The Feasts of The LORD

This is a wonderful morning because we're together in the Lord's house with our brothers and sisters in Christ and most especially because what we're celebrating today and that's the Lord's Supper. That is the highlight of my quarter every time that we get to celebrate and make much about our Lord Jesus Christ. Before us we have bread and we also have wine and those of course symbolize the body of Christ. That Christ was the perfect Lamb of God. He never sinned. He was God made flesh. He came into this world to live a life of perfect obedience for us on our behalf and in turn the world rejected Him and crucified Him. He died and His body was broken for us on our behalf and His blood, it was represented by the wine, was shed for the remission of our sins. Jesus says that if you come to Him He'll no wise cast you out. That's because His body was broken for you and His blood was spilt for you. So that's the glory of communion that we get to picture what Christ did for us on the cross. When you think about the New Testament church there is only one celebration that we are commanded to keep. That's the Lord's Supper. As often as we eat this bread and drink this cup we never claim the Lord's death until He comes. But when you look at the Old Testament there are many different feasts, many different holy days that Israel was supposed to keep for all time. We're gonna be looking at those this morning and show how they point to Christ. Once you open up your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 23. In Leviticus 23 we're gonna find that there's the Sabbath day and then there's seven feasts of Israel that they were to keep in perpetuity. And this was to give them a, if you could call it a lattice or a framework, to look forward to Christ because all these are fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. If these were not fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ there'd still be a perpetual obligation today to observe these, right? These called for sacrifices, every single one of them. And we know that Christ was our sacrifice on our behalf. These required Sabbath observances at the temple or they would not be valid. So every one of these are fulfilled in Christ and they point to our Savior. Picture how awesome His love is for us. We're not gonna read every verse like we normally do just because it's a long chapter and we got a lot of ground to cover and we're also doing the Lord's Supper. So we're gonna kind of be given an overview. I have notes available for you if you didn't get one. They are on the back table there, just an overall outline of what we're doing today. We're gonna look at the first feast which really isn't a feast but it's an observance. It's called the Sabbath. Last week Dr. Anthony did a great job of explaining the Sabbath so I don't have to go too much in depth of it. But the Sabbath was a solemn day of rest and we see that in verse 3. "Six days shall work be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation, you shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." Christ of course is the fulfillment of that. If you recall we are studying the book of Hebrews, that's what we're normally going through on Sunday mornings and in Hebrews chapter 4 we read this last week verses 8 through 10. It says, "For if Joshua," Joshua is the man who led Israel into the conquest of Canaan, led them into the Promised Land, "if Joshua had given them rest then he would not afterwards had spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also abandoned the works from his works as God did from his." Christ perfectly obeyed the Father. He kept every single law in the Bible. He never broke one and he fulfilled all righteousness. Because of that we find our rest by trusting in his finished work, trusting that what Christ did has merit to save us. Because he never broke God's Word, because he never fulfill or came short of fulfilling all of the righteous demands of the law, his righteousness is vast. There's not a single one of us who cannot be saved by it so we can rest in his righteousness.

Many times as believers we think deep down that we still have to earn God's favor. Yes, I know Jesus died for me but you know if I don't dot my I's and cross my T's and wear my Sunday best and I don't do this or I don't do that then God may be mad at me, right? I may not have God's favor. You can never earn God's favor. It's not possible. The Bible says that in our natural selves apart from Christ that we are sinners, right? We're stained and who can stand before the Holy God, right? Who can approach his holy hill? None of us can but in Christ we can. Christ we find acceptance because Christ perfectly fulfilled the law. He is our Sabbath rest. So rest in Christ if you're trying to subconsciously earn God's favor, recognize that. Say what he did is enough. It's more than enough for me.

Number two, the Passover remember God's deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. Because of the Lamb's blood Israel was spared and we see that's the first feast that is listed here in verse 23, I'm sorry chapter 23 verse 5. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And we remember what the Passover symbolized when God with his mighty hand led Israel out of captivity, gave 10 plagues and the 10th plague was very severe that the firstborn of all the Egyptians would die. But they were told to sacrifice a lamb, a spotless lamb and to put the blood on the lintel of your doorpost. And then the death angel would pass over. That's why we call it the Passover, right? He would pass over those who had the blood on their door, the faithful Israelites who believed God and applied the blood to the door. And we can read about that in Exodus chapter 12. I'm going to read to you verses 12 through 14. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. Every one of the plagues, the 10 plagues were a direct assault on the Egyptian gods. They had a pantheon of gods and every one of them, God was showing, "You're nothing. You're useless. I'm the one true God." He says, "I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the house where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. And the plague shall not come to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast, as an everlasting ordinance." He always wanted Israel to remember his salvation, that he loved them enough to deliver them out of bondage, right?

Well, we no longer keep this ordinance. That was kept forever underneath the Old Covenant, right? But we're under the New Covenant. And the New Covenant, what we see before us, the Lord's Supper, has taken the place of the Passover. It actually grew out of the Passover Supper, right? It's basically a way of affirming it and reapplying it to Christ. Jesus says, "This is the blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you." Right?

And so when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we're saying that God has graciously passed over our sins. We deserve death. We deserve hell. We deserve judgment. But he passes over our sins because the blood of Jesus Christ has been applied to our hearts, that "Whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life."

1 Corinthians 5, 7 says, "For indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us." Christ is called the Passover and he's called our sacrifice because he laid down his life for us.

I want to apply this to us as a church.

This is never to take our Lord's grace lightly. We do that, don't we?

We often sin figuring, well, God's going to forgive us. But his blood was shed for us. His life was laid down on our behalf. It's precious, right? Don't ever take it for granted what Christ did for us.

The third or the second piece that we see here is a feast of unleavened bread. And it was actually celebrated as part and parcel of the Passover. Immediately the day after the Passover and for the next several days was a feast of unleavened bread. And the unleavened bread feast symbolized how Egypt had to make haste and departing out of Egypt. And so there wouldn't be even time for the yeast and the bread to rise. Right? And it became a symbol of holiness and became a symbol of not having sin in the camp because yeast was often compared to sin. And the reason why, it only takes a little bit of yeast, you ladies who've baked bread. You know what happens? And that whole loaf rises very quickly. And all it takes is a little bit of sin. Right? We let a little bit of compromise in. We let a little bit of excuse in. And before we know it, we are far from the Lord. Right?

Leviticus 23, 6-8 describes this feast. I'm not going to read it in its entirety, but I want to read to you how Christ took away our sin. Part of the custom of the

Feast of the Unleavened Bread is you were to sweep your household and remove all traces of leaven from your house. The idea behind that is leaven again being symbolic of sin. Any sin to be left behind that can corrupt your children or can corrupt your family. Right? What Christ did for us on the cross.

Was only to forgive us of our sins, but to remove that sin far from us, to remove that stain, to make us white as snow.

First John 3, 5 says, and you know that he Christ was manifested. He came down here to come flesh to take away our sins. And in him, there is no sin. If Christ had the slightest stain, he could not have been our perfect Savior. He could not have been the spotless lamb who takes away the sin of the world. But he's altogether holy, altogether lovely, altogether righteous.

Second Corinthians 5, 21 says, for he made him, speaking of Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He takes away our sin. He covers us with his very blood so that when God looks upon us, he says, you're righteous. You have the very righteousness of Christ. Though we know that we have fallen, fall short of the glory of God. But God sees us as righteous because we are in Christ. Took our sin to give us his righteousness.

I want to encourage you as Christians.

To do what the Israelites were commanded to do, and that is to sweep your house for sin.

In the same passage that we read up above, First Corinthians 5, 7, for indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. If you read the verses around it, this is not to let the leaven of sin come into your life.

Because it only takes a little bit, right? We can't compromise if as a father you're compromising.

Then it's going to hurt your wife and it's going to hurt your children, right? Mothers, the same thing. You bear grudges if you bitter, if you backbite. Your kids are going to see that, right? Sin spreads. So let's be diligent, be killing sin, right? We kill sin by bringing Christ in. Ease the antidote.

The Feast of the First Fruits is the next feast that we see here. We see this in verses 9 through 14.

And it was to acknowledge and thank God for the barley harvest, giving the first portion back to God. There were three of these different feasts. You actually bring a what we call an agricultural

portion to the Lord. All these had sacrifices of animals and the like as well. But this was to bring the spring barley harvest and the very first of it to the Lord. And the reason why, it would be out of gratitude. God had given you a good harvest. So he deserves your first. He deserves your best, right? And this barley harvest would have been as a wave offering. Waved before the Lord and be eaten in the celebratory manner between the one offering it and also the priest. So it was actually something to to celebrate and enjoy.

This particular feast was to take place the day after the Sabbath. And this follows, of course, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and also the Feast of the Passover.

That was the same day that Christ rose again from the dead. He rose again from the dead the very first day of the week. You'll see that in verse 11. He shall wave the sheath before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Because this was pointing forward to Christ, his resurrection. Because Christ was the first fruit of the resurrection. He was the first man who faced death, who died and rose again. Yes, he resurrected Lazarus, but did not Lazarus die again? Right. But Jesus was because he was sinless, because he was the son of God. He had power over death and death had no right to hold him in the grave. If he had stayed in the grave, it would have been unjust because he was the holy one. Right. The holy one of God. So he arose from the dead. And in his resurrection is ours because we are in Christ. We have hope to that when we die, we also will rise again. Right. We're going to be with him in heaven. And then one day the trumpets going to sound and our bodies are going to come up out of the grave and our bodies and souls will be reunited in heaven. We're going to be made like him. Can't explain exactly how it's going to be, but it's going to be a glorious day for the church. And we had that hope and that confidence because Christ is the firstfruits. Right. He was waved before us, so to speak, in his resurrection to say what is true of Christ is true of you. This is your future. First Corinthians five, fifteen, three through four says this. For I delivered you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, that he was buried and he rose again. The third day, according to the scripture, just as this feast of first fruits was performed on the first day of the week, that's when Christ resurrected. First Corinthians fifteen, twenty through twenty three. But now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. He's the hope of every believer who dies. For since man for since by man came death, by man, man capitalized by Christ also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, all shall be made alive. He's using a typological example. He says that Adam, the very first man, you know what happened to him, him and Eve in the garden, what happened, they ate of the fruit. They sinned. Death and corruption came into the world.

But Christ is the second Adam or the last Adam. He's the head of a new humanity and he never sinned and he lived a perfect life and he defeated death, right? And all who trust in him are part of this new humanity. You're either dead in Adam or you're alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're alive in the Lord Jesus Christ, though you may die, yet you shall live is what he promises.

Application to us in regards to this is have the hope of the resurrection.

The older we get, we lose loved ones, right? I have one uncle left. I one time had eight. He used to love getting together with him on Thanksgiving as a boy playing pool. I have so many godly saints that have gone on before me that are now in heaven. You know what? I'm going to see them again.

I have the hope of the resurrection, right? That those who are in heaven are the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I am too, if I am in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Feast of Weeks is the next feast that we see here. And we see this in verses 15 through 22. The Feast of Weeks was also known as the Feast of Pentecost.

Pentecost comes from number 50, and it was to be observed 50 days after the Passover, because it symbolized that Israel came out of Egypt and in 50 days they then appeared before God at Mount Sinai. And what was given to them at Mount Sinai?

The law, right? That's where God made a covenant with them.

It was associated with the receiving of the law at Sinai, the offering the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the celebration of Jubilee.

They were to celebrate the first fruits of the wheat harvest, which was different from barley. So it was another agricultural first fruits that they were to bring. That would be also a wave offering. And it also brought to their mind the Jubilee, because in the law God gave to them at Sinai. The Jubilee was part of the Mosaic system, and Jubilee meant that in the 50th year, the whole land would have a Sabbath rest. No planting would take place. In that 50th year, any family property that you had sold, guess what? Comes back to you, right? Your debts are forgiven.

The end at that 50th year, if you had sold yourself or your family member into indentured servitude, guess what? You went free, right? So every year when they would celebrate the Pentecost, they would look forward to that year of Jubilee. That number 50 was burned into their mind that one day I'm going to be free. One day that land is going to be returned to me. One day I'm going to have no more debts. Right? So that was part and parcel of the Feast of Pentecost.

On Pentecost, Christ sent us His spirit in fullness. And the fullness was the fullness of His grace, both dwell within us to make us His own body. That's where the church was formed at Pentecost. This is part of this death, burial and resurrection, right? Because when He was risen from the dead, He sat at the Father's right hand from whenceforth He sent His spirit at Pentecost, right? He sent His spirit to form the body of Christ, the church, and to empower us to do His work, to be literally His hands and His feet here on earth. Acts 1.8, Jesus said this at His ascension. He says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Judea, in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." This is that pattern that's mirrored all throughout Acts, starting in Jerusalem, then Judea, then outwardly to Samaria, then the uttermost parts of this world.

God created the church there. That's where He formed the church, to be the body of Christ, to do His work.

Pentecost is when the spirit was poured out on the church, right? At the Feast of Pentecost, it was one of the feasts that every man had to attend. The Passover was another one. Pentecost was the second one where every adult man of Israel had to come to Jerusalem and had to appear. So a place was full of people from all around the region. And all of a sudden they heard these spirit-filled believers speaking in their own languages. Over 16 different languages were heard. And they heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ had set them free, that He had declared the year of Jubilee, that your sins, that debt that you owed, that He paid, that you had sat in chains were now set free. You no longer would be a slave or a servant to anyone but our Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious day that was at Pentecost.

Today as the church, we are still the body of Christ, are we not? We not have His Holy Spirit who seals us and has indwelt us and empowers us? I submit to you that the mission of the church has not changed in 2000 years. It is to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, in the uttermost parts of the earth.

The next feast that we see is the Feast of the Trumpets. And we see this in verses 23 through 25.

The Feast of the Trumpets was a memorial of blowing of the trumpets. It actually says either the blowing or the shouting. Trumpets actually isn't supplied or is supplied. It's not actually there in the Hebrew because the idea was it was a blast, it was a shout. And we see both of those. For example, when you read in the New Testament about the Lord's return, that there would be a sound of a trumpet and a shout.

Those are both expressing the very voice of God. Trumpets blasts were a display of both His presence and His power. When you heard the trumpet blast, you know, the Lord's armies were gathering. Right. And it also connoted a assembly of the people. Right. Assembly the people to meet God. And we see this most exquisitely in Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19 was something that was burned into the conscience of every Israelite. Exodus 19 is when they had been brought out of Egypt and they had been brought to Sinai. Right. And at Mount Sinai, God was going to meet with them and God was going to give them His law and God was going to make a covenant with them. And let me read to you.

From Exodus 19.

Versus 13, then 16 and 19, says, not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow, whether man or beast. He shall not live when the trumpet sounds long and they shall come near the mountain. Which means you're not to go beyond a certain marker there on the mountain. Then when you look at verse 16 and 19.

Then it shall come to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thundering and lightnings, a thick cloud on the mountain. And the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

When God manifest His power, His presence.

Trimbling is in order.

And it was so overwhelming that all the Israelites trembled.

And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. It's smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace in the whole mountain, but it was quite greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him by voice. It's just terrible theophany of the God's presence of smoke, a fire of darkness. And of a trumpet that was so loud they couldn't stand it. It got louder and louder and louder. It was a very presence and power of God. And God was summoning them to meet with Him at the foot of the mountain.

In Jesus, we have a mediator that's better than Moses

and a mediator of a new and better covenant than what we saw at Sinai. Right. Jesus.

Is the very embodiment of God's power and of God's presence. Right.

We see that in the resurrection. Who could raise himself from the dead? But the very power of God. Right. Only God could do that.

And only is he the mediator of God's power and presence, but he's the one who calls us, who summons us to stand before God. And he makes us able to stand before God because he close us in his own righteousness.

And therefore we don't tremble and we don't live in a carnal fear. As you see with the way that God's presence struck fear in the children of Israel. We have a full ale fear, fear knowing that God loves us and we love him. And that's why we respect him. That's why we honor him. Right. I want to read to you from the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews chapter 12 verses 18 through 24. For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the words not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure what was commanded. And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses says, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. Even their mediator was afraid. But you have come to Mount Zion,

to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, an innumerable company of angels. You're here, you're in God's presence. And to the general assembly of the Church who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all and the spirit of just men made perfect to Jesus, the mediator, the new covenant, into the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

We've come to Christ. We've come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly city, and we are secure and safe in the blood of Christ. Right. And his words are not grievous to us. Right. Because his laws now written on our hearts. Right. Not just superimposed from the outside.

In Jesus, we hear in our age.

That the new age has broken forth. In other words, when he came, he announced the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. He was saying the old covenant was coming to an end. And he was ushering the new covenant. And that's what the wine symbolizes in the Lord's Supper. This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood. He stood between two ages. He perfectly kept the old covenant in order to offer us the new covenant.

I want to apply this to us today is knowing that because we stand in Christ righteousness, we stand accepted by him, that we can come boldly to his throne of grace. There were.

Barriers to Mount Sinai for your own protection. You went past them, you would die, right?

But there's no more barriers. Christ pierced the veil in his own body, his own flesh, right. And he went into the very heaven of heavens, the high place, right. Therefore, we can enter there boldly to find grace and help in time of need.

Number seven here is the Day of Atonement. This is the six of these feast. The Day of Atonement marked the only day where the high priest could enter the most holy place, we call that the Holy of Holies. And he went in there to offer incense and offer sacrifices for the Atonement of God's people. The blood of a lamb there on the mercy seat. And he made prayers for Israel before the Lord. He could only go in there once a year to be able to make Atonement for the sins of Israel. What happened the next day when we get angry or we got bitter or we curse or we

we curse our brother or we steal?

Sends right back where we started, right? We need forgiveness, but the Day of Atonement doesn't come until another year, right?

Christ is our great high priest.

And as I mentioned, he has entered into the most holy place in his death, burial and resurrection, and therefore he brings us in with him. Hebrews nine twelve says, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, he entered

the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. What he did had eternal merit because he never sinned and he was infinite in his divinity, right, his divinity united to humanity. So what he did has the value of both. He could take our sins in his humanity and cover them with his infinite purity, his infinite righteousness, right?

So we can therefore not have to worry about our sins not being covered or have to wait next year for the Day of Atonement. Bible says, if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness, Hebrews nine fifteen says, and for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgression under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

I ask you today, have you received the promise? His eternal inheritance.

It's not something you can purchase.

It's not something you can earn.

It's something you can freely receive. It's a gift.

Jesus says, if you believe in him, will not perish but have everlasting life. It is our giving ourselves to Lord, our trusting in him, not trusting our own merit, our own righteousness to save us, but totally trusting on the finished, complete work of our perfect Savior who died for us on the cross. Pardon, parcel to that faith is repentance. That means you have to leave your hope and your trust in everything else. We turn from our sin, we turn from our confidence in the flesh and from ourself, our own devices, and we turn to Christ to trust in his righteousness. That's what repentance and faith is. It's the same coin, just different sides. You have not trusted in our Lord Jesus Christ to do so today. You don't have to walk the aisle to do that. You don't have to go perform sacrifices. Christ is our sacrifice. Look to him, his finished work.

The seventh piece is a feast of the Tabernacles, and it's the third piece, along with the Passover of the Pentecost, that all Jewish men were required to attend. The Feast of the Tabernacles was to be a seven day feast marked by joy. And you see that in verse 39 here of Leviticus 23.

Also on the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days. And on the first day, there shall be a Sabbath rest. And on the eighth day of Sabbath rest.

And you shall take for yourselves on the first day of the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. This was a seven day feast of rejoicing. This was Israel's favorite feast. They looked forward to this. They put up money for this kind of like a vacation. And they were to build for themselves booze on the rooftops or on property. If they didn't own their own place, they could do it in the city square. And these were not shacks. These were made out of the finest fragrant fruit trees. These were not made out of cruddy brush stumps like we have here. Sometimes in Florida, if you've ever gone to the clean out some of your yard, you have weeds that grow this high during the summer. It's not what this was made out of. This was fragrant. This was good wood. And they built these and they ate and they feasted and they celebrated the Lord's provision for Israel all during the wilderness during the wilderness. Forty years that Israel wandered in the wilderness. They wandered in wilderness because of their sin. But was God unfaithful to them?

No, he provided for them water.

He provided for them water from the rock. Right. That is Christ. He provided manna from heaven. What does Jesus say in John six? I'm the true manna. You'd have me and you're never going to hunger again.

He provided for them clothes that would not wear out. Right. He was a shadowy pillar to give them shade by day and a fiery pillar to give them light at night, to go before them and behind them, to protect them and to keep them all their days. Want to read to you from the book of Nehemiah about this. Just a beautiful passage here.

When they came back from the Babylonian exile, they found the scriptures as they were trying to restore the temple and they read the scriptures and they tried to put into practice things that they had long ignored or forgotten about, such as the Feast of the Tabernacles. And you'll see in verse 15 of Nehemiah nine, he says, you gave them bread from heaven for their hunger. Speaking of those in the Children of Israel.

You brought them water out of the rock for their thirst and told them to go in and to possess the land which you had sworn to give them. Look at verses 18 to 21. Even when they made a molded calf for themselves and said, this is your God that brought you out of Egypt and worked great provocations, yet in your manifold mercies, you did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day to leave them on the road, nor the pillar of fire by night to show them light and the way they should go. You also gave them your good spirit to instruct them and not withhold your man water for their thirst. 40 years, you sustained them in the wilderness. And they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell. See God's providential care, both his provision, his presence and his protection of Israel.

Let me tell you something, my friend, the Lord Jesus Christ is our tabernacle among us. What do we read in John one? And the word of God became flesh and dwelt, which means tabernacle among us, God's presence among us to provide for us, to protect us. Right. And we beheld his glory. The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Oh, it is great to have the good food that we're about to eat here as we take this fellowship meal together, but you know what's even better?

That fullness of grace, fullness of truth. It's far more satisfying than any bread could ever be. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through the Lord Jesus Christ.

In John, chapter seven, we find that there is this remembrance, this feast of the tabernacles going on in Jerusalem and Jesus' brothers say, why don't you come up and show her by the year of the Christ? Jesus, not right now. And I'll go ahead and go on. Jesus comes up there a little bit later behind them, right?

And on the eighth day of the feast starts with the Sabbath, has seven days of feasting, and then the eighth day is the ultimate day of that feast.

Jesus was there.

And at the morning sacrifice and at the evening sacrifice during those eight days, the question that they did where as they were preparing the morning sacrifices, the high priest, along with all the worshippers who were there, would leave the temple.

And they would walk down about 900 feet, which is about three football fields long, to the pool of Siloam.

It's the same pool, remember, where the man was waiting to be thrown into because he believed an angel would stir up the water.

That pool was where kings were anointed from.

That pool

was considered to have messianic hopes because of the anointings, the water that came from there. And they would take a golden vessel and they'd fill it with water from that pool. And then on the ascent back up, they would begin to play instruments and they would sing Psalm 113 all the way through Psalm 118, which was traditionally sung at the end of Passover as well. It's called the great Hillel, the praise. It's a beautiful singing of praise and worship to God of messianic hopes.

They would enter in through the Watergate.

And the high priest would take that golden

container of water, he'd walk up a ramp to the actual raisin altar.

And the people would say, raise your arms high, because there were so many people there, they would need to be able to see it.

And he would pour that water onto the altar on one side. Then he would take at the same time, after he had done that, he would take a wine offering and pour it on the other side of that altar. And during this time, they would be reaching the crescendo, which we find here in Psalm 118, 25 to 29. Save now, I pray, O Lord, O Lord, I pray. Save a sin now, prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the Lord and he has given us light, buying the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God. I will exalt you. O give thanks to the Lord for he is good and for his mercies endure forever. All the observers would have in their hands these branches that they would begin to shake. And it made the sound of a rushing wind. It was just a spectacular sight to see.

Jesus would have observed this. And in John, chapter seven, it tells us what he does. It says, John, chapter seven, 37 to 38, on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. In other words, the water from the pool of Siloam, it's not going to satisfy you. He says, he who believes in me, as the scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But Christ is saying that everything that you're seeing here, it's about me. Right. It's about me. It's my life that is going to be laid and sacrificed on the altar. It is by me that you will receive all spiritual blessing and it's through the spirit that I'll give you that you will have abundant life flowing out from you.

I want to notice in verse 37,

Jesus says, if anyone thirst, let him come to me. Christ bids us to approach him.

And that is true to us today. Jesus this morning is saying, if he thirst, come to me. I will satisfy nothing else can satisfy you. I alone have the living water that can satisfy and quench your thirst.

He says, come to me.

And drink.

Christ bids us not only to come to him, to approach him, but he bids us to appropriate him. He says, drink, take of me. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper.

It is picturing our union with Christ.

It is our union in his death, burial and resurrection. But it is also our union with this very life that sustains us. Just as our bodies need physical food to nourish us and to sustain us. We need Christ to sustain us spiritually by meditating on his death, his burial, his resurrection for us. It empowers us to live. It appropriates Christ. And not only does he tell us to approach him, not only does he tell us to appropriate him, but he tells us to bound in him. He says, if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

We get to experience the very communion of the triune God. Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's because of Christ that his spirit lives within us, who mediates both the Father and the Son. They come, they make their abode within us never to be taken from us. We are sealed by a spirit to the day of redemption.

So I encourage you this morning.

If you have not

approached Christ, this is a great day to do so. Come to him. He invites you.

If you have not appropriated Christ, do so. I believe that your death was for me. Your body was broken for me. Your wine, your blood was spilled for me. And I believe that if I trust in your death, your merits, that my righteousness will be made yours and that my filthy rags will be taken away from me. Right. So we receive his righteousness in the place of our unrighteousness. And then you'll find that you'll have abundant life. She'll have Christ in you. That's the greatest treasure, the greatest blessing we could ever have.

Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are our Passover lamb. We thank you, Lord, that we celebrate this new Passover today because you were faithful, you were just. And I thank you, Lord, God, that in you we find our faithfulness, we find our justness because of your righteousness alone. I pray, Lord, that you bless our Lord's table now as we celebrate and remember your death, burial and resurrection. Jesus name. Amen.