1. Signs
Two preachers were on the roadside with a sign that read, "The End is Near - turn around now before it’s too late". A passing driver yelled "leave us alone you religious nuts". Then the preachers heard a loud splash. One preacher said to the other, "Do you think we should have just said "Bridge Out".
Sign in an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDERYESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN
Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?
Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS
Notice in a farmer's field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FORFREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.
Message on a leaflet:
IF YOU CANNOT READ, THIS LEAFLET WILL TELL YOUHOW TO GET LESSONS
On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ONTHE DOOR - THE BELL DOESN'T WORK)
2. Importance of “signs” – 1 Corinthians 1.22 (For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,)
3. Ultimate sign of Jesus – empty tomb
4. Other signs of Jesus
a. Prophecies and their fulfillment
b. 7 Feasts (Leviticus 23) –
1) All Point to Jesus
2) 4 Fulfilled; 3 yet to be
5. Three feasts lined up in a daily order at the time Jesus died – Passover – Friday; Unleavened Bread – Saturday (Sabbath); First Fruits -- Sunday
I. Passover: The King’s Redemption – 1 Corinthians 5.7
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
A. Original Purpose of Passover – Life for the Faithful
1. Enslaved in Egypt – Call and Leadership of Moses
2. 10th Plague – Lambs’ blood on doorposts; “Pass Over”; Chet & Chai
3. Freedom to serve God
B. Hidden Meanings in Passover
1. Egypt = Sin
2. Yeshua (Jesus) = Lamb – John 1.29
3. Redemption/Freedom to serve God – by the blood of the Lamb
27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26.27-28
II. Unleavened Bread: The King’s Righteousness
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5.6-8
A. Original Idea – Removing Leaven from Houses (Yeshua (Jesus) Cleansing his Father’s House by driving out the money-changers, etc.) – only used unleavened bread (Exodus 12.15)
B. Hidden Meanings
1. Sinless Body of Yeshua (Jesus) – Matthew 26.26
26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”
2. Suffering Body of Yeshua (Jesus) – Matzah – Isaiah 53.4-5
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
3. Submerged (Buried) Body of Yeshua (Jesus)
Some time ago "Reader’s Digest" told the story about a company who mailed out some special advertising business post cards with a mustard seed glued to it with the following caption that went something like this: "If you have faith as small as this mustard seed in our (particular product), you are guaranteed to get excellent results and be totally satisfied." -- Signed, The Management
A few months later one recipient of this promotional piece wrote back to the company and said, "You will be very interested to know that I planted the mustard seed you sent on your advertising card and it has grown into a very healthy bush producing wonderful tomatoes!" (Sometimes we grow things we didn’t expect, because we plant that wrong seeds)
23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12.23-25
4. Sabbath Body – Yeshua (Jesus) was in the Tomb on God’s “Day of Rest”
III. First Fruits: The King’s Resurrection
A. Original Intent – Celebration of Spring and God’s Replenishing the Earth
1. God Gives the Best
2. God Promises – More to Come – Gives to us out of love and concern; Baal out of manipulation
3. God Has first call on EVERYTHING – first sheaf to God
The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein, Psalm 24.1
4. Man’s willingness to Give to God – FIRST
B. Hidden Message
1. God Gave us His Best in Yeshua (Jesus) – Hebrews 1.1-12 (Mark in Bible)
2. Although Yeshua (Jesus) Died – He lives – forever
3. There is MORE to Come – WE will be raised to live forever!
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 1 Corinthians 15.20-23
SO What?
We have Redemption; Righteousness; Resurrection – So what?
“A father and son were raking leaves when they noticed something darting in and out of the piles. After careful effort they uncovered a chameleon. It was difficult to see among the brown leaves. It had blended with them by turning brown, too. After catching the little creature, they put it in a jar of green grass, where it immediately turned green. When they added some red berries, the chameleon began to take on that color.
Some people are chameleons in character; wherever you put them, they turn that color. Their thinking and their behavior depend on their environment” (Miller, p. 36). The conduct of Christians is not to be compromised. If we who are Christians compromise our conduct as being dependent upon our environment, then we fail to be obedient as God’s children (1 Peter 1:14). God calls us through Yeshua (Jesus) – not to blend in but to stand out!
We live lives of Redemption; Righteousness; Resurrection
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6.1-4
We are a type of First Fruits for others –
Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1.18
WARNING SIGNS
At an intersection, the green light changes to yellow; At the airport terminal the boarding call comes over the intercom; In a small Midwestern town the tornado siren screams; On the football field the two minute warning sounds;
In the Desert of Judea, a voice of one calling in the wilderness is heard declaring, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."
What does each of these have in common? They are signs or warnings that we need to prepare ourselves for what is coming.
