First Day - Feast of Unleavened Bread 2015

Why should Christians celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread?  

April 4, 2015 

The day after Passover begins the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, with a Holy Day on the first and last day. As with Passover, Jesus Christ is the central focus of this feast too. Christians observe this festival knowing that it's a time to focus on striving to put sin out of their lives and overcoming sin and wickedness.

During this New Testament feast, leavening is portrayed as wickedness or sin that Christians strive in their lives to overcome. 

By putting sin or wickedness out of our lives, we are partaking of the true Bread of Life. 

We read Passover evening about the Bread of Life which is our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Jesus our Lord and Creator made a promise to fulfill after He was raised to life. Jesus promised that He and the Father would make their home in us.  Promises fulfilled. 

John 14:23 NKJV Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 

It is Christ in us who is the hope of our future glory in God's Kingdom 

Col 1:27 NKJV  To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

As we eat daily the Unleavened Bread, it is to remind us that this is the body of the Messiah and to have the Holy Spirit living in each of us. 

Mind boggling. 

John 6:35 NKJV  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 

John 6:51 NKJV  I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." 

John 6:52-58 NKJV  The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?"  (53)  Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  (54)  Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.  (55)  For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.  (56)  He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  (57)  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.  (58)  This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever." 

Jesus gives us the authority of observe His feasts with Him.  How.  Jesus is the one who gave us the command. 

John 1:1-14 NKJV  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (2)  He was in the beginning with God.  (3)  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  

(9)  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.  (10)  He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.  (11)  He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  (12)  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  (13)  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  (14)  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 

Lev 23:2 NKJV  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. 

Lev 23:6-8 NKJV  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; “seven days you must eat unleavened bread.”   

(7)  On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.  (8)  But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.' " 

The first and last days of this weeklong festival are set apart as holy convocations, appointed times, High Days, set aside to rest and meet together others to learn and to worship God. 

Jesus commanded the Israelites to observed this festival by removing leaven (such as yeast) out of their homes for seven days and to avoid eating any leavened foods during this time and we must eat unleavened bread each day. 

What does leaven represent?  Jesus gives an example of leaven as a symbol of sin or wickenness. 

Matt 16:6-12 NKJV  Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."  (7)  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "It is because we have taken no bread."  (8)  But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?   

(9)  Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  (10)  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?  

This happen twice, not once as some scholars say. 

(11)  How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread?—but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  (12)  Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The Apostle John tells us: 

1John 3:4 NKJV  Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 

1John 3:7-8 NKJV  Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.  (8)  He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 

Lawlessness:  means violation of law or (generally) wickedness: - transgress (-ion of) the law, unrighteousness 

Remember, leaven passes secretly, silently, but certainly through the mass of dough but we cannot see its progress.” It is the same with sin, sin tries to conceal in our minds, little by little, it grows in us without overcoming it. 

The early church understood the meaning of leaven when Jesus used the word 

Mark 8:15 NKJV  Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." 

Luke 12:1 NKJV  In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 

The Apostle Paul wrote about 20 years later to the Church members (Gentiles) in Corinth and told the Christians to observe this festival.  Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

1Cor 5:8 NKJV  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. 

This shows the church understood what was meant by unleavened and how to observed it. “Therefore let us keep the feast.” 

The Days of Unleavened Bread 

These seven days of self-examination prove invaluable in helping us to devote our lives to God and Jesus Christ. They also picture our eventual triumph over sin, made possible through the sacrifice and aid of Jesus Christ 

It's essential to realize that Jesus kept these commanded biblical festivals as part of His worship of and teaching about the Father—and to understand that these festivals show Christ's central role in the process of salvation. It's vital that we see the biblical Holy Days in their proper New Testament perspective. That perspective points to Jesus Christ. Jesus, who sits at the right hand of the Father, is the main agent of God's plan of salvation for mankind. 

We’re all are still flesh and human beings and suffer temptations and trials today, as before conversion. We have or are slaves to sin and in its power except we have the covering of Jesus blood.   

We read that sin is the transgression of the law:  look at again,  

1John 3:4 KJV  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 

Rom 6:1-23 NKJV  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  (2)  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?  (3)  Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  (4)  Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  

(5)  For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,  (6)  knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  (7)  For he who has died has been freed from sin.   

(8)  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  (9)  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.  (10)  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.   

(11)  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (12)  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  (13)  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.   

(14)  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  (15)  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!  (16)  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?   

(17)  But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.  (18)  And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.   

(19)  I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.   

(20)  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  (21)  What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.  (22)  But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.  (23)  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

The seven days of UNLEAVENED BREAD following Passover, picture to us the complete putting away of sin. As we take of the unleavened Bread each day, we think of the Sacrifice that Jesus did for us and his broken body.

Leavening is a type or symbolism of sin.  Paul tells us: 

1Cor 5:6-7 NKJV  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. 

Paul mentions that Christ is our Passover and because of His sacrifice, we have been forgiven of our sins because of the blood of Christ.  

What then must we do? 

1Cor 5:8 NKJV  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. 

We are to put out the malice and wickedness from our lives and take on sincerity and truth.

The Christian Church or early church (including Gentiles)observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 

Another example.  Doctor Luke wrote: 

Act 20:6 NKJV  But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. 

Paul and his companions plainly had observed the days of unleavened bread at Philippi. 

Observing the Days of Unleavened Bread and trying not to eat anything that has leaven, we realize quite quickly, it is not our own that enables us to overcome sins,  

but it is the righteousness that comes as a result of partaking of that Bread of Life, of Jesus Christ living His righteous life in us, His people and empowering us to conquer sin. 

Gal 2:20 NKJV  I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

The New Testament observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread,

1. teaches us about the resurrected Christ who died for our sins that

2. we may leave a life of sin and

3. have the hope of eternal life through partaking of the true Bread of Life.  

It explains that by letting Christ live in us, we can be transformed. Only by taking on Jesus' character and nature can we truly overcome sin. 

We are powerless to overcome sin on our own. And, yet, God commands us to stop sinning and put on Christ, since we are the Temple of God, with the Holy Spirit living in us.  (we will cover some of this on the last day) 

John 16:13 NKJV  However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 

So, during this week, every time we eat Unleavened Bread, Yes, we are to eat, unleavened bread, think and mediate about what it means.   

Enjoy ourselves during the Feast of Unleavened Bread because of the Truths that the Holy Spirit lead us in.