Come Celebrate the Feast

Leviticus 23-24, Lesson 6

Come Celebrate the Feast

The chart of “The Feasts of Israel in your study guide (pg 80-81) is a great tool to accompany notes.

Exodus 23:14“Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.

Come let us celebrate the feast; a time of celebration, when all the males 20 years old and above are required to come to Jerusalem, it is the time of the feasts.

Leviticus 23 a chapter that has our future laid out in the feasts; feasts they would celebrate three times a year, when they would come up to the earthly Zion, to the city of Jerusalem.

Leviticus 23:1-2 The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:

And then Helays out appointed times that are to be celebrated every single week:

Leviticus 23:3 ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.

Each one of these feasts,except for Passover, was a holy convocation. A holy convocation meant it was a Sabbath, a day in which they would do no laborious work. Every single week on the 7th day they would celebrate the Shabbat, the Sabbath.On Friday when greeting people, I would say,“Shabbat shalom.” This means “blessed peace on this Sabbath.” The Sabbath is the queen ofIsrael; it is the time that all the families come togetherwhether they are really religious or ultra Orthodox. Thefamily gathers in the home, and the father stands, puts on hisyarmulke and opens the prayer book and begins to read.As he reads he takes the bread and blesses it. He breaks bread and dips it in salt and eats. Thenhe breaks another piece and does the same and passes it to the next person and then the next around the table. Then a cup of wine is poured for each one. They drink the wine as they celebrate this day; it is a day of rest. It was a day that was made forman. It is a day of remembrance that God labored for 6 days.

In six days God created heaven and earth and then His work was done. God rested on that 7th day and set a pattern for man.

Leviticus 23:4-5these are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. 5 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.

In verse 4 He begins to introduce us to seven feasts that will be celebrated three times a year:theFeast of Passover, the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. You’re saying that’s only three, but the Feast of Passover consisted of three feasts and one flowed into the other.

First Feast

The Lord’s Passover: 1st month 14th day of Nissan

This feast was shown to us in Exodus. Now what happened? (Real lamb brought on stage.)

Take a lamb into the house and watch it to make sure it was without spot or blemish. They would wash the lamb and make sure the lamb had no defect. On the 14th day they would slaughter the lamb, and roast this precious lamb and eat it. Can you imagine slaughtering this precious thing? That was the Lord’s Passover.I want you to see that there was a real lamb involved. You look at it and there is a tenderness toward it. But what was this lamb a representative of? This lamb represented theLamb of God that would take away the sins of the world.

This feast was inaugurated on a very special day. It was a day when God would finally deliver His children out of the land of Egypt, out of the land of bondage. They had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. They had served Pharaoh and had been beaten and whipped. They had been treated as nothing more that cattle, but God remembered His covenant. He heard the cry of the people in bondage. God sent Moses to be a delivererto the people. But Pharaoh refused to let the people go. Pharaoh said, “Who is this God that I should let these people go.” God began to proveHimself. He brought 10 plagues,and the final plague was the plague of the deathof the first born.The Jews were told that the angel of death was coming, and he would kill the first born male and the first born animal,of any bred within the house. They would die unless they would take the lamb, slaughter the lamb, and take the blood of the lamb and put it on the door post of their house. Then when the angel of death came,the angel of death would see the blood over the door post of the house and he wouldpass-over. So what happened was, because of this plague, they were released from Egypt, they were released from slavery.

What is that a picture of? (8:48)

Pharaoh is the picture of the evil one, and Egypt is the picture of the whole world. The Bible says the world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:19)

Before we come to know Christ we are under Satan’s Kingdom

Colossians 1:13-14 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Israelites’ slavery was a picture of our slavery. The biblesays, “Whosoever commits sin becomes a slave to sin.”

When you think of the Passover, I want you to think of is John the Baptist crying out:

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

That day thousands of lambs were slaughtered on the 14th day of Nissan to celebrate the Feast of Passover. Now what did that bring?It brought freedom from sin and that brings us to the next feast:

Feast Unleavened Bread

Leviticus 23:6-8 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 ‘On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. 8 ‘But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’

When you think of leaven, you think of sin and how a little leaven leavens the whole lump. There is no leaven put in the dough to make it rise because God wanted to show us to a picture. The blood of Jesus was shed for us and that blood, and whenwe apply it in faith to the door of our hearts then we are no longer slaves to sin for the Son has set us free. Therefore I no longer have to practice sin. I can keep the feast of unleavened bread.

All celebrations were celebrated from twilight one day to twilight the next day,

Passover began at twilight on the 14th day of Nissan. The 15th day was a Sabbath and the

Feast of Unleavened bread. It was celebrated for seven days. Seven is the number of completion.

Because when the Lamb of God was slain, He did everything that was necessary to set us free from sin. So as Leviticus says we can be holy even as He is holy.We can have a holy walk, a holy life. We are no longer slaves to sin. We have been set free;sin is not going to rule over us.

The first day and the 7th day is a Sabbath. Every other feast had a Sabbath in it. But why doesn’t the feast of Passover have a Sabbath? I believe (Kay’s view) because it is a work that needs to be finished. What did Jesus Christ say? “I must finish the work that the Father has given toMe.” What had the Father given to Him? God had made Him the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world. But what do we know from Hebrews 9:22 “…without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood…” So Jesus must lay down His life so that you and I who are dead in our trespasses and sins might have life, and so we might have it abundantly.

When you look at the feast of unleavened bread: (This church has sin in it.)

1 Corinthians 5:1-2 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

If that man is committing immorality, what is to be done?He is not allowed to stay in the church. He is to be removed from our midst. Why?

1 Corinthians 5:5, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Corinthians 5: 7-8 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The truth is this; when Christ comes into your life, you are no longer a slave to sin. The Son has set you free and you are free indeed. You are to live a life without habitually sin. Sin is not to be the characteristic of your life. If it is,you’ve never celebrated the feast. You’ve have got to go back to Calvary.

Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the 15thday and lasted for 7 days from Sabbath to Sabbath.

Leviticus 23:10“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. This is the Feast of Firstfruits- the 3rd celebration.

Leviticus 23:9-14Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 ‘He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 ‘Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 ‘Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. 14 ‘Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

When did this celebration take place? This feast begins the day after the Sabbath. The Feast of First Fruits is also a Sabbath.

Watch the picture: (there is such a beautiful picture here for us.)

1Corithians 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

What does the first fruit show us? The first fruits show us that there is more to some. This is just the first of the ripe grain. There is a whole harvest yet to come. Here we have picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ because He was raised on this very day on the 14th day of Nissan. The people came to Jerusalem to celebrate these feasts. They all happen in the month of Nissan: Passover on the 14th day of Nissan; 15th day Feast of Unleavened Bread and the day after the Sabbath was the Feast of the Firstfruits. So what you have is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s resurrection is showing you that because Christ has been raised from the dead you can walk in newness of life. That’s cause to celebrate.There is a feast that tells me there is forgiveness of sin, deliverance from slavery, that there is a God in Heaven that rules over the affairs of man, that rules over the nations, there is a God and when I cry to Him in my distress He hear. He hears so well that He sendsHis very own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world because no other lamb could do it. Because why? Jesus was a Lamb without spot or blemish.

1 Peter 1:18-19knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

Jesus was buried. It looked like it was over. It looked like the devil had triumphed because the wages of sin is death, because the soul that sins, the bible tells us, will surely die. Yet what was there? There was a rumbling earthquake and the stone rolled away and there was the Lamb of God raised from the dead, the firstfruits saying to us,“There’s a harvest coming.” And because He has conquered sin and death, we can live and pass from death to life and never die again. Because for the Christian to die is to go to sleep and be absent from the body andbe presentwith the Lord.

Let me show this to you. What is this picture saying to us?

Romans 5: 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

The lamb offered at Passover is the picture of the grace of God. We all deserve to die, but the grace of God has brought to us eternal life. It has brought us to eternal life because it has given us hope.

Romans 6:1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

In other words, “The more I sin the more I see the grace of God. Should I continue in sin?” He says:Romans 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

What is the picture of the Passover showing us? When Christ died, Idied. I died to sin, so how can I live in sin? I don’t. I am able to keep the feast of unleavened bread. Sinspreads; it’s like leaven, that’s why you remove it out of you midst. It does not belong. Now I can keep this feast, so I can’t continue in sin.

Romans6:4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Baptism means to unite with, identify with;

Romans 6:5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

This Firstfruits was the picture of Christ’s resurrection. It was a picture of my identification in His death, in His burial and in His resurrection. The fact that He conquered death and was raised, means I will be raised.

Romans 6:6-7knowing this, that our old self (my old self before I was saved) was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

This is the feast of Pesach, the feast of Passover. This is the picture that God gave to us as the church of Jesus Christ to tell us that it is possible to start again, to have a new life, to be set free from whatever sin it was. God sets us free, and that’s why we want to celebrate the feasts. The Jews had the Passover in the book of Exodus but they did not understand the whole picture until they came to the book of Leviticus when He laid the feasts out in order.

You ask, “How can I do that? How can I walk in that newness of life? I feel impotent, powerless; I am not able to do it.” Yes you are, because it is not only the feast of Passover, but it is the feast of Pentecost. There is cause, great cause, to celebrate.

Feast of Pentecost-50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits (“Pente” means fifty) 3rd month (Sivan)

Leviticus 23:15-21‘you shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. 16 ‘You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. 17 ‘You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. 18 ‘Along with the bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 19 ‘You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 ‘The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 ‘On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.