Leviticus 23: Feast on Jesus

Leviticus 23

Hebrews 4:1-13

Feast on Jesus

Do you ever wonder why, we celebrate certain days, or certain events?

We have just “celebrated” the kings birthday on Monday 9 June.

Isn’t it amazing to think, the King was born on the same day as the queen, since her birthday was also celebrated at that time- wow.

And if you “celebrated” the kings birthday on June 9, what did you do?

Did you send him a present?

He may be short of a bob or two?

Did you cut the cake?

Did you even take the day off work and watch the footy?

When I think about some days we celebrate and why we celebrate those days and what we do on those days: it seems crazy.

In England we celebrate, this thing called “bonfire night”- It is always on the 5th of November, I only remember that because of the rhyme, “remember, remember, the 5th November”

What do people actually do on bonfire night?

They have huge bonfires in their back gardens, they have fireworks, and why do they do that?

Get this…..It is to remember that a bloke called Guy Fawkes almost…..almost, but not quite, blew up the house of parliament in London.

This is why sometimes we stick a guy Fawkes dummy on the bonfire.

May be it just me, but it seems strange that people burn stuff all over England on the 5th November, to remember that a guy almost blew up parliament.

Of course, with many of these days that we celebrate, stories of their origins are twisted, fabricated, exaggerated, and so often, we may not really know why we are celebrating that day, or why we do what we do, on that day of celebration or remembrance.

Thankfully, as we come to Leviticus 23, and we look at the seven special events that God set aside for his people- the Israelites- during the year, we are left in no doubt where these special days originated from:

They were appointed by God himself,

as he spoke to his servant Moses,

as Moses spoke to God’s people, the Israelites,

And we are also left in doubt of what these special days were remembering:

they were remembering,

1.        who God was,

2.        what God had done,

3.        and what God was going to do

These appointed feasts were all created by God and for God.

But most importantly, for us today, as we look at these special days or feasts, that God set up for his people- the Israelites, we know that every single one of these special days, special events, found it’s true and fuller meaning, in Jesus- the true Israelite.

And so as we look at these seven special feasts or days, that God sets aside, seven being the number of perfection, we are going to see what these events meant for the Israelites and what these events mean for us now-the church, through the true Israelite- Jesus.

But before we look at what these events meant, let us look briefly at what all these feasts/events had in common.

Look at verses 1-3

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places.

All these events had at least two things in common.

Firstly, they were times of Holy convocations.

And what is a Holy convocation?

A Holy convocation is a public assembly of worship. These feasts were public assemblies of worship.

They were special times, when God’s people came together, to worship God together. They were times when God’s people came together to remember who God was, what he had done and what he was going to do.

God commanded that his people came together for worship.

It wasn’t an option, it wasn’t “you do you and I’ll do me”- it wasn’t just come together “if you find some time in your schedule”, NO, it was come together and worship me.

The second thing all these events had in common, was that they were marked by a period of rest, a period of no ordinary work.

It was a time when the Israelite would “afflict” themselves, which meant they would stop going about their own business, perhaps they would fast and pray, perhaps they would go without some pleasure, so they could focus their life upon God, who he was and what he had done.

And so when the Israelite would celebrate the only weekly feast: the sabbath, the Israelite would stop their normal work and probably think upon their creator God.

How could they not?

Since God himself, created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.  As the Israelites worked 6 days and rested on the seventh, they were reflecting the pattern that God established from creation.

Now, this raises the question for us today, and it is perhaps one of the most controversial feasts that I am looking at today….and so I will start with this one.

In the light of Jesus, through lens in which we read all scripture, do we still, as the church- God’s people still have to rest on the seventh day?

Do we still have to stop our normal work 1 in 7 days, and gather together as God’s people?

Do we have to keep a sabbath day?

No, we don’t have to keep a sabbath.

Our salvation doesn’t depend upon whether we keep a sabbath…..however……… is it beneficial if we do follow that pattern of work and rest that God showed us, beneficial for your family, for society, for everyone.

Should we set aside one day of rest and join together with God’s people for worship?

Absolutely.

I would say that though, wouldn’t I? …… I’m a pastor, that is what I help to do, get people together on this day, rest and worship God together.

In Mark chapter 2 we read of the story when Jesus and his disciples were walking through the grain fields on a sabbath. His disciples were hungry and so they started picking the grain from the fields to eat.  Some pharisees, those sticklers for not only God’s laws but their own, saw Jesus’ disciples picking the seed and considered this as breaking the law of the sabbath, since picking seed was considered work- they were doing “ordinary” work on the sabbath.

Jesus disciples were caught “working on the sabbath”

And so what did Jesus say to the pharisees?

Did Jesus say, “I know fellas, these blokes are going straight to hell, they have broken the law of the sabbath?”

NO, Jesus said this and you can find it in Mark 2:27

“Sabbath was made for man, not man for sabbath”- and then it says this in Mark 2:28 which is vital for us knowing what we do with the sabbath, Jesus said “so the son of man – (that is Jesus) is even Lord of the sabbath”

And so clearly, yes, we should now rest, and work, rest and work, since this is the pattern that God gave us, and it is a pattern that is beneficial to us, but we must know that when Jesus came, he brought us true rest, the rest that these weekly sabbaths point to. True peace, in part now, by His spirit in us, and in full when we enter heaven-our promised eternal home.

And so the rest of the sabbath, is a shadow of the true rest we have in Jesus partially now and in full in the next life.

Just look at Hebrews 4:1-3 with me:

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them (the Israelites), but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 

For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

Here, the writer of Hebrews is talking about the people in the desert, during the days of Moses, who failed to enter the promised land, they failed to enter into a time of rest, and peace….why?

Because they did not trust God, they did not believe.

Sure, they may have kept the sabbath, they may have rested on the seventh day, they may have even gathered with God’s people, but they didn’t believe in God’s promises and so they didn’t enter his rest.

They were performing the feast celebration of the sabbath, week after week, but they didn’t believe God in their hearts, they didn’t trust God for who He was, what he had done and what He was going to do.

But just look at what the writer of Hebrew says in verse 3….For (or because) we who have believed enter that rest…..

The writer of Hebrews wrote that all those who believe in Jesus enter that rest, partially now by his spirit, and one day in full when we enter the promised land of heaven.

And so this sabbath, this rest, has been fulfilled in Jesus, and we enjoy that rest partially now, through his spirit, and fully when we enter the promised land of heaven.

Now, if this special weekly day was somewhat controversial as having been fulfilled in Christ, the other 6 special times of feasts are more obvious. At least I hope you see how all these feasts have found their true meaning in Jesus.

I’m just going to quickly cover all 6 feasts and how they have been fulfilled in Christ.

So strap yourselves in…..here we go.

The Passover celebration, which was to be celebrated once a year, was an evening where the Israelites would sacrifice a perfect male lamb, and eat it. This was clearly to remind them of the time when God saved them from the Egyptians, but more specifically a time they remembered when God saved them from the angel of death.

When God saw the blood of the perfect lamb which was smeared over the door posts of their houses, the angel of the Lord would pass over the house and that household was saved from death. It was the blood of the lamb that saved them from death.

Clearly this celebration pointed to the greater sacrifice of Jesus, the lamb of God, whose blood covered our sins, so that God’s punishment of death passed over our sins, hence the blood of Jesus saved us from our sins.

Now, if you think I am joining imaginary lines from the Passover feast to Jesus, just look at what the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:7:

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed

There it is right there- Christ is our Passover lamb- and so now, we no longer have to sacrifice a lamb once a year, but we just remember that Christ was THE Passover lamb, and this is what we remember during the Lord’s supper.

That Passover feast, all pointed to the work and person of Jesus.

The next feast- the feast of first fruits also pointed to and was fulfilled in the work and person of Jesus.

Once a year the Israelites would bring in the first and best portions of their crops and give them to the Lord, as a way of acknowledging all that they had came from God and also, crucially, that they were trusting God to bring in the rest of the harvest for the rest of the year. What they offered to God that day, was a sample of what the rest of the crop would look like.

Now look at what the apostle Paul wrote about first fruits in 1 Corinthians 15:20

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The apostle Paul, wrote that when Christ died and rose again, He was the offering, he was the first fruit, he was the first to be raised from the dead. And so just as Christ died and rose again, we can be confident that we too, all those who believe, will die and yet rise again to eternal life.

Through Christ, we can trust that God will bring home, all those he has saved.

The next feast-the feast or weeks was also fulfilled in Jesus.

For the Israelites the feast of weeks was celebrated 50 days after the end of the festival of the first fruits, and it was a time when the Israelites would reap in the harvest-and thank God that he gave them the harvest.

Now, in Jesus day, when Jesus walked this earth in AD33, this feast, was also called Pentecost, since the Greek word for fiftieth is Pentecost. And as we know it was on the day of Pentecost, that God poured out his Holy Spirit on all those who believed in his son- Jesus. It was the day of Pentecost that we remember that it was through the death and resurrection of Jesus that God began to bring in his harvest, as he gave his spirit to his people and marked them as one of his crop.

The day of Pentecost marks the beginning of the church that Jesus began to build and will build through his death and resurrection.

The feast of weeks found it’s true meaning in Jesus.

Now, the feast of the trumpets has no explicit fulfilment in Jesus, but it is implicitly fulfilled in Jesus.

A trumpet was to symbolise the presence of God. At the mountain, where God met with Moses, trumpets were blown, when people assembled to worship God, trumpets were blown, even in battle when a trumpet was blown, it was to remind them, that God was with them.

When Jesus came to earth, God came to earth, heaven came to earth, the presence of God came to tabernacle in the person of Jesus on this earth.

Even the feast of trumpets found its true meaning in Jesus.

The next feast, the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, as we heard the other week pointed ultimately to the work and person of Jesus, as Jesus was our sacrificial goat who died in our place for our sins, and Jesus was the scapegoat, who also took our sins away, so God no longer remembers them.

And finally, the seventh feast- the feast of the booths was also a celebration that has found its fulfilment and true meaning in Jesus.

At this feast of booths, the Israelites would make temporary shelters of branches and live in them for a week, as a reminder to them, especially when they were in the promised land, Canaan, that God had saved them and brought them to the desert, to live as nomads for 40 years.

Friends, we, as God’s people- the church, we too are, Nomads. We too are just strangers and aliens passing through this world until God calls us to our eternal home.

We too are just in this earthly tent of our earthly bodies, until we receive a new, glorious spiritual body when Jesus calls us home.

Friends, how does this feast, this feast of booths, find it’s fulfillment in Jesus?

….well listen to these words from John 14:1-6

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

Friends, one day, Jesus will take us home to the promised land- Jesus will bring us to heaven, and yet even as we await that rest, that peace, that eternal home, we can enjoy a glimmer of the peace now, as his Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Friends Jesus really is the answer.

A sabbath, rest and peace, - Jesus is the answer.

God passing over your sins- Jesus is the answer.

God showing us the first fruits of his kingdom- Jesus is the answer

God gathering in the harvest of his kingdom- Jesus is the answer

God dwelling with us- Jesus is the answer

God atoning for and forgetting our sins- Jesus is the answer

God giving us an eternal home- Jesus is the answer

Friends, feast on Jesus: He is all we need.

Let us pray.