The Feast

What if Jesus had come in an obscure way. He came to an obscure town, to an obscure corner of the world. What if he had come in an obscure way. What if he had done everything that he did, accomplished everything that he accomplished, but he did so in obscurity. What if there was no clear understanding of who the Jews were, what their practices were. What if there were only scant historical references to this people group? More particularly, what if there had never been a thing called Passover or the feast of unleavened bread. What if there had never been this observance, or what if the observance had only happened for a few years forty years in the desert. This observance takes place, but once they cross the Jordan and come into that land of promise, they stop observing the Passover, they lose those traditions. Then Jesus comes, Jesus lives, Jesus dies. How do you and I know what that means? You see, the fact of the matter is, without this observance, without this practice, without these people and their religion, we would not have understood who Jesus was. What he did or why he did it. We would not have understood the theological significance of the atonement were it not for observances like the one that we are examining here today. But in the providence of God, he did create this people, he did preserve this people. And not only did he preserve, create, and preserve this people, but he created and preserved this people and their practices so that when Jesus came into the world, it would be clear who he was, where he came from, why he was here, what he came to do, and the significance of the work that he accomplished. But it's only because of the preservation of the practice we see. There are a number of ways that we look at worship. There are a number of ways that we look at what we're doing here today. This gathering here today and our thinking has and shaped a great deal by our culture. For many of us, we view worship as entertainment or spectacle. We believe that we gather here today primarily to be entertained. We even talk about worship in that way. How was worshiped today? Eh? I like this? I didn't like that, you know I was today? Well, you know, we did this song, everything like that song. We did this song, every look like that song. Did you know what did I like? How did I feel? How did it strike me? Or are you not entertained? That's the way we approach worship for some of us, it's not entertainment and spectacle. It's celebration and inspiration. The idea that we go throughout life, we go throughout the week, and throughout the week, our batteries run low, and so on Sunday, we need to come to church again to be rejuvenated and recharged, and we need to celebrate so that we can again be energized to go out and fight the world one more time. Yay God. It was in a service one time where the worship leader encouraged people to make that response, yay God, Let's give God a handclap of praise, creating an environment of celebration as though that were why we're here. Sometimes we look at worship as catharsists or therapy. We come to worship because, you know, there are some issues that we have, some things that we have wrong, and what we need is we need some self help, some pop psychology, some how tos some coping mechanisms so that we can go back into our lives, employ those coping mechanisms and become better people because of those coping mechanisms that we have. But there is a sense in which worship to be understood as commemoration. I'm not arguing that the things that we do here are never entertaining or spectacular. It can be, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not arguing that there's nothing to celebrate or be inspired by there, most assuredly is I'm not arguing that there's never a sense of Catharsis. There absolutely can be, and there are those moments where we meet God in ways that actually bring us to break throughs emotionally and spiritually and otherwise. But what I am saying is that none of those things is sufficient, that they can't be the very reason that we gather, because every one of those things centers around me and my experience, and that's what we've been conditioned to look for, me and my experience. What I want, what I like, what I feel like I I need. The problem with that is I don't even know what I need. Romans Chapter eight makes that clear. I don't even know how to pray like I ought to. Amen The Spirit has to intercede for me because I don't even have sense enough to ask God for the right stuff. So how do I know what I need in terms of worship. All I really know is what makes me feel good in worship, what makes me happy in worship, and that is always contingent upon what's going on in the rest of my life emotionally. So there are some days when I just need worship to be entertaining because of what's going on in my life. And if I come and that's what I'm looking for, I'm disappointed if I don't get it. There's some days when I need more of a celebration because I'm just down and there's trudgery in my life and I just need more of a celebration. And if I come to worship and I don't get that celebration, I feel like it was a bad day at worship because I didn't get what I needed. There's some days when I feel like I need that emotional catharsis or something therapeutic, and if it doesn't happen, I feel like worship has failed me. And oftentimes we'll pack up and go somewhere else and look for another experience. That's more in line with what we feel like we need from the gathering. But what if that's the way Israel had approached their worship. If it was just about what I feel like, if it was just about what I want, if it was just about me being satisfied, gratified, or entertained, what would have happened. I'll tell you what would have happened. They would not have had worship as commemoration, and we would not have known why Jesus came. Commemoration is an essential part of what it means to be human. It's an essential part of what makes us belong. It's what identifies us as a people, as families, as nations, as ethnicities, as religions. The way we set ourselves apart and belong to one another is by the things that we com commemorate on a regular basis. There are numerous things that we may commemorate, and it's just fine birthdays. These are things that we commemorate. There's a way that we commemorate birthdays. There's things that we expect. This is a commemoration that is known to us from the time that we're very young. I'll never forget one birthday of mine you know, my kids come running down and one birthday of mind and I'm thinking, oh wow, it's daddy's birthday. My kids just love their daddy so much. And they run down. And there was one of them who was the spokesman for the rest of them. His name shall not be named. He runs down, and they all run down. They dive on the bed, and he goes, happy birthday, daddy, where's your cake. We understand the commemoration and what is involved anniversaries of various kinds. We understand those kinds of commemorations, especially if you forget one, amen, somebody. We understand what's supposed to happen, and we have expectations. National holidays. We get that. We understand that, and it's what makes us a people. And so we gather together and there's Independence Day. On an Independence Day, we know that there's going to be fireworks and parades and so on and so forth, perhaps the reading of the Declaration of Independence. Thanksgiving is about to come up. My favorite, that's my favorite national holiday, Thanksgiving, And we understand what Thanksgiving is all about. We understand. Then on Thanksgiving, we're gonna talk about the Pilgrims and how they survived and their relationship with the Indians, and you know, and if you're more politically correct, we'll call them something else, and you know, and we're gonna talk about that, and we're gonna eat, and we're gonna talk about while we eat these things and those things. And it's wonderful. But sometimes we lose something in the commemoration and Independence Day just becomes fourth of July and it's all about firecrackers, has nothing to do with our independence. It's about a barbecue and some fireworks. Sometimes Thanksgiving becomes Turkey Day and it has nothing to do with being grateful for God's providence, as the individuals who brought the Gospel well here survived so that we could come to know Christ. And it just becomes an excuse to gorge ourselves as if we need one. Birthday has just become about cake, not about being thankful for God's providence. Anniversaries just become another date day, not an essential reminder. And unfortunately this is what happens. This is what has happened to worship. We have lost that sense of commemoration, and especially in our culture, we have become so proficient at entertainment, celebration and therapy that essentially Christian people in our culture, when they think about worship, think about everything other than the commemorative aspects of it. And when we engage in the more commemorative aspects of it, oftentimes people are turned off by it because those things seem more religious, rudimentary, and can often sometimes seem empty. But I say again, unless Israel held on to the commemorative aspects of their worship of God, we would not have had a context wherein we could understand who Jesus was, where he came from, why he came, what he did, and what he accomplished. It is only because of the faithful commemoration over and over and over and over again by the Israelites doing those same things that sometimes made their young people go God again. It's because they hung in there and continued to commemorate and we were able to understand the gospel. And we are a part of that commemoration even today. I want you to understand this idea of worship as commemoration. First of all, I want you to understand that commemoration reminds us of our connection to God. This is why that aspect of worship is important. Let me say again I did not say, and I am not saying that worship is nothing else. I did not say, and I am not saying that those other things are always and inherently wrong. What I am saying is that they cannot and must never be at the center of what we think is at the center must be this idea of commemoration first, because it reminds us of our connection to God. Look with me at our text, Exodus, chapter twelve, beginning of verse fourteen. We're looking at verses fourteen through twenty. Let's read this. This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, as a statute forever. And you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days. You shall eat unleaven bread. On the first day you shall remove leven out of your house, For if anyone eats what is leven from the first day until the seventh day, the person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on these days, but what everyone needs to eat that alone may be prepared by you, and you shall observe the feast of unloven bread, For on this very day I brought your host out of the land of Egypt. Isn't it awesome how God is talking about this as though it's already happened. Folks, they haven't left yet. Amen, they haven't left yet. But God is talking about future celebration of this day and celebrating what he hadn't even done yet, because he's God and he knows it will get done. Amen. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleaven bread until the twenty first day of the month at evening. For seven days, no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwelling places. You shall eat unleavened bread. You first read that and you go, Okay, that's great. What do they have to do with us? What do they have to do the gospel? What does have to do with Jesus? Just hold on, as I said first, the idea of worship as commemoration, and that's what God is establishing. God is establishing Israel's worship. He's telling them how to worship him. This is extremely important. We've talked about the regulative principle before, and those of you who have been through our membership process, you understand the regulative principle. The regulative principle of worship. Two ideas coming out of the Reformation as to what is proper worship. Remember, they're coming out of this Roman Catholicism, many of the reformers, and in Roman Catholicism, there's a way that you worship. And it is obvious to them now that this way that they were worshiping in Roman Catholicism is blasphemous, that the Roman Catholic Mass is blasphemous, and that it is not to be celebrated. But what are those things that are to be celebrated in worship? The regulative principle says simply this, we worship God only in those ways that He has told us specifically to worship him, and in no other way. The normative principle argue that we worship God in those ways that he has specifically told us to worship him, and we are also permitted to worship God in ways that He has not prohibited, as long as they don't contradict those things that He has told us. Well, now we've moved beyond that to what I've told you I like to call the affective principle of worship. The affective principle of worship basically says this, as long as there's one person who's blessed by it and feels closer to God than this acceptable worship, and you can't question it. It can be grossly unbiblical. But if somebody says they were blessed by it and that it brought them closer to God, you cannot question it because all that matters is the individual's experience with God. That's the way we define worship today, and it is grossly unbiblical and incredibly dangerous. When you look into the scripture, is what you find is God telling his people specifically, this is how you worship me specifically. Why would we go beyond this? Why would we come to God and say, God, I know this is how you told us to worship you. But I believe I know some things that you like better than you think you would like them. And so I'm going to bring you this thing that you didn't tell me to bring because I think I can please you better than you think I can please you. Who do you think you are? We worship God in the ways that he tells us to worship him because He tells us to worship him in those ways for a purpose. And the purpose here, in large part, is to remind us of what connects us to God. Our connection to God is rooted in our salvation Verse seventeen. And you shall observe the feast of unloving bread. Four. Why four, on this very day I brought your host out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations. As a statute forever we get a four and a Therefore, this is how you worship me. Why? Because this commemorates the day I saved you. Worship is a commemoration first and foremost of our salvation and how we became related to God. Folks, everyone is connected to God. However, only the redeemed are connected in a way worth commemorating corporately and regularly. It would make no sense at all for the enemies of God to celebrate their enmity with him. Amen. The only thing worth commemorating, and worth commemorating corporately is us celebrating the fact that God has saved us, and so worship as commemoration is rooted and grounded in this idea. For Israel, it's to pass over. Listen to Reichen phil Richen. To make sure that his people would never forget their salvation, God gave them a special memory aid Passover, or the feast of unloving bread. This feast was meant to be an annual celebration. Celebrate this annually. Every year. You celebrate this. From the fourteenth to the twenty first, you celebrate this. You celebrate this without fail. You celebrate this always. For the church, it's the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper. Remember what we're doing now is we're walking through Exodus chapter twelve, but we're also opening up our understanding of the Lord's Supper because you can't understand the lord Supper unless you understand the passover right, and so we have to grasp the passover in order to grasp the Lord's Supper. And one of the things that many people differ with us on is the fact that we observe the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day, folks. This is one of the main reasons why the Lord's Supper is an observance of the Passover. The Passover doesn't mean anything until you get well, take it back, It doesn't mean anything in a sense of course, larity, we don't really understand the Passover apart from just Israel being saved from Egypt, until the coming of Christ. It is then that the Passover takes on new meaning, not only for us in the New Covenant, but also for those in the Old Covenant. This is God foreshadowing the salvation of his people. So even his people in the Old Covenant who are saved, they're saved because of what the Passover pointed to. They're saved because of Christ. They're saved because of believing in the Savior to come. So it's not until Christ comes that we have the full picture of what this is about. And it's not until the resurrection of Christ that his apostles, who observed the Lord Supper for the first time, understood its significance. So when we gather together as Christians to worship, we are gathered together to worship the resurrected Christ. And in worshiping the resurrected Christ, we are observing the Passover in its fullest sense, which is why it makes sense that when we worship, we have the Lord Supper, not once every blue moon, but every time we gather to worship God. Because this is about commemoration. The number one reason churches don't do the Lord's Supper. Number one reason, we don't have time. Now. Granted, the band will come and play for forty five minutes before the sermonette, but we don't have time for the Lord's Supper. That's the number one reason. The number two reason we don't want to get jaded. We don't want to get jaded. We don't want the Lord's Supper to lose its spiritual and emotional impact. Therefore, we only do it every once in a while so that it preserves its spiritual and emotional impact. This is a wrong understanding of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is not about emotional impact. The Lord's Supper is about commemoration. It's about the fact that we need to be reminded, and we need to be reminded again and again and again and again and again. For Israel, it was once a year. For us, it's once a week. That's when we gather as the people of God to commemorate God's saving work in the fuller expression of the Passover. This is why God is the one who determines what we must commemorate, because feel what we feel is not what connects us to God. Right, commemoration is reminding us of our connection to God. My connection with God is not based upon what I feel. It's not based upon what I can manufacture. It's based upon what God has done. This raises an important question about Christian observance. Must we memorate the Jewish feasts? Or may we commemorate the Jewish feasts? Calvin addresses this in his commentary on this particular passage. And this is important because there are a lot of Christians who are now reverting. They're reverting back to Judaism. There are a lot of Christians who are now going back to Jewish practices. They're meeting on Saturday, they're wearing tassels on their clothing, they're wearing yamuchers, they're observing the feasts. They're observing that. There are people who are going back Christian people who are going back to this stuff. Right, now today it is a growing movement, the Hebrew Roots movement. Some call it is this appropriate. Listen to Calvin's comment on this text as to what's being called a right or ordinance forever. I admit that by this expression perpetuity is meant, but only such as would exist until the renovation of the Church. And the same explanation will apply to certain decision as well as the whole ceremonial law. For although by Christ's coming it was abolished as concerns its use, yet did it only then attain its true solidity. And therefore the difference between ourselves and the ancient people detracts nothing from this perpetual statue, just in the same way as the New Covenant does not destroy the old in substance, but only in form. In other words, God says this is to be perpetual. This is to be for you and for all your generations. This is to never end. And so this whole Hebrew Roots movement will say, because God says this is to never end, we need to observe this feast as Christians, because of the Hebrew roots of Christianity, we need to do this just like they do it. And folks know we don't. No, we don't any more than a man who's married needs to go back to kissing his wife through a veil, because once the wedding has happened, everything changes. Why would I go back to the symbol when I now have the substance. Why would I go back to the foreshadowing when I now have the reality? Why would I go back to the feasts of weeks and to the passover meal when I have Christ crucified and resurrected, and the Lord's Supper, which commemorates me having a fuller understanding than the Jews ever had before Christ came? Why would I go backwards? I'll go further, and I'll say this movement is blasphemy against Christ. To go back to these things is blasphemy against Christ. You do not go back to the symbol when you have the substance. To do that is to show a lack of appreciation for the substance. Does that mean that we just negate the symbol altogether. No, That's why we're preaching through exodus, folks, because we want to understand the symbol. We want to understand how it was foreshadowed, so that we can get a fuller understanding of what it means when God and Man at table are set down, not so that we can then negate this whole idea of the Lord's Supper by going back to the thing that it pointed to. Do not go back. There's a whole book about going back, the Book of Galatians. Do not go back. There is nothing back there for you. Do not go back. We are not bound to Jewish observants Colossians two sixteen and seventeen. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you. And questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival, or a new moon or a sabbath, these are a shadow of the things to come. But the substance belongs to Christ. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. We do not go back, We don't. Does this mean that it's not it can't be helpful for us. Sure, it can be helpful for us, But there's a line there. I've had a couple of Christian friends who have experienced a Jewish satyr, you know, the Passover meal, and more than one, at least two, who've said to me, this is what I'm going to do from now on. All this Easter stuff, Nah, not doing that. I'm celebrating. I'm celebrating Passover from now on. Okay, how about you do this. How about you tell your wife we're not moving forward in our relationship from now on. What I want you to do is every weekend, I want you to put on your wedding dress, and I want us to go to that place where we were married, and I want us to stand in that same spot where we're married, and I want to say those same vows, and if we can, I want us to get those same people there. I want you to do your hair the exact same way. I'm not moving beyond our wedding to our marriage. I'm staying stuck there forever. That would be the exact same thing. Folks, your wedding is over, you're married. Now there's something better for you. Amen. You can see an experience that the satyr, and it can help you to better understand all of the symbols that were present there. But what they point you to is Christ. The Lord's Supper is not inferior to the Passover meal. It is the fuller explanation of the Passover meal. This is why we worship on the first day of the week instead of the seventh tyronic was sitting here and we rent from you know our seven Day of Ventist friends and our seven Day of Venice friends. In the nineteenth century, after a failed prophecy, went back to worshiping on the seventh day, basically saying that that's why the prophecy didn't come to pass and Jesus didn't return because the Church was an error being unfaithful worshiping on the first day instead of the seventh Day. Folks, the same principle applies here. Listen to this second London Baptist Confession, Chapter twenty two, paragraph seven. God hath particularly appointed one day in seven for a sabbath to be kept holy unto Him, which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of the week, which is called the Lord's Day and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath, the observation of the last day of the week being abolished. We observed the first day of the week, not the last, and this has been true since the New Testament. Why do we do this because Jesus rose from the grave on the first day of the week, and we are here to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He entered into his rest after his redemptive work on the first day of the week, not the seventh. Secondly, Christ appeared to the assembly of his disciples on the first day of the week. That's when they first gathered with Jesus after his resurrection, and then he did it again seven days later, with Thomas being present again on the first day of the week. Christ poured out his spirit on the assembly at Pentecost on the first day of the week, fifty days after his resurrection. This was on the Lord's Day, not the seventh day, but the first day. Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth to establish the pattern of their preserving their offerings for the service of the Lord. He ordered the Christians in Corinth to follow the pattern that had already been set with the churches in Galatia. Urse Corinthian sixteen to one, On the first day of every week, they were to consecrate their offerings to the Lord. Why are you going to do this on the first day of the week. If you're not gathering on the first day of the week. And finally, in Revelation chapter one, the longest living Apostle says that he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day. What's the Lord's Day? The Lord's Day is the Christian Sabbath, and it's the first day of the week. We are not bound to the seventh day of the week. We're not bound to it. We commemorate the first day of the week. And those who run back to the seventh day usually don't just run back to seventh Day worship. They usually run back to other Jewish adherents as well, such as dietary laws and observance of feast days and things of this nature. We are not bound to these things. We have the fuller expression of these things in Christ. And it is because of the resurrected Christ that all of these things now have their meaning. God determines how we must commemorate. He said that this commemoration would be a feast. They didn't get to turn it into something else. God determines when we must commemorate, He says, throughout your generations and as a statute forever. This doesn't end when you get out of the desert. This doesn't end when you establish your land. This doesn't end if you lose your land and somehow go into exile. It happens perpetually, and so we observe perpetually because it reminds us of our connection to God through the saving work of Jesus Christ. So no, we have not forsaken the passover or the feast of unloved bread. We are actually experiencing it in its fuller expression, in its fullest expression, as we observe the Lord's Supper week in and week out, to commemorate the reality that that symbol only pointed to. Not only does commemoration connect us to God, but this idea of commemoration also connects us to one another. It connects us as the people of God. Remember, we say this commemoration is really what makes a people of people. You know, what makes you part of a family, not just your blood lines. You cannot have the bloodlines, but enter into a family you can enter in. And when you enter into a family all the things that they commemorate, you begin to commemorate. What makes you part of a particular nation. You need to understand what is commemorated. We're about to commemorate, you know, Thanksgiving and there are many of us, you know, who are here and you're not necessarily a part of this country. And that's one of the times when you're reminded, Yeah, I'm not one of these folks. They got these strange traditions. I have no idea what these strange traditions are. But then something beautiful happens. One of these folks says, come up to my house with Thanksgiving, and you get to enter into these strange traditions, and what happens you feel like one of these folks. These things unite together and as believers when we gather together in worship and we commit, see, this is what unites us. Hear me on this very carefully. If our worship is centered around any of those other purposes, it doesn't unite us the same way. For example, if our worship is centered around entertainment, not everybody considers the same thing entertaining. So if our worship is centered around entertainment and spectacle, then the people who come who see our entertainment and spectacle, for whom that's their type of entertainment and spectacle, they can unite with us and they can be one with us. If we're centered around celebration. The people who celebrate the way we celebrate, sure they can come and they can unite with us. Okay, if it's centered around you know, Catharsis and therapy and you know, the people who are struggling with the same things that we're struggling with. Because we're going to be emphasizing whatever those things are that we're struggling with, they'll be able to enter in with us. But when our worship is centered around commemoration, it doesn't matter what you find in a It doesn't matter what you find, what you'd like to celebrate, it doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter you know, what kind of music you like, or this or that and the other. But when we gather around those things that God has said, this is what you're to commemorate, believers from all walks of life and from all different parts of the world can gather together and understand exactly what's going on. We pray, we read the scriptures, we preach, we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we baptize. See, these are the elements of our worship. These are the things we commemorate that unite us as brothers and sisters in Christ. And we have gotten so far removed from these realities that there are people who will walk away in order to find better entertainment, but sacrifice those very things that we're supposed to commemorate. God help us, God help us, these are the things that unite us. Look at verses fifteen and sixteen. Seven days you shall eat unleaven bread. On the first day, you shall remove leaven out of your houses. For if anyone eats what is leaven from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days, but what everyone needs to eat that alone may be prepared by you. He also says that this is for the soul journal as well as for the native folks. Commemoration is a corporate activity. Notice that when you're not commemorating the way God says that you're to commemorate, it doesn't say you're cut off from God. It says you're cut off from Israel, which means that this commemoration is designed to unite Israel. This is one of the things that unites Israel. And then when the temple comes. Everybody comes to the temple three times a year. This is one of those three times a year that they come to the temple. This is what unites them. We all come to the temple during this time. This is what unites us as believers. There are people in this room who listen to all different kinds of music, like all different kinds of entertainment, have all different kinds of hobbies, eat all different kinds of foods, come from all different kinds of backgrounds, speak all different kinds of languages. But when it comes to those things that we're told in the Word we are to commemorate, that's what unites us as brothers and sisters in Christ. I told you before about the experience of going to worship in different parts of the world where things were just completely foreign. One of the advantages that we have as Americans is that we've infected the rest of the planet with our culture and with our language, and you can almost always find people who speak speak English. And so because of that, Americans don't speak a lot of languages. We don't have to speak a lot of languages, and because of that, we freak out more than other people when we're in a place where people don't speak our language. And so the first time we as an American have an experience where you go when you sit down in a church and people start doing church and you can't understand what they're saying, something happens to you. First, there is that moment where you just kind of go, this is bad, this is wrong. I should leave. I don't belong here. I'm not one of these people. And then something happens. They start singing a song that you know, and then you every once in a while catch that word for Jesus and you can figure out what the word for Jesus is. And then those elements begin to happen, and you begin to see things that look familiar. Why because they're commemorating the same thing that we commemorate. And all of a sudden, another thing happens to you, and you say to yourself, I don't speak these people's language, but I am one of them because we're connected to the same savior that makes us brothers and sisters in Christ. Well, if you walked in, then they were all about entertainment, and you are foreigner to their culture, and you don't get what's entertaining in their culture. You're going to be lost. You're going to be lost. Failure to commemorate bring sin and separation. Failure of a believer to continue to be part of the regular worship of the people of God is sin. Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, it's sin. The New Covenant equivalent to Levin is sin, and heresy is interesting. I believe it's eleven times that you find a reference to Levin in the New Testament. First, there's the leaven of the Pharisees. We see that in Matthew Mark and Luke. Jesus says, how is it that you failed to understand that I did not speak about bread, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Again, the real meaning of the passover is understood clearly when Christ has died and risen again, and in the Lord's Supper we see it in a way that it couldn't have been understood before. Now the real meaning of leaven, the real signific folks leaven, but yea yeast is not going to do anything to you. Maybe there's somebody out there and you got a YaST allergy and he can do it. But again, yeast is not going to do anything to you. So avoiding yeast what is that? There is no holiness in avoiding yeast. There was holiness for Israel in avoiding yeast for this week because God was teaching them something. But for us, avoiding yeast is absolutely meaningless. Now that we understand that thissel is all about pointing to Christ and his deliverance. What does he deliver us from? He delivers us from sin and error. Here referring to the Pharisees in One Corinthians chapter five, it's the yeast of sin that is removed through excommunication. Again, why is he using yeast? He's absolutely referring back to this truth and the fact that we're connected to it as New Covenant believers. Finally, this commemoration reminds us of our mission. This commemoration reminds us of our mission Verses eighteenth to twenty. And the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, you shall eat unleaven bread until the twenty first day of the month at evening, for seven days, no leaven is to be found in your house. If anyone eats what is leven, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel. No I love that he didn't say the nation. He says, it's congregation, it's a church. Whether he is a sojourner or a native to the land. You shall eat nothing leavened in your dwelling places. You shall eat unleavened bread, the sojourner. Why mention the sojourner, folks? Israel doesn't have a land in which people can sojourn, and yet God's mentioning sojourners. Israel doesn't have these rules and laws for sojourners that they will have eventually, They don't have them now. And yet God is mentioning sojourners. Why Why? Because God's plan has always extended beyond the ethnic people of Israel to God's elect in every nation and every tribe, and every kindred and every tongue. And right here he reminds us of that the salvation of Israel was never just about Israel. It was always about the salvation of all of God's elect. The Great commission again this idea of commemoration. Jesus said, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Teach them to observe all that I've commanded. You teach them to observe what What did he teach us to observe? Well, one of the things that he taught us to observe was the Lord's supper, which is the fulfillment of the observance of the Passover and the feast of unloving bread. We teach them to observe this. We teach them how we're connected to the people of God throughout all the ages. This is one of the things that we teach the Lord's supper one Corinthians eleven twenty six. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Until he comes, Why are we still taking the Lord's supper because he hasn't come yet, Which means Not only are we still pertaking to the Lord's Supper, but we're proclaiming the Lord's death. That means we're preaching the gospel. Because the number of God's elect is not full yet, we are still preaching the gospel, and the Lord's Supper is connected to our preaching of the gospel. Again, while we do it every week. Finally, this is something that we need to be reminded of, over and over and over again. One Peter, Chapter one, beginning verse twelve. Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities. Though you know them and are established in the truth that you have, I think it right, as long as I am in this body to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ make clear to me, and I will make every efforts so that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things. You need to be reminded. I need to be reminded. You don't just need to be entertained. You need to be reminded. You don't just need to celebrate. You need to be reminded. You don't just need an emotional Catharsis. You need to be reminded, and you need to be reminded again and again and again, because when we stop being reminded, all we have is entertainment and celebration and Catharsis. When we stop being reminded, when we stop commemorating, when our worship stops being commemorative, it only becomes me centered. It only becomes about my gratification. It only becomes about what I like and not what I need. And so we remind and we remind, and we remind and we remind. There are days when we come in and we come into this place and it's entertainment and celebration and Catharsis and commemoration all in one. And there's other days when there's nothing but commemoration because of whatever's going on with us. The fact of the matter is, if it's only going to be one of those things, it needs to be commemorative because that's what I always need, because that reminds me that I'm connected to God because He has saved me through the person and work of Jesus Christ. That reminds me that I'm connected to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, because He has saved us and united us as a body. And that reminds me that I'm connected to the mission because we're still here commemorating these things, because the work is not yet done. The other reason this is important is because as we commemorate, there are always people among us who are not connected to God, who are not connected to us, and who are not connected to the mission. And what these people need desperately is to be reminded that Christ died for sin, once for all, the just, for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God. These people need to be reminded that they are living in Egypt and that they need to be delivered from their sin, and there is only one who can deliver. That God has provided a lamb and the death Angel is coming, and that there will be a death in every house, either the death of the lamb or the death of the firstborn. We commemorate so whether people can be reminded their sinners who need to turn from their sins and turn to Christ. That's why we must always commemorate. Because if I entertain you but don't point you to Christ, or if I inspire you but don't point you to Christ. Or if I offer you some self help therapy and help you cope, but don't point you to Christ, I have failed because your greatest need is not entertainment, inspiration, or therapy. Your greatest need is a savior. And it is Him. When we proclaim, run to Him, to him, cling to him, abandon all else, and trust only in Christ, for He is indeed our hope and our salvation,