BY AL BUCHANAN
Two weeks ago I began a two part sermon titled Worshiping God In Spirit And Truth. Today will be Part II and will complete that series as it’s leading up to the Passover this coming Tuesday evening.
I’d like to begin in John 4. I actually want to recap some of the material we covered two weeks ago. And I want to add some detail that I did not mention two weeks ago to kind of fill in a little bit. And then we’ll move into some additional material today. John 4 verse 23 and 24. Now if you know the context here, you know that this is part of an exchange between Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman. And the context of the exchange is “worship” right here. She had stated there in verse 20; she said,
John 4:20. “Our fathers
worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews
say that in
So the context right here that in this exchange is “worship.” And then Jesus states in verse 23,
John 4:23. “But the hour is
coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
And we pointed out last time and I want to read this again the definition for this word “truth.” It’s important I think to the context of what He’s saying. This word “truth” means truth as the unveiled reality, the unveiled reality, truth as opposite to falsehood, error, or insincerity, truth as opposite to types, emblems, and shadows. And so God is looking for those who will worship Him in this manner, in spirit and truth.
And then in verse 24, it says,
John 4:24. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth.”
Now we’re going to read just a moment here where Christ said worship of certain individuals was totally unacceptable. He severely criticized some who were at that time worshiping God. And He said they were doing it in vain. We’re going to read that in just a moment.
Here notice what He says!
John 4:24. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth.”
This is that little word that we’ve referred to many times
in the past. It’s dei that’s rendered “must” here.
A very important word! It means
an unavoidable, urgent compulsory necessity.
In other words, it’s absolutely required! You can’t get around it. If you’re going to worship God in the proper
manner, it’s got to be done this way.
John 4:24. “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must
worship in spirit and truth.”
Now let’s go back to Mark 7. We read this last week, but I want to go back there again today. Mark 7 and in verse 1,
Mark 7:1. Then the Pharisees
and some of the scribes came together to Him, having come from
Now, not that they were eating with dirty hands, but they hadn’t been washed in the ceremonial way that was required by these folks.
Mark 7:3. For the Pharisees and all [of] the Jews
Notice!
Mark 7:3. For the Pharisees
and all [of] the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the
elders. 4) When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they
wash. And there are many other things
which they have received and hold, like
the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.
So as we mentioned last time, they are required to jump through certain physical hoops constantly. They have to do these physical things in order to make themselves feel righteous.
Then verse 5,
Mark 7:5. Then the Pharisees
and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition
of the elders,
So we can pick out from this that it is very clear that Jesus Christ and His disciples were not worshiping in the way that the majority and the vast majority, if not all—as it says here, “the Jews”—were doing. He was doing, was worshiping very differently from them.
Mark 7:5b. but they eat bread with unwashed hands?”
And again, Jesus Christ is not sitting down eating with dirty hands. He’s just not going through the procedures that they were requiring of their folks.
Mark 7:6. He answered and
said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is
written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far
from Me.
Notice that! Here’s individuals worshiping God. But He says that He’s quoting Isaiah here and He’s saying, “Their heart is far from Me.” This is what’s important.
As we go through this today, I want us to take note of what was going on in Christ’s mind as He was keeping this very special night of Passover. What was going on in His mind, what was motivating His thinking, as opposed to being so focused on all of the physical things.
Mark 7:6b. ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. [And notice!] 7) And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
And so Jesus Christ severely criticized them saying that they were worshiping God in vain. This word “vain” means invalid, useless, futile. Thayer’s defines it as fruitless, having no good fruit. They were going through all of the procedures, but the fruit was not there. It was invalid. It was useless. It was futile.
Now let’s go to Matthew 5 where we went last time. Matthew 5, we’re not going to read anywhere near as much. This is the very section here that Mr. Staggs read from. I just want to read one verse, Matthew 5 verse 20. And Jesus Christ is saying to His disciples,
Matthew 5:20. “For I say to
you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no
means enter the kingdom of heaven.
So our worship, our righteousness, our whole approach to worshiping God needs to rise up to a whole different level than what these folks were practicing. Here He’s specifically saying “righteousness.” Their obedience to God was inadequate. They were jumping through all these hoops that they themselves had established. They were very meticulous these folks. The scribes in particular, as is mentioned here, very meticulous in copying the Scriptures. They were very meticulous, but they were anything but meticulous in their worship of God and following God’s instructions as to how to worship Him. They were not meticulous there at all. And Christ was very critical of how they were worshiping.
It’s so important, Brethren, as we approach these days,
keeping the very same days as God instructed them to keep, but He’s instructing
us to keep it in a much higher level.
And He’s requiring so much more of us than what He ever required of
Going on here, as Mr. Staggs read, it gets to the spirit of the law. Not just keeping the law meticulously and being obedient to the commands, such as, “You shall not murder.” As he said, “Hardly any of us have murdered.” But Christ brought that down. If you hate someone, if you in your heart have a problem to the point to where hatred develops within you, it’s as if you had murdered that person. You’re just as guilty. In the same way, He said, “If you look on a woman to lust after her, you’ve committed adultery with her in your heart.”
And so He’s telling them that you’ve got to rise up to a whole different level. And our worship of God is to rise up to a whole new level as we understand spiritually these things. Our worship is to move so much higher than what these folks practiced. We’re to worship in spirit and truth. We must worship in spirit and truth.
And as I said last week—two weeks ago rather—this coming now Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we will have the privilege and honor actually of participating in worshiping God on two very special nights. Very special nights! The first, of course, is the Passover, and we’ve put a lot of emphasis on that over the years. But the second is very important too and I hope that we can emphasize that little bit more today, the Night to be Observed and how important this night is for us as we keep it in the spirit and truth. These two nights are to be kept distinctly different. We don’t keep them in the same way. However, in each case, we’re to be worshiping God in spirit and truth as we keep them.
Let’s go to Luke 22 now. Once again, we’re going to basically go through some of these very same Scriptures that we went through last time, but I just want to re-emphasize some things and fill in a little bit of detail as we go through. Luke 22 and in verse 1, there it says,
Luke 22:1. Now the Feast of
Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.
This has been emphasized a lot this year that this is talking about the Spring Festival Season. Not a night, not a day. It is talking about the Season here where the whole Season was called Unleavened Bread. The whole Season was called Passover. So it says,
Luke 22:1. Now the Feast of
Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.
So it is as it is right now. This Festival Season is drawing near. We’re getting very, very close. We started talking about it three months ago or so. And now here we are just a few, you might even say, hours away. This coming Tuesday evening this Festival Season will begin for us.
This year it’s one of those years, which I think adds more meaning to it, because this year the days of the week fall out exactly as they did when Christ died. The very same way! Passover being on Wednesday, we observe it the evening before, Tuesday evening.
And I think with almost without question that it fell the same way in Exodus 12. I would just almost guarantee that it was the same day even though I don’t think we can prove that. But God is so consistent in the way that He does things, it probably was exactly the same way that it fell that year.
Luke 22 verse 7,
Luke 22:7. Then came the Day
of Unleavened Bread,
Then came that Day of the Spring Festival Season,
Luke 22:7b. when the
Passover must be killed.
So the time came when the Passover lambs were to be killed. And so it’s talking about the fourteenth here.
Luke 22:1. Now the Feast of
Unleavened Bread drew near,
And I’m sorry, down in verse 7,
Luke 22:7. Then came the
Day of Unleavened Bread [that Season], when the Passover must be killed.
Or must be sacrificed as the margin has it.
As I pointed out last time and we have been now for the last few years, this Passover was unique. There was never a Passover prior to this one like it. There has never been a Passover since that one like it. Because you see, the time had arrived as a result of Gods’ great plan. These two great Beings had worked out this plan and They had predetermined a time, a date when the Passover lamb what it pictured would happen in reality.
Now this year that we’re reading about, the Reality was present. The Being, who would fulfill what the Passover lamb had pictured all of those years, was present then. And it was time when He must be sacrificed. So not only was it the Day that year when the time was right, it was the Day in God’s great plan when this lamb, what it pictured, the Reality of that was about to happen. Jesus Christ was going to fulfill what not only the Passover lamb pictured, but all of those sacrifices that pointed to Him was all going to be completed on this Day. The time had arrived for this to occur.
Verse 8,
Luke 22:8. And He [Christ]
sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may
eat.”
So Peter and John made preparations for them to be able to sit down together as the fourteenth day of the first month began. At the very same time that He Himself had instructed Moses and Aaron back in Exodus 12.
Now I want to—hold your place here—I want to go back to Exodus 12 just for a little bit this time. We didn’t do this last time, two weeks ago. I want to go there and let’s take note of something. This is very important. Exodus 12 verse 1,
Exodus 12:1. Now the
[Eternal] spoke to Moses and Aaron in the
Exodus 12 verse 1. Now verse 2,
Exodus 12:2. “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to
you. 3) “Speak to all the congregation
of
What is significant about that is this year today is the tenth. This is the tenth day of the first month as we’re meeting here today
Exodus 12:3. “Speak to all
the congregation of
Then verse 5,
Exodus 12:5. “Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6) ‘Now you shall keep it
Now I’m not sure in detail exactly what this meant. But they were to
Exodus 12:6b. keep it
until the fourteenth day of the same month.
And so they were to take this little lamb and they were to keep it. Now I don’t know how that was done exactly, again. But for sure they were to keep it from becoming blemished. They were going to protect it. They were to take it into their care and watch over it. No doubt these families involved with each of these lambs were closely connected with this lamb.
Now, as I pointed out before, I want you to think about this one for a moment now. As the tenth day began like the last evening as the sun was setting, it started to get dusky dark and then it gradually gets darker and darker. It would not be a good time to go out into the field and select an unblemished lamb. It would take a little while to do that to sort through and find one that was without blemish. By the time you were to begin to sort through the lambs, it’s getting darker and darker and darker. And you’re not going to be able to select a lamb. So, no doubt, this selection took place the next morning during this tenth day but as daybreak came and the light was very visible where they could select the lamb.
Now, I’m not going to say that this is cast in stone and it couldn’t be done any other way, but there’s a reason why I think it happened this way. If it was this way, they were halfway through the tenth day when they selected the lamb. On the morning of the tenth day, you’ll be halfway through. So they would keep the lamb up for three and one-half days, and then they would kill it. They would keep it. They would keep it in their possession. They would observe it. They would be careful for it and take care of it for three and a half days.
Now it’s interesting that from all that we can understand Christ made Himself available to the people publicly for three and a half years. The people were able to observe Him. They heard Him. They watched Him. They scrutinized Him in detail, these scribes and Pharisees in particular. They were very particular as to how they watched every move that He made. But He was in their midst for three and a half years. And then they killed Him. Whether there is a direct relationship between these three—if it was in fact three and a half days and three and a half years, I’m not sure—but it’s just interesting that this was the way that it probably played out.
But think about this now how they observed and especially the children of the family who become far more attached to an animal than what the adults would. But when it came time to sacrifice that lamb, can you imagine dealing with the questions of the children and how that they must, “Wait a minute! You’re going to kill this little lamb!” It, no doubt, was painful for them to go through this process. But it was a process that required a great deal of explanation. They taught and instructed the children. No doubt from the beginning when they selected the lamb, they probably started to let them know, “Look, this is what’s going to happen. So I want you to be aware in advance. And we’re following the instructions of the Eternal. He’s telling us what we’re to do here.” And so, no doubt, it was educating them as they went along. But they observed that lamb and they had him there with them for those three and a half days, if it was in fact was three and a half days, and then they killed it.
Now I want to go to Hebrews 3 right now, Hebrews chapter 3. Hebrews 3 and in verse 1. If Paul in fact was the author of Hebrews, it was him giving this instruction to all of us actually as we’re here today. And he addresses us all as “holy brethren.”
Hebrews 3:1. Therefore, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and
High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,
Consider, consider Him! Think about Him. Think about who He is, who He was, what He did, and all that He fulfilled in the sacrifice that He gave.
Going on it says,
Hebrews 3:2. Who was faithful
to Him who appointed Him,
Jesus Christ was appointed to fulfill what He fulfilled.
Hebrews 3:2b. [He] appointed
Him, as Moses also was faithful in
all His house.
And so as we are getting very close now to keeping the Passover this year and this is that tenth day, and so I think that we ought to focus our attention and our consideration of this Being who was now about to fulfill what that little Passover lamb had represented all of those years that they had been put up, kept up, and killed as the fourteenth began.
Luke 22 verse 13. Luke 22 verse 13,
Luke 22:13. So they went and
found it [That is Peter and John.] just as He had said to them, and they
prepared the Passover.
And so it was prepared. Then on the fourteenth, Luke 22 verse 14,
Luke 22:14. When the hour
had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.
And so, at the proper time, they sat down together, He with the twelve. And once again I’ll mention that I feel that these twelve represented all of us. And all that He said that evening, virtually everything He said that evening applies to all of the firstfruits.
Verse 15,
Luke 22:15. Then He said to
them,
Now this was the first of many things that He would say to them during the course of this evening. I’d like for us to take note of some of what He said, not nearly all, but some of what He said that evening. And I would ask all of us to attempt to get into His head. That’s our vernacular today for attempting to come to see what He was thinking, why He was thinking it, what was important to Him as He made His way through that evening.
He went on to say here,
Luke 22:15. Then He said to
them, “With fervent desire I
have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
So with fervent desire, He had been desiring it. This is in the past tense, “I have desired.” He had been having this fervent desire leading up to this time to eat this Passover with them before He would suffer. We, Brethren, as we look forward to this night, should have a fervent desire to attend the service, to keep this very special night with each other, with one another. As He had a fervent desire to sit and eat with those twelve, we need to have a fervent desire to gather together with one another and keep this night.
Now hold your place there and we’ll go to 2 Corinthians 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and in verse 5 where Paul writes,
2 Corinthians 13:5. Examine
yourselves
Now we have heard many, many times that prior to the Passover we are to be examining ourselves. And I hope all of us have been doing that in preparation for this very special night.
2 Corinthians 13:5. Examine
yourselves [He said.] as to whether
you are in the faith. [Prove] yourselves.
Or as the margin has it, “Test.”
2 Corinthians 13:5b. Test
yourselves. Do you not know yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
So we are to test ourselves to see if in fact Jesus Christ is in us. And if we find that He is not in us, then from what we read here we would be considered then “disqualified.”
But he goes on to say in verse 6,
2 Corinthians 13:6. But I
trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
Now the point I want to make here: That as we gather together, if we are not disqualified, that means that Jesus Christ is in us. And so as we gather together, He will be there in that sense that through God’s Spirit, He is present in us. He will be in that sense keeping this Passover with us now. As He had a fervent desire to keep that Passover with them to eat that Passover with them, He would have that same fervent desire to gather together with us today. And all of us need to have the same desire that He had then and—I’m quite certain—would have to be the same today. He would have that same desire.
And it says here He has that desire that they eat this Passover before He would suffer.
Luke 22:15b. “With fervent desire I have desired to eat
this Passover with you before I suffer;
So it would be just a few short hours from the time that they sat down that He would surrender Himself. And literally He did that. Remember He told whoever it was there; He could call legions of angels down. There was no way that they could have taken Him into possession that evening had it been determined that it not be. He surrendered Himself. He surrendered Himself into the custody of those who would be responsible for His sacrifice.
Now those who took Him into custody that night were not the
ones that literally crucified Him as we know.
Those were the Romans who did that.
But as we read there Peter’s words in Acts, the beginning of Acts there,
and his comments on the Day of Pentecost, he said, “You, you men of
And He would surrender Himself into their custody at some
time later that night. I really believe
that it could well have been at the very same time that Passover occurred in
Exodus 12. And we know there, as we’re
going to read a little bit later—hopefully if we have time—that Passover
occurred at “
So at the midpoint of the darkness on the fourteenth in
Exodus 12, the Passover occurred. And
there the Eternal said, “When I see the blood that you’ve taken from this
little lamb and put on the doorposts and the lintel of your doors, when I see
that blood, I will pass over you.” And
so the Passover occurred at
And I think that it’s very possible that it was at the exact same time that He surrendered Himself into the custody of those who would be responsible for His sacrifice. And He, at that time then, became our Passover. He surrendered Himself.
He no longer was withdrawing Himself. He was no longer hiding Himself as you remember He did. He would not go and make Himself public at certain times because He didn’t want this crucifixion to take place prematurely. It had to happen at a certain time. And so He purposely withheld Himself from exposing Himself to this possibility until the time was right. And then He voluntarily surrendered Himself. And so He became our sacrifice. He became our offering for sin. He became our Passover as He surrendered Himself into their care.
Verse 16,
Luke 22:16. “For I say to
you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the
Now we’ve talked about this before. Something here He’s talking about will have
fulfillment in the
Luke 22:16. “For I say to
you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the
So the eating of the Passover, the eating of the Passover He
would no longer do. Nor would His
disciples do until it was fulfilled in the
Luke 22:29. “And I bestow
upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me. 30) “That you
may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the
twelve tribes of
And so that eating together that evening, He’s looked beyond
the physical. He looked beyond the
sitting and the eating and all to what fulfillment it would have on beyond in the
He would look on beyond the physical and He looked forward to the time when His Church would begin to experience the awesome destiny that is prepared for them, for the firstfruits, for those whom He gave Himself up for as we read in Ephesians 5. He gave Himself up for the Church. Not that that sacrifice didn’t apply to all humanity, eventually it will. But right now at this time during this age that sacrifice applies to the Church. And He gave Himself up for the Church.
And He’s looking forward to the fulfillment of what that pictured. He’s looking forward to when He will be able to sit at His table eating and drinking with His Bride, with His Wife in the very Family of God. And that, of course, will follow Him presenting the Church to Himself, a glorious Church without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, made possible by what He was about to do. It was impossible prior to Him fulfilling what He was about to fulfill on this very special day. Looked on when His Wife will sit beside Him on His throne holy and without blame. “Without blame” meaning without blemish. A sacrifice fully acceptable as the little lamb was. We’ll be able to sit beside Him in that state without blame. And again it’s a result of what He was about to do. It would be impossible otherwise.
We should sit down Tuesday evening with similar thoughts. Not just focused on that evening, whether or not it’s raining, whether or not the weather’s bad, whether or not the traffic’s bad, whatever might be going on in our minds on that particular day. But rather thinking about what our destiny is. The incredible hope that what He did in the fulfillment of this sacrifice what that makes possible for us. We should sit down with those kinds of thoughts, thinking deeply about that sacrifice and what it makes possible.
Two weeks ago from this point we went to John 13 and we picked up the events of that special evening where Jesus began to instruct the twelve as to how Passover was to be kept from that point forward, how we are to worship God in spirit and truth as we keep the Passover.
Specifically, as we mentioned last time, He would instruct them to do three things. The first thing is for us to follow His example of washing each other’s feet or washing other’s feet, you might think of in those terms. He rose from supper and He assumed the lowest task of a servant. The least desired task that any servant would be called upon to do, He assumed that role.
And He proceeded to wash each one of their feet including Judas’. From all indications Judas was present. And He knew by this time who was going to betray Him. He knelt down before his feet and He washed them.
Think about that as we go. In some cases, some have been concerned about whose feet they’d have to wash and hoping they didn’t have to wash a certain person’s feet. He said later on that occasion,
John 13:14. “If I, then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your
feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet [anyone’s feet whomever it
is]. 15) “For I have given you an
example, that you should do as I have done to you.
Now I feel without question that the order of the three things is by no accident. It was planned, purposed to be this way. That the washing of the feet occurs before we take the emblems, which typify or symbolize that actual sacrifice. In other words, we are required that evening to humble ourselves and symbolically at least become a servant, assuming the role of a servant.
Remember what He said just after He gave this instruction? He said, “I’m going to give you a commandment. It’s a new one. A new commandment that only applies to you,” the twelve who were present—actually applies to all the firstfruits though—“that you love one another. Not only just love one another, but love one another as I have loved you.” The love that He had for Judas even that evening! “That you also love one another.”
In 1 Peter chapter 5, let’s go there. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5,
1 Peter 5:5. Likewise you
younger people, submit yourselves to your
elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility,
If there’s one characteristic that we all fall short in, it’s probably here. There are some, thankfully, who are genuinely humble. Most of us are lacking. Most of us need to follow this instruction. Most of us need to humble ourselves as Jesus Christ clearly did.
And not only did He humble Himself by assuming the role of a servant that evening, but this whole service He provided in emptying Himself of the privileges of being very God to empty Himself for a time of eternal life to come to this earth and become human flesh possessing only physical life, willing to give that physical life up knowing that the Father was going to resurrect Him back to eternal life. If only He followed through and followed the appointment that He had, that would happen. But there’s never been a greater act of service than He did in giving up who and what He was to come to this earth to become a servant. To serve not only those who His Father would call and give to Him during this age, but all humanity, all of those now that are spitting in His face symbolically, all of those that are using His name in vain constantly, all of those who are guilty of the most heinous sins. He was willing to give Himself in sacrifice for all of those. What an act of service! What a servant! What an example of a servant! What an example of humility, of humbling Himself from who and what He was and now is to become that servant!
1 Peter 5:5. Likewise you
younger people, submit yourselves to your
elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be
clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but [He] gives grace to the
humble.”
If we want to experience the grace of God in its fullness, that grace is given to those who are humble, to those who are willing to humble themselves, to those, as we put it in the past, those willing to spend their pride, to spend it, to give it up.
Verse 6,
1 Peter 5:6. Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time.
All three of the things that He requires of us that evening are vitally important. But we cannot fully appreciate and fully keep the taking of the emblems if we don’t first learn the lesson of the foot washing. If we don’t humble ourselves genuinely and in our minds become servants as He was a servant and love one another as He loved us, it will be virtually impossible for us to keep and take those emblems and have it have the impact on us that it should.
After giving us the example of washing one another’s feet, He took “His garments, and [He] sat down again.” And please take note they began to eat the lamb. They sat down and they began to eat the lamb.
1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 11 verse 23, here the apostle Paul is writing, reminding the Corinthians of what he had already taught them. And he says verse 23,
1 Corinthians 11:23. For I
received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took
bread;
Now you can read in Mark 14 verse 22 and it’s also stated, I think, in Matthew and Luke I believe. But jot down Mark 14 verse 22. You can look back there and it says,
Mark
So they sat down after the foot washing and began to eat the lamb. And while they were eating, He took bread. Verse 24,
1 Corinthians 11:24. And
when He had given thanks, He broke it
and said [to them], “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do
this in remembrance of Me.”
Now I think that we can put all of these accounts together, all the gospel accounts and we can put this together with it. And we do not get a lot of detail. We get just the raw bones, you might say, of what occurred that evening. I think we need to attempt to fill in between the lines if we can a little bit.
For instance I have to believe that He took the time to explain in detail what this bread represented. Remember that this was their, the twelve’s, first experience to this new procedure. They hadn’t experienced this before. This is brand new to them. And, no doubt, He took the time to explain to them in more detail than this as to what this bread represented.
I feel that we need to consider the solemnity of that evening as He’s explaining this to them. You can sort of put yourself in a corner of the room and observe. And I would think at this point even though you remember they were very carnally motivated, even that night they were discussing who was going to be the greatest. So the carnality was still motivating a lot of their thinking. But I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if there wasn’t a hush over the room and their eyes were focused on Him.
And certainly, if not in their minds, certainly in His, He was experiencing the full impact of what He was saying. He was feeling the full impact of what that broken little piece of unleavened bread represented and what He was about to do and what He was about to endure following His surrender of Himself into the hands of these folks, realizing full well what was in store for Him.
Certainly we need to think seriously about what this broken piece of unleavened bread represents to us personally. Notice what He says here.
1 Corinthians 11:24. And when He had given thanks, He broke it [this piece of bread] and [He] said,
And you can put yourself there. If truly in fact those twelve represent all of us—which I believe they did—then you can take these words personally and I can.
1 Corinthians 11:24b. and
[He] said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you;
For you personally! Perhaps we can think of it this way: If God was going to work out His plan and you or me were the only one that He was working out His plan through, it would be for you. He would do this for you. This had to be done. It had to be done and He was willing to do it.
And so we need to take it very, very seriously and think deeply about the meaning of this bread.
Going on, He says,
1 Corinthians 11:24b. do
this in remembrance of Me.”
He would say that same thing after the wine. We are to remember. We are to never ever forget! And so every year annually we are required to rehearse this. And so we do it. We rehearse it ahead of time giving these preliminary messages and then we rehearse it the very night that He kept this and gave these instructions.
Then in verse 25,
1 Corinthians 11:25. In the
same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This
cup is the new covenant in My blood.
This do, as often as you drink it,
in remembrance of Me.”
And I think that we probably can imagine the emotion in His voice as He explained the meaning of the wine and that how it, as He said here, represented His blood and how that it was going to have to spill out. And He was going to have to give up His physical life that evening and be dead for three days and three nights in order for their prescribed sacrifice to be valid.
1 Peter 1—hold your place there—in 1 Peter 1 and verse 18, 1 Peter 1 verse 18,
1 Peter 1:18. Knowing that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
His blood was the most precious blood that’s ever flowed through a vein, because you see the blood contains the life and His blood contained the life of the Creator of all living things. The most precious commodity, you might say, that ever existed and certainly the most precious blood that has ever flowed. And He said again, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”
We should also remember the commitment that each one of us made at baptism. Not only are we to remember what He did,—and certainly that is so important—we ought to remember what we did: The commitment that we made to accept and have full faith in this sacrifice. We made a commitment to make some significant changes in our lives. We made a commitment to humble ourselves. We made a commitment to fully submit ourselves to these Beings. We are instructed that we are to invite Them into our lives.
We’ve been cleaning our homes. If we have a guest coming, that’s routine. We quickly clean the home in preparation for a guest to come. We’ve been cleaning our homes now in preparation for these Days of Unleavened Bread. If Jesus Christ were to come to our home, what kind of preparation would we make? We would clean our house meticulously. No doubt cleaner than we’ve ever cleaned for any other guest! Prepared in a way that we’ve never cleaned it for any other guest!
He’s knocking at the door, asking for us to open the door and to invite Him into our lives. We are to do everything in our power—and our power’s limited. It can only go so far. But we need to do everything in our power to make ourselves acceptable for His presence. Again, we can only go so far.
We’ve got to have faith beyond that in His sacrifice to do what we can, for Him to do what we can’t, for the Father to do what we can’t to eliminate and remove the sins that we can’t remove. But through faith in that sacrifice, He’s willing to cleanse us of those sins, making us acceptable for His presence within us. We’re to remember that.
Verse 26, 1 Corinthians 11,
1 Corinthians 11:26. For as
often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
till He comes.
So as we worship God following Jesus’ instructions in keeping the Passover, we officially announce by our keeping of it in this manner that God died! We officially announce that the Being who would never have died, who was a possessor of eternal life and would never ever have died, but He emptied Himself and willingly took on physical life so that He could give that physical life in sacrifice and become our Savior. He laid down His psuche, which is the Greek word for physical life, so we could have zoe, which is eternal life. He was willing to do that. He died. Our Creator, very God, died. And we officially announce that as we keep this night the way He prescribed to keep it.
Verse 27,
1 Corinthians 11:27. Therefore
whoever eats this bread or drinks this
cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of
As The Revised Standard Version, “profaning,”
1 Corinthians 11:27b. the
body and blood of the Lord.
The Revised Standard Version has it, “will be guilty
of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”
And this is talking about approaching this evening in an irreverent disrespectful manner. We are to treat this time, this evening, with the utmost respect, the most reverence that we can generate within ourselves. We are to hold this evening in the highest dignity that we possibly can. And we’re to go with that attitude in mind, humbly going before our God, asking Him that these symbols be applied to us personally.
Verse 28,
1 Corinthians 11:28. But let
a man examine himself,
And, hopefully, we’ve all been doing that and will continue to do that right up to the hour we walk in and even during that evening.
1 Corinthians 11:28. But let
a man examine himself, and so let him eat of [that] bread and drink of [that]
cup.
So after proper preparation, we are instructed to worship our God in spirit and truth in this manner as He instructed and follow it to the best of our ability as He instructed.
Then on the very next evening, we are to begin the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The keeping of the Feast begins with a very special occasion, the Night to be Much Observed.
I want to go back to Exodus 12. In the time remaining I wanted to spend a little bit of time with this. And to my fault, I have not emphasized this Night enough and the importance of it. We need to recognize the importance of the Passover certainly! But we also need to realize how important this Night is to us, to us as well! Exodus 12 verse 29, let’s begin there.
Exodus 12:29. And it came to
pass at
Or again at the midpoint of the darkness.
Exodus 12:29b. that the
[Eternal] struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of
Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the
firstborn of [the] livestock. 30) So
Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and
there was a great cry in
Now I want us to think for a moment and try to put ourselves into the home of the Egyptians and the loss, the great loss that they experienced that evening. Those of you who have families, this would be your firstborn that would be dead. In our case, it would be Steve. In Tom and Donna’s case, it would be Sarah. Jeff and Carol’s case, it would be Jamie. And all of you can think of your firstborn. Your firstborn would be dead.
Now at the same time, as I asked you to try to get in the head of Christ, try to get yourself into the head of the firstborn of the Israelites whose lives were preserved, who were destined to die that night without the blood of the lamb. Their lives were preserved as a result of their parents following meticulously the instruction that the Eternal had given. They took the lamb. They put it up on the tenth. They kept it till the fourteenth. They killed it at the prescribed time. They placed that blood on the door exactly as instructed. And when the Eternal saw the blood, He passed over them. Their lives were preserved. We see in Ephesians 2 how we were given life. We have life as a result of the blood.
Going on here you can read how that they made preparation
then to leave
Exodus 12:40. Now the
sojourn of the children of
Now some have misunderstood this and think that the
Israelites spent four hundred and thirty years in
Exodus 12:40. Now the
sojourn of the children of
Yeah, they were there, but the sojourn began long before.
Exodus 12:40b. was four hundred and thirty years. 41) And it came to pass at the end of
the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—
So four hundred and thirty years later from the time the covenant was given to the very same day,
Exodus 12:41b. it came to
pass that all the armies of the [Eternal] went out from the
Now they didn’t go out on that day, on that night. They began to go out. We understand it right. They journeyed for seven days. They didn’t cross the
Verse 42,
Exodus 12:42. It is a night of solemn observance
to the [Eternal] for bringing them out of the
Now we’ve understood for a long time that there’s a parallel
here. There’s a spiritual parallel that
the great God intervened in our lives and chose us. And He brought us to a certain point of
knowledge and then He gave us to His Son.
He entrusted us into the care of His Son. And we began a journey. We began a process that is parallel to these
seven Days of Unleavened Bread that they participated in as they left physical
It’s a process that had to have a beginning. As their process of leaving
But think again about those firstborn. Those firstborn there were typical actually
of all of
Exodus 12:42. It is a night of solemn observance to the
[Eternal] for bringing them out of the
And so even down to today.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and in
verse 1, where Paul’s instructing the Brethren there at
1 Corinthians 5:1. It is
actually reported that there is sexual
immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the
Gentiles—that a man [should have] his father’s wife! 2) And you are puffed up,
“You have become arrogant! You’ve become filled with pride.”
1 Corinthians 5:2b. and have
not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from
among you. 3) For I indeed, as absent in
[the] body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were
present) [concerning] him who has so done this deed. 4) In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when
you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord
Jesus Christ, 5) Deliver such a one to
Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day
of the Lord Jesus. 6) Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump?
And he begins to make a spiritual lesson, teach a spiritual lesson regarding the Days of Unleavened Bread and how he’s bringing them up to another level. That they are to continue to keep this Festival as we’re about to enter into, but they’re to keep it in sincerity and truth. They’re to keep it. As we must worship God in spirit and truth, we’re to keep these Days this way.
1 Corinthians 5:6. Your
glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump? 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
Then in verse 8,
1 Corinthians 5:8. Therefore
let us keep the feast, [which includes the Night to be Much Observed] not with
old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth.
Brethren, on these two very special nights, let’s come together fully attempting to worship our God in spirit and truth.
Transcribed by kb