Crystallization-Study Outlines Leviticus (2)
Message Nine
The Feasts (2) The Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles
Scripture Reading: Lev. 23:9-22, 33-44
I. The Feast of Firstfruits signifies the resurrected Christ as the firstfruits for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection—Lev. 23:9-14; 1 Cor. 15:20:
A. Christ was crucified at the time of the Feast of the Passover, and then on the third day, the day after the Sabbath, He was resurrected—Mark 14:12; 1 Cor. 15:4; John 20:1; Lev. 23:11:
1. Christ's resurrection was the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits and is the reality of that feast—v. 10.
2. Christ was the first One raised from the dead, becoming the firstfruits of resurrection—1 Cor. 15:20:
a. This is typified by the sheaf of the firstfruits, which was offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, the day of resurrection—Lev. 23:11; Matt. 28:1.
b. In the type, the firstfruits of the harvest were not a single stalk of wheat but a sheaf of wheat, typifying not only the resurrected Christ but also the saints who were raised from the dead after His resurrection—Lev. 23:11; Matt. 27:52-53.
3. Christ as the firstfruits of resurrection is the Firstborn from the dead that He might be the Head of the Body; since He, the Head of the Body, has been resurrected, we, the Body, also will be resurrected—Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:20-23.
B. The type in Leviticus 23:14 signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God's food for God's satisfaction; then, He became man's supply for man's satisfaction:
1. On the day of His resurrection, early in the morning the Lord ascended secretly to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples—John 20:17, 19.
2. The freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father's enjoyment, as in the type the firstfruits of the harvest were brought first to God—Lev. 23:14.
C. The waving of the sheaf of the firstfruits before Jehovah for acceptance signifies that Christ was resurrected that we might be justified before God and accepted by God—v. 11; Rom. 4:25b:
1. The death of Christ has fulfilled and fully satisfied God's righteous requirements; hence, we are justified by God through His death—3:24.
2. Christ's resurrection proves that God's requirements were satisfied by Christ's death for us, that we are justified by God because of His death, and that in Him, the resurrected One, we are accepted by God—4:25b.
3. As the resurrected One, Christ is in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God—8:10.
D. The firstfruits of the Feast of Firstfruits, after being offered to God for His enjoyment, were to be eaten by the people of Israel—Lev. 23:14:
1. This signifies that the resurrected Christ, after being presented to God in His freshness, is to be dispensed, with all the riches of His resurrection, into us for our enjoyment—1 Cor. 15:14, 17; Rom. 4:25b; Phil. 3:10a, 11b.
2. Christ became our portion only after His freshness in resurrection had first been offered to the Father—John 20:17.
3. The word fruit implies eating, indicating enjoyment, and the word firstfruits indicates that the resurrected Christ is to be eaten by us for our enjoyment—Lev. 23:14.
4. Only Christ in resurrection can be our life supply—John 14:19; 6:53-57, 63:
a. Whatever Christ is as our portion to be eaten is related to His resurrection—20:17; 6:53-57.
b. According to the type of the Feast of Firstfruits, what we enjoy and what is being dispensed into us is the resurrected Christ—Rom. 8:11.
II. The Feast of Pentecost was the feast of the fiftieth day, counting from the day after the Sabbath, the day on which the sheaf of the wave offering was brought to God, to the day after the seventh Sabbath—Lev. 23:15-22:
A. This signifies the resurrection of Christ in its sevenfold fullness reaching the realm of the complete fullness, bearing the full responsibility, signified by the number fifty (composed of ten times five, ten signifying fullness and five, responsibility), for the testimony of resurrection—v. 16.
B. On the day of Pentecost in the New Testament, the consummation of the Triune God—the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit of the processed Triune God, who is the totality of the Triune God—was poured out upon the one hundred twenty disciples as representatives of the Body of Christ—Acts 2:1-4:
1. The Feast of Pentecost came fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits, indicating that the outpoured Spirit is the aggregate of the rich produce of the resurrected Christ—vv. 32-33; Gal. 3:14.
2. As a result of such an outpouring of the economical Spirit of God, the Body of Christ came into existence as the increase, the enlargement, of the unlimited, individual Christ, making Him the universal, corporate Christ, the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people, which will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem—1 Cor. 12:12-13; Rev. 21:2.
C. The Feast of Pentecost signifies the New Testament believers'enjoyment of the outpoured Spirit as the aggregate of the rich produce of the resurrected Christ; the rich produce of Christ's resurrection includes the firstborn Son of God, the life-giving Spirit, the many sons of God, and the new creation of God—Lev. 23:15-21; Acts 2:1-4, 32-33; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 5:17.
D. Although the producing of the church began with Christ's resurrection, the formation of the church did not take place until Pentecost—Acts 2:1-4:
1. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit, who is actually Christ Himself, was poured out upon the members of Christ, who were produced through His resurrection; in this way the church was formed—vv. 32-33.
2. The formation of the church was of two parts or two sections—the Jewish part and the Gentile part; these two parts of the church, which are represented by the saints in Jerusalem (ch. 2) and those in the house of Cornelius (ch. 10), are typified by the meal offering of two loaves of bread baked with leaven offered to God at the Feast of Pentecost (Lev. 23:16-17).
III. The Feast of Tabernacles, the last feast, signifies Israel's full enjoyment of the restored old creation in the millennium; this feast will usher in the new heaven and new earth—vv. 33-43; Zech. 14:16-21; Rev. 21:1:
A. This feast signifies the coming millennium as a dispensational, joyful blessing for God's redeemed people to enjoy with God for a full period of time in God's old creation—Lev. 23:33-44.
B. The seven days in Leviticus 23:34 signify that the Feast of Tabernacles is for a complete course of days, which will be a thousand years.
C. According to this type, in the millennium every day an offering will be presented to God to signify that Christ is God's food in our experiences, which is offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest—v. 36.
D. Keeping the feast for seven days after gathering in the produce signifies that the millennium will come after the harvest of what God desires to obtain on earth—v. 39a:
1. In His eternal plan God has a purpose with man, and this purpose is to produce a people for His expression, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem—Eph. 3:11; 1:20-23; Rev. 21:2.
2. For this reason God uses four dispensations to do His work of the new creation on man in the old creation—the dispensations of the fathers, the law, the church, and the millennial kingdom:
a. In the fourth dispensation, the dispensation of the millennial kingdom, there will be a full harvest of what God has been doing in the first three dispensations; hence, the millennial kingdom will be a feast both to God and to His redeemed—Lev. 23:34.
b. In the millennium God's redeemed people—including the church and the kingdom of Israel—will enjoy the feast.
E. The Feast of Tabernacles was the Feast of Ingathering, the feast when the full harvest was brought in; this feast signifies the rich, full, and ultimate enjoyment of all that Christ is—vv. 33-44; Exo. 23:16:
1. We begin the enjoyment of Christ from the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we continue by enjoying the riches of the resurrected Christ in the Feast of Firstfruits, and eventually, we come to the ultimate enjoyment of Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles—Lev. 23:6-14, 33-44.
2. After the full harvest of their crops, the Jewish people observed the Feast of Tabernacles to worship God and enjoy what they had reaped—Deut. 16:13-15:
a. The Feast of Tabernacles was held at the time of the reaping of the harvest of the good land given by God—Exo. 23:16.
b. For us today, the reality of this good land is the Spirit—Gal. 3:14; Phil. 1:19.
3. Since Christ is eventually realized as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the Spirit as the realization of Christ in our experience is the good land as the source of God's bountiful supply for us to enjoy—1 Cor. 15:45b; Gal. 3:14:
a. The Feast of Tabernacles was a feast for God's people to enjoy and be satisfied before God—Lev. 23:40b. Rom. 14:17b.
b. As the last feast of all the feasts ordained by God for His people, the Feast of Tabernacles is for their enjoyment of the rich produce of the good land at its harvest time for their satisfaction—Lev. 23:34, 39-43.
c. Christ as the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles is such a feast for our experience and enjoyment today—Gal. 3:14; Eph. 3:8.