Sermon Guide: Exodus 12:14-20 "The Feast of Unleavened Bread"

Key Passages

Exodus 12:14–20 ESV

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses. If anyone eats what is leavened, that person will be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a sojourner or a native of the land. You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwelling places you shall eat unleavened bread.”

Sermon Overview

The Feast of Unleavened Bread teaches God’s people that they are both sustained by him and defined by him. Israel ate unleavened bread first because they left Egypt in haste, and then because God was training them to depend daily on his provision as they journeyed with him. That pattern finds its fulfillment in Christ, the true Bread from heaven, on whom we must feed by faith for eternal life. At the same time, the removal of leaven marked covenant identity: those who shared the bread belonged to the redeemed people of God. In the new covenant, this symbolism reaches its climax at the Lord’s Table, where believers do not make themselves pure, but receive Christ by faith as those who already are “unleavened” in him—assured of their identity, sustained for the journey, and strengthened to live out who they truly are.

Sermon Structure

#1 Bread for the Journey

• We need daily bread to sustain us on the journey

• Eating the unleavened bread is a sign of faith

#2 Bread to Remember Who You Are

• Bread for our assurance of faith

• Who you really are: holy & clean

Questions for Discussion & Reflection

1. Jesus calls himself the “bread of life” in John 6. What does it mean, practically, to “feed on Christ” day by day rather than trying to sustain yourself?

   
   

2. How does Paul’s statement “as you really are unleavened” (1 Cor. 5:7) reshape the way we think about holiness and obedience?

   
   

3. How does the Lord’s Supper function both as nourishment for weary pilgrims and as assurance of our identity in Christ?

Leader’s Note: If your group has lingering questions about the Lord’s Supper, please offer to take note of them and send them to the Elders! We’re happy to help.