PENTECOST – 2000

Day 50

Fred R. Coulter – June 11, 2000

Now for the Feast of Pentecost, the year 2000, there’s a tremendous meaning for this feast, and there are a lot of things that God wants us to know and to understand as we go forward and in keeping the holy days.  And all of the holy days really show us and teach us the ways of God.  Now it’s very interesting but in the Septuagint version of the Bible, when you go through Exodus 31, all the way through there with the exception of the seventh day Sabbath, it says, “My Sabbaths”, plural.  So you see you can’t have one without the other.  If you have the seventh day Sabbath, which you keep, then you must also keep the annual Sabbaths.

Now this day of the Feast of Pentecost pictures the finality of the harvest of the firstfruits.  And it all begins with Christ on the wave sheaf offering day, as we saw yesterday.  Let’s go back to Exodus 34 and let’s pick it up here in verse 26 because as we have seen Christ is the first of the firstfruits.  And so for ancient Israel God wanted the children of Israel to always remember that the first of the firstfruits belonged to God. 

Verse 26 says, “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God.”  Christ was the first of the firstfruits as we saw in John 20.  That He ascended to the Father on the morrow after the Sabbath.  He was the premier sheaf that was elevated by the priest to be accepted on our behalf.  In other words as the very sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins plus the resurrected Christ for the justification to put us in right standing with God, and for Christ to be at the right hand of God the Father, to carry out His plan and carry it forward.

Now let’s come to 1 Corinthians 15 and let’s see some very important things concerning the resurrection, and of course everything starts with the resurrection of Christ.  And as we saw yesterday that the firstfruits is a firstfruit harvest.  It is harvest holy day to celebrate the completing, the accomplishing of the firstfruits of the grain.  Now that’s not all the firstfruits which follow after that.  There are the firstfruits of the fruit of the tree, there are firstfruits of other products, other vegetables, other things that come along.  Those all belong to God.  But this is a special one.  And the harvest that God has with the Feast of Pentecost relates to and begins with Christ Who is the first of the firstfruits. 

Now let’s come to 1 Corinthians 15 and let’s understand something very important concerning the resurrection of Christ.  And especially in this day.  Now we need to understand too, and I’m going to emphasize again that you must have the right Bible.  And the right Bible is the one that is based upon the right Greek text and Hebrew text.  And so the King James Version has been based upon the proper texts.  Now I’ve been doing a translation, and it is all complete but we still have a little bit of editing to do to get it done.  So today when we get to the book of Revelation I’m going to use my translation of the book of Revelation.  But I use the same Greek text that was used that the translators of the King James Version used, which is the Byzantine text, also known as the authorized text, or the received text, or the text of 1550 by Stephens.  And so that’s the one that I have used.  Now let’s read here in the King James Version of the Bible.

Let’s begin here in verse 12, because this is important.  “Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  So immediately Satan is there.  As soon as the seeds have been sown Satan is there bringing his tares and infiltrating into the Church, bringing false doctrine and saying, “Why there’s no resurrection.  We’re all going to heaven.”  No. 

Notice Paul’s argument here.  “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen…”  Now I want you to notice the strength of his argument.  And I want you to know how dogmatically he brings it because this is important.  “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain…”  In other words they’re preaching a myth.  You’re preaching something that is empty, that is hollow, that has no meaning.  “…And your faith is also [in] vain.  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God…”  Now this is an important statement.  Anytime someone makes a statement that is not in conformity with the word of God, is a false witness for God.  Meaning that he is testifying of something which is not true, and claiming that God has sanctioned it.  Which then is false witnessing for God.  Taking the name of God in vain, using the name of God in futility and vanity.  “…Because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is [in] vain; ye are yet in your sins” (vs. 13-17). 

In other words there is no forgiveness of sin unless Christ, Who is the first of the firstfruits, ascended unto the Father to be accepted on the morrow after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which then is the first day beginning the 50 day count.  Unless that occurred there is no forgiveness of sin.  And you can also trust and be reassured that any other scheme of the forgiveness of sin will not bring the forgiveness of sin because Christ is the way and the truth and the life.  And there is no other way that it can be done than through Jesus Christ. 

Now continuing verse 18, “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”  Cause there’s no hope.  “If in this life only we have hope in Christ [without a resurrection], we are of all men most miserable.”  Why?  Because you’re believing in something that is false, if the dead are not raised.  But notice how Paul concludes his argument.  “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits [that is the first of the firstfruits] of them that [sleep] slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die…”  Because we all have inherited the law of sin and death within us, and so as in Adam we die.  Just like God told Adam.  “Dust you are and unto dust you shall return.”  “…Even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (vs. 18-22).  That is all the resurrections.  The three resurrections in the Bible.  The first resurrection, the second resurrection of those who have not committed the unpardonable sin, and the other part of the second resurrection, which is the resurrection of those who have committed the unpardonable sin.  All will be made alive in Christ.  Whether for eternal life, or whether for eternal death. 

Now notice verse 23, very important.  “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits…”  And as we saw yesterday, we are the Church of the Firstborn.  We are the firstfruit of the harvest but Christ is the first of the firstfruits.  “…Afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.”  And so that’s when the first resurrection is going to be, at His coming. 

Now we’re going to see then “at His coming”, how this pictures the day of Pentecost as the day of the resurrection.  And let’s understand that that is the only day that it can signify.  Well then someone will surely say, “Well then you’re saying you know when the return of Christ is.”  No we’re saying we know when the resurrection will be.  And the reason is we can go back this way.  Let’s look at it from what we already know.  Is Christ our Passover, Who was crucified for us?  Answer: yes.  When was He crucified?  On the Passover day.  Did God do it on the time and in the day that He prophesied, and in the way and the manner that He said that He would do it?  Yes. 

Now it’s exactly the same thing concerning the resurrection of Christ.  When was He raised?  Right at the end of the Sabbath after being in the grave three days and three nights.  When did He ascend to the Father?  On the wave sheaf offering day.  And then we saw how there are seven churches.  And those seven churches represent the harvest of the church age.  And the harvest of the church age then is part of the main harvest of God.  And that’s from the time that Christ ascended to heaven until the time of the first resurrection, which we will see.  Then every man in his own order.  We know that at the end of the thousand years there will be the second resurrection of those who have not committed the unpardonable sin.  And then the other half of the second resurrection, for those who committed the unpardonable sin, that all the wicked may be thrown in the lake of fire at once. 

So the holy days picturing God’s plan, these things happen on the holy days.  So let’s keep that in mind.  And let’s understand something that of the day of Christ’s coming no one really knows because I’ll show you why.  I’ll show you why a little bit later.  So let’s continue on here, and let’s pick up the story now in Acts 1 and let’s see what Luke wrote concerning the things, the events that took place after Christ was raised from the dead.

Now let’s begin here in Act 1:3, concerning Christ, “To whom also He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them of them forty days…”  Now isn’t it interesting that Christ was seen of the apostles from the time of His ascension until the time of His second ascension into heaven.  His first one to be accepted, and then His second one to remain in heaven.  He was seen of the apostles 40 days.  But also isn’t it interesting that after Pentecost, and the covenant that was made with Israel and the wedding supper of Israel with the 70 elders, as I explained yesterday, that Moses was on the mount with God 40 days.  So in either case we have 40 days.  In Christ’s case it’s 40 days before Pentecost.  And in Moses case it’s 40 days from the day after Pentecost.  So it’s 40 days.

“…And speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me.  For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy [Spirit] Ghost not many days hence.”  Which was just 10 days away.  “When they therefore were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?  And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own [authority] power” (Act. 1:3-7).  Remember this was before any of the New Testament was written.  And this was written before the book of Revelation was written by John.  And the book of Revelation is to reveal.  And all of the New Testament is to reveal the will of God and His word and His truth.

Verse 8 now, “But ye shall receive power [dunamis-power], after that the Holy [Spirit] Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  And so that is a continuous thing that is going on today.  And God has made it known.  And God has sent it out.  And there are Bibles in over 250 languages.  The New Testament in over 1,200 languages, and the book of Mark in over 2,000 languages, and all of that is preaching the gospel.  And so it is going out.  We all have our part to do our preaching.  We all have our part to do our witnessing.  And brethren, pray that God will open whatever doors are necessary for us to reach out and to reach new people. 

Now with our new web-site we’re able to reach out into all the world, 24-hours a day, seven days a week, and to anyone who has a computer can get on there and find out information concerning many things.  Now if you haven’t gotten on there yet go ahead and try it.  I’ll give you the .com address right here.  It is www.cbcg.org .  Now we have a lot of information and literature on there.  We have tapes on there.  We have sermons on there.  And we have some things especially concerning the beliefs booklet, which none of those who fellowship with the Christian Biblical Church of God have ever heard because we haven’t mailed them out.  We’ve done them especially for the web-site.  And we’re going to have some other things put on there, and hopefully this will also, what you’re seeing today will be on the web-site in the audio form. 

Now let’s continue on here, verse 9.  “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight.”  Just disappeared to go sit at the right hand of God the Father.  “And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;” That’s two angels.  Angels look like men.  “Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?  this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven”  (vs. 9-11) .

Now let’s go ahead and come here to Acts 2 and let’s see how tremendous and momentous this event was, and how important it is to understand the real meaning of verse 1.  And as I mentioned yesterday, we have the booklet, which is “The True Meaning of Acts 2:1”, because everyone has misconstrued this, twisted the scriptures to their own destruction to make it say something that it really doesn’t say.  So let’s read it in the King James.

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come…”  And some people say, “See, the 50th day was over.  They were all assembled with one accord in one place.  So see, that means they were there on the 51st day.”  That doesn’t relate to what the Greek really means.  The Greek here has a special articular infinitive, the present tense.  And this should be translated: and during the fulfilling, or the accomplishing of the 50th day, not the 51st.  If it were the 51st day then it would clearly say the 50th and first day.  But it doesn’t say that in the Greek. 

“And during the fulfilling of the 50^th day they were all with one accord in one place” (paraphrased).  Why?  They were assembled for the holy day, which is a holy convocation.  That’s why they were there. 

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven…”  Now you see here is the re-enactment of what we saw yesterday at Mt. Sinai.  Only instead of at Mt. Sinai it’s at the temple of God because that’s where God placed His name.  So anything that God was going to do, any authorization and change in the way that things were done would come from God.  And in this case by the power of His Holy Spirit, and right at the temple, so that it would be fully established that this was by the authority and the power of God,  undeniable. 

“…As of a rushing might wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire…”  Remember the fire on top of Mt. Sinai.  So this is showing the same fulfillment now only spiritually, of the day of Pentecost, as when the law was given on the day of Pentecost.  “…And it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy [Spirit] Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues [which means other languages], as the Spirit gave them utterance” (vs. 2-4).  Now let’s understand something very important here.  God is not the author of confusion, so whatever the Holy Spirit did was something that was sound, it was intelligible, it was understandable, and it was for a specific purpose.  And that’s what happened on this day of Pentecost. 

And here’s the reason.  “And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.  Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language” (vs. 5-6).  So there was a double miracle.  There was a miracle in the preaching.  Because in the minds of the apostles they were thinking and speaking with their own language, but in everyone who was listening it came to them in their own language.  Now this is a profound thing to understand. Not only just for Jews because remember the New Testament says, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.  So we have here to the Jew first, but also to those who were assembled there in Jerusalem who came from every nation on earth.  And please understand that the stories that went back from those who were up at Jerusalem during the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and all the events that took place that we have already covered.  How that Christ was crucified and raised from the dead, and all the stories that were told by the scribes and Pharisees to tell the lies that the disciples stole the body away.  And so now they knew that something big was going to happen on Pentecost, because it was a holy day of God.  And this was big.  This was great.  This was fulfilling the prophecy of God giving His Spirit to men.  And He began with the apostles. 

And it says here, verse 7, “ And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold are not all these which speak Galilaeans?  And how [since they are uneducated, that is the implication here] hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?” (vs. 7-8).  They were hearing, they were understanding, and then it lists all of the nations that they were from.  And the last part of verse 10 says Jews and proselytes.  Now proselytes were circumcised Gentiles who would embrace the religion of Judaism.

Now the last part of verse 11, “…we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”  So this day was tremendous.  “And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?  Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words.  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day” (vs. 11-15).  Now that is in the morning.  The third hour of the day.  When did God appear on Mt. Sinai?  In the morning.  When did He give the law?  On the day of Pentecost.  When did He give the Holy Spirit, in other words to give them the heart now to keep God’s laws?  Because remember, when He gave the Ten Commandments He said there in Deuteronomy 5:29, He said, “Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep My commandments always.”  Now God is supernaturally giving the heart, by the circumcision of the heart through the power of the Holy Spirit so that they would have, that they would have the ability now to keep the laws of God.  Greater than that.  God’s Spirit and power would write them in their hearts and in their minds so they could keep them with a willing heart, with a willing attitude.  And in service to God.  But first there has to be repentance as we will see in just a minute. 

Then Peter went on and gave this tremendous and powerful sermon.  Now notice verse 16.  “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;”  Now we’ll see how this ties in with Revelation 7 in just a little bit.  “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy:  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come” (vs. 16-20).  Well now He gave this prophecy.  It’s recorded here in Acts 2, but this has not yet occurred.  The only thing that has occurred of this is that the Holy Spirit was given.  The rest of it has not occurred.  That is for a future day of Pentecost, as we will see.  And so we need to keep that in mind.  We’ll see that when we get to the book of Revelation. 

“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:  Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it” (vs. 21-24).  Now then he finished giving the sermon saying that David was not resurrected from the grave but it was Jesus, even though He gave the promise to David.

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 34, “For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord…”  So they understood those Psalms.  Remember the very first time that they saw Jesus in the evening on the day that He ascended to the Father, back there in Luke 24, what did He do?  He opened their understanding concerning Him and the law, and the prophets, and the Psalms.  So here he’s quoting the Psalm here.  Psalm 110.   “…Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool” (vs. 34-35).

Verse 36, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  That was a powerful sermon, and notice what happened.  “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart…”  Now this is what has to happen to every one of us.  This is what has to happen to everyone who God calls.  They are pricked in their heart so they will understand what Christ went through to die for their sins and become the sacrifice for all of mankind.  And God leads you to repentance to understand that. 

And let’s understand something very important too.  Repentance is a continuous, ongoing thing in our lives.  By the operation of the grace of God, and He is the One Who leads us to it.  You know, just like the parable of the prodigal son, remember what happened to him?  He got his inheritance and went out and spent it, squandered it in a strange land and was out feeding the hogs good food.  He couldn’t even eat it.  And it says there, “…and when he came to himself…”  Now this is what you need to do concerning repentance.  You need to come to yourself.  That is understand where you are.  Understand your nature, understand your sins, and repent to God.  Now that’s what they did here.  “…They were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (vs. 37).  Because there are things that God wants us to do.    

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent…”, and repentance means to turn from your sin, turn from the way you’re going.  Turn back and come to God.  Just like God said through Ezekiel, “Turn you, turn you, for why will you die O house of Israel.”  So it’s the same way with us.  And I hope there are brethren out there who are turning back to God.  Why will you die O Church of God, you that have gone astray?  Turn you, turn you, come back to God.  Let your hearts be pricked.