God's Plan for Mankind in the Holy Days, Part 1

He has his own business and he consults in leadership training. He's an author of a couple books on the same subject as well. He's taught at the college level, and he's also had a position in business management for a large corporation in the Cleveland area for many years. He's a loving husband and father and grandfather, and he's a good friend of mine. And the pastor of the Cleveland United Church of God congregation, Greg Thomas.

Thank you, Mark. Well, good afternoon, everyone. We'd like to thank all of you for coming out to the seminar on this very cold, wintery Cleveland Day. This is one of our most favorite topics. It's about God's plan revealed in his seven annual Holy Days. And it is rather remarkable how in the Word of God that he could have revealed certain days that tell us his entire plan for all humanity, for all time. And most people don't realize that because they have discarded the Holy Days that were revealed in the Scriptures. What mankind has done is reject the days that God said were important to him and have substituted days that we have created on our own, in our own attempt, in our own desire to worship God the way that we want to.

So again, we thank you for coming to the seminar today. We have two points, or two parts, I should say. Part one, we're going to talk about the Old Covenant and those Holy Days related to the Old Covenant. Then we'll have a short break. And then part two, the New Covenant, the Holy Days in the New Covenant.

So where should we begin when we talk about God's Holy Days? The best place to begin is the very beginning. The book itself is known as Genesis. The book of beginnings. We have a glimpse and an indication from God himself how important it is to worship him on the days that he would desire. Genesis chapter 1 and verse 14. And by the way, if you've brought your Bibles, we love to use Bibles in our congregation, so feel free to open them up and use them. The Scriptures will also certainly be projected on the wall.

But Genesis chapter 1 and verse 14, and I'll be using the New King James Version as most of my verses today, with occasional deviation to make a translation a little clearer. Here's what it says. This is the fourth day of creation. 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 and for days and years.

That's actually a very weak translation. And the reason the translator used a weak translation is that word in English that he used for seasons come from a Hebrew word that's called moed. And it's more properly translated, festivals. As a matter of fact, this is how that same verse is translated from God's word, from the God's word translation. Quote, Then God said, Let there be lights in the sky to separate the night from the day.

They will be signs and will mark religious festivals, days and years. So God himself reveals to us that one of the very reasons that he created the moon and the stars and the sun and the way that they align in a cycle is so that mankind could mark religious festivals. Who's religious festivals? Would there be festivals that we would invent on our own, the worship of God, the way that we want to? Or would they be festivals that God would say, These are my feast? This is how I desire to be worshipped and honored. And these are days that have significant meaning to me.

Which one would it be? Well, in the process of time, God decided to work through a nation. And he called a group of people known as the Israelites, and he wanted them to be a model nation for the entire world. So he revealed his feast days to these peoples. And I want you to notice, this is God talking, and I want you to notice what he says about these feast days.

We're going to be in Leviticus chapter 23, beginning in verse 1. We're going from verse 1 to verse 4. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The Feast of the Lord. So whose feast are they? They're not my feast. They're not your feast. They're not the feast of any church. They are the Feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocation. So God says, On these feasts, I want there to be a convention.

I want there to be an assembly. I want people to gather together who know me, who love me, and want to worship me on these days. That's what it means to a holy convocation or a little convention. These are my feasts, God says. So they're important to him. He mentions the very first one is not an annual holy day.

It's actually a weekly feast. Verse 3, Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest. Again, a holy convocation, a little convention, an assembly. You shall do no work on it, for it is the Sabbath of the Lord. It's his Sabbath. It doesn't belong to Jews. It doesn't belong to churches. The Sabbath belongs to God.

Again, you shall do no work on it. It is a Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. These are the feasts of the Lord. Holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed times. So that Hebrew word for feast, which was moe, is right here used as the word feast in this translation. It's the exact word that we saw earlier in Genesis 1.14 that was translated seasons. And more appropriately, like it is here, should be translated feast or religious days. Three times God tells these people that these are his feasts. They are very special days to God. So there are seven of them, and we'll go through each of them one by one. But we're going to see there are seven holy days listed in Leviticus chapter 23. The first one is called the first day of unleavened bread. And some of these may sound a little unfamiliar to you. They may be brand new to you. And we'll try to explain the meaning behind some of these days and their history. The second one is the seventh day of unleavened bread. The third one is the feast of weeks, also called Pentecost. The fourth is the feast of trumpets. The fifth is the day of atonement. It is the only feast day in which God asks his people to fast.

The sixth is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles. And the seventh, and final of his holy days, follows the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and is known as the eighth day, sometimes called the last great day. Now, within the seven holy days, we're also important ceremonies or events that were connected to these days. And we will talk about them as well. Two of the jump-out are Passover that's intimately associated with the days of unleavened bread and the wave-sheaf offering, which was an event, a ceremony that occurred during the days of unleavened bread. So let's begin. Leviticus chapter 23, we'll pick it up now in verse 4. We read verses 1 through 3 earlier.

These are the Feast of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Now, from the perspective of the Old Covenant, the Israelites, the Passover was not an annual holy day. It was a ceremony that was attached to their physical salvation. When they were in ancient Israel, a death angel was going to strike the firstborn of every family. And what they were instructed to do was to take the blood of that Passover lamb and literally paint the lintels in their house so that they would be safe inside their dwellings and the death angel would not kill them. They would be spared from physical death. So that is how in the Old Covenant the Passover lamb came to be seen and understood. That was an event, again, that was intimately tied together and connected to the days of unleavened bread, which are mentioned in verses 6 through 8. And I'll quote, and 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. Again, that's that assembly, that convention. You shall do no customary work on it. Take the day off. You deserve it.

Verse 8, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. So again, from the perspective of someone who would have been in ancient Israel at the time and living through those experiences, they had to leave ancient Egypt in a hurry, in haste.

And the bread did not have time to rise. So, eating unleavened bread reminded them of their journey of freedom. They were leaving slavery. Egypt was symbolic of slavery. It was a pagan nation. It was a nation which had rejected God. It was a nation which had a lot of evil and perversions in it.

And they were leaving slavery and leaving the land of Egypt and heading towards the Promised Land. Throughout scriptures, leavened spiritually represents sin. And we'll see more about this one later on when we look at the New Covenant perspective of the days of unleavened bread.

And then, during the days of unleavened bread, there was another very important event that occurred called the Wave Sheaf Offering. And we'll pick it up here in Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 10.

During the days of unleavened bread, on the day after the Sabbath, and some groups traditionally observe it the Sabbath after the days of unleavened bread. I'm not going to get into a discussion of days here. But on this particular day, what would occur is they were inaugurating the beginning of the barley harvest season. Grains were the primary source of life and nourishment. And after this first fruit offering that occurred during the days of unleavened bread, the grain harvest officially could begin. And that was very important to the people. It was a time of great rejoicing because they needed the grains to survive.

Continuing now, Leviticus chapter 23 verse 16.

This was the third of the annual festivals. The first one being the first day of unleavened bread. The second one being the seventh day of unleavened bread. And this was the third annual festival. It occurred approximately 50 days from the days of unleavened bread. It was a celebration of God's grace and blessing at the completion of the early summer wheat harvest. The greater fruit harvest was something that would yet occur in the fall, symbolized by the fall holy days.

So the Feast of First Fruits was also called the Feast of Weeks. It was also known as the Day of Pentecost.

Let's continue now in Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 24. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month. So a number of months go by. We're now getting into the fall season.

In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of the blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. And you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. This was known as the Feast of Trumpets in ancient Israel, and it represented a call to action.

Virtually everything that Israel did was dictated by a blowing of the trumpet. When it was time for the camp to get together to march, it was through a trumpet blast that they were given that signal. When it came time to worship, when it came time to have an alarm for war, a call for war, or to introduce a new month, all of these activities were done through the blowing of trumpets. So, from the perspective of the Old Covenant, this represented a call to action. Even today, the Jews look upon the Feast of Trumpets as a time to wake up from your lethargy and to start thinking more about God and getting your life straightened out. So that theme even carries over a little bit today in modern Judaism.

Then there's another day, Holy Day, called the Day of Atonement. We'll pick that up in Leviticus chapter 23, beginning in verse 26. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement, it shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, and you shall do no work on that same day, it is the day of atonement to make atonement for you before the Lord. This was the only one of the festival days that was a fast day, and this was rather a very unique day. As instructed in Leviticus 16, and again we'll see a little more detail when we get into the New Covenant perceptions of these holy days, in ancient Israel, the priests were separated from the most holy area of the temple by a curtain, and they could not go in there. They were not allowed to go in there, and within that curtain was the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the very little presence of God among the nations.

And as they were taught in Leviticus 16, the high priest only, one day a year, was allowed to go into the Holy of Holies and perform a very important ritual and spread the blood of a goat and the blood of some other animals on that altar, one day only, and that day happened to be the day of atonement. So it was a very significant day for the ancient Israelites. There were two goats that were specifically selected to be used for a ceremony on that day. One goat was an atonement for the nation that represented Jesus Christ. The other goat was condemned and sent into the wilderness. It was removed from the presence of the people.

And again, when we look at these Holy Days from a New Covenant perspective, we will talk about that in a little bit more detail as well. Then there is the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Tabernacles, which many religious groups keep today. It was instructed in Leviticus chapter 23 verses 33 through 36.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. And on the first day there will be a holy convocation. You shall have no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. This was the great annual harvest celebration, also called the Feast of In-Gathering. And it reminded the Israelites that they lived in temporary dwellings for forty years when they were in the wilderness. So they were instructed to think about how temporary life is. And the Tabernacles, in which many of them lived in these temporary dwellings during the time of this feast, reminded them that they were just sojourners on the earth, that life is short, life is a vapor, and they were simply sojourners. So this was a very important time for the Israelites, and it was also symbolic of a great harvest feast that occurred at the end of the fall season. And then the seventh and last of these days was a day that was even lost to Judaism. It's called the Eighth Day, and we read about it in Leviticus chapter 23 verses 36 and 37. It says, on the eighth day, so you had the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and then you had one additional day. On the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. These are the feasts of the Lord. So it's encapsulating all of these feasts, once again, that we've just outlined. These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day. So, in the perspective of ancient Israel, what did the eighth day represent? They lost, if they ever had a deep understanding of it, they lost it. This day today is called Shemini Azzeret, and it means to tarry or hold back another day. In essence, some of the rabbis say that we enjoy the first seven days so much, we're going to hang around another day. That's what it represents to them.

Well, surely there can be a deeper biblical meaning than that. But some understood correctly that this was a distinct individual holy day in itself. This is the seventh of those holy days, and it's called the eighth day. So these are the feast days that God gave to ancient Israel. Let's recap some of the things that we saw. We saw that these are God's feasts. They weren't Israel's feasts. They were given to Israel because God wanted them to be a model nation. God wanted them to have a special relationship with him. And just like if I'm pretty smart, I remember my wife's anniversary and days that are important to her. God wanted Israel to remember days that were important to him. So he gave them those days, known as his holy days, his festival days, so that they could have a very beautiful relationship together, and so that God could be worshipped in the way that he desires to be worshipped, rather than them inventing their own ways to try to honor and worship God. So did they do a good job in obeying the holy days? They did a terrible job.

Even before they got into the Promised Land, they weren't keeping the holy days successfully. And here is God telling the prophet Ezekiel about how frustrated he was with them, even in the wilderness, before they entered the Promised Land, because they never kept the holy days consistently, never kept them with the kind of awe and respect that God desired them to do. So here's what he's telling Ezekiel, and this is from the translation again, God's Word.

He said these days would create a special connection between me and my people. They would be a sign that I am their God, the one true God, and they are my people. That's all they had to do was respect these days. Verse 13.

So even before they got into the Promised Land, they weren't living up to the days, the beauty, the significance, the richness of these days that God had given them. He continues, So I was going to pour out my fury on them in the desert and completely wipe them out. And thankfully, as he continues to tell the prophet, he changed his mind and decided not to wipe them out and allowed them to go into the Promised Land. But even when they entered the Promised Land, they never kept the Holy Days faithfully or consistently or with the right attitude that God wanted. As a matter of fact, they began to do something that unfortunately is far too prevalent in our modern world today. They began to play church.

They began to keep the Holy Days in a very shallow way while living lives that were disobedient and lives of evil and lives that marked guard. But in an attempt to think they were pleasing God, they observed his festivals. And here's what he had to say about that. He told Isaiah, through Isaiah the prophet, he said, He said, Incense is an abomination to me, the new moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. He said, you cannot mix a life of hypocrisy with coming here and saying, Oh God, we're worshipping you on your high day, on your Sabbath or one of your Holy Days, because we are your special people. He says, you're not my special people, you're just evil.

That's what he is telling the people through the prophet. Verse 14, So God says you can pray all day long. You can pray from morning until night. He says, but if your heart isn't right, I will not hear those prayers. He says, your hands are full of blood. He said, you are an evil people, Israel. Verse 16, So he says, this relationship that I offer, the beauty of these days and the richness of these days only please me if you are trying to live a good life, if you are respecting my laws.

But if you're doing evil, he says, they mean absolutely nothing to me. So the time went on, and eventually Israel went into captivity. And then after the nation of Israel, the nation of Judah, after they had split off, then Judah went into captivity. And in time, Jesus Christ himself was born on earth. So in order to begin understanding if, in the New Covenant connection, that these holy days have any meaning to us today, I think it's important for us to look at the example of Jesus Christ.

But let's take a look at a couple of Scriptures here. First of all, Luke chapter 2 and verse 41, because what we'll see is from his earliest childhood until he died, that he kept the Passover, that it was a very significant event for him. Luke chapter 2 and 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, according to what they always did. That's obviously the beginning of his life.

Now in his 30s, on the eve of the very last Passover before he's going to be crucified, in Luke chapter 22 and verse 14, it says, "...and when the hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles with him. Then he said to them, with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." He said, this is very meaningful to me, that all of us are together in this group, sharing and fellowshipping and loving one another. He knew what he would have to face later on that evening. He knew what he would have to endure with crucifixion.

He knew he was called to be the ultimate Passover and save the world from its sins by shedding his own blood as the complete Passover Lamb. He understood all that and he wanted those moments to be precious to him in the presence of his very own disciples.

How about the Feast of Tabernacles, John chapter 7 verse 11? It says, then the Jews sought him at the feast and said, Where is he? And there was much complaining among the people concerning him. Some said, He is good. Others said, No. On the contrary, He deceives the people.

However, no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now, about the middle of the feast, Jesus went up to the temple and taught. So in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, which he was observing, he went up to the very temple itself and began to teach. And the Jews marveled, saying, How does this man, no letters, never having studied?

He didn't study formally under a rabbi. He didn't go to some special theological institute. And they couldn't understand how he understood himself the Word of God so well, how he was so articulate, so knowledgeable about God and God's way of life. So is there a deeper spiritual reason Jesus observed these feasts? We saw that he kept the Passover. We saw an example where he kept the Feast of Tabernacles.

Later on, he would tell his own disciples. After he was resurrected, he would say, Hang around Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, because you're going to receive something very special. I want you to stay in Jerusalem to receive something on the Day of Pentecost. So I want to ask this question. Why would those days in Leviticus 23, those holy days, be so important to Jesus Christ? Let's review what it said, Leviticus 23, verse 2. These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. These are my feasts. Verse 4, These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.

So why, again, I want to ask the question, would Jesus have observed these feasts? Why did he keep the Passover? Why did he go to the Feast of Tabernacles? Why did he instruct his disciples after his resurrection to observe the Day of Pentecost, after he was gone from the earth and had ascended to heaven? Was it only because he was a Jew? Was it only because he needed to fulfill the law? He needed to be completely obedient to the law?

Were those the only reasons? The answer to that question is, who was it that originally gave that instruction in Leviticus 23? Who gave that instruction in Leviticus 23 will tell us why these days were so important to Jesus Christ? Let's go back to Exodus 3 and verse 13. And it begins with Moses building a relationship with God. And God says, I want you to go back to Egypt, and I want you to say this, and I want you to do these things, and I want you to confront Pharaoh, and I want you to help my people to be liberated from slavery.

Picking it up in verse 13, then Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, what is his name, what shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. Now, in a theological sense, that's called the tetragrammaton, YHVH, and in essence translated in English what he told Moses is, I am the eternal one.

I have always been, I exist today, and I will continue to exist for all eternity. That's what it means from that Hebrew translated into English. And he says, this is what you will say to the children of Israel. I am has sent me to you, the eternal one, the ever-living one has sent me to you.

Now, let's fast forward in the time of Jesus in John chapter 8 and verse 54, in a discussion that he has with the Jews. John chapter 8 and verse 54, Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God, yet you have not known him. You don't even know who the father is, he says, but I know him, and if I say I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. And here was their response. Your father, I'm sorry, this is what Jesus continued to say, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, the day that I would walk in the earth, and he saw it, and he was glad.

When did Abraham rejoice to see his day? Do you remember the episode in which Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son, and he took his son three days journey to Moriah, which later became known as Jerusalem, and he was prepared to obey God and to offer his son as a sacrifice. Everything that Abraham did there represented what God the father would somebody, they have to do with his own son, Jesus Christ, in which he would offer his son, Jesus Christ. And God stopped Abraham at the last minute when he had the knife up, and he was ready to sacrifice his son. He was stopped. And God said, now I know that you love me. And Abraham finally understood what that command and what all of that had been about, that someday God would send his only beloved son to the earth to die, to be sacrificed and shed his blood for the sins of the world. So that's what Jesus meant when he said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it when he was glad, and the Jew said to him, you're not 50 years old. He was in his early 30s. You're not even 50 years old. And you have seen Abraham, and Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Now, did they understood what he meant by that statement? You bet they understood what they... Because in their ears, they just heard blasphemy. In their ears, they heard him claim that he was the God who spoke to Moses, that he was the God who spoke to Abraham, that he was claiming he was the God of the Old Testament. Verse 59, and they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. So if Jesus Christ, the one who would later become known as Jesus Christ, was the one who spoke with Moses, if he was the one who spoke with Abraham, who gave those laws in Leviticus 23, who said, these are my feast. It's none other than the one who later would come to earth, would be God in the flesh, and be known to us as Jesus Christ. Let's take a look at a couple of other scriptures. John 17, verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples on the eve of his death. I have glorified you on earth, and I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. You see, Jesus Christ was God before there was a world. He actually was the Word who spoke the world into existence, according to John. But he said, glorify me together with you, both, and part of the Godhead. Both sharing all of eternity together. Join me once again with the glory that I had with you before I walked in this earth with the flesh. That glory I had with you before the world was even created. John 17, verse 24. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me be with me where I am, and that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. So again, before the world was even created, Jesus Christ had a relationship with the Father.

Continuing, O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. So, my friends, the truth is that the known God of the Old Testament was not whom Jesus revealed.

Jesus revealed the Father. But, the one who became known as Jesus Christ was the figure in the Old Testament, the Godhead in the Old Testament, who talked to Moses and talked to Abraham. Jesus came to earth to reveal the presence of the Father to humankind.

So, that is an additional reason why these Holy Days were so important to Jesus Christ. So, let's ask the next logical question. Were the Holy Days nailed to the cross when Jesus died in 31 AD? Were they only part of the Old Covenant that they become obsolete? Well, for this to be true, we would see in the New Testament that the disciples stopped observing the festival days. Surely, they would understand that. Surely, they would know that. After all, they were his apostles. They were his disciples. We would see them, as we look into the New Testament, we would see them rejecting these days by their example, not just by the things that they say, but by their example, because they wouldn't want to be hypocrites. They wouldn't want to do one thing and say something contrary to that. They would want to maintain their own integrity and the integrity of their faith. So, the only way that we can answer the question, were the Holy Days nailed to the cross, is we have to let Scripture tell us. Rather than let any person tell us, or organizations tell us, or literature tell us, we need to let the Scriptures tell us what the disciples did, as well as what they said. Matthew, chapter 28 and verse 19. This is what Jesus told them. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. So, we, on part two, are going to look closely into the New Testament, into the New Covenant, and see what the disciples did and said. Before we do that, we have to ask an honest question. What would have changed about Holy Day observance after Jesus was nailed to the cross? Would the Holy Days be kept in a different way? Well, of course, the answer to that question is yes. The answer to that question is revealed in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter 10, beginning in verse 10. Here's what Hebrews, the author of Hebrews, whom I personally think was Paul, might have been Barnabas, could have been some other. No one within the book of Hebrews claims to be the author, but here's what it says.

By that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. And sure enough, if you look into the Old Covenant, if you look at God's commands in the Old Covenant, there were sacrifices every day of the week. The Sabbath had special sacrifices. The Holy Days had special rituals and sacrifices. But here's what it continues to say, verse 12. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. The temple itself was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and animal sacrifices ceased. So what would have changed between the original commands of the Holy Days and what we're going to see in the Book of Acts? Well, there no longer would have been any concern about rituals or sacrifices or offerings or anything of that nature. They would have been keeping these Holy Days from a New Covenant perspective. That is, a spiritual perspective. Gleaning the rich meaning of the days and understand that they reveal the plan of God, but they no longer would be concerned about any of the rituals or sacrifices which had been completed and fulfilled by Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, the author of Hebrews tells us in chapter 13, verse 15, Therefore, by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. So the animal sacrifices have been replaced by our lives. We are to be a living sacrifice, a sacrifice of service, a sacrifice of praising God with our lips and singing hymns to him, and rejoicing in the greatness and the goodness of God. So as we begin to think about part two, I want to ask a question. And the question is this. Does the New Testament actually have a history book that tells us what the apostles did? That tells us where the early disciples went, and the words that came out of their mouths, and the lives that they lived? And the answer to that question is yes. That book is called the Acts of the Apostles, Acts being short for actions. The book is a history book about the actions of the apostles.

And we can either read what the Scriptures say, or we can allow individuals, booklets, magazines, and men, tell us that things are done away, or that things were nailed to the cross, or that the disciples no longer did something. In contrast, looking at the Word of God and seeing what the disciples actually did and actually said. The choice is ours, which one we want to do. And after the break, we will examine the New Testament Scriptures, including the Book of Acts and the writings of Paul, after a short break. Well, we are going to have a little bit of a break here. We're going to have special music, and we're going to have a 15-minute refreshment break. And then we're going to have Part 2, which is the New Covenant that's a little bit longer than Part 1 was. But beforehand, we're going to have very special music. I have had the pleasure of knowing Art Blakey for almost 40 years, which is a long time. Mr. Blakey is the lead singer for a Cleveland group called The Hesitations that had been around since the late 1960s. In August, they were inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame here in Cleveland, Ohio. He is the lead singer. He will be performing special music for us entitled Somebody Praying, a song made popular by Ricky Skaggs. And then afterwards, we'll have a refreshment break for about 15 minutes and Part 2. But before that, Mr. Art Blakey.