Should Christians Celebrate Jewish Feasts?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Colossians 2:16-17, Romans 14:5-6, Galatians 3

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--should-christians-celebrate-jewish-feasts
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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first of all I would say this whole subject to me comes on Under the Umbrella of Christian Liberty I did a recent podcast about Christian Liberty basically to say as Christians we're free from sin of course but we're free to make our own choices in non-moral matters and uh we're particularly free from the law of Moses so God still has uh requirements for us to obey or guidelines for us to follow moral teachings that are incumbent upon us the New Testament has plenty of practical instructions for Christian life so it's not that we're without guidance or without law you might say but we're not under the law of Moses So my answer would be as first of all as Christians we have Liberty if we want to celebrate certain feasts or holidays we can um as long we not indulging in sin or promoting things such as idolatry um or if we don't want to celebrate we can that's perfectly fine um I do think U the Bible gives us this Con concept of a weekly day of rest and special times of the year that we celebrate with family and friends I mean I think that's a principle of good stewardship of our physical emotional and spiritual health that we would set aside certain days of the year for vacation for holidays and for special celebrations but more specifically what about the Feast of the Old Testament and So my answer there would be those feasts were specifically given to the nation of Israel so for example the Passover was very specifically to commemorate Israel's deliverance from Egypt uh so by there and then other uh special festivals were associated with the Harvest um the the agricultural year of ancient Israel so they were given to ancient Israel they were not given to the church they were specific to that culture and that environment they don't necessarily apply don't have the same significance uh to every one else but also not only were they given specifically for Israel but they were given as types and shadows of spiritual truth so for the examp for example the Bible is very specific the Passover where the lamb was sacrificed uh so that Israel would be delivered from Egypt the New Testament says the Passover is a type of Jesus Christ he is our Passover Lamb that was slain for us and of course he was sacrificed once for all so the reason why we don't celebrate Passover is twofold first it was given to Israel under the law of Moses not to us and had significance for the history of Israel not for us but second to the extent it does have an enduring significance it is a type or a shadow that points to Jesus Christ now that we have the reality Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb we don't have to go through the ceremony and you see this explicitly stated in Colossians chapter 2 if you read in verse 16 I'm reading from the new King James and verse 17 Colossians 2:16 so let no one judge you in food or in drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths which are a shadow of things to come but the substance is of Christ so the implication here is if you want to celebrate these things it's okay it's it's part of your culture so if you're raised as a Jew that's fine now think about it this term in the life of Jesus he was still under the old Covenant the law of Moses so as a an observant Jew both as culture and law he would have followed it in the book of Acts you find the early church started among Jews so just as a matter of their own culture they would continue to celebrate these feasts there's nothing wrong with them so the Bible doesn't forbid them it doesn't say they're bad if you're a Jewish person and you want to celebrate your heritage that's fine now if you're a gentile um you could celebrate but I would be careful that you're not putting yourself under the law of Moses and you're not missing the important teachings of the New Testament but so this this passage doesn't for forbid the vessels is saying don't let anybody judge you so probably in the early church here like colos colassi they were mostly Gentiles so probably a lot of them weren't celebrating and there might have been some Jewish people there are Jews coming from Jewish Christians from Jerusalem say hey why aren't you guys celebrating the Passover why aren't you celebrating these other festivals and their answer be well we're not Jewish you know we're not the law of Moses never given to us and so Paul is addressing this don't let anyone judge you some if someone is criticizing you why aren't you celebrating this festival or this new moon that's a monthly uh sacrifice or sabbaths that's the weekly Jewish sabbath he says they're just a shadow so think of it this way let's say you're standing next to a building somebody's coming around the corner you can't see them but their Shadow was cast before you so you can say hey someone's coming around and you look at the shadow you might be able to tell from their dress if they're man or woman you might tell if there's an adult or a child but you don't know a whole lot for sure well when the person comes around the corner you see them directly you don't keep looking at the shadow to see if this this a boy or girl or man or woman you look at the person so he's saying those festivals had a purpose to point towards Christ but now that you have the reality now that you have Jesus you don't have to keep uh going through the motions of the ceremonies you have Jesus you have the reality you have the Sabbath rest of the Holy Spirit you have Jesus as our Passover Lamb and so on now in that regard let me also point out the similar statement in the Book of Romans uh Romans chapter 14 so so here's another witness here uh let me see if I can pull up the passage but in Romans 14 the the Apostle Paul is dealing with a similar thing it's a question of Christian Liberty verse five uh and verse six one person esteems one day above another another esteems every day alike Let each be fully convinced in his own mind he who observes the day observes it to the Lord and who he who does not observe the day to the Lord he does not observe it so if you want to do it fine as long as you do it as a Christian serving the lord honoring Jesus as Lord if you don't celebrate don't let anybody judge you in that regard um you're not celebrating it so that's fine uh I also might want to point out that in Galatians 3 uh it says the law was a school Master a tutor to bring us to Christ but now that we have Christ we're no longer under the law so that would be my brief answer is why we do not celebrate the festivals of the Old Testament