Page 125 - Ecclesiology revised short_Neat
P. 125

The Days of Unleavened Bread remind us that with God's help we must remove and avoid all sin—
               symbolized by leaven—and live genuinely by God's commandments in all areas of our life.  But the
               greater significance is that Jesus had made a once and for all payment for sin.  Once they placed Jesus in
               the tomb, He again became sinless; the sacrifice was complete and the tomb held no leaven.  The feast
               of Unleavened Bread was a picture of the burial of Jesus.  Jesus had paid the sin debt in total!  This feast
               was a rehearsal that the Son of God would become sin for us, and that we could become righteous in
               Him.  2 Corinthians 5:21:

                                   21  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
                             so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.



               First Fruits (Yom habikkurim) – Nisan 16 – 22.  This was a feast in which God commanded Israel to bring
               the spring harvest and wave a sheaf of grain (omer) before the Lord.  It was to be waved the DAY AFTER
               THE SABBATH or on Sunday.  The week Jesus died, the Passover occurred on a High Sabbath, not the
                                        lvii
               weekly sabbath (Saturday).   In 33 A.D., the High Sabbath began on Wednesday evening and concluded
               Thursday evening.  Friday was a normal day, but then the weekly sabbath began on Friday evening to
               Saturday evening.  The third day since Passover would be on Sunday morning, three days and nights
               after Jesus was placed in the tomb.  Isn’t it amazing that Jesus Christ was in the tomb, as He told us He
               would be, three days and three nights, and arose on the very day that the sheaf of grain was waved
               before the Lord?  The Feast of First Fruits was a rehearsal for the resurrection of Christ, on the VERY
               DAY!

                                                   Pentecost (Shavu’ot) – Silvan 6:  The Feast of Weeks. According
                                                   to the Old Testament, they would go to the day of the
                                                   celebration of Firstfruits, and beginning with that day, and then
                                                   count forward 50 days. The fiftieth day would be the Day of
                                                   Pentecost. So Firstfruits is the beginning of the barley harvest
                                                   and Pentecost the celebration of the beginning of the wheat
                                                                        th
                                                   harvest. Since on the 50  day it was honored, it was seven (7
                                                   days) weeks or 49 days or a week of weeks.  That’s how it got its
                                                   name.  The Jews celebrated God’s gift of the Ten
               Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Old Covenant of God to His people.  But Christ fulfilled
               the law or Old Covenant and brought to us a New Covenant under grace.  The Holy Spirit was to come as
               a validation of the New Covenant to seal every believer in Christ.  Pentecost was a rehearsal of the
               coming of a New Covenant.  And on that EXACT DAY, the Holy Spirit baptized believers by indwelling
               those who trusted in Him by faith.

               One Fall Feast which was fulfilled in Christ

               There are three fall feasts, but one in particular had its fulfillment in the coming of Christ.  Let’s see why.

               We celebrate Jesus’s birth on Christmas each year.  But it is doubtful that Jesus was born on December
                  th
               25 .  The earliest mention of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday comes from a mid-fourth-century Roman
               almanac that lists the death dates of various Christian bishops and martyrs. The first date listed,
                                                                                                         lviii
               December 25, is marked: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae: “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”


                                                             123
   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130