The Passover continued — Larry Steers

The Passover and the Lord’s Supper

Of Luke. We read in chapter 22 last night. We're going to turn again to, sorry not chapter 22, to the gospel of Luke chapter, yes chapter 22 and we'll read verse 17. Luke's gospel chapter 22 and we're reading verse 17.

And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you that I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave on to them saying, this is my body which is given for you.

This do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. Now I'm going to read a few more passages in just a moment but we'll start where we left off last night.

We touched a little on the Passover, perhaps more than a little on the Passover, but we have passed the Passover. But we want to dwell for a moment in the upper room at the conclusion of the Passover supper.

But on this particular occasion, sometimes referred to as the last Passover, and it really isn't the last Passover because we did notice that there is a Passover that will be renewed in the millennial reign of Christ.

But in this particular Passover, in the upper room, just before the Lord Jesus was crucified, he introduced to his disciples something that was uniquely different. The Passover supper has concluded. It may have been that the disciples that were with him were anticipating that they were going to rise and leave the upper room having concluded the Passover.

But the Lord Jesus did something that was different than they had ever seen before. For this had never accompanied a Passover at any time before. I want to emphasize tonight that this was uniquely different.

It was not in any way linked with the Passover. This was something that was different that they had never seen before. There were 13 of them, including the Lord, that had entered that upper room. Indicated last night that Judas received the sop before, and John tells us, at the commencement of that supper or during the early part of that supper, Judas received the sop.

And when he received the sop, he went out and went about the business of betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas was not present when the Lord introduced the emblems for the Lord's Supper. And so Judas betrayed the Lord for the 30 pieces of silver, and we are told in Acts chapter 1, when they were choosing a replacement for him, that Judas had went to his own place.

He went out in the darkness from that upper room, went out in the night, and he went down to eternal darkness. The man lost his soul. And so these men were left. There were 11 men left now, along with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Lord sent bread, and he set a cup before them. I do not believe, personally, I know some brethren do, but I'll state how I would look at this, that the bread that he set before them had any connection with the Passover, and was not the bread that was used at the Passover.

And the cup that he set before them was not the cup that was used at the Passover. Now we have indicated, I think last night, that in Luke chapter 22, verse 17, that that is the Passover cup. Now sometimes you might hear it suggested that there were four cups on the Passover table, and if I was speaking on this three or four years ago, I might have tried to emphasize the four cups, but I've changed my mind.

You can change your mind. You can alter, when you learn truth as you live, you can alter some of the things that you think you believe. And so the only reference in the Bible to a Passover cup is verse 17 of Luke chapter 22.

That is the only reference. And in verse 17, there is only one cup. And so I would gather, according to the Word of God, that there was only one cup on the table for the Passover. And now that that Passover is over, the Lord is going to set another cup, and he's going to set another bread before these men.

Now if you were to ask me how that got into the upper room, I might make a couple of suggestions, and then conclude that we really are not certain. It may have been that the Lord brought it himself, or perhaps when Peter and John had gone to prepare the Passover, he hadn't given them instructions to get a second loaf and to bring a second cup.

But at any rate, at this moment, the Lord sets this bread, and he sets this cup before the disciples. He's going to introduce something that's uniquely different, something that they had never seen before.

And when he gives thanks for the bread and thanks for the cup, it is evident that they never really grasped the significance of the bread and the cup as he gave thanks for it. And so we want to know this just for a few moments then, this bread and this cup that is separate from the Passover, when he introduced what we sometimes refer to as the Lord's Supper, or we sometimes call it the breaking of bread.

Now in the Bible, both of those expressions are used for the same event, for the same moment. But whenever the Spirit of God uses two different terms or two different expressions for the same event, there is a difference in the two expressions.

They don't mean identically the same thing, though they refer to the same moment, to the same event. And so the breaking of bread emphasizes the believers. It is the Christians that are gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that break bread.

And so they break a piece from the bread. Now I'm going to say something about that in just a moment. When it says the Lord's Supper, that emphasizes the presence of the Lord at his supper. And so the breaking of bread emphasizes the presence of the believers.

The Lord's Supper emphasizes the presence of the Lord. We are tremendously thankful for Matthew 18 and 20, where two or three are gathered together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. But that's not the only verse that emphasizes the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord is present at his supper. This is his supper and he is present as Lord. And so present as Lord, he would expect that his word is going to be carried out for he is Lord. And so he set this bread before them.

And as he set the bread before them, he took the bread in his hands. And he lifted up his heart heavenward. And a marvelous thing really, for of all those in that upper room, right at that moment, he was the only one who realized what was going to happen.

What lie before him. He had said, my hour has come. And he understood fully every detail of the cross. And yet he could give thanks for that bread. Thanks for his suffering. Thanks for all that the bread would signify to them.

And so he expressed his thanks for the bread. In doing that, he said, this is my body. Now when he said this is my body, you and I would understand that that bread is not the literal body of Christ. The body of the Lord Jesus was present with them at the table.

And so bodily present, he took the bread. And when he said about the bread, this is my body, he had another significance that he was adding to the bread. In other words, the bread would simply be a memorial or an emblem of the body that was going to be sacrificed at the place called Calvary.

Now notice, he passed it to his disciples. They were to partake of it. And so as he passed it to them, they would break from the bread. That's the breaking of bread. Now there is a tremendous significance to the act.

That is, that's not just a formality. That's just not a custom. That's not a tradition. There is a tremendous significance to the breaking of bread. When every believer breaks a piece from the loaf, the loaf's not divided into little pieces.

We have to break from that bread. And breaking from that bread, we are making a statement. And the statement that we are making is that that body was given in sacrifice for us and our eternal life depends upon the sacrifice of Christ and our appreciation of that sacrifice and what it means to us.

But it means more than that. And so as that bread is passed around the company of believers, and as this believer on this side of it breaks from that bread, and then I break from the bread, and the believer on this side breaks from the bread, we are declaring that our fellowship together is dependent upon the body of Christ given at Calvary.

It's not traditional. It's not a custom. There's a tremendous significance to every believer breaking from the bread. We're saying we're in fellowship based upon the body of Christ given at Calvary with the other believers who are breaking from that bread.

And similarly with the cup. When he took the cup, he said, this is my blood which is shed for you. And so every believer taking a sip from that cup is indicating not only their value and their dependency upon the precious blood of Christ, but they are unitedly partaking from that one cup.

They are declaring that they are in fellowship with each other based upon the precious blood of Christ. One of my students was leaving a history class one day. I taught history. And at that particular time, we were teaching a course on British history.

That's the tradition up north of you. And we were on Henry VIII, Noble Henry VIII, when he broke with the Catholic Church. And so I had used the word in that history class, transubstantiation. Sometimes you throw a little bait.

And I kind of wondered if anyone would respond to that word. And on the way out, one of my students said to me, what was that word? And so I told her, transubstantiation. And she said, what does that mean?

Well, I threw out the bait, she bit the bait, or she fell for it, if you want to put it that way. And so then I said to her, you are a good Roman Catholic, because that's what she was. And you don't understand what transubstantiation means.

And so I told her, I said, your priest, when he is ordained, is supposed to have been given the power to hold a little wafer, notice, not bread, a little wafer between his thumb and his forefinger, and he pronounces a little blessing over it, and he turns it into the actual body of Christ.

And when you put that in your mouth, you put it on your tongue. Now maybe there's some here who are former Roman Catholics, so you know what I'm talking about. You can't chew it, because you can't chew the body of Christ.

And so you hold it under your tongue until it dissolves. And then I said the cup the same way. He pronounces his little blessing over that, and it becomes the literal blood of Christ. Now we don't believe that.

But it's interesting the reaction of that student, because she immediately said to me, I don't believe that. And I thought to myself, well if that's the case, they're not teaching their doctrine, because that's what they teach.

And so we believe that the bread and the cup is only a memorial. And so the hymn is correct this time. Only bread, that's all it is, and only wine, but to faith the solemn sign of the heavenly and divine.

We give thee thanks, O Lord. So the breaking of bread becomes very precious to us. Now think of those men for a moment. They're in the upper room, and the moment now has come. The Lord has introduced the bread and the cup now for the Lord's Supper.

He has given a commandment recorded by the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 11, and this is a command. We're not guests invited by the Lord. It's a command. It's imperative. He said, this do in remembrance of me.

That's a command that the Lord has given. And so every believer that is baptized and in assembly fellowship bows to the command of the Lord and responds to remember him on the first day of the week. And so think of those men now.

They have observed this without knowing the significance of it. And as the hours now will run their course, the Lord has been crucified, has been nailed to the cross. John was at the cross. Peter declares that he was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ.

We don't know when. We don't know how long, how much time passed. After the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord, they continue to be perhaps in the same upper room. But there came a moment when for the first time, and their thoughts going back to that upper room, they sat down with bread and a cup before them.

And as they sat and looked at that bread and looked at that cup, I don't know what you do, but I know what I do. Every time I gather with believers on the first day of the week to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, and I come in and I take my seat, I look at that table.

That's a reminder in a very forceful way of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the shedding of his precious blood at Calvary. I don't know whether you remember going back in your thoughts now to the very first time that you remembered him in the breaking of bread.

I remember that. Sitting with a small company of believers in a little gospel hall for that first time, looking at that bread and looking at that cup and having not the significance to it maybe that I would have today, but at least understanding a little of the significance of it, but just the preciousness of being there for the first time to remember the Lord Jesus Christ.

So think of those men now. There may have been more than the 12 of them since they have chosen a replacement for Judas. There might have been the 120 in that upper room, but they're all gathered there now and they're looking at those emblems.

And those men who are in that upper room, now understanding, now grasping the significance of them, I would fully expect, and again we don't know when they did it, how many days passed before they sat for that first time in Jerusalem, but I would expect that there were tears that were shed.

Now they understand. Now they realize what the Lord did in that upper room. Now they grasp the significance of it. They wondered the first time, but now they understand what the breaking of bread means and the significance of it.

I hope that it's still a precious moment to my soul, and I hope that it's still a very precious moment to each of us who have that privilege of remembering the Lord Jesus Christ and the way which he himself has appointed when he introduced this in the upper room.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Christian Life

Now having said that, I'm going to leave the Passover, and Passover is now passed for us in these meetings, and we're going to move on to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And so I'm going to take you to Leviticus chapter 23, to the 23rd chapter of Leviticus, and we'll read verse 6.

On the 15th day of the same month is a feast of unleavened bread. Unto the Lord seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation, ye shall do no servile work.

But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation, ye shall do no servile work. And each of those days when they had a holy convocation, each of those days was a Sabbath.

We'll point that out in just a moment. Now we'll come over to the epistle to the Corinthians, and we're going to read again in chapter 5, 1st Corinthians chapter 5. And we'll read the sixth verse, 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 6.

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

Now notice particularly the next verse. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, or not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I'm going to read that verse again. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So we're going to take a look at the feast of unleavened bread.

The feast of unleavened bread is associated, feast of unleavened bread here, is associated very very closely with the Passover. In Exodus chapter 12 they were to eat the lamb, but they were to eat the lamb with unleavened bread.

They were to eat the lamb with the unleavened bread, commencing on the 15th day of the first month. And so this feast would last for seven days. It's the second longest of the feast. It's one of the feasts, or one of the things that is kept by many Jews today.

I have taught with Jewish teachers, and on the Passover coming into the feast of unleavened bread, they will bring their unleavened crackers. They will not eat bread that has leaven in it for the feast of unleavened bread.

And so at least in a measure, and though perhaps in ignorance, not understanding what we're going to look at during the looking at the feast of unleavened bread, but they do go through the formality of the feast of unleavened bread.

It is interesting, if you were to turn to Luke chapter 22 and verse 1, I'll just refer to it. In Luke chapter 22 and verse 1, the feast of unleavened bread is so closely identified or connected with the Passover, that in Luke chapter 22 and verse 1, it is called the Passover.

And so the feast of unleavened bread is associated with the Passover. But you'll notice also on the chart here, and in the chapter, that the feast of unleavened bread is also very, very closely associated with what we're going to look at when we come to the feast of firstfruits.

And so you'll notice, and I'm going to refer to this a number of times, because the days are important here. When I come to the gap, we lose the, we lose the sense of counting the days. But in the first four feasts, the days are important.

So you'll notice that the Passover is the 14th day of the first month. Then you will notice that the feast of unleavened bread, often referred to as commencing on the 15th day of the first month, that would be the day after the Passover.

But there are other references that link it with the 14th day of the first month. When you have a little difficulty like that, you always look for the simplest solution, not the most complicated. And the simplest one is that the Jewish days overlapped.

And so the day commenced at sundown and lasted for 24 hours until sundown. And so on some references in the Bible, you will have the feast of unleavened bread starting on the 14th. And I've already indicated that in Luke 22 and verse 1, it is very closely associated with the Passover because the feast of unleavened bread is called the Passover.

And so the Passover on the 14th, the feast of unleavened bread on the 15th, but the 15th is also the Passover Sabbath. And so we have read that there was to be a holy convocation. It's a very special day.

It's a Sabbath that is connected with the Passover. And then you will notice that the feast of firstfruits commences on the 16th day of the month. So you have three feasts, Passover the 14th, the feast of unleavened bread on the 15th, the Passover Sabbath at the same time, the 15th, and the feast of firstfruits on the 16th.

So these feasts are very closely identified and linked together. Now on the bottom part of the chart, I have indicated, as you would understand, and as 1 Corinthians chapter 5 indicates, that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

So the Passover is found in the Corinthian epistle. But the feast of firstfruits, or the feast of unleavened bread, is also found in the Corinthian epistle. And we've read that tonight. Let us keep the feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

And so the feast in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 refers to the feast of unleavened bread. And when you come to the bottom half of that feast, I have indicated how we're going to look at it and how the Bible looks at it.

The feast of unleavened bread is the life of the believer. It's your life and it's my life. It's how we are living in this world, how we are spending our life, how we are spending our time at the moment.

And so we should be living in the good of the appreciation of the death of the Lamb and of the shedding of the precious blood of the Lamb. That should be a mark upon us that separates us from the world.

And so the death of Christ, the precious blood of Christ, and the redemption that we have in Christ, and so we ought to be able to sing wholeheartedly, my Redeemer, oh what beauties in that lovely name appear, because we go back to the death of our Redeemer and the shedding of his precious blood.

So the feast of unleavened bread is the enjoyment of the work of redemption. Now are we really enjoying our salvation? That's really what the feast of unleavened bread here is all about. In the Lamb, I see Christ's death for me.

In the feast of unleavened bread, I see God's work in me. I want you to get that. That's important. In the death of the Lamb, I see Christ's work for me. In the feast of unleavened bread, I see God's work in me.

And so from the moment that we are saved, as long as we are sojourning here, until the moment of death comes, or until the Lord comes, God is working in the life of every believer. And so we seek to live very soberly in this world that we are living in.

Not only to live soberly, but to live righteously, to live a godly life, to have our conduct in keeping with what we profess to believe relative to salvation. If sin enters, and that's the leaven of a feast of unleavened bread, it speaks of sin.

If sin enters the life of a believer, sad consequences will come. If sin enters, we are going to lose the joy of God's salvation. There is no believer that has allowed sin to come into their life, or that is engaged in a sinful activity that is going to know what it is to have their soul flooded with the joy of the Lord.

Sin will rob us of our joy. Sin will also rob us of our song. They said, how can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? It will rob us of our song. But if sin comes into the life, that's the leaven, sin comes into the life, it will rob us of our time.

We are stewards of our time. That is, every moment that God gives us to spend upon this earth is time that we are stewards of. And a steward is accountable to his master. And so we are accountable to the Lord for the time that we have to sojourn here.

And if sin comes in, it will rob us, it will rob us of our time that should be spent in living for the Lord. And so when we come to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, sin is, leaven is always a picture of sin.

Leaven as a Picture of Sin

Any place in the Bible, without exception, whenever you find in the Bible leaven, leaven always speaks of sin. And I know this much about leaven, and I'm sure, I think I mentioned before, that some of the sisters here might know a little more about leaven than what I know about leaven.

But I know this, that if you put leaven in the dough, it spreads corruption. That's what causes the bread to rise. And when Paul said, I didn't read verse 6 in 1 Corinthians 5, I don't think, but verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 5 simply says, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

And that principle is underlying the details of 1 Corinthians 5. And so when I come to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I keep this in mind, that leaven always speaks of sin. I heard a brother one time give some of the rules of interpretation of Scripture, it kind of got my interest.

I made a little bit of a study of that, but there is a rule of first mention. And so you go back in the Bible to find where something is mentioned for the first time. And where is leaven mentioned for the first time?

In an unusual place, and in an unusual context. And so you go back to Genesis chapter 19, and you'll find that guests have come from a holy place, and they have come to the tent of Lot. They have been previously to the tent of Abraham.

And when they arrived at the tent of Abraham, Sarah had prepared the meal after the animal had been slain for the meal. When they arrive at the tent of Lot, you'll notice that Lot prepares the meal. I would gather that Lot's wife was immersed in the culture of Sodom.

It was a wicked place. And if it wasn't for the words of Peter, we would even wonder in our mind if Lot would even represent a believer. Because he was sitting at the gate, he was totally immersed in the politics and the life of Sodom.

But Peter tells us that while he was there, he vexed his righteous soul. And so Lot had a righteous soul. And he at least had this understanding. When the guests came from a holy place to Lot's tent, and Lot is going to prepare the meal for them, he prepares unleavened bread.

That's the second thing that would at least give us some understanding that Lot represented a believer, even though he was immersed in that awful culture, lost his testimony, and lost everything. The next place that you'll find leaven is in the book of Exodus chapter 12 and verse 15 in connection with the feast of unleavened bread.

When you come to the Word of God, there are different kinds of leaven. I have read of one of them tonight. That kind of leaven that I have read about tonight is called the old leaven. Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, of malice and wickedness.

Corinth, Discipline, and the Old Leaven

I would have to take you back for a few moments to the city of Corinth. When you think of cities in the United States or in Canada, there are cities that we would call very wicked places. But it almost strikes me that there's no city in North America that was as sinful and immoral as Corinth.

Corinth was a wicked place. There were a few Jews in Corinth, but the rest were Gentiles. And all of the Gentiles in Corinth were idolaters. And there are two twins, idolatry and immorality. And the city of Corinth was steeped in idolatry and steeped in immorality.

And it is likely if you or I were overlooking a city like Corinth, we would probably go on to the next city. But Paul didn't do that. Paul went to Corinth and he was divinely directed there because God had said, I have much people in this city.

In the city of Corinth, there were many idols temple. There was a rise of ground in the city that was about 1 ,800 some odd feet above sea level. A little bit of a mountain compared with the rest of the landscape of Corinth.

And on top of that mountain was an idol's temple. And the idol's temple was the temple to Epaphrothite. And Epaphrothite was a Greek goddess of love. We are told historically that there were a thousand harlots linked with that temple.

The Corinthians that frequented that temple would bow to that idol. They would worship in the presence of that idol. They would eat in the presence of that idol. They would pray to that idol. That was their God.

And all of the wickedness and the sinfulness that was characterized with the idol's temple until today. If you go home tonight and look in your dictionary, you will find a word in most dictionaries is called Corinthianize.

That's an English word in an English dictionary. And it's to practice sin, to practice immorality of the most wicked kind. That was Corinth. And when Paul gathered with those believers that were saved in Corinth, and he lists some of the evil and some of the wicked sins of the Corinthians, and as he looks over that company that he gathered with for that first time for the breaking of bread, you can almost hear them.

And such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are justified, but you are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. God had done a mighty work in Corinth. And from that awful background, he had put many of them as brands for the burning.

And now they find themselves gathered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ at Corinth. But now listen what he says. Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven. The old leaven was what I have already described.

The old leaven was the evil and the wickedness of Corinth. And there's a solemn warning here. I know a little about my background. I'm not going to tell you that tonight. You know about your background.

It is possible that there are some here tonight who have been delivered from a sinful life. But there is a danger, and we need to be very much aware of it. And the danger is that we will drift back to that life that we were delivered from.

That's what happened at Corinth. And so there was a man at Corinth, and he had an immoral relationship with his father's wife, probably his stepmother. And the Corinthians didn't want to judge that until Paul wrote to them.

And that's the sense of the chapter when he says to purge out the old leaven. That sin had risen again in the life of a believer at Corinth. And so be very careful. That's a warning to all of us from 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

The sins of the past, they have been forgiven. But in a moment of desire, and in a moment of opportunity, and in a moment when we just sort of let our guard down. And remember, Satan knows the weakest point to attack.

That is the weakest point in your life. And he's about the business of bringing believers down. That's Corinth. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And so now Paul says to these believers, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven.

And so they have to put out the old leaven. That man in Corinth has to be dealt with. He has to be excommunicated from the assembly. They have to understand, holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, forever.

That man didn't commit that sin when the assembly was gathered together. He committed that sin at some other time. And so remember, 24 hours of the day, seven days a week, you're in fellowship in the assembly of God.

That is your life. And what takes place in your life will have a bearing upon God's assembly, 24 hours every day of every week. And so this man had to be dealt with. And so now Paul says, purge out the old leaven.

He says that the assembly might be a new lump, and the new lump is the assembly that has been kept because the sin has been purged out. So now when he says, let us keep the feast. And so what is the feast?

Now, I don't want to stand at the door at the end of this meeting and have someone be a little upset when I'm going to say, but we really want to keep to the Word of God. The Lord's Supper in the Bible is never called a feast.

The feast here is something different, something else. It's not the Lord's Supper. I know we sing the hymn, Sweet Feast of Love Divine, but the Lord's Supper is not referred to as a feast in the Bible.

So the feast is something else. And in the context of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the feast is the life of the believer. It's your life. And to keep the feast is how you're going to live your life for Christ.

And so he says, let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness. What is malice? Malice is the opposite of love. And Paul's going to enlarge on that. I might just add to what I have just said, that Paul is an orderly writer.

He presents the truth in a very orderly way. And so when he refers to the feast here, it's not until he gets to chapter 10 and chapter 11 that he touches on the Lord's Supper. And he doesn't touch the Lord's Supper until those two chapters.

His presentation of the word of God is very orderly. And so what is malice? Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven of malice, the opposite of love. Now Paul's going to touch on that. He's going to give us a beautiful chapter.

That's a chapter that some believers have up on the walls of their house. It's a good chapter to have displayed in a very obvious place. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And in that chapter, Paul personifies love.