God’s Dress Rehearsal for the Future

I like to call these upcoming theists God's dress rehearsal for the future, God's dress rehearsal for the future. And I've always considered them that way. They are practice-run for the future, whether that future is being faithful to the end or living through the end-time events. We had dress rehearsals before presenting the feast talent shows in Chile for over 20 years.

And we enjoyed them. Many times we had them in our backyard rehearsing several months at a time for the kids as they grew up and they wanted to have their presentations, and so they would have to come. And finally, as we got close to the time of the feast, we had the dress rehearsal, which we had to remove all the wrinkles, iron out any of the wrinkles that were left, because the next time around it was going to be during the feast.

And God's Holy Days are a dress rehearsal for the future. One day, it's not going to be a few brethren here or there that are going to be meeting, but we see that there's going to be the actual reality of the whole world keeping these wonderful feasts. Let's go to Zechariah chapter 14, because here we get a glimpse of those future feasts that are going to be kept in God's kingdom. We actually have a picture of this happening with that very first feast of tabernacles after Jesus Christ comes back on the earth. We have this description of it by God Himself. Notice in Zechariah chapter 14 verse 1, it says, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst, for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished, half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley. And so it says there in verse 9, And the Lord shall be king over all the earth, not over one nation. Not like some of Jesus' followers wanted him maybe to be the king of Israel at that time. He said that wasn't the time to do so. No, this time he's going to be king over all the earth. That means the Chinese, the Russians, the Africans, everybody in Europe, here in the Americas. There's just going to be one king. And it says, And the Lord is one, and his name one. Not going to be any rival to Jesus Christ as there are today. And then he goes on to say in verse 17, It says, And it shall be that whichever of 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 rain. It'll be another plague that will happen. It produces drought and famine. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. 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.

And here in the margin it says literally, this is the sin of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So we see that sin is the transgression of the law and that it is a transgression not to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. The world doesn't know that at this time, but they are breaking God's law.

And so we see that today we have a dress rehearsal, a small event taking place by few people on earth, that is those that understand this day, the Passover, and then the Days of Unleavened Bread, as we keep them. How important is that?

And so I'd like to share four lessons for this time that we can incorporate in our hearts and minds. I'm getting to the point where I'm giving points, but also behind them, lessons with an image or a picture or an illustration that you can keep.

So those points don't just dangle out there and people listen to them. They say, oh, that sounds nice, and they forget them. It's much more important to have something etched in their mind as lessons that we need to keep and not forget them. So the first image I've already mentioned is that dress rehearsal of the feasts. Remember that you can equate these feasts and what we do as we keep them as a dress rehearsal for the future. Because one day all the nations are going to be meeting at Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles in particular. I don't think they're going to keep every feast in Jerusalem, but maybe the three main ones. But at least it tells us clearly about the Feast of Tabernacles. We know that is a major feast.

And so a dress rehearsal is something you do in anticipation and preparation for the actual event.

And that is the true meaning behind Colossians 2.16. Let's go to Colossians chapter 2.16.

Because it tells us there about the Sabbaths, the Holy Days, also the new moons, which we should always remember for calendric reasons to set up the right dates. It says in verse 16, it says, so let no one judge you or criticize you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths. And of course, that's what we do in these Sabbaths. We have food and drink. We enjoy something positive that some of these ascetic Gnostic influence was causing the brethren to avoid these feasts. And he mentions the festival new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come. And it should say, and the substance is of Christ, or that the final event is the one that Jesus Christ carries out. It's a shadow of things to come. They point to the future. A shadow is not the reality, but a forerunner, an anticipation, a glimpse of what is coming.

The substance or reality is what Christ will bring when he returns. Paul uses this analogy several times of the shadow and the body or the substance. Notice in Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5.

Hebrews chapter 8 verse 5 talks about here, coming into a thought, and starts in verse 4. It says, For if he were on earth, talking about Jesus Christ, he would not be a priest, sincere a priest, to offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow. The same word, sceena, which means a shadow or an outline, as Vines dictionary calls it, an outline of a thing.

It says it's a shadow of the heavenly things. So we use the comparison here. The feasts are not the actual event, but they point to the fulfillment of a great event.

Now why do we need this yearly dress rehearsal? Because God knows how easy it is for us to forget that plan of salvation, for us to get complacent, get too absorbed in the surrounding world, and forget these are markers on the road, that we keep this road straight in our minds, and we go forward.

These are markers. Now we're coming up to the Passover, then the Days of Unleavened Bread, the very important lessons God wants us to learn.

We know it happened to the Israelites. Many times they took their eye off the goal, and it can happen to us too. Another example of the shadow and the body that Paul used is in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 24-26.

It's the last example I'm going to use of this first lesson, but just to let you know that it's not just in collagions that Paul used, that he used it many times to compare something that was a symbol of the coming reality. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 24.

It says, and when Jesus had given thanks, he broke the bread and said, Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. So again, it's a shadow.

It's a reminder of what he has done in the past, what he is doing in the present, and what he's going to do in the future when that reality occurs. When is that reality going to be?

The fulfillment? Jesus Christ mentioned it in Matthew 26, verse 29.

He says, But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day, when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. He had just taken part of that Passover cup of wine. And he said, I'm not going to do this until it becomes the reality. Can you imagine taking the Passover with Jesus Christ, officiating it? How moving that would be?

Because that is the substance. That is the body. That is the reality of the shadow that we are just participating in faith of that future Passover with Jesus Christ in his kingdom.

The second lesson we can learn during these days is the need for faith and obedience.

And the image that I want you to visualize is the day when they left Egypt. That evening when they left Egypt is a symbol of the night to be much observed. And brethren, this has to be the strangest Passover we have ever taken together.

We're all confined to our homes just as the Israelites had to do it during that first Passover.

And it's a lesson for us as well, the faith and obedience that is needed to keep obeying until the end. For God always does things on time. He has perfect timing.

It's what Christ told us in Matthew 24 verse 36. Matthew 24 verse 36.

He said, But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

But as the days of Noah were so also, will be the coming of the Son of Man be.

For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark. They were doing their own thing and pretty evil as well. But they never thought there were going to be consequences.

They thought, let the good times roll, and they never thought there would be an end to that.

And they did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

So also will be the coming of the Son of Man be.

So we see here that God does things with perfect timing.

And we need to be obedient and faithful, just as God tells us to keep the Passover these days of Unleavened Bread, send in the offerings as we would every year.

So we do it, even under these trying circumstances. All around us or in the world, nearly everything has ground down to a halt. It is a way to get people's attention. Just one month ago, there were mighty economies, and societies of the world were doing their own thing, eating and drinking, marrying, giving to marriage. But now they are prostrate and humble.

People are bewildered and afraid, although not desperate just yet. We don't know how long this is all going to last. They're already talking about areas of New York City that are being sacked, that the stores are having to board up their glass windows so they won't get smashed because it has gone up so much. The smashing and the robbing going on, especially food and other items.

In Exodus 12, starting in verse 12, notice how important it was for the Israelites to obey at that time. Not everybody was doing the right thing, but when God told them this is what they needed to do because their life was on the line, they did it. Exodus 12 verse 12.

It says, God speaking to Moses, says, For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. So this is the time God arises, makes himself visible with his power, and humbles all the false gods of the Egyptians. And notice what it says here, it wasn't just the firstborn. So who knows? There must have been millions of Egyptians.

But also, the firstborn of their animals died. So they all were stiff and smelly very soon afterwards.

Verse 14 says, So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance at Passover night. And then it goes on to say in verse 21 of this same chapter, Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said to them, Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel, and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door on his house until morning, until you see the light of day. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. So, of course, this is a separate ceremony. They were to kill. Prepare the Passover. I was going to take a good part of that evening, roast it, eat it with your family, and put the blood there on the doorposts, and then stay until the morning when they had to burn the bones of the animal, and then leave. So, all did have faith and obeyed, just like we need to have faith and obedience and do it in our own homes.

When the Israelites realized that God was intervening, sanctuaries had gone by with apparently no intervention from God. They had eventually become enslaved, and they were still stuck in Egypt. They were the lowest stratus of society at that time, hopelessly enslaved. There seemed to be no way out.

They were so weak in comparison to the powerful Egyptians and their army.

But when God heard their cries, when it was the right time to intervene, God made Himself known. In Exodus 2, verse 23, it says, It says, Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.

You recognize it was the time to carry it out. Notice what it says in the Believer's Bible commentary. It says, And so God, when He decides to intervene, no power is going to hinder Him, to impede His will to be carried out. And we can learn that lesson with what we are seeing today. In three weeks' time, we've been humbled, we've been confined, the economies have crashed, we don't know what's going to happen, how deep it's going to be, whole fortunes have been wiped out, and it shows when God decides to act. And we don't know what all the implications will be.

I want to deal with that in the coming Bible study. So we'll be talking a bit more about the prophetic side of things in the coming Bible study here at 4.30 p.m. And that takes us to the third lesson. So remember, oh, I did want to mention one more scripture before I left that point. It goes back to Exodus chapter 12 while we're here.

Chapter 12 in verse 40. It says, Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.

We take that from the time of the promise of Abraham that they would go into this place and there would be for that period of time. And notice what it says in verse 41, And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years. On that very same day it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord. A solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

So here we see, and as commentaries mentioned, that when it says on that very same day, it was from the time that God made that promise to the time that they left. It was all calculated to the day. And so God does things on time. And we should never forget that.

That takes us to the third lesson.

And the image, of course, that we should keep in mind is the one about the test of faith and obedience and on that very same day. So the images of the Israelites leaving on the 15th, the night of the 15th, when it was the beginning of the 15th, when they left. That's where and why we keep the night to be much observed. On that same day, the anniversary of that time, we're going to be in the first place. So the third lesson comes up with the first question.

Are we spiritually groaning and crying out because of what we see is happening in the world?

God wants to see that type of attitude. We're brokenhearted about what we're seeing.

Look at all the damage that is being done as society becomes more and more corrupt.

The little babies that are being aborted, every day there are, here in the United States, an average of over 3,000 little babies that are being murdered.

They don't have a chance to live. And of course, that's part of the groaning and moaning of God, please come back. We don't want to see more of these little babies before they're even born to be sacrificed to the God of self-interest.

God wants to see that attitude. We're crying out.

And the image is having the seal of God on the forehead, showing we are His. Notice in Ezekiel chapter 9. Ezekiel chapter 9 verse 3.

The God of God is about to punish Israel, but before He does, He knows who are His people, who are obedient and faithful. So He says in verse 3, Now the glory of the Lord of Israel had gone up from the carob, where it had been to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the riders in corn at his side. And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. And then in verse 6, it says, Utterly slay old and young men, maidens, and little children, and women, but do not come near any one of whom is the mark, the mark of God's people, and begin at my sanctuary. And so, again, it makes a big difference for us to be separate and not be condemned with the world and their sins.

Also in 2 Peter chapter 2, we see Lot crying out to God for the sins that he saw there in Sodom and Gomorrah. 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 4, it says, For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell, it should be Tartarou, a place of confinement, and delivered them into the chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but save Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked, for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment. So that's the type of attitude. And of course, in the future, it talks about people being marked before the pouring out of those seven last plagues. Notice in Revelation chapter 7, in verse 1, it says, After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or any tree.

Verse 2, Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. So it's talking here about God knowing those that are faithful, obedient to Him. It happened during the Passover with the sign that they had on their doorposts. It happened during the time of Ezekiel, where they were set apart and protected. And also it will happen in the future. So the lesson is that, are we spiritually groaning and crying out because of what we see is going on in the world?

And the image is the seal of God on our foreheads, which has to do with God's Spirit. That's what we are sealed with. And the final lesson is preparing for the Passover and the unleavened bread period. It's a time of examination and purification. And so important how we treat each other. And the image is the foot washing ceremony. That spirit of service, of willingness to humble ourselves, to serve the other before ourselves.

Notice as I close with 1 Corinthians 11. It says here in verse 23, this is the Passover ceremony in outline form. It says, verse 23, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. So notice it was during that same night. That's when we are authorized to carry it out. It's a night of remembrance of that Passover sacrifice that they participated on, on that evening of the first part of the 14th. It goes on to say, verse 25, In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. We've already covered that. Then he goes on about the spiritual preparation we need to do in these days before the Passover. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Now, in this case, he was mentioning it because people were not treating each other with love and kindness.

And as he goes on to say in verse 33, Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let them eat at home, lest you come together for judgment. Because you're looking down on people, you're being a respecter of persons, you're looking at people with disdain, belittling, or not treating a person with kindness and love. And then he goes on to say verse 31.

And let's go to verse 30. I don't want to skip any verse. It says, For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. Just wrong attitudes.

They're not going to get anywhere with God. He says, For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. If we examine and corrected our own attitudes, then God doesn't have to do it. He says, But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord.

That we may not be condemned with the world. And so I have here, the point being made is that we have to examine ourselves. Our attitudes, how have we been this past year with the brethren? Have we served? Have we treated them properly? When we come together, do we do it with respect?

Do we think about those with the most difficult situations, the shut-ins, the people that are alone, that we need to remember them far more? So brethren, we have a lot to do.

There are four lessons to remember. The first one, why this dress rehearsal with the feasts?

Lest we forget, yet complacent, we are starting our annual pilgrimage, the spiritual pilgrimage toward God's kingdom. And the image is that dress rehearsal, just a preparation for that coming time, glorious time in God's kingdom, and we can keep these feasts with Jesus Christ Himself. The second, it's a test of faith and obedience. These Passover days of 11 bread, are we going to D11 our homes? It's a symbol of keeping sin away from our lives. God's timing is always correct. The image on that same day, the very same day. The third, are we spiritually groaning and lamenting because of the sins of the world? The image, do we have that seal on our foreheads that can keep us and protect us in these difficult times? Finally, the importance of how to treat each other during the Passover, and remember the days of unleavened bread, to examine our attitudes and the images that foot washing and sermon. So brethren, with this, we finish this message.