And in fact, when you look in the whole concept of the Jewish festivals, you find that, in some way, they all speak about Jesus and about God’s plan of salvation.
00:00And in fact when you look in the whole concept of the Jewish festivals, you find that in some way they all speak in some way about Jesus and about God's plan of salvation.
00:12You have the three main pilgrim festivals. They're the festivals which required the Jewish people to go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in the temple.
00:21And they happened on three different occasions in the year. And on each of these there was something which happened relating to Jesus.
00:28So they're all remembering some events from the past. So Passover remembers the Passover night and the Exodus from Egypt and also Yom HaBikurim, the firstfruits.
00:43Shavuot is the early barley harvest, the firstfruits of the harvest and remembering the giving of the law at Mount Sinai.
00:50And the giving of the law at Mount Sinai was really the birth of Israel as a nation under God.
00:55They existed as the tribes of Israel. They were in slavery. They came out.
01:01And when they came to Mount Sinai, God gave them the Torah, gave them the Ten Commandments and in a sense made them his special people through whom he's going to reveal himself and reveal his purposes in the years that would follow.
01:13And you come to Sukkot, which is the Feast of Tabernacles, which happens in September, October on our calendar, which is the final harvest.
01:24And at that time, the Jewish people remember God's provision in the wilderness as they're coming out of Egypt and also give thanks for their entrance into the promised land following the time of wandering in the wilderness.
01:37And it speaks of God's faithfulness to his people, preserving them as a people and bringing them into, out of bondage, out of slavery, into the promised land as the people of God.
01:48So you see parallels with this in the New Testament.
01:53New Testament, Passover equals the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah.
01:58When did Jesus die on the cross? On the first day of Passover, the 14th day of Misan, when the Passover lambs are being slain.
02:04The Passover lambs remind us of the Passover lambs in the book of Exodus, when the Israelites were told to take a lamb, put his blood upon the door,
02:14and as they put the blood upon the door, they would be saved from the angel of death when he passed through the land of Israel,
02:19and the angel of death would pass over them, so they'd pass from death to life.
02:23What happens if you believe in Yeshua, the Messiah, you put the blood of the lamb upon your doorposts of your house, of your life, if you like,
02:29and then through that blood of the lamb, you pass over from death to life.
02:34It's another picture of our redemption.
02:39You come to Shavuot, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
02:43The gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost gave birth to the true church of Jesus, the Messiah, the chosen ones.
02:50It's said this morning, not the building, not the organization, but the people who are called out by the Lord
02:55to be the ones who would live in a new life in the Holy Spirit.
03:00So you have new life in Yeshua through the Holy Spirit, and the firstfruits harvests of souls saved.
03:07Interestingly, on the day of Pentecost, we read that 3,000 people were saved through the preaching of the gospel.
03:14And finally, you come to Sukkot, which is the final harvest, looking for the return of the Messiah,
03:19and his reign in the Millennial Kingdom.
03:21And there are parallels between the time in the wilderness, and the building of booths, which are temporary structures,
03:27and the time when Jesus is going to come back and rule over the earth for 1,000 years in the event which we call the Millennial Kingdom.
03:34Not every Christian believes in that, but I do.
03:37And we teach that here in this church, that there will be a Millennial Kingdom in which Yeshua, Jesus is going to reign
03:42for 1,000 years after his second coming.
03:46So these three pilgrim festivals all have a relevance to, obviously, to Jewish people,
03:52who they're reminding them of their history,
03:54but also they do have a connection to those who believe in Jesus the Messiah.
