Sermon Tone Analysis

THE EIGHT RUDIMENTS OF CELEBRATION

THE EIGHT FEASTS OR FESTIVALS OF ISRAEL

The Feast Of Unleavened Bread

Leviticus 23:6-8

(festiv3.doc)

*SAVED TO THE UTTERMOST*

 

        When an engineer designs a suspension bridge, he has to keep in mind three important factors.

First, he must figure on the dead load, which is the weight of the structure itself.

Second, he must take into account the live load, or the amount of tonnage that the bridge will bear.

And third, he must allow for the wind load.

This is the stress that the superstructure can take from high wind velocities.

God's marvelous salvation provides for three similar needs in our lives.

The "dead load" corresponds to the burden of sin which has been forgiven.

The "live load" is our need for daily cleansing which He provides in 1 John 1:7.

The "wind load" corresponds to those times when we have to endure unusual trials.

For these times we are assured that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:39).

Today, I want to thank God for taking care of the "live load" in our lives, i.e. the need for daily cleansing.

And periodically removing from our lives anything that is defiling or corrupting, is very important to the concept of worship celebration.

I am preaching a nine message series on the rudiments, skills, or principles of celebration.

*  God has been showing me that humanity needs celebration.*

*  He has been showing me that celebration is a very important part of the Christian life!*

*  He has been showing me that celebration is of special significance and importance to African-American Christians.*

 

\\         Life is a struggle for everybody, no matter what your color or nationality, but for African-American people life is even more of a struggle because of the residual effects of slavery.

We must face more than the average race in terms of subtle discrimination, economic reprisals, educational stereotyping, etc.

After we have been beat up and beat down all week; after we have struggled and striven to achieve life through material and earthly means, we need to take a break from the rat race and return to the human race by entering God's presence for a time of celebration.

The importance of celebration is illustrated in the Old Testament in Leviticus the 23rd chapter.

Three messages ago, we began to deal with the eight feasts or festivals which God commanded Israel to celebrate.

These festivals were holy convocations, conventions, or celebrations which God invoked upon His people.

There is a major rudiment or skill which is taught in each festival, which will yield a principle that we can learn and apply to our own modern worship celebrations.

In the first two messages, we covered the feast, or festival, of the Sabbath.

The major rudiment, skill, or principle of celebration that we covered was *resting* from our worldly labors.

In the last message, we studied the festival of the Passover.

The major rudiment of celebration that we covered was *remembering* what God had done.

/(Let's move on to the next rudiment of celebration, which is found in verses Leviticus 23:6-8  Would you follow along silently, as I read out this out loud for us.

The next major rudiment of celebration is:)/

 

III.

REMOVING.

The next festival of the Jews was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

*This festival was actually an extension of the Passover.*

“The killing of the lamb was a single act, and the Passover was reckoned as a one-day feast, as was also the Feast of First-fruits, Pentecost, and the Atonement.

These one-day feasts all point to certain *acts* of Jehovah’s hand, certain definite transactions of His, perfect and complete in themselves, whereas those feasts which were of seven and eight-day continuance, point to the *outcome* of these acts, and their *results* in blessing to the people of God.

Thus, while the Passover is the type of Christ’s death Godward, the seven-day feast of unleavened bread, points to the whole course and character of the believer’s life on earth, from the day of his conversion onward.

It speaks of communion with God based upon redemption, in holiness and truth.

The blood of Christ is the foundation of all true fellowship with God:  the Person of Christ,¾feeding on the Lamb slain¾the only means whereby such fellowship may be maintained; and holiness¾the putting away of (/or removing of/) the leaven¾the condition necessary for its enjoyment.”[1]

Would you turn to Exodus 12:15-20.

Let me read this for us also.

\\ /(There are a number of features of this festival that teach about the celebratory rudiment of removing, i.e. removing sin.)/

 

1.

"*This day involved a great time of spring-cleaning.*

No leaven was allowed within their dwellings.

It meant more than not eating leaven.

*It was a matter of complete separation.*

This, therefore, meant a great deal of activity for the woman.

Everything in the house had to be cleansed thoroughly.

The ceilings and walls were washed, floors and cupboards were scrubbed, corners were scoured, and every piece of furniture cleaned.

This included all the cooking utensils and ovens, things that had never been contaminated by leaven in the course of the year.

So thoroughly was this work done that the woman would have a pointed implement with which she would scrape out every crack or joint, impression or corner, any spot where during the year, a crumb of bread containing leaven might have settled.

*The law was that no leaven should remain anywhere within their dwellings.*

They carried out the law strictly to the letter.

When the cleaning was complete, a member of the household would take pieces of leavened bread and tuck each piece in hiding places, somewhere around the house--a piece under a cushion, or on a ledge, or behind a vessel.

At the day's close, when the man of the house had returned from the fields and had partaken of his evening meal, and after the sun had set, there would take place in each home the ceremony known as the */search for leaven/*.

Taking a lighted candle, a feather brush, and a wooden spoon, the father would search for the pieces of leavened bread which had been previously hidden.

The children, who had earlier taken note of where the bread had been placed, would help the father by telling him that he was getting hot and hotter, or cold and colder, as he advanced toward or retreated from the various pieces (a game with which many of us are acquainted).

As he gathered each piece he would recite a prayer:

 

`Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Thy commandments and commanded us to remove the leaven.'

He than wrapped the pieces in a cloth and said:

 

`All kinds of leaven that are in my possession which I have not observed nor removed, shall be null and counted as the dust of the earth.'

\\ *The next morning, with similar prayers, he burned the pieces.*

Having done all that was within their power to remove the leaven, they trusted God to annul or destroy anything they had accidentally missed.

They were now ready for the observance of the feast."[2]

"The whole of this feast was to teach the people that they were to be disassociated from the old life.

They were keep themselves from the carnalities of the world around them.

They were a holy people separated to the Lord their God.

*Leaven was a type of that world*."[3]

It is very interesting to track down the uses of leaven in the New Testament:

 

   In 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, we find the leaven of *malice* and *wickedness*;

   In Luke 12:1, we find the leaven of *hypocrisy*;

   In Mark 8:15, we find the leaven of Herod, which was *worldliness* and *compromise*;

   In Matthew 16:6, we find the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The Pharisees were *legalists* who lived to multiply the teachings of the law.

The Sadducees were *modernists* who didn't believe the Word of God;

   In Galatians 5:8-9, we find the leaven of *false doctrine*.

*So, in general, leaven is a picture of sin and worldliness.

The power and pervasiveness of leaven is seen in*

 

Galatians 5:9, "A little leaven leavens the whole lump /of dough/."

This seems to have been a proverb which illustrated the pervasive impact of leaven.

It does not take a lot of leaven to leaven a whole loaf of bread, because a little leaven leavens the whole loaf.

Sin, like leaven, is hidden and invisible to the eye, yet it permeates the entire loaf until the whole loaf has risen.

Sin, like leaven, will permeate and infect the whole person.

*Therefore, if we hope to serve God or to participate in the New Testament worship celebrations which are held on Sundays, we must cleanse ourselves of ALL filthiness of the flesh.*

Perhaps, now, you can see why I entitled this rudiment removing?

All leaven, which is a picture of the world and sin, was to be removed from their dwellings.

\\         We are taught, very clearly in the New Testament, that unleavened bread pictures the Christian life:[4]

 

1 Corinthians 5:7ab, "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are /in fact/ unleavened..."

 

        So, this corresponds very nicely with the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

As was stated in the first message, "*These festivals make up God's calendar.*"[5]

Keep in mind that we are not counting the Sabbath, because even though it is a festival, it is of a different nature than the other seven.

God began His calendar with the shedding of blood during the Passover.

Unless you know Jesus Christ as your own Lamb, your Savior, these feasts will have no application to you.

You will miss out on the blessing of being God's guest simply because you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ."[6]

"As surely as the feast of unleavened bread immediately followed the Passover and was, in fact, a part of it, so the life of sanctification, the life that is one of separation from the world, the flesh, and the devil, commences with our salvation and should continue for the remainder of life's journey on earth, inasmuch as the period of seven days is the symbol of the complete life."[7]