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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-steers/the-feast-of-firstfruits/
Leviticus chapter 23, and we'll read from verse 9. Leviticus chapter 23, and we're reading from verse 9. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, 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.
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. And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf on the, and ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf, and he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord.
And the meat or meal offering thereof shall be two tenths deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor. And the drink offering thereof shall be a wine, the fourth part of a hen.
And ye shall eat neither bread nor parched corn nor green ears until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
We're gonna come over to the New Testament, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I did not know for certain when the, what the Bible reading was going to be on tomorrow morning. I'm not going to read the passage that the Bible reading is on, but we'll come down the chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we'll come down the chapter to verse 20.
1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 20. In this life, but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits. Afterward, they that are Christ as coming, and notice particularly that last sentence in verse 23, Christ the firstfruits.
Afterward, they that are Christ as is coming. Gospel of Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, and we'll read a brief passage here. Matthew chapter 27, and we'll read verse 59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.
And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulchre. Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came on to Pilate, saying, sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days, I will rise again.
Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead. And this is a rather solemn statement, so the last error shall be worse than the first.
Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the watch, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Chapter 28, for a few verses.
Verse five, and the angel answered and said unto the women, fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said, come see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.
And behold, he cometh before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him, lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word.
And that's all that we'll read. We know that God will add his own blessing to the reading of his word. I want to draw your attention just for a few moments to what we have read in Leviticus chapter 23, the Feast of First Fruits.
Most would understand, I'm certain, that in Leviticus chapter 23, we have one of the great passages in the Old Testament where we have the seven feasts of the Lord. Sometimes I wonder when we turn to the book of Leviticus, if some think, well, this is a very difficult book, I'm not going to give you all the answers because there are many answers that I don't know.
But there are truths in the book of Leviticus that are really tremendous truths. And so when you come to Leviticus chapter 23, there are very simple illustrations. And so for the Feast of Passover, there are seven feasts.
So for the Feast of the Passover, you have a lamb. And I think probably most of us here are familiar with the Passover. And then you come to the next feast in the chapter, it's the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a little piece of leaven.
And then the following feast is the one that we have read about, the Feast of First Fruits, which is a little sheaf of barley. And then the next feast is the Feast of First Fruits as well sometimes referred to as the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost.
And you have two loaves of bread. And then you have the following feast, the Feast of Trumpets, probably two trumpets, at least one. And then when you come to the following feast, the Great Day of Atonement, you have a goat that is blood is shed and blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat.
And then finally, and I think I've given the seven, you have the Feast of Tabernacles and a little booth built in the yard or on the rooftop of the house over the branches of the trees. The illustrations are very simple.
So you come to the Feast of First Fruits. There are two of them. One, which we have read about, a sheaf of barley. And then the second one, the two loaves of bread are also referred to as the Feast of First Fruits, Feast of Weeks, sometimes the Feast of Pentecost.
But I want to think for a moment of this Feast of First Fruits, the sheaf of barley. Just a sheaf of barley. I made a statement out west that some of the young people today would hardly know what a sheaf is.
You sit in the combine, as I have sat with one brother in his combine, going across the field. There is no cutting of a sheaf or no binding of a sheaf today, but here there is a sheaf. Gonna notice that sheaf for a few moments.
Notice that it says here in verse 10, "'When ye be come into the land.'". And so by the time that this sheaf of barley is going to be cut, the wilderness journey for Israel has ended. They have crossed the Jordan.
They have commenced to take possession of the land. They have perhaps planted some crops and now the time has come for them to begin to harvest the crops that they have planted. And God is making it very clear that the first of that barley harvest was to be cut as a sheaf, bound together, and then there was a certain thing that was to take place with that sheaf, that we're gonna notice in just a moment.
And so the barley harvest then was a feast of first fruits. They were going to cut a sheaf of barley. There are two pictures of death immediately in Leviticus chapter 23. There's the Passover lamb and the shedding of blood and the application of the blood.
And then we come to the cutting of the sheaf of first fruits. The cutting of the sheaf is a picture of death. And I think that you should keep that in mind just for a few moments, that the sheaf is going to be cut.
It's gonna be cut from a field of barley. And the cutting of that sheaf is a picture of death. The Jewish people would have a little bit of a problem here because this sheaf of barley was to be weighed before the veil of the temple.
And we are given the day of the week. It's on the 16th day of the week. The sheaf of barley was to be weighed before the temple. It had to be cut. They couldn't cut it on the 14th day because the 14th day was the Passover.
And there was to be no work done on the Passover. And the cutting of the sheaf of barley was looked at as work. It could not be cut on the 14th. They could not cut the sheaf of barley on the 15th day because the 15th day was the commencement of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
They couldn't do any work on that day either. They had to have the sheaf of barley ready for the 16th day of the month. And so a delegation, and I'm making this suggestion to you, would go out into the barley fields to cut the sheaf prior to the 14th.
They would cut the sheaf, and then it's not going to be weighed until the 16th of the month. And so it would have to be laid up someplace in the temple so that the priest could put his hands on it to weigh it on the 16th of the month.
Now I'm suggesting then that it was laid up in the temple. And while the sheaf of barley was lying in the temple, the Lord of Glory was lying in a garden tomb. Now here's a sheaf of barley that's been cut.
It's lying in the temple. And while that sheaf of barley is lying there waiting for the 16th of the month, and they had to cut it prior to the Passover, the Lord Jesus had been taken down from the cross and was lying in a tomb that Joseph of Arimathea had cut out of the rock.
They had laid him there. They had removed his body from the cross. And if you are like the speaker, you no doubt have wondered, how did they remove that body? We're not told, and perhaps that's where we should leave it.
I have wondered how they would move the nails on his hands and feet. But we do believe that the poet was correct in penning the words gently. They took him down, unfixed his hands and feet, took from his head the holy crown, brought forth the winding sheet very carefully.
Two men had the solemn responsibility of removing the body from the cross and of bearing that precious body away to that tomb, taking their last look, exiting from the tomb, sealing the tomb with a rock.
Sometimes you always look at the numbers that attend a funeral as a mark of respect for the person who passed away, and that is no doubt true. But I think I have indicated in the reading that we have read, as far as I can gather, there are only four present at the internment of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Two men who laid him there, two women who stood a distance away watching. You'll notice that there was no eulogy here, not even a prayer, as far as is recorded. No scripture read, silently and with dignity, they laid the Lord Jesus in that tomb and then went their way.
The moment came, Passover's past, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread has commenced. And now the moment has come that a little sheaf of barley, it's a tremendously significant thing, the truth that God attaches to what seems to be so simple, just a sheaf of barley.
The moment has come when that sheaf of barley is going to be weighed before the veil of the temple. I would expect that the one who would weigh it would be a man by the name of Caiaphas. If you have understood much about the character of this man, he would want to have the prominent place, want to be first.
He would want to have the applause of the people. And so on other occasions, with some great sense of pride in his own heart, and some pomp and perhaps ceremony as well, he would make his way to the temple.
But this time, it's going to be different. For he has stood on an earth where the rocks have been grinding beneath his feet. He has experienced an earthquake, not just a local earthquake, but the earth shook.
He has experienced the hours of darkness when the light of the sun was turned off and the darkness settled upon the scene. There is something about what is referred to as natural phenomena that put fear into the hearts of men and women.
And this man has experienced that fear. And now the moment has come when he's going to make his way to the temple, not like other times. Altogether, likely that he would do this very quickly this time, because something else has happened.
Mysterious thing, no doubt to him, that the veil of that temple has been rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And to him, that would be a very strange thing. I understand that the thickness of that veil would have made it almost impossible for men to do that, to tear it as it was torn.
And he's going to stand for a moment before that veil. Strange things have happened. But I would gather that this man would make his way very quickly. And we are told on the morrow after the Sabbath. I think that expression is found twice in Leviticus chapter 23.
When I was teaching history, I had in one of my history classes, the daughter of a Jewish rabbi. I would like to have known then what I know now. I knew the rabbi, Rabbi Lerner. I would like to have met the rabbi back then with Leviticus chapter 23 open.
And I would like to have taken the rabbi's finger and put it on the morrow after the Sabbath from Leviticus chapter 23. And I think I would be very demanding of the rabbi because I would demand that he would tell me very clearly what day the morrow after the Sabbath was.
Of course, the first day of the week. We know later that the disciples came together to break bread on the first day of the week. I don't know what the rabbi would say, how he would stumble his way through that.
But the first day of the week, not the Sabbath. And so here the priest would come to the temple and wave this veil before the veil of the temple. And the type I think is abundantly clear. That the waving of that little sheaf of barley that had been cut, that would remind us of death, would remind us of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ here in Leviticus chapter 23.
I don't know what's going to be touched in the Bible reading Sunday morning, but you should be here. There's no subject that should touch our souls more than the calvary, than the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, but his resurrection out from amongst the dead.
We are reminded in the book of Acts chapter three and the 13th verse of that chapter that God raised him from the dead. We are reminded as well by the Lord Jesus himself that he would raise himself. And then we are reminded by the words of Peter in 1 Peter chapter three and verse 18, that he was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit.
And so all of the Godhead was moving in mighty power in the resurrection of Christ. Thank God. There is a savior who showed himself alive by many indisputable proofs. That's really the little sheaf of barley, which will remind us of the resurrection of Christ.
To move down 1 Corinthians 15, not touching the verses that will be in the Bible reading tomorrow morning, but to move down the chapter, and perhaps one verse, verse four of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, if Christ be not risen from the dead, our preaching is vain.
It's empty. There's nothing. Then coming further down the chapter to verse 15, we are false witnesses of Christ. We're telling a lie. If Christ be not risen from the dead. Then you come down the chapter further to verse 17, you're yet in your sins.
None of us would know our sins forgiven if Christ is not risen. And then down the chapter further to verse 18, those who have fallen asleep have perished. No hope. Christ be not risen from the dead. Just a short time ago, on a cold January afternoon, we stood in a cold cemetery.
For some reason, cemeteries seem to be one of the coldest places in the wintertime. I didn't take very long to speak because it was so cold. And I said to the little family that had gathered around that open grave, brother that we were burying, I knew very well, knew the family, and I told them to take a look around the cemetery where we were standing.
I don't know how many graves were in that cemetery, perhaps quite a few hundred. Many of those graves represented a little family who had gathered there with no hope. They were saying their goodbye. There's no hope.
But perhaps there were other graves in that cemetery like the grave that we were about to lay away, the body of a loved one. That was not to say goodbye now. We were saying goodnight only for a short time.
I had hoped, and I hope that every person here loves their mother. I had hoped that I would be with my mother for her last few moments upon this earth. I just had a serious heart operation. I wasn't able to be with her.
I wanted to put my hand upon her brow. I wanted to whisper in her ear my thanks for all she had done for me. Maybe pray with her. Maybe read a verse of scripture with her as she's nearing the end of her life.
I wasn't able to do that. But standing at that open grave, I was gonna try to give a word, but I couldn't. I wasn't able to. And our departed brother Paul Kimber spoke at the grave. But as I looked at that open grave, I thought to myself only for a little time, just for a season, and there will come a moment when the Lord will come and she'll be raised from that grave and to be reunited with him when he comes.
Why did I say that? Because that's in Leviticus chapter 23. Just think for a moment of that sheaf of barley. I have read in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Christ the first fruits. Afterward, they that are Christ at his coming.
And so they would cut that little sheaf of barley as the first of the harvest from that barley field. Then that would be waved, as we have said, before the veil of the temple, a little illustration, a picture, a type in the Old Testament.
Of the resurrection of Christ. But the rest of the barley field is still in the field. The harvest has not yet been gathered in. And so they will go out later and gather in the rest of the barley harvest.
That's what 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is saying. That's what we have in Leviticus chapter 23. Christ the first fruits, the first of the barley harvest. Afterward, they that are Christ at his coming. Lord is going to come.
Descend from heaven with a shout. The voice of the archangel and the trump of God. And then the harvest will be gathered in. That's all pictured in that field of barley. The harvest is going to be gathered in.
The dead in Christ are going to rise first. And then we, which are alive and remain, are going to be caught up together to be with him in the air. What a moment that that's going to be. Let me just leave you with a couple more thoughts in Leviticus chapter 23.
Come back to the chapter again. And you will notice that they could eat no bread, no parched or roast corn, or no green ears of corn until after the sheaf of barley has been harvested. Could I just make a suggestion or an application of that?
That God gets the first. The first was for God. The resurrection of Christ was that which brought delight to the heart of God. And then afterward, there will be those of us who are going to be raised or caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.
But you'll notice one other thing in closing. If you read through Leviticus chapter 23, with many of the feasts, you'll find that there's a sin offering. When you come to the sheaf of first fruits, the barley sheaf, there is no sin offering.
You just read it again. I read it, but you read it again. There's no sin offering there. This Bible is a beautiful book. Everything is in exact perfect order. There could be no sin offering when the type is the resurrection of Christ.
That has all been dealt with before his resurrection. That has been dealt with at the cross, when the Lord suffered in those hours of darkness, not which human tongue cannot express. When he experienced the wrath of God in those hours solemnly at Calvary.
When it is recorded, David records the words, and then later, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And as the Lord gives the answer in the words of David, thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
And so the work had been completed. The Savior cried, finished. And so when you come to the resurrection, in Leviticus chapter 23, the sheaf of barley, there is no sin offering because that work has been fully completed.
Thank God today that we have a Savior who lives in heaven, who is exalted in the very presence of God, crowned with glory and honor. And I stood beside my mother's grave with a little rejoicing, even at that time, that there's going to come a moment when that body that we are laying away in that grave is going to be raised again.
That's the field of barley that yet will be harvested.