The Transformation of Counting 50

Well, good morning, brethren. Happy day of Pentecost. All of you... ... ...whatever's most convenient. Since there's none up here, I would appreciate that. I'll get a little dry as time goes on. Well, good morning and welcome again to the celebration of the Festival of Pentecost. Today, I believe we should start with the basics of how this day is determined.

That's always a good thing to do, and we need to go back to the days of Unleavened Bread to do that, why it's important. And I'd also like to discuss today why God chose the number 50 to lead us to this festival day. Why not 49? Why not 70? That's a biblical number. Why not a lot of other numbers, but He chose 50. What does the number 50 represent? So I'd like to answer that question, at least one of the things it can represent.

I'd like to answer that question today as well. Did it have any water? Star-riders. All right, let's begin by going to Leviticus, chapter 23, beginning in verse 1. I beg the pardon of those in Cleveland who we have been focusing a lot on these verses the last couple of sermons, but we have a large audience with us today, and some of the folks may not have reviewed these scriptures since the spring holy day. So I think it's important in context for us to go over some of these things again before we get into the heart of this morning's sermon. Leviticus, chapter 23, beginning in verse 1, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them the feast of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.

These are my feast. And as I like to remind everyone, these are God's feasts. They're not the feast of any church or any particular organization. The ownership of these festival days belongs to God. They are His, and He invites us to worship Him and celebrate His presence through the days that He's established. So beginning in verse 3, six days, shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.

You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all of your dwellings. So the very first festival, the entrance is a weekly festival, and that is His Sabbath day. Verse 4, then these are the feast, and the Hebrew word here is moed, which is the word that's most normally used for the word for a high day or a festival day. Sometimes the Sabbath and moed are used interchangeably, but in most cases where you find the word sabat, it means the seventh day Sabbath, and where you find the word moed, you find it referring to a high day or a holy day.

Again, sometimes they are interchangeable. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their point of times. On the 14th day of the first month of twilight is the Lord's Passover, and we observed that because we want to obey God's instructions here a few weeks ago.

Verse 6, and on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. Verse 8, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. And indeed, we observed the first day of unleavened bread, and we had another holy convocation on the seventh day.

You shall do no customary work on it. Now, verse 9, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap his harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, and again this is the word sabath, it is not moed, on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

And as Mr. Graham in Cleveland correctly pointed out yesterday, this was actually a commandment that wasn't within the lifetime of Moses. This was an instruction on what they would do after they entered the Promised Land. A very important event, but Moses was inspired to write it. If they hadn't disobeyed God, it wouldn't have taken 40 years for them to begin doing this.

That probably wasn't part of God's plan when these instructions were given. They actually could have been within the Promised Land in a year or so, but because of their disobedience and the issues that they had, it would be a long time before they would actually come into the land that's spoken of here. So this wave sheaf was part of the barley harvest, and history records, not the Bible itself, but history records, that the sheaf was harvested on Saturday night after sunset, which began the first day of the week, and then it was set aside to be part of the offering on Sunday morning the next morning.

But they actually cut it in preparation for the ritual ahead of time. Excuse me. So that is what the Scripture, or that is what history reminds us here. Again, that it was harvested on Saturday night after sunset, which began the first day of the week. It was set aside, and then it was waved before and accepted by God on the first day of the week, which was a Sunday morning during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So this is the Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread. A number of these grain stalks were bundled together, and they were brought to the priest in the tabernacle, and then later on after the temple was built, it was also performed in the temple to be ritually waved.

The wave sheaf was not an offering sacrifice. It was not a sacrificial offering. It pictured the ascension of the risen Jesus Christ to be accepted by the Father as the Lamb of God on behalf of the human race. Then we're going to read about, beginning in verse 12, some additional offerings that all reflect something that Jesus Christ did Himself. A male lamb. We're going to see there's a grain offering mentioned here, a wine drink offering. They all fulfilled the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

As a matter of fact, the symbols of the New Covenant Passover are also mentioned in these verses. Fine grain, which is the major ingredient of unleavened bread, and also wine is mentioned here. So let's read these verses quickly. Verse 12, and you shall offer on that day when you wave the sheaf a male lamb of the first year without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two tenths of an ephoth, a fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord for a sweet aroma, and its drink offering shall be of wine, one fourth of a hen.

You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all of your dwelling. So I encourage you to notice here that the harvest would not begin until this wave sheaf was presented to God and accepted by Him. Nothing could be made from or eaten from this new grain harvest until the wave sheaf was presented to God. This officially began the barley harvest season, and from this moment on, from the day of this wave sheaf, they were sure to begin counting forward to determine the next festival known as the Festival of Weeks.

The Jewish folks call this a Shavot, which is actually the Hebrew word for weeks, and that is their name for the day that we are observing today. Verse 15, let's continue here, and you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. Seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.

Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. So this was the new harvest. This offering at this time, 50 days later, would actually be wheat, not barley. Verse 17, and you shall bring it from your dwellings, two wavelengths of two tenths of an ephath. They shall be a fine flower. They shall be baked with leaven. These are the firstfruits of the Lord. All right, let's make a few comments about these last couple of verses that we read. First of all, counting forward, 50 days from a Sunday, and inclusively, including that day, leads us 50 days later to another Sunday.

And it says here, the day after the seventh Sabbath. So on this 50th day was another holy day, known anciently as the Feast of Weeks. Again, the Jewish folks call it Shavuot, which means, is Hebrew word for feast. But we primarily call it Pentecost. Why do we do that? Well, we get the term Pentecost from the Septuagint.

It's a translation from the Hebrew. It's actually the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew. And this translation of the Septuagint began about the third century BCE, and it was completed around 132 BCE.

And the Greek word for counting 50 in the Septuagint is Pentecost. And that's where the church got the term Pentecost, and that's why we use it to this day. A few other things that I'd like to mention, regarding these scriptures. The scriptures say, count 50 days. The Sabbath mentioned in verse 11 is the weekly Sabbath. Again, it's the word sabbath. It's not the word moed. It's the weekly Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread. Now, why couldn't it be the first or the last day of unleavened bread? Many Jews and other Church of God groups begin counting from either the first day of unleavened bread and some the last day of unleavened bread, and then some the Sabbath that ends after totally following the days of unleavened bread. So why not the first day of unleavened bread? Why not the last day of unleavened bread? Well, again, for two reasons. One is that the word there is sabbath. It means not a high day, which would be the word moed. It means the weekly Sabbath. Secondly, the high holy days fall on fixed dates. You'll notice the Scriptures say that the first day of unleavened bread is on the 15th day of abib or nissen, depending on what term you want to use to call that first month, and the seventh day of unleavened bread is on the 21st. These are fixed days and they effectively eliminate the need to do any counting. This is because when one begins counting on a fixed day, one will always end up on a fixed day. I don't give you an example. If we begin to count the day following nissen, 15th, that's the first day of unleavened bread, we'll always end on sylvan, the sixth, because the day is fixed that you begin counting. Therefore, the day that you get to is fixed. If we commence our count on the day following the 21st of nissen, or abib, that's the last day of unleavened bread, we will always end up on sylvan, the 12th. If God wanted the feast of weeks or Pentecost on a fixed date, He would have told us to observe the sixth day of the third month, just like He does the other holy days mentioned here in Leviticus 23. There would have been no need for counting. If He wanted us to do it on the last day of unleavened bread, He would have said to observe it on the 12th day of the third month. But God didn't do that because the weekly Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread is not on a fixed date. Sometimes it might fall a day after the first day of unleavened bread. It might be the third day. It might be the fifth day. It moves around. So therefore, we had to have a system for being able to count correctly because it would not be on a fixed date. Another thing to consider is after counting of 50 days, an offering was made of two similar loaves of grain. This time the offering would be made with wheat. Wheat ripened later than barley, and wheat is the grain that's used in this very special offering. The two tenths of an ephath was up to, and there's, as with most religious concepts, there are debates about how much that would be. But it could be up to two gallons in volume.

So if that's the case, each of these two loaves were two gallons in volume. They were pretty large, and they were tiny little loaves like we might make raisin bread or something in our kitchen. These were impressive. They would have been very large loaves that would have been made as a way to honor God. So these are called firstfruits, and they were made, you may recall the scripture, with fine flour and leaven. So let's talk about this for a few minutes. First of all, verse 17, it mentions the fine flour. The fine flour represents the ultimate sacrifice and the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, back in verse 13, the grain that was offered along with the lamb that represents Jesus Christ was also presented as fine flour. So that's what the fine flour represents. How about the fact that it was baked with leaven?

Of course, we know what leaven represents. Leaven represents sin. So why? Well, God works with carnal people who need a Savior. The elect congregation of Israel, the Old Covenant Church of God, they struggled with sin. They were human beings. The elect New Covenant Church of God struggles with sin. Thankfully, the preceding Holy Days in Leviticus 23 remind us that Jesus is our Passover, and we are saved by his life. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So here's the good news. In spite of these loaves being made with leaven, they are still God's firstfruits. They're called his firstfruits, and that's important for us to appreciate.

Mixed and baked with the leaven was fine flour picturing the perfection of Jesus Christ residing in the loaves, just like Jesus Christ dwells in us through the gift of his Holy Spirit, even though we are still carnal and we struggle to change and grow and to overcome sin.

So with this little bit of background, why the number 50? Have you ever considered the fact that in scriptures the number 50 is a transitional number? Now you can go to the internet, you can read a lot of wonderful literature, and the number 50 can represent a few things. But what I'd like to focus on today is the fact that the number 50 represents a transitional, a transaction, something dramatic, a change that is about to occur. It signals a coming transition, something dramatic in a purpose or dramatic in events. So I'd like to take some time today to look at a few examples of how the number 50 can represent a dramatic change or a transition. Number 50 doesn't always represent change and transition, but it does in a number of cases. Let's begin by going through Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 8 and see the instruction given about the Jubilee year. Again, Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 8.

Leviticus 25 8, and you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself.

Seven times seven years and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you 49 years.

But as they say in late night TV, but that's not all. Verse 9, then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of atonement. You shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land and you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all of its inhabitants. By the way, that's what's imprinted on the Liberty Bell in the United States, that statement there, proclaim liberty throughout all the land. It shall be a Jubilee for you and each of you shall return to his possession and each of you shall return to his family. Now, we don't have the opportunity to go into this in great detail today, but you inherited a certain portion of land and liberty, the ability to work your own land, be your own boss. But if you ended up in tremendous debt, you may have to sell your land. You may have to sell your services to someone to pay off a debt. We call those credit cards today, but back then it was a different type of financial system. Let's pick it up now here in verse 25. If one of the brethren, one of your brethren, becomes poor and has sold some of his possessions, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, if you have a relative who says, hey, I'll come and pay off the debt so that my brother or my cousin doesn't have to sell their services as a form of servitude, or I'll buy the family the land back for our family inheritance, it says that he may redeem what his brother sold, or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself comes able to redeem it, then let him count the year since its sale and restore the number of the remainder to the man whom he sold it, that it may return to his possession. So being the 50th year, the value of that land would increase or decrease depending on how close you were getting to the Jubilee year. It would decrease as you got closer and closer to that 50th year because it would have had to be turned over free of charge anyway, so the value of that possession was reduced. Verse 28, here's what I want to focus on. But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of the Jubilee. And in the Jubilee it shall be released and he shall return to his possession. So during the Jubilee year, all debts were settled in favor of the debtor, and inheritances were returned to their rightful owners. The land ownership returned to the original families and tribes to whom it was given. Also, those who worked as slave laborers, who had to sell their services as a slave laborer in order to repay a debt, were granted their freedom to return home to their families and home to their family land. So what does the number 50 symbolize here? It signals a major transition from loss and poverty to restoration, to the ability to achieve liberty and a chance to start all over again. That's what the number 50, the Jubilee here, represented. Let's look at another example in Numbers chapter 8 and verse 22.

Numbers chapter 8 and verse 22. Interesting scripture. We don't read much about the age that Levites were to serve in the tabernacle of meeting. Numbers chapter 8 and verse 22. It is after that the Levites went to do their work in the tabernacle of meeting before Aaron and his sons, and the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, this is what pertains to the Levites.

From 25 years old and above one may enter to perform the service and the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and at the age of 50 years they must cease performing this work and shall work no more.

They shall minister with their brethren in the tabernacle of meeting to attend needs. In other words, they can be a supervisor. They can give advice. They can give their opinion. But they themselves shall do no work. Thus you shall do to the Levites regarding their duties.

Recently I called the IRS office and I read this scripture to them. And they told me to stop wasting their time and get back to work.

Now obviously I'm just kidding. But the physical labor of maintaining the tabernacle was very difficult. It was hard physical labor. Their duties included moving and setting up the tabernacle.

And it was huge and it required a lot of work. It required other services like kindling of fire.

Washing linens, butchering animals. Try lifting up a 100 pound animal, a dead animal to move it all day long. To prepare it for sacrifice, sweeping up the blood of the animals and all of the cleanup that was involved in serving in the tabernacle. It was very hard. It was very physical. And at age 50, the Levite would transition his entire life from this hard physical work to either retirement or again supervision. But they were no longer to perform the strenuous labor that was required in the tabernacle. So again, here is 50, in this case 50 years old after serving for a number of years and their life would be transitioned from one of very hard physical labor to, let's back off a little bit and share your wisdom and what you've learned rather than just doing grunt work and doing the hard physical labor that was required at the tabernacle. So here's another example of a transition occurring tied in with the number 50. Now let's see an example from David and how the number 50 resulted in actually a number of transitions. I think this is important for us to look at. If you'll turn to 2 Samuel chapter 24, I'll give you a little bit of background. David had made the mistake of taking a census and numbering the people. God sent his prophet, Gad to David, to make a choice of three different types of punishment and David chose poorly. One of those types of punishment, David himself would have suffered the consequences of his poor decisions, but he didn't choose that form of punishment. So as a response to that, God allowed an angel to deliver a devastating plague that killed 70,000 people. And we don't know biologically speaking or physically if this was a fast virus that went through the tribes, but sadly 70,000 people were killed. And the angel approached Jerusalem, and as the angel approached to strike Jerusalem with this plague, and again it might have been some fast-acting virus, we really don't know, God temporarily stopped it. And now we'll pick up the story here beginning in verse 17. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, surely I have sinned. You see, David's learned a lesson here. He could have chosen, after all it was his decision alone, one of the three choices is he could have chosen punishment for himself and his family, and he avoided doing that. Now that all of these people have died, he realizes that he is solely responsible and they should not have suffered. So let's pick it up. Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? What did they do wrong? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house. And Gad came that day to David and said to him, get up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Aruna the Jebusite. So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord had commanded. Now Aruna looked and he saw the king and his servants coming towards him. So Aruna went out and he bowed before the king with his face to the ground. Then Aruna said, why has the Lord the king come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threshing floor from you to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people. Now Aruna said to David, let my Lord and king take and offer up whatever seems good to him.

Look, here are oxen for a burnt sacrifice and threshing implements and yokes of the oxen for wood. All these, O king! Aruna has given to the king and Aruna said to the king, may the Lord your God accept you. So Aruna says, you know what, David, you can have it all. It's free. And if you want to make a sacrifice, there's wood. There's everything you need on this threshing floor for you to do a sacrifice and it's a freebie. I don't want anything from you. Verse 24, then the king said to Aruna, no, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. And David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land and the plague was withdrawn from Israel. So David here paid 50 shekels of silver to purchase this threshing floor. And after the offering was made there, the death angel was told to completely stop and not destroy Jerusalem with the plague, which was obviously threatened. The purchase price is the number 50 here was a major transition from plague and suffering and death to peace and tranquility and being restored back to normalcy. The location of this threshing floor became the place where Solomon would later build Jerusalem's temple. So because of the 50 shekel purchase, the very worship of God in the near future, and Solomon's reign, who was his son, would transition from worshiping God in a portable tabernacle, which could be different locations, had to be set up, taken down, moved, from a portable tabernacle to the major transition of a permanent temple location.

Why? Because the number 50 here represents a symbolic of a major transition. There are many other examples that we don't have time to review today. The number 50 can actually be found 154 times in the Bible, and most of those obviously are not related to any kind of transition, but we've been looking at a few that obviously do. A few that I'll just mention to you casually.

According to Jewish tradition, on the 50th day after leaving Egypt, God spoke with Israel at Mount Sinai and gave them to Ten Commandments. Now, I can't prove that to you from scriptures, but there may be some validity to it. It is possible, and it's something that Jews believe and teach, and if it is true, we can certainly call that a transformative event. When God speaks to you in his own voice from a mountain, you kind of realize that it's been a great day. So that certainly was a transformative event. Another situation, in an effort to save Sodom from destruction, Abraham began a discussion with God, a negotiating technique with God, and he began by asking if 50 righteous are found in the city, will God have mercy and spirit from destruction? Again, the number 50 representing Abraham's effort to save the city from destruction. Noah's ark was 300 cubits long, 30 cubits high, and 50 cubits deep. It's an understatement to say that the flood and the salvation of being on the ark was a transformative event. If you were on the ark, when the rest of the world was being destroyed, you certainly would have realized how transformative your life had been and the salvation that you received physically by being on the ark. If you look at the tabernacle, the way it was made at this time, there were inner curtains, there were outer curtains, and then on top of the outer curtains were other animal skins that were very colorful and very beautiful. The inner and outer curtains of the original tabernacle were made to be fitted together, so it looked like one continuous curtain, yet they were actually made in pieces in order to be portable, because you had to take them all down and fold them up, and as the tabernacle moved, you would have to take down this huge facility that was enclosed on three sides, and though it appeared to be one continuous cloth, seemingly beautiful and all together, actually it was constructed in pieces in order, again, to be portable. Each inner curtain, the inner lining, we would say in modern terms, was a fine linen, and it was made with 50 loops, and you would take 50 loops from the section of one curtain, and the 50 loops from the section of another curtain, and you would fasten those curtains together with 50 gold hooks or fasteners, and it made it all look like one continuous wall rather than just sections of a curtain. Then there was the outer curtain that was made of goat's hair, and again, each section was made with 50 loops in each section brought together and attached together with, in this case, bronze hooks. So together these shorter curtains were fastened and transformed into an inspiring tabernacle wall. It had to be a sight to behold the way they were all able to put it together, and I might add that was very physical to be taking that down and putting it up and carrying it, which were some of the duties of the Levites and others. So again, this is another example of the transformative transition that occurred by taking these small pieces of curtain and putting them together with 50 loops and 50 hooks and making one magnificent looking tabernacle.

Well, now let's fast forward about 1500 years to 31 A.D.

You'll turn to John 19. Jesus Christ is dying on the cross, and thanks to the Apostle John, we know the chronology of his death and his resurrection. So I think it's important for us to review it here on this day of Pentecost in 2019, again, to give us some context. John 19 and verse 30.

John 19, beginning in verse 30. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said it is finished, and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Therefore, because it was the preparation day that the body should not remain on the cross, on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. By the way, historically, that the Romans did this is they used an iron mallet that would take two hands, and they literally, a soldier would take that iron mallet and he would swing it and literally shatter the legs of someone who was hanging on a cross. And what that did is, as you were dying, you would need to lift yourself in order to breathe, but after your legs were shattered, you no longer could raise yourself up to get a breath, so it would hasten your death, cause death to come upon you more quickly. But I want you to notice that it says that the body should not remain on the cross, on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the day spoken of here would be the first day of unleavened bread, not a weekly Sabbath. The Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and they might be taken away, and the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. So the Sabbath spoken of here was not merely the weekly seventh day Sabbath, it says here that it's a high day. It's translated in the new international version and a few other translations as a special Sabbath, meaning an annual high holy day, in this case this year. It was the first day of unleavened bread this very year that Jesus died. He died at the same time the lambs were being slaughtered in the temple for Passover. So here's a little bit of chronology of that year in 31 A.D. Jesus died in what we call Wednesday afternoon using a modern day name that we would use in English, Wednesday afternoon, and he was quickly buried in the tomb of a follower. His follower was Joseph of Arimathea, and the scriptures imply he was a wealthy man.

And he was wrapped in linen and some spices before sunset, and this was a rush job. It's something they had to do very quickly because this was a preparation day, as we read here in John chapter 19, and they needed to prepare his body and put him in the tomb before sunset. So Jesus was dead for three days and three nights, just like he said he would be, and he mentioned that in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 40. So after three days and three nights he rose from the dead near sunset on the end of the weekly Sabbath.

He was buried, in other words, entombed to be more correct, from late Wednesday afternoon for three days and three nights until late Sabbath, Saturday afternoon. It's interesting to note that historically Jesus was resurrected about the same time, actually a little bit before the ritual grain was being cut to present to God the next morning as a wave sheaf offering. As I mentioned earlier, that's something the Jews did. They actually cut the wave sheaf offering on the evening before, so it was already there and already in the confines of the tabernacle before that ritual would occur the next morning.

Let's take a look at John chapter one and see some of the events here. It says now on the first day of the week, this would have been Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she comes before daybreak. Jesus is already gone. As a matter of fact, he's long gone. He had walked out of the tomb on late afternoon the day earlier, which was just the ending of the weekly Sabbath day.

Verse 11, but Mary stood outside of the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head and the other to feet where the body of Jesus had lain.

And then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? And she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have lain him." She's not thinking of a resurrection.

She's thinking that someone has stolen his body. So we do not know where they've lain him. Now when she had said this, she turned and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And she's supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where have you have lain him?

Again, she's not thinking of a resurrection. She's thinking they've moved the corpse, and I will take him away. And Jesus said to her, Mary. And she turned and said to him, Rabboni, that is to say, teacher. Now at first, Mary doesn't recognize him. Perhaps it's because he was disfigured from scars as the result of the crucifixion. And the reason we know he's disfigured from scars is later he told Thomas to touch the nail marks. Put your finger in the impressions in my body.

So we know that when he was resurrected, he had the remnants, the scarring over of someone who had literally been crucified. So it could very well be that because of the beatings that he had taken and the act of crucifixion, that he looked a little different than he normally did.

But there was a uniqueness about her voice, and most of us can immediately recognize the voice of a friend, a family member, or close spouse, after a couple of words. And when he said her name, Mary connected, and she got it. She realized who it was. She realized that it was the Christ. Verse 17. Jesus said in her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and your God.

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had spoken these things to her.

So this obviously occurred on the day following the Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread that year. It was the very time when the priests were preparing to present the wave sheaf offering in the temple that year. Jesus is totally and completely fulfilling the role of the ancient wave sheaf offering that went all the way back to Leviticus 23 and verse 11 that we read about as we began our sermon today. He did not want to be delayed from ascending to heaven and being accepted as our Savior. He wanted to be accepted as our Redeemer. He wanted to be accepted as the Passover, the one who had paid the price for our sins. He wanted to be accepted as the living Lamb of God. Remember Leviticus chapter 23 11 had said, he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf and my behalf. It says on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

So in the very year that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected to become the ultimate fulfillment of the wave sheaf offering, the Jews began counting forward for 50 days until the day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts chapter 2. He remained on earth the next 40 days as proof of his resurrection and to give instructions to his disciples. And he ascended into heaven after the 40 days as recorded in Acts chapter 1 and verse 9. Let's go to Acts chapter 1 at this time if you'll turn there with me and we'll actually pick it up in verse 4. These are our final scriptural verses that we'll be reading in the sermon this morning. Acts chapter 1 beginning in verse 4.

Acts chapter 1 verse 4. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father. They got it. They understood that they were to wait in Jerusalem. The Holy Day was coming soon and that they should wait there because God was going to fulfill the promise that Jesus had mentioned on the eve of his death. He told them, the Lord will give you a helper. He'll give you a percolit, the one alongside the help. He'll give you his spirit. They had been instructed that. Continuing, wait for the promise of the Father. He said, you have heard from me, verse 5, for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it's not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So, do you think what Jesus is pointing them to 50 days after he was accepted is the ultimate wave sheaf offering? Do you think he's pointing to something that's a major transition in human history? Is he pointing towards a transformative event? In approximately 10 days from the time he speaks this, the day of Pentecost would occur on the 50th day since Jesus had been accepted as the ultimate, the prophesied wave sheaf offering mentioned in Leviticus 23.

So again, we see here that the number 50 will have great significance. Our final Scripture is here in Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 4, and I will mention them briefly because I'm sure they'll be covered in greater detail this afternoon. Acts chapter 2 beginning in verse 1. They're there because they did not believe that the holy days were done away. They didn't believe a lot of what you'll find on the internet today about the value of God's holy days. They're all there because they're following the example of Jesus Christ and they're obeying God's instructions in Leviticus 23, so they're all assembled together. And it says in Acts chapter 2 and verse 1, And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven and a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues of fire, and one sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They began to speak in known foreign languages so that the gospel message could go to people who could understand in their own language the words that were being said. What will occur here, represented by the number 50, will actually be the greatest transition that ever occurred in human history. A group of believers will transition from being merely mortal, merely carnal, merely physical, and merely limited human beings to becoming spiritual, eternal, immortal, and