God's Holy Days Contrasted with the World Holidays

Well again, Happy Sabbath, brethren! Thank you, Mr. Blakey. As always, that was very beautiful, very passionate from the heart. Someone asked me earlier, they looked on the schedule, and actually it was the youth group that was scheduled to perform special music today. Now, how does that work? Well, if you add up all the ages of our youth, you come up the same age Mr. Blakey is. So that's how that worked out today. I'm just teasing. Again, thank you for a wonderful special music.

Well, if you've been listening to the radio, or driving around your neighborhood, or driving anywhere, walking through the mall, you would see that it is the season, isn't it? In our culture today. We are now approaching the time of the year when most of the Western world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, and like much of what the modern world does, the birth of Jesus Christ is shrouded in tradition and myth.

There was a show for a number of years on the History Channel that actually was very good. It was called Christmas Unwrapped. And I think they've kind of edited it a little bit and given it a new name. What was an interesting show, because the first half of it, very frankly and candidly, showed the pagan origins of Christmas. And then the second half of it basically showed how, beginning in the 1920s and so, how Americans denuded religion out of the celebration, created this big, heavyset jolly man, and secularized the celebration so that marketing people could sell more stuff during the Christmas season.

But it was an interesting program. The truth is that, except for religious scholars, few people know why the birth of Jesus is celebrated on December 25th. I, over the years, had lots of conversations with just average people in the workplace and may assume that Jesus Christ was born on December 25th.

And that's why it is celebrated that way. Well, I think it might be helpful for us today to examine the difference. See if there is a difference between God's Holy Days and a holiday like Christmas. If the Bible and history is our guide, and they should be, we believe that the Bible should be our primary guide. And we're also very honest with history and with science. If that is our guide, which day should we observe? And why? Or should we observe any? You know, the Puritans, and there are religious groups in the United States that don't observe any days. They don't observe Christmas, Easter, the Holy Days, nothing.

It is against their religious beliefs to observe any religious Holy Day. And some scholars say that the Puritans were the same way. That the Puritans wanted to purify from the Church of England. And when they came to this country, they forbid people to work on Christmas. Even there was a punishment if you were caught taking Christmas off to celebrate it. They expected people literally to work on December 25th. And they wanted to purge their calendar of all religious days.

But what does the Bible tell us? Should we be observing the Holy Days and or a holiday like Christmas? Well, let's begin by going to Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 1. What I'd like to do today is draw a contrast between God's Holy Days and the holiday like Christmas. And see what validity they have, where they come from, the who, what, when, where, and why of both of those types of celebrations.

Leviticus chapter 23 beginning in verse 1. We'll go there. Usually a scripture that we read around the time of the spring holy days particularly. But they are always appropriate for us to read and understand what God's will is. Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 1, it says, He says, He says, These are my feast, God says, talking to Moses. Six days. So He begins with the first of His feast, and that is the weekly Sabbath. The weekly Sabbath is intended to be a feast today.

It's the first in priority that's mentioned because it occurs every week rather than annually. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy meeting or convention. You shall do no work in it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all of your dwellings. And I would like to thank you for accepting God's invitation to come here on the first of the feasts that He mentions today, and to fellowship with those in a holy meeting.

That's what we call Sabbath services. Thank you for accepting God's invitation to do that. So we see the very first feast day mentioned is the weekly Sabbath, and then God proceeds to instruct Moses on observing annual feast days. We're not going to read through all of them. We'll just read through the first, and I think we'll get the picture.

These are the feasts of the Lord. There he goes again. They're not my feast. They're not your feast. They're not the feast of a particular church or organization. These are the feasts of the Lord. They are holy meetings, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.

On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall do no customary work. So we will get out of the rat race. Just like the Sabbath day on these feast days, we get outside of the nutty world we live in.

We take some time off and we worship God. Instead of working, our customary work, our jobs, and the things we normally do on the other days, we say, No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to physically, emotionally, and spiritually rest. I'm going to go, when that sun sets on Friday night, and I'm going to let it all go.

Again, verse 7, on the first day you shall have a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, and you shall do no customary work on it. So the days of unleavened bread, the first day and the seventh day are holy, and there should be no work done on them. I wanted to read just verses 1-4 from the New Century version, because it says it very strongly here. I just like the way so much. That is worded. It said, The Lord said to Moses, Tell the people of Israel, You will announce the Lord's appointed feast as holy meetings. These are my special feasts. There are six days for you to work, but the seventh day will be a special day of rest. It is a day for a holy meeting. You must not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your homes.

These are the Lord's appointed feasts, the holy meetings, which you will announce at the times set for them.

So the whole day is holy. It is holy when you go to the holy meeting. When you go back to your home, you still treat it as a very special day, a special day of rest. So we see here, as early as the desert wilderness, approximately 1440 B.C., that God Himself instructs Moses regarding special days to worship and honor Him. God calls these His feasts three times. Now, actually, God should only have to tell us something once. But being human like we are, we normally have to be told things numerous times before we get to point. We also know through numerology that three is the biblical number of finality. So three times, God says, just so there's no misunderstanding, three times He says, these are my feast or the Lord's feast. That should tell us something. God provides instruction on how they can be determined in the calendar that they were using. They were using a calendar that had existed thousands of years before this time. God did not give them a new calendar. This was a calendar that Semitic peoples had used for a long, long time. Moses learned about it when he resided with his father-in-law. It was not the Egyptian calendar. It was a Semitic calendar. And God said, in this calendar, I'm going to show you how to calculate my appointed days, how to determine what they are. And God tells them what they are to do in these days. They are to have holy meetings. When they go back home, they are to have a special day of rest. That it's a time to reflect on God. So it's very clear here in Leviticus whose feast days these are, who instituted these days, and why he, God said, they are important to him. Now, we're going to fast forward in time a little bit. Obviously, Israel disobeyed, broke their covenant. They didn't keep the holy days as faithfully as they should have. They violated God's law and eventually first Israel and then Judah went into captivity. But in time, according to God's will and prophecy, the Son of God was born and he walked on the earth. The Gospels don't mention every holy day in them because that wasn't their intention. But they do mention a few. So I think we should realize that a few of the holy days are mentioned, and everywhere they are mentioned, Jesus Christ is observing them.

Let's begin in John chapter 5, and we'll go to verse 1. John chapter 5 and verse 1. Because Jesus observed the holy days. We should expect nothing different because every one of them points to something that he did, that he is presently doing. So it shouldn't shock us that he also observed that he was present and he observed the holy days.

And every time we see the holy days mentioned in the Gospels, Jesus is there. John chapter 5, beginning in verse 1. It says, and after this, there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, no one really knows what feast this is. I've read in this a little bit. Some say the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. A few minority of scholars say Pentecost. But it obviously was one of God's feasts and holy days.

And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem? Because that's where people went. The fellowship with one another to obey God's instructions and to keep the feast at Jerusalem. So that's why he obviously went up there. Now, there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In there lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. So Jesus is a Sabbath. It happens to be a Sabbath day. Jesus is there. The feast is probably already in progress. It could have been the days of unleavened bread. Maybe it was the Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread.

But Jesus sees this man, and he has pity. He has empathy on him because it says here, verse 5, Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. That is a long time to have a disease, to be struggling with a disease. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, Do you want to be made well? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.

Now it doesn't give tremendous detail here, but this man could have been paralyzed. And when the water was stirred up, he's trying to pull and crawl and drag himself to be the first one to get to the water. And probably someone who was blind but had the full faculties of his feet usually beat him to the water before he got there, and that person was healed. And he said to him, Jesus said to him, Do you want to be made well?

And the sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me. And Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked, and that day was the Sabbath. Now we won't get into the grief that Jesus experienced because he would dare have compassion and pity for a human being on the Sabbath day.

But the key point that I wanted to bring out is that this was during a time of the Feast of the Jews. Jesus was present. He was obviously observing the feast because that is what he did. The feast days all pictured something that he would do. Now let's go to John, chapter 7, beginning in verse 1. And we'll see an example of when he kept the Feast of Tabernacles.

John, chapter 7, verse 1. And after these things, Jesus walked in Galilee, for he did not want to walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him. So he was a marked man in Judea. It says, Now the Jews' Feast of the Tabernacles was at hand, And his brothers said to him, Now his brothers are kind of chiding him here. His brothers, we'll see, did not believe in him. They're kind of mocking him. They're kind of chiding him here. And his brothers said to him, Depart from here and go into Judea.

Well, he knows he's a marked man in Judea. That wasn't very kind of his brothers, was it? He says that your disciples also may see the works that you are doing, For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. They're kind of challenging him a little bit. Stop hiding what you're doing. If you are who you say you are, then you should be going to Judea and doing these miracles and doing these things. Verse 5, For even his brothers did not believe in him.

Then Jesus said to them, My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready. So Jesus knew that he had to fulfill prophecy, and he couldn't die too early. He couldn't put himself in a position where he might be crucified or killed earlier than his need to train his disciples to be a foundation of his church. Verse 7, The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil. And boy, didn't the events of this last week confirm that indeed the works of this world are evil. Verse 8, You shall go up to the feast. I am not going up to the feast. I am not yet going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come. When he had said these things to them, he remained in Galilee. That's interesting. Probably about 12 years ago, I had a woman in the church who grew up in the church, and her brother grew up in the church. And she grew up in the church, and she came to me. She would probably leave within a month. And she was an energetic, very vocal type personality. And she said, My brother told me that I don't need to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, because right here in John 7, Jesus didn't keep the Feast of Tabernacles. There's no reason to do that. I said, Really? I said, Did your brother finish reading the verses? That might be something that would be good to do occasionally. It says here in verse 10, But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as if it were in secret. Then the Jews sought him at the feast and said, Where is he? So he was targeted. He was a marked man. So he quietly, after his brothers got out of the way, he went and he observed the Feast of Tabernacles, as it says there, as it's called in verse 2. So we see by the example of Christ that he quietly attended the Feast of Tabernacles. One other example here in his lifetime, Matthew chapter 26 and verse 17. Matthew chapter 26 and verse 17. It's now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, a better translation is approaching coming up to the first day of Unleavened Bread. The disciples came to Jesus saying, Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover? And why would they say that to Jesus? Because Jesus, throughout his ministry, had set that example. He observed the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. And he said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared for the Passover. So we see here by this example that Jesus prepares for, and he observes the Passover with his disciples. Now, this, unfortunately, would be his last as a physical man, as he would be arrested that night, and he would soon be crucified. If that had not been the case, he would have observed the seven days of Unleavened Bread, because that was the example that he had set for his disciples throughout his ministry. So we can see by these personal examples of Christ from Scripture, it should be clear to us that he continued to observe the Holy Days. So, as time went on, Jesus Christ, indeed, was crucified. He died. He was resurrected. So let's take another step as we look at the contrast between God's Holy Days and a holiday like Christmas. So let's ask the question, did the disciples believe that the Holy Days were somehow fulfilled? They were somehow complete, and there was no reason to observe them any longer. They no longer had any meaning or needed to be observed in any way. Did the disciples believe that?

Well, let's pick it up here in Acts chapter 1 and verse 1. We'll go right to the Word of God, Acts chapter 1 and verse 1, and see what Jesus Christ told them.

Acts chapter 1 and verse 1.

Luke writes, After he threw the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive, and after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

Verse 4, Of course, that promise was that they would receive God's Holy Spirit. This is interesting. Don't we all have a fascination with prophecy? Don't we all want to rush prophecy? Can I hear a little bit more about prophecy?

It is now the time that you're going to restore the nation of Israel to its greatness. And Jesus says here in verse 7, So Jesus says tactfully to them, Prophecy is exciting, but I've got a job for you to do. Stop worrying about when the end is going to come and get on with doing the commission that I've given you to do. Get on with doing your job.

Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received them out of their sight. So Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit will be given to them. He doesn't tell them exactly when it's going to happen. He just says, wait for the promise of the Father not many days from now. Well, sure enough, not many days from now happens to be a holy day. And we know it, of course, is the day of Pentecost. So what do you think they would do? Should we keep the day of Pentecost or not? Maybe some heard rumors that it was nailed to the cross and should no longer be observed. Well, if someone would have said that, they would have naturally have said to themselves, well, the Messiah always kept the day of Pentecost. That's the example he always set. You know what? Even though he's not around, you know what we're going to do? We're going to observe the day of Pentecost. So chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, it says, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Why were they of one accord in one place? Because they were having one of those holy meetings that they were taught and read about in the book of Leviticus. That's why. That's exactly what they were doing. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing, mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire, and one sat upon each of them.

So here we see that they're observing the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D. and on this day they received the promised Holy Spirit. They certainly didn't think that the day of Pentecost was abolished or done away, did they? Because they were there. If they had, let's say that they would have decided that the holy days were abolished or done away, or my favorite phrase, fulfilled in Christ, and they hadn't been together on the day of Pentecost, you realize Church history would have been totally different. Maybe human history would have been totally different if they had not been together and observing the day of Pentecost. So let's go forward in time a little bit more. Let's go forward 24 years beyond that period of time. Now about 55 A.D. 24 years later, are people still observing the holy days? Well, I think you know where I'm going with this. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning in verse 1, because it is recognized that this was written about 55 A.D. And more interestingly, it was written to a Gentile congregation in Corinth. The majority of the people there were Gentiles. Indeed, there were, I'm sure, some Jewish believers who were converts to Christianity, but most, if you look closely at the book of 1 Corinthians, were indeed very pagan and Gentile peoples with that kind of a background. And that's who Paul is addressing. And let's see what he says. He begins talking about a real problem in that congregation. He says it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality that is not even named among the Gentiles. He says there's something so disgusting, even the Gentiles would be shocked at what's going on in your congregation, that a man has his father's wife, most likely his stepmother, but according to the law of God, that is incest. So this was more than adultery. This was adultery and incest going on in the congregation. He says, and you were puffed up, and if not rather mourned, that he who has done this thing might be taken away from among you. And again, we always have to be careful, because it is so easy to become so open-minded that if we turn our head sideways, our brains fall out of our head.

We have to respect God's law, and we have to respect the things that God teaches us. Verse 3, he says, For I, indeed, am present in body, Paul was writing the letter from somewhere else, absent in the body, but present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him who has done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you were gathered together, there's another one of those holy meetings that's going on that was spoken of in the Book of Leviticus, gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So he says, as painful as it is, you have to stop associating with this individual. This individual should not be gathering together with the people of God until he stops his perverse lifestyle. Verse 6, he says, You're glorying, your open-mindedness, just how tolerant you are, is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened.

Now the latter part of this verse, when he says you're truly unleavened, that can mean a couple of things. Number one, history records this may well have been written so that it arrived during the days of unleavened bread. But far more important than that, whether that happened or not, Jesus Christ is our righteousness, and because Jesus Christ shed his blood and he lives in us, that is spiritually what makes us unleavened, because we have Christ in us. Continuing, he says, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore, he says to this congregation, primarily composed of Gentiles, let us keep the feast. Twenty-four years after the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul is still honoring the Holy Days. He's still respecting and acknowledging the fact that three times that God said in Leviticus, that these are my feasts. He says, therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. So he's drawing the analogy that this individual was leavened and that he was affecting the entire congregation, and he had needed to be removed. So we see here that Paul is teaching the New Covenant observance to the Gentiles in 55 AD. Why do I stress the New Covenant observance of the Holy Days? Because the Holy Days' practice of them did change at the death of Jesus Christ. There are no longer any sacrifices required. There was no temple in Corinth. So all the stuff regarding animal sacrifices, indeed, were complete in the one and total sacrifice of Jesus Christ when he shed his blood. What else is different about the New Covenant observance of the Holy Days? They all apply the spiritual application of what Jesus Christ did. You see, the physical application, for example, of the days of unleavened bread is being obsessed with just simply getting leaven out of our homes. And I've known people to spend hours and hours and hours and hours and weeks and weeks and weeks with toothpicks and toothbrushes, getting every possible piece of leaven out of their homes. But then they come to the Holy Days with bitterness and resentment in their hearts towards someone else in the congregation. They missed the whole point. I mean, getting rid of the leaven is great, and it's symbolic. And while we're doing that, it teaches us, should teach us, that it's really about getting the leaven out of our hearts. It's a spiritual application, and that's what we do in the New Covenant. It's about changing our lives and rooting our attitudes, our evil attitudes, and all of our sins out of our lives. It's far more than just running the vacuum cleaner and throwing out a loaf of bread and putting it on the tree lawn. There is a spiritual purpose behind all of that. And notice, that's what Paul's emphasizing. He's talking about old leaven, new leaven. He's talking about the leaven of malice and wickedness. What's that attitude? That spirit! That's not a piece of bread! Getting rid of the physical leaven in our homes, as we're doing that, should prompt us to think about the spiritual leaven that exists in our lives. And notice, that's what Paul is emphasizing. So here again, we see that Paul is teaching the New Covenant observance of the Holy Days to these Gentiles in 55 AD. Again, this is approximately 24 years after the death and resurrection of Christ. We can look at other examples in the New Testament to show that the Holy Days were observed even later than this, but for the sake of time, I must move on. So, let's ask this question.

How do we know that these Holy Days were important to God? How do we know what God desires regarding worship, and regarding what honors Him? Let's go to two Scriptures. The first one, Deuteronomy 12 and verse 28. And this is very applicable for what occurs during this time of year in an effort for so many people who think they are honoring God through the Mass of Christ. Deuteronomy 12 and verse 28.

God is giving the people instruction again through Moses. It says, Observe and Obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. When the Lord your God cuts off from before you, the nations in which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land. So, when life is good and you're settled down and you've conquered these lands, and now you're getting wealth and life is comfortable and great things are happening, verse 30, Take heed to yourself that you were not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their God, saying, How did these nations serve their gods?

I also will do likewise. What rituals? What customs did these pagan peoples use to worship their God? Because I want to rebrand that. I want to relabel it and use the same concepts and customs and ideas to worship the true God. After all, isn't that what Aaron did when he made the golden calf? He said to the people, Here is the God that brought you out of Egypt. This is just a representation of the God that literally brought you out of Egypt. Verse 31, You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods, for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it or take away from it. So God makes very plain here that those who worship him must not borrow or relabel pagan worship practices in an attempt to worship the true God. God does not condemn everything that originated in pagan cultures. But what he does condemn are borrowing pagan worship customs and attempting to use those customs to worship God.

Here's what it says in the translation God's word for today, beginning in verse 31. It says, Never worship the Lord your God in the way they worship their gods, because everything they do for their gods is disgusting to the Lord. He hates it. That's what the translation God's word for today says. So again, God warns us not to worship him with pagan rituals and standards. So does it seem logical to you that God would warn Israel against adopting pagan rituals to worship him, and then after they did, he'd suddenly be honored by what they do?

I don't think that would be the case. That doesn't even make sense. Let's take a look at a New Testament scripture that has a similar theme that we're familiar with in John 4, verse 19. And it was a discussion that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman. John 4, verse 19.

Jesus is having a discussion, by the way, that he initiated with this woman. Picking up in verse 19, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. After he guessed how many times she had been married, he says, Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.

She says, I believe that you do your own thing. You see, my people here in Mount Gerizim, this is where we worship God. This is how we choose to worship God. And you Jews, you choose to worship God in Jerusalem. And Jesus says in verse 21, to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem either place worship the Father. You worship what you do not know.

He says, We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. All the instruction on the proper way to worship God was given to the Jews in the book of Leviticus and in other books of the Old Testament.

God revealed to them, not to the Samaritans, the way that he chose to be honored. And Jesus continues in verse 23, But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship him.

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all. He'll straighten this out. He'll straighten out whose opinion is right. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. But Jesus emphasizes something that ties in so well with Deuteronomy chapter 12, and that is that we have to worship God the way he desires.

We don't get to choose. It doesn't make sense that if you wanted to worship the great God of the universe, question number one, God, what honors you? How do you feel honored?

What actions, what things give honor to you that you desire to be glorified and honored? Doesn't that even make sense that that's what we would do? It's interesting that, and I had this comment recently by someone who was visiting with us, how stunned he was the first time he walked into one of our churches. There's no stained glass. There's no crucifix hanging on the wall. There are no candles burning anywhere. We have what I guess would call a pretty bland facility that we meet in.

It doesn't look very churchy, does it? It doesn't look very religious, does it? It's because we choose to worship the Father in spirit. To us, it's not about material things. It's not about crucifixes and steeples and glass and candles and incense and all things that people gravitate towards. We choose to very plainly and simply worship the Father in spirit. Jesus says not only just in spirit, but also in truth.

We cannot worship the Father with a lie. We cannot take some rebranded, relabeled pagan tradition or custom and say, God, aside from what you say, this is how we're going to choose to honor you and worship you. Now, aren't you honored? Don't you feel honored? God is not impressed. God is not amused.

Jesus tells the woman that he knows about proper and acceptable worship because he is the Christ and the Messiah that she's talking about. People simply can't worship God in the way that they want to. It is not honored or respected by God when we do that. Everyone must worship God the way he instructs and the way that he desires. So the scriptures that we've read can be paraphrased this way. God says, I am the true God. I'm not honored by the ways that mere men decide to worship me. My awesome greatness and magnitude cannot be polluted by a religious practice borrowed from things that I despise. God says, I am not honored by things that I despise, which are borrowed, relabeled, hackneyed religious practices from pagan belief. So this has been a brief outline of the Holy Days. I think that we can clearly see they were established by God, claimed to be His three times.

They were kept and observed faithfully by Jesus Christ when He walked on His earth. They were kept and observed faithfully by the apostles, by the apostle Paul, by the other apostles. We see that many years later that Paul was even teaching them the Gentile congregations. So now let's take a few minutes to look at the history of the birth of Jesus Christ. And we will look at one scripture here regarding that, because frankly the Bible doesn't talk about the birth of Christ in great detail. But we will look at Luke chapter 2 verses 4 through 17. We are not ashamed of these scriptures. We do believe that Jesus Christ was born. We do believe that it was a miraculous and a wonderful event that fulfilled prophecy. And that's very true. We don't have any problem with that. As a matter of fact, we'll take a few minutes here to read about it. It says in Joseph, again this is verse 4, And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth in the Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So a Roman governor had said, I want all the citizens to be registered, and they have to go back to their hometowns.

They have to go back to the cities of their ancient heritage, and there they are going to be registered. And most likely, because this Roman governor was probably so smart, he probably tied it in with a Holy Day observance, knowing that people from all over would be traveling towards Jerusalem anyway, and as a side trip they could go back to the original town of their inheritance and be registered. Verse 6, And she brought forth her firstborn son, because if you read the Gospels, you will see that she had a second-born son, and she had a third-born son. Jesus was not her only child. She was not a perpetual virgin. Jesus, indeed, was a virgin when her son Jesus was born. But she had a husband, his name was Joseph, and naturally, as human beings do, who are married together and share their lives together, they also produced children together. But she was, he was her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger. That was to keep him off of the ground. That's why he was set in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn. I don't think they'd mean the holiday inn. There just wasn't any room anywhere.

Verse 8, now, and probably because it was during the festival, and most of the lodging places were most likely filled with people who were traveling the Jerusalem and filling the inns, trying to get to the feast and observe the feast. Verse 8, now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone above them, and they were greatly afraid. And then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be assigned to you, you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, and suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, and saying glory to God in the highest, and an earth peace good will toward men. So it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds sent to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem, and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and they found Mary and Joseph in the bay, lying in a manger. Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying, which was told them concerning this Christ. So indeed, as I said earlier, this was a beautiful, it was a miraculous event. Over 100 Old Testament prophecies pointed to the first coming of Jesus Christ on earth. So this was a fulfillment of prophecy. It happened exactly as written, and we believe it.

It is a magnificent historical event, but it was never intended to become a day, a holy day, or a time to set aside to honor Jesus Christ. It was actually the death of Jesus Christ, his shed blood, that forgave sins, that should be honored. We call that the Passover. His birth only occurred once, and no one's sins were forgiven, simply because he was born. He had a mission to achieve it, he had to live his life, and he had to do certain things before he shed his blood as the Lamb of God. And there was never any intention that this event would be taken out of the Scriptures and made an annual holy day, or a Mass, of Christ.

But let's see how this incredible event slowly morphed into Christmas, or the Mass of Christ. From this, I have to leave Scripture, because the truth is, there is only one other place in the entire Bible in which the birth of Christ is even alluded to in any way. And that's in the book of Revelation, where it talks about the woman giving birth to a man-child.

And that's it! No other place in Scripture. You see no example of the disciples ever observing Christmas. Not a single case, not a single situation. I'm going to do a little reading to you here, because I just want you to understand that the traditions and the myths that surround Christmas haven't been made up by the Church.

They haven't been invented by us just to make Christmas look bad, or look like something's wrong with it. Anyone who is willing to make an effort to open up an encyclopedia or a dictionary can clearly see the origins of Christmas. So first, I will read from the Encyclopedia Britannica, the 1997 edition. It says, quote, The traditional customs connected with Christmas have accordingly developed from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan, agricultural, and solar observances at midwinter. In the Roman world, the Saturnalia, December 17, was a time of merrymaking and exchange of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra. On the Roman New Year, January 1, houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and to the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Ewell rights, which the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, and Central Europe. Food and good fellowship, the Ewell log and Ewell cakes, greenery and fir trees, and gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festival season. Fires and light symbols of warmth and lasting life have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian. So here in the Encyclopedia Britannica, it's very frank, it's very bold on the origin and how this occurred. Let's now read something from the Microsoft Encarta, which is a dictionary reference library of 2003. They're even bolder. Again, they're not part of the church. They have no particular agenda. They are just historians in an online encyclopedia trying to provide facts. Quote, although the Gospels describe Jesus' birth in detail, they never mention the date, so historians do not know in what day he was born. The Roman Catholic Church chose December 25 as the day of the Feast of the Nativity in order to give Christian meaning to existing pagan rituals.

For example, the church replaced festivities honoring the birth of Mithra, the God of Light, with festivities to commemorate the birth of Jesus, whom the Bible calls the light of the world. The Catholic Church hoped to draw pagans into its religion by allowing them to continue their revelry while simultaneously honoring the birthday of Jesus. Read another paragraph here.

In North America, he eventually developed into a fat, jolly old gentleman who had neither the religious attributes of St. Nicholas nor the strict, disciplinarian character of Black Peter.

I'll read you one other section here for the sake of time. It says, giving gifts also recalls an ancient Roman custom of exchanging gifts that bring good fortune for the new year. In most cultures that celebrate Christmas, a mythical figure delivers gifts to children. Many of these legendary gift-givers bear a passing resemblance to pre-Christian elves and pranksters, who would distribute gifts while also making mischief in the community. So I think you can hopefully see very clearly why we don't celebrate Christmas, the birth of Christ, on December 25th. Or why we don't celebrate it near the Holy Days. Because it is possible that Christ was born on the Feast of Trumpets. That is very possible. But I think what we need to understand is that there is no record of Jesus or his disciples later celebrating his birth. They didn't know it because they didn't see it as a significant worship in order to do that, in order to duplicate it.

As I mentioned again, the birth of Christ is only again mentioned in Revelation 12 as a prophecy. So, it boils down to this. Should we keep Christmas? Should the Mass of Christ be observed? Well, Jesus Christ was born only once, and all the prophecies that spoke of his birth were fulfilled on that day.

On the other hand, let's contrast this with the Holy Days. The Holy Days all point to the future. Pentecost, I'm sorry, Passover, reminds us of our need for a Savior and for forgiveness. There are yet billions of people unborn who will need a Savior and recognize that Jesus Christ was their Savior and who need to be forgiven of their sins. The Days of Unleavened Bread remind us of the need for repentance and to begin the process of transformation into a new creature in Christ that is still going on. Pentecost reminds us all of the need to have God's Holy Spirit, and we look forward to a time in God's Kingdom when God will make his Holy Spirit available to everyone. Trumpets remind us of the need for the return of Jesus Christ to this earth to overthrow mankind's destructive self-rule, as we saw some examples of this past week of the horrific minds that some individuals have in our world today. Atonement reminds us of the need for Satan and evil to be removed from the world. The Feast of Tabernacles reminds us of the Kingdom of God and our need to have the Kingdom of God established on this earth to bring true peace and harmony and happiness for all mankind. The Last Great Day reminds us of the need for the blinded and the unconverted to be offered salvation, so they too can accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and their Savior. So all the Holy Days point to things in the future, many of which have not yet even begun or even been fulfilled in a small or limited way. But Christmas, on the other hand, was not instituted or endorsed by God as a religious day or a festival. Christmas has borrowed pagan practices that are intended to worship and honor God, but indeed are a direct violation of what God said in Deuteronomy 12 and what Jesus taught the Samaritan woman in John 4. Our final scripture today is from Exodus chapter 34 and verse 12. Exodus chapter 34 and verse 12. As you see, the decision is clear. We can worship God in spirit and truth. We can honor God in the way that He desires, the way that was taught and lived by His Son Jesus Christ. Or we can worship God the way that we want to in order to fit in with our culture, to make our relatives happy or to receive acceptance by other people. The decision is ours. And certainly I pray that God grants His remnant the wisdom and the courage to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Exodus chapter 34 and verse 12. Once again, Israel is warned, God says, I want everything that had to do with pagan worship obliterated. I don't want it borrowed. I don't want it repackaged. I don't want a pretty red bow on it. He says, I want it smashed, obliterated, eliminated. Verse 14, for you worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. God wants us to worship Him in spirit and in truth. He wants us to worship Him from a joyful heart, a heart that loves Him, not one that is using borrowed pagan rituals in a false attempt to honor Him in some way. Again, may God grant His remnant the courage and the wisdom to worship Him always in spirit and in truth.