Sermon Transcript — March 11, 2006
A few years ago there was a story on the front page of the sports section of USA Today. It was about two young men who were good friends, did a lot of rock climbing together, especially the free-form style of rock climbing, where they climb the rocks cliffs without any ropes or any other equipment. One particular climb one of the young men, David Stewart, was about 40 feet up the face of the cliff and he realized he was stuck, couldn't find any finger or toe holds, couldn't continue climbing, he couldn't go back down. There wasn't anything his friend Matt, who was on the ground, nothing his friend could do to help. David hung on as long as he could until his muscles finally begin to twitch all over and he knew he had to do something. He realized at this point that his only hope was to push away from the face of the rock and to freefall forty feet. He hoped he would survive. So he pushed off and he fell and his friend Matt ran to get underneath him to help break the fall and the result was that both of them got away with very few minor scrapes and bruises but they lived and it was quite amazing, they both were very surprised. What was especially touching about this story was that David Stewart, what he had to say about his friend Matt who he feels saved his life. He said, "Every time I look at Matt and remember what he did, I love him more and more."
That statement, "Every time I look at Matt and remember what he did, I love him more and more" is something I think all of us can relate to because that's exactly what pictures and does picture our relationship with God, that the more we understand and the more we're around Him and the better the connection we have, the more we love Him, the more we appreciate what He's done. Year by year as we grow in our understanding of the Passover, as we grow in our relationship with God and with Jesus Christ, we should love them more and more. Within a few weeks, as Mr. Metzel mentioned in the sermonette, we're coming into a very special time of the year, the spring festivals, we're nearing the beginning of another cycle of God's holy days, God's festivals lay out for us step by step God's plan for giving eternal life to Christians, but also has a plan for everybody being invited into His family and we look forward to very much, the arrival of every holy day, every festival because living for the holy days becomes a vital part of our life, they mean that much to us.
Our lives revolve around God's festivals and holy days and its always necessary to review their meaning so we never forget exactly what God's plan is and where we are in that plan. There's always more to discover, they always have more to teach. We'll never in this lifetime exhaust all there is to know from the bible or from the festivals, there's always more to learn, to grow, to understand and to grasp about God and His plan. God's festivals in some ways are like a multifaceted diamond or jewel that sparkles and shines and depending on what angle you have it, you see a different facet, a different set of beauty and God's holy days are very much the same way, we can look at it many different ways and learn many things. Have you ever looked at God's festivals from the point of view of getting to know God better? A way of getting better acquainted with God and knowing more of what He's like?
Once we understand what God is like, then we have the responsibility of becoming more like Him and we see where we need to change and grow. Turn with me to Ezekiel 20:12, this scripture, God is reviewing the time that He brought Israel out of captivity, Israel actually out of Egypt and He explains what His holydays are for and what they picture and why He gave them and what they're suppose to accomplish, a very helpful scripture.
Eze. 20:12 - "Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths...and we'll notice that that's plural, meaning not only the weekly Sabbath but the annual Sabbaths or holy days and festivals as well...Moreover I gave them ...referring to Israel... My Sabbaths to be a sign between them and Me that they may know that I am the Eternal who sanctifies them."
So we see very clearly part of the purpose for God's holy days is so that we as God's people can get to know certain things about God, get to know Him better, what kind of God He is, what He stands for, what His character is like, and then we see what we need to become more like.
In the sermon today we'll review the steps involved with the Spring Festivals and we'll see some of the lessons we can learn from them regarding what God is like, what qualities then we need to develop to become like Him.
We'll begin with the Passover. Passover teaches us certain things about God's character. Right away we come face to face with the fact that God the Father and Jesus Christ are very merciful. One of the first things we learn from the Passover is God's mercy and His forgiveness. This is a chief characteristic of God, one of several chief qualities. Is that what we think of when we think of God? Is that one of the first things that comes to our mind when we think of God and what He's like, that He's very forgiving, very merciful? Turn with me to Luke 1:76. In this passage John the Baptist was only eight days old and His father, the scriptures say, was filled with the holy spirit and as a result he gave this beautiful prophetic poem. Luke 1:76 is referring to John the Baptist and we read, his father said:
Luke 1:76 - And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest. For you will be before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people...and we understand that to be the knowledge of how God plans to save the whole human race, give us eternal life but other people, the rest of the world as well.
Now we ask how is that able to come about - how is that possible? And the very next few words begin to show God's qualities of forgiveness and mercy because it says:
verse 77 - ...by the remission...or forgiveness...of their sins. Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring...or a morning star...from on high has visited us. To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide their feet into the way of peace.
So the concept of salvation cannot be separated from God's forgiveness and mercy. It's an inspiring concept to all of us of how God and Jesus Christ has this plan, the rest of humanity, the rest of us into the family of God. But the way God demonstrates His love and mercy and forgiveness is absolutely inspiring as well as humbling to us when we understand what they've done. Let's go to John 1:29. I believe that no human mind or human imagination could ever think to do it this way, you and I would never have thought of this. Imagine a God being stepping down from being a spirit being, voluntarily leaving the God family and then suffering and dying so that we can join the family of God!
John 1:29 - The next day John...referring to John the Baptist...saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
In John's word we have a summary of the greatest possible act of mercy and forgiveness that's possible and of course this should inspire us year after year, more so every year as we understand it and become more aware of it, of how incredibly wonderful God's plan is and what They've done in order to enable us to become part of the family of God.
Turn with me to I Timothy 1:15, it's interesting as we read Paul's letters to see how often he refers to this subject of being thankful to God and being reminded of God's forgiveness, God's mercy, it's something that's very much in the forefront of Paul's mind, it's almost every time he wrote a letter, he included that, numerous times. As though he couldn't thank God enough for what He's done. In I Tim. 1:15 we have an example of someone who demonstrated the principle "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." He was so full of this principle, of thankfulness for what God had done for him, that he had to write about it, he had to say it.
I Tim. 1:15 - This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.
It seems that whenever Paul thought about and talked about God's love and the respect that he had for Him, it bubbled out, his gratitude, his appreciation, he was really moved by what God had done in spite of the mistakes that Paul had made. Verse 17 helps to demonstrate this as well:
Verse 17 - Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
You know I wonder how much we are like Paul. I wonder how aware we are of God's mercy and God's forgiveness? And certainly we're reminded every year at the Passover time, but I wonder how much this is on our mind day in and day out, year in and year out regarding what God has done for us and how important that is to us. I don't imagine we go around repeating Paul's words verbatim but I wonder if the thought, the appreciation, if it's really come home to us what the God family has already done for us and what the rest of God's plan is. I hope that's part of our belief and our attitude. If we're not careful we can easily slide into or maybe even stumble into the spring holy days. Everyone is so busy, we're distracted in so many ways and it's easy for us to kind of slide in or stumble in if we don't put the right focus and give enough time and preparation to the Passover season.
The New Testament Passover where we take the wine and the bread, pictures Jesus Christ's suffering and His dying for our sins, that pictures us accepting God's sacrifice. We really need to deeply appreciate the understanding, but also the tremendous sacrifice that was made for us personally. But we also have a part in showing God our appreciation by responding appropriately to that gift. It's amazing to see how many scriptures in the bible talk about, whether it be David or whoever it is, talking about how often and how meaningful it was that God was involved in their lives. I wonder what this means to us because one of the great challenges and responsibilities we have is to be aware of and to learn more deeply the grace, the mercy, and the forgiveness that God has toward all people. Because the more we see what God is like, the more hopefully it would affect us to want to become like Him. Let's go to Matthew 18:21, we're all familiar with the Lords Prayer, which part of it says that if we want God to forgive our sins we have to be willing to forgive everybody else their sins. But Peter wanted some clarification on this point of how often do I have to forgive? I don't know what exactly prompted Peter to ask this question but I'm kind of glad he did because it helps give us some clarification here. Peter asked this most interesting question:
Matt. 18:21-22 - Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."
And the point is, don't keep track. It's hard to have a 3x5 with 490 little slashes on it, and the point is, if we kept track of every time somebody sinned against us, we're not really forgiving them, are we? So He's making a point as graphically as He could that every time - 490 - you can't keep track, do it every time, always be forgiving.
Forgiveness is really an amazing concept. Forgiveness is essentially giving up the emotional need to punish someone who's treated us in a hurtful way. We give up the right to punish someone when we've been hurt. To retaliate, we eliminate that, it's emotional closure, we close the book, so to speak, on whatever issue is involved or whoever has hurt us, we forgive, we pass on, we let it go, we let it slide, we give up our need to punish the individual who's hurt us. But our natural reaction is to hurt back, to strike back. Another definition, a good working definition of forgiveness is, that forgiveness is making a decision that we won't bring up to ourselves or to others the matter we've chosen to forgive. That we don't bring it up to ourselves and we don't bring it up to others. We simply have processed it, we have worked through it, we have canceled the debt and we've moved on.
Now obviously there could be some very serious matters that take a long time to process and work through, there may be right times to bring up certain matters, especially to those are in a position to help us, sometimes we need help processing those hurts, those offenses. But especially when it comes to just routine day in an day out offenses and daily issues that we encounter. Once we have forgiven the offender, we simply should remember that forgiveness is making a decision that we won't bring it up to ourselves or to others, the case is closed, we've moved on. It's easy isn't it? It's easy for us to bring up past offenses, it's easy for us to remember things that have happened years ago, we can remember that somebody forgot our anniversary eight years ago, we can still remember that! Hurts and offenses of people they have done, things they've said, it's easy to - if we're not careful - to kind of keep a running tab, we see that person and we say, I don't like that person, I'm angry with them, I'm not exactly sure what they did to me but I've got a reason. We can carry these things if we're not careful.
If we do find ourselves bringing things up again and again, to ourselves or other people, that should be a red flag to us, that should remind us of the fact that we have not completely forgiven that person, that we still have work to do in that area as far as working through the issue and finally coming to the place that we can cancel the debt, we can forgive it, we can move on, otherwise we've got work still to do. Jesus followed His answer to Peter with a parable. He talked about how a huge debt was forgiven and why couldn't this other man forgive a small debt - a very effective parable. We won't read through that today, you can review that on your own, but He was trying to help Peter get a grasp of reality, to remember that all of us have been forgiven a tremendous debt of sin and it becomes our responsibility then to forgive anybody else who hurts us, and by comparison, there is no comparison to what God has already forgiven us! We must never lose sight of the huge debt of forgiveness that God has canceled on our part and how much He's forgiven us for. It's really a test of our gratefulness to God about whether we appreciate and value His forgiveness of us and the way we forgive other people.
It's just a fact of life that we all sin, we all hurt other people, I'm sure in most cases unintentionally and we've all been sinned against, we've all been hurt by other people, that's just a fact of life, that's the way people are, we hurt and we get hurt, don't we? Physical life, we have to remember, is a training ground, it's a laboratory. This is where character is being built, this is where the family of God is being prepared, this is where mistakes are made and allowed to be made and forgiveness has to be a part of that equation because we have to look and see how God deals with it and then we emulate that, we follow the example that He sets for us. When Jesus said that we should forgive seventy times seven, that's 490 times and even if He meant that literally, think of exactly how that would affect us.
For example, let's suppose you came to Sabbath services today and as you walked in somebody said something very hurtful to you and it really hurt your feelings. So you said, OK, I'm a Christian, I've got to forgive, I can't carry a grudge and you process it and you move on. Maybe later on that individual comes to you and apologizes, that would help, but perhaps they don't come, maybe they don't apologize and still we say, that's OK. Passover's coming, God forgives me, I've got to forgive them, let's move on. But what if...what if next Sabbath that same person saw you at the same spot and they said something equally hurtful the second Sabbath. Could you forgive them two times in a row? Could you do it seven times? Could you do it 490 Sabbath's in a row? 490 in a row - that's over nine years! Could you stand somebody offending you as you came in to Sabbath services, 9 years in a row, every Sabbath, could you forgive that individual 490 times if he did that? Or after about 7 or 8 would you say, that's it, I'm going to the North church! How would we handle it? I mean literally, Christ said, 490 times. I think that's an example to help us realize how often and how willing we need to be to forgive. Nine years is a long time! And yet, on the other side of the coin, has any of us ever wrestled with a sin or a weakness or a problem for nine years? And we keep expecting God to forgive us and to work with us and to forgive us 9 years, 10 years, 20 years, been in the Church 40 years? If we're wrestling with some of the same issues, the same sins, the same weaknesses, we expect God to forgive us, 20, 30, 40 years, are we willing to do the same thing for other people? God expects that, that's one of the lessons we learn from the Passover and the spring holy days. God's developing a family in which every son and daughter must develop the same quality God has at capacity to be able to forgive other people, 490 times if necessary. That's what God is doing, God doesn't hold grudges, He says in fact that when He forgives our sins, they're as far as the east is from the west, they're gone and God does not accusatively bring them up to us again or to other beings, God doesn't do that. That's a quality we need to be learning as well.
What else can we learn from the Spring festivals about God's character and what God is like? This is the second lesson we can learn and that is that God hates sin. God hates sin. This is emphasized and burned into our minds year by year as we go through the process of deleavening our homes every year during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Let's go back to Exodus 12:15. During the Spring festivals, leavened products and leavening agents that produce fermentation, things like yeast, baking powder, baking soda, they represent sin, sin that we're suppose to be learning to hate as God does. Let's look at Ex. 12:15 because we see here what God is saying about what we should be doing prior to and during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Ex. 12:15 - Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses...or a better translation of that would be "on the first day you shall have removed leaven from your houses. In order to have seven completely unleavened days, we have to remove that leaven before the first day of Unleavened Bread begins. The verse continues... for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
verse 19 - For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. This verse talks about seven days no leaven shall be found.
In essence the command is that unleavened bread needs to be put out before the seven days of Unleavened Bread begin, so we clean our houses, our kitchens, our cars, anyplace we would have had leaven whether it be our lockers at school, or our places of work, we deleaven, we clean out the leaven, crumbs and all. One important note of course in this area that is very important for us to understand is that Christianity is a personal set of beliefs, that we do not impose this deleavening on unconverted mates or unconverted adult children that might be in our homes. This is a personal set of beliefs and therefore the way everybody would individually deleaven his house, depending on who's in your house, might be individual and if you have questions about what is appropriate or not you can certainly talk, I'll be glad to talk to you about it, any of the elders would be glad to help you in that regard as well.
Many of us may have already started deleavening our homes because it can be a big project, a huge job and we do try to be very thorough, we try to get the crumbs under this, under that, besides whatever, we've probably kind of got a routine by now but it pictures the fact that we're to be that thorough about looking for sin in our lives, that it's physically representing what we're should also be doing spiritually. And so many things in God's plan, it gives us something physical to do to help us to understand the spiritual more deeply. And as we look for physical leaven, we're thinking about sin and we realize how easy it is for sin to hide, behind or under something. But also we begin to think about how our sins have caused Jesus Christ incredible suffering and even His death and that should result in us hating sin even more.
Let's go next to John 12:27. This is one of the most human and agonizingly emotional statements that Jesus made; this is a really emotionally charged statement here in John 12:27 and He said this shortly before He was crucified and I think we can understand why He would say this.
John 12:27 - "Now My soul is troubled and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'?
Now all His life Jesus knew and had to be aware of the torture and death that He was going to have to face, I can't imagine living with that kind of emotional and mental pressure all His life. On top of that He managed to live a perfect life, no sin, loved people, was obedient to God and I'm sure as quickly as Jesus made this statement, "My soul is troubled and what should I say? Should I say, God deliver Me from this?" I'm sure as soon as He said that and expressed His natural dread for what He was going to have to experience, it's very clear that as soon as He said it, He was committed to doing what He had to do, because He went on to say:
verse 27 - "But for this purpose I came to this hour, Father glorify Your name."
I want to read that section from a more modern translation, God's Word for Today, I think it's a little clearer and more powerful.
verse 27 - "I am too deeply troubled now to know how to express My feelings. Should I say, 'Father save Me from this time of suffering?' No, I came for this time of suffering. Father glorify Your name."
We need to be reminded that Christ's suffering and death for us year by year to help us to understand that we need to learn to hate sin. We won't turn to Psalm 97:10 but it makes an interesting point. It says:
Psa. 97:10 - People who love the Eternal hate evil.
People who love the Eternal hate evil. How are we doing in that area of life? Have we come to the point where we really do hate evil? Do we hate sin? Or have we gotten comfortable from it?
A third thing we can learn from God's spring festivals is that God is selective but He is not exclusive or prejudice. He is selective, but He is not exclusive or prejudice. The Passover is at sunset on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar. The seven days of Unleavened Bread begin twenty four hours after the Passover, the fifteenth day of this first month at sunset. On the evening portion of the first day of Unleavened Bread there's a special celebration that we've called The Night to be Much Observed or The Night to be Much Remembered. Typically we meet together in small groups in people's homes for a very special meal with each other. Turn to Exodus 12:40, we see this explained, we see this precedent, it's a very special night and a very meaningful night, it's special to the Old Testament Israelites, very meaningful for them because that was the night they left Egypt, that was the night God delivered them from their slavery. But it's a very special night for us in the Church as well because it holds very special spiritual meaning to us.
Ex. 12:40 - Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years. And it came to pass at the end of the 430 years, on the very same day, it came to pass that all the armies (or organized divisions as it could read) of the Eternal went out from the land of Egypt . It is a night of solemn observance ...or the King James Version says it was a night to be much observed... to the Eternal for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Eternal, a solemn observance, that night of the Lord to be observed, for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
During that night portion, the evening portion, the beginning of the first day of Unleavened Bread, God brought Israel out of Egypt, He delivered them and one of the greatest events in all of history, one that's, even people who are unfamiliar with much of the bible, know about the Exodus. Movies have been made! He delivered His people out of Egyptian slavery, He intervened for a particular group of people, He selected this group, He worked with this group, but not with everybody. When we sit down together on the Night to be Much Remembered, we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made and how He made it possible for us to have our sins forgiven and for us to have the peace and the peace of mind that we have. Remember the exodus and how God intervened for His people in ancient Israel times, Old Testament times? But we also, when we sit down, we remember how God called us out of the world as well. It's phenomenal as we sit down and rehearse some of these stories of how God has brought us into His Church. And often on this night we reminisce - "How did you come into the Church, how did God call you?" Fascinating - we do this more than just on the Night to be Much Observed. We were at one of the member's homes not long ago and it was fascinating to just go around the table and hear how God called various members into the Church. Fascinating stories, everyone has a story and every one is fascinating and some are even a little unusual - the stories, not the people, I didn't mean that!
I remember one man in a church area many years ago, explaining to us how he came in the Church. He explained he lived in an apartment complex at the time and one night he was taking his trash out to the trashcans and as he lifted the lid on the trashcan to put his trash in, right there on top was some of the Church literature. So it kind of caught his attention and he took the literature, put his trash in and went back in the house, his apartment, began reading it, fascinated by it, wrote for more, that was his introduction to the Church, the way God began to call him! So don't go home and just look in your trashcan necessarily, but it illustrates how God can use any avenue, any way to begin to call and invite those He wants to be in His Church, it's fascinating.
Let's go to John 6:44, this is a familiar scripture, an important one to keep, maybe even to memorize because it helps us to understand that no one just accidentally stumbles into the Church of God, it doesn't work like that. Accidents don't happen in that regard, there's a calling, an invitation, there's a drawing involved. Mr. Dave Evans, in his sermon last Sabbath in the morning, was referring to this point, very good point.
John 6:44 - "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him...No one can come to God, come to Christ, unless the Father draws him...and I will raise him up at the last day."
We understand the process, there's a calling, an invitation extended. All of us have been called out of something and we've been called into the Church of God. Before we were called some of us were unreligious, irreligious, some of us were atheists, some were running away from God, some of us were very heavily involved in our previous churches, but in every case, something special was given to us by God and that is, an invitation was extended. God was saying, Here, I want you to understand something, I hope you'll respond to this invitation. This is true not only with adults, but it's also true with our children and young people. Those who grew up in the Church required a calling, an invitation as well, our minds have to opened, a miracle has to take place. But even our children, our teens, our young people, God is working with, He's calling, He's drawing them into the Church.
And on the Night to be Much Observed, we celebrate and rejoice in the fact that God has called us, that there's been an invitation extended, that God has invited us into His family. That doesn't make us special or more important or better than anybody else, but it gives us a unique opportunity to be among the first fruits that God is working with. God called Israel out of Egypt, but He did not call the Egyptians. He didn't work with the Egyptians; in fact He worked against the Egyptians. In a similar way, He's calling us out of the world, but He's not calling the world yet - He will individually, He will later on at another time, and God, when He calls an individual and begins to work in a family, He doesn't always call every member of the family, it's not automatic. There's an invitation given to those that God is specifically dealing with and although God is selective, He is never exclusive. We understand God has an order to His plan, an order to His call, that eventually everyone will have an opportunity to become part of God's family.
Around this time of the year when the spring festivals begin to get close to us, many religious people in the world begin to celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as Mr. Metzel was mentioning in his sermonette. The resurrection is truly a great event, Christ's resurrection was phenomenal, it was very important, it's interesting however that in the scriptures that there's no instruction in the bible telling us to observe Christ's resurrection. There's not one scripture that says do it, there's no example of anyone in the bible doing it, therefore we understand we don't do it. However, what's interesting is that God doesn't ask us to celebrate Christ's resurrection but He does instruct us to celebrate two other resurrections. On the Feast of Trumpets we celebrate our resurrection, we celebrate the first fruits being born into God's family and on the Last Great Day, the day right after the Feast of Tabernacles, we also celebrate another resurrection, the general resurrection it's sometimes called, the second resurrection, when everybody whose never had a chance will be invited into God's family. Isn't it interesting, God is selective about which resurrections He asks us to celebrate.
Let's turn next to Jeremiah 16:14. While the Night to be Much Observed pictures ancient Israel leaving Egypt, the great exodus, it also points to a time in the future. So many things in God's plan are dual, this is another example. There was a great exodus in Moses' day but there's a future exodus, a time in the future, a time when God will begin to call everybody. The setting of the scripture in Jer. 16 is that this great event will take place right after Christ returns, at the beginning of the Millennium.
Jer. 16:14 - "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Eternal, "that it shall no more be said, 'The Eternal lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' but, 'The Eternal lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He has driven them. For I will bring them back into the land that I gave to their fathers.'"
This is a future event, modern day; the twelve tribes of modern day Israel will be in captivity again and God will deliver them out of captivity, another exodus back to Palestine and God will begin working with those Israelites, the second exodus as it's commonly called. The ancient exodus is one of the best known events of all Old Testament history and people are still fascinated by the stories of the plagues and the miracles that were involved. But these verses show us that the time is coming, after Christ returns, that there will be another exodus, so impressive that the first exodus will seem insignificant by comparison. The physical Israelites that have been scattered and in captivity will be brought back to Palestine and God will begin working with them and God's plan will spread from there on to the point that God will eventually start calling everybody on the face of the earth.
During the millennium, when people celebrate the Night to be Much Remembered, no doubt they'll talk about the original exodus but apparently they'll talk even more about the second exodus, that will be such a spectacular event that they won't forget it and they'll talk about it for generations and generations and they'll also talk about how God began working in their lives and brought them into the Church as well.
So as we celebrate the Night to be Much Observed, we're also celebrating the fact that we're called together as a family, as a Church, not just individually, we're welded, glued, stuck together, we're here to work together, we've got a job to do, yes building individual character, but collectively, learning to work together, learning to get along with each other so that we can work together as teachers and to teach people after the second exodus in the World Tomorrow. So we see that God is selective, but He's not exclusive and we need to have the same perspective that God has toward people, remembering that God is calling us now but eventually God will give everybody an opportunity and that doesn't make us any better than anybody else, it just gives us our responsibility now. Part of our responsibility is to see that the gospel is preached around the world, He has given us a job, a commission, a work to do and collectively we have to work together to accomplish that.
The physical and spiritual deleavening that goes into this is very important, we have to think in terms of preparing for it, but I think it helps to keep it in perspective, that Old Testament Israel, the future exodus that's coming, but also how God works individually in our lives.
A fourth thing we can learn from the spring festivals is that God is faithful to His promises, particularly the promises He's made concerning the New Covenant, He's made a great commitment to us and He'll fulfill that commitment. Hebrews 8:10, let's go there. It talks about the New Covenant here and God has made a promise to work with us, I think that's a very important phrase that God will work with us as He does individually, works with each of us in different ways, to accomplish what needs to be done in our lives. God will work with us to change our nature, to make us more like Him.
Heb. 8:10 - "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days," says the Eternal, "I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be My people."
During the Days of Unleavened Bread, we eat unleavened bread and we do that to remind us that God is faithfully writing His laws in our hearts and minds. Before the Days of Unleavened Bread, we put leaven out; we put sin out of our lives. During the Days of Unleavened Bread, we eat unleavened bread, picturing how God is writing His character, writing His laws in us, He's working with us internally and spiritually, that's the reason we eat unleavened bread, to be reminded that God is putting His righteousness, His laws into us. So the seven Days of Unleavened Bread picture the promise that Jesus Christ is giving us His righteousness. Under the New Covenant, God promises to write His laws in our hearts and minds, He promises to work with us, to bring our character up to His level. That's not something we can do on our own, it's not something God can do on His own, it takes joint effort between God and us, we have our part, God has His, He can't build our character without our cooperation and we can't build it without His cooperation, it takes us working with God to do that.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the fact that God the Father and Jesus Christ will be faithful in keeping their promises to complete deliver us from sin, that He will work with us to get us finally out of sin and that's very encouraging because once we've been forgiven, pictured by our baptism, then there's a need for the Father to go to work on us and with us to make us like His Son, the character building process. He's faithful to do this for us and we need to be faithful to do our part as well, diligently working to recognize sin, to avoid it, to overcome it in our lives. As a human being, Jesus Christ was deeply committed to not sinning, Christ did not sin, not even once and we're to faithfully imitate Him as best we can, avoiding, overcoming, preventing sin, with every ounce of our being.
Unleavened Bread is a time of rededication to the fact that we're living a righteous life that Christ is living in us, that God's laws are being written in our minds, that we're submitted to, that we're following and yielded to God. Living a righteous life is part of the contract we made with God at baptism. At this season of the year, it's important that we renew that commitment, every year at Passover; we renew that commitment to let Jesus Christ work in us.
I was impressed with this weeks Home Office update, I hope you had a chance to read it, or if you haven't, I hope you'll have a chance to review it. Our President Mr. Kilough wrote this in his letter, this one paragraph that I wanted to read because it really was extremely helpful. He said, "Although we strive on a year round basis to strengthen our spiritual condition, in the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread season, we particularly focus on our relationship with God, overcoming sin, becoming more like our elder brother Jesus Christ. Let's pray especially during this time that God will inspire, teach, correct and help us in ways that will strengthen us greatly." We've covered the four characteristics today and I'm sure there are others that we could learn from the spring festivals, but these are the ones we've covered to demonstrate God's love for His people.
Now I'd like to add a few thoughts about the preparation of this upcoming spring festival. Although we need to put out a certain amount of effort and energy to physically deleaven our homes, we realize that requires time and effort, but the important part is to realize that the physical deleavening is only a type of the spiritual deleavening that we're suppose to be doing in our lives, that the physical is just a way of learning more deeply the spiritual lessons. They're both important, but the spiritual is more important than the physical. Let's turn to I Cor. 11:27. A point is made here that is very important because every year we're given a special and critically important assignment to fulfill before taking the Passover. It's a very personal responsibility, no other person can do it for you and me, it's something we have to do ourselves, but we're told to do it before the Passover.
I Cor. 11:27 - Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
No one in God's church is "worthy" of the sacrifice of Christ, that's not the point. This verse is not saying that we're worthy, it's not addressing that issue, it's talking about taking the Passover in an unworthy manner. We're to do it in a worthy manner, we're to do it with understanding and appreciating what the Passover pictures, what those symbols mean and how that impacts us. This next verse gives us the assignment that I was referring to. It says:
verse 28 - But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
So we need to examine ourselves as to whether we're going forward or backward this year. It's not guaranteed as soon as we're baptized that we're always going to continue going forward. If we're not careful we can easily start going backward, but how do we effectively examine ourselves? It's not a subject that we should quickly gloss over, read the verse and move on. We cannot deal with it in generalities, we have to take enough time to give it some serious thought, examine it says, examining ourselves. This requires prayer; it requires God to guide us. We need to do this in a systematic way of evaluating ourselves. Notice it doesn't say husbands evaluate or examine your wives and wives examine your husbands - it doesn't say that, it says we examine ourselves, that's our responsibility.
Perhaps something that can be helpful is to write down the fruits of God's holy spirit and then individually look at each one, examining our own life to see whether that fruit of God's spirit is alive and well, whether we're thriving, we're growing in that area, whether we're progressing in that area or whether that's a deficiency that we need to exert some more energy. But starting with the fruits of God's holy spirit, maybe writing down things we learn from our own personal bible study, notes that we've taken, especially there are certain scriptures that jump out and we say, "That's me that really applies to me, I need that." And if we keep track of those, keep that list and review those things that we know specifically apply to us that can be very helpful. Maybe the things that are said in sermons and sermonettes and articles between now and the Passover, things that can be very meaningful, that are a good source of review for us. But we need to evaluate these areas of how am I doing and the chance to ask ourselves, because we're the ones responsible for this self examination process.
Now God can be very involved in that and should be, and as we study God's word, we start comparing ourselves with God and especially the four qualities that we looked at today, of God's mercy and forgiveness, of whether we hate sin, the way God does. That God has unprejudiced love toward all people and that God is very faithful in what He's promised to do. But comparing ourselves to God should not be a discouraging experience because God is willing to lift us up and give us help in that area, He wants us to work this process, He wants us to use this process to grow, to be motivated by it, not to be depressed over it. He's willing to give us His holy spirit to help this process work.
You know part of our concern is that everyone of us as human beings has blind spots. We all have spiritual blind spots, we have sins, we have weaknesses that we don't always see in ourselves, sometimes they're more obvious to others than they are to ourselves. But God wants us to see our self, as we really are and often the question is asked, Well how do I see these blinds spots, how do I find out what I'm really like, how do I avoid deceiving myself? And the process really is fairly simple, that we have to go to God and say to God, Show me my sins. And when we do, and if we say that humbly and sincerely, Father, show me my sins, He will. He wants to show us, He's waiting for us to respond in that direction and will gladly show them to us, and I realize this can be a little painful, especially if you're new in the Church or you're old in the Church! This can be painful, this isn't something we do necessarily every day, I'm sure, but at least once a year God says do it. And it doesn't have to be overly painful, in fact we can approach it in a rather sensitive way, we can ask God, I want to see my sins, I need to see my blind spots, I need to see what I need to work on, but can you do this without pain? Is there any kind way you can show me, can you show me a little bit at a time?
You know Jeremiah was the one who said, "Lord correct me, but gently, not too much all at one time lest you destroy me." And I think we can follow that principle of saying, God help me, show me my sins but can we do it gradually, can we work on it a little bit this year and a little more next year, not all at once so I get discouraged by it? I think that's perfectly understandable, but we do need to become more deeply converted and by doing that we have to address where we are spiritually, where our defects are and ask God for help in making progress in those areas where we're weak. How can we change if we don't see what we need to change? It has to start by us seeing that. Hopefully we'll take some time between now and Passover to fast, some time to set aside some extra prayer, extra bible study, asking God through the process of fasting to show me my sins, help me to see where I need to progress and grow, spending time on personal bible study and time preparing for the Passover.
One thing that is extremely helpful and many people do this, is to take one of the four gospels and read it from beginning to end during this preparatory months and weeks before the Passover so that the life of Christ and what He taught and what He's done is very clear in our minds, it's vivid, I think that can be extremely helpful. But reading the scriptures, especially if we've been in the Church for a number of years, if we're not careful we can read them on auto pilot, just kind of read the scriptures, we've read them many times, we know that we've got a few of them memorized, it's easy to just buzz right through them and for them not to kind of grab our mind and have meaning for us, so we need to slow down, read them carefully, maybe in a different translation so that it grabs us, it's more meaningful than just, again, methodically, predictably reading through the scriptures. There are several booklets that could be helpful, especially the holy day booklet, the sections on Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread, our holy day booklet is accessible and available. The Ten Commandments booklet can be very helpful and again, give us some material for self-examination as we go through the Ten Commandments. Also the booklet, Jesus Christ, the Real Story, giving us good clear insight into Christ and His life and His ministry and the tremendous sacrifice that He paid for us.
But the spring festivals are not just for adults, they're also for children and teenagers. Until we're baptized of course, you wouldn't partake of the Passover bread and wine, washing feet, we understand that, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be preparing for the spring festivals. God obviously would be very pleased for our teenagers and our children to be progressing, making progress, doing some preparation on their own. I have a couple suggestions of how teenagers and young people can be beginning to prepare for the spring festivals. One would be to make a decision to learn more about what these festivals mean and you can do that by reading a couple chapters in our holy day booklet or the bible study course has a section on that. It would be extremely helpful, pay clear attention, good attention during the sermons prior to and during the spring holy days and ask your parents some questions - why do we do that, what does this mean, I don't understand that. It would be a good time for our parents, us as parents, to stay sharp on what these points are to be able to answer our children's questions.
A second area that could be helpful is for the children and the teenagers to pick one area of your life where you realize you need to make some changes. Just one area, an area that you realize that by making progress in that area, it would please God, probably your parents too but it would please God, that can go a long way. Maybe something as simple as learning and making a habit of praying a little bit every day, building a habit of prayer every day, that would be an exceptionally important step for you to begin and begin soon if you can. Or something that you realize is a need in your character, maybe you have trouble controlling your temper, you lose your temper a lot, so that's something you're going to work on, you're going to read some scriptures about it, read some material on it, make a note of it, put out some energy and effort to slow down and control your temper and get a better handle on and control over your temper, that would be a good place to start as well.
Our final scripture is Hebrews 10:19. You know the spring festivals, would you consider a sober time or a joyful time, when you think of the spring festivals, what do you think of? Is it a sober time, is it a joyful time? Well I believe it's both, I think both aspects are really covered by the meaning of the day. We're sobered when we take stock of our own lives - that can be a sobering experience, that's true. We can be sobered when we realize what Jesus Christ had to go through in order to have our sins forgiven, that's very sobering. On the other hand, we can be happy and we can celebrate the fact that Christ's suffering is finished, He's already done that, that's behind Him in that sense, it's been accomplished. And also the price has been paid and the Father now considers us forgiven, that when we repent of our sins, God is willing to forgive and that Christ can move on and continue to make some progress in our lives now, it can be a very joyful time as well.
This section of this letter to the Hebrews, the Jewish members in Paul's day was written to Church members just like us and it's encouraging us to approach God from the point of view of confidence and faith and not with doubt and guilt and fear of rejection. This is what it says:
Heb. 10:19-23 - Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful.
Now I hope brethren that this Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread season can be the most meaningful and joyful that you have ever had. I hope that every year gets more meaningful, I hope that every year can be inspiring and more motivating than the year before, especially as we come to know God better, as our relationship and our bond with Him is stronger, develops even more. Because we can be happy, having confidence that God has committed Himself to working with His family, God has started something and clearly from the scriptures, when He starts something, He's going to finish it and He's started working with us and we can be confident that God will not quit until He's finished the product. So we can be happy when we see what God is doing, but especially when we look down the road to the wonderful future when everyone will have the opportunity to become part of God's people, God's Church, and eventually God's family.