A Celebration Like No Other Series

INTRODUCTION

ILL: There’s a story about an old missionary couple who had been working in Africa for years and were returning to New York City to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid.

They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions.

No one paid much attention to them. They watched the fanfare that accompanied the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a glimpse of the great man.

As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife, “Something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us.”

“Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way,” his wife said.

“I can’t help it; it doesn’t seem right.”

When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of the President’s arrival, but no one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East side, hoping the next day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.

That night, the man’s spirit broke. He said to his wife, “I can’t take this; God is not treating us fairly.”

His wife replied, “Why don’t you go into the bedroom and tell that to the Lord?”

A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was completely different. His wife asked, “Dear, what happened?”

“The Lord settled it with me,” he said. “I told him how bitter I was that the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said, ‘But you’re not home yet!’”

*** From Talking To My Father, by Ray Stedman. Barbour & Co. 1997. https://tonycooke.org/stories-and-illustrations/not-home-yet/

This is not our home! But there WILL be a homecoming for those of us who are in Christ Jesus… and there will be a HUGE and EXCITING celebration on that day when it comes! It will be A Celebration Like No Other!

The past few weeks, we’ve been examining the 3 Fall Festivals from Leviticus 23… We’ve been looking at and anticipating how each of the Fall Festivals are to be fulfilled in the 2nd coming of Christ… just as each of the Spring Festivals were fulfilled by His 1st coming.

The first 2 Fall Festivals… Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur… the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement… were both pretty solemn and serious observances…

This final festival … the Feast of Tabernacles (Booths)… is the complete opposite of the prior 2 festivals…

This final festival is an exciting time of CELEBRATION!

Please turn in your Bibles to Leviticus 23… and let’s read about the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles…

Leviticus 23:33–44 CSB

33 The Lord spoke to Moses:

34 “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters to the Lord begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days.

35 There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work.

36 You are to present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you are not to do any daily work.

37 “These are the Lord’s appointed times that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting food offerings to the Lord, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day.

38 These are in addition to the offerings for the Lord’s Sabbaths, your gifts, all your vow offerings, and all your freewill offerings that you give to the Lord.

39 “You are to celebrate the Lord’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day.

40 On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees—palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

41 You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; celebrate it in the seventh month.