The Theology of Exodus 12 for Us Today

Well, good evening or good afternoon, good morning, whatever time of day it is. Thanks for coming to Sabbath Service today. I wanted to thank you, Mr. Joe, for continuing a series of adding new songs. I've noticed a lot of the songwriters have been doing that recently. That's wonderful. We have a tendency to get in a rut and sing disabled songs all the time, so it's good to be introduced to some new songs in our musical, that's great.

Well, the Passover and Spring Holy Days begin less than three weeks away. And the Church of God, the United Church of God, probably observes God's Holy Days. We don't do it with a sense of shame. We don't keep the Holy Days because we think they earn salvation. We keep the Holy Days because they have such rich meaning for New Testament Christians.

We keep them because God instructs that we keep them, that we observe them, and they have significant meaning for those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That's why we keep the Holy Days. And today, I would like to look at the events of the original Passover that occurred about 3,500 years ago. And I would like to discuss the spiritual meaning of the Passover in the days of Unleavened Gred for those of us who live in the 21st century. Because I think that's very important. So today, we're going to look at the theology of the Passover, the symbolism, the analogies, the richness of what they represent for us today.

And the next step is we'll examine the history and the chronology and the dates of the events. And we'll take a look at why we observed the Passover in the beginning of the 14th, right, the end of the 14th. And why the Book of John seemingly contradicts the other gospels.

John implies that a Passover was being kept at a different time than the so-called Synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke will cover that next time. More of the events and the dates and the history of the Passover. Today, I just wanted to focus on the richness of the theology and symbolism as we prepare for the Holy Days this year. So let's turn to Exodus chapter 12. If you have a bookmark or one of those fancy ribbons in your Bible that you can save your place in Exodus 12, I encourage you to do that because we'll be going back and forth. Exodus chapter 12, and we will pick it up here in verse 1.

I think we know the context. Israel, right? The Israelites were slaves for hundreds of years. They were totally dominated. They were a subjected people. And God, through His love, His grace, and His mercy, because of the promises that He had made to Abraham, came to a point in time when He was going to free this people from slavery and bondage. And He did. And He brought them out of Egypt. And that was a miracle, just like your conversion was an absolute miracle. And just like in time, usually early in our Christian career, we usually have to face our own personal red seed.

Don't wait. Something comes up to try to distract us from God's way of life. Something may trial, may occur in our life, that makes us ponder, that makes us sometimes even think of quitting for a while, because it may seem impossible that we have an impossible task that's ahead of us. We may face our own personal red seed, but with faith and doing our part, just like happened then, God will create a miracle. And we'll move that trial, we'll move those obstacles, so that we can walk right down the path that God wants us to walk for.

Actually, this chapter 12, beginning in verse 1, here's the instruction. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be your beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the years of you. And this was springtime. This was a time of year, similar to what we experienced in the part of the world that we live in. And this was opposite of what they had been doing.

Mutually, they had been keeping, according to other calendars that they had acquired in slavery, the summer or the year began in the fall. The year began in late summer or fall. So this was a dimension opposite to what they were used to. But it was springtime. It was the time when things were growing.

And God said that this month shall be the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the test day of this month every man should take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him, him and his neighbor next to his house, take it, according to the number of persons, according to each man's need, you shall make your count for the lamb.

So the lamb was not to be wasted. You weren't to have a lamb, a big lamb, and have just two people eating of that lamb. All right? You were supposed to count. And if your family was very small and you could include your neighbors as part of a community, as part of a household, then you were to do that. In verse 5, it says, Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Then you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. The New Century version translates verse 6 this way, Take care of the animals until the fourteenth day of the month. On that day all the people of the community of Israel will kill them in the evening before dark. I'll explain what that means in a minute. But this command to the Israelites was intended to teach them about the future lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

They were required to take a one-year-old, unblemished lamb. Now, in the lamb world, when a lamb is one years old, it is an adult lamb. Most lambs can begin to reproduce at about eight or nine months.

So by the time a lamb is one year old, it is a young adult lamb. About the time that Jesus Christ, who was thirty-something, when he was thirtyish, when he began his ministry, he was a young, relatively young adult at that time. He was a male. Also, they were instructed that it was an unblemished lamb. Meaning it couldn't obviously have scars or marks on it.

And Jesus Christ was sinless. He was the lamb of God. Spiritually speaking, he was unblemished. And they were to care for it for approximately three and a half days. They were to take it out on the 10th and they were to separate it. Then they were to kill it on the 14th at the time that the Hebrew says is between the two evenings.

Now, what this meant at that time was that zone of time after sunset and before it gets dark. If you ever had the privilege of being near a beach, and beaches are some of my favorite spots in the whole world. There's a beach site we have in Panama City Beach and a place that I love to have dinner at called Harpoon Harris. And when you have dinner at Harpoon Harris, you can watch the sun go down over the water. And it's an awesome sight. And you sit there and you're with your families, your loved ones. And I've been there a number of times and it's amazing how every conversation falls silent when the sun is setting.

Everyone stops to look at this orange ball in the sky as it sinks and as it slowly gets taken over by the water until, oop, and it seems like it's that quick. And you see it, oop, the sun's gone. It's flipped over the horizon. But in our part of the world, for another 30 minutes or so, it won't get dark. And what has happened? It's still the rays of that sun, even though it's set.

Even though the sun has set, the rays from that sun are still shining up, bouncing up into the sky, into the clouds, and reflecting back on earth. So there's a short zone, a short period of time between sunset and when it actually gets dark. And the Hebrew word means between the two evenings. And this is when they were instructed to kill the Passover lamb. So they separated this animal for approximately three and a half days. And that was enough time for the family to develop a little bit of an attachment to the lamb. Especially if they had children. The lamb was a beautiful lamb. It didn't have any marks on it.

It was unblemished. It was young. It was something that was desirable. And that was enough time for them to develop a special little affinity for that innocent lamb that they were about to kill. And they learned through that process that a toad with for sin results in losing something that's precious and valuable to you. In the same way, Christ was the innocent and the sinless, perfect lamb of God who ministered in Judea for three and a half years.

And that's what the three and a half days represent between separating it on the tent during the day of the tent and then when the lamb was sacrificed. It was a lesson here. That is that God the Father himself someday would painfully allow his precious son to be slaughtered so that you and I could be atone for it. And that's what that Passover lamb represented. Now let's go to deeper place in Exodus 12. Let's go to Hebrews, chapter 7 and verse 14. Hebrews, chapter 7 and verse 14. We're going to read about the ministry of Jesus Christ.

The author of Hebrews, who I believe is Paul, is going to draw a contrast between the physical priests, the Levites, the Levitical system, and the kind of high priest that Jesus Christ is. And of course, this was represented by the Passover lamb and the fact that Jesus Christ would be the ultimate Passover. Hebrews, chapter 7 and verse 14. He writes for it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood.

So he's right there. He says Jesus Christ wasn't even a Levite. He was from a different tribe. God said that the priesthood had to come from Levi. Jesus Christ did not come from Levi. He came from Judah. Verse 15. And it is yet far more evident if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment. And that's what Paul refers to as the commandment that the priest, the physical priest in the Old Covenant, would only come from the tribe of Levi of one particular family. But according to the power of an endless life, so he's contrasting the law of fleshly commandment.

Those men lived and died. And then there is a high priest who has the power of endless life. Verse 17. For he testifies you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Speaking of Jesus Christ. You may remember the story in Genesis 14. We don't have time to turn there today.

But Abraham went out, he conquered the king, and almost out of nowhere shows up this high priest named Melchizedek. And he's the king of Salem, the king of theses. Actually, he could very well have been the one who later would become known as Jesus Christ. Because he appears out of nowhere. Abraham is so impressed with him that he tithes to Melchizedek. To show his deference and his respect to this priest named Melchizedek. And what the author of the book of Hebrews is saying here is that Jesus Christ and his priesthood isn't fleshly like the line of Levi. Like the families that came from the high priest in fleshly terms. His spirituality as high priest more comes from the example of Melchizedek.

Verse 18, He says in contrast, on one hand, you had all these physical priests, and they really didn't accomplish anything, did they? They sacrificed every day. They had to sacrifice for their own sins. They had to sacrifice for the sins of the people. This went on generation after generation after generation. There's really no progress. This is buts. On the other hand, there is one who brings us a better hope. That allows us to draw near to God. And that's Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Verse 20, So they were priests of an older covenant, a covenant that really didn't accomplish anything, a covenant that really could not forgive sins. It was a physical covenant. The old covenant said, here it is. Physical curses if you do wrong, physical blessings if you do right. But we don't live under that covenant. We live under a covenant of mercy. And that are the other spiritual promises that last for an eternity, and graciousness and mercifulness from God when we do wrong. The opportunity to repent, to get back on track if we have strayed, and to get back in the grace of God. You see, that is a better covenant than the one that they lived under. Verse 23, Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. So again, for generations, priests, you know, same family. Priests grow old, they die, replaced by their kids. They're priests for a while. They grow old, they die. This went on for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Verse 24, He says, But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Jesus Christ will not die. He is a priest, eternally, and forever. Verse 25, Therefore, he is also able to save the utmost, those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. I want you to know, it just says, he's able to save to the utmost. That is completely and totally. When we come to Jesus Christ, we come to the Father through the intercession of Jesus Christ. We are saved completely, utmost. Not halfway, not partway. We can achieve salvation completely because Jesus Christ is our High Priest. Verse 26, For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher in the heavens. Verse 27, Who does not need daily as those High Priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples, for he did it once for all, when he offered up himself. For the law appoints a High Priest men who have weaknesses, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son who has been perfected forever. So this Passover Lamb that was represented in Exodus 12 was pointing to the ultimate Lamb of God. And the fact that, as we will see through his shed blood, through his own sacrifice, that we would have a High Priest forever who intervenes for us, gives us the ability to have that kind of healthy relationship with the Father. I'd like to read verse 22 from the next century version. It says, quote, This means that Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant from God to his people.

Jesus Christ, brethren, if you accept who and what Jesus Christ is, you repent of your sins, you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and Christ is your Savior, your salvation is guaranteed.

A 100% money-back guarantee. The only thing you need to do is continue the journey. Continue your discipleship. Continue growing and changing. Continue throughout your life. You become more like Christ and you put on the mind of Christ by using that incredible power that he put inside of you to produce those changes in our lives.

So the sacrifice of Jesus Christ brought the guarantee of a better covenant, a spiritual covenant bonded at our baptism with Christ. When we repented and we were baptized and we received the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we were sealed with a new covenant because of our Savior, because of our God. So what do we do each Passover of our own here in the 21st century? Well, each Passover season, it should always remind us of the covenant that we made with God as we began our journey as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We should prepare for the spring holy days by reflecting on what Jesus Christ has done for us.

We should meditate and think about the opportunities that now exist because of what Jesus Christ did for us. He is our creator. He is our sustainer. He's our Savior. He's our high priest. He's our spiritual elder brother. And He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, as it says in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 11 and verse 6.

Take a look here. We'll go back to the book of Exodus. If you'll turn there with me. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 7, we will read the next verse.

Again, we're continuing to look at the original Passover in Exodus 12.

And how it applies to you and I here in the 21st century.

Many, many, many years, 3,500 years later after these events were recorded. What does it mean to us? Exodus chapter 12 and verse 7.

And they shall take some of the blood, this is after they killed that lamb, and put it on the two doorposts and on the lentils of the houses where they eat it. So that blood was a sign. The blood of the lamb splashed on the doorpost and the lentil represented the divine protection of God in that one household.

A death angel was stalking Egypt. And when that death angel approached a house that did not have the shed blood of the lamb on it, the firstborn of that house would die. And that's what happened to most of the Egyptians. And, brethren, in a similar way, ultimately, what saves each and every human being is accepting the shed blood of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ for our sins. And, as time goes on, those who refuse to accept that shed blood, and what that truly means to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, ultimately, that person will die. Ultimately, that person will be struck down. Just like the death angel did in ancient Egypt.

So, again, let's read verse 7. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two-door post and on the lentils of the houses where they eat it. To the Israelite, the Passover pictured redemption from Egypt and a future hope in a new Lamb, a promised Lamb. They knew that God was going to take them somewhere else.

In ancient Egypt, the lack of the Lamb's blood in the door post would have meant certain death for the firstborn of any family that did not have that blood on it.

And, in the same way, rejection of the Lamb of God and shed blood will mean eternal death for anyone who ultimately rejects the grace and the love of God.

Let's go now to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 1.

And see how the blood of Jesus Christ ties in with this, what we've been talking about.

Paul begins this epistle. He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, the faithful in Jesus Christ, or in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you in peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Can we see that, or are we still living lives of scarcity? Are we still living lives of fear? Are we still living lives of frustration and unhappiness?

It says our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us and Him before the foundation of the world. Well, God sees the beginning from the end. And He came to a time when He said, I think I'm going to call this guy Jim.

I'm going to call this guy Bob. I'm going to call this girl Karen.

And against my better judgment, I'm going to call this guy Greg.

God, in His love and mercy and divine providence, before the foundation of the world, decided to call some people in advance and give them to be His first fruits. His firstborn, so to speak. His first fruits.

And to give them a tremendous opportunity to understand God's way of life in this lifetime. Verse 4, just as He chose us and Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.

So predestined, we were called now. Others will be called later. Others will be given their opportunity at a later time. But we have been the blessing of being predestined to be adopted children of God right now.

And I want you to look at the latter part of verse 5. Did God do this bebrugingly? Does God do this because He thinks it's a mistake?

Does God think it's a risk to do this? Elberheim's side once said, God does not play dice.

God knows exactly what He's doing. He knows exactly what His plan is. It says, why does He do this? According to the good pleasure of His will.

So we're not a stink in God's eyes. We're not a mistake in God's eyes. We're not a big question mark in God's eyes. He called us now.

He predestined us to His calling because of the good pleasure of His will.

Verse 6, to the praise and glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. Not rejected, accepted in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood. It goes all the way back to Exodus 12.

In what? The blood of that physical Lamb had always represented, had always pictured. It prefigured the time when Jesus Christ itself would shed His blood.

In Him we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

So we see here that the shed blood of the Lamb of God provides redemption from sin and protection from eternal death.

For us who live now, the Passover pictures are past redemption from sin when we were baptized.

When we came out of that baptismal tank clean and our sins washed away and we received the laying out of hands and we received God's Spirit.

And we made a commitment. The commitment was that I will be a life-long disciple.

I won't be here only for the good times. I won't be here only for the potluck days. But I will be here a disciple.

I think I told you the story before of a term that the Protestants used in China when they went to make Congress of the Chinese. They quickly developed a phrase called, Rice Christians. Those were the Chinese who were converted and would show up as long as there was free rice handed out.

But when they ran out of rice, the Chinese disappeared.

And in our baptism, my friends, we made a life-long commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Not simply if it's convenient, but a life-tong, saved, ongoing commitment to be the kind of disciple that we should be.

The annually the Passover confirms God's covenant with us individually. And at the Passover, as we prepare for it, we should pause and say to ourselves, How am I doing? And if I'm not doing very well, then I need to make some adjustments. Because God is merciful, God is loving, God is patient.

But even the love and mercy and patience of God can eventually run out if we take it for granted. If we think we're just entitled to grace.

If we think we're just entitled to special treatment. We are given those things because someone shed his blood. Someone died so that we could have those wonderful qualities of grace and mercy and compassion.

So annually the Passover confirms God's covenant with each and every one of us individually. As we look towards the future, the Passover is our hope, our reminder that we are being called as God's children.

That we are being called into the kingdom of God.

Exodus. You can see Exodus chapter 12 verse 8. Go back to the book of Exodus.

It says here, Moses continues to record, Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire, with ungloved bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

These are the Old Testament symbols of the Passover. You had the lamb, you had unleavened bread, you had bitter herbs.

To the Israelite, eating the flesh of the lamb represented the acceptance of God's promise to protect them.

They didn't know yet about Christ. They didn't have the understanding that we have the full and rich understanding of who Jesus Christ was as the lamb. They looked at it as representing the acceptance of God's promise. God said, if we put this blood on the lentils of our doorpost, and if we eat this lamb, we will be protected tonight.

The unleavened bread also pictured for them freedom from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Why was the bread unleavened? Because they had the opportunity to flee Egypt in a hurry, and they started to put the bread together and didn't have time to let it sit and rise.

So the bread was unleavened, which represented, we're getting out of here. We are in a hurry. It's time for us to go and to go now. That's why that bread was unleavened. And the bitter herbs, they represented the harshness of life. That if you had been a slave, and your mother, your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents had all been slaves in the land of Egypt, you could understand why bitter herbs would represent the harshness that life has to offer.

The purpose of these events was to recreate the same attitude in each generation as those who originally experienced this event.

You know, as time goes on, we ten people, human beings, become entitled. We think we're entitled to everything that we have.

We're a lot different than our ancestors who came to this country, usually with nothing. And a few generations go by, and we did good jobs, and we did wonderful things. And we begin to think that, well, it's kind of always been this way. That it should always be this way. That I'm entitled to all of these things. And Moses was very fearful that the Israelites and generations to come would forget the fact that they were slaves. Would forget the fact that God, by a miracle, brought them out of the land of sin. So each generation was to relive this historical event, and that's why the Passover was instructed as part of the Old Covenant.

There was one lamb for a family to share. If the family was too small, they were to share the lamb with a neighbor family. And in a similar way, we partake in the annual Passover service. All of us should be reminded of our place in the family of God, in a household of God. That's why we will gather as God's family. Not a physical family, but God's spiritual family. With our brothers and sisters in our spiritual family, we will observe the Passover that evening.

Now let's see something that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 26, if you'll turn there with me.

The remarkable thing about what Jesus says here is that it has tremendous impact because it literally changes the symbols of the Old Testament Passover. For very good reasons.

Matthew chapter 26, verse 26. We're familiar with this and this series of verses will be read at least another couple of times before the days were over because they are social dissidents.

They came of that Passover that we believe was in 3180. And as they were eating, Jesus subbred, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, This is my body. Then he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant.

We no longer live under the Old Covenant. And that has to be emphasized because in every church generation, there are always believers in the church who want to pull us back into the Lord.

And they have to be ableistic beliefs of the Old Covenant. We do not accept the Old Covenant. We live under a new covenant. He said, For this is the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many, for the remission, for the removal, the forgiveness of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink from the fruit of this vine from now on until that day when I drink it with you new in my father's kingdom. And when they have sung again, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

So, Jesus changed some of the Passover symbols. Let's look at these again from a theological perspective. We believe, of course, that Jesus Christ was the ultimate Lamb of God, the New Testament Passover, once and forever. And that is why there's no longer a Lamb as part of the New Covenant, New Testament Passover ceremony. Again, Jesus planned on being the ultimate offering that following afternoon. So, there's no Lamb.

The bitter herbs are also gone. There's no mention of bitter herbs. Because as followers of Christ, we, under the New Covenant, are supposed to live for the future, not wallow in the misery of the past. We are not simply be dwelling the past. When you relive the past, it stumps your growth. For us, bitterness is not an acceptable spiritual attitude. We talked about that when we talked about the full commandments of God and the spiritual approach to the law of God.

Bitterness is supposed to be replaced with a fruit of the Holy Spirit called joy. So, there is no need for bitter herbs. We don't relive negativity. We don't wallow in the states. We move forward. What was Moses hold as he's standing on the cusp of going across the Red Sea? What was he told? God said, move forward! That's what we've got to do in life.

That's what the New Covenant is all about. Now, the unleavened bread is still here. It's still very important. During the Passover, Jesus broke the unleavened bread that represents the sinlessness of his broken body. We eat that bread, that unleavened bread, picturing our individual acceptance of Jesus Christ. We don't eat that bread because we're legalists. We don't eat unleavened bread because it makes us righteous. We eat unleavened bread because God instructs it.

It is a powerful spiritual lesson on the fact that we continually need Jesus Christ in our lives. The consuming of unleavened bread shows our desire to develop the perfect mind of Jesus. That takes time. And that takes continual digestion of his word and his way of life. Our desire is to follow his example. To live a life of obedience and righteousness like he did. That is why we eat unleavened bread. And the unleavened bread pictures the righteousness of Christ in us. You see, that's what saves us in spite of our flaws and our weaknesses and our constant sins.

We are saved because of the righteousness of Christ in us. And that is also why we eat unleavened bread. Jesus instituted the new symbol of the wine, representing his shed blood for the remission of sins. That blood going all the way back to the story of that Passover that we've been looking at in Exodus chapter 12. He is now the eternal High Priest at the right hand of the Father. So how should we approach the Passover service in our day and in our age?

Well, we should come respectful. We should obviously prepare in advance. We should be thinking about the meaning of the Passover and what the days of unleavened bread represent. Even now, we should come respectful that night. We should come humble. We certainly should understand that it's all right to talk softly. It's all right to shake hands. I mean, I've been to Passovers in the past when people would come in and they looked like they hadn't eaten or slept for a month.

And they would kind of hibernate in a corner. People, they withdraw, they wouldn't shake hands. They thought somehow it was spiritual or righteous to come into the Passover looking religious. And if you look at the context, Christ and his disciples carried on an extensive conversation during the Passover.

So our attitude and our approach should be one of the respectfulness of the occasion, certainly humility. But it's certainly all right to talk softly, to carry on a conversation with a brother or sister in Christ. This will came to shake hands. So Christ carried on an extensive conversation during his final Passover. Brother, we should examine ourselves and do any personal repentance before we arrive for the Passover service. The time to repent is not when we're sitting in that chair and start talking about these symbols. We should have repented. We should have examined ourselves. We should have all done that before we walk through that door on that night, before the service even begins. That is how we can prepare for the Passover properly. Now let's go back to Exodus, Exodus chapter 12 and verse 9.

Instructions on what was to be done with the Lamb. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 9. Do not eat it raw. It wouldn't be an acceptable sacrifice, none of the sacrifice. This would be eaten raw. Nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire, its head and its legs and its end-tails. You shall let none of remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. Now why was the Lamb to be roasted?

Well, roasting the entire Lamb was the only way to cook it whole and not to break any of its bones. Have you ever roasted, you've seen someone roast a Thanksgiving turkey? Well, that turkey comes out of there looking just like the turkey that went in there. It's whole, it's brown, but it's all together. Have you ever put meat in a crock pot and maybe let it simmer there for eight hours?

You come and you stab it and what happens? It all falls apart. I've done that. The chicken legs come off, the whole animal falls apart, and there's symbolism here. The symbolism is that we are to approach the whole Lamb. We are to eat of the whole Lamb unified. That Lamb is together in oneness because that Lamb called us and gave us, His Spirit, we are to be one together. The Lamb was to be consumed and anything that was left over out of a respect and dignity could be burned, not just simply thrown into a trash can the next morning.

In the same way, there's only one true Lamb of God. There aren't numbers of Christ. There's only one Christ. He isn't divided and neither should we be as His family or His Church. Just as the entire Lamb was consumed, you and I should strive to digest all of the teachings of Jesus Christ. We don't have the right to pick and choose which of the teachings of Christ we're going to believe in. Jesus Christ is not like the Thanksgiving turkey. I'll just have a leg thank you.

The Lamb is the complete package. It's who and what He was, His teachings, His morals, His character, His values. And we must accept the whole package and not just pick and choose the things that Jesus taught us, the convener, or feels good, or it's easy to do. You see, it's a total commitment. The Lamb was whole. Let's now go to John chapter 6 and verse 47. We're called to be a reflection of His entire character. Of what Jesus Christ is not just part of Him. John chapter 6 and verse 47. This is a very interesting Scripture. Because a couple of years before the Passover.

This is early in this ministry. A couple of years before the Passover, He's already talking about His blood and His flesh. His body and His blood. So, He's already letting the cat out of the bag about spiritual matters a couple of years before that actual Passover service that we read about just a few Scriptures ago. John chapter 6 and verse 47. He's having a discussion here with the Jews.

They're not very spiritually perceptive, so it doesn't go very far. But He says, most assuredly I say to you that He who believes in Me shall have everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Now, why do we eat unleavened bread during those seven days? Because we're legalists. Because we think that eating unleavened bread makes us righteous. I know. We eat it because it reminds us that Jesus Christ is the bread of life. And I need the righteousness of Christ inside of me.

It's a very thoughtful reminder. A very important reminder because human beings forget. Human beings take things for granted. Human beings think they're entitled. Verse 49. Your fathers ate man out of the wilderness and they're dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven. That one may eat of it and not die. Of course, He's talking to Himself as living bread. Verse 51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of 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. Verse 52. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? They don't give it. But Jesus says to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Verse 54. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Why do we participate in that Passover? Because we look forward to a time. Because we believe that God's promises are sure, that we have the gift of eternal life. We look forward to that time when Jesus Christ will raise us up when He returns to this earth.

Verse 55. He says, For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He reaches my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in me. So why do we keep the Passover? Because those symbols, red and white, very simple symbols, remind us that we abide in Christ and He abides in us. Verse 57. He eats my flesh and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in Him. Verse 57. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father. So He who feeds on me will live because of me. So why do we eat that unleavened bread? Because we're legalists? Because we think that eating unleavened bread makes us righteous? No, because we know it symbolizes the fact that we need to feed on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We need to accept the whole Lamb of God that was sacrificed for us. Everything He teaches, His attitudes, His example, His character, His moral law. We need to feed on that. We need to digest that in our hearts and in our minds. Verse 58. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. But He who eats this bread will live forever. What a powerful promise. All tying in to the Passover. Again, a couple of years before Jesus instructs the Passover to the disciples.

So He's discussing the same symbols, under means, as He would later teach the disciples at the Passover, a few years later, in 31 A.D. And it was during that Passover that Jesus broke unleavened bread that was represented, representing His sinlessness. So again, I want to emphasize that eating this bread, pictures are total acceptance. Not partial acceptance, are total acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord, His Savior. That means we are committed disciples. Committed. It means becoming His slave. It means total discipleship. It means giving our life to God as a blank check, not knowing what amount He's going to write in. He might write in a trial. He might write in a personal sacrifice we need to make. But He gets to write in whatever amount He desires. Jesus said, no one, having put His hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. You can't start that journey and stop. You can't start that, you know, plows don't go backwards. Right? It's a full-word momentum. You're plowing up a path. You're plowing up earth to grow something fruitful and beneficial. And that's the kind of life that we have been called to. No one, having put His hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Have we been looking back? Have we moved back into the world and watching things we shouldn't be watching? Or making compromises in our lives that we shouldn't be compromising on? What have we been doing with that powerful Spirit of God that He gives us?

Let's find out what we should do. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 11. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 11.

An instruction that the Israelites were given, very powerful regarding where our desires should be to grow and change. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 11. Speaking of eating the Passover. And thus you shall eat it with that belt on your waist, with sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand. 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, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. Verse 13. Now the blood shall be assigned 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. I'm going to read verse 11 from the translation of the New Century Version. This is the way you must eat it. You must be fully dressed as if you're going on a trip. You must have your sandals on and your walking stick in your hand, and you must eat it in a hurry. This is the Lord's Passover. So the Israelites were to eat the Passover in a hurry because they were going on a journey, rather than in a similar way as God calls us as individuals. Shouldn't we eagerly accept our calling and immediately begin our journey as a begotten child of God?

Should we not hesitate to repent of our sins, accept Christ as our Savior, and change our lives when we're convicted of sin? Once we're called, and once we've been in this way of life for a few years, as we go through the journey of life as a Christian, God is going to open understanding to us about just sometimes how dark and selfish we really are. When He does that, when He convicts us of sin, should we aggressively use the power of God's Holy Spirit to overcome and prevail against our weaknesses? As believers of Christ, should we flee sin and not the later compromise on it? You see, they were told to be dressed like they're going on a trip. Be ready. Be ready to take action. So when we are convicted of a sin, and so we got through our examination this year, and we see things that we need to change, it's not time to dance around it. It's not time to say, well, I'll put this in my goal list for 2013. It's not time to say, well, I'll just pretend like I didn't see it. The time to take action is now. If you have that flaw, you have that gross sin, you have that thing that's holding you back and continues to hold you down, the time to change it is now, not later. Acts chapter 2 and verse 37. See what Peter told a number of Jews who were in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter 2 and verse 37. Peter gives this incredibly inspiring sermon. There are so many Jews from other parts of the world, Jews of lineage, but they live in Gentile nations, even speak the languages of their nations. They come on this day, and Peter gets up and he gives this powerfully moving sermon that inspires them. And here it says in verse 37, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. That's what should happen when God reveals to us a sin and a flaw that we're still playing around with. They're cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And then Peter says to them, take home some literature. And when you get back to your country, have your people contact my people, and the next time we travel to Babylon, I'll look you up.

Now, he doesn't say that, does he? He says, repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children, and all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Brother, when God reveals to us whether we're first called or forty years later that there's something we need to change, take action now. Enhaste. It's so important. Don't compromise with it. Don't put it off. Don't talk yourself out of it. I told you before, I will tell you again, that your self-talk is lying to you. We all have self-talk. Every day we're continually having a dialogue with ourselves. It is lying to you. Only when we begin to understand that, when we get to a whole new level of don't trust what I'm telling myself. Because it is all about negativity. It's all about you're not good enough. It's all about what you can't do. It's all about that nobody likes you. It's all about all of these things because Satan is inspiring us to hold us down, to keep us under his thumb. Slaves to this world. That's what he's trying to do. So Peter was addressing Jews living in many nations, many different languages that were in Jerusalem, celebrating the holy day. God called, was able to call three thousand of them to accept Jesus as the Messiah. I want you to notice the immediacy of Peter's sermon. He told them to take action without haste. Or with haste? Without haste or compromise. The time to do what he said is right now.

And as we do this examination, we prepare for the Passover this year. As you discover things about yourself or if you're a mate, kindly, gently, with love mentioned to you something you need to work on. And I hope you have that kind of relationship that you can accept that. If that's a healthy relationship, when you can accept that, then I hope you will take it seriously and you will make an effort to make those changes in your life. Let's go back to Exodus 12, verse 14.

Moses continues to write here, On this day shall be a memorial. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. And you shall keep it as a feast by everlasting ordinance. 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 and of the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. On the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No matter of work shall be done in them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared for you. Verse 17, For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. Since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation. Whether he is a stranger or a native in the land, you shall eat nothing leavened. In all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread. So again, I want you to notice the days of unleavened bread are intimately timed together with the verses regarding the Passover. The Israelites were to remove leaven from their homes and were to celebrate the feast of seven days. Now I'd like to just make a few points about the feast of unleavened bread for those of us who live at this time and the meaning that we have under the New Covenant. The leaven pictured corruption and sin. That's what it pictures to us. You know, leaven, I think we all know, is an agent of fermentation. If you're making bread and you put a little leaven in it like yeast and you mix it in there, pretty soon that leaven expands. That whole lump rises and expands. It pops up. And that's what sin does. Sin makes us narcissistic. Sin makes us think we're above the laws of God. Sin makes us think that we're somehow special. And that we don't have to keep God's law. We don't have to think about sin anymore. Like yeast, it starts small and it spreads throughout our entire lives. You know, usually I've known people that have profound problems with an addiction or an obsession or some other deep sin to plague them their whole lives. And it usually started with something very simple. The first time they made a decision. That's when it all began. That little sin, first time, led to more and more and deeper and bigger. Pretty soon they had an obsession. Pretty soon they had a raging addiction. That's what sin does to our lives. It starts small, but it expands. And it causes pain and suffering and frustration in our lives with everything that we do. To the Israelite, eating unleavened bread pictured freedom from the slavery in Egypt. Egypt and its pagan culture represented sin and every evil abomination to God. As I mentioned earlier, to us eating unleavened bread represents our freedom from a life of sin. We want to leave spiritual Egypt. We want the righteousness of Christ that is offered to us, the bread of life. And we eat that unleavened bread, the picture, and remind ourselves, yep, I need Christ inside of me. Because if I'm not reminded of that annually, if I would go to Sabbath services and be reminded of that weekly, I will forget. I will discard God and go on to my next obsession. Go on to my next perversion. And that's why we need to be focused on Jesus Christ. All the holy days are about Him. They all look at something He did is presently doing over a do in the future. Every one of God's holy days do that. Now, removing any leavening agents like yeast and bread type products from our homes is something that we still do under the new covenant.

But I want to emphasize that we do it for symbolic reasons. We do it because of what it represents. We do not believe that doing those things makes us righteous or earns salvation. We do it because of what unleavened bread represents. And I think I've discussed that in pretty deep context.

But again, I want to caution everyone to have balance. In the context of this time, Israelites lived in one or two room tents or dwellings. And removing leaven didn't take a lot of time. They had like 500 square foot homes. Sometimes it was just one big tent. If you were wealthy, you might have two tents butted up against one another.

I want to encourage you as you take the leaven out of your homes to please do it in balance. In the past, I knew many brethren who spent 20 hours meticulously and physically cleaning their homes and 20 minutes cleaning their hearts. They walked through that door, passed over. They looked like they'd been beat by a rubber hose. They're exhausted from all of this physical cleaning, from feeling all the stress that I got to... You can take a toothpick and I've got to get crumbs up or between tiles. I have to take things off of heating vents and I've got to put the hose down there and suck it. There might be a piece of leaven down there. They spent so much time obsessing over getting leaven out of their homes that hurtle across that may be somewhere that they spent like one one-hundredth of the time doing what God wanted them to do. And that is to look at your heart, to look at your mind, to survey your attitude, and do that to make common faith pass over. To be prepared for the passover and to be prepared for the days of unleavened bread. The desire as God is that we emphasize this spiritual removal of sin from our hearts and from our minds.

Well, brother, I have too many notes here, so I'm going to conclude the service at this point, the serve of the day. We will observe the Passover in just a few weeks, and we also will observe the first day of unleavened bread and the night to be much observed. And next Sabbath, I'll explain the chronology of why we observe the Passover the way that we do. Because there are different perspectives on the Passover. People keep them at different times. People keep the holy days at different times. And we need to know why that occurred. Historically, why that kind of confusion and debate exist within the believers of God. So we will cover that next time. I'd like to encourage you to prepare for the rewarding festival season in a balanced way. Put leaven out of your home. Let's do what God tells us. Let's obey His instruction and be thankful for it. And as you do, I'd like to encourage you to reflect on all the pain and suffering that sin has caused in your life. Just for a brief moment of time. I don't want you to dwell in the past. I don't want you to wallow in failure. But just to cement that point home that sin complicates, that sin hurts me.

Therefore, I need to remove sin from my life. I want to encourage you to spend extra time in prayer and in meditation, thinking about your journey as a disciple. How have you been doing after all of these years? Think about the commitment you made at baptism and realize what that means. Your hand is as a plow. Stop looking backward. Stop living backward. Live forward.

I want you to realize that no matter how much you and I may have fallen short, may it be even disappointing God. Have we done the things that we promised we would do? Maybe we've fallen far and short. I want you to realize that God is willing to forgive us and to start us on a new path. But we need to go to Him at the ability of true repentance and ask God to forgive us of our sins. We need to say, you gave me the most incredible and awesome power of the universe, called your Holy Spirit. And with your Holy Spirit, I know that I can lick. I know that I can overcome anything. I can't, because I'm weak and human and puny. But with the Spirit of Christ inside of me, all things are possible. So, brethren, let's remember what Paul said. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and weightiness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Have a wonderful Sabbath.