[Mr. Frank Dunkle]: I noticed it's very springy outside now. This morning, it was dreary, wet, and I wondered -- I knew the forecast and I said, “You know, it's rainy and dreary, everybody's gonna have no place else they'd rather be than in here listening to Mr. Myers message.” And that was so. Now, the sunshine is out, people are probably longing to be outside. I learned a lesson about that just before services started. I walked down this hall, and I thought, “You know, I want to clear my head a little bit, collect my thoughts.” And I stepped through the door, and as it closed behind me, it went, “click.” There wasn't a sidewalk there so I ended up circling the building, trying to find a way to get back inside. Even as I knew the hymn was starting up, I thought, “Well, if any of you decide you'd rather be enjoying that beautiful spring weather instead of hearing the sermon, you might not get back in.” It was interesting. I went through a garage where all the golf carts are kept, and there were some men wearing their sweaters and such going out for around. And they looked at me walking through in my suit, and I'm sure they're thinking, “What's up with this guy?” Maybe they're thinking that about all of us. We're here on a Friday morning, now afternoon. If they were to ask us, “Why are you here?” “It's a holy convocation. We're keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread.” Well, these days are described in the Torah. People outside the church hear that and they often go, the first thought is, “Well, are you Jewish?” If not that, we might be described as legalistic. And I can see where they might get that mistaken idea.

You know, the first time you come across a description of these days in the Bible, it's God revealing them through Moses to the children of Israel, and requiring those people in that ancient time and land to do those things. When we teach about the Passover, in the Days of Unleavened Bread, it's always useful to talk about some of the great stories of the Old Testament. It talks about Moses confronting Pharaoh to “let my people go,” and God raining down plagues upon them. I'm wondering, did any of you watch “The 10 Commandments” movie sometime within the last week or two with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner? Not very many. Well, I didn't watch it either, but I thought about it. On this last day of Unleavened Bread, it's common to give a sermon that talks about the children of Israel going through the Red Sea, which is thought to have happened on this last day or circling walls of Jericho during the Days of Unleavened Bread. And then on the seventh day, the walls fall flat. What a great analogy for God conquering sin in us. I'm sure there are many other days or many other great stories we can tell. But we want to remember something we know that many people outside of God's true church fail to understand is that these Holy Days, though they're listed in Leviticus 23. I would say a book that many people consider the least Christian in the Bible. I don't think that at all, it's my privilege to get to teach the Pentateuch class, and I've gained greater and greater appreciation for Leviticus the more I study it. But all those days that you walk through with descriptions of sacrifices to accompany them, they're Christian celebrations, Christ instituted them, though He was not yet personified, He was the God who dealt with the people of Israel, as we heard this morning, that Rock that followed them was Christ.

When Christ was a man during His earthly ministry, He kept these days. He taught them to His disciples, they kept them afterwards and continued to teach the Church and the Church through the ages, as they've understood them have kept them. And I want to focus today on the symbolic meaning of these days, that they're central, that they're vital to Christianity. They're at the heart of what we're doing and what we're becoming. And that includes the Days of Unleavened Bread, no less than any other Holy Days. Having said that, I do want to turn to Exodus 12, if you'll join me there we'll begin in verse 15. The sermon might go a little more slowly than some of mine. I brought my travel Bible that always makes me find the scriptures less rapidly. Here, God introduces these days to Israel and tells them how, if not all of why to keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. Exodus 12, beginning in verse 15,

Exodus 12:15-18 – “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day, you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day, there will be a holy convocation. And on the seventh day, that's today, there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. So, you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For on the same day, I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore, you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.” What follows shows how closely linked are Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, in verse 18, “In the first month, on the 14th, day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the 21st day of the month at evening.” And they're so inextricably linked that some people have even confused the first day of Unleavened Bread with Passover. And I know it's a sharp debate among some people, but that's an unfortunate mistake. Now, my purpose today isn't to discuss when Passover is but I guess the academic in me slipped in as I started preparing this I thought it was worth addressing some of this because here, some people have read verse 18 that said, “See 14th day of the first month that evening eat unleavened bread.” So, the 14th day is the first day of Unleavened Bread, or is the 15th is the Passover? Well, that doesn't make sense. We're going to come back here, but I want to turn to Leviticus 23, where God does make it pretty clear. Leviticus 23:5. Here in verse 5, it says,

Leviticus 23:5-6 – “On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread.”

If I had the whiteboard here from the classroom, I would write 14 and 15. And if you remember from math, that symbol that means not equals you do the equal sign and the slash, 14 does not equal 15. They're not the same, they're very separate days. Now, we add scriptures to get the full meaning of which day was which. Of course, here it tells us that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven days, clearly. If the Feast of Unleavened Bread started on the 14th and went through the 21st, we'd have eight days. And if Passover were actually on the 15th it wouldn't be a separate day, 14 would equal 15. Going back to Exodus 12, I'm going to get there eventually. Exodus 12:18, that's a scripture that causes some people some confusion, says,

Exodus 12:18 – “The first month on the 14th day at evening,” I believe that's addressing the evening that ends the 14th day and begins the 15th. We know very clearly that the evening that begins on the 14th, right at sundown. Actually, if you back up to verse 6 of this chapter, we see instructions for keeping the Passover, “You shall keep the 14th day of the same month. The whole congregation of Israel shall kill it,” -that is the sacrificial lamb- “at twilight.” That's the Hebrew phrase that means between the evenings. So, right as the 14th day began, kill that Passover lamb, and they were instructed to splash the blood on the lintel on the doorpost. And then as it says in verse 8, “They shall eat the flesh on that night roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it.”

Now, one of the interesting things about that Passover lamb is unlike other sacrifices, it wasn't cut up, and it didn't have the insides removed, and washed, and other things. It was spit whole with the entrails, the insides still in it, and they would roast it over the fire. So, it was a time-consuming process. As it cooks, you could slice off some of the outer meat and feed it to your family. And as we know, they were to be dressed in their traveling gear, their sandals on the feet, staff in their hand, and it would progress through the night. And it had to progress through the night. Verse 22 of this chapter is where it tells them to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood on the base and strike the lintel on the two doorposts, and “none of you go out of the door of his house until morning.” While it's dark outside the sun hasn't risen, stay inside. We understand that the destroyer came and killed the firstborn in every house that didn't have that blood. And that's why I believe there in verse 18, what we see the 14th day of the first month was very important. God noted the sunset that began that day. And then He also noted the sunset that ended the 14th, which simultaneously begins the 15th. And beginning the 15th then is something new and different, Passover is ended, and we begin a holy convocation. And we keep it as a day to be much observed. Dropping down in the same chapter in Exodus 12:42, verse 42,

Exodus 12:42 – “It's a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is the night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.”

I'll add to this Deuteronomy. Now, where do I have it? In Deuteronomy 16:1, I'm not going to turn there because there's a simple phrase I want to highlight where it says, “God brought Israel out by night,” to make it clear that they didn't slay the lamb, do a quickie meal, eat some of it and leave that night, they stayed in their homes all night, the next day, they had time to get organized and ready. But God did bring them out by night, the following night, which is the night we commemorated. I very much appreciated the sermon Mr. Myers gave two, or three, or four weeks ago sometime, about the night watch, certain things God instituted that happened at night that reminded us of the importance. It's something if you're an early to bed early to rise type like me this time of year when the Holy Days fall late, you say, “Oh, man, we don't even get to start the Passover till, you know, quarter past 8:00, 8:18 when the sun goes down.” I bet, a lot of you don't... I try to think my in-laws like to have dinner at about, you know, 12:00 noon. Having a meal starting at about 8:30 at night, it's not always to their liking. But God gives us some things that are super important that we need to note, and we need to remember that He set the timing in a certain way.

And as we compare that to the New Testament, of course, we understand, Christ kept the Passover with His disciples at the time we just described, after the sunset, beginning the 14th, and into that evening. He wasn't changing the time, from an Old Testament observance of the Passover to a different time for a New Testament observance. Now, He was keeping it the time that it was always set to keep. Some of the Jews in the land had somehow gotten mistaken and confused, it seems that perhaps they were keeping it at a different time. But no, there's not an Old Testament Passover and a New Testament Passover. It's worth noting, though, we could appreciate the miracles that God worked for Israel, saving them from Egypt, delivering them. That alone would be a pretty good reason for keeping a commemoration, saying, “Yeah, we appreciate that, and we want to keep it.” But as Christians in this day and age, we're not just looking back, we keep an eye on the past and learn from it. But a lesson we don't want to ever forget from the sermon this morning is we're looking ahead, we're moving ahead, we need an action plan and we want to understand what is ahead and what these days mean. As Christians, we celebrate a much greater meaning than Israel being saved from Egypt, even though that is great.

Now, there are times when looking at the symbolism of the Old Testament and some of the events described there could be a little difficult to understand. But the sacrifice of Passover is not one of those things, is it? It's pretty clear. The sacrifice of Passover always pointed to something great. I'm going to reference John 1:29. And I wonder about this because it's described many times as the very first time John the Baptist saw Jesus Christ. Christ was coming to be baptized and begin His ministry. I'm not so sure about that first-time thing, since they were first cousins. I suspect they'd spent time together. But now it's a public thing, and John sees Him and he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God. And 1 John 1:7, I won't turn there but the apostle John said that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. And I'm going to follow Mr. Phelps's example and turn to 1 Corinthians 5, actually, he said, we didn't have time to read all of this. I won't read all of it, but I do want to reread 1 Corinthians 5:7-8. Because the Apostle Paul gave us perhaps the clearest statement of the symbolic meaning of these days. In verse 7, he says,

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 – “Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened.” And He was speaking to the congregation of Corinthians seems right during the holiday season where he assumed they had put leaven out of their homes, but he wants to focus on the spiritual meaning and he says, “For indeed, Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us.” Christ is our Passover, He was sacrificed for us. “Therefore, let us keep the feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, not with the old leaven, nor with leaven, and malice, and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

As I said, this tells us the basic essence of the meaning of both Passover in the Days of Unleavened Bread, and I believe that Passover is the most clear. We know that thousands of years ago, that fateful night in Egypt when God killed the firstborn in every household that did not have the blood of the lamb on the lintel and doorpost. The blood of that lamb symbolizes Christ's blood, the death of that lamb symbolizes Christ's death for our sins. Now, I said that lamb, although when you think about it, there were thousands of lambs, every family, and if the family was too small, they'd get together with another nearby family so that it was about right. But all of those lambs, every one picture Jesus Christ. And through the many, many years since then, every year, all of the lamb slaughtered symbolized the one Lamb of God that really mattered. And my point in this is that Passover was always a Christian Holy Day, always a Christian day with Christian meaning. It wasn't that the New Testament church said, “Hmm, let's see if we can find something that's in the Old Testament and match it up so it can symbolize what we're doing.” It was instituted to be that already.

Fortunately, though, the symbolism has to happen many times, lambs were sacrificed over and over again. And for that matter, once a year, on that anniversary, we take the bread and the wine that symbolize Christ’s body and blood. But the actual sacrifice had to happen, how many times? Just one. Hebrews 10 gives us a clear statement of that. Hebrews 10:10. I know I'm lagging, but I'm going to get to unleavened bread. But I thought, since they're so closely tied, we need to cover these. Hebrews 10:10,

Hebrews 10:10 – “By what will, by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” He only had to do it at one time. Let's drop down to verse 14, “This man,” -this is Christ- “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering, He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” I wanted to mention that because of our focus, today we're looking at the Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Days of Unleavened Bread. I think we could look back through Leviticus, and Numbers and Deuteronomy, and look at all of the sacrificial system. And all of that has symbolism that points us to Jesus Christ and His true sacrifice.

I'm not going to focus on that today, but it's an interesting study. I wish the Bible had some scriptures where it says, “When they did this, it exactly represents that. And when they did this other thing, it represents that.” It doesn't do that. It does it very clearly for Christ's sacrifice with the Passover. So, I think God leaves some things vague because it's a good exercise for us to study and learn. I like what Aaron Dean says, “Sometimes God might leave things vague to see are we going to fight about it, or are we going to come together and support what we do agree.” As Scripture tells us, in Christ's own words, I’ll reference 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. We've read it many times where, you know, through Paul, he said, that bread that's broken represented Christ's body, broken and given for us, and the wine that we drink represents His blood. We've heard lots of messages on that. So, let's talk about the symbolism of these days that we're wrapping up, the Days of Unleavened Bread. Sometimes it seems the symbolism is not quite as clear and quite as easy to understand. Sometimes people have questions. And it makes me wonder. Imagine you're an Israelite back thousands of years ago, maybe of the tribe of Gad, or Reuben or Issachar. And you might look and say, “Okay, you know, people have been doing sacrifices for years. I get the idea of I kill this animal, and it represents atonement with God.” So, blood pays the penalty for sin. I understand that symbolism, but what about this flat bread? What's that supposed to mean? Could we just, you know, have some good sourdough and make a full meal, roast beef on rye? No. Of course, I don't think it's not totally lost to us. I want to go back to Exodus 12. It's not totally lost, but I'm not sure how much they fully understood. But they understood some things very clearly because God told them. Exodus 12, beginning in verse 39,

Exodus 12:39 – “They baked unleavened cakes of the dough, which they'd brought out of Egypt,” -or it wasn't leavened because they were driven out of Egypt- “They could not wait, and they nor they prepared provisions for them.” So, they were in a hurry. They didn't have time to let bread rise. So, it is a symbol of just being in a hurry? No. Let's go to chapter 13, and look in verse 7. Chapter 13:7 says,

Exodus 13:7-8 – “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters. And you shall tell your son that day saying, ‘this is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’” Okay, it has a meaning, this is done because of what the Lord did for me. Let's look at verse 14. “It shall be when your son asks you in time to come saying, ‘What's this?’” Imagine he's holding up a matzo. “Dad, what is this?” “And you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’”

Okay, that's something important because if you think, Israel was enslaved. They went down to Egypt willingly, they were seeking survival. There was a famine in the land. Joseph had become the ruler of Egypt. God had inspired him to prepare for the famine to come. And when his brothers came, of course, you know the story he revealed to them at that time there were yet five more years. And Pharaoh loved Joseph and all the people did. They welcome the Israelites in, gave them the best of the land in Goshen. But then a pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph, and the Egyptians got worried. There's more of them than there are of us, they're gonna turn and join our enemies. Let's put them under bondage. We don't know how gradually it happened, but they became enslaved. And the story becomes obvious when they wanted to leave, they couldn't. The Israelites had no power to free themselves. They were helpless on their own. It required the power of God. And we know the symbolism. I'm going to discuss some of how we derive that from the Bible. Is anybody here not heard that Egypt, in this case, represents a life of sin and that during these Days of Unleavened Bread, the leavening represents sin? We human beings don't have the power to free ourselves from sin. We can't do it on our own. And that's a reminder we have when we're reminded of the Israelites leaving Egypt, they needed God's power to free them.

And I haven't gone through a 12 step program, but I've read enough about Alcoholics Anonymous and the others where one of the important steps is to recognize, “I can't overcome this, I need help from outside.” That's something for all of us to acknowledge. Let's turn to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, we'll begin in verse 24. And this looks back to that same story. Hebrews 11:24 says,

Hebrews 11:24-26 – “By faith, Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy,” -what?- “The passing pleasures of sin.” So, we've got one hand being with the people of God or pleasures of sin. Egypt symbolizing that way of life of sin. And verse 26 it says, “He esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” He looked at the reward because they said there's a clear contrast, treasures of Egypt, reproach of Christ, passing pleasures of sin, being among God's people. I think this supports clearly and among other places that symbolism holds true. Egypt and the leavened bread that the Israelites were accustomed to eating, is a symbol of sin, of something to be gotten rid of, and something that they needed help for. So, it makes sense to say that when the Israelites were coming out of Egypt, that served as a symbol of Christians coming out of a life of sin, of escaping enslavement to sin. In a sense, we've been that.

If you'll turn a few pages back to Romans 6. Romans 6 beginning in verse 16. We've all been slaves without the power to deliver ourselves. And for this past week, we've been engaging in symbolism to show that God gives us the power. And again, referencing this morning's message that that power is there and it can be done but we need to take an active part in determining. Romans 6:16,

Romans 6:16-20 – “Do not know that to whom you present yourself, slaves you obey, you are that one slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience, leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves to sin, yet, you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And that's a slavery that has no downside. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, that was us. But through repentance and forgiveness, we can be freed from.” And he says, now at the end of part of verse 19, “So, now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you're free from righteousness as a way it could be translated, what fruit did you have in the things which you're now ashamed, the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and in the end everlasting life.” And then there's the common memory scripture, “The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin is the opposite of living God's way.

Another scripture that comes to mind one my, again, I call it a grandma scripture because my grandma taught it to me starting when I was 10 years old is 1 John chapter 3:4, “Transgression of the law is sin.” I memorize the old King James, or as the new says, “Sin is lawlessness.” I do think it's interesting though when we mentioned that the Israelites didn't have leavened bread, partly because they came out of Egypt in haste. They couldn't let the bread rise, and they were told not to anyways. If that's a symbol of our coming out of sin, I'd like to add that haste factor. When you realize that you're doing something wrong, maybe when God first calls you and you say, “Most of my life is wrong.” God doesn't call us to set up a 10-year plan to gradually move away from sin. You don't set up a long-term thing. You say, “I gotta change right now. I gotta stop doing those things that I was ashamed of, I gotta start on the right path.” We want to do it in haste. And one of the reasons... I think some of the symbolism that we use for leaven, and many of you have heard messages, I haven't done the scientific research, but we know that the leavening becomes intrinsic to the dough that it's in, it permeates and it changes its very nature. That's how sourdough works, especially yeast actually works a chemical reaction. It's not something that you could take it out and the rest of it's okay, it works its way through, it changes the very nature of that dough, and sin will do that to our lives.

So, we can't just take part of it and throw it out, you've got to get rid of the whole thing. I think of that, again, that command for keeping the days that says, “On the first day, get the leaven out of your houses.” I say first day, I spent a week getting leaven out of my house before the first day. But it might have been easier if they were living in a tent and they didn't have shag carpet, they didn't have a car with crevices and they were smart enough to not eat in their car. A lesson I'm still working on. But, you know, back then you might have had in your cupboard a little bit of, you know, your starter, you'd call it, “Okay, unleavened bread is starting, go get it, take it out, throw it out in the field. I'm unleavened.” It could be done pretty quickly. Keeping it out, and maybe looking for where you might have missed some, you know, that's very important. But a major characteristic of Christians isn't just that they eat matzos, it's what that symbolizes. Christians don't sin, or they strive to not sin. We don't practice sin. We don't continue in sin willfully. Let's note, if you're still in Romans 6, the beginning of the chapter, Romans 6 beginning in verse 1. Paul says,

Romans 6:1-4 – “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Sort of like God loves to forgive sins so let's sin all the more, to make Him happy? And Paul says, “Certainly, not.” That's not the way it works. “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Do not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, we're baptized into His death. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism unto death, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Even so, we should walk in newness of life.” Newness of life, that's vital. A Christian has adopted a new, a different way of life, a way of life of not sinning, but of living by God's way.

And during the spring Festival of Unleavened Bread, we symbolize that by putting leaven out of our homes, out of our offices, out of our cars, out of all of our lives, as a symbol of getting sin out of our lives. Another way of saying this occurs to me is that the Days of Unleavened Bread represent conversion. We use that term all the time, you're called and converted, you're becoming a child of God. And we often describe conversion as a process. I've sometimes wondered, or I used to wonder, why does the Feast of Unleavened Bread last a whole week, seven days? Most of the Holy Days are one, Pentecost, 24 hours, Trumpets, 24. Actually, I think Trumpets and Atonement are slightly less than 24 because it goes from sunset to sunset, and the days are getting shorter. That's not a big thing. Now, Tabernacles last a week, but it symbolizes the millennium, 1,000 years of God's reign. So, makes sense that that would last a little longer, but why Unleavened Bread? And I have to be honest, the scholar in me wishes I could say, “Turn to this verse, and it'll tell you exactly why.” But I haven't found a place in the Bible that says it in so many words. But if you look at the examples of God's people in Scripture, if you look at the examples of Christians today, you know, there's a bunch of you sitting here looking at me, which is a little intimidating. But I look at my own life, and I've noticed something. Getting sin out of a person's life takes time. You can work and get a bunch of wants, but then you find you haven't got it all. It takes time to become perfect, despite trying to get it out in haste.

I think that parallels in some ways our efforts to get the leaven out in the first place. As I said, I spent a little more than a week, you'll, I like to do a little at a time because even though I claim to like to work hard, I like to work hard for a little bit and then stop and go do something else. So, I set up a goal, you know, one night after work, I'm gonna come home, I'll do this room. The next night, I'll do this room, and I sorta like gradually get through it. And there's some good in that. So, how many of you, men, that are on the speaking schedule have come up with good sermonette ideas while you're running a vacuum? I know I have, you start thinking of parallels, and analogies, and metaphors and other literary devices. That time that you’re de-leavening can be time to think because when we're doing that, we're also looking to Passover and saying, “I need to examine myself.” Okay, as I'm symbolically preparing for a week without leaven, I know I'm supposed to have a life without sin. How am I doing? Am I doing okay in this area, maybe not as well in that area. And, of course, then, even when you've got it all, how many of you this week found some? I don't see many- maybe you did a better job. I think we were getting ready to go to services on the first day and we pulled out, you know, Connor's church bag, and there's a little plastic tub filled with Graham crackers. Like, you gotta be kidding me. I was so careful, though. We were down at Sue's parents, I ran out in the back and throw them in the neighbor's backyard. And the chickens will eat them, nobody will care. But you know we have that to show. I think there's lessons in that.

You know, have you ever been getting in your freezer looking, you're gonna get some ice cream? And there is a brightly colored package in the back. “What is that?” Pull it out. And there's a box with one frozen waffle in it. “Oh, I missed that.” Or the story, this is Sue's story before we were married, and you might have heard it before. But she's driving in her car in the middle of the Days of Unleavened Bread, and a light changes, he hits her brakes, and out from under her driver's seat, rolls a tube of Pillsbury biscuits. Who keeps those under the driver's seat? And Sue doesn't, or must have fell out from grocery shopping or something, who knows how long it was there? You know, we've all had stories like that, and they can be humorous. And they represent the way that we contend to discover sin that we didn't know was there, find weaknesses we didn't know we had. And I'll tell one on myself, it's a little safer than some other things. But I remember, I've got this clear memory. I don't remember when it was but I was a younger man, not yet married. And it might have been leading up to Passover because I was examining my life. And I said, “Boy, you know, I've got some other problems, but one problem I don't have is impatience.” I actually –literally, I was about to reach back, pat my back- ah Frank, you're a patient man. You can probably guess where this is leading. It seemed that it was very soon after that God started reaching down into my life and opening my eyes to some things.

And then I got married. Boy, did I find out that I was not patient. Then later we had a child, and looking back, I found that whereas I thought I was patient, what I was was vain. I was proud of what was actually a weakness. How sad for me to discover that. Now, I'd like to say, “It's all done now. I'm perfectly patient.” But then you'd know where that would lead. I'm working on it still. And I think that's perhaps at least one reason why the Days of Unleavened Bread lasts a week. And again, this is my own personal theory on this. But I think it does help to remind us that overcoming sin takes time. Overcoming sin takes the rest of your life. But having said that, you can't afford to delay. We have to be right now. As we're restocking our shelves and saying what are we going to put on there, it's got to be the right things. Again, I was moved by Mr. Myer's sermon this morning, I thought, “Boy, I wish he was following me because it explained things so much better.” But, you know, we have to do that, we have to focus on our life- changing that, changing ourselves. Fortunately, God is patient. Let me read it from 1 John 2. God is patient and merciful. 1 John 2 beginning in verse 1,

1 John 2:1 – “My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin.” Again, that's a lot of the meaning, “don't sin, you're Christians you're not supposed to sin.” “And if anyone sins” -that could be worded when anyone sins- “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.” He's the sacrifice that pays the price. He's the one that pays the penalty so we can be made right with Him. “He's the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world."

That reminds us that even though we have the rest of our lives that we have to spend fighting to overcome our physical nature and the temptation to sin, we have to put it out of our lives, we can be forgiven. Remember when I believe it was Peter who came to Jesus and he said, “How many times do I forgive my brother, seven times?” Try seventy times seven. And Christ gave an example that said if your brother sins against you seven times in a day and seven times come back and comes back and says I repent, forgive him. That made me wonder, did Christ mean 70, you know, was 490 times period or 490 each day? I hope I never have to go to God that many times but it tells me... Well, actually it tells me what we see in chapter 1:9, here in 1 John, it's a promise,

1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That should make the Days of Unleavened Bread an encouragement. God is in our corner, He's helping us, not so that we can relax and say, “Well, I don't have to work hard because He's always going to forgive me,” no, the opposite. He wants us to become like Him. I want to become like Him. I want to become a person that, not only doesn't sin but who doesn't want to sin. So, the symbolism makes eating dry matzos a little easier.

So, I think I was down in Lexington visiting on the first day I said, “How many people really like matzos?” And hands went up. “Oh, I'm embarrassed. I don't like matzos, but I like butter.” So, it all balances out pretty well. Let's consider though if leaven pictures sin and we get rid of it, can we be very specific about what the unleavened bread pictures? Now, in 1 Corinthians 5:8, Paul refers to the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Those are very good Christian traits, but I wonder- there are other really good Christian traits? What about love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control? Is there any ABC students here? No, I never get through that list without reading it. I always get shifted around the fruits of the Spirit. Of course, none of these things are mutually exclusive. And I think we can say though, we're justified in saying there's a bit more to it than just saying sincerity and truth when we look at unleavened bread, although I like connecting words because truth reminds me of John 17:17. Christ said, “Thy word is truth.” And we know from the beginning of the book of John, Jesus Christ was called the Word. And that does fit with where I want to go with this. That the unleavened bread, well, during Passover we know, clearly the unleavened bread that's broken, represented Christ's body that was broken for us. That provides some understanding of what Jesus said in John 6. Let's go to John 6 and read verse 53,

John 6:53-54 – “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 on the last day.’” And we understand that Christ was speaking symbolically. He wasn't suggesting that His disciples become cannibals. We understand that at Passover, we do this, we drink wine that symbolizes His blood. We eat a piece of unleavened bread that pictures His body that was broken. And we're reminded in Scripture that by His stripes we're healed. But is the symbolism of unleavened bread representing Jesus Christ finished with the Passover? I went out of my way to say 14 does not equal 15. So, you can say, “Well, Passover is over. If the symbolism means that then.” I don't think it means the same exactly. But let's continue in John 6. Let's read verse 51, “Jesus said, ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I shall give for the world.’” Okay, that seems to be saying some of what we've already covered, but I think there's more to it. Actually, I think I jumped ahead of myself because I wanted to start at verse 48.

So, don't turn to the next scripture, which I was about to tell you to do. Let's read in John 6:48, where Christ said, “I am the Bread of Life, your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead.” Now, I used to stumble over that and I thought is the manna poisonous? Did it kill them? No, it meant that it didn't give them eternal life, the manna that kept them alive from day to day. It was their daily sustenance, but it didn't give them eternal life. But He's saying of Himself, in verse 50, this He saying “Of Myself, the Bread of Life, this is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die.” Christ is talking about eternal life, He says, “I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I'll give is My flesh, which I'll give for the life of the world.” Putting this together with some other scriptures can show that there's a little bit more than just the bread representing His sacrifice. The more is related to this process of conversion that we were discussing, to growing and changing, to what happens to us after our initial repentance and baptism.

If you will turn with me to Romans 5. Romans 5 and we'll begin in verse 8. We don't see the metaphor of bread of Christ as the Bread of Life used in Paul's epistles, but we see the meaning of it there. Romans 5:8,

Romans 5:8-10 – “God demonstrates His own love toward us, and now while we were still sinners, Christ died for us much more than. Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” That's what Passover symbolized much more. Okay, moving on to the Days of Unleavened Bread, you could say, “Having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Let's be saved by His life. And I think that fits what we read by Paul earlier in Romans 6, which is just across the page for me. We have God's grace, we have His forgiveness so that we can live a different life so that we can not continue in sin, but so that we can become a new people, people who don't sin. But how can we faulty humans do that? As I said, the Israelites couldn't free themselves from Egypt. And I said, we human beings cannot free ourselves from sin, but the answer is here. Actually, if you'll keep a finger enrollments, I want to read a scripture from Galatians 2:20. Galatians 2:20, Paul wrote,

Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” I think that's an important phrase, “And that Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” The way each of us becomes a new person, a person who doesn't sin and doesn't want to sin is only by Christ living in us. And that happens through the Holy Spirit.

Going back to Romans, this time in Romans 8. Romans 8, we'll begin in verse 9,

Romans 8:9-10 – “You're not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” This is one scripture we cite often as a definition of a Christian, someone who has God's Spirit in them. “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Actually, I think I wanted to stop. So, we see here in this passage, Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ are used somewhat interchangeably. It's God's Spirit. Christ was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So, the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of Christ are the same. And we have to have it to be a Christian. I'm going to add in John... actually, I'm going to turn, if you'll turn with me to 1 John 3:24. Because I was saying, we need Christ to be in us, now I'm talking about the Spirit. John ties those together. 1 John 3:24.

1 John 3:24 – “Now, he who keeps His commandments abides in Him or lives in Him, and he that is Christ in Him who keeps His commandments, and by this, we know that He abides in us.”

This is how we know that Christ lives in us through the Spirit that He's given us. So, Christ is living in us through the Spirit. That, I believe, ties to the eating the bread, that unleavened bread, that Christ said, “I am the Bread of Life.” Just as we eat bread, and our bodies digest it and it becomes a part of us and it sustains our life. So, when Christ dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, it sustains our life. It makes us into something different, gives us spiritual life. And that's something we want to remember that the Holy Spirit isn't something that we just get at baptism with the laying on of hands. I mean, we do get it then, but it's not like, “Here's the Holy Spirit. Let me put that in my pocket and I'll carry it with me everywhere I go.” It reminds me, I'll share this. When I was ordained an elder, they handed me one of these little things with oil. And so carry this with you everywhere you go. Now, I have the oil, you know, that symbolizes the Holy Spirit. But, you know, I use that up, I anoint people, and then I have to go get it refilled. Similar to that when we think of the Holy Spirit. I'll write down a couple of scriptures, I won't turn there, but Philippians 1:19. Philippians 1:19 mentions having a supply of the Holy Spirit, it's a supply. And in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:19, we're told to not quench the Holy Spirit.

This indicates that God's Spirit is something that we need to continually renew, is the analogy of rivers of living water flowing from God, and through that microphone no, from God and through us, and, you know, going out and doing His works. So, that's something we want to do to live spiritually. Actually, it's interesting. You can turn back there if you want, but in John 6:50, Jesus described Himself as the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven. When I first read it, oh, that's present tense, comes down from heaven. Then, in the next verse He talked about, He was the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. But we could see based on what we saw there in Galatians 2:21, 1 John 3:4. No, 1 John 3:24, sorry. I should put my glasses on before I... “But through the Spirit which abides in us, Christ is coming from heaven into us.” It's not just a one-time thing that He lives in us. And having said that, my Bible is open to 1 John, I want to turn to chapter 4 of 1 John. So, a lesson I remember from it, I bring out in General Epistles class about a Greek word that I didn't realize was there until studying that. I mean, there's one thing to remember that the Epistles of John are some of the last books written in the Bible. And great heresy was extent in the Roman Empire, and even trying to creep into the church. And John was fighting against that, including some teachings that later became known as Gnosticism. One tenet of Gnosticism was that God is Spirit and totally good, anything spirit is great, anything physical and flesh, evil, bad. And God would never associate with something so evil and bad as Spirit. They began even to teach that the Messiah, Jesus the Christ, wasn't really a flesh and blood human being, that He was just some appearance, you know, that He could walk across the beach and not leave footprints, and things like that. So, when you read John's writings, he went out of his way to say, “I touched Him, we handled Him with our hands, we saw Him eat,” and things like that. And we see in 1 John 4:2, he refutes this. He says,

1 John 4:2-3 – “By this, you know, the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. That's the spirit of antichrist, which you've heard was coming, now it's already in the world.” The Greek word that's translated here in English is has come is erchomai, which I just love saying that, erchomai. But scholars point out that it's actually a present tense verb. Present tense is generally used in an imperfect... and it's been a long time since I did thorough grammar so I might not be describing this perfectly. But they say one way that you could translate this is to say, Jesus Christ having been coming in the flesh, or a simpler version would say He is coming, meaning He came as a flesh and blood human being. But as John said, we know that He abides in us through His Spirit, to Christ through the Spirit is coming into our flesh and blood. He's coming into us as we eat bread and it comes into us and sustains our life. We want to take in the unleavened bread that is Jesus Christ and make that part of us. We want a continual supply of God's Holy Spirit, His power and His presence.

Now, having said that, I'm looking at my watch and reminding, oh, we've got almost six weeks before another Holy Day, and we're going to focus on the Holy Spirit. But that shows us how much these days fit together and strongly portray God's plan and purpose for what He's doing. You know, there is an understanding that was built into these days all along. Christ is the Bread of Life. In John 6:51, He said, “I came down from heaven.” As I said, in the previous verse, He said, “I'm the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven.” What better way to symbolize that spiritual sustenance than by partaking something that's the opposite of sin in symbolism. And so this festival has reminded us we need to put sinful ways, sinful thoughts, any actions out of our lives, and we need to put Christ in. And again, I hope this illustrates, you know, the statement I made at the beginning that these annual Holy Days have always been Christian Holy Days, they weren't adapted. And that's a strong distinction between the holidays that many churches keep, they took these festivals that had this pagan meanings, worshiping false gods, and tried to adapt them. That's not what we've done. We've taken days that had these meanings right from the start, Christian days with Christian meaning.

And so we're here meaning on a date designated on the Hebrew sacred calendar. For people... you know, you saw the full moon about a week ago. These are days described in the Pentateuch, Orthodox Jews keep them quite rigorously. But we are Christians called by God the Father to come to His Son, were reconciled to the Father by the blood of Jesus Christ. And as such, we observe these Holy Days, and the way Christ kept them, the way that His disciples kept them all through their lives, and as the Church that Christ founded kept them, they are days of Christian observance, full of great meaning. You know, for centuries, probably generations, Jewish people have kept these days- kept track of them. But for them without a great understanding of what the meaning of those days were. They didn't understand, you know, that God had them act out on a great stage in the Middle East long ago, you know, sort of a great drama full of rich meaning, portraying events that He knew later on, people would need to understand because it would illustrate what He was doing in their lives. And we're that people, we want to look to the past, and study, and understand and at the same time, look ahead. And again, I can't help it, I felt like the message this morning bring back to your mind is that that's our marching orders. Let's go out, let's restock our cupboards. Let's understand repentance and plan to take Christ into our lives and be renewed and fulfill God's purpose for us.