We are talking about fullness of fellowship. We have been called into fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord. The more we know of Him, the greater our fellowship with one another. We enter into a fellowship that is full of life.
We remember the Scripture in the book of Acts: after the Day of Pentecost, the new believers, along with the one hundred and twenty, gathered together and continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Even as we gathered tonight and took the Lord’s Supper together, how we thank the Lord for the fellowship we have in Christ Jesus.
May He, as our brother Thornton said, truly make us one together, with a great realization that all the Lord Jesus has done for us has drawn us together as one family forever.
I have been trying to picture something of this fullness of fellowship, and so we are looking at the various feasts of the Old Testament—each of the feasts fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Himself. But I have been looking at it from a very simple angle: as we fellowship together, may it be that we could live in the good of all that is pictured in these feasts.
May we be like those pilgrims in Psalm 133 who enjoy the pleasantness and the commanded blessing of dwelling together in unity, under the headship of our great High Priest, and upon resurrection ground with the dew of heaven. We are trying to picture what it is like to live in a fullness of fellowship.
I am just a little old for the baby boomer generation. But baby boomers are known as those who were independent, who thought they could make a go of it and make something of themselves. They were not so good at this horizontal business, but they were good in the self-made man-and-woman kind of baby boomer business.
The millennials who are with us tonight—I do not know who came up with it, but it is the people born in the nineties, not the 1890s—according to sociologists, quite apart from Christianity, are good at this horizontal stuff. They like getting together. They are gregarious. But, at least in terms of the church, they need a little bit more of this vertical dimension.
Is it not the Lord’s wonderful way that He gathers boomers and millennials together and says, “Now, if you will just remain together in Christ, I will develop a multidimensional fellowship”? That which is vertical.
Back in baby boomer days, you got saved. You personally had your soul saved through Jesus, and it was you and Jesus. There were even songs we sang: “It’s only me and Jesus; that’s all I need.”
Now the millennials are all singing, “Oh Jesus, we need You desperately. Together we come, together we come.” They are almost afraid to stand out individually. They are just lost in the mob of these passionate worshippers, you see.
Well, we need both, do we not? I think these feasts point toward all those kinds of aspects.
Tonight, if you will turn to Leviticus 23, we just want to touch on the final three feasts mentioned in this chapter: holy convocations to the Lord. You will notice that all of these feasts are feasts unto the Lord.
It is a Passover unto the Lord; the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Lord; the Feast of Firstfruits unto the Lord; the Feast of Pentecost unto the Lord. It is not our feast; it is His feast, even as perfectly represented in its fullness in the Lord’s table, which we took tonight.
We will begin to read in Leviticus 23:23.
Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God.”
“If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people. As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.”
Then it says in the Hebrew—I do not know if your translation says this—it is a Sabbath of Sabbaths: the Day of Atonement, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, the greatest of rests.
“You shall humble your souls on the ninth of the month at evening; from evening until evening you shall keep your Sabbath.”
Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of the seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord. It is an assembly; you shall do no laborious work.’”
Let us go to verse 39.
“On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.”
“You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.
Lord, we thank You in these days for this holy convocation, our gathering together unto You, and for Your distributing to us Your precious Word. We thank You for the life that we have in Christ and thank You for the reminder of it.
Lord, we desire to enter into the fullness of fellowship with Your blessed Son. We think of John’s great burden: that Your joy may be full. Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we say unto You, that Your joy may be full.
Oh, grant us that fullness of joy, even as we have been hearing about Your life in these days. Give us that in our minds which would inspire us and cause us to respond to the promptings of Your grace, to enter into all the fullness that is ours in Christ Jesus.
Now we ask for Your help as we share some final words this evening. Lord, speak by Your Spirit, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Last night we mentioned that the first four feasts we had studied already—Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, and Pentecost—were all feasts speaking of, picturing for us, that which Christ has done in His first coming.
This is a great fullness for us to enter into in itself. Before we move on to these final three feasts, which look toward the Second Coming, we want to make a few comments about those first four.
Christ is the Passover Lamb. By His precious blood, we have come into a relationship with our God. I just want to encourage us to take full, full advantage of what has been bought for us by His precious blood.
Oh, you belong to Him. You are no longer your own. So could I just say: spend time with God. By His precious blood, you have no need for a sense of condemnation. You are His. He is yours. Fellowship into fullness.
We also enter into the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but let us do it in fullness. This is our portion already. We are a new lump. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things have passed away, and now our life is lived out of the purity of a new man that the Lord has created.
But let us live in it, in the fullness of this fellowship.
We mentioned the Feast of Firstfruits, speaking particularly of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. All the blessing of discovering resurrection ground as Christians, discovering that authority and resurrection ground in our prayer meetings, and discovering the reality of living not by your own life but by this life that is within us.
Take hold of that to the full.
Then there is the Feast of Pentecost, wherein the Holy Spirit was poured out upon us through the victory of Jesus and His enthronement at the right hand of the Father.
Oh, let us not just be full of the Holy Spirit. Let us be full of the Holy Spirit: inwardly, outwardly, baptized, immersed, indwelt, led, convicted, and brought into all truth. Look what is our provision: God Himself, ready to lead us into the fullness.
This is already our portion. This all came about as a result of the first coming of our Lord Jesus: to die on the cross, to be raised again, and to sit at the right hand of the Father. That is our portion now.
One more statement, then I will pass on. First of all, you need to get down to the Sabbath of each one of these realities, because these things are not something we hope to get to someday—some kind of ideal feast that we can complain about because we are not in it, or our fellowship does not do it, or we go to a lousy place where there is almost nothing going on.
No, no, no. Here is the reality: these things are ours now. Are they yours now? Are you resting in the rest of these things now? Are you filled with the Spirit?
Now, you millennials, stop picking on the boomers. What are you in Christ? Where is your fullness, your overflow, your experience of the Spirit, and your unleavened bread? What are you contributing? Do not be that passive millennial, hiding in the crowd, complaining about the boomers.
You see, the enemy will try to find any issue to keep us from being full—any issue to say, “Well, I am stalled out, but it is somebody else’s fault.”
I say to you that if the gospel is true, we have a fullness to enter into that should cause all of us to repent and lay hold of the Lord Jesus in His fullness. It is time for us to awaken from our sleep, be raised from the dead, and let Christ shine on us.
Oh, I love to see young people when they are overflowing with the Lord. I do not like complainers myself. I like to see old people who are glowing with the Lord, but I do not like to see people who have already checked out.
There is none of us who can check out yet until the Lord takes us home. So let us join the feast in all of its fullness. Let us hear no more complaints. Let us see it coming out of you. Let us make sure it comes out of me too.
We want fullness now, do we not? No more of this little itty-bitty stuff. No, no. These things are ours in Christ already. Just think of it.
These first four feasts took place from sometime in March, according to our calendar, through perhaps early June, when the Feast of Pentecost came. They brought in the barley and the wheat harvest and had a wonderful harvest celebration.
Then what happened during the summertime? What feast was there? There was no feast.
This is the reality of our life, which is a sojourn and a pilgrimage. Some of these young people here, these millennials, have been to Israel in the middle of August. Somehow they got convinced by Christian Chen that they should take such a trip.
Israel in the middle of August is not fit for man nor beast. The whole place is brown. It is dead. There is nothing going on, just the heat of the day. There is nothing that can grow in there.
Oh, wait a minute. You see, when finally these last three feasts come in, we become aware that without that long, hot, arduous summer, the olives could not be ripened, the grapes could not be made ready, and the fruit trees and pomegranates could not mature.
They all needed that harsh and dry season for the endurance, the sap, and all the elements to do their proper work.
Suddenly we come into these last three feasts in the seventh month, roughly October. Suddenly, on the first day of October, there is a trumpet blowing all across the land. The shofar is blowing all through the land. Rosh Hashanah—the new year—but it is a wake-up.
It has a spiritual meaning to us. Suddenly, suddenly, suddenly, Christians who have been satisfied with the first four feasts—and well we should be, because we live by the grace of our Lord, and it is plentiful—hear that trumpet blow in their heart and mind.
I will make this simple application and move right on. Suddenly, we are aware that the Lord is up to something, and He is coming back.
I do not know when that happened to you as a Christian. For me, it actually took the death of my son, when I finally had some investment up in heaven. I began to think, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Lord came back?”
I had been a good Baptist all the time, but that is the first time it became real to me. It was like the trumpet blew. There is a timing going on here. There is timing.
It is not the perpetual whatever it is that they do in the middle of the Far East—the infinite circle of “om” or whatever it is. No, no, no. There is a trumpet. There is an action. There is something on the horizon, you see.
It is as if those dusty Israelites, just waiting around and fanning themselves in the hot sun, suddenly hear the trumpet blowing. It is harvest time. It is time for the end and the consummation of all things.
They run right out, and would you not know it? Miracles and miracles: the olives are ready, grapes are ready, all the fruits are ready. All summer long, you have been eating Wheaties, but it sure is nice to have a little wine. It is nice to have some olives and some fruits and everything. Suddenly, they are ready for the picking, and so they all begin picking away.
The Feast of Trumpets: rest in that trumpet just for a moment. Brothers and sisters, we all say it by doctrine: the Lord is coming back, and there is a time schedule involved. Are you awakened to it? Do you sense its nearness?
It is a blessed hope that motivates the Christian. Oh, may the trumpet blow in our hearts, so we do not feel as if we are on the endless hamster wheel of “om.” I am sure that is not the correct religious term, but I will leave it at that.
Then we come to the tenth day of the seventh month, and we find the Day of Atonement. We are also familiar with that, and we realize what is going on. We just see here a few things noted.
First, every man and woman is to fast for the whole twenty-four hours. They have to do absolutely no work. If you do, you get cut off. This is a Sabbath of Sabbaths. Do you know how to rest in the rest?
We find, of course, this beautiful picture of the Day of Atonement. You all know the story. Everybody does nothing—but that is not exactly true. There is one man for whom it is the busiest day of the year. It is not Santa Claus. Who is it? The high priest.
That man is busy. I read in detail what happens to this man on that Day of Atonement, and I can tell you this: he goes in and out of the Holy of Holies five times with different sacrifices of blood. Every time there is a change of raiment; every time he has washed in different ways. He is a busy, busy man.
It might also interest you to note that although the Jews, by the days of Jesus, did not say the name Yahweh—or Jehovah, however you want to say it; we do not know because they refused to say it—the fact is that the high priest spoke it on Yom Kippur ten times while in the Holy of Holies.
I do not know if you knew that. It was the only time anybody really was free to do it, and ceremonially he was expected to do it. As he entered in and did his work and said his prayers, the name Yahweh came up ten times.
We all know about the atonement and the wonder of the covering and forgiveness that the Jews felt when that high priest finally came out the final time, took off all those things, and came out saying, “It is done. We are forgiven.” Everybody said, “Oh, thank God, we are forgiven.”
You also know the tradition that they had a rope tied around his ankle, just in case he got in there and said “Jehovah” wrong or something, and he got taken out. The bells would stop jingling, and they would pull him out—or what was left of him, as they imagined. It was a fearful time.
They were all waiting to see what was going on. Nobody was doing anything; he was doing everything. I mean, this was some kind of a day.
Now, aside completely from the atonement and all that it means to us, and all that is fulfilled in Christ in that particular way, there is another picture involved in this Day of Atonement. I want us to see it because it is part of a wonderful feast.
Now we are at the end, in the seventh month. Now there is more mature feasting going on. How can we describe what is pictured here, as we see a high priest in the Holy of Holies?
This is the way I am going to put it: it is a feast where there is one Man in the glory, and it is all down to Him.
That high priest is in there, and I do not know if you realize the import of what is going on, but along with all the blood being brought for the sins of the people, one time a year there is a man face to face with God, calling Him by name. There is a man in the glory.
It is a picture of our High Priest in the heavens above. It is a time of humbling for Christians because, having done all that we can do, it is really all down to the one Man.
Can Jesus’ intercession perfect us into glorious sons? I do not know about you, but when I look into myself and see all my failures and things I have done wrong, and see how far I have to go before there can be any stamped image of Christ in me, it is a humbling thing.
If you are a mature Christian, it is humbling to realize all the Lord has yet to do in us. But it also causes us, if we are desperate enough, to look away from ourselves to the one Man who can do it.
I do not know about you, but if Jesus cannot intercede perfectly for me, I am cooked.
It is like that picture we have in the Old Testament. When Moses went in to talk to God in the tent of meeting, it says all the men stood by the flap of their tents and watched him go in. They saw the glory come down on the tent. They did not know exactly what was going on in there, but they sure were watching. They knew there were transactions being made.
I think the Day of Atonement is a feast unto us where we find ourselves turning away from ourselves and even our own failures, humbling ourselves in light of all we have done, and looking to the Man in the glory.
We cast our anchor of hope into the Holy of Holies. There is a Man in the glory whose life is for me. I do not know what to say. I think that is the only way we are going to get through.
Is He not perpetually interceding for us? Is He not able to save us to the uttermost? That is where our hope is—right up there. Do not start looking at yourself.
Here is a feast that is altogether regarding Him. We look and see: there is one Man in the glory, face to face with God. Praise God, and He is speaking regarding us.
You see, when the high priest was in there on the Day of Atonement, it was not about him. All Israel was embodied in that high priest as he came with those offerings. If ever there was a corporate testimony in the high priest on the Day of Atonement, all Israel was invested in that man properly offering what needed to be offered and coming out saying, “Our sins are atoned.”
How much more the Lord Jesus, as He stands before God the Father. By God’s grace, we are part of Him. Oh, what a solemn feast this is.
Let us bow our heads and recognize that only our High Priest can finish the job. May we be faithful in laying hold of all the fullness of Christ, and yet may we be aware of the fact that all of our efforts pulled together—millennials and boomers—will not bring sons to glory.
There is a transaction in the glory going on right now, and we cast our hope in Him. This is what I see as a way we can celebrate.
Are you mature enough to understand that at this point? Do you see? Sometimes we have to fail a little longer before we really give up those last vestiges of our own self-righteousness, our own abilities, and our own faithfulnesses.
Oh, in due time, we all realize that if it comes down to me, I am in a tough spot. It is just there where the Lord says, “Come into the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Come rest in My rest. Come watch Me as I make you into that which you cannot do yourself.”
Oh, blessed High Priest of God. Celebrate this day of fulfillment.
For me, there is a great difference between those who understand the Passover Lamb and those who see the perfecting Priest. The one is at the beginning, and it continues throughout our lives as the blood is applied to us. The other is seen as we grow to admire, worship, and honor the only One whose life has any value before God.
This is our entering into the feast.
As soon as the eleventh day of the seventh month comes along, the saints from all over Israel—and later, in the diaspora, from all over the place—started getting into their Volkswagen vans, piling in the family, and heading down to Jerusalem.
Now they had grapes to eat on the way, apples to chew. Do you eat pomegranates? I do not know. Yes, well, they eat pomegranates in there. Pass around the olives, stuffing the pimentos on the road, heading for Jerusalem.
Because we are coming to the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, called the Great Feast. Sometimes in the Bible it is just called “the feast.” Did you know that? When it just says “the feast,” it means the Feast of Tabernacles.
It is the feast. It is the joyous feast. I do not know if you have ever seen observant Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles. They are crazy.
They have these lulavs, as they call them: a palm branch, a fruit-tree branch, and a willow branch. They are waving them and dancing around like crazy in Jerusalem. They are dancing around into the night.
I am talking about the old men with the big beards, the black hats. I am not talking about people with jeans on. The elders of Israel are dancing for joy.
Wonderful celebration: seven days, and on the eighth day a solemn assembly at the end. Oh, how they look forward to it. They love this day. They build those little booths and live in them. The children love to live in the little booth, and the parents as well. They have a feast in there every day in the booth.
When Jerusalem was the center and the temple was there, every morning and every night they went to the temple. We will see why in just a minute.
We do not have time to go into all of this, but let me share with you how the Feast of Tabernacles changed in its meaning as time went along.
At first, in its most basic meaning, it was yet another harvest celebration. It was like Thanksgiving. All of those crops had come in now, and they could feast together and thank the Lord.
The Lord says, “Now, when you are in your prosperity”—and by the way, here is where they sang the most, the Hallel, Psalm 118, where it says, “Lord, give us prosperity; Lord, give us prosperity.”
As they celebrated and enjoyed themselves in the booths and all of this stuff, the Lord says, “Now, I just want you to know, even though you are blessed right now with all this harvest, your forefathers lived in tents.”
I want you to realize that it was not always just all this blessing. Our lives are lived in booths.
After they came into the Promised Land and began to observe this Feast of Booths, they would have this harvest, come together, worship the Lord, thank Him for the harvest, and live in their booths. So it went.
We know, if you study 2 Chronicles 5—and you can see I am slipping through this awfully fast, not even allowing you to turn to the Scriptures; you will have to take my word for it and look it up later—a second definite change came.
In 2 Chronicles 5, it so happened that Solomon completed the temple just at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, and the glory came down. It was such a celebration that after seven days, they decided to add another seven days.
It was a feast of feasts, a great thanksgiving. But a second aspect of the meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles laid hold of the hearts of God’s people.
Why did they have a double celebration? You say, “Because now they have their temple?” Only half right.
What struck the children of Israel, even based on the desire of David’s heart, was this: when God came down in glory—Shekinah glory, as it is called—upon that temple, God came into His rest, and the people celebrated.
You know Psalm 132. It says, “Lord, remember David’s vow, how he vowed that You should have a place.” Then, as the psalm goes on, it says:
“This is My rest forever;
Here will I dwell;
For I have desired it.”
The Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for His habitation. “This is My rest forever.” Sometimes you read Psalm 132 and do not realize that is the Lord speaking: “This is My rest.”
“I have wandered with the children in the wilderness as they lived in tents, and now this temple is built. But where can God, who is bigger than heaven and earth, ever dwell? And yet, this is My rest.”
The people said, “The glory is here. God is resting in this Jerusalem, and we rest too, resting in the rest.” Oh, how they celebrated.
According to the Jews and rabbinical tradition, until the time of Babylonian captivity, it was an experiential reality that the glory—the Shekinah glory—could be almost tangibly felt when the pilgrim came up to Jerusalem. God was resting there.
How much more wonderful if we could say in our assemblies, in our life, even in a time like this, that God has found His rest. He is satisfied. Would that not be wonderful?
Would that not be a consummation of fellowship life, if we actually had that sense?
There are many organizations and churches where we keep God very busy: “Oh God, save these people. Oh God, do this, do that. Oh God, bless us. Oh God, we are laying down the seed and expecting prosperity. Oh Lord, we are busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.”
Then here comes a group of people who say, “Lord, we are satisfied with You.” And the Lord says, “Then I am satisfied too.” He finds His rest among some people where He can express Himself and be understood to some nominal degree.
“This is My rest forever.” Of course, we could hear it from heaven when the Lord said, “This is My beloved Son.” You can just see God saying, “I can rest in Him. My soul delights in Him.”
But the Lord cares for His people. The Lord desires an assembly that at least manifests enough holiness, righteousness, and love where He can rest, because that is His character. Oh, what a wonderful celebration that must be.
But I know you know that the glory left the temple. We remember that tragedy as the children of Israel were being readied for Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel sees the glory reluctantly departing from the temple.
The Lord had been so misrepresented by the idolatry of His people that His glory could not remain in their midst. That glory lifted off the temple, went up on the hill, and eventually went off.
The children of Israel went into the captivity of Babylon. Of course, you know the story: boy, they learned what it meant to live in booths again. They lived in difficulty for a period of seventy years.
When finally, in the mercy of God, the remnant came back and built the temple, they had to build it without the glory. What a shame.
There was no ark to place in the Holiest. How could the Lord abide in this place, which was not even their own land but actually owned by the Persians?
Here it was, a temple—but where was that former glory, as the old ones said? “Oh, we remember the Shekinah every time we came to Jerusalem. What is this? This little feeble temple that Zerubbabel and the boys built.”
So there came a third phase to the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles took on a prophetic note: the glory will come back when the Messiah returns.
The Feast of Tabernacles became about the Messiah’s return. Now I need to show you some Scriptures, because you are saying, “Huh? How did he come up with that?”
It is the prophets who spoke of this, even the prophets of the recovery of the remnant, namely Zechariah. Perhaps you have noticed at the very end of Zechariah—almost at the end of the Old Testament, just before Malachi—Zechariah 14.
The Feast of Tabernacles has a different meaning now, a different fulfillment now. It is not just a harvest, though it still was. It was not just a remembrance of living in tents, though it still was.
If we could look at the whole chapter, you would see that this has to do with the return of the Messiah to establish His kingdom. We will just read verses 3 and 4, so you get the context.
Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east;
And the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley,
So that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.
Let us go down to the verse relevant for us, Zechariah 14:16.
Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
Is that not wonderful? When Jesus comes back as the King of His kingdom, there will be a global Feast of Tabernacles. People will come from countries around to celebrate the King because He is now the unquestioned conqueror.
The Feast of Booths will gather people from all over the place, even those who formerly opposed Him in battle. In this wonderful kingdom millennium, they will all come into the Feast of Booths.
The Feast of Booths began to take on this look toward the coming of the Messiah. They added two features to the Feast of Tabernacles which had not been part of the feast before the exile. Do you know what those two features were? Of course you do.
Early in the morning, they went down to the pool of Siloam and drew a couple of quarts of water. They took it up to the temple, up onto the roof, where they had a little hole, and they poured that water into this little hole every morning for the seven days.
Why on earth were they pouring water up on top of the temple? While they were in exile and the prophets were prophesying, they began to read the prophecies of Ezekiel and Isaiah. They realized that when the Messiah comes, there will be water emanating from His throne and pouring out from the temple to heal the lands.
You remember that picture in Ezekiel. You remember prophecies like Isaiah 55:
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”
Prophetically, they were saying, “Here, we are taking two quarts of water. It goes down into a hole. Lord, please, we need the real waters—the waters of life, the waters flowing from Your throne.”
It became one of the great symbols of the coming kingdom: the water that would flood from the throne and go through the city, even as we have in Revelation, in the New Jerusalem. That came out of the prophets.
That is what they did every morning. But what did they do every night?
In the Court of Women—which meant that any man, woman, or child of Israel could come to that court—they built four huge candelabras, lamps actually, with four lamps on each post.
They had these four great lampstands. I forget how high they stood, but they were higher than the ceiling, higher than the roof of the temple, and could be seen throughout Jerusalem at night. It literally lit the whole city, according to the rabbis.
Every night they sent some sons of the Levites up little ladders, and they lit these lights. Every night they lit the lights.
Why was that? Because the second great symbol of the Messiah’s coming is this: the light has come. In the darkness, we have seen a great light. Emmanuel has come.
Look at Isaiah 60. How does it open?
“Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”
Every night they lit those lamps. That is where these old rabbis—and it was the elder men who were actually the dancers; the women did not dance—gathered with the children and women in that court.
The Court of Women was quite a large court, bigger than you might think. Thousands of people could fit in it. Here these old rabbis were dancing around with their little lulavs, celebrating with joy the Messiah.
The Feast of Tabernacles was all about the Messiah: feasting and waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
It was on the Feast of Tabernacles, after the seven days of pouring quarts of water down the hole, that it came to that solemn eighth day, when they did not pour any water. It was the day of solemn assembly, and everybody went home. It was over.
It was on that solemn, great day of the feast that Jesus stood up and said, “If any man thirsts”—if you remember, it says in John 7:
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.”
This He spoke of the Spirit, which was not yet given at that time. Do you know what it says right after that in John 7? Many believed that He was the Messiah. They knew the symbol.
“Oh, we want the water of the Messiah,” and Jesus comes and says, “Is anybody thirsty? Here We are.” That is why He was crucified, because His claim was understood.
It is also interesting that in the very next chapter, John 8—which most people do not realize was continuing on in this whole season—that is when Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
He healed that man born blind, and they said, “What is going on?” He said, “We must work while it is day. I am the light of the world.”
These things are messianic. These things are looking toward His Second Coming. They came to this Feast of Booths, and even to this day those rabbis are jumping around, waiting for the Messiah to come.
Of course, we know He has already come. But He is coming again.
It speaks to us in this way: we can rejoice that the Messiah has come. Thank God, we have rivers of living water. Oh, let us live by those rivers of living water. Let us let them flow, those rivers of living water.
Thank God, we live in the light. He is the light. We have come to the light, we have seen the light, and our scales have been taken off our eyes. We were blind, and now we see.
Let us sing “Amazing Grace” a hundred times. It is true, it is true, and the Messiah has come.
But you see, we are talking about fullness of fellowship and fullness of the feast. There cannot be fullness in our hearts without a fullness of yearning, because without the Lord here Himself, these feasts are all missing something.
I hope that by the grace of the Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit, and His precious blood, you live an overcoming, joyous, fulfilled life. I hope one day you are so fulfilled that you realize you cannot be fulfilled until the Lord Jesus comes and seals the deal.
It is so precious that we can gather around, and even though we do not see Him, we love Him. We share Him together.
I particularly like the way our Amish brother John shares things when he says, “You know, it is so precious getting together with other Christians.” I just like that Swedish way he has. It is so good to fellowship with John. I cannot wait to fellowship with John and Jesus face to face one day.
When we touch these feast matters—the precious blood and what it has done in our lives, the work of the cross and resurrection ground, the wonder of His Holy Spirit and His work in our lives—when we are humbled as we realize that High Priest is perfecting us even as we are here upon this earth, surely we have to sense in our hearts that we just need one more thing.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
The waters that we have are not the full waters that will come. The light that we have is not the full light that will shine when He comes. All of our feasting, and the best of the fruits—or, if you prefer, not my liking, but the vegetables—all of those good things, there is still some taste that is missing.
We have got everything. We have got everything in Christ, except Christ. Do you want Him to come? Do you celebrate the desire for His coming?
There is something of fullness in a heart that has a yearning. An empty heart is satisfied. But a heart that knows blessing, a heart that has been touched by the Lord a hundred times and more, has a longing there.
You know, I want to see. I want to see Him.
Surely, when we look around this world, it seems to be darkened with such foolishness and sin. Would it not be wonderful for Jesus to rule over the United States of America? Would it not be wonderful?
Boy, I would love to live in a place where I see kids being rewarded for righteousness, intelligence, and caring, instead of being teased and kicked around. It would be wonderful—that day of righteousness, that day of love.
It will be a day of ruling with the rod of iron when our Lord Messiah comes back.
The Feast of Tabernacles, in the end, with all of its joyous celebration, is a living in booths. This is not our home. Do you see it yet?
My wife and I used to live in a pretty big place. Not a big place, but you know what I mean. It actually had bedrooms and a bathroom where you could turn around without moving the door. We used to have quite a place, you know?
Well, we sold it back in 2002. We realized, “Well, we do not live there anymore.” We moved to this little shrimpy place, and now we live in a larger place. But you know what? We are just renting right now.
We are living in a tent. Some of you live in a wonderful house. Fine. It is just a tent. This world is not your home.
So we celebrate. Wonderful thing: we gather in our tents and say, “Isn’t it wonderful we are together as a family?” Now we just need the Master to return, and that will fulfill the feast.
These last three feasts look forward to the future. May the Lord bring us into fullness of feasting.
Oh, it is wonderful, all that we have in Jesus Christ, right? Maybe we are all stingy people—small and narrow, afraid to lay hold of things—but let us not blame the Lord for our lack.
He is everything to us, and more than we can know. May we enter into His fullness. Let us join the feast.
Father, we thank You so much. Our Lord Jesus, wonderful Lord. The older we get, the more we realize it is all up to the one Man. We are looking to Him. Praise God, there is a Man in the glory.
Lord, we still can celebrate upon this earth. Thank You for marriages, thank You for children, thank You for harvests, and thank You for safety. Thank You that we can live in a booth and remember all the ways that You have led us through the wilderness.
But this world is not our home, and we want You to come back, dear Lord.
That would be the topping of our holy convocations: Your surprise entrance, our being caught up to the One that we adore.
Thank You, Lord, for the little taste we have through the feast of what is to come. Thank You, Lord. Amen.