The Unleavened – The Context of Matzah

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

As we enter into this season of Passover, the season of Unleavened Bread, it's always good to remember what this coming week is about, what we should be doing during this time. I made a mention—why did God choose Passover for Yeshua to start the revolution of the kingdom? Because it's a festival of freedom. Festival of freedom. That's what it's about. Monday evening kicks off Passover, which also kicks off the week of unleavened bread. How many of you guys is this your first Passover? Fantastic. How many of you guys second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or more? Amen. It's always good to revisit what we're supposed to be doing next week.

A Festival of Freedom and Unleavened Bread

Unleavened bread approaches and it's fascinating because until I studied it, it really confused me. Why would God care about bread? You guys know the commandments in Leviticus 23—it speaks about Passover and how you're supposed to eat the Passover and have this covenantal meal with unleavened bread, and then for the next seven days you're going to eat unleavened bread. Why does God care whether you have leavened bread or not? Anybody? Have unleavened bread today—today's unleavened bread is like crackers, right? In ancient times, more like a pancake—but not only that, you have to eat this stuff, this unleavened bread.

You also have to get it out of your house, which is always fun. We spent all day Thursday—I mean, my wife, man. She was determined. We're going to get it right this year. And those of you who have kept it for a while, you understand what I'm saying. The first couple years, you feel like you're doing good. I threw away the hot dog buns, right? And I vacuumed. We're good. After you've been doing it for four or five years, you think you've been doing good, and then you realize your toaster oven—ugh. About seven or eight years in, you realize when you go to feed your dog in the middle of a week of unleavened bread, you pour the food in the bowl and you notice kibbles.

So you dare look at the ingredients. Yeast, first ingredient, right? Dog food— dog's going to starve. It's fascinating. And so it's always fun each year to see if maybe this year I can get all this junk out of my house. Just clean it up. Look at the places where you don't expect it. And we're going to be reviewing that. So I want to talk about the unleavened because I know that was just a total exit ramp. What is the context of giving the leavened out of our lives? What does leavening represent? Does it pride? Does it? It's important for us to understand what leavening may or may not represent. I don't disagree with pride or sin by any means.

And it's also important to understand why that was a command. If you are caught eating leavening during this week, you'll be cut off from Israel. Pretty extreme. That was a command by God. Why did God command leavening to not be eaten for the week of the Passover?

Remembering the Exodus

And so we're going to start in Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy 16 reviews the three pilgrimage feasts of Torah, starting in verse 3. And he states: So we have a reason—why are we to not eat leavened bread? So that we remember, number one, when it was time to go, we left quick. And number two, that we remember that we left. Verse 4: "Let no yeast be found in your possession and all of your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain until morning, Pesach," and — It's fascinating. You know what? I'm not even going to go there. That's okay. So we know that Exodus...

You guys know that God made addendums in Torah? He made addendums in Torah. God changed the Torah in the Torah. See, in Exodus, which we're about to read, he said, "Listen, I need you guys to sacrifice the lamb or the goat at the altar or at your doors, and you're going to paint the door frame, right, with the blood. And that'll be a sign for me, right?" Alright guys—Deuteronomy. Alright, so you're done with that. You're good. You're my people now. You're a nation now. You have my reign. You have my constitution. When we go into the land, guess what? You're not going to do that anymore. You're not going to sacrifice it within your gates, your backyard.

No siree. That is now forbidden. That is banned. That is illegal according to my commandments. Even though I said it was legal before, I'm going to change it because I have something greater for you to do. You're going to go to the place that I will place my name, which is where? Jerusalem. The temple—Jerusalem—both, right? Both, right. Jerusalem or the temple, and you will sacrifice it there, and you will eat it within the bounds of Jerusalem. That's why Jerusalem had the Kedusha of the temple courts, if you will, because you could eat the lesser sacrifices within the walls of Jerusalem. And so a lot of people have issues with that.

We have to read all of Scripture in context—and what God was doing. Some people will think what I just said is heresy. But Exodus, we believe, is written a little bit earlier than Deuteronomy. So let's go there to get a little bit more insight, shall we? Good, I'm glad you're on board.

Teaching Our Children the Commandments

Exodus 13, verse 3. I read a lot of Scripture. Exodus 13, verse 3, and this is speaking about the actual Exodus account—the Passover: "Moses said to the people: Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing leavening. Today, in the month of Aviv, you are leaving. When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorite, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the parasites—all those -ites, the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, the land flowing with milk and honey, you are to observe this ceremony of this month.

The seven days eat bread made without leavening. And on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord. Eat leavened bread during those seven days, nothing with yeast in it, and you will be seen among you? Nothing with yeast shall be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. And on that day, tell your son, 'I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" How many of you guys know that it's a Torah commandment to teach our children the ways of God? I stress that because a lot of the things in Scripture—to do it biblically, we have to have the temple.

We do. I mean, to keep Passover biblically, you have to have a temple. No one's eating the Shalemim offering, the Pesach, at their Seder. They better not be, or they can't be. Because that can only be sacrificed in the place the Lord chooses. That can only be offered on the altar of God, if you will. Not the altar of God, but sacrificed in the temple and then eaten within Jerusalem. No one's eating the Passover biblically. We can't until the temple is rebuilt. That does not stop us from memorializing the Passover. More importantly, that does not stop us from teaching our children about the Passover.

Same thing with Sukkot. Same thing with Shavuot. Talked about it before—tithing. All of it. None of it can be biblically done, but it's efforts to teach our children the commandments of God. And on that day, when your son or daughter asks, you tell them, "I do this because of what the Lord did for me."

Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

You know, Scripture goes on to talk about—after Israel left Egypt, they went into this beautiful place called the wilderness. And it talks about a type of bread that was eaten there. You know what kind of bread that was? They sell it at Trader Joe's. I don't know. Ezekiel bread or something. No, it's called manna, right? You guys remember? In Deuteronomy 8:3— So you guys know the story. This is review. Israel's out in the desert and they start complaining. What's new—us too. And God starts raining down this stuff called manna. You know what manna means in Hebrew, right? If you take all the letters and you go to the pictographic Hebrew and then you get the gematria—I don't know what it adds up to—manna means "What is it?"

And He gave them "What is it?" because neither you nor your fathers had known it. So what is it? Like when you eat gluten-free brownies for the first time—manna. And the Israelites took the manna, they ground it up and they made bread out of it. And this is what God sustained them in the wilderness. And I love this verse, Deuteronomy 8:3, because it's humbling, because it says that man should not, or does not, live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Can man live on bread alone? I mean, let's just be serious. I mean, can man live? I mean, you might. I don't know.

There's a lot of carbs to eat, but you can survive on bread and water for the rest of your life. You're not going to be that healthy. You might die a little bit younger, but you can do it. Lots of civilizations have done it. Bread has always been a staple in the diet. I have a quote here from Professor David Kramer, and he's a professor at JTS, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, with a PhD in the Talmud and rabbinics and also ancient— what was it—Gospels? Ancient, I forget what it was—basically studying the history of Israel, biblical theology in the ancient world specifically. And he wrote a great essay called "Leavened or Unleavened, the History of Leavened Bread."

And I'm going to quote him, I think, three times in this. So don't—oh, he's quoting him again. Yeah, I'm quoting him again because he has some awesome stuff to say in this essay and I want to pass it on to you. He says, in fact, when the Torah says "not by bread alone shall a person live," it actually means that when it comes to food, a person can live by bread alone. What? But it said it can't. The verse continues to define itself: "for by everything that proceeds of the mouth of the Lord does a person live." Meaning that people need more than just food. But as far as food is concerned, bread suffices.

In other words, what God is saying in this verse is there's a difference between being alive and living in the role that you're supposed to live in. There's a difference from breathing to being who God made you to be in his kingdom. When God was speaking to the Israelites, to his kingdom, to those who are in covenant with him, you will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Father. Guys, you can eat bread for the rest of your life—I have those brownies and whatever—and you can live. You can be alive. But without the words of the Father, without your scriptures, without the testimony of God that you have before you, that has been preserved until such a time as this, for you to teach your children, that's what you're supposed to be consuming daily.

That's what you're supposed to be using to walk in the vocation of an image bearer, the vocation given to all mankind in the garden. That's what you're supposed to be using to expand Eden.

The Cultural Significance of Bread

When I began studying this topic a while back, I found it fascinating because bread existed all over the world. Some scholars believe that the original cultural bread-making process may have originated in Egypt. We're not sure, but every culture had their own way of making bread. You guys know what I'm talking about. How many of you guys have family recipes handed down from your grandma and your great-grandma and so on and so forth? And they're on those stained, wrinkled-up note cards. You know what I'm talking about, right? And you gotta get that thing out from the cabinet and flip through. I mean, you can't just search it.

It's not Pinterest. You could use Pinterest and search for a bread recipe—no, no—you need to... You guys know what I'm talking about. Why would you not just Google? Why do you want to use family recipes? What? Grandma's not on Google. Tried and true—there's something about that tradition and heritage that's beautiful. You want to memorialize your heritage. You want to remember your family. This is something that is custom to our family. Every nation, every culture—civilized culture, if you will—had a certain way of making bread. It's fascinating. I have a few different distinctions here. In northern Africa, they actually had community ovens where bread was stamped.

So they would come together as a community—everybody up in the middle of the town, village, or whatnot—and everyone would bring their loaves. They'd have a different family seal on the loaf, and they'd all throw them in the same oven. And when they were baked, you knew what seal you had. You know what I mean? You know, Judy over there always makes good bread. I'll swap mine out with hers. I can't—she put her stamp in it, right? Egypt—they used figs, a type of wheat, honey, mainly—specifically honey in all their bread. It's fascinating because God has a commandment about not bringing not only unleavened bread to his altar, but it cannot have honey on it.

Specifically, don't you put honey on the bread you're gonna come to know. The Hittites primarily used barley up north, a little bit of fruit, spices, sometimes honey. And then Mesopotamia, farther west in the Babylon area, used spices, wheat, barley mixture, and they put beer in their bread. Yeah, beer. This is not Coors Light, this is not Guinness. This is beer. Beer used to be—I guess the best way to describe it when I did the study —I guess beer. When you make beer, you have, like, a mash, a type of mash to begin with, and then you filter it and filter it and filter it and filter it, so you have this nice little clear stuff they put in a bottle and sell.

So take everything past the mash out, and that's beer. In Mesopotamia, they would use the mash.

Bread as Cultural Heritage

These were the heritage of different cultures around them and how they made bread. To state the matter more pointedly, the production of bread is a cultural act, the wisdom for which must be transmitted culturally. To create cultured leavened bread, one must learn the culture of bread. For this reason, among others, in the ancient Mediterranean world, bread was a component—along with wine and to a lesser degree olive oil—the Mediterranean food triad. These foods that in combination communicated the message: "I am a cultured citizen of this nation," right? I think he goes on to say that if one did not eat these foods—if one's diet was composed primarily of, say, meat or milk—then one would be viewed as a barbarian.

You know, if I got no bread, show cornbread—barbarians if you don't have cultured bread. I have... get excited! See, you don't have it? Yes, yes. Can everybody see that? Let's go over it together. This is a page taken from a book called "Manners and Customs of Ancient Egypt," created or written by John Wilkinson about the early to mid-1800s. Matt, are you reading books from the early 1800s? No, because it's very outdated. This was the book that Alexander Hyslop quoted so many times in his discredited work, "The Two Babylons." And so I went back to check the citations that Hyslop had, and I realized that Hyslop made a bunch of stuff up and blamed it on him.

I came across this illustration in the book. You can view this book online for free. Google "Customs and Manners of Ancient Egypt" by Wilkinson. This is a page that is depicting or illustrating how Egyptians made bread. It was a big deal to the Egyptians. So up in the left-hand corner, you see them making the dough with their feet. I love Lucy—loves bread dough, mixing it all up. And they're taking the dough over here and they're making all different shapes and sizes. They got big loaves, small loaves, some as big as your head. They got triangles, round loaves. You even got a loaf right here that looks like a little calf or something.

John Wilkinson writes about crocodile-shaped loaves of bread. That would be kind of cool, right? And they continue on, right? Do all their process, add the ingredients in. Here they are with all the loaves of bread, taking them out of the oven or carrying them to the oven here. A lot of illustrations for how they made bread. Herodotus, the Greek historian of the 5th century BCE, relates—he mentions that Egyptians were specifically bread eaters. How much bread does someone have to eat to be known as a bread eater? There's a lot, right? Dr. Tovia Dickstein states that in Egypt, bread was not simply viewed as food, but the basis of the entire economy.

It was used as the standard of weight and commerce, business, payment for low-income workers, priests and slaves, and offered to the Egyptian gods in religious ceremonies. When David was reforming everything and getting ready to build the temple, if you will, for his son, or get as much as he could prepare to do, and he divided the priesthood up into 24 sections, and he divided up the leaders of Israel into 24 sections, it says that he paid the workers in bread. How would you like to go to work construction? "Hey, three loaves of bread." That was acceptable back then because you had food, right? Bread was not simply Bunny bread that you get at the grocery store.

It carried value. It carried weight. It carried identity along with it.

Preparing for Passover

I'm building all this up because I want you guys to remember at least some aspects of what you're learning today over the next week. Why is it important that we get leaven out of our house for a week? You guys want to see something cool? So you guys know how to make unleavened bread? Unleavened bread. Unleavened bread. All right. So you get some water and some dough or flour, and you make dough. It's like Play-Doh, but it's flour dough. And you mash it up into like a pancake-looking thing, and you can put it on a pot or a skillet with a little bit of oil and slam it on the hot skillet, roast it, fry it like a pancake, flip it.

That's it. Quick unleavened bread. Looks like a pancake. It didn't look like a cracker. Now it looks like a cracker, but making a cultured loaf of bread took much longer. My wife is learning how to make bread. You guys had some of her bread—the sourdough. Anybody? Few people. It's not something that she does in three minutes. And so I want to put this nugget in here. Abraham—you guys remember when the three messengers, the angels, came to Abraham and he ran to Sarah? He was like, "Sarah!" In Genesis 18:6, Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah quickly. He said, "Get three measures of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."

And we always think that she came out with, like, some challah bread, nice braids and everything, you know, some of that cinnamon and sugar, you know, that we do for us. "Quick, quick, woman, we got to make some bread. We got guests." They made unleavened bread. How do we know this? Quick, make unleavened bread, right? Last quote from Dr. Kramer: "What does this command mean? Speaking about getting the leavened bread out of your home. Given what we've said about the significance of bread in that culture, well, the translation should now be quite clear. The Torah, by commanding the elimination of leavening, was demanding that Egyptian culture be left behind.

The Torah's view, as expressed in the bread we do and do not eat on Passover, is that the Israelite culture should not be borrowed. It should not rely on the flawed and corrupt culture of the past..."

The Yeast That Leavens the Whole

Of the past. It should begin anew, freshly leavened by the yeast of God's word, the Torah, revealed for the first time at Sinai. When I read this years ago, it floored me. When God commanded Israel to leave the leavened bread behind—they carried yeast around on their back, or dough around on their back for a couple days. I mean, it got a little bit of yeast in it. That wasn't the concern. The concern was don't take that friendship bread that you've made in Egypt and lasted generation to generation. It's been cultured and you have all the ingredients. No, you're not going to take that with you. You're not going to take the identity of Egypt with you.

You will get that out of your life because you are not an Egyptian. You are not of this world. You are of my kingdom. You are my people and I'm pulling you out. I will be your king. See, Paul references unleavened bread in 1 Corinthians 5:6, and you guys are familiar with this. It's an awesome verse to refer to during this time of the year, especially with your friends. "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know a little yeast works through a whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

I love it because we have passed over the feast of freedom. We've been freed from the bondage of the powers that be of this present age. We've been freed from the slavery of sin, which is what Paul talks about in Romans 6 and continues on through Romans 8. We've been freed through the blood of the lamb. But then a transition happens. You're made anew. And so yes, all of these feasts and festivals they apply to Israel because of their history. But God, their fulfilled definition rests in the lives of believers, in your life, as we walk it out to a greater degree, to a greater understanding and definition. It's fascinating.

Reading the Scripture

Can we read just a few verses out of this chapter? I want you guys to get the context of what Paul's saying here. Do you have time? I love being in control, so we're going to read. You can turn with me to 1 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 1. And we're going to go down to verse—what is it? It got cut off there. We're actually going to go to verse 13. So turn with me there. Good section of scripture to have because Paul is addressing a problem in Corinth. And Lord knows Corinth had some problems. Paul was not shy to march into a city that other believers would try to avoid because the task of spreading the word of God there seemed too difficult.

I like Paul very much. So Corinth—one of those places. And so starting in verse one, it says: "It has been reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of the kind that does not occur even among the pagans: a man with his father's wife. You are so proud. Shouldn't you rather be filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I'm with you in the spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, as if I was present. And when you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in the spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Your boasting is not good. Don't you know a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the festival of Passover— not with old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, bread of sincerity and truth. I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning that the people of this world who are immoral or are greedy and swindlers or idolaters.

In that case, you would just have to leave the world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, or an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside of it? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you."

A Cancer in the Congregation

So what Paul is speaking about is a man within the fellowship—possibly a leader, if you will—a man with high regard, and he is sexually immoral. The people are proud to have him as part of their fellowship. They're proud to associate with him, defending him and his immorality. And Paul's sitting here saying, what are you doing? Why are you so proud? Don't you know a little bit of yeast leavens the whole lump? Now he's talking about something you could apply to your individual lives, but this is also communal. Let me put it this way. We're all on a boat together. Everybody on a boat together—all rowing.

Everybody do it. All right, everybody else is taking a break. That's fine. We'll row you along. And let's say one of us in our seat decides, I'm going to take this drill and I'm going to start drilling a hole in that part of the boat. How would that make you feel? What are you doing? Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. "This is my part of the boat, bro. Don't judge me. This is my section of the boat." No. We're in fellowship. We're in a community. We're in the same boat. Your hole will flood the entire boat. A little bit of yeast will leaven the entire loaf. Guys, sometimes fighting against the flesh is hard.

Amen. If you don't do it for yourself, do it for your community. Do it for your family. Get it out. Right? And so I love what he says. He says, don't be concerned about the world around you. They're immoral. They're greedy, idolaters. If we were worried about them—if you think that being set apart means that you need to separate yourself from being around anybody else in the world because they're non-believers and they're sinners—then you need to put a space suit on and get launched into space. That's the MNV version, the new Matthew version of this verse. Why are you worried about non-believers? You're supposed to be set apart by being a light among the darkness.

You're not supposed to be set apart in the sense of "I can't be around you—you're a pagan." You know what I mean? Who cares? If they're not going to listen, then God will be their judge. Why are you wasting your battery life? Your battery life is supposed to be an image bearer, to be fruitful and multiply. Why was that command given to Adam and Eve? Multiply the image bearers among the earth. Expand worship to God. That's what your job is. That's what your battery life gets used for. If you think that you just need to be set apart and be so holy you can't even be around—not even to be a light—you fail to understand what your true vocation is. But among you, if you see your brother drilling a hole in the stupid boat, try to purge it, help him, help them. And Matthew 18—if they won't stop drilling...

Unleavened Bread and the Exodus

Exodus states: "With the dough that Israelites had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves unleavened bread, the dough that was without yeast, because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves." When God calls you to walk away from the life that you live in the world into the next chapter of His plan, you leave everything behind, unleavened. It's amazing.

Defining the Leaven

So earlier I asked, what do you guys think leaven is defined as? Sin, right? I don't disagree with that. Pride? I want to be intellectual about it. It's not just sin. It's pride. I don't disagree with that either. They do. One of my favorite verses is Matthew because Yeshua is speaking. It says: "Another parable: spake unto them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened." So the kingdom of heaven is like sin, right? But can leavening be a good thing? It's fascinating because when Israel left Egypt, they were commanded to get their past. They were commanded to get the world. They were commanded to get Egypt out of them. That is what getting the leavening out represented. Yes, it is sin. Yes, it is pride. Yes, it is everything that your past pre-Yeshua, pre-covenant-withGod relationship had in it and represented.

But once you leave, you become a new batch. It's amazing because after first fruits—50 days after first fruits—we have a day known as Shavuot, Pentecost. Yeah, Pentecost. Shavuot. And it's fascinating. I believe it's the only time in Scripture (I could be wrong), but I believe it's the only time Israel is commanded to bring leavened bread before God. Two loaves of leavened bread before God. I can't help but think that this represents the life of someone coming out of the world, coming out of Egypt, being free from slavery, and if you will—they have no choice there. They're in their new creation. Their old is passed away. They have been made something new. They are no longer in exile away from God. They're no longer slaves to sin. That's all gone. They purge that out. They've made a decision to say, "You know what? These chains are broken. God broken..." And so they leave the place of the world.

Their New Identity in the Kingdom

They leave their past. They leave Egypt. And they put away the leavening, the identity of not being in the kingdom. And they walk. And they learn what holiness is defined by and how it works. And they learn how to walk as an ambassador of Christ. And they learn how to be an image bearer. And they learn about God's righteousness and his holiness and his commandments. And they learn how to be a worshiper, the vocation of man in the garden, how to worship God. Then they get to learn how to make the bread of life, their new identity, how to make the bread of the new kingdom they're a part of, how to be cultured in the ways of the kingdom of God and not the kingdom of the world.

We're going to learn, we're going to remember what God did for us, and then 50 days later Israel came before God showing who they were as his kingdom with their bread. This wasn't the bread of Egypt. This is the bread of Israel that they brought before God. And that's so encouraging, I feel, during this time as believers. Because, yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong, I like cake just as much as the next guy, but one week without it to remember and to meditate on what God did for me. And so here we go, my favorite verses.

Abraham's Offspring

This one, Galatians : "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." You guys know that Abraham was the man that was called to repair Eden. And that's why — Abraham, everyone's heard of Abraham? And we sing songs about Abraham? We're going to sing it. Father Abraham had many sons, had many sons, had Father Abraham, and I am one of them, and so are you. So let's all praise the Lord, right arm, left arm, right arm. Why do we all know that song? Why is that song so important? I learned that in church. Didn't know who Abraham was, knew the song. Never heard the song?

We're going to teach you. Why is Abraham so important? Because God made a covenant with Abraham. Why? Because Abraham was the one that was called to start repairing the world, start the process of a new creation, start bringing heaven back to earth so that even Eden can be repaired. It was through Abraham's seed that the seed of promise came about, right? Because of Abraham's covenant, Abraham's promise, and Abraham's obedience, and Abraham's righteousness — that is how the Messiah came to be. So when I talk about Passover and I talk about becoming new — this verse, if you are Christ's, say amen if you're of Messiah, if you're of Christ.

Amen. If you're of Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. What promise? The promise that God is not going to forsake his promises made to Abraham. You will be one of those stars. You are one of those sands of the seas and stars in the sky. That's you. The people that God prophesied about and said, Abraham, these are going to be the people of my kingdom. These are going to be the people that will be redeemed. These are going to be the people that I bring back from Exodus. These will be the people that take up the vocation of being the image bearers.

The Second Adam

Adam failed. Paul calls Yeshua the perfect image of God. He also refers to him as the second Adam. Why? He took up Adam's vocation and carried it. And we follow him. That's what this season's about. That's what I'm excited about with Passover — that I remember God took me out of Egypt. That God brought me back to Eden in a relationship with him. That's what I'm celebrating, right? And so, here's actually one of my favorite verses, because I say it every couple weeks: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come." It's like — the professor said, it's anew.

You're leaving the old behind and you have become anew. "All of this is from God, who through Messiah reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them." Because if he did, they'd still be in exile. They'd still be away from God's presence. They would not be alive. They'd still be under the curse defined in Deuteronomy, the curse of the law — not counting their trespasses against them, "and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." Guys, this is exciting.

Get the Leavening Out of Your House

And so as we go into this week of unleavened bread — Deuteronomy 16:3: "Do not eat it with bread made with yeast. For seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste, so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from your Egypt. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all of your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day remain until morning." That's the vocation. That's what we're going to be doing next week, starting Monday evening. Guys, get the leavening out of your house.

Get the leavening out of your house. All right, the cakes, the cookies, the toast, get it — pancakes, get it out of your house. My wife said something, because she was — she was cleaning the little crevices on top of the stove with a little Pampered Chef scraper. And what do you do? I'm like, come on, babe, I don't see any yeast in there. And she looked at me, and I was ashamed. Anyone ever been ashamed when your wife looks at you? Yep, I was ashamed, because she was right. All men, we're going to give her brownie points — who paid attention after me? She was right. And then she looked at me, she said, I want to give God our best.

Pick up that scraper. Let's do it. That's what we're attempting to do this week. Get the leavening out of your house, get the bread out of your house. I know some of us, man, we got that big, expensive whatever that has yeast all in it. I love it, but I can't eat it. I'll throw it away. Throw it away. Remember, remember what God did for you, and what the result of it was. You're no longer an Egyptian. You're no longer of this world. You're part of a new kingdom — Philippians says — new kingdom. And you are a new creation because of it. Starting Monday night, we will come together as a fellowship and we will have a memorial, a covenantal meal, and that will kick off the week of unleavened bread. And for that week, guys, you will be unleavened.

Closing

Hey guys, I'm Matthew Vander Els, pastor at Founded in Truth Fellowship, and I really hope you enjoy this message. If you would like to see more messages and teachings like this one, please subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here. You can also visit our website to find out more information about our ministry and what we do right here. And if this message has been edifying to you, please consider supporting us and the ministry through our secure online giving portal here. This will ensure this message, along with many others, will continue to reach those who find themselves far from God. If you'd like to write us, you can do so at Founded in Truth, P.O. Box 38042, Rock Hill, South Carolina,

facebook.com/foundedintruth. I pray that you stay blessed. I pray that you guys stay encouraged. And I pray that you stay fit. Founded in Truth, we'll see you guys next time.