Unleavened People
March 20, 2011 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: Christians are delivered from a life of sin under Satan after the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Focus Passage: Luke 22:7-20
Supplemental Passages: I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 NASB)
The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Romans 13:12-14 NASB)
Introduction: Leavening is an agent such as yeast that causes bread dough to rise. The Israelites had no time to spare when they left Egypt, so they baked and ate flat bread. What started out as a necessity, continued for a week. God named this the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6), or Days of Unleavened Bread (Acts 12:3). both memorializes Israel's deliverance from a life of slavery under Pharaoh after the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, but it also represents the Christian's deliverance from a life of sin under Satan after the sacrifice of Yeshua HaMashiach, the "Lamb of God."
I. Unleavened Bread
a. Explain Feast of Unleavened Bread in Leviticus 23
i. 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD'S Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.’ (Lev 23:5-6 NASB)
b. As leaven represents sin, we, too, are to rid the leaven from our lives.
i. … let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us… (Hebrews 12:1b NASB)
ii. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. (Galatians 5:9 NASB)
iii. Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7-8 NASB)
II. Passover Lamb
a. Explain Passover Story in Exodus 12
i. Exo 12:7 'Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. Exo 12:13 'The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
b. Jesus became that Passover Lamb for us.
i. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Co 5:21 NASB)
III. Lord’s Supper
a. The Bread
i. Luke 22:19 “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
ii. As the bread was broken, so was His body broken for us, because of our sins.
b. The Wine
i. Luke 22:20 “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”
ii. As the wine is poured out, so was His blood poured out for us, as a sacrifice for our sins.
1. Old Covenant = LAW
2. New Covenant = GRACE
Invitation: In our struggles against sin, we can choose to fight on our own strength or we can surrender our will to God and rely on the power of the risen Christ who lives His life in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.