May Your Name Be Written Series

INTRODUCTION

As you’ll remember from last time, God institutes a series of 7 feasts (or festivals) in Leviticus 23 that the people of Israel were to faithfully observe every year.

Each of those observances have great significance in Jewish faith and practice… but like many things in the OT, each of the 7 feasts also prophetically point to Jesus…

There are the 4 Spring Festivals… which have already been fulfilled by Jesus during His first coming…

… The Feast of Passover was fulfilled by Jesus’ sacrificial death as our Passover Lamb

… The Feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled by His burial

… The Feast of Firstfruits was fulfilled by His resurrection

… The Feast of Weeks (or Pentecost) was fulfilled by the coming of the Holy Spirit

Then there is a 4-month break after those Spring Feasts are concluded until the Fall Feast season begins… a large gap of time which represents the “Church Age” in which we are living right now.

During this time God is bringing salvation to the Gentiles… to US!

Then, in the time that the Lord alone has determined, the final 3 feasts… the 3 Fall Feasts… commence.

And just as the 4 Spring Feasts were perfectly and completely fulfilled by Jesus in every detail during His first coming…

… I’m anticipating that Jesus will also perfectly and completely fulfill each of the details of the 3 Fall Feasts in His second coming!

We looked at the first of the Fall Feasts last time… the Feast of Trumpets (or Rosh Hashanah)… and we made a case for how this feast is likely to be fulfilled with the Rapture of the Church.

We also learned that the Feast of Trumpets started a ten-day period known as the Days of Awe … and during the Days of Awe (which I believe correspond with the 7-year tribulation period) … the people are given one last chance to repent and turn their hearts to God before their eternal fate would be sealed at the end of that time… on the Day of Atonement… which is the feast we’ll examine more closely this morning.

The Days of Awe this year came to their conclusion this past Wednesday… on the Day of Atonement… or also known as Yom Kippur.

If you were in our adult Bible study Wednesday, we dove into a lot of OT detail related to this most sacred and solemn day in the entire Jewish calendar…

but my goal this morning is to show you how the Day of Atonement is all about Jesus Jesus Jesus… and to give us some insight into how Yom Kippur points toward His second coming…

So please turn with me in your Bibles to Leviticus 23, where we’re going to start reading in verse 26… Once you’ve found your place, please stand with me as we honor the reading of God’s Word…

Leviticus 23:26–32 CSB

26 The Lord again spoke to Moses:

27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial; you are to present a food offering to the Lord.

28 On this particular day you are not to do any work, for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the Lord your God.

29 If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he is to be cut off from his people.

30 I will destroy among his people anyone who does any work on this same day.

31 You are not to do any work. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live.

32 It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”

[PRAY]

WHEN IS A FEAST NOT A FEAST?

Probably the first thing to note about this particular “feast” is that it’s not really a feast… it’s a FAST…

This is such a serious and solemn and sacred day… On this day, the High Priest must follow the Lord’s instructions PRECISELY… or else he dies… Typically, the high priest would seclude himself during the week leading up to the Day of Atonement to prepare himself for what he was about to do… Reviewing every move, every action, every word that he was to observe… Preparing his heart and mind through prayer and repentance… keeping himself away from the temptations of the world and the flesh.

On this day… on Yom Kippur… the Day of Atonement… the sins of the people must be atoned for… but what does the word “atonement” actually mean? Why was atonement necessary?

To make atonement is to cover over iniquity… atonement results in forgiveness and the removal of sin… in cleansing from impurity… in taking something that God considers to be “unclean” and making it “clean”… to consecrate (or devote or set apart) for the worship or service of God.