Discerning The Lord's Body

What I did want to talk about that's important is, you know, the Passover is coming up so quickly. And I had a sermon I was going to give it a couple weeks on the Sabbath, or about the Passover, and then I realized, you know, I'm going to be gone for two weeks to go to Israel in March. When I come home, it's Passover time. And so I thought, I want to cover some things now to get us thinking about the Passover and preparing for the Passover. We know the Passover is important if you have entered into a covenant with God through baptism, that the Passover is renewing of that covenant every year, and that it is in some ways the most sacred, in many ways, the most sacred of all the things we do during the year. That and atonement, you know, are two of the most sacred times of the year and what they picture. Now, Paul told the Corinthians that they should be careful not to keep the Passover in an unworthy manner. That comes up quite often, not every year, but most every year someone will want to talk to me about because of some issue in their life, maybe past sins or present situations they're dealing with or just spiritual problems they're having. And they'll say, I think maybe I shouldn't keep the Passover this year because I don't want to keep it in an unworthy manner. So what does that mean? Because we're told to examine ourselves, we'll look at that in a minute, to examine ourselves to make sure we don't keep the Passover in an unworthy manner. What exactly does that mean? I've had people tell me they thought it meant that you were actually to go back and look at all the sins you've ever committed. You know, think about your sins from your youth and all these things, and that's what you were supposed to do. But is that what that means? Is that the point Paul was making? So we are to examine ourselves, so what does that mean? So we need to discuss and answer some questions. What does it mean to keep the Passover in an unworthy manner? How are we to examine ourselves? What criteria are we looking at?

If I'm going to examine myself, what is the criteria that I'm going to look at? And what should be our reaction to this examination? Usually when someone comes and says, I don't think I should eat the Passover, I've been examining myself, it's because they see their sinful nature and assume that means they shouldn't keep it. Well, we need to look at this. We need to answer these questions. So let's look at Paul's instructions to begin with, 1 Corinthians 11. Let's start at verse 18. So we get the context in which he gives these instructions.

He says, for first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. Now we know, we read from the book of 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians a lot. It was the most dysfunctional church you could imagine. I mean, this was a mess. I have never seen a church like this that I've ever visited or spoken or pastored. I mean, this was a mess. I mean, all churches are humans, so we all have our problems, but this one was way beyond what is almost imaginable in some ways. Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. Now this is real important. The Lord's supper, and he's going to show that this is a meal. For in eating, each one of you takes his own supper ahead of others. One is hungry and another is drunk. So they were having a big meal, and they were coming together, calling it the Lord's supper, and people were coming. Some people had lots of food. The poor people didn't have anything. They weren't sharing. They weren't having a potluck like we're going to have here after services. They were just people bringing their own food, and those who had a lot ate a lot, those who didn't didn't. And they were drinking alcohol, and some people were getting drunk. Now this is all in...we're going to look at this. This is all in the time period of the Passover. So they're coming together to keep this Lord's supper, and it was absolute mayhem. He says, what? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in, or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. And a little bit of sarcasm that Paul would use. He could be very sarcastic. You think I'm going to say this is good? Well, it's not good. So they're coming together, and they're having this meal, and it's not a Christian fellowship meal. It's in some ways, it's a party.

So verse 23 now, he tells them, this is what I was instructed by Christ. Now we know that Paul was personally trained by Jesus. The other apostles before him were personally trained when he walked the earth. He was trained after the resurrection. For I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. When we read those back, we read those instructions in Matthew. We will read those instructions at the Passover. And he calls it, by the way, the Passover. Now there's always this discussion, when should we keep the Passover? Well, we know when Jesus did it. And according to the Scripture, he's called the Passover Lamb. The Passover ceremony ultimately is about the person of Jesus Christ, who he is. It's the Christ. It's the Passover Lamb. We do it when he did it, because he is the Passover. So we do it when he did it. So he goes back to those events. So we now have a frame of reference. This is what's happening at the Passover. The night he was betrayed, he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So it was a commemoration of his death, which is interesting. Easter is a commemoration of his resurrection, and it's on a wrong day. His customs are pagan. It doesn't fit the biblical narrative. He said to commemorate his death, and we're going to go through why that's part of what we're doing on that night.

Now people say, do we ever commemorate his resurrection? I gave a sermon on this many years ago, some of you may remember, but yes, actually we do, not in a structured way. But when you come to services every Sabbath, it was the Sabbath that he was resurrected on. That was planned from the beginning of time. From the beginning of time, the whole cycle of the Holy Days was planned out, including the fact the importance of the Sabbath is Jesus was resurrected on the Sabbath. We don't come here every Sabbath to mourn the death of Jesus. We come here because we're here because he's resurrected. But on the Passover, there's a bit of mourning involved, because we're realizing this is the beginning of that Passover. When he said to do this, this was the beginning of that sacrifice that would go all night and deep into the next day, the sacrifice of the Passover, so that the wrath of God will pass over those who partake. Which is all, you know, a type of that is everything that happened in Exodus. When we study Exodus, we go through the days of Unleavened Bread, we're looking at a type of what Jesus went through, so that the wrath of God will pass over, the wrath of God has passed over us, as we keep the Passover as a reminder of that. So, he goes on, And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, do this remembrance of me. Then verse 25, In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So, there's a very specific reason we do this. And we go back to that night when he said, This is the new covenant. The Old Testament, there were a lot of prophecies about a new covenant. And this covenant would not just be physical, it would be spiritual. And this covenant wouldn't just be national, it would be for all people. Same core moral law, the moral law didn't change. There's a certain different application, though, of ceremonies, of, I mean, the ancient Jews didn't keep the Sabbath the way we do, right? A little different. But we do keep the Sabbath. We don't work on the Sabbath. We go to services on the Sabbath. We fellowship on the Sabbath. All those principles still apply. For as often as you eat in this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. We proclaim His death until He returns. We know He's alive and resurrected today. We know He's interacting in our lives. We'll look at how Christ, the Father and Christ, through the Spirit, interact in our lives. But we proclaim His death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord is in an unworthy manner. So here we're having the keeping of the Passover in an unworthy manner.

People ask why we don't eat a meal of lamb on the Passover. Because that's what they were told to do in the Old Testament, right? They were told to eat a meal involving lamb. Because we do symbolically eat the lamb.

Through a piece of bread and wine, we're partaking of the lamb of God, the Passover lamb. So you see the difference. Passover, the meaning of Passover is actually magnified. But we always still go back and talk about the Old Testament, because we understand the meaning there.

We also understand that we understand the Passover much deeper than Moses understood it. At least in what he gave them. Because he gave them that they were going to be physically saved through this passing over.

We are celebrating that we are spiritually saved through this passing over. And so we don't do a meal. We don't keep the Lord's supper. However, we take the bread and the wine of the Passover ceremony in this personal recognition of Jesus Christ's death. Now we always mention the resurrection too. I mean, if he died and was not resurrected, we're lost. But it is specifically about that. And that's why he says, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

To do this in an unworthy manner, we are guilty and not being forgiven. Now that's a very strong statement. That's a very strong statement. That's why sometimes we become overwhelmed with fear and trepidation about keeping the Passover. I don't want to keep it in an unworthy manner. And we, you know, we're to make sure that we don't, because notice what it says. Verse 28, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

Now we have a couple things that are real important here. And one is we have to examine ourselves. And two is we have to discern the Lord's body. We have to examine ourselves. Now let's think about how they were keeping it in an unworthy manner. They were coming to the Passover and having a big party. A big party in which the wealthy people in the congregation and the poor people in the congregation were separated by what they had and didn't have, and where people were actually getting drunk.

I can't think of an more unworthy manner, unless you brought in idols and worship idols. I think that would even be more unworthy. But that's about as unworthy as you can get. This is an unworthy manner. He didn't say examine yourself to see if you're perfect, because if you're not perfect you can't keep the Passover. That's not what he said. He said, examine yourself to make sure you're not going to keep it in an unworthy manner. That involves, this examination is important. And we need to be examining ourselves in the six weeks or so now, seven weeks or two now, in Passover.

But we need to understand the depth of what's being said here, because there's a lot of misunderstanding. The issue here is keeping the Passover in a way that denigrates the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Keeping the Passover in a manner that denigrates the Passover of Jesus Christ. I've had people say, you know, in Exodus, the children got together with the parents and ate the lamb. Shouldn't our children come and drink the wine and eat the bread also?

Well, the difference is that Passover was the covenant God made with ancient Israel, and it was a physical covenant. He took care of them physically. This is a different covenant in which to be part of the new covenant, you have to be circumcised in the heart. In the old covenant, you could not partake of the Passover if you weren't circumcised. You couldn't just come in to, once they were in the land of Israel, the people couldn't come in and just say, hey, I've decided to keep this Jewish Passover.

I would really like to keep that with you. No, you must be circumcised. You must be part of the covenant to do so. You must be part of the covenant to keep the Passover, which means you have to have been baptized and received God's Spirit. Then you are worthy to keep it. That's the first step in being worthy. You've entered into the covenant, which means repentance and baptism and faith, all those things. Now you are worthy. Does that mean you're perfect? Of course not. What it means is God has made you worthy. You know, this ties back into, I've talked about grace here a few weeks ago, this ties back into that and understanding that.

You have to understand grace to understand this. Grace isn't a license to sin, but it is something God does. And we have to understand what He's doing. So, yes, you have to be baptized to come partake of the bread and the wine. And that means children, although they're open to the covenant, our children are called, it says. So God has opened the door. They are participants in a minor way, but they're still participants in the covenant. They haven't become part of the covenant yet because they haven't received God's Spirit.

But they are participants with their family. So your children, all the young people here that aren't baptized, are still called into the covenant, and they are at a different level of participation. Once you're baptized, you're in a full participation of the covenant, and therefore, at that point, you are to come take this renewal of the covenant every year. So we're going to look at three ways that we should examine ourselves.

Three ways that we can examine ourselves. Remember, I just want to go back for a minute here before I go there. Verse 23 through 26 again. Let's read that because this is where He puts this in the context. The Lord's Supper was something they were doing as part of their Passover observance. And this is where He really focuses in on His point.

Verse 23 says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take eat, for this is my body, which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of Me. Part of our examination is to really focus in on what we're remembering here. We're not remembering our sinful state before baptism. Now we still have to do with sins. We'll talk about that. We still have to look at our sins. But we're not going back and saying, Oh, He wants me to remember what I was before I was baptized.

No, it's remembrance of Him. It's remembrance of what is happening. What the Passover is all about. And it's about the death of Jesus Christ. In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant. Once again, this is the participation in the new covenant. In my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. That's part of our remembrance. This is part of making sure we keep it in a worthy manner. Yeah, in a worthy manner.

Okay, first of all, say, Okay, between now and Passover, I want some steps on what I'm supposed to do. Okay, I'm going to give you some steps, but they're not going to be what you think, probably. I'll present it in a question. Each of these will be three questions. So you can write down the questions, and you need to spend between now and Passover time meditating on this, praying about this, and studying your Bible to answer these questions.

Okay, you're going to pray about it, you're going to study the Bible to answer the questions, and you're going to meditate on it. And it would be a bad idea to fast about it. To take a day between now and Passover, and fast asking these questions. One, are you intensely aware of the forgiveness and law of God that is given to you through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

Well, that's not what I thought I had to think about. Wait a minute. Do this and remember it's of me. Are you intensely aware of the forgiveness and love of God that has been given to you through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Now, we will discuss, yes, we have to still look at our corrupted human nature. Yes, I'm not saying you don't do any self-examination of behavior or thoughts or the problem we have with human nature, but that's not what we're starting with here.

We start with, am I intensely aware of what it costs for me to have a relationship with God that was willingly done for me, for you personally? Am I aware of that? Because sometimes we come into the Passover not truly aware of this was given to us. This was given to us. And it's not because God looked at all of us and said, wow, they're sure better than everybody else. I'm going to call them, right?

It happened because it was given to us. Philippians 2. So, yeah, we're just sort of picking up where we left off on the grace sermon and tying it into the Passover. Actually, thinking about it, you could tie it into the sermon I gave before that on brokenness.

Grace. Now we're going to deal with the covenant God's made with you and what He wants you to experience through the Passover. Philippians 2, verse 5, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So when you keep the Passover, think about, we will discuss what Jesus taught, what He was thinking, what He was doing. You know, one of the things we suggest everybody does is before the Passover, read all of John 13 through 17. That's what the instructions from Jesus Christ to His disciples just before they came to get Him.

And you read that and you know, this is on His mind. Well, what was on His mind? That tells us, and we'll cover some bits and pieces of those four chapters. During the Passover service, this is what was on His mind.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. He did not consider it, somehow wrong, to be considered equal with God, God the Father.

But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.

It's interesting, He made Himself. He decided to become what He became. He decided to become like us. That when, you know, a carpenter back then was basically a stonemason. He worked some with wood, but basically with stones. I can't imagine any time where He didn't crush his or, you know, hit his thumb with a...

oh, pounding some stones, right? To know to come into a form where you're going to feel pain. We know the pain He felt at the crucifixion. To come into a form where you're going to get tired. To come into a form where it says at times He got on a boat and went way out into the Sea of Galilee just to get away from people because He couldn't take it anymore. You know, before He came, He didn't have any trouble dealing with us. He just couldn't take it anymore. One of the video shoots we're going to be doing over in Israel at the end of March...

I'm doing a whole series of shoots around the Sea of Galilee. One is on the hill where they think He gave the Sermon on the Mount. There's a couple hills there, but this one is considered the hill where He gave the Sermon on the Mount. So I have a shoot there, and it's about three or four minutes long, you know. Then I said, hey, there's something I would like to do. I would like now, just to keep the camera rolling if it's okay with you guys, I want to open it up to the attitudes, and I want to talk about the beatitudes.

I just want to talk. I want to walk around, sit down on a rock if there's a rock there today. I just want to do that. And the producer said, yeah, I want you to go through the entire Sermon on the Mount, so we're going to film you walking on this, you know. That's good, you know. To think about Him making Himself that way. He became like us on purpose, and it wasn't an accident. It says He was slain from the foundation of the earth. This was the plan.

This was the plan. Verse 8, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. We are to remember that on that night, that everything that happened that night and the next day, and then three days and three nights later, all that was planned.

He knew it. He helped plan it, and He came. And we're to commemorate that. That's what it means to keep it worthy. Our focal point is on that. Our focal point on what God is doing and what the real Passover is doing. Because now He is the High Priest. He sacrificed Himself, and now He's the High Priest who brings the sacrifice to God.

Now, that's amazing to me. The way God works this all out, He is the sacrifice and the presenter of the sacrifice of Himself to God for us. So, that first question is very important. And our self-examination taken before the Passover is to ask God to help us become intensely aware of what this means. Intensely aware. To keep the Passover unworthily is to come to the Passover with our mind so filled with work, to come with our mind so filled with some entertainment we've been involved with, or some problem we have at home, or some conflict we have with somebody.

And that's what we're thinking about, is to keep it unworthily. To keep it unworthily is to come totally aware of the remembrance. We are there as a remembrance and what that means to us personally. So, we need to ask for that awareness. Now, our second point. In appreciation, for point number one, of God's forgiveness and love, are you intensely responsive to God as your Father? Now, we're sitting on Jesus, but remember, He takes us to the Father, right? Are we intensely responsive to God?

This breaks down into everyday behavior. Everyday behavior. Colossians 1. Colossians 1. Let's start in verse 9 to set the context, because this is a personal statement Paul's making to the church there at Colossae. For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Okay, so his prayer here is that they understand the will of God in wisdom and knowledge.

And here's why, verse 10, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

If we're intensely aware of the real meaning of the passage, intensely aware of what that actually is, and that we are now in a covenant, a personal relationship with God, then we need to, in this appreciation of what God is doing, to be intensely responsive to God as our Father. And that's what verses 9 through 12 is what he's saying. You know, we're to give thanks. We're to be strengthened.

We're to increase in knowledge that you may walk worthy.

In other words, every day is spent not creating our own worthiness, but responding to God so that His worthiness is developed in us, so that He is changing us, this transformation. You know, the gospel is about repentance and faith, being baptized, have hands laid on you, receiving God's Holy Spirit, coming into the congregation, coming into the church, and then having God work with you. But we forget sometimes that is all just part of a process of transformation or conversion.

The transformation is the rest of your life.

Learning to walk worthy is fascinating how Old and New Testament, how you walk, meant how you live. It's like you're on a journey and you're walking down a road. How you walk down that road or which road you walk on is what's important. What road are you walking on? There's nothing passive about Christianity. It's what road are you walking on? If we're walking on this road, being led by God's Spirit, the Father here mentioned specifically, that we are very conscious in responding to God.

This is where we have to move from, I obey God because I don't want to be punished.

Which, you know, is normal. Children obey their parents sometimes because they don't want to be punished, right? What we hope is they get to the place that they internalize what we're saying so they do it because they want to please us.

Eventually we want them to do it because it's who they are, not who we are.

God here is working through us so that we become this transformation that we're walking worthy because He's doing all this and we're responding. It's this responsiveness. Yes, Lord, I wish to be Your child. I am responsive. That's where this examination then takes this next step.

It's a step into how responsive am I to God. We'll say, okay, that means how much I obey God. Yes. But are you obeying God only because you don't want to be punished? Then we're still immature. That's part of the process. I mean, we all are in that process at some point. But we get to the point where we examine ourselves, am I walking a worthy life? Not a perfect life. Am I walking a worthy life because I am responding to God? When God works with me, I respond. We always find reasons not to respond. And if we're walking worthy, we're finding reasons to respond.

No matter what the cost, no matter what happens, we respond because it's what the Father wants. When we do this, we really begin to understand the body of Christ, discerning the body of Christ. Look at verse 13.

We finished here in verse 12, where we're giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us. In other words, we're worthy because of Him. If we stop responding to His worthiness, we become unworthy. The focal point is, I must respond to God. Verse 13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, and whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He goes back to the body of Christ, right? The flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, He goes back to that. And He says, there, we come back to there, which we do at every Passover.

And when we do, we begin to really refocus ourselves in this appreciation of what the Passover really means, and become intensely responsive to God as a Father. Who has conveyed us or transformed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. He has brought us into His Son's kingdom. Jesus Christ reigns over the church. When Jesus Christ returns, He will reign over the earth. At the end of the great white throne judgment, Paul talks about this in Corinthians, Christ takes the entire kingdom and gives it to the Father. He takes the kingdom and gives it to the Father. And New Jerusalem comes to earth, right?

New Jerusalem comes to earth, and He takes the kingdom and gives it to the Father. So He says, I put you in His kingdom, because you've got to remember, it's through whose blood that you're here. So you're in His kingdom. You know, God too. We go directly to the Father. He is the king of the kingdom. But you're seeing there's an order in which things are done.

You and I are in this relationship with God now as Father, in which we are to try to please Him. We are to want to please Him. And yes, sometimes we fail. And sometimes we feel terrible, because we know we haven't pleased Him. It's interesting sometimes, as you grow through our process with sin, you stop, oh no, I did something I shouldn't have done. God's probably going to punish me to, oh, He's probably displeased with me. The relationship is damaged. I need to go ask for forgiveness.

I don't want this damaged relationship. Sin's still sin, folks. Wrong's still wrong. That doesn't change. But our response to God isn't just fear. But it's, I don't want to displease Him. After all that's been done for me, I don't want to displease Him. I want Him to accept me. I want Him to take care of me. I want Him to keep forgiving me. Now the third question. Oh, now, so we examine ourselves here before the Passover, asserting the body of the Lord.

It's funny. We're examining ourselves. We're seeing where we come short. But our emphasis, our focal point, changes from us to God and Christ. That's what the Passover's supposed to do. In our examination, we get stuck on ourselves. Because why? We see our weaknesses. We see our problems. We see our sins. We see our dysfunctional relationships. And we just know we can't stay there.

That's not what this is supposed to do. The examination is supposed to lead us into the things we're talking about here in our relationship between God and between us and Jesus Christ. Our third point is, are you experiencing grateful appreciation towards God by living as a disciple of Jesus Christ? So part of our examination now gets down into, yes, we have to examine our behavior. Not the behavior of 20 years ago.

The behavior of now are we following the example of Jesus Christ because He's the Passover. He's the one who went before us, as it says. And He was resurrected. And we are promised a future resurrection because of that. 1 Corinthians 13.5 Anybody have an NIV translation? Do you? No, that's okay. I was going to read this from the NIV and I forgot to bring an NIV.

KJV is fine. 13.5. I'm not going to have them give you a microphone to have you have to read it, like in the Bible studies. No, we won't do that.

I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 13. I'm at 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 13.5 Just one verse here.

Examine yourselves. So Paul's back to telling Christians to examine themselves. He's not talking here in terms of the Passover, but still it ties in in the concept of examining ourselves. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Now that's an interesting way to put it, isn't it?

Do you really believe what you believe? Now we all have moments of doubt. That's part of what it is to be human. That's why the entire Bible is filled with people of God who failed miserably in moments of doubt. It's just there for a reason. It's like this is the journey everybody's on. Abraham, Peter, you know.

I look at some of the other men and women of the Scripture, and you see where they had moments of doubt.

Where they struggled. He says, so examine yourselves to whether you are in the faith. It's not just, I have moments of doubt, but are you truly believing God?

That you have trust in God. Faith, for the Greek, could be trust-related. It can be translated trust. That we just, we have this belief. We have this, we could go to God even in doubt.

Test yourselves. Now that's interesting. Test yourselves. You know, well what kind of test? I don't have a testing of you. Here's ten questions. Answer these questions, and you're ready for the Passover.

Test yourself. It means you have to have, though, some criteria. How can you test yourself with that criteria?

Well, what's the criteria for testing ourselves?

Well, he says here, next part of the verse, Do you not know yourselves? In other words, we have to look at ourselves and be honest about ourselves. That Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are disqualified.

The way you keep the Passover, in another way or the manner, is to come pretending to be a Christian and Christ is in you. You don't have God's Spirit. Then you're disqualified. You're keeping it in an unworthy manner. Examine yourselves and say, Is the power of God in me? Now, you're going to say, Yeah, but I, it's sure weak. That's not the point. The power of God is weak in all of us. Okay, so let's just sit that one aside. The power of God is weak in all of us. If we all really were responding to the power of God, we'd be, this small group here would be changing the world. We're just, because we're just, you know, God's Spirit is in us, but we're still weak.

But we're to see and look at ourselves, Is Christ in me? Now think about that, how you go to the Passover to commemorate the death of Jesus Christ.

And then we know the days of the lemon bread, Jesus Christ is resurrected, and sin is being removed from us. On Pentecost, we receive God's Spirit, and so that we're being transformed. Examine yourself to say, in yourself, Yes, that process is incomplete. God still needs to do a lot of work, and yes, it's happening.

Little bits and pieces at times. And sometimes we go through enormous spiritual growth spurts, and then other times it's like, it seems like we're growing in little pieces. Sometimes we're going backwards. But do you see from here to here, Yes, I see where God has been working. Christ is in me.

So we examine ourselves to see if Christ is in us.

Be careful not to talk yourself out of that.

Be careful not to... Now, I've known people that kept the Passover once or twice, left the church, went out and became totally into the world lifestyle. Forty years later, they died and never looked back.

Well, Christ wasn't in them. If He was, He left.

We're still here.

That's actually a good sign that Christ is in you. You're still here.

Against all odds, right? Because God continues to do His work in us.

Now, that doesn't mean we can be complacent. It means we have to understand, yes, Christ is here. God's Spirit is in me.

And it motivates us. Going to the Passover becomes a renewal experience. We are renewed at the Passover.

Because we've answered these questions.

First Corinthians, or Second Corinthians 3, 18.

Staying here in Second Corinthians.

He's talking about how Moses came down from the mountain, and his face was shining because he had been in the presence of God, and he had to wear a veil.

Verse 18 now talks about what it is to be a Christian in the New Covenant. But we all, with unveiled face, the glory of God, the Shekinah in the Old Testament, that pillar of fire that God was in, the cloud that God was in. That is the Holy Spirit. That's what's given to us.

And we do this so we don't wear veils around our face, but it's the same glory of God that he's given us a little piece of.

Just a little piece of.

Beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord.

So it's like we're looking at that, but how are we looking at that pillar of fire and that pillar of smoke that moves? And we'll probably talk about this during the Days of the Eleven Bread, where they picked up the tabernacle, they moved on, and wherever the pillar stopped, they stopped. That power we see, how do we see it? As in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed to the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Look at verse 17.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. In other words, that power of the Holy Spirit that was manifest there is of God.

And that same power has come into us, and we look into a mirror, a spiritual mirror, and what are we supposed to see? Our brother Jesus Christ. Now, everybody here looks into that spiritual mirror and says, Oh, boy, I just see me. And then, as you grow, every once in a while it's like, Oh, wait a minute, that was like what God likes.

I did something, or I thought something, or I handled something, and okay, I see this happening. Knowledge grows. As these things happen, we look in the mirror, and it's like you see this little glimpse of Christ. Just a little bit. He said, that is the same glory that was in the tabernacle in the wilderness. That's in us.

We just don't see it that way. We just look in the spiritual mirror and say, Thank you, God. I'm not the person I was 20 years ago. I got a long ways to go, but I'm not that person anymore. And you're looking at a transformation that takes place. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. You think, wow, what's this have to do with the Passover?

Everything. This is how we're to examine ourselves before the Passover. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. When we come to partake of the Passover, we are reminded that we're a new creation. And we're reminded of the price it takes for God to pay to get us to be a new creation. The price that Christ paid for us to be a new creation. It takes us back.

That's why I always say Passover is ground zero. Once a year, we go back to ground zero. Everything else comes out from that. This first salvation. Salvation comes out from that, at that point. And at that point, we're brought back to ground zero, reminded you're there because you're under a new covenant. This is the price that was paid for you to be part of this new covenant, and you accepted it. And you were, from that point on, at baptism, receiving God's Spirit.

At that point on, you started a process, or God started a process, of making you a new creation. That's what the Days of Love and Bread are about. Removing sin. Being a new creation. So that's, we celebrate that in those days that follow the Passover. The Passover brings us back to, this is how this starts.

And this is what happens. Therefore, therefore, I'm sorry, let's start in verse 18. Now all things are of God. Seventeen. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus, or Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of reconciliation begins with Passover. There is no way to be reconciled to God without your own death.

Well, then you can't be reconciled. You're dead. So there has to be a substitute. That's what God's justice requires. He has perfect justice. You know why? Because He has perfect goodness. He cannot abide with evil. He puts up with it. He won't live with it. But that's God's perfect love. I will become justice.

Christ says, I will become justice for you. God's justice, when I say God's justice, but the justice concepts of the Father and Christ, they're exactly the same. Remember who makes the judgments of who goes into the like of fire? Jesus. And then He's remembering. He also says, I judge as I hear the Father judge.

So they're the same concepts. Love. I actually see people try to separate Jesus from the Father. The Father is a mean old God in the Old Testament, and really isn't true, but Jesus is loving and caring and it's true. A total misunderstanding of God and who Jesus is.

A total misunderstanding. And so He says here that we are reconciled. His death paid the penalty. Now the reconciliation wasn't complete until He was resurrected. When He was resurrected, and now is the high priest, that reconciliation is now made possible. That it is in God was in Christ, verse 19, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Verse 20, now then we are all ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God.

For He has made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. This reconciliation can take place. We commemorate the event of reconciliation in the body of Christ. And we go there to discern the body of Christ, to discern it, what it means that He came in that body for us.

So, we need to examine ourselves. And probably, like I said, this list is exactly what you would think of as a list here. But this takes us into, I think, a more focused maturity in our examination. One, are you intensely aware of the forgiveness of love God has given to you through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Are you intensely aware of why and how it was planned from the beginning and carried out all through history?

So, Jesus would be at one point at one time. The story of Noah and Abraham and Moses, and that whole story of ancient Israel, reaches a point where the Messiah is where He's supposed to be at exactly the same time and place so that He would be crucified. It's the great thread that runs through the entire Old Testament. Two, in appreciation of this forgiveness of love, are you intensely responsive to God as your Father? You see, I am struggling with some sins. Okay? You examine yourself about that. Then, are you responding to God? Do you know what God wants?

Do you know what He wants to give you? Are you willing to pay the price to let Him help you overcome those sins? Are you willing to respond to Him? And three, are you expressing grateful appreciation towards God by becoming Christlike, by following Jesus as a disciple? See, there's an appreciation here for what's happened.

I know many times when the Passover is finished, I feel like a huge weight that has been taken off of me. And then, after the Passover a couple of days later, I think the weight starts coming back and gets heavy. But every Passover is like, oh, yeah, the weight's been taken off. God hasn't abandoned us. He hasn't thrown us away. He still works with us. He still will punish us. He still gets upset with us.

But we have to remember His purpose. His purpose in all that is to be reconciled to Him and be a child of His family. That's His purpose. His purpose is never punitive. God doesn't punish us because He likes punishing. That's never what God does. It's not in His nature to do so.

He has a reason for what He does. His reasons are pure. We're the ones with the impure reasons. So we don't always understand it. His motivation is always pure. God has never done anything to any of us at a malice. And we get mad at Him. Why would you allow this? Why did you do this or whatever? What we do is we sort of apply it in malice. God never does anything out of malice.

It's not part of His character. He does things to reach this purpose of being His children forever and be prepared this year. Because ground zero of the salvation process is the Passover.