How Should We Examine Ourselves Before Passover?

Check there was to make sure the cord was long enough. Fortunately, it is, so we don't have to make further adjustments here.

So good morning again to all of you here. In a little over four and a half weeks, we will be gathering here for a very special occasion for the baptized members of the Church of God. It is something we do every year around this time, and that is to assemble to keep the Passover, as instructed by Jesus Christ. As we know, this is a somber and a sober occasion because of what it depicts. That is the sacrifice of the Son of God, who gave Himself and gave His life for the sins of all mankind. The very one who created mankind emptied Himself of that power, of that glory, of that majesty, to become Emmanuel, God with us, God in the flesh, as a physical human being. And every year we come together to remember and to commemorate that supreme sacrifice that the one who made us, created us, actually came to earth and lived and died for us, taking on Himself the penalty of death, through which we deserved. And He died so that we might be reconciled to God and live. It's an incredible picture that was foreshadowed by the millions of Passover lambs that were slain over the centuries leading up to that night, as well as the millions of other animals, the birds, bulls, goats, sheep, lambs, and so on slain at the tabernacle in the temple. It's astounding to contemplate the fact that God died for you and for me. And out of God's festivals, the seven that are revealed in the Bible, this one is different in that we are specifically told to do something before we show up.

We are told to examine ourselves.

So in today's sermon, we will take a look at this question. How should we examine ourselves before Passover? We're not told to do this for any of the other festivals of the Bible. We're not told to do it for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or for Pentecost, or Trumpets, or Atonement, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or their eighth day. Only for Passover are we given these instructions to examine ourselves. So why is that? And what are we to learn from that?

Let's begin over in 1 Corinthians 11. And I'll be projecting the scriptures up here on screen.

Sometimes they say, usually ingest, that don't feel totally useless. You can always be used as a bad example. When I read about the Corinthian church, sometimes I get that feeling about them. That maybe the reason that the epistles to the Corinthians are there is to show us what it means to be a bad example. Because they did a lot of things very badly. I guess we can actually be thankful for that, though, because of their problems. We have Paul giving a lot of instruction in those two epistles. It's actually very helpful for us today.

So if they weren't such bad examples in various ways, we would not have that instruction. So we can't actually be thankful that that writing, Paul's instruction, has been preserved for us for the last 2000 years. And one of their bad examples was in how they approached the Passover. So let's read about that over in 1 Corinthians 11 and verses 20 through 32.

Paul leads into this by talking about how the congregation there in Corinth was divided. They had different factions. They had some people who were saying, I'm of Paul, and I'm of Apollos, and so on. And this was affecting how they were observing the Passover. This was a big problem. Paul begins writing about this in verse 20. He says, Therefore, when you come together in one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper.

Now, a lot of people think that, seeing this phrase here, the Lord's supper, that Paul is giving a new name to this. He's renamed the Passover as the Lord's supper. Is that really what's going on? Well, no, not really. I think what is really going on is that Paul is, well, first of all, this word supper simply means an evening meal or a feast. It can mean a feast in the sense that when you had a big meal and invited people, it was generally done at the evening meal. So it's translated evening meal or feast or supper in the New Testament. And the Gospels referring to that last Passover, the same exact word supper is used there. So it's nothing special. It's not a particular term. I think what Paul is doing here is he's actually contrasting the meal that the Lord Jesus Christ had with his disciples, the 12 apostles there that evening, with the meal the Corinthians were having. In other words, he's essentially saying that you think you're coming together on this evening like Jesus and the apostles did, but you're not. You're not doing things the way the Lord did that evening. No, you're actually doing something very different and that is your own supper. And it bears no relationship to what he did. I think that's the point that he's making. He's contrasting the supper Jesus had, the Lord had, versus the kind of supper that they were having. And I think that's brought out actually here in the next verse, in verse 21. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. So, several things to point out here. Apparently, they were having a full meal together there for the Passover. But notice what they're doing there for this meal. For in eating, again, each one takes his own supper ahead of others, and one is hungry, and another is drunk. And this is why I say it. I think Paul is contrasting this supper they're having with the supper that Christ had with his apostles. And he uses the term the Lord's supper to draw the contrast between the two. It was nothing like that evening that Jesus shared with his apostles. Now, from reading this, we might get the impression that they're having a potluck where everyone brings something and they all share. But if you read carefully, that's not what is going on. Paul says here that each one takes his own supper ahead of the others. So apparently what people are doing is they're bringing their own food there. They're not sharing it with everybody, but they're bringing their own food. And when they get there, some are going ahead and eating the meal that they brought ahead of everybody else. So some people end up with little or nothing to eat and some people are going hungry. Because the poorer members, the congregation there in Corinth, just are living pretty much hand to mouth. So they come there for this meal and they don't get anything. Some people apparently are also bringing their own wine to that evening as well. And they're enjoying it a little bit too much. They're not having a little tiny cup of wine. They're having several big cups of wine to the point that some people are getting drunk. And that's what the word means. Drunk. Intoxicated. There. So Paul is actually scathing in his words for them. Now you might ask, why are they having a meal? Well, actually, if you think about it, it makes sense. Because what were Jesus Christ and the apostles having? They had a meal there. And then after that, Jesus institutes the symbols of the bread and the wine and the foot washing. So they can be justified for thinking, well, we ought to all gather together and have a meal. And then after that, take the Passover symbols. That's not the way we do it today.

And this is one of the reasons why that was leading to problems. It's not a time to come together for fellowship, like we do on the night to be much observed or at Sabbath services. It's a very somber and sober occasion. Not a time to be eating and drinking and enjoying yourself. So we do have that understanding, which the Corinthians just didn't quite grasp here as we read through this. So continuing, Paul in verse 22, again, Paul is just scathing in their attitude toward the Passover. And 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. So here we see a little bit more of what is going on. He says here that if your focus on this evening is having a big meal and a lot to drink, you'd actually better off staying at home. And don't come and make a mockery of the Church and the symbolism of this evening. He says here that some were shaming those poor members who had nothing because they come and go home hungry from that evening. Apparently they're so poor they just don't have any food to bring for that evening. While other members are bringing their own food and eating it there before everyone else. So Paul says that this is despising the Church. It's actually an utter disgrace the way they're treating the evening. He says, What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. Then Paul gets into the lesson for them and for us. This is what I want to focus in now beginning in verse 23. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. Now when did Paul receive this from the Lord? Well, if we remember the story of Paul's life. He spent three years after his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus when he was blinded. He spent three years alone with Jesus Christ being personally taught.

Apparently this is when he received this particular instruction from Jesus.

What did Jesus instruct Paul about that night? Continuing on, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed 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. 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. And then he gets down to the heart and core of the matter. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. That's a little bit hard for us to understand in English. It's not the best translation, but I'd like to paraphrase it here and hopefully bring out the meaning a little better. What Paul is essentially saying here is, Don't you realize that every time you take the symbols of the bread and wine at Passover, by that very act you are announcing that Jesus Christ died for all of you? That's really the meaning that he's trying to get across here. Now, why do I paraphrase it this way? Well, because of this word, proclaim, it's actually the same word that is most often translated elsewhere in the Bible as preach. Preach, that's the way it's most often translated in the King James Version, means to preach, to declare, to proclaim, to announce, to show, or to teach. So proclaim is a pretty good word, but what are they proclaiming? They're proclaiming by taking those symbols that they understand that Jesus Christ died for you. In this case, the you is collective, not just you personally, we tend to read that as personally, but the you is actually collective. It's referring to the larger group. So by that act of taking the symbols of the wine, what were they proclaiming, or declaring, or proclaiming the death of Jesus Christ? And why did he die? He died to take on himself the penalty that we deserved. Who did he die for? Well, for all of them. They're in Corinth, including those who were in the other divisions, the other factions within the church there, which is the context leading up to this. And for those who are too poor to even bring food to the meal that they gather to have. So this is all part of the context that leads up to these instructions that he gives us here. And then he says in verse 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. Now there are several things to point out here. One is another contrast. Paul uses contrast a lot in his writings. If you understand that, you'll tend to pick up on some things that are maybe a little too subtle for us to catch otherwise. He's contrasted, as I mentioned already, the Lord's Supper versus your Supper. He brings out another contrast here. The Passover symbols are to remind us that we have been cleansed of our sins by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's the primary point. But Paul also says here that if we take those symbols in an unworthy manner, we're actually guilty of another sin, the sin of neglecting or failing to understand and appreciate that sacrifice.

So where his Passover is designed to to cleanse us, to remind us that we are cleansed of our sins, if we don't approach the Passover in the right manner, what are we doing? We're actually guilty of another sin, the sin of not properly understanding and appreciating that sacrifice. So then, rather than being cleansed and sinless in God's sight by the Passover, we're actually sinful and guilty again. So again, this is quite serious here. A second point I'd like to mention here is that unworthy here is an adverb. Some people at this time of year get discouraged and depressed because they think that they're unworthy, that they're not worthy to take the Passover. But that is not what Paul is saying. He's not talking about us being unworthy. None of us by ourselves could be worthy to deserve the sacrifice of the Son of God. There's nothing that any of us could do to earn that or deserve that. So that's not the point. The unworthy here is an adverb, not an adjective. And if you remember going back to junior high or when you learned the parts of speech, an adverb modifies a verb, not a noun, not us. It modifies the verb. So an adverb refers to the verb or verbs in the sentence. So what it's referring to is how we take those symbols at the Passover. Not physically how we take them, but spiritually how we take them. In other words, have we thought deeply about the significance of these symbols? And do we really understand and appreciate that sacrifice that Jesus Christ made in our place? So to boil it down simply, it's talking about our attitude, our attitude toward the Passover, which was the Corinthians problem. They did not have a right attitude toward the Passover. As we pointed out there earlier, we'll go back into that. So then Paul begins to instruct us on how we should approach the Passover, what we should do to be sure we are approaching it in a worthy manner. And he tells us, and actually I apologize for this, but I've left out a slide here. I'll read verse 28, which is actually the key one that I meant to include here. Verse 28, he says, 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 to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. So here we see the key again, the key of discerning the Lord's body. Do we properly discern it? Well, some in Corinth didn't.

And because of that, he writes in verse 30, For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. So what Paul is telling us here is that it is necessary for us to examine ourselves before taking of the Passover symbols. And he also says we need to, and this word examine is also translated judge quite often, it means to evaluate, to judge, to examine something. So he says we need to properly judge ourselves, to examine ourselves, to evaluate ourselves, our spiritual state and our attitude. And that if we do this, then we may not have to face other judgments and their consequences, including of course the ultimate judgment and condemnation with the rest of the world. So this is a serious matter. Again, we cannot take the Passover lightly. The Passover, again, is a memorial of the sacrificial death of the Son of God, of our Master and our Savior Jesus Christ. And taking those symbols of His broken body and His shed blood, His bloodshed for us, proclaims, declares, announces that we understand and acknowledge that sacrifice on our behalf. And therefore we live accordingly.

We live according to that knowledge and that sacrifice. So getting back again to the title of this sermon, How Should We Examine Ourselves Before Passover? In what areas of our lives do we need to be judging or examining ourselves to be sure that we do not take the Passover in an unworthy manner, as the Corinthians were doing? That's what we'll look at today.

By way of getting into this subject, I heard a recent sermon from a recently retired pastor in the United Church of God. I'm indebted to him because I learned a lot from that sermon and want to share some of that with you. The pastor was Steve Shafer, who was up in Seattle for a number of years. He approached this from the standpoint of what did Christ do on that evening with His disciples almost 2,000 years ago? He did three things, as we see on the pictures here. The foot washing, the institution of the bread is a symbol of His body broken for us, and the wine, which was symbolic of His shed blood. What I would like to do is take a look at these three areas, the foot washing and the bread and the wine, to better understand their meaning as a reminder of what we'll be doing in four and a half weeks here, and also to use those as jumping points for different areas of our lives that we need to examine before we take the Passover.

So let's look first at the foot washing. What does this act tell us about examining ourselves for the Passover so that we can take it in a worthy manner? Let's go back to John 13. John is the only one of the four Gospels that includes the foot washing there. So let's read about this on last night there with the apostles. John 13 verses 1 through 17. Now before the Feast of the Passover, or at the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from the world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Let's think about that last statement, that last phrase for a minute there. He loved them to the end. His entire life, as we know, was a living example of love. But now at the end of His life, He especially and dramatically shows exactly what that means. He didn't bail out on them when He could have, when things were going bad. But He followed through on His commitment, even at the greatest possible price for anyone to bear. Think about that for a minute, what He went through.

We've covered this before in previous sermons before the Passover, but He was under so much stress as He was praying there in Gethsemane that He literally sweated blood as the blood vessels under the skin burst and ruptured and started carrying blood out through His sweat. He was arrested on false charges that evening. He was abandoned by all of the twelve. They all ran away and fled and left Him alone. He was arrested on false charges. There He was imprisoned.

He was humiliated, spat upon. He was denied three times by one of His closest followers.

He was then lied about in some mock trials, lied about by false witnesses. He was beaten by the soldiers. He was lashed in till His skin and His muscles were ripped to shreds. Then He was stripped naked in public and nailed and crucified as a criminal, with nails driven through His wrists and through His feet. And being mocked again, there as He hung there dying. And finally He died as a Roman mercenary, stabbing inside with a spear. Yet, all that He went through, none of this would stand in the way of Him loving His disciples and loving us to the end. Because He could have stopped that before that, but He chose not to. He knew that He had to take on Himself the penalty for your sins and mine. And He did His part in loving us to the end.

But what does that mean? How can we think about that in terms of how we need to examine ourselves before the Passover? Well, how are we doing at loving His own? As it says here, having loved His own, that's His followers, His family, His spiritual brothers and sisters. How are we doing at that? Are we loving others to the end, no matter what happens? Last Sabbath, we had a very good sermon at Combined Services by Barry Courthise about the parable of the unforgiving servant, showing how we ought to treat and how we have to forgive others, which is the whole point of that parable. And that if we don't forgive others, then neither will we be forgiven.

So what is standing in the way of us loving others? Loving others to the end.

What did Jesus say about the kind of love that we are to have for one another? Let's skip down a few verses to verse 34. And He says here, "...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 very familiar with a previous commandment from the Torah. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's not a New Testament command, that's an Old Testament command. They're familiar with that, but Jesus Christ gives a New commandment here. And that New commandment is, "...you shall love your neighbor, not as yourself, but as I have loved you." You shall love your neighbor as I have loved you. That was a New Standard that went above and beyond anything that they had heard or understood before. And again, over the next 24 hours, He will show exactly how deep and how far that love has to go.

So, a question we might ask ourselves is, do we have that kind of love for one another?

Let's get personal. Do you have that kind of love for the person sitting beside you, or in front of you, or behind you? Do we love one another? How much do we love one another?

Will that love endure to the end? There are a lot of sobering prophecies in the Bible about the end time, given by Jesus Christ Himself, about people betraying one another, about families being divided, about the love of many growing cold, about people being so lethargic that they can't even care enough to come to Sabbath services or to fellowship with one another. And they will forsake assembling together with one another.

If people aren't obeying Christ's command to love others as He loved us, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll be one of those people who aren't the kind of people talked about in those prophecies that Jesus Christ gave.

Sadly, the people who need to hear that are not the ones who are here. And, of course, yes, there are weather conditions and so on, but some just don't make that a priority in their lives. What does that say about the level of love that they have for the body, the family, the spiritual family that we're a part of? The church is many times called a body. It's called the body of Christ for a reason. And if people cut themselves off from that body, are they still a part of the body? Paul has some very specific words about that we don't have time to get into.

But what prevents us from loving one another as Christ loved us, or from loving one another to the end? Well, there are two main factors. They're pretty obvious. One is our own human nature.

By nature we are selfish. We want to please ourselves. We want to put ourselves first, and other people are simply a lower priority. Down the lines, we seek to please and serve ourselves first rather than serve others. Several months ago, he gave a series of sermons on slavery as it was practiced in the first century, and how God calls us his slaves more than any other term in the Bible. He calls us his slaves about 10 times as often as he calls us his children. There are a lot of lessons about that. I mentioned how the Apostle Paul had to deal with a first century culture in the Roman Empire and the cities that he traveled to. Places like Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, places like that. The Roman Empire was a very class-conscious system. It was very stratified, class-wise there. So how did Paul get the people in the first century church to all see themselves in a right and proper perspective? What did he say about the church members that has bearing on this? He said, in the church, in the body of Christ, there is what? There is neither Jew nor Gentile. There is neither male nor female. There is neither free man nor slave. But guess what? You are all slaves. You are all slaves to a new master.

To God the Father and Jesus Christ. And this is what we all have in common.

We are all slaves with no rights, no privileges of our own. And that we fully and completely belong to someone else. Someone who paid the price to buy us from our previous master and owner, Satan the devil, to make us his own slaves. Our lives, in other words, are not our own. We are all slaves, bought and paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And since we are all slaves, what is our job? What is our responsibility? Our responsibility is to all serve together. To serve God and to serve one another so that we all might attain our reward.

The reward I talked about in that series there. About freedom and citizenship and, ultimately, adoption as the sons of God in his kingdom. So that's one factor that prevents us from loving one another. And that is our own human nature. But if we see ourselves as what God calls us, his slaves, then we realize we're all on the same page. We're all on the same level. We're all called to serve God and to serve one another. And another factor that prevents us from loving one another as Christ loved us is Satan the devil. Again, a very obvious one. But he wants to keep us focused on anything and everything but what our minds ought to be focused on. He wants to keep us divided. He wants to keep us bickering like the church there in Corinth there. He wants to keep us divided over this or that or personalities or perceived offenses or doctrinal differences or administrative decisions or whatever. It doesn't matter what it is, so long as he can keep us divided and not on the same page. So he'll do anything and everything to keep us divided and focused on ourselves rather than focused on others. So let's go back now to John 13 and verse 2 and go back to the account of the foot washing there. And we'll pick up some more from the account here in John verse 2. And supper, here's that same word translated the Lord's supper, simply means an evening meal. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Hascariot, Simon's son, to betray him. So here we see Satan at work, even here at this last evening there, at work to split off Judas from the rest of the apostles there and to lead him to betray the Son of God, God in the flesh that very evening. That's the thing we need to be very aware of, that that's what Satan will try to do. Verse 3, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

Now what can we learn from this example about taking the Passover in a worthy manner?

What are some of the areas that are mentioned here that will help us in examining our lives and our attitudes? Well, one is very obvious, and that is that Christ is showing the attitude of a servant, the attitude of a servant or a slave, as we've mentioned earlier. In that time, in that culture, the roads there were very dirty and dusty. They were mostly dirt roads. A few were paved by the Roman army, but most were just dirt roads, much more primitive than our dirt roads today. And people either went barefoot or they wore sandals, so their feet got very dirty as they traveled around. As I mentioned before, the year there is about half rainy and about half dry. So during the rainy season, their feet are muddy, covered with mud all the time. During the dry season, their feet are dusty all of the time. So your feet are perpetually dusty. And if a household had a slave or a servant, it was typically that person's job to wash the feet of guests who came in for a meal, as this meal was there on that evening. Several months ago, I came across something very interesting. I tried to look it back up and I couldn't find it, but I came across something interesting about how this job of foot washing was viewed. I'd never heard that before, but foot washing was viewed as so dirty and degrading. And it was. Think of washing somebody's feet, somebody who isn't able to bathe regularly and is walking on dirt roads several hours a day.

Foot washing was viewed as so degrading that the rabbis at that time taught that a Jew could not force another Jew, even if the other one was a slave or a servant, could not force another Jew to wash his feet or his guest's feet. Now, why did the rabbis teach that? Well, they taught, they understood, that the Jews or the Israelites were a chosen people by God. And since they're chosen by God, they're not allowed to do something so dirty and disgusting and degrading as having to wash another person's feet. Even if they're a slave or a servant, you cannot order, if you're a Jew, and your slave or servant is a Jew, you cannot order him to wash other people's feet.

So that illustrates how disgusting they viewed that job. How degrading they viewed that job.

They could be forced to do any number of other dirty and disgusting jobs, but they could not be forced into washing another person's feet. So think about that. Think about that in this context. So this being the thinking, it is all the more remarkable and shocking to the disciples that Jesus, who is both a Jew and a rabbi, to rise from supper and wrap a towel around himself, and to go around and wash all of the disciples' feet, including the feet of Judas, who would betray him very shortly. So think about that. What a remarkable statement that makes. The common thinking is, no Jew can be forced to wash somebody's feet. Yet Jesus is a Jew and a rabbi does that for his disciples. Rabbis are typically taught by doing in that culture. This was a very powerful teaching lesson, both for them and for us today. So what was his lesson for them and for us? Well, it's actually twofold, and both of them have implications for how we examine ourselves for the Passover. The first and most obvious, again, is that we are to have a serving attitude toward others. We've already talked about that quite a bit, so we won't go into it further. But what's the second lesson from this? Again, it's fairly obvious, but it's that we must esteem others better than ourselves. We must esteem others better than ourselves. We have to view others as better than us, in other words. And Jesus Christ perfectly exemplified this attitude as well.

Let's turn to Philippians 2 and read about how he demonstrated this attitude. I'll be reading this from the New Living Translation, which I think captures the feeling better here. Philippians 2, verses 3-8. Paul writes here, Don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking 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 of that attitude?

Verse 5, You must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. And I've talked about the meaning of this word. The New King James translates it badly. He did not consider it robbery.

The Greek word means something to be grasped tightly, something to be held on to. What it's saying is Jesus Christ did not consider being God, something that he had to hold on to tightly.

But he gave that up for us. And that's the contrast Paul is drawing here.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God, the Father, as something to cling to, to hold on to tightly. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges, that power, that majesty, that splendor. He didn't give up his divinity because he was still Immanuel, God in the flesh, but he did give up that power, that might, that glory that he had. He took the humble position of a slave, and that is what the word is, its servant in the New King James, but it's slave. He became a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. So here we see an ultimate example of a steaming others better than himself. As Paul says here, even though he was God, the great glorified God who spoke in the earth's spring into existence at his word, yet he emptied himself of that and became a human being, and not just a human being, but a slave.

And ultimately took himself the death penalty for us. And that night, that last night with his apostles there, he again took the lowest position there, the slave who washed the feet of others, who were of a much higher class. So how do we do in this area when it comes to following Jesus Christ? Do we esteem others better than ourselves? Do we lift others up? Do we encourage others?

You know, there's some people you come to Sabbath services, and they're just such a joy to see, because they're so cheerful and encouraging and lifting other people up. You just always look forward to seeing them, every Sabbath here. And when it comes to this, I've learned an important lesson over the years. Hopefully I've learned more than one, but this is one that I want to share with you. And it's this. If you do something long enough, it becomes a part of who you are. Now that may seem obvious, but I'm a slow learner. So it took me a while to figure this out.

And I use it in this context, because what I'm trying to say here is that you may not really naturally love other people. That may not come naturally to you. Some it does. It comes very natural to some people, but others it doesn't. So you may not naturally love people. You may not even like people, for that matter. But if you force yourself to act in this way long enough, and force yourself, and that's what it does take, eventually it does change you.

And it becomes a part of you. But you have to put in the time and effort. It does not or may not come naturally. And it may be hard. And you may think of a hundred different reasons or excuses why you shouldn't or don't need to do this or that. But guess what? God says that we have to.

We have to love others. We have to esteem others as better than ourselves. And since he says that we have to, then we'd better get going. We'd better start doing that. Even if it includes faking it. As the saying goes, fake it until you make it. Force yourself to do it until it becomes a part of you. No matter how many months or years or decades that may take, it's something that we have to do. To have this attitude of serving and esteeming others is better than ourselves. Let's go back now and pick up some other things from this account of the foot washing. John 13 and verse 6. Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. And Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean. And we see from this that Judas is still there during the foot washing. You are not all clean. One was there who would betray him. So we do see here that Jesus refers to the disciples, the apostles, as being spiritually cleansed, except for Judas, who would betray him. Judas was spiritually unclean that evening.

So what do we see here from this? We see that foot washing represents being spiritually cleansed.

It represents being spiritually cleansed. Now, why do I say that? Well, what do feet represent in the Bible other than something dirty that we've talked about here? Well, in the Bible, feet or walking or a path represents the way we live. Represents the way we live, the path we take, the way of life that we choose to follow. Several scriptures talk about that. I'll just go through fairly quickly here. Jeremiah 10 in verse 23. Familiar passage. Oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own step. So by nature, we don't know the right way to live. We don't. That's why we need to be converted to receive God's Spirit, to change us, to work in our minds, and show us the right way to live. Proverbs 4, 26 and 27. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left. Remove your foot from evil.

Solomon talking about just physically feet and walking and so on. No, it's an analogy. It's a metaphor for the way we live our lives. Ponder the path that you're walking on. Think about where it's going. Don't swerve. Don't turn to the right or the left off the right path. Remove your feet from evil. Don't choose that path. Choose the right path and stick to it.

Another one, Psalm 37, verse 23. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Eternal, and he delights in his way. And finally, a very familiar passage again, 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For to this you are called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps.

So we see from these different passages that path and feet and walking are all talking about the way we live our lives. Jesus does the foot washing that night to symbolize that we are starting a new life, a cleansed path with cleansed feet, with a new walk, a new set of priorities, a new way of living. So this is part of the lesson we should learn from the foot washing. Have we been spiritually cleansed in the way that we live? Are we spiritually walking on the right path? Do we show by our lives that Jesus Christ has cleansed us, that we now belong to him, and our lives are not our own? These are some of the other lessons that we should learn from the foot washing. So going back now to John 13 and verse 12.

So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments, and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I have done to you? You call me, teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you, if you do them. So that wraps up the portion about the foot washing there and some of the lessons we can and should learn from that in terms of examining our lives. After the foot washing, which again is not covered in the other gospels, the other three gospels, we pick up the story of the next of the three things that Jesus does that evening at Passover, and that is the bread. And that is the bread. We'll begin in Matthew 26 and verses 21-28.

And Matthew writes, Now as they were eating, Jesus said, Assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me. So Judas is still there at this point.

And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He who dipped his hand with me in the dish will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.

Then Judas, who was betraying him, answered and said, Rabbi, is it I?

He said to Judas, You have said it.

And then we come to a break in the story flow. John actually adds the detail that John 13, 27, I won't project it here, but you can write it down, John 13, 27 through 30, tells us that at that point John, who is by Jesus that evening, asks who it is that will betray him. And Jesus tells John, it is the one who, when I dip the bread in the dish and give it to him, that is the one who will betray him. And Jesus does then dip the dish in the bread and gives it to Judas, who leaves at that point. So this is before the actual Passover symbols are given that Judas has left. And then after that, Jesus does give the symbols of the New Covenant Passover. So returning back to Matthew 26 and verse 26, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body.

Then he took the cup and gave thanks, and 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 their emission or their forgiveness of sins. And Jesus, as we know, suffered horribly before he died. His body, again, was torn to shreds through the scourging that he went through to show us the high cost that sin brings in terms of the suffering that it brings on ourselves, on those around us, on our loved ones, the people we have relationships and friendships with.

When other people sin, it can affect them, but also affect others who are innocent around them. So this is part of the lesson of what Jesus Christ had to go through, that sin causes suffering. It causes suffering, not only for the sinner, but for other people as well, who may be totally innocent. It's just the nature of sin. And this is part of the lesson of what Jesus Christ had to go through. He not only had to die, but he had to suffer to teach us the high cost that sin brings in terms of suffering.

Send us something else, too. It cuts us off from God, as we know. But through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, he can reconcile us back to God. And he can also reconcile us to one another within the body that is the church. So these are some of the meanings of the bread that we talk about at Passover, when we observe that.

Let's notice something else, going back to John 6, verse 35, to better understand the significance of the bread. This is in a totally different context. But John says here, 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. Now what happens to us when we are hungering and thirsting, when we don't have enough food and water? We begin to starve, frankly. We can feel like that on the Day of Atonement when we go through it just a little bit.

Think about some of the men of the Bible, Jesus himself, Moses, Elijah, men who fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. By a few days into that, your body is literally starting to consume itself. Your body is starting to break down from lack of nourishment. So we grow weaker and weaker as our bodies begin to break down. Let's consider this from a spiritual angle. What happens if we're not getting the spiritual nourishment that we need?

Well, the same thing happens. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. What happens if we reject Him as the bread of life, if we aren't taking Him in, making Him a regular part of our lives? Well, just as with physical malnourishment and starvation, we also develop spiritual malnourishment and starvation.

Our spiritual life begins to unravel. We lack the spiritual nourishment we need to be strong and healthy, spiritually speaking. We're no longer spiritually growing, spiritually healthy. Instead, we are regressing. We grow spiritually weaker, spiritually starving, and eventually it can kill us if we are cut off from the bread of life, from that spiritual source of nourishment, for a long enough time. The bread that we take at Passover does symbolize Jesus Christ, the bread of life, living again within us. That is the only way we really maintain a right relationship with God. The only way we retain a right relationship among each other, with the kind of spirit of unity and love that we've talked about earlier here.

Paul talks about this concept in Galatians 2, in verse 20. A very familiar passage, but he says here, I have been crucified with Christ. What does he mean by that? Well, it means that what does baptism represent?

Baptism represents putting to death the old person. This is what Paul is saying, I've been crucified with Christ. I died with Him. I went down in the grave, the watery grave of baptism, and I died. And now I am a new person. It is now no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Paul makes a very similar comment here in Colossians 1, in verse 27. This is from the New Living Translation again. And he says here, Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in His glory.

Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in His glory. What does He mean by that? Well, it's a very profound statement. It took me a long time, again, I'm a slow learner, to figure out what it means to have Christ living in us. How does He do that? How does that happen?

Well, it's really talking about internalizing Him and making Him a part of your life and everything that you do. And we do that through God's Spirit, through allowing God's Spirit to shape us, to mold us, so that we become like Jesus Christ in every way and everything that we do.

It's becoming the new man that Paul talks about that we are to become after baptism here.

Referred to here. It's actually talked about in Romans 6, but it ties in with Galatians 2.20 as well. I've been crucified with Christ. I put the old man to death. I came up out of the waters of baptism as a new person. And the new person is not me living for myself, but it's Jesus Christ living within me for His purpose, for His desire, His goals, His work within us. Jesus Christ is not some distant figure who lived and died 2,000 years ago.

But He's a very real presence. Someone very real, someone very immediate, someone very accessible, who wants to be our friend and our companion. That's why He died for us, so that He could have that kind of role in our lives. So that He could be our friend, so that He could be our companion. That's why He's our High Priest and Intercessor now, because He wants us to be in His kingdom.

As we read there in Colossians 1 and verse 27, that's why He's returning to earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, so that we can, as it says here, share in His glory. That's why He does everything that He does, so that we can share in His glory, as His spiritual brothers and sisters, as the sons and daughters of God, so that we can be a part of the family of God forever. And that's why He wants us to partake of Him as the bread of life, every day, every day of our lives. The bread from heaven, the bread of God, as He also refers to Himself in John 6. Turning back to John 6, verses 48, He says, again, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. That was just physical food. That wasn't the spiritual food that would give them eternal life. This is the bread, referring to Himself. In verse 50, this is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

What's He talking about? He's talking about salvation. I'm going to just cut to the chase here. He's talking about salvation. All of God's festivals, His holy days, are about salvation. God's plan for salvation begins where? Begins with the Passover, representing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. What's the next step? The next step is we remove leaven, representing sin from our lives. But how do we remove the spiritual leaven from our lives? Well, the way we do that is by putting unleavened bread, the bread of life, into our lives. The unleavened bread of life, Jesus Christ. It's like getting the air out of a glass, or out of a cup, or container, or something. You know, if you have an empty cup up here, how do you get the air out of it?

How do you get the air out of it? Well, the easiest way is pour something else in.

Fill it up with something else. And it's the same thing with our lives here. If we want to get leaven out of our lives, the leaven of sin, of unrighteousness, and so on out of our lives, how do we do that?

Now, you would do it by replacing it with something else, by replacing the the leaven bread of sin with the unleavened bread of life, Jesus Christ. That's how we do it.

Continuing in verse 52 here, the Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us of his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For 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. As a living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. Notice the phrase that he uses here, him who feeds on me. That doesn't mean just taking that little piece of unleavened bread, once a year at Passover, and eating the little bit of unleavened bread that we eat throughout the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, what he says here is we have to feed on him. And that means all the time. That means year-round. That means we have to seek him. We have to hunger for him. We have to thirst for him. And if we don't do that, as he says here, we will have no life in us, no eternal life in us. And he also says here that he will raise up at the last day the one who abides in me and I in him, the one who abides, who lives in, the one that Christ is living in, and the one in whom we live. He lives his life in us. We live in him again. So if Christ is living in us and we are living in him, he promises that we will be raised up by him to eternal life at his return. So this is another major area that we can examine our lives in before Passover to see if we are taking it in a worthy manner.

To sum up, to what extent are we allowing Jesus Christ to live again in you, in your life? To what extent do you allow him to direct your thoughts, your priorities, your actions, your time?

How much do you run your own life and how much are you surrendering your life to him? Is he actively living in you, directing your thoughts, your actions, your life?

Let's turn now to the last of the three items. This won't take very long here.

I look at the clock up here. It's only 11 17, so we actually got plenty of time here.

Someone didn't change the clock last weekend. So let's turn now to the last of the three items, which was the institution of the symbol of the wine. We'll pick it up back in Matthew 26, verses 27 and 28. Then he took the cup and gave thanks, and 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 or the forgiveness of sins. So we see here that the wine symbolizes the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It symbolizes Him giving His life for the penalty of sin, which, as we know from Romans 6, 23, is death. The wages of sin, which is wages are what we earn, what we have earned from sin, is death, the death penalty. So why did Christ's disciples take the wine that night, and why do we take that cup of wine every year at the Passover? As Romans 3, 23, tells us, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All, without exception. Another passage, 1 John 1 and verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So we've all sinned, and we can't deny it. If we deny that we have sinned, we are deceiving ourselves. Also, we just read this in John 6 and verse 53, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. So this is again representing the wine, or referring to the wine representing His blood, and the New Covenant, the Passover service that we take. So what are some of the lessons we can learn from the symbolism of the wine about examining ourselves before Passover? We've covered a lot of territories so far, but I do want to cover a few more points here. First of all, what is the blood? What does blood represent in the Bible? How does the Bible describe blood? What does it do? Leviticus 17 verse 11, this is right after God commands, you shall not eat the blood. And then he explains why. Verse 11, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. Blood is an incredible substance. It carries oxygen throughout the body.

It carries nourishments, the different things our body needs to function throughout the entire body. It is just an amazing, incredible substance. As it says here, the life of the flesh is in the blood. Blood carries and distributes throughout the body everything that the body needs to live and to carry out its functions. So again, the context here in Leviticus is to explain the reason we are not to consume the blood, because the life is in the blood. Now what would that, today in our lives, we are relatively isolated from blood. Hopefully, unless you have a bunch of young boys or something. But to Jesus' audience, they were quite familiar with blood.

Blood represented life, and they saw that too often. If someone were seriously injured in an accident or were injured in battle, wounded in battle, or as they saw every year going to the temple three times a year, and saw the sacrifices carried out, they saw that as the blood flowed out of the body of the sacrificed animal, that that animal died. And if enough blood flowed out, the life was gone. They understood that connection of the life being in the blood very clearly, because it was spelled out clearly in Scripture. And it was something they encountered every year. Now, the wine that we take at Passover represents the ultimate penalty that Jesus Christ paid to take on Himself the penalty for sin which is death. It symbolizes Him literally laying down His life by shedding His blood and dying in our place. And now we don't have to suffer that death penalty ourselves, because He has done that for us. We don't become a dead sacrifice. What did Jesus Christ become? He became a dead sacrifice for three days and three nights as His body lay in the tomb there. He's now our living High Priest. Don't get me wrong. He's obviously resurrected to life again. But He was a dead sacrifice. He died. He shed His blood for us. Now, Jesus no longer expects us to die to pay the penalty for our sins.

But what does He expect us to do in light of the fact that He died for us?

Let's notice Romans 12 verses 1-2. This is from the New International version. Paul says, Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.

So Paul says here that Jesus Christ shed His blood and died as a sacrifice for you and for me.

And because of that, in view of God's mercy and doing this, we should do what is pleasing to God, to offer our bodies, our lives, as living sacrifices to God, which is our appropriate spiritual act of worship. And the wine that we take at Passover represents Jesus Christ's life.

His blood shed for us, and drinking the wine means that we understand and acknowledge that sacrifice. Drinking it symbolizes us taking in His life's blood in us, which allows us to be come a living sacrifice for God and to enable us to lay down our lives for others as Jesus Christ did.

But how can we do that? How can we demonstrate our lives as living sacrifices? Paul goes on to explain what that means. The next verse, verse 2, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. So what he means here is that we sacrifice living the way the world lives. We sacrifice the pleasures of this world, and the momentary satisfactions, the temporary pleasures that that brings. Instead, we become conformed to the mind of Jesus Christ as He lives again within us, as we've been talking about. We realize that if God hadn't called us out of the world, that we'd be right out doing the exact same things the rest of the world is doing and suffering the same consequences and the same emptiness in their lives. So this is another way that we can't examine ourselves before the Passover. What kind of living sacrifice are we? What kind of living sacrifice are we? I'm going to wrap this up because if you continue reading in Romans 12, He gives us a checklist of what it means to be a living sacrifice. A checklist can be helpful at a time of year like this and examining ourselves. Sometimes it can be counterproductive because we can get so discouraged by it. But Paul does give us a checklist here in Romans 12. I'm going to go through this quickly. I don't want you to write it down because you've got it. It's Romans 12. That's your checklist here. So here are some of the ways that Paul says we can be a living sacrifice. First of all, don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to. Use the gifts God has given you to serve others and serve the body. Love others without hypocrisy. Abhor evil. Clean to what is good. Love others with brotherly love. Give preference to one another. Don't lag in diligence. Serve the Lord. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Give to the needs of the saints. Be given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Don't be proud but associate with the humble. Don't be wise in your own opinion. Don't repay evil with evil.

Live peaceably with all men. Don't avenge yourselves. Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. These aren't all of them. There were some that I left out. But you've got a checklist for what it means to be a living sacrifice right there in Romans 12.

So you'll find again all of these I read as well as a few more. So in conclusion, as we approach the Passover this year, let's think about these three things that we've discussed today. The foot washing, the bread, and the wine. If we think about and examine ourselves and the ways that we've talked about today, we can be assured that we are truly taking the Passover in a worthy manner.