WEBVTT 00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:13.300 Hello and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. 00:00:13.519 --> 00:00:14.839 Thank you so much for listening. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:16.199 We're startup church. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:23.460 We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. 00:00:23.539 --> 00:00:32.299 And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:36.439 You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:40.420 We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. 00:00:47.409 --> 00:00:48.009 All right. 00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:49.609 Hey, it's so good to be with you guys. 00:00:49.789 --> 00:00:55.649 I'm Joel, as Jaren said, and yeah, I do the thread stuff, but I wanted to talk a little bit about my family. 00:00:55.990 --> 00:00:58.490 It was, that was like the best communion I've had in a long time. 00:00:59.390 --> 00:01:06.349 What I mean by that is we still use like the crinkly cups, you know, and that the bread was good. 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:06.549 Yeah. 00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:07.590 That stuff in the cups. 00:01:08.650 --> 00:01:09.290 Like, yeah. 00:01:09.390 --> 00:01:10.129 What is it? 00:01:10.230 --> 00:01:10.969 Like, what do you mean? 00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:13.989 I guess, you know, in the wilderness, like, what is it? 00:01:14.629 --> 00:01:14.769 Yeah. 00:01:15.049 --> 00:01:16.250 But that's really, it was cool. 00:01:16.310 --> 00:01:16.689 That was good. 00:01:16.769 --> 00:01:16.870 Yeah. 00:01:16.870 --> 00:01:17.349 It was tasty. 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:18.109 And it was good. 00:01:18.230 --> 00:01:20.810 It was a good time of reflection as well. 00:01:21.609 --> 00:01:21.930 Refreshing. 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:25.750 But it's so good to be with you guys. 00:01:26.129 --> 00:01:27.969 Let me see if I can get this stuff to work here. 00:01:29.010 --> 00:01:29.290 Hey. 00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:29.810 All right. 00:01:29.870 --> 00:01:30.010 Hey. 00:01:30.629 --> 00:01:31.510 This is my family. 00:01:31.950 --> 00:01:33.390 We were up in the Upper Peninsula. 00:01:33.590 --> 00:01:35.170 We were in Marquette all week. 00:01:35.250 --> 00:01:36.769 We actually just got back last night. 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:40.469 And Jaren was like, you can preach, you know, a month ago. 00:01:40.650 --> 00:01:41.730 And I was like, I don't know. 00:01:41.849 --> 00:01:46.969 I'll be, I'll be like, that's a lot of driving, but absolutely I want to be with you guys and hang out. 00:01:47.290 --> 00:01:48.730 And yeah, and it's cool. 00:01:48.790 --> 00:01:49.629 It's cool to see the church. 00:01:49.730 --> 00:01:50.549 It's cool to see the church. 00:01:50.609 --> 00:01:51.469 You guys are in a different location. 00:01:51.569 --> 00:01:54.390 I came a couple of years ago to see that the church is growing. 00:01:54.390 --> 00:02:01.909 You know, we, I planted the church in Lansing and it was very small when it started and it grew and grew. 00:02:02.049 --> 00:02:04.290 We had all kinds of different facilities over the years. 00:02:04.829 --> 00:02:09.090 And now we have a really cool church building, a church of a hundred and all that stuff. 00:02:09.169 --> 00:02:19.949 And so it's, it's so cool to be at this part of the journey for a church to, to feel like a small family, to have the lay family band lead you in worship, you know, like all of this, like this is special stuff. 00:02:19.949 --> 00:02:26.409 And, and I hope that you enjoy every phase of what it is to be a church planting in a church and all that. 00:02:26.550 --> 00:02:27.550 It's such a great adventure. 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:28.550 Amen. 00:02:28.550 --> 00:02:29.310 And amen. 00:02:29.430 --> 00:02:30.270 So this is my family though. 00:02:30.370 --> 00:02:35.310 My wife, Beth, my daughter Genevieve, my daughter, Amelia, G we call Genevieve G. 00:02:35.430 --> 00:02:39.629 She's, she's going to play her senior year this year. 00:02:39.710 --> 00:02:45.150 She'll be a senior in high school and, and she's actually getting recruited by Kalamazoo College to play. 00:02:45.150 --> 00:02:49.069 So I don't know. 00:02:50.530 --> 00:02:50.969 Yeah. 00:02:51.090 --> 00:02:55.610 And, and Jaren's been helping trainers sometimes and coming to games and, and bringing the girls. 00:02:55.669 --> 00:02:56.650 It's, it means so much. 00:02:56.830 --> 00:02:57.650 So amen. 00:02:58.789 --> 00:02:59.229 Amen. 00:02:59.449 --> 00:03:03.229 So yeah, I, I love the small churches in our fellowship. 00:03:03.550 --> 00:03:04.430 There's a lot of them. 00:03:05.150 --> 00:03:11.650 And, and so I help cope, co-plan the small church conference, which Jaren and Bianca spoke at last year. 00:03:11.650 --> 00:03:16.550 And I just really have a heart to help small churches grow as, you know, being in Lansing. 00:03:16.650 --> 00:03:26.370 So I led the church in Lansing for over 20 years and now I'm moved into this teacher role and I'm working with Thread and I brought stickers if you guys want. 00:03:26.449 --> 00:03:32.289 Here's my, that's like shameless pandering. 00:03:32.870 --> 00:03:35.270 There's, there's not a lot of things I wouldn't do for a sticker. 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:36.889 I don't know if you feel the same way. 00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:55.030 But, but it's been so cool, as Jaren said, working on the content, all the, you know, when you guys read the, the daily devotionals, kids do kids church, some of the background material for the sermons, all that stuff is, that's my full-time job is to write all those things, to create the app, to make the portal, the website. 00:03:55.189 --> 00:04:04.590 And it's really neat to see that you can serve God, you know, as a campus intern or as a church leader or as a, as a teacher, there's a lot of different ways to serve God and his kingdom. 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:06.610 They don't have to be full-time jobs. 00:04:06.889 --> 00:04:11.469 I know that in a small church, you guys probably have so many hats that you wear and different ways that you serve. 00:04:11.990 --> 00:04:14.030 That's really special and, and it's awesome. 00:04:14.129 --> 00:04:16.269 So, but I hope that you guys are enjoying Thread. 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:25.209 I'm here, so if you have any feedback, I'd love to hear what you think, any encouragement or any, you know, critical feedback, like we need this or whatever. 00:04:25.589 --> 00:04:26.310 I'm all for it. 00:04:26.430 --> 00:04:28.189 We want to make it better all the time, amen? 00:04:28.870 --> 00:04:32.970 You guys are starting a new series called God's Nation Formed. 00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:35.250 And it's all about formation. 00:04:35.870 --> 00:04:43.730 And that might be a new word for some of you, but it's really an ancient concept in scripture and in church history. 00:04:45.329 --> 00:04:47.430 And do I need to put this on or am I good? 00:04:48.110 --> 00:04:48.550 Okay. 00:04:49.170 --> 00:04:51.670 Yeah, I want to be on the Kalamazoo Church podcast. 00:04:52.009 --> 00:04:53.810 There we go. 00:04:53.930 --> 00:04:54.089 Okay. 00:04:55.550 --> 00:04:56.990 The Kalamazoo Church has a podcast. 00:04:56.990 --> 00:04:57.569 It's great. 00:04:59.170 --> 00:05:00.689 It's just as good as the preaching. 00:05:01.550 --> 00:05:02.629 That's what it is. 00:05:03.949 --> 00:05:04.970 It's the preaching. 00:05:07.910 --> 00:05:09.050 And so, did I get my thing? 00:05:09.050 --> 00:05:09.470 Here we go. 00:05:09.850 --> 00:05:18.389 And so, this series that you guys are going to get into is all about how God took his people from slavery when they had nothing. 00:05:18.509 --> 00:05:24.470 Like imagine 400 years, generation after generation after generation of being slaves in Egypt. 00:05:24.470 --> 00:05:27.910 They had no identity, no laws, no culture. 00:05:28.250 --> 00:05:31.569 All of the things that make a people a people were missing. 00:05:32.230 --> 00:05:35.470 And so, they can't just cross the Red Sea and, hey, we're a people now. 00:05:35.589 --> 00:05:38.810 They needed to be formed in all of those ways. 00:05:39.569 --> 00:05:41.069 And so, God formed all those things. 00:05:41.129 --> 00:05:48.790 But where does God choose to form this nation of slaves with no identity into his people? 00:05:49.370 --> 00:05:53.509 He chooses to do it in the wilderness, in the desert. 00:05:53.509 --> 00:05:58.750 And so, Israel, they thought they were just wandering around in circles lost for 40 years. 00:05:59.290 --> 00:06:07.709 But God was using that time of disorientation, loneliness, scarcity to form them. 00:06:08.589 --> 00:06:18.529 And so, if you've been feeling down or confused or maybe even a little faithless, then this is going to be a great series for you, these next sermons. 00:06:18.529 --> 00:06:29.110 Because you'll get to discover that in that disorientation, in those feelings of lostness that we have sometimes and maybe don't want to admit, God forms us. 00:06:29.910 --> 00:06:32.990 He helps us to discover who we are as his people. 00:06:33.370 --> 00:06:33.629 Amen? 00:06:34.069 --> 00:06:37.050 And so, in the app, there are great resources. 00:06:37.269 --> 00:06:39.790 I try to make them a little different every time. 00:06:39.910 --> 00:06:44.509 And so, if you haven't done the daily devotionals or you're like, oh, what am I doing with this app? 00:06:44.829 --> 00:06:45.490 Check it out. 00:06:45.490 --> 00:06:48.829 There's actually an interview about spiritual formation. 00:06:48.970 --> 00:06:51.209 Sounds like you guys will do some of that stuff even this Wednesday. 00:06:52.129 --> 00:06:57.629 Every week, there's an interview with a different spiritual formation expert in our fellowship of churches. 00:06:57.829 --> 00:06:58.430 Really cool. 00:06:58.949 --> 00:07:00.709 The daily devotionals get pretty creative. 00:07:00.930 --> 00:07:02.550 There's some unique things in there. 00:07:03.389 --> 00:07:11.889 And then, for families, instead of a weekly family devotional, there's a daily family worship time. 00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:13.990 And there's instructions on how to do it. 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:17.410 It's about 10 minutes, probably like before you put the kids to bed. 00:07:17.670 --> 00:07:18.490 You gather. 00:07:18.689 --> 00:07:20.870 You sing like four verses of a song. 00:07:21.089 --> 00:07:22.290 Every day, it's different. 00:07:22.410 --> 00:07:23.629 You just reflect on one scripture. 00:07:23.750 --> 00:07:25.610 There's no teaching, but it's just like this. 00:07:25.730 --> 00:07:29.029 It's really, really cool, immersive family worship time. 00:07:29.110 --> 00:07:33.310 We've done it for seasons in our family's life, and it's been really cool. 00:07:34.110 --> 00:07:36.470 And then, there's some great stuff for small groups as well. 00:07:37.230 --> 00:07:40.029 For this message, let's get into it here. 00:07:40.410 --> 00:07:44.670 You can follow along if you want to take a picture of that or don't take a picture of it, scan it. 00:07:47.050 --> 00:07:48.230 You're over my age. 00:07:48.290 --> 00:07:49.290 Don't take a picture of this. 00:07:50.550 --> 00:07:51.209 Take a link. 00:07:51.529 --> 00:07:52.430 And you can follow along. 00:07:52.490 --> 00:07:53.670 There's going to be a lot of slides. 00:07:53.790 --> 00:07:54.709 I know you woke up today. 00:07:54.790 --> 00:07:55.670 You were like, it's summer. 00:07:56.089 --> 00:08:01.629 I could go to the beach or I could go to church and hear a deep dive lesson on Leviticus chapter 23. 00:08:01.970 --> 00:08:04.129 And you chose that unknowingly. 00:08:04.689 --> 00:08:08.870 But this might help you as we get into this to check it out later. 00:08:08.870 --> 00:08:13.189 I did this lesson as a congregational teaching day for the Chicago church. 00:08:13.470 --> 00:08:17.290 And it's kind of like a little bit of a thread bonus lesson. 00:08:18.149 --> 00:08:24.269 And we're going to take this deep dive into something that maybe it's unexpected. 00:08:24.490 --> 00:08:26.430 Like, you think about God formed Israel. 00:08:26.589 --> 00:08:27.870 What does a nation need? 00:08:28.230 --> 00:08:32.590 What does God's people need to be God's people and to thrive? 00:08:33.090 --> 00:08:37.070 And one of the things that God formed was joy. 00:08:38.450 --> 00:08:45.090 God wanted his people to be a joyful people. 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:55.029 And I'm starting to realize this as I get older that joy is actually not the default mode for most people. 00:08:55.190 --> 00:08:57.029 You think everybody wants to be happy. 00:08:57.549 --> 00:08:58.570 Do they? 00:08:59.230 --> 00:09:01.590 I don't know about that. 00:09:01.889 --> 00:09:03.250 I don't know if that's true. 00:09:03.250 --> 00:09:08.409 I think we actually have to be pretty intentional about being joyful. 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:15.850 Grouchiness, criticalness, that's an easier way of operating for most people. 00:09:16.389 --> 00:09:22.190 And so just off the bat, I want you to think before we get into Leviticus here, how's your joy? 00:09:23.990 --> 00:09:26.669 Are you happy in Christ? 00:09:27.090 --> 00:09:29.450 Are you a joyful person? 00:09:32.669 --> 00:09:35.830 You know, maybe we don't even really think those questions matter so much. 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:37.029 Like, does it really matter? 00:09:37.090 --> 00:09:39.330 I'm just plugging away at life. 00:09:39.909 --> 00:09:49.629 But I think you're going to see this today that joy, celebration, happiness, peace, even rest, those things really matter to God. 00:09:51.070 --> 00:09:58.870 God wants your experience in this life that he's given you to be one that's full of joy. 00:10:00.389 --> 00:10:04.370 Okay, so how many of us have ever tried to read the Bible cover to cover? 00:10:04.690 --> 00:10:06.850 Start in Genesis, get all the way through. 00:10:06.990 --> 00:10:07.710 How many have tried? 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:08.850 How many did it? 00:10:10.129 --> 00:10:11.370 Okay, you guys are fighters. 00:10:11.529 --> 00:10:11.970 That's good. 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:24.570 What happens a lot of times is you start reading, you're going, and then you get towards the end of Exodus, you get into Leviticus, and you're like, I need some Gospel of John in my life. 00:10:24.730 --> 00:10:26.730 Like, I'm going to skip. 00:10:26.850 --> 00:10:27.990 I can't do it, okay? 00:10:28.309 --> 00:10:30.450 And so that's exactly where we're going to hang out today. 00:10:30.450 --> 00:10:34.169 And all of the scriptures are on the slides. 00:10:34.289 --> 00:10:36.929 Hopefully they'll show up well as we get into this. 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:38.929 But we're going to talk about joy. 00:10:39.049 --> 00:10:42.549 We're going to talk about having a joy-filled calendar. 00:10:44.389 --> 00:10:47.970 And we're going to read these tougher passages or actually kind of go through it. 00:10:48.409 --> 00:10:56.370 I think this week, if you get a chance to read all of Leviticus 23 on your own, hopefully a bunch of stuff will fire for you. 00:10:56.470 --> 00:10:57.330 Like, oh, this makes sense. 00:10:59.230 --> 00:11:03.990 But one of the things when you get into the tough passages, so let's say you decide, I'm going to do it this time. 00:11:04.049 --> 00:11:05.549 I'm going to read Genesis through Revelation. 00:11:06.070 --> 00:11:06.990 You get into Leviticus. 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:19.370 It's actually, I think, it's fine to skip it and come back when you can really get into it because I think you have to really lean in and use more imagination in those tougher parts. 00:11:20.070 --> 00:11:23.889 Like the genealogies and the laws, the parts we want to skip. 00:11:23.889 --> 00:11:30.049 If you can actually lean in and use imagination, law and imagination, those things go together. 00:11:30.470 --> 00:11:33.809 It really helps to make the text come to life. 00:11:34.350 --> 00:11:35.470 Imagine yourself being there. 00:11:35.570 --> 00:11:41.370 So we're going to talk about these holy days and festivals, these times of joy that are in Leviticus. 00:11:42.350 --> 00:11:50.470 And we'll see that these would have been, I want you to imagine this, I just got back from a week in the UP. 00:11:50.470 --> 00:11:53.809 It was awesome, resting, vacation, Lake Superior, waterfalls, amazing. 00:11:54.690 --> 00:12:03.789 These times, these three weeks we're really going to focus on, were the vacation days, holy days, that's where we get the word holidays. 00:12:04.629 --> 00:12:08.169 This is what they were looking forward to. 00:12:08.549 --> 00:12:15.110 The stuff that we're like, this is really boring, was the most exciting part of their year. 00:12:15.490 --> 00:12:26.850 There was feasting and fasting and singing and ceremony, road trips, retreats, this is what they looked forward to as families who worshipped God. 00:12:27.389 --> 00:12:29.090 So we're going to get into this calendar stuff. 00:12:29.490 --> 00:12:33.370 I should say, I know that thinking about calendars doesn't always bring us joy. 00:12:33.730 --> 00:12:47.470 I don't know how you're feeling about your summer, but I'm with a 12th grader and a 7th grader, full time jobs, we talk about calendars, we've got to pray first, now let's talk about our calendar, we're so busy. 00:12:48.210 --> 00:12:57.909 But today it's going to be a joy to look at the calendar because, here's a question for you, have you ever thought about God's calendar? 00:12:59.149 --> 00:12:59.830 Have you ever thought about that? 00:13:00.370 --> 00:13:01.909 Does God keep a calendar? 00:13:03.389 --> 00:13:05.029 What's God's day like today? 00:13:05.269 --> 00:13:08.149 What's next on God's calendar? 00:13:09.330 --> 00:13:13.970 Here's the thing, it's so cool, it's actually mentioned on the very first page of scripture. 00:13:14.250 --> 00:13:15.409 Can you guys see that ok? 00:13:16.429 --> 00:13:20.009 There's some room in the front over here if you want to get closer to see this stuff. 00:13:20.429 --> 00:13:37.370 But the very first, when God created light, and I think you guys talked about this earlier with one of the thread lessons, when he created the stars and the sun and the moon, he wasn't just like, hey, look at this cool stuff in the sky, you guys are going to need some light, here's some things that bring light in the day time and the night time. 00:13:38.149 --> 00:13:45.990 He said, let them be signs for signs and for seasons and days and years. 00:13:46.850 --> 00:13:52.470 On page one of your bible, we've got hints that yep, there's a calendar. 00:13:53.830 --> 00:13:59.009 These days and how we spend our days really matter to God. 00:14:00.370 --> 00:14:33.950 And then this has always been really interesting to me, if you guys have read Exodus, you're going to get into it in this series, as the people are escaping, this is intense, ten plagues and Pharaoh is stubborn and there's stuff with magicians and it's like a battle and then the parting of the Red Sea, in the midst of all of that, and they have to go so fast, and we'll talk about this, that the bread can't even rise, the yummy bread that we had for communion, no yeast, they had to go so fast to get out of there, to escape. 00:14:34.230 --> 00:14:44.529 There's an army on their heels and God's like, wait, wait, wait, before you go, I want you to hear about this festival that you're going to have to commemorate every year, based on what's happened. 00:14:44.629 --> 00:14:45.029 Really? 00:14:46.470 --> 00:14:47.610 It's this important? 00:14:47.769 --> 00:14:50.110 Couldn't you tell us after we get to the other side? 00:14:50.210 --> 00:14:51.009 Read the bible? 00:14:51.169 --> 00:14:51.389 No. 00:14:51.889 --> 00:14:55.769 You're going to commemorate this every single year. 00:14:56.289 --> 00:14:57.570 Before it even happens. 00:14:57.970 --> 00:15:04.909 That's how important the holy day, the festival and the joy of celebration is to God. 00:15:04.909 --> 00:15:05.610 Wow, man. 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:09.789 God takes joy and rest really seriously. 00:15:10.529 --> 00:15:11.590 Listen to this. 00:15:12.470 --> 00:15:21.070 They burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. 00:15:21.690 --> 00:15:37.350 He took into exile in Babylon those who escaped from the sword and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land made up for its Sabbaths. 00:15:37.529 --> 00:15:42.529 All the days that it lay desolate, it kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years. 00:15:42.929 --> 00:15:44.309 That's 2 Chronicles 36. 00:15:44.529 --> 00:15:48.850 Our bibles are arranged a little differently than the Hebrew bible. 00:15:49.269 --> 00:15:58.990 If you pick up a Jewish bible, our bibles end with Malachi, there's hope, there's like calves leaping with joy, the son of righteousness will rise, Jesus is coming, it's going to be awesome. 00:15:59.250 --> 00:16:01.070 You turn the page to Matthew and there he is. 00:16:01.889 --> 00:16:05.509 In the Hebrew bible, this is actually the last chapter. 00:16:06.009 --> 00:16:09.669 Can you imagine your bible ending with this? 00:16:11.230 --> 00:16:18.289 Think about how seriously God takes rest and celebration and joy. 00:16:18.509 --> 00:16:26.269 He says the reason you have to go to Babylon for 70 years is because you skipped 70 years of Sabbaths. 00:16:26.870 --> 00:16:30.450 And until we make that up, you guys are going to hang out somewhere else. 00:16:32.769 --> 00:16:38.309 It's kind of funny to think about joy and law in the same breath. 00:16:39.129 --> 00:16:44.269 But God takes our joy, our rest, our celebrations very seriously. 00:16:45.149 --> 00:16:51.669 So what I want to do is we're going to quickly look at the Sabbath part and then we're going to break down these week-long festivals. 00:16:52.450 --> 00:16:53.950 Joy is commanded. 00:16:55.049 --> 00:16:57.970 I think that joy needs to be commanded. 00:16:58.409 --> 00:17:00.090 You'd think that you wouldn't need that command. 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.710 If there's anything that we don't need to be told to do, it's be happy. 00:17:04.088 --> 00:17:06.690 But as I said earlier, I don't know how true that really is. 00:17:07.490 --> 00:17:09.650 We would just work and work and work and keep going. 00:17:10.190 --> 00:17:14.289 That's our nature to downplay joy and celebration and rest. 00:17:14.930 --> 00:17:27.490 And so we're going to look at this deep down, rhythmic joy and rest because this isn't just God saying get happy, forget about your problems, don't be sad, turn that frown upside down. 00:17:27.490 --> 00:17:30.509 That's not the kind of joy we're talking about here. 00:17:31.650 --> 00:17:33.609 This is the deep stuff. 00:17:33.670 --> 00:17:35.990 It's like cosmic level as we'll see. 00:17:36.849 --> 00:17:44.730 So in three places actually in the Torah, Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, God lays out Israel's calendar. 00:17:46.150 --> 00:17:54.170 And as we read in Genesis 1, there are these seasons, days, years that are supposed to be special for God's people. 00:17:54.910 --> 00:17:56.970 And we see there's these rhythms. 00:17:57.589 --> 00:17:59.109 You think about the rhythm of your life. 00:17:59.250 --> 00:18:02.369 For Americans, a lot of our rhythms are based on sports. 00:18:02.470 --> 00:18:09.849 Like I was watching the NBA playoffs and the NBA finals and the NHL playoffs, which for some reason go longer into the summer than the NBA. 00:18:09.990 --> 00:18:10.490 Isn't that crazy? 00:18:10.930 --> 00:18:13.089 The hockey, can we stop playing hockey for a little bit? 00:18:13.130 --> 00:18:13.890 No, we want hockey. 00:18:13.990 --> 00:18:14.490 Hockey's awesome. 00:18:14.990 --> 00:18:15.809 Let's go Red Wings. 00:18:16.309 --> 00:18:16.950 Avalanche Stink. 00:18:17.750 --> 00:18:24.029 And so we we and then, but how many of us are excited about football starting up, right? 00:18:24.230 --> 00:18:26.970 Is this what God wants us to base our calendar on? 00:18:27.210 --> 00:18:30.529 No, but we're rhythmic people, so we have these rhythms. 00:18:31.390 --> 00:18:33.750 And maybe your calendar is based on some other thing. 00:18:34.049 --> 00:18:34.650 I hope it is. 00:18:35.450 --> 00:18:39.609 But there's a rhythm in the scripture of these Sabbath days each week. 00:18:39.890 --> 00:18:42.730 Every seven days is a day of rest. 00:18:43.029 --> 00:18:44.690 And then there are Sabbath years. 00:18:44.910 --> 00:18:49.250 Every seven years is a whole year of rest. 00:18:49.630 --> 00:18:54.349 Imagine the faith it would take to take a year off every seven years. 00:18:55.130 --> 00:18:58.430 And then, there's like some Bible math going on here. 00:18:58.890 --> 00:19:02.849 Every 50th year, so that's 7 times 7 is 49. 00:19:03.849 --> 00:19:06.430 So the 49th year would be a year of rest. 00:19:06.789 --> 00:19:10.269 And then the 50th year is the year of Jubilee. 00:19:10.609 --> 00:19:12.710 It's like a double year of rest. 00:19:12.970 --> 00:19:15.230 And in that year, everything gets reset. 00:19:15.230 --> 00:19:18.289 You had to sell some property because you fell on hard times. 00:19:18.750 --> 00:19:20.410 It all comes back to you. 00:19:21.309 --> 00:19:25.710 Jubilee! Even just saying that word, doesn't it sound like the most joyful word ever? 00:19:25.990 --> 00:19:27.809 Like, man, I want to have a Jubilee. 00:19:27.910 --> 00:19:28.589 That sounds awesome. 00:19:28.990 --> 00:19:34.009 But it would take a lot of faith because rest, again, rest and joy sounds so simple. 00:19:34.109 --> 00:19:34.730 We want it. 00:19:35.349 --> 00:19:41.390 But it actually takes a lot of faith to just stop and rest and spend time with God. 00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:49.309 So much so that God built it into the calendar for His people while they wandered around in the wilderness. 00:19:49.450 --> 00:19:50.250 They didn't have a home. 00:19:50.670 --> 00:19:53.210 God's like, you guys are going to need a rest every 7 years. 00:19:54.190 --> 00:19:54.430 Okay. 00:19:54.829 --> 00:19:57.170 We're not going to get into the Sabbath a whole lot. 00:19:57.890 --> 00:20:04.289 But it's important to know that we still need this kind of rest, this ceasing kind of rest. 00:20:05.109 --> 00:20:08.970 It's like the one commandment out of the 10 that we're like, meh, I don't know. 00:20:09.609 --> 00:20:12.769 Jesus didn't come to kill the Sabbath. 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:14.750 He came to fulfill the Sabbath. 00:20:14.990 --> 00:20:20.230 And so it means that we still need rest, but we should find that rest in Him. 00:20:20.309 --> 00:20:23.230 And we're really robbing ourselves of joy if we don't. 00:20:23.329 --> 00:20:23.450 Amen? 00:20:23.930 --> 00:20:25.470 Alright, let's get into these festivals. 00:20:26.049 --> 00:20:27.369 I've teased the festivals. 00:20:28.009 --> 00:20:29.150 We're going to get into them. 00:20:29.309 --> 00:20:30.710 I've got to keep up with my slides here. 00:20:31.029 --> 00:20:31.210 Okay. 00:20:32.069 --> 00:20:33.509 You guys can follow along here. 00:20:33.630 --> 00:20:36.430 So we've touched on the kind of rhythm of God's calendar. 00:20:37.710 --> 00:20:44.289 And then in each year there were 7, lots of cool Bible numbers here, there were 7 festivals. 00:20:44.750 --> 00:20:46.430 There were 4 in the spring. 00:20:48.109 --> 00:20:53.609 And that's Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. 00:20:53.730 --> 00:20:58.670 And those 3 festivals likely all took place on the same weekend. 00:20:58.809 --> 00:21:00.109 So that was like a big weekend. 00:21:00.529 --> 00:21:01.130 This is awesome. 00:21:01.190 --> 00:21:02.789 And then a week-long festival following that. 00:21:03.269 --> 00:21:08.650 And then 50 days later, but we know now, 50 really means 49 plus 1, 7 times 7 plus 1. 00:21:09.210 --> 00:21:13.950 That's why 50 is a special number, was the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. 00:21:14.069 --> 00:21:15.690 Pentecost actually means 50. 00:21:16.809 --> 00:21:17.670 50 days. 00:21:17.930 --> 00:21:18.029 Okay? 00:21:18.150 --> 00:21:19.170 Those are the spring festivals. 00:21:19.769 --> 00:21:22.349 And then in the fall there were 3 festivals. 00:21:22.769 --> 00:21:26.910 Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. 00:21:27.670 --> 00:21:33.950 And so the Jewish year actually started in the spring, which makes a lot more sense actually than starting in the middle of winter. 00:21:33.950 --> 00:21:36.849 Like, let's start a new year at the worst possible time. 00:21:36.950 --> 00:21:38.309 They did it in the spring. 00:21:38.630 --> 00:21:38.809 Okay. 00:21:39.009 --> 00:21:41.250 So, we're going to start in the spring as well. 00:21:41.329 --> 00:21:44.029 And let's look at each of these Holy Days. 00:21:44.109 --> 00:21:46.069 So first comes Passover. 00:21:46.230 --> 00:21:48.529 And Leviticus 23 breaks down all this stuff. 00:21:48.829 --> 00:21:50.069 And I'm just going to show these. 00:21:50.109 --> 00:21:51.809 I'm not going to read these passages for us. 00:21:52.269 --> 00:22:05.710 But Passover, like we talked about, is the commemoration of the Angel of Death passing over the firstborn sons of Israel but not sparing the firstborn of Egypt. 00:22:05.809 --> 00:22:09.970 It was this final plague that finally allowed the people to be let go. 00:22:10.849 --> 00:22:18.390 In that moment, the Israelites painted lamb's blood on the wooden posts and lentils of their homes. 00:22:19.089 --> 00:22:23.869 And this ultimately leads to their freedom from slavery. 00:22:25.309 --> 00:22:29.609 After Passover comes the Feast of Unleavened Bread. 00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:32.490 The day after Passover was the beginning of this feast. 00:22:33.470 --> 00:22:36.250 So, why do we have a feast for crackers? 00:22:36.809 --> 00:22:38.990 Why do we have an unleavened bread feast? 00:22:39.730 --> 00:22:40.809 This was really good. 00:22:40.970 --> 00:22:41.849 Usually it's not that good. 00:22:43.970 --> 00:22:44.990 Yeast is a good thing. 00:22:45.750 --> 00:22:47.670 But it can also get out of control. 00:22:47.730 --> 00:22:48.309 It's alive. 00:22:48.529 --> 00:22:49.289 It can fester. 00:22:50.089 --> 00:22:52.750 And so it had to be cleaned out of every home every year. 00:22:53.089 --> 00:22:54.750 And so this feast is like spring cleaning. 00:22:54.829 --> 00:22:55.589 You ever heard of spring cleaning? 00:22:56.029 --> 00:22:57.950 This is kind of what it's based on. 00:22:57.950 --> 00:22:59.009 Get the yeast out. 00:22:59.369 --> 00:23:04.309 Start over with some new yeast so that the whole village doesn't get overtaken and everyone's bread gets rotten. 00:23:04.569 --> 00:23:06.269 It's like an important practical thing. 00:23:06.589 --> 00:23:07.990 It's this week-long festival. 00:23:08.130 --> 00:23:10.529 And it also ties into that Passover escape. 00:23:10.890 --> 00:23:14.269 They didn't have time to let the bread, the dough rise. 00:23:14.410 --> 00:23:18.789 That's how fast they had to get out when Pharaoh finally let the people go. 00:23:19.769 --> 00:23:25.690 And then the next day, a holy Sunday, was first fruits. 00:23:25.690 --> 00:23:33.349 And so first fruits is when Israel would bring the very first sheaves of winter barley. 00:23:33.589 --> 00:23:36.849 That was the first crop to grow in Israel. 00:23:37.529 --> 00:23:41.630 And so they would faithfully, they'd say, okay, we got the very first pieces of barley. 00:23:42.250 --> 00:23:43.170 Bring it to the temple. 00:23:43.450 --> 00:23:44.349 We're having a festival. 00:23:44.369 --> 00:23:45.029 We're partying. 00:23:45.210 --> 00:23:46.670 We don't have any leaven in our bread. 00:23:46.849 --> 00:23:48.710 We just celebrated with a Passover lamb. 00:23:48.890 --> 00:23:52.430 And now we're bringing the first fruits of barley to this. 00:23:52.549 --> 00:24:01.809 And so bringing the first grains when we give contribution is like a way of being faithful to God, saying, I know there's more that's going to come. 00:24:02.630 --> 00:24:03.549 I'm so faithful. 00:24:03.650 --> 00:24:04.430 I believe that so much. 00:24:04.470 --> 00:24:05.990 I'm going to give the very first to you, God. 00:24:07.089 --> 00:24:13.230 And so in Leviticus 23, and then if you've ever heard of Flavius Josephus, any Flavius Josephus fans out there? 00:24:13.390 --> 00:24:14.349 Okay, great. 00:24:16.730 --> 00:24:17.769 He's got the big clock. 00:24:18.069 --> 00:24:18.970 It was a sundial. 00:24:19.029 --> 00:24:19.490 That was heavy. 00:24:20.950 --> 00:24:27.630 But he's a Jewish historian who wrote about Jesus a couple of times, like an extra biblical source on Jesus. 00:24:27.890 --> 00:24:29.269 He wrote about John the Baptist. 00:24:29.930 --> 00:24:39.109 And he says that these first three holy days were celebrated like on the 14th, 15th, and 16th day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday of the first month of the year. 00:24:39.690 --> 00:24:41.049 And there's a lot of debate. 00:24:41.170 --> 00:24:43.049 You can get into the weeds online about these dates. 00:24:43.190 --> 00:24:44.289 People get crazy with this stuff. 00:24:44.609 --> 00:24:53.490 But you can imagine this holy weekend kind of like our Good Friday to Easter weekend in the spring, right? 00:24:53.670 --> 00:24:55.589 And there's some connections we'll get to in a moment. 00:24:55.750 --> 00:24:55.910 Alright? 00:24:57.029 --> 00:24:59.049 That's the first three spring holy days. 00:24:59.170 --> 00:25:02.049 The next one is 50 days later at the end of spring. 00:25:02.329 --> 00:25:06.450 And this was the feast of weeks, seven weeks, or Pentecost 50. 00:25:07.650 --> 00:25:12.710 And it would be counted from that first Sunday of firstfruits to the next Sunday. 00:25:13.210 --> 00:25:15.809 And it was similar to firstfruits where they would bring barley. 00:25:16.230 --> 00:25:18.470 This was now the wheat harvest was ready. 00:25:18.869 --> 00:25:22.730 And they'd bring the beginning of their wheat instead of barley. 00:25:22.869 --> 00:25:22.970 Okay? 00:25:23.049 --> 00:25:24.549 So that's the spring holidays. 00:25:24.930 --> 00:25:25.789 Are we enthralled? 00:25:26.089 --> 00:25:28.930 Are we like, yes, this is awesome, Leviticus 23, let's go. 00:25:29.190 --> 00:25:29.569 There's more. 00:25:29.789 --> 00:25:30.029 Okay. 00:25:31.289 --> 00:25:33.450 Let's get into the fall. 00:25:33.589 --> 00:25:34.589 I didn't do that one. 00:25:35.309 --> 00:25:35.990 Got it? 00:25:36.150 --> 00:25:36.349 Good? 00:25:36.490 --> 00:25:37.029 Okay, great. 00:25:37.730 --> 00:25:38.470 Here we go. 00:25:38.529 --> 00:25:39.569 The fall festivals. 00:25:40.269 --> 00:25:43.670 Up first in the fall was the festival of trumpets. 00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:50.809 And this would be like Woodstock or Coachella or Electric Forest for Israel. 00:25:51.069 --> 00:25:54.089 And trumpets, they're blowing the trumpets. 00:25:54.210 --> 00:25:59.410 The Lea family band is playing and they're like headlining the feast of trumpets. 00:25:59.670 --> 00:25:59.769 Okay? 00:26:00.829 --> 00:26:03.569 And this, trumpets are all over the Bible. 00:26:04.109 --> 00:26:07.450 The shofar, that ram's horn, they were used for celebration. 00:26:08.269 --> 00:26:13.670 They were used to announce war or that a battle was coming. 00:26:14.130 --> 00:26:23.329 They were also blown every Sabbath night from the southwest corner of the temple when three stars became visible in the sky. 00:26:24.009 --> 00:26:31.630 A priest would go up on the temple and blow the shofar and this would tell everybody that it was a new day and that it was a Sabbath day. 00:26:32.490 --> 00:26:40.450 And what's interesting about that is that in Hebrew, just like their year starts in the spring, that's different than us, their day started in the evening. 00:26:40.750 --> 00:26:44.809 When there were three stars in the sky, that was a new day. 00:26:45.529 --> 00:26:46.509 Which is really cool. 00:26:46.589 --> 00:26:49.890 Imagine your day starting at night. 00:26:50.490 --> 00:26:53.869 The first thing you do is go to sleep and rest. 00:26:55.410 --> 00:27:02.690 Interestingly, mankind was created on the sixth day according to the creation poem and so our first full day was Sabbath. 00:27:03.109 --> 00:27:08.089 The seventh day was that we were born into rest and the Hebrew calendar reflects that. 00:27:08.109 --> 00:27:09.490 That's how important rest is. 00:27:10.009 --> 00:27:22.349 The Sabbath started on what we would consider Friday night when there were three stars visible from the corner of this temple and a shofar was blown, this ram's horn. 00:27:22.809 --> 00:27:30.289 This was such an awesome part of their life, an intricate part of their life, that they actually had a whole festival about trumpets. 00:27:30.630 --> 00:27:31.089 Isn't that cool? 00:27:31.470 --> 00:27:33.650 A music festival in ancient Israel. 00:27:33.829 --> 00:27:34.769 I would like to go to that. 00:27:34.769 --> 00:27:35.730 That sounds awesome. 00:27:37.289 --> 00:27:47.829 When you guys did Thread, there was actually, I think maybe it was week six or seven, there was a whole week of Thread devotionals that were supposed to start in the evening and then in the morning, like double. 00:27:47.950 --> 00:27:51.829 That was kind of to feel maybe a little bit what it would be like to live back then. 00:27:52.950 --> 00:27:56.349 The next fall festival is the Day of Atonement. 00:27:56.890 --> 00:27:57.849 Let me get to that. 00:27:58.750 --> 00:28:08.390 The Day of Atonement was the one day that the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, into the innermost presence of God on earth. 00:28:08.950 --> 00:28:18.089 It was a day that one goat, there would be two goats, one was sacrificed for the sins of the people and the other was freed. 00:28:19.009 --> 00:28:25.650 Someone would walk it out, but it was symbolically the sins of the people were on the back of this goat. 00:28:26.309 --> 00:28:30.029 You can imagine this festival and this is the penalty for our sin. 00:28:30.029 --> 00:28:30.910 Goat. 00:28:32.190 --> 00:28:33.930 Let's go back to the trumpets, that was nicer. 00:28:35.210 --> 00:28:48.369 They kill this goat and they take the sins and the priest does a thing and they symbolically imagine that it's on top of this goat and then someone just walks the goat out out of sight and the goat's gone. 00:28:49.490 --> 00:28:55.410 It's like this is what we deserve for our sins but here's the reality because of how much God loves us. 00:28:56.190 --> 00:28:57.410 They're just gone. 00:28:57.910 --> 00:28:58.690 Isn't that cool? 00:28:58.910 --> 00:28:59.849 That's the day of atonement. 00:29:01.349 --> 00:29:05.049 If you ever wonder where the word scapegoat comes from, he's the scapegoat. 00:29:05.210 --> 00:29:06.230 It's not a good thing to be. 00:29:06.670 --> 00:29:07.950 That's where that word comes from. 00:29:09.849 --> 00:29:14.630 That's the second fall festival and then the last fall festival is this feast of tabernacles. 00:29:15.089 --> 00:29:16.049 This would have been my favorite. 00:29:16.529 --> 00:29:20.029 It was like a national week-long camp out. 00:29:20.630 --> 00:29:32.930 To commemorate the time in the wilderness they called them booths or tents or tabernacles and they didn't have Columbia and all the sweet gear like we have with our tents and ultralight backpacking stuff. 00:29:33.349 --> 00:29:43.029 They took palm branches and they actually wanted to be able to see from outside of the tavern, like see the world from the view and look up at the stars. 00:29:43.730 --> 00:29:44.630 That was the point of it. 00:29:44.650 --> 00:29:46.849 It was drier there so there was less chance of it getting rained out. 00:29:47.210 --> 00:29:57.230 They would eat and sleep in these booths that they made out of palm branches to commemorate their time of wandering in these tabernacles or temporary shelters. 00:29:57.750 --> 00:30:00.269 This is also like at the beginning of the dry season. 00:30:00.369 --> 00:30:02.250 The winter wasn't snowy for them. 00:30:02.309 --> 00:30:03.089 It was dry though. 00:30:04.150 --> 00:30:10.049 There would be all of these prayers and ceremonies for water during this time of tabernacles. 00:30:11.130 --> 00:30:28.009 I hope that all of that helps you envision and imagine these festivals from Old Testament life but I'm here to deliver more than that because this stuff gets really amazing when we look at it in the life of Jesus and the early church. 00:30:28.089 --> 00:30:38.450 Let's go back through each of these and see that these times of celebration are actually baked into God's cosmic calendar. 00:30:39.509 --> 00:30:42.569 God had a plan and we get to be a part of it. 00:30:42.650 --> 00:30:42.769 Amen? 00:30:43.130 --> 00:30:46.150 Let's revisit the spring holy days. 00:30:46.230 --> 00:30:46.809 There they are. 00:30:47.970 --> 00:30:59.170 When we look at the festivals that we talked about are at the center of major moments in the life of Jesus and the church. 00:30:59.529 --> 00:31:01.650 Think about Passover. 00:31:02.349 --> 00:31:12.450 Jesus' death on the cross the very first Good Friday fell on the day of preparation and feast and Passover. 00:31:13.470 --> 00:31:14.910 Think about the connections there. 00:31:14.990 --> 00:31:24.829 The Lamb of God's blood was painted on the wooden posts of the cross but God did not spare His firstborn son. 00:31:26.349 --> 00:31:36.750 God made this happen on this symbolic day that He had proclaimed Israel to celebrate for hundreds of years, over a thousand years beforehand. 00:31:37.690 --> 00:31:39.789 That's the day that God planned for this. 00:31:40.789 --> 00:31:49.569 The next day, Saturday was likely this Feast of Unleavened Bread and Jesus' body did not rise from the tomb. 00:31:50.230 --> 00:32:00.569 Instead, He kills sin and corruption like how the yeast corrupts with His own death as He spends that day in the tomb. 00:32:01.789 --> 00:32:13.170 And then just as we celebrate Easter on that next Sunday, that is the day that Christ the firstfruits rose from the dead. 00:32:13.650 --> 00:32:18.309 So these scriptures 1 Corinthians 15, Christ the firstfruits, that's an incredible title. 00:32:19.329 --> 00:32:28.250 That means that one, that He rose from the dead, just like you bring your first barley, like hey, I'm faithful that there's going to be more barley. 00:32:29.829 --> 00:32:34.589 Jesus rose from the dead, I'm faithful that He won't be the only one who rises, that we all will. 00:32:34.829 --> 00:32:36.329 That happened on that day. 00:32:36.589 --> 00:32:37.069 Right? 00:32:37.710 --> 00:32:39.509 And we have firstfruits of the Spirit. 00:32:39.869 --> 00:32:44.309 We've grown inwardly as we wait to see the rest of the harvest. 00:32:44.529 --> 00:32:44.670 Amen? 00:32:47.410 --> 00:32:51.309 And then 50 days later, you guys know what happened. 00:32:52.210 --> 00:32:55.369 On the day of Pentecost, the church began. 00:32:55.829 --> 00:32:59.930 For 40 days, Jesus, the resurrected Jesus was on the earth. 00:33:00.829 --> 00:33:05.910 And then for 10 days, the disciples were praying and scared and nervous in the upper room. 00:33:06.190 --> 00:33:13.349 And then on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes down and the church begins. 00:33:13.529 --> 00:33:16.349 The full gospel is preached for the first time. 00:33:16.730 --> 00:33:20.559 And the early wheat harvest of that day was 3,000. 00:33:21.589 --> 00:33:28.410 But how many thousands upon thousands more have responded to the gospel since that first day? 00:33:29.529 --> 00:33:30.329 It's really cool. 00:33:30.390 --> 00:33:32.630 In a lot of ways, we're still living on that day. 00:33:32.750 --> 00:33:35.230 We're in the church age right now. 00:33:36.410 --> 00:33:39.470 You know, I love seeing God's spring calendar. 00:33:39.670 --> 00:33:39.990 Isn't it cool? 00:33:40.109 --> 00:33:40.690 Like, look at that. 00:33:40.690 --> 00:33:41.170 Oh, hey, God. 00:33:41.250 --> 00:33:42.369 What's on your Google calendar? 00:33:43.069 --> 00:33:43.710 There we go. 00:33:45.289 --> 00:33:47.029 How it coincided with Jesus and the church. 00:33:47.150 --> 00:33:53.309 But it gets really interesting as we move through the summer to the fall holy days. 00:33:53.769 --> 00:33:55.309 So let's look at those one more time, okay? 00:33:57.170 --> 00:33:57.930 There they are. 00:34:00.130 --> 00:34:05.509 We saw, in a lot of ways, the fulfillment of the spring festivals in Jesus and the church. 00:34:05.809 --> 00:34:09.630 These last three festivals all point to the parousia. 00:34:10.150 --> 00:34:13.289 That's the technical word for Jesus' promised return. 00:34:13.409 --> 00:34:14.610 Jesus is coming back. 00:34:15.570 --> 00:34:26.190 And you look at the fall festivals, and you see hints, almost like previews, like if you're really excited about a movie coming out, these are like previews of what it's going to be like when Jesus comes back. 00:34:26.730 --> 00:34:30.929 And so the first festival is the Feast of Trumpets. 00:34:31.190 --> 00:34:32.610 And I want to read these passages. 00:34:32.889 --> 00:34:35.710 This is, like, hey, God, what's next on your calendar? 00:34:35.710 --> 00:34:47.050 Well, for the Lord Himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 00:34:47.710 --> 00:34:49.110 Look, I tell you a mystery. 00:34:49.250 --> 00:35:01.150 We will not all die, but we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised to life imperishable. 00:35:01.269 --> 00:35:03.010 We will be changed. 00:35:03.670 --> 00:35:14.090 The trumpet blast, signifying a new day on God's calendar, His days are a little longer than ours, is associated with Jesus' return. 00:35:14.869 --> 00:35:23.329 So I had the privilege of going to Israel like 15 years ago, and in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, they have this stone. 00:35:23.429 --> 00:35:24.510 You guys see this stone right here? 00:35:25.369 --> 00:35:26.469 And this is pretty crazy. 00:35:26.590 --> 00:35:33.989 When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the trumpet blast during the trumpet blast point. 00:35:34.409 --> 00:35:36.150 The trumpet blast, you hear it? 00:35:37.130 --> 00:35:37.769 Thank you. 00:35:38.030 --> 00:35:38.710 It took a lot. 00:35:38.829 --> 00:35:42.989 I had to work with the railroad company to make that happen, but man, it paid off. 00:35:44.989 --> 00:35:45.829 That's awesome. 00:35:47.269 --> 00:36:01.210 When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, and that's a 40 year period, which is like, okay, we get these numbers in the Bible, then you see numbers in history, 40 years, like, whoa, and I'm not a numerology guy or anything like that. 00:36:01.389 --> 00:36:03.849 We'll talk about that at the end, actually, but cool stuff, okay? 00:36:04.289 --> 00:36:08.309 70 AD, Jesus prophesied that not one stone would be left on another. 00:36:08.849 --> 00:36:10.230 He said, look at this temple, it's beautiful. 00:36:10.489 --> 00:36:12.969 He said not one stone would be left on another. 00:36:13.409 --> 00:36:18.929 Have you ever wondered how a temple gets destroyed? 00:36:19.530 --> 00:36:22.690 How a temple made of stone gets set on fire? 00:36:22.809 --> 00:36:23.610 Like, what's that going to do? 00:36:24.090 --> 00:36:24.449 Right? 00:36:24.650 --> 00:36:35.630 Well, one of the reasons that the temple's destruction was so devastating for Jews and Christians in 70 AD was because of the nature of the limestone that it was built with. 00:36:36.230 --> 00:36:44.809 Limestone has these pockets of air in it, and so when you set stuff on fire next to it and superheat it, it explodes. 00:36:45.610 --> 00:36:49.550 The temple, if you've read the Old Testament, the temple is so meaningful. 00:36:50.909 --> 00:36:56.110 The Jewish people and the early Christians watched it explode. 00:36:56.670 --> 00:37:00.130 And not one stone was left on another. 00:37:01.690 --> 00:37:04.369 Except they found this stone. 00:37:05.389 --> 00:37:13.449 And this stone has this writing on it, and it's called, the writing says, the trumpeting place. 00:37:13.849 --> 00:37:18.170 That's the one stone with any decipherable phrase on it. 00:37:18.789 --> 00:37:24.349 It's the stone that was at the pinnacle of the temple where the priest would blow the trumpet and say, it's Sabbath. 00:37:26.010 --> 00:37:27.130 That's the thing. 00:37:27.429 --> 00:37:29.809 God's like, well, I do want you to read this one thing. 00:37:33.619 --> 00:37:39.380 It's where they would blow for this festival, which happens to be the next day on God's calendar. 00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:52.639 After the Feast of Trumpets comes the Day of Atonement, which we talked about, with the two goats, and you can clearly see the connection with Jesus, with the scapegoat, and then the sins being taken away. 00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:57.599 Atonement, you can think of it as it sounds, at-one-ment. 00:37:58.099 --> 00:38:01.380 We get to fully be at-one with God. 00:38:01.519 --> 00:38:06.079 We don't deserve to be at-one with God, but we get to be at-one with God. 00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:14.139 We get a taste of that in our lives here, as we're saved, praise God, but we will be one with God. 00:38:15.139 --> 00:38:17.460 We will be made one finally and forever. 00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:21.880 Our sins will be out of sight when God returns. 00:38:22.360 --> 00:38:27.139 That day is often referred to, even in Hebrews, as Jaron read, with a capital D. 00:38:27.239 --> 00:38:30.239 That's the day that we're all looking forward to. 00:38:30.380 --> 00:38:30.500 Amen? 00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:36.039 And then the last feast in the fall was the Feast of Tabernacles. 00:38:36.579 --> 00:38:38.360 You guys can read this on your own. 00:38:38.760 --> 00:38:47.619 I don't know if you've ever read John 7 carefully, but it's a really interesting passage where Jesus' mother and brothers want him to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. 00:38:48.559 --> 00:38:50.559 Where does this come in to the Bible? 00:38:50.679 --> 00:38:51.440 It's in John 7. 00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:53.000 And Jesus says, I'm not going. 00:38:53.679 --> 00:38:56.199 And then, a few days later, he actually does go. 00:38:56.579 --> 00:38:58.440 And it's like, wait, you said you weren't going, but then you're there. 00:38:58.780 --> 00:39:05.639 But then, if you read it with this context, so the Feast of Tabernacles, all of the festivals are seven days, but this is an eight-day festival. 00:39:06.280 --> 00:39:08.900 It starts on a Saturday and then ended on a Sunday. 00:39:09.159 --> 00:39:11.739 And the eighth day is called the Great Day. 00:39:12.539 --> 00:39:14.940 And that's when Jesus shows up. 00:39:14.940 --> 00:39:19.039 He shows up on the last day of the festival. 00:39:19.260 --> 00:39:21.099 The Great Day of the festival. 00:39:21.420 --> 00:39:27.960 And he shouts out, and it's a weird, it seems weird when you read it, he's like, all who believe in me, streams of living water will flow from you. 00:39:28.079 --> 00:39:33.059 Remember we talked about how it's a water, it's the beginning of the dry season, and it's this water festival. 00:39:34.019 --> 00:39:41.239 And so Jesus comes on this last day, and if you, more Bible math, but like, a seven is like perfect, it's like complete. 00:39:41.800 --> 00:39:51.940 And so if he comes on the next day, after the week, the complete, the seven, it's like, this is the next thing, the new thing, the beginning of this thing. 00:39:52.280 --> 00:39:54.840 And he says, streams of living water will flow. 00:39:55.679 --> 00:39:59.320 And then you read the very last page of the Bible. 00:40:01.059 --> 00:40:04.119 And what does Revelation 22 call to us? 00:40:04.820 --> 00:40:06.440 Let everyone who is thirsty come. 00:40:06.579 --> 00:40:10.699 Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. 00:40:11.940 --> 00:40:16.559 In the end, it's this allusion to all of this. 00:40:19.090 --> 00:40:27.730 This is the full harvest festival, the tabernacles, this isn't the first fruits, this is the festival they had when everything was brought in. 00:40:28.389 --> 00:40:32.170 And they could chow down on all the things that God grew in them. 00:40:32.909 --> 00:40:36.090 This is the full festival for us too, and it's the harvest, this is it. 00:40:36.789 --> 00:40:37.269 Amen? 00:40:39.489 --> 00:40:44.590 They built tents during this festival to commemorate the wandering in the wilderness. 00:40:44.789 --> 00:40:48.630 You guys are going to talk about wandering and all of that in this next series of thread sermons. 00:40:49.349 --> 00:40:51.949 They ate inside of them and slept under the stars. 00:40:53.269 --> 00:40:56.710 When this festival is fulfilled, we will wander no more. 00:40:57.329 --> 00:41:03.489 We will have the most permanent dwelling place, a seat at the kingdom feast with God for eternity. 00:41:03.590 --> 00:41:03.829 Amen? 00:41:04.349 --> 00:41:07.570 Alright, we'll end with just some quick applications here. 00:41:07.570 --> 00:41:09.969 What can we do with all this? 00:41:10.610 --> 00:41:12.409 Where do we put all of this? 00:41:13.809 --> 00:41:15.849 It goes beyond head knowledge. 00:41:16.409 --> 00:41:30.489 I hope for you that you can kind of see this idea that joy, that God wants joy for us in the way that we walk with Jesus and the way that we interact with each other. 00:41:32.050 --> 00:41:41.590 Joy, feasts, commemoration, restfulness, these are things that are on the first and last pages of the Bible and so many places in between. 00:41:42.550 --> 00:41:47.289 God wants us to have a great experience in this life. 00:41:47.530 --> 00:41:48.630 I love that. 00:41:49.750 --> 00:41:57.429 What magnifies all of that is these festivals are actually based on seasons of harvest and the water cycle. 00:41:58.010 --> 00:42:02.449 This isn't just based on Leviticus, like this obscure chapter in Leviticus 23. 00:42:02.449 --> 00:42:20.449 These themes of celebration and joy are baked into the creation of the world itself, like the tilt of the earth that gives us the seasons and the weather patterns that make a dry season in Jerusalem at the end of the year and the time that it takes for barley or wheat to grow. 00:42:21.269 --> 00:42:23.289 It's not just something in a book. 00:42:23.809 --> 00:42:31.389 It's how God created the world and then how he sent his son and how he started the church and how he's going to come back again. 00:42:31.550 --> 00:42:32.869 It's all tied in together. 00:42:35.219 --> 00:42:36.920 God's keeping a cosmic calendar. 00:42:39.199 --> 00:42:40.039 Jesus understood this. 00:42:40.079 --> 00:42:44.159 He said that he didn't know the times or dates himself, but the Father does. 00:42:44.940 --> 00:42:51.480 And I want to say that with that, please don't take from this lesson that you should go and do internet sleuthing on when Jesus will come back. 00:42:51.820 --> 00:42:54.340 We can just stand in awe. 00:42:55.119 --> 00:42:56.460 It's going to be so awesome. 00:42:56.800 --> 00:42:58.980 We'll never be able to figure out how amazing it'll be. 00:42:59.059 --> 00:43:00.019 Jesus didn't even try. 00:43:02.769 --> 00:43:03.789 There's another application here. 00:43:03.969 --> 00:43:10.489 Looking at these festivals, it gives me so much faith that Jesus really is coming back and that we will rise one day. 00:43:10.989 --> 00:43:11.590 This is awesome. 00:43:11.909 --> 00:43:13.889 If you're kind of a faithless person, you're a numbers person. 00:43:13.969 --> 00:43:14.309 I'm not. 00:43:14.329 --> 00:43:15.010 I'm a words person. 00:43:15.090 --> 00:43:16.789 But if you're a numbers person, listen to this. 00:43:17.070 --> 00:43:19.449 Four out of the seven have been fulfilled. 00:43:20.210 --> 00:43:21.530 We're over halfway there. 00:43:22.389 --> 00:43:23.789 It's not three out of seven. 00:43:23.929 --> 00:43:24.750 You're like, I don't know. 00:43:25.590 --> 00:43:26.409 It's happened. 00:43:28.070 --> 00:43:30.929 And they were fulfilled so spectacularly. 00:43:32.409 --> 00:43:40.809 Another application I think that you can take from this is I think you can do this kind of exercise. 00:43:41.090 --> 00:43:42.269 This is like deep dive. 00:43:42.329 --> 00:43:55.210 You've got the notes if you took the picture of the QR code with these festivals, but you could do this with the priesthood, the different materials they used to make the tabernacle, the purity laws, the other laws. 00:43:56.429 --> 00:43:58.769 It's all threaded throughout Scripture. 00:43:58.769 --> 00:44:01.530 And you could do this same exercise with any of those things. 00:44:01.969 --> 00:44:04.409 We should make a podcast about it and call it Thread. 00:44:04.510 --> 00:44:05.090 Wouldn't that be cool? 00:44:05.570 --> 00:44:06.630 That sounds awesome. 00:44:08.369 --> 00:44:13.230 And then here's the last point, and it's awesome that we're doing this in July, in summer. 00:44:14.429 --> 00:44:15.530 We looked at the spring. 00:44:16.190 --> 00:44:17.230 We know the fall's coming. 00:44:17.389 --> 00:44:18.849 Where are we right now? 00:44:18.889 --> 00:44:19.809 What does that mean for us? 00:44:20.809 --> 00:44:21.590 It's summertime. 00:44:22.309 --> 00:44:23.449 You talk about joy? 00:44:24.110 --> 00:44:24.849 It's summertime. 00:44:25.269 --> 00:44:30.710 If you're a Christian, if you love Jesus, it's summertime all the time. 00:44:30.769 --> 00:44:30.969 Amen? 00:44:31.530 --> 00:44:41.030 The summer was the time for farming, for working the fields, for making sure that the harvest would be as robust as possible, and having joy while you did it. 00:44:41.030 --> 00:44:42.449 You think about the grape harvest. 00:44:42.570 --> 00:44:44.269 They're stomping on the grapes and singing. 00:44:45.210 --> 00:44:46.070 It's summertime. 00:44:47.409 --> 00:44:49.550 And so I want you to maybe sit with this question. 00:44:49.650 --> 00:44:57.889 What does it mean for us to be God's people in the summer waiting for what's next in the fall? 00:44:58.210 --> 00:45:04.050 What should it look like as individuals and as the Kalamazoo Church? 00:45:04.630 --> 00:45:18.469 I'm especially hoping that you'll have a great harvest this summer, this fall for your church, and that you can live in the summer months of God's cosmic calendar full of joy. 00:45:18.570 --> 00:45:19.429 And I'll end with this poem. 00:45:20.489 --> 00:45:23.469 When I think about my calendar, joy is hard to find. 00:45:23.989 --> 00:45:24.909 I'm whelmed. 00:45:25.070 --> 00:45:25.650 I'm busy. 00:45:25.929 --> 00:45:26.889 I'm losing my mind. 00:45:27.489 --> 00:45:30.190 But looking at the Bible, I see a different view. 00:45:30.769 --> 00:45:33.889 The days and years are more than just a list of things to do. 00:45:34.610 --> 00:45:42.510 A life that's based on Jesus should bring joy to every day, but that's only if I see my time in the Jesus way. 00:45:43.309 --> 00:45:46.269 He wants to fill each moment with meaning from above. 00:45:46.730 --> 00:45:48.349 I'm not just doing tasks. 00:45:48.590 --> 00:45:50.670 I'm showing the world his love. 00:45:51.510 --> 00:45:59.190 I see it in the life of Jesus, my joyful Passover lamb, the bread in the tomb and the risen great I am. 00:45:59.329 --> 00:46:03.329 And I know I'll see it fully when the trumpet sounds in the fall. 00:46:03.530 --> 00:46:05.710 But until that day, it's summertime. 00:46:06.269 --> 00:46:07.710 Let's have a ball. 00:46:07.889 --> 00:46:08.090 Amen? 00:46:15.420 --> 00:46:20.079 Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. 00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:23.760 If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. 00:46:23.760 --> 00:46:31.380 Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. 00:46:31.599 --> 00:46:34.000 In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.