Celebrate Pentecost!
Pentecost is a Biblical Holy day, a feast day. The Assembly of God’s people shall feast upon the Word of God as we are commanded to do so. And we shall feast together in a time of fellowship afterwards.
Each of God’s feast days show forth a picture of His plan for the salvation of the World. In this teaching, we shall take a look at what this day Pentecost means in that plan of salvation. As we shall see, Pentecost means much more than what today’s Church thinks that it means. It even means far more than what those who even call themselves “Pentecostal” think that it means.
Now up until the early 1990’s, I didn’t really know that there was such a thing as Biblical Holydays other than the weekly 7th day Sabbath. The Lord God brought brother Bob Rogers into my life shortly before his death to begin the revelation of these things. The Lord will always bring someone into our lives at the appropriate time in the which He knows that He can work with us. The Lord makes much preparations in order to eventually rescue you and I.
I had previously to that time of meeting with brother
But we, being in contact with the living God are to be receiving revelation knowledge of those things that are presently being hidden to the world and the worldly church. So to each of us, the Lord by His Spirit is giving us the revelation knowledge of His salvation plan, while the remainder of the world lay in darkness and blindness to these things.
Brethren, this is a special honor that we have been blessed
with. Let us always be mindful of this
blessing and therefore give the Lord our thanks that He has and is calling us
out of
Why? Because we are undeserving of this honor. But God saw something in you and I that He believes He can work with and thus He called us and if we remain faithful unto the very end, we shall be among the chosen ones who shall inherit the earth.
It is one thing for you and I to believe in God. But the greater question is this….Can God believe in you and I? He is trusting us with great knowledge that we would one day rule with Him in His kingdom. We are presently being tested as to what kind of a ruler we shall be.
The Lord will not have tyrants and cruel dictators ruling in His Kingdom. He is looking for a people who will not compromise the Truth and do not fear to speak that truth and to warn the unruly, yet He is also looking for those who are merciful, caring and forgiving toward those who have yet to have these things revealed to them.
Leviticus 23 is the chapter of the Bible wherein all of the Holydays of God are discussed together.
Leviticus 23:1
“And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of
So Moses was told to speak to God’s people concerning the feasts of the Lord. He was to proclaim them to be holy convocations. You can look the word “convocations” up on your own, but in the Hebrew language it means a commanded assembly. In other words we don’t have a choice in the matter. We are commanded of God to observe His Feast days.
It is as though a summons to appear before the Lord has been sent out, and you and I as His people are commanded to come together in observance of a Holy assembly. Just like the 7th day Sabbath, all of God’s feasts are commanded to be observed. The weekly Sabbath is mentioned right here in Leviticus 23 as one of these commanded assemblies. So just like the 7th day Sabbath, there are also annual Sabbaths that we are commanded to keep as well.
The Lord told Moses that these feasts are my feasts. And you may already know this, I have brought
it up in previous messages, but this is the being that became Jesus the Messiah
who was speaking here to Moses. These
are Yahshua’s feasts.
These are the feasts of Jesus Christ.
Not a feast exclusive to the Jews or the tribe of
These Feasts are to be proclaimed in their seasons. So each year we begin proclaiming the day of
Pentecost as we are in the season. When
each of God’s people come together they are
proclaiming the day by their obedience and their attendance to observe the Holy
day. Let’s see what this day meant and
how it was observed by ancient
Leviticus 23:10-12 “Speak
unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land
which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring
a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the
priest: And he shall wave the sheaf
before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the
priest shall wave it. And ye shall offer
that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without
blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord.”
During the days of unleavened bread there was a wave sheaf offering. The ancient Israelites could not harvest their spring crops until the wave sheaf was offered up. As the weekly Sabbath that falls within the 7 days of unleavened bread was ending, this wave sheaf was offered up. This sheaf was made up of a small amount of the grain that would be taken from the spring harvest.
After the Sabbath had ended, the priest was to take this sheaf of grain and he would wave it before the Lord to be accepted. Afterwards, they were then allowed to harvest the remainder of the grain from the fields.
In the of
revealing His plan of salvation for the world, God formed His annual Holy Days
around the harvest seasons. You will
find that quite often the Lord uses agricultural terms and customs to teach the
people of then and now great and mighty spiritual concepts. Just as
Before moving on, we need to find out what this wave sheaf
offering was symbolic of. It was a
physical act that
Colossians
Speaking of Christ, the Apostle Paul tells us that He is the head of the body, the Church and that He was the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Since this was so of Christ, then he has the preeminence, which just means that He was to be the first in all things and in all ways.
The apostle Paul is about to give us another clue about this
wave sheaf offering. We no longer take
part in the ceremonies of ancient
1st
Corinthians
So here is this preeminence again. Christ was not the first to rise from the dead, but He was the first to rise from the dead and to come forth from that grave with an immortal body. Here we see that Christ became the firstfruits of the dead. He was the firstfruits of a future spiritual harvest.
Revelation 20:1-3 “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.”
So to set the stage, for what we are about to see, down at the time of the end of this age, Satan will be imprisoned for one thousand years, which is the time period when we shall reign with Messiah in the Kingdom. So Satan’s kingdom is coming down. It is ending and will not rise again until after this period of one thousand years.
Revelation 20:4 “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”
Presently, these thrones are being sat upon by demonic
entities. There are spiritual thrones
over each town, county, city, state capital, state, nation, national capitals
of the world. Under the
Revelation 20:5,6 “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Pentecost involves those who will be in this first resurrection. God’s true Church are the first fruits to be harvested. Spiritually now, but literally later. But the Church will come forth in the first resurrection, the early harvest, the small harvest, symbolized in Pentecost.
Everyone else will have to wait until after the thousand years in the later harvest, the bigger harvest. Those that will come forth later, have already died once, but after their resurrection they will be given the opportunity for salvation. Most will choose the ways of God rather than to suffer the second death. They also will be granted eternal life. If they choose not to follow the plan of God, they will suffer the second death. They will be cast into the lake of fire and die again, but this time without a hope for another resurrection. They will be dead forever. Some in the past and in our day have already went into the grave rejecting the Truth of God after the blinders had been removed from their spiritual eyes. In other words they knew the Truth but turned their backs upon it and returned to the ways of the world or the harlot church. These will not have another opportunity, they have already had their day of salvation but rejected it. They will be cast into the lake of fire and suffer the second death without ever having an opportunity for another resurrection.
The main thing that needed to be seen in this text from Revelation chapter 20 is that the firstfruits will be a part of the 1st or early harvest (resurrection from the dead or the changing of these mortal bodies to immortal) while everyone else will have to wait a thousand years before their harvest.
We are now going to go to a scripture that describes and encounter with the risen Lord. He came forth from that tomb as the Sabbath was ending and then was seen by Mary Magdalene as the 1st day of the week had begun.
John 20:16-17 “Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is
to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to
my Father: but go to my brethren, and
say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and
your God.”
Now Jesus would not allow Mary to touch him. Why? Because He had yet ascended to the Father. You see, Jesus was just harvested. He was just like that sheaf of grain that the ancient Israelites brought before the Lord as the Sabbath was ending during the days of unleavened bread. Later that same day after Mary had seen the Lord, Jesus appeared again. This time He allowed them to touch Him.
Matthew 28:9 “And as they went to tell his disciples,
behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the
feet, and worshipped him.”
So between the time Mary Magdalene saw Him and the time He allowed these women to touch Him, Christ had ascended to
the Father and had been accepted by Him.
As the Sabbath was ending and the 1st day was
beginning the priest would bring the sheaf of grain out and would wave it
before the Lord to be accepted of Him.
Christ in the same way was symbolized by that sheaf of grain. He came forth from the tomb as the Sabbath was ending and then ascended to the Father on the 1st day of the week to be accepted of Him.
Now once that sheaf had been waved before the Lord and was accepted, the Israelites were then allowed of God to go ahead and reap the remainder of their early or spring harvest. But that first bunch of grain had to be harvested first. It was the firstfruits of the early harvest. Christ had the preeminence, He was the first born of the dead, He is the firstfruits of those that sleep. He was that wave sheaf offering. Since He was accepted of the Father, that made the way for the early harvest. That is where we are quickly approaching. That is partial picture of what Pentecost is about.
Let’s continue looking at the Feasts of the Lord in this
chapter. We will continue on with a
description of
The word “Pentecost” is a Greek, not a Hebrew term. It means to count 50. In the Hebrew it was called the “Feast of Firstfruits” or the “Feast of Weeks.” So you can count backwards from the day of Pentecost 50 days and you’ll come to the weekly Sabbath that took place during the days of unleavened bread. From that Sabbath we were to count 7 Sabbaths and then the day after would be Pentecost. That is how you will know from this day forward how to figure when Pentecost would come on the calendar.
We know that the Passover represented the Christ and His sacrifice for our sins of the past. We know that the days of unleavened bread represents our pledge to remain free from sinful activities from that day forward. But Pentecost is a feast pertaining to the harvest. It represents the first portion of the great spiritual harvest to come. That harvest has in some ways already began in that we are being called out of the world. Spiritually, the Lord is already harvesting His people by calling them out of the world and the worldly Churches. It is as though we are already being harvested out of the ways of this world.
Now in the agricultural industry, the early harvest is smaller than the later harvest, yet that early harvest produces the best of the best of the fruits and vegetables that will come to fruition early on in the season. Sometimes those crops are smaller, but they often taste the best.
James
Brethren, this is speaking of the Church. We are the firstfruits. Christ was the first of the firstfruits, He has the preeminence, He was the first to be harvested. The day of Pentecost pictures the event in time in the which we are looking forward toward when we also shall be harvested from the earth and will at that time receive our new immortal bodies as the Christ now has.
Brethren, I’m about to show unto you that if you and I are truly a part of the Church of the living God, that we are already among those first fruits. The Lord has already put a down payment down upon that which He is purchasing.
2nd
Corinthians 5:5 “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame
thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”
God has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. You can look the term “earnest” up in the Greek and it means a guarantee or a part of a purchase-money or property given in advance as security for the rest.
It is like a down payment. It is like a deposit to hold a purchase until you finally stop back by to pay the rest and pick it up. We are going to look at this term “earnest” in another scripture that will begin to bring this all together for our understanding.
Ephesians 1:13,14 “In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.”
Brethren, after you believed, the next step is to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. We are to believe, we are to repent, we are to be baptized and then we will receive the Holy Spirit.
According to what we have just read there in Ephesians is that the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until Christ returns to redeem His possession, which is His Church. It is as though, He put earnest money down upon you. What He used as collateral was His life through the Holy Spirit.
Now throughout the ages, very few actually were indwelt with God’s Spirit. But something took place that changed this. Oh, this gets real exciting to me and I hope that you also can gain that same excitement and more.
In the book of Acts, Christ was on the verge of ascending back into the heavens and He gives advice to those who were gathered to see Him off. Acts 1:4,5 “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, said He, you have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.”
Now didn’t we just read back there in Ephesians chapter one that we would be sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise? Here Christ tells the early Church that they were to wait for the promise of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Brethren, this is speaking of the same great event. That promise still continues down into our day.
So the disciples were staying together around
Acts 2:1 “And
when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one
place.”
I am sure joyful that these individuals had not abandoned these Feast days. They were gathering together as commanded. If they had stopped keeping God’s Holy days, they would not have been gathered together in one place on the day of Pentecost.
But they were and while together the Lord God continued showing us the meaning behind Pentecost. He came upon them through His Spirit. He gave them the promise. He was sealing them with His Spirit. He was putting down His earnest money to hold His purchase until He would one day return to redeem them and us.
Those of the Pentecostal circles don’t know nor understand the full meaning of Pentecost. All they seem to get out of it is receiving the spiritual gift of speaking in another tongue. I believe in the spiritual gifts but that is not what the day of Pentecost is all about.
The Feasts that occur in the Spring of the year picture the great redemptive plan of God. They begin at the beginning of the year. God’s year begins in the Spring, not in the winter. So just like these first Holy days are at the beginning of the year, they also then picture the beginnings of God’s plan for the saving of the world.
The Holy days that will come later on this coming fall, are a picture of what God will do at the time of the end. Brethren, we must understand that the Lord is not saving everyone out of every generation at this time. That is just not biblical. He is only calling out a few out of every generation to one day hold an office in His coming government. We will be kings, priests and judges in that Kingdom.
So presently and out of every generation that has already come and gone, the Lord is calling people out of the world to one day take those offices in the coming Kingdom. That is why we are called the Elect of God. We are being elected of God to hold an office.
So during this age that has yet to come to it’s conclusion, God is calling people, and if those that He is calling answer the call, then He seals them with the earnest of His Spirit. We are being spiritually harvested early before the great harvest at the end of the age. Then we shall be literally harvested at the 7th trump when Messiah returns. Those who are asleep in the grave shall come forth in the 1st resurrection. They along with the living Saints will be caught up together 1st, and everyone else will be harvested later. We are to be the firstfruits. We are to be the early harvest. The best of the best of the harvest. Everyone else will continue to grow in the spiritual field until the time of the end and then the later harvest will be concluded.
Those of us, the Church, who are being gathered spiritually from the spiritual field since that great day of Pentecost when the Spirit of Promise came upon the Church, we along with them are the firstfruits of God’s great plan of salvation. The true Church are being harvested spiritually today to be the firstfruits of those who will be the ones to be saved when Christ returns at His second coming.
After His return, then the rest of the world will be harvested, and we along with the Christ will inherit all things and we shall reign with the Christ in that great Kingdom. Our subjects will be the remainder of individuals who will have survived the great time of tribulation and wrath or have been brought forth from the graves and at that time will be given their opportunity for salvation.
We will rule by serving them. They will have by that time endured such
trouble and misery. We will show them
the way of salvation. And at that time,
the blinders will be removed from their spiritual eyes and they will then see
and be made able to understand the things that we now already know of, because
in our time the blinders are already being removed from our eyes. But that is a message for the fall feasts
days of Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles and The Last Great Day. We shall wait until then to hear the ending
of God’s plan for the saving of the entire world! Yes God is going to save the world! Far less than what we have all been taught
will one day end up in the
Acts chapter 2:38,39 “Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall
call.”
That great promise was to those hearing Peter’s words. It was also for their children. And then Peter said that the promise was also unto those that are afar off. Brethren that is you and I way down here in our time. But this promise was also according to verse 39, was for as many as the Lord shall call. Again this promise is not for those that He is not presently calling, but for those that he shall call.
At this present time, we are
simply at the beginning of the
harvest for the
Church, enjoy this day. Meditate upon the Word spoken in this
message. Have joy in this spiritual
harvest time. Have joy that you are being
numbered among the firstfruits. To the Lord, you are the best of the
harvest. He is calling you early, before
everyone else.
Be forever thankful that this
is what He is doing in your life, and Celebrate Pentecost!
The Old Paths Restoration Ministry
Marengo, IN 47140