Exodus: Traditions in the Faith

This sermon explores the origins and significance of baptism and communion, tracing them back to their roots in the Exodus story. It explains that these sacraments are not random rituals but divine institutions commanded by Jesus, prefigured in the Old Testament, and practiced by the church for thousands of years.

Scripture References

• Matthew 28:18-20: The Great Commission to baptize.
• Luke 22:7-20: The Last Supper, instituting communion.
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: Paul's instructions on the Lord's Supper.
• Exodus 12:1-28: The Passover, the origin of communion.
• Exodus 12:29-51 & 14:1-31: The Exodus and crossing of the Red Sea, the origin of baptism.
• John 1:29: John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the "Lamb of God."
• 1 Peter 1:18-19: Redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish.

Key Points

1. Communion: The Passover Fulfilled To understand the Last Supper, we must understand the First Supper (Passover). In Exodus 12, God provided a substitute (a lamb) to save the Israelites from judgment. This lamb had to be:
   • Pure: Without defect.
   • Personal: Kept in the home for four days.
   • Killed: A true sacrifice.
   • Applied: Blood on the doorposts (faith in action).
   • Consumed: Totally devoured (we take all of Jesus).
   • Taken in Faith: Eaten in haste, ready to move. Jesus is the fulfillment of this Passover lamb. He is the pure, personal sacrifice whose blood is applied to our lives, saving us from judgment.
2. Baptism: The Red Sea Crossing Baptism is framed by the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). It involves three movements of salvation:
   • Leaving the Old Behind: Just as Israel left 430 years of slavery in Egypt, baptism symbolizes leaving our old life of bondage.
   • Surrendering to God: At the Red Sea, Israel was trapped and terrified. Moses told them, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Baptism declares our trust in God to fight battles we cannot win.
   • New Identity: Passing through the waters, Israel was born again as a free nation. They emerged on the other side with a new identity as worshipers, erupting in song. Baptism marks our entry into a new life and identity in Christ.
3. Why We Do It We practice baptism and communion because Jesus commanded them, the early church practiced them, and they powerfully reenact the story of our salvation. They are not just rituals; they are "sacraments" that mark the church and remind us of who we are and whose we are.

Conclusion

The sacraments of baptism and communion are God's way of "resetting our clocks" and marking us as His own. Just as the Passover changed the calendar for Israel, meeting Jesus changes everything for us. We leave behind the old, trust God to fight for us, and step into a new identity as His people.

Calls to Action

1. Remember Your Baptism: If you are a believer, recall the moment you "crossed the Red Sea" and left your old life behind.
2. Take Communion in Faith: When you participate in the Lord's Supper, remember the cost of the Lamb and apply His blood to your life by faith.
3. Stand Firm: If you are facing an "impossible" Red Sea situation, hear the word of the Lord: "Do not be afraid. Stand firm... The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Transcript

I hear the. However, the other in this war. I remember what we fight for. General Washington, please. We need your strength for the fight ahead. We fight for a country of our own, a new nation, or we choose our own laws. He said, sir, choose our own leaders. Yes, and choose our own systems of weights and measures.

Weights and measures, sir? Yes, yes. I dream that one day our proud nation will measure weights and pounds, and that 2,000 pounds shall be called a ton. And what for 1,000 pounds to be called, sir? Nothing. Because we will have no work for that. It seems like we should have a word for 1,000 pounds, sir. And yet we won't.

Because we are free men, and we will be free to measure liquids in liters and milliliters. But not all liquids. Always soda. One alcohol.

Only though, sir. Yes. Because from milk and paint we will use gallons, pints and quarts. God will make. How many leaders are in a gallon, sir? Nobody knows.

And sir, in this new country, what plans are there for men of color such as I? This is to be measured in inches, yards and miles. So 12in to a foot, 12ft to a yard. Is it really so simple? Three feet, two yards. And, how many yards to a mile? Nobody knows. Okay, well, how many feet to a mile?

5280. And force. To send a number that everyone will remember. I confess it feels a little complicated, sir. Why not use meters and kilometers? We will. Soldiers, but only in certain and popular sports like track and swimming. For sports like football, we will use yards. Football, sir. Yes. It's a sport where you throw a ball with your hands.

So in football there is no kicking. There's a little kicking.

There you kick the ball to get points. How many points, sir? Sometimes one and sometimes three.

Very confused sir. Do not worry. For our new nation, we will have rulers with two sets of numbers inches on one side, centimeters on the other. So we can see where they line up. Yes, except that they don't line up and they never will.

This week we had the joy of hosting a couple, from London, England. And, we couldn't wait to introduce them to neighbor Ghazi. And we couldn't wait to watch these sketches with them. They were, pretty excited not just to get to know neighbor Ghazi, but to have a conversation about the supremacy of the metric system with us.

So we let them laugh hard at our expense. So if you watch these sketches, they expose the reality that many of our sayings and our traditions and the English language for that matter, can't necessarily be explained. It doesn't make as much sense as you think it does. So we just know that we do it that way. We're not totally sure why.

In fact, it's kind of random, but it's just how we do it. It's just what we do. So some traditions have staying power, right? Some traditions stick around in other traditions, despite our best efforts. Fade away. I was really interested to find out that in the 20th century, it was really common to have oysters with Thanksgiving.

In the 19th century, we lost turtle soup. Turtle soup was something that was on the table in the 1980s. We lost your aunt's jello salad.

All gone. For various reasons, these traditions have have been lost for different reasons. Right. And so as Christians, we have a couple of institutions. We have a couple of things that never change. They shouldn't they shouldn't change over the years. They've never been lost. And it's really important that they stay because they were instituted by the Lord Jesus.

And they've marked the church for thousands of years. I'm talking, of course, about, taking communion or coming to the Lord's table, are participating in the Eucharist. We ask those who believe in Jesus to take away for and a small cup of Welch's grape juice, or depending on what tradition you have come from, wine. And we ask people to do that in remembrance of Jesus, his broken body and his shed blood.

And we also baptize believers. We ask people who say, I'm with Jesus to get just just back up for a second. Pretend like you've never seen this before. We ask people who are like, I'm with Jesus. We're like, okay, good, go ahead and get in some water. We're going to ask you in front of a group of people to profess your faith in him, and then we're going to dunk you.

It's kind of strange, right? What are the origins of this tradition? We ask people to profess faith in Jesus, and we put them under the water to signify that they're buried with Christ, that they died with him. And then we bring them up out of the water to signify that they've been raised to new life with Christ. We put them under the water to say the oldest washed away and has been cleansed, and we bring them up into a new life and a new identity as a worshiper of Jesus.

So why do we do these things? Why do we take away for an a cup? Why? Why do we make people, get in water in the middle of our sanctuary? Is this random or is there something to this? Can this be explained? Well, we do these things really simply because Jesus did these things and then commanded us to do the same.

Matthew 28. There's a very famous great Commission that takes place. And Jesus, before he ascended into heaven, says, Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. And then the command to participate in the Lord's Supper. I'll read it from Luke. Even though every gospel tells the story. Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.

And they said to him, well, where will you have us prepare it? Remember, we're gypsies. We don't have homes. And he said to them, behold, when you've entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guestroom?

Where I may eat the Passover with my disciples, and he will show you a large upper room furnished. Prepare it there. And they went and found it, just as he had told them. And they prepared the Passover. And when the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

He's referring of course, to the cross, for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, take this, and divided among yourselves, for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. So simply put, we baptize and we take communion because Jesus commanded it.

Secondly, we do this because we have a ton of evidence. The the early church and the church throughout the centuries has practiced it. Paul, when writing to an early church in Corinth, says this about communion, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, 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. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, this is the this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

That's interesting right? Paul starts by saying, hey, what I'm about to give you, I got from Jesus. So I'm going to give you what I got from him. This is what we're going to do. And so this is why we do what we do. So Jesus said it. The early church practiced it. And here we are a couple thousand years later, still practicing these things together.

These must stay a part of the church. In fact, I would encourage you that if you're a part of a church that doesn't practice these things, you might not be a part of a church because these institutions must stay. These are sacraments, for the church. But why did Jesus do these things? This is the question I was asking.

Was he, like starting a new trend? Was he like, hey, I'm the new guy on the scene? What we're going to do here, we're going to break bread. We're going to have this meal. You're going to take this meal in remembrance of me. Was he the new guy on the scene saying, hey, I've got this cousin John the Baptist.

We should start baptizing? Or was he fulfilling a tradition that he inherited and saying that these institutions that are already in place, they point to me. They've always pointed to me. They've been a preview of what I'm going to do. Well, I think you probably know where I'm headed to understand the Last Supper. You know, the Last Supper.

Kids, one of the questions on your handout is why is everyone sitting on one side of the table? So you can speculate as to why everyone's sitting on one side. But to understand the Last Supper, you have to understand the first Supper. And when you understand the First Supper, the Last Supper makes a lot more sense. And in fact, in order to understand baptism, you have to understand the crossing of the Red sea.

Both those stories are recorded in the Book of Exodus, which we've been studying in the fall. And so I want to take you back to the book of Exodus, and I want to take a look at the origins of communion and baptism, so that we understand when we come to the table, what we're doing and why we're doing it.

Is that all right with you guys? We're going to leave. We're going to read a lot of scripture. I'm just warning you guys right now. So here's where we're at in the Exodus story. Exodus is the second book of your Bible, and we'll be reading from chapter 12. So it's near to the front of your Bible. Here's where we're at in the story, though.

Here's what we've studied so far. So the Israelites, the Hebrew people have been enslaved for 400 years. God sees the oppression and says, I'm stepping down. I'm going to do something about this. When God steps down to do something about this, he chooses a man, not just any man, a man in his prime and by that I mean 80 years old.

He chooses an 80 year old man who's been wandering the desert for 40 years, and he gives him a stick and a one line sermon and says, you're going to go up against the most powerful man in the world. You're going to go to Pharaoh, and you're going to tell him, let my people go. Pharaoh, being the most powerful man in the world, says, not a chance.

I need this slave labor force to make my empire go forward. And then what happens? Plagues. Not just one of them, but ten of them. So nine plagues come and go. Pharaoh still won't loosen his grip on the people. And so there is a straw that breaks Pharaoh's back. And it's the 10th Black plague, which is the killing of the firstborn.

And so the idea here with the 10th plague is that death and judgment are coming to every home, not just the homes of the Egyptians, but the homes of the Hebrews and the Israelites as well. Death and judgment will come to your home. But if you know the story, you know that God provides for anyone actually who will trust him.

A substitute death is coming. You can take it in two different ways. You can lose your firstborn, or you can provide a lamb, a substitute, and that lamb can die in your place. So let's read it. Exodus chapter 12. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.

I want to stop there because I know sometimes we read dates in the Bible and we're like the month of Nissan. I have no idea what you're talking about. Yada yada yada yada yada, but just back up a sick read this sentence with me again. This month is to be for you. The first month, the first month of your year.

What's God saying here?

This is a game changer. The whole calendar changes with today. And can you imagine someone bursting on to the scene? We've been running with a calendar year that starts in January for quite some time, and someone's like, no, it's June now. June's the New Year. What a preposterous statement, right? God, you can't do that. It's been January for quite some time.

Well, it's not anymore. This is the first month. This is a game changer. This is going to reset your clocks. And for many of us here who follow Jesus, we know about this moment, this moment where everything changes. This moment, that kind of, I guess, resets everything in our lives. It used to go like this. Now it goes a different way.

God does something in Christ that changes everything. And if you don't know that yet, man, press in. Seek God more than you want to know him. He's longing and looking for you. In fact, he promises that if you diligently seek him, you will be found. So everything changes with this event till the whole community of Israel, that on the 10th day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.

If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor. Having taken into account the number of people there are, you are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.

Take care of them until the 14th day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over fire, along with bitter herbs and bread made without yeast.

Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water. Not a problem. It's like. Everyone's like, why did God have to say that? Do not make sushi or boil lamb, but roast it over a fire. Not a problem with the head and the legs and the internal organs may be a problem. Do not leave any of it till morning.

If some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. On that same night, I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn, both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt.

I am the Lord. 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. This is a day you are to commemorate for the generations to come. You. So you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord, a lasting ordinance.

If you read these chapters, you're going to read a lot. Now you're going to read a lot of things, not just on what to do, but actually how to memorialize it, how this is going to be passed down for generations. And if you've got a tradition that you want to last my might, I suggest that you pair it with food.

Gods no dummy. Who knows how to get a tradition to stick right? A meal that includes all your senses as you retell the story of salvation, as you retell the story of deliverance. Unleavened bread was meant to communicate to the kids that we had to leave in a hurry. We didn't even have time to let the bread rise.

They would eat bitter herbs to be reminded that many tears were shed over the 400 years of slavery. But there's really specific instructions for what a substitute must be. This lamb must be a number of things. I'm going to point out six to you, and I want you to help me because I think you'll start to understand. Maybe this isn't about a lamb at all, and maybe this isn't just about an exodus out of Egypt, but a cosmic exodus being led by Jesus Christ, the substitute for death.

The sure way to save your family, death and judgment are coming to every house. You can take it in two ways. You can take it, or the substitute can take it. But here's what the substitute needs to be. First, it needs to be pure.

Verse five says the animals you choose must be year old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats, pure without defect. That means this is costly, right? I'll never forget, going out to a farm, seeing an animal that was diseased. The vet was out there, couldn't save the animal. And then when I asked the farmer what was going to happen to that animal, they said they were going to Taco Bell.

And I remember being so grossed out that basically this disease, the animal that they couldn't save, that cost them nothing, was being, I guess, relegated to our tacos. Right? This remember being so grossed out, the idea is that you're not sending what's full of sickness. You're not sending what has defect. You're sending something that costs you something, something pure, something spotless.

The second thing you need to know about this substitute is that it has to be personal, take care of them. Basically, what happens in your house when you take this lamb, it starts as a lamb and then it ends as the lamb, because you're supposed to take this lamb on the 10th day, and then you're supposed to keep it till the 14th day.

Then you're supposed to kill the lamb. Do you know what happens in that time, those four days that your kids have now named this lamb? This becomes really personal.

Right. Here's a surefire way for your kids to end up in my office needing counseling. Get a puppy at Christmas, and then four days later, get rid of the puppy after they've named it, after they've fallen in love with it. But the idea here is that this sacrifice is personal. It's not just pure, it's personal. We can see that our sin is costing something.

Thirdly, it must be killed. Verse six the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

Number four this sacrifice must be applied.

Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the house, where they eat the lambs. I love this idea, because he's not saying, I want you to believe that a lamb died for you. I want you to know that a lamb died for you. No, I want you to apply the blood of the lamb to the place where you live.

It was applied with hyssop, which is famous in the scriptures for cleansing. In fact, David would pray in Psalm 51. Cleanse me with hyssop. So they would take it and they would apply it. And I think I've wondered through the years, was it just a little dry? But if you know the wrath of God is coming upon your house, you're probably bleeding that lamb right into a spray rag.

You're just like your wife's like, I think that's good. And you're like, no, I'm a roll it on, man. There's been nine plagues. They've all come to pass. I'm not rolling the dice with this one. God's warned us nine times. We're not going to sprinkle it. We're going to go ahead and use all of it. Number five. And this one's really interesting.

It has to be completely consumed that same night there to eat the meat roasted over the fire, which, by the way, the fire in the scriptures always refers to God's judgment and wrath. This lamb will taste fire. The judgment of God will be upon this lamb. This fire will roasted along with bitter herbs, bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roasted over a fire with the head, legs and internal organs.

Do not leave any of it until morning. If some is left till morning, you must burn it. It must be completely consumed. It must be totally devoured. And I just want to, for a second, make a point of application here and just say, when it comes to Jesus, you can't just take the parts you like. I'll take a little bit of that.

I'll take a little bit of this. This makes me feel uncomfortable. In fact, this whole sermon about the wrath of God and blood, I just don't like that part. Love your neighbor as yourself. I'll take that. What Jesus says about sexuality. I'll pass on that. I'm going to take a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

He's not a buffet line that you move through and go, I'll take that, but I won't have that. He must be completely consumed. We take all of him or nothing. That's what's being said here. And then lastly, this has to be done in faith. This is how you're to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in hand.

Eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. What's he communicating?

When you take this meal, it's go time. Load the U-Haul in faith. God's going to do what he said he's going to do. So this meal, this substitute must be taken in faith. Come back with me now. So we just went through the first supper. Come back with me now to the Last Supper and think through this, because it's Passover that Jesus is celebrating with his disciples, is it not?

It's a meal that they've grown up taking over and over again unleavened bread, because they were in a hurry, bitter herbs because there are 400 years of slavery under Egypt. A lamb that's a substitute that's being sacrificed because the judgment and wrath of God is being poured out on this lamb. And then Jesus needs to say little more than to say, oh, this bread, the bread of life.

This is my body broken to you. The Passover points to the Eucharist. Oh, this blood shed, this blood that you would mark and apply to your life. That's my blood shed for you. This meal is about me. This meal points to me. The Passover is a preview. I'm here. The feature presentation has arrived. I will taste death and you will go free.

Now, as we read through the New Testament, you'll find out that the first guy to ever testify to Jesus's identity was his cousin, John the Baptist. John the Baptist had a ministry of baptizing people to cleanse them, to prepare them to receive God's coming Messiah. So John the Baptist is baptizing people. And when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, the first man to testify says of Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus isn't starting a new trend here. Hey, call me the Lamb of God. You know I'm going to go by the lamb. Well, that's different. It's not. There's centuries of tradition that would point them to Jesus. First Peter 118 and 19. The apostle Peter says, you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

What's he referring to?

Andrew Wilson, in his book Echoes of Exodus, says this within this Passover shaped framework, with its rich array of images, the meaning of Christ's death comes into sharp focus. Passover is, if you like, the crucial clue that develops. Sorry, that helps us decipher a much larger puzzle. Jesus is the firstborn son who dies in the climactic divine judgment under a darkened sky, opening up the doors of God's house.

Jesus is the Passover lamb, whose bones are preserved from being broken and whose blood proclaims freedom rather than condemnation. Jesus is the one who establishes a new covenant in his blood, sealed in a covenant meal, and invites everyone to join him. Jesus is the pure unleavened bread, the Lord of the wine, which symbolizes new creation, the one who eats the herbs of bitterness with us, and the one who explains to his descendants what all these symbols mean.

This is what we're doing and why we're doing it. When we come to the table. And we won't get to do that today. We do that every Sunday except this one, right here that everyone's ready to go. We just read the menu or like, let's eat and it's not what we're doing, but we do get to baptize. What are the origins of baptism?

Was this just an idea that Jesus and John came up with, hey, let's start a revolution. Let's baptize people. What are the origins of this story? Once again, you'll find it in the book of Exodus. It frames our understanding of salvation. And there's three movements to salvation in this story. The first is leaving the old behind, coming out of bondage.

The second is surrendering to the God who will fight for you. And the third is a new identity or a hope for the future, the promises of God in front of you. We've experienced that those of us who are here and are in Christ, we've experienced this leaving of the old, learning to trust the God who will fight for you.

You need only to be still and a new identity as now worshipers, a new identity, a people of promise, living with hope like there's a land and there's a future for us. So here's the story of the Red sea with these three movements of salvation. The first is leaving the old behind or coming out of bondage. Exodus 1229.

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt from the first born of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the first born of the prisoner who is in the dungeon dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock. As well. 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.

During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, up, leave my people, you in the Israelites, go worship the Lord as you have requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And then also bless me, as I think that's awesome. Get out of here. Pray for me when you get to your festival. Because these boils, they're killing me now.

The length of the time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was about 430 years, and at the end of the 430 years to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt, 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.

All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions. For the person who saved by Jesus, their coming out of bondage, out of slavery, out of oppression, they're leaving the past behind. And that's why we put them under. They're leaving behind the old 430 years they've been captive.

You better believe that. They got out of Egypt overnight. But it took a little longer to get Egypt out of them. Right. 430 years, they're bound and they're put under, and the old is gone. The old has been washed away. That's one of the ways that we understand salvation from the story. The second piece is surrendering to the God who will fight for you.

Listen to this. When Pharaoh let the people go, God didn't lead them on the road through Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, if they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt, ready for battle.

So here's the idea he doesn't lead them on the shortest route. He leads them actually to a place where they're completely trapped. They're stuck facing the Red sea. And this is only a problem because Pharaoh wakes up and goes, wait a second, I can't believe I let all these people go. I'm going to go get him back. When the King of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, what have we done?

We've let the Israelites go and we've lost their services. So he had his chariot made ready, and he took his army with him. And as Pharaoh approached this group of people who were stuck, the Israelites looked up and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified, and they cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, I love this because they're scared.

They've only got a couple minutes left in their lives. But there's enough time for sarcasm. Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, leave us alone. Let us serve the Egyptians.

It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert. And Moses answered this group of people. That was in an impossible situation. There's no way out. Do not be afraid. Stand firm. You'll see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians, you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you.

You need only to be still. I wish that was a lesson we only learned once. But this is a daily deal for us, is it not? And for those of you who are getting ready to be baptized, do not be afraid. Stand firm. You're going to see the deliverance that God's going to bring to you today. The Egyptians, the things that have been tormenting you, you'll never see again.

The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still a huge part of our salvation. And our redemption is learning to trust that God will fight for us. Learning. When we're in an impossible situation and we can't see a way out that we can trust him to come through for us. Lastly, the people receive as they come through the Red sea a new identity and a hope for the future, and it explodes in worship.

Israel was set free from one master so that they could serve a new one, and they're born again through the waters. They come into a new identity as a nation, as they pass through the Red sea and into a new land, one that they'll inherit, one that's full of promise. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea.

And all that night the Lord drove the sea back, along with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided in. The Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.

During the last watch of the night, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and the cloud at the Egyptian army, and he threw it into confusion. He jammed the wheels of their chariots. They had difficulty driving, and the Egyptians said, let's get away from the Israelites. The Lord is fighting for them. Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and their horsemen.

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place, and the Egyptians were fleeing toward it. And the Lord swept them into the sea. And the water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen. The entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived, but the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

And that day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore. And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they put their trust in him. And Moses his servant. And as they come through to the other side, the first thing they do is just erupt into Song and Moses, their fearless leader, is now freestyling, just singing the praises of God.

And Miriam joins when Pharaoh's horse, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. Then Miriam, the prophet Aaron's sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her with timbrel and dancing. And Miriam sang to them, sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted, both horse and driver.

He has hurled into the sea. So they get their festival, their worship before the Lord. And so for the person who has been saved, not only are they leaving the bass behind, not only are they trusting God with what seems impossible in their own lives, learning to be still, learning that the Lord will fight for them, but they're also stepping into a new identity.

They're being born again through the waters. They're being delivered into a new identity as a worshiper of Jesus. And they're coming through the waters of baptism into a new identity.