Passover Preparation

We're now just a tiny bit more than one week from the observance of the Passover. Soon the Passover 2014 will be history. Time goes very quickly. Here in Oklahoma City, we've talked a lot about becoming a big loser, at least I have, about the importance of losing the sin that so easily besets us and ensnares us. We covered seven important principles that should help us examine ourselves before Passover. So do you remember what those principles are? I'm not going to take much time, but I did want to go briefly through them. Just real quickly, number one, ask yourself, what is your relationship like with God the Father and Jesus Christ as you come into keeping the Passover? Do you have a close personal relationship? Is it like the one Moses had where he could talk directly to God and have a conversation with God? Are you following your coach's instructions? That is, God the Father and Jesus Christ. Are you obeying them? Are you keeping their commandments carefully? Have you fully accepted Christ as your Savior, your Lord, your Master, your High Priest? You are a soon-coming King. Okay, that's the first principle that we talked about in being able to lose the sin that easily besets us, is having that close relationship with God. Secondly, do you see yourself as a sinner? Have you admitted that you are a sinner? Have you confessed your sins before God? Have you repented of your sins? Thirdly, are you fully committed, surrendered to God, and putting God first in your life? Are you seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness? Number four, another step in becoming a big loser and drawing near to God, is are you on a good program of spiritual exercise? Are you on that spiritual quadrathlon that we talked about? Four events when it comes to spiritual exercise. Prayer, daily prayer, daily Bible study, reading the Bible, as I mentioned before. If you only read three chapters a day, you'll get through this whole book within a year. So if you haven't done that yet, why not set that as a goal and do it? It's very easily attainable. Just three or four chapters a day will get you through the Bible in one year.

What about meditation? Is that something that you practice continually? Are you meditating on God's way? Are you meditating on the principles of God as you go throughout your day? And are you also fasting on a regular basis? Fasting is a spiritual power tool. Some things don't happen, as Mr. Riley mentioned, except through prayer and fasting. So we do need to draw near to God. That was the fourth principle. The fifth one is, are you determined to be very careful to guard your mind and dwell only on those things that are good and virtuous?

Remember, we went through Philippians 4, verse 8. We need to be very careful to guard our minds. And the other side of that, number six, are you determined to reject all that is evil? Have you determined in your heart, have you set your mind to reject all that is evil that's coming in from Satan the devil, who's the God of this world?

And also the many evils in this world. With God's help, are you shattering all the strongholds that Satan has set up in your life? If you are habitually practicing a sin, there's a stronghold that is still extant. If you are an angry person, or if you are an envious person, a jealous person, if you're a lustful person, these are strongholds that Satan has set up in your life, and that you have allowed him to set up in your life, and you have to fight back.

You have to learn to reject the evil. And then number seven, the seventh principle or seventh step to putting sin out and becoming a big loser, is are you loyal to your church family? And are you fully engaged in helping God's church to become without spot, without wrinkle, without any such thing? God's church is to be united.

We are to become without spot or wrinkle. That's what God says. So if you're falling short of that, then you're not following the seventh principle of being loyal to God's church family, and being fully engaged in helping the church become without spot or wrinkle. Now, along with the sermons I've been giving to help prepare you for Passover, Mr. Redline gave a sermon I believe last week about the sacrifice, the suffering, and the submission of Jesus Christ, covering the vital importance of seeing Christ as that sacrifice that we need at this time of year and at all times.

I know Mr. Nunn recently spoke of putting sin out of our lives. I think about what Jesus said to the woman that had committed adultery, to go and sin no more. And that's what we're to be doing. We're to learn to go and sin no more. Mr. Cleaver recently gave a sermon about not offending your brother. So all these sermons are excellent in preparing for the Passover. So you've been getting some good messages to help prepare you for the Passover.

Perhaps you're listening to or watching the excellent series of Bible studies that's coming from the office, Six Steps to Passover. They're being presented by our three Beyond Today presenters. I think the sixth one is coming up this week. And you can go find those online if you haven't been tuning into those. There are many ways to prepare for Passover. You know, I've had people tell me in the past that they're not being spiritually fed.

You know, they come here and they feel they're not being spiritually fed. And I'm baffled by that, frankly, because for one thing, there's thousands and thousands of sermons out there on the Internet. The United Church of God ministers, if you don't like one, you can find another one. Or another one. Or another one. Or another one.

Or another one. I mean, there's thousands of sermons out there. Also, God is the one that is in these services. So you really should take it up with Him if you have a problem. Because it's not to say that sometimes we couldn't do a better job than we do. But nevertheless, that is not the reason you're not being spiritually fed. It's because you're not doing your part. To be spiritually fed, you need to daily study the Bible. You need to do your part. If you need to be fed spiritually, then you go find the food out there. Because it's there and God will feed you and God will supply it. So I've always been baffled by those types of comments.

Now, being properly prepared to observe the Passover is vitally important. We must not take lightly the renewal of this most important covenant with God the Father and with Jesus Christ. Are you prepared to participate in the Passover symbols of an leavened bread? And are you properly prepared also to wash one another's feet? Will you be worthy to take the Passover this year? Brethren, our minds should be focused on the tremendous meaning behind these Holy Days that we're about to observe. They picture something very real that points back to our history, going all the way back to Genesis, frankly, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Moses and the Exodus.

But these days, these observances also point forward to the fulfillment of God's great plan for mankind. Now, let's go back to Leviticus 23, and let's consider the instruction that is given here in regard to God's Holy Days.

Exodus 23, we know this as the Holy Day chapter. It's got all the Holy Days in it, as well as the Sabbath. Notice verse 4, these are the feasts of the Eternal, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. I've also been baffled why people sometimes think it's more important to be at church on the high days, and not so important to be here on the Sabbath. That's always puzzled me, because the Sabbath is also a holy convocation. They're equally important. In fact, the Sabbath is every single week, because we certainly need the Sabbath. Each week, the annual Holy Days are also very, very, very important. But they're all holy convocations. That means they're all commanded assemblies. On the 14th day of the first month of twilight is the Lord's Passover, and on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. Seven days, you must eat unleavened bread. And on the first day, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. So, it is important that we keep these days holy. We obviously should not be working on these days. We should be attending those commanded assemblies. Now, brethren, we are now in the putting out the leaven phase, as Mr. Ruddy mentioned in the sermonette. We're in the putting the leaven out of our home phase. We have some time to prepare for that still. We have about a week now. It's frankly a lot more complicated today than it was back in ancient times, when they basically had a tent to sweep out. They might have had a little larger dwelling than that. In some cases, I'm sure they did. But it's not nearly as complicated. They don't have mobile homes and vehicles. I've got three vehicles I need to clean out. A truck and two vehicles. I'm rich and increased with goods. And some of you have the same. You have a lot of things that you have to take care of. We often have big homes that need to be de-leavened. If we have children, it's very likely that they've spread leaven throughout the home. Taking their toast from room to room. Dropping crumbs everywhere. So we are in the putting the leaven out phase right now. Let's go to Exodus 12. Exodus 12. Let's look at Exodus 12. Romans 15.

So we continue to do that during the days of the leavened bread. We have services on the high days.

We are to eat unleavened bread, which is symbolic of Christ our Savior. He is the unleavened bread that comes down from heaven. So we should try to eat it every single day, if at all possible. Which normally is the first time we eat leavened bread. So we should try to eat it every single day, if at all possible. So we should try to eat it every single day, if at all possible. So we should try to eat it every single day, if at all possible. Which normally it is possible to do that. So I would encourage you to eat it every day, because Christ needs to be in our lives every single day. He needs to be dwelling in us. So eat the unleavened bread. Seven days during the days of unleavened bread. Certainly stay away from the leaven. If your bar is on automatic pilot and you are used to going to Dunkin Donuts, every day or every Monday or Tuesday, you're going to have to take it off automatic pilot. So we are to eat unleavened bread during this time. Now we know that Egypt is symbolic of sin, and leaven is symbolic of sin. The Israelites were leaving the Egyptians behind. We are to leave our sins behind. We are to put the leaven out of our homes and the sin out of our lives. Now, in regard to the Passover service, let's go to 1 Corinthians 11. Basically, this is a sermon preparing you for the Passover. It's all about preparing ourselves to take the Passover. We've got the leaven out of our homes. We're determined to put the leaven out of our lives spiritually. We go to the Passover service next Sunday evening. In 1 Corinthians 11, some very important instruction is given to us. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23.

This is often as you drink it and remember it to me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, and that's once a year on the Passover evening, it's more meaningful when we do it to commemorate the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We do it once a year. We don't do it every Sabbath or four or five times in a year. We do it once a year to commemorate the death, and it's very, very important for us. So as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.

Now, let's talk about that for a moment. This word, unworthily, here in verse 27, is a Greek word, anaxios, A-N-A-X-I-O-S. It's 371 in the concordance in Strong's. It means irreverently, or irreverently, indicating that a person may take the Passover without the proper attitude of humility and reverence for what these symbols picture spiritually.

So we're not to take the Passover irreverently. So our attitude needs to be right when we come here on the Passover. Now, let's talk about how the word worthy is used in the Bible for just a moment. Now, a couple of years ago, I gave an entire sermon on how to take the Passover in a worthy manner. And I asked, are you worthy to take the Passover? And we spent an entire sermon. We don't have that today, but we'll go through a few Scriptures.

We know that we're to live in a worthy manner. There are many, many Scriptures that talk about how we live our lives, and we are to live in a worthy manner, worthy of our calling. In Matthew 3, verse 8, here John the Baptist talks about bearing fruit that is worthy of repentance.

Matthew 3, in other words, we should bear fruit that shows that we have repented in our lives. Matthew 3, verse 8, Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. He was talking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and he said, They should bear fruits worthy of repentance. And do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our Father. That's not enough. You have to produce fruit. And of course, the fruit of God's Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience, goodness and kindness, gentleness, self-control, it's faithfulness.

These are the fruits of God's Spirit, and those are fruits that are worthy of repentance. It shows that we have repented of our sins when we are producing the fruit of God's Spirit in abundance. This word, worthy, in Matthew 3, verse 8, is the Greek word axios. So it's basically the opposite of the word that we just talked about, unworthily and worthily. So this is the opposite of irreverently. It's talking about reverently. It's also deserving and suitable. So when we come here for the Passover, we need to be deserving, and we need to be suitable.

So what does that mean? Are we deserving? Let's go to 2 Thessalonians 1, as we answer that question. Are we worthy to take the Passover? 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. Now, that's a wonderful thing to say about a church, isn't it? That everyone's love abounds toward each other. Everyone's getting along well. Everyone cares for each other. This was the church at Thessalonica, verse 4, so that we ourselves, speaking about Paul and Silas, Timothy and others, Sylvanas, we ourselves boasted you among the churches of God for your patience and faith, and all of your persecutions and tribulations.

See, it wasn't easy back then, either. Life was hard back then. It's hard today. In all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God.

It does say that we will suffer persecution if we are to enter into God's kingdom. But it's interesting. It says that you may be counted worthy. Now, this is the word cataxiu. It's probably butchered pretty badly by me. I don't know exactly how to pronounce that, but it's a Greek word. cataxi00. It is related to the other words that we already mentioned that have the X in them as well.

This is 2661 in Strongest and Coordinates. It means to deem entirely deserving of the kingdom of God. We are to be deemed entirely deserving of God's kingdom. We are to be counted worthy or deemed worthy of God's kingdom. Now, when we look at 2 Thessalonians, let's go over to...

well, let's just go to verse 11 here. Skip a couple verses. Notice this. It says, Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy. Now it brings in something a little different. God is the one that counts you worthy. So is it that we are worthy or is it that God deems us worthy or counts us worthy?

Now, we know that we all fall short of God's glory. We're all sinners. So are any of us really worthy in that sense? Certainly, we're not like Christ who is perfect. We all fall short of His glory. But the beauty of it is God is the one who counts us worthy. And He does so through the process that God the Father and Jesus Christ set up. Forgiveness through His Son. Remember, He was slain from the foundations of the world. So in verse 11 and 12 here, in 2 Thessalonians...

There we go. In verse 11 and 12 again, Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we know that we're all saved by grace. None of us are going to earn our salvation through keeping the law. However, we are called to keep the law and we are to keep God's commandments and to live by them. So how is it that God counts us worthy or deems us worthy?

In Luke 21, it talks about the need for us to be praying always that we will be counted worthy. Matthew 21, this is a parallel chapter with... I'm sorry, it's Luke 21, which is a parallel chapter with Matthew 24. In Luke 21, verse 34. You're quite familiar, I'm sure, with this verse, a couple of verses here. Luke 21, verse 36. Well, let's read verse 34 along with it. Here Christ says, It's talking about the day of Christ's return, the day of judgment that's coming upon the firstfruits. Because judgment has begun upon God's church at this time. We are being judged. And again, how we treat each other, how we learn to love each other is very, very important. For this day will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy.

My margin also says that you may have the strength to be worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. Now again, this is the word kataksyu, which means, again, to deem entirely deserving. That's what the word means, to deem entirely deserving. We're to be praying that we will be counted worthy and deserving.

And you know, God is looking at your heart, and that's the most important thing, is what is your heart like? Do you have a pure heart? Is your heart pure, or is your heart full of envy and jealousy? Is it full of lust and greed? Or is it a pure heart? God is looking on your heart. And that's primarily how He deems you worthy. Are you repentant? Do you have a repentant heart? We also know that the Bible says that the heart is deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.

That's the human element of our heart. The fleshly heart, the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to God's law, but we are told to walk in the Spirit, aren't we? And that's how we can be different, is if we are allowing the Spirit of God. Again, if we are producing the fruits that show we are worthy of repentance, love and joy and peace, patience and kindness and goodness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness. These are the qualities that we need to be producing in our lives.

So God looks at that. What are you doing in your life? How are you living your life? He also, again, looks on a person as to whether or not they are repentant, and with a real godly sorrow as well. In Hebrews 10, and this is where it talks about what we call the unpardonable sin. Hebrews 10. The unpardonable sin is basically when a person has been enlightened by the Spirit of God, and then they turn from that Spirit, and they turn from God, and they are no longer interested in trying to do it God's way. And so God takes His Spirit away from them. And in Hebrews 10, verse 29, it talks of a person who is worthy of punishment because he trampled the Son of God underfoot.

Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 29. Of how much more worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? It says, For we know him who said, Benjis is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his people.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It's a fearful thing if you are outside of God's forgiveness. If you haven't been admitting your sins, confessing your sins before God, and repenting of your sins, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. On the other hand, if we are striving to obey God and serve him, and we are pleasing in his sight, then of course we know that God will grant us his kingdom.

It's his good pleasure to give us his kingdom. That's his desire. That's what he wants for all of us. In Luke 22, let's go there for a moment. Again, in preparing for the Passover, we need to consider these verses. We need to consider whether or not we are truly pleasing to God and walking with Him. Luke 22, verse 7, Follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, The teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?

Then he will show you a large furnished upper room, their make ready. So they went and found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. And when the hour had come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles sat down with him.

Then he said to them, With fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. So the Passover was established by Christ Himself. And one of the things that he first did that evening was to wash the feet of his disciples. This was really astounding, I think, to them, and especially Peter, who didn't want him to wash his feet.

Let's go to John 13, and I know you'll be going through this on Passover, but I believe it's important to reflect on it now as we prepare for the Passover. It will mean that much more to us when we go to Passover, and we know we've considered this and thought about it.

And we are ready to wash one another's feet. Verse 1 of chapter 13.

And then he had come from God and was going to God. He rose from supper and laid aside his garments. He took a towel and he girded himself. And 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. And of course, Peter had a problem with that, but he told Peter, If you don't allow me to wash you, then you're in a heap of trouble. Basically, he said, He was bathed and he's 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.

So he was talking about, of course, Judas Iscariot who was betraying him. But Christ said that he would have no part with me in verse 8. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. If Jesus was not allowed to wash him, he would have no part with him. So Christ sent an example for us by washing his disciples' feet.

For one thing, we all need to be cleansed, and the disciples needed to be cleansed. Their feet were dirty, and certainly they fell short of the glory of their master. So he washed their feet to clean them up. He cleaned up his disciples. He will also clean us up. And we should have a sincere desire to help others clean themselves as well. Now, from Scripture, we know that we're to get the plank out of our own eye first, though, right? Before we can help someone else become clean, we need to make sure that we're clean.

And we need to certainly get the planks out of our own eyes so we can see clearly to help someone get a speck out of their eye. So it is important, if you have a sincere desire to be clean, you're going to humble yourself, and you'll accept the help of others. Sometimes people hate to have their feet washed. They would weather wash another person's feet. I think I'm kind of that way. I'd rather wash someone else's feet than have them wash mine. Sometimes it's difficult to receive help from others. We're a bit proud. We don't want that kind of help. But we are to wash one another's feet.

We are to allow others to wash our feet, expressing our willingness to be cleansed and to receive help in being cleansed. So we're all in this together. We are to help each other in this way. So how willing are we to esteem others better than ourselves?

We need their help. We need to allow them to help clean us up. This was quite a lesson in service and in humility. It's likely that the disciples had been arguing earlier that day or that evening about whom among them was the greatest. Perhaps their attitudes directly triggered Christ's decision to wash their feet. We don't know that. That's just a speculation. Christ may have had that well in mind before that, but he may have seen the attitudes that they had and realized that they had some growing to do still.

I'm sure he knew that anyway. Christ was clearly looked upon as the greatest by his disciples, and now he was washing their feet. Again, this was quite a lesson in service and humility. We should all strive to have an attitude of humility and service. How willing are we to sacrifice ourselves to serve others? The Bible in Romans 12.1 says we are to be a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable.

It is our reasonable service to become living sacrifices. You might ask yourself, do you have a friend in God's Church that is able to correct you without you bristling and taking offense? Perhaps, do you have a lot of friends in God's Church that could correct you without bristling and taking offense to that?

You might also ask yourself, are you a friend who is able to correct another friend in humility? In other words, will you go to them in a humble way so that they might actually receive you? Because if you go to them heartily and with pride, it's not likely they're going to receive you anyway. So what kind of friend are you? Now, if a person knows we love and respect them, it is much easier for them to receive correction from us. And if we love and respect someone else, they can also be effective in helping us. So love and respect is very, very important. We should learn to love and respect each other.

Friendships are important in God's Church. Let's consider some lessons from the bread and wine. Hopefully, we'll go to Passover, ready to wash one another's feet humbly, learning the lessons that Christ wants us to learn. In Isaiah 53, there is a prophecy regarding our Savior who died for us. It was prophesied well in advance of Christ's first coming as a human being born of a woman.

Isaiah 53, verse 3, He is despised and rejected by men. Christ is a man of sorrows. He's acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised. And by the way, it's we that are hiding from God.

It's not God hiding from us. Sometimes people get that backwards. They think God's hiding from them. God's off somewhere hiding, but He's not hiding at all. He's right there for us. But we have to turn to Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Verse 4, Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Certainly, Christ was the one that was going through all of this for us.

Not because of anything that He had done. Christ was perfect. Christ was without sin. But He was wounded for our transgressions in verse 5. He was wounded for your transgressions, for my transgressions, for all of our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed.

We are healed because Christ laid His life down for us. We can be healed spiritually, and we are healed spiritually because of the sacrifice of Christ. We can also be healed physically through the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. All we, like the chief of Ganesre, have turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Christ bore all of our sins, and He died for us once, and that was enough. He was the perfect sacrifice for us. So when we come to the Passover, let us remember this prophecy. We'll read it again on Passover. Christ suffered for us, 1 Peter 2. He bore our sins. We killed Jesus Christ because we are sinners. 1 Peter 2, verse 20.

1 Peter 2, verse 20. For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults you take it patiently, but when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God? So there's no credit in suffering when you've done wrongly, but there is credit if you haven't done anything wrong, and you take it patiently, then it's commendable before God. For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when He was reviled did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously, who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, and we die to sins when we go under that watery grave, when we accept baptism, when we are totally immersed and the old man is buried. Mr. Riley indicated that the old man likes to come out of the grave and cause us problems, and so he does. But nevertheless, we died with Christ when we entered into this covenant at baptism. We went under the watery grave, our sins were washed away. We were cleansed. We were made whole. God loves us. His Son paid the price for us. And the Father loved us enough to give up His eternal Friend, His companion, throughout eternity. It's hard to fathom. Christ said, I and my Father are one. They were so close. They loved each other deeply and have always loved each other. They are submissive to one another, in that sense. I mean, Christ being submissive, certainly, to the Father. And so they set the perfect example for us. So when we go to the Passover, we need to remember who we serve. They bore our sins, or Christ bore our sins, and the Father allowed that to happen. And we saw His Son in agony as He was dying on the stake. In Hebrews 4, we see that Christ is, even today, our High Priest. He came out of the grave. He was resurrected just as we come out of our watery grave. And we are to walk in newness of life. Now, Christ came out of the tomb after three days and three nights. He did eventually ascend to the Father. And then, He is now at the right hand of God, and He makes intercession for us. He is our High Priest. Hebrews 4, verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet He without sin. So Christ knows what it's like to be tempted. He knows how difficult it is. He knows how hard it is to remain faithful because He experienced it. So He knows more about temptation than any of us do, because He was tempted more than we are. Because when we're tempted, oftentimes we sin. Christ never did. So He understands temptation. He knows how difficult it is. So He is there to make intercession for us when we come boldly before the throne of grace. Notice verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now, do you have a time of need right now before Passover? Is there such a time right now? Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 11, and let's finish something we started a little earlier. 1 Corinthians 11.

Okay, we read up to verse 27. Remember we talked about taking the Passover in an unworthy manner? Then we will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. So we have to come here with the right attitude in a right manner. Verse 28. But let a man examine himself. So it doesn't say in verse 27 and 28, 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.

So don't come to Passover. Now, that's what some people conclude, is, I'm not worthy, and I'm not going to go to Passover because I know I'm not worthy, and I'm going to stay home. Now, I've had people come to that conclusion, but that is not the proper conclusion, and that is not what the Scripture says. Notice what it does say. But let a man examine himself. Okay, that's what we're supposed to do.

We're supposed to examine ourselves, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. So the important thing is that you examine yourself, and hopefully you've been doing that the last several weeks. You've been examining yourself, and you have all this week to continue to examine yourself, and then to come here and to 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 it is essential that we come here with the right attitude and with the right approach. And we need to, obviously, keep this in a way that is pleasing and right and good in God's sight.

But it does say again that we are to examine ourselves and then come and eat the bread and drink the cup. Because we desperately need the sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, if we've been baptized and received God's Holy Spirit, then that covenant needs to be renewed. We need to come here on the Passover. So we should examine ourselves and repent of whatever it is we may still need to repent of.

And we need to have that humble attitude, that attitude of a servant, of someone who really cares for one another, who loves each other. There shouldn't be any reason why you would not want to wash anybody's feet. I've heard people say that they didn't want to wash a certain person's feet. That is an attitude that, frankly, would get anyone in a lot of trouble with God. Because we have to have the attitude.

We have to esteem others better than ourselves. We have to be prepared, even if we may not like someone very much, or we think there's a problem with someone. Perhaps we need to think about that this week and pray about that, and ask God to forgive us for holding something against our brother or our sister in Christ. We need to learn to forgive each other, because we're going to be forgiven in the same manner that we forgive others. So if you hold a grudge against someone, then you are in jeopardy of the lake of fire.

That's what the Scripture tells us. You'll be forgiven in the same manner that you forgive others. Sometimes we hold grudges, and we're not even sure why. It could be because of envy and jealousy, or that sort of thing. So we really have to examine ourselves and be careful with that.

Now, let's go to 1 Corinthians 10 for a moment, just a couple of pages earlier. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16, The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion or the fellowship or sharing of the blood of Christ? Remember, Christ said that His disciples were to eat His body and drink His blood. And that really threw some of them for a loop. In fact, many of them laughed. They thought He was weird. They thought He was strange. Eat my body, drink my blood. He was talking about this thing that we do when we come here on Passover evening.

We drink His blood. We eat His body. What does all that mean? So the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion. We commune with Christ. We accept Christ as our Savior. We understand that He shed His blood for us. That He died for us. He is the perfect sacrifice for us. He is our personal Savior. The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Christ's body is broken for us.

We eat that bread. We take on that sacrifice. We accept that sacrifice. For we, though many, are one bread and one body. For we all partake of that one bread. When we come here on Passover evening, we all eat a piece of unleavened bread. A tiny piece of unleavened bread. It is showing that we are all a part of God's Church. We are all a part of His family.

God is called each and every one of us to be a part of His Kingdom and to last for eternity or to live forever in God's Kingdom. Let's talk about some lessons from the unleavened bread that we'll eat first on the Passover evening. The life and body of Jesus Christ is what made His blood so precious.

It was His body, His human body, and the life that He lived in the flesh. He lived that life perfectly. He paid the penalty for our sins. We are human beings.

We have all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We all come under the death penalty because we're all sinners. Christ, on the other hand, came in the flesh and He was perfect without sin. And so He became our sacrifice. He was because of His perfect sinless life in the flesh. So eating the bread Passover evening symbolizes us, allowing Christ to live in us now. After baptism, after we receive the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ, it's the same exact Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

We are to live the same life that Christ lived. One of humility, one of service, one of faithfulness, one of obedience. When we all eat a piece of 11 bread, we collectively show that we're all members of the body of Christ. The Church of God, and individually, we're each one, a small piece. I'm sorry, individually, we are all each just one piece of a greater body. Collectively, we are God's elect.

We are each a part of something much bigger than ourselves. So collectively, as the body of Christ, of those who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them, as the firstfruits, we are important. Not because of who we are, but what God has done in us. Remember what it says in Matthew 24, Except for the elect's sake, no flesh would be saved alive. If it isn't for the elect, for those who remain faithful, called chosen and faithful, then all humanity would be wiped off the face of the earth.

That would be the end of the human race. But for the elect's sake, those days will be cut short before all people are destroyed. The book of Revelation talks about plague after plague after plague that's going to come upon the earth because of the sins of mankind. It is God's wrath on a sinning people, and if it were not for the elect's sake, that remnant, then all flesh would die. No one would be saved alive.

So it is important that we consider what we are doing when we eat that bread. We're all a part of God's Church. We have a responsibility to become without spot or wrinkle or any such thing as the body of Christ. Now let's go to Matthew 26, where Christ instituted the symbols of the bread and the wine. Matthew 26.

Matthew 26, verse 27 and 28. Matthew 26, verse 27. Then He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, 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 the remission of sins. It does obviously allow our sins to be forgiven when we take this. It's a renewal of the covenant. Because when we come out of that watery grave, we're only perfect for a short time. I mean, we're only cleansed for a short time. Because still being in the flesh, we will fall short of God's glory. We will sin against God, and we will again come under the death penalty. And it's only an ongoing relationship of repentance and faith that allows us to be forgiven day by day. And so we come on the Passover evening to reestablish that covenant with God.

So what about some lessons from the wine? The wine clearly represents the shed blood of Christ. We are cleansed and forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Humility is also needed to realize that we can't gain salvation on our own. It isn't just me and God. It isn't that we can just stay home, as some people have decided to do, and not go to that commanded assembly. That God tells us we should do. Some have come to the conclusion that it's just me and God, I can stay home. I've got my Bible. I've got God. I don't need anyone or anything else. That clearly is in defiance of the Scriptures. The Scriptures show that we do need each other. We are God's people, and we need each other.

We really are not self-sufficient, even though we like to pride ourselves in being self-sufficient. We do need the sacrifice of Christ, and we absolutely need to accept Christ as our personal Savior. We must be cleansed spiritually by first having our sins forgiven. Then we must be cleansed spiritually by an ongoing relationship with our High Priest, who makes intercession for us when we sin after initially being forgiven of our sins of baptism. So our sins are washed away at baptism. We come out of that watery grave. We have hands laid upon us by a true minister of Christ, one who is obedient to God, not perfect, but striving to obey God and serve Him and represent Christ in that sense, one of Christ's disciples, one of His ministers. God grants Him His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. He's sanctified and set apart. He's sealed by the Spirit of God.

But He still is subject to the flesh. Paul talked about the battle that we will fight, and we will continue to fight until Christ returns and we're changed to Spirit. So we need this ongoing repentant attitude so our sins may be forgiven.

Humility is a thread throughout the whole Passover service and the Holy Day season. It is not just a lesson to be learned from foot washing. To become unleavened is to be cleansed spiritually. To be unleavened is to be flattened, is to be humbled from a spiritual perspective. Now, wine is known for its properties as a blood purifier. That's why 1 Timothy 5.23 says, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake, for your often infirmities. So, wine is a blood purifier, especially the red wine.

The blood of Christ shed for us cleanses us from all sin. It purifies us. Wine is also known as an antiseptic. I guess whiskey was too, wasn't it? That kind of alcohol. They used it back in the old days in the Old West. Somebody gets shot. They pour whiskey all over them. It's good for cleaning cuts and wounds. Certainly Christ's blood is good for cleaning cuts and wounds.

We've been cut and we've been wounded. And through Christ's shed blood, those cuts and wounds are healed. Brethren, we should treat each member of God's Church as we would treat Jesus Christ. We should treat them with love and respect.

Although the body can function with hurting, with diseased, or amputated parts, it is not as effective and we must learn to compensate. The body has to learn to compensate. When someone is hurting, is diseased, or has a body part that's amputated, we are to be responsible members of the Church of God. We represent God's way to others and we should represent it very well. In Galatians 2, verse 20, Paul talks about having Christ live in us. Galatians 2, verse 20. Galatians 2, verse 20. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is 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. We are to live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. And Christ is to live in us and we're to walk in the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. We must continually kill the self and let Christ live in us.

We must keep that old man buried, keep him dead. Christ's love, Christ's faith, His obedience, His character must live in us, must permeate us and must flow from us. We must make sure what we add to the body is unleavened, not leavened. We should not be responsible for leavening the body of Christ. Each part, each member must continually be de-leavening itself, or putting the leaven out, taking responsibility.

Now, many more scriptures could be... We could go to many more scriptures that talk about the sacrifice of Christ, that talk about Christ as our mediator, how we're redeemed by the blood of Christ, how Christ paid the penalty for our sins, how Christ died in our stead, how the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. These scriptures are all in the Bible. We don't have time to go to them.

The night to be much observed is a very important evening that you'll be keeping soon. It pictures our thankfulness for being delivered from sin through Christ's sacrifice, that Passover lamb that is sacrificed for us. It also shows our deliverance from bondage, from slavery in Egypt. God saw their suffering, He saw their cruel bondage, and He intervened. God sees your suffering, and God will intervene, and God will never leave you or forsake you.

We do need to put our faith and trust in God at all times. The days of 11 bread follow after the night to be much observed, or actually the beginning of the days of 11 bread. So we keep these days, and again we eat unleavened bread, symbolic of Christ living in us. We stay away from the 11, and we put it out of our lives. So, brethren, it is important that we consider these Holy Days that we're about to observe.

These days picture the beginning steps of God's wonderful plan of salvation for each and every one of us. They picture a new world that is surely coming. We are all called now to be firstfruits. We're called to come out of this world to be different. We are called chosen and faithful. We must remain faithful as time goes on. We will do that if we have a Passover attitude. If we can have that type of attitude throughout the remaining years of our lives, then we will be called chosen and faithful.

But the problem is, a lot of people in the past haven't done that. They have not had that Passover attitude. They haven't had that foot washing attitude or that attitude that's reminiscent of the broken body of Jesus Christ and the shed blood of Christ. That's the kind of approach that we need to have. So, brethren, let us keep the Passover and let us keep the Feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

But let us do so with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, not of hypocrisy. Remember what Jesus said about hypocrites. Christ was basically death on hypocrites. Matthew 23, over and over again, He excoriated the scribes and the Pharisees because they were hypocrites. They didn't practice what they preached.

So, brethren, let's practice what we've heard today in God's Word. Let's examine ourselves. Let's humble ourselves. Let's use the week that we have in front of us to draw closer to God to make sure that we spend enough time in prayer and in study of the Bible, perhaps even fasting this week. Let us prepare for observing the Passover and let us keep the Passover in a worthy manner.