HE HAS BROUGHT US PEACE: The Holy Assembly

SEASONS

God gave us seasons as a gift and guide

Last week Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover

Our focus tonight will be The Feast of First Fruits and The Feast of Weeks

Why is this important?

Genesis 1 is an ordering of all life

Genesis 1:14 NIV

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,

The grand conclusion reveals one of the most undervalued and overlooked commandments in the Bible and it is directly connected to seasons. The Sabbath.

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READ LEVITICUS 23:1-4

Leviticus 23:1–4 (NLT)

The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days for holy assembly. 3 “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the Lord’s Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live. 4 “In addition to the Sabbath, these are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the official days for holy assembly that are to be celebrated at their proper times each year.

HOLY ASSEMBLY

These feasts were to be a time where God and His people were communing together. Sabbath was a weekly Holy Assembly within your own house.

FESTIVAL ORDER

PASSOVER

UNLEAVENED BREAD

FIRSTFRUITS

FESTIVAL OF WEEKS

FEAST OF TRUMPETS

DAY OF ATONEMENT

TABERNACLES

FEAST OF WEEKS

50 Days after Firstfruits (7 weeks + 1 day because of Sabbath)

This is the same Festival as Pentecost (that’s just a Greek name for it)

This is the second crop that grows in Israel and it is Wheat.

This feast is REALLY interesting.

In every instance except for this one, you are to present grain or unleavened bread in your offering. This is the only feast where bread with leaven can be used.

Also, there is one kind of offering that you are permitted to use leavened bread, and that is a Peace Offering or a Free Will Offering.

During this feast, you are to present a Peace Offering.

PEACE

This is where I had a light-bulb moment!

In Jesus' day and before there was an external system that said “we know how to bring peace to the known world” and that system had the saying “Pax Romana.”

Pax Romana was about neglecting and abandoning your external practices and beliefs that reject others. It was to accept everything as truth. To reject someone else’s truth was to fight the peace of Rome and you would be executed.

This sets the table for Jesus.

God had commanded that Israel worship Him and Him only and to not even mention the names of other gods.

Israel was living under Roman rule while in the land.

Another way to see it is they were in the land that was supposed to be their freedom but they were still in exile.

The religious leaders that had developed between the time of the Babylonian Exile (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes) had mostly oppressed Israel to keep these Feasts externally and hope that God would send Messiah to lift their oppression off of them.

Jesus as part of His mission brings about a fulfillment of these Feasts.

If Israel were going to become a blessing to the nations, it needed to be free of exile.

Pick up at Passover

READ Matthew 26:26-30

Matthew 26:26–30 NIV

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

Jesus takes what has been on the outside and begins placing it on the inside.

The blood of the covenant was a specific ordinance that the priest would take the blood of a lamb and sprinkle some against the alter and the rest they would sprinkle on the assembly.

The blood made things holy.

Jesus institutes the 4th cup, the Cup of Hallel as the new Blood of the Covenant.

Psalm 112-118 are the songs Jesus and the Disciples sang after this.

BONUS TIME

PASSOVER

God led the people out of slavery and oppression and into freedom.

Matzah and Wine

Matzah is called the Bread of Affliction. It is made without leaven.

Most likely made from Barley

Barley bread is the bread of the poor people.

UNLEAVENED BREAD

Remove all of the leaven from your house before Passover

Leaven is associated with sin and hypocrisy.

Any bread you consume must have no leaven for 7 days after Passover.

FIRSTFRUITS

The first crop that grows in Israel is Barley.

Take and cut a bundle the day after Sabbath and bring it to the priest.

Wave offering

This is the first offering you bring before the LORD and there is Grain and Wine involved.

You cannot eat until you have fulfilled this law.