Faithful: The Life of Josiah
Faithful to Remember • Message 7
Bryan Jones
November 17, 2024

A. Introduction

I’ll never forget one time I was teaching middle school students at a youth group. Now, most of the time, I was preaching to high school students, and I didn’t spend as much time with middle school students… So, I asked some middle school pastors for advice. They said just remember that middle school students are a little more black-and-white. They don’t understand comparisons as well. Just be simple, clear and direct….

So, I’ll never forget, one day, I’m teaching on Luke 14, where Jesus says… “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26 NIV)

And I must have said 10 times this isn’t a literal hate… it’s just showing your oneness with Jesus should be so complete that it almost looks like hate… there is such a gap of your love…

And at the end of the sermon, this small little 6th-grade girl comes up and says, I'm struggling with this whole Jesus thing. She said you said you got to hate your mother, father, sisters, and brothers… She said I really love my mom… She said I think I’m okay giving up my dad, and my brothers annoy me, but do you think I could keep my love for my mom…

And I realized in that moment… I’ve just taught heresy… like she has no idea what this verse is about… what’s its purpose, what it’s saying, what Jesus wants us to understand…

And one of the things I think so many people, to a lesser degree, misunderstand—the thing that misses the purpose—they miss what Jesus is saying… is on something called Passover…

In fact, people who have been around the church have heard stories of killing lambs and spreading blood on doorposts, and even today, we take communion, which comes from Passover, but we don’t really even understand that. It’s just tradition.

So, today, I want to help you understand what Passover is all about. Like someone who has bad eyesight, and they can see things but they’re foggy. But when they get glasses or contacts… suddenly everything comes into focus.

In this story of Josiah, almost a whole chapter is written about Passover, and a lot of people would just skim over it. They would see some fuzzy concepts, but today, I want to give you lenses to see how important Passover is.

I want to give you spiritual eyes to see the richness of this feast and what it points to, and then today, I want to end with communion, hopefully with fresh eyes… Now, to do that, I want to answer some questions…

Passover

1. What is PASSOVER? (Exodus 12:23, 29)

The Passover is at the center of Jewish and Christian faiths… 

For Jews, it is the central thing that makes them who they are… and for Christians, a revised Passover meal, the Lord’s Supper, is the central act of Christian worship…

Passover was designed to help remember the past so people would have confidence for the future.

So, let me take you to the first Passover. Where it all began. It’s in Exodus 12:

“For the LORD will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when He sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the LORD will pass over your home. He will not permit His death angel to enter your house and strike you down.”
Exodus 12:23 (NLT)

And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.
Exodus 12:29 (NKJV)

In Exodus, the people of Israel are enslaved. They are in bondage, and they begin to cry out… so God raises up a deliverer… anyone know his name… MOSES

Moses goes and tells Pharoah that God has told him to release His people. Pharoah refuses, and so God sent nine plagues to change Pharoah, but it doesn’t…

There is a love of God, and there is a holiness of God. He is to be feared and taken seriously.

Basically, God tells Pharaoh that He will kill all the firstborn sons of everyone since he won’t repent, but that those who put the blood of a lamb on the doorpost, the angel of death will pass over

So, God sends the tenth plague, which will be later called Passover

Think about this, plagues… He had given Pharaoh nine opportunities to repent; maybe the thing you think is God’s anger is actually His love for you. See, I don’t see them as plague after plague. I see them as opportunity after opportunity

We, deep down, have a sense of right and wrong. We know what we should and shouldn’t do… nobody confuses a Krispy Kreme donut with a multi-vitamin.

Passover is where God spared those who were covered by the blood… and you think, that’s cruel, but let me remind you on the cross, Jesus, the firstborn of all creation, was crushed so that we could be spared.

PASSOVER IS ALL ABOUT THE LAMB

2. Key requirements of the Passover LAMB.

When they selected a lamb, they had requirements… and you will see there is a reason it’s specific because…

Everything points to Jesus.

a. PERFECT (Exodus 12:5; Hebrews 7:28)

“This animal shall be a year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, without any defects.”
Exodus 12:5 (TLB)

But part of the requirement for lambs was they had to be without blemish. They had to be perfect. They couldn’t be maimed…

Notice what Hebrews says about Jesus…

Under the old system, even the high priests were weak and sinful men who could not keep from doing wrong, but later God appointed by His oath His Son who is perfect forever.
Hebrews 7:28 (TLB)

There was a couple at my previous church who were focusing on their marriage… so they took a marriage test… and it was like 1 out of 10, how would you rate things… she gave the entire test a 10… he gave everything a 5 or 6… and when I meet with them they were fighting over the test that was supposed to help resolve their issues. And I asked them why they had different scores… he said I thought we were supposed to be honest… she looked straight at him and said I don’t want to be honest… I want to be perfect… I know none of you want to be perfect… right?

But let me say this: Jesus being perfect is good news… because it means there is more grace in him than sin in us…

He is perfect…

b. SACRIFICE (Exodus 12:6)

“On the evening of the fourteenth day of this month, all these lambs shall be killed,”
Exodus 12:6 (TLB)

This perfect lamb had to be sacrificed or slaughtered. Why? To save the people, to be a scapegoat for their sins.

Sometimes, we read passages like this, and we think that’s extreme. Why the killing of animals…? Why the blood? Feels intense… and sometimes, we don’t like to talk about it.

And one of the top questions I get asked is why the Old Testament God seems angry… like, there are these passages with death... passages where it seems like the slaughtering of innocents…  where people are killed in a flood, or during a Canaanite conquest, entire groups of people are killed, and people go, see this shows God isn’t love. God can’t be merciful. He can’t be kind.

Good news - No one who was innocent has ever been slaughtered in the Bible.

Bad news – No one is innocent – all have sinned.

Best news – There is only one slaughtering of an innocent in the Bible, and it wasn’t in the Old Testament. It was in the New Testament… and His name was Jesus…

And this whole Passover thing… the reason it’s being repeated, it’s pointing to a perfect holy God who will become like a lamb to slaughter for your sins…

c. APPLIED (Exodus 12:22)

“Drain the lamb’s blood into a basin, and then take a cluster of hyssop branches and dip them into the lamb’s blood, and strike the hyssop against the lintel above the door and against the two side panels, so that there will be blood upon them, and none of you shall go outside all night.”
Exodus 12:22 (TLB)

When Steph and I were first married, we were so broke that we ate ramen noodles most nights, and the only drinks we had in our house were water and Kool-Aid… So, one day, Steph’s car broke down, and we had no money… none.

A family in the church caught wind of it… and they wanted to bless us… so they told us they had a blessing… and it was a 7-year-old Acura MDX… Listen, a Honda would have been a blessing… an Acura was like a miracle… we were literally so broke that to celebrate, we went to Denny’s… and I told Steph, get anything you want on the menu…. Anything. I know what you’re thinking, what a romantic.

But they had talked about it, but what mattered wasn’t the words. It was the title… we had to have it transferred to our name… it wasn’t any good until it was transferred.

When the lamb was killed, the blood was to be caught in a basin… but this precious blood didn’t do any good in this basin… it had to be applied to the doorposts…

What a strange place to put the blood. But think about this: Jesus bled and died on a piece of wood.

The blood of Jesus does you no good unless it’s applied unless you receive it in your life. It doesn’t matter if Jesus was born in a manger if He isn’t born in your heart. That’s why you use the phrase being born again. It’s not like you come out of some spiritual womb, but it’s that you have received the life of Jesus. His blood has covered you…

Egypt was a melting pot of nations, and all God looked for was the blood. The Passover was for anyone and everyone… but it had to be applied.

d. SHARED

The story of Jesus is too good to keep to ourselves. We should be sharing. The church doesn’t exist for you. It exists for the world. Listen, I’m not a big numbers guy. Really, I don’t pay too much attention… but I’ll say this: sometimes people will say, you know, I want a small church. I don’t want a big church… how big do you want Brookwood to get? Do you know why Jesus came to this earth… He said it is to seek and save the lost. People don’t complain if a hospital reaches and serves more people… and my simple answer to Brookwood growing… as long as there are lost and hurting people out there, I don’t ever want to quit growing because we exist for the world.

3. What is the PURPOSE of Passover? (Why does it continue?) (Exodus 12:25; 2 Kings 23:21-22)

Notice God told the Israelites to keep Passover.

When you enter the land the LORD has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony.
Exodus 12:25 (NLT)

And Josiah we read about took this very seriously, as he returned to the Lord…

King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.” There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2 Kings 23:21-22 (NLT)

Why such much emphasis on this feast…? What was the purpose of Passover…

The lesson is that the deliverance from the judgment of God requires the death of an innocent substitute…

In America, we celebrate the Fourth of July… it represents our freedom… Think of Passover as Freedom Day… when they were freed from slavery in Egypt and saved by the blood of the lamb.

Said another way, it was all pointing to Jesus…

Passover is all about remembering…

But remembering what?

a. The LOVE of God (John 1:29)

In the Passover Feast, there are 3 main items…

Wine

Bread

Lamb

Did you notice that at the Last Supper with Jesus, there was bread and wine but no lamb? Why? Because Jesus was the lamb.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:29 (NLT)

The lamb wasn’t on the table. He was at the table… He’s saying I am the Lamb… He is saying My death is the central event in human history…

Do you know that remember is one of the most repeated commands in the Bible… What are some ways you remember…

Gratitude journal – jot down what God has done daily

Visual reminders of God’s goodness in your spaces

Christmas tradition – remember God’s goodness

b. The WRATH of God. (Judgment of God) (Isaiah 53:5-6, 10)

But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — everyone — to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:5-6 (ESV)

But it was the LORD’S good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants.
Isaiah 53:10 (NLT)