There is More to Unleavened Bread than Just Eating it for Seven Days

You know, you look at what Jesus Christ did, how He lived His life, and that was all planned for the foundation of the world. And He knew God the Father, and He knew what mankind would be like and what He was going to have to do, and He followed through. And He did that out of love for you and I. And today, a few nights ago, we celebrated or observed the Passover, and we commemorated Christ's death. And those of us who have been baptized, we renewed our commitment to God, to follow Him with all our hearts, minds, and soul, and to give our lives as a living sacrifice. And today, we're here on the first day of unloving bread. You know, Jesus Christ did His part in our salvation. He died that our sins could be forgiven, and now it's our part to do what we need to do if we accept His sacrifice, if we believe in Him, and if we want the eternal life that He wants us to have in salvation, that He gave His life that might be possible for us. You know, just like Jesus Christ's sacrifice in His life, it was this day, was ordained before the foundation of the earth as well. Let's go to Genesis 1 and begin this morning.

Genesis 1, verse 14. Of course, Genesis 1 is the creation chapter where God created the earth and everything that is in it. And in Genesis 1, verse 14, we read of Him creating the lights that we see in the sky, the sun that rules the day, the moon that shines at night. And I hope as you left, as you went home last night, you saw the full moon out there on the 15th of Abib, exactly where it should be. Seeing that full moon on the Holy Days should give us comfort. God is watching over us and we are doing exactly where God wants us to be on this day. Genesis 1, verse 14. God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and it was so. And God made two great lights. The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, He made stars also. And He set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. He put them up there to give light, but back in verse 14 it tells us we use the sun and we use the moon to mark time. We use the sun and we use the moon to mark days and years. And in the King James it says to mark seasons as well. But when you look at the Hebrew and the Concordans seasons, they're translated in verse 14. The word translated is the Hebrew word moed. And moed, in a very, very loose sense, means season in a way that God would call seasons. Let me read what what Strong's Concordant says about that word moed that's translated seasons there. It's from Strong's number 4150. It says, properly it's an appointment, a fixed time or season, specifically a festival, by implication and assembly, as convened for a definite purpose technically of the congregation. And so God set those lights in the sky. We measure time by it. We measure days and years. And as He created those lights, He intended that those lights, the sun and the moon, would also identify for us the times that we have an appointment with God, that we come before Him.

And in Leviticus 23, He tells us what those appointed times that we are to convene before Him are. Let's go back to Leviticus 23, because the same Greek word used in Genesis 1.14, designed by God, planned for God, by God, before the foundation of the earth, and created by God at creation. We're observing one of those appointed times, one of those seasons, today. Leviticus 23. Of course, we know in Leviticus 23 it's the holy times that God designated for His people Israel. He reminded Israel of what their responsibilities to Him were as He brought them out of Egypt, because they had forgotten all those years. But these holy days have been in existence and planned by God from the beginning of time, dating all the way back to that week of creation. In Leviticus 23, verse 1, it says, The eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feasts, that's the same Hebrew, 41.50, Moed, the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, meaning I'm calling my people together before me. These are my feasts.

Number 41.50 again, Moed, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It's the Sabbath of the Eternal in all your dwellings. Verse 4, he repeats again, These are the Moed, 41.50, these are the Moed of the Eternal, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. Again, 41.50. Four times in those first four verses, he ties us back to Genesis 1.14. There's the sun, there's the moon, they're going to tell you when you are to be before me. And then he says in verse 5, well, we're on verse 5, what we observed the other night to pass over on the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And then beginning last night at sunset, here we are on the 15th of Abib today and on the 15th day of the same month as the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord, right where we should be, seven days. You must eat unleavened bread. On the first day, that's today, you shall have a holy convocation and you shall do no customary work on it. And then you see at the end of verse 8 there, the seventh day will be a holy convocation. That'll be Friday, so we'll be back together in this hall for Friday for a holy day. You shall do no customary work on it. So God tells us when He wants to meet with us. Of course, we follow Him all the days of our lives. Every single day we are living by His laws, living by His principles, letting Him write those on our heart. But on those occasions, the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days that He says here, determined by Him before the foundation of the earth, set in motion by Him at the time that the world at the time that the earth was created, these are when He says, come before Me. And those extend into the New Testament times as well. They weren't just for Israel. They were for all of mankind, just as the Sabbath was created on the seventh day of that creation week. So the Holy Days are for all of mankind. They were observed by Jesus Christ, observed by the apostles, observed by the early New Testament Church, observed and kept by His church today, the people who God has called, the people who have responded to that calling and who have said, I will follow Him implicitly, and I will follow Him exactly. And here we are today. And here we are at the beginning of the days of unleavened bread. And as we know, as we've prepared for these days, as we've prepared for the Passover, prepared for the days of unleavened bread, there's work that goes on ahead of time before then. We examine ourselves spiritually before we come to the Passover to see if there's any leavening in our minds and in our lives. As God identifies those and makes us see, we should repent because one of the messages of these Holy Days is repentance and turning, turning it away, turning away from our own way, turning away from our own desires, and turning to God. And as we come into the days of unleavened bread, because we've had, we put the leavening out of our homes, we've done the examination, of course we do that all through our lives, but specifically as we prepare for these times, now is the time for us to begin putting God's unleavened bread in.

The time for putting the leavening physically is out. Now, as we probably have all experienced in our lives, as we open up something and we say, whoops, there's leavening I overlooked.

Don't continue to overlook it. Throw it out. Throw it out and realize that hidden in all of our lives is still sin and leavening and wrong attitudes or wrong dispositions or wrong ideas that God will filter out and he will purify as we allow him to do that and as he directs us and he leads us on the road that we're on and that is a road to perfection if we allow him to do that. Let's go back to Exodus 13. Exodus 13, as God was bringing Israel, his people out, who had been constrained in Egypt for centuries, they'd lost the way of God, they'd lost and forgotten things, they'd become immersed in the society that was there, and he had to remind them, this is who you are.

If you're my people, these are the things you're going to do. And they had just come out of Egypt on the, had the Passover, that was a monumental thing for them on the 14th, and then the next day in haste they had to leave Egypt. And as we talked about last week and as we mentioned that the night to be much observed last night, as they were there on the 15th after they were out of Egypt for the first time in their lives, for the first time in their lives free, in a different, in a different society and away from Egypt out in the wilderness, they could just sit back and they had to just recount what has happened to us.

Look at the whirlwind that we have been through in the last several weeks or months or however long those plagues took. And they had to be so worshipful for God, of God. They had to realize, and they came to realize, our God did this. We were hopeless. We were helpless in that day and age. As they began the days of unleavened bread, they didn't even know what they were doing them, but God commanded them, you keep this night.

You remember this night. And as he, as Moses gave them how to keep these days in chapter 13 of Exodus, he gives us a few things that as we spend the next seven days in the days of unleavened bread that we would be well to remember. Chapter 13. And let's begin in verse 3. Moses as he's instructing the people of Israel, as God is instructing us today as we keep these days of unleavened bread.

Here we have it in the Old Testament. We'll see it here in the New Testament in a minute. Exodus 13. The very first word is the word I want you to constantly focus on. One of the things that we do during these days of unleavened bread that we should have been doing as we prepared for these days of unleavened bread is remember. Remember. Verse 3. Remember, Moses said, remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place, no leavened bread shall be eaten. You know, he told them that every year as they keep this face, remember what happened. And you know this festival season, this time that we've been in, as we've examined ourselves, as we kept the Passover, a lot of it is about remembering. When we were here together on Passover evening, the baptized members, we were commemorating the death of Christ. We were remembering what he had done.

We were remembering our calling. We were remembering that first love that we had. We remembered the commitment we made to him. We renewed that in our minds. And we had to go back and think and say, do I have? Do I have that same first love? Do I have that same zeal that I had? Am I still as I still as as committed to God as I was? Or have I allowed my own desires? Have I allowed the warriors of the world to crowd in a little bit and to make that a little bit fuzzy and maybe not make it as clear as it was? We remember those things. We remember what we've done. We remember what we've said. We remember what we've committed. The first word Mary was said when he was commanding these days, or as he was educating Israel was, remember.

You know, we all live very, very busy lives. And it seems like the more conveniences we have, the busier we are. Sometimes we end at the end of the day and all we can do is drop into bed and wake up the next morning and it starts all over again. We go to work, we do this, we do that, we attend to everything. And sometimes we just don't have time to think. You know, maybe you felt that way as we came to today. It's like we've been doing so much. We've cleaned our homes, we've cleaned our cars, we've prepared for Passover, we've been reading the accounts in the Bible, we've been remembering, we've been refreshing, I hope, our minds of what we're doing and why we're doing it so that we come to these days worthily, so that we come to these days excited about them, eager as Christ was to keep the Passover, eager to keep the Days of Unleavened, eager to have God teach us what he wants us to learn by these festivals that he calls us together and reminds us year after year what it is that we've been called for, what it is we need to be doing.

And sometimes there's just not time to reflect on what happened during the day, is there?

We go through life and it's like we just don't even have time to think, why did this happen?

Why did this occur? What does this mean? Do we even take the time when we see good things happen to realize God is the one who brought this about? Do we realize that maybe God brought it about to get our attention because of something we may or may not be doing right? You know, sometimes the only time we have to reflect, I keep learning, is in the middle of the night and when we wake up and we start thinking about what it is, what happened that day, what were the words that we said, what were the things that transpired? And as we allow God to let us think on those things and reflect on those things, we can derive direction from him. This is not the way that should have been handled. This is a lesson I need to learn so it doesn't happen again. Or I saw God's hand in this. The reason that happened is because God did it and I am more. I need to glorify him. I need to thank him and I need to take the time to do those things, to glorify him and to thank him and be grateful to him. And remember the many things that he's done in our lives for which we should be grateful. Israel had their entire existence to be grateful to him for. We're no different.

Everything we are, everything we have in our future is 100% because of Jesus Christ's sacrifice and because God called us and they've made it all possible. We need to take the time to remember those things. And as we begin this holy day year that begins today on the day of Unleavened Bread, and as we go through the next seven days, remember. You know, there's very good things to remember as we go through this. As we can think about the things that have happened in our lives.

Many of us wouldn't have had the mates that we had if it wasn't for God. We remember those things.

We can be thankful for our children. Remember the lessons that we've learned as we have raised those children. Maybe we've had jobs. Maybe we've had careers. Maybe we've learned lessons by losing jobs or losing careers, but we stuck with God and we were committed to him and we're not going to give up him for whatever material things there might be out there. Lessons that we learned.

Maybe we've been healed from diseases because we trusted him and we looked to him and primarily knew that he was our healer and that apart from him there's no food, there's no medicine that's going to heal us. It will be God and God only who heals us. We have to do the things that he wants us to do, the spiritual healing as well as physical healing as well, but it's God who heals.

It's God who brings us through trials. It's God who brings us through tribulations. It's God who develops us. It's God who helps us to become who we need to become. All things that we can remember. And as we go back into our lives, we can think of things as God has helped us even understand how we are. Some of the weaknesses that we have, we can go back into our lives and our childhood and begin to understand as he brings us memories and recall, this is what happened. I handled that wrong. What happened to me may have not been the right thing to have happen, but I've got to learn from it. I've got to trust God. Now I get it and now I can overcome that problem or that incident or that part of my personality that shouldn't be there. Sometimes we have to take the time.

God said, remember, remember this day. You know, there's an old saying that says, if we don't remember the past, if we forget the past, what happens? We're doomed to repeat it.

The way we grow, the way we become more and more, the way God wants us to become is to remember and make a determination in our lives that we will not do the same things over and over and over again. And so as we observe these days, remembering is one of the things that God wants us to do.

Remembering is a powerful tool. Israel so many times forgot God. You read through Psalm 78, and what does it say about Israel? They forgot God if they had just taken the time to remember what he did. When we feel apart from God, when we make mistakes, if we would just remember God, if we would stop and remember what he's done, remember what his plans for us are, remember the promises that he's given us, and remember the Holy Spirit that he's given us if we've repented and been baptized and had hands laid on us. If we would remember those things, he would give us the strength to say no to self, to deny self, and to choose the things that he wants us to do.

Well, let's go back because in the New Testament, you know, we see remembering a key part of that as well. In fact, as you go through the New Testament and see Christ's words here and written about him, many of those words and admonitions to remember came around these days of unleavened bread before the time that he was arrested, crucified, and died. Let's look at Luke 22. Luke 22 and verse 61. Here was Peter, an apostle, a very zealous apostle, and he figured prominently in preaching the gospel and educating people well after Jesus Christ was resurrected and ascended into heaven. But he had a weakness. When Christ was being arrested, Peter would espouse, you know, I will never deny you. I give my life for you.

And Christ told him, no, Peter, you won't. You'll deny me three times. You'll deny me three times before the night is over. And Peter, of course, denied it because it wasn't his intent to do that.

In verse 61, it says, the Lord, when all this transpired, it says, when the Lord turned and looked at Peter, what did Peter do? He remembered. Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to them him, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. He remembered.

It was brought to his attention. One of the things the Holy Spirit does is bring to our attention remembrance of things we've heard, remembrance of scriptures in the Bible, remembrance of things that we've done that need to be corrected, attitudes that may need to be displaced or done away with.

Peter remembered. He could have been like so many people today and just said, you know what, I didn't mean it. I'll just bury it. I'm just going to get on with life. Forget I ever did it. Whatever. God knows where my heart is. He didn't do that. Peter felt it. He remembered. He knew that he had sinned. He knew that he had let God down. Verse 62, it says, so Peter went out. He wept bitterly. And you know, when he remembered those words and he felt that remorse, or in other cases where we might feel the zeal and the memory of what we felt when God was calling us, and when we were first baptized, it can be motivating. Peter's sin, Peter's failure was motivating to him. He didn't let that happen again. He remembered, and he remembered, I'm sure, the emotion that he had. Every time that maybe he was faced with something where he had the possibility of denying God down the road, he remembered what it was like to say, I deny him. I don't even know him.

And he used that to never deny Christ, and never deny God again. Over in Luke 24, just a couple chapters over, Luke 24, verse 6. After Christ was crucified, laid in the tomb for three days and three nights, Mary Magdalene, they went out to seek him very early before the sun rose on that first day of the week. In verse 6, the angel that's there says as they approach the tomb, he's not here. He's risen. Remember. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying, the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third day rise again. You know, he said that. Those words went right over your head. That's what the angel's saying. Remember what he said. You've living this now. You see what's happened now? Remember it. And they remembered. And they remembered the words. It deepened their conviction.

It deepened their belief. It motivated them. It excited them. They ran back to tell Peter and the other disciples, he's risen, he's risen, he's risen. Their belief increased as they remembered.

We all have personal things in our life that we need to take the time to remember and recall.

If we feel low on zeal, if we feel low on motivation, remember. Remember what God has done.

Go over to the Gospel of John, John 2.

John 2. And verse 22.

Leading up to this, Jesus Christ had said, you know, this temple will be destroyed, and in three days it'll be risen again, or he'll raise it up. Of course, he was talking about his body. In verse 20, the Jews were like, oh, come on, it took 46 years to build this. You're going to raise it up in three days if it's destroyed. But verse 21, he was speaking of the temple of his body. Verse 22, therefore, when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them. They remembered those words. We didn't understand what that meant, but you know, we remember him saying that. Now we get it. And they believe the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. It was right there at the time of the days of Unleavened Bread, because remembering, remembering, recalling, this is a key part of keeping this feast, remembering who God is and what he's done. You know, we observed the night to be much observed last night. When I was growing up in the church, it wasn't called the night to be much observed.

It was called the night to be much remembered. Remember that? Those of you who have been around for a while, it's called the night to be much remembered. And then it was changed to match what it says in Exodus 12 42, because remembering is a key part, a key part of what we do.

Remembering is a key part. John 12, John 12, verse 16. Christ coming into Jerusalem, being praised as the king of Israel on that ninth or tenth day of Aibib, leading up to that last Passover is His. And verse 16 is, the disciples watched these things that were happening, and watched what God was doing, because it was clearly God who had orchestrated these events, and that this would happen to fulfill the Scriptures. In verse 16, it says, disciples didn't understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done these things to Him. If they lived in such a busy world that they never took the time, never took the time to remember, but just went on through life and thought, oh, that's nice, so that's right, yeah, that is what happened. But didn't take the time to have it become part of their fabric, become part of them. Know that they know that they know that it was God. That we should know, that we know, that we know that God works in our lives, that God brings about the things that happen in our lives, that we should be grateful for, whether it's good times or whether it's troubled times, because we learn from all of it, and we remember that God has our best interest at heart. If we fail to remember, we will forget Him, and we will have the same fate as the people of Israel. John 16. John 16.

Christ's final words to the disciples. We read these the other night, or I don't think we read the first few verses of chapter 16, but here in verse 4 of chapter 16 of John, He says, These things I've told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

Now these things I didn't say to you at the beginning, because I was with you, but now I go away to Him who sent me, and none of you asks me where you're going. And He said all these words through three chapters, chapters 14, 15, 16, to those disciples. Many of those things they didn't even understand what He was saying, but they were listening to them. God inspired John to write down all those words for us. And later they remembered, later they remembered what did it do? It deepened their belief, and it deepened their commitment to God, that they never strayed those 11 disciples from God. Jesus Christ uses the word remember, too, here in Revelation.

Revelation, when He's talking to the churches, the churches that would exist from the time He began the church in Matthew 16, 18, and He talks about seven, seven churches, seven conditions of churches, seven attitudes, seven eras, the whole thing of the church that was going to be from the time that He began it until the time that He returned. Revelation 3 and verse 3, He says, remember. Remember. We could read Revelation 2.5, where He tells them, the church's Ephesus, remember from where you've fallen. Remember from where you fall and repent and do the first works again. If we remember, we know what we need to get back to, and we can repent, and God will bring us back to that. To the church of Sardis, that had nothing, God really did nothing good about the church of Sardis. It was a dead church. It didn't have the fruits. It wasn't producing the fruits that He was looking for. He tells them, remember. Remember how you have received and heard. Hold fast and repent. If you're dead, you can get it back again.

But remember, repent, turn from your ways, and hold fast to that. Hold fast to the zeal, and don't let that happen. Don't let that happen to you again.

For all of us. For all of us back in Luke. Luke 17.

Israel, as they embarked on a whole new life, as they left Egypt, a whole new life, they had no idea. They left slavery behind. They left Egypt behind. But they left all the cares, all the conveniences, all the luxuries of Egypt behind as well. And on the 15th of Abe, if they were sitting there in the wilderness, they're about to embark on a life that they never saw coming and didn't take the time to realize. Everything in their life changed. Even their diet changed.

No longer would they have the things that they had been accustomed to in Egypt. Now they were going to live by exactly what God was going to give them to eat because they were going to live in the wilderness. There was nowhere to turn. They were going to become totally reliant on God.

And God was going to teach them spiritual lessons we taught as we talked about a few weeks ago. They were going to learn not the ways of Egypt, not to rely on those idols or even think that those idols that they had been accustomed to in Egypt had anything to do with the fate of Egypt. They were going to learn to do things the way God said. And He taught them no idols, no reliance idols. And He taught them before the Ten Commandments He ever gave them, you will keep the Sabbath day and here's what you're going to do. And many other things that they would learn we will worship God as He totally redid and redefined their life for them. They failed so many times when they got a little tired, they got a little frustrated, when they forgot to trust Him, all they wanted to do was look back. And in Luke 17, Luke 17 and verse 32, Christ says this in a key remember word for us, remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. She was called out, the family was called out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and God told them don't look back. Keep your eyes forward. Hold on to the calling that you were given. Don't look back. Lot's wife looked back then. She lost it. She lost her life instantaneously. His admonition to us would be remember, remember Lot's wife. As we begin this holy day season, as we begin the days of Unleavened Bread, don't look back. If you found yourself looking back, if you're still hanging on to the world, if you're still longing for the things of the world, don't look back. Look forward. Remember your calling. Remember the promises that God has done. Remember what you've heard, and keep your eyes focused ahead. Because the days of Unleavened Bread, it's a beginning, a new beginning. The sin is supposed to be out. The repentance is there. The repentance continues the rest of our life. Now we begin to put the Unleavened Bread in when we come to repentance. And so if we go back to Exodus 13, we see what Moses instructed the children of Israel. He told them in verse 3, remember, remember what is going on. We've seen Jesus Christ say, remember these things. Let's pick it up in verse 4 of Exodus 13.

On this day, this fifteenth day, you are going out in the month Abib, and it shall be, when the eternal brings you into the land of Canaan, into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.

He gave them the promise of a promised land. He's given us the promise of eternal life. He's given us a promise of his kingdom. And he tells us, you know, you keep this, you keep this feast, you remember, seven days, verse 6, you shall eat unleavened bread.

And on the seventh day, there will be a feast to the eternal. He repeats it, unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And so, today is the first day of those seven days that we must eat unleavened bread. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

The leavening is out. Should have been out by the time sunset came last night. It's gone. Our commitment to put sin out of our lives, that's done. Now he says you begin to eat unleavened bread. You know, for the Israelites, they left in haste on that 15th. The Bible tells us in Exodus 12, they didn't have time to even leaven their bread. So they had to just eat unleavened bread.

I don't know what their unleavened bread tasted like. Flat, maybe tasteless, but that was what they had to do. And he said, for seven days, you do that. And of course, we've talked about leavening being the agent that puffs us up and that allows sin to develop in us. God says, get that leavening out and commit to an unleavened life. Israel didn't know at the time they left Egypt that they were going to be wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

When they got out into the wilderness, it began to dawn on them. We have no water. We have no food. What are we going to do? Back in Egypt, we could go to the market and get whatever we wanted, but there's no market out here. There's nothing but wilderness. There's not even an oasis, if you remember in Exodus 15.

And God had to show them, I can provide everything you need. Water can come from these bitter waters of Mara. Water can come from Iraq, not physically, but I can do anything and I can provide anything you need and I will provide anything you need. And they looked around and they thought, there's no food. And so what did God do? He gave them manna for 40 years.

40 years, can you imagine? They ate manna. There was nothing else to eat. Once in a while, He gave them meat to eat. We didn't give that to them every day. For 40 years, they ate manna.

And you know that manna was the perfect combination of what they needed in order to develop healthy bodies and to be able to exist the way that they did. What God gave them was exactly what their physical bodies needed and they came to rely on that manna. Every day, they went out there and for six days, that manna was there.

They picked up what they needed and only what they needed. They ate it the next morning it was there. But on the seventh day, they learned, I need to prepare. I need to prepare for that seventh day because God doesn't want us doing work on that day. I get ready for the seventh day and I rest. I take the time to pray, study, remember, reflect on what's going on during the week, be apart from all the cares and concerns and entertainment of the world.

Take the time that God gives us because He built in. He built into His holy time and our convocations and our other 24 hours when we're not in the convocation. Time to reflect. Time to know what we're doing.

Time to be with Him. But they had to rely on that manna for 40 years and that manna kept them alive. If God hadn't given them that manna, they would have all perished in that wilderness. They owe their life to God in more ways than one.

Of course, Israel is a physical nation and God was dealing with them on physical bases, but He gave them the physical bread that they needed to stay alive. They owed their physical life to Him.

Well, the other night at Passover, we talked about the modern day or the New Testament application of the bread, the unleavened bread that we eat. Yes, we eat unleavened bread during this time. Yes, we should eat that unleavened bread for seven days during this time of unleavened bread.

Let's go back to, well, let's go... No, don't leave Exodus 13. I'm ahead of myself. Let's go back to Exodus 13. If you begin turning, Exodus 13.

Let me complete what I was reading there.

Exodus 13, verse 8 says, you know, along with it, tell your son. Make sure your children know what you're doing. Make sure they know and have access to your memories, why you're doing the things that you do.

Maybe they need to understand some of the key events in your life where you've seen God's hand. You shall tell your son in that day saying, I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt. It will be a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand, he has brought you out of Egypt.

When you eat that unleavened bread, remember that it's God's law on your mouth.

And you know, I consciously, when I eat that first piece of unleavened bread in the morning, I think about that verse. This is God's law in my mouth. I'm taking this and I want that that's going to be in my mouth, part of my body, because we put into our mouths, become part, becomes part of our bodies. I want that to be in me. Now, that was physical Israel that Jesus Christ was telling that. You eat that unleavened bread, that your law, his law, may be in your mouth. Now, we know that God's law is good. Let's go back to Psalm 19, or forward to Psalm 19.

During those seven days of unleavened bread, seven days representing really the rest of our lives, put the unleavened bread in. Continue to put the leavening out as you see it, but continue to put the unleavened bread in. In verses 7 to 11, David recounts something that we didn't read too long ago, if you remember. The law of the Eternal is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Eternal is sure. Psalm 19 verses 7 to 11, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Eternal are right, rejoicing the heart. The camament of the Eternal is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Eternal is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Eternal are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. God said when you eat that unleavened bread, let your, let his holy, righteous, beneficial law be in your mouth. Let it be in your mind. Ask him to make it part of your body, part of your very being, that you live by it and it becomes you. You know, Paul in the New Testament said a very similar thing back in Romans 7. Romans 7. As he was giving in the book of Romans, the plan of salvation that God has for us, leading us to know that we are sinners, that we need justification, that we need sanctification, that we need the Holy Spirit as we get into chapter 8. But in chapter 7, in verse 12, he says this, therefore the law, same law that Jesus Christ, or that David was talking about, therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good.

Let that law, let that holy and just and good law of God, let it be in your mouth.

Think about it. Think about it every day. Now what you practice the seven days, think about it every day for the rest of your life. Well, just like unleavened bread played a huge role in God's plan for Israel, they didn't understand the spiritual application of what they were doing. They just complied and ate the unleavened bread. But for those of us who have God's Spirit, those of us in New Testament times, the unleavened bread has so much more of a significance in our lives than just the physical aspect of it. We do the physical aspect, just as God commanded that we should do, but we understand the spiritual aspect of what we're doing. That's what God wants us to do. The physical mirrors the spiritual in so many ways. And we know that unleavened bread, for those who were at Passover, we talked about unleavened bread, but you know here on this first day of unleavened bread, it bears repeating some verses that we read the other nights, because those verses weren't just for the Passover. They were for our admonition every day of our lives. Let's turn to John 6. John 6 and verse 31. In verse 31, we see a question being asked of him, and they talked about the manna, the physical manna. Our fathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

Now, that bread gave them physical sustenance, but it didn't give and it provided life, the physical life that they needed, because that bread was the staff of their life.

But it didn't provide what Jesus Christ was now offering those who would follow him.

Down in verse 48, he says, I am, 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 that one may eat of it and not die. That bread gave them physical life. The bread I'm offering you now will give you eternal life. If you eat it, if you digest it, if you let it be, come part of your fabric.

I am the living bread, Christ said, 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. And so on Passover, we eat the unleavened bread. But you know, in the model prayer that God gave us, that Jesus Christ gave us, he said, give us this day, our daily bread.

We pray that, and certainly God provides the physical sustenance and the physical things that we need. He'll provide the spiritual bread as well. If we partake of it, if we eat it, if we let it be on our mouth, and if we let it become part of who we are, verse 53, Jesus said to them, Most assuredly say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I am him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead, and they ate it every day for 40 years, he who eats this bread will live forever.

So on these seven days, we eat the unleavened bread, as Paul defines it in 1 Corinthians 5-6, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, a staple of our diet.

That we practice during these seven days, that we began to practice when we were first called into the church and we were supposed to be living by it for the rest of our lives.

No end! We don't forget about the bread. After seven days, we continue to eat the bread of life, all the rest of our lives. And it's only if we eat the bread of that bread that Jesus Christ spoke of, that he offers to us, that we will have eternal life. It's the only way.

If we believe, if we accept his sacrifice, if he believes that he is the Savior of all mankind, I can do Deuteronomy 8. Deuteronomy 8 and verse 3. The parallels of the Bible are some who would say, oh, you don't need the Old Testament today. Fact is, you cannot understand and you cannot follow God if you don't know the Old Testament, because the two mirror each other. The Old Testament helps us understand what God wants us to do. Notice what it says in Deuteronomy 8 verse 3. So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, speaking of Israel, and he fed you with manna, which you didn't know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone. Israel never got that lesson.

They never understood that. He gave that to you that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Every word. That's the bread to eat. Jesus Christ said those exact same words in Matthew 4.4 and I believe also in Luke 4.4, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then and now and as long as there is a heaven and earth by every word, that's the bread upon which we feed. And God said for these seven days of unleavened bread, when you eat it, remember it, and commit that that will be your life and the way you eat that bread every day the rest of your life.

Powerful lessons in these days of unleavened bread. Remember, teach your children, eat the unleavened bread, and understand the significance of it. Not just a physical exercise we go through, but a very spiritual exercise we go through.

There's one more thing this morning, or not this morning, this afternoon we'll talk about back in Leviticus that is key in this in these days of unleavened bread. Let's go back to Leviticus 23.

We read the command to assemble together on this first day that we are. We'll be back together next Friday for the seventh day of unleavened bread. We know that we're going to be doing for the next seven days, and I hope we'll remember the things that we've talked about. And you'll remember when you take that unleavened bread, the things that God wants us to be thinking about, and what you're going to be, what we should be committing ourselves to do. Let's look at Leviticus 23 because there was another key event that happened during these days of unleavened bread that we'll be observing here over the next seven days. In verse 9, after God gives the command for the first and seventh day, it says this, it says, The eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. Now, that wasn't going to happen during the 40 years they were in the wilderness. It was when they came into the promised land, and they were going to begin reaping crops because those during those 40 years, God was feeding them. He was feeding them the manna. So he says, And when you reap a harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priests. Now, that was typically barley, and they would cut off a sheaf of the barley. And it says, He shall wave that sheaf before the eternal to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Well, there's a Sabbath that occurs during the days of unleavened bread, and that's the Sabbath he's talking about there. That day happens to be today. Also happens to be the first day of unleavened bread, but this is the Sabbath that occurs during the days of unleavened bread. And so we're here on the day that this would have been done in ancient Israel.

He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Now, back in ancient Israel and back at the time that the temple was there, Israel did follow this principle. They did take a wave sheaf offering, if you will, and before a harvest could begin, before they were going to eat anything of the harvest, they would wave it before God to be accepted by God. And they would do that on the day after the Sabbath that occurred during the days of unleavened bread. The feast days are listed here, and it talks about Sabbath. It's talking about the weekly Sabbath. So tomorrow, being the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath during unleavened bread, if we were living in ancient times, we would have the priests going out, and they would be waving the sheaf before God for him to accept it, and then the harvest could begin. Now, let me read to you from some Jewish history about what happened as they did these things. Jewish history, it says here, from the Second Temple period, gives an interesting insight into how the Jews observed this festival. The second century Mishnah affirms that when the Sadducees controlled the temple, the sickle was put to the grain just as the sun was going down on the weekly Sabbath.

So if we were doing this today, around 730, 755, the sun would be going down, and a priest would be going out as the Sabbath day, the seventh day, ended, and the first day of the week was about to dawn. They would go out, and they would cut off the sheaf during the days on that Sabbath to prepare it for what was going to be offered the next day. Let me read that again. The second century Mishnah affirms that when the Sadducees controlled the temple, the sickle was put to the grain just as the sun was going down on the weekly Sabbath. And they give the references here. The book, Biblical Calendars, states that the temple priests reaped the sheaf at the going out of the Sabbath. So as the Sabbath was about to end, they would go out and cut the sheaf. The New Testament silence on the Sadducee in practice, along with its agreement with the ritual's fulfillment in Christ, must be construed as acceptance of its validity. So they would begin to make the cutting on the first of the Sabbath, but they didn't actually do the wave sheaf offering until sometime between 9 and noon on Sunday morning. They prepared it that evening to be prepared the next morning.

Now, that was the ritual. No harvest could begin until that wave sheaf offering was waived before God and accepted by God.

Now, we can move right into New Testament times because we're right at this time and we don't have another Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, in between now and then to see that that ritual and that wave sheaf offering was perfectly fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Just a couple weeks ago, we went through a Bible study. All of us together here, you brought your scriptures in. We proved exactly what day of the week Jesus Christ was crucified. We proved exactly what day of the week of that week the Passover was. We proved that Jesus Christ was resurrected as the sun was going down near the end of the weekly Sabbath, that he was already risen by the time the ladies, the women, came to the tomb early on the morning of that first day. All those things were exactly right, exactly match what the wave sheaf offering was. They cut that wave sheaf offering as the sun was going down, and we proved that in the 72 hours that Jesus Christ was in there, he was resurrected around the time the sun was going down on the Sabbath, right at the time that he was laid into the tomb three days and three nights before. Exactly when the priest would be cutting the wave sheaf down, Jesus Christ was being resurrected. He was being resurrected, and he was being prepared, and the day was being prepared for him to be ascended to God, to be accepted by God as the first of the first fruits. Let's go back to John, John 20.

Let me see where we left off in Leviticus 23. I have a tendency to not complete all the verses I wanted to read there. Let me look back at it real quickly.

Let's go back to Leviticus 23 and complete the thought there.

Leviticus 23, verse 14. I guess we're on verse 11. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, shall be accepted on your behalf, on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. And then it talks about some offerings there. Let's drop down to verse 14. You shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor fresh grain, until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, in all your dwellings. So that happened in ancient times. Jesus Christ, we proved, was resurrected on that Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread as the sun went down.

He was alive when the ladies, when the women came to the tomb that morning. So let's go back to John, John 20.

John 20. And down in verse 17, and the verse is leading up to verse 17, we see Mary Magdalene comes early to the tomb. Before it was light out, she's ready to anoint his body, which he's been waiting to do through the first day of Unleavened Bread, through the weekly Sabbath. She comes and she finds that the stone has been rolled away and he's risen. Well, let's read verse 15. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for? And she, supposing him to be the gardener, said, Sir, if you have carried Christ away, tell me where you have laid him, and I'll take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say, Teacher.

And notice what Christ said to her, something that she didn't understand then. She would remember later. Jesus said to her, Don't cling to me. Don't touch me, Mary. For I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. Resurrected, at the same time, the priest would have been cutting down the wave sheaf offering to offer it before God, to wave it before God and to have it accepted as the first of the first fruits of the harvest could begin. Jesus Christ resurrected at the end of the Sabbath. Jesus Christ, seeing Mary that morning, tells her, I have not yet ascended. I have not yet gone up to God. I have not yet been accepted as the first of the first fruits. But He would later that day.

Sometime between whenever they would do the wave sheaf offering, between 9 and noon, I guess, He ascended into the heaven, and He was approved by God as the first of the first fruits as we read throughout the Bible. Later on that day, that very same day, when Jesus Christ appeared to the apostles, He allowed them to touch Him. Even Thomas, who doubted Him, was allowed to touch Him because at that point He had ascended into the heaven. He'd been accepted by God as the first of the first fruits, and now the harvest could begin. Now the harvest that Jesus Christ spoke of, that the fields are white for harvest. Pray that God will send out laborers into the field. Now that harvest could begin. Now the New Testament could begin. Now what the plan of God could begin after Jesus Christ's sacrifice and everything that He made possible. That as we come to the last day of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, we will talk more about those things and what happened and how the days of Unleavened Bread are perfectly tied into the Feast of Pentecost. You know, Romans 5, verse 10, let's turn to Romans 5, verse 10. Romans 5, verse 10. Paul says, if when we were enemies, and yet we were all enemies, it's a hard word, but you know that's what we all were before God called us and before His Holy Spirit. Romans 8, verse 7, it says, the carnal mind, the natural mind, the human mind is enmity against God. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, we commemorated that on Passover, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Reconciled to God because Jesus Christ offered His life, that's Passover, we will be saved by His life. We have the hope of the resurrection. We have hope of the eternal life by His resurrection that occurred during the days of Unleavened Bread, the days that picture us putting Unleavened Bread every day of our lives. That tells us to remember and commit, recommit as we did during Passover, and remember that commitment every day of our lives, to let God grow us, develop us, continue purifying us for the rest of our lives. These days, picture our salvation, God's part in it and our part in it, because God can open our minds, He can make us understand, but it's up to us if we follow. It's up to us and the choices we make each day. What bread do we eat each day? Where do we find our sustenance? Is it a lot of the junk food of the world, or do we find our sustenance, and do we find our nutrition in the bread of life? What do we remember the latest episode of whatever we watch? Or do we remember the words of God? Do we remember?

What do we do when we're down and out and we're depressed and down and trying to remember the joy of God? Do we remember from which where we were the joy that we had? Do we remember the words of the Bible and how we can come out of depression, come out of the problems that we have, to remember the faith that we need to have, that God says, if you ask me anything, if you believe and don't doubt I will do it. Do we remember the words that when God tries us, even though it could be painful, He's doing it for our own goods, and He's trying to sometimes show us where our weaknesses are that need to be weeded out, or sometimes just build our faith and strength because we will need that strength, we will need that faith as the time grows closer to the time of Christ's return.

So many lessons. So many lessons from the days of unleavened bread. Don't forget to remember, don't forget to take the time, not just the next seven days, but take the time and build into your life on the times that God has of no other time. At least do it on the Sabbath day. At least do it on the times that God has made our appointed times. Get away. Get, put the world away, totally away in His time.

He's given us that time, and it's a blessing if we use it the way that He intended it to be used, and not, not defile it with our own wishes and our own things and the excuses that we can make to have that time waste away. Remember the lessons of the days of unleavened bread. As you practice the seven days and you eat that unleavened bread and you remember the bread of life and you remember this is what I'm going to do the rest of my life. As you remember the resurrection of the life, the death of Jesus Christ, if you remember that we have hope, that we have our sins forgiven because of Him, and that we have a hope of eternal life because of His resurrection that God faithfully did and promises to us the same thing. If we learn the lessons in these first Holy Days that we're in, this first Holy Day season, when we do that and when we follow, when we follow what God says, very encouraging verse back in John 14. And I hope when you read this verse, you feel like I feel and read this verse that we want, that we fervently want God to be with us. We fervently want to do His will. We want to feel that connection to Him. And we know when we have that connection to Him and we're doing the things that we're supposed to do, we feel that joy that we should have. In John 14 verse 23, Jesus answered and said to Him, if anyone loves Me, I hope all of us here really want to love Jesus Christ and God the Father the way they ask to be loved. If anyone loves Me, He will keep My word. He'll keep My word, all the words in this Bible, He'll eat that bread of life. And My Father will love Him, and we will come to Him and make our home with Him. As we go through this these days, focus on the things we do, and let's let God and invite Him by the things we do and the choices we make. Make His home with us.