Leviticus 23 - 2012 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God as we explore the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational [Music] why don't we bow and have a word of Prayer father once again we remind ourselves that all Scripture is inspired by God and all scripture as Paul told us is profitable oh the profit that there is an understanding the background to New Testament truths that we can take for granted until we read sections of the Old Covenant the Old Testament like we have in Leviticus father I prayed that this would not be simply an exercise in listening it wouldn't be simply an exercise in speaking it wouldn't simply be an understanding of things mentally as much as an entering into them spiritually and practically though we would have an understanding of your mind in your heart in the giving of these laws in the institution of these festivals in the calendar year of the children of Israel father we pray that your spirit would help our minds to be clear and free from any distractions any thoughts that don't glorify you and help us to focus now upon these truths as we bring them up toward the taking of the Lord's Supper in Jesus name Amen I don't know how your conversion was I don't know what led up to you're giving your life to Christ everybody has the story and I always love to hear those testimonial stories for a lot of people they come to the Lord because of some heartache some hardship some trial something happened in life that got their attention and gave to them revealed to them their need for the Lord a need that they had but they didn't know that they had until that event took place for some people a death of a family member or their own personal divorce or a disease or whatever it could be that would lead up to that moment that the Lord used to get your attention everybody as I said has a story now my story was different I was young hadn't suffered a lot I was 18 years of age and I remember going to a high school secular high school but one afternoon there was a rally that took place in our gym and a band we used to have bands back then that would show up every few months and sort of his occur to see the high school would bring the students in and for an hour in the afternoon we'd get to hear this band play well on one particular occasion a Christian band came and shared through their music because the school wouldn't let them speak but would let them sing shared their faith through song and what really grabbed my attention is they were playing my kind of music it wasn't a bunch of robes and organ music and stuff that I got when I went to church and was bored with this was actually good music I listened to him and I thought because I was a musician I thought they're singing about Jesus but they're singing with the musical language that I can understand I'm really intrigued by this not only in trig I was attracted because of the joy the celebration this band seemed to have I grew up in a church that was austere and solemn and boring and out of touch had nothing to do with real life for me so that moment when I saw that happen I thought I really want to what kind of religion allows this kind of music my kind of music to be played and for that message to get out so that was the hook for me then when I joined the church that I became a part of I joined a worship team and once again being a guitar player and then a bass player I was asked to be part of the worship team and I just loved the whole idea of celebratory music to speak about the Lord and to sing about the Lord well in chapter 23 of Leviticus we have the festivals of the year now when you hear the term festival I hope you don't think boring festive comes from festival there's an element of joy in all of these feasts of Leviticus 23 except for one there's only one feast in this entire list and basically what you have in Leviticus 23 this is God save the date campaign he says to the children of Israel open up your calendar books and save these dates during your year for these celebrations these public festivals these feast days where you will honor me and you will celebrate me and you will do it with joy the only one that was more solemn was the day of atonement and we'll explain as we get through that but even that led to joy once it was all said and done no when we get to the New Testament there are no save-the-dates there really are no festivals that you and I are commanded to keep as believers except for one that is the Lord's Supper the one we're gonna do tonight and Jesus didn't even say how often to do it he just says do it often and do it in remembrance of me well how often is often some people would say once a month some people would say well it's not often enough once a week some people say that's not often enough every day okay however you want to define often Jesus just said do it often but that's the only Festival feast date the you and I are told in the New Testament to keep now we do keep others we keep Christmas we keep Easter Good Friday but there's nothing written in the New Testament that tells us that we are to do that of these feasts that we're going to read about in this chapter of this seven feasts three of them were compulsory that if you were male and you lived within a certain distance from Jerusalem you had to walk up and celebrate it within the environment of Jerusalem you had to attend the feast at Jerusalem God wanted to keep his people tethered to that place to the person and to these practices that went on in the tabernacle and later on the temple now let me give you a little historical note because we're going to get to something that can be confusing now we've touched upon this the children of Israel in their calendar year kept the lunar calendar the movement of the moon not the solar calendar the movement of the Sun or our relationship to the earth in the Sun they kept the lunar calendar the lunar calendar is three hundred and fifty four point three days in a year so to keep that calendar there months were sometimes 29 days and sometimes 30 days the Egyptians had a similar calendar a lunar calendar though they divided the months up equally and six of those twelve months were 29 day months six of those months were 30-day months the Mesopotamian calendar is similar only they have twelve months all of which are 30 days but all three of those calendar whether it's Jewish or Egyptian or Mesopotamian / Babylonian all of them because it was a lunar year the 12 months of the lunar year still was not equal to the one solar year so to make up the difference which would be depending on which calendar you used between five days - 11 days all three of those people groups added an extra month every few years just to make up the difference between the lunar and the solar year so just kind of keep that in mind as we go through this or throw it out of your mind if you wish verse 1 the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel and say to them the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations convocation means to get together holy get togethers these are my feasts now the first one on the list is a weekly feast it's the Sabbath day and Sabbath speaks of rest God created on six days of the week of the seventh day God rested the Sabbath predates the giving of the law of Moses Sabbath speaks of rest now it happened every week but you really need to go to Israel to appreciate what a cool feast the Sabbath day is it's not like oh it's this if we gotta go to synagogue it's not like anything like that the whole week works its way toward and culminates in the Shabbat the Sabbath so that as the week progresses and you get to Friday afternoon Friday afternoons the busy time because you want to get home early because you're gonna celebrate the Sabbath and you're gonna celebrate the Sabbath by dressing up just a little bit nicer Friday evening meal then you would Thursday or Wednesday or Tuesday you're gonna just step it up a notch you're gonna look a little nicer wear some nice perfume or cologne you're gonna smell good you're gonna look good sometimes a gift will be given by the head of the family to the family members or to the wife typically the husband every Friday afternoon buys flowers for his wife for the Sabbath so the whole week moves toward the culmination of the family gathering together in their home before the Lord it's a beautiful celebration God at the center of the home six days verse three work shall be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest a holy convocation you shall do no work on it it is the Sabbath of the Lord in your dwellings the Sabbath was a gift that God gave to people to recharge their batteries God loves us and is a gift it is a gift where we just take a day and we chill we relax we hang to this day that is the week in Israel it's not a five-day workweek it's a six-day work week with one day off but I got to tell you because there's one day off they take the day off we have two days off sort of I mean do you release a lot of you don't even take those days I ll see a Saturday I can get some extra work done Sunday there's stuff to do around the house Sabbath was a day where you totally chill because they saw it as God's gift Jesus said Sabbath was made for man as a gift of God the problem is when we get to the New Testament I say it's a problem because as you read through the New Testament you go boy this doesn't sound very restful to me in fact by the New Testament times there were 39 different activities on a list that you were prohibited from doing so you're always like walking on eggshells huh did I do that activity did I do this activity there's even a section of the Jewish writing called the Talmud where 24 chapters are devoted to Sabbath laws 24 long chapters about what you can and cannot do on the Sabbath for example there's a section on the prohibition to bear a burden or lift something on the Sabbath and endless discussions are in the Talmud about what that exactly means can a woman wear a brooch as a declaration on her dress on the Sabbath if you can't bear a burden can you lift a lamp from one room to another to be able to see on the Sabbath if your child is in danger and needs to be held are you breaking the Sabbath law if you pick your child up you're bearing a burden all the way down to is it legal or illegal to wear artificial teeth on the Sabbath I didn't know they had artificial teeth back then but evidently they had dentures so what if you put them in on the Sabbath day you're carrying extra weight it could be constituted as bearing a burden so can you see keeping the Sabbath was hard work after the Sabbath you needed to take a vacation just to rest from the Sabbath and that's why Jesus said as he was collecting grain with his disciples in the grain fields mark chapter two on the Sabbath and the Pharisees popped up and said that's illegal jesus said Sabbath was made for man man wasn't made for the Sabbath and then he said the son of man that's himself is the lord of the Sabbath meaning I Jesus the Messiah God's Son can abrogate Old Testament law because I Jesus the Messiah and the Lord even of the Sabbath something else you should know sunday is not the Sabbath and don't call it the Christian Sabbath it is not the Christian Sabbath it's the first day of the week the Sabbath is the end of the week sunday is the beginning of the week the reason that Christians celebrate Sunday the first day of the week is because number one it was the first day of the week on Pentecost on which the church began and it was the first day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead that's why the early church began meeting not on the Sabbath but began meeting on the first day of the week on Sunday it's a day of new beginnings now honestly frankly I believe the New Testament teaches days don't matter and that Christians aren't compelled to keep the Sabbath simply because first and foremost it was part of the Covenant God gave to the Jewish nation I'm under the new covenant and Paul in Romans 14 says one man will esteem one day of the week over all the other days another man will esteem a different day over all the other days let each one be persuaded in his own mind now in my own mind I am persuaded that Jesus and that his father that my God is to be worshipped on Sunday and on Monday and on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday every single day of the week so though we gather on Sunday you know we also gather on Saturday if you are more hung up on the Sabbath I invite you to our Saturday night service if your tradition says Sunday's the day to worship I invite you to our Sunday service if it doesn't matter to you which day you worship I invite you to our Wednesday service or any of the other services we have with different groups throughout the weekend in homes throughout the city well I better hurry up verse 4 is the Passover 2 Sabbath speaks of rest the Passover speaks of redemption that was when the children of Israel were delivered by that mighty hand of God from the Egyptian bondage verse 4 these are the feasts of the Lord holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times on the 14th day of the first month first month being the month of Abib later was changed to the name Nisan not the car manufacturer the Jewish month Abib and Nisan same difference on the 14th day of the first month at Twilight Twilight is the glowing light when the Sun goes beyond the horizon it is the Lord's Passover now Passover has already been described it's the event that takes place in Exodus chapter 12 it was the last plague in Egypt the death of the Egyptian firstborn when the children of Israel were told to s'matter the blood of the lamb on the lentils and the doorpost of their homes not only did they sprinkle the blood on the lintels and doorpost but later on in commemoration of that they took a lamb and they roasted the lamb and they sat for a wonderful meal called the Seder if you're writing notes sed ER seder means order because the meal has a very stringent order to it a very exacting order of what to say and what to do and there's four glasses of wine and the break of the matza and it was a family event it was fun for kids because the kids before the Passover it got to go through the house and look for leaven and then they could dispense of the leaven and then during the feast the children asked a question what makes this night different from all other nights and that question gave the Abba the Father the chance to answer the question of how our forefathers were in bondage and then God delivered us now Passover played two roles a commemorative role and a predictive roll it commemorated past deliverance from Egypt it predicted a future deliverance of Jesus our Messiah the Lamb of God dying on the cross it is the one feast of all of the yearly feasts that our communion is tied to the Passover it was on Passover that Jesus took the elements of the bread and the wine the fruit of the vine and said do this take this eat this drink this often do it in remembrance of me that doesn't mean that every time we gather for communion we need to have a Seder feast but that wouldn't be bad it would be okay to do that if you want to have an elaborate Passover meal you could do that once a month you could do it often or it could be as simple as what we're gonna have here tonight it is commemorative it's looking back to the cross but it's also predictive for us Paul said every time you take communion you are showing the Lord's death until he comes you're looking forward to his return his reign so it's commemorative and it's also predicted and what was true for the children of Israel thousands of years ago in principle is still true for us today if you remember back to when the children of Israel were in Egypt God said now if you don't take the blood of the lamb and put it on the littles in doorpost what's going to happen to you your firstborn are gonna die so either you will let a lamb die in your place and display the blood in that form littles and doorpost the form of a cross on your dwelling either you will let the lamb die in your place or you will die you choose the lamb became a sacrifice a atonement for them the same is true for us either you let the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world die in your place and my place or we will die an eternal death of separation from God it's one of the other it's the same principle it hasn't changed verse 6 and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread so he gives us the rules for the Sabbath mark this date Passover mark that date and now a third feast the feast of unleavened bread actually it's the second feast Sabbath isn't really a feast it's a weekly celebration Sabbath speaks of rest Passover speaks of Redemption unleavened bread I believe speaks of recuperation now follow me here the reason for the unleavened bread was because the children of Israel had to leave Egypt in a hurry with haste they didn't have time to let the dough cause the bread to rise they didn't have time to bake leavened bread so they had to break baked bread with just no leaven just flat cake flat bread and it became known as the feast of unleavened bread verse seven on the first day you shall have a holy convocation you shall do no customary work on it but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days the seventh day shall be a holy convocation for you dunno customary work on it okay so this beast is a seven-day feast marked by the beginning or the beginning of the feast is marked by the Passover the Passover day begins the first day of the feast of unleavened bread now because this is true we find both of these lumped together and sometimes indistinguishable in the scripture sometimes Passover is simply called the feast of unleavened bread and sometimes when you just say the Passover it includes the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread because Passover began a seven-day feast that ended on the 21st day of the first month so this often used interchangeably it's changeably even in the new testament it commemorated israel having to leave egypt in a hurry and all the hardship that came along with that rapid departure as i said they didn't have time to let their bread rise so this was the feast of flatbread you might say the cracker feast have you ever had matzo-ball 'td flat crackers and that's unleavened bread I believe that this feast is a picture of the recuperation and restoration that comes as a follower of Christ we get redeemed but then he works on us immediately to restore us to bring us into rest and recuperation we don't have to live our lives in haste and hurry and running to and fro he's building us up he's growing us up and it's a symbol of removing bad things like hatred and wickedness and instilling good things it's part of the sanctification process at least that's how Paul uses that analogy in the New Testament listen to this scripture this is 1st Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8 speaking of this festival so let us not celebrate the festival let us celebrate the festival pardon me not by eating old bread of wickedness and evil but by eating the new bread of purity and true speaks of restoration recuperation sanctification just as there was no gap between Passover and the feast of unleavened bread there is no gap between your being redeemed by Christ and him sanctifying you the moment you're saved he starts working on you as soon as Jesus catches his fish he starts cleaning them and that is this feast the next piece is the feast of firstfruits verse 9 this speaks of representation the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel and say to them when you come into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priests now he's telling them this when they're in the desert but this is a feast they will celebrate once they get into the new land the land of Canaan he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath the priests shall wave it this was the beginning of the barley harvest in the early spring and they would take a portion the first portion the firstfruits the first of the produce of the barley harvest and they would wave it before the Lord it was a representation that more was to follow we're taking this we're dedicating it all to God but also we're taking this with the trust and with the belief that there's going to be abundance and a plentiful harvest so it was to them an act of faith I lived on a farm on a kibbutz in Israel and I saw this festival firsthand I was in my early 20s and I remember how they would dress up and kind of costume like ancient costume and these young ladies would have baskets of fruit and the young men would join them and they'd do it these dances on the farms because I was in an agricultural setting it was so meaningful this festival of firstfruits and the songs and the dancing and the celebration once enjoy it was not austere was not boring you know there wasn't you know somebody playing in an organ in the background and people drew sort of boos it was like singing and exuberant and clapping and dancing and it was a representation that more was to follow and that struck me at that look at how they're worshiping during this festival he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf verse 11 on the day after the Sabbath the priests will wave it now this this feast of firstfruits speaks of representation but but let me give it to you in another way it's the representation of resurrection in first Corinthians 15 speaking of Jesus resurrection he calls that Paul calls Jesus resurrection the firstfruits he's using this analogy he's going back in his mind to the festival of firstfruits I'll quote it to you first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 20 now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep or died what that means is the resurrection of Jesus Christ requires our resurrection how do we know that we're gonna rise from the dead that our bodies are going to be reconstituted and given new life and live forever because it happened with Jesus he died was buried and he rose from the dead and Paul says that's the first fruits that's the beginning of the barley harvest if you have the firstfruits you know the harvest is going to come if Jesus rose from the dead his body that's alive is the guarantee that your body will rise from the grave it's a firstfruits and then beginning in verse 12 it talks about how that's to be celebrated and what sacrifices us to be celebrated with I take you to verse 15 at this point the next piece has mentioned the Feast of Pentecost what does pentecost mean means 50 it's 50 days after Passover and you shall count for yourself from the day after the Sabbath from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering seven Sabbath's shall be completed count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord Pentecost also known as shabu oat the feast of weeks was a festival of recognition I've gotten the firstfruits I collected the firstfruits of the barley harvest Pentecost is the last part of the wheat harvest so now it's a recognition that God has abundantly blessed through the late spring into the early summer and that's what Pentecost was all about according to Jewish tradition and it is just tradition Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai on this day of the year even before the feast was celebrated on this particular day of the year is when Moses received the law from God amount Sinai because of that tradition to this day Orthodox Jews don't sleep the entire 24 hours of this feast the reason they don't is they spend the time awake discussing the Torah some praying over the Torah discussing and memorizing certain portions of it the reason they do that is based on another tradition that said the night before Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai the children of Israel were asleep and once Moses got the law he had to wake them up so to symbolize that their vigilant and not going to sleep the observant Jew will stay awake the entire time verse 17 you shall bring from your dwellings - wave loafs of two tenths of an ephah they shall be a fine flower and baked with leaven so you're gonna bake bread this time with leaven they are the first fruits to the Lord it's interesting when you come to the New Testament book of Acts chapter 2 that we see that the church was birthed on the day of Pentecost Jesus rose from the dead he hung around for 40 days ministering to his disciples he ascended into heaven the disciples met in the upper room and prayed for about ten days and then Pentecost came as they were gathered together the Holy Spirit came upon the church and that was the day the church was born that's significant especially because we now have two loaves of bread in the ancient feast and the commandment is you baked them with lemon - not one I believe the two loaves of bread are symbolic of Jew and Gentile being brought together into one group known as the church there's no difference between Jew Gentile male-female Scythian bond or free we're all one in Christ so the two loaves with leaven a symbol of the Jew and the Gentile salvation going out now to all of the world now we have something interesting in this chapter about four months pass before the next feast so the Sabbath is given you do that every week there's Passover etc it's said for all these feasts until Pentecost those are the spring feast of the year then there's a whole gap where nothing takes place for four months until the seventh month of the Jewish calendar in the seventh month you now have three more feasts that are offered it's my belief and it's the belief of many conservative scholars that this long gap just as the church was birthed on Pentecost that the long gap between the feasts is a picture of the church age when God is reaching out to Gentiles and saving Gentiles Israel has rejected her lamb she has lost her temple she has lost her altar she has lost the priesthood she has lost her king and that's why I'm glad the chapter doesn't end because you would say what of the future of Israel and that was a question Paulus has God forsaken Israel does God not have any more plans for Israel god forbid so we have to read through the rest of the feasts to get the whole program to find out what happens so again verse 18 and the subsequent verses more details about this feast were given verse 23 introduces us to the Feast of Trumpets now we're in the seventh month and in the seventh month as I mentioned there are three more feasts have you noticed so far an emphasis on the number seven the seventh day is important the seventh week is important you count seven Sabbath's and then one day God said that's Pentecost and now the seventh month and then pretty soon when we get to Daniel chapter 9 we'll see that a periods of seven years become important but this idea of seven and we'll try to expand more on that later becomes very important in Scripture now in the Feast of Trumpets beginning in verse 23 it's a feast that speaks of a reminder to them a reminder there a reminder that's something in 10 days from now I'm going to announce it by blowing a trumpet a certain call of a trumpet announces to you remind you that something very very important and solemn happens in 10 days you know if you have a phone or even your computer if you write it in your calendar book it'll tell you 15 minutes in advance or an hour in advance before you have a schedule well here is God announcing to them 10 days in advance that another festival is coming up he does that by a festival God likes to party this is the festival of trumpets or the blowing of the trumpets verse 23 the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying in the seventh month on the first day of the month you shall have a Sabbath rest a memorial blowing of trumpets a holy convocation you shall do no customary work on it and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord we won't get to the Book of Numbers for a while but when we do you notice something in chapter 10 we're told that every month the beginning of the month is introduced to the people by the blowing of two silver trumpets every month twelve times a year or thirteen times a year depending on what calendar year it happens to be in Judaism the blowing of two silver trumpets signifies the new month now we have on the seventh month the blowing of the trumpet not the two silver trumpets but the shofar the ram's horn which is the indication that in 10 days the Day of Atonement is coming so it's a reminder to them a feast of reminding them get ready for the Day of Atonement the 10 days from the Feast of Trumpets to the day of atonement our known in hebrew as yamim Norah M can you say yamim Norah M that's pretty good and it means Days of Awe or days of repentance get ready by holy contemplation get ready for the day when your sins will be atoned for by that scapegoat running out in the wilderness and by that other sacrifice that will take place in the tabernacle later on the temple that's the preparation for it so this begins the calendar of the High Holy Days of Judaism in the seventh month now I'm going to throw another wrench if you don't mind into the calendar for you I just told you all about the lunar and the solar calendar according to Exodus God said the first month of the year - you shall be the month of Abib or Nisan during the Passover right it's the first month of their year when they come back from captivity the first day of the seventh month this that we're dealing with called in Hebrew Tishri they start celebrating Rosh Hashanah Rosh Hashanah means new year so God says the very first month when Passover is celebrated the month of a de beber Nisan that's the first year first month but when they come back from captivity they start celebrating the Feast of New Year's in the first day of the seventh month Rosh Hashanah so we we now have two calendars in Judaism one's a religious calendar that begins in Abib / Nisan the other is the civil calendar that starts in the seventh month called Tishri our September or October makes sense you're going not really this is very confusing well we have the equivalent in our culture when's our New Year's January 1 is New Year's that's the beginning of our year but that's not the beginning of the school year the school year begins in September well that was when I was a kid now it's what July May I don't know it's they keep moving it back it's a whole different way of reckoning time this school year and many businesses have what they call the fiscal year they keep time differently on different sets of calendar different sets of books it's the same way with the children of Israel's they have the religious calendar and they have the civic calendar the blowing of the trumpet get ready get ready and recognize what is coming up a reminder to them something else can I say a chapter xxvii he makes a prediction that God will gather in the future the children of Israel together in their land by the blowing of the trumpet a regather in Ezekiel gives us more information that Israel will be gathered and restored to their land and then to their Lord geographically in Israel and then spiritually to their Lord they will be gathered in unbelief but at some point they will be gathered to the Lord in belief in faith the God will do a work with the Jews in the last days in their own land something else that you and I are familiar with the church will be taken up into heaven by the blowing of a trumpet 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 the Trump of God and we who are remain and alive will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord now when the church is raptured in the air I believe my view my reading of eschatology you may or may not agree that's okay sort of but when we're taken up in the air that begins what is referred to by Daniel as the 70th week of Daniel in a seven-year period where God is going to deal with the world but also he's going to deal with his people the Jewish nation to recover them to restore them back to a covenant relationship where they trust in Jesus as the Messiah and I'll refer to that in a few verses in the next feast which is in verse 26 the day petone meant that which the Feast of Trumpets reminded them was coming now the Day of Atonement speaks about repentance Yom Kippur Day of Atonement Kippur means covering yom is the day the day of covering the day when sins are covered so these are our days of repentance we've already talked about this in chapter 16 but he's saying save the date verse 26 the Lord spoke to Moses saying also the tenth day of the seventh month shall be a day of atonement it shall be a holy convocation for you now this is the only time this phrase is used is in relation to this feast you shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord the question remains and has been debate debated what does this mean you shall afflict your souls other translations translate from the Hebrew into English you shall deny yourself you shall deny yourself because the Jews to this day take the day of Yom Kippur and they fast they don't eat food on that day it is believed that the idea to afflict one soul one's person is to deny oneself of food that was the intent still believed among Jews to this day verse 28 he shall do no work on that same day it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before the Lord your God for any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day she'll be cut off from his people this has any party who does work will be destroyed from his people and then more stipulations are given and then we have verse 33 the Feast of Tabernacles I mentioned that this was the only really solemn feast or austere feast where you contemplate and you afflict your souls and you mourn and the idea is repentance so these this is a time of fasting not feasting but though it's the time of fasting not feasting at the end of this is a time of feasting not fasting because one goat was killed in the tabernacle another goat was led out into the wilderness you remember called the scapegoat and as long as that one priest could see him he would just keep looking at it and keep looking at until it disappeared from his sight symbolic that your sins have been taken away and removed then that priest would signal to a priest on another lookout you know it's gone and then to another priest on another look at all the way back to the Temple in Jerusalem from that wilderness point in the desert and when they got the news in the temple that the scapegoat had well escaped then there was great celebration in the temple singing and dancing they went from fasting now to feasting especially since in a few days another festival will take place that again is a day of great joy that God commands the day of atonement was a day of mourning I believe this will be fulfilled for Israel in the Tribulation Period in that seven year period the 70th week of Daniel they're gathered in their land now since 1948 they have been returned and restored to the land but not totally to the Lord but they will be because the Bible says like on the Day of Atonement when they mourned it says they will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn over him or for him as one mourns for his own son there will be a time in the future of recognition this is our Messiah verse 33 begins the Feast of Tabernacles this is the Feast of relocation that's what I call it they have been provided for and protected in the wilderness for forty years and that's what this really is all about God you kept us as we relocated from Egypt to Canaan is the festival of relocation then the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of Tabernacles or booths if you like for seven days to the Lord on the first day there should be a holy convocation you shall do no customary work in it verse 39 on the fifteenth day at the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land he shall keep the Feast of the Lord for seven days on the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest on the eighth day a Sabbath rest and you shall take for yourselves get this on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees branches of palm trees I've always said that was God's favorite tree the palm tree well maybe not at least it's my favorite tree the boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year it shall be a statute forever in your generations you shall celebrate it in the seventh month you shall dwell in booths for seven days all who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths the Hebrew word for booths or Tabernacles is the word Sukkot so you will often hear the feast of Sukkot just like for Pentecost the feast of Shavuot or weeks now you have the feast of booths Sukkot Tabernacles and this is a cool feast listen if I'm a kid and I know that for a whole week my going to church means I'm camping out I want to go to that church there haven't service outdoors for a whole week and that's really what it was all of the families would build a little lean-to with just little leafy branches and - if you go to Israel today all over you see people on the rooftops of flat houses or flat buildings or in courtyards or corridors or even streets these little booths and they will live in them they'll have their meals but at night they go out and they sleep in them they're camping out for a week to remind them that while the children of Israel march through the desert for 40 years and they were living outside camping out the God gave them everything they needed but protected them provided for them so imagine the impact of this kind of a celebration for the kids it's the camping week I guess if this were modern times it would be the Jerusalem camping and RV convention is the day where everybody camps out of the week everybody camps out this is an important feast when we get to the book of John chapter 7 because in that chapter the children of Israel the Jews are celebrating this feast in Jerusalem and Jesus happens to be at the Feast of Tabernacles in the temple and it says something interesting it says on the last great day of the feast Jesus stood in the temple and said if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink for out of his innermost being as the scripture says shall flow rivers of living water according to history we know that that seven-day feast that took place in Jerusalem culminated on the last day the eighth day that was the day that the priests took a pitcher of water from the pool of Siloam and marched upward the hill back up to the temple walk up the steps of the altar and poured water at the base of the altar and when he poured the water which was symbolic of water coming from the rock in the wilderness God took care of our forefathers by giving them water out of the rock as the water was being poured the children of Israel in unison quoted saying a scripture from Isaiah 12 the scripture was this with joy you will draw waters from the wells of salvation on the eighth day of the feast the priests did that twice and on that last time that he poured the water out and the people in unison with joy you will draw waters from the well of salvation then there was a hush that would fall as the priest would continue pouring it was I believe at that very moment when there was that hush that Jesus stood up and said if and he cried out the Bible says it was a deep loud guttural scream to command the attention of everybody thousands of people on the temple courts can you imagine the drama there doing their thing and their celebrating and then Jesus shouts if any man thoughts nobody goes who said that oh that's that guy from Nazareth if any man thirst let him come to me and drink you see they're celebrating the fact that their forefathers thirst was quenched I am the source of that quenching I can satisfy your deepest thirst very very significant that set the wheels in motion for the leadership of Jerusalem to want to get Jesus crucified what does this feast have to do with the future I believe the fulfillment of this feast on the prophetic timetable is the Millennium the literal thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ from Israel with his capital headquarters at Jerusalem according to Zechariah chapter 14 this is the one feast that we're gonna celebrate during the thousand years reigning with Christ upon the earth it says those that remain from all of the nations will go up to Jerusalem every single year Zechariah 14 tells us and it will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles so Israel many of them saved trusting in the Lord during that thousand year period dwelling securely for a thousand years and fulfills and completes the prophetic progression of the feast verse 44 so Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord that's the chapter but I want to just begin where we are in where we began verse 40 notice the wording used to take for yourselves in the first day beautiful trees branches the palm trees boughs of leafy trees willows of the brook and you shall what you shall rejoice the way that's worded it sounds like God is giving them a command when you come before me on this party I want you happy I want you to rejoice you're celebrating me you save the date and when you celebrate me you celebrate it with joy before the Lord your God for seven days listen I know that we all go through hardships and heartaches problems and deep stuff in our lives I know we all do that and all that's true it could be true when we come to church on Wednesday or on Saturday or on Sunday but that's the time where we deliberately say Lord no matter what I'm going through or no matter how I feel you are worth me celebrating you in order to be around some church people it's like witnessing an autopsy it's just like oh goodness whatever you have yet if you don't witness that's okay with me and oh don't spread that around where's the joy going to church for a lot of people is something they have to do it's an obligation 18 times 18 times I counted in the Book of Psalms this commandment make a joyful shout to the Lord a joyful shout can you get into that so listen when you come for worship none of this don't like this song it's too loud it's not loud enough it's too this is to that make a joyful shout you shall rejoice before the Lord Charles Spurgeon said something that I wrote down I've tried to commit it to memory but I try to commit so many things to memory that I make Wesley saying what I thought Spurgeon said so I'm just gonna read it to our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people a cheerful people is in keeping with God's nature you know what I notice about bars you go to a bar they have a thing called happy hour oh so they can be happy but we can't let's call it sad hour let's call it a steer our let's call it boring our well I think the church this should be happy our are happy God should be worshipped by a happy people and that's why we want to express that in in our worship so you don't get to watch worship you get and I get to participate in worship and make a joyful noise make a joyful shout well we have a celebration the Passover fulfilled in Jesus that Jesus said do this and take this and when you do it do it in remembrance of me he gave us the bread the wafer broke it and said this signifies my body broken for you divine Earth divine the fruit of the vine the wine in Jesus day we have grape juice simply because some people get hung up if you have wine and communion there's old debates believe it or not Christians fight over the stupidest things that's one of them so to make it okay we have grape juice which is technically the fruit of the vine and bread symbolic though of the broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ it ties us to the Passover it has us look backward and it has us look forward it's commemorative it's celebrative and it's predictive and so we want to conclude this time together before we close in a song of worship by taking these elements together I'm going to ask two of my pastors to come up and do that Kerry Rose and Neil Ortiz are gonna lead us in taking these elements together father we do thank you so much for this time of remembering your plan your purpose and how you fulfilled it through your son as I was listening to my pastor I was just thinking that in the Psalms it says you know the water did come from the rock and then there's a phrase that David uses that this as we get to drink from the rivers of your pleasure I pray for all those we remember how your son was broken so that we might drink from the rivers of your pleasure we'd quietly confess to you anything that would keep us from taking that drink we love you and we thank you so much for this time we just take the bread why don't we pill the next layer of our cup and join me in prayer please father we do want to thank you so much this is a celebration this is a celebratory meal and Lord it's a meal that yet again we come to with unspeakable aw thank you so much that we get to partake of this meal in a very personal way father as we in a moment we'll we'll take in this juice will imbibe this fruit of the vine our minds can't help but go to the fact that you gave your life that we might live and as often comes to my mind at this time of how easy it is for me to be distracted by trying to make my life something that isn't worth living by pursuing things that are not worthy of your death and resurrection you lead from the front by giving your life for me and choosing to relinquish every every earthly pleasure your very life that we might live thank you that by what Paul tells us regarding this Ministry of reconciliation we have the joy of no longer being regarded or regarding one another according to the flesh but if any man be in Christ we are a new creation and that Lord you were in the world reconciling the world to yourself and have thus given us the Ministry of reconciliation so Lord as we drink may we not only rejoice and thank you for this meal and what it means to us but as we emerge from this time of communion in a few moments may we then look at one another not regarding each other according to the flesh but rejoicing that the foot of the cross is the great equalizer that we are all satisfied beggars because we take of this meal together and we do it with great joy in the name of our wonderful rescuer and Savior our Lord Jesus Christ it's to you we drink Lord let's drink amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 4,336

Rating: 4.7468352 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Jesus, Leviticus, Sermon

Id: M2T2HKLBBLc

Length: 62min 27sec (3747 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018