Shadows Part 1
PPT 1 Series title
PPT 2 Message Title What Do You See?
(Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Face_or_vase)
Do you see two faces or a vase?
It depends on what you focus on.
When it comes to certain biblical truths some people focus on the shadow and miss the truth.
That is where we are going this morning.
I have at least one more message in our lions series but am pausing that for now, and I am starting a new series today which I am simply calling "Shadows."
A shadow is a bare outline of a real thing, and it also is understood as a sphere of influence.
Everyone has a shadow.
Some shadows quickly move from us, some live with us for a long time.
Some people live in the shadow of another. Some people live in your shadow.
Shadows provide relief from heat.
Sin hides in the shadows.
The bible speaks of the shadow of God's protection.
There are songs about standing in the shadow of love, waiting for the heartache to come. In other words a love that is not real.
The bible speaks of the shadow of death.
The shadow of the Apostle Peter got people healed.
When we shadow someone we are following them secretly at a distance.
Some people box at shadows. (They have a lot of activity but accomplish nothing.)
We talk about the absence of a shadow of suspicion.
We can talk about the shadow of doubt hanging over a persons deeds thoughts or actions.
You can have a traumatic life event that shadows you for many years.
You get the idea.
Today we are going to use the labor day holiday and talk briefly on types and shadows. Specifically the Sabbath and Jewish feast days.
I have a sort video I want to show you about the power of a shadow and then we will continue.
PPT 3 shadow commercial
Your shadow follows everything you do, if your shadow was your little brother or sister, or child would you change some of the way you are living?
PPT 4 text
Col 2:16 Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day ?
Col 2:17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Let no man act as your judge in regards to food or drink or feast days or Sabbaths.
First food: Let no vegan judge you about eating meat, and don't you judge a vegan about abstaining from eating meat.
Let no Seventh Day Adventist judge you about going to church on Sunday, let no Messianic Jew judge you about keeping the feasts or worshipping on Sunday. Nor are you allowed to judge them for worshipping on Saturday. That is between them and God.
These things are shadows, but the substance belongs to Christ. We don't make a big deal about shadows, and many who do make a big deal about them miss the bigger more important truth.
What does that mean? I will try to explain as we go through this message.
First let's talk about the 7 main biblical festivals. It is important you realize these are not the Jewish feasts, but are called in the bible the Lord's feasts. There is a difference if something is a Jewish feast and something is a feast of the Lord. One belongs to a specific group of people, the other pertains to all. Am I saying that we should keep the Jewish feasts, yes but not the shadow of what they are, but what they are actually about.
PPT 5 text
1Co 5:7 Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
1Co 5:8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Here we have two of the OT feasts unleavened bread and Passover. Paul says we are to keep those feasts and in point of fact in some ways we are keeping and we have kept them. Notice in verse 5 he says you are unleavened. When a person gets saved, they are totally cleansed by God. Leaven is a type of sin in the bible. When God saves us spiritually we have kept the feast of unleavened bread.
The feast of Passover and unleavened bread occur at basically the same time. First is the Passover then the following seven days are the feast of unleavened bread. That is the shadow of a very important biblical truth. Passover first, unleavened bread second. Passover symbolizes salvation, we have passed from death to life, and now because we have been saved we remove the leaven from our lives. Leaven in the bible speaks of that which permeates and influences things. It is often used as a euphemism for sin. So the shadow is Passover with all it's rich rituals, followed by removing of leaven from the home, and the substance is salvation followed by cleaning up our lives. Not the other way around. You don't get saved because you have cleaned up, you get cleaned up because you got saved.
I want to make a couple of more important points about the feasts and then we will briefly talk about the Sabbath. The word we translate feasts is Mo'ed and it means appointed times. The Jews interpret that to mean the appointed times to have these feasts and celebrate them. Which is true, but again that is the shadow, the substance is that God has appointed certain things to happen and they are all prophesied about through these feasts.
As I said there are 7 feasts or appointed times. 4 occur early in the year with the beginning of the harvest, and 3 occur in the fall of the year with the end of the harvest.
The first four are Passover, Unleavened bread, first fruits, Pentecost. Shadows now substance
Passover = salvation, unleavened bread = removing leaven, first fruits = first believers, Pentecost is the beginning of the general harvest.
These things were appointed to happen at the start of the church age. Now for the fall feasts.
Trumpets, Day of Atonement, feast of Tabernacles. Shadows. The substance is that they prophesy and portray the rapture of the church, the beginning of the tribulation, the final judgment, and the celebration of salvation throughout eternity. The three feasts occur in the same month, between the first and the second is a period of 10 days. The Jews call this period the days of awe, and say that during those 10 days a person has the opportunity to get right with God before the doors are closed on the day of atonement. This pictures prophetically that following the rapture the world (and especially the Jews) have a short period of time before the second coming and the judgment seat of Christ. The feast of tabernacles is one that will be celebrated throughout eternity and is what we would call the Christian Thanksgiving Day. Small structures are built and special attention is given to thanking God for providing during our time in the wilderness of life.
Now since it is Labor Day (A day to honor and celebrate the contribution of workers). I thought I would explain the Sabbath day of rest and what it is a shadow of.
The shadow is not doing any work during a 24 hour period. The substance is that you don't do anything to earn salvation, it is a gift. Don't substitute the shadow for the substance!
PPT 5 text
Heb 4:4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work."
Heb 4:10 for anyone who enters God' rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
The writer of Hebrews is explaining what the Sabbath day of rest is really al about and it is very simple.
God created the world in 6 days and then He rested, when it says He rested it doesn't mean He needed to get a good nights sleep, because He was tired. It means it was finished. It was complete, nothing more to make for man and his world. No more plants, no more animals, no more bugs. Yes there would be variation in kind, but the world contained exactly everything it needed and nothing more could be added to it.
Every electronic marvel you wonder at is made from stuff God gave us at the creation of the world. His work of creation was absolutely, perfectly complete.
We cannot create, we can only improvise from what has been created.
The Sabbath and the day off from work is nothing more than the shadow, that what Jesus did for our salvation is absolutely, perfectly complete. That is why, in part, on the cross Jesus said, "It is finished." We don't need to nor can we add to what He did for us to be saved, any more than we can add to or improve God's creation.
Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, the shadow is don't work for one day a week, the substance is Jesus did all the work for your salvation. That is why we read this in the book of Hebrews:
PPT 6 text
Heb 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
Heb 4:10 for anyone who enters God' rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
Now watch this verse:
PPT 7
Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
That is an oxymoron: work hard to enter rest? Why do we have to labor to enter His rest? Because there is a natural propensity for man to observe the shadow and not the substance. We naturally want to earn that which can never be earned. Almost all religions other than authentic Christianity try to earn or deserve salvation. The Sabbath was meant to teach us that we don't earn it, we simply thank God for doing everything we need to have salvation.
PPT 8 Cup or faces illusion.
Catholicism - earns is by sacraments, good works, praying to Mary/saints. Confession to a priest, and extreme unction when they die.
Jehovah's witnesses - try to earn it by good works and knocking on doors.
Mormonism - must be a missionary for them for 2 years or else.
Islam - have to earn it.
Buddhism - they work their way up the ladder.
Hinduism - karma, and working your way up through reincarnation and different life forms till you get it right.
All work for salvation. Christianity works because of salvation not for salvation. We rest in the completed work of Jesus Christ.
Here is the gospel truth about salvation and works from the lips of Jesus:
John 6:27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Close: I tend to find satisfaction when I am doing good, and struggle for peace when I am not.
