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[0:00] days of the Jewish calendar found for us in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 23. We read here, it says, the Lord spoke again to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, the Lord's appointed times, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed times are these. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work, it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month, there is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. Let me just stop right there.

[1:18] This is a complete side note. It doesn't have application to this message, but it really has application as to how we understand scripture. Isn't it impressive that here they're at the very beginning of their wilderness wanderings, right? They haven't even made it to the promised land the first time. This is a good night. Sunday nights are a good night to stop and just consider these things. They're still at the mountain of the Lord receiving all these instructions. They're on their way.

[1:43] They haven't yet rebelled and not going into. This is why that rebellion is so hard to understand because even here God says, when you enter the land, which I am going to give you and you reap its harvest. God was telling them over and over again, you're entering the land. I'm giving it to you. This is why when they went there and they said, oh, we can't go in. That's why we, we see so many years, 40 years of, and that's why we see such judgment because God had promised them over and over and over again. I'm giving you the land. I'm giving you the land. I'm giving you the land. And they went, well, I don't know if we can or not. When God says it, he means it and he wants us to accept it, right? Even if it seems as if there's no way it could happen, he has already proclaimed it. It will happen. And therefore we say, yes, Lord, I'm believing your word over my thoughts, over my feelings at that time. Just a side note, but let's go back to verse 11. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted on the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. And now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb, one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil and offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma with its drink offering a fourth of a hen of wine.

[3:00] Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual state or statute throughout your generations and all your dwelling places. You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you bring or when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering, there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour baked with leaven as first as first fruits to the Lord. Along with the bread, you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect and a bull of the herd and two rams. They are to be a burnt offering to the Lord with their grain offering and their drink offerings and offering by fire a soothing aroma to the Lord. You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs, one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord. They are to be holy to the Lord for the priest.

[4:11] On this same day, you shall make a proclamation as well. You are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

[4:22] When you reap the harvest of your land moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field or gather the gleaning of your harvest. You are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God. Again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel saying in the seventh month on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. The Lord spoke to Moses saying on exactly the 10th day of the seventh month is the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. You shall not do any work on this same day for it is a day of atonement to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations and all your dwelling places. It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest to you and you shall humble your souls on the ninth of the month at evening from an evening until evening. You shall keep your Sabbath. Verse 33. Again, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel saying on the 15th of this seventh month is the feast of booths for seven days to the Lord. On the first day is a holy convocation and you should do no laborious work of any kind.

[5:51] For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord. It is an assembly. You should do no laborious work. These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations to present offerings by fire to the Lord. Burn offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings. Each day's matter on its own day. Besides those of the Sabbath of the Lord and besides your gifts and besides all your votive and free will offerings which you give to the Lord. On exactly the 15th day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the crops of the land you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.

[6:34] Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and bowls of leafy trees and willows of the brook and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

[6:58] You shall live in booths for seven days. All the native born in Israel shall live in booths so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord. Leviticus chapter 23. I know it is very long and extensive and it seems to be a little minute and we wonder what in the world this has to do with us but hopefully we'll gather some information in this because tonight I want you to see festivals of reminder. Festivals of reminder.

[7:35] I believe it was John Phillips who said the Lord our God is a God who celebrates. He is a God who rejoices and celebrates and he is not a God of non-celebration. He is not a God of being down and out. He is a God of rejoicing. As a matter of fact he has called us to rejoice in him. Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. He is a God of celebration. He is a God of putting together these events in order for people to come and have moments together. Now the word convocation here simply means to be a gathering or a grouping of individuals. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are having a party. It just means that they are to do it as a corporate body. So these were things that were given for the entire nation of Israel. This would be that which dictated their calendar year throughout the year. The first month of their calendar year was the seventh month and it was to be the beginning of that and the festival was to be a reminder throughout the year of all that the Lord has done.

[8:34] I don't want you to see just three great applicable truths from these festivals of reminder. There are seven festivals here that God dictates to the nation of Israel. Seven is a repeated theme throughout scripture because seven always points to fullness or completion. It points to something being perfectly full or filled up to the brim. So here we see that God is giving them the complete opportunity to remember and to rejoice in all that he has done. Here we see that God is giving them the full measure of his worship in their presence. And I want you to see just these three truths which God gives us from these festivals and hopefully we will begin to see how they apply to us. Number one, we see that God sets the schedule. God sets the schedule. It says, the Lord spoke again to Moses as has been the case with every other matter in the book of Leviticus. It is always the Lord speaking to Moses. Someone said, and I can't remember exactly who it was, that if we had red letters in our Old Testaments where God was speaking versus where man was speaking, just about all of Leviticus would be red letters. Because all throughout

[9:49] Leviticus, it is God speaking to Moses and Moses listening and then Moses repeating that to the nation. This is Leviticus is showing us what God's desire is for his people. Remember that, right? We find in the book of Exodus how God redeems his people. And that is the redemption story. And we understand the book of Exodus to help us understand our salvation and our redemption. And we end with the redemption of God's people that he has redeemed them and now he is present among them. And Leviticus shows us how they shall live because he is present. How they shall live because he is near. Remember, Exodus ends with the completion of the tabernacle and the filling of the Shekinah glory inside the tabernacle. And it stops there where no man could go into the tent of meeting because the glory of God was there. And we open up in the book of Leviticus with God telling Moses how man can come into his presence. Because redemption is the beginning, not the end, right? God doesn't just redeem us and call us home. Now he could if he wanted to. If that was the end of the story, then he should have called us home the moment we were saved because he left us in a land that is not yet our home. We're just sojourners passing through. So he has redeemed us to bring us, to sanctify us until we are what we should be. As Paul says, I press on towards the goal of the call of the upper call of Christ. He is bringing us through this wilderness wandering of sanctification.

[11:14] But the beauty of being sanctified, redemption is instantaneous. I know this is a lot of information, but we're prepared for it, right? We are redeemed. We are saved in a moment. We are sanctified. That is, we are perfected over a lifetime. That it takes what we call progressive sanctification.

[11:31] sanctification. The honest answer is that neither one of us or none of us are what we should be yet. But hopefully we are more today like Christ than we were yesterday. That he is working on us, we say.

[11:44] And that is sanctification. But during the sanctification, he is present. He is there because we're redeemed, right? We're forgiven. But because he is there, our life looks different. We live different, or at least we should. Our behavior should be different. And this is what the book of Leviticus shows us. We're not slaves in Egypt anymore. We're redeemed people of God. Now, we may still be in the wilderness of sanctification, but he is there. And since he is there, we're going to look different. And by looking different, we have what we find throughout the book of Leviticus. And it is always God speaking. And here he's going to talk to Moses about what their calendar is going to look like. Now, their calendar was completely based. They didn't know if it was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, right? They just knew that the sun came up today, and now they may have been able to count that. They could count the seven days. We understand that.

[12:33] But they weren't so concerned about what day of the week it was, except for the seventh. And they weren't so concerned about what time of the year were, except for harvest time or the rainy season or the planting season. They always based it upon the signs set in the heavens. And God had dictated and determined those things so that man would have something to tell time by. But here we see that God begins to set the schedule for his people. And he opens up not with a festival, but with a reminder.

[12:57] And the reminder is that the seventh day, the Sabbath day is holy. He reminds man of the Sabbath. Now, we don't want to be legalistic in this interpretation, but we also understand that Jesus gives us the fulfillment of this and that the Sabbath was not made for man, or the man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. That man needs an opportunity to be still and to rest. Man needs an opportunity to be still and know that he is God. And God is reminding them, I am giving you one day a week just to be still. One day a week where you would stop what you're doing.

[13:29] And he is setting the schedule for them. And then he begins and says there, the Lord's appointed times, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed times are these. See, what we find here is that God is choosing the schedule or setting the calendar for the nation. He is telling them what they will do when they gather the harvest. He is telling them what they would do as they gather the harvest.

[13:54] He is telling them what they would do when they finish gathering the harvest. He is telling them how they will rejoice with the beginning of a new year. God is telling them, this is what your schedule looks like. What a great and glorious day it is when man's schedule is not set by man's activities, but when man's schedule is set by man's Lord. And what we see here is that God is making the schedule of his people revolve around what? Himself. He is making himself the center of their schedule. He is making himself the center of every major event in the year. Everything that happened throughout the year was to be centered and focused on the Lord, their God. He would be the focus of it. He would be the reason for it. And he would be he who set the schedule of it. And we see that this is what it looks like to be God's people, that we do not let our busyness. I think I've kind of hinted to that this morning. Satan does not always distract us with bad things. Sometimes or quite often he distracts us with a lot of things. He descends, decides to keep us busy and he decides to keep us active. And that activity and that busyness too often is a thing which keeps us from what we should be doing. And this is not just to be casting stones at others. This is the very thing that points the finger back to me. Because we see the reality in scripture that God wants to be the determining factor of our schedules, not ourselves. God wants to be the dictator of our schedules, not ourselves.

[15:27] And this is why I have said, and I say it over and over again, when we begin to find things in our lives which conflict with allowing God to be the center of our life, then what we do not need to do is move God off center. We need to move our life around him. We need to begin to reorganize and reroute our life. And I know that seems very difficult to do in the world in which we live in, but that is why it's called spiritual warfare, not spiritual cakewalk. Because we have been called at times to make radical decisions. We've been called at times to make radical priorities. And we see here what God is telling his people to do is, unlike others, your schedule is going to be revolved around what I say and what I do, and I'm going to set your schedule for you. The life of God's people should be radically organized around him and him alone. And that truth, my friend, has as much application today in the church age as it did in the Old Testament in the nation of Israel. God has still called it, why do we worship on the first day of the week? Why are we not sabbatarians, those who keep the Sabbath? Why do we have first day of the week worship? Because we are worshiping on the day of resurrection, right? Resurrection Sunday. We are reorganized around the resurrection of Christ. We are those, now I have no, I can worship on a

[16:37] Saturday, I can worship on a Friday, I can worship on a Thursday, as long as I am centering it around the Lord. But what we see here is that God wants to be the dictator of our schedules and the dictator of our events. If there's going to be a celebration, may he be the center of it and may he be the reason for it. So God sets the schedule. Number two, God supplies opportunity for worship. God supplies opportunity for worship. Each one of these events gave man, or actually mandated, that man would stop.

[17:14] That he would have his life interrupted to the point that he would do no work. It would be a complete Sabbath. There would be no laborious work upon it. That he would completely stop everything he did.

[17:26] Think about this. Harvest time is the busiest time. And God says during harvest time, you're going to stop. And why are you going to stop? You're going to stop and you're going to worship me. I'm going to give you an opportunity through this command, which may seem burdensome, is going to be an invitation to worship. Because he knew that if there would be any season, it would be the seasons of busyness that men would be pushed away from their worship of him. So God is supplying an opportunity for the people to worship. All of the men would have to stop. When we get to the book, into the New Testament, we see, because God says wherever his name is named, in every city, wherever they go. And we see in the book of Acts, by the way, when we get to this Pentecost reason, the reason we have so many people in Jerusalem at that time, and the reason we have such a crowd in Jerusalem when Jesus enters, and what we call the triumphant entry, is because the people are gathered together. They had to stop their work and come there.

[18:22] One of those, you should know very well, Simon of Cyrene. Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service, right? Remember him? He was the one that was pressed into service to carry the cross of Christ. And he carried that cross. And he was not of that region. He had went into that region with his children. He had went into that region with his children. He was from Cyrene. And if you go and read the book of Acts, you will find out later, that when the gospel was taken into different regions, all of a sudden, they came into contact with a man named Rufus, whose dad was Simon of Cyrene.

[18:52] And this man was a believer in Christ, because the opportunity God gave to worship led Simon to a radical encounter with the cross of Christ, which had an influence on his family that we find on later on in the book of Acts was a lasting influence, because at least his children, at least it seems, one of the sons that was there with him seemed to be a devout follower of Christ at that time as well.

[19:15] See, these opportunities of worship were so that the families would stop and that the fathers would lead their families to this place of worship. We see it even going on in the life of Christ when Mary and Joseph would travel from Nazareth and come all the way back to Jerusalem. And remember, Jesus stayed behind in the temple. Everybody would travel because God was giving them an opportunity to worship. What a gracious God he is, because when man is left to himself too often, the very thing, he would neglect is this thing of worship. So God builds it into the calendars. Satan twists and turns that and turns our opportunities into worship into opportunities to self-celebration.

[19:50] Think about it. Think about the things on our calendar which were originally established to be opportunities for man to worship, even some of them in their very not-so-good beginnings, but still God had ordained that they could be great opportunities for worship. And now the world has twisted them into being opportunities for self-gratification and business sense. But God here in his grace doesn't just want to dictate the calendar and set the schedule. He wants to set the schedule so that there is an opportunity for everybody to worship. One thing that I noticed that is so good, and I hope that you are in the habit of underlining your Bible, and I have this underlined in mind, I love to see how things tie together in scripture, right? I love to see how, when we look at the big picture, how things make work, or how things seem to fit together.

[20:39] And one thing that we have in this opportunity to worship on the day of atonement, if there was a day that is the greatest day in all of the nation of Israel, it is the day of atonement. Now there's a whole chapter, Leviticus 16, dedicated to that, and we spent a lot of time looking at it.

[20:51] But one thing you see here, and I have it in verse 27, it says the day of atonement, right? I underlined that, and then I tie that to what I find in just a few verses over there. In verse 31, you shall do no work at all. As a matter of fact, if anybody did any work on the day of atonement, God took care of him. That's what he said right before there, right? If there is any person who will not humble himself on the same day, he shall be cut off from his people. What is he saying here?

[21:18] This is a day of atonement, so you don't do anything. Now if that's not a reason to worship, listen, this is the day where every one of my sins is going to be forgiven. This is the day when everything I have done against a holy God is going to be forgiven. I'm going to be cleansed and made new, and what God is telling me to do is nothing. That's good news, right? That should show us there's nothing you can do to earn your salvation. There's nothing you can do to earn your forgiveness. People say, oh, it's too easy. No, that's biblical, right? God says if you're doing any work to atone for yourself, he's cutting you off from your people. You don't belong there.

[21:50] All the way from the very beginning, he said this day of atonement is not about what you do. This day of atonement is about what I'm doing to you, and this is an opportunity to worship, because when you're sitting there with the realization, my sins, everything I have done this past year is being forgiven, but I'm not doing a thing. The only thing you have to do is to worship, and you're called to be in his presence. What an opportunity God gives for his people to worship.

[22:17] Third and finally, we see not only does God set the schedule, not does only God supply an opportunity for worship. This is the one that has the most application to us. We see here that God shows the future. We see here that God shows the future. We have tried, at least to the best of our abilities, to see how the things in the Old Testament always point to the Christ of the New Testament, because the Bible is not telling us a number of stories, right? It is telling us one great glorious story, and that is the story of God's redemption of mankind. Some of you have been with me just about every Sunday night, and you have followed along with me pretty well ever since I came. You know, February would be five years. February, I've been here five years, and my first Sunday night here officially as pastor, we started in Genesis 1, and we have made it now to Leviticus 23, which means we still got a long way to go. We're making it all the way to the Revelation. Maybe that's why I preached Revelation on Sunday mornings, right? But I don't know if I will last that long. I'm not saying I'm going anywhere. I'm just saying that I'm not getting any younger. So last that long, I mean age-wise.

[23:22] So, but what we see here, you remember. Maybe you remember if not, because it's been some time ago. Every problem man has is recorded for us in Genesis 1 through Genesis chapter 11.

[23:34] Genesis 1 to 11 show us every problem man has, and it culminates with idolatry found in the tower of Babel in Genesis 11, that man sets his heart to reach to heaven rather than allowing heaven to reach to him. It is idolatry, man putting himself on the pedestal. Genesis 12 to Revelation 22 is God showing us how he handles man's problem. It is this one great story that always points to Jesus Christ.

[24:00] It's always pointing to Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of Genesis 3 15, the proto-evangelium, that the Satan will bruise his heel, but he will crush his head. It is the seed of a woman. It is that singular seed, and everything points to him. What we read in the Old Testament, God always has a reason for it in that time and space. Were the people of Israel to keep these festivals? Yes. Were they to obey them on their calendar year? Yes. But why does God want to set their schedule? Why would God be so concerned to set their schedule? Because by keeping this schedule, it would reveal to them the future of what was going to happen. And it causes us when we open up our Old Testament to go, oh wow.

[24:45] Think about just for a moment, by the time God sets the schedule here in the calendar that the Jewish people were keeping here, the calendar was radically changed by the time of Christ. Because you had the Julian calendar introduced by the Romans. You had the Greek calendar introduced.

[25:01] I believe someone said that when they had to recalender, there were somewhere along 30 days in one year that were completely lost. There was one another year when the calendars were changed that there were people, there were days added to a month to make it align with the seasons of the year. And one commentator is that I feel sorry for those people who were born on that extra day because they never had to celebrate their birthday again. And there's some notable people, I can't remember who they were, that were actually born on that extra day of the year that year, in that calendar year. And they never again got to actually celebrate their day because they were born in March, but their celebration would actually be in April, right? Because it was like an extra day added to March, which was not there the next year. So there's been all these twists and turning, but the way God worked, he was showing us what was going to happen. And when we open up our new testaments, we say, Oh wow, it really happened.

[25:52] God is showing us the future. The Sabbath, the seventh day is not necessarily a festival. So we would just look at the seven festivals and see what they show us. The very first festival we see is the festival of the Passover. It is the slaying of the Passover lamb. And he says, these are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim it. The times, the times appointed for them in the first month on the 14th day of the month at twilight. This is the first day of their calendar year on the 14th day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. God had a very specific day for this. When we go into the new Testament, we read of this day being celebrated.

[26:36] And we are reminded that the Passover was the slaying of the Passover lamb and the blood putting across the doorposts on the lentils of the doorposts so that the death angel would pass over the nation of Israel. It was a very specific purpose. It was a very specific worship. It was one that was dictated so that they would remember that the blood of the lamb causes the death to pass over the nation.

[27:01] When we open up our new testaments, all four gospels testify to this reality that Jesus Christ died on the day of preparation of the Passover. Why did God say on the 14th day shall be a holy convocation and you shall slay your Passover lamb? It's because on the 14th day of a month, on the first day of the month, on the 14th day, at a specific time, in a specific place, Jesus Christ was going to be slain as our Passover lamb. The lamb slain before the foundation of the world would be slain on this world at this appointed time. He is our Passover lamb. He was slain on the day of preparation when all the other lambs that people were going to use to be reminded that the blood of the lamb caused the death angel to pass over their sins and to pass over their life. Our Passover lamb was being crucified. We read that testimony over and over again. And it says then on the 15th day of the same month, so that is the very next day, it is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. The feast of unleavened bread was to remind them that they would have no time of preparation, that they would have to, that it would be a place of purity. Remember, unleavened, leavened throughout scripture always refers to sin. It is always something that is referring to impurities. So for something to be unleavened, it would be pure.

[28:17] And they were to celebrate this with unleavened bread to remind them that they had to leave in haste, that they had to leave in secret because of the, not the secret, but they had to leave in haste and they were to leave in purity because God was redeeming them. It is here that we see that he who hung on the cross was pure. He was without leaven. He was without sin. He was completely pure. He who was laid in the tomb was not one that was laid in the tomb with impurities, but was rather laid in the tomb in pure form. We see the fulfillment of this in Jesus Christ. And then we see in verse nine, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, when you enter the land, which I am going to give you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheep of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. Now let me see if I can explain this to you. You were to have the Passover. Okay. The Passover was dictated by the moon cycle. That's why our Easter changes.

[29:12] You were to have the Passover on the 14th day of the month. The very next day you were to have the feast of unleavened bread. The Sabbath, which followed the feast of unleavened bread was to be the festival of first fruits. It did not necessarily always be the third day because if your Passover was on a Thursday or your Passover was on a Wednesday, then it would be the first Sabbath.

[29:38] It could have been four or five days out, but the schedule was this Passover next day, feast of unleavened bread. The very first Sabbath, which followed the Passover shall be, or the very first week, I'm sorry, the very first beginning of week, which followed the Passover should start your festival of first fruits. It was here when you were to bring in the harvest, which you had brought and waved that harvest before God. It was saying that he accepted everything, the sheaf and the grain and all things. Jesus is referred to as the first fruits of the resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead because the very third day after his crucifixion was the beginning of the first fruits celebration in the year in which Jesus Christ was crucified because he was the Passover lamb. He was the pure one laid in the tomb as the unleavened bread. And he also was the first fruits that was waved before God because he was accepted. It just so happened to be in that year that it fell on a Sunday. I didn't just mean that it just so happened to be. I'm saying that God set the schedule here so that so many years later it would fall perfectly in line because Jesus is the first fruits of the dead. And he was the one that was holy and fully accepted body, soul, and spirit before the father. He is the first fruits. And then we count out seven Sabbaths from there, which gives us to the festival of weeks or 50 days later, the day after the seventh Sabbath. So 49 plus one was 50. We refer to this as the festival of Pentecost. The festival of weeks was so much different than the festival of first fruits because at the festival of first fruits, you were to take the head of grain and you were to bring it and wave it before God. You were not to eat any of it. You were not to use any of it. You were not to take anything from your field until you brought that first fruit and waved it before God and you worshiped him and he accepted that. The festival of weeks or Pentecost, which literally means 50, was so much different. Do you see what you brought there? You baked two loaves of bread at home and brought it.

[31:39] You brought two loaves that you had baked at home and then brought it. So you had been living off of this harvest, which you have reaped. And now you want to continue. The first thing would be, God, thank you for this harvest, what you're going to give me. I trust you that you're going to provide more in the way that I'm going to show my trust is I'm going to give you the first thing I get.

[32:00] Right? Whatever I get first, I'm giving to you because I know more is coming. And then 50 days later, after you've harvested all that, you come back and you worship him again going, God, you have given. me more. Let me show you the loaves of bread I have baked because you have given me more.

[32:13] And I'm going to worship you because I've been eating out of my garden all this time. Right? And it is bringing love. Now these loaves of bread contained what? Leaven. These were not wafers like we ate these morning. This was loaves of bread that had to rise. So it contained leaven. I'm one of those strange guys. I like making bread because I like watching something grow. Okay. I just do. I think it's pretty amazing. And it's just, just kind of a weird thing. So they contained a leavening agent of some leavening scripture refers to what? Sin. Which means that it was something that was impure, but we're presenting it to God and God is accepting it. The festival of Pentecost should mean something to us because it was on the day of Pentecost, which Peter stood up and he preached that sermon of Jesus Christ. And that day of Pentecost, all of a sudden something is born on the day of Pentecost. And that thing is called the church. And let me go ahead and tell you, in case you didn't know, the church is full of impurities. The church is full of leaven. You know how I know it? It's because I'm a part of it. But God accepts that. And he accepts it because it is a part of his harvest. And see what Christ has done and Christ has presented himself as the pure offering so that the impure offering, the loaves of bread, that is us, would be acceptable to

[33:28] God as well. So here we have the festival of Pentecost, which leads us to the birth of the church because of what Christ has done. These things happen exactly as they should. And then we would have a break in the year in the Jewish calendar and we would come to the festival of trumpets.

[33:44] Now the festival of trumpets was pretty straightforward. That was the beginning of their new year. He'd just say there would be a sounded trumpet and you should be still in worship. So they started their new year with worship. They didn't start their year with celebration.

[33:54] They didn't start their year the way we too often do in our own nation. I don't know about you, but quite often I celebrate the coming in of a new year of sleep. But, you know, I have been a part of New Year's Eve watch night services where churches would gather together and pray. They would gather together and worship. And I think that's a pretty good practice. And if we can ever get up the courage to do it, then maybe we can sound a trumpet and worship when that new year dawns because that's exactly what the nation of Israel was doing.

[34:21] Now we know that there will be a day of celebration in which we will also hear a trumpet because these things are pointing to Christ. Because our real new year, our real new beginning starts when we hear the trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15, when the trump shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise and their bodies and their souls shall join together and they shall ever be with their Lord. We're waiting on a trumpet that will start something new for us. Because see, the reason they celebrated when the trumpet was sounded was because they were about to come up on the day of atonement. The new year began with celebration because they knew they were going to be forgiven. And the reason we're waiting on a trumpet in Christ is because when that trumpet sounds, friend, the new beginning has come and we really are made new. And we see him as he is and we are as he is. And all of a sudden, all things have become new, not just the time, but even us.

[35:13] And it is the trumpet that points to a celebration. And it is the trumpet that we are waiting on. And that trumpet was followed by the day of atonement, which exactly is what happens to us. Atonement is to be completely forgiven, to be completely washed clean, to be completely new.

[35:26] Now we are atoned in Christ, but when that trumpet sounds, we will be made whole. We will be made new. And guess what? We will do nothing because it says you will do no work in it. Somehow another, Christ in his power and somehow another, Christ in his majesty, when if I am dead or if I'm alive, because those that are alive in Christ will also rise to meet him in the air. However it may be, if I am dead and I'm laid in the ground and my soul is in the air, or if I am alive when that trumpet sounds, however it happens, that is also the day of rejoicing because in that moment, in that instant, Christ makes me whole. I am as what Paul says, this immortality has put on immortality.

[36:06] This impurity has put on purity. I have been fully clothed with the righteousness of Christ. I have been completely atoned. And finally, we come to the festival of booths, or is often called in the New Testament, the festival of tabernacles. The reason the festival of booths and festival of tabernacles is so important is because God is showing us, or he's showing the nation of Israel.

[36:29] He was the one who supplied them everything they needed during their 40 years of wandering. He is giving them this festival before they have to wander for 40 years, so that when they celebrate it after 40 years of wandering, now we only have about one or two recordings in the Old Testament that I can think of where they actually do celebrate this.

[36:49] We see it being celebrated a little bit in the New Testament, but not to the extent that God is calling them to, because they were supposed to leave their house and go out and gather branches and build booths or temporary shelters to remind themselves that there was a time when God was all they needed to provide everything they wanted. And it was to show them that they wandered for 40 years and their sandals did not wear out and their clothing did not wear out, that God sustained them, that he fed them and provided for them. Friend, the festival of booths is there to remind us that Christ is all we need. He is all the provision we need. He is our Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, our provider.

[37:22] He is the one who has completed us all, and all we need is all he gives us. He is our tabernacle. He is our booth, and we can set up shop in him because he provides everything we need all the time.

[37:35] And when we follow him completely, our feet will not wear out. Our clothing will not rot on our backs. We will not go hungry. We may not have what we want. It may be manna from heaven, or it may be quail when we get tired of it, but we see that the water will not fail to come, and the food will not fail to be provided because he is our shelter. And may we always be reminded that he is the great provider that we need. See, every one of these festivals show us the future, and they show us the fulfillment, just like the sacrifices show us in the early pages of Leviticus. Every sacrifice points to Christ, where the reality is, is every celebration points to Christ too. Why? Because he is our celebration.

[38:13] He is our celebration. He is all we need. Therefore, may our calendars be set and gathered around him. We don't have to wait for special appointed days to celebrate because we get the opportunity each and every day to celebrate every one of these festivals. May we not neglect it, and may we not forsake it, but may we be reminded of the fact that he is all we need, and he is all sufficient. Let's pray.

[38:40] Lord, we thank you so much for all you've done. We thank you for your goodness and your grace to us. Lord, we thank you for the mercy you've poured out upon us and for allowing us the opportunity to look at your word. Lord, may our hearts and minds be fixed upon you, and may our lives be oriented around you, and may you be glorified and honored through our lives. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

[39:18] Amen. Amen.

[39:49] Amen. Amen. Thank you.

[40:48] Thank you.

[41:18] Thank you.

[41:48] Thank you.

[42:18] Thank you.

[42:48] Thank you.

[43:18] Thank you.