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Redeemer Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

The Deliverance of a People

Exodus 11:1-13:16

Introduction
I come to you this morning with a heavy heart to deliver our message from Exod
11:1-13:16. I am heavy-hearted because the theological lesson of the text contains a strong
admonishment to our entire church body. Part of the reason for the weight I feel in
preaching this text is that I am afraid to discourage you. I do not want you to feel under the
pile of an already demanding lifestyle. Christianity is hard. The narrow way that leads to
life is narrow and fraught with difficulty.

But it would be unjust for me to lower the demands of the gospel in order to comfort
you. In fact, if I were to lower the demands; if I were to say that Christians are not
obligated to walk in the same manner that Jesus did, I would be a liar and disqualified from
service. I submit that it is much closer to the truth to say that the way to gospel comfort is
through gospel demand.

When I hold up the standard of God’s word—the character of Christ himself—and I

say to all of us (all of us) that this is how we must live, we must all humbly admit that the
demand is impossible. I cannot behave like Christ all the time. I am a sinner. And even
though I love the Lord Jesus, even though I have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, I still
sin—we all still sin.

Some might suggest that in order to comfort you I should not preach on the demands
of the gospel. I should just talk about comfort—about mercy and grace and forgiveness and
love. And yet, why would we need comfort if we didn’t know about our duty? Mercy in
order to be mercy is unwarranted. Grace to be grace is unmerited. Forgiveness implies a
debt. And the love of God in Christ cost the eternal son his life, suffering the shame and
pain of the cross.

No, what we need is to feel the weight of the demand and then we need to be
reminded of the mercy and grace and forgiveness and love of God in Christ that takes us
back every time, even though we do not deserve to be taken back. You cannot have gospel
comfort without gospel demand. And so this morning, one of the demands of the gospel—
and a demand that speaks to us where we are as a church—is in this morning’s text.

As you know, Exod 11:1-13:16 deals with God’s final plague against Egypt: the
plague of death. As with the earlier plagues, this section includes an announcement of
God’s judgment in 11:1-10, its execution in 12:29-30, and its effect both in terms of its result

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among the people and with an account of Pharaoh’s reaction in 12:31-42. The entire
section of narrative deals with the tenth and final act of judgment against Egypt and Egypt’s
gods.

And yet, unlike its narrative predecessors, the action does not move quickly from
announcement to execution to effect; instead, the action is interwoven with liturgical
instructions for the celebration of three commemorative rituals: the Passover, the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, and the consecration of the firstborn sons.

So far in our study of this passage we have addressed nearly all the details of each
rite. I say “nearly all the details” because there are still a few segments of this narrative that
are worthy of our reflection. This morning we turn to an interesting one that turns up both
in the account of the regulations for Passover and for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Whole Assembly of the Congregation

Turn with me first to 12:6. <Read the text>

At the end of v 6, God’s people are given command regarding the slaughter of the
sacrifice: the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. What I
want you to notice here is that there is a decided emphasis on the entire congregation. The
Lord could have easily said, “The congregation of Israel is to kill it” without saying that
the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it. Certainly, this would have
made his intention clear; instead, we get a rather pointed elaboration of the participants in
the ritual. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it.

This thought is a further development of v 3. Look there with me: Speak to all the
congregation of Israel, saying, “On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a
lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household.”
Here, too, there is an emphasis on the congregation of Israel in its entirety. Moses and
Aaron are commanded to give the Passover directives to all the congregation. And like
verse 6, this elaboration is ostensibly unnecessary for making God’s point. He could have
left off the word all.

Now perhaps you’re thinking that the Lord wants Moses and Aaron to instruct the
entire congregation, not simply the leaders, as they have been wont to do. Maybe the Lord
is saying that every single son of Israel is to hear the instructions directly from Moses and
Aaron’s mouth. Though this is certainly reasonable, it is not at all what God has in mind.
Later in verse 21, following his common practice, Moses calls all the elders of Israel to
instruct them concerning the Passover sacrifice. Moreover, verse 28 says that the sons of
Israel did just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.

So then, the Lord is not indicating that every member of Israel ought to be present to
hear his instructions for the Passover celebration. The emphasis on the whole assembly of
the congregation of Israel, the emphasis on all the congregation, is moving in a different
direction.

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Further instructions for Passover are given in 12:43-49. These directives, as you will
remember, focus on who may and may not participate in the ritual. There we learn that
Jews and Gentiles may take part; only, whoever is involved must be circumcised. Jump
down to verses 46-47 and notice what they say: It is to be eaten in a single house; you are
not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of
it. All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this.

You can see that in verse 47 there is again emphasis placed on the entire
congregation: All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this. And v 46 preserves the
detail that not a bone of the Passover animal is to be broken: nor are you to break any bone
of it. The animal itself is to remain whole. So we have a whole animal consumed by whole
households by the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.

The wholeness of the animal is also suggested by the way in which it is to be

prepared. Look back at vv 9-10: Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but
rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. And you shall
not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall
burn with fire.

In v 9, it is stipulated that the animal may not be boiled at all with water; instead it
must be roasted whole, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. Boiling would
have necessitated dismembering the sacrifice; thus roasting is the only proper method of
preparation. Please notice in these verses, too, the idea of a whole animal consumed by
whole households by the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel. Based upon what
we have seen, even in terms of the symbolism contained in the animal’s preparation, the
Lord wants the congregation as a whole to be involved—Passover is a community affair.

The community nature of the Passover is not limited to this rite alone. The theme
reemerges in connection with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Turn to 12:16 and read it
with me: On the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on
the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by
every person, that alone may be prepared by you.

The entire week’s celebration is to be flanked by holy assemblies, holy convocations

in which the entire congregation is to gather for worship. No one is to be left out.

It is also significant that for those who refuse to comply with the demand to
“unleaven” their homes, the consequence involves being cut off from the congregation of
Israel. Notice v 15: Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you
shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first
day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. Now look at v 19:
Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is
leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an
alien or a native of the land.

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Personal disobedience to the liturgy of the feast results in a community censure—

banishment, likely death—set forth in terms of being severed from the congregation of
Israel.

Finally, in connection with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I would be remiss if I

also didn’t call your attention to v 17: You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you
shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.

Notice how the Lord describes the people of the Exodus: on this very day I brought
your hosts out of the land of Egypt. To speak of Israel in terms of its hosts, is to speak of a
mighty congregation. The term is used this way earlier in 7:4: “When Pharaoh does not
listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons
of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments.”

So then, in the midst of the instructions for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, we see a common emphasis, an emphasis on the entire community’s participation in
the Exodus liturgy.

Now, then, we may ask why it is that there is this emphasis on the entire people of
God. Why is it that the Lord wants the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
involved in the commemoration of the Exodus?

The Deliverance of a People

The answer should be apparent: God’s deliverance was not the deliverance of
individuals. The Lord’s deliverance from Egyptian oppression was the deliverance of an
entire people. Now, of course, this is not to say that individuals were not saved that day;
but it is to say that the individual nature of the deliverance was subordinate to the
community nature of the deliverance. God delivered a people, a collective whole. What is
it that Moses says on behalf of the Lord to Pharaoh over and over again? That’s right: “Let
my people go!”

This is why the commemoration of the events of the Exodus must involve the entire
congregation of Israel, it must involve the assembly. I love what one commentator says:
“This is not private worship. It is a community of believers bound by circumcision to their
covenant God.”1 The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are not private acts of
worship; they are community acts of worship commemorating God’s mighty deliverance of
a community for his own possession.

So from generation to generation Israel is to remember that the Lord’s deliverance

was the deliverance of a whole people for the fame of his name. And since every
celebration, every theological message of the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in Jesus
Christ, we can say that the commemoration of the Passover and the feast were ordained to

1
Peter Enns, The NIV Application Commentary: Exodus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 251.

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anticipate Christ’s deliverance of a people for himself from the shackles and tyranny of sin.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Titus 2:11-14.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing
us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and
godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us
from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:11-14).

There it is! Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to
purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Just as the
deliverance of the Exodus was the deliverance of a people, so too, is the deliverance of
Christ the deliverance of a special people. Through Christ’s deliverance we become the
community of the redeemed. We are the Exodus people par excellence. I am not in the first
place a redeemed individual; rather, I am a redeemed individual because I belong to the
community of the redeemed.

This morning we read from Hebrews 12. The community nature of our salvation
could not be clearer. Listen:

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of
the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the
spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel (Heb 12:22-
24).

By the blood of Christ and in union with Christ we are the people of God. We are a
holy convocation; we are the assembly of God! This is why the consummation of our
enjoyment of God’s deliverance in Jesus Christ is depicted in Revelation in terms of
convocation, assembly, the gathered people of God:

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one
could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing
before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches
were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our
God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev 7:9-10).

We are the people of God. We are the community of the redeemed. And we will be
experiencing the fullness of that redemption as the community we are in Jesus Christ forever
and ever.

Living as the Assembly of God

But the implications for the community nature of our deliverance have implications
for this life as well; implications that I fear we as a congregation are not taking seriously
enough. Turn with me in your Bibles to Heb 10:19-25.

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Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the
blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the
veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us
draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not
forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Heb 10:19-25).

The reason why we are admonished by the Lord not to forsake our own assembling
together is because at the very foundation, by the blood of Christ, we have come to the
general assembly and church of the firstborn. We are God’s special assembly and we have
an obligation to live out the salvation we enjoy in community with one another. Indeed, the
implication of a passage like this is that without the assembling of ourselves together our
tendency will be to drift back toward the Egypt of our sin—the Egypt from which we have
been delivered. We will be apt to waver from our confession of faith (v 23), we will fail to
love and serve one another (v 24), and we will become discouraged (v 25).

Earlier in Hebrews the call is even more comprehensive: “But encourage one another
day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the
deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). The stated meetings of our assembly are a far cry from
daily ones. We meet on the Lord’s Day at 9:00 & 10:30 am and again on Sunday evenings
in home groups. We also gather together for corporate prayer on Wednesdays at 7:00 pm.
We have only a small window of opportunity to apply texts like this one in Hebrews 10.

And gathering is absolutely essential for the proper carrying out of the duties given
here. Notice again v 24: and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and
good deeds. The idea here is that we need to be concerned with one another in order to
stimulate each other to love and good works. In other words, the injunction is to think
about each other such that we would find the most appropriate ways to encourage love and
good works. How, dear brethren, can we find the most appropriate ways to encourage one
another if we do not spend time with one another?

We will never be able to stimulate one another to love and good works if we keep
one another at a distance, if we are not intimately involved in one another’s lives on a daily
basis. We must come to grips with the fact that the Christian life is a community life. Mark
10:29-30 says,

Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers
or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s
sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses
and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with
persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”

What does this mean but that coming to Christ means coming to the church?
Though we must leave all, we receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses

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and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms. Coming to Christ means
coming to the church; it means belonging to the assembly of God, the church of the
firstborn. We need to see the reality of the communal nature of Christianity and we need to
take it seriously.

And to do so means that we have to swim upstream in an evangelical river of hyper-

individualism with tributaries labeled, “Hand’s off,” and “I want to be left alone.” In fact,
the prevalent mindset within the evangelical community is that one can become a Christian
without even coming to the church. I agree with the following assessment. Listen:

Many Christians...concentrate on personal obedience to Christ as if all that

matters is “Jesus and me,” but in so doing miss the point altogether. For Christianity
is not a solitary belief system....there is no such thing as Christianity apart from the
church.
The church is not incidental to the great cosmic struggle for the hearts and
souls of modern men and women. It is the instrument God has chosen for that
battle.2

The idea that it is “Jesus and me” utterly devoid of life in the believing community is
completely foreign to Scripture and is well outside the stream of Protestant orthodoxy.
Listen to another insightful writer:

If the church is a nurturing mother for the souls of believers, as John Calvin
proclaimed, those disconnected from her are nothing more than spiritual orphans.
They are cut off from a vital source of spiritual nourishment and growth. They may
think that spiritual fitness is an individual matter, but their failure to participate in
the corporate life of God’s people can only stunt the kind of growth in grace that the
apostle Paul envisioned in Ephesians 4. According to the church Fathers and
Protestant Reformers, it may even leave them cut off from the very salvation they
claim to possess. Augustine, for example, went so far as to say, “No salvation exists
outside the church.” Luther echoed Augustine in arguing, “Outside this Christian
church, there is no salvation or forgiveness of sins, but everlasting death and
damnation.”3

We need to be more serious about the mandate to live out the implications of being
the Exodus people and not simply Exodus persons.

What I want to emphasize with you this morning is that texts like Hebrews 3 & 10
are not commands given to pastors. They are given to every member of the believing
community. They are “one anothers” of Scripture. They are demands that the Lord has
placed upon every member of the believing community.

It is not something that your pastors should do alone. We are called to community
living as a community. The one another commands of Scripture are absolutely essential for
a truly biblical church life. Without our careful observation of them, we will become

2
Chuck Coleson, The Body (Dallas: W Publishing Group, 1994 reprint), 32.
3
Robert Patterson, “In Search of the Visible Church,” Christianity Today (1991), 36.

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unglued. We will cease to be comm-unity and instead become a collection of individuals

relegated to living out the gospel without the essential aids (really graces) of the ministry of
the brethren.

I do not mean to say that I have not seen improvement since I arrived nearly two
years ago. On the contrary, I have witnessed the closest thing to a miracle that I have ever
seen in my life. You have by and large embraced the truth that the Christian life is a
community life. Nevertheless, I have seen your enthusiasm wane.

Yet there are some of you who have lagged off in your attendance; you have put
other things before the Lord—money, vacations, comforts. And though there are those of
you who have been faithful to gather, regrettably, you have by and large watched your
brethren wander without intervention. Oh, dear brothers and sisters. I do not say this
because I am mad at you! I am not! I love you all so much. You have become dearer to
me in two years than I could have possibly imagined. But you are not taking this seriously
enough.

Your elders are working on it; but we cannot and must not do it alone.

I want you to prayerfully and carefully think about what I am saying this morning. I
do not want you to exempt yourself from this message. And if you have sinned, if you have
failed to live like a member of the believing community, turning your Christian life into a
purely private or individual affair, I urge you to confess that sin to the Lord and to repent.
To forsake the assembling of ourselves is a grievous sin, but I am afraid that many of us can
think that simply by attending church gatherings with some regularity we have complied
with the divine mandate. This is clearly wrong-headed.

Why is it that we ought not to forsake our own assembling together? Why is it that
we ought to be faithful to gather for church? So that we may spur one another on to love
and good works! Do you hear that? Spur one another on to love and good works! Do not
feel like you are overstepping your bounds by moving toward one another. Love each
other!

And dear brethren, you know yourself well enough to know that the reasons why
you may be failing to admonish or comfort or support or encourage your brethren are
legion. Well, then, do not forget that the reasons why we may leave off assembling together
are just as varied.

Sometimes people do not gather for church because they have not gathered for
church in a long time. This sounds like strange logic, I know, but it is often the case that
people stop coming to worship with and serve the brethren because they are embarrassed
that it has been so long since they have. This is a form of pride. And it is based on a lie.
God is merciful. He wants us to come back to him no matter how long we’ve been away.
And he always accepts us. Though he says, “Go and sin no more,” he also says, “I do not
condemn you.”

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Tell your brethren, “We love you! We miss you. We need you.” But also tell them,
“You are sinning against God. You are failing to use your gifts. You are forsaking the
assembly.”

Sometimes people stop gathering for church because they believe that they do not
make a difference. This, too, is a form of pride; for the same spirit that says, “I have no
need of you,” is the same one that says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the
body” (1 Cor 12:16, 21). Each of us makes a difference. God has joined our community
together to be just that—a community—a functioning, healthy body, useful in the king’s
service.

Sometimes the sins are more blatant. Sometimes people stop gathering for church
because they don’t want to be admonished or rebuked. In our flesh we don’t want to be
accountable to anyone. We naturally desire to be a law unto ourselves. We want others to
“mind their own business.” We don’t want to give an account for how we live to anyone.
Not to God and not to people. You remember James’ command to confess our sins to one
another (Jas 5:16). Why is it that so many of us do not do that? Sometimes we are
embarrassed, uncomfortable, or otherwise fearful; but at other times we fail to confess our
sins to one another because we don’t want to give them up. If I tell you my sin, you might
call me to repent, and there is a part of all of us that doesn’t want to hear that from each
other.

Sometimes people stop gathering for church because they have drifted from the Lord
in their private lives; they are refusing to repent of particular sins and they feel guilty every
time they are with the brethren. Sometimes people stop gathering for church because they
are discouraged about their difficult circumstances and lack energy and strength to get
themselves out the door. We could go on and on. The point is that there is no way of
knowing how to minister the word to your brethren if you do not move toward them, if you
do not treat them like they are members of a community.

Dear brothers and sisters, many of you are parents. What would you do if your child
did not show up for dinner without explanation? What would you do if your spouse did the
same? Would you ignore it and say, “Oh let’s go ahead and eat, I guess mom’s not coming
to dinner tonight?” Let’s complicate that further and say that mom doesn’t show up for
three nights in a row. In fact, you have no idea where she is. Would you as a family say, “I
wonder where mom is…could you pass the potatoes?” No way.

You would make efforts to find her. Now let me say that your elders are committed
to this kind of church life—church family life, church as it’s meant to be. But the Bible
teaches us that we are not meant to do it alone. We are each other’s brothers and sisters and
fathers and mothers and we must live like that. Let us not sin like Cain. For like him, deep
down we know that the answer to the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is a
resounding yes.

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Christ our Passover and unleavened bread delivers a people, a community, not a
collection of individuals. He saved a people, the believing community, zealous for good
deeds.

We have to stop isolating ourselves from one another. We have to see that the
health of the community is our responsibility and takes precedence over our individual
desires. We need to consider carefully the effect our actions might have on our community
and if they would be negative, we need to be willing to forego our plans for our brethren.
We need to be open and honest with one another. We need to love each other even when
the “other” we’re trying to love erects thick walls.

O dear brethren, if you have dropped the ball, if you have been leaving off the one
another’s of Scripture, if you have been sporadic in your gathering with God’s people, there
is hope for you. There is forgiveness with God that he may be feared. Turn from your sin
and embrace your life in the community. This is God’s design for you. He loves you and
he knows what is best for you.

We are God’s people, the chosen of the Lord,

Born of his Spirit, established by his Word;
Our cornerstone is Christ alone, and strong in him we stand:
O let us live transparently, and walk heart to heart and hand in hand.

—Bryan Jeffery Leech (b. 1931)

Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com

Exod 11:1-13:16: The Deliverance of a People © 2004 by R W Glenn