Seeing Clearly Through Symbols

I have, as you know, been covering the figurative language of the Bible. I'm back on that now. We went through the original introductory message. Then I followed that up with um seeing clearly through metaphors. Then I followed that up with seeing clearly through analogies. I wanted us to see how those are different.

What does a metaphor do? You guys remember a metaphor says something is something else. Christ is the door. Generally, why do we do that? Why does God use that language? It's because whatever the thing is, we are familiar with it enough to know its meaning is obvious. So, when we say that Christ is the door, well, we know what doors are for.

We go in and out of rooms through doors. And so if Christ is the door, there's only one access point then to the kingdom and that's through that door. We don't get salvation unless we go through that door which is Christ. So we see that and that's what makes metaphor so profoundly effective.

It's generally one good point that you need to take home with you and that's how you get it through the metaphor. Then we talked about analogies and analogies compare one thing with another and generally more than one element of comparison is there to teach a deeper meaning. And so metaphors and analogies are teaching tools. It's how God helps us to see and to understand the depth of something that almost certainly one sentence can't capture or one statement can't capture.

And so that's why God does that. But he also uses symbols. So today we are seeing clearly through symbols. And we're going to understand exactly why God uses symbols, what they are, and how he uses them and why they are important. So I'm going to give you a definition. And honestly, as I read through that this morning in Olympia, I thought, is this really particularly helpful as a def.

It's Webster's definition. I'm going to read it to you. It says it defines a symbol as quote something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance, especially a visible sign of something invisible. Well, at least it gives us a starting point.

Okay? So, if you didn't commit that to memory, I don't blame you. That's a mouthful. A symbol is something that is real. It's a recognizable thing and it's used to point to a deeper meaning in something else. So, it's not imaginary. It's not vague. It's not obtuse. It's it's it's clear we have something tangible or we have something meaningful that we're going to to learn something about something else from the point of a symbol.

The value of a symbol lies in the relationship between the object and what the object represents. Okay? Bible dictionaries, if you go through those, those help us to narrow that idea even further. In scripture, a symbol is not something people invent to express a feeling. Symbols are given meaning by God. I'm going to show you that God chooses to use symbols so that truth can be taught, can be remembered, and even passed on as we teach within our own families, for example, the meaning of symbols that we partake of, for example, during the

Passover season. So, we're going to talk about those as well. So, symbols are attached to actions and objects and appointed times. They're meant to be experienced. So, here's the big takeaway on this message about symbols. Symbols are meant to be experienced to learn, to remember, and then to pass on. That's a big difference between the role and the and and what how God uses metaphors and analogies.

Those are teaching tools for understanding. While this is also a teaching tool for understanding, but it's it's taught through lived experience. That's what symbols give to us. So many of the most important teachings in the Bible are actually preserved through symbols because they anchor truth in daily life. So I want to walk through four symbols that we are familiar with, but I want to carefully look at them and see what we learn from him and why God uses these symbols the way that he does.

The first one maybe the most obvious one because Passover is coming right up in just a few weeks. I want to look at the bread and the wine of Passover symbols given to us by Jesus Christ. Now, in order for us to understand that, first we've got to go back and and and rehearse the beginning of Passover, its origination, and then how it was changed under the old covenant, and then to see the further changes that Christ himself made to these symbols.

And in all cases, the teaching tool was the learning that was experienced by those who did them, who obeyed God in doing what they were told to do. So, we're going to go back to the Passover that happened in Egypt in Exodus 12 because the very first the very first Passover was unique. It had a defined purpose.

It was to escape the death angel. It wasn't for the long-term benefits of Passover that we see. The first one had a very specific purpose. If you don't put the blood on the doorposts and the lentil, your family does not escape the death angel. And the first member of every household, Israelite or Egyptian, is going to die.

It did not matter. You could not stand up and say, "I am an Israelite and therefore exempt from the consequences of this." God did not exempt. There was only one exemption. Kill the lamb and put its blood on the doorpost in the little. If you fail to do that, you're going to experience the consequences. the first h of the firstborn of everyone in your household, whoever the firstborn are, they're going to die.

So that's that's a lesson with a very severe consequence if you don't want to learn it. I'm wondering I've been wondering, do you think every household of Israel killed the lamb and put the blood on the doorpost and the lentil? I'd be surprised. Why? Stiff necked people. We start with that. You can I'm just This is a thought I have out loud.

I'll just put it that way. Let's look over here in Exodus chapter 12. Let me see where I need to start this at. Okay, let's see. Well, first let's go back here. Let's go up a little earlier here. So, it's we're in Exodus 12 and verse three. It says, "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, on the 10th of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

And if the household's too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to the house take it according to the number of the persons, according to each man's need. You shall make your account for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it off. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

Now you to keep it until the 14th day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentil of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs.

They shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled all at all with water, but roast it in fire, its head, with its legs and its enttrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning. And what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands.

So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt. All the firstborn in the land of Egypt is a clue because it's not distinguishing between Egyptian and Israelite. Everyone, every home. It says both man and beast and against all the gods lowercase G of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord.

Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So right here at the very beginning, while Israel doesn't really fully understand more than what they were given as instructions, but we see already the pattern of substitution that's been given.

The lamb substitutes for the blood of the firstborn. Notice a couple things. One, it's kept in the home by the family. They didn't do this as a collective group. They did it individually at the family level in the home. This is the very first Passover with a very specific meaning. But it shows them in very physical terms what it means for death to pass over because judgment has been satisfied.

Not by the blood of the firstborns, but by the blood of that lamb slain for the firstborns. Now, that's why the New Testament later connects Christ's sacrifice directly to the Passover. The meaning was already here. We just had to have it explained to us. Now, alongside the lamb were unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

These are not arbitrary. Now, in this particular case, now that meaning takes on new meaning when Christ explains the new meaning. In this particular case, it represented the haste of the moment. You have your jacket on, you've got your staff in your hand, and you're going to eat this in haste. And so, the remembrance of that in the future would be the unleavened bread that they ate.

Now, why is unleavened bread a picture of haste? It's because we know leaven takes time to work. Ordinarily, they would have leavened the lump. It would have it would have done its leavenvening job, and it would have become nice and flaky once they baked it. It would have been wonderful. But God says, "No, we're not going to have any of that.

It's unleavened eating it in haste." Because if if all you've got is flour and water, you can make a kind of a poor pancake, I guess, an unleavened cake, and that's what they ate. So, it's represents this haste that they needed to keep in mind as a remembrance. What? Well, what about the bitter herbs? Well, they pre preserve the memory of of Israel's suffering in Egypt in slavery.

I don't know what these bitter herbs are, but if you put the word bitter and herb together, I don't want to eat it. That's probably just me. I get it, but doesn't sound good. I bet it like gets you in the back of the jaw. It's probably awful, but it's a remembrance. And so God required it at this Passover to be eaten together with the meat.

So after the Exodus, the Passover did not remain a one-time emergency act, which it was at the beginning to save the lives of the children of all of the firstborn. Under the old covenant, God transformed the pass Passover into an annual observance and he placed it under the authority of the Levitical priesthood.

So we move from the home to where God places his name. Let's notice Deuteronomy chapter 16. I'm going to start in verse one. I think we'll read through verse six. It says, 'Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. For in the month of Abib, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

Therefore, you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd in the place where the Lord chooses to put his name. So, no longer in the home and no longer killed by the family. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it.

That is the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in haste. So now we see the connection between the unleavened bread and its meaning during the first Passover. And now it's a remembrance. It says that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

And no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory for seven days. Nor shall any of the meat which you sacrifice the first day at twilight remain overnight until morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which the Lord your God gives you. Now you're forbidden to eat that sacrifice, kill that sacrifice on your property within your own gates.

In verse six, it says, "But at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun, at the time you came out of Egypt." So this change didn't remove the meaning of the original Passover. It actually preserved it.

The annual observance looked backwards in part and forward prophetically in part because it remembered the night the death angel passed over Israel and their escape from Egypt. But it also looked forward. Every year a lamb without blemish was killed. Every year blood was shed. Every year Israel reenacted the pattern of substitution.

Blood for my blood. a sacrifice to pay the death penalty for me. So the Levitical Passover was both a me a memorial and a prophecy pointing ahead to the deliverance that would come through the Messiah. So when Jesus kept the Passover with his disciples, that forwardlooking meaning reached its fulfillment. The temple system was still functioning.

The lambs were still being sacrificed under the Levitical priesthood at the time Christ was sacrificed. But Christ wasn't a Levite. So he wasn't preparing to offer another animal sacrifice. He was preparing to offer himself. This is that last night, that final Passover of Christ's. He would die the next day. Hebrews chapter 7 gives us some background to this.

Hebrews chapter 7, I think I'll pick this up in verse 20. So verse 20 of chapter 7, yes, I'm in chapter 7. It says, "And in as much as he," that's Christ, "was not made priest without an oath. For they have become priests with without an oath, but he with an oath by him who said to him, "The Lord has sworn and will not relent.

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melkisedc." Remember, we've been talking about analogies and metaphors, and now we're on to symbols. Jesus Christ is is called a is called our high priest. He qualified to become our high priest because he lived a perfect life and died in sacrifice for our sins. Yet he wasn't a Levite.

He was a Jew by birth through his mother. How does a Jew become a high priest? If there's a Levitical priesthood that counts, then he can't qualify. And yet, he's not said that he comes from a Levitical line and can claim high priest because he was born of the right blood. It says, 'The Lord has sworn and will not relent.

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melkisedc. Biblically speaking, the first king and priest in a city called Salem. Melkisedc, it says, you are a high priest forever. According to the order of MelkiseDC, Melkisedc is the first identified in scripture that holds both roles that Jesus Christ now holds, both our high priest and our coming king.

This is how Christ is both of those things. And the order is not Levitical because the Levites paid tithes through Abraham to Melkisedc which shows the greater from which Christ is compared. The greater that's a probably a whole other sermon to go into that to any depth. Verse 22. By so much more Jesus has become assurityity of a better covenant.

Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. Meaning, we're human. We're going to die. The high priest would die and the family line would carry on the high priesthood physically. Verse 24 says, "But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.

Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need daily, as though as those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples.

For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints as high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the son who has been perfected forever. So as high priest of the new covenant, Jesus had the authority to change the symbols, not because the symbols no longer mattered, but because their purpose had been fulfilled.

So he didn't abolish the Passover. He took the unleavened bread and the cup and he gave them new covenant meaning. Let's notice over in Luke chapter 22. And he, this is Christ, verse 19, he took bread, gave thanks, and broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you.

do this in remembrance of me. So this is a memorial that's memorial language, isn't it? We do something to commemorate his death. We take that unleavened bread every year at Passover. He goes on and he says in verse 20, likewise he also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup of wine, very clear in scripture, this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you.

" So he gives new meaning to these two symbols. Unleavened bread and wine now represent his broken body and his shed blood for the remission of our sins and done so annually at the Passover as a memorial for what he did for his death. So Christ didn't change the Passover back to an inhome service. It got changed to a communal service under the old covenant.

It did not get changed back to an in-home service by Christ. Who was he meeting with? The 12 disciples. Where were they? In an upper room. They had rented. It was a communal meeting. A communal event. That meeting hasn't changed for us today. It's still a communal event. 1 Corinthians Paul explains though. Let's look over here in 1 Corinthians uh chapter 11.

So Paul here in speaking to the church at Corenth wants to make a few points but we learn something here and it's worth us just noting it. Okay. So in verse 20 he says therefore when you come together in one place now he's speaking collectively to the congregation and he's saying to the congregation at Corenth when you all come together in one place not in in your individual homes in one place together it's not to eat the Lord's supper okay so he's saying we don't come together to have a meal we come together

to take the symbols that's the whole point. Okay. So, the symbols changed though because the priesthood changed. The sacrifice changed because the covenant changed. So, the purpose of symbols did not change themselves. The bread and wine still preserve meaning through our participation and partaking of them. That's why I began by trying to help you to see that symbols are meant to be experienced.

That's why we take the bread and the wine. We eat the bread. We drink the wine. For you young people, it's not like we eat a loaf of bread and drink a bottle of wine. Okay? It's like a thimble and a tiny little bite. Okay? It's like, just want you to be clear about that. All right? But these symbols still proclaim deliverance from death and they still anchor God's people in the reality that salvation comes only through the shed blood of the lamb, which is Christ.

So we see here that symbols are meant to be experienced, aren't they? They're not just like showpieces or something to look at. They're not icons. You know, the Catholic Church is famous for all of its icony. There's so many icons within that organization. We don't have icons. We have symbols. And we partake of those symbols for very specific reasons.

We didn't give them meaning. God did. Let's look at another symbol. But now I want you to see that symbols don't have to be the tangible thing that you hold, consume. There are variety of symbols within the pages of your Bible. Here's another symbol. The Sabbath is a symbol. It's not a metaphor for something. It's not an analogy of something.

It is a symbol in itself. The Sabbath was established at the very beginning before there was a nation of Israel. Before there was a priesthood, before sin was recorded, the Sabbath was already established before any of that. Let's notice back in Genesis chapter 2. We'll just rehearse the very beginning here. Genesis chapter 2.

I'm going to start here in verse one and we'll read through verse three. It says, "Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

So you know what's interesting here factual wise? Do a fact check for me. Has the seventh day ever throughout the history of man ever not been the seventh day? It has never not been the seventh day exactly as God set it apart from the very beginning. You will find no calendar that changes it. You'll find some European calendars that like to start with Monday.

That doesn't change the seventh day to Sunday. Never in the history of human of humanity has the Sabbath ever not been the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. It's an interesting thing because I've had some people who want to argue, how do we know? I would say to them, prove it's not. So, you can't. It's never changed.

It's an interesting factoid. You might make a note of that as a challenge point on the question of is the seventh day Sabbath still the seventh day Sabbath? Yes, it is. It's always been since the very recreation of the earth. And that has never changed. So the Sabbath now functions as a marker of divine authority because it comes from God who rested himself and gave us this day of rest.

So God set it apart. God gave it its meaning. So this teaches us something else about symbols. A biblical symbol does not get its meaning from how we feel about it. It gets its meaning from God. And he doesn't care whether we agree with it or not. It doesn't change the meaning that he gives it. When Israel was later brought out of Egypt, the Sabbath Sabbath was given again.

You'll recall it's given in the Ten Commandments, but this time with some instructions and expectation. It became a commanded sign over in Exodus 31. Exodus chapter 31. Uh let's see, verse 13. where he says speaking to Moses, he says, "Speak to the children of Israel, saying, "Surely my Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord, who sanctifies you.

" So he sanctified or set apart the Sabbath and made it holy. And then by observance he sets apart his people when they keep and obey his commandment and observe the seventh day Sabbath. It is a sign of his people between himself and his people. So now we see the symbolic nature of the Sabbath itself very clearly.

A sign is something that points beyond itself. The Sabbath pointed to God as creator, but it also pointed to God as the one who sanctifies, the one who sets apart. So in other words, keeping the Sabbath did not make Israel holy on its own, but it identified God who made them holy through obedience. The Sabbath also also served as a symbol of deliverance and identity.

Something interesting. You might not have not noticed this recently, but it's great to to do this kind of review scripturally. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 5. You know, we're used to reading the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, right? That's I I would I bet if I asked this room, tell me the first place we see the Ten Commandments, probably everybody knows it's Exodus chapter 20 or most everybody knows that.

But what's interesting is to read the account when 40 years later Moses is rehearsing this with Israel before they enter the promised land. And so in ex Deuteronomy, excuse me, chapter 5 and verse 15, Deuteronomy 5:15. Now he says, "And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm.

Therefore, the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." That's a very different reason than he gave previously. It's a more thorough reason. It's a more comprehensive understanding of the meaning of keeping the Sabbath day. Now also as a remembrance of the liberty they were given from the bondage they suffered while in Egypt.

And we practice a form of that by keeping the Sabbath today as a form of liberty from the bondage that we would be under like most people today who work on the Sabbath day who are trapped by the fact that they must work in a lot of cases on the Sabbath day for their income. So just as the Passover symbolized deliverance from death, the Sabbath symbolized deliverance from slavery, both physical and for us spiritual.

It reminded Israel every week that they did not belong to Pharaoh anymore. They had a new ruler, God. So this is where the Sabbath stands apart from metaphors and analogies as a symbol. You either stop work on the Sabbath or you don't. It's really no more complicated than that, is it? For obedience. But this is why the Sabbath has endured across generations because it requires regular participation.

It forces remembrance of God into our lives. If you're not keeping the Sabbath because you understand that God said to keep the Sabbath, I don't know why you're keeping the Sabbath. So, we reflect on the Sabbath day, why we keep the Sabbath. It's because God set the Sabbath apart and commanded its keeping. So, that's why we keep it.

So, week after week, the Sabbath answers the same question. Who has authority over our time? Is it me or is it God? Now when we come to the New Testament, we do not find the Sabbath has been discarded. It hasn't been redefined. It's not a feeling. It's still the Sabbath. Mark chapter 2, at least verses 27 and 28.

Look, I'm not apologizing for that anymore. If I add scriptures, just make a note of it. All right, we're in Mark chapter 2. I'll get there. 27 to 20. Let's see here. Let's start in verse 23. Not even going to apologize. Verse 23. Okay. Now it happened that he went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. And as they went, his disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.

And the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" Says who? Christ though in verse 25 says to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry? He and those with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him.

And he, this is Christ, still speaking, says, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath." Who was the being that set apart the Sabbath day when he rested and sanctified it? It was the Word, the creator God. that being walked as Jesus Christ on this earth and then claimed to be Lord because he was of that very Sabbath that he has authority over it, not the Pharisees.

And of course, what were the Pharisees talking about here? Were they talking about biblical obedience that they could point to of the Sabbath? No, they were not. They were talking about pheriseical law and that their law trumped any biblical instruction. Christ said, "No, it does not." Because under pheriseical law, the Sabbath comes first and men serve the Sabbath.

This is how you know because if you look at the rules and requirements of what you can and cannot do on the Sabbath because it would break the Sabbath. So where's the emphasis in that teaching? It isn't on actual observance because of a heart. It's on practical observance so that you don't violate some tiny aspect that they would interpret as a violation of the Sabbath.

But that's not what it was intended for. A day of rest to be celebrated by us, to be enjoyed for God's people who are set apart by their observing of the Sabbath. That's what it's intended for. So Christ did not say here that the Sabbath was a temporary teaching tool only for ancient Israel. He said it was made which means designed for mankind.

And then he identified himself as the Lord over it. So that reinforces the symbolic nature of the Sabbath. A symbol tied to divine authority must remain under divine authority. We don't get to decide what the Sabbath is or when to keep it. That's already been defined for us. Notice also though that the Sabbath teaches through personal experience because we cease from our work.

We congregate as we are commanded to do where God places his name each Sabbath in a weekly service. All of these things are a lived experience for us that are teaching us that God is the God is the boss of our time and that we're okay with that. And you know, if you realize it, if you think about this, by not working, where are you actually placing your trust for your livelihood in God? Because you set aside the time, you're acknowledging that God owns that time.

And by assembling together, we affirm that we are a part of God's people. We're not alone, not on our own. He called us to be a part of the ecclesia, his people, the church today. So like the bread and wine, the Sabbath does not replace the truth. It actually preserves it for us. Let's look at a third one. Baptism.

a symbol for those of us who have been baptized. It begs to the mind, what did you go through? What did you experience through baptism? It's a decisive moment that confirms your commitment. There's no escaping that commitment and there's no escaping the fact that you did it. You will always have baptism as the point of remembrance in your life.

For when you affirmed to God through this action that you believe what you say you believe. You believe him. You believe his word, you are allin quite literally. Okay. The New Testament explains baptism using the language of death and burial. Is there anything more, I don't know, final than death? We're all going to experience it.

Unless Christ returns, we're all going to experience that. And unless Christ returns, that's where we will stay. If Jesus Christ doesn't return, there is no resurrection. Is there anything more final than that? And so the language of baptism should evoke that imagery in our minds. Death and burial first. What happened? You know, if we push you under the water and don't let you back up, you know, you might experience the literal, which we wouldn't want to happen, of course.

Let's notice Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. I think I'll read from verse one. We'll read uh from verse 1 through 4. He says, "What what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" So, he's just been making the argument that grace is what rescues us. Grace is what saves us. Right? The counterargument from someone who is a skeptic might say, "Well, then why don't we just sin all the more? If grace is it's all about grace and and our sins honor God through grace because that allows him to use his grace for us."

That's the argument. He says, "Okay, let me ask you that question." And then he's going to answer it. He says in verse two, "Certainly not. How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death.

That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So here's how we see that baptism functions as a symbol. It's a symbol of Christ's death and resurrection. You go under the water, but you don't stay there. You are immersed in the water because it represents or pictures death. It symbolizes death.

You're not partially buried if you are buried. You are fully buried when you die. If you are buried. And that's how water baptism illustrates that or shows us that as a symbol. It is burial of the old self. That's why sprinkling, spritzing, pouring, splashing, none of that captures the meaning of Christ's burial and resurrection.

Only full submersion, which the word baptism means immersed, can capture that meaning. That's why we don't get the hose out and water you down for your baptism. You go under because you are burying your old self in that water so that you can come up a new man, a new woman, a son or daughter of God. The water doesn't remove sin.

any more than the blood on the doorpost and the little removed sin from Israel. It picture substitution. So the symbol of baptism is our recognition of Christ substituting his death for ours. We die with him. We are raised out of that water with him. That's why it is great symbology. It's potent symbolism for us.

And note also that baptism is tied directly to repentance and forgiveness. Acts chapter 2 where Peter makes it unmistakable. What do you have to do before you can get baptized? Acts chapter 2 that after Peter gives his first sermon and those Jews present who were pricricked to their hearts in a right way, they understood now fully that they were just as guilty as those who actually put Christ to death of his death.

And they ask, "What do we do?" And Peter answers in verse 38. He says,"Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." So, does baptism replace actual repentance? No. It is a symbol which pictures what you've already done if you're getting baptized, which is having repented.

It is the next step in the process that you become baptized once you've actually repented of your sins. Baptism also marks a change of identity. Scripture speaks of baptism as putting something on. So, let me ask you a simple question. Can you put something on that you're already wearing? An illustration. Paul talks about us putting on immortality.

A very common teaching amongst mainstream Christians is the immortality of the soul. But Paul says that's not true because you have to put on immortality when you are resurrected. And you can't put something on if you're already wearing it. It's a simple point, I know, but it's a potent one.

And here we are going to put on Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3 verses 26 and 27. He says, "Therefore, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." You actually didn't have Christ on before you were baptized, but you put him on when you got baptized.

How? Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It really just acknowledges that we are coming under that authority. We're okay with that. So just as the Sabbath answers the question of who owns our time, baptism answers the question of who owns our life. But notice also that baptism functions within the context of the body of believers called out of this world, the church.

You're not baptized alone. You're baptized into a collective body. Colossians chapter 2:es 11 and 12. Colossians 2 11 and 12. It says, "In him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands." You know, this was an issue that Paul was dealing with amongst the early gentile churches.

The Jews were saying, "You have to be circumcised outwardly in the skin, in the flesh of the skin according to the law of Moses, or you can't be a part of the church." Many of the Gentiles did not practice circumcision. The question was resolved in Acts chapter 15. Who resolved it? Just a bunch of random church people? The apostles who gathered together there.

James himself, the brother of Christ, was there as the head apostle over the church in Jerusalem. They resolved this as a collective body of those who were taught directly by Jesus Christ. Do you think they knew what his instruction was regarding circumcision and the law? Yes. And this is why Paul was saying, I don't know where these Jews have come from saying that we have to keep the law.

This is not what Christ taught. Circumcision is no longer in the flesh. It's of the heart. clip that. That's where you need to exercise circumcision. And that's what he says here. In him you were you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of sins of flesh by circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

So again, we notice here the emphasis is on what God is doing with us. Paul's not saying, "Hey, hooray for you. You're such great Christians. You're doing such a great job on your own." He's saying, "No, the focus isn't on us. It's on God." So baptism is a is a symbol because it points beyond the water itself to the work that God is doing in each of our lives.

specifically his power to forgive us, to change us and to give us a new direction, a new focus of our life. The new man is our objective. Now, this helps us to see why baptism is not an optional nice idea. It's mandatory like Passover and the symbols associated with it and the Sabbath and the symbolism of it. So baptism is filled with symbology.

The symbolism is for our benefit. Something we have to experience. That's the beauty of symbolism in the Bible. Symbolism in the Bible. If I can get that out. Let's look at one final one because this one teaches us a great lesson about how God uses figurative language. We can get too myopic when we see something used one particular way and fail to understand that it's a lesson.

I'll show you what I mean. When do we consider Levan to be a symbol? Well, we began and I'm going to go back there just as a reminder here in Exodus 12 and verse 15. Those of us who keep the days of unleaven bread have long understood the symbolism of leaven. We know what it is practically. And I always begin with, well, what do we know about leaven? Well, we know that leaven puffs something up.

It there's a gaseous process. And we can ask Mr. Gothals to explain that. Again, I'm not an expert and I do not bake. I already confess. Don't eat any of bread I've ever come near baking. Just don't do it. But we understand then that the symbolism of leaven is most profound for us during the days of unleavened bread when we know that it it is associated by meaning as a symbol for what? Sin.

Is leaven itself sin? No, of course not. You could be sinning every day of your life just eating a piece of toast. Clearly, it's not a sin. But it's picturing sin during this specific period of time. And we learn during this per particular period of time by our observance of the instructions given to us by experiencing the removal of that leaven from our homes.

Okay. So, I'm in Exodus 12:15 says, "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day, you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel." That's no small threat to be cut off from your people.

That tells us the seriousness of failing to observe the command to remove the leaven from our homes. Israel had to do it under penalty of being expelled from the community. So obviously levan then represents corruption that spreads through sin in our lives. And just like a little levan permeates the whole lump so a little ongoing sin permeates our whole spirit.

It can change who we are. So by removing Levan, Israel acted out a lesson God wanted fixed in their minds. Leaving Egypt meant leaving its ways behind. Egypt is also a symbol for us spiritually. It's a symbol of the world, the world around us. And Pharaoh a symbol of the leader of this world, which is Satan.

And that way of life leads to death. And so Israel rehearsed annually removing themselves, removing sin from their lives, which you know they never really got. Hopefully we do. But they were rehearsing leaving Egypt, which was a type for us. And Pharaoh, its leader, a type for us. So we can see the symbolism, the meaning for us spiritually today in those symbols and the way they were kept.

That same symbolic meaning carries into the New Testament when Paul addresses serious moral corruption within the congregation at Corenth. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, I won't read all of the details of it because it's it's not a pleasant story, but 1 Corinthians chapter 5, we know that there was an immoral relationship happening between a man and his stepmother.

It's kind of interesting how Paul begins here in verse 5. He says, "It is actually reported to me that doesn't have that strong sense of shock. This has actually been reported to me." Like, I never thought I would hear of this. But he does say that this kind of sexual immorality is not even named among the Gentiles, which makes it a very profound accusation.

But what does he say about the congregation that was allowing it and tolerating this behavior? Verse six, he says, "Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavenvens the whole lump?" Well, for those who bake, they know that that's the truth. A little leaven leavenvens the entire lump.

It doesn't take much. There's a lot more flour in there than leavenning. That's probably my problem. too much leavenning in it. I don't know. He says, "Therefore, purge out the old leavenven," verse 7, "that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

" Now, notice those who say, "We don't keep these Jewish holidays." Really? Because Paul, who was a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, says here long after the death of Jesus Christ, by the way, so unless Paul is just thickheaded, this is a very plain statement. Therefore, let us keep the feast. We're going to keep the feast of unleven bread.

It is still a holy day of God in his plan. We are going to keep this feast, but not with the old leavenven, nor with the leavenven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The language he uses here of purging out reflects the same physical removal that is commanded in Exodus. Levan here is still functioning as a symbol.

It represents sin that cannot be allowed to remain if God's people are to live as we are called out of this world to live. But I want you to notice something. Levan is not guilty. For one week, it represents sin. For the remainder of the time, it's just leaven. Now, Christ helps us to understand that things have meanings when they're used with meaning.

So, we can look over now to Matthew chapter 13 and see how Christ himself changed the way this product called levvening is being used. Matthew chapter 13 verse 33, we go from symbol to analogy. same product both uses. Matthew 13:33 where he says the another parable he spoke to them the kingdom of heaven is like levan.

How well which which a woman took and hid in three measures. Now that's how we know it's an analogy because it's not one simple statement is it? It's it's a complete thought. It's like leavenan that a woman took and hid in three measures of meal. It's all of that. That makes it an analogy till it was all leavened.

Now we know what leavening does. A little leaven leavenvens the whole lump. A little bit of the Holy Spirit makes you all holy. Holy all over. You are leavenvened with that spirit throughout your being. So Christ is helping us to understand symbolism in the Bible is used many ways.

Here we have levvening being used both as a symbol and as an analogy. Both are okay. Both carry meaning just differently. as a symbol. It's a lived experience for us to remove that and learn the lesson that levan like sin can permeate us and destroy us. Christ says yes, but it's also like the kingdom of God. When you receive the Holy Spirit, it permeates your whole being also, but it leads you towards salvation.

Same product, two different uses. So, we have to be careful here. Symbols teach us through experience. Metaphors and analogies teach us through our understanding by giving us depth in comparisons. Metaphors are a kind of comparison, right? Christ is the door. How is he the door? He's not actually made of wood.

So, we learn by comparing in our minds what is a door? What is it like? What does it do? How does it function? But we have here another great analogy that leaven is like the kingdom. The heaven of kingdom of heaven is like leavenan. How? Well, it permeates the whole lump. How? Well, think about it. Walk yourself through the process.

This is how these different symbolic languages function biblically to teach us one through experience, one through comparison. But in both cases, they're intended to give us a solid remembrance of biblical principles. So we go back and we reread and we reread and we live again through experience, the symbols.

We understand the metaphors and we understand the analogies and we learn and we learn and we're reminded again and we practice annually these things. This is why God uses these things to teach us. So, the goal of this entire series has been to show how and why God uses figurative language throughout the Bible to teach us so that the truth can be grasped and lived.

When we see clearly how symbols and metaphors and analogies function, we're better equipped to follow what God has said in the ways that he said it should be followed. The one thing I wanted you to do from the very beginning was to not be confused. When the Bible uses figurative language, don't press it beyond its intended use, forcing symbols to become literal things or metaphors to become literal things or analogies to become literal things when they're not meant for that.

That is what corrupts understanding. So, we have to understand what we're reading and how the language is being used by God to teach and to not get these things upside down with one another. Making the literal symbolic and making the symbolic literal.