Easter 2021 Sermon by Pst. Joseph Wamwere (4th April 2021)

In the Hebrew calendar, today is the 16th day of the first month of the year, called Nisan. So it is Nisan 16. It is a special month because it is the month of Passover. In Exodus 12, God declared a new calendar for the Israelites and Nisan is the first month in that calendar. This was the time when God was preparing the Israelites to leave Egypt after 430 years of slavery. God had inflicted the land of Egypt with 9 plagues because Pharaoh had refused to let the Israelites leave the country. For the 9 plagues, Pharaoh was still obstinate. Then in Exodus 11:1, God made a declaration and said, “…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.” (NIV – Exodus 11: 1). This plague was the killing of the firstborn sons of Egyptians, including Pharaoh’s firstborn son. God gave instructions for each family to choose a lamb to be slaughtered on the 14th day of the month as a Passover lamb. They were instructed to smear blood on their doorposts so that when the angel of the lord comes to strike down the firstborn sons of Egyptians, he will spare the firstborn sons of Israelites. This happened and after that Pharaoh let the Israelites go. It was a remarkable moment. Exodus 12: 42 states that: Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come. Today we remember a superior Exodus. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we can read in Luke 23: 44 – 49 was offered as a Passover lamb. It was still on Nisan 14, the same day the Passover happened in Egypt. The Israelites were taken to the Promised Land in Canaan after leaving Egypt, and they kept offering sacrifices of animals to God, including keeping the Passover, but all this did not “clear the consciences as worshippers” (Hebrews 9:9). It did not give them rest (Sabbath). Hebrews 4: 8 – 11: 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, e just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. There was no rest in the earthly tabernacle where they worshipped. The high priest would enter that tabernacle’s holy of holies once a year to atone for his own sins and those of the Israelites and would do so by the blood of animals. They had to keep doing it because the high priest was not unblemished and his conscience was still not cleansed from acts that lead to death. However, Jesus Christ, the Passover lamb, the unblemished lamb of God “entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). He did not enter a tabernacle made by human hands, but a heavenly tabernacle that is not part of this creation. “He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence“(Hebrews 9: 24). Today we do not need the high priest to appear for us in the holy of holies, because we do not even worship in the earthly tabernacle. Our consciences have been cleared from acts of sin so that we can worship God in Spirit and in truth, and in the heavenly tabernacle. Just the same way the high priest would enter the holy place to appear for the people, Jesus entered heaven to appear for us. He did it once and for all so that we are in the presence of the Lord every moment. Through Jesus Christ, we entered God’s rest. Our worship is not based on seasonal rituals; Easter Holidays, Christmas Day, Sabbath Days, or other religious rituals, but an infinitude yielding of our hearts to God, outside of the confines of space, place, or time.