Redeemed Sons
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
If you have your Bible and I hope you do, turn with me to Exodus 13. Today we’re talking about redemption. Have you ever given your spouse a coupon book? You know what I’m talking about? Amber gave me one on Valentine’s Day. It has coupons for playing board games, free kisses and I love you’s, date nights where she plans the whole thing… those are awesome, right? I love getting coupons. Some of you have given me coupons to El Caporal where it’s a free drink with a meal or one of those booster club coupons where they punch the holes. It’s good stuff right?
The thing about redemption though is that there is a price to be paid in order to redeem. Today we’re talking about redemption in the Biblical sense and we’re going to discover three characteristics of a redeemed life in Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16. This isn’t an exhaustive list… but it’s what the passage deals with:
“The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
PRAY
The first few verses point us to a key word that helps us understand more about the people of God and it’s the word consecrate. Consecrate is a Latin term where secret means “holy, set apart, blessed, sacred” and con is the prefix which means “thoroughly, every part,”.
The Hebrew word is Kedash which means that it is given to the sanctuary, not fit for common use, to be holy.
Think of this like fine china or as my grandma would have special towels. These are for decorative use only! But for the Lord when something is set apart it is for holy use only. Right?
The first characteristic of a redeemed life is 1) Sanctified. This passage may be used a bit as a mirror to help you examine the dark corners where God’s Holy Spirit has yet illuminate. I mean… God has just saved the people of God. Has chosen them, He has predestined them for redemption, He has called them, He has made atonement for them, He is leading them. Can you imagine the people of God leaving Goshen coming to the wilderness and saying, “Thanks God for saving me! I’ll be on my way now. See you when I die!” But that’s exactly what many so-called Christians do. They believe that they have been redeemed to live their life, their own way and they forget that they “have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
You see… the Hebrews were saved. Redeemed. Justified. But salvation is the start of the race, not the finish line. Do you think that you were saved for comfort? Extravagance? Were you saved for your preferences and your hopes? Christ saved you and set you apart for the purpose of sanctification.
Later on in Exodus we will get to the tabernacle. The Tabernacle was God’s dwelling place and it was a tent. A really… really nice tent. And inside were all sorts of amazing and wonderful things. Intricate tapestries, bronze basins, the ark of the covenant. Beauty was everywhere. But even the common looking things like prongs, curtain hooks, lamp stands, ladles were sanctified. They were holy.
The Babylonian King Balshazzar would use the cups and utensils which were sanctified and God would write on the wall his coming destruction because he used that which is sanctified as something common. What about you Christian? Are you sanctified? God is in the process of sanctifying you isn’t He? God has called you Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
As a living sacrifice what happens is we can begrudge the cost of a sacrifice. Can you imagine a begrudging sacrifice? Does that please our God and King? Psalm 51:15-16 says
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
Are you a willing sacrifice?
“A heart that is broken over sin is a thankful heart because of Christ.”- Pastor Cody
As believers we have been bought by Jesus Christ. Redeemed by the will of the Father. Sanctified by the Spirit’s work in our lives not so that we might be comfortable and have our wants and preferences met. But so that we can make disciples.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Since Christ died for us, we get to live for Him and He gets to dictate to us how we should live and it’s not for ourselves. It’s never for ourselves. It’ll never be for this purpose. The Church, that is… the sanctified, saved… body of Christ was purchased for this one purpose: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is the sanctified purpose of being a Christian!
If we’re not making disciples personally, if we’re not baptizing them as a church, if we’re not teaching all that He has commanded then we’re not obeying Christ. We might as well quit saying we’re Christians because Jesus aint Lord. Back to Exodus 13 “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”
God has created everything and as such His signature is on every single part of creation. You have never seen anything that God didn’t create and Christ He upholds everything by the word of His power. Everything that you see and sense right now exists because God allows it. From the sound of my voice, to the shirt that I wear (thank the Lord for pants!), to that person that you struggle with that God has in your life for your sanctification and for one greater reason
Is there someone or something that you need to surrender to Christ since He is sustaining it by the word of His power?
: Colossians 1:16
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Everything, including these firstborns existed because God willed them to exist. And it’s all under Christ’s rule. So He has every right to say, “These people are mine, these animals are mine, this church is mine, this vision is mine.”
“He has every right to claim you and rule over you. He has every right to do whatever He wants to with you because He’s God. “- Pastor Cody
But it’s not that firstborns are the favorites- the firstborn is actually representative of the whole family. We see this principle even in the Feast of Harvests where you gave to God the first and best of the harvest but it actually represents the whole harvest. And this explains why God is so so passionate about His children. Deut. 32:6
Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
Look down at verses 11-13 with me “When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.”
Look at the promise that God implies. When the Lord brings you. Now… we know that most of these people as individuals are going to die. I believe it’s only Joshua and Caleb who get to go into the land. But the promise is for them as a people group and God will hold to His promises. This promises was given 400 years before in Genesis 24:7
The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.
And so God says when you get to the land- set apart all the firstborns because they are the Lord’s. Now God has three categories of firstborns here: clean animals, donkeys, and humans. The clean animals that can be sacrificed, must be. Rams, goats, bulls, sheep, ox. Donkeys are unclean animals and cannot be sacrificed to the Lord so they can either be redeemed by a lamb or break its neck. Those are the options there. Without missing a beat God commands for every firstborn child to be redeemed.
Many ancient cultures would sacrifice their firstborn children to demonic deities like Molech, Chemosh, and Baal. Any kind of human sacrifice was not pleasing to the Lord at all. This is one of the many reasons why Christians are pro-life. Christians have defended the pre-born for centuries. John Calvin wrote a commentary on Exodus 21:22 “If men strive, and hurt a woman. This passage at first sight is ambiguous, for if the word death only applies to the pregnant woman, it would not have been a capital crime to put an end to the foetus, which would be a great absurdity; for the fœtus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a foetus in the womb before it has come to light. On these grounds I am led to conclude, without hesitation, that the words, “if death should follow,” must be applied to the foetus as well as to the mother.”
“God loves children.Little babies are His delight and on every face is written the glory of God,”- Pastor Cody
and God calls the Israelites to redeem the firstborn with a lamb is the (2) second characteristic of a redeemed life is salvation. You see, when we are born we’re unclean just like the donkey and because of our original sin we must be redeemed! We cannot be redeemed by any other means other than by the blood of Christ Jesus by which He sets us apart. To be set apart by God and to be sanctified is to be saved. In our culture we use saved in an incomplete way.
You see… saved means that we have been saved from the penalty of our sin- this is called justification, that we are being saved from the power of sin- this is called sanctification, and that we will be saved from the very presence of sin- this is called glorification. Past, present, future, God has worked, is working, and will continue to work in us.
God has redeemed us and we are to be at work in our families, our community, our church, our world sharing the message and doing the work of redemption. We do this by living on mission for the glory of God, sharing the Gospel of Christ to a lost and broken world, removing as many obstacles other than the cross. When I say removing obstacles, I don’t mean being attractional by smoke machines and dubstep worship. I mean that the cross of Christ is attractive. I was reading a book by Gabe Lyons called unchristian. 10 years ago 29% of Millennials thought positively about Christianity. That rate has surely only worsened. If salt loses its flavor what good is it? Let’s be Christians known by love, known by our passion for God, our knowledge of the truth, our hope in the Word. Let’s be Christians with a message of redemption and lives filled with hope!
So the redeemed life has three characteristics 1) Sanctified, 2) Saved, and finally 3) Serve. Look at the passage with me: "And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”
Kids are great. Being a parent is rewarding and tough. Around our house we play a game called Genie and we play it around the table. And what you do is you share your wishes and the goal is the game is to say granted but and then you have to ruin the dream. For example: I wish I had a billion dollars. Granted, but you die the next day and the government takes most of it.
Kids are smart man… like… they can ruin dreams! The other day our kids were being pretty extra and one of us parents wished “I wish our children were well-behaved.” To which Malachi said, “Granted. We’re all grown up.” Lillian said, “Granted. Something terrible happened and now we can’t.” These are my children.
They’re inquisitive and they want to know what is the meaning of life. Why am I here? Why do we do this at church? Why are you stressed about stuff? But they ask these questions, “What does this mean?” And God helps the people of Israel here understand, “What does this mean?” Why are we sacrificing a lamb? These are important things to pass down from one generation to the next. Stories, traditions, liturgies. But stories, traditions, and liturgies change don’t they? Even in minor ways, some in major ways.
From the style of worship to child dedication things have changed in the church and will continue to as culture changes. Scripture never changes, doctrine never changes, styles and strategies always change. A couple weeks ago we were able to dedicate baby Freya and the passage we’re looking at is where the tradition began. You see as parents dedicate their children to the Lord they acknowledge their complete dependence on God’s grace for their child’s salvation and help in raising them. They acknowledge that raising children is best done in the context of a Christian community and that children don’t exist for our own benefit but for the glory of God.
Deut. 32:7
Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.
This is the relationship between old and young. Remembering, listening, obeying, growing.
The Israelites has some seemingly strange practices compared to other people groups. Don’t eat this, don’t wear this, do have this, do burn that. The purpose was to know God, make Him known, and serve the Lord. This was such a big part of the culture, men leading their families and teaching them the rituals and meanings that they had the Shemah which they would recite every morning “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
If you have been redeemed as a child of God you have been redeemed for a purpose. You are sanctified, you are saved, and you were saved to serve.
Head: I want you to know that you were not saved for your preferences but for the glory of God. This is tough to get to but even Christ lived this out by total obedience to the Father’s will. Shouldn’t we also live like our Master?
Hand: I want you to do this- I want you whisper a daily prayer of dedication and surrender. Asking the Lord to guide you and make you a willing, living sacrifice. Then walk in His way. Share the Gospel, speak with humility, love authentically.
Heart: I want you to believe that God is still working on you and me. None of us are perfect and when someone sins against you be quick to forgive them. Sanctification isn’t completed with any of us and it won’t be until we die. Which will happen!
Death comes for us all and maybe something I said today really convicted you and you might say Pastor Cody I know that I need to get my life right with the Lord. I’ve been wandering or walking in disobedience. I haven’t been a disciple-making Christian, I haven’t been serving like I know I’m called to, I have been caring more about my preferences and desires than those who don’t know Christ… if that’s you you come up and talk to me or just kneel and pray. The altar is open if you want to respond. Won’t you come? As we worship
