WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.980 do likewise with your vineyard and with your olive orchard. Six days you shall do your work, 00:00:07.179 --> 00:00:11.419 but on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:15.080 and the son of your servant woman and the alien may be refreshed. 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:21.740 Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, 00:00:21.820 --> 00:00:27.219 nor let it be heard on your lips. Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:33.159 You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread 00:00:33.159 --> 00:00:37.859 for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. 00:00:38.500 --> 00:00:43.280 None shall appear before me empty-handed. You shall keep the feast of harvest, 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:48.379 of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the feast of 00:00:48.379 --> 00:00:52.539 ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Three 00:00:52.539 --> 00:00:59.460 times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God. You shall not offer the 00:00:59.460 --> 00:01:04.760 blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning. 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:10.359 The best of your first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. 00:01:11.299 --> 00:01:14.739 You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk. 00:01:14.739 --> 00:01:21.280 How do you order the time that God has given you on this earth? 00:01:22.739 --> 00:01:25.679 Time is one of our most precious resources. 00:01:27.419 --> 00:01:29.359 And it's something that we all have. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:35.739 And how we use our time and how we order our time says a lot about what we value, 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:42.500 what we invest our time in. And that's what this morning's passage is about. 00:01:43.099 --> 00:01:47.739 Verses 10 and 11, God commands the Israelites to let the land rest every seventh year. 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:54.299 Verse 12, He commands them to let one another and their animals rest every seventh day. 00:01:54.299 --> 00:02:00.539 Verses 14 to 17, we have commands about three times each year when the Israelites were required 00:02:00.539 --> 00:02:06.759 to come together and keep a feast. So this morning I want us to consider three things. I want us to 00:02:06.759 --> 00:02:12.919 consider how God ordered His people's time in the Old Testament. Second, I want us to consider how 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:20.599 God's order of time was fulfilled in Jesus in the New Testament. And third, how we should order our time 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:29.019 today as followers of Jesus. So first, what do we see about God's order of time in the Old Testament? 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:34.919 I think we see two things. First, we see that God is ordering His people's time in a way that was 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:43.819 naturally beneficial to them. Many of these practices, modern, so for example, scientists would 00:02:43.819 --> 00:02:52.579 affirm that letting land lie fallow every so often is a wise agricultural practice. If you continue to 00:02:52.579 --> 00:02:57.259 actively farm the same land for years and years without ever giving it a break, you'll eventually 00:02:57.259 --> 00:03:03.680 end up with a desert. You can also find studies out there that affirm the health benefits of taking 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:10.500 one day of rest each week. When you actually unplug, take a break from your normal work for one day, 00:03:10.500 --> 00:03:15.659 you have more energy to work more diligently during the other six days, and you're less prone to 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:23.960 burnout in the long run. And furthermore, the rhythm of resting on the seventh day and letting the land 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:30.780 rest every seventh year benefited those in ancient Israel who are most prone to overwork and exploitation. 00:03:32.020 --> 00:03:38.259 Now notice in verse 11, the purpose of the seventh year. It says that the poor of your people may eat, 00:03:38.259 --> 00:03:42.799 and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. And notice in verse 12, similarly the phrase, 00:03:42.899 --> 00:03:47.759 the purpose of the seventh day, that your ox and donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:55.199 woman and the alien may be refreshed. You see, God knows that when a society idolizes work and money 00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:01.959 and productivity above everything else, the people who bear the brunt of that burden are the ones who 00:04:01.959 --> 00:04:08.199 have the least say over their work schedules. And so God established a weekly rhythm in Israel 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:14.019 that protected the most vulnerable workers, the poor. That meant people who were living hand to mouth 00:04:14.019 --> 00:04:21.199 and had no extra, no extra. Or household servants who had little or no authority over their schedules, 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:27.079 or foreigners, aliens, people who didn't have an extended family or a history to back them up. 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:31.279 People who are vulnerable to being exploited in almost any society. 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:38.879 And we even see God's care for animals, both wild animals and domestic animals, that they too would have food 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:45.339 and rest. And that's the explicit purpose of these Sabbath commands in this passage. 00:04:46.559 --> 00:04:53.099 They were naturally beneficial. Even the schedule of the three annual feasts coincided with the natural rhythms 00:04:53.099 --> 00:04:58.699 of their agricultural year. So the first one, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, came in early spring. 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:06.360 Late March, early April, at the beginning of the barley harvest, but right after the busy season of 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:12.379 spring planting. The Feast of Harvest came toward the end of the wheat harvest in May or early June. 00:05:12.719 --> 00:05:17.860 The Feast of Ingathering was the most lavish feast, and it happened in late September or October 00:05:17.860 --> 00:05:22.800 after the grapes and olives and other fruits and vegetables had all been gathered in for the season. 00:05:23.480 --> 00:05:28.240 So there was a natural rhythm to these feasts. You know, none of them happened at the busiest seasons 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:35.180 of sowing or reaping. They all coincided with natural sort of breather points in the agricultural 00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:41.480 year when it made sense to take a break and even to gather together for a communal celebration. 00:05:43.100 --> 00:05:49.019 So these rhythms were naturally beneficial to the people in a whole bunch of ways, but even more 00:05:49.019 --> 00:05:56.240 importantly, what we see is that God ordered the people's time in a way that was distinctively 00:05:56.240 --> 00:06:04.359 loyal to Him. Now, verse 13 is sandwiched right in between the commands about the Sabbath and the 00:06:04.359 --> 00:06:09.759 feast. And some people have even argued that it's the heart of the passage, and yet it's not about time. 00:06:10.659 --> 00:06:16.379 It's not about rhythms of time or how they order their time. It's about how they're to order their 00:06:16.379 --> 00:06:23.199 loyalties. Verse 13, pay attention to all that I have said to you. Everything God says matters. 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:29.019 Make no mention of the names of other gods. Be devoted exclusively to the one true God. 00:06:30.339 --> 00:06:36.199 And that's the main point of all these commands about time, that God's people would be distinctively 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:44.339 loyal to Him alone. Let's see how that's expressed in each of these commands. Consider the command to let 00:06:44.339 --> 00:06:49.979 the land rest every seventh year. Now, there's some uncertainty about how that command was meant 00:06:49.979 --> 00:06:56.399 to be applied. Was everyone in Israel required to let all their land rest every seventh year in the 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:02.519 same year? In that case, they really had to trust God to provide almost miraculously like they did in 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:06.620 the desert with the manna. Or would this command have been applied to different fields at different 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:12.159 times? You start planting one field in one year, and you count seven years and give that one a break. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:15.300 You start planting another field in another year, count seven years, give that one a break. 00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:22.060 That would seem to fit with the purpose in verse 11 that some land each year would remain uncultivated 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:27.460 and therefore freely available to the poor and to the wild animals. But either way, however it was 00:07:27.460 --> 00:07:32.520 supposed to be practiced, it would have been a bit challenging if you were a landowner, right? 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:40.960 You get to that seventh year and you think, ooh, I can't count on the profit from that field this year. 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:48.560 Seventh year was intended to be a reminder, as Leviticus 25 makes explicit, that the land wasn't 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:54.240 the people's to do whatever they pleased with. The land belonged to the Lord, and they were just tenants. 00:07:57.200 --> 00:08:00.780 The seventh year was an expression of the people's loyalty and submission to the Lord who owned 00:08:00.780 --> 00:08:08.120 everything. Or consider the command to rest on the seventh day. Now, this was not a common pattern in 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:13.740 the ancient world. In fact, no other nation in the ancient world ordered their time in this way. 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:19.300 Now, some scholars like to point out the ancient Babylonians did have seven-day weeks except for the 00:08:19.300 --> 00:08:24.120 last week of each month, which was eight or nine days. And the Babylonians did set apart the last 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:29.740 day of each week. But for the Babylonians, it was an evil day. It was an unlucky day, and it was not a day 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:36.060 of rest or blessing. So, the biblical pattern is quite unique in the context of the ancient world. 00:08:36.059 --> 00:08:43.879 Even today, having a rhythm of a seven-day week is the only unit of time, major unit of time, that's 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:51.939 not based on the cycles of the sun or the moon or the earth. Right? What's a day? One revolution of 00:08:51.939 --> 00:08:59.819 the earth. What's a month? One cycle of the moon, roughly. What's a year? One time around the sun 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:07.660 for the earth. What's a week? Nothing that we can observe. So, why the seven-day week? 00:09:08.800 --> 00:09:16.540 What's the point of God saying six and then one? The point is God is the Lord of time. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:22.580 You see, the God of the Bible is not only imminent, not only dwelling within the created order, 00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:27.480 He's also transcendent, that is, outside of and sovereign over the created order. 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:35.879 And for the people of Israel, orienting their lives around these weekly rhythms was a way 00:09:35.879 --> 00:09:42.259 of recognizing God's transcendence, God's authority to order their lives as He pleased and not just 00:09:42.259 --> 00:09:50.100 as they pleased. You see, God's purpose for His people has always been not only to live in harmony 00:09:50.100 --> 00:09:56.580 with nature as nature presents itself to us, but to live in harmony with our Creator, 00:09:57.300 --> 00:10:00.120 who has made us and the world and all that is in it. 00:10:02.180 --> 00:10:07.639 You know, sometimes it would have seemed extremely inconvenient to rest on the seventh day. 00:10:08.300 --> 00:10:13.960 For example, during the busy seasons of sowing or reaping. But God was very insistent, 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:18.280 and so the command to rest on the seventh day is repeated five times in the book of Exodus alone. 00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:23.879 We've seen it already in the story about the manna in the desert. It's in the Ten Commandments, 00:10:23.920 --> 00:10:28.820 here in chapter 23. It's also in chapter 31 and chapter 35 in the passages that are listed in the 00:10:28.820 --> 00:10:37.220 bulletin. And in chapters 31 and 35, the commands about Sabbath come at a key point in the narrative. 00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:42.920 Now, we'll get there in a few weeks, but chapters 25 to 31 are the instructions for building the 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:50.319 tabernacle. And then chapters 35 through 40 is the report of how they built the tabernacle according 00:10:50.319 --> 00:10:56.979 to God's instructions. And so, the tabernacle is hugely important. It's the, you know, a third of 00:10:56.979 --> 00:11:01.459 Exodus is devoted to it. It's the dwelling place of God with His people. It's, in some ways, the most 00:11:01.459 --> 00:11:09.539 important construction project that went on in ancient Israel, spiritually speaking. But the commands 00:11:09.539 --> 00:11:15.959 about the Sabbath come at the, say, even the building of the tabernacle has to stop on the Sabbath. 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:22.839 Even the work of building God's holy place is not important enough to override God's holy day. 00:11:24.779 --> 00:11:30.419 And so, 31.13 says, the Sabbath is a sign between me and you through all generations that you may know 00:11:30.419 --> 00:11:37.399 that I, the Lord, sanctify you. In other words, I have set you apart to be distinctively loyal to me. 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:46.939 We see the same pattern in the three annual feasts that they each express a distinctive loyalty to the 00:11:46.939 --> 00:11:52.559 God of Israel. That seems to be also the main point of verses 18 and 19. You read those verses and you 00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:58.600 think, well, that seems a little random. Why all these instructions about sacrifices? Well, some of 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:08.100 those verses warn against mixing the worship of the one true God with common pagan rituals or impure 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:13.379 practices. Verse 18 says, you shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened. 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:20.259 Most likely, this is a reference to the Passover when the people were supposed to eat only unleavened 00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:26.240 bread as they remembered their exodus from Egypt and as they soberly recommitted themselves to 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:32.779 following the Lord. Or the end of verse 19, don't boil a young goat in its mother's milk. That's 00:12:32.779 --> 00:12:37.759 probably the most mysterious of these commands, but it's probably a warning against a Canaanite pagan 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:44.379 ritual. We have an ancient Canaanite text that mentions boiling a young goat in its mother's milk 00:12:44.379 --> 00:12:49.580 in a verse about offering… in a poem about offering sacrifices to Canaanite gods. 00:12:49.580 --> 00:12:58.080 And God says, no. I think the symbolism is the source of life, a mother's milk, should not become 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:05.620 the source of death. That's sort of the idea behind it. The command later was expanded by the rabbis to 00:13:05.620 --> 00:13:12.920 be the basis of don't mix any meat with any dairy. That's a later interpretation and expansion that 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:22.579 happened later on. But the original point is don't mix the worship of the one true God with other kinds 00:13:22.579 --> 00:13:28.919 of worshiping other gods. And there are also… these verses also emphasize that God deserves our first 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:33.259 and our best. If you look at the middle two commands, don't let the fat of my feast remain 00:13:33.259 --> 00:13:37.980 till the morning. The fat was considered the best part of a feast, and the fat was all supposed to be 00:13:37.980 --> 00:13:43.259 burned up and offered completely to God. And so, the point is don't keep for yourselves what rightly 00:13:43.259 --> 00:13:50.320 belongs to the Lord, or don't wait until later on to give God the honor He deserves. 00:13:51.620 --> 00:13:55.519 And verse 19 is probably the most obvious. Bring the best of the first fruits to the Lord, 00:13:55.600 --> 00:14:00.700 not the second quality left over. So, all these commands were expressions of distinctive 00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:07.840 and undivided loyalty to the Lord. And furthermore, the three annual feasts were a yearly reenactment 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:13.139 of the Exodus story, right? What's the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Well, it's connected with the 00:14:13.139 --> 00:14:21.080 Passover, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. It reminded them God saved us. What about the Feast 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:26.560 of Harvest? That was also called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost. That was connected with 00:14:26.560 --> 00:14:31.340 the giving of the law. We saw that a few weeks ago when we looked at the giving of the law, and it 00:14:31.340 --> 00:14:37.920 reminded them God provides. God provides bread in the wilderness. God provides His Word for our 00:14:37.920 --> 00:14:44.600 spiritual food. So, God saves, God provides, and third, the Feast of Ingathering celebrated God's 00:14:44.600 --> 00:14:51.519 presence. That was also called the Feast of Tabernacles, and it celebrated God's presence 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:56.340 with His people during their journey through the wilderness. So, in the course of the year, 00:14:56.340 --> 00:15:01.800 they would celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, remembering God's salvation, the Feast of Harvest, 00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:06.800 remembering God's provision of His Word and physical sustenance, and the Feast of Ingathering 00:15:06.800 --> 00:15:12.960 celebrating the joy of God's presence with them. And really, that's the whole book of Exodus. 00:15:13.500 --> 00:15:20.300 God saves, God provides, and God comes to be present with His people. And so, that's what the yearly, 00:15:20.299 --> 00:15:26.419 that's what all these yearly cycles of feasts are supposed to remind the people of. 00:15:29.179 --> 00:15:33.579 If somebody could get me a drink of water, that would, I would appreciate that. I think I might 00:15:33.579 --> 00:15:39.379 need it. So, it's, they're meant to say, this is what God has done for you. You are God's distinct 00:15:39.379 --> 00:15:44.379 people who have experienced His salvation, who have received His provision, and now who rejoice 00:15:44.379 --> 00:15:51.320 in His presence. There were other special days added later on, but these three feasts are the oldest 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:56.919 and the most important ones, sort of the backbone of God's order of time in the Old Testament. So, 00:15:56.919 --> 00:16:01.139 that's God's order of time in the Old Testament, the first thing we're looking at this morning. 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:06.419 It was naturally beneficial to the people, and it expressed a distinctive loyalty to the Lord. 00:16:07.379 --> 00:16:10.220 But what do we see when we come to the New Testament? This is the second point. 00:16:10.220 --> 00:16:17.759 When we move to the New Testament, we see Jesus, first of all, living under this order of time. 00:16:18.920 --> 00:16:21.940 We see Him going to the synagogue. Thanks, Matt. 00:16:24.279 --> 00:16:31.440 To worship on the Sabbath. We see Him going up to Jerusalem for the Passover with His mother and 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:38.060 father at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. The command in the Old Testament only required the 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:43.179 male heads of households to travel, giving some flexibility to women who might have just given 00:16:43.179 --> 00:16:50.719 birth to children. But very often, the whole family went. It was often a whole family pilgrimage 00:16:50.719 --> 00:16:56.819 to Jerusalem for these festivals. In John chapter 7, we see Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Feast 00:16:56.819 --> 00:17:01.799 of Tabernacles. So, we see Jesus honoring this order of time that God had established for His people 00:17:01.799 --> 00:17:10.059 in the Old Testament. But we also see something even more profound. We see that Jesus embodied in His 00:17:10.059 --> 00:17:16.879 own person all that these days and seasons and years represented. Now, how do we see that? Well, 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:24.859 we read earlier from Matthew 11, that familiar passage, wonderful invitation, come to me, 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:32.159 all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest for your souls. 00:17:33.539 --> 00:17:38.859 But did you notice that the next story, actually the next two stories, are all about the Sabbath? 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:52.019 And it ends with saying, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. You see that Jesus represents and embodies 00:17:52.019 --> 00:17:58.379 all that the Sabbath meant for the people of Israel, right? The Sabbath was a day where all work 00:17:58.379 --> 00:18:04.639 was strictly prohibited. There was even the death penalty prescribed for flagrant Sabbath breakers in 00:18:04.639 --> 00:18:13.339 the Old Testament. But what does Jesus say? Jesus says, I have come to give you rest, and you cannot do 00:18:13.339 --> 00:18:23.099 one bit of work to earn it. I've come to give you rest for your souls by grace completely. And you can't do 00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:28.559 even a little bit to earn a tiny part of it. You have to simply receive it apart from any works of your own. 00:18:29.459 --> 00:18:35.359 Just like the Israelites were supposed to rest on the Sabbath and do no work to acknowledge God as their 00:18:35.359 --> 00:18:40.619 creator and their redeemer. So Jesus embodied all that the Sabbath day represented. Rest, renewal, 00:18:40.619 --> 00:18:49.779 blessing. Jesus also embodied all that the Sabbath year represented. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus reads 00:18:49.779 --> 00:18:56.819 a passage from the book of Isaiah during his first sermon in the synagogue. And he says he's come to 00:18:56.819 --> 00:19:04.679 proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, the year of liberation for the oppressed and good news to the 00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:13.900 poor. Sort of sounds like the Sabbath year. Actually, it sounds like the year of Jubilee, which is sort of 00:19:13.900 --> 00:19:22.240 like the Sabbath year on steroids. It's described in Leviticus 25. And it only happened every 50 years, 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:29.720 but everybody in the land took a break and celebrated and got a rest, and all debts were 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:35.440 canceled. So whatever you owed somebody in that year, everybody got a fresh start. And everybody 00:19:35.440 --> 00:19:41.940 could go home to their ancestral lands. It was a major reordering of life, and it was a year of joy 00:19:41.940 --> 00:19:49.660 and celebration. And Jesus, and interestingly, we have no, we don't know whether that year was ever 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:55.600 observed according to the law. There's no reference in the Old Testament that it was ever actually 00:19:55.599 --> 00:20:01.659 practiced. And yet when Jesus comes on the scene, he says, I've come to bring the year of the Lord's 00:20:01.659 --> 00:20:15.879 favor. The year when you can know, you can find joy and freedom that will never pass away. 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:22.980 But you know, Jesus not only embodied what the Sabbath days and years represented, he embodied what the 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:31.680 feasts prefigured. The gospel of John shows us that Jesus was the Passover lamb, right? Our salvation. 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:38.920 We just sung about that in that song. The Lord is my salvation. At the beginning of John's gospel, 00:20:39.019 --> 00:20:44.500 John the Baptist says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And at the end of 00:20:44.500 --> 00:20:51.279 John's gospel, in the narrative about the crucifixion, John points out that when Jesus was killed, the Roman 00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:57.460 soldiers did not break his bones. And he quotes a scripture saying, so that the scripture might be 00:20:57.460 --> 00:21:02.379 fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. Now, where do you think that scripture is from? 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:11.279 It's from Exodus 12, the prescription about not breaking one bone of the Passover lamb. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:20.359 And so what John is saying in his gospel is that Jesus is the true Passover lamb, the true salvation, 00:21:20.519 --> 00:21:24.599 the one that the Passover celebration was pointing towards all the time. 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:34.039 And the Apostle Paul says, Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, so let us keep the feast 00:21:34.039 --> 00:21:43.180 with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. But Christ not only saves us, he provides for us. 00:21:43.240 --> 00:21:49.379 He's the embodiment of the feast of harvest, right? The feast of harvest celebrated in one way God's 00:21:49.379 --> 00:21:53.920 provision of bread for another year. It came at the end of the wheat harvest, but it came before 00:21:53.920 --> 00:22:00.000 most of the other crops would be harvested. So the feast of harvest was a feast of hope. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:06.740 It was a feast of thanking God for what he had already done, but especially looking forward 00:22:06.740 --> 00:22:16.140 to what he would continue to do. And it was sometimes referred to in connection with the 00:22:16.140 --> 00:22:21.480 first fruits. Verse 16 says, you shall keep the feast of harvest of the first fruits of your labor. 00:22:23.079 --> 00:22:27.700 They would bring the first fruits to God in faith, trusting he would continue to provide. And the 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:35.120 Apostle Paul says, interestingly, in 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus is the first fruits of the promise 00:22:35.120 --> 00:22:42.840 of our resurrection. That the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, he says, Christ has been raised from 00:22:42.840 --> 00:22:49.019 the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ 00:22:49.019 --> 00:22:55.299 shall all be made alive. In other words, when we look at our risen Savior, when we look at the risen 00:22:55.299 --> 00:23:01.079 Lord Jesus, our elder brother, we see a promise that one day God will do the same thing for us. 00:23:01.859 --> 00:23:12.980 He will raise us from the dead. He will glorify us. And we will be with him. And finally, Jesus embodied 00:23:12.980 --> 00:23:19.899 the reality of the feast of ingathering. God's very own presence dwelling among his people. And the 00:23:19.900 --> 00:23:27.360 feast of ingathering was the biggest feast of them all. Came in the fall, a bit like our Thanksgiving time. 00:23:28.860 --> 00:23:33.780 It was also called the Feast of Tabernacles because it was also a bit like a nationwide camping trip. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.860 Everybody lived in temporary shelters with four walls and a roof made of tree branches. 00:23:41.460 --> 00:23:45.519 They were sort of remembering how God had been present with them in the wilderness. 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:51.819 But by the time of Jesus, there were two ceremonies that had developed during the Feast of Tabernacles. 00:23:53.980 --> 00:23:59.579 First, there was a water ceremony that happened every day in Jerusalem. So, a priest would go down 00:23:59.579 --> 00:24:04.779 to the spring, fill a golden pitcher with water, bring it to the temple, and pour it out on the altar. 00:24:04.920 --> 00:24:10.019 And the people would follow him, rejoicing and giving thanks. They were remembering that God had 00:24:10.019 --> 00:24:15.460 provided water from the rock in the wilderness. And they were looking forward to the day when he 00:24:15.460 --> 00:24:23.240 would pour out his Spirit on all nations and bring his salvation from Israel to all the nations. 00:24:24.840 --> 00:24:28.559 And second, there was a light ceremony that happened every night. 00:24:30.200 --> 00:24:34.120 And back then, it was dark at night. There were no street lights. 00:24:34.119 --> 00:24:40.699 But what they would do during the Feast of Tabernacles is they would set up these four massive lamps 00:24:40.699 --> 00:24:47.519 with these huge bowls of oil. And these huge… they'd be huge in the temple. And so, 00:24:47.659 --> 00:24:53.739 they'd light them up at night. And you could see the temple glowing. You could see the light from 00:24:53.739 --> 00:25:00.119 anywhere in the city. And the people would sing and rejoice all night. They would remember how God led 00:25:00.119 --> 00:25:06.099 the people through the wilderness with the pillar of fire by night and how he had called the people 00:25:06.099 --> 00:25:10.419 of Israel to be a light to the nations. Now, why am I telling you about these ceremonies? 00:25:11.779 --> 00:25:17.459 Well, if you read in chapter… in John, chapter 7 and 8, Jesus goes up to the Feast of Tabernacles 00:25:17.459 --> 00:25:25.259 and he says two things. First, he says, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 00:25:25.259 --> 00:25:32.279 Whoever believes in me, springs of living water will flow from within him. 00:25:33.799 --> 00:25:41.859 Jesus is saying, I am that spring of life-giving water. That water from the rock, the water that 00:25:41.859 --> 00:25:47.960 they celebrate. I'm that… I'm the river of living water that will flow out from Jerusalem to the whole 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:54.140 bringing God's salvation to the whole world. And he said, John 8, 12, 00:25:54.140 --> 00:26:02.420 I am the light of the world. Isn't that fascinating? Jesus says these things at the Feast of Tabernacles 00:26:02.420 --> 00:26:07.580 when they're pouring out the water and lighting up the lamps. And Jesus says, I'm the true living 00:26:07.580 --> 00:26:14.380 water. I'm the true light. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:21.860 Jesus is saying, I have come to be all that these days and seasons and years were meant to represent. 00:26:21.859 --> 00:26:27.859 Our Savior, our provider, and the very presence of God within us. 00:26:29.299 --> 00:26:36.299 So what does it look like for us as followers of Christ to order our time today? This is our third 00:26:36.299 --> 00:26:44.279 and last point. On the one hand, it means that as Christians, we no longer are required to observe 00:26:44.279 --> 00:26:50.539 this same order of time that God prescribed in the Old Testament. Paul says in Colossians, 00:26:50.539 --> 00:26:56.659 these things are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. It's sort of 00:26:56.659 --> 00:27:02.779 like for years and years, the Israelites were trapped at the bottom of a cave. And they were 00:27:02.779 --> 00:27:09.119 looking up at a large canvas hanging on a wall. And they were tracing the outline of a massive shadow 00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:16.059 and filling in its contours, but having no way to look directly at its source. And every year as they 00:27:16.059 --> 00:27:22.659 went through these cycles, they would keep on tracing that pattern of the God who saves and provides 00:27:22.659 --> 00:27:29.899 and who is present with his people. And yet they could never quite see that source directly. 00:27:31.099 --> 00:27:36.779 And the Apostle Paul says, look, the person whose shadow you were tracing for centuries 00:27:36.779 --> 00:27:45.339 on every Sabbath and in every feast has now come into the cave in person and led you out by his 00:27:45.339 --> 00:27:52.519 resurrection into his glorious light. So don't fixate on the shadows on the wall anymore. Fix on him. 00:27:54.399 --> 00:28:02.200 The reality that they were pointing to all along, he's the one whose outline had been traced for 00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:08.860 centuries. Christ, our Sabbath rest. Christ, our Passover lamb. Christ, the first fruits of our 00:28:08.860 --> 00:28:12.240 future resurrection. Christ, the water of life and the light of the world. 00:28:19.660 --> 00:28:24.960 But I think we still have to ask the practical question, as we seek to fix our eyes on Christ, 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:31.220 how do we order our time? How do we order our time in a way that's naturally beneficial to us, 00:28:31.220 --> 00:28:39.519 but also distinctively loyal to Jesus? Ephesians 5 says, look carefully then how you walk. 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:45.779 Not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, or literally redeeming the time, 00:28:45.860 --> 00:28:52.339 because the days are evil. So first we might ask, do we order our time in a way that's naturally 00:28:52.339 --> 00:29:00.059 beneficial to us as God's creatures? We might begin by asking ourselves, do I have healthy patterns 00:29:00.059 --> 00:29:08.480 of work, rest, and worship? Mark 2, 27, Jesus said the Sabbath was made for human beings. In other 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:14.139 words, a weekly day for rest and worship is a good gift from God, not only in the law of Moses, 00:29:14.279 --> 00:29:22.779 but even in the creation order. And we ignore this principle at our own peril. It's also beneficial to 00:29:22.779 --> 00:29:27.519 make time periodically for extended seasons of rest and refreshment. If you're able to take a vacation 00:29:27.519 --> 00:29:34.940 this summer, praise God for that opportunity. But you know, we shouldn't just think about ourselves, 00:29:34.940 --> 00:29:40.920 we should also think, am I promoting healthy patterns of work, rest, and worship for those 00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:50.639 under my care? Parents for your children, professors for your students, employers for your employees. 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:58.080 That's part of the Sabbath commands and principles in the Old Testament, is not just to think about 00:29:58.080 --> 00:30:03.920 ourselves, but those over whom we have responsibility. And I think in our day we should 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:11.880 also ask this question, am I resisting activities that are neither productively working nor peacefully 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:17.900 resting? Because there are all kinds of those things today that didn't all exist back then. 00:30:17.900 --> 00:30:26.040 Things like aimlessly surfing the internet, or mindlessly watching TV, or gossiping, well, 00:30:26.120 --> 00:30:32.240 that's been around all along, or anxiously worrying. There are all kinds of activities that aren't work 00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:37.120 or rest. They don't accomplish anything meaningful, and they don't leave us refreshed in the end. And God 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:49.039 says, cut those things out. And do your work diligently, and then rest. And figure out what is actually 00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:57.919 refreshing to you as God's creatures. But even more importantly, we should ask, not just what's 00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:05.180 naturally beneficial to us, but as God's redeemed people, are we ordering our time in a way that expresses 00:31:05.180 --> 00:31:14.140 our distinctive loyalty to Jesus? In other words, if someone who didn't know you well were to examine your 00:31:14.140 --> 00:31:25.019 weekly, or daily, weekly, and yearly rhythms, would they see clearly that your time is ordered around your 00:31:25.019 --> 00:31:32.639 primary loyalty to Jesus above everything else? Could someone discern that you are a Christian simply 00:31:32.639 --> 00:31:40.079 by looking at how you use your time, your schedule? Now, the natural rhythms of our year are probably 00:31:40.079 --> 00:31:47.720 different from the ones back from the agricultural year in the ancient Middle East. But how about this? 00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:55.059 Can we turn the natural downtimes of our year into occasions for thanksgiving and worship, as the 00:31:55.059 --> 00:32:01.860 Israelites did? If you have some downtime this summer, or if you're taking a vacation, don't just say, hey, 00:32:01.920 --> 00:32:09.480 that's great, I'll go do it, and I'll do whatever I feel like. Do it for the glory of God. Make it a time 00:32:09.480 --> 00:32:16.900 not just for physical rest, which is good, but also for spiritual refreshment. You think about how can your 00:32:16.900 --> 00:32:24.800 vacation be spiritually beneficial and refreshing? Maybe that's reading a good book. Maybe that's visiting a 00:32:24.800 --> 00:32:30.960 fellow believer, a good friend who lives far away. Maybe it's worshiping God in the mountains or on the beach. 00:32:32.280 --> 00:32:38.440 Maybe it's spending some of your time to go on a missions trip, or to go help some other Christians 00:32:38.440 --> 00:32:45.840 during the time that you have off. Or consider this question, are there ways we can order our time over the 00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:54.079 course of a year to remember and proclaim our story of the God who has saved us and provides for us and 00:32:54.079 --> 00:33:01.740 is present with us, like the Israelites did in their three annual feasts? Now, some Christians follow a 00:33:01.740 --> 00:33:07.539 church calendar starting with Advent and Christmas and Epiphany and going on to Lent and Easter and 00:33:07.539 --> 00:33:14.439 Ascension and Pentecost. And like the Old Testament feasts, that rhythm follows the story of our redemption 00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:20.980 in Christ. If you find that rhythm helpful, follow it to the glory of God. If you don't find it helpful, 00:33:21.200 --> 00:33:27.059 it's not required. And you can live each day, as Paul says in Romans 14. You can do it either way. 00:33:27.160 --> 00:33:34.259 Do it to the glory of God. You're not bound. But every week, we remember and proclaim 00:33:34.259 --> 00:33:42.720 our redemption in Christ when we gather here on the Lord's Day. And Christians have done that for all 00:33:42.720 --> 00:33:48.480 the variations in practice. Christians have done that ever since the beginning. In the second century, 00:33:48.600 --> 00:33:54.900 Justin Martyr wrote, Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first 00:33:54.900 --> 00:34:00.400 day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world, and Jesus Christ, 00:34:00.519 --> 00:34:07.360 our Savior, on the same day, rose from the dead. That's what Sunday represented. And back then, 00:34:07.359 --> 00:34:11.719 you know, in the first three centuries of Christianity, it was even harder to meet on 00:34:11.719 --> 00:34:18.880 Sunday than it is today. You know why? Because Sunday was not a day of rest in the Roman Empire. 00:34:20.339 --> 00:34:26.199 If you were a slave, and there were many of those who had basically no authority over their time 00:34:26.199 --> 00:34:32.539 schedules, you would be working all day on Sunday just like most other days. If you owned your own 00:34:32.539 --> 00:34:38.360 business, perhaps you had some flexibility. But again, Sunday was a day when businesses were open, 00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:44.199 shops were open, everything was open in the Roman Empire. And so, the Christians would sometimes gather 00:34:44.199 --> 00:34:51.940 very early in the morning, before dawn even, or in the evening after work. You even see that in Acts. 00:34:52.019 --> 00:34:58.880 They gather in the evening on the first day of the week. Now, why did they do that despite how difficult 00:34:58.880 --> 00:35:04.920 it was in their society? They did it to remember the one day that mattered more than any other day 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:12.720 in the history of the world. The day when Jesus rose from the dead. And they met together every week 00:35:12.720 --> 00:35:19.720 to say that day matters more than anything else. And so, every week we're going to reorient our lives 00:35:19.719 --> 00:35:28.519 around that, our Savior and our resurrected King, and celebrate the day when God's new creation dawned. 00:35:29.619 --> 00:35:35.339 You see, the Lord's Day is meant to be like a reset button every week, right? When you press reset on 00:35:35.339 --> 00:35:41.739 your phone or computer, and it gets the viruses out that have infected the system, and it reorients us 00:35:41.739 --> 00:35:48.419 toward our glorious Savior and Lord. So, brothers and sisters in Christ, make it a priority to worship 00:35:48.420 --> 00:35:57.180 Jesus with His people every Sunday. Now, I know you're all here, right? Good for you. So, obviously, 00:35:57.340 --> 00:36:03.900 there's a little bit of preaching to the choir. But still, it's a reminder we all need. You know, it's never 00:36:03.900 --> 00:36:10.639 a good sign when a Christian only attends church once a month and is perfectly content with that. 00:36:11.700 --> 00:36:18.240 If that's the case, something is off spiritually. That's not the biblical pattern. Something you do only 00:36:18.239 --> 00:36:25.219 once a month is not going to shape your life very significantly. But let's make the most of the 00:36:25.219 --> 00:36:32.959 time we have with one another every Sunday. Come at 9 o'clock for Sunday school or stay around. 00:36:33.939 --> 00:36:38.699 Don't be in a rush to leave the moment the service ends. Let's enjoy the time we have with each other 00:36:38.699 --> 00:36:45.159 as family, as brothers and sisters in Christ. Because this is where we are reminded every week. 00:36:45.159 --> 00:36:51.639 We are God's distinct people who have experienced His salvation, who have received His provision, 00:36:51.819 --> 00:36:55.960 and who now rejoice in His presence through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. 00:37:00.059 --> 00:37:11.139 Father, thank You for Your wisdom in ordering the people's time to show them in a way that was both 00:37:11.139 --> 00:37:19.199 naturally beneficial to them, but also reminded and was meant to reinforce their distinctive loyalty to You 00:37:19.199 --> 00:37:26.460 and Your saving work on their behalf. And we pray that You would help us to order our time in a way 00:37:26.460 --> 00:37:33.460 that reflects You and seeking first Your kingdom and Your righteousness. 00:37:33.460 --> 00:37:42.119 We pray that You would forgive us for where we have squandered our time, for where we have not worked 00:37:42.119 --> 00:37:52.460 diligently or rested in You. Help us to fix our eyes on You as our spiritual refreshment and renewal, 00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:58.380 our joy, and our hope. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:37:58.380 --> 00:37:58.480 Amen.