Text: Leviticus 23:9-14; I Corinthians 15:20-23

Subject:  The Feast of First Fruits

Introduction:

Yesterday on Saturday April 4, 2015, on The Feast of Passover, there was a blood moon. There will be another blood moon on September 28 of this same year on the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. There have been three tetrads of these blood moons that have occurred over the last five hundred years on these two feasts, and each time there has been something negative that has happened to the Jewish people followed by something positive.[1] What I want you to see is that only Jehovah God has power over the heavens! Men can observe the heavens, but only the God of the Bible has control over the heavens. And this same God is also the One who ordained the Seven Feasts of the Bible which foretells His plan to redeem and restore all that was lost back to Himself! Nothing takes God by surprise! Here is the point: the same God who has the power over the heavens to cause the sun and the moon to serve as signs to His people is the same God who has given us His Word. You can trust God and you can trust His Word. Our God is God! Keep that in mind as we observe how the Lord both revealed the Feast of First Fruits and then perfectly fulfilled it through His Son.

We will begin our message on The Feast of First Fruits by observing it in its Old Testament setting from our text in Leviticus 23:9-14:

The Lord said to Moses, speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old and without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

In Israel barley would be the first grain to ripen, followed by wheat, fruit, olives, and grapes.

At the time of planting the Jewish people would mark off a certain place in the field. Later when the harvest season arrived they would take a sickle and a basket and on command reap this specially designated grain.

They would then go to the Tabernacle bringing this sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest to the priest. The priest would then, as prescribed in Leviticus, wave the sheaf before the Lord accompanied by a burnt offering as well as meal offerings.

This first fruits ceremony was a way of giving thanks to God for the harvest that was to come.

And as we will see next, this feast which was fulfilled by Jesus on the very day of The Feast of First Fruits is the celebration of His resurrection. It would be followed by The Feast of Pentecost—the beginning and empowering of the Church. And following The Feast of Pentecost will be The Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and The Feast of Tabernacles.

So with the scriptural foundation laid for The Feast of First Fruits, let’s now dig a little deeper into how Jesus perfectly fulfilled this Old Testament Feast.

We will begin the connection of this feast with Jesus by giving a little more detail into what this prophetic feast of God involved.

When the Old Testament priest waved the first fruits sheaf of green barley before the Lord, he waved it to the north, the south, the east and the west as a symbolic gesture of dedicating it fully to the Lord.

A male lamb was then sacrificed as a burnt offering to the Lord, along with unleavened bread mixed with oil and wine. Only after this wave offering had been offered could the rest of the crop be used.[2]

Notice the connection to Jesus.  On this day a mature lamb without defect was to be offered to the Lord along with bread and wine. These were the symbols that Jesus used in the Last Supper to recall and remember His sacrifice as the Passover Lamb![3]

Now let’s look at how the wave offering and the resurrection of Jesus are linked together by the very Jewish Apostle Paul—who perfectly understood The Feast of First Fruits.

I Corinthians 15:20-23 “But in fact Christ (Messiah) has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.”

Jesus’ resurrection was like a “wave offering” presented before the Father as the first fruits of the harvest that is to come.

In the scriptures, what came first was significant and important to God. So we see the following concerning Christ (Messiah): 1. Hebrews 1:6 He is the first-begotten of the Father; 2. Colossians 1:15-16  He is the first born of creation; 3. Revelation 1:5 He is the first begotten of the dead; 4. I Corinthians 15:20-23 He is the first fruits of those who will be resurrected.

And as Jesus was accepted by the Father as the first fruits of those who will be resurrected from the dead, so is His resurrection the Church’s guarantee that we too will be accepted by the Father as the rest of the harvest which will be resurrected.

This guarantee of our being raised from the dead has nothing to do with our merit or with what we have done. Rather, our confidence of being resurrected from the dead is based on who Jesus is, on His goodness, and what He has done for us!

When the Father raised Jesus from the dead, He was declaring His acceptance of who Jesus was and what He had done.

Therefore we have the assurance that the Father has accepted us and will raise us from the dead because we are trusting in His Son and not in ourselves.

Think of that powerful truth. No man will be raised from the dead because he deserves to be raised up. The resurrection from the dead is because of who Christ is and because of what He has done. It is His merit that makes the way for believers to experience the resurrection power of God. All that we need to do is put our trust completely in Him!

Beloved, know that the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits of God’s harvest is a powerful, prophetic picture of the day when you will likewise be transformed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” when the “corruptible will put on incorruption and “the mortal puts on immortality!”[4]

So then, Jesus alone is our confidence that we have been forgiven of our sins and made acceptable to God by His blood. For He is God’s Passover Lamb!

Jesus is also God’s Unleavened Bread. He is the sinless and pure bread of heaven whose body did not see corruption or decay in the tomb. And so He gives us hope of overcoming the grave.

And the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep answers the deepest longing and the most searching question of our heart: what happens when I die?

In the Old Testament, The Feast of First Fruits was celebrated by the waving of the first barley harvest. The first fruits offering by the priest let the people know that the rest of the harvest would also come.  God would bring the harvest.

Likewise, in the New Testament, Jesus fulfilled The Feast of First Fruits by being raised from the dead as a “wave-offering,” on the day of First Fruits.

And His resurrection is our guarantee that just as He was accepted and raised from the dead, so we too—the rest of the harvest of the New Creation in Christ—will also be accepted and will be raised from the dead by the glory and power of the Father!

CONCLUSION

About a month ago on a Monday—the day of the week that I pray the Lord’s Prayer—the Holy Spirit spoke to me as I was thanking God that I could call Him Father. On this day, I found myself quoting I John 3:1-2, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But when Christ appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.”

It is difficult for me to explain the glory of that moment of revelation. Although I had read and quoted that scripture many times, on this particular day the Holy Spirit made it life to me by whispering to my soul, “Jimmy you have no idea the kind of creation that you will become on that day! It is going to be glorious and more than you could ever imagine!” Somehow, the Lord was giving me a glimpse or an insight into what He has planned for those who love Him—for those who are His children through the new birth. What did you see pastor? It is not what I saw but rather what I felt and knew in the Spirit: God has something glorious planned for those who will be raised up on The Feast of Trumpets!

As I thought about how I might show or try and explain this to you, my Church and my circle of love, this illustration came to me. In the power point slide on the left is my granddaughter Eden, at about three months, when she was in her Mommy’s tummy. She was special then because we knew that she was a part of our family. However, in the slide on the right is the same Eden who is a little over a year old! What an amazing transformation! Just look at how beautiful this little creature on the left has become since leaving the womb.

Now try and imagine how that those who have been placed in the darkness of the grave are going to look on that day when He calls them forth from that darkness and transforms their lowly bodies into the likeness of His glorious and resurrected body!

Beloved, that is the power of The Feast of First Fruits! It the hope that we celebrate on this day every spring in March or April.

This is the Biblical meaning of what is called “Easter.” And I want you to leave this place today with the hope of the resurrection of Christ burning in your soul. I want you to rejoice, because just as sure as He has been resurrected with a glorious body, so too shall you, and all of those who are in Christ, be resurrected with a glorious body!

Beloved, this is our hope as Christians!

“Because He lives I can face tomorrow; because He lives all fear is gone; because I know, I know He holds my future, my life is worth the living because I know He lives!”

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[1] See my blog, warriorprophet.blogspot.com and my article from March 31,2015 for more information on the blood moons that have occurred over the last five hundred years.

[2] Leviticus 23:14 “You may not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God.”

[3] Leviticus 23:12-13; Luke 22:14-20

[4] I Corinthians 15:51-57