Dear Church Family,

As Paul Pakebusch, our youth pastor, shared Sunday, this is the season of graduation. We are so proud of our soon to be graduates and pray for their future. We will recognize them on the first Sunday of May. We also have some mission trips and camps coming up soon, so please pray for those opportunities as well. I’m so privileged to be part of a great church like Lakeside as we continue to be on mission in every area of life.

I have always loved the connection between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In fact, when I served in Malawi, Africa years ago I taught using a method many missionaries still use today called chronological storying. I would share 30 stories from Genesis to the Ascension of Christ and showed them how it all connected as one story. This became my dissertation project when I went back to seminary after being in Malawi. The connection of the feasts has always been one of my favorite topics and I hope this will encourage you!

Leviticus 23 and 24 are all about Jesus. On the surface, they’re all about various feasts God gave to Israel. Here is a brief summary of how they all point them to Jesus— you have the Passover, reminding the people of God’s deliverance from bondage through the sacrifice of a spotless lamb. Jesus is our spotless lamb sacrificed to give us eternal life. There’s the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Leaven, in Scripture, almost always is associated with sin. This points to the sinlessness of Jesus, fact that he is our bread of life. The feast of First Fruits, points us to the fact that Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection, as shown in 1 Corinthians 15. There’s the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost that happened 50 days after the Passover. What happened 50 days after our Passover lamb died and was raised? The day of Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit was unleashed upon his Church. There’s the Feast of Trumpets reminding us when Christ comes again to renew all things, it will be at the sound of a trumpet. There’s the Day of Atonement, reminding us once again, Christ has atoned for us, satisfying the wrath of God against sin. Finally, you have the Feast of Booths, reminding the people of God’s deliverance from this temporary dwelling on this fallen globe, just as the Israelites were reminded of being delivered from their temporary home of the wilderness before entering the promised land. Yes, we see the entire Bible is really all about Jesus.

Press On!
Mark