Scripture Leviticus 23:
1-4 & John 12:12-13
John 7:37-38
Reading
Lev 23:1-4
The Lord said to Moses, 2
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts,
the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred
assemblies. 3
"'There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath
of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you
live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord. 4
"'These are the Lord's appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to
proclaim at their appointed times:
John 12:12-13
The next day the great crowd
that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!" "Blessed is the King of Israel!"
Jesus Festivals video
(festivals were during the summer – the age of the church takes place between
Spring and Fall according to the timing of the 7 OT feasts where the Spring
feast pointed to the coming of the messiah-Jesus and the fall feasts. Those feasts are The Feasts Video
The feast Slide
– leave throughout message
SPRING FEASTS (Pointing to
Jesus coming in the NT)
1)
Passover
The Festival year begins with
the Passover feast of salvation. (Describe Passover-10th
plague-death angel – blood of the lamb) THEN describe Jesus as the Passover
lamb of God. Jesus was crucified on Passover.
2)
Unleavened Bread
The night after Passover is
the feast of Unleavened bread – for 7 days you were to eat bread without yeast
or leaven. Leaven symbolized sin. (Middle ages added the Afikomen) John 6:47-51 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the
bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But
here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of
the world." The leaven/sin was thrown/crucified outside the city gate.
3) First Fruits the day after the Sabbath
after unleavened bread = SUNDAY. Collecting Spring harvest and waving the
sheaves before the Lord acknowledging the fertility of the land God gave to the
Israelites. 1 Cor 15:20-23 But
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have
fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead
comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made
alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes,
those who belong to him.
4) Pentecost 50 days after Passover marks
the summer harvest and requires offering two loaves of bread baked with leaven.
This is the birthday of the church when the holy spirit came and filled the
believers – sin is replaced with life in the Spirit who fills us up.
The Spring feasts see Jesus
crucified on Passover, buried on unleavened bread, raised on first fruits and
His Spirit infuse the life of the church and the believer on Pentecost.
FALL FEASTS (Pointing to
Jesus 2nd Coming)
5) Trumpets Lev 23:24 requires that
"On the first day of the seventh
month you are to have
a
day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular
work, but present an offering made to the Lord by fire." Trumpets had been used
throughout the OT for calling the people together. The feasts of trumpets was
to call the workers in from the fields for a time of worship. For us, this now
represents the end of the church age and the time when God will call ALL his
people together for worship – those living and those who have died in
Christ. 1 Thess 4:16-18 For the Lord himself will come down from
heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the
trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who
are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore
encourage each other with these words.
6) Atonement (Yom Kippur) Lev 23:27-28 The
tenth day of this seventh month is the Day
of
Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering
made to the Lord by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of
Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. The idea of atonement was that it was
temporary and needed to be redone annually until a day would come when the
messiah would permentantly redeem His people for eternity. Rom 3:21-25 But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known,
to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes
through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him
as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.
7) Tabernacles Lev 23:34 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month
the Lord's Feast of
Tabernacles
begins, and it lasts for seven days. People made little booths outside their houses in which
they worshiped God thanking him for providing shelter in the wilderness and
that he was with them throughout the wilderness journey. What a future picture
the feast of Tabernacles gives us when we hear Jesus say, John 14:2-3 In my Father's
house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going
there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Our future Tabernacle feast looks like
this Rev 21:3-5 And I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their
God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new.
We began by looking at the
Jesus Festivals of yesteryear and have seen how the 7 feasts of the OT point to
Jesus revealed in the NT and in the future yet to be. Let’s conclude with his
own words and recognize that our lives should be a feast – a festival to the Lord
so that the world may know Jesus offers abundant and eternal life to all who
come to him by faith. BACK TO TITLE SLIDE
Imagine you are at a Jesus festival and the last song is
sung and the equipment is being taken down and you are collecting your lawn
chairs and blankets, ready to head home because it has been hot and you are
tired and thirsty; and from the stage a figure appears…according to John
7:37-38 On the last and greatest day of
the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If
anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the
Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
WE are
the JESUS FESTIVAL the world needs to see!!!
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