God actually dictated the 7 Feasts to Moses on Mt. Sinai.

2. We are in the 2nd week on our study of the 7 Jewish Feasts instituted by the Lord in Leviticus 23. • These feasts reveal God’s prophetic timetable through history. • Believers are not required to observe them. • But, knowledge of them will build your faith as you see the God’s plan for redemption through them. • Let’s review for a moment:

3. God actually dictated the 7 Feasts to Moses on Mt. Sinai. • He also set a definite time of the year to celebrate each and gave details on how to observe them. • The Hebrew word for feasts literally means appointed times. • This was to be a special time the people of Israel set aside to meet with the Lord.

4. Thelist of the 7 in order that they appear: • Passover • Unleavened Bread • First fruits • Pentecost (Harvests) • Trumpets • Atonement • Tabernacles • There are 7 and they are to be celebrated in the first 7 months of the year. • The Feasts appear in 3 clusters on the calendar.

5. Passover – Spring of the year (Mar/April) and in an 8 day period • Passover • Unleavened Bread • First Fruits • Pentecost – 50 days after First Fruits • Tabernacles – Occur in the Fall (Sept/Oct) and over a 21 day period • Trumpets • Day of Atonement • Tabernacle

6. There are several important points that we need to emphasize about the feasts: • The 7 feasts were given to the Jewish people. • The 7 feasts correspond with Israel’s agricultural season. • The timing of the feasts is based on a Jewish lunar calendar and not the solar calendar we use today. • That is why the feasts don’t fall on the same day every year on our calendar. • The Jews measure a day from sundown to sundown (approx. 6 pm – 6 pm) rather than from midnight like we do.

7. The Jewish calendar begins in the Spring (March/April) during the month of Nisan. • God commanded Israel to measure their year based on the date when they were delivered from Egypt. Exodus 12:2 – This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you. (NASB) • This is why Passover is the 1st Feast.

8. Colossians 2:16-17 – Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival [feasts] or a new moon or a Sabbath day — 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. (NASB) • This refers to the Jewish Feasts as a mere shadow of things to come. • The feasts were prophetic symbols that pointed to Jesus and would be fulfilled in Him.

9. 4 of the 7 Feasts occur in the Spring. • These 4 have been fulfilled in Jesus during His 1st coming. • The final 3 are in the fall and will be fulfilled in His 2nd coming. • Since the 1st 4 were fulfilled literally in His 1st coming, there is no reason for the final 3 not to be fulfilled in His 2nd coming.

10. Passover – the festival year begins in the spring with Passover. • Jesus is our Passover Lamb. John 1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (NLT) • The blood of the lambwas placed on the door posts, so the death angel would pass over that house and not kill the first born. • It is the sinless Lamb of God’s blood that covers our sins, so that we will not experience the 2nd death! • It is no coincidence that Jesus was crucified on Passover.

11. Fulfillment of Passover on the exact day illustrates a principle we will see with each of the feasts. • Jesus fulfilled each feast on the exact date it was to be observed. • Each fulfilled a major part of the prophetic plan of God to redeem man. • Passover represents our salvation. • All the lambs sacrificed pointed to the one true Lamb who would take away the sins of the world. • The Apostle Paul said: Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. (1 Cor. 5:7)

12. Feast of the Unleavened Bread Leviticus 23:6 – On the next day, the fifteenth day of the month, you must begin celebrating the Festival of Unleavened Bread. This festival to the Lord continues for seven days, and during that time the bread you eat must be made without yeast. • On the very next day after Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be celebrated for the next 7 days. • For those 7 days the Jewish people were not to eat any leaven or even have any in their houses.

13. This feast is a reminder of God’s deliverance from Egypt. • They left Israel so quickly that there was no time for the leaven to rise in the bread. Deuteronomy 16:3 – Eat it with bread made without yeast. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, as when you escaped from Egypt in such a hurry. Eat this bread—the bread of suffering—so that as long as you live you will remember the day you departed from Egypt.

14. The 2 Feasts—Passover & Unleavened Bread—cameto be known as the 8 Days of Passover. • This was the 1st of the 3 Pilgrimage Feasts in Israel. • 3 times a year, all males were required to go to Jerusalem to present themselves before the Lord. • The other 2 were Pentecost and Tabernacles. • It was during this time that the young Jesus (12 years old) accompanied His parents to Jerusalem.

15. Luke 2:41-44, 46-47 – Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival [8 days]. 42 When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. 43 After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn't miss Him at first, 44 because they assumed He was among the other travelers. But when He didn't show up that evening, they started looking for Him among their relatives and friends . . . 46 Three days later they finally discovered Him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions. 47 All who heard Him were amazed at his understanding and His answers.

16. Jesus had such understanding of the Scriptures that the Jewish leaders were astounded. • He was 12 years old and had not even had His Bar Mitzvah which was celebrated during the 13th year. • leaven = sin • The actual Hebrew word for leaven is sour. • When a little leaven is added to dough, it rapidly permeates & swells it. • The dough is contaminated & soured by leaven. • The souring process is the 1st stage of decay. • Leaven is the agent used in the fermentation process.

17. This is a clear picture of how sin works in our lives. • Once sin is allowed to operate, it will keep working until it affects every area of your life. • It is a process. • The instructions were so strict that there could not be any leaven anywhere during the Feast (7 Days).

18. Exodus 12:15 – For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast. On the first day of the festival, remove every trace of yeast from your homes. Anyone who eats bread made with yeast during the seven days of the festival will be cut off from the community of Israel. • There were dire consequences for those who did not observe this requirement. • God has the same opinion of sin in our lives. Why? • Because He knows the hardship it causes and where it could lead us eternally. • God loves us and wants only what is best for us.

19. Exodus 13:7 – Eat bread without yeast during those seven days. In fact, there must be no yeast bread or any yeast at all found within the borders of your land during this time. • They couldn’t have any within the entire borders. • They could not have just a little bit tucked away in a secret hiding place in their home. • All leaven had to be removed. • The same is true for us. • We cannot have any secret little sin tucked away in our thoughts somewhere.

20. The problem is that sin doesn’t just stay in that secret place. • It works like leaven and will eventually begin to seep over into other areas of our life until we are fully contaminated. Songs 2:15 – It’s the little foxes that spoil the vine. • It’s the little sins we have to watch. • They will contaminate us if left unchecked. • We must rid our lives of every sign of sinful thoughts and behaviors.

21. Modern Observance • Jewish people today do a thorough cleaning of their homes to prepare for the 8 days of Passover. • wash and paint their walls • all cooking utensils are scalded • clothing is washed with pockets turned inside out • carpets are cleaned • vacuum cleaner bags are discarded • special china dishes are brought out for the feast • Everything in the house is cleaned! • Origin of Spring Cleaning in Western Cultures.

22. The mother then takes crumbs of leavened bread and places them in corners or on window sills. • The father begins to search for them with a candle, a wooden spoon and a goose feather. • The children follow behind him in great excitement. • The father brushes the bread crumbs with the feather into the wooden spoon. • They are then placed in a bag and are burned with the feather and the spoon. • This is a picture of the future state of sin. • It will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

23. Unleavened Bread represents the body of Jesus. • He was without sinandhad not been contaminated by it. • In fact, Jesus is referred to: • Bread of Life (Jn. 6:35) • Born in Bethlehem—House of Bread • Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies . . . (Jn. 12:24) • Manna – John 6:51 – I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.

24. Jewish Matzahbread: • Striped – By the stripes on His back… • Pierced – His side was pierced with a spear. • Pure/without Leaven – God made Him who knew no sin … (2 Cor. 5:21) • Middle Piece – Breaking, burying and then resurrecting

25. Jesus was actually buried on the day the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. • Passover pictures His death. • Unleavened Bread pictures His burial. Passover: Isaiah 53:4-5 – Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. (NASB)

26. Unleavened Bread: Isaiah 53:9 – His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. (NASB) • Even though He died a criminal’s death, He was placed in a rich man’s tomb—Joseph of Arimathea. • This was God’s validation of His death. • Jesus’ body did not experience decay because sin had not soured it.

27. Psalm 16:10 – For You will not leave My soul among the dead or allow your holy One to rot in the grave. • This is not a reference that David made to himself. • David’s tomb is still in Jerusalem today. • King David was making reference to the Messiah. • His bones would never see decay.

28. Genesis 3:19 – By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return. (NLT) • This is the fate of every man, but Jesus. • Because He was sinless, He did not return to dust!

29. Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread: • Pure, sinless Lamb (without Leaven) sacrifice • God validated Him by His burial in a rich man’s tomb. • His body did not decay (like dough soured by leaven) but was brought forth to life on the Feast of First Fruits. • For the believer, the Feast of Unleavened Bread symbolizes the work where Jesus removes sin from our lives. • It is a 7 day long feast to remind us this is a lifelong process.

30. 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 – Your boasting about this is terrible. Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast [leaven] that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old "yeast" by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are.Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth. (NLT)

31. Now, you can understand what Paul is saying here. • Sin is like leaven;get rid of it. • When we were born again, we were delivered from the master of sin. • We have a new master now—Jesus! • Sin has no hold on us as it once did. • We are no longer under the power/dominion of sin. • Then, why do we live like it still does? • Many are duped that they are still slaves tothe flesh even though Jesus broke its power over us.

32. Our Passover is done! • We are now living in the Feast of Unleavened Bread where purity and separation from leaven is required. • Don’t just get rid of the big loaves of sin on the table and leave the little pieces of leaven scattered across the floor. • As we just read in verse 6 – Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast [leaven] that spreads through the whole batch of dough? • Get rid of all sin!

33. Sweep your life clean just as a Jewish mother does in preparation for the Feast days. • Don’t have little secret crumbs in your life. • Take a candle (the Word of God) and search them out.