Examining Ourselves Before the Passover

We are fast approaching the spring Holy Day season and there is so much activity at this time of year.  It’s interesting to note if you do a search for the origins of spring cleaning you will find many of them recognizing the role that searching for and removing leaven had a major role in the start of this tradition.  So we join much of the world in our cleaning but for the original meaning to find and remove Leaven that represents sin that insidiously invades our lives and hides anywhere it can. We arrange for Holy Day observance with our Jobs and our schools.  With school activities, and work projects that often pile up at this time we can find ourselves quite busy and before you know it you are sitting at services on the Passover and we read the warning by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 11:29-30   9 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  30 For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

Every year I read this and it sends a chill down my spine.  Have I spent enough time to prepare to take of these symbols?  What if I was so busy removing leaven I didn’t take the time to think about how it represents the sin within me?  Am I risking my health or my life by not taking it seriously enough?

Fortunately for me and you, tonight is not the Passover.  We still have time to properly prepare to take the symbols that represent the body of Christ and our commitment to this calling.

The Title of the sermon is:

Examining ourselves before the Passover

We all want to have a spiritually fulfilling Passover and Days of Unleavened bread but we also know it will take work on our part.  Today I would like you to consider three things before you take the Passover this year.  Consider them in your preparation so that you will have best possible Holy Day season.  This is not a time to skate by without rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.  Just as cleaning and searching for crumbs is hard work, self-examination is hard work and what’s more, its required.

The first thing to consider as you examine yourself and prepare our households for Unleavened bread is that:

1. Our calling requires self-examination for growth and overcoming

No one particularly enjoys examining yourself.  We see all kinds of things that should change or that hurt others. We all know we have faults but no one likes to spend too much time dwelling on them.

Magnification Mirror

Take this mirror for example.  It magnifies your reflection 15 times the original size.  Even though I cleaned my pours as best as I can, I look in this mirror and I can hardly look at what I find.  That is the feeling we get when we examine ourselves.  I am going to pass these mirrors around and see if you dare to get a closer look.

But Paul tells the Church in Corinth to examine themselves and so shouldn’t we?  Let's look at his warning a little closer.  Right before this warning in 1 Corinthians 11:29 Paul tells them

:27-28   27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  Later in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6

2 Corinthians 13:5-6   5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? -- unless indeed you are disqualified.  6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

You can see here that Apostle Paul taught that we should look at our own progress and determine if we are growing.  Some have used some of Paul’s writings on grace to try to make the point that we can’t really obey God but as long as we have grace we’re ok.  As if to say, you can’t be perfect anyway so why try. 

It's interesting that the Apostle Peter chimed in on this controversy and gives his own warning on the subject.  Turn over to

2 Peter 3:13-18   13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  14 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;  15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation -- as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,  16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.  17 You, therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;  18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So Peter is warning them not to fall for the idea that since you can’t be perfect you don’t need to try. 

Some Sunday churches advertise the idea of come as you are to tell people they don’t have to look to a higher standard of dress and conduct to come to church.  But that’s not what our bibles tell us.  We are told to grow, we are told to change, we are told to overcome and we are given standards to live by, standards of conduct both in and out of church services.

The Book of Lamentations speaks of the fall from grace by the children of Israel and in chapter 3:40 this command is given to them.

NKJ Lamentations 3:40 Let us search out and examine our ways, And turn back to the LORD;

And finally, we are promise a reward only if we grow and overcome in Rev 21:7

NKJ Revelation 21:7 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

So we must never allow ourselves to fall into the idea that we are only to endure to the end and that means we don’t have to overcome and grow. 

2.We must learn to properly revere and discern the Body of Christ before we take the symbols

That warning that we read at the beginning is too important to read over too quickly.  Let's go back to 1 Cor 11 and spend some more time to get the complete picture.

Chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians begins with some correction about roles of men and women in the church.  Commentaries speak of the clash in cultures between the Hebrew culture and that of the modern Greek.  And nowhere was this clash more evident than in affluent Corinth.  So Paul takes some time to bring the congregations back to a place where other congregations were and to bring harmony back into the roles of men and women in the church.

He concludes this section with verses 16 and 17.

1 Corinthians 11:16-17   16 But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.  17 Now in giving these instructions I do not praise you since you come together not for the better but for the worse.

So Paul sets up the next section by telling them that as a congregation they often fail.  Now he begins to focus on Passover in verse 18.

1 Corinthians 11:18-20   18 For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part, I believe it.  19 For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.  20 Therefore when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.

His last statement is to say that there conduct is not in keeping with the Lord’s supper.  There were many rich people in Corinth and although they ate a communal meal, evidence was that the class divisions were infused into the evening so that the rich got the best and most food and many of the poor went hungry.  The atmosphere was all wrong and some even got drunk.

1 Corinthians 11:21-22   21 For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk.  22 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.

So this is the backdrop of what was going on when they then took of the symbols of the bread and wine.  So Paul reminds them of what those symbols mean.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26   23 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;  24 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."  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 with these wrong attitudes, they were taking of the Bread and wine that represents how Jesus was broken and bled for their lives and that’s why he gave the following warning.

1 Corinthians 11:26-32   26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.  27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.  30 For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.  31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.  32 But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Now, lest we forget the context of this warning, we need to remember how Paul finished this passage.  He goes right back to their conduct as a church and to one another.

1 Corinthians 11:33-34   33 Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.  34 But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment.  And the rest I will set in order when I come.

So what should we take from this warning?  Certainly, we want to make sure we understand the mood and intent of the Passover service and the solemn nature of ceremony where we focus on the sacrifice that our Lord and Savior made for us personally.  The Symbols picturing the His broken body and shed blood is so powerful and this should dominate our thoughts leading up to this service.   But in light of the context of this warning from Paul, I noticed something else that I now take very seriously.  What really jumped out at me this year when I studied this is that Paul is talking about properly discerning the Body of Christ.

I have always focused on His physical Body that was broken for us and rightly we should.  But the Body of Christ can also refer to the Church of God as well.  Now, what do I mean by that?

Turn over to John 1:1 and lets read a very familiar passage. 

John 1:1-5  NKJ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He was in the beginning with God.  3 All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made.  4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

So we have this name (Title) for the one who became Jesus Christ.  Jesus was not called the Word of God because the Father like the sound of it.  It has incredible meaning.

Moving down to verse 10 we continue

John 1:10-14   10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Notice of all the names that Jesus had, Messiah comes from the Hebrew word Mashiach and means “anointed one” or “chosen one.” The Greek equivalent is the word Christos or, in English, Christ. The name “Jesus Christ” is the same as “Jesus the Messiah.” In biblical times, anointing someone with oil was a sign that God was consecrating or setting apart that person for a particular role. Thus, an “anointed one” was someone with a special, God-ordained purpose.  Jesus Also went by Son of God, Lord, and Savior.  But in John, none of these are used.  We read He is the Word of God. 

Our Bibles are also called the Word of God.  Does that mean Jesus = Bible?  Certainly not.  What it means is that the meaning of Word of God fits both perfectly.  Remember that Jesus had to introduce the Father to many of them.

John 5:37  You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. 

Moses both heard God’s voice and saw His form.  So what Jesus was telling them that every interaction they had with God came through Him.  As the Word of God, he is the communication, access and portal to God.  Our Bible serves that role of communication from God.  We can send God messages through prayer but we receive the answers we seek through His Word.

This is how they serve the same function.  Now, lets go back to the body of Christ.  The symbols could have been compared to His Sacrifice, God’s Grace, our Salvation, but over and over Jesus used the title Body of Christ.

His body is directly compared to bread and wine.  “Unless you eat my Flesh and Drink my blood”.  How do you think that made an orthodox Jew feel like?  Likewise, the Church of God is called repeatedly the Body of Christ.

Jesus is the Door to not only Salvation but reconciliation with God the Father.  The Wedding between the Son of God and the Bride (Church) will be about two becoming one.  One Flesh, the Body of Christ.  What did Jesus promise the Holy Spirit would do?  To make them One just as He and the Father are One.

If we are going to properly discern the Body of Christ we better realize the full meaning of this Title.  Turn to Romans 12:4-5

Romans 12:4-5   4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,  5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Jesus Sacrificed his body for the church and what are we supposed to do?  In verse 1 of Romans 12:

Romans 12:1  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.

Remember the context of Paul’s correction of Corinth dealt specifically about how they acted as church to one another first and then how they took the symbols. I think we ought to also think about how we discern the Church of God at this time of year as well. 

Do we live in harmony with the brethren?

Are we looking after one another’s needs?

Do we serve one another as Christ served?

Are we a living sacrifice?

How can we properly discern His physical body while at the same time forsaking His Spiritual body.  It makes the warning all the more potent.

3. After we examine ourselves, we need to ask God to examine us to make sure we are on course

When we have determined to examine ourselves and grow to be like our Lord and Savior.  When we have searched our hearts and minds “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 ).  Then we are ready to properly discern the Body both spiritual and physical having an attitude of gratitude and humility.  Then what do we lack? 

When we are in a bad place we ask God to turn our hearts and minds.  We ask him to help us return to Him.  So when things are going well, why would we want to stop doing that?  Now is the time to ask God to search our hearts as David did.

Psalm 26:1-3  NKJ A Psalm of David. Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the LORD; I shall not slip.  2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart.  3 For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth.

Psalm 139:23-24   23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;  24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

David gives a long list how he is loyal but then says, in case I have missed something, please search me and fill in what I lack.  I know this seems like a very tough thing to do.  But this is what we should all look forward to.  We have fixed everything we know to fix and now we want God to show us more. 

Help us to know what still needs fixing.  This is where growth explodes.  You want to be close to God?  When things are going well, ask Him to show you what you need to look at.  Always ask for mercy when asking God to show you your faults.  It is too painful otherwise. 

If we consider these three things when we examine ourselves this year, we will truly have a season of Growth unmatched in our lives.  We will grow in ways we never thought possible and at a rate we thought impossible.  So let’s head the warning of Paul and take the time this spring season to properly examine ourselves.