Australian Homiletics / Preaching


        Sue Slack
        THE THREE FEASTS (PART TWO)

        Sunday 7 November 1999 at Green Head Christian Fellowship, Green Head, WA. Tape transcript

        Exodus 34, Leviticus 23, Numbers 29 and Deuteronomy 16. Matthew 7:22.



        By way of revision for those that weren't here, we did an introduction to the three feasts of Israel a fortnight ago and we looked at some scriptures in the New Testament that show that God is very much at work and He's coming back for a perfect church, He's working in us individually, and He's working in us corporately, historically.

        And we looked at the number 3, what that means regarding the Godhead. We looked at a few scriptures about the Godhead, we looked at what the number meant with respect to perfect witness, 2 being a good witness, and 3 being a perfect witness:

        "out of the mouth of two or three let every word be established".

        So we looked at scriptures for that and then I just gave you some references to the three feasts: Exodus 34, Leviticus 23, Numbers 29 and Deuteronomy 16. We're actually going to look at some of those verses this morning.

        I also gave you an overview - I explained from my own personal experience that when I became a Christian and became Spirit-filled I was getting very, very hungry… I wanted to know more - I wanted to have more of God... I was a sponge for more of the Lord and... while I was at a particular denomination, I was. introduced by friends, who had just come over from New Zealand, to a new level of commitment to God in the scripture and to the three feasts of Israel, the three parts of Moses' Tabernacle, to the meaning of numbers, various numbers in the Bible, plus scripture being put to song, and spontaneous praise, where after we've all sung songs together we go into a spontaneous time of praise, and the outflow of that was songs of thanksgiving that people were making up as they went along, prophecies, tongues and interpretation - all sort of things! Exhortations from the Lord - and people just getting songs, putting scriptures to music. It was a wonderful, exciting time for me.

        So I was going to those meetings as well as attending the denominational meetings and coming back to those meetings full and excited and they would say "what's wrong with you?". When I spoke to the pastor of that group about my interest in the other group - and he was trying to discourage me from getting involved - I said, "Well, they're teaching about Passover being a spiritual experience. Would you agree that Passover is not just a feast belonging to the Old Testament that the Jews used to keep, or is it for us to experience today? And the pastor said "Of course, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." And we looked at that verse last time that we did this study... So he said "No, of course Passover is a spiritual experience." And we explained that last week.

        Then I said, "Well, what about Pentecost? Is that just an Old Testament feast or is it a feast for us to enjoy today? is it a SPIRITUAL feast?" And the pastor said "Of COURSE Pentecost is spiritual. That's why we're called Pentecostal churches. What happened in the Book of Acts is still happening today". It's intended- God intended- and, of course, we exchanged scriptures like:

        "In the last days God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh and your daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions, your old men will dream dreams."

        and the gifts of the Spirit will be given. So we talked about that, and there was no problem with Pentecost being a spiritual gift for us to enjoy today.

        So I said, "Well, what about the feast of Tabernacles?" And the pastor said, "Oh, you can't over-spiritualise everything in the Bible!" But it was too late. I was already hooked. I knew that if there was a feast of Passover, if there was a feast of Pentecost that we were enjoying spiritually and historically, then the feast of Tabernacles must also have some meaning for us today. So I got busy studying it and I just want to share again a little bit more about it with you today.

        Passover is divided into three feasts within the feast. Pentecost is a single feast and Tabernacles is again divided into three parts. So when you add that up you have 7. And God is using seven feasts to bring us to perfection, to bring us to spiritual maturity, 7 speaking of that in the scripture.

        Passover involved unleavened bread and it involved the first fruits of the barley harvest. One sheaf of barley was waved before the Lord at that feast. This is symbolic of Jesus the Sinless One coming and giving His life for us, and when He was waved, that's when Re was raised from the dead. By taking the grains of that sheaf and turning it into a loaf we then had in the feast of Pentecost two 'wave loaves'. This time actually it wasn't barley, it was wheat. This was the first fruits of the wheat harvest which came fifty days after Passover, 'pente' meaning 50.

        So there was Passover and there was, 50 days later, Pentecost, which was also called the Feast of Weeks, because they counted up to that time. Two wave loaves were offered, and they had leaven in them, which is important to our study, because you'll find in the Corinthian church Paul is appealing to the Corinthians - and we looked at this last time in I Corinthians 5: 7,8 - he said "let's get rid of the leaven, let's remember that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us without leaven". He said, "I see sin in the church. Let's get rid of that." Now this was a church who had now moved into the realm of the Holy Spirit but there were some sins taking place - and we see it in the church today.

        We see that once people have given their hearts to the Lord, have gone through water baptism, received the Holy Spirit, there are still problems that come up. So you have pastors extorting, you have adultery, you have all sorts of things that go on- mind you, it goes on in the other churches as well - but it seems a paradox that as we're journeying towards our inheritance that this sin pops up. Well, it didn't surprise the Lord and when He instituted the feast there was some leaven in it, but by the time you get to the Feast of Tabernacles that leaven is removed once again.

        So we have the hope that, though we work through some problems now, that we thought when we came (to the Lord these would be gone)- or we didn't even know about them! That's my testimony. When I gave my heart to the Lord at ten years old there were some things about my personality, my background, my thinking, that I didn't know yet. There were some things that had been sown into me because of my background that hadn't fruited yet. And so when I was a teenager, arid then in my 20's, I confronted some things in my own life that I, at ten years old, I wasn't even aware. But at the age of 19 and at the age of - in my 20's - the Lord was my advocate, the Lord was my mediator, and sin that did appear, He did take away. He did deliver me of sins that I had in my teenage years that were not evident when I gave my heart to the Lord at 10. Can anybody else relate to that?

        So the Lord has made ample provision for us. He says that if I sin, I have an advocate. He is faithful and just - if we confess our sin - "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He wants us to be spiritually mature.

        So when Vanessa shared the Communion - we do this once a fortnight here - but we do it in remembrance of what Jesus did, and at any time we're encouraged not to actually celebrate it until we've done away or dealt with sin. So if we have some major problem in our lives, we need to get rid of -deal with it first - before we take the feast. And so that's just to keep our conscience clear, it's just to keep us honest, it's to keep us very aware of the fact that though in these bodies at any time we can return to sin - these bodies have the potential to sin - we were born like it - but the good news is that today we don't have to sin. Today I can live a sin-free day, although I have the potential at any minute. Today, just today, I can live a sin-free day, in my thoughts, in my speech, in my behaviour, in my deeds. Today I can live a sin-free day because Jesus is living within me and I can decide to go His way today, or I can decide to go the way of the old. But the day is coming where my soul and my spirit and my body will all be cleansed and completely set free. My body will be changed into an incorruptible body that can't sin any more. And that's what we're headed for.

        Tabernacles was made up of three feasts: Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles Proper, or the Feast of Ingathering..... You had Passover in the first month, Pentecost in the third, and then in the seventh month you had the Feast of Tabernacles. That's when all the corn came in, the wine, the oil, all the other fruits, apart from wheat and barley. Everything else was harvested in... It was a great time of joy, feasting; it was a great time of celebration. The vats were overflowing and everybody was coming up to Jerusalem to celebrate. And so we're going to look at that in more detail, perhaps not this morning, because there's a little bit more background that I want to lay, but what I do want to do, as I said before, is have a look in the scripture to show you that's it's there.

        Exodus 34 let's go to that one. And the importance of doing this is because Moses himself knew about God's intention to bring the Children of Israel from Egypt into Canaan, which was going to be the land of their inheritance. Moses was told this way back in Exodus 3, verses 7 to 12. And Moses was asked to tell God's people that. So before they even left Egypt, they were told "There's a better place. Now, if you'll just do what I say, the Lord's going to get you out of Egypt and get you in to the Promised Land."

        - -. That's probably the testimony or the experience of most of us here. While we were still in sin, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners, somebody handed us a tract, or shared their testimony, or we read something; while we were still in sin, somebody told us "there's something better there's heaven, if you want it. There's hell if you don't want heaven. You've got a choice." So the Lord was already preparing them about the inheritance. But He didn't go into a lot of detail. But they certainly wanted to be delivered from Egypt. Egypt was oppressive. And when people finally get to the point where they are sick of their sin, where they're sick of their lifestyle, they're sick of what's happening to them, and they do want to be free, then they'll take that step and say, "Yes, Lord, I want you to come into my life."

        And then they'll go through the Red Sea, which symbolises water baptism. Then after the Red Sea experience the Lord led the Children of Israel down to Mt. Sinai. That's when Pentecost took place. Passover took place in Egypt, Pentecost took place - or it's a commemoration of- when they were at the base of the mountain, Mt. Sinai, and Moses received the Law there.

        Now this is where we are in Exodus 34. Moses has gone up into the mountain - and we'll read from verse 18. The Lord is speaking to.. actually in verse 1 it says:

        "Make two tables of stone like the first one.

        Now the first one, if you remember the story, he made that in Exodus 23 and he got the Ten Commandments, and he got some instruction, but we know what happened in between. The people made a golden calf and Moses came back out of the mountain, saw what was happening, broke the stones, and the Lord said "You go right back up there, back into the mountain, we're going to do it again." So that's what He said in Exodus 34 verse 1:

          The Lord said to Moses, "Hew two tables of stone like to the first, and I will upon these tables the words which were in the first tables that you broke."

        So down in verse 18, the Lord is repeating what He said to Moses the last time.

        "The feast of unleavened bread you will keep." That's the Feast of Passover. Verse 18:
          "Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt"

        We'll just skip down to verse 20: the last sentence says:

          "None shall appear before me empty."

        They were to all bring the firstlings of their flock and also their firstborn to present before the Lord at that feast. Then we're just going to pick it up from verse 22.

        "You will observe the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest." Now that's Pentecost.
        "And the feast of ingathering at the year's end" That's the Feast of Tabernacles. So here Moses is being told that these feasts are to be kept:

        "Three times in the year (verse 23) shall all your men children appear before the
        Lord God, the God of Israel"
          He said, 'I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, neither will any, many desire your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year"

          So He said, "While you stop everything to come up in the place that I've chosen for you to keep Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, nobody is going to come in and ransack your land I'm going to look after your land, your farms' and everything, while you come up and keep the feast." He said in verse 25:

        "You will not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven."

        He's going on into a bit of detail there. Now, in verse 29 it says:

        "it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down-from the mount, that Moses (did not know) that the skin of his face shone while He talked with him. And... Aaron and the children of Israel saw Moses, (and they saw his shining face), and they were afraid to come (near)."

        Now that is referred to in Corinthians, which we did last time- We made reference to the fact that when the Lord came and gave us the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is writing His laws on our heart. Moses, when he came down from the mountain, with the Law written on stone, his face was shining, and people were scared. But…. Jesus went and got redemption for us and then said "I'm going to send my Holy Spirit, that you will be able to keep the law in your heart, happily, willingly, and with my power.

        Then Paul is saying in (II) Corinthians when he talks about that He said if what happened with Moses was glorious - I'm looking at II Corinthians 3:7 -

        "if the ministration of death, written and en graven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, (and that) glory was to be done away (with), how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather (more) glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory."

        So all of that to say that if Moses was getting the Law that the Children of Israel were going to look at and say "Aaaaaah! We can't keep that!" - and that law was full of death: "If you do this, you die; if you do that, you die ": that was the law of death:
        "If you sin, you die." - and Moses was shining when he got that from the Lord, well, now we have no condemnation in Christ. He says, "If you will receive Me into your lives, I will enable you to keep the law, and you won't die." That ministry is even more glorious than when Moses' face was shining.

        Now, we're also going to have a look - well, we don't have to turn to it - but in Exodus 23 was when the Lord first told Moses, this was the FIRST time he went up into the mountain- and I'm just going to read this from Chapter 23 verse 14:

        "Three times you shall keep a feast unto me in the year: you will keep the feast of unleavened bread.. -
        That's Passover.
        "..- and none shall appear before me empty..."

        He keeps saying this! That when you keep these feasts, don't come empty-handed.
        "...and the feast of harvest...

        Well, that's the feast of Pentecost.

        "the first fruits of your labours which you have sown in the field,
        and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labours out of the field Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God"

        So that's what He told Moses the first time, that's what He told Moses the second time, and that was recorded, and he made sure that those feasts were kept. But they couldn't be kept yet because they couldn't grow any barley yet, they couldn't grow any wheat yet, because they weren't in the Promised Land yet, but they were told before it happened that it was going to happen, that this is what they were going to do. And it pointed to what Jesus was going to do.

        It literally happened because once they got into the Promised Land and started to grow barley then they could keep the feast of Passover and wave the sheaf. As they continued on through the season, in the Promised Land, they were able to grow that wheat harvest and wave those two loaves before the Lord. And they were able to keep the feast of Tabernacles, where they grew grapes and olives and pomegranates and all that, and they were able to go on to the top of their houses, build little 'humpies', little tents made out of various bits of wood, boughs, branches, and they lived on the top of their houses - their houses had flat rooves with little balconies and things - and they lived up there for a week. And the Lord said, "Don't worry about your house. I'll look after that while you're living in this temporary situation. " And so they all were able to historically keep that feast.

        But what is was doing, it was pointing to- Jesus was going to be - the Passover Lamb. And it was pointing to: the world was going to receive the Holy Spirit at the Outpouring, beginning at the day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts, and then it was going to be made available to everyone. But what we haven't seen yet - we're being told about it, just like the Israelites were told about it before they could actually keep it - we are being told about the feast of Tabernacles.

        We thank God for Pentecost because it was only when Moses went to the mountain and he got the Law that the people knew about Tabernacles. So I thank God for MY feast of Pentecost, when I received the Holy Spirit, because the Word became alive. It opened up to me, and now I can see the spiritual meaning of a lot of this that I wouldn't have understood before. I didn't know Zion was a spiritual place until I received the Holy Spirit and my eyes have been opened and I've been able to get a better picture. It was during Moses' time up there in the mountain that he got the blueprints for the tabernacle that Moses was to build. It had three compartments in it, and we'll teach you about that on another day, not today. But God works in threes, and He's working in our lives in threes, and He's going to finish the job right throughout the planet in threes.


        Now we just said to you last week. ..that these feasts were held to remember that they had been in Egypt, and how the Lord brought them out. They held the feast of Pentecost to remember the giving of the Law at Sinai. They held the feast of Tabernacles to remember that they had dwelt in temporary dwellings, in booths, in tents, on that wilderness journey, but that that was not where they stayed. They didn't stay in the wilderness.

        And it's important for us to know not only where we have come from but also where we're going. Never to forget, in Passover, where we came from and how it was that God delivered us. We do this every time we have Communion. We could not deliver ourselves. In Pentecost, never to forget how God first equipped us to proceed towards us Christian maturity, being led by His Spirit. And Tabernacles we can't keep yet! But when we do, we'll never forget, having arrived at our Promised Land, just how God worked to get us there. So we're looking forward to that, and we'll tell you more about that feast another time.

        Historically, we see Egypt, Sinai and Canaan land as the places where the feasts were fulfilled. Dispensationally, we see Jesus fulfilled the Passover, and it affected the whole planet. The Church came into birth at the feast of Pentecost, and the world has never been the same. And ultimately, the Kingdom is going to be established, and it's going to be during the feast of Tabernacles.

        Personally, as I said to you last time, Jesus has become MY Passover Lamb. I was born again and went through the waters of baptism and had MY personal Passover. I've had my personal baptism in the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to have my own personal perfection. I'm going to reach maturity as the Lord promised. And we looked at those verses that said,

        "He who started a good work in you is able to complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ" (my paraphrase!)

        What is our inheritance? Just to sit on a cloud somewhere and pluck a harp? Is that where we're headed? Oh no. We're headed towards something far more glorious than that! That's OK for children who need a concrete picture. We're going for... and this is what brings me back to that verse that kept coming through: The Lord said, "Make sure you're not empty-handed. Make sure that when you come up to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast with me, that you bring something with you."

        Let's go to Deuteronomy 16. Let's just start from verse I.

        "Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God, for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord your God of the flock and the herd in the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name there. You will eat no unleavened bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, for you came out of Egypt in haste, that you may remember the day when you came forth out oft he land of Egypt all the days of your life."


        "There shall be no leavened bread seen with you in all your coasts seven days, neither shall there anything of the flesh which you sacrificed the first day at evening remain all night until the morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, but at the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put His name."

        Verse 7: "You will roast it and eat it in the place which the Lord our God shall choose... six days you will eat unleavened bread,.. and then the seventh will be a solemn assembly...

        Verse 9: "Seven weeks you will number…" And that brings us to Pentecost "From such a place as you begin to put the sickle to the corn"- corn meaning grain, and the grain being mentioned was wheat - "and you will keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord your God with a tribute of a freewill offering" - see, there's that freewill offering again "which you will give to the Lord according as the Lord your God has blessed you."

        They were really only giving to Him, giving a part back, of what He was giving to them, but, nevertheless, He wanted to see it.

        "And you will rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter, your manservant, maidservant, the Levite in your gate, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow that are among you, in the place that the Lord has chosen to place his name there. And you will remember that you were a bondman in Egypt, and you will observe and do these statutes"

        Then in verse 13: "You will observe the feast of tabernacles seven days after you have gathered in your corn and your wine, and you will rejoice in the feast, you your son, your daughter (and all those people). Seven days will you keep a solemn feast in the place that the Lord has chosen. You will surely rejoice."

        Verse 16: "Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the Lord your God in the place He shall choose, in the feast of unleavened bread" - that's Passover
        - in the feast of weeks " that's Pentecost - 'and in the feast of tabernacles. They shall not appear before the Lord empty Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.'

        So we hear it again and again and again. In Exodus we read it. In Deuteronomy we read it. And the Lord stresses it time and again. He wants people to come up and keep these feasts and not be empty-handed, but bring of the blessing of the Lord.


        Now, this was a commandment: "Don't come empty." But I believe it was also a promise. I believe it was also a promise, that "if you keep my feast, you won't be without something to give, so bring it." So it's not just a command, that they were going to find "Oooh! Do I have to? I mean, I want to go to the feast but I don't really want to have to bring my first fruits. Do I really..." No, they would be thrilled to bring their first fruits. So, first of all it's a command, but it's a promise, because if we do things God's way, of course we're going to have plenty to produce. Of course we're going to have plenty to wave and say "See! Look what the Lord has done!"

        So let's think for a moment, now that we have just done a rough sketch as to what these three feasts mean:

        Passover. If we were living in that day, we would be expected to bring some barley. How would we apply that today? Passover meaning receiving forgiveness for our sins and inviting Jesus into our lives. So when we keep the feast of Passover, we have a little bit of Communion, but what are we bringing to the Lord at Passover? What do we bring to the Lord? Well, first of all, we bring our sin, He takes it away, He gives us clothing of righteousness, so we come to the Lord at Passover with a brand new robe, saying, "Look! Look what the Lord has done!"

        And we come with a testimony. So if we want to celebrate the Passover, but we have no testimony, have we really celebrated the Passover at all? Do we really understand what Jesus has done for us? So, really, when we come up before the Lord and say "Oooh! I'd love to celebrate Passover today!" and the Lord says "Well, what did you bring?" Then we'll say "Well, I have my testimony. My testimony is that Jesus is my sheaf. Jesus is my Saviour." And so we share our testimony with others.

        If in our lifetimes we only had the Passover experience, and we didn't have the others; if we died before that happened, we could at least share our testimony, we could bring the tithe of our income, be it coin or grain or whatever, and the other thing that we could bring is another person, because if we share our testimony with another person, and turn them to the Lord, then we have at least three things to bring before the Lord: our testimony, a tithe, and another soul.

        We have a clean conscience. That's a good thing to bring before the Lord! Jesus took away my sin and my guilt! So I come and present to Him my clean conscience, so that He can do with it whatever He wants to do.

        Now, Pentecost. They brought wheat, and the wheat was turned into a loaf, and they waved it. What would we at Pentecost bring? When we stand in the presence of the Lord to celebrate Pentecost, what do we bring? We bring spiritual gifts. We say, "Thank you, Lord! You filled me with Your Spirit, and now look! Now look what I can do!" And so we bring a spiritual gift, a song, or a word; we bring a word of prophecy or whatever. We actually use the gifts that God has given.

        And we can also,.. with those spiritual gifts, we can also bring other souls, because as a result of being used by the Lord in those gifts, we've shared our faith with others, and others come with us. So there's fruit in our own life, but there's also numerical fruit because we've actually affected another human being. So, at Pentecost, at the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we have gifts, we have another soul to bring.

        But Jesus did point out that you could have both these free gifts, you could have the free gift of salvation, you could have the free gift of Pentecost, and still not 'make it', because He said there'll be some who'll say "Oh! Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name! We cast out devils in Your name! We did all these wonderful things in Your name!" And He says, "I don't know you." So they received the free gift of salvation and forgiveness of sin, they received the gifts of the Holy Spirit and used them, but something was missing.

        They didn't appear before the Lord with what was necessary to be acceptable to God as a pure offering. They had not given Him their heart of hearts. They had not given Him - even in Pentecost you could come to church and just be a spectator- but the Lord is looking for us to become two wave loaves, where we are actually now committed to service. I don't just come to church because "Jesus has saved me isn't that good?" But I've come to church to be knit together with my brothers and sisters to find out how we can serve God together. So that's all very important.

        But if the Lord says "I don't know who you are" it's because we didn't allow Him to work where it's most important, and that's in us becoming totally pure, totally clean, not just forgiven from yesterday's sins, but our whole mind being changed, and coming into an intimate relationship with God on a daily basis, being Spirit-led, not just to demonstrate a gift, but to actually grow in the likeness of Jesus.
        So I believe that in the last feast, the feast of Tabernacles, when the Lord says "What have you got to show me? What produce, what fruit do you have to bring to this feast?", we'll have the fruits of the Spirit, not just the gifts of the Spirit where we operate, but the fruits of the Spirit. And what are they? Let's go over to Galatians chapter 5. Some of you might know these off by heart because it's in a song that we used to sing. Galatians chapter 5 shows us the sorts of things that the Lord will want us to present to Him at the feast of Tabernacles. Galatians 5 and 22.

        "For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law."

        (It would be interesting to hear what "The Message"(bible translation), said about those words. I'm using the old "King James" today. I should have brought my "New King James".)

        That's just one listing of the fruit of a character. It's a character change from what we used to be like to what we are today because we're allowing Jesus to not just use us to do things but we're allowing Him to change us, to change our attitudes, to change our outlook. So we're going to be mature in character, not just exercised in gifts, and not just forgiven past sins.

        What the Lord is looking for in Tabernacles is that when He looks at us He'll be able to see His Son, that we will reflect Jesus; we will have the likeness of Christ, and we will have, to cap it all off, we'll have an incorruptible body. In that day we'll say, "Wow! Look at me! This body is never going to die! My mind is clean! My heart is totally 'at one' with God and I'm totally 'at one' with my brother and sister. Look! This is what I can offer You today, Lord! Isn't this great? I give You myself, not just the things that I can produce with my hands." So it's going to be an exciting day.

        We can also, at the feast of Tabernacles, we can also present all those that we were able to bring with us. So there'll be some that we'll reach in Passover just by sharing our testimonies. There'll be some that we'll reach by being Spirit-led and using spiritual gifts, and they will come arid know the Lord. And there will be others that, because of our godly character, and the work of perfection that God is doing in us -we will bring others with us. So the Lord is always looking for fruit. He's always looking for increase. And He's always looking, at every point that we make another step in God. He's looking for us to give back to Him what He gave to us. And that's our pleasure.

        Now I'd just like to go to a couple more scriptures just before I close. Let's go to Ephesians 1, where we were a fortnight ago, just to remind you of this verse and then to connect it to a couple of others. This shows you in a verse those three feasts again.
        Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13.

        'In whom also you trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" - so there's Passover and Pentecost - "which is the earnest of our inheritance" - or the down-payment of our inheritance, or deposit - "until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory."

        So we see in these two verses, we see Passover, where we believe, Pentecost, where we receive the Holy Spirit, and that seals us to the day of the inheritance where we come into full maturity, that we are like Him.

        "When He appears, we shall be like Him."
        That's the promise in I John.
        Having looked at that, let's go over to Hebrews 6 just to see that down-payment mentioned again, because when we receive the Holy Spirit we actually get a foretaste of what's coming. Corinthians says that "we see through a glass darkly". We don't see everything fully. So the Lord gives us little words of knowledge… The Lord will give you a 'word of knowledge' about something. He won't give you the whole history about that person. He will just show you that they have a heel that needs to be healed. But He gives us these gifts to show that He, who is supernatural, can communicate with us, who are mortal and physical, and He can lead us and guide us in supernatural ways; So we get a foretaste of that in the realm of Pentecost.

        So in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 4 we'll just pick up from the second half of the verse, talking about those that "have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, who have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come.

        Now you can have all of that and you can still fall away. That's what this scripture in Hebrews 6 is saying. You can still have, you can still move in, the supernatural gifts, and you can still fall away if you don't allow God to work on your character.

        So one last scripture in I Peter chapter 1 and verse 23. It says how that we are:
        "being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever."

        So that's our Passover experience; that's where we are born again by His Word, the incorruptible seed of God is planted in us, and now we are able to grow into the likeness of Jesus, one day at a time.... Let's go backward to verse 3:

        "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again" - that's our Passover experience; He's made us alive again "unto a lively hope."

        Now if you have something, you don't keep hoping for it. So if I have a Bible I don't say "Oh! I hope I have a Bible one day." I have it! I have my Bible! But if I have no Bible then I say "I hope I - I look forward - to the day that I'll get my Bible." Now it's saying a lively hope that we have, of that (which) we haven't got yet! We have salvation now, but we don't have full Christian maturity now. And we don't have the resurrection of these bodies from the ones that can die and that can sin to those bodies that cannot die and cannot sin. So that's our hope - "a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead". That means that because He rose first from the dead that gives us all hope that the same thing can happen to us. Verse 4:

        "To an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you.
        So it's being kept there for us. Once we've gone through our spiritual wilderness. The Lord has brought us out of Egypt, out of sin. He's brought us through the Red Sea, got us water baptised. He brought us to the mount Sinai, receiving of the Holy Spirit to teach us His ways and to enable us to keep them. Then there's a wilderness journey. And all the trials of life that we go through, everything that we're going through, is designed to get us to that inheritance, which is that character that is compete in Christ, that person that He wants us to be. And that's waiting for us. It says in verse 5:

        "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

        So you and I are saved now from sin. If we die now, we know where we're going. But in the history of the planet, there is still one great final feast to be celebrated, where those who are in the graves will be raised from the dead, those of us who might still be alive when Jesus comes, we'll all be there to celebrate. There'll be trumpets blowing and there'll be a great celebration of the resurrection - of our bodies, not just Jesus returning. And so we're "kept by the power of God, through faith, to that salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time". We are exhorted, then, by Peter:

        "Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations, so that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, although it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."

        So when we look like Him., when we glorify Him, when we are changed into His image, that's going to be the consummation of the age. It's going to be the consummation of everything that God ever planned to do from Genesis right through to Revelation, when we as a corporate body of people come to that place of incorruption.

        Again, that just gives you an overview, but I hope it's an interesting and exciting one for you -as excited as I am - about what's ahead. So that we don't just know what we've come FROM and it's important to know what the Lord saved us out of - it's important to know that He's WITH us in the journey - but that we're not just going around in circles until we die - where actually the Lord is taking us through an experience to bring us to our inheritance, which is full Christian maturity, fully demonstrating the presence and the power and the nature of God.

        And it's going to be evident all over the world. Jesus said "You won't have to go here or there to find where (Jesus) is." There are still people today saying "If you want to see Jesus, you've got to go over to this place or that place; you've got to go secretly." (Jesus) said "It's going to be no secret. When My people are changed and they're in My image, and the work is finished, all My people, not just the ones that are living but the ones that will be raised from the dead, when the world sees that, there's no more to be done" and God's going to be glorified!

        So we're living in the present, very grateful for what God is doing in our lives, but we have a journey. We have an end. And it's not just going to heaven to be in His presence, to sing songs with the angels. It's far more than that. His glory is going to be seen in us. Isn't that worth living for? Isn't that worth dying for? It sure is!

        Thanks for your attention!






        Notes on Ps. Sue's Message Sunday 24 October 1999
        INTRODUCTION TO THE THREE FEASTS OF ISRAEL

        A. God is at work! (notice the 3's.)
        Philippians 1:6; Ephesians 5:27; 4:13; 1:13-14; II Cor 1:10

        B. The meaning of Bible Number 3
          1. Godhead-Gen l:2-3; Mt3:16-17; Jn l2:28;I Jn 5:7-8
          2. Perfect Witness-Gen 4l:32; Deut 19:15; Mt 18:16.

        C. Three Feasts see Ex 34; Leviticus 23; Numbers 29; Deut 16
          1. PASSOVER or Feast of Unleavened Bread
            a. First fruits of the barley harvest, one sheaf waved
            b. to remember the Exodus (Deut 16:1-8)

          2. PENTECOST or Feast of Weeks
            a. came 50 days after Passover; first fruits of wheat harvest, two 'wave loaves; contained leaven. (1 Cor 5:7-8.)
            b. to remember slavery (Deut 16:9-12)
            c. receiving of law at Sinai versus receiving of Spirit Who writes law on our hearts, enabling us to love and keep it (Leviticus 23:15...; II Cor 3)

          3. TABERNACLES or Feast of Ingathering
            a. harvest of fruits, corn, wine, oil
            b. to remember that they dwelt in booths, that the Lord sustained them in their wilderness journey to reach the Promised Land (Deut 16:13-15; Leviticus 23:39-43)

        D. Applications of the Three Feasts
          1. Historical: Egypt/Sinai/Canaan

          2. Dispensational: Jesus The Lamb during a literal Passover/ The Church is Born during a literal Pentecost/ The Kingdom will be permanently and visibly established on earth - possibly during a literal Tabernacles!

          3. Personal:
            YOUR Passover experience, born again and water baptised;
            YOUR Pentecost, baptised with the Holy Spirit;
            YOUR Tabernacles, perfected (Hebrews 6:1; Eph 4:13; 1 Thessalonians5:23).



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