Preparing for Passover

Welcome

Intro

Every year, in Jewish households around the world, something remarkable happens in the days leading up to Passover. It's called bedikat chametz — the search for leaven. Families go through their homes room by room, corner by corner, with a candle, a feather, and a wooden spoon, searching out every last crumb of bread, every hidden pocket of yeast. The children are enlisted. The couches are moved. The high shelves are reached. Nothing is left uninspected.

It isn't just spring cleaning. It is intentional preparation. The leaven — the chametz — represents something that puffs up, something old and corrupt that has no place in a household about to celebrate the great deliverance. Before the feast can be celebrated, the house must be made ready.

I wonder this morning what it might look like to do that same kind of searching — not in our kitchens, not behind our appliances — but in here. [gesture to heart]

Because we are standing at the threshold of something extraordinary. In just a few days, we will gather to remember an empty tomb, a stone rolled away, a risen Savior. And the question the Spirit is pressing on us this season is not simply, "Are you coming to the celebration?" — but "Are you ready for it?"

The Passover house had to be prepared before the feast could be received. So does the heart.

What is the leaven you have been living with? What old bitterness, what unconfessed sin, what slow drift from the living God has quietly settled into the corners of your life? Today is not a day of condemnation — it is a day of invitation. Just as a Jewish mother lights her candle and moves deliberately through every room, God's Spirit wants to move through every room of who you are: your relationships, your habits, your secret places, your unanswered prayers, your unexamined assumptions.

Not to shame you. But to make you ready.

The resurrection is coming. The question is whether we will meet it with a house that has been searched and swept and offered — or whether we will show up to the feast still carrying what we should have set down weeks ago.

So before we open the Word together this morning, I want to invite you to do something brave: let the Spirit search the house.

Body

Today we find Jesus entering the Eastern Gate of the Temple.

The Eastern Gate was the primary entry for Religious Processions.

There is so much significance to this Gate.

It is from this Gate that Ezekiel witnesses the Glory of the Lord leaving the Temple.

It is where we are told in Ezekiel 43 that the Glory of the Lord will return to set up the Millennial Kingdom.

But Today Jesus is entering that Gate on the Foul of the Donkey. Presenting Himself Lamb of God for inspection on Day 1 to the 7 Day Passover Celebration.

Let’s dive into today’s passage.

Matthew 21:12–13 CSB

12 Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

This is the second time Jesus has cleared the temple at the beginning of Passover.

We often tend to read more into this than we should.

We tend to just say well they shouldn’t have been selling stuff inside God’s house.

But if we take a deeper look the Money Changers were supposed to be there.

The Dove Salesmen where also supposed to be there.

God set up a standard for proper worship among the Jews. They were required to come to the Temple for Three festivals a year.

These festivals are

The Passover (March/April)

The Feast of Weeks/Pentecost (May /June)

The Feast of Tabernacles/Booths (September/October)

At these festivals they were required to bring their Tithe.

But How do you bring a tithe of your grain, fruit, or herd if you are traveling a long distance.

Well God thinks of everything.

Deuteronomy 14:24–26 CSB

24 But if the distance is too great for you to carry it, since the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far away from you and since the Lord your God has blessed you, 25 then exchange it for silver, take the silver in your hand, and go to the place the Lord your God chooses. 26 You may spend the silver on anything you want: cattle, sheep, goats, wine, beer, or anything you desire. You are to feast there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice with your family.

So the Money changers are vital especially when we are dealing with foreign money with Pagan Gods on them. This must be converted………

The issue is that the Money Changers and Dove Salesmen are ripping people off………

Isaiah 56:7 CSB

7 I will bring them to my holy mountain and let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

Jesus States Matthew 21:13

Matthew 21:13 CSB

13 He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

They are Puffing up…Inflating the Cost…..

Exodus 12:15 CSB

15 You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. On the first day you must remove yeast from your houses. Whoever eats what is leavened from the first day through the seventh day must be cut off from Israel.

Exodus 12:19–20 CSB

19 Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a resident alien or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel. 20 Do not eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”

The Temple belongs to God, and as God in the Flesh, Jesus is is the Head of the House of God.

It is the 1st day of the Passover Festival.

Jesus is clearing the temple of the Unleavened Bread.

He is Demonstrating His Authority over Everything in the Kingdom.

So My first thought for our preparation for This years Resurrection Celebration is this…

Instead of thinking of all the tables you want to flip.

How about letting the Holy Spirit flip some tables in your heart?

What is unleavened in your life that needs to be swept clean?

1 Corinthians 5:7–8 CSB

7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Matthew 21:14–17 CSB

14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 When the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonders that he did and the children shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read: You have prepared praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?” 17 Then he left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Now Jesus imparts a blessing. Healing those who are in need.

Once again Demonstrating that He has Authority over Sickness and Disability.

The people healed here took a step of faith and came to Jesus.

What is it as we approach Resurrection Sunday that you need to have faith for to allow Jesus do demonstrate His Power in your life?

There is an issue here though….The Religious leaders want to control everything………

They will always be the ones to complain when God is moving……

Jesus is flipping tables and driving out those who would profit from the people of God.

Now he is Healing the people in the court yard as Children are recognizing that He is from God, He is God, He is The Long awaited Messiah……..

Psalm 118:25–26 CSB

25 Lord, save us! Lord, please grant us success! 26 He who comes in the name of the Lord is blessed. From the house of the Lord we bless you.

So the Leaders question Jesus

Matthew 21:16 CSB

16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus replied, “Yes, have you never read: You have prepared praise from the mouths of infants and nursing babies?”

Jesus Quotes: Psalms 8:2

Psalm 8:2 CSB

2 From the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established a stronghold on account of your adversaries in order to silence the enemy and the avenger.

Jesus then leaves the Temple and crossed back over to Bethany to rest.

Matthew 21:18–21 CSB

18 Early in the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw it, they were amazed and said, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” 21 Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.

The Last two points I want you to ponder this morning:

Are you a tree that should be producing Fruit?………….

What kind faith do you have for accomplishing all that God has created you to accomplish? …….

Invitation

Would you stand with me this morning……..

Now is the Time to respond…..

What is unleavened in your life that needs to be swept clean?

What is in your life maybe sickness, disability, or spiritually that you need to bring before God and allow him to heal?

Are you a tree that should be producing Fruit?

What kind faith do you have for accomplishing all that God has created you to accomplish?

Offering

This week I have been studying the idea of generosity.

2 Corinthians 9:5–8 CSB

5 Therefore I considered it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance the generous gift you promised, so that it will be ready as a gift and not as an extortion. 6 The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.

Most of us have heard this before but this week I discovered something that has never clicked until now. Verse 11

2 Corinthians 9:11 CSB

11 You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

Generosity affect every area of your life.

Today, I want to invite you where ever your at to either begin or enrich our generosity journey.

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