The Gospel According to John: "The Feast Days of God"

The Gospel According to John: John 7a:1-13: “The Feast Days of God.” by Romans

We are continuing in our review and examination of the Gospel According to John. Tonight we will be looking at the first 13 verses of Chapter 7:

John 7:1: “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.
2  Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.
3  His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
4  For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.
5  For neither did his brethren believe in him.
6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.
7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
8  Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
9  When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.
10  But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
11  Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he?
12  And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people.
13  Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.”

The first thing that catches our attention, here, is that we are specifically told that Jesus' half-brothers did not believe in Him.” That can almost be understood. What kid growing up is willing to believe that his older brother is the actual promised Messiah, and Savior of the World? But the New Testament records for us that after the resurrection, there was an apparent turnaround in the beliefs of Jesus' half-brothers. We read in Acts 1:14: “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.” It was this same group, apparently, who was gathered on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, and Scripture tells us they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. We know for certain that James, Jesus brother, became a Christian, He also became the Bishop of the the Jerusalem Church, and is seen clearly in control of the proceedings of the first Church Council recorded in Acts 15. And He is the author of the Epistle of James. But, during His earthly ministry, Jesus brothers were neither followers nor believers in Him.

Now let's back up a tad and take a look at Verse 2: “Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.”

There were a number of Feast Days that God ordained to be observed by Israel as proscribed in the terms of the Old Covenant.: The Passover; the Days of Unleavened Bread; the lesser known Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; The Feast of Tabernacles; and The Last Great Day.

I would like to take a sizable chunk of my time tonight to review and explain these days. They are almost all completely overlooked in Christian circles. Since they are so rarely taught, it follows that they are not so well understood. Let's see if we can resolve that situation, tonight. I will be frequently using a book called, “The Feasts of the Lord” by Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal. This book helps us to understand how these Feast Days were observed by ancient Israel. I have made every effort to put quotation marks around direct quotations from this book. Any omissions of quotation marks are inadvertent. I here give full credit to “The Feasts of the Lord,” for those occasions where I paraphrased its descriptions without due credit.

A Study of the Holy Days of the Old Testament is a fascinating Study to undertake, with deep Spiritual rewards.
Much can be learned from such a Study, and I would like to share with you what I have learned about them.
We will take them in the order they were observed, then we'll do a review flyover, and then go back for one last pass and zero in on one that is, perhaps, the least familiar of them, but one which, nevertheless, also has great significance and application to us, today: The Feast of Firstfruits.

The Passover has an obvious, great spiritual significance. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus, he declared, in John 1:29: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” But there are also many subtle, spiritually significant details about the Passover Lamb that are not part of our normal teaching. The Passover lamb was to be a perfect lamb without defect, spot or blemish, chosen from the flock, in its prime. It was to be chosen on the 10th day of the Month of Nisan, and killed on the 14th day of the month at even. It would come to live with a family where they could personally observe its fitness. In their time together, the family could come to fully appreciate its innocence, and unworthiness to die. The Passover lamb was to be killed in the middle of its fourth day by the whole assembly. All of the people would be responsible for its death. No bones of the lamb were to be broken.  Christ's was in the middle of His fourth year of ministry when a whole assembly demanded his death. None of His bones were broken. As the original Passover lamb enabled the Lord's Judgment to pass over the people, all who were under its blood were passed over by the Angel of Death. As Paul wrote in
1 Corinthians 5:7: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” This literal realization of this event, with all of its symbolic demands fully met, took place at the very time the Jewish Community was shedding the blood of the traditional Passover lambs, in preparation of their upcoming Feast Days.

The Days of Unleavened Bread: 1 Corinthians 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1 Corinthians 5:7  ¶Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
1 Corinthians 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Pentecost: “The early or Spring Harvest.” and the Birthday of the Christian Church occurred ON this Feast Day.
Jesus used the analogy of a Harvest on several occasions:
Matthew 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Matthew 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

In the city of Sychar in Samaria, Jesus told His disciples in John 4:35, “I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

Pentecost is the only  Feast Day from the Old Testament that is observed on the Christian calendar, but many Christians have no clue regarding its Old Testament roots. Spiritually speaking, this early Harvest refers to the gathering of those who are being called into the Church. On the Christian Calendar it is the Birthday of the Church.

The Feast of Trumpets (plural): Christ returns and the Resurrection takes place at the blowing of the seventh Trump. So here we see a progression of at six preceding trumpets (plural) being blown signifying End Time Events.  Regarding Christ's return to rule as King from Jerusalem, we read in Revelation 11:15: “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Regarding the Resurrection, we read in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The Seventh Trump is the same last trump that announces Jesus' Return to the earth.

The Day of Atonement, or At-One-Ment, as presented in The Feasts of the Lord: On this Feast Day, two identical goats were chosen to take part in the observance. Two lots were placed inside a golden vessel and shaken. One lot was labeled for Jehovah. The other “for azazel.” (This English meaning of this Hebrew term is not fully understood.) The High Priest shook the vessel and drew the lots, one for each goat. The goat which drew the lot marked for Jehovah would be sacrificed as a sin offering. This sin offering was fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. Scripture tells us the fate of the azazel or scapegoat in Leviticus 16:21, “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: 22  And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” I have heard some say that the scapegoat or azazel was also fulfilled by Jesus, but I am not sure I can agree. Yes, it had all the sins placed on his head, and took them away out into the wilderness, but the first goat accomplished taking away our sins by paying the death penalty for sin. We know that Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan early in His ministry. But over three years later, Jesus died, and was raised to Life, but not to be led into any wilderness. No... the scapegoat goat is led, alive, and out into the wilderness. I agree with those who say that this goat represents Satan. Another clue that this goat represents Satan can be found where Jesus includes information about angels, at the end of an answer on another subject. We read  in Luke 20:35: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage: 36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels.” Satan is an angel, and cannot die. So this live goat is lead into the wilderness alive. This is the Atonement: Jesus dying that we might live. And Satan bearing not the penalty, but bearing the responsibility for our sins, as temptor and enemy of our souls.” This is the Atonement: God and man, at Jesus' return are atoned, or, set at one.

The Feast of Tabernacles was the great Fall Harvest, also called Ingathering.
In His parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus said in Matthew 13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest:” and in verse 39, “The enemy that sowed them (the tares) is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” On a Spiritual level we can see it as the gathering in of all of the godly living and dead at the End of the Age to be together at last for all Eternity.

The Last Great Day is seen by some as representing the White Throne Judgment, but I cannot be more specific than that. There are a variety of interpretations, each of which have their own valid claims. But the jury is still out on that, and I won't present it until I can do so with a clearer understanding of it, that I can defend from the Word of God.

So there is a physical / spiritual flow of events taking place in which all of God's Holy Days, that He had the Jews' observe for centuries, individually and as a whole had the same deep and profound spiritual significance as most people recognize in the Passover observance. All the Holy Days as they transpired during the year were previews and forecasts of God's Great Plan of Salvation that He was working out. The Jews were as oblivious to it as they were when they had Christ nailed to a cross while Passover lambs were being killed for that night's meal. Here is a verse that proves that the Jews had not yet eaten the Passover. Notice John 18:28: “Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover.” The prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53:7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” So while Jesus endured the brutal scourging in silence, and then as He died on the cross, as a lamb to the slaughter, all of the rest of Judea was busy slaughtering the Passover lambs that had pre-envisioned Jesus' sacrifice for centuries. And they were all completely blind to
the incredible significance of the events happening right in front of their eyes!

I do want to do one more flyover of the the Old Testament Holy Days and zero in on a seeming minor footnote to them , but which has great significance for us. And most Christians completely miss it due to their unfamiliarity with Old Testament Feast Days and observances.

The Passover is probably the most well-known and familiar Old Testament Festivals to us today. But there is a significant thing that took place right after the Passover that was also a spiritual forecast of Jesus Christ.

Leviticus 23:5  In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover.
6  And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
7  In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
8  But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
9  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
10  Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11  And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

From a book called the Feasts of the Lord, we read, “Firstfruits marked the beginning of the cereal grain harvests in Israel. Barley was the first grain to ripen. For Firstfruits, a sheaf of barley was harvested and brought to the Temple as a Thanksgiving Offering to the Lord for the Harvest. It was representative of the barley harvest as a whole, and it served as a pledge, or a guarantee that the remainder of the Harvest would be realized in the days that followed.” Now... when do you suppose this presented?

Listen carefully...

On the morrow after the sabbath that follows the Passover the priest shall wave it. So following the Passover, and on the next day following the weekly Seventh Day Sabbath which is what? the first day of the week, on that day, the firstfruit of the Harvest is presented to God. And that is exactly when Christ presented Himself to God. He told Mary Magdelene, on the first day of the week, after the Sabbath, after the Passover in John 20:17: “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” Jesus was the firstfruit of the Harvest, or as the Apostle Paul phrased it in 1 Corinthians 15:20: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” Jesus was not the first person raised from the dead. There was Lazarus, the 12 year old daughter of Jairus, and several others that we can name. But when they came back from the dead, they were raised to a renewed physical life and they died a second time. Jesus was the firstfruits from the dead, or as Paul phrased it another time in Colossians 1:18, he called Chrsit “... the firstborn from the dead.” Unlike Lazarus, and Jairus' daughter and Dorcas and Eutychus, Jesus was raised from the dead and He is alive forevermore. But there are several other things I want you to see about the Feast of Firstfruits. It is not one of the more familiar Old Testament feasts, and, as the Feast of the Lord book says, it was “not as strongly emphasized in the Hebrew Scriptures as the other Levitical feasts, (it) forms an important backdrop to New Testament teaching.”

“Paul spoke of Epeanatus as 'the firstfruits of Achaia (Romans 16:5),” or the first of the converts from Achaia. “Paul again used this imagery when he spoke of salvation as the 'firstfruits of the Spirit.'”

James also applied this Feast to fellow-Christians. “Speaking of believers as set apart to the Lord,
James taught (in James 1:18) “Of His own Will He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”

And lastly, the Apostle John, much later, in the Book of Revelation “describes a special group of 144,000... who will be sealed just prior to the opening of the seventh seal... John describes these 144,000 as 'redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”

It can be argued that all of these Feast Days, including the lesser known and seemingly less significant Feast of Firstfruits, and see that God unveiled, chronologically, using agrarian parables, or farming symbolism, His Plan of Salvation. And, significantly, each of the Spiritual events in His Plan, that have already taken place, occurred on the actual days that God ordained them to be celebrated!!

Before we get back to the main text for today, let me just say, so that there is no confusion as to what I am saying, or where I am going with this. We read in Leviticus 23:4: “These are the feasts of the LORD , even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.” As a direct command of the Old Covenant, the Children of Israel were required to observe these days. They were celebrated in Israel as “annual Sabbath Days.” God said to Moses in Exodus 31:13: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.”
 When Gentiles became members of the Church, there were Jewish Christians who understood that these days should continue to be kept by them, and all Gentile converts. It seemed pretty open and shut: “These days were to be observed throughout your generations...” But other Jewish Christians disagreed.

There were other things God said His people would observe “throughout their generations” that we, as Christians no longer observe: For example,
Exodus 29:42  This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations...

Do we offer, or should we offer burnt offerings, today, as Christians. No.

Exodus 30:8  And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.

Do we burn, or should we burn perpetual incense, today, as Christians? No.

Exodus 30:10  And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the LORD.”

Do we, or should we offer the blood of sin offerings, today, as Christians? No. We read in Hebrews 10:4 “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

In order to be preaching a unified Gospel, and in order to address the division that was taking place in the Church, a decision had to be made in the early days of the Church, as to whether or which Old Testament Laws such as circumcision or these Feast Days should be required to be kept, in order for Gentiles should  become Christians. And we read of that decision when it was made, beginning in
Acts 15:14  Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15  And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,
16  After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17  That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
18  Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
19  Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood...

Skipping to Verse 23  And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:
24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment... :
Skipping to Verse 28: “For it seem good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”

The Holy Days that ancient Israel observed have great spiritual significance. There is much that we can learn from them, and we would do well to study them and be blessed by what they impart to us. But there is no New Testament indication let alone Command, that we are required to observe them to be saved.
Yes... it is true that  Leviticus 23:4: tells us, “These are the feasts of the LORD...” But they were Feasts observed as part of a Covenant that had been ratified between Israel and the Lord. Jesus was that Lord who mediated the Covenant, as I conclusively proven in several past Discussions. When He died, the Covenant was terminated. We read in 15: “And for this cause he (Jesus) is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16  For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.” In the same way that the terms of a will are not activated until the person who wrote the will dies, so the New Covenant was activated when Jesus died, and the terms and conditions and requirements of the Old Covenant were terminated.”

But the Jews who killed Jesus did not see Him as the Lord, or the Creator God, or the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He was just a blasphemer who claimed to be equal to God by calling Himself the Son of God. When He died, they did not see a cessation of the terms of the Old Covenant. They still regarded these Feast Days as the “Feasts of the Lord.” But the Apostle John know the reality. The ratifier of the Old Covenant and the testator of the New Covenant was dead, disabling the Old, and Enacting the New. So in each of the occasions he refers to these Feast Days, John never calls them a Feast Day of the Lord. On two occasions, one in John 5, and the second, here, he calls them a “feast of the Jews.” The phrase “feast of the Lord, or “Feast of the Lord” do not occur anywhere in the New Testament! As far as the Jews were concerned, the Old Covenant was still in force, and they were still keeping these days, even though they completely missed their spiritual significance, NOT TO MENTION their literal fulfillment which happened right before their eyes!!!

Now I know that was a major digression from the flow of events here in John's Gospel, but I hope you can agree that it was a profitable digression, made in an effort to shed light on things that seem to be rarely discussed from many pulpits these days.

But let's get back to John 7: Read John MacArthur 7:1-13, and then individual verses.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee,.... That is, after he had fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, near Bethsaida; and had had that long discourse with the Jews at Capernaum, concerning himself, as the bread of life, and about eating his flesh, and drinking his blood; and had been up to the feast of the passover at Jerusalem, said to be nigh, when he went over the sea of Galilee, John 6:4; otherwise the above places were in Galilee: but the case seems to be this, that after he had been at Capernaum, he went to Jerusalem, to keep the passover; and finding that the Jews still sought to take away his life, he returned to Galilee, and "walked" there; he did not sit still, or lie at home, and live an inactive indolent life, but went about from place to place, preaching the Gospel, and healing diseases; he walked, and walked about; but not as the enemy of souls, seeking to do all mischief, but to do all good, to the bodies and souls of men:

for he would not walk in Jewry; in the land of Judea, where he had been, and tarried, and made disciples; but being rejected and ill treated, he left them; which was a prelude of the Gospel being taken from them, and carried to another people; which afterwards took place, in the times of the apostles: his reason for it was,

because the Jews sought to kill him; for healing a man on the sabbath day, and for asserting his equality with God: not that he was afraid to die, but his time was not come; and he had work to do for the glory of God, and the good of men; and therefore it was both just and prudent to withdraw and preserve his life; for like reasons he advised his disciples, when persecuted in one city, to flee to another: and very lawful and advisable it is for good men, when their lives are in danger, to make use of proper means to preserve them, for further usefulness in the cause of God, and for the benefit of men.

Read all of page 81 in the Smart Guide.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Spake openly of him - The word translated "openly," here, is commonly rendered "boldly." This refers doubtless, to those who really believed on him. His enemies were not silent; but his friends had not confidence to speak of him openly or boldly that is, to speak what they really thought. Many supposed that he was the Messiah, yet even this they did not dare to profess. All that they could say in his favor was that he was a good man. There are always many such friends of Jesus in the world who are desirous of saying something good about him, but who, from fear or shame, refuse to make a full acknowledgment of him. Many will praise his morals, his precepts, and his holy life, while they are ashamed to speak of his divinity or his atonement, and still more to acknowledge that they are dependent on him for salvation.

This section of John 7 closes with the words in verse 13:
13 “Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews.”

But it can be a fear of many things that cause Christians to remain silent about the belief in God and/or Scripture, and/or Faith in Christ. No matter what is behind a person's reluctance to unashamedly declare his being a Christian,  I am reminded of these sobering words of Jesus: We read in Mark 8:38: “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

But I want to close this evening on a positive note:

Jesus also said in Revelation 3:5: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Of this we read in Gill's Exposition of the entire Bible:

“But I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels; which shows that Christ has an exact and perfect knowledge of all the chosen ones, he knows them by name; and that he has a strong and affectionate love for them, and is not ashamed of them, of their cause, of their persons, and of their relation to him; and that he does and will own, acknowledge, and approve of them, both here and hereafter: and the confession he will make of them will be in their praise; in praise of their persons and the comeliness of them, which he has put upon them; and of their graces, though they are his own; and of their good works as the fruits of grace: and this will be made before his Father, who chose these persons, and gave them to him to preserve and save; and before the angels, who rejoice at their salvation and happiness; and this will be at the last day.”

This concludes this Evening's Bible Study: The Gospel According to John: Chapter 7: Verses 1-13: “The Feast Days of God.” This Discussion originally delivered “live,” on Thursday, April 16th, 2015