John chapter 7, I want to read
through this and through the first 39 verses because it all
goes together. It will help us to capture not
only the details but the context. After these things, verse 1,
after these things Jesus walked in Galilee for he would not walk
in Jewry because the Jews sought to kill him. the Jews' feast
of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said to
him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that the disciples also
may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth
anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If
thou do these things, show thyself to the world. For neither did
his brethren believe in him, Then Jesus said to them, My time
is not yet come, but your time is always ready. The world cannot
hate you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works
thereof are evil. Go ye up unto this feast. I go
not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come.
When he had said these words to them, he abode still in Galilee. But when his brethren were gone
up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as
it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast and said, Where is he? There was much murmuring among
the people concerning him. For some said, He is a good man. Others said, Nay, but he deceiveth
the people. Howbeit, no man spake openly
of him for fear of the Jews. Now about the midst of the feast,
Jesus went up into the temple and taught, And the Jews marveled,
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but
his that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give
you the law, and yet none of you keep the law? Why go ye about
to kill me? The people answered and said,
Thou hast a devil, who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered
and said to them, I have done one work, and you all marvel.
Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, not because it
is of Moses, but of the fathers, and you on the Sabbath day circumcise
a man. If a man on the Sabbath day receives
circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are
you angry at me because I have made a man every whit hole on
the Sabbath day? Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Then said some of them of Jerusalem,
is not this he whom they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh
boldly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers indeed
know? that this is the very Christ.
Howbeit we know this man whence he is, but when Christ cometh,
no man knoweth whence he is. They were confused. Then cried
Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying, You both know me, and
you know whence I am. And I am not come of myself,
but he that sent me is true, whom you know not. But I know
him, for I am from him, and he has sent me. They sought to take
him, but no man laid hands on him because his hour was not
yet come. And many of the people believed
on him and said, when Christ cometh, will he do more miracles
than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that
the people murmured such things concerning him, and the Pharisees
and the chief priests sent officers to take him. The people who said
they weren't trying to kill him. Then said Jesus to them, yet
a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent
me. You shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am,
thither you cannot come. Then said the Jews among themselves,
whither will he go that we shall not find him? Will he go into
the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? What
manner of saying is this that he said, you shall seek me and
shall not find me, and where I am, thither you cannot come?
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the
Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. For the
Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet
glorified. All right, that's a fairly long
reading, but I wanted you to see the, there's many things
in this chapter and we will look at more of them as time goes
on. But I wanted to focus today on
the second verse and this verses here in 37 through 39. And the
reason I'm taking verses 37 and 39 somewhat out of order as the
chapter flows is because I want to talk about this second verse,
the Feast of Tabernacles. It says in verse 2, now the Jews'
Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. It turns out, and you may not
be familiar with the Old Testament about the feasts, but God in
the Old Testament had given the nation of Israel many feasts
that they were to keep. And this was one of them called
the Feast of Tabernacles, and all of those feasts were physical
feasts. That means that the people did
things with animal sacrifices. They were given certain things
to do on certain days. But all of the physical aspects
of those feasts pointed to were a picture of a spiritual truth. And it's the spiritual truth
that's important, of course. But it says here it was the Jews'
feast of tabernacles that was at hand. It wasn't the feast
of some other nation. It was their feast. But the reason
it says the Jews' feast is that they had kept it only physically. They hadn't seen the meaning
of these feasts. They hadn't seen the spiritual
truth and they hadn't believed on the Lord by what He revealed
in these feasts. They were without faith. And
so when it says the Jews feast of Tabernacles was at hand, It
was to show us that all of those people who had been brought up
under the Jews' religion were still keeping that religion.
They were still following the outward physical signs that they
were given, and they didn't see beyond those physical things
in order to see the spiritual realities that they pointed to.
So I want to go back and look at these feasts very quickly
with you so that we can appreciate what God has done here. It turns
out that these are mentioned in several places in the Old
Testament, but in Leviticus Chapter 23 is one place where is the
most complete description of these feasts given. So going
back to Leviticus Chapter 23, If you want to turn there, the
Old Testament is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those are the first five books.
All of them were written by Moses under the inspiration of the
Spirit of God. Now, Leviticus means this is
the book of the Levites or of the priesthood. And in this book
of Leviticus, Moses is given instruction here about many things. And in this chapter, Leviticus
23, it's all about the feast days. And there were seven feasts
given in this chapter. And let me just list them so
that we have those at hand. First of all, there was the feast
of unleavened bread. Unleavened means it didn't have
yeast in it. And then the next feast was called the Feast of
the First Fruits. the Feast of the First Fruits,
when they would take the very first grown sheaf, that means
they would take a stack of whatever was growing, it turns out is
barley, and they would use that barley that had grown, and they
would grind it up, and they would take that flour and that sheaf,
and they would wave it before the Lord, not all the people,
but the priest, and that was called the Feast of First Fruit.
The very first thing that they would take from the field In
the beginning of the harvest, that was waved before the Lord,
and they had a feast on that called the Feast of First Fruits.
And then after that, there was what was called the Feast of
Harvest, or the Feast of Weeks, or the Feast of Pentecost. Some
of these feasts had different names, even though they were
referring to the same thing. And I'll get to the sequence
of these feasts and their timing in a minute. But just so you
know, the third one was the Feast of Pentecost. And that happened
on the 50th day from the Day of Unleavened Bread, the day
after the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. And then after that
feast, that happened like I said, 50 days in the first
month. Then after that feast, there
was a feast called the Feast of Trumpets, if I've got it right,
the Feast of Trumpets. Then there was the Day of Atonement,
and there was something after that called the Feast of Tabernacles. So I want to consider each of
these feasts with you so that we can get an appreciation here.
First of all, when God gave these feasts in this chapter, It's
clear that in the book of Exodus, also chapter 23, that there were
three times in the year that God required all of the males
in Israel to appear before Him in these feasts. All of the males. And what that teaches us is that
all of God's people will appear before Him in these feasts. in the spiritual meaning is showing
that all of God's people will appear before him in these feasts. The other thing to notice here
is that all of these feasts talk about the Lord's feasts. These were God's feasts. He gave
them, he appointed them, and they were to be done in his presence. So that's the other thing I want
you to see. They were all kept, all of them were kept once a
year. and all of the males must appear. They were feasts that
were holy and they were to be done when the people gathered
together as a congregation. They weren't to be kept like
in a personal individual home or in a town separated, but they
were all to gather together. And there were ceremonies that
were performed according to the law that had a spiritual meaning. Now, all of these feasts have
a fulfillment in the New Testament. And the gospel tells us the meaning
of these feasts. If we understand the gospel,
then we can see the meaning of the feasts. And so what we see
here is in all of these feasts, God is showing us our salvation. And he's teaching us our salvation
as it's fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's showing
us across the whole year, the fees were kept from the first
month of the year till the end of the last month of the year.
And this shows us that our salvation is laid out for us by God from
the beginning until the end of time. And so all of these fees
have to do with that. The fulfillment in the gospel
sense by Christ, all of God's people, and this is done before
the Lord, it's holy, they're all gathered together, and it
shows us our redemption from the first to the last, okay?
So let's take the first feast. The first one was called the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first month of the year was
designated by the Passover, when Passover was given. Now, do you
remember what Passover was? In Exodus chapter 12, God gives
the Passover. And you remember that because
Passover means God passed over Israel. And he didn't pass over
every house in the land of Egypt, but only those houses where the
blood was sprinkled on the doorpost and on the header above the door. And God is the one who designated
this Passover feast. It was called the Lord's Passover
because it was entirely of God. It was entirely of him. He ordained it. He ordained everything
about it. He desired to use this Passover
as a time of deliverance. He required what he would use
to deliver his people, which was the Passover lamb. He provided
when the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the blood was sprinkled,
he passed over his people. He saw the blood. He accepted
the blood that he had poured out judgment on the lamb instead
of the people in the house. And so he passed over the house
in judgment because that judgment fell on the lamb. And then he
also required that all those who were in the house would eat
the Passover, roasted with fire. And then also all those who were
outside of the houses where the blood was sprinkled were judged,
and the judgment fell on them. And through this act of the Passover,
God delivered Israel out of Egypt. So the Passover was given by
God. He required it, He provided it,
He ordained it, He accepted it, and by that Passover lamb, He
delivered Israel out of Egypt. Okay? He judged their enemies,
those who kept them captive, those who ruled over them with
hard bondage and made them slaves, and they would die under that
slavery, and what delivered them from that was what God used and
required, the lamb, the Passover lamb. And at that night, they
were to eat what was called bitter herbs. They were also to eat
bread that had not been allowed to rise from the yeast. They
were to keep the yeast out of the bread. In fact, they were
supposed to search through the house and remove all yeast or
leaven so that there was nothing that would cause that bread to
rise. It was unleavened bread. Now
all of this is teaching us a very important set of truths. God says in 1 Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 7 that Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. God required him. God ordained
him. God's the one who desired to
deliver his people and would find what he required to deliver
them. God desired to deliver his people
from the sin they were under, from Satan and his kingdom, and
from the bondage of the law, and from the slavery that led
to their death, the curse of the law. from the world, from
everything that sin brought, all of its consequences, God
desired to deliver His people and He required what was needed
to deliver them and that was the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this Passover is
meant to teach us. all in the house where the blood
was sprinkled, all in Christ where His blood is sprinkled,
are delivered because God sees the blood of Christ and passes
over them in judgment. Christ was cursed and redeemed
us from the curse of the law, therefore we're delivered from
the curse. So that's what this Passover was to teach us. Now, there's a great connection
now between Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The
Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after Passover. Passover
occurred, they killed the lamb. All of Israel killed the lamb
in the evening of this Passover night. It was called the 14th
day of the first month. And on the 15th day, the next
day, they began to eat unleavened bread and they ate unleavened
bread for seven days. All right, so that's when this
occurred. First Passover, then unleavened
bread. If we understand the Passover, then we understand what this
eating of unleavened bread means. Because we just looked at this
in John chapter six. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Passover. He was sacrificed for us. We're
delivered by his precious blood. What did they do in the house
then? They ate the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread. And
what that means is that because Christ has redeemed us by His
precious blood, therefore He gives Himself to us that by faith
we would take of the virtue of His blood which delivered us
from our sins and from the curse of God's law and Satan and his
kingdom and death and all of the consequences our sins brought
upon us from the hand of God in justice. Christ delivered
us, we take of him by faith. They ate this unleavened bread
seven days, all right? So that's what this, there's
a connection between Christ offering himself to God for his people.
And there, God giving them then the grace of his Holy Spirit
that they might take by faith, take Christ by faith to themselves
and live upon him by faith, taking him. as a needy sinner and living
upon Him, coming to God by Him, as all of their life and all
of the cleansing from their sins and the righteousness they need
to appear before God, accepted by God. God designed this. God ordained it. God gave it. He gave what He required. So
eating necessarily follows deliverance by the blood of Christ. All who
were delivered by the blood of the lamb shall without fail eat
the bread in fellowship in that blood, okay? In other words,
according to the gospel, all for whom Christ died will believe
him. Because He redeemed them, He
therefore gives them His bread, His life, laid down for their
life to take by faith and live upon. Okay. And all who ate that
were gathered together in one body, because everyone redeemed
by Christ who believes on Him are part of one body, the church. And so it says in the New Testament,
as often as we eat the bread and drink the fruit of the vine
at the Lord's table, just like Israel of old, we eat that bread
which is Christ broken and sacrificed for us for our life. God provided
what God required. This is very important. No one
was to appear before the Lord empty in the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, and so God requires of us to bring to Him only what
He has provided, the Lord Jesus Christ. In faith, by faith we
look to Christ, and when we come to God we ask Him like the publican,
Lord. Be merciful to me. Look upon
the sacrifice that removed the sin and satisfied justice, and
be favorable unto me because of Christ and Him crucified."
We bring to God what God has provided and given for our life. We take Christ by faith and we
come to God by faith. And that's what they did representatively
or emblematically in eating the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So
you see that first feast then? It was beginning on the day after
Passover, it lasted for seven days, and they ate the bread
continually because in the experience of every believer, we together
as one body in Christ, by what God has provided both in Christ
and the bread for us to eat, we're taking of Him daily, continuously. All right, now the next feast
in Leviticus, now that covers the first part of Leviticus 23.
It begins in verse four and five, and then it ends with this first
feast. at verse 8. But in verse 9, I'll read this,
in Leviticus 23, it says, The Lord spake to Moses, saying,
Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come
into the land, which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest
thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of
your harvest unto the priest, and he, the priest, shall wave
the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you on the morrow
after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Sabbath occurred
on which day? The seventh day. What was the
day after the Sabbath? The eighth day. Well, there are
only seven days in a week. The eighth day is actually the
first day of the next week. The Lord Jesus Christ was killed
on Passover. The next day he lay in the tomb. The day after that was the day
after the Sabbath when they began to eat the unleavened bread.
Christ rose from the dead on the day after that Sabbath, which
is Sunday. He is the first fruit. He is the sheaf that was waived
and accepted by God for the people. Do you see that? Let me read
to you in 1 Corinthians 15 to show us that in this first sheaf,
this feast of the first fruit, is our salvation. He says in
1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 23, notice this. Sometimes
we've read these scriptures, we've heard them, and we didn't
connect them to what was going on in the Old Testament. But
he says here in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians 15, Every man in his own order. Christ, notice, the first fruits. Afterward, they that are Christ
at his coming. He's talking about resurrection.
Christ rose first. He's the first fruits from the
dead. All of God's people, because
Christ rose and was accepted, He offered His own blood, remember,
in the holy place, and He was accepted and obtained eternal
redemption for us. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again because of our justification so that His
resurrection is the proof that God has accepted His people because
the first fruits were waved by the high priest, Christ, to God
and we were accepted because of Him. And our resurrection
is in His so that there's no possibility that those who were
in Christ would also rise again with Him. Our resurrection is
guaranteed in the resurrection of Christ because we were with
him in his work and in his resurrection. OK, and that's what the first
the Feast of Firstfruits was meant to teach us. Christ rose
from the dead on the day after the first day of unleavened bread. And that day was Sunday. The day after was Sunday. And
he was offered to God on Passover. All of Israel were to kill the
lamb and eat the roasted lamb. And so what happened? All of
the nation of the Jews killed the Lord Jesus Christ. But more
importantly, spiritually speaking, all for whom Christ died killed
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was my sin. And this is why
the bitter herbs are in the eating of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Because think of it now, the disciples were watching and observing
the Lord Jesus taken by the soldiers, charged and convicted by the
high priest, then by Pilate, and then crucified. And what
was it for? It was for their sins. Can you
imagine the horror that came over them, the sorrow and affliction
of their souls in seeing that what was required for them to
be accepted by God was that their beloved master should die for
their sins. That was bitter, wasn't it? It
also teaches us that the bitterness of God's judgment has passed
from us. We lived our life under the bitterness
of this weight of our sin and the knowing that God's wrath
was against us and that we were separated from God by our sins
and facing alienation. And the Lord says through the
blood of Christ and eating him and taking of him, we are delivered
from that. The bitterness is passed. God's
wrath is removed. All right, so that's the second
feast, the Feast of First Fruits, which followed the Feast of Unleavened
Bread. The very first sheaf taken from
the field was waived. God accepted that, and then they
would begin the rest of the harvest. No one could begin to harvest
the field until that first sheaf was waived. And so then they
began the harvest. And there was a feast that corresponded
to that called the Feast of Pentecost. And you see this in verse 11
of Leviticus 23, where he says, he shall wave the sheaf before
the Lord to be accepted on the morrow after the Sabbath, the
priest shall wave it, and you shall offer that day when you
wave the sheaf and he lamb without blemish of the first year for
a burnt offering to the Lord. And he goes on and describes
what else to offer. And then he says in verse 15,
and you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath,
this would be the Sunday of Christ's resurrection, from the day that
you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbath,
49 days, seven weeks, shall be complete, even unto the morrow
after the seventh Sabbath. Okay, that would have been the
next Sunday. So Christ rose on a Sunday, 50 days later, another
Sunday, and guess what happened on that day historically? God
poured out His Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, who sat on heaven's
throne, sent His Spirit into the world to do what? The Feast
of Harvest. On that day, Peter stood up and
preached the gospel in Acts chapter 2, and what happened? 3,000 souls
were saved. This was the harvest. This was the beginning of harvest.
The souls that Christ had planted in the earth with the seed of
the gospel now were beginning to be harvested because He poured
out His Spirit. And so we see that in the beginning,
Passover, the redemption by Christ's blood and the deliverance. And
then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because he's redeemed
us, we take of Christ by faith and live upon him. And then we
see that at the resurrection of Christ, because he was raised
from the dead, all of his church is gathered together. He pours
out his spirit, and by the gospel sent through his ministers, the
people of God, his harvest of souls is brought in from the
field, okay? And this was called the Feast
of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks because there were seven
weeks. And it's the Feast of Harvest of First Fruits. It's
the first fruits of the harvest. It's not the complete harvest
because there was still many weeks to go until the end of
the year. All right. So this is Pentecost. Now, one thing you'll notice
when you read Leviticus is that with each of these feasts, with
each of these feasts, there's sacrifices that were made, burnt
offerings and sacrifices. From the Feast of Passover, obviously
started with a sacrifice. The Feast of Unleavened Bread
had sacrifices each day. The Feast of the First Sheaf
that was brought from the field and waved, there was sacrifices
and offerings on that one. And so with Pentecost, and so
with all of the others. There were always, with all of
these feasts, there were sacrifices to be made. Why? Why did God
require these burnt offerings and sacrifices on each of these
feasts? because we're only accepted by
God. And our praise and our offerings,
I mean, our worship is only accepted by God because of Christ. We
are accepted because of Christ and Him crucified. He accepts
us because of Christ and Him crucified, and our praise is
accepted because of that. We know him because of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All of it is about the Lord Jesus
Christ because he's our life. He took away our sins. He took
away the curse. All right. Then the next feast
we have listed in the book of Leviticus, chapter 23, begins
at verse 23. The Lord spake to Moses, speak
to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the
first day of the month, shall you have a Sabbath, a memorial,
a blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. All right, the feast
of the trumpets now. Think of what happened here.
Christ rose, that's the feast of the first fruit, and then
he sent his spirit and Pentecost occurred, that's the feast of
harvest of weeks, the gathering into the first of the harvest.
And then the next feast that occurred was the Feast of Trumpets.
Now, the Feast of Trumpets occurred in the seventh month. And this
was the last month of the year for them. After this month, there
was no more harvest. Everything had been brought in.
But the beginning of this month, the first day of this month,
began with the blowing of the trumpet. Now, in Isaiah 58, verse
1, it says, lift up your voice like a trumpet. In other words,
the trumpet was to signify the crying out of the prophet, of
the preacher, bringing God's message. And Isaiah 58 is all
about how the people trusted in their works and not in Christ's
work. But I don't have time to explain
that entire chapter to you. But at the beginning of that
chapter, he says, lift up your voice like a trumpet. And then
also in Isaiah 27, I'll read this verse to you so that you
get the appreciation for how God uses this word trumpet in
scripture. In verse 13, he says this, in
Isaiah 27, it shall come to pass in that day that The great trumpet
shall be blown, and they shall come, which were ready to perish
in the land of Assyria and the outcast in the land of Egypt,
and shall worship the Lord in the mount at Jerusalem. So the
result here of the blowing of the trumpet was that those who
heard it would come and worship in Jerusalem. So we can understand
now in the course of history and in our redemption that the
blowing of the trumpet signifies the preaching of the glorious
achievements of Christ at the cross. And this trumpet is blasted
out through the preaching of the gospel. The trumpet, first
of all, it decries, it pronounces woe on man for trusting in his
own work And it tells all of God's people to trust in Christ's
work. It's all sufficient. So this
was the blowing of the trumpet. It calls sinners. to the triumph
of Christ victorious work on the cross and his resurrection
to rest in him, who gives us rest from all of our labor, from
our sin and from the curse of God's law, this bitterness of
soul that we were under. The trumpet announces Christ
and what he's done. It's the cross, it's the gospel,
isn't it? In Psalm 89, let me read this
verse to you, in Psalm 89, He says in verse 15, I'm trying
to hold my place in two places here. He says in verse 15 of
Psalm 89, blessed is the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of thy countenance, the sound of the gospel. Blown out
like a trumpet through the preaching. All right, so back in Leviticus
23, so after the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then
the Feast of the First Sheaf or the First Fruit, the Feast
of Passover where the beginning of the harvest was brought in,
and then the Feast of Trumpet. And then the next thing that
happened in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month
was the Day of Atonement. This is when the high priest
would go in alone and by himself with the blood of that goat whose
blood was brought in as a sin offering. He would sprinkle that
blood on the mercy seat. God would be propitiated. Our
sins would be removed. God would be made favorable to
his people. He had always been favorable
to them in his decrees in Christ shed blood. But now it was evident
that through the blood of that lamb or that goat sprinkled on
the mercy seat, God accepted his people because of the blood. And then he would take the other
kid of the goat and he would lay his hands on that kid. And
he would confess over that goat all of the sins of all of Israel,
putting their sins upon the goat and send out that goat by the
hand of a fit man into the wilderness where no one could find him and
leave it there. And God would remember our sins
no more. This is all telling us what happened
on the Day of Atonement. It's the cross. Christ came to
die. And every feast was centered
around this, this day of atonement. The preaching of the gospel is
announcing atonement made. And in fact, the gospel is only
effective because of the redeeming blood of Christ. But the day
of atonement is showing us, pointing us back to everything Christ
did in that offering of himself to God for our sins. All right,
then we finally come to the last feast, which is called the Feast
of Tabernacles. In Leviticus chapter 23, in verse
33, he says this, and the Lord spake to Moses, speak to the
children of Israel saying the 15th day of the seventh month
shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. And
he goes on, verse 35, on the first day shall be a holy convocation,
you shall do no servile work, no serving kind of work in it,
you're not supposed to work. Seven days you shall offer an
offering made by fire, and then on the eighth day shall be a
holy convocation. So this was to go on for seven
days, and the last day, called the eighth day of this feast,
was the great day of the feast. This was the feast God gave to
Israel. This feast, like all the feasts,
pointed to the work of Christ and our salvation in Him. And
it follows also, like all the other feasts did, in a sequence
to show us how God, from the beginning to the end of the world,
would save His people from their sins by the Lord Jesus Christ. In this feast, every day of this
feast, they were to offer all these animals, bullocks and rams
and lambs and these meat offerings and made by fire. These things
were all offered to the Lord because we only come to God,
again, by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says a little later
down in chapter 23, he said on this day in verse 39, also in
the 15th day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the
fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven
days. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth
day shall be a Sabbath, and you shall take you on the first day
the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs
of thick trees, willows of the brook, And you shall rejoice
before the Lord your God seven days. You shall keep at a feast
to the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever
in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the
seventh month. You shall notice these verses here. You shall
dwell in booths. like little tents or they call
them tabernacles, hence the feast of tabernacles. You shall dwell
in booths seven days. All that are Israelites born
shall dwell in booths that your generations may know that I made
the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them
out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. All right,
now understand what this feast has to do with here. We're looking
at this because it occurs in John chapter 7. It was at this
feast, the time of this feast, that Jesus went to Jerusalem. It was called the Feast of Tabernacles
because they were to dwell in these things called booths made
out of these branches from trees. And they did that because when
God brought Israel out of Egypt, He made them first of all to
dwell in these booths. Now, this feast occurred at the
end of the year. It's also called the Feast of
In-Gathering, the Feast of In-Gathering. And so it was the time when all
of the grapes had been pressed and all the wine had been gathered
in. And it was a time when all of the olives had been pressed,
and all the oil had been gathered in, and all the grain had been
harvested from the field, and all of that had been laid up
in store. And they then had a feast called the Feast of Ingathering.
It represented the last of the year. It was the time of great
blessing and great rejoicing because God had so blessed them
throughout the whole year. And on each day of this feast,
they were to offer all these animals, bullocks and rams and
lambs, and with the meat offering of these things that they would
gather from the field. Okay. What does this signify? Well, it's helpful to see that
a couple of things in understanding this feast. First of all, it
was at the end of the year. In Matthew chapter 13, let me
just read this to you and see how when you read this, it resonates
with what's going on here. He says, this is a parable the
Lord Jesus Christ gave. He said, let's see, hold on. I'm trying to find the exact
place I want to begin reading from here. I'll start in verse 24. He says in verse 24 of Matthew
13, another parable put he forth to them saying, the kingdom of
heaven. So these feasts now have to do with the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man which sowed good seed
in his field, but while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares
among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. In other
words, they got crabgrass growing in the lawn. Or they got this
thorny stuff growing out in the wheat field. What are we gonna
do? The enemy did that. So he said to his, the servant
said to the householder, they said, sir, didst thou not, didst
not thou sow good seed in the field? Why does it have tares? And he said to them, verse 28,
an enemy has done this. The servant said to him, do you
want us to go then and gather them up? And he said, no, lest
while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with
them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the
time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together
first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but
gather the wheat into my barn. All right? And so he explains
that later in the same chapter where he says, in verse 38, Verse 37, he said to
them, he that sowed the good seed is the son of man. In other
words, Christ, through the gospel, planted this seed. The field
is the world. Throughout the world, the Lord
has planted his seed. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. Those are the Lord's people.
The tares are the children of the wicked one. They are not
the Lord's people, they're the children of Satan. The enemy
that sowed them is the devil. He planted the tares. and them which do iniquity, and
cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father." All right.
So we see then that the in-gathering feast, the feast of in-gathering
or the feast of tabernacles, as it's called, happened at the
end of the year. It teaches us that this feast
occurs at the finality of the redeeming work of God in Christ. This represents the final end
time, doesn't it? But not only does it represent
the end time, But remember, God made the Israelites dwell in
these booze, these little tabernacles made of branches from trees,
when they first came out of Egypt. So why does he have these two
endpoints? At the beginning, right after
Passover, when he brought them out by the Passover, then they
dwelt in booze, and then at the end, they were to dwell in booze
again. Well, you can understand this if you see that the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Word, was made flesh and, according to John
1.14, tabernacled amongst us. God in human flesh, Jesus Christ,
the eternal Word, came in our nature and was with us, dwelling
as God, the fullness of the Godhead in Him bodily. Why did he do that? Well, to
save us from our sins. Christ took our nature that we
might be partakers of his divine nature, he says in the book of
1 Peter and 2 Peter. So Christ came to take on our
nature that we might dwell in him and have him dwelling in
us. The booths represent us dwelling
in Christ. All those for whom the Passover
blood was shed and they were delivered, redeemed out of Egypt,
are those who are in Christ. They were in the house. They
were in the booths. And being in the booze, they
were sheltered from the heat of the desert. And that happened
at the very beginning of their sojourn. Because during their
sojourn, they walked by faith in Christ. They lived by faith
upon Christ. And they came to the land promised
by God, their eternal inheritance. Canaan represented that. And
they went into Canaan because Christ conquered in Joshua all
their enemies. and gave them rest from their
enemies, and gave them the inheritance, which had this abundance of fruit
and plenty, until the end of time, the end of the harvest,
when they were made to dwell again in booths, and the Lord
Jesus Christ is gathering them in as his people redeemed. In
other words, all that God promised and obtained for us by eternal
redeeming blood, the blood of Christ, and promised to give
us in that eternal glory with Christ. We first know by faith
and we live upon Him by faith looking and expectation of hope
by the power of the Spirit until we receive this eternal inheritance
with Christ in glory. Until then, we live by faith.
We're dwelling in Christ at the beginning and we're living upon
Him by faith. constantly taking of him, as
he said in John 6, until the end of time when he shall receive
the full body of Christ harvested from the earth as the result
of his redeeming work according to his promises. All of God's
people dwelling in Christ, taking from Christ, living upon him,
realize the full blessing of that promise fulfilled in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the feast was supposed
to represent. Christ in our nature, we dwelling
in Christ, Him dwelling in us. We brought into this greatest
possible joy because He has harvested us from the earth by His redeeming
blood, because of His resurrecting, justifying righteousness, as
it says in Romans 4.25, okay? The Lord tabernacled amongst
us that we might be in him and he in us. And when we realize
the fulfillment of this, it's at the end of time. We are living
by faith because of his redeeming blood in fellowship with God.
but we're looking for the time when the consummation of all
that God promised and obtained for us by the blood of his son
is given to us in the redemption of our body. When we're joined
together, not just one or two or here and there, but every
redeemed child of God joined with Christ in the air. He's coming from glory, the dead
in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive will be caught
up together with the Lord, and so shall we ever be with the
Lord in the air. He sends forth his angels, he
gathers his harvest, he brings them to himself. There's great
joy, joy unspeakable. Because of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, which brought us to God. And now, in John 7, in
verse 37, he says this. In the last day, this is the
eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacle, the end of time, pictured here
as it were. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. This was a feast. Nobody's thirsty
after the feast. Nobody's hungry. They're all
probably so tired or wore out with all the dancing and singing
and eating and drinking. And Jesus stands up and he lifts
up his voice and he cries out, if any man thirsts, The Jews
feast of Passover had just been held. All of the outward show
had just been accomplished and nothing had been done for these
people. And the Lord Jesus Christ rises up out of the typical and
the shadowy physical and he declares to them the spiritual realities. He says, are you thirsty? This is what we are, empty, ruined,
parched, as Brad read to us from Jeremiah chapter 17. Like the
heath in the desert is what we are when we trust in ourselves.
But the one who trusts in the Lord is like the tree planted
by the rivers of water. God knows our hearts. The heart
of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
And yet God searches the heart and tries the reins and he gives
to every man according to what he's given to them in Christ.
He's given us faith and we look to him. We see everything in
Christ fulfilled and we're taking from him. And the Lord Jesus
Christ says, if any man thirst, are you thirsty is the fire of
God's wrath bearing down on you so that you feel separated? Or
do you feel in yourself this estrangement from God? Nothing
in yourself to help. And you look away, you hear Christ
say, are you thirsty? Yes, I have nothing, I need everything,
and I find it all in you. And he says in verse 38, he that
believeth on me, As the scripture has said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. He's talking about the Spirit
of God. Believing Christ We have the grace of God flowing to us
in the spirit of God himself, Christ in you. And he's revealing
to us all the things of Christ and we're living upon him by
faith. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we're expecting
God to give us the ultimate consummation of all Christ has done. And we're
living as it were in these booths by faith with hope in Christ.
by his spirit now living upon him, the feast of the Old Testament. Doesn't do anything for us. All
of our works do nothing for us. We're still left thirsty and
hungry. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
lifts up and he says, are you thirsty? Believe on me. And you'll
find out of your belly an abundance, a continuous flow, unending,
unimaginable, pointing you to the Lord Jesus Christ and you're
constantly taking of him. And that's the way it'll be throughout
your life. You won't have anything. You
won't find anything in yourself. And you'll be desperate, and
you'll wonder, I don't sense it. I don't feel the Lord with
me. Look away to Christ. Find it in Him. Take, drink,
eat in abundance, continuously. Your life, all that's required
for life, everything is in Him. Isn't it wonderful? Out of the
ruin and emptiness of the Jews' religion, the Lord Jesus Christ
came at this time in history to teach us that in the cross
and his spirit given to us after his resurrection through the
gospel that we would be brought to God It's the same old story,
isn't it? Let's pray. Father, thank you
so much for the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to believe on him. We
won't thirst unless you give us thirst. And we certainly won't
be able to believe unless you give us faith in him. How desperately
we need your grace. And this grace we know comes
to us because of his blood, by his Holy Spirit, in the preaching
of his word. Lord, we can't make it happen
But when we know ourselves to be completely barren and withered
and dry as in a desert, and then we hear the gospel, how everything
is in our Savior, then by faith we're able to go into the very
presence of God by the blood of Jesus and find abundance,
eternal blessings, everything provided, the joyful sound, And
we rejoice then by faith, by the power of your spirit, hoping,
expecting, anticipating you to give us all things for nothing
that we bring, but for everything Christ has accomplished. And
let us now together, as we consider these things, bring our Savior
to remembrance and declare his goodness and all that he did
through the Lord's table. In his name we pray, amen.