Sermon Tone Analysis

THE EIGHT RUDIMENTS OF CELEBRATION

THE EIGHT FEASTS OR FESTIVALS OF ISRAEL

The Feast Of Weeks Or Pentecost

Leviticus 23:15-22

(festiv5.doc)

If you watch religious programming or are aware of the Charismatic~/Pentecostal movement, there is a lot of talk about Pentecost going on in the Christian community.

But are you aware that Pentecost has its roots and its meaning in an agricultural setting?

At the Lord's direction, Jewish farmers celebrated a Feast of Harvest.

In a tradition rich with symbolism, they recognized the Hand that had given them the harvest.

Many centuries later, the Lord chose this day to celebrate a new kind of harvest.

Fifty days after Passover week the Holy Spirit fell upon a small company of believers and then moved through the city of Jerusalem, bringing in another kind of crop:  men and women and children who were added to the body of Jesus Christ, the Church.

I am preaching a nine message series on the rudiments, skills, or principles of celebration.

*  God has been showing me that humanity needs celebration.*

*  He has been showing me that celebration is a very important part of the Christian life!*

*  He has been showing me that celebration is of special significance and importance to African-American Christians.*

Life is a struggle for everybody, no matter what your color or nationality, but for African-American people life is even more of a struggle because of the residual effects of slavery.

After we have been beat up and beat down all week; after we have struggled and striven to achieve life through material and earthly means, we need to take a break from the rat race and return to the human race by entering God's presence for a time of celebration.

The importance of celebration is illustrated in the Old Testament in Leviticus the 23rd chapter.

Five messages ago, we began to deal with the eight feasts or festivals which God commanded Israel to celebrate.

There is a major rudiment or skill which is taught in each festival, which will yield a principle that we can learn and apply to our own modern worship celebrations.

In the first two messages, we covered the feast or festival of the Sabbath.

The major rudiment, skill, or principle of celebration that we covered was *resting* from our worldly labors.

In the third message, we studied the festival of the Passover.

The major rudiment of celebration that we covered was *remembering *God’s redemption.

In the fourth message, we studied the feast or festival of unleavened bread.

The major rudiment of celebration that we covered was *removing* all sin, worldliness, and filthiness of the flesh from our lives.

In the last message, we studied the Feast of First Fruits.

The major rudiment of celebration that we covered was *rendering* sacrifice to God to thank Him for His blessings.

/(Let's move on to the next major festival on God's Calendar for Israel.

Would you turn to Leviticus 23:15-22.

Would you follow along silently, as I read aloud for us.

The next major rudiment, skill, or principle of celebration is:)/

 

V.

REJOICING.

The next major feast or festival was the Feast of Weeks, also called the Feast of Harvest, and the *day* of firstfruits (which is *not* to be confused with the *Feast* of Firstfruits).

It was celebrated seven complete weeks, or fifty days, after Passover (Lev.

23:15,16; Deut.

16:9); therefore, it was later given the name Pentecost (/pente/ in Greek is "fifty," and the festival took place fifty days after the presentation of the sheaf of first fruits that was waved before Jehovah).

Following the Feast of Firstfruits there was no other festival for seven weeks.

*It took the whole seven weeks to harvest their crops.*

*As there was a feast to acknowledge the beginning of harvest, so there was a feast to acknowledge the end of harvest.*

"According to Exodus 9:31-32, barley was the first of the grain; flax was second; wheat was third."[1]

*This festival required a special journey to Jerusalem for all the men of the land.*

There were three such gatherings.

This was the second great gathering of men (the first is for the Feast of Unleavened Bread; the second is for Pentecost; and the last is for the Feast of Tabernacles).

The able-bodied men were to be present at the sanctuary, and a special sacrifice was offered (Lev.

23:15-22; Num.

28:26-31) (Holman Bible Dictionary).

"The new meal offering had a number of disguising features (*/notice the chart towards the bottom of your outline/*):

 

                /Firstfruits/                                  /Pentecost/

 

        Barley.

Wheat.

Sheaf of grain.

Two loaves of bread.

No leaven.

Leavened bread.

First of the harvest.

Completion of the Harvest

        Wave Offering.

Wave Offering."[2]

/(Let’s review some of the characteristics of this festival and their application for our times.)/

\\         "For centuries Israel was an agricultural people depending for her sustenance on the produce of the land.

Pentecost was the Feast of the Ingathering of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, a thanksgiving festival in which Israel expressed her dependence on God for harvest and daily bread."[3]

At this time, the Lord was credited as the source of rain and fertility (Jer.

5:24) (Holman Bible Dictionary).

We, likewise, should thank God for the harvest.

“What harvest?” you ask.

The harvest of souls which we are presently enjoying!!!  Any harvest of souls that we enjoy, comes from God’s rain and fertility.

*One plants, another waters, but God gives the increase.*

Therefore, let us rejoice when people get saved!!!

        We should also thank God for the daily bread that He provides in the Word of God!!!  We are sustained, day by day, by the bread of the Word of God.

The promises of the Word of God sustain us when we feel abandoned by friends, family, and by God Himself!!!

 

        "...On the Day of Pentecost `two wave-loaves' were brought to the Lord, loaves made of fine flour of the new wheat and baked with leaven.

Of all the cereal offerings, the wave-loaves were the only ones baked with leaven.

Why leaven?

And why two wave-loaves?

Leaven is symbolic of sin.

The Passover bread was unleavened because it signified the sinless body of Christ, who being without sin became sin for our sakes.

But the two wave-loaves were symbolic of Israel and the coming Church in whom there was the leaven of sin."[4]

        “Pentecost of the old dispensation was pointing to the time when Jew and Gentile should come to know and worship the one Holy God of Israel.

*Finally there came the Pentecost of Acts 2.*  The church of Christ, made up of 3,000 Jews and some Gentile proselytes, was born.

In Christ alone this vision becomes a reality.

Today saved Jews and Gentiles are united in one church, of which the Lord Jesus Christ is both the cornerstone and head.”[5]

Ephesians 2:11-13, "Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called `Uncircumcision' by the so-called `Circumcision,' /which is/ performed in the flesh by human hands--/remember/ that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

*But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ*."

\\ Ephesians 2:19-22, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, *Christ Jesus Himself being the corner /stone/*, in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit."

Now we are beginning to see the meaning of the *two* wave-loaves baked with leaven.

For the church of Christ, of which both Jew and Gentile are members, is *not* without sin.

It contains leaven, the symbol of sin, reminding us to *not* look for perfection in the church, but in *Him*, the perfect Son of God, in whom there is no leaven of sin."[6] “*The flesh still dwells within us:  the presence of the Spirit does not expel or alter it, although by grace its power is no longer dominant*.”[7]

*We must get a hold of this truth.*

I see so many people constantly disappointed in Jesus Christ, because they expect some kind of sinless perfection from people in the church.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus Christ uses His children¾in His church¾in many ways to transmit His love and carry out His will, but these children nor His church is sinless or perfect.

*When we are looking for perfection, we must look beyond the Church to its Savior, Jesus Christ the sinless Son of God!!!*

 

/(We can see the sinless Son of God in the sacrifices that were offered along with the wave loaves.

No offering that we offer would be accepted, if Jesus had not opened up the way into the throne room of heaven by offering Himself!!!)/

 

"These sacrifices picture the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

·        The burnt-offering pictures complete consecration--He gave Himself completely.

·        The sin-offering, of course, speaks of our Lord Jesus dying for our sins.

·        And the peace-offering--the fact that Jesus, through His death, has made peace with God."[8]