Make Haste
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good Morning again family. Thank you so much for joining us in person and online. Please open your bibles to Exodus 12.
We are continuing in our lenten series series of looking at how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Lord’s feasts. I know that as protestants we might struggle with the word lent for at least two reasons, firstly we might not fully what lent means and secondly we tie lent to a Roman Catholic tradition. Even though this sermon is not about lent I wanted to gloss over this really quickly and geek out for second on some historical facts.
The word "Lent" originates from the Old English word "lencten," which means "spring season." It is related to the Old Germanic word "langitinaz," meaning "long-days," or "lengthening of the day," signifying the arrival of spring and the increase in daylight hours. This period of fasting and preparation for Easter has been observed since the earliest days of the Christian Church. The practice of observing Lent dates back to the 4th century. Its formal establishment is often associated with the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, which was a pivotal gathering for the early Christian Church. This council, among other things, helped to establish uniform observances across Christendom. It reflects a 40-day period of penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for the celebration of Easter, mirroring the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert according to the New Testament. The exact practices and length of Lent have evolved over time, but its central themes of preparation, remembrance and renewal remain at the heart of the season.
So please don’t be afraid of the word lent or this season. walk with us as we prepare, remember and are ultimately renewed by the word of God.
Back in 2011 or 2012 there was a small semi run down 1 bedroom apartment sized house with a small strip of property and a garage almost the same size of the house for sale on western. I had a great opportunity to have my parents help invest with me on the house, fix it up and sell it or rent it at a later date. I delayed in giving my answer cause of my own uncertainties and the opportunity slipped through my hands. This is one of the few moments in my life that lives in my head as the closest thing to regret. I’m a firm believer that everything has lead me to where I am, but man, had I been quicker to answer, had I just trusted the opportunity., Had I made haste.
Narrative
Narrative
“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”
I could’ve easily just read 14-20 but I really wanted us to get the big push on why not leaving the bread was important. As a very amateur baker myself this recipe is near and dear to my heart. Flour and water and bake. If you don’t know this is called matzah bread and I’m resisting with every fiber in my being to use a fake American Italian accent, cause that’s not where it’s from.
During covid so many people became bakers and spent ages making sourdough starters and what not. Even making pizza dough is not easy as I learned in my most recent time of paternity leave. There is always a required waiting time. 30 minutes, an hour, overnight, months for a good sourdough starter, you leaven it, you wait. What do you wait for? great question. You wait for the bread to rise. the Yeast eats the sugars and releases CO2 gas and alcohol in this fermentation process exactly like it would when making beer. makes the bread rise and subsequently when baking the bread rises, creates a crust and locks in the moisture making it far more luxurious. All this to say this, it was so important to God that his people be ready to move that there was no time for luxury, commodity or comforts. Where it’s normal for us to eat with formal or informal attire, or shoes on and only unfastening our belts when we’ve had too many tamales, They ate far more comfrably in tunics and robes, shoes off reclined at table. Here God is saying prepare this great feast, eat well, don’t take the time to leaven the bread, keep your shoes on, fasten your robes and tunics to run out at a moment’s notice. Be ready so you don’t have to get ready. Make haste.
Biblically speaking I want us to consider the spiritual significance of unleavened bread and the application for us today of this moment in our extended history as Christians.
Jesus our righteousness
Jesus our righteousness
Jesus fulfills this feast by being our unleavened bread. Miguel, what does that mean? I’m glad you asked. In the NT we see many instances where leavening is likened to sin or moral corruption.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
In this case paul was speaking out against the corinthian church due to the sexual immorality going on the church and how it was being allowed and not dealt with in love and truth. So the leavening here is the sin that isn’t being confronted, healed and reconciled as a church. Talk about scandalous, it was about a man marrying his father’s wife…
Galatians 5:9: "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." This verse is part of a larger discussion where Paul warns against false teachings and emphasizes that even a small amount of false teaching can corrupt the whole community, similar to how a little yeast affects the whole batch of dough.
Luke 12:1: "Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.'" In this passage, Jesus explicitly identifies the "yeast" of the Pharisees as hypocrisy, warning His followers to guard against it.
John 6:35 - Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." This verse is part of a larger discourse where Jesus compares Himself to bread, offering spiritual sustenance and eternal life to those who believe in Him.
If leavening spiritually illustrated sin and immorality and Jesus is the bread of life, He had to be unleavened, meaning ultimately this, Jesus is without sin and corruption, further more in the act of sacrifice and taking our place what was done in our stead?
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This verse, written by the Apostle Paul, encapsulates the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. It expresses the idea that Christ, who was sinless, took on the sin of humanity, so that through His sacrifice, we might be made righteous before God. It's a foundational verse for understanding the Christian concept of salvation and the transformative work of Christ on behalf of humanity. Jesus is our righteousness. When I lead our time of confession I lean into that as we come out of it, remembering ultimately he is our righteousness.
His sinlessness is the reason we are declared righteous before God now, acquitted of our guilt and condemnation, because whom the son sets free is free in deed. This righteousness in Christ is the reason we can live in His victory.
We are considered righteous in christ, now how do we live?
with Haste
with Haste
In this feast, Like the others we will look through in this series, we have God calling his people to a time of remembrance. I don’t if you’ve ever heard me say that we are a people of remembrance, but we are. We are constantly called to remember. We have an entire collection of books that about 90-95% of it is a remembrance of What God has done for his people. As I looked back at this time and read the vivid detail in the narrative I couldn’t help but have the word haste stand out. The whole moment has almost an anxiousness to it. Like, Now? Now? Now? or like in ace ventura where there at this native alter and the people kneel at the name Shikaka, and he uses a bunch of words that sound like it.
Haste, like hurry, means to move with speed and urgency, but in this context it goes a bit further than that. It is intentional. In our context we live with so much hurry, busy busy, always on the move with nowhere to go. Busy at work, busy at home, busy in ministry. but are we making haste, not be hasty which lacks consideration, but are we living with haste?
Israel lived that moment and remembers that moment with haste, with intentional urgency for their exodus, their rescue from captivity. In the state we live in now as NC believers, in the already not yet, the We are free, righteous and alive in christ, yet here on this earth awaiting our sleep or his return, are we living it with intentional urgency in all that we do as believers for the kingdom?
I believe this story has been told here before:
A prominent magician, atheist and comedian said this about someone who gave him a bible.
“He was kind, and nice, and sane, and looked me in the eyes, and talked to me, and then gave me this Bible.”
“I’ve always said,” Jillette explained, “I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe there is a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward.
“How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”
Jillette then offered this example to illustrate his point: “If I believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it, that that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point that I tackle you, and this is more important than that.”
Knowing that christ is returning to judge the living and the dead are we reaching out to all of our neighbors and giving them the chance to hear and know of our righteousness and victory, Jesus christ, or are we so busy arguing with each other that we push our neighbors away. I am a firm believer that public heresies need to be publicly rebuked and corrected, but done so in truth and in love.
are we reaching out to neighbors and families with haste knowning that christ can return now…now…now…tonight? that tomorrow is not promised. are we showing them christ, speaking christ, loving as christ loved, not for us or for boast but for their good?
There’s a book I’m reading called dying to preach and the central theme is the minister’s call to self sacrifice in the pulpit, but I believe this application goes far wider. We are to live self sacrificing lives for eachother, our brothers and sister in christ and our neighbors.
Family, we are called to live in haste for the second coming of christ, because we have his righteousness and are in his victory, we live with haste, at his table with our shoes on, belts fastened ready at a moments notice, evangelizing, loving, living in sincerity and truth. living in haste to reach out and draw in.
My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found:
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne.