Life’s Little Reminders
Deut. 6:4-9
Introduction: Do you ever have those times when you just can’t remember something? What do you do about them? Post Its?
Have you ever noticed what short memories we have as people?
It seems to me that unless we have some kind of a reminder for different things, we never remember them.
Today many of us have calendar books we carry with us to help us remember, calendars on our fridges or mirrors as reminders of important appointments that day or coming up. Electronic devices.
We have national holidays as days of remembrance of people and events of the past that need to be remembered and celebrated.
In just a few weeks we will celebrate Lincoln’s, Washington’s and other presidents birthday’s because we need to remember the contributions and sacrifices they made for our benefit.
I think one of the problems we have in this country today is a short memory over the events that have taken place in our nation and what the cost was for many of them.
We forget the founding fathers and the ideals they established for the good of all the people. Because of this we have a nation filled with complacent voters who are willing to let their rights and responsibilities as citizens be taken from them as long as someone takes care of them. Application.I believe that God knew that if He didn’t do something to remind the people of the wonders He did for them and the wonders He had planned for them, that the people would forget Him, getting caught up in the struggles and successes of life. They would wander away after other things and allow them to be gods over their lives.
So, I believe God established the holidays and feasts as times of remembrance and promise of all that He would do and had done for them. When they faced times of trouble and distress these celebrations would remind them that God was there and He cared. They were the little reminders of God’s work and promises for them.
When we study the holy days and festivals of the Jews we get a picture of God’s relationship with them and with us. We also see the story of redemption played out through them.
Think about some of them: Passover was the deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. They were held captive to do the will of the Egyptians. Why did Jesus die at Passover? To deliver us from sin which held us captive to do its will.
At the Feast of Unleavened Bread the Jews celebrate the fact that God took them out of Egypt, setting them apart for Himself, by the need to make bread made with out yeast so they could hurry away from Egypt. The 1st fast food for travel.Peter tells us that we as believers have been set apart for God as a holy priesthood. We have put off the leaven of sin in our lives and called by God to be His own. 1 Pet. 2:4-5 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.The Feast of Firstfruits was a celebration of the abundance God bestows on His people and a giving part of that blessing back to God for His purposes. To us it teaches the purpose of salvation: fruitfulness for the kingdom of God by abiding in the true vine.
John 15:1-5 Look Together
The Feast of Weeks, Pentecost, points us to the fruit that we should bear as believers through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling and empowering us. Gal. 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.The Biblical holidays and feasts were instituted by God as a rememberence of all that God did for His people.
They were a little reminder that the people could use to remember for themselves that God loved and cared for them and they also could use teach their children about God through them. Deut. 6.
The holidays of Hanukkah and Purim were instituted by the Jews as reminders of God’s continued work in their lives by the miracles done and celebrated in them.
Application.
The Feasts and Holidays were an integral part of worship for the Jews and the early Church believers. They were celebrations of rememberence in honor of what God had done for His people. They were also a reminder that God would work for them in the coming days as well, as long as they remained faithful to God and His commands.
The feasts and holidays are not only celebrations of rememberence but also point to Christ and His work for us. Col. 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.The apostles celebrated the holidays and feasts remembering what Jesus had done to fulfill them. They encouraged others to do the same. 1 Cor. 5:6-8 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. Paul encourages the believers in Corinth, mostly Gentiles, to celebrate the Feast of Passover and even uses the symbols of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as an illustration to get his point across.
Acts 20:16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.
Do you think the holidays were still important to him?
Application.
In the first century there were numerous believing Jews. All of which celebrated the holidays and feasts God had established and the way Jesus had fulfilled them.
As new converts were brought into the church from non-Jews, the Gentiles, these were incorporated into Jewish worship. They and the Jews were considered one family. The believers considered themselves as being grafted into the vine. They did not consider themselves a new vine but part of the true vine.
Rom. 11:11-24 Look Together
The early believers were not called Christians until about 42 A.D. in Antioch. Acts 11:25-26 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. The word Christian means “an adherent of Christ.” This term was later used to separate the believing Jews from non-believing Jews. Ultimately it became the identity for the entire church.
The Bible makes it clear that any non-Jew who trusts Jesus as Lord and Savior becomes a child of God, equal partners with believing Jews in the Body of Christ. Rom. 3:21-31 Look TogetherAll are declared righteous by God without having to adopt any further Jewish distinctions. I say this because we are not required to celebrate the feasts and holidays as the Jews were, but we can learn a lot from them and gain a richness of understanding of God’s greatness as we see how they celebrated them in remembrance of what God had done for them.
By the 2nd century Gentiles had taken control of the church and began removing Jewish influences. There was a growing resentment toward non-believing Jews and their customs.
As the church grew it became increasingly Hellenized (Greek influenced) and Latinized (Roman influenced).
These groups focused on the resurrection and distanced themselves from Judaism, even changing dates, for Christ’s resurrection, from the Hebrew calendar of the 3rd day of Passover to Sunday, this is how Easter became separated from Passover.
For example, this year Passover is the 30th of March and Easter is the 4th of April. What day did Jesus rise from the dead? The 3rd day after the beginning of Passover. This means in reality we should be celebrating the Resurrection of Christ on Friday the 2nd of April.
The church of the 2nd century began to separate itself from its Jewish roots because of political correctness. Even though they did so God considers us one in the Body of Christ and a fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham of the blessing that would come from him to the world. Gal. 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. God has given us the little reminders in the scriptures of the feasts and holidays to show us that He was at work from the very beginning and is still at work today. There is much to learn from the holidays and feasts that the Jews celebrated.
It has been written in history of our nations that the Puritans, the first settlers in the new world, Pilgrims, recognized that fact and studied the feasts and holidays of the Hebrews. They deeply immersed themselves into the history and heritage of the Hebrews. It is even believed that they modeled the American Holiday of Thanksgiving after Sukkoth – the feast of Tabernacles.
So, as we go deeper into our study of the Jewish Feasts and Holidays let us remember how God worked in their lives and how Jesus fulfilled them in His coming and how some even point to His return again.
God has given us these little reminders to help us learn and grow so we can teach others about them and Him as well.
Eccl. 12:1-7 if time allows.
Benediction: Col. 2:7-8 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. Where was Paul going in such a hurry? What point in his ministry was this happening?
