God's Plan for Mankind in the Holy Days, Part 2

We'll begin part two of our discussion today about God's plan revealed in His seven annual Holy Days. Because the truth is, as we saw in the Old Testament, that the Holy Days are beautiful, that they're rich in meaning. But if they've been done away in the New Covenant, then they would no longer have any meaning, would they? There would be no reason to keep them. There wouldn't be no reason to observe them, to look at the rich meaning of those days. If they happen to have been done away as part of the New Covenant. So I think it's very important for us to discuss this issue together, and that's what we're going to do. So I want to ask a question again that I asked as we concluded part one. Does the New Testament have a history book that tells us what the disciples did? And the answer is yes, it's called The Acts of the Apostles. And that's where we'll spend a lot of time in this part of the seminar. Who wrote the Book of Acts? Well, it happened to be a gentleman whose name was Luke. Here's what the Holman's Bible dictionary says. Luke, author of the Third Gospel, Matthew Mark Luke, and the Book of Acts in the New Testament, and a close friend and traveling companion of Paul, the Apostle called him beloved. So if anyone is going to understand what Paul is doing, what Paul is saying, and what Paul's attitude is about the Holy Days, it would be his personal traveling companion, wouldn't it? It would be this individual, this gentleman named Luke, continuing from Holman's Bible dictionary. Paul identified Luke as a physician, so he was highly educated, and distinguished Luke from those of the circumcision, which means he was a Gentile, he was not circumcised.

That's Colossians 4 and verse 11. Early sources indicate that Luke was a Gentile, tradition holds that he was a Greek. As a matter of fact, the name Luke is the name of a Greek city. It was named after a city or a region in Greece. So in order for us to see if the Holy Days are part of the New Covenant, we need to see what was said and what was done, and that primarily will be through the Book of Acts.

So let's begin. First of all, jumps out at us at 31 A.D., approximately 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He's already left the earth, he has ascended to heaven, he told his disciples to tarry or to wait in Jerusalem, and here's what happens, Acts chapter 2 and verse 1. And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, does that day sound familiar to you? Of course, it is one of those seven annual Holy Days that we discussed. What would have happened if they would have decided, now these days are done away, we're going to meet next week instead. Well, they might not have received the Holy Spirit because Jesus told them to wait on this day, verse 2. And suddenly there came down 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 on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, and the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling of Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. So again, looking at this event in the book of Acts, we have to ask the question, if the Holy Days were obsolete, why would Jesus have told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem and to wait to receive the Holy Spirit on a day that he had deemed was done away? Or a day that supposedly was nailed to the cross because it was part of something that had become obsolete or no longer of any value? So that's the first indication that we see getting into the book of Acts.

But the skeptic says, aha! Okay. So maybe it wasn't at the cross, but the Holy Days were done away as a result of a ministerial conference that occurred in 49 AD. Well, I think that's a fair question. So let's see what happened in 49 AD in Acts, Chapter 15 and verse 1. It said, And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, that means they argued, when he had no small dissension with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. The question is whether a man had to be circumcised in order to be saved according to the custom of Moses. Now, many people will read this and say, oh, they're going to do away with the entire law of Moses. The whole Old Testament is going to be done away. That's going to be the result of their decision. Well, let's see what the decision is dropping down to verse 19. This is James speaking.

And then he says something that's kind of interesting if you want to believe that the law of Moses is supposed to be done away.

He says in verse 12, So that was the decision. And some folks come to the conclusion that the entire law of Moses is abolished. They say that the only four things that people are required to do now are refraining from food polluted by idols, sexual immorality, from meat strangled animals, and from blood. Well, first of all, if that were true, then what you'd be telling me is that murder and stealing and lying and dozens of other hurtful and destructive behaviors are now acceptable for people. And I'm sorry, I can't buy into that. I don't happen to believe that is true. So let's ask a fair question. What do these four things that James mentioned have in common, and why would they have connected them with the fact that Moses was being read in the synagogues on every Sabbath day? That will help us to understand what was so important about this decision. Well, there is a connection that all four of these events have, and that is the connection with pagan idolatry. Obviously, food that was polluted by idols was offered to an idol. The Jews in the synagogue would reject that. Sexual immorality is strange as it may sound. At that time in Greek cities, you could hire a male or female temple prostitute, and for their services you could honor the pagan god by having sexual relations with that prostitute. That was part of their religious observances. And meat strangled to animals was obviously a common form of idol worship. And some believed that if you drank the blood of the animal that you would sacrifice, that you would take on the characteristics of that animal. Well, what all four points have in connection, have in common, is pagan idolatry. So what does that have to do with this decision? Well, again, we have to understand the context of the times.

There was no printing press. To hear the word of God, you had to be very wealthy because the Old Testament was written on parchments, hand-written. They were very, very expensive. People who were converted to the faith could not afford to go out and buy parchments. Because you had to be wealthy, or you had to be a congregation that was so large that everyone could chip in and buy the Old Testament, because it was in scrolls, and literally read it. That wasn't happening. But what the early Christians could do, and what they did, is they would go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, because the synagogues could afford to have the scrolls. And as they went to the synagogue in the Sabbath, they had the opportunity to hear the precious word of God as it was unrolled, and as a reader would get up and read from the Old Testament.

That was very precious in the eyes of the believers. Well, here's, putting it in a nutshell, what James was saying in his decision. It was acceptable to go to synagogue being uncircumcised. After all, that's what Paul did all the time. He went to synagogues, and he preached the Gentiles who were attending the synagogues. They were not circumcised. They were known as God-fearers. And they were allowed to attend the synagogue, even though they were not circumcised. But there was one thing that the Jews in the synagogues would not put up with, and that was idolatry. If you were accused of idolatry, they would literally kick you out of the synagogue and not let you come in.

And if you were kicked out, you obviously could not come back and worship. You could not learn and hear the reading of Moses in the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as James emphasized, was so important. So this decision that was made in Acts 15 is not doing away with the entire law of Moses.

It's doing away with ritual sacrifices, including the ritual of circumcision. It is not doing away with God's moral law of what is right and what is wrong, what is evil, and what is righteousness God was not doing away with.

But let's continue in our journey in the book of Acts. Now we're going to go to approximately 52 AD. This is Paul's second missionary journey. And here's what Luke writes as he observes what Paul did and what Paul says. Realized 31 AD was 21 years ago, and this is three years after the ministerial conference.

So everything that was nailed to the cross has already been nailed to it. Everything that was done away at the ministerial conference, we read about in Acts 15, has already been done away, hasn't it? Let's see what Luke says in verse 19. And he came to Ephesus and he left them there. But he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. When they asked him to stay a longer time with them, he did not consent, but took leave of them saying, quote, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you, God willing.

And he sailed from Ephesus. What? Why does Paul say, I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem? He doesn't say, if it's convenient, I'll keep the feast that comes. If it fits my busy schedule, I think I might go to Jerusalem and keep the feast. No, he says, I must by all means.

He was a preacher. That was his job. And you know what he's doing? He's cutting short his visit because he feels compelled by all means to go to Jerusalem and keep a feast. Many scholars believe this to be a fall feast around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. So again, that happened in 52 A.D.

Now let's go to 55 A.D., one of Paul's letters. Again, I said it's not only important what people do, but it's also important what they say to make sure they're not hypocrites, to make sure they're not saying one thing and doing something else. Now the first thing we need to understand in 55 A.D., of course, is this is six years after the Ministerial Conference. It is 24 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Everything that's ever been nailed to the cross has been nailed to it by now. Who is he talking to? 1 Corinthians 12, verse 1. He says, now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. So who's he talking to? He's talking to a church that is primarily composed of Gentiles. What's he going to tell them? 55 A.D. We're going to drop down or actually go back up to chapter 5. First of all, I have to discuss an issue.

There was this issue. He got back to Paul that a member of the congregation was committing incest with his mother-in-law. And he didn't like that. By the way, just as a side note, what law says that incest is wrong? What law says that you shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife? I might add that's the law of Moses that says that. Anyway, Paul says that you're too tolerant with this individual.

You need to put him out of the church until he wakes up and realizes that what he's doing is wrong. So while he's talking to the church and primarily composed of Gentiles that we saw in chapter 12, here's what he says. Your glorying is not good. No, but we're just so tolerant. We're just such a patient congregation. It's no big deal. He says your glorying is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leavened. Remember the days of unleavened bread that we talked about in part one, what they represented, that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. Of course, Jesus Christ lives his life in us and we have the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It's also possible that this was written during the days of unleavened bread.

He continues, for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. And here's what he says in verse 8, speaking to Gentiles. Therefore, let us keep the feast. He doesn't say, I'm a Jew, I'll keep the feast. He says, let us. That means everybody in the congregation. Jews, Gentiles, everybody let us keep the feast. Not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness. Not like ancient Israel did, that God condemned, that they were playing church and that they were evil. He said, remember, he said, I cannot endure the sacred assembly and you're evil at the same time?

Paul says, no, we don't keep the holy days like that. But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, we keep the days of unleavened bread in a new way, in a new covenant way, he said. It's about sincerity, it's about truth, it's about realizing we want to put on the mind of Jesus Christ. It means we want to clean up our lives, we want to be a godly people, we want to honor God, we want to worship God. People say, well, they couldn't have kept the feast.

There was no temple in Corinth. You need a temple to keep the feast. Paul doesn't say you any longer need a temple to keep the feast. Oh, but the Levites, you needed Levites to keep the feast. Paul doesn't say you any longer need a Levite to keep the feast, does he?

He's talking to the city of Corinth, there's no temple, there are no Levites, there are no animal sacrifices. He doesn't care. Because he's looking at the holy days from a new covenant perspective and tells the entire congregation, Gentile and jewel-like, let us keep the feast. 55 AD. Could anything be clearer, my friends? Here's something else that he says in the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians, regarding the Passover, which he's encouraging everyone to observe.

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.

In the same manner, he also took a 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 until he comes. So, 24 years after the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul is encouraging Gentiles to not only observe the days of unleavened bread, he says, let us keep the feast, but also telling them they should be keeping the Passover.

Isn't that remarkable? Let's continue. Approximately 56 A.D. Acts, chapter 20, verse 15. Luke says, And we sailed from there, and the next day came opposite, Chios, the following day we arrived at Samos, and stayed in Trigilium, the next day to Miletus.

Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. What? I thought that was nailed to the cross. I thought all of those Hebrew holy days, God said, these are my feast. Remember? I thought all of these Hebrew holy days were done away at the ministerial conference of 49 A.D. That's not what Paul believes. I don't think Paul is a hypocrite. Do you think Paul is a hypocrite?

I don't think so. I think he is continuing to respect and observe the holy days. 60 A.D. Acts, chapter 27, getting close to near the end of the book of Acts.

When we had sailed slowly many days, they were traveling by sea and arrived with difficulty and sniped us the wind, not permitting us to proceed. We sailed under the shelter's creek off Samone, passing it with difficulty. We came to a place called Fair Haven near the city of Lecia. Now, when much time had been spent and the sailing was now dangerous because the fast was already over, Paul advised them, saying, Man, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but of our lives also.

So let's ask some fair questions. I've had people say to me, Oh, that's just the time demarcation. A time demarcation? Luke was a Gentile. Why would Luke use Hebrew holy days as a time demarcation if he were a Greek Gentile and wasn't observing them? Why wouldn't he use Greek time demarcations? He doesn't do that, does he? He says, THE fast. And anyone who is intellectually honest knows that it's talking about what we call today the Day of Atonement. The Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge says about this verse, quote, the fast.

The fast was on the tenth day of the seventh month, and you may recall Leviticus 23 earlier. That happens to be on the very Day of Atonement. So as late as 60 AD, we see Luke acknowledging the Day of Atonement. But I have to be honest with you, and I have to be fair and say that there are some who don't want to keep the holy days. They would rather observe religious days that were created by religious councils or men, or days that originated in paganism with a new dress on it.

That's what they may choose to do. So they will look in the writings of Paul and say, aha! Paul is condemning the observance of these holy days. Contrary to what it says he did in the book of Acts, in his writings he's condemning these holy days.

That's a fair question. Let's answer it. And here's one of the favorite scriptures for them to distort Colossians 2, verse 16. He says, so let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

So what does Paul mean in this very scripture? Well, we have to understand the context. Writing to the Colossians, Paul was addressing a group of people who had infiltrated the church who were known as Gnostics. Gnostics believed that everything physical was evil. Enjoying a good meal was evil. Drinking fine beverage was evil. Laughing was evil. That everything that was material and physical was evil and bad.

And so they were condemning the church for celebrating. They were condemning the church for having fine beverages. They were condemning them for eating foods that they enjoyed. They were condemning them for celebrating on the religious festivals because they actually dared laugh and radiate joy and have a good time. The Gnostics despised all of what they considered the physical fleshly creation. What Paul is only saying in this verse to the church is no one has a right to judge you for observing these things with joy.

No one has a right to judge you for enjoying a nice beverage. No one has the right to judge you for having a fine meal that you thoroughly enjoy. No one has the right to judge you for the way that you keep the festivals or the new moon or the Sabbaths. And I want you to notice one other thing. I want you to notice in verse 17, he says, Which are a shadow of things to come? That means a shadow of something yet in the future. He doesn't say that they're a shadow of things in the past. Obsolete bygone days that no longer have any value.

He says, No, these days are prophetic and they cast a shadow on events that are yet to occur. So let me ask the question again. Why would something be done away that yet points to events that have not occurred in prophecy? Does that even make any sense? Of course, it doesn't make any sense. But this is a scripture that is commonly used by many in order to try to prove that Paul is condemning the observance of the festivals and holy days, where Paul is actually saying the exact opposite.

The only one who should judge us, he says, but the substance of Christ. Only the church should make a judgment on what we're doing in the festivals and on the holy days. Is a good thing pleasing the God and a good thing or not? Not people from the outside judging us. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13. This is one of my favorite distortions of his scriptures. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13, which many want to apply towards everything from the Ten Commandments, to the holy days, to the Sabbath, to just about anything. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13. And you, being dead to your trespasses and the uncircumcision of the flesh, he has made alive together with him.

You are dead to your sins. You are now alive in Jesus Christ, is what Paul is saying. Having forgiven you of all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. And the skeptic says, aha! That's talking about the holy days! That's talking about the Ten Commandments!

And that's ridiculous. It's not talking about the holy days. It's not talking about the Ten Commandments. The handwriting of requirements that was against us is sin. Ezekiel chapter 18, verses 4 and 20 says, it's soul that sins, it shall die. We were all under the death penalty. That was the handwriting of requirements against us.

You sinned? The penalty is death! And what Jesus Christ nailed to the cross was the penalty of death because he shed his blood in our place. He paid the price for our sins. So again, a very beautiful scripture from Paul that is often distorted as people look for ways in order to try to get around the holy days and the rich meaning of each and every one of the days.

Well, in part one, we talked about the Old Covenant perspective of the holy days. Now I would like to spend a little bit of time talking about the New Covenant meaning of the holy days and see how well they fit in with the rich biblical theology, beginning with the Passover. You may remember Leviticus 23. It says, these are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations. On the 14th of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. The New Covenant perspective, we can find one scripture. There are many, but 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 7. Again, we read this earlier. This is what Paul told the Gentiles and Corinth. Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are unleavened, truly are unleavened. For deed, Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. Jesus Christ was sinless. He lived a perfect life. He shed His blood and He died for our sins. He is our Savior. In the Old Covenant, shedding the Passover blood only gave them physical deliverance from the death angel.

In the New Covenant, the Passover, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, saves us from eternal death and gives us life. That is the meaning of the Passover from the New Covenant perspective. The days of unleavened bread, reviewing Leviticus 23. And on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread that the Lord seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Let's again go back to that scripture that Paul quoted to see the New Covenant perspective. Purge out the old leaven. He says, change is a process. When you receive God's Spirit, you spend the rest of your life in what we call sanctification. That means being set apart and being made holy. It means developing the mind of Jesus Christ. In time, becoming spiritually mature and growing closer to Christ. And that is the New Covenant perspective of what the days of unleavened bread represent. Remember, leaven represents sin. So again, he says, therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness.

In other words, get rid of that sin, that leaven out of our lives. But with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. From the New Covenant perspective, we understand that Jesus Christ is the bread of life. And during the days of unleavened bread, when we eat unleavened bread, we represent the fact that we desire the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be in us.

And we eat that unleavened bread, and it represents our desire to develop the mind of Christ and allow the Savior to live his life through us. Because he is our righteousness. So the days of unleavened bread are one that reminds us of the importance of spiritual growth and the process of sanctification. We don't become perfect overnight. I've been doing this for 43 years, and I have a long, long, long way to go. Forty years from now, Mr. Blakey and I will be up here with our walkers in oxygen tanks, still working on trying to grow and mature. In the faith. The wave sheaf offering. How does that represent the New Covenant perspective?

Again, let's go back to Leviticus 23, verse 10. When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. This is during the days of unleavened bread.

And again, as a reminder, this event occurred during those days. It inaugurated the beginning of the barley harvest season. Grains were the primary source of life and nourishment for the nation. But what is the New Covenant perspective? Well, it's actually very simple. John, chapter 20, verse 17. I'm sure you remember the story Jesus has resurrected from the dead. And on that Sunday morning, he finds and runs into Mary, who at first doesn't recognize him. And I might add, at the very same time that he is saying these words, the priest in the temple is taking that bundle, that sheaf, and the priest in the temple is waving that sheaf as an offering to God.

And Jesus Christ says to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father, but go to the brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father, to your Father, to my God and your God. Jesus is saying that I am about to leave this earth and to ascend to heaven and be accepted on your behalf. My total and complete sacrifice is to be accepted so that humankind can have a relationship with the Father.

So at the exact same time that the priest was waving that sheaf offering in the temple, Jesus Christ is leaving this earth and ascending to heaven to be accepted by the Father as the Lamb of God who shed his blood for all mankind. Yet, later on that day, he shows up to his disciples and walks through doors. It startles his disciples by talking to them, so it just shows you the speed in which he could travel being a spirit being.

Paul also tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 and 20, that now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen to sleep. So he is the first of the first fruits. His resurrection meant that we too can be resurrected at the appointed time. He was the first of those first fruits. How about the Feast of Weeks or the Day of Pentecost? Again, review Leviticus 23, verse 16. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, this is from the days of unleavened bread, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.

You shall bring from your dwelling two wavelengths of two tenths of an ephah, and they shall be a fine flower. They shall be baked with leaven. That's interesting. Remember what leaven represents? Sin. Why two loaves? One represents the old covenant congregation that God worked with, who were human beings, and unfortunately were sinners. The second loaf represents the new covenant congregation of Jesus Christ, which includes many of us, and we too, sadly, are sinners. That's why we need Jesus Christ in our lives.

That's why we need a Savior. So what is the new covenant perspective of the Day of Pentecost? Well, obviously, it is the birth of the new covenant church when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church in 31 A.D. Acts 2, verse 1, when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Verse 4, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So the new covenant perspective is that the Day of Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, represents the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me add this. Are these events done away? Do people still need a Savior represented by Jesus Christ? Well, sure they do. Most of the world doesn't know God, doesn't understand God, doesn't understand what God's purpose is for their life. They still need a Savior. Do most of the people in the world live in sin and not understand that God desires for them to live by His values, to live by His laws, to clean up their lives, and through sanctification, acquire the mind of Jesus Christ?

Unfortunately, most of the world still lives that way. So the days of unleavened bread have not been fulfilled. Does most of the world need the Holy Spirit of God? You bet it does. Just open the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer or listen to any of our local television stations. And if you don't get sick listening to all of the stuff going on in our beloved city that's negative and evil and wicked, you will quickly realize that there are a lot of people who certainly need God's Holy Spirit.

So none of these things have been fulfilled yet. They all represent, like the Holy Days, what Jesus Christ has done, what He is doing, and what He will yet do in the future. The next is the Feast of Trumpets. We saw that in Leviticus 23 and verse 24. Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of the blowing of trumpets. What is the New Covenant perspective? We'll let Jesus Christ Himself answer that question from Matthew, chapter 24.

He said, And picking it up here, it says in verse 31, So the trumpet represents the return of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of those first fruits of that early bring harvest, their resurrection from this earth to meet Him in the air, and then they will join with Him, and He will return to earth to establish the kingdom of God. But the Feast of Trumpets represents the literal return of Jesus Christ at a trumpet blast, and those who were His believers and His disciples and His followers being changed from mortal into immortality, and literally being resurrected and meeting Him in the air.

How about the Day of Atonement? This is one that is just so fascinating. Again, we'll review some Scriptures. Leviticus 23, 28.

He was told to pick, and they were goats that looked identical to each other. You couldn't tell them apart.

He will take the two goats, and He will present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. Now, many people will say both of these goats represent Jesus Christ. They represent Jesus Christ as shedding His blood as a Savior, and they represent the other side of Jesus Christ as a sin-bearer who sent out to the wilderness. There's only one problem with that theology, and that is, if that were true, then why did the high priest have to cast lots?

You see, the high priest is trying to differentiate something unique between those two goats. If both goats represent Jesus Christ, then any goat will do. One goat could represent Him as sin-bearer, the other goat, or you could reverse it, and it wouldn't matter.

But the high priest has to cast lots because, as it says, one lot is for the Lord, and the other lot is for the scapegoat.

So, if you're for the Lord, and the other is not for the Lord, what does that mean?

Well, it means one represents something godly and beautiful, a sacrifice of blood, and the other represents something different. And we get a hint from what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 14. He said, And no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. You see, most of mankind is confused. Satan is the God of this world. They're just living their lives, striving for happiness, without an understanding of what is godly and what is not godly. Satan has distorted the values of this world and twisted things so perversely that wrong is right and right is wrong. And the eyes of so many in this world today.

So, let's continue here. Chapter 16 and verse 10.

He's symbolizing the author of all sin, the cause of the problems of humanity, Satan the devil himself, from the Garden of Eden, finally receiving the condemnation he deserves, finally receiving upon himself the acknowledgment that he is the cause of pain and suffering. He is the cause of humanity's sins. He is the originator of the problems that exist in this world. He today is the prince of the power of the air that radiates the negative attitudes and the destructive thoughts that exist in our world today. And we see a parallel of this from a New Covenant perspective from Revelation chapter 20, beginning in verse 1. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven. This obviously is after Christ has returned.

He was sent out of the wilderness and isolated so it could no longer be seen or influenced the nation of Israel after it was condemned. And the sins of the people were laid on its hands. That man, that suitable person who took that goat out represented this angel here in the future. He will confine Satan the devil, that serpent, and will put him in spiritual change so that he no longer can influence the world. That is the New Covenant perspective on the Day of Atonement.

And then there's the Feast of Tabernacles, Leviticus chapter 23 verse 34. And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. The New Covenant perspective, and this perhaps is the most understood holy day of all of them, recognized by many religious groups, even if they fail to keep the other days, it is the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. It represents what we call the millennium, a thousand years of peace, in which Jesus Christ and his saints, his immortal saints who were resurrected to serve with him, will govern the earth and will refashion the entire world and create a godly society in which everyone will live complete and fulfilled lives. And there will be no more war, and no more disease, and no more hatred, and no more evil. It will be a world that humankind has longed for. It will be the garden that was lost at Eden, finally restored to the whole earth with the government of God as its very foundation. Revelation chapter 21 and verse 3, it says, and I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. God will tabernacle, literally, come to earth and make the throne of the universe right here on earth.

Another scripture from a New Covenant perspective, this one from the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house, a mountain is biblical symbology for nation, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, it will be above all nations and peoples and cultures, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations will flow to it. It will be desirable. People from all over the earth will say they've got their act together. These are a people that are blessed. These are laws that enrich people's lives. This is a God who loves his people. We need to go there. We need to find out more about this God. So all the nations will flow to it. Many people will come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. That is the New Covenant perspective of the Feast of Tabernacles, the literal establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth that so many of us look forward to. Then there's the Eighth Day. Do you remember in the Old Covenant, even the Jews never really came up with a clear understanding of what the Eighth Day represented.

But the Book of Revelation tells us something that will occur after the thousand years have ended. And here's what it is. Revelation 20, verse 11.

And I saw a great white throne.

Chapter 20, verse 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which was the Book of Life. The Bible was opened. The Bible has the Word of God, it has commandments of God, it has the laws of God. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works. And the things which were written in the books. It says, Continuing, it says, And they were judged, each one, according to his works. So the New Covenant perspective of the Eighth Day is the great white throne resurrection, a massive resurrection of billions of people who lived and died and never accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Let's continue here. We've all heard of the song, Dry Bones. Ezekiel's famous songs, Them Bones, Them Bones, Them Dry Bones, right? Well, there's actually a scripture that's tied into that, and here's what Ezekiel saw.

His purpose isn't to resurrect all of these people and immediately condemn them and send them to hell. His idea is resurrecting them. He says, God will allow the billions of individuals who lived their lives in spiritual blindness, spoken about in Ephesians 4, or ignorant, supreme, mature childhood death, to learn about Jesus Christ and to learn about the Father. They are judged and offered salvation for the first time.

Let me ask you a couple of questions. Some old gentleman who dies in China today, never heard about Jesus Christ in his lifetime. It's a very closed society.

You can't even get on the Internet and Google in China because they block it. He never heard about Jesus Christ. He lived his whole life and died. Is he condemned to hellfire forever?

Is he condemned to be unconscious forever because he never heard of Jesus Christ?

How about a four-year-old girl who will die in St. Luke's Hospital today because of leukemia?

Will she be condemned because Jesus Christ was not her Savior and she never accepted him? Of course not. God will offer a first opportunity for billions and billions of people who lived in cultures that never even heard of Israel, Judah, Jesus Christ, Christianity, and there have been billions, and people for the first time in their lives who died in childbirth, who died from small children, and some who were spiritually blinded by God on purpose, will have an opportunity to learn God's way of life. And they will be judged. And the judgment will be that you have sinned. And you have a choice.

You can either accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you can either accept his shed blood for the forgiveness of your sin and go through a period now to learn to develop the mind of Jesus Christ like my saints did, or you're guilty, you have sinned, you can face the consequences of not accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior.

So they will be judged when those books are opened.

So again, the eighth day represents the great white throne judgment, and the judgment that will occur on the billions of people who lived their entire lives and died without knowing about God or Jesus Christ or even the Word of God.

Do you remember that we started out today talking about the first chapter of Genesis in the beginning?

You know, you can't frustrate God. What God says he's going to do, he's going to do. People may try to thwart God. They may try to slow down God. They may try to interfere with what God's will is.

But no one can change God's will. No one can interfere with God's will.

In the very beginning, God wrote in Genesis 1 and verse 14, and God said, let there be lights in the sky to separate the day from the night. They will be signs and will mark religious festivals and days and years.

That was taken from the translation God's Word for today.

So that was the beginning. God's desire all along was that he would establish these days, not so that Jews could worship him.

He would establish these days not so just Israel, not so just a church could worship him, but he established these days so that all humanity could worship him on the days that he desires.

And sure enough, as we go through time, and we go to the conclusion of prophecy, it says this in Zechariah chapter 14 and verse 16, after Jesus Christ has returned to earth, after Satan has been put away, and the government of God has established on the earth and is spreading the values and the law of God, beginning Jerusalem to the whole world, it says, and it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations who came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

No one can thwart the will of God.

So eventually what he had intended from the beginning in Genesis 1 will be fulfilled by the establishment of the kingdom of God.

So in conclusion, I'd like to kind of recap some of the things we've discussed today, and I'd like to give you seven reasons to observe the Holy Days today.

Reason number one, God says that these are his feast.

Again, they're not mine, they're not any churches, any nations, they belong to God. Leviticus 23, we saw that three times there.

Number two, Jesus Christ observed them. He is our example. He is our Savior.

He observed those days. We saw that in Luke 22 and John 7, the Feast of Tabernacles that he kept.

Number three, the Book of Acts, the history book of the New Testament, and the writings of Paul tell us that the early church observed them. We saw in 31 A.D. how they kept the Feast of Pentecost after Jesus Christ was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

52 A.D. Paul hastily left Ephesus to attend the Feast in Jerusalem.

55 A.D. Paul taught the Gentiles in Corinth to observe the days of unleavened bread.

Also, in the same book in 55 A.D., he taught the Gentiles to observe the Passover.

56 A.D. Paul skipped a church visit to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

In 60 A.D. we saw where Luke mentions the day of Gentile. Luke mentions the day of atonement in his travels.

The fourth reason, the Holy Days are an annual reminder of God's entire plan of salvation for all humanity.

The plan is this. Some firstfruits are called in this physical lifetime and have been since the time of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, no man can come to me unless the Father draws him.

The Father has chosen firstfruits, a small number of people throughout history, to be called at this time in their lives.

That's known as the firstfruits, the smaller, harvest. And then there will be a much larger harvest that will occur at the end of the 1,000 years and is represented by the eighth day.

A massive resurrection and a much larger harvest.

That is the plan of God that the Holy Days reveal to his people.

Reason number five, the feast days are centered on Jesus Christ. From Jesus Christ being our Passover, shedding his blood for our sins, all the way into the conclusion of the resurrection of the dead, needing Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

And every Holy Day in between, they are all about Christ.

What he's done, what he's doing, and what he will yet do in the future. These are not Holy Days centered around nations, centered around churches. The center of these Holy Days are Jesus Christ.

The sixth reason the Holy Days are the only religious festivals mentioned in Scripture.

And they give us seven additional days to rejoice and worship God and fellowship together throughout each year.

Contrary to many religious days that exist today that were created by men or borrowed from paganism, these Holy Days came directly from God.

And the seventh reason the Holy Days will be observed in the world tomorrow, as we saw in Zechariah, when all nations will worship the King during the Feast of Tabernacles. You know what? I'd rather not wait until then. I think I'll do what God wants me to do right now.

Well, that's the conclusion of our seminar today. I thank you so much that you have come here today to hear about God's plan revealed in his seven annual Holy Days.

They're exciting! And they help us to develop a closer relationship with Jesus Christ by knowing his presence in each and every one of those Holy Days.

I hope you have found this enlightening. I hope you have found this spiritually fulfilling. We meet here every Sabbath day. We worship right here in this building, in this hall at 12 noon.

Today we started a little late to give folks the time to get up and get moving. But we're here every week. And I'm Greg Thomas, the pastor. If there's any way that I can help you, there are cards of mine on the literature table.

I want to encourage you again to take a look at our literature table and see if there's anything for you. We are going to once again have special music. And then we will have a closing prayer.

And then we'll have time for fellowship and snacks that include food and beverages afterward.

For special music today, another friend of mine, I've known Mark for 35 years. And Mr. Graham is an internationally recognized music composer. His hymns are sung in many different languages throughout the world.

And he's going to give us a hymn or a song that he has composed himself today. It's entitled, People Are, is going to be performed. And it was also written by Mark Graham.

So we'll ask Mr. Graham to do that. And then I will ask Mr. Swope to come up and give us a closing prayer. Thanks again for attending.

People are twisted, people are straight, people are wicked, people hardly ever change. People must be the one who's thinking of me.

Why don't you wipe them out of it? Just start again. Can't you see, people are heartless, people are alone.

I really don't see how you've stood them for so long, but there's one thing I would like to know. Why you love the evil soul.

The earth is a treasure, the earth is a jewel. Why would you hand it over to these mortals of awesome ruin and wonder?

Everything you made, there must be more to humanity than I can see. And that is your secret, as strange as it seems.

People are at the heart of all your hopes and dreams. You can make people into something. They can become like you.

Why would they have given up long ago? You see too, to do it right now. When people are growing and living your way.

I wouldn't want to live without them for one day. People must be the finest thing you create.

What if not the God could be a family soul?

Please let the day come when this world is true.

Send this your King here on earth, and tell your God, teach me to come with you till I run their store.

You are something new.