How did Jesus fulfill the meanings of the Jewish feasts?

The Passover was the first of the feasts, and speaks of the sacrificial death of Christ (1 Cor.5:7). This is the basis of all God’s dealings with man. The feast of Unleavened Bread, which immediately followed the Passover, speaks of the moral lives that should be led by all who come under the Lordship of Christ as a result of Christ’s death (1 Cor.5:8). The feast of First Fruits speaks of the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor.15:20). This was followed fifty days later by the feast of Pentecost which found it’s fulfilment in the descent of the Holy Spirit to form the Church as detailed in Acts 2.

These feasts had a prophetic intention beyond their annual instruction, and this intention has been realized. Of the first two Scripture says, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast. … with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." (1 Cor. 5:7-8.) All through time the true, spiritual feast which is attached to the commemoration of Christ's Paschal sacrifice, is holiness the joy of holiness to the Lord. The prophetic significance of the waving of the barley sheaf on the day following the Passover — that is, the fifteenth day — and also of the waving of the two loaves fifty days afterward, has received its fulfilment Christ kept the Passover sabbath in the grave. On the morn of the new week, He, the Firstfruits out of death, arose, and fifty days afterward — that is, at Pentecost — the Holy Ghost came down from heaven, and the firstfruits of the harvest of Jew and Gentile were presented to God. The stamp upon the calendar, made when Israel was in Horeb, is now discerned in the history of the death and resurrection of Christ, and in the descent of the Holy Ghost to earth. The dates of that calendar are written indelibly in the heart of His Church, and are recounted continually in every section of Christendom.

Under the law, the Israelites were commanded to observe seven feasts in the first seven months of the sacred year (Lev. 23). Each of these was typical of succeeding events in the national history. The feast of the passover has a reference to the sacrifice of Christ as 1 Cor. 5 conclusively proves. This was immediately followed by that of unleavened bread, typifying the holy state which is the sure result of the shed blood of God's Lamb, true to faith now and universally in a future day. The sheaf of firstfruits undoubtedly points to the resurrection of Christ on the third day; even as the feast of wave loaves, baken with leaven, shadowed forth the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was outpoured from on high and the church was formed. This feast was in Sivan or the third month, and the fifth feast was not arranged till the seventh month. After this considerable interval the feast of trumpets came at the new moon, with its prophetic reference to that still future and effective summons God shall make to His ancient people. This was quickly succeeded by the day of atonement, in which they were to afflict their souls. It will be duly fulfilled when Israel is restored and shares the results of Christ's death for them. Then shall ensue the millennial joy of which the final feast, that of tabernacles, was the appointed type.

Now look at the Wave Loaves: "And ye shall count to you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even to the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering to the Lord" (Lev. 23:15-16). There we reach the day of Pentecost, which is the fiftieth day after the waving of the sheaf of first-fruits. Then we read. "Ye shall bring out of your habitation two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the first-fruits to the Lord" (ver. 17). Here we have in type the day of Pentecost, and what originated then. There was a new meat offering of two wave loaves baken with leaven. In Acts 2 we have the antitype — God's people gathered together by the Holy Ghost, and presented before Him in connection with all the preciousness of Christ in life, death, and resurrection. The passover is His death; the wave sheaf His resurrection; the two wave loaves baken on the fiftieth day — the Holy Ghost forming the Church of God.

Here is another feature to be noticed. The passover was followed immediately by the feast of unleavened bread. Not a single day was allowed to intervene. For as an ordinary rule, there was a space between these different feasts; but here is a plain exception to the rule. Let me ask who could, save by God's power, have appreciated the force of this beforehand? Now that it is revealed, we may follow. Like Moses from the cleft of the rock, one can see Him as He passes before us; but who can go before Him? The passover was followed immediately by the feast of unleavened bread. There was not the lapse of a day between them — one being on the fourteenth, the other on the fifteenth, of the same month. As the feast of unleavened bread in the New Testament is treated as beginning with the killing of the paschal lamb, the immediate response of the Christian to Christ's blood is to walk in holiness. Henceforth God will not have him to claim a single day to himself. At once he is called by the grace of God to own his responsibility to put away all leaven. We know from 1 Cor. 5:7 that leaven is symbolic of corruption. "For also Christ, our passover, was sacrificed for us; wherefore let us keep the feast." What feast? That of unleavened bread.

246 So as to the great feasts. You have got the Passover fulfilled. "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us"; and the feast of Pentecost has its fulfilment in the descent of the Holy Ghost; but the feast of Tabernacles is not fulfilled at all: you have no antitype yet whatever.

There were three great feasts of the Jews: every male who was a grown up man had to go to Jerusalem to celebrate them; these were, the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The antitype of the Passover is found in the cross; that of Pentecost, in the descent of the Holy Ghost; but the antitype of the Feast of Tabernacles is still wanting: no event answers to it. Nevertheless, the ordinances established for this feast throw light upon that which should be its antitype. The Feast of Tabernacles derives its name from the fact, that the Israelites, once entered into the land of Canaan, ought, according to the law, to live during eight days in huts, made of branches of trees, bearing witness thus that they had been pilgrims in the desert, but that God, in His faithfulness, had brought them into the promised land. Moreover, this feast was celebrated after the harvest, and after the vintage, two events employed everywhere in Scripture as figures of the judgment: the harvest, of the judgment, which separates the good and the bad upon earth; the vintage, of the extent of vengeance on enemies, when Christ shall tread the wine-press. The fulfilment of this feast will take place when Israel shall no longer be dispersed, but shall enjoy the effect of the promises which God has made to them, after the judgment which will separate the tares from the good grain, and after that vengeance has been executed, the wine-press of God trodden, according to Isaiah 63, by the Lord Himself.

The calendar begins with the celebration of the passover and the accompanying feast of unleavened bread. Of the need of the blood of God's Lamb for sinners we are thus reminded at the outset, and that those who share in the blessings which result from it, should be holy in their ways. Next we are taught of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, the morrow after the Sabbath, and of His acceptance before God, who lives to Him in resurrection. Following on that, and closely connected, we see in type Christians brought to God, and to be for God, giving Him the freewill offering, according as the Lord their God has blessed them, the worship of the heart in the power of the Holy Ghost, who was poured out on the feast of Pentecost. Thus these feasts are seen to be typical of God's ways in grace with His people, and as such have received their fulfilment, though the fulfilment is by no means exhausted. The rest of the festivals in the chapter typify blessings to be known by Israel, and enjoyed in the future.

The sabbath, being a weekly feast, kept constantly before Israel the thought of God's rest, into which He would certainly bring His people in His own good time. To secure the purpose of God the death of Christ was necessary, and this is brought before us in the passover. Those who are sheltered by the blood of the Lamb are called upon to keep the feast of unleavened bread, to walk in this world for the will of God, apart from every form of evil. But the Christ who died is risen again as is typified in the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits, and a new meat offering is offered to God, a new company of saints who have the nature of Christ, and who were indwelt by the Spirit of God at Pentecost. These annual feasts took place in the first six months of the Jewish year: the three feasts which follow were celebrated in the seventh month.

If you will go back to Leviticus 23 you will there find a beautiful and instructive type of what is before us in Acts 2. The seven Feasts of the Lord there given are the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Wave Sheaf, and the Two Wave Loaves, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The first four teach lessons every Christian should learn, and must enter into if he is to be intelligent. The last three relate only to future Jewish history — the Feast of Trumpets typifying Israel being waked up to seek the Lord, the Day of Atonement their individual repentance before God (see Zech. 12:10-14), and the Feast of Tabernacles their future national glory. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread go together, and are full of instruction for us. The first is the type of the death of Christ — the blood being put upon the lintel and the door-posts — that shelters the soul from the righteous judgment of God. The unleavened bread is the holy separate walk that should characterise those who are sheltered by the blood of Christ. The Wave Sheaf and the Two Wave Loaves go also together, one indicating Christ, and the other the Church.