Trinity Baptist Church

Israel's Second Feast is named after the bread that is required to be eaten during the Holiday of Passover. 

 

It is the second day of what is called the Feast of Passover, and is known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because during this Feast, what is eaten is matzoh, and there was an important understanding of Biblical truth and Godly living required and brought to the attention of the participants in this Feast. 

 

 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread is primarily a reminder of God's miraculous deliverance from Egyptian bondage, for when Israel fled from Egypt to the middle of the night, there was no time for bread dough to rise. 

 

Deuteronomy 16:3:

 

It begins on the 15th day of the Month of Nisan, the day after the Feast of Passover, and lasts for seven days.

 

Collectively today, these eight days are usually called Passover; but during the days of the Second Temple, which was in Jesus' time, it was common to call the eight days the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

 

Luke 22:1-3;7-8

 

This was a prominent Biblical feast. 

 

Unlike the other feasts that were instituted in Leviticus 23, the commandments instituting this Feast were given prior to the exodus from Egypt. 

 

Ex 12:14-20

 

In the other Feast, the details came later, but in this Feast, the details were given prior to the Exodus. 

 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was also the first of three annual Pilgrimage Feasts. 

 

On  

1.     The Feast of Unleavened Bread,

2.     Weeks

3.     Tabernacles. 

 

all Jewish men were required to present themselves before the Lord at the Temple. 

 

In fact, it was in keeping this commandment that Jesus journeyed to Jerusalem for each Pilgrim Feast. 

After one such pilgrimage for the Feast of Unleavened Bread at the age of 12, Jesus comes into a fascinating encounter with Jewish teachers. 

 

It is recorded in Luke 2:42, 43 and 46-47,

 

It is amazing this lowly Galilean child had no university training. He was only 12 years of age, not even having experienced his Bar Mitzvah, which occurs at the age of 13, and yet His understanding and comprehension of the Scriptures were staggering. Never before had they met one like this!

 

The Biblical record gives us only three instructions of the Feast of Unleavened Bread: 

 

1.     Special sacrifices were to be offered in the Temple each day of the Feast. (Leviticus 23:8, Numbers 28:19-24)

 

2.     The first and seventh days of the Feast were Sabbaths with prohibitions on all work. (Exodus 12:16, Leviticus 23:7-8)

 

3.     Leaven was strictly forbidden. 

 

No less than six passages prohibit leaven during this Feast. Leaven is used to produce fermentation, especially in bread dough, and as leaven sours the dough, tiny gas bubbles are produced which cause the bread to rise. 

 

Not only is the eating of leavened food forbidden during the Feast -- even the presence of leaven within one's house is unlawful. 

 

Exodus 12:15:

 

Exodus 13:7 says: 

 

Deuteronomy 16:4 says: 

 

It was not enough just to refrain from eating it, or even touching it, or even looking at leaven by storing it away in a hidden place. All leaven must be purged out. Failure to do so was a serious breach of Biblical Law. 

 

 

 

Today, Jewish households begin with painstaking preparations, weeks before the arrival of Passover. 

Walls are washed and painted. 

Cooking utensils are scalded. 

Clothing is washed with pockets turned inside out. 

Carpets are cleaned. 

Vacuum bags are discarded. 

Even special China dishes are brought out for the feast. 

 

Everything is prepared. 

On the night before Passover, after the evening prayers in the synagogue, the father of each household will perform a "search for leaven" ceremony. 

 

This ancient ceremony purges the last vestiges of leaven from the house. 

 

Actually, the mother will place a few bits of bread in several corners on the windowsills of the house, so there will be some leaven present to be found. After reciting the benediction for the occasion, the father begins to search. 

 

He uses an old wooden spoon in one hand and a goose feather in the other. By candlelight he searches from room to room to discover the distributed bread scraps. 

 

Children follow behind him with great excitement as he carefully uses the feather to sweep the bread he finds under the wooden spoon, and finally the bits of bread and wooden spoon and feather are placed inside a bag or wrapped in a cloth. 

 

 

They are tied with thread and set aside for burning the next morning. 

 

In Israel, to this day, on the night before the Passover, the bread is brought outside and burned, and all remnants of leaven are removed, and all that remains are the charred remains of the loaves of bread – a reminder that Passover was soon to begin.  

 

 

As with other Feasts of the Lord in Leviticus 23, the prophetic meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is found in the work of the Messiah. 

 

Passover pictures the substitutionary death of the Messiah; the Passover Lamb. 

 

The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the burial of the Messiah. 

 

Then, as we will see next week, First Fruits, pictures the resurrection of the Messiah.

 

He would be the Lamb offered up by God, as the once-and-for-all sacrificed. 

 

Isaiah prophesied: 

"Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all...when You make His soul an offering for sin." 

 

But, in the same chapter, Isaiah also gave amazing detail in regard to the burial of Jesus.

 

Isaiah 53:9

Normally one who dies a criminal's death receives a criminal's burial, but this was not the case with Jesus. He was executed as if He was a criminal, but God did not allow His body to be cast outside the city into the garbage heap. 

 

The Messiah was honored in His burial because He was a pure, sinless, "without leaven" sacrifice. 

 

He died not for His own transgressions, but for ours. 

 

Therefore God honored Him with the burial in a rich man's tomb.  He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

 

King David prophesied about Him in Psalm 16:10: 

"For you will not leave my soul in the grave, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption or decay." 

 

The sons of Adam are sinners under divine curse. 

 

In Genesis 3:19, "to dust you shall return," but as a pure, sinless sacrifice. Jesus was not under the curse to return to the dust. 

 

Then, He came forth from the grave on the third day after He carried our sins away as the Firstfruits of Our Resurrection. 

 

So the Feast of Unleavened Bread is that He was pure, sinless, and without leaven. And God validated this by His burial in a rich man's tomb.

 

His body was not permitted to decay in the grave, like the dough soured by leaven, but it was brought forth because He was not a sinner under the curse of death and decay. 

 

It's interesting that the Apostle Paul used this purging ceremony for leaven to convey spiritual truth to the Corinthian believers. 

 

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

 

Paul's message is simple and direct: 

 

For believers who have by faith accepted the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb on Calvary, Passover is now past history. 

 

The deliverance by the Messiah has already been experienced. 

 

They are now living in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where purity and separation from leaven are required.

 

In Scripture, sin is pictured as leaven.

 

The ancient Rabbis believed that:

 

"Leaven represents the evil impulse of the heart." 

 

Leaven is particularly well-suited as the picture of sin, since it rapidly permeates the dough, contaminating it, souring it, fermenting it, and swelling it to many times its original size without changing its weight. 

 

This souring process is the first stage of decay. 

It is the picture of the death decree that God gave when Adam sinned. Since leaven pictures sin, only unleavened items were used in the temple. 

 

Offerings had to be pure, and anything leavened would be deemed impure and unfit.

 

Therefore as the people of God, we are not just to get rid of the large and conspicuous loaves, but we are to take care of the little pieces scattered on the floor of our lives. 

 

We are to take the candle of the Holy Spirit and search through every corner of our hearts. 

 

What did Paul say in that 6^th verse? 

(I Corinthians 5:6)

 

"Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" 

 

He's saying: It's an outrage! Get rid of it! Every bit of leaven must be gone! Understand how significant just a little can be!

 

James 1:14-15

 

14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

 

The tragedy is that believers don't realize this. 

They continue to be duped by the flesh, thinking and acting as if sin is an evil task master that they are obligated to obey. 

 

 

 

 

The presence of any leaven during Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is an absolute outrage in Israel, and therefore, it must be an outrage in our lives. 

 

The task is not complete until every speck of leaven is purged. Why? 

 

Paul gives us this pressing motivation in 1 Cor 5:7-8

 

I find it interesting that Jesus did not refer to Himself as the Lamb. John the Baptist did; Paul did, but Jesus didn’t.

 

How did Jesus, then refer to Himself? 

 

Jesus said: “I am the bread of life….I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:48, 51).

 

This was not just a figure of speech. Jesus meant the words literally. At the Last Supper the night before he died, he held bread in his hands and said to his friends, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24).

 

Ever since then Christians have been celebrating the breaking of the bread. We come together to share a meal and be fed with the bread and wine that is Jesus. Every time we observe the Lord’s Supper we are reminded of the gift of Jesus' love through which we remember his death and resurrection and share in them.

 

When Jesus called himself the bread of life, his listeners no doubt thought of Moses. Through Moses God sent down manna, bread from heaven that fed the chosen people for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land.

 

Jesus explained, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die” (John 6:49-51).

 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a town whose name means “House of Bread.” His mother laid him in a manger, a feeding trough, a hint that someday he would be bread for the world.

 

All four Gospels tell the story of the miraculous feeding of crowds, which foreshadows what happens at Mass. Jesus fed thousands of people by having the disciples distribute five barley loaves and two fish. After everyone had enough to eat, there were still 12 baskets of leftovers (and in some accounts seven).

 

Even the time in which Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper was a clue to its meaning—the time of Passover. At this feast the Jewish people celebrate their salvation from death in Egypt by a meal that includes unleavened bread and wine.

 

Jesus feeds us with his body and blood. We enter into communion with him and with one another. Unlike other food, which becomes part of us, Jesus in the sacred bread and wine makes us more like him. Therefore we, too, are to be bread for the world.

 

 

 

The living bread sustains us and prepares us for that day when we will come to the heavenly banquet. It is a pledge of future glory. It is the means by which Christ fulfills his promise, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

 

Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” When you believe on Christ as your Savior, it is the beginning of a whole new life that brings about a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ which is to grow by feeding upon Him every day.

 

Give us “today” and do it “daily” stresses the idea of repeated requests. He can give us “our daily bread” because He is “the bread of life.” He invites us to come daily with our most important needs. Do you pray daily, “Lord, give me the spiritual bread that comes down from heaven and satisfies my soul”?

 

“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (v. 56). There is no mystical power, or something meritorious in the act of eating. The nourishing spiritual power is in the food eaten. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ. Jesus is using language that denotes a faith-union by a mutual indwelling.

 

The apostle Paul spoke of a “coinherence” of Jesus and His believers. We are cocrucified, coburied, coresurrected with Christ. John repeatedly expressed this experience by use of the verb meno, “abide,” “remain,” or “dwell” (15:4). Again, the apostle Paul says the same thing when he uses the phrases “in Christ” or “Christ in me.”

 

 

In 1 John 2:24 the apostle John tells us believing in Christ and keeping Jesus’ commandments are two things which cannot be separated. There is no true faith in Christ without obedience. John places a great emphasis on this mutual indwelling of Christ and the believer in 13:31-16:33.

 

The saved sinner is brought into a vital union with Christ whereby we can enjoy the most intimate fellowship with Him. It is only the one who “eats” and “drinks” constantly that abides in unbroken fellowship with Christ. We feed upon the risen Christ.

 

The true bread of life feeds our souls eternally. He gives us “supernatural food” (1 Cor. 10:3). It always points to Christ. Every time we remember that Christ died for us we feed on Him in our heart by faith with thanksgiving. Jesus stresses the continuous appropriation of His flesh and blood.

 

To eat and drink for a Jewish person was to share in and partake of the privileges of friendship. It is our responsibility to daily eat, appropriate the spiritual food Jesus provides through His sacrifice on the cross. He has made a perfect daily provision for our every spiritual need. He invites us to come daily and feast upon His marvelous provision.

 

How do I “eat” my daily bread?

 

You can’t appropriate Christ daily until you get to know Him daily. You have to get into the Scriptures that tell about Him. Has Jesus Christ become your daily bread? We feed ourselves on Christ daily by cherishing and obeying His Word. His words are spiritual, life-giving food.

 

Read the Bible. Read it repeatedly. Read it with emphasis and feeling. Pause and think about what you just read. Pray over what you have read. Ask the Holy Spirit to make your mind receptive to the word of God. Pay close attention to words. Never miss the significant ones.

 

Use your dictionary if you do not know what it means. Trace the meaning of the key words with the marginal references and your concordance. Talk the words through; think the words through. Compare one word with another. Look it up in another place in the Scriptures so you can begin to see the meaning of the passage.

 

Go back and read the passage over and over and over until the focus of your concentration is upon Christ and the Scriptures. Become so familiar with the passage you can “see” it in your mind’s eye. Use your sanctified imagination and make Jesus Christ pre-eminent in your mind and heart. Don’t forget to yield to Him and do what you know is the right thing to do.

 

We need to meditate often on the meaning of His death and resurrection for us.

 

We need to get into His Word daily and find Christ in it. Develop an intimate, personal, communication with Jesus on a daily basis. Learn to talk to him through out the day. Draw from His person by abiding in Him.

 

Many years ago there was a Scotsman who traveled to America. He took almost all of his money and purchased passage on a great ocean liner.

 

In preparation for his trip he stocked up on crackers, cheese and fruit before departure so he would have a good stash on board for the trip.

 

After the ship set sail he did fairly well for the first four or five days. However, the crackers became stale, the cheese soft and moldy and the fruit began to spoil.

 

Finally, the old Scot got so hungry he took some of his money and headed to the dining room for a good meal. Imagine his surprise when he found out that everything in the dining room was included in the cost of the ticket. All that he could have ever eaten was already included in the price of his ticket from Scotland to America.

 

God has provided you with all the essentials for eternal life without price and without cost. Jesus Christ is the bread of life.

 

How is your spiritual appetite? Do you find yourself grumbling and complaining or feasting on Christ? Do you find yourself grumbling in a spiritual desert of your own making? To what extent are you feeding on Christ? We “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood by meditating on Him, by dwelling on His Word, and by resting our faith on Him.

 

He is our Feast of Unleavened Bread!