Fall Family Festival

Wayside Gospel Chapel will be hosting a “Fall Family Festival” at the church on Sunday, November 8th from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. The public is invited to this event, and admission is free. There will be turkey bowling, jell-o bobbing, pumpkin carving, a huge leaf pile, a bonfire, and other games and food. Due to the nature of the games those who plan on attending are encouraged to wear old clothes!

Wayside Gospel Chapel is located at the intersection of Roemerville Road and Route 390 four miles south of Promised Land State Park in Greentown (Pike County), Pennsylvania.

For further information contact Pastor Jeffery at (570) 342-5787.

Upcoming Events

Ocean City Bible Conference

Theme
A Legacy of Sovereign Grace: Celebrating 500 Years of John Calvin

Featured Speakers
Dr. Philip Ryken (author, Pastor, Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA)
Dr. Steve Lawson (author, Pastor, Christ Fellowship Church, Mobile, AL)
Dr. Michael Haykin (author, Professor, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Pastor Fred Zaspel (author, Pastor, Reformed Baptist Church, Franconia, PA)
Pastor John G. Reisinger (author, Evangelist, Founder of the John Bunyan Conference)

Dates
September 13-16, 2009

Location
Ocean City Baptist Church
603 10th Street
Ocean City, New Jersey 08226

Contact Information
Phone: (609) 399-2261
Email: info[at]ocbibleconference.org
Web site: www.ocbibleconference.org

Missionary Sunday - May 3, 2009

Twenty

“Exceeding Great and Precious Promises”

*********************************************
From a sermon by

Noah Quarshie

of Ghana, West Africa

*************************
preached May 3, 2009
at Wayside Gospel Chapel

2 Peter 1:1-4 - [1] Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us

through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:

[2] Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,

[3] According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

[4] Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,

having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Jeremiah 31:3 – the everlasting love
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:

therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

Isaiah 45:17 – the everlasting salvation
But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation:

ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.

Psalm 119:142 – the everlasting righteousness
Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,

and thy law is the truth.

Isaiah 55:3 – the everlasting covenant
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live;

and I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

even the sure mercies of David.

Isaiah 54:8 – the everlasting kindness
In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment;

but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee,

saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

Isaiah 35:10 – the everlasting joy
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads:

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

2 Thes. 2:16 – the everlasting consolation
Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father,

which hath loved us,

and hath given us everlasting consolation

and good hope through grace,

Psalm 139:24 – the everlasting way
And see if there be any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 112:6 – the everlasting remembrance
Surely he shall not be moved for ever:

the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

Isaiah 55:13 – the everlasting sign
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,

and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree:

and it shall be to the Lord for a name,

for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Ephes. 1:4-5 – the everlasting adoption
[4] According as he hath chosen us in him

before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

[5] Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children

by Jesus Christ to himself,

according to the good pleasure of his will,

John 6:47 – the everlasting life
Verily, verily, I say unto you,

He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

Isaiah 60:19-20 – the everlasting light
[19] The sun shall be no more thy light by day;

neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:

but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,

and thy God thy glory.

[20] Thy sun shall no more go down;

neither shall thy moon withdraw itself:

for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light,

and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

Psalm 103:17 – the everlasting mercy
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

upon them that fear him,

and his righteousness unto children's children;

Deut. 33:27 - the everlasting arms
The eternal God is thy refuge,

and underneath are the everlasting arms:

and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee;

and shall say, Destroy them.

Isaiah 26:4 - the everlasting strength
Trust ye in the Lord for ever:

for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:

2 Peter 1:11 – the everlasting kingdom
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you

abundantly into the everlasting kingdom

of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Psalm 119:144 – the everlasting testimony
The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting:

give me understanding, and I shall live.

Isaiah 40:8 – the everlasting Word
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:

but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Genesis 21:33 – the everlasting God
And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba,

and called there on the name of the Lord,

the everlasting God.

Pastor's Sermon Notes - April 12, 2009

The Empty Tomb is not Empty!
John 3:16

For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.

Introduction:

Perhaps you, like myself, have in the past spoken of the disciples coming to the empty tomb. I would suggest that this may not be quite accurate, and that we might want to rethink the use of the word “empty” to describe the tomb after Christ was raised from the dead. Actually there are only four usages of the English word “empty” in the New Testament. Each of these is found in the Gospels, and none of them have reference to the tomb. Perhaps a visit to the tomb would be in order to get to the bottom of this, so that when we speak of the tomb in the future we do so with confidence that our testimony accords with the Scriptural accounts, and the reality of the situation we find there.

We are brought there with the disciples by the Scriptures, taken as it were by the hand and brought to the open mouth of the grave of the Savior. We have come to a tomb. The stone that once sealed it has been rolled away. We can see into the tomb. But it is not enough to just stand there and peer within, we must enter the tomb. At first glance it appears to be empty. That is not quite accurate! Oh, it might have been empty three days before, and filled with death since then, but what about now?

Three women, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, saw something, or rather, someone, in the tomb - Mark 16 – [5] And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. [6] And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. [7] But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.

Peter and John saw something in the tomb – John 20 - [5] And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. [6] Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, [7] And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. [8] Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.

Mary Magdalene saw someone in the tomb – John 20 - [11] But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, [12] And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. [13] And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

However, as we stand within the tomb we are unable to shake the impression that it is not empty at all. And, it is not just the presence of angels, or of the empty grave clothes that impress us. Someone is here. Something fills this tomb. The tomb is not only not empty, on the contrary, the tomb is full!

What is it that seems to fill this tomb? Is there something for us to learn here, a message for us to understand, something for us to take away when we must leave the tomb? We are afraid to speak, even to whisper within the tomb, and if we did we feel that it would merely echo with the apparent emptiness. But the tomb seems to be speaking to us, and it does not seem to be speaking to us of its emptiness.

Is what we are to learn here about “emptiness”, is the message of the tomb an empty message, is “emptiness” what we are to take with us from the tomb, or is it something else? Is there a fullness here, a fullness that should fill us? Is the tomb full with meaning, and with more than meaning? Should we think of, can we speak of “the fullness of the empty tomb”? Isn’t “the fullness of the empty tomb” a reality, a very personal reality, rich with meaning that resonates within our very being? Do we really understand that Christianity is not about an empty tomb? Does that seem to be too radical a statement to you? To some Christianity may be an empty religion, and they never get beyond the emptiness of the tomb. I say to you that the testimony of the tomb is not a testimony of emptiness but of fullness!

We need, we really do need to consider the fullness of the tomb. We need to give serious consideration to what this tomb is filled with.


I. The Empty Tomb is full of God

The silence within the tomb is very loud. The silence here shouts out the reality that God is here, not just that He has been here, but that He is here. He is here not just as He is everywhere as the omnipresent and immanent God, but here He is in a very special sense, speaking to us out of the very “emptiness” of this tomb. He is here revealing Himself to us, speaking to us of His sovereign presence, of His overcoming power, of His overwhelming purpose.

Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul that speaks of the fulness that should confront us in the tomb where He demonstrated the greatest display of His power the world and human history has ever seen!

Romans 15:29 - And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

Ephesians 1:23 - Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ephesians 3:19 - And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ephesians 4:13 - Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Cololossians 1:19 - For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Colossians 2:9 - For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Do you sense His presence? Do you hear what He is saying to you in the “emptiness” of this tomb? Do you sense the fullness of God in the emptiness of the tomb?


II. The Empty Tomb is full of Love

What is it about this tomb that makes its apparent emptiness such an issue! What is this tomb all about?

What kind of love is this that brings us to a tomb? What manner of love calls us to a seemingly empty tomb? What is it about this tomb that makes it seem to us so full, so filled with love?

How is it that God can “give”? How can it be that God can “give” sacrificially? Will we ever plumb the depths of what it means for God to “give”?

Here, even as in the manger, here, as at the foot of the Cross, here, as gazing into glory, we should feel and experience and be filled with His sacrificial giving love as nowhere else. We should never forget what we find filling this tomb!

III. The Empty Tomb is full of Life

The death that was here is gone. This tomb was a battlefield, and Death, the enemy, has fled the battlefield that the tomb was as an utterly defeated foe. Death has been defeated by the irresistible power of the sovereign Lord, by His unconquerable Love, and by His unquenchable Life.

Only the power of God could empty this tomb of death, and that is precisely what is left as the “emptiness” of the tomb. No power on earth could empty the tomb of death, but the power of the Lord of heaven and earth could! And no power in heaven or on earth can now empty that tomb of what fills it, of the God who is there, the God who loves, and the life He alone gives!

The life that fills this tomb which was once filled with death is a particular kind of life. It is everlasting life, a life that death can no longer conquer. Death is a defeated foe. The tomb has been emptied of death, and filled with the reality of everlasting life due to the victory of God and the sacrifice of His love.

The tomb has been emptied of death leaving Life in its stead. This tomb is full, full of life! It speaks, it shouts, it echoes of life, resurrection life, everlasting life!


Conclusion:

You might be wondering, “Preacher, that is all well and good, but what text of the Bible tells us this? Is this just your own thinking, shouldn’t you be expounding Scripture, or where do you get this from? This seems like a topical message without a text! That is not like what we have come to expect from you. What is this about?” Well, okay, those are reasonable questions. We are not done with the tomb just yet. Don’t just walk away!

As we leave the tomb that we once thought was empty, and we turn to look back in reflection, we see inscribed above the tomb words, and not just any words. Do you see them? What words do you see inscribed, emblazoned across the entrance to the tomb? We see these words, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”, and this verse seems mysteriously appropriate to describe the fullness of the tomb.

Let us speak no more of an empty tomb! Let us speak of a tomb that is filled - filled with God and His power, filled with God and His love, filled with God and His life!

“This morning I stumbled across the first few pages of Alexander Strauch’s Leading with Love. He begins this book by telling a story from the life of Dwight L. Moody. He tells of a time that the evangelist Henry Moorhouse was asked to preach at Moody’s church every night for a week. To everyone’s surprise, Moorhouse preached seven consecutive sermons on John 3:16, preaching on God’s love from Genesis to Revelation. Moody’s son recorded the impact of this preaching in the life of his father:

For six nights he had preached on this one text. The seventh night came and he went into the pulpit. Every eye was upon him. He said, “Beloved friends, I have been hunting all day for a new text, but I cannot find anything so good as the old one; so we will go back to the third chapter of John and the sixteenth verse,” and he preached the seventh chapter from those wonderful words, “God so loved the world.” I remember the end of that sermon:

“My friends,” he said, “for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder and climb up into heaven and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, to tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be: ‘God so loveth the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’”

Unable to hold back the tears as Moorhouse preached on the love of God in sending His only Son to die for sinners, Moody confessed:

I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out; I could not keep back the tears. It was like news from a far country: I just drank it in. So did the crowded congregation. I tell you there is one thing that draws above everything else in the world, and that is love.”

Source: Tim Challies at
http://www.challies.com/archives/articles/quotes/like-news-from-a-far-country.php [accessed 8 APR 2009]

The only “empty tomb” is the tomb of the unbeliever who if filled with death, with an empty heart, and empty soul, and an eternity empty of hope! If you know God, and have experienced His power and love, if you have inherited eternal life by faith in Christ, you know this tomb is not empty, and that you have been filled with precisely that which fills this tomb! Go rejoicing in the message of the “Full Tomb” rather than the empty tomb!

Missionary Sunday - May 3, 2009

Wayside Gospel Chapel will be conducting a special Missionary Sunday worship service on May 3, 2009 with Pastor Noah Quarshie. The service will begin at 10:30 a.m. Noah has ministered at Wayside several times in the past, and we are excited about having him with us once again! Don't miss this opportunity to be ministered to by Pastor Quarshie, and to learn what the Lord is doing in Ghana!

Pastor Noah Quarshie is a national missionary in Ghana, West Africa, where he is the president of Shalom Indigenous Ministries which consists of the Baptist Institute of Professional Studies (BIPS), and the BIPS Secondary Technical School, and is the pastor of Baptist Bible Church. He is the author of A Bird's Eye View of the Bible (Clarks Green, PA: Outreach-Ministries, 1983), 214 pp., and has also published several booklets on a variety of Biblical, theological and educational topics.


Noah was born in Ghana in 1946, attended elementary and high school there, was saved in 1969 through the ministry of Back to the Bible Broadcast, and baptized in 1970 at the Christiansburg Baptist Church. He served as a deacon and Sunday School teacher from 1971 to 1974. In 1974 Noah married his wife Adelaide. They have two children, Deborah and Enoch.

The Quarshie Family

Noah came to the USA in 1974, studying at Shelton College, Cape Canaveral, FL, where he earned a B.A. degree in 1978, and Baptist Bible Theological Seminary (now "Baptist Bible Seminary"), Clarks Summit, PA, earning a M.Div. degree in 1982. He returned to Ghana in 1983 as a missionary under Grace Baptist Mission, West Clifford, PA. The work in Ghana involves leadership training, church planting, pastoral ministry, youth ministry, education, medical ministry, farming, relief work, and the Gospel radio ministry, "Alive FM". Noah’s educational ministries include the Baptist Institute of Professional Studies (begun in 1992), and the BIPS Secondary Technical school (begun in 1999).

Link to web site for Grace Baptist Mission - Ghana
http://www.gracebaptistmissionghana.org/quarshies.html
[accessed 2 APR 2009]

Seventh Annual Wayside Weekend Bible Conference

Wayside Gospel Chapel is hosting its Seventh Annual Weekend Bible Conference Saturday, May 30, 2009 and Sunday, May 31, 2009. Two sessions are scheduled for Saturday evening beginning at 5:00 p.m. with a Fellowship Dinner between sessions. The closing session of the Conference will be the Sunday morning worship service beginning at 10:30 a.m.

David B. Morris will once again be expounding the Scriptures at Wayside. David is no stranger to Wayside Gospel Chapel as this is his sixth visit as our featured Bible Conference preacher.

Pastor John T. "Jack" Jeffery (left) with Pastor David Morris (right)

David studied Classics and Linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, following his conversion in 1973. After nearly twenty years of pastoral ministry, he entered an itinerant ministry of evangelism and conference speaking. He and Terri, his wife of 27 years, have six children. David has ministered in the past at the John Bunyan Conference in New Ringgold, Pennsylvania. He will be speaking twice this year at the 2009 John Bunyan Conference in Lewisburg, PA. He delivered the Convocation Address at the 11th International Baptist Conference in 2004 held at the historic Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, Canada, hosted by the Toronto Baptist Seminary, the Jarvis Street Baptist Church, and The Jonathan Edwards Centre for Reformed Spirituality. Some of his sermons are available on SermonAudio.com at David Morris.

Pastor David Morris (left) with Pastor John T. "Jack" Jeffery (right)

Don't miss this opportunity to gather at Wayside as we are ministered to by this gifted preacher and teacher of God's Word!

Pastor's Sermon Notes - March 22, 2009

Christ Our Passover
1 Corinthians 5:6-8
[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.

Introduction:
Review: The issue is the purity of the Church, and Church discipline when wickedness is detected within the Church

Bible Study Pointer: Pay attention to the New Testament’s usage of the Old Testament! Learn the Old Testament to understand the New Testament!

Key features of this passage: leaven, Passover, the spiritual significance of leaven

Outline:

Don’t Glory Until the Old Leaven is Purged Out –
What’s up with all this about leaven? (5:6-7c)

Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for Us –
How is Christ our Passover? (5:7d)

Keep the Feast with Unleavened Bread –
How are we to keep the leaven out of the feast? (5:8)

Difficulties:
Sequence of events: purging of corruption, sealing with blood protecting from Angel of Death, the Destroyer, celebration of the Feast

Treading underfoot the blood of the Covenant, Hebrews 10:26-31 

I. Don’t Glory Until the Old Leaven is Purged Out – What’s up with all this about leaven? (5:6-7c)

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.

1. The Problem - Your glorying is not good (5:6)

1 Cor. 3:21 - Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

1 Cor. 5:2 - And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

James 4:16 - But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Romans 6:16 - Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

The problem is that glorying is inappropriate while leaven is present in any amount.

2. The Principle - a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump (5:7a)

Leaven as corruption

1 Cor. 15:33 - Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

Hosea 7:4 - They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

The effect of even a little corruption is total

Galatians 5:9 - A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

The Parable of the Leaven

Matthew 13:33 - Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Luke 13:20-21 - And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

3. The Solution - Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened (5:7b)

The Original Passover

Exodus 12:1-14, 21-30

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Exodus 12:15 - Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. [3-20, 1-30]

Exodus 12:19 - Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

Exodus 12:21-23 - Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. [22] And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. [23] For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Exodus 13:7 - Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. [3-10]

Deut. 16:3 - Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.

The Leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Herod

Matthew 16:6 - Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. [5-12]

Matthew 16:11-12 - 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? [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. [14-21]

Luke 12:1 - In the mean time, 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 Jewish Traditions for Purging Leaven

Helpful sources on Jewish traditions concerning the Passover, leaven, and preparation for the Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread:

http://www.myjewishlearning.com
[accessed 21 MAR 2009]

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com
[accessed 21 MAR 2009]

http://www.chabad.org
[accessed 21 MAR 2009] 

II. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for Us –
How is Christ our Passover? (5:7d)

For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

Sounding a sweet note in the middle of a grievous confrontation!

The Original Passover

Exodus 12:1-14, 21-30

Christ Our Passover

Isaiah 53:7 - He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

John 19:14 - And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

1 Peter 1:19 - But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Sequence of events: purging of corruption, sealing with blood protecting from Angel of Death, the Destroyer, celebration of the Feast – This has to do with future judgment – the present is the time for preparation – purging out the leaven, and remaining under the protection of the blood of the Covenant – the Passover, the judgment and destruction of the world (Egypt), and unbelievers (Egyptians) is yet future – the Feast will be kept as the Marriage Supper of the Lamb

Consider the significance of treading underfoot the blood of the Covenant in Hebrews –

[26] For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, [27] But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. [28] He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: [29] Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? [30] For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. [31] It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(Hebrews 10:26-31) 

III. Keep the Feast with Unleavened Bread –
How are we to keep the leaven out of the feast? (5:8)

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.

Jewish traditions concerning the keeping of the Feast

The “old” leaven

The leaven of “malice and wickedness”

The Leaven of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and Herod

Matthew 16:6 - Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. [5-12]

Matthew 16:11-12 - 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? [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. [14-21]

Luke 12:1 - In the mean time, 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 unleavened bread of “sincerity and truth”

The lessons to be learned from the Jewish understanding

Conclusion:

How meticulous are we in purging out leaven?

How concerned are we concerning impurity in our lives and in the Church?

Get your spiritual “toothbrushes” out!

Purge out the old leaven! Keep the Feast in a way that honors and glorifies our Passover!

[Sermon preached by Pastor John T. "Jack" Jeffery at Wayside Gospel Chapel, Greentown, PA on March 22, 2009.]