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Leviticus
23:1-44 “And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, 2 Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall
proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my
feasts. 3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of
rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your
dwellings. 4 These are the feasts of
the LORD, even holy convocations,
which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. 5
In
the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover. 6
And
on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread
unto the LORD:
seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. 7
In
the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. 8
But
ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy
convocation: ye shall do no servile work
therein. 9 And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, 10 Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you,
and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits
of your harvest unto the priest: 11
and
he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for
you: on the morrow after the sabbath the
priest shall wave it. 12 And ye shall offer
that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year
for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 13
And
the meat [grain] offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour
mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet
savour: and the drink offering thereof shall
be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. 14
And
ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the
selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 15
And
ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath [Hebrew:
“ha Shabbat” always refers to a weekly sabbath], from the day
that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be
complete: 16 even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat
offering unto the LORD. 17
Ye
shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be
baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD. 18
And
ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year,
and one young bullock, and two rams:
they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat
offering, and their drink offering, even an offering made by fire, of
sweet savour unto the LORD. 19
Then
ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of
the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20
And
the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave
offering before the LORD, with the two
lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21
And
ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy
convocation unto you: ye shall do no
servile work therein: it shall be a
statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 22
And
when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make a clean riddance of
the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any
gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt
leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger:
I am the LORD your God. 23
And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 24
Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day
of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an
holy convocation. 25 Ye shall do no servile
work therein: but ye shall offer
an offering made by fire unto the LORD. 26
And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 27
Also
on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of
atonement: it shall be an holy
convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls [fast], and offer an
offering made by fire unto the LORD [cf. Leviticus 16]. 28
And
ye shall do no work in that same day:
for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before
the LORD your God. 29 For whatsoever soul it
be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from
among his people. 30 And whatsoever soul it
be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from
among his people. 31 Ye shall do no manner
of work: it shall be a statute
for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32
It
shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your
souls: in the ninth day of the
month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath. 33
And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 34
Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall
be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. 35
On
the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. 36
Seven
days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy
convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye
shall do no servile work therein.
37 These are the feasts of
the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to
be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering,
and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his
day: 38 beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your
gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which
ye give unto the LORD. 39
Also
in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit
of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath,
and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 40
And
ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of
thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41
And
ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the
year. It shall be a statute for
ever in your generations: ye shall
celebrate it in the seventh month. 42
Ye
shall dwell in booths seven days: all
that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: 43
that
your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in
booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD
your
God. 44 And Moses declared unto the
children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED575] “Leviticus chapter 23,
interesting chapter, if you have read into it.
It gives Israel her year of Feasts, Holy Days, convocations. Feasts in Israel were not just times of
eating, the Feast was their Holy Day, we get holiday from it. Of course our holidays are not so much Holy
Days anymore, but they should be. But
Israel’s Holy Days were Feasts. The Day
of Atonement was a day of fasting there, not feasting. One of the ancient rabbis said that Israel’s
Feasts were her catechisms, that if she understood her Feasts [and what they
symbolized prophetically] she’d understand her spiritual history and her
legacy. Calendars are a very strange
undertaking, God sets up this heptadic structure in the beginning of the Bible,
he says he puts the sun and the moon and stars in their places to mark off
seasons, for man’s benefit. But then he
creates a seven-day week, which has nothing to do with solar or lunar cycles,
with the universe, just something God does, the seventh day, a day when he
rested, and fellowshipped with man. And
then every seventh year the land was to rest and then every seven sevens, every
49th year, and then on the fiftieth year was the year of
Jubilee. The Sabbath was interesting as
we look at Israel’s history. But
calendars were always difficult, as they are today. Every calendar in the world it seems had a
360-day year until 701BC, and there’s all kinds of theories about what happened
then. Many feel there was a close encounter
with Mars and some other arrangements in the heavens, there were earthquakes
all over the world that changed the rotation and different things. But until 701BC even the Mayan calendars were
very accurate, it seemed that everybody enjoyed a 360-day year. After that things were thrown out of
whack. By the time of Julius Caesar,
when he comes on the scene, everything is so off-kilter, and he wants to
straighten out the calendar again, that he orders a great astronomer named
Sosigenes [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sosigenes_(astronomer)] to straighten things
out. So he finds a solution, unable of
course to alter the movements in the heavens, what he does is he adds an extra
three months to a year, so that in the year 46BC they arranged a 445-day year
to jerk things back into schedule again.
So imagine anybody who was born in those extra three months that were
only there for one year, when do you celebrate your birthday after that? Ah, you never have a birthday again after
that year. So the Julian calendar comes
at us. By the time of pope Gregory XIII
that was starting to get out of whack, so pope Gregory XIII in 1582AD revises
the Julian calendar, adding to it, we get the Gregorian calendar which we use
today. Great Britain in 1752AD adopts
it, and they have to alter their calendar, so September 3rd became
September 14th in Great Britain in 1752, and eleven days disappeared
from British history. George Washington
at 20 years old had to move his birthday from February 11th to
February 22nd. Imagine
everybody going back trying to figure all this out to make sense out of
it. And the problem of course was the
lunar calendar at least after 701BC, we’re not sure before, the lunar calendars
are 11.5 days shorter than solar calendars, and some cultures worked off the
lunar calendars, some worked off solar calendars. Hezekiah in his day tried to solve this, and
what he did was he invented 19-year cycles, and in those 19 years he came up
with seven leap years, where each leap year had an extra month. So in Hezekiah’s day, trying to straighten
things out, and in a 19-year cycle the 3rd year, the 6th
year, the 8th year, the 11th year, the 14th
year, and the 17th year and the 19th year had 13 months
instead of 12 months. Imagine trying to
figure out your birthday then. So
calendars and the study of calendars in cultures around the world, and the
like, is a very complicated undertaking.
That’s why it’s so difficult to come up with exact dates in history, and
predicted things, it’s a very complicated issue all across the board. But for the Jew [the Israelite], they’re
given this year of Feasts to mark everything, and in that their history was
both rehearsed and predicted. [The first
three Holy Days in Leviticus represented and marked out Israel’s birth at
Passover, and the start of the believer’s history with the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ on Passover Day, then two Holy Days between the seven days of Unleavened
Bread, then the Day of Pentecost when Israel is supposed to have received the
Law of God on Mount Sinai, and the birth of the New Testament Church on
Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. That marks out the first three Holy Days of
Leviticus 23. The last 4 Holy Days
represent prophetic events that haven’t happened yet in Israel’s and world
history (For a more complete explanation of how these Holy Days fit Israel’s
history and future see https://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Holydayshadows.htm ).] It says here in chapter 23 of Leviticus
“The LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak
unto the children of Israel” and this must be a blessing for them, because he’s
gone through all of these laws, that a person should be stoned for this, and be
put to death for that, now he’s going to give them Feasts, I think, probably
wonderful for him, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning
the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall
proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my
feasts.” (verses 1-3) [“even these
are my feasts,”
i.e. God owns these Feasts, they are not Israel’s Feasts or “Jewish” Feasts,
they belong to God.] So he calls them
“holy convocations,” very interesting here as we look at it, because he’s going
to use the word “season” a number of times, which is from the Hebrew word that
means “appointments.” And “convocation”
is from the Hebrew root that means “rehearsal, to rehearse something.” So it’s telling us that these Feasts or these
convocations, they were appointments that rehearsed something. So they weren’t just rehearsing something
historical in Israel, evidently they were looking forward also. And Paul points that out to us, you don’t
have to turn, in Colossians where he says “Let no man judge
you,” and his context is not trying to bring the Church under the law
in regards to these Feast days. But Paul
says “Let no man therefore judge you in meat [i.e. food, what you eat or
don’t eat] or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or
of the sabbath…which are a shadow of things to come…Christ is the body.” Paul says in the Feasts and Holy Days of
Israel, they were shadows of things coming.
So they were both a rehearsal of their history, and they were predictive
to some degree [to a large degree], prophetic, looking forward. So we’re going to take note of that to
certainly some degree as we journey through the chapter here. The
Sabbath, Listed As A Holy Day—And What The Sabbath Represents Again, “And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning
the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall
proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my
feasts. Six days shall work be
done: but the seventh day is the
sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your
dwellings.” (verses 1-3) To celebrate Creation. And again, on the original seventh day it was
not a day that men rested, man was created on the sixth day, it was a day that
God rested. And Isaiah says he doesn’t
rest because he’s weary, it’s the idea is God’s settled, everything he made was
good, he looked around, and Adam’s full day of existence was that seventh
day. And Adam’s full day of existence,
created in the likeness of God, no sinful nature to hide or to draw himself
back as he looked right into the face Almighty God. In the seventh day he walked with God in the
cool of the day in the Garden, it was a day of fellowship, if you can imagine
that, just sitting in God’s presence, just wondering at the genius of his
creation. Adam understanding everything
that was around him. Interesting, I think
it was in the Smithsonian Magazine I read years ago, every seventh day your
immune system takes a break and needs a rest, God knows what he’s doing. Been in Israel with an Orthodox Jew,
travelling there, that I know, and was invited to their home on the Sabbath
day, and it’s actually quite a remarkable thing. They have to, Sabbath in Israel is from
sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, so before the sun goes down on Friday they
have to have their crockpots plugged in, everything set up, they can’t cook
anything, can’t do anything on the Sabbath day.
If you go to the Wailing Wall on the Sabbath day and you take pictures,
somebody might throw stones at you, because you’re creating on the Sabbath when
God rested. If you drive through the
neighbourhood of the Hasidim some of the Orthodox Jews on the Sabbath day, they
will throw stones at your car, because there’s combustion in your engine, and
you’re creating on the Sabbath day.
They’re very serious about this.
But it’s actually wonderful just to sit there, they try not to use the
phone, there’s no radio, no television, they try not to do any of that. We actually sat out on the front porch with a
mom and a dad and two kids, all day long, and looked at Jerusalem quietly and
talked and laughed, and talked about God, and about Creation, actually quite
remarkable, quite remarkable. By the
way, that’s Saturday, not Sunday. But
quite a remarkable day, and for them it is remembering their Creator,
remembering that everything they have week after week comes from his hand,
there’s a wonderful aspect to it. And it
is the first of the Holy Days that God points to here. [Comment:
In Hebrews 4 the apostle Paul showed what the shadow-picture of the
Sabbath represented, it represents the Sabbath-rest that we have in Salvation,
the Sabbath pictures Salvation itself, the rest that we have in Christ by the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us (for a full expository sermon on
Hebrews chapter 4 see https://unityinchrist.com/hebrews/Hebrews4-1-16.htm.] Passover
And Feast of Unleavened Bread Verse 4 he says, “These are
the feasts of the LORD, even holy
convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first
month at even is the LORD’s passover.” (verses
4-5) So verse 5, first Feast on their
calendar is the Passover, ah, that is their New Years as it were. It is not a Levitical Feast, it was given
before the Law was given, it is a pre-Law feast, it was a feast of redemption,
it was the Feast that Israel celebrated when they came out of Egypt and their
firstborn were spared by the blood of the lambs, so a Holy Day in the history
of Israel [technically, Passover was not and is not listed as a Holy Day where
work was forbidden], certainly something to be remembered. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if New Years Eve,
instead of what it is in our nation, drunk drivers, accidents and all of the
insanity that goes with New Year’s Eve, wouldn’t it be wonderful if New Year’s
Eve was a time that we remembered the blood of the Lamb when Christ died for
our nation, a holy convocation, the President calling everybody together to
feast and to be with their family and to remember what God had done for them
[see https://www.unityinchrist.com/The-Exodus-From-Egypt.html]. But it just won’t happen now, but it’s going
to happen, but not with this President.
It’s going to happen under a monarchy, it’s coming, it will be a
wonderful thing as it were, but it’s not happening right now [see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/MillennialKingdomofGod.pdf ]. But I think how wonderful for a nation to be
built around that, interesting. Ah, side
note, Immanual Vilokofsky, many of you who like reading that kind of stuff, in
his book “World In Collision” tells us that the reason Friday the 13th,
if you’re superstitious, I don’t know whether I should be or not, my wife was
born on Friday the 13th, but he says in amongst the pagans and the
unbelieving world, the reason that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day
goes back to Egypt, because Friday the 13th when the sun went down,
was the beginning of the 14th for the nation of Israel, and it’s
when the angel of death went throughout Egypt and slew all of the firstborn, it
was Friday the 13th in Egypt, and it was Friday the 14th
in Israel [after the sun had gone down that Friday night]. If you’re superstitious, you don’t have to
worry about it anymore, Friday the 13th is a great day for us, now
that you know what it’s all about, you can stop all that weird stuff, not
walking under ladders and whatever you’re worried about. That’s just free information, you didn’t know
that when you read through the chapter ahead of time, did you. Verse 6 says, “And on the fifteenth
day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy
convocation: ye shall do no servile work
therein. But ye shall offer an offering
made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy
convocation: ye shall do no servile work
therein.” (verses 6-8) So this starts at
sundown after the Passover day, so this is the day after the Passover, and this
is what’s called a High Sabbath, a Holy Day, which is the beginning the
celebration of Unleavened Bread, when all of the leaven was to be removed. Of course it was a picture of evil in the Old
Testament, of sin, leaven. Ah, we’re
warned by Jesus about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, the New
Testament talks about the leaven of different types of sin, 1st
Corinthians chapter 5 says we’re to get rid of the leaven from the old lump and
have a new celebration, you know, of being unleavened, our lives cleansed. [1st
Corinthians chapter 5 is actually historic written evidence that the early
churches of God, the church of God at Corinth, was observing the Passover, a
Christian observance of Passover on the 14th of Nisan. For a study about what leaven represents in
the New Testament, see https://unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Leaven.htm] Now look, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a
picture of leaven being removed, follows the Passover, it’s not before the
Passover. So many people in this world
who don’t know Christ think ‘If I get my life together, and I get rid of the
leaven of this and the leaven of that, and the leaven of this, then God will
love me,’ it is never going to happen.
It’s never going to happen. The
first thing that needs to happen, we need to come to Christ and experience his
forgiveness [coming under the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, as pictured by
the blood of the slain lambs applied to the doorposts of the Israelite houses
in Egypt that first Passover night, which saved all of their firstborn], the
power of his blood, the power of the new-birth, the power of a changed life, then
after that follows leaven being removed, the change in our life. Not before, afterwards. There isn’t anything we can ever do in our
own flesh. In fact, people who study
Galatians, that are legalistic think that it says that if you don’t fulfill the
lusts of the flesh you’ll walk in the Spirit. It doesn’t say that, it says if
you walk in the Spirit, you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And here it’s telling us the Passover comes
first [representing the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, the
Lamb of God]. After that comes this
Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now it’s
interesting, Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 16 tells us that the three mandatory
Feasts in Israel were the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Pentecost
[Hebrew: Shavuot], and the Feast of Tabernacles, those were mandatory [some
feel Deuteronomy 16:16 is referring to the three Feast seasons,
Passover-Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the Fall Feasts, which were Trumpets,
Atonement, and Tabernacles]. Not the
feast of Atonement, Yom Kippur, which was their High Holy Day, you would think
that would be mandatory [they all were mandatory, as they all were listed as
holy convocations in Leviticus 23:1-44, that’s if you’re going to follow God’s
instructions in Leviticus 23]. The three
that are mandatory are the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which becomes the Feast
of Passover and Unleavened Bread combined, Passover begins the whole
process. And then the Feast of
Pentecost, then the Feast of Tabernacles, that those were the ones that were
compulsory. [This was according to
Jewish interpretation, especially after the Diaspora after the Babylonian
captivity, it was taught that those living in the Diaspora, that all males had
to make it back to Jerusalem for those three mandatory Feasts,
Passover-Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles, at least once every
three years. This was according to
Jewish interpretation of Deuteronomy 16:16.
That doesn’t mean this interpretation is correct Biblically. It was a mandated interpretation coming out
of the priesthood in Jerusalem after the Diaspora.] Just interesting as we go through, you would
think some of the other ones would be compulsory [and they all are compulsory
according to Leviticus 23:1-44]. The
Feast of Firstfruits In verse 9 is the Feast of
Firstfruits, and it says “And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come
into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then
ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for
you:” notice
this, “on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf
an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.” (verses 9-12) So it is always the day after the [weekly]
Sabbath that follows Passover. So that
is always Sunday, the Sabbath is always Saturday, whether the Passover is on
Thursday or Friday, whatever, it’s the Sabbath after the Passover, and then
always the morrow after the Sabbath is always Sunday morning, and that’s when
you celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits by bringing to the priest a shock of
barley, that was the first thing to come in, but it was the beginning of the
harvest. And the priest would go in,
that’s Sunday morning [or it could be as early as sundown Saturday evening,
which would be the beginning of that Sunday] and wave a shock of grain before
the altar of the table of incense there, and it would be typical of the harvest
that was going to come 50 days later on Pentecost. So no mistake, that Jesus Christ of course
dies on the Passover [which would have been on a Wednesday afternoon, he was
buried just before sundown either 30 or 31AD, Wednesday evening (see https://unityinchrist.com/lamb/lastsix.htm )]. As
we read, these are convocations, they are rehearsals. Paul says they are a shadow of things to
come. Jesus dies on the Passover, he’s
the Passover Lamb that takes away the sin of the world. Well what a remarkable picture we had in
Egypt as they would take blood of the lambs, it says they put it on the
doorposts and on the lentils, the doorposts are the upright beams, the lentil
was the crossbeam, so if you put it on the doorposts, plural, and the lentil,
you’ve got two crosses, and the lamb was slain in the sop, which is an Egyptian
word, which was the trough in the doorway that kept water from running in the
front door. So you had two crosses with
a lamb, slain in the middle, before the Levitical Law, before anything else,
this celebration of redemption, what a remarkable picture of Jesus Christ, he
fulfilled that. Then the next day, the
Feast of Firstfruits begins [it’s not a Holy Day as such, there were no
requirements given about not working on this day for the ordinary Israelite],
but the Feast of Unleavened Bread continues, for seven days, a complete feast,
seven the number of completion, picturing removing of leaven in the life of the
believer. [Also the eating of unleavened
bread is symbolic of the eating of the Word of God, which is Jesus in print,
the Bible, putting it into our lives, seven days symbolic of eating God’s Word
for the believer’s lifetime after conversion, cf. John 6, Jesus being the Bread
of Life.] Of course, Jesus rises on
Sunday [actually he arose on sundown, that Saturday evening, 3 days and 3
nights after he was put in the tomb, so that shoots your Sunday morning
resurrection in the foot], which is the Feast of Firstfruits, when the priest
is in the Temple waving the shock of grain, Christ is out collecting his
disciples, he is, Paul tells us, in 1st Corinthians 15, the
firstfruits of those who would rise from the dead. You know, we have that interesting picture
that Matthew gives us about some of the Old Testament saints that arose, we
don’t know what to do with that, when we see Matthew we’re going to say ‘Thanks,
Matthew, we’ve been confused for 2,000 years, you could have given us a little
bit of details.’ But then there is
the Church at the Rapture [1st resurrection to immortality, 1st
Corinthians 15:49-54, and the collective Body of Christ is not in agreement
when that takes place, prophetically speaking], we are part of the Firstfruits,
the 1st Resurrection. There
are the two prophets outside of Jerusalem, in Revelation chapter 11, [the very
first] part of the 1st Resurrection, you have the Old Testament
saints raised, part of the 1st Resurrection. The second resurrection is a resurrection to
damnation, and that is the Great White Throne.
[Comment: Within certain parts of
the Body of Christ, they have different interpretations about the Great White
Throne judgment. Ezekiel was a priest of
the priestly family of Aaron, who was taken captive to Babylon, but in Babylon
he was commissioned by the LORD to be a Prophet. In Ezekiel 37:1-14 God gave Ezekiel the only
description of a resurrection back to life in the Old Testament, and this
appears to be back to physical life, it’s quite a graphic picture. This is also the only Bible promise given to
the Jews in Babylon of a hope that they would be resurrected back to life at
some unspecified time in the future (and many Orthodox Jews maintain this
interpretation and belief). Revelation
20:11-13 shows this is the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, the 2nd
resurrection, when all of “unsaved” mankind will be resurrected back to
life. In Ezekiel 37:13-14, it shows that
at this time, God will give everyone resurrected in this resurrection his Holy
Spirit, offering them salvation, which for most coming up in this resurrection,
will be the first time that has been offered to them. The unbeliever is unaware of this, and so
they mourn as Paul said, as ones that have no hope. But they do have a hope and a future, see https://unityinchrist.com/ezek/Ezekiel%20pt3-2.htm and scroll to Ezekiel
37:1-14 and read that section about what those verses mean.] But Christ is the Firstfruits of those who
slept, so what a picture these convocations, these rehearsals have, a
foreshadowing, that even when Christ rose from the dead, this Feast pictured
the harvest that would come 50 days later on Pentecost [Shavuot], is when the
Church would begin. We’re going to read
that. So here is the priest now, waving
the shock of grain, it’s always Sunday morning [or Saturday at sundown], always
the morning after the Sabbath which is Saturday. “And ye shall offer that day when ye wave
the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering
unto the LORD.” (verse 12) Very interesting, on this Feast there’s no sin
offering, because Christ was rising, the price was paid, there was no sin
offering in this Feast, just more than coincidence I’m sure. “And the meat [grain] offering thereof shall
be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire
unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be
of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until
the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” (verses 13-14) So you can read 1st Corinthians
chapter 15, speaks about Christ being the Firstfruits, Philippians
chapter 3 says ‘that our bodies shall be fashioned like unto his
glorious body,’ when we rise.
I’m looking forward to that, Jesus rose from the dead, first of all, he
was about 33 years old, I’m looking forward to that again, if my body is going
to be fashioned like unto his glorious body, that’s a 33-year-old body, I
appreciate that [I want a 20-year-old body], first off. He says ‘Doth a spirit hath flesh and
bone?’ evidently the blood’s drained out, so the disciples feel him, he’s
physical, it’s a literal resurrection [there is a difference of belief here,
some say, just as Yahweh did, Jesus can transform himself from a flesh and bone
body to that of a spirit-being, and back again at will, just as Yahweh did when
meeting Abraham in Genesis 18, and the two angels doing likewise that were with
him because angels are spirit-beings.
What Jesus is like right now is described in Revelation 1:13-18, and
this appears to be that of a powerful spirit-being, see John 4:24.] But he’s stepping in and out of the room,
which means that the resurrection body, spirit-drive, whole new system. [Trouble with Calvary Chapel’s and all
denominations, is they try to nail down and interpret every single Scripture,
when there are gray areas, where we are just not sure how to interpret
them. We’ll see what God is composed of
when we meet Jesus and the Father, and not until.] No doubt, spirit-drive, travels at the speed
of thought, which is way faster than the speed of light, I’m glad, because I
like to go fast, there isn’t anything in this world that goes that fast, and
then if you do you’d get in trouble anyhow, but I’m looking forward to that new
body, going, think I’m going to enjoy that for awhile, the new model. This one’s slowing down, some of the memory
is going, but then “fashioned like unto his glorious body,” no
illness, no pain, no disease, just imagine, imagine what that’s going to be
like. So, this Feast of Firstfruits held
before us. The
Feast of Pentecost, Shavuot Then in verse 15 he says, “And
ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath
[Hebrew: “ha Shabbat” always refers to a weekly sabbath], from
the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be
complete: even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat
offering unto the LORD.” (verses 15-16) Now 50 days is where we get “Pentecost,” the Pentagon
in Washington, five sides, the pentagram, five sides, Pentecost, 7 weeks plus a
day, 50 days. So we get the word
Pentecost, the Feast there. “Ye shall
bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be
baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.” (verse 17) We’re not sure exactly what to do with that, maybe
Ephesians 2:7, maybe the partition wall being broken down, making the two one
[or one loaf representing Gentile believers, the other, Jewish believers]. Here’s the interesting thing, “they shall
be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.” (verse 17b) This is the only ordained offering of leaven in
bread, and it pictures the birth of the Church, it pictures Pentecost when the
Church was born, we were not perfect with the Law, we came to Christ under the
New Covenant, he’s the one who said ‘You’re justified, sanctified, and
glorified, because he’s God that calls things that are not as though they
were.’ We won’t experience the
perfection in fulness of that until we stand in his presence, when we see him
we’ll be like him, because we’ll see him as he is. But you and I now are in the situation where
we have the new nature, the new-birth, but the fallen nature is still
there. We’re not supposed to let that
fallen nature reign, Paul says, don’t let that carnal nature reign in your
flesh, but it’s still there. So this is
interesting, this picture of the Church, is the only offering that has leaven
in it, and they are the Firstfruits unto the LORD, “And ye shall
offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one
young bullock, and two rams: they shall
be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat
offering, and their drink offering, even an offering made by fire, of
sweet savour unto the LORD. Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats
for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace
offerings. And the priest shall wave
them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two
lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that
it may be an holy convocation unto you:
ye shall do no servile work therein:
it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your
generations.” (verses 18-21) Ah, Pentecost
[Shavuot], now is it coincidence, that’s our question up to this point in time,
here as the Feasts of Israel, they are both rehearsing something, but they are
also predictive, they are also looking forward to something [i.e. they are
prophetic], and I believe that. Is it
coincidence that Jesus died on the Passover?
Is it coincidence that it was as soon as his resurrection occurred that
leaven was put out as it were, that’s when the process begins in our lives,
that we’re not unleavened before that?
Is it coincidence that on the Feast of Firstfruits Jesus rises from the
dead? Is it coincidence that 50 days
later, when the rest of the barley harvest comes in that it’s celebrated that
the Church begins and the Spirit is poured out?
Anybody here think all of that is really weird coincidence how all this
stuff rolls out? I’m asking that,
because the next Feast, on the calendar we have a four month break, it’s the
longest break, it’s the whole summer until the Feast of Trumpets. Now I’m not setting dates, I don’t want to
hear that. But what I’m saying is, it’s
kind of exciting to me that the next Feast on the Prophetic calendar is the
Feast of Trumpets. You can do whatever
you want with that, I’m open to any suggestion God has. It would really be cool if the Rapture
happened then, because then it would just be another Feast that was not
coincidental if it happened to work out that way. You have that long summer season, which would
reflect the Church Age, from Pentecost through the days that we live in, and
the next Feast on the Prophetic calendar is this Feast of Trumpets. Now I’m willing to get Raptured anytime…when
he’s ready, I’m ready, I’m only ready by the blood of Christ, I’m not getting
Raptured because of any spiritual stage I’ve attained, my body being lifted off
the face of this earth and changing in the twinkling of an eye, from mortal to
immortal, from corruption to incorruption is not happening by any performance
on my own behalf, it’s happening simply of grace, because of the finished work
of Jesus Christ on the cross, because of his blood. I’m ready for that to happen. It’s everything I don’t deserve, I’m ready
Lord, lay it on me, ready to go.
[Calvary Chapels use the term Rapture often in place of the 1st
Resurrection to Immortality described in 1st Corinthians
15:49-54. I prefer the more Biblical
terminology.] But we have this Feast of
Pentecost [Hebrew: Shavuot] and a remarkable picture certainly of the beginning
of the Church, to be kept throughout their generations [For a complete study about the Feast of
Pentecost, or Shavuot see https://unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Feast%20of%20Weeks.htm] Verse 22 is interesting, it says “And
when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make a clean riddance of
the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any
gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt
leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger:
I am the LORD your God.” Now this is what happens at Pentecost, it’s the
finishing of the season, they’re bringing in the grain [it also applies to the
fall harvest just before the Feast of Tabernacles as well]. So it says something interesting here, part
of this Feast is that the gleanings of the corners of the fields are to be
left. I wonder if that’s us in the days
that we live in, are we living in the last gleanings of the corner of the field,
I’m ready. You know, when we see people
saved on Sunday, some people saved at church, I’m always thinking ‘Is this
the trickle before the dam breaks and we see a genuine revival? Or are these the last few gleanings of the
field before the Trumpet blows?’ Either
way, I’m just as game. I just, when I
sense in my heart Jesus’ is up to something, I don’t need any more
details. And I really feel in my heart
Jesus’ is up to something. [If he wasn’t
back in 2007 when Pastor Joe gave this sermon, he sure is now in 2024, with the
Israeli-Hamas war going on in Gaza, and the Russo-Ukrainian war going on
between Russia and the Ukraine, and Europe going extreme-rightwing politically
and re-arming militarily.] Because I’m
happy because I think Jesus is up to something, just pray for me. But here in this picture it’s very
interesting, the mention “thou shalt not make a clean riddance of the gleanings
of the field,” it comes to play in the Book of Ruth. Coincidentally because there are all these
coincidences we’re looking at here with these Feasts, Ruth is the Book that’s
read on the Feast of Pentecost [Shavuot] in the Jewish tradition. And it’s about a kinsman-redeemer taking a
Gentile bride, as she’s gleaning the corners of the fields. It’s a very interesting coincidence there,
one of the holy coincidences of the Bible as we look at this. A very interesting picture too, because then
you read of course about Ruth and Boaz,
and you read the generations after that, Jesse to David, it’s only a few
generations and the Law said it wasn’t until the tenth generation that a
Moabite was supposed to enter into the Congregation of the LORD, but you got by the 3rd
generation the king of Israel is David, and what a picture of God’s grace
contained in that. So, I don’t think
it’s by any coincidence that Ruth is read during this period, and here’s this
picture of the Church and a wonderful picture in the Book of Ruth of the
kinsman-redeemer taking a Gentile bride, what a picture through the whole
thing. The
Feast of Trumpets So verse 23 brings us onto
the Feast of Trumpets, “And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the
first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing
of trumpets, an holy convocation. Ye
shall do no servile work therein: but
ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” (verses 23-25) Now it’s Rosh Hashanah, the head of the year,
the Jewish new year, it’s both falling on the same day, you have both a day
from the religious calendar and now the first day of their civil year that
begins then, the religious year beginning on the 14th of Nisan, at
Passover. Just an interesting picture of
a civil year beginning, and of a religious convocation, I don’t know exactly
what that points at, but it’s certainly interesting, it’s fall in September,
October in the time, and again I am not predicting, I’m just telling you that
everything up until now has fallen, coincidentally, on Feasts, and I’m hoping
that the Rapture does not fall on a Feast, because I don’t want to wait until
September-October, I’d rather get Raptured in October this year, I’d rather get
Raptured or when it’s over, get Raptured in November instead of waiting until
next September-October, I’d rather get Raptured for Christmas [no], you get the
idea. But the next Feast on the
Prophetic-Historic calendar is this Feast of Trumpets. The
Day of Atonement Verse 26 says this, we
come to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the day of humiliation [fasting],
certainly it would picture when the Church is gone, Israel finally coming to
realize, after the anti-christ dupes them, and they turn to the Living God, and
they realize, Zechariah 12, I’ll read it when I find it here, Zechariah 12
says this “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to
destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of
supplications: and they shall look upon
me” this is the LORD of hosts speaking,
“whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one
mourneth for his only son, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning,
in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon.”
(verses 9-10), and this day here talks about a day of humiliation
[fasting], a day of affliction. “And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Also
on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of
atonement: it shall be an holy
convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls [fast], and offer an
offering made by fire unto the LORD [cf. Leviticus 16].”
(verses 26-27) Now
you know that on the Day of Atonement, it was the day that the high priest took
off his priestly garments, he offered everything with the linen garments, he
offered over 15 sacrifices himself that day, and it was the day that he would
go into the Holy of Holies and pour out the blood of the goat on the Mercy
Seat, on the cover, and make atonement for the sin of the entire nation, then
you had the two goats, of course Azazel being led away into the wilderness, the
Day of Atonement, very interesting. And
certainly in the Prophetic calendar, that would give us a picture of the day
that Israel [Judah, the Jewish Israelis] turned and realizes who the Messiah
was, and who her Messiah is, and she mourns for him, as one mourns for their
only son, a day of affliction it says, a day of soberness, looking upon him
whom they have pierced. And what a
picture there is this Day of Atonement.
[On the Prophetic calendar the prophetic events represented by Day of
Atonement will take place after Jesus Christ and the resurrected, immortal
saints have returned to earth from the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (Revelation
19:7-9), fought off the Beast power’s armies, and saved the Israelis. It is then that they recognize Jesus Christ
as their Messiah. Zechariah 12:1-9
describes that event, as well as Zechariah 14:1-15. Then Zechariah 12:10-14 describe what is
represented as a day of atonement taking place, a mourning, a fasting in
humiliation for the One whom they have pierced.] By the way, the evening of the Day of
Atonement always began the Year of Jubilee too, every 50 years, it was on the
evening of the Day of Atonement, when the sins of the nation were forgiven,
that the year of Jubilee would begin.
Now it doesn’t specifically say, it says you shall afflict your souls,
it doesn’t specifically say fasting, that becomes the tradition [Jewish
scholars would disagree with what he’s saying here, it does mean fasting, he is
not a Jew, he is not a Messianic Jew, he is not a Sabbath-keeping Church of God
believer, all three groups believe “afflicting your souls” means fasting. There is having a right attitude during your
fast, that Isaiah talks about], that on this day the nation would fast. God is asking for some attitude of the heart. If you read Isaiah chapter 58 when it talks
about fasting, and God says ‘Is this the day I choose, is the day you’re
going to stop eating, and you’re miserable, you’re fighting with your servants,
your fellow Israelites, is that what it’s all about? It should be a day of fasting to pour out
your heart on behalf of others, a day of repentance, a day of brokenness, a day
of dealing with your soul, a day to pour out your bread to the hungry and so
forth.’ So when he says here this is a day of affliction, it’s a day that
the nation was supposed to have an attitude of heart [which fasting is meant to
help bring on], atonement is being made for all of our sins, for the entire
nation, atonement is being made for our entire nation this day by God. And it should have been that day, a day of
where they would afflict their souls, would repent, pray [and fast] and so
forth. “And ye shall do no work in
that same day: for it is a day of
atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall
not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth
any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of
rest, and ye shall afflict your souls:
in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall
ye celebrate your sabbath.” (verses 28-32)
the high priest going in before the Mercy Seat. The
Feast Of Tabernacles Now verse 33 takes us to
the Feast of Tabernacles, this is the last Feast on the calendar of
Israel. “And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this
seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days
unto the LORD.” (verses 33-34) the 15th
day of the seventh month, so this is five days after Yom Kippur. Succoth, the Feast of Booths, you might see
the Orthodox Jews today will put up a booth, very interesting, the roof is
supposed to be porous, not covered to keep out the weather, so they could see
the stars, and they could look up and think about God. The sides are to be porous, so the wind can
blow through so they could remember God’s provision and what he did for them in
their wilderness wanderings. Very
interesting. Here’s God, the Master
Teacher, he’s going to say ‘Teach this to your children,’ and so
forth. Imagine going through these
things, the Jewish nation, from the Sabbath, every Sabbath day, explaining to
your little kids, ‘Mommy, Daddy, why can’t I do this, why can’t I do
that?’ ‘Because this is the Sabbath,
this is the day God rested, this sets us aside from other nations in the world,
this is a day of rest to think about his wonder and his glory and his creative
genius and his faithfulness, and his gifts to us in the field and of the
harvest, and of the sun and the moon and the stars, and of the flocks that are
grazing in the field, you think of what he did in Creation.’ Saying to your little kid, as the
Master-Teacher, just imagine your kids around the table, and the lamb is
slaughtered, and the bitter herbs and the salty water, and the salty water is
the tears that our forefathers shed in Egypt, bitter herbs are a picture of the
bondage and so forth, and all of the symbolic things, to teach the next
generation. And of course sending the
kids with candles through the house to look for leaven at the beginning of the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits, and the Feast of
Pentecost, each one of these having a remarkable lesson generation to
generation. And this Feast of
Tabernacles finally at the end of the year, to take your children out into a
booth and you lay there, and you look at the stars at night, and you talk to
them about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, how faithful he is, what a
loving, powerful, awesome God we serve.
What great lessons. “On the
first day shall be an holy convocation:
ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by
fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy
convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye
shall do no servile work therein.” (verses 35-36) Now when you go through those seven days, we’re
going to have more details in Numbers and in Deuteronomy, you go through those
seven days, there’s 199 offerings, sacrifices, made in the first seven days,
imagine that. 199 sacrifices in seven
days, celebrating the completion of everything, the harvest, everything come
in, the wandering over, entering into all the of the promises that God had. “on the eighth day shall be an holy
convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye
shall do no servile work therein.” (verse 36b) By the time of Jesus it was a day when
everybody was to keep silent, it was a day of silence, remarkable lessons. Interesting, as we get to Nehemiah, we find
out from the days of Joshua, and if the Lord tarries and I hope he doesn’t, but
if he does, we’ll see that from the days of Joshua to the days of Nehemiah, Nehemiah
8:17, the nation had not celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles, it had slipped
away, they hadn’t celebrated it. But
imagine what lessons that they left off teaching their children about God’s
accompanying them through their pilgrimage, through their wanderings. How hard is it for us today to convince our
kids of his accompanying them in their pilgrimage? How hard is it for us today as Christian
parents, not to have our kids calcified in the Christian culture? To grow up with everything handed to them,
and not to realize his presence, not to realize his accompanying them, his
keeping them, his presence everyday.
When I got saved, I got saved out of drugs, I got saved out of
immorality and the world, and fist-fighting.
There was a line of demarcation, AD and BC in my life. I look back and it doesn’t even seem like the
same person in the same life. And I
appreciate that, I came out of Egypt, out from under Pharaoh, out of the house
of bondage, out of the bitter bondage of Satan and the world. But you know we raise a generation in the
church, and we want them to be holy, we want them to walk, we try to say to
them ‘There ain’t nothing out there.’
But because they’re like us, they’re hardheads. When I was the kid, you know, my dad said ‘Don’t
bang your head against that wall, because the wall is hard,’ and I said ‘Oh
ya,’ and I would run and go ‘Ka-boom!’
sit back dazed and say ‘You know, that wall is hard.’ Some of us learn that way, some of us say
‘Well that makes sense, the wall’s hard, I won’t slam my head against it,’ but
there’s not a lot of us that learn that way.
Now we tell our kids ‘There ain’t nothing out there, it’s empty, it’s
futile, it’s vanity. When push comes to
shove what matters is life, is life!’ And
God loves you, and he never takes his eyes off of you, he will accompany you
through your entire pilgrimage, through the valleys, through the mountains,
through the deserts, the places where there are streams, rivers and waterfalls,
he is there, he never leaves, never forsakes.
And you just think from Joshua to Nehemiah they never celebrated the
Feast of Tabernacles, what a sad lack there was from generation to generation,
not celebrating this Feast of Tabernacles.
“These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall
proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto
the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat
offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your
gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which
ye give unto the LORD. Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh
month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast
unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath,
and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.” (verses 37-39) You know, it’s like Thanksgiving with two
turkeys, one on the first day, one on the 8th day, just celebrating
Thanksgiving. “And ye shall take you
on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of thick trees, and
willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.”
building
the booths, “And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the
year. It shall be a statute for
ever in your generations: ye shall
celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye
shall dwell in booths seven days: all
that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:
that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to
dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD
your
God. And Moses declared unto the
children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.” (verses 40-44) ‘Any
Man That Thirsts, Let Him Come Unto Me’ Of course, the interesting thing
is, by the time Jesus Christ is in his public ministry, they had added to the
Feast of Tabernacles two other things that aren’t mentioned in this
description. One was, there was a series
of very large candles, which represented the Pillar of Cloud and the Pillar of
Fire that accompanied them in their wilderness journey. And the other thing they added to the Feast
of Tabernacles is the priests on the 8th day, once a day until the 8th
day, seven times, the priests would go down to the Pool of Siloam and they
would fill up these gold pitchers and bring them up, once a day, and pour them
out at the base of the Altar, remembering the Rock. Remember?
That Moses struck the Rock and water came forth, and we’re told that
that Rock followed them, Paul said, in 1st Corinthians 10, that Rock
was Christ. And for seven days the
priests would go down and bring up a golden pitcher and dump it out at the base
of the altar, memorializing also the fact God provided, God had them in booths,
but God also provided water in the desert.
On the 8th day, the solemn day, when everybody had to be
quiet, they went down seven times and made seven trips up, and dumped out the
water at the base of the altar, and it was then that Jesus stood
up, on that Great Day, when everybody’s supposed to be quiet. Now I’ve been on the Temple Mount on Ramadan
with 60,000 Muslims, there’s no problem at all fitting 100,000 Jewish people or
more in the Temple precincts, and you can imagine the priests coming up seven
times, dumping out this water in memorial of the Rock that followed them, Jesus
being that Rock, and on that quiet day when everybody’s supposed to be silent,
he stands up and says ‘Let any man that thirsts, let him come unto me,
and out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ And then John says ‘This spake he
of the Spirit that was not given yet.’ But
just imagine, he broke the silence, you must have seen 100,000 heads turn in
his direction, and the priests must have blown steam out of their ears. But he was the Rock, he was right there in
the middle of the celebration. And he
was the One that brought forth water, and he says there’s a greater picture
here. Any man that thirst, and the Bible
tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, and I
believe he’s saying to us now, ‘any man that thirsts let him come unto me,
and out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit that was not yet
given.’ Revelation chapter 22, verse 17
says “the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth says, Come.
And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” “Freely” is “undeservedly” in the Greek. “Let him come and drink undeservedly.” Jesus says in Luke 11, ‘How much more will the Father give the
Spirit to those who ask him.’ That’s
not the new birth, when you get saved you’re not asking for the Spirit, you’re
asking for forgiveness. How much more
will the Father give the Spirit to those who ask him? Jesus says ‘any man that thirsts, let
him come, he was the fulfillment of this, any man that thirsts let him come
unto me, and drink, and out of his inmost being shall flow rivers of living
water.’ I have to believe he’s
the same today. I have to believe that
he’s the same today. I have to believe
that he’s saying to me tonight before I go to bed, when I spend time alone with
him, or tomorrow morning, or tomorrow afternoon, if I quiet my soul, I have to
believe he’s saying me ‘Joe, if you’re thirsty, come and drink,
undeservedly, come unto me. And out of
your inmost being shall flow torrents of Living Water.’ He doesn’t just want us to be a
container, he wants us to be a conduit in this lost world. And I have to ask myself the question
seriously, ‘Am I a container, or a conduit?’
Most of the days I’m a container.
Do I really feel in my life personally right now there are rivers of
living water pouring forth? No, I long
for it, he offers it. Problem must be on
my end, right? And I know all of you
guys are torrents, but pray for me. I
need to be one. I’m just praying, and
look, I got saved in 1972, I was filled with the Spirit then, but I don’t want
a 1972 filling of the Holy Spirit, I want a 2007 filling of the Holy Spirit, I
want a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit.
They were filled with the Spirit on Pentecost, when Peter stood up in
chapter 4 of Acts to preach the Gospel to the Sanhedrin, it says Peter stood up
being filled with the Spirit, that Greek construction means “right then,” he
was filled afresh, it says in chapter 4:31 ‘they prayed, the place where
they were in, the building was shaking, and they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit,’ that is filled afresh.
These are guys that were filled on Pentecost, they are refilled in
chapter 4, they’re refilled again at the end of chapter 4, those are free
refills. And that’s what I’m into. The old Scoffield notes said “one baptism,
many fillings.” He was trying to say,
“Yes, when we’re saved, we’re baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy
Spirit, but there are many fillings. And
how I long. And please pray for me, for
a filling that is relative to the days we live in, in my life, fresh filling,
relative to these days that we’re living in.
And Lord knows we need them, Lord knows we need them. Is it just me or are we all thirsty? We’re all thirsty. Let’s do that, let’s stand, and let’s
pray. Read ahead now, chapter 24, 25,
26, 27, then we’re done with Leviticus.
And read those chapters, because the way things are going, we’re
probably never going to get back to Leviticus again, this is the last shot
through before the Trumpet blows…[transcript of a connective expository sermon
on Leviticus 23:1-44, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of
Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19115]
[If the Feast of Trumpets is a prophetic picture of Jesus’ 2nd
coming to save the world from genocide which is occurring during World War III,
as depicted in Revelation 19:1-21, and the Day of Atonement is depicted in
Zechariah 12:10 and it also must be depicted by the ultimate putting away of
the Azazel goat in Revelation 20:1-3, when Satan (and by inference all the
demons) are locked up in some prison, then the Feast of Tabernacles must depict
the coming Millennial Kingdom of God which follows these Day of Atonement
events, as shown in Revelation 20:4-6.
That is what the Feast of Tabernacles depicts. What will that Millennial Kingdom of God be
like? see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/MillennialKingdomofGod.pdf] For a study on the prophetic meaning of the
Fall Holy Days, see https://unityinchrist.com/E-Mails/June%2014/FallHolyDays-short.htm related links: For a more complete explanation
of how these Holy Days fit Israel’s history and future see https://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Holydayshadows.htm In Hebrews 4 the apostle Paul
showed what the shadow-picture of the Sabbath represented, it represents the
Sabbath-rest that we have in Salvation, the Sabbath pictures Salvation itself,
the rest that we have in Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us.
For a full expository sermon on Hebrews
chapter 4 see https://unityinchrist.com/hebrews/Hebrews4-1-16.htm. Where the Passover came
from: see https://www.unityinchrist.com/The-Exodus-From-Egypt.html
So no mistake, that Jesus Christ
of course dies on the Passover, which would have been on a Wednesday afternoon,
he was buried just before sundown either 30 or 31AD, Wednesday evening, see https://unityinchrist.com/lamb/lastsix.htm For a complete study about the
Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot see https://unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Feast%20of%20Weeks.htm For a study on the prophetic
meaning of the Fall Holy Days, see https://unityinchrist.com/E-Mails/June%2014/FallHolyDays-short.htm What will that Millennial Kingdom
of God be like? see https://www.unityinchrist.com/kingdomofgod/MillennialKingdomofGod.pdf One prophetic meaning for the
Last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the 8th Day: Within certain parts of the Body of Christ,
they have a different interpretations about the Great White Throne
judgment. Ezekiel was a priest of the
priestly family of Aaron who was taken captive to Babylon, but in Babylon he
was commissioned by the LORD to be a Prophet. In Ezekiel 37:1-14 God gave Ezekiel the only
description of a resurrection back to life in the Old Testament, and this
appears to be back to physical life, it’s quite a graphic picture. This is also the only Bible promise given to
the Jews in Babylon of a hope that they would be resurrected back to life at
some unspecified time in the future (and many Orthodox Jews maintain this
interpretation and belief). Revelation
20:11-13 shows this is the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, the 2nd
resurrection, when all of “unsaved” mankind will be resurrected back to
life. In Ezekiel 37:13-14, it shows that
at this time, God will give everyone resurrected in this resurrection his Holy
Spirit, offering them salvation, which for most coming up in this resurrection,
will be the first time that has been offered to them. The unbeliever is unaware of this, and so
they mourn as Paul said, as ones that have no hope. But they do have a hope and a future, see https://unityinchrist.com/ezek/Ezekiel%20pt3-2.htm and scroll to Ezekiel
37:1-14 and read that section about what those verses mean. Audio version:
https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED575 |