"I've been robbed!" declared the godly senior pastor to an assembly of several hundred ministers. "I went to seminary, and I've preached the gospel for more than thirty years." "Why have I never been told before of my rich Hebrew heritage in Christ?" he said with tears in his eyes.

The dramatic statement of this elder statesman came at the conclusion of a two-day seminar for ministers on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith. He had seen Jesus (Yeshua) in a fresh, new light and his Christian faith had been intensified and amplified by discovering his Jewish inheritance in Messiah.

Salvation has come to us through the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth. To be in Christ is to be part of Abraham's seed and grafted into the olive-tree faith of God's first covenant people, Israel. So the roots, so to speak, of our faith in Messiah go deeply into the fertile soil of His Judaism. In Him we have a Hebraic birthright, sharing in the covenants, promises and blessings conferred upon Abraham's offspring.

That heritage was lost and the root connection severed in the emerging ecclesiastical church of the 3rd, 4th and 5th centuries. Athens and Rome replaced Jerusalem as the mother of our faith. And all things "Jewish" were denigrated and discarded.

But God, in His goodness and grace, is restoring to the church that which was lost. He is calling us back to the biblical, Jewish foundations of our faith in order that we may go forward in greater Christian faithfulness. With that renewal comes increased joy in our salvation.

Consider, for example, the Feast of Tabernacles (one of the three great pilgrim feasts of Israel, including Passover and Pentecost). Did you know that this grand harvest celebration was the biblical precedent for the Thanksgiving celebration held by the first pilgrims to America?

"Tabernacles" (Sukkot in Hebrew) commemorates the "booths" Israel dwelled in during their sojourn toward the Promised Land. It is one of the "appointed times" of the Lord: "You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; and you shall rejoice in your feast. . . . Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD our God . . . because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you shall be altogether joyful." [Deut. 16.13-15 NASB]

Occurring in the autumn of the year, in association with the final agricultural harvest in Israel, Sukkot is referred to as the "Feast of Ingathering." It was an auspicious occasion, noted even in Jesus' day for its great rejoicing and intense celebratory character.

Jesus celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. The impressive liturgical drama in Jerusalem culminated in a prayer by the High Priest for the outpouring of rain for the next harvest season. His petition was dramatized by the pouring out of water from a golden pitcher upon the Temple altar. At that moment of high spiritual tension, Jesus stood and declared in a loud voice: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." [John 7.38-39 NKJV]

It was during the Feast of Tabernacles that King Solomon dedicated the First Temple (cf. 2 Chronicles 8) and that Ezra restored the Word of the Lord to the exiled remnant that returned to Jerusalem (cf. Nehemiah 8). This Festival also holds eschatological promise. In the Messianic era to come, when the other Festivals shall cease, Tabernacles will continue -- for our need to praise and give thanks to the Lord never ends!

Zechariah foresees a future time when all the nations will go up to Jerusalem "to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." [14.16] At that time, "The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name." [Zech. 14.9 NIV]

But we need not wait for that future event. On October 13th-14th, Christians from several states and even as far away as Israel and South Africa, will assemble in Dayton to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. You're invited to "Celebrate the Feast" with us. With great rejoicing, teaching and worship we shall reclaim part of our wonderful Hebrew heritage in Messiah Jesus. In an anticipatory way, we shall enter into the fulfillment of the conference theme of Isaiah 52.9-10:

"Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God."