Old Testament: Exodus 15:1-11 (Easter Sunday: Series B)

The music for Easter Sunrise is as important as any other part of the service, just ask anyone who plans them. If you doubt it, simply pick some minor song or far too creative choice and then wait until after the service for the comments to come rolling in like rain. No! On a day like Easter, you bring out the oldest, the best, the big guns. You assemble the twenty-one-gun salute of praise; the full H-A-L-L-E-L-U-J-A-H and the loudest AMEN! That is why this text from Exodus is an excellent one to preach for Easter Sunrise. We pull the Old Testament favorite song of salvation for God’s people, and we sing it on the day where we give full throated thanks to God for His salvation for us in Christ alone. Every lyric of this text is about God’s victory over everything which keeps us away from Him.

But why preach on this text for Easter? Because it provides a valuable link between the Old and New Testament even on Easter Sunday. The story of the crossing of the Red Sea and the salvation of Israel by the Lord is fundamental to the narrative of God’s people. Whether or not you should preach this text for Easter comes from the basic fact that in this event the Lord fulfills the promise to deliver His people from bondage, from the power of an oppressor, and from the imminent danger of death. In the Exodus, the Lord wins glory by overthrowing Pharaoh and his army. The result is Israel is delivered from their enemies, and they praise and trust in the Lord.

The context for these verses begins with the approach of the mighty army of Pharaoh. Just like the rest of us, the children of Israel begin to tremble in fear, much like the early witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection trembled in fear at the reality of Jesus’ entombment. It looks as if Israel is trapped between the army and the sea, and it appears to the followers of Jesus that He is trapped in the grave. In our text, only Moses starts the song praising God for the power and promise of His salvation. The Church is no different in this regard from the people of Israel. Who among the disciples really expected God to raise Jesus from the dead? Who among us today finds it natural and normal to fully trust God to see us through the difficult times of our lives? The hearer interpretation you may want to develop for this sermon could deal with the depth and necessity of faith, even in demanding situations.

So, how do Christians respond to the challenges in their lives. The only thing for the people of God to do in the midst of challenging situations is to praise the Lord for His great deliverance given to them, by God alone. God further strengthens the assurance of His people’s salvation by the clear and present reality that He alone destroyed the Egyptian oppressor. This is reminiscent of Paul’s teaching how in Christ’s resurrection “the last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). In this way, all peoples from the Exodus to Easter will know the Lord is the true God. What can this mean for us today? That on account of Christ alone all the world will know the Lord is God (Exodus 8:10, Joshua 4:24). From the most powerful (the high and the mighty in worldly terms) even to the most lowly and humble (the example of Mary from John 20), everyone will learn to fear the Lord.

 From the most powerful (the high and the mighty in worldly terms) even to the most lowly and humble (the example of Mary from John 20), everyone will learn to fear the Lord.

In preparation for Holy Week and Easter, our joy as preachers is to let loose with a song of praise on Easter which may rival the singing of Handel’s “Halleluiah Chorus,” with trumpets and tympani, and lilies in full bloom. People come to worship during this festival season with great expectations, and not wanting to disappoint them, we are going to let out all the stops. Which means the conclusion of a sermon on this text, in keeping with the anticipated joy of the day, could end with the singing of the congregation’s favorite Easter hymn. It should be the one they can all sing from the heart, the one they will hum the rest of the day, the one which matches the praise Israel had in singing the song in our text. We are inviting our Hallelujah’s to be in harmony with their Amen’s.

This Easter season will be a journey that leads us from fear, through faith, to freedom. And if we are willing to walk alongside our biblical forebears and fellow travelers on the road, this journey will take us in the direction where praise is the inevitable result.

God’s promise to us Christians, secured through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sets us free from the powers of sin and darkness to receive the forgiveness, love, and grace of God which to us is the light, salvation, and hope of God’s Kingdom here on the Earth and in Heaven. That is where our journey of faith is taking us. The waters of your baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2) lead to Christ’s empty tomb as you follow Him from fear, through faith, to freedom now and for all eternity.

For the progression of an Easter sermon based off this text, you can use the Israelites “journey from fear, through faith, to freedom” to help plan moments of development for preaching. The sermon structure which would best suit our purposes is the Four Pages model. In using the Old Testament lesson as the narrative/illustration for the sermon you can set this framework nicely to serve the proclamation of the Gospel from our text and for the day.

“Paul Scott Wilson has popularized this structure through his work, The Four Pages of the Preacher. In this work, Wilson speaks of four rhetorical units in the sermon, two of them based upon Law and two based upon the Gospel: (1) Trouble in the text, (2) Trouble in the world, (3) Grace in the text, and (4) Grace in the world.

During the course of the sermon, the preacher will take his hearers through these four experiences. As Wilson notes, the preacher can vary the way in which he orders the references to these four rhetorical units in order to create some variety with this design.

The sermon could offer a recurrent movement from trouble to grace. Here, the sermon has two moments of turning from Law to Gospel: One situated in the text, and one situated in the world. For example, the sermon begins with trouble in the text and then moves to grace in the text. Then the sermon continues by exploring trouble in the world only to move to proclaiming grace in the world. By dividing the sermon between an encounter with the text and then an examination of the world, the sermon mirrors the flow of the Text-Application Structure. It also allows the preacher two opportunities to proclaim a life changing moment of grace in the sermon, one in relation to trouble in the text and one in relation to trouble in the lives of the hearers.”[1]

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Additional Resources:

Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 25:6-9.

Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 25:6-9.

Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Isaiah 25:6-9.

Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!

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[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/dynamic/lawgospel-structure/