God's Plan of Salvation, Part 7

God's plan of salvation contains many components. Some of the components are things that God Himself does. Some of those things that God does as His portion of the plan of salvation include creating the plan, include creating the physical creation, sustaining it, providing the law, the life. It involves creating people with the image that He has, with the intent of upgrading them at some point into His very divine state, with His nature.

That is a process of Him giving, calling, giving part of His mind, His Holy Spirit to those individuals, helping them with faith, with knowledge, with repentance, encouraging them to make the right choices. It involves His part of justification in providing His Son and the blood of His Son, forgiveness, mercy. It involves Jesus Christ coming and living a life with examples for us in giving direction, Him giving us His faith through that Holy Spirit. Mercy, leadership, inspiration, wisdom, protection, graciousness, and a whole transformation process of individuals that takes a lifetime. Our portion, those who are called, includes being responsive to God's drawing.

When you throw something out and you catch a fish or you put a rope around something and you draw it, there usually is resistance. And you wonder if you're going to be able to get this in. None can come to Christ unless the Father draws Him, it said. It is up to us to be responsive and not fight that drawing or that calling. We have to be trusting and faithful. We have to be repentant. We have to be led by God's Holy Spirit, not just having it. We have to be fulfilling the elements the Bible speaks of for justification that are our portion of justification. Faith, workers, doers of the law, etc. We have to be doing righteousness. We have to love God and love man. We have to be growing in spiritual maturity, holy righteous character. We have to walk with God and let Him transform us as willing participants. This plan of salvation has many complexities. And Romans 2, just a few verses here, three verses in Romans 2, can kind of give us a summary of some of those things. Romans 2, beginning in verse 4, Do you despise the riches of His goodness, God's side of the equation, His forbearance, His long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? So there's part of God's side of this process that leads to salvation. In verse 6, Who will render to each one according to His deeds? Well, that speaks to our side, our responsibility, the deeds that we do. Eternal life to those who by patient or, as it might read, persevering continuance in doing good. The Bible uses the term doing good on a spiritual plane. It is equated with agape, with the mindset of God being actually in practice, doing this godly thing that God has taught us, seeking for glory, honor, and immortality. So here's just a glimpse at that complicated process that God has spent so much time and involvement in bringing to us, and that we need to dedicate this short life that we have towards pursuing righteousness so that He can come and give or render eternal life to those who are doing the things that we are here to be doing. But as Paul also states, the goodness of God leads us toward salvation. It doesn't give us salvation. Our own part doesn't give us salvation. You might remember, for instance, in the last festival we kept, the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Israelites marched following God, who later became Christ, for six days. And they marched, and they faithfully followed Him, and they moved all the way to the edge of the Red Sea.

But that did not get them out of Egypt. They were still facing the Red Sea. It was an impossibility. It was as far as the eye could see and further. Something else has to bring us to immortality, to salvation.

The converted righteous saints, like hopefully you are and I am, involved in this process, struggling, trying to do our part, are still flesh and blood. You and I still are just human beings. And as we get older, we decline a little bit.

And we face the inevitable that no matter how right we live or righteous we are, and no matter how pleasing we are to God, and no matter how good we do the works that we are here to perform, we will die. And when we die, we go through a process that's not so pleasant. We tend to like to put it underground out of sight. It's called corruption.

So we will go through corruption. Oven by ourselves, that is as far as we can get. Let's notice this in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50. It's one of those stark realities.

First screen is chapter 15 and verse 15.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit in corruption. So lest anybody think that God's plan of salvation is about somehow us getting our own immortality or earning our own salvation, that's what we oven by ourselves have. A nice life that gets nicer and better, the more we live God's way, the more He enjoins with us and helps us become more children of His. But we are still humans that die. We cannot inherit the kingdom as flesh and blood any more than the Israelites could inherit the Promised Land standing at the shore of the Red Sea.

That takes a special miracle. And in part, this festival that we are observing, which we call the Feast of Pentecost, speaks to something God does. Speaks to miracles on God's side. Speaks to things done to us, not for us or by us, but done to us. Things that we simply cannot even participate in. But God, in His wonderful mercy, in His very loving, gracious mindset, does for us, to us.

This festival, you might say, is a mystery in a sense. What is the meaning of the festivals? If you look at seven of God's festivals, take the Sabbath. You don't look in the Bible and say, the Sabbath means this. If you look at Unleavened Bread, it doesn't say, the days of Unleavened Bread mean this. Or Pentecost means this. Or Trumpets means this. Or Atonement means this.

Feast of Tabernacles means this. So the eighth or last great day means this. You don't just flip. Well, there's what the meaning of the feast day is about. Mr. Armstrong, back in the 1930s, started keeping the feasts. And for seven years, he kept them and he didn't know what they meant.

It comes through understanding, through looking into the Word of God, through inspiration of God's Holy Spirit, to come to grasp really why we do what we do. And God's feasts, His annual festivals, celebrate and teach us about His plan of salvation for all of humanity.

Here we now come to what I might call the most complex of all the festivals. Because Pentecost actually is a very complex festival.

It is the feast that has the most names of any feast.

It is a feast that has the most meanings.

Meanings are stacked. They're layered.

Some from an entry level all the way to immortality, symbolized by this day.

It includes upgrades and transitions toward salvation for the firstfruits of the very divine family of God.

A consistent theme of Pentecost seems to be that it's things that are done not for us, like Passover, not with us, like unleavened bread as we walk with Christ, but done to us.

Let's examine some of these in part 7 of this series that I've been giving on God's plan of salvation.

Part 7, immortality.

As we've seen in 1 Corinthians, it's not something that we can give ourselves.

It's not something we really even participate in, creating ourselves into immortal beings. But rather, it's something that is done to us by a God who judges and decides who will be his children.

Sometimes we look at the Day of Atonement and we say, well, I'm sorry, the Day of Pentecost, and we say, well, Pentecost stands for the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Well, that's one layer. Or the giving of the law. Well, there's a layer.

The start of the New Testament church. Well, there's a layer. In fact, those are just some of the layers. And some of the titles, some of the names, the official names the Bible gives for this feast. Speak to some of those layers.

Rather than viewing it as an apple, as a one thing, well, here's the feast and this is what Pentecost stands for.

We might look at it more as an onion.

With the various layers, the various transitioning events that take place along the way to the ultimate immortality that the firstfruits are invited to and given by God.

You know, this feast has another complexity. Just calculating when it occurs is challenging.

It took the church about 35 years, beginning from the 1930s, to figure out what day even to place Pentecost on.

And people often refer to it as falling on Sunday. Well, in part, but you see, this feast doesn't happen on Sunday. It begins last evening at sunset on Saturday.

Rather, to be more accurate, the feast of Pentecost falls on the first day of the week, the biblical first day of the week, from sunset to sunset.

There are several phases to God's plan of salvation and Pentecost really speaks to the progression of several of those layers and phases from people into finally becoming firstfruits.

Finally, these transitions and culminations result in the first resurrection. Let's go look at the target. Let's go look at the ultimate objective of the feast of firstfruits, one of its names, Revelation 20, verses 4-6.

I'm always amazed by this particular set of sentences in that here is an angel who is wound up tight, excited about something. The Greek for the word blessed would probably be better translated.

Oh, how supremely blessed are those who are those who this day ultimately speak about and what happens to them.

It says in verse 4, And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. This is John speaking. And I saw the souls, the lives, the living individuals, of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or its image, had not received His mark, and their foreheads are on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Now that's exciting, but notice how terminal this event is and how terminal Pentecost is. It's an event that takes place, and then it's done. Verse 5, But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. The first fruits of the family of God take place here. In verse 6, And that event is massively huge to the God family. It is finally the fulfillment of all the billions of years of planning and creating and everything that they've done and giving their lives and working for thousands of years with humans. Finally, they reap a small harvest. As Mr. Armstrong said, the important thing about Pentecost is this the small harvest. There's a bigger one coming later. But these individuals will help, help Christ as His bride with the larger harvest. To get to that finality that we just read in Revelation, let's dig down through a few layers and recognize some other events and layers and transitions that come before it in order for saints to be there. If we look at the life of Moses, Moses was a slave. He was a slave's child in Egypt.

He was taken into the court of Pharaoh, though, and he was a little different than the other Israelites in that God began to prepare him to transition him to move up a layer.

Moses spent a lot of time learning to write. The Israelites would have been illiterate for the most part because writing had only begun about the time of Abraham. And by this time, it wasn't that much later, and they had been in a different part of the world, probably as slaves were not literate.

But Moses, who would be doing some important writing of the Pentateuch, was being trained. And then he was 40 years in the wilderness, as it were. And then he received a calling from God.

When you look at Moses, he had a dramatic calling with the burning bush, and God said, Moses, I want you, I'm assigning you, I'm appointing you to begin doing some things, some training here. I'm going to have you go to Pharaoh, I'm going to have you do a few things and talk to Israel.

So he began his training. As time went on, we see Moses learning from watching God as they marched out of Egypt. Moses is observing. God had him participate once in a while. Take that rod and you hold that and you do what I say with it and the Red Sea is going to part. There's some training going on there, a little bit of mentoring. But then, on Pentecost, God himself transitions from just being the pillar of fire. He transitions on Mount Sinai into the speaking, talking, glorified God that is so bright in front of those Israelites, they were terrified by it. Thankfully, the brightness of God was enshrouded in some type of cloud or it might have killed him. They were afraid of dying just from the noise. God was then elevated to the one who would live in the temple, live in the holy place. Moses transitioned, you remember, on Pentecost, the same Pentecost, going up to where God was, to being taught by God, receiving the Ten Commandments, being the one to convey this law back to the Israelites. And as you'll know, the glory of God was transformed into Moses' face. He became so bright that the people asked him to wear a veil. And he became the spiritual teacher of Israel. And he was the one who wrote what God said, which was then called the law of Moses, because he was the one who penned it. It was God's law. But even Jesus Christ referred to it as the law of Moses. So Moses then had this transition up to the nation's spiritual leader, and simultaneously on the same Pentecost, the Israelites, who had been slaves and brought out of Egypt, were transitioned into the children of God through the covenant, through the covenant at Sinai. They became God's holy nation, His children. It was quite an event that took place. Now, if you transfer or shoot forward to about 4 BC, you find that God reverses and humbles Himself and comes as a baby. And for 30 years, gets ready as the Messiah, as God on earth, the divine Jesus, but in the flesh, fully in the flesh. He calls Himself the Son of Man to say that, I am a really human. I am all human. I'm just like you. Only I am connected to the Father through the Holy Spirit. I of myself can do nothing. But with this Holy Spirit, I'm showing you, I'm giving you an example, that I can walk the walk, I can do the word, I can do the work, and I will be the first of the firstfruits that goes to the family of God, and I will then be the Son of God, the first of many brethren. So that was quite an event, quite a transition for God of humility, clothed in humility. In preparing humans for the next level, He called 12 disciples. He called them. He transitioned them up to disciples from just participants in the Sinai covenant, He called them out and said, I want to train you. For three and a half years, He trained them. In training them, three and a half years, He sent them out. He taught them. He showed them. He said, I want you to go out and preach. Now I want you to go heal. I want you to go cast out on clean spirits. They were involved in training. They were preparing for something.

And after three and a half years, then Jesus Christ transitioned from, it was on what we might call Wave Sheaf Day, the Wave Sheaf of 31 A.D. He transitioned from human back to glorified divine after three days and three nights. He sat at the right hand of God. He was upgraded, transitioned also to now be over all things. All authority over everything was placed under Him by the Father. It was an upgrade in that sense of responsibility, though He had the same glory that He had had before.

What was also interesting is simultaneously on that Wave Sheaf Day, 50 days before the Feast of Pentecost, right after His ascension, that He prepared them for an upgrade as well. Let's notice this in John 20, verse 21. In preparation for the Pentecost of 31 A.D., which fell in June of that year, June 18th.

Let's notice in John 20, verse 21, just to show you that the disciples were in training for something that wasn't just being church members like those who would be called on the day of Pentecost. The disciples had already been baptized before Pentecost. The disciples had been trained for three and a half years. They had been worked with and mentored by Jesus Christ. And here on the same Wave Sheaf Day where Christ ascended and was re-glorified and was upgraded in responsibility, He speaks to the disciples of what's about to happen to them. John 20, verse 21. So Jesus said to them, Peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. They specifically were sent by Jesus Christ. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. Now, notice the kind of difference, the upgrade, that these disciples are receiving in becoming what we would call apostles, even though that term was used earlier. Verse 23. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. I only say that to note the unique difference that they had compared to those who would first hear about the truth and first be converted and called on the day of Pentecost there in 31 A.D. He subsequently told them here in John that you are going to be shepherds of my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. This is going to be your role. There will be sheep. Yes, the New Testament church will begin and there will be sheep. But you are about to transition into something, a new role. Let's see what that new role is. Turn with me to Acts 1 and 4.

We don't know. But it's different to be totally immersed in the Holy Spirit. It's different for it to really just come on. So whatever it was, it was. But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. That would take place to the apostles on the first Pentecost after his resurrection. Going on, verse 7, It's not for you to know the times or season 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 in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. These individuals were transitioning here into a leadership role of the church. Pre-chosen, pre-trained, and elevated at this point. Now, let's go to Ephesians 2 and verse 19 and see how this preparation needed to take place for what we are involved in today. We slide in under them just as the rest of the church has done ever since.

Ephesians 2 and verse 19, it says, Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, speaking to individuals who are coming into the church, both Jews and non-Jews alike, or Israelites and non-Israelites, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. This speaks to the church, which is one of the layers of what Pentecost is.

The church was founded on Pentecost in 31 AD. Notice another layer, verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles. See, the apostles were a different group, like Moses was. They then were in place and ready to teach. In the future, the church, the saints, people like you and me, will be elevated, guess what, into teachers of the next generation, under Christ for a thousand years.

And perhaps helping out as well in the Second Resurrection, when the great harvest of in-gathering, the festival of in-gathering, takes place, what it pictures takes place. So God has many things that take place. From the same Pentecost, where the apostles were upgraded, 3,000 Israelites were upgraded from the Sinai covenant to a new covenant. Let's go over to Hebrews. The book of Hebrews speaks to Hebrews. It's a book to Israelites, in other words.

It's not to Gentiles, it's to Israelites. And really, what this book, a lot of what this book does, it helps them with a transition from a Sinai covenant to a new covenant, with better promises. We can just see this in Hebrews 9. In verse 1, Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. So it was a good covenant. It was founded on Pentecost for Israel. It was a holy covenant. It was very good, Paul says. But now he speaks to a group that has been invited to upgrade.

Jesus said, Blessed are you for your eyes see and your ears hear. But others, right now, have had their eyes and ears dulled to where they can't see, lest they should respond to the glorious gospel, he said. This is a calling just for some first fruits. It's a small group, a small harvest. Many are called. Few are chosen for this particular harvest. And so as we continue in verse 11 of chapter 9, we see, But Christ now has come as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands.

That is, not of this creation. Back during the days of Unleavened Bread, the first fruits of the barley harvest was presented as a wave sheaf offering. That first day of the week that fell after the Sabbath, the little sheafs were brought of the barley harvest, which was ready to be harvested about the time the Passover took place. It was mature and ripe. And then the harvest could begin once the sheafs were waved. Everybody could begin the harvest.

That, of course, represented Jesus Christ, being the first of the first fruits. In A.D. 31, Jesus was presented to the Father as the first of the first fruits. We read of that title in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 23, where it says, Each in his own order Christ the first fruit, then those who are Christ at his coming. Pentecost doesn't speak to the timing of the resurrection of the first fruits.

Trumpets does. Pentecost speaks to the event of the finality, of the success of that first harvest. We look in 31 A.D. at this presentation. I'll read this from the modern King James Version in John chapter 20 verse 1. Now, on the first of the weeks, in your English Bible it usually says, with some italics and words added, now on the first day of the week.

But actually, the Greek word there is sabaton, and it's plural. On the first of the weeks, we count seven sabbaths, seven weeks, between Wave Sheaf Day and Pentecost, and then add one and make it 50. And so, this happened at the first of the weeks, or on Sabaton. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, and while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away.

So, he was not there when she came. In verse 17, we find that he had not ascended to his father quite yet, when he spoke with her.

Jesus said, So, that was a special time for him that took place 50 days before an event that would involve us.

He represented a harvest of grain that was similar to ours, but just a little bit different. He represented the barley harvest. The Eastern Bible dictionary says, barley is a grain much cultivated in Egypt and in Palestine. It was usually the food of horses, especially in Christ's time. The Roman horses ate the barley.

Barley bread was used by the poorer people. See the connection here of one who would humble himself? He would come and he would be the example of the harvest of something humble that wasn't really accepted by man that well. Jesus also would feed, I forget how many people, 5,000 people, with five loaves of barley bread.

Barley, him, he was the bread of life. It's the humble bread.

Barley was the first crop ready for harvest by the time of the Passover. Now, 49 days later, 7 Sabbaths later, we come to the beginning of Pentecost on the 50th day.

The wave sheaf celebrated a beginning of a harvest. Fifty days later, we have two loaves raised and waved, representing the ends of a harvest. It was the conclusion of the wheat harvest. Let's look at Exodus 34, verse 22.

We are, in a sense, like Christ. Wheat is a lot like barley. If you put the two together, you'll notice that they don't look exactly the same. If you look at barley growing in the field with wheat, you'll know they don't look exactly the same. But they're very, very similar. Stocks are very similar. Barley tends to be a little bit badder and plumper. It doesn't really have the same qualities exactly as wheat, but they're similar.

In that sense, I would say we are trying to become Christ-like, and yet there certainly is a difference there. Exodus 34, verse 22 says this, You shall observe the Feast of Weeks. Here's another name. Feast of Weeks because you count seven weeks. The Feast of Weeks of the First Fruits of the Wheat Harvest.

And then he sort of corresponds this as different than the Feast of In-Gathering at the year's end, the big feast that's coming, what some of the commentators call the Fruit Harvest, all the summer fruits, versus the Grain Harvest.

There are various names for this festival. Exodus 23, verse 16, if we want to go back there. Exodus 23, verse 16, here's the first name it's given. And the Feast of Harvest. So here is the name that God first gave this feast, the Feast of Harvest. And it's the final harvest. It celebrated the end of the wheat harvest. The first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field. So there it is. The Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labor. Another name it was given, as we've read, was the Feast of Weeks of the Wheat Harvest. That was in Exodus 34, verse 22. We just read that. There's another name for it. Numbers, chapter 28, verse 26. Numbers 28 and verse 26. Also, on the day of first fruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation and do no customary work. See these various names. Each one of these things begin to speak to various things that it represents. There's another name. Let me just mention that John the Baptist, in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 12, refers to the first resurrection as a wheat harvest, just to show the continuity throughout. Christ is going to come back and he's going to harvest the wheat and burn the chaff. There's one more name, and that's the one that probably we're not familiar with. Let me just preface it with, Pentecost isn't really the name of this feast in one sense. It is and it is and it isn't. The people who came out of Babylon and learned Greek called the day Pentecost, but that's not what it meant to them. That's just a Greek word. A Greek word that the King James Version never translated. All it means is the 50th day. To them, they called it the 50th day, but as they were speaking in Greek, to say the 50th day, you said, Pentecost. When you translate it into the English, it's the 50th day. It's just that the translators didn't translate the word. Otherwise, we would be calling this feast the 50th day in the New Testament. We would know it as that. Unfortunately, we're stuck with the name Pentecost, which is a Greek word. And you know what? Greek is like to us. It doesn't really mean a lot. Decades ago, the church produced a booklet called, Pagan Holidays or God's Holy Days. And in it, Mr. Armstrong wrote, Pentecost pictures the first part of the spiritual harvest, the calling out of the church. That's one layer. The calling out of the church. The called out ones.

Which for the New Testament dispensation began on that first day of the week, June 17th, AD 31. I said June 18th, well ago. I forgot because I grew up, it was June 18th. And then we made it June 17th.

We used to keep it on Monday. And I always grew up with this memory. It's June 18th, June 18th. And then the year Mary and I got married, in fact, Mr. Armstrong in performing our wedding, well, in planning, he said I don't know if I can do it. If Pentecost falls on Monday, I can't. I'll be in Europe. But if it falls on Sunday, well, I can't travel to Europe on Sunday, so I'll be in town. So we were up in the air. We didn't know what we were going to do. So in 1974, the change was made, or the understanding became clear, that you count from, including the Marow after the Sabbath there, and that's why we keep it now on the first day of the week.

But he says, on that day the Holy Spirit came to dwell within flesh, as prophesied by Joel. If we look in Leviticus 23, verse 15, Leviticus 23 is what we refer to as the Holy Day chapter, describes the annual Holy Days as well as the weekly Holy Day. The festivals of God. I should say the annual festivals, because the Passover is not a Holy Day, but it is one of the seven annual festivals.

And the Sabbath is a Holy Day. It is a weekly festival. Just to be clear there, Leviticus 23, verse 15, here's what it says, And you shall count for yourselves, those who like to count. God tells us to count.

What do we count? What do we count to? You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you have brought out the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths. So we'll count to 49 is what we're to count to. Interesting. Detail, isn't it? We'll count seven Sabbaths. Now the Sabbath is an interesting thing. It's a day that pictures something that's done to us. After six days of something done with us.

You know, for six thousand years mankind does his thing, and then the seven thousand year God comes. And it represents the kingdom of God and the various layers and phases that will take place at Christ's return. Seven times seven. Seven of these things you will count. Now it's interesting going on. Verse 16, count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Ah! So you count 49 days and then you count one more day to the day after the seventh Sabbath.

And then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. Now, in verse 17 notice, you shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two tenths of an ephah. And they shall be a fine flower, and they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord.

And these will be waved, and they will be offered with a lamb. And these are the first fruits to the Lord, representing the harvest of the children of God. What a wonderful opportunity to be a part of the loaves that are to be part or to be the first fruits harvest. What a celebration! You know, we have such an opportunity here that we need to be grasping. This day doesn't really speak to us performing. It speaks to us being judged. Performing was unleavened bread. It was the walk.

It was the journey. It was the seven weeks. It was our lifetime and the lifetimes of all those involved. This is the day of celebration. It's the added day. It's the extra day. It's the day of God. As Mr. Armstrong continued in the booklet, on the 50th day, Pentecost, in the Old Testament times, two wave loaves were brought out of the habitations of the congregation as first fruits unto the Lord.

Just so, the New Testament church was gathered out of this world as the first fruits of his salvation in fulfillment of the meaning of the wave loaves. That's one phase. We have all, if we have been converted, become a part of that New Testament church. We have become part of what was symbolized by those two wave loaves. So, yes, the Feast of Pentecost also pictures the church and the forming of the church as one of the layers of the onion, as it were, or the meaning of this festival.

We have the various names like the Feast of Weeks, the 50th Day. The Jewish Encyclopedia says regarding Pentecost, or the 50th Day, this is the name given by the Greek-speaking Jews to the festival, which occurred 50 days after the offering of the barley sheaf during the Passover Feast, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Jews just call the whole festival sometimes the Passover.

In Palestine, the grain harvest lasted seven weeks and was a season of gladness. It began with the harvesting of barley and ended with the harvesting of wheat at Pentecost, the wheat being the last cereal to ripen. Pentecost was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the 8th Day of Tabernacles was the concluding festival of the fruit harvest.

You have these two harvests. Now, this gives us a little background of some of the things that happened on this day. But again, what is this ultimately consummate and conclude in? What's the objective of all these layers? What was the objective of the Old Covenant transitioning into a better covenant? Transitioning into apostles, which taught us. Transitioning into individuals who are saints. And when we all die, and all of us will go corrupt. What's the whole purpose here? Going back to the booklet, Mr. Armstrong said, And just as the wave sheaf was lifted up into the air and waved, symbolizing Christ's trip to heaven and His return, so the wave loaves were lifted up and waved, symbolizing that we, too, for a moment, shall leave this solid earth when we ascend to meet Him in the air, before we return with Him to stand on the Mount of Olives as He begins His millennial rule.

This is quite an exciting day on many levels. Every time God gets involved in our life, things get better, things increase. Ultimately, we will have the just amazing privilege to be in the layer somewhere under Christ, under Abraham, under David, under the 12 apostles who are over the 12 tribes of Israel, probably ruling cities, as Christ talked about, for the firstfruits probably ruling over five, ten cities.

What an exciting time! What an opportunity! There are future upgrades as well. You know, Jesus said in Mark 16, 15, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He used the term creature. The Greek word is katisis. Let's go to Romans 8 and verse 18, and see something that tends to burst from inside you. Something that, as a potential first fruit, as a saint, as a called-out one that God is changing and developing, there's a craving that's growing within us. Romans 8 and verse 18 uses this word katisis quite a bit, and the translators are never accurate or the same, because they're not called.

They don't understand the plan of God. So if you get the King James Version, katisis is translated various ways between creature and creation, and you get the new King James, and they've got a better idea, they're a little more evangelical, they switched the words around a little bit. But you just take all the words that say creation or creature here, all the same thing, just means a created thing.

It doesn't even refer to humans, necessarily, but as we said, preach the gospel to every creature. In one sense, it's to humans. I've tried it to my dog, she just doesn't get it. It just doesn't even comprehend. So we're talking about humans here. So if we look in Romans 8, verse 18, he says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, the brightness, the immortality in the family of God, that shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the cotecus. I checked the rocks this week, didn't see any expectation. But looking inside, I have a great expectation. Christ said, every day, Pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. Seek you first, the kingdom of heaven. The great, earnest expectation of the creature eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. We have a great expectation for this event, for the seventh trumpet and the revealing of ourselves as the spiritual son of God. This is our hope. For the creature, that's you and me, was subjected to futility. We're getting old. We're going to be corrupt, since we're going to rot. Not willingly, but because of him who subjected us in hope.

You and I are physical, but we have hope, the hope of the resurrection, because the creature itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, our death, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

We know that the whole creature groans and labors with birth pangs until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the sonship, the word should say, the redemption of our body.

God has placed this within us, and we want it very, very badly. But we, like those seven Sabbaths, end up short of immortality. It has to be something done to us, and so the 50th day is there.

Revelation 14, verse 1, shows when we, I say that term hopefully, referring to myself, when we will become first fruits. This is the first time first fruits is used in connection with humans.

And I looked, chapter 14, verse 1, and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 having his Father's name written on their foreheads. These are the ones who have been faithful, right, righteous. As you see over in Revelation, chapter 2 and 3, who have their Father's name written on them. And I heard a voice from heaven, verse 3, saying as it were, a new living song. These were redeemed from the earth. Verse 4, these are the ones who are not defiled with false religions, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb, or led by the Holy Spirit, wherever he goes.

These were redeemed from among men, now being first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, they are without fault before the throne of God. In chapter 19 and verse 7, it says, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

We find also that these individuals now upgraded are the teachers in the world tomorrow, as it states over in Isaiah chapter 30, verses 20 and 21. Their teachers will not be removed into a corner, but they will hear a word behind them, telling them, No, go this way, go that way. These individuals will have already been trained, tested, now upgraded, and now serving under Jesus Christ in the layers of responsibility in bringing more children to the family of God. The current God of this world will literally and totally be removed from power and influence.

We see that spoken of in part by the meaning of the Day of Atonement. There's an interesting correlation between Jubilee, Pentecost, and Atonement. We find it in Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 8. Leviticus chapter 25, beginning in verse 8. You shall count seven Sabbaths, seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years.

Here's your counting. And the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. This sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, instead of counting weeks, we're now counting seven years at a time. Seven Sabbaths of years. And that takes us to forty-nine, but again, forty-nine is limiting. Verse 9, You shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month.

On the day of Atonement, you shall make the trumpet sound throughout your land. Then, verse 10, you shall consecrate the fiftieth year. Here we are on the fiftieth day, and this is the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilation to you, and each of you shall return to his possessions, and each of you shall return to his family.

Satan kidnapped the family of God. We are all humans around the earth, part of the family of God. We were created in his image. We were kidnapped, and we had to be bought back by ransom, by the blood of Christ. There is a day coming, the fiftieth, which also will celebrate us and Christ bringing back the truth, bringing back the people, bringing back the peace. Bringing people back to the knowledge of God first, and ultimately in a relationship with God.

This is in Isaiah 58 and verse 6. Is this not the fast that I have chosen to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? It's all going to take place when the saints are made into first fruits and reign with Christ. Jesus said in Luke 4, verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and a recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

That's going to be a really blessed time, beginning a thousand year reign of the first fruits with the first of the first fruits. And at that point in time, humanity is going to transition. When we transition up, humanity transitions. Let's read of it in Micah, chapter 4, verse 1. The people who have never known God, who are still living throughout that time, are going to transition into disciples of God. Micah, chapter 4, verse 1.

The shout of Zion, the law shall go forth, and the word of God from Jerusalem. People are going to learn. They're going to beat their plows, beat their swords into plowshares. They're going to not learn war. They're going to be disciples of God. And just like some disciples were elevated to teachers, we will be teaching at that time, and given responsibilities over them.

A millennium later, which we look at, it's the last great day, the eighth day festival, all humanity who's lived and never had an opportunity gets upgraded, perhaps even beyond that. We see over in Revelation, chapter 20, verse 12, and it's certainly worth reading that. Revelation 20, verse 12.

I now saw the dead. Who are these dead? Verse 5. The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. These are the rest of the dead. This is the 60 to 100 billion people who have lived, never known God, never had the opportunity to walk with His Holy Spirit. And it says here, they are now standing. They're not dead anymore. They're standing before God. Books were opened. Bible just beblos means books. Jesus will say, now your eyes are open and your ears can hear. Blessed are those who hear.

So now another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, indicating that they receive God's Holy Spirit. There's no mention of God's Holy Spirit until this time, or no mention of the Book of Life being opened to anyone since the firstfruits were resurrected. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

It's quite an exciting plan that God has of salvation. We participate in part of it. He does so much of it. He ultimately gives us immortality, something that we do not really have any participation in or any stake in as far as the transformation. That is just a fabulous gift of God.

When we look at the Feast of Pentecost and its many layers and transitions, we can even see an eternal, long-term eternal, forever memory of some of the events of this day. Let's go to Revelation 21 and verse 12 and see some things that are in New Jerusalem. Things that point back to events that happened on the Feast of Pentecost. Revelation 21 and verse 12.

In this New Jerusalem, she had a braid and high wall with twelve gates and twelve angels at the gates and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, which became God's people on the day of Pentecost when they agreed to and swore to keep a covenant, a holy covenant with God.

Verse 14. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, who were upgraded on the Feast of Pentecost as the leaders, the twelve apostles of the Lamb, of the foundation of the New Testament church.

You know, this is an important time. It's an important pre-element of God's ultimate salvation of all humanity. You and I are privileged to be called in this early group. It's up to us. It's our responsibility as to what we do with it. As we conclude, I'd like to go back to 1 John 3, verses 2 and 3. The apostle John here is, himself, overwhelmed by this calling, this opportunity that we have, and what God is doing. 1 John 3 will begin in verse 2. Beloved, now we are children of God in the flesh, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. You know, you can search the Scriptures for a description and a manual of what it will be like to be a spirit being in the family of God, and you won't find it. God doesn't really tell us what it's like. He just says, you're going to like it a lot. You're going to have life, you're going to have it more abundantly. One little glimpse or two he gives us, but not many. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him. We will be like him, for we shall see him as he is. With that comes verse 3, and everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. It's never just a free gift without any strings attached or responsibilities. No. It's a free gift. But there's a lot of responsibility in our part that goes into the salvation that God is offering. We need to be circumspect. Everyone who has this hope of being like him purifies himself just as he is pure.

We try to do right. We strive to do right. We have God helping us. We fight the good fight. We struggle. We resist. And in the end, we are considered people of right. Righteous people. And the overcomers, it says in Revelation 20, verse 7, will inherit all things. And God will be our God. But still, as humans, we're just human. The end of our lives ends in death and corruption.

This day does picture something else that God does to us. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15. Because God gets all the glory, we get the privilege of some participation along the way. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 50, But we shall all be changed in a moment. Now, when? On the day of Pentecost? No. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, the seventh trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. For the trumpet will sound, and we will be raised incorruptible. And this mortal will be changed. This corruptible must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible is put on incorruption, this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

The sting of death. The sting of death, if you look up that word, that phrase in the Greek, it means the sting of death. Things that sting you and you die.

It refers to the poison, the agent of poison. The sting of death is sin. And the strength of the sting of death, it says, is the law, but you know Paul, he's referring to the lake of fire, the penalty for breaking the law. The strength of the sting of death is the lake of fire.

Verse 57, We, he said, are not under the penalty of the lake of fire, but rather we're under, we're under Charis, we're under this transformation process whereby God transforms us, our old man, into a new man that's like Christ. And therefore we have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, responsibility time, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. We are here to do work. It's good work. This day celebrates an end that's coming. And one little glimpse, as we conclude, that Jesus Himself gives us, as the one little indicator of what it'll be like to be Him, comes in Matthew 13, verse 43. We'll conclude with that. Immortality, you see, is God's gift. Only He can give it. It's a gift for overcomers, we see in Revelation 20, verse 7. It's a gift for doers. It's a gift for children of God who do right. It's the righteous that will inherit the kingdom. As we glimpse forward in that future here in Matthew 13, verse 43, here's what Jesus said. Then the righteous, those who do right, will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father. We will have the glory of God. We will shine like the Son, like God does. We will really be members of that divine family. He who has ears to hear, let Him hear. Let's be hearers, brethren. Let's be doers. And let's be very thankful for all the various meanings that this day of harvest of firstfruits of the 50th day feast teach us.