The Passover Lamb

Notes from Ky Martin's sermon on Sunday, February 22, 2026.
Sermon text: Exodus 11-12:32

Ex. 7:5 The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”

Anyone with an ounce of sense among the Egyptians had long since realized that resistance to the Israelites’ God Yahweh was useless. -Douglas K. Stuart

Significance of the last strike (plague):
Enacted by God himself
Shaped Israel's calendar

Nissan: (March/April)
10th: Choose and set aside the lamb (plan ahead!)
14th: Kill, cook, eat
15th-21st: Feast of unleavened bread

We should do things in our calendar that cause our children to ask, “why?”

3. Theological
All have sinned.

It is striking that in Exodus 12 the death penalty is also pronounced on the firstborn Israelite males. This is especially noteworthy because with the first signs God distinguished clearly between the Egyptians and the Israelites… This suggests that the death of the firstborn is more than merely a punishment for what the Egyptians did to the Israelites. Something of greater significance is taking place. -T. Desmond Alexander

Deliverance

Christ and his redemption are the subject of the whole Word of God. - Jonathan Edwards.

Substitutionary Atonement

Heb. 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus of Nazareth was to be young at the time of his death, male of course, and perfect—free from defect before God. His sinlessness qualified him and him alone to be the lamb of God, a human lamb rather than an animal of the flock, and yet a lamb in the sense of one meeting the criteria for the Passover meal. -Doug Stuart

Jesus is a better passover lamb and feast
Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.



Discipleship Questions:

1. What are some things that made the last plague (strike) unique?
2. The Israeli’s calendar was ordered around this event. What are some annual events you celebrate to commemorate what God has done?
3. Israelites would later eat this passover meal with shoes on and staffs in hand so that their kids would ask, “why.” Do you have any traditions that remind yourself and others of what God has done?
4. How does the passover feast and accompanying events foreshadow Jesus?