Yearly Feasts of Yahweh
2023-09-29 | Leviticus 23:33-44 | Not of This World | Tabernacles
The Word became flesh and pitched a tent among us. He tabernacled with us and we beheld His glory. Yet He was here for what seemed like just a vapor of time and that is because He was never meant to stay. “I am in this world but not of this world,” He would say. Y’shua’s life bears the striking symbolism of God’s people after their exodus from Egypt, as they ventured into freedom and tabernacled in the wilderness. Pitch a tent, but be sure it’s built as a temporary structure because you won’t be staying very long. This is not your land; you are just sojourners passing through and your permanent home is elsewhere.
It was true for the Israelites in the wilderness; it was true for Y’shua when He was born into this world; and it is true even for you. This is not your permanent home and the body in which you live is not your permanent body. In this world you will have trials, but He has overcome this world. In your permanent body and in your permanent home there will be no more trials, no more tears, no more pain. There will be only righteousness, peace and joy.
The imagery in the Feast of Tabernacles is striking. But that should come as no surprise because that is what all the Feasts of the Lord offer. The stories are real and knowing about the historical events and their prophetic significance is both important and profitable. God makes promises and we should never settle for less than what He has guaranteed. Had Israel settled in the wilderness, built permanent housing and walled cities, they would have never inherited the fullness of God’s covenant; they would have fallen short of God’s destination. Do you do that? The implications for such are staggering, both personally and prophetically.
What does it look like personally? “This world and the things of this world are what I am after to satisfy my soul.” Yet, it is after those very things the Gentiles seek; don’t! For all that is in the world —the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—are not of the Father. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God will tabernacle forever. And that is precisely the prophetic implication, to tabernacle forever. This is not your land; you are just sojourners passing through; your permanent home is elsewhere. Your ultimate citizenship is in heaven; here on earth you have no permanent city, so you must seek the one to come. You are heading for a permanent place to dwell in permanent glorified dwellings! Knowing this is to your great advantage!
2023-09-22 | Leviticus 16 | Behind the Veil | Yom Kippur
“Once and for all means once and for all,” doesn’t it? If there is one Feast of Yahweh, more than any other, that Christians believe no longer has any relevance for them, it has to be Yom Kippur. “The blood of Christ has paid for our sins past, present, and future, so why do I need to pay attention to a holiday that foreshadowed the sacrifice needed to cover the sins of the world?” It’s a worthy question and one worth exploring, especially in light of these difficult to explain scriptures written decades AFTER the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. “The Feasts of the Lord are shadows of things to come.” “Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come.” And, “The Law, having a shadow of the good things to come.” The Feasts, the High Priest, and the Law, all shadows of things yet to come, even decades after Christ. These are mysteries worth unlocking; secrets with discoveries relevant to every Christian serious about the future of their faith.
2023-09-15 | Leviticus 23:23-25 | Sober and Watching | The Feast of Trumpets
“Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years.” It’s easy to miss. The cycles of the sun and the moon are given for seasons, and for days and years. But, what are the signs? Y’shua rebuked religious leaders for not knowing. “Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.” Can you discern the signs of the times? Paul assumed you could; “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night… We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober and watching.” For what signs should you be watching?
The yearly cycle of Biblical Feasts is precisely to which Yahweh, Y’shua, and Paul are referring. The Feasts are God’s prophetic calendar for mankind’s history and future. However, if you don’t prioritize their prophetic significance, tragically, you won’t be able to tell what time it is; you won’t be capable of recognizing the signs of the times. Worse yet, you won’t even know what signs to watch for. In the coming weeks we will look at the Fall Biblical Feast cycle by starting with the Feast of Trumpets. Synchronize your calendar and you will know perfectly well what time it is!
2023-05-26 | Acts 1-2 | To Be Continued
Weekly Scriptures | Sermon Notes | Sermon Video
Have you ever heard the forward-looking phrase, “You can’t get there from here.”? I’m sure you have. But let’s say we turn it around into a backward-looking version; “You did get here from there!” And that will make much more sense as soon as we define ‘here’ and ‘there’ and ‘where,’ especially when you recognize how critical it is to get to the correct ‘here!’ In other words, if ‘where’ we are right now is the incorrect ‘here,’ it must be because we didn’t know ‘where’ the proper ‘there’ was. And when we travel into the past and look back ‘there,’ you must consider this all-important truth: our ‘there’ was their ‘here.’
‘Here’ is ‘where’ they were in the first century, shortly after Y’shua ascended into the clouds. But, how did they get ‘there,’ if ‘there’ is ‘where’ they were supposed to be at that prophetic moment in history? And maybe even more critical than that, if that is even possible, is this. ‘Here’ we are two thousand years later in our ‘here.’ How did we get ‘here’ and are we ‘where’ we are supposed to be? And that brings to mind another phrase I’m sure you’ve heard; “You don’t know ‘where’ you’re going, if you don’t know ‘where’ you’ve been.” In other words, you can’t get proper directions if you don’t know where you are! Framed as a question it sounds like this; “How can you know ‘where’ to go if you don’t know ‘where’ you are or even ‘where’ you’ve been?”
Here is some data to plug into the mishmash of ‘here’ and ‘there’ and ‘where.’ In the first century the ‘here’ was “It was Pentecost and they were all in one place in one accord.” The ‘there’ was, “Three times per year you must make your way to Jerusalem for the feast,” and this was one of those times. The ‘where’ was, “Standing near the Temple waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.” Today oftentimes, the ‘here’ is, “Everyone follows the dictates of his own heart.” The ‘there’ is, “You do err not knowing the Scriptures.” And the ‘where’ is that, “You have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.”
What must happen now, in order to change the ‘here’ we are right now, in order to arrive ‘where’ we are destined to go, which is “there is one body and one Spirit”? That is the question we must answer today as this ongoing story continues…
2023-04-05 | Passover Haggadah – The Telling | Who are Legitimate Sons?
Passover Haggadah | Sermon Video Part 1 | Sermon Video Part 2
Welcome to the Passover with Kingdom Embassy Ministries
When your children ask, what will you tell them? What happens when an entire generation separates from its roots, forgets their heritage, and has no recollection from where they came?
Yahweh built reminders into the culture of His people to deter that from happening, but unfortunately, it has. God’s people disconnected from the original roots of their faith, surrendered to common culture, and adopted the traditions of the world around them. In other words, they detached themselves from their true roots and attached themselves to the fake roots of this world. Do not love the world or the things of the world, John the disciple warned. Are you guilty of committing the same crimes Y’shua accused the religious hypocrites of, in His day, “making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down?” I fear, if asked, like those religious hypocrites, too many Christians could offer no defense!
“How so?” you might be thinking. Look around, especially during the holiday seasons, and you will see the majority of Christians flocking to celebrate manmade holidays, steeped in pagan traditions. But when their children ask, “What do you mean by this service?” Or, “What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?” Or, “What do these stones mean to you?” They will have no biblical answer because they have been carried away in “making the word of God of no effect through their tradition which they have now handed down to their children.”
It’s sad that if Y’shua was walking the earth today, He’d be asking the same question of religious leaders that He did two thousand years ago. “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?” John warned us about loving the things of the world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life…” May we, as the Body of Christ, run from such things. And the next time your children ask, this is what you will answer; “It’s the Passover; we were slaves and now we are free; let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation. It is a memorial forever.”
Or, you can say, “Go find your painted eggs and chocolate Easter bunnies. Fill your baskets; this is now how we remember the death, burial and resurrection of our blessed Savior.” It’s sad we have fallen so far. I don’t know about you, “But as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh!”
2023-03-31 | Passover | PREPARATION DAY | Who are Legitimate Sons?
Asking questions is one of the most powerful ways to engage people on a deeper level. Paul used this rabbinic technique and has stirred the imagination of Christians for the past two thousand years. If we consider just his letter to the Romans, his greatest theological treatise of all, he asks at least 75 different questions!
Here are a few:
* “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
* “Do we then make void the law through faith?
* “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
* “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
* “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?”
* “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Y’shua also used questions quite effectively. “Who do men say that I am?” challenged Peter to come to a Spirit-inspired conclusion. This was posed to Peter to bolster his understanding of sonship; “From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” However, what might be the most provocative question of all is one that Y’shua leaves the conclusion for you to discover. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” I want you to contemplate the answer to this question, but not before you consider His prior remarks earlier in the same sermon. “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Here are a number of mysterious and challenging questions of my own to solve, while also pondering Y’shua’s riddle:
* “Who then is the faithful and wise servant?”
* “What is the gospel of the kingdom?”
* “What ends after the gospel of the kingdom has been witnessed by all nations?”
* “Whom does the Father chasten?
* “What does it mean to be a legitimate son?”
* “What does it mean to be a firstborn?”
* “Who was at risk of at the first Passover; what did it determine?”
These are not simple questions, so please don’t be too hasty to reply. I can, however, promise you this; if you make searching for the answers a priority on your devotional journey with the Lord, when you do discover the truth, it will change everything!