Wake-Up Call

Sermon Series: Shadow & Substance - Part 1

Welcome Home

“To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) You know, I can’t read that scripture without remembering when I was a little girl, and I had one of those toy record players made for seven-inch vinyl 45s. It came with a bunch of little flimsy floppy records of Grimm’s fairy tales and other stories, but I liked to use it to listen to music.

Unfortunately, my mom only owned one record that size. It was from the 60’s, featuring “Monday Monday” by the Mamas & the Papas on one side, and “Turn, Turn, Turn!” by the Byrds on the other. You know, - “To everything... (turn, turn, turn), there is a season (turn, turn, turn), and a time for every purpose... under heaven:” I played that record until the grooves wore out.

It wasn’t until I grew much older that I realized those famous lyrics weren’t just a folk-rock hook. They were straight from the Bible. Even as a child, music like that resonated with me. Songs like “Yesterday” by the Beatles, “Time After Time” by Cindi Lauper, or Bob Dylan’s, “The Times, They Are A-Changin’” all carried a weight that made me stop, reflect, and appreciate the present moment.

We belong to a culture utterly obsessed with time, seasons, and making the present matter. We map our lives in planners, track our habits on apps, and wear watches that prompt and prod us through every daily transition. But our obsession runs deeper than managing a schedule. As human beings, we have an innate, deep-seated craving to know just how we fit into the grand design of the universe. We desperately want our personal purpose to align with the times and seasons.

Tragically, many get so carried away in this pursuit that they twist God’s intentions. They turn to things like astrology and divination, trying to manufacture an identity based on the alignment of the stars rather than looking to the One who created them.

I know this trap intimately because before I knew Christ, I was one of them.

Let’s be clear: astrology is simply another one of Satan’s counterfeit lies. It’s designed to trick you into relying on cosmic energy and your own logic instead of simply trusting the living God.

The truth is, God did make the lights in the sky. He invented time itself on the very first day of creation. In the exact moment He separated light from darkness, history began. Genesis 1:3–5 tells us: “God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

At that exact moment, God switched on the cosmic clock. He set a divine timeline into motion for us to live in. Just a few verses later, in Genesis 1:14, He reveals exactly why He put the sun, moon, and stars in place. It reads, “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;”

Think about the sheer brilliance of His design. Our days are marked by the steady rotation of the earth. Our months designed follow the rhythmic cycles of the moon. Our years are measured by our annual journey around the sun. And our seven-day week? It doesn’t align with any astronomical orbit - it aligns perfectly with the rhythm of heaven: six days of creation, and one day of holy Sabbath rest.

Times and seasons matter deeply to God. He even promised Noah after the flood in Genesis 8:22 that “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” They shall not cease.

But listen closely: God didn’t just build a physical calendar for our almanac of sowing and reaping crops. He also built a spiritual calendar into the fabric of time. It’s a calendar marked not by the changing weather, but by holy feasts and sacred festivals.

God established this spiritual calendar for our remembrance. He gave it to us to grant us insight, wisdom and alignment with His ordained chronology. These rhythms were never meant to be legalistic obligations to weigh us down. They are a roadmap designed for our wonder, our wisdom, and our worship of the One who created time.

Pray

I have a confession to make. When I first read through the Old Testament, I mostly dismissed the biblical calendar. I assumed those ancient rituals were only for ancient Israel, and that they had absolutely nothing to do with Christians today.

But the more I studied them, the more I discovered a mind-blowing truth: every single feast and festival points to a New Testament revelation of Jesus Christ.

That is the foundation of our new sermon series, “Shadow & Substance.”

It’s based on the Apostle Paul’s words in Colossians 2:16-17. He explains that these biblical festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths “are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

The entire Bible - from Genesis to Revelation - is one unified story pointing to Jesus. And His calendar is no exception. When the Lord established these sacred times in Leviticus 23:2, He declared: “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.”

Now, I know when we hear the word “feast” in English, our stomachs start rumbling. When I say “feast” what do you think of? We think of a massive Thanksgiving dinner or a Sunday smorgasbord at Cracker Barrel!

But that’s not what the Bible means.

The original Hebrew word used here for “feast” is moed [mo-ade], and it literally means an “appointed time.” The word for “holy convocation” is miqra [mik-raw], which means a “sacred assembly.”

When you put them together, a biblical feast is a moed miqra - a divinely appointed date on the calendar to meet with the King. It is an appointment with God, and set by God who stands entirely outside the confines of time. I like to think of them as a “dress rehearsal” because during these appointed times, God has us act out history or practice the future.

These appointed times invite us to do three things:

Look back at what He has done

Look around at what He is doing

Look forward to what He promises to do next

Now, let me be absolutely clear: our goal today is not to adopt traditional Jewish practices or religious rituals. We can deeply respect the rich heritage of these customs without feeling obligated to replicate them.

Rather, we want to look at the spiritual heart of these appointed times. As believers in Jesus, we are free to learn from and celebrate them as we are led by the Holy Spirit, completely free from legalistic obligation.

This isn’t about earning salvation; it’s about learning to worship. It’s simply about recognizing how breathtakingly great our God i s, and thanking Him for everything He has done, is doing, and will do for us!

You see, God didn’t appoint these holy times just because He wanted seven official occasions to demand praise. Our God is not selfish. He gave us these dates because He loves us; it matters to Him that His people remember His past faithfulness, and it matters to Him that we look ahead to His future promises.

Because of this, God’s prophetic calendar is perfectly divided into two major sequences: the Spring Feasts and the Fall Feasts. Think of them as two acts in a divine play:

Act 1: The Spring feasts

Passover

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

The Feast of Firstfruits

Pentecost.

Act 2: The Fall feasts

The Feast of trumpets

The Day of Atonement

The Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, look at the breathtaking precision of our Savior. There are seven fests all together, and Christ has already fulfilled the first four. Every single one of the Spring Feasts were completed - not just conceptually, but right down to the exact day, the exact hour, and the exact minute.

First, consider Passover: For fifteen hundred years, the Jewish people slaughtered a spotless lamb to remember how God saved them from judgment in Egypt. Then came the ultimate fulfillment. At the exact hour the Passover lamb was being sacrificed at the Temple, Jesus Christ was crucified outside the city gates. The shadow met the substance. John 19:14 tells us it was the preparation day of the Passover - the ultimate Lamb slain for the sins of the world.

Next, The Feast of Unleavened Bread: In Jewish tradition, families spent days sweeping every grain of leven - yeast, which represents sin - out of their homes. Now look at the parallel: while they were clearing out the leaven, the body of our completely sinless Savior was laid in a tomb. He was the ultimate Unleavened Bread. At the Last Supper, He didn’t just break any bread; He broke that unleavened bread and said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19)

Then comes The Feast of Firstfruits: As the mornign sun rose, the hight priest stood in the temple waving the very first sheaf of the spring harvest before the Lord - a promise that more harvest was coming. At that exact moment, Jesus burst out of the grave! He didn’t just rise; He became, as Paul writes, “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). His empty tomb is God’s ultimate guarantee that the rest of the harvest - that’s you and me - will one day be resurrected too!

Finally, look at Pentecost: Fifty days after Firstfruits, Israel celebrated the Feast of Weeks. While they were commemorating the day God gave the Law on stone tablets at Mount Sinai on earth. The Holy Spirit descended from heaven with tongues of fire to write the Law on human hearts. Look at the precision: at Sinai, the law was given and three thousand people died rebellion. At Pentecost, the Spirit was given and three thousand people were saved into eternal life! (Acts 2:1-4)

Now, listen to me: four out of seven fulfillments isn’t just good odds - it’s a flawless track record!

[Lower your volume, lean in, and speak with deliberate weight] Just think about that. If Jesus fulfilled all four Spring Feasts to the exact day during His first coming... shouldn’t we expect Him to fulfill the three Fall feasts with the exact same, undeniable precision at His second coming?

The Feast of Trumpets

This week, we step into the first of the autumn holidays: the Feast of Trumpets. It begins this coming Friday, September 11th at sundown, and lasts until sundown on Sunday, the 13th.

Let’s look first at The Old Testament Shadow:

In modern Jewish tradition, this day is called Rosh Hashanah, which means “head of the year” - marking Israel’s civil New Year. But in the Old Testament, God calls it Yom Teruah - the Day of Blowing. Leviticus and Numbers command this specific day to fall on the first day of the seventh month, and it’s to be to be a sacred occasion of loud trumpet blasts.

The central commandment of this holiday is to hear the piercing blasts of the shofar - a trumpet made from a hollowed-out ram’s horn.

That sound goes out as a spiritual alarm clock. It’s designed to jolt the soul out of it’s slumber, warning people to wake up, repent, and return to God because judgement is coming. Traditionally, Jewish communities would gather near a flowing stream and symbolically cast their sins into the water by throwing breadcrumbs to be carried away.

But now, let’s look at The New Testament Substance:

For the believer Christ, the Feast of Trumpets finds it’s ultimate fulfillment in the Second Coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the saints, and the final gathering of God’s people!

Listen to how the Apostle Paul describes this moment in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

Paul underscores this urgent promise in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, declaring that the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the “trumpet call of God”.

Remember: the trumpet blast of Yom Teruah was an emergency alarm. It warned the people that they had exactly ten days to get their lives right before the Day of Atonement - the day the book would close in judgement. It was a severe grace period. It was a call to immediate action.

And the Book of Revelation reveals that this final trumpet blast is the ultimate coronation of King Jesus. Revelation 11:15 declares: “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever!”

Now, this brings us to a phrase we have all heard, but many of us have misunderstood. We know the Bible says that the Day of the Lord will come like a “thief in the night.” And we vividly remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:13: “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

For generations, well-meaning Christians have read those words and concluded, “Well, His return is completely random. There’s no point in trying to understand the timing.”

But we have to remember who Jesus was talking to. He was speaking to His Jewish disciples who were thoroughly trained in the biblical feasts from childhood. When Jesus looked at them and said, “You know neither the day nor the hour,” a massive lightbulb went off in their minds. They know exactly which feast He was referring to.

Why? Because the Feast of Trumpets is the only biblical holiday ordained by God to begin on the first day of a month.

You see, The Hebrew calendar is governed by the moon. Months change only on a New Moon. In ancient Israel, a new month couldn’t be declared by a smartphone app. Instead, two certified witnesses had to physically stand on the high walls of Jerusalem, scanning the dark night sky. They had to watch until they spotted the very first sliver of the crescent moon, and then race to report it to the high priest.

Because a lunar cycle is twenty-nine and a half days, no one could predict the exact moment that light would appear. If the sky was cloudy, the holiday might even be delayed a day. Because of this built-in astronomical uncertainty, the Feast of Trumpets was universally known as... “the festival of which no man knows the day or the hour.” [pause]

Think about that! Everyone knew the season. Everyone knew it was right at the door. But they had to stay awake, watch, and wait for the signal. When the moon was finally sighted, the shofar would blast instantly through the midnight air - catching anyone who was asleep completely by surprise.

Jesus wasn’t telling His disciples that His return was an unpredictable or random event. He was dropping a profound prophetic clue. He was saying, “My return is going to happen on the pattern of the Feast of Trumpets. So stay alert, keep your eyes looking up, and watch!”

Waking from Slumber

The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night to a sleeping world. But it shouldn’t catch the Church off guard.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul balances this truth in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, he writes: “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night…”

But he doesn’t stop there, keep reading! In verses 4 and 6, he shifts his tone entirely: “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief… Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”

As Karen beautifully reminded us last week from Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”

We are called to be the watchmen of light in the darkness of the new moon! We know that the Light of the World is coming soon, and we can clearly see the prophetic shadows He has cast across human history.

Signal Phil to get ready

In Him, we have been completely delivered from the darkness of this world. Your identity is not determined by the stars in the sky or the horoscopes in the newspaper. Your life is no longer chained to the destructive paths of your past, the broken patterns of your parents, or the haunting mistakes of yesterday. Your true identity is found in Christ alone!

One of my favorite scriptures to remind myself every single day is Galatians 2:20 which declares: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Look at who is living inside of you today!

He is our passover lamb.

He is as pure and sinless as the Unleavened Bread.

He is the Firstfruits raised victorious from the grave.

He is the giver of the Holy Spirit, writing His law of love right onto our hearts.

And hear me today - He is coming again with a thunderous trumpet blast!

So, I have to ask you straight from my heart to yours today: Are you spiritually asleep? Have you quietly drifted into complacency, compromise, or comfortable distraction?

The Feast of Trumpets demands that we wake up and prepare our hearts. As we prepare for Communion today, 1 Corinthians 11:28 instructs us: “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” [pause]

Make sure Phil is ready

Before we take the elements together, let this sound shake us out of our spiritual sleep.

The Shofar Blasts LEAVE TIME FOR SELAH

If the blast of that shofar shook something inside your spirit today, and you’re feeling the urgent call of God to respond, that is what the Feast of Trumpets is intended to do.

But today, I want you to listen closely to what - and Who - the shofar is heralding. King Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that trumpet’s call. He is the one who broke the power of sin and death so that you can be free from judgement and truly live.

If you know in your heart right now that you have been sleeping through your life, just going through the motions of religion without a true relationship, let this day be your awakening. Respond to the ultimate call. Put your faith, your trust, and your life into the hands of Jesus Christ today.

With every head bowed and every eye closed, quietly pray this prayer along with me right where you are...

(Spirit led: prayer of salvation & returning)

Communion

Please take the Communion elements that you received when you walked into the sanctuary today. If you did not receive one, please lift your hand so the ushers can bring it to you.

Carefully remove the foil from the smaller end of your cup and take out the bread.

This unleavened bread represents the absolute sinless purity of the body of Jesus Christ, broken for you and for me. He went down into the earth as the first seed of the harvest so that we could be gathered into His eternal kingdom.

Hold the bread up, and repeat these words after me:

“This is His body, given for me. By His stripes, I am healed.”

Let us eat together.

All partake of the bread SELAH

Now, carefully remove the foil from the larger end of your cup. Look for a moment at the juice.

This cup represents the New Covenant, sealed forever in the blood of Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb. It is this blood that completely covers our sins, delivering us out of the kingdom of darkness and making us children of light.

Because of this blood, we do not have to dread the trumpet of judgment. Instead, we get to eagerly anticipate the trumpet blast of our King’s arrival!

Hold the cup up, and repeat these words after me:

"This is His blood, shed for me. My sins are washed away, and I am alert for His return.”

Let us drink together.

All partake of the juice SELAH

Let’s stand together all across the room for prayer.

Pray (Stand)

(Spirit-led: thank God for His perfect timeline, ask for grace to stay sober and watchful, bless tithes)

Benediction

May you go forth in the peace, in the light, and in the expectant alertness of Jesus Christ. You are dismissed!