The Symbol of Unleavening Before the Exodus and Now!

Well, again, welcome to the first day of Unleavened Bread 2013. A special thanks to Mr. Graham for all he's done today, including a fine offertory. And a special thanks to the Cleveland Ensemble. I think we'll be hearing from them again on the 7th day of Unleavened Bread. They'll be joining with some compatriots from North Canton, and we'll get a chance to hear from them again. And that is awesome! I'd also like to thank everybody for joining us today. We have people sitting everywhere. Almost every chair is filled, including the extra chairs in the back of the room. So it's great to have such a fine attendance on this high day. As we begin the days of Unleavened Bread this year, I believe it's important for us to know its history and to fully appreciate the value of these days. I think we need to understand that it predates that it's ancient. It predates the time when God gave His holy days to ancient Israel in Leviticus 23. We sometimes think that that's where the understanding of Unleavened Bread was introduced, Leviticus 23 or Exodus 13. But we're going to see today that the concept and the idea of Unleavened Bread, picturing righteousness as an antidote to sin, goes farther back than that. These holy days have a rich and a wonderful meaning. They weren't exclusively given to the Hebrews. They weren't given only to Israel. And they were not fulfilled or done away when Jesus Christ died because of who and what these holy days represent. So let's begin by going to the book of the beginnings, Genesis 1 and verse 14. So as we celebrate this holy day together, let's look at the prehistory of this annual festival and learn more about the plan of God and why we are observing it today. Genesis 1 and verse 14.

The creation itself. And here's a statement made in the book of Genesis. It says, Then God said that there would be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and for years. Well, that seems simple enough, except for the fact that this really is a mediocre translation of what that actually says in Hebrew. The Hebrew word translated seasons is moeid. And this word is translated feast in many other scriptures, including Leviticus 23, when God says, These are my feasts, it's these are my moeid. So this could vary well. And it depends on the translator, depending on what the context is, to put a word in there like festivals or seasons. It's up to the translator. As a matter of fact, God's word for today translates it this way. Quote, Then God said, Let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days and years. That's what the translation God's word or today tells us. So one of the purposes, the very purposes that God aligned the sun and the moon and the stars and the way that he did was to mark time in order to observe religious festivals. Because God likes to party. God likes to celebrate. He wants his creation to rejoice.

So who's religious festivals? Do you think God established that to celebrate? Do you think he did it with the intent that man could create their own festivals to worship him? Did he do it so that man could calculate when Easter is? Do you think God did that so man could figure out when the winter solstice is? And now we can keep Christmas. Now we can worship God in the way that we want to. Or do you think it was the same orderly God who's creating all of these things might have had his own religious celebrations in mind? Well, of course, obviously he set the lights in the firmament to be religious festivals so that we could observe the days that he taught us. So that we could worship God the way he chooses to be worshiped. Not just the way that we want to, or the way that humankind has desired that it wants to.

So what I'd like to do today is I'd like to go forward in history and examine some events that occurred in the Old Testament. And we're going to read between the lines a little bit because I think they will help us to understand the richer meaning of the concept of how unleavened bread, picturing the bread of Christ, Jesus Christ, is the antidote, the anti-venom to sin, wherever it is. Let's go to Genesis 18. Not too many chapters since we were there. In Genesis 18, beginning in verse 1, and we'll see an event that occurs between Abraham and Lot. And again, we're going to look at this event closely, and we are going to read between the lines a little bit. Genesis 18, beginning in verse 1. It says, Then the LORD appeared to him, to this is Abraham, by the terribent trees of Mamre, and he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So the heat of the day is normally two, three o'clock is when the heat of the heat has pumped up. And it's the hottest part of the day. And in that part of the world, you didn't feel like doing too much. It was hot and sticky, and you just kind of slowed down and you enjoyed, unlike workaholic Americans, you slowed down and you enjoyed the day during the heat of the day. And so he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him. Now, you have to understand that three men suddenly are there. He didn't see this fading group of people in the heat coming with camels, slowly getting closer and closer and closer. No, he's sitting at the door of the tent and suddenly three men are there. Well, he knows this is obviously something of divine origin. This is obviously unique. So they're standing by him, and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and he bowed himself to the ground. He wasn't a typical man who would just bow himself to anybody, but the very fact that these three individuals immediately peered out of nowhere, told him they were something special. He ran from the tent door to meet them, and he bowed himself to the ground and said, My Lord, if I found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. So wash your feet. It's interesting. We had a foot washing service during the Passover a few nights ago, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts and that you may pass by in as much as you have come to your servant. And they said to him, Do as you have said. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, Quickly! Make ready three measures of fine meal. Need it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd. He took a tender, good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and he sat before them, and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. Now Abraham is hospitable, and he wants to provide this very rushed meal for his divine guest because they're merely passing through. He can sense that. He understands that. So let me ask you this question. What kind of bread do you get?

When in a hurry, you quickly grind it, you knead it with water, maybe put a little oil in it, you make cakes and you rapidly apply heat. You know what you call that? You call that unleavened bread, don't you? My wife made that the other night. She had a short period of time between coming home for work when she was going to go to sleep that night. And she decided to make her own unleavened bread, not like the matzo kind, but the leathery kind.

And I've been able to repair three pairs of shoes with this unleavened bread that she made that night. But it was unleavened because she quickly did exactly what Abraham's wife was asked to do by her husband.

Now let me ask this question. Why doesn't Abraham appear to even have a loaf of leavened bread in his tent? You know, you get leavened bread and you make it with a thick crust like Italian bread where it's sealed, you can put it in a container. It'll last for a week or so before it gets moldy in a hot climate. Why doesn't he just simply go to the bread box and get some puffed up wonderful bread that he already has? I mean, bread is the staff of life. These people ate bread every day. So why doesn't he just seem to go and get leavened bread and offer it to these strangers? Just something to think about. So he rapidly makes unleavened bread and gives to them.

Let's pick it up now in verse 16. Then the men rose from there and looked towards Sodom. That was their ultimate destiny. As I said, they were just passing through. And Abraham went with them to send them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Remember, as we saw in a sermon a couple weeks ago, God considered Abraham his friend. And you know what you do with friends? You tell them what's on your mind. You talk to your friends. You open up. You're intimate with your friends. And God says, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him, what is the primary way all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him? Jesus Christ would come from his lineage. The bread of life would come from his lineage. Verse 19, For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, and do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. So do you think it's a coincidence that after eating unleavened bread together, after sharing it together, Abraham and God, the words God speaks about are Abraham's obedience.

He commends Abraham on his own righteousness, on his faithfulness and obedience to God. Verse 18, And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave. That's interesting. They just shared unleavened bread together. What's the opposite of the bread of life? What's the opposite of righteousness? The opposite of righteousness is sin. Verse 21, And I will go down now and see whether they have done all together, according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom. But Abraham still stood before the Lord, and Abraham came near and said, Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked on leavened bread? What do we have discussion of? Righteousness? In contrast, sin. Is it a coincidence that after eating unleavened bread together, a discussion begins contrasting sin and righteousness? I want you to notice the theological connection here. Unleavened bread representing the righteous presence of God. God was there. And it was represented by the fact that Abraham made unleavened bread to serve to him. And also, not only was the presence of God there, but there is a contrast from the presence of God to the city of Sodom. That has to be sin, has to be dealt with. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what time of year this occurred? I can't prove it. I can't turn to scriptures and tell you that this occurred during the days of unleavened bread that year. But in my half, I can't disprove that fact either.

Well, let's continue. Genesis 19. Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. And when he saw them, he rose to meet them. And he bowed himself with his face towards the ground, and he said, Here now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Interesting. We have foot washing service and a Passover the other night. Then you may rise early and go your way. And they said, No, no, no, no. We'll spend the night in the open square. Thank you. We'd kind of like to know what it's like here in the community. We'd like to kind of get to know your neighbors. And the best way to kind of get to know the labor of your culture is to stay here in the open square tonight and to sleep there.

Verse 3, But he insisted strongly, speaking of Lot, why do you think Lot insisted strongly? Because he knew that he had compromised and he was living in a degenerate city of perversion and sin. But he insisted strongly, so they turned into him and entered his house.

Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate. Unleavened bread? Again, the symbolism here is absolutely astonishing. Lot, the one man to be spared, one man to be spared, makes unleavened bread, and the three of them eat that bread that represents the righteousness of Christ.

Again, is this a mere coincidence or are the underlying symbols of Christ in God's plan, even in these biblical events, what is the antidote to sin and perversion? It's the righteousness of Christ. It's that represented when we eat that unleavened bread. I'd like to ask the question again, why didn't Lot already have a loaf of leavened bread to give to his visitors?

Why doesn't he simply go to the bread box and get some of that nummy tasting soft doughy leavened bread that was made a couple of days ago and offer it to them? It gives the impression that there isn't any. Well, why wouldn't there be any leavened bread in Lot's dwelling? I wonder.

So what's the spiritual lesson of this event? Again, the antidote to wickedness is absorbing the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the bread of life. And that's why we eat unleavened bread seven days. We picture, symbolically, what we all desire. And that is the righteousness of Christ living in us.

Now let's go forward to instruction given to the children of Israel regarding the Holy Day that we're observing. We're going to go to Exodus 12 and verse 31 and see the original events that led to the establishment of the days of unleavened bread. Now, some may look at this and say, this is fascinating history. I look at it and I say that this was part of God's plan, that this was not some accident, that suddenly they have to rush out of Egypt and due to circumstances, a coincidence, they couldn't allow their bread to rise. I say, no, I read this and what I see in here is God's hand forcing these events so that this time could be established for a purpose and a reason, not by accident.

Exodus 12 and verse 31, then he, Pharaoh, called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, rise up, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go serve the Lord as you have said.

So Pharaoh says, I have two final commands for you. Get out and stay out, because by now, after all the plagues and all they've been through, they eagerly want the Israelites to get out of the land of Egypt.

Go, he says, serve the Lord as you have said, and take your flocks and your herds as you have said, and be gone. Oh, and bless me also.

And the Egyptians urged the people that they might send them out of the land in haste. Are you gone yet? Is there anything I can do to help you? Can I load your camel for you? Is there anything I can do to get you out of here like fast? For they said, We shall all be dead. So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver and gold and clothing, and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. So they granted them whatever they requested. Thus, they plundered the Egyptians.

This was compensation for all those generations of being in slavery. So the Egyptians were so eager to get rid of them. Here, take the silver, take the family China, take the gold and candles, take anything you want, just get out!

So they gave the Israelites their possessions, their silver and their gold, and things of value. Verse 37, On the children of Israel journeyed from Ramesses to Sukhoth about six hundred thousand men on foot besides children, a mixed multitude went up with them also, and the flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock, and they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. So here we see the reason that the Israelites had unleavened bread to eat after they left Egypt. They were rushed. Time did not allow the bread to rise, to prepare it like you normally would leavened bread. But as we've seen in the previous scriptures that we already looked at, rather, this was no mere accident. Unleavened bread already had a deep spiritual lesson to teach humankind. The bread of life is righteousness and it's pictured by consuming unleavened bread. Now, in contrast, sin spreads like leaven in a lump of dough, and the more time it has, the greater the sin spreads. It's just like a disease that you have in your body. But the unleavened bread pictures God's righteous presence, leading them out of pagan Egypt into a new land, into a new life. That's what the unleavened bread pictures, because it represents the bread of life, none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Now, let's go to Exodus 13, verse 5. Moses was inspired to write, and it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Chittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, that He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. And by the way, we have a beautiful display about traveling and going to the land of milk and honey at the back of the hall there for you to see after services.

This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. It shall be a sign to you in your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth. But why do we eat unleavened bread? So that the law of God is represented by going inside of us and being absorbed in our hearts and minds and every fiber of our being. David was inspired to write in Psalm 119.172. He said, That's what David said. So again, going back to this verse, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth, but with the strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt, you shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.

Now let's go to the book of Leviticus and see where we typically understand and realize God's instruction on all of us these days. Leviticus 23. If you'll turn there with me.

Leviticus 23.

He says, He doesn't say the Feast of the Jews, the Feast of the Israelites, the Feast of the Protestants, the Feast of the Sabbatarians.

No, He says, These are the Feasts of the Lord. You shall proclaim to be holy convocations. That's another word for a convention. These are my feast.

Are they Greg Thomas' feast? Nope. Are they the United Church of God's feast? Sorry, they're not. They happen to be the Lord's feast. They're God's feast.

He begins by the one that occurs every week.

You shall do no work on it. That is your occupation, your customary work. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the Feasts of the Lord. Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed time. So three times in four verses we are told that these are God's feasts. How many times do we have to be told that these? Does anyone have to be told that these are God's feasts before it sinks in, that these feasts were ordained or instituted by God?

And when he created the sun and the moon and the stars, the marked time, that the time that he wanted his people to delineate were his feasts that he would reveal to his people.

Does it say here that these are Israel's feasts? Does it say these are Jewish feasts, Hebrew's feasts? No, they don't. They're God's feasts. Leviticus 23 and verse 1, I'm going to read from the New Century Version. Follow with me through this. It says, The Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel, You will announce the Lord's appointed feasts as holy meetings. You see, we're having a holy meeting here today. This is a holy convention because we are here to worship our great God. We are here to celebrate our freedom from sin because of Jesus Christ, the bread of life. That's why we're here today. Verse 3, again, this is the New Century Version. There are six days for you to work, but the seventh day will be a special day of rest. It is a day for a holy meeting. You must not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your homes.

These are the Lord's appointed feasts, the holy meetings which you will announce at the times set for them. So here the very God who would later come to earth and be known as Jesus Christ. There's no other God revealing these things. Jesus said He came to reveal the Father. Mankind was totally unaware of the fact that the Father even existed until Jesus Christ came to earth to reveal who and what the Father was.

So the very God who is instructing Moses to do these things is the one who would later walk on earth and be known as Jesus Christ.

Let's take a look now on verse 5. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. On the seven days, you must eat unleavened bread. And why do we eat unleavened bread for seven days? Because the symbology again, because it represents the righteousness of our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, the bread of life. And we want Him to live through us. We want the righteousness of Christ to be in us and radiate from us to have a powerful impact so that we can be lights and examples to this dying world. So we can be dedicated followers and disciples of the bread of life Himself, Jesus Christ. That's why we do that for seven days. On the first day, verse 7, on the first day you will have a holy convocation. That's what we're doing today. And we don't work today because this is what we call, from other scriptures, a high day, meaning a very special religious day in which we don't work and in which we celebrate the goodness and the grace of God. You shall do no customary work on it. Verse 8, But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. And that's one of those Hebrew rituals that are no longer a part of the new covenant. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. So we don't work on the first day. We worship God. We don't work on the seventh day. It's a holy convention. We come here and we celebrate the meaning of the feast, and we worship God. But we don't do that on the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, or the sixth day. We're welcome to work unless it's a weekly Sabbath that falls in between that time, like this year. But the first day and the seventh day are holy conventions, and we don't do customary work. We don't do our occupations on those days. So the very first of the annual feasts listed immediately after the Passover in Leviticus 23 are the seven days of unleavened bread. Again, notice the instruction of eating unleavened bread because it pictures the righteousness of Christ. Let's now go to Judges 6. We're going to continue our history. Of course, we know that after the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were faithful to God until a generation of Joshua died out, and then things turned ugly. With no leadership, they degenerated to being pretty close to human animals, sad to say, as revealed in the book of Judges. Judges 6, verse 1. It says, You have to hide in caves and rocks because you were so oppressed and intimidated by other peoples. Continuing, verse 3.

They would come up with their livestock and their tents coming in as numerous as locusts. Both they and their camels were without number, and they would enter the land and destroy it. So Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites, that the Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you, and gave you their land.

And I also said to you, I am the Lord your God, do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice. What we see here is one of the many cycles mentioned in the book of Judges because of Israel's sins. First, they begin sinning. Then they go into oppression. Then they cry out to God, God save us, help us God. Because he is a merciful and loving God, he would raise up a judge to save them. Then once they got a little bit of a taste of freedom, then once again they would start sinning, and the cycle would repeat itself all over again.

Just like nations today. Isn't that amazing? But this is exactly what was occurring here. Verse 11, now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the Terravinth tree. Boy, this Terravinth tree always seems to show up when God arranged. Somebody should do a word study on this tree, which was in Oprah, which belonged to Joash the Abba's rite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Medianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.

And Gideon, and you have to understand Gideon's personality and character traits, because Gideon basically says, you talking to me? Man of valor? I mean, no one would have ever accused Gideon of being a man of valor. As a matter of fact, he was kind of meek and wishy-washy, and frankly he was not a man of strong faith.

So he might have been the most unlikely candidate that anyone would have ever expected to be a judge. And Gideon said to him, O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our Father told us about, saying, did not the Lord bring us from Egypt?

But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Medianites. And the Lord turned to him and said, Go, in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Medianites. Have I not sent you? Gideon, it's you that I'm calling for this task. Verse 15. So he said to him, O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my Father's house.

And the Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you will defeat the Medianites as one man. There was a whole, whole clan of them, the whole tribe of the Medianites. You'll defeat all of them. Verse 17. Then he said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. This isn't exactly a dramatic example of living faith, I might add.

But he says, Show me a sign. He says, Wait, don't leave. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to you and bring out my offering and set it before you. And he said, I will wait till you come back. So again, I want you to notice how there is reference here to leaving Egypt. The verses we just read. Israel has sinned and is being punished by God. What we are about to read next is not an accident.

What we are about to read next is not coincidence. Gideon understands that the presence of God is waiting for him to come back. Verse 19. So Gideon went in and prepared a young goat. By the way, in Exodus 12.5, for Passover, you could use a lamb or a goat, as instructed. Just something to think about. Anyway, he prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephotha flower. The meat he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and he brought them out to him under the terebin tree and presented them. And the angels said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay it on the rock, and then pour out the broth.

Get it good and wet. You know, so wet that a fire would be extinguished if it touches it all. Go ahead and just pour out the contents of all that broth and just pour it out. Make it nice and wet and gushy. And so he did. So, Gideon symbolically provides an offering. And what does this offering do? Probably unwittingly. I'm not sure he totally understood it, but it represents Jesus Christ in two ways.

Jesus Christ as the bread of life, the unleavened bread, and the shedding of blood to atone for sin. The young goat who died, who had its throat slashed, who shed its blood in order to prepare this meal to serve, to this being who had come in his presence. These are the Passover symbols. Verse 21, Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of his staff that was in his hand and touched the meat, and the unleavened bread, and fire rose out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. So the angel of the Lord departed from his sight. Now Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, and Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God!

For I've seen the angel of the Lord face to face. Then the Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die. So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it was still there, at the time when this was written.

Of course, we know that this word angel from the Hebrew simply means messenger. This also could have been the one who later would become known as Jesus Christ, because he was terrified that he had seen this powerful being face to face. So again, I want you to notice the connection between Israel's wickedness, their sin that has caused them to be oppressed, the original exodus that's been spoken of in these verses that we talked about, and Gideon making unleavened bread for the angel.

Again, the Lord speaking here, very God, who will later walk on earth among men. It says angel, but it may have literally been the one who would later be known as Jesus Christ and walked on earth. Now, I'm not going to make a bold claim that this very event occurred during the days of unleavened bread, because I can't prove that in this event.

However, I will say this, that the answer to wickedness is absorbing the bread of life, and that was pictured by the unleavened bread that was there. The answer to oppression or a lack of faith is consuming the bread of life, just like that fire came down and consumed that offering that was sitting on it, or that fire came up from the rock and consumed that offering that was sitting on it.

Well, that's the Old Testament. Now we're going to take a look at the New Testament, a couple of scriptures. Turn with me to Acts 20, beginning in verse 1. Because I want you to understand as we close this sermon today, unfortunately, I have run out of time. Time is my greatest enemy here sometimes. Acts 20, verse 1. This is 55 AD. There are too many people that argue with the fact that this event occurs in 55 AD.

The previous chapter in Acts 19 is when Paul wrote the letter to 1 Corinthians, same year, 55 AD. But I want to bring this point out, as it says here. Now, of course, Paul, to give you context, he caused a near riot by upsetting the idol-makers, the craftsmen in Ephesus.

He almost caused a near riot. He offended the international brotherhood of pagan idol-makers union and caused a near riot. So it says here in verse 1, These men going ahead waited for us. So you see, Luke is a firsthand witness to these events. The author of Acts waited for us at Troas. But we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.

Now, I'll just stop right there. And why would Luke mention in 55 AD the days of unleavened bread? Why did they wait until after the days of unleavened bread were over? Because they observed them. I've had people say to me, oh, it's just a time demarcation. Wrong. You can look at a lot of the things that Greg Thomas has written, and it's rare, if ever, that I use the word Christmas in a memo, in an email.

Why? Because I don't personally observe Christmas. You won't find in my writings, you go back to my emails for years, you don't find Greg Thomas refers to Easter. Why? Because I don't recognize Easter. So why would we think that he, Luke, would recognize something that he wasn't observing himself? Of course he mentions the days of unleavened bread because they observed it, and they waited until after the days of unleavened bread to travel. They were keeping the feast. Now let's go to our second final scripture today, 1 Corinthians 5 and 6.

And again, this was written 55 A.D. There's not a whole lot of debate about that 24 years after the death of Jesus Christ. That is a long time. Let's see what Paul tells this primarily Gentile congregation, people of Greek descent, who are the foundation and the core of this church at Corinth. They were a very proud church. They had a lot of problems. You read the book of 1 Corinthians, you'll know that they were a very proud people. They were very gifted. God had given them a lot of gifts, but they had become lax on God's law ethically.

They were allowing things to occur within the congregation that they should not have. And Paul is addressing that here in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6. He says, Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Now, if you don't have an understanding of the holy days that God revealed, why would leaven even have any meaning to you? You know, I'm going to be honest with you. Maybe I'm adult, but before I came into the church of God, I didn't even know what leaven was. I'm not a homemaker. I never made bread. I can barely make a TV dinner. I have trouble just turning the temperature gauge on the stove.

And my point is, is how would they even understand this analogy unless they had been taught about what leaven means? That leaven represents sin. It would have been meaningless to them.

He says, Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. You have the righteousness of Christ living in you. He says, You should be a new creature in Christ. That's a new lump. And you're supposed to be living God's way of life and not making compromises and not being proud and vain and not just putting up with things that you should deal with. He says, For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Verse 8, Therefore let us keep the feast. Now, the first thing to notice there, as I'm sure you're fully aware, is when you say to someone, Let us do something, that means you're going to do it. Right? So this tells us that Paul, 24 years after Jesus Christ died, Paul personally is still keeping the days of unleavened bread. What's wrong with him? Doesn't he know these days have been done away with? He was at the Ministerial Conference in Acts 15. Didn't he understand the true meaning of the Ministerial Conference in Acts 15? Doesn't he know that the law has done away? That the Holy Days are obsolete and done away? Why doesn't Paul get with the program? It's because Paul knows what the program is. It's the scholars who are clueless. It's people who claim to believe in Jesus Christ who are clueless. Paul knew exactly what he believed and what he wrote and what he meant when he wrote. He said, Therefore, let us, that is, you Gentiles who have no background, who didn't know a Holy Day from a hemorrhoid until I taught you the difference, You Gentiles, you keep these feasts because they have tremendous meaning and they are rich in symbolism and they reveal us God's plan. Part of that plan is that God is calling a select few and he wants the righteousness of Christ to live in us and through us and to proceed from us and have a powerful impact to the world and to those who are around us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, because you would be a hypocrite then. You can't keep the feast with the works of the flesh.

You can't claim to be a Christian and primarily be living and dwelling in the works of the flesh, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So he's telling this Gentile congregation they need to keep the feast. Why, this modern scholar says, ha, you can't keep a feast? There's no temple in Corinth. There's no Levitical priesthood in Corinth. There's no altar to sacrifice animals on in Corinth. Paul doesn't care. Why, Corinth, you don't have the Internet. You can't have somebody tell you that the new moon occurred at 2.01 a.m. last night. Paul doesn't care because he believed in the new covenant. They were to keep the new covenant, days of unleavened bread, and they didn't care about blood sacrifices. They didn't care about altars. They no longer cared about temples. What they cared about was the bread of life and what those holy days represented to them, including the days of unleaven. So here we see in 55 AD, 24 years after resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul is instructing these Greek Gentile members to remember the spiritual significance of this holy day.

And why? Because this festival season would remind them of the covenant they made with God at baptism, and it would remind them of the purpose that they were alive. To allow their Lord and Savior, the bread of life, to be ingested in their lives, in their hearts, in their minds, in every part of their being.

To take in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our final scripture, John 6 and verse 47. John 6 and verse 47. Jesus Christ Himself said, Most assuredly I say unto you that he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am. One of the very phrases He used when He revealed Himself to Moses in the Old Testament. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven. Speaking of Himself, this is the bread that comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. So, during this very first day, the Festival of Unleavened Bread this year, I hope you realize that the concept of what is taught about unleavening goes far earlier than Levitic. It goes all the way back to the example of Abraham, and a lot. It goes back to the time of the Judges. It is a truth and an understanding that unleavened bread represents the presence and the righteousness of God wherever it is. That's what it symbolized. That's what it was intended to represent. And the same is true today. So, during the next seven days, let us continue to symbolically picture the righteousness of Jesus Christ living in us as we eat unleavened bread for the next seven days. Our Savior is the bread of life. He is the living bread. And because of Him, we will live forever. That is the meaning of these wonderful days.