The Apostle Paul, Luke and the New Testament Holy Days

Well, happy Sabbath, everyone! It's great to have all of you with us once again. And as Frank mentioned, we are coming upon the Fall Holy Days, a very meaningful time for those of us who, God has opened our minds to understand the meaning and the plan behind His Holy Days. I thought it would be very helpful for us, as far as a PowerPoint presentation and the simple fact that we have a lot of newbies within our congregation, to explain why the Fall Holy Days are so important to us. We don't keep these days out of a vacuum. We know and we understand that there are a lot of people who believe in Jesus Christ.

There are a lot of people who don't keep the Holy Days. And there's a reason that we do, and that reason basically is because we continue to see the days appreciated and observed long after the life and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So if we decide that we want to bridge our religious beliefs on the example of the early New Testament Church, it's very important to know what they said, when they said it, and why they said it.

And so for that reason, I think it's very important for us to understand what the Apostle Paul, and certainly by extension, what Luke felt and recorded about the importance of the New Testament, or what I often call the New Covenant, Holy Days. So let's begin by talking about why we keep these days.

Most people who profess to be Christians don't observe the Holy Days. It's because they believe the Holy Days are obsolete. They believe that the Holy Days cease to be of any value or importance when Jesus Christ died. You'll often will hear the phrase that they were something that was, quote, nailed to the cross, meaning using the cross as a metaphor, something that is no longer important or valid, or something that no longer needs to be done in the New Testament or for God's people.

So we'll see if that's true today. We know Jesus clearly observed the Holy Days. He kept the Passover. He observed the days of Unleavened Bread. We see in the Scriptures where he attended the Feast of Tabernacles. So we know that he clearly observed them. But then they become obsolete at the time of his death. Were they something that were fulfilled in Christ and therefore no longer important for us to observe? And then in the Book of Acts, we'll see that there was a doctrinal issue that occurred in Acts, Chapter 15.

It was a major ministerial conference that could have split the church apart, could have literally blown the church, the pieces, over a very controversial issue. We'll see what that issue was, and we'll see if that issue included whether individuals needed to keep the Sabbath, the Holy Days, Ten Commandments, and many other things that people desire not to do.

And we'll see after this conference, by the example of the Apostle Paul, and by the example of Luke, who wrote about the Apostle Paul, what their teachings and beliefs were after that ministerial conference. So we'll see if they were people of integrity. We'll see if their accent showed that during that conference in Acts 15 that the Holy Days were done away for the Gentiles to observe, or the Ten Commandments, or the Sabbath.

We'll see by their lifestyle, we'll see by what they said, we'll see by what they wrote, what their views and attitudes were regarding the Holy Days after that event. So there are primarily two ways that we can answer all of the questions that I just mentioned. We can examine two things. We can examine the book of Acts, which were written by a Gentile physician and a traveling companion with Paul. His name was known as Luke. He wrote two books in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke, and he also wrote the book of Acts.

And the second way is the actual writings of the Apostle Paul. If I wanted to know what's going on in your head, you know how I could find that out? I could read your diary. If you have a diary, I could read your diary and I would know what's going on in your head.

I would know what's your thinking. And Paul left us a diary that he wrote to the congregations. They reveal his epistles, what was going on in his head, what he was thinking about, how he was dealing with problems and crisis within the Church, what his attitude was about certain things. So the way that we can answer the questions that we mentioned earlier on the slide, and that we can understand the importance of the Holy Days, are two different ways.

We can examine the book of Acts written by Luke and the actual writings of the Apostle Paul, and that's certainly what we'll do today. Let's take a minute to talk about Luke. Again, he was the author of the Third Gospel, and also the author of the book of Acts. He was a Gentile in Colossians 4, verse 11. His name is mentioned among those who Paul said were Gentiles. He was a physician. He was Paul's personal physician. It's mentioned also in Scriptures, chapter 4, Colossians, verse 14.

He was believed to have been from Antioch, but Philippi was his home base. He was a loyal, traveling companion of Paul's, even until the end of Paul's life. No one knew Paul better than Luke, because he had been with him for decades. He traveled with Paul for a long time. He wrote these two books, the Gospel of Luke and Acts, to provide a gentleman who we believe was probably a Gentile as well. His name was Theophilus, and some scholars believe that was just a metaphor for the entire church.

I think that's spiritualizing it away a little bit too much. It may have been a pseudonym to protect the actual individual from persecution, but I think the evidence is that Luke wrote this for an individual who may have been his sponsor, who he may have had discussions with, who wanted to know about a documented history of the church. Who else but a physician, with a physician's education and attention to detail, could sit down and write a chronicle history of events going on in the early New Testament church?

Here's one thing about Luke that I believe we often forget, and Luke isn't appreciated enough in the New Testament church, I believe. The size of you put Luke and you put the book of Acts together, these two make him the chief contributor to the New Testament. If you put those two books together, you have 25% of all scripture that's combined and written in the New Testament. Taken as a whole, Luke and Acts are larger than all 13 letters of Paul in the book of Hebrews combined. That's what a significant influence Luke has in the Word, in what we study and what we read.

So what he said we should pay attention to because it's profound and it's important and it's coming from an individual who wanted deeply to write an accurate historical account of events. And of course we have the Apostle Paul. We've talked about him much. Originally his name was Saul, named after a king in the Old Testament.

He was a devout Jew, a Pharisee, and he was a zealous persecutor of the early church. He was called around 35 AD while he was traveling towards the city of Damascus with an intent to arrest and harass the believers who were in Damascus. He was a terror. We could say he was a terrorist on the early church of God. And Jesus Christ called him and gave him a significant emotional event that changed Paul's life forever.

He was tutored under a very deeply converted individual named Barnabas and he began to minister about seven years after his conversion. Paul was a Roman citizen by birth and he was highly educated. He could speak and write a number of languages, which was not true of the other apostles whom Jesus had personally mentored. Most of them were simple, hardworking, dedicated religious individuals, fishermen, tax collectors, others, but they were not near as highly educated as someone like Paul was. Being a Roman citizen gave him a passport to virtually travel anywhere throughout the Roman Empire and have a certain degree of protection from local officials.

The other apostles didn't have that benefit. After three missionary tours, he was arrested twice. He was taken to Rome. He was eventually martyred about 68-69 AD. Even though he wasn't one of the original twelve, he is considered by virtually everyone to be an authentic apostle and a major contributor to the early Church's doctrines. So now with that background of Luke and Paul, let's begin to go into the history and see why the Holy Days are so important to the Church of God.

We'll begin by going to Acts 2 and verse 1 if you will turn there with me. We'll look at a scripture here before Paul is even called by God. This is even before Paul's calling. Acts 2, beginning in verse 1, it says, Jesus told them to wait and he departed. He went back up into heaven and they waited. And they waited, but they assembled on one of God's Holy Days. They assembled to worship.

They assembled to respect a Holy Day that was mentioned in Leviticus 23. This festival occurrence was about six weeks after Jesus had been resurrected. Do you think that they felt this Holy Day was now obsolete? Why would they think that the Day of Pentecost suddenly was obsolete? Well, obviously they didn't because they were all there. And they were all assembled to worship God on this Day of Pentecost. If they chose not to attend, do you think that they would have received God's Holy Spirit that day?

Let's say the original twelve. Yeah, well, I'm going to stay home. Yeah, well, I'm going to go to Antioch. Well, I'm going to go to the market and I'm going to go to Walmart. Do you think if they would have split up and just did their own thing in that day, do you think something like this would have happened and they would have received God's Holy Spirit? Absolutely not! They would have received God's Holy Spirit because God had planned long ahead of time on one of His designated Holy Days, the days that He chooses to be worshipped, to give a special group of people the gift of His Holy Spirit on this Day of Pentecost.

So that's one of the earliest events we see of the Holy Days being observed after the death and resurrection. And going back into heaven as an example of Jesus Christ, Paul isn't called into the ninth chapter of Acts and he begins to minister with Barnabas in Acts 13. And sure enough, not long after his ministry, there's a big problem in the church about 49 A.D.

and this is a serious issue. Acts 15, verses 1 and 2, if you'll turn there with me, it says, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, here's the theological premise, here's what they're telling the brethren, Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. So that's pretty strong stuff. This is a salvation issue.

You cannot achieve salvation unless you've been circumcised according to the custom of Moses. It has to be done on the eighth day and this has to occur and I'm sure there were rituals involved in it. And therefore, it says, When Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, That's nice biblical talk for meaning, there were arguments going on, there were veins popping out of people's foreheads.

There was a lot of contention over this issue. They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. Very important question and I might add as a side note, This is the spirit and the purpose of what the United Church of God was founded on.

They did not go to Jerusalem to ask one man what the teaching of the church was. They went to Jerusalem to talk to a plurality of elders, Of people who were given God's Holy Spirit, an extra measure by their ordination, And that included the apostles and the elders. And together, they were to decide this very serious matter, Not simply one individual who appointed themselves as some title to make this kind of a decision.

So this dispute led to a ministerial conference. They did go to Jerusalem, 49 A.D. This is 18 years since Jesus died. So here's going to be the question. The question is, do you need to be circumcised according to the law of Moses to achieve salvation? And we need to understand this is the only question. Many scholars and many people who have rejected observance of the Holy Days will tell you That in Acts 15 it was decided that anything regarding the law of Moses is done away.

If it's in the law of Moses, it's obsolete and done away. And that was the discussion, was the validity of the law of Moses. Well, that may sound real good superficially, but as we'll see, that simply is not true. The question is not about the Ten Commandments or the Sabbath or the Holy Days or tithing or unclean foods. We'll see exactly what the issue is. Paul goes there as a leader. He's been in the ministry for a number of years now. He's highly educated. He knows what the Scriptures say. And he says in the conference, it is not required.

And he says it firmly and dogmatically because he believes that salvation is a gift not earned by any action or works. Besides that, if you just think about the logic of that belief, what does this mean for the other 50% of the population whom God calls who are females?

It doesn't leave very much hope, does it? So here in Acts 15, verses 12, then all the multitude kept silent. So here there at this conference, and they listen to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. Paul goes in his prosecutor mode. He says, you can't tell me it's required for salvation. These people are speaking in languages that are understood by other people. These Gentiles are new creatures in Christ.

They're doing great and marvelous things. They're as converted as you are. And he's they're given these examples of the change in the Gentile peoples who have not been circumcised. It says in verse 13, and after they had become silent, James answered, saying, men and brethren, listen to me. So Barnabas and Paul take a leadership position in the controversy. Notice the wisdom of James here, who guides the conference, who is the conference chairman. He allows everyone to exhaust their comments and opinions.

He doesn't cut people off. He doesn't interject. He is a great listener. He lets people talk and talk and point and counterpoint and discuss it until everything that can be said has been said. Everyone has had a say. Everyone has vented how they feel. And it becomes quiet.

And a great conservative like James, if James would come down and say, it's obvious that circumcision is not required for salvation, that would kind of be the end of the matter, because James's reputation was for someone who was zealous of the law and was a very conservative preacher.

So here's exactly what happens. Now let's see what their judgment is. This is, therefore, I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we should write to them—he's going to mention four things he's saying—here's what we should tell the Gentiles, to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. This is something very interesting in verse 21.

Most people who want to say that this includes anything regarding the law of Moses conveniently stop at the end of verse 20. But, unfortunately, the Scriptures continue when they reveal a context. Verse 21, Now here's an interesting thing about these four things they are told to abstain from. They're all in the law of Moses. So does that make sense to you? We're here to tell you that the law of Moses is voided, but here's four things we want you to do from the law of Moses.

Does that even make any sense? The four restrictions from the law of Moses were because these were two people who had been Jewish and converted to the faith were the most despicable things that they saw Gentiles do who were coming to the church. It made their skin crawl. It was something that really bothered them.

But let me ask this question. How would they learn about the other aspects of what we call being a new creature in Christ? Those four things don't mention murder. So are they implying that it's okay to murder? As long as you do these four things, it's okay to be a murderer. It doesn't mention lying.

Those four things don't include deceit, stealing, coveting, kidnapping, extortion, cannibalism, using God's name in vain, bribery, greed, causing physical abuse, disobedience, the biblical law, worship practices, morality, etc. It doesn't include any of those things.

So how would they learn about all of these things that aren't part of the four things that were part of the law of Moses?

Let's go back to verse 21. That's why context is so important. I'm going to be reading now from the translation of God's word for today. Instead, we should write a letter telling them to keep away from things polluted by false gods and from sexual sins, from eating the meat of strangled animals, and from eating bloody meat. Verse 21, After all, Moses' words have been spread to every city for generations. His teachings are read in synagogues on every day of worship.

So what James is saying here is these are the four things that make the Jewish believers' skin crawl, that they see the Gentiles doing. This really upsets them. So we're going to mention these four specific things. Because when they go to synagogue next Sabbath, when they go to our congregation's next Sabbath, they will hear about all the other stuff. All you have to do is walk into any synagogue in the Sabbath, and you hear about the law. You hear about Moses' teachings about not stealing and about not using God's name in vain and not being deceitful, and all of these other things that are part of what it means to be a Christian and to live a Christian's life.

The point that I want to bring out here, of course, is that Acts 15 was not about anything more than whether circumcision was a requirement, according to the law of Moses, to be saved or to achieve salvation. And the answer to the conference was it was not a requirement.

So now let's take a look at some actual examples. Paul's personal example of what the Church has said is observing the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, some scholars say that the Scripture will look at—refers to the Days of Unleavened Bread or Pentecost. And the difficulty with this verse is of itself you don't know whether it's the spring holy days or fall holy days.

It doesn't tell us. The only thing you can go on is try to go before this event and calculate what time of year it may have been. This falls into a theological category that Mr. Thomas has, and it's a big bucket, and it's called Who Cares. It's not important whether it really was the spring holy days or the fall holy days.

The important thing is that it's a holy day that Paul is talking about. Acts 18, verse 19 says, Now, some of the most esteemed and respected manuscripts that exist, called the Syriac Manuscripts, have this complete verse in it, including the phrase, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem. Now, there are Latin manuscripts that do not include that part. Interestingly, that disappeared from the Latin manuscripts. But the Syriac manuscripts are highly esteemed by scholars because their language was very closely related to Aramaic, which would have been the original language that Jesus and the disciples spoke in.

They are very ancient manuscripts. And that phrase that I just read is in there. And just to give you an idea of Ephesus here on our map, here is Ephesus, and he wants to go down to Jerusalem. He's actually in a hurry. And I might add that it's very dangerous. It's not easy to travel from Ephesus to Jerusalem.

The quickest way is by sea. It's expensive. You're putting your life in your own hands. And it's a very difficult thing to do, so you don't do it lightly. So here we see that Paul cuts short his visit to Ephesus to attend the holy days. And this is approximately 52 A.D. This is three years after the Jerusalem conference in Acts 15. He feels he must attend the feast, and his phrase is, by all means. Does that sound to you like he felt it was something that was obsolete?

Now, I was just doing it this morning. If you read commentary, the typical commentator will say, oh, well, this just means that Paul wanted to meet with his old friends in Jerusalem, and he was just eager to meet with his pals and talk about church things together. Does that make sense to you? Here's a man who's called to be an apostle. His job is to raise up and nurture congregations. He stops in Ephesus and says, oh, I'd like to spend more time with you, but I have to, by all means, travel to Jerusalem to keep the coming feast.

And he goes to Jerusalem. Now, do they want us to believe that he took that arduous and expensive journey so he could meet with a bunch of his buddies at a holy day and all sit around and have a nice meal and drink and say, hey, remember when we used to observe these days?

Or have another drink? I just don't believe that it really makes sense that he would cut off his ministerial duties and travel to Jerusalem in a hurry in order to break bread with some of his buddies, his old friends, back in Jerusalem. So this is a very important scripture. The interesting thing is that most modern translations have dropped out the feast reference.

The original King James Version, New King James Version, Young's Literal Bible, the Derby translations all have it in there, but the modern translations are using Latin manuscripts and they have dropped that verse out. Frankly, I'm sure it makes some of the translators uncomfortable to have that verse in there because people might start asking questions. Now let's take a look at a personal example of Paul observing the days of Unleavened Bread, a scripture many of us are aware of.

In 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6-8, he is talking to a Gentile congregation composed primarily of Gentiles in the Greek city of Corinth. And he says, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leavened leaven is the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Here's it from the New Century version. So let us celebrate this feast, not with the bread that has old yeast, the yeast of sin and wickedness. Let us celebrate this feast with the bread that has no yeast, the bread of goodness and truth. So here he is, the church in Corinth. You can see here it's just southwest of Athens. So he's writing to that congregation. And this scripture was written about 55 AD. This is 24 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and six years after the Jerusalem Conference in 49 AD.

In Acts 19 and verse 1, it mentions he happened to be at Ephesus at the time he wrote this. So Paul is speaking to a Greek church that is mostly Gentile in background. If you go to chapter 12 and verse 2, Paul says, You Gentiles! So there's no question about who Corinthians is addressed to. Now, what does this show us powerfully? For a man who supposedly had come to an agreement in Acts 15 that the Holy Days were done away, why would you encourage people who had no history of the Holy Days to keep the days of unleavened bread?

Unless you personally felt it was important for them to do. Why in the world would you even imply that in any way if you personally thought the Holy Days were nailed to the cross, fulfilled, done away, obsolete, whatever term we want to use, why would you confuse these Gentile believers by encouraging them to keep these feasts? Again, brethren, it just doesn't make sense. How would they even know the metaphor of what leaven represents? And of course, we know it represents sin. How would they even get that unless someone explained to them the Exodus and how when they left Egypt, how they were in a rush and they put their bread in the whole story of their bread leaving Egypt?

So, brethren, we need to appreciate and understand what Paul is saying here to this Gentile congregation. They already know what the metaphor is about the days of unleavened bread. He's not even introducing the days of unleavened bread to them. He's just encouraging them to do something they already have been taught and know about.

So again, let's take a look at another example. This time, it isn't Paul writing, it's Luke, his traveling companion, writing about Paul's personal example of observing the days of unleavened bread. Acts 20 and 4. Here's what Luke writes. He says, we, because he was part of the traveling party, he was there with Paul. And so, Pater of Bria accompanied him to Asia.

And so, Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Titicus, and Prophimus of Asia, these men going ahead waited for us at Troas. So they already go ahead and they're waiting, and they're waiting, and they're waiting with Paul and Luke and a few others. They're not showing up. Where are they? Verse 16, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and in five days joined them at Troas where we stayed seven days. So this is about seven years after Jerusalem Conference in 49 A.D. Why did they wait until after the days of unleavened bread to travel, because they chose to observe the holy days in Philippi?

That was their choice, and they didn't want to travel during the holy days. They even knew people were waiting for them to show up at Troas, and they didn't care. They waited until the holy days were completed. So again, I want to ask the question, how? Why would a Gentile like Luke even know about the days of unleavened bread? Why would he even mention it? He didn't learn about the days of unleavened bread.

Growing up in the Greco-Roman Empire, being taught pagan religious beliefs, he'd never heard of them. Why would he be using this phrase? Why would he be using these as time demarcations? Why would he even care about whether these holy days are mentioned? It's because Luke himself was observing, recognizing, acknowledging, in this case, the days of unleavened bread. Paul's personal example of observing the day of Pentecost. Acts, chapter 20, so we go a little farther into the history, verses 14 through 16.

Again, we'll see the word we because Luke is with him. And when he met us at Essos, we took him on board and came to Mythalene. We sailed from there, and the next day came opposite Chios. The following day we arrived at Samos and stayed at Fragilium. The next day we came to Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

So one more time, Paul cuts short his journey. This is a nice little map here of his third missionary journey, and this kind of indicates what he does. He's up here at Troas, stops down here at Essos, Mythalene, and he totally... Notice Ephesus is up here north of Miletus. He totally bypasses a church where he founded a congregation, and he rushes to Miletus so he can sail to Jerusalem to be there for the Holy Day. What kind of an apostle is he?

Isn't that his job to visit churches? Isn't that his job to do those kinds of things? Well, of course it is, but it's also his job when he has the opportunity to respect God's Holy Days, and if he can't or desires not to do it locally, and he certainly could have done that, like the Corinthians did, he chose, it was important to him, to get to Jerusalem to be able to celebrate God's Holy Day in Jerusalem rather than doing it locally, again, which he certainly could have done. So this is also about seven to eight years after the Jerusalem conference in 49 A.D. Once again, as in Acts 18-21, he's in a hurry.

He cuts short his ministerial responsibilities. He declines a possible visit to Ephesus so that he can attend the Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem. Why would something obsolete be this important to the Apostle Paul? Because in his mind, it wasn't obsolete. It wasn't something that was nailed to the cross. It was following the example of how God said he chose to be worshipped. Unlike many people today, Paul didn't say, I think I'll just create my own feast days like the Feast of the Assumption.

I'll just invent my own days and worship God the way I choose to. And, of course, they will have lots of booze. There will be days of my convenience when it's easy for me to get off. And there will be days when I get something out of it. Those are the kind of holy days that men create to worship God. But Paul believed that let's go to the Scriptures and see how God tells us he desires to be honored, he desires to be worshipped. And you know what? Let's do that rather than doing it our way, the way that we want to.

Now, let's take a look at another example, Paul's personal example of observing the day of atonement. Continuing in our history, Acts 27, verse 7. Again, the word we because Luke is with him. Thankfully, we have Luke recording all of these events in the book of Acts.

When we had sailed slowly many days and arrived with difficulty, offsinnitus, the wind not permitting us to proceed, we sailed under the shelter of Crete Aselmoni. Passing it with difficulty, we came to a place called Fair Havens near the city of Lecia. Now, when much time had been spent and the sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, men, I perceive that this voyage will end in disaster and much loss, not only to the cargo and ship, but also to our lives.

So, Paul is being a prophet here. And I want you to notice that Luke records that the fast was already over. Why would a Gentile like Luke use the Day of Atonement to designate a time demarcation of when something happened? The New International Version, much time had been lost and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the fast. So Paul warned them. The Rurys Bible note says this, the fast was already over, only one fast was prescribed by the law, and that was the Day of Atonement.

It was the year of 59 A.D. The fast was on October 5th. The sail late was very hazardous. This means Paul left Caesarea in August or September and did not arrive in Rome until the following March. So here we see at least 10 years, a decade after the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15, and almost 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul and Luke fasted and observed the Day of Atonement, most likely on a ship.

Interesting. Why? Why even mention the Day of Atonement? If it's obsolete, done away. Because it was important to Luke. It was important to Paul. Paul is soon under arrest, being sent to Rome for trial. Again, Luke is with Paul at this time, and he refers to we in the story. So those are, in the book of Acts and in Paul's writings in Corinthians, the Scriptures that we can see that long after Jesus Christ died and was resurrected and ascended into heaven, long after that ministerial conference in Acts 15, Paul and Luke both are acknowledging the Holy Days, observing the Holy Days.

Paul himself even encouraging Gentiles to keep the Holy Days. Wait a minute, Mr. Thomas. Don't sum Paul's writings, particularly in the book of Romans, and the Colossians teach that the Holy Days are unnecessary and obsolete. Particularly in the book of Romans. We don't have time today, but the typical scholar talked to raves about the book of Luke. Paul's greatest writing, Paul's emancipation for the Christian, not to keep commandments or observe all of these unnecessary Jewish things.

Paul's greatest writing, blah, blah, blah. Well, let's take a look. This Scripture here, we'll see in a minute, is one that is considered classic by most people. But I want to have a little background, a little context to it, because I want to point out here that he wrote the book of Romans about 55-56 AD from Corinth. So, just to give us that background, Acts 20, verses 1-3, An uproar had ceased.

Paul called the disciples who himself embraced them and departed to go to Macedonia. Now when they had gone over the region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him, he was about to sail to Syria. He decided to return through Macedonia. So at this time, during these three months, that he wrote the book of Romans. At the same time, approximately, he's encouraging Corinthians to keep the days of unleavened bread. Okay? Here's the famous Scripture that in my typical discussion with people who don't want to observe the Holy Days or the Seventh-day Sabbath, this is the rabbit they pull out of their hats.

Oh! Paul said that every day is alike. You can keep whatever day you want holy and I'll keep Sunday. You can keep your old Jewish Holy Days and I'll keep the feast of the assumption. Because Paul said it really doesn't matter. We can all esteem our own favorite days and it has no meaning.

Okay, does Paul say that? Let's read the Scripture. Romans 14, verses 3-6. From the immediate discussion, Paul nails the context with a hammer. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats. For God has received him. Who are you to judge another man's servant? To his master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand for God is able to make him stand. For one person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike.

Let each be fully convinced in his own mind that he who observes the day observes it to the Lord. And he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. And in conclusion, he once again nails the context. Beginning here at the latter part of verse 6. He who eats eats to the Lord and he gives God thanks. And he who does not eat to the Lord, he does not eat and gives God thanks. Reading the Scripture clearly shows that the context is fasting. It's about whether you choose to eat on a certain day or you choose to fast on a certain day.

It has nothing to do with Sabbaths, Holy Days, or any of the other stuff that people try to pull out of this Scripture to justify what they refuse to do. The religious Jews who were converted typically fasted at least one day a week.

That was very common among religious Jewish people. Some of these converts were judging the Gentile believers because they were not fasting like they did as often as they did one day a week or on the same day that they did. Which I believe, if I recall my studies correctly, was what we would call Wednesday.

Paul wanted to put a stop to this judging. The context is not the observance of Holy Days or God's Sabbath day. That context is what day you choose to fast on. Period. Let's take a look at another example, this time from the book of Colossians. The background of where he was at when he wrote the book. He's under house arrest in Rome. Acts 28, verse 30. Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence.

No one forbidding him. In other words, you couldn't stop him. He was filled with God's zeal, filled with the Holy Spirit to preach the kingdom of God. He couldn't be stopped. Where his Bible notes comments, two full years in his own rented quarters, during this time of confinement, Paul wrote the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, oftentimes referred to as the prison epistles written 5960 A.D. And here again is a classic scripture that people like to pull the rabbit out of their hat.

Paul is condemning people, just like you, for keeping those holy days, for keeping those Jewish Sabbaths. Let's see what it says. Colossians 2, verses 16 and 17. So let no one judge you in food or in drink regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Let's read it in another translation. God's word for today. Let no one judge you because of what you eat or drink or about the observance of annual holy days, new moon festivals, or weekly worship days. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts the shadow belongs to Christ. Now, I'm here to tell you that if you had no inborn prejudice, if you had no personal agenda against the holy days or the Sabbaths, and you read this, you know what your initial impression would be?

That these are people, godly religious people, who are doing these things and being condemned for it and being judged harshly for keeping these days. And Paul's telling them, don't let anybody judge you. You do what you know you need to do. You do what you believe is right. Many people attempt to twist the scripture to imply that Paul's making a negative remark about the holy days and those who observe them. Some say Paul is correcting the church because these religious days are now obsolete.

There's a problem with that, though. Use the same line of reasoning, and if that's true, then Paul is also condemning them for eating and drinking. So does that mean they should stop eating food? Should they stop drinking? Of course not. That's ridiculous. That doesn't even make sense because Paul isn't correcting them.

Paul is saying, in reality, he is acknowledging that the brethren are observing these days, and he is telling them not to let anyone judge them for what they're doing. And if you choose to celebrate on a festival day, if you choose on a Sabbath or a feast day, to do any of these things, don't allow anyone to attempt to humiliate you or to shame you in the silence and tell you what you're allowed to do. He also has a very interesting phrase here in verse 17. I want you to notice that he says that these are a shadow of things to come.

He doesn't say that these are a shadow of the past. A shadow is something to come is something you look forward to. It's not something that's obsolete. It's not something that has been fulfilled. If a shadow is pointing towards something in the future, it is building excitement. It's a metaphor. It's building enthusiasm about that event that's soon to come. It points the way until its fulfillment later arrives. Every one of the Holy Days point towards something God is going to do in the future. We know that together they reveal this plan for mankind. It is the Church's role to cast this shadow. Only the Church should correct us regarding the Holy Days or regarding the Sabbath or regarding if we begin abusing food or drink. The outside world has no right to judge us in what we do. Quasi-believers, Tares, who associate with the Church of God, have no right to tell us what we should be doing or how we should be observing God's Holy Days. Only the Church should correct us. Now, to give you a little background why this was even important to Paul. He was confronting a Gnostic influence in Colossae. The Gnostics were people who believed that everything physical were bad. They were in to self-denial and asceticism. They wanted to appear to be righteous. So they judged everyone who enjoyed good drink. You're enjoying that too much. You're bad. You're not as righteous as I am. The only thing I drink is warm, dirty water. Oh, I see you enjoying good food. Well, I'm not going to do that. That's worldly. That's carnal. The only thing I eat at are church potlucks. My point is that they harshly judged others who didn't live like them. So because they wanted to live like permits and they wanted to deny themselves food and water and they thought laughter was sin, they thought having a good time was carnal, physical, it must be bad because I'm so sober I spend all day sucking on lemons to look this way. So they harshly judged others who didn't live like them. Eating and drinking and celebrating were judged by them as worldly. And Paul said, don't even listen to them. They have no right to tell you how to live, to tell you how to rejoice in God's Sabbath, to tell you how to celebrate God's festivals. Don't let them interfere with your calling, with what God teaches us that we should do and enjoy. So here what we actually see is at least 10 years after the conference in Acts 15 and almost 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul acknowledges the observance of the Holy Days in Colossae. Actually, contrary to what many would want us to believe, he encourages them to keep the Holy Days. So in conclusion, seven sermon conclusions today. Number one, Paul and Luke frequently mention the positive observance of the Holy Days in both the book of Acts and some of Paul's writings, like the book of Corinthians. Number two, Acts 15 was a serious discussion on the topic of whether circumcision was required for salvation. Its purpose was not to declare that the Sabbath's Holy Days and Ten Commandments are now obsolete. Number three, Luke and Paul show respect and observance of the Holy Days more than a decade after the Jerusalem conference in 49 AD and 30 years after the death of Jesus Christ. Number four, Paul personally celebrated the Holy Days, sometimes cutting short church visits to travel to Jerusalem.

Number five, Paul personally encourages the Gentiles to observe the Holy Days in their own local churches with a new meaning. We read that in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 6 and 7. The new meaning of the days of unleavened bread, not with the old lump.

Number six, Paul understood that the Holy Days now have a special meaning in the new covenant because they point toward Jesus Christ. They are a shadow of something wonderful to come that's pointing to the conclusion of God's plan for mankind.

I reflect what he has done, what he is doing now, and what he will yet do in the future. They foreshadow essential events yet to occur.

And number seven, Luke is a Gentile, yet he acknowledges the Holy Days and their observance by various disciples throughout the book of Acts, including those in Paul's traveling party, many whom he doesn't mention, when he uses the word, we did this and we did that.

Well, brethren, we are coming upon the fall Holy Days, a very meaningful and rich time for God's people. And once again, we will be observing those days not because we just want to be contrary, not because we think we're smarter than anyone else. That's not why we keep God's Holy Days. We keep God's Holy Days for one simple reason. We are God's children. We desire, because of the grace of God, to be obedient to what he tells us to do, what he asks us to do. And God has said, he has told us, he has taught us consistently that there are certain days that honor him, days that he chose, he designated, to give him glory and honor. We call those his Holy Days. So have a fulfilling and enjoyable fall Holy Days season.