Tabernacles

You know, I think everybody loves a party. Some of you love it more than others, but some parties have a wrong motive. Let me explain. So if you throw a party or attend a party just so that you can have a diversion in life, probably wrong motive. If you throw a party or attend a party just as an escape, probably a wrong motive. Not necessarily, but probably. If you throw a party or attend a party just so that you can indulge your flesh for a while, probably a wrong motive. If you throw a party or attend a party just so you can "lose control for a little while", probably a bad idea, probably a wrong motive.

None of those things are satisfying. You really don't have joy in any of those things. You might think that you do for a season, but you really don't, because you find that you're more empty afterwards than you thought you were. But when God commands you to throw a party, and when God commands you to take joy in it, I can promise you that there's a different motive and that there's a different purpose than maybe some of the ones that I've just mentioned. Because when God commands you to throw a party, when God commands you to rejoice in it then you can rest assured that there is a purpose for celebrating and for remembering all that God has done for us. And that's what we're going to see in this last of the Feasts that we are studying. And we have taken some time now over the last seven weeks or so to study these Feasts.

And I want to just say a quick word of commendation to you because I want to commend you for hanging in. These are not light messages. There is some teeth to them. When we go back into the context of the Old Testament and we're picking up these Feasts and we're trying to see Jesus in the midst of those, this is not something where you can just kind of cruise along. You have to kind of weigh in and you have to dive in and you have to engage with your heart and your head kind of all at the same time. And I want to commend you for doing that, those that have. Those that haven't, I'm sorry. But those that have, thank you for doing that. And today you'll need to do the same thing, because I understand where I'm taking you and where I believe the Scripture wants to take us in terms of understanding this particular Feast. But you have to stay with me in the context of learning along the way so that we then better understand where it is we're trying to go.

Now this Feast that we're studying today is called the Feast of Tabernacles. And it's called by a number of different names actually when you're reading the Scripture. And that's what happens to those of us who are reading the Scripture, as I know all of you are at least on a daily basis or maybe every other day or whatever. If you're taking opportunity to spend time in the Word, sometimes you'll come across this Feast or this Festival and it's called something other than the Feast or Festival of Tabernacles. Sometimes you'll see it called the Feast of Ingathering. For instance in Exodus 23 and Exodus 34 you'll find that term used, the Feast of Ingathering, because this was a harvest feast. The last of the fall Feasts, and it was about the final harvest of that particular season. Sometimes it's called the Feast of Booths because of you'll see in just a moment because of temporary shelters that were set up. Sometimes it's called Sukkot in the Hebrew language which means kind of like woven vines together, that's kind of the idea of what they were making when they were putting together the booths. Sometimes you'll hear it called the Season of Rejoicing. Sometimes you'll hear it called the Great Hoshana, the idea of great praise, you know, great worship, great blessing. Sometimes you'll just hear it called the Festival or the Feast. All of these things actually refer to this thing that we call the Feast of Tabernacles.

And remember that this is the Lord's Feast. When we read Leviticus 23 which is what we've been studying, because we're starting there for each of our topics because God is outlining, listen to this, God is outlining His Feasts. He doesn't call them the Feasts of Israel, He calls them His Feasts. That they are the Feasts of the Lord, they are His own, and so there's actually something even broader and even bigger than just the Chosen People of Israel, and you'll see that in the Feast of Tabernacles as we review it in just a moment.

Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to read in three places in Leviticus and in Numbers and in Deuteronomy, three of these Old Testament places where it actually talks about the Feast of Tabernacles and how it's to be observed. And what we see is we see some different things in each of them that help to inform us about what this Feast is.

Now let me tell you where I'm going in this message. I'm going to unpack for us just a little bit of what the Old Testament, you know, commands are regarding this Feast. Then I'm going to talk a little bit about the history of how this Feast was kind of celebrated and embraced, not only in the Old Testament time, but also before and up to the time of Jesus. And then we're going to look at how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Feast through the lens of the apostle John. And we're also going to see that not only has He fulfilled it but that He is fulfilling it in the Age to come, alright? That's were we're headed so that you know in advance, alright? So stay with me knowing where we're going so that we'll be able to get there all at the same time and all in good order. Everybody good? Ready to go on the ride? Put your seat-belts on, here's where we're going.

First of all we're getting in Leviticus chapter 23, here's what it says: "The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord's Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work. So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for" how many days? "seven days; the first day is a day of Sabbath rest and the eighth day also is a day of Sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees - from palms, willows and other leafy trees - and rejoice before the Lord your God for" How many days? "seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for" How many days? "seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

Alright. So, how long's this Festival? Seven days, right? It's a seven day Festival, what month is it in? Seventh month, right? Those are important things for us to remember. Now what the Scripture tells us is that not only are they to, as a part of their celebration, that they are to take branches from luxuriant trees, right? Willows, myrtles and palm branches and they're to take those so they'll be able to celebrate with them, kind of waving them, that was a part of the celebration that would go on. They are also to build temporary shelters, booths, that's where we get the idea of the Festival of Booths that it's called sometimes. Temporary shelters, so that they can be reminded that when they came out of Egypt, that God provided for them in the wilderness. He was their provision, He's the One who took care of them during that time. This is what that would remind them of, right? So that is established in kind of the very first thing that we read in Leviticus chapter 23.

But then when we move forward into the book of Numbers, notice what it's talking about in Numbers. "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work." We already heard that. "Celebrate a festival to the Lord for seven days. Present as an aroma pleasing to the Lord a food offering consisting of a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen male lambs a year old, all without defect. With each of the thirteen bulls offer a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with oil; with each of the two rams, two-tenths; and with each of the fourteen lambs, one-tenth."

Now some of you are going, okay, thanks for that. Bull, rams, ephahs of flour. What are we talking about here? Well, I'm not reading all of Numbers chapter 29 to us because there's a lot. Because what happens is it chronicles day by day what the offering should be. So like on the first day you're offering thirteen bulls, but on day two, it's twelve, and on day three, it's eleven. It kind of ratchets down and it talks about the number of lambs that you're supposed to sacrifice. It talks about how many ephahs of flour that you're supposed to offer. That is what's going on in Numbers chapter 29. It's very specific about the particular offerings that are supposed to be made during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now in the first set of instructions in Deuteronomy, we saw about the palm trees and we saw about the temporary booths and how we're to rejoice. And this one's giving specific instruction over those seven days as to what's supposed to be offered, right? What the offering's going to look like?

Now let me just summarize it this way. When you count up all the bulls over the seven days that are supposed to be offered, there are seventy of them. There's a reason for that, that's not accidental. God is giving this instruction because the Jewish people believe that Genesis chapter 10 talked about the seventy nations of the earth, that was the idea that they had. Seventy was representative of all the nations of the earth. So the seventy bulls are indicative of something larger than just Israel, it's actually pointing to the multitude of every nation, that's the picture when you add them all up. By the way, if you keep adding everything up, there are fourteen rams that are sacrificed over the seven days, there are ninety-eight lambs sacrificed over the seven days and there are three hundred and thirty-six tenths of ephahs of flour over the seven days.

And you're going thank you, thank you for that information. What am I supposed to do with that? Here's what you're supposed to remember. When you break down the Feast of Tabernacles and the sacrifices here's what it looks like: There are seven feast days in the seventh month and every sacrifice is divisible by seven. Seven feast days in the seventh month and every sacrifice is divisible by seven. Do you know what this is pointing to? Completion. It is pointing to kind of a universal completion or a finality. Okay, you staying with me so far? Alright.

So we looked at Leviticus, we looked at Numbers, but there's also some instruction in Deuteronomy for us. Here's what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 16. "Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival - you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns." In other words, everybody. "For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete."

So we've got this instruction between all three of them about palm branches. We've got instruction about the booths. We've got instruction about kind of the universal finality or completion of the sacrifices. And we've got a command to be joyful in the midst of all of it. Now, this is important for us for background because we need to understand what the commands were related to this feast.

But here's what happened. After this instruction was given to the people of Israel through Moses, you and I both know that Moses was not who led the people of God into the Land of Promise, that was Joshua. But after the time of Joshua, the Feast of Tabernacles was not observed practically as it should have been through the course of time. There were times where it was observed in history, but not often and not particularly properly. In other words, all the commands of the Lord were not being embraced by the people of God.

Now you and I both know that there was the time during Solomon, much later on, when the Temple was being built and that Temple was being dedicated. At least during that time, if you read carefully, you can figure out that they were corresponding the dedication of the Temple to the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. You kind of have to read it carefully but here's what it says in 2 Chronicles chapter 5: "And all the Israelites came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month." So it's talking about the time of the Feast of Tabernacles is when the dedication of Solomon's Temple happened.

But after the dedication of Solomon's Temple, things were really good for a while in Israel. But you and I both know that after Solomon Israel kind of split, the kingdom kind of split into Israel and Judah, right? There was a divided kingdom, and the kings that came along in Israel were not very good kings at all, some of the ones that came along in Judah were not good kings either, but there were a handful that were. But during the course of that time things went really downhill. There was a lot of pagan idolatry, they weren't embracing the Word as they should have. They certainly weren't kind of really celebrating the Festival of Tabernacles as it was supposed to have been celebrated.

And then eventually, after all this kind of divided time, Israel gets into captivity in Babylon. And they are there in exile, in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. And then finally after that seventy years with Ezra and Nehemiah that were leading them back out into Jerusalem, you know, to rebuild the walls and to come re-inhabit Jerusalem, they started bringing the Word, or the Book of the Law back out and they started reading it to the people.

And notice what they found in Nehemiah chapter number 8: "They found written in the Law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month and that they should proclaim this Word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: 'Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters' - as it is written. So the people went out and they brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great." Just as was commanded, right? "Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. And they celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly." So, we do see it in the course of Old Testament history that this actually came back and they celebrated in a way that they had not celebrated since the time of Joshua, alright? That was a pretty long drought.

Now when you get to the time leading up to the time of Jesus, there was a bunch of things that happened around the Festival of Tabernacles because it was celebrated very robustly. In the time of Jesus and even leading up to the time of Jesus, there was a robust celebration of this particular festival. Now you can imagine it, right? Pilgrims were flooding to Jerusalem because this was one of the pilgrim feasts. In other words, there were three of the seven feasts that we studied, three of them required that everybody came back to Jerusalem. The males had to present themselves at the Temple. This was one of them.

And when they come back, here's what happens. You could imagine looking out at Jerusalem and seeing all of these temporary shelters set up, all of which needed to be like within a half-mile of the Temple itself because it needed to be a Sabbath days journey, because they were going to not do anything on the Sabbath, so they needed to have that kind of flexibility. So within a half-mile of the Temple you've got all these temporary shelters set up.

Now it's hard for us to imagine, right? Some of you've been to a campground before, I haven't, but, I mean I have but I don't like staying there. But you've been at a campground, right? Some of you like glampling, right? Glamour camping. If you've been to a campground, you know you get overwhelmed sometimes when you come to a campground and you go wow, there's a ton of people here. There's like fifteen tents set up, right? Well, think about if you had hundreds of thousands of temporary shelters, booths that were set up that people were in. That's what was going on within a half-mile circling around Jerusalem. It would have been a sight to behold. People having fun, they were celebrating, it was a wonderful party to have been invited to celebrate.

Now what they would also do is they had ceremonies that were well before the time of Jesus, but even into the time of Jesus, there were ceremonies during the Feast of Tabernacles, and there were ceremonies around water and around light. Let me start with the water ceremony. Here's what would happen. The High Priest would go out and he would go out to the pool of Siloam.

Now, if you've been to Israel before, some of you've been with me, some of you maybe get to go with me in 2018, Lord willing. But if you've been to the pool of Siloam, it's still there, it's right outside of the Temple complex. It's still in kind of in what we call the greater temple complex, but right outside of it. And the pool of Siloam, the High Priest would go in the morning and he would take a golden pitcher and he would fill that golden pitcher in the pool of Siloam. Now all of the people, there were tons and tons of people that would come out and celebrate this with the High Priest, and the people of Israel, Jerusalem that were celebrating this would come out. They would have in their hand palm branches just like Leviticus 23 talked about, right? They would be waving those palm branches, they would have their festival clothes on.

Let me pause here for a second. For the Jewish people back in that day, it's not like our day. Like, we've got closets and wardrobes, right? You were trying to decide which pair of shoes you were wearing today. Some of the guys weren't, they just wear the same shoes everyday, right? But some of the ladies were trying to decide, or which top am I going to wear, how am I going to color-combo whatever I'm doing, right? And if I ever do it wrong, boy do I hear about it when I get home. You know you're on TV, don't do that again, right? Okay, Edie, leave me alone. Pick it out for me, lay it out like I'm in fifth grade, you know. So, whatever, she doesn't, I'm kidding.

But in that time they were basically like a two-clothing people. It was like you had your everyday garb, right, which was basically like a tunic, you know. And then you had your festival garb, which was usually, generally, not always but generally a white garment, like a white robe. This was to celebrate in. So you could imagine the scene, right, where you've got this High Priest who's dipping this golden pitcher into the pool of Siloam. And the people are all gathered around, and they have their white garments on that they're celebrating in because it's a festival. And they're waving their palm branches and they would also begin singing the hallel psalms, and hallel just means like praise like hallelujah, right? Hallel psalms which were psalms of praise. And so as they're singing these psalms of praise, they would sing Psalm 118.

In fact, we know that happened traditionally. Here's what psalm 118 verse 25 says: Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success! This would be cried out among the people as they're waving palm branches, dressed in their white outfits or tunics and they would be saying Lord, save us, Lord, grant us success!

All the while, the priest would have taken that pitcher and he would be walking back to the Temple area where there was a stone altar, and the priest would walk around the stone altar one time everyday except on the last day. On the last day he walked around it seven times and he would pour out the water. But the priest would actually quote from Isaiah as he was pouring out the water. "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." And this was what the priest would say during that time, and he would pour out the water as he was doing that.

Now, that became a huge celebration which was an interesting one to be able to listen to because you had all kinds of things going on during this time. That was in the morning. What happened at night would be around light. So, water in the morning and light at night. And light was really set up to kind of introduce what would happen in the morning.

Now the light was an interesting thing, because in the Temple complex there was a part in the Temple complex called the Court of Women. Some people call it the Treasury or the place where the offerings were given. If you remember the widow, when Jesus told the story about the widow who put her last kind of her livelihood in there, that was in that area, okay? It was the place where the offerings were given and the women were free to go into that place. Well, in that place in the time of Jesus there would be, during the Feast of Tabernacles there would be four seventy-five foot candelabras, or menorahs that would be set up in that area. Four of them, those are pretty big, seventy-five feet is high, right, and on each of those candelabras or menorahs, there would be four oil-burning lamps. Now what they would do is the priest would send young men up a ladder, they didn't send old men up the ladder, seventy-five feet is a really long way to go, right? They would send young men up the ladder and they would light that up for the evening and the celebration would be off the chain. Like they would have a blast.

So imagine this, number one, this is in the fall. That means the harvest moon is there and you generally have a very clear sky during that time. So what was happening in the Temple complex in the Treasury area with these humongous lights that were lit, it was lighting up all of Jerusalem. I mean it was lighting up all that area. Remember Jerusalem is up on a big hill, whenever you see the Bible talking about going up to Jerusalem, that's literal. You go up to Jerusalem. And it's up on a big hill, and so this is lighting up everything. And you've got this clear sky. And so you can imagine what that looked like, incredible, right?

And so while that's happening the High Priest would take torches and they would actually do dances. This was a celebration, because they were commanded to rejoice. I don't know if these were choreographed, I assume they were. I don't know how long they prepared, like if the priest had like dance school that they had to go to, I really don't know. But I know they danced with torches. That would be awesome. They danced with torches. I don't know if they were flipping torches with one another, I don't think they were, but they would dance with torches and with light. It was something that they did because they were celebrating.

While they were doing that, the Levites were on the southern steps of the Temple. And on each of those they were singing the Psalms of Ascent. In other words, when you get into the Psalms there's a certain portion of them that are called the Psalms of Ascent. And they would stand on one level of the steps and they would sing out like Psalm 120. And then they would take a step up and they would sing Psalm 121. And then they would take a step up and they would sing Psalm 122. This was the Psalm of Ascent. And they would be singing and trumpets would be playing and people are dancing with fire, and all the people are clothed in their festival garments, and they were dancing around singing and shouting out the whole time. The ancient rabbis and the ancient historians used to say it this way, no one has ever seen or experienced joy until they have been a part of the Festival of Tabernacles. That's what they used to say. This was an absolutely stunning kind of thing.

Now, why did they use light and fire? Well, because what they were doing is they were reminding themselves of how the glory of God came in the Tabernacle when they were dwelling in their temporary booths, when they were dwelling in temporary shelters after they got freed from Egypt. The glory of God overwhelmed and radiated through the Tabernacle. It's also a reminder of how the glory of God came and radiated in the Temple itself.

And it also served the purpose of anticipating the coming of the Messiah that the prophet Ezekiel would talk about. For instance, in Ezekiel the vision says this in chapter 43: "The man brought me to the gate facing east, and I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. And His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with His glory." It lit everything up. This was the idea, alright?

So all of this, ladies and gentlemen is going on during the time of Jesus. Now, the reason I tell you that is because when we start looking at Jesus and what He did as it relates to the Feast of Tabernacles we want to look specifically through the lens of the gospel writer John. Because he, in the very beginning chapter, gives us a hint of where he's going. Because he's actually going to chronicle some stuff for us a little bit later on about what Jesus does during the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7, John 8 and John 9.

But in John chapter 1 we get some insight into this. Listen to what it says in John 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; and without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." Then verse 14 says: "And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." Ladies and gentlemen, that literally translates in the Greek language "The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

So John tells us from the outside, God has come to tabernacle with us, and He tells us that in chapter number 1. And then He introduces us to the ministry of Jesus and what He does at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7, John 8 and John 9. See, John is setting this up for us to be able to see that Jesus is actually the fulfillment of the Feast itself.

Notice what John 7 says. Here's where he picks it up: "After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. And He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus' brothers said to him, 'Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works that you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.'" Like hype yourself on Facebook. Tweet out all the junk you're doing. Send some stuff out on YouTube. Everybody needs to see you. That's what they're saying basically. "For even his own brothers did not believe in him. Therefore Jesus told them, 'My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that it's works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.' After He had said this, He stayed in Galilee. However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. And now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and they were asking where is he?' Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, 'He is a good man.' Others replied, 'No, he deceives the people.' But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders. Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach."

So, his brothers kind of pushed him along. He said no, I'm not going. Leave me alone. Not my time. They go. He waits. But then secretly, he comes upm and he eventually starts teaching in the temple courts about halfway through the festival. And then John chronicles some of that teaching and what happens.

But then he gives us an illustration of what was happening later. Because when the end of the festival came, if you remember that water ceremony that I told you about. That happened on the last day of the festival. They called it the  last and the great day of the festival, where they would walk around seven times around the stone altar before they poured out the water.

And so all the people are gathered around, and everybody's robed up, and they've got their palm branches, and they're doing this incredible thing. And notice what happens later on in John seven. On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." And by this he met the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Can you imagine that scene? The high priests are carrying out all of their duties, and Jesus raises his voice above them all and says, "Anyone who's thirsty you come to me and drink. For out of me and in you will flow rivers of living water." In other words, Jesus is saying, I know all of these signs are pointing you somewhere. But let me tell you where they're pointing. Here. They're pointing to me. I am the fulfillment of the feast. I am the water that you are thirsty for. I am the one who will providem even if you're praying for water or rain to come, I'm the one who will provide everything that you need. This is what Jesus is saying.

Now, guess what else happens? After Jesus does this, everybody kind of disperses and leaves. And then Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives, which is again very close to the eastern gate of the city. When you're at the Mount of Olives, you're looking right at it. It's literally a walk through the Kidron Valley right across. Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives.

Notice what happens. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. I already told you that. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. And when Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Where were the big candelabras? Right there. And he's telling them, he's the light of the world, with the temple and the candelabras as the backdrop. "Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come."

Jesus told them, I am the water that you're thirsting for. And then Jesus told them, I am the light of the world that you seek. You see, this is Jesus saying very clearly that he himself is the fulfillment of these things.

In fact, even when he left that place, he started moving outside of the temple complex a little bit, and noticed what happened there. John chapter 9. It's this long string of kind of Feast of Tabernacles illustrations that John gives us. As Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." And after saying this, he spit on the ground, and made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes "Go," he told the man, "wash in the Pool of Siloam." The same pool where the high priests were putting their golden pitcher in, and would pour out on the stone altar. "So the man went and washed, and came home seeing."

You see, in every way, Jesus is trying to say, I am what you are seeking. You are dipping water in and pouring it on the altar as kind of an ask that God might in the next cycle of season of harvest might provide for you. But I am the one that actually gives light to the world. Even blinded eyes will be able to see, because I am the living water, and I am the light of the world. I am the fulfillment of the Feast, Jesus is helping us to see.

So why is that so important? Because Jesus is saying, I'm the light of the world. Jesus is saying, I am the living water. Jesus is saying, I am the fulfillment of the Feast. And you know what that tells me? It tells me something very, very simple that we can remember. And it's this. That Jesus is our joy. You see, the command of this feast was that we take joy in it. That we rejoice in it. And if Jesus is actually the focus of the feast, and he himself is the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, what it tells us is that Jesus is our joy.

You see, we look for joy in all the wrong spots, don't we? Don't we? We do, right? We don't know how to party. It's all wrong for us. We look for joy. We look for eternal lasting joy in places that can't possibly give it to us.

My wife is the best. She is the best wife in the world. And all you husband's would say the same thing. Not about my wife, about your wife, right? To make that clear. Right? You got the best wife in the whole world. She however, is not my source for eternal lasting joy. God gives us joy in our marriage relationship. And for that, I'm deeply grateful. But I will not find her as my sole source of eternal lasting joy. She's not capable of that. And I'm not capable of that for her. Jesus is our joy.

You're not going to find your joy in a high. You're looking for it in the wrong places. You try and embrace the substance, because maybe you're trying to escape, or you're trying to divert, or you're trying to fill an emptiness. And for a few moments, you get the opportunity to forget about it. But you come back even more empty with a bigger gaping hole, and it does not satisfy. because you've looked in the wrong places. Jesus is our everlasting joy!

You will not find it in success and achievement. Because I promise you, even if you get named. I'm 40, under 40, or I'm 50, under 50. And I am one of the most influential people in  in Western New York. And you get your name in the paper or whatever. That clapping listen will fade. It'll go away. It will not last. It will not be the source of everlasting joy. It will not.

Jesus is the only source for our everlasting eternal joy. And we have to make sure that we get that straight, because nothing else will give that to us. No fleshly indulgence. No losing control for a little while. None of those things will give us eternal joy. We look for it in all the wrong spots. And I'm telling you the Feast of Tabernacles tells us this. You want to find it? It's Jesus. Jesus is our joy.

Now we've been looking through the lens of John to figure this out, right? I want to stay with him. Because not only is he showing us that Jesus fulfilled the Feast, but he also points us to the future and how he will fulfill it. But see, now John has taken off the garb of being John the gospel writer, and now he's John the Revelator. And John the Revelator tells us about something in Revelation 7, that when we read it before we didn't realize that it was Feast of Tabernacles language. But we know now, don't we?

Watch what it says. Revelation 7 verse 9. "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language." Do you remember the 70 bulls that were offered that were for kind of in recognition and in symbolism of all the nations of the world? That that was a part of the offering of the Feast of Tabernacles? "...and then standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands."

Are you starting to follow at this point? This is teaching us Tabernacles language. John is using the idea of the Feast of Tabernacles and giving us a vision into things future, when the final end gathering actually happens, and the harvest is complete. And every nation and tongue and tribe are waving palm branches in their white robes. And who is it the they are taking joy in? Who is it that they are celebrating? The Lamb. The Lord Jesus. Because Jesus is their joy.

And that text itself, I'm going to give you a couple things here real quick. That text itself shows us that Jesus is our joy in a few different ways, right out of the text. I'm literally lifting this straight from the text. Notice that Jesus is our joy because he is our salvation. Listen to what iRevelation chapter 7 verse 10 says. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Listen to the contrast here. When in the time of Jesus, people were running around and they were quoting from the Hallel psalms, like psalm 118. And they were yelling out while waving palm branches these words: "Save us now God! Grant us success, oh Lord!" And what we see in Revelation 7 is that salvation belongs to the Lord and to the lamb. That this has already been dealt with and satisfied because of the Lamb of God who went to a cross, who died for sinful people, who rose from the dead for our justification. That through the grace of God by our faith in the Lamb of God, we can be forgiven and saved and we can celebrate his salvation for the rest of our life! That's why David said, I will rejoice in your salvation. He didn't say, I'll rejoice in my salvation. He said, I will rejoice in your salvation. Because God is the author of salvation. Salvation belongs to God and to the Lamb upon the throne. It is no longer crying out, please save us. God is saying in Jesus Christ, I have. You just need to put your faith in me. That's when you will know what it means to find salvation. He's our salvation. That's why we can be people of great joy. We find joy in Jesus because he's our salvation.

But we find joy in Jesus because he's our shelter. Again, this is Tabernacles language. Notice what it says verse number 15 and 16. Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 'Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not be down on them,' nor any scorching heat."

Isn't it astonishing that we are reminded in Tabernacles language that as there was a time where people lived in temporary shelters, there is going to come a time that we will no longer need temporary shelters, because the Lamb of God and his presence is going to be our shelter. He will Tabernacle with us, and he will be our shelter forever.

Some of you have felt exposed to the world that you live in. And you have longed to be sheltered. You will find that in Jesus. You feel exposed because you get made fun of because you follow Jesus, or you get persecuted because you follow Jesus, or because your family turns on you because you follow Jesus. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you, you have an everlasting shelter. And you can have the joy of Jesus, because he himself is our joy. Because he, his presence becomes our shelter. The sun never going is to beat down on us anymore. We're never gonna have to worry anymore about provision for our lives, because we are cared for. He is all in all at that point. Everything has come together in the Lamb. This is a beautiful truth.

He's our salvation. He's our shelter. And yes, he's our shepherd. Listen to what the following verse says in verse 17. "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;" And notice what he does. "He will lead them to springs of living water." All over the place is Feast of Tabernacles. "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

You see, Jesus is our joy because he serves us as our shepherd. He laid his life down on our behalf. And now, isn't it interesting the picture that revelation uses? That the Lamb becomes the shepherd. The Lamb is the shepherd. And he will lead us to rivers of living water. In other words, we will always be satisfied, because forevermore we will never be people who are led by the flesh. We will never be people who are led by sinful natures. We will have been made new and recreated, and we will be a people of the Spirit. This is the promise and the hope that we have.

And God said as our great shepherd, as our great comfort, he's going to wipe every tear from our eyes. And you know what that illustration is talking about. Every regret, every heartache, every brokenness, everything that's ever happened that has broken your heart, all of those tears will be wiped away. But I wonder, I wonder if he will let the tears of joy flow. Because we are going to be in the presence of the one who is great joy. He's wiping away all that the brokenness and the heartache, but I can't help but imagine that tears are going to flow of joy, right?

Have you ever had so much joy you didn't know what to do with it? I've got a little cousin, she's sweet as she can be. And if something really bad happens, she's bawling. If something really good happens, she's bawling. Like she just doesn't know how to deal. If it's so good, it just overwhelms her, and she breaks down and she just loses her mind.

I can't help but think that that's exactly what we're going to probably look like. The tears of pain and heartbreak, and the tears of regret, and all that stuff. They're all gone! Now it's just joy, because Jesus is our joy. This is what we're promised, ladies and gentlemen.

So, in our eternal destiny, we will live in joy, because he will be our joy. Jesus is our joy.

We've studied a lot over the last number of weeks. And what I want us to do for a moment is I want us to celebrate as we recap what we've done. And we're going to have the opportunity to celebrate that together. So let's do that.

The only way that we can deal with the enemy of our soul who comes to kill and steal and destroy. The only way we can deal with that is because we have been covered by the blood of the Lamb. And judgment now passes over us because of what God has done for us in his precious, chosen lamb, the one he chose for his family, and put his name on, so that we now could find forgiveness and grace and hope, and our sins being cast away and victory over the enemy. The only hope we have is in the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus Christ, the pure bread of God. What he will do is he will clean the house so it's a home for holiness. And the question that we have to ask is, since he is the pure bread of God, are there things in our lives - yeast that shows up in the house -that we need to ask God to clean the house, so that we can be a home for holiness.

We don't need to earn his favor. Stop trying to earn his acceptance. Your only hope is Jesus. You can never make yourself acceptable to God. Ever! But the precious Passover Lamb who is the pure undecaying bread of God is also the firstfruits of great promise for what we will be when we put our faith and our trust in him. We will be made like  him.

Remember you used to be slaves, and you're not anymore. You see, when the Spirit was poured out on all of them at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, ladies and gentlemen, when the Spirit was poured out, they did not put all of their focus on all of the signs. They did not put all of their focus on all of the languages that they were spoken. Those were leveraged to put the focus on Jesus, so that he could transform people's lives. That's why it happened!

Your life, sir, ma'am. Your life makes a sound. And every note matters. Even if the world around you is a little confused, every note matters. Your life makes a sound. Let it be a trumpet of God that points people to Jesus.

When our high priest exits the Temple, the doors don't close behind them. Every year, the Jewish high priest would exit the Most Holy Place, and the door would slam shut, reminding people that they could only come this far and no further. But when our High Priest exits the temple, the doors don't close behind him. He has opened up a new living way for you. You and me, sinners deserving of death and judgment to come into God's presence cleansed and forgiven and set free.

You see in our eternal destiny, we are made to live in joy, because we are made to live in Jesus. Jesus is our joy.

Hey is it a party or not? This is a party that you are invited to. I don't know why anyone would want to pass on the one who laid his life down for us, who came and tabernacled among us, that while we were yet sinners, he still came in tabernacled among us. So that he could be our salvation. So that he could be our source. He could be our strength. He could be our hope. He could be our living water. He could be our light. All of these things are true. He could be our shelter. He could be our Shepherd. He is these things.

If we would but turn from our sin and recognize that we can't save ourselves, but only he can save us, and we put our faith and our trust in him, and we bow before him confessing that he is Lord of all, that Jesus is Lord, that we are not, and that we need him to save us and to change us. And if you've never come to Jesus that way, we don't want you to miss the party. He doesn't want you to miss the party. You can experience eternal joy in Jesus and be satisfied forever in him. He's what you've been looking for.

So when we dismiss in just a moment, if you've never come to a place of receiving Jesus, come by the Fireside Room. Please. There's people waiting on you there. It's just right outside these doors across the atrium. It's clearly marked. There's folks waiting there who would love to talk to you about what it means to enter into relationship with God through His Son Jesus by the power of his Spirit.

So Father, thank you for everything that you've taught us over these weeks. For the confidence that you have instilled in our hearts, a deepening confidence that you are sovereign over everything. That you have put these feasts in place to point to the reality of Jesus. And that we don't even in these moments have to continue to keep the feasts, because they were a shadow of what was to come. The reality as Paul says in Colossians is Jesus. And Jesus, you are our joy. I pray that the world would see you as our joy, would see you as our treasure, and that they would see you as the light that is enlivening our lives. That they would see you as the living water inside of us. Because what the world thirsts for, you have. And what the darkened world is looking for, you will enlighten. So please, Lord Jesus, help us to be those kinds of people in the world, in the dark thirsty world that we live in. May we be the light and living water because of your life in us, so that people may come to Jesus and find everlasting joy. We love you. We bless you. We give you the glory. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. And all God's people said, amen.

Hey, party of your way out the door. See ya.