Shadows Part 1

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.