Feast: Pentecost - The Beginning - All in All

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Given 23-Oct-16; 44 minutes

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We must look beyond the significance of our own calling, realizing that the sacrifice of Christ was intended for all men with the hope that they also would be added ultimately to the family of God. We need to allow our Heavenly Father to infuse us with big-picture thinking, realizing that God's work is much greater than our calling, but is in fact a work enabling all of mankind to have access to God the Father. God has purposely given us, as God's called ones, the position of "trainees" as a part of the First Fruits to expedite this marvelous project. The seventh day Sabbath has always served as God's signature, a key to understanding redemption and healing. The seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles contained a traditional water ceremony, which Jesus greatly magnified, prophesying that whoever drinks of the living water (symbolic of God's Holy Spirit) will manifest rivers of living water flowing from them. . Understanding the pattern of seven, the signature of God, gives us a deeper appreciation for the God we serve, enabling us to realize that the Great God has been working to complete His plan down to the tiniest detail. From the creation of the Sabbath and the annual Holy days, including the seven Sabbaths we count to Pentecost, we see how God is working to bring all mankind into His family in systematic stages, beginning with the First Fruits and ending with a great harvest of the rest of mankind in the White Throne Period, after which God will be all-in-all. The number seven is a kind of divine motif, God's signature, a signpost for His called-out ones to build faith, whether we consider the land Sabbath, counting seven Sabbaths to Pentecost,or the 49 years followed by the Jubilee, which typifies the eighth day, contemplating a grand expansio


transcript:

I think you are going to find this interesting, brethren, from the standpoint of everything we heard throughout the feast. It has been really well connected. Charles started out with something that he and I did not know what the other was talking about. He started out talking about Lazarus’ resurrection and the day of Pentecost. Seventy five days later, you will see when we get through this sermon that God is in charge. Here we are, in the place where God has gathered us together, his elect, on the seventh day of the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, that great day.

So we are going to be turning to the very few scriptures God has purposely given to us from Jesus Christ’s ministry on this day nearly two thousand years ago. We will be turning to John 7, which is the record of the few things God considered necessary for us to see leading up to and transpiring during the final Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus Christ kept in His earthly ministry.

This particular great feast was six months prior to the brutal sacrifice He had committed Himself to for the glory of the Father, as far as we know, from before the foundation of the earth. This was six months before He washed us clean with His own precious blood and bore our sins into the grave to be buried and forgotten forever. You can be sure that during the great feast He was looking forward to that precious sacrifice in six months’ time which would eventually give all men (keep that in mind, brethren, all men) the opportunity to be resurrected with Him, no longer flesh but perfected spirit beings to live eternally within the family of God.

This incredible responsibility must have always been on His mind, as it must be on ours. Please hold that thought. His precious sacrifice, I repeat, which He anticipated from the foundation of the world, was eventually for all men to the glory of God, to the glory of His Father. As we go through this message today, I am hoping that the Father will give each one of us the same clearly focused mind of Jesus Christ; which the apostle Paul writes of in Philippians 2:3-8. A mind so focused on the work of the Father that we also can look way beyond even our own special place within the family of God right now. We must be focused with absolute outgoing concern within our privileged calling now on God's purpose for all men. God will bring them all to repentance, salvation, knowledge of the truth and into the family of God in the order that God has determined best suits the family business of Creation for eternity.

Please try to keep this thought in the front and center of your minds today. We have been separated from this world to train to follow the Lamb wherever He goes in sacrificial service to all of God's family who will be coming after us.

Are you ready to sacrifice as much as the Word did to serve those will come after us, even though now they may be ready to kill you? Are we all letting our carnal nature rule so we view this time, this place, and this privileged opportunity that we have with an air of superiority in an “us against them” attitude? Even though we are only here by the grace of God, to serve our great God as He sees fit.

Are we really connected to the mind of Christ that Paul spoke of in Philippians 2 through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit? Are we really letting the Father develop the “big picture” mind of His Son within us, focusing beyond ourselves and to the opportunity we have been given to serve all who will come after us?

We know we have been given an incredible place within the body of Christ, but we must consider God's work beyond ourselves as we wrap up this year's Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, with these things in mind, let us go back to the Feast in 30 AD.

The arrangement of the book of John, as inspired by God, has chapter seven following right up on the heels of Jesus Christ’s explanation as recorded in chapter six that He is the bread of life.

Keep it in the forefront of your minds that it is through Jesus Christ and one Holy Spirit that all men will eventually have access to the Father for His honor and glory, as the perfect work of God moves ahead. God's plan and purpose is far greater than ourselves. Even though we now have the privilege by His grace to be united and training to serve the family of God and all who will follow after us for the glory of the Father. What a great privilege this is!

As we end chapter six, keep this in mind, think about this. We may get hung up on a moment in time, as we see many abandoning Jesus Christ at that time almost two thousand years ago, as John identifies the one who would betray him six months hence. But Jesus Christ’s wonderful promises in that chapter are not made with anything less than the finished plan of God on His mind and the work He and His Father would continue to do through Their shared Holy Spirit, to bring all men into their image.

This is something we need to hold onto. Although we are special and unique within a world in chaos as John said at the beginning of this feast, “we have been called to work”. And now, for whatever reason, God has chosen us, to be part of the first fruits and the singularly united body of Christ through His Holy Spirit to share the same mind as Jesus Christ; preparing to serve all who will come after us.

Let us begin in chapter six of John as a reminder of how far God's purpose extends beyond ourselves and the privilege God has now given us to work.

John 6:28-29 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

John 6:37-40All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

His mind was focused beyond this time, the time now, but way beyond into the future.

John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:47-51 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

Before we go any farther, please, burn these words into your brain and hearts. God is purposefully bringing all men eventually to His family through Jesus Christ and a resurrection on the last day. For His own special reasons, He has given us the privilege now to focus with the same intensity as the Word; not on what we have and are now, but on what others will have and be for the glory of the Father for eternity.

God has purposefully given us this incredible duty by His grace to have our small part in this now as His first fruits, being trained in service with the Lamb; so we can serve with Him wherever He goes.

The lead up to the Feast of Tabernacles in 30 AD begins with Jesus Christ’s refusal to openly go up to Jerusalem with his family because people were waiting to kill him even then. Perhaps He was anticipating an ambush along the way, I do not know, but he went up secretly later to avoid being taken before His time. He was such a controversial figure by this time, and the tension was so thick that John records in John 7:13 “no man spoke openly of him for fear of the Jewish authorities.”

Yet John 7:17-36 show Jesus Christ openly declaring His work right within the temple after he had arrived, as many believed and others plotted to take him. Within these verses, it is also good to note in verses 23 and 24, Jesus points to circumcision on the Sabbath, and what all Jews understood as a redemptive act, followed by his indictment of them for their lack of righteous judgment for not recognizing God's merciful acts of total healing on the Sabbath day.

I mention this because this is an important piece to this message later on, because the Sabbath has always been and continues to be a key to understanding a little more of God's incredible work of redemption and healing.

We will now pick it up on the seventh and last day of the Feast, probably following the completion of the priestly ritual of pouring the water from the pool of Siloam upon the altar.

Each day during the Feast of Tabernacles a priest drew an urn of water from the pool of Siloam and carried it through the water gate while the people recited Isaiah 12:3 “Therefore, with joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation”. Once inside the city, they paraded the urn around of water around the altar, accompanied by a choir singing Psalms 113-118. To conclude the ritual, the priest poured the water on the altar as an offering to God. However, on the last day, that great day of the feast, today, they marched seven times around the altar before pouring the water.

Over the years, we have come to clearly understand that this all took place on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and not on the eighth day of the festival. Perhaps we might consider this as a final preparation for the last feast day of the year, the eighth day festival, the teaching of which we see recorded in John 8 and 9.

With this in mind, we will pick it up with what Jesus taught on this very day almost 2000 years ago as recorded in John 7:37-53.

John 7:37-43 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “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.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, “Truly this is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Will the Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” So there was a division among the people because of Him.

Just as Charles said, there are many things that were expected that could happen or could not happen. As John said yesterday, all prophecy and everything else we are saying here today goes away, but it is faith, hope, and love that endures. So in faith and hope.

John 7:44-53 Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on Him. Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”They answered and said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. And everyone went to his own house.

At the end of the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus Christ declared boldly that He is the Living Waters of God and the only source for all men to have the Holy Spirit of God to complete God's plan and purpose to bring everything into Him.

However, at this point, the sermon is going to take a bit of an abrupt turn. But I think Charles gave me a pretty good lead-in. I hope at the end of this message, on this seventh day of the great Feast of Tabernacles, we may be given a little deeper appreciation of how great a God we serve.

I hope what we see here may help us to more deeply appreciate His careful attention to every little detail of His work and the awesome part we have within it, that goes much farther than the unique opportunity He has given to each of us by His grace.

I was going to have you turn to I Corinthians 13:8-13, but John did a really fine job yesterday of making my point much more thoroughly than I ever could. Though not connected directly to this message, these scriptures that John went through comprehensively yesterday remind us we are only here by the grace of God, from all different walks of life, and God is putting in place everything to move His plan forward.

We only know in part, as God gives us eyes to see. However, the essential key now for the elect of God and preparation for Christ’s return is a unity in love of God and one another through God's Holy Spirit. As we learned to grow together as one united, holy body under the leadership of Jesus Christ in faith and hope. As we heard yesterday, it will last for eternity.

I feel these scriptures are a very important segue into to the remainder of this message as we see the day of Christ’s return approach and as God continues the preparation for those whom He has made precious now in His sight and holy unto Him for working together with Him on the next step in His great plan and purpose. We certainly look through a glass darkly, as the apostle Paul said and as the King James puts it. But to those who remain faithful in the love of God and to one another, He is continuing to expand ever so slightly our view of His awesome mind that has planned everything down to the last detail to help us stay the course, true and faithful.

I am going to propose something to you, which at first you may not consider “meat in due season”. Take it for what it is, because it's only my thoughts. Please stay with me and hopefully you'll find it to be a little more food for thought to take with us throughout this year that adds another dimension of how great our God is in every facet of His work.

Right now, we are going to spend a little time looking at—thank you for the introduction, Charles—the feast of first fruits, Pentecost, from a bit “outside the box” and, as far as I know, from a different angle than I have ever heard or read about it. So please, do not consider this doctrine, but a very real possibility for us to consider, to help enhance our appreciation for God and the great God we serve.

However maybe it is not all that far “outside the box” considering what you heard this week, through the messages at the Feast; such as Martin's tie-in to the sanctuary cities and Richard's third day sermon that showed God's precision, planning, and purpose all the way around.

Our great God is diligently working to complete a portion of His Creation that He has declared from the beginning. I keep going over that, because it is absolutely true. He is a great God who was absolutely, positively preparing down to the littlest detail to give us strength of conviction and courage as we go forward.

We will be quickly looking at a number of familiar scriptures, but only so you can consider them and God's great work that they proclaim from a slightly different angle. In the next few minutes we will be only be able to summarize another possible aspect of the glorious work that the Father and Son proclaimed from Genesis to Revelation, as possibly fulfilled in type in the day of Pentecost.

As we go through this, I hope you remember David Maas’ brilliant sermon from May 28th, extolling the glory of God in His remarkable musical refrain of seven throughout the Creation. Just as David showed how carefully God has orchestrated every facet of His work; perhaps there is something God would like us to see in the great day of Pentecost, beyond His first fruits, as we head into the eighth day tomorrow.

As Paul writes, and II Timothy 1, we have been called with a holy calling not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. We are part of a small group called now to work, but it certainly does not stop there.

Please turn with me to I Corinthians 15:20-28. We will, look at Paul's summary of the whole plan.

I Corinthians 15:20-23But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

Hopefully we, brethren, along with John Reid, who I am presumptuously, I suppose, I hope I know will be there.

I Corinthians 15:24-28 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

This is a carefully orchestrated plan from before the foundation of the earth for all men to eventually be brought into the family business. I want you to keep verse twenty-eight in your minds, it will come to play again in a few minutes.

I Corinthians 15:28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

The Father is the source of all things, towards which this whole Creation is moving, and Jesus is the channel who will finally offer the finished product back to His Father.

Let us pick up a few key points right now, from the beginning of the book, and then we will pick up a couple at the end. So turn with me back to Genesis. I just want to remind you of a couple things that are very familiar to you.

Genesis 1:2-5 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Genesis 1:9-14 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day. Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

Genesis 1:17-18 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Now let us go back to the back of the book, in Revelation. As we heard from Lawson, when he started out in Revelation. Revelation is a summary of what happens from the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement through Christ’s return with the first fruits of His resurrection, the millennium rest, then the giving of life and truth to all who never knew God. Finally we see the judgment as all who have ever lived stand before the throne of the judge, Jesus Christ. Every man is judged according to his works under full knowledge and truth. This brings us to the Revelation 21. We will be reading from verse 1. These are important reminders for us, because this is what is ahead.

Revelation 21:1-7 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

Revelation 21:9-11 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

Revelation 21:22-27 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Revelation 22:1-5 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

This is the ultimate picture of Pentecost and the incredible work that God is doing through Jesus Christ and His one Holy Spirit. The day of Pentecost certainly pictures the harvest of the first fruits. In a minute you'll see that God may have given us another opportunity to see how this day of Pentecost, and the last day of Tabernacles, and tomorrow the eighth day are so closely tied in together. We know through the giving of the Holy Spirit, the next part in God's eternal plan begins. With no more seas to separate, no death, no darkness, and only the tree of life, with no one striving to do anything else but to faithfully submit to the awesome mind and authority through Jesus Christ and unity of the Holy Spirit. We who are now looking forward to this day that we just read about in Revelation with eager anticipation. We have a tremendous honor and privilege, but we also have been given a time of great stress. It is going to get worse. But all way God keeps giving us signs that He is the faithful God and He expects us to return that faith to Him.

Please bear with me a few more minutes because I hope to show you one more possible faith building sign that God has given us to show His absolute sovereignty in every aspect of His Creation. With all that I have said in mind, please turn with me back to Leviticus 23, a place where everyone knows; where we see the holy days laid out. I would like to pick out 2 very important things the first thing God says right off the bat through Moses.

Leviticus 23:2-3 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. ‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

I would like you to note that the weekly Sabbath mentioned in verse three is the signature. Remember, I mentioned earlier that the Sabbath is a key to understanding things in God's incredible work of redemption and healing, because He has given it to us as one of those keys that we can use as we go through these things. “These are my feasts,” God says. This is the One who signed His Creation with the seventh day Sabbath. The Sabbath is always going to be God's signature of sovereignty between God and His Creation. Then Moses goes on throughout the rest of the chapter, repeating from God who had given him to list the feast days, as you well know. Of course, this week and tomorrow's 8th day festival are among them. But let us read of the verses regarding the count to Pentecost in verse eleven.

Leviticus 23:11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

Drop down to verse 15.

Leviticus 23:15-16 And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.

Now we will just take a quick jog over to chapter 25, which may seem a little bit out of context. I will show you how this all ties in when we get through. Chapter 25, I will read from verse 2.

Leviticus 25:2-11 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food. ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.

With these scriptures in mind, let us try to wrap up all this up. Considering the awesome mind, foresight, plan and work of our great God, who was absolutely sovereign over His Creation as He has been very directly showing us through this Feast of Tabernacles—His sovereignty. We now have the privilege to be training to work with Jesus Christ as He has been working to turn the whole Creation back to the Father as a perfect offering that truly directs everything back to the Father in a predetermined way. Creating a family where God’s mind and character, His spirit is all in all.

Over the last few years, I have really tried to understand why God has us counting from the wave sheaf determined from the Sabbath, which falls during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Why do we need to count fifty days to determine what day we are to keep Pentecost and the giving of God's Holy Spirit? So today I would like to propose to you a possible answer through another use of the signature of God and His redemptive work for all mankind as a faith builder for us who have gathered here today, on this preparation day for the eighth day.

I do not believe it is the number of individual days that is the key to win the count to Pentecost. It is the Sabbath, the seven Sabbaths, which God always uses as His sign posts for things between God and His people. I would like to share with you what I think maybe the ultimate string of seven and God's carefully orchestrated symphony and another incredible sign from Him that He is awesome and the totally sovereign God of His Creation, as we have heard so many times during this Feast.

I am just going to tell you what I think and let you chase down the scriptures and see it for yourself. But I think this is another incredibly exciting opportunity God has given us to build our faith as we head into these very, very difficult and trying times leading to the return of Jesus Christ.

During the Days of Unleavened Bread, the particular seventh day Sabbath that fell within those days is the signature of God upon His Creation. It is the launching pad for the wave sheaf to be offered on the next day. The wave sheaf is not only the first day of the count fifty days to Pentecost, but is also the first day in the count to the seven Sabbaths on the way to Pentecost.

We all recognize that Jesus Christ Himself is the one offering the wave sheaf to start it all off. Please consider this in terms of how much of that offering is yet to be finished. As you think about Jesus’ work to that point! He had only finished part, as you think about Jesus’ work as He had done in 31 AD. Considering everything else, that's still needed to be done, as we saw in I Corinthians 15:28, turning everything over to the Father—“All in all”. It was far from done to bring God's mind and character to be “all in all”.

So in type, God has blessed us with another piece of evidence of His awesome plan and execution within the count to Pentecost. The wave sheaf had to be followed up the first week by the first week Sabbath, representing all that had happened as we rehearsed the first day of Unleavened Bread.

This needs to be followed up with the second Sabbath representing the work that was done as we rehearsed the last day of Unleavened Bread.

This need to be followed up by the third Sabbath day representing the work of the first fruits.

Followed by the fourth Sabbath on the count of Pentecost, representing the beginning of His return and judgment.

Followed by the fifth Sabbath representing the chaining of Satan.

Followed by the sixth Sabbath on the count of Pentecost, representing the millennial rule of Christ and His first fruits.

Finally followed by the seventh Sabbath on the count to Pentecost, representing the time we will be celebrating tomorrow. The eighth day that opens the truth of God's word to all who have ever lived and Jesus Christ’s judgment of every man according to His work in truth.

Finally, on the fiftieth day, the jubilee, following the completion of His task, Jesus Christ presents the completed offering of everything including Himself to the Father and a new beginning.

Brethren, I wanted you to see this because I believe this is the ultimate vision of Pentecost and the joyous completion of the work of Jesus Christ. This is the great beginning of a new chapter in God's eternal Creation and another way God has given us to consider how totally awesome He is in planning, purpose and execution, and how privileged we are to be part of those who can praise His name now as first fruits on the third Sabbath day in the count to His ultimate goal of creating a family that is “all in all”.

On this very day almost 2000 years ago, that great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, the first of the first fruits stood in His Father's house. The same man who for our sins died for us. Six months before His death, He stood in His Father's house on this very day almost 2000 years ago and cried out as it is written in John 7:37-39.

John 7:37-39 …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.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus has been glorified and now sits at the right hand of the Father. He is now training us to be united through His Holy Spirit. As one body in faith, hope and love for service to all who will come after us for the glory of the Father. Have a wonderful celebration for the rest of today and tomorrow on the eighth day, the day we all look forward to in the next part of the plan.

MS/djy/cah





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