Twelve Key Verses About God's Feasts

One opportunity a person has when he is up here is to share a wonderful understanding that comes from God's Word. I love to share especially things that a person learns through time. And we are constantly learning new things from God's Word.

And those things are called doctrine. Now, what is exactly doctrine? We're going to be handing out here the basis for what this sermon is all about. But I'd like to start with this word doctrine because you've heard it. We use it in sermons and articles. But what exactly is doctrine? In the New Testament, it comes from the Greek word didaskalia. And that simply means a teaching.

When applied to the Bible, it means inspired teaching in the Scriptures from God. So doctrine is something that God reveals through His Word. It's not man's teachings. It's not something that you learn from some religious leader. It's something that comes from God's Word. And it is inspired. God has placed it there with His authority.

Let's go to 1 Timothy 6, verse 1. 1 Timothy 6, verse 1. As I introduce the subject of this message, because it has to do with one particular doctrine we're going to cover, but it's good to go over the Scriptures to see exactly what doctrine is. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 1, it says, So, of course, biblical teachings, as you become an employee, you can blaspheme God's name and also His doctrine, His teachings, because we're supposed to be good examples.

We're not supposed to be bad examples, where somebody says, well, boy, He calls Himself a Christian and looks at the way He works. And so it says here, let them be respectful of their own masters, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed. So God has doctrines that He teaches, and those are the inspired teachings in God's Word. Notice another Scripture in this regard.

Just Titus, two books over. It says here in Titus chapter 2 and verse 10, talking about bondservants again, saying, God is our Savior in all things, so they can show good works. They can adorn the teachings of God with their lives. And of course, no one is perfect, but God expects us to improve, to be bettering ourselves as we learn more about God's teachings.

And as the Holy Days come up, just a bit over a month, we start again the yearly cycle of God's feasts with the Passover. That is the first one, and it's good to rehearse the doctrine about Holy Days. And so I'd like to go over the 12 key verses in the Bible, as I have studied them, about God's feast days. And it's good to remember them, for they are vital.

These are the 12 key scriptures in the Bible to help understand what God's feast days are all about, what God's teaching, not man's. We're not talking about Christmas. We're not talking about Easter. We're talking about God's feasts and the 12 key scriptures along that line.

Now I gave you... Did everybody get one at least? Raise your hand if somebody didn't get one. Looks like everybody got one. Now I went ahead and pasted it at the back of my Bible. I just put it right there. That's why I made it small. So you can paste it so that if somebody comes up and talks to you about, well, those feasts shouldn't be kept anymore.

Well, if we're learning about God's teachings, about God's doctrines, is that God's opinion? So let's travel through the Bible and see where God's feasts actually begin. And I'm going to begin with that question. Where do you think God's feasts begin? They begin before the foundation of the world, before man was created. God already had in mind and had a plan to carry out his feasts that he would provide mankind with. So it doesn't go back even to the creation of the earth. It goes before that time. So let's go to the first scripture in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 17.

1 Peter chapter 1. This is where the origin of God's feasts begin. In 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 17, it says... Let me get that scripture correct. It says, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

What we want to focus on here is that Jesus Christ was identified as a lamb, a future sacrifice before the foundation of the world. This presupposes a plan of redemption, of salvation, that does not end with that future sacrifice, but it begins with it. The plan of God begins with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as a lamb.

But that's just the beginning. We've got this process. And so here the Bible reveals something that no human being could have invented, because only God was here before the foundation of the world. And so he reveals in his scriptures that this was something that he had in mind, what was called the Word who became flesh, and he would become this sacrificial lamb for the sins of mankind, and that that plan had already been established before even the creation.

God knew that he would make man with a certain nature, that eventually he would sin, and he would have to pay the price. God would have to pay the price for this.

And so, as the scripture reveals, that that lamb, which is the symbol of the Passover, the Passover sacrificed a lamb every year, and Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God who came, as it tells us there in John chapter one, he came to take away the sin of the world.

But this was in God's mind even before the physical creation. He and the Word had to come up and make that tremendous decision about the Lamb who would come to pay for all of this for man to have redemption. So God's plan begins with the Passover, but it does not end there, because once the Lamb came and he sacrificed himself, then the next steps could take place, which was to redeem a people that would accept the Lamb and would purify their lives, which is symbolized by the days of Unleavened Bread. And of course, these people not only would accept that Savior, that Lamb, who would shed His blood for us, but then you needed God's Holy Spirit as well.

And so that's the symbol of Pentecost. And it wasn't just having God's Spirit, but realizing when you get that redemption fully completed, which is at the time of Christ coming, that's the redemption of the bodies. That's the resurrection to eternal life. And then you have the next step, which is to remove Satan from the presence of this earth. And so that is part of the redemption. The Lamb is fulfilling every one of those steps. He's the one that removes Satan.

He has an angel, and the angel fulfills Christ's commandments about that. And then you have the establishment of the kingdom of God for those that are going to be redeemed, that have accepted the Lamb. And finally, for the rest of mankind, it will have an opportunity, which is manifested in the last of the feasts, which is the eighth day or the last great day. And so you see with the Lamb, already prepared, you've got all of these steps that God has programmed in the future. This takes us then to the second Scripture that's very similar in Revelation chapter 13 in verse 8. So we have to go to the end of the Bible to better understand the beginning of the Bible.

In Revelation chapter 13 in verse 8, it says, In all who dwell on the earth will worship him, talking about the beast, whose names have not been written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So here we talk about that this was programmed. This was prepared. That this wasn't just a on the second thought that God all of a sudden said, well, what are we gonna do about sin? Oh, I hadn't thought about that. No, he had it carefully planned out. So the feasts are actually planned in God's mind before the foundation of the world. So how far back does that take us? Much more than just a human society. God's feasts were there in God's mind and in his purpose and plan before anybody even existed. So how can you abolish something that started from the beginning of all things when God said before the foundation of the world? So that helps us understand the importance of these feasts. They are not man's feasts. They don't celebrate some little historical event. As we do, we have the Day of Independence and we have many other types of feasts. No, this one is going back to celebrating God's plan of salvation and redemption for mankind. That's the greatest news that human beings could ever have.

And there are seven steps to this plan, this salvation history that God is carrying out. And, okay, once this was already in God's mind, then he created the universe, the physical universe.

He put mankind here, but there was already a plan that was established that was already ongoing. And that takes us to Genesis chapter 1 in verse 14.

Unfortunately, not too many translations bring out the true meaning of this word. Let's read in Genesis chapter 1 in verse 14. It says, 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.

Adam Clark in his commentary brings out, it says, for the determination of the times on which the sacred festivals should be held. It was right that at the very opening of his revelation, God should inform man that there were certain festivals which should be annually celebrated to his glory. Unfortunately, Adam Clark never kept them because he was a Protestant. But again, doctrine is what is taught in the Bible, not necessarily what is taught at a certain church that you attend. In the Good News Bible, it says, then God commanded, let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night and to show the time when days, years, and religious festivals begin.

Now, the word here for religious festivals is mo'ed in the Hebrew, and it's a masculine noun. This is from the complete word study. A masculine noun meaning an appointed time or place. It can signify an appointed meeting time in general, a specific appointed time usually for a sacred feast or festival.

And so it's an appointed time that God said he was going to set the earth with a certain orbit around the sun, with a certain rotation, with a certain tilt, so that people could tell time and be able to keep his festivals, because he had this from the beginning already planned.

And so now God reveals his plan slowly. And so in Genesis 1.14, we already have God's religious festivals mentioned there, appointed times. This is the same thing that is mentioned in Leviticus 23. You shall keep my feasts in their appointed times, not when you want to.

And so this is the third key verse, and it's in Genesis. So we went even before Genesis to the time before the worlds were created, and this was something in the mind of God.

Let's go to Leviticus 23, which is the fourth key verse. Leviticus chapter 23 in verse 2.

God is revealing this progressively in time. He doesn't tell you everything right away.

He reveals a bit here, a bit there. And so in Leviticus 23, starting in verse 2, it says, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. The term convocation is assemblies. It means assemblies. Holy means something that God makes, not man. He says, these are my feasts.

And he hasn't changed them throughout time.

Verse 4, it says, these are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. Moedim, which is the plural there. These are the appointed times.

On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. That's when we do it.

And again, God very carefully fixed the times where we can calculate how many moons have to go through. This is the term actually talking about in the first month. It has to do with the moon. And when that first moon appears in the calendar, and then on the 14th day is when we celebrate it.

And notice, it says on the 14th day, it's not at the end of the 14th, because that is the whole Passover day. Because the 15th begins at the end of the 14th day.

The 15th is a whole different festival. It's the first day of 11 bread. The first day of 11 bread does not deal with the Passover. It's the 14th. And the children of Israel had to take the Passover at the beginning of the 14th, and they were not to leave their homes until that morning.

And then they had to burn what was left over of the Passover sacrifice. And then they were spoiled by the Egyptians. They gave them their gifts. They wanted them out. So they just opened their homes. They take whatever, but get out of here, because if not, all of us are going to perish. And so it took some time. And it says there, let's go to real quick Numbers chapter 33. This is not one of the key verses, but it's good to always remember Numbers 33 when they left. And Numbers 33, too, it talks about their journeys. Now Moses wrote down the starting points of their journeys at the command of the Lord, and these are the journeys according to their starting points. They departed from Ramesses in the first month on the 15th day of the first month on the day after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians. They didn't leave on that same day. They left after keeping all the Passover, and and so they left at the beginning of the 15th, which is symbolic of leaving Egypt at that time.

But again, we see the fourth key verse is Leviticus 23, and that whole chapter explains it very well, but I wanted to emphasize verse 2 and verse 4 because it says, these are the feasts of the Lord to be kept at their appointed times. Now who are we to change God's will? If doctrine is what is inspired by God in God's Word, and he says this is what you shall do, who are we to change his dates and times? Unless we see that God somewhere along the line has a different law that substitutes that for another thing, and we don't see that with God's feasts, as we will continue studying these verses. Let's go to the fifth key verse, which is Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah chapter 8 is important because it shows us the keeping of a feast day by God's people in a pretty thorough way. In Nehemiah chapter 8 and verses 1 through 3, it says, Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the water gate, and they told Ezra, described, to bring the book of the law of Moses which the Lord had commanded them. So Ezra, the priest, brought the law before the assembly of men and women, and all who could hear with understanding, on the first day of the seventh month, which is the Feast of Trumpets. If you look back in Leviticus 23, it says, On the seventh month, on the first day, is the Feast of Trumpets. And so it shows here the keeping of one of these feasts in verse 7. It talks about all of these men that were Levites. It says, I'm not going to read all their names, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place, so they read distinctly from the book in the law of God, and they gave the sense and helped them to understand the reading. So again, it's very important to teach people what God's Word is saying on one of these feast days. Continuing on in verse 14, it says, And they found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the Feast of the seventh month. And then continuing on, it says in verse 17, So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths. For since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. Also, day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the book of the law of God. That's why when we have the Feast of Tabernacles, we read from the book of God's law, from the entire Bible, as it says here.

And they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, again, holy convocation according to the prescribed manner, which is the last day that we keep, the eighth day or the last great day of the feast. So we see here in Nehemiah 8, an example of the keeping of God's feasts. When you go, you're expected to hear about God's word. You're not there to learn about new psychological ideas or social life and everything else. It's going there to study God's word, and that's what we do. That takes us to the sixth of these key verses, Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14. This would be the last one in the Old Testament.

Zechariah 14 verse 2. It says, God speaking here, for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Verse 9 says, and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day shall be the Lord is one, and his name one. Everybody is going to have just one religion, one God, when Jesus Christ comes back on the earth. And notice in verse 16 what Jesus Christ is going to command. We've heard a lot about executive orders lately because that's something that a president can do. Well, how much more can Jesus Christ carry out his executive orders? And this is one of them, which the Bible preserves. It says in verse 16, and it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

Now, there are prophecies in Ezekiel that mention that all the feasts are going to be kept, but this feast in particular is important because everyone is to go, and they will celebrate the feast of tabernacles with Jesus Christ himself. Once a year, no matter where you are, everybody's going to go up to Jerusalem, and we're going to have the resources to carry that out.

Notice again it says in verse 18, if the family of Egypt today, the Egyptians are the great majority Muslim. They keep Islam as their faith. They don't like the God of Israel.

But here it says, if the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the feasts of tabernacles. That's one of the worst things, because that causes drought.

That causes the drying out of all the crops. Pretty soon you're in dire straits because you don't even have drinking water. How much longer are they going to put up with something like that when everything dries up? Well, that's the way to break the will. God is going to punish them, but again, He's doing it in a disciplinary way, in a corrective way. He could come in there and just wipe them out. That's not the idea. He's still extending His mercy, but it's just like a good spanking that they need to get the attention that God is expecting people to heed what He commands.

And this is a new scripture understanding, and this happened a little over a month ago when I had the opportunity to visit the brethren in Missiones, Argentina. This is a new congregation of about 80 brethren. They had been in a church that just kept the Sabbath until they decided we need to keep the feasts of God. And so they asked us to administrate them, and we have a pastor that's going there. They already kept the feasts of tabernacles last year, but as I was giving a Bible study, they wanted one about the history of God's feasts. And so I gave them a bit of an outline of what I've given them, given you today, but now I even filled it out with more key verses than what I gave them. But this is something that one of the members came to me afterwards and mentioned. And this is something that in the New King James Version, it doesn't bring up very well. It says in verse 19, This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the feasts of tabernacles. But it's very interesting that that word punishment, it's kata'u, kata'u, and it means, the complete word study says, a feminine noun meaning sin, transgression, sin offering, punishment. As the amplified Bible has it, this verse says, This shall be the consequent punishment of the sin of Egypt and the consequent punishment of the sin of all nations that do not go up to keep the feasts of tabernacle. So in God's word, it says that those who do not go up to keep the feasts are sinning before God. Now, of course, people are in their ignorance. We understand that. But I thought it was very important, this member brought up, he says, that here God equates not keeping the feasts with sin.

It's not just a punishment. It's something, a transgression, that is going to be punished.

And so here we have a verse in the Bible that shows that this isn't some suggestion by God.

It is something that is a transgression. So something new that I learned, that I wanted to share with you. And that takes us to the New Testament with the seventh key verse, which is in Luke chapter 22, Luke chapter 22 and verse 17, where Christ is keeping the Passover for the last time. He's going to die that very day but in the afternoon. So again, it's on the 14th when all of this takes place, not the 15th.

In Luke chapter 22 verse 17, he sits there with his disciples.

And he says, verse 15, shows us what he is actually doing. He says, then he said to them, With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

For I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.

So this shows that Jesus Christ is going to keep the Passover when he establishes his kingdom. It doesn't say, keep this until a century from now when some people will change the date to Easter. He doesn't say, well, keep it until I send up to heaven.

No, he said, until I come back. I'm not going to eat of it until I come back.

So it's still something that is continuous. He expects us to eat it in the meantime, until he is able to do so personally in the establishment of his kingdom.

That takes us to the eighth key scripture, which is in John chapter 13.

And it actually goes all the way to chapter 17, because here we have, just like Nehemiah chapter 8 tells us about the keeping of one of the feasts, here we have the Passover ceremony and the teaching by Jesus Christ preserved for us. So those that are baptized when we come together for the Passover and after the foot washing ceremony that's mentioned here in John chapter 13.

And by the way, it's important to hear where it says in verse 1, it says, now before the feast of Passover, because the Jews were keeping the Passover on the following day, they did not have it right. It says, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And supper being ended after he took the Passover, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from the God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. And he poured water and this is what we do. We, first of all, have the foot washing ceremony. And then after that, we have the taking of the bread and the taking of the wine. Finally, we end with a hymn. As it mentions at the very end of Matthew, that they sang a hymn before he went to the Mount there of Olives where he was arrested.

But the point is that we have the whole Passover ceremony. It's fantastic that, yes, we can't be with Jesus Christ back almost 2,000 years ago, but we can be with Jesus Christ and what he said with every one of those Passovers that we carry out. We cover the parts highlighting John chapter 13 through John 17, his prayer before going then to Mount the Mount of Olives and to Gethsemane. So now, here in the New Testament, we go to the book of Acts. Are these feasts still binding on us? Notice in Acts chapter 2, God is carrying out that plan of salvation which he had in mind before the foundation of the earth. Notice in Acts chapter 2 verse 1, it says, When the day of Pentecost, this is the third of God's holy feasts, had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they appeared to them, divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak with other tongues. They had the gift there as the Spirit gave them utterance and guidance. So you see, we already had the Passover fulfilled with Christ's sacrifice. Then we had the days of Unleavened Bread where God is redeeming a people, purifying their sins.

And then we have the day of Pentecost, the next step in God's plan of redemption, of redeeming mankind from their sins.

Now, in the book of Acts, we not only have this feast in particular, but in the book of Acts, chapter 20, we have two times that God's feasts are celebrated, are kept by the apostle Paul, and Luke, who at that time was his secretary, notice in Acts chapter 20, in verse 6 and verse 16, in one chapter, the mention of two feasts. And of course, they were keeping these feasts.

In Acts chapter 2, verse 6, it says, talking Luke here about being with Paul, but we sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread. They kept the days of Unleavened Bread with the brethren. And in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

So again, they are keeping feast days. They stay with the brethren for a certain amount of time, and wanted to make sure that they were keeping these feast days with the brethren. Notice in Acts 20, verse 16, it says here, for 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. So again, he wanted to be with the brethren at that time. He was hurrying, of course, at that time.

Travel was very treacherous. You could never calculate exactly. We don't calculate many times. We think we're going to arrive at a certain place. Sometimes you're delayed. Things happen.

But this was Paul's plan to be at the Holy Day at Jerusalem, so he could be with the brethren at that time.

So Acts 20 shows us in two different occasions the feast days being kept by the apostles. And that takes us to the 11th of these scriptures. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

Now here, Paul writes a letter preparing the Corinthian brethren for the coming Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread. So here is unequivocal evidence of the teaching, doctrine about the feast days in the New Testament by the apostle Paul. Notice in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7, he says to the Corinthian brethren, therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. They had the understanding that that lamb had come and fulfilled the Father's plan from before the foundation of the world. They carried it out. Both of them carried out their roles. And then he says in verse 8, therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So after the Passover, they were to keep the days of Unleavened Bread, but keep it not only physically, but spiritually. Because these feasts are not only something that you do on the outside, you have to have the right attitude. What good is it to just keep it physically if you're lying, if you're being deceitful, if you're being insincere, if you're not doing it, your behavior is not correct. You are breaking the spirit of these feasts, the spirit of the law.

And so that takes us to the 12th of these verses, Colossians chapter 2, verse 16 and 17. Colossians, where Paul mentions these feasts, and incredibly, they have been interpreted to mean that they weren't keeping them. When, in actuality, he's telling the brethren, you continue to keep these feasts, and don't worry about those people criticizing you for them. That's what he's talking about here in Colossians chapter 2.

Let's go back a little bit, because he's warning them in verse 8. He says, beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. So, the Colossians were fighting a heresy. This was a heresy that eventually would spread out, which was called Gnosticism, which was a mixture of Jewish traditions with Greek philosophy, and they were being shaken in their faith. And so he's saying, don't let any of this vain philosophy get a hold of you. Reject it. And then he goes on to say in verse 16, it says, so let no one judge you. The word is criticized in food or in drink. So one of the things that these Gnostics were teaching is that you were to abstain. You weren't supposed to drink wine. There were certain foods that you were supposed to abstain from. You were supposed to have these prolonged fasts.

These are the ascetics that heart treatment of the body, they thought that that was something pleasing to God. So again, the Colossians, just like good church members, in the feast days and in the Sabbaths, they would come and with gladness of heart. These were wonderful days that we enjoy fellowshiping. We enjoy a good coffee social. We enjoy eating and drinking in this way. But here were these ascetic, these very philosophically Spartan type of philosophers. And they thought, well, brethren, you've got to really diminish this. You've got to do a harsh treatment of the body. And this led eventually to monasticism. These monks that live up in these monasteries and they deny themselves of all these things. Well, this was a part of the attitude that the Colossians were being attacked and criticized. And so he goes on to say, let no one judge you. Don't worry about these people in food or in drink or regarding a festival, a feast day, because they again were talking about, well, you're having all these feasting and food and you're enjoying yourself. You shouldn't. You should abstain and be morose and austere and hard treatment of the body. As he goes on to say, these were the critics.

He says, or a new moon or Sabbaths. So they didn't want us to keep observing what was the calendar.

They were trying to get rid of that calendar, which eventually they did. That's why modern Christianity doesn't keep these calendars, the Jewish calendar or the Hebrew calendar or Sabbaths.

Again, the way they were being kept, he says, which are a shadow of things to come. He says, these things are projections of God's plan in the future. These are good things to do. Don't let them get you into an attitude of being obstemius and of hard treatment of the body and just be Spartan-like. He goes on to say, but the substance is of Christ. Christ is our judge.

That's, he is the center of our teachings. And then he goes on to talk about these critics. Notice verse 18. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels. So these are all these Gnostic ideas intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind and not holding fast to the head. Jesus Christ, from whom all the body nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God. Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, all of these vain philosophies. Why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? Why are you accepting some of these teachings? Do not touch. You can't eat this food. You can't drink this wine.

Do not taste. Don't taste these things. Do not handle. Don't touch these things which all concern things which perish with the using. These things are physical according to the commandments and doctrines of men. These are not teachings that come from the Bible. The Bible tells us that we should enjoy the feasts, we should eat and enjoy with our families. This was a whole different attitude. He says, verse 23, these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body. Other translations talk about hard treatment of the body but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. It's all dealing with these physical limits of a person trying to live this very spartan and austere life. But how about on the inside?

Are there God's Holy Spirit in them? The fruits of God's Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, meekness, gentleness, kindness, and self-control? No, that's not what is being produced.

And so this scripture helps us to understand that they were keeping the feasts and they shouldn't listen to these people that were trying to impose these very austere measures.

Here is a paraphrase of these verses. It says, Let no man judge you for eating or drinking or for any portion of your observance of a festival, new moon, or Sabbath, which are a shadow of future events in God's master plan, of which Jesus Christ is the central figure, but let the body of Christ, which it says here, I'm trying to figure out here the term, which projects the shadow as he walking the light moves forward toward the fulfillment to be your judge in these matters. So again, Colossians chapter 2 is not against what we teach, it is for what we teach and to avoid these ascetic and these austere measures that came from these philosophers that had come into the congregation. This has happened time and time again. We've had people that have gone off and they become basically like hermits. They don't eat, they don't drink, they believe that this harsh treatment of the body is the way to please God. And that's not the case at all. So as we have seen with these 12 key verses as we approach these feast days, and don't let anyone confuse you, you have 12 very powerful verses that you can use to refute anybody attacking God's feasts in the Bible. God feasts are a doctrine from God, and we have seen from one end of the Bible to the other, before the foundation of the world to God's kingdom on the earth, that God has established these feasts that were carefully designed for every one of us. Let's prepare properly for the coming Passover, just a little over a month from now.