Christ Our Passover

 Temple Baptist Church - 9-17-2025

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

 

Introduction: 

 

A.  Last week, we examined the reasons for and methods of Church Discipline from a biblical perspective.

 

1.  Church Discipline is essential, even if it can be uncomfortable at times. Sometimes, God directs us to handle difficult situations so we can enjoy the benefits of doing what is right.

 

2.  Church Discipline is crucial because God chose to explain it in an entire chapter of the Bible.

 

3.  Church Discipline is safety for the local church.  Look at verses 5-6.  Somebody is going to get hurt!  It must be the culprit and not the church!

 

1 Corinthians 5:5-6  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  (6)  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

 

B.  Since Church Discipline is vital to the health of the church, it must be fully understood by all members.  We all love our church, but sin can destroy all that we have, just like it will destroy the unrepentant church member who was turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

 

1.  Church Discipline is an Act of Love. It is a natural part of the ministry, just like child discipline.  Listen to what the Bible says about discipline.

 

Proverbs 13:24  He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

 

Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

 

Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

 

a)  Today, church discipline seems unnatural because almost no one practices it, and probably none of you have ever seen it done!

 

b)  The desired result is for the good of the one disciplined.  The desired results are:

 

1)  To reconcile the one to be disciplined back to God before destruction takes place.

 

2)   To restore the one disciplined back to fellowship with both God and the local church instead of being an outcast.

 

2.  Church Discipline is good for the Church.

 

a)  Because the testimony of the church depends on it. It is the testimony of the local church that attracts those genuinely interested in knowing Christ. Those who merely want to soothe their conscience and have a religion they control will always seek the liberal church.

 

b) Because the testimony of the believer depends on it. The world hears that we are saved and then observes a lifestyle inconsistent with salvation. How can we tell others about Christ and His great salvation while living in open sin?

 

c) Because the purity of the church depends on it. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Unrebuked sin will soon lose its “wickedness” in the eyes of other believers, and they may fall into the same sin. Our children will not recognize the difference between clean and unclean and will follow the examples, good or bad, set before them.

 

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

 

Galatians 6:1  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

 

C.  Here in 1 Corinthians 5:7, we find the only mention of “Passover” (it is used 77 times in your Bible) as Christ, our Passover.  To understand what the Bible is saying when it records “Christ our Passover,” we need to understand what the Jewish Passover was and what it stood for.

 

1.  In Exodus chapter 12, we find the institution of Passover.

 

a.  Passover was never intended to be the way of spiritual salvation, as the Israelites were all saved by faith in the coming of the Messiah, the Lamb of God, who would be offered for the sins of the world.  In Noah’s day, the Ark was not a type of spiritual salvation but rather physical salvation through obedience.

 

b.  Passover was the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt, a type of the world.

 

c.  Spiritual salvation is never mentioned concerning the Passover, as it continued year by year on the fourteenth day of the first month of Nisan in remembrance of what God did for Israel in their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt.

 

1.  Those who lived in bondage before the Passover were already believers or saved!  Moses, Aaron, plus the children of God who cried out to Him for deliverance before He sent Moses.

 

2.  Passover was not salvation.  It was deliverance from bondage to Canaan’s Land, the Land of Promise.

 

d.  The Feast of Passover was to begin with the Israelites eating the sacrifice with unleavened bread.  This was also the beginning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which started on the fourteenth day until the twenty-first day of Nisan.

 

e.  Jesus our Passover is a continuing deliverance from the power of sin after we are saved.  This brings us back to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.  All were believers, including the man living in open fornication!

 

2. The eradication of leaven and partaking of unleavened bread represented the deliverance of Israel, just as Christ our Passover represents our deliverance from sin! 

 

D.  “Christ our Passover” took place after our salvation, as salvation began in forgiveness and an unleavened life. 

 

1.  God saved us from our sins and delivered us from our bondage to sin, as the Jewish Passover delivered the Jews from the bondage of Egypt.  God had saved these Corinthian believers and was now growing them through the Word of God.  Still, a sin that must be disciplined was rooting on the pews.

 

2.  The Jewish Passover was a deliverance from the bondage of Egypt.  Jesus, our Passover, is the deliverance from the bondage of sin that enslaves us.

 

3.  A colossal part of deliverance from sin is to be exercised in the local church.  I cannot overemphasize the importance of keeping the church body pure.

 

2 Corinthians 11:1-2  Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.  (2)  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

 

E.  Now that the sinful one has been disciplined, the Bible teaches us the how and why in the verses that follow verses 1-5.

 

1.  Verse 6.  The danger of leaven in the local church.  Not a lot of leaven or sin, but just a little leaven will eventually leaven the whole church.  It will begin to spread like a plague from pew to pew until the entire church is affected in one way or the other by either spreading or condonement. 

 

2.  Verse 7.  The command of the local church.  Purge it!  With boldness, either restore the sinful or dismiss them.  Then the local church can begin again as a “new Lump.”  As with Jarious’ daughter, some things must die before they can be resurrected.

 

3.  Verse 7.  Christ died for the church and the church belongs to Him.  Christ died for our sins and gave His life that we might have new life.  Christ is our life!

 

Ephesians 5:25-27  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  (26)  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,  (27)  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

 

4.  Verse 8.  The local church is a place of worship.  Our Lord said to worship in spirit and truth.  This verse speaks of “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”  The gathering of the local church is to be a continual Feast of Unleavened Bread!  It is a place for confessing sins and becoming right with God. 

 

5.  Verse 9-11.  The continual cleansing of the local church.  In these two verses, we find a much broader list of people to discipline: fornicators, covetous, idolaters, railers, drunkards, and extortioners.  Another verse speaks of those who walk disorderly among us, “out of step.”

 

6.  Verse 12-13.  The purity of the local church.  Who you hold hands with is who you are.  So many denominations today will hold hands with anyone who says the name of Jesus.  We live in an impure world, where we shine as lights in darkness, yet we must walk in the light, for He is the Light.  Only then will we find biblical fellowship.

 

1 John 1:5-10  This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  (6)  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:  (7)  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.  (8)  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  (9)  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (10)  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

 

7.  We need to understand that the Church belongs to God!

 

Colossians 1:17-18  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.  (18)  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.