Take up Your Cross

Approaching Passover, one can either be ignoring of the extreme sacrifice and the details that Jesus went through, coming up to the Passover and through His death, or one can be overwhelmed by the terrible events and actually study into the medical understanding of what He must have gone through and perhaps watch a movie or a video describing the horror of that. I find that the Bible is somewhere in between. It gives us a description, an overview, as it were, of the things that Jesus experienced, but it doesn't get into the gore. Nor is the purpose for you and I to beat ourselves up with a bunch of guilt and feel bad. But rather, we're to remember His sacrifice. We're to remember His gift and be aware of the magnitude of that sacrifice. Similarly, as you come up to the days of unleavened bread and you go about delevening your house, getting rid of the yeast, it can be a daunting process or an easy process. You can say, I don't really see any yeast, I don't really see any leaven, you know?

And say, I think I'm okay. Or you can realize that in many nooks and crannies and drawers and in cooking things and in cupboards and maybe even in the walls of your house where people once worked and ate lunch before building that in, or in the very air that you breathe is yeast and leaven. In fact, an integral part of your body is yeast that lives in your intestines and produces B vitamins without which you would be dead.

One can be dismissive or once again just overwhelmed in the realization that you can't get rid of every speck of yeast.

While searching for sins, we can be dismissive of them, saying, I don't really see any sins in my life, I'm a pretty good person, didn't kill anybody this week, nothing comes to mind, so I think I'm good.

Or you can be overwhelmed by them. Let's go to Romans 7 and verse 19.

The Apostle Paul gives us the reality should we care with God's Spirit and with humility to know our state.

Romans 7 verse 19 Paul says, for the good that I would do, I'll serve, I'll help, I'll do these things.

When you look a little deeper, it's often because the ego or the vanity or the self-promotion wants to be recognized or the person to feel good.

Even the good that we do is not pure. And he says in verse 19, the good that I will to do, the pure good I do not do, but the evil I will not to do, I will not be self-centered, I will not be unthoughtful of others, I will put God first, that I don't end up doing.

Dropping down to verse 21, I find then a law that evil is present with me. Just like there's leaven going to be in your house all through the days of unleavened bread, there's going to be yeast in the air and in your body, there's going to be sin in your life.

It's impossible to put them out in this human experience. There is a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

Notice there's no room there for anything else. Oh, wretched man, I might be, I could be, I maybe am, I'm not sure. No, with an exclamation point. Oh, wretched man, that I am. And that is where we find ourselves as human beings.

What we are to learn is that sin is there, and we need to find it, we need to hate it, we need to not be of that mindset.

What do we learn from reading about Christ's perfect sacrifice?

When we see and are overwhelmed by His perfection and all that He went through and gave Himself for us and died for us, do we simply set that over there and say, wow, that was quite an event, that was bizarre, I'm unconnected with that.

It's unique. It was for us, it was for me, but I don't really relate to that because what was to be learned from Christ's sacrifice? Verse 25 tells us, I thank God, I, the imperfect one, I, the one who am sold under sin, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

He says, who's going to save me from this sin? I thank God He's going to save me through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but I would insert the word if, if with the flesh, the law of sin.

I'm going to determine with my mind, with God's spirit, as he just said, through Jesus Christ, to serve God with my mind. I'm going to serve that law of love, not the law of sin with the flesh. In other words, the lesson that we find is we have choices to make, and the choices are real. They are available.

We have constant choices that we make that make two types of character. There's godly, holy, righteous character based on love and sacrifice and serving. And there's carnal, satanic character that's based on get, take, self-first, unthoughtful of others. And as we make the choices of life, we put ourselves in the category of either sheep or goats. Nobody's going to be perfect. No sheep is going to be, as Paul said, without sin. But they're going to be trending and trying to be like the Great Shepherd.

You could say that the goats are not fully evil, but their trend is towards carnality and selfishness and away from the mind of God, with perhaps random acts of kindness included.

And so we have choices to make. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit can lead us into a type of character that is holy, it is righteous, it is loving. And carnal satan can lead us into that sinful, selfish character.

And so as we approach the Passover, and as we look at the New Testament Passover, we see a sterling example of the opposite of what Paul found. We see a sterling example of holy, righteous character in every sense, without any form of sin, with no level, pure and clean.

It is demonstrated for your example, and not just to be put on a shelf and say, oh, that's nice, but rather an example that we are to imitate. We are to actually get involved in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by being imitators of it and of Him.

Your imitation of Jesus Christ's sacrifice of His Passover has actually become your goal in life. Rather than come to the Passover and look at it and say, oh, we should say, wow, that is where I want to go. It is through Jesus Christ, through His example, and through the gift that He gives us. See, Jesus Christ did much more than bleed to death for you and me.

We're going to take a look at that today. He did a lot more than just give His life and His blood for you and me. He set an example for us to follow. So let's examine events of the New Testament Passover, see what He did, and what we are expected to do as a result of what He did for us.

The title of the sermon today is, Take Up Your Cross. An integral part of your life's experience is actually the testing of the genuineness of your faith. It is not to just come and live and sort of have a good life, and God blesses me with physical stuff, and it's all smooth. God does bring blessings, and His way of life certainly brings blessings, especially with regards to relationships.

But God put you here to develop His pure, holy, righteous character, and He needs to know if it's genuine. You know, there's such a thing called veneer. You can look at wood and say, wow, this is beautiful. But is it really, really wood all the way through? Or is it a veneer that's only a thin, thin little shaving that somebody is glued on top?

God doesn't want us to just be white and sepulchers, that on the outside, look, oh, I'm great, I'm loving. But on the inside, He would elevate then the nature of Satan the devil into his family and bind it eternally in a God-being. He's got to know what's all the way through, as it were. In Genesis 22, verses 8-11, there's an event that perhaps we set up on another shelf, maybe over here, and we say, well, that was odd. Oh, that was unique.

That was different. I guess that's what happens to people like that. We can put Christ, who's the Son of God, on this shelf and say, well, that Passover was unique. We can put the Father of the faithful over on this shelf, and then not realize that these are part of our family. This is part of our quest. These are examples. He set us an example that we are to participate in and follow. In Genesis 22, verse 8, Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the Lamb for a burnt offering.

The type of Christ here. But this was a God that hated human sacrifice, said you're not supposed to murder. He would be just mortified, as it were, if somebody were to kill another human being on his behalf. And yet Abraham is following. And so the two of them went together, and they came to the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And we think, that's weird. That is odd. What's that about? Well, just like the father gave his son and was willing to do that, Abraham here is being tested with the most important thing that existed in his world at the time. Something that he had waited his lifetime for. Something he only had one of. And yet God had said, follow me and do what I tell you. And in verse 12, the angel said, Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him.

Don't harm him. For now I know that you fear God. I know that your faith isn't a veneer. I now know something about you. I can trust you. I know that you are the genuine thing. What he did was have a testing of the genuineness of his faith.

How does the sacrifice of Isaac relate to you and to every human being who will ever live? Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 through 7 and find out. 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 3. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father is the head. He is the supreme leader of the family. He is the one that you and I pray to. The one Jesus said to imitate, to become like. Blessed be him who, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us. He has engendered us from above with his spirit to begin transforming our character to his holy righteous character.

He has done this to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. One thing that Jesus' sacrifice did, the event of his blood being shed opened the door for you and I to have our sins forgiven and ultimately participate in the divine family of God. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, there is the opportunity. It's set up. But, verse 5, who are kept by the power of God, we cannot proceed. We cannot get rid of our nature without the power of God through his faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And it's in this that you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various tests. Tests. Don't think it's strange, the Bible says, when it comes to tests and trials by fire, thinking something odd has happened. Verse 7, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold it perishes to God and to you, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

You and I have that testing to go through. Abraham had that testing to go through. We're now going to take a look at Jesus Christ himself, who had that very testing to go through. And the events leading up to the Passover, the process of the Passover, was about the testing of a perfect person and an example of a perfect test that showed his genuineness without flaw whatsoever. And that you and I need to, through various trials, demonstrate the genuineness of our faith so that it is found in praise and honor and glory as well.

The event of the Passover again provides us with the opportunity for gracious redemption. The process involved the testing and a perfect example of the testing of the genuineness of his faith. Everybody is going to have testing. Everybody must, because God will not bring evil or hypocrites into his family. You and I are incapable of putting leaven out of our homes, getting yeast out of our environment, or taking sin totally out of our lives.

God has made it that way. A baby has no yeast whatsoever in its body until it is born and takes its first breath. And with the first breath, yeast becomes an integral part of a human until it dies. We can't get rid of yeast that will leaven bread. We cannot get rid of sin. 1 John 3 tells us anyone who thinks they haven't sinned is not. Or isn't sinning is not. We all sin. But God put us in a challenging environment where if we truly want to with his power, we can work our way out of sin.

And we can work our way into his divine nature of holy righteous character. We can make progress. We can grow towards being godly if we want to. And then he is faithful to take us from wherever we are on that course when he finds us so doing when he comes and then perfect us.

But he needs to know truly if we want his nature or not. Those who embrace God's nature wrestle. They fight. They grow. They overcome. They develop God's nature. They will be perfected one day, not in this life. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14.

2 Corinthians 6, verse 14. Here in this whole passage, God is saying, you know you need to get on this path. You need to really separate yourself from this hypocritical duality and choose to be like me.

He says, for you are the temple of living God. God has said, I will dwell in them. God, through Christ, now is living in you if you are baptized. He is working with you if you are not. And I will walk among them. I will be their God. They will be my people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Don't touch what is unclean and I will receive you. I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Chapter 7, verse 1. Therefore, if you are on that path, therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves. Put the leaven out. Put the agent of leaven, the yeast out. Work at it. Fight. Don't be discouraged by it, but also don't be intimidated by it. You can make progress. Cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the deep respect of God. That's what we are called to do. That is what we need to embrace. Now, in this process, you might think, well, I don't know. This is big. This is too big. I think I'll just take this Holy Spirit, this opportunity. I'll wrap it in a wonderful, nice napkin, and I'll just put it away somewhere safe. I'm just overwhelmed about doing something I really can't totally do. Let's go to Hebrews 4, verse 15. Hebrews 4, verse 15, there's been somebody there before us, and he is our helper through the Holy Spirit. And he is pulling for you, and he understands the battle that they have placed us in. Hebrews 4, 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but he was, in all points, tested. The word there in your Bible that may say tempted is from the Greek word that means tested. Thayer's lexicon defines it as to try whether a thing can be done, to make trial of, to test for the purpose of ascertaining his quality, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself. Wow. When we read this, we find that he was, in all points, tested to see the genuineness of him in what he thought, what he did, how he felt, going on as we are, yet without sin. He did it without sin. We are going to be tested. That's part of our calling. He was tested, and he did it with a sterling example.

Perfect. So we can look to that example, and we can also call upon him because he understands and he will help us in our time of need. Let's go now to Matthew 26. We're going to take a look, beginning in verse 31, at not just the shedding of the blood that he did, which was the event that forgives us of our sins, that we repent of, our past sins. We're going to look at the process of the Passover that involved the testing of our Lord and Savior. Matthew 26, verse 31. The Passover has just ended.

Now, he would be killed, and they would be in the dark. Without the Holy Spirit, they would stumble. They would fail. You and I, without him, can do nothing. Yet, the next verse. But after, verse 32, After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. He will come back. I will go before you. He will be the light, the tower of flame that will lead and guide us. In verse 36, they went down to a place called Gethsemane, which is in the little Kidron Valley, right below the Temple Mount. They have the temple and the wall, the little valley that goes down. And down there in the bottom, going up to the Mount of Olives on the other side, was this little garden of Gethsemane.

So, down in the moonlight, after the Passover service, looking back up at the temple and the wall up there, we have them going down. And he said to his disciples, You sit here while I go and pray over there. He knew what was coming.

He knew the terror he was going to experience within the next few hours. And he went over to pray. He prayed three times, three different times he went away and prayed. Luke wrote that he sweat drops like blood. This was intense.

We find here in verse 38, he said to them, My soul, my life is exceedingly sorrowful. Depression, you might say. Have you ever been in depression where you're just extremely sorrowful and you can't get out of it? He said, even to death, I don't know if you've sorrowed that much, I have not. But just to where his body might die.

And he said, Stay here and watch with me. He's alone. He goes over there in his fear and his dread. He goes off to pray three times.

And he does this alone. Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt like nobody else can support you or help you?

What do you do at a time like that? Do you turn and say, Well, if no one else cares about me, I guess I'll just have to care about myself. I'll have to take care of myself.

In verse 46, or let's drop down to verse 42. The second time he went away and prayed, Oh, my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will be done.

Verse 45, He came to his disciples. Are you still sleeping and resting? They weren't there for him.

Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going.

And he looks up. See, my betrayer is at hand. If you looked up and you saw that thing that you hated, that thing that you worried about that troubled you, and you tell your friends and you turn around, here come the torches, here come the lights, here come the troops, and they're already there. And while he was still speaking, Judas 1 of the 12, with great multitude of swords and clubs, came from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

Verse 49, Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, Greetings, Rabbi, and kissed him. Oh, it's happening fast. And that guy that you chose, and that you worked with for three and a half years, and you slept in the fields with, and you walked down the roads with, and you taught, you probably healed him, you healed his family members, you gave him every opportunity, and here he's just kissed you and turned you in to the Romans, to the ones with the swords and the clubs. This was a confident. This is the one that used the details that Jesus had shared with the 12 against him. They knew where he would be. He told him. You see, he knew all the things, and he used all of that against him. What's that like? What's that like to have some friend that's close to you, that you're confident, use everything that you've done against you? How do you feel about a person? What do you think in your mind at that point in time? He was sold out for something that Judas wanted more than the Messiah. He wanted a few pieces of silver. Just a few pieces of silver. It wasn't that much.

In verse 55, we find he was falsely accused. In that hour, Jesus said to the multitudes, have you come out as against a robber? Hey, haven't I been healing you guys? Haven't I been everywhere in the daytime with you, open and honest?

You come with swords and clubs. I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and you didn't seize me? But now you come at night, secretly in the dark. He was falsely accused. He had a false arrest. He was wrongly treated. They all did bad to him after he had done good for all of them. He healed them. Oh, so happy! Oh, I got healed! Oh, my parents got healed! My friends got healed! Our village got healed! They returned evil for his good. Verse 56, the second half of the verse, Then all the disciples forsook him and fled, all his friends. He now only had people with swords and clubs.

Everybody left. He was all by himself. How do you feel when everybody deserts you and you're just flat out alone, and no one's going to defend you or help you? And all you have is lying people that want to kill you. Verse 59, now the chief priests, the elders, the leaders, essentially of his own church, his own religion, they sought false testimony. They said, can anybody here tell some lies so that we can kill this guy? We need some liars. We need two. Two that agree. Everybody starts telling their lies. They sought false testimony to put him to death, but they found none. Well, they found false testimony, but no two could agree. So you have to have two or more witnesses.

Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none that were two.

But at last, two false witnesses came forward and said, but they said.

Verse 63, if you had now been accused falsely of all these lies and everything, but now you have the two, this is going to kill you. What would you say? Wouldn't you jump up and say, well, this is wrong, this is false, I demand an attorney. I have witnesses. Verse 63, but Jesus kept silent.

The wonderful gospel of the kingdom of God is coming, and the high priest tore his clothes, saying, He has spoken blasphemy! We want nothing to do with Him or this kingdom. He is lying! Now, you think about this.

They rejected the role that He came to live, that He had lived for thirty-three and a half years.

And now they just rejected it and said, no, you're fake. Nope. Not going to happen. All bunch of lies. How would you like to work your whole lifetime and you accomplish something and then people just say, that was nothing. In fact, it's trash. In fact, you ought to die for what it is you are, what it is you've done. How would you feel if everything that you sacrificed and worked to do was just repudiated along with you?

That's a terrible, terrible place to be put in when He came as the anointed one, and He admitted that He was the anointed one. And yet, He says, what further need do we have of witnesses? Look now, you have heard His blasphemy. And what do you think? And they answered, He is deserving of death. This one who came and his whole life now is deserving of death. And then they spat in His face and they beat Him and others struck Him with the palms of their hands saying, prophesy to us, Christ, you've done all these prophecies. You told us about the end of the world. You told us about the Kingdom of God. You told us what would happen. Okay, smack, spit, slap, prophesy, prophesy. Now, in other words, your prophecies are meaningless. All that you came to do is useless. And all that you've told us is silliness and lies. In verse 67, 68, what they're calling Him here is a sinner. They're saying, you didn't even come and live righteously. You are a sinner worthy of death. Now we'll drop down to Matthew 27, verse 1. When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put Him to death. You have all of these officials of the official religion and they are scheming to kill Him. And when they had bound Him, they led Him away, delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. When you're bound, you're restricted from normal motion. And you tend to hobble, and if you fall, you cannot get yourself up. It's a very, I would say, humiliating experience to be bound and then pushed to go somewhere, and then hauled off to Pontius Pilate, the governor of the Romans, who was well known for his cruelty. We find here in verse 3, Judas, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful, and he brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. Jesus had a price on his head, and it wasn't very big. Thirty pieces of silver. That was it. You take all the creation and the God of creation, you take the anointed one of the Father, and thirty pieces of silver. In verse 11, Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor said, Are you king of the Jews? And he said, It is as you say. And while he was being accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Verse 14, But he answered him not one word, so the governor marveled greatly. Notice, of all the things that you and I would want to say, and probably would say, Jesus didn't say anything. In verse 15, the feast the governor was accustomed to releasing to the multitude one prisoner whom they wished.

In verse 20, the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitudes that they should ask for Barnabas and destroy Jesus.

Verse 22, Pilate said to them, What shall I do with Jesus, who is called the anointed one? And they all said to him, Let him be crucified. Everybody, all the people, not just the... Now you've got the whole population yelling, you know, free the robber, the known convicted criminal who's got this reputation of being evil. Free him. But kill. Kill Joshua the anointed one, his English name. Verse 23, the governor said, Why?

What evil has he done? And they cried out all the more. Let him be crucified. What would it be like to face an angry mob who's looking at you, yelling, Death? Death in the worst form. When Pilate saw that he could not prevail, but rather a tumult was rising, he washed his hands and said, I'm innocent of this. Oh, yeah? Well, a little bit of water in a bottle doesn't really do anything. Verse 26, that he released Barbus Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Scourging was a very, very terrible thing.

It often involved a cat of nine tails, as it was later called. Barbs and hooks. It wasn't just sort of things, but barbs and hooks, so that went into the skin and then ripped and pulled. Most people didn't survive that. That was usually a fatal event. But Jesus was a strong person, and he didn't fully bleed to death through that.

It was a very, very tough time. In verse 27, we see the ridicule going on. The soldiers of the governor took Jesus to the Praetorium. That was the outpost up on the Temple Mount, where the Roman troops stayed. They had him real handy to the Temple, because the Jews were always fomenting something. And so they took him in to the Roman garrison, and there they stripped him and put him in a scarlet robe and twisted a crown of thorns on his head. The thorns of an acacia tree are long, and there's something about puncture wounds that are very, very painful. And if you take those acacia tree thorns from that region of the world, and you run them anywhere into your skin, not only is the puncture painful, but there seems to be a type of an acid or something on the points, because they really sting and burn.

And this thing was twisted and crushed down on his head, as some kind of a false Roman crown, I guess it was. In verse 30, they spat on him, and they took a reed and struck him on the head. That's just two things that are just terrible to endure, is people spitting on your face and then speeding you about the head. And when they had mocked him, make jeering at him, laughing at him, then they put a robe on him, they took the robe off him, put his own clothes on, and led him away to be crucified.

Now keep your finger here for a minute. Let's go to Matthew 10, verse 38, and let's get you involved. We're going to come right back here, but let's just read what Jesus said in Matthew 10, in verse... Well, actually, let's go to Mark 8, verse 34.

I'd rather go to Mark 8, verse 34. It's a better rendition of it, a little more complete. Mark 8, verse 34. When Jesus had called the people and his disciples to himself, He said to them, Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me, take up his stake or his tree, that which he is going to be crucified on, that which he is going to sacrifice himself via. In other words, if you want to follow Christ, you can't just sort of look at this process and say, Oh, it's terrible what happened to Jesus. Let's put him up on a shelf and we'll worship and give him honor and glory, but I'll have no connection with that.

You see, He now brings us into that. If you want to come after Me, you've also got to make this trip, this journey. He said, If they have done this to Me, they're going to do it to you. I'm telling you, if they persecuted Me, they're going to persecute you. If I love My enemies, you need to love your enemies and bless those who do terrible things to you.

See, this Passover experience wasn't only about Him shedding blood for our sins. It was His perfect example of the ultimate of that which you and I must demonstrate in our genuineness of the holy, righteous character of God. And He said, You will take this journey, verse 35, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it. If you want to start acting in self-preservation mode, then you're not the genuine article. You're not the real, godly, spirited being. But whoever loses his life for My sake and for the Gospels will save it. If you will give yourself, you'll sacrifice, you will take it on the chin, but you will continue to be godly, you'll obey Me, you'll love, you'll serve under all circumstances, then you'll be in the Kingdom.

Verse 38, For whoever is ashamed of Me in My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of Him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with all His holy angels.

We go back to Matthew 27, verse 34. We find that they gave Him a painkiller concoction, but He refused it. He endured the full brunt of His pain.

In verse 35, we find that He was naked, He was shredded, He was humiliated.

It says in Isaiah chapter 52, verses 13 and 14, He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. He will be put up.

Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. How would you like to be on public display next to the crowds that went by? In verse 38, it continues.

Save yourself. If you're the son of man, come down from the cross.

He trusted in God. Let Him deliver Him now. And if He'll save Him, then maybe we'll listen to Him.

Verse 44, Even the robbers who were crucified on each side of Him reviled Him with the same thing.

No sympathy, no compassion, no caring, no concern.

Verse 46, we find that the ninth hour, He cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

You talk about being left alone. You see, He at that point was filled with sin.

Not in a personal sense, but He bore the sins of all of us on the tree.

And the Father had to step away at that point because He really did have our sins.

And was recognized to be paying the price for those sins, for you and me.

That's a very, very tough thing that He went through. And in verse 50, after being stuck in the side by a spear, He cried out again with a loud voice in pain, and finally yielded up His Spirit. And His death was complete.

What lesson can you and I learn? What's this about? Why do we need to know this?

Let's go to 1 Peter 2, verse 21.

For to this you were called.

Wow, what's He talking about? Well, just in the verses above, when you do good and suffer, for to this you were called. To do good and to suffer.

Because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps.

Who committed no sin, nor deceit was found in His mouth.

Who when He was reviled did not revile in return. When He suffered He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.

Who Himself bore our sin in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you are stitched together with God.

For you, like sheep, were going astray, but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your lives.

This is what we're called for. We're not called to have a shrieking, horrible death, necessarily, but some will experience that. We are called to be genuine in whatever circumstances we are placed in.

And we must demonstrate that to God. That is for what we are called. We just read here in Peter.

The Passover and Unleavened Bread represent to us at the same time example and opportunity. We have an example to follow, and we have the ability and the power and an opportunity to imitate it.

And so when we look at the Passover, it's followed by the Days of Unleavened Bread, a great opportunity for us to ingest that perfect bread, to imitate Jesus Christ, and to have the power and the guiding light to march out of our Egypt.

Let's conclude by reading Hebrews 4 and verse 15.

Hebrews 4 and verse 15-16.

Hebrews 4, verses 14-16.

Seeing then that we have a high priest, a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, our resolute involvement in this covenant and contract with God.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tested as we are, yet without sin.

Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Brethren, as you are presented with opportunities to make choices every day, choose godliness, choose righteousness, make yourself a sacrifice for the gospel, for the kingdom of God, for the lives of others, for the family of God, just as Jesus Christ did. And when you do that, you will be raised as one of the perfect children in the family of God.