Our Gospel lesson text this morning comes from a second Corinthians. I'm sorry, second Chronicles chapter 35 and we'll take a look at verses one through six. So if you're using the Bible in your seats, it's found on page 332 and I invite you to turn there, or if you're using a Bible from home, look at the Psalms and turn a little bit to left to that, a little bit before that and you'll come to second Chronicles chapter 35. Give you a moment to find that. Second Chronicles chapter 35, beginning in verse one, this is God's word, eternally true. Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem and the Passover Lamb was slaughtered on the 14th day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord's temple. He said to the Levites who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord, put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon, Son of David, King of Israel built. It is not to be carried about in your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel. Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions according to the directions written by David, King of Israel and by his Son Solomon. Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of your fellow countrymen, the late people. Slotter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fellow countrymen, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses. Here ends our reading this morning. We have in our bulletins a response of thankfulness that we give to the Lord for giving us this is word. Let us give thanks the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Our God and Father, we are grateful to you for your love and care for us and part of that love and care for us, part of your concern for us, part of your wanting the best for us is you giving us this your word and so we ask Jesus that you would preach to us by this your word and by your spirit and that you would cause by your spirit our hearts to be receptive to the things you are saying to us this morning by this your eternal word.
Cause us to see and understand your gospel and how we might live that out in our lives. Cause us to grow in the wonder of how great you are. Amen. You know it's a frequent line today even as you're even as you're in the church but as you're outside the church too, one might look at this passage and say King Josiah pass over priests and Levites how ridiculous to talk about these kind of things today. How could this possibly have anything to do with me? And even inside the church there's a whole stream of thought and perhaps you've heard it if you've been inside the church that basically says that the Old Testament is a passage today that it's not something that really speaks to us today or binds us today because all things are new in Jesus and so we just need to pay attention to Jesus but that's a shame that that's said because the Old Testament is all pointing toward Jesus the Old Testament defines for us who Jesus is and what he's done for us. And this is a passage that is particularly easy to see that as we consider a few things that is most of us who have some familiarity with the New Testament and the four gospels in the New Testament know that one of the titles that Jesus by which Jesus was called in his life and ministry on this earth was son of David and this is given to Jesus by numbers of people we know it especially from blind Bartimaus on the side of the road who cries out for Jesus and people try to shut him up but what he cries out is Jesus son of David have mercy on me and we don't think about that title son of David very much until we realize that this is somebody on the side of the road who knew what this title son of David meant. See Israel God's people was led by a king that was God's will for us people that they would be led by a king and that this king would lead them in ways that would cause them to be blessed that is if they follow their king they would be blessed but God's choice God's choice for king over his people was David and David's sons and we see reference to that even in this passage as King Josiah as the writer of the book of Chronicles here talks about David David King of Israel and his son Solomon there in verse first four and so we start to realize that as Jesus is called son of David given this title in scripture what becomes true of Jesus force or what we begin to realize about Jesus is that Jesus is our king Jesus is king of God's people. Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne. Larry read about that for us this morning that Jesus is this king who goes up and into the heavenly places in the heaven itself and he takes this scroll from his father who's sitting on the central throne and that Jesus is next to his father at the right hand of God the father there one of the things that helps us realize as we look in the Old Testament is that when we see references to the king of God's people the sons of David like Josiah one of David's descendants that oftentimes the things that are true of this son of David like Josiah are speaking forward to things that would be true in the ultimate sense in Jesus these things and these things that we read about Josiah this morning are speaking of things that would be true of Jesus things that are true of who Jesus is and things that are true of what Jesus has done for us his people so if you'd like to fill out blanks in an outline you can you can do so you're welcome to do that if you'd like to just listen that's fine too but if you're filling out blanks in your outline in your bulletin this morning here's our first one the son of David king Josiah prefigures him whom we know as the son of David Jesus that's your blank there Jesus king Josiah and the things that he does here in this passage tell us about what Jesus does for all who believe in him I have this thing where when I get humiliated my my mind blocks it out and I forget about this time so if you're ever if you've ever been in a group where somebody says tell us about a time when you were when you really got embarrassed I typically can't think of anything because my my subconscious can't handle getting embarrassed I guess and so I blocked it out but I do remember one time when I really got embarrassed about something I had played in Little League baseball a catcher and I love playing catcher catchers one of the positions where you're involved in every play even if the ball doesn't get to you you're you're holding the glove there and so I really enjoyed that I played that after a third grade in the summer after third grade when we had our baseball season up in up in New York where I was growing up and I loved that a big thing for catcher was one not letting the ball get by you but two being able to throw the ball to second base and the the way it works you know that when your arm isn't so strong neither are the other kids that fast and so in that summer after third grade you know I could loop it real high and get it all the way there to second base and make that a challenge for whoever was trying to steal from first the second base but then I got to the summer after fourth grade and I wanted to play catcher as well but there was another kid and he was a bigger kid and and he played catcher and I played second base and some other places around there but we came up in one game and I have this distinct memory of just right where I was my family saw this baseball field last summer or this past summer when we were in Rochester members sitting in that dugout and I had a coach coach Cohen and his son who was out of high school was helping out and we were warming up just to come into the dugout and we were watching as we were waiting to bat first as happens before the first batter comes up the catcher gets a last throw to second base that's the last thing that happens before batter comes up gives that throw to second base and the second baseman or shortstop passes it to the pitcher and the game's on and we saw this catcher of the other team throw this big looping ball over the second base and we also we can steal today you see that crappy throw you know by that catcher there and I was among those saying that and my coaches son the 20 some year old turned around and said that's what your throw looks like
you know in front of everybody else and that was back in that day when people actually said things like that to you and your work concerned about everyone's feelings and so I was I was embarrassed and but I realized it was true I realized that compared to I think his name is Dudley the guy that was starting in front of me who was a bigger kid and a strong kid that he had a much stronger arm than eye and his throw probably went at least five feet undermined and so he got the ball the second base faster than I and so that's why I wasn't playing catcher anymore all that to say sometimes in life we have big needs that we can't see I needed a stronger arm and I played all kinds of sports but I've always had a weak arm and if I throw a football now hard I throw my arm out in the first throw but I hadn't realized that until that point until that assistant coach said to me that's what your throw looks like but that was good for me because I could quit worrying about why I wasn't playing catcher and I could start focusing on being a good second baseman being a good shortstop being a good third baseman that was good for me here in this passage God's people and God speaks to us today and says you us we have this great need in our lives for Passover and it's typically a need that we haven't realized that we had like me and my need for a stronger arm but God's people had been having no sense of their need for Passover in their lives as we read this text here it had been years and years since God's people had celebrated the Passover and the people in this passage had probably never celebrated Passover they didn't realize their need for it but King Josiah being King of God's people recognizes that God's people need just that Passover as you look in your outline here we're starting now with number one the first thing God says to us this morning is this believe that you need Passover believe that you need Passover we see here from chapter 34 verse 8 through chapter 35 verse 19 that the king does several things Josiah has taken over the kingship after several unfaithful kings and what does he do well the first thing we do we see he ready's the temple the temples in disrepair and he ready's it the second thing he does and the second grouping of the passage here is he renews the covenant of God with his people so first he ready's the temple then he renews the covenant and the third thing he does is celebrate the Passover and as it's presented to us here in this passage the Passover it's the climax it's the highlight event that these other two things have led up to this is the main point this is why this is the purpose under which the temple was ready this is the purpose for which the covenant was renewed this is how God blesses his people through the Passover and so the writer of chronicles lets us know that by having this event come to us as the climax of events the highlight of Josiah's work here on earth but this speaks of Jesus when we look at Jesus life we can see that he does the very same things he ready's the temple he renews the covenant and he celebrates the Passover he leads God's people in celebrating the Passover or on your outlines here you have down there Passover is the main highlight of Jesus work on earth Passover is the main highlight of Jesus work on earth you see Jesus like Josiah has very similar events in his incarnation Jesus has declared I am the temple of God Jesus says destroy this stone temple sitting here in Jerusalem Israel right now and I will rebuild it in three days and John the disciple of Jesus says and he was speaking of his body Jesus declares himself to be the temple and the first thing Jesus does as king of God's people as one who went out proclaiming the kingdom of God is at hand as the one who when people say you are the king of Israel are you the king of the Jews Jesus says it is as you say Jesus first act of king is readying the temple in his incarnation he does everything he needs to do in his life to head to the Passover but first the first thing he needs to do is ready the temple that is ready himself for this work make all the preparations necessary so that he can celebrate the Passover but secondly we see and we celebrated it last week that Jesus having ready the temple having said everything in place the last thing he does with his disciples is renews the covenant that is the night before Jesus is crucified and you know that week that Jesus was crucified that was Passover week and that Jesus was crucified in that same 24 hour period where the Passover land the 14th day of the first month as this passage says that was good Friday but Jesus comes and he renews the covenant what does he say at the Lord's supper what does he say at the Passover celebration with his disciples at his last supper he says this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins this is Jesus renewing his covenant with his people and such a science speaks forward to us just science actions here speak to Jesus that we have a king who has prepared a temple for us himself who has renewed the covenant with his people in his last supper but also who leads us in a Passover celebration and that's what verses 1 through 19 in chapter 35 are all about so we say that Passover's the main highlight of Jesus work on earth Jesus goes to the cross Jesus goes to the cross as an act of Passover Jesus is resurrected as part of that Passover as well we'll talk about that in a moment but why is Passover the highlight of Jesus work why is Passover the reason that Jesus comes it's the reason Jesus comes earth because Passover and here's your next line Passover marks Passover marks God's rescuing of his people from slavery from Pharaoh and from a judgment of death Larry read for us this morning from Exodus 12 the first Passover the first Passover was the 10th plague in Egypt we all know the story of Moses and Charlton Heston and all that the 10 commandments in the last plague the plague that causes Pharaoh finally to permanently say to God's people okay you can leave Egypt this last plague with this Passover plague and a lamb was slaughtered each Israelite family each believer in the one true God above that was enslaved in Egypt under Pharaoh's harsh rule they slaughtered a lamb and they took blood as we read this morning from this lamb and they took a brush and they took use the the lamb's blood as paint and painted that lamb's blood on the sides of their doorway the main door of their house and over the top on it and God said I'm sending a destroying angel when the destroyer comes and when he sees lamb's blood on any door in Egypt he will refrain and there will not be anyone put to death there will not be anyone judged in that house on which lamb's blood is around that doorpost and so the Egyptians don't haven't celebrated the Passover they haven't partaken in Passover and they have no lamb's blood of faith upon their doors and so is Larry read for us this morning there's no house in Egypt among the Egyptians where there was not somebody dead but in contrast God's own people because of the blood of the lamb covering their household nobody died and so Passover for God's people when Jesus celebrated this and when God's people celebrated it before Jesus represented to them their freedom from slavery their freedom from a harsh taskmaster an evil king Pharaoh who was not out for their good and it marked for them how they escaped from God's judgment of death upon Egypt that night that's what Jesus disciples were thinking about when they celebrated the last supper with him their escape from Egypt their escape from this harsh king this evil king that did not have their best interests at heart and last night how they escaped from the judgment of death through the Passover every person back then and today here's your next blank needs rescue from these things for and here's how the New Testament speaks of these things spoken of in Exodus 12 every person needs rescue from these things for all of us were slaves to sin that's your first blank there that slaves in Egypt not slaves to Pharaoh but slaves to sin that's how the New Testament speaks of us prior to faith in Christ slaves to sin and we were in the kingdom of the evil one that's what Jesus says evil's your next blank the evil one Satan our former master and we're facing judgment that's your third blank there in that sentence and we're facing judgment at death all of us were slaves to sin in the kingdom of the evil one and facing judgment at death so next line for you and you're outlined we all need Jesus for he is the Passover and we read about that this morning as well first crank is five seven Christ our Passover lamb is sacrifice for us therefore let us keep the festival we need Jesus because Jesus is king accomplishes for us all these things prefigured in the in the Passover meal of the Old Testament in this 10th plague so number two in your outlines God says to us this having recognized having believed that you need Passover having recognized your need for Passover God says to you and to me this morning embrace Jesus embrace Jesus as your Passover king your Passover priest and your Passover lamb first of all a embrace Jesus as your Passover king embrace Jesus as your Passover king as we look through all these verses here that are gospel less in text this morning versus one through six we see that Josiah is this Passover king he is the one who here's your next blank he is the one who orchestrates the Passover we look at this passage we read second chronicles and we see that the Passover would not have been celebrated were it not for Josiah and we can just look at the first verse which is kind of a summary verse here and then it goes backward and explains how this went about but verse one Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord and Jerusalem and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the 14th day of the first month God's people needed a king to bring them to their need to bring them to their experience of Passover so they would experience the benefits of Passover now recognize Jesus rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and he's hailed as the king of the Jews Hoseanna to the son of David are the shouts this is our king this is the son of David here he comes to lead us in a Passover celebration and this good Friday Friday of that week after Jesus rides in on Sunday Friday that week was this 14th day of the first month verse one and it was the day upon which Jesus was crucified now Jewish folks understood days from sundown one night until sundown to the next night so the Passover lamb was sacrificed on this basically our Friday but their Friday started Thursday night at sundown and so Jesus with his disciples celebrated the slaughter of the lamb here but Jesus dies on the next day during this 14th day of the first month and he becomes the Passover lamb but think about what he does prior to this just as Josiah verse two assembles the priests so did Jesus not amazing Jesus assembles the priests now they don't come to him because they're bowing to him as king as the priest had done during Josiah's day but Jesus nonetheless does it he assembles the priests furthermore just as Josiah encouraged the Levites in their temple service Jesus encourages the religious leaders of his day the high priests and the other priests in their duty of temple service now what was their duty to leave God's people in the celebration the Passover but Jesus had come as the Passover lamb so what lamb needed to be sacrificed for the people of God it was Jesus and Jesus in this almost bizarre kind of way infuriates the priests before him so that they will do their temple service of offering up a spotless Passover lamb so that God's people can be freed from their slavery to sin so that God's people believing in Jesus can have a new king not herod but Jesus so that God's people can experience freedom from the judgment that they faced in death because their sins would be covered by the blood of him the Passover lamb so Jesus is the one that orchestrates the Passover he says the very thing that will get him on the cross and he's told his disciples prior to this prior to this week where it comes into Jerusalem we're going to Jerusalem and there I will be crucified there I will be betrayed there I will be tried but the truth priests the Levites the teachers of the law the scribes and I will be handed over to be crucified people said of the gospel of Mark which is probably what we'll cover after we're done with second chronicles that the whole gospel of Mark is probably primarily showing that Jesus was in total control heading to the cross from the time he was baptized by John and Mark chapter one until the time he's crucified and beyond Jesus is in complete control of what's happening to him just like Josiah is in complete control of the Passover here the gospel of Mark shows that Jesus the son of David is in complete control of making sure this Passover happens so embrace Jesus is your Passover king he is the one that brings about all these things that you need your freedom from the judgment that you will face at death apart from him your freedom from the slavery to sin and your own sin nature and your freedom from being out from under an evil king the evil one of whom Jesus speaks Satan who would seek to do you harm and to ruin your life here today so embrace Jesus is your Passover king and then be embrace Jesus as your Passover priest number to verse verse two here at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus who's really the priest is it those priests that are there before Jesus accusing him falsely in their witnesses their testimonies aren't aren't even driving with each other is it really them who are the priests now the great high priest is Jesus Jesus is present as leader of God's people Jesus is present as priest offering the Passover lamb that was the job of the priest they offered this Passover lamb they took care of slaughtering this Passover lamb they brought it up as an offering and Jesus's priest offers the Passover lamb he comes and he says I got it I got the Passover lamb now this offering is himself Hebrews 4.14 this is on the title page of our our final song that we'll see in a few minutes Hebrews 4.14 says we have a great high priest who's gone through the heavens Jesus the son of God Jesus is priest offers up the Passover sacrifice here's your blind Jesus is priest offers up the Passover sacrifice of himself
so embrace Jesus as your Passover priest he is the priest that you need he has brought the right sacrifice the sacrifice that covers your sins and my sins lastly see embrace Jesus as your Passover lamb we see this especially in verses one in verse verses one and six in this passage we saw this in our declaration of gospel and call the worship this morning John the Baptist says it as well I was on our title page up here for the Lamb of God Jesus says behold the Lamb of God here comes our Passover sacrifice here comes this sacrifice here comes this filled blood that will save us from the 10th plague that will save us from this judgment of death that will save us from the mastery of Pharaoh
Jesus is the Exodus lamb his death and blood one and in your outline here his death and blood saves one from death because of the blood of Jesus our Passover lamb of the doorposts of our souls you know everybody who believes in Jesus it's like they have Jesus blood on the doorposts of their souls as a picture that were to have that our souls are like this door upon which the blood of Jesus has been painted if we have faith in Jesus our faith in Jesus is like the picking up of this hiss of brush and brushing Jesus blood over our lives and so Jesus saves us by his blood from eternal death and the condemnatory judgment that comes with that and so when death comes to us and when judgment comes the judgment of God passes over us because of the blood of the past over lamb Jesus so Jesus death and blood saves one from death and from here's your next blank from slavery to sin this is one of the benefits as we believe in Jesus the Holy Spirit gives us a break from that just doing what our selfish natures would have us do and Jesus death and blood saves us from a king an evil king Satan who means us here's your blank who means us harm Pharaoh king of Egypt meant for God's people harm he didn't care if they died doing all his work he didn't care about their lives and their families and that's what scripture says about Satan that seems like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour and he seeks to devour us in our lives and to bring harm to our lives but the blood of Jesus transfers us the death the past over sacrificial death of Jesus brings us out of Satan's dominion and brings us into the kingdom of God's beloved son Jesus so that we are free from the harm that Satan would have come upon us in this life and in the life to come but something important to recognize here that is the effect of the Passover and Exodus 12 what was the effect of the Passover the effect of the Passover was actual freedom that God's people got to leave Egypt and they got to inherit the promised land and we see this in Jesus' resurrection that is God's people pass from death in Egypt to life in the promised land of God and we see this with Jesus' Passover he passes from death on a cross to life in the resurrection and he causes that to happen for us too we pass from spiritual death and he gives us faith and we enter into life and inheritance of his kingdom inheritance of the blessing of heaven the inheritance of being a member of his church so to fill out your blank here in Jesus' resurrection from the Passover slaughter of the cross we see that Jesus our Passover means for us life he means for us life that's your blank life eternal and he means for us freedom freedom from the constraints of sin from the damage that sin does to us and freedom from the death that dwells within us he gives us freedom from having to obey and having to be powerless to our own sinful desires that get us into trouble and to bring us heartbreak so we need Jesus the Passover Lamb yes we do do we need Jesus this King Josiah this Passover King yes we do without Jesus none of this happens it was Jesus' initiative toward us that causes us to have our sins covered that causes us to be free from sin that causes us to have resurrection life and to inherit life eternal Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us God's Word says to us this morning that we are to be like God's people under Josiah like the priests and Levites under Josiah and to follow this son of David King Jesus for his leadership means for us having all the things that we need let's pray our God and Father we are thankful to you for your goodness and love to us we thank you that in that love you not only sent to your people of old enslaved in Egypt under an evil king you not only sent to them the Passover they brought a blood of lambs their households would be saved from judgment and death the blood of lambs they would be released and freed from slavery and inheritors of your promises in the promised land but you have sent to us your only son the Lamb of God and he has taken away our sin and our hope can be in no other than the blood of this Lamb Jesus for he alone by his blood we escape the death the judgment that comes upon this world thank you Jesus for offering as priest yourself up for death so that we could be free amen