The O.T. Feasts
Welcome to our final sermon in the series on Ancient Roots – a study ofhow our modern day Christianity is rooted deep in the rich soil of O.T. tradition. We read in Hebrews that….
Hebrews 10:1
The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.”
So far we have looked at howthe O.T. offerings and sacrifices, the Tabernacle, and the Law all point to Jesus Christ. This morning we are going to look at the O.T. feasts and festivals and see what they foreshadow. Few people are aware of the seven feasts in the Bible. Even fewer are aware that they center around and teach us a great deal about Jesus Christ.
MostChristians believe these “feasts of theLORD” only had meaning to the Jews of the Old Testament and are deemed meaningless for Christians today.
But this morning we are going to be looking at the 7 feasts recorded in Leviticus 23 and see how each had …
- A historical meaning to the nation of Israel,
- a prophetic fulfillment (some that were fulfilled in Jesus’ first coming and some that are yet to be fulfilled at his second coming) and finally
- aspiritual meaning (that still applies to us today)
Today we’ll look at the 7 feasts in the order in which they happened on the Jewish calendar. There is so MUCH we could say about the historical meaning of each feast, but I am going to be focusing on the their fulfillment and meaning to the church today. If you want more details of the original feasts you can read the books of Exodus and Leviticus. I know you are just chomping at the bit to do that! So we will hit just the historical highlights this morning.
Leviticus 23:2,4-5 (NKJV)
2“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of theLord, which you shall proclaimto beholy convocations, theseareMy feasts.
4“‘These are theLord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times:5TheLord’s Passoverbegins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
1. The Feast of Passover.
The Passover is the first of God’s annual feast days mentioned in Scripture.
The Passover commemorates the greatest event in Israel’s history—their miraculous liberation from Egypt. This annual event reminded the Jews of the 10th plague in Egypt, when God sent the death angel. On that night, God instructed the Jews to kill a lamb and spread its blood on the door-posts of their homes so that the death angel would pass over their houses and spare the firstborn.
The Jewish nation had been celebrating this feast for thousands of years when Jesus entered the scene. And when John the Baptist saw Jesus he proclaimed – “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away this sins of the world.”
* Prophetic Fulfillment – Jesus the Lamb of God
The Gospels record that Christ kept the Passover with His disciples several times. On the night before His death, Jesus knew He was fulfilling the symbolism of the Passover lamb in voluntarily giving His life for the sins of the entireworld.
Luke 22:14-16
14When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. 15Jesus said,“I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.16For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
In the Jewish Passover, 4 cups of wine are used. They symbolize the four redemptivepromises found inExodus 6:6-7:
Cup 1 - "I will take you out of Egypt" … served upon arrival
Cup 2 - "I will free you from slavery" --- served before the main meal
Cup 3 - "I will redeem you with outstretched arm” … served after the meal,
Cup 4 - "I will take you as my own people” … served after the final prayer of praise.
In the same way, after the supper Jesus took the cup, saying,
After supper he took another cup of wine and said,“This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. Luke 22:20says,
This would have been the 3rd cup, the cup of redemption, which took its full meaning the next day … when Jesus died to redeem us with arms outstretched on the cross.
From then on, this feast took on a much greater and new meaning to the Church. The LAST Feast of Passover that Jesus observed was the FIRST Feast of Remembrance (or Lord’s Supper) that we observe every week.The emblems or symbols would now represent Christ’s complete sacrifice—the bread representing His body on the cross, and the fruit of the vine signifying the blood He would shed to wash away oursins.
2. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
The very next day after Passover begins the Festival of Unleavened Bread (which is bread made without yeast).
Leviticus 23:6
6On the next day, the fifteenth day of the month, you must begin celebrating the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This festival to theLordcontinues for seven days, and during that time the bread you eat must be made without yeast.
In the Old Testament, the Feasts of Unleavened Bread were understood to be a solemn memorial to theLORDfor bringing them out of the land of Egypt. After the original Passover night, the evening when all the Egyptian firstborndied, the next morning the Israelites packed their belongings and left Egypt.
Before their quick exodus, one last thing occurred, as recorded in…
Exodus 12:39
39For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food.
From that day on, only unleavened bread was served during this week-long feast. This event also involved a time of house cleaning when all leaven would be removed from the Jewish home.
* Prophetic Fulfillment – Jesus removes our sin
Like the Passover, theFeast of Unleavened Breadis not solely an Old Testament symbol. It also is a glorious shadow of things tocome and points to what Jesus would do for all of us in cleansing us of sin.
Unleavened bread—bread made without leaven or yeast —is mentioned in the Bible as something pure and unpolluted. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul explains the spiritual symbolism of unleavened bread.
I Corinthians 5:6-8 (NKJV)
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?7Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
breadof sincerity and truth.
We see, then, the ultimate meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Its deeper significance is found in Jesus Christ, the sinless one, who purged our sins and gave us a chance to be spiritually “unleavened” – or pure before God.
This unleavened bread that Jesus broke is significant in another way. At Passover a special cloth with three pockets holds a loaf of unleavened bread in each of the three pockets. The middle loaf of unleavened bread is broken and then placed in another white linen cloth and hidden away, or buried.It is not difficult to see the foreshadow of the burial of Jesus, the Bread of Life, in white linen grave clothes, as recorded in the gospels.
So this feast of the unleavened bread has two fulfillments: the purging on sin and the burial of Christ.
3.The Feast of First Fruits
The third feast is the feast of First Fruits.
Leviticus 23:10-11
10“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest.11On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift it up before theLordso it may be accepted on your behalf.
The Feast of First Fruits commemorates Israel’s first harvest in the promised land after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The Jews were forbidden to taste of the spring harvest until the Priest raised up a lone sheaf of grain in the house of the Lord. This is the celebration that was held on “the morning after the Sabbath” which means it was always celebrated on a Sunday.
* Prophetic Fulfillment – The resurrection of Jesus
We know that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday … the morning after the Sabbath. InI Corinthians 15, Paul reveals the significance of Jesus rising from the dead on the day of the Feast of First fruits.
1 Corinthians 15:20-24
20But the fact is that the Messiahhasbeen raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died.23… the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming;24then the culmination, when he hands over the Kingdom to God the Father.
We have seen how these 3 springtime feasts were foreshadows pointing to Jesus the Messiah. The prophetic meaning of these 3 feasts were fulfilled when he died on the cross … as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and when he was buried and rose again as the first fruits of the resurrected ones.
Wrap your mind around this -- Not only did Jesus complete the meaning of these Feasts … he fulfilled all 3 on the actual DAY that feast was being celebrated in Jerusalem.
Jesus entered Jerusalem 4 days before Passover. This was the same day when Jewish families would bring lambs into their homes to dwell with the families for 4 days before it would be killed in the temple and prepared for the Passover feast.
And at the very time when Jesus was dying on the cross, lambs were being slain in the temple for the Jewish Passover meals. It is likely that Jesus actually heard the cries of the dying lambs in the temple courts as he hung on the cross. He rose from the grave the following Sunday – the same day the priest would raise his offering to the Lord for the Feast of the First Fruits.
Isn’t God amazing!!!
4.The Feast of Pentecost
Now we come to the Summer Feast, the Feast of Pentecost --- which in the Old Testament is known as the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of 50 days. The Greek word for 50 days is Pentecost. Thus the name Feast of Pentecost.
Leviticus 23:15-17
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.16Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to theLord.17From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before theLordas a special offering.
* Prophetic Fulfillment– The Holy Spirit comes to unite all people.
In the New Testament, exactly 50 days after Christ had been resurrected, Jews from all over had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Pentecost. And, as recorded in Acts 2, what a day that was!
Acts 2:1-4 (NLT)
1 On the day of Pentecostall the believers were meeting together in one place.2Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.3Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.4And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
Suddenly the Old Testament Feast of Weeks (or 50 days) had taken on a new meaning for them. The shadow of this feast had now become a reality! Pentecost would become the Church’s anniversary of the receiving of God’sSpirit.
It’s amazing to realize that on the day of Pentecost the Law was first given at Mt. Sinai, and 3,000 people were killed because they fell into sinand worshipped the golden calf.
And 1,500 years later … celebrating the same Feast of Pentecost … 3,000 people were baptized and born again. Where the giving of the Law brought death, the birth of the Church brought life.
Here’s another fascinating detail. As part of the original Feast of Pentecost, the priest takes two leavened loaves of bread and waves them before the Lord. When the Church was born on the Day of Pentecost, the meaning of this ceremony was fulfilled. The two separate loaves coming together represent that both Jews and Gentiles have come together to make one Church. God thinks of everything!
Now let’s look at the final three Fall Feasts. The first of these autumn feast is…
5. The Feast of Trumpets
For four months the nation of Israel has gathered the harvest. Now the time has come for the final day of harvest.
Leviticus 23:24
24“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. It will be an official day for holy assembly, a day commemorated with loud blasts of a trumpet.
It was a great day of celebration, the blowing of a trumpet - praising God for a bountiful harvest.
Prophetic Fulfillment – Resurrection Day
In the New Testament, the symbolism of the trumpet is mentioned by Jesus. The sound of the trumpet – announcing the great harvest of believers.
Matthew 24:30-31
30And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.
Often in the New Testament the sound of trumpets is tied to Christ’s coming. Notice Paul’s description of the resurrection of the dead at the time a great trumpet announces Christ’s return:
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have diedwill rise from their graves.17Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.
At His second coming, the trumpet will sound, announcing the arrival of the King of Kings. But until the sound of that trumpet of God is heard, this Feast of Trumpets is still pointing to the future, and its meaning is still to be fulfilled.
Could it be that Last Trumpet will blow, and Jesus will return on the exact day of the original Feast of Trumpets? Possibly. But we do know for sure that one day the final trumpet will sound.
6. The Day of Atonement.
Perhaps the most unusual of the biblical feasts is this Day of Atonement.
Leviticus 23:27-28
27“Be careful to celebrate the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month—nine days after the Festival of Trumpets.You must observe it as an official day for holy assembly, a day to deny yourselves and present special gifts to theLord.28Do no work during that entire day because it is the Day of Atonement, when offerings of purification are made for you, making you right withtheLordyour God.
In Old Testament times, it included an elaborate ritual. The high priest was to present two male goats, the first of which was sacrificed for the nation’s sins. Then, the sins of the nation were symbolically placed on the other goat, referred to as the “scape-goat”…
Leviticus 16:21-22
21He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness.22As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.
Prophetic Fulfillment – Judgment Day
We know Jesus to be the lamb that was slain as a sacrifice for our sins. We don’t often think of him as being our scape-goat The scapegoat pictures Jesus who bore our sins, and by taking them away, frees us from the guilt of our sins. So Christ plays a dual role in the symbolism of the Day of Atonement. He is the sacrificefor our sins and he is the remover of our sins. And in describing that great judgment day Christ uses the sheep and the goat analogy.