Sermon Transcript — April 3, 2007

Are You Keeping the Days of No Leavened Bread?

by Mr. David Johnson

There's something about the Days of Unleavened Bread it seems that lends itself to stories; stories about leavening and where we found it. Each year it seems that we share those stories and we find places where we've never found leaven before. We're amazed some of the things that contain leaven and its various forms. One gentleman called me the other day and said: "I found baking soda in my bullion cubes." Why would anybody put leaven in their bullion cubes? One year we had, right before the Sabbath before Unleavened Bread started, perhaps like it did this year, just a couple of days later and my wife had found a particular brand of salt that had baking soda in it and one family went home and found that they had prepared all of their food with that salt.

So it can be exciting for us especially I think when you consider the ancient Israelites when they began to prepare for the Days of Unleavened Bread, all they had to look for is leaven, it was yeast, that was it. We add baking powder, baking soda, and this huge list of chemicals that we have trouble even pronouncing. We start looking through things and we find that we're trying to find what's there and we come across these strange things that we don't know what they are. We're trying to figure out yeast extract, brewers yeast, torula yeast, autolyzed yeast and about the time we get through that somebody says: "Oh guess what? I found sodium pyrophosphate in my cereal." O.K. That is a leavening agent by the way, don't worry about that and as a result of our new technology which I think is great, I think it's a lot easier to find out what you have if you don't know what it is because you go to the internet and we use strange language in talking to each other. We say: "Yes I googled that." Can you imagine 10 years ago somebody saying that? Should you be telling us that in mixed company? I googled that and don't worry, it's not a leavening agent, it's an anti-caking agent and they put it in food, anti-freeze and paint remover. O.K. Somehow it isn't comforting but at least it is convenient.

How many times have you been observing the Days of Unleavened Bread? Our family started in 1965 so this is our 43 rd time to go through these days. My wife's grandmother started, probably a little bit before that and she tried to do it with her grandmother so we've been doing it for quite awhile. I suppose that for most people if they thought about it they would think, well after you've been doing this same thing that many times, don't you pretty well have it figured out? Yet all of us know that every year as a matter of fact I pick up a little bit more. I come to see a little bit more about it; I come to understand things that I didn't have that insight before.

As my wife and I were preparing this year for the Days of Unleavened Bread we were talking about the Israelites and their process of departing from Egypt in that first recorded celebration of the Days of Unleavened Bread. The changes that took place in their lives; changes that could not have taken place until the Passover was accomplished, those changes were profound. From the day that they started their journey out of Egypt, their lives were transformed. For the first time in 200 years they tasted freedom. For the first time in 2 centuries they didn't have to get up in the morning and go to the clay pits or the straw fields to make bricks for the Pharaoh. For the first time they had freedom to worship their God. For the first time no one stood over them with a lash driving them to their work. For the first time they didn't live their lives in craven fear of their overlords. Perhaps most important for the first time they had a hope for a better life for themselves and their children. It's hard for us to even imagine what it must have been like for a nation of slaves to wrap their collective minds around those amazing changes that they were stepping into. As you read the account of their unprecedented journey out of Egypt over to the Red Sea and on beyond have you ever been struck by how many times those people stopped to express their appreciation for what they've been given? As anyone could have predicted there were a lot of difficulties they had to encounter and yet they were always encouraging one another by saying things like: "We know God won't forsake us because we can see all the wonderful things He's done for us." Or maybe you remember what they said to one another when they were at the edge of the Red Sea and the Egyptian armies were about to rush down upon them and they looked at one another and said: "Don't be frightened about the Egyptians pursuing us, we're going out to serve God and we know He fights our battles for us." Aren't you inspired by those stories? Well it's what I thought. Now there's certainly many groups that I could speak to who would think that's what happened. But you know better, don't you? You know that as a matter of fact there is virtually no time when Israel stopped to focus upon what they've been given and expressed their appreciation. Instead it seems that no matter how much God did for them; their entire focus was on what they didn't have rather than what they had.

As the descendants of those Israelites sometimes we have a little difficulty today being appreciative for the things that we have. As you know in the fall of the year in our nation we have a feast day that we call the feast of Thanksgiving. It's not a holy day, just a time of celebration. But if you've been observing it you probably recognize that over the last few decades there have been some changes; some of them not so subtle in the keeping of Thanksgiving. The day is often now referred to as "turkey day" instead of Thanksgiving. When people are interviewed by the various media about the things that they are thankful about, very often their thanks are directed toward other people. I'm thankful for my family, I'm thankful for those soldiers who are defending our liberty. It seems often it's only the most syrupy religionist who say anything about God and people tend to ignore them or not put those little sound bites on. Have you noticed how people determine what they're thankful for? Some people will say: "Well I'm thankful for the abundance I have because I know there are a lot of people around me who don't have all of the great things that we have. I'm thankful for my family because some people are all alone. I'm thankful for my freedoms because some people don't enjoy those freedoms that we have. Am I somehow supposed to be less thankful for the abundance I have because someone else has abundance? Is my family of less value because somebody else has a valuable family? Should I be less thankful for my freedoms because someone else has freedoms too?"

That would be like one of us in a sense saying: "I'm thankful to know God's truth because others don't know it."

Will we cease to be thankful when everyone does know it? Realization that others don't have the same blessings that we have may be a catalyst to help us recognize some of the things that we should be thankful for but it can't be the basis for our thankfulness. Our real thankfulness has to be based on the genuine appreciation of what we've been given regardless of what someone else has. After all your blessing doesn't diminish mine in the least. Now you may say: "What does that have to do with the Days of Unleavened Bread?" Let me answer that by asking a question. It happens this question is the title of the message this afternoon. Are you keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread or the Days of No Leavened Bread? What are we keeping? What's the difference between those two terms? In brief, one of them focuses on what we're doing without. The other focuses on what we're doing. We all know that there's a great deal of preparation in getting ready for the Days of Unleavened Bread; being able to celebrate it properly. We know that it emphasizes eliminating the leaven from our lives and there are special lessons involved. We dutifully search for that leaven everywhere around us, looking through all aspects of our homes and our properties. We diligently strive to eliminate it and that's fine, it is important and is an essential part of being able to celebrate these days properly. Someone says: "Oh well it doesn't matter that much." Yes it does! It matters a great deal; it has a great impact upon our attitudes and approaches.

In the instruction we've given in Exodus chapter 12 beginning in verse 15 we find that for this very first recorded celebration of the Days of Unleavened Bread that God instructed Moses to give the people of Israel some specifics about what they are to do. We pick it up in verse 15.

Exodus 12:15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (Which means cut off from the covenants with God.)

Verse 16: On the first day there shall be a holy convocation (thus we are here), and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat; that only may be prepared by you.

Verse 17: So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance.

Verse 18: In the first month on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (or again we recognize in this case as it's describing it, it's at the end of the fourteenth, beginning of the fifteenth) you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

Verse 19: For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.

Verse 20: You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings, you shall eat unleavened bread.

Let's go to the next chapter, chapter 13 and again this is reiterating a little further.

Exodus 13:6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord (As has been announced, that will be next Monday).

Verse 7: Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

Verse 8: And you shall tell your son in that day saying: "This is done because of what the Lord did for me when I came up from Egypt."

Verse 9: "It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes that the Lord's law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt."

Verse 10: "You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year."

So we see that initial instruction given on how these days are to be kept.

We've all been taught the principle that at this time of the year leaven is used as a symbol of sin and sin's pernicious ability to permeate our lives. We've all heard examples based upon a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Perhaps we stop to consider what analogies we even can draw from that between the corruptive decaying effect of leaven and how it grows from a very small amount until the entire nature of the dough is changed by its presence. When you stop to look at it literally what takes place with yeast is a rotting process, it decays and that's what we want. O.K. But it does help us at least draw certain lessons about what sin does to an individual and changes that take place, the process that goes on. Those analogies are all very helpful for us and we learn all kinds of important lessons from them.

We soon recognize the impossibility of keeping these days properly unless there's a lot of preparation ahead of time. For most of us that preparation begins weeks ahead of the time of the holy days arriving. We don't want to be wasteful so we plan ahead. We try to use up our supplies of leavened products, the ones that we normally have all around the house so that we don't end up having a great deal to throw away and we make sure that we don't buy anything further. I know one year my wife came across a wonderful buy on bread; about 4 days before unleavened bread and again it's one of those things like Mr. Metzler was talking about, she wasn't thinking about the time and brought a bunch of it home. Then it was that she realized what had happened. Thankfully we were able to deal with it because we knew a family with teenagers and all the bread disappeared in a very short period of time. But none the less it's easy for those things to happen and we do try to plan ahead of time to make sure that we are prepared and use up what we have and we don't bring in any more. As we get closer to the beginning of the festival season we get very much involved with cleaning. It seems that much of that task falls to the ladies of the house but the husbands generally help out in some ways as well, perhaps cleaning the cars, certain areas of the house, emptying the vacuum cleaner bag, some of those things. In most families where there are children you try to get the children involved too, not only because it teaches them certain lessons about beginning to impress upon them the idea of removing sin from our lives but also there's the interesting lesson of, if you clean it you're probably going to do better about keeping it that way, so we sometimes teach some of those lessons along the way. From what my wife says, that's supposed to work with husbands too.

Throughout the process we find ourselves thinking about the lessons that we are learning as we root out the leaven. We learn that some sins are easy to spot and we can eliminate them actually more readily than others. We also learn that some sins can seem small; we have to be concerned about finding those as well. We learn that sin can hide in unexpected places. We have to be diligent to search it out, to remove it. We learn that sin often reappears in the same places year after year. Just because we look there one year doesn't mean that it won't be back the next year. The analogies go on and on and each one helps us to learn certain spiritual lessons a little bit more, perhaps be a little bit more prepared for Passover as it comes. When we finish the last of our cleaning and preparation there is a sense of satisfaction and appreciation for being able to look over our homes and our properties and be confident that we have done a diligent job of removing that leaven. Many undoubtedly finish their cleaning a little bit early and perhaps have been unleavened in their home for a few days already but for all of us whether we finish early or not, when sundown came last night, all the leaven had to be gone. Some years we scrambled to get rid of it, some years we ran around with this bag trying to figure where we can dump it on somebody else but nonetheless we diligently go around and make sure that by the beginning of the Night to be Much Observed the leaven is gone.

We sometimes said that the Days of Unleavened Bread are about learning to eliminate sin from our lives. That isn't entirely accurate. The leaven is supposed to be eliminated before these days begin. Certainly we have to be diligent to keep leaven from coming back into our lives during this period of time. But these days are basically about learning how to live without leaven, the leaven of sin. Days of Unleavened Bread were important to the New Testament church as well. If we ignored all the references in the gospels about the Days of Unleavened Bread we would still find that there are fascinating accounts about the church, the first century church keeping these days. Notice one example, just one verse, Acts chapter 20. It describes the apostle Paul as he was making his way towards Jerusalem and we find it here in verse 6. Luke writes:

Acts 20:6 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.

Now what's the significance here? Well for one thing it's very clear that this is a time stamp. Luke is writing something, he's saying: "I want to tell you when this took place; it was right after the Days of Unleavened Bread." All of us immediately know what he's talking about because we keep the Days of Unleavened Bread. If we didn't, then like most people we would simply read right over those words and it wouldn't even register that it was telling us when something took place. So it tells us that these people must have been keeping these days. It tells us that the recipient of the book of Acts must have been an individual who understood the Days of Unleavened Bread or this statement is meaningless. But it also tells us something else. Philippi is a city in Macedonia, it is a gentile city. There may have been a few Jewish members in the congregation but for the most part it was a gentile congregation. So here we have a gentile congregation in a gentile city keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread. Now if the Days of Unleavened Bread for the New Testament church involved nothing more than the memorial of a group of Israelites coming out of Egypt fifteen hundred years earlier why are these gentiles in Philippi keeping this day? In other words it begins to show us that for the New Testament church these Days of Unleavened Bread must have had more meaning than simply a memorial of a historic event. As glorious as it was, as powerful as God's hand was, there must have been something more to it for these gentiles to be involved in it.

Probably the clearest and most instructive New Testament passage about the Days of Unleavened Bread is found in I Corinthians chapter 5. Paul had to deal with a specific problem in this section of I Corinthians because there was an individual in the congregation who had been involved in a flagrant sexual sin. So much so that as Paul puts it, it's not even named among the gentiles, it's specifically prohibited in the Old Testament and even among the gentile culture it was prohibited, not even named as he puts it. Interestingly it's not prohibited today but it was in that culture and the people had been very lax about it. They felt that being patient with this individual, that he would finally be able to recognize his problem. This was not an individual who stumbled momentarily; this is an individual who is living in sin and for all intents and purposes intending to continue to do so. Paul says this is not acceptable; this is not to be a part of the church. So in that process, it's in that context that Paul addresses the Days of Unleavened Bread. He says:

I Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Now if he had stopped right there we could simply say this was a common aphorism that people would use. It's kind of like: "That's the way the ball bounces." "That's the way the cookie crumbles." "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." But he doesn't stop there. He goes on with his analogy even further and in doing so shows that these people understood more then some simple aphorism that he could have used. So he says:

Verse 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.

Now again you read that statement and say now wait a minute, here we have a group of gentiles in Corinth. When you use the term Passover today, most people automatically think of a Jewish festival; something that takes place in the Jewish community. You'll hear it on the news; tonight is the first night of Passover which of course is a night off but let's not go there today. Nonetheless you'll hear that on the news, you'll probably hear it tonight; tonight's the first night of Passover and they mean in the Jewish community. You don't find your neighbors putting up decorations for Passover. No, that's something the Jews do. Here's a New Testament church of gentiles in Corinth in Greece and he talks about Christ is our Passover. Somehow the Passover must have meant something to these Christians and of course there are many proofs of that as you go further even in this same book. But he says Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

Verse 8: 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.

Now there are several important concepts that are imbedded in this very brief passage. As we said it began with this context of this individual who had been involved in blatant publicly known sin that had been tolerated within the congregation and it is interesting that as Paul addresses that problem and says what needs to be done, this person must be removed, his authority that he uses, that he refers to as proof that this must be done, the Days of Unleavened Bread, he looks directly at that and says here's what, here's what proves to you, this shows you just as we must rid out leaven during the Days of Unleavened Bread we must root out this as well. Again that would mean nothing to a people who were not keeping those days.

There had been a problem in Corinth concerning the Passover and Paul's going to address that later in chapter 11. I'm not going there today but he addresses it later on. The brethren were allowing themselves to be divided from one another over the Passover of all things. If there's anything that should teach us of our own utter hopelessness before God's righteousness, Passover does it powerfully. How can we be proud and divisive in the presence of God's grace?

Drawing from the Old Testament example, Paul reminds them of the need to eliminate sin in order to keep the commanded feast. He first points out that the feast cannot be kept with the old leaven. That's probably a reference to the entirety of the old way of life that they and we have lived. But the term old is kind of an interesting term here. It's not old as contrasted with young, it means old as something that has continued for a long time. In other words it points out I guess what we would call chronic sin. We all know what they are. They're those sins that we find in ourselves every year as we approach the Passover. Those are old sins, old leaven that just keeps coming back over and over. It refers to something that has been there a long time. It implies the chronic sins that we struggle against. He then adds two more terms that must be eliminated; malice and wickedness. The term malice, the Greek term is Kakia, it's one of the two terms that is used for evil in the Greek New Testament. Basically it refers to something which is harmful; an evil way of thinking. Wickedness is the stronger term, Poneria and it basically refers to an evil way of living that comes about as a result of a malicious way of thinking. It is a corrupting influence that seeks to drag others down with it as well. It's as if Paul said: "Don't just look at the things you did wrong, at the specific acts of sin you committed. You must further eliminate the way of thinking that produced those wrong actions or you'll never be free of the wrong way of living. It may take new forms but the evil; the sin will still rear its head over and over again."

For all of my students, no you can't leave now. That's one of our class bells in case you're wondering about that. You don't even get a break now, O.K.?

Now up to this point, we could fulfill the command concerning these days by simply eliminating sin and the thinking that causes it. Now I said simply, I realize its a little more complex than that but so far that's all we've talked about is eliminating sin and the way of thinking that produces sin. But now Paul tells us we have to add something; something which the Old Testament command pleaded toward but never fully accomplished. Notice that again in verse 8.

Verse 8: 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.

Whatever the meaning of the words with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth it is clear that our New Testament keeping of this festival is incomplete without them. In other words, this festival is not simply about what we eliminate. It's also about what we add. If all we've done is eliminate sin then we're still not keeping these days in the way that Jesus Christ instructs. So what do those words mean? What are they telling us? Sincerity primarily means unadulterated, without some hidden ulterior motive. One of the more authoritative lexicons that we use nowadays says this: "It describes it as the quality of sincerity as an expression of pure or unadulterated motives. Truth primarily refers to that which is accurate and true." As one commentary puts it: "It is that which when examined in the bright light of day is found to be pure and without blemish." We are to add sincerity, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, a purity of motive based upon truth. What is produced if you only have sincerity without truth? Well basically you produce sin. You get what masquerades today as religion.

Last Sabbath Peter Eddington in his sermon in the morning quoted Boston University Professor Steven Prothro. Another quote Professor Prothro had this to say as he described religion in America today. He said: "For Angelicals religion is about having a relationship with Jesus and feeling it in your heart. For most liberal Protestants it's doing; soup kitchens, social gospel, taking care of the poor. Neither is about knowing." Prothro said that in early American history Christianity was about knowing. God gave us our brains, use them. God gave us the bible that has truth in it, we should learn it.

There are many fine, sincere religious people who are sincerely defiling this holy Sabbath day. They don't think they're supposed to keep holy days so they're out there doing all kinds of things that shouldn't be done today and they're very sincere about it. They're not willfully choosing to sin but when you lack the truth you end up sinning inadvertently in spite of your sincerity.

What about the other side of that? What do you produce if you have truth without sincerity? Jesus Christ addressed that directly and the words that He used fit very well with this festival. Let's turn back to Matthew 16, starting in verse 6. I'll start at verse 5, that's where I should have started.

Matthew 16:5 Now when His disciples had come to the other side, (referring to the lake) they had forgotten to take bread.

Verse 6: Then Jesus said to them: "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees."

Verse 7: And they reasoned among themselves saying: "It is because we have taken no bread."

Verse 8: But when Jesus perceived it He said to them: "Oh you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread?"

In other words, do you really think I needed you to bring bread?

Verse 9: "Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?"

Verse 10: "Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?"

Verse 11: "How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But you should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Verse 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 word doctrine is a word that basically means teaching, the teachings. What they taught by their words and by their actions. Be careful, there's something wrong there. He explained in even clearer words when you come to Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12:1 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 Greek word for hypocrisy has an interesting history. When you study the meaning of it, it comes from a preposition hupo which basically means below or beneath and the verb (undistinguishable) which basically means to decide. It was originally applied to actors in a Greek play. You probably all seen at some point or another, the two masks that are used to represent drama; one of them with this huge smile, one with a huge frown to show comedy or tragedy. These masks are traced back to the ancient Greek plays because originally women were not allowed to take part in the plays so even a woman's part had to be played by a man. Instead of elaborate costuming and so on as we might have today, basically they used masks to indicate the character that they were. The term that is used here hupokrisis referred to literally speaking from behind a mask. It referred to what an actor did. He spoke from behind a mask. He said things to portray the character but he was not that character, he was just portraying something, he was just putting it across, he was creating an impression of that character but he wasn't that character, he was an actor. The word has its origins there to tell us that hypocrisy has to do and I think it's such a picturesque term, speaking from behind the mask, saying something, projecting oneself in a certain way when in fact it isn't what we intended to be at all. It's an impression we want to create. (Indistinguishable) might again make this comment about the Greek words themselves. They say in a number of languages the words are expressed in idiomatic ways. For example: to have two faces, to have two tongues, to be two people or to have two hearts. It describes hypocrisy as this way of presenting oneself where there's really two hearts there, there's one that's presented and then there's a real one.

When we have truth without sincerity we end up with hypocrisy of the religious leaders in Christ's day. When we have sincerity without truth we end up with the sin of religion of today. In some of the passages that we read in scripture, unleavened bread is symbolic of Jesus Christ Himself and He is after all for us, the perfect expression of both sincerity and truth and how they're melted together. Just as malice and wickedness refer to an evil way of thinking and the evil way of living that comes about as a result of that, likewise sincerity and truth refer to a clean, guileless way of thinking and living. Paul is telling us that in order to keep the New Testament Feast of Unleavened Bread properly we must daily take in a different way of thinking. It's not enough to stop thinking the wrong way; we have to learn to think the right way.

Turn back to Isaiah 55, a famous passage, you all know it well. In looking through just a few verses here we find in some ways a brief description of the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread.

Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

That's a pretty good description of Passover and He goes on to say:

Verse 8: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord."

Verse 9: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

We're given the description here that tells us that during this time of the year our way of thinking must be characterized by the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So then we face the question are we keeping the Days of Unleavened Bread or the Days of No Leavened Bread? If we have carefully eliminated the leaven of sinful thinking from our lives and we're vigilantly keeping it away during this period of time, we've made a nice start on keeping out the leaven as described in the Old Testament. But if we're not daily taking in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth then we're still not keeping these days in the way that Jesus Christ intents. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth in part changes to us in profound ways. In a sense those changes provide a different prospective on life as if we're beginning to view life through a different lens. Sincerity and truth are not common in our world today. Many of us have probably become more cynical, more jaded, and more critical then we really would like to be. We decry the fact that our children loose their innocence at such a young age but what age is it when you're supposed to become cynical, critical, and judgmental? How old are we supposed to be when those characteristics come in when we find ourselves critical and suspicious at all times? How would you like to go through life with that kind of thinking? A thinking where you really just can't seem to trust anyone?

A number of years ago when we were first out in the field ministry there was a young man in our church area, I still remember him very well, who was probably the most naïve young adult I have ever come across. As would happen from time to time, a group of men would be together and we would be talking and joking as we often do and someone would say something that was, well let's just frankly say inappropriate, off-color. But you have a group of guys around and all of you guys know this kind of thing happens. I'm not saying it should, I'm just saying it does. When that would take place, everyone would laugh and then you'd look at this guy and he would be standing there with this confused smile on his face. He knew everybody was laughing, there must be something funny but he couldn't figure it out and when you saw him the first thought was, oh man what a naïve guy, he can't even figure the joke out. Then very often the next thought was, wouldn't it be nice to go through life so innocent that you wouldn't understand what somebody said something evil? Wouldn't that be a nice way to think? But in our world it doesn't seem to be the way we are.

In partaking of the unleavened bread in the Passover service, the unleavened bread which is emblematic of the broken body of Jesus Christ, we're told that that bread brings to His followers a fellowship, a unity of spirit and purpose. As we read the other night in I Corinthians 10, verse 16 he said:

I Corinthians 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (the fellowship, the participation) of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion (the fellowship, the participation) of the body of Christ?

Verse 17: For we being many are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

We all take in that unleavened bread of Jesus Christ, the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and it brings us into a special relationship with one another. Daily consuming the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth changes us. When we consume the bread it enters into us and becomes a part of us. It alters our makeup, it alters what we are.

Again in Mr. Eddington's sermon last Sabbath morning, he spoke of Bartimaeus the blind man who sought Jesus merciful help and he brought out that Bartimaeus, even though he was blind was able to see something about Jesus Christ that the sighted people didn't see. Then you think of a song that was popular, well briefly popular in the early 70's and there was a line in the song that said: "I have a friend who's going blind yet through the dimness he sees so much more clearly than I." Sometimes our vision; spiritually is not as clear as it should be. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth alters our eyes and our ears and enables us to see and hear what we could not before we ingested that life giving bread.

I think scripture gives us some fascinating examples of God changing people's ability to see. One of the most famous examples is in II Kings chapter 6, one we're probably all familiar with. In this particular account the King of Syria has been trying to kill the King of Israel and every time he tries to, Elisha warns the King of Israel ahead of time and he escapes. Finally the King of Syria says: "Who is it that's a traitor in my midst and they tell him there's no traitor, it's Elisha." God tells him what's going on so the King of Syria decides the best thing to do then is to capture Elisha. So let's pick up the story in II Kings chapter 6 and verse 13. The King of Syria says:

II Kings 6:13 So he said: "Go and see where he is that I may send and get him." And it was told him saying: "Surely he is in Dothan."

Verse 14: Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there and they came by night and surrounded the city.

Verse 15: And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said o him: "Alas, my master! What shall we do?"

Verse 16: So he answered: "Do not fear for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

You always imagine that the servant thought, one, two, where are the others?

Verse 17: And Elisha prayed and said: "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

That's one of those examples where you read right over the word behold but the author is really saying: "Look at this!" Imagine you're there and your eyes are being opened and you're looking at this. Get this picture in your mind.

Now very often we end the story there, but it really doesn't end there, let's go a little bit further.

Verse 18: So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said: "Strike this people, I pray, with blindness." And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

Verse 19: Now Elisha said to them: "This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me and I will bring you to the man whom you seek." But he led them to Samaria(The capitol city of Israel).

Verse 20: So it was when they had come to Samaria that Elisha said: "Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see." And the Lord opened their eyes and they saw; and there they were inside Samaria.

Verse 21: Now when the King of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha: "My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?"

Verse 22: And he answered: "You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master."

Verse 23: Then he prepared a great feast for them and after they ate and drank he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.

God dealt with it in a way that again we wouldn't particularly have figured out ahead of time but this is what He chose to do. But I want you to think about this for a moment. Now I can only speculate to some degree. But when you read this it says: "God struck them with blindness." The distance from Dothan to Samaria is about 10 miles; 10 miles of hilly, mountains, rocky roads. If these people were totally blind, how could they have made the trip? In other words I think what you see here is that God altered their vision and they thought they were seeing normally. They thought they could walk right along the road, follow this fellow who was going to lead them to Elisha, didn't realize it was Elisha, led them along the road, led them right into the city of Samaria. As far as they're concerned they're still walking along the road and suddenly when they're inside, they now realize where they are. Their eyes change, they see differently. Now what it tells us here in one sense is God is the author of artificial reality. He created something, man thinks we're doing it now days with computers; no God did a much better job. For those of you who are younger God made the holideck on the Enterprise look like kids stuff. O.K. God created an artificial reality for these people. He brought them in and suddenly stripped away the artificialness and they could see, uh oh, we're in deep trouble. God altered their vision.

Other than this being an interesting story, what's the point? When we take in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, God imparts to us an enhanced ability to see reality. He gives us a greater ability to see and understand the right course of life, what's going on in our own lives. Matthew chapter 13, again a familiar passage where Christ has been speaking to people, He's giving them parables, there are several parables in this 13 th chapter of Matthew but after giving the parable of the sower without an explanation, the disciples are somewhat confused.

Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him: "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

Now I know that most religious people think that Christ used parables to make things clearer. Evidently the disciples hadn't figured that out. They're right there and to them it didn't make things clearer. So why are you doing that?

Verse 11: He answered and said to them: "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been given."

Verse 12: "For whoever has, to him more will be given and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."

Verse 13: "Therefore I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand."

Just like those men walking along the road, walking towards Samaria without realizing it, they were seeing but they really didn't see what was real, they were hearing but they didn't really get a picture of exactly what was taking place and He said spiritually that's what's going on with these folks. Then the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says:

Verse 14: "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand and seeing you will see and not perceive."