The importance of the feasts

Christianity calls it Easter, but the Bible calls it Passover, and it's two very different things. You know, without the Feasts of Yehovah, and we'll use a lot of strange words, probably, because we've been doing this for many years, we will use needed words, like kavod or kodesh, or Yehovah instead of Lord, or whatever, but I'm sure you'll get the connections, and God's help will explain them all to you, when it gets too confusing.

But there's nothing like learning on a journey, and we get challenged by different things, so, yeah, that's good. Without the Feasts of Yehovah, then we have no proper understanding of the pathway into the Kingdom of Heaven, or what it even means, because the Feasts explain everything about God's Kingdom, God's pathway into the Heavenly Kingdom, and that which is found in Yeshua the Messiah alone, and it's all built into the Feasts. Everything we need to know is built into the Feasts.

And so, if we ignore the clear teachings of Scripture, then what we're going to do is only follow what is right in man's eyes, and we will end up serving God in spiritual blindness. So, I assume you got that a little bit early, but that's okay. I'll tell you when to put them up. Otherwise it gets distracting. So, anyway, when we serve God in man's eyes, according to his traditions and beliefs and ways, then we become blind to the truth of what is in the Word of God, because we can only see what we do in church, or we can only see what we're taught and told to do, because we're doing it the way of that denomination, the way of that leader, or whatever.

And if it doesn't match the Word of God, then we're walking in blindness to the truth of God's Word. And this leads to not doing the will of God. And Yeshua said in his prayer, this is the prayer to pray, Our Father, who art in Heaven, mighty and powerful, set apart, hallowed, it's kadosh, hallowed, set apart, separated is your name from all others, higher and greater. Your kingdom come, your will be done. And so the impartation of the truth of God's Word is that we may understand and know what his kingdom is about, and that his kingdom may be a part of our life, because access into that kingdom is when we do his will.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth. Exactly the same as it is in Heaven. And that's why God said to Moses, don't you build that tabernacle, don't you add anything to that other than what I told you. Don't you take anything away from what I say, because you're building this tabernacle so it totally and absolutely represents everything that goes on in Heaven. It's an amazing thing. And then when God gave David the plans for the temple, he said exactly the same thing.

You make sure that this temple is built in exactly the pattern I gave you. Don't alter one little scrap, because it is a picture of the kingdom of Heaven being established here on earth, all built in to the tabernacle and the temple. It's the same as the feasts. The feasts flow out of the tabernacle of Moses, flow out of the rituals and ceremonies and worship and beliefs that God established there. And they're there right through our scripture.

And so, if we don't follow scripture, then we're not doing the will of God. And this means that we are not knowing what is pleasing to God, as Paul says in Romans, that we may do his will and know what is pleasing to him. So it's pretty good to please your father, isn't it? Because if you don't please your father, you don't get your pocket money. It's just the way it is. Parents set boundaries. They say, don't go outside the boundaries or you're in trouble.

God is our Heavenly Father and he says, I discipline my sons. And he says, if you don't get any discipline, then it's because you're not my son. But I discipline those I love. And so, discipline's a good thing. And so, Paul says we need to know what is pleasing unto our Heavenly Father. We need to know what his will is, otherwise we will do things in a manner and a way that's not pleasing to him. And that's the last thing we want to do.

And so, this leads then to the loss of the kingdom. If I'm not doing what's pleasing to him, if I'm not doing that which is his will, then I'm not going to be part of his kingdom. Because he runs his kingdom in a certain way and he makes the rules and the laws of his kingdom. That's fair enough, isn't it? Every king makes the laws and the rules for his kingdom. Every government establishes their rules for running their country.

So does God. We should understand that pretty easily. And so, that's how it is. So, let's look at Leviticus 23, which we had up there. This is one to eight. And see what it says there. Then Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and tell them, These are the appointed Moedim of Yehovah, which you are to proclaim to be holy convocations. My Moedim. Now, I'm reading, of course, from a different translation to what some have.

We'll explain it. He said, Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Shabbat, a Sabbath, of solemn rest, a holy convocation, a Kedosh convocation. You are to do no work, it is a Shabbat or a Sabbath to Yehovah in all your dwellings. These are the appointed feasts of Yehovah, holy convocations, which you are to proclaim in their appointed season. During the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, is Yehovah's Passover.

On the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Matzot, or unleavened bread, to Yehovah. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. Sounds pretty horrible, doesn't it? On the first day, you are to have a set-apart convocation, and you should do no regular work. Instead, you are to present an offering made by fire to Yehovah for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation when you are to do no regular work.

It is Passover. So, we read there in those first couple of verses about the seventh day, every Shabbat. So, tell the children of Israel, these are the appointed modems which you are to proclaim. Work may be done for six days, the seventh day is the Shabbat. Solemn assembly. No work to be done on. And so, every Shabbat and every Feast is called here a modem. Okay, that's just the Hebrew word. And it simply means an appointed time in the Hebrew language.

I have an appointed time, a modem. And so, depending on the context of the Scripture, it can mean an appointed meeting place. But it's an appointment with God, time and place described throughout the Scriptures. Yehovah has established that he has a specific time and events that he requires us to meet with him. Isn't that amazing? When we put it into the context of what Scripture says. Father says, I have an appointed time to meet with you.

And I establish the times and the reasons for which you come together. And so, then he goes on to say that they are holy convocations. What's one of them? What's a holy convocation? Well, holy, as I said, is the Hebrew word for kadosh, meaning to separate or to set apart, or to be hallowed or to be sanctified. It's a separation. It's a setting apart of something, a separation of my life from something. From my work of six days, there's a separation on the seventh day.

It is set apart for God and not for me to earn my income. It's a set apart day, a holy convocation. And that word convocation is a Hebrew word, and it's the Hebrew word mikra. M-I-Q-R-A. You can spell that, Gary. I can even spell it. M-I-Q-R-A. And I was pretty dumb at school. Mikra. And the word mikra in the Hebrew simply means a coming together. So, it means it is a place of gathering. And so, these two words together, a mikra and a mohedim, means a set apart gathering.

That's what it means. I have set apart a time, I have set apart a date, and it is for you to come together, a convocation. When you convocate, you gather, you come together, you meet. And so, we're having one today. This is a mikra. This is a mohedim. This is an appointed time when we gather together. That's what he said to do. Every seventh day, he says, have a mikra, have a mohedim, have an appointed time to meet together, one another, and meet.

And so, he says, so now we have the understanding that Yehovah Elohim, that is the God of Israel, has established appointed times in which we are to gather together to celebrate, to worship, to feast, to teach, to fellowship with Yehovah and one another. So, it's not just that I can stay at home and fellowship with God, or I can do my own thing on his day, or I can say, well I believe in the feast, I believe in the Sabbath, I'll sit at home and do it with him.

It's not what the scripture says. It's not a mikra. Exactly. It's not a coming together. A convocation. A set-apart convocation. A set-apart day. A set-apart appointed time. And so, this is a convocation because we are gathering together. And then, you can see here. So, it is a matter of saying, well, this is what God is asking of us. It's a simple thing. This is what God is saying, this is where my blessing will be. He says, where you're gathered together in my name, I'm going to come and bless you.

Totally different from me being at home by myself, doing my own thing, my own way, and thinking I'm going to get all the blessings of God. That's not what he says. He says, if you want the best of what I've got to give, do it my way, and something richer and fuller and more wonderful and powerful will come out of it. And so, that's what he's asking of his people. And so, the days and times are specified as a calling out.

And of course, the Greek word is Ecclesia. And in some translations you'll see the word Ecclesia in the writings of the Gospels and the Book of Acts. But it's translated as church. The word church is the Greek word Ecclesia. But it's not really church. It is a translation from the Hebrew word Kahal. And Kahal means a congregation, a community, a gathering of God's people, an assembly. So Ecclesia, the Greek word Ecclesia means calling out. And it comes from the Greek government when they would call all the peoples of that city together because they wanted to give them some information or have a gathering where they could discuss a particular thing that they wanted to change or do or ask the town to do.

And so they had an Ecclesia, a calling out, a coming together. And it's the same as this Nikrah. It's the same as this convocation. It means a coming together. And Yehovah is the one who said, now, I have appointed my convocations. I've appointed my times because I want to meet with you. Why does someone want to meet with you? Because they're your friend. Because they love you. Because you get on well. Because they want to give you some information.

Because they want you to have a great time together. That's what the Father is saying. Come and eat at my table. Come and meet me at my place. Come and be with me together as a family. Wonderful thing, isn't it? And this is what he is wanting to impart. But he puts his special blessing upon it all. And so this is the foundation and the basis upon which all blessing and salvation in his kingdom is established on, these truths.

So without the understanding of the true teachings and importance of these feasts and obedience to them, we will never, ever, ever, ever know the full truth about Yeshua and his kingdom and the meaning of eternal life all built into the feasts. Who Yeshua is. Yeshua, our Saviour, our Redeemer. His kingdom. He is the King of the kingdom of his Heavenly Father. And what is that kingdom? What is it about? How does it function? How does God run it through Yeshua, his Son? And how is eternal life wrapped up in that? But it is because eternal life is me being part and entering into that kingdom and becoming one with Yeshua, my Messiah.

And so the first feast that we see here, of course, was what? Passover. Yep. And the first one was Shabbat, but we've already looked at Shabbat, the Sabbath day, which is every 7th day of the week and this falls on our Saturday, of course, every 7th day. We're very familiar with that, of course, so we're not going to talk about that. John, we're having a mikra in the evening. Well, you are standing. You're having a mikra.

I've come together with my friends. I said hello to the Father and hello to you. And together we're getting blessed. So, the Feast of Yehovah. God uses the number 7 right throughout his prophetic scriptures to convey the importance of what he is establishing in our spiritual lives with an eternal and kingdom emphasis. 7 is a number that speaks of completion, perfection, fullness. And so, there are 7 feasts. Isn't that amazing? Who would have thought? And they are important observances established here by Yehovah as feasts or his appointed times.

So, there are 7 appointed times called feasts in the Word of God. And these are held over, you never guess how often, how long, for 7 months. Over 7 months, there's 7 feasts. From Pesach, Passover, to the 8th day, which is the last of them in the 7th month, which is around about our end of October, beginning of September. So, the first one is in our April, April the 2nd, then 7 months later, you get to September, October.

And so, and in these, you know how many extra Sabbaths there are thrown in? 7. The God of 7. 7. So, there's 7 feasts over 7 months and there are 7 extra Sabbaths thrown into these particular feasts. And these extra Sabbaths can fall on any day of the week, which we will see as we just have a little look at this. And so, and these are found listed in our Leviticus chapter 23 there. So, we'll read from verse 5 to 7 again.

23, 5 to 7. And it said, During the first month, on the 14th day of the month, is Yehovah's Passover. On the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Matzot, Unleavened Bread, to Yehovah. For 7 days, you are to eat Unleavened Bread. How many days? How many days? 7 days. It keeps coming up all the time. On the first day, you are to have a what? A Mikra. A holy convocation. So, what do we got to have? A coming together.

That's a Mikra. We've got to have a coming together. And you should do no regular work. This is on the 15th day of Passover. The second day of Passover. Instead, you are to present an offering made by fire to Yehovah for 7 days. On the 7th day, is another what? Mikra. Holy Convocation. A set apart Mikra. A set apart coming together. A set apart gathering. On the 7th day, that could fall on any day of the week.

It's an extra Sabbath. The first one is also an extra Sabbath. It could fall on any day of the week, depending on when it fits in on the month. And it begins with new moon of course. And so, that's verses 5-7. Go down to verse 23-25. And it says, Yehovah spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel on the 7th month, on the first day of the month. You are to have a Shabbat. A rest.

A memorial of blowing shofars. Trumpets. What is it? A Holy Convocation. A set apart Mikra. You are to do no regular work and you are to present an offering made by fire to Yehovah. That's the last one. That's the 7th one. So, in between those verses is all of them. From the first one, to here we have the 7th one. It's the beginning of it. It's not the last one. It's the beginning of the last month.

It is the Feast of Trumpets on new moon, on the first day of the 7th month. And then they follow through from that to the end of that month to Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles and the 8th day which follows that one. Which we won't look into now because that's not what we're talking about. Verse 39 said, so on the 15th day of the 7th month when you have gathered in the fruits of the land you are to keep the Feast of Yehovah for 7 days.

The first day is to be a Shabbat rest. The 8th day will also be a Shabbat rest. The Sabbath day rest. So that's the last one at the end of the 7th Feast. Which is Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. And it also is a 7 day celebration. The same as Passover has a 7 day celebration aspect to it. So it's all built in. It all tells a message. An important truth that God is saying I want you to understand this.

So this becomes a metal part of life. And year on year. So the first one, Pesach Hebrew for Passover. And this will be held from Thursday our 2nd of April. That's in a couple of weeks time isn't it? Thursday evening on the 2nd. Last day of school Thursday. Yep, excited. At the going down of the sun on our Wednesday will be the beginning of Thursday the 14th of the Biblical calendar. So, God establishes the beginning of each month on new moon.

So when the moon has disappeared over one month, and then you get the conjunction, the moon disappears, and then in a day or two the moon starts to appear. That's day one on the Biblical calendar. God says that is the first day. And of course if we read back in Exodus when God said to Moses, bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. He says on the 14th day of the first month. This month will be the first month for you.

Whatever month it was in the calendar year of the Egyptians doesn't matter. Yehovah says this is going to be the first month of the year for you in my festival calendar. And so he said on the first day of the month new moon determines which day is the beginning of the month according to the Bible calendar. And he says on the 14th day celebrate Passover. Paint the blood on the door posts. Have your bread be closed, ready to go.

I'm going to bring you out of Egypt and out of bondage. There's a whole lot packed into that which we're not going to go into. But it teaches us everything about redemption and salvation from Egypt and the world and sin and the devil, etc. etc. The Yeshua, our Savior, Redeemer, the Sacrifice Lamb, and lots of other things built into the truth of this feast. And so the 14th day will be full moon in general. Exactly, Sandy.

Full moon. The first feast of Passover is always on the 14th, 15th, 16th. Full moon. And the last feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, the seventh feast is also on full moon. On full moon. Why is it important? And why is it lost to the Church? New Moon is always about the celebration of New Moon is always about the second coming of Yeshua. Because the feast that we mentioned before, the first feast of the seventh month is the blowing of shofars, the feast of trumpets.

And it's on New Moon, the first day of the seventh month. And that is a prophetic type of the return, the second coming of our Saviour, Yeshua, on New Moon, the beginning of the seventh month. And full moon is the celebration of the fullness of the Kingdom of God has arrived. And He is ruling and reigning over all the earth for one thousand years, with His first resurrected ones. Amazing. There's a lot of stuff built into these things, isn't there, which we're not going to go into.

Which I've mentioned and highlighted from time to time. But we have on the 14th day of the Biblical calendar, it's Passover. And you have your meal on the 14th day. And so that's the same time that Yeshua and His disciples gathered in the upper room to celebrate the coming crucifixion or death of Yeshua. So on that night, the end of the 13th is the beginning of the 14th. Because the Romans changed it. They said midnight is where you measure your days.

Time's wrong. For midnight is the beginning of the next day. Well, that's okay if you're a Roman. But if you want to do what God wants to do, then you follow the feasts according to what God says is true. What does it say in Genesis 1? The night and the day. God created on the first day, the second day, the third day. And so the night was the beginning of the next day. The sun went down.

When the sun goes down, the next day begins. You have the night time and the day time. And then when the sun goes down again at the end of that day, the next day begins. The night time and the day time. That's how Yehovah does his calendar. And so he says as soon as the sun goes down on the 13th, then celebrate the Passover on that evening. Why? Because that's the beginning of the 14th. And 14th is the day when Yeshua was crucified and put to death.

And so there in the upper room, celebrating the feast, having the Passover, Yeshua and his disciples. And then they go out late in the night. They've had their meal. He's been talking to them for hours. John chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 is all his discussions in the upper room. And then they go out at the end of that meal, you know, around midnight or so. And then it's in the middle of the night and they go to the Garden of Gethsemane and Yeshua begins to pray and call out to the Father and he knows what's coming.

And then all of a sudden along comes the crowd and the soldiers and they arrest him. And then of course we have what takes place over the early dark hours of that morning in Pilate's and Herod's place. And then we know how that Yeshua was then beaten and whipped and ridiculed and put to death on our behalf. And he was put to death at about 3 o'clock that afternoon on the 14th day. After he'd gone through all the terror and the torment and the torture from the night before and on through the day.

They crucified him, put him on the stake at about 12 o'clock. And then he hung upon that Roman stake. And at the ninth hour he gives up his spirit. He has done what the Father has asked of him. He has paid the price. The 14th day. And so then on the 15th day is the first day of Unleaden Bread. The celebration for the next seven days. And so we of course remember and understand that the disciples and Yeshua were commemorating and that they were talking about his coming crucifixion and death.

And he explained it all to them. They experienced everything he went through and it was in front of them and they were with him from a distance. Peter and John were closer in the process. But they went through all of that. They didn't understand what really was going on. He had told them about it many times. I'm going to die. I'm going to rise on the third day, but it didn't really click. They never fully appreciated and understood what it was about.

All the truth of that was in the feasts and they kept the feasts as good Jewish people. But they still never understood the prophetic truth of what was all in there. Every year they'd sacrifice the lambs and shed the blood and eat the Passover meal. And all the time it's a picture of Yeshua the Messiah. And when Yeshua the Messiah gets there and they celebrate it with him, they still don't understand the true picture of what's going on.

And it came as a real shock to them as to what had happened to their Messiah. But at any rate, we remember it as that which has happened, but with the same truth and understandings of Yeshua's life, which has brought us eternal life through the forgiveness of sins as we follow and obey all that Yeshua has done for us and instructed us to do in remembrance of him and his death. So we celebrate it, but we're looking at what took place while they were looking at what was coming.

But it's exactly the same picture, exactly the same thing. We're celebrating exactly for the same purpose and reason that we may remember his death. And he never wants us to forget it. He always wants us to convey the truth of this story to the peoples of the earth. So, the next day, the Biblical 15th day, the second day after his crucifixion and death, Yeshua, of course, is taken down off the stake. He's laid into the tomb before the sun goes down on that day.

So, because the next day, the 15th, was going to be a mikrah, a mulligan, an appointed time, a sabbath. He said on the 15th day, you do no work. It's a sabbath. You come together on the 15th day, the feast of unleavened bread. And it's the first extra shabbat thrown into the cycle of sevens. And then we are to come again on the seventh day of unleavened bread as a shabbat, which is now Friday the 10th of April.

So, we will celebrate Passover and as it falls this year, it falls quite well for us in the sense that the 15th day, the first extra shabbat falls on the Saturday, which is already a shabbat. Because normally you'd have two shabbats together, whatever day you are celebrating the first day of unleavened bread. And then during the week you have another shabbat somewhere along the line. But this time, this shabbat falls on a natural shabbat. So, Friday is Passover day.

We celebrate it with a feast on that night before. Then on the Saturday we come together again, which is the 15th, a normal Saturday, a normal shabbat, normal Sabbath. And that also happens to be the first day of unleavened bread. And we come together. And then seven days later, he said celebrate the seventh day. Because the seventh day is the message of, it begins on the first day, the coming, the death, the crucifixion. The seventh day is a picture of the fullness of that being completed.

The kingdom of God established. It is a picture and a type that after seven days, and again, it marries back to the seventh millennium. In 6,000 years is the time God gives man on earth. The seventh millennium, the 7,000 years is the reign, the millennial reign, the coming of Yeshua is on the seventh millennium. The 7,000th year of humanity. And so it all matches up. We're celebrating on the seventh day, the coming kingdom, which will last for 1,000 years on this earth.

They all marry and mix together. Yehovah's telling a story to help us understand how his prophetic types tell us about where we are at in life. Where we are at in his first coming, and his second coming, and how long in between. And that's why Yeshua said to the disciples when they said to him when he'd risen from the dead, when are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And he wouldn't tell them. He said, it's not for you to know.

I said this the other night. It's not for you to know. You, the times and the seasons are in the Father's hand. Don't worry about it, boys. They were wanting it right there and then. They said, we want Yeshua. You're our Messiah. You've risen from the dead. Now you can take over the nation. Now you can get rid of the Roman Emperor. Now you can deal with the issues and bring the kingdom back to Israel. Because that was their heartbeat.

I understand it. But Yeshua said, it's not for you to know, the times and the seasons. He didn't want to tell them. You're going to have to wait another 2,000 years. Because I've got a few more people I want to bring into my kingdom. And the truth of the prophetic scriptures have to unfold in their sequence according to what I've prophesied. And so, here we are on the 7th day of Unleavened Bread, which will be on Friday.

The 10th of April will be the 7th day of Unleavened Bread. This is come together and celebrate the truth of that day for what is coming ahead. And so then on the 16th day, so we've got the 14th, the Passover, death of Yeshua. We've got the 16th, the beginning of Unleavened Bread. The 15th, the beginning of Unleavened Bread. The 16th, and these dates are all written in Leviticus chapter 23 and other places. On the 16th day, what did the priest have to do? Does anyone remember? Of the Feast of Passover? No, they did kill lambs.

Yes, and sacrifice them. No, that's not the main thing. No, you're right, they did. Every day they killed, they made sacrifices. But on the 16th, sorry, on the 16th day, the 3rd day into Passover, they had to weigh the Omer. They had to weigh the first fruits of the barley harvest. Now, you can read that in Leviticus 23 and other places. But the priest, of course, they had to, there was always, the feasts always function around the agricultural year.

And the Feast of Passover came at the barley harvest, the early barley harvest. The next feast, the Feast of Shavuot or Pentecost, which is 7 weeks beyond Passover, all in the 7th again, that is when the barley harvest comes in. But so, they weren't allowed, no one in Israel was allowed to eat of the barley harvest, make bread from the barley harvest, use the barley harvest, until they had reaped the first, the best part of the harvest.

And they would bring that to the priest, and the priest would weigh an Omer, a weight, of the grain, the barley harvest, before Yehovah, on the 16th day of that month. And we know what that represents? The resurrection of Yeshua. All built into the feast, because it's the first fruits. Is Yeshua our first fruits? Yes. He is the first fruits of what? The resurrection. So, because He has risen from the dead, it's a promise that we shall rise from the dead.

And so, on the 3rd day of Passover, the priest weighs the first fruits offering to God, and says this is the resurrection of our Saviour. A picture of type. They never fully understood that, but they did it because it's a prophetic truth that we need to understand. That He shall be how long in the grave? 3 days and 3 nights. Thank you, Sandy. 3 days and 3 nights. So, He was buried on the 14th and He rose again on the 16th.

3 days and 3 nights later. When you calculate it through, you see 3 nights He came down off the cross, put Him to the tomb, He spent that night in the grave. Then He spent the next day in the grave. And so it went for 3 nights, and for 3 days, He was buried dead until He was raised again at the end of the Sabbath day in that year. I won't go into that, but that's how it all falls there.

And so this is the prophetic 3rd day, which represents Yeshua's resurrection. We're not told to celebrate His resurrection. Isn't that surprising? We're not told to celebrate His resurrection. We're told to celebrate His death, but never ever told to celebrate His resurrection. And so, Good Friday, and this year, which is unusual, this year Passover and Easter fall on exactly the same days. Doesn't normally, because Easter is calculated not on the moon. Easter is calculated on the sun and on the changing of the seasons from the longest day and the shortest day.

And they throw Easter into the calculation of the equinox. And the first Sunday after the equinox is Easter. This is by the Roman calendar. This is by Constantine and the Catholic Church established this. Because they wanted to get rid of everything that was Jewish, everything that was based on Israel and God. And so they got rid of Passover and established Easter and based it on a totally different time frame and way of calculating when they would do it.

Always close, but it's based on the winter equinox and the sun and having the first Sunday after that event as being the day we will celebrate Easter, the resurrection. So Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday are Catholic and Christian conditions that are unscriptural and idolatrous. Can you get three nights and three days into Friday to Sunday? Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You can't get three nights and three days into that period. You can only get about one and a half days and a couple of nights.

That's about it. It doesn't make any difference. The Catholic Church does what the Catholic Church wants to do because they say we have the right under God to change whatever we want to change. And the Protestant Church just follows suit. Isn't that ridiculous? They just did it because the Catholic Church told them to. And they do it. And so we find that Christians and Pentecostal churches are organising Easter egg hunts as part of their Easter traditions and celebrations.

Never ceases to amaze me how many do it, of all kinds and all denominations, Easter egg hunts. Well, there's no such thing in Scripture. You can't find an Easter bunny in the Bible anywhere. So it is an apostate, pagan, religious festival being added to the Biblical story because they wanted to get the pagans into their church. So they said we will take the pagan celebrations and religion and we'll add a Bible story to it and say look, come to our church, you belong to us, to the Roman Catholic Church and you can bring your festival with you and we'll celebrate it together.

It becomes this mishmash and we believe in God and we believe in this and that all get mixed up. The exact thing God said, don't do. God opened up some Scriptures for you, which we won't take the time to do, but he says specifically, do not mix idolatrous religions with mine. Don't mix them. But they do. And so there is the goddess of fertility and new life called Ashtoreth is the basis of Christian Easter and the resurrection service.

And of course you get lots of stories about the Easter egg and the empty tomb and all of this kind of stuff. They tell their Sunday school children these stories to make it bona fide and become convinced that Easter is a good thing. Easter bunnies and chocolate Easter eggs and you come from the bunnies and all this nonsense is somehow wonderful and yet it's contrary to what God asks and takes them away from the truth of what God talks about.

So Yehovah and Yeshua calls us saying come out of her and touch not the unclean things. It's that by the prophets he says it in the book of Revelation. Come out of her and touch not the unclean things. Because he's calling out a people from a system that is based on pagan idolatrous events. And he says I want you to honour me according to my word and I want to use you to run my kingdom. Because I can't trust those who do not follow my commands.

They don't want to be and do what the father asks of them. I don't want them running my kingdom. They're not going to be a part of it. They're not going to run it. They are not going to be in the first resurrection. They'll have to wait for the second one. And so man's which are Satan's traditions and doctrines are bringing people into judgement and the loss of being part of the very resurrection into the kingdom of heaven that they're celebrating.

So on Easter Sunday they'll come together. They'll celebrate the resurrection which is the wrong date, the wrong time and the wrong reasons. And they'll have holy communion on resurrection day and all of this. And they're celebrating something that they'll never be a part of. Because they're not doing it God's way. They're not following the truth of God's word. They're doing what the Catholic tradition has done and they keep perpetuating it. And so Matthew 23 verse 13 says But woe to you Torah scholars and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you shut people out of the kingdom of heaven for you do not enter yourselves, nor do you let those enter who are trying to go in.

That's a pretty telling verse of Scripture isn't it? And Yeshua had no problem going to his religious leaders, his spiritual leaders of the day and say, you hypocrites you fools and you will not enter the kingdom and you're keeping people out of it that are wanting to come into it. Luke 11 verse 52 says in the same context, Woe to you Torah lawyers or people who know my Scriptures well and teach my Scriptures, I twist them and change them, for you have taken away the key of knowledge.

You yourselves did not enter and you stood in the way of those entering. You've taken away the key of knowledge based on my word and added your traditions and your interpretations of Scripture that do not match mine. He said you won't enter and neither do those who you are taking with you. And this is the same scenario today. Nothing's changed and it will be levelled at today's religious leaders on the day of judgement and some before.

They are pharisaical hypocrites that have taken away the truth or the key to true knowledge that opens the door into the kingdom. This is what Yeshua is saying. I hold the key to the kingdom of heaven. Revelation. And they themselves will not enter nor the people who follow them. So who will have the greater judgement? The teachers, the pastors, the religious leaders who are not teaching the truth of God's word and just following their traditions. James says don't be many teachers.

Why? Because greater judgement's coming upon you. If you're going to be a teacher of the word, make sure it's according to the word. Because we're going to be judged on it. Like it or not. The word will come out on judgement day and Yehovah will judge everything that has been spoken, everything that has been taught and said and he'll match it against the word. And judgement will be based on it. Hmm. So don't follow the Easter Bunny and his tasty chocolate eggs into pagan idolatry and judgement.

Eat the true Passover meal and eat no leavened bread, cakes, biscuits for seven days. That's not such a big task, is it? And this is symbolised by Israel sweeping clean their house and searching for any leaven and getting rid of it. Remember the story from Exodus. They were told, go through your house, get rid of any leaven, any yeast, out of your house. Clean it, sweep it, make sure there's no leaven in your house during the Passover period.

And so what is he saying? For seven days we are to check the house of our hearts and the fellowships that we belong to for leaven. He's saying, search out the leaven. And when we look at Yeshua's teachings and the teachings of Scripture, leaven is a type of false doctrine. It's a type of false beliefs and bad and wrong behaviour according to the commandments. He said that's leaven. And he says over the next seven days check what leaven is there in our lives and deal with it.

Unleavened bread represents Yeshua, the sinless bread of life from heaven. I am the bread which came down from heaven. I am sinless, I am perfect, I have kept God's commandments absolute. I am a worthy recipient to be your redeemer. Yehovah will accept my sacrifice because I am perfectly sinless. There is no leaven in my life. No wrong teaching, no wrong attitudes, no bad behaviour, no going against the commandments of my Father, there is no leaven in my life.

That's what it's a type and a symbol of. And so when we don't eat leavened bread and take some biscuits and stuff for seven days it is saying the same thing. It is an opportunity to say Father, I want my life to be leavened, unleavened. I want my life, I want to deal with any issues I find. Anything you bring to my heart and ask me to deal with and repent of I will do it. Help me to change what I need to change.

It is that period of time when he says, let me minister to you in a special way. Amazing, beautiful picture isn't it? We want to be like him. It's not easy to be like him. The perfect sinless son of God. We live in a world that distracts us, takes away our time and attention, fills our images with everything evil and wicked and promiscuous. It's all there. But he says, I know what it's like. I have battled these things and I've dealt with them myself.

And one stomped upon the devil's head. He says, I know the struggle. Recognise it. Come apart for seven days and just reflect on that. Don't eat any leavened bread so that you can be reminded, yeah, my life must count for God. It's a beautiful picture built into the feasts that gets lost when they're not understood and not followed. In him, Yeshua and his life, we eat and drink from. We eat his blood, sorry, we eat his body and drink his blood.

That's what he said we're to do. Eat my body, drink my blood. Of course it's a spiritual symbolism. It's the truth of there is no life outside of me. There is nothing eternal outside of me. If you want everything the word promises, you'll find it in me and me alone. My word, my truth, my ways, my teachings, my beliefs, walk as I walked. That's eating my body and drinking my blood. The people of the day never understood it.

They walked away from me. What strange teaching is that? What on earth are you talking about? He never explained it to them. He said, dishonour what I say whether you understand it or not. That's faith. Many of them disappeared. We don't want to walk with you. We don't understand what you're talking about. The journey's too hard, the road's too narrow and we don't have the time to understand it. Don't be like that. Because he's bringing us into his kingdom.

In 1 Corinthians 5, just about at the end, 1 Corinthians 5 verses 6-8 Our boasting is no good, says Paul. Don't you know that a little hermits or a little leaven, a little yeast, leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old leaven so you may be a new batch just as you are unleavened. For Messiah, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast. What did he say? Oh, goodness me.

Why on earth did he put that there? Let us celebrate the feast. Not with the old leaven of sin and malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread, the matzah, the unleavened biscuit of sincerity and truth. What an amazing scripture. Why is that glossed over and not emphasised? Paul teaches and keeps the feasts. We are told they don't. They did, like throughout the book of Acts. Why doesn't the Church, if Paul did and Paul taught it, why doesn't the Church do it? Leaven or yeast, and of course the context of those verses is a man living in sin, sexual immorality, and Paul says, deal with that issue in your fellowship, because it's destroying your fellowship.

It is like leaven. It is immorality in your midst and you're allowing it and not dealing with it. Get rid of the sin. Get rid of the leaven in your fellowship, because if you allow leaven of any kind, sin and wrong tradition and wrong teachings and wrong belief systems of any kind, he said, they will just fill your life, your fellowship, your belief systems like leaven. It will just take over. Everyone will do it. Everyone will believe it.

They will say look, our pastor, he divorced his wife and married two more since then. Must be okay. That's leaven. That's leaven that permeates and becomes part of the belief system. Something wrong when we don't follow the Word of God. It takes over. So that's what the Feast of Unleavened Bread about is. To look at what the Scriptures say. Say, Father, well, got that wrong. I repent. I acknowledge. I ask for forgiveness. That's what it's about.

It's becoming like him. Leaven or yeast, it's described as that which is not checked or taken out of our lives, will effect and take over our whole life and over our community. Whatever we let in and don't deal with becomes part of it. It just gradually grows and more and more people come in and they just accept what you are and who you are and you never ever become like the Word of God because leaven has taken over.

Wrong teaching. Wrong traditions. Wrong belief systems. And it destroys what God calls his kingdom. His kingdom is not alive in the church because it's not following the truth of his Word. Paul says, get rid of the old leaven of wickedness, evil, malice, and celebrate the truth of that which is righteous, truth, and good. So Paul calls leaven kakia in the Greek, which means, which is a word for badness, for depravity, for malignity, something that takes over.

It's sin and it's wrong doctrine and it'll spread like cancer throughout the body. The word wickedness that he has there in that verse means the same thing. Depravity or malice or evil or sin. He says, get rid of it all. We're asked to open our hearts and minds to Ruach, the Holy Spirit, and to the Word and to deal with that which contaminates our life and our worship. Because what I allow into my life that's not of God affects how I worship him.

It affects how acceptable my worship is. It affects my desire and love for worship. Because if stuff gets in the way, the anointing of the Spirit gets lost. And he is looking for those who are saying yes, I want you. Yehovah, Yeshua said Yehovah is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4.24. He said that's what he's looking for, a people. Not just Americans worshipping on that mountain. He said no, Father is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

In the anointing and leading of the Ruach and in the truth of my word. That's what he is after. And that's what the Feast of Passover is all about. And if we see, of course, the seven communities or congregations in Revelations 2 and 3, what does Yeshua keep saying? Send in your congregation. And if you don't repent of it, it's going to take over your congregation. It's already taking over your congregation. And the church at Ephesus says, and if you don't repent of it, I'm going to shut you down.

I'm going to shut you down. Because there's leaven in you, and he names the leaven that's there. And he says deal with it. Repent of it. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to his congregation, his community. How many are listening? This is what the word is all about. And in chapter 11 of Corinthians, and I'll read this in chapter 5, just flick across to chapter 11, verse 17.

And we know this passage so very well because we use it all the time in our communion services, or it's used a lot in our communion services. And he says there in verse 17, but in giving you this instruction, I do not praise you. For when you meet together, it does more harm than good. What an amazing thing to say about their meetings. Your meetings do more harm than good. We looked at this a little bit last on Wednesday night, when he says, I can't teach you the things I want to teach you because you are so worldly.

You are worldly. First Corinthians chapter 1, 2, and 3. You are worldly. You are carnal. And he says, I just give you milk for babies and I can't give you strong milk. You're not ready for it, you don't want it, and I can't teach you it because you're not ready to accept it. You babies. He was pretty angry with them. Now he says, I'm giving you this instruction. Do not praise you. When you meet together, it does more harm than good.

But first of all, when you come together as Messiah's community, I hear that there are divisions among you. Shouldn't be. And to some extent I believe it. For there must be factions among you so that those among you who are tried and true may be evident. Therefore, when you meet together in the same place, it's not to eat the Lord's supper. For each one takes his own supper beforehand and one goes hungry while another gets drunk.

What? Is it certainly not that you do not have houses, is it? Don't you have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise God's community and try to humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? I don't praise you for this. For I received from Yehovah or Adonai Yeshua. What I also passed on to you, that Adon Yeshua, on the night he was betrayed, took matzah, unleavened bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in memory of me. In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, in memory of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim Yeshua's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks Yeshua's cup in an unworthy, unfit manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of Adonai, Yeshua the Messiah.

But a man must examine himself, that's unleavened bread, that's the feast, seven days of unleavened bread, and then let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without recognising the body, the body of Yeshua the Messiah, and the body that we are meant to gather with in righteousness and truth, he eats and drinks judgment on himself. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick, and quite a few have died.

For if we were in judging ourselves thoroughly, we wouldn't be coming under judgment. But when we are judged, we are being disciplined by Yehovah so that we might not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. That's not the purpose of the meal. So that when you meet, it doesn't lead to judgment. And the rest I will put in order when I come.

Paul is on the same theme here as he was in chapter 5, Passover. He's quoting Yeshua at what we call the Last Supper. Here it's called Yeshua's Supper in the upper room. So, Christianity has twisted this into a weekly ritual that has done away with the feast of Passover and all that it teaches. We do communion every week or every quarter or every month. Different months, I do the same thing. Spent my life doing that because that's what I was taught, how I grew up.

And then Yeshua showed me how wrong I was. I had to make changes and adjustments. I had to say I was wrong and repent. I said I must do it right. I must put in place what is in the Word and get rid of what isn't. That doesn't make a lot of people in your church happy. Nor a lot of your pastor friends very happy either when you tell them you're doing it wrong. Change and get it right or God may shut you down.

So, here Paul is talking about Passover. He is quoting the words of Yeshua in the upper room. He is talking about the feast of Passover meal. And you're saying, don't eat and drink judgment on yourself. Do it right. Clean out the leaven. Examine yourself. Make sure you're right with your brother, the bodies, the body of Yeshua and the body of the Messiah himself and his shed blood. It's all there, very clear. And so, we find that they had truly thrown away the key of knowledge as Yeshua said in our reading in Luke.

They'd thrown away the key of knowledge and led into sin through taking that and saying, no, this is a communion meal. You know what communion meal, the communion is based on? The Roman Catholic Mass. When the Protestant church or Luther and others came out of the Roman Catholic church under threat of death, they instituted communion. Become a part of the growth out of that. The Catholic Mass, if you do not partake of the Catholic Mass, you cannot be saved.

They eat the body and the blood of Yeshua in it. It turns into the literal body according to them, which it doesn't. And that is your salvation. When you partake of the communion or the Mass, that is your salvation. And you must do it. And they believe, of course, that if I go to confessional and in the little box with the priest, the priest can forgive me my sins. He'll tell me to say a few Hail Marys or to do a couple of other things and I'm all okay again.

Where does he find that in the Bible? It just ain't there. They've taken away the key of knowledge and brought them into that place where they will not enter the kingdom. And who's preaching this? Who's telling the church this? Who's letting people know that God is saying something that they're not being told in their churches? That's why we're here. In Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 it says, My people are destroyed. Why? For lack of knowledge. Since you rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being my priest.

In other words, you leaders will not be part of my kingdom. You will not priest for me in my kingdom. Since you forgot the Torah of your God, the laws of your God, the commandments of your God, just so I will forget your children. Your children will not follow in your footsteps. And your children who are in your churches, you religious fathers who have all your children, he says You forgot me, Mr. Leader? I will forget your children, because they're just like you.

Yehovah doesn't mince his words. Yeshua doesn't mince his words. The apostles never mince their words. They wanted us to know the truth without any encumbrances and lies and false truths whatsoever. Malachi chapter 2, and I'll finish with Malachi chapter 2 from verse 1. So now Coenon, Coenon is deceiver for priests. This commandment is for you. When he says, so now Coenon, just say now my spiritual leaders, they were the spiritual leaders of the children of Israel.

And it still speaks to us today through Yeshua. This commandment is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give glory glory is the word kavod which means honour, praise respect says Yehovah of hosts. Then I will send a curse on you and I will curse your blessings yes indeed I have cursed them because you did not take it to heart. Behold I am rebuking the seed on account of you.

The seed of course is anything you sow. You sow the seed of his word. I'm rebuking it. And the seed of course can be our children, a type for our children. You're bringing curse upon your children. You're bringing curse upon your fellowship. And we'll spread dung on your faces and the dung of your festivals and take you away together with it. Why? Because we're celebrating it wrongly. The dung of your festivals. Yehovah is saying your festivals are like dung in my face.

That's pretty wow out there isn't it. It's like you're spitting in my face. You're giving me the excrement of humanity instead of the spiritual truth of my Torah, the law, my word. Then you will know that I have sent this command to you to be my covenant with Levi, says Yehovah of hosts to the veil of armies. My covenant was with him for life and shalom. He says I had a covenant with the tribe of Levi from which Aaron and Moses came.

He says my covenant was made with them. And it's a covenant of life. It's a covenant of shalom. Shalom simply means peace, blessing and prosperity. Shabbat shalom. It means on this Sabbath day may your life be filled with blessing and peace and prosperity. It's a beautiful saying but it's what it means. And I gave them to him for reverence so they revered me. I gave them my commandments, my covenant so that they would revere me, honour me, fear me.

They did. And he was awestruck by my name. Isn't that an amazing comment? Levi, Aaron, Moses, they were awestruck by my name. In other words, it's what I've been teaching for a long time. The power of his name. Everything that is encapsulated in his name is truth, blessing, integrity, faithfulness, justice, righteousness, goodness. It's all built into his name. And he's saying they were awestruck by how faithful I am to my name. How good I am to my name.

How just and true and merciful I am. In my name they know they can trust. Isn't that a wonderful thing? That's what I want you to be like. I want you to be immersed into that and understand the fullness of it. A beautiful, wonderful, amazing thing to be awestruck by his name and not by the gods and goddesses of this world and their pagan nonsense. Verse 6. Instruction of truth was in his mouth. Injustice was not found on his lips.

In shalom and uprightness he walked with me. And he turned many from iniquity. This is what he is throwing up to the priests and the Levites and the spiritual leaders saying, compare yourself with Aaron and Moses and Levi because that's what I want and you don't match. For a priest's lips or spiritual leaders of any kind should guard knowledge and instruction must be sought from his mouth. That's why we're here. If I don't bring it truly as to the word, the judgment spoken of here will be mine.

Any preacher, any teacher, any pastor, anyone who calls themselves an apostle or a prophet that doesn't match the word. People come to us to receive knowledge and instruction based on truth and the covenant we have with our God. For he is a messenger of Yehovah of hosts. But you have turned from the way. You caused many to stumble in Torah, the law, by the instruction. You corrupted the covenant of the Levites. The covenant I gave to them through Moses you have corrupted.

Says Yehovah. So I also have made you despised and lowly to all the people. The people will get sick of you. I will make sure of that. Because you are not keeping my way but you show favouritism in Torah. In other words, you change it to suit yourself and the circumstances you find yourself in. Do we not all have one father? That's verse 10, last verse. Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously a man against his brother defiling the covenant of our fathers? We've got one God, one father, one truth, one law.

Why are you so different? He asks the question and we ask it too. So, this is this is the seriousness that what we teach and how we celebrate the feasts, how serious it's taken by God. There are always consequences to disobedience and sin. But blessing, joy and shalom, the favour of our God on obedience. Spiritual leaders beware. God has not changed. God is not mocked. So he says, his name and his unchanging covenants called Torah, or the commandments, have been betrayed, abandoned and treated deceitfully.

What they call new covenant is a lie. And their every blessing has become a curse, because it's not based on truth. So says his word. I'll finish with Matthew 5, 17 to 20. I'll read it with you. Coming up. Matthew 5. It says, yes, 17 to 20. Yeshua talking. Jesus the Saviour talking. Do not think that I came to abolish the law, the Torah, or the prophets. I did not come to abolish. Get that in your mind.

I did not come to abolish. But to walk it out to the full. To live it out perfectly. To make sure I never broach it. That's what it means. But to fulfil. You know what the Christian church says? Yeshua fulfilled it so therefore you don't have to keep it. Why does it say that in the text? Let's just add it. Just twist it. Just thrown in. A lie. Total lie. Amen. Truly, truly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or serif shall ever pass away from the law until all things come to pass.

Well the last time I looked the earth and the heavens were still here and we're still on it. And it says as long as my creation exists so does the law. Because the world functions according to the laws I put in place. The laws of nature. The laws of man. The laws of spiritual reality and truth. The laws of the kingdom. They never change. That's what he's saying, Dad. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever keeps and teaches them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and Torah scholars he throws it right into our day you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven. Doesn't get much plainer, straighter and blunter. I've heard preachers who will read these scriptures and they'll read and they'll stop at those verses and won't read them. They will bring out a point in the verse before and the verses after but they won't read those ones.

Some of them are too hard to explain. It condemns them. It brings curse upon their own life. At any rate, what I want to do is say how important Passover is. How important the feasts are. Because they're so full of blessing. So full of celebration. So full of remembrance of the greatness of who Yeshua our Messiah is. And the price that he paid for our salvation is immense. And he says, remember me. Remember me. Never let the world rob you of my presence and purpose in your life.

Amen. Heavenly Father we thank you. We are able to gather on your day, share together, worship together. Father have time and fellowship and enjoy each other's company and presence. Bless us as we just eat together, drink together, that we are a community raised up by Yehovah. Bless each one throughout this week. In Yeshua's name. Amen.