Articles
The Unleavened Body of Christ--Transcript
Good evening ladies and gentlemen.
I'd like to see if you would keep your Bibles at the book of Ephesians chapter 5.
It will serve as a basis of what we're going to talk about this evening.
I want to come to understand a little bit more of what we discussed this morning about the Lord's Supper and refer to a part of the Lord's Supper and how that makes a very good lesson for all of us to understand and how valuable that will be from this point forward.
As I mentioned to you this morning, the idea of taking a Lord's Supper is not just one of these rituals, it's not just an observance, it's not just a ceremonial thing that you do, but it goes beyond that and we'll discuss that this evening.
Let's talk about eating bread.
Let's talk about eating bread first.
There's probably a lot of you out here that like to prepare the bread, to put the bread together, smell it, bake and then after it's completed bring it out and eat some of it.
Or at least maybe you're close by somewhere where they bake bread and you just look forward to the morning when you smell it and then be able to protect of it.
So you go down there and purchase some of it.
There are people who just cannot be able to protect of that for difficulties that they experience within their body because of that.
But I would say that a lot of you this evening have had the opportunity to taste my Sweetie's Bread.
Some of the bread, I've understood it's the best bread in the world.
I've heard a lot of words, descriptions of that.
One of the things that you must realize is all the blessings and all the love that goes into that bread, known to be the Bane Bread, is just a tremendous effort.
There's a particular thing about that bread that you must understand.
It's got a leavening agent in it that brings of rising, smelling good and being able to protect of it.
But it comes as a result of a starter that in our family it's been existing over 45 years.
But I do know that there are some starters that have been over 125 years.
That's how long they've been in existence.
But let me just let you think about just something.
What would it be like if that leavening agent that was in the bread that Diane makes wasn't there? That would be the most tragic day in America, wouldn't it? It would be tragic.
It would be absolutely tragic.
Because it would all be flat, it would be unleavened.
There would be no reason to really want to taste that sweet bread or put anything on it.
Because you'd have to think you've got to add so much to it to make it taste and have any flavor whatsoever to it.
So therefore, let's talk about being unleavened.
Being unleavened that the scriptures talk about that is valuable for us to understand.
There's a Greek word for the word unleavened.
It's the word azumos.
The Hebrew word of unleavened is the word metasos.
The definition of both the words are the same.
Without fermentation, made without yeast or it's unleavened, formed in flat cakes.
It is taking away something that we would love for the bread to have.
It's taking away the leaven.
It's taking away the agent that makes it become to be more desirable.
You take it away, it becomes to be less desirable.
But let's look at it from the biblical standpoint of the purity of the unleavened that the Bible talks about.
If you go to the Old Testament, you'll see pretty clearly that in the book of Exodus chapter 12, this is exactly what it was that God gave the command for the people to do.
Take the leaven out of the house.
Chapter 12 verse 15, seven days shall you eat unleavened bread.
Even the first day you shall put away the leaven out of your houses.
For whosoever eats leaven, that soul will be cut off from Israel.
That's how severe the leaven in the house would be.
Same chapter verse 19.
Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses.
For whosoever eats that which is leaven, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a sojourner or one that is born in the land.
So now it gets more specific.
It's not just your family, it's for all people.
Sojourner or one born in the land.
The severity of putting leaven in a home where God said it shouldn't be there.
Even in verse 20, you shall eat nothing leavened, and all your habitation shall you eat unleavened bread.
In Leviticus, there was a statement that was made in chapter 23 about the same thing, related to the unleavened, where he says something in verse 6, where he says that there will be seven days on the fifteenth day of the same month as the feast of unleavened bread in Jehovah.
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
In the first day you shall have a holy convocation, do no servant work.
Well this was supposed to continue on and on.
It was not just a one-time observance just to be able to release them from the land of Egypt.
This was an ongoing practice.
It just kept going on and on and on to the point that you will see that this became to be Israel's hope.
Israel's hope.
I want you to notice something in the book of Exodus, chapter 12.
Listen to this.
In verse 33, where there was the time when the firstborn were dying in the land of Egypt, the Egyptians were very urgent.
Upon the people who sent them out of the land in haste, for they said, we're all dead men.
We're all dead men.
Chapter 12, verse 39.
The unleavened, which they took out of the land because there was such haste, it didn't leaven.
It was unleavened and they got the unleavened out.
They baked the unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of the land of Egypt.
For it was not leavened because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry.
Neither had they prepared themselves any rituals.
The people of Egypt didn't want them there.
They wanted the unleavened people of God out of there.
They want them out.
They didn't want these unleavened people.
But this unleavened was a means of understanding a mist of purity that you're bringing these people.
These people are called out of the land of Egypt and they're headed to the land of Canaan.
It became to be something according to what is mentioned in chapter 16 of this book that they were going to continue this Passover to keep this unleavened there within their houses during this particular time until they got to the land of Canaan.
When they got to the land of Canaan according to Joshua chapter 5 verse 15 to verse 20, then that's when God said, no more, no more.
Then I'm going to give you what it is that you need, the fruit of the land of which you are living in.
Where you live, where you live in this land is now something you can partake.
But to keep before their eyes the idea of unleavened and the purity of unleavened is something that God uses as a symbol to say, I called you out of the land of Egypt, but you will remain unleavened.
You will remain my people.
I called you out of this land to be my people and then when you enter into the land of Canaan, what do you say that they would be doing? They were taking out the leaven that was in that land that was corrupt, full of idolatry, full of evil and wickedness and corruption.
Get all that leaven out of that land because you will be the one who will serve me only.
You will continue to be the unleavened people and be the purity of me in this new land.
You will not let anything leaven come in and corrupt you.
You remember one of the ten commandments? Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
I took you out of the land of Egypt where all these gods were and when you get into this new land you will continue to be unleavened because as he said, man will not live by bread alone in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3 but by every word proceeds out of the mouth of God.
And to make sure they knew how valuable those commands were, whenever there was some kind of leaven, which in many instances was considered to be something that was not permitted, whenever that came in, do you know what God did? In Leviticus chapter 10, when the leaven of Nadab and Abihu came in, God killed them.
When the leaven of Korah in the book of Exodus chapter 16 came along, they were swallowed up in the earth.
And as soon as they crossed over into the new land, when they were starting to conquer Jericho and Ai, as soon as Achan took of the leaven of the land, then God had them stone him.
So God is not going to let the unleavened people be leavened by anybody, even among their own people, even if they were sojourners, if they were foreigners.
So this idea of unleaven goes deeper than what we might even think.
There was one instance though, I will leave with you before I go further about this, in Matthew chapter 13.
In Matthew 13 verse 33, leaven was considered to be a good thing, for that was how the abundance and the multiplication and the expanse of God's kingdom would be.
So he talked about the leaven being included, and that was a good thing because it represented something valuable.
But in most instances you will see in scripture that the leaven was not supposed to be there.
The evil influence of what was on the outside.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and listen to the words of which the writer says needs to be understood.
And we are going to go back, we are going to go from this chapter into chapter 6 in just a minute to listen even more.
Look, this is where the leaven of the evil influence of fornication comes into the congregation.
And you would think that the leavening was a valuable thing.
It was worth glorying over.
It would be smelling good.
But according to chapter 5 verse 6, your glorying is not good.
You let all this leaven in, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out the leaven that you may be a new lump even as ye are unleavened.
The people of Israel were representing symbolic of what God was going to have for his people in the church.
Notice the next verse.
Or excuse me, at the end of verse 7, for our Passover has been sacrificed even Christ wherewith let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, needed with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Now according to what you have got in verse 8, you have got some key ingredients to how you and I can make this body unleaven.
The body of Christ.
One of the things that Jesus said in the book of Matthew chapter 16 is you have to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
The hypocrisy.
Do not let that leaven come in.
That is not permitted, that is not allowed.
This false teaching is not permitted here.
Not at all.
But let's think with me the unleavened supper that we talked about this morning.
The unleavened supper.
The unleavened bread.
Jesus was the one according to Matthew chapter 26 that instituted this.
He established it.
He put it all together for people to understand the purity and the holiness and sacred solemn observance of this moment that else people see the value of Jesus dying.
The value of Jesus dying.
My body.
My blood.
And according to what we talked about this morning in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 16, this is communion with Jesus as well as communion with us.
But notice this, my body.
My body that Jesus said was not only that this was something as a body that hung up on the cross as an offering, his body became to be that which represented the same lamb offered by God's people in Exodus 12.
Sinless.
Pure.
No spot.
Blemishless.
His body was pure, innocent, clean, free from sin.
Just like that Passover lamb.
And what is it that you got in reference to the church? It is the body of Christ.
Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22 and 23.
There's only one of those bodies in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4 to verse 6.
When would there be an allusion to metaphor, adjective use in reference to the body of Christ because the body, as Leroy was reading a while ago in the book of Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 to verse 27, the body of Christ is sanctified wholly just as a husband would want to sanctify and keep his bride blemishless, verse 26, so it is that Jesus wanted to do the same for his body, the church.
He wanted to keep it unleavened.
So everything that goes on in the book of Exodus chapter 12 finds itself coming forward to what you got in Ephesians chapter 5, 25, as well as Ephesians chapter 1 verse 22 and 23.
The unleavened body is to pure the holy, the sanctified, the solemn body of Jesus of which Romans 12 comes along and says in verse 2, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Do not let the leaven come in.
Do not let the leaven come into your body.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
After the moments that are stated in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 about, do you not know that you're to be the leaven, the unleavened rather in verse 7.
In chapter 6 there is a reference made to the body, your body.
In verse 13, the body is not for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
God raised up the Lord and will raise up us through his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? It makes perfect sense that that would be the case even though the question is asked.
And then he goes on to say in verse 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is within you that you have from God and you're not your own and you're bought with a price glorified therefore God in your body.
The sacrifice of Jesus, this unleavened supper of which he instituted is a great way of understanding what kind of body the church it is as well as letting you understand and me understand that the body of which contains the Spirit of God is to still be unleavened, still be holy without spot, wrinkle or any such thing.
Continue that way every single day we live.
The picture, the image is all there.
What a beautiful representation of what it is that Jesus says this is my body.
Do this in remembrance of me but then in Ephesians he says this body is the church and all those people that are in that body use their bodies to be the body dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Unleavened, pure, holy.
Now here's what I want to end with this evening.
How do you keep the unleavened body of Christ unleavened? For we live in a leavened world full of things that want to enter into our lives to cause us to swell and to bloom in the glory of which we manifest our own self.
Our pride, our selfishness, promote me, do what I want to do.
Whatever I let in, I will do it.
I will do it.
I will do it.
I choose it.
Regardless of what the consequences may be, but how is it that if I'm calling myself Christians, and I don't do this just for Olivia and Hannah, but it's valuable for them as much as it is for all of us.
How do we keep the unleavened body of Christ unleavened? This is a congregational effort here.
You notice what they did in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 6 to verse 8.
When there was some leaven that went in, you're going to purge this out.
You're going to get it out.
You've got to get rid of it because this is who you are.
You are the unleavened.
Now it makes sense why Moses made his decision in Hebrews 11, verse 24.
He didn't take of the pleasures of Egypt, but he numbered himself among those people that were looking for Jesus Christ.
It makes all sense in the world for why Joshua did what he did and said what he said in Joshua 24, 15.
For as for me and my house, we'll serve Jehovah.
It makes perfect sense why they would do that.
It makes even more sense as to why it would be that as we talked about this morning in Acts chapter 2, that about 3,000 souls were saved through the blood that was shed upon them to have their sins washed away in baptism.
It makes all sense in the world why you get to the book of Acts chapter 5 that when there was this leaven that came in through the lying of Ananias and Sapphira, they were killed because God's not going to allow the leaven to come in and corrupt everybody else.
Therefore, let's look at 1 John chapter 1.
1 John chapter 1, verse 5 through verse 7.
He says, this is a message that we've heard and an answer to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have a fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin.
The fellowship that we have with Jesus as the unleaven, that fellowship means we're walking in the light.
And it's a continuing effort of us walking in the light, not walking in the darkness anymore.
And according to what you have in the book of Ephesians chapter 5, you will notice in verse 3 through verse 11, he talks about fellowship again, but then he says, we are children of light, walk as children of light in verse 8, for the fruit of the light is all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
And that verse in verse 11 goes right along with all the places where whenever there's leaven that comes in, you've got to get this out because this is not what God's body is.
It is unleavened and he purchased it with pure blood to keep the church unleavened and the body of Christ unleavened.
Maybe we need to understand a little bit more about what this word fellowship means.
It's a two word word, fellow and ship.
Fellow, you've got a comrade, you've got a partner, you've got somebody that's doing this with you.
They're partaking of it, they're sharing in it with you.
Ship is a word that says, okay, this is the condition of what these two people do or three people or more people do together.
The sharing, the state that they're in, this condition that they're in, this exhibiting of what it is that they're doing for the cause of the Lord, they're doing this together, but they're all walking in the light as he is in the light.
They have fellowship with this unleavened Jesus.
And according to what is stated in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 in the last few verses, if anyone were to want to have fellowship with idols or fellowship with darkness or fellowship with evil, he says they need to separate themselves from that.
They need to remove themselves from that leaven that's contaminating and causing them to go back into the ways of the world.
They're now joint participants in sanctification, joint participants in purity, joint participants in holiness, joint participants in righteousness.
They're joined together in the effort that brings about the understanding of how unleavened they can be in an leavened world.
That's how serious this matter is.
So serious that the book of 1 Corinthians declares it, chapter 5 verse 6 to verse 8.
Here's what you do.
You get this out of the land.
Get this out of the family.
Get the Egypt out of the people.
That's why he said, have no other gods before me.
How soon it is we forget though the bondage that we were in, just like it was for the people of Egypt.
How soon it was they forgot.
They wanted to go back.
They wanted to go back.
Let's forget the bondage because if we go back we've got the pleasures and we've got something to eat.
But you can be forgiven of that too according to 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 20 to verse 22.
Go back into the ways of the world again that you once escaped but now you find yourself free from that too instead of being so attracted to the glory of the world.
You see that's exactly what 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6 was all about.
Your glorying is not good.
Glorying of all the pleasures, all the things that you're permitting, all the leaven that you're letting come in is corrupting everybody.
Oh yes it corrupted the people that were actually involved in it but it's corrupting everybody else because they think we can do this and it be okay.
Everything's fine.
No reason to change anything.
Keeping the unleavened body of Christ.
If you're unleavened then to simply say it as plain as you can be, all the leaven has to be removed.
For people that become Christians it's not true to say all I gotta do is just change a few things.
All I gotta do is make just a few adjustments.
All I need to do is just change a thing or two.
This is total leaven absence not there.
In your house for the people of Israel get it out.
I want you to be unleavened so that way you will know exactly what it took to bring about your release from bondage.
From the bondage of the people of Egypt.
You keep yourself unleavened.
You be the one that understands as he talked about in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8.
Feed off of the sincerity and the truth.
Feed off of that.
That's what's so important.
Seeing the church the way God sees the church.
This unleavened body of Christ.
How many times has it been that you've heard the statement made that we need to remove our thoughts from the cares of life in statements that are made here in the assembly.
How many times has it been that you've heard the statements we need to focus ourselves on priorities of seeking the kingdom first.
How many times has it been that you've mentioned and heard these words you may have even spoken yourself.
How valuable it is that we not see the things the way the world sees it but see the church the way God sees it.
Unleavened.
But you see churches everywhere want to be leavened.
They're full of their own glory.
Basking in their own pleasures.
Exalting what it is they do best.
Therefore the unleavened does seem less desirable but the unleavened is definitely God's way not mine.
And partaking of the bread is not God's way.
The bread of life is the only way this unleavened will stay that way.
In the book of John chapter 6 where Jesus was dealing with people that were hungry.
He took care of that.
He brought about a miracle.
Fed the people what it was that they needed.
The 5,000 in that chapter.
Later on after he crossed over to the other side they were after him for some more.
They murmured concerning him in verse 41 concerning him saying I am the bread which came down out of heaven.
And that is very symbolic parallel to the manna that came out from heaven and fed God's people in the Old Testament.
Jesus answered to them and said murmur not among yourselves.
No man can come to me except the Father that sent me drawing and I will raise him up for the last day.
It is written in the prophets they shall all be taught of God everyone that has heard from the Father has learned comes into me.
Not that any man has seen the Father save he that is from God even he that has seen the Father.
Barely I say unto you he that believes has eternal life I am the bread of life your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they died.
This is the bread which comes down out of heaven that you may eat thereof and not die.
I am the living bread which came down out of heaven if any man eateth this bread he shall live forever.
He shall live forever.
That is how you keep the unleavened body of Christ always unleavened.
You feed off of what is unleavened to start with.
I mentioned just a little bit earlier about what an unleavened body physical body would do.
Will let the spirit live within them and bring about glory in the name of God.
That possibility can be within you too just like it is for Hannah and for Olivia.
It is possible that the Spirit will live within you too.
He is taking your physical body and allowing it to die to sin and then letting it be buried in the water to rise up to walk in newness of life.
Living faithful until you die that way you in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 will be ready to answer according to all the deeds that you have done within your body.
Within your body.
That unleavened body that does not let the leaven of sin and the leaven of the world come in and live there for you continually partake of the living bread.
Jesus the son.
Consider carefully how your life can be changed and transformed by letting your life be unleavened.
Purified by the blood of the lamb Jesus the Christ.
Even tonight.
While together we sing.
