1st Day of Unleavened Bread 2022
Welcome to the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
We are in the season of the Spring Holy Days which starts the beginning of God’s plan for salvation for all mankind and for each of us, personally
We just finish up the service for the Passover and, last night, the Night to be Much Observed.
Today is going to be a review, of what this day means – to keep in our mind thoughts.
2 Timothy 4:2 the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
2 Timothy 4:4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
Is this why many individuals turn away for celebrating the Feast of Unleavened Bread
- What do we do at this time, every year, we remove the leavening from our homes, cleaning our homes and vehicles.
- We understand the meaning behind our actions, of removing physical and spiritual leaven from our lives.
- How many have stopped doing this in their lives.
Let us turn to the chapter in the Scriptures that covers the Feasts of the Lord.
Leviticus 23:1 The LORD said to Moses,
The Lord is the one we called, Jesus our Messiah, our Elder Brother.
Leviticus 23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
Notice, Jesus said these are my, my appointed festivals and sacred assemblies. Command assemblies. How do we show our love to Jesus our Lord is by obeying His commands. This is one of His command.
Leviticus 23:6 “On the fifteenth day of that month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread.
Notice the command by Jesus that we are to eat Unleavened Bread
Interesting, in my past, the emphasis was on not eating leavened bread, but
Avoiding leavened bread and leavened product.
This command was eating unleavened bread during this spring feast.
Leviticus 23:7-8 On the first day that you hold the sacred assembly you are to do no servile work. (8) Instead, you are to bring an offering made by fire to the LORD daily for seven days. On the seventh day you are also to hold a sacred assembly during which you are to do no servile work.”
Notice, we are to hold an assembly, which is what we are doing right now.
Our bodies are a living sacrifice offering, tested by fire – daily trials
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Tested by fire
1 Peter 1:6-7 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. (7) These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith; of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire; may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Exodus 12:15 You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day be sure to remove all the leaven from your houses, because any person who eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh will be cut off from Israel.
- This verse adds a little more information.
- We are to remove all the leaven from our homes.
- Things we will eat. Only 7 days
- Cookies, bread, ice cream cones, baking soda, baking powder, yeast, etc. Hard to be tempted if these items are removed from the home.
Use some common sense. Are going to eat, like tooth paste?
Exodus 12:16 Also, on the first day you’re to hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day you’re to hold a holy assembly. No work is to be done during those days, except for preparing what is to be eaten by each person.
Exodus 12:17 “‘You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread, since on this very day I brought your tribal divisions from the land of Egypt. You are to observe this day from generation to generation as a perpetual ordinance.
Exodus 12:18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day of the month until the evening of the twenty-first day of the month, you are to eat unleavened bread.
How many times does Jesus have to command this, eat unleavened bread
Exodus 12:19-20 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. (20) Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
Did Jesus and His parents observed the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread?
Luke 2:41 His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.
Luke 2:42-43 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. (43) When they had finished the days {or festival was over}, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it;
Notice Verse 43 states, “the finished the days” which meant the Passover and the seven days of Unleavened Bread was over.
Did Jesus observe the Days of Unleavened Bread as an adult?
Mark 14:1-2 After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death. (2) But they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
Remember, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is only 7 days long, the Jewish Leadership counts Passover as a day and that makes it 8 days. Verse 1 and 2 pertain to the planning of Christ’s enemies to arrest Him.
By trickery – wicked people
Mark 14:12 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover meal?“
They were well aware that He would be observing the Days of Unleavened Bread. Verse 12 show how Christ directed His disciples in arranging for the Passover meal.
Did the Apostles observe the Days of Unleavened Bread after Christ’s death and resurrection? Doctor Luke wrote:
Acts 12:2 Then he {Herod} killed James the brother of John with the sword.
Acts 12:3 When he saw how this was agreeable to the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter, too. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. {about 50’s A.D.}
Luke wrote about Apostle Paul and himself
Acts 20:6 After the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we sailed from Philippi, and days later we joined them in Troas and stayed there for seven days. {about 55 A.D.}
Luke uses this reference as an event that was observed by the Church this many years after Jesus resurrection. Over 20 years later.
What instruction or command did Paul give Gentiles Christians in regard to observed this festival?
1 Corinthians 5:6-7 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 for us.
The Apostle Paul wrote about 25 years later to the Church members (Gentiles) in Corinth and told the Christians to observe this festival.
Feast of Unleavened Bread.
1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. {Around 55 or 56 AD}
Paul commanded the Corinthian Christians—mostly gentiles—to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. His instructions show that Christians from non-Jewish communities and cultures kept the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Leaving is used as a symbol for sin.
Matthew 16:6 Jesus told them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”
Matthew 16:11-12 How can you fail to understand that I wasn’t talking to you about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!” (12) Then they understood that he did not say to beware of the yeast used in bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
There was, and is, nothing wrong with eating things containing yeast at other times, but for the purpose of the Days of Unleavened Bread it was used as a symbol of sin. Coming out of sin.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.
Upon repentance and baptism, Christ’s sacrifice blots out all of one’s past sins. When Paul asked if we should continue in sin, what did he answer?
Romans 6:15-16 What, then, does this mean? Should we go on sinning because we are not under Law but under grace? Of course not! (16) Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Paul was expressing that as Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, we should proceed to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Remember, Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Setting an example for all Christians today, these Jews and non-Jews observed these days in accordance with God’s laws.
Paul tells us that Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead. The First born.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Jesus says the sign is:
Matthew 12:38-40 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” (39) He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. (40) For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. {Grave}
God said Jesus was dead, brought to life as the Firstborn, the first of many in the future.
Paul tells us Jesus was the firstborn, we His Saints will follow,
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Hebrews 12:23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. (6) Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
Ephesians 4:12 to equip the saints, to do the work of ministry, and to build up the body of the Messiah
Colossians 1:12 and might thank the Father, who has enabled us to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
Revelation 14:12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to their faithfulness in Jesus:
- We went through all these verses and kind of understanding, why are we to eat Unleavened Bread during the feast.
- We are to separate from the world but still in the world.
- Following Jesus Way of Life is an endurance walk of the Saints.
Passover night, Jesus said unleavened bread represents His Body and because it was the symbol of rejecting sin in Satan spiritual world. It is a symbol of choosing Life because of Jesus Way of Life, we are Saints. Satan way of life {sin} which leads to death.
So, we need to continue this week to look or examine ourselves during these Days of Unleavened Bread in our walk with Jesus, in His Way of life
Repeat: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are the church of the firstborn.
As we eat unleavened Bread during the Feast, take these things and think about our lives, our families, friends and mediate about what it really means to us personally.
Ask God to give us the wisdom with His Holy Spirit to grow, to change, to overcome, so we can become more Christ-like in the way we live.
Enjoy ourselves during the Feast of Unleavened Bread because of the Truths that the Holy Spirit lead us. Have a good Feast of Unleavened Bread