Message Notes

Senior Sunday School 11 January 2026

Text: 1 Corinthians 5

Subject: “The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”

Lesson #27

6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

INTRODUCTION

1. Addressing the problem of “glorying”

2. Basic nuances of the word “glorying”

a) Rejoicing

b) Boasting

c) The opposite of sorrowing

ADDRESSING THE RESPONSE OF THE CHURCH

1. The church did not attempt to discipline the immoral person

2. Instead some were even boasting about this incident

a) It was an uncommon problem

b) That they took a different approach from a traditional one

c) That they were modern and liberated

d) Thay they were worldly wise

e) That such sinful behaviour need not be condemned

f) That this sinful behaviour was even possibly “acceptable”

PAUL’S ASSESSMENT AND APPROACH

1. He compared sin to leaven (yeast)

2. The amount of yeast needed to making bread is very little

3. But when yeast is mixed up with the dough, it spreads

4. He was describing the deadly influence of sin

5. This may seem like “an isolated sin problem”

6. But would spread

a) Other sin problems would emerge

b) The church would be severely compromised

c) The testimony of the church would be tarnished

d) The church would be weakened

e) The church would no longer be pure

THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER

1. Paul made reference to the Feast of the Passover

2. This is most appropriate

a) The Passover is the Feast to commemorate the night when God passed over the land of Egypt

b) The death of the firstborn male of all the families in Egypt took place

c) Only those who had the blood of a sacrificial lamb applied to the doors would see their sons spared

d) Great was the redemption of God!

e) The Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God

f) Through His sacrificial death, salvation was made possible

3. The Passover Meal

a) All partakers of the Passover Meal had unleavened bread to eat

b) Partaking of the Passover Meal was to express grateful fellowship with God and with each other

c) The Unleavened Bread represented purity

d) Yeast cannot be used to make the Passover Bread

e) It would be considered unfit and unclean

4. Yeast was described

a) As “malice”

b) As “wickedness”

5. Leaven was described

a) Sincerity

b) Truth

LESSONS FOR US TO PONDER OVER

1. The significance of our Salvation as represented by the Passover

2. The Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God is to be treasured

3. The Partaking of the Passover Meal must not be taken for granted

4. The Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth must be honoured

5. Sin must be dealt with summarily