Scriptures About the New Testament Passover

I thought that Kantara set the table very well, preparing us emotionally and spiritually for the coming Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. And God commands us before the Passover to examine ourselves, to prepare. This isn't just some ritual, as many of us grew up in different churches, and it was just a routine. This is not the case when you come to this church or you realize the seriousness, the importance, and the biblical principles behind what we are about to do.

The Passover with Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for all of us is the greatest event in world history. No, it isn't Julius Caesar conquering the Gauls. It's not any great world conqueror. It isn't even departing of the Red Sea. It isn't anything that has happened, the American Revolution or many other things. Nothing can compare to that event that we're about to celebrate tomorrow night. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, coming and dying for each one of us. To be able to do a sacrifice like that is just inconceivable. It's unimaginable that God would do that, as it was mentioned in one of the hymns about the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the earth.

In other words, God knew when He created human beings that there would have to be a sacrifice because we would all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus Christ came and gave us an example that is greater than of any other human being. What He does for us is something that a common human being, no matter how wonderful, would ever do. That is why God tells us there in Isaiah 55.

Let's go there real quickly. Isaiah 55 verse 6. We can go ahead and give out the handout that we're going to have for today's sermon. Isaiah 55 verse 6. It says, Seek the Lord while He may be found.

In other words, take advantage in your life while there is still time. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord. Get away from that wrong lifestyle.

Come back to what God intended for you to become. And He will have mercy on Him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. God is that way. He will forgive. There's no sin that God cannot forgive except the sin that a person does not want to have forgiven. And then He says, and He explains how God is, that He is so superior to us in His mercy and His love. Verse 8, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my way, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So only God could devise a system this way. The God of the universe who made everything through Jesus Christ, and then having His Son, who was the Word, come down and be humiliated and tremendous suffering while never sinning and doing that for each one of us. Only God's ways can do that.

And so we appreciate so much that Passover sacrifice that we're about to again commemorate at the right moment. I'd like to read from this booklet, Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God. It's quite short what it says, but I think it's very poignant right now. It's very relevant what we should remember. It says that Jesus instituted the Passover symbols of the bread and the wine and said of the wine, This is my blood of the new covenant.

Clearly shows that the Passover ceremony we are to observe is a new covenant observance. Also, Jesus personally identifies this memorial ceremony as this Passover, what He said there in Luke 22 verse 15, and observed it on the date set aside in Leviticus 23 for annual observance on the 14th of Abib, according to the Hebrew calendar. Jesus Himself set the time of the New Testament Passover service on the night before His death. Paul confirmed that we are to keep it, quote, on the same night in which He was betrayed.

1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 26. At the beginning of the 14th of Abib, which is the first month of the year, according to God's calendar, Jesus specifically applied the name Passover to this special memorial service. He gave His disciples instruction concerning how, when, and where they should prepare for this new way of portraying the death of the Messiah. Luke 22, 7 through 13. The New Testament Passover is not just about the death of the Lamb of God.

It is also about His suffering. Luke 22, 15 says that. We are to remember the entire sacrifice that He made, both His suffering, which took place during that night, and His death. His suffering, death, and burial all occurred on the 14th of Abib. We cannot separate one thing from another. The symbols of the bread and the wine replaced the sacrificial lambs from the Old Testament, which were a type of Jesus Christ. And so, Jesus as the Lamb of God is our Passover.

The bread and wine represent His total sacrifice, His suffering, and His death.

Jesus' death occurred on the afternoon of the 14th of Abib, but His suffering began the night before His death, while He was still with His disciples.

Going down a little further to abbreviate this a bit, it says, after telling His disciples to drink the wine, Jesus said, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Matthew 26, 28. Christ's instituting the Passover symbols is consistent with His role as the mediator of the new covenant. So, it's important as we prepare spiritually for this to understand that what we do is not some aberrant or strange ritual. It's something that was followed by Jesus Christ and His disciples. He gave us an example to follow, and it was also the practice of the New Testament church. Does everyone have a handout, basically?

Did we run out a little bit? It's one per family. Maybe we can spread a little bit around here.

It's one per head of household, so we can share. It's really nice to have this problem. We have more people than I expected today, so we made about 110 copies.

Notice as we go through here the first paragraph. It says, the Passover is the most solemn evening of the year. In the New Testament, the Greek term passka means Passover, but this can have several meanings, such as the entire eight-day period, or the meal, or the sacrificial lamb. Notice all the evidence for it from the New Testament scriptures and how it shows when Christ kept it with his disciples. On the same night, he was betrayed, giving us an example to follow. Also, afterwards, there is important information about what the quarter decimans kept. We're going to talk a little bit about this. I'm not going to belabor this. You can read the definitions of the Passover. It basically means the passing over of the blood-sprinkled Israelite houses, and the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Passover, Hebrew, Pisa, Greek, Pascha. In Spanish, it's Pasqua, so it's very similar to Paska. A major festival held in the spring to commemorate Israel's deliverance from Egypt, the term is often used of the entire festival celebration.

Let's read that 29 times the term Passover, Greek, Pascha, is used in the New Testament.

Verses are listed in chronological order. Those that are parallel are placed in columns.

So we begin here to see there aren't two or three different terms. There's just one term for Passover through the entire New Testament. And here in Luke 2.41, it says, his parents went to Jerusalem every year the Feast of the Paschal, Pascha. John 2.13, now the Passover, Pascha, of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

John 2.23, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, Pascha, during the Feast.

John 6.4, now the Passover, Pascha, and Feast of the Jews was near.

Then John 11.55 uses it twice, the same term. And the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went from the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. John 12.1, then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. John 13.1, now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew his hour had come. Then as we approach the final week, we have Matthew 26.2, Mark 14.1, and Luke 22.1, talking about that final days. You know that after two days is the Passover, Pascha, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. Mark says after two days it was the Passover, Pascha, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Luke 21.22, verse 1, now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover, Pascha. So here, just like it tells you in the definition, it can mean an entire eight-day festival, it can talk about the meal, or it can talk about the Lamb.

Now notice how many times Jesus Christ or his disciples talk about, quote, keeping, quote, preparing, quote, killing, or quote, eating this last Passover which he took.

We read 12 times about this final Passover that Jesus Christ kept with his disciples.

It is a sacred ceremony established by God. No other term in the New Testament is used except the Greek Pascha. So some people say, no, it was something else. Well, you have to be consistent. It just means, you know, one festival period, and in particular the first day of that festival period. Yet some still believe Christ and his disciples did not keep this Passover.

Remember also the Passover or the Feast of Unleavened Bread at that time could be used to refer to the entire eight-day period. As we do, we say, have a fine Passover. Well, we include the days of Unleavened Bread. Or we can also say, well, have a fine Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it's going to include the first day because they are all together, eight days. There's no separation between them. Let's begin. This is where it's talking about that final Passover, Matthew 26, 17. Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover, Pascha? So here they came, and we know that the day that they were going to eat it was the 14th. They don't eat it on the 15th of the day. That's the first day of Unleavened Bread. They came, and this was even previous to the 14th. They came, and they said, okay, we need to prepare this. Mark 1412 uses the term Pascha twice. Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover, so again it includes Passover Day, they killed the Passover lamb. His disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover? So here they're going to prepare. They don't have a problem with this. They just say, where do you want us? This is the time of the Passover. Luke 22.7, then came the day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. So this had to do with the lamb being killed. Matthew 26.18, it says, and he said, go into the city to a certain man and say to him, the teacher says, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So Christ is insisting that this is when he's going to keep it. Mark 14.14, wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover? Again, this isn't some special meal apart. This is the same term. You're going to eat the lamb. It has to be sacrificed and prepared.

Luke 22.8, and he sent Peter and John saying, should say, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat. So it's including the disciples as well to eat it. Then number 19, Matthew 26.19, so the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover. It takes about two to three hours to prepare the Passover, because not only do you kill the lamb, you have to drain it, then you have to take the skin off, then you have to prepare, you have to roast it.

And so they prepared the Passover. Mark 14.16, so his disciples went out and came into the city and found it just as he had said to them. And they prepared the Passover. Luke 22.11, 13, 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? Again, he's saying, this is where I'm going to eat it. Where is the place?

So they went and found it just as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. Everything was prepared before. Jesus Christ had spoken, he had set it up, so when his disciples came, everything was ready for them. Luke 22.15, then he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desire 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 it's pretty obvious that he ate it, and he says, I'm not going to eat it again until I come back in my kingdom to eat it with you when all of you are going to be resurrected. John 18.24, then they led Jesus from Cephas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning, but they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. So here, John is revealing that at least the Jews that were in charge had a different Passover ceremony that they carried out on the 15th.

So here is a discrepancy because Christ is keeping the Passover, and yet here you have some Jews that are going to eat it afterward. John 18.24, but you have a custom that I should release someone to you at Passover. Do you therefore want me to release to you the king of the Jews? That was Pilate, asking you. John 19.14. Now, it was a preparation day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour.

So when he had arrested him, Acts 12.4, talking about Peter, he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. 1 Corinthians 5.7, for indeed, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. So he symbolized the Passover lamb.

Hebrews 11.28, by faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, talking about Moses, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them. Those are 29 times in the New Testament that we can see it. Now, this is very interesting. I'm including these quotes from different sources that after Jesus Christ died and the church was established in the first couple of centuries, those that followed Jesus Christ and his disciples kept the Passover at the beginning of the 14th. They were called quarto-deciments, which mean those keepers of the 14th. Notice here, and I'll just go ahead and read some. I know it's a little long, but it's very important for you to make sure you understand there is this controversy about when to do it. And here is a very interesting source. It's called the Festivals and Sacred Days of Yahweh. These are Messianic Jewish scholars, and they don't follow the regular Jewish way of keeping the Passover and eating the Passover on the 15th. They keep it at the beginning of the 14th and the evening of the 14th. So here, even in the Messianic Jewish community, you have different ways of doing it. So it's not this one set or one size fits all. The scholar R. Glover mentions, "...few people today are aware that during the first four centuries support was very strong among the early disciples and assemblies following Jesus the Messiah for what he calls the aristocratic system, which is the keeping of the Passover, those who kept the Passover at the beginning of the 14th of the first month, at the beginning of the 14th, not at the end. It may also come to a surprise, as a surprise, to learn that this view was in fact the original practice of all Orthodox Christians. Its advocates and supporters were in later centuries referred to as the quarto decimates. These were the Christians who kept the Passover on the 14th. Now the problem is that later on you had people and you had some Christians and later on that kept the Passover with the Jews on the 15th. Those were called Kento decimates, keepers of the 15th, because they went ahead and kept it at the same time the Jews did. Notice it says, "...the Sadducees held to the aristocratic view that the Lamb was to be sacrificed at twilight, just after sunset and before dark on the 14th, and then eaten that same night, still being the 14th. Their practice was suppressed as a state observance in Judea by the Pharisees in the first half of the first century." So this was during the time, basically, when Christ lived. At the same time, this system was used by Jesus the Messiah and his disciples and continued for many years among the early Christian assembly, the keeping of the 14th.

On the other hand of the equation, the Pharisees of this period labeled the early Christians, especially those living in the east, as minim, which means heresy. And they also labeled them Sadducees. This label seems premised upon the fact that the early Christians, the Court of Decimans like the Sadducees, not only rejected the oral laws ascribed to the Pharisees and rabbis, but celebrated the observance of the seven days of unleavened bread, their Passover, supper, and Pentecost on the same days as the conservative Sadducees. So now you have this revealed that in history it wasn't just a difference between how to keep Pentecost, but now you start seeing, well, the Sadducees didn't keep the Passover along with the Pharisees. Here's another quote. It says, The Court of Decimans assemblies followed the aristocratic understanding of the Hebrew b'inha arabim, which means within the twilights, the setting of the sun and darkness. That's the period when God said you were to slay the lambs. And the Sadducees, who did not have the oral traditions of the Pharisees, believed in keeping it at the beginning of the 14th, the setting of the sun ended the previous day, and then you had this twilight period when you sacrificed the lamb, and so you would eat the lamb on the 14th. That was the day dedicated to the Passover. Then the following day would be the first day of 11 bread in the evening. Continuing on, it says, And they kept the 14th of the first moon, both as the time of the Passover supper and as a high Sabbath. To begin with, it was widely believed among the early assemblies, a belief that continued for a considerable period of time among those of the Eastern assemblies. Those were the churches in the East, which maintained the faithfulness of keeping the 14th, as opposed to the church in Rome. The church in Rome was the one that changed the Passover from the 14th to the Sunday, which today they keep as the day of resurrection. Many people don't realize that the Catholic Church actually still keeps a version of the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread when they substituted the Passover, but they still said, well, Easter has to be on the Sunday, you know, after the equinox when the Passover and days of Unleavened Bread have occurred. So it is intimately involved in this. And so there is this division in the second century between the churches that followed the traditions of the Apostle John and others of keeping the 14th, and then you have the church in Rome that starts improvising and changing the dates for this. It's very interesting what it says here.

It says, to begin with, it was widely believed among the early assemblies, a belief that continued for a considerable period of time among those of the Eastern assemblies, that at the exodus from Egypt, the Passover sacrifice occurred after sunset, followed that same night by the Passover supper, and that both events occurred on the 14th day of the first moon. The Christian writer Ephraim, the Syrian, this is a mid-fourth century AD, to demonstrate reports that the Book of Exodus includes the story about the Lamb of the Passover, noting that on the 14th day of the moon, they slaughtered it and ate it. So it's still on the 14th day. The 15th day was still off. It was still a day later.

Chrysostom, who was a Catholic priest around the 5th century AD, also shows that many of the Christian kinto decimans, 15th day observers, had trouble explaining away the evidence that the last supper was the legal Passover. He was forced to face the following question, but how, if they, talk about Jesus' disciples, were eating the Passover, could they eat it contrary to the Torah or the law? For they should not have eaten it, sitting down to their food. What then can be said, that after eating it on the 14th with Jesus Christ, they sat down to banquet on the 15th.

So did they keep two Passovers that year? They kept it first with Jesus Christ, and then after he was buried, they went to keep it with the rest of the Jews on the 15th. There's no such historical record. They kept it, and they thought that it should be done on the 14th. Now, you know, this isn't church literature. These are very serious scholars that are not even part of what we would call the whole, I don't know, evangelical Protestant Christian world. These are Messianic Jews that study the Hebrew Scriptures, study church history, and these are the conclusions they have come to.

Let's continue on here. In a famous letter to the Bishop of Rome around AD 196, Polycretes, a leader of the quarter decimans, wrote, We observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights, talk about leaders, have fallen asleep. Philip, one of the twelve apostles. John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord. There he's identifying it as the Apostle John, who wrote the gospel of John, Polycarp, and Thracius. All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the gospel. When you look at the gospels, what day did they keep?

They kept it at the beginning of the fourteenth, when Jesus Christ set it up.

And I also, Polycretes, for seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth.

And my relatives always observed the day when the people, talking about the Jews, put away the leaven.

That's on the fourteenth, because on the fifteenth you couldn't have leaven in your homes. So when is it when we put away leaven? Well, we've got to put leaven away on the fourteenth, because on the fifteenth, all leavens should already be removed from our homes.

So they kept it on the day when the Jews were removing the leaven. Therefore, brethren, I who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, that's how many years he followed Jesus Christ, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every holy scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words from the bishop of Rome.

For those greater than I have said, we ought to obey God rather than man.

So this was a group that maintained firmly keeping of the Passover, and we trace our ancestry back to these quarter decimants. We're keeping the Sabbath day, we're keeping Passover, we're keeping the days of unleavened bread, just as they did, and as the Apostle John, and Philip, and all of these other men instructed them. Notice a couple more quotes in the back of the page. It says, this admission by the priest Wilfred at the synod of Whitby, that's over in the area of England, AD 640, verifies that the period of Ben-Ha-Arabim at twilight was counted by the quarter decimants from just after sunset, for while the moon was still rising toward the middle of the night sky, they ate their Passover meal. So here, 600 years after Jesus Christ, and we have in England the Christians keeping the Passover and keeping it at the beginning of the 14th. Therefore, unlike the practice of the Pharisees who began the festival at noon on the 14th, the apostles observed Passover from the beginning of the 14th, which is required if one is to eat the Passover supper at night during the 14th.

See, if you want to keep the Passover, as we do, on the 14th, tomorrow night is the only night to do it in, because the following night is the 15th. And since you don't slay the Passover lamb anymore, when was Passover supper? Passover supper is either on the 14th or on the 15th, as the Jews do it.

Let's continue here. It says, the Court of Deciments practice was the earliest known for the original Christian assemblies. For the Court of Deciments, System A, which is keeping it on the beginning of the 14th, established the correct method of observing the Passover supper as instructed by the written Torah, the law of God. It was in the nighttime portion of the 14th day of the moon of Abib, Hebrew reckoning, that the Messiah kept the Passover.

Since this Passover occurred on the date of his death, it was his last supper. He didn't have any other supper. That was the last supper he had, because he was taken, arrested, and crucified the following morning. So, have you thought about why it's called the Last Supper? Well, because that was the last evening meal that Jesus Christ had. It says, after that dinner, Jesus was betrayed and during the remaining parts of the same 14th day Hebrew reckoning, talking about the Hebrew calendar, he suffered and died. In the opinion of the Court of Deciments, the state religion practiced by the Jews, in other words, the Pharisaic form of the Hasidic religion, which observed the Passover Supper on the 9th of the 15th of Abib, was a false system. They denounced it as such.

Therefore, when the Scriptures speak of those Jews who on the morning of the Messiah's death were still waiting to observe their Passover Supper and Great Sabbath, the Court of Deciments believed it was based upon a Passover misinterpretation of Scriptures. Yet, it was also necessary for Scriptures to mention this Passover of the Pharisees, since it was the historical occasion and backdrop for the Messiah's martyrdom. So they had to, of course, mention when it was that they were keeping it. But this is according to the Pharisaic reckoning. Notice another quote. This comes from the anti-Nicene fathers. Anatolius lived around AD 290, defended the Court of Deciments keeping of the Passover. It says, but nothing was difficult to them with whom it was lawful to celebrate the Passover on any day when the 14th of the moon happened after Equinox.

Again, he's referring back to Polycretes and Polycarp and all of these others, following their example up to the present time. So here, a hundred years later from the time of Polycretes, we have Anatolius writing that this is still observed. It says, following their example up to the present time, all the bishops of Asia, which is the area of Turkey, the Middle East, all of that section, as themselves also received the rule from an unimpeachable authority to wit the evangelist John. So again, they go back and say, look, the Apostle John lived in Ephesus. That's where he eventually died in that area. Remember, he went to Patmos, wrote it, and then Patmos is an island off of Ephesus, and then he came back.

And so that was the man in charge, and they faithfully kept the instructions given, who leant on the Lord's breast and drank in instruction spiritual without doubt, were in the way of celebrating the Paschal feast without question every year whenever the 14th day of the moon had come. Notice it says it had come, not finished. They didn't keep it at the 15th.

When the 14th day had come, that's when they sat and they celebrated the Passover, just as Jesus Christ and his disciples. And the Lamb was sacrificed by the Jews after the equinox was passed. So he says, well, the Jews still do it later. And he says, not acquiescing so far as regards this matter with the authority of some, namely the successors of Peter and Paul. These are the bishops of Rome who have taught all the churches in which they sowed the spiritual seeds of the Gospel, that the solemn festival of the resurrection of the Lord can be celebrated only on the Lord's day. So here we are, basically 300 years since the time of Christ. And on one side are all the bishops in Asia keeping the 14th faithfully. And then you have the bishops in Rome teaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Sunday morning.

So I'm now going to go ahead and repeat what I mentioned in the booklet, Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God. Just the first sentence, I'll say, we believe in observing the New Testament Passover on the 9th of the 14th of Abib, the anniversary of the death of our Savior. Now I end this section with a note, because it's important to be fair about these Messianic Jewish scholars. It says, Art Clover and his other Messianic Jewish scholars in their book, The Festivals and Sacred Days of Yahweh, provide a valuable service when they point out that at least some of the Sadducees kept the Passover at the beginning of the 14th of Abib. That's not very well known.

These scholars were able to research and find those sources.

Even though they are Messianic Jews, these scholars show that not all of them follow the traditional Pharisaic reckoning of keeping the Passover on the 15th of the first month.

They also provide the historical evidence that the original quarter decimals kept the Passover at the beginning of the 14th of the first month. Yet, after affirming this is the case, they strangely advocate the keeping of the entire day of the 14th of the first month or the Passover as also the first day of Unleavened Bread. This means that they would have to take out the leaven on the 13th day of the first month. Something entirely unscriptural. So, while they recognize that the Passovers kept on the 14th, they believe that the 14th is the first day of Unleavened Bread instead of the 15th. And that's where we part companies because you can read Leviticus, you can read Exodus 12, 15 and 16, Leviticus 23, which mentions that the 15th is the first day of Unleavened Bread. But they insist that it's on the 14th. So why is it that God sets up something and man has to just completely confuse the issues. So instead of an eight-day feast, they consider it a feast of only seven days. And in this, we totally disagree because we don't take out the leavening on the 13th. It's on the 14th that we take out the leaven for the 15th as the first day. So I thought I'd just explain that to you. So if you ever go into a little more, do some more research, you'll have a little more heads up about these beliefs. So let's end the sermon in 1 Corinthians 11, because tomorrow night we have the privilege of keeping this evening which Jesus Christ and his disciples kept.

And we still need time to prepare spiritually.

It starts in verse 23. It says, For I received from the Lord, this is the Apostle Paul addressing the church at Corinth, that which I also delivered to you, this is what I am giving you as instructions, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Which means every time we do this Passover ceremony, we remember what Jesus Christ has done for each one of us. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. Of course, the death of a person is just like an anniversary. You shouldn't do it every week. You should wait until the person's anniversary. There are people that go to the cemetery and remember the person or some dear departed one. But you do that once a year.

And this is the way Jesus Christ expects of us to do the same.

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. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. Of course, this isn't just an outward ceremony. We have to also prepare to come before God to appreciate what He has done for us. Yes, everybody sins and comes short of the glory of God. But what we don't want to do is come in an unworthy manner, taking this in a very haphazard way. Just like I remember when I used to be a Catholic, and I'd just go every Sunday and take the communion wafer. That was just part of the services. You just did it, you just got up and sat down, and basically that was it. Well, that's not the way Passover is. Something much more meaningful, and we should be appreciative of what He has done for us. Notice continuing verse 31, for if we would judge ourselves, in other words, examine ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Now, if we don't self-correct ourselves, if we don't do something about our own failings, well, God's going to have to discipline us, because He wants us to be in His kingdom. He doesn't want us to be condemned as failures, that we don't make it to His kingdom. He says, therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. So that was lack of consideration that they were having, and the Apostle Paul was quite upset, because he's saying, here you're going to be grateful for such a great thing, and yet with your brother, you're still being a respecter of persons. People are hungry, you don't share with others. What kind of an egoistical attitude is that when you are about to receive the greatest gift you can in this lifetime, the forgiveness of God. So, brethren, remember then, for those that are preparing for tomorrow night, looking forward to seeing you here at around 715 in the evening.