Jesus Went To the Feast of Tabernacles

First lets lay some groundwork...

John 3:15 – what does this mean? To believe in Him?

1. ·        Believe in the historic existence of Jesus Christ
2. ·        Believe that Jesus Christ was who He said he was (son of God)
3. ·        Believe that He died for your sin. And because He was who He said he was His death can pay the death penalty for every human who has ever/will ever live.

Many stop there… with a message about the person of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice, teaching that is all you need to know and believe. A good beginning but grossly insufficient.

John3:10-12 To believe in Christ also means to believe the words He taught, about how salvation is achieved, prophecies of what is to come, and His instructions on how to live… all of which relate in one way or another to the good news of the Kingdom of God.

People talk a lot about Jesus… but the commission of the Church is to carry on His work… to carry on putting the message of the Kingdom of God out there… to witness, instruct, encourage. Therefore we should know what Jesus taught and what Jesus did.

Matt 28:19-20 we have Jesus words (commands) and we also have His example to pattern our lives after. “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done”… “ Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow” ... “follow me as I follow Christ”.

Jesus went to the Feast of Tabernacles

John 7:1-10 He had every reason to stay home, avoid trouble etc. but clearly He went in spite of this. It was His top priority to follow the commands of God.

Going to the Feast of Tabernacles each year looks crazy in the eyes of the world. It may cause you trouble, it may be a time of testing an trial (job, school, marriage)… but if you look to Jesus’ example you will go anyway.

FOT Instituted For All People at All Times

God put the Feast of Tabernacles in place as a lesson, a marker, a reminder meant for all people (all nations, races, genders, not just Jews) and meant for all times (past, present, future).

·        Genesis 18:18-19 these things given to Abraham and descendants were intended for ALL

·        Galatians 3:29 at this time and in this age that means YOU

Jesus … the mediator of the new covenant… set the example that you should follow. So, it is important for you to know… He kept the Feast of Tabernacles!

When Jesus rules as King of kings (millennium) He will instruct people to observe the FOT. Zecharaiah 14:16-22 Why? Same reason we have today… as a lesson, a marker and reminder of what stage they are at in the plan of God. It is also meant to be a special time of teaching… because flesh and blood does not know the way to live… the way of peace. They have to be taught. And teaching requires discipline.

Isaiah 2:2-4 at that time all will learn His way… just as we are to be learning His way now. The FOT is very much about the learning of God’s way… prophetically and presently.

Back to Jesus at the FOT…

John 7:12-13 Consider the reaction to Jesus’ teaching and example. It was a mixed bag. Some people even called Him a deceiver… that He was leading the poor simple folk astray.

If people said this about Jesus… and about the doctrine He taught… does it seem strange that people in our own day would say the same about us… and the things we teach. Such as teaching people to believe and obey God’s instruction to observe these annual Sabbaths, holy days, feasts… To many think we too are leading people astray… back into bondage etc.

Folks don’t want to hear what’s plain in the scriptures. They prefer their own ideas to the revealed instructions of God. John 3:16-19… why not read your own bible and find out just who is deceiving who?

Jesus Taught At the FOT

John 7:14-15 people marveled… why? Because He was not a scholar. He didn’t have a lot of letters after His name. In our day we’d say He doesn’t have a doctorate in theology, He hasn’t studied 4 years in a university and gotten the right credentials…  Stick around long enough and you’ll hear this sort of charge leveled at the ministry of the Church of God.

·        Peter/John  just regular guys ran small businesses etc.

·        Note: Paul & Apollos were learned men (apostles to the Gentiles) But as Paul said of himself… he did not learn the truth of God from other men. What he had he learned directly from Christ. All the stuff he had gained from his previous life he counted as dung.

The scholars of our time are going to teach you that there is no need to keep the FOT.

John 7:16-18 Jesus told everyone that His teaching was not of himself but from the one who sent him. The fact that the message was not His own didn’t matter because He was in complete 100% agreement with it.

Part of putting off all the glory that He had previously shared with the Father… living in the flesh like you and me… meant that Jesus was limited… He was indeed human (and not just God inside a human body) so he had to take in what He knew of the world through His senses… eyes, ears, taste & touch.

What made Him the perfect human was that His spirit was completely in sync with, lead by, powered by… the spirit of God working within Him.

His teaching was not something He cooked up from His own flesh and blood powers of observation, deduction, induction, or rationalization. Now, these are all powerful tools to understand our world.  To explain and manipulate the gases, minerals and solids which make up our universe… to unleash the power ofneurons, electrons, electricity and so forth… to understand animals and plants and work with them.

But regarding spiritual matters those human faculties are not very useful for gaining knowledge. Take for example: the way of peace. Human beings don’t know it, don’t have it, and cannot figure it out. Because it’s a spiritual matter and the answer also is spiritual. And that spiritual answer comes to us from God.

How do you learn this spiritual type stuff?

By hearing God’s will and doing it.

Psalm 111:7-10  1) All commands/precepts (not just some)

                              2) For all ages (FOT not just for the past and the future…. But for today)

                              3) Doing His will/commandments leads to understanding

Like Jesus I am not here to preach my own opinions. On my own I don’t know very much. I might be good at coming up with a turn of phrase or such… but whatever wisdom there is in what I say is not my own. I have received the truth from the Church of God, I have checked it out by reading the scriptures, but I really began learning it by doing it. John7:17 said “To Do His Will”.

A prime example of learning by doing is the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles. I was told about it, I checked it out, I read the testimony of Jesus’ own example, and I started doing it. In the process of doing it… I began to learning about that elusive way of peace… and so can you.

John 15:9-10 as He has received from the Father He has passed on to us and our commission is to pass it on to others.

Titus 1:16 There are people out there who teach you that you should not keep the Father’s commandments including His instructions to keep the feast of Tabernacles. They are and will remain clueless about vast chunks of God plan of salvation.

And so the world does not have peace… nor will it have peace. Because it either does not know God’s will, or knows about the instructions and the example of Jesus Christ but refuses to obey. But doing the will of God is the only way you have any kind of a shot at learning the way of peace we all desperately need to know.

John 7:25-30, John 7:37-38 While teaching at the FOT Jesus refers to a prophecy in Isaiah 55 which is about establishing universal and permanent peace through the word of God and the teaching of God’s ways to everyone.

All people must learn this vital information from God about peace and how to live the way that leads to peace, and prosperity, and joy and much more. YOU can start learning it now!

Jesus Christ walked in God’s way as an example for us. Including keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. He did this as one example of how to do the will of God, to walk with God and thereby learn His ways.

Deuteronomy 31:9-13

The FOT pictures a coming time of peace… when all people will learn the way to live, the way of peace. But for us today it is also a time to begin learning that way to live, that way of peace NOW!