[A Teaching at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at University of Illinois at Chicago, Ilinois]

Good evening! My name is Insoo Kim and I am the assistant pastor at the Hyde Park Vineyard Church where I have been serving for almost 3 years now. My lovely wife, Angela, and our very loud son, Elliot, are here with me tonight. Please forgive Elliot if he makes a lot of noise during tonight. I am really honored and excited to be here today. So thank you for having me.

I don’t know most of you in this room. I don’t know where you are in your spiritual journey. I don’t know why you are here tonight. I don’t know if you are a follower of Jesus or someone who has been actively running away from God. I don’t know your stories. I don’t what is causing you to worry and be anxious tonight. I don’t know much about you at all. But here is what I do know. I know that God loves each and every one of you unconditionally, no matter what you may have done. I know that God is with us right now as we gather to worship him and study his Word. I know that God answers prayers. And so I have been praying for our time tonight for a few weeks now. I have been praying for you. I have been praying that God will stir your heart tonight with a love for Jesus like you’ve never known before. I have been praying for those of you in this room who are not Christians. I have been praying that God will speak to you tonight. That you would know in your heart of hearts that Jesus loves you and that he died for you, and that if you would simply put your faith in him, that the emptiness you feel inside will be replaced by something so powerful and beautiful. I have been praying for those of you who have been struggling in your Christian faith. Maybe you’ve grown tired and weary. Maybe you are on the brink of giving up. I have been praying that God will give you the strength and courage you need to keep trusting him, to keep hoping in him. I know God answers prayers. And so before we continue, let’s take a minute to pray. And if you don’t know how to pray, you can simply close your eyes and ask God to speak to you and then just sit in silence and wait. Let’s pray.

Every year, in April, all the Jewish families gather together to celebrate the most sacred of holidays. In Hebrew, the name of this holiday is called “Pesach” which in English means, “Passover.” It is a holiday that commemorates the story that we will be reading about in today’s passage from the book of Exodus. For this most special of occasions, they go all out. The best silverware and china are set. Only the finest of ingredients are used for the meal, which is called the “Seder.” During this meal, the eldest person on the table will retell the story of the Exodus from a special text called the “Haggadah.” And after the retelling of this story, there is a tradition where the youngest child will be asked four questions about the Exodus which are supposed to help this child understand the significance of this very special day. The scholars believe that the book of Exodus was written around 1450-1400BC, meaning that for some 3400 years, the Jews have been celebrating the Passover. That is how important the story of Exodus is to the Jewish people. And so the great story of the Exodus is told over and over again, year after year, one generation to the next, the story of how this God, the Great I Am, redeemed his people.

In a way, as we are retelling and learning the story of Exodus tonight, we are in essence celebrating Pesach, the Passover. And some of you maybe wondering, “Hey, I thought this was a Christian group. What’s with all this Jewish stuff? Insoo, you don’t look Jewish. What’s going on here?” Well, relax. The story of Exodus and the Passover has everything to do with Christianity. And if you can sit through my boring sermon for the next 15 minutes or so, I will get to this part at the very end.

Please take out your Bible. We are going to read through the passage from Exodus, chapter 11 through verse 30 of chapter 12. So, please take out your Bible because we are all going to take part in the reading of the passage. We’ll just go one person to the next and each of you can read about 3 or 4 verses each. If you don’t have a Bible, please share with someone next to you.

Let me give you a very quick synopsis of what has happened up to this point in the story of Exodus. We are in the middle of the story of Exodus where Moses has been commanded by God to approach the Pharaoh and command him to let his people go. Again and again, the Pharaoh refuses, so God begins to send various plagues. There have been 9 so far and what we will study tonight is the 10th and final of these plagues. And after this final plague, we will read about the Passover.

So, let’s read. And when it is your turn to read, please read loud so that everyone in the room can hear you. Okay. Let’s start.

Exodus 11:1-12:30
Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. 2 Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." 3 (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.) 4 So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. 6 There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. 7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. 8 All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave." Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh. 9 The LORD had said to Moses, "Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you—so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt." 10 Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country. 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover. 12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. 14 "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do. 17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread." 21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. 24 "Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' 27 then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.' "Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28 The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. 29 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

It is not an easy passage to swallow is it? And I don’t believe it was meant to be easy to understand. Why would God kill the firstborn sons? That just doesn’t seem like something that a good and kind God would do? Can this God of the Exodus be trusted? Can he be worshiped? These are all questions that most of us have struggled with at least one point in our lives aren’t they? Hasn’t there been a time in your life when things happened and you just could not see God in the story? Just read a newspaper or watch the news on TV. This world is full of stories where it is difficult to see God. Just a few days ago, there was an off-duty police officer who killed 6 people. Here is how one newspaper recounted the story.

Tyler Peterson, a deputy of the Forest County Sheriff's Office and part-time officer with the Crandon Police Department, showed up shortly after 2:45 a.m. Sunday at the home of one-time girlfriend Jordanne Murray, 18, and began fighting with her and others who were gathered there. Infuriated, Peterson went out to retrieve an AR-15 rifle from his truck. He then forced himself back into the home where he fired 30 rounds. The victims and one survivor were all between the ages of 14 and 20.

The family of the perpetrator wrote an apology letter to the community. “We also feel a tremendous amount of guilt and shame for the horrible acts Tyler committed. We are struggling to respond, like most of you. We don’t know what we should do. There is nothing that happened before or after yesterday’s events that has given us any insight into why.”

Where is God in this story? Where is God in Columbine? Where is God in Virginia Tech? Why would God kill the firstborn sons of Egypt? These are very real and difficult questions. And for some of you in this room, these questions are also very personal. I do not have an easy answer for you. I have many questions like many of you do. But let me attempt to at least shed a little bit of light on this subject.

We understand all of the plagues in light of the Passover. In the midst of the plagues and the judgment of God, we can easily miss his grace and mercy. Over and over again, the Pharaoh is given the opportunity to obey, yet he refuses every time. Over and over again, God extends his mercy and forgiveness to the people of Egypt, yet they refuse every time. The whole issue of the Passover is about what God is able to do to his enemies and what he will do for the people that choose him. We are supposed to see the great power, his greatness, his grandness, even the destructive power of God. It is supposed to cause us to stand in awe of all that he is able to do, though we may not necessarily understand it. But as we study the story of the Passover, we see a God who protects, who guards, and who desperately loves his people. We read in 12:23, "When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down." The Lord himself will block the entry of the destroyer. He will be a protective covering for His people. Their security is His presence. He is the one who saves. He is the one who preserves. He is the one who redeems. He is a good God. He is a good God.

The prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 31:5:

Like birds hovering overhead, the LORD Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will 'pass over' it and will rescue it.

The Hebrew word for “pass over” in this verse is the same as the Hebrew word we read in the passage in Exodus. Our God is our shield and our deliverer! He is our salvation. He is our redeemer.

And so we come to the long awaited part in the teaching. What does this story, this very Jewish story, have to do with my Christian faith? Well, please turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 5:7. Here is what it reads:

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

In this passage, Paul is alluding directly to the story of the Exodus where a lamb was sacrificed to redeem the people of Israel, and he tells us that Jesus Christ is The Passover lamb. Jesus Christ was sacrificed to redeem his people. We also read in 1 Peter 1:18-19:

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Jesus Christ is the Lamb. He is the Perfect Lamb. Jesus is to us the perfect Passover lamb. The prison of slavery in Egypt for the Jews is now for us the kingdom of darkness. And the captives of Egypt is not just Israel, but is now for us the whole world. And the redemption that we see in Exodus is not merely a geographical change, but is now for us a spiritual and eternal one. This is the Gospel message. This is the foundation of the Christian faith.

Here is what one of my favorite pastors, Rich Nathan, says about this passage:

Going back to the story of Exodus, the only difference, and this is really an important point, the only difference between those who lost their firstborn that night and those who didn't, the only difference between those houses that were visited by the angel of death and those that the angel of death passed over was that one house that was marked with the blood of the lamb on its door posts and the other house had no blood on it. God didn't draw a distinction between one house being the house of a Jew and the other being a house of an Egyptian. Jewish homes without blood would have received the visit of the angel of death.

And this is a principle that runs throughout the scriptures. This is where this Jewish story intersects our Christian faith. What saves a person from the judgment of God is when God sees the blood of the lamb over your life. When God sees the blood of Messiah Jesus, the Lamb of God, applied to your life by faith, then you are saved. Then you are safe, secure and protected from judgment. He looks at your life and he is looking to see the mark of the blood on your life.

And the blood must be applied by using a bunch of plants called hyssop. Again, it is not enough to slaughter the lamb. Each family must personally apply the blood to their own homes and to their own lives. I would simply make the point that it is the same thing with the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus our Messiah. There are many, many people who know that Jesus the Messiah died on a cross. There are lots of people who have been taught that Jesus the Messiah died on a cross for sins. But they never have had His blood sprinkled on their lives. Our faith is like that hyssop plant. It takes the blood of Jesus and applies it to us and to our own sins. It is not being acquainted with the facts of Jesus' death that saves us. It is applying the blood of that death to your life by faith.

There is a story called "The Ragman" written by Walter Wangerin which I believe beautifully illustrates the heart of God. So, I would like to read it for you now. It is a little bit long, so please bear with me. Please let it speak to you tonight.

THE RAGMAN STORY (by Walter Wangerin, Jr.)
I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for. Hush, child. Hush, now, and I will tell it to you.

Even before the dawn one Friday morning I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking the alleys of our City. He was pulling an old cart filled with clothes both bright and new, and he was calling in a clear, tenor voice: "Rags!" Ah, the air was foul and the first light filthy to be crossed by such sweet music.

"Rags! New rags for old! I take your tired rags! Rags!"

"Now, this is a wonder," I thought to myself, for the man stood six-feet-four, and his arms were like tree limbs, hard and muscular, and his eyes flashed intelligence. Could he find no better job than this, to be a ragman in the inner city?

I followed him. My curiosity drove me. And I wasn't disappointed.

Soon the Ragman saw a woman sitting on her back porch. She was sobbing into a handkerchief, sighing, and shedding a thousand tears. Her knees and elbows made a sad X. Her shoulders shook. Her heart was breaking.

The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys, and Pampers.

"Give me your rag," he said so gently, "and I'll give you another."

He slipped the handkerchief from her eyes. She looked up, and he laid across her palm a linen cloth so clean and new that it shined. She blinked from the gift to the giver.

Then, as he began to pull his cart again, the Ragman did a strange thing: he put her stained handkerchief to his own face; and then HE began to weep, to sob as grievously as she had done, his shoulders shaking. Yet she was left without a tear.

"This IS a wonder," I breathed to myself, and I followed the sobbing Ragman like a child who cannot turn away from mystery.

"Rags! Rags! New rags for old!"

In a little while, when the sky showed grey behind the rooftops and I could see the shredded curtains hanging out black windows, the Ragman came upon a girl whose head was wrapped in a bandage, whose eyes were empty. Blood soaked her bandage. A single line of blood ran down her cheek.

Now the tall Ragman looked upon this child with pity, and he drew a lovely yellow bonnet from his cart. "Give me your rag," he said, tracing his own line on her cheek, "and I'll give you mine."

The child could only gaze at him while he loosened the bandage, removed it, and tied it to his own head. The bonnet he set on hers. And I gasped at what I saw: for with the bandage went the wound! Against his brow it ran a darker, more substantial blood - his own!

"Rags! Rags! I take old rags!" cried the sobbing, bleeding, strong, intelligent Ragman.

The sun hurt both the sky, now, and my eyes; the Ragman seemed more and more to hurry.

"Are you going to work?" he asked a man who leaned against a telephone pole. The man shook his head.

The Ragman pressed him: "Do you have a job?"

"Are you crazy?" sneered the other. He pulled away from the pole, revealing the right sleeve of his jacket - flat, the cuff stuffed into the pocket. He had no arm.

"So," said the Ragman. "Give me your jacket, and I'll give you mine." Such quiet authority in his voice!

The one-armed man took off his jacket. So did the Ragman - and I trembled at what I saw: for the Ragman's arm stayed in its sleeve, and when the other put it on he had two good arms, thick as tree limbs; but the Ragman had only one.

"Go to work," he said.

After that he found a drunk, lying unconscious beneath an army blanket, an old man, hunched, wizened, and sick. He took that blanket and wrapped it round himself, but for the drunk he left new clothes.

And now I had to run to keep up with the Ragman. Though he was weeping uncontrollably, and bleeding freely at the forehead, pulling his cart with one arm, stumbling for drunkenness, falling again and again, exhausted, old, old, and sick, yet he went with terrible speed. On spider's legs he skittered through the alleys of the City, this mile and the next, until he came to its limits, and then he rushed beyond.

I wept to see the change in this man. I hurt to see his sorrow. And yet I needed to see where he was going in such haste, perhaps to know what drove him so.
The little old Ragman - he came to a landfill. He came to the garbage pits. And then I wanted to help him in what he did, but I hung back, hiding. He climbed a hill. With tormented labor he cleared a little space on that hill. Then he sighed. He lay down. He pillowed his head on a handkerchief and a jacket. He covered his bones with an army blanket. And he died.

Oh, how I cried to witness that death! I slumped in a junked car and wailed and mourned as one who has no hope - because I had come to love the Ragman. Every other face had faded in the wonder of this man, and I cherished him; but he died. I sobbed myself to sleep.

I did not know - how could I know? - that I slept through Friday night and Saturday and its night, too. But then, on Sunday morning, I was wakened by a violence.
Light - pure, hard, demanding light - slammed against my sour face, and I blinked, and I looked, and I saw the last and the first wonder of all. There was the Ragman, folding the blanket most carefully, a scar on his forehead, but alive! And, besides that, healthy! There was no sign of sorrow nor of age, and all the rags that he had gathered shined for cleanliness.

Well, then I lowered my head and trembling for all that I had seen, I myself walked up to the Ragman. I told him my name with shame, for I was a sorry figure next to him. Then I took off all my clothes in that place, and I said to him with dear yearning in my voice: "Dress me."
He dressed me. My Lord, he put new rags on me, and I am a wonder beside him. The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ!

Jesus is our Ragman. Jesus is our shield. Jesus is our Passover lamb. Jesus is our redeemer. I believe that there are many of you here today who are in desperate need of the Ragman to come into your life. But you feel ashamed. You don’t think you’re worthy. But, here is the good news. The God of the Exodus, the Great I Am, knows you intimately. He knows it all and he still loves you. Jesus died for every one of your sins. And the only thing that God demands of you is that you would simply and humbly surrender your life to Jesus, to paint the doorposts of your heart with the blood of Jesus, to receive Jesus as your Passover lamb.

The story of the Exodus and the Passover is the story of redemption, it is the story of a God who so desperately loves his people that he will go through great lengths to call his people back to himself. In a moment, I’m going to ask everyone to bow your heads and pray. And in this time of prayer, I am going to give all of you an opportunity to respond to God tonight. I’m going to give you an opportunity to let God just shower you with his love. I’m going to give you an opportunity to paint the doorpost of your heart with the blood of Jesus. To trade in your old rags for new ones. And it is not difficult to do at all. Really. All it takes is a simple prayer that I will pray with you. And I believe that if you will take this step of faith today to surrender your life to Jesus, your sins will be completely forgiven and that your life will never ever be the same again. God will bless you with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control, and so much more. But as I shared earlier, it is not enough to merely know and understand the story of Exodus and the Passover, this story of a redemptive God, this story of Jesus, the ultimate Passover lamb. But you must take that step of faith to receive this free gift. And I want to help some of you do that tonight. So let’s all close our eyes and bow our heads in prayer.