Examine Ourselves Before Passover

I just handed me a note just before I came up here, and I guess there's a card for Manon, Sankara, that's available for us to sign today. And Bonnie, I thought I'd put that little yellow sticky right here in my notes, but the card is located at the tables in the dining area. So if you could keep that in mind sometime today, that'd be very much appreciated by him.

Furthermore, we're only about three weeks away now from the Passover when all baptized members of the Church of God will be gathering together for a very special occasion. It's something that we do every year at this time, and that's to assemble and keep the Passover as been as instructed by Jesus Christ. And I think most of us know it's a somber and it's a serious occasion, it's a sober occasion, because of what it depicts. It depicts the sacrifice of the Son of God for you and for me, the Son of God who gave His life up for the sins of all mankind, actually the very one who created mankind is the one that died for mankind.

You know, He gave all that up. He came in the flesh. He gave up His glory. He gave up His majesty in a sense to become Emmanuel, which of course means God in the flesh, God in the flesh as a physical human being. And every year we come together to commemorate the supreme sacrifice that He made, taking upon Himself the penalty which you and I deserved, that we might be reconciled to God and that we might be able to live for eternal life.

It's really an incredible picture that has been foreshadowed over the centuries by who knows how many countless lambs that were sacrificed. These lambs that were chosen on the tenth day of the first month were held in people's homes for a while, and then you get comfortable with that lamb and then you have to take that lamb's life. And then that blood put on the doorpost so that the firstborn would live. Kind of mind-boggling to contemplate the fact that God Himself would come and would die for you and for me.

But as we approach this coming Passover and these days of Unleavened Bread, it's a very important time for us spiritually. It's a time when, of course, we begin to rehearse the plan of salvation, shown through the different festivals, the seven festivals of God. And it begins with Passover. It's the first step that we come to when we rehearse God's plan for salvation. And God tells us something that there is something specifically that we have to do before we come, before we show up.

We're told to examine ourselves. Why does God do that? Why is it that that's part of His plan? It's a command. It's an instruction that there's something that we have to do before we show up. Why is that? And what are we to learn from it? So in today's message, we're going to take a look at this instruction about examining ourselves before Passover. Let's begin with going into the Scriptures in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11.

Let's go over there. 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. Sometimes they say and just, you know, don't always feel totally useless. You can always be a good, bad example. And you know, we can get that feeling about the Corinthian church here, as we read here in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. Because they did some things badly. And in a way, I suppose we can be thankful that they did because God shares some things with us because of the problems they had.

Paul gives us instruction that's actually very helpful for us today, things that we might not have known otherwise. And one of their bad examples was how they approached the Passover. So let's read about that in 1 Corinthians, chapter 11. We'll pick it up here in verse number 17. Paul leads into this by talking about how the congregation in Corinth was divided, that they had factions. They had different factions. They had different groups. Paul was saying that, well, you know, some of you are saying you're of Paul.

Others are saying, I'm of Apollos. And this type of thing was going on. And among other things, this was affecting how they were keeping the Passover. So it was a problem. It was a big problem. And God begins to address it through Paul here in verse number 17. He says, now, in giving these instructions, I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. Here's a group of God's people in Corinth here, God's church, that are coming together.

And when they come together, it's worse than if they would have stayed separately. He goes on and he says, verse 18, for first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear there are divisions. I think some translations say schisms among you, and I in part believe it. He's talking about the church, the congregation there. In Corinth, there were schisms and divisions, and God wasn't pleased. So Paul addresses this verse 19, but there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you.

Therefore, when you come together in one place, it's not to eat the Lord's supper, because for an eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of the others. One is hungry, and another is drunk. We know that drunkards will not be in the kingdom of God. And so this was a travesty of what was going on, and God had to deal with it through Paul. And Paul is drawing their attention to this. Verse number 22, he says, what? Don't you have houses to eat and drink in? You know, the Passover is a somber and a sober occasion.

It's not a time to be eating and drinking and getting inebriated or that type of thing. And so I think we have that understanding, but apparently they did not have that understanding at this time in their history. And so God is addressing it through Paul here, helping them to grasp it. So continuing on to verse number 22, again, Paul is addressing their attitude towards the Passover.

He says, what? Don't you 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? Should I praise you in this? I do not praise you. So here we see a little bit more of what's going on. He says here, if your focus on this evening is having a big meal and having a lot to drink and having a good time, you're actually better off to stay home. And don't come and make a mockery of the Church or of the symbolism of this evening.

He says actually here in verse 22 that they are despising the Church, despising the Church of God here. What shall I say? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. And now let's notice verse number 23. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you.

This is an interesting short phrase here, but Paul is saying to you and to me and to them that what I'm about to share with you is not my thoughts, they're not my ideas. I receive this directly from Jesus Christ. So what I'm sharing with you is basically coming from Christ Himself. For what I received from the Lord, that is what I also delivered to you. So I'm the messenger and I gave you the things that Jesus told me Himself. So what did Jesus instruct Paul that he was to share with the Corinthians about that night?

It says that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread. You know, sometimes there's a question of, well, when do we keep the New Covenant Passover? Well, we keep it the same time that He did. On the same night that He was betrayed, He took bread. That's what we do. So there's no question of to when we keep the Passover. On the same night that He was betrayed, excuse me, on the same night in which He was betrayed, He took bread.

And when He given thanks, He broke it. And He said, Take eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper. And He said to them, This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.

This do as often as you drink it. Do it in remembrance of me. And then He comes to verse number 26, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you're proclaiming the Lord's death. You're proclaiming my death, in other words, Jesus is saying, until I come. So we continue to do this. He hasn't returned yet. He is going to. He's promised to. God the Father told us He's going to be sent.

But we continue to do it. We proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Now, another way to translate this here, there's a different translation here about this particular phrase. It could also be rendered, don't you realize that every time you take the symbols of the bread and the wine at Passover, by that very act, you are announcing that Jesus Christ died for all of you. And that's all inclusive.

Obviously, we take that personally and individually, but it's all of you. All of the factions. You know, everyone there in Corinth. You know, the rich, the poor, and everyone. That Christ died for all of you. So He took on the penalty that we all deserved. He died for all of them, in that sense. Well, let's go on to verse number 27 here. Therefore whoever eats this bread, or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of something.

There'll be a sin that could possibly be committed if we take of something in an unworthy manner, will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. So there's a couple of things here. We know, by Jesus' shed blood and broken body, that we have this forgiveness of sins by that sacrifice, and it cleanses us, in a sense, spiritually, for the removal of sins that we have asked for repentance of. So we know that the symbols here remind us that we've been cleansed of our sins by the sacrifice of Christ.

But it also says here that if we take those symbols in an unworthy manner, that we're actually guilty of sin. If we don't necessarily understand or appreciate what those symbols picture, that we could be guilty of sin. If we don't appreciate that sacrifice. So where the Passover is actually designed to cleanse us and to remind us that we're cleansed of our sins, if we don't approach it in the proper manner, we could be guilty of sin.

The sin of not properly understanding and appreciating what we're doing. So rather than being cleansed and sinless, in a sense, in God's sight by the Passover, we're actually sinning and becoming guilty again. So it's quite serious. We touch on this for over the years. Another point here is what does it mean to partake of the Passover in an unworthy manner? Unworthy is an adverb. It's describing action. And so we're talking about here, well, we're talking about the fact that sometimes people get discouraged or they get depressed because they don't think they're worthy.

And so they wonder whether they should partake of the Passover because they don't feel that they're worthy. But that's not what God is inspiring Paul to share with us here because it's not talking about us. It's talking about in the manner, the action that we partake of it in a worthy manner. Rather, we're not worthy. And that's why we need that sacrifice. And that's why we need to rehearse that.

And that's why we need to examine ourselves once a year. We're not worthy. But we need to partake of it in a worthy manner where we appreciate what was done on our behalf. Let's go on here to verse number 28 here. We're basically talking about our attitude when we partake of the Passover, which apparently was a problem there in Corinth. They didn't have the right attitude. Verse number 28.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. A couple of things that we can get from these two verses is that we need to examine ourselves prior to partaking of the symbols of the Passover. We look at ourselves, not at somebody else. God says to look at your life. I have to look at mine. You have to look at yours.

We each look at our own life and examine ourselves. We look at our own attitude. We look at our own relationship with God. We look at our own day-to-day activities. We look at how we love God, how we love others, how we're treating our husband or our wives or our employees or our neighbors or our fellow church brethren that we find in the body of Christ. We examine ourselves, and that is not a—it goes against the grain of human nature because it is so much easier to examine somebody else.

But that's not the clear instruction that God has given to us through Jesus Christ through the Apostle Paul. We need to examine ourselves. And that's a humbling experience to think about that because when we look at ourselves and really look deep, we will find sin. We have all sinned. We all have. There is none righteous, no, not one. And so, this is a—we have to approach this the way God instructs us to. It's a lot easier to look at scriptures and say, well, boy, that person doesn't certainly measure up to that scripture. We've got to look at ourselves and the scriptures that we don't measure up to.

So, again, people will examine others, but it's the few that are really willing to humble themselves for self-examination. But that is exactly what God tells you and I that we have to do. It's a command. Another important point here in verse 29 is the importance of discerning the Lord's body. I think we've touched on it to appreciate what He did. We discern the Lord's body properly. Some in Corinth weren't. And because of that, I suppose some of the things in verses 30 through 32 were happening.

For this reason, many are weak and sick and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves—again, talking about who we're looking to— ourselves, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged—because sometimes I suppose we don't look at ourselves like we should and God has to bring things to our attention— but when we are judged, we're chastened by the Lord that we might not be condemned with the world.

So, Paul is basically saying, as we examine ourselves, you know, before taking the Passover symbols, and this word, examine, could also be translated, and is translated, judge, in other places, which means to evaluate or judge something. So, Paul says that we need to properly judge ourselves, to examine ourselves, to evaluate ourselves, our spiritual state, and our spiritual attitude. So, if we do that, then we won't have to face other judgments, or the worst judgment of all is being condemned with the rest of the world. So, it's a serious matter that God is trying to tell us through Paul here that not to take the Passover lightly, that it is a memorial.

It's a memorial. It's an annual memorial of the death of our Savior and Master. And in taking these symbols of His broken body and His shed blood, it proclaims or announces that we understand the sacrifice that was made on our behalf. And then, we therefore go forward, and we live accordingly. We live according, understanding what was done for us. We live accordingly going forward. So, getting back to the title of the message today, Examining Ourselves Before Passover. What I'd like to do here, at the time that we've got left here, is to look at ourselves, judge ourselves, examine ourselves, to make sure that we partake of the Passover in a worthy manner.

And there were three things, three things that Jesus Christ instituted at that last Passover with His disciples. Almost 2,000 years ago, it was the foot washing, it was the bread that was instituted, which was a symbol of His broken body, and it was the wine, which was a symbol of His shed blood. So, what I'd like to do is take a look at Jesus's example and these three different symbols that we have that He instituted for the Passover.

The foot washing, the bread, and the wine, to better understand their meaning of what we're going to be rehearsing in the next few weeks. And also, to use those as jumping points, in a way, for different areas of our lives that we need to examine before we partake of the Passover. In other words, examining ourselves in the light of the example of Jesus Christ and in the light of the Passover symbols.

Let's go over to John 13, verse 1. John 13, verse 1. We'll look first at the foot washing. What does this act tell us about examining ourselves prior to the Passover so that we can partake of it in a worthy manner? Let's read about this on the last night that Jesus had with His disciples here just before His death in John 13, verse 1. We'll pick it up here.

It says, Now the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own, who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Think about that last phrase here in verse number 1 here just for a moment. He loved them to the end. His entire life was a living example in a sense of that kind of love. I think He especially and dramatically showed through His example exactly what that means. A living example that we have of loving to the end. You know, when things were going bad, He could have bailed out. It would have been a whole lot easier to bail out with all that He was going through. But He followed through on His commitment, even to the point of the greatest possible price that could be paid for anyone to have to bear.

Think about for a moment what He went through. He was under so much stress that the blood vessels underneath the skin were bursting and that was coming out with His sweat. He was arrested on false charges that evening. He was abandoned by those that were closest to Him. They all ran away. They fled and they left Him alone. And then having been arrested on false charges, then He was imprisoned. He was humiliated. He was spat upon. He was denied three times by those, you know, Peter, the one that was very close to Him. He was lied about in a mock trial. And He was beaten by soldiers. And then He was lashed until His skin turned raw and began to be shredded and ripped to shreds, stripped naked in public.

You know, these are all things that happened to Him. And then He was crucified as a criminal, being nailed through His wrists and His feet. And then as He's hanging there, dying, He's being mocked again until finally He dies when a Roman soldier thrusts His sword into His side.

And yet with all of that that has been going on, none of this stood in the way of loving His disciples to the end. Because He could have stopped, but He chose not to. And He knew that He had to take on Himself the penalty for all of us, for your sins and mine. And He did His part, didn't He? As an older brother, He did His part and He loved us to the end.

What does that mean? You know, we think about that in terms of you and I examining ourselves in the light of the example here that Jesus Christ had of loving His own to the end.

Well, Jesus said that I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And there's no one that can come to the Father except through me.

He said, I've been sent by my Father to be an example as an older brother for you. I want you to live like me. I want you to imitate me. I want you to be like me. So He gave us an example. He said, I want you to live as I live. I want you to follow the example that I have set for you.

So how are we doing, brethren? How are we doing and loving others to the end? That's a pretty personal question. That's a really deep personal question. How are we doing and loving others to the end? We have this example from Jesus Christ.

There are scriptures, of course, about having an unforgiving attitude of, unless we are willing to forgive somebody else, God says that you will not receive forgiveness. And that's something that sometimes is out there. So what's standing in the way of us loving others to the end? What did Jesus say about the kind of love that we're to have for one another?

Well, let's skip down here to verse number 34, same chapter, John chapter 13. We'll just drop down to verse number 34. It says, a new commandment I give to you. So this was something that had never been given before. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

Now, his disciples were probably familiar with the Old Testament command to love your neighbor as yourself. But that's not what this was saying here. They were probably familiar with that. But that's an Old Testament command. And Jesus said, I'm giving you a new covenant command here. That you love one another as I have loved you. That took it to a different level. That we love our neighbor as Christ has loved us. It's a new standard.

And it went way above the standard that was there before. And again, I think over the next 24 hours, Jesus Christ was going to show just exactly how far that was going to go. And how deep that was going to go. So a question we might ask ourselves as we examine ourselves is, do we have that kind of love for one another?

Do we have that kind of love for one another? Again, that's a pretty tough question, isn't it? But that's where God is trying to take us. It's where He's trying to take us. To have that same kind of love that an older brother has. That's the firstborn in the family of God with other brethren that are going to be born here in the future. Do we love one another? How much do we love one another? And will that love endure to the end? Because there are a lot of prophecies, aren't there, in the Scriptures that talk about, you know, there's going to be some tough times coming that will divide families, that will divide church members.

You know, those are things that are prophesied. Jesus Himself said about people betraying one another. Other Scriptures that talk about families being divided in the love of many growing cold. So we have to be careful about that. And be on the watch and beware. What prevents us? What is it that stops or prevents us from having this type of love? The type of love that Christ had? Or from loving one another to the end? Well, I think some pretty obvious reasons or factors that come to mind as one of them is our human nature.

Our human nature. Our wrong human nature. Because by nature we tend to be selfish. We tend to want to please ourselves. We tend to want to put ourselves first. And that other people are simply just a lower priority. We tend to want to serve ourselves first rather than serve others. Or we serve only when it's convenient. Or we serve only in the way that we want to serve. Yet, God calls us His slaves.

He uses that term or that phrase a whole lot more than saying that we're His children. He says that we're His slaves. He uses that term more than any other, about ten times as often as He calls us His children. And I think there's some lessons for that. Now, Brother, don't get me wrong. I think there's a lot of wonderful servants here. No doubt. We have some men and women in this congregation that have served faithfully for decades.

That have served very well. And God has been pleased. But I also know that as amazing servants that they are, that they're continually asking, and I should be continually asking, and you too, can I serve better? Can I serve better? Because really, that's what God's called us to. To serve Him and to serve one another. And that's what He wants us to grow towards. You know, the Apostle Paul had to deal in the first century with a culture in the Roman Empire, which was a very class-conscious system. We've seen that in India. We have a caste system. It's a very class-conscious system.

And even the Pharisees in itself, they had the chief seats in the synagogue. So it was a class system, in a sense. So it's something that seems to have a human tendency. But Paul said in the Church, in the Body of Christ, there's what? There's neither Jew nor Gentile. There's neither bond or free. There's neither male or female. There's neither bond or free. So guess what? All of us are slaves. All of us are servants. We have this in common. In a sense, as slaves, we have no rights. We're thankful, though, that we have a master. If you've ever had a good employer, some are better than others. Bosses, some are better than others. And there are some bosses that really care about you. And you know, you feel good about that, being an employee. Well, we have a good master. And yet we're his slaves. We have all this in common. We have really, in a sense, no rights, no privileges of our own. And we fully and completely belong to somebody else. We've been bought for and we've been paid for with a price, in a sense. We have a new owner. We've been redeemed from a previous owner, which is Satan the Devil. And we now have a new owner, a new master. So he's made us his own slaves. In other words, our lives aren't our own. That's hard to give up, isn't it? For me, it is. I bet it is to you. Our lives are no longer our own. We're slaves to him. As we've heard in the first message, for those of us that have entered in the baptismal covenant, we're willing to do what God has asked us to do. A full commitment. Brother, our responsibility is to serve. Our responsibility is to serve together. Our responsibility is to serve God and to serve one another. So that we might obtain a reward, ultimate freedom, and the citizenship, and ultimately being a son or daughter in the family of God. We all want to hear when Christ returns, well done, good and faithful servant. We want to hear that. So, brother, that is one factor that prevents us, in a sense, really, of loving one another. We've got a problem. We have a problem. It's our own nature. It's our own carnal nature. But if we realize that we're all slaves of God, then in a sense, we're all on the same page, aren't we? We're all on the same page. On the same level. Called to serve God and called to serve each other. Another factor that prevents us from loving one another as Christ loved us is our enemy, who wants to destroy us. It's one of his names. It's Satan the devil. Again, it's a pretty obvious one, but he wants us to keep focused on anything or everything that will divide the family of God. It doesn't matter what it is. It can be over personalities. It can be over injustices. It can be over offenses. It can be over doctrinal differences. It can be over administrative decisions. It doesn't matter what it is. As long as he divides the house of God. Because a house divided against itself cannot stand. He understands that principle as well. So he'll do anything and everything to try to divide us, to destroy the unity in this oneness that God is trying to build. Let's go back to John chapter 13, verse 2, and go back to the account of the foot washing. We'll pick up some more from this account here. John chapter 13, verse 2. And supper being ended, the devil is going to do what he can do to try to destroy what God is doing. Having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. So we see Satan at work here in Judas's life. Even here at this last evening here, to try to split Judas off from the rest of the apostles.

Verse number 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he'd come from God and was going to God, He rose from supper. He laid aside his garments. He took a towel and he girded himself. And after that, he poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

Brother, what can we learn about partaking of the Passover in a worthy manner here as we look at this particular example here as we examine our own lives and our own attitudes? Well, one thing that we see, which is pretty obvious, is that Jesus here is showing the attitude of a humble servant. He's showing the attitude of a humble servant here. The attitude of a slave.

You know, we've talked about this over the years, is that in that time and in that culture, you know, they had not a lot of paved roads. They were dusty. They were dirty. And if you had a slave in your household, that would be the job normally of the lowest slave is to wash the feed of guests that were coming over to your home for a meal.

And how was this responsibility or job of foot washing viewed? Well, it was dingy and dirty. And it really was. It really was. You know, and not everyone bathes regularly, and sometimes there's a smell and all of that thing. You could be walking for a long ways on a dirt road. So think about this in this context. And I think maybe it meant more to them than it does to us. Tried to paint a picture a little bit here. But think about this, how remarkable this was. And how surprising that it was to the disciples when suddenly Jesus begins to, you know, gird himself with a towel and pour this water into this basin here. He rises from supper and then he begins to wash their feet. It's a remarkable example. You know, I don't know if it was part of God's plan from the beginning or not, or whether this was just inspired at the moment that Jesus was moved to do this. I don't know. Scripture doesn't really tell us one way or the other. But it was a really powerful lesson for them and for me and for you. And that lesson, of course, is actually a couple of fold here. There's a couple of implications here as we examine ourselves for Passover. And the first, as we touched on, is that he was a humble servant. But there's another lesson, too.

And I think it's fairly obvious here, as we follow Jesus' example, is that we esteem others better than ourselves. We esteem others better than ourselves. In other words, we have to view others as better than us. And that's the example that I think Jesus exemplified here. Let's go over to Philippians 2. We'll read about that. You may want to keep your finger here in John because we're going to come back. But let's go over to Philippians 2 and we'll pick it up here in verse number 3. We'll read how Jesus demonstrated this attitude here. I'm going to read here Philippians 2 verse 3 from the New Living Translation because I think it gives a little better feel here in the modern English. Philippians 2 and verse number 3. It says, Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble. And think of others as better than yourselves. Don't look out only for your own interests. But take an interest in others, too. And then, who does Paul cite as the perfect example here? Well, he gives us Jesus Christ as the example here in verse number 5.

You must have, it's a way of saying this is a requirement, you must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had. Verse 6, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to hold onto. The Greek word means something to be grasped tightly, to hold onto and not let go. It's saying that Jesus didn't consider being God's equal something that he had to hold onto, but he was willing to give it up. For us. For us. Let me ask you something. I asked myself, too, reading these scriptures, how can this apply to our life? Is there anything we're hanging onto that we don't want to give up? So that we can't be the type of servant or slave that God wants us to be. Are we willing to humble ourselves? Verse number 7, instead, he gave up his divine privileges. He gave up his majesty. He gave up his power. He didn't give up his divinity because he still was God in the flesh, still divine. But he gave up his power. He gave up his majesty. He left that all behind, became God in the flesh. And it says he took the humble position of a slave. And that's what that word means. It's translated probably more appropriately as slave. I think some translations have it servant. He took the humble position of a slave or a servant. And he was born as a human being. He was willing to give it all up because of his love for us. He was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God, referring to his father. And he died a criminal's death on the cross. So here we see Jesus's example of esteeming others better than himself. A great glorified God who spoke, and then the earth came into existence here. And yet he emptied himself of that power and that glory. He gave it up. Not just to become a human being, but a slave. Well, let's go on here, brethren. Ultimately, he took upon himself the death penalty for all of us. And on that night, that last night with his disciples there, he took the lowest position of a slave. And he washed the disciples' feet. So when we examine ourselves, God says, our father says, you have an example of an older brother here. And we have to ask ourselves as we examine ourselves in light of the foot washing symbol, how are we doing? How are we doing? Are we a total servant? Are we still holding on to things? Or do it our own way, because it's comfortable for us. Rather than do it the way that God says that we should. You know, there are some people here that are very good at esteeming others better than themselves. And when they come in to the room, there's almost a positive, I don't know, a foria or feeling or something. The room lights up a little bit. And they're very good at that. They lift others up. They encourage others. And we maybe ask the question, how are we doing with that? You know, they're cheerful, they're encouraging, and you know, we've got some of those examples here. We do. And, brother, don't change. If you've got that going, don't change. And for those of us that maybe need to work on that and examine ourselves to be more positive and more encouraging and uplifting, to edify each other is what the Scriptures tell us to do.

Let's go back now and pick up some of the things here in John 13. If you left your finger there, it'll be a little faster to get there. But let's go back to John 13, and we'll pick it up here in verse 6. John 13, I'll be reading it back in the New King James here for this. John 13, verse 6. And then he came to Simon Peter. Many of us are familiar with this story. And Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? You know, this made absolutely no sense to him at all, knowing the culture of the time. He probably was just washing, watching all this because I don't think Peter was the first one. And he said, Lord, are you washing my feet? And Jesus answered and said, What I am doing, you do not understand now. No question about that. But you will know after this. And Peter said, You won't wash my feet ever. You're not going to wash my feet. You shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered and said, If I don't wash you, then you have no part in me. Jesus has to wash us, brethren. He's the only one that can clean us up. That's part of the symbolism here of the foot washing is us being completely clean, not just physically, but being completely clean spiritually after we've properly approached this Passover service in a worthy manner to realize what he did so that we could be clean and that our sins could be forgiven. You're not going to wash my feet. Jesus said, If I don't wash you, you have no part with me. Peter, then, as he tends to be going from one ditch to the other, well, then, Lord, if you've got to wash my feet, then wash me completely. Okay? You kind of have to admire the zeal in a way, don't you?

I think I can get you into trouble, but it can serve you well, too, when it's properly channeled. Well, then, wash also my hands and my head. And Jesus said, He was bathed in these only to wash His feet. But you are completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you. So I think he's talking about spiritually clean here, except for Judas here, who was not at this time.

So what do we see? Well, we see something pretty dramatic, pretty powerful here in this example. We see from this foot washing here that it represents several things. It represents being spiritually cleansed completely, and it also represents being a servant and a slave. Verse number 12, So when He had washed their feet, He took His garments, He sat down again, and He said, Do you know what I have done to you? Good question to ask. You call Me, Teacher, and Lord, and I am all those things. You say, Well, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, then you also ought to wash one another's feet. Notice verse 15, I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you, an older brother that has given his younger brothers and sisters an example. Verse number 16, Most assuredly I say to you, A servant isn't greater than his master, nor is he who was sent greater than he who sent him. He's saying, You know, I'm not. My father is greater than I. I'm your master, but I have a master, too. Verse 17, If you know these things, these things that I have just shared with you, if you know these things, we all have a master and we also serve. We may be a master. We have a master. All of us have a master. We may be a master at times, but we are always servants. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Wow! Blessed are you if you do them. But we want God's blessings, don't we? We want what God has and what Jesus Christ has. He says, He promises that we will be blessed if we do these things. So in the foot washing, and through some of the lessons, we can learn here. These are some of the things we can learn as we examine ourselves in light of the example of the foot washing that Jesus Christ shared. Let's look now at a second symbol that Jesus Christ instituted on that Passover last night with His disciples, and that's the bread. Let's look at the bread. Let's go over to Matthew chapter 26, and verse number 26. Matthew chapter 26, and verse number 26. It says, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and He blessed it, and He broke it, and He gave it to the disciples, and He said, eat this. This is my body. So we know the bread represents a couple of things. It represents His body. We know that. It's very clear here from the Scripture here. It represents His body. But it also says, this body that was broken for you. Brethren, He went through incredible suffering. He went through incredible suffering here. What this shows us here, we know that His body was torn to shreds, the scourging that He went through. It's important that we understand, that God wants us to understand, in terms of suffering, that sin brings suffering. You know, it was a complete sacrifice. It wasn't just a quick death for Jesus Christ. That was a part of the sacrifice that was dying, but also a part of the sacrifice that was suffering. And what that shows us is that sin brings suffering. It brings suffering for ourselves. It brings suffering to those that are around us. And it can even bring suffering to people that are innocent. That they're not even in the circle, maybe, of what's going on.

Rather than when people sin, when you and I sin, it affects us. We will suffer. It may not seem that way at first. There is, indeed, a pleasure of sin for a season. But the sin will eventually find us out. And we will suffer. And there will be others around us also that will suffer. Anyone that says, oh, I sin, and it's only going to influence myself, or it's only going to affect myself, it's not going to affect anybody else. They're deceived. They are deceived. There is a ripple effect that goes way beyond our personal circle. It's just the nature of sin. That's how it works.

It works like leaven. It grows. It spreads. It affects other things, other people.

So this is part of the lesson of what Jesus Christ had to go through, is that sin causes suffering. Not only for you and for me, but for others. It's just the way it works. Sin does something else, too. It cuts us off from God.

We begin, as it says in Hebrews, to drift away. Ever so slowly, we begin to drift away. Kind of like the ship that doesn't have an anchor. It's not in one solid place of being anchored. And slowly but surely it begins to drift away. And you probably know people that have been part of the body of Christ over the years. That slowly but surely drifted away.

So sin cuts us off from God. But Scripture reveals, through the sacrifice of an older brother, we can be reconciled back to him and to one another. Let's notice another meeting here about the bread. Let's go to John 6. John 6 in verse number 35.

There's another part of the bread and its significance here. It's in a different context, but it has to do with the bread. John 6 in verse number 35.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

You know, we can draw a physical analogy here. What happens when we get hungry? What happens when we get thirsty? You know, we don't have enough food. We don't have enough water. Well, eventually, we'll begin to starve. You know? And those of us that have gone through the day of atonement, even for a 24-hour period, you know, after a while, that begins to become the thing that you think about. It begins to preoccupy your waking moments. The mouth is dry. The stomach's got that grumbling. You're beginning to think about food and water. You know, we think about that. We begin to feel like that on the day of atonement, or if you fasted other times. And we have other examples of men in the Bible. Jesus himself, also Moses, who fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. That's a miracle in itself. But what begins to happen is literally the body begins to consume itself. As long as it can. To try to survive until there is some outside nourishment, or there is some outside water. So we begin to grow weaker and weaker, and our body begins to break down for lack of nourishment. The same thing, Jesus Christ is telling us, the same thing can happen in a spiritual perspective. That if we don't feed on Him, if we don't eat the bread of life and drink His blood, we're going to starve. Jesus said, I'm the bread of life. And then He talks about, you know, your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. And that was a miracle in itself, wasn't it? You're not in the middle of a desert for 40 years. Things don't grow very well. You have no food. And every morning, well, every six out of seven, every morning there's bread. He said, your fathers ate the manna, but they died. And Jesus said, there's a death you and I don't want to die. And God wants to give us eternal life. But He says, you have to eat the bread of life. And I am the bread of life. What's He trying to tell us when He says, you have to eat me and you have to drink my blood? The bread that we partake of a Passover does symbolize Jesus Christ and His life living in us. Living in us. It's the only way to maintain a right relationship with God. It's the only way to maintain a right relationship with each other. He can't do it any other way. He has to be living in us. It's the only way we can have these right relationships and the kind of bond and spirit of unity and the love that we've talked about. Let's look at Paul's example here in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Let's look at that. Paul seemed to have a pretty good understanding of a lot of different things, but some of the things that he said are really, really deep and they're really profound. It's hard for us to grasp our mind around it. And yet there's a message here if we can begin to touch on that understanding of what God is inspiring him to share with us here in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Paul said this. He said, I have been crucified. I have been crucified with Christ. What does that mean? What's he trying to tell us here? What's he trying to share with us? What's he trying to tell us here? Rather than he's basically said, I died. I died. I am crucified with Jesus Christ. I went under the watery graves of baptism and for those of us that have gone through the baptismal covenant, we've done the same thing. We died. The old man died. We were crucified with Christ. You may not have thought about it, but it was really a funeral that we went through.

Just at the time that we were baptized. Sobering to think about that the old man is dead and a new man or woman is resurrected out of the watery grave of baptism. And then when we have given that gift of the Holy Spirit, a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind that begins to soften our hearts.

We're a new person with a new heart, a new gift that was never there before, which we have to stir up. We talk about that on Pentecost. It's a message for another day. But the fact is we died. Those of us that have gone through that. We died. And a new person now is in the process of being created and born, begotten in a sense. And Paul says, as he goes on here, he's been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. It is I who no longer live, but Christ lives in me. What is he trying to tell us here? He no longer lives, but Christ lives in him. And as we'll see later, Christ says, I am in you and you are in me. There's a oneness here.

Still have our separate identities. Just like husbands and wives begin to become one, they become one flesh. They begin to think alike. They share a lot of the same things. They can finish each other's sentences. They begin to become one flesh. And that goes even to the point of, you know, emotions and getting all tied together. And when one dies before the other, you feel like half of you is gone. A part of you is gone. That's because the oneness was developing. Well, this is talking about being one spirit with God, the Father and Jesus Christ. Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I am living by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So Paul's trying to help us to understand. He shares some more in a similar way. Let's go over to Colossians chapter 1, verse 27. Colossians chapter 1, verse 27. Let's go over there.

Paul is sharing some deep thoughts here. I'm going to read this from the New Living Translation here. Some of you may have that in your lap. Here's what the New Living Translation puts this. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles too. And this is the secret. This is the secret. This is the mystery. This is how it's put here in the New Living Translation. And this is the secret. Christ lives in you. Christ lives in you. We yield to Him.

We follow His example. We live the way that He lived. He lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing His glory. This is our assurance that we will share in the glory of Jesus Christ if we live in Him and He lives in us.

What does He mean?

It's pretty deep stuff, isn't it? What is He trying to help us to understand here?

He's really talking about us internalizing Him.

Internalizing. Trying to live the way that He lives.

And of course, there are other scriptures that tell us that He comes to us, He lives in us through His Spirit.

And so the Spirit of God, it leads us. And so we do the best that we can to follow the lead.

Where is God taking us? We follow the lead of that Spirit.

We allow God's Spirit to lead us, to shape us, to mold us, to fashion us, so that we begin to become in the image of an older brother, who is in the image of His Father.

And so I suppose in a sense, as we begin to become in the image of Christ, we begin to become in the image of our Father.

As Jesus said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father? If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.

Big goals that God has for us.

But He wouldn't ask us to begin the journey if He didn't think that we couldn't make it with His help.

Internalizing Him, allowing the God's Spirit to lead us and shape us, becoming the new man that Paul is talking about, that we are to become after baptism.

So when we face a problem, do we stop and ask, am I using the mind of Christ to address this?

Am I having love? Am I having patience? Am I having kindness?

How would Jesus Christ react? How is Christ in me going to tackle this situation?

Are my words and deeds reflecting the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

You know, some of those fruits include the love, the joy, the long-suffering, the kindness, the goodness.

That's where God's taking you and me. That's where He's taking us.

Paul said, I've been crucified with Christ. I've put an old man to death.

There is a new man that's been begotten that came up out of the waters, the watery grave of baptism, for a new purpose.

Christ in me, for a new purpose, for His desire, for His goals, for His work within us.

And that's why He wants us to partake of Him, to partake of that bread.

Every day. Every day.

That bread from heaven, that bread from God, not just one day in seven, not just once a year, not just during seven days, but every day.

Every day at home.

Every day with our spouses. Every day with our kids. Every day with our grandkids. Every day with our neighbor. Every day with one another. Every day with our communities. Every day with our neighbor.

Let's go back to John 6 and verse 48.

John 6 and verse 48.

Jesus speaking to you and to me and the disciples here.

Trying to help them to understand. Trying to help us to understand.

John 6 and verse 48. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness.

But they're dead. That was just physical food.

It helped them to survive for a while.

But it wasn't the spiritual food. Which one's more important? I think we know the answer. Obviously the bread of life is more important. Much more important than the manna was.

He says, this is the bread. He's referring to himself verse 50. This is the bread which comes down from heaven. That a man may eat thereof and not die. I think he's talking about everlasting life and avoiding eternal death. Second death. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever.

And the bread that I'm going to give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

What's he talking about? He's talking about salvation, isn't he? He's talking about salvation. Where does it begin? It begins with the Passover. Representing the sacrifice of Christ. The next step, of course, which we'll cover in the Days of 11 Bread, is we begin to remove leaven from our dwellings. From our who we are.

With his help. We begin to look and examine and look for and remove the spiritual leaven from our dwellings, from our lives, from our hearts, and from our minds. And then we begin to eat the unleavened bread for seven days. Completely without leavened bread for seven days and completely eating leavened bread for seven days, which represents completeness.

Brethren, how do we do that? How do we rid the spiritual leaven out? How do we do that? You've probably heard the analogy about a glass that's got air. How do you get the air out of a glass? You have to pour water into it to remove the air. So to get something out, you have to pour something in. And so God is telling us plainly, we stop eating something and we begin to eat something different. The analogy is a pretty simple one, but it's not always an easy one to apply. But He didn't say it was going to be easy. He said it was going to be a narrow road. It's going to be a hard way. It's what He's called us to. It's not an easy, easy journey.

If we want to rid the spiritual leaven from our lives, how do we do that? We replace the spiritual leavened bread with something else. We replace the leavened bread of sin with the unleavened bread of life. We begin to follow the lead of that spirit, Christ living in us through His Holy Spirit. We begin to follow that lead and the example that He's shown for us. An old man dies and a new slave, who will someday be a son, full son and daughter, begin to live. Let's go to verse 52 of John, chapter 6.

It says, the Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? They didn't understand what he was saying. And Jesus said, I'm telling you the truth. I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and you drink His blood, you will have no life in you. Jesus is telling us the same. Unless we eat of that flesh of the Son of Man, drink His blood, we have no life in us.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him, where one with Christ begins to say, We are one together with Him.

He lives in us, and we live in Him. The way that Jesus lives in the Father and the Father lives in Him. This whole family of God begins to come to this oneness here. 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. Notice that phrase here, He who feeds on me. I think we touched on the fact that it's not just once a year at Passover not just a little bit of Unleavened Bread during the seven days of Unleavened Bread.

The spiritual example there that He's trying to tell us is that that seven days means completely, all the time, throughout the year. So how do we do that? How do we feed on Him? What's Jesus talking about? Because if we don't do that, it says here that we won't have life. We won't have eternal life. And that's what God's called us to have. He also says here He will raise up on that last day those who feed on Him, and they will live because of Him. Verse 56 says, the one who bides in Him, the one whom Christ is living in and the one in whom we live, He lives in us and we live in Him.

So if Christ is living in us and we're living in Him, He promises to raise us up, be a part of the family. That's what He wants. The brethren, I suppose to sum up this point here about the bread. To what extent are we allowing Christ to live in us? You know, to what extent are we doing that? For Christ to live in you and in me.

To what extent do we allow Him to direct our thoughts and our actions, our time, how we live, how we run our lives? How much are we surrendering? Because we're slaves. How much are we surrendering to Him? Is He actively living in us? Actively directing our thoughts, our actions, and our life. Now let's notice a third symbol here, the institution of the wine. Let's go over to Matthew chapter 26 and verse 27. Matthew chapter 26 and verse number 27. It says, Then He took the cup and He gave thanks, and He gave it to them, saying, Drink from it all of you, for this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

It's how we become spiritually clean upon our forgiveness. The wine represents the shed blood of Christ, and it symbolizes Him giving His life. We know, most of us, that sin's penalty is death. The wages of sin is death. It's what we earn, the death penalty. Christ never earned it, but He paid it. So why did His disciples take the wine on this particular evening here, and why do we take the wine annually every year at Passover service?

Well, we've all sinned. Romans 3 verse 23 says, We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All means without exception. All of us have done that. I'll refer to another passage for time here, 1 John chapter 1 verse 18. 1 John 1 verse 18, If we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and we're not being truthful. The truth isn't in us. So we've all sinned. We've all fallen short.

We can't deny it. It doesn't matter who we are. So we've just read in John chapter 6, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. So this wine is again representing Jesus's blood of the new covenant in the Passover service that we take. So what are some of the lessons we can learn about the symbolism of the wine as we examine ourselves prior to Passover? Well, first of all, what's in the blood? Let's go over to Leviticus chapter 17 verse 11. The symbolism of the blood and examining ourselves here, what is the blood? What does the blood represent in the Bible?

How does the Bible describe it? What does it do? Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11, this is right after the command that God says, don't eat the blood. And then He explains why in verse 11 of Leviticus chapter 17.

He says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. Blood is an incredible substance, absolutely essential for life. You know, it carries all the oxygen to every single cell of the body. It distributes to the body the nourishment, the nutrients. It distributes to the body everything that it needs to live to carry out its functions.

So the context here of Leviticus is to explain the reason why we're not to consume the blood, because the life is in the blood. And to Jesus's audience, they were very familiar with that. They had seen countless lambs that had been sacrificed over the years, where they cut the throat.

And then as that blood began to ooze out of that part of its body, the life slowly ebbed out of the life of the animal.

And so the life was in the blood. And the wine that we take at Passover represents the ultimate penalty, the ultimate sacrifice, that Jesus shed his blood. He gave up his life so that our sins could be forgiven, literally laying down his life and shedding his blood in our place. So now we don't have to suffer that penalty in the same way he did, because he's done that for us.

He became a dead sacrifice. He died. He was three days and three nights dead in the heart of the earth. He was a dead sacrifice.

But God says as slaves that we are to become a sacrifice. We died. We're crucified with him. We were raised out of the watery grave of baptism. But we also have to be a sacrifice as well, but not a dead sacrifice like he did. What type of sacrifice? Let's notice Romans 12 and verse 1. Romans 12 and verse 1. Jesus does not expect us to die to pay the penalty for our sins, but what does he and the Father expect us to do in light of the fact that he died for us?

Romans 12 and verse 1.

Bonnie, I found the sticker. There it is.

I thought I put it on the first page of my notes. It's towards the end of my notes.

Pretty familiar Scripture here, section of Scripture, but let's see how this ties in with us being a living sacrifice. Romans 12 and verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, I am beseeching you, brethren. Paul is reaching out to them and to you and I centuries later. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. God's not asking anything that's unreasonable for us to do that, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

So Paul says here that Jesus Christ shed his blood and died as a sacrifice for you and me. And because of that, and in view of God's mercy in doing this, that we should do what is pleasing to him, to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. And the wine that we take at Passover represents Christ's life and blood shed for us. And in drinking that wine, it means that we understand and we acknowledge that sacrifice. And drinking it symbolizes taking his life's blood into us, which allows us to live and to become a sacrifice as well. A living sacrifice for God and enable us to lay down our lives, not in exactly the same way, but to lay down our lives for others, as Jesus Christ did.

How can we demonstrate our lives as living sacrifices? How can we do that, you and me?

Paul goes on to explain here in the very next few verses here. Verse number two, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed to become something new, to become something different, to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, our mind and hearts are at the center of all of this, brethren, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. There's a lot here. What he means here is that we sacrifice living the way that the world lives. In that sense, we're not conformed to it, but we're being transformed. We walk away from a lot of things. We're an example in some areas, and we walk away from other things. We walk away from the parties, the after-work pool and beer gatherings. We walk away from Friday night activities. We turn off the television to violence. We turn it off to nudity. We turn it off to the foul language, those types of things. We don't get involved with gossip, even with members of the church. We don't do that. We look at the world and say, I am going to walk the way a son of God walks, or a daughter of God walks.

We sacrifice the pleasures of this world. They're only momentary. They're only temporary. They're temporary satisfaction that they bring. Instead, we're conformed to the mind of Jesus Christ. He lives again in us.

What kind of living sacrifices are we? What kind of living sacrifices are we?

If we continue reading here in Romans 12, he gives us a checklist. He gives us a list of what it means to be a living sacrifice. In a sense, a living sacrifice. A checklist can be helpful when we examine ourselves at this time of the year. I often try to encourage people as we go through this list, this is an all-inclusive list of things that we can do to examine ourselves. It's a good place to start. There's a lot of other scriptures, too. But I try to say, checklists can also be dangerous because they can discourage us. God doesn't want us to be discouraged. But if we pick two or three things here, or in other places of Scripture, to focus on, we can work on two or three things. You know, I asked my wife this year, okay, honey, what do you see that you don't like? Your spouse has a way of letting you know. They have a way of letting you know. And she showed me something I had not seen before. And so I've started to work on that already, but I didn't realize how ingrained that was. You know, we are habits, aren't we? What we practice, we become. What habits we develop start taking us in a certain direction.

And so there are some habits that can be good, and there are some habits that aren't so good. Let's take a look here, a checklist here. Maybe two or three things that we can look on as we focus on some of these here going forward. Paul gives us a checklist here in Romans 12. Let's pick it up in verse number nine. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. No, we know evil, I think, but in this world we're becoming numb to it, probably less sensitive to it, is what I should be saying. He says to run from it, abhor it. There's a lot of things out there. There's a lot of garbage out there on the Internet, crude jokes and things that are out there. There's a lot of put-downs that are going on out there. Abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. Verse 10, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor, I think we know what honor is. In honor, giving preference to one another ties pretty much into steaming others better than ourselves, doesn't it? Not lagging in diligence. Hang in there till the end. Hang in there. Not lagging in diligence, but fervent in spirit and notice serving who? Serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope and patient when those trials come. Patient in tribulation and continuing steadfastly in prayer. So we have consistently through the year conversations with our Father. Verse 13, helping those that have needs, giving, distributing to the needs of the saints, and giving to hospitality, opening up our homes to people. Verse 12, we rejoice in hope. Oh, I just read that. Verse number 14, bless those who persecute you. That's our instructions. If you're being persecuted, you and I, then we should bless those who are persecuting us. Bless and do not curse. There is our example. Rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. Basically, we're connected because we're at one. We feel what other people are feeling. Verse 16, be of the same mind towards one another. There's a whole bunch of stuff here, isn't there? Be of the same mind towards one another, and don't set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Don't be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. And if it's possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. And we read about that in Matthew 5, that God's sons and daughters are peacemakers. They're always working towards unity.

Verse 19, Beloved, don't avenge yourselves, but rather give place to your anger, to your wrath, for it has written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Those are God's words. He can take care of the problem. If you're a problem or I'm a problem, He can take care of us. He can take us down for our own benefit. Verse 20, if your enemy is hungry, then feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. We don't withhold things just because they're an enemy. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Verse 21, don't be overcome by evil. That's possible. Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Brethren, it's not an all-inclusive list, no doubt. There's other scriptures here. So in conclusion, as we approach Passover this year, brethren, let's think about Jesus's example. As we examine ourselves, let's think about these three symbols that He instituted on that night. The foot washing, the bread, and the wine. And if we think about those things and we examine ourselves in the light of that example and those symbols, brethren, then we can really be assured that we'll be partaking of the Passover this year in a worthy manner.