Welcome to Delight in Grace. The Teaching Ministry of Rich Powell. pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Deuteronomy 16 has a lot to say about feasts. these ancient celebrations instituted by God all those years ago.
Are infused with symbolism. of the one Messiah who would come, and what would be accomplished through him. Pastor Rich unpacks for us how these shadows pause. Point to our Lord Jesus. Let's listen in.
This is part two of a message, originally preached on August 18th, 2024. Here it is, the males that appear before the Lord, they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. In other words, you come... to give back to God. What is the point of giving back?
Old hymn. We give the but thine own. What did we study last time? The Sabbath Reminds us of this. The Sabbath day reminds us that He is our Creator.
The Sabbath year reminds us that all that we have belongs to Him. All that we have belongs to him. We are but Stewards. of what God has entrusted to us. This is why God establishes these feasts.
So let's look at these in a little more detail here. The greater detail comes back in Exodus and in the book of Leviticus, specifically chapter 23. But look at verse 1, chapter 16. Observe the month of Abeb and keep the Passover to the Lord your God in the month of Abeb. The Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
You shall offer the Passover sacrifice.
So in the Passover, the first one is the Passover, verses 1 to 8. And you see the rendering there. What did they have to do in the Passover? They had to kill a lamb. And it had to be a lamb without blemish.
And there's There's foreshadowing in that. And as Adam pointed out very well, all of this, all of this. foreshadows a greater reality and we're going to be looking at that. But as they kill a lamb without blemish, what did they do? They had to post it, they had to spread it on the doorpost, the Passover.
And God said, When I see the blood, I will pass over you. In other words, judgment will not come upon you if you have applied the sacrifice. He needed to see the blood. And during that time also that they were ready to leave Egypt. And so it was also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
What is unleavened? Because it was going to take the time to rise. But also, you crack it and it snaps, and it speaks of the brokenness that they had experienced in Egypt. for a very long time. The brokenness of bondage.
And so the Passover is a picture of redemption. It is redemption, it is the redemption of. God's people. And it came in the month of Abe. And this was the beginning now of the Hebrew calendar.
It began with this month. God established it that way. For us, it comes somewhere. It varies from year to year, comes somewhere around March or April. is where it comes.
But what does this foreshadow? As they Yeah. sacrificed the Passover lamb as they spread it on the doorposts. As they Eat the unleavened bread and they're ready to eat it. They're ready to head out because God is going to redeem his people.
Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. He calls Christ our Passover Lamb. Christ, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us. You see that Passover Was a foreshadowing of the greater reality that would come in Jesus Christ. And that's why the night that Jesus was betrayed, before that time, before they were in the garden, he was in the upper room and he was with his disciples.
and he was establishing the right of what we call the Lord's table. The Last Supper, Communion, and it was a supper. They were celebrating the Passover. And he took the cup of redemption, which was one of the cups of the Hebrew Seder celebrating Passover. And likewise the cup.
After they had eaten, saying, This cup is poured out for you. is the new covenant in my blood. This This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. My blood, he's referring to his death, the sacrifice, the forfeiture of his life. Jesus would give his life.
So that we could become No. That's profound. And the Passover foreshadows all of that. He could redeem us from our bondage, and we could become forgiven by God and receive His righteousness, receive the righteousness of Jesus by faith. which makes us then Justified before God and acceptable to Him, and we are reconciled to Him.
That's the gospel, folks. And long, long before the Passover foreshadowed this reality in Jesus Christ.
Now here's Jesus with his disciples establishing this rite. And he broke the bed, the bread, right? And that bread, the snap, is speaking of his broken life, broken for you. and the cup, his blood, poured out, so that he could establish the new covenant. Because the old covenant couldn't do it.
It couldn't make us new. It could tell us where we went wrong, but the old covenant couldn't make us new. The law of Moses couldn't do that. And so Jesus is in the upper room with his apostles. And when they had Finished celebrating the seder, and he'd established the rite of the Lord's table that we still celebrate today.
Before they went out, he says they sang a hymn. They sang a hymn, The Hallel. What is the Hebrew hymn book? The book of Psalms. And one of the main songs is Psalm 118.
And he sang the Hallel. And it could very well be that listen to me. It could very well be that night. When Jesus had established this right, Yeah. Communion.
with his disciples. And then they were about to head out to the Garden of Gethsemane. And you remember what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane. Before they headed out, they sang a hymn. It could very well be that Jesus sang the hymn that has the words, This is the day that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice. and be glad in it. Why? Why could Jesus sing that when he knew he was headed straight? for the cross.
Because God is good. God provides redemption. We have cause to celebrate. Isaiah says it clearly: He will see the travail of his soul and be what? Satisfied.
Why? because he will justify many. Isn't God something else? Isn't He awesome? You see, we have cause to celebrate.
The rich, you don't know what I'm going through right now. I may not, but I do know that you have cause to be thankful. Because of who God is and what He has done through Jesus Christ.
So that's the Passover foreshadowing that. And ultimately Exodus chapter 6 in verse 7, he says this, I will take you to be my people. I will be your God, and you shall know. That I am the Lord your God. Do you hear the personal relational touch there?
This is God's heart. He establishes these rights of remembrance for his people.
So that we will intentionally pursue God personally, relationally. And Jesus makes that very possible through his own sacrifice on the cross. and his resurrection. And then we come to the second one in Deuteronomy chapter 16, beginning at verse 9. And this is called the Feast of Weeks.
You shall count seven weeks.
Now, this is not the second feast. This is kind of like there are seven feasts. Passover was the first one. The feast of weeks comes somewhere in the middle. It comes right in the middle there, okay?
You shall count seven weeks, beginning to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put into the standing grain. And then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the Lord your God with a tribute of a free will offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. Here it is, verse 11. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. God establishes us.
Now, the Feast of Weeks is what we know as Pentecost. There's also a feast of harvest. And it was in this Feast of Weeks that they were celebrating some of the first fruits of their harvest. For us, in our calendar, the Feast of Weeks comes somewhere in May and June. depending on what year it is.
but they celebrated the first fruits And by first fruits it meant Two things, first and best. First and best. And if you were in this time when this was happening, when Moses was speaking to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab before they cross over into the promised land, about 1400 BC.
Now move ahead almost a thousand years. You've been through the time of the judges, you've been through the United Kingdom, you've been through the divided kingdom of Israel and Judah. And then you go through the exile of Judah. And now you're in the fifth century BC. And you come to the time in the book of Nehemiah.
And what do we have in Nehemia chapter 10? We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree year by year. the house. Lord they celebrated that all these years. The Feast of Weeks.
And the people of Israel continue to celebrate these feasts. Those who are like Jewish people there continuing to celebrate these feasts.
Now, what does this feast for show? Yeah. We know what happened in Pentecost, don't we? You know what? That's no accident.
It's no accident. a baptism. Spirit. At the Feast of Pentecost. Acts chapter 2, I've redacted this a little bit.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. Who's they? All the followers of Jesus at that time. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem.
The Delight in Grace mission. Is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good. and your deepest satisfaction in Him. the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
