Passover Season

Well, brethren, in less than one week now, we will be observing the Passover. Of course, we know the Passover is the memorial of the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In past years, and I'm sure this year, you have considered the need to examine yourself and to ask the question, am I worthy to take the Passover? This is a question we've asked ourselves for many years, those of us who have been in the church.

Hopefully you understand that you are worthy only because God and Christ deem you or count you worthy. We've all sinned, we've all fallen short of God's glory. In that sense, none of us are worthy. But God actually counts us or deems us worthy when He looks at our heart. When He sees in our heart a repentant attitude, a repentant approach, then we are counted worthy.

And we are to be here at the Passover. Baptized members who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them need to renew their covenant each Passover. They need to be here. Sometimes Satan wants us to get discouraged. He wants us to think that we're not worthy and that we shouldn't be here. Well, the fact of the matter is that none of us are really worthy in that sense because, again, we're all sinners. But that's why we need to be at the Passover.

And we do need to examine ourselves because only then does God look at our heart and see that we have repented of our sins and that we have a repentant heart and mind. So, are you really striving to put sin out of your life?

Is that a goal that you have to put sin out, to become more like Christ, to become unleavened? Do you realize that you are a sinner? Are you willing to admit that you are a sinner and that you need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

You need that sacrifice applied on your behalf. Now, brethren, we understand that there's no requirement for absolute perfection for us in this physical, fleshly life because we know that only Jesus Christ, who was the Son of God, was completely perfect without sin. Yes, he was in the flesh. He was completely flesh, but he was also the Son of God. And he was the perfect sacrifice for us, and only he could be that perfect sacrifice. He laid his life down for us. We need to accept that wonderful sacrifice and be here, pass over evening. So, we don't put ourselves under the burden of thinking that we have to be perfect in this life, in this fleshly, sinful life.

We're just not going to get there in the flesh. But nevertheless, we do realize that we are to strive for perfection. Matthew 5, 48, it says, become you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. And that's what we want. We want to become like Christ. We want to become like the Father. We want to become unleavened. So, brethren, it is important that we strive for perfection, that we do put sin out of our lives, and that we do walk worthy of our calling, our wonderful calling.

At this time of Passover, we should understand the importance of having a clean heart. We should go to God and ask God to create in us a pure, a clean heart, a clean heart for God and for all of His ways. We observe the Passover because we are instructed to do so in God's Word. We are instructed to keep it. So, again, we need to be here Passover. Now, we know that the Passover is for people who have committed themselves fully, who have gone under the waters of baptism, who have had hands laid upon them for the receipt of the Holy Spirit, and who have received the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit is dwelling in them.

Now, we know that God's Spirit is powerful and God's Spirit works with us before conversion, before we're fully committed, before we're baptized. The Spirit of God works with people and, frankly, the Spirit of God works with anyone if that person is truly seeking to do God's will. But that doesn't mean they're converted. It doesn't mean that the Spirit of God is dwelling in them. So, this is a renewal of our commitment that we made at baptism when we surrendered our life over to God and over to Jesus Christ.

So, we do not take the Passover lightly as God's people.

We observe the Passover again because we're instructed to do so. We also realize that there are certain specific practices, certain symbols, and lessons that God wants us to consider and to review every Passover season. So, today's sermon is entitled, Passover Season Practices, Symbols, and Lessons. So, it is an important message as we prepare to keep the Passover this Thursday evening. What are some practices and symbols that God uses to teach us during this Passover season? And what are we to learn personally and also collectively from observing these practices and symbols that God has instituted each year?

First of all, let's talk about the practice of foot washing and the lessons that we are to learn and practice in our lives. In John 13, it gives the account of Jesus Christ kneeling down and washing the feet of His disciples. Jesus Christ, who is the Master, humbled Himself.

He got down on His knees, He was girded with a towel, and He washed their feet. And it was quite surprising and shocking to them that their Master would kneel down like that in front of them and wash their feet. Now, I'm not going to take the time to go to John 13 because Mr. Wright, who will he and I will be sharing the Passover service in Richardson this year, he will be reading about the Passover service, and you will go through that with him. But I wanted to give you two lessons to be thinking about before you come to the Passover service. First of all, the Passover service begins with foot washing. We wash one another's feet. So it's all about humility and service, first of all. Humility and service. And humility is a theme that carries out throughout all of the Passover practices. We must come humbly before God's throne. We must humble ourselves. So washing one another's feet is all about learning humility. It's all about learning to serve one another. We are called to serve. In fact, it says in Ephesians 6 that you are created for good works. That's why God made you and created you. God expects you to do something with your life, to serve others, to completely dedicate yourself to God and His way of life.

Remember that the disciples were arguing about who is the greatest. In fact, that may be one reason why Christ decided to wash their feet that evening. Because they didn't get it. They were concerned about who is greatest. Christ was showing them that the greatest was willing to get down and wash their feet, not argue about who is greatest. It showed that they had a lot to learn, and Christ was teaching them that evening. A second thing that we learn from the footwashing is that we need to be cleaned up, and Christ cleans us up. Christ is our Lord, our Master. He's the Great Shepherd. He cleans us up.

So do you want to be cleaned up? Do you feel like you need to be cleaned up?

Do you feel a need to have Christ clean you up?

The disciples' feet were dirty. There were dusty roads back in those days, and they were walking those roads. They had gathered together for that meal. And they needed to be cleaned up, and Christ cleaned them up. He cleaned up their feet. Do you have a genuine desire to have your feet cleaned, to have your whole body cleaned? Remember what Peter did. He said, Lord, you can't wash my feet. He was thinking that Christ was too great to be kneeling down and washing his feet. But Christ told him, you've got to let me wash your feet, or you'll have no part with me. And then, as Peter often did, he went overboard, and he said, Christ will wash all of me then. Now, God wants us to have a balanced life. He wants us to be balanced in the way we live our lives. He said, your whole body is not dirty, but your feet are dirty.

So that's what needs to be cleaned. So we need to examine ourselves and see what's dirty inside. What is it that you need to have cleansed? Christ can clean that for you. So, do you have a genuine desire to be cleaned? And also, do you have a genuine desire to help others, like Christ? You know, Christ wanted to clean up the disciples. And frankly, he wants all of us to learn to help each other. In fact, you may remember I gave two sermons prior to the Passover. One was on the spirit of forgiveness. The other one was, actually, it was a series of two sermons on going to your brother. Why do you think I gave these particular sermons leading up to Passover? It wasn't just because I had them and didn't want to prepare any new ones. Actually, I didn't have those. Those were not old sermons. Those were new sermons that I put together. Now, the spirit of forgiveness I had given in the past, but not the ones on going to your brother. But the reason I gave those sermons is because we all need to realize that we have to have a spirit of forgiveness and we have to be willing to go to our brother and make amends. Because that's what Passover is all about. It's reconciliation. It's reconciling with one another. And remember what Christ said, if you don't forgive others, I'm not going to forgive you. And that's what you really need to take to Passover this year. Have you forgiven those you need to forgive? Which basically amounts to everyone. And we spent a whole sermon talking about that. So I would encourage you to go back and listen to those three sermons. If you weren't here and you missed those, go back and listen to them. Or if you have time or if you'd like to, go back and listen to them again. Let's go to Galatians 6, verse 1 and consider a scripture here that Paul wrote to the Galatians. Galatians 6. You know, the people back in Galatia were very similar to the people that are here today. They were fleshly human beings. They weren't perfect. They had their faults. Galatians 6, verse 1, Paul writes, brethren, if a man is overtaken or is caught in any trespass, in any sin, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Considering yourself lest you also be tempted. The fact of the matter is, Satan tries to tempt all of us to become full of pride and to become haughty, to become self-righteous.

It says, spiritual ones, you should restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, in the spirit of gentleness. God wants us to meekly serve one another. He wants us to humble ourselves and really be a help to one another. We need to get rid of the pride and the self-righteousness. We need to get the plank out of our eyes so that we can see clearly to help someone who has maybe just a speck in their eye. But they want to change and they want to grow. I may have mentioned this before, but my wife had a close friend in Michigan quite a few years ago. And it was the first time she washed someone's feet that she was really close to. They had an intimate relationship. They really got on well. They actually helped correct each other. They spent time with each other. They went out of their way to spend some time with each other. And that close relationship made that Passover even more meaningful when they washed each other's feet.

Intimate spiritual relationships within the body of Christ are important. That's why it's important to get to know each other. That's why I personally want to get to know each and every one of you as well as I possibly can so that we can be friends and so that we can help each other grow and become more like Christ.

I may have, I don't know that I mentioned here, but my wife actually knows every person that she's ever washed her feet for the past 30-some years, 40 years. Yet she actually has a list. Now, I can't say I have a list. I don't remember who I washed last year. But maybe that's the difference between men and women or just my wife and I. But she's meticulous about some of those kinds of things, and she knows whose feet she's washed. But the point I'm trying to make here is that we need to have intimate relationships with one another, and we need to get to know each other, right kinds of relationships that God would be pleased with.

Also, I may have mentioned that Barbara washed an elderly woman's feet some years ago.

Barbara said, I thought I was being kind and gentle, but she had arthritic feet, and I realized I was hurting her. Cleansing done in humility and love will be as gentle as possible.

So sometimes we don't realize that we might be hurting someone because of our approach. We may think we're doing exactly the right thing, but perhaps we need to know them better so that we will be better able to serve them in a way that would be helpful toward them.

So the foot washing is all about serving one another. It's all about cleansing. It's being willing to be cleansed. It's about being willing to let someone wash your feet. I believe in some ways that's more humbling to let someone else wash your feet.

It's also about being willing to serve by washing someone else's feet. These are important lessons that we need to bring to the Passover this year.

Now let's talk about the practice of drinking wine and the lessons that we are to learn from drinking the wine. We just drink a little thimbleful of wine at the Passover. I'd like to share with you four lessons that we can learn from drinking the wine. The first one is that the wine represents being cleansed as well.

It also represents being forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Now a little wine is good for the blood. It's also good for the stomach, as Paul said in the book of Timothy, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake and for your often infirmities, because wine actually helps purify the blood. It's good for the blood. A little bit of wine.

Blood cleanses. The blood cleanses out the impurities and the waste products in our metabolic processes. Nutrients would be of no value if the waste products couldn't be removed, and the blood helps remove those waste products. The body would be poisoned without the blood, cleansing the cells. So the wine represents the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Let's go to Romans 5 for a moment. Let's read a few verses here in the book of Romans, verses 8-10, and chapter 5, verse 8.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That's why He died for us, because we're all sinners. We all need a sacrifice. We need a Savior. Verse 9, "...much more than having now been justified by His blood, His shed blood, we are made right through the blood of Christ." When we accept Christ as our Savior, when we repent of our sins, our sins are forgiven through the blood of Christ. It says, "...we shall be saved from wrath through Him." The wages of sin is death.

There is wrath upon those who will not repent of their sins. There is eternal death for those who will not repent of their sins. God will cast them into the lake of fire.

But it's through the Son of God, through Jesus Christ, that we don't have to be partakers of that wrath. God loves us. He doesn't want... He wants everyone to be saved. He's not willing that any should perish, but that everyone should come to repentance. But God doesn't force any of us. We get to make the choice.

Verse 10, "...for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." We know that Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father. He lives. He makes intercession for us. He hears our prayers. He sees what's going on down here. He intercedes on our behalf when Satan the Devil accuses us before Him because we've sinned. And Satan has tempted us to sin and we followed the tempter. Christ is there for us. He is our High Priest. He laid His life down for us. He continues to do so.

And He grants us repentance for our sins.

If we have the right heart and the right mind, a willing heart and mind, ultimately God is going... again, He's going to burn up unrepentant sinners. It is sobering to contemplate that also God's wrath will be poured out on a sinful world in the days ahead before Christ returns. We don't know when that day will be, but we know we're drawing ever closer to Christ's return. Back in the time of Egypt when the Israelites were being led out of Egypt, God poured plague after plague after plague on Egypt. And He said, let My people go. He led His children out of Egypt. He led them out of sin. And God is continuing to do that today through the sacrifice of His Son.

Satan still doesn't want to let God's people go. He is a roaring lion. He is seeking whom He may devour. We're going to have God's protection in the future, but we need to be close to God and Christ, and we need to have that intimate relationship with Him first and foremost and with His Son.

Yes, brethren, we are justified by Christ-shed blood. We are humbled by realizing that, that Christ had to die for us, that we were responsible for killing Christ. Every last one of us bears some burden because of that. We've all sinned, and Christ died for each and every one of us. So again, humility is a thread throughout the entire season. We drink that wine that is symbolic of Christ's blood, and we realize that we had a part in killing Christ and that Christ died for us. And also, cleansing is linked to drinking that wine as well and being cleansed through the blood of Christ. Do cleanse people with a heart to follow God and an appreciation of the cleansing and sacrifice of Christ, do they want to wallow in the mire? Ask yourself that question. When you go back to sin, you are wallowing in the mire. That's what you're doing. When you take sin lightly, you are wallowing in the mire. Let's go to 2 Peter 2 and read a couple important verses here from the Apostle Peter. 2 Peter 2, verse 18. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allureth through the lust of the flesh. He's talking about false teachers now, and there will continue to be false teachers until Christ returns, and we have to be on guard. They allureth through the lust of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.

Yes, many people teach that God's law is done away. You don't have to keep the law of God. But that's not true. Christ said, think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets, what the prophets taught, what they prophesied about.

Don't think that I came to destroy those important commandments of God. I came to magnify them, to fulfill them, to show you that there's a greater onus that we have upon ourselves to keep even the spirit of God's law. Christ said, if you harbor hatred or resentment toward someone, you've murdered them in your hearts. If you look at a woman to lust for her, you've committed adultery with her in your heart. That's what Christ did. He said, you need to write these laws in your hearts and in your minds. You need to be super sensitive to sin, and you need to put sin out of your life. And don't go back to that trough, that sloppy, muddy trough of sin. Verse 19, while they themselves, again, they promised liberty, but they are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome by him also, he is brought into bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. So now we're talking about someone who has come to a knowledge of the truth of God, the real truth of God, and yet they turn from it, and they go back to their sins. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit. That's an ugly thing. I've seen that. It's not pleasant.

And a sow, having washed to her, wallowing in the mire. And I've seen that as well. I used to take care of pigs when I was an older teenager. One of my neighbors had pigs, and he hired me to feed them and help take care of them. So I know a little bit about pigs, and I frankly have no desire to eat them. That's for sure. But they're filthy creatures in many ways, and if you hose them off, because they're super muddy, it won't last long. They'll be muddy again because they'll go wallow in the mire. They love it. It's because they don't really sweat, I guess, and they need... you know, they have issues. They have to get in the water and in the mud.

But the point I'm making is, brethren, we don't want to go back to sin. God's called you out of sin. He's shown you a much better way of life. And if you allow Satan to tempt you because of the lust of your flesh, or the pride of life, or covetousness, or whatever it might be, if you go back into that sin, you are wallowing in the mire. So if any of you have a sin like that, you need to beseech God to show you and to grant you repentance before this Passover. It's coming very quickly.

Let's go on to a second thing that we can learn from the wine. Wine represents all of us being reconciled to God the Father by the death of His Son, by His shed blood. We are reconciled to the Father through the sacrifice of His Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Christ laid His life down for us. We are saved by His life because Christ did not stay in the grave. He was there three days and three nights. As the Scripture says, He was resurrected. We are saved by His life. Now, another property of blood is that blood gives life. Blood gives power. I have strength to get up here and talk to you because God's given me good blood. It's given me energy. It's helped me. And you have energy through your blood. It is the pathway to nourishing your body. Without the blood, there would be no oxygen to the cells, no nutrients, no life. Everything would die. The blood has to do its job. And also, if we consider blood transfusions, I've seen this myself. I've seen someone have a blood transfusion who was very, very ill and had no energy. And within minutes, they were really perked up. It really helped them in some cases very, very quickly. In a sense, Christ is our blood transfusion. Christ is to live in us. He's to give us that energy that we need. Christ is life. He's the life of men. He lives in us.

There was a fellow named Brand. I don't know what his first name is. I can't even remember the book now, what the name of it is. But his father was a missionary. He was a missionary. And so the son, last name again, is Brand. He grew up in India. And he saw a lot of suffering and blood as a young child. He helped his father dress festering wounds. And he was repulsed by the sight of those wounds. He was offered free medical school, but he rejected it because the sight of that blood and the sores and all of that was too much. His memories of shed blood were too vivid. He thought he could never be a doctor until one day while he was working as an assistant at a local hospital, he was helping. He was becoming a missionary himself, or he was a missionary. He saw a blood transfusion take place. He said the power of shed blood changed his life forever. When he saw a body that was almost dead completely become revived. It was after an accident. A person had been in an accident and had lost a lot of blood. And she came to the hospital with absolutely no color and no apparent breathing. She looked like a wax figure. During the transfusion, he saw her appear to come back to life before his very eyes. Her color came back. She was renewed. Now Christ living in us will do that. Christ will change your life if you let him. He will give you the energy that you need. If you become depressed spiritually, then you need to seek God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, and have faith that Christ will live in you and give you strength and give you power to overcome and to get through those times of depression and discouragement. God will help you. There's life in the blood. Christ will live in you.

Acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ and repentance of our sins are necessary if we are to be forgiven. In Acts 2.38, Peter said to the disciples and to those others who were gathered together on that day of Pentecost, he said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Christ lives in us through the power of his Spirit.

The Spirit is not a spirit of fear, but it's a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. God's Spirit dwells in each and every one of us. Those who have truly repented of their sins, accepted Christ as their Savior, and received the Spirit of God, we have God's Spirit to guide us, to direct us, to lead us. But, brethren, we have to stir up the Spirit.

We have to take our calling seriously. We have to walk worthy of our calling. We have to be diligent in seeking God and seeking his ways. The wine again symbolizes the blood of Christ that cleanses us inside and out. Christ shed that blood for you and me.

So ask yourself, are you also willing to share in the suffering of Christ? Are you willing to accept his purpose in your life? Are you truly willing to surrender your life, whatever comes?

Are you willing to lay your life down for Jesus Christ?

As he laid his life down for you.

Let's go to 1 Corinthians 10, where we read about the cup of blessing. 1 Corinthians 10.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 16.

The cup of blessing which we bless, when we come to pass over, we will ask a blessing upon the wine. We will pray over it. Is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Remember what Christ said? You have to drink his blood.

If you are going to be acceptable to him, you have to be willing to drink his blood. This is what he is talking about.

You need to come here for Passover, willing to drink the blood of Christ. To let Christ live in you.

Many of the disciples didn't understand what he was talking about. They left him when he said that. They thought that was strange. That it was weird.

It's simply talking about Christ living in us through the power of his Spirit.

The bread at which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? We'll talk more about that in a bit. For we, though many, are one bread and we're one body. For we are all partakers of that one bread, that unleavened bread that comes down from heaven. We'll talk about the bread and what it means, and what it pictures, and the tremendous lessons that we can learn from taking that unleavened bread the evening of the Passover.

In Galatians 2, verse 20, this is one of my favorite scriptures. I've always loved this scripture. It's meant so much to me over the years, as I was called at age 18, and God led me to go to Ambassador College to repent of my sins, to accept Christ as my Savior. Galatians 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I live, which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ gave himself for me. He loves me. He's my Savior.

It doesn't get any better than that, to have a Savior, to have someone who loves you that much, and to have a Father who loves you so much, he would give his only Son to die for you.

I've been crucified with Christ. Are you crucified with Christ?

Have you laid your life down? Have you become a living sacrifice? Romans 12, verse 1, what does it say there? Therefore, brothers, I call on you through the compassion of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice. God wants you to become a living sacrifice. His Son died for you. He was a dead sacrifice.

He wants you to be a living sacrifice. He wants you to dedicate your life.

He says it is your reasonable service. It's reasonable to ask that of you, because Christ died for you. And the Father gave his Son for you. So it is very reasonable to ask that you surrender yourself fully, and commit yourself to doing his will and to seeking his will with all your heart, soul, and might.

Be not conformed to this age or to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind in order to prove by you what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God. That should be our goal, to know God's will and to do it, to know his will in our lives and to do it, to seek his will and to obey. So this Passover we need to realize again that the wine pictures so much. It's so powerful. It cleanses us. It allows us to have our sins forgiven, that shed blood of Christ. Another, a third lesson that we can learn from the wine is it represents the fact that we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb. Let's go to Revelation 12 and let's read that. We overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb, by Christ shed blood. That's how we gain victory over Satan the devil. Revelation 12. Satan is real. He does want to destroy God's people. He's always wanted to destroy God's creation, God's children. Revelation 12 verse 10. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night. See, Satan doesn't rest. He's continually accusing God's people. He goes before God day and night. He has been cast down and they overcame him. The children of God overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. And by the word of their testimony, those who laid their lives down for the testimony of Christ himself, the disciples, they all laid their lives down. John was a living sacrifice his entire life after he became converted. He was imprisoned on the island of Patmos. He was the only one of them that did not become a martyr of those original apostles. Of course, Judas killed himself. As he was the betrayer of Christ, but all of the others were martyred except the apostle John.

We all must be willing to lay our lives down for this cause. Why we're here today? Why you're here today? So we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of God's testimony. And they did not love their lives to the death. They were willing to die to lay their lives down for God's truth. Another thing about blood. You know, blood actually is so powerful it overcomes. What do I mean by that? Well, the white blood cells are invaluable to our immune system. They are the body's chief fighters and they overcome the enemy.

No doubt, cancer has overcome how many times in our bodies? I understand those kinds of cells are least precancerous things we're trying to invade at all times. But there's these white blood cells and there are some white blood cells that are the shock and awe first attack responders.

They get in the fight early. Some are strong with fortified cell walls like tank forces. Some float free in the bloodstream. This is again, this is the book about fearfully and wonderfully made, I believe is the name of it. I should have checked that out. Sorry, I apologize for that. I will mention this book again in the future and will tell you who wrote it and what it is. That's not a good thing for a public speaker to do, not have his sources on hand. Anyway, some of the white blood cells float free in the bloodstream and they're like snipers that go after these invaders. Others corral the invaders. In the fortress of the lands, they execute them. Others clean up after the battle. During times of infection, there are ten times the amount of white blood cells. God has designed our bodies. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. And again, a fool says in his heart, there is no God and that it all just happened. It didn't just happen. Christ's blood helps us fight the good fight. Without it, we can't overcome the infectious nature of sin. There is an infectious nature of sin. Sin will grow if you allow it. If you cozy up to it, if you don't reject it immediately, it will take you down. It will make you very sick. You will suffer greatly. There's all kinds of sin. There is an infectious nature of sin. Now, let's again, the third lesson is that we overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb. And that wine represents that blood that we take at Passover. And a fourth lesson that we can learn is the wine represents a renewed commitment to God the Father, to Jesus Christ, and to the body of Christ. And it points to the fact that we are to become the Bride of Christ. Let me read that again. That's quite a mouthful. The wine represents a renewed commitment to our Father, to Christ, and to the body of Christ. When we take that wine on Passover, we are renewing our commitment to the Father, to the Son, and to the body of Christ. And it also points to the fact that we are to become the Bride of Christ.

In the biblical world, in ancient Israel, drinking wine was part of the wife's acceptance of the marriage betrothal. They would drink a little wine. The wife would drink the woman, accepting the betrothal, accepting the offer of marriage by the husband. She would drink a little wine as a sign of that covenant. Also, the blood of the covenant in the Old Testament sacrifices was also symbolic of the shed blood of Christ that cleanses us and washes away our sins. And then the blood of the Lamb is a covenant symbol of the ratification of that covenant.

The blood of that Lamb, again, that was put over the molyntils and the doorposts, the children of Israel were required to accept the blood of the Lamb. They had to put it up, otherwise their firstborn would die, just as the Egyptians, all of their firstborn, died that evening. God means business. Under the new covenant, it is Christ's shed blood for me, personally, and for you, personally. Under the new covenant, that's what we'll be doing. We'll be keeping the new covenant Passover. The wine is symbolic of my commitment to Him. When I drink that little bit of wine each Passover, I have dedicated my life to Christ. You have dedicated your life to Christ. You've committed yourself to Christ. It is the renewal of our engagement covenant to Christ until He returns, when we will be married to Him. Symbolically, we'll be married to Christ. Drinking the wine is also a reminder of the sacrifice of our perfect husband, Jesus Christ. It is a reminder that I personally owe Him everything, and that as good as this life is, and I have a good life, and I'm very happy in my life, and I love my life, and God's been very gracious, that I know that there's a better time coming, where I'll have a perfect marriage and a perfect family. Something far, far better is coming. I'm happy for my marriage now. I'm very grateful for my marriage. It is a type of something better to come, and that's very exciting, because I love my life and I love my wife. So, I'm looking forward to Christ's return, and when I come here on Passover evening, when I drink that wine, I'm going to think about that. Now, let's talk about the bread.

One lesson that we learned from the unleavened bread is that unleavened bread represents that God and Christ are not leavened, but they are perfect in every way. We have a perfect sacrifice in Jesus Christ, and we have a perfect Father. In God our Father, the blood of the sacrifice wasn't offered with leaven because Christ wasn't leavened. We won't have any leavened bread here. We'll be taking unleavened bread when we take the Passover. Let's go to Exodus chapter 34 for a moment. Read a verse here. Exodus chapter 34 verse 25, You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left until morning.

Again, notice, you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven.

It's to be unleavened because Christ is unleavened. He's perfect.

And God and Christ are both unleavened. They are perfect. When we eat the unleavened bread on Passover each year, we are reminded that we are to become like Christ and like the Father, and that one day at His return, we will be like Him. We will be changed to spirit, and we will be like Him. No longer subject to sin, no longer subject to this fleshly, corrupt body that we now have. I long for that time. Because Christ did not sin, we are saved by His life, and it's the life and the body of Christ that made the blood so precious. If Christ had sinned, then the blood wouldn't be so precious, would it? But because Christ never sinned, He was tempted in every point as you and I are tempted, and yet He was without sin.

In Romans 5, verse 18, it says, Therefore, as by the offense of one, speaking of Adam and Eve, of course, as well, mankind, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so, by the righteousness of one, speaking of Christ, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. When we accept Christ as our Savior and truly mean it and receive the Spirit of God, then we have that free gift of eternal life. As long as we stay faithful, as long as we endure to the end, we shall be saved. So the Unleavened Bread represents that Christ is unleavened, He is perfect in every way, the Father is perfect in every way. Secondly, the Unleavened Bread represents the fact that Christ, the Unleavened Bread that came down from heaven, is to live in each and every one of us. Christ is to live in each and every one of us. We are to be different because Christ lives in us. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Bring every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ. If we're doing that, we will become like Christ. We will be like Him. So taking the bread symbolizes us accepting the responsibility to take in Christ and become like Him. Taking on His very actions, His attitudes, His thoughts, and living His life in us. We're eating the body of Christ. We're drinking His blood when we allow ourselves to become like Christ. We eat the physical bread at Passover, and it actually becomes a part of our physical bodies. We ingest a little bit of bread, Unleavened Bread, at Passover. It symbolizes that we need to take in the true bread of life, Jesus Christ, and make Him a part of our spiritual body and our spiritual mind. You must become a part of our spiritual cells, a part of our spiritual DNA. Just as the body continually replaces its old cells, we have thousands of cells that are sloughing off daily, we must replace our old carnal fleshly cells with His Spirit-led spiritual cells. Yes, we are called to overcome. We are called to change, to put sin out of our lives. It is a high and a holy calling. It's not an easy one, but it's all worth it. So we have to battle diligently, and we have to let Christ live in us.

So the nutrients from the bread of life, from Christ Himself, must enter and become a part of us.

We can't do that without first being in an attitude of humility and service and forgiveness when we come here Passover evening. Let's talk about a third lesson that we learned from the Unleavened Bread. The Unleavened Bread represents that the Church collectively is the body of Christ. We're all collectively the body. When I look out, I see lots of people here today.

We are collectively a part of the body of Christ here in this area, and I'm not saying that there aren't others out there that belong to different organizations or different groups.

The Church of God is filled with people who have the spirit of God, no matter where they might be. God is the judge. That's His bailiwick. You know, God knows His own children. The shepherd knows His sheep. But the Unleavened Bread does represent that the Church collectively is the body of Christ.

Christ is the head of the Church. We are part of His body. Whole sermons can be given about this, and no doubt will be given in the future so that we might understand it more fully. But each of us individually is only one small piece of the body of Christ. You are a small piece of the body of Christ. Not one of us is a big cheese. We are all small in reality. Humility is a lesson that we learn from taking a little piece of unleavened bread, not puffed up, but unleavened. Not full of vanity, not full of pride. Humility is a lesson from taking that bread and taking that bread and realizing that you are a part of the body of Christ. But we're all in this together, and we have a responsibility to each other and to Christ, the head of the Church. And what we do is important, and the decisions that we make are important, and we shouldn't take them lightly.

We can't do it alone. We must have Christ living in us. We must have the Father join us to Christ, bringing us to Christ. We can't do it. We can't please Christ without realizing that we are a part of the bigger whole. It's not just about you and Christ. It's about all of us in Christ. And the Father, God's calling all of us. We have a responsibility to each other.

We need to help each other. We need to love each other. We need to be there for each other. We are part of something bigger than any one of us ever could be on their own, much bigger. Each piece, again, is a part of the body. We are not just members of a body, but each and every member is a member of His body, of Christ's body. And we all have a part to play, an important part, an important role to play. Don't think you don't have a very important role to play in Christ's Church. In God's Church, you have an important role to play. You need to discover what that role is, and you should do God's will and fulfill His will in your life in His Church.

He's placed you in the body as He sees fit, but you need to know where that is. You need to know what God has called you to do and what He wants you to be doing. And every one of us has an important role to play in the body. We must treat each member as we would Christ. Think about that. Is that how you would treat Christ? How you treat another person in this Church? Or do you gossip about them? Do you say things that are hurtful? Be careful how you treat one another. Be very careful how you treat each other, because each and every one of us is a part of the body of Christ.

Although the body can function with hurting, with pain, and we realize that as we grow older, there's more aches and pains, we can live, we can function. But there are more aches and pains. I've been out doing some yard work. I've got a lot of brush on my one-acre, and I've been using these loppers, you know, and they're not very sharp. And I actually bought a brand new pair the other day, because I didn't want to end up in the hospital. But I did it, one day I did it for like six hours, which I don't recommend. For now on, it's like an hour a day, if that. But one day I paid the price for it, I was pretty sore. The body can function with hurting, it can function with pain, it can function with certain diseases, it can even function with amputated parts. People have had arms and legs cut off, some people have had both legs and both arms cut off, and they still live.

But that's not best, is it? That's not best. God has given us a body that's strong, and we learn to compensate. We must make sure that we are not slacking off when it comes to what we bring to the body of Christ, what you bring to the body. Don't be the cause of spiritual disease, spiritual pain, spiritual amputation in the body of Christ. Take your part and what you add to the body seriously. We all have a very important role to play in Christ's body, and the bread symbolizes that we are all a part of the body. Remember that one of the themes of taking that unleavened bread is unity. There should be unity. God hates division, but He loves harmony and unity. We must continually kill the self and let Christ live in us. His love, His character, His obedience must live in us. We must become like Him. It must permeate us and flow out of us. The Spirit of God taking in the bread symbolizes that we must make sure that what we add to the body is unleavened bread and not leavened. It's not sinful. Now, again, none of us will be perfect in this life. We'll all make mistakes. That's why we have to be forgiving people. But let's try to be perfect. I mean, that's our goal. That's what we should strive to be perfect. And when you fall short, then we're surrounded by people who love each other. So we forgive each other, and we learn to have an intimate relationship with each member of the body. So those of you who are introverted, you really do need to come out of your shell. And God's Church has helped a lot of people come out of their shell. And with God's help, you can do that. You can become more friendly, more at ease. You don't have to be as frightened and scared of people, especially when you know we all love you, and that we want you as a part of the body of Christ. And that's what everyone should feel when they come into this room, that this is a room filled with people who love them, who want them here.

In 1 Corinthians 5, and I know we're familiar with this Scripture, 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6-8, Your glorying is not good. Know you not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. So purge out the old leaven, get rid of it, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. This is New Testament. Let us keep the feast of unleavened bread, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. So we have to be careful the example that we set for each other. We should love each other, and it should be evident that we do. And if we're not there yet, then you need to continue to pray that God will help you forgive and draw closer to anyone that you might have some kind of problem with. God's not going to let you out of this. I'm not either. I'm going to keep preaching about it. We have to learn to forgive each other, and we have to learn to bring unleavened bread here in this congregation. So the whole service on Passover evening will point to Christ, it will point to humility, it will point to a unity and an interconnectedness that we are all a part of the body of Christ. The wine, the bread, the foot washing it all comes beautifully together on Passover evening. So we all need to be especially careful as we approach the Passover. Are you worthy to take the Passover? Have you examined yourself, or do you still need to get down on your knees and examine yourself a bit more between now and Passover? Ask God to see you more faithfully and more perfectly? Are you ready to repent of things perhaps you haven't yet repented of? The main thing is God looks on your heart. You have to go to God with a pure heart, with a clean heart, not completely perfect. None of us would show up on Passover if that were the case. But we need to be here, and we need to keep the Passover in a worthy manner. God will deem us worthy if He sees that we have examined ourselves, and we admit that we're sinners, and that we have a desire to put all sin out of our lives. So, brethren, when you come to Passover in just a few days, remember these lessons that we've talked about. We can learn from these Passover season symbols and practices. The Passover is a time of year that is unlike any other. It is rich with meaning and purpose for all those willing to learn and to put into practice these lessons of the Passover season. So, I wish you all a wonderful Passover service. Also, a night to be much remembered the next night, a night to be much observed. And I would encourage all of you to make sure it is a spiritual evening.

The night to be much remembered should be remembered because of its spiritual aspects.

Talk about your calling. Share your calling with one another. Be sure that you don't just talk about mundane things that you can talk about any other time. And if there are some people that aren't among our fellowship that are there, they will understand that this is a very special spiritual night. So, don't allow them to dictate your conversation. You know, God listens to his children. He wants to hear a lot of good spiritual conversation when we keep the night to be much remembered. The night to be observed, whether it's in a private home, whether it's in a restaurant, whether it's in Plano with a larger group. God will be there and God is listening.