Dear Family,
Today is Friday, April 22, 2022. This is Day 6 of Week 1 in our Count to Pentecost.
Today is the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread for 2022. Hopefully, we have all enjoyed eating both the physical unleavened bread and the spiritual Unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth found through Jesus Christ, our Living Bread of Life.
In addition to eating the unleavened bread, hopefully, we have successfully avoided eating leavened bread during this feast. And, more importantly, we hope that we have avoided all spiritual leaven.
As the days pass, let us remember what the Bible defines as spiritual leaven and continue to avoid it. There are numerous verses that make us aware of what we should avoid. The following verses associate leaven with false doctrine and hypocrisy:
Matthew 16:6Then Jesus said unto them; Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 16:11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Matthew 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mark 8:15 And he charged them, saying; Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
Luke 12:1 In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all; Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
The Apostle Paul further associated leaven with being “puffed up” (1 Corinthians 5:2), and with “malice and wickedness” (1 Corinthians 5:8).
1 Corinthians 5:2, 6-8 (2) And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you…. (6) Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? (7) 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: (8) 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.
As we continue our Count toward Pentecost, let us remember that it is Jesus Christ, the Living Bread of Life within us, that provides us with the power to truly be spiritually unleavened and pleasing to God, our Father.
Ben Faulkner, Pastor
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