Encountering Christ in the Feast of First Fruits

Intro: Welcome to FE

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New series the past 2 weeks

Encountering Jesus in the OT Feasts

If today is your first time here in person or visiting us online

2 weeks ago we learned how Jesus is the Passover lamb

last week we discovered how we encounter Jesus in Feast of unleavened bread

Leaven is a picture of sin

remove from house and bread for 7 days

Jesus is the bread of life John 6, the sinless one, the bread without leaven. In John 6 says i Am the bread life,whoever comes to me will never go hungry or thirst, a picture of believing and receiving Christ. When we come to Christ he cleans our heart from the leaven in our lives. The Word of God coupled with the Spirit of God are daily working on us to remove the leaven in our lives.

Today we come to the Feast of First Fruits open your Bibles to Leveticaus 23:9-14

Leviticus 23:9-14

English Standard Version Chapter 23

9 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the LORD with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

I. The Feast of First Fruits a Harvest Offering of Worship

The Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits were all Celebrated the same week. The Sabbath would start the 7 days of unleavened bread. On Sunday, the day after the Sabbath, they were to celebrate the Feast of First Fruits.

This Feast was a offering to God and instituted by God for the people to remember who is the Provider, who is God of the harvest, and in essence you were bringing the harvest to God to recognize him for taking care of you, thanking him for his care and presenting this offering doesn’t make the harvest acceptable, but at the end of vs 11 it says presenting this offer makes the person acceptable to God.

II. The Elements of the Feast

The feast of first fruits was detailed and involved various elements.

A. The Sheaf

The barley harvest was the first to be harvested in Israel and it was harvested during the time of the passover.

The families would gather their sheaves and present them to the Priest. The priest would wave the offering before the Lord. Commentators say the would wave the Sheaf N-S and E-W in a cross like pattern as a wave offering to the Lord.

But the sheaves would not be burnt, the sheaves presented and bundled were left for the Levitical Priest

B. The Lamb

i. The people then would bring a Lamb

Male

1 year old

Without Defect/Perfect

ii. This Lamb would be a burnt offering to the Lord

iii. A picture of no harvest without suffering/death/work

Even in our gardening when we plant a seed in the ground.

the seed dies and brings growth

the lamb dies to make the harvest holy and acceptable to God.

C. The Grain Offering

2/10 of an ephah of fine flour. here is what is interesting, a grain offering is normally 1/10 but in the First Fruit offering it is 2/10.

mixed with oil

a pleasing aroma

D. Wine Offering

Commentary on the Old Testament Sanctification of the Sabbath and the Feasts of Jehovah.—Ch. 23

a meat-offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and a drink-offering of a quarter of a hin of wine,—to give expression to the obligation and willingness of the congregation not only to enjoy their earthly food, but to strengthen all the members of their body for growth in holiness and diligence in good works.

E. You cannot eat of the harvest until you have offered the first fruit offering to God.

III. Christ is Our First Fruit Offering.

A. Jesus Is Our Lamb Offering

Throughout the book of John you will notice the phrase “the Hour”, Jesus is alwats saying “the hour has not yet come” but one day 2 Gentiles who came to celebrate the feasts came to Jesus’ disciples and asked to see Jesus and this is what Jesus says,

23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Jesus willing lays down his life as the Lamb of God who takes away sin and makes us acceptable to God. Jesus is the one who suffers, dies and performs the work to supply a harvest that is acceptable to God.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

We as people of the harvest reap the benefits and the blessing of Christ and as people of the harvest we become co-laborers with Christ.

B. Jesus Is Our Grain And Wine Offering

i. I loved coming to my abuelita’s house. When she knew I was coming over she would be in the kitchen making tortilla’s de harina and had the manticia en la mesa. listo! As soon as you walked in the house the aroma or fragrance of homemade tortilla’s, the smell of heaven.

ii. This is what the first fruits offering is to God, a pleasing aroma because the people of God are recognizing Him as the owner and provider of all things. They are coming to him in worship and submitting to him as Lord. This smells so good to God.

iii. This is what Christ does for us as a grain and wine offering. He takes our lives full of sin and the stench of death and turns us into a sweet smelling fragrance to God.

English Standard Version Chapter 2

14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

C. Jesus is Our Sheaf Offering

A. Jesus is our sheaf offering waved before the father, stretched out on a cross.

English Standard Version Chapter 12

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

B. Our Saviour is not dead! He rose again!

English Standard Version Chapter 15

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Christ is the lamb offering who suffered and died in our place, Jesus is the Grain and wine offering who makes us a pleasing aroma to the God. Jesus is our sheaf offering waved in the presence of God to make us acceptable in his presence.

Christ is the first fruit offering who dies and rose again from the dead who will one day return and for all who believe in him, we will be transformed from this sinful body that is decaying and dying and be given a body that is immortal and the desire for sin will be gone and we will worship Christ the first fruit for for ever.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 12:23–26). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.