Pentecost, God's Spirit, and Sharing

All of you, thank you very very for that very beautiful music. It really adds a great deal to the services. Well, I know everybody has got full tummies, and I hope you load it up on sugar, starch, carbohydrates. And we're trying to keep the room as warm as possible. So for many, it will be nap time.

I know that. Mr. George DeCampus at the GCE, he was giving a speech right after lunch, and he said that, you know, in South Africa where he's from, that the man who's assigned the speech after lunch is called the graveyard shift. So we'll see what we can do here. But going, we really had some fine messages all the way through services, and I know God really has been inspiring the men this morning, as well as Mr.

Coulter this afternoon. And going back to Rudy's sermon just for a moment about that forest, which is one organism that was quaking aspens, and he said it was 106 acres. And I think we had some of those trees back on the farm in Batavia, New York. We always kind of called them popular, but they had that white branches, and then they had those quaking leaves. So they must have been these quaking aspens. But what if you went to that forest there in Utah, and that 106 acres, and what if you found yourself lost among the quaking leaves?

Maybe you're in the middle of it, and you found yourself lost. What would you try to do? Well, I'm sure you would try to turn around and return. That's pretty simple if you can figure it out if you're lost. Just turn around and return. Return to the path once taken. Well, the Feast of Pentecost has a lot to do with turning around.

An amazing parallel between the Feast of Pentecost and the phrase turning around. Now, we've covered much material already, and I'll just refer to going back to Exodus 34-22. It does have those three basic names as it has been well covered. The Feast of Harvest of the First Fruits. And then in Exodus 34, and we'll look at verse 22, Exodus 34 and verse 22, we read this, And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks of the First Fruits of the Wheat Harvest, and the Feast of In-Gathering at the year's end.

Well, we just want to focus on the phrase, The Feast of Weeks of the First Fruits of the Wheat Harvest. So the harvest actually started 50 days prior with the cutting of the wave sheath. That was barley. And that represented Jesus Christ being resurrected and ascending, being waved the next morning, being ascending to the Father with the sacrifice, with His very own sacrifice on behalf of our sins. And then the harvest began, barley, wheat, and then it would go from there, melons, and so on.

So it really was a, it's a very important feast. It is called, again, the Feast of First Fruits of the Wheat Harvest. It's also called Pentecost, and as the Tom's Grand-Kitties are learning, counting 50 days, and you count down to the giving of God's Holy Spirit to God's Church. And I appreciate Mr. Coulter's message about how the Israelites looked at the Feast of Pentecost as the time of giving, because it really, really means that.

It really means the time of giving. Now, let's go back to Exodus 23 and take another look at a few of the verses. The gentleman did a very good job in explaining so many of these verses. And so we've talked about, verse 10, the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. And so, if you've ever been on the farm, you might say, what's all this about? Well, it's about, verse 10 is about Jesus Christ. So if you want to understand the fulfillment of the sheaf of the first fruits, that's Jesus Christ.

And God's plan of salvation is rolling, is just rolling on out, Passover on leavened bread, Pentecost, and then the fall festivals as well. The plan of salvation is rolling out. And then, with the sheaf that was to be offered, verse 12, you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf representations of Jesus Christ, the male lamb of the first year, without blemish as a burnt offering. Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour.

And someone gave a sermon, Mr. Giddens gave a sermon on this a couple of weeks ago in St. Louis, depicting the crushing of Jesus Christ. You know, his body was beaten and it was scourged. And not a bone was broken, but he just went through just a horrible time of suffering, depicted of taking this grain and beating it into very, very, very fine flour. And then mixed with oil, God's Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, an offering made by fire unto the eternal. It was a fiery trial that Jesus Christ went through, fiery suffering he went through.

For a sweet aroma, and let's go to Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 2.

Again, I think this was mentioned in that sermon as well. And walk in love, Ephesians 5 verse 2, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. And although Christ was in horrible pain, horrible suffering, to God it was a sweet aroma, because God was looking at billions of human beings who would be saved by and through the suffering, the death, and then the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So, bitterly sweet, maybe that might be one way to describe it.

The horrible suffering Christ went through, but then the sweetness was the fact that we're going to be joining God as God's sons and daughters into the very God family.

So, the wave sheaf offering was a company that was very... it was about Christ. It was all about Christ. Of course, the Father directing it all, the Father being in charge, the Father didn't wander away somewhere and do nothing. He was directing the whole process.

And he was allowing his son to die on our behalf and then to be resurrected and then presented... and he presented himself with his own blood sacrifice.

Verse 14, you shall neither eat bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you brought an offering to your God, and it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling. So, on that Sunday, right after about 9 o'clock in the morning, I'm sure the Israelites headed out to the field and they began to harvest barley. They were going to start that barley harvest, then it was going to lead into the wheat harvest, and then the other crops as well. The land of Canaan and later called Palestine, and it was very, very rich soil. You know, remember how big the grapes were? They had to be carried by two men on these poles. It was at the olives that were one of those crops that were coveted by the Romans because they were of such wonderful taste. And so it was just a very rich land, and I'm sure the Israelites were in a hurry to get out there with their sickles and to begin the harvest. Okay, so now we've had the Feast of Weeks explained to us. A very good job has been done with that. And let's drop down to verse 21. You shall proclaim on that same day, which is today, and that same day. Today is Pentecost. It is a holy convocation to you. That's why we're here at church. You shall do no customary work on it. This is not a day of work, of servile labor. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And then fascinating is this verse 22, which ties in with giving, which ties in with sharing, and of all of the wonderful holy days of God, this command is just unique. It's unique. I mean, it fits into the plan of God, but of all the holy days, God puts it right here.

When He reminds us, when you reap the harvest of your land and you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest, you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger I am, the Lord your God. God taught through Pentecost sharing, giving, sharing the harvest. And so, dear brethren, does verse 22 have any application for us today? And yes, it does, because we're a part of that first fruit harvest. We're a part of the first fruits. We understand that. Now is our time to share what God has given with other people. God has given to us the Holy Spirit. It is a pleasant spirit. It is the spirit of joy. It is a spirit of peace, love, and long suffering, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, meekness, faith. That is a kind of an attitude we need to project to the world, to our friends, to our co-workers, to our people on the job, that they see us bearing the fruits of God's Holy Spirit.

They see us bearing those things. And if they ask us, what does, I was going to bring it up today, but I thought that might be a bit much. I was going to bring up the Beyond Today bumper sticker and say, what's that Beyond Today bumper sticker on your bumper? Well, here I have an extra one. We want to put it on yours. I mean, that would probably be overdoing it, overkilling it. But certainly, to share with them the magazine or a booklet or certainly the webpage, you know, ucg.org, and to be willing to directly share with the spiritually poor, with the spiritual strangers, the greatness that God has given to each one of us. It's so fascinating that Pentecost is about giving, about sharing. Now, let's go on and let's take a look at another tremendous example of sharing in Ruth chapter, in Ruth and we'll be spending it in the book of Ruth, primarily Ruth chapter one. But this was set in the season. We'll see it right here. It tells us that in Ruth 1 and verse 21, Naomi returned. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. But the last part of Ruth 1.22, now, they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

So click, click, click in your mind of what was that? That was right after, or at or right after, the wave sheath ceremony. So they were there at the, right there at the very beginning of it all, of the early spring barley harvest. And they continued to do so, verse 23 of chapter 2.

And so they, she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the weed harvest. Now we're getting, that was 50 days go by, now we're getting close to Pentecost. And she dwelt with her mother-in-law. But let's take a look at a fascinating word here in this book of Ruth. We'll start in chapter 1, verse 1 of Ruth. It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to Sojourn in the country of Moab, which was this spicably idolatrous.

You had bad, worse, worst, worstest, most worstest, and Moab would be below even that as far as pagan idolatry.

He and his wife and his two sons, and the name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi, the name of his two sons Malon and Chilon, and they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Then, Elimelech, verse 3, Naomi's husband died and she was left, had to enter two sons, and they took wives of the women of Moab, and the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth, and so Orpah and Ruth grew up in an exceedingly idolatrous society, an exceedingly pagan society. It was so bad that the god, Chemos, they sacrificed, they burned their own babies to the god, Chemos, and that is horrible. That, you know, God says about that, and I'll read it here in Jeremiah 19.5, it's at least two places in Jeremiah, they have built also the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not. So, Baal, I think, Milchom and Chemos, they were into this, those worshippers were into this burning their children with fire, which I commanded not, says God, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind. Jeremiah 19.5, it never came into the mind of God that people would burn their children in fire to pagan idols. And so that's why I'm saying the Moabite religion was just just horrible.

And so this was the background of Ruth and Orpah. They dwelt there about 10 years, then they both, then their husbands died. So this poor family really fell on some hard times. Naomi fell on hard times. Ruth and Orpah fell on hard times. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, verse 6, that she might return. Now, brother, this is a key word in the Bible. It's a key word in the New Testament. It's a key word all through the Bible, but so particularly so here in the Book of Ruth, chapter 1, to return, to go back. And by the way, the word return in the Hebrew, this Hebrew word is found 12- I counted 12 times in chapter 1 alone. Return or turn back. You know, it says the same thing. Return or just like you're lost in that force, so you're going to turn back, so you can return back, you know, to safety. To turn back, Strong says it can mean literally or figuratively, not necessarily with the with not necessarily with the idea of returning, of return to the starting point, although sometimes it does mean that, returning to the starting point. But it will repent, requite, rescue, restore, retrieve, to return, reverse, you know, send back, and so on. It means to turn around. And so she said, well, I'm going to leave Moab, and I'm going to return back to Bethlehem Judah because the Lord has visited his people and giving them bread. So the famine's over. I'm going to return to Bethlehem Judah, meaning she would better be able to keep the Sabbath. I really think she kept the Sabbath in, even in Moab. I think she did. There was something special about Naomi, even though she was down in the depths of discouragement and depression. There was still something very special about Naomi, even on her worst day. There was, you know, God that was still working with her. She might not have thought so, but God was indeed working with her. And she said, well, maybe I can return. There's bread there in the land. I'll be able to better keep the Sabbath. I won't have to be running around with these heathen anymore. I'll be able to keep, you know, the holy days better. You know, I can go up and worship, you know, together with my people. And so food and worship, I'm going to return. Therefore, she went out of the place from where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on their way to return to the land of Judah. So here we have it again, returning. And now Naomi says something here that's a bit puzzling, but again again, she was in sore affliction, too. Naomi said there were two daughters-in-law. I think she was looking at just the physical and not the spiritual. And sometimes we, as Christians, can make the mistake. We get into a jam, and we start thinking on the physical plane and not the kingdom of God. We just think about the here or the now, the physical and not the kingdom of God. She says, return each to your mother's house, her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as you'll dealt with the dead and with me. And so she is saying, well, return back to your mom's house, physical. Okay, take care of mom. But return back to, you know, Moab, idolatry, kimosh, and all that garbage. And this is a bit puzzling, I'll just have to say that.

And then they got into a bit of an argument in verse 10. They said, surely we will return with you to your people. We will return with you to your people. And I only said, verse 11, turn back or just turn around or again, the same same Hebrew word, turn back. My daughters, will you still go, you know, why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb that they may be your husbands turn back or return to Moab is what she's saying. And, you know, and she's thinking of their future husbands, sons, daughters. So, you know, repent of or turn back and, you know, repent of going back to Judah. Don't go to Judah with me. Stay in pagan Moab. And that's a bit, that's a bit puzzling to me. Why would Naomi say, in fact, sell out on the truth so you can have a, you know, family? Why would she say that? Would you wait for me till they were grown? Verse 13, would you, would you restrain yourselves from having husbands know my daughters for agrees me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. So, she was very, very much anguished. And they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah took her up on the offer and went back into pagan, complete pagan Moab and, but Ruth clung to her. Verse 14. And so Naomi said, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.

Return after your sister-in-law. And I can only understand that in the concept that Naomi was just thinking physical marriage, children, grandchildren, you know, I'm too old to have any more kids beside that. Nobody will marry me anyway. So, go back, you know, just, just go back to Moab, go back to the Moabite idolatrous system and return to paganism. Now, God tells us, you know, there's, again, return is used in, we know, two, two concepts. One concept is returning to God, such as Isaiah 44, 22, I have blotted out, says God, as a thick cloud thy transgressions, this is Isaiah 44, 22, I have blotted out as a thick cloud your transgressions and as a cloud your sins return unto me, return unto me, for I have redeemed you. God wants us to return to Him, to stay in that returned mode, you might say. But then there's that returning unto sin, and we don't ever want to do that. 2 Peter 2 22, but it has happened unto them, according to the true proverb, 2 Peter 2 22, that the dog is turned to his own vomit again. I think the king, New King James has returned, but, you know, turned again or return, that's what it means. And the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. So there's a returning to God, good, there's returning to sin, bad.

And so here we have Naomi in the depths of depression saying return to, you know, her God. Your sister is gone, verse 15. Follow her, return to her Gods. But Ruth said, verse 16, and treat me not to leave you or to turn back. There's that Hebrew word again is that word I just mentioned, and it means to turn back or to return. So what she's saying in verse 16 is, don't ask me to return to the pagan Moabites. For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. Maybe we could say today your church will be my church. And more importantly, and your God, my God. Ruth got sick and tired of the pagan Gods of Moab.

Naomi must have hung on enough, you know, of the truth because she saw something even in Naomi's darkest moments. She saw something about the God of Naomi. And she said, I'm not leaving this. I'm not leaving this. Your people shall be my people. Your God, my God. Where you die, I will die.

And there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death, parts you and me.

Do we give that kind of a witness? I mean, yeah, sometimes we have problems, sometimes we have big problems. But Naomi was representing God even in weakness. And Ruth said, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to go back to Moab. I'm not going to go back to my sister's gods. I'm staying with your God. Do we share the truth about God to this degree? I mean, Ruth saw something in Naomi, and she clung, you know, it says she clung, you know, she clung to Naomi. And don't ask me to leave.

Don't ask me to leave. And so, when she saw that she was determined to go with her, she, you know, when she, that is Naomi, okay, I'm going to stop speaking to her. She's not going to leave God, God's truth, God's way of life. She's not going to leave God's people. She's not going to go back to Moab and Chemosh and the rotten pagan idols and gods of the Moabites. She's staying with the God of Israel.

Like I said, Naomi must have had something because you don't make this kind of a commitment unless you see something bright and shining in someone like Naomi, even though Naomi was pretty depressed at this time. So, let's go on here. And speaking about what she was learning, what she was turning away from, I read Jeremiah 19.5, but let's go back to Deuteronomy 12 and verse 31.

Deuteronomy 12 and verse 31. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.

Did I say Romans? How about, what did I say? Deuteronomy 12, 31. Deuteronomy 12, 31. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way for every abomination to the Lord which he hates they have done to their gods for they even burned their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.

That was something so shocking to God. He says, I never thought that humanity would do that.

I never thought humanity would do that. So anyway, Ruth saw something in Naomi and she says, your God is my God. Your God is my God. So somehow in Naomi's life, maybe by her light shining, maybe just by being a good example in many ways, she shared the truth, God's truth, to Ruth and Ruth got it. She got it. And I'm going to stick to you like glue is what she was saying.

So let's go to verse 20. So they came back and they said, it's not just Naomi.

Naomi means pleasant. So don't call me Naomi, call me Marah. Don't call me happy or joyful or pleasant.

Call me bitter. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I mean, there are so many stories and sub-stories here. Did God give up on Naomi just because Naomi was frustrated about the situation? Did God just say, well, that's it. I've had it with you. No, He never gave up on Naomi.

I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. But again, God never quit or never gave up. So now let's go to, again, we just read verse 21.

But again, the phrase brought me home again, home again. That's that Hebrew word often translated return. God has brought me home again. Now that's an interesting way to describe return.

We want to return home, don't we? We want to return at our level to God's house, God's way of life, God's spirit. So home again. All right. Very good. Remember that. Home again. I'm empty, but at least I'm home is what she's saying. And verse 22, very, very, very interesting. Naomi returned. Oh, there it is again. And Ruth the Moabite, this her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Now Ruth returned to Bethlehem, Judah. She probably never set foot in Bethlehem, Judah. She was a pagan from Moab. It's a sense of her coming home. She'd never been there, but she knew in her heart, this is where I belong. I belong here. And how many times do we have brethren in the church? Maybe a teenager growing up in the church and getting involved with things and just hopefully having a happy life. We certainly want that for them. And then all of a sudden, one day they realize, hey, this is my home. This is my God. This is where I belong. And then they begin to think about baptism because they want, they feel like after maybe going through some trials, temptations, or whatever, they realize, wait a minute, I'm home again.

Dramatically, Ruth had probably never, there's no record of her ever visiting Bethlehem, Judah. They were in famine over there. Up to that point, Ruth is coming home again. And maybe people who, maybe they weren't even raised up in the church, maybe they were, came in, you know, after being out all the time. And they come into the church and they say, you know what? I always belonged here.

I know now this is where I belonged. I belong in God's true way of life. I belong with God even before I knew what I was even doing. God knew I belonged here.

And that's the meaning of Ruth saying, the Bible saying, she returned to a place that she'd never been before. She came back to God. She found home again under the tutelage, under the direction of a depressed lady, Naomi, hardship, but she still saw the greatness of God in working in her.

It's not all bad for Naomi. Chapter 2, I'll just, one more thought here, verse 20. We don't want to leave Naomi in a bad attitude. Things turned around and Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, verse 20, blessed be, blessed be he, speaking of Boaz, of the Lord who was not forsaken his kindness.

Oh, God has never forsaken his kindness for the living and the dead. She felt like she was dead, basically. But then she realized, wait a minute, blessed be he, Boaz, of the Lord, and God has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead. So, in the depression that she did have, God brought her out of it. Now, this thing about returning, coming back home, is very much a theme of Pentecost. Luke, and we just saw it here, and by the way, Ruth, if I didn't mention earlier, is a book read at Pentecost by the Jews. They see the connection, the barley harvest, the wheat harvest, and maybe they see it about returning or not. I don't know, but it certainly is that theme is in there. But in Luke 21 or 22, the same chapter where Christ cried out and said, Father, if it be your will, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, he said, but yours be done. That's verse 42 of Luke 22. But verse 31, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, Luke 22, 31, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat.

And a couple of the Bible lexicons will tell you that Satan had demanded, demanded, that he could sift Simon like wheat. You know, sometimes we look at people like Simon or David, and we look at maybe their mistakes, their sins.

Maybe church leaders had big mistakes. We don't understand, brethren, what would feel like if Satan demanded to have us. We don't understand that. We're not David. We're not church leaders. We're, you know, we're not Simon, you know. We don't know what it's like.

But Satan really meant what he said. He wanted to grind him up like wheat.

But thankfully, Christ said, I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned, when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. When did Peter return?

Peter, on his own strength, and, you know, let's not give him a real hard time because, I mean, it's in our heart, too, isn't it, to follow Jesus Christ to death, if that's what he would call upon us to do? Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. And he said, I tell you, Peter, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day before you'll deny me three times that you know me. Christ knew Peter missed something. He was missing something. What was it? It was the Holy Spirit. He had good, and Peter really did have good intentions. And all the apostles, except one, had good intentions. Christ told them later, actually, at that same time, he said, you're all clean, you know, you're all sincere, except for one. They had good intentions, but they had a missing ingredient, and that missing ingredient was God's Holy Spirit.

And with God's Holy Spirit, we return to God. We return to God. In Luke, okay, we've been to Luke, how about Acts chapter 1? Acts chapter 1.

And so, Luke is writing to Theophilus, who apparently was the wealthy man, and you might say the patron of the writing project. And so, he had, in my former account, I made O Theophilus, in other words, in, he's speaking of the gospel according to Luke. He said, I told you all that Jesus began both to do to teach until the day in which he was taken up when he, when he threw the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen. Now, speaking of he threw the Holy Spirit, most of our books, our titles, are going to say the Acts of the Apostles, that's what I'm going to say. Someone said a long time ago, it should be the Acts of God's Holy Spirit, because that's really what's, what's, what's doing all this. And so, it just kind of gives a review. Verse 3, he had, he had to present that himself alive after many, after his suffering by many infallible proofs. That's verse 3. And he was seen by them of 40 days. And being assembled together, verse 4, 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 with water, but you will be baptized, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And that's going to be the missing ingredient. That's going to be what you really need, for John truly baptized with water, but you will be baptized. And they said, well, Lord, what about the kingdom? It's kind of like, we keep asking the same question, don't we? Lord, when will you, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel? We want the kingdom so badly. And Christ said, it is not for you to know the times or the 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 in Jerusalem and in Judea, and to the end of the earth. So what He's saying is, when you return to me by the power of God's Holy Spirit, you will share the truth of God with as many people as is possible. Return, receive God's Holy Spirit, and then share. And so then He was taken up in a cloud, received Him out of their sight, and while He looked, while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, He, they saw two men, angels, men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

I could really, I can just identify that, wait, wait, Lord Jesus, come back, we, we, we know, we need, He's gone, you know? And the angel said, you know, you've got a job to do. So they returned to Jerusalem, verse 12, and they continued, verse 14, with one accord in prayer and supplication, meaning very fervent prayer, with the mother, I mean, with the women and Mary, His mother Jesus, and with His brothers. Some of now of Jesus' brothers were getting it. James, who wasn't one of the original 12, one that wrote the book of James, was starting to get it, you know, half brother of Christ. Jude, not, not Jude is a scare yet, but the Judah wrote that little epistle right before Revelation, half brother of Jesus. So his brethren were beginning to get it.

So the rest of the chapter talks about appointing Matthias, the, the lots of the lots were cast, verse 26, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.

By the way, somebody wrote in on a, in the PC, the letter answering department, no, no, wrote me a personal letter and said, you goofed, you know, I wrote that little article in the beyond today, and you goofed, you kept calling it 12 apostles, 12 apostles. It says there are 11 apostles. You got to know that you got to, how did they put it here? You need to speak the truth, or something like that. So I wrote a very hopefully kind letter back, and I said, well, you know, the name of the 12th apostle after Judas committed suicide was Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11, and then I gave one or two other, well, the one in Corinthians where it says, and Jesus was seen by the 12, okay, not by Judas. Judas was dead by then. So I very nicely, the hope, hope it was nice letter, prayed about it, and I did thank the person for their support, and hopefully it helped, you know, there's be some help there. So at any rate, Matthias was numbered with the 11.

Now, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

The day of Pentecost fully come. It means really filling it to the top. It's used in Luke 8 23, where the boat was being filled to the point of sinking. Have you ever been in a boat filled with water? Yeah, I've been there. I keep making the same mistake. I'm taking my family down the river, and we're in a little John boat, and four of us, and we go, you know, that time, and what happened, yeah, that's what it was, or what was, what happened. Anyway, I hit a log or something, and we didn't flip over, but we just filled the boat full of water, and there's nothing else you can do except you sink, you know. Then I was in a canoe one time with my nephew, and I saw this tackle. You go down a river, and there's always this fishing tackle, you know, lures, bobbers. That stuff's expensive, so you reach for the, you know, the bobber, and the canoe tips, you go, uh-oh, filling up a little bit. Well, let's tip back, and then it goes that way.

Then your equipment starts floating and taking off, and on top of all that, you sink. So, that's what Luke 8 23, they were worried because their boat was filling, filling, and it was sinking. Well, God uses the same word here to say He's filling the day of Pentecost.

I hate to use the word plumbful, but I'll just say plumbful.

You know, I, when I pray to God, and I say, Father, I really need more of the Holy Spirit, you know, double it, triple it, how about just fill me with God's Holy Spirit so that I can serve God's people. And so that's the concept of this of this day of Pentecost. It was being fully fulfilled. You know, it, we had the, you know, the wave sheaf offering, we had the, the two loaves of bread, you know, we, we had it as a holy day being explained, not, God's law given, very likely, on the day of Pentecost in Exodus 20. And now we have God's Spirit pouring down on God's people, as if they were in a boat, they would have sunk with God's Holy Spirit. That's, that's the point.

Just, you couldn't put any more in there. I mean, I'm speaking as a human, of course you can, but, because it's not able to be measured, we understand that. But it's a very powerful word, meaning, fully come. And suddenly there came as a sound of heaven as a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and they appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and once sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and when the sound occurred, the multitude came, and they were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. It is a language. It's not some intelligible gibberish that nobody understands. It's a language.

It is, aren't these men Galileans? Verse 8, how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born, and it names about 15 or 16 different regions here, I think 16 altogether, of people in their own dialect, their own language they were hearing. It says then, in verse 10, we hear in Arabs, people who knew Arabic, I'm sorry, that's verse 11, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.

People say this is a reversal of Genesis 10. God confused their language at Babel, because they were going to destroy the world and build this idol against God, this idolatrous tower.

Here, they're making the wonderful works of God plain in their own language, so that people could hear the words of God in their own tongue. Today, God's Church has people who are fluent, absolutely fluent in other languages, and take the gospel. I was talking to Mark Rorem at the GCE. Mark Rorem, he's from California, minister. He doesn't sound very Latin to me, doesn't sound very Hispanic, not Rorem, R-O-R-E-M. I said, well, how can they keep sending you down to Mexico? He said, well, I was raised in Mexico. So he was raised in Mexico. I didn't ask him. His father was in the military or whatever, and speaks fluent Spanish. It is so fluent that when he went to Chile, and preached down there, a guy raised his hands. I said, wait a minute, how did you get that Mexican accent? And used mightily by God in the language that they can just perfectly understand. And thank God he's doing that. It's pretty neat when you talk to people. I wish I had that gift. They talk to you in English, and then they turn and they talk to you in French. And it's just, how do they do this? It's a fascinating thing. So people accused them of being full of new wine. There's always going to be the whiners and the complainers. You know that? You just got to have sour pusses everywhere, it just seems. And here you have the holy day, fully come, filled with God's Holy Spirit. Now they're saying they're drunk. Well, you know, and so Peter makes a defense of that. Says these men are not drunk. It's only the third hour of the day. And then he quotes the prophet Joel, and shall come to pass. Verse 17, in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons, your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams, and mine men servants, and upon my maid servants I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. Now it shall wonders in heaven above, signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and the notable day of the Lord. And so the day of the Lord is coming. It's not here just yet, but it is coming, and we're going to be seeing these fantastic things happening.

And it shall come to pass, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So then Peter goes on and talks about what Israel did to Jesus of Nazareth. Verse 22, it talks about him. Verse 23, being delivered by the determined counsel, the foreknowledge of God, and you have taken by lawless deeds and have crucified and have put to death, whom God raised up. Verse 24, having loosed the pains of death. And so he's explaining the purpose of Jesus Christ.

And we'll drop down to verse 31. He foreseen this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul would not be left in Hades, nor his flesh would see corruption.

He bled to death. There was no blood left in him to begin to decay or corrupt the flesh.

So he stayed in the grave three days and three nights. Jesus has raised up, of whom we are all witnesses, therefore being highly exalted to the right hand of God, having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He poured this out, which you now see and hear. God and Christ poured out the Holy Spirit. David did not ascend into heavens, but he said himself, the Lord said to my Lord, said at my right hand, quoting Psalm 110, until I make your enemies your footstool. So here we have Peter's inspired sermon.

Peter is now filled with the Holy Spirit. He preaches this dynamic sermon and he starts to conclude in verse 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter, to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? There comes a time in each one of our lives when we realized it was us who crucified Christ. It was our sins. Notice he said here in verse 36, God has made the same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Nobody said, wait a minute, I wasn't, you know, I was in Rome, and that was 50 days ago. I'm here for Pentecost, but I was in Arabia, I was in Crete, I wasn't even here, I'm totally innocent. Well, that's what the carnal mind will say. The mind that God is working with says, you know what, I did have a part in crucifying Jesus Christ with my sins. And these 3,000 people got it. They got it. I can't teach that. No minister can really teach that to somebody as far as, you know, I can say the words, you know, did you know you killed Jesus Christ? I can say those words, but I can't teach that. You know, it comes from God to that person's heart. There's no other way. Yeah, there's just no other way. They either get it from God, or it's just not their time yet. Or maybe they have to wait a while and study a while and do some more prayer. These thousands were cut to the heart. And they said that Peter, the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said, Repent! What does Repent mean? I've got a book here somewhere. Where'd my book go? Here it is.

A good book, Transforming Your Life. And we rarely hear the word Repent anymore. Few understand what it really means. And both Greek and Hebrew Repent means a change of heart, a significant shift in our thinking, a transformation of purpose with emphasis on modifying one's conduct.

Peter tells us to repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. That's actually Acts 3 in verse 19. That was his, you might say, his second sermon, Repent therefore and be converted, Acts 3, 19. And the word converted means to turn. To turn from what?

When we repent, we must turn away from the sins we are guilty of committing, and we must unconditionally surrender our will to the merciful God. I'm adding the word merciful God because that's certainly key to our relationship with God, to understand his mercy. So, repentance means to have a change of heart, to turn it around, to turn again, turn around, and come to God. I understand technically, you know, it's in many cases, it's in most cases, it's coming to God for the first time. But the point I was trying to make with Ruth is, Ruth had a sense of home before she even got there. And I think a lot of us have that sense of home before we really even get there. You know, I mean, we had that sense of home, and God is just bringing us to the place where we really belong. Yes, repentance truly is that starting point, and it's something we probably never experienced before.

Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promises to you and to your children who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. So God knows when it is best, you know, to do the calling, and I can't force it. It's between them and God. So I hope we understand that, you know, that to repent and be converted, verse 19 of chapter 3, repent and be converted, means to make a turnaround, turn around and go towards the way of God. So they were baptized, verse 40, with many other words. He testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. That's our cry now. We want to plead with people to be saved now from this.

Talk about perverse. I don't have time to get into that right now. 3,000 were baptized.

And so, verse 45, it's interesting that they shared after their conversion and their repentance and their turnaround, okay, we're turning around, they shared their possessions, their goods, divided them among all. Verse 45, they continued daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And God added to the, the Lord added to the church daily, such as those who were being saved. I really appreciated Mr. Rangel's comments and the one he made about God calls us as individuals, but we're not supposed to stay in isolation. That's not where we're supposed to stay. We are to come together as a congregation and as a group, and that's how we're supposed to, to stay. And again, in verses 40 to 46, that as a congregation, they shared what they had. They shared physical things back and forth, and I'm sure they, they shared the good news of the Gospel. So, brethren, Pentecost is a lot about not only repenting, returning, and coming around and getting back to God, but it really is about sharing what God has given to us. I don't know that Hebrews 12 and verse 23 has yet been read to the General Assembly and the Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. Let's turn to Revelation chapter 14.

We only return or turn to God really with the power of God, with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14.4, these are the ones who were not defiled with women. In other words, with, these were the ones who were not defiled with, you know, religious, idolatrous harlots, i.e. the harlot that rode the beast and her harlot daughters. That's what that means.

For they are virgins, they are spiritually pure and clean. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits to God and the Lamb. So, brethren, we have been given this wonderful opportunity of celebrating Pentecost, repenting, returning, receiving God's Holy Spirit, and hopefully now we can be busy spending the rest of our lives sharing what God has given to us with others.