Am I Teachable?

Well, all of us know that we are here celebrating the first day of the days of Unleavened Breath. And we are prepared for this. We have removed leavening from our homes, and we've stopped eating McDonald's hamburgers for a period of time. And yet, I'd like for us to think about the fact that whenever we study the Holy Days, that God asks us to observe. He directs commands us to observe them.

But He does that for a reason. And many of those Holy Days are just specific days, individual days, by themselves. And yet, as we also know, well, the Feast of Tabernacles, as we travel to in the fall, that's a seven day and eight day, as we have the eighth day added on at the end. There's an eight day period of time. And of course, we can, I think, in many ways understand, whenever we are celebrating the coming world tomorrow, the millennium, and the setting that can be created in a type of going off and traveling and meeting together and thinking about the world to come, we can understand in many ways the length of time.

I think it makes sense that that type of emphasis on the kingdom to come is very, very significant. But why is it that God directs us to keep these days of unleavened bread for seven days? See, that's the same period of time. And of course, the Passover is tacked on kind of at the front of that. You know, you have an eight day period of time when you think of it in that term.

So is there some significance? And I don't know that I'm going to be able to give you great insight into how God or why God did what he did. But I certainly know that he is wanting us to learn something. Here in Leviticus 23, Leviticus 23 used to be a listing of all of the holy days, and some of them in great detail from the standpoint of what Israel did.

And starting in verse 4 of Leviticus 23, it said, These are the appointed festivals of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. And so these are celebrations that we get together and celebrate before God. We celebrate a feast. It goes on in verse 5, in the first month, on the 14th day of the month at twilight, there should be a Passover offering to the Lord. And then, verse 6, on the 15th day, as we are observing today, on the 15th day of the same month, is the feast or festival of Unleavened Bread of the Lord, seven days.

You shall eat Unleavened Bread. On the first day, again like we are today, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not work at your occupations. You shall, for seven days, you shall present the Lord's offering by fire. And on the last day, the seventh day, there shall be a holy convocation, and you shall not work at your occupation. So here he's pointing out that out of the seven-day period of time that we are observing the days of Unleavened Bread, there's the first day and the seventh day that are annual Sabbath. There are days that we celebrate as we are today.

This may seem unusual to people in general to go to church on Tuesday. But that's what God asks us to do. He directs us to observe this holy convocation. And I point out this simply because you can see the Passover and then following the next seven days, the days of Unleavened Bread, are all kind of together. They're the spring holy days. And I think that we should consider how closely tied together the Passover is with the days of Unleavened Bread, because all of us, I think, probably look forward to the Passover. We look forward to coming before God, again doing what he says, doing what Jesus said to do, in taking the bread and taking the wine and participating in a foot washing service that Jesus, again, directed.

We look forward to that. We anticipate that. We have sermons for weeks and months prior to that. Looking forward to it. And we're taught that we should be discerning the Lord's body. And we should be examining ourselves. And then we should take the Passover. We should come together and observe the Passover celebration. I think we'll find that continuing in that line of thinking, of examining ourselves, of seeing ourselves, of seeing sin in our life, is a part of what we find that's connected to the days of Unleavened Bread.

So I'm going to point out to you, God directs us to observe this festival, the Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread. And He does that for a seven and with the Passover eight-day period of time. He does that for a purpose because He is preparing us.

He's preparing us for service, certainly, in the Kingdom of God. But without understanding, without growing in our understanding of what the days of Unleavened Bread were about. See, actually, God directs us to observe this festival by doing something that, as far as most people are concerned, is just completely weird. Just absolutely abnormal. You know, why is it that you would not eat leavened bread?

You would eat unleavened bread? You would go out of your way to try to find products that are not leavened? Or if you made them, you would make them without leavening? That's very odd. Very odd from the standpoint of many people. Certainly, it is foreign to most people. And actually, if you try to explain it to people, it's pretty hard to do.

It's pretty hard to get through even maybe what is leavened, what is not. I think most of us who've done it many, many years, probably we don't think about it quite that much. We kind of know what to do and what not to do.

But see, there is a significance. There is a significance about why He has us do that for that period of time. Because He wants us to continue in a certain level of self-analysis. To continue in being able to see the sins that are in our lives. And to know that God not only has forgiven us, but that He is going to help us conquer sin. He's going to help us grow and come out of the sins that we are asking Him to help us identify.

You know, I've been finding in the New Testament, I'm reading, of course, out of the Old here in Leviticus. But in the New Testament, you see in 1 Corinthians 5, in verse 7 and 8, Paul talks about keeping the feast. Keep the feast of unleavened bread with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now, that's a pretty direct statement. It's one, again, that I think most all of us are familiar with. I think it's interesting to see in John 13, you also see in an account that is almost entirely about Jesus. Here in John 13 and 14 and 15 and 16 and 17, chapters that we reiterate at the Passover every year, chapters that highlight what Jesus told His disciples.

That He told them they could expect what He told them to prepare for. But here in John 13, you even see reference to the feast of unleavened bread. Because as Judas is being, in a sense, singled out in verse 27, he received a piece of bread, and Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, Do quickly what you're going to do. See, Jesus clearly understood what was going on. He knew who was there. He knew the disciples who were going to be the leaders of the New Testament church.

He knew they were there. They were learning. They were going to learn that night from a foot-washing service that they were going to learn the meaning of, and that they were going to begin. And Jesus instituted the bread and the wine. That again, were new. They were to be emblems or symbols of His broken body and shed blood. They were being taught firsthand from Jesus Christ what it is that they would do, and then what they would pass on to others.

And Jesus said, verse 27, Do quickly what you're going to do to Judas. And now, around at the table, knew why He said this to him. And some thought that, well, maybe Judas, since he has the money, he has the treasure, he's got the common purse. Maybe Jesus was telling him, Go buy what we need for the festival. See, this was thinking among themselves. They had observed, with Jesus, a Passover Servants, a Passover meal, a Passover institution of the New Testament emblems. And there were yet to be seven more days as they would go into the days of Unleavened Bread.

This is what it says in verse 29. They wondered, did He tell him to buy what we need for the feast? Buy what we need for the festival? Or that he should give something to the poor? So this was just their thinking. They wondered what it was. But it's another reference to the fact that Jesus and His disciples were not only familiar with this, but that they were observing it and they were continuing to keep it. So I point this out just in order to mention that during these next seven days, during this seven-day period of time, we're not going to be together like we are at the feast.

We're often off to a remote or sometimes exotic location during the Feast of Tabernacles, but here we're normally here at home. We're at our home. We still go to our jobs on days that are not Sabbath days. And yet, what is it? What is it that God really wants us to learn during this seven-day period of time? Is it a matter of just avoiding certain foods? Or is it much more significant than that?

See, what we really want to focus on is the fact that we are to be feeding on the bread of life.

Jesus explains that that's who He is. That's what He is. That's what He offers us.

And of course, He gave His body and He symbolized it by bread. And He says that we are, even as was mentioned in the sermon, we're to be united. We're to be drawing together. We're to be coming in harmony. But actually, if each of us are coming in harmony with the bread of life, then we are truly going to be in harmony with one another. And that's what these days, this seven-day period of time is to teach us. And so I ask, and I hope all of you will ask yourself, just how teachable are you? How teachable am I during these days of unleavened bread? Not just that I'm avoiding eating, as I said, buns and rolls, but that I eat unleavened bread, I think about the need for the life of Jesus to be in me, and I think about how teachable I need to be. Here in Luke 6, I hope we can recognize that this is something that we observe every year, but it has great significance. And it is a long period of time. And so it causes us to be focused for a longer period of time on one thing. Here in Luke 6, I want to point out a question that I have to ask myself. And this is part of why I ask the question, how teachable are you?

Now, we can all think we're kind of teachable, that we can learn, but again, I'm not saying, can we learn anything. I'm saying, how teachable are you? How receptive to the words of God are we? That's what we need to ask ourselves, because that's what's focused on during the days of Unleavened Bread. Here in Luke 6, Jesus gave a parable in verse 39. And I know this is connected with another thought that He has here prior to this, but I simply want to focus on what He points out here in verse 39. He told them a parable in verse 39. He said, can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both of them fall into the ditch or the pit? And He says, that doesn't make sense.

But He goes on to say, as a disciple, it's not above his master or teacher, that everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. See, that's who you are supposed to be becoming like, the teacher. And that's not me, and that's not someone else here. That's the real teacher, the teacher who is the Son of God, the one who we are to emulate and we are to become like, and the one that we want to study the Word of God to see what He said and see what He did and see how He responded and see how He reacted and see what His view was on other things.

But He goes on to say in verse 41, why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye? Or why do you in verse 42, how can you say to your neighbor, friend, let me take out the speck in your eye when you yourselves do not see the log in your own?

There He's pointing out something very direct to all of us, that to happen it's easy to see the flaws and see the sins of others. You know, we can look certainly at the world, you find lawlessness and just complete disregard for the Word of God or the Way of God.

It's pretty blatant, pretty obvious. It actually is becoming more and more that way. There is more and more, you know, in this, even in this country, we're living in a land that is becoming more and more lawless. You know, there is less respect for the directives from God or for the Word of God to actually be the Word of God. You know, there's a lot of undermining that takes place to try to tear people's minds away from the authority that comes from the Bible. But what Jesus is saying is, you know, instead of focusing on the sins and flaws of others, you know, you need to take a look at your own self. He goes ahead and says the latter part of this, you hypocrite. I guess this is in verse 42.

You hypocrite first, take the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's. You can help someone else if you are very teachable. If you are a person who is teachable, you are a person who recognizes your limitations and realizes where you need to grow. Then as you're doing that, as you will easily and readily growing and being taught, then you're able to serve and help others. It's what I want to mention about this parable that Jesus spoke. So I have that during these seven days of Unleavened Bread that were not just simply eating the right thing. We should be eating the right thing, yes. We do that simply in obedience to God and in a desire to honor God in His Word. But we also should think about the fact that the days of Unleavened Bread, the seven days of Unleavened Bread, are to help us examine our thoughts, to analyze our sins, to see where we can continue to grow, but then also to analyze how close we are to the bread of life. That certainly is a commendable effort for the entirety of this week.

Clearly, a lesson that we want to be mindful of. And so, I guess the title of this is just, how teachable am I? How teachable am I? Am I truly growing? Or am I just putting in my time?

Am I just here because I'm told to be here? It's got to be something that goes beyond that. I've got four different points here that I want to make in the sermon today, and I hope that they can be helpful to us. All of them are related to teaching or learning or how susceptible we are to the instruction that God gives us. First of all, is that we're exhorted to listen and heed the Word of God in order to be wise. The Word is ordered to listen, to pay attention, to heed what God says. And when we do, we can be considered wise. We are doing something that is extremely wise. And of course, there are many verses that we could go through that would, I think, focus on that. We might look here in Matthew 16 because I want to tie this together with the fact that the Pharisees, even though they proclaimed religion, they felt religious. They felt righteous.

They were looked up to in the community. They were the religious leaders. They were people, you could say, who were supposed to be good Jews. And yet, what you find in verse 5 here of Matthew 16 is that Jesus had a lot to say to them. And I'm not going to read everything He had to say to them because He had a lot to say to them. And He says in verse 5, when the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. And Jesus said to them, backtrack and beware of the yeast or the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And they said to one another, well, is it because we forgot to bring the bread?

Is He saying this because we didn't bring the food? Is that why He's pointing that out?

And becoming aware of that, Jesus said, well, in the face, why are you talking about having bread?

Do you not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand? How many baskets we gathered? And the seven loaves for the four? How many baskets you gathered?

How could you fail to perceive that I'm not speaking about bread?

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And then in verse 12, it says, they understood that He had not been telling them, He had not told them to beware of the yeast or the leaven of bread. He was not talking about the physical bread. He could solve that pretty much at any time. He was able to feed thousands if He needed to, even with a small amount of food. But He says, I want you to be aware of the teaching or the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He says, I want you to be aware of the fact that even though they proclaim to be righteous, they're not. They do not accept Me for one thing, and they do not want to learn anything. See, that's what you find in Jesus' confrontation with the Pharisees.

They could never come to understand. They didn't want to know anything. They didn't want to learn anything. You could say the Pharisees simply were not teachable. Their minds were closed.

And so, their hypocrisy and their inability to see their own sins was spoken about here by Jesus. It talks about the teaching or the doctrine of the Pharisees here being something that we should, because we should be aware of that during the days of Unleavened Bread. But I point this out just so to show that the Pharisees were not wise. They were very unwise in the fact that they didn't pay attention to the one who could teach them what they needed to know. In Proverbs 15, there are many different things we could read about teaching or learning or about being teachable. But here in Proverbs 15, I want to read a couple of verses here that I think would be applicable to this. Proverbs 15, in verse 32, it says, Those who ignore instruction despise themselves. Those who ignore instruction despise themselves, but those who heed admonition gain understanding. Now again, for analyzing how teachable are we and how teachable will we be when we're asking God to teach us and show us and lead us and help us in our study of the Bible, help us in our understanding of our own sins, help us in recognizing even the deceitfulness in our heart. Because that, even though we have acknowledged that, it's not completely disappeared. That's something that we have to continually fight against and ask God to help us overcome. Now, if we back up to verse 31, it says, So, he who heeds admonition is going to be considered wise. And of course, you know, we're going to be seeking that wisdom, a wisdom that is not common to this world, but a wisdom that actually comes from above. You actually see James chapter 3 talking about a wisdom from above. Let's go over there. James chapter 3 talks about earthly wisdom, which is clearly a false and of this world. It says in verse 14 of James 3, If you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly. It's unspiritual. It's devilish for there. Where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. In many ways, you know, I could think of settings where that seems to just thrive, not here in the Church of God. But clearly, there are settings that you could consider that, you know, where envy and strife and bitterness and selfish ambition is the driving force for people to try to, you could say, work together. I don't know that they're really working together as you might apply that to many settings. But it says the wisdom from above in verse 17. This is the wisdom that we want to have if we're going to heed instruction. We're going to listen and heed. Wisdom from above is described as being pure and peaceable and gentle and willing to yield and full of mercy and full of good fruit without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.

Now, that's clearly the absolute opposite from what the Pharisees represented. You know, they truly were not pure. They were not peaceable. They were not gentle. They were not willing to yield. They were not full of mercy. They were filled with hypocrisy. See, brethren, we don't want to be that way. We want to be watched. And we want to listen and heed, particularly, to the Word of God. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul makes some direct statements about the church there at Corinth. He tells them how much they were missing out in many ways.

But he told them, starting here in the first part of 1 Corinthians 10, he says, I don't want you to be unaware, brethren, that our ancestors, the Israelites, were all under the cloud. They all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses and the cloud and the sea. And they all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink. And they drank from the spiritual rock that was following them. And that rock was Jesus Christ. See, he pointed out to them, as we look back in the history of Israel, the individuals who were brought out of the captivity that they had been in in Egypt and brought through the Red Sea, in a sense, had been baptized into Moses. And that they had been brought through and that they were led by the pillar and the cloud. And he said that that leader, that rock, was Jesus Christ.

Nevertheless, in verse 5, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. So even though they went through, what you have to say would be the most remarkable thing, maybe completely inexplicable thing, that you could ever go through, being brought through the Red Sea. And having been protected during the death angel passing through the land and being passed over. See, they had seen that. They knew what happened. But as it says, God was not pleased with most of them. They were struck down in the wilderness. Now it says in verse 6, these things, and again, Paul is pointing this out to the Christians. He's pointing this out to the people who were members of the church of God. He says these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. And he says, do not become idolaters, as some of them did, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play. And now again, you can go back and read through much of the history of Israel. You see that idolatry was a major problem. They couldn't get away from it from Egypt. They couldn't get away from the other countries that they came in and interacted with. But see, whenever he's pointing this out to the Christians, you know, are we teachable enough to think about the fact that, well, he says, be careful. Idolatry can be that can sneak up on you. Putting anything before God is idolatry. And that was clearly a lesson that the Israelites continually failed. He went on to say, we must not, in verse 8, indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in a single day. Okay, another warning, another warning as far as God's authority in his law to guide and direct the proper use of sexual activity in marriage. See, outside of that, this is what the Israelites indulged in.

He says in verse 9, we should not put, or we must not put, Christ to the test, as some of them did.

They were destroyed by serpents. Again, you can go back and talk about these illustrations that we read about in the Old Testament, and that would be a way that we could study or we could learn what it is we're to avoid in verse 10. Do not complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now, this was clearly a flaw within the Israelites. They had known and grown. They complained. They resisted Moses and the lead that God had given him.

Now, is that only a characteristic of Israelites of the past?

Now, that's something that any of us can fall into. Now, this is, again, what we read for our instruction. He says in verse 11, these things happen to them to serve us an example, and they were written down to instruct us on whom the ends of the ages have come. And so, if you think that you stand, then watch out, and that you do not fall. Again, I tie this together with what I point out here in this first point, that we're exhorted to listen and heed.

And be wise and clearly avoid the flaws and the sins that Israelites fell prey to.

The second thing I'll mention is that none of us really like to be corrected.

Discipline is not something that is fun. That's what we read here in Hebrews 12.

But if we're going to be teachable, and if we're going to learn the lessons of the days of the 11th bread, if we're going to learn those implicit lessons that God wants us to learn, then we're going to need to desire the discipline and the correction that comes from God.

Now, I know again you can say, well, I do. Well, I can say that. It's not something that my mind might be so much desirous of learning. Actually, here you see in Hebrews 12, let's look at the verses that I'm referring to here.

I'm going to read some of these. I mention that because I'm going to read some, and I may not read others because right here at this particular page in my Bible, they're stuck together, and I can't read all of them altogether. But I'll read some of them. You've got it in your text there.

So, Hebrews 12, see, Paul is encouraging the Jewish Christians. He's encouraging the individuals that he wrote this book to, and he actually knew, who weren't very familiar with the law, very familiar with obeying God. That had been pretty much their way of life even prior to coming into a recognition of their need for repentance and for Jesus Christ in their life. That's what they had been awoken to.

They had been shown that they needed Jesus Christ and that they were in embracing that. And they obeyed, but they really needed to have Jesus Christ living in them.

Chapter 12, verse 3, says, consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

So, he wanted them to continue. He wanted them to succeed. He wanted them to be encouraged. He wanted them to be teachable. He was actually telling him, some ways you're not teachable. You don't pay very good attention.

It says, if you struggle or are in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

He was pointing out Jesus had already done this.

Jesus had resisted unto death.

He says, you've not yet done that. And you, in verse 5, had forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children. And where it says, my child do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, and don't lose heart when you are punished by Him, for the Lord disciplines those whom He loves, and He chastens every child that He accepts.

This is the manner in which God looks upon us.

He's brought us through a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, one of mercy, one of forgiveness, one of encouragement.

But He knows that we've got to continually be taught. We've got to continually desire to be guided by Him, to be corrected by Him, to be admonished. He goes ahead and talks about discipline.

Of course, He mentions discipline in verse 11 always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time.

But later, it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by Him.

So He gives us, it causes us to have the peaceableness, it causes us to have the desire to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. But in verse 10, it says, talking of our physical parents, they disciplined us for a short time. They did that what seemed best to them.

But He, talking about God, He disciplines us for our good.

In order that we may share in His holiness.

See, He does. You know, we want to be attuned to direction, to correction, to guidance from God.

And that's something that we clearly receive out of the Word of God. We receive in numerous ways, if we're looking for it, if we're asking for it, if we're asking for God to correct and direct us. See, this is what David did in Psalm 139. I'm sure we've read this prior to the Passover, but in Psalm 139, you know, what David asked for in verse 23 and verse 22 was... or 24, is, search me, O God, and know my heart.

Test me and know my thoughts, and see if there's any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

So he was pleading with God. He said, I know my thoughts, and I know my heart, and I know some of those thoughts and perceptions are wrong.

But I would like for you to direct. I would like for you to correct.

I would like for you to cause me to desire to hunger and to thirst for righteousness.

That's what one of our beatitudes states.

You know, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and it follows up by saying, because they will be filled. Those are the ones who will be filled. Those who desire, those who want to be corrected.

And so that's the second point, desire, the discipline and correction of the Lord, as well as the first point. Listen. And heed. I'm going to skip the third point, and you can figure it out for yourself later.

The first point, though. No, I'll give this as the third point, so we'll just have three points today.

We need to desire to hear the words of that prophet.

We want to need to desire to hear the words of that prophet. So we look back in Deuteronomy 18, and the Israelites at that point had been brought into a relationship with God.

Certainly, it wasn't a complete success in that whenever God interacted with Israel and He came on the mountain and tried to give the law, the Israelites were appalled. They ran! They didn't want to have anything to do with the voice of God. They were scared to death of God.

And so, they set up Moses. And here in Deuteronomy 18, it kind of refers to that.

As He says in verse 16, This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, If I hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore, or ever again see the great fire, we will die. Today, they didn't really have a desire to relate to God. They didn't want to hear God. They actually told Moses, We want you to go up, and we want you to hear whatever God has to say, and we want you to bring it down.

And yet, in this prophecy, it says in verse 15, and this, of course, is what Moses recorded here, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet who will be like me from among your own people, and you shall heed that prophet. So he said, you haven't really wanted a relationship with God. You haven't really wanted God to transform your heart.

You don't even want to know what he has to say or what his word is.

But he says, There's going to come a time when a prophet will be sent, and you will hear that prophet. In verse 17, the Lord replied to me, You are right in what you've said. Now, that's connected with verse 16. Verse 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you, like Moses, from among their own people, and I will put my words in the mouth of that prophet, and they shall speak to them, and who shall speak to them, everything that I command.

And certainly, this is exactly what Jesus Christ was commissioned to do. Even though the Israelites had not really embraced a relationship with God, God said, you know, Jesus will be raised up, and He will come to the earth. And I want us to go to John 12, because you see here in John 12, it's a statement very, very similar to what we read there in Deuteronomy, that signifies that Jesus came as that prophet.

He came as the Son of God. He came as the Word of life.

He came to be able to tell people what to do and how to live.

Here in verse 44, Jesus says, whoever believes in Me, believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. See, this is, again, marvelous, inspired thoughts from God about what it was that Jesus saw and the people even that He interacted with.

And He says in verse 47, I don't judge anyone who hears. Well, let me read this out of another translation. Chapter 12, verse 47, this is in the ESV.

It says, if anyone hears My words and does not keep them, or does not believe them, I don't judge Him, for I didn't come to judge the world, but I came to save the world.

Now, this is what Jesus had to say, in a sense, kind of in summary.

Because here in chapter 13, you see it starts into the very last few hours of Jesus' life.

But here He's saying this in summary.

If anyone hears My words and does not believe or keep them, I don't judge Him.

I don't come to judge the world. I come to save the world. That in verse 48, the one who rejects Me and does not receive My words as a judge, and the word that I have spoken will judge Him on that last day.

For I have not spoken in My own authority, but the Father in verse 49, who sent Me has Himself given Me a commandment.

And that is what I am to say, and that is what I am to speak.

When Jesus came to the earth, He didn't come simply as our Savior, as our Redeemer.

He came as the supreme authority for how I am to live, what I am to do, how I am to structure My life. And He tells us that we are the ones who have to be responsive. It's amazing that even though Jesus came and we realize that He was not going to be accepted in a wide-scale way by His own community. Again, Ken read that in the sermon earlier today. I think it's sad when you see here in Mark 6, that Jesus pointed out that a prophet is without honor in his own country. This is what He was saying in verse 4. Prophets are without honor except in their hometown and among their own kin, and in their own house, or they are not without honor, except by those who only casually relate to them and who can't really believe who they are.

This is what He says in chapter 6, verse 1. He left the place and came to his hometown.

So He went to Nazareth as the disciples followed Him, and on the Sabbath, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were astounded. And they said, Where did this man get all this?

That is His wisdom. That has been given. How has it been given to Him? What deeds of power are being done by His hands?

Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph, and Judas and Simon, and are not His sisters here with us?

They were all familiar with the family, the brothers and sisters of Jesus, brothers and sisters that had been born to Mary and Joseph after Jesus had been the firstborn, of course. And they took offense at Jesus in verse 3, but in verse 4, Jesus said, Prophets are not without honor except in their hometown. In verse 5, He can do no deed of power there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and He cured them.

And He was amazed at their unbelief. See, He was amazed that they refused to acknowledge who He was and to hear what He had to say because here He was able to perform miracles. He was able to heal a few people right there if they just wanted to see that.

But see, what we have to recognize is that we wanted desire to hear the words of Jesus and to have those words sink into our lives. See, who is the real teacher? Well, the Pharisees thought they were teachers. That was a part of their hypocrisy. And Jesus said, Do what they say because if they read out of the book, if they read our Bible, then that's something you need to know.

But don't do as they do because they're hypocritical about it and they are wrong in that. But here in John 6, you see Jesus' fabulous description of who He was. And He of course says, in verse 35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry. Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty.

See, He points this out here in chapter 6, an amazing chapter. And He says down in verse 51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats of this bread will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.

See, He mentions eating His flesh and drinking His blood in this section. He mentions the obedient manner in which we respectfully, came to God the other night at the Passover and gratefully thanked God for the relationship that we can have with Jesus Christ.

But what I want to focus on is in verse 60, down through verse 69.

Because whenever Jesus made these type of statements, His disciples heard them, others in the crowd heard them. Now, there were a lot of different, there were Jewish officials there. It says in verse 59 that He was in the synagogue.

So whoever was there, I would assume, other Jews, probably other leaders of the synagogue.

There were a lot of people who were hearing what He had to say.

Then in verse 60, when many of the disciples heard it, they said, this teaching is difficult. Who can accept it?

Who could possibly do what you are telling us?

But Jesus, being aware that His disciples were complaining about it, He said to them, does this offend you?

And then, in verse 62, what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?

He said He knew what was going to happen. He said, well, what if you see this happen? How is that going to affect you?

He says in verse 63, it is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh, prophets, little, or is useless.

The words that I have spoken to you, they are spirit and they are life.

See, He points out in chapter 6, verse 63, that the words that I am speaking to you, they are the words of eternal life. They give you spiritual understanding, and they will lead you to eternal life.

So, as Moses had predicted in Deuteronomy, as God would raise up a prophet, that even though they didn't want to listen to God back then, they would come to listen. And all of us have come to listen to Jesus Christ as we study the Word of God and as we are motivated by our desire to serve God and obey God.

And so it goes on in verse 64, Among you there are some who do not believe.

For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe and who were the ones who would betray Him.

See, amazingly, Jesus was aware. He knew clearly what Judas was going to do.

He knew that was predicted and prophesied. He knew how it would be fulfilled.

He even knew that there were some who would not believe.

And He went ahead to say, verse 65, For this reason I've told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted by the Father.

See, in a sense, repeat it what verse 44 says, that you need to be drawn by the Father to Jesus Christ to be able to truly know Him and to come to Him and to be directed by His words, to be affected by the transformation of the heart, and by the renewing of the mind that Jesus is going to give through His words.

In verse 66, He said, Because of this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him.

See, sadly, a number of them just walked away.

You know, they didn't want to hear what God had to say. They didn't want to acknowledge that He was God in the flesh.

And yet, Jesus said to Simon, and to the twelve, I guess, He says, Do you also plan or wish to go away?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, where should we go?

Where would we go? You have drawn us out of a sea of Galilee. You have drawn us out of our fishing business. You have drawn us off of the tax collecting table.

You have drawn us out of our occupations, and you have pulled us together, and you have shown us by your power who you are and what you are going to do.

He says, Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

Today has come to realize that Jesus was the prophet that Moses had predicted. He was the one that God had said, Listen to that prophet. Listen to that man.

And certainly then let the words not only directly that Jesus said, but the entirety of the Word of God as we come to understand that Word, that Word is to change us.

And so we truly want a desire to hear the words of God, the words that Jesus gave us.

And we want to be transformed by them.

So one of the great lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread is that our sins are forgiven after our sins are forgiven. As we picture and think about it to pass over, we must listen to the teaching of the prophet. We must listen to the teaching that Jesus Christ gives. The Scriptures contain the message of salvation directly from God.

And God has revealed to us a mystery of the ages that has been hidden from mankind.

And so as we proceed through the Holy Day season, see, throughout these next seven days, it's not simply a matter of what we eat.

It's a matter of thinking about, as I eat that unleavened bread, that I am wanting the life of Jesus, the mind of Jesus, the Word of Jesus, to be a part of my life. I want that to be in me.

And that we are going to not forget that the words that we read in the Scripture are the words of eternal life directly from the Father. So we have a wonderful blessing in keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread. They have far more meaning, and of course, there are other aspects of the implication of sin that leaven and unleavening teaches us.

There are many different aspects of things that we could go through, but I thought it would be good here at the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread that we're asked to think about just how teachable am I? Do I listen and heed? Do I seek to be corrected by God? And do I hear the words of Jesus Christ and allow them to transform my life? See, as we observe these days as we eat unleavened bread, I think we should consider, am I getting the speck out of my own eye?

Am I teachable enough to be able to see myself so that I am able then to be a better servant to others?

I think that's a big part of what God wants us to learn during this time. And He wants us to feed on the bread of life.

He wants us to be filled with His words of life.

And of course, we want those words to be growing in each of us. And so I encourage us to, the next seven days, focus more on the words that Jesus spoke that will lead us to eternal life.