Fundamental Belief

We're going to talk about Holy Days today, and I appreciate the sermon, Ed. It's going to work great as far as leading into the topic I want to cover. As you may remember, from time to time, I tried to go through a fundamental belief that the United Church of God has identified. Early on in the United Church of God, we came out with 20 fundamental belief statements.

You probably have or you know where to find online a copy of this booklet, The Fundamental Beliefs of the United Church of God. Statement number 12 is just simply the Festivals of God. This is a Holy Day, or rather a fundamental belief that I haven't just waded through yet, but we will do so today. The Church also has this booklet, God's Holy Day Plan, The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.

This actually was, I think, mainly just reformatted. It first came out in 1996, but it's just a little bit different than the original one I had and the way it's laid out. Then it's got the center part. It has a listing of the annual festivals all the way now through 2023, which is a long time into the future. Now, let's start by just simply reading. The handout might be a benefit for you if you want to use it for taking notes, but basically it's the statement and then breaking it down into seven different parts.

We'll go to each one, look at some of the scriptures, some of the biblical stories, commandments, etc. examples that would tie in with each one. First of all, the belief statement itself. We believe in the commanded observance of the seven annual Holy Days that were given to ancient Israel by God, were kept by Jesus Christ, the apostles, and the New Testament Church, and will be observed by all mankind during Christ's millennial reign.

These Holy Days reveal God's plan of salvation as the sermonette just covered and focused on. So, let's take these and then break them down into these seven parts. We start with the first portion that says we believe in the commanded observance. And for this, let's start in Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23 is that one chapter in the Bible that lists all seven of the festivals and the course of that covers the seven annual Sabbaths.

Leviticus 23 verse 1, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them the feasts of the Lord. Now, let's pause there. We need to remind ourselves of one small little Hebrew word. The word is translated feasts here in the English versions, but it's a little word it would transliterate into essentially m-o-e-d. Some may spell it, I think they add a w-m-o-w-e-d, but mo-ed.

And we will define that very shortly here. But the feasts of the Lord, which you, Moses, shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. And there again the word mo-ed. Now, if you want to look that up in Strong's Concordance, you can look for the Hebrew number 4150. So, 4150, and that's mo-ed. You will also have a similar word that just is in the plural.

In the English we're used to, if we want to just make something plural, cat becomes cats. We just add an s on the end. Or church becomes churches, an e-s on the end. But in the Hebrew, it's, well, again, as it transliterates into English, it would be as though you add an i-m.

So, mo-ed-im, mo-ed-im, the feasts of God. And if you look it up in Strong's, or in any Concordance, or lexicon, with more detail there, it essentially has the underlying meaning of an appointment. These are annual appointments with God. It can also mean fixed time or season. So, this is a fixed time. Now, I want you to keep your place here. And let's, we're going to come back very shortly. Let's go back to the beginning, to Genesis chapter 1. And in Genesis 1, we actually find the first occasion where this little word in the Hebrew was used, mo-ed. And we find that in verse 14. As we get to verse 14, we're looking at the events of the creation on day 4.

In verse 14, then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons. Seasons comes from the Hebrew mo-ed. These are appointments. These are fixed times. And for days and years, let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens, to give light on the earth, and it was so. Then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, obviously the sun, the lesser light to rule the night, and he made the stars also.

If you walked out last evening, as I hope you had occasion to, Denise and I walked out front of the house last night, and what did we see? A full moon. The clouds had parted, and there was a beautiful full moon. It's not just a full moon. It was a blue moon. Very good. A blue moon. Because if you back up 1st of August, we had a full moon then. And they say the next one, I think, where you have two full moons in the same month, the next one is, I think it's something like July of 2015, so it'll be a little while.

It's been a while. Or it will be a while. But that's, again, you look at the sun. That's the light for the day, the moon for the night, the stars. And the Creator God designed all of this. There's a master clock out there. We humans are limited to this window of time. Time is so important to us. Especially when you read in Psalm 90, where God basically gives us a 3 score and 10, maybe 4 score, 70-80 years. And Mr. Perryman, the sermon, the sermon had up in Murfreesboro this morning, I mentioned the quote from a man who was interviewed when he turned 102.

And he said, just enjoy every day. Essentially, you turn around, it's gone. And he looked back at 102 years and wondered, where did it all go? What happened? So God designed days, nights, years, but also there are these appointments. And that's what he's speaking of there in verse 14. For signs and for seasons. Now, let's go to Exodus 23, and then we'll go to Leviticus 23 again. Exodus 23. Now, we're familiar with this section of Exodus. Israel, a few chapters earlier, made their getaway from Egypt, and they traveled through the wilderness. They came to the area of Sinai.

The old covenant was entered into God. It was a marriage-type agreement. Then God began giving them all of the particulars of what they were going to agree to, because they had said, all that the Lord has said, we will do. And so He gave them, He gave to Moses, the commandments in chapter 20. And then in Exodus 21, verse 1, He began by saying, now these are the judgments. And there are certain adjudications that have come, applications of God's law, based upon, well, in different life situations, slavery, violence, just all kinds of situations. But here, tucked away in the judgments, we also have a listing of these same seasonal occasions of the year that were around before, but they became a part of the old covenant.

Therefore, when the old covenant is rendered null and void, we should not assume that that which was around before is swept aside with the old covenant. Verse 14, Exodus 23, verse 14, three times, you shall keep a feast to me in a year. And that speaks of these three seasonal times. We have two festivals back to back in the early spring, Passover and Love and Bread. We count the number of weeks and we come to that, one of the standalone festivals. It's actually a double Sabbath with the weekly Sabbath, and then the next day being the day of the feast of Pentecost, or weeks, or firstfruits.

And then we go further. Of course, that's early spring, late spring, and then we get to this time of the year. We get to the early fall and we've got several of them bunched up together within three weeks' period of time. We have trumpets, week and a half later, we have atonement, of course then, and then we have tabernacles with the eighth day. So those three times, you shall keep a feast to me in the year. Verse 15, you shall keep the feast of Unleavened Bread.

You shall eat Unleavened Bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib. And where we have in our English versions, time appointed, that comes from the Hebrew moed. This is one of those appointments that God established as a very issue of creation. For in it you came out of Egypt, this month of Abib, this first month you came out of Egypt.

None shall appear before me empty. And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits, so feast of harvest is called here, nor the day of Pentecost, nor the feast of weeks, nor the feast of the firstfruits. Firstfruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. So, feast of ingathering, or we more commonly refer to it by the name feast of Tabernacles, which speaks of these temporary dwellings that Israel was to live in during that time. Now we go back to Leviticus 23, and we see in this chapter, likewise, the word moed, used not just in verse 2, but in verse 4, and a couple of other places.

But in this particular chapter, we have all of the festivals laid out for us. And we have all of the annual Sabbath days, because you see, if you say there are seven festivals, that is not exactly the same as saying there are seven annual Holy Days. Passover is a festival, but it's never called a Holy Day.

On Leviticus, bread has two Holy Days, and all the rest of them have one. One for Tabernacles, meaning the first day, and then the eighth day is actually a totally separate feast, tagged on as the eighth day after seven days of Tabernacles. So in verse 3, six days shall blork be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. And so this tells us a little bit more. It's actually an issue of creation.

It goes back to Genesis 2. God Himself set that day apart. God rested on that day. And here it is a day of solemn rest. It is a holy convocation. Holy is something that's set apart, sanctified, and this was set apart by the Creator God. I mean, just the arrogance of any human being, thinking that He or she can set aside something as being holy.

But God set specifically the seventh day apart as not only being holy, but as a day for a convocation. That's one of those churchy sounding words we don't use so much anymore. But if you would convoke a meeting of the family, or convoke a meeting of the salesman at your workplace, or the mechanics at your work, you are calling a meeting. And so this is something that is set apart by God, but it is a calling together to come and appear before the Creator of all the earth. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. Verse 4.

That's the weekly Sabbath. Now we go back to this theme we began of, of these festival occasions of the year. Verse 4. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. Appointed times, again, coming from the Hebrew, Moed. So the weekly Sabbath is a holy convocation, and yet on top of that, there are certain ones, as we're going to find out there are seven, that are annual appointments with God, fixed seasons with God.

And then it lists the first festival in verse 5 on the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. And then verse 6 speaks of the feast of unleavened bread. 15th day, and then 7 days you eat unleavened bread. Verse 7. The first day is a holy convocation.

You do no customary work on it. It understands that there's a little bit of effort just getting up, getting ready, going to appear before God. There's a little bit of effort. Even though you hopefully prepare in advance, there's a degree of effort in laying food out for what you may, or what you will need to eat that particular day.

The middle of verse 8, 8 mentions that the seventh day shall be a holy convocation. So here we have in the second festival, the first day and the seventh day are set aside as these annual occasions. Now, we don't need to read everything here. It goes into some of the sacrifices to be offered those days.

But verse 15 brings us to the point of how you start counting and you count seven Sabbath. Again, we won't go into that, but you do come to the point where there is this seventh Sabbath and the more after you have this again, another annual occasion. Verse 21, you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever. So holy days are statutes. And like tithing is called a statute and healing is called a statute.

Holy days are statutes forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. Down to verse 24. It speaks of this Sabbath rest, seventh month, first day. So that's the new moon, not full moon, but the new moon of the seventh month, which we're going to come to Monday the 17th. We have a calendar that is amazingly close. The moon cycles, I should say, are amazingly close to 29 and a half days.

And the old Hebrew calendar was set up where one month is 30 days, the next one is 29, 30, 29, and on and on. It can get a little bit off. And so there are certain years, seven years out of a 19 year cycle, where you throw in this 8-hour second, you throw in this 13th month. But anyhow, when you get to the seventh month, which is Tisserie, the first day, you have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets.

No customary work. Then verse 27, the tenth day of the seventh month, shall be the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your soul. So it's the only one where it speaks of this right of self-denial, abdignation, whatever you want to call it, of afflicting our souls by fasting. Now, it is still a festival, but the focus is on the spiritual feast. The other days we have a physical and we have a spiritual feast.

Afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. For 28, you shall do no work on that same day. Now, see, this day you don't need that little bit of allowance for a degree of effort to prepare the food, get it laid out for people to eat. It is the day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. Well, then down to verse 34, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days.

And in the next verses, we find seven days is repeated. It is reiterated several times. The wording is a little different in the spring holy days. Spring holy days, unleavened bread. It says, unleavened bread. Put the leaven out of your homes. Seven days you eat unleavened bread. First day, seventh day are holy convocations or annual Sabbath. But when we get to the fall, we've got another feast of seven days. And then it speaks of the eighth day. But these seven days, you go, you, your spouse, your family, you go somewhere, you appear before God at one of those places where He sets His name.

And you go and you appear every day. So the thrust of it is a little different between the spring holy day and the fall holy days. And hence how we observe it today. Keep the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. Verse 35, the first day shall be a holy convocation. No customary work. 36 for seven days, usual offering made by fire. Middle of verse 36, on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation. So day one we read, and now this eighth day is an annual Sabbath. Verse 37, these are the feasts of the Lord.

Feasts come from the Hebrew, Moed, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. Verse 39, middle of that, you shall keep the Feast of the Lord for seven days. First days of Sabbath, eighth days of Sabbath. Into verse 40, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41, you shall keep it a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. 42, you shall dwell in booths for seven days.

And verse 44, so Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts. There again, Moed, the feasts of the Lord. So, first part of our statement, we believe in the commanded observance. Number two, of the seven annual holy days. Now, I've got into that subject already. There are seven festivals in a year. Seven festivals are not exactly the same as seven holy days. Again, Passover is a festival, but it is never called a holy day. Even though we do gather that day to take in the New Testament age, to have the foot washing and then to take literally the bread and the wine.

It's never called a Sabbath day. However, unleavened bread has two holy days. And then there's Pentecost is third and Trumpets atonement, first day of Tabernacles and then the last great day. That's separate one day. Those are the seven annual Sabbaths.

Third portion here. That were given to ancient Israel by God. So we realize these were given to ancient Israel. And God is the one who gave them. Moses was merely the instrument through whom they were given and communicated to Israel.

Now, I think it was three years ago I, before the feast, covered a sermon on the topic of holy days. And we looked at some of the common arguments that are used to supposedly say that the holy days are not in effect today. And one of the arguments is that, well, they were just Old Testament.

They were just given to ancient Israel. And of course, most people on this earth or in this country don't know the story of where our peoples came from. And it is a situation, though, we'll see later on, where our prophecies were in a millennial setting. Very clearly, all nations shall go up to observe. So it is for far more than just Israel.

The Apostle Paul will read a scripture there. He wrote to those at Corinth. And Corinth was this crossroads of humanity, a melting pot of various peoples. It was largely a non-Israelite church. But it was to Corinth that he said, let us keep the feast. And we'll see that a little bit later. But that were given to ancient Israel by God. Let's back up to Exodus 5, because long before Israel went anywhere, or before they left Egypt, God, through Moses, and Aaron would tell Pharaoh, I want you to let my people go, that they can go into the wilderness and hold this feast unto me.

Excuse me. Exodus 5, verse 1. Verse 1, afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Well, the plagues begin. Pharaoh softens, his heart is hardened, and back and forth. Let's go on over to chapter 10. We once again see this appeal from Moses to Pharaoh, that let my people go, that we can go keep this feast.

Exodus 10, verse 9. And Moses said, We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord. Now let's go to chapter 12. Exodus 12, we get down to the story of this chapter, and the next tells the story of the final plague, the death of the firstborn.

And in this chapter, God more carefully explains to Moses and Aaron and to Israel that right now, this month, is the first month of a year. That was back in the spring. So, verse 2. This month shall be your beginning of months, and yet shall be the first month of the year to you.

Someone took my clock off the wall back there. It's dangerous. Okay. Verse 3. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb. And we know that story. The household is too small. Get with another smaller family. Get a lamb. We know what happened. Keep the lamb. No blemish. Kill it. Capture the blood. The blood on the doorpost and the lintel of the house.

Stay in the house. Don't go anywhere that night. Roast the lamb. Don't break any bones. We eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. So, we have Passover. Followed immediately by unleavened bread. Verse 15. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. Or whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

On the first day there shall be a holy convocation and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation. Verse 17. So you shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For on this day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting vortex. And I think that's as far as we need to read there.

The children of Israel consistently were told, Pharaoh was told, let my people go so they can go and keep this feast. And here we have instructions about Passover, followed by unleavened bread, and God says you shall observe this. Let's go back to Exodus 23. Just to take note of the fact that these are commands, worded as commands, as they are given. Exodus 23 verse 14. We just read this a little while ago, but three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year.

It speaks of the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of the harvest, and the feast of in-gathering. Verse 17. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God. Shall appear before the Lord God. And speaks of the offering in the sense at that time. Let's go to Nehemiah 8. We're going to look at a lot of scriptures here today. I think it's something we just simply have to do in looking at one of the fundamental belief statements.

But Nehemiah 8. And we just skipped over many hundreds of years, from the days of Moses, now down to the days of the restoration of the house of Judah, who had been in captivity, and the governorship of Nehemiah. Nehemiah 8. The book of the law is brought. Verse 2. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month. Now what day is that? We know that. That is the Feast of Trumpets. Tishri the first. And he read from it, in the open square, that was in the front of the water gate from morning until midday, before the men and women, and all who could understand, and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. Now, let's skip down a bit. Let's go to verse 14. Verse 14. And they found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses. Again, it's God's commandment, but Moses was just the instrument to convey it. That the children of Israel should dwell in booths, these temporary dwellings, during the Feast of the Seventh Month. And so they immediately proclaimed, let's go out, get branches, build these temporary dwellings, and let's do like Israel did earlier. Verse 18. Also, day by day, from the first day until the last day, they read from the book of the law of God, and they kept the Feast seven days. There we see that concept once again. Go to the Fall Feast, appear before God, live in a temporary dwelling, and appear every day before God. And on the eighth day, there should be a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner. So you see, all of these statements underscore that these days were given by the Almighty God Himself, the One who established these annual appointments, or fixed times, or seasons. Now back to Deuteronomy 16, and then we'll move on to the next point. Deuteronomy 16.

Deuteronomy 16 begins with verse 1. Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. The month of Abib, the Lord your God, brought you out of Egypt by night.

So the Passover, verse 3. Seven days usually done, eleven bread. Verse 10 speaks of keeping the Feast of Weeks. Verse 13, you shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days.

Let's look at verses 16 and 17. We commonly read these verses, and reminding everyone of the fact that we take up a Holy Day offering on annual Sabbath. Verse 16, three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses. At the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, my understanding is that ages ago in the Church, as the Church looked at this, the question was asked, well, is this telling us to give offerings to God on only these three seasons? And it really didn't have scriptural precedent or explanation that made it clear exactly how we were to do that. And somewhere along the line, again, this is a long, decades ago, but basically became the tradition of the Church, an administrative decision. I think God has blessed that. That what we will do is when we get to each of these seven annual Holy Days, we will call for an offering that day. So, that includes twice during Unleavened Bread, once at the Feast of Weeks, but then also doing it on Trumpets Atonement, plus Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. So, instead of giving whatever you set aside for a year, instead of dividing into three pieces and giving it three times, you divide into seven pieces and give it seven different times. So, don't appear empty-handed. Verse 17, Every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you. We've all been there. Some years you are blessed with more than other years. There are times when work may be slow or you may have been completely out of work. All kinds of ups and downs take place in our lives as far as our finances. So, some years we can give more, other years we can't give as much, and that's what all God asks. Just consider what you give based upon what God's blessing was to you that particular day. So, let's go on to the fourth part of our statement. Number four, we're kept by Jesus Christ. Now, the reason this phrase is important is that Christ is our example that we should follow His steps. And if He did it, wouldn't it follow that He was modeling that behavior for us to do in like manner? Just like all the way back to the beginning in Genesis 2, the Almighty God on the seventh day, blessed it, hallowed it, and He rested that day. Didn't He do that? And isn't that actually the same Lord God, the pre-incarnate Christ who did that? Who set us that example, every Sabbath, weekly Sabbath, as it comes around. Stop, rest, appear before God, worship, fellowship, rejoice. And then, if we find that Christ did that during His earthly walk, then we've got a little bit more to piece together. Let's first go, though, to Matthew 5.

Matthew 5. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes have been given. Jesus then told the disciples, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the earth. And then He goes into this lengthy section where He takes one commandment after another and expands it. And of course, that was prophesied back in Isaiah. I believe it's Isaiah 42-21, but that's close. Isaiah 42-21, I think. Look it up. My memory used to be able to access those things. But there was a prophecy of Messiah who would come and He would magnify the law of God. So He takes, for instance, the commandment that says, you shall not kill. And it is a good commandment. It is a right and good commandment. But merely refraining from taking someone's life leaves all kinds of room for hating his guts and wishing the very worst for him and harboring all kinds of ill will. So during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is filling the law up. He's putting more into it. So we read here in Matthew 5, beginning of verse 17. Do not think.

I need to underline that, color it, wish it were written in large bold. Because the world around us, what follows is exactly what they do think and teach and believe. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And look up that little word that's translated, fulfill. It is to fill it to the full, to fill it to the very brim, to put more in.

Surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or yod, the little... Got the old ancient Hebrew script. And in this case, you've got... This looks like a little apostrophe. And that's the smallest letter. Or one tittle. There were sometimes these little markings. You've got the letter bet, and there's a dot right in the middle, and it changes it from a B to a V. Or maybe it's vice versa, as it's been a long time since Hebrew class. Sometimes you have just a little dot in the middle, or two of the consonants that I remember, and it changes it. In that case, from the bet or the B sound to the V sound. So these tiniest markings, not one tiny marking from all of the law and the prophets is going to pass away, till all is fulfilled. And then he pronounces a very serious, very dire warning. Whoever teaches, whoever rather breaks one of the least of my commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom. But I think we're among those who want to do, and we want to teach. So he takes the law that has to do with adultery. It is not merely a matter of refraining from acting upon the call of the wild. If I can use Mr. London's title to a good book.

It involves what goes on in the mind. And he said, if a man looks on another woman, a woman who's not his wife, with desire, inordinate, improper desire, lust, he has broken that law. And later he said, he takes the one you shall not kill. Now that's a great law, but it doesn't cover it enough. And so he put more into it, and he talked about how we need to love our enemies. Pray for those who despitefully use us. And so that's what he's doing here. Keep that filed away as we get to Holy Days. We will see what his family did, and what he did when he walked this earth. Let's go to Luke chapter 2.

Luke 1, Luke 2, we have the story of the coming of the Christ child. We have some marvelous things taking place. We have Simeon. We have who? Anna? Was that in this chapter? Anyhow, different ones. But here we come to verse 39. Verse 39, So when they had performed all things according to the laws of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. So this skips over a lot of time. It would have taken weeks and weeks for all the things to have happened.

You know, fleeing down to Egypt, getting the call whenever Herod had died, they could come back. Wise men would have been weeks before they've gotten there and found them. But the time comes as time goes on that they return and they go back up to their home area in Nazareth. See, they had gone down because of the census and because of the Holy Days. They'd gone down to Bethlehem because they were both of Judah. And the child grew and became strong in the spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

So with that verse, we skip over quite a few more years because we pick it up again. He's 12. Verse 41, His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when He was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. And we don't need to read the story, the rest of the story. We're familiar with it.

In my mind, I envision maybe this big family clan traveling together or maybe from that region of Nazareth. A whole bunch of people from the same area kind of traveling together, help each other out, maybe safety. Somebody gets injured and you have help available. And they're going back home, and it seems logical to me in a simpler day and age that you start looking, where's our 12-year-old son? And he's nowhere to be found. And so they turn right around and go back down, and they find him there with the great teachers of the law. But that was what His parents did.

And I believe God very carefully chose, especially Mary, but also Joseph, very carefully chose them. Let's go to John now, John 2. Because John just starts off and he goes right into, in short order, he goes right into the time of the ministry of Jesus Christ. He doesn't spend any time with the events of His birth or the events of different things that took place while He was growing up. And in John 1, verse 29, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward Him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Verse 36, looking at Jesus as He walked, He said, Behold the Lamb of God. So this begins to introduce us to the fact that Christ was there for a very sacred purpose, to come as the Lamb. Now, chapter 2. We have the story of the miracle, His first miracle, it says that it was changing the water into wine there at the wedding of Cana.

But let's go down to verse 13. John 2, verse 13. Now, the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, John uses the wording, the Passover of the Jews, or he says, a feast of the Jews. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he's writing decades later, quite a bit later. And this is very much so a Jewish world. And he's looking at it through different lenses.

But we read back in Leviticus 23, these are the feasts of the Lord. And the first festival was the Passover. So what did Jesus do? In the Passover, He went up to Jerusalem. The next verse is, I think He was cleaning the spiritual leaven out of His Father's house. He ran the money changers out, but it doesn't really draw that parallel, but it seems logical to me. Down to verse 23. Now, when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, a lot of times in the New Testament, you and I do the same thing. We'll refer to, well, I was baptized just before the Passover back in 1895, as Mr. Well, I won't say anyone's name.

I might be able to say. We might say, well, I was baptized just before the Passover. And we're referring back to the springtime. It may have been a few days before the actual Passover. We might refer to, well, back in 11 Bread in 1984. It doesn't such. And we're talking just in general, just a generic term for the spring festival. And so here, He was at Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast. Many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.

Well, let's go on to chapter 5. John 5. And we have verse 1. After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, I'm not going to, it's not really central to our discussion here today, but there is a debate.

What feast did that imply? Some say, well, this was the second Passover of His earthly ministry. Others say it was Pentecost. Others say it was Tabernacles. It's, you know, there's reason for thinking any of those. But, there was a feast, and He went to Jerusalem. Now, there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. It's interesting that until not that many years ago, you had some Bible critics who said that, well, you know, we know where the sheep gate is, but we've never found the pool there.

And then, lo and behold, what did archaeologists find? They found where there had been this pool in that area, and there were these five distinct porch areas. And no one apologized for what they said, though. Okay, Chapter 6, John 6, verse 4. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews was near.

And, of course, it's followed by the multitude that followed Him being hungry, and the bread, and the fishes, and the miracle that took place, and then His message, the last half of the chapter, is very much so an unleavened bread-type message, because He said, I am the bread of life. And He said, Your fathers ate man, and they're dead, but what I'm going to offer you, my own body, my own blood, if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you'll have eternal life. But this is thought to be the third Passover. Of course, the fourth one was when He was betrayed and then died. But it was the Passover, the feast of the Jews. Now let's go to John 11. John 11, and at the end of the chapter, verse 55, John 11, verse 55, And the Passover the Jews was near, and many went up from the country, up to Jerusalem, before the Passover to purify themselves. They sought Jesus. Verse 12, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who He had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. And so, we follow that on down. Verse 12, the next day, a great multitude, that had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They took branches of palm trees, and cried Hosanna, blessed is the name, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. What we have here, actually, is the fulfillment of the setting aside the Passover lamb. Thanks to Israel, they had on the tenth day of the first month set aside the lamb. And now, here we are, days before the Passover. I believe the way it works out. This would have been on the ninth of that first month, because the tenth was a Sabbath, and then the fourteenth being a Wednesday, the middle of the week. But again, a story for another time. So, this was the Passover that led ultimately to his betrayal, and then to his death. Let's back up to John 7. John 7, verse 2. Now, the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, was at hand. And so, his brothers are taking off to go, and Christ says, well, I'll follow later. Verse 14, the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up to the temple and taught. Verse 37, on the last day, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. So, here we have, again, Jesus, what is his example? From the time he was a lad with his family, they kept, they observed the annual Sabbath. And he continued all the way to the one that led to the events of his death. Now, add to that 1 John 2, verse 6.

1 John 2, reading verse 6.

Also, John, writing quite a bit later, still, he who says he abides in him, Christ, in him, ought himself also to walk just as he walked.

In other words, you need to just ask yourself the question, What did Jesus do? What did he do? Well, when he walked the earth, he kept holy days. Let's go on to number 5, the fifth part here of our statement.

The Apostles and the Early Church. These days were kept by Christ and then also by the Apostles and the Early Church. Now, why is that important? There are those who will say, well, the annual Holy Days, the annual festivals were just old covenant. Certainly, they became part of the old covenant, but we find them around before the old covenant. When Israel agreed, they basically were saying, we agree to do what is already in effect. Because the Passover was given weeks before they got to Sinai. And along the way, he gave them the manna. And that was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was reiterated to them. So, if the Apostles, if it was strictly old covenant and then nailed to the cross, why do we have Apostles continuing to observe annual Holy Days? And if they did, then don't we have a problem if we don't? I suggest we do. Well, in Acts 1, you will remember late in Christ's life, well, it's not exactly wording it correctly, but after His crucifixion, and then He was resurrected, and Acts 1 tells us for about 40 days, He appeared back to the disciples. Sometimes, over those walking on the road to Emmaus, sometimes He would appear behind closed doors, and then about 500 brethren once, He appeared there. And He did that for about 40 days, which is the bulk of that period of time between Wave Sheaf and Pentecost.

But late, perhaps during that time, John 20, I believe it is, tells the story of how He breathed on them.

And here in Acts 1, verse 8, He says, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, then you will be my witnesses. And then in Acts 2, we have a connection made. We have this group of about 120. In Acts 2, verse 1, When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. He breathed on them.

He told them, Wait here at Jerusalem until the power from on high, and now they're keeping, they're observing, they're gathered together on the day of Pentecost. And of all days, God poured out His Spirit upon His people. First, about 120, but then 3,000 were added. And then the book of Acts, we find where the numbers of the disciples was multiplied. And God continued pouring out His Spirit upon His people. Well, let's look on into Acts. This is just weeks after Christ was nailed to the cross. Surely, of course, of course, looking back at that final Passover, the question I have is, if it was about to be nailed to the cross a few hours later, why would He institute the foot washing? Why would He give them brand new symbols of the broken bread and the wine? Why would He do that if it's going to be nailed to the cross and rendered null and void hours later? It would make no sense. But Acts 18, in the book of Acts, we have first some of the ministry of Peter and John, then more so of Peter. Then it shifts to Barnabas and Saul, and then becomes pretty much the last half of the story of the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Acts 18, verse 19, and He came to Ephesus and left them there, but He Himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked Him to stay a longer time with them, He did not consent, but took leave of them, saying, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem.

But I will return again to you, God willing. Now, there are some who have reasoned, oh, well, He was just using that as a point of reference on the calendar. Like some of us might say, oh, well, you know, back at Christmas time that year. That's just kind of referring to that season of the year.

So some would say, oh, He was just saying, I want to be at Jerusalem around. Whatever feast this was.

Well, I think there's more to it. Chapter 20. Paul, again, on a trip, he decides to bypass Ephesus, verse 16. Acts 20, verse 16, for Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, Asia, that far southwestern province of that, well, modern day Turkey called Asia Minor. But he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.

He wanted to be there on the day of Pentecost.

Why would he want to hurry there? Unless he was going to observe it. Chapter 27. One event leads to the next. His life takes a different turn. He's taken captive. He's held there at Jerusalem. He's transported down to Caesarea. He's there, I believe, it's two years. Somewhere along the line, he appealed to Caesar. And so now he's being transported to Italy to go and appear before Caesar himself. Acts 27 and verse 9. Now, when much time had been spent and sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over. Well, I just wanted to read the part there about the fast. It doesn't say the day of atonement, but that is the only commanded fast, or a calendar date on a year, the year's calendar, when God commands a fast. Any other fast is just kind of in general. Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, again said, Well, when you fast, wash your face. Don't try to look to others like you're feeling horrible.

Wash, use a little right guard and left guard and go on with your day. You like that, huh? Okay. Well, it doesn't say the day of atonement. Any calendar I've ever checked, they pretty much conclude, Well, that had to refer to the day of atonement. For instance, Albert Barnes in his notes on the New Testament, on this verse. He says, By the fast, here is evidently intended the fast which occurred among the Jews on the great day of atonement. That was the tenth of the month Tishri, which answers to part of September, part of October. It was therefore the time of the autumnal equinox, when the navigation of the Mediterranean was esteemed to be particularly dangerous. The ancients regarded this as a dangerous time to navigate the Mediterranean. Well, let's go over to 1 Corinthians 5, because in 1 Corinthians 5 we have the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth. God had used him in raising up that church. They had written a letter, a lot of questions. Actually, he told them, You're carnal. He told them they can't bear meat. You need to be on the milk of the word. But he had to give them a lot of correction. You don't look to human beings. Don't say you're an Apollos man, a Peter man, or whatever. Keep your eyes on Christ. He taught them about keeping the Passover. Here in chapter 5, there's a person committing just a horrible sin. Sin can be contagious. It can be highly contagious. In this case, because of the potential of division, he instructed them, This man needs to be outside. Thankfully, from the second letter, we know he came back. Verse 6, your glorying is not good. Do you not know that 11 is the whole lump? It's not just contagious, but it's like having a batch. If you're going to make pancakes, you have your flour, your egg, your baking powder, your milk. In proportion, you just have a little bit of that baking powder. It begins working. The chemical process and the bubbles are carbon dioxide that rise. It's just a little and it permeates the whole. It's not just that one little part of it is leavened. It spreads. Or if you have a quart jar of water and you drop just a little bit of salt in it, it's not that just one little part is salty. It gives a salinity to all of it. Verse 7, 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.

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. And of course, in chapter 11, verse 23, again, the question. Because here we're, time-wise, we're at least 20, but probably closer to 25 years after the year that led to the death and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If holy days were nailed to the cross, why would He still be instructing them? Here is how you do it. Don't come and have this big blast. Don't come drunken. Don't come, some of you have eaten too much and some of you haven't had anything. Eat at home, then come. Verse 23, this is what I received from the Lord Jesus. The night He was betrayed, He took bread and broke it. And then in verse 25, He took the cup. This is the blood of my new covenant and He passed it. Why are we still talking about holy days? If it was nailed to the cross, 20-some years earlier. But if they weren't nailed to the cross, the church was still keeping them. And what has changed since then?

And the answer to that is why we continue observing holy days to this day. The sixth part of our statement, number six, and will be observed by all mankind during Christ's millennial reign.

Will be observed by all. Now, let's go two places. Ezekiel 45. Now, Ezekiel is a book of prophecy. When you get to the latter eight chapters, 40 through 48, I believe it is, you have this long prophecy. After the rebellion of Gog and Magog, you have this millennial temple. You have this measurement of the chambers and how it's to be laid out. You have the water coming from the temple. We have the sons of Zadok, the priests coming back, at least for a period of time. We really don't have all the pieces of that puzzle given to us. But you do have verse, well, chapter 44, verse 15, the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of the sanctuary. And it goes on with some of the working that they'll perform. But in chapter 45, let's just notice at the end of that chapter, verse 21, in the first month, on the 14th day of the month, you shall observe the Passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten. It talks about how the prince will prepare himself. There's a sin offering, a burnt offering, a grain offering. Verse 25, in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the feast, he shall do likewise for seven days, according to the sin offering, burnt offering, grain offering, and the oil. Now let's go over to Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14. Very clearly a millennial prophecy, because the chapter opens up with the day of the Lord coming, the nations gathering at Jerusalem to battle, the city being in the midst of warfare. But then in verse 3, the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle, because this coincides with the events of Revelation, the sounding of the seventh trumpet, that announcement that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our God, and of His Christ, and He reigns forever and ever. So His feeder on the Mount of Olives, a bit later, describes verse 12, the manner in which those fighting against Him will be destroyed. Let's go down to verse 16. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, on them there will be no reign.

If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, then they shall have no reign. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

And hence we say, and will be observed by all mankind during Christ's Millennial reign. And then part seven. You know, it was largely covered in a wonderful way during the sermonette. But a separate sentence, a brief sentence in that statement. Number seven, these holy days reveal God's plan of salvation.

Let's turn to Colossians chapter 2. Yesterday morning I got myself up and dressed and went for a three mile hike in our subdivision.

And as I walked at one point, the clouds broke. What happens when there's no cloud? Well, the sun shines when it's daytime. And as I'm stepping out here in front of me, there's this something in front of me. It's called a shadow. And as I walked, I look over and it was trash day and there were trash cans all over. And on the other side of each one, there's a shadow. Mailbox, a shadow! Dog running across a yard, a shadow following it.

We know what a shadow is. It's not the real thing. It's a representation. It points to it. There's a lab driving, working in the field, driving a tractor down the field once in a while. Just be aware that something, like something just flew right over me. And then I look and I see, oh, it's a shadow. And I look up and sure enough, it's a hawk. Sometimes, as you, especially in working with hay, you have all these critters and varmints. You get down to the last little bit and they're running in all directions and the hawks are having this feast. But you see that, something, you look at the shadow and you realize, oh, okay. And then you look up and see it was the big old red-tailed hawk that flew over.

Colossians 2, verse 16, they said, He said, let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival, or a new moon, or Sabbaths. Now, the question comes up, was the early church observing the new moon? Well, not that we know of. There really is no scriptural commandment to observe new moons. Although there were different sacrifices as a part of the sacrificial law later on. But, you know, it's interesting that with the calendar calculations, which is rather elaborate, and I'm sure thankful that there are computer programs that do all that now, but once upon a time it was this long laborious process of following from certain benchmarks and determining in a given year when the Molot of Tishri falls, the new moon of the seventh-month Tishri. You find the new moon of Tishri, the Feast of Trumpets, and then you count backward and forward to get all of your dates of Holy Days that given year.

So, in one sense, we observe new moons because we have to find the date of the Feast of Trumpets and then count each way to find the dates of the rest of them. Or of Sabbaths, and it is plural, there are weekly Sabbaths and then there are those annual appointments that are also Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substances of Christ. Holy Days are shadows. A shadow is a representation of something else.

Holy Day shadows continue to outline the plan that the Almighty God has. We look at Holy Days, the seasons. They are wrapped up with the agricultural seasons of ancient Israel, which are pretty similar. We're not that much further north, latitude-wise, than ancient Israel was, although our climate is quite a bit different. But we had certain things that happened at different times. It's interesting that at different times during Christ's ministry, he there, toward the end of Matthew 9, he said to pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he sends labors to bring in the harvest. And in John 4, late in that chapter, he said something about lift up your eyes and look, the fields are white for the harvest. And that last night, with his disciples in John 15, those early verses, he talked about the vine and how it needs to be pruned so that it stimulates the bearing of greater fruit. And so God uses these harvest and fruit-bearing-type analogies. And so we have Holy Days. Holy Days, as we heard, began with the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God, that all those little Passover lambs prefigured. And we have days of Unleavened Bread because we were called to walk out of Egypt and to leave the past behind and walk a new life, the Unleavened Life.

And on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was given and poured out on the church, and that's an ongoing process. Every time God pours out His Spirit, we look to a time of ultimately, during the millennium, when vast numbers without the influence of Satan being added to the very Book of Life and to the church of God. And then a time when the graves are open, and they stand there small and great before God, as we heard that not only the books are opened, the books from the Greek Biblia, from once we get our term Bible, but also that other book, the Book of Life. And so we follow this plan of God from one to the next to the next, and we see what a beautiful plan it is. Seven annual Holy Days are Sabbaths, given to Israel.

They revolve around three seasonal occasions of a year. They are holy convocations or assemblies. They are holy because God said they are holy and set them apart. And He commands us to stop what we're doing, appear before Him, fellowship, worship, rejoice, and to learn more about His plan. And if that isn't the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if that isn't good news, then pray tell me what is the plan of salvation revealed by the Holy Days. Have a wonderful Sabbath, everyone!