The sermon you are about to read was prepared three days before it was delivered on the morning of 1 April 2018. The evening before Mishpachah Lev-Tsiyon, NCAY's central or mother congregation in Sweden, gathered to eat the Pesach (Passover) meal together. We used the 2014 version of the Pesach Haggadah. The evening and day before had been a terrible one for me healthwise and at the beginning of the day I wasn't sure whether I would be well enough to preside over the gathering. Many were praying for me. When we all sat down around the table, I did something I have never done at a Passover meeting in all the ~20 years we have been observing the chag (feast). I was led by the Ruach (Spirit) to spiritually go into intercessory prayer and to seal off the room where we were gathered so that there would be no outside interference.

As I began to go through the Messianic Evangelical Pessach liturgical feast or Seder, I sensed something was different this time. There was something new present and as I read the words, I felt my tongue being animated and my heart quickened. Nothing dramatic, but very profound and still, reminding me a little of the 2015 Dedication experience as we entered into the presence of Yahweh. We came to Section #5 of the Seder, I blessed the wine per pro paragraph 23, and then went along the table pouring out the wine into everyone's glasses. As I came to the end of the table, and prepared to swing around to serve the remaining half of those assembled seated opposite, a prophetic Davar Elohim (Word of God) suddenly came to me, crystal clear, stopping me in my tracks. This had never before happened to me in a Pesach Seder. Having served the remainder of the congregation, I delivered the Davar (Word) to the kehilah (assembly) and resumed the Seder.

MLT's 2018 Pesach Celebration

The substance of the message was that Yahweh wanted us to present to Him all the years past and to let Him wash away all the frustrations, sorrows, and sins in His blood - the 'accumulation of the years' was how He described it. It was said more eloquently and concisely than I have just related it (I never got to write it down until now) but the impact of that was very discernable. We were to empty ourselves of our pasts and allow Him to supernaturally make radically new futures. It was a very special moment indeed and is a necessary introduction to the message given below.

Chag haMatzah sameach and shabbat shalom kol beit Yis'ra'el and mishpachah - welcome to the first day of the seven day-long Feast of Unleavened Bread and to the second day of this Passover Season.

Last year we celebrated the 30th anniversary of this work and this year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the ministry in Scandinavia which was organised in Bergen and Oslo at about this time four months before I moved to Norway. It seems a long time ago. So it is really good see an old NCAY veteran with us today who has been with us since 1988 - welcome back to Sweden, Brother Herman!

I believe the annual festivals - particularly the prilgrim ones - are as much about having reunions with brethren as with assembling before Yahweh. Elohim (God) intends them to be sacred holidays or 'holy days' - a getting away, and a separation, from the world and the mundane. They are more important than we may perhaps realise, a reason He has commanded us to devote a third of the annual tithe to making these gatherings possible - for travel, for food and for accomodation. Anciently Israelites would travel from all over the land, and even from abroad, to Jerusalem to celebrate these festivals. Today we gather with those brethren and sisters who are geographically nearest to us, as well as with tho who often come great distances from abroad.

Yet there are those - the majority of Christendom - who claim that Elohim (God) has abolished all of Israel's feasts and holidays and yet are not slow to embrace man-made ones instead, and ones always taken right out of paganism. Why is it that we humans are so keen to abolish Yahweh's laws and establish our own? What is it about Deuteronomy 4:2 that most Christians don't understand?

"Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the mitzvot (commandmentss) of Yahweh your Elohim (God) that I give you" (Deut.4:2, NIV).

Yahweh is never happy when we add to, or subtract from, prophecy and revelation. In fact, there is a pretty stern warning at the end of the Book of Revelation about that. Those who do are promised "plagues", denial of "eternal chayim (life)" and no access to the "Holy City" (Rev.22:18-19). The Bible is very clear and emphatic when it says that removing anything from the Bible, that the Bible does not itself remove (like the Levtical Priesthood and the animal sacrificial system), is a salvational matter. It will cost those who do it a terrible penalty! We must never abolish anything in the Davar Elohim (Word of God) that the Davar (Word) itself does not abolish. And nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that Yahweh's Qadosh, Holy, or Set-Apart Days have been removed or changed or that Yahweh's people should no longer keep them. In fact, the very opposite is true.

There are five - and only five - things that have been abolished since the establishment of the B'rit Chadashah or New Covenant:

• 1. The sacrificial system and the oblations or offerings (Dan.9:27). These oblations were the wine and grain offerings offered along with the lamb sacrifices (cp. Num.28);

• 2. The civil penalties for violation of the Torah. Since Israel was a theocracy, they had to have punishments for breaking the Torah or Law much like any country does. Since we are not currently under a theocracy - meaning a country under divine rulership (and won't be until Messiah returns) - we have to obey the laws of the land we live in, provided these laws don't break Yahweh's Torah (Law).

  In the days of Yah'shua (Jesus) and the apostles, Israel was under Roman rule, and believers were instructed to render unto Caesar what which was Caesar's (Jn.8:3-11; Mt.22:21; Ac.59). At the Second Coming, Yahweh Himself will punish the wicked according to His civil law.

  For instance, under the civil law Sabbath breakers were to be executed by stoning. And during the Seventh Plague of the Book of Revelation, which is the Second Coming, we are told that Yahweh will execute, also by stoning, the wicked who refused to observe His Moedim, Holy Days, or Divine Appointments:

  "From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed Elohim (God) on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible" (Rev.16:21, NIV).

  So important is this event that Yahweh repeats it in the Olive Branch:

  "And the hour cometh when great hailstorms shall destroy the crops of the earth, and great rocks of ice shall slay those who hear not My voice neither obey it. And it shall be as it was ordained in the beginning" (OB 368:11-12)

  In other words, this is confirmation of the restoration of the civil code of Torah. If you want to know who is going to be cut down when Yahweh personally starts executing the wicked, then you need to read up on The 25 Death Penalties.

• 3. The Levitical or Aaronic Priesthood has been abolished. The Messianic Scriptures (New Testament) plainly teach that all believers are called to be kings and cohenim (priests) (Rev.1:6);

• 4. Circumcision (Ac.15) - admission into the New Covenant of Messiah is now by immersion or baptism; and

• 5. The Temple services. Elohim (God) demonstrated that the temple services came to an end at the cross when the thick, heavy curtain or veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom exposing the Holy of Holies (Mt.27:51). The temple services do not, however, include Yahweh's special rest days, like the Sabbath, the New Moon, and the feast days. How do we know this? Because Yah'shua (Jesus) and Paul kept the Sabbath and the festivals and invited others to do the same.

I repeat - the Bible nowhere says that Yahweh's sacred Moedim or Appointments were abolished at the cross. We are not entitled to eliminate more than what the Bible says to eliminate, nor are we to add substitutes for those feast days that He has not told us to eliminate, like Christmas and Easter.

Now there are some, like the Seventh-Day Adventists, who say that because sacrifices were performed on the feast days that they too must have been abolished at the cross. Yet did you know that, under the Old Covenant system, twice as many sacrifices were performed on the Sabbath as on other days (Num.28:9)? Obviously, if you use this logic, you have to abolish the Sabbath as well, which is what most Christians do anyway: they abolish the 4th commandment (the seventh-day Sabbath) yet retain nine of the Ten Commandments... or less if you are especially liberal and lawless.

Then there is orthodox Christianity, so-called, consisting of Roman Catholicism, Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, who love to twist Paul, claiming the apostle was criticising former biblical moed-observances when he said to the Romans:

"But now that you know Elohim (God) - or rather are known by Elohim (God) - how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you" (Gal.4:8-11, NIV).

"Formerly, when you did not know Elohim (God), you were slaves to those who by nature are not elohim (gods)" (Gal.4:8, NIV).

Who was Paul speaking to? Israelites? Jews? Of course not, for that would have been to shoot his own foot and discredit him amongst fellow Hebrews - Yahweh was, and is, not one of the "gods". Paul is speaking to ex-pagan Galatians. Neither the Sabbath nor the Festivals are even mentioned in this text. The "special days and months and seasons and years" were pagan holidays like Easter and Ba'al's Birthday on 25 December, what came to be renamed 'Christmas'. Remember how the Ephesians cried, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" for "two hours" (Acts 19:34, NKJV) because they were upset with Paul for turning people away from this heathen goddess? And by the way, "Diana" was none other that "Astarte" from which the word 'Easter' comes, and Tammuz was born on Christmas day. These pagans were in effect chanting "Easter! Easter! Easter" over and over again. So these were some of the holidays that Paul was condemning when he was speaking to the Galatians in this text.

Now this is rather ironic because today happens to be 'Easter' on the pagan calendar. Now, of course, we do not criticise Christians who are ignorant of these facts, because they have been taught false traditions by their pastors over many generations, but you have to agree that once you know an emet (truth), and discover you have been sinning by invoking a pagan god's name, it becomes our immediate responsibility to repent! We are expressly commanded not to use the names of pagan gods in our worship! I cut a lot of slack for the ignorant, as Yahweh does, because that is ahavah (love), but once people know the emet (truth), but refuse to change their ways for whatever reason - fear to upset friends and relatives, laziness, indefference, or whatever - I give them no quarter, meaning I don't let them get away with it, even if I hope I still show them lots of grace. Once you know the emet (truth) you're accountable! Period.

Romans 14:5-6 is another favourite of the Antinomians (lawless ones):

"One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Master. He who eats meat, eats to the Master, for he gives thanks to Elohim (God); and he who abstains, does so to the Master and gives thanks to Elohim (God)" (Rom.14:5-6, NIV).

Paul is not talking about Yahweh's moedim (appointments) here but individual things like birthdays, anniversaries, graduation days, and so on. Had he meant anything else, he would have been contradicting himself (which the anti-Paulists certainly believe). Think about it - if we could all worship when we wanted and how we wanted, how would we ever come together? There would be anarchism. Even the Antinomians understand they need an agreed day of worship and they picked the Roman 'Sunday' (for reasons we won't go into now). The Jehovah's Witnesses do the same thing! That Paul is talking about personal, non-congregational celebration that dosn't contradict the Torah, is made clear a little further on:

"You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before Elohim's (God's) judgment seat" (Rom.14:10, NIV).

So we are not to criticise someone for observing a birthday, for instance. We are not commanded to observe them nor are we commanded to forsake them, as some messianics and others (like Jehovah's Witnesses) teach. All the religious festivals - the festivals which we are commanded to observe together as congregations, as Messianic Israel - are fixed. There are 12 altogether and we are not allowed to add or subtract from them. We are to get rid of pagan festivals like Christmas and Easter and observe the ones Yahweh has commanded, as Paul reminded the Corinthians:

"Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast - as you really are. For Messiah, our Pesach (Passover) Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival (of Chag haMatzah/Unleavened Bread), not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and emet (truth)" (1 Cor.5:7-8, NIV).

How does one "keep [a] Festival" if one doesn't 'do' it, by assembling, cleaning out ones house of leaven and leavened products, and not eating leavened bread for a week? The old sacrifices associated with it are gone - fulfilled in Messiah and therefore abolished - but the symbolism associated with the need to get sin out of our lives with "sincerity and truth" and not the way of hypocricy - the way of "malice and wickedness" - with which unregenerated people must necessarily approach the festival, because, without Yah'shua (Jesus), they remain in their sins and are carnal, sensual and devilish.

I'll not get into all the questions raised by antinomians by Acts 15 today as there isn't time save to point out that Yahweh's moedim (appointments) are nowhere even mentioned in this chapter, and we must not read into Scripture things which are not there because of some doctrinal agenda of lawlessness that we're pursuing. In fact, the Council of Jerusalem, which issued a statement to the Gentile converts in this chapter, specifically instructed them to obey certain Torah commandments to get them started - and you don't do that if Yahweh's Torah (Law) has been abolished by the cross, do you?!

"It seemed good to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality" (Acts 15:28-29, NIV).

Note that it was the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) that gave this instruction. Therefore Yahweh was specifically commanding Torah-continance, including observing Kashrut or Israel's clean food laws that included never eating blood - so no blood puddings, no haggis for Scotsmen! By passing this verdict, then, the apostles vindicated the Torah for believers in Yah'shua (Jesus). The argument, in fact, was over circumcision, something messianics by and large still don't 'get' (or don't want to 'get') because this was the ordinance of entrance into the now defunct Old Covenant which they crave so much. They want both covenants - to be circumcised and baptised - which is why they now called the New Covenant by the strange new terms, the 'renewed covenant', as though we are living in an Old Covenant Mark 2. We're not, even though many of the elements of that former Covenant have carried over as far as Israel's lifestyle is concerned. That Covenant is dead and gone, along with its Priesthood and sacrificial system, and it's never coming back, no matter how hard people try to twist Ezekiel's temple prophecy. What the Council at Jerusalem was in effect saying was this:

"These are the items in dispute, this is our conclusion, and as for the rest of the Torah, the Gentiles will learn about it when they assemble in the local congregation each Sabbath".

In all of these matters we have to remember one important thing, and it's this:

"I, Yahweh, do not change" (Mal.3:6, NIV).

Which brings us to today and to a very important 'ot or sign identifying Yahweh's true people:

"Eat matzah (unleavened bread) during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt.' This observance will be for you like an 'ot (sign) on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Torah (Law) of Yahweh is to be on your lips. For Yahweh brought you out of Egypt with His mighty hand" (Ex.13:7-9, NIV).

Note this well: this scripture is telling us quite clearly that Chag haMatzah - the Feast of Unleavened Bread - will be Yahweh's 'ot or sign upon our foreheads. Our forehead (where we do our thinking and imaging) and our hand (representing our actions) are where the seal of Elohim (God) is placed, as written in the Book of Revelation:

"After this I saw four malakim (angels) standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another malak (angel) coming up from the east, having the seal of the living Elohim (God). He called out in a loud voice to the four malakim (angels) who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 'Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our Elohim (God)'" (Rev.7:1-4, NIV).

It is not well know, or otherwise little spoken of, but the Hebrew chag, which we translate 'feast' (as in Chag ha Matzah - the Feast of Unleavened Bread) comes from a root meaning to 'describe' or 'draw a circle'. It's verb means to 'make pilgrimage' or 'keep a pilgrim-feast' of which, as you know, there are three. The Hebrew chag and the Arabic hajj are related, the Hajj being the Moslem pilgrimage to Mecca that includes circling the Kaaba stone. So when a Hebrew uses the word chag we are to understand that a 'feast', 'pilgrimage' and 'circular walk' are involved. Such an Israelite hajj or chag was performed when the cohenim (priests) and soldiers marched around Jericho. Yahweh too performs this motion:

"He drew a circular (chag) horizon on the face of the waters,
At the boundary of light and darkness" (Job 26:10, NKJV).

So a chag includes 'doing', both in traveling to the place where the feast is held (a pilgrimage) as well as moving in a circle around our object of devotion, which is Yahweh. This corresponds to the seal in the 'hand' which is our outer works of righteousness.

Beyond any disputation, then, Chag haMatzah or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and what it represents or stands for, must be a part of the seal of Elohim (God). And if one Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart) Day, and what it represents, is part of the seal of Elohim (God), then all of the Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart) Days, and what they each represent, will be as well.

OK, then, what does observing Chag haMatzah (the Feast of Unleavaned Bread) represent? What are we actually enacting when we remove all the yeast (living leaven) and leavened food from our homes? What does this activity actually represent spiritually? .... Yes, getting sin out of our lives! Repenting of disobedience and rebellion - doing things our way instead of Elohim's (God's) - by once again obeying the mitzvot (commandments) ... all of them! Because that is what a saved person - one who is trusting in Yah'shua (Jesus) - is supposed to be doing.

So part of the seal on the forehead of the qadoshim (saints, set-apart ones) is observance of the festival of Chag haMatzah in abstaning from products leavened by yeast, and assembling with Yahweh's people for worship, prayer, study and fellowship. But, in addition, this seal is also a testimony of what observing Chag haMatzah represents spiritually, namely, consciously, deliberately, purposefully, honestly and persistently getting sin out of our lives by bringing sinning to an end in our thinking, feeling and behaviour.

And, of course, the way to stop sinning is by surrendering ourselves and allowing Yah'shua (Jesus) to implant His image in us. Chag haMatzah is all about getting Messiah in us and keeping Him there, and as no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of Elohim (God), then sin (Satan, demons, wrong attitudes, thinking patterns, habits, emotions, etc.) have to get out. They can't co-exist. The image of Elohim (God) cannot co-exist with the image of Satan without the soul becoming completely split. We cannot live schizophrenic lives without having a constant civil war going on inside.

Now I don't have time to go into it today but that "seal" is much more than Chag haMatzah and what today's moed (appointment) represents spiritually. The seventh-day Sabbath (indeed all Sabbaths), the first moed (appointment) in Leviticus, is also part of Yahweh's seal. It, like Chag haMatzah, is an 'ot or sign between Yahweh and His people (Ezek.20:11-12,20). Yahweh does not speak only of the seventh-day Sabbath but of all Sabbaths, and those other sabbaths - traditionally known as 'High Sabbaths' - are only to be found at the annual festivals, like today.

Yahweh's sabbaths - all of them, weekly and annual - are His 'ot - His sign or mark - upon His people...upon Israel anciently and upon Messianic Israel today. This, then, is what being 'sealed' to Elohim (God) means. The words "sign", "seal" and "mark" are used interchangeably (Rom.4:11). Therefore the 'sign', 'seal' or 'mark' of the Beast are the diametric opposite of Yahweh's - it represents complete lawlessness (antinomianism). The Beast System - the Antichrist system - is complete moral and spiritual anarchy and lawlenssness. You see a good example of that in the 'alt-left' (modern communists) today which stands in total diametric opposition to all that is good, pure and qadosh (holy, set-apart).

This is important to understand. Marks, signs or seals have both inward and outward representations. The inward ones are determined by our inward life - whether we are for Messiah or the Beast - and the inner one is accompanied by an outward sign like Chag haMatazah and Sabbath observance, or something like an RIFD chip in the case of the wicked. One of the visible signs of being sealed to Messiah is Torah-observance, and whilst the unregenerated can fake it, as ancient Israel once did, they cannot fake the mandated change of image that comes of the New Birth. Moreover, it doesn't matter that fake Messianics and Jews are going through the outer motions of having the seal - that's not an excuse for us to say that image-bearing is the only thing that matters because Yahweh views us as whole beings - we are spiritual and physical, and Yahweh views us as one. The imaging is spiritual and physical, inward and outward. Therefore we must also 'do' what is right even if others are doing the same for show or out of pretense. The malakim (angels) will sort out the genuine from the fake at the final harvest.

There is always something special about divine moedim (appointments) because our obedience to them means we can be sure to partake of that special Ruach (Spirit) Yahweh sends to His people at these sacred times if our hearts are pure and receptive. So it isn't just a mechanical thing like hoisting a flag or wearing a badge. Yahweh blesses the physical activity too when His Image-bearers are observing His moedim (appointments) with pure hearts. Everything is inter-connected.

I am here today for many reasons but one of the most important ones for me is my desire to be immersed in the Ruach haRishon (which came with Pesach yesterday) and in the Ruach haShanee (which comes with Chag haMatzah today) - the first and second of the Seven Ruachot Elohim (Spirits of God), respectively. And tomorrow I will be gathering for the third, the Ruach haShleshi (which comes with Yom haBikkurim, the Day of Firstfruits and Resurrection of Messiah). It's also one of the reasons I love to gather at the seven day-long festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) because I want to do the same, only at a much deeper and more intimate level.

Brethren and sisters, today is Day #2 of the Passover Season and it corresponds with the second day when Yah'shua's (Jesus') dead body lay in the tomb. Unfortunately, orthodox viewers, who observe the paganised Easter, are viewing it as 'resurrection day', which is tommorrow. And messianics, who don't follow the biblical Creation Calendar, are a day early with everything, so the Body of Messiah is out of synchronisation. I have often wondered if Aviv 15 shouldn't be called 'Tomb Day' as this was the only day that Yah'shua (Jesus) was burried for 24 hours. It's a very quiet time - a time between death and resurrection.

Outside, the religious leaders were celebrating having rid themselves of a man who had threatened their cushy but oppressing way of life. The Romans were rid of an imperial agitator. And the talmidim (disciples) were devastated - all was lost, all seemed hopeless, they were at a loss as to what to do. They feared for their lives. Nobody felt any desire to go and preach what Yah'shua (Jesus) had taught while He was alive, they had no hope for the future or for eternity. These were the defeated.

If you have ever felt defeated, if things have looked hopeless, then this picture of a dead body in a cold, lifeless tomb has probably summed your feelings up well. You may even be feeling that right now. So much of life can look like this. And if our story had ended here, life would indeed have been hopeless...and pointless. But this day shall pass, even as the first day of the first Messianic Chag haMatzah passed, but nobody knew what was coming. They were blind to the meaning of the Scriptures, they were deaf to what Yah'shua (Jesus) had taught them about what was to come. So that is where we must leave the first day of Chag haMatzah - restful (because it is a Sabbath) and quiet - until we discover what lies on the other side of Day #2 of the Passover Season. Until tomorrow, then, may Yahweh bless you and keep you alert! Amen.