Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this Lord's Day. Lord, thank you for bringing us here this morning, for blessing us with health. Lord, we do pray that those that have come down with a sickness, we pray that you would heal them and bless them during this time. Lord, as we gather and study your word, study about you, please give us wisdom and understanding in these matters. give us now understanding of the Feast of Dedication and how Jesus Christ fulfills it. Please help us, Lord God, that we may understand your work of redemption that you have accomplished in Christ Jesus for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we have been, we just finished a long series on the Lord's Supper. It kind of went longer than I'd expected, but hopefully it was beneficial. We finished it, and so now what I wanted to do this morning is go back to doing an introduction slash kind of issues in the Gospel of John. There are sometimes as we go through the Gospel of John or any book of the Bible, there are always background issues or other things that we don't get to really go into in the sermon. And there is one thing in today's sermon that I want to talk about, kind of remind us about, in regards to the feasts and John's recording of them and placement of them in the Gospel. I will mention some about the Feast of Dedication in today's sermon, but I wanted to give more background information and kind of maybe even a reminder, since I have talked about some of these things before, a reminder again as to the use of the feasts in the Gospel of John and why he uses them, where he uses them, why he mentions them. And so let's first go to the gospel of John chapter 10. Or you know what, I'll bring it up here if you don't. I'll bring it up here. So John chapter 10. Let me zoom in. Okay, so at that time, this is verse 22, this is the verses that we're gonna be looking at this morning. At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews then gathered around him and were saying to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name. These testify of me. but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one." We'll keep reading the rest for this morning's service, but what's important here is John's mention of the Feast of Dedication. Especially in the Gospel of John, we want to make note whenever he specifically mentions a feast, he's not just giving you background information just for the sake of the information. If you remember when we started the series on an introduction to the Gospel of John, I mentioned There had been a significant amount of time between the life of Jesus, between even the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, and the writing of the gospel. Jesus, or I'm sorry, John, had had time to reflect and think about not just the events, but their significance, their significance in salvation history, their theological significance. And many scholars who study the Gospel of John are divided into, well, is he writing historically or is he just writing theologically? Well, the answer is it's both. Some people will say that, no, John is not writing historically because it's just so theologically kind of organized. But again, he's taking the historical events and drawing from those the rich theology that we get of who Jesus Christ is as the Christ, as the shepherd, as the fulfillment of the Old Testament types and shadows, and as the fulfillment of the Jewish feasts. And so when he does mention a feast, he'll mention it at the beginning of some event or teaching of Jesus to show us how Christ and that feast are connected. What he's doing, who he is, is connected. And so here he is, John, brings up at the beginning of this new section in chapter 10, which is connected to the previous, but he begins by speaking of the feast of dedication that took place in Jerusalem. And immediately after, as the background, we have then the Pharisees, the religious leaders, who gather around him. And they are saying to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. So that is the context of this. So let us look at the, at this a little bit more. So what I just mentioned, again, he's connecting the feasts with an event or teaching of the life of Jesus to show its fulfillment. And so these are the various feasts that existed. You had the feasts that were typically in the earlier in the year, the spring feasts, the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets began kind of the fall feasts, the Feast of Trumpets, then the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkoth or Booths. So the Feast of Passover was the very first one. That's the one that kind of kicked off all this cycle of a feast. It was on the 14th day of the first month in the Jewish calendar. And then the next day was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the Feast of Firstfruits was also in that month, that cycle, that early cycle. So those are the first, the spring feasts. And so this is their order in the calendar, the year, the calendar year of the Jewish feasts. A quick mention on the Feast of Pentecost, it says Feast of Weeks, but it's also known as Pentecost. Does anybody remember the explanation as to why these two names, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Pentecost? Yes, that's correct, but why Feast of Weeks? So from the first day of the Passover to the Feast of Pentecost is exactly 50 days. So in, like you said, in the Greek, the Pentecost Day is, so it's actually Pentecost Heimera, which is the 50th day. So 50 days after that was the Pentecost. So that's where you get Pentecost from. But weeks was, they counted the day after the Passover. So that's 49 days. That's seven full weeks. So the day after the Passover, the initial Passover, there was 49 days to the Pentecost. That's exactly seven full weeks. So that's why it's called the Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. But these, again, are the major feasts of the Jews. But you'll notice that the Feast of Dedication is not there. We'll see why in a little bit. So here's my attempt at trying to kind of show you our calendar versus theirs. Their first month is Nissan, which was in the middle of March. And then it kind of goes that way. This is a much better one that I found online. But here you can see the different feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread. Feast of Weeks, Trumpets, Atonements, Tabernacles, and then the Feast of Dedication, which we'll see in a little bit. So just as a quick example of what I meant by the connection between the feasts and Jesus's ministry. The first Passover of Jesus's ministry is at the beginning of his ministry. So John mentions this in chapter two. Verse 13, he says, the Passover of the Jews was near and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and he found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves. And the money changers seated at their tables and he made a scourge of cords and drove them all out of the temple. His disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me. The Jews then said to him, what sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things? Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it took 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days? but he was speaking of the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word which he had spoken. So in mentioning the Passover, his audience, he's trying to get them to think of the Passover. What is the significance of the Passover, of this lamb that is slain, and what is the Passover? What does the Passover commemorate? What does it remember? What does it celebrate? Exactly. So it's God's great and mighty deliverance of his people from Egypt. And so on the night that this happened, God instituted this feast to sacrifice a lamb. So all the households were to sacrifice a lamb. And then they would get the blood of the lamb, put it on their door. And then the angel of the Lord, who was going to come and destroy or kill the firstborn of every household, When he saw the blood, he would pass over that house. So it's a perfect and a beautiful picture, right, of Christ and what he has done for us. So he connects it, so he begins this narrative here with the Passover. The Passover was near, and the connection here, again, is Christ, he's saying, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. So he's speaking of his death, but not only of his death, his burial, and his resurrection. So John is connecting this Passover, the significance of that, with Christ's sacrifice as the true Lamb of God. So that was the first Passover of Jesus' ministry, which is at the beginning of his ministry. The last Passover of Jesus' ministry was at the end of his ministry, as he then offers up himself as the true sacrificial lamb. So up to John chapter 12, If you recall, a very basic, basic structure to the Gospel of John is that you have the prologue in chapter 1 up to verse 18. And then you have from then to the end of chapter 12, you have what is called the Book of Signs. And so we see Jesus is, there's seven specific signs that John highlights. But then in chapter 13, we begin his passion. We start to see this last week where Jesus is going to be crucified. And that begins in Chapter 13. But at the end of Chapter 12, we see Mary anoints Jesus. Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of the Messiah. Gentiles come to Jerusalem to seek Jesus, kind of then here giving us a glimpse that the salvation would not only be of the Jews, but of the Gentiles as well. And then Jesus foretells his death. And this is how this Book of Signs, this section in the Gospel of John ends. In chapter 13, the Book of the Passion, how does it begin? John says, now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil, having already put into his heart, or into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid aside his garments and taking a towel, he girded himself, and then he washes his disciples' feet. But the point here is that this book of the Passion, begins with a mentioning of the Passover. So now he's connecting Jesus' passion, what he's gonna go through to this Passover as the fulfillment, the true fulfillment of the Passover and the sacrificial lamb and God's great work of redemption. That was the Feast of the Passover, but we also looked at the Feast of Booths in John 7. In John chapter 7 verse 1 begins like this, after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee for he was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of booths, was near. Therefore his brother said to him, leave here and go into Judea so that your disciples also may see your works which you are doing. For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world, for not even his brothers were believing in him. So Jesus said to them, my time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourself. I do not go up to the feast because my time has not yet fully come. Having said these things to them, he stayed in Galilee. So his brothers did not believe in him, they wanted him, they thought he wanted fame, he wanted to make himself known. So he says, they tell him, what are you doing here? Go to the feast, the whole world's gonna be there and they'll see you there. If you wanna be made known, go there. But Jesus said his time had not come to be manifested in such a way that the world here represented by all those here at the feast would see him in his glory. Now, why not? Why not? Now, as he stood there with his brothers, we could say that, yes, he was the fulfillment of the Feast of Booths, but he could not actually yet fulfill its true meaning. Now, does anybody remember why? Remember, Jesus came working on a schedule, and he is still working on a schedule right now. So the feasts of the Jews in the calendar year are in a specific order. And it is in that specific order that Jesus came to actually fulfill them. So what kicked off the cycle of feasts was the Passover. The Passover lamb is sacrificed remembering God's great deliverance. Then, and we're not gonna go through all the feasts, but then came the Feast of Firstfruits, which celebrated God's provision and the firstfruits of the harvest. The people had been in bondage in Egypt, and now they're in their own land with their own harvest, their own food, and so the firstfruits celebrated God's provision of the land, of the harvest, and then the firstfruits celebrated that firstfruit of the harvest that guaranteed that more of the same kind would come. Then you had the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, which celebrated the incoming of the greater harvest. That was the beginning of the greater harvest, not just the first fruits. But then you had the Feast of Tabernacles, which was at the very end of the calendar, and this remembered the days when the people lived in tents in the wilderness, and it celebrated the consummation of the harvest. So once all the harvest, everything had been gathered in at the end of the year. Well, Jesus couldn't fulfill this yet, because that points to Christ coming, as his brother said, and being made known to the entire world in his glory. At the end of the harvest, at the end of all the gathering of the harvest, that points to his return, his second return, when he comes in glory and gathers all his people. He couldn't fulfill that there. What did he need to do first? he first needed to fulfill the Passover. Jesus is the Passover lamb who truly delivers God's people. And then what happened after his death and burial? He was raised from the dead, and Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that he is the first fruits of the resurrection, guaranteeing a greater harvest of the same kind. And the Feast of Weeks, represents the incoming of that greater harvest, which is the gathering of God's people throughout the church age, which began on the day of Pentecost. So right now, we're celebrating the Feast of Weeks. God is gathering this great harvest. And then at the end, at the end of the age, when the harvest is over, Christ will come and bring consummation. And then also think that right now, part of the Feast of Tabernacles was to, the people were to live in tents for a week. to remember how their forefathers used to live. Well, that's what we, in a sense, are doing now. We are pilgrims in this world. We are wandering in the wilderness. We're not wandering, but we are in the wilderness waiting for our Savior to come and take us into the promised land, into Emmanuel's land, into that great heavenly kingdom. So that's, again, that's why Jesus couldn't fulfill that then, and that's why John connects it there too in John chapter seven. But what about the Feast of Dedication? At the time the Feast of Dedication took, this is back in John chapter 10, at the time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem, it was winter and Jesus was walking the temple in the portico of Solomon. So John begins with telling us that this is the time of the Feast of Dedication. So what is this feast? It is not a festival found in the Old Testament canon. So that's why we didn't see it there in the feast listed. It is a feast that came into the Jewish festival calendar during the intertestamental period. Does anybody know what the intertestamental period is? Yes. Yes. Yes, so we can see here, the Old Testament, we can see canon, the Old Testament writings. We have Malachi at the very end. He's the last Old Testament prophet who writes, I guess we can say, because John the Baptist really is the last Old Testament prophet. But yes, so after Malachi, there was no more prophets. God did not speak through any prophet for about 400 years. until John the Baptist and Jesus and those events in the New Testament come into the scene. So there was this great period of about 400 years where there was no prophet, and it was during this period that this feast came onto the scene, onto the Jewish calendar. And then here in this, illustration, you see the old covenant actually goes all the way until Christ. So Christ, when he comes into the scene, John the Baptist, though we find their narratives in the New Testament, they're still in a sense under the Old Testament, because they're still under the Mosaic law. Jesus comes to fulfill the Mosaic law perfectly, but not just the Mosaic law, but the Adamic covenant, the covenant of works. So he's fulfilling all righteousness. And on the cross is when the, And death, resurrection, burial, or death, burial, resurrection, ascension, that's when the new covenant is established, inaugurated, and so we begin a new covenant era. Although between the cross and the destruction of the temple, there is a kind of like a window where there are Jews who may have not have heard of Jesus yet, who God will accept because they're true children of Abraham waiting for the Messiah. But once a Jew during this period hears of Christ, then they are responsible to believe in him and God will no longer accept their sacrifices. But then at 70 AD, when the temple destroyed, There's no more sacrifices. That's kind of like where God really just cuts it off and says, that's it. You have to believe in Christ as your savior. So it begins during this time. So it's not a festival found in the Old Testament canon. It is a feast that came into the Jewish festival calendar during the intertestamental period, and it commemorates God's deliverance of his people from the, and I'm not really sure how to pronounce it, Seleucid Empire, which is a Greek state. It is a commemoration of the people's rededication of the temple to God, and it is a commemoration of God's miracle of preserving a jug of olive oil containing one day's worth of oil for eight days. And, well, anyway, so a brief, brief history. Alexander the Great, I'm sure you've all heard of him, conquers most of the known civilized world during this period. He dies in 323 BC. And then after his death, his empire is distributed to, or is given to four of his generals, which then is divided, is divided into various territories in this kind of known world. And then a part of it is given to this man named Seleucus, who ruled over a territory which included Syria and the land of Israel. In 175 BC, Antiochus IV, also known as Antiochus Epiphanes, which means God manifested, came to power as king of this Seleucid Empire, which was a Greek state. When Israel came under his rule, he outlawed many of the Jewish religious practices. So a lot of things that they were practicing, he said, no more. And instead, he instituted worship to Zeus in the temple. But in 167 BC, he went so far as to sacrifice a pig on an altar to Zeus. And we all know that the swine, the pig, were unclean animals. They would profane the temple, and that's exactly what happened. He sacrifices a pig on the altar to Zeus. And this was the ultimate profaning of the temple. So what happened after this? There was a revolt that ensued that came about by Jewish freedom fighters led by a man named Judas Maccabeus. And we can see, if you wanted to read more about that, first and second Maccabees contains the history of that. Roman Catholics, I think, will include it in their Bible as part of canon, but we just see it as good historical writings, but that are not canonical, they're not inspired as the others. So, they revolted, they rebelled, and in 164 BC, the Jewish rebellion, led by Maccabeus, captured Jerusalem and rededicated the temple to God. And then according to rabbinic tradition, a miracle took place afterward. So as they went into the temple, they found one jug of olive oil that was not opened. It was the only one that they saw that was not profane. So they were able to use it. But the problem was that it was only good, there was only enough oil for one day. So they were going to light the menorah, the lampstand, And so they only had enough oil for one day. So the story goes that God made that one or that little bit of oil to last for eight days until they were able to get some more oil. So that's kind of the main components of the feast. So it's a rededication of the temple to God, which is why it's called the Feast of Dedication. But it's also called the Feast of Lights because of the lighting of the menorah. And Jewish people would put lights on the synagogues and stuff like that to celebrate. But this feast now in modern times is called Hanukkah. So if you guys have heard of Hanukkah, this is what it is. And it's celebrated at the end of the year. And that's why it was winter when Jesus, as we see in John chapter 10, when they're celebrating the Feast of Dedication. So how does Jesus fulfill this feast? Well, in the Jewish rebellion, There was the armies, right, the armies of the Gentiles, the Seleucid Empire that came in, they took over Jerusalem, they took over the temple, they abolished the worship of God, they established their own pagan worship. profaning the temple, so there's this rebellion that ensues and there's this one leader. We can say he's kind of a Christ-like figure who leads this great army to rebel against the gentile invaders and he successfully leads this rebellion and they overthrow these invaders and they rededicate the temple back to God. In that, we see Jesus as the true leader of God's people who leads his people to victory. He is the true Messiah, the true deliverer of God's people, but also the one who truly restores God's religion, God's faith, God's worship. We see that when he talks to the woman at the well, right? She's a Samaritan, and they say, well, you just say that we worship here, and we say we worship here, but what do you say? And what is his response? That there will come a day when neither here or there will they worship God? But what is the true proper worship? It's worshiping in spirit and in truth. It is worshiping through Christ, through what he has done. So he is the one who comes to restore the temple, because he himself is the temple, but he also comes to restore God's worship, the true worship. Jesus then is also the true temple as we saw in John chapter 2. Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. Jesus is the light of the world. The lampstand or menorah was from the beginning meant to resemble a tree. So if you, oh, let me go back. If you look, maybe this isn't as clear, but the branches were supposed to really look like tree branches. So it was meant to resemble a tree. Now, can you think of a tree that the menorah would figure or picture? Close. A tree. There's a tree mentioned in the Bible, the tree of life, exactly, exactly. So I pictured the tree of life. If you read the descriptions of the design inside the tabernacle and the temple, there's so much imagery of a garden. So if you ever read them, there's all this garden imagery inside the temple of fruits and palm trees and all these gourds. It's just this beautiful imagery of a garden. Well, that's because it was meant to picture the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was the first temple of God. Because a temple is not necessarily a building, but it is a place where God dwells in a very special place. And that is what the Garden of Eden was. Adam was the first priest in God's temple. He was supposed to guard and keep the garden, which are those two words used that God gives Adam to guard and to keep the garden are only found later when God charges the Levites to guard and keep the temple, their tabernacle. And so all this was meant to picture, to kind of picture back the Garden of Eden, this temple of God. But then ultimately, then that points to what? Where do we see the Tree of Life mentioned again after Genesis? We see it in the Book of Revelation, in the new heavens and the new earth. When the new heavens are now this entire beautiful Garden of Eden, and we see the Tree of Life there. And so Jesus as the light of the world represents this tree of life. Now, and it is important to know that in John's prologue, light and life are put together. John says, in him was life and the life was the light of men. So the tree of life, we see it here in the lampstand as not only just a tree of life, but as the light of the world. In John 8, 12, we read, then Jesus again spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The light of life. So they're connected. And so Jesus fulfills then this feast in that he is the true leader who delivers his people, who leads his people to victory. But then he is also the true temple of God and the true light of the world who brings life to those that believe and trust in him. So that is the end. Is there any questions before we conclude? I know we're finishing a few minutes early, but is there any questions regarding any of this? Yes. Yeah. And then I also found it interesting to gloss over how they would wrap the bread and hide it and not bring it out. Yeah Yeah, it's funny because a lot of these things also developed over time they weren't necessarily commanded but yet even in that we see how those point to Christ all these little details of the Passover and Yeah, and even this feast, too, how it, in God's providence, he ordained this, though it wasn't written down, it wasn't part of the canon, but he ordained this, and this feast, by his providence, came into the Jewish life, but even in this, it points to Christ beautifully in his work. So the feast of dedication came from that period of intertestamental. Yes. Period of defense. Mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah. Okay, anything else? But, you know, I'm sorry, I wanted to say something else. Yeah, it is, I mean, as we've been going through these specialties, well, not just especially, but when you see the Jewish people confront Jesus, like, it's so clear. And one of the things that I'm gonna mention is that they're saying, tell us clearly if you're the Christ. Now, he may not have said the exact words, I am the Christ, to them. He did, he was clear with the Samaritan woman, but with them, he still was clear. Even though he didn't say those words, all his works and his teaching were so clearly pointing to who he was, and they're still asking, like, no, just tell us plainly. And then in that narrative, he again tells them plainly with his works, with his teachings, but they still don't get it, and they still end up wanting to stone him and kill him. It's just the depravity and darkness of man is really, it really is great. So, it doesn't matter how learned you are, how theologically minded you are, if you are not of Christ, if you are not a sheep, if you don't have the Spirit of God, you will completely miss it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly, and that's, yeah, because he says, send someone to warn my brothers and say, no, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear from them. No, no, but if someone goes from the dead, they will surely believe. And it's like, well, if they don't believe in Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if somebody rises from the dead. And it's true. I mean, that's the heart of, we want to say that, well, if we only had enough evidence, right, skeptics, and we only have, if God could just do this, But we see so many instances in scripture where God does do these things, the man born blind, but what do they do? They just, they find some excuse to not come to the logical conclusion that this man is from God, he is the Christ, he is God in the flesh, and we need to believe in him. And so, yeah, it's tragic. The hardest thing for us to do is, in our human nature, is to accept that God's saying, it's only God who said it. We don't contribute anything to it, we can't make it happen. That's right. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Any other questions or comments before we close? Okay, well then let us close in prayer.