Why Do We Eat Unleavened Bread?

Now, this question seems...I'm going to ask this question, and it seems so simple, but I want to show that maybe it's not as simple as we think. Why do we eat unleavened bread during the days of unleavened bread?

In the time of ancient Israel at the Exodus, there was a very specific reason they ate unleavened bread. And that was taught generation after generation after generation throughout the entire Old Testament. This is the reason you do this. So let's go back and look at the establishment of eating unleavened bread and see why they did it at that time. So let's go to Exodus 12. Exodus 12. I'm going to read a few verses here so we can set up very obviously why they were told to do it and why they did it. We'll start in verse 29. 12-29. And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who set on his throne, to the firstborn of the captive, who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh rose in the night, he and his servants, and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt. There was not one house where there was not one dead. So this is the Passover in which ancient Israel was spared and the Egyptians were punished by God. What happened after this, we see verse 39. Well, let's go ahead and go with verse 31. Let's get the context here. I'd like to really set the context. And this time of year is when we tend to go back and look at this.

Now let's go down to verse 39.

Egypt, which is a symbol of satanic government. It's just a symbol of the whole world. That Satan is the God of this world. So they are driven out of by the hand of God and allowed to leave the satanic world. And they're leaving in such a hurry they don't get to leaven their bread. So, though is unleavened. So, they leave, and of course the children are asking, why is the bread so thin? Because we're leaving in a hurry. That's why they were eating unleavened bread. Because they were leaving Satan's world in a symbolic way and going towards the Promised Land, which God had promised to them, and they didn't have time to put leavening in the dough.

Look at chapter 13, verse 3. Now this is then how Israel is instructed to observe the days of unleavened bread. And Moses said to the people, 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. Low leavened bread shall be eaten. So they weren't to leaven their bread as they left. Now bread dough could be naturally leavened if left out long enough, and then a piece of it taken, and the leavened the next lump.

I mean there's a way they could do that. But he's telling them, No, as you leave now, don't try to leaven your bread. We are to eat unleavened bread. On this day you're going out in the month of Abib.

And it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and 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. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.

Now this is before all the holy days are outlined in the book of Leviticus. So they're told to keep the Passover, and they're told to eat, or keep seven days of unleavened bread when they get into the Promised Land. For seven, unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days, and no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

And you shall tell your son in that day. So this is what was to be taught to the Israelites when they got into the land. This is why we do this. This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up out from Egypt. And it shall be assigned to you in your hand, in a memorial between your eyes, that the Lord's law may be in your mouth, for with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.

You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. They ate unleavened bread because God saved them, and only through the power of God were they able to leave the forced and just bitter slavery that was imposed upon them. And it happened so fast that they couldn't leaven their bread. Which, understanding at that time, bread is the center of meals. It is basically used as your spoon. You break the bread, there's bowls of food, and you dip into, eat that, then you break another piece of bread, so you're, you know, you're not dipping the same bread in.

And you eat, and the whole, it's a communal thing. One thing I was looking forward to, because we were supposed to be in Israel for the last couple weeks, was we were actually going to, it's a village where all day long these people come in, little children, whole families, older people, and they just, the village looks like the first century, and all they do is live life like the first century.

So you can be walking down the village, and there's little kids herding goats by you, you know, as you, and one of the things was a meal where you go in, and you sit down, and you eat a meal like they did. And the custom, the foods and the customs of the first century. So we were, I was really looking forward to that. But, you know, it's a different way than what we eat, these communal bowls, and everybody breaks their bread and dips.

So this is the core of daily meals, is your bread. Now we can go not eat bread, because we eat sandwiches, but you know, we can go days without eating bread, and not think much about it sometimes. You know, except in the South we have to have biscuits, but that's something else. So you break this bread, and it wasn't normal. And then they were told, when you get to the Promised Land, you remember this, how God brought you out, and you teach your children. We eat unleavened bread. Why? Because God got us out so fast, we couldn't leaven our bread. Now, what I want to do today is tie in a few verses from what we covered at the Passover, and then some other verses in the New Testament that talk about leavening, leavened bread, unleavened bread, and in the context, by the way, of the days of unleavened bread.

And there's a connection between this, what we've covered here in Exodus, and what we're going to cover in the New Testament. This morning I told Kim, I don't know what I'm going to do. My sermon is way too long. Because the connection between point one, why ancient Israel, you know, kept the days of unleavened bread, and how there's certain things in there that connect to us, but what we're doing is actually profoundly more important than what they understood.

What's the connection between the two? I said, John 6. And I made notes on the entire chapter of John 6. And it's going to be an hour just to go through that.

And then Mr. Zoner got up and solved my problem. Because I'm going to cherry pick John 6.

And didn't mention what he said. So thank you, or you all would have been sitting here a long time. Because I could not figure out how to get through all of John 6. Because there's so much there. Unless that's all I did. I thought, well, I could give the whole sermon just on John 6. But then I don't get to the last points I wanted to make. So God works in interesting ways that I can just now reference certain things and cut this down. So let's go to John 6.

John 6. Because he's already given the framework, and I'm going to fill in details now. Let's start in verse 1. So Jesus now goes over to the Sea of Galilee. And in verse 2, Then a great multitude followed him, because they saw his signs, which he performed on those who were diseased.

Hundreds, probably thousands, of people were beginning to follow him. And this is, he spent a lot of his early ministry around the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, that area.

Which, once again, we were going to be spending a whole week in this area, just filming these places where he did his ministry. And his impact was huge. Now, there wasn't a lot of Roman soldiers running around through this area. So there was no Roman interference with what they were doing. They were far enough from the temple. There wasn't a lot of priestly interference. And he's preaching. In Capernaum, the synagogue he spoke in, they built another one on top of it about a century later. But the foundations are there, of the very place that he would speak some of these things. So he's moving around the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is below sea level. So it's not too many miles away that there's the Mediterranean. It's like, wow, you know, tsunami came through here. The Sea of Galilee would just be washed away, except it's surrounded by these mountains, which are 1,500 foot hills.

About 1,500. That's surrounded. So it's a bowl. And he would go from hill to hill, with people following, and come in and out of the cities around there. And this is where so much of his ministry took place. So this great multitude was following him because of his miracles.

And Jesus went up on the mountains, and there he sat with his disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Everything in chapter 6 of John, as was brought out, you know, just a few verses he used. It's all about the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread from the viewpoint of Christ revealing something new. He wasn't doing away with everything in the past. He's adding to it, okay? He's adding to what this means. So then, verse 5, then Jesus lifted up his eyes and seeing a great multitude coming towards him. So he's with these disciples. They're talking. He's teaching. And he looks, and hundreds and hundreds of people are moving towards him. They're coming up the hill. Now I have to admit, for many, many years, I thought, my impression was, the disciples said, how are we going to feed all of them? But actually, that's not what happens here. If you look, he says, and he, Jesus says to Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? He's the one that brings this up. Over and over again, he sets the disciples up for what he's going to do next. Oh, look at all these people coming. And I'll be speaking for a long time teaching, and they're going to get hungry, and there's children. What are we going to do? And so he says, where shall we buy bread that these may eat? He says it to Philip. What are we going to do, Philip? How are we going to feed all these people?

Verse 6 says, but this he said to them, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

And so he sets this all up, and then one of the disciples says, well, there's this little kid here, this lad, and he has a few fish and a few loaves of bread. You know, it wouldn't even feed us, but there's some food here. That's all we have, is this little bit of food.

We know what happens, that Jesus prays over this food. Now remember, this is right before the Passover days of 11 bread, and feeds thousands. Because by that time, it talks about how there's thousands of people. He feeds them. This great miracle takes place. Because of that miracle, you know, they've seen the healings. Because of this miracle, everybody can see it, something happened among the people, so many of these people who are in that area. Because look at verse 14. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, this is truly the prophet who has come into the world. This is a Messianic prophecy. They're pulling from the Old Testament. This is the Messiah. This is the one that God was going to send to bring Israel back together, to rise them up, to who they used to, raise them up to who they used to be. The people of God on earth. And everybody would see them as the people of God on earth, and then the Messiah would reign on earth with Israel as his, you know, people. And they believed that's what they were seeing. But they're seeing this entirely in the context of physical blessings. The Messiah is going to bring us all these physical blessings. He's healing people. He's feeding people. This is what he's going to do. Which is true, but they were missing something here because of how narrowly they looked at things. So that night the disciples get on a boat and they go out into the water. This is all in the same context of what's happening here. And they go out on the water and a storm comes up. And we know that story, right? Remember, this is all happening.

This was a day. This is the night of that same day. So they're out on a boat and the storm comes up and they see Jesus walking across the water. Now the miracles get even more dramatic. He's walking on water in the midst of a storm.

And they're all afraid. They think they're going to die. They think they're seeing a ghost.

And then they find out who he really is. He is the Messiah. He is the One. You know, if you read through that, the verses that I've just sort of summarized, the people were looking for Jesus, many of them, for one reason. They wanted to make Him King.

We will make Him our King as He's supposed to be. God will overthrow the Roman Empire and we're going to be exalted to who we are as the people of God. They wanted to make Him King.

And that is the context then that we get into what Mr. Zoner was going through.

Wait a minute. You don't understand. Well, no. We want you to give us manna, right? This is what God does feed us. It's so easy for you. Fish and a few loaves of bread and you feed thousands of us.

Just, just bring some manna down. Just give him some physical things. Just, and we will make you King and you will restore us.

And He now starts teaching them about the role of the Messiah. Not first as King, but first as Savior and the way to eternal life. Not just God's Kingdom on earth with the Messiah ruling, but eternal life in the Kingdom of God, in the family of God, forever.

And they did not understand. It didn't compute. But they had the Scriptures. They had the entire Old Testament. You know, we think how hard it is for us to memorize parts of the Bible. Many Jewish boys memorized entire sections of the Bible as children. It's what they did after Bar Mitzvah. You know, you're now a man. You memorized sections of the Bible.

That's what you do. It was expected. They knew the Scriptures, but they didn't know the Scriptures.

They were blinded to what was actually happening. They saw Jesus as this, you know, sent from God, this King ordained by God. They didn't see Him as the eternal Word of God. That's not how they saw Him. That concept wasn't there. Although there were some Jewish scholars at the time that said the Word of God has always existed, the Logos of God in Greek has always existed, they just didn't know how to explain it. For the majority, that concept wasn't there yet.

So they don't understand Him, who He really is. So He says, He is the bread of life. You must come to Me and I will give you eternal life. I am the bread, right? I am that bread. I am what you must take in. He summarizes everything in verse 55. So let's go to verse 55. Where He says, for my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He says, no, I'm telling you here, I really am what you must eat. Now He didn't explain anything more than that. And you can imagine the shock of the crowds. What's He talking about?

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in Him abides. He who understands me, Jesus said, as the real bread and the real drink of eternal life, I will live in that person, and that person will live in me. This is another way, and you'll see this throughout the New Testament. Jesus actually proclaims that He is also the Holy Spirit, like the Father is the Holy Spirit. I can live in you and you can live in me because you will eat me and you will drink me.

Well, this caused such a stir. And Jesus knew this was going to happen. When He told the truth, remember, Jesus had thousands of followers all over Judea. He was known. People were saying, this is the Messiah. This is a prophet, or if He's not the Messiah, He's a prophet that we haven't had since Isaiah, Jeremiah. This is the greatest man of God. This is unbelievable what's happening.

Notice verse 66.

From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Jesus was so confrontational with His teaching, and this teaching specifically, that He lost the great majority of His disciples. They were not following.

I will live in you and you will live in me because somehow you will eat my flesh and drink my blood. Okay. We just did the Passover. We understood these words. Now, what Jesus says, and we're going to read here in Matthew 26, what Jesus says would have been just as confrontational, just as unbelievable to the average Jew as it was when He said this before a different Passover.

It was at Passover time, He said this. So, Matthew 26. But to His disciples, they had a deeper understanding, and they were still with Him, and they partook of this, just as we did the other night. Matthew 26, 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, and said what? Take, eat, this is my body. It all makes sense now. This is the symbol of you bringing me, or Him, coming into us. We literally, I don't know the word. It's not like we ingest, but we literally become connected at a core level with God and Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

And this symbolizes how it's done. This cannot happen unless we come into a covenant with God, as He says in a minute here.

See, then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Of course, the disciples, who exactly about the new covenant, it starts to clear back in Deuteronomy. It is prophesied by the prophets.

Jesus talked about the new covenant, often in His ministry. And now He says, This is it.

This is how you begin to understand it, because you are going to symbolically eat my broken body and drink my blood. And as you symbolically do this, you're recognizing that I'm coming to live in you. Because He told them later in this passage, and I will come to you. We read, well, it's in John. Remember, we read John on the Passover. I will come to you, and I will be with you. Father, I wish to be in them, and you be in them, as, and they will be in us. He talked about these things that seem esoteric. What's that mean? I will be in you, and you will be in me. This is exactly what He means. On a spiritual level, something profound happens when we enter into this covenant with God. In the Old Testament, the covenant was circumcision. In the New Testament, it's called the circumcision of the heart.

And Paul says, that's what baptism is. It's the public acclamation that I am entering into a covenant with God. Well, God's entering into a covenant with us. We're just saying, yes, we bring nothing to the covenant. I mean, this isn't a covenant between equals. God says this, we say yes. And He says, okay, you have to then do this public acceptance that you are entering into a covenant in which forgiveness is given to you, and you are now taking in you the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. And that's why there's two baptisms. Water baptism, forgiveness of sin.

That's what it symbolizes. I mean, you get wet. It symbolizes a reality that's happening in heaven. Secondly, hands are laid on you and you receive God's Spirit. No minister has ever given anybody the Holy Spirit. It comes from God. We do the ceremony, and God gives you His Spirit.

This is what Jesus was saying in John 6. Something new is happening, right?

Now, that ceremony is important. You and I don't have the right just to go say, God, I want to make a covenant with you. The baptism laying on of hands I don't want to do. I just want to have a covenant with you. That's not acceptable. You and I don't say any terms of this covenant, only God.

And we say yes. And we go through the baptism. We go through the laying on of hands, because we're publicly acknowledging and He is applying the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to us. And He's making it possible now for Him in Christ to abide in us and for us to abide in them.

I gave a sermon on that probably six, eight years ago here. I probably should give it again. To really understand what it means that God lives in you, you think, well, I have secrets. No, you don't.

God's in here. We have no secrets. And yet, somehow we're living in Him too, which means we have a power and an understanding. He gives us things we don't have. You cannot have without God's Spirit. So we kept that Passover. We were acknowledging that we have become participants in the new covenant. And what is talked about in John 6 is a reality in our lives. It's a reality in our lives. That we're in a special connection with God because of His mercy. There's another reason why. It's just His grace allows us to have this relationship. So now let's look at leavening in the New Testament. Okay, so we've looked at the Old Testament. We've looked at John, where Jesus says, okay, this is what I'm doing. And He lost most of His disciples because of it. They just couldn't accept it. So let's go to 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5.

You see why John 6 is so important? And you see why I'd had to take another 20 minutes to go through. Unfortunately, it was covered. 1 Corinthians 5. And we didn't know. I didn't know He was going to do that. He didn't know what I was going to do. 1 Corinthians 5. 6. Paul writes, Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Now he's using leavening. People would understood, you know, actually we know today how complex it is. You add leavening into a little bit of dough. It affects every molecule in that dough over time.

It's amazing to watch that happen. As a kid, I'd watched my mom put leavening in, and then wait, so it would puff up, so she would cook it, and it seemed like it took forever.

So you'd leave, you'd go out and play, and you'd come back, and that little bit of dough filled the entire bread pan. So he says, a little leavening will leaven the whole thing, the whole person. Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are a leaven, for indeed Christ our Passover will sacrifice for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast. He's telling a Gentile church to keep the feast, and this is the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread.

So the modern Christian idea that we're not supposed to keep these things was, as it was brought out, the seasons are mentioned in Genesis before there ever was in Israel.

It was created for humanity.

He says, therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. When you and I eat unleavened bread, I find it interesting, I don't know about you, but I look forward to the days of unleavened bread, because that's some of the best bread of the year. That's not what happened in the Old Testament. It wasn't the best bread of the year. And I think sometimes maybe there's a lesson in that, because we're not eating the bread because we were rushing out of Egypt.

We're eating the bread because, yes, we're being taken out of Egypt, and we're being given the Spirit of God. That's why this all ties in eventually to the Pentecost, and Christ is living in us. So we enjoy our unleavened bread. I'm not saying that's biblical, I'm just saying that's how I look at it. I enjoy this because this is good. We want this unleavened bread.

I mean, there's times Kim and I have talked about, wouldn't it be good to eat this all year long?

No, we don't, but you know, the unleavened bread, because some of it's so good.

So he talks about leavening here that has to be removed from us. See, that concept isn't in the Old Testament. You don't put the leavening in the bread. It's not like something has to be taken out of you. Something has to be put in you. Okay, what is put in us is the unleavened bread of Christ.

That's what we did on the Passover. But what has to be taken out of us? Well, that's an interesting concept. We think sometimes all this is about is getting physical leavening out of the house.

And it is a whole lot more important than that. I'm not saying we should throw out the leavening, but we should know why we're putting out the leavening. We're putting it out because it represents something. Oh, it represents the Israelites leaving Egypt. Yes. But in point 1 through 10, that's just point number 10. You know, that's not the number one reason.

The reason here is because it represents malice and wickedness.

Two interesting words. I could give a whole sermon on those two words.

Malice is the viciousness of bad character. It's that innate tendency we have with corrupted human nature to be selfish, angry, hateful, resentful, vengeful, self-willed. I mean, you know, that is malice. That hardness we have in us. Wickedness is basically...

Wickedness means all kinds of...every sin. It sort of focuses on sin that harms others.

So we have this innate problem with our own nature, and then we have these actions that are sinful. And he says, that is the leavening that we are to zero in on during this time period, keep the feast, of getting out of our lives. We prepare for that on the Passover by examining ourselves, right? We prepare for the Passover, and we prepare to celebrate the fact that Christ did die for us. During this week, we know he was resurrected, and that he said, I will come live in you through the Spirit, and we celebrate that. And then during this time period, every time we eat unleavened bread, it's to celebrate what Christ is doing, and it's to remember that we have to get...oh, well, I forgot about that, and I ate a cracker. I mean, how many times? I remember as a kid...I know I've said this before, but my mom and I, during the days of unleavened bread...I'm just a little guy...and she stopped to get some groceries, and she bought, you know, these big pretzels, sticks. They were like a penny apiece. And we're sitting down there, sitting in the car, driving down the road, chomping on our pretzels, and suddenly we both looked at each other at the exact same time, and said, oh, it's the days of unleavened bread.

And she started to laugh, and she said, roll down your window, and throw it at...the only time my mother ever let us throw anything out the window. And we're out in the country, and we both roll down the windows, and I'm just laughing. This is the funnest thing I've ever done. I threw my pretzel out the window. Okay. Yes, we...but that's because it's a symbol. It's a symbol of the wickedness and the malice that's in us. I mean, in this way, it's actually a symbol for all sin.

It's interesting, in Matthew 16, I won't go there, 5 through 11, Jesus talks about the leavening of the doctrines, or the teachings of the Pharisees. Now, many of the Pharisees' teachings were actually scriptural, and many were not. And he tells his disciples to beware of the leavening.

Okay. This little bit that comes into your lump, and eventually will be through everything.

In fact, he...boy, he really tears apart the Pharisees in Matthew 23.

But I want to go to Luke 12, just one verse here, because here he summarizes the leavening of the Pharisees. Luke...we'll come right back, by the way, here to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. So we're going to come right back to it. But let's go to Luke 1.

If we want to really be serious about this, at this time of year, we have to consider wickedness, malice, and this. Luke chapter 12 and verse...let me get there...verse 1.

Well, this is what I want, either. What did I write down here? Well, anyways...yeah, that's the right one. Let me go here. Thank you. Verse 1.

In the meantime, when an immutable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another...okay, in other words, another big crowd gathers. They're actually knocking each other down. Sometimes thousands of people. He began to say to his disciples, first of all...okay, this is what he said to them first. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He says, what fills their lump is hypocrisy. So we're told these three things about leavening in the New Testament. Wickedness, malice, and hypocrisy. During these days, we are to be very aware of removing that leavening from our house, which is here, right?

Because you could remove every cracker, every piece of bread, everything that has leavening in it, every leavening agent. We do that every year. We should. But you could do all that and still not get the meaning of this time. Because the Jews do that, and they don't get the meaning of this time. We do that for a different purpose, and it is to recognize what God is doing through Christ, not only just His sacrifice, but the work He's doing now in us, the resurrected Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. So let's go back to 1 Corinthians 5.

Because, I mean, yeah, 1 Corinthians 5. Because now if we're going to look at this, there's something else that is said here. And I remember a sermon I gave a number of years ago, where I just did an entire sermon on this one phrase. That's how incredibly important all this is. So let's read it again. Verse 7, Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

So the leavening is being removed because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with all leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of what? Sincerity and truth.

Oh, there's something we're supposed to be taking in.

Don't be fooled by the word sincerity. I mean, there's times when a child does something, and we excuse them because they were sincere, right? They didn't know any better. They were trying to do right, and so we excuse them. But you know, there reaches a point where sincerity is used as an excuse for anything. Oh, I know this person did that, but they were sincere.

Or you can be sincerely wrong. You can be absolutely emotionally sincere about something and be absolutely wrong, too. Sincerity can never be an excuse for sin.

In the Greek, the word sincere means pure. That's more of its intent. So you are striving to be pure.

It is your intention to be pure. So yes, we can understand there are times sincerity covers up something because the person, especially the little ones, don't understand. But as mature Christians, we should not ever use sincerity as an excuse for doing something wrong. Or an excuse for, oh well, they're sincere. They don't know any better. So their sin doesn't matter to God. That's not true. All sin matters to God because Christ had to die for every person.

Every human being, salvation will only come to them when they accept Christ as the Passover.

You cannot have. The Old Testament was different because they look forward to it.

They look forward to certain things. The New Testament says that.

But you can't deny Jesus Christ and receive salvation. Fortunately, we know everybody gets a chance. That changes everything. Everybody gets a chance. But salvation cannot come through sincerity. It's not possible. It's only being sincere in your commitment to God and Christ, and entering into a covenant with them. So we eat this unleavened bread for a very specific purpose. You look back to the Exodus. I'm not downplaying that. That is important.

But why you and I eat it isn't to say, you know, I mean every time. Now, I haven't done it this year yet, but every year I like to watch The Ten Commandments, right? The one with Charlton S.

Let my people go, you know. And the one movie where everybody can't just say Moses. They have to say Moses. Moses. They have to say, like it's his first and last name. I've never quite figured that out.

1 Corinthians 11.

We read this during the Passover. This is long after Jesus' resurrection, and the Apostle Paul is explaining to the church, a Gentile church here in Corinth, what he had been taught by Jesus, the resurrected Jesus Christ, personally.

We keep the Passover to commemorate his death.

We eat unleavened bread throughout the days of unleavened bread to commemorate his resurrection, because if he wasn't resurrected, it doesn't matter, does it? He is living now. What he does now is the work of God, and he's doing it in people. Jesus Christ is preparing to come back to rule the earth, but what is he doing right now on this day? He's working with people to come into the new covenant and be prepared for his coming, to be prepared to serve him when he does come. So we take this bread, yes, because we want to honor what God did to ancient Israel, taking them out of Satan's world, and it was such a hurry, and they had to do it, and we learned that lesson. But in reality, it's because we're taking Jesus Christ into us all the time.

And he's interacting with us all the time and taking us to the Father. It's not like we stop with Jesus. His whole role is to lead us to the Father. When you pray, you go directly to the Father because he stands there as intercessor. That's what this is about. When people downplay that we keep the days of the love and bread, where you're just trying to be Jewish, shows a remarkable lack of understanding of Jesus Christ. I hate to be so dog-batty, but it does.

It just shows a remarkable lack of understanding of John 6, of what Jesus taught, what Paul taught about the feast. Let us keep the feast. Every day during this Holy Day season, we are to be reminded of the covenant that God made with us. Now some of you here are in the stages of being drawn towards that covenant.

That's because God is preparing you to make the covenant with him. I gave a sermon at the feast in Gatlinburg this year. It was an interesting experience because I had little kids. It was on Youth Day. In fact, I've been asked to give that sermon here. I still intend to give it here. It's on my list. And in Nashville, I had little kids come up to me and ask, can I be baptized? Because they got a glimpse of it. Little kids, they just got a glimpse of it. Can I be baptized? Yes. You are being called now. You're being prepared to make a covenant with God. You just stay where you're going, and God's going to get you there. And they were so excited, and I hope they stay on that road.

So, you're in the covenant, or you're being prepared for the covenant? That's why you're here.

It is much more complete than the covenant given to ancient Israel. They were promised a physical, promised land. We are promised eternity with God. They were promised that they would have rain in due season. We're promised we won't need rain to live.

They were promised that God would protect them from diseases. We're promised a body and a life that can never get sick. We're promised something so much greater.

Oh, let's not, let's not separate this Passover from the Exodus Passover. It teaches us so much.

But let's realize that we're moving even deeper into the plan of God by what we're doing.

That God is delivering us from Egypt, Satan's world. He's delivering us from that.

But he's not doing it through feeding us manna, as was brought out in the sermon, that. He's doing us by having Jesus Christ in us. And the only way I think he could describe it that we would understand is, eat this. Eat this. Because it goes in. It's part of you now.

And we understand, drink this, because it's going to produce eternal life. And this is the great difference in the covenant of manna and the covenant of the eternal bread of life.