The Passover

Bro Koay Kheng Hin

Pastor was telling me to preach something about Chinese New Year and I think it is not really that easy but I will talk along this line. I have titled my message the Passover. It is a religious new year for the Jewish nation, the Israelites. 

Chinese New Year is different to different christians. There are some who even say cannot celebrate Chinese New Year. Some say cannot give Ang Pow. But can take. (Laughs). I asked the person why and he said people give paiseh if don't take. 

I am Hokkien and for us before our family became Christians, on the 8th day is the real celebration to usher in the new year. As a young kid, we would stack tables as high as we can and it is a very important day for the Hokkiens. I always wondered how it's possible to stack up until heaven, so high up. 

As a kid, Ang Pow was very important. That time, we were not very rich so my parents would collect all our Ang Pows at the end of the day and my father was the chief tax collector. We will give all our Ang POWs to my parents and they repackaged and give us. Nowadays kids are more fortunate. 

Another important part of Chinese New Year is the reunion dinner. During Chinese New Year a key word is we want to remember. Once a year we come back from our busy work place to be together as a family. 

I was talking to my mother and she shared how in the past, the Hokkiens were delivered from physical danger by hiding in the sugar cane plantations. That's why we have sugar canes on the 9th day of Chinese New Year. 

There are three key words I want to look at. 

Commemorating

Community

Deliverance

You will find these three words are also key to the Christians. 

Exodus 12:12-14

“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.

The words I want to pick up is judgment and passover which are atonyms, which means opposite in meaning. To one group it is judgement to the other group it is deliverance. 

Pharaoh has been in a way approached by God through Moses many many times. He was asked to release the Israelites and even after nine plagues have happened he will relent each time only to change his mind. 

The final plague came when God said it is enough. And God told Moses to tell his people to be prepared. 

What happened on that day was a lamb were to be slaughtered and it's blood is painted onto the door frame and God's judgement would pass over them. 

They were to choose a one year old lamb without defect. The key word is without defect. 

On that Passover night, this was what happened. 

Exodus 12:29-32

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.

The Exodus

31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”

These verses when I read it a long time ago before I was a Christian gave me a troubled heart. God's judgment is so devastating. I spent a few years struggling even as a young Christian as it troubled me. But if you ask me today, the verse no longer trouble me. This is because every part of the bible reveals him to me. So after walking with God for many years I now understand him. 

He is the Lord God almighty and sin against him is so bad that we cannot comprehend how evil and bad it is. And God said the penalty of sin is death and non can escape it. But in his mercy he sent Jesus to redeem us so we can see him as both a righteous and a loving God. 

God did not deal with Pharaoh once but nine times. Nine times he showed the grace of God on the nation of Egypt. We need to see God as not just a holy God but also a gracious God. 

The Israelites prepared for it but imagine how they must have felt when they heard the wailing and crying around them. They were just like us. The reality of the situation is that the Israelites must have mixed feelings seeing both the grace of God and the judgement of God. 

Many of us experience the grace of God without realizing how we are delivered from the judgment of God. The Passover is a physical deliverance from the judgment of God. They began the new year seeing the judgment of God and also the abundant grace of God for them. 

The other thing is that the Passover meal they had as a family. They were done as a community. The Israelites understood that they are a people of God and that they do not stand alone but as a family of God. They moved as a people. 

Exodus 12:14

“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.

They are to commemorate this occasion and this is one of the three words. 

Exodus 12:37-38

The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both flocks and herds.

And this is the exodus out of Egypt. When they reached the promise land they refused to go in and so their journey in the wilderness began. 

George Morrison said: "It took one night to get Israel out of Egypt but forty years to take Egypt out of the Israel."

Acts 8:30-36

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.

Who can speak of his descendants?

For his life was taken from the earth.”

34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”

There was a lot of talk at that time as they did not understand what was happening. This eunuch wanted to know who is that lamb and Philip told him it was Jesus. 

John 1:29

Jesus the Lamb of God

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

This is when we see Jesus in a new light. This Passover lamb who is Jesus is a spiritual deliverance. 

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

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. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

The problem of the church at that time was there was sin and this is one of the excommunication passage. Yeast represents hypocrisy, and sin. It is associated with something that's not good. When you read these two passages then you see how it is connected. 

Jesus came to deliver us but he wants to do more than just to deliver you. It is like when you received Jesus, in that moment you are taken out of darkness into his marvellous light. But it takes a whole lifetime to take the effects of sin out of us.

When we accepted Christ, we made peace with God but it is just the beginning of the new life and begins his work to take the bondage of sin out of us.  

But this is something where we need to be willing partners with God to surrender our life and yield to the Holy Spirit. 

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The words remember is mentioned twice. What do we remember? We remember his deliverance for us from sin. We remember our deliverance from his judgment. We remember taking the holy communion as a community. 

I read somewhere about the society we are living in is a society of the 1960s movement in the US. It is the hippies period where self and individualism supersede that of a society. We now have more individuality than that of a society. That has also affected the church. Where you have Christians saying what happens is between me and God. 

God saw the Israelites as one community, the people of God. That is why it is very important in whether they are inside the camp or outside the camp. Inside the camp they are in the community. 

The community aspect of us as a people of God is very very important. So what did we do on the 8th day of Chinese New Year? With the approval of our cell leader, we organised a Chinese New Year dinner. We had a good cell celebration dinner and we had good fellowship. And as I looked at all the cell members I saw that the cell has come a long way. Some has been there many many years some only a few years but all of have come a long way. Christians belong to a community. 

We have to remember our roots. One of the problems we find in the generations we have now is that we live for the present and do not care what the future holds. But as a child of God we have to remember our past, live for the present and anticipate for the future. 

Some ask me if my past is not good do I have to remember it? You can remember your past and deal with it through the cross. It will actually help us with our present and help us anticipate our future. 

This Chinese New Year there was a tinge of sadness as I remembered my father. My father was a trishaw peddler so he has lots of coins so he will distribute the coins for us in the morning. Mine was 10 cents which can buy a lot at that time. I remember a lot about family and the family reunion was very meaningful for me. If it is a long time since you remember on family roots, it is a good time to remember your roots. Even if there are good or bad times. If it is not good, remember it has been covered by the blood of Christ. 

Why do we need to remember our roots? Because that is your blood family which God has meant for you. You must have strong family ties. I am talking to you not about Confucianism but about God. The Israelites were a community of families. 

But you must remember your spiritual roots. I remember that day I received Christ. To some it may be the past but to me it was very real. That night when my brother prayed for me it was a turning point in my life at 36 years old. It was a new beginning, a new life given by the Lord. The more I read the bible the more I see the filthiness of sin. 

The day you receive Christ is the day you are inducted into the family of God. I only really understood that when I attended the cell under Bro Jason. 

I am not trying to promote cell. But for me when I first came to church on my motor bike, I would come late and go back early. I always thought my relationship was between me and God. Not until I joined the cell group did I understood the community of God. 

It was only in the cell that I started in ministry. Bro Jason gave me an opportunity to share and I made a mess of it. But it was an experience and I have come a long way since. Now you see me up here but you must know I went through a process and the cell was the place where my ministry started. 

What I want to say is that if you have been in church for a while, the cell is the place for you to grow, get integrated and find your ministry. 

I want to say that if you do not know your roots you can get very confused. You must know your family roots and your spiritual roots. I want to end with this. 

Hebrews 12:2

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I want to end with this movie called Lincoln, which I saw in Astro. The Americans cherish their freedom because it is bought with blood in the civil war to abolish slavery. 

And I want to say that as children of God, we have the freedom in him from the bondage of sin. There is a true freedom and false freedom. The false freedom is that we can do what we like with no consequence. Biblical freedom is the freedom from the penalty of sin and we are free to do what is right. 

So today when you go back always remember your family root and your spiritual root. And that you are not a lone ranger but that you belong in the family of God. 

Bro Adrian Choo's testimony regarding God's goodness during Jonathan's fall, surgery and recovery.

Praying for Nicholes Ong who will be starting a new chapter in his life in Australia.