The God Who Preserves His People

[0:01] Well, today we are going to be learning about a particular tradition, about a particular ritual, and tradition and ritual, they're very valuable things. So traditions, rituals are something that's common to pretty much every culture, every society on earth, right?

[0:18] Now, we think of our own culture, and we're kind of freakish in a sense, in that we tend to want to cast off tradition, we tend to want to get rid of ritual. To us, sometimes traditions and rituals, they can be dull, maybe a little bit archaic.

[0:33] To many people, they're meaningless, or they're even restrictive, right? But even in our culture, we, deep down, we really like traditions, we really like rituals.

[0:44] They're things we love. A lot of my friends have discovered, it's just interesting, as friends, people my age, they've gotten married, they've had children, children, they've discovered that children naturally love repetition and ritual, each day, each week, each month, each year, right?

[1:03] I mean, do your kids have a favorite book that they like you to read to them before bed? And it's got to be like the same book every single night, which drives you as a parent absolutely nuts, right? Kids love, you know, when the fall comes around, if you make going to, I don't know, a pumpkin patch or something like that, a family, if you make it something you do two years in a row, they will expect it every year of your life.

[1:28] You know, we just love tradition, we love the regularity, the ritual of that. I mean, I even talk to people who, you know, they just had simple traditions, like whenever a family member would come to town, they would go out to a certain restaurant.

[1:43] We do elaborate things, Christmas decorations, caroling, presents. But rituals and traditions, they're so valuable to us because they shape who we are. They shape who we are and who we become.

[1:56] The thing about them is, you know, we're not just hearing or seeing or talking about our relationship with God. And we're not just hearing or seeing or talking about our relationship with one another.

[2:07] With these rituals, with these traditions, what we're doing is we are taking an active role. We are carrying them out. And we're actually participating in something that is hopefully true.

[2:17] We're expressing what we value through these habitual, regular decisions to reiterate, to repeat, and to shape who we are.

[2:29] So in the Bible, in the Old Testament book of Exodus, we've read and we've heard and we've spoken about how God has begun the process of rescuing his people from slavery.

[2:40] And we've seen in these beginning chapters of the book of Exodus that God is great. As I mentioned last week, we're going to learn from this book that God is great, God is good, God is with us.

[2:51] And you have to, have to, have to have all three. If you have anything less than all three, God is going to seem so small to you. God is going to seem so unsatisfying to you.

[3:01] God is going to seem so distant from you. And the truth of who he is will not be a life-transforming truth. You will function as an atheist. You will function as someone who does not believe in the Lord, in the Lord God.

[3:16] And that's a big struggle that we have as believers. But in this book of Exodus, we've seen God rescuing his people, rescuing the people of Israel from Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

[3:27] And he's been doing that by sending nine great plagues on the land of Egypt. And there is a tenth plague on the way. And this tenth plague is the worst of all.

[3:40] It's the death of the firstborn of Egypt. The death of the future family leaders of the Egyptians. But the Lord plans to keep his own children. He plans to keep the firstborn of Israel safe from this terrible act of judgment.

[3:55] And here is how the Lord plans to preserve his people from the tenth plague. It's this. The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal. The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal.

[4:08] Now that would not be what I would have chosen. But thankfully the Lord is smarter than I am. He knows people better than you or me. You know, I would have chosen some other means.

[4:19] But he knows us. He knows what we're like. He knows what we need as a people. We need this ritual and this tradition. And it's such an odd thing for it to be a meal. Because, you know, when a human government works to preserve its people, it uses things like weaponry.

[4:33] It uses a powerful military. It uses economic and trade policies. It uses laws and regulations. But the Lord saves his people by handing them a dinner menu. That's what he's doing.

[4:44] And here's how this ritual Passover meal shows the wisdom and the greatness of the Lord. First of all, we learn in verses 1 and 2. Exodus chapter 12 verses 1 and 2.

[4:57] First, that the ritual meal defines their community. The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal that defines their community. Verses 1 and 2. You realize what he's doing right there.

[5:19] He's giving them a new calendar. The Lord is hitting a reset button on the way that they measure time. So, in other words, this Passover event, it marks a new year for the people of God.

[5:32] It's kind of like their New Year's Day. This Passover event signifies a new era in God's relationship with his people. It's an era that is marked by God's work of salvation.

[5:47] Now, that word salvation. When Christians, when people who believe in Jesus Christ, when we talk about being saved, that's just a word that we throw around a lot. And we often mean this in purely individual terms.

[5:59] The way that I often heard it growing up in church is, you know, have you been saved? Have you, and spoken to an individual, have you, individual person, been saved? The idea is that you, as an individual, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[6:14] You, as an individual, trust that his life, his death, his resurrection, they satisfy God's justice on your behalf. Because you and I have been born into sin.

[6:25] Because we have fulfilled that destiny by committing sin, by acting in rebellion against God. By rejecting the good way of life that he's laid out for us.

[6:37] And by attempting to take his place as the center of the world. So have you been saved from that? That's what questions I would get growing up.

[6:48] And you know what? That's great. And it's absolutely true. We, as individuals, need to be saved. We need to be saved from that way of life. We need to be saved from the judgment of God against that way of life. But this ritual meal that God gives his people, it isn't meant to be celebrated by them in isolation.

[7:06] They aren't meant, the people of God are not meant to be siloed off from one another in their own little individual bubbles. That is not the way that God meant for us to live.

[7:19] In verses 3 and 4, that's what the Lord explains. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

[7:34] And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons. According to what each can eat, you shall make your count for the lamb.

[7:46] And then in verse 6, you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

[7:57] So in other words, each household you have, he gives you four days. So plenty of time. Plenty of time to work this out. He gives you four days to round up all your flocks, gather them together, pick out a young sheep or a goat for a meal.

[8:10] And this meal is not just something that you take your piece and then you take your TV tray and sit in front of the TV or take it up to your room and just celebrate together, celebrate by yourself.

[8:23] No, this is a family gathering. I mean, think Thanksgiving dinner type thing. This is a family gathering. And it is eaten by the entire household together. It is shared with your neighbors.

[8:34] If your household isn't big enough for a whole goat, you and your neighbors get together. And you split it. And not only is it celebrated by household, it is celebrated, prepared, and eaten by the entire nation at the same time.

[8:50] So very much like our Thanksgiving dinner, if you're in the States. Here in Canada, it's kind of funny. It's like we spread it out over a whole weekend, which is nice because then I get to go to like two or three Thanksgivings.

[9:00] But that's not how the Passover is. You do it one night. Everybody does it. All at one night. Together. No Israelite can be preserved unless he or she eats together with the rest of God's people.

[9:21] You notice that? And I'll say this, you know, just to be very blunt. If you think you can Lone Ranger it, as a Christian, just me and Jesus, boy, you don't get it.

[9:39] You don't understand how this works. You don't understand the way God relates to you. Me and Jesus, no, it's probably just you. Because Jesus didn't come to save just you. You cannot love him unless you love his people, his church.

[9:56] This ritual meal affirms their community. This ritual meal affirms their community. And the entree for the meal itself is described in verse 5.

[10:10] They didn't have a turkey. Here's what he says. Verse 5. Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male a year old. Without blemish.

[10:20] So, the lamb that is killed for this Passover meal, it is without blemish. That means it has no physical defects. It's in perfect shape. That's important, because it would be tempting for you to go, hmm, okay, well, if we've got to kill and eat this lamb, let's just find the gimpy one.

[10:37] You know, I couldn't sell that anyway, so perfect, you know. We'll just kill that one. No. You don't give the Lord your gimpy lambs. The Lord is worthy of unblemished perfection.

[10:51] You give him your best. His people are not going to give him their leftovers. They're not going to bring to him a faulty and deformed offering. They bring their best, because God is a holy and perfect God.

[11:06] Completely set apart. Completely worthy of our honor, our respect, our worship, and he insists on holiness and perfection in his people.

[11:18] And the only way we can have holiness and perfection is if we have, standing in our place, slain for us, a perfect, unblemished, spotless lamb. And so this lamb that is slaughtered for God's people, it marks them out as holy, devoted.

[11:34] In other words, sanctified to him. This ritual meal sanctifies their community. The ritual meal sanctifies their community. So we've seen this ritual meal.

[11:46] It defines, it affirms, and it sanctifies the community of Israel. Now most of us sitting here are not Israelite, are not Jewish by descent. So what does this have to do with us?

[12:02] Well, through faith, through faith in Jesus Christ, in him, the son of God, in his life, his death, his resurrection from the dead, through faith in him, we who are Christians are united with him.

[12:19] He is the true Israel. He is everything that Israel was made to be, the inheritor of all the promises that were made to Israel. And so if we are united with him, these are all for us.

[12:33] And so the night before Jesus was crucified, he took his disciples and he gathered them together to celebrate this ritual Passover meal. And Luke, Luke chapter 22, we read about this.

[12:47] And all the gospel authors really emphasize that this is a Passover meal. They make a big deal about it. Luke probably makes the biggest deal out of it. He says, When the hour came, he reclined at table and the apostles with him.

[13:01] And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

[13:17] And he took a cup. And when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

[13:34] And he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

[13:46] And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. The new covenant in my blood.

[13:58] What Jesus is doing here is he is inaugurating a new covenant. A new relationship with his disciples, with his followers. He is giving them a new ritual meal.

[14:10] The Passover leads into this, foreshadows this. This meal that we call communion or the Lord's Supper. So Jesus gave you and me this new meal.

[14:24] He gave Squamish Baptist Church this new meal to define, to affirm, to sanctify the community of God's people.

[14:36] And this meal marks out those of us who are Christians. Those of us who belong to this church, this community, and to the larger community of all of God's people across time and space.

[14:52] This meal reminds us that we cannot have a relationship with the Lord unless we are sharing life together as part of his family, his church. Communion draws our attention to the true Passover Lamb, to Jesus himself.

[15:08] It draws our attention to a man who is the best that humanity has to offer, this God-given gift, the perfect man. The only good man who ever lived. The perfect and sinless Son of God.

[15:23] The Lamb of God slaughtered for our sake. Communion draws us back to the gospel, to the good news. The author Bobby Jameson says, in the Lord's Supper, the gospel becomes not just something we hear or even something we see, but something we eat.

[15:46] It becomes something that we eat and drink together. So even today, the Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal. And when we celebrate communion together with one another, we are expressing faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and his works on our behalf.

[16:08] The good things that he did, the righteousness that he fulfilled, how he rightly related to God, fulfilled all of God's expectations for what a human being should be. And so the people of Israel celebrated the Passover in that same way too.

[16:23] There's a connection there. The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal in which they express their faith in a saving God. The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal in which they express their faith in a saving God.

[16:38] So before the Passover meal even began, every household in Israel, what they would do is they would carry out the Lord's command that you find in Exodus chapter 12 verse 7. They shall take some of the blood, the blood from the lamb, and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

[17:01] Some of you are probably thinking, I'm glad that we don't have to do that today. I just painted my doorframe. You know, I don't need to, I don't want to have to rent a power washer and get the blood off at the end of the day, right?

[17:13] This blood, though, this blood spread on the doorframes of their homes. It showed that a perfect, an unblemished substitute, it wasn't enough just to have a perfect, unblemished lamb, you had to kill it. And this lamb had to be killed on their behalf.

[17:28] It had to die in their place as a substitute for them. They trusted the Lord to accept this substitute, the substitute that he had appointed for them.

[17:41] God's people express their faith in God's substitute. God's people express their faith in God's substitute. And that's something that we're going to perhaps talk more about in a couple of weeks when we return to the Passover.

[17:55] by brushing the blood onto their doorframes where everyone could see it. Know that if you walk down the street through this house, you'd be like, blood on the doorframe, blood on the doorframe, blood on the doorframe.

[18:08] You know who's in that house. You know what the people in that house believe. You know who they are. The Israelites are making a public declaration.

[18:20] They are going public. that they have faith in the Lord their God. That they believe his promises of salvation. True faith in God is expressed by going public.

[18:35] That's why we as Christians are baptized. That's why we participate in communion with one another. We want to do this in public and make a declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord, that we believe in him.

[18:47] God's people express their faith in public. God. In the Passover meal, it is an expression of faith in a saving God. It's an expression of faith in a saving God because it anticipates a salvation that is coming soon.

[19:05] In verses 8 through 11, if you were to look at the way that this meal is laid out, all the ingredients, all the preparation for it, it's something that's common to almost every instruction.

[19:17] It's this. The meal is prepared in the absolute quickest manner possible. This is fast food, guys. All the parts of the lamb, they are roasted or barbecued together.

[19:30] Instead of boiling them, which would maybe be a more common way to prepare it, they don't do that. They roast it. That's fast. That's much faster. In fact, he actually has to warn them, don't eat it raw. Don't try to go that fast.

[19:42] At least roast it first. Hold a barbecue. It's prepared with unleavened bread. Don't have time for the bread to rise. Just throw something together.

[19:55] It's going to look like crackers, but okay. Just eat it that way. Make it without yeast. What's the side dish? Bitter herbs. I guess one commentator said that they're the easiest to gather and prepare, probably because nobody wanted them, I suppose.

[20:09] I don't know. I'm just making that up. I wouldn't want to eat that, but these are the herbs that you're going to find most commonly. You can just go outside, grab some of these, gather them up, bring them in. The members of each household, they are eating on the run.

[20:24] Belt and sandals and staff are all ready to go. They're ready to walk out that door. It's kind of like a Thanksgiving meal, except you're dressed in your jacket and your boots and everything's all on, and you're throwing this Thanksgiving meal together as fast as possible.

[20:39] You're ready to hit the road the moment that meal's done. In short, the Passover, that's their takeout meal. And the commentator Douglas Stewart concludes, all aspects of the cooking and eating were designed to minimize time and maximize preparedness for sudden departure.

[20:59] This was an issue of faith. Did the families of the Israelites really trust God's promises for them? If so, were they willing to show that trust by arranging themselves so as to be fully prepared for departure and by eating what was to be their last meal in Egypt in such a manner as not to impede their ability to gather together and start moving as soon as the command reached them.

[21:30] The willingness to go at a moment's notice and never to return cannot have been easy for most Israelites, even though they initially believed Moses signs had witnessed the nine plagues thus far and had been treated so badly for so long.

[21:46] After all, they had lived in Egypt for 430 years, a long time to acclimate culturally and geographically, and were now being asked to leave behind everything they had ever known.

[21:56] God's people this is like that takeout Thanksgiving dinner, except that you've been living, and you and your ancestors have been living in North America since basically the late 1500s, and now you've got to leave at a moment's notice to a better land, a better country.

[22:19] God's people express their faith in his imminent salvation. salvation. They believe that he is soon, he is about to act to deliver his people, and they are looking forward to the future, that future he has prepared for them.

[22:37] They don't just have that salvation that is taking place that night to look forward to, they've got much more to look forward to, because their meal is just a taste of a greater meal that is yet to come.

[22:51] Their meal is a taste of the Lord's Supper, or Communion. You know what? Even that meal, that Communion, for us, even that is just a taste of an even better meal that is yet to come.

[23:08] We've already seen Jesus say in Luke chapter 22, he said, I will not eat it, I will not eat this bread until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

[23:19] I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Jesus, he often talks about his return in the Gospels as a great banquet or a feast that is being prepared for you and for me.

[23:37] And in the book of Revelation chapter 19, the apostle John refers to it as the marriage supper of the Lamb. the marriage supper of the Lamb.

[23:49] When we celebrate Communion, we are tasting the future. We are tasting our future. And when the Israelites celebrate their first Passover, they too are tasting the future of God's salvation.

[24:06] And they are so certain that the Lord is about to save them, that they are taking the rest of their meal, whatever is left over, and they are not saving the leftovers, they are burning them up. Why?

[24:17] Because they don't have time for that. They are leaving. They are emptying their fridges and tossing it out. Anything that remains. They are trusting the Lord to take care of tomorrow's needs tomorrow.

[24:31] They are not bringing it all with them. They are trusting God to take care of them. God's people express their faith in a providing God. And their faith in this God is not just an arbitrary faith.

[24:46] This isn't some sort of leap of faith into the dark where you have no idea if this God is real or if this God is going to take care of you. That's not the kind of faith God wants from his people.

[24:58] These people, they trust him because they have seen his mighty acts of power. They have seen these acts that have brought the empire of Egypt to its knees.

[25:10] And God's people believe the Lord when he says in verse 12, I will pass through the land of Egypt that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

[25:29] I am the Lord. What we learn here is that God's people express their faith in God alone.

[25:40] God's people express their faith in God alone. They celebrate this meal because they know that not a single one of the gods of Egypt are going to protect the Egyptian people.

[25:53] They've already been humiliated and exposed as false by the previous nine plagues. They know that the gods will not protect the people or the Egyptian state or the Egyptian military from the power of the Lord their God.

[26:15] Now when you've got a God like that who can bring such unimpeded, unstoppable ruin and destruction and judgment on human beings, you could be tempted to sink into despair.

[26:26] But God's people celebrate and they celebrate this meal because they trust the Lord to have mercy on them.

[26:38] They trust that the Lord is going to have mercy on them. God's people express their faith in God's mercy. God's people express their faith in God's mercy. They believe the words that he speaks.

[26:51] Verse 13, The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

[27:03] And no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Now for us as Christians, we celebrate communion together because we have faith in the Lord our God.

[27:17] And we believe that he has given us a Passover lamb whose body has been broken, whose blood has been shed for us.

[27:29] And we are eagerly expecting his return to bring judgment on all oppressors, on all evildoers. Yet he is going to show mercy to all those, to everyone who participate in his body and blood, who express their faith in a saving God by eating and drinking a ritual meal together.

[27:51] The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal in which they express their faith in a saving God. And what's so remarkable about communion, this isn't just some sort of archaic ceremony.

[28:06] To the outsider, it might look like that, like just some sort of archaic ceremony that is, you know, it seems like it has got nothing to do with like real vibrant faith in real life. You just kind of go through the motions, run through those things.

[28:20] But this has everything to do with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, the Apostle Paul writes, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?

[28:40] The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body. For we all partake of the one bread.

[28:54] And so this ritual meal, it binds a large number of people, many who might have, seemingly have nothing in common. It binds us all into one body, one community, the body of Christ.

[29:09] Christ. And that's what it does here at Squamish Baptist Church. And it binds us to the rest of his church across space and time as we reenact, as we participate in his body broken for us, his blood shed for us.

[29:24] So the Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal in which they express their faith in a saving God and participate in his work of salvation. The Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal in which they express their faith in a saving God and participate in his work of salvation.

[29:41] It's a participation in the blood of Christ, a participation in the body of Christ. We see this even in the Passover meal, which foreshadows that communion that we celebrate.

[29:54] Even in the Passover, Exodus chapter 12, verse 14. Here's what the Lord tells Moses. 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.

[30:09] You shall keep it as a feast. So this meal is a memorial. It reminds the people, and it reminds them again and again and again, year after year after year after year, that the Lord is a great God above all other gods, that he is a God who saves his people.

[30:28] And God's people, we need this. We forget. And the people of Israel, they forget almost right away that God is great.

[30:44] They forget right away that he is good. They forget right away that he is with us. And they've seen all this, and they still forget. What about those of us who did not see this?

[30:56] Who did not see these events in the Exodus? We forget to. And that's why we need this. That's why we need this meal.

[31:08] God's people participate in his work of salvation to remember him and his work. To remember him and his work. Verses 14 through 20.

[31:20] The Lord walks Moses through this feast of unleavened bread, which is associated with the Passover. He explains to Moses that this Passover meal, this isn't a one-time-only event. You hold the Passover meal this one time, God rescues his people, done.

[31:35] It's the first in a series of meals to be celebrated every year, year after year after year after year. Not only as a Passover meal, but as this week-long festival called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

[31:47] And by reenacting this event, God's people participate in his work of salvation to renew their faith in him. God's people participate in his work of salvation to renew their faith in him.

[32:01] The Israelites do this because they know that the God who responds with wrath, with right anger, with judgment against their Egyptian oppressors, he is the same God who promises to save those households who are washed in the blood of the Passover lamb.

[32:23] Verse 23, Moses tells them, the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians. And when he sees the blood, when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

[32:42] So God's people participate in his work of salvation to escape his judgment. To escape his judgment. And this escape is something that they are meant not only to remember, this escape is not only something to remember but to tell to one another and to participate again, to participate in again and again in future generations.

[33:07] Verses 24 through 27, you shall observe this right as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

[33:20] And when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service? You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.

[33:39] The Passover meal is not only meant for this generation of Israelites to remember, it's meant to be rehearsed and recounted to future generations. so they would know who the Lord is and what he has done for his people.

[33:51] It's carried on forward. Jesus Christ becomes the ultimate Passover lamb slain for us. And then the Lord's Supper is carried on forward.

[34:04] Then Jesus Christ returns and celebrates the great marriage supper of the lamb together with us. We celebrate the work of God's salvation forever and ever and ever.

[34:16] this is our future. God's people participate in his work of salvation to recount his nature and actions.

[34:32] God's people participate in his work of salvation to recount his nature and actions so that we would know who the Lord is and what he has done for his people. And then once Moses finishes delivering these instructions to the people of Israel, verses 27 and 28 we read, the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

[34:51] Then the people of Israel went and did so. As the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. So these people have been given a commandment from the Lord.

[35:04] This is not some sort of optional meal that you get to take off if you want to. It's a commandment. And they do it. They go about obeying it.

[35:19] And they know that obeying the Lord's commandment this is not just some sort of I guess I got to do this. I'll grit my teeth and get it done. Not a bunch of stoics just going through the motions because they were supposed to and because they were raised in a household where they were told to do this.

[35:34] It is not a cause of misery and frustration. This ritual meal is a cause of joy and gratitude.

[35:45] It's to be enjoyed and celebrated because the Lord is not only great He is good. He is good and satisfying.

[36:01] And this ritual meal gives them an opportunity to express their faithful obedience to the God who saves them. God's people participate in His work of salvation to reaffirm their faithful obedience.

[36:17] To reaffirm their faithful obedience. And so for you and me today we also have this Passover Lamb who has been healed for us. And so we also are urged to purge all evil all disobedience from our lives.

[36:33] This is why we obey because God has saved us already. And we're to live holy lives because a holy God has set us apart as His own people. So we become what we are.

[36:46] We become what we have been made to be. We fulfill our destiny as God's people. In the New Testament in the book of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul he writes to the church that he planted in the city of Corinth.

[37:00] 1 Corinthians I've sometimes heard this book described as first Americans because just the behavior of the people in Corinth reminds us so much of the behavior of people in the western world today. This is a church whose members boasted how knowledgeable they are.

[37:14] They've got all this theological knowledge and how expressive their worship is. But outside of Sunday worship their lives you know they're Sunday morning Christians although Paul has some sharp criticisms of the way they celebrate on Sunday mornings too.

[37:32] But outside of Sunday worship their lives are plagued with sexual misbehavior with interpersonal conflict and strife in their homes and their families among brothers and sisters in the family of God.

[37:46] And so Paul writes to them in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 your boasting is not good. Understatement.

[38:01] Do you not know that a little leaven a little bit of yeast leavens the whole lump the whole lump of dough. You just need that little tiny pinch of yeast and that's enough to get through and work its way through the entire big lump of dough.

[38:17] Cleanse out the old leaven. Clean your houses. Get rid of every speck of it that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.

[38:27] For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival the festival unleavened bread not with the old leaven the leaven of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

[38:49] So the final and ultimate Passover has been celebrated because Jesus Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us. We are living in the era of a fulfilled Passover.

[39:01] We are living in the era of unleavened bread when God's spirit has been given to us. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all the sin that should cause God to condemn us.

[39:12] So now we live in this new never ending festival in which we purge our households our lives of anything that would keep us tied down to the old slave masters to that old way of life to those old passions those old desires that control you.

[39:28] Some of us here we are keeping in our lives we are keeping a little bit of yeast in the corner where we think no one will find it. We are keeping around people we are keeping around things that tempt us to sexual immorality.

[39:45] Others of us are keeping around opportunities to gossip and criticize and tear down other people. And we are reserving a special place that allows us to be angry and be in conflict with others especially others in the family of God.

[40:05] These habits these patterns of behavior that you know where we got them we got them from the old kingdom from the old kingdom of this world from our old master the devil from our old self which longs to go back to Egypt and be slaves once again.

[40:23] And so our Lord Jesus Christ has left us a new ritual meal in which we participate in his work of salvation. we hold communion together to remember him and his work to renew our faith once again.

[40:40] I still believe and I still accept the blood of the Lamb the body and blood of my Lord Jesus Christ they are still enough.

[40:55] And I still follow him as my Lord and Savior. and I still love his people the people of God no matter how screwed up they are.

[41:10] We hold communion together to remember him and his work. We hold communion together to renew our faith in him to escape his judgment to recount his nature and actions to reaffirm our faithful obedience and oh that each one of us that we would crave the bread and the cup.

[41:30] Oh that we would when we find out that it's communion Sunday together we would be like yes communion Sunday the bread and the cup the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord his body broken for us his blood shed for us and I get to tell it all over again I love to tell the story and to eat and drink the gospel and I need this because I'm starving to death without it because I'm dying of thirst without it we need to proclaim the Lord's death until he comes because the Lord preserves his people through a ritual meal in which they express their faith in his saving God and participate in his work of salvation