8th May 2024

8th May 2024


Pray (ACts)


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


Message (Alan Burke)


All bread is not equal in my mind, there are some loaves which far surpass the average, you might be partial to a bit of Veda, Wheaten or Soda but in my mind the bread that surpasses them all is Nutty Crust. In our wee country we are all use to the Veda, Wheaten and Soda none of them are made with yeast but most of the bread that we eat like my favourite Nutty Crust is made with yeast. Here we are told of the feast of unleavened bread that they are not to add leaven or yeast to it. Both do the same thing, today we have yeast that comes in a wee packet or tin but what they had to do in bible times is that you’d keep a wee bit of yesterdays bread dough, and the yeast was already working in it and you’d add it to todays bread dough and this is what was called leaven, and the leaven did the same thing as what we use yeast for today. It only takes a tiny amount, just a little bit of it to transform. 


What the Israelites were to do is to was on the first day remove the leaven, and the consequences for not removing the leaven, or rather eating anything with yeast in it must be cut off from Israel which seems a little bit severe, eat a bit of bread and you’re cut off from your people. Like it’s only a bit of bread, surly God is being way too harsh here, what if you didn’t get the memo. 


Well let’s first think to the leaven and what it symbolises in scripture then to the warning that anyone who eats anything with leaven will be cut from Isreal. There was something significant that the people were being taught, it was at the most basic level they were to leave their old life behind, they were leaving Egypt and they are to leave the thing anything that might work in them that can transform them, that can corrupt them, well they are to leave it behind in Egypt, they are leaving their old life behind, because the Lord desires something better for them. Throughout scripture leaven was used symbolically to represent the corrupting power of sin. 


Now the people were being given a new beginning, they were to leave the old life behind, they were to leave Egypt behind, with it’s idolatrous practices, with its sin, the people were being given a new beginning leaving Egypt behind and they were to live as their Lord desired. They are to leave their sin behind. Now leaven is a really helpful symbol for us in understanding sin, because it can start small, we may not give a second thought to something and then before we know it that sin has grown, spread, it has impacted our entire lives, it like the leaven has worked its way through the dough and sin has worked its way through us. But God wanted his people to live as he desired, leaving this old life behind, he wanted them to live lives that were being sanctified, lives that were not lived how they use to but living for him, living as he wanted them to live. It is the same for all who trust in Jesus Christ, who have been saved from their sin, we are saved to be sanctified, saved from sin to live as God wants and not how we once lived. The reason why is that the Lord’s ways are better, his ways are far better. 


For us just as the Israelites we are called to leave the old life behind, to live as the Lord desires and we can see just how sin acts like leaven today when we do not take sin seriously. The reason why the Lord warned the consequences of those who failed to remove the leaven from their homes was just because of how even at this stage if they failed to listen to the Lord they would soon disregard everything he said. 


The way we work is we think to ourselves “augh sure, it’s not really that big of a deal”, “like it’s not that serious, everyone else is doing it”, “sure that church don’t make an issue of those things”. We often minimise the seriousness of sin, of what God has said, sure it’s not a big deal is it? Is that what Jesus taught, we show that we are loving by tolerating sin? No we are to hate sin, as believers, as a people, the problem is that when we allow a wee sin, something that we don’t see as a big deal to take a hold then sure what difference does it make for one more little sin, and the problem is sin is like leaven, it soon spreads. Our Lord calls us to live as he desires, leaving the old life behind. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q33. What is justification?
A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
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