Are You Eating the Unleavened Bread?

Well, I trust all of you had a very inspiring Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. We're so blessed in so many different ways to be able to even understand some of these festivals and what they're to picture in God's plan of salvation, because that's exactly what they are. There's seven different festivals that God has given to us, and each one has important information for us to be able to discern, to be able to drink in from, that begins to guide us, begins to teach us, begins hopefully for us to be able to internalize, that will begin to take us down the road to being in God's family and being in His kingdom. You know, I spoke yesterday for those of you that were there about what I thought was a very important lesson here, is that we bring these lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread with us. You know, we don't necessarily forget this last feast and begin to focus on the next one, which isn't too far away, which is Pentecost, but that God wants us to build on that foundation. He wants us to learn these lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread, the things that we partake of it, Passover, and He wants us to, in a sense, not to put it in our pocket, but to actually bring it with us and build on that foundation, not only in the coming year, but for the rest of our lives. So what I'd like to talk with you today is about a message that has to do with the Days of Unleavened Bread that we have just been through. You know, often we talk about, of course, leavening, and when it pictures, we know that it pictures sin, and we know how it pictures how sin works. Leavening was the perfect commodity that God chose to help us to understand how the process of sin works. And, brethren, that's a very important part of the meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread.

But as a way of an introduction in the sermon today, I'd like to ask a question. What is the name of that feast that we just finished? What is the name of that feast? Now, it's not a trick question. It's the Feast of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Now, it's not the Feast of not eating leavened bread. That's not the name of it.

It's not the Feast of no leavened bread. It's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, why do I mention that? I mention that because this is really a feast that's built around two symbols, leavened bread and unleavened bread, and they each have very important meaning that we need to understand. Again, one of the symbols is leaven, which we are to avoid during those seven-day period. But there's another symbol of unleavened bread, which we are to eat during those seven days of unleavened bread.

Let's notice a few scriptures here regarding this feast. There are several, but we'll just cover a few here. Let's take a look to begin with. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse number 6. Leviticus chapter 23, and we'll pick it up here in verse 6. Most of us know that this is a section of scripture here that lists all of the seven festivals of God in one chapter.

Very important chapter in that regard, where it summarizes them all. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 6. We're going to read a couple of scriptures, and I want you to notice a pattern here as we go through some of these scriptures. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse number 6. It says, on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. Let's go over to Exodus chapter 34 and verse 18.

We see that God says that this is a feast, but seven days we must eat unleavened bread. Let's go over to Exodus chapter 34 and verse number 18. Exodus chapter 34 and verse number 18. Hopefully we'll see a pattern here as we look at some of these scriptures. In Exodus chapter 34 and verse 18, it says, the feast of unleavened bread you shall keep.

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. So we see in these two scriptures, we're basically instructed, in a sense, to eat unleavened bread for those seven days. Let's look at one more scripture here. We're in Exodus. Let's go back to chapter 13, just a few pages back. Exodus chapter 13, and we'll pick it up in verse number 6. Exodus chapter 13 and verse 6. It says, seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days.

And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in your quarters. So we're talking about where you live, your dwellings, and that type of thing. Now hopefully you noticed a pattern here. A pattern where we're commanded to eat unleavened bread for the seven-day period. Did you notice that there? And I wonder if there's a message here for us.

You know, I think there is, since it's repeated so many times, and I didn't read even all of the scriptures, where it talks about eating unleavened bread for those seven days. But there's a reflection here in the name of the feast, in a sense, that this is the feast of unleavened bread. And again, why the distinction? Because I think in the past most of us have focused on the leavened bread and not partaking of the leavened bread, which by the way is a very important part of the meaning of this day.

That's one of the symbols. And I've spoken about that probably more often than not. In fact, probably most messages have been speaking about avoiding the leavened bread. But I think there's another side of the coin, in a sense. There's another part of the picture. And that is the symbol of unleavened bread, which sometimes we don't focus on. So I'd like to focus on the unleavened bread in the message today, because I think that's an important part of the picture. So the title of the sermon today, when we think about the days of unleavened bread, I'd like to pose the question here is, are we eating the unleavened bread?

As we've just completed the feast of unleavened bread, I'd like us to reflect a little bit about are we eating the unleavened bread? Now, as we saw the commands that I showed earlier from God's Word, there is at least as much emphasis on eating unleavened bread during this period of time as there is in avoiding unleavened bread.

And why is that? I think possibly because part of the picture maybe hasn't been stressed, or maybe even fully understood or appreciated as much as we should. And so I think there's something that God is trying to help us to understand and learn. Now, if I were to ask you to explain or say, what does the leaven represent?

I think most of you would say correctly. I think it represents sin, and you'd be right. That's true. And if I were to ask you, well, then what does the unleavened bread picture? You know, what would you say if I were to ask you? And you might say, well, and you know, they had to get out of Egypt in haste. They didn't have time to leaven their bread, getting out of the symbolism of Egypt quickly and the sin that it represents, and which again is true. You might also think about 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 6. So let's go there, too, because I think that's an important part of the meaning that God revealed to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, and we'll pick it up here in verse number 6.

And you may recognize this verse when we get there, and it'll be a key verse for us as we go forward in this particular topic. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It's actually verse 8 I'm going to focus on, but we'll pick up some of the context here in verse number 6 of 1 Corinthians chapter 5. It says, Your glory is not good, don't you know that little leaven leavens the whole lump. And so this particular chapter, this epistle, was written shortly before the days of the leavened bread.

It was written shortly before the Passover. And so these were some of the things that was on the mind here of Paul as he's writing to the Corinthian church. And verse 7 he says, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Now let's notice verse number 8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So God begins to reveal to us here through Paul that we see the unleavened bread symbolizes or typifies sincerity and truth. So what does that mean? Sincerity and truth. What are we talking about here? Well, sincerity means something that's real, something that's genuine, something that is pure. And the truth? How does the Bible interpret that?

We know the truth is knowing what is right, what is true, and doing what is right. But I'd like you to notice a couple of scriptures where the Bible defines what truth is. So let's take a look at the first one. Let's go over to John chapter 17 and verse number 17. John chapter 17 and verse number 17.

We'll let the Bible here, in a sense, interpret itself. God's Word explaining what truth is, one of the meanings of truth. John chapter 17 and verse number 17. Jesus is speaking here, if you have a red letter Bible, you can see that he's actually praying for his disciples in this context here. Verse number 15 talks about that, and verse number 16 touches on that. And then he says in verse number 17, sanctify them by your truth, set them apart by your truth, and then he defines your Word is truth.

So we're talking about the written Word of God is the truth. It's one of the definitions of truth is the written Word of God. But let's notice there's another definition also of truth, and that's also in the book of John, and that's in chapter 14.

So let's go back there, three chapters back, John chapter 14 and verse 6, where Jesus Christ says a very astonishing statement here, an astonishing comment here in John chapter 14 and verse 6. And we'll pick it up in verse 4 for the context here. And Jesus is speaking, and he says, Where I go you know, and the way you know. And Thomas says, Lord, how do we know where you're going? And how can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

So we see that Jesus Christ, who is the living Word of God, we know that's one of his names in John chapter one, he's the Word. He's also the living Word of God and that he is the truth. You know, God the Father sent him to help us to understand the true way to live. And so we have the written Word of God, which is the truth, and we have the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, who also is the truth.

He says, I am the truth. And so we begin to understand what is all involved. Maybe we asked this question, you know, we talk about this unleavened bread representing sincerity and truth. What's all involved in that symbolism? What's all involved in sincerity and truth?

He touched on it a little bit. It has to do with the Word of God. It has to do with Jesus Christ.

One thing maybe that struck you, it struck me as well in the past, is when we talk about the Gospel of John. When it talks about the Passover time, he doesn't mention the bread and the wine symbols. He talks about the foot washing quite a bit in detail, but he never mentions the bread and the wine. You know, the other three Gospels do. When they talk about that final Passover that Jesus Christ had with his disciples, the other three talk about the bread and the wine. But John doesn't. Why doesn't John talk about the bread and the wine? Why is it that he's talking about something else? Seems like he's not necessarily in step, if you will, with what they're talking about.

What's going on there? You know, and as we look through John chapter 13 through 17, and we read quite a few of those scriptures during the Passover service, there's not a mention of the bread and the wine in that context. Why does he leave that out? Again, he gives other details about the Passover before and after, but he doesn't talk about the bread and the wine. Why? Why does he not mention it?

You know, why does he talk about other things? Well, one of the reasons why is because he wrote his Gospel message probably decades after Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And so, in a sense, what he's doing is those words were already out there. Those books were already out there. So, what he's really doing is he's adding some details that they left out. And one was a very important one was the foot washing. So, he added details that they did not have. And he probably felt the others were covered just fine. So, it's possible in that sense that he already had copies of their books, and he's avoiding covering the subjects that they covered. So, he's adding, in a sense, some of the things that they did not cover. He gives us great detail, in a sense, of the foot washing, which they didn't cover at all. But I think there's another reason why he doesn't talk about it in John chapters 13 through 17, in the sense because John has already talked in great detail about the bread and wine.

But he does it much earlier in his book. He does it way back in John chapter 6. John chapter 6. So, let's turn over there. We're going to spend some time in John chapter 6. It's a very detailed chapter. We're not going to cover all of it, but we're going to cover some high points here. And we're going to begin, as we begin, we'll start right in verse 1. And as we begin, we're going to see one of the greatest miracles that Jesus Christ had done. I don't know how you would gauge what's the greatest miracles of all, but certainly one of the greatest miracles of Jesus Christ's ministry.

So, let's take a look here. John chapter 6, and in verse number 1, begin to set the stage a little bit. It says, after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberius, two different names for the same sea, Galilee, Tiberius, same sea. Verse 2, then a great multitude followed him because they saw his signs which he performed on those who were diseased. And so, we've got all these people that are following Jesus Christ here because they have heard about him, they have seen some of the miracles here, and a great multitude is following here. And later, we'll see that this great multitude involves up to 5,000 men, and it possibly could be more. If you take into consideration spouses and children. And so, we see here that there's a great multitude, and by this time, he has performed a lot of miracles. You know, he's done a lot of things here. He's healed people of fevers. He's healed people that were paralyzed. He's healed people that had crippled limbs. He's even brought a dead man back to life at this particular time. He's healed people of demon possessions. He's healed people of blindness.

And so, the word is getting out, and there's a lot of crowd here that's beginning to follow him.

So, as this story unfolds, we'll also see that different people have different reasons as to why they're following him. Some really want to learn what he's teaching. You know, they refer to him as rabbi, and they are astounded by the things that they are learning. And then, there's others that are just intrigued by the miracles. They just want to see a miracle in that sense. You know, that's what's motivating them. And then, there's others that want to be healed. You know, they either personally, or they have a family member or a relative that needs to be healed. And then, as we're going to see, there are some that just want a free meal. Let's take a look here in verse number three. And Jesus went up to the mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And now, the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. So, we know the time frame is it's just prior to the Passover. It's just prior to the days of Unleavened Bread. So, we see the time frame of what's going on here. And possibly, this is maybe why there was such a large crowd also, is that these people were on their way to Jerusalem for the feast. So, that's possible while they were wandering around Galilee at this time, where there were so many of them. The feast was about to begin, and people are packing up as they go up to Jerusalem to keep and celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

All right, so keep this in mind that the timing is just before Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And let's see what Jesus Christ has to say here. As we continue in verse five, then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and he saw a great multitude coming towards him. And he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. You know, he had this thought already. If we know the story, we know what happens. And Philip answered him, he said, wow, well, you see, you know, you know, 200 denari worth of bread is not going to be sufficient for them, that every one of them could have just a little bit. And when we talk about a denari here, in that culture of that time, it was a day's wages.

And so, you know, for an average person, I don't know what a day's wage is today, but I'm just going to throw out $10 an hour. You know, eight hours a day, you know, $80 in a sense, would be about a day's wage, maybe for someone who's lower to middle income. And so, a denari, again, if we were to translate that into today's dollars, he's basically Philip is saying, in essence to Jesus, well, $13,000 to $16,000 of bread would not be enough to give everyone in this crowd just a little.

You think about how much bread you can buy with $13,000 to $16,000. So that gives us an idea of the size of the crowd here. How much could we buy with that today or the equivalent of that today?

Verse number eight. So one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother said to him, well, there's a lad here who has five barnie lobes and two small fish, but what are they among so many? So even Andrew's is looking at this crowd. There's a lot of people here, and what are these five lobes and these two small fishes among so many?

Then Jesus said, make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in that place, so the men sat down in number about 5,000. And that's why commentators think it's possible there could have been more than 5,000 if this was the number of the men, possibly. Or is it we're talking about mankind?

You know, we're not sure for sure. There's some thought on that either way. Verse number 11. And Jesus took the lobes, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to his disciples, and then the disciples distributed to those that were sitting down, and likewise of the fish, and they had as much as they wanted.

So when they were filled, it says, and that means filled to the full, so it wasn't that they all had just a little, but these five lobes and two small fish filled up to the full. After that, Jesus said to his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain so that nothing is lost. Therefore, they gathered them up, and they filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five barley lobes which were left over by those who had eaten. And you know, brethren, that the people were astonished by what they had just witnessed. And in verse 14, it says, then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said truly, this is the prophet that should come, who is to come into the world.

Remember that prophecy back in Deuteronomy, that Moses said there's going to be a prophet that's going to come, it's going to be like me, it's not going to be me, but you need to listen to him. God is going to send another prophet, and they're thinking, now, this Jesus is that prophet that was prophesied to come.

So this is one of Jesus' greatest miracles, is to multiply the five barley lobes into two small fishes. And the fish, incidentally, may have been up. You know, it says that they weren't big fish, they were small fish. I don't know how small, but they weren't big fish, they were small fish.

So he uses this to feed thousands of people. Now, let's skip down to verse number 22, because we come to the next day, where the crowds are also seeking Jesus, and they find him near the village of Capernaum, several miles from where this miracle had taken place. Let's go to verse number 22. And on the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one, which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but his disciples had gone away alone. They're wondering, how did Jesus get here?

Verse 23. However, their boats came from Tiberius, which is another port city along the shores of the Galilee, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. So this isn't far from where that miracle had just taken place, just down the shoreline. And when the people, verse 24, saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they got into boats, and they came to Capernaum, seeking him. So this is saying that all of these people have been about five or six miles away in another part of the shore of Galilee, and they're trying to find him.

And they realized Jesus wasn't there, so they go look, and they find him in Capernaum. They begin hopping into boats to try to find him, to follow him. Verse 25, and when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

And of course, we know that Rabbi means teacher, and that even Jesus' disciples called him Rabbi, and these people called him Rabbi. And they said, Rabbi, when did you come here? And he answered them, and doesn't answer their question, which Jesus would often do.

He doesn't answer their question. He answers them, but he doesn't answer their question. He says, well, I should say to you assuredly, I say to you, you seek me, not because of the signs or the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. He doesn't answer their question as why, you know, how did you get here? He gets straight to the crux of the issue here. You know, I know you're seeking me, but it's not because it's because you're hung. You want to be fed, not because of the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.

Sometimes, when we go to India and we have ministers that ask us to come to their area and speak, sometimes there's a similar thing, I think, that takes place. I don't always know for sure, but I suspect it, that they invite a lot of people so there's a pretty good crowd when we come, and they offer to feed them so they can fill up the pews, so to speak, or the seats of the church building. They want to have a big crowd, and sometimes I suspect that they're there just because they're going to get a free meal, not because of the words that are going to be spoken to them. Now, I never know that for sure, but I've suspected it a couple of times, and so I can understand this concept, and Jesus understood it too. You're here because you ate the loaves that are filled. So Jesus, in a sense, gives a rebuke to them that are following him around because they just want a free meal, you know?

It beats working, I suppose, if you can just follow this man around and continue to get fed.

And unfortunately, that was the motivation of some of the people that were there at this time. Jesus saw right through that. Now, we know that some were coming because of the teaching. We know that some were coming because of the healing, but we also know that there were some that were coming for this meal, this free food. And now we see something that happens quite often in Jesus' ministry, that he uses this situation to teach them something different.

He uses this situation to impart a very vital teaching lesson. Let's notice that in verse 27.

He says, Don't labor for the food which perishes, but labor for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal, or sample of approval, if you will, on him. God the Father has sent him. God the Father has set his seal of approval on him. This is the prophet. And so Jesus is telling them, hey, you need to get your priorities straight. You've been focusing on this food, but you need to focus on something much different. This food here is temporary. These barley loaves are temporary. These fish that you had the day before are temporary. You know, they're only going to hold you over for a while until the next meal when you get hungry again. But Jesus is telling them and us here that instead you need to focus on something much bigger than that, something much more important than that. Rather than focusing on filling their stomachs, they needed to be focusing on a spiritual vacuum that we all have, a spiritual hunger that we all have inside of us. And you know that it exists in every human being that only God can fill. And that's what he's trying to tell them here. We also see something else. We know and understand certainly that eternal life is God's gift, that it's nothing that we can earn or deserve. But notice what it says in verse number six. It says, don't labor for the food that perishes, but labor for the food which endures to everlasting life. Which means, brethren, that it takes effort. It takes labor. It takes effort on our part to receive this gift, a labor for that food, he says, that leads to eternal life.

And his point is that eternal life is something that needs to be nurtured. It needs to be labored. It has to be worked on. It has to be developed. We have to strive for it and put effort into it if we are to receive ultimately that gift that can come only from God.

So notice in verse 28. And then they said to him, well, what shall we do that we may work the works of God? So they understand, okay, there must be some labor. He's teaching us here. What works do we need to do? And Jesus answered and said, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. We'll talk about that belief, word believe here in just a moment. This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent. Therefore, they said to him, well, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? So we see here again that some of the people are following him around because they want to see the sign. They want to see the miracle. You know, they've heard about Jesus's reputation as a miracle worker, as a healer, in a sense, and they want to see that. And of course, he's already just performed a great miracle that they have seen by feeding these thousands of people here just the day before by multiplying the loaves and the fish. Let's go on to verse number 31. Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now, this is interesting that they bring this up. In this context, they're bringing this up that our fathers ate the man in the desert. It's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now, why did they bring this up? Well, Moses, they said, gave them manna in the desert. And in a sense, Jesus had given them food in the desert as well in a wilderness area that was uninhabited. It wasn't exactly the same miracle as manna, but he provided bread and fish in the wilderness. In an uninhabited area, he had miraculously fed thousands of people. So, it's similar in a sense to the manna, but on a smaller scale with bread and fish instead of a manna from heaven. So, I think that's what's prompting them to make this statement here. So, maybe they wanted him to repeat the miracle of the bread and the fish again. Or, maybe they're asking if you're that prophet like Moses, maybe you can give this manna to us from heaven. That's the sign, maybe, that they were looking for. A little speculation there, but perhaps that's what they were thinking. Or, maybe that's what the Messiah was going to do. That's what this prophet was going to do. The same thing that had happened to the children of Israel in the wilderness. So, a little background here. Let's go on with verse number 32. Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses didn't give you that bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. So, now Jesus begins to play off a couple of things here. One is that he plays off the fact that the Feast of Passover and the Days of Olive Bread are coming up. It's going to start in just a few days. And it wasn't Moses that gave them that bread. It was God. So, he plays off with that a little bit. He also plays off that statement that God had given Israelites the manna, in a sense, in the wilderness. And he did it for 40 years.

He comes back with a stronger statement now, and he challenges these people to essentially, are you going to listen to me or are you not? Are you going to believe me or are you not? Why are you here? He tells them firstly in verse 32, it wasn't Moses that gave the manna. It was God, not Moses. And then he tells them that manna was only symbolic of something that was going to come later that was much more significant, much more important, much bigger. And that also comes from God. And that is the true bread that comes down from heaven that would sustain them forever.

And that comes from God. He says in verse 33, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So now he's getting more specific. He says that God is going to give them something that's much better than physical manna. It was actually picturing something much bigger all along that was going to come in the future for all of the world. We know the manna was just originally for the Israelites, but this bread was going to be for all of the world, all of mankind. It's not just the Israelites, but also the Gentiles. God had something much bigger in mind. Verse number 34, so they said to him, Lord, give us this bread, always, you know, whatever this stuff is, give us this bread. And Jesus comes back and he clarifies even further in verse 35. Jesus said, I am the bread. I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes on him shall never thirst. And Jesus speaks this with authority, claiming to be the bread that comes from heaven. And notice there's at least three different phrases in this particular section of Scripture that he's used. Bread from heaven, bread from God, and bread of life. You know, this bread that God would provide would be much more satisfying than their physical hunger. It would satisfy a deeper spiritual hunger, again, that exists in all of us, in every human being. And that hunger can only be filled by our God. And we need to understand that these words meant to the people that were hearing them at this time. We need to understand what in the culture of their time, what did some of these things mean to them? You know, if we try to put in our own culture, it may not be as meaningful. It may not be the actual true meaning that God was trying to reveal. Because if we try to put in the culture of our time, we may get it wrong. So what does this mean when he's talking about this bread? What did bread mean to the people in that culture? When he's talking about Jesus says, he's the bread of life, he's the bread of God, he's the bread of heaven. What did that mean to the people that were there? How did they understand it?

Well, first of all, brethren, bread was a very important part of their diet. It was just an essential staple of their diet. They had it almost every single meal. And, you know, maybe necessarily we don't have that today, but that was the culture of their time. When we go to Sri Lankan India, they have a staple as well, and it's rice. And they have it for every meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rice. It's a staple. In fact, you know, they can hardly go without it. You know, we tried to have snacks one time after services in in Sri Lanka, and they said, no, no, we'd rather go home because we can have our rice and curry. But they didn't want to have the finger foods and things like that. It's a, it's very much a staple for them. And they mix it up with different types of curries and everything, but that rice is there. And it was the same way for the culture of the time in the Israelites. Jesus was speaking to their culture and how important bread was.

It was the most important staple of their diet, eaten at virtually every meal. It was a common term to say, break bread. You've seen that in the scriptures. They break bread, which means they would take a meal together. And often during that meal, they would tear the bread into different individual pieces and make sure that everyone there around the table had that to eat. The words bread and food were virtually the same, virtually synonymous. You know, they take bread and break bread together. It's also, I think, interesting that in the culture of that time that the eating utensils were common. You know, forks, knives, spoons, they used the bread as a utensil to scoop up the, you know, as a soft and get some of the food on their bread and then take a bite when you ate a piece of bread. And so we see here, in a sense, it's reflected here in their culture of their time how important that was. And if you went on a journey, you'd take a loaf of bread along.

It lasts for quite a while before it starts to get moldy, but that was an essential staple.

When I had an opportunity several years ago to keep the feast in Israel, we would walk through the streets and you'd have all these different shops, you know, and you'd have these bakers. You know, they'd just have open-air carts and they'd have these loaves of bread, and they were really good. I mean, you just buy a loaf of bread and some cheese, and that was just the best bread I've ever tasted. And I thought, why can't we make bread like that in the United States? You know, they've got thousands of years of experience, way more than we do. We're a new nation in that sense. But, you know, it's awesome in that sense, and it was an important part of their diet. The ladies would spend a lot of time, if you're going to eat bread three times a day, they'd have to grind, get the grain on, grind it up, and they'd have to work at it, you know, to bake the bread. And so that was the people that Jesus was speaking to at that time.

So bread was absolutely essential. It was a critical part of their lives. Bread meant life in that sense. And even part of the Lord's Prayer is, give us this day our daily bread.

Amazing! That was part of the example prayer that Jesus Christ gave to us. And I think that's talking, though, I think we know it's not only talking about physical bread, we're talking about spiritual bread, aren't we? And it covers both of those. But bread was very, very important.

In fact, it's mentioned over 60 times, just in the Gospels, the four books of the Bible. You know, brother, they even had a special prayer that they would pray before a meal. I'll translate it here in the English. It says, bless are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who gives us bread from the earth. Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who gives us bread from the earth. You know, if you've seen the Ten Commandments movie with Charlton Heston, you've seen it?

When they're partaking the Passover, they say that prayer in the movie. I just noticed that this year. I hadn't noticed it before. That movie goes back, I think, to around the 1950s, 1956, but I think they play it. One of the major networks plays it this time of the year, but that prayer is in there.

And I think it's rather interesting that this prayer that they pray before every meal was a reference, in a sense, to the wave sheaf offering. And when did the wave sheaf offering take place? It took place at on the weekly Sabbath, near sunset, during the days of unleavened bread, picturing Jesus Christ being offered to the Father, in a sense, at that time of the year, just recently here. And they would, of course, go out into the field near Jerusalem, and they'd take a cut of the very first part of the harvest, the first of the first fruits, if you will, that barley harvest, and then they would prepare it, and they would offer it to God.

And you know what's happening, in a sense, at about the same time, as they're making that wave sheaf offering, as Jesus Christ is being resurrected from the earth, the bread, the bread of life coming up out of the earth, at about the same time that they're making that wave sheaf offering. You've been buried three days and three nights, and now the bread of life is being offered to God out of the earth. As that prayer says, blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who gives us bread from the earth. Isn't that amazing?

It's amazing. The terms that Jesus calls Himself. He calls Himself the bread from heaven, the bread of God, the bread of life. And He's saying it here, just as physical bread is critical to physical life. So is this spiritual bread essential to our spiritual life. It's so essential that without Him we do not have, and we cannot have, eternal life. It's pretty meaningful here. That's what He's saying here. Let's skip down to verse number 47 here in John chapter 6. Verse number 47. He says, most assuredly I say to you that He who believes in me has everlasting life. I want to focus on that word, believes. I touched on the word, belief earlier, believes. Further in the culture of that time, belief means something very different than the culture of our time. In the culture of our time, if you believe in someone, you have an intellectual understanding that they exist. Okay, yeah, I kind of believe in God. I believe He's out there, but that's about sometimes as far as it goes. They don't act upon that belief. It's an intellectual thing, and for most belief doesn't affect their lives or the way that they live their lives. It doesn't affect what they do. It doesn't affect what they think. But, brethren, it was different in the culture of that day. It was very different when it came to belief, because in the culture of that day, to the people of that day, believing and acting upon your belief were inseparable. Now, brethren, we've come a long way since that, haven't we? We've gotten away from that understanding, but that was the understanding that they had in the culture of that time. And I think it's been laven corrupted until it's come to the culture of our time, that it means something much more passive. But to them, it meant you acted upon what you believed in. If you believe that God existed, that wasn't just a nice thought that you had in your head. No, your life changed because of that belief. You acted upon that belief. You read this word of God, and you followed it. When God commanded you to do something, you did it.

Deuteronomy 6, verse 5, just for example, you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. So their concept of belief was different than what ours is today. Because again, if you believe something, you have to act on it. And I think even that was beginning to slide in the first century because James had to talk about faith. He said, you know, faith without works is dead. Remember that? You have this belief, but you're not doing anything with it. He says it means nothing then. It's dead. So James began to address that even then in the first century. Because believing something and having faith in something meant you bordered your life around that faith and around that belief. And that it required action. It required commitment in everything that you thought, in everything that you believed, in everything that you did. So if you believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God, that meant that you did everything in your power to be like Him.

To be, not just to learn what the rabbi said, not just to learn what the Master said, but to be like the Master, to be like the Teacher, to be like the rabbi, to imitate them.

And that's what it meant to believe in the culture of that day. And only in that way, Jesus said, could we have everlasting life. Let's notice verse number 48.

I am the bread of life. What's He talking about here? He's talking about salvation.

I think we're talking about eternal life here. I am the bread of life. He's talking about salvation. You know, all of God's festivals, all of His Holy Days talk about what? What did they portray? They portray the plan of salvation, how we get to where we are initially called until we become a complete spiritual creation. Not only composed of spirit, but having a divine nature like God does and like our elder brother does. Brother, part of the plan of salvation is the Feast of Eleven Bread. It's a key part of the plan because God's salvation begins with what? Well, we know it begins with Passover. That's the first of the seven festivals. That's where it starts. We just recently partook of the Passover. It pictures the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it pictures the blood which covers the penalty for our sins, and without that first part, nothing else could come after that. That's the foundation. That's where it all begins.

Such an important period of time. It's the first step. We had to be reconciled back to God.

What's the next step? The next step is represented by the feast we just completed, the seven days of Eleven Bread. That yes, we have to remove leaven, picturing sin in our lives, but how do we do that? How do we do that? How do we remove sin of our lives? Well, we know we have to examine ourselves by looking at the Word of God, and we ask God to examine ourselves. We ask a friend. We ask a spouse. We ask someone who knows us well. But, brethren, there's another component. Not only removing sin, but actually putting something in. The unleavened bread, removing the leavened bread and putting something in to our lives. The unleavened bread into our lives. It's like getting out air of a glass. How do you get air out of a glass? Well, you put something in, a liquid in, and that pushes also the air out. The air is no longer there.

It's the same way. With removing leaven, the sin which represents sin and unrighteousness, removing that out of our lives, but we have to replace it with something.

The unleavened bread of Jesus Christ, the unleavened bread of the Word of God, and the living Word of God, of Christ, within our lives. Notice verse number 49.

Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead. You know, in other words, what good was that? You know, as miraculous as that was, a lot of good it did them. Because God performed all those great miracles and bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, He provided for them in the wilderness, and it was a tremendous miracle. No question about it. Forty years of miracles every day, manna was there for four years except for the seventh day. They got double portion in the sixth day, so they'd have enough for the seventh day. But think about all those miracles.

It was a miraculous thing that sustained them. And of course, it was a miraculous thing that He continued to show which day is the seventh day. For 40 years, He showed them which day was the Sabbath day. And their need to keep it holy. But again, they didn't believe. And they're dead. And the thousands who just watched Jesus perform His miracle here multiplying the bread and the fish the previous day, they would also die with that bread. But there's another bread that the manna pictured all along, symbolized all along. And unless they learned that spiritual lesson of the true bread of life, that bread that was going to come from heaven, they would not have eternal life. This was a very important bread, not for physical life, but for spiritual life.

Verse 50. This is the bread which comes down from heaven. He keeps talking about it over and over again. That one may eat of it and not die. This bread is much more important than the manna.

And then He says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. And now they're having trouble with this. This is something that's hard to understand, and they're starting to quarrel among themselves, and they don't understand. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And then Jesus says, I'm telling you the truth. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, there is no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. Brother, notice this phrase, feeds on me. Let's focus on that for a moment. He who feeds on me. What does that mean? You know, I don't think he's just talking about a little symbolic piece of unleavened bread that we take on Passover, or the unleavened pieces of bread, unleavened bread we take during the days of unleavened bread.

No, I think he's talking about something that that pictures, that it means we have to feed on Jesus Christ. Feed on the the root word of God, and feed on the living word of God, Jesus Christ. We have to feed on him. That means we have to seek him, that we have to hunger for him, that we have to thirst for him. And if we don't do that, it says right here, then there is no life in us. What's he trying to get us to understand? There's no life. We have no life in us if we're not feeding on him.

Verse 58. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and our dead. He who eats this bread, he's talking about the bread of life, the bread from heaven, the bread from God. He who eats this bread will live forever. Will live forever, not might live forever.

Will live forever if you eat that bread. Now, what Jesus says here is disturbing to a lot of people. We remember the story. A lot of people here, verse 66 tells us that a lot of people left him after he began to preach these hard sayings. They turned away. They couldn't deal with it.

You know, it was just too hard. There's no question this is a hard saying. What did Jesus mean when he says, you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood? What did he mean? But we understand the culture of the time. We'll know why this was difficult for them to understand. We're fortunate because we can look back 2,000 years later and realizing with hindsight that he's talking about this is symbolic. You're not going to literally eat his flesh or drink his blood. But they were taking this literally. This was a symbolic of the Passover, of the bread, of the wine, which again Matthew, Mark, and Luke talked about earlier. And John is beginning to tell us what it means here.

So he doesn't have to later on talk about that other than the foot washing later on. So we understand with hindsight he's talking about the symbols of the Passover, the bread being symbolic of his body, which is bruised and beaten, and the wine being symbolic of his blood that is shed for us. And that it also contains life for us. But, brethren, is there another meaning here? Is God the Father, through Christ, trying to pull back another of the onion skin, another layer, and beginning to have us to understand something a little deeper? I think there is something here.

I think it's true here in this particular case.

I'm going to talk about for a moment about sacrifices. And I'm going to try to tie all this together with eating the flesh of Jesus Christ, being a sacrifice. And I'm going to focus mostly on the fourth sacrifice, but I'm going to set the stage a little bit by talking about the first three, but I'm going to really focus on the four. But I think they're all tied together, and hopefully I can tie this all into a bow here at the end and tie all this together.

There were basically four sacrifices that took place in the temple at this time.

How would people who heard Jesus Christ about hearing that we had to eat his flesh, how would they have understood that? Well, let's think about these four different sacrifices here. Let's talk about the first one. The first one is called the grain offering. How did that work? Well, the offeror would bring some grain into God, and what he would do is that part of that grain was burnt on the altar, which was symbolic of giving it to God, offering it to God. So there was a part that was burned on the altar, and that in a sense was God eating that. That is how it was viewed. But the rest of it, that the priest would be given to the priest. And so the priest would receive some of this, and the priest would actually eat it. And this is how they got some of their meals, in a sense, for the service that they provided in the temple. So with the grain offering, part of it was offered on the altar. There was God, in a sense, eating that. That's how it was viewed. It was burned. So God's eating that, and then you're giving part of your grain also, or your harvest, to the priest. So that's the grain offering. The next one was the sin offering. This was, in a sense, very similar to the grain offering, but it involved meat instead of grain. You had some type of an animal, whether it be a bullock, or whether it be a sheep, or whether it be a goat, or a dove, or whatever. And part of that animal was burned. So, in a sense, it was given to God. And the other part was given to the priest.

And so, in a sense, the priest enjoyed the grain offering, and the first one, and they also enjoyed the meat offering, or the sin offering, as it's meant, as the better way of putting it. They would enjoy that as well. And so, this is how some of the priests got their meals for the services that they performed. So, these first two sacrifices had to do with either giving grain, or a giving of meat, in a sense. Then there was a third offering. It was called the burnt offering.

The burnt offering. And this particular offering, it was completely burned. It was completely offered to God. There wasn't anything that was kept back for the priest at all. It was a complete offering to God, dedicated to Him. But now the fourth one is the one I really want to talk about, and I want to focus on and try to tie this together. It was called the peace offering, also known as the fellowship offering. So, what did this symbolize? Well, again, it was an animal sacrifice. So, we're talking about, you know, a part of the animal was given to God. It was burned on the altar, and it was given to God. But the other part was not given to the priest. The other part was eaten by the offeror. This is the only sacrifice where they would eat the flesh of the animal. They would eat the flesh of the sacrifice. The rest of the animal wasn't given to the priest. It was cooked, and it was eaten by the worshipper or the offeror, by the person that brought the animal. And it was also shared by Him with any guests that He wanted to bring. What did it represent? It was to represent, and this is one reason why it's called the peace offering, is it was to represent peace and reconciliation with God. And also, the way that you would reconcile with somebody in the culture of that day, is you would sit down and have a meal together. And you try to work things out. You try to reconcile, in a sense, with them.

And so, in a sense, you'd share a meal with them, and this is what this was, this peace or this fellowship offering. You took the offering in. The priest slaughtered it. You burned part of it to God, in a sense. And the rest, you sat down and you enjoyed a meal to represent you, not only being reconciled to God and at peace with God, but also with these guests, these people.

And this was a special thing. It was the only sacrifice in which the offeror partook a part of the sacrifice. Again, this is a peace or fellowship offering, which represents peace and reconciliation with God. Brethren, do we see the connection? They ate the flesh of the sacrifice when it came to the peace and the fellowship offering. And we have to eat the sacrifice, the flesh, in a sense of Jesus Christ. It's symbolic. How do we have peace and reconciliation with God? Well, we have it through the sacrifice of Christ, who gave his life that we might be reconciled to God. So, what is Jesus saying when he's telling the people they must eat his flesh? Well, what type of offering could they eat part of the sacrifice? His flesh! It was the peace offering, the fellowship offering.

So, Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice, and symbolically we are eating that part of the sacrifice, this fellowship, this oneness here. He offered himself.

And so then we're no longer separated from him. We're no longer cut off from him because of our sins. It completes the picture of what's being portrayed here. It's an incredible picture.

It's symbolic. We have to eat his flesh. We have to eat that sacrifice. He pictured that sacrifice all along. And he's helping them to try to understand that through what their experiences of sacrifices have been throughout their lives. So, yes, we have to eat Christ's flesh. Because he is our peace or our fellowship offering with God. And then we're at peace with him and we're reconciled to him. But, you know, all of this for the most part was going over their heads at that time. It was going over their heads. They were disturbed by what they heard because, in their mind, Jesus wasn't talking about a lamb sacrifice. He wasn't talking about a bullock. He's talking about himself. And for them to eat his flesh, that would be considered cannibalistic.

And so they didn't understand that he was speaking symbolically to teach them a greater spiritual truth. An awesome spiritual truth. And in the same way, he also talked about drinking his blood. And that bothered them, too. Because how many scriptures are there that talk about, you don't drink the blood, right? Let's look at one of them in Leviticus chapter 17, verse 10.

There are many commands in the Old Testament that you don't drink the blood. Leviticus chapter 17.

We'll go back to verse 10. Take a look at that.

I'm just going to read one here. I'll refer you to a couple others for your notes for later.

But we'll look at here Leviticus chapter 17 and begin in verse number 10.

It says, In whatever man of the house of Israel or of the strangers who dwell among you who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood. Pretty strong statement. And I'll cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood.

So we begin to see. And I've given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Let's jump down to verse 14. For it is the life of all flesh. Its blood contains its life. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of all flesh is in its blood, and whoever eats it shall be cut off. And I'll just refer you to a couple other scriptures. Genesis 9.4 talks about that. Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 23 talks about that. Talks about not eating the blood. Notice why they're not to consume of the blood here. It's because the life is in the blood. They would have equated life and blood to mean the same thing. Together. That's how the people of the culture of the time would have understood this. If you had a serious accident, you had deep cuts, lacerations, you've got a bunch of blood that's coming out of your body, you know you better stop that. You better get a tourniquet on it because your life is ebbing away from you. Just as they would sacrifice an animal, they would slit its throat, and then those of you that have seen this, done this, or witnessed this, you see the life of the animal slowly begin to leave. And they knew, in a sense, this is another understanding of the time. Life and blood were the same thing. The life is in the blood. They were familiar with this concept. It was spelled out in Scripture. They weren't to eat it. So it was abhorrent when Jesus Christ said, you have to drink my blood. That was abhorrent to them. But what did he mean?

What did he mean when he said that? Did he mean to literally drink his blood? Well, of course not.

We know that that is symbolic. He's speaking symbolically. But, brother and men, what does it mean symbolically, then, to eat his flesh and to drink his blood? Well, one of the means is what we rehearsed not long ago in Passover. When we partook of the wine, we partook of the unleavened bread. We took a small glass of wine here that night, which symbolizes his blood. And we ate a small piece of unleavened bread, which symbolizes his body. And they went inside of us, where we fed on him, we feed on him, we become one with him, we accept that sacrifice, and we commit ourselves to that relationship, that covenant that we have with him, so that we can receive forgiveness. But think about some of the Scriptures here, to talk about the light being in the blood. Who inspired those words to be written? It was God that inspired those words to be written. So what does it mean? Is there another layer of meaning to Christ's words about life being in the blood and eating his flesh? You know, what does all this mean? Let's go back to verse 53 of John chapter 6. John chapter 6 in verse number 53. Let's see.

These are hard concepts to understand, but I hope I can tie this all together here.

John chapter 6 in verse number 53.

Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. So there's no equivocating here at all. He's very direct. Unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we will not have eternal life. So what's he talking about? What's he talking about? Verse 55. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me.

I want to focus on that word abides. I think it's very important.

That word abides, it's interesting here, brethren, it means to live in, or remain in, or dwell in.

So Jesus is saying here that he who eats his flesh and drinks his blood remains, or lives in, or dwells in Christ, or that Christ dwells or lives in him. They abide together.

They are yoked together. They are intertwined together.

That's what he says here. So if the blood is equated with life, we're seeing, are we seeing another meaning here, another layer of meaning here? I think we are. What Jesus is telling us really is pretty simple. It's symbolic, but it's very, very simple. What he's telling us is that we have to have his life, in a sense, to take his life and make it a part of our own. Make it the heart of our own, of our being, of everything that we do, of everything that we are, that he says we must take his life into our life.

That they become one, that they become intertwined, and we do that by feeding on him.

Feeding on him. So that our life and his life become one, intertwined. That's what he's saying here. When he says, eat my flesh and drink my blood, it means abide in me, live in me, dwell in me, and I will abide in you, live in you, and dwell in you, and will remain in you. That our lives are so intertwined that they become one in every way. Verse 57. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. Again, feeds on me. It's not again the little bit of unleavened bread we take at Passover or during the seven days of unleavened bread. These are symbolic of something much greater. They portray a reality of something much greater and more important. We have to feed on Jesus Christ all the time.

We have to be actively seeking him, hungering for him, and thirsting for him every day.

How long is the feast of unleavened bread? It's seven days. It's seven days. What does this symbolize? It symbolizes and represents completion. We know that there are seven days in a complete week. We know that there are seven days in the recreation of the earth. It represents completion.

So we eat unleavened bread for seven days to symbolize that we are taking and feeding on the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ every day. Every day.

All the time. Being completed by him and us. Let's notice this is one of the great meanings of the festival that we just observed. Verse 58. He says, this is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. He doesn't mince words. He doesn't equivitate. He's very bold. He's very direct. He says, if you want to live forever, you have to partake of this bread, which is Jesus Christ. You have to make him a key part of your life. How do we do that? How does this become an actual practice here?

You've probably heard of the term internalizing. Internalizing something. Think about it this way. We have a Bible here on most of our laps here in front of us here. We have Scripture, and it contains many different examples of how to live our lives. But if this book just stays on the shelf, along with the other books that we have in our library, it just gathers dust like the rest of the books. It doesn't really do much good. In a sense, it doesn't do us or really anyone any good.

But if we take this book and we begin to read it, and we begin to study it, and we begin to ask God to teach us, we begin to learn from it, and we begin to make it a part of our life, it begins to become a part of who we are. These are living words. These words are life in their spirit. They're not just words on a piece of paper. And so we begin, in a sense, to make it a part of our life, and we begin to do something about what we read. It begins to change us from what we were.

And so what are we doing? We're beginning to internalize this book. It begins to become a part of our thinking. It begins to be in the forefront of our minds. It begins to direct not only what we think, but what we do, and how we do it. It begins to become a part of who we are and who we are becoming. That's what I mean by internalizing it. But if it sits on the shelf, if we're not feeding on the unleavened bread of the sincerity of truth, the pure Word of God, of the Word of God, if we're not feeding on that, if it just sits on the shelf, it doesn't do any good. We have to read it. We have to study it. We have to make it a part of our lives. That's internalizing it. And when we do that, we begin to incorporate that into our being. We're feeding on it. It's becoming a part of us. The bread that takes time, doesn't it? It takes effort. Labor for the true bread, not this temporary manna which pictured something much greater. Don't labor for that, but labor for the true bread. It doesn't all happen miraculously. Oh, God with the Holy Spirit can bring things to our minds. He can only bring things to our mind that we've already read.

I mean, there is the comforter in all of that. It can bring things to our mind, but unless we've heard it or read it, it can't bring those things to our mind. So we have to read it and study it first because God can't help us to bring it to our mind if it's not in there to begin with.

So how does that apply to our feeding on and eating the unleavened bread, which is the Word of God and the living Word of God, Jesus Christ?

Again, in the culture of that time, a disciple did this not learn what the Master taught or the Rabbi taught, but they wanted to become like the Rabbi. They wanted to imitate the Rabbi.

You wanted to be like Him. You wanted to model your life like Him. You wanted to imitate Him. And how did they do it in the culture of that time? Well, the 12 disciples were with Jesus Christ 24-7, weren't they? They ate with Him. They drank with Him. They sat at His feet.

They listened to Him. They talked with Him. They walked with Him. They studied with Him. All of those things for quite a long time. And why did they do that? Because they wanted to be like Him. That was the culture of their time. That was what belief meant. Believe on Me. That meant you wanted to be like your Master. So there was a Jewish scholar. He spoke to a group of Christians at a conference. And I want you to imagine yourselves being in this room when these words were spoken by a Jewish scholar to a Christian audience that did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. But I want you to listen to this. This hit me like a ton of bricks right between my eyes. He said the following here at this conference to Christians. He said, what is it about you Christians that you say you want to follow Jesus? You say you want to be like Jesus, but you don't know what you're talking about. He went on to say, you claim to be a Christian, but you aren't even reading the Gospels. All four of the Gospels. If you're not reading the Gospels, all four Gospels, at least once a month, you are a liar. He said, you don't know what discipleship is.

You're a pretender. Wow.

I think I've been a pretender. You know, if we look at this type of thing.

So we have to ask ourselves, how badly do we want to be like the Master?

How badly do we want to be like our Rabbi, our Master?

Jesus Christ. How badly do we need the unleavened bread?

How badly do we need the bread of life? By that standard, how do you and I measure up?

How much are we eating from the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ? How much are we reading the eating of the unleavened bread of the written word of God? You know, this unleavened bread of unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, this pureness, this pure word of God, both written and living.

The days of unleavened bread are supposed to change us.

That's part of the great meaning of this day, isn't it? It's an important part of the salvation process, this particular festival, starting with Passover and then with the days of unleavened bread. They're supposed to change us, this bread that comes from heaven, given to us by God in written form and through Jesus Christ.

Means we have to accept Him as the final authority in our lives. We have to believe, and we know, I think, a little bit more about what that means now.

Let's look at what the Apostle Paul written, Galatians wrote in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20.

Galatians chapter 2 and verse number 20.

I think Paul understood this. I think he understood a lot of the law, and he was very zealous in some ways, but there were pieces of the puzzle that were missing that God inspired him to begin to understand. It is a balanced thing.

Galatians chapter 2 and verse number 20.

It says something fascinating. I've been crucified with Christ.

Crucified put to death in a sense with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, fully internalized, in other words.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I think that's a very profound statement that he's written here. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around some of this here, what it means to have Jesus Christ living in us. Again, I think it's talking about us internalizing him, making him a part of our lives in everything that we do. It's allowing God's spirit to work within us and to shape us and to mold us and to form us and to become like Christ in every way. It's becoming the new man that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 6 when he talks about baptism so much that you put the old man to death and up out of the watery grave comes a new man. A new man modeled after who?

Modeled after Jesus Christ. Christ isn't some distant figure that lived several thousand, a couple thousand years ago. He lives today and he is somebody that's very real and he's someone that's very accessible to us. I stand at the door and I just want someone to open the door and he wants to be. He wants a relationship. He wants a companion. We talk about the bride, being a companion of the bride group. He wants a friend. He told his disciples, I no longer call you servants, I call you friends. He did all of what he did because he wants a relationship.

That's why he's our high priest. That's why he's an intercessor. He's trying to bring us along.

He wants us to be there. That's why the father called us and he says, I'm not going to try to lose any of them. That's why he's returning as king of kings and lord of lords and he's going to transform our lowly bodies to become like his glorious body and to give eternal life, to live with him forever. That's why he wants us to partake of the unleavened bread.

That's why he wants us to partake of the unleavened bread of God's word, of the living word of God, yoked together with him and the bread of life. So how do we do that? I don't have much time left, so we'll cover a few points and I'll be brief. How do we do that? How do we partake of that true unleavened bread? Number one, just a few points. Number one, realize that just as we need physical bread or food to sustain our physical life, that we need the unleavened bread of life, Jesus Christ, to nourish us spiritually. Just as we need that physical bread or food to sustain our physical lives, we will not have sustained spiritual life without the living bread that comes from heaven, Jesus Christ, and the word of God. John chapter 6 talks a lot about that. We spend quite a bit of time there, so we won't spend much more time there today. We don't have the time. How much are we partaking of that bread represented by the unleavened bread that we partake of during the seven days of 11 bread that we just completed? Number two, learn about him.

Learn about him. God gave us four books of the Bible, the four Gospels, to learn about Jesus Christ, what he's like, and how we can be like him. But how can we be like him if we're not reading those books? And that's why God gave us those books. And again, those disciples wanted to be like there. That's such a different culture of the time. But if we can understand the culture of the time and apply it to our lives today, that's how God meant it when he gave it to the culture of the time. That's what Jesus Christ was trying to reach that audience, saying, I know what you mean when you're trying to imitate your rabbi, when you're trying to imitate your master. You want to be like him. Not just learn what he teaches, but you want to be like him. So he was trying to reach them and us as we begin to understand the culture of the time. How do we be like him? How can we just be like him? Well, how do they be just like him? They spent time with him. They read about him. They studied about him. They were with him. They sat at his feet. They spent time with him.

How much time do we spend with him? A couple hours a week, a couple hours a month, a few hours a year.

Are we a follower or are we a pretender? And I have to answer that question before my judge just says you do as well. I think we can tell by how much time we're spending with him.

Number three, study his teachings. Study his teachings. What did he say?

What did he teach?

What was his example? How did he live? You know, Jesus himself said in Matthew 4, verse 4, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. So we're talking about, of course, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, that pure word of God that we find in Scripture, as well as the living word of God, Jesus Christ.

When eating unleavened bread for a period of seven days, as God commands, you and I are demonstrating to him that we want to live by the word of God and that we're prepared to do that. We're saying that we're going to do our part to place the word of God within our minds, within our hearts, and live by the pure word of God. That's one of the big lessons of the days of unleavened bread. We know that Jesus Christ is the word of God, and when we eat the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ, we are saying that we are prepared to have Christ live his life in us. So it's a fascinating thing of what really these days mean and what they picture. Number four. Number four. Heard a lot about bread today. It's even more important to understand what Jesus Christ was trying to do.

It's even more important to understand what Jesus Christ was trying to reveal about the bread, unleavened bread of life. Number four is make his priorities my priorities.

Make his priorities my priorities. Let's go to John chapter 4, probably in Galatians. Let's go over to John chapter 4. Make his priorities my priorities. What was Jesus's food? You know, he talked about labor for the food that brings eternal life. What was Jesus's food? He's talking about food today. Bread, in a sense, they were synonymous. John chapter 4 verse number 34. Remember this verse? John chapter 4 verse 34. Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and finished his work. That's, in a sense, what kept him going. In other words, that was his food was to do the will of him who sent him. So again, what's the most important thing in our lives? Where do our priorities lie? Are they in tune with his priorities? Are we yoked up together with him? Let's go over to John chapter 14.

John chapter 14. I'm not going to finish on time. I'm going to try to, but I don't think I'm going to make it. John chapter 14 and verse 20. This is a scripture that struck me here pretty powerfully, just a recent date here. John chapter 14 and verse 20. We'll pick it up in verse 19 for some of the context. A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you're going to see me.

Because I live, you'll live also. And at that day you will know that I am in my father and you are in me and I am in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not as scary as it said to him. I don't understand what you just said. He's basically saying, I don't understand. Lord, how is it that you're going to manifest yourself to us? How is it you're going to come to us, but you're not going to come to the world? Notice Jesus' answer. If anyone loves me, he's going to keep my word. I've just been talking about that, right? Feeding on Christ. He's the Word of God, the written Word of God. We're feeding on that, on the unleavened bread, completed by seven days, showing we do it all the time. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and notice they're going to abide in us. We will come to him and we will make our home with him. Brethren, this is deep stuff that shows that we love God.

If we keep his word, then God says, that's how I'm going to manifest myself to you.

My father and I are going to come into you and make our home with you.

Notice conversely, verse 24, this is sobering to think about.

And he who doesn't love me is not going to keep my words.

They won't keep my words and I wanted to tell you that what I'm telling you right now is not my word.

This is coming straight from the Father. This is the Father that's sharing this information. Do you see that in the latter part of verse 24? He says, verse 24, he who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. Now, we're not just talking about verse 23 here. We're talking about this whole context here. But this is God the Father himself sharing this information with us through Jesus Christ. That's how we feed on the unleavened bread of Jesus Christ and the written word of God. That's how they manifest themselves to us. We feed on them or on that and he abides in us and so does the Father.

Let's go to point number five, last point.

We have to lay down our lives for others just as he laid down his life.

We have to be willing to serve, in other words, to lay down our lives for others just as he laid down his life for us. I'm just going to quote some scriptures here. Just refer to them.

This is some of Jesus's last instructions that he gave prior to his death. John chapter 15 and verse 13. You can write that one down. First John chapter 3 and verse 16. You can write that one down.

That's basically talking about there's no greater love than someone who's willing to lay down their lives for their friends and by this we know love because he laid down his life for us that we will lay down our lives for our brethren. Brother, what's the purpose of our life? Really? Why are we here? What were we called to do? What are we called to be? Why did God create us? He created us to be like him, to be like Jesus Christ who is the greatest servant of all. And, brother, we're going to be spending hopefully the next thousand years teaching other people about the greatness of God and his plan and their opportunity to be part of the family. Let's close with Colossians chapter 1 verse 27.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 27.

Some pretty deep stuff, I know.

Colossians chapter 1 and verse number 27.

Says to them God, and again talking to the saints of God, to them God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. He's telling us what this mystery is.

Mystery of the glory. The mystery is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Brother, that's one of God's greatest mysteries. Is Christ in you? Christ in you. Christ's life in your life and in mine.

Intertwined, interconnected, intermingled as one. Brother, that's why we eat the unleavened bread during the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Yes, we removed the leavening which pictures sin and unrighteousness, but we do it also by also replacing it with the unleavened bread that we've been talking about today. And when we partake of that unleavened bread, brother, I think it results in this passage. The result is the hope of glory.

That incredible transformation, in a sense, a glorious transformation, ultimately like Jesus Christ is now, the glorified Son of God. Brother, the peace of unleavened bread is all about salvation. It's all about the salvation in a sense, in a sense, Israel's deliverance from Egypt, but it's also mowing into something much bigger than that. For the whole world, it's talking about salvation and deliverance from a spiritual Egypt and into the family and into the kingdom of our great God.