The Feast of Unleavened Bread (HaMatzah)
(Leviticus 23: 6-8)
1. Whenever we address the Levitical Feasts, we are on Jewish ground.
2. So what better way to start today’s sermon than with a great Jewish joke:
The Cohen Brothers & Mr. Ford
It was a sweltering August day when all three Cohen brothers entered the posh Dearborn, Michigan, offices of Henry Ford, the car maker, "Mr. Ford," announced Norman Cohen, the eldest of the three. "We have a remarkable invention that will revolutionize the automobile industry." Ford looked skeptical, but their threat to offer it to the competition kept his interest piqued. "We would like to demonstrate it to you in person."
After a little cajoling, they brought Mr. Ford outside and asked him to enter a black automobile parked in front of the building. Hyman Cohen, the middle brother, opened the door of the car. "Please step inside, Mr. Ford." "What!!!" shouted the tycoon, "Are you crazy? It must be two hundred degrees in that car!!" "It is," smiled the youngest brother, Max, "but sit down, Mr. Ford, and push the white button." Intrigued, Ford pushed the button. All of a sudden a whoosh of freezing air started blowing from vents
all around the car, and within seconds the automobile was not only comfortable, it was quite cool.
"This is amazing !" exclaimed Ford. "How much do you want for the patent?"
Norman spoke up, "The price is one million dollars." Then he paused. "And there is something else. The name ’Cohen Brothers Air-Conditioning’ must be stamped right next to the Ford logo!" Ford, an infamous anti-semite, retorted "Money is no problem, but there is no way I will have a Jewish name next to my logo on my cars!"
They haggled back and forth for a while and finally they settled. Five million dollars, but the Cohens’ last name would be left off However, the first names of the Cohen brothers would be forever emblazoned upon the console of every Ford air conditioning system. And that is why even today, whenever you enter a Ford vehicle, you will see those three names clearly printed on the air conditioning control panel:
NORM, HI and MAX. (source: www.haruth.com/Jhumor5)
3. Biblical Christianity is built upon Judaism, the faith of the Old Testament. In a sense, Christianity can be thought of as a completed Judaism. Because God inspired both Old and New Testaments, it should not surprise us to see patterns in the Old Testament that focus upon the focal point of history, the work of Jesus Christ.
Feast #1: Passover, Christ died for our Sins
we are here -----?Feast #2: Unleavened Bread: The Holy Messiah, pierced for our sins,
died to make US holy
Main idea: God is serious when He says, “Be holy even as I am holy” (I Peter 1:16); He IS holy, and He calls us to holiness, as illustrated by the Feast of Matzo.
I. Leaven Symbolizes SIN
1. Leaven was FORBIDDEN in sacrifices
Exodus 23:18 "Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast…”
Leviticus 2:11 " ’Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast…”
• Yet leaven was allowed in sacrifices PEOPLE would eat
• Principle: God anticipates that His people will sin in DAILY life
2. Leaven refers to sinful teachings that PERMEATE our lives
Matthew 6: 6“’Be careful,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’”
Matthew 6: 11 “’How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
In Jewish tradition, according to the Talmud, leaven represents “the evil impulse of the heart” (Talmud, Berachot, 17a).
Main idea: God is serious when He says, “Be holy even as I am holy” (I Peter 1:16); He IS holy, and He calls us to holiness, as illustrated by the Feast of Matzo.
II. The Bread Itself Represents JESUS
1. His purity and His BODY (I Peter 1:18-19, Matt. 26:26)
2. His PIERCING
Isaiah 53: 5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
3. A few weeks ago, a woman in our church asked me how far back the Jews pierced their Matzo….don’t know for sure, but probably from the beginning…
• Here’s some information from a mainstream Jewish web site: (http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=75944)
As soon as the dough is the perfect texture, it is divided into equal portions and distributed to workers who roll it into thin circles. Both the rolling pins and the workers’ hands must be thoroughly cleaned and inspected in between each 18-minute round of baking….
The flat dough circles are perforated with a special roller that makes holes all over the dough. The tiny holes prevent air bubbles from getting trapped inside the matzahs, which could cause them to puff up…Care is taken so as to ensure that they do not break, as only whole matzahs can be used at the seder.
Main idea: God is serious when He says, “Be holy even as I am holy” (I Peter 1:16); He IS holy, and He calls us to holiness, as illustrated by the Feast of Matzo.
III. God Wants Our WALK to Be Unleavened
• A rather pompous-looking deacon was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. "Why do people call me a Christian?" the man asked. After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, "Maybe it’s because they don’t know you." (David Yarbrough, Sermon Central)
• God wants His people to live lives that are different from the norm…a higher standard in spiritual, moral, and relational integrity; Christianity is not some mutually agreed upon pretending…if you know God, godliness logically follows
• The language we use, the movies we watch, the deals we make, the way we treat our spouse, children, business partners…
• Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.” — Jonathon Edwards
1. The NULLIFICATION of sin
• The Jewish people go through “nullification” before the Feast of Unleavened Bread
The symbolic ritual of searching for chametz begins at nightfall on the fourteenth
day of the Jewish month of Nisan, the evening before the Passover.
The leavened bread is removed from the household with the exception of ten
small pieces, which the woman of the house hides throughout the rooms of
the house. The man of the house lights a candle, and takes a feather, a wooden
spoon and a paper bag to search the house for chametz. When a piece is
found, he uses the feather to sweep the chametz onto the wooden spoon and
then places it into the paper bag. This is done until all ten pieces are found.
The bread is then taken outside and burned. (See how this ceremony points
to Jesus in the next section.)
Afterwards, the following prayer is said:
“Any chametz which is in my possession which I did not see, and remove, nor
know about, shall be nullified and become ownerless, like the dust of the
earth.”
2. The pre-Communion PURGE
I Corinthians 11:27-28 reads, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
• We confess the sins we are aware of (I John 1:9), and the blood of Christ takes care of other “chametz” (I John 1:7)
Main idea: God is serious when He says, “Be holy even as I am holy” (I Peter 1:16); He IS holy, and He calls us to holiness, as illustrated by the Feast of Matzo.
IV. God Wants Our Fellowship to Be UNLEAVENED
1. GROSS sin is considered leaven
2. BUSINESS as usual can be wrong
I Corinthians 5:6-8
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast–as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
3. TOLERATING false doctrine is leaven:
Galatians 5:7-11, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.’ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.”
Main idea: God is serious when He says, “Be holy even as I am holy” (I Peter 1:16); He IS holy, and He calls us to holiness, as illustrated by the Feast of Matzo.
CONCLUSION
1. God is holy. He wants us to be like Him, set apart from sin and set apart to serve Him.
2. Jesus has called us to be unleavened bread in a leavened world, to be in the world yet not of the world.
3. He meant we should participate in our society, the arts, socializing, the culture, but to remain unleavened at the same time:
“A father and son were raking leaves when they noticed something darting in and out of the piles. After careful effort they uncovered a chameleon . It was difficult to see among the brown leaves. It had blended with them by turning brown, too. After catching the little creature, they put it in a jar of green grass, where it immediately turned green. When they added some red berries, the chameleon began to take on that color. Some people are chameleons in character; wherever you put them, they turn that color. Their thinking and their behavior depend on their environment” (Miller, p. 36).”
(John Williams III , Sermon Central)
