Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (1) - 8

Message Title: Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit Flowing out of the Believers as Rivers of Living Water

God appointed seven feasts every year for the Israel people, because God wanted His people to enjoy these feasts with God, unto God, and also with one another. it is not a small thing, or an insignificant thing for God's people to come together in a feasting way. 

the last feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, signifying the end of human life, though may full of accomplishments and successes, yet still filled with thirstiness and dissatisfaction. 

I. We can enjoy Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles

the reality of all the feasts ordained by God is Christ. the Feast of Tabernacles signifies Christ as the consummation of God's full salvation organically. God ordained the Feast of Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their forefathers had lived in tents in their wandering in the wilderness. 

Deuteronomy 32:7 Remember the days of long ago; / Consider the years of generation upon generation; / Ask your father, and he will inform you; / Your elders, and they will tell you.

We, as God's people, have a history. The Triune God has a long history with His people, especially in the recovery. God wants us to remember so that we will be reminded, charged and encouraged to go on, like what Moses did in the book of Deutoronomy. we need some healthy rememberance. we need to remember where we come from, what God has given us, has done for us and taught us. 

the reality of the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of enjoyment in remembrance of how we experienced God and of how God lived with us. during that time, the Israel people would remember how God led them for 40 years wandering in the wilderness, how God gave them manna morning by morning, and even how God punished and dealt with the rebellion among the people. 

Hebrews 11:9 By faith he dwelt as a foreigner in the land of promise as in a foreign land, making his home in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the fellow heirs of the same promise;

Hebrews 11:10 For he eagerly waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.

The New Jerusalem being called the tabernacle of God is for the overcomers in the first stage of the New Jerusalam to remember how they also dwlet in tents, living on the earth as strangers and sojourners and looking forward to the eternal tabernacle, the God-built city, the mutual habitation of God and man. if we would walk in the steps of Abraham's faith, we must live the life of the altar and the tent, taking Christ as our life and the church as our living. the altar and the tent cannot be separated. the altar is our life toward God, and the tent is our life on the earth in the world. in order to live the life of the altar, we must live under God's appearing. the altar signifies the cross where Christ died for us, and also signifies our consecration, with Christ as our full burnt offerings. here at the altar, we are one with Him, are identified with Him, and are consecrating ourselves to Him. the life of the altar issues the life of the tent. we must have the experience of the altar, which is our consecration, then we will be able to live a life of the tent. consecration is not our dedication. the word "consecration" in Hebrews means "the hands be filled with". therefore, consecration means that we need to let Christ fill us, fill our hands. 

Genesis 13:3 And he continued on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,

Genesis 13:4 To the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah.

Abraham had his failures, and there was the forsaking of the altar and the tent. However, with him there was also a recovery, and recovery is a matter of returning to the altar and the tent with calling on the name of the Lord. for us today also, we will have many failures, and often we drift away from the altar and the tent to enter further into the world. but the Lord never forsakes and gives us up. like Abraham, we will also have the recovery, when we return to the altar and the tent with our calling, our enjoying the Lord. 

II. Through and in His resurrection, Christ as the last Adam becaome the life-giving Spirit to impart life and to enter into His believers to flow out as rivers of living water

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

John 7:38 He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:39 But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed into Him were about to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

it is only by this Spirit that He can dwell in us, and it is only by this Spirit that we can enter into Him. He became this Spirit, which can be received. the life-giving Spirit is the consummated Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.