6th May 2024

6th May 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Exodus 12:14-28 focus v14-20)


Message (Alan Burke) 


Where were you last Tuesday morning? Maybe you know the answer to that because you do the same thing every Tuesday morning, maybe you have to think about it a little. What about the evening of the 24th January 2020, of the 8th of August 2019 or 25th June 2014? Can any of you remember? I remember where I was vividly on each of those days when my diary reminds me of them, if it were not for my diary those days and what happened on those days would simply pass me by because I am prone to forget. The Lord knows just how liable we all are to forget, how with the passing of time those events that were once important, noteworthy, significant times in our lives have become less significant to us. 


For his people he was giving them a new beginning, redeeming them from their slavery in Egypt, bringing salvation to them and before they left he was preparing them so that they wouldn’t forget. The Lord was giving them a new beginning, a new calendar, the Exodus would mark that beginning, but what is more the Lord was giving to his people a lasting memorial, ordnance, that was to be repeated every year to help them to remember the wonder of what God had done for them. Last week we thought of the passover now we turn to the feast of unleavened bread, God wanted in these things, the passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the salvation he brought them, as he redeemed them in the exodus, he wanted his people to never forget. Each year would begin the same way with the passover then the feast of unleavened bread which go hand in hand together, sometime they are called passover other times the feast of unleavened bread (Deut 16). 


The passover was to be eaten in haste, the feast of unleavened bread that was here being given to the people was a week long celebration, they even got an extra day off. You cant be bad to that like. How it would look is that they enjoyed the passover meal together and the next day then the feast of unleavened bread would begin. 


In effect we are told of this feast of unleavened bread twice over, in v14-16 and then again in v17-20. Look if you have your bibles open the emphasis that is given in v14 and v17. 14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come…” Then v 17 “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come…”


On this, I think it is no bad thing for us as individuals and as a people to look back to God’s faithfulness in our own lives and the life of this church. We have been brought with a price, saved by a substitute, the blood of the passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, and the Lord has been at work in our lives and the lives of us here collectively. The Lord God has been at work throughout the generations, he has been at work in our congregations life and the life of us as individuals. How do we respond to what has been done for us, the Lord’s faithfulness? Well we worship and we obey, his grace leads us to worship and obey, and we join together declaring that grace to a new generation, telling them of what the Lord has done for us all those years ago on Calvary's hill, as Jesus bled and died for us. If we are his people, we have been saved to be sanctified, we live as the Lord desires, leaving the old life behind, for his grace leads us to worship and obey. As we come this Lord’s day we will celebrate of the Lord’s faithfulness to his people in Lissara once more as we join round the Lord’s supper, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness, he is faithful, faithful indeed (1 Jn 1:9).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q31. What is effectual calling?
A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.
​