us, however, that God's people live by disciplines of obedience to God, and of caring and respect for personality. The commandments and ordinances and rules of God are not harsh and arbitrary. God saves us, and as we meet at the foot of the cross we realize we are not alone. We gladly embrace the discipline of the people of hope.

But mere discipline is not quite enough. God's way is not just keeping rules, and doing right and not doing wrong. The path of salvation intends that we all come to ...

FAITHFULNESS EMERGING AS GENUINE LOVE

To band together in mutual need is one thing— to become one in heart and spirit is quite another. The end God has in mind is not simply to get the people out of Egypt— or even to get the Egypt out of the people— and finally, not even to get the people over into Canaan where they each have a house and vine and fig tree— where the milk and honey flows— but the bottom line is LOVE! WE ARE NOT THE CHURCH GOD INTENDS US TO BE UNTIL WE "AGREE" IN LOVE!

Our God is a God of fierce, passionate, white-hot LOVE! He wants his people to love Him. He wants them to know He loves them! He wants them to love each other and show the world how life can be lived.

This kind of love didn't fully happen there in the desert— and really is hasn't happened too many times in the Christian era, either. But where people press through the mystery of obedience, into the discipline of a community of hope— they come into the challenge of seeing their faithfulness emerging as genuine love.

The Gospel lesson says that when just two people AGREE in prayer God will answer with power. What sort of AGREEMENT do you suppose this can be? What does it mean? There is power, Jesus would have us to know, when people forget their selfish agendas and unite to seek the whole will of God. Promises that underscore the power of prayer are easily twisted and misunderstood. "Ask what YOU will—" "Ask in MY name..." "If two of you AGREE..." What do these promises mean?

To agree to follow Jesus— to set aside selfishness— is to risk finding out what the promises mean! It is risking the awe and the mystery and the fascination of having God move in and show us how we should live.

In his book The Acting Person, the man who once was Cardinal Karyl Wojtyla gave two authentic and two inauthentic ways people act and react in community. He called the two authentic ways solidarity, which i would call "agreeing," and opposition. The two inauthentic ways are conforming (which i would call "going along passively" and non-involvement. We can betray love by saying "yes" when we should say a loving "no!" We can betray love by refusing to take an active part in the redemptive community. But when as many as two people really AGREE that they are going to follow Jesus, then things must happen, good things— eternal things.

These are milestones along the pathway of salvation: deliverance from sin, to taking part in the community of hope, to learning to agree in love to seek and do God's will, God wants us to be His body, His people, the CHURCH! I close with the "text" of this Exodus story, 1 Peter 2:9,10:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who once had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Prayer

Hymn 452 When I See the Blood (v1,2,4)