The Feasts of The Lord | Preston Morrison | Gateway Church

[Music] we this weekend are continuing our series entitled the real jesus and uh when i tell you our topic for the day some of you might be slightly inclined to go okay but if you'll just hang in with me i believe by the end of the message it's possible the holy spirit might cause some things to come alive in your heart in your spirit so uh if you have your bible i want you to turn to leviticus chapter 23. leviticus chapter 23. what we're talking about today are the feasts you may have heard them called the jewish feasts or the feast of israel or the biblical feasts they are all of those things but they are not just those things i'm going to show you in just a minute at the beginning of leviticus 23 what god calls the feasts but here's what i already know any time a pastor especially gentile pastors teaching and says we're going to teach on the feasts uh one of the thoughts is preston's teaching on the feasts and now he's gonna tell us we have to celebrate the feasts okay no i'm not and i'm gonna show you why colossians chapter 2 verse 16 listen to these words from paul so don't let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon festivals or ceremonies or sabbaths for these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come and christ himself is that reality now this is a passage of scripture that's used to often say see this is wise gentiles we shouldn't or and don't celebrate the feast and here's what i would say just because you don't have to doesn't mean you shouldn't and even if you don't it doesn't mean you should at the very least dig a little deeper and mine the beautiful theological relational richness that can be seen in the feast now if you're thinking why do the feasts even matter to me let me give you kind of a line to think about the feasts are signals and signs that help us understand what's on god's heart as well as showing us god's salvation plan for man but that's not the only reason the feasts are important the feasts are important because they're important to god let me let me show you this genesis chapter 1 verse 14 the very first chapter in your bible god makes a very strong statement i want to show it to you and god said let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times this is the word moed moedim sacred times not just to mark out day and night god's saying hey here's why i put the moon and the sun the stars in the sky it's not just to let you know when it's night no longer day when it's day no longer night it's to also to mark out the sacred special times that i establish and the days and the years now if you're in leviticus 23 let me show you the same word that god used in genesis 1. now remember the principle first the first when god uses something for the first time he's making a statement about it he uses this word moed it's significant to him he's pointing at the sun and the moon and saying i put those bad boys up there and one of the biggest reasons is to mark out some special pre-appointed times that i establish okay so it's an important word to him because these days these moments where we're about to see these feasts are important to did anybody just hear that screaming that's the greatest sound in the church right there can i just say that like that that is it happened in the last service that is unbelievable here's why would you rather them be hating the presence of god in the house of god like that is just how that is thank you jesus that's so great leviticus 23 verse 4 listen to what god says these are the feasts watch this of the lord okay this is really important god doesn't point at the feast and say these are the jewish feasts while they have been called that and are called that and they are doesn't say these are the biblical feasts even though they are he says these are my feasts these are the feasts of the lord he doesn't stop there holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times here's this word again moadim and it literally means to schedule an important appointment to have a meeting incidentally if you've ever heard the the verse of scripture that is often quoted as more of a phrase how can two walk together unless they're in agreement anybody ever heard that before okay amos 3 verse 3 god uses the exact same word in amos 3 3 moadim to say how he this is what he's literally saying how can two walk in agreement unless they first schedule an appointment to do so okay think about the rich implications for us personally how can two well let's just use two god and man i'll personalize it god and me preston how can the two of us walk in agreement unless we have scheduled appointments together how about for jew and gentile that's another two how can jew and gentile as one new man walk together in agreement without scheduled special appointments together okay this is a really important word to god he uses it on purpose let me try and illustrate this uh maybe you dated somebody or are presently married to somebody that i would term a perpetual celebrator okay let me describe what this type of person is like they're the kind of person that comes into the room you're in on some seemingly random day and they say congratulations and you're like what what did i do and they say happy 11th i'm like wait a minute we've been married nine years eleven a man i remember the day you were born and the day we got married everything else is a little bit foggy isn't usually the woman that kind of i know some men remember but let's just be honest guys we don't always remember everything we should she says happy 11th anniversary of our first kiss incidentally it's the same type of person that when you're dating they mark off every week happy ninth week together okay now some of us look at that and say that's just cheesy let me redeem it no it's not that's romantic and god is just such a being who celebrates every special moedem special moment troy who who preached last week did an absolutely phenomenal job was telling me that when he and jen are preparing the kids for the feasts and the feasts you're going to see in a minute are broken down into the spring feast therefore and then the fall feast every time at the beginning of the feast they tell their kids troy will say remember the expectation of an appointment is a meeting don't just do these things for god god set these dates to meet with you this is one of the reasons the feasts are so special he says these days are special to me and on these days i want to celebrate with you what i did for you all those years ago and i want to do it every year so let's walk through the we're going to start with the spring feasts there are four i'm going to walk through them i in the amount of time that i have i don't have the ability to to go very deep on each of the feasts i just want to kind of give you the the nuts and bolts and then we'll talk about the fulfillment or the future fulfillment of the feasts alright first of the spring feast is called passover many of us know what passover is leviticus 23 verse 5. read it with me the lord's passover interesting that he calls it his now the passo the lord's passover begins at sundown on the 14th day of the first month now let's talk about this for a minute when was the first passover celebrated the night that the children of israel left egypt right and how did it go down the angel of death was coming to take the firstborn and god said if you will kill a spotless lamb without breaking any of its bones take a spotless slam kill it and do what with the blood what did god say apply it to the doorpost right and then what happened when someone applied the blood of a spotless lamb to the doorpost the angel of death passed over okay simply put passover is the celebration of when death passed over let's keep going the feast of unleavened bread is the next one verse 6. on the next day god says the 15th day of the month you must begin celebrating the festival of unleavened bread this festival to the lord continues for seven days and during that time the bread you eat must be made without yeast okay here's i remember this when i was in college i was working at the arizona biltmore and during passover one of the things the biltmore used to do and they probably still do this is they would reserve a portion of the hotel for jewish families to celebrate passover and families could pay kind of an all-inclusive price and everything was taken care of for passover and one of the things that the resort had to do is they had to establish a completely separate kitchen and here's why because of the feast of unleavened bread one of the things you had to do is you had to rid your entire home of yeast okay sounds a little a little odd like i mean you're scrubbing down the kitchen there's no have you ever heard that that saying carbs are from the devil i think that's where this possibly came from because you're not you're not allowed to eat any leavened bread bread with yeast bread that's risen for the week it's a seven day feast but it went even further it's just not just eat bread that is unleavened it's also strike your entire home of yeast okay next next one and remember we're going to come back around and talk about the filaments of both categories the spring feasts and the fall feasts the next feast of the spring the feast of first fruits verse 9 of leviticus 23 then the lord said to moses give the following instructions to the people of israel when you enter the land i am giving you and you harvest its first crops okay then it goes on to explain what he wants here's what would happen this was three days after passover and they would take a sheaf of wheat and tie a cord around it then they would take the first fruits they would take the lamb they would take the wine and they would take the sheath and the priest would bless the first fruits okay and the principle is and if you've ever heard of my mentor pastor robert morris teach on the principle of first fruits this is where it comes from when the first was set aside for god what happened to the rest the rest was blessed okay incidentally this is where holly and i my wife got our oldest middle name elizabeth which means consecrated to god set aside for god because it was almost like we knew what type of sons we would have after her and we wanted them to make sure we got them blessed just just no i'm just kidding that was just in case they turned out to be like daddy and they didn't they're amazing boys uh but the principle is when the first is set aside for god the rest are blessed the principle the feast of first fruits is where that comes from here's the next feast the feast of weeks this is the last of the spring feasts leviticus 23 verse 15 from the day after the sabbath the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering count off seven full weeks keep counting until the day after the seventh sabbath fifty days later okay everybody remember that number fifty okay fifty days after all right that's when feast of weeks 50 days after first fruits and then he goes on keep counting until 50 days later then present an offering of new grain to the lord this was called the waving of the omer and this is what would be done with it they would take the wheat they would take this package and they would wave it up down forward backward left and right and that was to signify that the providential goodness of god was extending to the ends of the earth okay now incidentally the feast of weeks is the anniversary of the giving of the torah on mount sinai to moses okay this is this is the the commemoration of the giving of the law when god gave the torah to moses on mount sinai okay now let's quickly go through i'll start back over with the passover uh let's walk through the fulfillment all right so i a couple of you have fallen asleep if someone next to you has fallen asleep you don't have to elbow them and let me say this some of you might feel like wow we're moving really fast through this i can't catch all this i don't understand what this all means and let me just submit something to you the goal isn't to fully understand everything all at once here's the goal ask the holy spirit to give you one thing catch one thing that ignites in your heart that deepens your love for jesus and in part changes the way you walk with them okay the goal isn't to try and keep up and catch everything i don't want you to see this like a 10 course meal of which you have to eat every bite we're moving really fast through a lot of stuff the goal is to see this like a buffet all right and how many of us love a good vegas buffet you know what i'm talking about it might be 60 bucks but i will eat 300 worth of that crab this is just a buffet okay so let's let's start back with passover the first of the spring feast let's let's talk through this for a minute because many of us have heard of passover and that's if if we know any feasts that's the one we know the most john shows up and says behold in john chapter 1 behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world right that's what john the baptist says about jesus the messiah who has come the god who's come to save us do you think that john woke up that morning and went father today's the day the messiah is going to reveal himself today this is the day and i am the herald in the wilderness i mean i have a role to play today i'm i'm going to be the clarion call that draws attention father you know what i'd like to do i want to make sure that the people's hearts connect to the messiah father everyone loves animals and i would like to pick an animal that would cause the people to be more endeared to the messiah who has come and i wonder if john out of all the animals tried to create a top three list of animals that could be compared to the messiah first maybe he came up with the giraffe at the top of his list because i mean think about it the giraffe's long neck people can see his face from far away just sounds like a good messianic animal right then maybe the second on his list was the chihuahua you know the sweet beautiful little puppy whose bark can be heard through your entire neighborhood in the middle of the night and then maybe the third one was just kind of a kick in like the lamb just because they're sweet and they're everywhere do you think that's how it really happened that john just kind of stumbled upon the lamb no here's what you have to remember the earliest followers of jesus all knew he was the passover lamb and they communicated by the inspiration of the holy spirit in scripture to make sure we knew as well let me show you peter in first peter chapter 1 verse 19 he's talking about the price god paid for you and he's trying to paint this picture of just how extravagant the price god paid to redeem you really is and he says it wasn't mere gold or silver that's in verse 18 then he says in verse 19 it was the precious blood of christ but he doesn't stop there he says the sinless spotless lamb of god paul in 1st corinthians chapter 5 verse 7 says just in case you know there are people who didn't catch that jesus is the passover lamb paul who i love gets right to it says christ our passover lamb he just says listen jesus is our passover lamb in other words jesus yeshua hamashiach is the fulfillment of passover passover all these years has been pointing to jesus that's what he said in colossians 2 jesus is the one all of these point to they're shadows but he's the one casting the shadow they all point to him now does anybody know something important that happened on the same calendar day as the beginning of passover anybody know something tied to jesus he was crucified on passover the spotless lamb was killed without the breaking of bones incidentally remember both thieves on each side of jesus had their bones broken he didn't the spotless lamb was to be killed and his bones were not to be broken jesus was crucified not coincidentally i might add on passover letting the whole earth know i am the lamb who is slain for you in your place here's the next feast the feast of unleavened bread and just two things i want to bring your attention to about the significance of the feast of unleavened bread the second is about jesus the first is about us the feast of unleavened bread reminds us the powerfully poisonous effect of sin in our own lives jesus says i'll i'll read it to you uh and well paul says uh but jesus also talked about the leaven of the pharisees first corinthians chapter five verse six paul says don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough okay paul takes a look if you don't know what what the leaven is it's literally yeast a little bit of yeast and bread causes the whole batch the whole piece of dough to rise just a little bit the feast of unleavened bread reminds each of us of the power of sin in our lives think about it satan fully understands this that's why he didn't say to eve eat the whole tree think about it he didn't say that he said just take a bite of the fruit why because a little can affect the entire whole of my life the unleavened bread is a beautiful reminder i'll personalize it preston playing with a little bit of sin is like playing with matches that can burn an entire house down a little bit of leaven goes a long way and so seven days a year god says i want you to go without leaven now why is this celebrated because that night when the children of israel were rescued from egypt the idea is they they were rescued so quickly that night that the bread didn't even have time to rise that's where it comes from but it also points at jesus first john chapter 3 verse 5 and you know that jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in him first peter 2 talks about that as well okay how many of us have heard jesus described as the bread of life okay let me go a little bit further he's not just the bread of life he's the unleavened bread of life here's why that matters if he were the leaven bread he couldn't give you eternal life he couldn't die in your place because he had sin he is the spotless sinless lamb of god feast of unleavened bread reminds us the power of sin but also the power of jesus overcoming sin on our behalf here's the next of the spring feast the feast of first fruits okay question anybody know anything remember we said first fruits happens three days after passover little bible trivia can anybody remember something significant that happened on the same calendar day as the feast of first fruits anybody remember what happened three days after the crucifixion the resurrection right okay let me show you paul connects this is not a coincidence think about it he could have come back in any amount of days after it's not a coincidence that jesus was raised to life from the dead on the same day as first fruits and paul the apostle makes sure we understand this connection first corinthians 15 verse 20 paul by the inspiration of the holy spirit says but now christ is risen from the dead such a great statement right there christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep those who have died here's another way to say it jesus in john 6 40 says and this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life and i will raise him up at that last day jesus i'll personalize it as saying preston you can trust and believe because you believe in me you can trust and believe that there is a day coming where i am going to give you life eternal even if you die if your temporary tent called your body dies on this earth you can trust and believe i am going to give you as one of my followers as a son of my father i am going to give you life eternal and preston here's how you can know because i went first i was raised to life on first fruits as the first fruit this is not a coincidence god didn't just randomly pick three days he's proving a point to every believer in jesus you can bank on this because he went first he overcome death hell overcame death hell in the grave and this is why he is able to give you life eternal he went first then we have the feast of weeks the last of the four spring feasts anybody remember the number i told you to remember about the feast of weeks was what number 50 anybody remember something that happened in the new testament exactly 50 days after first fruits after the resurrection the holy spirit was poured out acts chapter 2 right okay so i want you to i just want to point at something because part of what i'm trying to do in this series i'm not trying to show you new things these actually aren't new things these are old things that have been there on the pages of your own bible for hundreds of years so i'll give you a little example remember i told you at the beginning of this series that some of the richest treasures in god's word are found in some of the deepest of caves and so we just have to be willing to dig into god's word to find that pearl of great price remember me saying that okay let me show you an example of that remember uh the feast of of weeks is the time where uh we're celebrating the commemorating of the giving of the torah the law on mount sinai does anybody remember what happened at the base of the mountain that day while moses was up getting the torah anybody remember what the people were doing down at the bottom a golden calf and do you remember what god's response to that was people gotta die this this will not stand i will not be co-worshipped you're not gonna worship me and an idol but does anybody remember how many died that day let me show you exodus 32 verse 28 the levites obeyed moses command if you go read the context moses has told him these people got to die all right now let's see and about three thousand everybody say about three thousand about three thousand people died that day okay question bible trivia anybody remember in acts chapter 2 after the holy spirit was poured out anybody remember after peter preached how many got saved how many experienced new life let's read it together acts 2 41 peter just wrapped up preaching those who believed what peter said were baptized and added to the church that day about how many are you kidding me do you think that's a coincidence like maybe it is a coincidence but do you really think it is about 3 000 the same exact words okay what could this mean is it possible that god has hidden a little statement within the words of his word using about three thousand who died the day the law was given and about three thousand who experienced new life when the holy spirit was poured out i wonder if a possible statement the god of the universe might be trying to make goes something like this the law alone brings death but the spirit brings life it's always been there about three thousand about three thousand see the beauty of the feast is not just what happened that day remember this if you forget mostly everything of this message remember this one one-liner special things always happen on special days incidentally as we transition to the fall feasts and we're going to breeze through these i'm only going to cover two of the three because i'm going to do a whole message on the day of atonement here in a bit so we're going to cover two of the three but let me just quickly say draw your attention to the fact that the major events of the first coming of jesus all coincide with the feast now think about it it's crucified on passover right not a coincidence then three days later first fruits he's raised to life as the first fruit then 50 days later on shavuot you might call it pentecost both mean the same thing pointing at the number 50 the holy spirit is poured out okay in the same way that the major events of the first coming happen on the the days of the feasts there are many that believe the major events of the second coming are going to align with the fall feast just like the events major events of the first coming align with the spring fees now i'm just throwing that out there to you they haven't happened yet but i wouldn't be at all surprised here's why because god is detail-oriented now hear my heart i'm not trying to tell you that the next feast we experience jesus is coming back the trumpet's going to sound hear my heart okay i'm just trying to tell you these fall feasts haven't been fully fulfilled yet and part of that is keeping that expectation so let's look at the first of the three fall feasts it's the feast of trumpets verse 23 the lord said to moses give the following instructions to the people of israel on the first day of the appointed month in early autumn you are to observe a day of complete rest for those of you who say i think these feasts are weird do you think a day of complete rest sounds weird no it will be an official day for holy assembly a day commemorated with a loud blast of a trumpet clearly why we get the name feast of trumpets now this was the beginning the 10-day walk-up to the day of atonement which is the most solemn of the feasts feast and i don't i can't spend too much time here because i'm already a little over time but here's i'll boil down the the feast of trumpets when god in exodus came down on mount sinai they heard the sound of a trumpet blast now i understand that one of the the meanings for a trumpet in scripture is a call to war i know that but it's also a clarion call that god is coming so they hear this trumpet and god shows up on sinai so this connection between a trumpet and god showing up is important think about it like this can you imagine if every morning of your life in your heart you heard the sound of the blowing trumpet whereby your day began calibrated to the thought he is coming again what would it change about your everyday life if every day started in your heart with the sound of the trumpet that preceded god always showing up feast of trumpets has not yet been fully fulfilled but that does not mean it has lost its significance i told you day of atonement i'm going to do a whole message on that let's finish with the feast of tabernacles verse 33 and the lord said to moses give the following instructions to the people of israel begin celebrating the festival of shelters or booths or tabernacles on the 15th day of the appointed month five days after the day of atonement now here's why it's called the festival of shelters tabernacles booths all meaning the same thing because when the children of israel were rescued free from egypt what did they live in temporarily tents temporary shelters okay so for this week there there's the establishment of a temporary shelter and this is the big party the big celebration it's so big if you want to do a little reading this week as homework go read zechariah 14 how seriously god takes the the feast of tabernacles he's very serious about it and it is the party of all parties this is the celebration okay now one of the things you need to know is during the celebration of of tabernacles a couple things happen the priest would take water from the pool of siloam and take it up to the temple and the reason is it was signifying that when messiah comes in the same way the waters cover the sea when messiah comes the knowledge of god is going to cover the whole earth so everyone every jewish person in that that day and to this day you know water is important during the feast of tabernacles another thing that that happens is people would take torches flaming torches and they would go around the perimeter of the temple and they would put them in the ground lighting up the temple this was signifying that when messiah comes he's going to be a light to the nations which obviously includes the gentiles okay so remember even though this hasn't been fully fulfilled i want to show you something jesus says in the middle of the feast of tabernacles in john chapter 7. let's let's read it together well let's let's go to trumpets i got a breeze breeze through this i told you the trumpet i told you atonement uh here's what jesus says in john 7. on the last day the climax of the festival jesus stood and shouted now he goes into the temple in the middle of tabernacles feast of tabernacles he goes into the temple to teach and listen to what he says anyone who is thirsty may come to me okay so you've probably heard that before but the context is in the middle of tabernacles where water is very important everybody knows the role the water is going to play jesus comes and says anyone who is thirsty may come to me anyone who believes in me may come and drink for the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart speaking of the messiah john chapter 8 verse 12 jesus goes further it says jesus spoke to the people once more and said i am the light of the world how many of you have heard that before okay but the context is in the middle of the feast of tabernacles when people had put light around the temple to remind everyone that the messiah will be a light to the whole world jesus says i am in the middle of the lights he says i am the light of the world if you follow me you won't have to walk in darkness because you will have the light that leads to life okay jesus knew he was the fulfillment of all of the feasts that's why paul said what he said in colossians chapter two now i know some of you are proud of yourself that you didn't fall asleep through this last 40 minutes and i'm proud of you okay but i want to connect the dots as to why these are so beautifully important not just to god but should be to us as well i'm gonna ask my wife to come out she's back in the back here uh she hates being on the stage literally aborts it okay so this is a big moment for us she she said uh after the thursday night service she's like i think this is the first time in eight years i've i've stood on the stage with you and then she's like and it's going to be the last time i stand on the stage with you but remember at the beginning of the message i talked to you about the hebrew word modem that god used to say these are special appointments that i have established where i want to meet with you and i want to celebrate these every year together okay i want to illustrate this august the 4th in the year 2000 is a very special moed moadim it's a special day to us because it's the day where i proposed to the girl of my dreams and i want to help you see that part of the celebrating of the feast is one part reenacting to remember the miraculous beauty and power of god and what he did that specific day so i wanted to try to illustrate this to you i want you to see how on august the 4th i had flown to california to ask her parents if i could marry her on my way back to dallas she was living in phoenix i was in dallas working at gateway and i stopped by in phoenix and i snuck into the room where i knew she was going to be she just come from volleyball practice her hair was sopping wet she had no idea i was coming and i walked into the room and i got down on one knee and i grabbed her by the hands and i said to her i quoted ruth chapter one and treat me not to leave you don't ever ask me to leave your side for wherever you go i'm going to go your people are going to be my people your god will be my god where you lodge i'm going to lodge if anything but death separates me from you i want something far worse than death to be god's punishment for me i know that right now i have more school debt than i have annual income but if you'll just hang with me my heart is to show you the world and i make a commitment to you on this day that i'm going to study you for the rest of your life you are my favorite subject and by the time i die no one on the earth is going to know more about you than me i want to spend the rest of my life holding your hand will you marry me of course you know she said yes she collapsed on my knee she didn't actually say yes for a couple minutes because she was sobbing and um can i just say something because this this was said after the thursday night service gee thanks preston for doing that in front of my wife because that's not how mine went can i just tell you that's not the point to bring glory because i'll just tell you that's not how mine went either over the last 21 years since i used my words to propose to my wife i've spent thousands of hours using my mouth to communicate words so it didn't go like that there were a lot more nerves but that's not even the point i want to ask you a question was there anything weird about what you just saw me do celebrating reenacting my proposal was there anything weird about that was there anything cheesy about that that's for you to decide but if you ask that girl there ain't nothing cheesy about that let me just say things go very well for me whenever i pull that little trick i walk into the kitchen and just go she doesn't think it's cheesy do you think it's irrelevant it's a part of who i am that is a moadin that is one of our special days i want you to grab the communion elements that you were given when you came in because whether you realize it or not you have been in part celebrating a portion of one of the feasts [Music] since you gave your life to christ now take out the bread many of you would look at this and say this is called communion it is that's that's what you call it but it's not just communion you have to have more context than that let me ask you a question the the quote unquote first communion happened on the night of the last supper and the last supper was celebrated on the night of what passover the night jesus was crucified and one of the things you have to know about passover the way it's been celebrated for hundreds and hundreds of years not just by jewish people who believe that jesus is the messiah but by every jewish person during passover one of the things they do there are three pieces of bread after the meal okay and they're covered up interesting to note i wonder if that has anything to do with god the father the son and the holy spirit and the reason i would say that is in passover after the meal it's the middle piece of bread that's removed from the covering and that middle piece of bread think about it god the father god the son the holy spirit who's the one in the middle so to speak okay that middle piece of bread is taken out of the covering it is broken it is blessed and it is eaten it's the offi coleman and then it's hidden half of the broken pieces hidden somewhere in the house and everyone goes to look afterwards everyone goes to look for the offi komen the missing piece and there is a prize for the person who finds the bread of passover that was temporarily hidden tell me that doesn't sound like jesus and when when in matthew he he describes what happened that night he says after the meal jesus took the bread understand something he most likely wasn't just reaching for the thing closest to him oh somebody give me some bread it is entirely possible not just plausible that the middle piece of passover that night he pulled out the middle piece and when he said this is my body which is broken for you he was pointing at the middle piece of bread that had been celebrated and consumed for hundreds of years by even jewish people who don't believe jesus is the messiah jesus took the bread and he said this is my body which is broken for you every time you eat this bread i want you to remember me let's take the bread together and then we have the cup and in jewish tradition and culture the wine symbolizes two things blood and joy one of the things deuteronomy chapter 18 says that moses points at the messiah and says the messiah will be like a moses and rabbis for hundreds and hundreds of years have believed that when messiah comes he will do the things moses did well think about this moses turned the water one of the miracles god did in one of the plagues moses turned water into what in the blood he turned the water into blood right rabbis for centuries have taught that when messiah comes he's not going to turn water into blood because when messiah comes there will be joy even more than judgment messiah will come and turn the water into wine isn't it interesting that the first miracle jesus does is they turn the water into wine now here's what you have to know about passover there are four cups during passover the third cup is the one that comes after the meal and every cup has a name and the name of the third cup is the cup of redemption jesus takes the cup quite possibly the third cup after the meal see we call it as gentiles the first communion this is a part of passover he takes that third cup and he says this probably pointing at the cup of redemption contextually historically that's most likely what he was doing he says this is my blood it's my blood in the cup of redemption every time you drink of this cup remember me he's pointing at the blood of the spotless lamb of passover saying i am he but i wonder if that's not all he was doing that night [Music] in jewish tradition there's something that happens when a young man wants to marry a young woman he of course the fathers arrange it but part of the ceremony is the son the the young man goes to the young woman with a goblet of wine and he says to the young woman the wine in this cup represents the very blood of my life if you drink this cup you will be mine and we will be married i wonder if jesus wasn't just saying i am the passover lamb i wonder if as of the bridegroom he wasn't taking that cup and in part proposing to the bride saying if you drink from this cup you will be mine and we will be married forever this is why paul says when you drink this cup don't do so light-heartedly examine yourself the bridegroom proposed and you accepted jesus took that cup that night and said this is my blood which was shed for you every time you drink this cup remember me let's take the cup [Music] i want to invite you to stand and as you stand i want our ultra ministry team to come to the front if you could just hold on to your cup we're not going to be having what we typically have at this point in the service a song of worship because sometimes i think we get too focused on the song rather than the act of worship you might be saying person i was really looking forward after a romantic communion like that and the holy spirit hit me with some things i just want to respond let me say this to you here's how we're going to respond with our worship the bride is going to go out there and live as the bride preparing for the return of its bridegroom our worship is out there i'm gonna pray a blessing over you and we'll be dismissed god thank you for love you are love you are [Music] a measure of love that cannot be experienced anywhere else and your love for us is so extravagant and that you would ever want to set appointments where we could meet over something special to you that you'd ever want to meet with me it's mind-blowing in and of itself in jesus that you would prove your love and and laying your life down for us holy spirit i pray that as we leave this place today and wherever they're watching online i pray that we would live as the bride of christ preparing for the return of our bridegroom showing the love of god everywhere we go may love capital l have its day and may today be that day jesus name amen

Channel: Gateway Church

Views: 494

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Preston, Morrison, gateway, church, gateway church, scottsdale, tempe, gateway church sermons, church online, arizona church, arizona churches, scottsdale churches, tempe churches, phoenix churches, gateway people, gateway life, Preston Morrison, Robert Morris, Pastor Robert Morris, Pastor Preston Morrison, Preston Morrison sermons, church sermons, Real Jesus, Who is Jesus, Jewish, Jewishness of Jesus, Was Jesus a Jew, The real jesus, original jesus, Christianity and Jewish

Id: hl66gY6VpjA

Length: 53min 57sec (3237 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021