Welcome to the Feast of Trumpets with the Great Lakes Church of God. Some who claim to believe in Christ say that God has a plan. Most do not seem to know what that plan is. There is a plan being worked out here below. It is a plan for humans, made of the dust of the earth, to become part of God’s family! God’s festivals show us the major events in God’s plan.
Let’s turn in our Bibles to Leviticus 23. It is the Festivals Chapter. In this chapter all of the festivals are listed. We will read the verses that concern the Feast of Trumpets, which we are observing today. Read Leviticus 23:23-25.
This is the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. It is the sacred calendar that God gave the Israelites. In the calendar we use today in our world, the Feast of Trumpets occurs in September.
TRUMPETS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
It talks about a memorial of the blowing of the trumpets. Another translation is shouting for joy with trumpets. It is a joyful day, especially when we learn all about it. We are not to do any of our customary work on this day. Later on we will see that we are to have a convocation. We can see that in Numbers chapter 29. Read Numbers 29:1. It is a holy convocation. It is a Church service like we are having today. That is what we are supposed to do on this day, and we are not to be working.
Let’s see how the Feast of Trumpets pictures the return of Jesus Christ and the first resurrection. We need to understand what this day means.
While we are in the Book of Numbers, go back to Numbers chapter 10. Numbers chapter 10 talks about the use of trumpets in the Old Testament of the Bible. Read Numbers 10:1-10. There are a lot of different uses of trumpets.
There is a Jewish tradition that on the Feast of Trumpets instead of the silver trumpets, the priest would blow what is called a shofar. A shofar is a trumpet that is made of the horn of a ram (a male sheep). It makes an unusual sound. It is a different sound than the silver trumpets that the priest blew in Numbers chapter 10.
Turn to Exodus 19. There was a sound like this shofar, like this ram’s horn. It is a type of trumpet. There was a sound that the people heard while they were at Mount Sinai. The trumpet used here was a shofar. Exodus 19:16-19. The voice of God was like a trumpet, like the shofar. At the time this happened, it was when Israel was making their covenant with God. In Exodus 19, go back to verse 5. Read Exodus 19:5-8. This was a covenant (an agreement) between God and the people. God would make them a special nation (a holy nation). In other places He promised He would prosper them and protect them. There were certain words (the Ten Commandments) that the people said yes to. All that the Lord has spoken, we will do. They agreed to that. It is like the covenant that we make at baptism. Our sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. We have made that covenant. We say yes, we will obey God’s law. In turn we will receive a wonderful reward.
After the Ten Commandments were given in Exodus 20, in verse 18 it says: “Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.” There was the sound of a trumpet on that day.
TRUMPETS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament we read of a trumpet, too. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. Read verse 30. It is talking about the return of Jesus Christ. Read verse 31. On that seventh trumpet the elect (those chosen by God and begotten, the firstfruits) will be gathered together. It says from one end of heaven to the other. If it talks about four winds and one end of heaven to the other, it is not talking about the heaven where God lives. It is talking about the heaven being the sky. It is the sky where the wind is. Remember the people will have been taken up into the air at that last trumpet. We will read that later. God will gather them together, and it will be a wonderful time. It is a time we really look forward to.
Let’s go to Revelation 11 where it is again talking about that last trumpet. Here it is talking about the seventh trumpet. Read Revelation 11:15. At that seventh trumpet Christ will take over the kingdoms of the world forever.
Revelation 11, verse 16: “And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: ‘We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was and who is to come, because You have taken Your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, and the time of the dead [or other translations say, the time of the nations], that they should be judged, and that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear Your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.’”
At this seventh trumpet Christ will take the kingdoms of the world. He will become King of kings, and His servants will be rewarded. It is a wonderful time to look forward to.
THE FIRST RESURRECTION
As we talk about Christ taking the kingdom and rewarding His firstfruits, there are a number of scriptures we can read on this subject. We already read Matthew 24. We said He would gather the elect. But let’s turn to I Corinthians 15. We like to call this chapter the Resurrection Chapter. You will see why in a moment.
Read I Corinthians 15:12. The resurrection of the dead is the context. That is the subject of this chapter: the resurrection of the dead.
Read verses 22-23 of I Corinthians 15. It talks about an order to the resurrections. It will not happen all at once. Of course, Christ was the first one, but after that, those who are Christ’s. Who are Christ’s? It is those people who have God’s Holy Spirit. Remember it says in Romans that if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you are none of His, you are not Christ’s. So those who have Christ’s Holy Spirit are Christ’s. They belong to Him, and those are the ones who will be raised or made alive at Christ’s return.
It says in I Corinthians 15 what it will be like when we are resurrected. Someone once asked me if a person’s body was destroyed in some way after he died, what body would he have? The answer is right here. Read I Corinthians 15:35-44. That is what will happen!
We will be given spirit bodies. It does not matter what happened to our body after we died. God will give us a new body, and it will be made of spirit. It will be a body that will never die, never be sick and never be tired! Won’t that be wonderful!
Read I Corinthians 15:50. Those who say they are already in the kingdom, if they are made of flesh, they cannot be right. They could not have inherited the kingdom yet.
Read I Corinthians 15:51-52. We will be changed at that last trumpet. That is when we will receive our reward.
Continue reading in verses 53-54. Death will be conquered. We will be able to live forever in these new bodies that we will have been given, all of this happening at the last trumpet.
Turn to I Thessalonians chapter 4 for another scripture we like to read on the Feast of Trumpets. Read I Thessalonians 4:13. Where it says, “fallen asleep,” that means people who have died. Continue reading verses 14-17. We will rise at that last trumpet, the trumpet of God when Christ returns. We will be with Christ forever. Christ will descend to this earth to rule here for a thousand years. We will be with Him! We see that in Revelation chapter 20. We are going to start out on the earth. We will not be in heaven.
Read Revelation 20:4. It talks about people being beheaded for their witness to Jesus. That will include some people who had to give their lives. There will be people who were martyred over the centuries. It also includes all of us who have given up our lives to Christ. After all, when we were baptized, we agreed that Christ could have our life. God could have our lives to do with as He pleased. We gave them up. And it says, “And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
Read Revelation 20:5. It is talking about a first resurrection. That means there must be more than one. Those who are raised when Christ returns at that last trumpet will be in the first resurrection.
Continue reading in Revelation 20:6. Those in the first resurrection will be able to reign during that one thousand year Millennium. Elsewhere this is called a better resurrection. It is better because we will be given this reward, and we will be able to rule as kings and priests during the Millennium. We will be able to help others achieve the potential that we had to become part of God’s family.
While we are in Revelation, let’s turn back to Revelation chapter 3. It is the message for the Laodicean Church. This is for the time that we are in right now. This is Jesus Christ speaking. Revelation 3:20-21. Jesus Christ is at the door of the Church, the spiritual temple, asking us to take the spiritual food that He has for us. When we take the spiritual food that He has, we grow and overcome. Then we will be able to sit with Him on His throne.
OUR REWARD
Turn to Isaiah chapter 40 where it talks about our reward. Read Isaiah 40:10. Christ will come with a reward for all of us who have grown and overcome and who became His firstfruits.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 62. Read verse 11. It says it again. Christ will come with His reward. He will reward His saints. He rewards us according to our works.
In II Timothy chapter 4 we read what the apostle Paul wrote shortly before he died. Paul knew he was going to die. He knew he would be martyred soon. He wrote a letter to Timothy, the young evangelist. Read II Timothy 4:6-8. At the end of Paul’s life he knew that he had overcome. He knew he had made it to the end, and that there was a crown waiting for him. After all, we are to be kings and priests, ruling in the Millennium. He knew he would have a crown at that point.
In I Peter 5 the apostle Peter writes about this as well. Read I Peter 5:4. It is talking about the Chief Shepherd. Of course, that is Jesus Christ. Elsewhere He calls Himself the Good Shepherd. When Christ appears, we will receive that crown of glory. It will be a permanent crown that will never fade away.
We think about our reward and our wonderful potential that we have to be part of God’s family. In Philippians 3 we read about this. It is talking about Jesus Christ’s coming. Read Philippians 3:20-21. Our bodies are lowly, they are physical. They are weak. We know that when we fast. Yet, we will be changed into a glorious body like Jesus Christ. Remember His face glows like the sun right now. We have read that in other places. We will not turn there right now. That is the kind of body we are going to have.
Read I John 3:2. When Christ appears, we will be like Him. We will look very much like Him with our powerful and beautiful spirit bodies. At that point we will receive our reward. We will start out, of course, ruling on the earth for a thousand years, but Hebrews chapter 2 tells us there is even more.
Read Hebrews 2:5. It is talking about the world to come. It is the future world. We are in Satan’s evil world right now, but we are talking about the world to come. It is the world where Christ will be ruling.
Read Hebrews 2:6-8. Up to this point, the apostle Paul in Hebrews was quoting from Psalm chapter 8. When David wrote the Book of Psalms, he continued showing that God put in subjection to man the earth and everything that is in it. When Paul was quoting this in the second half of verse 8, he left off quoting the Psalms and he changed the subject. Let’s read this in Hebrews 2:8: “For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him.”
It talks about all things. He means all things under subjection. He means the universe! All that was to be under Christ and under man, but not yet. That is to be in the world to come.
Read Hebrews 2:9. Christ does have glory. We will, too.
Continue reading in verse 10. His sons (us), we are to have glory as well!
Read Hebrews 2:11. Brethren means brothers. A brother is the same type of thing as another brother. We are brothers of Christ, so we are like Christ. Christ is a member of the God family. Therefore, if we are Christ’s brothers, we will be members of the God family as well. We are just not changed yet.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 3. Read verses 14-15. God is a family. Some in heaven (the Father and Jesus Christ) have that name, and some on earth. Christ’s brothers (us), we have that name as well.
Read Ephesians 3:19. If we are filled with all the fullness of God, then we are God. We are to be part of God’s family. Now we are called sons and heirs.
If we go to Revelation 21, we can see toward the end of the Bible how God says this. He talks about our future. Read Revelation 21:7. If we overcome, we inherit all things. That includes the universe! That is what our potential is. We are to be sons of God. It says he shall be My son. We will be sons of God.
It is a great future we have. We are growing, we are overcoming and trying to be ready for that day when the Feast of Trumpets becomes a reality. Christ returns at that last trumpet, and He will change the firstfruits. We look forward to that day. We work hard to get there. Today on the Feast of Trumpets, we look forward to that. We think about it, and we rejoice!