Am I Worthy to Keep the Passover?

Here we are approaching the Passover. I don't know about you, but I'm trying to wrap my mind around getting ready for the Passover. This last week has been so busy, and the week before was so busy, and here all of a sudden the Passover is coming up. And it's unfortunate, but it does seem like if we're not careful, the Passover can catch us by surprise. And as we prepare for the Passover, of course, we think a lot about that first Passover in Egypt, all those dramatic events in which God literally destroyed the greatest superpower on the earth at the time. I mean, Egypt was the greatest empire in the world at the time, and he destroyed it in order to bring the Israelites out of slavery. Let me ask you something here, and this is going to play into what we're going to talk about here in a little bit. If an Egyptian would have said, you know what, this God of Israel, that's the true God. I mean, that's really, that God, powerful. He's more powerful than any of the gods of Egypt, and he wants those people to be let free. So we need to ask that God to protect us. And since I'm a firstborn, what I'm going to do is get all my family together on that night that the firstborn are supposed to die, and I'm going to bring him into my house, and I'm going to kill a lamb, and we're going to do exactly what the Israelites are doing, and to honor their God.

Would God have saved him from dying at that time? Interesting question, isn't it? Because he's doing what the Israelites are doing. I'm going to go back to Exodus and Joshua, and then we're going to see how what we're going to talk about in Exodus and Joshua actually is talked about in the New Testament and how it applies to the church. There's an application here, a lesson we need to learn as we approach the Passover. So let's go to Exodus 12.

Of course, this is the chapter that tells about that entire Passover, the experience of the Israelites slaying a lamb and staying inside their homes, and all the firstborn of Egypt died that night. And after those events, God tells Moses to tell them, when you get into the Promised Land, I've just destroyed this great nation, and I'm going to lead you to a land you can't even imagine, and I'm going to give it to you. Now, they had no idea they had to cross the Sinai. They had no idea how they were going to get to the Red Sea.

They probably didn't even understand there was a Red Sea there for most of them. I mean, that was a long way from the Nile. As far as they're concerned, I mean, if you haven't traveled much, you wouldn't know. And so, all they know is God's doing all these miracles so that they can go someplace. And when they get there, they will now continue to keep this Passover. And He tells them in verse 43, And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover. So, here's, they just finished keeping the Passover.

And He says, Now, when you keep the Passover, and He's going to tell them in the land when you get there, He says, No foreigner shall eat of it. That simply meant no Israelite. But every man's servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, he may eat of it. A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat of it. Now, this is very interesting. He's saying, Now, if you actually have a servant that you've bought and paid for, it doesn't matter whether they're an Israelite or not, you have to circumcise them, then they can keep it.

Circumcision, of course, was the sign of the covenant. You were in a covenant with God. He says, A foreigner or sojourner or a hired servant, you know, someone who's come into Israel, they're not Israelite, but they're, you know, you hired them to do work for you, they can't keep the Passover. This is very specific. When you get to the land, who can keep it? Who cannot keep it? And in one house it shall be eaten, you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.

And all the congregation of Israel shall keep it. And then, in verse 48, it says something interesting now. And when a stranger dwells with you, okay, this foreigner or this stranger or this hired servant that's come in to do work in Israel at the time, if they come along and say, no, I wish to be part of and in a covenant with the God of Israel. So when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised and let them come near and keep it.

And he shall be as a native of the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat it. And there shall be one law for the native born and for the stranger who dwells among you. He says, now when you get to the land, though, if a non-Israelite, if a Gentile says, hey, I wish to participate in the Passover to the Lord, I wish to be part of this covenant, then he has to become a participant in the covenant.

And they will now be treated as if there's someone born in the land. So it's an interesting issue that they have here. He says, now when you get there, you're going to realize that there's going to be non-Israelites coming into your land, and if they wish to be part of this covenant, they can be.

They just have to be circumcised. They have to agree to be part of the covenant. And then they are to be treated as if they're Israelites. They are just like they're born in the land. They can't be a second-class citizen. So he gives this instruction to them, and they're still a long way from the Promised Land. In fact, they didn't get there for 40 years. They didn't get there for 40 years. Now this time, they didn't know how long it was going to take.

They sure didn't think it was going to take 40 years, and it shouldn't have taken 40 years. But 40 years later in Joshua, we now have the children of those who left Egypt, because all of the adults died.

All of the adults died in the wilderness. And so we get into Joshua chapter 5, and here they are 40 years later.

And it says in verse 2, At that time, the Lord said to Joshua, Circumcised the sons of Israel again the second time.

None of the children over that 40-year period had been circumcised. When a male was circumcised and his family was all part of the covenant, their parents had a covenant with God. They were circumcised when they kept that first Passover. And since that period, there had been no circumcisions in Israel the whole 40 years. Verse 3 says, So Joshua made foot knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the four skins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt, who were males, all the men of war had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. All those who had made a covenant with God in Egypt died, and they did not circumcise their sons to be in a covenant with God. Now God was bringing them into a covenant to give them the promised land. Verse 5, For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord swore that He would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers, that He would give us a land flowing with milk and honey. Now we can read through that and say, okay, that seems interesting, but what does that have to do with us today? There's a very important lesson here today. The Israelites were circumcised in Egypt. Now we don't know whether they had continued circumcision, or when Moses came along, they were circumcised. There's nothing it says Moses had them circumcised. Some Jewish tradition says that. The Scripture does not. It appears that they had continued to be circumcised the time they were in Egypt. They continued to participate in the covenant God made with Abraham. And God, because of that covenant, and because they were the covenant people, and they had a relationship with God, an agreement with God, He came and destroyed Egypt just like He had told Abraham. He destroyed Egypt and brought them out.

He went through the Red Sea and they came out into the wilderness. It would take them a whole year to go across that wilderness. And in doing so, they would break the covenant over and over again. We're going to talk about that lesson for us today as we keep the Passover. By the way, for a hypothetical Egyptian friend, he would have died because he wasn't in a covenant with God.

He was going through a ceremony, but he was not circumcised. The ceremony was the ceremony. The circumcision was the outward appearance. I have entered into a covenant with God. And that's why it's so interesting that even before they left Egypt, God gave Moses instructions. When you get there, when you get into that land, if a non-Israelite wants to follow me, they must enter into the same covenant and they must be circumcised. And then they can get the Passover. They will be just like one of you and you have to treat them as if they're a native-born Israelite. So our Egyptian friend would not have been saved because he wasn't in a covenant with God.

The Passover is built around the concept of having a covenant with God. This is the reason, by the way, that we say to participate in the Passover service, you have to be baptized. You have to participate in a covenant with God to participate in the Passover.

It's not just a nice ceremony. You have to have this relationship with God to do it and to participate in it. Now we come to the New Testament. And in the New Testament, we keep the Passover as the new covenant under the New Covenant. So it's a little different than what they did. We don't have to kill a lamb. Jesus Christ is the lamb. But we still keep a Passover service. And what's interesting is Paul writes to the Church at Corinth and tells them that they have to be careful not to keep the Passover in an unworthy manner. Now what does that mean? And of course, there is almost every year that goes by that someone doesn't come to me and say, I think I can't keep the Passover this year because I'll be doing it in an unworthy manner. So we have to understand what does that mean. I mean, you had an entire generation of Israelites who didn't keep the Passover in the Promised Land because of an unworthy manner in which they lived. So what does this mean for us? Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians.

Because Paul is making a very important point that we need to be aware of. We need to consider because this is the time of year that we're told to examine ourselves. But at the same time, we need to understand what it truly means to do this in an unworthy manner. And we actually can learn about it from what is said about the ancient Israelites that left Egypt, both in the Old and New Testament. So let's go to verse 18.

And Paul's writing to Corinth, they were getting together to keep a Passover ceremony, and they were doing it all wrong. And it was a mess. It was an absolute mess. This was not what the Passover was supposed to be. He says, verse 18, for first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must be also factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. In other words, he says, the church in Corinth, if you just read it, it was always a mess. Its whole history was nothing but a mess. And he says, you people get together, but all you do is fight and argue. And he says, this is the way it's supposed to be. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Now, this is very important. The Lord's Supper referred to the fact that they had a Seder meal that night. He says, no, you're not supposed to eat this big meal. We're supposed to center in on the New Covenant elements, which on Passover, we will cover, we'll go through those New Covenant elements. So he says, that's what we're supposed to center on. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of the others. One is hungry, another is drunk. This is what was happening at their ceremony, where they were coming together to keep the Lord's Supper, which what he did that night with those disciples. They were coming together. Some people were having a big banquet. Some people didn't have anything. Nobody was sharing. And some people were coming and actually drinking enough wine to get drunk. He says, what? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I will not praise you. For I received from the Lord that which is delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed. So he goes back to that time, you know, this Supper. He says, let's go back and look at that night. He took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat this is my body which is broken for you, and do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, 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 this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. So He zeros in on the reason for the Passover is to celebrate Jesus Christ as the Passover. He is the Passover Lamb. So we are to zero in on Him. So forget the banquet. Forget the meal. Come together and take the bread and the wine. And of course, we also know that we're supposed to do the foot washing, as Jesus did and commanded His disciples to do. He said, zero in on this. If we are to keep the Passover in a worthy manner, Paul's explanation right here is so important to understand. We're going to examine ourselves. Yes. And we're going to find that we're unworthy. Well, if you're saying you're going to find that you're not perfect, then you're not. Nobody is. If you're going to say, well, I'm going to find that I still have sin, yes, you will. So then I'm not worthy. He points us here to the fact that the whole center of the Passover is to understand the new covenant and what God is doing through Jesus Christ. Verse 27, therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. What he's saying here is, to do this in an unworthy manner means that we're not forgiven.

So understanding what's happening here is part of the examination we're supposed to do. Surprisingly, we're going to be able to look at what ancient Israel did and understand a lot about this concept he's talking about here.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. In other words, in this examination, we're not supposed to say, oh, I can't take it. We're supposed to come to the conclusion, I have to take it. I need to take it. I am nothing without this. So he's not saying, examine yourself and say, oh, I can't do it. He's saying the opposite. Examine yourself and say, I have to do this. I need to do this, and then partake of it. But it has to be in the right approach and the right understanding, and it can't be taken lightly.

He says, for this reason, many are weak and sick among you, many sleep. He said, there's all kinds of trials in the church, and sometimes our trials are because we're not understanding what this Passover is all about. We're not understanding the reality of what that Passover is all about. In verse 31, he says, for if we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged. He says, if you do this self-examination in the relationship of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the work God is doing through him now, if you examine yourself in that, and you judge yourself in that, he says you won't have to be judged. And of course, he's judging the whole church. He's saying, you people have this all messed up. I mean, the Corinth church was, if you and I walked into a church as messed up as Corinth, we'd turn on and walk out. It was that bad. It's still a church of God. Not a very functional one. Not a very spiritual one.

But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. So he says, when you go through this examination and you look at yourself and you judge yourself in the context of the Passover and the new covenant, then you will not be judged or condemned by God.

This seems like a very negative message. It's actually very positive, is what he's saying. We have to escape this condemnation. How do we do this? We've got to look at ourselves at this time of year and really, truly strip everything else away. All the stuff that clutters our minds, all the other stuff that we live with every day. We've got to strip it away and say, who am I in relationship with God and with Christ as the Passover and what is being done in my life?

What is being done in my life? Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. And the rest, I will set an order when I come. So, first of all, let's just stop all the silly behavior that they were doing. Let's just stop that and then we'll work through this.

He is trying to get these people to focus in on what God is doing in the Passover. So, we examine ourselves, is it now that we are to go before God and bring up all of our past sins? No. That would mean you're telling God, you haven't forgiven me for my past sins.

When you were baptized, we came into a covenant and was our past sins forgiven. So, to go before God and Passover and say, oh, forgive me for my past sins, he's saying, well, I already forgave you of that. Is it to look at our present sins? Yes. And to look at them in relationship of what God is doing in our lives. So, do we say, oh, I'm presently imperfect, therefore I cannot keep the Passover. If that's true, there's not a single person in this room that can keep the Passover.

So, what is the self-examination that leads to, I've still got problems, where does that lead us to? Because it's not only about to be, I have problems. The self-examination isn't just that. It isn't just looking at where am I falling short. It's, am I going to keep this in a worthy manner? Am I going to do this in a way that God wants me to do it? And the thing is, the only way that you and I can take this in a worthy manner is God has to make us worthy. You can do it. I can do it. Only God can make us worthy. Only God can say, I forgive you. I can't, can you forgive yourself for sinning against God? Nobody can. Only God can say, I forgive you. And it's through what? The sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have to come to absolute understanding that the worthiness of Christ's sacrifice is what this is all about. The worthiness of His sacrifice to be given to us.

You're not worthy to receive it. No, I can't receive Christ's sacrifice. I'm not worthy. Or if you're worthy, you don't need it, right? I mean, we put ourselves in these logic loops. You and I have to accept the worthiness of Christ's sacrifice in order to keep this in a worthy manner. And that means we have to have humility before our, the fact that we are still imperfect. We are still imperfect, but we have no worthiness to give. We never did.

We have no worthiness to give God. He gives this to us because He wants us, because He loves us. Now, we have a responsibility to respond to that, and that's part of this Passover season two, is responding to what this whole sacrifice means.

So when we look at an unworthy manner, we're talking about primarily, first of all, a relationship problem we have with God and Christ. And yes, they're sinned. I mean, we have to look at that too, but it's the relationship issue on how we perceive forgiveness for sin and restoration with God. Okay, let's go to the New Testament to look at an explanation of what we read in the Old Testament. Let's go to Hebrews chapter three.

Hebrews chapter three.

So are you with me so far? Stay with me here, because we're going to go through this in even greater detail.

This isn't about making light of sin. It's the opposite. It's saying, what's the only cure for sin? It isn't making light of sin. It's saying, what's the only cure we have for it? Here we have in Hebrews three, starting verse seven, it's an actual quote from Psalm 95.

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. In the day of trial in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me and tried me and saw my works for 40 years, therefore I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray of their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter my rest. Now, what's uncomfortable with this is they were being told, when they reached the Promised Land, that generation that left Egypt was told, you can't go into the Promised Land. You're going to go around and go back out into the wilderness. And the writer of Hebrews is warning Christians that we don't do the same thing, except our Promised Land is eternal. We don't want to lose this Promised Land. They lost their physical lives, and we're not able to enter the physical Promised Land. This warning is to Christians to make sure that we don't follow that exact same example, going through the Passover, being circumcised, going through the Passover, coming through the Red Sea, and ending up right there, a year later, right there. And God says, go back out into the wilderness. You can't come in here. So this warning is for us. So why?

You know, there's something interesting when we go back to Numbers 14. We'll come back to Hebrews here in a minute. Let's go to Numbers 14.

Here's why God told them they had to go back out into the wilderness. And this begins to help us understand about an unworthy manor. So let's go to Numbers 14 and look at verse 19. Israel refused to go into the Promised Land. We forget that. They were there. Moses set in the 12 spies. They came back. Jacob and Joshua said, God will give this to us. And the other 10 said, we can't go in there. There's walled cities. The men are giants. And plus, they know how to fight. I mean, they are trained soldiers. They're wealthy. There's no way, no way we can take that Promised Land. There's no way God can give that to us. Now, remember, their whole motivation was God's taking you out of Egypt and taking you to your own land. God's freeing you from slavery and taking you someplace. For a whole year, remember, I'm taking you someplace. I'm taking you someplace. Moses would tell them, they get there and they refuse to go in. This is what's important. It wasn't just, oh God help us because we can't do this. It was, we're not going. We refuse to go. And God says, step aside, Moses, I'm just going to kill all of them. So Moses says, verse 19, pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of your mercy, just as you have forgiven us people from Egypt, even until now, from the moment we left Egypt, you've had to forgive them and forgive them and forgive them and forgive them and forgive them. So forgive them again. And God says, the Lord said, verse 20, I have pardoned according to your word. Okay. I will not wipe them out. I will not kill all of them. But Moses, this is my judgment. But truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. He said, this is about me, Moses.

This isn't just about them. Yes, there is a sense of Abraham. Yes, they're the ones I destroyed Egypt for. They're the ones I opened the Red Sea for. They're the ones I gave food to and I gave manateu. They're the ones that the pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke appeared every day, 24 hours a day for an entire year. They saw the special presence of God every day.

He did all that for them. He said, but this is really then about me. Because all these men who have seen my glory, all these people who heard the thundering from Mount Sinai, who heard the voice of God, who saw the lightning and the fire, who received the 10 commandments, received water in the desert coming out of just out of the ground that shouldn't have been there. Flocks of birds to feed them over and over and over again. God says, no, they don't believe who I am. And this is where we have to start to understand how we can slip in to the same problem they had. He says, they saw my glory in the signs which I did give in Egypt and in the wilderness. And they have put me to the test now these 10 times and have not heeded my voice. And in a year, he said, 10 times. They said, no, we don't like you. You don't know what you're doing. This is too hard. We want to go back to Egypt. 10 times! There's nothing more he could do. I mean, everything he did. And they still said, no, this is too hard. This promised land can't be worth this. I would rather go back to slavery. There were benefits. There was a certain security. You know, we'd have to sleep out under the stars every night. He said, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected me see it. And then he tells them, so turn them around and send them back. You lead. Now Moses has got to be thinking, but I want the promised land. No, you're in charge. I put you in charge. It's not your fault, Moses.

It's not Kayla's fault. It's not Joshua's fault. But turn them around and hand them back.

They don't get the promised land. Now, this is sad when we look at this. It's unbelievably sad. We look at what these physical people went through. But in Hebrews, the church is warned, don't become like this. Don't become like this. Let's go back now to Hebrews.

Let's pick up in verse 12. Be aware, brethren, lest there be of any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. There's a lifestyle in which we just won't believe God. And, of course, in reality, we won't obey God. We sin sometimes through all kinds of reasons. Weakness. Just moments of temporary insanity. But he's saying here, these people never really believed. Killing the firstborn of Egypt didn't make them believe. Opening the Red Sea didn't make them believe. They just wouldn't believe in the power, in the wisdom, in the goodness of God. And it was just too hard to cross the Sinai. Which is too difficult. Oh yeah, we got some water. And we get this manna. And we're healthier than we've ever been, because they're getting the perfect food every day. But it's just too hard.

You know, there are no video games here. There's no entertainment. There's no NFL. I mean, there's just nothing out here. He says, verse 13, But exhort one another, this is what we're to do with each other in the church daily, while it is called today. Let's say, And have you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin? We get hardened by it.

Yes, we still should feel bad about our sins. We should be ashamed. We should be striving to overcome our sins. And that constant humility and constant repentance is, I mean, we're now doing what God says, that's worthy. That's what you're supposed to do.

It's when we become hardened, and we just don't believe God cares. We just don't believe God's going to do what he's going to do, says he's going to do. Or the price is just too high. What you're asking me, God, is just too high. I mean, you know, I lost my job because of the Sabbath. Or, you know, I could have done this if I was dishonest. Or, you know, just start listing all the benefits I can get. God says, well, I gave you a manna. Yeah, but I like steak. We want more and more, and we think this is too hard, and the promised land doesn't mean anything after a while. And what's scary is there is a there is in the Jesus Gives and Parables in the New Testament about people who come right up to right up to his return, and he says, I don't know you. Is that frightening? I don't know you. Is it because they didn't receive perfection? Well, they were growing in perfection, but nobody achieves it until we're changed. We're growing, we're growing. I'm not making light of the fact that we have to grow. I'm saying, though, that this journey across the desert to get to the promised land is hard, and it changes us, and we have to grow from it. We have to learn from it, and it's not going to be easy much of the time.

But the Red Sea has already been opened for us.

He says in verse 14, and this is where, once again, there's something positive. For we, those who are part of the New Covenant, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steady to the end. While it is said, today if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. So he's quoting once again from the Psalms. For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, it was not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses. Now, with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those whose sinned, whose corpses were left to fall in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter to his rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of why. Unbelief. They just didn't trust God to do what he said. Now, I gave a sermon six weeks ago about God's faithfulness. That's hard for us. We keep saying, well, God, you're not faithful. And God says, yes, I am. You're just a little impatient. Well, God, you're not faithful. Well, that problem doesn't get fixed until the resurrection. But, God, you're not faithful. You tell us this and this and this. And he keeps saying, but it's there. It all happens. This is all worked out. When Christ comes, we get changed. We receive the Promised Land. And to keep the Passover unworthy means we've lost sight of all that.

And we're relying on ourselves instead of relying on God.

To take the Passover in an unworthy manner is a number of things. One is we simply don't trust God to complete the work that He started in us. Oh, you know, God could do this to somebody else, but I'm too bad. He can't do this in me. That's a very small God. We love slavery to sin more than we love God in His promises. You say, well, how can you do that? How could they do that? Oh, we just go back to slavery with so much better to be a slave. They actually said that. Oh, if I could just be more part of the world, if I could go out and party on Fridays and Saturday nights again, that was so much fun. If I could just do this, if I could, you know, we could list all these things, that that would make my life better. And what we're doing is we're looking back at Egypt and saying, God, I think it's better back there. Now we're starting in the direction of moving towards an unworthy man. We don't trust—this is important—we can do this in an unworthy manner because we don't trust in Christ's sacrifice to be enough to be accepted by God.

Okay, God, I know we were sacrificed, but sometimes we think, I must suffer because of my past sins. And God says, well, you're suffering because your past sins. No, I need more punishment or something. You know, should I scourge myself? You know, there's these monks who scourge themselves this time of year. They literally beat themselves so that they can earn God's forgiveness and be worthy of it. No, that won't make you worthy of God's forgiveness. What if I fast for 40 days and 40 nights? Well, you'll probably die, but it won't make you worthy of God's forgiveness. Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can be worthy of that. And we lose sight of that. It's not enough, is it? And God says, it's all you get. Now you've got to come to me and let me live in you. That's why we have to enter into this covenant. That's why we have to receive God's Spirit in baptism. And then we start this long journey across the desert. Our Christianity is the journey across the desert. The Red Sea closed behind us, Egypt in shambles, and this is where we're going.

And they lost faith in all that. You can't lose faith in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ and who He is. And then, a fourth reason is we reject our spiritual journey because it's too difficult. It's just not worth it. So, we can end up in an unworthy manner by a series of attitudes that we form. One is, we don't trust God. He'll start the work. He'll finish the work He started in us. God can't do that.

We love slavery to sin more than we love God in His promises. We love the sin too much.

So, we hold on to it. We don't trust in the worth of Christ's sacrifice as sufficient to receive forgiveness from God. Now, once again, that doesn't mean that you have to be careful. It doesn't mean, oh good, I've been forgiven. I can do whatever I want. No. Now, you're just on the journey. The journey of overcoming. The journey of going towards the promise life. And then, we reject our spiritual journey because it's too difficult. You mean, I have to change this and this and this. Oh, yeah. Oh, wait. As soon as you do, guess what God says? Now, you're going to change this and this and this. And it's going to be like that all the way until you get to the promise land. He's going to give you a list of things that have to be changed.

And we say, well, the journey is too hard.

As we humbly and prayerfully examine ourselves, we have to make sure we're still not yearning a little bit for Egypt, or we think this is too hard, or we think that Christ's sacrifice isn't enough, or we think that God can't fix me.

What is it that we are supposed to receive from this self-examination? What is it that we're supposed to receive? Let's go to Ephesians 3. This isn't something you've probably heard read before at Passover time, but—and Paul isn't talking about the Passover here—but he's talking to those who have become participants in the New Covenant and their approach to life.

Verse 14. He says, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, this humility before God and realization that He has been called to become part of the family of God, and this change of life that He's involved in.

This is what he wants the people at Ephesus to receive from God. He says that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit and the inner man. This is what the examinization is supposed to lead us to. It's to go to God and say, you please give me what I cannot have. You please motivate me. You please lead me. Now, you still have to give in. We still have to give up the will, but He says, in the inner person, you do this in me. You change me. You lead me.

You help me to continue to overcome. You give me value that I do not have. We keep looking for a value that if I could just be perfect, I'd be valuable to God. And God says, you can't be perfect unless I make you perfect. So we see that God has a purpose and a meaning, and He's doing something in us. I mean, just receiving the knowledge of the Sabbath as a blessing from God, having a congregation to meet with is a blessing from God. Verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love through faith, that we can trust God and that the Greek word piece, trust, would be a better translation than faith. We trust Him. We don't always understand. Sometimes we're sort of annoyed. Sometimes we're just upset. Sometimes we don't get it, right? But we trust Him that He is going to take us to where He said He would, and that Egypt no longer matters, and that the journey to the Promised Land is a price to be paid. Verse 18, that we may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height. He says that we can get it all. You know, let's look at all the dimensions we have. We can see everything that God is doing in our limited way. We'll never understand all of it. Even when we're changed, I don't think we'll ever understand all of it. God's so great. But He says, I want you to know this.

This is what God wants to give us at this time of year. So He wants us to know. I want you to know what I'm doing and believe in it and follow it and obey it. And yes, overcome your sins and come confess your sins. But why? Because He's called you to become His children.

To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That's that. We're back to that covenant we made. God gave us His Spirit. You're baptized. Hands laid on you. God gives you His Spirit. Now He says, I want you to become fully, completely filled up with God. So you examine yourself. Well, that's not who I am yet. God says, of course not. That's why you need to keep the Passover over here. He brings us back. I mean, every year I say it's ground zero, right? He brings us back to ground zero and says, this is what it's all about.

Now to Him who is able... Now here's what we have to believe in. Here's what the Israelites never could believe in. That left Egypt. Now to Him who is able to exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us...

He says, God is able to do all this beyond what we can even think or understand. He's able to do this. Everything that He started in verse 14, this one long sentence here... Well, it's in Greek it is. He says, all that He can do, He's going to do in us if we'll just allow Him to do it in us. He won't make us. He won't take away our free will. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or even think, you and I can't even think what God can do. If that's how far above us He is. He says He's able to do this according to the power that works in us. To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. That is the attitude He wants us to have at the Passover.

That's it. Focused on Him and focused on the work of Jesus Christ. And as we focus on that, we see what He's able to do. And we examine ourselves and say, I can't do that. Good!

If we think we can do it, how arrogant. But He can. If we submit to it and allow Him to do it, because He won't make us. A few days we'll observe the Passover.

And every year we wonder, am I worthy or not worthy? We struggle with it.

That's why we need to study the Scriptures and meditate on the covenant that you made with God. No. God made with you. You agreed to it. This wasn't the equal covenant. God made a covenant with you. And you and I agreed to it. Our lawyer didn't show up with us. Right?

This covenant was between Him and us. We agreed to it. And that's the agreement He's going to carry out unless we say, I don't want the covenant anymore. I want to go back to Egypt.

He's going to carry out what He says. The Passover is a time of self-reflection.

And it's not supposed to lead us into despair, although there is always a little bit of disappointment. It's like, well, I'm still not who I'm supposed to be. But it's not supposed to lead us into despair. Instead, it's supposed to lead us back to God and back to those events that we'll discuss at the Passover service. It's supposed to lead us back to those events as the point where we understand this is what God is doing. That the worthiness does not come from us. The worthiness comes from God and Christ. Do not turn back, as the Israelites did, on the threshold of the Promised Land. But trust that God and the Passover sacrifice that we're going to be commemorating here on Friday night, that He has, through that promised, and He has the power, He has the power to finish the work He started in you.

Thank you.