We observe the annual Holy Days of God – But why do we do this? As we approach the beginning of the Festival season with the Passover and DOUB, we need to realize the seriousness of the times we live in and that our actions and way of life are a reflection of that time.  There is a Devil and he has pulled out all stops to divide, splinter and destroy the church.  He wants to undermine the preaching of the gospel to this world.  The Holy Days are designed to keep God people together and point them toward the Kingdom of God.

Today I am going to review why we keep these spring Holy Days and prepare to get the most out of these up coming days.

1.Why do we keep these days?

Some in the Christian community feel that since the Old Covenant was replaced by the new covenant, then things like Sabbaths and Holy Days are lumped into the same pot.  As if to say that none of the things mentioned after Sinai ever pre-existed this covenant and therefore only applied to the people with whom the covenant was made.  By this argument you could take each of the Commandments before Sinai and ask yourself, “Did these exist in the time of Abraham?  Was it OK for Cain to kill Able?  - If not, then Why did Cain lie about it and hide the body?  Where was the commandment?  God likens Israel coming out of Egypt as coming out of sin.  Where was that commandment?  Could Abraham steal?  He would not take booty from Sodom when he rescued Lot.  Abraham did not covet the best land when he and Lot parted ways. 

In Exodus 16 God teaches Israel how to keep the Sabbath before He entered into the covenant at Mount Sinai.  The point here is that before the covenant God made with Israel, there were eternal laws.  That covenant had requirements for specific purposes, that were replaced in the New Covenant.  The most obvious example of that is that Christ became not only our Passover, but our High Priest, and His Sacrifice was once for all. Another example is that the Temple in Jerusalem was torn down but we became the Temple of the Holy Spirit and with Jesus, who lives in us, has become our High Priest so that the whole Temple worship system has been superseded by our Messiah and our Baptism.

Those Old Covenant practices were a shadow of things that have come about.  The purpose for those original practices still exist but they have taken a different form. 

So here is the question, did the Holy Days observance become superseded by some New Covenant practice or custom?

Turn back to Leviticus 23:  and lets read what was there…

Leviticus 23:4-6  NKJ 4 ' These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.  5 'On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD's Passover.  6 'And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 

So let’s consider a word we use all the time and ask ourselves what does it mean?  The word is feast.  In this passage we find the word feast recorded twice in three verses.  But did you know that these are two very different words?

Feasts -  the second use of the word in verse 6
Strong's H2282  chag {khag}
Meaning:  1) festival, feast, festival-gathering, pilgrim-feast 2) festival sacrifice
Usage:  AV - feast 56, sacrifice 3, feast days 2, solemnity 1; 62

These two words come from very different roots with different meanings. This word “Chag” is most always translated feast or feast days 58 of the 62 times.  The first word translated as feast as in these are the LORD’s feasts – is a different word.

feasts - the first use of the word in verse 6
Strong's H4150 Mo'ed {mo-ade'}
Meaning:  1) appointed place, appointed time, meeting 2) sacred season, set feast, appointed season 3) appointed sign or signal
Usage:  AV - congregation 150, feast 23, season 13, appointed 12, time 12, assembly 4, solemnity 4, solemn 2, days 1, sign 1, synagogues 1; 223

NKJ Genesis 21:2 For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time (Mow’ed) of which God had spoken to him.

Tent of the Appointed Time/Purpose

KJV Exodus 27:21 In the tabernacle of the Congregation without the vail, which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall order it
from evening to morning before the LORD: it shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on the behalf of the children of Israel.

NKJ tabernacle of meeting, NKJ substitutes Meeting for Congregation.

Lev. 23:1-4. Called the Lord’s Feast.

LORD spoke directly – He tells us how to worship Him and when.  If you chose not to follow God’s direction on how and when to worship Him what does that leave you?

Feast and Feast = When taken together, you get two concepts that God intended to be one.  A festival of fun, family, togetherness, but at God’s place and time, not ours.

Do we read anywhere where God was so strong to set the rules of when why and how, only to later say it doesn’t matter when why or how in the new Testament?  No

The Beginning of our salvation – Passover and Unleavened Bread.  Explain the symbols.

Exodus 12:14-20   14 'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.  15 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.  16 'On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat -- that only may be prepared by you.  17 'So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

Is this when and why we kept the Passover and unleavened Bread?

Notice the lumping in of Passover and Unleavened bread in one group.  We can see this in the New Testament.

In John 18 we find Jesus at the Jewish court before He was sent on to Pilate. 

John 18:28   28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.

Jesus and His disciples had already eaten the Passover and introduced the NC symbols the evening before He was arrested.  Even though this was the night before, it was the same day that He was Crucified when counting sundown to sundown.  The Jews waited until Evening on the 14 when the high Day was starting to eat their Lambs for Passover.  They spent that day that Jesus was on trial purchasing and preparing the lambs for dinner.  Look at the next chapter in John and we can see this clearly.

John 19:14-15 14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!"  15 But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

2. How do we get the most out of keeping these days?

So we still keep the Passover and Unleavened Bread, but how and why we keep them has changed.   1 Cor. 5 tells us why we keep these days.  There is nothing in the symbols that refer to Israel coming out of Egypt.  The symbols we take are directly linked to Jesus Christ.  He becomes the Center Piece of these days and not the salvation of Israel.  The meaning of unleavened bread is also expanded from the OT to the NT.

NKJ 1 Corinthians 5:7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

The Unleavened bread is perfectly paired with Passover.  On Passover the Unleavened bread represents the Body of Christ, On the Feast of unleavened bread, the leavened bread represents the sins of this world that we are to come out of and remove from our lives.  Christ was a perfect sacrifice without sin.

Hebrews 4:15   15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

One of the roles of the High Priest was to make atonement for all the people by sacrificing animals in the temple.  Jesus Christ, is now that High Priest, but instead of finding an animal to spill blood for sin, He became that Sacrifice. 

John 1:29   29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

What do we have today?  We have the Bread and Wine at Passover that represents the body and blood of the one who is the Lamb of God, sent to make atonement for mankind.

Matthew 26:28   28 "For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

We must take of that wine that now represents the blood of Christ, spilled for sin.

Jesus Christ has magnified the role of Unleavened bread from the Old Covenant and given a much deeper meaning than Israel ever understood.

Jesus Institutes another ceremony right before the Symbols of Passover.

After Dinner, Jesus took a towel and some water and began to wash the disciples feet.  Peter objected.  This was not the Passover He ever participated in.

John 13:6-7   6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, "Lord, are You washing my feet?"  7 Jesus answered and said to him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this."

This was a new Ceremony, just like the Bread and Wine that would follow.  The reason that these days changed is because the OT versions were only a template of the full meaning.  In the OT they did not yet have a messiah.

You cannot make the argument that the Holy Days were done away as part of the Old Covenant and then try to claim the benefit to the New Covenant Meaning. 

We no longer slaughter animals and take them to the Temple.  We no longer rely on a man to represent the High Priest in our lives, we point to the fulfillment of these in Jesus Christ.  Fulfillment does not mean, no longer necessary, it means to fill to the full.  Look at John 6.  If Jesus made the Festivals no longer necessary, then why did He say this?

John 6:53-54   53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.  54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

If we want this in our future we had better make the Passover part of our present.  We are told as much in 1 Cor 11:26-27

1 Corinthians 11:26-27 - 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.  27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

If we want to take the unleavened bread and wine in a worthy manner than we had better purge out the old leaven and become the new lump Paul warned them about in chapter 5.  We need to remember that God gave us Physical things to teach us lessons that apply spiritually. 

Remember how God used Manna to teach about the Sabbath.  They could collect the Manna on some days, but other days, they could not.  Now, we don’t have Manna today do we?

John 6:31-33   31 "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' "  32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.  33 "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

So even something as Old Testament sounding as Manna makes its appearance and is filled to the full in the life of a New Testament Christian.   It is also represented as the body of Christ which is the focus of the Passover and Days of Unleavened bread symbols.  Like other symbols its form has changed from old to new, but not its purpose.  The Manna was a shadow of what was to come.

So as we prepare for the upcoming Days of Unleavened Bread, let’s take some time as we remove the physical reminders of sin in our lives to ponder their greater significance to our spiritual life.  Remember to properly discern those symbols and properly respect the physical symbols that have so much spiritual significance.  And so let’s have a wonderfully spiritual Spring Holy Day season.