Why Do We Go to the Feast, and Why Do You Go to the Feast?

Good morning, everyone! What a beautiful, beautiful, wonderful feast we've been able to experience here. Just wonderful to see this many people here gathered together to worship and to honor God, to fellowship with one another as part of this big family reunion, as it's been described. And I really appreciated that special music, and it certainly ties in very well with the theme of this sermon here, that God knows us, God has called and chosen us for a very special purpose.

And we'll be talking about that purpose here over the sermon time today. It's been a tradition for us at the Feast over the years to ask the question, Why are we here? Why are we here? And I'd like to rephrase that question a little bit today, and I have it projected here on the screen behind me. I'd like to rephrase it in the form of two questions. One is, why do we collectively as a body go to the Feast?

And also, why do you personally and individually go to the Feast? If we are to get the most out of the eight-day Feast that we're here celebrating in Gatlinburg this year, we need to understand the answers to these two very important questions. Why do we go to the Feast? And why do you go to the Feast? And the better we understand the answers to those questions, the more we will benefit from being here at God's Feast of Tabernacles.

I'm going to give you a lot of scriptures today. Some of this will be a little bit of review. And to save time, I am going to be projecting the scriptures here on the screen behind me, so you can make it a little more convenient for you. But let's address this first question first, and this is, why do we go to the Feast? And the answer to that is fairly simple. We've heard some of these scriptures a few times already. In Mr. Thomas' sermon and in Mr. Martin's message, the free opening night. And the first reason we go to the Feast is because God commands us to.

God commands us to go to the Feast every year. This is the first and foremost reason we gather for the Feast of Tabernacles every year. Because God commands us to keep the Feast in a number of different passages. And we go to the Feast in obedience to those commands from our Creator and our God. Let's look at some of these passages here. And a very familiar chapter we've already touched on is Leviticus 23, which lists all of God's festivals in order.

We'll pick up a few verses from this today, beginning in verse 1. And the Eternal, the Lord, spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The Feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, These are my feasts. And then he goes on to list all of the festivals of God. Starting, actually, with the weekly Sabbath day, which is the first of God's feasts.

God gives us a feast every single week in the form of his weekly Sabbath. And then he goes on to lift the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and finally, the Feast of Tabernacles, which we come to in verse 34. Skipping down to verse 34, 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 Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.

You shall do no customary work on it. And then verse 36, for seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day, and this is referring to the feast that follows the Feast of Tabernacles, a single-day feast, on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it. These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. And then God repeats the command, once again, to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the eighth day, down in 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 Lord for seven days. On the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath rest. So He repeats here a number of times in this chapter His command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles and the eighth day on the day following that.

And He continues saying again and again, These are my feasts. They are not the feasts of Israel. They are not the feasts of the Jews. They are not a humanly devised feast. They are God's feasts. And it is very important that we remember that and keep that in mind. So the first reason that we go to the feast, collectively, as a body, is because God has commanded us to.

We go to the feast because God has commanded us to go, and we recognize that this is a command of God. And as people who have surrendered our lives to Him, we are here in obedience to His command, to His instruction that we just read there. And obviously there are extenuating circumstances, as we heard in the opening night. A number of people who are getting elderly have various health problems, and there are extenuating circumstances like that that God understands.

And as a result of that, we are able to provide things like webcasts from a number of our feast sites and sermons that are uploaded from different feast sites, so people can at least participate and receive the spiritual messages that are given during the feast. But this is, as we see a number of times in this chapter, such an important command for God's people. And a second reason, we're going to have seven that we'll cover today.

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. And this is something that I don't think we've fully appreciated to the extent that we should have over the years, in large part because of the way some of the Hebrew words are translated here. Because of that, we don't get the full impact of what God is trying to tell us. So let's look a little closer at some of the verses we just read, and dig a little bit deeper below the surface here to get into the meaning.

And when we do, we find a number of important lessons here for us. So let's go back here to Leviticus 23, 1 and 2 that we read just a minute ago, and dig a little bit below the surface here. Verse 1 of Leviticus 23, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, The feast, the moed of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy, Kodesh, convocations, mikrah, in Hebrew, these are my feasts, moed, again.

Now, part of the problem with our English language, and English does change a lot, has changed a lot over the centuries, is that these words, convocation, feast, holy, and so on, just aren't used that often in English anymore. And that reflects the cultural shift that we've experienced here over the decades and over the centuries here. You know, if you think about it, apart from the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when was the last time you heard the word feast used in normal, everyday conversation outside of a church setting? Well, it's probably been many, many years. It's just not a word that is used that often in English that much anymore. So, consequently, we've kind of lost sight of what the meaning of that word is there.

When was the last time you heard the word convocation used outside of a church setting? Maybe never, especially for a number of our young people. They may have never heard that word used outside of reading it in the Bible there. When is the last time you heard the word holy used outside of profanity? Unfortunately. There. It's probably been years, again, because society has just simply drifted away from a lot of these religious concepts and meanings and understanding that were commonly used in the early days of our country. So, what do these words mean and what is it that God is trying to tell us by using these words? What are we to learn from them? Let's go through and look at them in a little more detail here. The first word that we'll look at is a word that is translated feast. I have it projected here. It's moed in Hebrew, m-o-e-d. What does that mean? It means an appointed time or meeting. An appointed time or meeting or a gathering together of people at an appointed time for a specific purpose. It comes from a root word that means to meet together by appointment. So, what God is telling us with this word is that His Holy Days, His festivals, listed here in Leviticus 23, are God's appointments with us. Let that sink in. These are God's appointments with us. Now, what does an appointment mean? That's a word we understand.

You make a doctor's appointment, you make a dentist appointment, and that means that the other person is going to be there, and you've made the appointment, so you have agreed to be there at a specific time, at a specific place, to meet with somebody. And if you don't show up and the other person was there at the time and place you agreed on, well, what happens? You didn't keep the appointment.

So, what are the implications of this when it comes to God's feast days? The first of which, incidentally, is, as I mentioned, the weekly Sabbath day. That's the first of God's feasts that He gives us here. What that means, what God is telling us by using this word, is that He has set an appointment to meet with you and with us, collectively. He has extended the invitation. He has invited us. He sets the time, the seventh day of the week, and His holy festivals throughout the year. He sets the place where God has placed His name for us together, for His holy days and His feasts. He says that He is going to be there. If we don't show up, what does that tell God? It tells Him that we blew off the appointment. We blew off the appointment. We did not keep the appointment with our Creator and our God.

It is a serious issue. It is a serious matter. That is what this means. We would never think of blowing off an appointment with our doctor or dentist or someone like that. But are we willing to blow off our weekly appointment with God? That is, weekly Sabbath services or some of His other holy days. This is something we need to seriously consider because it is a serious matter. When we get down and dig into the understanding of these Hebrew words that are used here, God takes it seriously. Do we take it seriously? These are some of the important implications of this Hebrew word, mo'ed, that God translates as feast, or feast plural. The next word that I'd like to look at here is the second word here on screen, and that is the word that is translated holy. It's kodesh, kodesh in Hebrew, meaning something that is set apart or separated by God as sacred to His use or His purpose. God says here, again projected on screen, You shall proclaim these feasts to be holy kodesh convocations. So these feast days, including the weekly Sabbath day, are holy because they are set apart, they are separated for a special use by God for His use and His purpose. Man cannot make anything holy. Only God can make something holy. Only God can set apart sacred time for His use and for His purpose. And He has set apart His feast days for His purpose, His special purpose. And what is the greatest of those purposes? Well, it is to teach all of us to teach mankind about His plan, about what He is doing on earth, what He is doing through you and through me, through us as a body, and how ultimately He will offer salvation to all of mankind, as we will hear throughout this feast here. Some of those purposes we'll talk about a little bit later. But the point in making this is that these feast days are special. They are very special to God. They are not ordinary days. They are not ordinary weekdays. Monday, the Holy Day yesterday, was not an ordinary weekday to the world, yes. But to us as God's people it is a very special day because God has set apart that day and next Monday as holy days. He set this apart as holy time. It is easy for us to get in the mindset that the feast is a vacation. And yes, it may be the only vacation that a lot of us get through the course of the year until we have worked long enough to get some time off to be able to enjoy the feast, plus some other vacation time. But God does not give us these eight days as a vacation. He sets them apart and makes them holy for something that is far more important than just a vacation. He has very important things to teach us during this time. And this is why we are gathered here for these eight days. It is very important things to teach us during this time. We'll touch on that a little bit more during the sermon.

The next word I'd like to look at is mikra, the Hebrew word mikra, which is translated convocations. And what does this mean? It means an assembly. It means to gather a group of people together. And it comes from a root word that means to call, or specifically to call out, or to call to people together, to proclaim an assembly, a gathering together of God's people. So God says we are to proclaim His feasts, His mo'ed, His appointments with mankind to be kodesh mikra, to be holy and sacred gatherings of His people, His holy people, His people whom He has called, as we heard about in the beautiful special music there.

And He says that He will be at those appointments, at those gatherings, and that He expects us to join Him there together for these sacred assemblies for which He has set the time and set the place, like right here, right now, here in Gatlinburg and at many other places around the world. I'd like us to notice the way several other Bible translations translate these verses here and bring out these meanings a little bit better. I'll read several. I don't expect you to write all these down. But you might take note of this. The new international version translates this. As speak to the Israelites and say to them, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.

Again, the gathering together, the appointment. The New Living Translation puts it this way. Give the Israelites instructions regarding the Lord's appointed. There's the appointment concept again, the appointed festivals, the days when all of you will be summoned to worship me. There's the concept of the calling, the proclaiming, summoning God's people to come together to worship Him. Two other translations, the Bible and basic English. Say to the children of Israel, These are the fixed feasts of the Lord, which you will keep for holy meetings. These are my feasts. Again, the holy meeting, the appointment, the coming together to worship God.

Finally, the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Speak to the Israelites and tell them, These are my appointed times. There's the appointment concept again. The times of the Lord that you will proclaim as sacred, sacred again, meaning holy or set apart, assemblies. The coming together, the convocation, gathering together as a group for God's appointments with us. God says that we are to proclaim His feast, His mo'ed, His appointments with mankind, and He expects us to be there at His sacred appointments. So when we put these various meanings together, and look at a few other translations, we get a more complete picture that these are indeed God's appointments with us.

Specific times that He has set apart to be holy in sacred gatherings of His people to come and to meet together and to worship with Him. And He emphasizes again and again that these are His feasts, these are His appointments with us which we have no right to change or to ignore. And what this means, if you think about the implications, often in the opening prayer we will ask and pray that God and His Son Jesus Christ be with us together. And you know what? They really are. They really are with us. After all, they are His appointments.

They are God's appointments. He has promised to be here to meet with us. And I am fully convinced that God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are with us at His sacred appointments. He doesn't blow them off. Why would He allow us to do so? They are very important to Him. Do we recognize that? Do we understand and appreciate that? God has given us these appointments to keep with Him. So we go to the feast to have a holy meeting with God at His command.

So that is the second point. We go to the feast because this is one of God's sacred appointments with us. A third reason we go to the feast, we have heard this mentioned a few times already, is to rejoice, to enjoy the feast, to enjoy this time with one another and with our Creator. Let's notice another verse where we just left off reading earlier. This is Leviticus 23 and verse 40.

This is one of the commands. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. We are to rejoice. That is part of the command of God. We are ordered to come and have a good time to rejoice. The common thinking in the religious world of today is that keeping these days is bondage, that it is slavery. But God clearly tells us again and again, this is a time to rejoice. If the feast is suffering and bondage and slavery, bring it on. Bring it on! I can deal with a little bit of suffering like that. It is just a wonderful, wonderful experience.

God tells us to rejoice, to have a good time. Let's notice another command. This is part of God's instructions to save up our second tithe through the year, to go to the place where He commands us to keep His feast. He tells us here what to do with our second tithe in Deuteronomy 14, verse 26. He says, We are to save it up, 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 Lord your God, and again, you shall rejoice, you and your household. God wants us during the feast to enjoy some of the things we normally wouldn't be able to, some of the activities like the teen activity coming up this afternoon, like tomorrow's family day activity and so on. Here He gives us some examples of things that people might enjoy during the feast. For instance, if you like sheep, if you want a leg of lamb, lamb is one of my wife's favorites, so she usually tries to order some lamb during the feast every year. Well, go for it! If you like a nice, big, thick, juicy steak, or a better steak than you would normally be able to afford or eat, go for it!

He says, Spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep. You know, I've never tried to eat an entire oxen during the feast, but I've seen some young men and some teenagers who I think will probably make that a goal for this feast. We have a family of four boys here from Denver, and I'm pretty sure, judging by the number of steaks they ate last night, they're probably well on their way to eating an entire oxen over the course of this feast here.

But you have God's blessing to do that, if that's what you would like to do.

You have God's blessing, and He tells us to rejoice. He says you can also spend your second tithe on something good to drink, maybe a very nice wine that you would rarely be able to afford or could not afford otherwise. So you can buy that instead of the usual Thunderbird and Ripple and Strawberry Farm and Mad Dog and Trader Joe's 2 Buck Chuck, which thanks to inflation is now 3 Buck Chuck. But that's... Yeah, I do know the price of it. So you have God's blessing to do that, so long as we do it in moderation, of course. But God wants us to rejoice and to enjoy these types of blessings that He gives us. So He tells us, again as we see here in the last sentence, you shall rejoice you and your household. The entire household is to rejoice, learning God's truth and celebrating before God during this time. You know, if you are the head of the household, it's not just your feast or what you want to do. This is a time for all of the members of the household to rejoice and enjoy themselves. So keep that in mind, too. And I'm very glad to see the number of family activities there are in this area that our children, our young adults, would be able to enjoy. So this is truly a great blessing here. Let's notice another scripture, Deuteronomy 16, and this is just before the command to take up an offering, as we did yesterday. These are the verses that lead up to that. Deuteronomy 16, verses 13-15.

You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress, and you shall rejoice... There's that command again. 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 gate.

Verse 15, seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God and the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hand, so that you surely rejoice... Until we get the point that we're supposed to rejoice during this time.

And we should, because after all, what does this time picture? It pictures the most incredible period that the earth is going to see in human history. It pictures the coming Kingdom of God on earth. So we go to the feast to rehearse the coming Kingdom of God, this millennial setting. You know, Gatlinburg is a truly millennial setting. I won't comment about the traffic we're all familiar with. It would be pretty nice without the traffic there. But it does picture a time of peace and plenty and beauty and wonder when Satan, the source of sorrow and blindness and suffering and death, is removed. And all of humankind will at last experience the great blessings that are the result of keeping God's truth, obeying God's truth.

And one of the ways that we rejoice is by giving of ourselves during this feast. We just read that here in Deuteronomy 16 and verse 14. We are to rejoice with our families, but we are also to rejoice with the strangers and the fatherless and the widows, those who come to the feast without family, or without spouses or without others who they know. Maybe there are people here and they're the only ones from their church area and they don't know anyone else here. We need to be sure to include those people, to include those and to give of ourselves in serving and rejoicing and not neglect them. You know, if you want to have a miserable feast, just think only of yourself. And don't pray and don't study, and you're pretty much guaranteed to have a miserable feast. So we go to the feast to rejoice in accordance with God's commands, to enjoy the feast and to rejoice with our physical and spiritual family here during this time.

And a fourth reason we go to the feast is to learn to fear God. We go to the feast to learn to fear God. Now, what does that mean? Before we get into that, let's read Deuteronomy 14, verse 22 and 23.

You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. This is talking again about our second tithe, which we save up over the year and then come to enjoy God's feast. Verse 23. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, and the place where he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe 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 Lord your God always. That you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. What does that mean to learn to fear God?

Let's talk about that a little bit. This is a word or a phrase that trips up a lot of people and leads to misunderstandings. And again, getting back to the English language, let's see, should I tell this story? You know, I'm a magazine editor. I love words. I love digging into the meaning of words. I've thought back as to how I got that love of words. I think it started when I was a child because my mother taught me to use the dictionary. And she taught me to do that by calling me names like obstinate onager. My mother is 87, she's sitting back at the back. What is an obstinate onager? She would call me this when I was about 6 or 7 or 8. It means, if you know words, it means a stubborn jackass. So that's how my mom taught me to love words and get in the habit of reading the dictionary. So I think that's why I'm an editor these days. My mom taught me the dictionary habit by calling me names. But anyway, I love digging into the meanings of words for things like this. So what does it mean to fear God? In English, fear means to be afraid or to be terrified of someone or something. Is God saying that we are to be afraid of Him, that we are to be terrified of Him? Because fear, after all, is kind of the opposite of loving and trusting God.

How can we love and trust somebody that we are terrified of? Well, to begin to understand this, we need to understand that Hebrew words, the Hebrew language, Biblical Hebrew, only has about one-seventh the number of words we have in English. In English, we have a much bigger vocabulary. So in Hebrew, you may have one word that has a broad range of meanings. We have heard some of this over the years, words like the Hebrew word ruach, which means spirit. It is translated spirit. It is translated wind. It is translated breath. Those are all related, and you have to look at the context to understand what it means, whether wind or breath or spirit. Whereas in English, we have many, many more words than Hebrew, so we have words for each of those shades of meaning like that.

And this is true of this word here. And the Hebrew word that is used, translated fear, projecting it here on screen, is yare. Yare. Y-A-R-E. Yare. And this is the word that is most often translated fear in Hebrew when talking about fear in God.

And it does mean, it can mean, I should say, fear is one of the range of meanings of this Hebrew word. But it has a much broader range of meanings, and to help us understand this, let's look at another word where this same exact word is used. In Leviticus 19 and verse 3, Now that goes entirely against the way God designs us.

God designed children to look up to their father and their mother, to want to be like them. That's why children are kind of hardwired to imitate their parents. We trust our parents, except when they're calling us names, but that's another story. We look at our parents to protect us, to provide for us, to watch over us, that is part of the meaning that is captured by translating this word, Yahreh, here as Revere, instead of fear.

Revere instead of Freire. It's the exact same word, but the range of meanings is quite different there. God is not telling us to be terrified of our mother and father, but to revere them, to honor them, to respect them. It's a shame that the King James translators translated this word, Yahreh, as fear when it comes to God, because it puts a wrong connotation on our relationship with Him. Now, it is true that we should fear the consequences of disobeying God, but it doesn't mean that we should be afraid of God or terrified of Him.

Because, again, how can we love and trust and have hope in a being if we are terrified of that being? That's not what is being talked about here by this word. Let's notice over in 1 John 4, verses 18 and 19, to demonstrate this point. John says, But there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment, mental anguish, upset, torment.

But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him, we love God, because He first loved us. So this tells us very clearly that fear involves torment, and there is no fear in love, which casts out fear. And when we love God, that doesn't mean we live in terror of Him, because we know that He loves us, and He wants only the best for us, and everything that He does is for our good. And that is why John says just before this, to back up a few verses, to verse 16, And we have known and believed the love God has for us.

God is love, and He who abides in love abides in God, and God in Him. So when we come to know and to understand that God is love, that that is the perfect summary of who and what God is, and everything that drives His actions, everything that motivates Him, then we have a relationship with Him based on love, and not on fear, and not on dread, and not on terror. So we need to understand that when the Bible talks about fearing God, or that tells us that one of the reasons we go to the feast is to learn to fear God, what it's really telling us is that we are to come to the feast to honor and to respect and to love Him as the great God of love that He is.

And this is just one of the many great blessings that it gives to us, and that He wants us, all of mankind, to come to know Him, to receive His gift of salvation, and to live eternally in His kingdom, as is pictured by these holy days that we are here celebrating. And this is well expressed. One more verse for this section. Psalm 66, in verses 3 and 4. Say to God, how awesome—and this is this same Hebrew word, Yahreh, that we've been talking about—how awesome are your works? All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you.

They shall sing praises to your name. And what time is this talking about? It's talking about the time pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles, when all the world will come to worship God, to sing praises to our great Creator for His love, and that all it does. So, this fourth point, again, we go to the Feast to learn to fear God. But fear meaning to love Him, to honor Him, to revere Him, to stand in awe of this great being who made everything, who's called us for an incredibly special purpose.

And now let's shift gears a bit, and let's talk about why do you go to the Feast. We've talked about why we collectively, as a body, come to the Feast, but why do you, personally, individually, go to the Feast while so many others do not? Well, the short answer—and this was expressed so beautifully in that special music—is we go to the Feast because God has chosen you.

We go to the Feast because God has chosen you. You have been invited. You have been extended this appointment, this invitation by God, the greatest invitation possible in this life. 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. God invites us to him. He draws us to him. And Jesus says, I will raise him up at the last day, pictured by the Feast of Trumpets that we recently celebrated. So God drew us into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Why? So that we could be raised up at the last day in the resurrection of the dead at Jesus Christ's return to start his millennial reign here on the earth. We did not choose God. He chose you. He chose me. He chose every one of us here today. He did something to spark that interest in our mind to begin that calling process. Or if you are younger, maybe in the minds of your parents. But he has called us and he has chosen us to learn of his ways. He has drawn us into a relationship with him and with his son Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and our coming King. So since we were called, since we were drawn or chosen, what is it that we were called or chosen to do or to be? And what does that have to do with us being here, with you being here at this feast of tabernacles? Yes, you are called to be raised up at the last day, as we see here in John 6.44, but raised up and given glory and given immortality to do what? What's the point of that? We've touched on that in several of the messages we've heard already. But I'd like to explore that concept a little bit deeper here in the remainder of the sermon. And the first of these reasons that God has chosen you and called you to be here is that you go to the feast because God chose you to be a ruler and a king. God chose you, every one of you, to be a ruler and a king. Let's notice an incredible prophecy over in Revelation 19, verses 11 and 16. And this is talking about Jesus Christ's return, and He says, Now I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True. And skipping down to verse 16, And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written. And this is the description of Jesus Christ returning to earth. And on his thigh and on his robe he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The title of Jesus Christ isn't just King and isn't just Lord, but King of Kings.

And Lord of Lords, he will be the king over many kings. He will be the Lord, which means master, or ruler over many lords. And who are those other lords and those other kings? Well, it will be the rulers of the earth in these days. Well, not really. Let's turn over to the next chapter, Revelation 20, verse 4. We find the answer to that.

And John writes here in vision, And I saw thrones, thrones connote rulership. And they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. So this is an important aspect of what those sitting on the thrones will be doing. They will be judging. They will be determining right and wrong based on what? Based on the source of ultimate truth, which is God's word. And God Himself. Continuing, 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 Jesus Christ for a thousand years. This is where we get the word millennium, Latin, four thousand. This is talking about the millennium, and about God's faithful people over the centuries. Some who have been sleeping in their graves for a thousand years, for thousands of years, waiting the resurrection, and those who will yet die and live in the resurrection be raised to eternal life, where they will live and reign, as we see here, as pictured by this feast of tabernacles. But the point is this. They live and reign with Jesus Christ. And this is why you, personally, individually, are here for God's feast, to be in training for that incredible future responsibility. Let's see some more evidence of this, Matthew 19. A lot of these scriptures are familiar to us, but it's very helpful, particularly as we are beginning this feast and really getting into the swing up to understand why we are here, why it is so important for us to be here. Matthew 19, verses 27 and 28, and this is an interchange between Jesus and His disciples. Then Peter answered and said to Christ, See, we have left everything and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? In other words, what he's asking is, We've given up everything, Christ, to follow you. What is our reward going to be? And then Jesus says to them, verse 28, Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, the new creation is what this means, 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 whom Jesus chose will reign and will judge the twelve tribes of Israel in the coming kingdom of God. We know from other scriptures, we don't have time to turn there, that David will be resurrected and he will be king over all of Israel. So he will actually be over the twelve apostles. And then we also have the parable of the towns. The towns, yes. The talents and the pounds. Where Jesus shows that those who are faithful with what God has entrusted to us will rule over ten cities, or five cities, or one city. And this is our future. This is why you are here at the feast. This is why you are here for this training that God is preparing for us. But to do that, we have to learn what? We have to learn a new kind of leadership that is all too sadly lacking. In today's world, we have to learn servant leadership. And this is a phrase we hear very often at the feast. Servant leadership. We have to learn to lead and to serve as Jesus Christ leads and serves. Again, another interchange between Jesus and His disciples in Matthew 20, verses 25-28.

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 authority 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, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom, a payment for many. One theme that you will hear from the feast every year is that of serving. Why do we emphasize that theme? Well, because it's part of the training. It's part of the purpose. It's part of our calling. Because we go to the feast because God chose you to be a ruler and a king. And if you are going to be a ruler and a king with Jesus Christ in the world tomorrow, we have to learn to serve and to lead as Jesus Christ serves and leads. To rule as he rules, which is with love, with compassion, with wisdom, without going care, and sacrificial love to those whom he is serving. And that's what leadership is really all about. It is really about serving. So the first reason why you go to the feast is because God chose you to be a ruler and a king. And the sixth reason, the next reason why you go to the feast is because God chose you to be a priest. God chose you to be a priest. Let's notice this in Revelation 5, verses 9 and 10. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy, describing Jesus Christ, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and you have redeemed, you have bought us back by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings, which we just talked about, and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Now we've already discussed what it means to be a king, and any one of these concepts is worthy of a whole sermon in itself, but I don't have time for that today. I could talk till midnight, and then people start falling out of windows and dying, and it gets really ugly, so we just won't do that today. I'll keep it short. But what does it mean to be a priest? What does a priest do? What is a priest's job? This is again one of those concepts that we have lost sight of in our culture today, and that's rather sad.

It's very sad because it blinds us to our future. Kings and priests, as we just saw here, God has made us kings and priests, aren't two separate positions, you might say. They're two sides of the same coin. They're two aspects, two different aspects of the same responsibility.

And priest is not a word. We use that much today. We hear the word priest. What comes to mind? When I say the word priest, what do you visualize? You probably visualize an old guy with gray hair and a beard. Wait, no, don't. Never mind that. But in a long black robe, speaking some strange language, maybe waving a sensor back and forth and mumbling under his breath some strange words that we don't understand.

But like so many things, Satan has polluted the meaning of priest and in so doing his blinded people to part of the future that God has for us.

In most people's minds, nothing could be more boring than to be a priest. An old guy in a black robe swinging a sensor and mumbling strange words. But is this what God has in mind for us?

When he says we are to be priests, no, not at all.

What is God's view of a priest?

I'll spend a little bit more time on this in the other aspects, but let's take a look at Isaiah 61, verses 6-9. This is from the New International Version, which I think brings out the meaning better here. Notice this. God says, What is a minister? A minister is one who ministers, who serves is what the word means. You will be called priests of the Lord and you will be named ministers of our God. 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. An everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the Lord, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. And 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 boring? Does this sound boring to you? Does this sound like an old guy in a black robe? God has an incredible future for those he calls his priests. Go back and look at some of these phrases again. Does it sound boring to feed on the wealth of nations? Does it sound boring to receive a double portion? Is it boring to rejoice in the inheritance that God is going to give his people? Is it boring to inherit a double portion? Is it boring to experience everlasting joy? Is it boring to be rewarded by God and to have an everlasting covenant with him? Is it boring to have your descendants be known among the nations? Is it boring to have everyone who sees acknowledge that we are a people whom God has blessed? Who are the famous people, the ones who were worshiped and idolized in our culture and society today? It's the rock stars, the rappers, the sports stars, the movie stars, this kind of thing. But it won't be like that in God's kingdom. Those who are going to be highly honored, highly exalted, highly respected are the priests.

As we read about here, and that's you. That's you. This is a description of God's view of a priest. Why will they be so highly honored, so highly respected? Well, that gets back to understanding what a priest's job is and what a priest's responsibility is.

Let's turn back to Malachi 2 and read a few excerpts from verses 1-7. In here, beginning this chapter, God says through Malachi, And now, O priests, this is who he is addressing it to, this commandment is for you. And then we'll skip over these few verses. But God goes on to sternly correct the priests of Malachi's day, because he had drifted so far from God's original purpose and intent for the priesthood as established through the tribe of Levi. And then God goes on to talk about the purpose of the priesthood as though he were talking about the Levitical priesthood as one person, as Levi. So notice what God says then about priests and about their role. He says, My covenant was with him, with Levi, that the priesthood would be established through him, a covenant of life and peace. And I gave them to him that he might fear me. He, again, it's talking about Levi, but it's talking about the priesthood. It's talking about us, our job in the future. I gave them the covenant to him that he might fear me. So he feared me originally and was reverent before my name. 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 from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. This is a job description for priests, as given by God. It gives you a little bit different picture from the old guy in the black robe swinging a sensor, doesn't it? This describes the role of a priest, and keep in mind, of course, that who is the ultimate High Priest? Jesus Christ. So what does a priest do? Again, notice some of these phrases. A priest fears God and is reverent before his name. A priest has the law of truth in his mouth. What law is that? It's the law of God. An injustice is not found on his lips. And he walks with God in peace and equity, and turns many from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge. What is the foundation of knowledge? The word of God. The fear of and the understanding of God. And people should seek the law from a priest's mouth. Why? For the priests are the messengers of the Lord of Hosts. It gives a little bit different picture of what a priest is, doesn't it? In the world tomorrow, a priest isn't going to be somebody that people want to avoid. A priest instead is going to be the ones that people will want to seek out.

To seek for, to learn from, to learn about God and about God's way of life from. And part of our job then, as we see here, will be turning people from iniquity. And getting people to seek the law to learn about God. Let's notice very briefly one passage here, Hebrews 7. And this describes the purpose of the role of Jesus Christ as our High Priest. Verses 24 through 26 of the New International Version. But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to do what? As High Priest. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him. Because He always lives to do what? To intercede for them. So how does this sum up the purpose of Jesus Christ's role as our High Priest? What is His purpose? The end result of His role as Priest? His purpose is to bring people to salvation. To bring people to salvation. That's the bottom line. That's the bottom line. Responsibility of a Priest. To save completely. To bring people to God's gift of salvation. Now that's not to say that we are able to save people. We can't. God is our Savior. Jesus Christ is our Savior. They are the ones who do that, but He is very clearly. As we see from these passages, God makes salvation possible. And we can't give them that salvation, but we can bring people. And we will bring people. You will bring people the knowledge of salvation. And into a responsibility, to a relationship with God, rather, and obedience to God. And to forsake iniquity, as we saw earlier, to forsake sin so that that makes their salvation possible. And as we saw from the verses we read back in Malachi, that has always been the purpose of a Priest. That is why God set up a priesthood through Levi. And that will be our job in the Millennium. That will be your job in the Millennium. So you go to the feast because God chose you to be a priest. And you are, as with training to be a king, you are training to be a priest. To turn people to their God and their Creator. And now we come to the seventh and final reason that we go to the feast, and that you go to the feast. And there are many others, but these are the seven that I picked out as most important. And the reason is that you go to the feast because God chose you to be a teacher. And this ties in directly with what we just read about there. There is a lot of overlap between kings and priests, and there is a lot of overlap between teachers and priests and kings as well. And this is so important, though, that it deserves a discussion of its own. Because the biggest responsibility, our job in the Millennium, will be to help rebuild a world on right values and on truth. On the right values of God and the values of His Word, the Bible. Let's notice a prophecy of this time, Isaiah 30, verses 20 and 21. And this is talking about the people who will have survived over into the Millennium, and what they are going to experience up to during the early days of the Millennium. And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.

Your what? 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. Who's it talking about? It's talking about you! It's talking about me! It's talking about us! We will be teaching what? We will be teaching others God's way of life. This is the way! Walk in it! And be blessed! We will be teaching people the right way, the only way! They will have learned what? They will have learned what the way of going man's way, where it leads. To dear extinction of the human race. And at last humankind will be receptive to learning God's truth. And that will be our job. And this shouldn't be a surprise because what is our job right now? What are the marching orders that Jesus Christ gave His followers in the first century? Hopefully we have this memorized. Matthew 28, 19 and 20. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, doing what? Teaching them! 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. So the great commission that we are called to have a part in is to go and disciple the nations to teach them, to observe all things. Teaching is a big part of that job. Is this commission that Christ gave His Church only for this age? Well, think about that for a minute. In this age, we're only going to create a few disciples. Where that's really going to kick in is when God calls multiple billions of people in the millennium and in the period symbolized by the eighth day. That's when our job really begins, to really make disciples in the thousands, in the millions, in the billions. And that's what we're here in training for. And at that time, as read in Isaiah 11 and verse 9, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas. Out of the waters cover the seas. They fill every nook and cranny. Everything is permeated by the water. It's the nature of water. And that's how God compares the knowledge of God in the world tomorrow. It will cover the world as the waters cover the seas, filling every nook and cranny.

And that will be part of our job, to be the ones teaching the world, God's ways. In verse 3, Daniel 12, those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, by being kings, by being priests, by being teachers, will shine like the stars forever and ever. That is our job. That is our future. So why do we come to the feast? Because God chose you.

Because God believes in you. God believes in you, as we heard again in that beautiful special music. We are in training for that now. So what can we do to get the most out of this feast? Well, pray. Pray about it. Pray about it for the speakers. Pray that you will receive what God wants you to hear and what you need to hear during this time. Ask God to give you what you need to better become a king, a priest, a teacher. Ask Him to help you to learn things you've never learned before, to gain deeper understanding of what you already know, or to remind you of things that you've learned and may have forgotten, or may have slipped your mind. So take to heart the messages that you'll hear. Take them home with you. Most importantly, live them so that you can become everything that God has called you to be.