Why Do We Go to the Feast?

We'd like to start off this morning, this being our next Elias Sabbath together before the feast, but our Elias Sabbath together since Connie and I will be leaving, along with several others going to Turkey this coming Tuesday to go to Chicago and then where we'll spend the day of atonement and then fly out late that night to fly to Istanbul for the feast. But I thought it would be appropriate to give a pre-feast sermon this year. Probably should have given it before now, but since it's very much on our minds now, I thought we'd be able to all focus on the feast, the meeting of the feast, the purpose of the feast. So, I would like to start with two questions for you today. This is the title for the feast, and that is, why do we go to the feast and why do you go to the feast? Why do we go to the feast and why do you go to the feast? Because, again, with Feast of Tabernacles beginning a week from tomorrow evening, if we are to get the most out of those eight days, we need to understand the answers to these two questions. Why do we go to the feast and why do you go to the feast? And there are specific reasons for both of those.

Why we collectively go to the feast and why you individually and personally go to the feast. And the better we understand those reasons, the more we will be able to get out of the Feast of Tabernacles this year. So, let's address the first question first, which is, why do we go to the feast? Well, the short answer is we go to the feast because God has commanded us to go to the feast. We go to the feast because God has commanded us to do this. This is the first and foremost reasons that we go to the Feast of Tabernacles because God commands us to keep the feast in a number of different passages. And we go to the feast in obedience to those commandments.

Let's look at some of them. A very familiar chapter is Leviticus 23. So, we'll start off there. Leviticus 23, a familiar chapter where God goes through and lists his festivals, his holy days in order, and when they are to be kept. So, let's read this and notice, again, God's instruction here.

It says, And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The Feast of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. And then we won't read it, but God goes on to list all of them, starting with the weekly Sabbath day, which is the first of God's holy days, and then the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement. And then in verse 34, we come to the Feast of Tabernacles, where God says, 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 Eternal. On the first day, there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days, you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. On the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Eternal. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. These are the Feast of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. And then God repeats the command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and the eighth day again, in verse 39. So skipping to verse 39, also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast of the Eternal for seven days. On the first day, there shall be a Sabbath rest, a holy day, and on the eighth day, a Sabbath rest. So He repeats here in this chapter several times that we are to keep the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, followed by a separate holy day on the following day, the eighth day. And He keeps saying, emphasizing again and again, that these are His feasts, the Feast of the Eternal, the Feast of the Lord. They are not Israel's feasts, they are not the tribe of Judah's feasts, they are not just the Jews' feasts, they are God's feasts. So we see here that the first reason that we go to the feast, the primary reason, is because God has commanded us to go. We recognize that this is a command from God, and as a people who have surrendered our lives to Him, we go to the feast in obedience to His command to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances every year where some people are not able to go because of health issues or family issues or crises or things like this. But we see here that this is an important command by God to go and observe His Feast of Tabernacles.

A second reason that we go to the feast is because this is one of God's sacred appointments with us. This is one of God's sacred appointments with us. This is something that I don't think we've fully appreciated over the years to the extent that we should have, in large part because of the way some of the Hebrew words are translated here. Let's look a little closer at the verses that we just read back in Leviticus 23 and verse 1 and dig a little deeper into the meaning. When we do, we find some additional layers of meaning and understanding that are preserved there in God's commandments. So going back to where we just were, Leviticus 23 verses 1 and 2, let's read over this again. And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The Feast of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts.

And I'd like to draw our attention to three words that are used here. The word translated feast, the word translated holy, and the word translated convocations. Three different words here, Moed, Kodesh, and Micrah. Moed, Kodesh, and Micrah in Hebrew.

Part of the problem here is that in the English language, these are words that have pretty much lost their meaning and general usage in the English language. To give you an illustration, apart from the Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast of Unleavened Bread, or Feast of Trumpets, when is the last time you heard the word feast used in normal conversation? It's probably been years. It's just not a word that we use in English, commonly, that much outside of our Church of God culture here. When is the last time you heard the word convocation used in conversation? Well, probably never, outside of Church services. It's just not a word that is used that often anymore.

Also, when is the last time you heard the word holy used outside of profanity? Well, it's probably been years. Society has just drifted away from these religious concepts.

These aren't words that mean a lot to us in English these days. It was very different when the King James Bible was translated. Those words were, in everyday use then. Our society has drifted so far away from that that we just don't really have that great an understanding of what those words mean. So what do these words mean and what are we to learn from them? Let's take a look, first of all, at this word translated feast or moed here. It means an appointed time or meeting.

An appointed time or meeting. It means a gathering together at a specific appointed time.

It comes from a Hebrew root that means to meet together by appointment.

To meet together by appointment. Not just randomly, not just getting together for a beer, not getting together, watch a football game, things like that. But by a specific appointment.

To meet together at a specific time as an appointment.

So what we see here with this meaning is that the feast of God that God lists here in Leviticus 23, including the Feast of Tabernacles, are God's appointments with us. Appointments is a modern term that we all understand. We understand when we have an appointment with a doctor, with a dentist, or somebody like that, a medical caregiver, we understand appointments. And that is the concept that is here. These are God's appointments with us. If you set up an appointment with your doctor or your dentist, that means that he is going to be there or she is going to be there and that you are expected to be there at this agreed upon time, at this appointment.

And if you don't show up, well, the other person was there, but you weren't. So you did not keep the appointment. So what are the implications of this when it comes to God's feast days?

The first of which, incidentally, is Leviticus 23. The first reverse is the weekly Sabbath. That's the first of God's appointments with us. So what does that mean? What it means when these are God's appointments is that God has set an appointment with us. He has set an appointment to meet with you, to meet with me. He has invited us. He set the time. He spells it out. Leviticus 23, which day it is. The weekly Sabbath, every seventh day of every week. The different holy days as they fall in their season. So He set the time. He set the appointment. He sets the place where you are to come for these sacred appointments with Him. He says, by virtue of it being an appointment, that He is going to be there.

The question is, are we going to be there for His appointments? And if we do not show up for these sacred appointments, what does that mean?

It means we stood up our Creator. He set an appointment, tells us He's going to be there, tells us when to be there, where to be. And if we stand Him up, if we blow off that appointment, we have stood up the Creator of the universe. We have blown off His appointment with us.

If you think about it in those terms, it becomes a very serious matter. But that is the exact meaning that is there inherent in the Hebrew. That again, this is an appointed time or meeting with God, where He set up the time and the place to meet there with us. And if we don't come, we have blown Him off. It kind of gives us a different perspective on the significance of these Holy Days here. So it is something that we see from this is quite important. Now, we would never think of blowing off an appointment with our doctor, or our dentist, or our ophthalmologist, or optometrist, or somebody like that. But are we willing to blow off our weekly appointment with God by ignoring His command to assemble together on the Sabbath? Or are we willing to blow off His appointments with Him on the Holy Days?

Again, this is something we need to seriously consider because it is a serious matter.

God takes it seriously. Do we take it that seriously? Again, these are some of the important implications of the meaning of this word moed, a sacred appointment there. This is the word, again, that is translated as feast or feasts. It is an appointed time or meeting. These are God's appointments with us. The next word that I'd like to look at is the word translated holy, which is kodesh here. What does it mean? This word means set apart or separated by God as sacred for His use or purposes. It means set apart or separated by God as sacred for His use or purpose. And again, God says, you shall proclaim these feasts to be holy, to be kodesh, convocations.

So these feast days, including the weekly Sabbath day, are holy, meaning that they are set apart or separated by God for His use or His purpose. These aren't days for us to do whatever we want to do. What do we feel like doing? Man cannot make any day or any time holy or anything else holy. Only God can set apart something as holy. And He has set apart His feast days for His purpose. And one of those purposes which we know is to teach us about His plan for the salvation of mankind. There are other purposes which we'll talk about later on in the sermon today. But the point of that is that these feast days are special. They are not ordinary days. They are not ordinary weekdays. God has set them apart for His use, for His purpose. It's easy for us to get into the mindset that the feast is a vacation. And for a lot of us, the feast is maybe the only vacation time we get during the year until we've built up enough time at our employer to be able to have other vacation days. But God does not give us these eight days of the feast just for a vacation. He set them apart for something far more important for us. He has far more important things to teach us during that eight-day period, as we'll see again later on during the sermon. So this is the meaning of the word holy, translated holy, kodeshir. The next word that we'll look at is the word translated convocations here, mikrah. And this word means an assembly or a calling together or a gathering together of people, an assembly, a calling together, or a gathering together of God's people. So it comes from a root word that means to call or to call out or to proclaim. If you're going together, people together, you need to call them. You need to notify them that they are together together together at this point. So God says here that we are to proclaim, to call out his feast, his moed, his appointments with mankind, to be holy, to be kodesh mikrah, to be holy and sacred gatherings of his people. And again, getting back to the point of appointments, he says that he will be there at the time and the place that he has set at these appointments. And by implication then, he expects us to join him there. He's going to be there, so he expects us to join him there in these sacred appointments for which he has again set the time and the place.

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Let's notice to understand this a little better, let's notice how several other versions translate verse 2. The New International Version says, Speak to the Israelites and say to them, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Eternal, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

This catches some of these meanings that I've been covering here the last few minutes. The New Living Translation, I really like this one. It says, Give the Israelites instructions regarding the Lord's appointed feasts, the days when all of you will be summoned, there's the calling that's mentioned there, to worship me, when you will be summoned to worship me.

The Bible in Basic English says, Say to the children of Israel, These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, fixed because He set the specific time for them, which you will keep for holy meetings, which you will keep for holy meetings. These are my feasts. And the Holman Christian Standard Bible, speak to the Israelites and tell them, These are my appointed times, the times of the Lord, that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies.

I think all of these capture some of these deeper meanings and implications of these Hebrew words better than what we're used to there. It captures some of these key points here. So when we put these meanings together, we get a more complete picture of how God views these holy days and wants us to view these times as well. These are God's appointments with us. These are specific times that He has set as holier sacred gatherings of His people to come to meet with and to worship Him.

And He emphasizes again and again, as we've seen here in Leviticus 23, that these are His appointments with us, which no man has any right to change them, no right to ignore them, no right to try to do away with them, anything like that. So what this means is that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are at the feast there in spirit with us. And do we recognize that? Has that realization sunk in to us?

Do we understand and appreciate that as fully as we should? That God has invited us, that He has extended that invitation, He has given us this appointment to keep with Him in the places and at the times that He has chosen. So we go to the feast to have a holy meeting, a holy appointment with Him at His command. So again, these are all fully in the place. And again, these are all meanings that are wrapped up in this second point here, which is that we go to the feast because this is one of God's sacred appointments with us, one along with His other holy days, those that we've just observed, trumpets, and today, the weekly Sabbath, and the Day of Atonement, which we'll be keeping in a few days here. A third reason that we go to the feast is to rejoice, to rejoice, to enjoy this time together with one another and meeting with God. Let's notice another voice from where we left off reading earlier in Leviticus 23, and that is verse 40. We just read verse 39 a little while ago.

And notice that He says here, continuing with His instructions about the feast, God says, And you shall take for yourselves on the first day, referring to the Feast of Tabernacles, the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Eternal your God for seven days.

So here we see a command to rejoice during this period. It is a command to rejoice.

The common thinking of the religious world these days is that, of today, is that keeping these old covenant days are bondage. They're slavery. But God clearly tells us that these are times for rejoicing before Him and with one another. If the feast is suffering and bondage and slavery, well, give me more of it. I want to suffer some more, if that's suffering.

There, obviously, that's being facetious. Let's notice another command, and this is part of God's instruction to save second tithe, to observe His holy days, and to go to the place where He commands the feast to be kept. And then He tells us what to do with that second tithe, over in Deuteronomy 14 and verse 26. And God says here, And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the eternal your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household. So here again is a command to rejoice, to have a good time there before God at the feast. During the feast, we see from this, that God wants us to enjoy some things that we normally would not be able to. And He gives us some specific examples here. Whatever your heart desires for oxen or sheep. If you enjoy a nice leg of lamb, God here gives you the instruction to go for it. Go for that. Enjoy that. If you like a really nice steak from oxen, enjoy that too. Get a good steak and enjoy that. He says to spend the money for whatever your heart desires for oxen or sheep. I've never tried to eat an entire ox during the feast, although I've seen others who have tried that. I'm sure there are some young men and teenagers who probably think they could eat an entire cow during the course of the feast, and probably tried. But if you want to do that, go for it. We've got the hike after the feast. You can work that off. So you have God's blessing to do that, to really go and enjoy yourself in this way at the feast. God also says you can spend your second tithe on something good to drink, something enjoyable. Maybe you like a good wine, but you can rarely afford that. So you can go to the feast and buy something. But instead of buying what you usually buy, the ripple, the boons farm, the thunderbird, the mad dog, the two-buck chuck, now that Trader Joe's is here in Colorado, you can go and buy something a little more classy than those. And enjoy that. You have God's blessing to do that. So long, of course, as you enjoy it in moderation. Don't overdo that.

So God specifically says that the feast is a time to rejoice and to enjoy yourself. But notice that it also says you and your household. You and your household. That means the entire household is to rejoice, to enjoy learning about God's truth and celebrating before God during this time. If you are the head of a household, it's not a matter of just what you want to do or where you want to go or where you want to, which restaurant you want to eat at. This is a time for all members of your household to rejoice and enjoy themselves and enjoy God's blessing. If your children want to go to a specific restaurant or activity, let them make the choice sometimes and go there. You might get to enjoy going to McDonald's and having happy meals a day or two during the feast there. Let's notice also Deuteronomy 16 and verses 13 through 15.

And God says here, part of his instruction about the holy days, repeated in Deuteronomy, restated in Deuteronomy, he says, you shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your wine press. And again, here's the command, and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Eternal, your God, in the place which the Eternal chooses, because the Eternal, your God, will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands so that you surely rejoice.

We see again this command to rejoice twice here in this passage. So the feast is a time to rejoice. Because, again, after all, what is this time picture? It pictures the coming Kingdom of God on earth. We go to the feast to essentially rehearse the Kingdom of God on earth. We go to the feast to rehearse a millennial setting of peace and plenty. When Satan, who is the source of suffering and pain and sorrow and death, is removed and humanity will at last begin to experience the great blessings that come from learning about God and learning to obey Him and His laws and His truths there. One of the ways that we rejoice during the feast, we hear this virtually every year, is by giving of ourselves during the feast, by giving of ourselves. We just read that here in Deuteronomy 16. In verse 14, let's go back and look at that, where God says to include your children, your servants, the Levite, the stranger.

We see you meet strangers at the feast every year. Maybe they're the only person from their church area who's come to Steamboat Springs or another feast site. Maybe they're all alone there and they don't know anybody else there. It's nice to always invite people like that to take them out for dinner, invite them over to your condo to enjoy a meal together. The fatherless, young people, singles there who might not know other people. The widows there, God specifically says to include them. Other people like that. It is a time to be inclusive by giving of ourselves during the feast. We are not to neglect others. It's pretty much guaranteed that if you want to have a miserable feast, go there thinking of only yourself and what you want to do.

Don't serve, don't pray, don't study. You do those things and you're pretty much guaranteed to have a miserable feast time. There. So we go to the feast to rejoice, as this third point says here, to enjoy the feast and to rejoice before God and with our physical and spiritual family before God during the feast. A fourth reason that we go to the feast is to learn to fear God.

Let's notice another command regarding God's instructions about the Feast of Tabernacles in Deuteronomy 14, verses 22 and 23. He says here, "'You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year.'" This is talking about the second tithe which is used for God's feasts and holy days which we save up and then use to enjoy God's feasts.

Verse 23, "'And you shall eat before the Eternal your God, in the place where he chooses to make his name abide. The tithe," tithe means a tenth, "'of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Eternal your God always.'" So here God gives a specific reason for this, that you may learn to fear the Eternal your God always. But the question is, what does that mean? What does that mean to learn to fear God?

This is again one of those words that tends to trip up a lot of people and leads to a lot of misunderstandings because after all in English, to fear means to be afraid of someone or something, to be terrified of someone or something. Is God saying that we are to be afraid of him?

To be terrified of him? Fear, after all, is pretty much the opposite of loving and trusting God.

So how can we love and trust and rely on a being that we are terrified of?

Is that what this word means? To begin to understand this, we first need to understand that Hebrew words, I've talked about this quite a bit before because Hebrew is a much smaller vocabulary than in English. It's about one seventh as many words. In other words, in English, we have about seven times more words than Hebrew does. So consequently, we have a lot of very specific meanings in English, whereas Hebrew has, each word has a broader range of meanings. And we're familiar with this from examples we've heard over the years, like for instance, the word ruach, which means breath or to breathe. It can mean wind, the wind blowing. It can mean spirit. All of these are things that are invisible, but they are a force, you might say. Breath is invisible. You can't see breath. Well, maybe if some people's breath was too bad, you could. But you don't see breath. You don't see wind. You see leaves. You see things blowing, but you don't see the wind itself. You don't see spirit, but spirit exists. So this one Hebrew word has a broad range of meanings, depending on the context of it. In English, we have different specific words for all of those different things. But the same is true here of this word that is translated fear. It is the Hebrew word yare, spelled y-a-r-e, yare in Hebrew. This is the word that is most often translated fear in Hebrew when talking about fearing God or the fear of God.

So what does it mean? Let's take a look at another place. This same word is used in Leviticus 19 in verse 3. Every one of you shall revere...it's the same word, yare. Every one of you shall revere his mother and father. It shows some of the range of the meaning. It's the same word. Would we read that? Every one of you shall fear his mother and father. This means every one of us is to be afraid of our parents here. Is a little child afraid of her mother? Is a little boy afraid of his father? Well, no, because that goes entirely against the way God designed us. A child naturally looks up to his or her mother and father and wants to be like his mother or father. We trust our parents.

We look to them to protect us, to provide for us, to watch over us.

That is part of what is captured by translating this word, yare, here as revere, rather than fear. It's the exact same word. God isn't telling us to be terrified, fearful of our mother and father. But to revere them, to revere our parents, to honor them, to respect them.

It is a shame, frankly, that the King James translators translated this word, yare, as fear when it comes to God because it puts an entirely wrong connotation on our relationship with God and on our view of God. It is true that we should fear the consequences of disobeying God. No question about that. We should. As Scripture says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God when you are disobeying Him. Yes, we should fear the consequences of disobeying Him. But that does not mean that in our everyday relationship with God, we are to be terrified of Him or fearful of Him.

Because again, how can we have hope? How can we trust? How can we love a being whom we are terrified of? It just doesn't work. That is not what is being talked about. It is just a little more about the fact that we are not going to be able to fear God when it says to come to the feast to learn to fear God. Let's notice a verse that talks about this a little bit more. 1 John 4 verses 18 and 19.

John says, Here there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. John is contrasting fear and love here. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him, we love God, because He first loved us. John tells us that fear involves torment, but there is no fear in love which casts out fear.

If you love God, you are not afraid of Him because that is not what the relationship is built on. We don't have a relationship with God built on fear, but we have a relationship built on God ultimately of love with Him because we love God. Because we love God, we don't have to live in terror of Him because we know and understand that He loves us and wants only the best for us and that everything that He does is for our ultimate good. That is why John says, just before this passage in verse 16, he says, and we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

God is love and He who abides in love abides in God and God in Him. So what John is saying is that when we come to know and understand that God is love, that that is the perfect summary, summation of God's character of who He is and what He is and what motivates Him and everything that He does, that we then have a relationship with Him based on love and not on dread, not on terror, not on fear.

There. Let's notice also another passage, Proverbs 9 and verse 10. And it says here, the fear of the eternal is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. So again, does this mean that the way we get wise, it should be terrified of God?

No, not at all. That's not what Solomon is saying here. What Solomon is saying here, and a common way, you see this particularly in the Proverbs, a common way of emphasizing something in Hebrew is to say the same thing twice in slightly different ways. And we see that throughout the Proverbs, again and again. And this is an example of that. Solomon is saying the same thing in two slightly different ways here. He says, if you want to become a wise and understanding person, the place to start is in first coming to know who and what God is.

That's his point here. For centuries, people have pondered the great questions of life. Who and what is God? Who and what is man? What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of life? How do we attain that meaning and purpose? And if you're going to understand the answers or find the answers to those questions, Solomon says the place to begin is by coming, first of all, to a right understanding of who and what God is.

That's the starting place, is to revere God, to understand who and what God is. Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding, as he says here, knowing who God is, what God is, why he made us, who and what we are.

So again, if you're going to find answers, the place to begin is to come to understand who and what God is. And one of the ways we do that, one of the primary ways we do that, is by coming to his Feast of Tabernacles, to come on the Sabbath day to hear his word expounded and explained. Because these days teach us what God is doing. They teach us about his love for us, his plan for all of mankind. They teach us about his love for all of mankind. And as we do that, as we come and hear that plan discussed and explained during the Feast and during the Holy Days, we come to what? Do we come to fear God, to be afraid of him? No, we come to love God. We come to revere him, to hold him in reverence. So we need to understand that when the Bible talks about fearing God or tells us that one of the reasons we're to go to the Feast is to fear God, is that saying we come to the Feast to be terrified of him or afraid of him? No, what it's saying is that we come there to learn to revere him. Now, what does that mean to revere God? Well, it means to basically come to stand in awe of God, of who and what he is, of all that he is, to come to honor him, to come to respect him, to come to love him as the great God of love that he is, a being who loves us and who wants all of mankind to come to know him and to develop a relationship with him and to receive his gift of salvation and to live eternally in his kingdom, as is spelled out again through his holy days and the meaning and the understanding of those.

All of this is well expressed in Psalm 66 and verses 3 and 4. Say to God, how awesome!

It's this word, Yahweh. We wouldn't see that as how fearful are your works, but how awesome, how incredible, how mind-boggling are your works, great God! All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you. They shall sing praises to your name. Again, this is kind of what we were talking about earlier with a proverb saying essentially the same thing two different ways. How awesome are your works? What does that mean? Well, it means that all the earth will worship you and sing praises to you because of how great and how incredible a being and loving God you are.

That's a point that is being made here, that we should stand in awe of a God so incredible and so awesome that a time is coming when pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles that all of the earth will do what is said here, that all of the earth will worship God and sing praises to him, to his name, for his incredible works, for the being that he is, for the love that he has for us.

So this fourth point then, again, we go to the Feast to learn to fear God. And to fear God means to love him, to honor him, to revere him, to stand in awe of him. So now let's shift gears a bit.

We've been talking about why we collectively go to the Feast, God's explicit commands here that we've seen in a number of passages, to go to the Feast here and some of the reasons for that. Now let's shift gears and talk about why do you, why do you personally go to the Feast?

Why do you go to the Feast while so many other people do not go to the Feast? Do not understand the meaning and the purpose of God's commands here.

The short answer is that you go to the Feast because God the Father has chosen you.

You go to the Feast because God the Father has chosen you.

In other words, you have been invited. You have been invited to this appointment that we talked about earlier. You have received this invitation, the greatest invitation possible of all time.

And let's notice that in John 6 in verse 44, where Jesus Christ says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, invites him, you might say here, and I will raise him up at the last day. So God, what Jesus is saying here is that God the Father drew us into a relationship with Jesus Christ so that you could be raised up in the resurrection, the first resurrection, at His return to start His millennial reign on the earth.

The point is, we did not choose God, but He chose us. He chose you. He chose each and every one of you. Each and every one of us here today, He did something to spark that thought in our minds.

Or if you're younger, one of our younger people may be in the minds of your parents there, to draw us, to invite us to Him to learn of His ways. And He's drawn us into a relationship again with Him and with His Son Jesus Christ, who is our coming Savior and King, as again pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, since you were drawn or called or chosen, the Bible uses all of those words, drawn, called, and chosen, what were you called or drawn or chosen to do?

And what does that have to do with your going to the Feast of Tabernacles?

Yes, we are called to be raised up at the last day, as it says here in John 6 and version 6. Verse 44, to be raised up to be given glory and immortality in the resurrection. But to what end? To what purpose? What's the point? Is it just to be resurrected to eternal life? Or is there something bigger than that? When the remainder of the sermon time, we'll talk about three things that he has called and chosen you to become. And these tie in with the reasons why you go to the Feast.

So our next point, point five, is you go to the Feast because God chose you to be a ruler and king.

God chose you to be a ruler and king.

And let's notice this incredible prophecy of the future. These are familiar scriptures. They're not new, but I want to again get us to focus our minds where they ought to be focused as we go to the Feast of Tabernacles here. Revelation 19 verses 11 through 16 is this amazing prophecy that includes Jesus Christ, but it also includes us. Now, I saw heaven open, but I saw heaven open.

And behold, a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. This is talking about his return when he will judge and he will make war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. This identifies this being as Jesus Christ. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses.

And he has, skipping down to verse 16, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. So the name or the title that Jesus Christ bears at his return notice it's not just King and Lord. It is King of kings and Lord of lords. We just heard the handles of the Hallelujah chorus on the Feast of Trumpets. Very inspiring video of that. And I just love those words. King of kings and Lord of lords. Just so incredibly inspiring. A side note here. I used to love to listen to that on my stereo at home, and then we got a dog who loved to sing along with it. And as soon as this dog, this is several dogs ago, but the dog just was very musically attuned. And as soon as the dog would hear the first two or three notes of it, she would run up right in front of the speaker and just start singing, right along with the Hallelujah chorus, adding her own voice to it. Just amazing. So I got in the habit of not listening to the Hallelujah chorus, although it's one of the most beautiful and inspiring pieces of music. But I can't listen to that now without thinking of my dog in front of the speaker singing along with it. So kind of a different impact of what the words actually mean there. But that's a side note that you can... you don't have to take notes on that. But anyway, so the point here is Jesus Christ will return as King over many kings and as Lord or Master over many lords. Who are those other kings and those other lords? Well, will it be the rulers and kings over the earth at the time that he returns? Well, no, obviously not. We do find the answer a little bit further on, Revelation 20 and verse 4. John writes here, and I saw thrones. What do thrones connote? Thrones can a rulership there. And they sat on them and judgment was committed to them. So this is an important aspect of what those sitting on those thrones will be doing. They will be judging, determining right and wrong based on the source of truth, which is God's Word.

Then he goes on to describe who some of those are who are on those thrones. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So this is, as we know, talking about God's faithful saints. Some of them have been sleeping in their graves for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, waiting for this resurrection of the dead. Some, as we see, are yet to die in the period of persecution before Jesus Christ returned, waiting there for that resurrection to eternal life when they will live and reign in the time pictured by the feast of tabernacles. But the point is this. They live and reign with Jesus Christ. They live and reign with Jesus Christ as kings, as lords. So this is, again, why you go to the feast to be training for that incredible future responsibility. Let's notice also Matthew 19, verses 27 and 28.

Then Peter answered and said to him, to Jesus Christ, see, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? In other words, what Peter is saying is, what will be our reward for giving up everything to follow you? So Jesus said to them, assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

So we see here that the twelve apostles will reign and judge over the twelve tribes of Israel. We know from other scriptures that David will rule over all of Israel as Israel's greatest king.

The parables of the pounds and the talents. We talked about those in the recent series about slaves of God and what that means and the implications of that. We saw from those talents from the parables of the talents of the pounds that those who are faithful with, want God, and trust to us as his slaves will then rule over cities, over ten cities, over five cities, over one city. So this is our future. The calling that God has given us. And this is what we go to the feast for. To learn how to be kings, rulers, leaders in training. But to do that we have to have a different kind of leadership. We have to learn servant leadership. That's something we hear about at the feast just about every year. We have to learn to lead to be the kind of ruler, the kind of king, the kind of master that Jesus Christ is. And we read about that again in Matthew 20 verses 25 through 28. But Jesus called them, his disciples, to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who are great exercise over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. Again, we talked about this in discussing what it means to be a slave of God. Just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And one thing that we will hear at the feast is that of serving. Why do we emphasize that? Well, because it's a part of our training. It's part of our training for the future. It's part of our calling to be kings, to be masters, to be leaders. Because we go to the feast because God chose you to be a king, to be a ruler, to be a leader. And if you're going to be the kind of ruler or king or leader, in that world tomorrow, we have to learn how to serve, to rule, to lead, as Jesus Christ does. To rule as he rules, which is with love, with mercy, with compassion, with understanding, with sacrificial love, without going care and concern for the well-being of others, of those who we are leading and ruling over. So again, this fifth point is that we go to the feast because God chose you to be a ruler and a king. The sixth reason that we go to the feast is because God chose you to be a priest. Because God chose you to be a priest. And let's notice that in Revelation 5 and verses 9 and 10, it says here, and they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. This is addressing Jesus Christ. For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us, what, kings, which we just talked about, and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. So it says very explicitly here that we are to be made kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on earth. Now we've already briefly discussed just the last few minutes what it means to be a king and any of these are worth a full sermon in themselves, but we don't have time for that today.

And we can understand what it means to be a king, a leader, a master. But what does it mean to be a priest? Again, priest is one of those things we don't think about much today, like the words we talked about early, holy and convocation and so on. But what is a priest? What does a priest do? What comes to mind when we hear the word priest? What does it mean? Well, first of all, kings and priests aren't two entirely separate positions. They're two sides of the same coin. You might say, two aspects of the same responsibility would be a good way to put it. Again, what do we think of when we hear the word priest? We probably think of an old guy with maybe a long beard, one of these old white-haired guys, and he's wearing a long black robe, maybe swinging a sensor with incense and maybe muttering in Latin or some strange language that we don't understand. Like so many things, Satan has, frankly, polluted the meaning of the word priest. He's polluted the meaning so that people are blinded to the meaning of what a priest is and what God intends for us. In people's minds, what could be more boring than being a priest? A guy in a long black robe swinging a sensor. What's the point in that? It's just hideously boring for most people. But is that what God has in mind for us? Or is there something much deeper about what a priest is and what a priest does? Let's turn back to Isaiah 61 in verses 6 through 9, and I'll read this from the New International Version. And Isaiah says here, or God speaking through Isaiah says, and you will be called priests of the Eternal. So here we see what a priest's job is going to be, or what it entails. You will be called priests of the Eternal. You will be named ministers. What is a minister? It is one who serves. You will be named ministers of our God, somebody who serves God, in other words. And then notice this, you will feed on the wealth of nations.

And in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame, my people will receive a double portion. And instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance.

And so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.

So he's talking about these other things that being a priest entails. He goes on, verse 8, For I, the Eternal, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity.

In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.

Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.

Does this sound like a boring future to you? Well, no. Again, what does he just said here? That being a priest involves feeding on the wealth of nations. To receive a double portion. To rejoice in our inheritance. To experience everlasting joy. For everyone to acknowledge that we are a people whom God has blessed. Now think about it, in today's world, who gets the most glory, the most fame, the most honor, the most respect? Well, it's your music stars, it's your actors, it's your sports stars, that kind of thing. Which is utter vanity.

In the world tomorrow, in God's kingdom, those who are going to get the honor and the respect and the admiration for people are going to be the priests. The priests. The priests will be those who are highly honored. Not the celebrities of today. Why will the priest be highly honored?

That gets back to understanding what a priest's job and a priest's responsibility is. Let's notice that back in Malachi 2. We'll begin in verse 1. Malachi says here, and now, O priest, this commandment is for you. And then goes on to sternly correct the priests of Malachi's day. Malachi is writing right at the tail end of the Old Testament period there. And then there began several centuries where nothing is written in the Bible until the Gospel. It's still John the Baptizer and Jesus Christ come along. So externally correcting God is the priests of Malachi's day here because they had drifted so far from God's original intent and purpose for the priests as established through the tribe of Levi. And then God goes on in the next few verses, which we won't talk about, but he talks about the purpose of the priesthood as though he were talking about the Levitical priests as one person. He talks to Levi, essentially, as though he were talking to all of the priesthood. And then he talks about the priests and what their role was as God intended. So he picks that up in verse 5. And he says, My covenant was with him, again he's talking about Levi as all of the priests, My covenant was with him one of life and peace. And I gave them life and peace to him that he might fear me. So he feared me and was reverent before my name. Again, talking about Levi as a representative of all the priests. The law of truth was in his mouth, and injustice was not found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and the people should seek the law from his mouth. For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. So what we're seeing here is God is speaking as though he's talking to Levi, but what he's doing is saying why he established the priesthood. What the job description of the priesthood is.

What a priest is to be and serving God. This is our job description for the world tomorrow.

Along with being kings, we are to be priests, and this is our job description. As it says here, this gives us a little different picture from the old guy with the gray beard and the black robe swinging the sensor back and forth, and mumbling in Latin or whatever. This describes the role of a priest, and keep in mind that who is our high priest? Jesus Christ is our high priest. What does a priest do? Well, as we see here, he fears God. There in verse 5, a priest fears God and is reverent before God's name.

Verse 6, the law of truth is in a priest's mouth. Injustice is not found on a priest's lips.

A priest walks with God there in verse 6. A priest turns people from iniquity. There in verse 6. The lips of a priest, verse 7, keep knowledge. What kind of knowledge? Knowledge of God. And people seek to learn about God's law from a priest. So to sum it up, a priest is the messenger, as it says at the end of verse 7. A priest is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. What does that mean? It means he's a representative of God himself.

To be a priest is to be God's representative. To represent God to the people that we will be interacting with in the kingdom of God on earth is represented by the Feast of Tabernacles. This gives a little bit different picture of a priest, doesn't it? In the world tomorrow, a priest isn't going to be somebody who's boring, somebody that people want to avoid to shy away from, but rather they will be the ones that people will want to see. They will seek out priests. Why? To learn the ways of God from a priest. So part of our job then, as we see here, will be turning people from iniquity, from sin, and getting people to seek the laws of God, to learn about God.

Again, those will be the people that we will be the ones that God, that people will seek out then, to learn more about God in God's ways. This ties in with a description of Jesus Christ as our High Priest, found in Hebrews 7, verses 24-26. This again is from the New International version, but notice Jesus Christ's role as a High Priest, how it's described here. Verse 24, Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Such a High Priest meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.

So how would you sum up Jesus Christ's role as described here in Hebrews 7?

What is his purpose? What is the end result of his role as a priest?

Well, notice that his purpose is to bring people to salvation, to bring people to salvation. That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line of his role and responsibility as our High Priest, and the bottom line role and responsibility of any priest, to bring people to salvation. Now that's not to say that in the world tomorrow that we can save people because we can't. Jesus Christ is the only one who can save people, only he can do that because he is the only one who made that ultimate sacrifice to make our salvation possible.

And none of us can ever duplicate that. So he alone makes salvation possible. But as priests, what we can do and what we will do is bring people to the knowledge of salvation and into a relationship with God, into an obedient relationship with God and forsaking sin that can make their salvation possible. It can make that relationship possible that leads to salvation. And as we saw from what we read back there in Malachi, that has always been the purpose and intent of a priest to represent God, to bring people into our relationship with God through teaching and helping them learn about God. So that will be part of our job, our responsibilities in the millennium. So this sixth point is that we go to the feast because God chose you to be a priest and you are in training for that responsibility. God chose you to be a priest and you are in training for that responsibility. And now we come to the seventh and final reason that we'll talk about, that we go to the feast and that you go to the feast. And that is that you go to the feast because God chose you to be a teacher. Because God chose you to be a teacher. And just as the responsibilities of a king or a ruler and a priest overlap, so does this responsibility overlap with the previous two that we've talked about. And it is important, it's so important, that it deserves a discussion on its own as well.

Because the biggest responsibility or job in the millennium will be to help in doing what?

It will be help to rebuild a world, to rebuild a world, to rebuild it on a different set of values, to rebuild it on truth, on God's truth, not on truth of the world, on the truth as humanity understands it and has practiced it for the last 6,000 years, but on the right values of God and on the values of His Word, the Bible. Let's notice a prophecy of this time found in Isaiah 30 verses 20 and 21. And here God is talking about the restoration of the world and the regathering of Israel and the comforting of the people at the beginning of the millennium.

And He says here, and though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, because people will have gone through very heart-wrenching, troubling times leading up to this, yet your teachers, your what? Your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your teachers, your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. What is this talking about? Who is this talking about? It's talking about us.

We will be teaching other people God's way of life. This is the way. Walk in it. As it says here, we will be teaching people the right way, the only way. They will have learned at that point, at the beginning of the millennium, where walking man's way leads to near extinction of the human race, where the majority of the human race will be killed in the time leading up to the millennium.

And at last, finally mankind will be willing to pay attention, to listen to what God says.

And who will be doing that teaching? We will. As kings, as priests, as teachers. And this shouldn't be a big surprise to us because after all, what is the job of the church right now?

What's the job description of the church right now? We find it over in Matthew 28 verses 19 through 20.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, doing what? 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.

The great commission that Jesus Christ gives to the church is to go and disciple the nations, teaching them to observe all things that Christ has commanded us. Teaching is a big part of that job. Is this commission to the church only for this age?

Think about that for a minute. Because we've seen from experience and from prophecy that the church is a little flock. In this age, we're never going to get an awful lot of followers.

Only a small number of disciples in this age, only a small number of people are going to voluntarily submit to God's way of life in this human age, this age of man.

When are multiple millions of people going to be called to become disciples of Jesus Christ?

Well, not until the millennium. That's when the real teaching job begins for us.

That's when our job really begins. A prophecy of that time that we, a familiar one, we'll probably hear that starting in about a week, Isaiah 11, verse 9.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the eternal as the waters cover the sea.

This will be a part of our job. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Now think about that. How do the waters cover the sea? How do the waters cover the ocean basins? Well, what does water do? It fills every last little nick and cranny and crevice, and that's the way the world will be in the millennium when God's knowledge of God fills the entire earth. It will fill, it will permeate every little nook and cranny and crack and crevice. The world will be permeated with the knowledge of God at last.

How's that going to happen? It's going to happen because of those who will be teaching God's way of life. That's how it will happen, by teachers who are teaching God's ways to the entire world, and that is part of our job, that is part of our calling, it's part of our job description as the church to teach everything that Jesus Christ has commanded us, and it's part of our calling as teachers, as we've seen from the other passages there.

One final scripture that we'll turn to here in closing is Daniel 12, verse 3.

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, talking about the stars of the heavens, dear. And those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever. And this is our calling, that we will turn many to righteousness in the millennium through teaching them about God's ways. That will be our job as teachers.

And our future then, as it says here in Daniel, to shine like the stars forever and ever.

As glorified spirit. So in conclusion, why do you go to the feast? You go to the feast because God chose you. You go to the feast because God believes in you, believes in every one of you.

We are in training now for that future. What can we do to get the most out of this feast?

Well, several things. Pray about the messages. Ask God to inspire the speakers to give us what we need. Ask God to give you what you need. Ask him to help you to learn things you haven't learned before, to see things in his word that you haven't seen before. Ask him to help you gain deeper understanding of what you already know. Or to remind you of things that you did know and have forgotten, which happens to all of us. So take to heart the messages that you hear.

Review what you hear. Talk about them with your family, with your friends. Take them home with you when you come back. Most importantly, live what you will hear at the feast.

Come back and help build our congregations. We are the kingdom of God in training.

How can we help our congregations be a kingdom of God in training? How can you help others to grow in grace and knowledge? By this time, we should be teachers, not babes, in Christ any longer.

Edify the church with what you learned, with the gifts that God has given you, the abilities, and put into practice the reasons that we go to the feast and the reasons that you go to the feast. I hope you all have a wonderful, the best feast ever in your lifetime. Keep these things in mind and they will help you to do just that.