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SERMON TOPIC: The Feast of First Fruits

Speaker: Ken Paynter

Language: ENGLISH

Date: 1 June 2014

Topic Groups: TYPOLOGY, COVENANTS, FEASTS

Sermon synopsis: The Feast of First-fruits, on the 17th day of Nisan, was a celebration of the harvest, when a sheaf representing the very first of the harvest was waved before the Lord, as a symbolic gesture that dedicated the coming harvest to Him.

Jesus rose from the dead on the Feast of First-fruits.
The Apostle Paul said: 'But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.' (1 Corinthians 15:20,23)
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The Feast of First Fruits.

Offering the First fruits (Leviticus 23:4-14)

The Feast of First Fruits.

The Feast of First-fruits, on the 17th day of Nisan, was a celebration of the harvest, when a sheaf representing the very first of the harvest was waved before the Lord, as a symbolic gesture that dedicated the coming harvest to Him.

(This sheaf was likely to be barley, which

was the first crop to ripen).

The Feast of First Fruits.

The Passover:

The Passover:

Justification.

The Feast of unleavened bread:

Sanctification.

The Feast of First Fruits:

Consecration.

The Passover:

Our position.

The Feast of unleavened bread and the Feast of First Fruits:

Our condition.

The Passover:

The Passover:

Delivered from the penalty of sin.

The Feast of unleavened bread:

Delivered from the power of sin.

The Feast of First Fruits:

Delivered from the presence of sin.

See NOTE 1

The Feast of First Fruits.

The Feast of Passover: had to do with “Peace with God”

The Feast of Unleavened bread and Feast of First Fruits: had to do with the “Peace of God”

The Feast of The Feast of Pentecost: has to do with the “Power of God”

The Feast of The Feast of Pentecost is the 4th step that the believer must take towards the “Rest of God” which is typified by the Feast of Tabernacles.

Hebrews 4:9-11.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

The Feast of First Fruits.

Offering the First fruits

Leviticus 23:4-14.

The Lord said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.

He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

The Feast of First Fruits.

There is some controversy as to the timing of this event. The Scriptures say the wave offering was made “on the day after the Sabbath” 17 Nissan. Orthodox Judaism taking the position that it is the day following the “High Sabbath” 16 Nissan, which was the first day of the seven day feast of Unleavened Bread. Others believe that it was the day after the regular Sabbath that fell during the seven day feast. Adding to the problem is that we are not sure exactly which year Jesus was crucified, various scholars having come up with different dates, usually ranging from 30 to 33 AD. However since Jesus was crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover, we can be sure He rose on the festival of First Fruits. Remembering that the Jews counted their days from sundown to sundown…

Jesus and the Feast of First Fruits.

Jesus rose from the dead on the Feast of First-fruits.

The Apostle Paul said…

1 Corinthians 15:20,23.

"But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept."...

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming."

The personal aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

The Passover/ Feast of unleavened bread dealt with crucifying the “old man” (getting rid of the leaven)

The feast of First fruits deals with putting on the “new man” (the resurrected life”)

Galatians 5:14,15.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.

These vital truths embodied in the Feasts are portrayed in Baptism.

Colossians 2:11-14.

In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

These vital truths embodied in the Feasts are portrayed in Baptism.

Colossians 3:1-10.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

You won’t kill something you like or even love, perhaps the problem is that we have become accustomed to our sin and don’t hate it.

These vital truths embodied in the Feasts are portrayed in Baptism.

Colossians 3:1-10 (continued) Putting off “The Old man”

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

These vital truths embodied in the Feasts are portrayed in Baptism.

Colossians 3:1-10 (continued)

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Putting on the “New Man”

The personal aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

With regards to the individual Christian.

Although there is an ongoing process of sanctification that starts at conversion, there should be first fruits in our lives which indicate the inward regeneration that has taken place.

John 12:23-25.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

So when Jesus enters the life of a repentant sinner he/ she must die and let Christ live out his life through them. There should be an early show of fruit in their lives pointing towards the future change that will be produced in their lives by the indwelling Spirit of God.

The personal aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

One of the purposes of the Feast of First fruits was to remind the Israelites that God had given them the land and that the harvest rightfully belonged to him. They were just stewards as is made clear in the parable of the husbandman.

Proverbs 3:9&10.

Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops;

then your barns will be filled to overflowing,

and your vats will brim over with new wine.

The personal aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

Matthew 21:33-43.

There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them.

They will respect my son, he said.

The personal aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

Matthew 21:33-43. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance. So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?

He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, they replied, and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time. Jesus said to them,

Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvellous in our eyes Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

The personal aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

The fourth feast, that is Pentecost, was pointing towards the time that the Holy Spirit would be poured out to empower God’s New Covenant people to be witnesses for the Lord. However they had to be prepared by the first 3 feasts as Jesus said….

Mark 2:22 (NLT)

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost.

New wine calls for new wineskins.

The prophetic aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

With regards to the resurrection.

We have already seen that Jesus is referred to as First Fruits.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

But He is also our High Priest and the high priest waved a First Fruit offering before God, likewise Jesus presented the First Fruits of the 1st Resurrection (Resurrection of the righteous) to God.

Matthew 27:51-53.

And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

The prophetic aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

With regards to the resurrection.

John 20:17 (KJV)

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father:

John 20:24-27.

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them,

“Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

The prophetic aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

With regards to the resurrection.

The Jewish harvest has 3 phases:

The first fruits Matthew 27:51-53.

The main harvest. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

The gleanings. Revelation 20:4-6.

The prophetic aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

We have already looked at the first fruits, the main harvest is mentioned in

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

The prophetic aspect of the Feast of First Fruits.

The gleanings.

Revelation 20:4-6.

I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

The Feast of Pentecost.

The Feast of Pentecost.

Feast of “Weeks” or “Pentecost”

Occurred 7 weeks after the Feast of First Fruits and pointed to the great harvest of souls and the gift of the Holy Spirit for both Jew and Gentile,

who would be brought into the kingdom of God during the Church Age (see Acts 2).

The Church was actually established on this day when God poured out His Holy Spirit and 3,000 Jews responded to Peter’s great sermon and his first proclamation of the Gospel.

We will look at this Feast and what it symbolises next time…

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Scripture quotations taken from the NASB:

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