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 three of a message originally preached on August 18th, 2024. We obligate ourselves to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of every tree year by year to the house of the Lord. They celebrated that all these years. The Feast of Weeks. And the people of Israel continue to celebrate these feasts.
Those who are Jewish people, they're continuing to celebrate these feasts.
Now, what does this feast foreshadow? We know what happened at Pentecost, don't we? And you know what? That's no accident. It's no accident that the baptism of the Holy Spirit came.
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 was they? All the followers of Jesus at that time.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Why? Because the huge, massive crowd, remember in Deuteronomy it says, three times a year all the males will be gathered.
So there were huge crowds from all over the ancient world. congregating in Jerusalem at the time. And that's when this happened.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. speaking all kinds of different languages. And the followers of Jesus, now with the filling power of the Holy Spirit, they were speaking the gospel in the language that these men clearly understood. That's what God's doing. It's what God does.
Paul says this also in not only the creation, but we ourselves. He describes Christians as we who have the first fruits of the Spirit. One of the senses of first fruits is there's a lot more to come. This is just the beginning. There's a lot more to come.
We're not going to get more of the Spirit. But the Spirit is going to be indwelling a lot more people. those who surrender themselves in faith to God. We who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. What a wonderful truth that God has provided for us.
But first fruits, also, the foreshadowing of this remembers this feast of the first fruits, there's another part to it as well. And we find it in 1 Corinthians 15, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
So this feast foreshadows our resurrection in Christ. Our resurrection in Christ. When Christ comes, those who have died. will rise up. from the ground.
to meet him in the air. Isn't that awesome? This is stuff God can do. This is stuff God has promised to do. And he foreshadowed it.
He foreshadowed it. almost 3,500 years ago. See One story. One story. In all of these feasts that he's commanding his people to keep.
or foreshadowing the greater reality it would come in Christ. And then there's a third feast that he mentions in chapter 16, verse 13. You shall keep the Feast of Booths. And the Hebrew word for this is sukkot, the feast of tabernacles. Of all the Jewish feasts, this is the most joyful of the Biblical feasts.
Just speaking from generally what goes on in the feasts. For us, it comes in our calendar year. It comes about September or October, depending on what year it is. Seven days you shall have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your wine press. Here it is, verse 14 again.
You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your sons and daughters, servants. Levites, sojourners, fatherless, widows, and with you, for seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place where 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. Do you get the sense that there's a repeated theme of joy in all of these? God calls his people to be thankful. I've said it before, let me say it again.
A complaining Christian is a contradiction in terms. It doesn't mean. We should up. always feel like life sh is always happy, happy, joy, joy. There is sorrow, there is lament.
But God is always good. And there is never a time that we don't have cause to be thankful because of who God is and what he's done. We are called to live as people who remember. Everything about the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Booths.
reflects God's faithful Nearness. The nearness of God. And it points the people of Israel back to when God brought them out of Egypt.
Now, think about this, okay? In Egypt, what did they have? They had all the supplies they needed in Egypt. They had homes, they had supplies, and then God calls them out, and He calls them into what? A wilderness.
And guess what they had to do? Rely on God. And the Feast of Booths is a particular feast that reflects the faithful. nearness of God. while they traveled through the wilderness.
As the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 33, verse 14, my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Rest. Rest meaning a place to dwell and settle down. A place to call home. A place where you belong.
God promised that, and he continues to promise that to his people. That promise is still good today. But as we learned from Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3, the Lord took them through the wilderness and he allowed them to be hungry. He allowed them to be thirsty to what end?
So that they would know. that man does not live by bread alone, Man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We're called to remember this. And the Feast of Booths helped God's people remember that as He brought them into the wilderness, He brought them through the wilderness. Notice this, please.
God did not take them around the wilderness, He brought them through the wilderness. In the wilderness, they had to trust God. And God promised them he would be near and he would bring them to rest. That's what the feast of booths. celebrates.
Now there's a foreshadowing in this and still today, you know, Hebrew people In Palestine. They will set up booths. They set up these tents and they're covered with cloth on the outside and on the top. They're all covered with palm leaves and all kinds of branches. And they will stay out there for a while.
It's a seven-week feast. They will eat out there. And in the ancient feast, when there was a temple, and they still do today, there's a water element, the oblation it's called. And that and it comes every day of the week. And then you have Look with me in the foreshadowing now.
Look with me at John chapter 7, verses 37 and 38. It's up on the screen there. On the last day. of the feast. What feast is it talking about?
This one, Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Booths. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And John gives us an interpretive key to that in his text of the Gospel. where he says Jesus was there speaking directly about the Holy Spirit.
who would come. and indwell. His people. Endless resource. Endless resource.
There are those. Believe there are scholars that believe that Jesus was born during the feast of Sukkot. the Feast of Tabernacles. That could make sense when John says, and the word became flesh, and. Dwelt among us.
You know what that word dwelt? Yeah. Tabernacle. The word Tabernacled among us. And that's what Sukkot commemorates: the Feast of Tabernacles.
That God's nearness is with us. God is with us. He came near. And he came near because he wants us to be near him. Revelation chapter 7, verse 15: He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
That's God's ultimate ambition for us. that we will enjoy his presence. presence. Forever. What makes heaven heaven?
Heaven. is God. And I love this verse in Revelation chapter 23, again, part of the foreshadowing of this feast of Sukkot. Revelation 21:3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, The dwelling place of God is with man. And he will dwell with them.
And they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Right there, folks, is the intent and the desire, the purpose of God. From the beginning. That's God's desire. Relationship.
God made us to know him And He didn't make us because he needed us. God is infinite. He has no need. But he made us because he loves us. And it is our benefit.
It is our highest good and our deepest satisfaction. to be near him. This is what the feast of Tabernacles. celebrates.
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. 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.
