*This sermon was paused and restarted due to a medical emergency. We thank God the person involved is well.
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the Holy Spirit whom you are pouring out on us this morning. Lord God and I pray that as I preach and as we read your word, the oil of the Spirit will fall upon us, will speak to our hearts and empower us and change us and give us the joy of the Lord in a fresh and wonderful way, so that we might know what is right and what is good and what is true. And our lives might become more like Jesus as a consequence of this time together. In your word, I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Introduction
Well, last week I preached on various laws from the book of Deuteronomy, on finance and debt and slavery and offerings. Well, this week I get to preach on a much more comfortable, a much more joyful subject, which is the subject of feasting. Do you know God loves it when his people eat together? And we’re quite good at that as a church. I like to think we’ve had lots of things recently where we get to eat together. We had fish and chips on the beach. Do you know the ladies in this church had a fish and chips social before we had a whole search church social, having fish and chips on the beach. That’s how much they love to feast together, the ladies of the church. We had an afternoon tea last week after the meeting as well on Sunday. And we have church lunch together every month. Every lunch. Next social, we’re men’s social. We had dinner together, didn’t we, on Friday night? Yeah, we love to feast together and God loves it when we eat together.
Now in the Old Testament, three times a year, the whole nation of Israel will were required to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the temple, and to celebrate a feast. And that’s what Deuteronomy 16 is all about. The three times a year when the whole nation would come together and have a feast.
Passage Reading
So let’s Read together Deuteronomy 16, 1:17. Observe the month of Aviv and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. For in the month of Aviv, the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night and you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God from the flock or the herd at the place the Lord will choose to make his name dwell there you shall eat no leavened bread with it seven days, you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction. For you came out of the land of Egypt in haste, that all the days of your life you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. No leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days. Nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain all night until morning. You may not offer the Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell in it. There you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening, at sunset, at the time you came out of Egypt. And you shall cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. And in the morning, you shall turn and go to your tents. For six days you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day, there shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God. You shall do no work on it. You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God, with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give. The Lord your God blesses you. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. You and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within you, within your towns. The sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are among you. At the place the Lord your God will choose to make his name dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. And you shall be careful to observe these statutes. You shall keep the Feast of Booths, seven days. When you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress, you shall rejoice in your feast. You and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant. The Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow who are within your towns. For seven days you shall keep the feast of the Lord your God, at the place the Lord will choose. Because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful. Three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose. At the Feast of unleavened bread, at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, they shall not appear before the Lord empty handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God.
Sermon Outline
God has given you three feasts described in Deuteronomy 16. And for each feast I intend to explain what happened and talk about the Christian significance of each feast, how it points to Jesus Christ. And I hope, like me, you’ll be blown away at the brilliance of God in giving these feasts as a way of prophetically speaking about the Saviour to come. And then at the end, I’m going to draw out several lessons from all three feasts that we ought to learn together.
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
So first, let’s think about the Passover and, and the feast of Unleavened Bread in verses one to eight. Once a year, the Israelites all went to the temple, to the place where God said, this is where my name will dwell. And they went there to celebrate their escape from slavery in Egypt. Now, you’ll notice in verse one that they must observe the Passover in the month of Aviv, which is called Nisan elsewhere in the Bible. And it’s the first month of, of the Jewish year.
Now, did you know actually that the Jewish calendar changed that when, when the Jews. In the beginning of the Bible, the first month of the year was a month called Tishri. But when God rescued Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he says in Exodus 12, verse 1, this is now the start of the year you’re going to change. It’s not, it’s not September anymore, it’s January now. This, this month. So they celebrated escape from Israel by changing their whole calendar. The start of the year was a new beginning, just like it was a new beginning when the Israelites came out of slavery in Egypt. Now, isn’t it amazing that the Jewish calendar changed because of a work of God in saving his people?
The whole world’s calendar, the Christian calendar, the Western calendar, also changed with the rescue that God gave in the person of Jesus Christ. We count our years, don’t we, from year zero, which supposedly was somewhere close to the year that Jesus came to earth. So I want you to know that when Christ came into your life, if you are a Christian, it was a new beginning. It was. Let’s restart counting the years from now from zero. It’s year zero in a sense. And it was the same for the Jews as well. They had a new beginning when they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. So Aviv became the first month of the year, and in that month they were to offer the Passover sacrifice.
Now, many of you will know the story of the Passover feast, but it’s a brilliant story. And so I’m going to tell it to you all again. Egypt and Pharaoh have enslaved the Israelite people. In fact, Pharaoh has imposed some very harsh rules on the amount of Work that the Israelites need to do. And every time Moses comes to Pharaoh and says, let my people go, Pharaoh refuses. I’m Pharaoh. I’m the most powerful man on the planet. Who are you, God? Who are you, Moses, to tell me what to do? I will not let your people go. They will work for me. They will serve me. And so God brings judgment upon the land of Egypt and the people who are under Pharaoh. And you can read about those judgments in the 10 plagues that many of you will be familiar with. Blood and locusts and frogs come upon the land. But finally, God says this final judgment will persuade Pharaoh and he will finally let the Israelite people go. This will be the final judgment upon the land of Egypt, says God. The angel of death will pass through the land and enter into every home and kill the firstborn son. He will also enter Israelite homes unless. Unless they observe the Passover. Unless they kill a lamb, they sacrifice a lamb, and they take the blood of the lamb and. And paint it on the doorposts of their house. And if the angel of death sees the blood on the doorposts, he will pass over that house. Judgment will not come to that house, but it will come to every other house. You see the blood of the lamb. The sacrifice of the lamb diverts the judgment so that it passes over onto others, but not onto your home. Those who trust in God and believe in the promise of the blood will be saved from this dark and terrible day which comes in the land of Egypt. And so that is what happens. The Israelites sacrifice lambs and paint their doorposts and are safe because of the blood of the lamb. And the Egyptians suffer a terrible judgment of God. And Pharaoh says, okay, you can leave. He still actually changes his mind, of course, and chases the Israelites, which ends in destruction and death for Pharaoh and his army. Every year, the Israelites were to gather in Jerusalem and sacrifice the Passover lamb. Remembering this amazing work of God, in saving the Israelites, we were sacrificing, saved from death. We were saved from the judgment of God, and we were rescued out of slavery in Egypt and were to go. And so they instructed by God every year in this particular month, at this particular time, to celebrate the Passover.
They were remembering the great salvation work of God. But they weren’t just remembering. They weren’t just remembering. They were also prophesying, they were also foreshadowing. They were all also looking forward to the ultimate lamb who was slain to save people from the judgment of God. The ultimate lamb who was slain is Jesus Christ, who shed his blood upon the cross. And whoever trusts in the blood of Jesus, whoever puts their faith in our Lord and Saviour, whoever metaphorically takes the blood of Christ and paints it on their life, is protected from God’s wrath forever and ever into eternity. If you are a Christian, you will not suffer the angel of death knocking on your door because he will pass over your life, because the blood of Jesus will protect you forever and ever.
If you’re not a Christian, I would urge you this morning put your faith in Jesus, the Lamb who was slain. Deuteronomy 16 is saying to the people of Israel, every year you’re going to gather at Jerusalem. You’re going to gather, it says in verse two, at the place that the Lord will choose to make his name dwell there. So that’s the temple where God says, this is where my name dwells. They’re going to gather in Jerusalem at the temple and they’re going to look back at what God has done in rescuing them from Egypt. They’re going to look around at the entire nation together in one place. What an amazing thing that would be.
And, you see that in the Gospels actually regularly, that all the nations, all the people come together, they’re going to look back at what God has done, they’re going to look round at the entire nation and they’re going to look forward to the coming Messiah who will lay his life down and shed his blood so that all who put their faith in Jesus will be saved from the judgment of God. I want you to remember that Jesus celebrated the Passover meal himself. When you read the Gospels, you’ll see that Jesus went to Jerusalem with his disciples and they ate the Passover meal together. And when he did that, when Jesus did that in the Gospels, he gave his disciples a new feast to celebrate. Because at the Passover meal, Jesus gave his disciples the Lord’s Supper.
And when we he gives the disciples the Lord’s Supper and he gives the Lord’s Supper to us. We eat bread and wine and when we do that, we look back and we remember that Jesus gave his body on the cross, that he shed his blood on the cross so that we are saved. It’s our Exodus moment. It’s our post Passover moment. We look back and say, yes, Jesus, you did it. Thank you for what you have done. We are free. We are forgiven. It’s a new start. It’s a new beginning. Let’s change the month of the year or whatever. Let’s celebrate what Jesus has done. We look back. And when we take the Lord’s Supper, we look around and we share this meal with the local church. All gathered together. We are one body. We’re all receiving from what Jesus has done. We’re all one together in that. And we look forward when we take the Lord’s Supper the to the return of Jesus, when He will come to judge the world and usher in the new heavens and the new earth, when everything will be put to rights. I love this about God. He’s orchestrated all of history in order to bless us. And so he says, hey, there’s going to be a Passover. There’s going to be this amazing salvation moment for the Jews. And then they’re going to have a meal where they look back and they look around and they look forward. And then on the Passover night in the New Testament, Jesus is going to come and, and give all Christians for years and years to come a new meal, a new feast, the Lord’s Supper, where they’re going to look back and look around and look forward and celebrate what God has done.
Now, when we gather on a Sunday, we only eat a small morsel of bread and drink a little sip of wine. We use juice. But even though we’re only eating something small, there is a spiritual feast. In that moment, God feeds you by his grace and the power of the Holy Spirit. So you might think that communion, the Lord’s Supper, is a fairly dull part of our meeting, where you come forward and you still feel hungry afterwards. But I really believe that when we come and take this small bit of bread and juice, we are together encountering God in a different way. We encounter God when we sing to him, don’t we? He pours out his spirit, and we love to do that. We encounter God in His Word. When the Word is preached, we feel God is meeting with us and we encounter God. We commune with God in the Lord’s Supper and by sharing it together, we are meeting with Him. And His Holy Spirit works within us and takes something fairly simple and I believe turns it into a spiritually nourishing feast of grace. Do you believe that, that God is nourishing you when you’re taking this? This is why, you know, this is why we like to do it every week, because we just think that there’s grace to be had in doing it. And it is a spiritual feast. Of course,
In Deuteronomy, chapter 16, it’s not just the Passover that’s described in that first section. It’s the Passover and the feast of Unleavened bread. For seven days after the Passover, the Jews would eat unleavened bread. And you can look at verse three, and you can see why they did this. The unleavened bread is called the Bread of Affliction. And it’s meant to be a reminder that when they were released from Egypt, they got out of their fast. They didn’t wait around for their bread to rise. They took the food, and they didn’t have time to wait for the bread. So it was a leaving in haste, you know, it wasn’t like, oh, Pharaoh said, we can leave, but I’ve got bread in the oven and the yeast is working. So I just hang around. No, it was like, no, we’ve got to get out of here. God’s brought the release. Let’s go. So they ate. The Feast of the Unleavened Bread was a celebration of this leaving in haste.
But it’s called the Bread of Affliction. And in verse eight, they hold a solemn assembly as part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There’s something about the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread that’s joyous. God saved us. God rescued us. Thank you. It’s amazing. There’s also something that’s quite somber about the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was a time of affliction for our people that we were rescued from. This was a costly rescue. We had to flee. We had to run. It’s the same with communion, isn’t it? There’s something so joyous about the Lord’s Supper. Jesus saved us. Hallelujah. Praise him. I’m a Christian, I’m a Savior, a son and daughter of the King, all because of what Jesus has done. There’s no sin that has stuck itself to me anymore. It all went on him. Therefore I’m blameless in his sight. It’s joyous. The communion is joyous. We should dance to the front to take communion because of what the Lord has done. And yet there’s something also quite somber about the Lord’s Supper as well. It’s these two things mixed together. It cost Jesus his life to rescue us. He loved us so much. He went through the horrific punishment of crucifixion on the cross and his blood being shed. So there’s these two emotions just mixed together in the Lord’s Supper. I hope you feel them when we take communion together. It’s the most joyous, glorious, wonderful thing combined with this somberness of what Christ has done. John Piper says this about the Lord’s Supper. There is a solemnity with explosive joy. There is sweet cheerfulness whose eyes are brimming with tears. The Lord’s Supper is a commemoration, an emblematic demonstration of the most painful, the most sinful, the most sorrowful act in the history of the world. And it aims to produce in us a. A kind of joy in the Gospel and in Christ that is greater than any joy in the world. I just think that’s brilliant. The most sinful, sorrowful, awful thing that ever happened in history is also the most joyous and glorious and wonderful thing that ever happened in history. And those two things come together when we take the Lord’s Supper together. Well, that’s the Passover, the Feast of unleavened bread and the Lord’s Supper.
Feast of Weeks
Let’s have a look at the two other feasts here. Deuteronomy chapter 16. So the second feast mentioned is the Feast of Weeks. On the second day of Passover, actually, a sheaf of wheat was cut and offered to God. It was meant to be the very first thing that was harvested. So something was cut down and brought and offered to God. And Leviticus 23, that feast is actually given. Oh, that ceremony is given its own name. It’s called the Feast of First Fruits. It’s the first fruits of the harvest. So this is the second day of the Passover festival. You cut something down, you celebrate another feast called the Feast of First Fruits, and you bring this sheaf of wheat and offer it to God. Now, what Deuteronomy 16 says is from that day you count seven weeks. And that’s because normally it took seven weeks to gather in the harvest of wheat. You know, you had seven weeks to do all your harvesting, to bring it all in, to do that.
Now, seven times seven is 49. So 49 days is what’s been described in the seven weeks. And it’s one day after the Passover. So you end up with 50 days. I’m good at maths. I embarrassed myself with maths earlier in this sermon series. Well, 49 plus one is 50. I can say categorically and confidently. So the feast of weeks is also called pentecost, which means 50th day in Greek. So the feast of weeks is also called Pentecost. Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, was the celebration of the end of the harvest or the first harvest of the year. We’ve gathered everything from the field. We’ve gathered in all the wheat. Let’s all gather together and celebrate what God has given us. Look at it all, all of this stuff. How did it grow? None of us know. But God brought the sunshine and the rain and his life, loads of wheat. And we’ve gathered it all in. Isn’t God good for what he’s provided? And so Pentecost was a celebration of the harvest. Let’s all gather together in Jerusalem and have a party.
You’ll notice that while there’s a solemn assembly for the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread for the feast of Weeks, it’s a celebration of joy. You’ve got to rejoice because the harvest has come in. In verse 10, it says, Bring a freewill offering. So there were offerings that were instructed, commanded in the Bible. These are the things you’ve got to tithe. These are the things you’ve got to give. But this was a freewill offering where you say, hey, whatever I want to give because of all that God has given me in the harvest, I’m going to bring to this celebration, feast and offer up. It’s a way of giving back. And you’ll also notice that everyone gets to share together. It’s the family, it’s the servants, it’s the Levites, it’s. It’s the sojourners or the foreigners, it’s the widows, it’s the orphans. Everyone at the feast of weeks gets to celebrate in this amazing feast. Isn’t it appropriate that at this magnificent party in Jerusalem was also the setting for the first big Christian harvest of joy?
You’ll know the story if you’re a Christian. On the day of Pentecost in Acts, chapter two, 50 days after the Passover, everyone’s come to the city of Jerusalem to celebrate the Pentecost, the Feast of weeks. And the Holy Spirit falls upon Peter and James and John and all the apostles, and they begin praising the Lord in in tongues. And actually they’re praising God in their own language. And yet everyone’s understanding from all these different nations. And people are going, I’m hearing the praises of God in my own tongue. What’s going on here? Some people think they’re drunk. It’s a massive celebration, and they think they’re drunk. And it’s only nine in the morning. They’re not drunk. It’s the Holy Spirit that’s come upon them. And they’re full of the joy of the Lord because the Spirit has fallen upon them. And Peter stands in front of this great crowd of Jews from many different nations who’ve all made this pitfall Pilgrimage for the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Pentecost. And he preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ apart from me. Does it in this way. He says, Jesus is the Messiah. He died. He rose again. You crucified him. You crucified the Messiah. It’s a bold sermon that he preaches. You guys, you’ve all come to Jerusalem for Pentecost. You all here for the Passover as well. I saw you, and you crucified him. Celebration over, hey? Actually not. Because what happens is that they are cut to the heart. 3000 people are cut to the heart and say, you’re right. What should we do? And Peter says, repent and be baptized, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And on that day, 3,000 people give their lives to Jesus Christ.
You know, the harvest of wheat must have been impressive with the whole nation bringing in their freewill offerings. But let me tell you, the harvest of 3,000 people coming into the kingdom of God was a greater harvest and one even more to celebrate. God is so clever, isn’t he? He knew there’s going to be the death of Christ on the cross. There’s going to be the Passover moment, then there’s going to be the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He’s going to defeat death and rise again. And then Jesus will ascend into heaven. And then I want there to be a day, a moment where the Spirit’s poured out in power, and they’ll call it the birthday of the Church. So I’m going to organize the festivals in the Old Testament. So there’s 49 days or 50 days between these things, and they’ll call it Pentecost. And then Pentecost will take on this whole new meaning. It will no longer be the Feast of Weeks, It’ll be the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church and 3,000 people got saved. He orchestrated it all together before it happened. You got Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. You’ve got the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost.
Feast of Booths
And then in Deuteronomy 16, you’ve also got the Feast of Booths in verses 13 to 17. So after you’ve harvested all the wheat, what you do is you take the wheat and you put it on the threshing floor. You thresh it. So you’ve got stalk and wheat and grain all together. And you’ve got to thresh it and get rid of the rubbish so that you’ve got the useful bit of the wheat. So in the Feast of Weeks, you’ve got all these great pile of plants. When it comes to the feast of booze, you’ve got rid of the chaff, you’ve got rid of the stalk, and you’ve just got the grain, the useful bit of wheat that’s being brought in. So now it’s called the produce. It’s the celebration of the produce. And you’ve also got, at the Feast of Booths, the wine as well, because the grapes have been harvested, they’ve been taken to the wine press. And I’m assuming that they did it with their feet. They’ve pressed all the wine with their feet, they’ve squeezed all the lovely grape juice out. So you’ve got the produce, you’ve got the grape juice, and you’ve got the wheat coming into the feast of booze.
And God says, hey, let’s have another celebration. The Pentecost is good. That was a great joyous one with celebrating the harvest. I want my people to get together and have another feast with the wine and with the grain. And they’re going to have another feast all together in Jerusalem at the Temple. So look at verse 13. The Feast of Booths was about celebrating the edible produce. It’s also another harvest. So at different times of year, different things get harvested. So you’ve got the wheat earlier in the year, and then you’ve got things like pomegranates and figs and olives that are harvest later in the year. So the feast of booze is kind of the second harvest of the year and another celebration, more food in, and they all get together and it’s another feast of joy. In fact, it might be the most joyful of all three feasts described in this passage, because you look at verse 15 where it says altogether joyful, I think that sounds like fun. It’s altogether joyful. That’s what this feast was meant to be. And as Christians, I think we should be altogether joyful in lots of the things we do, especially when we’re eating together.
Now it’s called the Feast of Booths, and it’s called the Feast of Tabernacles. Because what the Jews would do at this feast is they would build tents for themselves out of leaves. They build little booths for themselves, sticks and leaves all tied together. I think I would not be great at it.
*Sermon was paused and restarted.
Okay, so we’re talking about the Feast of Booths. We’ve done the feast of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And we’ve talked about the Feast of Weeks, and we’re thinking about the third feast in Deuteronomy, chapter 16, which is the Feast of Booths, where everyone’s brought their produce in their wine and their wheat, and they’re building huts or booths out of leaves and sticks.
And the picture that that was meant to present is a reminder, firstly that they came through the wilderness and they had temporary accommodation in the wilderness. So they had to keep pitching their tents wherever they went as they traveled through the wilderness to enter into the promised land. So it’s a reminder of that journey that God brought them on. And it’s also this picture of eating and dwelling Together, when you tented, when you moved, when you tabernacled with someone, you were enjoying great fellowship. It’s kind of like the Commission festival, which we haven’t had for a while, but the Commission Festival where loads of Christians come together and they hang out in tents. It’s like the Feast of Booths. We just. And, you know, sometimes you get to know things about people that you didn’t want to know when you share tents with them. So that’s what it’s all about, the Feast of Booths, this great celebration, altogether joyful celebrating the produce that has come in and the tents that have been set up tabernacling together.
Now, in Christian tradition, the Feast of Booths has been seen as fulfilled in Christ in two different ways. So in Christ’s first Coming, the language that John uses to describe that is Feast of Booths language, he says that Christ came and tabernacled with humanity on the earth. He came to dwell on the earth. So if you’re reading John’s gospel and you’re a Jew and you’re seeing that language, you’re thinking, this is like the Feast of Booths. I shared a booth with my mate and we ate together. And this is what Jesus has done. He’s cut come from heaven. God the Son come to earth, and he’s tabernacling with us. He’s sharing a tent with us. And after coming to earth, In John chapter 7, Jesus actually preaches at the Feast of Booths. And this is what he says when he preaches at the Feast of Booths. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, as out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, the reason that’s significant is because at the Feast of Booths, according to tradition, they would quote verses about running water, and they would do these water ceremonies. So everyone’s enjoying the harvest, sitting in booths, and they’re celebrating rivers of living water. And Jesus stands up and says, it’s about belief in me. This feast that you’ve celebrated for years was actually about me, and I’m the source of living, living water. If you believe in me, then the Holy Spirit will be poured into your heart. And then out of you will come the life of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Out of you will come will flow rivers of living water. So that’s one way of understanding the Feast of Booths being fulfilled in Christ is him coming to tabernacle in his first coming. But many Christians, when they preach on the Feast of Booths, see this fulfilled in Jesus second Coming. The reason they do that is because in Zechariah chapter 14, which is undoubtedly one of the most complicated passages in the Bible to interpret. So I’m not going to take us there because you have all kinds of questions that will distract us from our main point. But if you want to read it in the week and come and ask me questions, then I’ll do my best to answer them. In fact, Zechariah chapter 14 is so complicated that Martin Luther, the great reformer, when he wrote his commentary on zechariah, he wrote 13 chapters of commentary. And then when he got to chapter 14, he went here in this chapter, I give up. And they didn’t write anything else. So he didn’t write anything about chapter 14 in this. Anyway, it’s a complicated chapter of Scripture. But the most common interpretation of Zechariah chapter 14 is that it’s a picture of the end of the world, of the new heavens and the new earth. The Lord stands on the Mount of Olives. It’s in Zechariah chapter 14, as a warrior, and he brings judgment upon his earthly opponents. So there’s a great judgment scene in Zechariah chapter 14. The Lord stands in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives, and he judges his opponents. And then in Zechariah 14, verse 16, after the judgment is over, it says this, that Jews and Gentiles will come together to the city of Jerusalem and celebrate the Feast of Booths together in the city of Jerusalem. That’s what happens in Zechariah, judgment of the world. And then this moment where Jews and Gentiles, all different nations, come together and celebrate the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. Do you see what’s happening in that picture is that Christ is dwelling, God is dwelling with man on the earth. And Jews are coming and feasting with Jesus and Christians, Gentiles are coming from all different nations and feasting together, all in one place in Zechariah chapter 14. And so Christian interpreters have said, this is what we’re saying is that the Feast of Booths is all about Jesus Second coming. When Jesus comes. And really, tabernacles for eternity on the earth with Jews and Gentiles and people from every nation, that glorious new heaven and the new earth where we will feast with the King, we will see God face to face, and we will eat with one another and have perfect, glorious fellowship with one another. And there’ll be no more sin, because sin will be defeated and death will be done away with. And we will feast together forever. Now, when you read Zechariah 14, you’ll see why that might Be a complicated interpretation, but that’s what we’re going with for now.
It’s definitely true that the Feast of Booths has this theme of God tabernacling with all people. And so I love Deuteronomy chapter 16, these feasts that point to Jesus Christ. You’ve got Jesus, who is the Passover Lamb, who shed his blood, who gave his body so that we might be saved from the judgment of God, that God’s judgment would pass over us, fall upon Christ. But we are free and saved. We’ve got the Feast of Weeks, this proclamation, this celebration that becomes the celebration of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit. When Christ gave the Holy Spirit to his people and the Holy Spirit, he was poured out and many people got saved. This great harvest of salvation. And of course, that harvest is ongoing. We’re still seeing people saved thousands of years later. Even in this church, we can get to celebrate people getting saved and giving their life to Jesus. It goes from the Passover on the cross to Pentecost and then all the way through to Jesus Second Coming and the Feast of Booths and this moment where God comes to dwell with man forever and ever.
What Can We Learn?
I love Deuteronomy 16. It’s all about Jesus Christ. All the law is about Jesus Christ. But I also think that we can learn some things from this chapter as well about how we ought to live as Christians in 2025. So I want to draw out five lessons very quickly for us from these feasts that we’ve read. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is that gathering together is a really important part of God’s plan for us.
The yearly feasts were designed to ensure that everyone came together at the same place where the Lord’s name dwelt. Now, you’ll see in verse 16. I hope this didn’t confuse or upset you, but you’ll see in verse 16 that all males were required to come. But that doesn’t mean that females didn’t also come. I assume that the reason males are required and females aren’t is something to do with family and the fact that some people had to come on long pilgrimages to get to Jerusalem. So on occasion there was kind of this freedom for women to stay home, perhaps with young children. That’s my assumption. I don’t know the answer. But all males are required to come. And when you read about these feasts in the Bible, you’ll see that many women showed up as well. They all gathered together and participated. They gathered at the Temple in Jerusalem three times a Year, but we gather to the name of Christ. Weekly at church, they gather to the temple where Jesus name dwelt. We gather around our Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, we might be called Christ Church Fareham because we couldn’t think of a more original name than that. But I love it as a name because we are all about Christ. And when we gather together, we are gathered around the name of Jesus. It’s him we proclaim, it’s him we worship. It’s him we want to shout to the world and say, this is the one who’s the Savior of the world. This is God in human flesh. Believe in Jesus Christ. We gather to the name of Jesus. And gathering is important. It’s not this, you know, there’s just, ah, I won’t bother with church. I’ve got other things to do. No, this is a wonderful thing that God loves when his people gather together. So gathering together is important. In fact, in Acts chapter two, in the early church, they gathered every single day to be devoted to the apostles teaching and to share break bread and to share fellowship and to pray. So we gather less than that. We gather once a week. We also gather in our homes, of course, during the week. But every time we gather together that Sunday, something that is part of God’s heart and his desire for his people, gathering together is important.
The second thing is that in that gathering, the fatherless and the widows and the poor and the sojourners are all included as well. Certainly explicitly in the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths, there was food provision for these people who might not have had enough. And that’s what the Church should be, a gathering together of everyone, including those people who are actually on the outskirts of Satan society, who are poorer, who are less well off because we want to love them and care for them and give them what they need. That should be included in the Lord’s gathering. And I tell you, when all Christians gather together at the end of time and every tribe and tongue and nation worship King Jesus, there will be many who live poor and difficult lives on the earth who are included in that number, who get saved. Because the church say, we want to love you and care for you and give you what you need, and we want to introduce you to the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. So gathering together is important and inclusion of those people who for all kinds of different reasons are less well off, are included in that number.
The third thing is the theme of rejoicing. When they got together, there was a somber celebration at the Passover, but there was also rejoicing because of the harvest, there was celebration. I want us to be a people of rejoicing. I want to be a joyful person who, when I gather with the Lord’s people, whether it’s on a Sunday or in a home group, I’m joyful. I’m with other Christians who have been saved by grace. We are brothers and sisters together. Isn’t it amazing that we are part of the harvest that God has brought into his kingdom? Let us be filled with joy now. There are all kinds of trials and difficulties that happen in life. And I’m not saying don’t be sorrowful about those things. It’s not about grief is part of the Christian life as well. But there is something wonderful about the truth church. There’s something wonderful about who God is that fills us with joy so that we can worship and sing and leap and dance even when we’re going through the worst of circumstances. We have so much to be joyful about. We’re free from sin. We have a resurrected king who defeated death. We have everlasting life in Jesus Christ. We have an awesome church family. We have salvations happening in our church. We’re seeing spiritual breakthroughs in our midst. May God give us the joy that we should have because of all he is and all he is doing in our midst. Let’s be joyful, people. Let’s rejoice.
The fourth lesson that I want to draw out of Deuteronomy 16 is that they thanked God for their food. There’s an agricultural calendar that involves gathering everything in and having a party and giving credit to God. It says several times in the passage, it you bring an offering because the Lord has blessed you in all that you have done or all that you have produced. And you know What? Sometimes in 2025, we can take our food for granted. We just turn up at the supermarket and we have enough food and we give the money and we take the food and then we eat it and we enjoy it. And actually we forget that the only reason we can do that is because of the gracious, glorious, abundant provision of our God. Now, saying grace before our meals might be something that you think is twee and religious, but actually, Rachel and I always do it. We always say thank you for our food before we eat it. And maybe we do it too religiously in a sense that it’s just, oh, let’s just get the prayer out of the way. And actually we need to go. No, the only reason we get to eat is because God has poured out his Rain on the earth. And because he’s enabled life to grow and plants to grow, everything we have, especially our food, is. Is from God’s precious hand. So whatever you have for lunch today, whatever you have for dinner today, whether it’s something boring that’s less good, say, thank you, God, that I’ve got this. And if you have something delicious like a roast dinner, then go for it. Jump up and down on the table and rejoice because God has provided the harvest and celebrate for what he’s done. Let’s just make that part of our lives, that what we have comes from God. We are less thankful than we ought to be as Christians.
Sometimes fifthly, and finally, of course, these feasts were all about remembering the great deeds of God. The feasts were about saying, this is what God has done. He brought us out of slavery in Egypt. He brought us through the wilderness where we stayed in tents. He’s brought us into the promised land, and he’s given us the harvest and the food and the produce that we need. God is amazing. That’s what the feast is about, how awesome and amazing God is. And I’ve already said this, but in the New Testament, Jesus gives us his disciples. In fact, he gives us two sacraments. He gives us a sacrament of baptism that when we baptize someone, we celebrate that God has made them alive in Christ, that there’s this. I think it’s a harvest kind of moment when we baptize someone, yes, this person’s saved. I mean, I don’t want to dehumanize anyone, but this person is like a wheat that, that we’re getting out of the field and we’re bringing along and saying, yeah, they’re planted in the field of Christ. Now that’s what baptism is, a celebration of the harvest. It’s a celebration of salvation. So God gives us. Jesus gives us baptism as this sacrament of celebrating what God has done. So let’s have a party in October. Let’s make it a day of joy when we celebrate the baptisms we’ve got in this church. There’s going to be a party in heaven because the angels rejoice at every sinner who gets saved.
Concluding Thoughts and Prayer
So let’s make sure it’s a party on earth as well. And the second sacrament that he gives is the Lord’s Supper. And I’ve already said this, but I’ll repeat it again. When we take the Lord’s Supper, we remember that Jesus gave His body for us on the cross, that he shed his blood for us on the Cross, we remember with joy because salvation is amazing and we couldn’t save ourselves. And we remember with this seriousness and sombliness because Jesus had to give his life. And however you want to express that as we take communion together in a moment, go for it. If you want to focus on the joy and smile and celebrate, and that’s great. I want. I want you to go for it. If you want to be more somber, that’s okay, too. But remember, it’s both of these things coming together. Christ had to die, and he did die, so that we might be saved. Hallelujah. Praise God.
So we remember, we look back, we come together, all united to Jesus, all united by the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. And we look forward to. To Christ’s return at the end of time when we take the Lord’s Supper. So in some ways, all three of these feasts kind of come together in the Lord’s Supper. For Christians, it’s the celebration of what God has done in the past in saving us. It’s the celebration of the Holy Spirit at work in our midst in the harvest right now. And it’s the celebration of Christ’s return, the Feast of Booths, when we will dwell together with Jesus forever and ever. It’s about remembering. And it’s also a feast. You eat but a morsel, but are served a spiritual meal of grace that Jesus feeds you by the power of his Holy Spirit.
So let’s stand together. I’m going to pray, and then we’re going to take communion. And what I’d love you to do is grab a friend and say, hey, let’s take communion together. And let’s imagine we’re tabernacling together or building a booth together as we take communities Communion as we proclaim the Lord’s death, proclaim that we are the church, and proclaim that Christ is coming again. So I’m going to pray, and then either side of me come forward. Let’s celebrate communion together. And then I’ll pray to finish.
But yeah, let’s pray. Lord God, thank you that you are a God who loves his people to feast. And I pray that we would have some great feasts in this church celebrating who you are, what you’ve done, and what you’re doing amongst us. Lord, we love to eat. Thank you. Thank you for the gift of food. It all comes from you. And we’re very, very grateful for all that you provide us with. Thank you that you’ve orchestrated history so that these feasts would point to the Savior, Jesus and Lord Jesus. We thank you that you are our Passover lamb. You shed your blood so that we might be passed over. In your judgment, we would be free from sin and we would be called sons and daughters. Your people protected by Christ’s blood rather than those people vulnerable to the the judgment that is coming. Thank you, Jesus, for dying for us. Thank you for giving your body on the cross. Thank you for shedding your blood. We are not worthy of that. But with somberness because you had to die, but also with joy. We give you praise because you have won for us a great salvation in your death upon the cross. We thank you for the day of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit was poured out and the church was born and 3,000 people get saved. We rejoice at all the salvations you have done, Lord God, we give you glory and praise. And we thank you that one day you will return and you will dwell with us on the earth. And whether we’re in booths and tents together or not, whatever it looks like, that’s going to be magnificent. Where all the Lord’s people eat together with you. Lord God, we look forward to that day. We proclaim your death until you come in taking communion. And I pray now that this would be a spiritual feast, that your Holy Spirit would move mightily in our hearts and minds as we take this sacrament together. We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.
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