Sermon Recap | Amnesia & Deja Vu

Amnesia

 

Immediately following their deliverance from the bonds of slavery, the Lord institutes the annual observance of the Passover Meal; a night to remember God’s faithful protection over the people of Israel. As CJ has noted throughout this series, the Passover Meal and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be a sign for all future generations, forever reminding God’s people of the salvation and covenant He promised them. As this annual holiday found increasing significance among God’s people, we too recognize that the Church today can benefit from the simple act of remembering God’s salvation at the Passover.As is seen in Paul’s words to the embattled church at Corinth (1 Cor. 5:6-8), the lasting impact and theological significance of the Passover Meal reminds us of what it means to be made new in Christ. The purity of the bread on the night of Passover stands as a picture of the purity afforded to believers in the death and resurrection of Jesus. As a response, Paul writes, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump... For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

CJ pointed out that, in the New Testament, leaven is marked as a sign of the corrupting power of sin over one’s life. As Paul writes to the church at Corinth, we find that he carries a pastoral burden to see the leaven (ie. sin) present among them purged from their corporate body. His urgency is felt as he appeals to the longstanding tradition of the Passover Meal. Paul knows that if this sin is not confronted, if this leaven is left to invade the whole lump, the destructive effect of its presence will be felt throughout the entire church of Corinth and beyond. And so, Paul reminds the Corinthians to “celebrate the [Passover] festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

As C.J. concluded this week’s sermon, he asked each of us to consider the leaven in our own lives. Is there a sin which we are inclined to minimize?  CJ’s final plea to each of us at SGCL was to reconsider the seriousness of sin, and to seek Christ’s cleansing power of anything which might introduce the slightest hint of leaven into our church. A final reminder from the words of John Owen was given us all to consider throughout our week, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.”