Feasts of the Lord - Part 2

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THE FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS

The Third Feast occurs on the second day of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is called the “Feast of First Fruits.”

Passover occurs on the fourteenth of Nisan (April 2nd); the first day of the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” occurs on the fifteenth (April 3rd); and “First Fruits,’’ according to Jewish calculation, occurs on the sixteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (April 4th).

The Common Practice

Grains were planted in the fall in Israel. They germinated in the ground through the winter, shot up as soon as the weather got warm, and ripened in the spring, barley first and then wheat. The stalks were cut and stacked in sheaves for the harvesters to collect for thrashing. But harvesting or eating any of the grain was not permitted until a sample sheaf was brought to the Temple at sunrise on the first day after the Sabbath following Passover. This day was called the Feast of First Fruits.

The Lord required that the first fruits of all their harvest be given to Him, whether plant or animal. (In the case of animals, only the very first offspring from each animal was required, not the first of each season.)

The priest took the sheaf of grain and waved it before the altar of the Lord as a sample of the harvest. This was called the wave offering. To be sure it was acceptable to the Lord, a year old lamb was also offered, along with about 4 quarts of a flour and oil mixture and a quart of wine. The Lord having received His required first portion, the harvest could proceed and the grain could be ground into flour for their daily bread.

The Prophetic Fulfillment

At sunrise on the morning of the Feast of First Fruits in 32 AD, as the priests were waving the sheaf of grain before the altar, the women (Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee) arrived at the Lord's tomb to prepare His body for permanent burial.

But the tomb was empty. He had risen, the First Fruits of them that slept. (1 Corinthians 15:20) Later that day many Holy people from Israel's past were seen in the city of Jerusalem, also having risen from their tombs. (Matthew. 27:51-53) (NOTE: Have someone read this Scripture.) This was the Lord's wave offering, a sample of His harvest of souls. I'm thinking that the aroma of the Temple offering was especially pleasing to the Lord that morning. The days of substitutes were over; the real thing had come. (Hebrews 10:1)

The Ultimate Triple Play

For Christ, our Passover Lamb, had been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7), and on the very day, fulfilling the Passover Prophecy. For seven days beginning on Passover, the Israelites ate bread without yeast in celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in fact went to great lengths to rid their homes of any trace of leaven. This Feast symbolized a promise that the sin of man, represented by the leaven, would be completely taken away. The Lord's death fulfilled this one as well, for He's the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

And right on schedule the Lord rose from the grave, fulfilling the Feast of First Fruits. He is the First Fruits of them that slept, and His resurrection confirmed His victory over sin and death. And ours too, for if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)





PROBLEM:

Following the ascension of Jesus into heaven, major doctrinal errors began to creep into some churches. Some people in the Church in Corinth began to spread the false Hellenistic belief called gnosticism. Gnosticism rejects the concept of a physical resurrection; therefore it rejects the physical resurrection of Christ. In writing to the Church at Corinth, Paul had to correct this error.

Some in the church believed in the immortality of the soul, but not in the resurrection of the body. Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians 15:12): Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?. To reject the concept of physical resurrection was to reject the physical resurrection of Christ. Logically, you can’t have one without the other.

  • To deny physical resurrection was to call Paul a liar, for he had taught them that Jesus rose bodily from the grave. To the Corinthians, Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 15:3-4): For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: .
  • To deny the physical resurrection of Jesus was to repudiate their faith. Paul argued, (I Corinthians 15:14) And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
  • To deny the physical resurrection of Jesus was to consign loved ones who had died in Christ to eternal condemnation. Paul noted, (1 Corinthians 15:18) Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished..
  • To deny the physical resurrection of Jesus was to consign men to misery. Paul warned, (I Corinthians 15:19) If in this life only we have hope in Christ (and such would be the case if there is no bodily resurrection), we are of all men most miserable.



Using overpowering logic, Paul brought those denying bodily resurrection down to the depths of despair based on their own reasoning.

The Corinthians’ thesis was this: There is no bodily resurrection.

Paul’s valid conclusion was: Then Christ is not raised.

The consequence of their thinking would lead to this unavoidable conclusion: Paul was a liar, their faith was in vain, their loved ones who had died in Christ were perished, and they were, of all men most miserable. However their thinking was flawed.

By using two simple words, Paul went from the depths of despair (where a denial of physical resurrection led them) to the heights of certain hope and exaltation. Those two words are “But now.” Paul wrote, (1 Corinthians 15:20 ) But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept..

Paul had in mind the first bundle of grain (first fruits) of the harvest (Leviticus 23:10). When God accepted the first fruits, they became the earnest or guarantee that the rest of the crop would be harvested. Christ himself is the “first fruits” our guarantee (I Corinthians 15:23).

In both the Old and New Testaments, there were people who were raised from the dead. But in time, they died again. Jesus was the first to be resurrected from the grave, never to die again. He alone is the “first fruits.”

  • The Feast of Passover speaks of Jesus’s death as a sacrificial and substitutionary lamb.
  • The Feast of Unleavened Bread indicates that His body would not decay in the grave.
  • The Feast of First Fruits proclaims that death could not hold her foe. “Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes.”





THE FEAST OF WEEKS

The Fourth Feast is known as the “Feast of Weeks.” It is called the Feast of Weeks because God specifically told the sons of Jacob that they were to count seven sevens of weeks from first fruits (Leviticus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:9), and then “unto the morrow” this Fourth Feast was to be observed (Leviticus 23:16). Seven sevens of weeks are forty-nine days. Add one additional day (“unto the morrow”), and it brings the total days to fifty. This Fourth Feast was to occur precisely fifty days after first fruits. This feast is also called “Pentecost” (Acts 2:1) – meaning fifty.

On this occasion, the children of Israel were not to simply bring the first fruits of the wheat harvest to the Temple (as they brought the first fruits of the barley at the Feast of first fruits), but two loaves of bread. These two loaves of bread were to be baked with fine flour, and leaven was specifically commanded to be included in the loaves (Leviticus 23:17).

Fifty days, two loaves, and leaven – what did it all mean?

It all pointed to the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. The Son of God arose from the grave on first fruits. He then spent forty days with His disciples in post-resurrection ministry (Acts 1:3), He told them that it was necessary that He ascend to His Father (there to apply the benefits of His once-and-for-all sacrifice), but that He would not abandon them. He would send them His Holy Spirit who would come alongside to help in His absence (John 14:16-17).

For the Feast of Weeks, two loaves were brought to the Temple. They represented Jew and Gentile, now one in Christ with the advent of the Spirit’s coming.

Writing to the Ephesian believers, Paul said: (Ephesians 2:14-15) “For he is our peace, who has made both (Jew and Gentile) one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity (hostility), even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of two (Jew and Gentile) one new man, so making peace”.

There was to be leaven in those two loaves, for the Church had not yet been glorified. During this age, there is still sin within the Church. Someone has said of believers, “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it, because you will spoil it.” However, in Christ, the Church is perfected. The church still has a long way to go. Jesus, the head, is unleavened. The Church (Jew and Gentile), the body, still has leaven within her. Therefore, leaven was to be included in those two loaves.



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