August 11, 2019 – Festivals and Foundations – Celebrating Being Born Again

Celebrating Begin Born Again


Leviticus 23:6-8 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. ⁷ On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. ⁸ For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’”

What is the Festival called that begins on the 15^th day of the month and where “for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast” (verse 6)?

What is to happen on the first day (verse 7)?

When is the “food offering to the Lord” to be presented (verse 8)?

What is to happen on the seventh day (verse 8)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Exodus 12:15-20 - New International Version (NIV)

¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.

¹⁷ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ¹⁸ In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”

How long are the Israelites to “eat bread made without yeast” (verse 15)?

What is to happen to the person who eats anything with yeast in it during this Festival (verse 15)?

Which days are the Israelites to do no work (verse 16)?

Why are the Israelites to “celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread” (verse 17)?

Which days are the Israelites “to eat bread made without yeast” (verse 18)?

In your opinion, why is no yeast to be found in the homes of the Israelites during this time (verse 19)?

What kind of bread are the Israelites to eat “wherever you live” (verse 20)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

Luke 24:13-35 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; ¹⁶ but they were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷ He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. ¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

¹⁹ “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. ²⁰ The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹ but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. ²² In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning ²³ but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. ²⁴ Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

²⁵ He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” ²⁷ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

²⁸ As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. ²⁹ But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰ When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

³³ They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together ³⁴ and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” ³⁵ Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

In your opinion, what Festival was occurring at the time these two men were going to Emmaus (verse 13)?

Where were the two men going (verse 13)?

Who “came up and walked along with them” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, why were they “kept from recognizing him” (verse 16)?

What did Cleopas ask Him (verse 18)?

How did the men view Jesus of Nazareth (verse 19)?

What had the men hoped Jesus would do (verse 21)?

How had the women amazed them (verses 22 and 23)?

What did the companions find when they went to the tomb (verse 24)?

Where did Jesus begin in explaining “to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (verse 27)?

How did Jeses act as they approached the village (verse 28)?

Where did Jesus go (verse 29)?

In your opinion, what kind of bread did Jesus give thanks over and break at the table (verse 30)?

What happened when “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (verse 31)?

How did the two men feel when Jesus was talking with them on the road and opening the Scriptures to them (verse 32)?

When did the two men return to Jerusalem (verse 33)?

What did the two men say was true (verse 34)?

What did the two men tell them (verse 35)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the Festival that Moses tells the Israelites to celebrate in Exodus 12:15-20 similar to the meal that the men walking to Emmaus celebrated with Jesus in Luke 24-13-35? 

In your opinion, how is the trip that the men took from mourning the lost redeemer to celebrating the risen Lord similar to the trip the Israelites took from Egypt to Israel?

1 Peter 1:13-23 – New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰ He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹ Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

What does Peter say a Christian’s alert and sober minds should be set their hope on (verse 13)?

What should Christians not “conform to” (verse 14)?

How should we “be holy” (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what does Paul mean by “live out your time as foreigners here” (verse 17)?

What were Christians redeemed from (verse 18)?

How were Christians redeemed (verse 19)?

What are a Christians “faith and hope” in (verse 21)?

How should Christians love each other (verse 22)?

What has happened to Christians “through the living and enduring word of God” (verse 23)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, how is the instruction to have no yeast in the house for seven days in Exodus 12:15-20 similar to the command to “not conform to the evil desires that you had when you lived in ignorance” in Romans 1 Peter 1:13-23?

In your opinion, how does the transformation of the two men on the way to Emmaus from “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” to “It is true! The Lord has risen” in Luke 24:13-35 an example of what Peter calls the “empty way of life” being transformed to “your faith and hope are in God” in 1 Peter 1:13-23?

In your opinion, how do these passages from Leviticus, Exodus, Luke and 1 Peter teach us about how the festival of Unleavened Bread is related to the redeemed life of the Christian?


In your opinion, how can we, who have been a gift greater than Isralites who celebrated the Lord bringing their “divisions out of Egypt” annually for a week, celebrate being “born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable”?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)