Should Christians Keep the Feasts of the Old Testament?

Should Christians keep certain laws from the Old Testament? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Well, happy Friday. This is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you and our phone lines are open right now for the next 25 minutes or so. So call us with your question, 833-The-Core. That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media accounts, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. You can watch us on YouTube live right now or later on if you can't catch it now. And you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

First up today, let's go to Glory in Modesto, California. Glory, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, so my question relates to Bible study, which I'm relatively new to. I attended one this morning, and it was great, but then there were also moments where the people in the group started interpreting things that I don't know, just made me feel uncomfortable. So, but overall it went back to, you know, looking at the word and the words themselves, but I'm not sure what do I need to be aware of or wary of or, you know, look out for in Bible studies.

Yeah, Glory, what a great, great question. And I tend to love those Bible studies that get us into the Scriptures. You know, sometimes there's a study that people will do, and it is a lot of just sort of maybe guessing, you know, a group of people coming together and sitting around saying, okay, what do you think about this verse, and what do you think about this verse, and everybody sort of just sharing their own opinion.

Really, nobody knows. And so I think it's helpful to have a guide, a Bible study guide, and there are some really helpful ones out there, but we've been offering the Revelation study guide, which is a way to dig into the Scriptures, but to also have some guidance there with you so you don't go off into the weeds. I tend to encourage, look, I think it's great when believers get together to open up the Scriptures, to pray, to study the Word of God, it's wonderful, but we have to be careful that it doesn't just become everybody kind of sharing their opinions on the Bible, their own thoughts, and then at the end of the day we're not really getting to the real sense of the text. And so I guess I would say to you, one, continue participating in this study, if it's getting you guys in the Word and you're able to have a good discussion around the Scriptures, but two, if there isn't a helpful guide that you're using, maybe a book by a Bible teacher who's Orthodox, whose doctrine is good and faithful to the Scriptures, then maybe getting a hold of something like that that will guide you and help to guide the discussion so that it doesn't go off into the weeds, and everybody's left just sort of wondering, well, what does the Bible actually mean here?

So there are resources over at our website, corechristianity.com, I know we have a few Bible studies that we offer there, one on the Gospel of John, one on the Book of Romans, and then this most recent one on the Book of Revelation, but there are even other resources that I would encourage you to check out as well, and keep on digging into the Word. Glory, nice to hear from you. Love the fact that Glory is really tackling God's Word on a regular basis and really wants to grow in her faith. That is so encouraging to hear from listeners like that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We would love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life.

The core is the number 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail that we received from Jessica. Having a child near him, I mean, it's bothering me so much, and I'm asking the Lord, please help me if I'm showing hatred or withholding bitterness, and what are the healthy boundary lines here with loving them? I don't want to shut out my husband's mother, and I've tried to have this talk with her, and so has he, but sometimes we don't feel like we're getting anywhere with it.

What is the boundary line? How do we handle a situation of not wanting a certain influence on our child, but still loving them in Christ? Thank you. Have a wonderful and blessed day.

Hey, Jessica, thank you so much for that question. Well, the priority has to be the safety of your children, the safety of your child, and if there's something that makes you uncomfortable about this individual, I would never say, well, you're obligated to still make sure that your child is there with them just to make them happy. The reality is if your mom radar is going off, that kind of a thing, yeah, use wisdom, and the difficult thing here is that can create rift in family relationships, and maybe your mother-in-law starts to feel like, hey, what's the big deal? But first and foremost, you have to prioritize your children, raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and being very careful about the kinds of influences we allow into their lives.

I think it's wonderful. I'm glad to hear that you have had this conversation with your mother-in-law, that your husband has had this conversation with your mother-in-law. I think you want to continue to have that conversation, and maybe there are ways for all of you to get together and spend time together with the family where you can keep a close eye on things, but I totally understand if your desire is, look, I just don't want to send my child with my mother-in-law and not be able to have supervision.

It makes me uncomfortable. Well, that's really important that you use wisdom and also that you don't feel pressure to put your child in a compromising situation. If you think this isn't a good place for my child, this isn't a safe place for my child, then you do what you know is right, and then pray that the Lord maybe softens the heart of your mother-in-law, that you guys can continue to have conversations about this, where you can express what your concerns are and communicate in a way that's clear, but don't feel like you have to put your children in a situation that wouldn't be safe. You don't, and God calls you to use wisdom in this situation.

So thank you for your question, and may the Lord bless you. Adriel, I'm so glad you used that term, your mom radar. Obviously, there's something going on here where this mom is saying, I don't feel comfortable with this. She's trying to be loving. She's trying not to judge, but at the same time, like you said, first and foremost, the safety of her child, right? Yeah, first and foremost, and the mom radar thing. I didn't know that was a thing until I got married and we had kids, and my wife taught me about this. She's just got this mom radar where she just knows, hey, this isn't a good situation. I think as husbands, one of the ways we can be sensitive to our wives is just saying, hey, okay, trust that thing because it works.

So yeah, don't put your children in those kinds of situations, but we're called to be good stewards of all the gifts that God gives to us, including our children, and making sure that we're raising them in healthy environments, that we're protecting them from danger, and that we're giving them positive influences in Christ. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We would encourage you to like us on Facebook or any one of our social media accounts. By the way, if you listen to our podcast, why not give us a five-star review on your podcast app? What that will do is let more people know about the podcast. They'll check it out and they will learn more about the truth of God's Word.

So if you're listening to the podcast now, please do give us that review. Let's go to Buck from Leavenworth, Kansas. Buck, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, sir. I'm just struggling with fear, you know, in my life, with, you know, death and assurance in my salvation, everything I've said, the prayer of salvation, and I've never had no affirmation and no assurance. You know, I struggle with being a very emotional, you know, person, everything, governed by, you know, controlled by my emotions and feelings. I always analyze and overreact, you know, a lot to situations and, you know, I just can't get past the struggle and fear. And I'm controlled by, you know, pleasure all the time.

I always happen to have some kind of stimulant. And sometimes when, you know, the Lord will, you know, I'll feel this tug, you know, and everything. And I just, you know, it seems like I've, you know, rejected that. But I've also said, you know, other times I totally, you know, want to be, you know, of course, I know I need to be saved. I want to be saved. And I've said the prayer of salvation many times. And I just can't get past this, you know, this, you know, this control of my life, you know.

Yeah. Buck, it sounds like you need rest, to rest in Jesus. And I think of the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 11.

He's praying, He's thanking the Father, and then He says, "'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in spirit, and you will find rest for your souls.'" Jesus offers you rest in Him. And, you know, a lot of times when we're thinking about salvation in our own lives, you know, we recognize, okay, I still struggle with sin.

I know I'm not perfect. I want to be saved. I want to know, Jesus, what do I got to do? You know, I'm saying the prayer over and over again.

I just want to know that I know that I know that I'm saved, that kind of thing. And we get caught up in looking within. Did I do enough? Did I do the right thing? Did I say that prayer sincerely enough?

Those kinds of things. Our assurance, our rest, comes not from what we do, not from what you do, but from Christ Himself. Jesus is salvation, and we lay hold of Him by faith. Faith is an empty hand.

It's an unclean hand, we might say, because we're sinners, that grabs onto the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. Your confidence, brother, what can give you assurance, what can give you rest, is looking away from yourself to Jesus, whose perfect sacrifice on the cross was sufficient to pay for each and every one of your sins, your failures, your doubts. Our faith is never perfect, Buck. We're not saved by our perfect faith, the fact that we really, really totally get everything and whatnot. No, even a weak faith, even a mustard seed faith, can lay hold of a strong Savior. And so when you're struggling with those doubts and with those fears, look up, set your eyes on Jesus, remind yourself of what He has accomplished for you.

That's objective, that's real, that's something that you can grasp, lay hold of. And know that it's for you, not because you're righteous, not because you've walked with the Lord perfectly or because, as I said, you have perfect faith. Remember, Paul says in Romans 5 that God demonstrated His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That is, it wasn't when you were perfectly seeking God and when you had expressed faith and had said the sinner's prayer, whatever.

It was that while we were still sinners, when we were turning our backs on the Lord, God sent His Son into the world for us, even there and then. And so it's so important for you to recognize that if God demonstrated His love for you at that time when we weren't seeking Him, how much more can you know, Buck, that He loves you as you seek to know Him, as you cry out to Him for salvation. And you can rest in Jesus, who is your salvation. And so I would say, as you're having these doubts, open up the Word of God, go to what the scripture says. John says very clearly in 1 John 5, write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. You believe in Jesus, you confess that Jesus is Lord, you've asked Him for forgiveness, you're trusting in Him. You can know, that's what John says, you can know that you have eternal life and that He's going to keep you, He's going to hold on to you.

And you can rest in that, brother. Thank you for your call. Buck, we'd like to send you one of our core guides. It's called Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian.

If you hang on the line for a second, we'll get your address and send that to you. By the way, if you would like that particular guide, just go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers and look for Nine Ways to Know You Are Really a Christian. We also have a brand new Bible study that we've just released. I know that Adriel is particularly excited about this because it's on one of his favorite books, the Book of Revelation. Yes, Bill, I do love the Book of Revelation written by the Apostle John and one of those books of the Bible that there are a lot of questions about.

You know what's interesting to me is in talking to newer believers, newer Christians, it's one of those books that even new Christians want to dig into because it's filled with mystery and it talks about the end of the world, that kind of a thing, the end of this world, that is. And so people have questions. That's why we put together this resource. Earlier on the broadcast, Gloria was asking about what are good Bible study resources.

This is one of them. It's a helpful guide. It's going to get you into the Scriptures and help you to interpret, I think rightly, one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible. And so this is a great resource for you if you want to study the Book of Revelation on your own as an individual or if you want to study it with a group of friends or a church-wide Bible study, that kind of a thing. Get your hands on this resource.

And I think there's even a discount for bulk orders. But for a gift of $20 or more, we want to get this gift in your hands. We'd love to send that to you. You can request a copy of the Revelation study by going to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673. And as Adriel mentioned, if you have a church or a small group that would like to get a bunch of copies of this and go through it together, if you order 15 copies or more, we give you the study at half price. Again, go to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation to get that study. Well, let's go to a voicemail that we received here at Core Christianity yesterday.

Yes, I would like to ask this question. I don't really understand this. We keep Sabbath and listen to the teachings and have fun and relax and they wonder why we like to celebrate the feast days.

And I don't understand it. They say they love the Lord with their whole heart, soul, and mind, and yet they don't even know what the feast days are. Maybe Passover is about the only one they know about, but they don't know about the rest. And yet in the Leviticus, 23 says, these are the feasts of the Heavenly Fathers.

If we love Him with our whole heart, soul, and mind, why don't we know about them? It doesn't say these are the feasts for the Jews. It says these are the feasts of the Heavenly Fathers. Thank you for having this program. I'm glad I discovered you.

Thanks for that question. Leviticus chapter 23 verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, these are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations. They are my appointed feasts. And then basically he goes through a number of these feasts. You have the Sabbath, this sort of weekly celebration of rest, of resting in the Lord. You have the Passover, the Feast of First Fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Day of Atonement, described earlier in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus 18, the Feast of Booths. You have all of these feasts that are described, and really what these were periods over, they're periods of worship for the people of God, but also a time to reflect on what God had accomplished in history to redeem his people, bringing them out of Egypt, providing for them through the wilderness. It was a way of reminding the people of God throughout the year of how God had been so good to them in their history. And that's why they would worship him, is because of what God had accomplished for them. Now, in terms of why Christians today and throughout the history of the church have not continued to observe these feasts as a sort of rule of worship, well, think about what the Apostle Paul said in Colossians 2, verse 16.

He speaks directly to this. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Now, there you go.

There's your answer. In the Old Testament, they did practice these feasts as the people of God under the Old Covenant, but those feasts, these religious rituals that they would go through, similar to the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, they were a shadow of the reality. They pointed to something even greater than themselves, and ultimately that reality is Jesus. He is our Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

In fact, that's precisely what Paul called him in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7. In fact, the Lord's Supper, Communion, which my church participates in every single week, that is the fulfillment of many of these feasts when you think about the Passover. So in one sense, we are observing these things in the way that they were intended to be observed in light of Christ, the reality, the substance. And so that's why we do what we do. You think of, again, Paul's words there in Colossians chapter 2, and I appreciate your question very much. And it is wonderful to see how these rituals in the Old Testament point us forward to Christ in the New Testament and his work of redemption for us. The whole Bible really points us to Jesus. Thank you for that question. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Charlie in Menlo Park, California. Charlie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? My question is, Jesus is on the cross. When did he breathe his last breath? Was it on Preparation Day, Passover, or the next day?

Thank you. Hey, Charlie, thank you so much for that question. You know, there is some debate about this, right? And you think about some of the discrepancies that we get in the Gospels. Just in terms of when did Jesus breathe his last breath, if you look at Mark chapter 15, I'm going to start in verse 33. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani, which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.

And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. So there's Jesus' last breath right there, from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. Now, I just mentioned Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, where he referred to Jesus as our Passover Lamb. So in one sense, I think what I would want to say is, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt, there's debate about specifically on what moment did Jesus breathe his last, but we know that the Gospel writers are portraying Jesus, depicting Jesus to us as the great Passover of his people. Through him, our sins are covered.

And that's the hope that we have. And really what's focused on there in the Gospels, and in particular here in Mark chapter 15, is the fact that Jesus is bearing our curse. You think back to verse 33, when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. So this is darkness in the middle of the day when Jesus is being crucified.

And you know what's so interesting about this? If you're a student of the Bible, you know that in the Old Testament, one of the curses for disobedience to God's law was darkness during the day. You see this in Exodus chapter 10, for example. You think of the curse of darkness, the plague of darkness on Egypt.

It was just dark, a darkness that could be felt even during the day. But you also see it in the curses for disobedience to God's law that are outlined in places like Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy 28, 29 talks about darkness at noonday as being one of the curses for disobedience to God's law. You see this in other places as well, like the book of Isaiah, for example. And so here we have Jesus bearing this curse for his people.

Why? Well, brothers and sisters, Jesus had never sinned. He was never disobedient ever, not once, to the law of God. And yet he's bearing the curse of the law.

Why? For us. This is what the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter 3. He became a curse. He was elevated on the cross. He took our curse so that we might have eternal life.

That's the focus. I mean, people get, I think, in all sorts of debates about at what moment did this happen, which day. Again, there's some discrepancy, but we know that the Gospel writers are saying Jesus is the Lamb of God, our Passover Lamb.

And what's the point of what's happening here? Jesus is bearing the curse of our sins so that when we're struggling, as I was speaking to a brother earlier on this broadcast today, struggling, you know, how can I know, how can I rest in God's salvation? How can I know that I'm saved? Well, you can know because the curse that you deserve, Jesus took on the cross. What a comfort, brothers and sisters.

What a comfort. We know, and when we look inside, we know that we deserve that curse, the darkness, if you will, death. And yet Jesus was crowned with it. Now, that's another interesting thing about Mark 15, actually, earlier, right? We're told that Jesus had a crown of thorns placed upon his head prior to being crucified. Well, where's the first time that you see thorns in the Bible in association with the curse?

The ground is going to yield thorns and thistles. Everything in this text is Jesus. He is literally crowned with our curse, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And because Jesus was crowned with our curse, you and I can be crowned with eternal salvation. It really is the hope of the Gospel. It's what some theologians have referred to as the great exchange. Jesus takes all of our sin and we get all of his righteousness. He clothes us in his righteousness. I hope that you know that Gospel, because when you know it, you can rest in the hope of eternal life. Join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.