Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of the Lord your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the Lord your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. Roast it and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the Lord your God and do no work.
Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.
Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you. (Deuteronomy 16:1-17 NIV)
It’s wedding time. Does anybody have a wedding to go to this year? I don’t know how you feel, but it’s usually exciting to go to a wedding. You get to travel. See old friends. Gather with family you haven’t seen for a long time. There’s lots of good food. Lots of generous gifts. Most people would describe the atmosphere at a wedding like this: Joy. Isn’t that true? Sometimes when it’s all over and you have to go home, you think, “Wouldn’t it be nice to do this more often?”
Then you would have liked to be an Israelite. Do you realize that? You would have liked to be an Israelite. The Israelites worshipped God differently than we do. We often assume that everybody has always done things the same way we do them, right? When it comes to worshipping God, we come to church on Sundays for an hour or two. There’s Bible class and Sunday School. Donuts and coffee. One morning a week at church. That’s what people have always done, right?
No! For the Israelites in the Old Testament, it was different. Very different. There weren’t a bunch of churches. There was just one. What was it called? First, it was a tent called the “Tabernacle.” Then, it was a building called the “Temple.” People from all over Israel couldn’t travel to the Tabernacle or the Temple every weekend. Instead, God told the Israelites to gather three times a year to worship him. There were three great festivals. They sound kind of like weddings! Travel, family, friends, food, gifts, joy… But all focused on the LORD. Understanding these festivals is important to understanding Jesus and the Bible. Are you ready?
The first festival was Passover. Have you heard of that? Passover is probably the most well-known festival. It happened in the month of Aviv, which was the first month of the year, which was… March or April. In the month of Aviv, the Israelites would all gather wherever the Tabernacle or Temple was, sacrifice a sheep or a goat, and eat it with bread without yeast—unleavened bread. Then, for seven more days, they weren’t to eat any yeast as they continued to worship God together. So, the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread went together.
Why did they do this? The Passover remembered God’s salvation. The Israelites had been slaves in Egypt. God rescued them from their slavery with the Ten Plagues. In the last plague, God put to death all the firstborn children of the Egyptians, but he passed over the houses of the Israelites as long as… Remember this? As long as they had the blood of a lamb painted over their door. That lamb’s blood saved them. What about the unleavened bread? God told the Israelites that they wouldn’t have time to wait for their bread to rise. They needed to cook it in haste! So they did, and that very night they were set free. How do you think they felt? Joyful! Passover was a somber, yet joyful remembrance of God’s salvation. Passover showed God’s love for his people.
When the Passover was over, the Israelites were to start counting. Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread always coincided with the beginning of the spring harvest. The Israelites were to count off seven weeks from the start of the harvest, and after those seven weeks, they were to come back and worship God again. It was called the Festival of Weeks. Seven weeks after March or April would be the end of May or June. Everyone was to come back and worship again.
Why? This time, it was to celebrate God’s blessings. The Festival of Weeks was a harvest festival. “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you.” At the conclusion of the spring harvest, the Israelites were to all bring an offering to the LORD. How much? Well, it depended on how much the LORD had blessed them. Each person’s offering would be different, but it would be an act of joy for God’s blessings. The Israelites always had two big reasons to rejoice in the LORD: First, his salvation. That’s what Passover was all about. Second, his providing. That’s what the Festival of Weeks was all about. God saves us, and God provides for us. Right?
As Moses told the people about these things, he emphasized that they were to all go to “the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name.” All the Israelites were to gather in one place. Know why? Because that’s not what anyone else did. All the other peoples believed in many gods and worshipped their gods in many places. Every hill had an altar to a god on top. But God didn’t want his people to worship all sorts of gods. He wanted his people to worship the one true God. Unlike everybody else, they needed to go to one place to worship the one true God together. So, everybody traveled to worship God in the spring and again seven weeks later.
And then one more time. The third great festival was the Festival of Tabernacles. Tabernacles is another word for “tents.” In the fall, all the people were to go to worship the LORD again for seven days. That week, they were to live in tents. Doesn’t that sound cool? Like a nation-wide camping trip. Why? Because the Israelites had lived in tents for forty years in the desert as they traveled from Egypt to Israel. Those tents reminded the people of God’s salvation from slavery.
At the same time, the Festival of Tabernacles was at the time of the fall harvest, so the people were to bring an offering to thank the LORD for his goodness to them. I love God’s promise: “For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” Your joy will be complete! Notice where that joy would come from—the LORD! Three times a year the Israelites were to stop everything and focus on what God had done for them. What had God done for them? Two things: God had saved them and provided for them. Focusing on the LORD would make their joy complete. Doesn’t it sound great to be an Israelite? Three big trips a year to worship the LORD with family and friends.
Why don’t we do that? Well, Jerusalem is a long ways away… Actually, there’s a much more important reason. The Bible tells us that those festivals weren’t meant to last forever: “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:17). Shadows are nice, but once you see the real thing, you don’t need the shadow anymore. Those festivals were shadows of something greater. What? Jesus! We don’t have a temple, and we don’t celebrate Passover or Weeks or Tabernacles, because whom do we have? Jesus!
At the Passover, the Israelites sacrificed a lamb to remember God’s salvation. Remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus? “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus has saved us. Not from slavery in Egypt. From slavery to sin and death and the devil. Not with the blood of a lamb painted over a door, but with his own blood shed for us on the cross. Passover points us to Jesus! In fact, it was at the Passover meal that Jesus took unleavened bread and said, “This is my body given for you” (Luke 22:19). We have salvation in Jesus, our Lamb who saved us from our sins. That’s even better than the Passover, isn’t it?
You know the Festival of Weeks by a different name. Seven weeks is about fifty days. You know how to say “fifty” in Greek. What is it? Pentecost. Something happened on Pentecost. As Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims celebrating the Festival of Weeks, what did God do? He poured out his Holy Spirit on his disciples. Just like he’s done for you and me. In baptism, God put his Holy Spirit in your heart. Every time you hear God’s Word, the Spirit is working inside you. That’s even better than the Festival of Weeks, isn’t it? You have the Holy Spirit!
What was the third festival? Tabernacles. There is a great verse at the beginning of John that says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). At the Festival of Tabernacles, all the people stayed in tents. We don’t do that anymore. Know why? Jesus did it for us. When John writes, “made his dwelling among us”, the word he uses means “pitch a tent.” Jesus came and “pitched his tent” among us, to live a perfect life and die in our place and rise from the dead. Do you know what’s better than living in a tent for seven days? Having Jesus pitch his tent among you. With you. Always. That’s even better than the Festival of Tabernacles.
Can you see how Jesus is better? So, if the result of those festivals was that “your joy will be complete,” what does the result of Jesus’ salvation bring to us? Joy. On the night before he died, Jesus told his disciples: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Jesus wants us to have complete joy in our lives. Where does that joy come from? Well, remember the two things that God’s people were to focus on? God saves, and God provides. Has God saved you through Jesus? Yes! Does God provide for you every day? Yes! Isn’t that amazing? Yes! What can Christians have each day? Joy. Complete joy in Jesus.
Do you? When people ask how you’re doing, do you say, “Completely joyful!” Why not? Because we take our eyes off of Jesus, don’t we? All the time. It’s a big problem. Every time you get discouraged or angry or discontent, what has happened? You’ve taken your eyes off Jesus. Can you see that? Does Jesus’ salvation ever change? No! In your life, has there ever been a day when God hasn’t provided for you? No! But do you know what I’ve done? What you’ve done? We’ve taken our eyes off of him. Every time you’re missing joy, you’re missing Jesus.
So what do we need to go back to? What did God build into the culture of his Old Testament people? “I need to remember that God saves and that God provides!” Yes he does! Maybe you haven’t gotten to have a dream wedding, but you are the forgiven child of God. What does that bring? Joy. Maybe your health isn’t what it used to be, but in heaven it’s going to be perfect. What does that bring? Joy. Maybe there isn’t peace around the world today, but you have peace with God. What does that bring? Joy. Maybe it’s hot outside, but God provides air conditioning and showers and food and clean clothes and swimming pools and… What does that bring? Joy.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Jesus wants your joy to be complete. So do you know what he wants you to do? Come to church. I said we don’t have the same worship system that they did in the Old Testament. But that’s not completely true. Every Sunday, we remember how God saved us through Jesus. We thank God for providing all we need. We hear the Word of God. We give our offerings. Does that sound familiar? What’s the result? Joy. Joy to be the children of God. Joy to see God’s grace in our lives. Joy to be encouraged by our family in Christ. Someone once admitted to me, “I actually feel so much better when I come to church.” Yes! Jesus makes our joy complete.
(To listen to this sermon on my Upside-Down Savior podcast, please click HERE. To watch this sermon on my Upside-Down Savior YouTube channel, please click on the link below.)
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