Often when we get to places like Leviticus in our daily Bible reading, we get bogged down.  Many times we don’t recognize the value of OT law.  But it has great significance for us today.

It is a shadow of good things to come

For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.  (Heb 10:1)

A shadow is not a clear picture. We can only get an idea of the object that cast it.  Once we see the object, of course the shadow makes more sense. 

Typology only gives us an idea of what’s coming, and it can only truly appreciated after the real thing is witnessed.

Applications of typology scriptures may be:

Practical – the applied to their day in a real sense.

• Tabernacle in the wilderness was a place of worship
• In the New Testament, seven churches were literal churches

Spiritual – we can often see areas of our walk with God in typology

• Tabernacle a type of our relationship with God
• All characteristics of the seven churches exist in our day

Historical – Typology often depicts a timeline

• Tabernacle portrays the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ
• The seven churches depict very distinct periods in the church age

The Jewish Holy Days, or Feasts

The Jewish Holy Days, recorded in Leviticus 23, have all three applications.   What we just read was a description of the Feast of Pentecost, which took place 50 days after the Passover

There were three great festivals, or feasts, that the Jews were instructed to keep:

Feast of Unleavened Bread (includes three special Holy Days)

• Passover – 14^th day of the 1^st month.    Celebrated the coming out of Egypt, the blood on the doorpost
• Unleavened Bread – began on the 15^th day.   Seven days, because they did not have time to leaven bread for their journey
• Sheaf of Firstfruits – the 16^th day.   Committing the harvest of the promised land to God

Feast of Pentecost (50 days after Passover)

• This feast stood alone, and was a celebration of the harvest, now in progress

Feast of Tabernacles (includes three special Holy Days)

• Trumpets – 1^st day of the 7^th month.    Heralded the beginning of the new agricultural year
• Atonement – 10^th day of the 7^th month.    It was on this day that the high priest, once each year, could enter into the Holiest of Holies, and was called a day to afflict the soul
• Tabernacles – 15^th day of the 7^th month.    Seven days lived in tents together, a day of rejoicing

Present Day Applications of the Feasts

Unleavened Bread - The work of Christ in our salvation

• Passover – Coming out, the blood is applied 

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Heb 9:13-14)

• Unleavened Bread – cleansing from sin, true freedom

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.   (Rom 6:11-12)

• Sheaf of Firstfruits – New Life found in Jesus Christ 

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.   (Rom 8:11)

Pentecost – The spirit-filled life, power to reap the harvest

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth  (Acts 1:8)

Tabernacles – the Christian walk

• Trumpets – The Word of God, a certain sound

8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? (1 Cor 14:8)

• Atonement – a humbling of ourselves before God

"I die daily”    (1 Cor 15:31)

• Tabernacles – abiding in the fellowship of Christ and His church

22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,  23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.  (Heb 12:22-23)

God’s entire plan for the redemption of man was outlined in these feasts

We see an outline of the New Testament

Unleavened Bread – the Gospels

• Passover – Jesus’ death
• Unleavened bread – His burial, where His sinless nature could not be held by hell
• Sheaf of Firstfruits – His resurrection , when he became the firstfruits of them that slept

Pentecost – the church age, the harvest of souls

Tabernacles – Prophetic

• Trumpets – the rapture of the church
• Atonement – Armegeddon, when the world will be cleansed from sin
• Tabernacle – A new kingdom, where we will dwell with Him, rule and reign with Him

All Jewish males had to come to Jerusalem and participate in these festivals

16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty.  (Deu 16:16)

Everyone should particpate in the Spiritual application of these feasts

Everyone must have a Passover

…without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. (Heb 9:22)

Everyone must have a Pentecost

”For the promise is unto you, and your children…” (Acts 2:39)

Everyone will want to be at the feast of Tabernacles!

God made promises to those who kept the feasts

24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year  (Exo 34:24)

We want to focus on one particular Feast – The Feast of Pentecost

Since it represents the church age - What does Lev 23:15-22 tell us about our world?

The Harvest Feast (called Feast of Harvest in Ex 23:16)

This is a time when we celebrate the harvest.   In times past, only a few were able to enter in, but now… Whosoever will!  (Acts 1:8)

• Jerusalem – our closest associates
• Judea – the good folks
• Samaria – the bad folks
• Uttermost part of the world – everyone!

A New offering (Lev 23:16)

The Passover was an old offering… The Spirit makes new!

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new  (2 Cor 5:17)

Loaves of Bread symbolize unity (Lev 23:17)   The sheaf that was waved on the third day of Unleavened bread has brought together the harvest into a single, life-giving unit!

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Cor 12:12-13

A Rest (Lev 23:21)

11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. 12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. Isaiah 28:11-12 (KJV)

Rejoicing with our best (Deu 16:10-11)

10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: 11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there

Pentecost is characterized by worship.  Telling the wonderful works of God

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.  (John 4:24)

• with family and strangers
• sons and daughters
• menservants and maidservants
• the Levite and the stranger (saint and sinner)
• fatherless and the widow

Instructed to leave some in the corners and edges

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God  (Lev 23:22)

Pentecost is for everyone!   Be generous with it!  

The Purpose of Pentecost

The power and glory of Pentecost is not reveling in our changed lives.   It is in helping others find changes lives!  It is all about the harvest!

Pentecost is not a time to dwell in tents… that will come later! Pentecost is a celebration of the Harvest that is under way!

16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you (John 15:16)

Everett McCoy - Pastor
ConnectPoint Community Church
Birmingham, Alabama

www.connectpoint.org

Everett McCoy pastors an independent church in Birmingham, Alabama, along with his wife Rhonda (www.rhondamccoy.com). Everett is a business owner, and passionate about motivating Christian businessmen to use their gifts to serve God's purpose around the world. His own business (www.macrim.com) enables him to travel frequently to India, where he also enjoys assisting in the work of indigenous churches.