Therefore, Let Us Keep the Feast: What It Means for Us Today (1 Corinthians 5:8)

First Corinthians 5:8 teaches Christians to keep the feast spiritually by living in sincerity and truth, not by returning to the Old Covenant feast calendar as a requirement. Paul writes in the ESV, “Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven… but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This follows his statement that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The biblical feasts in Leviticus 23 point to Christ, and this study explains how believers celebrate their fulfillment in Him.

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As a pastor, I have often been asked, “Do we celebrate the seven Old Testament feasts today?” The simple, quick answer is no, because Jesus fulfilled them for us. Orthodox Jews who don’t recognize Jesus as the Messiah keep celebrating the feasts because they don’t see Jesus as the fulfillment of them.

Let me briefly review the ways the feasts find their fulfillment in Christ. Jesus fulfilled the first four spring feasts in His first coming:

• Passover began the first month of the Hebrew calendar and looked forward to Jesus’s crucifixion on Passover as our Passover Lamb.
• The second feast, Unleavened Bread began the following day, and looked forward to Jesus’s burial when His sinless or unleavened body was in the grave.
• The third feast, Firstfruits, occurred on Sunday in the middle of Unleavened Bread and looked forward to Jesus’s resurrection. This is why Jesus is called the firstfruits of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.
• Firstfruits and Pentecost are connected by the count of seven full weeks, with Pentecost on the fiftieth day. Jesus appeared to His followers over forty days before His ascension (Acts 1:3–9); the disciples then waited for the Holy Spirit, who came at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4).
• The fourth feast, Pentecost, is also called the Feast of Weeks because of that seven-week count. It looked forward to the church’s birth when Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit.

We look forward to Jesus fulfilling the three fall feasts in His Second Coming:

• He will fulfill the Feast of Trumpets at the rapture when He meets the church in the air.
• He will fulfill The Day of Atonement during the tribulation when He pours out his wrath on a world that rejected him, which is why in Revelation 6:16 people cry out to be hidden from “the wrath of the Lamb.”
• He will fulfill the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths when He returns, establishes His millennial kingdom on earth, and dwells or Tabernacles among us.

But let me share something interesting with you. Consider these verses in Leviticus 23, the chapter describing the seven feasts:

Leviticus 23:14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: IT IS A STATUTE FOREVER THROUGHOUT YOUR GENERATIONS IN ALL YOUR DWELLINGS.

God told the Israelites to celebrate Firstfruits forever.

Leviticus 23:21 And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. IT IS A STATUTE FOREVER in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

God told the Israelites to celebrate the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost forever.

Leviticus 23:31 You shall not do any work. IT IS A STATUTE FOREVER throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

God told the Israelites to celebrate the Day of Atonement forever!

Leviticus 23:41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. IT IS A STATUTE FOREVER throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

God told the Israelites to celebrate the Feast of Booths forever. God is repetitive when He wants to ensure we don’t miss something, and He told the Israelites four times to celebrate the feasts forever. So, now, the statement that we don’t celebrate the feasts because Jesus fulfilled them doesn’t seem as convincing and brings up an obvious question: “If God wanted people to stop celebrating the feasts when Jesus fulfilled them, why would He command people to celebrate them FOREVER? Why didn’t He say to celebrate the feasts UNTIL the Messiah came?”

Let me answer this by showing you what the New Testament says, and it might surprise you:

1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul discussed Passover and then Unleavened Bread. Because they were celebrated together over eight days, sometimes they were viewed as one feast. And Paul says we should celebrate that feast!

So, what does this mean? Do we sacrifice a lamb? Then do we eat it roasted over a fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, ensuring we don’t let any of it remain until morning, and if any of it remains—perhaps because we have a smaller family—do we make sure to burn the leftovers as it says in Exodus 12? Do we eat it with a belt around our waist, sandals on our feet, and staff in our hand, also as Exodus 12 says? Then do we put its blood over our doorpost? Finally, do we eat unleavened bread for seven days and refrain from ordinary work on the first and seventh days, as Leviticus 23:6–8 commands?

Celebrating Spiritually Versus Physically

You can probably guess this is not what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to celebrate the feast, but not with anything physical, such as lambs, bread, and leaven. Instead, Paul discusses malice, evil, sincerity, and truth, which are spiritual.

If someone asked me if I celebrate the Old Testament feasts, it wouldn’t be as easy as, “Yes, I do,” or “No, I don’t,” because it depends on what they mean by their question. If they mean, “Do you celebrate the feast physically by sacrificing a lamb and removing all the leaven from your house?” Then, the answer is no. But if they mean, “Do you celebrate the feasts spiritually?” Then, the answer is yes.

But this also raises a question: How do we celebrate the feasts spiritually? What does that mean?

Keep the Feast of Passover By Believing Jesus Is the Lamb of God

The primary purpose of the Law, including the seven feasts, is to bring us to Christ:

Galatians 3:24 The law was our guardian (or some translations say tutor) until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

Because the law is supposed to bring us to Christ, the most important part of the feasts is seeing Christ through them. If people know the feasts inside and out, down to the smallest detail, but don’t see Christ through them, their knowledge is meaningless. Think of what Jesus told the religious leaders:

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they (the Scriptures) that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 

The religious leaders knew the seven feasts. They celebrated them their entire lives. But because they didn’t see Jesus in them, they forfeited eternal life.

Acts 4:12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

You can’t find salvation elsewhere if you don’t come to Christ. This reveals how we celebrate the Feast of Passover in the true and greater way: We believe Jesus, the Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for our sins. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said:

John 1:29 Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

He referred to Jesus as the Passover Lamb.

Keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread By Removing Sin

To know how to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we must understand the context of these verses in 1 Corinthians 5. There was a man in the Corinthian church engaging in well-known sexual sin. The Corinthian believers should have removed him, or we would say performed church discipline, but:

1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

They were boasting about how tolerant and open-minded they were. They were like liberal churches today that embrace homosexuality or transgenderism and brag about how tolerant and loving they are. This was the exact opposite response they should have had. They should have been brokenhearted and contrite.

Leaven is a picture or type of sin two sermons ago. Paul means that if they let this man’s sin remain in the church, it will be like leaven and spread through the church like leaven spreads through bread dough. So, Paul says they must:

1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

This looks back to the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the Israelites removed all the leaven from their homes:

Exodus 12:15 On the first day [of the feast of unleavened bread] remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened…that person shall be cut off from Israel.

They had to get rid of their leaven or be killed. So, Paul tells the Corinthians to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the true and greater way, not by removing physical leaven from their homes, but by removing the unrepentant sinner from the church!

If someone ever asked me if our church celebrates the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I would say, “Yes, we strive to be a holy church, and while it is one of the most painful things we must do, we practice church discipline and remove unrepentant sinners.”

Removing Sin Corporately and Personally

Paul isn’t just talking corporately about the church removing sin. He’s also talking about us privately removing sin from our lives. Notice the repeated use of the word “you”:

1 Corinthians 5:7a Cleanse out the old leaven that YOU may be a new lump, as YOU really are unleavened.

We don’t just celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread corporately as a church. We also celebrate it personally by removing sin from our lives.

Must Be Passover Followed By the Feast of Unleavened Bread

1 Corinthians 5:7b For (or because) Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

We’re told to remove leaven – or sin – For – or because Christ, our Passover Lamb, died for us. This doesn’t seem to make sense. We read this and say, “What does Christ dying as our Passover Lamb have to do with removing sin?” The connection is Christ didn’t die to give us freedom to sin. He died to free us from sin.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

There’s false thinking in some Christian circles that the grace of the gospel means liberty to sin. It’s the opposite. The grace of the gospel gives us the liberty NOT to sin. We don’t pursue a holy or unleavened life to BE saved. As Paul wrote, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has [already] been sacrificed [for us].” We pursue a holy or unleavened life because WE ARE saved.

Why is there no space between the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Why did the Feast of Unleavened Bread begin immediately after Passover? Because there’s no space between celebrating Christ as our Passover Lamb, or becoming Christians, and removing sin from our lives. There’s no space between our conversions and pursuits of holy lives.

But notice the order: It’s Passover followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread versus the Feast of Unleavened Bread followe by Passover. What does that mean? It means we don’t start removing sin from our lives, or celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and then come to Christ, or then celebrate Passover. We don’t clean up our lives and then turn to Christ to be saved. Instead, we celebrate Passover, or turn to Christ to be saved, and then celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, or then let Christ help us clean up our lives.

Keep the Feast of Firstfruits By Believing in the Resurrection

Firstfruits always looked forward to a greater harvest to follow. The Israelites gave their firstfruits of the harvest to God, believing He would provide a later, greater harvest for them. It took faith to do this because there was no guarantee of a greater harvest later.

Christ is the firstfruits because he’s the first of the resurrection and looks forward to a greater harvest of resurrections to follow. That’s why when we read these verses, they mention Jesus’s resurrection, but the focus is others’ resurrections in the future:

1 Corinthians 15:20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

The emphasis is on a greater harvest of resurrections to follow. The Feast of Firstfruits was a time of thanksgiving: the Jews thanked God for the harvest. We celebrate the Feast of Firstfruits in the true and greater way by looking forward to our resurrections and thanking God for them.

Keep the Feast of Pentecost with a Circumcised Heart

Throughout the Old Testament, God did something we wouldn’t expect: He told circumcised people to be circumcised. Why would He do that? They were physically circumcised, but they weren’t spiritually circumcised. Their bodies were circumcised, but their hearts weren’t circumcised. Consider these three examples, but there are many more I could give you:

Leviticus 26:41 [God says] I walked contrary to [Israel] and brought them into the land of their enemiesIF THEN THEIR UNCIRCUMCISED HEART IS HUMBLED AND THEY MAKE AMENDS FOR THEIR INIQUITY (they repent), 42 THEN I WILL REMEMBER MY COVENANT WITH JACOB, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

This is fascinating: Circumcision is the sign of the covenant. But God said He would only remember His covenant with them if their hearts were circumcised…even though they were physically circumcised.

Deuteronomy 30:6 The Lord your God WILL CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEART and the heart of your offspring, SO THAT you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

God was talking to people who had obeyed Him physically, but He wanted to address their spiritual condition. He said if their hearts were circumcised, they would “love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul.” That’s a heart issue.

Jeremiah 9:25 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh…all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

The house of Israel was physically circumcised, but God said He would punish them if their hearts were uncircumcised. Physical circumcision always looked forward to the circumcision of the heart that God wanted His people to have. This is why we read:

Romans 2:28 Circumcision is not merely outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.

Hearts Changed at Pentecost

The context is the Jews are celebrating the Feast of Pentecost. Peter is preaching, and he says:

Acts 2:36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED.” 37 Now when they heard this THEY WERE CUT TO THE HEART, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter’s words deeply convicted his hearers. Many responded to the gospel with repentance, and Acts 2:41 records their baptism and addition to the church. This gives us a powerful picture of the inward response God desires. Paul describes Christ’s work in believers this way:

Colossians 2:11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands (it’s not physical, but spiritual), by putting off the body of the flesh (this means the sinful flesh versus physical flesh), by the circumcision of Christ,

Physical circumcision points us toward the inward work described in Colossians 2:11. At Pentecost we see the promised Spirit poured out and many people turning to Christ. The application for us is to respond to His work with repentance and to keep putting off sinful ways throughout our Christian lives.

Putting off the sinful flesh is synonymous with repentance, which we see in the verses. Peter condemned the Jews, they were convicted and asked Peter what to do:

Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You don’t have to be baptized to be saved, but it’s the next step when people are saved, so it’s included here. Mainly, notice the progression: When we are convicted and cut to the heart or spiritually circumcised, like the Jews in Acts 2:37, the proper response is repentance, as we see in Acts 2:38.

No Guarantee Spiritual Circumcision Will Occur

Other Jews refused to be spiritually circumcised. Stephen is rebuking the Jews:

Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked people, UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART (they were physically circumcised, but not spiritually) and ears, (now notice this next part…) you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One (referring to Jesus), WHOM YOU HAVE NOW BETRAYED AND MURDERED, 53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”

Notice Stephen’s sermon is similar to Peter’s sermon: they both told the Jews that they murdered their Messiah. But they weren’t cut to the heart like those on Pentecost:

Acts 7:54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him…58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

Stephen said their hearts were uncircumcised, and then they showed that uncircumcision with one of the evilest acts in the New Testament: murdering Stephen.

Why Such Different Responses to Similar Sermons?

What separated the Jews in Acts 7 from those in Acts 2? Why did the Jews in Acts 2 respond to Peter with repentance, but they responded to Stephen with stoning? Was Peter a better preacher than Stephen? Did Peter use better Scripture than Stephen?

The answer is in 7:51: “You always resist the Holy Spirit.” This is how people end up with an uncircumcised heart! They resist the Holy Spirit.

So, let’s consider how we respond when the Holy Spirit convicts us:

• Do we resist Him? Are we “stiff-necked and stubborn” like the Jews in Acts 7?
• Or are we like the Jews in Acts 2, who are cut to the heart and we respond with repentance?

Celebrating in the True and Greater Way

Two thousand years ago, the lambs were being prepared to be slaughtered for Passover. If you believe all those lambs were shadows or types of Jesus who, at the same time, was being prepared to be slaughtered for our sins, then you’re celebrating Passover in the true and greater way.

Right after Passover, the Jews began celebrating the feast of unleavened bread. God wasn’t primarily concerned with people getting physical leaven out of their homes. God was primarily concerned with people getting spiritual leaven, or sin, out of their lives. If we look for ways God would have us remove leaven or sin from our lives, we celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the true and greater way. We might even ask God to expose the leaven or sin in our lives that He wants us to remove.

If you believe Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the Feast of Firstfruits, and look forward to your resurrection from the dead, then you’re celebrating Firstfruits in the true and greater way.

God gave Abraham the sign of circumcision, but the outward sign was never a substitute for faith. Romans 4:9–12 reminds us that Abraham believed God before he was circumcised. When we are convicted of sin and respond with repentance and faith in Christ, we display the inward response this study has emphasized.