Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00004A
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00:21 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:23 I'm Pastor Mark Howard. I'm here with my co-host, my brother 00:25 Jim Howard who is a pastor also. We both pastor in the state of 00:28 Michigan and we are studying the book of Acts. I sure hope 00:32 you have you Bibles with you as we dive in again to the day of 00:37 Pentecost. Now we have been building up to this point and 00:39 this is a pivotal point even though we're right here in the 00:42 beginning of the book of Acts. It's really kind of a launch pad 00:45 the day of Pentecost where Jesus had told his disciples to tarry 00:49 and wait for the promise of the Father and here's where we come 00:52 to the fulfillment of that. Before we start reading in 00:55 scripture we're just going to ask the Lord to guide our 00:58 understanding. Father in heaven, as we're 01:01 reading about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early 01:04 church we pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us, the Spirit 01:07 of truth to guide us into all truth as we study and we ask it 01:09 in Jesus name, Amen. Acts chapter 2, verse 1. 01:14 The Bible tells us: When the day of Pentecost had fully come they 01:20 were all with one accord on one place. Now I want to keep 01:23 reading on here, but I can't skip past this what the 01:27 scripture is saying and what I want to look at here about the 01:31 day of Pentecost is something that a lot of New Testament 01:34 Christians are unaware of having not studied a lot of Old 01:38 Testament typology. But the day of Pentecost coming and being 01:43 fully come was powerful fulfillment of messianic 01:47 prophecy in scriptural types and you'll see what I mean by 01:52 that when you follow me back to book of Leviticus. We're going 01:56 to the book of Leviticus and we're going to chapter 23. 01:58 Now Pentecost was one of the Jewish feasts that took place 02:03 throughout the year every year. It was an annual feast of the 02:07 Jews and we read about those feasts in Leviticus 23. Now I 02:12 want to start with the feast of Passover in verse 4. Leviticus 02:17 23 and verse 4. The Bible says: These are the feasts of the Lord 02:22 holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their 02:25 appointed times. Now I just want to interject here; 02:28 It's interesting that the gatherings, I use the word 02:31 gatherings, convocations, a convocation was a gathering, 02:34 and the feasts of the Lord were gatherings. The worship services 02:38 of the Lord were intended to be gatherings and I want to 02:42 emphasize that. Even today sometimes people today get a 02:46 very independent idea of worship and they say will I can worship 02:50 God out in nature under the juniper tree or something you 02:54 know. Where you've got a gathering God's calling for here 02:57 and there's a blessing that comes from being gathered 03:01 together. You know, just prior to this 03:03 verse it talks about the Sabbath and sometimes when people first 03:07 learn about the Sabbath and the importance of the Sabbath of the 03:11 fourth commandment they think well I can do that at home and 03:15 I'll just make sure I care for that at home. But in that very 03:20 verse it says that the Sabbath is a day, in verse 3, of holy 03:23 convocation, that's a sacred gathering. So again and again 03:27 we see the importance of gathering together as Christians 03:30 like they were in Acts chapter 2. 03:32 Right. In fact the apostle Paul says in Hebrews chapter 10 that 03:35 as we see the day of Christ approaching let's not gather 03:37 together less but more. Now it's important. I'm glad you brought 03:41 that up about the seventh day Sabbath. We see that the Sabbath 03:45 of the 10 commandment in verse 3 because there's a distinction 03:48 that we're going to go into which is the Sabbaths that come 03:52 in conjunction with the feasts because the feasts also had 03:55 their Sabbaths. Now the seventh day Sabbath always took place on 03:58 the seventh day. But during a feast, the feast was driven more 04:01 by the calendar than by the day of the week. So it would be as 04:06 we read in verse 5 it says: On the 14th day of the first month 04:10 at twilight is the Lord's Passover and on the 15th day of 04:13 the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord. 04:17 Seven days you must eat unleavened bread so on the 14th 04:20 day and the 15th day, these would fall on different days of 04:24 the week depending on the year. But it goes on to tell us in 04:28 verse 7 on the first day of this particular feast you shall have 04:32 a holy convocation (again a gathering). You shall do no 04:37 customary work on it. Now this is the feast of unleavened bread 04:41 So the first day of that feast is a Sabbath, it's a rest day. 04:44 The word Sabbath in Hebrew is just a word that means rest. 04:47 They would do no work on that day. So there are places in this 04:50 passage that we're going to look at that will say that they do no 04:53 work and it may not use the word Sabbath but that's what it means 04:56 and you can read it as you go. If you read through the whole 04:59 chapter, these were feast Sabbaths and in this particular 05:02 case on the 15th day of the first month is when you're going 05:04 find this feast Sabbath. It could be on whatever day of 05:07 the week. Just like an anniversary. 05:09 Yeah, like an anniversary or birthday or whatever. Now it 05:13 goes on to tell us in verse 8 you shall make an offering or 05:16 offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. 05:19 This is during the feast of unleavened bread. The seventh 05:23 day shall be a holy convocation. This is the seventh day of the 05:25 feast. This feast was blocked off by Sabbaths, by days of 05:31 rest where God wanted his people to be able to gather and come 05:34 away from their work and focus on the spiritual lessons. 05:38 Then he says in verse 9, And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying 05:41 speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come 05:45 into the land which I give you and reap its harvest then you 05:49 shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits to the priest; verse 11, 05:53 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your 05:58 behalf on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it 06:02 I'm going to make a sense of this in just a moment. On the 06:06 day after the Sabbath you shall wave it and you shall offer on 06:09 that day when you offer the sheaf you shall offer a male 06:11 lamb, etc., etc. Now I'm jumping ahead to verse 15 where it says, 06:16 in my Bible I have a heading that says the Feast of Weeks. 06:19 It says, And you shall count for yourselves from the day after 06:23 the Sabbath from the day that you brought the sheaf of the 06:26 wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count 50 06:30 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath and then you 06:34 shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. 06:36 Now this was speaking about Pentecost. 06:38 That's what Pentecost is, pente 50 and you get the 50 days that 06:42 come after. See here's how it worked out. You had Passover 06:45 on the 14th day of the first month. That lamb was slain, the 06:49 Passover lamb at twilight on the 14th day of the first month. 06:52 And then the Bible says that the next day began the Feast of 06:55 Weeks and that was a feast Sabbath; there was no work done 06:59 on that day. Then the day after that feast Sabbath on the 16th 07:03 day was the day where the wave sheaf was offered before the 07:06 Lord. Now the wave sheaf was a first fruits offering. In other 07:11 words it was an early precursor to the harvest 07:15 that was coming. It was an early, 07:17 I want to say, harvest. It wasn't really a harvest, 07:20 it was a pre-harvest and the wave offering was basically 07:24 thanking the Lord in advance for the harvest that was going to 07:28 come. Then when you counted the 50 days on the 50th day then you 07:32 had a harvest and you would take that harvest and you would 07:36 wave it before the Lord. Now this is all pointing forward to 07:39 different things in the ministry of Christ. First of all, let's 07:44 go to 1 Corinthians 5. It's absolutely fascinating when you 07:48 realize that the children of Israel carried on this custom 07:52 for well over 1000 years every year; 14th day they had the 07:56 Passover lamb, 15th day, the feast Sabbath, the feast of 07:59 weeks began, 16th day the wave sheaf, count 50 days, you have 08:04 Pentecost. Over and over and over they went through this 08:07 routine. Now 1 Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 7 notice what 08:11 the apostle Paul says. Therefore purge out the old 08:15 leaven (which is one of the things they had to do during the 08:18 Passover) that you may be a new lump since you truly are 08:21 unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. 08:26 Now it's not a mystery to most Christians that Christ was 08:29 typified in the Passover lamb. But look at the next one in 08:31 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Corinthians 15 and we're going to verse 20. 08:40 And the Bible says: But now Christ is risen from the dead 08:45 and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 08:51 And later on here Paul says in verse 23, speaking of the 08:55 resurrection, each one in his own order, Christ the first 08:59 fruits, afterward those who are Christ's at his coming. 09:03 So Paul points to the resurrection of Christ as the 09:06 first fruits offering. Now follow along here. You come 09:09 down the ages to 31 A.D. On the 14th day of the first month 09:15 at twilight Jesus Christ is crucified and hangs on Calvary's 09:20 cross as has been repeated in type year after year after year 09:24 and right on time he's crucified On the 15th day, the feast 09:29 Sabbath Jesus rests in the grave The Bible says in the gospel of 09:33 John, chapter 19, I believe it's verse 31 that that day was a 09:36 day. Now a high day was when the seventh day Sabbath and a 09:40 feast Sabbath corresponded on the same day. On the 16th day, 09:44 the third day since the crucifixion, Jesus is raised 09:48 from the dead and has become the first fruits just as the type 09:51 has shown repeatedly. Then the Bible tells us that Jesus spends 09:54 40 days with his disciples and then they have 10 days in the 09:58 upper room and when the day of Pentecost had fully come what do 10:02 we find but a harvest. Jesus raises from the dead as the 10:05 first fruits, as the evidence that there's going to be a 10:07 greater harvest on the day of Pentecost where we're going to 10:11 pick up in Acts chapter 2. We see the fulfillment of years of 10:14 type, typology, that God had shown where in a messianic, 10:21 prophetic type we have a perfect fulfillment. 10:24 So they should have expected that on the day of Pentecost 10:28 there would have been a big harvest of souls. 10:30 They should have expected and when the apostles would preach 10:33 and they were able to use these scriptures, those Jews could not 10:37 help but see that that which they had practiced for so many 10:41 years and even I'm sure it had become formal and routine for 10:45 them, really was pointing forward to the crucifixion and 10:48 the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 10:51 But often they didn't realize it until it after it was over. 10:54 But certainly it did bring in a harvest of souls and we're going 10:58 to get to that where 3000 were added in a day. But we need to 11:02 start right from the beginning of Acts chapter 2 and dive back 11:05 in and see what it says here about the setting of what 11:09 happened on the day of Pentecost 50 days after. So it says in 11:14 verse 1: When the day of Pentecost had fully come 11:16 they were all with one accord in one place. First of all, that's 11:21 very interesting isn't it. They were with one accord in one 11:24 place. It's as if it was saying they were together. 11:29 They were of the same mind set but they were in the same place 11:33 and this is the atmosphere that allowed for what was about to 11:37 happen and it's interesting that as the Holy Spirit is poured out 11:40 throughout the book of Acts as we're about to see here that it 11:45 happens not necessarily on individuals but on gatherings of 11:49 people. Convocations, assemblies It's going to take us setting 11:54 our pride aside and having humility of heart and love for 11:58 one another in order for us to see and experience what they 12:02 experienced on this day. So they were together, together, with 12:06 one accord in one place. Verse 2 says: And suddenly there came a 12:10 sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it 12:14 filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there 12:17 appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and one sat upon each 12:21 of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began 12:25 to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 12:29 Now this doesn't look like business as usual for the 12:32 apostles. This was a special day and it says that the whole house 12:35 was filled with this rushing mighty wind but to really get 12:39 the fullness of that you have to look at what it says as you keep 12:42 reading in the next couple verses. It says: There were 12:45 dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation 12:48 under heaven and when this sound occurred the multitude came 12:52 together. And it speaks about how they were confused because 12:54 everyone heard them speak in his own language. But you get this 12:57 picture that this is not an isolated incident. It is so 13:01 powerful, this noise is creating such a commotion. 13:04 Something exploded in town, what happened? 13:07 That's right. I mean we're talking about people who were 13:09 coming from every nation under heaven, so they're scattered 13:11 around here, around the area, and we're hearing this 13:13 incredible supernatural sound. God is calling the attention of 13:17 all these people to the apostles in this moment. This is their 13:22 moment to bear witness for him and to really create the 13:26 birthing of a large crop of souls to begin that early church 13:30 Now as we keep reading we're going to learn a little bit 13:34 about some of the special aspects of the Holy Spirit such 13:37 as the gift of tongues. But right now we need to take 13:40 a break, so if you'll stick by we'll be right back with you 13:44 studying the book of Acts. |
Revised 2014-12-17