Portal of Blood

In one paragraph

With Passover falling the following day, Brian walked Tribe fam through Exodus 12 and the story of the very first Passover, tracing how that ancient family tradition connects directly to Jesus. The conversation moved from the blood on the doorframe to communion, and from the search for yeast to the search for sin in our own hearts. The passage opens with God giving Moses and Aaron precise...

Read together

1. Exodus 12:1-23 main passage read aloud by congregation members describing the first Passover instructions
2. Luke 13 quoted to show the kingdom of God is like yeast that permeates the whole batch of dough
3. Matthew 16:6 Jesus warns his disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees
4. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 sin is like yeast spreading through dough; Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed
5. Psalm 51:7 purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I will be whiter than snow
6. Psalm 139 search my heart O God, point out anything offensive in me so I can get rid of it
7. John 10 Jesus says I am the door; he came that they may have life and have it in abundance

What was said

• Before Passover this week, walk through your home the way Brian described Israel searching for yeast, and ask God to show you any sin or compromise you have been letting slide.
• Pray Psalm 139 out loud this week, asking God to search your heart and point out anything that needs to go.
• If you have been carrying a burden you keep setting down at the altar and picking back up, write it out, confess it, and leave it with God rather than retrieving it.
• Fill out the connect card from your seat, flip it over, and write down one thing you want the prayer team to pray over for you this week.
• If you are not yet receiving the Tribe text blasts, put your name and number on the connect card so you stay in the loop as the church moves into summer events.

Talk about it

1. Brian talked about the Passover lamb being brought into the home for several days before it was sacrificed, so that the family grew attached to it and the children named it. What does that detail tell you about the cost God was asking of those families, and how does it change the way you think about what Jesus gave up?
2. Several people in the room took a shot at explaining what the yeast represents, and the answers ranged from sin and compromise to pagan cultural influence to simply not having time for dough to rise. Which of those pictures lands most personally for you right now, and why?
3. Brian used the image of a mountain bike getting muddy on the trail: once you splash through one puddle, you start aiming for all of them. Can you think of a time in your own life when a small compromise opened the door to a bigger one? What helped you course-correct, or what do you wish had?
4. The threshold of the door was where the family altar sat in the culture of that day, and the blood was applied there too, top, sides, and bottom, forming what Brian called a portal of blood. What does it mean to you personally that Jesus described himself as the door in John 10, and that the only way in is through him?
5. Brian closed by saying that Christians participate in the ongoing meaning of Passover every time they take communion. How intentional are you when you take communion, and what would it look like to approach it more as a conscious act of stepping over that threshold rather than just a church routine?