Feast Of Firstfruits (Pt.3) Series

I wanted us to experience an example of understanding that the Bible is the unified story that leads to Christ, by having a deeper understanding of the significance of the 7 Feasts, to us, as Christians with this in mind:

Understand the Hebrew calendar date assigned to each

Historical significance

Scripture that guides us through this journey

How each feast leads us to Jesus

What it means to us as Christians

Here are the 7 Feasts as laid out in Leviticus Chapter 23:

Passover

Feast of Unleavened bread

Feast of Firstfruits

Feast of Weeks / Day of Pentecost

Feast of Trumpets

Day of Atonement

Feast of Tabernacles

Prophecy has already been fulfilled in the 1st four Feasts.

Prophecy is yet to be fulfilled with the last three Feasts.

In considering Passover, we re-looked at Jesus as our Passover Lamb. The unblemished sacrifice for us.

He suffered and was crucified for our sin!

When we delved into The Feast of Unleavened Bread, we learned that leavened bread represents sin in our lives, and with the Unleavened bread, sin has been removed.

Passover is observed on the 14th day of Nisan (NY-san) the 1st month of the Jewish calendar.

It is a reminder of the 10th plague on Egypt and how God delivered the Israelites from slavery, out of Egypt, AND, how we as followers of Christ, are delivered from the slavery of sin.

Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th of Nisan (NY-san) and continues through the 21st day.

Our key passage of the series is:

Colossians 2:16–17 “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” (revisit this at closing)

The key verse in Passover message of part one was:

John 1:29 “The next day John (the baptizer) saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

The key passage for Feast of Unleavened Bread was:

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

BODY

This brings us the the 3rd Festival, the Feast of First Fruits.

Today’s key verse is 1 Cor 15:20, and we’ll get there eventually.

There is so much to cover here, that I can see a series on First Fruits coming to a Cross Pointe Church near you!

But today, I will focus on three main ideas:

Kinds of First Fruits

What First Fruits mean to God

How Jesus is our First Fruit

Stand with me as we honor God while reading His word:

Leviticus 23:1, 9-14 (read from my bible)

I think it important for us to realize that with the first two feasts, the Israelites are still in Egypt, as God commands them through Moses and Aaron, of the feasts they are to observe.

But now, they are in the wilderness, they have escaped slavery, and are making their way to the promised land.

With that in mind, let me re-read Leviticus 23:9–11 “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.”

and Leviticus 23:12–14 “And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah (E-fa) of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.”

Last week, when we examined a passage in Malachi, we considered that God’s word says “bring me” not give me, and that is because we cannot give what is not ours.

Lev 23:10 says when you come into the land “which I give to you”…you shall “bring”. Think about it, God doesn’t need any part of that harvest, now does He? He is a jealous God and He wants our gratitude!