Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House on the Prairie

“Sunday … began at sundown on Saturday night.

Then everyone stopped every kind of work or play.

Supper was solemn.

After supper, Grandpa’s father read aloud a chapter of the Bible, while everyone sat straight and still in his chair.

Then they all knelt down, and their father said a long prayer.

When he said, “Amen,” they got up from their knees and each took a candle and went to bed.

They must go straight to bed, with no playing, laughing or even talking.

Sunday morning they ate a cold breakfast, because nothing could be cooked on Sunday.

Then they all… walked to church… They must walk slowly and solemnly looking straight ahead.

They must not joke or laugh, or even smile… In church, Grandpa and his brother must sit perfectly still for two… hours and listen to the sermon.

They dare not fidget… They dared not even turn their heads… They must… never for one instant take their eyes from the preacher.

When church was over, they walked slowly home.

They might talk on the way, but they must not talk loudly and they must never laugh or smile.

“

Old Covenant Celebrations God Established

The Passover - Celebrated God Delivering Israel from Death

God told His people to celebrate the Passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month.

The Passover is described in verses 4 and 5.

The Passover Festival originated in Egypt.

God sent 10 plagues on Egypt to deliver His people from slavery.

The last plague was the death of the firstborn.

When God sent that final plague, He told His people to eat a special meal together, the Passover meal.

That meal included a Passover lamb, and God said that whoever put the blood of a lamb on his doorpost would be safe from the plague of death.

The Hebrew slaves put the blood on their doorposts, God delivered them from death, and God told His people to share that meal together on the same night every year to remember His delivering them from death.

The Festival of Unleavened Bread - Celebrated God Delivering Israel from Slavery

The Festival of Unleavened Bread is described in verses 6-8.

God instituted the Festival of Unleavened Bread when His people were about to exit Egypt.

The bread was unleavened because they were in a hurry to get out of Egypt, so they didn’t take the time to add leaven (yeast) to the bread and wait for it to rise.

God told them to observe the seven-day Festival of Unleavened Bread every year.

He also told them to say to one another during that festival that God brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand.

They celebrated God delivering them from slavery.

The Festival of Firstfruits - Celebrated God’s Gift of the Coming Harvest

The Festival of Firstfruits is described in verses 9-14.

The Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were in the spring when the harvest began to ripen.

During the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the people took the first of the harvest that had ripened, waved it before the Lord in thanks, and gave an offering to the Lord as an expression of thanks for the harvest that was coming.

That ceremony was the Festival of Firstfruits, and the people observed it during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

Since the Festival of Unleavened Bread lasted for a week, a Sabbath day, or Saturday, would have been during that week.

The Festival of Firstfruits was observed on the day after that Sabbath, on Sunday.

The Festival of Weeks - Celebrated God’s Gift of the Harvest

In verse 15 God said, “You are to count seven complete week starting from the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the presentation offering.”

Seven weeks is 49 days after the Festival of Firstfruits.

The next day was called the Festival of Weeks, though it is not named in .

The Bible also refers to it as Pentecost.

The word “Pentecost” means 50, and Pentecost was 50 days after the Festival of Firstfruits.

Pentecost was at the end of the harvest, and the purpose of Pentecost was to celebrate God’s gift of the harvest that the people had gathered by that time.

The Festival of Trumpets - Was a Signal of the Coming New Year

The timing of the New Year in the old covenant period seems strange to most of us.

For us, the New Year falls on January 1. God’s people in the old covenant period celebrated a religious New Year on the first day of the month Nisan in the spring, and a civil New Year on the first of the month Tishri in the fall.

God refers to the civil New Year in verses 23-25.

The New Year was signaled by blowing trumpets to gather the people and by presenting an offering to the Lord.

Note that God said the celebration of the New Year was to focus on HIm.

In the ancient Near East all kinds of superstitions were associated with the New Year, much like today.

God told His people to worship Him on New Year’s Day.

The Day of Atonement - Celebrated God Taking Away Sin

The Day of Atonement came 10 days after the Festival of Trumpets.

If you remember, the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus is devoted exclusively to the Day of Atonement, and God again commanded the Day of Atonement in chapter 23, verses 26-32.

Clearly, the Day of Atonement was a high and holy day.

The Day of Atonement was on the tenth day of the seventh month.

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month was the Festival of Booths.

The Festival of Booths - Celebrated God’s Provision in the Wilderness

The Festival of Booths is described in some detail in verses 33-43.

Sometimes the Festival of Booths is called the Festival of Tabernacles.

the Jews call it Succoth because succoth is the Hebrew word translated “booths” or “tabernacles” The best translation is probably something like “hut” or “shack”, because the booths were just temporary shelters made from limbs, sticks, and branches.

God told His people to build shelters and live in them during the Festival of Booths to remember that they had lived in the wilderness for 40 years and God had provided for them throughout those years.

So Why is This Stuff Important?

As a reminder, the first reason is that it’s in the Bible.

God has preserved these words through the centuries and the church has passed them down from generation to generation.

Second, the old covenant festivals are important because of what God did in salvation history during those festivals and how that history relates to us.

Amazingly, God timed the most important events in Jesus’ saving work to coincide with festivals He had commanded His people to observe over 1,400 years earlier.

Let’s take a look at how the festivals and Jesus’ life line up.

In the Passover We See that Jesus Is Our Passover Lamb

To prepare for the Passover meal, each family killed a Passover lamb.

They killed the lambs on Friday, since Passover began at sundown on Friday afternoon.

Of the 365 days God could have chosen for Jesus’ crucifixion, God arranged for Him to be crucified by the decision of wicked men on the Friday afternoon when the lambs were killed in preparation for the Festival of Passover.

God was teaching a lesson.

Jesus is our Passover Lamb.

Just as God delivered the Hebrew slaves in Egypt from death when they put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost, God also delivers every person from eternal death when they put their faith in Jesus the Lamb of God who shed His blood for our sin.

The preaching of the apostles communicated that message verbally, as does the whole New Testament.

The timing God arranged for the death of Jesus communicates that message symbolically.

God arranged for Jesus, the Son of God and the Lamb of God, to be killed at the time of the Passover to fulfill that part of his old covenant commands.

The timing of the death of Jesus is nothing short of a divine miracle and demonstrates that our God is sovereign over time.

In the Festival of Unleavened Bread We See that Jesus Delivers Us from Slavery

The Festival of Unleavened Bread commemorated God’s deliverance of His people from slavery.

Jesus delivers from slavery all people who put their faith in Him.

In Jesus said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin,” but “if the Son sets you free, you really will be free” (vv.

34-36).

says Jesus “has set us free from our sins by his blood”.

Jesus delivers us from slavery to sin, self, and the Devil.

Jesus fulfills the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

In the Festival of Firstfruits We See that Jesus Is the Firstfruits of Our Resurrection

Passover was on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, and the Festival of Unleavened Bread began on the day after Passover, on the fifteenth day of Nisan.

During the week of the Festival of Unleavened Bread a Sabbath would have occurred.

The Sabbath was a Saturday, and the next day was a Sunday.

When Jesus was crucified at the beginning of Passover, the day of Passover, the fourteenth of Nisan, was also a Sabbath, a Saturday.

The next day was Sunday.

That day began the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and in the case of the year Jesus was crucified that Sunday was also the Festival of Firstfruits because it was the day after a Sabbath during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

That Sunday was the Festival of Firstfruits, and it was the day Jesus was resurrected.

During the Festival of Firstfruits the Jews thanked God for the firstfruits and the coming harvest.

Jesus rose from the dead on that day; He was the first to rise from the dead.

Therefore,