The Connection Between the Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost

Well, thank you again, Andy. Happy Sabbath, brethren. As always, it is a delight to have all of you with us on this very beautiful Sabbath day. I've been struggling with allergies a little bit this week. It's funny, I didn't even know what an allergy was until I hit my 50s. And now, allergy season, I know when it's here every year. So it's amazing how our body changes as we get older.

Well, just a week ago, we celebrated the seven days of unleavened bread. It already seems like a long time ago, I think, in many of our minds. We observed these days in celebration of Jesus Christ, the bread of life who died for us and who offers to live in us. And we represented that during the days of unleavened bread. We got the leaven out and represented sin and things we don't want in our lives. And then, for those seven days, we ate unleavened bread, picturing the bread of life himself living his life in us. Because of that, as always, the feast was meaningful and it was spiritually rewarding. But what about the intervening weeks between the end of the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost?

As a church, we have tended to act as if the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost are isolated from each other. And I think part of this is because we don't live in an agricultural community like ancient Israel did. I mean, I grew up in the inner city and in my backyard, there was a whole ten feet of grass before you got to a fence. On the other side of that fence was a railroad track and you could hear trains running by all day.

And on the other side of that train was a huge old dirty ugly-looking factory. So I couldn't have grown up any farther away from a farm as humanly possible than to grow up on East 148th Street off of St. Clair Avenue. It was a different world. And most of us have grown up in cities and not in agricultural environments. So we don't have that flair of appreciating what a harvest is.

And because of that, I think it has influenced us as a people and perhaps even as a church.

We tend to do act anyway as if the days of unleavened bread are remote and isolated from the day of Pentecost. And, you know, the days of unleavened bread end. And what do we do? We go out and we buy bread again.

And we have a pizza. And when we start thinking about it, a lot of weeks down the road is Pentecost. Yeah, that's right. Pentecost is coming. It'll happen in early summer.

But there's a lot more. There's a deep, rich connection that a great God originally intended between the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost that can be easily forgotten about that we may not totally appreciate or understand.

During most years, there are less than seven weeks between the seventh day of unleavened bread and the day of Pentecost. And that's because we begin counting the fifty days during the spring holy day season, during the Sabbath of the spring holy day season. We have not typically connected these two feasts together like we should. And today, what I would like to encourage us to do is look at God's plan. Look what he revealed to us as originally intended for this period of time to be. And it was originally intended to be a season of rejoicing, connecting the days of unleavened bread, because it actually was a seven-week harvest festival, connecting the days of unleavened bread together linked with Pentecost, and not just two isolated holy days. Yes, this one was good, and we had a great spring holy day, and then we went out and we got bread when it was over, and we just kind of got disconnected from that, and we're looking forward somewhere down the road. I'm sure Mr. Thomas will remind us when Pentecost is coming up. Well, God intended more than that. He intended more than that to be our perception, our approach, our appreciation of his holy days. God has a distinct message for us during this period of approximately 50 days, between the days of unleavened bread and Pentecost, but before we explore what that message is, let's review some biblical history from both the Old Testament and the New Testament regarding this period of time.

So if you'll turn to Leviticus 23, again in verse 6, God's religious feast are associated with agro-cultural harvest in Palestine. There are two great harvest seasons each year. The first small harvest occurred in the spring, and it was reflected beginning in the days of unleavened bread on through the early summer. It was a grain harvest, and there were two types of grain.

The earliest part of that that began during the days of unleavened bread was the barley harvest. Now, you may or may not appreciate this, but in ancient Israel, barley was considered an inferior grain. It just didn't taste good like wheat does.

So it was the beginning of that seven-week harvest season, but what everyone really looked forward to and got excited about was when the barley petered out and the grain harvest continued and the wheat came in and replated because it just tasted better.

It made better bread. It was more desirable to the palate. So it's something that people became excited about during that period of time. Again, that was a grain harvest.

A larger harvest occurred later in the year and was reflected through the fall holy days. And it was a fruit harvest. Instead of being a harvest of grains, like in the spring and summer, the fall harvest, as it's associated with, of course, in the Feast of Tabernacles, was a harvest of the fruit season. Fruit takes a lot longer to set and then grow and develop and ripen. And that takes a longer period of time. So that occurred in the fall.

Now in ancient Canaan, the spring harvest season lasted seven weeks, beginning with the barley harvest soon after the Passover. And this was the start of the first yearly annual harvest going on in Palestine.

And seven weeks later, the spring harvest season ended when the wheat harvest occurred on the day of Pentecost. Now with that little bit of background and understanding of the geography and climate of ancient Palestine, let's take a look at Leviticus 23, verse 6.

And on the fifteenth day of the same month, this is a bib that it's talking about, the first month, is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord, seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

We did that. On the first day, you shall have a holy convocation. That means you have to have a convention. You're not to all sit around all alone in your tents, just observing this by yourselves. You're all to gather together.

God loves public worship. He loves when his people get out together to share and worship and give him honor and glory as his people.

So it's a holy convocation you shall do no customary work on. It's not the day that you go to work due to things like you do any other day. It would be a special day. Obviously, it can't be special if we make it ordinary.

It can't be a great day if we make it mundane by doing the worldly work that we do and can do any other day of the week.

Verse 8, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. Obviously, we're part of the new covenant. We don't make an offer made in offering a fire to the Lord. Jesus Christ was the ultimate fulfillment of all offerings.

Besides that, we are living sacrifices today. We don't need to make offerings to please God. He is already pleased with our decision to love Him and follow Him and become the disciples of His Son Jesus Christ. So let's continue here. Verse 9, Now, this just wasn't one little stalk of the barley. This was a sheaf. And a sheaf, if you look up in a dictionary, it says, We will offer that sheaf bundle to God, to God's glory, as a thankfulness, a thank offering for God's goodness of a great harvest yet to come, of bountiful blessings to be given to the people. So let's take a look at, again, verse 11.

We will interpret things differently, but we make that determination because the context is what is occurring here during the days of Unleavened Bread. And there's a weekly Sabbath in most years during the days of Unleavened Bread, and there's also a provision that you do in case that Sabbath happens to fall on one of the high days. But nonetheless, I say that because we believe the Sabbath referred to the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread, not the first high day or the last. Picking it up in verse 14.

From the day that you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 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 the fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, that is what we call a Monday. Then you shall offer a new grain offering, which would be wheat, because wheat would be what was harvested at that time, approximately seven weeks later, a new grain offering to the Lord. So, during the days of Unleavened Bread, that special ceremony would occur on the day after the weekly Sabbath. The first bundle of the newly harvested barley grain was brought to the priests, and the fresh harvest was presented to God as a wave sheaf offering, along with other offerings. The Israelites were not to eat any of the new barley harvest until this special offering was made on the day after the Sabbath, during the days of Unleavened Bread, and it was very meaningful to them. Then, after seven full weeks, again, on the morning after the Sabbath, another grain offering was made to God during another holy day. This festival was called the Feast of Weeks, due to the fact that it was counted seven weeks after the earlier barley offering. So, the grain offering was wheat after the seven weeks, and occurred on what we today call Pentecost, which means counting fifty. The Israelites celebrated the entire seven weeks with joy, because it was a harvest season. For those seven weeks, they gathered the grain harvest of the land, and the land had produced plenty for them. Let me see if I can give us an idea of how important it would have been to them, because we're just so spoiled in our Western culture. If I want a tomato, or if I want something good to eat, I hop in my car, and I drive down to Piggly Wiggly, or Kroger's, or whatever my favorite food store is, and there are acres and acres of food to buy. Life is good, as a Westerner in the 21st century. But these people, they didn't have those conveniences. They hadn't tasted fresh grain bread in months. Remember, this season, harvest season lasts seven weeks. Then it's gone. You have to store up virtually everything you can for the whole year in that seven-week period. Then you at least have fruits to eat in the fall holy days. When those come along, you can at least eat some fruits. But even with those, you have to find some way to preserve—and by the way, they didn't have refrigerators—to preserve your fruits for a whole other season. So it had been a long time before they had eaten fresh grains. So in their culture, this was a big deal to have come through a long winter, and it had been many, many, many, many months since you'd had fresh grains to eat. You'd been living off of stored supplies that were quite aged for a long time. This was exciting. This was like God giving you a lease on life for another year.

In other words, if you were to have a successful harvest, then you knew that you would not only have enough to eat today, but all the excess you could store and package and put away. And you'd know you have something to eat at least for another year until another harvest comes. That was a big deal to them. And because it was so important, they rejoiced. It was a season of rejoicing.

So God used the agricultural system to explain His plan of salvation for humankind. It would consist of a small first fruit harvest in the spring that lasted seven weeks long, followed by a great harvest of souls at the close of the millennium. Let's go to Deuteronomy 16, verse 8, and again emphasize why this was such an important time to Israel. Deuteronomy 16, verse 8.

You shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. Now notice verse 11. Then you shall rejoice before the Lord. Why? Because you just got a lease on life. You just got a one-year ticket to eating. Not getting up every day and saying to yourself, How am I going to feed my family today? That worry was gone. How am I going to feed my family in a month? That worry would be gone. If the harvest was plentiful and God blessed the nation, then there would be enough to store and preserve and get you through another year. But I want you to notice what it says. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God. Not just you, but your son and your daughter and your male servant. Even people that you don't think are up to your level in culture and society. Maybe people that they would look down on. Your male servant, they have a right to rejoice. Your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger, someone who looks different than you, comes from a different culture. Maybe their skin color is different. They have a right to rejoice, as much of a right as you do. And the fatherless and the widow who are among you at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide. What God is trying to say is, everyone is to rejoice. This is a time, a season of harvest, and it's a time of rejoicing. So again, I want to emphasize the entire seven-week period was a time of rejoicing, beginning with the lower quality barley harvest, and as it petered out, it was replaced by the wheat harvest, which ripened just a little bit later. In Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 3, it says this, and I'll read in the new century version, God, you have caused the nation to grow and made the people happy, and they have shown their happiness to you like the joy during harvest time, like the joy of people taking what they have won in war. So the excitement level was as if you just won a great battle and you're all dividing the booty up among yourselves. That's how the excitement level was. Well, that's a little bit of background from the Old Testament. Now let's go fast forward to 31 A.D. We're going to take a look at some of these exact events in 31 A.D. It's that time that we believe Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday afternoon that year, that he was dead three days and three nights as he said himself that he would be, and he likened himself to Jonah, who was three days and three nights in the heart of the whale, and he swallowed up in Jonah in his own pit, in his own form of death, before he was spit out of the whale. We believe, of course, that Christ arose on late Saturday afternoon, and that, of course, his resurrection changed history, changed the world forever. So let's go to John, chapter 19. Let's pick up the story here and learn a few things about this time of the year we've been discussing and how it relates to the New Testament. John, chapter 19, verse 30.

We're going to begin at the crucifixion. So when Jesus had received a sour wine, he said it is finished, and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

Therefore, because it was the preparation day that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Very key verse. The other gospels don't give this kind of detail that tells us that this was occurring before the first day of Unleavened Bread. That was the high day that is referred to here in John, chapter 19. I'm going to read this from the New Century version. This day was preparation day, and the next day was a special Sabbath day, since the Jews did not want the bodies to be on the cross on the Sabbath day. And they asked Pilate in order that the legs of the man be broken and that the bodies be taken away. So it was the eve of the first day of Unleavened Bread, which, as John would say, was a high day. It was one of God's annual holy days, a very special time. The Jews didn't want people hanging on crosses during the high day. So that is why they rushed to try to get these individuals to die quickly. Of course, Jesus is already dead because he'd been stabbed in the side, and he bled to death. The blood and water came out of his side. And when they went to break his legs, it wasn't necessary to break his legs because he was already dead. But the point that I'm trying to bring out here is that it's now afternoon and nearing the evening of the first day of Unleavened Bread, called a high day or a special Sabbath. And this was in 31 A.D. and we believe the first day of Unleavened Bread, the best that we can reckon it was a Thursday in that year. Remember that Jesus had instituted the New Covenant Passover on the evening before so that he could be our spiritual Passover and die at the same time that the lambs were being slaughtered in the temple.

Now, this was contrary to the majority of Jews who would observe the Passover on the evening of the first day of Unleavened Bread.

And one way that this is confirmed is the fact that during the arrest and trial of Jesus, some of the Jewish officials would not go into a Gentile building because they did not want to be defiled.

They wanted to be able to keep the Passover. And this was after Jesus had taught his disciples about the New Covenant Passover that we observe. So they wanted the bodies to come down from the cross and be buried before sunset when the Holy Day began. That was their instruction. Now, let's go to John 20, verse 1.

So Jesus was buried. And three days and three nights elapsed. And then a little bit more time elapsed because Jesus came to awareness, came to life again on late Saturday afternoon. So you had the rest of that entire evening, that night, and now we're going to go into Sunday morning when it's still dark. It might be 4 a.m. It might be 5 a.m. All the Scriptures say that Mary comes to the tomb while it's early, while it is still dark. And let's see what she finds. Now, on the first day of the week, this is John, chapter 20, verse 1, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, We have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. And Peter therefore went out and the other disciple and were going to the tomb. And they both ran together and the other disciple outran Peter. By the way, the other disciple is John. John was a humble man. He became known as the Apostle of Love. This book was written later after he had grown and matured quite a bit. To John, it wasn't all about, and I said this and I did this, and it's all about me and I and my. He referred to himself in the third person. He was more comfortable in doing that. So it's actually John who is this other disciple. The other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first, and he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying there, yet did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb and saw the linen clothes lying together. And the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciples who came to the tomb first went in also and saw and believed. Now when it says believe here, it means believed what Mary had told them, that the body was gone. This doesn't mean they immediately believed that Jesus, they were far from being to the point yet that they believed that Jesus Christ was literally resurrected from the dead. So when it says he saw and believed, it means that he believed what he had been told by Mary. Verse 9, it says, for as yet they did not know the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. And the disciples went away again to their own homes. So they went away confused. They went away concerned, anxious. I want you to notice on this early Sunday morning, well before sunrise, Mary went to the tomb and she found it empty. And she ran and she told Peter and John. The two disciples went to the tomb and they found it empty except for the burial clothes.

They went away to their homes confused and afraid. If you look in detail at the layout of the clothes, what does it tell us? Have you ever wondered why the handkerchief that had been placed around his head was not with the other linen pieces? Why that handkerchief was folded together in a place by itself? Why that would have been so distinguishing that Peter was inspired to remember it and obviously passed it on to John. Because Peter's the one that had looked in there and studied everything in detail and that it was recorded for us. Well, here's why. The layout of these clothes clearly showed that the body was not taken away in a hurry or by thieves. The layout of the burial clothes lay in such order with care and composure that they were diligently done either by Jesus Christ himself or by the angels. If thieves came in to take the body, they would not studiously take the linen clothes and set them over here. They would not, with care and order and composure, take that cloth that had covered the face of Jesus Christ and folded it neatly and place it to the side. Thieves don't do those kinds of things. They would have been in there, they would have had the place looking like a shambles, they would have stolen the body, they would have left. So the reason that kind of detail is in here is, again, to show that there was order, care and composure that was done either by Jesus Christ or by his angels. Now, if Jesus Christ, as we believe, literally came back to life on late Saturday afternoon, what would he have done Saturday night if he'd have sat in that tomb?

Well, think about it. First of all, he probably would have spent a lot of hours thanking his father for bringing him back to life again. He would have had a lot of prayer and meditation just sitting in there, thinking about his whole life and the 30-plus years he had walked on earth and how it had all been a culmination of all of those events that led to his terrible crucifixion.

But yet it was all worthwhile, Father, because you have given me life once again. You, Father, have made me the firstborn of many brethren. Think the hours and hours and hours that he would have just sat there and praised his father, knowing that this was perhaps the most crucial event in God's plan, that his son would be a provision to remove sin from humankind.

And Jesus had a lot of time in his hands to think about that, a lot of time in his hands to pray about that. And evidently, also some time in his hands to provide order and care and composure, even in the side of something that was intended to be his very own tomb.

John 20, verse 11. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?

And she said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid them. Again, she doesn't quite get the connection of the resurrection. Now, when she had said this, she turned and she saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And she, supposing him to be a gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him, Rabbanai, which is to say, Teacher. And she says something about the inflection in his voice. He didn't look like it. What she saw most likely was an individual whose face was heavily scarred.

Because Jesus took a terrible beating before He died. So the man that she saw, she didn't recognize Him physically as Jesus. But when he talked enough, there was something about the timber, or his inflections, or the cadence, and the way that he said, Mary, or something about that, that she finally recognized that this was Jesus.

And Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren, and say, I am ascending to my father, and your God, and to my God, and your God. Verse 18, And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her. So let's continue analyzing what's occurred here. Mary stayed at the tomb weeping, and then she re-entered the tomb, and she sees two angels who speak to her.

Jesus then appears himself, and he speaks to her. At first she doesn't recognize him. The man she's talking to is disfigured with scars, and she assumes him to be a gardener. The Greek word for gardener is kaporos, which means a garden keeper or a warden of a piece of property. So the man doesn't necessarily look like Jesus, but as he continues to speak, she recognizes him indeed as the Christ.

And in her excitement, she's ready to embrace him, but he stops her because he says, there's something that I've got to do. There's something that I have to fulfill. He says, don't cling to me because I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say that I am right now ascending to my father and to your father and to my God and to your God. And that's exactly what she did. Well, why is this so important?

It's because it is the day after the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread. Remember, the first day of Unleavened Bread was that high day that we spoke about. That was on Thursday. And then three days and three nights Jesus Christ awoken on late Saturday afternoon. Mary came to the tomb early while it was still dark on Sunday, and she meets Jesus Christ, who she thinks is the gardener or the warden of the property. This very Sunday that she meets him is the day after the weekly Sabbath during the days of Unleavened Bread.

On this very morning, the priest in the temple was preparing to offer that first barley grain offering that he had done for millennia, thereby beginning the seven-week Spring Harvest Festival. Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of that wave sheaf offering. He was the first to be resurrected, the first born of many brethren. That's why he ascended to the Father to be welcomed and greeted by the Father as the first and as the high priest of humankind. This is a very important theological concept for us to understand. He was going to ascend to his Father's throne and be accepted as the first of the firstfruits, the first born of many brethren.

And beginning with Christ, the firstfruits or smaller harvest of God's children would begin. And from that day on, for the last two thousand years, including today, God the Father began calling and elect few to prepare them for service in the kingdom of God. And it's in the kingdom of God when that far greater harvest would take place, as outlined as we know by what we call the eighth day or the last great day.

Now, I want to remind you that this very day that Jesus told her that he was going to ascend to the Father and be accepted by the Father and to go and tell the disciples that the very same day he said that later today, and according to John chapter 20 and verse 19, he literally walked through a locked door so matter no longer held him back. He walked through a locked door and he startled the disciples. In Luke's account of the story, chapter 24 and verse 39, he told them to handle me, touch me, and see that I'm for real, that this is truly Jesus Christ. So after he refused to allow Mary to cling to him, he traveled to the Father's throne.

He was accepted as the complete ultimate waysheap offering to begin a new spiritual harvest, and then he returned back to earth to visit with his disciples. But let's ask a question, and I think it's a fair one. Jesus is only one individual. The priest was to take a sheaf or a bundle of grain. Remember when we read that? Leviticus chapter 23 and verse 10, a bundle of grain to wave it as the first offering. Well, how was this fulfilled at the time of Christ? How was this fulfilled according to God's plan? Let's turn to Matthew chapter 27 and verse 50 and find out. Matthew chapter 27 and verse 50.

Matthew was inspired to record verse 50, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit. So he died. This is Matthew's account of the crucifixion and the death of Jesus Christ. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. So that veil in the temple always was a symbol that said, you can't know God. That veil said, there is a barrier. There is a curtain between you and having a relationship with God. You can't know God. You can't be a friend of God. You can't be a child of God. There is a barrier there, and that barrier is called sin.

And by the very fact that that was rent in two was symbolic of the fact that being torn from top to bottom is that barrier has been removed. And because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we can be close to God. We can have a relationship with God. We can be a child of God. We can be a friend of God's. But let's take a look at verse 52.

And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, I want you to notice the order, they came out of their graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city, and appeared to many. So that sheaf consisted of the first and foremost Jesus Christ, who was the first of the firstfruits in the ultimate wave sheep offering. But that sheaf bundle also included many bodies of the saints who perhaps centuries earlier had fallen asleep, the mean they had died, and they were raised back to physical life again. They were also part of that bundle to fulfill that prophecy. So again, I want to emphasize that these people were part of what God had planned all along. They lived out their lives, their physical lives once again, and they died, and they are awaiting a resurrection. The complete wave sheaf, offering Jesus Christ because of what He did, offers reconciliation and redemption for all humankind. Well, now let's go to Acts chapter 1 and verse 9. I'd like you to begin thinking once again about the beginning of my sermon today, and that is that if we want to truly glean and appreciate God's original intention for the days on leavened bread and Pentecost, let's not separate them. Let's not look upon them as two isolated holy days that just happened to occur about seven weeks apart. God had a plan, and His plan was that that entire period of time was the time of harvest. That entire period of time was a time of rejoicing. It was a season of rejoicing. Acts chapter 1 and verse 9. The former account—that's the book of Luke. This is Luke who obviously also authored the book of Acts. The former account, which was his first book called the book of Luke, I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day He was taken up, after which, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. So out of forty days, the forty days leading to the fifty days of Pentecost, what did Jesus do? He spoke to His disciples pertaining the kingdom of God. He was teaching. He was encouraging because it was all about a harvest. Verse 4, being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, You have heard from Me. For John truly baptized you with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me. And here's the connection. Here's what our job is during this harvest season. Here's what we are to focus on during the seven-week harvest season. You are to be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and then in all Judea, and then in Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Now, when He had spoken to these things while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received in them out of their sight.

For 40 days, Jesus taught and instructed them to become witnesses and ambassadors for the kingdom of God. Their lives and their message was to reflect the fact that Jesus Christ proclaimed the future restoration of the kingdom of God on earth. And after His ascension for the remaining days, no Pentecost, the disciples says in later on here in this chapter, we don't have time to read it today, but it says they gathered together in prayer and fasting. And you know what else they did? Because they understood that they had a mission. They replaced Judas with Matthias, so that there would be a complete team to do the job that they had to do.

I think this is encouraging. I think this is inspiring, brethren. Let's go to Matthew 9, and verse 36. Matthew 9, and verse 36. We only have a couple more scriptures we're going to read today as we conclude this sermon. Matthew 9, and verse 36.

I don't think what Jesus saw here and felt here and said here in 30 AD is any different than the environment that exists today, whether that environment is grafted in Ohio, the state of Ohio, the United States, or the world. It says, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. And that's certainly true of our world today. People are lost. People are confused. Many are weary of living. And to try to endure the weariness of life, they'll try any substance and try to numb the pain of their daily existence.

Verse 37. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Brother, this is a harvest season, a new harvest season that has begun in the year 2015, seven weeks long from the days of Unleavened Bread until Pentecost. That is what is reflected in God's Word. Will you be a laborer? Will you allow your life to reflect that of being a laborer?

Will you contribute in some way to this congregation? To help us to preach the good news of the kingdom of God to our community, to Northern Ohio, to Greater Cleveland. After all, our congregation, we call ourselves the Greater Cleveland congregation. We have folks from all over the Greater Cleveland area who come in fellowship with us every week. Will you be a laborer? Are you willing to make that commitment? When you are final scripture, let's go to John chapter 4 and verse 31. Because here he also talks about laborers. And I think this is the best scripture to leave us with today. As we ponder the fact once again that the days of Unleavened Bread are not an isolated group of holy days in which we simply take leaven out of our homes and eat Unleavened Bread for seven days followed by this gap or this period of time. And then, oh, here's Pentecost already on us. That it's a lot more than that. John chapter 4 and verse 31, in the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat. He's working so hard. He's probably losing weight. Maybe he's physically shaking, but they notice something about him and they say, this man needs some food. But he said to them, I have food to eat of which you do not know. Therefore the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him anything to eat? What's he mean by this, Philip? Are you sneaking chocolate bars to him? We're not looking. They're confused by his statement because no one has seen him eating. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say there are still four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. My brothers and sisters in Christ, let's lift up our eyes and look at the fields of Greater Cleveland because they're already white for harvest. There are a lot of hurting, broken people in this world who need the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news of the Gospel. You need to hear it and understand that message of healing and that message of hope.

And then Jesus continues to say in verse 36, and he who reaps receives wages. And not just some distant time in the future, but the very fact that you reap, that you're a laborer, you benefit from it because you're a part of God's plan. You're a part of God's team. He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps together rejoice or rejoice together.

For in this the saying is true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored, others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.

Well, brethren, this is a harvest season that you and I are in. That season just began a week ago, and God is still calling children. Almost every week someone brand new walks through the door of this building from most folks recently the local community. Someone who was here last week who stopped by again. And I guess the message I would like to enforce to all of us today are let us let us look at ourselves as laborers. Let us look at ourselves as the people gifted to see that white field and that harvest out there. And we can either expect God to do everything and expect God to do it all, or sometimes we may even be barriers to what God is trying to do, or we can say, God, help me to do my part. However small that may be, help me to do my part in being a productive laborer and to participate in this harvest that you are calling into your end time church. Have a wonderful Sabbath day. Again, I apologize for my allergy attacks and wish all of you a wonderful Sabbath.